Exercise/weightloss for the chronically overweight

[castufari]

The local hospital started a "LightenUp" program. One of the offices I'm in joined and I was assigned to a team (they needed someone, I thought I'd join for giggles). Anyway, their advice is, well lacking. The dietician/fitness person who came by clearly have no clue, they're more focused on healthy eating than actually fitness. When the first thing you hand out is a brochure on 100 calorie snacks (mostly little baked things) that sets off a red flag.

I'm looking for some links or references that I can hand out to our staff who are on this. Many are way overweight...ie their arm flab is larger than my biceps. What I'm looking for are:
1) some easy to follow meal plan to give them some guidance (I've suggest 6 meals/day, no more soda, no more sugary snacks)
2) some sort of fitness plan (I suggested 10 minute group walks in the morning and afternoon, if that fails walk around the inside of our office, taking the stairs)

Thanks so much!

[AFI82]

If this is an office-encouraged function, get some office money and buy them all a copy of NROL (or some similar plan). You can all work through it together choosing as a group what routine to do next. Pick 2 nights a week to have a group meeting at the company gym. It'll promote teamwork cause people will be trying to outdo or keep up with the person that sits at the desk next to them.

[Lisa~]

Did you review the threads in the Livin' Large forum to see if there was anything helpful there? http://forums.jpfitness.com/livin-la...ing-your-life/

You might also pm James Newman to see if he has any good resources that might help you. I admire you for taking on the project. I like the walk ideas, especially if the walks include some stairs each time. I'm imagining a bit of interval work attacking the upstairs portion, then a recovery period of walking around on the upper floor before heading back downstairs. Repeat. Hopefully that wouldn't be too difficult for most of them.

[castufari]

Originally Posted by Lisa~

You might also pm James Newman to see if he has any good resources that might help you. I admire you for taking on the project.

Will do. I really don't want to take responsibility since I'm not a fitness pro but when the fitness person gives advice that contradicts what I see here (from people I trust, like Alan, Lou, etc) I get scared.

[Jimbo]

Other thank the 100 calorie snack brochures, what directives really sounded off base?

I'm just setting here thinking that if they are morbidly obese, eating habits are the first things that need to change. Did the fitness guru not talk about getting active/exercise?

Fact is, if they switched to eating those 100 calorie snacks instead of their usual, don't you think they will lose some weight?

(just curious about what all was lacking in the gurus directives..)

The only reason I ask is sometimes I am guilty of expecting everyone to be as active as I am. But the fact is, someone that fat can literally make small changes and get big results.

[castufari]

Sorry it took so long to respond, I'm in the middle of a 38 server rollout over 39 counties and well, I'm not around anywhere much.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

Other thank the 100 calorie snack brochures, what directives really sounded off base?

She was pushing water aerobics, which seem to be fine for those with joint issues. She stressed how long she's been doing them - which made me think that they don't work. We had to fill out a questionnaire, I asked to have them send over someone who was in shape, not someone who was in the same shape of the people she's trying to motivate. Make sense?

Originally Posted by Jimbo

I'm just setting here thinking that if they are morbidly obese, eating habits are the first things that need to change. Did the fitness guru not talk about getting active/exercise?

I asked about walking, she said it was ok but there were better things. I missed part of the talk but it seems like she was pimping her gym over activities people could do w/o a gym. Our building has 2 long rises of stairs and a hallway that runs around it, you could do loops around the building going down one set of stairs and climbing the other.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

Fact is, if they switched to eating those 100 calorie snacks instead of their usual, don't you think they will lose some weight?

I let the group borrow my Abs Diet book as well as my NROL book so they can skim it for snacks. People see the pretty pictures and think "oh, boy, I have have a mini quiche" vs a handful of almonds, some fruit, etc.

Two people have started to eat 6 meals/day, they both like it. One of them is in decent shape already (she's a dancer), the other thinks she needs to drop a few but I think she looks fine (she's going to read this lol).

I'm trying to get them to put in a healthy snack machine now, maybe with water, some low sugar juices, etc.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

The only reason I ask is sometimes I am guilty of expecting everyone to be as active as I am. But the fact is, someone that fat can literally make small changes and get big results.

When I dropped 25# a few years ago I started walking daily. Walked for 30 to 45 minutes 4 days/wk. Started off at 10 min, added 10 minutes each week. Parked farther out in the lot at work, would walk a bit before/after lunch. Made a huge difference.