How you can stay motivated: I need to lose 60 pounds, but every time I start a workout program, I quit after a few weeks. What can I do to stick with exercise — and my good intentions? … and more of your questions answered here - Weight Loss Q+A

Shape, August, 2002 by Suzanne Schlosberg

Q I am 21 years old, 60 pounds overweight and very out of shape. I want to start exercising, but no matter what I do, regardless of whether it's jogging or an aerobics video, I am in pain and exhausted. After a couple of weeks, I quit, and then I feel like a failure. How can I be more successful at sticking with it?

A "Start by setting realistic goals," says CC Cunningham, M.S., an Evanston, Ill., trainer and a spokeswoman for the American Council on Exercise. Instead of jumping right into a jogging program -- which is bound to leave you wiped out, if not injured -- start by walking for 15 minutes three days a week, adding five minutes to your walks every other week. Focus on simply getting into the habit of exercising. "It's not about how far, how long or how hard you exercise," Cunningham says. "It's about making the commitment. Once you get the habit developed, exercise won't be a chore. It'll be something you actually enjoy and look forward to."

On the video front, choose tapes designed specifically for novices, and let yourself push the "pause" button or stop before the tape has ended. "There's no failure in not doing the whole video," Cunningham says. "Success just means being able to do more each time."

Cunningham suggests tracking your workouts in an exercise diary so you can appreciate your accomplishments. When you reach your short-term fitness goals -- such as working out three times a week for one month -- reward yourself. "Treat yourself to a massage or a new CD," she says. "Success isn't necessarily in the quantity of exercise but in the effort."

Q If a calorie is a calorie, why do all the sound dietary guidelines advocate lowfat meals for weight loss? Does it really matter how much fat you eat?

A For weight loss, what matters is indeed how many calories you consume, but most people are more successful at losing or managing weight with a lowfat diet. That's because fat contains more calories per gram (9) than do carbohydrate or protein (4). "So cutting fat is an easy strategy for cutting calories," says Chris Rosenbloom, Ph.D., R.D., nutrition chair at Georgia State University in Atlanta.

However, this does not mean lowfat meals are always better than meals higher in fat. In fact, diets very low in fat -- less than 15-20 percent of calories from fat -- and very high in refined carbohydrate can lower HDL cholesterol (the good kind), increasing heart-disease risk. For this reason, health experts have stopped placing the focus on total fat and instead are emphasizing the importance of limiting saturated and trans fats.

Q My husband loves to hunt, which means we eat a lot of game meat, like pheasant, duck and venison. How do these meats compare, in fat and calories, to beef, chicken and pork?

A "As a general rule, animals in the wild get a lot more exercise than animals that are farm-raised, so they're going to be leaner and lower in fat," says Joan Carter, R.D., a nutritionist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. However, they're also going to be less tender and may require braising instead of grilling. "If you try to grill pheasant, you'll be chewing all day," Carter says. "So you may be adding back the calories in your cooking method."

Below is a comparison of various meats. All values are for 3.5 ounces of raw meat. To make additional comparisons, go to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's nutrient database at www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl.

game meat vs. farm-raised

              Calories  Total fat  Saturated fat

Vension         120       2.4 g         1 g

Pheasant        133       3.6           1.2

Duck

 Wild           123       4.3           1.3
 Domestic       132        6            2.3

Wild boar       136       3.7           1.1

Beef

 Flank steak    154       7.4           3.2

 Ground,
 80% lean       264      20.7           8.3

 Ground,
 70% lean       310       27            11

Chicken

 Light meat     114       1.7           0.4
 Dark meat      119        4             1

Pork loin       149        6             2

Q I am 34 years old, 5-foot-3 and 140 pounds. I exercise four days a week, doing 30 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of weight training. Although I would like to be leaner, I feel that I am in generally good shape. However, I've noticed that many women who write in to your magazine are 10 pounds lighter than I am even though they are 2 or 3 inches taller. Am I too heavy for my height?

A No. "Strictly based on height and weight, you're in a healthy weight range," says nutrition professor Chris Rosenbloom, Ph.D., R.D. Your body mass index (BMI) is 24.8. A BMI above 25 is considered overweight, indicating increased risk for high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. The quickest way to determine BMI is to go to any online BMI calculator, such as the one on the Centers for Disease Control Web site, www.cdc.gov. (Simply do a site search for "BMI.") To do the math yourself, use the following formula: (weight in pounds divided by height in inches divided by height in inches) times 703. (In your case that would be 140/63/63 x 703 = 24.8.)