Ditch your scale: doctor-approved advice to drop pounds

Feel free to skip the dreaded "weigh in" for good, says Pamela Peeke, M.D., an adjunct senior research fellow at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. "You can starve and get to 115 pounds," Peeke says. "But the scale can't tell you if you're healthy." Read on for more tips from her latest book, Body-for-Life for Women: A Woman's Plan for Physical and Mental Transformation (Rodale, 2005).

* Learning to de-stress is integral to any woman's get-in-shape plan. "The last thing you want to eat when you're stressed is tuna on a bed of greens," Peeke notes. Instead of relying on food highs to cope, practice yoga, meditate, call a friend for a good laugh or hole up with some chick lit.

* Fat takes up five times the space of muscle, so the more muscle you build, the smaller you'll look. Aim for at least two 30- to 40-minute strength-training sessions a week and a body-fat score of 20-25 percent.

* Women often flock to "grab-and-go" carbs like bagels, cookies and doughnuts. Instead, stock up on lowfat string cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese or nuts--a serving of protein nips your carb craving and keeps you full for two to three hours.

* If 80 percent of your diet consists of healthful foods, it's absolutely OK to treat yourself the rest of the time. "If your period is due and you'd sell your mother for a piece of chocolate--by all means have a minisize bar," Peeke says.

* "A guy can look like Shrek and think he's fine, whereas a woman with 3 extra pounds will castigate herself," she says. Take a cue from the man in your life and let the idea of "perfection" go.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group