These Pants Are a Size WHAT?!

The Challenge with Weight for Women in their 20s

I'll admit it: I gained a couple lbs. I'll spare you the before-and-after photos, but just know that after college I put on (quite) a few pounds.  The funny thing was, I didn't even realize it.  I slowly started gaining after graduation.  My work life was intense: 80+ hour work weeks, travel with an expense account and great restaurants, and no time for exercise.  I was getting married to Andrew and loving life - I was literally fat and happy.  I can't believe I didn't even notice as I kept having to buy bigger pants! 

As I started to educate myself on proper weight and nutrition information, I was completely surprised by how little I knew.  I found out that my BMI classified me as "overweight".  (Are you kidding me?!)  Lesson learned.

The good news is that the weight came off pretty easy, actually.  I lost 40 pounds in the last two years with proper diet and exercise.  (I told you I wasn't showing "before" photos!!)  It was a complete lifestyle shift for me.  And although I miss the BOGO doughnut deal in the Microsoft cafeterias after 3pm, the skinny jeans are worth it. 

But now I look around and realize I wasn't unique in my experience.  Many of my twenty-something girlfriends have struggled with weight gain.  According to a study published by USA Today, it's very common:

Many married and single people in their late teens and early 20s gain a significant amount of weight — an average of 15 to 30 pounds — over five years. But newly married men and women in that age group gain 6 to 9 pounds more than their peers who are single and dating.

Check out this list of Challenges We Face in Our 20s by Small Steps to Health (summarized):

1. Our lack of an exercise habit
   How many of you were active in high school or college, but stopped once you got a real job? Am I the only one with my hand raised?
2. Our lack of a nutritional diet
   This is result of a diet consisting of french fries, sugary cereals, pastries, chips, and pizzas (the typical college diet). 
3. Our lack of self acceptance
   We learn to pass judgment on ourselves from the women in our lives, especially our moms. If we had moms with a healthy relationship with her food and body, chances are we will have a healthy relationship too.
4. Our lack of knowledge about our bone mass
   After 35, we stop adding to our bone density. By the time we are 18, we accumulated 80-90% of the bone density we will ever have. Chronic dieting, eating disorder, and lack of physical activity lead to weight gain, but they also lead to a depletion of our bone mass.

The good news: there seems to be so much more awareness around it among my peers these days.  When we get together, we talk about men, parties and social plans, babies (sometimes)... and weight loss strategies.  So here are some of the outcomes of those conversations, from my best girlfriends who are all in this together:

• Diet.  And not the South-Beach-this or Atkins-that.  It's the reasonable calories and portion sizes smaller than Cheesecake Factory anything.  It's balanced nutrition with protein, carbs (gasp!), fat, fiber and vitamins.  Lots of veggies, fruit and whole grains.  It's reasonable and can be delicious.  (Okay, not apple-fritter good, but like really-sweet-orange good). 
• Do It: My girlfriends who have been most successful have cut their calorie intake.  This alone made a huge difference for me, personally.  Simply not eating the Big Mac seemed to work well.
• Exercise.  Ouuuuuch, I know. And honestly, I work out so I can eat.  Not many of my friends LIKE working out (except Tiffany, who loves it).  But this isn't rocket science. If you burn more calories than you take in, you lose weight.  Burning more calories = able to eat more calories... Yes, please.  My friends work out in all different ways: Pure Barre, CrossFit, weight lifting, strength training, traditional cardio, yoga, Zumba, long-distance running, etc.  Whatever works best for you, do it at least three days a week. Starting with adjusting your diet is the easiest way to lose weight but adding in exercise (of any kind) will accelerate your results.  Plan on 1-2 pounds per week for healthy weight loss. 
• Do It:  Switching it up and trying new routines, classes, and facilities keeps you interested.  I've just signed up to run a 5k in April and half marathon in June to really test myself.  I'm running with girlfriends in each (and definitely wouldn't have done it without their suggestion in the first place)!
• Accountability. Everything is easier with someone holding you accountable.  My friends and I share recipes, talk about our results (both good and bad), exercise together and provide encouragement.  My husband and I go to the gym together and make plans to eat healthy.  We all agree that having the system of support to be accountable makes a massive difference.  Moreover, I find tracking both the food you eat and exercise you do is the key differentiator between staying on track and falling off.
• Do It: Get your friends on board so you can avoid diet-bombing party food, binge drinking and 4th meals.  Plus, exercising with a friend is awesome!  I have a yoga membership with Kara, a marathon-training plan with Lori, and a strength training schedule with Andrew.  I also track it all online to keep the course.
• Reward. For me, it's shopping for new (skinny) clothes.  Celebrate your success with your girlfriends by having a night out, going to the spa or having an exercise-oriented outing (like a game of tennis or skiing). 
• Do It: One thing we love to do is to buy a Groupon or Living Social deal that we can all share.  I'm looking forward to the night out at the Can Can where we can toast to our success in the last few months.

Key Resources:

These are tools I've found or that have been recommended to me that sincerely help make the process interesting, fun and easy.

• Weight Watchers Online: I've been an online-only member for 2 years and think it's the simplest system on the market.  The Points Plus program (new) has worked well for me and lots of my friends.  The have great recipes, a tracking tool, an iPhone app and lots of information about how to be healthy.
• SparkPeople: Recently I've started using SparkPeople instead of Weight Watchers Online and really like it.  The numbers are more exact and their calculation method for determining caloric intake is incredibly helpful.
• Run Keeper and Map My Run: Great running-related tools that allow you to plan runs or track runs you've done.  Search for new local routes or competitions.  Both have iPhone apps that track your progress as you run so you don't need one of those computer watches!
• Food.com: I love this site because it's got thousands of recipes and they include the nutritional information, so it's fool proof planning!

What do you do to say fit, informed and healthy?