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SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

Free the Fat: Now’s the time to lose the weight that dogs you

Story & Photos by Fire Captains Jeff & Martha Ellis

Springtime is here! All the New Year’s resolutions for weight loss are long forgotten, and soon you’ll be donning your summer wardrobe. Are you ready to play on the department’s softball or soccer team, play with your kids or grandkids in the yard, or run that race you’ve always said you would? Even the simplest of activities can be challenging and potentially harmful if you’re carrying too much extra weight. As we move into the warmer months your instinct will be to start moving more. Don’t deny this urge.

Weight loss is challenging because it requires a change of lifestyle. Most of us are pretty comfortable with our current shape: Yes, we may be a little chunky, but it’s what we know. We convince ourselves that our weight is a natural part of growing old. We all give weight-loss lip service, but it’s a very rare person who can truly say, “I’m the perfect weight I should be.” Bottom line: There’s a lot of stored energy being toted around, and it’s time to liberate it!

Just Do It
We often hear people say that it gets much harder to keep the weight off as we age. Although changes in our body chemistry do gradually impact our metabolism, and, yes, occasionally people have genuine medical conditions that make weight loss more difficult, the real problem tends to be more closely related to a sedentary lifestyle and a poor diet. As we age, we tend to get more sedentary because we can or because we think we should. Justify it all you want but, in most cases, the most significant impediment we face to weight maintenance or loss rests above the neckline.

To lose weight, you’ll first need to find motivation, and to find motivation, you must accept that you are overweight and that this has consequences that go beyond just you. Move past the victim role and start taking responsibility for your condition. If your weight gets out of control, someone is either going to have to grieve your untimely death or spend a considerable amount of time and money taking care of you.

Once you’re convinced it’s the right thing to do, follow four steps to ensure you keep the weight off:

Step one: Get your head into it. If your mind isn’t buying into a lifestyle change, you’ll be right back where you started in a matter of weeks, if not heavier. If you need help, get it. There are several fantastic weight-loss support groups available to you. They may cost a little money, but just think of it as buying time. Chances are good that if you lose the extra weight, your life expectancy will increase.

Step two: Get to know your diet. Most people eat without out an ounce of thought to what’s going in or how much is actually consumed, which makes it easy to convince yourself that your weight gain is happening to you not because of you. Avoid using your plate as a trough. Pass on the seconds. Trust us, you won’t starve to death.

Step three: Build muscle mass to help increase your metabolism. The more muscle you develop the more muscle tissue there is to metabolize what you eat.

Step four: Get into an aerobic routine you can commit to. Aerobic activity needs to be consistent and adequate in duration and intensity.

Remember: As firefighters, it’s our responsibility to the public to be fit and healthy. Being overweight
limits what you can do for the public and therefore casts a negative image on the fire service. People notice an overweight firefighter who’s struggling to bend over a med box for equipment or who moves too slowly when pulling lines. Don’t be that firefighter!

Eating Right
Nutrition remains a mystery to most. There’s always some new “finding” coming out of one study or another that tries to sway us into eating differently. Yes, there are differences in opinions on how much of the various nutrients we should consume. Percentages also vary based on activity levels. As a basic rule of thumb, however, you need no more than 25 percent of your calories from protein, preferably less than 25 percent from fat and 50 percent from carbohydrates. Of the 25 percent of calories from fat, less than 10 percent should come from saturated fat.

Since the caloric values vary between the nutrients, the actual quantity of each nutrient does not correlate on a flat percentage basis. Fat has 9 calories per gram; protein and carbohydrate both have 4 calories per gram. Alcohol has 7 calories per gram but these must be converted to fat before the body can utilize them, which provides one more reason for moderation. Note: There are more than double the calories in a gram of fat than in a gram of either protein or carbohydrate. So on a gram-for-gram basis, you need to be aware of the higher concentration of calories when consuming fat.

Here’s something else to consider: A pound of fat has approximately 3,500 calories. Divide that by 7 days/week and you get just 500 calories a day. To lose a pound a week, you must create roughly a
500-calorie-a-day deficit from your current intake (If you’re currently gaining weight, you’ll need to reduce more calories to lose weight).

What does 500 calories look like? Approximately 32 oz. of soda, 5 tablespoons of butter or mayonnaise, one double cheeseburger from your favorite fast food joint, two cups of cubed avocado or one café mocha with whipped cream.

Reducing 500 calories in your diet doesn’t entail much privation: Trim a little bit here and there throughout your day and you’ll be down 500 calories before you know it. If you’re worried about being hungry, focus on increasing your fiber. Eat whole grain breads and unprocessed grains. Fill those between-meal pangs with low-fat snacks, such as fresh fruit, seasoned popcorn or pretzels.

Another thing: Get to know what a “serving” looks like. If you need to measure out a tablespoon of salad dressing or 4 ounces of meat for a little while, then do it. You’ll be surprised at the difference between what you think is a serving and what the package says is a serving. If you think you’ll starve to death on the recommended serving sizes, try slowing down when you eat. You actually get full long before you’re aware of it. Slowing down your ingestion and taking time to properly chew your food will aid in digestion, as well. And the more frequently you over-eat, the less sensitive you stomach becomes to being full.

Get Moving
Trying to lose weight with diet alone can really be frustrating. With just a little bit of activity you can greatly impact the necessary caloric deficit, as well. If aerobics initially seem a bit daunting to you, then start with some strength training. Adding muscle mass will increase your metabolism, helping the weight loss effort.

We’ve written several articles discussing various lifts. Review those or other fitness articles, make arrangements with a personal trainer or search the Web for endless discussion, demonstrations and advice on how to customize your weight-training program.

Aerobic training is one of the quickest and most effective ways to expedite weight loss. Most workout machines will give you an estimated caloric burn for the session. If you don’t like machines, a good rule of thumb is about 250 calories per 30 minutes of moderate aerobic activity.

There are also some great Web pages to help you figure out your daily caloric requirements and approximate calories burned for various exercises. We’ve found www.nutritiondata.com especially helpful.

Conclusion
As a whole, the fire service must get moving and lose some weight. In 2008 we lost 50 firefighters to heart attacks and strokes, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. Weight loss and improved fitness will decrease the chances of you becoming next year’s statistic. If that isn’t motivation, we don’t know what is.

Captain Martha Ellis has been a firefighter with the Salt Lake City Fire Department (SLCFD) for more than 13 years, serving as a firefighter, engineer, media technician and ARFF training officer. She has won the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge Women’s Division five times, and held the world record for 8 consecutive years. She is currently the fire marshal for Salt Lake International Airport, and she works as a certified fitness coordinator for the SLCFD.

Captain Jeff Ellis of the Murray (Utah) Fire Department (MFD) has served for more than 23 years as a firefighter, engineer, hazmat technician and shift training captain. He has been a certified fitness coordinator for the department since 1996. As a competitor in the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge, he has won two overall world championships and three Over 40 world championships and helped MFD take the team trophy. He has been active in teaching all aspects of firefighting, including swiftwater rescue and fitness and nutrition in the fire service.

E-mail your fitness-related questions or comments to Jeff and Martha at fit2serve@gmail.com.