Read an Excerpt

Introduction
 
The first time I went on a diet was in college. My daily runs turned out to be no match for keg beer and late-night pizza, and I started gaining weight. This was back in the late ’90s, when baggy vintage Levi’s and boxy Patagonia jackets could keep you in denial—so I didn’t realize I was packing on pounds until the summer between sophomore and junior year. A childhood friend and I had jobs scooping ice cream on Martha’s Vineyard, and we’d apparently been eating as much ice cream as we’d been serving because when our parents arrived for a visit in August, my friend’s mom took one look at our significantly stockier figures and exclaimed, “What happened to you girls?”
 
It was time to face the music. I didn’t starve myself or jump on the latest weight loss trend (which at the time was going fat-free, and we know how effective that turned out to be). Instead, I just started eating a little less and figured out how much I needed to exercise to make up for the occasional slice of cake or pizza. This strategy has served me well over the years, helping me stay slim and strong despite a demanding, sit-on-my-butt-all-day desk job and three kids younger than 7.
 
The women in this book have their own weight loss tales to tell. Some of them have shed over 100 pounds—most have dropped over 50—and kept the weight off. Their newfound health and confidence has set in motion a domino effect of positive change. They’re an inspiration to me and to everyone who has ever set out on a weight loss journey, which is why I wanted to write this book. On these pages, you will discover the secrets to their success, plus all the tools you need to lose weight and keep it off. My hope is that the Take It All Off Plan helps you develop a passion for fitness and nutrition and sets you on the path to a happier, healthier life.
 
Chapter 1
The Skinny on Taking It All Off
 
If you’ve cracked open this book, you’re probably looking to lose some weight. Maybe you’ve been chubby since you were a kid. Maybe you packed it on during college or couldn’t take it off after having your first baby. Maybe you’re a fluctuator—thin one year, flabby the next. Sound familiar? And chances are you’ve tried every trendy diet and every popular exercise program—and here you are.
 
The Take It All Off Plan isn’t like other diets—in fact, it’s not a diet at all. It’s a lifestyle makeover that provides innovative eating strategies with a meal plan that focuses on protein and portion control, plus a time-saving strength and cardio routine specifically designed to blast fat fast. What’s more, this program has been shown to work for women just like you, who have struggled for years—in some cases their entire lives—to lose weight and now regularly rock skinny jeans and crush 10-Ks. Their stories are so inspiring that they were featured in the “You Lose, You Win” column of Women’s Health magazine.
 
While I was an executive editor at Women’s Health, I used to push my other work aside when the “You Lose, You Win” page landed on my desk to be edited. Real women sharing their tales of weight loss triumph? I couldn’t get enough! After reading dozens of these over the years, I started noticing the common threads—these women were following similar weight loss strategies. It was as if the answers for permanent weight loss were staring at me on the page. And now, with the help of fitness and nutrition expert Cassandra Forsythe, PhD, RD, I’m able to share them with you.
 
This book is a guaranteed plan for success. It reveals the tricks that worked for the women profiled in the magazine—you’ll be hearing from them on these pages, too. I’ll be walking (make that power walking!) you through the Take It All Off Plan in the following chapters. But before we get to all of that, here are some amazing physical and psychological benefits you’ll get from following this program.
 
Killer Confidence
Imagine how great it would feel to strip off your cover-up and walk down the beach in your swimsuit without worrying about what you look like from behind. Think about what it would be like to enjoy shopping for clothes. Consider the satisfaction of standing in the front row of your fitness class. Here’s the thing: When you work your butt off to shed pounds, you can’t help but feel good about yourself—your confidence skyrockets, your mood swings into permasunny mode, and all that body shame disappears. “I used to run from cameras, but now I like what I see in photos,” says Krystal Sanders, 32, of Spring, Texas, who went from 185 to 130 pounds. “I’m finally at peace with the way I look.”
 
In fact, a review of 36 studies, published in the journal Appetite,1 found that participating in a weight loss program improves self-esteem, body image, and health-related quality of life and decreases feelings of depression. Of course, weight loss doesn’t guarantee happiness; there are many factors that contribute to contentment, and losing weight isn’t going to solve all of your problems. But many people find that a healthier body leads to a better life. Women’s Health reader Katie Hug, who suffered from anxiety and depression, is one of those people. “Saying I’m in a better mood now is an understatement,” says the Idaho native, who dropped a whopping 137 pounds and was able to ditch her mood meds, which she had taken for 17 years. “Endorphins from exercise help me so much! I still battle anxiety, so I use exercise as an outlet. I feel like I woke up from a bad dream.”
 
A Longer, Healthier Life
 
While many of us are motivated by aesthetic goals (like fitting back into pre-pregnancy pants or feeling comfortable donning a bikini), you can’t beat the health benefits that come with losing weight. Research shows that slimming down fights off disease and helps you live longer. Take cancer, for example: Fat can mess with hormones, immunity, and factors that regulate cell growth, which can boost your risk of colon, rectal, breast, esophageal, kidney, pancreatic, and other types of cancer. (According to the World Cancer Research Fund International, roughly 20 percent of cancers diagnosed in the United States are related to body fatness, inactivity, and lousy nutrition, and being overweight can contribute to as many as one out of five cancer-related deaths.) A review of research, published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism,3 found that losing weight lowers the incidence of cancer and reduces levels of circulating cancer biomarkers (red-flag-like molecules in blood or body tissue that indicate abnormalities).
 
Obesity is clearly linked to type 2 diabetes (almost 90 percent of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight). Here’s the scoop: Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas that helps cells use glucose (sugar) for energy. Fat blocks insulin from opening cell “doors”—think of it as a deadbolt—so the pancreas pumps out more insulin to help crack those doors open enough to allow glucose to sneak in. But if your pancreas can’t keep up with the demand for insulin, glucose collects in the bloodstream, and you can eventually wind up with type 2 diabetes. All of this can be avoided by losing body fat, shows a study in the journal Diabetes Care.4 (Every kilogram—or 2.2 pounds—of weight loss was associated with a 16 percent reduction of diabetes risk.)
 
Obesity and insulin resistance can also impact your fertility by raising your chances of developing polycystic ovary syndrome (about 40 to 80 percent of women with this disease are overweight). Experts believe that excess insulin causes the body to overproduce male sex hormones called androgens that can prevent ovulation and make it difficult to get pregnant. A study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism5 shows that if you suffer from polycystic ovary syndrome, losing weight can improve your chances of getting pregnant and having a baby. Obesity causes heart disease in a few different ways. Fat increases inflammatory biomarkers, which can damage the walls of your arteries, and it raises “bad” LDL cholesterol and lowers “good” HDL cholesterol, resulting in plaque buildup in your heart vessels. It also restricts blood circulation and forces the heart to work harder, which can cause damage and disease.
 
The good news is that losing just 5 percent of your weight can reduce your risk of both diabetes and heart disease, found a study in the journal Cell Metabolism.6 Shedding the pounds will also prevent blood clots and stroke by lowering blood pressure. Dutch researchers7 conducted a review of studies and found that dropping weight—especially more than 11 pounds—had a significant impact on blood pressure.
 
The Take It All Off Plan can prevent gallstones, too (pebblelike masses that develop in the gallbladder and can be painful). Obesity increases the amount of cholesterol in bile (a fluid produced by the liver to shuttle toxins and waste out of the body), and cholesterol promotes stone formation. But there’s a catch: If you starve yourself to lose weight, your liver will respond by dumping extra cholesterol into the bile. Research published in the International Journal of Obesity8 found that a very-low-calorie diet increased the likelihood of stones three times more than a low-calorie diet (1,200 to 1,500 calories per day). The number of calories you eat on this program will vary according to your current weight (more on that in Chapter 7), but the Take It All Off Plan is designed to keep your calories in a range that promotes weight loss without going so low that you put yourself at risk for gallstones.
 
No More Aches and Pains
Another perk to completing the Take It All Off Plan: Your knees won’t kill you anymore. Being overweight affects all of your joints, but no joints take more of a beating than your poor knees. When you walk on level ground, the pressure on your knees is roughly one and a half times your body weight. The force on your knees shoots up to two to three times your body weight when you go up or down an incline (like hills or stairs). Bending down to pick something up is your knees’ least favorite task, as that ups the load to five times your body weight. You know that crunching noise your knees sometimes make? That’s your joints screaming in agony! (Weight gain can also cause inflammation that can prevent joints from working properly.)
 
If you add more weight to your frame than your knees are designed to carry, you’ll wind up wearing down the joints, a condition referred to as osteoarthritis (if you think you’re too young to have to worry about this, you’re not; it can happen as early as your twenties). A study in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism9 of overweight adults with knee osteoarthritis revealed that losing 1 pound of weight took 4 pounds of pressure off the knees. So ditching just 5 pounds would relieve 20 pounds of pressure from your already overburdened knees. When Anu Sharma, 39, of Mountain House, California, weighed 250 pounds, her knee pain was so severe that she couldn’t walk up the stairs to her second-floor apartment. She eventually lost 78 pounds by cutting out junk food and doing a combination of running, working out on the elliptical, weight training, and TRX (developed by Navy SEALs!). Today, she feels zero knee pain —and not only can she walk up stairs, she can run up them. Sharma loves it when her 11-year-old daughter mentions—as she does frequently—how strong her mom looks, especially when Anu takes two at a time.
 
A Red-Hot Relationship
Whoever came up with the traditional marriage vows should have slipped in the line “in thinness and in fatness,” because losing weight can alter a relationship—often in a good way! Think about it like this: You’re changing, so your relationship is going to change, too. When you feel beautiful, strong, and energetic, you have more to bring to your union. And as our happy “losers” discovered, it’s especially effective to team up with your partner. Sarah Russello, 34, from Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, regularly hit the gym with her martial arts instructor hubby and ditched 47 pounds. It’s a routine she continues today. “It’s great motivation. I know he’s watching me, so I try harder,” she says. For busy people (in other words, all of us), working out together has the huge side benefit of sweat time doubling as couple time. Think about it: You’ve got more confidence, you’re losing weight and looking better than ever—any doubt that will have an effect on your romantic life? We’ll look at that more in a sec.
 
Slimming down can give you the confidence to pursue love, too. That was the case for Jen Kelley, 31, of Warren, Rhode Island, who lost a whopping 91 pounds. “If I hadn’t gotten in shape, I wouldn’t have started dating online and eventually met my husband,” she says.
 
That includes self-love. The weight-loss journey can lead to a stronger sense of acceptance and love for who you are.
 
Take Bridget Rauschenberg of Raleigh, North Carolina, for example, who broke up with her boyfriend after she gained more than 80 pounds during college. “I was disgusted by how I looked, but I kept saying I’d lose weight later,” Bridget says. “One reason we split is because I needed to get my life back on track.” A chance encounter with her ex on Valentine’s Day, 4 months after their breakup, reminded her that she’d made zero progress and still needed to take control of her life. She cleaned up her diet, started working out, and over time shed 126 pounds. In the end, she realized the relationship was not the reason to get healthy—she was! As for her ex? “I haven’t looked back,” she says.
 
Let’s Talk About Sex
And about that romance thing: Losing weight the Take It All Off way can boost your confidence in the bedroom. When you’re fit and slim, you want to show off your body (keep the lights on, please!), and you’re freed up to focus on your own pleasure, as opposed to worrying about the size of your thighs or trying to twist yourself into positions that hide your belly pooch. Research from Duke University Medical Center10 showed that obese people were 25 percent more likely to be dissatisfied with their sex lives than people of normal weight and that dropping around 12 percent of body weight can help you reclaim your mojo. Just ask Anu Sharma, whose weight loss improved not only her joint pain but her sex life, too: “Things with my husband are seriously spicy now that I’m so much more confident,” she says.