Dr Rangan Chatterjee: The small changes that can make a big difference to your health
In the final part of our serialisation of Dr Rangan Chatterjee’s new book on losing weight without dieting, he shows why environment matters
London’s Euston Station must be one of the unhealthiest places in the country. It’s a vast hall, seemingly always crammed with tired and stressed-out people, and its walls are lined with shops that sell sweets, crisps and sugary drinks and fast food outlets that pump the tempting scents of cooking meat and bread out over the crowds.
Before lockdown, I spent a lot of time at Euston because it’s where I catch my train back home up north. Time and time again I’ve found myself there, exhausted and irritable, staring at bags of tempting sweets. And, on many occasions, I’ll crack. I’ll look over my shoulder to check I’ve not been spotted, grab what I want, rush to the checkout and then hide the bag in my coat pocket, shoving the sweets in my mouth one by one.
But afterwards, when I’m on the train, I don’t beat myself up like I used to. Yes, I cracked. But that doesn’t mean I’m a bad person. It means I’m tired, stressed, tempted and human. In a way, all of modern life is a bit like Euston Station.
Stress and sedentary living make weight gain easier
You could hardly design a better scenario than 21st-century life for making a lot of people overweight. We’re sleep-deprived, and that makes us crave more calorie-dense foods. Our jobs make us sit at desks and in trains, buses and cars, so we’re not moving enough to send our bodies the signal that we are active, thriving humans.
We’re stressed out in our work, family and home lives, which makes our bodies think we’re in a hostile place, so they hold on to more fat. On top of all that, it’s hard for many of us to get easy access to healthy and affordable wholefoods. And what’s the result? Soaring obesity rates. In 1992, 53 per cent of the UK population were overweight or obese. In just 20 years that number has climbed to 62 per cent. And it’s still climbing. Maybe your parents’ and grandparents’ generations could get away with eating whatever they wanted, but they weren’t living in the world of today. They didn’t have access to the types and varieties of foods that we do. I don’t believe it’s your fault if you’re carrying excess weight. By now, I hope you agree.
Eat from smaller plates
One handy hack that’s great for tweaking your hunger signals is eating your meals off smaller plates. Surprisingly, there doesn’t currently seem to be any reliable scientific research on this, but many of my patients have reported it works really well for them, and that’s good enough evidence for me.
They tell me that reducing the size of their plate by a couple of inches nudges them into eating smaller portions and being satisfied with less. This is probably because, when we’re judging anything like a portion size, the brain does so by making a comparison. What’s a large coffee in Starbucks? It’s the one that’s bigger than the medium. The same is true for food portions. A decent-sized meal will look plentiful on a smaller plate. But put it on a large one and it will seem small.
Networks matter
Last Christmas, I went out for dinner with a couple of old school friends. When it was time to look at the dessert menu, one of them said, mockingly, ‘Here we go, Rangan’s going to do his healthy-eating thing again.’ I know he didn’t mean anything by it, and to him it was only a harmless joke, but I felt a little excluded and judged. I also felt a lot of social pressure to join them in their sugary third course.
When I got home and had the chance to reflect, I couldn’t help but wonder what difference it made to him whether I ate dessert or not. Was the truth that he felt slightly guilty about his indulgence and that my not joining in made him feel worse? Were my choices acting as a mirror and reflecting back to him choices that he himself was not entirely happy with? I can’t possibly know. But I do know that our social networks can make a huge impact on how much excess weight we’re carrying.
Find your tribe
I’m not asking you to ditch your friends, but I’d like you to have access to people that will support you on your weight loss journey. Here are some ideas that may help:
- Add some new friends into your life, who already engage in the behaviours that you desire. Do you have friends or work colleagues who are active, prioritise healthy eating and help support the people around them? Perhaps you could set up a WhatsApp group to provide ongoing support, understanding and motivation. If you already have friends like these, make an effort to see them or communicate with them regularly.
- Join a local class or group that will help connect you to like-minded people in your neighbourhood. Examples might be yoga, Pilates, martial arts or dancing. Pick something that you’ve always wanted to do and something that will make you feel good. Of course, a lot of activities can be done and learned online these days, but there is something powerful about connecting in person with people who have similar interests.
- Join a supportive online community. If you are struggling to find one, I’d love to see you on my own Facebook community which is full of like-minded people who are supporting each other on their health journeys.
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Six ways to create healthier habits
1. Keep a water bottle or jug visible. Make it attractive so you feel great when you see it. If helpful, put some chopped cucumber, sliced orange or fresh mint in the water.
2. Keep vegetables at eye level in the fridge, not hidden in the bottom drawers.
3. Keep a kettlebell or dumbbell in the kitchen by the kettle. Each time you walk by, you are being visually prompted to pick it up. Why not do some bicep curls every time you walk by? Before you know it, this will seem effortless and a normal everyday habit, just like brushing your teeth.
4. Ditch the scales. If our weight goes up by two pounds, we think we’ve done something bad. If it drops, we think we’ve done something good. In reality, we’ve often done nothing different. Weight can fluctuate by up to 10 pounds a day. Some studies suggest using scales can even slow weight loss, as they can encourage people to go off plan if they are not making the progress they think they should be making.
5. Keep your bedroom clean and calm. Have a dim bedside light by your bed, to encourage reading. Move your phone charger outside the bedroom. Consider removing your television. Keep a journal on your bedside table to write down your worries or to-do list before you go to sleep.
6. Keep fruit and unsalted nuts, preferably still in their shells, in your home for times when you really need a snack. Removing the shell requires effort before you can eat them, which makes them harder to gorge on.
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