- With Mayo Clinic preventive medicine specialist
Donald Hensrud, M.D.
read biographyclose windowBiography of
Donald Hensrud, M.D.
Donald Hensrud, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.
Dr. Donald D. Hensrud is chair of the Division of Preventive, Occupational and Aerospace Medicine with a joint appointment in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, Metabolism, & Nutrition at Mayo Clinic. He is an associate professor of preventive medicine and nutrition at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. Dr. Hensrud directed the Executive Health Program at Mayo Clinic for more than 10 years.
He received his B.S. from the University of North Dakota, M.D. from the University of Hawaii, M.P.H. from the University of Minnesota and M.S. in nutrition sciences from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He completed residency training in internal medicine and fellowship training in preventive medicine at Mayo Clinic and completed a clinical nutrition fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Dr. Hensrud is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American Board of Preventive Medicine and the American Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists, of which he is a past president.
His career interests have combined nutrition, weight management, and prevention. He is the author of many scientific articles and book chapters and was editor of Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight for EveryBody; The New Mayo Clinic Cookbook, which won a 2005 James Beard Foundation award; The Mayo Clinic Plan: 10 Essential Steps to a Better Body & Healthier Life; and The Mayo Clinic Diet, published in January 2010.
Dr. Hensrud says healthy lifestyle habits in diet and physical activity are extremely important as evidenced by a large body of scientific evidence. He also says implementing these lifestyle habits is realistic, sustainable and enjoyable. A primary goal of his work is to help people achieve this.
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The Mayo Clinic Diet blog
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March 31, 2010
Make sure your weight-loss goals are realistic
By Donald Hensrud, M.D.
In many things we do, it's important to have goals, and people often have goals for weight loss. This usually revolves around a specific short-term goal of losing a specific number of pounds, which makes some sense. However, there are some important things to consider related to weight loss goals:
- Have realistic weight loss goals — Many people have unrealistic goals in terms of the amount of weight they would like to lose. Some people aim for a weight they haven't achieved for many years, perhaps the weight they were at in high school. While it's important to have lofty goals, if you're unrealistic it can make it difficult to achieve more modest goals. I often see people who don't achieve an unrealistic goal, throw in the towel, and gain back all the weight they lost. Don't take for granted any amount of weight loss, it's better than gaining!
- Focus on process goals — Weight loss is an outcome goal — an end result. It's important to have a good method or process on how to obtain that goal. The outcome results from changes in the process, i.e., changes in diet and physical activity. So, one strategy to achieve a good outcome goal for weight loss is to have a good plan and achieve process goals in diet and activity. Setting a goal of losing 100 pounds without having a good plan on how to do it is like setting a goal of making a million dollars and not having a good financial plan. Examples of process goals in diet and activity are eating one more serving of vegetables daily or walking 30 minutes daily. Process goals can change over time as you achieve them.
- Emphasize long-term lifestyle changes — A short-term weight loss goal will only be helpful if it leads to long-term goals such as keeping the weight off. People often look at weight loss and weight maintenance as separate things. In other words, people sometimes feel "once I reach my weight loss goal, I can relax my efforts". This usually doesn't work, because when you relax your efforts you may go back to previous habits in diet and activity and the weight comes back on. Instead, weight maintenance is just an extension of weight loss. The habits that will help keep the weight off are the same ones that helped to lose the weight, which is why we emphasize sustainable lifestyle changes. Therefore, for long-term weight loss don't make changes in diet and exercise that you can't keep up indefinitely — but don't underestimate your ability to change either.
- Improving health is the primary goal — The best goal in my mind is to improve health. So — this may sound unusual when discussing weight loss — if you make beneficial changes in diet and activity, your health will improve, even if you don't lose a pound. But paradoxically, by focusing on process goals in diet and activity, it can be easier to achieve the outcome of sustained weight loss. For more on goal setting see sections in the book.
11 comments posted
January 17, 2013 3:07 a.m.
Hi Robin thanks very much. Yeah Christmas and New Year was a chalnelge and I did slip up a few times but hey its Christmas and I didn't do it over the whole period, just now and again. Hope your training is going well. I am also back walking in the mornings with the dog, plus doing some exercise classes too
- Gourav
May 14, 2012 9:24 p.m.
Going on a diet isnt only because you decide to lose weight but it is also a decision to stay healthy and live life to the fullest
- Karen
June 23, 2011 11:55 a.m.
It's important to have a long-range goal to look at and work towards, then choose one habit to acquire each week. You will steadily make progress. Try to exercise along with your dietary efforts. Exercise and diet go hand in hand.
- Janet
November 5, 2010 4:22 p.m.
While researching for medical supplies and dental supplies, I found New Line Medical. They have no user reviews section for their products, so I’m unsure how to rate their products. Can anyone help?
- Nike
October 31, 2010 1:41 p.m.
Sheryl, great attitude and mentally healthy! Mary, most of us eat too much sodium. A recent article in a medical journal estimated sodium contributes to a large amount of heart disease and stroke, largely because it can raise blood pressure. It's difficult to know if any one of us might be affected by too much sodium, and since virtually everyone eats quite a bit more than what we need to live, it's generally good for all of us to cut down. Celiac disease can be challenging because many grains do have gluten in them. As you know, Judy, rice is a staple you can eat so try and look for dishes/recipes that focus on rice. You could also get a celiac cook book and adopt it to the principles of the Mayo Clinic Diet.
- Don Hensrud, M.D.
May 6, 2010 7:14 p.m.
Judy, Though I don't have celiac, I have a wheat allergy - hopefully some thoughts from someone who deals with a similar food restriction would be helpful. Since starting the diet, I've actually found that trips to the grocery store are now easier (and cheaper!). I focus is on whole carbohydrates - rice, potatoes, corn, etc. rather than prepackaged WF/GF breads, cookies, and pizzas (not to say that you can't eat those things). Looking at the list of carbohydrates you CAN have in the back of the book makes my little wheat free world seem less like a prison.
- Alice
May 3, 2010 8:06 p.m.
So how does one become successful on this diet with having celiac disease, I mean how do you successfully make substititons
- Judy
April 30, 2010 7:16 a.m.
There is frequent reference to low sodium foods and rinsing canned vegetables to remove sodium. I do not see explanation in the book about the reasoning for sodium restriction.
- Mary
April 9, 2010 12:11 a.m.
I totally agree with going for realistic goals. In fact my "goal" weight is 10 lbs. higher than what a healthy BMI is for me...but I will be 50 pounds lighter than I am now, and I will have the amount of maintenance calories I can actually live with for the rest of my life. Progress, not perfection. And keep in mind those air-brushed covers of magazine models are not real life!....and if someone paid us millions of dollars we too would get bikini thin like Valerie Bertinelli did for Jenny Craig! And she admitted she gained back 10 pounds after the photo shoot, because who can walk around starving forever! My point is, here's to a healthy yet "doable" weight for all of us. Less of us is still better than more of us even if we don't become size 0's!
- Sheryl
April 6, 2010 7:06 p.m.
Sue, on the side of the cereal box it will give you a count for 1 serving of the cereal - it might be for a cup or perhaps half a cup. Whatever it is you'll have to add the calories for a tsp of sugar (if that's what you use), milk, fruit or whatever you add to the cereal.
- Marj
March 31, 2010 1:02 p.m.
If a serving of breakfast ceral is 240, is that a coplete calorie count for that serving or do you add carbs, proteins, sugar (if any) on the top of the 240?
- Sue
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