Having high blood pressure means that you must make some changes in
your life. You’ll need to do some or all of the following:
You don’t have to try to make all of the changes necessary
right off the bat. The key is to focus on one or two at a time. Once
they become part of your normal routine, you can go on to the next
change. Sometimes one change leads naturally to another. For example,
increasing physical activity will help you lose weight.
The first four steps can also help prevent many people from
developing high blood pressure. So you can follow them with your
family to keep everyone healthy.
Lose weight if you
are overweight.
Losing extra pounds is a very important step that you can take to
reduce your high blood pressure. Losing just a small amount of weight
can help lower your blood pressure. For some people—those with
less severe high blood pressure—losing weight may be all that’s
needed to control their hypertension. For others, losing weight may
reduce the medication they need to take for their high blood pressure.
Two things count about weight: how much and where.
How much—As your body
weight increases over your desirable weight, your blood pressure goes
up.
Where—Extra pounds are
bad enough, but it also matters where those pounds are stored. If they
are around your belly, you are "apple-shaped." If they are
around your hips and thighs, you are "pear-shaped." Where
you store weight is for the most part inherited from your parent, just
like the color of your eyes or hair, although men tend to be "apple-shaped,"
and women "pear-shaped." If you are apple-shaped, you are at
greater risk for heart disease. But whether you are an "apple"
or a "pear," you should take steps to lose extra pounds.
And by losing excess weight, you will not only help to reduce your
blood pressure but also feel better, be more able to exercise, and
reduce your chance of having a heart attack.
To help you lose weight: Eat fewer calories than you burn. Don’t
try to see how fast you can lose weight. It’s best to do it
slowly. "Fad" diets do not work over the long haul because
they cannot be followed for life. When people go back to their old way
of eating, they usually regain the weight, leading to cycles of weight
loss and gain.
.
. . . . . . . . . A Word About Fats . . . . . . . . . .
While fats do not directly raise blood pressure, they do affect
the health of your heart and blood vessels. Fats, especially "saturated
fat," play a role in raising the cholesterol in your
bloodstream. A high blood cholesterol level is a risk factor that
increases your chance of developing heart disease.
Saturated fat is often found in foods from animals. This
includes fatty meats, the skin of poultry, and whole-milk dairy
products, such as butter, cheese, cream, and ice cream. It also is
in coconut, palm kernel, and palm oils. These oils are found
mostly in processed foods, such as baked goods, snack foods, and
crackers. If you use saturated fat, keep the amount small. Instead
of saturated fat, try soft or liquid margarine and such oils as
canola, safflower, and olive. However, all kinds of fats have the
same amount of calories and need to be limited to help you lose
weight.
Try to lose about ½ to 1 pound a week. This isn’t as hard
as it sounds. One pound equals 3,500 calories—or 7 times 500. So
if you cut 500 calories a day by eating less and being more active,
you should lose about 1 pound in a week. For example in one day if you
replace a chocolate candy bar at lunch with a small apple, have a
piece of baked chicken instead of fried chicken at dinner, and then
take a 15-minute brisk walk after lunch and dinner instead of
lingering at the table, you can cut your calories by 500. Making these
kind of changes everyday will help you to lose about a pound a week.
Keep reading to learn what foods to choose to help you lose weight.
Pages 43-49 offer some menu and recipe ideas. You’ll find that
you can still enjoy favorite meals—a few simple changes can turn
most meals into recipes for health.
Here are two tips on how to eat to lose
weight.
- Choose foods low in calories and fat. Low calorie foods are
great for losing weight. But you may not know that healthy low fat
foods can also be low in calories. Fat, no matter what kind it is,
saturated or unsaturated (see above), is a concentrated source of
calories. So if you replace fatty foods with less fatty foods, but
keep the same portion sizes, you’ll eat fewer calories. For
example, save calories by eating baked fish instead of fried fish or
low fat yogurt instead of ice cream. Fatty foods to cut down on
include: butter and margarine, fatty meats, whole-milk dairy foods
(such as cheese), fried foods, and many sweets and snacks.
Foods low in fat also include those high in starch and fiber.
These foods also are good sources of vitamins and minerals. Some
foods high in starch and/or fiber are listed above. Try to replace
foods higher in fat with these kinds of items.
- Limit your serving size. To reduce your daily calorie intake,
you’ll need to watch how much you eat, not just what. This
means cutting down on portion sizes.
Try to take only mid-sized helpings of foods high in starch and
fiber, and only small helpings of fatty foods, such as cheese and
high fat meats. And don’t go back for seconds.
One good way to change what and how much you eat is with a food
diary. For 2-3 days, record what you eat, when you eat it, and
why. Try to include one weekend day. Be sure to include snacks.
This will tell you what food habits you have—and what bad
habits may be causing you to be overweight.
Once you understand your habits, you can set goals to change
them. For example, you may find you often snack on fatty, high
calorie foods while watching television. Change this habit by
having fresh fruit, unsalted popcorn, or unsalted pretzels handy
as you watch TV. Or, you may find that you skip breakfast and then
eat a very large lunch. Perhaps you picked up the habit because
you don’t have enough time in the mornings to eat breakfast
at home. Instead of eating too much at lunch, take a low fat
muffin, bagel, or cereal with you and eat breakfast at work.
The other part of using more calories than you eat is being
physically active. Regular activity helps you lose weight—and
keep it off—and improves the health of your heart and lungs.
Be
physically active.
Regular activity does more than help you lose weight: It makes
you feel and look better, helps lower high blood pressure, and can
reduce your risk of having a heart attack.
CALORIES BURNED DURING
PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES*
| Activity |
Calories
Burned
Per Hour |
| Bicycling,
6 mph |
240 |
| Bicycling,
12 mph |
410 |
| Cross-country
skiing |
700 |
| Jogging,
5-1/2 mph |
740 |
| Jogging,
7 mph |
920 |
| Jumping
rope |
750 |
| Running
in place |
650 |
| Running,
10 mph |
1,280 |
| Swimming,
25 yds/min |
275 |
| Swimming,
50 yds/min |
500 |
| Tennis-singles |
400 |
| Walking,
2 mph |
240 |
| Walking,
3 mph |
320 |
| Walking,
4-1/2 mph |
440 |
*Note: These figures are for a 150-pound person. The
amount of calories you burn depends on how much you weigh. The
more you weigh, the more calories you burn. To find the number of
calories you would burn in any activity, divide your weight by 150
and multiply that result by the number of calories for an
activity. For example, how much would a 100-pound person burn in 1
hour of bicycling at 6 mph? First divide 100 by 150 to get 0.67.
Then multiply 0.67 by 240 calories. That equals 160 calories. A
200-pound person bicycling for 1 hour at 6 mph would burn 320
calories—200/150 multiplied by 240.
Source: Exercise and Your Heart—A Guide to
Physical Activity, NIH Publication No. 93-1677, National Heart,
Lung, and Blood Institute/American Heart Association. |
You don’t have to run marathons to benefit from physical
activity. Any activity, if done at least 30 minutes a day over the
course of most days, can help. Look on page 15 for ideas to get
you moving.
Certain forms of activity are best for conditioning your heart
and lungs. Called "aerobic," they cause the body to use
oxygen more efficiently. Examples include brisk walking, swimming,
bicycling, and running. The activity should be done for at least
30 minutes, three or four times a week.
Whatever the activity, if you don’t have 30 minutes, try
two, 15-minute periods or even three, 10-minute sessions. But do
something!
Many people are able to start an activity without seeing a doctor
first. However, before beginning an activity, check with a doctor
if you are taking high blood pressure medicine, have heart
disease, have had a heart attack or a stroke, or have any other
serious health problem.
Otherwise, get out and get active. Start slowly, if necessary,
and work up to a comfortable pace and schedule. You may want to
start doing an activity only twice a week. Then build to three or
four times a week. The key is to begin and stay with it.
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