Each year, as more research is conducted on the impact of our lifestyles on our health, the evidence continues to build that even modest healthy lifestyle changes, when done consistently, can have a dramatic effect on our overall health. In other words, most people can effectively transform their health and quality of life by making a few changes to some of their day to day health habits. 

This is perhaps the best kept secret about health.

“Small changes can produce big results.”
 

In fact, research shows that relatively small changes in the 3 areas of health that we focus on in the HMR Program - weight loss, physical activity, and eating more fruits and vegetables - can have a pretty significant impact on your health. Here’s what “small changes” in these areas of health actually look like…

01. Weight Loss: What You Gain When You Lose a Little...
 

It’s easy to discount the benefits of losing a modest amount of weight – especially if you want to lose a lot more than that.

But research has shown that the first few pounds you lose are the most important from a health perspective. Many different areas of health are improved by losing as little as 5-10% of your body weight (for example, if you’re starting out at 200 lbs., a 5% weight loss would be 10 lbs.). Health improvements can include better “good” cholesterol levels, lower triglyceride levels, lower blood pressure, and better management of blood sugar - just to name a few! ¹

And, while many people want to lose more than 5-10% of their body weight, it’s important to know that… even a little progress on the scale right up front can improve our health a lot.

 




02. Physical Activity: The impact of doing a little physical activity
 

Studies on fitness have shown that the greatest health benefits of physical activity are achieved by those who are at the lowest fitness levels.

One study looking at over 4,300 people for an average of 8.7 years, found that moving from the least-fit group to the next-least-fit group reduced the risk of dying during the study by almost 50%.³ That’s dramatic.

After comparing the groups more closely, the researchers found that minor differences in health factors like age, diabetes, cholesterol level, and use of medications were unlikely to explain the nearly doubling of mortality rate for those with the lowest level of fitness. A more likely contributor to the increased health risk was the more sedentary lifestyles of those who were least fit.

 

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The researchers concluded that if you don’t exercise regularly, increasing your physical activity, even modestly, is likely to significantly improve your health.

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03. Fruits and Vegetables: the Health Benefits of Eating More...
 

Many countries conduct national campaigns to support people to eat more produce. Contributing to this advice are several large scale studies showing that these foods protect health in several different ways.

One of these studies comes from England, and followed over 65,000 people for an average of 7.7 years.

The big finding from this study was that those eating seven or more half-cup portions of fruits and vegetables daily had the lowest risk of mortality from any cause – they were 42% less likely to die during the study period.⁴ Wow!

This translates to eating only about 3½ full-cup servings of fruits and/or vegetables per day. That’s less than the minimum we recommend in the HMR Program, and according to the study, more than half of the mortality reduction came from the first 2-2½ cups.* Once again: small changes can produce big results!

 



A final thought about making small lifestyle changes
 

So, if you’ve ever thought “what’s the point?” of doing just a little exercise, eating just a few more fruits and veggies, or losing just a few pounds, the science is clear. You can achieve real improvements in your health and quality of life right as you start doing these things.

And combining them together may not only enhance their impact but can give you all-important momentum to make additional lifestyle changes, to lose more weight, and experience even greater gains in your health and quality of life.

 

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