Ten Percent

When you start Weight Watchers or sign up with Sparkpeople.com, they encourage you to set a small goal at first. No matter how much you want to lose in total, both organizations encourage you to work towards losing ten percent of your body weight. For a 150 pound person, that person would work to lose 15 pounds. For a 200 pound person, that person would work towards losing 20 pounds. 


Why? Well there's the obvious boost that comes from setting and meeting small goals.  If you set out to lose 50 pounds, it can take a long time and be discouraging.  But if you set and meet a smaller goal on your way to 50 pounds, it makes you feel powerful, making you more confident of being able to tackle the big goals. (I think you know that I'm a big fan of setting and meeting goals.)


But also they say that the health benefits of losing just 10 percent of your body weight are significant enough to make a difference.  


Weight Watchers says that benefits include, "lower cholesterol and blood pressure as well as reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes. It also seems to increase life expectancy and decreased lifetime medical care costs by $2,200 to $5,300. A 10- to 15-percent weight loss could even lower the risk of premature illness and death." (from http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=39481)


Or there are these stats from Sparkpeople's DailySpark blog:
"What can 10 percent weight loss do for you? A lot, especially if you suffer from lifestyle diseases such as Type 2 diabetes or hypertension.

1. Are you diabetic? You could see some stabilization and improvement of your blood glucose levels.
    
2. Do you have hypertension? You could see your blood pressure start to lower.
    
3. Is your cholesterol abnormal? You could see an improvement in your blood lipid levels.
    
4. Regardless of your other health conditions, losing 10 percent of your bodyweight puts you at a decreased risk of developing heart disease."

From (http://www.dailyspark.com/blog.asp?post=the_health_benefits_of_losing_just_10_of_your_body_weight)


Plus there's this little nugget that I saw on Twitter a couple of years ago, "For every pound you lose, you alleviate pressure on your knees by 4 pounds." -Dave Zinczenko, editor-in-chief of Men's Health and Women's Health


I think about that quote every time I run.  Of course the more I lose, the easier it will be for me to run and the longer my legs will allow me to run, but every individual pound I lose makes a difference. I love that.

So right now, I'm working on my ten percent. What about you?