Panel puts focus on weight loss

The panel says count calories, not fat and carb grams.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans who plan to follow federal dietary guidelines now in development could wind up counting footsteps as well as calories.
The advisory panel working on the guidance on how to eat right -- and less -- also is making proposals on how to exercise more.
"The underlying theme of this entire report is to keep your energy intake within your limits," said the panel's chair, Janet King of Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute in California.
Shifting focus
The Agriculture Department will use the panel's work to update its familiar food guide pyramid for 2005. With about two-thirds of American adults overweight or obese, the department wants to shift the focus of the guidelines from maintaining a healthy diet to losing weight. And the panel is giving weight control a healthy dose of attention.
"Regular physical activity reduces risk for the development of chronic diseases and is essential to the maintenance of a healthy weight," the committee decided in a two-day meeting this week in Bethesda, Md.
The committee suggested at least 30 minutes a day of moderate activity for health reasons. That's what the U.S. Surgeon General's office recommends. Exercise scientists say such activities could include brisk walks.
The panel also said more exercise is needed to keep weight from coming back once it's lost -- possibly an hour or more of moderate to vigorous activity. Vigorous activity could include jogging. And the panel cautioned against living on the couch. It said people ought to limit sedentary activities such as watching television or videos.
Dieting
But there's more to weight control than working out, and the panel also looked at dieting. It decided people should pay more attention to counting calories than to counting carb or fat grams. People lose weight when they take in fewer calories than they burn, and the origin of those calories is not the crucial part, the panel said.
Balanced eating habits are a long-standing focus of the dietary guidelines, and the panel included an acknowledgment that a wide variety of foods in the basic food groups is needed to have a healthy diet "without exceeding your daily calorie limit."
The committee said people could eat more fruits and vegetables, whole grain foods, and nonfat or low-fat dairy products. It suggested people substitute some of those foods for refined grains.
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