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How to Keep Your Bones Healthy and Strong
Did you know your bones are living tissue? It’s true. And the over 200 bones that people have help support your body, give it structure, and allow you to move. They also help to shield your brain, heart, and other organs from injury.
As we age, we lose bone mass. Bones can become thinner and weaker. That’s why taking steps to strengthen your bones to help prevent breaks and falls is important. It’s never too late to try to improve your bone health.
Here are some tips to get you started:
- Get moving. Being physically active is one of the best ways to keep your bones strong and slow bone loss. Because your bones are living tissue, they get stronger when you use them. A combination of weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercises are best to help build and maintain muscle mass.
Examples include: Going for a brisk walk or run, lifting weights or using resistance bands – even using 2 to 3 pound hand weights can make a difference, climbing stairs and doing push-ups.
- Maintain a healthy body weight. Carrying too much extra weight can strain your body and bones.
- Avoid tobacco use and limit alcohol use. Both can weaken your bones.
- Eat calcium-rich foods. If your calcium levels are too low, your body will take it from your bones, so make sure you are getting enough calcium in your diet. Good sources include milk, yogurt, cheese, almonds, leafy green vegetables, and fortified cereals. Ask your health care team if you should also take a calcium supplement.
- Boost your vitamin D intake. Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium, but most Americans have too little vitamin D. While you can get vitamin D through your diet – it’s in foods like salmon, cod, tuna, egg yolks, fortified milks and cereals – your body also makes vitamin D when your skin is exposed to sunlight. It’s often called the sunshine vitamin. But too much sun can also be damaging. Ask your primary care team or on-site provider if you should take a vitamin D supplement.
- Don’t skimp on protein. Protein is a key nutrient for bone health. Examples of healthier sources of protein include eggs, lean beef, white-meat poultry, dairy, fish, soybeans and tofu.
- Tell your doctor if osteoporosis (a medical condition where bones become weak and are more likely to break) runs in your family. Osteoporosis is more common in women than men, and the chances of developing it increase after menopause. If one of your parents has had a major broken bone, especially a broken hip, you are at higher risk of one too.
- If you are older, ask your doctor about bone density tests and when and if you need one. This imaging test measures the amount of calcium and other minerals in your bones. It can also show how thick your bones are. Your doctor can use this information to recommend treatments, if needed.
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4 Things to Know for Healthy Weight Loss
There are many ways to “lose weight.” But not all of them are healthy or lead to long-term weight loss, and “dieting” is often the last thing you should do when looking to drop weight. The truth is, there are no shortcuts to healthxy weight loss. It takes time—a healthy goal is to lose one to two pounds a week.
What’s more, healthy weight loss does not happen without lifestyle changes.* But it doesn’t have to be hard. It can even be something you find you enjoy. Here are four things to think about to get you started:
- Focus on the quality of the food rather than the number of calories. Simply replacing unhealthy foods with healthy ones will help you lose weight. But too much of anything is not going to help you drop pounds, so pay attention to portion sizes. For example, a healthy portion of chicken is four ounces, about the size of a deck of cards.
- When you eat matters: It’s best to consume most of your calories earlier in the day.
Eating late meals can make it harder to lose weight. That’s because the body processes food differently later in the day. Studies show people who eat most of their calories earlier in the day are less likely to be overweight. Try moving meal times earlier if you tend to eat later.
- All movement counts. The healthiest way to lose weight includes exercise, typically at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week. Moving your body helps burn extra calories you can't use up through food choices alone. If it’s hard for you to fit in regular exercise, or if you’ve never been very active, start small and build up. For example, take the stairs when you can or park farther away from store entrances.
- To lose weight, you must sleep. Sleeping 7 to 9 hours each night is important for healthy weight loss. So is sleeping at the same time each night. Studies show that people who sleep less than 7 hours per night are more likely to become overweight and disrupted sleep is also tied to heart disease and diabetes. The good news is that adopting a healthy diet and exercise will also help you sleep better.
As you think about healthy weight loss remember, everyone is different. What works for someone else may not work for you. Find what’s best for you, celebrate your victories and stick with it. You’ve got this!
Always speak to your primary care team or on-site clinic provider before starting a new diet or exercise routine.
*Caution: Even the popular weight loss drugs we’re hearing so much about these days cannot deliver a permanent drop without changes to your lifestyle. (If you go off them, the change won’t last.)
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