Regulating weight loss products and do all heavy people need to loose weight

(article from calorielab.com)

There seems to be a lot more debate over the merits of different approaches to obesity and weight loss in Canada right now than there is in America, so we thought we’d check in on our neighbors to the north and some of the varied opinions on weight loss issues that can be found there.
Programs need more regulation

Friend of the Lab Yoni Freedhoff wrote recently on his blog about attending a conference of the Canadian Obesity Network where he talked about the need to set up a system of auditing weight loss programs by which those that are ethical and effective would get some kind of seal of approval from whatever regulatory agency was involved.

The companies that run the programs would apply for the certification and health experts would decide who would get approval, which could then be illustrated through a logo on pamphlets and products.

Freedhoff says medical experts have done a good job of convincing the vast majority of overweight people that they need to try to lose weight, but “we haven’t told people where to go . . . we leave them in that marketplace” full of scams and empty promises that mislead consumers.


While it sounds like a great idea in theory, it seems like a program that could ultimately be ripe for corruption, an easy way for retired bureaucrats and others to line their pockets without necessarily (depending on the rigors of the program) providing a lot of helpful oversight.

Maybe some people shouldn’t lose weight

While Freedhoff says in his talk that nearly all overweight people want to and probably ought to lose weight, another Canadian doctor says pushing weight loss for all people over an arbitrary number isn’t the right approach, either. Dr. Arya Sharma says that being overweight or obese doesn’t guarantee health problems.

People who are technically obese but otherwise healthy and active shouldn’t be the target of doctors and others pushing weight loss, he said, but instead medical professionals should really be seeking to help those who already have medical problems because of their weight or who are at high risk of developing medical issues because of their weight.

Studies have shown that people who are overweight but not obese may live longer than people classified as of normal weight, and that as many as 17 percent of obese people do not have heart problems usually associated with such a high weight.

Of course it’s hard to know if you’re in the category of people who are overweight but generally healthy or overweight and at risk for big health problems. Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby, fat-acceptance bloggers from here in the states, say people who are eating well and exercising but still have a high weight should not be that concerned about being classified as overweight and should instead embrace their body as it is.

They say people shouldn’t even be called overweight because that implies there is a lower ideal weight that you should be at. Instead, they simply use the term fat in the hope of removing some of the stigma from that term.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

Understanding why we easily quit our weight loss plan

Statistics could prove the high numbers of the population being overweight. Although they are subscribing to hundreds of different techniques and weight loss programs available all over the world, not many end up successfully. And there are always two major reasons for these failures:

1. Their inability to follow the program.
2. Their inability to continue the program even after losing some pounds through it.

These are only the most common reasons, not entirely the only ones. As we can see, both are mostly because of the human mind and not the human body. The failure isn't entirely the program or the diet's fault but the mindset of the person on that plan. Either s/he do not think that s/he could follow the plan consistently, or the possibility of a conflict between the conscious and the unconscious state of mind of that person. Drive and determination are needed to lose weight, so if you are not up to the challenges and work, no one can get you in shape.

The most effective solution is to alter the lifestyle of the person. A healthy outlook and perspective could get him or her convinced into following the plans more consistently and motivate him or her further into fully adapting the new settings. It is important that they will feel that they have accepted set-up voluntarily and that they were not forced to subscribe to it, so they will follow the whole program and diet plan without any problems.

There are a number of advanced mind trainings available to help out in these situations, which include magically slim. With the help of these trainings, the person will be more at ease in following the weight los programs and continue to pursue it for a long time.

However, a good diet and exercise plan is also needed to achieve great results with this state of mind. The actions and bodily activities are still big factors in losing pounds, and weight can oonly be reduced if you could burn more calories than you intake. Thus, a good diet plan is necessary. Doctors could always help about your queries on healthy foods with low calories. You could also ask friends about tested and proven effective diet plans. Then the internet could help you about the nutritional values of the food you plan to intake. This way you could know and compute the amount of calories and carbohydrates that your body takes in.

After setting up a diet plan, you could now look for a good exercise program. The internet could provide you information about exercises, watch videos, or help you buy gym memberships, but these all depend on your experience level. Another option is to subscribe to easier everyday exercises like walking, cycling, swimming or running. These activities are easier and cheaper to adopt and they do not necessarily require equipments to get you started. Just remember to follow the basic rules of exercise: the warm-up and cool down so you could avoid damage to your precious bodies.


(article from www.bestsyndication.com)

This article is for my hard headed friends.

---We have to be very cautious with our diet. No matter how fast we want to lose weight, we ought to do it right. This article seems very technical but it still is highly informative. Read on.


A study on obese patients has revealed that moderate calorie restriction causes temporal changes in the liver and skeletal muscle metabolism,

Led by Dr. Samuel Klein of the Washington University School of Medicine, the study has also revealed that short-term calorie restriction (CR) with a low-carbohydrate diet caused a greater change in liver fat content and metabolic function than short-term CR with a high-carbohydrate diet.

The researcher points out that insulin resistance is the most common metabolic complication associated with obesity, and is associated with an increased risk of developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and type 2 diabetes.

While the consumption of energy-deficit diets is considered to be very significant for obesity treatment, the most appropriate macronutrient composition of diet therapy needed to improve metabolic health remains controversial.

"Our data underscore the complexity of the metabolic effects of calorie restricition with diets that differ in macronutrient composition, and demonstrate differences among organ systems in the response to calorie restriction and subsequent weight loss," said Dr. Klein.

"Our findings help explain the rapid improvement in glucose levels observed after low-calorie diet therapy and bariatric surgery," he added.

During the study, his team randomised 22 obese patients to a high-carbohydrate or low-carbohydrate energy-deficit diet.

A euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp, muscle biopsies, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy were used to determine insulin action, cellular insulin signalling and intrahepatic triglyceride (IHTG) content before the diet therapy, after 48 hours, and after 7 percent weight loss.

Dr. Klein says that his team’s efforts showed that short-term CR caused a rapid decrease in IHTG content, an increase in hepatic insulin sensitivity and a decrease in endogenous glucose production rate, while longer-term CR and a moderate 7 percent weight loss improved skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity in conjunction with an increase in cellular insulin signalling.

The effect of moderate CR in obese patients with either a low-fat or low-carbohydrate diet on metabolic function is a continuum, with differential effects on specific organ systems.

Cutting Lose From the Grip of Too Much Food

---Thank God, I'm allergic to chocolates. After my worst allergy experience when my whole body was itching, I decided to wage war against it. At least, I won't have to worry about getting addicted to it again anymore. My great chocolate days are over. 'Hope this would help keep diabetes away from me too.

The good news is you don't have to give up chocolate or all of your other favourite foods in order to lose weight.

The not-so-good news is that people still have to remove some treats from their diet in order to to prevent the onset of type two diabetes.

This is the advice from George Blair-West, an Australian doctor and psychiatrist who was in Blenheim over the weekend for the Diabetes New Zealand annual conference.

But does it sound too good to be true?

It's not, said Dr Blair-West, author of a best-selling book, Weight Loss for Food Lovers: Understanding our minds and why we sabotage our weight loss.

He said eating was often connected to other issues, and that weight loss could be achieved by cutting out fattening foods that we could part with.

"The idea is to take out the foods that people eat that they are not emotionally attached to. As soon as food is denied it becomes forbidden and therefore desired."

He referred to a woman he met in one of his workshops. When she was younger, she was given chocolate Freddo Frogs when she was hurt or unhappy to make her feel better.

Now, she always reaches for a Freddo Frog when something goes wrong.

"We see this incredible confusion between physical and emotional nurturing," Dr Blair-West said.

He said humans had an emotional attachment with food from a young age, with weddings, birthdays and other celebrations associated with food.

Type two diabetes makes up about 90 per cent of all people with diabetes. It comes later in life, and people who are obese and in the higher weight range are more likely to develop it. The condition is caused by the body not recognising the insulin being produced, and being unable to use it. About 105,000 New Zealanders had been diagnosed with type two diabetes.

Dr Blair-West said there was no doubt that staying in a healthy weight range would reduce the likelihood of developing the condition.

Even 5 per cent total body weight loss could reduce the risk of developing diabetes by 60 per cent.

By eating slowly and savouring food, people end up eating less, he said.

He advised against dieting, where weight was lost but then put back on and people often ended up weighing more than when they started.

The good news was that type two diabetes was "highly responsive" to a change in diet and lifestyle, unlike many conditions.

Article from www.stuff.co.nz

Are You in a Hurry to Weight Loss?

-An article from.. click this link.

The number of people who commence a weight loss program every day is mind blowing and the amount of them that will fail is equally astounding. So why should this be when there is plenty of good, proven information available?

The predominant reason for that lack of success in losing any weight is just because the colossal majority of people who endeavour to lose weight just give up too quickly. There are a variety of reasons for this, yet the worst is haste. People are often in such a hurry and expect to manifest results too swiftly and when that happens, they simply give up, believing that it has failed for them. So here we have five facts with regards to weight loss which could cause you to rethink your own strategy with respect to losing weight.

Aiming to lose weight too swiftly by crash dieting could be extremely injurious to your health. Your body naturally resists your efforts to do this by checking your metabolism by attempting to counteract the withheld nutrients, thereby decreasing the cogency of the diet. When you cease dieting and resume eating as normal again, your body is going to stow food as fat in readiness for another bout of starvation, so you will gain even more weight than previously.

Taking things less hastily will bring scores of profits to a weight loss program. Begin an exercise program by degrees and increase the time you spend working out as well as the measure of exertion. Always stretch ahead of and following a work out to imbue your muscles with more flexibility and decrease the chances of straining them.

Taking things at a more leisurely pace will bring too many advantages to a weight loss program. Commence an exercise program by degrees and lengthen the time you spend doing your exercises as well as the level of exertion. Always stretch ahead of and succeeding a work out to imbue your muscles with more flexibility and lower the chances of straining them.

By lessening your uptake of calories through food so that it is just less than the amount of calories you use through exercise, you should lose weight until a perfect balance is attained. This is the simplest truth about weight loss. With this information you have a far greater chance of succeeding where without it you might have failed.

---Consistency is the keyword! We gotta do what we were taught to do, every single day until we reach our individual goals. See you at the finish line!

The battle to lose weight doesn't have to break the bank

The way Carolyn Thurmond figures it, she lost almost 30 pounds in five months, and she spent less than $1 a day to do it.

Thurmond, 42, who home-schools her three children in Advance, N.C., weighed 192 pounds in December 2007 and was having foot problems, heart palpitations and frequent fatigue. She saw a photo of herself and says: "I was horrified. I looked like someone blew me up. My face looked so fat."

At about that time, a gym with bargain-basement prices opened close to her home. She began working out, and later she started cutting calories. At 5-foot-5, she now weighs 164 pounds.

It was a small investment that yielded big returns. She now works out so intensely that a fellow gym member recently asked her what she was training for, and Thurmond quipped, "I'm training against fat."

Her story was selected by a panel of experts to be featured in USA TODAY's sixth Weight-Loss Challenge in the newspaper and online at dietchallenge.usatoday.com. This year's challenge, which runs every Monday through mid-May, focuses on losing weight on a budget.

The dieters who submitted their stories took small, cost-effective steps that led to big strides in weight loss. Some bought athletic shoes and started walking or running. Others joined inexpensive gyms. Most started cooking more and eating out less, and all do their best to food-shop economically.

Rae Goodman, 40, a child care provider in Kennesaw, Ga., weighs 135 pounds, down from a high of 225 in November 2005. She used the free website sparkpeople.com and gradually increased her exercise. Her trimmer, fitter body means she finds bargains on the clearance racks.

"I like the sales on clothes I can get now. Everything that's small is on sale. It's fabulous. I can buy a size 4 designer shirt for $4," says Goodman, who is getting married Saturday. She has a 19-year-old son from a previous relationship.

• R.V. Stephens, 69, a retired surgeon in Phoenix, says that in six months, he has dropped from 205 to 160 pounds by following a low-carb diet and walking 10,000 steps or more a day. "I bought a pedometer for $25," says Stephens, who can fit into his Air Force uniform from 38 years ago, when he served during the Vietnam War. He is married with three adult sons.

These dieters "watched not only their calories but their pocketbooks," says Edith Howard Hogan, a registered dietitian in Washington, D.C., who helped select the challenge participants.

"As we all face economic uncertainties, it would be so easy to comfort ourselves with all the wrong foods," she says. "But it's better to treat yourself to a good, reasonably priced diet with lots of fruits and veggies, lean protein, whole grains, low-fat dairy and healthful snacks."

Gradual weight gains

Many of the dieters report that their weight crept up gradually.

Goodman is frank about how she packed it on: "Poor eating habits. Sedentary lifestyle. Working too many hours and eating terribly. Lack of motivation. I like junk food. I like pastries, chocolate, wine."

Now, she buys mostly organic food, shopping for special discount sales. She watches her portions and fills up on fruits and vegetables.

Stephens says he gained over the course of years partly because "the doctors lounge was filled with doughnuts and bagels." But last summer, his physician told him he needed to lose weight because his blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugars were all too high.

He lost his weight and is keeping it off by steering clear of snack foods and fast foods. He is on a low-carb diet and has learned to season grilled salmon and chicken in a variety of ways. But he does treat himself to pizza every week.

Thurmond gained about 30 to 40 pounds with each pregnancy. "With each baby, I lost all of the weight but 10 pounds. When I was done with three kids, it was 30 pounds."

Then her family moved twice, and she gained 10 pounds each time. Plus, she didn't make time for herself. "I thought I didn't have time to exercise. It was the last thing on my list. I'd get up with the kids. I take care of them and school them all day, and I didn't want to go to the gym at 9 o'clock at night."

She didn't really notice how heavy she had gotten. "I stay home. I wear sweatpants all day, and I didn't realize that my clothes didn't fit anymore."

Her health was suffering. She huffed and puffed going up the stairs. When a family-owned gym opened 2 miles from her house, it had no enrollment fee, so she felt compelled to give it a try. "It was open 24/7. There were no excuses."

The price of her membership: $27.50 a month. "It costs me less than a dollar a day to go there. You could spend a dollar on a Coke or something that you shouldn't have."

But she was so out of shape that it wasn't easy. "I tried the elliptical machine, and in five minutes, my heart rate was too high and I felt queasy and out of breath. I tried the tread climber, treadmill and bicycles."

Thurmond experimented with the best time of day to exercise. She found that if she put it off until night, she often didn't have the energy to go to the gym.

She now exercises first thing in the morning, although if she had her druthers, she wouldn't. "I say this with great emphasis: I don't like getting up and exercising in the morning. I'm a night owl. But my mom picks me up at 7 in the morning, and we go to the gym. I get home about the time the kids get out of bed. When I exercise in the morning, I feel a million times better all day."

For the first month or so into her weight-loss journey, she exercised religiously, but the scales didn't budge. People told her she was gaining muscle, but Thurmond says, "I didn't want to hear that." Her brother kept reminding her that she had to count calories and weigh her food, so Thurmond decided to give it a try. "I wrote everything down. At first it was annoying."

She dug out a small scale to weigh her food. Sometimes after she figured out the calories, she put the food back in the package.

One of the most helpful things she did was take notes on how she felt after eating meals. If she ate something for lunch, and a half an hour later her stomach was growling, she jotted that down. "It was helpful to know what filled me up and what left me hungry."

Thurmond, who co-owns a residential construction business with her husband, watches her food bill closely. The family doesn't eat a lot of meat, frozen meals or junk food. They rarely eat out or get takeout. She makes almost everything from scratch. She estimates she consumes about 1,300 calories a day.

Working out works

All of the dieters who are featured in the eight-week series approach exercise with gusto.

Goodman sometimes works out twice a day, but she gradually built up to her current fitness level. "In the beginning, I didn't have the money or time for gym membership. I didn't have a treadmill, so I just started walking at a local park and on a track. I did that for a couple of months.

"Then I bought a treadmill and started paying in installments. I did the treadmill once a day for a while; then I did it twice a day for 45 minutes at 4 a.m. and the last thing at night. I did that for almost a year."

Then she chatted with people on sparkpeople.com, and they said she needed to go to a gym to be with like-minded people. "So I started at Bally's, and it took off from there. I started doing the spin class. I was slimmer and I wanted a tighter body, so I began weight training. I'm now lifting hundreds of pounds."

On the other hand, Stephens, the retired surgeon, is sold on walking. He wears a pedometer. "I walk at least 5 miles five days a week and 7 miles the other two days. I walk a mile in about 17 minutes. I'm bringing my pulse up to 120 to 130. I try to play golf once a week."

Thurmond mixes up her routines, doing an intense aerobic workout using different exercise machines for 45 to 60 minutes three days a week. Two or three other days, she does a cardio workout for 20 minutes and then intense weight training. "I change it up," she says.

She says she could save even more money by doing the same workout at home but finds that "going to the gym is motivating. It's like silent support. It has been worth itself over and over. When you go there, you might as well do what you are there to do."

She doesn't sugarcoat her experience.

"This journey was very difficult, a lot of hard work," she says. "You read magazine covers that say, 'Lose 10 pounds in one month' … or 'Lose inches with this simple plan!' That was not the case for me. Nothing fell off or melted away or was easy. I had to work harder than I wanted to."

She isn't aiming for a perfect body. "I don't expect to look like I did before children. I don't expect to be thin or slim."

She'd like to get rid of a few more pounds, but overall she's happy with the changes in her looks. "My legs are like rocks. I have very muscular legs."

And, she says, "I have a waist again."

-Article from www.usatoday.com

---This is very very much inspiring! No matter if you're a model or simply a housewife, you deserve good health and happy body image, right?

Weight Loss: Ideal Weight or Happy Weight?

How much weight do you really need to lose?

Maybe you've been struggling -- without success -- to get down to the size you were in high school or on your wedding day. But do you really need to go that low? The truth, experts say, is that you can weigh more than your ideal weight and still be healthy (not to mention happy).

If you're overweight, losing just 10% of your body weight is associated with a myriad of health benefits, including lowering blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and blood sugar, and reducing your risk for heart disease. Not only that, experts say, but this kind of weight loss is easier to attain and maintain, setting you up for success in the long run.

Your Weight "Set Point"

Just as your body temperature is programmed to stay around 98.6 degrees, your body weight is naturally regulated to stay within a range of 10%-20%, says Thomas Wadden, PhD, director of the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders at University of Pennsylvania Medical School. This weight range is known as the "set point."

A complex set of hormones, chemicals, and hunger signals help your body naturally maintain your weight within this range, says American Dietetic Association spokeswoman Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD.

It is not just a matter of genetics, though. Your eating and exercise habits can also help to determine your set point.

"Overeating swamps the internal regulatory system, and, as a result, the set point increases -- which is much easier to do than it is to lower it," says Wadden. The body adjusts to the higher weight and "resets" the set point to defend the new weight.

It is difficult, but not impossible, to set your range lower. "With changes in healthy eating and exercise behavior, you can lower your set point," says Blatner.

The 10% Solution to Weight Loss

A recent book, Break Through Your Set Point: How to Finally Lose the Weight You Want and Keep It Off, by George Blackburn, MD, suggests that maintaining a 10% loss for six months to a year helps your body adjust to the lower weight and thus reset the set point.

Wadden explains that when you lose large amounts of weight at once, you set up an internal struggle and hormones like ghrelin spike to make you hungrier as your body tries to defend its comfortable range.

Instead, experts recommend that you try losing 10% the old-fashioned way -- by slowly changing eating and exercise behaviors -- then maintain this new weight for a few months before trying to lose more. Not only will your body get the signal to lower its "set point," but you'll give yourself a chance to get used to new food choices, smaller portions, and regular exercise.

“When patients lose 10% it may not be the pant size they want, but they start to realize how a little weight loss impacts their health in very positive ways," says Blatner. "They feel better, sleep better, have more energy or less joint pain, and some people are able to reduce medications."

How Much Should I Weigh?

Most people overestimate how much weight they can realistically lose, which leads to frustration, says Blatner. To find your happy or healthy weight, Blatner suggests looking back on your weight history as an adult and identify a weight you were able to maintain naturally and fairly easily.

And if you've gained more than a few pounds since your wedding day, forget trying to fit into that bridal gown. "As you gain weight, you experience an increase in fat cell size and number, which will probably prevent you from getting back to your married weight," says Wadden.

Instead of focusing on the numbers on the scale, Blatner suggests setting behavioral goals: "Eat breakfast every day, go for daily walks, eat more fruits and vegetables -- when you set behavior goals, they are easier to accomplish and they make you feel good." Stick with these behaviors for 3-6 months and they will become part of your life.

Based on your current weight, eat about 10 calories per pound of nutritious food (low in fat, rich in lean protein, high in fiber), get regular exercise, and assess your weight after a month or so.

"Your weight will settle out and typically you will lose 10%, then hit a plateau, which is a good time to maintain the weight loss," says Wadden.

As you get to a healthy weight, you can go up to 12 calories per pound.
Tips for Weight Loss Success

Here are some tips from Blatner for weight loss success:

1. Eat regular meals. People who eat regular meals consume fewer calories than those who eat irregular meals.

2. Use a plate, sit down, and enjoy your meals. Folks who do this eat 43% smaller portions than those who eat out of containers or on the run, according to Blatner.

3. Get at least 30 minutes of moderate activity each day.

4. How much and what you eat makes a big difference. Enjoy normal portions of foods that are high in fiber (fruits, veggies, whole grains) and rich in lean or low fat protein is the secret to feeling full.

5. Think positive: Focus on the benefits of a healthier lifestyle rather than the scale.

---It's so good to know all these things. It helps me to become more considerate with my self while setting my weight loss goals.