Big Fat Lies About Weight Loss

Even doctors are confused about the facts on getting fatter.

A “most read” report in the Sydney Morning Herald by Australian scientists Garry and Sam Egger has separated truth from fiction by surveying doctors and truck drivers on popular myths about weight loss – and they found the doctors were wrong almost as often as the truckies.

The Top 12 Weight Loss Lies

1) Fruit juice is about as fattening as beer – TRUE

Both have about the same kilojoule intake, but alcohol cannot be stored and turned into fat.

2) Humans need 8 glasses of water a day – FALSE

The 8 glasses a day rule is “arbitrary and meaningless.” The amount of fluid you need varies according to age, gender, activity level, state of health and the weather – and varies from 3 to 24 glasses a day.

3) Dairy products can help weight loss – TRUE

It’s controversial, but recent research suggests eating low-fat dairy is linked to weight loss.

Dairy ingredients like whey protein, and a combinations of ingredients, like protein and calcium, can increase feelings of fullness, and increase the calories expelled as waste  – both of which may assist weight loss.

4) Chocolate is healthy provided it is dark – FALSE

Genuine dark chocolate can have health benefits, but much “dark” chocolate has had the bitter-tasting flavinoids (the good antixodants)  removed and cocoa added, changes which do not have to be noted on the labels. Just because it’s labelled “dark” doesn’t mean it’s good for you.

5) Exercise is better than dieting for weight loss – FALSE

While exercise is likely to be important in maintaining weight loss, it’s easier to lose weight by dieting at the start. That’s because reducing intake by 1000 calories a day is the equivalent of walking an extra 15 kilometres daily – unrealistic for most people.

6) A low-protein diet is best for weight loss – FALSE

A reasonable intake of protein is likely to be better for weight loss than a low-protein diet, partly because protein gives a feeling of “fullness”.

The present protein intake of about 13 to 15 per cent of total energy is well below the estimated 25 to 30 per cent often proposed for weight loss and a healthy diet.

7) Fat people don’t get more hungry than lean people – TRUE

There is little reason to believe in a difference in genuine hunger – as distinct from psychologically conditioned ”appetite” – between slim and overweight people.

8) Swimming is better than walking for weight loss – FALSE

In general, the best exercises for weight loss are those that are weight-bearing, such as walking or jogging. Up to 30 per cent less energy is used in activities such as swimming or cycling, which support weight and can be carried out at a more leisurely pace.

9) Weight lifting is good for fat loss – TRUE

Resistance training is often underrated and considered only for the development of strength or size. Weight lifting can be effective for weight loss as well as muscle strengthening.

10) The best measure of body fat is body mass index -FALSE

Body mass index (BMI) – a ratio of weight to height – is less accurate in people with a more muscular body type, some ethnic groups such as Pacific Islanders, and the elderly, whose height shrinks with age. Waist circumference and some other body measures provide better estimates.

11) You lose more weight doing exercise you are good at – FALSE

Individuals become more efficient and expend less energy as they become experienced with a particular form of exercise. A fit, experienced runner, for example, requires less energy to cover a set distance than an unfit individual of the same weight, age and gender.

12) An obese person can be fit and healthy – TRUE

There is accumulating evidence that many obese people are fit and healthy, while a significant proportion of lean individuals suffer from health problems normally associated with obesity. This has led to new questions about the effects of obesity as a marker, rather than a cause, of disease.

Exercise Won’t Make You Thin – Successful Losers

You’ve lost weight – more than once – but you always put it back on again. Experts agree that maintaining loss is the even harder than losing it in the first place. And according to people who should know – a group who lost big amounts and successfully remained slimmed down – regular physical activity is an important part of their success.

Secrets of the Successfully Slim

The National Weight Control Registry  – which maintains a registry of 5000 people, average age 45, who have lost big amounts of weight and kept it off for more than a year – looked at the lifestyle secrets of these people, with weight loss of 30 kg for an average of 5.5 years.*

Nine of ten of those who were successful modified both diet and exercise to lose weight and keep it off.

Successful strategies included:

• eating a diet low in fat
• frequent self-monitoring of body weight and food intake
• high levels of regular physical activity

Low Calorie, Not Low Carb Best

Specifically, these successful slim people (80% of them women) followed these guidelines:

• low calorie diet of on 1381 kcal/day on average
• 24% fat, 19% protein, and 56% carbohydrate calories
• < 1% of participants consumed a low carbohydrate diet
• the few who did eat < 24% carbohydrate calorie diets maintained their weight for less time and were less physically active
• consumed  5 meals per day, ate at fast food restaurants only 1x week, and 2.5 meals per week at other restaurants
• 3 in 4 participants weighed themselves either daily or weekly
• most participants monitored their dietary intake regularly, particularly if they noted more than a couple lbs of weight gain
• 91% of the registrants used exercise to assist them with weight maintenance
• women averaged 2545 kcals/wk and men 3293 kcals/wk in physical activity; this is equivalent to walking 20-30 miles per week
• most increased both lifestyle activity and regular structured exercise
• 77% of registrants used walking as their main form of exercise
• 1 in 5 engaged in weight training
• among those who regained weight, they increased fat intake, decreased physical activity by an average of 800 kcals/wk, and reduced the amount of self-monitoring activities

The Registry study offers hope for those who stick with it. It found the longer you do it, the easier it gets.  “Once these successful maintainers have maintained a weight loss for 2–5 years, the chances of longer-term success greatly increase,” the NWCR study says.

• Rena R Wing and James O Hill, http://www.nwcr.ws/

Singaporean uncle can dance better than you

So you have seen the video on YouTube called Evolution of Dance or other videos where a young flexible athletic guy is showing off his moves.

But I think it hard to beat the spirit of  this middle-aged dancer.

If you think you can dance better then him then feel free to put a link to your video.

Exercise Won’t Make You Thin? Yeah Right.

Time magazine and writer John Cloud bought themselves a fight with the Aug 9 cover story Exercise Won’t Make You Thin. Howls from medical professionals, personal trainers, and their nemesis – the people who moan they “exercised for four hours a week and never lost a pound” – are still ringing.

Time argued:

• Exercising just makes us hungrier, which means we eat more, AND
• Because we’ve exercised we “reward” ourselves with the chocolate pastry or muffin we would not have otherwise had, immediately undoing the calorie loss we’ve earned with our workout session (women are apparently the worst “overcompensators”.)
• We’re being “tricked” into unpleasant and useless exercise and while we are just getting hungrier and fatter. (Look at national obesity figures.)

The resulting pros-and-cons discussion has thrown up some great research clarifying whether exercise gets you thin, keeps you thin or both.

The short conclusion is it depends on what sort of exercise (aerobic, weights etc) you are doing. And while it may not help you lose weight,  it certainly will help you stay that way.

Diet to Lose, Exercise to Maintain

 

Two studies in particular show clearly that while diet may play a bigger part than exercise in losing weight, exercise plays an essential part in maintaining that loss.

One 12 week study by Kramer, Volek et al,* which included aerobic, strength training, and diet controls, showed fat mass losses from the three approaches as follows:

• Diet only: 6.7kg,
• Diet/aerobics/cardio: 7kg,
• Diet/aerobics plus weights/resistance: 10kg.
  

 

Most noteworthy – the group that combined diet, cardio and resistance training lost almost no lean tissue whereas the diet only group lost almost 3kg worth of lean tissue.

Training was 3 times a week starting at 30 mins and progressing to 3 x 50 minutes over the 12 weeks. So the weight training group lost 3.3 kg, (21.1lbs,) – 44% and 35% more than diet and aerobic only groups respectively –  in the same time frame.

We’ll deal with study number two – which examined the lifestyles of people who had taken off large amounts of weight and then successfully kept it off – in Instalment 2 of Exercise Won’t Make You Thin – Successful Losers.

*Kramer, Volek et al., Influence of exercise training on physiological and performance changes with weight loss in men. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 31, No. 9, 1999.

Why is love addictive?

Brain imaging has confirmed what lovers have long-known. The crazy fixation we call romantic love is an addiction. . . maybe that’s why the Greeks called romantic love “the madness of the gods.”

Anyone who has ever been in the clutches of irrational infatuation knows the symptoms. Seemingly inexhaustible energy allows you to talk until dawn.  Satiated with love, you don’t need to eat; you feel you can live on air. Elated when things are going well, you sink into despair when things look like collapsing.

Noticeably there is a real dependence on the relationship, says Dr Helen Fisher, an expert on romantic love whose books including Why We Love trace the physical and psychological dependence of this primary human drive.

And dependence it is. Brain scans of love-stricken couples compared with men and women injected with cocaine, show many of the same brain regions become active.  So how does this happen?

Three Classic Symptoms

Directly or indirectly, all “drugs of abuse” affect a single pathway in the brain, the reward centres activated by dopamine. Romantic love stimulates parts of the same pathway with the same chemical.

In response to dopamine, the bewitched lover shows three classic symptoms of addiction: tolerance, withdrawal and relapse.

Tolerance: At first you’re happy to see loved one now and then… but very quickly you need them more and more until you “can’t live without them.”

Withdrawal: Dropped by your lover? The rejected one shows all the classic signs of drug withdrawal – depression, crying, anxiety, insomnia, loss or appetite or binge eating, irritability and chronic loneliness. You’ll also go to humiliating lengths to “procure a fix” – to see your lover, and try and renew the relationship.

Relapse: Long after the affair is over, hearing a particular song, or revisiting an old haunt can trigger the craving and initiate compulsive calling or writing to get another “high”. The lover is “a slave of passion.” Or rather – a slave to dopamine.

The Dopamine High

Dopamine. It’s at the core of our sexual drives and survival needs, and it motivates us to do just about everything. This mechanism within the reward circuitry of the primitive brain has been around for millions of years.

It’s behind a lot of the desire we associate with eating and sexual intercourse. Similarly, all addictive drugs trigger dopamine (the “craving neurochemical”) to stimulate the pleasure/reward circuitry. So do gambling, shopping, overeating, sexual climax and other, seemingly unrelated, activities. They all work somewhat differently on the brain, but all raise your dopamine.

You get a bigger blast of dopamine eating high-calorie, high-fat foods than eating low-calorie vegetables. You may believe that you love ice cream, but you really love your blast of dopamine. You’re genetically programmed to seek out high-calorie foods over others. Similarly, dopamine drives you to have sex over most other activities.

Boost Sexual Health

Many of the hormones involved in sex and love – including dopamine, serotonin and testosterone – are susceptible to stress or aging. They can be boosted by eating the right foods – including cottage cheese, chicken, dark chocolate, yoghurt, eggs, and oats, or by herbal and nutritional supplements like Herbal Ignite.

Breaking the No 5 Food Addiction – Fat

When most of us crave fat, we don’t reach for a packet of nuts or a spoonful of flax seed oil. Instead, we look for sources of saturated fats such as potato chips, or snacks that satisfy our sweet tooth and our fat craving. According to Analytical Research Labs, Inc., when some people crave foods that are high in fat, they are actually craving essential fatty acids and other nutrients from oils. Essential fatty acids are healthy fats that contain vitamins A, D and E, which your body uses for healthy skin, hair and nails. Because most Americans eat a diet that is lacking in these essential fats and oils, your body may crave them regularly.

Breaking the Craving for Fats

Avoid processed foods, and limit alcohol, sugar and salt. Research shows we are increasingly missing main meals and then fridge grazing on midnight snacks.

Ensure you get good amounts of quality EFA’s (Essential Fatty Acids) from your food. Good sources are: cold water fish – salmon, herring and mackerel, walnuts and almonds, dark green leafy vegetables, olive oil, flax seed oil, cod liver oil, borage oil, evening primrose oil, whole grain foods, lean meats and eggs,

Pre-pack snacks for when you are on the move
Keep some ready-to-eat snacks on hand, stashed away in your desk, in your car, or even in your purse or bag. Include pop-open cans of tuna and whole grain crackers, hard-boiled eggs, fruit, particularly bananas, trail mix, a low-sugar protein bar, low-sodium beef jerky, or protein powder mixed with water alongside a handful of nuts.

Keep the fridge stocked with healthy meal options

• Have bagels, bread and pizza bases ready for use. Keep the toppings for these refrigerated. If you have the time, leave a “pizza-making kit” in the fridge, with all the ingredients pre-chopped and ready to toss on the pizza base.
• Stock with a pasta salad, boiled eggs or sushi for a quick meal.
  • Make a healthy appetizer tray with carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumbers, squash, and olives. Combine with a container of fat free or low fat ranch for dipping.
  • Try these: avocado drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, falafel and tatziki, smoked salmon and low fat cream cheese on oatcakes topped with watercress,

If you must have meat, try to stick with fish and choose sushi or fresh tuna or salmon that you can just sear quickly and dip in soy sauce.

• Quesadillas: Keep a packet of tortillas in the cupboard, cheese and salsa in the fridge, and try this variation on a boring cheese toastie. Spread salsa, cheese and chopped spring onions over the tortilla, then fold in half and put straight onto a hot griddle/frying pan. Toast both sides, cut into wedges and eat with salad.
• Quick Fruit Smoothie: If you keep a banana in the freezer, you’re never far from a nutritious smoothie. Chop the frozen (or unfrozen) banana and put it into a blender with a tablespoon of porridge oats (you won’t taste them), a squirt of honey and enough milk to generously cover. Whiz until smooth and drink with a straw! You can vary this smoothie using almost any fruit in your house – pear, peach, strawberry and kiwi are all great.

Have plenty of fruit on hand. Apples, oranges, mandarins, pears, etc. should all be to hand in the fridge. Bananas fare better out of the fridge but should also be available all the time. Make bowls of washed and hulled berries available if you have the time. And slices of pineapple, mango, melon etc. make great snacks.

Breaking the No 3 Food Addiction – Carbohydrates

A craving for carbohydrates usually results in the consumption of refined carbohydrates, which are made from refined sugars and white flour. Consuming these items causes a rapid increase in your body’s blood-sugar levels.

Not surprisingly, carb cravings often occur in the mid-afternoon, when your energy stores are at their lowest. While a high-carb snack will give you more energy, it will also cause a sudden drop in energy, which will encourage even more unhealthy snacking.

Many carbohydrates are also referred to as “comfort foods,” which people associate with pleasant feelings. When you need a jolt of energy or a mood enhancement, it is natural to turn to the foods that have created those feelings in the past.

Breaking Carb Cravings

Instead of reaching for a bag of pretzels or a few (or maybe more) of your favorite cookies, eat a handful of nuts and dried fruit or yogurt to give you the energy you need. The fiber in the nuts will help you to feel full for longer, while the low-glycemic fruit will help to stabilize your blood sugar so that your energy stores aren’t depleted as quickly.

Adding a source of protein like yogurt, which takes longer to digest, can also slow down your body’s response to the carbohydrates.

10 Effective steps to get rid of Beer Belly

What have Jack Black, Jack Nicholson and John Travolta got in common with nearly half of all men in the US, the UK and Australia? As evidenced in recent paparazzi shots, they’re all showing signs of the dreaded “beer belly” – that bulge around the abdomen that hangs unattractively over a chap’s pants and increases the likelihood of heart disease, diabetes and dementia. That’s right, latest research shows if you’ve got a big belly in your 40s, you’ve got up to a 30 per cent greater chance of having dementia in your 70s.*

Whatever you call it, beer gut, beer pot or beer belly may not necessarily have a lot do to with beer drinking – but almost certainly alcohol consumption of some sort will play a big part in its creation.

So how do I get rid of beer gut fat?

It’s difficult to lose beer gut fat but not impossible. The trick is to take your time, cut out the alcohol or reduce it a lot, and take up something you enjoy that will provide regular exercise. Here’s a quick guide to how to do it:

Ten Tips for Banishing Your Beer Gut Now

1) Get inspired Your inspiration will serve as your motivation, so think of something that you really want. Is it being able to look better? Wear cooler clothes? Attract more women? Have more energy? Perform better sexually? If you are motivated by the fact that you can impress that new woman with your sculptured abs, then go lose your beer belly now.

2) Set realistic goals – If your waistline measures 38 inches, set a goal and make it 37 next month. You can make it 35 on the second, and then 32 on the next. Don’t aim to make it 24 if you are starting from 38 — and even if it’s from 38 to 34, it wouldn’t still be a realistic goal to achieve. Set only the goals you and your body can attain.

3) Combine aerobic exercise and strength training You won’t get rid of a beer belly just by doing sit ups. Research show that aerobic exercise – swimming, treadmill, speed walking, running, spinning and biking at least four times a week – is required to reduce belly fat. You need to spend at least 45 minutes per session. You should also walk as often as possible.

4) Strength training While it won’t remove belly fat you’ve already accumulated, strength training does prevent the formation of new deep abdominal fat as proven by Kathryn Schmitz of the School of Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania.* After two years, the middle-aged strength training group members gained only a small percent of deep abdominal fat while the control group gained 21 percent.

You may want to consider not only working out your abs, but also working out your shoulders, pectorals, back, and arms to help create a more shapely “V” figure, which will help reduce the appearance of your belly. Keep this in mind: bulking up your muscles requires fewer reps (about 8 ) and fewer sets with greater weight. Building leaner muscle requires more reps, more sets, and less weight.

5) Burn fat slowly Don’t crash diet. You’ll weaken muscle, slow your metabolism, and in the long run damage your health. Instead, aim to reduce your weight by 1 or 2 pounds a week, by eating plenty of fruit, vegetables, whole foods, and reducing fat and sugar. Always eat a good breakfast. Five small meals in a day is highly recommended. You will look good, feel good and stand a much better chance of keeping your weight and your beer gut down permanently.

6 ) Drink less alcohol There’s a reason they call it a “beer belly,” and drinking less beer, or quitting drinking altogether, will help you lose belly fat. No matter who (or how good looking) the drinker is, beer is bad for a number of reasons. The most obvious reason is the caloric content of beer. The less obvious reasons are the inflammation of the pancreas and liver, and the bloating that often accompany the over-consumption of alcoholic beverages; this includes alcohol mixed with sweet, sugary liquids like soda.

7) Build exercise into daily routines Park the car a few blocks from work forcing you to walk the rest of the journey every day. If you take the bus or train, try and get off a stop or two early and walk the rest of the journey. Avoid taking lifts and escalators if there are stairs you can take instead.

8) Reduce sugar Sugar is a big one. The sugar found in junk food and soda is the kind of sugar that burns quickly, unlike those sugars found in fruits and vegetables, which burn more slowly. If your body is processing sugar to create energy, and you’re not using any energy, those sugars will be converted into fat for later use. If you’re going to enjoy sweets, enjoy them right before you use the Stair Master.

9) A daily lemon — Recognize your best friend when it comes to burning fat: a lemon. The formula is simple. In a glass of lukewarm water, put the juice you have squeezed from half a lemon. It’s the best way to jumpstart your problematic metabolism and it also cleanses your liver.

10) Drink water – Drinking water after eating is not enough. If you are not drinking enough water a day, then don’t expect to lose your beer belly anytime soon. Eight glasses containing eight ounces of water a day will make your chances of getting rid of beer belly bigger and better.

The final clincher – bizarre beer gut fact No 3

Blokes who booze in a big way could end up with not just a belly but ‘big man boobs’ too. Why? Because drinking large amounts of alcohol on a regular basis can cause a slight increase in the production of the female hormone, estrogen, on top of a reduction in the male hormone, testosterone.

It’s a long term commitment to lose belly fat, but when you’re fit, trim and mentally alert at 70, you’ll be glad you did it.

* Rachel A. Whitmer, PhD, research scientist of the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, CA, and member of the American Academy of Neurology. Published March 26, 2008, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

* Schmitz KH, Jensen MD, Hannan P. Strength training prevents increase in visceral fat among women. Presented at the American Heart Association’s 46th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention in association with the Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabolism, Phoenix, AZ, March 2-5, 2006.