The research, published in the peer-reviewed medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine, revealed that cardiovascular risk factors, such as blood pressure and lipid (cholesterol) levels responded much better with the low-carb diet. Both diets produce near identical weight loss when combined with comprehensive behavior treatment

Basically – it would appear that both diets are equally good for reducing your weight, but the low-carb diet helps to protect you from potential cardiovascular diseases far more effectively.

The findings may come as a big surprise to many people who would instinctively link a low-carb diet with worsening cardiovascular risk factors.

Three hundred and seven patients were randomly assigned to either a low-carbohydrate (n=153) or low-fat (n=154) diet together with a behavior treatment program. The patients weight after two years was the primary outcome, but other effects were also measured throughout the study period.

At 3, 6 and 1 year, the patients were evaluated for:

• Weight
• Serum lipid concentrations
• Blood pressure
• Urinary ketones
• Bone mineral density
• Body composition

Amongst the participants in the two diet groups, the researchers found:

• Weight – no significant differences at any point during the study. About a 7% weight loss after two years in both groups.
• Body composition – no real differences at any point during the study
• Bone mineral density – no material differences at any point during the study
• Good cholesterol levels – double the increase among the low-carb diet group as compared to the low-fat group after two years. 23% and 11% respectively.

Gary Foster, PhD, director of the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University, Philadelphia, said:

I think an important outcome from a study like this is to think about which diets fit best for which people. This study would suggest that perhaps for those with low HDL-cholesterol levels to begin with, that a low-carbohydrate approach to weigh loss may have some dvantages.

Foster added:

At the end of the day, behavior interventions are key. Dieters should be less concerned about what diet they follow, and more concerned with employing effective behavioral strategies, such as recording what they eat, logging their exercise, and limiting the triggers for overeating, like watching TV or eating in the car.

“Weight and Metabolic Outcomes After 2 Years on a Low-Carbohydrate Versus Low-Fat Diet – A Randomized Trial”
Gary D. Foster, PhD, Holly R. Wyatt, MD, James O. Hill, PhD, Angela P. Makris, PhD, RD, Diane L. Rosenbaum, BA, Carrie Brill, BS, Richard I. Stein, PhD, B. Selma Mohammed, MD, PhD, Bernard Miller, MD, Daniel J. Rader, MD, Babette Zemel, PhD, Thomas A. Wadden, PhD, Thomas Tenhave, PhD, Craig W. Newcomb, MS, Samuel Klein, MD
Annals of Internal Medicine August 3, 2010 vol. 153 no. 3 147-157

Does eating a big breakfast help weight loss or is it better to skip breakfast altogether? Available information is confusing but new research published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Nutrition Journal clears a path through these apparently contradictory reports.

Dr Volker Schusdziarra, from the Else-Kroner-Fresenius Center of Nutritional Medicine, conducted a study on over 300 people who were asked to keep a journal of what they usually ate. Within the group sometimes people ate a big breakfast, sometimes small, and sometimes skipped it all together.

Schusdziarra said that “the results of the study showed that people ate the same at lunch and dinner, regardless of what they had for breakfast”, this means that a big breakfast (on average 400kcal greater than a small breakfast) resulted in a total increase in calories eaten over the day of about 400kcal. The only difference seen was the skipping of a mid morning snack when someone ate a really big breakfast, however this was not enough to offset the extra calories they had already eaten.

The group addressed previous research, which suggests that eating a big breakfast reduces total calorie intake over the day, and showed that this data is misleading. This earlier research only looked at the ratio of breakfast calories to daily calories and in Schusdziarra’s study this ratio seems to be most affected by people eating less during the day. In other words their breakfast was proportionally, but not absolutely, bigger. So it seems that there is no magic and that, unfortunately, in the fight for weight-loss, eating a large breakfast must be counteracted by eating substantially less during the rest of the day. In order to lose weight sensibly NHS guidelines suggest restricting calorie intake, cutting down on saturated fat and sugar, and eating 5-a-day fruit and veg.

Impact of breakfast on daily energy intake – an analysis of absolute versus relative breakfast calories Volker Schusdziarra, Margit Hausmann, Claudia Wittke, Johanna Mittermeier, Marietta Kellner, Aline Naumann, Stefan Wagenpfeil, Johannes Erdmann

Nutrition Journal
All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central’s open access policy.

Source:
Hilary Glover
BioMed Central

Nutrition / Diet From Medical News Today

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/213870.php

Most people understand that children are part of the obesity epidemic. However, a revealing new study finds that obesity might begin in babies as young as nine months old.

“With the consistent evidence that the percent of overweight children has steadily increased over the past decade, we weren’t surprised by the prevalence rates we found in our study, but we were surprised the trend began at such a young age,” said lead study author Brian Moss, at the social work school at Wayne State University in Detroit.

The new study used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort to analyze the early weight of 16,400 U.S. children born in 2001. Of these, 8,900 were nine months old and 7,500 were two years old.

The researchers found that 31.9 percent of babies at nine months and 34.3 percent at two years of age were either at risk or obese. The study also found that children who were Hispanic and from lower-income families were at greater risk of being obese than white children, while Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders had lower risk. Female children were at lower risk for obesity than males.

“Being in an undesirable weight category at nine months subsequently predisposed children to remain in a less desirable weight category,” said Moss, whose study appears in the January-February 2011 issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion.

Childhood obesity expert Joyce Lee, MD, an assistant professor in pediatric endocrinology and health services research at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, confirmed that obesity is indeed becoming a problem in increasingly younger children.

“At younger ages, it is critical for parents to watch their child’s nutritional intake as this will be the main determinant of their weight status,” Lee said. “There is no approved ‘diet’ for children that young, so parents should communicate with their child’s health care provider about healthy ways to feed their child.”

Moss, BG, Yeaton WH. Young children’s weight trajectories and associated risk factors: results from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. Am J Health Promo 25(3), 2011.

Source:
Health Behavior News Service

Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness From Medical News Today

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/212601.php

Getting the weight off fast is so desirable that many of us are willing to sacrifice health and ignore common sense in the hope that some new weight loss program or scheme will work. This pipe dream can unfortunately outweigh the negative consequences. So let’s examine the downside of dieting.

What Is An Unhealthy Weight Loss Program?

• Any weight loss program that is not nutritionally sound;
• One that works against what the body naturally needs like vitamins, minerals, and a minimum number of calories a day;
• One that requires you to go without eating (for example, fasting or meal replacement drinks);
• One that puts your body into an unnatural state, such as starvation or ketosis.

Your body can only lose a few pounds a week on a consistent basis. If you lose more than that initially, it’s likely just water loss. So any weight loss program that promises you will lose five pounds a week, or 25 pounds in 3 weeks, is guaranteeing you will be losing water and muscle mass not fat.

Almost every popular weight loss program out there falls into one of the following diet categories: low calorie diets, meal replacement drinks, packaged foods, unbalanced nutrients, and ketosis diets. Let’s see how they stack up.

LOW CALORIE DIETS
Whenever you drastically reduce your calories, the body enters an unnatural state and its defenses kick in. So when calories drop below, say, 1000 calories a day, your metabolism will shut down in an effort to conserve energy. And weight loss with a sluggish metabolism is very difficult.

Your body will start using muscle tissue to provide energy, which again leads to a decrease in the metabolism. Taken to an extreme, the body will break down its vital parts (such as the heart muscle) trying to meet its energy needs.

In addition to these drawbacks, trying to maintain the weight loss over time is nearly impossible because your body is now used to making do with very few calories. Going back to “normal” eating causes the weight to pile back on.

For this reason, low cal weight loss programs rarely work over the long haul.

MEAL REPLACEMENT DRINKS
One of the most unnatural things for your body is to go without solid food, which is what meal replacement plans ask it to do. Some people think that dieting will be easier if they aren’t confronted with daily food choices and the pounds will just fall off. This may be true while they are on the liquid diet. But what about afterwards?

Where will the good eating habits come from after you’ve lost the weight? This is something that takes time, practice and knowledge. Dieters need to establish a healthy attitude towards a life-long eating plan. And no “fad” weight loss program or liquid lunch can help you with that.

Getting hooked on meal replacements can become a destructive way to view food. It often leads dieters to fear food or binge to “feed” their cravings after a long period of deprivation. And that’s just the psychological side of the equation.

The lack of fiber in such weight loss programs can be a threat to good physical health. And when the body is denied enough solid food, the intestines go into overdrive absorbing calories and nutrients. This helps you during the diet period, but later it makes it much easier to regain the weight.

Another yo-yo weight loss program that hurts you in the end.

UNBALANCED NUTRIENT PLAN
Be cautious about any weight loss program that has strict rules about good foods and bad foods. Sure, high fat and high sugar foods might be considered bad for the waistline, but moderation not abstinence is key to success.

Why? Because eating the same foods every day (say, grapefruit or high protein meals) is going to result in two things: nutritional imbalance and boredom.

All foods are made up of the same nutrients in different amounts: fat, carbohydrates, and protein. It is the right proportion of these nutrients that will bring about weight loss – not the avoidance of “bad” foods and the consumption of only “good” or magical foods.

In the world of dieting, no one food or nutrient group is magical. Variety and moderation are the keys to a healthy diet and a successful weight loss program.

PACKAGED FOODS
To stay at your ideal body weight, you have to learn how to make proper food choices. By following a packaged food weight loss program you are postponing the inevitable, and spending plenty of $$$ in the process.

Another problem with this kind of weight loss program is that the foods provided are not always healthy. Read the package label and you will see chemicals, preservatives, sodium, sugar and saturated fats. And when all you can eat is packaged food, how do you plan meals with other people? Going out to restaurants and parties and enjoying family meals becomes a big hassle.

Your weight loss program then becomes a burden, not only to you, but to those around you.

KETOSIS DIETS
Ketosis has been defined as: “An abnormal condition marked by excessive production of ketone bodies. Often caused by high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets such as the Atkins diet.”

Atkins and certain other weight loss programs are based on the principle of restricting carbohydrates to the point that the body enters into ketosis. On the surface, a ketogenic diet seems to work for two reasons: First, you’ll lose large amounts of weight, which is very pleasing to the dieter. Secondly, you don’t experience hunger.

But there are serious drawbacks. Your weight goes down due to water loss (which occurs when you restrict carbohydrates) and a loss of lean muscle tissue. This is NOT true, lasting weight loss.

The loss of appetite comes from having ketones building up in the body, which can harm your health. Side effects of a ketosis weight loss program can include fatigue, kidney stones, gout, and muscle loss. The longer you follow such a diet, the greater the risk to your health.

Clearly not a wise choice of weight loss program, not for the short term or the long.

WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM QUESTIONNAIRE
There are always new weight loss programs coming onto the market and going in and out of style. To evaluate if a weight loss program is healthy and sensible for you, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is the plan nutritionally sound?
• Will it help improve my weight, metabolism, cholesterol level, blood pressure, energy level, and general ealth?
• Will I be eating real food and not have to buy special formulas, drinks, etc?
• Will I be eating a wide variety of foods rather than just a few “diet” foods?
• Am I allowed to have some treats and eat my favorite foods?
• Can I eat out in restaurants, have a glass of wine with dinner, or some dessert?
• Can I follow this weight loss program without it interfering with my lifestyle?
• Can I lose weight without feeling hungry?
• Will l develop eating habits for life-long weight control with this weight loss program?
• Is this the last diet I will ever need to finally reach and maintain my ideal weight?

These 10 natural tips will help you get on the losing end of your weight loss and work for teens to seniors. So no matter what your age, these tips to get losing today.

Weight Loss Tips #1
Want It!

This may seem a bit redundant, but to really be successful at weight loss you have to want it. To really want it you have to go above just saying you want it, you have to commit to weight loss. The best way to commit to losing weight is to build a goal and jot it down.

A goal does not have to be in terminology of losing weight. Instead you could write your goal as measurements or body fat % lost or even clothing size. Make your goal reachable and quantifiable. Write it in terms that you can relate to and review often. For instance your goal can be ?I want to drop 2 dress sizes by the end of the year? or ?I want to lose 5% body fat in 4 months? or ?I want to weigh 135 pounds by this New Year’s Eve?.

Plan smaller goals that you can use along the way to ensure you are on schedule to achieve your final goal. Track your goals and your improvement by using weight loss tools such as a calorie chart, exercise chart or weight loss chart. Search for or develop a weight loss journal. Journalizing is a great way to track your foods, water, workouts and feelings for the day and a wonderful method for you to stay committed to your weight loss.

Weight Loss Tip #2
Stop Bad Habits

Learned habits can be hard to let loose. Let’s face it, some things we do are because we have always done them that way. This is the time to change. Get rid of the idea that you have to eat it all. If you are in the ?baby boomer? age then you know what I am talking about. We were led to believe to finish our plates and could not leave the kitchen until they were clean.

Well that was then this is now. Instead of scarfing it down stop when you are full. Take smaller portion sizes and if you are still hungry go back for seconds but make it a smaller piece. When eating away from home order from the kid’s menu for smaller sizes or ask for a ?baggie? and keep the rest for another time.

Weight Loss Tip #3
Keep it in the Kitchen

This is one habit worth talking about as its own tip. Many people have a bad habit of chowing down on the move or squatting in front of the television set when eating. Experts say people who eat in front of the T.V. tend to eat bigger servings. This is primarily because of being focused on the boob tube and not focused on what you are consuming.

So take your meal out of|away from} the family room and into the kitchen. Take advantage of this time to not only eat better and wiser but to find out how the kids are doing in school. By using your eating time as a nice family time you are also slowing down your eating. This will allow your stomach time to tell your brain that you are full and will likely consume fewer calories.

Weight Loss Tip #4
Throw Out Temptation

If it is out of the question to stay away from tempting foods, then just remove these from harms way. The old saying ?out of sight, out of mind? may just do the trick for you. Go through your cabinets and fridge and throw it out. Replace the too sweet or too fatty foods with the right foods. Sugar free jell-o is a wonderful way to get your sweet tooth satisfied without piling on the calories. Instead of potato chips get low fat popcorn.

Try going your first two weeks with no unhealthy snacks at all. You will be surprised at how your yearnings will fade by going without for a few weeks. Have a bag of carrots or celery near by. These veggies help gratify the need to crunch on something and are low in calories.

Weight Loss Tip #5
Get Support

Weight loss is a monstrous challenge for many of us, so go it on your own. Look for a weight loss support group online or on-site or start your own support group. All of the really successful weight loss companies offer a groups or one on one support.

But if you are planning to go without a weight loss plan then create your own support plan by including friends, family members, coworkers and neighbors. Your group can be as big or as small as you need. Let everyone know you are embarking on a weight loss journey and ask for their support and encouragement.

Weight Loss Tip #6
Track Your Weight Loss

In order to make sure you are on the right road to reaching your goals you need to record your progress. By recording how you are doing you can make modifications as needed to ensure you keep losing weight and reach your goals.

Keep track of the foods you eat and how many calories you have in a day. Track your exercise routines and how many calories you burned during exercise. This will help ensure you create a calorie deficit for losing weight. Measure or weigh yourself once a week and record your weight. Review your progress and weigh against your goal. If you see your progress headed in the wrong direction, make adjustments to your foods and/or workout routines.

Weight Loss Tip #7
Add Variety

You need a variety of foods to keep your meals interesting and fun. Don’t burn yourself out by eating the same things day in and day out. Eat from all the food groups by including whole grains, protein, dairy, fats and veggies and fruits.

Try eating 5 to 6 mini meals every day to help your metabolism stay energized. Eat protein with each meal by including lean cuts of meat and fish and beans and eggs in your diet plan. Aim for 5 ? 9 servings a day of vegetables and fruits. Make your choices colorful by having dark green leafy veggies, red or orange peppers, etc. Vary your fruit selection as well consuming citrus fruits and non-citrus fruits.

Your dairy products should be fat free and low fat choices. Make your bread and pasta selections whole grains. The complex carbohydrates and high fiber in whole grain breads and cereals help to speed up your metabolism. Additionally you want to consume some the good fats in your food selection. This is because your body needs some vital fatty acids from the foods you eat as it cannot make these fats itself. Just read the labels and choose foods that have the healthy fats and try to eliminate or reduce trans fats.

Weight Loss Tip #8
Watch What You Drink

Several people do not track or think about the amount of calories in their beverages. A regular flavored cola has more than 100 calories and 10 teaspoons of sugars. Fruit drinks are also high in sugar and calories. Switch to diet drinks and drink more green tea and water.

Watch the alcohol consumption as well. A lot of alcoholic drinks are high in calories and alcohol tends to turn to fat and sugar in your body. You should try to eliminate or reduce your alcohol intake while trying to lose weight. However, if you have a special occasion, beer and wine are lower calorie drinks.

Weight Loss Tip #9
Satisfy the Sweet Tooth

As you continue on your weight loss journey there will be times when you need a sweet treat. If you let your cravings go unchecked for too long then there is a good chance it will overcome you and lead to “binge eating”. So go ahead and treat yourself to that tempting snack once in awhile.

Moderation is the key here. It’s okay to sneak a snack and not feel bad. Just make sure it doesn’t become a common thing but is just every now and then change from your diet. One of the main reasons people stop strict diets is their constant cravings eventually gets the better of them. So go ahead and give in and make your snack small but enough to calm your sweet tooth. Then get right back on track with your weight loss journey.

Weight Loss Tip #10
Get Active

There are a lot of people who are exercise fanatics and then there are those people who flinch at the very word exercise. However, if you want to lose weight, and here’s the important part, keep it off then you need to include exercise to your weight loss plan.

By exercising you are burning excess fat and calories. You are also increasing lean muscle mass. The more lean muscles you have the higher your basal metabolic rate (BMR). The higher your metabolism the more calories and fat you burn in a given day.

If you are just starting out, then start slow by going for a brisk walk 20 minutes 3 times a week. Also add some strength training 2 or 3 times a week. As you get used to this workout routine then improve your speed and duration. Increase the resistance during your strength training as well. It doesn’t matter what you start with just so long as you start to get active.

I would advise anyone seeking to lose weight to substitute the term ‘healthy weight loss program’ for ‘rapid weight loss program’. I hope, the following short discussion will explain my position to some extent.

You, like so many others in today’s society, are concerned about losing weight. Like so many others, you are looking for some sort of rapid weight loss program or plan. Rapid weight loss, also often referred to as quick weight loss or fast weight loss, involves, as its name implies, losing weight in a short period of time. Claims of such programs often cite fantastic results in anywhere from two to seven days.

In the United States, approximately two-thirds of the adult population is overweight or obese, and hundreds of thousands of these Americans are understandably interested in rapidly losing that unwanted weight. Many simply wish to lose weight before an important event, like an upcoming vacation or a wedding, while others are willing to accept the fact that permanent, healthy weight loss is a lifetime commitment.

While it is certainly simple to understand how you can want to lose weight as fast as possible, to tell the truth, you really need to proceed with caution. Although it is possible to lose weight, or at least a small part of it, in a relatively short period of time, you should realize that there are dangers and problems associated with doing so.

One of the many dangers of rapid weight loss is simply that which is inherent in some of the many measures that some people take. For instance, it is common to hear of individuals who have decided to fast, i.e. not to eat, while trying to achieve a rapid weight loss goal. Going without food, for even a short period of time, can be dangerous to your health. It deprives you of many nutrients necessary to health and will shortly cause your metabolism to slow down. At that point, initial weight loss will cease if it hasn’t already. At some future time, when you return to your normal consumption of calories, as most dieters do, your body will burn fewer of the calories you take in, and the excess will be stored as fat…more fat than would have been accumulated before the rapid weight loss program.

This results in a condition in which the person now weighs more than they did before the weight loss program or diet. They attempt to lose the weight by going back on the same diet or a similar program. This time, the weight loss is harder to accomplish, the basic metabolic rate may diminish more, and the person will eventually go off the diet and gain more weight! This is a cycle often referred to as yo-yo dieting, and, as you can see, it is a self-defeating situation.

During an extreme diet, one in which as little as two to three pounds a week are lost, the dieter can experience the loss of lean muscle mass. Lean muscle mass is the ‘incinerator’ which burns excess calories, and its loss can only make healthy weight loss even more difficult. Additionally, with less lean muscle, the person is less likely to feel like engaging in activity which could help burn fat.

While an actual rapid weight loss ‘danger’ is relatively small though quite genuine, the results, or lack of same, when combined with the loss of needed nutrients do not really seem worth the effort or risk. However, be aware that in the presence of some clinical conditions or while attempting to achieve rapid weight loss through extreme measures, the danger to health, and even life itself, can be quite real.

A WEIGHT LOSS SOLUTION
A better alternative to simply ‘going on a diet’ is to cut back on the food that you do eat, particularly empty foods such as those sweetened with sugar, or heavily processed foods, or to just make sure that it is healthy foods which you are eating. Through limiting of your calories, you ought to be able to accomplish some sort of weight loss in the time that you were wanting to. However, it is very important that you do stick to a healthy eating and living plan.

EXERCISE AND HEALTHY EATING AND LIVING
Along with healthy eating and living practices, another important component of weight loss should always be exercise. Unfortunately, many individuals do not realize that it can take up to one week or more to notice any signs of results from exercise, and very obvious results will possibly take weeks or even months. However, in the long run, exercise, combined with sensible diet, proper hydration (plenty of water), and rest will result in a more permanent and more healthy weight loss experience.

Note, by the way, that those beginning an exercise program, particularly one which includes a strength training component…as it should…might actually notice a small weight gain at first. This is perfectly normal and is merely the result of adding lean muscle mass, which is healthier for the body, and this will help burn fat and calories. The scary part for the individual is that lean muscle mass often increases faster than they are losing fat, hence the temporary weight gain.

With all that having been said, the good news is that the more weight you need to lose, the sooner it is that you may actually start seeing results from a combined program of regular exercise and healthy eating and living.

While exercise should certainly be a major part of any plan for losing weight in a healthy and permanent manner, it is very important that you not overdo it. This is especially important if you haven’t previously had a regular exercise plan. Running on the treadmill for two hours, instead of twenty minutes, may burn fat faster, but, at the same time, it may also land you in the hospital. It is much better to begin at an extremely safe level and gradually work your way up to more difficult workouts than to start at some higher point just because you can and either give up because maintaining that pace is just too difficult, or because of some exercise injury.

DIET PLANS AND WEIGHT LOSS PRODUCTS
Another problem that should be considered when discussing rapid weight loss, is the taking of medications or weight loss products…particularly those sold off the supermarket shelf or through some magazine ad or an Internet website. The good news is that while some of these products do work a little, and some are even safe, you may not be able to tell what you are getting for your money or what it will do to your health in the long run. These products, such as the Alli diet pill, work best, if at all, when used in combination with a regular program of exercise and proper nutritional practices anyway. If, however, you are already doing that, it is fairly certain that you are losing a safe amount of weight at a healthy rate without having to pay for an additional helper which has no permanent health benefit and stops working as soon as you stop using it.

If you think you are interested in using a weight loss product, like a diet pill or a cleanse, to help you lose weight, it is important that you do the research first. This should, at the very least, involve reading reviews of the product to learn about its effectiveness, and discussing it with a qualified healthcare professional.

It is extremely important that you proceed with the utmost caution if trying to achieve rapid weight loss still appeals to you. Although unexpected events or appearances will occur without much notice, most individuals have at least a month’s worth of time before attending a large event such as a wedding or even going on a vacation to someplace where they wear bikinis all day. As soon as you become aware of your upcoming event, you are advised to start trying to lose weight then in a healthy and sensible manner, if you are interested in doing so.

An even better tactic might simply to be to adopt a healthy lifestyle of proper nutrition combined with exercise. Then you won’t ever have to worry about such events, and you won’t have to ‘diet’ or try some other means of achieving rapid weight loss.

Our bodies have organisms that seek energizers; calories are the primary example of it. When these organisms cannot find enough energizers from the food we eat, it will instead start to burn the stored fats in our waist and on the other parts of our body. Therefore, the most practical way to lose weight is to follow a simple diet and burn energy by making exercise as a habit.

Though these approaches to lose weight are the most ordinary and healthy, many people failed to follow. This is actually the reason why weight loss pills were formulated, which is easier no exercise and no diet to follow. Among the most common categories of these pills are the so-called fat binders and fat blockers. These pills work by decreasing the amount of fat that our body organism absorbs from foods. Xenical, one of the most common brands of Fat blockers, slows down the lipase enzyme in the intestines which breaks up fat making it prepared for digestion. This will prevent the fats from being absorbed by the organisms so it freely passes our body through the bowel. Fat binders on the other hand work by fastening the fat molecules. Same as fat blockers, it prevents the fats from being absorbed by the intestines. As expected from medicinal diets, fat binders and blockers have very wicked side effects. Examples of these side effects are foul smelling and unmanageable anal discharges. Naturally, taking up diet pills to remove fats is easy and effortless but, it is also expected to be unhealthy.

Moreover, appetite suppressants are another class of weight loss supplements. As it name indicates, these classes of supplements reduces your appetite by making your body organism feel like being full always. Hodia Gordonii, a cactus-like plant found in South Africa is one of the most known herbal appetite suppressants. This natural appetite suppressant was made known by Bushman during his long hunting adventures. Since this suppressant is most likely raw and a pure natural treatment, it does not have nasty side effects unlike those other synthetic appetite suppressors.

This different ways on how to lose weight without extensive diets may be effective to some people. However, it is much more advisable to follow steps that require extensive effort, dedication and discipline. These steps may require you to exert effort and time, yet, they are proven to provide longer lasting effect. Remember, no glory can ever be obtained in just a single snap. What ever it is that you want to achieve, may it be to lose weight or anything else, hard work is the key.

When it comes to weight loss you may secretly be your own worst enemy. Before we get started on that, let’s look at the fact that accomplishing any goal, large or small, requires a mind that is clearly focused on the desired end.

What does that mean? It means turning self-talk into a positive advantage and using your rational mind to help fuel and motivate your efforts. After all, the choice is yours: let your mind sabotage your efforts or let it help inspire better eating habits and encourage healthy weight-loss outcomes.

If you’ve tried losing weight or a weight loss program before, and have found it to be an uphill battle in which you lose a few pounds only to gain back several more, then it’s time to break the psychological cycle that may be holding you back from your goal.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CYCLE OF WEIGHT GAIN
In a world where thin is in, it’s not unusual for people who are overweight to carry the burden of lower self-esteem. Add to that the social stigma or prejudice that overweight individuals encounter and a psychological cycle for weight gain can be set in motion or unhealthy eating disorders (bulimia, anorexia) can develop. People, overweight as well as thin, often eat in response to stress, depression, loneliness and anxiety. This stress-induced or emotional eating can lead to weight gain which in turn leads to lower self-esteem, depression, and anxiety which leads to more stress-based eating and additional weight gain. It’s easy to see how one can become trapped in a dangerous downward spiral and vicious cycle.

Compounding the problem is the fact that individuals who are overweight have less energy, and therefore find it harder to be active, so the risk of gaining weight again increases. A cycle of inactivity and further weight gain can develop: the less active person gains weight and so becomes less active, thereby gaining more weight and so on. Also, life stresses, which are normally alleviated through exercise, start building up which triggers more stress-based eating.

Individuals who try to lose weight and fail may feel depressed, frustrated and even guilty or ashamed and may rely on comfort foods as a way to feel better. The same is true of those who succeed in losing weight, only to gain it back. Anxiety, depression and guilt can produce a feeling of hopelessness that hinders efforts to lose weight.

This is why getting on the right weight loss program is CRUCIAL for successful weight loss. Whether it’s a weight loss diet that you’ve imposed on yourself or a program designed for your body, follow the next seven steps to break the psychological cycle of weight loss.

SEVEN STEPS TO BREAKING THE CYCLE
1. Stop Diet Deprivation. Diets and weight loss programs that put severe restrictions on what you can eat oftentimes arouse binge eating. While you may hold out for a while, one day you’ll decide depriving yourself is not worth it, or you can’t take it anymore, and you dig into the refrigerator, freezer or snack cabinet with a vengeance. Allow yourself small indulgences that are satisfying and will help you avoid harmful binging.

2. Plan Ahead. What if you should slip? The best way to avoid slipping is through pre-planning. So, if you’re off to a backyard barbecue or family gathering decide ahead of time what your plan is. Eat something healthy and filling before you go out and then allow yourself a few special treats at the party, but exercise portion control. If you know that Aunt Mary is making your favorite dessert, plan on having a small slice and savor it. Managing your weight and enjoying life should go hand in hand.

3. Set Realistic Weight Loss Goals. To avoid the frustration of failing, don’t overstress yourself with unrealistic weight loss goals. You gained weight slowly over time and it will take some time to gradually lose that weight. Slow, but sure is the best approach.

4. Choose Healthy Outlets for Emotions. Instead of opening the refrigerator when you’re upset, how about phoning a friend, or take a walk. Discover something that makes you feel calmer or happier – something other than food or alcohol. Do yoga, dance around your living room, meditate or go out bowling with a friend.

5. Stop Harboring Hurts. Work through issues that are upsetting you. Talk to a therapist or even a friend. Don’t let hurts, even old wounds or patterns that reach back into your childhood, affect you and your relationship with food.

6. Remember Why You’re Dieting. It helps to stop and remember why you’re dieting in the first place. Is it to have more energy, look and feel better, alleviate health problems or increase your self esteem? Keeping the goal in mind is critical to your weight loss success.

7. Use Your Mind to Break the Cycle. The fact is you can do it. It’s all in your mind – the power to lose the weight rests with you. Believe you can succeed and you will succeed. If you want to put an end to the psychological cycle of weight gain, start by turning all of your negative self talk into positive affirmations. That’s the best way to break the cycle.

Instead of saying: “Look at that fat belly. It just won’t go away.” Think positive: “Yes, my belly is fat now, but it won’t always be. I plan to be fit, not fat. I’m heading to the gym after work today.”

Keep your goal in mind at all times. Write down your positive affirmations and put up visual reminders of what you want to attain – that dress you want to buy, that seaside resort you’re longing to visit this year, or even a picture the happy person you want to be again. It’s all within reach if you set your mind to it, keep active, exercise, and prepare healthy menus that you enjoy.

Use these seven steps to create a mental turnaround and break through the psychological barriers that are holding you back. If you do, you’ll have the power to achieve permanent weight loss – something that will truly change your future and your life.

You really don’t want to expose those extra pounds to the world, but you do want to put on your swimsuit and feel OK about it. A crash diet seems to be your only option, but aren’t crash diets unhealthy – not to mention ineffective – after the first week? Not if you approach them correctly.

Despite what many nutritionists have preached for years, low-calorie diets can be healthy if you do them right, and can work wonders on pounds and inches in just a few weeks.

Clinical experience shows that somebody with a serious commitment to weight loss can lose up to 20 pounds – and two to three dress sizes – in two months. That’s a lot of weight, and an enormous change in appearance for most of us.

Best of all, if a crash diet is done right (and you make permanent changes to how you eat) it can yield results that will stand the test of time just as well as those slow and careful, long-term diets that emphasise depressingly incremental drops in weight.

Conventional wisdom says that rapid weight loss leads to rapid weight regain, but a new generation of science is showing that slow isn’t necessarily better.

In fact, fast weight loss – if achieved with a healthy, caloriecutting food-based diet – can bring long-term success equivalent to the more gradual weight-loss programmes, which is reason for procrastinators everywhere to rejoice. In fact, for some people, healthy crash dieting may work even better than a diet that lasts all year.

A recent study from my laboratory at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, found that the slow and careful approach seems to be sustainable only by those dieters who are not sidetracked by rich food, party snacks and other common food challenges in daily life.

So where does exercise fit into all of this? The drumbeat of get moving to lose weight has become so loud that almost everyone blames his or her weight problem on not spending enough time working out.

The food we are putting in our mouths seems to take a back seat.

But a look at the evidence doesn’t support the hype.

‘Exercise doesn’t necessarily make you thin’
National surveys show that people who do manual jobs – construction, farming and domestic work – are often heavier than people who sit in front of a computer screen all day.

Indeed, physically strenuous jobs carry a 30 per cent increased risk of obesity in the U.S. when compared with office jobs.

Of course, comparisons like this don’t factor in social class, or whether you eat chocolate or take a run after work, but that’s the whole point – compared with factors like what we snack on, hard manual labour just doesn’t make as much of a difference.

Even if your day is spent shovelling gravel, you’re still going to develop a pot belly if you lunch on pizza and fizzy drinks every day.

This is not to say exercise is bad – exercise is, of course, important for maintaining health, strength and vitality. But when it comes to weight loss, it doesn’t seem to be the panacea that it is often made out to be. And the evidence isn’t just anecdotal.

My laboratory summarised 36 years of published studies on exercise and weight, conducted between 1969 and 2005, and found that adding even an hour of exercise per day results in an average fat loss of just six pounds over the course of several months – hardly the benefit one would expect from all that work.

The drug, alli, is a lower dose version of the same medication which doctors prescribe to obese people, but can be purchased over the counter after a brief consultation with a pharmacist.

alli increases the weight lost achieved through a low calorie diet by 50 per cent, so those who would lose two pounds in a week following a low-fat diet would lose three pounds if they took Alli three times a day.

Alli capsules, a new clinically proven over-the-counter weight loss aid produced by GlaxoSmithKline

Experts have said the drug will be useful in giving people a kick start to their weight loss but it is not a magic pill, has some unpleasant side effects and should not be seen as a quick fix.

Tam Fry, chairman of the Child Growth Foundation and board member of the National Obesity Forum, warned that there is ‘huge potential’ for the drug to be misused and said under no circumstances should it be given to children.

He said: “Adults could get alli by going through the consultation themselves and give it to their children and that is totally wrong, there is huge potential for that to happen.”

The drug prevents the absorption of around 25 per cent of fat in food and carries it from the body, so there is concern that if children took it they would lose vital vitamin D which is needed for healthy bones.

alli, made by GlaxoSmithKline, is licensed for adults with a body mass index (divide weight by height squared) of 28 or more. It contains 60mg of orlistat, which is the name of the higher dose prescription-only version.

Glenys Jones, who holds a degree and masters in nutrition and works at the Medical Research Council’s Human Nutrition Research centre at Cambridge University, said: “It is not a magic pill, if you don’t make the changes it won’t do it for you. You must follow a low-fat diet with it and by doing that some people will become more aware of what they are eating and make the changes needed to sustain the weight loss. We need to make sure that pharmacists are properly trained to make sure people have the right BMI and receive the advice about healthy eating and exercise as well as the side effects.”

She said it should be used for at least three months which made it quite expensive.

A spokesman for the National Pharmacy Association said pharmacists have been through ‘robust’ training from GlaxoSmithKline.

John Turk, NPA Chief Executive said: “Our members report that many people seek advice from pharmacists on how best they can lose weight. By making orlistat a pharmacy medicine, pharmacists now have a new way of encouraging safe, steady and sustained weight loss in the general public.”

James Hallatt, General Manager GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare UK, said: “Obesity and overweight are a major concern of our society and people need help. alli offers a clinically proven way to help people lose weight. alli is not a magic bullet – users must be committed to weight loss; alli, when added to a reduced calorie, lower-fat diet, can help people lose 50% more weight than dieting alone. alli launched in the US in June 2007 and has been well received by millions of people, we are very excited about the opportunity to help overweight people in the UK achieve their weight loss goals.”

by Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor
Telegraph.co.uk