Weight Loss News
Belly Fat And Cardio
Belly fat or excess stomach fat, is associated with metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and potential increased risk of diabetes or cardiovascular health problems.
Researchers at the University of Illinois have found that regular cardio exercise sessions will help remove more belly fat than flexibility exercises.
Older sedentary adults participated in a fitness program of three sessions of cardio exercise per week or three sessions of flexibility exercises during a 10 month study.
After 10 months, the cardio group had less belly fat.
They also had reduced C-reactive protein, an inflammatory marker, and improved fitness overall (Viera and Woods, multiple studies, 2009).
What about green tea and belly fat?
Weight Loss News: Diet May Overcome Genetic Obesity
Children who carry a gene that is high risk for obesity can still avoid gaining weight by reducing the energy density or calories in their daily diet.
Researchers in Great Britain tested 2275 children from age 10 to age 13 for the FTO genetic variant which is strongly associated with risk of obesity.
They also assessed the children's diets and activity levels.
Both diet and genetic risk were independently related to fat mass by age 13. Children with higher genetic risk did not have a stronger reaction to high calorie diets than children with lower risk, showing that obesity was not inevitable.
The researchers believe that reducing daily calories by selecting high quality low calorie food will help people with genetic risk of obesity (Johnson L, Dietary energy density affects fat mass in early adolescence and is not modified by FTO variants, PLoS ONE, March 2009).
Looking for healthy low-calorie taste treats? Try a new variety of green tea at 0-2 calories per cup.
Weight Loss News: Green Tea, Protein, And Weight Loss Maintenance
Both green tea and protein showed improved weight maintenance after weight loss.
However, there was no additive effect from combining the two.
In a new study, 80 overweight, middle-aged people followed a very-low-calorie meal replacement diet like Medifast for four weeks.
During the following three month maintenance period, people received green tea or placebo, and an adequate protein diet or a high protein diet.
During this period, both the high protein only, and the green tea plus adequate protein groups showed increased resting energy expenditure and fat-free mass, where body fat mass were reduced through increased thermogenesis and fat oxidation.
There were no synergistic additive effects between green tea and high protein (Hursel R, Green tea catechin plus caffeine supplementation to a high-protein diet has no additional effect on body weight maintenance after weight loss, American Journal Clinical Nutrition, January 2009).
Weight Loss News: Steps To Weight Loss
How much exercise do you need to add to your daily life for health and weight loss?
Researchers studied two groups of middle-aged men and women who were sedentary to find out the answer.
One group received no intervention regarding exercise or diet.
People in the other group were encouraged to exercise one hour daily for 6 days a week. There were no instructions regarding diet.
At the end of a year, women who added 3500 steps daily over their baseline lost 5 pounds. Men who added 3500 steps daily over their baseline lost 8.5 pounds.
Those who succeeded in exercising one hour daily for 6 days a week lost 10% to 20% of their belly fat and 10% to 15% of their overall fat without losing any muscle (McTiernan A, Exercise effect on weight and body fat in men and women, Obesity (Silver Spring) June 2007).
Weight Loss News: Burning Calories After Thanksgiving Dinner
Now that you've eaten, it's time to get out that pedometer and walk off some of those extra calories.
If you're shopping, work in tag teams, one person scouting the whole store at a fast walk, and one holding the cart. If you're watching sports on TV, you're going to need a treadmill.
How long should you walk?
If you weigh around 150 pounds (68 kilograms), you'll have to walk moderately for up to an hour for every 200 extra calories (up to 2 hours for that extra slice of pumpkin pie with whipped cream).
Need more motivation? Check out other fitness benefits here.
Learn more about green tea and exercise here.
Happy shopping and sports!
Weight Loss News: Cutting Calories For Thanksgiving Dinner
Here's a few simple ideas for cutting calories during Thanksgiving.
Cook in fat-free broths (including vegetable broth) rather than concentrated fat like oil, shortening, or butter.
Add flavor with extra spices, herbs, and extracts. Check out the top seven Thanksgiving spices here
Increase the low calorie fruits and vegetables in your recipes. In your stuffing, use more onions and celery and less bread. In your pies, use more fruit and less crust.
Try a new special gourmet green tea as an after-dinner treat. Make sure you have a variety of green teas available throughout the day.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Weight Loss News: Insomnia Linked To Worldwide Obesity
A review of 29 qualified scientific studies published worldwide has shown a consistent increase in obesity for people with short sleep durations.
Overall, there was an 89% increased risk of obesity for children with short sleep durations, and a 55% increased risk of obesity for adults.
While this study does not explore cause and effect, once people are overweight, they can develop sleep apnea which disturbs sleep duration. Both obesity and sleep apnea increase the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and strokes.
In the past 30 years, the number of overweight children in industrialized nations has doubled and the number of overweight people have increased to over 60%.
Weight Loss News: The Fattening Of America
In the year 2030, 86% of American adults could be overweight or obese.
86%.
That's almost 6 out of every single 7 adults in America.
A new study has estimated that if the rate of increase in overweight/obesity continues as it has over the last 30 years, then by 2030, the obesity epidemic will claim almost every American.
Rates will be even higher for black women (96%), and Hispanic men (91%) (Wang Y, Will all Americans become overweight or obese? Estimating the progression and cost of the US obesity epidemic, Obesity online, July 2008).
Health care costs would be almost $1 trillion.
I'm not throwing stones at everyone. I was ahead of the crowd in fighting obesity. Over 50 years, I've been up and down almost as much as Oprah. If challenges make you a better person, climbing Mt. Everest would be a much easier way to improve yourself than losing weight.
I simply wouldn't wish obesity on anyone.
Obesity increases your risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, stroke, and heart disease.
This epidemic will not only reduce quality of life, health, but also life expectancy itself.
Does the above study present a realistic projection?
Actually, the authors believe they have underestimated the problem.
More information about fighting fat
Weight Loss News: The Return Of Leptin
Leptin is a hormone that helps govern appetite in the brain.
When it was first discovered, many hoped that normalizing leptin would solve the problem of overeating and overweight.
But overweight people and animals proved to be resistant to any benefit from leptin.
Now a new preliminary study has found that moderate exercise overcomes the resistance to leptin in overweight animals and prevents obesity.
Animals were raised on either a standard or high-fat diet. Then they were given leptin and separated into an exercise group and controls.
With animals on a standard diet, both leptin and exercise reduced any weight gain and the effects were additive.
With a high-fat diet, leptin briefly reduced weight gain, but then immediately doubled the weight gain.
But when these high-fat diet animals were allowed to exercise at the same time, all weight gain was prevented (Shapiro A, Synergy between leptin therapy and a seemingly negligible amount of voluntary wheel running prevents progression of dietary obesity in leptin-resistant rats, Diabetes, March 2008).
Currently, researchers are considering too much leptin to be a cause of obesity rather than a cure. Now it be turn out to be beneficial as long as people exercise.
Other research shows the benefits of synergy. For example, EGCG from green tea and ibuprofen together were almost four times more powerful against prostate cancer cells than alone. And diet and exercise alone showed no effects on breast cancer recurrence, but together showed 50% less recurrence.
On the other hand, sometimes synergy can be negative. A study showed that taking ibuprofen eliminated any benefit from aspirin in preventing strokes.
Here's more benefits from exercise
Weight Loss News: Obese Boys And Fat Max
A new study has found that the fat max or maximum fat oxidation during exercise for obese boys is markedly different than that for lean boys.
Researchers tested 17 obese boys and 13 lean boys during leg cycle exercise. For both groups, the fat oxidation rate was similar up to around 30% of VO2-peak.
For the obese boys, fat oxidation dropped of rapidly at 50% to almost the same levels seen at 0%. In contrast, it increased for lean boys through 60% VO2-peak.
In other words, intense exercise for obese boys was counter-productive and stopped fat utilization.
The researchers recommended increasing the amount of time spent in daily exercise for both obese and lean boys at the low-intensity level (Zunguin G, Comparison of fat oxidation during exercise in lean and obese pubertal boys: clinical implications. British Journal of Sports Medicine, March 2008).
Green tea may also assist in fitness programs.
Weight Loss News: How Is Fat Stored In Your Cells?
Everyone who has tried to lose weight is familiar with persistent stored fat.
Now science is a step closer to understanding how fat is stored in cells, and possibly changing that process.
Researchers have identified two genes that are involved in packaging fat into droplets inside cells for energy storage.
The genes are called FIT1 and FIT2 (Fat-Inducing Transcript 1 and Fat-Inducing Transcript 2). These genes code proteins containing more than 200 amino acids and are involved in packaging fat inside a layer of phospholipids and protein.
In one experiment, when both genes were "overexpressed," fat storage was increased four to six times compared to normal expression of the genes.
When FIT2 was "knocked down" in zebrafish during a high fat diet, the zebrafish had almost no fat in their intestines or livers (Silver D, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2007).
While these studies are preliminary, this discovery fuels the hope that gene therapy could be developed to reduce obesity and its deadly health consequences.
For more research on fat Click Here
Weight Loss News: Green Tea Diet Results
A new study shows that green tea dieting increased energy expenditure and fat oxidation compared to placebo.
60 obese Thai patients were given the same weight loss diet for 12 weeks with either daily green tea or placebo.
By the 8th week, the green tea group showed significantly more weight loss, more fat oxidation, and more resting energy expenditure. These results continued through the remainder of the study (Auvichayapat P, Physiol Behav, 2007).
There were no significant differences in hunger, food intake, or voluntary exercise, so researchers conclude that green tea increased weight loss by increasing metabolic energy expenditure and fat oxidation only.
Differences did not show up immediately, so daily green tea may be a good selection for long-term commitment to dieting and weight management, depending on each person's health condition.
Here's a green tea study on belly fat reduction.
Weight Loss News: Are Americans Learning To Eat Better?
In 2004, researchers found that Americans consumed 30% of their calories from sweets, desserts, soft drinks, alcohol, salty snacks, and fruit-flavored drinks (Block G, Journal Food Chemistry Analysis, 2004). These foods, called "junk foods" by the researchers are low in necessary nutrients like protein, vitamins, and minerals.
In contrast, only 10% of calories that Americans ate came from nutrient-dense foods like fruits and vegetables.
Recommendations to increase nutritious low calorie food and reduce high calorie food are everywhere. Even the federal government recommends more fruits and vegetables.
So are Americans choosing healthier food?
Not if it costs more and tastes bland.
According to a new analysis, Americans are eating out around five times a week, mostly at fast food restaurants. And not just for a family dinner. Fast food restaurants are the most popular for breakfast and lunch, too.
But the consequences are quite visible.
The body mass index (BMI) is significantly higher for people who eat three to six fast food meals per week than for those who only eat one or two weekly.
About half of Americans studied said they would change their choices if healthy items had better pricing and if they were given nutritional information in the fast food restaurants (Borradaille K, North American Assoc Study Obesity, 2007).
But the cost of avoiding weight gain is always less than the cost of trying to take it off. So here's a quick look at fast food calories to help you with your choices for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Weight Loss News: The Truth About Calories
Is it OK to eat all the calories you want just because they are healthy?
Of course not.
If you eat too many calories, even from healthy food, you will become overweight with all the associated health problems.
Researchers have found that when people eat at fast food restaurants that promote healthy food, they choose additional side dishes with up to 131 percent more calories than if they were at another restaurant (Wansink B, Journal of Consumer Research, 2007).
Check with your favorite restaurants for the calorie content of all their dishes. You can also look up calories in fast food here.
Remember to eat healthy to get all your required nutrients, but watch out for too many calories!
Weight Loss News: Thin, Rich Houses?
Researchers studied Seattle, Washington's zip codes.
They found that the wealthiest neighborhoods had the lowest numbers of obese people.
But it wasn't the educational level or annual income that made the difference. It was the value of the house that was the strongest predictor of overweight.
For every increase of $100,000 in median home value, there was a 2% drop in obesity (Drewnowski, UW Center for Obesity Research, 2007.
It turns out that the wealthiest areas have planned their communities for the greatest density of safe outdoor exercise areas and farmers markets for healthy fresh produce.
Communities with lower property values have less opportunities for nine servings of fruits and vegetables daily and more opportunities for high calorie food which leads to obesity.
In Seattle, community planners are working to develop educational programs to help overcome environmental deficiencies.
Learn more about your weight here.
Weight Loss News: Obesity Could Increase Esophageal Cancer Risk
Esophageal cancer (also called oesophageal cancer or gullet cancer) will be diagnosed in an estimated 15,560 people and will cause an estimated 13,940 deaths in the United States in 2007.
Internationally, esophageal rates are 10 to 100 times higher in Iran, northern China, India, and southern Africa than in the United States (American Cancer Society, 2007). Increased rates of esophageal cancer in these areas have been partially attributed to the custom of drinking beverages while the water is still boiling hot, burning the mouth and throat.
An increased risk of esophageal cancer has also been associated with acid-reflux, severe heartburn, and gastrointestinal reflux disease (GORD).
Now, a new study has found that obesity alone increased the risk of esophageal cancer six-fold.
Researchers also found that obesity combined with acid-reflux (GORD) increased esophageal cancer risk by sixteen-fold (Whiteman D, Gut, 2007).
Maintaining a normal weight through calorie and exercise management lowers the risk of many life-threatening diseases, including many cancers.
Here's more ideas about weight management.
This page was last updated by Sharon Jones.
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