Archive for the 'WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAMS' Category

People who take part in weight-loss programs set up by their employers manage to lose at least modest amounts of weight compared to co-workers who do not take part, U.S. researchers said.

Obesity has been on the rise in the United States and many other countries in recent decades, alongside related illnesses such as diabetes, heart attack and stroke.

Some companies have sponsored programs of various kinds aimed at helping employees lose weight and stay fit.

Dr. Michael Benedict of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, who led the new research, said relatively few studies have assessed how well these programs work.

“The programs are helpful for at least short-term, modest weight loss in people who actually participate in them,” Benedict said in a telephone interview.

In the studies that compared employees who took part in the programs to co-workers who did not, those in the programs lost weight averaging in a range from 2.2 pounds (1 kg) to 14 pounds (6.4 kg), the researchers said.

Benedict added that because people with jobs spend about half their waking hours at work, workplace weight-loss programs could have a big effect on slowing the obesity epidemic.

According to the preliminary results by physician-scientists from Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia University Medical Center, teenagers’ obesity-related medical complications improve just six months after laparoscopic gastric banding surgery.

The study reports that the small group of extremely obese teenagers who received the minimally invasive surgery, also called the Lap-Band procedure, as part of a clinical trial lost an average of 20 pounds after six months and had significant improvements in abdominal fat, triglyceride measurements and blood sugar levels as measured by hemoglobin A1c — all risk factors for diabetes and heart disease.

The patients’ liver function and a measure of immune response also improved, according to the abstract.

“Extremely obese teenagers have obesity-related health problems, particularly diabetes and increased cardiovascular risk.

Laparoscopic gastric banding, which has been shown to be a safe and effective way to lose weight, now offers the possibility of reducing obesity’s medical complications,” says lead author Dr. Ilene Fennoy, a pediatric endocrinologist at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian and clinical professor of pediatrics at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Do you think that consuming carbohydrates can lead you to extreme weight gain? Most of the people actually think that consuming carbohydrates can significantly increase body weight.

But, in fact it is very essential for you to know that these carbohydrates actually act as the main fuel sources for certain vital organs of your body.

These major organs mainly include kidneys, brain and also central nervous system. So, consuming carbohydrates is not a bad idea.

But, eating high carb diet can become dangerous for your health and it can also considerably increase the weight of your body.

So, how to choose carbohydrates? While choosing healthy carbohydrates for your weight loss, it is particularly important for you to distinguish between a simple carb and complex carbohydrates. You can digest simple carbohydrates easily and they rapidly increase the blood sugar level in your body [Foods containing low carbohydrates].

On the other hand, your digestive system takes longer time for complex carbohydrates to break down into sugar and they typically enter into your blood much slowly. Due to this reason, your blood sugar levels considerably increases. So, it is very essential for you to choose healthy carbohydrates to lose extra body weight and at the same time to maintain optimum health conditions.

Disrupting the vagus nerve, which runs between the gut and the brain, may supplant obesity surgery.

When the stomach is empty, the vagus nerve informs the brain and triggers the feeling of hunger. When the stomach contains food, the vagus tells the brain and relays back the brain’s commands to secrete stomach acid to help digest the food.

The brain’s control of the passage of food through the digestive system also relies on the vagus nerve. In short, without the vagus, we would get less hungry, and food would stay longer in the stomach.

Disrupting this communication, they believe, could lead to safe, effective and sustained weight loss — mainly by cutting off signals from the gut that tell the brain it’s time to eat. The concept still has to be validated.

Two different methods of disrupting the vagus nerve are now in clinical trials. One method, vagotomy, simply cuts the nerve and permanently disables it. The other, vagal nerve blocking, uses an electric current to periodically confuse the nerve and prevent it from transmitting signals.

Preliminary results suggest that both methods help to safely reduce excess body weight by about 20% on average within six months of therapy.

Generation of excess calories in your body actually depends on your food habits. Reducing these calories can become a tough task for you.

If you start counting the total intake of calories in a day, you will be shocked by the amount of calories which you consume in a day, especially when you take fast foods.

So, in order to cut these excess calories in your body and to achieve a successful weight loss, it is very essential for you to switch on from high calorie diet to low calorie diet.

Eating smart can help you in controlling the calorie intake in your body.

Calories can be reduced in your body by maintaining haphazard dieting, which means, having nutritious food at regular intervals of time.

Here are certain tips which can help you considerably in reducing the excess calorie intake.

6 effective ways to reduce excess calories:

Cutting excess calories!

Reducing weight goes on par with cutting calories, determination and self discipline. Once you begin eating healthy stuff with minimum amount of taste enhancers, you will notice a drastic change in the intake of fats and calories [Dietary planning].

New Australian research suggests that eating more often than three meals a day does not assist with weight loss.

The study found no difference in weight, waist measurement, body fatness or blood sugar levels between people who ate three meals a day, and those who ate three meals and three snacks while trying to lose weight.

There seems to be little benefit to changing how often or how regularly you eat if you’re trying to lose weight.

Many people find it hard enough to stick to a healthy eating plan to lose weight, let alone worrying about any suggested benefits of snacking or not snacking.

The study involved 179 obese men and women who were all on a standard kilojoule-reduced diet, but with differing eating patterns. And finally they found that it’s not when you eat that matters, but what and how much you eat.

Dieters need to focus on eating fewer kilojoules, especially when it came to snack choices, and that portion control was the key.

Source: Medical News Today

Are you finding it hard to lose your excess body weight? Then it is very essential for you to increase your body metabolism rate to get faster results.

Do you think is it really possible to increase your body metabolism? Then don’t keep any doubt in it.

There are many ways, which can actually help you out in improving your body metabolism and also makes your job of losing excess body weight much easier.

Here are some effective ways to increase your body metabolism and experience the pleasure of losing weight in a much faster way.

Effective ways to increase your body metabolism!

Exercise regularly!

One of the best ways to improve your body metabolism rate is to practice regular body workouts. These regular exercises can mainly reduce your excess body fat. They can also mainly help you to develop lean muscle mass and increase your body metabolism, which can mainly assist you in weight loss process of your body.

Never skip your breakfast!

Breakfast is very essential as your body has been turned out of food throughout the night, due to which your body metabolism process might have been significantly reduced.

You cannot lose your weight by eating weight loss food.

Weight loss is obtained when total energy offered by the diet is lower than the energy used by the body.

Some foods are considered as the best weight loss foods as they help in reducing the energy consumption.

The foods which are high in fiber content and low in calorie content are considered as the best weight loss foods.

The fiber content foods are considered as the weight loss foods because you feel that your stomach is full by taking only small quantity of fiber content food.

Best fiber content food:

Fruits are very low in energy and also contain fiber. Fruits and vegetable diet not only contain high fiber but also contain antioxidants or phyto chemicals. The antioxidants or phyto chemicals will help you in improving your health.

To gather healthy benefits, you have to eat variety and colorful vegetables and fruits every day, as different colored fruits contain different set of phyto chemicals. Different set of phyto chemicals will provide you different health benefits.

Other best weight loss foods which will help you in weight loss:

Low fat content foods:

Water diet is different from all other diets. The foundation for any good weight loss program is water, but it is more over looked and underrated weight loss strategy.

Water is used in weight loss program as water is cheap, safe, free from side effects, and readily available.

In this water diet, there are no restrictions in your diet and there are no high priced food additives.

Water diet emphasizes only on basic nutrition that is water. Basic thing in water diet is that you have to drink eight glasses of water in a day.

One of the problems every one of you face is that you cannot distinguish between being hungry and thirsty.

Hence to overcome this problem, you have to drink water and wait for 20 to 30 minutes and if you still feel hungry then take food. Drinking water will help you in reducing the amount of calories.

How water diet helps your body?

With the help of water diet you can reduce your appetite. You should replace other beverages such as sodas and coffee as these beverages contain high calories with water. This replacement will help you in reducing amount of calories.

Liquid weight loss diet is the diet which includes balanced nutritional shake, which is made with skimmed milk and sugar.

Liquid weight loss diet is the source of vitamins, fiber, sweetener and minerals.

Certain amount of solid food is allowed to eat in liquid weight loss diet plans.

In liquid weight loss diet, there are two types.

Meal replacement plans or low calorie liquid diet plan 1:

If you follow this type of liquid weight loss diet, then you will be provided with 500-800 calories per day.

This type of liquid weight loss diet consists of meal replacements which are medically supervised. If you continue this diet, then you can include some amount of solid food.

Liquid weight loss diet is generally for short term only, as you can lose your weight quickly. This type of liquid weight loss diet is suggested for seriously stout people.

Meal replacement plans or low calorie liquid diet plan 2:

In this diet plan, instead of one or two regular daily meals, you have to take liquid meal replacements. You can also consume real food with low fat or low calories for one or two meals. You can achieve rapid weight loss by following this type of diet.