XENICAL DEIT PILL BLOG

Carnival: The perfect motivator for weight loss?

June 25, 2007

The British idiom ‘Better late than never’ best sums up how I’m feeling about my five-year desire to lose weight. Not because I feel I need to, although I must admit looking at dresses in boutiques and wishing my lower torso didn’t resemble a firm rubber balloon, but because I want to feel healthy.

“Carnival in St Lucia is the ideal place to start,” I thought. “All that jumping up and perspiration will make me feel better”. Recently, I climbed two flights of stairs and found myself so tired, that I knew my dream to enjoy carnival was over before it had even started. There are numerous occasions like this, where I want to feel healthy but always have valid reasons––not excuses, for not doing something about it.

I tell myself, “It’s too dark when I wake up to go for a run—for safety, not health reasons . . . I’ll injure myself as I can’t remember how to use the equipment properly . . . My job is 24/7 . . . I’m too tired when I get home and I’ve really tried to create time, but there is none . . . and it goes on.” The New Year is traditionally the period to make resolutions to get healthy and subscribe to gyms that are rarely used—I’ve been a victim of that during the years. Carnival is the ideal season to begin a fitness regime; feel healthy, lose weight and at the same time, have fun!

Carnival remains one of the safest forms of family entertainment. The Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) reports more injuries from basketball pickup games, exercise equipment and billiard games than from carnivals. In fact, over 80 percent of all carnival related injuries are caused by ‘horseplay’ and failure to follow safety instructions. Given that an estimated 350 million people visit a carnival each year, my excuse ‘I may do myself an injury’ flies out the window!

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There is another method I could consider; sleep! An article in Obesity Reviews by University of Michigan researcher Michael Sivak stated a person who sleeps seven hours a night and consumes 2,500 calories during the remaining 17 hours of the day can cut 147 calories by simply sleeping an extra hour instead of watching TV. He calculated that such a decrease in caloric intake would result in a body-weight reduction of about 14 pounds per year.

That approach is too leisurely for me, carnival is much more active and exciting, so I’ll take that route. Taking my body weight into consideration; 160lbs. If I was an active member of a carnival band and power walked/danced I’d burn 11.1 calories per minute. Therefore, if I did this for one hour I would burn 666 calories. If I was an observer and followed the band I would burn 8.7 calories per minute and therefore loose 522 calories an hour. Another example; if someone is approximately 180lbs and active at carnival, they’d burn 12.4 calories per minute and loose 744 calories an hour and if they walked they’d burn 9.7 calories per minute and loose 582 calories per hour.

I’m inviting readers who’ve been nodding heads recognizing themselves while reading my words to contact me. It’s motivating to have others to workout with. The first step is to make a written plan and create time to get healthy. Second step; consult a doctor. Third step; Find a nutritionist and personal trainer and off I go. I’ll let you know how I get on next week

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Young Women Prefer Individually Tailored Weight Loss Advice

June 21, 2007

The word is out - young women want personally tailored nutrition advice and information when it comes to weight loss. Over 80% of young women are trying to lose weight but are confused about the best way to achieve this a study published by Wiley-Blackwell in the June 2007 issue of Nutrition & Dietetics - the official Journal of the Dietitians Association of Australia, including the Journal of the New Zealand Dietetic Association - has found.

The study is the first in Australia to examine women’s views on different approaches to weight loss, their preferences on how the program are delivered (e.g. individual versus group sessions), and likelihood of participation.

Lead author Dr. David Crawford, Associate Head at the School of Exercise and Nutrition Services at Deakin University, said, “Our study suggests young women are moving away from weight loss groups and classes, with 58% preferring to receive individual face-toface advice on weight loss from a health professional. They want information on a range of topics including meal planning, cooking, low-fat recipes and how to better manage stress.”

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Co-author Dr. Kylie Ball, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research, Deakin University added, “This request for information also suggests they don’t currently have access to good quality information about healthy eating and being physically active, or that the abundance of information that is currently available simple serves to confuse them. They would also be more likely to participate in a weight loss program if it was tailored to their needs”.

Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) and Spokesperson for the Dietitians Association of Australia, Tara Diversi, sees many women in her practice who want to lose weight and says the study findings confirm what many dietitians already know. “Many of the women lots of different weight loss programs that haven’t worked. The key to success is giving people the information they want and the confidence to eat in a way that is right for them. APDs work out an eating plan that meets each person’s specific needs and fits with their lifestyle so they can stick with it for life” Ms Diversi said.

This paper is published in the June 2007 issue of (64:99-104).

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FDA staff expresses concern over Sanofi’s weight loss drug

June 13, 2007

WASHINGTON - The US Food and Drug Administration staff has expressed concern over an increase in suicidal behavior in volunteers who tool Sanofi Aventis’ weight loss drug, rimonabant. The drug is under review and FDA panel is due to meet today to decide whether to recommend the drug for approval.

In Europe the drug is already approved and sold under the name Acomplia. As per documents available with the FDA, rimonabant was able to reduce 5 percent body weight when combined with low-calorie diet. However the decision on the drug, which will be marketed under the name Zimulti if approved, has already been delayed three times.

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“We remain concerned about rimonabant’s adverse event profile, specifically adverse psychiatric reactions,” an FDA staff statement said. The reviewers said mental issues “represent the most common and worrisome rimonabant-induced adverse events.”

Sanofi admitted suicidal thoughts were prevalent with the drug and asked FDA not to recommend it to those who suffered from depression.

But the company also said the drug’s other benefits like reducing cholesterol and blood sugar “clearly outweigh the defined risks that are manageable in clinical practice.” After the panel recommendation, the FDA is likely to issue a final decision in July.

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Many Americans Do Maintain Weight Loss

June 6, 2007

Though dieters often see their weight “yo-yo,” a new national survey suggests that many Americans do fairly well at keeping the pounds off.
Government researchers found that of 1,310 U.S. adults who’d ever lost a substantial amount of weight, the majority had managed to keep at least some of the weight off.

Overall, 59 percent were still close to their weight of a year before — which in all cases was at least 10 percent lower than their heaviest all-time weight. Another 8 percent weighed less than they did a year earlier.

However, one third of the subjects had regained a significant amount of weight over the year, the researchers report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Lost pounds are notorious for finding their way back again. So it’s “encouraging” to see that so many people in this study were keeping their weight stable, lead study author Dr. Edward Weiss told Reuters Health.

Still, weight maintenance remains a “challenge” in a culture that encourages sitting and eating, according to Weiss and his colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Several past studies have shown that overweight people in clinical weight-loss programs regain the weight when the program ends. Individuals treated with lifestyle modification, like calorie-cutting and exercise, generally regain about one third of their lost weight over the next year. By the fifth year, they’ve regained most of the weight, on average.

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But much of the research on weight regain has focused on people in clinical weight-loss programs. To get a better idea of how the average American fares, Weiss’s team used data from a federal health survey that questioned a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults.

The researchers focused on 1,310 men and women who, 1 year before the survey, weighed at least 10 percent less than their all-time high. They then compared respondents’ current weight with their weight 1 year earlier.

While relatively few people kept losing weight over the year, the study found, a majority managed to stay within 5 percent of their weight from the year before.

Exercise seemed to be one of the factors that separated the regainers from the maintainers. The odds of weight regain were twice as high among sedentary men and women than among those who met public health recommendations for exercise — moderate physical activity for at least 30 minutes a day on most, and preferably all, days of the week.

The risk also climbed in tandem with the number of hours survey respondents spent in front of the TV or computer each day.

Exercise, Weiss said, has consistently been associated with long-term weight-loss maintenance. So staying active after the pounds are off may be one key to keeping them off.

But he pointed out that exercise has to be accompanied by continuing calorie control.

It’s also important for people to focus on more than the number on the scale, according to the researcher. Even if the weight loss is not as substantial as you’d like, eating well and exercising will bring significant health benefits, like lower risks of diabetes and heart disease.

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Study shows that Americans can maintain weight loss

June 5, 2007

Every so often, another study comes out depicting the average American as an incorrigible yo-yo dieter and committed couch potato; however, nearly six in 10 people maintained their weight loss to within 5 percent over a year’s time in a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Weight maintenance following weight loss is doable,” said lead author Edward Weiss, a medical epidemiologist with the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity. “We’re still learning the things that are necessary for weight maintenance in the long run.”

Unfortunately, those with more weight to lose were those more likely to regain, according to the study now appearing online and in the July issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The researchers analyzed data gleaned from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey on 1,310 adults ages 20 to 84 who had experienced “substantial” weight loss — 10 percent of their initial weight.

Only 7.6 percent of survey participants were still losing weight after one year, according to the authors. Another 33.5 percent regained weight.

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Putting pounds back on was more common in those who lost a greater percentage of weight. “One possible explanation is that those who lost larger percentages of their maximum weight may have had to make greater lifestyle changes that are difficult to incorporate and sustain,” the researchers suggest.

“Mexican-Americans were more likely than non-Hispanic whites to regain weight,” said the researchers, who cautioned that that this result “has not been previously reported and should be confirmed.”

The finding did not surprise Dirk Schroeder, associate professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. “Food choices offered [in diet programs] are not what Hispanics eat,” said Schroeder, who co-founded a health information technology company serving the Hispanic population in 1999.

Hispanic dieters are more successful with a culturally attuned program that allows for larger meals midday and incorporates familiar food, Schroeder said. He added, “What we’ve found is a high desire to lose weight.”

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