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Posted: February 17, 2012 at 7:00 pm
It has been six weeks since you started that New Year's Resolution Diet (again). And it's not working (again). How do you know if you should consider bariatric surgery instead?
For the answer, we interviewed Dr. Thomas E. Lavin, bariatric surgeon, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery Tulane University School of Medicine and founder of The Surgical Specialists of Louisiana, which has offices in Covington, Slidell, Metairie and Lafayette. Lavin's group also performs the new POSE (Primary Obesity Surgery Endolumenal) procedure, which he describes in more detail below.
Q: How can someone know when to try weight-loss surgery instead of just dieting?
A: We are laparoscopic surgeons that help people lose weight, but we’re all about wellness and fitness. We work with people who want to lose weight just by changing their habits. They might want to lose 20 to 30 pounds and that group really needs to look at their whole lifestyle as far as what they eat, what exercise they do. I recommend that they sit down with someone who specializes in weight loss and look at their exercise and eating habits and start making a plan to change it and do it one day at a time. Change your eating patterns and start planning your meals. People have a very difficult time changing their lifestyle patterns. But once you do something for a month, it becomes a new lifestyle. They need someone to help them get to that point.
We work with three groups of people. This first group, they have to change everything in their food environment at home and go on a new eating plan. We make a plan for them that involves simply getting processed foods out, bringing in more fruit and vegetables and more of a protein-based diet.
The second group, those who want to lose 30 to 70 pounds, they have a significant amount of weight to lose, but they don’t quite quality for laparoscopic surgery. With these patients, I always check to see if they’ve made good efforts in the past to lose weight through diet and exercise and if they have, we have an endoscopic procedure we offer.
On a side note, I don’t like to use the word “diet.” It implies that you can’t eat this. We like to talk about lifestyle change through a new eating plan, so you just replace what you’re eating. It’s the processed foods and high-carb foods that are mostly at fault for our obesity problem. These are easy foods to find and eat when you didn’t plan your meal. You’re busy running around, you didn’t plan and all of a sudden you’re extremely hungry. You look up in search of something to satisfy your hunger quickly and there’s McDonald’s, Taco Bell, or a convenience store with chips and candy.
Once we see they have a history of dietary failures, we offer them a POSE. The procedure is ... endoscopic, outpatient, incision-less. Basically, I go down though the mouth and I shrink the stomach. I sew it endoscopically, from the inside. What that does then is decrease the patient’s capacity, so they’ll fill up sooner when they eat and second, it will decrease their hunger drive and cravings.
As another side note – and this goes for both the POSE and the laparoscopic bariatric surgeries – everything we do decreases capacity, which everyone understands. We decrease the stomach size. The thing that people don’t understand, the second thing that happens when a patient has a procedure, is it decreases their hunger and cravings.
Q: How do these procedures accomplish that?
A: This is what people do not understand: the gastrointestinal tract, meaning the stomach and intestine, are an endocrine organ that produces hormones. The gastrointestinal tract produces hormones just like a lady’s ovaries, pituitary gland or your thyroid gland (does). These hormones do a lot of things, but what pertains to weight loss is they create hunger and cravings at the hypothalamic level of the brain. The hypothalamus in the brain is the hunger center, and the hormones from the stomach and intestines create this hunger-drive and cravings. When we do a procedure, these hormones are changed so patients have less of a hunger drive and less cravings.
Q: How are the hormones changed?
A: There are a lot of pathways from the stomach and there have been tens of millions of dollars put into this research to look into the different pathways. They’re very complex. I actually went to a whole weekend presentation a couple of months ago, and this is all cutting-edge research, on why these hormones create cravings. All of these hormones are changed when we do procedures, whether it’s a POSE or the laparoscopic procedures, which are sleeve and gastric bypass.
Q: What about the third group of people?
A: The third group of people are 80 pounds overweight up to, our patients are as much as, 500 pounds overweight. With the third group, it is very clear that their chances of losing weight to a healthy range and keeping it off are less than one percent. So that group of patients I recommend that they look into laparoscopic bariatric procedures.
Q: And why does this group have so much trouble losing weight? Is it just the sheer amount of weight they need to lose?
A: A lot of research has gone into why certain people can’t lose weight and other people live their life thin and they can’t understand why people are 100 pounds overweight. The theory today is called “Set-Point Theory.” You can take any patient based on their genetics and their environment and they will have a curve that will trend up over time. And what it means is there’s going to be a weight for any person where they feel comfortable. My weight is 175 pounds and I feel very comfortable. If I tried to lose 10 pounds, my hunger hormones would increase, and my hunger drive and cravings would make me live my waking hours consumed with all the food that I cannot eat because I am trying to live 10 pounds below my set point. And eventually I would go back on that curve which is my set point, which is where my body says I should live. This is really cutting-edge, this is hot off the presses.
Q: Is the set point totally mental?
A: No. It’s a combination of genetics and environment. And some people’s set point at age 35 might be 220 pounds, so they could lose 40 or 50 pounds, but when they’re in that weight-loss mode, they are consumed every waking moment with all of the things they can’t have to eat which eventually drives them off of their “you can't eat that” diet. This puts them back on their curve which is their set point.
This even works in reverse. If a Hollywood actor, a John Travolta, weighs 220 pounds and he gets that great role for a person that is 260 pounds, it becomes very uncomfortable for him to get there and when he quits trying to eat all that food, his body will go back to that set point of 220 pounds.
Also, everybody's set point trends up year to year.
What we do with bariatric procedures is we drop that set point. So a 300-pound person after the procedure now has a new set point of 200 pounds where they feel comfortable. So over the year, they’re gradually going to go down to 200 pounds and that’s where they’ll live. So the body goes down to this new set point and so that’s where they live and that’s where they feel comfortable.
Q: How does the procedure lower the set point?
A: Because set points are hormonally and neurally modulated, meaning the hormones I talked about earlier from the gastrointestinal tract, and there are also nerves that go to the brain from the gastrointestinal tract. Those hormones change and once again, our brain is the center that determines everything in our existence, so now our body wants to live at a lower weight because these hormonal and neural inputs to the brain have changed. So patients after a procedure, say after a laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, one of the most popular procedures, have very little hunger drives or cravings after the procedure.
The world thinks that hunger is emotional because of Dr. Phil and Oprah and all the books written on emotional hunger, but the reality is hunger is mostly hormonal. And the way I like to help people understand it is, think about going grocery-shopping when you’re starving and think about that behavior. And then think about going to the grocery store after you’ve had a very large lunch and you are very full. Your behavior is totally different. There is nothing emotional about that; it’s hormonally-driven behavior. After a laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, it’s like grocery-shopping after a big meal. You’re not driven to buy those foods.
Q: What are the best ways to avoid surgery?
A: The best way is to not get to the point where you’re 100 pounds overweight, but then you say, “I’m already there.” So if you’re already 100 pounds overweight, you look at your lifelong history of weight-loss attempts. It’s usually what we call a yo-yo diet.
My patients have a lifelong history of this yo-yo diet, where they’re 100 pounds overweight, they might lose 30 pounds over six months or four months on some diet, but then over the next two months they regain their 30 pounds plus 10. It is very common in all my patients to have this yo-yo weight loss over their life until they get to a point where they’re really emotionally defeated because they can’t get the weight off and keep it off. These patients may be extremely successful in every area of their life except for weight. And that gets back to the Set-Point Theory – they can overcome it for three months or four months but lifelong, to overcome your set point is virtually unheard of. In fact, Jason with Subway is the only one I have heard of to do it and he gets paid a lot to do it. It’s still impressive that he’s been able to do it. But it’s extremely uncommon for people say 100, 200 pounds overweight to lose that excess weight and keep it off long-term through diet and exercise. A diet is a temporary solution to weight loss. I mean you can’t go on a water diet, a cookie diet, whatever diet for the rest of your life.
With that weight comes a whole host of medical problems, such as diabetes being the worst, but also high blood pressure, sleep apnea, joint problems, heart disease and cancer. Many of the cancers like breast and colon cancer, the risks are greatly increased by being 100 pounds overweight. And infertility. Infertility is a big problem in ladies in their childbearing years. When you’re 100 pounds overweight, your infertility problems will be markedly greater than if you lost the weight. Because of those medical problems, we do the laparoscopic weight-loss procedures, which take about an hour and involve a one-night stay and low risk in our hands, relative to the risks of living 100 pounds or more overweight. And most of the medical problems will resolve themselves, including frequently, the diabetes. It will improve or resolve with the weight-loss procedure.
Q: What reasons would the second group have for losing weight? Does the weight contribute to medical problems in their case as well?
A: You can imagine if you’re 30 to 70 pounds overweight, you would rather be thinner. There’s a cosmetic, quality-of-life improvement with losing the weight in addition to the resolution of medical problems like diabetes and high blood pressure.
Q: Tell me about the POSE procedure. What’s new or different about this procedure?
A: First, I make it clear to everyone that these procedures are not magic and they still involve people working with our team to take responsibility in their own lives. I don’t see it as an easy way out. Results can appear magical when people are responsible and work with us. It’s a two-way street. We’re going to give you a tool to help you lose weight and that tool will do two things – decrease your capacity and cravings, but you will have to take responsibility in your own life to make good choices. You have to be responsible and make good choices. We take care of over 1,000 patients a year and for the most part, they are very responsible, knowledgeable people that understand we give them the tool but they still have to use the tool to lose the weight and become healthy.
Q: What are the most common misconceptions about these procedures?
A: I think the biggest misunderstanding is that it’s only an anatomic restrictive procedure and they don’t understand the hormonal aspects. They don’t understand the patient’s hunger drive and cravings are decreased, which is ultimately the most important thing to help them lose weight.
The three procedures that I’ll get into are the lap sleeve, gastric bypass, and the lap band. Those are the three procedures we offer.
Q: How does body type affect weight loss?
A: There are two basic body types. There’s more the central obesity, which is the male-pattern obesity, where patients wear their weight in the middle – and that is the dangerous kind, which leads to diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. And that’s more the male pattern, although women can have that pattern of obesity also. Now the female kind of obesity is more the pear, where most of the weight is in the legs and buttocks. That weight actually doesn’t affect diabetes, but it still leads to musculoskeletal problems like lumbar disc disease or osteoarthritis of the knees which leads to knee replacement. Female pattern obesity, they don’t get as much of the serious medical problems like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
Q: So do you recommend different diet plans for each body type?
A; That’s still a pretty debatable thing. There are so many different kinds of diets – low-carb, low- fat. Once again, we encourage getting away from all the high-carb and processed foods like chips and Fritos and candy and fast foods, the Taco Bells and all the brightly lit signs that appear when we’re hungry, and getting to more planned meals with fruits and vegetables and foods that you would buy at the grocery store and prepare.
Q: Is there anything you would like to add?
I think everyone needs to really look at their overall health and their whole lifestyle to really live healthy, and so it’s not, I don’t want to be looked at as just a surgeon. We’re concerned with people’s health and wellness and that involves people’s choices that they make every day. The group that is 100 pounds overweight is best served by a laparoscopic bariatric procedure. The people that aren’t, that don’t need it, they’re either going to use the endoscopic procedure or just get with a healthcare professional or someone trained in weight loss and just make a plan as far as changing their lifestyle and their approach to eating as well as exercise.
One more misconception is that exercise is the solution to losing weight. Exercise is great for overall health but if you want to lose weight, you need to change your overall consumption of calories, as for the amount and type.
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How can you tell if it's time to ditch the diet and consider bariatric surgery?
Posted: February 17, 2012 at 7:00 pm
By Roberta Jasina
What’s the secret to quick (and healthy) weight loss?Is there a secret? Is it surgery?
Why so do many people who’ve had weight loss surgery gain their weight back?
I had a chance to chat for about an hour with Dr. Scott Laker, Director of Bariatric Surgery at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital.
I had tons of questions. Some of the answers surprised me, and some of the answers depressed me.
One of the more depressing tidbits: Dr. Laker says “If you look at studies, as many as 99% of people who attempt diet and exercise will eventually regain their lost weight and most times, will gain more weight than they lost.”
Can you be addicted to food?
Dr. Laker: “I am not an addiction specialist but what’s my hunch? YES food can certainly be an addiction, and sugar can be an addiction, and unless we change these addictive behaviors, no surgery, no diet is going to get you better.”
What are the risks of bariatric surgery?
Dr. Laker: “I’ll tell you there are more people dying because of NOT HAVING Bariatric surgery on an annual basis than those people dying as a result of a complication of Bariatrics. The risk of dying for a laproscopic gastric band is estimated at one of every ten thousand. It’s that rare. We generally quote people the risk of dying after a sleeve or gastric bypass is … very low.” Bariatric surgery does increase longevity and it’s got an incredible impact on diabetes.”
Is surgery the “easy” way out of a severe weight problem (as opposed to diet and exercise?)
Dr. Laker: “It’s not the easy way, it’s a different way. In some people I think it is a reasonable thing to refer to it as a “shortcut.” If you’re in your sixties and you have 200 pounds to lose, you don’t have a decade or even five years generally to get this off. And if we can offer the ability to get off 100, 125, or 150 pounds in a period of one to two years you’re changing that person’s underlying medical issues very quickly.”
When people have the surgery, why do so many patients gain their weight back–and why?
Dr. Laker: “It is possible to have all these operations and not lose weight. And everybody knows of somebody, or knows somebody who knows of somebody who had bariatric surgery, did great, only two years later regain it back. Weight regain is frustrating.”
What percentage of bariatric surgery patients gain their weight back?
Dr. Laker: “An estimated 25%.”
Why does that happen?
“I think the biggest issue is what we’re putting in our mouths. It’s human nature to desire things that are pleasurable.
And a lot of the foods that give us such great pleasure are high calorie, nutrient poor foods. What MY belief is, is it’s less of an issue with the operation, but more of an issue with the diet. If you’re not going to change your ways you should not entertain bariatric surgery. It’s extremely important for patients to understand that long-term success is absolutely predicated on changing dietary habits. Cookies should not be in the diet. We need to change our ways with or without surgery. The only sustainable diet is a diet that people feel they can eat as much as they want. And there is such a diet. But that diet is filled with vegetables and lean meats (in that order) and really minimizing the carbohydrates and even moderating fruits.”
If you conquer your addiction to food…will you develop other “replacement” addictions?”
Dr. Laker: “We have seen a transference of addiction. People develop alcoholism, drug addictions. You’re at risk for any type of addiction: gambling. It is kind of a transference of something underlying that is being satiated with a new type of indulgence.”
What role does depression play in the life of someone who is morbidly obese?
Dr. Laker: “50% to 75% of patients we see are on antidepressants or an anti-anxiety (medication.) It’s very common. And these things have to be continuously addressed.”
If you lose a hundred pounds do you have to get plastic surgery to get rid of the wrinkly, excess skin?
Dr. Laker: “Most people are not nearly as bothered by it, as much as they THINK they’re going to be bothered by it. If it is bothersome, I will not allow my patients to seek consultation with the plastic surgery department until at least 18 months. We want the weight loss to show that it is stopped before we undergo any of these procedures.”
What do you see in the future?
Dr. Laker: “What I don’t see in the future is a medication that gives the same results (as surgery.) I see bariatric surgery continuing a long while.”
Henry Ford West Bloomfield offers free seminars every month on weight loss surgery.
The next session is Tuesday, February 21 • 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
248-661-7960.
http://www.henryfordwestbloomfield.com/body_wbloomfield.cfm?id=54373
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Weight Loss Woes: What’s The Secret?
Posted: February 17, 2012 at 10:12 am
Enlarge M. Spencer Green/AP
The FDA hasn't approved a new weight-loss drug since 1999. In the meantime, Americans' waistlines have continued to grow.
M. Spencer Green/AP
The FDA hasn't approved a new weight-loss drug since 1999. In the meantime, Americans' waistlines have continued to grow.
Tammy Wade knew she had to try something else to lose weight when she stepped on the scale and saw the number: 203 pounds.
Wade, 50, of McCalla, Ala., is only 5 feet 3 inches tall. She had tried everything. Nothing worked.
"I had problems with my feet and ankles, and they were saying I was borderline diabetic," Wade says. "I'm like, well, I gotta do something, you know. So, I needed, really did need to lose the weight."
So Wade volunteered to help test Qnexa, an experimental drug pending before the Food and Drug Administration. She quickly noticed a big difference.
"I didn't feel ravenous, and I didn't want to snack all day long," she says.
Over the next year, Qnexa helped Wade slowly drop about 40 pounds, and keep it off for another year. "It makes you feel so much better," Wade says. "Your back don't hurt, your feet don't hurt."
But the FDA rejected Qnexa in 2010 because of concerns about side effects, especially possible heart problems and birth defects.
Qnexa's rejection came amid a flurry of failed attempts by drug companies to win approvals of new weight-loss drugs. The setbacks put a spotlight on how the FDA handles these drugs.
Even though obesity is at epidemic levels, the FDA hasn't approved any new weight-loss medicines since 1999.
"We have two-thirds of all Americans who are overweight or obese, and the costs are nearing $150 billion a year," says Christine Ferguson, a health policy professor at George Washington University. "The sheer magnitude of the problem really requires us to address it more aggressively and thoughtfully than we have."
Ferguson has been helping to organize a series of meetings involving public health experts, anti-obesity advocates, government officials and others to try to figure out what the FDA should do.
"We actually have this huge gap," says Joe Nadglowski of the Obesity Action Coalition, who has been participating in the meetings. "We go from Weight Watchers to bariatric surgery. And the fact that there isn't ... medical treatments for obesity, including pharmaceuticals, really is a challenge, considering how big the problem is in this country."
Part of what's going on is that the FDA has gotten a lot more cautious about approving new drugs in general after some serious drug-safety problems, such as heart problems linked to the painkiller Vioxx.
The FDA has been especially tough on weight-loss drugs because of previous problems with those drugs, such as the diet drug cocktail fen-phen.
"There's been a long history with obesity drugs that we've had to take off the market. You recall the fen-phen episode where a significant number of people got heart-valve defects," says Janet Woodcock, a top FDA official.
Woodcock argues that the agency has to be extra-careful with weight-loss drugs, because chances are it won't just be obese people taking them.
"When you're talking about a drug where it could go into literally tens of millions of Americans, there has to be attention to safety," Woodcock says.
What might look like a rare problem now could turn into another public health disaster, she says.
But some say the agency's aversion to accepting any risks is outdated. They say the FDA wrongly still tends to view weight-loss drugs as diet pills — something frivolous and used primarily for cosmetic purposes.
"We are not talking about medications to help someone lose five pounds to fit into their prom dress or wedding dress. We're talking about medications to help those who are struggling with the health impact of obesity," Nadglowski says.
So Nadglowski and others are pushing the FDA to take into consideration whether the risks of new drugs may be outweighed by their benefits beyond weight loss, such as reducing the risk for heart disease, diabetes and other complications of obesity.
Woodcock says officials realize they may have to think about things differently.
As the FDA works through this, many are watching how the agency handles Qnexa. An FDA advisory panel is scheduled to review Qnexa again on Feb. 22.
Barbara Troupin of Vivus, the company that is developing Qnexa, says the drug appears to do a lot more than just help people lose weight.
"We see decreases in blood pressure. We see decreased rates of progression to diabetes. We see improvements in sleep apnea. We see improvements in quality of life. Pretty much all of our data shows significant benefits," she says.
Vivus hopes the FDA will agree that those benefits will outweigh some of the risks, including the concerns about birth defects. The company is submitting new data it says show that the risk is lower than had been feared. Vivus also has a plan to minimize the chances that pregnant women will take it.
Some see Qnexa as a test of the FDA trying to recalibrate how it weighs risks and benefits for weight-loss drugs.
For her part, Wade just wants to be able to start taking it again. She's gained back half of the weight she lost.
"I need to lose 20 more pounds again," she says. "And I need the help."
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Weight-Loss Drugs Face High Hurdles At FDA
Posted: February 17, 2012 at 7:55 am
Discovered: Weight loss might be contagious, just thinking about kids ruins women scientists, a new black hole, the Internet does not help failing relationships.
Is weight loss contagious? The other day science told us that we -- if we were mice -- could catch obesity. Now, it looks like it works the other way around, too. Skinny is contagious! "In our study, weight loss clearly clustered within teams, which suggests that teammates influenced each other, perhaps by providing accountability, setting expectations of weight loss, and providing encouragement and support," explained study author Tricia Leahey. "Being surrounded by others with similar health goals all working to achieve the same thing may have really helped people with their weight-loss efforts," she continued. So, if we understand correctly, science wants us to ditch our fat friends for healthy ones. Smells discriminatory to us. [Obesity] More reasons to play outside. Without Vitamin D humans basically disintegrate. The other month science linked deficiencies of this sun-related vitamin to depression; today we find out that mothers who don't get enough can have children with language impairments. "The logical thought is that maternal Vitamin D insufficiency during pregnancy is affecting the normal course of brain development," said study author Andrew Whitehouse. Add those ailments to heart disease and spinal problems, and we think we've got a pretty compelling case for adult recess. [Reuters]
Read the full story at The Atlantic Wire.
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Today in Research: Weight Loss Could Be Contagious; Vitamin D
Posted: February 17, 2012 at 7:55 am
LONDON (Reuters) - The European Medicines Agency has decided that the benefits of orlistat-containing weight loss drugs, including GlaxoSmithKline's Alli and Roche's Xenical, outweigh the risk of very rare liver-related side effects.
The regulator launched a review of the drugs in September in light of some rare cases of severe liver injury among patients.
It said on Thursday that the drugs were beneficial in the treatment of obese or overweight patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 28 or above.
However, it recommended that labeling for the medicines, including nationally authorized orlistat-containing generics, was harmonized to ensure the warning about liver damage was consistent.
It stressed that cases of severe liver disease linked to the drugs were very rare.
There with 21 cases of severe liver toxicity reported where Xenical was considered a possible cause from 1997 to January 2011, it said, and nine reports of liver failure in people using Alli between May 2007, when it was first marketed, and January 2011.
To put that in context, Xenical and Alli together were estimated to have been used by over 53 million people worldwide, with over 20 million in the European Union, it said.
GlaxoSmithKline has put Alli up for sale as part of a disposal of non-core brands.
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EU agency says weight-loss drugs risk acceptable
Posted: February 17, 2012 at 7:55 am
Find out the best times to exercise and eat to maximize weight loss results. You'll boost metabolism, burn calories, and torch belly fat for 24 hours with these healthy eating tips and workout advice.
The Real Life Way to Lose Weight
7 a.m.
Wake up and do 2 minutes of jumping jacks, high-knee skips, pushups, or crunches.
7:15 a.m.
Have two scrambled eggs and a slice of Canadian bacon. A 2009 Purdue University study found that a high-protein breakfast makes people feel fuller throughout the day, so they're less likely to overeat.
7:45 a.m.
Hit the gym, and lower weights slowly. Taking 3 seconds to lower weights during full-body resistance training can rev your metabolism for up to 3 days, according to a Wayne State University study. (Study participants used a challenging weight for 5 sets of 6 repetitions for each exercise.)
9 a.m.
Drink some milk. A diet with plenty of calcium-rich dairy can enhance weight loss, according to a 2007 study of overweight people.
7 Easy Ways to Lose Weight at the Office
10 a.m.
Grab a protein-rich snack, like half a turkey sandwich on whole-grain bread with Swiss cheese. In a Georgia State University study, athletes who ate three 250-calorie snacks a day were more likely to lose body fat and have more energy than those who didn't.
11 a.m.
Walk briskly around the office/neighborhood/mall during your break. A recent Mayo Clinic study found that lean people walk an average of 3 ½ miles more per day than obese people do.
1 p.m.
For lunch, eat a spinach salad with grilled halibut and sliced almonds. All contain magnesium, a metabolism-friendly mineral.
2 p.m.
If your work meeting is with just one or two people, walk the halls as you talk.
4 p.m.
Down a glass of iced green tea. According to a study in the Journal of Nutrition, the catechins in green tea decrease body fat.
The Worst Foods for Your Fridge
5 p.m.
Have a handful of wasabi peas or some other fiery snack. According to a 2006 study review, spicy foods help burn fat and calories.
7 p.m.
Take a short walk before dinner.
7:30 p.m.
Eat dinner. If you ate lightly today, don't worry about having a heavier meal now: "It doesn't matter when you fuel up; it's how many gallons you put in the tank," says Gary Foster, director of Temple University's Center for Obesity Research and Education.
9:30 p.m.
Grab a good book or magazine, turn on some tunes, and relax. Stress jacks up your level of cortisol, a chemical that boosts abdominal fat.
10:30 p.m.
Draw your shades so the sun won't rouse you early. According to a 2008 review, losing sleep affects the hormones that turn your appetite on and off, making you feel hungrier.
Foods that Reduce Belly Fat
Excerpted from The Lean Belly Prescription by Dr. Travis Stork and Peter Moore, editor of Men's Health.
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Perfect Day of Weight Loss
Posted: February 16, 2012 at 5:13 am
Home > News > health-news
Washington, Feb 15 : Teammates in a group-based weight loss competition considerably influence each other's health goals, indicating that shedding pounds can have a ripple effect, according to a new study.
Researchers from The Miriam Hospital's Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University found that team members not only achieved similar weight loss outcomes, but participants who said their teammates played a large role in their weight loss actually lost the most weight.
"We know that obesity can be socially contagious, but now we know that social networks play a significant role in weight loss as well, particularly team-based weight loss competitions," said lead author Tricia Leahey, Ph.D., of The Miriam Hospital and Alpert Medical School.
"In our study, weight loss clearly clustered within teams, which suggests that teammates influenced each other, perhaps by providing accountability, setting expectations of weight loss, and providing encouragement and support."
The findings are based on the results of the 2009 Shape Up Rhode Island (SURI) campaign, a 12-week statewide online weight loss competition designed by study co-author Rajiv Kumar, M.D. Participants joined with a team and could compete against other teams in three divisions: weight loss, physical activity and pedometer steps.
The weight loss competition included 3,330 overweight or obese individuals (BMI of 31.2 or greater), representing 987 teams averaging between 5 and 11 members each. The majority of these individuals enrolled in all three divisions.
Weight loss outcomes were clearly determined by which team an individual was on. Participants who lost clinically significant amounts of weight (at least 5 percent of their initial body weight) tended to be on the same teams, and being on a team with more teammates in the weight loss division was also associated with a greater weight loss.
Individuals who reported higher levels of teammate social influence increased their odds of achieving a clinically significant weight loss by 20 percent. This effect was stronger than any other team characteristic, Leahey said.
"This is the first study to show that in these team-based campaigns, who's on your team really matters," she added.
"Being surrounded by others with similar health goals all working to achieve the same thing may have really helped people with their weight loss efforts."
However, Leahey noted that individual characteristics were also associated with weight outcomes.
Obese individuals had a greater percentage of weight loss than overweight participants.
Team captains also lost more weight than team members, possibly due to their increased motivation and engagement in the campaign.
Leahey said that future weight loss team competitions may consider requiring team members to share the leadership role.
"We're all influenced by the people around us, so if we can harness this positive peer pressure and these positive social influences, we can create a social environment to help encourage additional weight loss," she added.
The study has been published online in the journal Obesity. (ANI)
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Weight loss can be 'contagious'
Posted: February 16, 2012 at 5:13 am
MESA, AZ - If you are looking to lose those extra pounds, a casting event for “Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition” will be held in Mesa this weekend.
The show documents the makeover of courageous, “super obese” people who, in 365 days, set out to safely lose half their body weight.
The term “super obese” is used to define those who exceed their estimated ideal weight by approximately 225-percent and who are roughly 200 pounds or more overweight, according to an ABC press release.
Trainer and transformation specialist Chris Powell guides each of the eight participants through their transformation process by moving into their homes and assuring they have the proper nourishment and exercise movement.
“Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition” will chronicle each participant’s journey as they go about reclaiming his or her life.
There will be a nationwide tour to nine cities in search of participants for season three.
Candidates are asked to either attend an open call in one of the cities or send in a home tape.
Information about how to apply can be found on the official casting website .
The Valley event will be held on February 18 th at Superstition Springs Center 6555 E. Southern Avenue in Mesa, Arizona 85206 from 10am to 4pm.
Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Weight loss TV show casting in AZ
Posted: February 16, 2012 at 5:13 am
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Posted: February 16, 2012 at 5:13 am
Mike T Nelson teaches people to get Maximum Results from any weight loss program by understanding how and when to exercise.
White Bear Lake, MN (PRWEB) February 15, 2012
Mike Nelson Introduces A New Fitness Program For 2012 That Delivers Maximum Results With Less Effort In Record Time.
Really want to drop weight but can't seem to get fast enough results?
A leader in the fitness industry for fifteen years and a researcher for nearly 20, Mike T Nelson teaches people to get Maximum Results from any weight loss program by understanding how and when to exercise.
For example - Fat loss requires that the majority of cardio gets done before you start your workout. Muscle strength, on the other hand, requires that just ten minutes of a warm up is done before, and then more cardio after free weight training is completed.
Mike consults for major athletes, scientific journals and government departments like DARPA.
Mike's new fitness program is free in video form at http://MikeTNelson.com.
An excerpt from this new program is here...
Never, ever skip cardio, even if the only goal is to build muscle mass, because the amount of cardio done is going to determine, to a large extent, how much blood volume a person's muscles have and how fast that blood can feed those muscles. So, cardio is a vital part of getting Maximum Results from any fat loss or muscle density program. But it’s also vital for building ultimate size and strength.
Next, proper form is essential to getting Maximum Results.
People who exercise two, three, four, five times a week but never seem to look different, are never going to get results until proper form is focused on.
If a person has sloppy exercise form, sloppy results or no results follow.
That equals wasted energy and wasted time - with no results to show for it. It’s sort of like going to a restaurant and ordering a really big, luscious meal and then getting the bill without ever getting the food.
Getting Maximum Results requires excellent use of time.
So, if a person invests a certain number of hours each week exercising, then each and every week should improve the look of their body.
Mike tells a story of when he was in college "I used to work out in a gym that had a sign on the front door that said, 'Leave your ego at the door.' meaning that if a person has a goal to lift as much weight as possible, then that really wasn’t the right gym to be at. He only wanted people who could forget about the amount of weight they were lifting and focus on proper form, because he knew that proper form was the key to building a powerful body. And the key to proper form is to maintain the best angle of use when lifting any weight."
An example is...
When doing a regular biceps curl, picture a straight line going down the side of a person's head, all the way down the body to the side of the foot, one straight line – vertical – up and down.
The upper arm has to be locked into that angle at all times to get the most out of every rep. So, the upper arm should never move when doing a biceps curl. It’s just the forearm and the hand that moves.
Most people go into their workout with an almost random approach, and they just begin doing a few exercises for legs, one or two for arms, and so on. But the first concept to understand about getting Maximum Results from any weight loss or muscle program is that nothing about a workout should ever be random.
That’s not to say that variety isn’t absolutely necessary, but having a properly structured workout is a vital part of Maximum Results with the least effort in record time.
Go to http://MikeTNelson.com to get free videos that show you how to immediately begin getting faster fat loss, faster muscle gain, and faster strength gains.
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Mike Nelson
Mike T Nelson, Free Exercise Videos For Maximum Results
800 538 3446
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