You shouldnt take weight loss success stories at face value. Im not talking about those I dropped 54 pounds by using this magical thing! Those are obviously a load of crock. Im talking about the I tried for years, but I finally realized I just had to work hard and it paid off! The idea of hard work sounds very nice, but lets not forget a little thing known as survivorship bias.

Survivorship bias, essentially, is fixating on the winners and the successful. It might make sense to copy what they do to also find success yourself, but therein lies the salty plum: you dont see or hear about the majority that have crashed and burned. This is significant because it fosters false expectations, distorts the so-called recipe for success, and makes you believe success is more common than it truly is.

The inspiration for this post comes from the latest article by Sol Orwell, co-founder of independent nutrition research site Examine.com. Although he talks about the success and promises of gurus like Tony Robbins in his article, survivorship bias can be extrapolated to the fitness world. Heaven knows we see plenty of successful weight loss stories.

When you read a weight loss success story, many are designed to cater to what many marketers call your pain points, which tempt you to lean in closer and wonder, Whats their secret? They tell you, of course: They did this diet, followed this workout program, and waited for the stars to perfectly align. In the end, it becomes clear: Aha, you say, so thats what I need in my life, at which point, these gurus are all like cha-ching! (Its worth noting, though, that there are also a ton of good guys out there.)

You dont need me to tell you that what works for someone else may not necessarily work for you, but I did anyway. No doubt, these stories are inspirational, spouting off tons of platitudes, and might be particularly titillating if youre struggling with the same problem and the successful person seems just like you (another tactic); but think about it: there are many details you dont know below the surface.

Maybe they worked out three to five hours a day or their genetics predispose them to certain results. Also likely, they werent exactly sure what they did before would work, and only in hindsight did they realize that what they doubted was actually right and awesome. As the You Are Not So Smart blog writes a bit more generally:

Keep in mind that those who fail rarely get paid for advice on how not to fail, which is too bad because despite how it may seem, success boils down to serially avoiding catastrophic failure while routinely absorbing manageable damage.

The next time someone tells you that they lost a bunch of weight on some exciting regimen, you should immediately follow up with these two questions:

The author of You Are Not So Smart adds:

When looking for advice, you should look for what not to do, for what is missing as Phil Plait suggested, but dont expect to find it among the quotes and biographical records of people whose signals rose above the noise.

Because if you focus only on the success stories, you have a very incomplete view of the whole picture.

Contributing writer. Nomad. More musings at http://thefyslife.com.

Read more:
Why You Shouldn't Always Trust Weight Loss Success Stories - Lifehacker Australia

Sanaz Tahernia, WLBZ 12:10 PM. EDT April 27, 2017

(Photo: Thomas Trutschel, 2009 Photothek)

BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- As the state with the 24th highest adult obesity rate in the country, excess weight is an issue for many adults in Maine and weight loss surgery is not an option for everyone. For the first time in Maine, adults that dont qualify for weight loss surgery, but still have a substantial amount of weight to lose reach can still reach their weight loss goals.

For the first time in Maine, Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor offers a non-surgical option called an intragastric balloon. The device is literally two balloons, made of medical grade silicone, that are connected to one another and inserted into the patients stomach through his or her mouth. This weight loss tool is not the magic solution to a persons weight loss, however, because the FDA does require the hospital offering the balloon to also provide a supervised nutrition program.

For more information, or to find out more about a referral to the program, call EMMC Northeast Surgery at (207) 973-8881.

2017 WLBZ-TV

The rest is here:
Weight loss tool available at EMMC - WCSH-TV

For years, actuallycenturies people have been struggling to lose weight. In fact, its believed that the very first person to go on a diet happened to be a man and his approach seems rather masculine as well, He gave up food, and only ingested alcohol yes, he invented the drinking mans diet.

Like most unhealthy and unbalanced diets, this one failed. The famous dieter was none other than William the Conqueror. William may have conquered plenty of things in his life, but weight management wasnt one of them. He required an XL coffin.

These facts are the foundation of the one weight loss method that works better than any other way. Food and exercise are part of effective weight loss, of course, because theyre essential elements to any successful weight loss plan.

In the end, what you choose to eat or how much you plan to exercise wont get you to goal unless you address your thinking and feeling. If you dont think right so that youre feeling confident, you wont get anywhere no matter what diet and exercise plan you use.

Your intentions to eat better and move more can be quickly overturned or forgotten entirely, if you allow your thinking to go where it shouldnt and your feelings follow into that negative place.

Marianne needs to track 10,000 steps on her Fitbit everyday. She does it by taking a 4,000 step walk morning and evening. She gets at least 2,000 more steps in the course of her normal daily routine. If she doesnt get her 10,000 steps, its a bad day.

Yesterday she took her morning walk, but it started raining hard around 3:00 in the afternoon preventing her from taking her evening walk. She canceled her gym membership so she didnt have access to a treadmill to get her additional 4,000 steps. She had no way to get her 10,000 steps so she went with her co-workers to happy hour at a bar down the street from the office.

She felt like a failure. She wasnt going to reach her goal of 10,000 steps today and she was going to indulge in beer and free buffalo wings the bar served every day during happy hour. She was blowing the whole week and probably was going to gain weight and end up failing again.

Her problem wasnt the rain, nor was it her lack of a gym membership to be able to use a treadmill. It wasnt her co-workers or even her accepting the happy hour invitation. It was her negative thinking which pushed her into making undermining choices based on her feeling of failure.

See the original post:
The weight loss method that works better than any other way - Bangor Daily News

Orlando, FL Obese workers who took part in a structured weight-loss program reported fewer hours missed on the job after six months, a recent University of Michigan study shows.

Researchers surveyed 92 people who had an average body mass index of 40 and worked in various occupations. Before entering the program, participants stated in a self-evaluation that they worked an average of 5.2 fewer hours a month than their employers expected.

After six months and an average of 41 pounds shed, participants reported working 6.4 more hours a month than expected.

Our findings suggest that, through favorable effects on work attendance, participation in a weight-management program may be mutually beneficial for workers and their employers, Dr. Jennifer Iyengar, the studys lead author and an endocrinology fellow at the University of Michigan, said in a press release.

The results of the study were presented April 2 at the Endocrine Societys 99th annual meeting in Florida.

Read more:
Study links participation in weight-loss programs to reduced absenteeism - Safety+Health magazine

Today I officially became a life time member of Weight Watchers.

What that means is that I achieved my official goal weight, and now six weeks from that weigh in Ive been able to stay within four pound range of my achieved goal weight (two tenths of a pound over the mid-point, thank you for asking). And now as long as I keep within some parameters, mainly not exceeding that goal weight by more than two pounds and weighing in at least once a month, there are no continuing fees for my participation at Weight Watchers.

Im feeling really good about this. My spouse Jan, without whom this really would have been unlikely, is herself within three pounds of her goal weight. So, together weve had quite the year. And it has been a year and change since we began this process. So, here we are.

Ive been fortunate enough to write for all three of the major Buddhist magazines, although I seem to have the most regular relationship with Lions Roar, writing for both their online and print versions. The current print issue actually has an article I wrote about weight loss, Weight Watchers, and dharma practice. I hope youll consider buying a copy of the magazine, there are actually much better articles in that issue than mine.

But if weigh is an issue, the article might be useful. I explore some of the ways my experience with Weight Watchers is informed by and in turn informs my dharma practices. Although published recently, due to the lead-time in magazine writing, it was written at what turned out to be roughly the mid point on my WW path to life time. Now, the truth of it is that if this is going to be a success, as defined for me by keeping most of that weight off for some extended period of time, Id really like it to be the rest of my life, it means Im in no sense at the end. Ive only arrived at a new beginning.

But this does give me an opportunity to pause and reflect.

What Im finding most about the experience so far is what Im calling the consciousness diet. I used that term in the past, when I discovered a tracking application and used it. The principal is being aware of what one is eating. Pretty simple in theory. A bit harder, it turns out, in application. Still it is the foundation. With consciousness of what one is doing, one (in this case that one is me. But, maybe it can be you, as well) may then start making choices that are more healthful than not.

Some people, as they say, eat to live, and others live to eat. For the first category the deal is fuel. The joy of eating is secondary. Me, I belong fully, unabashedly, in the second category. I love to eat. I eat when Im sad. I eat when Im happy. I eat when Im bored. I eat when Im engaged. Food is a delight. A pleasure. There are a number of reasons Ive become the principal cook in our family. But, my enthusiasm for food is a big part of it. I suspect these two different broad categories of people might need to engage the issues of eating differently, at least in some ways. But, for both, noticing what were doing is that first step.

Important. Critical. And it turns out I need a bit more. The app, where I simply had to record what Id consumed, well, it worked for a couple of weeks. Me, Im in the other oriented group of humans, so a gathering is a good thing for me. The weigh in in front of a human being has been critical in my keeping honest in my tracking not fudging to myself about what Im actually eating. After all, I can write down it was a smaller quantity than it was, and it is amazing how easy it is to justify that fudging. But then I have to weigh in in front of that other person. And well, the scale tells a lot of tales about what one did or did not do between weigh ins. Coaching on specifics is also a benefit of the group. Finding pointers that may come from the leader (and a special shout out to Lisa, leader-extraordinaire), but as likely as not come from the other participants, are enormously helpful.

Anyway.Ive hit that marker. Ended one phase. And, embarked on my next.

I actually hope to trim down a few more pounds, five for sure. Maybe even ten. My goal was set by my doctor and Jan and what they think I can actually live with. Im sure it was a wise call. But it was fifteen pounds above what the charts call for. And so losing five or even ten more pounds would still put me above the charts. But the fire burns and I want to go for losing a few more pounds. And, if that doesnt happen, thats okay. I have a place to arrive that feels quite good. That said, Im not cutting back on my weekly meetings. And, Im going to continue to track. And walk. And all those little things that have made this a success and have become, well, a life style.

And with that.

My word to you who are reading this is that if weight is your issue, you might check out Weight Watchers. And, if for any reason that doesnt feel right, just start writing down what you eat. If you can use one of those free applications that help you track the calories (WW uses points, but obviously theyre ultimately based in calories) you are on your way. Finding some friends to walk with as you walk is a good thing, as well.

But, the bottom line, as with dharma practice, as with Zen, you start here. There is no other place.

Best wishes!

Read the rest here:
The Zen of Weight Loss: Further Reflections on my Consciousness Diet - Patheos (blog)

FORT MYERS, Fla. (CONSUMER REPORTS) A drug that safely melts the pounds away would be a dream come true, but our analysis shows that the prescription weight loss pill Contrave is not that miracle drug.

In three clinical trials, people who took Contrave up to 56 weeks lost only five to nine pounds more on average than those who took a placebo. And Contrave can cause serious side effects, such as liver damage, seizures, and possible heart risks. Thats why Consumer Reports medical advisers say most people should skip it: such a small amount of weight loss is not worth the risk of those possible side effects.

Contrave is actually two older drugs, combined: the antidepressant bupropion (Wellbutrin and generic), and the addiction-treatment drug, naltrexone (ReVia and generic). We took a closer look at Contrave because as part of our Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs program, we routinely review the safety and efficacy of weight-loss drugs, and wanted to check how well Contrave measured up on both of thoseor didnt.

To do that, we worked with two drug safety expertsSteven Woloshin, M.D., and Lisa M. Schwartz, M.D., both at Dartmouth Colleges Geisel School of Medicine and the Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practiceto review the studies Contraves manufacturer, Orexigen Therapetutics, used to gain approval of the drug from the Food and Drug Administration. From there, they developed a Drug Facts Box for Contrave, which is a consumer-friendly translation of the drugs FDA-aproved drug label.

Heres what they found:

The FDA approved Contrave in late 2014 to be used along with a reduced-calorie diet and exercise, in those people who are either obese or who are overweight and have another serious condition, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or type 2 diabetes. The Contrave drug labelthe FDA-approved information about the drugdefines obese as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater; and being overweight as having a BMI of 27 to 29.9.

Modest Benefits One of the largest clinical trials to date of Contrave shows obese and overweight people who took the drug for up to 56 weeks lost an average of 12 pounds (or about 5 percent of their body weight), compared with an average of 3 pounds (or 1 percent of their body weight) among those who took a placebo. Both groups were also put on a reduced calorie diet, exercised, and received behavioral counseling.

To put that into perspective, we estimated that a person weighing 220 pounds who takes Contrave for a year could expect to lose about 12 pounds total: 9 pounds from the drug itself and 3 pounds from diet and exercise.

In another study, obese and overweight people who took Contrave for up to a year shed an average of 18 pounds (or 8 percent of their body weight) while the placebo group lost 11 pounds (5 percent of their body weight). Both groups were also put on a reduced calorie diet, exercised, and received behavioral counseling. The result is that Contrave contributed to losing an additional 7 pounds.

And the findings were even less impressive for people who had diabetes. Overweight people with that disorder who took Contrave for up to a year dropped an average of 9 pounds or 4 percent of their body weight, while those who took a placebo lost 4 pounds, or 2 percent of their body weight. In that case, Contrave helped people lose only 5 additional pounds.

Also, not everyone who takes Contrave will experience meaningful weight loss: In one trial, about 42 percent of people who took Contrave lost 5 percent or more of their weight compared to 17 percent of those who took a placebo.

Serious Risks The studies show that Contrave caused many people to feel sick, says Schwartz. Nearly 1 in 4 people in the clinical trials stopped taking the prescription weight loss pill because they couldnt tolerate the common side effects, including nausea, headache, and vomiting.

Contrave can also cause increased blood pressure, anxiety, and insomnia. Other side effects include constipation and dizziness.

Like other drugs that contain the antidepressant bupropion, Contrave carries a black-box warningthe strongest type issued by the FDA. Although Contrave is not intended for those under the age of 18, the warning states that the drug can, in rare instances, increase suicidal thoughts and behaviors in adolescents and young adults. It could also cause mania and depression to return in people who have previously suffered from those conditions. Other rare but serious side effects include seizures and a condition where eye pressure rises rapidly (angle-closure glaucoma).

The FDA was particularly concerned that Contrave might also raise the risk of heart problems, such as heart attack and stroke, so it required the manufacturer, Orexigen, to conduct a clinical trial to figure out if the drug is safe for the heart. But Orexigen has started and stopped two heart trials before they were finished. Now, the company says it plans to launch a third trial, but the results arent expected to be available until 2021.

In the meantime, the FDA still approved the drug without requiring the trial be completed, so Contrave remains available in the U.S. while its effect on the heart is still being investigated. In a statement to Consumer Reports, Orexigen Therapeutics, said preliminary data from its first heart risk trial provide valuable information and support our confidence in the overall safety for Contrave.

However, the FDA told us that Contraves heart risks remain unknown. Eric Pahon, a spokesman for the FDA, said it was premature to draw any conclusions from Contraves first heart trial, so determining whether Contrave poses a risk to the heart will require completing the new study.

Steven Nissen, M.D., chair of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, who led one of the trials, agrees with the FDA. We dont have a definitive answer about the safety of this drug and we wont have one for a very long time, he says.

Bottom Line Weve previously advised against the use of weight loss medications, such as Alli or Xenical, Belviq, Qsymia, and Saxendaand now Contrave joins that listbecause they dont help most people lose much, if any, weight, and they all carry potentially serious risks. For most people, the limited benefit of Contrave isnt worth the risk of side effects or unknown heart risks, so our medical advisers recommend skipping it.

To be sure, our analysis suggests that Contrave can help people lose a meaningful amount of weight, if they are able to tolerate it and stick with an exercise and reduced-calorie diet over the course of a year. But they would also expose themselves to the serious risks of the drug. Instead, CR medical advisers say lose weight the safer wayby eating less and exercising.

If youve been unable to lose weight on your own, ask your doctor about intensive behavioral programs that have at least 12 sessions a year and include multiple strategies to help you switch to healthier diets and increase physical activity. Such programs can lead to an average weight loss of 9 to 15 pounds (or 6 percent of body weight) in the first year, according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

Also good to know: If you still decide to try Contrave, and havent dropped at least 5 percent of your weight after three months of taking the drug at the target dose, you should stop taking it because its unlikely that you ever will, according to information on Contraves drug label.

Read the original:
Contrave diet pill: Is it safe? - Wink News

ABU DHABI // A medical team in the capital will perform highly complex surgery to help save the life of one of the worlds heaviest women.

A major logistical operation is under way to move Eman Abd El Aty from Mumbai to Abu Dhabi for bariatric surgery.

Doctors have been measuring the risks of flying 177 kilogram Ms El Aty to Burjeel Hospital, against the benefits the surgery will have for the 36-year-old Egyptians long-term health.

Ms Abd El Atys case has created headlines around the world with a row developing between her family and the Indian hospital treating her.

Her sister, Shaimaa, posted a video on social media claiming she was unable to move or speak since undergoing rapid weight loss up to 4kg a day after bariatric surgery at Saifee hospital in Mumbai in March.

Reports in India state Ms Abd El Aty, who is believed to have weighed close to 500kg when she first entered hospital, has lost about 330kg but requires further medical procedures in Abu Dhabi before being fit to return home to Alexandria.

Sanet Meyer, director of medevac at Burjeel Hospital, is responsible for bringing Ms Abd El Aty to the capital.

"There are many factors that are being considered ahead of Emans safe transportation," she said. "Loading is vitally important in this process, in Mumbai and Abu Dhabi.

"We have a highly skilled medical support team in place that is assisting in the mission."

The team will use a Boeing business jet for the move, modified for medical evacuations. A pneumatic high loader similar to a fork-lift truck will carry the patient on and off the aircraft at either end of the journey.

Ambulances fitted with reinforced equipment for obese patients will transport Ms Abd El Aty from hospital in Mumbai to the airport then to Burjeel Hospital.

"This will be a life-changing operation for Eman and she will require an indeterminate period of recovery in Abu Dhabi," Ms Meyer said.

A stroke left Ms Abd El Aty paralysed on her right side and she suffers seizures as well as other obesity-related health problems, such as hyperthyroidism, renal failure and a severe heart condition. All are being controlled with medication.

Air travel puts her at further risk of neurological complications but doctors said the risk was worth taking for her long-term health.

The family chose a hospital in India to treat Ms Abd El Aty after failing to find the right medical help in Egypt.

Doctors in Mumbai wanted to send her home to Egypt to recover but further treatment is required to help her adjust to her rapid weight loss with further surgery and a long period of recovery needed.

After being contacted by her family, Burjeel Hospital offered to provide that treatment if she could be brought to the UAE.

Bariatric surgery is used to treat people who are classed as dangerously obese, usually with a body mass index more than 40 or with other obesity-related health conditions, when all other lifestyle changes and treatments have failed.

VPS Healthcare is covering the costs of the Ms Abd El Atys surgery and physiotherapy as part of its corporate responsibility programme.

nwebster@thenational.ae

Original post:
World's heaviest woman transported to Abu Dhabi hospital for life-saving surgery - The National