The Sirtfood Diet was founded in 2016 by nutritionists Aidan Goggins and Glen Matten. It has since gained popularity thanks to celebrities like Adele, Pippa Middleton, and former pro boxer David Haye.

It's touted for rapid weight loss , claiming to help people lose seven pounds in seven days. Another one of the diet's distinguishing qualities is that it incorporates more indulgent foods like dark chocolate and red wine alongside traditional, healthier options like kale, strawberries, and other whole foods.

While the diet claims to set its participants on a quick path to weight loss, it also encourages intense calorie restriction. Here's what you should know about the Sirtfood Diet before trying it.

The Sirtfood Diet is built around natural compounds found in fruits and vegetables called polyphenols. Goggins and Matten claim some polyphenols mimic the effects of fasting and exercise by activating proteins in our bodies called sirtuins.

Also known as SIRTs, or silent information regulators, sirtuins play a role in how the body metabolizes sugar and stores fat, especially during periods of fasting or severe caloric restriction.

A 2016 study published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences found they could potentially help treat obesity. However, the evidence is in the early stages and most of the research comes from animals or human cells rather than human experiments.

For the Sirtfood Diet, Goggins and Matten recommend eating a lot of foods that are rich in polyphenols in order to activate sirtuins in the body. They call these foods "sirtfoods" hence the diet's name.However, researchers are still learning exactly how polyphenols affect sirtuins in the body and whether or not it may actually aid weight loss.

"I could not find any scientific evidence that the Sirtfood Diet works through activation of the sirtuin proteins," says Ana Baylin, MD, an associate professor of nutritional sciences and epidemiology at the University of Michigan.

"The proposed foods definitely can activate the sirtuins, but that does not mean that if you lose weight it is exclusively because of that. You lose weight mostly because of caloric restriction in the beginning and because you are eating 'reasonably' healthy."

Common sirtfoods that the diet promotes include:

The plan's meals are all outlined in the Sirtfood Diet book. Some examples are shrimp stir fry with buckwheat noodles or strawberry buckwheat tabbouleh.

Followers of this diet plan can also expect to drink a lot of sirtfood-full juices that contain ingredients like kale, arugula, parsley, green apple, ginger, and matcha powder. Baylin points out the juice is just veggies and fruits. There's no harm in drinking that.

"But it's definitely not a good idea to substitute that for a meal," she says. Drinking only juice for a meal could cause a spike in blood sugar levels since juice has little to no insoluble fiber. The occasional blood sugar spike won't hurt, but over time if you have consistently high blood sugar levels it can lead to health complications like insulin resistance and prediabetes.

"On the other hand, it would be very healthy in the context of substitutions," Baylin says. Instead of drinking a sweetened beverage with added sugar like soda, opting for the juice would be a healthier choice.

Length: 7 days

Length: 14 days

In this phase, you'll have three sirtfood meals and one green juice each day. The focus is not on counting calories, but eating balanced, sensibly portioned meals. Dieters are expected to steadily lose weight.

After three weeks, when phase 2 has ended, the Sirtfood Diet creators suggest drinking a green juice each day and eating a sirtfood-rich diet to sustain weight loss.

As for exercise, the Sirtfood Diet book says eating sirtfoods isn't "a reason not to engage in exercise" and notes dieters should follow government recommendations of 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week.

The founders of the diet claim the tens of thousands of people who've tried the diet found it effective for rapid and sustained weight loss. Yet, Baylin says any diet that includes caloric restriction is always effective short term.

"You will definitely lose weight in the short term because you are consuming less calories," she says. And while she agrees you can lose fat if you combine the diet with exercise, you'll "most likely" lose water weight that will return after you stop following the diet.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends 1,600 to 2,400 calories a day for women and 2,000 to 3,000 a day for men. So you will lose weight on any diet that only allows 1,000 calories a day but that doesn't mean it's safe or healthy to do so.

"Whether you're eating 1,000 calories of tacos, 1,000 calories of kale, or 1,000 calories of snickerdoodles, you will lose weight at 1,000 calories," Adrienne Youdim, MD, director of the Center for Weight Loss and Nutrition in Beverly Hills, California, told Shape magazine.

But that level of restriction isn't easy. People magazine reporter Julie Mazziotta tried the first week of the diet and gave it a 9 out of 10 on the difficulty scale. By 1 p.m. on day one, she says she was "miserable and starving."

Apart from phase 1 not being nutritionally balanced or calorie-sufficient, Baylin says the diet's safe to follow. "There is nothing in the proposed foods that is harmful all those foods are perfectly healthy," she says.

But, "I would not recommend the first phase of strict caloric restriction," Baylin says. "However, most healthy adults should not have any problem following this diet."

Moreover, Baylin says people are encouraged to eat a plant-based diet in phase 2 and beyond, which is a healthy way to keep off pounds.

The jury's still out if there are any long-term effects of the diet, and there's no research on whether it could present complications with other health conditions.

"The problem is that in the end, a diet is a diet," she says, "and if people do not embrace healthy eating as a new lifestyle but as a 'punishing' diet most likely they will never create the habit of eating healthy, and a little less, and they will regain the weight."

Dietitians caution that people with diabetes or other chronic conditions could face serious health risks on this diet. So, before trying a highly restrictive diet, like the Sirtfood Diet, it's always advised to consult a doctor first about potential risks you may face.

Read more:
The Sirtfood diet may help you lose weight, but nutritionists say it relies on unhealthy calorie restriction - Insider

"Tina," a 36-year-old Pennsylvania woman, didn't want her real name used for this story but not because she had anything she should feel ashamed of. Tina hasnot committed a crime, hurt a soul or been convicted of anything. Her desire to remain anonymous stems,simply, from the fact that shegained weight.

Speaking with Salon, the clerk with raven-black hair, twinkling brown eyes and a warm smile said that she knows her self-esteem issues are caused by society's toxic body image standardsand do not reflect any objective notion of beauty.That knowledge, unfortunately, doesn't make thetoxic standardshurt any less. Tina ruefully doubts thatshe'll ever againbe able tofit into her favorite 2000s-eraclothes:tied-up belly shirts, corset tops,low-waisted gypsy skirts and blouses. Medically she is classified as obese, with much of the excess weight accumulatingon her once-flat midriff. Despite multiple dieting and exercise campaigns, the belly fatstubbornly refuses to go away. Tina hopes that it may shrink some day, but despairs of ever being entirely rid of it and admits that she wishes modern medicinecould literally suck the fat cells out of her.

"I admit this as a truth," she explained. "I suck in my belly in the mirror and think to myself how much more attractive I'd feel without the gut. I wish I could do the liposuction and tummy tuck."

Tina still feels that her face is beautiful, but struggles to feel sexy shopping for clothes, and is hesitantto share pictures that showher body. Like many people who struggle with obesity, she blames herself for poor dietary choices:when it comes to foods like burgers and fries, for instance, she simply can't resist. Tina also has had two children and endometriosis surgery, which havestretched out her stomach,and between that and now being obese shedoubts whether her"willpower is up to the challenge of significant weight loss." It seems, for all intents and purposes, that she has accepted that because she struggles to diet and exercise and can't afford certain types of surgeries, like tummy tucks she willnever return to her size from the early 2000s.

In movies, books and soap operas, liposuctions are often depicted as transformative; a patient enters obese, and leaves the surgeon looking slim. That trope, as it turns out, is another instance of fiction misinformingus about medicine. Doctors cannot simply remove all the fat cells from our bodies, whether through liposuction or through other procedures. As an overweight person, learning this was disheartening, as perhaps it was for others in similar situations.

But why is this the case?

First, liposuction is a bad idea for patients who are severely obese for a number of reasons, according toDr. Umbareen Mahmood, a board certified plastic surgeon in New York City who performs liposuction surgeries daily and treats many bariatric patients. For one thing, the ideal candidate has to be less than 30% above their ideal weight and have good skin elasticity, so that the liposuction will make a noticeable difference and won't cause excessive loose skin. In addition, people who are obese have an increased risk ofwounds, healing complications and clots in the legs.

Then, there is the fact that you can only remove a small amount of fat at onetime.

"We can only remove approximately 5 litersof fat safely at each liposuction surgery,"Mahmood explained. "This is because large volume liposuction beyond this results in internal fluid shifts and can cause serious issues with blood pressure and blood flow."

It helps to remember that fat is not just some gelatinous substance that sticks to our ribs and can be scraped off like butter sliding off toast. It is an organ, like any other part of the body, and removing it comes with considerable risks.

"Fat is not an inert substance, like little adipose cell suitcases, as if it's luggage we just carry around,"Dr. K.L. Ong, a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, toldSalon by email. "Science used to kind of believe that, but that's been better understood for a long time now. Adipose cells do all kinds of things, as other organs do, and they also 'hold'all kinds of things in addition to fatty acids. Adipose tissue or 'fat'is a distributed organ-like skin."

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Ong added, "Skin is also an organ, and both can be removed in a small part. But if in large part, the person would likely die from physical shock."

There is simply no getting around the fact that fat contains many important things our bodies need: "Even in the most near-the-skin subcutaneous adipose tissue, it is woven with millions of blood vessels, lymph vessels, protein-fibrous supporting tissue, and nerves. You can attempt to remove the adipose tissue, but in doing so, you take a ton of other tissue with it," Ong said.

What this means, however, is that there is considerable evidencethat the traditional scientific mantra of "dieting and exercising will help you lose weight" simply is not true. The factors that cause a person to become obese are complicated, ranging from the microbes in your gutto the quirks in your DNA. The vast majority of people who pass a certain threshold when it comes to being overweight will never return to their previous weight, or if they do will not able to sustain that loss: As of 2015 the odds of that happening in a given year were 1 in 210 for an obese man, 1 in 124 for an obese woman.Their body chemistry changes to actively resist shedding the extra fat, believing that it must do so to survive.

Thus, while America's diet and self-help industry insiststhat losing weightis all a matter of self-control, the accountability fetish is not supported by the science.

"It has very little to do with will power," Dr. Nicole Avena, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Mount Sinai Medical School and a visiting professor of health psychology at Princeton University, told Salon in December. Neuroscientific research has provedthat "many foods are being found to be able to produce a state in the brain that is very similar to what you would see with an addiction to something like drugs or alcohol. And so our primitive brain is being activated by many of these processed foods that are on the market that many people enjoy and indulge in."

The permanent weight loss numbers do improve somewhat for patients who have had bariatric surgery procedures that cut into your digestive tract to help you lose weight but they come with risks of complications likeintestinal blockages and long-term malnutrition. There is also a paucity of data on the long-term ramifications of many bariatric procedures, as they are relatively new, and there is evidence that psychological issues can arise after the surgeries.

This creates a conundrum for people who want to be honest about weight loss prospects. It is perhaps upsettingto admit that it may not be possible for some people, and they should learn to love their bodies(which is true of everyone). At the same time, it is morally tenuous to insist that the millions who suffer from obesity are simply flawed characters, when the science strongly suggests that there is simply a lot we don't yet know about obesity.

As for Tina, the pseudonym of the Pennsylvania clerk? Deep down she understands, intellectually, that the circumference of herwaistline does not make her better or worse, prettier or uglier, more or less successful or worthy of admiration. She also feels blessed to besurrounded by people who make it clear thatthey regard her as beautiful.

She still struggles with her size, though.

"I know I'm not what I could be if Iwas skinnier," she told Salon."I'd have an easier time feeling confident. Somedays I feel so good, then look in the mirror and that changes right away. Then I have to return to my...positive affirmations."

Read this article:
The curious science of liposuction: Why, exactly, can't doctors just remove all of my fat? - Salon

Marijuana can be an unpredictable drug with effects that vary based on a variety of factors including your brain's unique chemistry, the type of marijuana used, how much you consume, and your method of consumption.

With that said, here's what we know so far about the short-term and long-term effects of marijuana:

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Marijuana typically lowers blood pressure causing blood vessels to dilate, which increases blood flow. "As a result, blood vessels in the eyes expand, leading to red or 'bloodshot' eyes," says Lawrence Weinstein, MD, the Chief Medical Officer at American Addiction Centers.

Studies show THC increases dopamine in the brain, the neurotransmitter responsible for euphoria. This induces feelings of bliss commonly referred to as "feeling high."

While THC can cause feelings of euphoria, consuming too much THC can cause an opposite reaction like anxiety or paranoia.

Important: There are no federal dosing guidelines regarding marijuana or THC. Therefore, talk to your healthcare provider about what dose would be best for you.

Marijuana is associated with an impaired ability to strategize, problem-solve, and make good decisions. However, the extent of this effect is dependent on several variables including marijuana potency and previous exposure to the drug.

Marijuana's long term effects will vary from person to person, especially depending on how frequently you use the drug. Most of the following effects have only been documented in chronic users, which are those that use marijuana on a daily basis for an extended period of time.

But, study results are conflicting: A large 2016 study found no association between marijuana use and mood and anxiety disorders. Yet, a different data sample of US adults indicated using marijuana more than once a month was associated with an increased risk of social anxiety.

Studies have linked marijuana use to an increased risk of:

However, more studies are needed to understand cannabis's health implications, says the American Heart Association.

Some research suggests smoking marijuana can lead to symptoms like chronic cough, mucus production, and wheezing.

However, a 2012 study found chronic marijuana users who smoked one joint a day for 10 years scored well on tests measuring lung strength and capacity.

Note: The use of vape pens or "dabbing" may also cause respiratory problems, like vaping-induced acute lung injury, but more research is needed.

The average American diet is characterized by high intakes of sugar and starchy foods, which researchers theorize can cause an imbalance in the body's endocannabinoid system. Cannabis is believed to "reverse" this imbalance, causing the body to burn and store calories more efficiently.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) suggests one in 10 marijuana users will become addicted. That number increases to one in six in people who begin using before age 18.

Like other addictive drugs, THC is associated with dopamine release which "teaches" the brain to continue using it.

Read more:
14 surprising benefits and risks of using marijuana, from weight loss to worsened anxiety - Business Insider India

A mum who has lost six and a half stone says she is no longer worried about trying on wedding dresses.

Mother-of-one Becky Brooke, 33, from Halifax, lost 87lbs with Slimming World and says losing the weight helped her conceive her second child.

She is now looking forward to getting married to partner Joe Gray in 2023 and is no longer terrified of how she will look in a wedding dress.

READ MORE: 'Prison would've been nicer' - Elland woman's horror stay at Pontins Holiday Park

Becky, who had been unhappy with her weight for many years, had tried to convince herself that "this size was just me."

"Before joining Slimming World, I never really thought about what I ate, the amount or whether it was good or bad," said Becky.

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"Now I just choose the 'free foods' first and so many are tasty, there are so many healthier alternatives.

"It has made me more aware of the unhealthy choices I made before."

So-called 'free foods' include a wide range of foods such as fruit, veg, pasta, rice, potatoes, pulses, lean meat, fish and poultry, which Slimming World members can eat until they feel full.

Becky, who is originally from Queensbury and works in the village as a teaching assistant, said: "Its been great finding and making new recipes, and they are meals my partner and my son enjoy too.

"I enjoy finding healthier alternatives for my favourite foods, and I try to make one new meal each week; but I do have my favourites such as naked beef burrito, diet cola chicken, harissa sea bass, chicken paella and cajun chicken kebabs."

She added: "Since I started my weight loss journey, the biggest challenge for me is learning to love myself again. I realised that even though Ive done so well that Im very critical of myself.

"I also have struggled from time to time to fight the cravings for chocolate, but with the help and support of my group I have found healthier alternatives to keep me going."

Becky has lost six and a half stone and she is loving that she can now buy clothes 'off the peg'.

"Im more confident to do things I had stopped doing and go to places I wouldnt go before, as I had developed anxiety."

She now enjoys family walks and her health has improved.

"The winter before I joined Slimming World I had pneumonia a couple of times, but I didnt suffer at all this winter.

"My physical health has improved lots and with the added worry of coronavirus, I feel I am in a better position to fight the virus.

"As well as my physical health, my mental health was constantly tested too.

"I would think about my weight in a negative way throughout the day. I thought it seemed impossible that I could lead a happy, healthy life but Ive lost 87lbs in 35 weeks - even during Covid lockdown.

"My BMI has gone down by 13.5 and Ive lost 45 inches all round.

"Im happier, healthier and more confident. The added bonus is I no longer have wedding dress anxiety and I am actually looking forward to going shopping.

"And Im over the moon to say that losing the weight has helped me to conceive my second child.

"I am able to follow the plan safely whilst pregnant as it is endorsed by the Royal College of Midwives."

Julie Sharples, Beckys consultant at the Lindley Slimming World group in Huddersfield, said: "Im really proud of Becky because, not only did she take the brave step to join our group during lockdown, she has put her heart and soul into following the Slimming World plan and making it fit not only into her life but that of her family too.

"She is a fab support to other members including the friend who encouraged her to join.

"Becky loves finding new recipes to try and shares her discoveries with others in group and online.

"She is our inspirational Greatest Loser for 2021 having lost six and a half stones to date.

"Im excited shes continuing her journey through her pregnancy - we love a Slimming World baby and I look forward to seeing her get all the way to target."

Here is the original post:
Halifax mum sheds over six stone in astonishing weight loss which helped her get pregnant - Yorkshire Live

My breakfast: Three Eggs cooked in 10gm Butter, Three Toasties, 200ml Milk and 10gm Coffee

My lunch: Curry with 200gm Boneless Chicken or 70gm Soya made in 10gm of Ghee with 15gms of Green Chillies, 50gms of Onions and Tomato, 100gm Spinach or any greens paired with 70gms White Rice

My dinner: Curry with 200gm Boneless Chicken or 65gm Soya made in 10gm of Ghee with 15gms of Green Chillies, 50gms of Onions and Tomato and 100gm Spinach or any greens paired with 70gms White Rice.

Pre-workout meal: Diet Coke (One Can of 300ml)

Post-workout meal: Stir-Fried Paneer (100gms) with herbs and 15 gms broccoli

I indulge in (What you eat on your cheat days): I didnt cheat much. But whenever I felt like it, I had Protein bars (30gm content of protein minimum) or else Ragi Brownie made with quantified ingredients.

Low-calorie recipes I swear by:

I dont believe in the concept of low calories, you can have Boneless Chicken Steak, Chapati made with Soya Granules and even a burger too if it fits in your macros. Basically, anything quantified as per your macros of the day could be of adequate calories

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Weight loss story: "I lost 19 kilos in 90 days by running, doing planks and push-ups daily" | The Times of India - Times of India