4 myths about weight loss

You want to lose weight. You know it would be good for your health; you want to fit into smaller size pants; you want your family to be proud of you; you want to play sports with your friends and win, but ... you’ve failed in the past and you just don’t have the faith that you can! The thoughts that go through your mind are likely similar to the four common myths that Dr.Prochaska et al. describe in "Changing For Good":

Myth #1 “People don’t really change”

People do change. In our everyday lives we meet people who quit smoking, eliminated their alcohol dependency or rid themselves of unhealthy eating habits! People change their lifestyle, lose weight, learn how to eat right and get fit! It may take several tries, but to say that people don’t change is to admit defeat in the face of facts to the contrary!

Myth #2: “I’ve tried everything – nothing works”.

In this day and age, it seems that everybody is trying to lose weight and everybody and their uncle knows how to do it. Everyone wants to sell you that pill, detox and ab machine that will get you there in a flash. If you tried one of those, I’d say you have tried the wrong thing. Do your research again and this time make sure your main criterion for lifestyle change is your health. Choose a diet that you can maintain for the rest of your life. Choose the exercise program to go with it. Once you chose the system, stick with it for the recommended length of time and beyond – I guarantee you will have the results you want! I did!

Myth #3: "It takes willpower to change".

Yes, if by willpower you mean “a belief in our ability to change behavior, and the decision to act on it.”

Willpower does not however represent each and every effort towards weight loss. If that were the case, yeah, you’d commit to your goal of weight loss and, bam, you are done and wearing size Small jeans. The reality of change is that if you rely only on your willpower and you fail, which can happen for reasons outside of your control, you’d have a hard time trying again and again until you were successful. “Failure to change when relying only on willpower just means that willpower alone is not enough”.

Myth #4 “Change is simple”

When you are feeling down about your seeming inability to lose weight, somehow that notion that someone somewhere can change at the drop of the hat lodges itself in your mind! You think - I am struggling and it should not be hard, it should be easy!

Losing weight, like any self-change, is not simple. Most of us go thought several stages of change, and not once. We start at the stage of denial (“Pre-contemplation stage”) Then we move to the Contemplation stage, which is followed by Preparation, Action and Maintenance. Sounds like quite a process, indeed. In my next posts I will be considering each of these individually, so that some of you, who tried to start a weight loss regiment in the past but fell of the wagon for one reason or another, may realize that it happened not because you cannot change, but because you were not in the right stage for self-change. This may help to re-evaluate past “failures” as a learning experience and renew your efforts of finding a fitter, lighter, healthier you!

The sugar fix – more than a weight problem!

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So, yeah, if the diet high in fructose was only affecting the expanding waist lines, that would be half as bad.
But the weight problem leads to high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, kidney and liver disease, and metabolic syndrome which is a cluster of all health problems mentioned above.

How does fructose cause this terrible damage?

Apparently, high fructose has sneaky habits.
High fructose does not satisfy your appetite. Dr Johnson explains: ”When you eat most types of sugar, your body responds by producing appetite hormones, which signal your brain that your body has consumed enough food to meet its energy needs. As this occurs, the feelings of hunger subside. But unlike other sugars, fructose escapes the attention of appetite hormones. Because of this phenomenon, your brain never gets the message that your body has consumed a load of calories. “
No wonder I felt hungrier after eating McD than I was before (It was a looooooooooooooong time ago, but I remember being puzzled by that and avoiding McDs as a plague!)

What’s more – high-fructose foods may interfere with the signaling system that controls your appetite for all foods. “Chronic consumption of sugary foods seems to promote biochemical changes that prevent the brain from receiving messages from appetite hormones – even when you are not consuming fructose”!

Studies show that fructose is not metabolized in the same way as other sugars, and because of that causes rapid weight gain. Once conditioned this way, it may very well sabotage the weight-loss effort, because the body becomes ultra-sensitive to even small amounts of high fructose and resists weight loss!

I am convinced more than ever that the clean diet is the way to go - all the more reason to stay away from the highly processed foods and eat foods from the top of Michi’s ladder!

Bring it in the kitchen, people!

The Sugar Fix - you think you are safe?

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Seems like my little thing about HFCS piquet some interest amoung my own family.
My cousin sent me the reply “We have not bought a soft drink for about 10 years....”
You think that makes you safe from Fructose overload?
Think again!
According to the Corn Refiners Association, food processors may use high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in the following products:
Asian-style sauces
Baby foods
Bacon
Beer
Biscuits
Bologna
Brandy
Breads and rolls
Breakfast serials
Breakfast meats
Cake and dessert mixes
Cakes
Candy
Canned fruits and fruit fillings
Canned vegetables
Caramel Coloring
Carbonated beverages (nondiet)
Cat and dog foods
Cheese spreads
Chewing gum
Chicken products
Cocoa
Coffee creamer
Cookies
Cordials
Crackers
Dessert toppings
Diet foods
Doughnuts
Dried meets
Egg products
Fish products
Flavorings
Frosting, icing, glazes
Frozen dinners
Frozen puddings and custards
Fruit drinks and juices
Fruit sweeteners
Peanut butter
Pickles
Salad dressings
Sauce mixes
Sausage
Seasoning mixes
Vinegar
Wine
Yeast
Etc. etc…

Check your labels!

The Sugar Fix - Introducing HFCS

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One rainy Saturday my husband and I were caught in the rain and went to the Dunkin Doughnuts that was separated only by a glass window from the hallway leading to the adjacent Pathmark supermarket. As we were sitting drinking our coffee the people with full shopping cards were marching down to the parking lot allowing us a perfect view of some of the content of their shopping carts and their not too slim figures. It seemed too much of a coincidence that almost every person’s shopping cart contained soft drinks.
As a nation today 32% Americans are obese. Add to that 1/3 of Americans that are overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Weight problem reached epidemic proportions; it affected rich and poor, adults and children, people form every educational and racial background.
The epidemics seemed to occur in the last 3-4 decades.
Could all of us at one acquire bad genetics?
Or did something drastically change in our environment?
Richard J Johnson, MD, the author of the new book “The sugar fix” thinks that the reason for the epidemics lies with increase in high fructose consumption. “Americans consume 30 percent more fructose today than in 1970. Our rising consumption of this sugar begun at roughly the same time that obesity rates in the United States were climbing sharply”.
Dr Johnson goes on explaining that fructose consumption increased due to the wide spread usage of the controversial sweetener called high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS):”which is used in wide variety of processed foods and beverages. If you were to start reading product labels, you’d find that HFCS is also in many foods that might surprise you, such as pasta sauce, yogurt, soups, ketchup and other condiments, and sandwich bread.
In 1970, the average American consumed less than ½ pound of HFCS per year. By 200, per capita consumption of the corn-based sweetener had risen to more than 42 pounds per year”
42 pounds per year of stuff that should make you fat and does not fail to! That’s the figure I’ll leave you with until the next time when we explore the health threats that HFCS contains, other than obvious increase in bulge.
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Get Fit With Barbie: Day 24: Turbo Jam...This is Truly Love

Get Fit With Barbie: Day 24: Turbo Jam...This is Truly Love

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My ultimate exercise motivation

My paternal grand mother is my ultimate exercise reason. At the age of 70 she decided not to get up from her bed reasoning it would extend her years on this Earth. During my childhood and youth my grandmother, my parents and I were sharing a small 2 bedroom apartment. I don’t have to tell you how wrong that decision was for her, and how it affected the life of our family, but the direct impact on me was the decision not to be like that as much as possible for as long as possible.

The longer I live, the more this decision is being reinforced by my personal experiences, common knowledge and the new scientific discoveries.

I read the brilliant and incredibly optimistic book by a great doctor and author Sherwin B. Nuland: the Art of Aging. The author, himself in his 70es, gives an honest and encouraging view on aging with grace and wisdom. He puts a great stress on the importance of exercise. The cornerstone principle of being physically (and mentally) fit is this: you don’t use it, you lose it!

Yes, it is true says Dr Nuland that we all are given different set DNAs and that drives a lot of how we age, but all else being equal, the well oiled mechanism will last longer then the neglected one.

While explaining the complex changes that happen in the aging body, he stresses the importance of vigorous exercise as means for slowing the aging process.

Exercise improves:
1) the heart muscle: ”A heart that has been benefited by a consistent schedule of vigorous exertion can respond to stress like a heart several decades younger, not only by its added ability to beat more forcefully and faster, but also by the capacity of its muscle cells to take up the required supplemental supply of oxygen from the blood.”
(From the personal experience, I used to have a heart murmur since birth, but not even a sonogram shows it now)
2) the cardio-vascular system - by improving” the ability of the larger arteries to adapt to the heightened blood flow required by exertion, and it increases the sensitivity of certain pressure monitoring structures”
3) the appearance: ”Planned vigorous exercise is a far better anti-aging treatment then all the elixirs, creams, lotions, potions, and cosmetic surgery in the world”
4) lessens bone loss: “The more stress put on the bone by the forces of the muscle attached to it, the more its’ cells respond by doing all they can to maintain and even add to bone mass and strength, including increasing the absorption of calcium from the bloodstream. Just as sedentary life encourages the loss of bone, a vigorously active life encourages increase in bone density”

These few excerpts from Dr Nuland’s book alone should convince you that exercise is invaluable in slowing down aging and assuring your version of the 60es, 70 and beyond are a far more optimistic one then the stereotype. Dr Nuland revives a concept stated by Oliver Wendell Holmes more than 150 year ago: “Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing”. Or, as we in BeachBody land say “Bring it!”

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Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D., is Clinical Professor of Surgery at the Yale University School of Medicine and a Fellow at Yale's Institute for Social and Policy Studies. He is the author of nine books, including Doctors: The Biography of Medicine, The Wisdom of the Body, The Mysteries Within, Lost in America: A Journey with My Father, and The Doctors' Plague: Germs, Childbed Fever, and the Strange Story of Ignác Semmelweis. His book How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter won the National Book Award and spent thirty-four weeks on the New York Times best-seller list.
[exercise motivation]

Running and Weight Loss (or lack thereof) Explained

I am a runner, and at this point running became a part of my personality, something that I need to do to maintain my sanity.
I ran for almost 10 years. I completed numerous half-marathongs.

I could never lose any weight while running!

I ran 20-25 miles a week, added biking to it, all to no avail. I was still carying a spare tire around my waist. My weight stayed at the same level.
Running half-marathons sure gave me the runners high, but never made me feel good in a dressing room.

It was a kind of rediculous situation.

Dissatisfied with it, I've started Slim in 6 in November of 2007, and I put my running on hold. Now I run very little - I call it maintenance runs - and focus instead in BeachBody programs and diet.

In other words - Slim in 6 got the magic formula (see the previous post "Slim in 6 Explained").

When I go to the park where I live I see a lot of people doing aerobic exercise, especially women. I think that Team in training and other charitable walk-a-thons and initiatives and literature about the benefits of the aerobic activity must be having an effect on the health-conscious population. But when I think on my experience and that of the runners I know who remain unable to lose weight, I scratch my head and reach out to science for the explanation

Here's the exserpt from Christian Finn, TheFactsAboutFitness.Com explaines this phenomenon:

"Aerobic exercise has a small effect on the rate of fat loss
Some answers come from a recent review of several hundred weight loss studies, conducted by Dr Wayne Miller and colleagues at The George Washington University Medical Centre (Miller et al.,1997). The team examined 493 studies carried out between 1969 and 1994. Miller and his associates wanted to determine whether the addition of aerobic exercise to a restricted calorie diet accelerated weight loss. Twenty-five years of weight loss research showed that diet and aerobic exercise provides only a very marginal benefit (in terms of weight loss) when compared to diet alone.
TABLE 1. Average weight loss over a 15-week period
Method Weight Loss
Aerobic exercise 3.3kg (7.3lb)
Restricted calorie diet 7.8kg (17.2lb)
Exercise and diet 9kg (19.8lb)

This is not the only research to cast doubt over the effectiveness of moderate aerobic exercise. A study completed at Appalachian State University also showed little effect on body composition over a 12-week period (Utter et al 1998).
The research team assigned a group of 91 obese women to one of four groups. Group one followed a restricted calorie diet (1,200 - 1,300 calories per day), group two performed moderate aerobic exercise for 45 minutes, five days each week, while a third group combined the exercise and diet programme. The fourth group acted as controls.
TABLE 2. Fat loss following a 12-week programme of diet and exercise
Method Weight Loss
Aerobic exercise 1.3kg (2.9lb)
Restricted calorie diet 6.8kg (15lb)
Exercise and diet 7.2kg (15.8lb)

"Moderate aerobic exercise training," says Alan Utter, the researcher leading the study, "has a minor, nonsignificant effect on fat mass."
Despite the popular support for aerobic training, it does not appear to significantly accelerate fat loss, even when combined with a low calorie diet. When performed without restricting calories, moderate aerobic exercise has only a very small effect on body fat levels.
Why moderate aerobic exercise is so ineffective
This isn't surprising when you consider how many calories are contained in a pound of fat. Each pound of fat contains the equivalent of approximately 3,555 calories (McArdle et al., 1991).
The most fundamental aspect of any fat loss programme is to create a caloric deficit - to expend more calories than are consumed. Unfortunately, moderate aerobic exercise has only a moderate caloric requirement - around 187 calories per session (Utter et al., 1998). Based on this estimate, it could take up to 19 moderate aerobic workouts to lose just 0.45kg (1lb) of fat.
This might come as a surprise to those of you using the calorie counters on exercise machines to monitor energy expenditure during a workout. Unfortunately, these digital readouts are not always accurate. The most reliable way to assess energy expenditure during exercise is to measure oxygen consumption. Each litre of oxygen that you consume generates approximately five calories of energy. For example, if you were to exercise for 30 minutes and consume 30 litres of oxygen, you would have expended approximately 150 calories (five calories x 30 litres). Without directly measuring oxygen consumption, it's difficult to establish an accurate estimate of energy expenditure during a workout.
A second factor affecting the reliability of calorie counters is the difference between net and gross energy expenditure. Gross energy expenditure refers to the energy cost of exercise plus the metabolic rate. Net energy expenditure refers to just the energy cost of exercise. Calorie counters often display gross energy expenditure - so they don't accurately represent the additional energy that is used during exercise. In fact, during a 45 minute workout, net and gross energy expenditure can differ by almost 30% (Utter et al., 1998). The moral? Don't always believe what the machine tells you.
Another popular misconception is the idea that aerobic exercise increases caloric expenditure AFTER a bout of exercise, thus making a further contribution to fat loss. Unfortunately this is not always the case. Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (the name given to the increase in caloric expenditure following a workout) is more likely to occur after high intensity exercise. Moderate aerobic exercise has very little effect on post-exercise metabolic rate (Sjodin et al., 1996). Furthermore, when an increase in physical activity results in a caloric deficit (as would occur with diet and exercise), there is evidence to show that the metabolic rate does not rise at all (Sjodin et al., 1996)."
The author goes on to say that aerobic exercise has it's benefits: it reduces the risk of gaining weight and can promotes healthier patterns of eating.
But if you found this page chances are it is because you see that I was successful in LOSING weight and that's what you want to do as well. In that case BeachBody products (like Slim in 6) are your answer! Happy losing!