My second round of the Fat Loss 4 Idiots computer-generated diet is now complete. This improved version is easier to tolerate since it allows more than one food per meal. It’s still pretty limited, I think, for a person who likes to have carbs and proteins and fats in the best proportions at most meals. And the days of fruits only and veggies only make you crave even the blandest cottage cheese or anything with some protein in it. Still, this is better than monomeals and the overall plan isn’t likely to cause malnutrition even if you did it repeatedly.

But how did I fare on it? Keep in mind that I have been following a fairly conscious plan of eating for some time so I will not show the huge water losses that some people do when they first start a restricted eating plan like this one. In short, your results may vary, as the legalese goes. I lost 4 pounds on the 11 days of eating exactly what was on the list every day. Even though the plan says no exercise, I did take 40 minute walks on about five of those days, in addition to my usual 2 miles or so that I put in just doing the daily things. I gained one of those pounds back back after a weekend that included some yummy carbs like whole grain bread, brown rice, and pizza dough. So, in two weeks I lost 3 pounds. Not exactly the 9 lbs promised on the website, but a noticeable loss nontheless. Read the rest of this entry »

Fat Loss 4 Idiots, Review of Fat Loss 4 Idiots, Reviews

Obesity is “socially contagious” and so is thinness. A new article in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine with lead authors from Harvard Medical School and the University of California at San Diego says so. They studied data from over 12,000 adults covering a period of 32 years. Seems like a pretty good sample size to me.

They found that if a person becomes obese, their friends and family, especially those of the same sex, have a greater chance of becoming obese themselves.

If your friend puts on the pounds, your own chances of doing the same go up 57%. If two or more of your mutual friends are large, your chances go up 117%! If your brother or sister or spouse is obese (a score of 30 or more on the Body Mass Index scale), your likelihood increases around 40%.

It wasn’t that the obese or non obese people were just finding similar types to hang out with. Nope, there was a causal relationship. This was also not just due to similarities in lifestyle or environment, like eating the same things or exercising (or not) together. People, especially friends, who lived a long way away from each other were just as likely to share being obese or non-obese. The researchers wrote that the effect might be from how we establish/confirm our idea of what is “OK and “normal” with respect to body size.

“What appears to be happening is that a person becoming obese most
likely causes a change of norms about what counts as an appropriate
body size. People come to think that it is okay to be bigger since
those around them are bigger, and this sensibility spreads,” said
Nicholas Christakis of HMS.

“This is about people’s ideas about their
bodies and their health,” James Fowler, of UCSD, said. “Consciously or unconsciously,
people look to others when they are deciding how much to eat, how much
to exercise and how much weight is too much.”

A lot of what we have been reading about in the past has dealt with looking at the physical processes involved in becoming obese or thin and looking for genes that might have some effect. Now we know we also have to look at a person’s social networks - their friends, their friends’ friends, and their immediate family. (Didn’t see anything in this article about parents. Wonder what effect their weight state might have.)

The good thing is, that when one person moves out of obesity, they also help a lot of others do the same thing. So now we owe it to our friends and family to become the healthy, active, slim person we all are, deep down inside.  –Di

To read more about this: Obesity Is ‘Socially Contagious,’ Study Finds

technorati tags:obesity, weight, loss, social, networks, obese, friends

In my recent series of articles on ways to dampen the appetite between meals, I thought about including the often-repeated advice to go drink some water whenever you feel hungry.

But the fact is, for me, water doesn’t do anything useful about my hunger pangs. But, I thought, it’s probably something one should do anyway. At least 8 8oz glasses of water a day, right?

Well, not so fast. Dartmouth Medical School professor Heinz Valtin, M.D. just had an article published in the online version of the American Journal of Physiology that says there isn’t good scientific evidence to support the old advice to drink the 8 x 8 of pure water, at least, every day. He says the water in other things you drink, including coffee and tea, does count and there is also a lot of water in real fruits and vegetables. Furthermore, he says, drinking too much water can be really bad.

He says the body has perfectly good mechanism for regulating your hydration status. When you’re thirsty, drink. Seems like a good message to me. –Di
Dartmouth Medical School - ‘Drink at Least 8 Glasses of Water a Day’ - Really?

Tags: weightloss, drink water, hydration, hunger

Recently my workplace started a sort of club to support employees trying to lose weight. Guess word of the obesity epidemic got to the powers that be.

Anyway, for one of the meetings they brought in an internal medicine doctor who’s been on the staff here for many years. She said quite a few employees come to her for help with losing weight and she noticed that many of them seemed depressed. That’s “mildly depressed” in a clinical sense. Serious depression requires serious treatment.

She said that she had noticed that when some people took over-the-counter herbal aniti-depressants like Rhodiola, they felt more optimistic, more in control of things, and could manage their weight better. She said she has many friends who swear by the stuff. This is not hard scientific evidence, of course. This is definitely anecdotal. But I thought I would pass it along in case my dear readers might want to give it a try. Might help, probably won’t hurt.

The name of the plant involved is Rhodiola rosea. This stuff is cheap, readily available and has a very long history of not being harmful. It’s the root and/or its extract that you want, with at least 10.2 mg of Rosavins per capsule. You take one of those a day and see what happens. Will go have a look and see what else I can dig up abut this herb. –Di

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I went back to the Fat Loss 4 Idiots site to see if there had been any changes. And sure enough, the computer-generated diet is now putting out a much more varied type of meal.

Now, instead of almost all meals consisiting of one thing only, most of the meals have at least two different constitutents. The overall plan is also more balanced. There is an all fruit day and and all veggie day in my plan, both of which are a bit tough for a person who likes varied meals. But it's only one day each and you certainly feel light after those days.

The exercise requirement is now gone for people on the computer diet.

There is also a guide to create your own diet based on carb or protein classifications of foods. So you can have a bit more variety if you want to plan your own meals. That system does require the exercise. A good thing, IMHO.

Will let you know how I fare this time around. Meanwhile go have a look yourself if you'd like. The site, again, is Fat Loss 4 Idiots. –Di

technorati tags:Fat, Loss, 4, Idiots, diets, weight, loss, diet, program

Let’s say you’ve been following along with the tips I gave you already. You’re eating often, but not much, making sure you’re chewing thoroughly, and including a good bit of protein in each little meal.

But even before the ol’ clock says it’s time for refueling, the ol’ tum is saying “feeeed me.” “Just a little.” Well, we all know how much “just a little” can turn into.

I read this tip a while back and didn’t think much of it. But recently I did it for other reasons and it had the desired effect so I thought you should know.

Just go brush your teeth. Do a good job with toothpaste if that’s how you would normally do it. Do this right after every little meal or whenever you start to feel a hint of wanting to have a snack. For some reason, the psyche doesn’t want to mess up that clean feeling in your mouth and so you don’t want to put any junk in it any more. Or maybe the teeth brushing is something you normally do right before you go through a period of not eating and so it’s linked to “not eating time” in your mind. However it works, I was astonished at how quickly and completely my desire for a snack went away.

Try it and let me know how it works for you.  –Di

Tags: loseweight, diet, hunger