Weight loss diets

After many of us have determined to lose weight or get in shape - magazines, newspapers, television and radio bombard us with diet and weight-loss options. Diets are promoted through books and over the Internet.

Be skeptical. Some are more hype than substance. Some are downright dangerous.

Fad diets can usually be recognized by promises made by promoters. As you review the information about a particular diet plan or weight loss product, ask yourself, "Is it too good to be true?"

Unfortunately, many diets are empty promises. Beware of diet plans or weight loss products if:

• Miraculous, fast results are promised.
• No time or effort is said to be required
• Claims are made that calories don't count.
• Eating a variety of foods is not stressed.
• Claims are made that diets either high or low in certain nutrients have special weight-reducing powers.
• Certain foods have special powers to cause selective weight loss (for example, hips and thighs).

There is no dietary shortcut to weight control and long-term health. The magic pill, cream, skin patch, wrap or dietary supplement for weight loss does not exist. You have to be active enough to burn 3,500 calories to lose a pound of body fat. Fast weight loss (more than one to two pounds per week) reflects water - not fat - loss. Your plan should be to eat well and enjoy some type of physical activity daily.

The USDA's "Dietary Guidelines for Americans," released in 2005, recommends consuming a variety of nutrient-rich foods and beverages from the basic foods groups and meeting calorie needs by balancing food intake with activity.

Fad diets that ignore the principles of the Dietary Guidelines - available at www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines - might result in short-term weight loss, but might do so at the risk of your health.

How you go about managing your weight has a lot to do with your long-term success. Gradual weight loss should be your goal, unless your physician says your health is seriously at risk due to complications from being overweight or obese.

Permanent, safe weight loss involves permanent lifestyle changes in which you consume fewer calories and become more active. It also is very important that before beginning any weight-loss program, you talk with your doctor.

 What is diet?
Diet is called specially selected by a quantity, the composition of energy value and the method of preparation food ration, and also the weight loss diet program. There are diets medical and weight loss diet. Medical diets a little, they are known for a long time, necessary, checked up, effective for treatment of some illnesses and rehabilitation. To weight reduction they attitudes have no.
Weight loss diets the huge quantity, and every day appear all new and new. Among them it is possible to allocate following versions -

Separate meal.

Supporters of the theory of separate meal consider what to eat all is possible and in any reasonable quantities, impossible to use products incompatible with each other simultaneously only. However the majority of doctors do not recommend a separate meal. In their opinion, application of this technique - artificial infringement of normal digestion.

Monodiets.

Provide the use only one foodstuff . They too rigid and dangerous to body. Besides if to enter application of a monodiet into system or to not adhere to the moderate use of food after its termination, the former weight will quickly be restored.

Albuminous diets

A maximum of fiber (meat and a fish), a minimum of all rest. As a rule, it is rather "rigid" diets.

Fatty diet.

To lose weight, it is necessary to use mainly fat food, mainly meat and bacon. Animal protein and fats are easily acquired and give a maximum of energy.

Vegetarian diet

A good, healthy diet, however difficult. But it in itself does not give strongly pronounced effect of weight loss.

The most known and popular diets:

South Beach diet, Atkins diet, Lemonade and Grapefruit diet

Apply diets correctly

 

Consult with the doctor-dietitian, it will help to pick up the most effective for you diet.

if suffer any chronic disease, necessarily consult with the doctor - some diets can be categorically counter-indicative to you.

Try to pick up a diet including food which you love

Be not overzealous. At all do not use a diet, longer and more often, than it is recommended. Do not reduce caloric content too (women should consume not less than 1000-1200 calories in day, men - 1700-2000).

If at application of any diet for loss of weight at you the state of health has noticeably worsened, have appeared (aggravation) of any diseases, immediately stop application of this diet.

To loss weight it is easier, than to keep the reached result. After end of a diet do not eat all successively, and smoothly, gradually pass to the normal balanced mode.

“Eat all you want and still lose weight” boast the ads for Akavar 20/50, one of the most heavily advertised new weight-loss supplements on the market.

Their promise gets caught in your head, not simply because it’s repeated – no, shouted – multiple times, but because, at this time of year, it sounds a lot better than going to the gym.

With New Year’s workout kick winding down and months to go before bikini season, midyear sees a dramatic slump in gym activity, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Psychology. So why don’t we all just pop a pill, order a pizza and commence the fat burning? Because it’s hard to believe such a miracle drug exists.

Akavar’s own research chemist, Dr. Nathalie Chevreau, was happy to fill us in on a 2001 report featured in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics that stated 24 people who took Akavar lost an average of 11 pounds in 45 days, while 23 who were given a placebo lost nearly no weight at all.

In fact, she even takes it herself.

“I take one serving, which is two tablets, once in the morning to make sure I’m not too hungry for the day,” says Chevreau of the pills, which cost $39.99 a bottle. “There is a slowdown of the stomach emptying into the intestine, so you have an increased sense of fullness.” She attributes the process to three active herbal ingredients, yerba mate, guarana and damiana.

But that’s not necessarily a good thing, say other experts.

“If it’s decreasing the appetite and causing you to eat less, you’re body goes into starvation mode and starts to burn lean tissue and store fat. The active ingredients are stimulants, and no one really knows what the safe doses are for any of these herbs in the long term,” counters weight-loss expert and non-Akavar affiliate Dr. Dave E. David, who equates the caffeine levels in one dose to 3-1/2 cups of coffee.

“Taking more than 250mg of caffeine has been implicated in insomnia and high blood pressure,” says nutritionist Thomas Von Ohlen, who works with thousands of patients to address the hundreds of different reasons for weight gain.

“The idea of one cure-all is absurd. Losing weight by taking diet pills and going to Dunkin’ Donuts all day long is a biochemical impossibility,” he adds. “The basic rule is, if it sounds too good to be true, it is.”

Meanwhile, Akavar’s ad claims: “We couldn’t say it in print if it wasn’t true.”

Well, actually, they pretty much can, as there’s no federal agency that reviews advertisements before they appear.

“They’re about as bold as you can be,” says lawyer Scott Shepherd of the outrageously brazen ads.

His firm, Shepherd, Finkelman, Miller & Shah, LLC, has filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, set to go to trial in 2010. “We filed our case in November 2007 based on consumer fraud claims,” said Shepherd, whose firm has successfully settled a $16 million suit against Rexall Sundown Inc., for weight-loss product Cellasene and a $12 million suit against the now-defunct Dr. Phil-endorsed Shape Up! diet supplements.

Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission was unable to confirm whether any investigation is pending.

One thing is clear: Getting off your behind and heading to the gym is looking better and better.

Popularity: 5%

Pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development and commercialization of novel therapeutic products, today announced that it has completed enrollment in the EQUATE study (OB-301). This trial, initiated in December 2007, will study the effects of Qnexa, an investigational drug, in obese patients with and without co-morbidities over 28 weeks. The EQUATE study has enrolled over 700 patients with Body Mass Index (“BMI”) ranging from 30 to 45 in 35 clinical sites. The co-primary endpoints for these studies will evaluate the differences between treatments in mean percent weight loss and in the percentage of subjects achieving weight loss of 5% or more.

Patients in the EQUATE study will undergo a 4-week dose titration period followed by 24 weeks of treatment. The study is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 7-arm, prospective trial with subjects randomize to receive once-a-day treatment with mid-dose Qnexa (7.5 mg phentermine/46 mg topiramate CR), full strength Qnexa (15 mg phentermine/92 mg topiramate CR), the respective phentermine and topiramate constituents, or placebo. At randomization, subjects will be instructed to follow a hypocaloric diet representing a 500-calorie/day deficit and advised to implement a simple lifestyle modification program throughout the study period. VIVUS has completed the Special Protocol Assessment (“SPA”) process for this trial with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Under the SPA process, the company and the FDA have reached agreement on study design features that will be employed throughout the entire phase 3 program including the co-primary endpoints of the study, scope and size of the patient population, specific safety assessments, inclusion/exclusion criteria, duration of the trials and the statistical method for analyzing the co-primary study endpoints.

Popularity: 3%

Weight loss is not just a physical act. The most successful people who lose weight and keep it off are those who adapt a long-term lifestyle change that is a good fit for them.

It is something we all have heard of before but certainly not a simple change process to begin. That’s the psychology of weight loss. To get to the stage of actually changing your lifestyle, you will enter a tough journey, but not an impossible one. It is a step-by-step process. Remember, the journey to finish a marathon begins with the first step.

When entering a weight-loss program, be mindful to avoid ones that promote their program with “x” amount of weight loss for “x” amount of money. For example, “Lose 20 pounds in two weeks for just $19.99.” To avoid a disaster, look at the program’s outcome data. Look to see that it gives you tools to maintaining your weight loss, and, most importantly, does it teach one to be accountable to oneself.

A healthy weight-loss program is not one that is just low in caloric intake, but uses several tools to help you achieve your lifestyle changes.

Excessive weight is what I call a multifactoral or multimodal health problem. Your body is a complex piece of machinery. Excess weight is related to many factors (e.g., biological, genetics, psychological and social). It is not as simple as “eating less and exercising more.” If excess weight is multifactoral, then the approach to losing weight must be multimodal.

One must appreciate and be mindful not only of the physical battle ahead but the emotional/psychological one as well. Choose a program that will help you on all levels that has multiple resources, which could include a physician, psychologist, dietitian/nutritionist and other support groups or systems.

The process of weight loss should start with honestly evaluating your readiness to change. For many people, weight gain occurs for many reasons and over some period of time.

All of the factors that have lead to the weight gain need to be evaluated and addressed to promote the most individually tailored weight loss treatment plan. With this in mind, you should think about everything that has lead to your weight gain and list those reasons (e.g., stress, genetics, poor eating habits, time management, etc).

Think about the relationship you have developed with food and eating. Include the surroundings of where and when you usually eat: in the car, in front of the TV, when you are stressed, on your way to work.

After you have listed and examined all of these issues, ask yourself this important question: “Am I truly ready to change my behaviors?” The first answer commonly is “yes” when I ask my patients; however, it is easier to identify whether you truly are ready for change by using Prochaska, DiClemente and Norcross’ Stages of Change Model, which puts your situation in perspective.

There are six stages of change that have been identified, which are crucial in tailoring treatment. Research has shown there are specific techniques and processes that help people move from one stage to the next.

• Precontemplation: In this stage, you want to lose weight but you have not really thought about how to change yet.

• Contemplation: You are thinking about change but sitting on the fence on what to do.

• Preparation/pre-action: You start actively looking for resources, programs or other tools geared to help reach your weight-loss goals.

• Action: You are fully engaged in the weight-loss process and working a program tailored for you.

• Maintenance: You have maintained your healthy weight loss, being mindful of body and emotion for a lifestyle change with long-term effects.

• Relapse prevention: Many people do relapse similar to other behavioral problems by resuming old habits and eating behaviors. In this stage, it is important to identify what the trigger was to this relapse and tackle that head-on.

Find out where you are. Do not assume you are ready to lose weight based on what you say or the pressure you feel from friends, family and society. Identify what stage you are in and aim to get to the next stage until you begin changing your lifestyle. There are countless bad weeks, and there’s never a right time to start a plan, so avoid that mind-set,  focus on the stage you are in and work toward the stage you want to be in.

Popularity: 3%

Cutting kids’ TV and computer time by half reduced the amount of food they ate and helped them lose weight, a new study found.

The finding offers hope to the problem of childhood obesity in the United States, where an estimated 16 percent of children ages 6 to 19 years old are overweight, a 45 percent increase in one decade, according to federal researchers.

For the study, a professor in the department of pediatrics and social and preventive medicine at the University at Buffalo,  and his colleagues studied 70 overweight children, aged 4 to 7, who watched TV or played computer games for at least 14 hours a week.

The researchers installed a monitoring device on each television and computer the child used; the device allowed for the reduction of the children’s weekly screen time by 10 percent a week until a 50 percent reduction had been reached. Each family member was given a unique code to activate the TV or computer. In addition, the kids received such incentives as money and stickers to spend less time with TVs or computers.

The other overweight children had no restriction on their use of TVs or computers.

Professor’s team found that the children who had no restrictions on their computer or TV use reduced their TV watching or computer-games playing by 5.2 hours a week. But the kids with restricted use cut their TV and computer time by 17.5 hours a week.

And, the children with restricted TV and computer time lost more weight than the other children. However, the researchers found no difference between the two groups in terms of physical activity.

“Using technology to modify television viewing eliminates parental vigilance needed to enforce family rules and reduces the disciplinary action needed if a child exceeds his or her sedentary behavior limits,” the authors concluded. “Perhaps most important, the device puts the choice of when to watch television in the child’s control, as opposed to a rule such as ‘no television time until homework is completed.’”

Popularity: 3%