Weight Brief

If you’re on a diet you inevitably will come to the moment when you’re going to be hungry. Real, mean hunger that gives head-aches and growls to the stomach sounding like a grizzly that’s just been waken up. Should you wait for lunch time? Don’t punish your body. Eat a snack.

A snack doesn’t necessarily mean a “small” burger and it can be a very important part of a diet or a daily eating style. Of course snack along with healthy means in the most cases a small amount of food that’s not even that tasteful. Not necessarily.

Because a “healthy snack” must have by definition a low amount of calories many of the recipes are indeed not so appealing. Here is one snack that’s also light and very tasteful: Antipasto Plate.

It has a small amount of calories and it may just be the perfect way to get you through harsh times. The plate can contain vegetables and/or prosciutto and strings of mozzarella. A plate with prosciutto and mozzarella along with some olives, grapes, and roasted bell peppers contains almost a quarter of a woman’s recommended daily allowance for calcium. How’s that for “healthy”?

Actually I think it’s best to eat a healthy snack than to starve as they can keep you from taking second or third helpings at your next meal and you may consume fewer total calories for the day.

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I’ve recently saw a very interesting show at the TV regarding human’s eating habits when socializing. One of the ideas really made me wonder if it is true and I’ve started to search the Internet. The show was suggesting that if women are to go to dinner with very attracting men then they would eat less than usual.

And surprising or not I’ve come across a study published way back in 1987, which revealed that women eat less in front of a desirable male partner in order to present themselves as being more feminine. By contrary when they dated men who previously were instructed to be as obnoxious as they could the study showed that women ate more than in the “pleasant” date.

A related reason for women’s dieting behavior may be that being thin and eating lightly are sex-appropriate behaviors for women in our culture. Whereas both male and female subjects rated a normal weight male silhouette as most masculine, they judged a thin female silhouette as most feminine.

Now this is actually great news for all of you ladies who try hard to lose weight. You can do it the easy way. Date beautiful men (I admit it will be a little harder if you’re overweight but hey, you’re women…you know how to do it) and there’s no need for diets. On top of all you’ll improve your social life and why not, eat a lot of meals for free (unless the men are gorgeous and broke).

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If you are trying to lose fat and you are working out, one of the main exercises is running. I’m sure all of you who are fighting with excess pounds are doing this as part of your weekly workout routine (or should be doing).

Running is indeed great in helping you but it has some drawbacks. Among these is the fact that running only speeds up your metabolism for a short amount of time after you’ve finished the exercise. Running in sprints, or Sprinting, along with the fact that it burns a lot of calories also boosts up metabolism for hours and even days after you’re done.

Sprinting combined with jogging can take you to a whole new level in your weight loss plan. If on top of all these you are keeping a clean and healthy diet, incredible results won’t be far. Sprinting can’t be done properly at your local gym, like running, so I would recommend you to search for a track (a 400m one will do just fine) and go sprint there two times a week, or even more if you feel up to it – although you should try not to overtrain.

I personally run for half a minute and then do a slow jog for another minute and afterwards I repeat the cycle for another nine times. But I’m doing this for some time and if you’re a beginner you should try to sprint a distance of 70 to 100 m and then do the slow jog for twice the distance you sprinted. Also don’t try to do 10 sprints from the beginning if you feel it’s too much. Take it slowly and increase the number of sprints gradually by week.

If you take my advice and start sprinting, put the sprinting schedules at least 2 days apart. This way the muscles will have time to heal and also and most important just as the metabolism start to slow down after the first sprint, you will fire it up again with the second.

For a good sprinting position you need to lean forward a bit and always try not to run on your toes but to push the ground with the balls of your feet. Also try not to over or understride because it can cause injuries or not so effective sprints. Don’t worry, it’s not that hard, and I’m sure you’ll figure it out in no time.

Sprinting can tone and even tone the muscles that you’re desperate about and also work out your hamstrings. New reasons for you to get out there and start looking for a running track!

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One of America’s favorite snacks, microwave heated popcorn may be the cause for lung disease. Actually for some time, doctors had known that people who work in popcorn (for microwaves) factories can develop lung diseases from the chemical that is used to give the popcorn a buttery flavor.

Although the connection can’t be proved with absolute certainty, some facts that indicate this story exist. Wayne Watson is a man who’s lung capacity had diminished severely over the years. He was undergoing treatment for a year with no signs of improvement until he went to a new doctor. She interviewed the man for possible causes of his affection, and after finishing all major possibilities, the doctor asked if he eats microwave heated popcorn with butter flavor. Watson indeed was eating two bags a day for at least ten years.

The man now stopped eating butter flavor popcorn and his lung capacity went up to 75 percent after it was down to 50. There has been one confirmed death among the workers from the flavor’s (diacetyl) manufacturers and others filed lawsuits against the companies who allegedly spend $100 million on these trials.

After Wayne Watson’s case was made public a popcorn company from Indianapolis announced that it will replace the chemical as a flavoring because of consumer concerns. Diacetyl is approved as a flavor ingredient by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), but still, major American popcorn companies said that although they believe the popcorn is safe, they are working on new ways of flavoring that would wipe out any of the consumer’s doubts.

Now think about it: what will you eat the next time a good movie is on TV? I hope not butter flavored popcorns…and if you still choose to do so, try not eating them every day for 10 years.

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In the last post, I’ve showed you some scary statistics. But now a new study emerged that gives us motives to hope.

The study, made by researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, basically says that a gene, that may control whether you burn fat or deposit large amounts of it, was found in the human genome. The researchers suggest that it could be possible to “tune up the volume” of this gene making it to increase it’s functions and ultimately to make you burn calories like a Hummer eats gas.

If this discovery could lead to a drug therapy it will be huge..and in the same time awesome. Imagine that you can eat all you want, then take the pills…the gene goes crazy and tens of calories are burnt faster than you can say ” a Big Mac please”!

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Being overweight or obese is very common nowadays. More and more people are affected by this sort of problems and especially U.S.A are confronting with the highest percentage of overweight persons from the entire globe.

According to OECD Health Data 2007 report, over 32% of the Americans are obese thus being ranked #1 on a list of all countries. They are followed in the top by Mexico and UK with 24.2% and 23% respectively. These numbers are huge and as U.S is concerned, the fact that 1 out of 3 Americans is obese just blows my mind. 33.2 percent of American women are obese while males account for 31.1 percent.

In the overweight statistics, U.S managed to be “only” in the 4th position with 34.1% of the population being overweight. The first three were UK, Netherlands and Luxembourg. 39.7 percent (5th worldwide after UK, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Sweden) of males and 28.6 percent (4th worldwide after Mexico, UK and Netherlands) of females are overweight.

These two statistics combined take us to a horrifying data of 66.3 percent of Americans are overweight or obese. This number is almost unbelievable to me. I can’t imagine walking down a street and every 2 out of 3 persons I meet have some extra pounds (maybe the overweight guys are hiding somewhere).

As you know, overweight or obese persons have a lot more health problems than normal weight ones. Here are some other statistics that may derive from that fact.

U.S are ranked #33 in a top of the probability for females to live over 65 years (85 percent chances). In the same statistics only this time for males, U.S takes the #32 place with only 77% chances. One may think that the U.S.A, world’s greatest economy, should have a top-notch health system and very healthy people.

Well that’s not what the next numbers tell us: the percentage of life that an American female and male live in ill health are 13.5% and 10.8% respectively. That means U.S is 6th placed – for women- and 9th placed –for men- amid all the studied countries. Other better placed “competitors” in this statistic are Mexico, Poland, Turkey, Hungary and Slovakia. These countries are placed 13th, 22nd, 20th, 45th and 60th on a world most powerful economy top. Also U.S.A is the 37th nation in a “Overall health performance by country” list, standing right before Slovenia and after Costa Rica. This only shows that maybe money can bring happiness but they don’t always bring health along.

These statistics were presented with the hope that they will impress you, make you more concerned about you and your family’s health and also make you wish not to be one of those 2 Americans who are overweight or obese.
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Virus theory

More and more people around the world are obese and the statistics only tend to rise. As the market is flooded with diets, quick weight-loss tips, information about how, when to eat and also how to exercise, a study was published (January 2006) in the American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology by scientists of the University of Wisconsin, Madison which stated that Obesity is Contagious.

A lead researcher of the study, Leah D. Whigham said that there was growing evidence that certain viruses may cause obesity, making it contagious. The scientist found two human adenoviruses Ad-36 and Ad-5 which caused obesity in chickens and other animals, fact that lead them to believing that they could cause the same thing to humans. Another adenovirus Ad-37 is also suspected for causing obesity but further research must be done. Chickens inoculated with Ad-37 had much more visceral fat and body fat compared with the chickens infected with other adenoviruses, even though they didn’t eat any more. The Ad-37 group was also generally heavier, but the difference wasn’t great enough to be significant by scientific standards

Researchers now want to precisely identify the viruses that can cause obesity, then develop a test to see who actually is infected and conceive a vaccine.

Although I’m not a scientist, I personally don’t put much faith in this study. I also believe that is very dangerous to pass around a study like this before you have hard evidence. It would be very easy for a great number of obese or overweight people to just think that their weight problem is nothing that they can control and consider themselves ill. I can’t really imagine myself not shacking hands with overweight people being afraid not to catch obesity.

Social theory

A recent study (July 2007) published in The New England Journal of Medicine states the same thing, that obesity is contagious, but from radically different reasons than the previous study. The new data show that obesity is “socially contagious”.

In a huge social study spread over 32 years, researchers Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler, evaluated a densely interconnected social network of 12,067 people starting from 1971 to 2003, re-examining their weight over the years and determining whether weight gain in one person was associated with weight gain in his or her friends, siblings, spouse, and neighbors.

The study found that an individual’s chances of becoming obese increased by 57 percent if a friend grew obese. Within the closest friendships, the increased risk was 171 percent. Strange enough, obesity seemed to spread even if friends were geographically distant. “We were stunned to find that friends who are hundreds of miles away have just as much impact on a person’s weight as those who are geographically close” said one of the study’s authors. This led researchers to suggest that the effect wasn’t only due to sharing behaviors, such as eating together, but to sharing ideas about what constitutes an appropriate weight.

Click to enlarge

Among friends and siblings, obesity seemed to spread only between those of the same gender. It was strongest between male friends - if one became obese, the risk for the other doubled - and between sisters. In a counterintuitive finding, the spread was less among heterosexual married couples and that’s because, as one of the authors said, people tend to look to others of their own gender when deciding what weight is appropriate.

The study also offered some hope for the ones that really try to lose weight: having a friend or relative who lost weight, makes their chances to do the same thing significantly increase.

I find this study very interesting and if it’s true it might just be a ground-breaking discovery in Health. I am also an overweight person and I’ve been obese (just a little bit) and if I think to all my friends I find that strange enough over 90 percent of them are slim, so the study isn’t accurate as I am concerned but overall it’s conclusions seem very plausible. So, if your weight is normal try to help your overweight friends by staying more around them and if you’re overweight don’t sever from friends like you but try to introduce them to some of your normal-weight ones.

Conclusions

It’s up to you to decide which study to believe, if any. Only the idea that obesity could be contagious, I believe, speaks for how much excess pounds have entered our lives. Higher and higher numbers of overweight population around the globe makes weight one of the most important health issues worldwide.

I wish you all to lose the extra weight and get healthy!

Listen here to Richard Atkinson as he speaks about viruses making obesity contagious.
Official site for The New England Journal of Medicine.

Manuel Uribe, a 42 year old Mexican was the world’s fattest man in 2006 and in 3rd place on a top of the heaviest persons ever recorded. At 1234 lbs (560 kg), Manuel broke all the records thus being labeled as the fattest man alive.

At 22 he was already weighing 286 lbs and from 2001 he was confined to staying only in bed due to his enormous size. He had food delivered to him and only could stand up with the help of his friends and family (always more than 1 helping). His mother took care of his necessities and looked after his auto parts sales business through telephone and internet.

Uribe appeared at “Televista”, a Mexican television post, trying to get help as he feared he could soon die from being morbidly obese. He also did this because the Mexicans doctors refused to operate on him, considering that the chances of him surviving a major intervention were slim. But a team of Italian doctors saw his cry for help and decided to help. Manuel started a protein rich diet called “The Zone” and by following it he reached 800 lbs (362 kg) being able after 5 years to walk again. Now he set a new goal for himself (I personally consider it impossible but I wish him good luck) to get to a weight of “only” 265 lbs (120 kg).

The reason I’ve written this post is very simple: To show you what obesity can lead to. We all see him and maybe feel pity, but those of you who are overweight or obese must realize that in certain conditions and influenced by the “right” factors you may be the next Fattest Man Alive. I wish none of you will…so take care of your health and weight!

You can donate money, supporting him here or visit his personal website(Spanish).

With this incredible high number there’s no wonder that McDonald’s is one of America’s most known brands. Also this means you see them virtually at any street corner luring you to come in and get a taste of their products.

There is almost 1 restaurant for 20,000 individuals and 50 percent of the restaurants McDonald’s own in the entire world are in the U.S. Such statistics explain why such a great number of Americans are overweight or obese.

Even if you don’t want to lose weight, trying to avoid fast food restaurants or even going less often can help your health and well-being dramatically. Stay with us as we will talk more in future posts about junk food, amount of calories that well known products of fast food chains have and how to avoid eating such food.

Here is an interesting article about the fast food industry.

Statistics have been taken from NationMaster.

Here are 10 photos that may get the best of you.WARNING: not having any food at close hand may hurt your stomach!

1.Beginning light. A photo of some fresh vegetables so you won’t drool right from the start.

2.Tomato soup. Not necessarily appetizing but at least it’s healthy.

3.Going to the burger. Now the though really gets going.Feel any itches?

4.Fish. Nourishing, healthy, easy, protein rich. Almost perfect food.

5.Pasta. It’s tasty,it’s delicious, it’s savory…I can go on. Stomach gurgling already?

6.Chicken and potatoes. Ahhhh…the old friend “chicken”.

7.Continuing with the desert. Some nice chocolate cookies…they just make your mouth water.

8.Next the photo is of a fruit salad. Besides looking so good it’s also healthy and you can eat it in large amounts (yes,it’s true!).

9.Milk shake. Do I push it too much? Just one more to go.

10.And for the last one we should end it with a “heavyweight” competitor. The famous and also infamous strawberry cake. Hope you made it through…

Conclusions:

If you rushed to the fridge after seeing these photos ,well, it’s at least understandable.I tried to avoid food that’s not healthy but I also included some as I tried to be realistic and represent a normal person usual meals.If you are overweight and after this you got a sudden urge to eat, I apologize but I must say that this may also be a good test in case you want to get on a diet as these photos prepare you for the inevitable cravings that you’ll get.

If indeed you are overweight or even obese and restrained yourself from eating after this it either means that you’re on the right way to losing that extra fat or…you just ate.

Either way I wish you all the best of luck in getting or staying healthy.