the-diet-plan.com

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.

So, at this juncture, I would say one advantage of this program is that it is very easy to follow. You just choose what you like from two lists, generate the diet plan, and then go buy the stuff on the list and eat it as the days go by. Your eat four meals a day from the list in any order.

 Since there are no specified quantities for anything, it is essential, as the directions say, to stop eating the moment you are no longer hungry rather than waiting until you are full. That’s good advice no matter what plan you are or aren’t on.

The variety of foods is better so boredom is less and the nutritional value higher than the previous version of the plan.

One big plus is there there are no sugary sweets whatsoever so you (I) can begin to lose your craving for those diet spoilers. You eat fruit and artificially sweetened (or not) drinks. No sugar or high fructose corn syrup or honey or any of those things.

It was reasonably effective. Really fast weightloss is usually all water and muscle and does not do a body good. This is a reasonable rate. A bit more restraint on the proportions and a bit more exercise would have made it work better for me, I’m pretty sure.

So I’m going to raise my overall rating from 2 stars to 3 1/2. If you would like to give it a closer look go here and check it out.  Cheers! –Di

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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

Make sure your meals and snacks include a good bit of lean protein. This is a big help to reducing appetite.

People have noticed for a long time that if they had meals that had a noticeable amount of protein in them, they weren't hungry so soon.

Back in 1999, there was a report in The International Journal of Obesity about 65 overweight folks were put on one of two low-calorie diets. One diet had 12% of its calories from protein and the other was 25% protein. Nobody was asked to exercise. After six months, the higher protein group had lost more weight.

There are a lot of people who think that's why the Atkins diet works. People who are on this diet for more than a couple of days start to eat less than they did before, even though they can have unlimited amounts of protein and fat. Their calorie consumption goes down into the 1200 kcal range, which is where most people will lose weight, at least until they hit plateau. It was discovered that it was the protein that was suppressing their appetites, not, surprisingly, the fat.

In May of last year, Science had a report that injection of a very small amount of one of the building blocks of proteins, an amino acid called leucine, into their brains caused starved rats to eat less than their brothers who got no such injection. And, in December, there was a report on the positive effects of high protein diets on levels of a biochemical appetite suppressor protein called PYY and weight loss in mice in the journal Cell Metabolism. Of course, humans aren't rodents so the mechanism by which we feel fuller longer after protein-containing meals will still have to be worked out.

It seems pretty clear, though, that one very good natural way to rein in the appetite is to make sure our meals and snacks get somewhere between a quarter to a third of calories from proteins. My own opinion is that the ratio shouldn't go higher than that, on average, because we need the vitamins, phytonutrients, fiber, and so on from fruits and veggies, too, for our overall health. There is also some evidence protein stimulates the metabolism a little. It is also muscle-sparing, meaning we don't have to turn into skinny fatties after dieting for a while. –Di

technorati tags:high, protein, diet, weight, loss, appetite, suppression

Eat lots of small meals spaced 2 1/3 to 3 hours apart. The point here is that you are feeding yourself so often you don’t actually get hungry and, if you do, you next meal is so close it’s not a problem to wait until then. If there are large gaps between meals you can build up quite a hunger. Also, eating often keeps the metabolism revved, which is a good thing in itself.



You could eat 5 or 6 sort of equal-sized meals (calories do count) or you could have three larger meals with two or three healthy “snacks.” Some people seem to think that means you simply add more meals to what is already a full day’s allotment of food. Or that “snack” means chips or cookies. Then they wonder why they aren’t losing any weight. It means you plan so that your daily allotment is divided into 5 or 6, rather than 1 to 3 segments. Some people do fine grazing all day and evening on roughly equally sized 200 kcal small meals. Others feel deprived if they can’t have at least one larger meal that has all the macronutrient components in a delicious recipe. So maybe 3 300 kcal meals and 3 100 kcal snacks would be better for them. Or maybe even cut out one snack and make one meal a 400 kcal one. This is flexible but you have to be firm about sticking to your plan and be consistent so you don’t see every meal edging up on the calorie scale.



All of the meals should have at least some protein. We’re not talking Atkins here. Just a bit of cottage cheese or plain yogurt or a few soy nuts with a piece of fruit for a snack, for instance. You want to avoid the sugar spike that a purely carb meal can give you, which will leave you hungry again before your next meal. Follow the diet plan you have chosen for each meal but miniaturize it a bit. With just a little bit of planning and preparation, you can make a big difference in keeping your appetite in check, keeping your metabolism active, and keeping your weight plan on course.  –Di

technorati tags:healthy, weight, loss, appepite, suppression

Losing weight is harder than many of the changes we decide to undertake for ourselves because you can't just give up food altogether. When you quit smoking or drinking alcohol or gambling, you have some hard moments over several weeks or months for sure. But ultimately, you can feel sincere in saying "I don't need that at all" and just not let it into your body or do that again. But with weight loss, the key is moderation, portion control, taking just what you need and no more. Much trickier, I think. So let's talk about some ways that help keep the appetite from being a ravening beast that incites us to fill up and out ever and ever wider.

Of course there are pills that are supposed to reduce your appetite, but I believe the key is in learning to manage your own self. Sooner or later you will need to stop taking them, because none of them are made of things nature intended for us to ingest forever. In my experience, when I stop taking them, I get REALLY hungry and have a hard time stopping myself from eating anything and everything I can get into my mouth. Not a pretty thought.

Today's tip is to chew every mouthful of food around 30 times before you swallow it. Yes I do mean count, at least until it is such a habit that you can tell when you have done that. This includes soups, smoothies, and other forms of liquid food. This does a number of things.

One is that it makes us eat more slowly, giving ourselves more time to notice when we are no longer actually hungry.

Another thing is that it breaks up the food and mixes the food with our saliva, which is supposed to happen in the course of digestion. It allows the enzymes to get in there and start breaking the molecules in the food into smaller ones so that your body can truly use what's there.

Also, your saliva has antibodies, which are part of the immune system. Thoroughly mixing your food with the saliva allows this immune response to neutralize or bind up agents that might not be good for you.

You get a chance to really taste the food. You get more pleasure out of less of what is really good and, if it doesn't really taste good, you will have a chance to notice that and maybe decide not to even eat it. Altogether, it makes eating a much more sensuous experience. There's nothing wrong with savoring the food which also nourishes us, especially if it's worthy. If you really enjoy what you are eating, you don't feel deprived and so you can stick with the program more easily.

A practical consideration: It reduces the chance of choking, which can happen when you try to swallow huge chunks of things that might get stuck in the wrong place.

All in all, aside from the phsiological benefits this gives you, it helps you learn to eat consciously, rather than just bolting down whatever while you're doing something else. I've gone through a whole package of roasted almonds that way and didn't even really enjoy them. Definitely felt like a stuffed animal later, though. Hope you will give this a try if you're not doing it already and let me know how it goes for you. –Di

technorati tags:natural, appetite, suppression, weight, loss, lose, weight, eat, less

Why is it so easy to gain weight and harder to lose weight after menopause?

Excuse us for this post, guys. You can go discuss your favorite interval training tips amongst yourselves for now.

This will deal with something many generations of women have noticed. The naive among us put it down to less activity, less muscle mass, things like that. Those could be involved, but Yale researchers have shown that there is an independent pathway in the brain for suppressing appetite that is turned on with estrogen.  It works a lot like the leptin pathway but is turned on by estrogen. So now we know.

But what’s a body to do? Should we all run out and start taking those hormone replacement therapy pills again? Just when the breast cancer incidence went down a lot because we older ladies stopped taking HRT? No way! The key is in finding a form of estrogen that only works on the brain, not on other tissues and organs. That’s probably a long way off but the Yalies are on it.

Meanwhile, there’s always the wonderful adpatable soybean with its estrogen mimicing constituents. No, I don’t mean running out to buy some pills with soy things in them or even they soy shakes that have huge amounts of sugar or high fructose corn syrup in them. Try a salad with some cooked shelled edamame (green soybeans) on it. Tofu stir fry anyone?

And then there’s always the tried and true watching of the diet and scaling up of activities. Those always work and have only good side effects.   –Di

ScienceDaily: Estrogen Curbs Appetite In Same Way As The Hormone Leptin

technorati tags:weight, loss, menopause, appetite, estrogen, leptin, diet, lose, weight, soy