Archive for February, 2009

Why Sleeping Beauty Wasn't Fat

People who desire to lose weight should examine their sleep cycles as much as their eating habits before going on any kind of diet. If they aren't getting at least seven to eight hours a night they may need more sack time in order to be sucessful at any kind of weight loss plan.

While it stands to reason that if people spent more time in bed they would have less time to think about food and eating the wrong things – the greater benefit, if you can believe this, is that people who sleep longer actually have a greater sense of fullness and will spontaneously lose weight. Could this be the famous, Lose Weight While You Sleep Diet, or is this actual fat-busting science at work?

Forget about the fads and the pills that claim to have you losing weight while you sleep. It turns out that sleep may be the easiest and cheapest treatment for obeisty there is. Our fat-busting scientists have identified hormones in our bodies that have an effect on feelings of both hunger and fullness. Sleep deprivation can cause an imbalance of hormones in favor of hungry hormones (ghrelin) over the ones responsible for making us feel full (leptin) making us feel hungry even when we really aren't. Ergo we eat. Combine this condition with what I call head hunger (wanting more when you feel full) and you have a situation where your diet can be seriously de-railed.   

Why Sleeping Beauty Wasn't Fat

People who desire to lose weight should examine their sleep cycles as much as their eating habits before going on any kind of diet. If they aren't getting at least seven to eight hours a night they may need more sack time in order to be sucessful at any kind of weight loss plan.

While it stands to reason that if people spent more time in bed they would have less time to think about food and eating the wrong things – the greater benefit, if you can believe this, is that people who sleep longer actually have a greater sense of fullness and will spontaneously lose weight. Could this be the famous, Lose Weight While You Sleep Diet, or is this actual fat-busting science at work?

Forget about the fads and the pills that claim to have you losing weight while you sleep. It turns out that sleep may be the easiest and cheapest treatment for obeisty there is. Our fat-busting scientists have identified hormones in our bodies that have an effect on feelings of both hunger and fullness. Sleep deprivation can cause an imbalance of hormones in favor of hungry hormones (ghrelin) over the ones responsible for making us feel full (leptin) making us feel hungry even when we really aren't. Ergo we eat. Combine this condition with what I call head hunger (wanting more when you feel full) and you have a situation where your diet can be seriously de-railed.   

Stress Can Make You Fat

I believe that stress is the main reason I fall off the healthy food wagon, finding it near impossible to resist my old comfort foods when stress gets the better of me. It's so easy to say to yourself, man, I had a hard day, I deserve a "fill in the blanks" – cocktail, chocolate bar, pasta dish, mashed potatoes, bread, etc. All the stuff that got me into trouble in the first place just cause I had a total jerk for a boss.Toss in a couple of financial issues and watch the high-carb food monster take over!

The problem with that is I am the one that suffers the consequences. While it feels heavenly to my taste buds and soothes my stress hormones (yes, there are such things) but by eating those donuts because of stress at work or kids or bills, etc, I am just compounding the problem. When the last donut, cookie, cake, pie, etc is gone I am left with a sweet taste in my mouth which only serves to remind me of my weakness. Plus I just added more negative energy to my stress levels by giving in to temptation. How can sugar make you so high and then so low within minutes? Why can't I capture that exact feeling of guilt and failure before I eat the high carb stuff – what rotten little devil on my shoulder makes me do it?

Do something besides eat when you are stressed out, make time in your schedule for stress relief of some sort such as yoga, laughing hysterically or even, God forbid, exercise. I make mosaics when I feel the need to distract myself from thinking about food because it keeps my hands busy. I drink a lot of water doing this and I feel better about myself when it's time for bed and I didn't eat that ice cream bar for my night time snack. I learned as I got older not to be so hard on myself when I did stumble and I have managed to lose considerable weightbecause I didn't give up when it happened. You gotta get right back on that horse if you want to succeed. The other thing I found was when the weight does come off the stress levels go down – go figure!

The Cheater In The Weight Loss Game Is Fat

How is it that a short, fat guy – 5'9" tall and weighing in at 260 (me) be considered healthier than men much taller and thinner? In spite of my allergy to regular exercise I still manage five sets of 10-pound fork presses at the dinner table, am able to regularly walk 3 miles a day, play vigorously with my chocolate lab, camp in my RV and dance like Arthur Murray on Saturday nights. I should be in shape, right? then why is it that whenever I see a picture of myself I want to crawl into a bed of pasta and hide? I read somewhere that fat doesn't play fair and now I am beginning to understand why.

What helped me to understand my dilemma were these new Fat-Busting scientists, geeks who spend their days poking and probing chubby mice, experts in the field of epidemiology (the study of health in populations), who can now talk about openly and convincingly about how genes, hormonal imbalances, some viruses, stress, even ear infections play a role in obesity. Ok, fine. All we want to know is – how do us regular folks find someone who can say with confidence; this is why you can't lose weight. Then tell us how we can!

That day may be closer than you think. Those chubby mice we talked about earlier taught scientists about the "fatso" genes in all of us. People with two or more fatso genes are more likely to develop diabetes and be more overweight. And they say that there could be as many as 100 fat genes out there! What does that say for our chances of losing weight just by diet alone? Maybe genetics plays more of a role than just the cute little dimple you acquired from Mom. 

Join us here for a brief but entertaining 12-part series entitled;

New Fat Busting Science – Fact Or Fiction?

A journey of discovery in 12 brief vignettes where you are the judge as to which fat busting subject strikes you as fact or fiction – but only as it pertains to you. Remember – Mirrors lie but the camera don't! Here are a few things we will be discussing; What role does genetics play in your body type? Can you actually change your metabolism? How much do you think (if at all) that stress can affect your eating habits? Does a common virus have the ability to cause obesity? What about hormones? Are some foods really addictive? Based on your reactions to each vignette after using yourself as the test subject you may be surprised at your answers – if – you are honest with yourself.

Science is now able to support the latest thinking behind the causes of obesity and yes, in fact, all of these new fat-busting topics have the ability to effect weight and appearance in certain people. But more importantly this emerging science of studying fat opens the door to understanding better just what might be affecting my appearance. Attitudes are changing and according to our fat-busting friends, our problems could be a lot more complicated than just bad eating habits. As I have often wondered myself, wouldn't it be great to be able to attribute other causes to my unhappiness with my weight and body type other than just my eating choices?

Any Diet Will Do

When it comes to achieving weight loss goals, whether it's for getting into smaller sizes or health-related issues requiring a reduction in weight, my opinion is that just about any diet will do. The low-fat crowd has changed their tune about what works and so have the low-carb gurus (including myself) so all that really matters now is that we have all come to agree on just one thing  when it comes to desired weight and health, well, four things actually – find out in Part 7 of our Fat-Busting Series:  

You must then ask yourself – what is the relationship of fat to fitness when it comes to my body? Do any of these so-called, fat-busting sciences, hormonal imbalances, viruses, foods, stress and the effect of genes have anything to do with my problems? Well, here is a real eye-opener; researchers have discovered there could be over 100 fat genes known to inhabit the human body! With each gene capable of adding pounds, it pays to know how to go about getting them off

Eating Less And Working Out More Does Not Necessarily Translate Into Weight Loss

Surprised? Well, so were we. But as we delved further into this subject we started to believe. When something sounds plausible, it's easier to buy off on it. There are actually implications on the human body from previously unknown forces that we never knew existed. Things that we never took seriously, those concepts that were really out there – we now can openly discuss. With the anonymity of the internet we can discover what fat-busting science has known for years – there are about as many excuses for being fat as there are for incomplete school homework.