Wellness Medicine

THE SCIENCE OF OBESITY: FATS & CHOLESTEROL

For years we heard that a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet would keep us healthy and help us lose weight. And many of us jumped on the bandwagon, eliminating fat and high-cholesterol foods from our diets. Well, unfortunately, we were doing it all wrong.

Instead of eliminating fat completely, we should have been eliminating the "bad fats," the fats associated with obesity and heart disease and eating the "good fats," the fats that actually help improve blood cholesterol levels. Before we examine the good fats and bad fats, let's talk about cholesterol.

Cholesterol - It's been ingrained into our brains that cholesterol causes heart disease and that we should limit our intake of foods that contain it, but dietary cholesterol is different than blood cholesterol. Cholesterol comes from two places--first, from food such as meat, eggs, and seafood, and second, from our body. Our liver makes this waxy substance and links it to carrier proteins called lipoproteins. These lipoproteins dissolve the cholesterol in blood and carry it to all parts of your body. Our body needs cholesterol to help form cell membranes, some hormones, and Vitamin D.

You may have heard of "good" and "bad" cholesterol. Well, high-density lipoproteins (HDL) carry cholesterol from the blood to the liver. The liver processes the cholesterol for elimination from the body. If there's HDL in the blood, then less cholesterol will be deposited in the coronary arteries. That's why it's called "good" cholesterol. Low-density lipoproteins (LDL), carry cholesterol from the liver to the rest of the body. When there is too much in the body, it is deposited in the coronary arteries. This is not good. A build-up of cholesterol in our arteries could prevent blood from getting to parts of our heart. That means that our heart won't get the oxygen and nutrients it needs, which could result in heart attack, stroke, or sudden death. So, if your LDL is higher than your HDL, you're at a greater risk for developing heart disease. It may come as a surprise, but recent studies have shown that the amount of cholesterol in our food is not strongly linked to our blood cholesterol levels. It's the types of fats you eat that affect your blood cholesterol levels.

Bad Fats - There are two fats that you should limit your intake of--saturated and trans fats.

Saturated Fats - Saturated fats are mostly animal fats. You find them in meat, whole-milk products, poultry skin, and egg yolks. Coconut oil also has a high amount of saturated fat. Saturated fats raise both the good and bad blood cholesterol.

Trans Fats - Trans fats are produced through hydrogenation--heating oils in the presence of oxygen. Many products contain trans fats because the fats help them maintain a longer shelf life. Margarine also contains a high amount of trans fats. Trans fats are especially dangerous because they lower the good cholesterol, HDL and raise the bad cholesterol, LDL. Unfortunately, most products do not tell you how much trans fat it contains, but you can find out if it's in a product by looking at the ingredient list. If the ingredients contain hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated oils, then it contains trans fats. Fortunately in 2006, manufacturers will be required to list the amount of trans fat in their products on the nutrition labels, so it will be easier for you to find.

Good Fats - Some fats actually improve cholesterol levels.

Polyunsaturated Fats - Polyunsaturated fats are found in sunflower, corn, and soybean oils. These oils contain Omega-6, an essential fatty acid. However, most people get enough Omega-6 in their diet and instead need more Omega-3. Omega-3 is a fatty acid found in fish and walnuts.

Monounsaturated Fats - Monounsaturated fats are found in canola, peanut, and olive oils. Both types of unsaturated fats decrease the bad cholesterol, LDL and increase the good cholesterol, HDL.

Now, just because the unsaturated fats improve your blood cholesterol levels, you don't have the go-ahead to eat all of the olive oil, butter and nuts you want. Fat of any kind does contain calories, and if you're trying to lose weight, eat fat in moderation, and stay away from saturated fats.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR WEIGHT

A pound of fat represents approximately 3500 calories of stored energy. In order to lose a pound of fat, you have to use 3500 more calories than you consume. Although this seems like a simple formula remember that your body is a thinking organism designed to protect itself. If you were to try to reduce your intake by the entire 3500 calories in one day, your body would register some type of alarm and think that there is a state of emergency. Immediately your metabolism would slow down and no weight loss would be achieved. It's better to spread your weight loss out over a period of a week, so that you aim to reduce your caloric intake by 3500 to 7000 calories per week, resulting in weight loss of one to two pounds per week. It's generally not recommended to try to lose more than two pounds in a week. Attempting to do so may cause health risks, and on top of this you're unlikely to be successful.

In the example of attempting to lose two pounds per week, you can use a basic method of calorie counting to help you accomplish your goal. To do so, you need to figure out how many calories a person of your age, sex, and weight usually needs in a day, subtract 500 from that amount, and follow a diet that provides you with that many calories. For example, if you would ordinarily need 3000 calories in a day, you would follow a 2500-calorie a day diet. Next, figure out how much exercise a person of your weight would need to do to burn 500 calories per day, and engage in an exercise plan that will help you achieve your goal. The result is simple: 500 fewer calories consumed and 500 more calories expended equals a 1000 calorie per day deficit, which, over the course of a week adds up to 7000 calories, or two pounds. Although individual results may vary, the bottom line is if your body is consuming fewer calories than it's expending, then weight will be lost.

Weight Loss, a lifestyle choice achievable by the power of self will

HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT.
This is my personal view built on personal ideas. It works for me.

The plain truth is that we are not stupid, we all know how to lose weight. There is
no miracle cure, no overnight sensation, no morning after pill, as the times we live
in would love to have you believe. They want you to believe this so money can be
made out of misery year on year with amazing new breakthrough diets.
As I said, we are not stupid, but somewhat lazy and glad of the excuses bandied
about what is actually a simple truth.

You would not expect a major operation to be folllowed by a training session the
next morning, followed by discharge in the afternoon, and work the next day,
these things take time to overcome, a gradual recuperation period.

I think we all accept that is pretty much of a fact, yet we seem to think that
weight loss from a grim start weight is achievable overnight with no attendant
dangers if we rush our attempt using dangerous techniques.

The plain truth is that to lose weight you have to take less calories in than you
are burning off. End of story. Period.

In order to do this we might like to exercise more as this speeds up our
sluggish and near terminal metabolism towards a semblance of its old self.

Tell me if Im losing you at any stage here, but I am assuming you are all
intelligent enough to be with me so far.

There is only one major obstacle to this being a life changing revelation.
The obstacle is you, and that is a large obstacle.

Insidious advertising does not help much either.

The problem is your body, your triggers, your impulses and your mind set.
There is also the question of duration. Many can adopt a new regime for
days, weeks or even months at a time, but making this into a permanent
change is also a huge problem, especially given that advertising wants
you to do it EVERY year, not just once. There is little money in your
just doing it once, for people whose job it is to sell you on diets.

The Atkins diet seemingly defied the odds, and propounded you could
eat as much as you liked and eat yourself slim. It seemed calories in
were meaningless, that they would disappear without exercise or
effort. That calories in versus calories out was wrong.
It appears now that the fact that high protein foods contain less calories
than carbohydrates, pound for pound, coupled with the fact that in most
cases high protein foods trigger the body into saying, now hold on here
Im already full up with food, does in fact follow the age old principle
of calories in must be less than calories out.

I would question whether it is necessary to be swimming in fat and not
just grilled or poached or boiled, as I see the main benefit being in the
eating of high protein in exchange for high carbohydrate, that is my
own deduction from the data available to date.

This high protein being a lower calorific value and a trigger to being
full and damping down pangs of screaming appetite, must surely be
the basis of a simple dieting plan. Let us investigate other known
benificial tools for us to diet and choose for ourselves our own
method from the resulting possibilities, as contrary to what
advertisers would have you believe there is no set way for a whole
nation of slimmers.

It also is seemingly true that leaving a thirty minute gap between
courses actually means you often do not want the next course, as
apparantly the body takes about fifteen to twenty minutes to tell
you you are full after a main course. You want a dessert or a sweet
as it is different, and most of us have a sweet tooth, but your body
probably does not need it. You would not eat your main course
twice, but a sweet is appealing. If you leave it twenty minutes, chances
are you will not need it, as the better Restaurants will allow.
Perhaps this is why we are sometimes rushed to order in lesser
establishments.

Obviously also there has to be a set amount of calories per day that
is a pseudo upper limit for that day, depending on hieght, structure, age,
and exercise regime, otherwise we would be eating the right things in
inordinately large amounts.

There has to be a balance.

Below is a list of what I would say are the most salient points to note.
1. Exercise increases metabolism.
2. A faster metabolism burns more calories.
3. Substitution of high protein for carbohydrates works.
4. Our metabolism is fastest in the morning, slowest late at night.
5. Food eaten early will burn up quicker than food eaten later.
6. Leaving a thirty minute gap after a course may save a course.
7. Small portions over a day put on less weight than the same
weight of the same food in say three sittings.
8. Weight watchers type unit watching works if followed.
9. Eating after seven pm accumulates fat due to slow metabolism.
10. A large obstaclee is our sweet tooth for chocolate, cakes, sweets
biscuits, and desserts.
11. Few of us take in enough water per day, though it makes up eighty
per cent of our being, and is important in releasing toxins.

These seem pretty obvious statements, but we can glean our own weight loss
plan for the future just using these simple ingredients.

I have evolved my own method, which I will endeavour to explain to you, not
as a follow this this is the way, but as a this is how I used the above information
to help me in my own way, as no doubt you are clever enough to adapt it to your
own way. This is where many weight loss programs fall down. They make it seem
insurmountably hard to achieve without their patronisingly know all ideas
and cures and proclamations.

I was in computing when it first started, and programming was nowhere near
as difficult as people would have had you believe, but you hardly tell your
customers that when you are charging the earth for your services.
You make it seem difficult, almost a guru type thing, so clients will not worry
too much over the cost.

It seems this way to me with slimming. Certain companies would have it deemed
almost an insurmountable obstacle without help and guidance, which of course
you pay for willingly, believing it to be of benefit, and like all things having
a healthy self doubt in your own ability, unless you are the Prime Minister.

My own method is as follows.
You may well view this as a dont try this at home.

a. Find out your calorie or unit allowance per day for your hieght age and frame,
Your GP will assist in this, or Weight watchers type meetings can
be joined locally or over the internet. This is important to allow
yourself treats now and then, which are necessary in any regime.
This is a bit like knowing how much you have to spend for a week
and not going over weekwise, probably a bad example in the era of
credit cards and loans.

b. Do a simple exercise which takes little time morning noon and night.
For me twenty sit ups is fine, and helps to hold in my stomach,
but you could walk up and down stairs, or do simple step ups.

c. Eat a decent breakfast, preferably high protein, minimal fat and minimal
carbohydrate, grilled poached or boiled as opposed to fried.
I go for eggs, bacon and sausage with high meat content.

d. Do not eat anything else for thirty minutes, if desperate drink water.

e. Remember, the longer the day goes on the less your metabolism burns food.
Basically eating late is bad news eating early is good, besides which you
need breakfast to get through the day, as in break fast.

f. I find lunchtime I only want something light, but try eating high protein where
I can. Often I eat pilchards, sardines or salmon, not only for high protein
but for oils good for the joints, which are creaking more.

g. I tend to carry a small bottle of water with me at all times in the car, or out
walking, as it fills a gap other things might fill.

h. Evening meals are a dangerous time for me, as I tend to convince myself I
did more exercise than I actually did, and deserve a treat. Now I try
also to keep to high protein, as in lean meat, vegetables and fruit. I
have tended to cut down on potatoes and bread in favour of high
protein, which seems odd at first But soon becomes more enjoyable
and more varied. I think we tend to eat what we have always been
used to eating, almost out of habit.

i. Your sweet tooth should be allowed within the confines of your calorific
and units plan, as it is no use supressing what you like in a lifelong
lifestyle plan, it will always surface in the end, probably explode.
Better to appease your demons than shut a lid on them.
If you cannot do this in moderation then you will just stay fat,
and there is no point in trying to change. There is after all an
element of will power involved here. You only cheat yourself.

I found that cutting out cakes, sweets, sugar, biscuits for a while at the very start helped
me to feel in control from the word go, and more easily assess what I could eat without
their distraction. I eat them sparingly now and then now, but to start with it was useful.

I only ever now eat up until I feel full, I eat what I need, not what I would like.

Generally speaking we know what we should be eating and what we should be doing,
but doing it is quite another matter, not helped by the food chain stores and diet
gurus making it seem tantamount to impossible, or at the very least difficult.
This is simply just not so, if you use common sense it is achievable.

following these simple guidelines will at least give you some foundations on which
to base your own regime to suit your own unique situation. There are at least some
concrete facts here on how to go about it in a sensible way for yourself.

Obviously age comes into the equation, as Im in my fifties now it is harder to
Lose weight as my metabolism is a little slower, but too often this is used as an
excuse as correspondingly it is often true that as we get older we need less
calories to achieve what we do on a day to day basis, and in any event you
can always tailor your suit to suit your cloth calorie wise, at any age.

The best help is your own will power and determination, and the long term goals
of more energy, better appearance, less strain on the joints and back and heart,
more self confidence and greater fitness, and the great boost to pride of feeling
more vibrant and more attractive. It is an upward spiral, instead of an out
of control downward spiral which saps your self confidence and esteem.
It is not a wish to look like waif thin role models bearing no semblance to
reality, but more a sensible healthy lifestyle gateway to energy and
fitness and happiness. These go hand in hand, as the fitter and
less fat you get, the higher the serotonin levels and the greater
the feeling of happiness.

You have it in your own power to do this for yourself, it is not unachievable,
or supreme effort, or an endless struggle, as adverts would have you believe.
It is an eminently achievable long term goal to be achieved once by a
conscious change of lifestyle, a gradual recuperation after the operation,
a new life in a new way with a new happiness achieved by your own
common sense and willpower ONCE. All the guilt and hardship and
super methods to help you slim are to produce one result, the spending
of money on others to do something for you, preferably EVERY YEAR
with a new method and a new fad and more money down the drain.

You can do this yourself. You do not need anyone telling you how to diet,
it is all there for every one of us to read, it is just taking control of your
own destiny which seems difficult, and is made to seem doubly difficult by those with
vested interests in selling you slimming plans.

I make no money whatsoever in publishing this article free in ezines
or letting you read it on the internet here. It is to help people take
Control of their own destiny and future, and hopefully we will all benefit
in the long run and have more time and energy to enjoy life.

Best of luck in your quest.

How to Lose Weight effortlessly

I am not a fat doctor sitting behind my desk telling people how to lose weight, and I am not even a doctor blessed with a perfect figure who can send his patients off with imaginary laughter ringing in their ears wishing that they could look like me, but knowing that they never will. In fact I’m not a doctor at all, but I do know something about losing weight as I have been through it myself.

Don’t exercise if you don’t like it, but lead an active life. Forcing yourself to exercise will not get you far, as you will sooner or later give it up through injury or boredom. Taking part in a sport you really enjoy will help you keep fit, be happy and burn calories at the same time.

Walking or cycling to your destinations is a healthy way to help the environment and save money.

Eat what you like, but not too much. It is better to have several small meals a day than one or two big helpings. Your aim at meal time should be to eat until you are no longer hungry, rather than eating until you are full. Learn to enjoy healthy food and you will literally be able to eat what you like. If like me you are a chocolate lover, you can lose some weight by cutting down on it. I now have a piece of chocolate no more than once a day with my tea instead of sugar. To avoid temptation you should never take the whole box with you, but take your piece on a plate and leave the rest out of sight in the kitchen.

Drink water if you get the urge to eat at the wrong time. Leading an active life can increase your appetite, but drinking water will not only replace the fluid your body has lost but also diminish your hunger until meal time.

Losing weight and regaining it is hardship without a result, but getting into the right habit results in effortless weight loss. You don’t have to be a nun to get rid of your habit and look good naked. You can read lots of articles about weight loss at http://www.information-4u.com/weight