June 2006

June 5, 2006 - Lip Balm Weight Loss Aids

Just recently in the news you might have seen the launch of lip balm weight loss products.

I'm not sure how they got the idea for lip balm to help you lose weight. Their theory is that it helps to curb your appetite through smelling oils that suppress your urge to eat.

Of the listed ingredients included in these lip balms, two ingredients may be helpful in weight loss, yerba mate and evening primrose oil. You can see a research summary on yerba mate here.

Yerba mate is a stimulant and contains caffeine which can affect your metabolism. Although you'd probably have to apply and be actually licking the lip balm off your lips an awful lot to get the benefit of the yerba mate. If you wanted to lose weight with Yerba Mate, you'd probably be better off actually buying some and brewing it as a tea.

Evening primrose oil is also included in the lip balms, and may be useful for weight loss, but again, needs further investigation. Again, in order to get the benefit you'd have to actually consume it. However, they claim that you can lose weight by just smelling the oils.

There has been to say the least a little cynical criticism of these products - and I'd have to say, I'm not surprised. The idea of weight loss lip balm's kind of rate up there with weight loss soap.

Common sense tells me that this is just a gimmick. However, given that it does contain yerba mate and evening primrose oil, which could have some benefits for weight loss - I'd have to say I couldn't discount it as being useless unless I saw published research concluding that it had no effect on weight loss whatsoever.

A recent press release states that "Medical doctors and their patients have tested the effectiveness of Promise with positive results," says Mouser (Vice President of Omega Tech Labs - Manufacturer of Promise Weight Loss Lip Balm). A growing collection of testimonials confirms how well it helps in weight loss."

If you'd like to try the lip balm or any other weight loss product, make sure that you ask the manufacturer for hard clinical evidence of it's effectiveness before you purchase. Testimonials are not enough.

June 6, 2006 - Why Six Meals A Day Is Better Than Three

A few years ago, no one would have thought that eating more often could be a serious way to eating less.

But believe it or not. One of the easiest ways to cut your caloric intake is to eat smaller meals more often.

The benefits of eating little bits more often are many, but the benefit that I always found the most helpful, was the fact that I was never hungry for long.

Eating between meals means that you're keeping your blood glucose levels steady, you're not getting so hungry that you'll eat dirt, and your energy levels are maintained. By far the best benefit is that if you always have food in your system, then your body is always working to digest it. This inevitably means that your body is burning calories constantly and this means your metabolism is less likely to be slow.

For me personally combining this, with foods that had a low glycemic index also meant that my insulin levels didn't go hay-wire every time I ate. Because a direct relative of mine has type II diabetes, I am at a direct risk of also getting diabetes, so losing the weight and eating smaller meals more often I think has probably saved me.

So when you're planning how to lose weight, make sure that you include healthy snacks to eat between meals.

Some suggestions are:

low fat, low calorie fruit yogurts
an apple
graze on grapes - this is great if you have a sweet tooth
cheese on water crackers.

June 7, 2006 - Proven Way To Burn Fat !

Researchers in a recent study found that despite the many and varied diets in the marketplace - the basics of calorie restriction and regular exercise still rate as the most effective way to burn fat and keep body weight down.

The diets and exercise regime's of 2708 participants in the National Weight Control Registry were evaluated by researchers and compared to participants of the National Weight Control Registry in 1995. The results showed that participants fat intake has increased since 1995, but ominously saturated fat intake increased from 12.3 to 154.0 g/d and calories consumed from carbohydrates have decreased.

The research also found that weight regain was more likely to occur if calories were increased, fast food and fat was consumed more often and physical activity decreased.

Despite the changes that the researchers noticed in the way that the participants eat today, they found that the factors that affect long term weight loss are the same as those found in 1995:

Continuing to eat a low calorie diet;
Moderate fat intake;
Limited fat food;
High levels of physical activity.

June 9, 2006 - Using Enzymes To Unlock Energy

I was just recently looking at a health product which contained a proprietary substance called Carbogen.

Up until recently, I hadn't heard of such a compound, but when I investigated, found that it was just a combination of enzymes that break down carbohydrates. These enzymes are normally found in food and help to break down carbohydrates into their simple sugar components to give the body energy. The theory behind taking more of these enzymes is that carbohydrates will be more readily absorbed into the blood stream, giving you access to more energy when exercising.

In a research paper published in 2002, researchers found that consumption of Carbogen 1 hour before exercise, resulted in high blood glucose levels, lower lactose levels and no affect on insulin. If you generalize these results, Carbogen could help you to maximize the amount of energy you have to spend on exercise.

Keep in mind though, that this is just one study and was probably sponsored by Triarco Industries who distributes Carbogen for use within nutritional supplements.

The use of enzymes to unlock energy though seems to be an interesting one, so I thought that I will do some further research in the not too distant future and may even devote a newsletter to it.

June 13, 2006 - Eating Enough Calories

It's just occurred to me why I'm not feeling well today.

The reason, my blood sugar is low, probably very low because I have been feeling nauseous and light headed.

I've had a sleep and have eaten two toasted sandwiches and feel so much better.

The thing is that I've been eating, I haven't been starving myself. But what I have been doing is an increase in the amount of strength training I've been doing as well as other incidental activities and it's just occurred to me that I haven't changed the way I've been eating..

WOW. It's that important to monitor your eating habits to ensure that you're not inadvertently starving your body !

But it's also important as you know to make sure you're not eating too much calories. If you're at the stage that I'm at - where I just want to maintain my weight, but tone, cut down my fat to muscle ratio just a little more (but not too much), build upper body and back muscle strength - strength training and lots of push ups is the way to do it. Just make sure you adjust the amount of calories you're taking in.

This is just another reason why you need to keep a food diary even if you have already lost your weight. It always keeps you aware of what is going in. Online food diary type sites can help - try Spark People. It's a free site, and I've learned my lesson. I'm definitely going to re-open my account there.

Visit the site for more information http://sparkpeople.com/

June 20, 2006 - Activity at all stages of lifespan

Part of the reason that I think that obesity has become such a problem is that things have become too easy. At every stage of our lives, we've tried to make things too easy. From the moment that we get up to the moment we lie down and sleep for the night, labor saving / time saving devices are all around us. Something as simple as exercise has become unnecessary and although we still need to do some things for ourselves, most of the physical labor of obtaining food and preparing food are done for us.

This even extends to some commercial diet programs where food is already prepared and delivered to customer's door. On a side note, I recently saw an advertisement on the TV where the "dieter" confessed that she couldn't be bothered trying to learn about how much food she should be eating, she just wanted someone else to do it - she wanted it to be done for her. That to me, is a tell tale sign that the person who identifies with this logic is on a one way road to a lifetime of weight loss - weight gain. Once they've lost the weight and no longer feel the need to pay for this "expensive" frozen food - they then go back to their old eating habits and start to gain weight again.

Even the exercise of preparing food, can be counted as incidental exercise. Standing up preparing vegetables and cooking meat for an hour will obviously burn more calories than sticking a frozen meal into the microwave oven for 5 minutes.

But apart from the obvious effect of exercise to burn calories, exercise has so much more benefits. A recent review found that exercise has many benefits for the brain. It found that exercise promotes neuronal repair and enhances memory and learning. They also found that exercise could fight the effects of aging.[1]

Exercise whether as a child or as an elderly person is absolutely necessary for the proper functioning of our bodies. So when you decide to go on a diet and lose some weight, and incorporate exercise into the diet schedule, the exercise routine shouldn't be thought of on a short-term basis. It needs to be something you enjoy. Perhaps a sport you used to like in high school or on an individual basis, an activity that can challenge you without being totally out of your reach.

Getting these things right, will make it more likely that you continue to exercise throughout your life without making yourself feel guilty if you miss a gym session or tied to the treadmill when you don't want to be.

[1] Vaynman S, Gomez-Pinilla F. License to run: exercise impacts functional plasticity in the intact and injured central nervous system by using neurotrophins. Neurorehabil Neural Repair. 2005 Dec;19(4):283-95. Full Text

June 20, 2006 - Nestle Buys Jenny Craig

In the news, the food giant Nestle has released a statement to the press stating that it will buy Jenny Craig for $600 million dollars. More information on this story can be seen at http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2006/06/19/daily3.html

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