Weight Loss Short-Cuts

... May lead to a bad trip down the wrong road!

I have never advocated any weight loss product or drug; “natural” or otherwise and today I found yet another case to illustrate my point.

One of my professional news alerts directed me to the following blog. The article is reflective of the FDA warning, but I want to caution readers that the blog is surrounded by bogus weight loss ads! Since I’m a blogging rookie, I’m not sure what that is about… it seems a bit contradictory to me. Perhaps the author will write me and let me know what is going on there. Anyway, if you would like to take a look at the original article that caught my attention, here it is:

“FDA Warns Consumers About Tainted Weight Loss Pills


Agency seeks recall of products that pose serious health risks


The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is alerting consumers nationwide not to purchase or consume more than 25 different products marketed for weight loss because they contain undeclared, active pharmaceutical ingredients that may put consumers’ health at risk.”

You can also check out the FDA’s website directly. Here’s an excerpt from the FDA site:

“Consumer Directed Questions and Answers about FDA’s Initiative Against Contaminated Weight Loss Products

FDA has developed these questions and answers (Q & A’s) to help consumers, health care practitioners, and the general public understand FDA’s actions regarding weight loss products contaminated with various prescription drugs and chemicals. Many of these products are marketed as dietary supplements. Unfortunately, FDA cannot test and identify all weight loss products on the market that have potentially harmful contaminants in order to assure their safety. Enforcement actions and consumer advisories for unapproved products only cover a small fraction of the potentially hazardous weight loss products marketed to consumers on the internet and at some retail establishments.


1. What undeclared drugs and/or chemicals are contained in the weight loss products associated with this action?


Laboratory tests revealed the presence of sibutramine, rimonabant, phenytoin, and phenolphthalein. A summary of our findings are below:


Product(s) Name

• 2 Day Diet 

• 3 Day Diet
• 
3x Slimming Power 

• 5x Imelda Perfect Slimming 

• 7 Diet Day/Night Formula

• 7 Day Herbal Slim 

• 8 Factor Diet 

• 24 Hours Diet
• 999 Fitness Essence

• Extrim Plus 

• Fatloss Slimming

• GMP

• Imelda Perfect Slim
• Lida DaiDaihua 

• Miaozi Slim Capsules

• Perfect Slim

• Perfect Slim 5x

• ProSlim Plus

• Royal Slimming Formula 

• Slim 3 in 1 

• Slim Express 360

• Slim Tech 

• Somotrim

• Superslim

• Triple Slim
• 
Venom Hyperdrive 3.0 

• Zhen de Shou
• Phyto Shape
• 3x Slimming Power
Extrim Plus
• 8 Factor Diet

• 24 Hours Diet
• 
Fatloss Slimming

• Imelda Perfect Slim

• Perfect Slim 5x

• Royal Slimming Formula

• Superslim
• 
Zhen de Shou

2. What action is FDA taking regarding these tainted weight loss products?


FDA is taking action to help ensure that these products and other products containing undeclared prescription ingredients are removed from the marketplace. FDA has inspected a number of firms associated with the sale of these products and is currently seeking recalls of the products. Based on these inspections and the firms’ responses to recall requests, FDA may take additional enforcement steps to include warning letters, seizure, injunction, or criminal charges.”

And on a final note, as I read this list of tainted weight loss products, it makes me sad. Sad that consumers are in danger and sad that we are willing to spend so much money on unproven products when eating less and moving more are readily available to all. In the meantime I will continue my quest for the truth and continue to try to find a way to make sensible eating and increased activity more exciting so maybe people will learn once and for all that this is the only road to effective weight loss.

Firming up the Flab

The truth about fat loss and exercise -

“The fabulous flab-o-later 5000 can firm your thighs, flatten your abdominals and have you feeling fit in no time flat. This limited time offer is not available in stores so act NOW!”

Ah, the info-mercial! It’s hard to go anywhere these days without seeing the latest and greatest wonder-gadget to help us get a “better” body. Whether it is saggy saddlebags, flabby abs, or a drooping derrière – those pesky “problem areas” are clearly the root of all evil. The promise is that you can: tone it, tighten it, lift it, firm it, shape it, or sculpt it with this machine or that exercise… But, these are promises that no single exercise can deliver. To find out why, we need to take a look at what “it” is and how “it” works.

What is it? We name it, specifically love handles or beer belly and in general terms flab. Is it a muscle issue? No, it is a fat issue. Adipose tissue. Fat, not muscle is the problem. Physiologically, fat and muscle are two totally separate systems in the body. They have different jobs. Muscle, helps us move around or even just sit upright. Muscle is like the engine in a car, it works to get from one place to another. Fat is an essential part of our bodies, some is located just under the skin and helps to insulate our bodies and some helps to cushion our vital organs. When we repeatedly consume more calories than our bodies can burn, we store those excess calories as - you guessed it – FAT. The distribution of that excess fat around our bodies is genetically predetermined. We don’t get to decide where to store it or where to lose it. Bummer!

How does it work? Fat doesn’t work like muscle does, it just hangs out. Using the car analogy, if muscle is the engine – then fat is the baggage in the trunk. Generally speaking, fat is a storage unit. Muscle can contract to help us run, jump or lift a weight – fat can’t. Muscle can be trained (through exercise) and get bigger and stronger – fat can’t. In essence, fat is lazy – it will not work no matter how hard your try. There is no “target” exercise for fat so it cannot be toned, tightened, lifted, firmed, shaped or sculpted. Fat is not a muscle group. You can’t train fat – it refuses to do work. Fat is totally, utterly and completely disobedient!

The brutal truth is you can’t firm up the flab. You can train the muscle under the flab, but the flab will remain flab. To get rid of flab we need to burn the excess calories that we have stored in the trunk. Calories are burned in the greatest amounts when we do whole body, cardiovascular exercise. Reducing the amount of calories we consume will also help us lose the excess body fat. We don’t lose fat from pieces and parts of our bodies; we lose it from the whole system. And when we train our muscles, we should train the whole system (all major muscle groups) not just pieces and parts. Reduced calorie consumption + increased calorie burning (whole body exercise) = body fat reduction - aka flab loss. So, step away from the flab-o-later 5000 and back on the bike, the treadmill or whatever gets your heart rate up and makes you sweat for about 30 minutes, 5 or more days a week.

Burn Baby Burn!

The Truth About Fat Burning and Weight Loss...

Anyone who has ever used a treadmill, bike, elliptical or other cardiovascular training machine has probably noticed the “Fat Burning” workout or “Fat Burning Zone” designated on the machine. For those of you who don’t know, the theory is that the lower end of your target heart rate training zone is the “fat burning zone,” if you train at these low levels you will burn more body fat and lose weight faster. Well I have good news and bad news about this assumption.

First the bad news – the “Fat Burning Zone” is myth, a timeless urban legend much like big-foot or the loch-ness monster. I know what you’re thinking, “if it’s not true why is it written on every cardio machine?” I had the opportunity to speak with James Peterson, Ph.D., FACSM, sports medicine consultant and former director of sports medicine for StairMaster Sports/Medical Products Inc. (now owned by Nautilus) and ask that very question. He answered with one word, “marketing”. Despite what the researchers know and advise, marketing gets the final word on selling equipment. After all, every equipment manufacturer is in business to sell machines and to do so they need to convince consumers that their product is the best and burns the most fat and calories. The concept of “fat burning” is a popular trend and therefore a must have for advertising purposes. The truth about the “fat burning zone” is not part of the equation.

Now, the truth - weight loss is all about burning enough calories to help us lose body fat. To lose a pound of body fat through exercise you need to burn approximately 3500 calories. A calorie is a calorie is a calorie: one calorie of fat is equal to one calorie of carbohydrate, which is equal to one calorie of protein. Think about it, which weighs more a pound of lead or a pound of feathers? A pound is a pound and a calorie is a calorie – both are units of measure. There is no magical “fat burning zone” because the energy units being utilized as you exercise are equivalent.

The good news - no more worries about having your heart rate “too high” to burn fat! If you are burning calories you are on the right track for weight and fat loss. Strive to burn as many calories as possible in whatever amount of time you have available to exercise. Choose an exercise intensity level that is challenging, but not exhausting, and work at that level for as long as you can. The other half of the equation is your calorie consumption. Reducing your calorie intake and increasing the amount of calories you burn will get you to your weight loss goals even faster.

Good News for “Losers” in the Weight Loss Game

Making healthy food choices and lifestyle changes are beneficial to your health whether you lose weight or not!

According to a 2003 study done by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, simply attempting to lose weight can lengthen your life and help prevent disease. This study tracked 6,391 overweight or obese participants for 9 years. The study concluded that, "Attempted weight loss is associated with lower all-cause mortality, independent of weight change." (Edward W. Gregg, PhD, et. al.)

On the average, Americans are gaining 2 pounds each year - that’s 20 pounds of fat each decade! According to Dr. James Hill of the University of Colorado, long-term weight loss can be as basic as "cutting back on a cookie or taking three fewer bites of a fast-food hamburger" (USA TODAY, 2003). These two simple examples shave off 100 calories a day from your diet and can lead to a 10 pound weight loss in a year rather than the typical 2 pound gain.

I know what your thinking, “only ten-pounds in a year?” At first it may not sound like much, especially when the hot new “PDQ Diet” is promising ‘10 pounds in 10 days’ (I just made that up, please don’t Google it - as of this writing it does not exist!). But consider how long it took you to put the extra weight on - it takes months and years to gain weight, not days. Don’t lose sight of the point here, which is your health and your quality of life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail." I think it is safe to say that everyone who has dieted has failed in one way or another. If you believe it is worth trying again, you win. Typically we define success as lost pounds when we get on the scale, but as we see here, this is not always the case. Making a commitment to a healthier lifestyle is a positive step on the road to improved health. Keep up the good work of making healthy food choices - someday your children and your grandchildren will be glad you did!

Shopping Made Simple

Supermarket savvy could be coming soon to a grocery store near you…

Can it be – is it possible that there may soon be a tool available at grocery stores to help us understand the REAL health benefits of food? For most of us in the health education world, this seems like a far off dream. Whenever I start a weight management group I begin by asking participants if they understand food labels and how to make healthy choices. Most think they have pretty good label skills, but in reality they don’t because it is HARD to find the truth on the nutrition label.

Test your skills with this quiz:

1. Rank the following foods from highest to lowest based on SODIUM content:
   
• YooHoo Chocolate Drink
  
• Cape Cod Potato Chips
  
• Chex Cereal
  
• Fritos Corn Chips
2. Which has more sugar: Ragu Pasta Sauce or Smucker’s Ice Cream Topping?
3. What is “unbleached enriched flour”?

How did you score?
Sodium makes food taste good and when it tastes good we eat more and when we eat more we need to buy more, which makes the food manufacturers happy. Do you really think they care about our health? Here’s the real ranking from least to most sodium: Cape Cod Potato Chips (73 mg per 100 calories), Fritos Corn Chips, YooHoo Chocolate Drink and saving the worst for last – Chex Cereal, with 233 mg sodium in a 100 calorie serving!

Added sugar can also enhance taste and add to the total calories of a seemingly “healthy” food. Yes, it’s true - Ragu Pasta Sauce has MORE sugar than the Smucker’s Ice Cream Topping, with 12 and 11 grams per serving respectively. There are 4 grams of sugar in a teaspoon, so that 100 calorie serving of pasta sauce has 3 teaspoons of sugar!

“Whole Wheat” or “Faux Wheat”? If a product is really made from whole grain “whole wheat flour” will be the first ingredient. “Unbleached enriched flour” is white flour in a fancy dress. Most breads with names like “multi grain, stone ground or wheat” are not made from whole-wheat flour. Read the ingredient list to be sure you are getting the real deal.

Help is on the way!
On Sunday, March 16, the Chicago Tribune ran an article “Food retailers hope to inspire loyalty, increase sales with their own nutritional labels…” about a nutrition score card system that will be appearing soon in Hy-Vee grocery stores across the Midwest. The scoring system is called the Overall Nutritional Quality Index (ONQI) and was developed by a team of experts led by Dr. David Katz of Yale University.

The ONQI will help shoppers choose foods based on overall nutritional quality and free from label claims made by the manufacturer. Personally, I’m really excited about this and professionally this could have a profound effect on public health. Eating the right foods could result in an “80% reduction in heart disease, a 90% reduction in diabetes, and a 60% reduction in cancer” according to Dr. Katz.

Currently the ONQI team is working with Topco, which provides procurement, quality assurance, packaging and other services to supermarket retailers, wholesalers, and food service companies. Hy-Vee is one of Topco’s 61 members, and so is Bashas’ which is located in the Southwest (where I live). Topco members serve over 60 million consumers and have over $100 billion in annual sales.

Other grocery stores are making attempts too. Safeway has a tool on their website called foodflex™ to help consumers determine the nutritional value of foods they have purchased.

I hope to see other grocery stores take an interest in consumer health too. It would be great to see the ONQI become a mainstream tool for us to evaluate food choices. Whether we realize it or not, most of our health decisions are made in the grocery store – not in the doctors office!

Weight Loss Success

NEWS FLASH: Losing as little as 10 pounds can reduce your risk for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes!

Recently, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) hosted a learning event featuring Dr. John Foreyt, Ph.D. of Baylor College. The following is a summary of tips for long-term weight loss success. These tips are based on data from weight loss studies done all over the world as well as research from the National Weight Control Registry (a database of over 5,000 people who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for long periods of time).

Successful “losers” have the following behaviors in common:
1. Eat a low fat diet consisting of 24% fat, 56% carbohydrate and 20% protein
2. Are physically active 60-90 minutes per day at a moderate intensity, walking is the most common activity
3. Use frequent self-monitoring techniques like weigh-ins, food records, calorie or fat gram counting
4. Eat breakfast, 78% report eating breakfast daily and 95% eat breakfast 5 days a week

In addition to the 4 common behaviors mentioned above, here are the other secrets to success from the long-term “losers”:
• Sleep 8 hours each night
• Write down everything you eat
• Find support in a weight loss class, group or with family & friends
• Never give up!

If every American would eat 3 fewer bites of a fast food hamburger (eat 100 less calories) and walk for an additional 20 minutes (burn 100 more calories) each day, our current trend of weight gain would be halted - obesity rates, disease rates and health care costs would all begin to drop. Imagine that!

The Great American Diet Dilemma

It’s early in the New Year, ‘tis the season to contemplate our ever expanding waistlines. As you may know, 65% of Americans are considered over fat and a third are obese. The current obesity epidemic is on the minds of health care and health promotion experts everywhere. It’s also on the minds of the self proclaimed diet guru’s looking to cash in on this growing (no pun intended) market.

Who’s to blame?
Honestly, who cares? Is blaming genetics (aka the fat gene), the fast food industry, fad diets (see the debate in Business Week) or even the food guidelines (I’m not kidding, check out this debate from MedPage Today, be sure to read it all see both sides) going to help us solve the problem? Which came first, the chicken or the egg? It’s a futile argument and it doesn’t change the fact that we are fat and getting fatter. Every diet, even the most bizarre, has worked for somebody at one time or another. And that one person will defend the merits of that diet forever, while the other 99 people blame themselves and go look for something else that will “work”.

The food industry spends over $25 billion a year on advertising; “Five-a-Day” for fruits and vegetables spent $1 million; which message are consumers getting? Each year something like 80 million Americans go on a diet and spend about $40 billion dollars. The long-term success rate of the average diet is poor and most dieters regain some or all of the weight back in 3-5 years.

We eat too much, move too little and then try to buy a miracle. Then we repeat the cycle over and over. Benjamin Franklin said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” I agree!

Wake up America!
It’s time to stop letting the food industry tell you what to eat, stop letting the restaurants tell you how much to eat and stop to letting the diet industry lure you into buying the latest fad. I know that even if I wear a Nike golf apparel and use Nike golf equipment, I am not going to golf like Tiger Woods. It’s that simple. Why can’t we draw the same logical conclusions when it comes to food?

Because behavior change is hard, really hard and we want it to be easy. There is no easy button when it comes to weight loss and behavior change. I wish there was. Believe me, I will tell you if I ever find it – so will every health care and health promotion professional – we’re the one’s on your side.

What’s Next?
Trust a professional – a real one, with a degree and credentials. If you want to change your diet, talk to a Registered Dietician. If you want to exercise, talk to an exercise physiologist (ACSM or NSCA are good places to start). If you want to change your behavior, talk to an Intrinsic Coach®. If you want to learn more, research a site that’s not selling anything (web sites ending in .org or .gov). Here are a few of my favorites:
• FDA Facts About Weight Loss Products & Programs
• American Dietetics Association 2007 diet review
• ADA Good Nutrition Reading List
• My Pyramid Eating Plan
• Shape Up America
• For more links you can also visit my web site

Remember, it’s not about the product, the professional or the program – it’s about you. Here’s to your health!