Weight Loss Nutrition Friend

I call fiber the misunderstood carbohydrate because usually it is just touted for, well, constipation issues. But I'm here to set the record straight. It goes so far beyond that.

Understand that fiber is basically the non-digestible part of a plant.  It is the cell wall of a plant, whether it is from broccoli or the skin on a potato.  What's important, is what it actually does while going through your digestive tract.

If you are losing weight remember that fiber "fills."  From a hunger perspective it satisfies hunger and can slow down digestion releasing glucose more evenly.  This helps stabilize blood sugar levels more effectively, which in turn curbs appetite, cravings, and may even promote a better mood.  If you consistently consume highly refined white flour and sugar products (void of both fiber and nutrients) they are quickly absorbed into the blood stream and cause blood sugar highs and lows.

And I'm not done yet. Fiber also dilutes, inactivates, and binds cholesterol, bile acids, potential carcinogens, and other toxic substances in the bowel. (Note: when you are losing weight there are more toxins being eliminated by the body.) The action of fiber helps inhibit the absorption of these toxins into the bloodstream, and reduces their contact time with the bowel wall. This could explain why people on high fiber diets have less colon cancer, heart disease, cholesterol problems and gallstones.

So remember fiber is your friend for both weight loss and health.

 

 

Medications that May Intefere with Weight loss

Some medications can cause you to gain weight, or keep you from losing it, says Ken Fujioka, MD, medical director of the Scripps Clinic Nutrition and Metabolism Research Center in San Diego. The following specific medications may cause some real challenges with losing weight:

• Some medications used to treat type 2 diabetes 
• Antipsychotic or schizophrenia medications
• Beta-blockers (prescribed for high blood pressure, and some heart conditions)
• Antidepressants
• Hormone replacement therapy
• Birth control pills
• Corticosteroids 
• Antiepileptics taken to control seizures

You may have one of the above conditions but don't just abruptly decide to go off any medication on your own. Openly talk to your doctor first and discuss alternatives and impress upon him/her your desire to lose weight. In fact if you are trying to lose weight discuss this when you are first diagnosed with a condition before he/she prescribes the medication. Another option is to check with a pharmacist who knows medications.

Also make sure you are following your current diet to the letter before you decide it is actually the medication that may be interfering with your weight loss efforts. Use ND's Daily Needs Calculator to determine the amount of calories you should be consuming to lose weight. Then weigh and measure your food intake so it is truly accurate. Check my blog from April 30 to ensure you are following your plan adequately with the other weight loss essentials. You can't blame the medicines for not losing weight if you are not really following your plan.

"I Can't Lose Weight!"

You are following a sensible diet. You are even working with a qualified nutritionist  who validates everything you are doing. Yet, the scale refuses to budge. So where do you go from here?

Occasionally there are real medical issues as to why some people do not lose weight.  According to Peter LePort MD, here are a few conditions that may prevent weight loss:

• Cushing's syndrome is when the adrenal glands produce too much cortisol. Signs are usually when there is a fat build up in the face, upper back and abdomen.
• Hypothyroid or low thyroid is when your metabolism is just plain slow. Many hypothyroid individuals go undetected even when blood results show low to normal levels. This can occur even when a person is on thyroid medication.
• Polycystic ovary syndrome is hormone imbalance characterized by irregular bleeding, acne, excessive facial hair, thinning hair, infertility issues, and weight gain not caused by over eating.
• Insulin resistance or hyperinsulinemia (high insulin) is when insulin is not getting into the cells for energy.
• Many women struggle with weight at specific times in their lives when there is a hormonal shift going on in their bodies. Typical times include puberty, during pregnancy and menopause.

Just make sure you are honest with yourself and that you are in fact doing all the right things to lose weight before putting yourself through any expensive testing.

Fats May Promote Weight Loss

Yesterday I cited a study that promotes monounsaturated fats as a key to controlling dangerous belly fat. But  be careful with how much fat you are consuming. All fats are calorie dense. I actually had a client that was having a half a cup of processed peanuts several times a day thinking he was going to lose weight by including more monounsaturated fats.  But think about this, four ounces of peanuts would be equal to 656 calories and 56 grams of fat, about 11 servings of fat at one sitting! Ideally he should have had about 10 whole (in the shell) peanuts for a small snack, worth one serving of fat.

So what are other sources of monounsaturated fats and how do they measure up?
•    1/8 of an avocado is a fat serving.
•    Unprocessed nuts like seven almonds, six cashews, four pecans halves, and one tablespoon of pine nuts are each equal to one serving of fat.
•    One teaspoon of olive oil or five olives is equal to a serving of fat.
•    One tablespoon of organic peanut butter (buyer beware: commercial brands frequently include trans fats/hydrogenated fats) is equal to about two servings of fat (about 100 calories) and one teaspoon of peanut oil is equal to one serving of fat.
•    One tablespoon of unprocessed sesame seeds is a serving of fat.

And yes, Canola oil may be a monounsaturated fat but there is a lot of controversy around it being a genetically modified oil so I personally would avoid it or limit the use of it.

The lesson here is to consume small amounts of monounsaturated fats and then limit the unhealthier saturated and trans fats. You might also use ND's free Daily Needs Calculator to determine the total calories you need for the day to lose weight.

Is there Hope for Curing Belly Fat?

It finally looks like we have some hope on the horizon for those with belly fat. A new, cutting-edge study published in Diabetes Care in July 2007 and conducted by scientists at Reina Sofía University Hospital in Córdoba, Spain, placed a group of overweight people on 4-week diets containing the same number of calories but with different ratios of carbohydrate and fat. "The plan rich in monounsaturated fats prevented the accumulation of both types of belly fat—without additional exercise." It appears that the monounsaturated fat is the real key to the plan.

Prevention Magazine did another study of their own with good results and wrote another weight loss book utilizing the monounsaturated fats in a new diet plan. It also touched on some good solid eating advice.

Just remember these are just a few small short term studies. And even though these studies suggest consuming healthy fats, too much fat in anyone's diet will not promote weight loss if there's simply too many calories from them (or other sources). Tomorrow I'll go over these various kinds of monounsaturated fats and give you some specific serving sizes and calorie measures of fats.

Still More on the Belly Fat Factor

I don’t think it's a surprise anymore that belly fat is just bad for your health, whether it's related to heart disease, diabetes, or anything else. A study done through
Harvard University, Brigham, and Women's hospital in Boston with over 44,000 women, maintains, "those women who measure over 35 inches (in their waists) or greater had an 80% higher chance of premature death compared with women whose waists measured 28 inches or smaller." That's huge in my opinion. Even more alarming was that this belly fat still poses a health risk when women are at a normal weight. Richard Bergman, an obesity researcher said men probably face the same risk. So men, you aren’t off the hook either.

The bottom line is whether your concern is for weight management or health, it still pays to watch your actual waist measurement and don’t get complacent just because you are at a normal weight. There are a lot of women at a normal weight that still carry too much weight in their middle.

Negative Calorie Foods

Last week a blogger brought up an old diet theory that's been around since the 90's.  It's based on the premise of "negative calorie" foods. It goes like this: your body burns calories just through the mechanical and chemical process of digesting your food.  Since some foods actually contain fewer calories than the actual digestion process requires, it therefore takes more calories to burn the food than the food contained. The result will be weight loss. Theoretically eating these kinds of foods can help you lose weight quickly.

A good example of this is:  Celery contains about 7 calories a stalk.  Your body needs about 30 calories digesting it. So you end up with some "negative calories."  It does sounds good. You can seemingly eat your way to weight loss! But remember you still need to burn more total calories than you take in to lose weight. (Use ND's free Daily Needs Calculator to determine this.) This should be taken into account of course but I'm not sure if this is regarded as a pertinent factor in the food plan supporting the negative calorie diet.

One problem as I see it, is that there is no real scientific studies that I know of (or few are available) to really validate this theory.  Dr. Neal Barnard is the author of a popular book called the Negative Calorie Diet. Other health authorities don’t seem to give it much creditability.  It seems somewhat of a limited eating plan but at least many of the suggestions are fruits and vegetables which most Americans are really lacking in. Maybe if you are eating more fruits and vegetables to actually replace higher calorie foods this plan could work.

The bottom line is to lose a pound of fat every week you need to create a calorie deficit of 500 calories a day (or 3500 calories a week). In my opinion, a more optimum way to accomplish this is to eat less and exercise more.

Have any of our readers been successful on this plan?

H20 Ohhhhhhh!

Yesterday I emphasized the importance of water for losing weight. So why exactly is this liquid so magic?  During weight reduction the body has more waste to get rid of. Water helps the kidneys to flush out the waste. The kidneys cannot function properly without enough of this precious fluid. If the kidneys are overworked (by not having enough water) some of their work is shifted to the liver. Our liver is the main organ for metabolizing fat, so by drinking more water, indirectly you will help the liver to function at full throttle and help you lose weight more efficiently.

Additionally drinking adequate amounts of water reduces appetite. That's always a plus when you are losing weight. Frequently thirst is interpreted as hunger, so try some "Adam's ale" first before you decide to eat something.

Water is the best diuretic.  The more you drink of this pure liquid the less excess salt you will retain. Consequently, the less water retention you will have and the better the scale looks!

Last but not least, a large percentage of our body is made from water. Every function in our body relies on water. So, metabolically, everything runs more efficiently when there is sufficient water. This magic elixir supports over all metabolism.

Tomorrow I will cover part three on the basics of losing weight.

How to Lose Weight - 2

Yesterday I discussed the importance of calculating how many calories you need to lose at least a pound of fat every week. Today I want to emphasize an underrated factor in weight loss. This weight loss factor is simply drinking enough plain pure water!

Most health officials suggest drinking eight glasses of water (eight ounces each) a day to lose weight and for general good health. Other liquids simply do not count.  Keep in mind that individual  water requirements vary according to size, age, activity and the temperature of your environment. Ideally most overweight people should consume even more than the suggested eight glasses of water.

Tomorrow I'll discuss WHY water consumption is so important for the actual weight loss process before I go to Part 3 on how to lose weight.

Belly Fat and Dementia

Everything you read seems to be related to the infamous belly fat. There's already the link between diabetes, stroke, heart disease and the roll around the middle. (Don't forget your genes can play a part in how you carry your weight too.) Then there's stress, and menopause/hormonal issues  (what I fondly call the "men-o-pot"). Since it all started with "syndrome X" it's obvious that blood sugar imbalances play a significant part in all this, which in turn relates to how, when, and what we eat.

So guess what, now another new study relates dementia with belly fat. In fact "a Kaiser Permanente study comparing people with different levels of belly fat showed that those who had the most belly fat were 145 percent more likely to develop dementia compared with people with the least amount of belly fat!" What are your thoughts on excess weight and belly fat?

Once again, the moral of the story is that we need to lose weight. No pressure here, right? - even if we've tried to lose weight and failed a million times. (It personally took me years to lose my excess 30 pounds and keep it off.) Tomorrow I'll get into some core basics about weight loss that dieters continue to ignore and may explain why they don’t lose weight.

Fish Oil and Weight Loss

Research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that daily doses of  six grams of oil containing omega-3 fatty acids, combined with moderate exercise like walking/running for 45 minutes, can result in significant weight loss.

It does sound somewhat promising but it's also a lot of fish oil to consume every day, either in pill form or real fish, despite the numerous health benefits. If you decide to try this make sure it's only wild salmon, not the farm raised variety due to all the contaminants possibly contained in farm raised fish. I also would not do this very long to avoid exposure to excess mercury that could still be ingested with that much fish. (Check to make sure which sources of fish contain the highest levels of mercury.) I would think this food plan would get boring real fast too if you you ate the fish exclusively. If you take the supplements make sure you consume only high quality fish oil to avoid the same issues of mercury and  food contaminants.

And, oh, don’t forget to do the 45 minutes walking at least three times a week as that is a rather important part in the study. Tell your doctor what you are doing to avoid medicine contraindications.

Diabetes and Unhealthy Eating

A few weeks ago the San Jose Mercury News in California stated that the diabetes epidemic is "costing the country over $100 billion annually prompting a major push by medical companies in the Silicon Valley to combat it."  The problem was that diabetic patients need more consumer friendly equipment to monitor blood sugar. This may be true but the article misses some major points.

There was not one single word mentioning how diet, managing weight, and a healthy lifestyle can prevent diabetes (Type 2) in the first place. This is not a disease where one just catches it like a virus or bacteria. We acquire diabetes usually after many years of not eating and exercising properly. Type 2 diabetes is highly preventable.

The paper also said "advocacy groups have lobbied for more federal money to study the ailment." What more is there to study? This is not brain surgery we are looking at. How about advocating that our federal dollars have doctors enlist the support of qualified nutritionists to help people understand the real application of healthy eating habits? And while we are at it maybe we need to get rid of all the advertising on TV encouraging us to consume excess amounts of all that unhealthy food that contributes to diabetes.

Tired all the Time and Gaining Weight?

It's been estimated that an under active thyroid condition affects one in five women.  Typically the TSH or thyroid stimulating hormone is tested to determine hypothyroidism.  A low thyroid is medically determined usually in a blood test but in many situations it can actually fall at the low end of normal which ideally should send you and your doctor a red flag. This may be a warning that levels aren't quite where they should be, indicating a "gray" area, and possibly indicating low thyroid activity.

Typical symptoms of low thyroid include:
-Gaining weight without any apparent reason especially when your eating and exercise habits have remained the same.
-Intolerance to cold (especially if everyone else in the room is warm); or experiencing cold hands and feet
-A change in your mood and/or energy level lasting more than several months
-Unexplained muscle pain
-Gray hair before the age of 30
-Fertility problems
-High cholesterol
-Low immunity
-A morning basal temperature reading between 97.6 and 98.2

So if your lab test falls into this subclinical level, take your basal morning temperature for several days (starting on the second day of your cycle) and discuss your symptoms to your doctor. Sometimes correcting a sluggish thyroid can make a big difference in how you lose weight and what your energy level is like.

Sodium, Blood Pressure, and Weight Loss

Most dieters know to watch out for fats and sugars but people often neglect to think about the sodium content of foods. Low-fat or low-carb foods that are pitched to dieters as "healthier" options may be extremely high in sodium, which could lead to health problems. High sodium intake has been linked to high blood pressure and heart disease. So, while we obviously need to look at fat and carbs, we need to check sodium levels as well.

Most health authorities suggest limiting sodium to between 1,500 and 2,400 milligrams a day.   (The body only needs about 400 to 800 milligrams of sodium a day.) Yet most Americans eat closer to 3,500 milligrams a day. A single meal at a fast food joint can easily contain well over 1,000 milligrams of sodium.

It's fine to have a fast food choice occasionally, but daily fast food consumption can certainly cause problems, especially for those with high blood pressure or those who are overweight. Once again, it's all about moderation. (See also my recent post on healthier choices at fast food restaurants.)

The Power of Probiotics

There is a lot of talk these days of probiotics and how they can help the digestive tract.  The company Dannon is marketing their yogurt "Activia" for the benefits of the probiotics, such as bifidus regularis. 

Not only do probiotics help with digestion, but they help with a number of other functions as well.  They are useful for preventing the overgrowth of yeast and other pathogens, and they help to synthesize vitamin K.

Lactobacillus Acidophilus is a common probiotic found in foods, as well as supplements.  It is well known for aiding in the digestion of proteins, it has antifungal properties, helps to reduce blood cholesterol levels, and enhances the absorption of nutrients.

Foods that contain probiotics are cheese, kefir, miso, sauerkraut, tempeh, umeboshi and yogurt.  If you are taking probiotics in a supplement form, then make sure to take them on an empty stomach.  Also, if you are taking antibiotics, then do not take probiotics simultaneously.

Modified Fasting: a good weight control strategy?

People fast for many reasons: as a religious observance or spiritual ritual, as a political protest, in preparation for medical procedures, or as an occasional health practice.   And studies have confirmed that short-term fasting can have a number of health benefits.

Yet fasting for the purposes of losing weight is not generally seen as a good idea.

But a series of new studies, summarized in the U.S. News and World Report, suggest that there may be a legitimate role for modified fasting as a weight loss tool.   Read more on the Nutrition Data Blog.

Fiber and Weight Loss

To put it nicely, when we think of fiber we think of balancing out irregularity. It actually does a whole lot more, although I am sure you are more interested in it as how it relates to helping you lose weight, right?

Trans fats may be more fattening than other types of fat

Most nutritionists will tell you that controlling calorie intake is the key to losing weight (or avoiding weight gain.)  But a new animal study indicates that some calories are far more fattening than others!

A six-year study at Wake Forest University, (just published in the journal Obesity) found that monkeys fed a diet high in trans fats gained more weight, particularly around the belly, than monkeys who ate a diet with the equivalent amount of monounsaturated fat.   Note: Both groups of monkeys ate the same number of calories and the same amount of fat. Yet one group got fat and the other didn't.

Chocolate Cravings - Part 1

Last week a reader wanted to understand chocolate cravings. Chocolate cravings are associated with brain chemicals that affect mood, addiction, and emotions. People frequently consume this treat to feel better in some way, especially when feeling depressed, stressed, and anxious.

Is dieting hopeless? Monica takes on a "skeptic"

In a recent post, I offered some advice to a reader who wrote to ask how many calories she should eat if she wanted to lose weight. I recommended that she aim to create a calorie deficit of about 7,000 calories per week (by reducing caloric intake AND increasing physical activity), which would lead to losing approximately two pounds a week.

Over the weekend, a reader ("Skeptic") posted a detailed critique of my post, charging that it was an "oversimplification" of metabolism and containing "a lot of inaccurate information." (You can read his entire comment on the original post.)

Input from readers is always welcome, and often adds valuable information to the dialogue.  And I completely agree with Skeptic on some points.  Fuel metabolism is complex, and we often simplify things in order to make the ideas easier to work with. For example, the equation "cut or burn 3500 calories to lose one pound" is a simplified (but still useful) approximation.

But several of Skeptic's points are worthy of further discussion.

No such thing as bad carbs?

If you find it difficult to say no to so-called "bad' carbs like white bread, potatoes, and sweets, Dr. Glenn Gaesser has good news for you! Having analyzed hundreds of studies on the effects of carbs and weight gain, Dr. Gaesser has concluded that high-carbohydrate or high-glycemic diets don't lead to weight gain. (Read more about the glycemic index on our Gycemic Index topic page.)

According to Dr. Gaesser, author of It's the Calories, Not the Carbs, people who eat high carbohydrate diets tend to be thinner and healthier than people who don't. Furthermore, he says, high glycemic foods are not necessarily unhealthy and do not impede weight loss efforts.

Of course, this runs contrary to the current dietary dogma, which holds that excessive consumption of high glycemic carbohydrates (foods that cause a quick, sharp rise in blood sugar) can increase your risk of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Most nutritionists also advise dieters to emphasize low-glycemic (or "good") carbohydrates for better appetite control.

My take on Dr. Gaesser's contrarian view?