Body Weight Gain and Weight Loss Tips!!!

Saturday, 15 July 2017

Conversation cards© a useful tool in pediatric weight management

Source: Elsevier
Summary:: Conversation Cards© were developed to help families think about and prioritize key challenges regarding pediatric weight management. They also create points of reference for providers, which could help to create treatment plans for families based on their priorities. Using Conversation Cards©, researchers conducted a study that reviewed the way families use the cards and how their card selections aligned with family characteristics.

FULL STORY

Increasing numbers of children and adolescents struggle with obesity, a challenging and complex health issue. Likewise, health care providers can find it challenging to effectively counsel families on weight management. To this end, Conversation Cards© were developed to help families think about and prioritize key challenges regarding pediatric weight management. They also create points of reference for providers, which could help to create treatment plans for families based on their priorities. Using Conversation Cards©, researchers from the University of Alberta conducted a study that reviewed the way families use the cards and how their card selections aligned with family characteristics.

           Data for this cross-sectional study were retrieved from a clinic providing care for 2- to 17-year-olds with overweight or obesity. Families were introduced to Conversation Cards© at a monthly, group-based orientation session after they were referred for care by local physicians and nurse practitioners.
Among 146 participants, families selected an average of 10 cards, with an equal proportion of positive (e.g., Ongoing contact with our clinician keeps us motivated) and negative (e.g., I feel overwhelmed and lack support) statements. The most popular card choices reflected families' readiness to make healthy changes, preference for involving children and adolescents in clinical discussions, the importance of children and adolescents in sharing their thoughts, wanting to learn how to make healthy foods fun, and desire for a specially trained fitness instructor to work with children and adolescents.
            "The needs and preferences of families relating to motivation and clinical support, especially across socioeconomic groups, revealed the complexity of patient- and family-level priorities that providers can address," lead author Maryam Kebbe, BSc, said.
Factors such as age and socioeconomic status had interesting effects on attitudes in the study. For example, compared with children, a greater proportion of adolescents disliked exercise and bought fast food in the absence of their parents. Likewise, compared with their counterparts, a greater proportion of parents with a higher level of education and lower household income reported that setting goals helped them to remain motivated; those with lower incomes also reported that their finances limited what they could do. A greater proportion of parents with a lower level of education also reported financial limitations in registering their sons and daughters in sports.
            "Offering families services that align with their readiness, motivation, and ability to participate actively in pediatric weight management is ideal. Conversation Cards© may be useful to complement existing processes and procedures for both providers and families," Kebbe added.
Although Conversation Cards© were helpful for families in establishing their priorities with health care providers, further research using this tool is needed. Several other projects are underway, including whether the Conversation Cards© can be used effectively for goal setting and enhancing motivation to change habits over time.

Monday, 10 July 2017

Fasting blood sugar, fasting insulin identified as new biomarkers for weight loss

Source: Faculty of Science - University of Copenhagen
Summary:: A personalized diet approach could lead to greater weight loss and maintenance success, report researchers. Their study identifies fasting blood sugar and/or fasting insulin as new biomarkers for weight loss in people with prediabetes or diabetes.

FULL STORY

Researchers from the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at the University of Copenhagen today announced the findings from a weight loss biomarker study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN). The study, "Pretreatment fasting plasma glucose and insulin modify dietary weight loss success: results from 3 randomized clinical trials," found that fasting blood sugar and/or fasting insulin can be used to select the optimal diet and to predict weight loss, particularly for people with prediabetes or diabetes.

                The research analyzed data from three diet clinical trials which collectively looked at more than 1,200 individuals -- Diet, Obesity, and Genes (DiOGenes); the OPUS Supermarket intervention (SHOPUS); and the Nutrient-gene interactions in human obesity (NUGENOB). The findings suggest that for most people with prediabetes, a diet rich with vegetables fruits and wholegrains should be recommended for weight loss and could potentially improve diabetes markers. For people with type 2 diabetes, the analysis found that a diet rich in healthy fats from plant sources would be effective for achieving weight loss. These diets could also be effective independent of caloric restriction.
                                                                                                                                                                          Two simple biomarkers with a large effect
               "Recognizing fasting plasma glucose as a key biomarker enables a new interpretation of the data from many previous studies, which could potentially lead to a breakthrough in personalized nutrition," said Arne Astrup, M.D., Head of Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at University of Copenhagen. "The beauty of this concept is its simplicity. While we are looking into other biomarkers, it is quite amazing how much more we can do for our patients just by using those two simple biomarkers. We will continue to participate in and support research to explore additional biomarkers such as gut microbiota and genomics approaches, which may offer more insights and help to more effectively customize the right diet for specific individuals."
                The latest findings, as reported in AJCN, have garnered international support with further analysis conducted by researchers from the University of Colorado, Tufts University, and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBER OBN). Presented at the American Diabetes Association's 77th Scientific Sessions on June 11, 2017, the additional research includes an examination of patients in the Prevencion Dieta Mediterranea (PREDIMED Study), a Randomized Trial of a Low-CHO Diet for Obesity (CHO Study), and The Healthy Weight for Living Study. The different studies (six in total) employed a variety of nutrition strategies, including caloric restriction and ad libitum diets, varying the contributions of carbohydrate and fat, and increasing fiber intake.
                 The study was inspired by a finding in an early trial of Gelesis100, a novel hydrogel which demonstrated pronounced weight loss in people with prediabetes. The latest findings, as published in AJCN, concluded that a personalized nutritional approach based on an individual's biomarkers will lead to improved weight loss and maintenance success. The University of Copenhagen will continue to collaborate with the study's authors and other experts to advance this research and help find solutions for people around the world who struggle with weight loss.

Thursday, 6 July 2017

Scientific statement on obesity's causes

Statement calls for studying factors that undermine long-term weight maintenance

Source: The Endocrine Society
Summary:: A new Scientific Statement calls for more research aimed specifically at understanding the underlying mechanisms that make it difficult to maintain long-term weight loss.

FULL STORY

A new Scientific Statement issued by the Endocrine Society calls for more research aimed specifically at understanding the underlying mechanisms that make it difficult to maintain long-term weight loss.

Despite decades of research and billions of dollars spent each year on treatment, understanding of the underlying causes of obesity remains limited. One in three American adults is affected by obesity, and it costs an estimated $147 billion a year to treat obesity and its consequences in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Growing evidence suggests obesity is a disorder of the body's intricate energy balance systems. Once an individual loses weight, the body typically reduces the amount of energy expended at rest, during exercise and daily activities while increasing hunger. This combination of lower energy expenditure and hunger creates a "perfect metabolic storm" of conditions for weight gain.
"Because of the body's energy balance adjustments, most individuals who successfully lose weight struggle to maintain weight loss over time," said Michael W. Schwartz, M.D., of the University of Washington in Seattle, Wash., and the chair of the task force that authored the Society's Scientific Statement. "To effectively treat obesity, we need to better understand the mechanisms that cause this phenomenon, and to devise interventions that specifically address them. Our therapeutic focus has traditionally been on achieving weight reduction. Most patients can do this; what they have the most trouble with is keeping the weight off."
"Healthcare providers and patients need to view this tendency as the body's expected response to weight loss, rather than as a sign of a failed treatment regimen or noncompliance with treatment," Schwartz said.
The Society's statement also calls for additional research into factors influencing obesity;

Interactions between genetics, developmental influences and the environment. Though a substantial portion of obesity risk is conveyed by genes, researchers have not yet been able to identify all of the relevant genes and to understand the nature of their interactions with developmental processes and the environment.
The effect of endocrine-disrupting chemicals such as bisphenol A on obesity.
The microbiome, or bacteria in the gut, and its interactions with the endocrine and digestive systems as well as the brain.
The reasons behind the therapeutic success of bariatric surgery.
The role that diet composition plays in the development of obesity.
Biological markers and predictors for diabetes, heart disease and other conditions that often develop in conjunction with obesity.
The effects of socioeconomic status on obesity risk.
Brain imaging to better understand appetite and feeding behavior.

Smelling your food makes you fat? Find out

Mice that lost sense of smell stayed slim on high fat diet, while litter-mates ballooned in weight

Source: University of California - Berkeley
Summary:: Researchers developed ways to temporarily eliminate the sense of smell in adult mice, and discovered that those mice that lost smell could eat a high-fat diet and stay a normal weight, while littermates that retained the sense of smell ballooned to twice normal weight. Supersmellers gained more weight than did normal mice on the same high-fat diet. Smell-deficient mice burned excess fat instead of storing it, suggesting a link between smell and metabolism.

FULL STORY

After UC Berkeley researchers temporarily eliminated the sense of smell in the mouse on the right, it remained a normal weight while eating a high-fat diet. The mouse on the left, which retained its sense of smell, ballooned up on the same high-fat diet.

Credit: Céline Riera & Andrew Dillin, UC Berkeley

Our sense of smell is key to the enjoyment of food, so it may be no surprise that in experiments at the University of California, Berkeley, obese mice who lost their sense of smell also lost weight.

What's weird, however, is that these slimmed-down but smell-deficient mice ate the same amount of fatty food as mice that retained their sense of smell and ballooned to twice their normal weight.
In addition, mice with a boosted sense of smell super-smellers got even fatter on a high-fat diet than did mice with normal smell.
          The findings suggest that the odor of what we eat may play an important role in how the body deals with calories. If you can't smell your food, you may burn it rather than store it.
These results point to a key connection between the olfactory or smell system and regions of the brain that regulate metabolism, in particular the hypothalamus, though the neural circuits are still unknown.
"This paper is one of the first studies that really shows if we manipulate olfactory inputs we can actually alter how the brain perceives energy balance, and how the brain regulates energy balance," said Céline Riera, a former UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow now at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Humans who lose their sense of smell because of age, injury or diseases such as Parkinson's often become anorexic, but the cause has been unclear because loss of pleasure in eating also leads to depression, which itself can cause loss of appetite.
        The new study, published this week in the journal Cell Metabolism, implies that the loss of smell itself plays a role, and suggests possible interventions for those who have lost their smell as well as those having trouble losing weight.
"Sensory systems play a role in metabolism. Weight gain isn't purely a measure of the calories taken in; it's also related to how those calories are perceived," said senior author Andrew Dillin, the Thomas and Stacey Siebel Distinguished Chair in Stem Cell Research, professor of molecular and cell biology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. "If we can validate this in humans, perhaps we can actually make a drug that doesn't interfere with smell but still blocks that metabolic circuitry. That would be amazing."
Riera noted that mice as well as humans are more sensitive to smells when they are hungry than after they've eaten, so perhaps the lack of smell tricks the body into thinking it has already eaten. While searching for food, the body stores calories in case it's unsuccessful. Once food is secured, the body feels free to burn it.
                                                                                                                                                                    Zapping olfactory neurons
           The researchers used gene therapy to destroy olfactory neurons in the noses of adult mice but spare stem cells, so that the animals lost their sense of smell only temporarily for about three weeks before the olfactory neurons regrew.
The smell-deficient mice rapidly burned calories by up-regulating their sympathetic nervous system, which is known to increase fat burning. The mice turned their beige fat cells the subcutaneous fat storage cells that accumulate around our thighs and midriffs -- into brown fat cells, which burn fatty acids to produce heat. Some turned almost all of their beige fat into brown fat, becoming lean, mean burning machines.
In these mice, white fat cells the storage cells that cluster around our internal organs and are associated with poor health outcomes also shrank in size.
            The obese mice, which had also developed glucose intolerance a condition that leads to diabetes not only lost weight on a high-fat diet, but regained normal glucose tolerance.
On the negative side, the loss of smell was accompanied by a large increase in levels of the hormone noradrenaline, which is a stress response tied to the sympathetic nervous system. In humans, such a sustained rise in this hormone could lead to a heart attack.
Though it would be a drastic step to eliminate smell in humans wanting to lose weight, Dillin noted, it might be a viable alternative for the morbidly obese contemplating stomach stapling or bariatric surgery, even with the increased noradrenaline.
           "For that small group of people, you could wipe out their smell for maybe six months and then let the olfactory neurons grow back, after they've got their metabolic program rewired," Dillin said.
Dillin and Riera developed two different techniques to temporarily block the sense of smell in adult mice. In one, they genetically engineered mice to express a diphtheria receptor in their olfactory neurons, which reach from the nose's odor receptors to the olfactory center in the brain. When diphtheria toxin was sprayed into their nose, the neurons died, rendering the mice smell-deficient until the stem cells regenerated them.
Separately, they also engineered a benign virus to carry the receptor into olfactory cells only via inhalation. Diphtheria toxin again knocked out their sense of smell for about three weeks.
In both cases, the smell-deficient mice ate as much of the high-fat food as did the mice that could still smell. But while the smell-deficient mice gained at most 10 percent more weight, going from 25-30 grams to 33 grams, the normal mice gained about 100 percent of their normal weight, ballooning up to 60 grams. For the former, insulin sensitivity and response to glucose both of which are disrupted in metabolic disorders like obesity -- remained normal.
Mice that were already obese lost weight after their smell was knocked out, slimming down to the size of normal mice while still eating a high-fat diet. These mice lost only fat weight, with no effect on muscle, organ or bone mass.
         The UC Berkeley researchers then teamed up with colleagues in Germany who have a strain of mice that are supersmellers, with more acute olfactory nerves, and discovered that they gained more weight on a standard diet than did normal mice.
"People with eating disorders sometimes have a hard time controlling how much food they are eating and they have a lot of cravings," Riera said. "We think olfactory neurons are very important for controlling pleasure of food and if we have a way to modulate this pathway, we might be able to block cravings in these people and help them with managing their food intake."

Sunday, 2 July 2017

How to Lose Weight Fast: (Part 3: LIFESTYLE SECRETS)

According to Dr. Axe 1. Make small changes

Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint. Changing every part of your lifestyle at once is overwhelming and sets you up for failure. Decide on making just one healthy change a week to allow yourself time to adapt. Whether it’s cooking your own meals four nights a week, adding just 20 minutes of fitness to your routine a day or swapping out that sugary coffee for green tea, all these changes will add up.

2. Let those close to you know of your intentions

It can help eliminate bad feelings that arise once you start making different choices. For instance, if you’re constantly turning down dinner invitations with friends, they might assume you’re just not interested in spending time with them.

Instead, explain that you’re trying to incorporate a healthy lifestyle and, while that new restaurant isn’t in your plans, you’d love to go see a movie or get together for coffee instead. Let them know how important their support is to you.

3. Use social networks & technology to keep you accountable

It’s easy to tell yourself that you’ll wake up for a run at 6 a.m., but it’s another thing to actually do it. Use your social networks to help keep you in check. Let people know that you’ll be up for a run and ask if anyone wants to join you. Share a post-workout selfie or join an online community where members cheer each other on.

“There’s an app for that” couldn’t be truer than when it comes to fitness, such as the great fitness trackers available now. Whether you’re trying to keep track of what you’re eating, need a need workout or just want to log how many miles you’re running, there’s an app for you.

4. Track your progress

When the scale doesn’t seem to budge or you feel like your body isn’t changing quickly enough, it’s hard not to get discouraged. So track your progress from the start to see how much you’ve accomplished. This will help motivate you to keep going.

Whether you track how many inches you’ve lost, keep a food diary or maintain a journal about the healthy changes you’ve made, it’s encouraging to see what a great job you’re doing! Bonus: Keeping an exercise or food diary can help you see weaknesses in your routine, push yourself out of a fitness plateau or notice what situations drive you to eat more or exercise less.

5. Treat yourself!

If knowing that your body is thanking you for making healthier choices isn’t enough (and that’s ok!), treat yourself \ but don’t tie these “rewards” to food. For instance, if you worked out five days each week for the entire month, splurge on that new tennis racquet you’ve been wanting or indulge in a manicure or pedicure. You’ve earned it!

6. Get active with friends

Embracing a healthy lifestyle means cutting out some things you might have taken for granted, like after-work happy hours with coworkers or weekend brunches with friends. But there’s no reason your social life has to suffer.

Instead, suggest fun alternatives. Instead of happy hour, why not take a new exercise class together? Instead of indulging at brunch, go on a hike or check out a spin class. If that’s not your friends’ cup of tea, you can even host a meal at your place.

7. Set and go after a goal

Setting a fitness goal gives you a specific purpose for your workouts and the satisfaction once you’ve completed it. Whether it’s deciding to run your first 10k, learning how to do a headstand when practicing yoga or completing 50 push-ups without stopping, a challenge might be just what you need to get out of a fitness rut.

8. Sleep more

If you’re constantly sleeping less than seven or eight hours a night, your health — and waistline — will suffer. In fact, in a 2013 study, researchers found that sleep-deprived subjects were much more likely to choose larger portions of snacks than those who slept at least eight hours at night. The lack of sleep also affected their food choices.

A chronic lack of sleep is linked to obesity, diabetes and more. Plus, sleep is an important time to rebuild muscle from your workout routine and give your brain a chance to process and heal.

If you’re having trouble sleeping, try some of these all-natural ways to fall asleep and get more zzz’s.

9. Figure out if you’re hungry or just bored

Seems strange, doesn’t it? But our minds often confuse boredom, tiredness and more with hunger. Hard to believe? A 2015 study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology showed that experiencing boredom actually not only increased the amount of snacking, but also the amount of unhealthy eating overall.

Before you eat something, drink some water and ask yourself if you’re truly hungry, go on a quick walk outside or around the office or just wait 20 minutes or so before eating. You’ll be amazed at how often your body isn’t actually hungry; it’s actually craving movement.

10. Use essential oils to curb cravings

Take control of cravings naturally by using essential oils like peppermint, grapefruit, ginger, cinnamon or lemon. Instead of consuming another coffee or snack, dab a drop on your wrists to boost energy or calm hunger.

11. Simplify your routine

So often, we have the best of intentions but life gets in the way. That is, unless you plan for it! If you like working out right after work, join a gym or hit up a class that’s near your office. Do you prefer doing yoga stretches in the privacy of your home? Designate an area as a yoga-only zone with your mat and candles to strike a pose whenever the urge hits.

Does your schedule get especially busy a few times a year? Prepare yourself by making a few extra servings of your favorite healthy meals and freezing them so you can simply reheat when you have no time to cook.

12. Weekends count, too

We often eat well and exercise throughout the week only to let weekends get out of control. If you decide that Friday through Sunday doesn’t count, remember that’s almost half of the week!

Commit to keeping a similar schedule throughout the entire week or use the extra weekend time to your advantage: Try doing a longer workout you normally don’t have time for, take the dog on an extra-long walk or hike or use the extra time to prep meals for the upcoming week.

13. Allow yourself a cheat meal

A cheat meal not a day! is something you might need from time to time in order to keep on track, especially when you’re first getting used to a healthier lifestyle. Sometimes giving yourself a little cheat takes the wind out of those cravings and keeps your week on track.

Choose one meal, eat what you’d like and then continue with your previously scheduled healthy lifestyle. Start with one cheat meal a week and gradually scale back. You’ll be surprised how quickly those foods you loved (that are full of icky things!) lose their appeal, especially when you realize how poorly they make you feel after.

14. Don’t beat yourself up

Living a healthier lifestyle is a process. You’ll slip — we all do! The best thing to remember is that no one decision will derail your efforts. If you ate more than you intended at your last meal, don’t skip the next few, but instead choose filling, protein-rich foods. Couldn’t work out as much as you wanted? Squeeze in a 10-minute workout and remind yourself to do more the next time you can.