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Liposuction Doesn’t Last; Your Fat Loves You Too Much To Leave

May 2, 2011 By

Liposuction has been around since 1974, so by now you’d think someone would have figured out whether it works or not. However, doctors only completed this research recently, and the news isn’t good: All the fat removed by liposuction comes back within a year — and in a strange new location!

The new study was conducted by University of Colorado researchers and published in the journal Obesity. The New York Times reports:

In the study, the researchers randomly assigned nonobese women to have liposuction on their protuberant thighs and lower abdomen or to refrain from having the procedure, serving as controls. As compensation, the women who were control subjects were told that when the study was over, after they learned the results, they could get liposuction if they still wanted it. For them, the price would also be reduced from the going rate.

The conclusion: As promised, fat didn’t return to the thighs and lower abdomen. Instead, it was “redistributed upstairs” to the upper abdomen, shoulders and triceps within a year. The researchers said they weren’t surprised by this result, and pointed to the body’s tendency to “defend” its fat. The body is constantly replacing fat cells, but they relocate after liposuction because the procedure destroys the net-like structure under the skin where fat cells are located.

Scientists have actually performed liposuction on rats and found the same results, but it still took them decades to study the phenomenon in humans. The study required doctors to scan and measure fat precisely, which is difficult. Also, unlike studies involving patients taking a simple pill, every surgeon performs the procedure in a slightly different way.

Dr. Rudolph Leibel, an obesity researcher at Columbia University, described the finding as, “another chapter in the “‘You can’t fool Mother Nature’ story.” But don’t expect humans to give up their quest for a quick weight loss solution so easily. After the study, the women who had the procedure said they were still happy — they just wanted to get rid of fat on their hips and thighs, even if it came back elsewhere. They have good reason to rationalize their decision, but most of the women in the control group felt the same way. Even after they heard the results of the study, more than half still had liposuction.

With Liposuction, The Belly Finds What The Thighs Lose [NYT]

 

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Study says even being a bit overweight is risky

December 1, 2010 By

By STEPHANIE NANO, Associated Press Stephanie Nano, Associated Press – Wed Dec 1, 6:25 pm ET

NEW YORK – Lugging around a few extra pounds? One of the largest studies to look at health and weight finds that you don’t have to be obese to raise your risk of premature death. Merely being overweight carries some risk, too.

Obesity increases the risk of death from heart disease, stroke and certain cancers. But whether being merely overweight contributes to an early death as well has been uncertain and controversial. Some research has suggested being a little pudgy has little effect or can even be a good thing.

The latest research involving about 1.5 million people concluded that healthy white adults who were overweight were 13 percent more likely to die during the time they were followed in the study than those whose weight is in an ideal range.

“Having a little extra meat on your bones — if that meat happens to be fat — is harmful, not beneficial,” said Dr. Michael Thun of the American Cancer Society, senior author of the study.

The study’s conclusions, published in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, are similar to three other large studies, said the lead author, Amy Berrington of the National Cancer Institute.

“Now there’s really a very large body of evidence which supports the finding that being overweight is associated with a small increased risk of death,” Berrington said.

For their government-funded analysis, the researchers pooled 19 long-term studies of mostly white adults. They used each person’s body mass index — a measure of height and weight — and checked to see who died during the follow-up periods, which ranged from five to 28 years.

They focused on people who were healthy at the beginning of the studies, excluding smokers and those with heart disease or cancer because those affect death rates and researchers wanted to see the impact of weight alone.

The lowest death rate for healthy women who had never smoked was in the high end of the ideal body mass index range — between 22.5 and 24.9. Compared with that group, those who were overweight had an increased risk of death of 13 percent. The increased risk ranged from 44 to 88 percent for those who were obese. The morbidly obese were 2 1/2 times more likely to die prematurely. The results for men were similar.

Most of the participants in the studies were white so the research focused on them. Results may be different in other ethnic and racial groups, Berrington said. She said evidence suggests that for the same BMI level, African-Americans might have a lower risk of death and Asians a higher risk.

Two-thirds of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese. Overweight begins at a BMI measurement of 25, obese at 30 and morbidly obese at 40. A 5-foot-6 person is considered overweight at 155 pounds, obese at 186 pounds and morbidly obese at 248 pounds.

Because of its size and the diversity of studies included, the research “provides strong evidence against the position that it’s a good thing for health to be overweight,” Thun said.

The notion that a “bit of reserves” would help keep you from getting sick probably stems from the days when food was scarce, he said.

The latest research was launched after a controversial 2005 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that concluded being overweight didn’t raise the risk of death; that report included smokers and those with pre-existing illnesses.

University of South Carolina obesity researcher Steven Blair said the results were consistent with other studies and the “massive effort” was commendable. But he said there wasn’t enough information available about fitness level or physical activity. A proponent of the “fit and fat” theory, Blair said his research has shown that obese people who are tested and deemed fit did not face increased risks of dying.

“If we want to get to the bottom of the health hazards of overweight and obesity, we have to have better data on physical activity,” Blair said. “Until we do that, there’s uncertainty of how important BMI is as an important predictor of mortality.”

___

Online:

BMI calculator: http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

New England Journal: http://www.nejm.org

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The Simple Truth About How Your Body Burns Fat

November 28, 2010 By

How Your Body Burns Fat – You Must Understand

It, Before You Can Start Losing Weight!

Understanding how your body burns fat, will help you in achieving your goals of  losing those excess pounds.  If you look at today’s society, you will notice a growing amount of overweight people.  These overweight people are willing to try almost any type of fad diets from cabbage soup  to the Atkins Diet.  All these fad diets usually do is lead to failure, frustration and the person giving up on the diet.

So by getting a better understanding of how your body burns fat, you will be more likely to have a healthy and safe diet, while sticking with it.  In this article I will give you three sources of calories and in simple terms show how your body will use each source of calories.  We will have a look at the type of that best burn body fat effectively and in a healthy and safe way.

Secondly, we will have a look at how exercise helps your body to burn fat.  Also a few other factors such as rest periods and stress reduction and how they help your body to burn fat.  So let’s first look at  and examine the three primary sources of calories and how they can affect your body in burning fat.

So for us to answer the question, “How Your Body Burns Fat” it is very important to look at the three primary sources of calories.  These three sources are carbohydrates, fats and protein.  With the exception of water, protein is the most plentiful source in your body, it is the main ingredient in the building blocks of your muscles.  Secondly, protein is one of the most important substances in building and repairing your body.  Protein is not used for energy when your body has enough carbohydrates and fats present.

Carbohydrates are a major source of energy for your body, particularly during high-intensity exercises.

Fats are the second energy source most concentrated, having over two times as many calories as carbohydrates and proteins.  However, our body needs to have a proper diet to burn fat and burn it effectively.

Most low carbohydrate diets are based on restricting carbohydrate intake that allows your body to burn its fat stores.  When your body doesn’t have  any carbohydrates to burn, it turns from the carbohydrates to fat.

If you include a high protein diet with a low carbohydrate diet , you can greatly increase your body’s ability to burn fat, secondly if this is done for a long period of time it may do irreversible harm.  When you go on a diet, make sure that you are not overly restricting your bodies intake, you need to make sure that you are still getting the proper balance of minerals and nutrients .

When you look at how your body burns fat, you must also look at the effects that exercise has.  When your body starts breaking down fat for an energy source, you will need exercise to burn off energy created.  Any type of increase in your physical exercise will help to burn of that additional energy.  The more fat you want to burn the more frequently you should exercise.

Two other factors that play a huge part in burning fat is proper rest and reducing your stress level.  If you want to create a routine or regiment to reduce body fat, you must stay healthy.  If you have two much stress and a lack of sleep in your lifestyle, this combination will do the exact opposite of burn fat, but cause you to put on weight.

As you can see, when carbohydrates are not readily available your body starts to burn fat for energy.  When you incorporate exercise into your lifestyle, it promotes your body to burn body fat at a higher rate as you expend more energy.  Following exercise with proper rest, nutrition and stress management will allow you to maximize your body’s ability to burn fat.

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Weight loss tips to lose weight

November 28, 2010 By

We often get the question: Are there any weight loss tips to lose weight fast and safe? The answer is definetely YES. There are many ways to lose weight without danger and side effects. Weight loss has 2 major routes. The first route is the fast route by taking one of those miraculous weight loss products or diets and the second route is to approach the whole process with a clear and sensible mind.

By taking the first route at the beginning you may see some good results but in the long term you will end up in a worse situation that you were before starting your weight loss efforts. This is mainly because:

1. Weight loss products that promise quick and dramatic results do not work as advertised. This is a fact. There are many reasons of why they fail but we are going to explain those in a separate post.

2. Weight loss should be specific and tailored to the needs of each individual. This is especially true for weight loss diets. You cannot just follow a diet given to your friend and expect to see the same results. What works well for one person may not work for another and vice versa.

3. If anything is too good to be true then it is a fake. If you are overweight for some years do you really believe that there is a magic way to lose the extra pounds in just a few weeks? If it was so simple and magic then the majority of the population would not suffer from obesity and people would not care about finding ways to lose weight. It is true that there are some cases that people managed to lose a lot of weight in a short time. It happens but this is only the exception to the rule.

The general rule is that in order to lose weight you may need a lot of time and you have to put a lot of effort and hard work.

Having said the above, the alternative way to lose weight is the healthy way. By adopting this method to lose weight you are guarantee 2 things. First that the whole process will do more good than bad to your overall health and second that you will not get the weight you lost back after a few months. The good think about healthy weight loss is that you know in advance that the method will work. It may take more time than adopting a chemical diet but the results will be solid and permanent.

Some ways to adopt for a healthy lifestyle are:

1. Forget about the rule of 3 main meals per day (breakfast, lunch, dinner). Your diet schedule should include a good breakfast, 3 small size meals (including snacks) with 3 hours interval between them and one lunch meal taken at least 3 hours before going to bed.

2. Do not exclude any nutrient or vitamin from your daily intake. This means that you should eat all kind of foods from the food pyramid.

3. Make fruits and vegetables your friend and sweets and fatty food your enemy. Trust your friends better than your enemy.

4. Eat a lot of water daily and do not rush to the fridge as soon as you think that you are hungry. Eat a class of water first and your hunger may go away.

5. Start moving. Find every excuse you can to move your body and be more active. Walk around the house, dig your garden, paint your house, do anything that makes your body move and spend calories. If you do like join a gym or buy a bicycle and take regular rides.

The above are just a sample of the things you can do to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. Stay tuned for more healthy weight loss tips to lose weight.

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Filed Under: Featured, Weight Loss

Best diabetes fitness plan: aerobics plus weights

November 26, 2010 By

CHICAGO – People with diabetes should mix aerobics with weight training to get the best results in lowering blood sugar, a new study suggests. The combination worked best for weight loss too, compared to aerobics or weight training alone.

Blood sugar is fuel to muscles, and more sugar is burned during aerobic activity. Weight training builds more muscle, and both activities change muscle proteins in ways that enhance the process.

“It’s clear that doing both aerobic and strength training is superior to either alone,” said lead author Dr. Tim Church of Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. “It’s almost like taking two different drugs.”

Patients in the study, published in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association, achieved the results over nine months, exercising three days a week for about 45 minutes each session.

“People can manage this amount of exercise,” said Laurie Goodyear of Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, who wasn’t involved in the new study but does similar research. “They didn’t have to go on a diet. This was purely an exercise effect.”

The researchers’ goal was to test three exercise programs that doctors could realistically recommend and patients could stick with. They compared aerobics alone, weight training alone and a combination. U.S. guidelines recommend aerobics and weight training combined for all adults.

All three groups worked out for about the same amount of time. A fourth group of patients was offered only weekly stretching and relaxation classes for further comparison. The study was completed by 245 people with diabetes.

Led by trainers, patients walked on a treadmill that raised the uphill grade by 2 percent every two minutes for the aerobics. Weight training, also supervised, was done on machines that worked muscles in the upper body and legs, with more weight added as participants increased their strength.

“It gave me a lot more energy. That was one of the first things I noticed,” said Deidra Atkins-Ball, 44, a biology professor, diagnosed with diabetes a year before she joined the aerobics-weights group.

A distant aunt with diabetes lost both legs and her vision to the disease. Too much blood sugar can damage nerves, eyes, the heart and blood vessels.

“I remember as a kid having to do things for her, going to the store for her,” Atkins-Ball said. “It really scared me.”

The researchers found that only the group that combined aerobics and weights both lowered their blood sugar and lost weight, although all three fitness groups reduced their waist sizes.

Fewer patients in the combo group started taking new diabetes drugs than in the other groups. Decisions on medications were left up to the patients’ regular doctors during the study.

Forty-one percent of the patients in the combo group either decreased their diabetes medications or lowered their average blood sugar as measured by a common blood test, compared to 26 percent for weights only, 29 percent for aerobics only and 22 percent in the non-exercise group.

The blood sugar reduction achieved by the combo group was enough to reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes and other complications, the researchers wrote, citing earlier studies.

Atkins-Ball’s results were good, if not long-lasting. She dropped 4 pounds and saw her blood sugar reach near normal levels. When the program ended, she joined a gym and kept exercising — for a while.

Then she got busy, let her gym membership lapse after a year and has seen her blood sugar levels climb. She’s now taking two diabetes drugs, instead of the one she took during the study.

Atkins-Ball is trying to get back into an exercise routine by walking two miles with her husband in the mornings. Her advice for others with diabetes is to get into a structured exercise program.

“That’s what helped me the most,” she said.

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