2008 August | Weight Loss Ways

Sensible suggestions to help your child overcome obesity

Aug 27, 2008 Comments Off

Are you bothered about your child’s overweight? Join the club – you are not alone in this anxiety. Latest US statistics reveal that around 15.3% of children aged between 6 and 11 and 15.5% adolescents aged between 12 and 19 are overweight. Further about 15% children and 14.9 adolescents are at risk of obesity. Given the statistics and the associated health problems with obesity, it is pivotal to help your kids to maintain a normal weight and body shape.

As a parent, adopting certain methodologies and gaining some knowledge on obesity can help you a great deal in battling your child’s obesity. Few guidelines:

Try to control your child’s weight and not attempt to make your child loose weight.
Do not restrict your child’s food; rather help them decide for themselves how much to eat.
Encourage physical activity and exercise by involving yourself with your child in the process.
Lead by example – present an active lifestyle as a parent to your child and the child is more likely to follow suit.
Learn about nutrition and prepare food accordingly to ensure that your child’s weight is maintained and kept under control.

If the above guidelines seem insufficient, follow few of these practical tips:

Replace regular soda with plain water. Encourage your child to have lots of fruit juices and a glass of milk every day.

Prepare soups at home to take care of your child’s ‘in between’ hunger needs.

Have an interesting salad preparation with lots of interesting fruits.

Freeze fruits to entice your child to eating more fruits and add these to low-fat Jell-O Chocolate puddings.

Treat your kids with low-fat ice creams such as Blue Bunny Ice Cream Bar or Cone, Skinny Cow Low-Carb Ice Cream Sandwich. Also encourage your kid to have a snack helping of air-popped popcorn.

Keep stock of a variety of low-fat yogurt, light cheese stings, veggie sticks, like carrots, celery, peppers at easy access for your kids to grab when the feel the urge to snack.

Fill the bowl with fresh fruits and keep it at the kitchen table as Kids have a tendency to eat what they see!

Inculcate healthy eating habits in your kids by suggesting them to eat whole grain cereals with low-fat milk, whole grain bread with a light spread of peanut butter and jelly, or fruit spread or fruit breads.

Ensure your kid does not skip breakfast and discourage your child from having junk food.

These tips are sure to help you control your kid’s body weight and maintain a normal weight and body shape in due course.

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Recommendations for overweight patients

Aug 25, 2008 Comments Off

Doctors classify obesity into different types based on the BMI (Body Mass Index). If the BMI is more than 30, it is considered mild obesity. If the BMI scale indicates 40+, it is considered morbid obesity and 50+ and 60+ are rated as super obesity and super-super obesity, respectively. According to NHANES III data estimates, around 61.3 million American adults are obese and 6 million American adults are morbidly obese, not to mention the associated problems of obesity. Excess body weight leads to hypertension, increased blood-fats, type 2 diabetes, heart problems, metabolic disorders and many more. Obese people also face mobility problems thus making their quality of life style suffer largely. As if these problems are insufficient, obese patients are made to face psycho-social issues and are forced to maintain a feeling of helplessness in their capacity to control their weight.

With the advancement in science and technology, almost all the problems have got solution and obesity is no exception in that sense. There are surgical and non-surgical options available for obese patients to consider and get their body to maintain a normal weight. These are:

Bariatric Surgery Option

Now-a-days weight loss surgeries are deemed as “medical” procedures as opposed to “cosmetic” procedures, thus allowing insurance benefits as well. This treatment is widely opted by severely obese patients. International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity claims that gastric bypass surgery is far more guaranteed a treatment in significant weight reduction as compared to conventional dietary treatments. Though this option is available to obese patients it definitely is not an easy solution to obesity. This surgery demands drastic diet which patients must follow for the rest of their lives. Further, there are some follow-up studies into the long-term results of bypass surgery. Not just that this surgery is considered successful for a time period of not more than 5 years till when the weight loss is maintained. Usually after stomach operations, the digestive tract becomes irrevocable thus not allowing any alterations later. Considering the costs involved and the qualifying criteria essentials, Bariatric surgery may not be suitable option for the seriously obese gentry, unless all other options are considered and failed.

Non-surgical treatment of Obesity

This treatment can broadly be classified into two types: One that hospitals or health care centers run as weight loss programs closely supervising patients activities and the other run by commercial institutes. The difference between these two types is that the former includes programs such as Health Management Resources (HMR) and Optifast. These programs require the patients to follow a low-calorie regimen; behavior modification; physical activity; group or individual counseling. The downside of this option is that it calls for regular attendance at the center concerned and is also an expensive proposition. The latter includes center-based programs specifically designed for weight loss management, such as Weight Watchers, ediets or Annie Collins. Compared to the supervised weight loss programs, regular commercial programs are far cheaper though they are not comparable support-wise. For the regular commercial programs to be successful, their support management should be executed via some online community or a well-managed forum.

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Threats of Excess body fat

Aug 22, 2008 Comments Off

Weight loss is often considered for improving appearance. But the fact is obesity, apart from manifesting unpleasant appearance, poses major threat to life and health in general. Clinical studies reveal a strong relationship between excess body fat and cancer. Body fat on its own is considered a storage space for carcinogens (cancer-causing chemicals) both in male and female. In the case of females, the excess body fat manifests as breast or uterine cancer and in the case of males it is colon or prostrate cancer.

Obese people need to spend more energy to breathe because the heart has to work harder to pump blood to the lungs and to the excess fat stored in the entire body. This excess work load on the heart can result in high blood pressure and erratic heartbeats.

People with obesity are also prone to arteriosclerosis (narrowing of arteries by deposits of plaque) as they tend to have high cholesterol levels. Blood does not reach vital body parts like the brain, kidneys, heart when blood vessels become narrow as a result of arteriosclerosis.

Our body maintains a delicate balance among blood sugar, body fat and the hormone insulin. Liver and other vital organs store the excess blood sugar but when the organs become full, the same blood sugar is converted as fat. When the fat cells become full, they become incapable to absorb more blood sugar. This causes an imbalance in the body resulting in diabetes that lead to heart disease, kidney failure and blindness in the long run.

The only solution to avoid these threats is to keep your body weight reduced and maintained. Because reducing body weight reduces the risk of diseases. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh studied 159 people with a weight management program. The age group was 45 yrs and their overweight pounds were between 30 – 70 pounds. During the 18 month study they were able to shed 10 -15 percent of their weight and they showed significant improvement in HDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels and blood pressure. Further, according to the New England Journal of Medicine, body fat reduction is a far more powerful modulator of cardiac structure than drug therapy.

There is sufficient evidence to show that certain types of cancers are successfully treated with the help of an active lifestyle and weight loss management programs. Studies also show that regular exercise and a low-fat diet are very successful to treat non-insulin dependent diabetes (NIDDM).

With such studies and evidences, one can sure have answers to these bothersome threats of obesity by just developing a healthy eating routine and indulging in some regular physical fitness activities.

Technorati Tags: weight loss, losing weight, dangers of body fat

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Sensible suggestions to help your child overcome obesity

Aug 27, 2008 Comments Off

Recommendations for overweight patients

Aug 25, 2008 Comments Off

Threats of Excess body fat

Aug 22, 2008 Comments Off

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