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Putting on the pounds: 10 top tips to build muscle

BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

Although training weight loss is a huge part of the fitness industry, there are just as many people who have their sights set on gaining weight by building muscle.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/health/putting-on-the-pounds-10-top-tips-to-build-muscle-35866519.html

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Although training weight loss is a huge part of the fitness industry, there are just as many people who have their sights set on gaining weight by building muscle.

However, there are many different ways to go about it, and it's often just as difficult a process for some as achieving long-term weight loss. It can be every bit as frustrating.

As with weight-loss, there endless amounts of information available to help you work towards your goal, so to save you time, here's 10 of the best, most informed tips you can use to start slapping on a few pounds of solid muscle.

Instead of wasting time filling up your sessions with exercises targeting single muscles, focus the majority of your training on bigger, multijoint movements.

'Compound' exercises, such as the squat, bench press, deadlift and chin-up work multiple muscle groups, and are better choices for heavily loading the muscles and creating the best hormonal response for muscle growth.

We can't build muscle out of nothing- we need a surplus of calories to do so.

Aiming to eat around 15% above our maintenance needs will help minimize bodyfat gain, while giving us room to eat the minimum of 0.8g per lb of bodyweight in protein that we need to kick-start muscle growth. Fill up your plate!

The intention behind all weight-training programmes is that they push you to improve over time, by increasing workload (volume) or the weights which you are using.

Making sure you're following a programme which helps you make improvements week by week will help you avoid spinning your wheels.

Recovery is a huge and underrated part of muscle growth.

Training too frequently and with high workloads means that over time your fatigue will start to outweigh your recovery, and you will struggle to build muscle or improve training performance.

Aiming to train between 3-5 days a week, with a minimum of 7 hours of sleep each night, are two of the best methods to improve recovery and help you keep making progress.

Lifting heavy is an important part of building muscle, however, including a mix of rep ranges, which also help both tear down and stress the muscles allow you to cover all bases for what is required for muscle growth.

Low, medium, and high reps can all have their place in a training programme.

The lower body holds the body's biggest, strongest muscle, but people often neglect training them in favour of the upper body.

However, although leg training can be nasty, training them creates a big hormonal response which encourages not just muscle growth in the lower half, but in the upper half of the body too.

To optimize muscle growth, don't allow yourself to begin getting too comfortable dodging that squat rack.

Studies suggest that training muscle groups multiple times per week might be more optimal for muscle growth instead of trying to thrash muscle groups in a single training session each week.

Consider a programme which hits muscle groups more frequently, stimulating them to grow multiple times throughout the week. And yes, that includes your legs.

Cardio is a great tool for improving or maintaining fitness, but can be detrimental when trying to build muscle.

Cardio activity burns a lot more energy than lifting weights, so even with an increase in food intake, you may still burn through those extra calories.

Throw high intensity cardio sessions into the mix and your recovery may even suffer. Feel free to include some cardio for fitness purposes, but keep total amount in check, and be aware of how your food intake may need to further change to accommodate it.

There are many programmes you can find online or in magazines which show you the training routines and diets followed by professional bodybuilders.

However, it pays to remember that there are a host of reasons they may be able to train the way they do, and their routines are usually completely inappropriate for the majority of other trainees.

Following a programme by a qualified PT or coach is usually a much better, safer option, and more likely to help you get the results you want.

Muscle growth is a slow process, and it is suggested that a trainee can only aim to grow around 2lbs of actual muscle per month.

Staying consistent across the weeks and months is the only way you will begin to notice results, but your patience will pay off.

Find these tips useful? Make sure to check out the Facebook page for further tips to help you work towards building muscle, losing weight, or improving fitness.

Belfast Telegraph Digital

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Putting on the pounds: 10 top tips to build muscle - Belfast Telegraph

For decades, weve been taught the same golden rule for maintaining a healthy weight: Simply burn more calories than you consume.

Therefore, being overweight, weve been told, is a personal flawa failure to follow the rules, or a result of weak willpower, laziness, or out-of-control gluttony.

But in recent years, a burgeoning number of scientists and journalists have come forward to suggest that the obesity crisis is caused by something far bigger than us: bad nutrition science, bad food policy, and chronic misinformation from the government and nutrition experts. In other words, its not (all) our fault.

In fact, the dietary advice weve been given for the past half century, they say, has created the perfect storm and near-ideal conditions for an obesity epidemic.

At the crux of issue, say advocates, is the demonization of fat that has been drilled into us since the 1970s.

It all started on Sept. 24, 1955, when then U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower suffered a moderate heart attack. Heart disease had been on the rise among middle-aged American men for years, and the presidents illness thrust the issue to the forefront.

As researchers scrambled to pinpoint a cause, charismatic and combative American physiologist Ancel Keys put forward a hypothesis: Saturated fat was the culprit, from foods like butter, red meat, eggs, and cheese. And it sounded completely logical: Eating fat makes you fat.

By the 1970s, Keyss theory had taken hold among nutrition experts as the dominant paradigm, despite weak evidence and conflicting research that pointed to sugar, not fat, as the culprit.

As the war on fat took hold, dietary guidelines were changed and the food pyramid was introduced. Based on the idea that a calorie is a calorie, the pyramid advised minimizing all types of fat, which contain twice the calories of other major nutrients, such as carbohydrates. Instead, it recommended a diet centered around low-fat, high-carb foods (up to 11 servings of grain products like bread and pasta per day).

Meanwhile, food companies jumped on the marketing opportunity, stripping the fat out of products and promoting healthy options like low-fat cereal, crackers, cookies, and salad dressing. But they also knew that taking the fat out of food products meant losing flavor. The solution? Add sugar.

As saturated fat from foods like cheese and butter was put on the enemy list, they were replaced with products containing new heart-healthy fats, such as margarine made from chemically processed vegetable oils known as hydrogenated oils. (These oils, which contain trans fats, are now facing widespread boycotts as we learn more about the dangers they pose. In 2015, the FDA determined that trans fats are not generally recognized as safe and set a three-year time limit for their removal from all processed foods.)

The idea that fat and saturated fat are unhealthy has been so ingrained in our national conversation for so long that we tend to think of it more as common sense than a specific hypothesis, writes journalist Nina Teicholz in her fat-exonerating book The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet.

But, like any of our beliefs about the links between diet and disease, this one, too, began as an idea, proposed by a group of researchers, with its origin fixed at a moment in time.

Although much of the Western world adopted this new low-fat, calorie-counting approach, often replacing dietary fat with refined carbohydrates, we continued to get fatter. And fatter. Since the 1970s, obesity has increased by 200 percent, and diseases related to obesity and diabetes are currently responsible for the deaths of two out of every three Americans.

The old adages of calories in, calories out and eat less and move more simply havent worked for most people in the long term. There are many benefits to exercising more, but weight loss often isnt one of them, since exercising tends to make us hungrier. And its nearly impossible to out-exercise a bad diet; to burn off one doughnut, you would need to walk briskly for almost an hour.

(Daisy-Daisy/iStock)

Its also very challenging to count the exact number of calories you consume every day and compare it accurately to the amount you burnjust a minor miscalculation could add up to several pounds a year. And even when you do successfully restrict calories, your body works against you, fighting back as it goes into starvation mode.

The calorie theory also suggests that eating a handful of almonds is the same as drinking a can of Coke, because the calorie count is similar. Or that low-fat cookies and no-fat, high-sugar yogurts are healthy options.

New research has revealed the flaws in this way of thinking, said Dr. David Ludwig, obesity expert and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, in his latest book Always Hungry? Conquer Cravings, Retrain Your Fat Cells, and Lose Weight Permanently.

Recent studies show that highly processed carbohydrates adversely affect metabolism and body weight in ways that cant be explained by their calorie content alone. Conversely, nuts, olive oil, and dark chocolatesome of the most calorie-dense foods in existenceappear to prevent obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

Ludwig, dubbed the obesity warrior by Time magazine, has joined other doctors such as Robert Lustig, David Perlmutter, and Mark Hyman, and journalists like Teicholz and Gary Taubes, to introduce a new theory: We dont get fat because we eat fat or too many calories; we get fat because we eat sugar and processed carbohydrates, which are quickly digested and cause spikes in the hormone insulin. This reaction promotes fat storage in the body and sparks a vicious cycle of overeating as insulin spikes and plummets.

The new thinking goes, cut out the sugar and fast-digesting carbs (which your body treats as sugar), and you wont get fat.

As anti-sugar crusader Lustig put it in his popular YouTube video Sugar: The Bitter Truth: You are not what you eatyou are what you do with what you eat.

The advice to focus on calorie counting and low-fat diets to lose weight was based on weak science and has caused people great suffering while thwarting their sincere efforts to be healthy, says Hyman in his book Eat Fat, Get Thin.

We now know from the research that sugars and refined carbs are the true causes of obesity and heart diseasenot fats, as weve been told, he writes.

Our views on fat, thankfully, are shifting. Over the last five years, the scientific evidence has been mounting that high-fat diets outperform low-fat diets for weight loss and for reversing every single indicator of heart disease risk, including abnormal cholesterol, diabetes, hypertension, inflammation, and more.

Instead of counting calories, Ludwig suggests retraining your fat cells with high-quality foods, including healthy fats. Using the right types and combinations of foods (as well as managing stress, and getting good-quality sleep and enjoyable physical activity), fat cells can be reprogrammed to release their pent-up calories, he says.

Fat is a crucial part of our diet, he notes, because it so highly satiating. Avoiding it makes us overeat the wrong foods to appease cravings. Contrary to what weve been told, healthy fats from foods like nuts and cheese do not get stored in fat cellsunless theyre eaten with refined carbs and sugar.

Dr. Mark Hyman,author of 'Eat Fat, Get Thin'

Ludwigs approach aims at shutting down the starvation response typical to most weight-loss diets by using nourishing whole foods that lower insulin levels and reduce inflammation. He advises eating a wide variety of nutrient-dense foods including full-fat dairy products like cheese and yogurt, healthy oils such as olive and avocado, and proteins like tofu, salmon, and lamb, as well as nuts, vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, whole grains, and even dark chocolate.

He also suggests that each individual may have a different sensitivity to carbs, so its a good idea to test your bodys reactions to them. Start by cutting out all starches, added sugars, and artificial sweeteners for two weeks. Then add back moderate amounts of whole grains and starchy vegetables. After that, reintroduce bread, potatoes, and other processed carbs, depending on your bodys ability to handle them. Do you instantly gain weight and feel sluggish when you eat white rice? Try brown rice or quinoa instead.

In recent years, some policymakers have started to back away from the focus on fat, as sugar takes its place as public enemy No. 1.

In 2015, the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion removed limits on dietary cholesterol in its Dietary Guidelines and softened its view on reducing fat in its advice. Eggs, yolks included, were again touted as good for us. In recent years, the American Heart Association and other health organizations have backed away from the low-fat message and revised guidelines to focus more on the types of fat in foods and on the diet as a whole.

A 2015 study published by the British Medical Journal concluded that dietary advice on fat consumptionissued to millions of U.S. and U.K. citizens in 1977 and 1983 to cut coronary heart disease incidencelacked any solid trial evidence to back it up and should not have been introduced, researchers concluded.

A nonprofit led by Taubes, a science journalist at the forefront of the anti-sugar, fat-friendly hypothesis, was created in 2014 to address this research problem. The aim of the organization, Nutrition Science Initiative (NuSI), is to throw out everything we know about nutrition science and start from scratch.

With the help of generous funding, NuSI aims to conduct the type of long-term, independent, and ambitious studies that nutrition research rarely gets the money for to find reliable answers to our big nutrition questions. Taubes also invited naysayersproponents of the low-fat, calorie balance approachto do some of the research.

While many scientists and nutritionists start questioning the supposed dangers of saturated fat, the progress is slow and policymakers are treading carefullylest they make another big, fat nutrition mistake.

Originally posted here:
In Defense of Fat - The Epoch Times

If youre looking for a quick and effective way to lose weight, chances are youve heard about the hCG diet. The three-week crash diet promises to help people drop large amounts of weight with the aidof injections of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a hormone produced by cells formed in the placenta during pregnancy that issaid to help reduce feelings of hunger, thus allowing people to eat very little.

The hormone is also said to keep dieters from losing muscle while calorie-cutting, despite their being unableto exercise during the diet, due to low energy levels. This is one reason for the hCG diets prominence, as muscle wasting is a common side effect in crash-diet weight loss. Supposedly, hCG helps to elevate levels of other hormones in the body, including testosterone, creating an anabolic (muscle-building) state to counteract muscle loss.

In other forms of the hCG diet, people use over-the-counter products such as drops to ingest the hormone orally. These products are illegal, however, and are not proven to raise blood levels of hCG, thus leaving dieters feeling hungry.

Critics argue that the 500-calorie-per-day intake is responsible for the drastic weight loss associated with the diet, not the hCG hormone itself. The diet requiresthat those 500 calories consist of only one vegetable per meal, prohibit the use of oil, and adhere to low-fat macronutrient ratios.

Dieters prepare with two days of fat loading and then cut out most fats, and they lose several pounds per day over the course of the diet. Despite the supposed metabolic reset that the diet claims to stimulate, dieters often report feeling weak while cutting calories and then struggling to maintain their weight loss after the diet ends.

Still, the hCG diet has gained cultlike support from people who lose large amounts of weight in very little time. Blogs with tips for effectively dieting using hCG and weight loss success stories nurture a community of fanatical dieters who swear by the hormone. Perhaps the most prominent of these blogs is writtenby Rayzel Lam, better known as HCG Chica, who lost more than50 pounds usinghCG injections and created a program to help people maintain their weight loss post-hCG diet.

To me, the hCG protocol is an extremely efficient use of your time and energy, Lam tells Yahoo Beauty. You focus on your weight loss for three to six weeks; then you can move to a maintenance level of eating and go back to focusing on the other important things in your life. If I can spend three to six weeks focusing on this weight loss and then go back to a maintenance level, rather than undereating for, say, six months to one year to lose that 15 to 20 pounds, for me this is a much more realistic approach psychologically.

Indeed, Lam admits that hCG fits the dictionary definition of a crash diet. The purpose of those who embark on this protocol is certainly to achieve rapid results, and it accomplishes that for most who do it, she says. The question is: Is that a bad thing?

Many health professionals would argue that crash dieting is indeed a bad thing. Aside from impacting your blood sugar and insulin levels in a negative way, the method of bingeing and skipping meals will also affect your mood, energy levels, and put you at an increased risk of getting headaches and dizziness, registered dietitian-nutritionistBeth Warrentells Yahoo Beauty. The eating behaviors also contribute to a poor relationship with food and promote bad eating behaviors that, over time, will contribute to weight gain and a greater difficulty in future weight loss.

Proponents of the diet are the first to admit that hCG is physically and emotionally draining, though. This protocol is difficult and can be taxing on the body, especially if done in an unwise way, says Lam, who used hCG injections without her doctors supervision. For instance, doing multiple rounds of the diet back to back without giving your body a nice break in between to balance out and normalize, or staying on the diet for too long a time.

Author, blogger, and registered nurse Lynette Sheppard agrees, explaining, There was one woman who was a cop who stopped after three days because she had brain fog and she suffered from really not feeling well. She had to be on top of it, shes a cop, so she had to stop.

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Despite using the hCG injections instead of the homeopathic drops that reportedly do not curb hunger, Sheppard felt physically drained throughout the diet, but not hungry. Its an easier diet to do if you work at home or you can take some time off. Some people feel great, they feel almost euphoric on it, but I did not. My holistic physician and his wife said they felt really great. I did not feel really great. I felt fine, but I didnt feel great, and I felt tired every afternoon. Sheppard, as a nurse, was able to administer her own injections with the approval of her doctor.

Still, Warren argues that too many doctors are willing to prescribe hCG without sufficient knowledge. Im seeing more often doctors that do not specialize in weight promoting the hCG diet and prescribing the shots. This is as unsafe as going to anyone who does not have the expertise and background in diet and weight loss, says Warren. The public should only seek out medical professionals, such as registered dietitians, who are experts in the weight loss area to ensure you reach your weight loss goals in a safe and sustainable manner. Just because a doctor has the ability to prescribe medications doesnt mean he or she has the qualifications necessary to do so.

And while many dieters report weight gain after returning to normal eating habits, some, like Lam, are certainly able to keep the weight off. I am approaching my five-year anniversary of maintaining my weight loss from hCG injections in November, says Lam. I have not done any diets since I finished losing that weight in November of 2012. I make small corrections of two to three pounds here and there when needed; that is all. I dont care what diet you research or how healthy the mainstream media thinks such a diet is, it is not common to find individuals who have been maintaining their weight loss this long. Lam also argues that injecting thehormone helped her to prevent muscle wasting during her weight loss, a theory that Warren does not believe is possible.

Sheppard did not have such luck with maintaining her 15-pound weight loss, though. I kept it off for a few years and then went to France. And you still need to eat properly afterwards; you can eat but you have to avoid a whole bunch of things like sugars and refined flour, she says. So yes, I put the weight back on. The next time she attempted to lose weight, she decided to forgo the hCG diet in favor of the Fast Metabolism diet, which she calls much more humane.

Still, Sheppard believes in the metabolic reset that the hCG diet is said to spur, though shes not convinced that it can help maintain weight loss in the long term. I think that any diet can actually reset your metabolism if you follow it as its designed, says Sheppard. I dont think its unique in that. I think it probably did do a reset, but does that reset last? That depends on how you eat after that, how you keep up with your exercise, and on a whole bunch of factors, she says.

But Warren insists that following the hCG diet as its designed is unsafe, and she believes that it actually slows the metabolism. The only way to make this diet healthier is to increase calories to a safe level, at about 1,200 per day. The hCG isnt shown to add benefit of causing any more weight loss than an otherwise balanced diet of a safe calorie restriction. In other words, to make the hCG diet safe, you will in essence not be doing the actual protocol.

And despite testimonials of success, Warren does not believethat hCG can healthfully foster long-term weight loss. She says that hCG is not only an ineffective way to lose weight over time, but due to its muscle-wasting results and decrease in metabolism, it is dangerous and can be life threatening. Whether it be the unknown combinations inside the supplement [Ed. note: Saidsupplements are illegal], the heavy calorie restriction, the eating behaviors and foods recommended, or the overall diet, the hCG is one of the worst diets out there.

Extreme weight loss like Rayzel Lams speaks volumes about the power of calorie restriction, but the jury is still out on whether hCG injections and the entire hCG protocol are safe or effective.

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Link:
Could the hCG Diet Be 'Life Threatening'? - Yahoo Health

Mon., June 26, 2017, 5:06 p.m.

I joined in a wave of the intermittent fasting trend about 10 years ago before I was a dietitian. Thats when most of the writings on the topic were in the form of blog posts and self-published PDF e-books. Today, a perusal of the Internet turns up several best-selling books extolling the benefits of intermittent fasting for weight loss and improvements in the metabolic risk factors that contribute to Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Then, and even now, the intermittent fasting hype was way ahead of the science. Most early research data came from animal studies, with human data coming from observations of participants of religious-based fasts or from small, short clinical studies. A systematic review published last year in the journal Nutrients looked at studies of at least six months that assigned adults with overweight or obese BMIs to either intermittent fasting or daily calorie restriction, and found no evidence that intermittent fasting was superior. The authors cited the need for longer, larger studies to assess sustainability and effects on weight maintenance.

So I was eager to read the results of a study published in the May issue of JAMA Internal Medicine that was longer and larger, enrolling 100 participants for a year six months of weight loss and six of weight maintenance. Researchers randomly assigned metabolically healthy adults ages 18 to 64 who had BMIs in the obese category to an alternate-day energy restriction group, a daily-calorie-restriction group or a control group whose members ate their usual diet.

Researchers found that the intermittent fasters had a harder time following their diets and were more likely to drop out than daily calorie restrictors. Weight loss and weight regain were similar between the dieting groups, as were changes to fat and lean tissue which is significant, because one intermittent fasting claim is that it leads to less muscle loss than traditional calorie-restrictive diets. Reduction of cardiovascular risk factors, including blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides, were also similar between the two dieting groups. The conclusion? Intermittent fasting was no better, and no worse, than a standard, calorie-restrictive diet.

Although no one study should be taken as a be-all, end-all answer, the results add substance to what previous research studies have overwhelmingly found.

The JAMA study used alternate-day energy restriction for the fasting group, whose members ate one meal containing 25 percent of their usual daily intake on fasting days and feasted on 125 percent of their usual daily intake on the other days, for an average 25 percent calorie reduction. The calorie-restriction group reduced calories by 25 percent each day, spread over three meals. Participants started out sedentary, and researchers asked them not to increase activity.

The takeaway? Intermittent fasting may actually be less sustainable in the long term for most people than daily caloric restriction, which itself is not sustainable, as the majority of people who lose weight on calorie-restrictive diets regain the weight, sometimes repeatedly, as with yo-yo dieting. The authors questioned whether there was a difference in perceived hunger or actual levels of appetite-related hormones between intermittent fasters and calorie restrictors. The answer is no, according to a small study published in April in the journal Clinical Nutrition. Researchers found that neither method has an advantage for weight loss or for lessening the bodys means of compensating for perceived starvation, which include slowing the metabolism and increasing levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin.

I tolerated the hunger that ebbed and flowed on fasting days and wasnt ravenous when it was time to eat, but not everyone has that experience. I stopped doing intermittent fasting when I went back to grad school to study nutrition because I had a hard time focusing on fasting days. My brain needed regular fuel. Today, I know that restrictive diets dont work, regardless of the form. Despite the hype, intermittent fasting isnt a magic bullet its plain old calorie restriction in a new outfit.

Dennett is a registered dietitian nutritionist and owner of Nutrition by Carrie. She lives in the Seattle area.

Read the rest here:
Despite the hype, intermittent fasting isn't a magic weight-loss cure - The Spokesman-Review

This press release was orginally distributed by ReleaseWire

Tijuana, Mexico -- (ReleaseWire) -- 06/27/2017 -- Founded by Dr. Jaime Ponce de Leon, Mexico Bariatrics is a holistic weight loss practice focused on delivering long-term weight loss solutions through customized programs to help patients successfully lose weight, reclaim their health, and live longer happier lives. Mexico Bariatrics is not just a bariatric surgery center, it is a long-term partner for good health, and is committed to its patients for life.

At Mexico Bariatrics, Dr. Jaime Ponce de Leon and his team have performed over 6,000 bariatric surgeries which have exceeded the average of successful weight loss management.

Mexico Bariatrics is a modern surgical facility located about 10 miles south of the border between the United States and Mexico. Many of its patients are from the US and Canada. In addition to bariatric surgery, the center offers a complete approach to weight loss, including diet and lifestyle advisory. "We believe in a lifelong process for healthy living at a healthy weight," Dr. Ponce de Leon added. "I know that my vast clinical experience and my training will allow me to provide optimal care for my patients."

About Mexico Bariatrics Mexico Bariatrics specializes in minimally-invasive surgical weight loss procedures including LAP BAND, Gastric Bypass, as well as Gastric Sleeve, Duodenal Switch, and the revision of failed weight loss surgery. Mexico Bariatrics offers a comprehensive multidisciplinary weight loss program which includes lifestyle, medical and surgical options for weight loss by a team of dedicated and highly trained professionals.

Built on an ideology of safe and effective care, Mexico Bariatrics provides quality treatment, delivered by quality health professionals, in a quality environment. Mexico Bariatrics is one of the most popular options today for U.S. and Canadian traveling patients seeking affordable weight loss surgery abroad.

For more information, visit http://www.mexico-bariatrics.com.

Media Contact: Dr. Jaime Ponce de Leon, MD Mexico Bariatrics Paseo de los Heroes 10999 Zona Rio, Tijuana, B.C., Mexico 22010 619-305-9017 info@mexico-bariatrics.com

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/mexico-bariatrics-offers-safe-and-affordable-weight-loss-surgery-in-mexico-to-patients-from-usa-and-canada-825250.htm

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Mexico Bariatrics Offers Safe and Affordable Weight Loss Surgery in Mexico to Patients from USA and Canada - Digital Journal (press release)

A new report by the Banfield Pet Hospital determined which states have the most obese pets. (Elyse Samuels/The Washington Post)

It might seem logical that the stateswith the highest prevalenceof overweight people would have the highest percentages of heftypets. Surely all those fit Coloradans with their outdoorsy lifestyles have slim dogs, right?

Not according toa new report based on the physiques of more than 2.5 million dogs and 500,000 cats in the United States. In some cases, it found nearly the opposite patterns for people and pets: Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi whichhave some of the nations highest rates of human obesity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention all ranked in the bottom five states for overweight or obese pets. Dogs and cats in Coloradowere in the top 20.

Topping the list for both chunky dogs and fat cats: Minnesota, where 41 percent of pooches and 46 percent of kittieswere rated by veterinarians as overweight or obese. In second place for both species was Nebraska, where the figures were 39 percent for dogs and 43 percent for cats.

The animals were all seen in 2016 at one of the 975 veterinary hospitals run by Banfield, a chain that operates in 42 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.Overall, 1 in 3 of those dogs and cats were overweight or obese, according to a five-point body conditioning score the hospitals veterinarians assign to animals aftera visual and physical examination. They want to be able to see pets waistlines and feel their ribs (but not see them, because that would mean a dog or cat is too thin).

The folks at Banfield were surprised to find thatpet and people weight problems dont correlate by state, said Kirk Breuninger, a veterinarian whos on the Banfield research team. But he said states with higher percentages of overweight pets also had higher percentages of pets with intestinal parasites, which can be avoided with tests and treatments. Taken together,that could suggest dogs and cats in those states have lower rates ofpreventive care or regular vet checkups, Breuninger said.

But while regional trends and people-pet relationships are murky, the overall picture when it comes to pet heft is not. Lots of American dogs and cats are far too heavy, andas a group theyre getting heavier all the time. Banfield says it has trackeda 158 percent increase in overweight dogs over the past 10 years. The prevalence of overweight cats has shot up 169 percent.

And its worth noting that Banfields numbers are actually lower than other commonly cited figures from the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP). According to that organization, which relied on a far smaller sample size, astunning 54 percent of dogs and 59 percent of cats were overweight or obese in 2016.

Experts citemultiple reasons our furry friends are swelling in size. More than ever, pets are treated as family members, and Breuninger said owners often show love to themwith table scraps, treats and extra scoops of kibble. Theres also been what he called a normalization of bigger-than-ideal bodies. A 2015 study, for example, found that 1 in 4dogs that placed in the top five of their class in Britains renowned Crufts dog show wherecontestants are judged on how close they are to a perfect example of their breed was too heavy.

Many pet owners dont quite understand that their pet is overweight, Breuninger said.

Other factors might also be in play, includinggenetics. Last year, researchers identified a variation in a gene in Labrador retrievers, which tend to pack on pounds, that drives overeating; whether its present in other breeds is not yet known and even if it is, Breuninger said, it wouldnt give owners anexcuse not to manage a pets weight.

Theres also ample confusion amongowners about what to feed their pets: Grain free? Organic? Raw meat? Theres no right answer for every animal, said Breuninger, who advised people check witha vet. (Vets, according to the APOP survey, arentgenerally as hot on low-grain, raw or organic diets as their pet owners are.)

All in all, if youve got a fat petand want to fix that, the answer in most caseswill sound pretty familiar: diet and exercise. A vet can advise on the quantity and type of food, Breuninger said, but the exercise part will be up to you and your fur baby. That includes indoor cats, who arent so easy to take to the dog park. Laser pointers, feather toys and food puzzles which make cats work for their food can be helpful weight-loss tools, he said.

The truth is that very small changes in activity levels for cats can lead to long-term changes in their health and weight, Breuninger said. Even playing with them 10 minutes a day can really have long-term impacts.

Need more motivation? Do it for your loyal friends health and for your wallet. More than 20 common pet diseases, including diabetes and arthritis, are linked to obesity. Banfield saysowners of its overweight dogpatients spent 17 percent more on health-care costs and 25 percent more on medications at its practices, while owners of pudgy cats spent 36 percent more on diagnostic tests.

Here are the states with the highest percentage of overweight dogs, according to Banfields State of Pet Health Report:

And here are the top 10 for cats:

Read more:

Some dogs cant help inhaling kibble and getting fat its in their genes

How to keep your cat from losing its mind

Long before they conquered the Internet, cats took over the world

Experts agree: The gorilla in the kiddie pool is having a total blast

See original here:
These states have the fattest pets and they might surprise you - Washington Post

With time, commitment and hard work, Elia lost more than 100 pounds. Along the way, she learned to love her body and her new healthy habits an outlook that has helped her maintain that weight-loss for more than 14 years.

For me, the prize is not a number on the scale, she says. The prize is how Im living my life and how I feel about myself.

A common narrative in our diet-obsessed world, fuelled by TV ads and magazine covers that flash before-and-after photos of people going from heavy to slim, is that those who reach a weight-loss goal have finished the fight against unwanted pounds.

But mounting research, along with the personal experiences of many thousands of people, show that staying at a healthy weight can be harder than the initial weight loss.

Reaching a weight-loss goal, whatever that might be, is not the end of a journey, but a beginning, says Rena Wing, a professor of psychiatry and human behaviour at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

There are two misconceptions about long-term weight loss, she says. The first is that nobody is ever successful. The second is that after doing the hard part losing weight maintaining is easy.

Research has revealed that it is largely our biology, and not our strength of will, that makes it so easy to regain lost weight. A suite of physiological factors, including appetite-related hormones, metabolism and even neurological pathways, make our bodies fight against weight loss.

This is why the majority of people who lose a substantial amount of weight gain it back within months or years.

Despite this discouraging evidence, Wing insists long-term weight loss is not a hopeless cause. She is the co-founder of the National Weight Control Registry, which began more than 20 years ago, and now tracks more than 10,000 Americans who have lost at least 30 pounds and have kept the weight off for more than a year.

It shows that maintaining weight loss is definitely possible, she says. Yes, it can be done. But it is hard.

A key finding of the registry is that people who succeed at weight management are able to find a way of life a diet, an exercise regime, a collection of healthy habits they can stick to forever.

Ximena Ramos Salas, managing director of the Canadian Obesity Network (CON), says that while long-term weight loss success is possible, most people are unable to do it on their own.

The majority who try to do it alone will gain it back, says Ramos Salas, a PhD candidate at the University of Alberta studying weight bias in public health. Its for this reason the CON is pushing governments to recognize obesity as a progressive chronic disease and offer long-term health supports to patients, just as people with type 2 diabetes, hypertension or depression receive followup care.

These patients dont just get six months of treatment and then are let go from the health system, she says. But we do that with obesity because of weight biases and the stigma, which says people did this (obesity) to themselves and need to manage it on their own.

Unlike other life successes earning a postgraduate degree, for example, starting a family or buying and renovating a dream house weight loss is not a permanent state, says Dr. Valerie Taylor, chief of psychiatry at Womens College Hospital in Toronto.

Weight loss is something that, if you dont stay on top of it, you can absolutely backslide. That can become psychologically challenging.

Rather than set big, far-reaching goals, such as losing 20 pounds in four weeks, Taylor advises patients to focus on small, obtainable goals, such as walking 10 minutes a day, ballroom dancing on Friday nights or losing enough weight so a seatbelt extender isnt necessary for airplane travel.

People build on successes. They dont like to build on failures.

Elia, now 44, has faced difficulties during her 14-year weight-loss journey, including two relapses when old, unhealthy habits took over and her weight crept back.

But overall, Elia says she has followed through on her vow to change her life in profound ways, including leaving her marriage and changing careers.

She eats fresh, whole foods as a way to sustain her body, not placate her feelings. She exercises, whether running, lifting weights or hot yoga, three to five times a week. And she meditates, nearly every day.

Elia, a certified food addiction counsellor, draws on her personal experience while running the food addiction clinic at the Wharton Medical Clinic, which treats people with obesity and diabetes and which has six locations in Ontario, including in Toronto.

The main message she has for people who want to lose weight and keep it off is to find their big motivation to change their life. Something bigger than fitting into a tiny dress or getting slim for a high school reunion, goals which she says are fleeting and unsustainable.

For Elia, its her 6-year-old daughter who brings inspiration.

Every time I get off track, or lose motivation, I look into my daughters eyes and ask myself, what kind of life do I want her to live?

I want her to be happy and healthy. And then I show her how to do it.

Continued here:
Keeping weight off is harder than losing it - Toronto Star

If youre looking to slim down, forget draconian diets and miracle cures. Just take on the following habits and watch the pounds melt away for good.

1. Trust your gut. Eat only when you feel hungry, and learn to recognize the signs your body sends when youre full. Always eat slowly.

2. Eat protein. It satisfies hunger better than sugars and fats do. Include some in every meal.

3. Stock up on fiber. It will fill you up fast and keep you full for hours, thus preventing cravings.

4. Choose vegetables. By granting veggies a larger place on your plate, youll satisfy your stomach with fewer calories.

5. Snack. Eat two healthy snacks a day to avoid overeating at meals because youre starving.

6. Spoil yourself. Dont give up on your favorite treats entirely. Enjoy them once in a while in moderation so you dont get tempted to binge.

7. Drink water. Its the best beverage to keep you hydrated, and it has the fewest calories!

8. Dont eat after dinner. Energy expenditure is at its lowest while you sit in front of the evening news, so avoid snacking on low-key evenings.

9. Get moving. Exercise is essential to losing weight and staying healthy.

10. Get enough sleep. Lack of sleep goes hand in hand with an overactive appetite and cravings for fattening foods.

Lastly, think long-term and set realistic weight goals for yourself. Remember, many hands make light work: consult a nutritionist and a personal trainer to get the results you want.

Originally posted here:
Healthy living: Ten habits for healthy weight loss - Montana Standard

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Eating pizza every day can help you lose weight? Sign me up!Tookapic / Pexels

What if you could eat all of the junk food your heart desires and still lose weight? It sounds like a scam, but over the years, so-called junk food fad diets have popped up over and over with people claiming real results.

From the guy who lost nearly 100 pounds by only eating pizzato the famous cookie diet that's been kicking around for years , there is no shortage of people claiming miraculous weight loss from eating foods that are high in sugar and fat content. How is this even possible?

"What happens with these same-food diets is that people tend to consume fewer calories overall," said Dr. Joan Blake, a nutritionist and clinical associate professor at Boston University.

"You get tired quickly of eating the same foods over and over," she continued. "The issue with these diets is that you may be losing weight from eating less, but they're not nutritionally sound over the long term. Once you go back to your old eating habits, all of that weight will come back."

Here are 8 unhealthy diets people swear by:

Unfortunately, these chocolate chip cookies might not help you lose weight on their own.Erol Ahmed / Unsplash

Dr. Siegal's cookie diet has been around since the early aughts and pairs hunger-suppressing cookies (sorry, no Oreos!) with one meal a day.

Then there's Sol Owell, a man who lost 50 pounds in a year by sticking to the #cookielife diet. He ate every single homemade cookie that friends and family from around the world sent him. For Owell, it was a simple "calories in, calories out" mentality, in which he supplemented his cookie monster lifestyle with tons of exercise.

Our nutritionist says: "He has a reasonable approach to adding a little treat, in this case a cookie or two, in his diet daily along with a healthy diet, and activity level. A daily treat can be factored into a healthy diet as long as you stay active and factor the calories in that "treat" into your daily caloric intake."

Where you lead, I will follow ... with copious amounts of junk food in hand. The fictional Lorelai and Rory Gilmore are well-known for staying skinny while sticking to a high-salt, carb, and fat diet. When Netflix revived the series last fall, there were numerous claims of women trying a "Gilmore Girls "diet of pizza, popcorn, candy, and other junk food and actually losing weight.

Our nutritonist says: "This is not a healthy eating plan for weight loss."

Ice cream is usually a diet no-no. Shutterstock

One of the most recent junk food diet success stories follows Anthony Howard-Crow, the miracle man who lost 32 pounds and improved his blood pressure by eating 2,000 calories of ice cream and some protein supplements every day earlier this year.

Sounds like a dream come true, right? He later admitted that it was the "most miserable dieting adventure" he had ever embarked upon because it made him irritable and lackluster.

Our nutritionist says: "This is a classic example of chronically eating a diet that is lower in calories than you need so you will lose weight. Unfortunately, it isn't a balanced, satisfying diet so he lost weight but also muscle mass."

Processed foods are easy to get, and easy to eat. Shutterstock

Sometimes you can't decide which junk food to "cleanse" with so you decide to eat anything you want for a month and end up losing 11 pounds.

That's exactly what Jeff Wilser did. He limited his caloric intake to under 2,000 calories daily and ate only suggested serving sizes of junk food. He stuffed his face with Oreos, M&M's, doughnuts and more every day. 30 days later, he lost 11 pounds and his bad cholesterol went down.

Our nutritionist says: "He ate less calories daily for 30 days and lost weight. Unfortunately, his diet wasn't 2,000 calories of healthy foods. If he continued eating only these foods daily, he will likely end up deficient in many nutrients."

John Cisna's transformation is stunning. Facebook/Courtesy John Cisna

John Cisna made national headlines in 2014 after he lost 56 pounds in six months eating only McDonald's. He even published a book called "My McDonald's Diet" about his incredible weight loss journey.

But nutritionists called his diet "unrealistic" for the long haul, and claimed that while his weight may be down, most likely his sodium intake was high, and his body was lacking in essential vitamins.

There's a huge difference between this kind of pizza and the giant meat lovers' pie you ordered last night. Sydney Kramer

New York City pizza maker Pasquale Cozzolino swears by his pizza-centric diet that helped him lose 94 pounds. His secret? Stay away from the pepperoni and stick to thin-crust margherita pizzas made with simple ingredients. The pizzas helped him curb cravings so he could shed the extra pounds.

Our nutritionist says:" It appears that he enjoyed his pizza (which has only a little bit of cheese) at lunch but factor in those calories as part of his entire day. His made sure that his overall calorie intake remained less than he needed daily to maintain his weight."

Even vegan tacos are better than no tacos.Karl-Martin Skontorp/Flickr

This "detox" replaces kale smoothies with tortillas. The recipes for the taco cleanse, created by "taco scientists," promise a whole host of health benefits like virility and beard-growing abilities (though that may be a joke). The only catch is, all of the recipes are vegan, so put down that package of carnitas.

Our nutritionist says: "There isn't any science to back these claims up."

Twinkies: the most ridiculous health supplement we've never heard of.Flickr/Christian Cable

Most of the foods on this list have at least some nutritional value, but Twinkies do not. But ever since Kansas State University nutrition professor Mark Haub lost 27 pounds in 2010 by replacing all meals with Twinkies for 10 weeks, the Twinkie diet has popped up periodically, usually with disastrous results: Eating nothing but Twinkies for several days straight tends to result in massive stomach and headaches.

Our nutritionist says: "All this proves is what we already know: If you chronically eat less calories than you need daily, you will lose weight. However, in the long term, a diet like this will not be satisfying, healthy, or sustainable."

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8 unhealthy diets that people swear helped them lose weight - INSIDER

The mono #diet allows one to eat as much of his favorite fruit as he wants. However, to lose weight, one has to eat only one food for several weeks. Though experts say it could be successful in a short term, the diet that could be dangerous to ones #Health.

It was Leanne Ratcliffe, the YouTube star known as Freelee the Banana Girl, who made this kind of diet popular. According to New York Post, Ratcliffe first boasted her weight loss in 2014. After eating almost 30 bananas a day, she lost 40 pounds.

Aside from bananas, there are also other versions of the mono meal. In April, there was the sweet potato diet that is said to help one to lose 12 pounds in just two weeks.

A woman named Alicia Hunter ate only melon for 30 days. Though she lost seven pounds, she said that she does not want to eat melon ever again in her life.

In Instagram, there are more than 38,000 posts with hashtag mono meal. It highlights peoples meals which contain only a single food. In 2016, the popular diet was one of the most searched topics in Google.Celebrities who were reported to have taken this kind of diet include Matt Damon and Penn Jillette. The comedian and magician illustrated his journey to weight loss in a book published last year. He claims to eat nothing but potatoes for two weeks to jump start his diet. Meanwhile, Damon has revealed that to get into shape for his role in the Courage Under Fire, he has to eat only chicken breasts.

The mono diet is used to kick-start a long-term weight loss program.

People lose weight in the mono meal as a result of caloric restriction. According to Frances Largeman=Roth, a registered dietitian, and author of Eating in Color, there is no particular food magically producing weight loss. Its an incredibly restrictive and unbalanced diet and I do not recommend that anyone follow it, he added.

Another registered dietician and nutritionist, Amy Gorin of New Jersey, said that mono diet can have a negative effect on the metabolism. It could even cause muscle loss. Though advocates say that the diet is only to jump start a long-term weight management, Gorin believes that it is hard to maintain once the person is back to his normal diet. Some people are so desperate to see results quickly that they choose a diet that does not make any biological sense. Madelyn Fernstrom of NBC News Health and Nutrition editor said that mono diet is not an advisable plan.

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Experts warn of this kind of diet - Blasting News

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