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CHICAGO Fewer overweight Americans have been trying to lose weight in recent years, and researchers wonder whether fat acceptance could be among the reasons.

The trend found in a new study occurred at the same time obesity rates climbed.

Socially accepted normal body weight is shifting toward heavier weight. As more people around us are getting heavier, we simply believe we are fine, and no need to do anything with it, said lead author Dr. Jian Zhang, a public health researcher at Georgia Southern University.

Another reason could be people abandoning efforts to drop pounds after repeated failed attempts, Zhang said.

The researchers analyzed U.S. government health surveys over nearly two decades from 1988 through 2014. The surveys involved in-person physical exams and health-related questions including asking participants whether theyd tried to lose weight within the past year. More than 27,000 adults ages 20 to 59 were included. They were not asked to explain their answers.

In the early surveys, about half the adults were overweight or obese. Those numbers climbed to 65 percent by 2014. But the portion of overweight or obese adults who said they were trying to slim down fell from 55 percent to 49 percent in the study.

Body mass index, a measure of height and weight, determines weight status. Those with a BMI of 25 to 29 are considered overweight; 30 and above is obese. A BMI of 30 generally reflects being about 50 pounds above your ideal weight.

The study results were published March 7 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dr. Scott Kahan, director of a weight-loss clinic in Washington, said the study is important and echoes previous research. He acknowledged it has become more acceptable in some circles to be overweight, but that many patients still feel stigmatized. He said many come to his center after repeated attempts to lose weight and some give up for a while out of frustration.

The study found obesity was most common among black women 55 percent were obese in the most recent survey years, and there was a big decline in black women trying to lose weight. Whether thats because of fat acceptance, dieting frustration or other reasons is not known.

Zhang said theres a positive side to fat acceptance, if it means people feel less ridiculed for their weight. But obesity can increase risks for heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other ailments.

The findings are a very serious concern, he said.

We should forget the words fat or obesity, Zhang said, adding a healthy lifestyle may be an effective way to help people lose weight.

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Fewer Americans trying to lose weight - Northwest Herald

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You may have seen a much-circulated story, allegedly posted on CNNs website, in which a Cornell University student claims to have lost 37 pounds through a diet regimen consisting of apple cider vinegar and supplements of Garcinia cambogia, a type of tropical fruit.

If it is not immediately obvious to you, this is an Internet ad for weight loss supplements, not a CNN story. The woman interviewed in the story doesnt exist. Apple cider vinegar and Garcinia cambogia do not do what the ad claims they do, and can in fact be harmful when taken as suggested.

Everything about this ad is a lie. It lies about big things that could hurt peoples health and it lies about stupid little things like celebrity diets. It is a lie smothered in lies and served open-faced on a bed of lies. Lets unpack this.

Fact: A good way to tell where a story is from is to look at where the story is from. If I were to write, This story you are reading on http://www.gov.uk represents official UK policy on phony diet ads, you could look at the top of your browser and see that you are in fact on qz.com and I am lying. CNNs URL is cnn.com, not independant-research.com, and that is not how independent is spelled.

Fact: There is no Suzanne Pischner on LinkedIn or Twitter. Her byline appears only on other fishy-looking weight loss ads, including one purporting to be from TMZ posted under the URL trompe loeil tmzf.itness.co. Suzanne, if you are real and reading this, please send a notarized birth certificate to hi@qz.com.

There is no Amanda Haughman in Cornells current student or alumni directories. In December, a nearly identical ad for a product called Premiere Garcinia Cambogia labeled a completely different womans photo as Cornell student Amanda Haughman. A lifestyle blogger pointed out that the photo was in fact of a Scottish woman named Seana Forbes, and was taken from a YouTube ad for a fitness app.

An independant-research.com story dated March 13 said Amanda was a Cornell student. In similar ads dated March 14, she went to Harvard or Stanford. A Google image search turns up ads describing the same blond woman with the too-big jean shorts as a student at UCLA, Michigan State University, the University of South Wales, and the National University of Singapore. Amanda Haughman is either a privacy-minded global scholar orand this is just a theorynot a real person.

Fact: The image of the man identified as Mark was lifted from a 2015 story in the Daily Star, a UK daily tabloid, about a man named Mark Smithers. Here a pellet of truth is dropped in the rabbit hutch of lies: there is a Mark and he did lose weight. But he did not use this product and is not a close friend of Amanda, who is not real.

Fact: Amanda cant sit. She has no lower extremities. She doesnt exist.

Fact: The photo labeled 2016 is from 2015; the one labeled 2015 is from 2014. No such interview with McCarthy exists. In actual interviews, McCarthy has politely rebuffed repeated requests to talk about if or how she may have lost weight, for the same reason US speaker of the house Paul Ryan has never released his colonoscopy reportsits nobodys business and its a kind of weird thing to ask about in the first place.

This is where TrimGenesiss claims go from absurd to potentially dangerous. Hydroxycitric acid (not hydroxycitcric, as above) is a type of citric acid found in many tropical plants, including Garcinia cambogia. In the world of unregulated supplements, natural is an often-abused term that has no bearing on how safe or effective a product is. Arsenic is naturally occurring. Mercury is naturally occurring. Nature makes a lot of stuff. Humans arent supposed to eat it all.

A 1998 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found no significant difference in weight loss between participants who took Garcinia cambogia and those who took a placebo. A 2011 meta-review in the Journal of Obesity found that while there was some evidence of short-term weight loss in patients using the supplement, those that took it were also twice as likely to have bad gastrointestinal side effects. Another 2013 review of 17 studies deemed Garcinia cambogia safe for human consumption, but concluded that its effect on weight loss was unclear.

The unproven benefits of Garcinia cambogia have not stopped assorted hucksters from pushing it as a weight loss wonder drug; television personality Mehmet Oz called it a revolutionary fat buster on a 2012 show.

I dont get why you need to say this stuff cause you know its not true, Claire McCaskill, a Democratic senator from Missouri, said at a 2014 Senate hearing on Ozs false claims (quoted in this actual CNN story).

I do personally believe in the items that I talk about on my show. I passionately study them, Oz, a trained surgeon, responded. This is an acceptable defense for an amateur Bigfoot hunter, but not a scientist.

Fact: Several claims follow; they are all bogus. There have been zero clinical studies on the effects of apple cider vinegar combined with Garcinia cambogia.

The ad never discusses the supposed benefits of drinking the apple cider vinegar, though here Suzanne Pischner may be relying readers previous familiarity with the subject. A long-time favorite of health food advocates, apple cider vinegar is increasingly popular as a home remedy for maladies including sore throats, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, acne, and jellyfish stings.

There is ample scientific evidence that vinegar does in fact help control blood sugar, if taken as one tablespoon diluted in a cup of water at the start of a meal, says Carol Johnston, a professor and associate director at Arizona State Universitys School of Nutrition and Health Promotion. The evidence on weight loss is meager but there are hints of thisparticularly in the rat model, she added. If vinegar impacts body weight, it is very subtle and not what most have in mind when they start a weight loss trial.

The active ingredient in apple cider vinegar that helps control blood sugar (and possibly weight) is acetic acid, which is found in all vinegar. And while drinking one to two teaspoons in water as recommended by Cornell/Harvard/MSU/National University of Singapore grad Amanda Haughman probably isnt harmful to most people, its worth remembering that vinegar is an acid, and drinking acid straight can be dangerous.

Ultimately, the ad serves apple cider vinegar as a folksy side dish to a weight loss supplement that could have harmful side effects. The US Food and Drug Administration says weight loss supplements, including those purporting to contain Garcinia cambogia, often contain undisclosed ingredients, including active drugs.

The danger of weight-loss related fake news is thatlike their political counterpartsthey make ridiculous claims that can distract from the fact that they are still lies masquerading as the truth, and could end up hurting someone.

In memory of Amanda Haughman (1995-2017), a victim of the Bowling Green Massacre.

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Everything about this ridiculous CNN Nutrition ad is a lie - Quartz

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It's as simple as sipping green tea, eating breakfastand doing a few push-ups

TAKE control of your metabolism to keep you slim, trim and full of energy.

Here, wereveal how to boost yours to help you lose and maintain weight.

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1 Dont think skipping breakfast will save you calories. Missing it slows down your metabolism. Go for poached eggs on toast or a bowl of porridge. It will regulate energy levels and keep your metabolism happy.

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2 Always fidget at your desk, on the bus or watching TV, keep moving. Tapping a foot or wagging a leg keeps your body working harder.

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3 Rather than rolling out of bed the minute your alarm clock goes off. Do a few squats and stretches to ignite your metabolism first thing.

With your feet shoulder width apart, squat over the bed until your behind touches the top, then stand up tall and reach for the ceiling with your arms.

Do this ten times for maximum benefits.

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4 Swap your cappuccino for green tea. Its antioxidants are thought to speed up your metabolism. And it has fewer calories than milky coffees.

5 Do some high intensity interval training (HIIT) in your lunch hour.

It is less scary than it sounds. Quick workouts are designed to have a big impact on your metabolic rate, burning more calories and you can do it in just four minutes. Try marching on the spot for ten seconds followed by 20 seconds jogging on the spot. Repeat eight times.

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6 Add ice to your drinks. The colder they are, the harder your body works to process them. Your metabolism works harder to adjust the ice cold temperature to your core body temperature.

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7 Do daily push-ups. This engages lots of muscles groups in your upper body and abs and will help you burn more calories. Just by having more muscle, your body will require more calories to help it run efficiently. These moves also help get rid of bingo wings, lift your bust and keep you strong.

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8 Yank up the heat. Make your dinner a calorie-burning one by simply adding some chilli flakes to your dish, as these help speed up your metabolism.

Low-fat, homemade curries and even curried fish and vegetables are great foods to keep your metabolism running efficiently.

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9 Get to bed earlier. Research shows fewer than seven hours sleep can impact your metabolism by slowing it down. Not enough sleep can also make you hungrier. Make sure you are in bed nice and early every night to get the shut-eye you need to help you through the day.

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Lose weight and get more energy with these nine easy steps to boost your metabolism - The Sun

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Forbes

Which Diets Are Scientifically The Most Effective? Forbes As I clearly believe the worst offenders there are added sugars (sucrose and HFCS) and then refined, easily digestible carbohydrates, then the most effective diets are the ones that remove the sugars and high-GI carbs. And diets that work, regardless ...

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Which Diets Are Scientifically The Most Effective? - Forbes

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March 14, 2017 Naturally, fruit flies feed on ripe fruits. A diet which matches the insects' amino acid composition makes the flies to grow even faster. Credit: MPI f. Biology of Ageing/ Grnke

A moderate reduction in food intake, known as dietary restriction, protects against multiple ageing-related diseases and extends life span, but can also supress growth and fertility. A research group from the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne has now developed a diet based on the model organism's genome, which enhances growth and fecundity with no costs to lifespan.

What is the best path to a long and healthy life? Scientists had a relatively simple answer for many years: less food. But it turned out that this could have unpleasant consequences. Experiments showed that putting flies or mice on diet could impair their development and fecundity. How could we take advantage of the beneficial effects of dieting, and at the same time avoid the damaging effects?

Genome-based diet

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne and UCL Institute of Healthy Ageing in London have now designed a diet based on the model organism's genome. In the study they calculated the amount of amino acids a fruit fly would need, thereby defining the diet's amino acid composition.

"The fly genome is entirely known. For our studies we used only the sections in the genetic material that serve as templates for protein assembly - the exons, which collectively make up the 'exome'. Then we calculated the relative abundance of each amino acid in the exome, and designed a fly diet that reflects this amino acid composition," explains George Soultoukis, scientist in the department of Linda Partridge, director at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne and at the UCL Institute of Healthy Ageing in London.

Using a holidic fly diet previously developed by the team to enable manipulation of individual nutrients such as amino acids, the group found that flies eating this exome-matched diet develop a lot faster, grow bigger in size, and lay more eggs compared to flies fed a standard diet. Remarkably, the flies on the exome-matched diet lived as long as slower-growing, fewer-egg-laying flies fed with "standard" diets. "The flies that had free access to the exome-matched diet even ate less than controls. Thus, high quality protein, as defined by the genome, appears to have a higher satiety value," said Matthew Piper, who conducted the work at UCL and is now working at Monash University.

The study also found that similar phenomena may occur in mice, and future mouse work could further improve our understanding of how and why diets affect mammalian lifespan. "Our aim now is to characterize the effects of genome-based diets upon mammalian lifespan," says Soultoukis.

Human diet

In theory this approach is applicable to all organisms with a sequenced genome including humans. Soultoukis explains: "Dietary interventions based on amino acids can be a powerful strategy for protecting human health. Obviously factors such as age, gender, health, and personal lifestyle also have to be taken into account. Future studies may still employ novel -omics data to design diets whose amino acid supply matches the needs of an organism with even higher precision. Understanding why we need amino acids in the amounts we do will be key, and such studies provide novel and powerful insights into the vital interactions between nature and nurture."

Explore further: High-sugar diet programs a short lifespan in flies

More information: Matthew D.W. Piper et al. Matching Dietary Amino Acid Balance to the In Silico-Translated Exome Optimizes Growth and Reproduction without Cost to Lifespan, Cell Metabolism (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2017.02.005

Journal reference: Cell Metabolism

Provided by: Max Planck Society

Flies with a history of eating a high sugar diet live shorter lives, even after their diet improves. This is because the unhealthy diet drives long-term reprogramming of gene expression, according to a UCL-led team of researchers.

Getting the correct balance of proteins in our diet may be more important for healthy ageing than reducing calories, new research funded by the Wellcome Trust and Research into Ageing suggests.

Regaining weight after weight loss is usually undesirable, but is this 'yo-yo effect' actually bad for your health? Scientists from Wageningen University recently investigated the influence of diet on the lifespan of fruit ...

Fruit flies deprived of specific essential nutrients alter their food choicesand even the way they search for food. A team of neuroscientists, led by researchers from the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal, "dissected" ...

Aphids suck up an almost endless supply of sugary sap from their plant hosts. They can survive on this junk food diet because bacterial partners help them convert the handful of amino acids in the sap into other, essential ...

Fruit flies live 16% longer than average when given low doses of the mood stabiliser lithium, according to a UCL-led study.

Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin have found that honeybees treated with a common antibiotic were half as likely to survive the week after treatment compared with a group of untreated bees, a finding that ...

It has long been suspected that spiders are one of the most important groups of predators of insects. Zoologists at the University of Basel and Lund University in Sweden have now shown just how true this is - spiders kill ...

Humans are not alone in continuing to support offspring who have "left the nest." It happens in Galapagos penguins, too.

Fish on the South Pacific island of Rarotonga have evolved the ability to survive out of water and leap about on the rocky shoreline because this helps them escape predators in the ocean, a ground-breaking new study shows.

(Phys.org)A team of Brazilian researchers has found a naturally fluorescent tree frog living in the Amazon basin and it represents the only known fluorescent amphibian. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National ...

Two new studies from the Francis Crick Institute shed light on how the malaria parasite grows inside a host's red blood cells and breaks out when it's ready to spread to new host cells.

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Genome-based diets maximise growth, fecundity, and lifespan - Phys.Org

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RACHEL THOMAS

Last updated07:57, March 15 2017

FILE

A cafe in Whangerei serves 'paleo coffee' in 2014: a long black mixed with a dollop of butter and a teaspoon of coconut oil.

"Want to lose weight fast?"

"YES" we all say in our heads, as we're paying attention to the carefully craftedsocial media post, or TV commercial.

Next come the convincing before and after shots,the guarantee on how "it's so easy",a smiling celebrity, andwe're climbing on the bandwagon.

The approachis so simple it's almost embarrassing, and yet it's worked on Kiwis for decades.

A far back as the 1930s, theEvening Post newspaper spouted 'recommendations' from the US on slimming: two weeks of bananas and skimmed milk, followed by two weeks of whatever you like.

123RF

The lemon detox diet soared in popularity after it was revealed Beyonce used it for rapid weight loss for her role in the 2006 film, Dreamgirls.

Around that time, we also hailed smoking as a way to combat weight gain, ignoring mounting evidence about its health effects untilthe 1950s.

Looking back, it all seems so obvious. Smoking is bad for our health. Sugary drinks aren't good for us.

But fast forward to 2017and we still market sugar to children, we still get sucked in by celebrity weight loss stories, and we're still buying diet soda.

Perhaps the most influentialdiet of them all was one thatpeaked in the last decade, with a little help from Instagram filters and hipsters: paleo.

Arguably, paleoisn't restrictive enough to be labelled a fad,but the diet undoubtedlybecame trendy, peaking in popularity about 2013.

Itcoastedoff the movement towards clean eating, encouraging people to switch out grains and dairy for protein.

Shortly before paleo arrived, thelemon detox diet promoted rapid weight loss through consuming nothing but lemon water, with cayenne pepper and a sugary syrup for 10 days.

Although widely condemned by health professionals, the lemon detox diet is still marketed to anyone"looking for maximum weight loss in a short period of time," according to a New Zealand website which sells lemon detox kits.

Written online testimonials, including one from a 15-year-old,boast fast results,feelings of exuberance and glowing skin.

However, one nutritionist and UK registered dietitian,SiobhanMiller, says "fad diets just don't work".

"Fad dietsmight help you lose weight, until you get fed-up, start over-eating and choose less healthy foods and pile the pounds back on."

Miller emphasised the damaging long-term effects thatquick-fix, drastic dietscando to our bodies.

"Rapid weight loss is not sustainable and yo-yo dieting - where weight is lost and then regained over the years - leads to being heavier than when you first started.

"A very restrictive diet of any kind is most likely to be lacking in essential nutrients."

The tried-and-true celebrity endorsement should be taken with a grain of salt, she said.

"Remember that celebrities are not experts in nutrition and have limited knowledge of nutrition so don't be sucked in by fantastic claims."

Excess weight creepedup over many years, so we hadto give our bodies time to adjust to weight loss, she said.

"It's not a surprise that when someone feels the urge to tackle weight they look for a quick fix. [But] there is no magic bullet and weight is not going to be lost quickly."

All this noise just addedto the confusion about what and how we weresupposed to eat, Tauranga dietitian Fiona Boyle said.

"You have got to think of what you could sustain. Could you see yourself doing it in sixmonths, or sixyears?

"Lookat the whole picture."

HOW DOYOU SPOT A FAD DIET?

The Association ofUK Dietitians defines afad diet as:the kind of plan where you eat a very restrictive diet with few foods or an unusual combination of foods for a short period of time and often lose weight very quickly.

-Stuff

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Diet trends through the ages and why fads don't work - Stuff.co.nz

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Many people have this idea in their heads that eating healthy food is incredibly hard to do.

But the truth is, healthy eating and proper nutrition doesnt need to be that hard. Its all about knowing a few important rules before going into it.

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Below are a few common nutrition pitfalls and what you can do about them:

Whether youre eating too much or too little, the fact of the matter is, its hard to know exactly how much you should be eating.

For example, weve all read this on a nutrition label:

Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

But, how should you know if your daily values should be higher or lower? And furthermore, how much higher or lower should they be?

The amount of calories you should be eating is dependent on a number of factors, including height, weight, age, activity level and goals.

Determining how many calories you should be eating comes with a deep understanding of your body.

Sure, you can estimate how much you should be eating with online calculators, but if youre serious about eating a proper quantity for you, then youll want to determine the following:

1. How many calories you burn in a complete resting state (Basal Metabolic Rateor BMR) 2. How many calories you burn in total throughout the day (Total Energy Expenditureor TEE)

These two numbers, along with all those other facts listed above, are what will determine how much you should be eating.

The good news is, the more you burn, the more you can afford to eat. Thats not to say you should exercise like crazy just so you can eat more, but thats another article for another day.

Bottom line:Get to know your body and your activity habits. Evaluate from there.

There are two kinds of eaters in this world: grazers and loaders.

Grazers (commonly referred to as snackers) pick at small bits of food throughout the day. Loaders take in one or two gigantic meals a day, and they likely skip breakfast.

In a perfect world, wed all be part-grazer, part-loader.

When we go a long time without eating, we often end up overcompensating and overeating when it comes to mealtime because were so hungry.

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Not to mention, the big meals we do end up eating tend to be on the unhealthier side. (Think burgers, pasta, pizza, etc.)

These kinds of foods dont provide us the micronutrients, AKA vitamins and minerals, our bodies need to function optimally.

So, whats a loader to do? Eat a moderate-sized breakfast, lunch and dinner, and keep healthy snacks on hand.

Your main meals should be filled with a balanced plate of protein, fats and carbs, and your snacks should be low in sugar and high in fiber to help keep you running throughout the day.

Ever been on a diet before? *Raises hand*

Like most people, that diet likely didnt work out for you.

Why? Because the plethora of fad diets existing in our world today are focused on eliminating certain foods completely from your diet.

Atkins, for example, cuts out a huge amount of carbs. Juice cleanses have you only consuming the juice for a number of days, with maybe a bit of real food in addition.

The reality is, these diets or cleanses are not sustainable by any means.

We all know that we only want what we cant have. This is no different for food.

When were too strict with our food choices, we often end up overeating when we finally get our hands on whatever that forbidden food was.

Its the mentality of I havent had a chocolate chip cookie in two weeks, and I dont know when Ill ever have one again, so I need to have 15 right now! (If youre wondering, yes, Ive eaten 15 cookies in a row.)

Furthermore, being on an extremely rigid meal plan can often lead to obsessive and disordered behaviors.

So instead of committing to yet another diet, commit to eating nutrient-dense food and allow treats in moderation.

Heads up, one more cliche coming at you: Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

As much as you want to hate, its a true statement. And when it comes to nutrition, it certainly rings true.

A few key ways to keep your nutritional health thriving are food prepping, packing your lunch for work and having those healthy snacks on you throughout the day.

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Not only will you be doing your body good by giving it the proper fuel it needs, but youll also be saving money by bringing lunch instead of buying it.

New to food prepping? All it takes is five easy steps.

Subscribe to Elite Daily's official newsletter, The Edge, for more stories you don't want to miss.

Orian is a certified CF-1 trainer and a CrossFit junkie, psychology student, and the CEO and Editor of Snatcher, leading functional fitness magazine based in Israel.

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What You Need To Know Before Starting A Diet If You Want It To Last - Elite Daily

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1 Jan 2017, 3 p.m.

This year you're going to lose weight. Really. Not like last year, when you tried to eat less and exercise more and ended up no lighter.

This year you're going to lose weight. Really. Not like last year, when you tried to eat less and exercise more and ended up no lighter, but by approaching the problem differently. Because calories in and calories out is probably the worst way to think about it.

Here's another one.

Excluding waste and sweating, it's true that the calories we take in have to be turned into either energy or weight. So it ought to be true that taking in less will cut weight. But what usually happens first is that we get hungry (and add back the calories, leaving our weight unchanged) or lethargic (expending less energy so that more of what we take in is directed to maintaining our weight).

It's almost as if our weightwantsto be maintained; as if it has a will of its own and manipulates the rest of us to get what it wants.

Which is probably what happens.

Tumours act as if they have minds of their own. They press-gang whatever they can find into making themselves grow. Children do it. During growth spurts their growth hormones direct whatever's coming in to building bones and muscles, leaving the rest of the body bereft or hungry.

Only in a trivial sense is it true to say that children grow because they eat more. They eat more because they are growing. And that growth is regulated by hormones.

In 1977 Rosalyn Yalow won the Nobel Prize for tracking the hormone insulin. When it's released, fat cells start packing in fatty acids. And they also close the exits so the fatty acids can't escape while the insulin is there. It's why, oddly,we often feel weak or hungry after having sugar. The energy we thought we'd get isn't accessible. So we want to eat more, which also gets tucked into fat cells if there's insulin around; which there will be if what we've eaten is rich in sugar or other carbohydrates.

Veteran science journalist Gary Taubes has just set out his findings in a book entitledThe Case Against Sugar, which followsWhy We Get Fat, andGood Calories, Bad Calories. He is more of a forensic examiner of evidence than he is a purveyor of diets, and his main finding is that much of the evidence has been buried.

He says in the 1960s it was fairly widely accepted that carbohydrates (especially sugar) boosted the production of fat and increased appetites. It's one of the reasons we use bread as a starter at meals; it prepares us to eat.

Fat, by contrast, doesn't bring on the production of insulin at all. It may eventually be stored in fat cells, but it doesn't make those cells pack fat in and prevent them letting fat out. It's one of the reasons it rarely makes us hungry. Try eating half a slab of butter and see whether it boosts your appetite.

But in the 1970s, in the United States and in Australia, where ourdietary guidelines follow the US, a new more plausible theory took hold. It was that fat causes fat. Nutritionist Ancel Keys laid it out in the massiveSeven Countries Studywhich compared nations including the US, Finland and Japan and concluded that the nations that ate the most fat suffered the most heart disease.

Later research concluded that the results derived were particularto the seven countries chosen. Had Keys chosen other countries, such as France and Switzerland with high rates of fat consumption and low rates of heart disease, the correlation would have disappeared. But by then an abhorrence of fat had been written into the guidelines.

Consuming less fat meant consuming more carbohydrates, especially sugar which improves the taste of low-fat foods. So obesity climbed. The University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre is one of the few that disputes the connection. It produced a paper defending sugar thatlater had to be correctedafter economist Rory Robertsonripped into it for misuse of statistics. Columnist Peter Fitzsimons details links between sugar and those dietitians promoting sugar in his bookThe Great Aussie Bloke Slimdown.

Just last month anindustry-funded paper purporting to defend sugarfell apart when one of the funders, Mars Inc, disassociated itself saying it madeall industry-funded research look bad.

Naturally, I am unable to guarantee that giving up sugar will make you lose weight. But I can guarantee that if you are anything like me it'll make you less hungry. I ditched sugar several new year's days ago, lost weight, and never got it back.

Peter Martin is economics editor ofThe Age. This story was first published on The Age.

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Ditching sugar is a new year diet that might actually work. Here's why - Ararat Advertiser

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Michael O'Neil, the class clown, the funny guy in the office, the consummate jokester, gets serious when he talks about the past year.

On March 16, 2016, the 30-year-old defense contract project manager and business developer stared at the scale.

For the first time in his life, the number "300" stared back.

"After being fat for so long, you start to accept yourself as big," O'Neil said. "But I always told friends that if I ever see that number, I'm going to have to do something."

He didn't know if he could, though. "I didn't believe I was going to be able to actually commit to getting healthy and making that life change."

But the day marked a turning point for O'Neil.

He was struggling with energy levels, could barely keep up with his children, ages 4 and 2, was bulging out of XXL shirts and squeezing into size 44 pants.

O'Neil decided that he didn't want that life anymore.

"There is a stigma about being fat," he said. "Even if they're not mean to you, people treat you differently. The kind of looks you'd get, especially in a bathing suit. It was very uncomfortable."

Like breaking any bad habit, mind over matter is a big part of weight loss.

"You don't realize how programmed your brain is to eating unhealthy foods and overeating," O'Neil said.

Even though he didn't set a goal, O'Neil has dropped 100 pounds in less than a year and says he is happier, has more self-confidence, can hang in there for playtime and, much to his surprise, has become an inspiration to others trying to shed excess pounds.

"My focus was just to get my life back on track, but now, it's starting to affect change in other people. They tell us how inspiring we are, which is odd for me. I never thought that would happen."

Old habits die hard

O'Neil, a Colorado Springs native, was overweight in elementary school and became obese in college, after his Pine Creek High School sweetheart called it quits.

"There's 40 grams of sugar in every soda, and it adds up," he said. "My mom banned soda at our house when I was in seventh grade, but I just bought it at school. I had a stash that I sold to my younger sister."

Family and friends would sometimes ask him what he was going to do about his weight.

"I couldn't fix it. I didn't know how. Nothing worked," he said. "It's painful when someone points out a major flaw but you don't have anything to go back on."

Part of O'Neil's motivation was seeing three close family members go through gastric sleeve surgery to shrink their stomachs so they could lose weight.

"I was about to turn 30, and the last thing I wanted to do was to have a gastric sleeve put in," he said. "I wanted to see if I could do it myself."

O'Neil's wife, Bree, also had been wanting to lose weight she had gained during the pregnancies, so the couple embarked on their own "Biggest Loser" journey.

"Without that team effort, there was no way for us to get there," O'Neil said.

Bree agrees.

"We're supportive of each other," she said. "Without somebody to keep you accountable, it makes much it much harder. It's also more fun when you're in it together."

The O'Neils started working with body transformation coach Joe Ramirez, who has won six Gazette "Best Of the Springs" awards for his health and fitness work.

Ramirez has created a nutritional detoxification program to improve health. A side effect is weight loss.

"Decreasing inflammation and the toxic load on your body is the key to lasting, long-term weight loss," Ramirez said. "The quick fixes - restricting calories, counting points - a lot of times don't last because you're not giving your body the right nutrients to turn on your metabolism and keep it turned on."

The composition and quality of foods eaten "put your body in either a fat-burning mode or a fat-storing mode," Ramirez said.

O'Neil removed dairy, sugar and gluten, and minimized carbohydrates. He added more veggies and protein to his diet and reduced calories by eating correct portions.

His biggest issue?

Hunger.

"I could deal with having blander food, giving up cheese - which I love - and eating foods I didn't like," O'Neil said.

But he didn't think he could get past the hurdle of constant hunger pangs.

A prescription-strength appetite suppressant helped curb his food cravings.

O'Neil also began attending a boot camp class at the downtown Vault Fitness gym.

Exercising regularly accelerates the weight-loss process, said personal trainer Krista Enoch, who leads the class, which includes strength and high-intensity interval training.

"Diet and exercise together form a super combination," Enoch said.

O'Neil has succeeded because he has been "determined, dedicated and consistent," she said. "He's a dream client. It's been fun to be his cheerleader."

Healthier diet

O'Neil and his wife started taking walks and cooking nutritious meals together.

Cauliflower became the new pizza crust, toast and mashed potatoes. He reached for hummus instead of chips, and liquid aminos replaced soy sauce.

In the first few months, O'Neil dropped 35 pounds.

On the advice of Ramirez, he didn't weigh himself in the beginning, so as not to get discouraged or encouraged. So he didn't realize he had lost so much weight.

"I didn't know how far I could go - I thought maybe 50 pounds," he said.

There were good days and bad days. Some days he'd realize he didn't have any vegetables, for example, or he would eat dairy, such as eggs with a little cheese.

Once a month, he allows himself a "cheat" day, when he forgoes the plan. On a recent cheat day, he ordered a cheesy burrito and a margarita at a Mexican restaurant.

As his stomach shrank, his confidence swelled.

"I've watched this transformation of Michael having more strength and confidence - his whole body composition has changed," Enoch said.

After dropping 65 pounds, he started to plateau.

But by then, it was 100 or bust.

"I was down 87 pounds by Christmas and started to realize how cool it would be if I could get to that mark by in a year," he said.

The more you lose, the harder it becomes to lose weight, O'Neil discovered, and he knew those last few pounds wouldn't be easy.

He persisted, and a few weeks ago, a month shy of a year, the 6-foot-3-inch O'Neil saw the number "200" for the first time in 12 years.

"It almost seems unbelievable," he said.

One hundred pounds is an amazing amount of weight to lose, said Ramirez.

"What's even more amazing is keeping it off by making some changes to habits and it becoming a lifestyle," Ramirez said.

"I'm so incredibly proud of him for doing it the old-fashioned way," said Bree O'Neil, who has lost 60 pounds. "He's worked so hard and set such a good example for our children. He's done this for himself and our family and our life together. I'm more in love with him now than ever."

O'Neil said the couple wishes they could redo their wedding photos.

"We both look so much better," he said.

For a while, O'Neil felt like he had lost himself.

"I hated how I looked. I wasn't as attentive, engaging or funny. I wasn't just losing control of myself physically, but also mentally, a little."

Now, he's back.

"Struggling with a weight problem is exactly how it sounds - it's a struggle," O'Neil said. "It is possible to lose the weight, but you need to realize it's not a diet, it's a life change. I feel happier because I look better. I try to be humble but sometimes vanity does get the better of you, and it's nice to look good."

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In one life-changing year, Colorado Springs native drops 100 pounds - Colorado Springs Gazette

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HOUSTON, TX(Marketwired March 15, 2017) Finding a reliable and healthy diet is a challenge, even though more than two-thirds of Americans suffer from excess weight gain or obesity. Many individuals battle excessive hunger between meals; insatiable cravings for unhealthy food; inability to control eating behavior or speed; and eating continuously throughout the day without any planned mealtimes. Physical inactivity and stressful lifestyles fueled by emotional eating make matters much worse.

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About the Company:

Diet Doc Weight Loss is the nations leader in medical, weight loss offering a full line of prescription medication, doctor, nurse and nutritional coaching support. For over a decade, Diet Doc has produced a sophisticated, doctor designed weight loss program that addresses each individual specific health need to promote fast, safe and long term weight loss.

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Diet Doc Helps Patients Lose Weight Fast Without Harmful Diets Like The Original hCG Diet - satPRnews (press release)

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