May 2010 Blog Posts

I've written several times on this blog about the great debate between consuming three low-calorie meals per day vs. consuming many low calorie meals per day and the effects each diet has on weight loss. Some sources argue the frequency in which you consume meals makes no difference to your weight loss and that what you are consuming (the health benefactors or lack thereof) is what makes the difference in your weight loss. Others argue that by eating more meals, you are boosting your metabolism and able to consume more calories. A new diet has been introduced along a similar though path...

This week, photos of 50 Cent, a well-known rapper, circulated on the Internet. The photos depict the rapper nearly 50 lbs. less than he has ever been seen before, with dark circles under his eyes as he prepares for a role portraying a cancer patient. 50, also known as Curtis Jackson, reportedly went from 214 lbs. to 160. Jackson said he lost the weight so quickly by going on an all liquid diet and working out several hours a day This isn't the first time an actor has dropped some serious lbs. for a role in a film-have any of you...

When we're faced with food options, we usually know what foods are "good choices" vs. what foods are "bad choices." How do we know? Because we are told time and time again that fatty, fried, foods are bad for us and natural, high-vitamin containing foods are healthier. But what happens when the foods we think are healthy aren't? According to this article from MSN.com, some healthy foods are deceiving, leading you to believe they are healthy when they are really filled with fatty ingredients. For example sushi, which, especially if you get a roll with brown rice, is fresh and full of nutrients and...

I don't want to ruin the surprises for anyone who hasn't seen the episode yet, but I do want to encourage everyone to use my blog as a place to discuss the finale! I was somewhat disappointed in the contestants who went home earlier. It seems many of them did not keep pushing to reach their goals when they got home, with the exception of a few. But overall, I find it pretty amazing how much weight these people lose within such a short amount of time. What did YOU think of the finale?

As we pursue our weight loss goals, many of us are chasing lower-calorie options when it comes to our diets. If we consume more calories than we burn, we won't lose weight...so the story goes. But new research by the Journal of Obesity suggests that people who follow very strict low-calorie diets are more commonly those who will regain a significant amount of the weight they lost. According to the study, people who are attempting to lose weight quicker typically go on these extreme-low calorie diets. Even though your body burns more fat when you are consuming fewer calories, immediately when...

Whether you live in New York or not, by now you've probably heard about Governor David Paterson's fight against obesity via creating a new tax for regular soft drinks. But now, in an effort to gain support for his law, Gov. Paterson introduced the idea to eliminate taxes on diet soft drinks. Personally, I did not exactly agree with an added tax to regular soft drinks even though I don't drink regular drinks. However, I would be all for the elimination of a tax from diet soft drinks. What do YOU think? Is the elimination of tax on diet drinks and a...

Men's Health magazine has once again come out with the list of the fattest cities. I don't think it's a surprise to anyone that Texas is high up there (if you're an avid Biggest Loser watcher/follower, you'll remember the episode this season that was all about the contestants visiting Texas because it's the fattest city). The magazine reached their evaluation of the cities by calculating the percentage of people who are overweight with the percentage of people with type 2 diabetes, the percentage of people who haven't exercised in a month, the amount of money spent on food and the number of...

SPOILER ALERT: If you read to the end, you will know who went home on this week's Biggest Loser. This was it, the last week before the finale. Four contestants in this week's episode, but only three would remain after the beginning of next week's episode. The contestants were faced with their most realistic challenge yet in this week's episode: living at home in the real world. This is the hard part for the contestants as they are returning home after spending weeks working out hours and hours all day long on the ranch. One contestant who had an especially difficult time...

As I was searching for something to blog about this evening, I was thinking about what I usually blog about and what influences me to write those blogs. Finding content to blog about, strangely, is a lot like finding a weight loss plan to follow: with so many different options out there, how do we know which is the right one? The answer? There is no right one. For every individual person there is an individual weight loss plan that will work best. For some people, a strict diet is in order to achieve maximum results, while others can diet less but...

In my purse, I keep a little bag of "tricks" for "tricky" situations. What's in there? Floss, Q-tips, mints, Vaseline, band-aids, hand lotion, bobby pins and more. There are very few situations when I actually need a few of these items, mainly the Q-tips, but either way, I think it's very important to have these things with me at all times. As I was thinking about this bag of tricks, it got me thinking: what could I put in my "weight loss bag of tricks" if I had one? Here's what I came up with: 1.) Pedometer-It's a great idea to know how...

On tonight's Biggest Loser, the contestants are forced to sit down and watch a video of themselves telling their future, thinner selves what life was like in their former life. Watching this video is meant to serve as an inspiration to push the contestants through their final two weeks of competition and on the ranch. As I'm watching the tearful eyed contestants face themselves in video, paying close attention to their own messages, I wondered what I would say to my future, thinner self. I don't think I'd record a video for myself, but I might write myself a letter. Here is...

Losing weight is one of those things you usually have to be patient with. Sorry, not usually, always. You can start changing your eating habits and start exercising tomorrow and you're not going to notice a difference in your weight in one day. We're told that it takes time to see the results we're looking for. But new findings suggest that the quicker we lose the weight, the higher our chances of keeping it off. The study separated men and women into three groups based on how much weight their lost in the first month of their weight loss: fast, moderate and...

I've heard before that sometimes, when you walk, you can burn as many calories as when you run. It seems a little strange considering when you're running you're not only feeling all the muscles in your body move, but also sweating up a storm! But sometimes, the strength involved in moving at a slower pace can actually help you burn more calories. For instance, one trick is walking briskly on a treadmill at a high incline. This not only forces you to work very hard in terms of cadence, but also in terms of pushing yourself to get up a hill. Another trick is interval...

This month, there has been a lot of talk about whether or not it would be a healthy option for obese children to have bariatric surgeries. It seems like a very complicated topic as the alarmingly high number of obese children in America is a strong indicator of the alarmingly high rate of obesity amongst all of the people in our country. I do not yet have children and so I am not sure how I would feel if I were to have a child who was obese, knowing the potential health risks they have as a result of their obesity,...

You always hear, when it comes to a diet, that less is supposed to be more. Generally, what this means in terms of dieting is that you should practice portion control and that you will get fuller faster and have to essentially eat less to be satisfied. But other diets have preached about eating more smaller meals (check out an earlier blog entry I wrote about how eating more, smaller meals does not necessarily speed up weight loss). Finding the balance between eating "less" and "more" can be tricky-if you eat too little, your body hungers and you get hunger pangs,...

Spoiler Alert: If you read to the end, you will know who went home on this week's episode. This week was MAKEOVER WEEK, which is by far my, and many people's favorite episode in the season. It's the episode where the contestants get some new clothes, new hair and a fresh coat of makeup and are presented their family. There's usually a few who are extra shockers: In my opinion, this season's were Darus, Michael and Sunshine. Sunshine looked like a celebrity with her new hair and freshened face while Darus looked like a completely different person than when he started at the...

I consider myself somewhat of a gossip. I don't necessarily consider it a bad thing, just "information sharing." But according to some research, gossip can actually hold you back from reaching your weight loss goals. The concept is this: when you act and share negative, judgmental feelings you are holding extra baggage and the negative feelings spill over into other areas of your life, including in weight loss. Scientifically, the reason this happens is because when a person has negative, stressful feelings, according to the research, the person's immune system weakens and their body does not respond as well to the weight...