School of Weight Loss

(Originally published January 12, 2009)

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a measure of the relationship between your weight and your height.  The theory behind it is that if your weight is high relative to your height, that indicates a health risk.  However, it is largely regarded now in the fitness community that calculating BMI is mostly a waste of time.

The only usefulness of BMI is in extreme cases.  BMI is useful for identifying an obese individual who needs to lose weight immediately to avoid serious health risks.  In this instance, BMI can be used to show the severity of the person’s problem and indicate how much weight loss is needed to get down to a healthy level.

Other than that, for your average individual, I would throw BMI completely out the window.  As an example of its uselessness, when I was in my peak physical condition a little less than a year ago, I was 5′9″ and 183 pounds.  This results in a BMI of 27, which is right in the middle of the overweight category.  I believe I can even go up to 190 pounds by adding more muscle mass without increasing body fat and still look and feel in great shape.  This would raise my BMI to 28, while 30 is considered obese.

Just for kicks, I went and calculated the BMI of the top three running backs in the National Football League this season.  The results: Adrian Peterson 28.6 (overweight), Michael Turner 35 (obese), and DeAngelo Williams 32 (obese).  So, apparently two of the top three running backs in the NFL are obese, while the other is overweight.  See a problem with this?  These guys are some of the best athletes in all of sports.  In fact, I’d be willing to bet that there are a few world-class sprinters who are “obese”.

The reason for this absurdity is that BMI does not take body fat % into account.  The people I mention above have a very high amount of lean muscle mass with relatively little fat mass.  This gives them a high BMI, while they are actually in excellent physical condition.

So, do not waste too much time worrying about your BMI unless you are in poor shape and fall into the obese category.  Even so, just worry about dropping body fat in a healthy manner while preserving muscle mass.  Your BMI may not drop as quickly as your fat does, but you will be much happier and healthier.

Just for the sake of completeness, the formula for calculating BMI is as follows:

weigh in kg / height in m^2

or

weight in lbs * 703 / height in inches^2

Now that you know it, remember that it is useless.  Focus on using sound nutrition and exercise principles to lose body fat and get yourself healthy.  The numbers aren’t the important thing.

Popularity: 62% [?]

If you haven’t seen them in the snack isles take another look — there are about 175 different products that the manufacturers have created in 100 calorie snack packs. These are geared towards the individuals who want to control their portions and the manufacturers would like to help.

Now you can be happier with your snacking because they have taken care of it for you. From Nabisco Oreos to Hershey Dark Chocolate and Natural popcorn you can find something to snack on now that should not affect your dieting plans. Or does it?

Recently we looked into this phenomenon by asking some of our friends to see whether they had tried these snack packs. For some it was a great idea because it was just enough for them to eat. They didn’t have to worry about the portions anymore and they could still have a little of what they wanted.

For others it was a nightmare because they couldn’t stop at eating just one pack. There is something about the human psyche that tells you that you can just have one more because they are small.

What You Can Do
Some fitness experts suggest that if you do get a box of one of these treats that you can put it into your freezer. Each day you can take one out and let it thaw. This way you keep the snacking under control a little more. If you find that this still doesn’t work, you can always share the box with a friend or with the neighborhood kids.

Another good idea is to think about your hunger at the time. If you find that you are eating more than one package because you are hungry, add an apple or a few grapes to the snack. As an example, a few nuts, an apple and one of the snack packs can turn into a really good snack.

Beware Of The Non-Nutritional Value In These Snack Packs
Most of the time, this is just another ploy for the manufacturer to get your money. There is going to be a lot of sugar in some of these so you have to be careful and read the packaging. You may also find that it just isn’t worth if you are always attempting to decide how many of the packages to eat.

You might also find that sitting down with a little tuna fish or salmon, a few grapes and perhaps a small amount of noodles might be a much better and more nutritious snack than one of these small bags.

The point is that when you are making a point to eat more nutritionally, it is important to pick foods that support that choice. This stops you from getting into the old habit of snacking on foods that don’t work well for you and sticking to those that do.

Although they look cute and they seem appropriate for your use, they may be better for the kid’s lunch or for a treat after school.  Remember, it’s not all about the calories, it’s about eating healthy food sources.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Recently Star Jones and Oprah Winfrey made statements about their weight loss. Neither women really wanted to have to say anything in public, but they are in the public eye and people look to them to be role models.

In towns all over America there are fitness trainers who are not as openly in the public as Jones or Winfrey but they do feel the same obligation to the public to look the way they are expected to look. This puts a lot of pressure on someone and creates stress that isn’t necessary.

Take the case of Jenny who can be in any town anywhere. She is a fitness instructor who is going through a rough patch with her personal life. She has maintained her weight for many years and now she is beginning to gain again. Although she has only gained 20 pounds back she remembers when she started losing and had lost over 100 pounds.

Recently on the television show The Biggest Loser one of the contestants was taken off the show because she had gained weight. They then went back on the show weighing 145 that she had trimmed down to, on her own. She was to return to the show one more time, but now she was back up to 200 pounds.

These stories are here just to say that most people are not sure what happens when they start to gain again, but the truth is that struggle with weight can be a lifelong battle. One of the challenges is that the focus is always on how to lose weight but not necessarily on how to keep it off.

All of these women found that being in the public eye brought about more stress. They admit that they often set the bar too high, and then the pressure to keep the weight off became difficult.

Does that happen to the average person? You bet it does, and many people are finding their way back again to the size they enjoyed. One of the things that people are realizing is that they didn’t really deal with the issues that come up with weight loss.

Beyond your ideas of weight loss you also have to deal with the psychological issues that come up. As an example, Marsha was always told by everyone that she had such a pretty face when she was chubby as a youngster. When she got older and decided to do something about it she got those accolades again. She had a difficult time dealing with this because she felt she was the same person, fat or thin.

Losing weight is always difficult if people are watching you and waiting to see how you are doing. This puts pressure in the wrong places and generally will mean that the individual starts gaining again.

What’s the solution? Lose weight because you want to and not because you are trying to appease a public image. Live your life to the fullest and you won’t have to worry about what other people say at all.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Exercise can be a difficult for people and some do not like going out to a gym. If you are hesitant about going to a gym for any reason, a good way to get started with exercise is to do it at home. There are many things you can do to get started and it can be as fun as going to an outside gym.

Suggested Home Gym Equipment
You do not have to buy a large piece of equipment to have a home gym unless you want to do so. You can actually set up something for very little money if you know what to do. Here are some equipment needs that you can use easily:

A television — most people have a television somewhere and this can now be turned into part of your fitness equipment. This is for DVDs and videos that give you an easy program to use.

Videos and DVDs –there are so many of these on the market today that one of the best ways to get them is to start at your local library. You can try out several of these at once and then decide which ones you like the best; those you like you can purchase.

A great way to purchase videos is through Amazon.com and sometimes you can find them in the grocery store on sale.

Resistance Bands — you might not know what a resistance band is but it is a long cord with two handles. Usually you can find them online or in any retail store. These are inexpensive and they can give you the same type of strength training workout as you could get in a gym. You can usually find videos that tell you how to use them.

Fitness Ball — these have become one of the best ways to get an overall fitness program in. You can usually find these anywhere and they will require a way to pump them up. You should also read the package to get the correct weight. You can also find videos that will tell you how to use them.

Stationary Bike or Treadmill — these are really optional equipment because you will not need them unless you like to have a variety of fitness options. The stationary bike like the Aerodyne are good additions because you can have a total body workout with them.

You do not need to go and buy all of this equipment, but you can start with any of them.

The Benefits Of Working Out At Home
Working out at home is very important to some people because it gives them the opportunity to do this when they want. You do not have to set up a gym exactly but you can have your own space when you are working out. You could invite a friend over or not and you can create a routine using a variety of different videos or DVDs.

You can expand your workout when you are ready by getting a more advanced DVD and by adding a few free weights.

Remember to give these natural energy boosters a try to get more out of your home workouts.

Popularity: 7% [?]

It seems like everyone you know these days is going to some type of gym. Each gym wants to say it is unique and different from all others and it really depends on what you want who you believe. There are gyms exclusively for women and those that are made for anyone.

The challenge for some people with going to a gym is that they are often overcrowded and they always have to wait for a machine.

Most gyms will offer some type of fitness solution and may even offer a personal trainer. Most consumers though get into a situation they were not prepared for when they first started in the gym.

What To Look For In A Gym
Most gyms like 24 Hour Fitness, Curves and sometimes Bally’s will have an introductory offer. These are usually geared to get you in the door but beware: There is usually a bigger cost and a long time commitment to get the best price.

What you can do when you go into the free offer is to really take a look at the gym. Is this the type of atmosphere that you want to be in? Are the people friendly? Is there room for you when you are mobility challenged or if you have other disabilities? These are things to consider as you take your time going to the program.

What do you really want to do? Is there a certain amount of weight you want to lose or are you more interested in toning or strength training? These are questions to ask when you go.

Beware of the hype that they will throw at you also. Some of the larger gyms will let you come in for the first few days and then try to guilt you into buying their program. The problem is that these people are there to sell memberships and they usually get a commission from them. You might feel harassed into joining and then find that you have signed a two year commitment. Make sure that you look at your contract before you sign.

Alternative To Large Gyms
If you are more a person who likes to work out in a smaller setting you might find that a YMCA or a community college has a fitness facility that may meet your needs. They may have less people coming in and they might have a better price.

You can also check with your doctor. Sometimes there are specialty gyms that can be of more help to you than the larger ones. As an example, if you have heart disease, check your area for a gym in a Cardiology facility. In some areas you can work out in the gym and know that you have professionals that can help if there are other problems.

You can also workout at home in a sort of “mini-gym” with a little home fitness equipment and a few videos. This is a great alternative for people who do not like going to a gym; these are also more cost effective.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Have you been the victim of starting a weight loss program with your spouse just to see it go sour? Many marriages can become shaky when one spouse loses weight faster than the other. In most cases it will be the male who actually loses weight fast.

Although most couples will think this is because guys are different in physical ways, research from Brookhaven National Laboratory found that it may have nothing to do with that; it may have to do with the way that the different sexes think about food.

The researchers in this study did a very elaborate process that started with having people fast for 17 hours. They then presented them with food, but would not allow them to eat it. They then instructed them to think about something other than the food. All of this was going on while they were being subjected to a CAT scan because they wanted to see what areas of the brain were affected by hunger.

What happens in the brain is that an individual is presented with a multiple of senses that create urgency in the brain to eat. Hunger and appetitive are actually processed in several different areas of the brain which is linked to emotional aspects of the brain. As an example, the brain records in the orbital frontal cortex our self-control. In the amygdale it records our strongest emotions.

They think that when we crave a certain food all of the areas of the brain that are affected start to scream for food. At this point the study participants were asked to think about something other than the food which they did but which they found difficult to do.  What they found that although both groups could lower the desire for food it was more difficult for women to stop thinking about it all together.

This meant that the women continued to have emotional cravings even after they had suppressed the need to eat. The doctor that conducted the study is not sure why there is such difference, but suspects that this is due to hormones. He also found through doing the PET scan that if the amygdala isn’t working correctly it can be extremely difficult to stop from feeling the cravings since it is the most primitive part of the brain.

The research implies that women have something wrong with the amygdala and it could be a response from hormones. Men on the other hand are able to turn off the amygdala with a lot of effort.

When men and women in a marriage start working out at the same time and are attempting to compete dieting they have already set themselves up for failure. Their brains work differently so when a man can stop worrying about food and move on, a woman may have to have the item in question before they can move on. At least this is what the study implies.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the future.

Popularity: 49% [?]

Everyone that is into nutrition and weight loss will tell you that if you have to skip a meal let it be lunch or dinner because breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Some people wonder why this is so, and others just ignore it all together.

A new study from the University Of Minnesota School Of Public Health has found that children who eat breakfast in the morning are less prone to obesity than those who do not.

This was a study that connected with 2,200 adolescents and followed them over a five year period to see how their bodies changed. They found that those children who ate breakfast daily tended to have a more nutritional diet and be more physically active than those who skipped breakfast all together. In the five years that followed the breakfast eaters also had a lower BMI than the other children.

What they have taken from this information is that everyone really does need breakfast. We decided to take a look at this further. What we found is that this is a matter of common sense. When an individual goes to bed at night his body goes into a rest state.

In the rest state the body is really fasting so it doesn’t expect to take in food. If you do not get breakfast the body goes into crisis because it has gone too long without food. The body goes into hyper drive to store fat because it thinks it is starving to death. The best place to store fact is in the mid-section so that the body can send it out to any part of the body that might need it.

When you eat later at around noon, you have thrown off the rhythm of the body and the fat is already being stored. This belly fat as you know is the most difficult type of fat to get rid of in the average person.

Those people who eat breakfast are able to jumpstart their metabolism, and if you eat several small meals during the day, it can keep your metabolism working to burn fat for the entire day.

Eating a healthy breakfast can actually help you be less hungry throughout the day.

Tips For Eating A Healthy Breakfast
There is a wealth of information on the Internet about the types of foods that are great to eat and those that you should limit. Fruits and vegetables top the line of healthy foods and this is a great food group to experiment with during your day. Vegetables can be eaten at any meal and often they are tastier in the morning. Grains are also good in the morning. Try rice with mushrooms and add brussel sprouts with a cup of juice or a piece of fruit for a quick morning charger.

You can also have a fresh fruit salad and a slice of toast or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with some milk.  Breakfast doesn’t have to be a long elaborate process, but it should be satisfying and yummy.

Popularity: 7% [?]

By now everyone has heard that the way to lose weight is through a nutritional diet and exercise. Kissing the fast foods and the carbonated beverages good-bye is part of the process. However, what happens when you haven’t exercised for years and you really want that piece of chocolate cake?

Step 1: What To Do First
When you decide to start a weight loss plan think of it as something that you are doing for your health. It is going to mean a lifestyle change so you need a baseline to work form. In order to do this you will need two pieces of information: Your BMI and how it compares to a healthy weight and knowledge about your intake of food.

Many people may find this disturbing because they already think they know what they eat but keeping a food diary can give you more information. According to the Director of the Center for Human Nutrition, James O. Hill, PhD, at the University of Colorado in Denver, eating is something that most people do without thinking about it. A food diary can help you focus on those things that you eat that are adding calories to your body.

The next step is to make a commitment to yourself to lose the amount of weight you want to lose. This is difficult for some people especially when they want something that isn’t on their menu. This is an important step because without it people usually go back to their old habits.

Step 2: Making Better Food Choices
If you are someone who is very busy it can be difficult to think about eating better. The truth is that today many restaurants have healthy food choices that can be better for you than what you are used to eating. You can choose vegetables and fruit over fried foods and desserts.

You can also start to snack on nutritional snacks like popcorn (without butter), fruits, nuts and seeds. These can make a great in-between meal snacks and many are very tasty. You can also include more vegetables, especially leafy vegetables into your food choices. All of these things will insure that your body is satisfied and also gets the vitamins and other nutrients it needs in a natural way.

Step 3: Exercise
It can be difficult to go to a gym and get exercise while some people find it difficult to walk. You can choose the type of exercise that fits your lifestyle. Activities like dance, swimming, bicycling and tennis may be alternatives to stationary bikes and treadmills. You can choose an activity that makes you feel the best or go back to something you once did as a child. You can also choose to get a few pieces of equipment like a fitness ball and some resistance bands to workout at home; you can always get videos from the library to help.

For guidelines on what to do with nutrition and exercise you might try going to the Healthy Body Revolution website for more information.

Popularity: 5% [?]

It turns out that obesity may not have anything to do with food at all, but it may have everything to do with a virus. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic are discovering that a virus could be the reason why many Americans are obese.

Although most people would agree that the way to keep obesity away is to eat healthy and exercise, this may only be part of the truth to getting in shape. There seem to be other factors that the Mayo Clinic is observing and this idea of a virus is one of them.

Richard Atkinson, M.D., at the Mayo Clinic has been studying research articles on obesity and he is finding there is a correlation between 3 human viruses and 5 animal viruses and obesity.

What They Found
The results of two of these viruses in studies were interesting and worth considering:

AD-36 — they found that by giving this human virus to animals it increased body fat and visceral fat also known as belly fat. They also found that this virus could be transmitted from an infected animal to a non-infected one. Atkinson did a study to look for this virus in 502 patients with varying weights. He found AD-36 antibodies in 30% of the obese patients and 11% of the lean ones; he also found large differences in their BMIs.

SMAM-1 — this was a virus that was found in chickens many years ago, in India. It was responsible for a large percentage of death in these chickens. A study that tested 52 obese people found that about 20% had been infected with this virus because they contained antibodies from it. The people who had been exposed were heavier and had a higher BMI than those who did not have the antibodies.

What They Can Do
At this time there is nothing to do except to continue to watch the virus. Atkinson thinks that there could be a virus vaccine developed to help, but this will take several years. We think this could be an interesting situation if people find out that they are severely obese because of a virus they carry.

This could be a medical breakthrough that is well worth waiting for because Americans are always looking for answers. If it were true that people who are severely obese could be victims of this virus running wild, a vaccine could be an alternative to surgery. It could also explain why an individual’s weight can seem so out of control.

This could answer the question of why some families are prone to weight gain and others are not. Perhaps this is something that happens in utero or it could be something that comes about because of the lack of whole foods that people eat; only time will tell.

Although there never is any substitute for good nutrition and exercise it could be something that if caught ahead of time, could change the course of a person’s life. We think this research should continue, to see what happens.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Many people struggle with their weight and eventually turn to gastric bypass as a solution. Usually this is someone who has a series of life threatening co-morbidities like sleep apnea, high blood pressure, heart disease or asthma that have happened because of their obesity.

Researchers at John Hopkins University are testing out a way to suppress the hunger hormone that may be helpful in dealing with some obesity issues. According to their study, they have found that by suppressing the hunger hormone ghrelin they can effectively create a suppression of appetite in the individual.

This research has only been done in pigs for now, but if they can translate it to humans they think it could be a less invasive alternative to gastric bypass.  This new process called gastric artery chemical embolization or GACE actually chemically vaporizes a blood vessel that goes to the top of the stomach. By doing this it cannot create the hormone and the appetite suppresses. Since this is part of what gastric bypass does they are hopeful that this can be done in humans.

The research was conducted over a four week period with 10 healthy pigs. They have a similar anatomy to humans so they were chosen as the best alternative.

This does not seem to be a healthy alternative for gastric bypass patients when we look closer. Obesity is complicated and it is difficult for many people. Gastric bypass is a last resort alternative after an individual has tried many different forms of weight loss.

Being overweight in this case does not necessarily have to do with appetite. Instead, it is an imbalance in their body that the gastric bypass is used to change. There is also the psychological factor of weight loss — the mind tells the body when it is hungry, in a healthy individual; but does not necessarily tell an obese person when they are hungry or when they are full.

Generally, gastric bypass to help an individual change their metabolism to one where weight loss, is now possible. The John Hopkins research seems to imply that the individual who has an eating problem that can be helped by suppression appetite. If that were the only issue patients would have had some other form of weight loss work.

Although gastric bypass may suppress appetite at some point it is the not main focus for this surgery. It seems that the researchers at John Hopkins should study gastric bypass surgery more directly so they understand the ramifications of what they are researching. It did not seem that they were very knowledgeable about bypass surgery since they isolated it to only appetite suppress.

In some ways it seems like they are creating another hurdle for an obese person to have to jump over, and not getting specifically to the real problem.

In order for an individual to have healthy weight loss after bypass surgery, they have to retrain their brain in terms of the amount of food they eat and how often they eat. This is something that many people do not know going into the surgery.

Popularity: 14% [?]