Lose Weight 'n' Flatten ur Tum: May 2011

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

A Flat Stomach is Best for Your Heart and Brain

Two new studies confirm that the 50% of Americans who are overweight in midlife need to get serious about solving their metabolic problems. One study links the extra weight to an increased risk for dementia and Alzheimer’s. The other study links a fat stomach to double the risk of death from coronary artery disease. Neither study is good news for an American public with rapidly expanding waistlines.

The dementia study utilized data from the Swedish Twin Registry, evaluating 8,534 twin individuals over the age of 65, comparing their current issues with dementia/Alzheimer’s to their weight at age 43. Individuals who were overweight mid-life had a 71% increased risk for dementia and those who were obese had an 88% increased risk. The researchers concluded that “Both overweight and obesity at midlife independently increase the risk of dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, and vascular dementia.”

In another study researchers at the Rochester Mayo Clinic found that in individuals with coronary artery disease even a small amount of abdominal fat increased their risk of death by 70%. The findings were interesting because they involved a large number of people from different areas of the world and differentiated between BMI and central obesity (the expanding waistline). In essence, the study is saying that any extra abdominal fat is bad for your health. If you should develop coronary artery disease and have this type of fat, your chance of survival is significantly reduced.

Being overweight is an inflammatory problem that has consequences over time. Weight gain in the abdominal area is predictive of the most inflammatory type of weight gain and also correlates to developing a fatty liver. This issue is significant and should not be ignored by anyone who wants to be healthy in older age.

SOURCE: MEDICAL NEWS TODAY

*Obesity & Reproductive Health*

Reproductive health and infertility have gained much notoriety and public awareness has skyrocketed since the first test tube baby in 1978. The same can be said about the impact lifestyle-namely the relationship between diet, exercise and heredity-may have on overall health risk and infertility. However, only recently in the medical community, and less so within the lay public, has an association been described between one's weight, nutritional status and reproductive health. More at:
http://www.havingbabies.com/infertility-weight.html

What Is My Ideal Weight? How Much Should I Weigh?

A person's ideal body weight is determined by several factors, such as age, muscle-fat ratio, height, sex, and bone density. Some say your Body Mass Index (BMI) is the ideal way to calculate whether your body weight is ideal. Others say BMI is faulty as it does not take into account muscle mass, and waist-hip ratio is better. One person's ideal body weight may be completely different from another's. If you compare yourself to family and friends you risk either aiming too high if you are surrounded by obese or overweight people, or too low if everyone around you works as fashion models.Even comparing yourself with people outside your immediate surroundings may not work.The levels of overweight and obesity in one country, such as the USA or UK, are much higher than in The Netherlands. So a Dutch person may aim for a lower ideal weight than an American if all he did was to compare himself to other people.
More at: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/160316.php

Weight Loss that Works - There Are No Shortcuts

By Paige Waehner
A few weeks ago, my sister and I were talking about weight loss and she said, "When I was in my 20s, I worked out two hours a day and I was in the best shape. I should really get back to that - it really worked!" But, would that workout regime really work for her now? Not only does she have 2 kids, she's looking for a job. On top of that, two hours of exercise would probably be too much for most people - for the body, the mind and the schedule. Sure she could try exercising for two hours a day, but how long would she be able to maintain that kind of schedule? Not very long, she concluded.
That got me thinking - does something really work if you can only follow it for a short period of time?
If you follow a diet that takes you from, say, 2,200 calories to 1400 calories a day, there's no doubt you'll lose weight. And when you do, you may associate that success with the diet you're following, perhaps thinking - "Finally, something that works!"
However, we know that any diet will work and, for that matter, any exercise program works, provided you're burning more calories than you're eating. That means you could stand in the diet section of the bookstore, pick a diet book (eeny-meeny-miney-mo might be one method) and you'll probably find one that "works."
The question we ask ourselves when it comes to diets or exercise programs is often: Will this help me lose weight? Chances are, whatever it is, it will. The question we may want to ask ourselves is this: Can I follow this for the long-term?
That's one reason that making lifestyle changes is one way people find long-term success. You're working in changes for the life you already have rather than letting someone else dictate changes that may not fit, at least not for more than a few days or weeks.

Lose Weight 'n' Flatten ur Tum

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

A Flat Stomach is Best for Your Heart and Brain

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