Health Journal Online

Tag: Weight

  • Want To Lose Weight? Nutritionist Shares Foods That Naturally Mimic Ozempic

    Want To Lose Weight? Nutritionist Shares Foods That Naturally Mimic Ozempic

    Are you planning to shed pounds but prefer going the natural, healthy route? You don’t always need Ozempic or GLP-1 medications for weight loss; the right food choices may be all you need. A nutritionist shares tips on foods that naturally mimic Ozempic by helping you feel full longer and slowing digestion.

    Luisana Carrero, a nutritionist from Houston, regularly shares simple and sustainable nutrition and workout tips on her Instagram handle, Luisana_nutritioncoach, helping people transform their bodies. In a recent post, she discusses 8 high-quality foods that naturally mimic the effects of Ozempic by boosting satiety, balancing blood sugar, reducing cravings, and helping make fat loss easier.

    “Incorporate these foods into your diet to control hunger, stay satisfied longer, and lose fat,” she wrote. Here are the foods to include:

    1. Greek Yogurt:

    Carrero suggests that the combination of protein and probiotics makes Greek yogurt a top choice. It helps reduce calorie intake while supporting gut health, and adding berries and nuts creates a tasty, balanced snack.

    Scientific evidence also supports the weight loss benefits of Greek yogurt. Research shows that yogurt consumption is inversely associated with the incidence of overweight or obesity. A 2014 study evaluating 8,516 participants found that those who consumed more than 7 servings of yogurt per week were less likely to be obese than those who ate 2 or fewer servings.

    2. Sweet Potatoes:

    As a slow-digesting and nutrient-rich carbohydrate, sweet potatoes help improve satiety. “Bake them at 400°F for 30-45 minutes and pair with your favorite protein,” Carrero wrote.

    3. Berries:

    With their low glycemic impact and calorie content, berries are a favorable food choice. They transform boring meals into tasty snacks and can be eaten fresh or added to items like yogurt and oatmeal.

    4. Avocados:

    Another tasty complement to salads and toasts, avocados offer a great combination of healthy fats and fiber that help regulate appetite hormones. In addition to supporting weight loss, this nutrient-rich fruit, packed with vitamins and antioxidants, promotes overall health.

    5. Oats:

    Oats help release gut hormones like peptide YY (PYY) and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), which help reduce food intake. This easy breakfast food also can reduce cholesterol, regulate blood sugar and reduce constipation.

    6. Veggies:

    Carrero recommends including high-fiber veggies such as broccoli, kale, and Brussels sprouts in the daily diet as they are packed with vitamins & minerals.

    7. Lean Beef:

    Rich in protein and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), lean beef supports fat loss in multiple ways. Protein not only helps build and repair muscle but also increases calorie burn during digestion.

    8. Eggs:

    Using eggs and egg whites can help improve satiety by regulating hunger-controlling hormones like GLP-1 and CCK (cholecystokinin). These hormones signal the brain to reduce appetite, helping you feel full longer and preventing overeating.



    Source link

  • Uses and Side Effects of Ozempic and Other GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs

    Uses and Side Effects of Ozempic and Other GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs

    Ozempic and others in a new class of weight-loss drugs have been called “the medical sensation of the decade.” Are they worthy of all the hype?

    For a deep dive, please see my primer on this topic. OZEMPIC: Risks, Benefits, and Natural Alternatives to GLP-1 Weight-Loss Drugs is available as an ebook, audiobook, and paperback. You can also view my video series for free on the Ozempic topic page or our YouTube channel. Here are some of the key takeaways.

     

    What Is GLP-1?

    A naturally occurring hormone in our body, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) plays a role in regulating our blood sugar, appetite, and digestion. Our gastrointestinal tract releases more than 20 different peptide hormones, including GLP-1. The primary stimuli for secreting GLP-1 are meals rich in fats and carbohydrates, and GLP-1’s main action is to signal satiety to the brain. It also slows our digestion. Delaying the rate at which food leaves our stomach not only helps us feel fuller for longer, but also helps with our blood sugar control. When GLP-1 or an agonist (mimic) is dripped into people’s veins, appetite is reduced, leading to markedly reduced food consumption—a decrease in caloric intake by as much as 25 to 50 percent.

     

    About GLP-1 Drugs

    Our GLP-1 hormone acts as an appetite suppressant by targeting parts of the brain responsible for hunger and cravings. GLP-1-secreting cells don’t only line our intestines; they’re also in our brains. These new anti-obesity drugs are GLP-1 agonists, mimicking the hormone’s action by binding to GLP-1 receptors.

    Our body breaks down GLP-1 so quickly that it hardly makes it even one time around our circulatory system, which is why we can’t just take the hormone directly. A compound was discovered—in the venomous saliva of a lizard called the Gila monster—that mimics GLP-1 but is resistant to breakdown. Using that compound as a template, the first GLP-1 agonist was created and approved for the treatment of diabetes about 20 years ago. Instead of most of it being cleared from the body within two and a half minutes, like native, natural GLP-1, much of the drug remains in the body for two and a half hours. That still means twice-daily injections, though, so then came liraglutide, which lasts all day. 

     

    What Is Ozempic?

    Eventually, semaglutide was developed and branded as Ozempic, which could be injected just once a week. Ozempic was approved in 2017 to treat diabetes. Within a few years, a daily oral version had been developed, again for diabetes, but researchers running those clinical trials noticed a surprising side effect: People’s appetites diminished.

     

    How Does Ozempic Work?

    In a way, GLP-1 agonist drugs work like birth control pills. The Pill mimics placental hormones, thereby tricking our body into thinking we’re pregnant all the time. Ozempic-type drugs mimic GLP-1, thereby tricking our body into thinking we’re eating all the time. That’s how it dials down our hunger drive.

     

    Ozempic for Weight Loss

    In the longest trial to date, more than 17,000 individuals were randomized to injections of either high-dose semaglutide or placebo for four years. Overall, those on the drug lost 9 percent more body weight than those in the placebo group, but all the weight was lost in the first 65 weeks. Even though they continued to get injected every week for three more years, they didn’t lose any more weight over the subsequent 143 weeks.

    Weight loss tends to plateau because the same amount of effort to cut calories—whether through willpower, drugs, or surgery—is met with growing resistance as ongoing weight loss increasingly activates our feedback control circuit, stimulating our appetite. In the case of the GLP-1 drugs, the weight loss caused by the initial drop in appetite is undercut by an apparent exponential increase in caloric intake as our body ratchets up our hunger again. Within 12 months, this resistance, combined with the decreased caloric needs from being lighter, matches the persistent effort to cut calories, and weight loss plateaus. And, as soon as we stop taking the drugs, our full appetite resumes and we start regaining the weight we initially lost.

     

    The Cost of Ozempic

    Wegovy, the high-dose Ozempic used for weight loss, costs up to $1,350 a month, which, again, may have to be paid in perpetuity since any lost weight can pile back on if you stop taking it. So, that could cost more than $16,000 a year if paid out-of-pocket for those whose insurance doesn’t cover it.

     

    Ozempic Side Effects

    The most common side effects include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and constipation. Gallbladder issues are another side effect; excess cholesterol shed from fat cells can crystalize in our bile like rock candy, forming gallstones.

    Rare but serious adverse effects are also emerging. The package inserts for both semaglutide and tirzepatide list a series of “warnings and precautions” that include thyroid tumors, acute inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis), acute gallbladder disease, acute kidney injury (that may stem from dehydration due to excess vomiting or diarrhea), allergic reactions, a heightened risk of bottoming out blood sugars while on blood sugar–lowering medications, worsening eye disease for those with type 2 diabetes, an increase in heart rate requiring monitoring, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

     

    What Is “Ozempic Face”?

    “Ozempic face” is a term used to describe a distorted facial appearance among users of the drug. (Similar accounts have been made of “Ozempic butt.”) Media reports have linked the drug with facial aging, but the sagging appearance has been ascribed simply to the accelerated loss of fat in the face. While this interpretation seems logical, a review of the phenomenon concluded that “this explanation cannot fully account for the markedly accelerated facial aging….” Other factors suspected as being responsible for the appearance of premature facial aging include the loss of facial muscle mass, diminished structural integrity of the skin, and changes in stem cell function and hormonal secretion.

     

    Is Ozempic Safe?

    In the first quantitative benefit-versus-harm balance analysis, the researchers concluded that those achieving a 10 percent weight loss had a more than 90 percent chance that the benefits of taking the drugs outweigh the harms, but the opposite was found for individuals achieving only a 5 percent weight loss.

    At this time, we don’t know about the long-term harms or benefits because some of these drugs and dosing schedules are so new. To complicate matters, the American Academy of Pediatrics has suggested offering these drugs for teens and even tweens as young as age 12. These drugs work by acting on the brain, so who knows what effect they might have on childhood development and beyond if young people end up taking them for the rest of their lives. Although we now have evidence of near-term benefit over a few years, we cannot assume long-term safety until it has been demonstrated.

     

    Ozempic Alternatives

    We don’t need to take GLP-1-mimicking drugs. Not only can the ingestion of a plant-based meal more than double GLP-1 secretion, compared to a meat meal, but plant-based diets can also cause weight loss by boosting our resting metabolic rate and incorporating “calorie-trapping” high-fiber foods that flush calories away. The largest study of people eating strictly plant-based found they are about 35 pounds lighter on average.

    When we eat a donut, its fat, sugar, and starch get absorbed quickly, high up, before reaching the part of our digestive tract where we produce most of the hormone that suppresses our appetite, GLP-1. Since the cells that produce GLP-1 in response to calorie exposure are concentrated at the end of our digestive tract, while the majority of the calories we consume are absorbed early on, most calories never make it down far enough. That’s why our appetites aren’t suppressed very much these days. From a GLP-1 standpoint, when we have that donut, it’s like we never ate much of anything. No wonder we reach for donut number two.

    Our prehistoric ancestors are believed to have consumed as much as 100 daily grams of fiber, which is more than six times what most of us are getting these days. We evolved eating massive amounts of whole plant foods—the only places fiber is found in abundance. That enabled out natural satiety mechanisms to keep us from overeating. By eating the way nature intended, we can release GLP-1 the way nature intended. That helps explains why in the medical literature, compared to any other way of eating that didn’t involve portion control, a whole food, plant-based diet has been shown to lead to greater average weight loss than any other diet.

     

    For more in-depth information on Ozempic and GLP-1, check out these resources:



    Source link

  • Stuck On Your Weight Loss Journey? Here’s Nutritionist’s Cheat Code To Shed Pounds In 3 Months

    Stuck On Your Weight Loss Journey? Here’s Nutritionist’s Cheat Code To Shed Pounds In 3 Months

    Feeling stuck in your weight loss journey, despite your best efforts? You’re not alone, many people may face a frustrating stage where progress slows. But according to a nutritionist, the key is not in a fad diet or extreme workout—it’s consistency. Here’s the cheat code to break through the stagnation and shed substantial weight in just three months.

    “Weight loss is a journey and the secret to seeing true and lasting results is by staying consistent and not perfect,” said Amaka, a certified nutritionist in an Instagram post, where she shared a cheat code to lose 20 kg (about 44 pounds) in three months.

    For those looking to kickstart their weight loss journey or those struggling along the way, here are some practical tips from her.

    Focus on low calorie diet:

    According to Amaka, the key to weight loss is maintaining a calorie-deficit diet while staying full. She suggests consuming low-calorie, high-protein meals to achieve this and recommends adding spices like cayenne pepper, turmeric, and cinnamon to boost metabolism for faster results.

    Amaka also recommends eliminating sugar and refined carbs, as an easy trick to reduce the waistline. “Practice 80/20 rule in your nutrition, where you eat healthy 80% and allow yourself to indulge in a cheat meal 20% to help you stay consistent and not restricted, fuels your energy and boost your mood to stay consistent on your journey,” she said.

    How to eat:

    Most people know what should go on their plate while dieting, but according to Amaka, how you eat your food is just as important.

    “Eat your protein and vegetables first before your carbs, it will make you full quickly, and you will struggle to eat your carb left on your plate,” she wrote. Taking smaller plates or bowls while serving food will help to trick your brain into feeling full.

    Drink water:

    Staying hydrated helps to nourish the body and control the hunger pangs. “Always drink water 5-10 minutes before eating your meal, it will help control your appetite,” she said.

    Exercise:

    Regular physical activity is essential for both weight loss and overall well-being. Amaka recommends strength training 2–3 days a week, as it helps build muscle and keeps the body burning calories even at rest.

    “Leave the scale completely, use pictures, your fittings in your old clothes, and body measurements to track your progress, they’re always accurate. Scale fluctuates, and has made me lose hope and stop my journey because I felt I was not making progress,” she added.



    Source link

  • Every Morning This Ancient Amazonian “Drip Method” Is Being Used To Support Healthy Weight Loss

    Every Morning This Ancient Amazonian “Drip Method” Is Being Used To Support Healthy Weight Loss

    Product Name: Every Morning This Ancient Amazonian “Drip Method” Is Being Used To Support Healthy Weight Loss

    Click here to get Every Morning This Ancient Amazonian “Drip Method” Is Being Used To Support Healthy Weight Loss at discounted price while it’s still available…

    All orders are protected by SSL encryption – the highest industry standard for online security from trusted vendors.

    Every Morning This Ancient Amazonian “Drip Method” Is Being Used To Support Healthy Weight Loss is backed with a 60 Day No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee. If within the first 60 days of receipt you are not satisfied with Wake Up Lean™, you can request a refund by sending an email to the address given inside the product and we will immediately refund your entire purchase price, with no questions asked.

    (more…)

  • The Smoothie Diet – smoothies for weight loss and incredible health

    The Smoothie Diet – smoothies for weight loss and incredible health

    Product Name: The Smoothie Diet – smoothies for weight loss and incredible health

    Click here to get The Smoothie Diet – smoothies for weight loss and incredible health at discounted price while it’s still available…

    All orders are protected by SSL encryption – the highest industry standard for online security from trusted vendors.

    The Smoothie Diet – smoothies for weight loss and incredible health is backed with a 60 Day No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee. If within the first 60 days of receipt you are not satisfied with Wake Up Lean™, you can request a refund by sending an email to the address given inside the product and we will immediately refund your entire purchase price, with no questions asked.

    (more…)

  • 500 Keto Diet Recipes – Easy, Delicious, and Healthy Low-Carb Meals for Weight Loss – 500 Keto Recipes

    500 Keto Diet Recipes – Easy, Delicious, and Healthy Low-Carb Meals for Weight Loss – 500 Keto Recipes

    Product Name: 500 Keto Diet Recipes – Easy, Delicious, and Healthy Low-Carb Meals for Weight Loss – 500 Keto Recipes

    Click here to get 500 Keto Diet Recipes – Easy, Delicious, and Healthy Low-Carb Meals for Weight Loss – 500 Keto Recipes at discounted price while it’s still available…

    All orders are protected by SSL encryption – the highest industry standard for online security from trusted vendors.

    500 Keto Diet Recipes – Easy, Delicious, and Healthy Low-Carb Meals for Weight Loss – 500 Keto Recipes is backed with a 60 Day No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee. If within the first 60 days of receipt you are not satisfied with Wake Up Lean™, you can request a refund by sending an email to the address given inside the product and we will immediately refund your entire purchase price, with no questions asked.

    (more…)

  • Pole Walking to Lose Weight? 

    Pole Walking to Lose Weight? 

    Does walking with poles, also known as Nordic pole walking or “exerstriding,” beat out regular walking for depression, sleep quality, and weight loss?

    Exercise recommendations for obesity have been referred to as “the mysterious case of the public health guideline that is (almost) entirely ignored.” Governmental, scientific, and professional organizations call for at least an hour of exercise a day for weight management, but “almost no obese adults meet this target.” As you can see below and at 0:32 in my video Are There Benefits of Pole Walking for Weight Loss?, surveys suggest American men and women watch television ten times more than they exercise. 

    For Americans with obesity, it may be even worse. Only 2 percent reach even 30 minutes a day, as you can see below and at 0:36 in my video, and the percentage exceeding an hour of exercise a day is expected to be close to zero.

    Why don’t individuals with obesity exercise more? Why don’t we just ask them? When questioned, “obese adults typically describe exercise as being unpleasant, uncomfortable and unenjoyable.” How can we break this vicious cycle, where inactivity can lead to weight gain, which can lead to further inactivity and even more weight gain? The first thing to recognize is that “it is normal and natural to be physically lazy.”

    “Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution” is the title of a famous essay written by a noted geneticist. Laziness is in our genes. We evolved to instinctually avoid unnecessary exertion to conserve energy for survival and reproduction. These days, there’s no shortage of available fuel, yet the hard-wired inertia remains. “The vast majority of people today behave just as their ancestors by exercising only when it is fun (as a form of play) or when necessary.” Just like dietary change for weight control, the only way exercise is going to work long-term is if it becomes “a stable, ideally lifelong, activity habit.” Exercise is only effective if it’s sustainable. So, we need “to restructure our environments to require more physical activity,” like using a treadmill desk, and figure out how to make exercise more enjoyable. It should just be a walk in the park—literally, perhaps!

    Some wise advice from a 1925 medical journal entry: “The best prescription to be written for a walk is to take a dog…and a friend.” Listening to your favorite music might also help. Music has been described as “a legal method” for improving peak performance and, more importantly, enhancing the enjoyment of high-intensity interval training. As you can see below and at 2:37 in my video, listening to a preferred playlist during exercise can significantly reduce your “rate of perceived exertion,” which is how hard you feel your body is working. When severely obese youth got on a treadmill and were told to go until exhaustion, with or without music, those listening to their favorite tunes “ran significantly longer,” tending to go about 5 percent longer. This was chalked up to “attentional distraction”; the music may have helped them keep their mind off feelings of fatigue. If that’s the case, listening to a podcast or audiobook might have a similar effect. 

    One way to up your walking game is with walking poles. So-called Nordic walking, also known as exerstriding or Viking hiking, was originally developed in Scandinavia to maintain cross-country ski athletes’ training in the summer. It’s since gained in popularity worldwide as a general fitness activity. The augmented engagement of the upper body musculature may result in an 18 to 22 percent increased calorie expenditure over walking alone (depending, in part, on your pole handling technique). Does that translate into accelerated weight loss?

    Before and after studies demonstrate weight loss with pole walking, compared to a sedentary control, but what about compared to regular walking? Of the four such studies I could locate, comparing thrice weekly 40- to 60-minute sessions of Nordic pole walking to regular walking, every single one found no significant difference in body fat measures after 8 weeks, 12 weeks, another at 12 weeks, or 13 weeks. You can see the last one below and at 4:16 in my video. 

    There are, however, other benefits over regular walking, such as increased upper body muscle bulk, improved muscular endurance, and increased strength, as seen below and at 4:20 in my video, though not as much as was seen with resistance-band training. But, as I was writing How Not to Diet, there wasn’t any evidence of a weight-loss-enhancing effect, which is why Nordic walking didn’t make the cut. Just as we were going to press, a study was published—the first to combine Nordic walking with diet, compared to the same dietary program with regular walking. And, once again, no significant difference was found in body weight or anything else. There was a hint that those in the pole group enjoyed it more, and, in the end, exercise only works if you do it, so that may be a benefit. 

    There may be other benefits, too. As you can see here and at 5:05 in my video, Nordic walking beat out regular walking in terms of reducing symptoms of depression and improving sleep quality.

    Perhaps this should not be surprising, given the greater exercise intensity of pole walking, even approaching that of jogging at higher speeds, shown below and at 5:15 in my video. And that’s where I see the role of walking poles—to fill the intensity gap between people who are ready to graduate from walking but aren’t ready for more rigorous activities, such as running. The only potential downsides are the added expense and, “reminded of Monty Python’s famous ‘ministry of silly walks’ sketch…‘feeling fairly ridiculous’ when trying Nordic walking for the first time.”  

    However you walk, there are a lot of benefits. Check out my video Longer Life Within Walking Distance.

    Related videos include How Much Exercise to Sustain Weight Loss? and How Much Should You Exercise?.



    Source link

  • Drinking Water, Losing Weight 

    Drinking Water, Losing Weight 

    A few times a day, drink two cups of cold water on an empty stomach for weight loss.

    After drinking two cups (half a liter) of water, you can get a surge of the adrenal hormone noradrenaline in your bloodstream, as if you had just smoked a few cigarettes or had a few cups of coffee, boosting your metabolic rate up to 30 percent within an hour, as shown below and at 0:22 in my video Optimizing Water Intake to Lose Weight. When put to the test in randomized controlled trials, that appeared to accelerate weight loss by 44 percent, making drinking water the safest, simplest, and cheapest way to boost your metabolism. 

    Now, this entire strategy may fail if you’re on a beta-blocker drug. (Beta blockers are typically prescribed for heart conditions or high blood pressure and tend to end with the letters lol, such as atenolol, nadolol, or propranolol, sold as Tenormin, Corgard, or Inderal, respectively.) So, for example, as you can see below and at 0:59 in my video, if you give people the beta-blocker drug metoprolol (sold as Lopressor) before they drink their two cups (480 mL) of water, the metabolic boost is effectively prevented. This makes sense since the “beta” being blocked by beta blockers are the beta receptors triggered by noradrenaline. Otherwise, drinking water should work. But what’s the best dose, type, temperature, and timing?

    Just a single cup (240 mL) of water may be sufficient to rev up the noradrenaline nerves, but additional benefit is seen with drinking two or more cups (480 mL). A note of caution: One should never drink more than about three cups (710 mL) in an hour, since that starts to exceed the amount of fluid your kidneys can handle. If you have heart or kidney failure, your physician may not want you to drink extra water at all, but even with healthy kidneys, any more than three cups of water an hour can start to critically dilute the electrolytes in your brain with potentially critical consequences. (In How Not to Diet, I talk about a devastating, harrowing experience I had in the hospital as an intern. A patient drank himself to death—with water. He suffered from a neurological condition that causes pathological thirst. I knew enough to order his liquids to be restricted and have his sink shut off, but I didn’t think to turn off his toilet.)

    Getting back to it. What kind of water are we talking about? Does it have to be plain, regular water? It shouldn’t matter, right? Isn’t water just water whether it’s flavored or sweetened in a diet drink? Actually, it does matter. When trying to prevent fainting before blood donation, drinking something like juice doesn’t work as well as plain water. When trying to keep people from getting dizzy when they stand up, water works, but the same amount of water with salt added doesn’t, as seen below and at 2:40 in my video. What’s going on? 

    We used to think the trigger was stomach distention. When we eat, our body shifts blood flow to our digestive tract, in part by releasing noradrenaline to pull in blood from our limbs. This has been called the gastrovascular reflex. So, drinking water was thought to be a zero-calorie way of stretching our stomachs. But, instead, if we drink two cups (480 mL) of saline (basically salt water), the metabolic boost vanishes, so stomach expansion can’t explain the water effect.

    We now realize our body appears to detect osmolarity, the concentration of stuff within a liquid. When liquids of different concentrations were covertly slipped into people’s stomachs via feeding tubes, detection of plain water versus another liquid was demonstrated by monitoring sweat production, which is a proxy for noradrenaline release. It may be a spinal reflex, as it’s preserved in people who are quadriplegic, or picked up by the liver, as we see less noradrenaline release in liver transplant patients (who’ve had their liver nerves severed). Whichever the pathway, our body can tell. Thought we only had five senses? The current count is upwards of 33.

    In my Daily Dozen recommendation, I rank certain teas as among the healthiest beverages. After all, they have all the water of water with an antioxidant bonus. But, from a weight-loss perspective, plain water may have an edge. That may explain the studies that found that overweight and obese individuals randomized to replace diet beverages with water lost significantly more weight. This was chalked up to getting rid of all those artificial sweeteners, but, instead, it may be that the diet drinks were too concentrated to offer the same water-induced metabolic boost. As you can see below and at 4:29 in my video, diet soda, like tea, has about ten times the concentration of dissolved substances compared to tap water. So, plain water on an empty stomach may be the best. 

    Does the temperature of the water matter? In a journal published by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, an engineering professor proposed that the “secret” of a raw food diet for weight loss was the temperature at which the food was served. “Raw food, by its very nature, is consumed at room temperature or lower.” To bring two cups (480 mL) of room-temperature water up to body temperature, he calculated the body would have to dip into its fat stores and use up 6,000 calories. Just do the math, he says: A calorie is defined as the amount of energy required to raise one gram of water one degree Celsius. So, since two cups of water are about 500 grams and the difference between room temp and body temp is about a dozen degrees Celsius, it’s about 500 x 12 = 6,000 calories needed. 

    Do you see the mistake? In nutrition, a “calorie” is actually a kilocalorie, a thousand times bigger than the same word used in the rest of the sciences. Confusing, right? Still, I’m shocked that the paper was even published.

    So, drinking two cups of room-temperature water actually takes only 6 calories to warm up, not 6,000. Now, if you were a hummingbird drinking four times your body weight in chilly nectar, you could burn up to 2 percent of your energy reserves warming it up, but it doesn’t make as much of a difference for us.

    What about really cold water, though? A letter called “The Ice Diet” published in the Annals of Internal Medicine estimated that eating about a quart (1 L) of ice—like a gigantic snow cone without any syrup—could rob our body of more than 150 calories, which is the “same amount of energy as the calorie expenditure in running 1 mile.” It’s not like you directly burn fat to warm up the water, though. Your body just corrals more of the waste heat you normally give off by constricting blood flow to your skin. How does it do that? Noradrenaline.

    If you compare drinking body-temperature water, room-temperature water, and cold water, there’s only a significant constriction in blood flow to the skin after the room-temperature water and the cold water, as seen below and at 6:39 in my video. 

    What’s more, as you can see here and at 6:45 in the video, neither the warm nor tepid water could boost metabolic rate as much as cold (fridge temperature) water. Our body does end up burning off more calories when we drink our water cold (at least indirectly). 

    So, two cups of cold water on an empty stomach a few times a day. Does it matter when? Yes, watch my Evidence-Based Weight Loss lecture to see how you can add the benefit of negative-calorie preloading by drinking that water right before your meals.

    Too good to be true? No. Check out my other three videos on water and weight loss in the related posts below.



    Source link

  • Ephedra-Like Weight Loss Minus the Risks 

    Ephedra-Like Weight Loss Minus the Risks 

    The diving reflex shows that it’s possible to have selective adrenal hormone effects.

    Thermogenic drugs like DNP can cause people to overheat to death; they can increase resting metabolic rates by 300 percent or more. A more physiological spread would range about ten times less, from a 30 percent slower metabolism in people with an underactive thyroid to a 30 percent higher metabolism when the part of our nervous system that controls our fight-or-flight response is activated. In response to a fright or acute stress, special nerves release a chemical called noradrenaline to ready us for confrontation. We experience this by our skin getting paler, cold, and clammy, as blood is diverted to our more vital organs. Our mouth can get dry as our digestive system is put on hold, and our heart starts to beat faster. What we don’t feel is the extra fat being burned to liberate energy for the fight.

    That’s why people started taking ephedra for weight loss—“to stimulate the release of noradrenaline from nerve endings.”

    Ephedra is an evergreen shrub. It’s been used in China for thousands of years to treat asthma because it causes that same release of noradrenaline that offers relief to people with asthma by dilating their airways. In the United States, it was appropriated for use as a metabolic stimulant, shown to result in about 2 pounds (0.9 kg) of weight loss a month in 19 placebo-controlled trials. By the late 1990s, millions of Americans were taking it. The problem is that it also had all the other noradrenaline effects, like increasing heart rate and blood pressure. So, chronic use resulted in “stroke, cardiac arrhythmia, and death.” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned of its risks in 1994, but ephedra wasn’t banned until a decade later after a 23-year-old Major League Baseball pitcher dropped dead. His “autopsy report revealed evidence of ephedra, which the medical examiner said contributed to his death.”

    In the current Wild West of dietary supplement regulation, not only can a supplement be “marketed without any safety data” at all, but the manufacturer is under no obligation to disclose adverse effects that may arise. No surprise, then, that online vendors assured absolute safety: “No negative side effects to date.” “No adverse side-effects, no nervous jitters or underlying anxiety, no moodiness…” “100% safe for long-term use.” “It will not interact with medications and has no harmful side effects.” The president of Metabolife International, a leading seller of ephedra, assured the FDA that the company had never received a single “notice from a consumer that any serious adverse health event has occurred…” In reality, it had received about 13,000 health complaints, including reports of serious injuries, hospitalizations, and even deaths. 

    If only there were a way to get the good without the bad. As I discuss in my video How to Get the Weight Loss Benefits of Ephedra Without the Risks, there is. But to understand it, you first have to grasp a remarkable biological phenomenon known as the diving reflex.

    Imagine walking across a frozen lake and suddenly falling through the ice, plunging into the freezing depths. It’s hard to think of a greater, instantaneous fight-or-flight shock than that. Indeed, noradrenaline would be released, causing the blood vessels in your arms and legs to constrict to bring blood back to your core. You can imagine how fast your heart might start racing, but that would be counterproductive because you’d use up your oxygen faster. Remarkably, what happens instead is your heart rate slows down. That’s the diving reflex, first described in the 1700s. Air-breathing animals are born with this automatic safety feature to help keep us from drowning.

    In medicine, we can exploit this physiological quirk with what’s called a “cold face test.” To determine if a comatose patient has intact neural pathways, you can apply cold compresses to their face to see if their heart immediately starts slowing down. Or, more dramatically, it can be used to treat people who flip into an abnormally rapid heartbeat. Remember that episode of ER where Carter dunked a patient’s face into a tray of ice water? (That show aired on TV when I was in medical school, and a group of us would gather around and count how many times they violated “universal precautions.”)

    What does this have to do with weight loss? The problem with noradrenaline-releasing drugs like ephedra is the accompanying rise in heart rate and blood pressure. What the diving reflex shows is that it’s possible to experience selective noradrenaline effects, raising the possibility that there may be a way to get the metabolic boost without the risk of stroking out. Unbelievably, this intricate physiological feat may be accomplished by the simplest of acts: Instead of drowning in water, simply drink it. Really? Yes, you can boost your metabolism by drinking water. Buckle your safety belts because you are in for a wild ride—one that continues next.

    This is the first in a four-part video series. Stay tuned for:

    You may also be interested in Friday Favorites: The Best Diet for Weight Loss and Disease Prevention.



    Source link

  • Struggling With Hunger During Weight Loss? High-Intensity Workouts Could Be The Key

    Struggling With Hunger During Weight Loss? High-Intensity Workouts Could Be The Key

    Managing hunger pangs can sometimes be difficult for those struggling to lose weight while on exercise and weight loss programs. Researchers now suggest engaging in high-intensity workouts may help curb hunger more than moderate exercise, particularly in women.

    In the study published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society, researchers investigated the effects of exercise intensity on ghrelin, a hormone that regulates satiety and feelings of hunger.

    “We found that high-intensity exercise suppressed ghrelin levels more than moderate intensity exercise. In addition, we found that individuals felt ‘less hungry’ after high intensity exercise compared to moderate intensity exercise,” said Kara Anderson, study author in a news release.

    Higher levels of ghrelin are associated with increased appetite. Ghrelin works in two molecular forms to regulate appetite: acylated (AG) and deacylated (DAG). Earlier studies have investigated the impact of exercise on these two forms of ghrelin, but most of them were limited to men.

    In the latest study, the researchers used eight male and six female participants to investigate how the impact affects men and women differently.

    Participants fasted overnight and then completed exercises at varying intensity levels. Blood lactate measurements and appetite levels, as reported by the participants, were taken.

    The results suggest that, although total ghrelin levels were initially higher in females than in males, there was a significant reduction in AG levels following intense exercise only among women.

    However, the researchers note that, because the study was based on a small sample size of female participants, the ability to assess the differences in impact between sexes may be limited.

    “Collectively, the results of the present study strengthen data on the role of high-intensity exercise in the reduction ghrelin and hunger. All isoforms of ghrelin may be associated with perception of hunger; however, more work is needed to determine if the relationship differs by sex,” the researchers wrote.

    “Exercise should be thought of as a ‘drug,’ where the ‘dose’ should be customized based on an individual’s personal goals. Our research suggests that high-intensity exercise may be important for appetite suppression, which can be particularly useful as part of a weight loss program,” Anderson said.

    Apart from appetite regulation, ghrelin is also crucial for other functions including energy balance, appetite, glucose homeostasis, immune function, sleep, and memory.

    Source link