NeoWeight

I recently heard someone ask, “will taking vitamin make me gain weight?”. I never really considered a connection between vitamins and weight gain, so I decided to investigate the subject and do some research.

I found that daily multivitamins may be recommended for weight gain for people who are underweight, not overweight! I think some overweight people may have overheard the words, “weight gain” and “vitamins”, and come to the conclusion that their multivitamin was making them fat…

Apparently, lack of vitamins [Read more →]

A Calorie is the SI metric unit for energy, representing 4.18400 Joules. A Calorie is just a Calorie, always, if we look at the scientific definition that is. However, many dietitians seem to have manipulated the scientific definition, to tell people it does not really matter what you eat, its just how many Calories you eat. These dietitians often espouse their basic formula of ( Calories eaten - calories burned = weight gain ) in support of their argument. When people hear this kind of talk, they are often confused into thinking, “I can eat Mcdonalds and Donuts all day, as long as I burn off all the calories.

Well, maybe you have not been decieved by this crazy calorie talk, but just incase you have, I want to clear something up; a calorie is not a calorie. Well it is, I guess, but lack of focus on the types of foods you eat, and just focusing on the calories is not a smart decision. Although Calories, will always be Calories, it is the source of these Calories which is important. Food provides things other than Calories which are absolutely necessary for your body. Vitamins, Minerals, antioxidents; you have to remember these in shaping your eating habits. Although fried chicken and blueberries have the same types of calories, the two foods which contain these calories are not made equal in nutritional benefit. A hundred calories of blueberries will provide you with a lot of nutrients your body needs, while a hundred calories of fried chicken may not. In a sense, a Calorie is not a Calorie.

If your trying to lose weight, you have to focus on the types of foods you eat, not the amounts of calories they contain. Good, healthy food, will keep you full and you won’t have to worry too much about how much you’re eating.

As a few general hints (most of this is in previous posts):

• try incorporating high volume and low calorie foods into your diet, these are usually fruits and vegetables
• avoid highly processed foods, which are stripped of most of their nutritional benefits and contain potentially toxic chemicals and preservatives
• whole grains, oats, nuts, and seeds have a lot of good stuff in them…

These are just a few examples, bottom line, just try to incorporate alot of natural foods into your diet. These foods tend to keep you full longer and provide the body with all the nutrients, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, omega 3 fatty acids, etc. which keep your body functioning well. When trying to lose weight, you want to give your body the food it needs, you don’t want to limit your calorie intake to the point where your facing malnutrition; Calories are not made equal!

Notepad at one’s side, high tech computer software running, TI-84 calculator ready to go… maybe its just me, but this all just sounds way too complicated. This morning I opened up the LA times health section and began reading Jeannine Stein’s article, speaking of how weight loss was as simple as a Calorie Counting Math problem.

Perhaps I’m  just not very good at math, but Frankly, the “simple” calorie counting solution just doesn’t sound that simple to me. With all due respect to those who champion calorie counting and have been successful with the technique, I’d rather be living my life, enjoying it, not playing number games all day long. Of course, when you take a holistic look at weight loss, its just a math problem, looking something like:  weight gained = calories eaten - calories burned  . So, when I look at this whole calorie counting thing, I mean, I understand it all, [Read more →]

Simple answer, yes; fruits and vegetables are absolutely important for weight loss, and more importantly for keeping the weight off.

I’m not just telling you this because my mom always told me that fruits and vegetables are good, there’s actually a lot of science behind it.

Consumer reports recently surveyed 21,632 readers about their excercise, eating, and dieting habits over their whole life and asked for their weight loss / weight gain over that time period. Although a lucky 3% of readers said they ate what they wanted, didn’t excercise, and were not overweight; the general trend was much different. In order to keep weight off, most readers said they excercised, practiced portion control, and ate lots of fruit and vegetables. A very intriguing finding of the study was that about half of the people who had been fit their whole life, or had successfully maintained weight loss, ate five or more servings of fruits and vegetables atleast five times a week. If your mom ever told you that fruits and veggies would keep you healthy, she was right!

So, why are vegetables [Read more →]

A few weeks back I was eating dinner with a group of friends and family. When the food came out I decided to do something I’ve never done before, pay attention to how everyone ate. I know, it sounds strange; but I had read somewhere that overweight people usually eat their food much faster than skinny people. So, I decided it would be a good opportunity to see if it was true. My friends and family at dinner were of all shapes and sizes, from the skinniest to the fattest, and almost every degree in between, so I didn’t focus on my food but instead observed the eating race which was about to commence.

And crossing the finish line first was…..Dan, sure enough the most overweight man at the table. In second place, another overweight family member, and the trend seemed to actually hold very well. What I read seemed to be true, fat people tend to eat faster.

Now the question I had was, how does this fast eating contribute to weight gain? I’ve always been a fast eater myself, and at this meal I decided to experiment with slow pace eating. I found that when I thoroughly chewed every piece of food, I ate much slower, I drank a lot of water in between bights, and i became full alot faster. I didn’t eat as much! I was full.

Having chewed myself to this epiphany, I searched the internet to see if science supported what I learned. I actually found that scientists discovered that it takes about ten minutes for your brain to send signals telling you that your stomach is full. Within the first ten minutes of a meal, you can potentially cram yourself with tons of excess calories as long as you eat fast enough.

I believe that many who are overweight have just subconsciously come to the habit of eating too fast. When you eat too fast, you eat past fullness, consuming excess calories which are bound too end up on your stomach.

Other potential benefits of chewing food thoroughly:

• I can tell you from first hand experience, it really aids digestion. If you have trouble digesting your food, it may be a sign that you have just been eating too fast.
• I do not know how true this is, but I have read that thorough chewing aids the immune system (more chewing leads to an increase the secretion of parotin, which strengthens the immune system).
• Another claim I have read of is that chewing can help introduce more oxygen into the system which can help the nervous system, and lead to better thinking.

It may not be clear how thoroughly chewing your food will help you, it definitely varies from person to person; but what do you have to lose? Increase your chewing, and you will likely chew your way to some weight loss!