Help With Weight Loss | Can Urine Of Pregnant Women Help With Weight Loss?

If you or someone you love are considering the “hCG” diet, please read this article. It might save your life.

Let me start with a little background: hCG stands for human chorionic gondatropin. It’s a hormone produced by the human placenta and it’s extracted from the urine of pregnant women. According to the Food and Drug Administration, it’s approved for the treatment of “select cases of female infertility and hormone treatment in men.”

Its beginnings as a weight-loss treatment started in the 1950s because of British endocrinologist Albert Simeons. Dr. Simeons observed that when he gave obese patients injections of hCG and kept them on a near-starvation diet, there was a reduction in adipose fat.

Simeons went on a publish a booklet called “Pounds Inches: A New Approach to Obesity” that’s become the bible of the hCG diet movement. Since then, dozens of researchers have attempted to test the doctor’s theories in the hope that he may have discovered a revolutionary new weight-loss program.

In the 1970s, several studies compared two groups of people. Both were on an extremely low-calorie diet. One group got hCG injections and the other did not. What they found out was bad news.

In 1976, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study that concluded, “hCG does not appear to enhance the effectiveness of a rigidly imposed regimen for weight reduction.”

The February 1977 Archives of Internal Medicine published a study that said: “hCG offers no advantage over calorie restriction in promoting weight loss.”

Additional research was published in December 1977 in the Western Journal of Medicine. In a double-blind, randomized trial it was found that “placebo injections appear to be as effective as hCG in the treatment of obesity.”

As the weight of scientific evidence came down, the hCG diet slowly fell out of popularity, but it never completely went away. Yet study after study kept showing the same results. It’s simple, really. When you put someone on a near-starvation diet of 500 calories a day, they will lose weight. Injecting them with hCG provides no additional weight-loss benefit.

This is where the con starts. Supplement companies, weight-loss clinics and less-than-ethical doctors figure they can promote the original claims of miraculous weight loss and ignore the clinical trials that show it doesn’t work. To make money, they put together products that simply use the initials “hCG” and market themselves as enhanced,

Remember, supplements are not tested by any government agency, so manufacturers can pretty much stick whatever they want in the pills, injections or drops that they’re peddling.

Here’s where it gets really scary; hCG can cause blood clots, breast tenderness, constipation, headaches and leg cramps. The FDA has also documented “serious adverse events associated with the use of hCG injections for weight loss including cases of pulmonary embolism, depression, cerebrovascular issues, cardiac arrest and death.”

Those are just the side effects from the real thing. Imagine what happens when you inject yourself with a syringe full of strange chemicals mixed together by unscrupulous scam artists. And don’t delude yourself. Any doctor that offers to give you hCG injections for weight loss is an unscrupulous scam artist, because they’re giving you something proven not to help.

Several firms that sell homeopathic hCG products have been put on notice that they’re violating the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act by selling unapproved new drugs and misbranded drugs that make unsubstantiated claims about weight loss.

The Food and Drug Administration advises consumers using “homeopathic” hCG for weight loss to stop using the product, stop following any labeled dieting instructions and discard the product. Consumers who suspect they have experienced “adverse effects as a result of the use of hCG drug products for weight loss should contact a licensed health care professional immediately.”

Say no to the fakes, liars and frauds selling and promoting any hCG Diets!

Caution: Before beginning any diet program, check with your health-care provider first. For a free consultation with a trainer, call 305- 296-3434. Read our articles online at www.WeBeFit.com.

Good Weight Loss | Missoula Man Hoping For Handicap Accessible Vehicle

MISSOULA- Jack Finlay started limping three years ago and it was his very first sign he had ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. He may have lost some of his mobility but his sense of humor is here to stay.

“I burn through about 6,000 calories a day with the disease, so it’s really good weight loss program.”

His likeable personality is evident as he has almost 12,000 votes with hopes of winning a handicap accessible van.

The National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association is giving away three custom wheelchair accessible vehicles and once the contestants get over 10,000 votes, a board will decide who the winners will be.

Jack’s mother, Jane Finlay says a handicap accessible van can cost up to $40,000, but her son loves to travel and be out and about.

“He wants to be 22 and be a kid and it limits his ability to go places. And if there’s anybody that wants to go places and travel, it’s Jack.”

Jane added that even if they don’t win the van, they are overwhelmed by all the love and support people have shown by voting for them.

She says finds the strength to deal with son’s disease by his own strength and she’s even overcome some of her own fears, like flying.

“We’ve made six or seven trips back to Baltimore and I’m good with riding on the plane all the time. I get my strength from Jack.”

Voting ends May 13th.

To Lose Weight | 3 Very Effective Tips To Use While Exercising To Lose Weight

These techniques aren’t huge program overhauls, but rather, a minor change here and there. Although only minor in change, these adjustments will ramp up your body’s total calorie burn so that you will lose weight while exercising in a much quicker way.

What follows are the key concepts that you will now be able to incorporate into your exercise programs which will allow you to increase your results.

Exercise Supersets

The first concept that you will need to know about and use in your lose weight while exercising program is the concept of supersets. A superset is a tactic that takes two exercises and pairs them back to back with each other. Do the first exercise and then immediately do the second one with no rest in between.

Supersets do 2 things; they increase the total calories burned by the end of the workout and they also help in the depletion of the glycogen in your muscles.

Depleted muscle glycogen, to a lesser extent, also increases the rates of fat oxidation taking place in the body, increasing your fat loss progress.

Take Shorter Rest Breaks

Next on the list of key items that you need to add into your workouts when exercising to lose weight are shorter rest periods between sets. Shorter breaks keeps your heart beating quickly which then helps your body burn more calories.

When you maintain a fast heart rate, you will not only see big improvements in your cardio, but you will also notice greater metabolic benefits from each workout as well.

Target your rest periods to 30 seconds or less between sets.

Compound Movements Are King

The last technique that you should be introducing into your lose weight while exercising routines is one of compound movements for each exercise. These are the types of exercises that will target more total muscle fibers at once, which is critical to seeing your calorie burn skyrocket.

The opposite of a compound movement is the isolation technique. This is by far the most popular by many, but what most don’t realize is that these exercises are just not causing enough muscle fiber stimulation. Muscle fibers that aren’t fully stimulated lower the calories burned during that period and also decrease the overall strength gains from each workout.

While there are some good isolation type exercises that you may want to have in your workouts, add these in at the end of the session. To get the most benefit, your workout should consist mainly of compound exercises.
That’s what will bring you optimal success.

So follow the key points presented above if you want to lose weight while exercising and get the best results possible. Incorporate the ideas presented here into your training sessions and feel good knowing that you have just given your body another huge boost!

Healthy Dieting in Pregnancy May Be Helpful

Weight loss during pregnancy helps mom and baby

Pregnant women who are overweight and obese can safely reduce their weight by eating a healthy diet to reduce the risks of complications for themselves and the baby.

Nearly 58 per cent of women in Ontario exceeded guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy in a study published last month. Excessive weight gain during pregnancy is associated with health problems such as heart and metabolic complications.

In Thursday’s online issue of The Lancet, researchers analyzed the results of randomized trials of diet and physical activity plans for weight management in more than 7,000 women.

“Dietary intervention is effective, safe and potentially cost effective and dominates physical activity based intervention,” Dr. Shakila Thangaratinam, from Queen Mary, University of London, and her co-authors concluded.

Diets reduced gestational weight gain the most, by four kilograms on average, compared with 0.7 kilograms with physical activity and 1.0 kilogram for a mixed approach, they said.

“One of the main concerns of the mothers is the effect of dietary and lifestyle interventions on the weight of the fetus. There is no evidence that the interventions evaluated in our review or recommended in current clinical practice are associated with adverse maternal or fetal outcomes.”

The diet plans that reduced weight gain in pregnancy were nutritionally balanced including:

Unprocessed whole grains, fruits, beans and vegetables.

A maximum of 30 per cent fat, 15 to 20 per cent protein and 50 to 55 per cent carbohydrate.

The energy intake should be individualized to the needs of the mother, the authors advised.

The authors speculated that the mixed diet and physical activity approaches might not have worked as well because compliance suffered or because diet is perceived as safer in pregnancy.

Obesity in pregnant women increases the risk of delivery by C-section or with instruments , hemorrhage, infection , longer hospital stay and need for neonatal intensive care, a journal editorial accompanying the paper said.

Lucilla Poston and Lucy Chappell of St Thomas’ Hospital in London called the review “timely and welcome,” but said there is not yet sufficient evidence to support diet or other interventions in pregnancy.

Randomized clinical trials, the gold standard in medical research, are underway in the U.K. and Australia to assess elements of intervention in overweight and pregnant women.

“This should also enable data on safety to be obtained from the trials themselves rather than relying on other, less appropriate, assessments of adverse outcomes obtained from observational studies in very different populations (such as women who are pregnant during war or famine),” they concluded.

The study was funded by the U.K. National Institute for Health.

Poston and Chappell said the study does not provide the evidence needed to reassess the guidelines for weight management in pregnancy.

They said several ongoing trials will enable a greater understanding of effective interventions in overweight and obese women.

Losing Weight | Losing Weight May Help Lower Cancer Risk

Weight Loss Linked to Reduced Inflammation in Postmenopausal Women

By Matt McMillen
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

May 1, 2012 — For postmenopausal women who are overweight or obese, new research offers more incentive to start shedding pounds.

According to a study published in the journal Cancer Research , losing even a small proportion of your overall body weight significantly reduces inflammation in your body and potentially lowers your risk of developing several different types of cancer, including breast cancer .

“I think the main issue is body fat,” researcher Anne McTiernan, MD, PhD, director of the Prevention Center at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, writes in an email to WebMD. “The more fat one has, the more inflammation-producing cells there are, and therefore the more inflammation … produced and sent into the bloodstream.”

For the year-long study, McTiernan and her colleagues recruited 439 women throughout the greater Seattle area who were between the ages of 50 and 75. All of them had a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or higher, which meant that they were all considered overweight or obese. They were otherwise considered healthy, with no history of breast cancer, heart disease , diabetes , or other serious illness. None of them were smokers or heavy drinkers.

The women were split into four groups. The first group dieted, eating between 1,200 and 2,000 calories a day, of which less than 30% were fat calories. The second group exercised 225 minutes per week, both at home and under supervision at a gym. The third group both dieted and exercised. The fourth, the comparison group, did not change either their diet or exercise habits.

After a year, the first and third groups had lost an average of 8.5% and 10.8% of their body weight, respectively. Their reductions in inflammation were even more dramatic.

For example, C-reactive protein levels — elevated levels of which have been associated with lung and colon cancer — dropped by an average of 36.1% for the diet group and 41.7% for the diet and exercise group. Other inflammatory indicators dropped as well.

The key to this study’s result, says McTiernan, was diet, especially when combined with exercise. “Very few people can lose significant amounts of weight from exercise alone. We’ve done several year-long studies testing exercise alone, even large amounts up to an hour a day, and on average it produces about 3 to 4 pounds of weight loss over the year,” she says. “That being said, our strongest effects were primarily in the combined diet and exercise program.”

For Mitchell Roslin, MD, who was not involved in the research, the study is more evidence that obesity is an inflammatory disease.

“This will become a hot topic,” says Roslin, chief of bariatric surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. “Obesity and cancer is a very interesting angle, which we are just beginning to understand. We don’t know what is driving the inflammatory state of obesity, but we know it decreases when you lose weight.”

Cancer prevention researcher Kerri Winters-Stone, PhD, says the study is very impressive, especially compared to smaller studies that came before.

“It gives us a better idea of what we can expect at a population level,” says Winters-Stone, of the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. “And it gives more evidence of what results from behavioral changes. Diet-induced weight loss is really central to reducing inflammation markers. And these were not extreme weight loss plans. The weight loss came from realistic plans that people can achieve over a year.”

McTiernan advises women who are overweight to start exercising, to pay close attention to what and how much they eat, and to keep track of progress to help reach a weight loss goal of 1 to 2 pounds per week. She hopes that women will get help to do this from their doctors.

SOURCES: McTiernan, A. Cancer Research, May 2012. News release, American Association for Cancer Research. Anne McTiernan, MD, PhD, director, Prevention Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Wash. Mitchell Roslin, MD, chief, bariatric surgery, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York. Kerri Winters-Stone, research program leader, Cancer Prevention and Control Program, Oregon Health and Science University, Knight Cancer Institute, Portland, Ore.

2012 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

To Lose Weight | Trying To Lose Weight? You’re Not Alone!

Polaris Marketing Research Inc. announced today findings from their most recent survey of 1,228 online Americans, supported by Research Now for data collection and analysis . Confirming media coverage and our widespread suspicions, in the past three years, 70 percent of online Americans have tried to lose weight. Not surprisingly, women are significantly more likely to say they have tried to lose weight than men (76 percent for women and 63 percent for men).

Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) May 16, 2012

“And perhaps even less surprising, these efforts have not been widely successful. Only 6% of online Americans report having successfully lost their extra weight and kept it off. On the other end of the spectrum, 14 percent of respondents report they have not been successful at all in losing weight,” said Polaris Marketing Research President Jan Carlson .

Eating less (83 percent) and exercising more (8 percent) are the most commonly used approaches to weight loss . Eating special combinations of foods (24 percent) and pre-packaged meals (17 percent) are also popular. Only 3 percent of online Americans have seriously considered or have actually had weight reduction surgery.

Unfortunately, our lifestyles put many obstacles in our path to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. “While lack of exercise (56 percent) and not wanting to give up our favorite foods (46 percent) top the list, stress (34 percent), eating bigger portions (31 percent), eating out (29 percent), eating too fast and eating on the run (both 20 percent) all play a role in our challenge to lose weight,” reported Carlson.

About Polaris Marketing Research

Founded by Jan Carlson , Polaris Marketing Research is a full-service firm that provides state-of-the-art online interactive marketing research reporting, interviewing and data collection , quantitative and qualitative research expertise and personalized project management.

Atlanta-based Polaris Marketing Research is affiliated with the Council of American Survey Research Organizations, the American Marketing Association and the American Society for Quality.

About Research Now

Research Now is the leading global online sampling and online data collection company. With over 6 million panelists in 38 countries worldwide, Research Now enables companies to listen to and interact with real consumers and business decision makers in order to make key business decisions. Research Now offers a full suite of data collection services, including social media sampling, and operates the Valued Opinions™ Panel and e-Rewards Opinion Panels. The company has a multilingual staff located in 24 offices around the globe and has been recognized for four consecutive years as the industry leader in client satisfaction. Visit to learn more.

Danica Kwon
Polaris Marketing Research
678 323 3276
Email Information

Best Way To Lose Weight | 3 Very Effective Tips To Use While Exercising To Lose Weight

These techniques aren’t huge program overhauls, but rather, a minor change here and there. Although only minor in change, these adjustments will ramp up your body’s total calorie burn so that you will lose weight while exercising in a much quicker way.

What follows are the key concepts that you will now be able to incorporate into your exercise programs which will allow you to increase your results.

Exercise Supersets

The first concept that you will need to know about and use in your lose weight while exercising program is the concept of supersets. A superset is a tactic that takes two exercises and pairs them back to back with each other. Do the first exercise and then immediately do the second one with no rest in between.

Supersets do 2 things; they increase the total calories burned by the end of the workout and they also help in the depletion of the glycogen in your muscles.

Depleted muscle glycogen, to a lesser extent, also increases the rates of fat oxidation taking place in the body, increasing your fat loss progress.

Take Shorter Rest Breaks

Next on the list of key items that you need to add into your workouts when exercising to lose weight are shorter rest periods between sets. Shorter breaks keeps your heart beating quickly which then helps your body burn more calories.

When you maintain a fast heart rate, you will not only see big improvements in your cardio, but you will also notice greater metabolic benefits from each workout as well.

Target your rest periods to 30 seconds or less between sets.

Compound Movements Are King

The last technique that you should be introducing into your lose weight while exercising routines is one of compound movements for each exercise. These are the types of exercises that will target more total muscle fibers at once, which is critical to seeing your calorie burn skyrocket.

The opposite of a compound movement is the isolation technique. This is by far the most popular by many, but what most don’t realize is that these exercises are just not causing enough muscle fiber stimulation. Muscle fibers that aren’t fully stimulated lower the calories burned during that period and also decrease the overall strength gains from each workout.

While there are some good isolation type exercises that you may want to have in your workouts, add these in at the end of the session. To get the most benefit, your workout should consist mainly of compound exercises.
That’s what will bring you optimal success.

So follow the key points presented above if you want to lose weight while exercising and get the best results possible. Incorporate the ideas presented here into your training sessions and feel good knowing that you have just given your body another huge boost!

Diet To Lose Weight | The Single Most Effective Way To Lose Weight

There are a million ways you could change your diet to promote weight loss. The options include eating less carbohydrate or less fat, eating more protein, eating more frequently, eating smaller portions, eating more fiber, going vegetarian, and switching from processed to whole grains, to name a few. But of the million ways you could change your diet to lose weight, which is the most effective? In other words, if you could make only one change, what should that change be?

Before I answer this question, let me first define “effective”. Obviously, a dietary change must first of all produce weight loss when practiced correctly and consistently to be considered effective for weight loss. But in my view that’s not enough. I believe a dietary change must also be relatively easy to practice correctly and consistently to be considered truly effective for weight loss. In other words, a change must work in practice for real people rather than just in theory.

There are many dietary changes that work for weight loss only in theory. The most extreme example is the very low-calorie diet (VLCD). If you reduce your daily caloric intake to the bare minimum required to maintain basic health (which is about 800 calories per day for the average person), you will lose a lot of weight. However, you will also be wracked with hunger all day long. Very few people are psychologically capable of sustaining a VLCD. Thus, it’s effective in theory but not in practice.

Some dietary changes for weight loss are ineffective in practice because, like the VLCD, they require inordinate willpower. Others are ineffective because they are too complex, too weird, or too countercultural for most people to practice correctly and consistently. Glycemic index-based diets are an example of the too-complex kind, grain-free diets an example of the countercultural kind. Sure, there are some people who get good results from such diets, but they don’t work for the majority.

By my definition, the single most effective dietary change for weight loss is the elimination of junk food from the diet. This is true for two reasons. First, junk food really is the reason most of us could stand to lose a few pounds. It’s a prosaic fact that’s almost disappointing to accept, but it’s a fact nonetheless. Science and commerce have created a public mindset whereby we want the cause of our fatness to be revealed as a “breakthrough discovery” and we want the solution to our weight issues to be novel and preferably available in pill form. But this mindset serves to do nothing besides distract us from the boring reality that the difference between our actual and ideal weights is accounted for entirely by fried foods, fast food, snack chips, soft drinks, candy, and other sweets.

The second reason that eliminating junk food from the diet is the single most effective weight-loss measure is that it is simple almost to the point of absurdity. If a person knows only one thing about nutrition, she probably knows what constitutes junk food. The average five-year-old comprehends the difference between food and junk food, and this transparency matters. Studies have found that the more complex dieters perceive their nutrition programs to be, the sooner they abandon them.

But wait a minute: The reason we eat junk food in the first place is that it’s delicious and tempting. Is a junk food-free diet truly more realistic than any other diet? Let me be clear: I don’t believe that any dietary change that has the capacity to yield significant weight loss is easy to sustain. But eliminating junk food is easier than the rest because it is confined to a single change. There is plenty else to eat besides junk food. Eradicating junk food leaves behind all of the true staple foods of our cultural diet.

I know some people argue that labeling certain foods as forbidden only makes them more tempting, but I think this effect is overblown. The notion of forbidden food is as old as humanity, and speaks to something deeply instinctive within us. The ape inside us understands avoiding bad foods better than it does combining foods to manage the glycemic index of meals. Forbidding foods is the simplest way to promote weight loss next to eating less, and it’s infinitely easier than eating less. The key to making food forbiddance work is getting the biggest effect from the fewest taboos, and in that regard you can’t do better than to scapegoat junk food.

Now, if your current diet consists entirely of junk food, then turning your back on it is no small change. But while I’ve been freely using the words “eliminate” and “elimination” up to this point, I don’t think it’s actually necessary to eliminate junk food from the diet in most cases. By merely reducing the amount of junk food in our diets, most of us can lose all the weight we wish to lose while improving the sustainability of the change by allowing some satisfaction of our naughtiest cravings.

For example, if you currently drink three sodas a day, switch to one a day. If you currently eat fast food once a day, switch to once a week. I have a sweet tooth and used to eat some type of dessert after dinner every evening. As part of an effort to get leaner I replaced my habitual desserts with a single square of dark chocolate. This one change trimmed more than 100 calories from my typical day’s energy intake but has not been difficult to sustain because I still get something sweet.

Make a list of the junk foods that are currently in your diet. I don’t need to say another word of definition. You know a junk food when you see it. Consider how often you eat each of these foods, and then”if you don’t think you can live with eliminating it”establish a new, reduced quota for each. It’s so easy, a caveman could do it, and there’s nothing else you could possibly do with your diet that will give you a bigger push toward your ideal weight. I can’t guarantee that this one change will take you all the way there, but it is the best way to start.

FILED UNDER: Nutrition TAGS: Prime

Healthy Weight Diet | Tips To Add Protein To Your Diet

Many people don’t know which foods to consume, so they struggle getting the proper amount of protein each day. While meat is very high in protein, it is also high in calories and red meat, in particular can be high in fat, which can defeat the purpose. Since you are going to be limiting the amount of meat you eat, you have to find other sources. We’ll help you find them.

Combine Some Cottage Cheese into Your Yogurt

Yogurt has plenty of health benefits and aids in the digestion process. Though it does contain some protein, it doesn’t compare with cottage cheese. Since most people dislike the taste, try mixing it with your favorite yogurt and you’ll barely notice it’s there.

Greek yogurt is always a good choice, and you can top it with some blueberries for a high protein and nutritious breakfast.

Have Some Milk with Your Oatmeal

Milk has close to ten grams of protein per 8 ounces, so if you use 4 ounces in the preparation and add another 4 ounces after it is cooked, you’ve suddenly created a protein packed breakfast. Milk is also a great source of calcium, which you need daily so you can’t really go wrong here. You help promote your weight loss and build strong bones at the same time, how can you go wrong there?

Add Some Salmon to Your Salad

Salmon is very high in protein and contains Omega 3 fatty acids, which help lower tour “bad” cholesterol. Adding some canned salmon to your salad adds some texture and flavor to it, while giving your body a significant protein boost. This is great for lunch or dinner.

Substitute Protein Powder for Flour when Making Baked Goods

While the sugar content doesn’t help, replacing half the flour in muffins and/or cookies works great. You can use this technique to make your own protein bars, saving money on the ridiculously overpriced things they sell at the stores. Substitute Splenda for the sugar, and you have a healthy high protein snack you can munch on any time of the day.

I am sure you are now seeing that adding and keeping protein in your diet is much easier than you thought. Following these techniques will keep your metabolism up and you will consistently burn the fat away until you reach your goal. If you want to turbo-charge your fat burning, add fat burning supplement to your daily routine and watch your results increase substantially.

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