8 Things That Can Make You Gain Water Weight
https://ift.tt/2LGGQMx You’ve probably heard that when you lose weight fast, it’s usually water weight. Or maybe you point fingers at water weight after stepping on the scale when you’re feeling totally bloated. But what exactly is water weight–and how do you get rid of it? Water weight is when fluid collects in your tissues, causing them to swell–and it can make you feel pretty miserable. “Water weight is where the body retains fluid that normally would go to the kidneys,” explains Lynn Mack, MD, associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Instead of peeing out that extra fluid, your body stores it between your organs and skin, she says. That can be uncomfortable–but it’s usually temporary, and it doesn’t mean you’ve gained actual weight. Of course, simply knowing that water weight often goes away on its own doesn’t make bloating or swelling feel any better. So here are some tips on how to both prevent water weight and lose it if it’s already there. RELATED: 5 Signs Your Bloating Could Be Something Serious Causes of water weightSalt and carbs. One of the most common causes of water weight is too much salt in your diet. Sodium binds with water and keeps it trapped in the body. “The higher the sodium in the diet, the more fluid retention a person will have,” says Dr. Mack. Carbs can also have an impact on fluid retention, specifically if you start adding them back after a period of restricting them. “The carbohydrates we don’t use right away for energy we store as glycogen,” explains Joanna Sheill DiCicco, a registered dietitian at Henry Ford Center for Health Promotion in Detroit. “Glycogen pulls in water, so the more glycogen we are storing, the more water we are taking in.” “When we are on restrictive diets and at first lose weight quickly, that really is just water weight from the loss of stored glycogen from our muscles,” says DiCicco. RELATED: 20 Little Ways to Drop the Pounds and Keep Them Off Menstruation. Many women retain water weight the week before their period due to fluctuating hormones. Fluid retention may reach its peak the first day of your actual period, before subsiding for that cycle. “With this type of fluid retention, the breasts can get really tender and some women get belly fullness,” says Dr. Mack. You might also notice swelling in your face, legs, arms, and pubic area in the days leading up to your period. RELATED: Here’s How PMS Can Change in Your 20s, 30s, and 40s Pregnancy. Pregnancy can cause you to gain water weight, especially as you get closer to your due date. You may see swelling in your hands, feet, or ankles. Hormones are partly to blame, but your growing baby also puts strain on your blood vessels. “With pregnancy, you have a big belly so the [pressure causes] the fluid to go out into the tissues, and it has trouble getting back into the vessels,” says Jennifer Wu, MD, an ob-gyn at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. If your only symptom is swelling, it’s probably normal (although the weight may not all come off the minute you deliver your baby). If you have sudden swelling that hurts, you may have developed a blood clot (especially if the problem is only in one leg) or a spike in blood pressure. Either way, if you have these symptoms, get to a doctor right away. RELATED: 17 Things No One Tells You About Recovering From Childbirth Hormonal birth control. Just like there’s a connection between pregnancy and menstruation and water retention, hormonal birth control can also sometimes cause water weight. Both the estrogen and progestin in birth control pills can be culprits, says Dr. Mack. Usually the water weight isn’t major and doesn’t last long, Dr. Wu adds, but you may want to talk to your ob-gyn about other birth control options. RELATED: The Most Effective Birth Control, Ranked Cortisol. Cortisol is best known as a “stress hormone,” although it’s actually much more than that. It’s involved in keeping blood sugar levels stable, balancing metabolism, reducing inflammation, and even forming memories. Water retention as a result of elevated cortisol levels isn’t common, but it can happen. “You’d have to have a pathophysiologic release of cortisol for that,” says Dr. Mack. In other words, there would have to be a lot of cortisol. “Just being stressed won’t do that.” (Phew.) Cushing syndrome, for instance, might cause water retention. This is when tumors on the pituitary or adrenal glands release too much cortisol into the blood. People with low levels of thyroid hormone (hypothyroidism) can develop swelling around their eyes, says Dr. Mack. Travel. Sitting for long periods of time on cross-country flights or lengthy road trips can cause water retention. “Your muscles contract literally from sitting for too long,” says Dr. Mack, and your feet and legs may swell in response as the fluid pools there. RELATED: 13 Reasons Your Feet Are Swollen Medications. Certain meds can cause you to retain fluid. These include drugs for high blood pressure like calcium channel blockers, corticosteroids, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Some diabetes drugs, called thiazolidinediones, also do this. Your doctor or pharmacist will be able to tell you if fluid retention is a side effect of any medications you’re taking and if there are alternatives that might not cause water weight. Poor circulation. Our circulatory systems become weaker as we get older, or sometimes as the result of a more serious condition like heart failure (which is also more common as we age), says Elizabeth Kavaler, MD, a urologist with Lenox Hill Hospital. The valves in the veins of our legs, which are supposed to keep blood flowing upward to the heart, collapse a little, so the blood pools in the lower extremities and causes fluid retention. “It’s physics," says Dr. Mack. "You just get more pressure pushing down on those legs.” How to lose water weight (or at least control it)Avoid super-salty foods. It’s not so much the saltshaker on your table you have to worry about, it’s processed foods. These contribute about 75% of our salt intake, according to the FDA, since many use salt as a preservative. “All of your processed, packaged foods are going to have more sodium simply because [the manufacturers] want them to stay on the shelf longer,” says DiCicco. Cook from scratch when you can, using non-processed items like fresh fruits and vegetables. If you do need a packaged item, read the label and compare sodium content across similar products. RELATED: 25 Surprisingly Salty Processed Foods Drink MORE water. You might think that putting more water into your body just adds more water weight. In fact, the opposite is true. If your body feels starved for water, it will hold on to whatever water it has. If you’re retaining water, make sure you're getting plenty of H2O, especially if you’re also eating salty foods. It might also help to limit tea, coffee, and alcohol, all of which can be dehydrating. Cranberry juice, on the other hand, has a slight diuretic effect and may help flush out some excess water. To get our top stories delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Healthy Living newsletter Exercise regularly. Physical activity is key to losing water weight. Not only will you be sweating out some fluid, but you'll also get thirsty and want to drink more water, says DiCicco. Moving around can also help decrease puffiness. If you’re driving long distances, stop the car at regular intervals so you can get out and stretch your legs. Walk around when you can on planes, buses, or trains, and do simple exercises with your feet and legs while seated. Regular exercise is also important if you’re pregnant (although resting with your feet up is smart as well). RELATED: Tracy Anderson’s Favorite Exercises to Do While Traveling Eat hydrating foods. This is almost as good as drinking water. “Foods that have a high water content help with increasing one’s overall hydration,” says DiCicco. Taking in more fluids–even in the form of hydrating foods–will ultimately help your body excrete water, she says. Watermelon, spinach, strawberries, and cantaloupe, among other fruits and veggies, all have a lot of water. Eating potassium-rich foods like tomatoes and sweet potatoes (and most fruits and vegetables) can also help you get rid of excess salt, says DiCicco. Weight Loss via Weight Loss - Health.com https://ift.tt/2zvXHy6 May 29, 2018 at 12:45PM
0 Comments
Gut bacteria drive belly fat, but are genes or diet to blame?
https://ift.tt/2smBVYB
Excess weight on the waistline is tied to the activity of our gut bacteria. But is that activity down to our genetic profile or our dietary choices?
Increasing amounts of evidence now point to the importance of the collections of bacteria found in our guts — often known as the "gut microbiota" — in various aspects of our well-being. One review even calls gut bacteria "the forgotten organ," since they are highly active and their chemical processes influence the body's metabolism in numerous ways. For this reason, researchers from King's College London in the United Kingdom decided to take a closer look at what influences the activity of gut bacteria — especially as it relates to weight gain and weight distribution in the body. In order to do so, the scientists analyzed the fecal metabolome — the collection of molecules, or "metabolites," produced by certain metabolic processes — of twins, in order to understand how chemical processes that take place in the gut affect the distribution of fat, and particularly its accumulation around the waist. Excessive waist fat is deemed a risk factor for the development of metabolic conditions, including obesity and diabetes. Through their research, lead investigator Cristina Menni and her team managed to put together a database listing which gut bacteria were linked with which metabolites. Also, they answered the question, "Are chemical processes in the gut influenced more by our genetic profile, or by our dietary choices?" Their findings have now been published in the journal Nature Genetics. "This study has really accelerated our understanding of the interplay between what we eat, the way it is processed in the gut, and the development of fat in the body, but also immunity and inflammation," says Menni. "By analyzing the fecal metabolome, we have been able to get a snapshot of both the health of the body and the complex processes taking place in the gut," she adds. Gut mechanisms driven by diet, not genesMenni and colleagues initially collected samples from 786 twins, 93.4 percent of which were female — recruited using the TwinsUK registry — and analyzed 1,116 metabolites. The results of the initial analysis were then replicated in an additional set of 230 twins (98.3 percent female). The analyses revealed that only 17.9 percent of gut processes are influenced by genetic factors. By contrast, 67.7 percent of these mechanisms were driven by environmental factors — particularly diet. These findings, the researchers note, are encouraging, because they suggest that we may be able to alter our gut processes and steer them in a more healthful direction, preventing the accumulation of fat in areas such as the waist simply by making changes to our diets. "This exciting work in our twins shows the importance to our health and weight of the thousands of chemicals that gut microbes produce in response to food," says study co-author Prof. Tim Spector, the head of King's College London's Twin Research Group. Study findings are 'great news'Moreover, the researchers have assembled a database describing fecal metabolomes, as well as which gut bacteria interact with which kinds of chemicals. This knowledge, they hope, may aid future research in the goal of better understanding how our gut microbiota influence health. And coming studies, the investigators add, may even isolate chemicals that could alter the chemical processes in our guts for the better. As Prof. Spector notes, "Knowing that [chemical processes in the gut] are largely controlled by what we eat rather than our genes is great news and opens up many ways to use food as medicine."
First study author Jonas Zierer also explains that understanding which factors are likely to alter the activity of our gut microbiota is of great help in the quest when it comes to developing better therapies to prevent conditions such as obesity and diabetes. "This new knowledge," explains Zierer, "means we can alter the gut environment and confront the challenge of obesity from a new angle that is related to modifiable factors such as diet and the microbes in the gut." "This is exciting, because unlike our genes and our innate risk to develop fat around the belly, the gut microbes can be modified with probiotics, with drugs or with high-fiber diets," he says. Weight Loss via Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness News From Medical News Today https://ift.tt/O45xlc May 29, 2018 at 11:47AM
Can chewing gum help you walk faster, burn more calories?
https://ift.tt/2IUdsRf
If you want to increase heart rate and energy expenditure, you may want to try chewing gum while walking, a new study suggests.
According to recent data, in 2017 alone, 174.74 million people in the United States declared that they habitually use bubblegum or chewing gum. But whether, and to what extent, chewing gum may aid or endanger health has been a matter of dispute. Research demonstrates that sugar-free gum, specifically, is actually good for your teeth, because it can prevent decay and plaque formation. One paper also found that munching on gum can help to alleviate stress, which, the study authors hypothesized, may be due to increased blood flow to the brain. But other studies, including one published in the journal Eating Behaviors, concluded that a gum-chewing habit reduced individuals' appetite for healthful snacks, such as fruit, but did nothing to curb their preference for junk foods, such as chips. Now, however, scientists at the Waseda University Graduate School of Sport Sciences in Tokyo, Japan, have turned their attention in a different direction, asking whether chewing gum while walking could in any way influence a person's physiological functions. The study, which was conducted by Yuka Hamada and colleagues from Waseda University, has yielded interesting results for those looking to understand how even one of their smallest daily habits could impact their body and its use of energy. Hamada and team reported their results last week at the European Congress on Obesity, held in Vienna, Austria. Chewing gum increases heart rateIn their study, the researchers worked with 46 participants — both male and female — aged 21–69. The recruitees agreed to take part in two different trials. In the first one, they received two pellets of chewing gum of 1.5 grams and 3 kilocalories each, and they were asked to chew on them while walking for 15 minutes (after 1 hour of rest) at a normal pace. The second trial created a "control" situation, by asking participants to engage in the same actions — walking at a natural pace for 15 minutes after 1 hour of rest — except that this time, they only swallowed a powder containing the same ingredients as the chewing gum pellets. Each time, the researchers measured or calculated the participants' resting heart rate and mean heart rate while walking, as well as what distance they had covered and their walking cadence. They also calculated how much energy each participant had likely spent by taking into account their mean walking speed and body mass. Interestingly, for all the participants, the mean heart rate while walking increased when they chewed gum as they walked. The same was true for the difference between their heart rate at rest versus their heart rate in movement. Older males reap the most benefitsTo understand whether there were any significant differences in physiological effects according to biological sex or age group, Hamada and team conducted a set of analyses that took these factors into account. Thus, they split the participants into groups of male and female, and young (aged 18–39) or middle-aged and older (aged 40–69). They noticed that both men and women had a higher mean heart rate while walking, and a higher change in heart rate from resting to moving state, if they chewed gum at the same time. But in the case of the male participants, the distance covered in their 15-minute walks, and their mean walking speed, increased more significantly in the gum-chewing trial. This was not seen in the case of female participants. Also, those in the 40–69 age range showed a greater change in heart rate during the gum-chewing trial than their younger counterparts. "Chewing gum while walking affects a number of physical and physiological functions in men and women of all ages," the researchers conclude, emphasizing that the most benefits seemed to be felt by the older male participants.
Weight Loss via Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness News From Medical News Today https://ift.tt/O45xlc May 28, 2018 at 03:51AM
You don't have to be 'strictly vegetarian' to reap the benefits
https://ift.tt/2kukn92
Vegetarianism is healthy, but how vegetarian do you need to be?
Experts already know that diets that emphasize plant-based over animal-based foods — such as vegetarian or vegan diets — can decrease the risk of obesity. However, scientists do not yet know how strictly these diets need to be followed to reduce the risk of becoming overweight or obese later in life. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that, in the United States, obesity is highest among middle-aged and older adults. Around 40 percent of 40–59-year-olds and 37 percent of adults aged 60 and over are obese, compared with about 32 percent of those aged 20–39. Analyzing data from the Rotterdam StudyA team from Erasmus University Medical Center, based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, examined long-term health information collected as part of the Rotterdam Study. The data included 9,641 adults with an average age of 62 years who took part in this ongoing population-based study. In particular, the researchers were interested in the participants' diet, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, weight in relation to height (fat mass index), and body fat percentage. The team created a scoring system to categorize the amount of plant-based foods the participants consumed compared with the amount of animal-based food they consumed. In this system, the participants received points for eating nuts, fruits, and vegetables, and were deducted points for eating meat, dairy, and fish. So, the higher an individual's score, the more closely they adhered to a plant-based diet. Their results were recently presented at the European Congress on Obesity, held in Vienna, Austria. Plant-based diets and BMI scoresThe team found that people with the highest scores on the index were more likely to have a lower BMI over the long-term. This association still held true after accounting for factors that could have influenced the results, such as total energy intake, levels of physical activity, and socioeconomic background. Participants with a score of 10 on the index had significantly lower average BMI and fat mass index scores compared with participants that scored zero on the index. Higher scores were also linked with lower waist circumference and lower body fat percentage. The study suggests that these associations are stronger in people aged 45–65 than those over 65. Crucially, the researchers explain that there were various ways that participants could achieve the higher scores without necessarily becoming entirely vegan or vegetarian. For instance, swapping 50 grams of red meat for 200 grams of vegetables each day would give someone a high score. It is important to bear in mind, however, that these findings can only demonstrate a link between a high plant-based diet and reduced likelihood of being overweight or obese. The results do not prove cause and effect.
She continues, "In other words, eating a plant-based diet to protect against obesity does not require a radical change in diet or a total elimination of meat or animal products." "Instead," Chen adds, "it can be achieved in various ways, such as moderate reduction of red meat consumption or eating a few more vegetables. This supports current recommendations to shift to diets rich in plant foods with low consumption of animal foods." Weight Loss via Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness News From Medical News Today https://ift.tt/O45xlc May 27, 2018 at 03:54AM
Weight loss reduces skin cancer risk
https://ift.tt/2sgfBQ7
A new study investigates weight loss and skin cancer risk.
In the United States, skin cancer is the most common form of cancer. In 2014 alone, there were almost 80,000 new cases, and by the end of 2018, it is estimated that there will be more than 90,000. Understanding the risk factors behind every type of cancer is important in our effort to minimize the population's risk at large. And, obesity has already been confirmed as a risk factor fora number of cancers, including endometrial, liver, kidney, colorectal, and pancreatic cancer. The most obvious risk factor for skin cancer is unprotected sun exposure. However, according to earlier studies, obesity may also play a role. Recently, researchers set out to further investigate obesity's role in the risk of melanoma, a quick-growing form of skin cancer. Obesity and melanomaPrevious work has concluded that obesity increases both the risk and the growth rate of melanoma. In the recent study, however, the researchers wanted to understand whether losing weight would reduce the level of risk. The scientists, led by Magdalena Taube, from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, presented their findings at the European Congress on Obesity, held in Vienna, Austria. To examine the link between obesity, weight loss, and melanoma, they took data from the Swedish Obese Subjects study — a project set up to monitor the outcomes of bariatric surgery compared against individuals using conventional obesity treatments. Participants were more than 2,000 individuals who had undergone obesity surgery and a similar number of control participants who were matched for a range of parameters, including age, sex, body measurements, personality traits, and cardiovascular risk factors. Their analysis demonstrated that those who had undergone surgery had a significantly lower risk of developing melanoma in the following 18 years. A 61 percent risk reductionIn fact, compared with the control group, individuals in the surgery group saw a 61 percent drop in their risk of developing malignant melanoma, and a 42 percent reduced risk of all types of skin cancer. The authors conclude, "In this long-term study, bariatric surgery reduced the risk of malignant melanoma."
The link between skin cancer and obesity is somewhat surprising, and more work will be needed to uncover exactly why this is so. The findings mark yet another worrying health risk associated with obesity but also offer a potential route to reducing the dangers. Weight Loss via Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness News From Medical News Today https://ift.tt/O45xlc May 26, 2018 at 03:43AM Why This Woman Is Celebrating Her 18-Pound Weight Gain While Recovering From an Eating Disorder5/25/2018
Why This Woman Is Celebrating Her 18-Pound Weight Gain While Recovering From an Eating Disorder
https://ift.tt/2shsFF8 Not long ago, 22-year-old Lucia López weighed in at 112 pounds. López, who lives in Spain, was suffering from orthorexia, an eating disorder characterized by a fixation with healthy eating. She was also obsessive about her workouts and devoted herself to cardio. RELATED: How to Help a Friend With an Eating Disorder But two years ago, after realizing her lifestyle was unhealthy and self-destructive, she bravely made some changes. She now weighs in at 130—and she has seen both her body and mindset change for the better. On Wednesday, López took to Instagram to share how her daily routine has evolved. “Me before:
“Me after:
López tells Health that her new diet and exercise plan reflects her recovery from her eating disorder. “I went through orthorexia a couple of years ago and basically I believed everything I read online about exercise,” she wrote in her post, referencing headlines that promise abs in less than 10 minutes and other incredible fitness results. “Now I’m completely recovered, and after studying personal training, I want to help people develop a healthy mindset towards eating and exercising,” she shares. RELATED: What's the Deal With Incomplete Protein—and Does It Matter? Lopez adds that she now allows herself to indulge in pizza and ice cream every once in a while, and that she hopes to motivate young girls to be body positive and embrace feeling good and being strong—not underweight and obsessed with food and fitness, as she once was. “They can love their bodies while also enjoying food and exercising in a healthy way!” she says. Weight Loss via Weight Loss - Health.com https://ift.tt/2zvXHy6 May 25, 2018 at 03:29PM
This Woman Gave Up Her Restrictive Diet and Intense Exercise Regimen–and Feels Happier and Stronger Than Ever
https://ift.tt/2s6TAE3 Personal trainer Courtney Black used to pretty much live on veggies and kill herself doing tiring workouts. No surprise, her diet and food regimen made her "unhealthy, unhappy, and angry." Less than three years of deciding to eat more and switching up her exercise routine, the UK resident took to Instagram to share a few transformation photos and explain how her decision to stop restricting her food intake and overdo it at the gym has now made her "happy and healthy." RELATED: 3 Make-Ahead Breakfasts for Easy Morning Meals In the left photo, Black describes her diet at the time: yogurt for breakfast; a protein shake, chicken breast and veggies for lunch and extra veggies if she got hungry later. She gave up sugar, alcohol and cheat meals, and her workouts were incredibly exhaustive. “I would make sure I burned more than I ate,” she said, writing that she wouldn't get off the treadmill until she torched at least a thousand calories. As a result, she was "unhappy, unhealthy, faint, food deprived, angry, [and in] bad relationships,” Black wrote. Now, her revamped meal plan consists of oats with banana and protein; a post-workout shake, chicken, rice and veggies; and fish, sweet potatoes and veggies. She also snacks on almonds, rice cakes, protein bars, and other whole, satisfying foods. While she still does some cardio, she’s incorporated HIIT and weight lifting, among other workouts. RELATED: What to Eat Before and After Every Kind of Workout “Outcome: healthy, happy [and] strong,” she wrote. Most body transformations shared on social media focus on losing weight. Black’s post shows how finding the right balance for your body so you feel great is a positive body transformation too. Weight Loss via Weight Loss - Health.com https://ift.tt/2zvXHy6 May 25, 2018 at 01:28PM
The Simple Strategy That Helped This Instagram Star Shed 83 Pounds
https://ift.tt/2GMrh2i I never worried much about my weight until it almost made me flunk out of college. As a sophomore, I had only a few minutes to get from one class to another on the opposite side of campus. At 223 pounds, I couldn’t book it like my classmates. Instead, I huffed and puffed along. Thanks to a strict professor who locked the door as soon as class started, I missed it almost every week. Ashamed, I knew I had to make serious changes. That was one of the moments that made me recognize it. No more late-night snacking. No more buffet-style family dinners. And definitely no more missed classes. My New Year’s resolution for 2007? Start with tiny tweaks. I checked out books on healthy eating. I started cooking, having whole-wheat pasta for dinner and Raisin Bran for breakfast. They were hardly superfoods, but I’d been eating so poorly that even these meals helped the weight fall off fast. Doing three group fitness classes each week was also key. By March, I had dropped 30 pounds. But I had also hit a plateau. I tweaked my wellness routine again, switching from spaghetti dinners to salads as well as upping my sweat schedule to four weekly sessions of cardio followed by upper- or lower-body strength-training moves. Just like that, I was back on track—and shedding 10 pounds a month. By the end of the summer, I had hit 130 pounds. I spent the next three years doing strict workouts and trying fad diets, and I began to realize I’d become too restrictive. In 2010, I vowed to embrace balance. So in 2017, I quit my corporate job and moved to Bali part-time to work as a virtual health coach. My new environment inspired me to overhaul my diet yet again. Instead of counting calories, I now live on whole foods like grains, fish, and veggies. As for exercise, I’m all about body- weight circuits that I can do anywhere. I’m now 140 pounds, but I know what it means to be healthy in body and mind. Tameika’s tone-up tricksBe a Copycat: Before I knew anything about weight training, I’d go to the gym and literally copy the fit people around me, doing whatever exercises they did. Everyone’s gotta start somewhere! Set Realistic Goals: If you know you can’t make it to the gym six days a week, try for three! It’s better to set targets that actually make sense for you instead of burning out. Dish It Up: I learned the hard way that eating boiled chicken and steamed broccoli every day isn’t sustainable. Now I put effort into cooking healthy meals like bean and veggie grain bowls or stir-fries. Find Your Why: I ask clients to write a “why” statement at the start of their journey. People feel even more motivated to get healthy when their purpose is substantial, like wanting to be around for their kids. Weight Loss via Weight Loss - Health.com https://ift.tt/2zvXHy6 May 24, 2018 at 09:22AM This Woman Celebrated Her 135-Pound Weight Loss by Posing in the Same Dress Two Years Later5/23/2018
This Woman Celebrated Her 135-Pound Weight Loss by Posing in the Same Dress Two Years Later
https://ift.tt/2KP6MVa "Same dress, 135 pound difference." That's how 24-year-old Laura Morgan began the caption of a dramatic before-and-after selfie she posted this week. The side-by-side photos reveal just how much her body has changed since she launched her weight loss journey two years ago. “When you look at these pictures, you see a win because overall, you get through the hard times, you get through the struggles and you become stronger and it pushes you towards success,” she continued. “I’m grateful for every single up and down of this journey…” How did she get healthy and fit? It all started with 4 simple food-related moves, Morgan tells Health. “I slowly cut down fast food and learned to cook, and I focused on portion sizes and eating nutritious food,” she says. “Once I felt I had a handle on my eating, I worked on incorporating working out. Working out at 378 [pounds] was simply walking … Running into things full force like I had in the past only set me up to be overwhelmed and quit, so I knew this time I’d do it differently.” Soon after, Morgan started hitting up a gym. She would go once per week, gradually increasing the time she spent there. Now she works out five to six days per week and focuses on weightlifting and strength training. RELATED: The 4 Things This Woman Cut Out of Her Diet to Lose 30 Pounds in 100 Days Morgan decided to document her story after finding it hard to relate to the weight loss journeys of other influencers. “I was desperately looking for someone who I could connect with,” she says. “Someone who started at a weight as high as mine, who lost the weight with just diet and exercise, and who shared their journey from early on, rather than just once they were nearly to their goal.” Since detailing her experience via Instagram, Morgan says she’s found a “fantastic” online community that motivates her. “If I can leave a positive impact on this community and give hope to someone who may be feeling a bit lost and hopeless like I was, then it’s all been worth it,” she says. Weight Loss via Weight Loss - Health.com https://ift.tt/2zvXHy6 May 23, 2018 at 03:19PM
Belly fat linked to vitamin D deficiency
https://ift.tt/2wZdXIf
Where fat is stored on the body may impact vitamin D levels.
Currently, in medical circles, vitamin D is the talk of the town. Produced in our skin on contact with sunlight, it plays a myriad of roles in the human body. In the past few months, Medical News Today have covered a wealth of research into the group of fat-soluble secosteroids more commonly known as vitamin D. For instance, recent studies have found that vitamin D might protect against heart failure, diabetes, and cancer, and that vitamin D deficiency causes hair loss. Vitamin D deficiency has traditionally been linked to bone health, but it may also have a role to play in respiratory tract infections and autoimmune disease, among others. With more than 40 percent of the population of the United States being vitamin D deficient, this is a serious issue. Some authors have referred to it as "an ignored epidemic," estimating that over 1 billion people worldwide have inadequate levels. Understanding vitamin D deficiencyAs vitamin D's importance becomes ever clearer, researchers are dedicating more and more time to understanding who might be most at risk of deficiency and working out ways to prevent it. Because the vitamin appears to play a part in so many conditions, addressing the deficiency issue could have a considerable impact on the population at large. One group of researchers investigating this topic hails from the VU University Medical Center and Leiden University Medical Center, both in the Netherlands. Led by Rachida Rafiq, they recently presented their findings at the European Society of Endocrinology annual meeting, held in Barcelona, Spain. A link between obesity and lower vitamin D levels has previously been spotted. Rafiq and team dug a little deeper; they set out to understand whether the type and location of fat played a role. To do this, they took data from the Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity study, including thousands of men and women aged 45–65. The team focused on total fat, abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (belly fat under the skin), visceral adipose tissue (around the organs), and hepatic fat (in the liver). During their analysis, they adjusted the data for a range of potentially confounding variables, such as alcohol intake, smoking, ethnicity, education level, chronic disease, and physical activity levels. Vitamin D and belly fat exposedThey discovered that in women, both total and abdominal fat were associated with lower vitamin D levels, but that abdominal fat had the greatest impact. In men, however, lower vitamin D levels were significantly linked with fat in the liver and abdomen. Across both sexes, more belly fat predicted lower levels of vitamin D. Rafiq explains, "[T]he strong relationship between increasing amounts of abdominal fat and lower levels of vitamin D suggests that individuals with larger waistlines are at a greater risk of developing deficiency, and should consider having their vitamin D levels checked." Her next step is to understand why this relationship exists. Does a deficiency in vitamin D cause fat to be stored in the abdominal region, or does belly fat decrease levels of vitamin D? It will take more work to tease apart cause and effect. As Rafiq explains, "Due to the observational nature of this study, we cannot draw a conclusion on the direction or cause of the association between obesity and vitamin D levels."
The links between obesity and vitamin D deficiency are growing increasingly robust. The next challenge is working out a way to effectively tackle this issue. Weight Loss via Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness News From Medical News Today https://ift.tt/O45xlc May 21, 2018 at 03:53AM |
The Flat Belly FixThis is the only 21-day rapid weight loss system that allows you to easily lose an average of 1 lb a day for 21 days without feeling hungry or deprived. The unique and brand new techniques used in this System are proven SAFE. And they do not cause the rebound weight gain common to all the other rapid weight loss systems that are not backed by the latest science. The Flat Belly Fix System takes advantage of a recent scientific discovery that proves the effective weight loss power of an ancient spice. Combined with other cutting-edge ingredients in the patent-pending Flat Belly Fix Tea™ — that you can make right in your own kitchen in minutes — this System is the quickest, easiest and most enjoyable way to quickly get the body you desire and deserve. Click HereArchives
January 2020
Categories |