With the cold weather setting in and snow falling over the UK your mind can wander into dreams of summer and great holidays in the sun. For many, a holiday is the perfect time to relax and unwind whilst for others the thought of stepping out on the beach in skimpy swimwear fills them with dread. Well if you are one of those not happy with your body shape now is the perfect time to start a healthy eating and exercise programme to allow you to lose weight and look great in your swimwear this summer.

What better weight-loss buddy than your smartphone? It never leaves your side and it can play your favourite music to keep you motivated throughout your workout. Many apps are available to help keep you on track during your diet and exercise plan and below we have listed some of the best apps available today.

Noom Weight Loss – Android

This head-to-toe programme has three main functions designed to give you the whole package for your weight loss goals. Firstly you set a goal weight and it tracks your progress so you can see how you are doing. The app also tracks your food intake and logs all your exercise from day-to-day stuff to workouts at the gym. It also provides motivation with messages, a daily score and user forums for extra support.

MyFitnessPal – Android, Apple, BlackBerry Windows

This app has a very easy-to use food diary with over 1.4million food items in the database allowing you to track what you eat. You can add your own recipes and foods to your personal food database and each day you input your meals and exercise and the app monitors your progress whilst you can interact with other users on the forums for tips and motivation.

intelli-Diet – iPhone

itelli-Diet is a unique weightless app as it takes what foods you have in your cupboards at home and creates a diet for you. In four simple steps you input your food preferences and goals and the app creates an eating plan designed to suit you and it creates a weekly shopping list for you too. You can track your progress with charts and even share your success on Facebook and Twitter.

MyNetDiary – Android, iPhone BlackBerry

Getting to your goal weight will undoubtedly involve changes to your diet and this app is a powerful nutrition aid that helps you gain control of your food intake. This app tracks your nutrition and calorie intake as well as your exercise and charts and graphs help show you how you are doing. The 420,000 food database is easy to use allowing you to type in the first few letters or scan the packaged food to see its calorie and nutritional values.

JEFIT – Android

This app is for the true gym lover that wants to get the most out of each and every workout. This professional weight training app has been designed by serious bodybuilders With hundreds of exercises to choose from to target specific areas to get the best tone and definition possible. The app creates powerful super-set workouts and keeps track of your progress with photos so you can see the muscle tone and definition taking place.

These are just some of our favourite apps to help you lose pounds and shape up, so whatever your shape or size there is an app out there to help you achieve your goals. Do you have a favourite weight loss app? Is there a Fitness tracker that you won’t train without? Let us know your best apps for getting into shape and losing weight.

Article source: http://blog.mobilesplease.co.uk/best-weight-loss-apps/

Between the New Year and Super Bowl weekend, many people at this time of year resolve to better manage their weight and have a more healthy 2012.

In a new study, investigators determined that the location of the program, and the level of experience attempting a weight loss program, may influence an individual’s success.

In the study, published in The Journal of Black Psychology, researchers determined African-American women beginning a new group weight loss program are more successful if they are less experienced with weight management and if the program meets in a church.

Researchers Tracy Sbrocco, Robyn Osborn, Robert D. Clark, Chiao-Wen Hsiao, and Michele M. Carter studied 55 African American women, ages 18 to 55, involved in a 13-week weight-management program designed to promote long-term diet and exercise practices that produce moderate but lasting weight loss.

Of these 55 women, 19 met together in a church and 36 met at a medical school in the area. All participants were weighed and had physical fitness tests at pre- and post-treatment.

After 13 weeks, the researchers found that the women meeting in the church setting lost a greater percentage of weight than those who met at the university. And those women who set out to change their eating and exercise practices for the first time lost a greater percentage of weight than women who had experience managing their weight.

While the success of the church-based program is understandable, the discovery that women who had attempted to lose weight were less likely to be successful is puzzling.

The authors provided possible explanations for their findings by stating that women with weight-loss experience may find it more difficult to lose weight when starting a new program because they are less likely to seek and accept social support for their efforts and are unable to shake bad habits learned in past weight-loss programs.

Researchers believe church-based programs provide a familiar environment that are conducive to lending encouragement and support.

“Church-based groups have a built-in social support system that allows members to see each other, check in, and follow up on behavior changes,” the authors said. “Whereas individuals who attended the university often rushed into groups as they began and left as soon as the groups ended, individuals in the church setting were more likely to linger before and after group times.”

Source: Sage

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Article source: http://psychcentral.com/news/2012/02/06/weight-loss-programs-in-church-may-be-more-effective/34489.html

Name: Linda Goff
Age: 44
Height: 5’8″
Before Weight: 303 pounds (possibly more — I stopped getting on the scale)

How I Gained It: “How in the world did this happen?” I distinctly remember asking myself that question as I sat on the dressing-room floor. I was in one of the few stores in my small town that carried plus-sized jeans. In order to get this pair zipped, I knew that I had to suck in my gut, lay as flat as possible on the floor and tug the zipper with both hands. It was the largest pair of jeans on the shelf. If I couldn’t get them to fasten, I was going to be out of luck.

How did this former cheerleader become morbidly obese? To someone who has never been overweight, the idea that 150 extra pounds can “sneak-up” on a person probably seems ridiculous, but that is how it felt to me. I don’t ever remember waking up one day and realizing that I was the size of two adult women. It was such a gradual process. If something looked good, I ate it (without a single thought about calories or portion size). My weight problem was the result of tiny, minute-by-minute decisions made over the course of 20 years.

For almost two decades, I tried to buy my way out of obesity, spending thousands of dollars on fad diets, weight-loss shakes and pills. I learned from experience that all those drugs could do was turn a 300-pound woman into a 300-pound woman with the jitters. After my insurance company said no to gastric bypass surgery, I gave up the idea of ever losing weight through “old-fashioned” dieting. I thought it was God’s will for me to obese.

Breaking Point: I realized that I couldn’t afford to pay for gastric bypass surgery on my own and secretly hoped that if I were heavier, I’d be approved for the surgery by my insurance company — maybe I would get the green light if I weighed 350 pounds or even 400? My weight-gain plan was nearly flawless: I ignored food labels, avoided exercise and hid from cameras. I even stopped going to the doctor to eliminate that awkward “hop on the scale” moment.

Everything with this scheme fell apart in 2007. It was painful, but I saw how my obesity was damaging my marriage. I was daring my husband to find me attractive at 200 pounds, 250 pounds, okay, how about 300 pounds? He never told me that I was fat, but I was afraid that one day we would simply live together “as friends” because my body seemed so unattractive to me. That thought broke my heart.

I always believed that my body was my problem and my problem alone. I wasn’t hurting anyone else, right? One day in March of 2007 I woke up and understood that my unhealthy choices had a lot of victims — including my husband and my two sons. I prayed for the strength to do the right thing for my family. I had to confess that my eating was out of control and that “paying my way out” wasn’t the answer.

How I Lost It: My first step was to realize that I didn’t need to spend money on another get-thin-quick scheme. I wanted a plan that allowed me to be a good steward of my money and my body. I created a “Skinny Budget Diet” where I read labels for nutrition and calorie information and made smarter food choices. I started shopping for more items along the outside walls of the grocery store (where the fresh stuff is found), used inexpensive sandwich bags and containers to divide my food into the proper portions (to keep from overeating) and walked my dog for exercise (because she was chubby, too).

I also did research before dining out, because restaurant food was always my weakness. By looking up the nutritional information online, I knew which foods could fit within my daily calorie goals. When a server offered to show me a menu, I could say “No, thanks.” I didn’t need to see pictures of onion rings and chocolate lava cakes. I had a plan, and 2,000 calories a day became a lot of food when I made smart choices.

My weight loss was slow. On a good week, I would lose two pounds. It was a journey that required patience; sometimes the scale wouldn’t move for two or three weeks at a time! Instead of quitting (like I’d done so many times before), I was determined. I refused to go back to my old ways of eating even when my weight loss seemed stuck. I know that the support I received from my husband and my church is what kept me from quitting.

After nearly 18 months on my “skinny budget” plan, I had dropped from a size 26 to a 145-pound size six. I’ve stayed at this healthy size for more than two years. I believe that my blog is a big reason that the string finally broke on my yo-yo dieting habit. Every week, I gently nag other people to “get stubborn” about fighting obesity at blog.thywillpower.com. It keeps me honest. I can’t talk the talk in other people’s homes without walking the walk in my own.

After Weight: 145 pounds

Check out more of our inspiring weight loss stories below:

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6 Healthy Carbs To Keep In Your Diet

Winterize Your Pet With the Royal Treatment

Heart Health: 13 Foods With Cardiovascular Benefits

Taco Bell ‘First Meal’ And Other Fast Food Breakfast Offenders

7 Reasons Working Too Much Is Bad For Your Health

For more on weight loss, click here.

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Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/06/weight-loss-success-linda-goff_n_1241476.html

IF you want to lose weight, the last food you should be eating are potatoes. Sounds odd, but an intriguing discovery by a team of Havard researchers is that potatoes, especially the fried variety, is the No.1 food that drives weight gain.

According to the study, small changes in lifestyle behaviours such as physical activity, sleep duration, and TV-watching are strongly correlated with long-term weight gain.

But the most important factor was diet—and among the report’s most intriguing findings is precisely how much weight gain (or loss) can be attributed to consuming an additional daily serving of a variety of specific foods over a four-year period.

The long-term impacts of small but significant lifestyle changes—especially to diet were emphasised.
In a new report published in The New England Journal of Medicine, a team of Harvard researchers has revealed the results of a study of 120,877 people showing that 10 foods were found to be especially correlated with long-term changes in weight.

Potato chips

Among foods promoting weight gain,  potato chips topped the list. The researchers’ conclusion was that potatoes and extra kilos go together, so anyone seeking to shed weight should steer clear French fries and every other variety of the “spuds”.

From the study, a daily extra serving of potatoes, whether, boiled, fried, baked  or mashed, could add up to five kilos over the course of four years.

An additional serving of nuts, fruit or vegetables, on the other  hand, will add up to weight loss. The scientists noted in their results that potatoes are very calorie dense, noting that it is best to cook potatoes so that the starchy goodness can be converted into glucose.

A medium sized pack of potato chips contains about 300 calories, 15 grammes of fat and 45 grammes of carbohydrates. Even the relatively medium baked potato has about 160 calories, less than a gramme of fat and and about 37 grammes of carbohydrates.

According to the research, potato is not exactly diet ood to begin with. Nuts are far more diet friendly.
In a related study, researchers evaluated three large cohorts of people who were free of chronic diseases and not obese at the start of the evaluation process. They measured specific lifestyle factors and weight gain every four years, with follow-up times ranging from 12 to 20 years.

One striking if somewhat predictable takeaway from the study is that focusing on overall dietary quality- such as eating less refined sugars and refined grains and more minimally processed foods – is probably more important to long-term health than monitoring total calorie or fat intake or other nutritional markers.  Nutritionists say the idea that there are no “good” or “bad” foods is a myth that needs to be debunked.

Article source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/02/potato-is-the-no-1-food-that-drives-weight-gain-havard/

Under the direction of CEO Doug Grindstaff, NDI is now bringing to market its first product — NuFit, a two-ounce, nutritional beverage that helps consumers leverage their exercise and dieting efforts by as much as 50 percent. The company believes Generation Y consumers — generally defined as those born between 1982 and 1995 — are a key market.

Background: College campuses house a quasi-captive audience of students who are considered tech savvy, socially conscious, achievement oriented and highly influenced by their peers. “Gen Ys” also tend to be body conscious: Twenty-five percent of individuals ages 25 to 29 are dieting, 35 percent of gym memberships belong to those in Generation Y, and 36 percent of Generation Y are regular users of functional beverages such as Vitamin Water, 5-Hour Energy and Muscle Milk.

MBA team: Last fall, NDI partnered with a team of UT MBA students enrolled in the Entrepreneurial Strategy Implementation MBA course. The objective was to research and recommend best practices for marketing a weight-loss/energy beverage to consumers on college campuses. The MBA team, comprising Jeff Gotcher (project manager), Heather Lambert, Brian Mohney and Laronda Jones, under the instruction of Glenn Swift, devoted 501 hours to this applied-learning experience.

Methodology: NDI executives — including Grindstaff and Zemel — as well as Tech 2020 adviser Geoff Robson met weekly with the MBA team. During the first phase of the project, the MBA team gathered information about NDI, its product and its marketing strategy; it also researched the nutraceutical beverage industry and Generation Y consumer practices in general.

During the second phase, the students documented the best practices of three competing beverage products — 5-Hour Energy, Vitamin Water and Muscle Milk — particularly with respect to their college campus product mix. The team was interested in how each of these beverage companies succeeded in overcoming vending barriers and making its product a staple on campus.

Key findings: Both the client (NDI) and the MBA team listed the importance of brand messaging at the top of their lists of “takeaways” from this learning process.

“We have incredible quantitative and qualitative data about our product,” says Grindstaff, “but we have to be able to translate that into a clear, benefit-driven message for Generation Y.”

MBA team project manager Jeff Gotcher concurs: “All of the advertising directed at students on campus these days makes a deafening noise. We learned that the successful companies have risen above that noise with messaging that is skillfully and appropriately crafted.”

Distribution strategies also are a key to success. The MBA team recommended a two-pronged approach to distribution: an on-campus strategy and an off-campus strategy.

NDI’s goal is to have NuFit distributed through both campus convenience centers and vending machines, however, NDI first must create student demand for NuFit. Thus, the on-campus strategy involved a “grassroots” campaign of sorts. NDI would enlist “campus coaches” — ideally, physically fit, outgoing business students with sales experience and a large social network — who would recruit trial participants. After 30 days of using the product, trial participants would turn into brand ambassadors — they would receive on-going incentives for marketing the product on campus using social networking and “street team blitzes.” During these blitzes, the ambassadors would set up collapsible tents and banners in high-traffic, campus locations and offer product samples and branded giveaways.

The MBA team also made detailed recommendations about the features of a mobile app, which would offer workout and weight management plans, calorie counters, progress charts, visual and scientific evidence of the product’s effectiveness, and more.

In addition, the team suggested that supporting a social cause would be integral to the marketing strategy. Through each purchase of NuFit, consumers would earn “calories saved” points that they could designate to a hunger-fighting organization, which will in turn receive a donation from NDI.

To complement this approach, the MBA team recommended an off-campus strategy of “forming a perimeter” around campus with the product. NuFit would be strategically distributed through high-traffic venues that are frequented by UT students, such as fitness facilities, student housing complexes, convenience stores, tanning studios, etc.

Longer term, the MBA team suggested developing touch-screen, digital-display vending machines that would enable users to purchase the product while visualizing the product’s end benefits.

NDI plans to launch its product in select markets in mid- to late-2012. “The campus market of Gen Y consumers will be one our targets, but we’ll be marketing to other demographics as well,” explains Grindstaff. “NuFit is a product that can help so many people today, particularly those struggling with diabetes, inflammatory stress and cardiovascular diseases. We believe our mission of ‘Empowering Healthier Living Naturally’ will resonate with many different age groups.”

Case Study is provided by the University of Tennessee College of Business Administration. For more information on becoming a client, contact Cindy Raines at craines1@utk.edu.

Article source: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/feb/06/marketing-plan-created-startups-weight-loss-produc/

“Earlier research had found that certain diets – in particular those with very little carbohydrate – work better than others. Diet books also often guide consumers to adopt a particular type of meal plan. But there hasn’t been a consensus among scientists,” Dr. Bray said in an interview with Reuters Health (1/30/2012).

For the study, several hundred overweight and obese people were assigned in equal groups to four different diets: (1) Average protein, low fat and higher carbs; (2) high protein, low fat and higher carbs; (3) average protein, high fat and lower carbs; (4) and high protein, high fat and lower carbs. All diet styles were designed to allow for an energy deficit of about 750 calories per day.

The participants were weighed after six months and again after two years. The researchers found that, although most lost weight and managed to keep at least a few pounds off for two years, “there were no differences in weight loss or fat reductions between the diets.”

The study, which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, also determined that stick-to-itiveness was a crucial factor for the success of any of the diet regimens – but also one of the hardest to achieve. “The major predictor for weight loss was adherence,” said Dr. Bray. “Those participants who adhered better, lost more weight than those who did not.”

While these study results should not come as a major surprise, they are not necessarily welcome news for the diet- and weight loss industry. After all, Americans spend billions of dollars annually in a highly competitive market of weight loss programs and dieting ideas. Could the ultimate solution be as simple as eating less and burning off more calories for the rest of your life?

Not quite, according to Dr. Scott Olson, a practitioner of alternative medicine and author of “Runner’s Soul.” “Using calories as a way to measure what you should be eating can only take you so far,” he says. The reason is that you are not a calorimeter, you are a living being and not some laboratory tool. Something happens when you consume carbohydrates that is different from what happens when you eat protein or fats – regardless of calories.”

Dr. Olson sees focusing exclusively on calories regardless of their source as a misguided approach because it misses out on other important issues. “Calories don’t matter as much as blood sugar, especially when you are talking about weight loss. To lose weight, yes, you need to burn more calories than you are consuming, but you also have to keep your blood sugar from spiking too high and causing your body to store that extra energy as fat,” he said.

Dr. Bray and his fellow-researchers would agree that not all diets offer the same health benefits, even if they are comparatively effective in terms of weight loss. For that matter, Dr. Bray favors the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), which is endorsed by the National Institute of Health (NIH).

In my own practice as a dietitian and health counselor, I have always preached that calorie restriction for weight loss must go hand in hand with high quality nutrition. That may require cutting back on portion sizes but also loading up on important nutrients. In the end, I want my clients not just to be thinner but all around healthier. And that’s why I also want to know where their calories come from.

Timi Gustafson R.D. is a clinical dietitian and author of the book “The Healthy Diner – How to Eat Right and Still Have Fun”®, which is available on her blog, “Food and Health with Timi Gustafson R.D.” (http://www.timigustafson.com), and at amazon.com. You can follow Timi on Twitter and on Facebook.

Article source: http://blog.seattlepi.com/timigustafsonrd/2012/02/05/for-weight-loss-cutting-back-on-calories-matters-most/

Photo by Scot Allyn.
Josh Livingston, owner of Snap Fitness Center in Avon, left, with Mark Betancourt, a club member who is participating in the $10,000 Lose Weight, Feel Great Challenge to benefit Gifts of Love.

View and purchase photos

Article source: http://www.foothillsmediagroup.com/articles/2012/02/05/avon/news/doc4f2c8b14db2e5512027982.txt

Reducing fat i? an important part ?f an? quick weight loss program. Diets with ? high fat content ?l?arl? lead t? weight gain a? research proves. It ?? ?nl? 25 percent ?f daily calories th?t ?hould ??m? from fat. Exercising lik? crazy but n?t doing an?th?ng to reduce the daily fat intake is ? practice in futility th?t d??s n?t bear ?n? results. Then come? the question of sugar intake. A ??rtain amount of calorie consumption ?s needed for functioning but th?t d?es n?t me?n that sugar intake sh?uld be v?ry high ?s th?r? ?re mu?h more nutritious sources ?f calorie consumption.

A v?ry effective w?? to help the body to lose weight is to drink a lot of plain water th?t d??? not ?ontain any kind of flavor a? i? claimed b? Judy Dodd, a past president ?f the American Dietetic Association. Besides be?ng ? solvent for many vitamins and minerals, water ?ls? plays ? role ?n carrying nutrients ?nto th? cells and carrying waste out of th? cells for th? body to engage ?n proper functioning. Another very classical theory ?n weight loss ?s to increase fiber intake. As it is, foods that ?onta?n fiber are famous for b??ng fillers th?t decrease th? temptation t? eat more. Whole grain cereals ?nd fruits and vegetables are highly recommended b? experts in th?s regard.

There are people who suffer from food allergies. Getting treatment for thes? allergies can h?lp in weight loss. Overeaters normall? suffer fr?m ?uch allergies ??nc? th?y ?re forbidden to hav? ??rtain foods and c?n??quentl? engage ?n overeating.

Sleep ?? ? v?r? important aspect ?f health. One ?an ?l?o fathom a link b?tw??n sleep and weight loss. Sometimes exhaustion leads to unhealthy eating, whi?h ?n turn c?n lead t? weight gain. Getting sound sleep can prevent the exhaustion that can reduce the problem ?f not developing healthy eating habits.

Last but n?t least, people sh?uld be cautious ?bout n?t waiting until the? reach the brink of hunger. Eating b?for? desperation prevails ?? ??ns?bl? b?cause the former situation compels on? to eat wh?t?v?r th?? c?n get the?r hands on, without caring wh?t i? healthy ?r what is unhealthy. If one desires fast weight loss, th?n acting ac?ord?ng t? the?? tips ??n h?l? ? great deal in?te?d ?f ju?t sitting around ?nd mourning th? extra pounds th?t refuse to go away.

Article source: http://www.equicknews.com/quick-weight-loss-tips/855281/

East Brunswick, New Jersey (PRWEB) February 05, 2012

Dr. Robert A. Herbstman of Contemporary Plastic Surgery has noticed an increase in the number of post-weight-loss patients coming to his New Jersey plastic surgery practice for cosmetic procedures.

He attributes this to the growing popularity of bariatric surgery, which is helping people lose large amounts of weight but can leave them with sagging skin and excess tissue in some areas.

Bariatric surgery rates have doubled in six years, according to the American Society for Metabolic Bariatric Surgery. The group reports that 220,000 procedures were performed in 2008, the most recent year for which statistics are available.

“The number of bariatric procedures performed every year in the U.S. is greatly increasing thanks to advances in procedural techniques,” Dr. Herbstman says. “Patients are turning to surgeons for the results they need and desire.”

Because of the increased number of bariatric patients, more people are also seeking post-weight-loss cosmetic procedures to address residual concerns.

“Excess skin and remaining fat pockets can be difficult and even impossible to remove through only diet and exercise,” Dr. Herbstman says. “I offer a range of procedures to help patients contour their bodies so they can more fully enjoy the results of their bariatric procedures.”

Dr. Herbstman performs a full spectrum of procedures for post-weight-loss patients, including liposuction, tummy tucks, body lifts and breast augmentation in New Jersey.

“While breast augmentation may not be the first procedure people think of when post-weight-loss surgery is mentioned, I have achieved great success in restoring volume to patients’ breasts,” Dr. Herbstman says. “A breast lift is also a popular option with women who wish to restore a more youthful appearance. Everyone’s body reacts differently to weight loss, so procedures such as breast augmentation and breast lifts can be customized to match a patient’s specific needs.”

Dr. Herbstman says procedures such as liposuction help New Jersey patients take the final step in the body-contouring process.

“Although bariatric procedures are excellent for helping people achieve their weight-loss goals, many patients find that they are still not satisfied with their bodies,” he says. “Post-weight-loss procedures contour the body according to a patient’s exact needs.

“People deserve to feel comfortable in their skin, and I’m looking forward to assisting more patients as they discover the advances in procedural techniques at our practice.”

Dr. Robert Herbstman (http://www.cosmeticsurgerynj.com) is a dedicated and trusted board-certified plastic surgeon in New Jersey with more than 20 years of experience. He is an active member of several elite professional organizations, such as the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and the New Jersey Society of Plastic Surgeons. At his plastic surgery practice, Contemporary Plastic Surgery, he provides innovative techniques for popular procedures such as breast augmentation, liposuction, abdominoplasty and facelifts. At his Skin Rejuvenation and Laser Center, he offers a variety of medical spa services, including BOTOX® Cosmetic, dermal fillers and laser skin resurfacing.

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Article source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/2/prweb9166943.htm

With new diet books, online articles and doctor shows on TV constantly discussing weight loss, it can become overwhelming when trying to figure out the right approach to losing weight safely. One diet in particular that has received a lot of attention is the HCG diet which involves supplementation with a hormone (Human Choronic Gonadatrophin). This diet has been the subject of endless discussion in the health field and is considered miraculous by some and dangerous by others. There is always the potential for misinformation and misuse with any health product and this diet has become a subject of discussion for many patients and doctors.

We are well-acquainted with the HCG diet. The goal with any successful weight loss program is not just immediate success but also long-term gains. With its growing popularity in medical offices in the States, there is more evidence of its short-term success when used properly and for the right individuals. Long-term success has been shown since the diet was introduced and implemented in North America.

The HCG diet has been around since the 1950s when a MD named Dr. Simeons concluded that obese people could lose visceral fat (the fat that lies over the abdominal area), quickly with a low calorie diet and the proper use of hormone. Visceral fat is the fat most commonly associated with risk factors such as diabetes and heart disease. It is also the most difficult to lose. The HCG diet makes this fat available to use as  fuel, which, along with a low- calorie diet, causes the body to use the stored fat for sustenance.

So what is the difference between just ingesting a very low- calorie diet or supplementing the body with HCG? A low-calorie diet can be dangerous if attempted for any length of time, affecting metabolism and causing extreme hunger. However, when HCG is used for short intervals, it has been observed to mobilize fat stores for fuel and an acceptable caloric intake is maintained. Individuals using HCG report that there is very little sense of hunger and energy is not affected.

Doing a Google search for HCG diet will produce hundreds of sites and online stores selling injections, sprays and drops that promise rapid weight loss. While some products may be effective, the risk of buying a hormone online in any form cannot be overlooked. If you are considering any weight loss program it is always best to have it individualized to your health risks and needs. Many physicians have prescribed this diet to eliminate excess fat storage and to reduce the risk of chronic disease. But unless it is administered properly, it can do more harm than good.

There have been mixed results with studies trying to prove or disprove the effectiveness of the HCG diet. Most people will lose weight on a low calorie diet. However, HCG patients appear to maintain their weight loss after resuming a normal calorie diet unlike those who have tried a crash diet or some other extreme form of eating. Proper use of HCG for weight loss begins with medical screening to determine if the diet is suitable for each individual. Kidney and liver function must be normal and thyroid function must be monitored. Education and nutritional advice must be followed during and after treatment to ensure that the weight loss is maintained and that nutritional requirements are met.

When followed properly, the HCG diet can be a useful tool in helping people to lose weight. If you are considering any weight loss program, consider a proper medical evaluation, get good information about the risks and benefits and follow all professional advice.

Dr. Shelby Entner and Dr. Chris Spooner are naturopathic physicians at Okanagan Natural Medicine in Vernon.

Article source: http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/lifestyles/138605004.html