Manage Your Weight

Obesity Health Risk

Public Health

Childhood obesity is not only on the rise — it has tripled over the past 25 years.

According to a report in Academic Pediatrics by an obesity expert at Brenner Children’s Hospital, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, children are not just becoming overweight and obese. Many more are becoming severely obese, which can greatly impact their health. Severe childhood obesity is classified as a child with a body mass index (BMI) that is at least or greater than the 99th percentile for age and gender.

Researchers found the following facts in the study:

• Severe obesity among children jumped from 0.8 percent in 1976-80 compared to 3.8 percent in 1999-2004. There are now more than 2.7 million severely obese children in the U.S.
• The highest increases in severe childhood obesity occurred among blacks and Mexican-Americans and those who live below the poverty level. Severe obesity rates for Mexican-American children went from 0.9 percent in 1976-80 to 5.2 percent in 1999-2004.
• A third of the children considered severely obese were classified as having metabolic syndrome, which is a group of risk factors such as higher-than normal blood pressure, cholesterol and insulin levels that make them more susceptible to experiencing heart attack, stroke and diabetes.

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Labels: childhood obesity, cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome, obesity

Vitamin D-ficient?

Vitamin D has always been an important part of our daily diet, and now it’s been linked to successful weight loss.

Vitamin D deficiency has commonly been associated with obesity, but the question remains whether it causes obesity, or if obesity causes the deficiency.

In a study presented at The Endocrine Society 91st Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., researchers shared their findings based on an 11-week study that measured circulating blood levels of vitamin D in 38 overweight men and women before and after they followed a diet plan of 750 calories a day fewer than their estimated total needs. The goal was to find out whether baseline vitamin D levels before going on a calorie-restricted diet would affect weight loss.

The findings included the following:

• Subjects had insufficient vitamin D levels on average.
• Higher baseline vitamin D levels predicted greater loss of abdominal fat.

[B]aseline, or pre-diet, vitamin D levels predicted weight loss in a linear relationship. For every increase of 1 ng/mL in level of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol — the precursor form of vitamin D and a commonly used indicator of vitamin D status — subjects ended up losing almost a half pound (0.196 kg) more on their calorie-restricted diet. For each 1-ng/mL increase in the active or hormonal form of vitamin D (1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol), subjects lost nearly one-quarter pound (0.107 kg) more.

Although further research on active role of Vitamin D in weight loss is needed, it is still recommended as a necessary part of a healthy diet.

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Labels: overweight, vitamins, weight loss

Spinning Your Social Circle

There is strength in numbers when it comes to getting the support you need from those closest to you, like family and friends, and it’s especially important to your diet and overall health.

We previously blogged about how children are more likely to eat more when dining with friends who consume more calories, based on a study of teens and tweens published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. In the same vein, there is further research that shows obesity can be contagious.

In a 2007 study spanning 32 years of a social network of 12,000 adults conducted by Harvard researcher Nicholas Christakis and fellow colleagues, it was found that a person is 37 percent more likely to be obese if a spouse is, 40 percent more likely if a sibling is and 57 percent more likely if a friend is.

The reasoning behind these facts is that adults eat more in the presence of family and friends than with strangers, and that socializing with overweight individuals can affect their perceptions of what the norm is regarding eating habits.

Finally, there's the idea that we just like to hang with people that are like ourselves. Cornell food sociologist Jeffrey Sobal explains that “especially among two overweight people, there’s a sort of permission-giving going on. We’re encouraging each other to eat more.”

Wanting to be proactive about losing weight doesn’t mean dropping overweight friends because making the decision to eat healthier can just as easily influence those around you to do the same.

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Labels: obesity, overweight, peer pressure, self-control

Fuggeddaboutit

Moms around the world warn their kids that too much sugar, fructose, will rot their teeth, but did they ever think it could also affect their memory?

Researchers at Georgia State Neuroscience Institute and Department of Psychology found that after feeding a group of Sprague-Dawley rats a diet that was 60 percent fructose, the rats memories were impaired. Fructose is a type of sugar found in processed foods and sodas.

Marise Parent, associate professor at Georgia State, said:

Fructose, unlike another sugar, glucose, is processed almost solely by the liver, and produces an excessive amount of triglycerides — fat which get into the bloodstream. Triglycerides can interfere with insulin signaling in the brain, which plays a major role in brain cell survival and plasticity, or the ability for the brain to change based on new experiences.

Results were similar in adolescent rats, but it is unclear whether the effects of high fructose consumption are permanent, she said.

Human diets typically do not consist of the same high amount of fructose as the rats in the study, however, foods containing fructose and high fructose corn syrup are being consumed at increasing rates. Diets high in fructose can potentially cause such health issues as insulin insensitivity, type 2 diabetes, obesity and cariovascular disease. Many foods now contain fructose, but keeping your diet checked and eating foods with fructose in moderation can make a difference.

Glycemic Response

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Labels: calories, cravings, self-control

Losing weight can improve your health and overall well-being. You look better. You feel better. It can also boost your mood. And now, a new study has shown that weight loss can also improve mood in those suffering from depression.

Both depressed and non-depressed participants were studied in a six-month supervised weight loss program involving lifestyle modification and meal replacements. Depressed subjects lost eight percent of their weight and non-depressed subjects lost 11 percent. After six months of the program, depressed subjects also showed significant positive changes in depression symptoms and reduced levels of triglycerides in the blood, a risk for heart disease and stroke. Obesity and depression are also separate risks for heart disease and stroke.

Clinically depressed individuals are rarely ever used in weight loss studies, and this research necessitates further studies on how weight loss affects those suffering from psychiatric disorders. It’s also one of the many reasons to strive to be at a healthy weight.

Do you have slow metabolism?

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Maintainting proper nutrition when dieting is also key.

Labels: depression, health, obesity, weight loss

Teaching Healthy Habits

Peer pressure can be a powerful force, but does that also influence eating habits? A childhood obesity study recently found that friends can influence the amount of food you eat, and that includes overeating.

23 overweight and 42 normal weight children between the ages of 9 and 15 were involved in the study published in the August issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition were paired in groups of familiar and unfamiliar children. Each pair sat in a room for 45 minutes with bowls of low-calorie snacks such as baby carrots and grapes and high-calorie snacks such as potato chips and cookies. The children were told to eat as many snacks as they wanted from their own bowls.

The friends who ate together were found to eat more than pairs who didn't know each other. Friends were also found to eat similar amounts of food compared with the participants who ate with a stranger. When overweight children were paired with other overweight children, whether they knew the other person or not, ate more than the overweight children who ate with a normal weight child.

Sarah Salvy, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Behavioral Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences: both overweight and normal weight participants eating with a friend ate significantly more than did participants eating in the presence of an unfamiliar peer. These results are consistent with research in adults, which showed that eating among friends and family is distinctly different than eating among strangers.

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Labels: childhood obesity, peer pressure, self-control

Before, and After

Weight loss motivation is an integrated in our comprehensive bariatric program. Motivation is the key to successful weight loss. Learn to improve motivation to develop health, fitness and a great body! These are just some of the many strategies you will be introduced as part of our weight loss program. They are intended to help you to stay motivated and focused on your success.

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Labels: brooklyn, medical, motivation, new york, weight loss