Average Obese Woman Gets 1 Hour of Exercise a Year

Obese men don't do much better, breaking a sweat only 3.6 hours annually, researchers say

A new study suggests that obese women get just one hour of vigorous exercise a year, while obese men don't do much better at fewer than four hours.

The findings startled the researchers, whose main focus was finding better ways to measure how much exercise people get.

"They're living their lives from one chair to another," said Edward Archer, a research fellow with the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "We didn't realize we were that sedentary. There are some people who are vigorously active, but it's offset by the huge number of individuals who are inactive."

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one in three people in the United States is obese, a step above being overweight. Obesity boosts the risk of cardiovascular problems such as heart disease and stroke, diabetes and some cancers.

One expert did note that the definition of vigorous exercise was very limited in the study, and the researchers themselves acknowledged that the device used to track physical activity did not measure swimming or biking very well.

In the new study, researchers examined the results of a 2005-2006 government survey of adults aged 20 to 74. Among other things, the survey tracked the weight, diet and sleep patterns of nearly 2,600 adults.

Accelerometer devices were used to track their movements, providing insight into how much they exercised.

The study defined "vigorous" exercise as activities that burn fat like jogging and jumping rope, but not sexual activity. According to Archer, who was at the University of South Carolina when the study was conducted, sex isn't as much of a fat-burning activity as certain other kinds of exercise so it doesn't qualify as vigorous.

The researchers found that the average obese woman gets the equivalent of about one hour of exercise a year. For men, it's 3.6 hours a year.

"The data was there, but no one looked at it and parsed it the way we did," Archer said. In the big picture, "there is a great deal of variability; some are moving probably a fair amount. But the vast majority [of people] are not moving at all."

What kind of lives are the most inactive people living? "I think they're living the typical life. They drive their children to school, they sit at a desk all day long, they may play some video games and they go to sleep," Archer said.

John Jakicic, chair of the department of health and physical activity at the University of Pittsburgh, praised the study but cautioned that its definition of "vigorous" is limited and not based on a person's fitness level. For some very obese people, for instance, just general walking could be considered vigorous, he explained.

What to do?

As little as 30 minutes of exercise five days a week can stop weight gain and improve health, study author Archer said. "People don't understand that [you] don't have to go to the gym and lift weights and run marathons to have dramatic impacts on your body. Standing rather than sitting, walking rather than taking your car, they have huge impacts on your health over time."

Jakicic agreed that little changes can have a big difference. "Traditional exercise approaches are not the way to try to get obese people active -- the barriers are just too great," he said. "However, we showed a number of years ago that encouraging multiple brief periods -- five to 10 minutes two to three times per day -- was an effective way to get individuals active initially. Once they started to become more active in this way, they started to add even more activity."

The study appeared recently in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Source: webmd.com

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Research shows fat mass in cells expands with disuse

Over 35 percent of American adults and 17 percent of American children are considered obese, according to the latest survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Associated with diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and even certain types of cancer, obesity places a major burden on the health care system and economy. It's usually treated through a combination of diet, nutrition, exercise, and other techniques.

To understand how obesity develops, Prof. Amit Gefen, Dr. Natan Shaked and Ms. Naama Shoham of Tel Aviv University's Department of Biomedical Engineering, together with Prof. Dafna Benayahu of TAU's Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, used state-of-the-art technology to analyze the accumulation of fat in the body at the cellular level. According to their findings, nutrition is not the only factor driving obesity. The mechanics of "cellular expansion" plays a primary role in fat production, they discovered.

By exposing the mechanics of fat production at a cellular level, the researchers offer insight into the development of obesity. And with a better understanding of the process, the team is now creating a platform to develop new therapies and technologies to prevent or even reverse fat gain. The research was published in the Biophysical Journal.

Getting to the bottom of obesity

"Two years ago, Dafna and I were awarded a grant from the Israel Science Foundation to investigate how mechanical forces increase the fat content within fat cells. We wanted to find out why a sedentary lifestyle results in obesity, other than making time to eat more hamburgers," said Prof. Gefen. "We found that fat cells exposed to sustained, chronic pressure - such as what happens to the buttocks when you're sitting down - experienced accelerated growth of lipid droplets, which are molecules that carry fats.

"Contrary to muscle and bone tissue, which get mechanically weaker with disuse, fat depots in fat cells expanded when they experienced sustained loading by as much as 50%. This was a substantial discovery."

The researchers discovered that, once it accumulated lipid droplets, the structure of a cell and its mechanics changed dramatically. Using a cutting-edge atomic force microscope and other microscopy technologies, they were able to observe the material composition of the transforming fat cell, which became stiffer as it expanded. This stiffness alters the environment of surrounding cells by physically deforming them, pushing them to change their own shape and composition.

"When they gain mass and change their composition, expanding cells deform neighboring cells, forcing them to differentiate and expand," said Prof. Gefen. "This proves that you're not just what you eat. You're also what you feel - and what you're feeling is the pressure of increased weight and the sustained loading in the tissues of the buttocks of the couch potato."

The more you know ...

"If we understand the etiology of getting fatter, of how cells in fat tissues synthesize nutritional components under a given mechanical loading environment, then we can think about different practical solutions to obesity," Prof. Gefen says. "If you can learn to control the mechanical environment of cells, you can then determine how to modulate the fat cells to produce less fat."

The team hopes that its observations can serve as a point of departure for further research into the changing cellular environment and different stimulations that lead to increased fat production.

Source: medicalnewstoday.com

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Green tea confirmed as a weight loss nutrient and heart health antioxidant

Green tea (and its less refined cousin, white tea) has been a part of the ancient Chinese tradition for countless generations, in large part due to its rich endowment of bioactive catechins. Many studies over the past decade have shown that green tea is a powerful tool to improve metabolism in a way that is supportive of weight loss.

Scientists publishing in the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry demonstrate that it activates genes associated with fat burning while also helping to reduce absorption of fat from the digestive tract. Further evidence on the gene-altering activity of green tea is reported in the International Journal of Cardiology, as polyphenols from the drink lower free radical damage to help maintain telomere length in heart cells. Drinking several cups of green tea each day may hold the key to effective weight management and cardiac health.

Researchers from the Departments of Chemical Biology and Pharmacology and Toxicology at Rutgers University in New Jersey examined the effect of green tea supplementation on obese mice, known to exhibit similar metabolic characteristics to humans. The animals were broken into two groups and both were fed a traditional high fat/Western style diet. One group received water supplemented with the green tea bioactive catechin EGCG, while the second group acted as a non-supplemented control.

Green Tea Supplementation Assists Weight Loss by Reducing Abdominal Fat Stores
The study determined that EGCG supplementation significantly reduced body weight gain, associated with increased fecal lipids and decreased blood glucose levels, compared to those of the control group. Scientists further found that fatty liver incidence, associated liver damage and liver triglyceride levels were also decreased by the EGCG treatment. Treated animals also experienced improved insulin response as well as lowered C-reactive protein (CRP) and interlukin-6 (IL-6) levels, both strong indicators of systemic inflammation and immune response.

The study authors concluded "Our results demonstrate that the high fat/Western diet produces more severe symptoms of metabolic syndrome and that the EGCG treatment can alleviate these symptoms and body fat accumulation. The beneficial effects of EGCG are associated with decreased lipid absorption and reduced levels of inflammatory cytokines." Green tea helps our cellular engines (mitochondria) to better metabolize calories more efficiently, providing a significant weight management tool.

Additionally, supporting research documents the effect of green tea catechins on extending the lifespan of heart muscle cells. Scientists found that EGCG supplementation exerted a potent antioxidant effect that lowered free radical damage to preserve telomere length and reduce heart cell death. Nutrition experts recommend two to four cups of fresh brewed green tea daily or an organically compounded and standardized EGCG supplement (300 to 500 mg daily) to assist weight management goals and improve cardiovascular health.

Source: naturalnews.com

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Obesity: Not just what you eat

Over 35 percent of American adults and 17 percent of American children are considered obese, according to the latest survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Associated with diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and even certain types of cancer, obesity places a major burden on the health care system and economy. It's usually treated through a combination of diet, nutrition, exercise, and other techniques.

To understand how obesity develops, Prof. Amit Gefen, Dr. Natan Shaked and Ms. Naama Shoham of Tel Aviv University's Department of Biomedical Engineering, together with Prof. Dafna Benayahu of TAU's Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, used state-of-the-art technology to analyze the accumulation of fat in the body at the cellular level. According to their findings, nutrition is not the only factor driving obesity. The mechanics of "cellular expansion" plays a primary role in fat production, they discovered.

By exposing the mechanics of fat production at a cellular level, the researchers offer insight into the development of obesity. And with a better understanding of the process, the team is now creating a platform to develop new therapies and technologies to prevent or even reverse fat gain. The research was published this week in the Biophysical Journal.

Getting to the bottom of obesity

"Two years ago, Dafna and I were awarded a grant from the Israel Science Foundation to investigate how mechanical forces increase the fat content within fat cells. We wanted to find out why a sedentary lifestyle results in obesity, other than making time to eat more hamburgers," said Prof. Gefen. "We found that fat cells exposed to sustained, chronic pressure -- such as what happens to the buttocks when you're sitting down -- experienced accelerated growth of lipid droplets, which are molecules that carry fats.

"Contrary to muscle and bone tissue, which get mechanically weaker with disuse, fat depots in fat cells expanded when they experienced sustained loading by as much as 50%. This was a substantial discovery."

The researchers discovered that, once it accumulated lipid droplets, the structure of a cell and its mechanics changed dramatically. Using a cutting-edge atomic force microscope and other microscopy technologies, they were able to observe the material composition of the transforming fat cell, which became stiffer as it expanded. This stiffness alters the environment of surrounding cells by physically deforming them, pushing them to change their own shape and composition.

"When they gain mass and change their composition, expanding cells deform neighboring cells, forcing them to differentiate and expand," said Prof. Gefen. "This proves that you're not just what you eat. You're also what you feel -- and what you're feeling is the pressure of increased weight and the sustained loading in the tissues of the buttocks of the couch potato."

The more you know ...

"If we understand the etiology of getting fatter, of how cells in fat tissues synthesize nutritional components under a given mechanical loading environment, then we can think about different practical solutions to obesity," Prof. Gefen says. "If you can learn to control the mechanical environment of cells, you can then determine how to modulate the fat cells to produce less fat."

The team hopes that its observations can serve as a point of departure for further research into the changing cellular environment and different stimulations that lead to increased fat production.


Source: sciencedaily.com

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Scarsdale Diet Plan

Below is the basic Scarsdale Diet Plan.

How the Scarsdale program works:

Dieters follow the Scarsdale Medical Diet (SMD) strictly for two weeks, and during which fast weight loss is promised (7 - 15 pounds).

After the two weeks, you switch to Keep Trim Eating for two weeks, where you plan your own menus for two weeks, with a list of additional foods permitted, and higher calories.

After two weeks on Keep-Trim, you are back on the Scarsdale Medical Diet for another two weeks of strict low calorie eating, followed with another two weeks of Keep Trim. This cycle is repeated until your goal is reached.

The Original Scarsdale Medical Diet Plan

Scarsdale Diet Day One

Breakfast:

Coffee or tea with sugar substitute and a half of a grapefruit and a slice of protein bread

Lunch:

Assorted cold cuts with tomatoes (sliced, broiled or stewed) and coffee or tea

Dinner:

As much broiled fish or shellfish as you like along with a slice of protein bread, unlimited salad and a grapefruit
Scarsdale Diet Day Two

Breakfast:

Coffee or tea with sugar substitute and a half of a grapefruit and a slice of protein bread

Lunch:

As much fruit salad as you like with coffee or tea

Dinner:

As much lean, broiled hamburger as you like along with unlimited tomatoes, celery, cucumbers or brussels sprouts.
Scarsdale Diet Day Three

Breakfast:

Coffee or tea with sugar substitute and a half of a grapefruit and a slice of protein bread

Lunch:

As much tuna salad as you like with a grapefruit and coffee or tea

Dinner:

As much broiled lean pork as you like along with unlimited green salad and coffee or tea
Scarsdale Diet Day Four

Breakfast:

Coffee or tea with sugar substitute and a half of a grapefruit and a slice of protein bread

Lunch:

Two eggs any style, cottage cheese, string beans or tomatoes, and a slice of protein bread with coffee or tea

Dinner:

As much broiled, barbecued or roast chicken (with skin removed) as you like along with unlimited green beans, spinach or green peppers and coffee or tea.
Scarsdale Diet Day Five

Breakfast:

Coffee or tea with sugar substitute and a half of a grapefruit and a slice of protein bread

Lunch:

Assorted low fat cheese slices, unlimited amounts of spinach, and a slice of protein bread with coffee or tea

Dinner:

As much broiled fish or shellfish as you like along with unlimited salad, and a slice of protein bread with coffee or tea
Scarsdale Diet Day Six

Breakfast:

Coffee or tea with sugar substitute and a half of a grapefruit and a slice of protein bread

Lunch:

As much fruit salad as you like with coffee or tea

Dinner:

As much broiled or roast turkey or chicken as you like with unlimited salad of tomatoes and lettuce, and a grapefruit with coffee or tea
Scarsdale Diet Day Seven

Breakfast:

Coffee or tea with sugar substitute and a half of a grapefruit and a slice of protein bread

Lunch:

Cold or hot chicken or turkey, tomatoes, carrots, cooked cabbage, broccoli or cauliflower and a grapefruit or melon along with coffee or tea

Dinner:

Plenty of broiled (grilled) steak, all visible fat removed before eating along with a salad of lettuce, cucumbers, celery, tomatoes and Brussels sprouts with coffee or tea

Second Week of Scarsdale Medical Diet

Repeat all menus of the first week.

If after fourteen days, if you still need to lose weight, dieters switch to Keep-Trim Eating for two weeks, (before going back on the regular Scardale Medical Diet).

Scarsdale Medical Diet Basic Rules

1.Eat exactly what is assigned.

2. Don't drink any alcoholic beverages.

3. Between meals you eat only carrots and celery, but you may have as much as you wish. (You may snack on low sodium vegetable broth).

4. The only beverages allowed are regular or decaffeinated coffee, black; tea; club soda (with lemon, if desired); and diet sodas (and sugar free drinks) in all flavors (and water). You may drink as often as you wish (and as your body dictates).

5. Prepare all salads without oil, mayonnaise, or other rich dressings. Use only lemon and vinegar, or the vinaigrette or mustard dressing(see recipe link). Experiment with fat-free salad dressings during the Keep Trim weeks.

6. Eat vegetables (Avoid corn, peas, potatoes, lentils and any beans, except green or waxed.) without butter, margarine, or other fat; lemon may be used. (I can't believe its not butter can be used in moderation. Non-stick cooking spray may be used in moderation.)

7. All meat should be very lean; remove all visible fat before eating. Remove skin and fat from chicken and turkey before eating.

8. It is not necessary to eat everything listed, but don't substitute or add. Indicated combinations should be observed. The Scarsdale Diet calorie totals are between 850 and 1000 a day during the SMD and between 1000 and 1200 during Keep Trim.

9. Never overload your stomach. When you feel full, stop eating.

10. Don't stay on the Diet more than fourteen days.

Non-stick vegetable spray, cocktail sauce, herbs, seasonings, spices, grated onion, minced parsley, ketchup (sugar free & low carb okay), chili sauce & mustard are all permitted within moderation.

No PowerBars, Protein Bars, or Meal Replacement Bars or Shakes are permitted on the SMD or Keep Trim Program.

Artificial Sweeteners (Splenda, Equal, Sweet & Low, etc ) are permitted.

Scarsdale Medical Diet Portion Sizes

Where no portion is indicated, you can eat as much as you like. Eat until you are satisfied, not stuffed.

Estimate "Proper Portions" with these comparisons:

meat/poultry/fish portions - the size and thickness of your palm
1 oz hard cheese - length & width of your thumb
medium fruit - the size of your fist = 4-6oz.
.5 cup veggie or pasta - one cupped hand
1 cup raw spinach or tossed salad - two cupped hands

Scarsdale Medical Diet Substitute Lunch

4 oz. lowfat cottage cheese
1 T. low-fat sour cream
Sliced fruit, all you want
3 whole walnuts or pecans
Coffee/tea/no-sugar diet soda of any flavor


Protein Bread:

If protein bread is not available, you may substitute whole wheat bread (100% whole wheat or stone ground), or multi-grain high fiber bread.

Fruit Notes:

It is recommended that you always eat fruits that are fresh.
If fresh is unavailable to you, use frozen,
If frozen is unavailable, then canned - but only packed in their own juices and not syrup.

** Choice of Fruit for Breakfast Every Day:

Grapefruit may be replaced any day by any of the following fruits in season: 1/2 cup diced fresh pineapple or 1/2 mango or 1/2 papaya or 1/2 cantaloupe or a generous slice of honeydew, casaba or other available melon.


Vegetables not permitted on the Scarsdale Diet:
Avocados, corn, peas, potatoes, sweet potatoes/yams lentils and any beans (baked beans, lentils, dry white beans, red kidney beans, lima beans, chick peas, black-eyed peas, etc;) except green or waxed or soybeans (which are permitted in the Vegetarian diet)

After two weeks on the Scarsdale Diet, dieters switch to the "holding pattern" for the next 2 weeks - the Keep-Trim Program.


The Keep-Trim (KT) Diet follows the same principles as the 2 week SMD. It is low-fat, low carbohydrate, but not as specific.

Source: momswhothink.com

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Military Wife Drops 100+ Pounds to Surprise Husband

Misty and Larry Shaffer have been together since high school. She went to his senior prom; he went to her junior and senior proms. They got married in October 2008.

He never said anything about her being overweight.

When Larry, an Army specialist, was deployed to Afghanistan for a year in 2012, Misty decided she wanted to get in shape.

She weighed about 260 pounds when he left, and less than 155 pounds when he returned.

“I just sat in bed one night and was like, ‘I can do this,’” she said. “‘I need to do this.’”

Shaffer, now 25 and living in Leland, North Carolina, has struggled with her weight her whole life, even as a child.

Each time she had tried dieting in the past, she would relapse. Before she became pregnant with her daughter, Nevaeh, she took diet pills and lost 60 pounds. But all that — and more — came back after she stopped taking the pills. At her heaviest, she weighed around 300 pounds. She’s 5 feet 6 inches tall.

“I would eat when I was bored. I’d eat three huge meals a day, and then snack in between. Sad or happy, I’d turn to food for everything.”

Shaffer felt tired all the time. People picked on her. She wanted to surprise her husband, and work toward a better life for herself and her family.

Her primary mission: Cut out all the junk. She stopped drinking soda, and tried to limit her liquids to water and coffee.

The first three to four months were the hardest, she said. Once she got past that, she started craving more healthy foods and water. It got to the point where, if she drank a diet soda, it made her so thirsty that she didn’t even want it.

Shaffer’s job presented its own challenges; she’s a personal shopper at a supermarket. At lunch time, the hot fried chicken “just smells so good,” she said. But the supermarket also offers a large, well-kept salad bar, as well as warm vegetables on the hot bar and oven-baked chicken.

A typical breakfast for Shaffer is oatmeal with fruit or a cereal bar. On her days off, she’ll cook up sausage, eggs or pancakes, but she’ll watch her portion size. Around 10 a.m. she has a snack, such as fruit or carrots.

Lunch is a salad or half a sandwich with some kind of vegetable or fruit. An afternoon snack might be yogurt.

For dinner, she eats a lean meat (like ground turkey or a boneless, skinless chicken breast), a vegetable and a very small portion of starch.

The big day, Larry Shaffer’s return, was May 15, 2013. The soldier had never seen his wife weigh less than 220 pounds, even in high school.

When she saw him at the airport, Misty Shaffer didn’t know what to say or do. She just ran and jumped into his arms.

Her husband was speechless, uttering only one word: “Wow.”

It was the first time he had ever picked her up. Before, he hadn’t been able to lift her off the ground even a little, she said.

That moment was worth everything.

“A lot of people look at it like, ‘Why is that such a big deal?’” she said. “But (when) you never thought you’d see that moment, that somebody can pick you up … it is a big deal.”

The other big part of the surprise: She had bought a new house while he was away.

Since then, Shaffer has been able to keep the weight off.

When her husband left she was a size 22 to 24; now she can wear a women’s size 6. She’s especially loving how much money she saves on smaller clothes. Khakis, for example, used to cost $80, but she found a pair for her new physique for only $7.

She said her husband’s eating habits haven’t changed much; he likes her cooking, but he’ll help himself to ice cream or cake afterward. Sometimes she will join him. But she’s not too tempted to go back to her old ways of eating.

“I’ve seen how hard I worked, and what I had to go through to get to this point,” she said.

She’s still in disbelief when her husband picks her up.

Source: http://whnt.com

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Mum lost eight stone in a year after getting STUCK playing with child at soft play centre

Emma Kingston, 29, was scrambling through a climbing tunnel with 18-month-old son Freddie and had to scream for two staff members to haul her out

The humiliation of getting jammed in a children’s play pit and being heaved out shamed 18-stone mother Emma Kingston into ­slimming.

Emma, 29, was scrambling through a soft play climbing tunnel with 18-month-old son Freddie and had to scream for two staff members to haul her out.

She said: “We got to the rollers which normal-sized adults can fit through. I started and knew there was no way I could get through them.

“I suddenly got stuck. I was with my cousin and she had to carry on with Freddie while two members of staff helped get me out.

“It was so embarrassing having to go back the way I had come against all the people coming through the play centre.

“It was then that I signed up to Slimming World because something had to be done."

The mortified mum was a size 24. She had piled on the pounds after getting hooked on McDonald’s Big Macs and pizzas, washed down with litres of cola.

But the travel agent has slimmed down to a trim 10 stone in just 12 months, following the embarrassing incident at the Crazy Knights soft play centre in Oswestry, Shropshire.

Emma added: “I had been a size 18 since after I had left school and got a job, because I think when I left home I didn’t have mum’s cooking.

“I never had breakfast so I just got so hungry by lunch time and would gorge on food then.

“My fiance Mark is a chef so people think that was why I got so big but it was the junk food I’d eat.

“I got so big I couldn’t sit on the floor because it was so uncomfortable and worried I wouldn’t be able to get up on my own so I just couldn’t play with Freddie.”

“I had been a size 18 since after I left school and got a job. I never had breakfast, and so gorged at lunch.”

Emma, who lives with fiance Mark Jones, 33, in Shrewsbury, aims to drop below 10 stone before summer.

She added: “We go back to Crazy Knights now regularly and I don’t get out of breath like I used I can keep up with Freddie.

“Before it was exhausting but I didn’t know anything else.”

Source: mirror.co.uk

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