Tag Archive for: weight loss

Freeze Your Way to Weight Loss?

/in /by

If you pay any attention to the news, you may have heard about a recent pilot study: researchers exposed the vagus nerve to freezing temperatures—the nerve that controls hunger. They apparently didn’t freeze it solid, but just enough to slow down the transmission of signals. Without any other interventions, the 10 subjects lost an average of 3.6% of their initial body weight in 90 days. The purpose of the study was to make sure there were no hazardous side effects. The comments by scientists were what they always are: “Interesting, but much research has to be done.”

No, it doesn’t. This is not normal! Does anyone think that exposing oneself to magnetic waves while a needle is inserted into a nerve to freeze that nerve to lose weight is normal? Looking at the study’s average weight loss for someone 5’4” tall with a BMI of 35, that would be about seven pounds. Over 13 weeks. And at the end, no one has learned how to change his or her lifestyle to maintain whatever weight was lost, as minimal as it was. I know we’re always looking for an easy way out, but there are much better and safer ways to lose a half pound a week. Let’s move on.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Reference: Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society of Interventional Radiology. Los Angeles, CA. 03-21-2018.

 

2018 Health Goals: Part 2

/in /by

Now that you’ve written it down your health goal or goals for 2018, I have a question for you. Were your health goals really what you’d like to change about your health or was it limited by your thought process?

Here’s what I mean. Did you write down your goals or did you start to analyze your goal? You might think I’m talking about the what of the goal. I’m not; I’m talking about the how of your goal. It might go something like this:

“I really want to lose weight and finally get rid of the extra pounds I’ve gained. But to do that, I’ve got to be able to exercise and my knee is so bad, I can’t. Maybe I should see about getting my knee fixed first. But I don’t have any health coverage right now so I can’t afford it. I guess I’ll have to start by losing the weight, but how am I going to do that? There are so many diets, and I don’t know which to choose. Some of them are expensive, and I can’t afford that either. Maybe I’ll check out some programs online that don’t cost very much.”

You go from the goal—what you really want—to something that may be standing in your way that you have to do first. Instead of focusing on your goal, and you very well may have to address some of these issues, you pick something else you have to do first.

Let’s use the exercise obstacle to weight loss. My example picked the most complicated way of dealing with the issue, getting the knee repaired, instead of finding what you can do to exercise right now. You can do upper body exercise, swimming, or pool walking to relieve the pressure on your knee. Where there’s a goal, there’s a way, but you start with the what, not the how.

Now take another look at your health goals. If you allowed your thinking to get in your way, write down what you really want. You’ll figure out the how later, but it shouldn’t affect your goal setting.

Saturday I’ll focus on one goal that concerns many of us: keeping our brains as healthy and functional as we can for as long as we can.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

2018 Health Goals: Part 1

/in /by

It’s that time of year to set goals for 2018. There are many areas of your life for which to set goals, but let’s focus on your health goals. I want you take some time and write down your health goals for 2018. There are three areas that most people want to change: their body weight and shape, their fitness level, and their pain levels. Of course, there’s always smoking and if you smoke, that should be number 1.

Take some time when you read this and write down your health goals, whatever they are. I’ll be sending another Memo later today but don’t read it until you write down your health goals for 2018.

What are you prepared to do today? Prepare to write down your goals.

Dr. Chet

 

Are Weight Loss Supplements Fact or Fiction?

/in /by

Last week I talked about fat—body fat—why it’s bad and what you can do about it, which raises a question about weight loss supplements. Will they give you a short-cut to getting rid of that fat, inside or outside? Can they help you or are they a waste of money? Worse yet, can they harm you? It depends on who’s doing the talking.

Traditional healthcare professionals such as physicians, nurses, and dieticians often say to save your money: there’s no good research that weight loss supplements will do anything but empty your wallet. They often cite the lack of adequate research on the supplements as the reason for their recommendations.

On the other hand, there are television and Internet physicians and health gurus who always seem to be promoting some type of supplement that will not only “melt away the fat” but do it “without diet or exercise!” They talk about research that proves how well these weight loss supplements work.

Who are we supposed to believe? We need some perspective here and that’s what I’m going to give you this week: what’s real, what’s imagined, and what you should expect.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Sleep More and Quit Eating Sooner

/in /by

Sleep more, eat the same, and lose weight. Seriously? That’s what researchers are going to try to find out. At this point, there’s little question that for most people, lack of sleep messes with the circadian rhythms and negatively impacts glucose metabolism.

But a different research team is looking at another element: how long you eat every day can impact your ability to lose weight. Researchers have done a pilot study looking at eating intervals: the time you eat your first meal until you stop eating for the day. For people devoted to their evening snacks, it can be 16 to 18 hours per day.

In the pilot study, subjects restricted their eating to a period of 10 to 12 hours per day. Over 16 weeks, subjects lost an average of seven pounds. One more thing: they didn’t have to restrict their eating. They ate what they wanted, just in a shorter time interval every day.

This was a pilot study using an app that the researchers developed; they’re recruiting 10,000 subjects to see if the idea will work on a greater scale while collecting additional data. Such as what? Well, maybe you actually eat fewer calories when you eat in smaller time frame even if you eat the same foods. By the way, if you want to be a subject, check out www.mycircadianclock.org to see if you qualify.

Back to the sleep portion. The part that interests me the most is the messed up carbohydrate metabolism by eating when your clock says it’s time to sleep. Getting more sleep is not easy these days, but it just might be worth it.

We’ve all heard people say they cannot lose weight no matter what they do. Well, maybe getting a little more sleep and eating over fewer hours may help. Of course, if you’re a diabetic or hypoglycemic, talk with your doctor. But here’s something simple and cheap you could do: sleep more and eat the same over fewer hours. Will you lose weight? We don’t know, but it’s worth a try.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Reference: doi:10.1001/jama.2017.0653

 

Can You Lose Weight by Sleeping More?

/in /by

That doesn’t seem to make any sense; you’re not going to be as active because you’re sleeping, so how can that help you lose weight? Well, if you’re sleeping you’re not eating, but there must be more to it than that. Let’s go back to the SCN, the pacemaker of rhythms.

Researchers have found that cortisol and melatonin aren’t the only hormones and organs tied to the light-dark cycles. Hundreds if not thousands of genes also respond to light-dark cycles. Glucose metabolism, the processing of sugars, is tied to these cycles; we seem to process sugars better during the light hours than at night. For some reason, eating carbohydrates in the dark hours results in slow processing of carbohydrates. Typically carbohydrate metabolism is a fairly high-energy process using 15 to 20% of the calories in digestion and absorption, but eating in the evening seems to decrease metabolism enough that it could theoretically result in gaining 12.5 pounds in a year.

Theory and life are two different things. Research on rodents shows that if researchers flip their cycle by feeding them in opposition to their rhythms—they’re day-sleepers, so they’re the opposite of us—they gain more weight when fed the same diet than mice fed during their normal cycle.

What about humans? Is there a solution? Skinny rats are fine, but what’s in it for us? We’ll wrap this up on Saturday.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Reference: doi:10.1001/jama.2017.0653

 

Could Your Rhythms Be Keeping You Fat?

/in /by

You eat well and you exercise, but you still can’t lose any weight. What if the answer was in the natural rhythms of your body? I’m not talking about dance moves; I’m talking about circadian rhythms, the natural 24-hour cycles based on day and night. Since we can pretty much control the amount of light indoors 24-hours per day, our natural rhythms can be in disarray.

I’ve talked about the pacemaker of the heart several times over the years. It turns out that there’s an area in the brain called the superchiasmatic nucleus (SCN) that acts as the central pacemaker for circadian rhythms. It’s found in the hypothalamus and for a small group of cells, it seems to do a lot.

In the mornings in response to daylight, the SCN sends signals to raise body temperature and produce hormones such as cortisol. Time to get up! The SCN also responds to light by delaying the release of other hormones such as melatonin that help us sleep. When it gets dark the eyes signal the SCN that it’s night. Melatonin levels rise in the evening and stay elevated throughout the night, promoting sleep.

What does this have to do with being fat and not being able to lose weight? Now that we know how this pacemaker works, it turns out it could be an important factor. I’ll cover recent research the rest of the week.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Reference: www.sleepfoundation.org.

 

The Science Behind Holiday Spices: Cloves

/in /by

No one has to tell us that Christmas and the New Year are coming; it’s in the air. You can smell the holiday season this time of year. This week, I’m going to cover three spices used this time of year and talk about some of the potential health benefits of each. I’m not suggesting their use makes foods healthy if they’re also high in sugar and fat—just that there’s some interesting science behind these spices.

If you prepare . . .

We're sorry, but this content is available to Members and Insiders only.

If you're already a DrChet.com Member or Insider, click on the Membership Login link on the top menu. Members may upgrade to Insider by going to the Store and clicking Membership; your membership fee will be prorated automatically.

Lessons from “The Biggest Loser”

/in /by

The recent study on weight gain by former participants in “The Biggest Loser” reality television show blamed decreases in resting metabolic rate (RMR): the decrease in RMR became worse over time and contributed to most of the participants regaining most of the weight. In other words, they ruined their resting metabolism.

No, they didn’t. In my opinion, there are errors in the measurements for RMR and total energy expenditure (TEE). The errors may be in the equipment, but more than likely, in the assumptions that were made in the calculations.

Here’s where I think researchers went wrong: there . . .

We're sorry, but this content is available to Members and Insiders only.

If you're already a DrChet.com Member or Insider, click on the Membership Login link on the top menu. Members may upgrade to Insider by going to the Store and clicking Membership; your membership fee will be prorated automatically.

Rate of Change

/in /by

I spent hours looking at the data in “The Biggest Loser” study. I did numerous calculations trying to figure out where the changes in caloric use occurred that could explain the dip in resting metabolic rate that made the headlines. There are several possible explanations.

Today I’ll give you the most probable reason: the subjects lost weight too fast. The average was 4.25 pounds per week and for some, it was double that. While that can win contests, it doesn’t allow the body to adjust to the tremendous changes that should be occurring.

Think about it. There . . .

We're sorry, but this content is available to Members and Insiders only.

If you're already a DrChet.com Member or Insider, click on the Membership Login link on the top menu. Members may upgrade to Insider by going to the Store and clicking Membership; your membership fee will be prorated automatically.