Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Photo by Ivan Timov on Unsplash Weight management is a challenge. Technology has led to a sedentary lifestyle; instead of physical activity, a large majority of Americans spend their time in front of a screen, lending to an unhealthy epidemic – obesity. A new study …
You’ll hear Jerry Hickey, R.Ph regularly mention on his radio program that there are a few factors that positively benefit all health conditions – following an active lifestyle, losing weight, and eating the right foods. A new study, focusing on Osteoarthritis and joint degeneration, backs …
More than one-third of adults in the United States are obese. With that number on the rise, the risk of developing obesity-related conditions like heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes is on the rise, as well. Your doctor has told you to start following a healthy diet and to begin exercising. But what types of exercises can you do that are both moderate and effective?
The key to losing weight, according to Jun Wang, MS, of InVite® Health, is to create an energy imbalance – eating less and exercising more. Wang states that physical activity is a must for weight loss and weight management. Just thirty minutes of moderate-intensity activity is recommended to reduce chronic disease risk and 60 minutes is recommended to prevent weight gain in adulthood.
In order to gauge your personal moderate level of activity, the CDC recommends using the “Talk Test” – if you’re doing moderate-intensity activity you can talk, but not sing during the activity. If you are doing too vigorous an activity, you will not be able to say more than a few words without pausing for a breath.
Moderate Physical Intensity VS. Vigorous Physical Intensity
Moderate
Vigorous
Dietary Approach
The first step in getting control over your weight is to monitor your eating habits. You may want to begin to record your food intake from the moment you wake up to the time you go to bed. “This can help assess the calorie count and nutritional value of what you are eating,” reports Wang. Another method is using a calorie counter. If you’re using your phone during your lunch break at work, you have enough time to enter what you are eating into a calorie counter app. This can give you an idea of how many calories you are consuming daily and how many you should consume in order to lose or gain weight. But be careful! Wang warns cutting your calorie intake drastically will not be a quick fix. In order to lose weight, Wang suggests cutting calorie intake gradually and consistently.
Supplements for Weight Management
Here are Jun Wang, MS, recommendations on supplements that can support weight management –
White Kidney Beans: White kidney beans supply a carbohydrate blocker that inhibits the enzyme amylase from breaking starches down into sugar; absorbing less sugar from foods such as bread, potato, pasta or rice helps reduce your intake of calories.
Probiotics: Probiotics are live bacteria that support the activity of the body’s healthy bacterial population. They help burn calories by releasing the appetite-reducing hormone GLP-18,9 . They decrease body fat by increasing levels of the protein ANGPTL4.10 Probiotics can also reduce inflammation and may improve gut health. A meta-analysis of 17 randomized clinical trials in humans indicates that probiotics help treat obesity.11
CLA: Conjugated linoleic acid made from safflower oil helps reduce body fat by inhibiting the activity of the enzyme lipoprotein lipase which normally would transfer fats from the bloodstream into fat cells. CLA also promotes carnitine palmitoyltransferase, which helps burn fat, improving energy. A meta-analysis of 18 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials (the gold-standard of clinical trials) concluded that taking 3.2g/d of CLA effectively reduces body fat in humans.12
A dietary lifestyle change and combination of exercise and premium quality supplements can lead you on a journey to your best health and best weight, naturally.
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Doctors are finding strong connections between obesity and the extremely dangerous heart arrhythmia known as atrial fibrillation. According to the American College of Cardiology, an estimated 5.6 million U.S. adults have atrial fibrillation (AF), an abnormal heart rhythm characterized by rapid, irregular beating of the upper chambers of the heart. It is a leading cause of stroke. Symptoms include weakness, shortness of breath, and palpitations. Obesity, another condition that plagues more than one-third of U.S. adults, is connected with an increased risk of AF. But there’s good news – a new study has found that obese patients with AF who lost at least 10 percent of their body weight were six times more likely to achieve long-term freedom from the disorder compared to those who did not lose weight.
Rajeev Pathak, MD, a cardiologist and electrophysiology associate at the University of Adelaide in Australia and the lead study author of this study stated, “Previous studies have shown that weight management can reduce atrial fibrillation symptoms in the short term and improve outcomes of ablation (a surgical treatment for atrial fibrillation). We sought to shed light on the long-term outcomes of sustained weight loss, the effects of the amount of weight lost and the impact of changes in weight over time.”
Need some help with losing weight and exercising? Read Jun Wang, MS’, “Dietary Approach to Weight Loss” here!
Three hundred and fifty-five participants, all obese with atrial fibrillation at the start of the study, were enrolled in a dedicated weight loss clinic by researchers that tracked their health annually for about four years. The study found a direct relationship between weight loss and the participants symptoms – the higher the weight loss, the higher the percentage of people who became free of their symptoms. Fourty-five percent of the patients who lost 10 percent or more of their body weight were free of atrial fibrillation symptoms, without medication or surgery. In the patients who lost from 3 to 9 percent of their body weight, 22 percent achieved freedom from the symptoms of atrial fibrillations. Only 13 percent of patients who lost less than 3 percent of their body weight were free of symptoms. Even with the use of surgery or medication, those who lost more weight were substantially more likely to achieve success and have freedom from atrial fibrillation symptoms, as well. This study is published online March 16, 2015 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Five months after the former study was published, a new study also performed at the University of Adelaide found that exercise appeared to strongly benefit the control of atrial fibrillation in obese people. Australian researchers found that “cardiorespiratory fitness” reduced the risk that this dangerous irregular heartbeat may return by as much as 84 percent. Cardiorespiratory fitness is defined as “the ability of the heart and lungs to supply oxygen to the body during sustained physical activity.” Lead researcher Dr. Prashanthan Sander, director of the Center for Heart Rhythm Disorders at the University of Adelaide in Australia, explains, “This study adds to a growing body of evidence that aggressive risk factor management with increased physical activity should be an integral component of management of atrial fibrillation.”
Researchers assigned the study’s 308 patients (all obese or overweight with atrial fibrillation) to one of three groups based on their level of fitness – low, adequate or high. After four years, 84 percent of patients in the high fitness group no longer had atrial fibrillation. Seventy-six percent of patients in the adequate level of fitness group no longer had atrial fibrillation and just 17 percent of patients in the low fitness level group no longer had atrial fibrillation. As measures of fitness improved, the incidence of atrial fibrillation declined. This study is published online August 24, 2015 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Need some help with losing weight and exercising? Read Jun Wang, MS’, “Dietary Approach to Weight Loss” here!