Fat 2 Fit Show #26 - Internet Resources
It turns out that Jeff isn’t the only person in the world who makes his morning oatmeal ahead of time. Believe it or not, in this show we read listener feedback about their ways of preparing oatmeal in advance. Here is a link to their suggestions and recipes.
Russ is back on his goal of doing a “couch to 5k” and found some better programs that will hopefully keep him injury free this time. He found some great plans on Beginner Triathlete. Jeff brought up the fact that almost half of Major League Baseball teams this year will be offering seats with “all-you-can-eat” specials at the ballpark… and people wonder why we are all getting fatter and fatter.
We attempted to provide people with not only some great sites on the Internet for Diet and Fitness advice, but also to help steer people away from resources that are not truly legitimate or without some sort of agenda. We found that a great deal of advice and information on the ‘Net all seems to be trying to promote or sell something to us. Some sites actually start with a product that they want to support or sell and then create a site around it.
General Links Mentioned in the Show:
Beginner Triathlete 5K Training Programs
All-You-Can-Eat at Baseball Games
Sabotage or Support in Weight Loss
5 Criteria for evaluating websites
Evaluating Info on the Internet
Suggested Sites to Explore:
General Sites:
Men’s Health
Web Md
Great Article on Web MD
Life Hacker
The ABC’s of Fitness
Government Websites:
Weight Control Information Network
Dietary Guidelines for Americans
Websites that summarize the best from other sites:
About.com’s Health Section
Mahalo’s section on How to Lose Weight
A huge directory of Health and Weight Loss Resources
Support Sites:
Spark People
Traineo
Fat 2 Fit Support
Category of their own:
Calorie Checkbook
Fit Day
Stumble Upon’s Weight Loss Category
Recipe of The Week:
Fiesta Pasta Mexicana
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Fat 2 Fit Show #24 - Season 1 Finale
This is the wrap-up show for season 1. This season is entitled “Weight Loss 101″ because we covered all of the basics of how anyone can be successful in weight loss and fitness. Our primary goal was not to give advice on how to lose weight fast, it was how to change your life to that of a “thinner person” and never go on a diet ever again.
We reminisce on how the show has progressed over the last 6 months and give our listeners a behind-the-scenes tour of how we prepare and record our show on a weekly basis.
We talk about our top 10 concepts of weight loss and fitness from all of the previous episodes. The premise of the discussion was if we could only give people 10 pieces of advice from the 22+ hours of shows, what would it be?
We are looking forward to a new and improved season 2. Instead of producing a show next week, we will be busy at work re-tooling the show to make it even better.
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Fat 2 Fit Show #20 - Gastric Bypass Surgery
Have you ever thought that gastric bypass surgery might be the solution to all your weight problems? Is it a cure all for the overweight and obese?
On this week’s show, we diverge from the norm with an interview with Victor Cajiao who is a Podcaster from California. Victor was the recipient of gastric bypass surgery in December 2004. Victor shares with us the story of his weight gain, the decision to have gastric bypass surgery, the risks involved in the procedure, the immediate aftermath of the surgery and his weight loss that resulted.
Victor also shares his thoughts on food addiction, lifestyle change and what has replaced food in his life.
It is a very candid and honest interview, and Victor’s perspective four years after the event is very insightful. There is no hype here, just a frank and open discussion that you may not be able to find elsewhere.
Be sure to let us know your thoughts on the subject by posting a comment here on the blog, or over at the Fat 2 Fit Support forum.
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Fat 2 Fit Show #19 - Emotional Eating
Emotional Eating - we all do it. We eat when we are happy at weddings, we eat when we are excited at sporting events, and we even eat when we are sad at funerals. Most of us have learned to associate any emotional feelings with eating. The problem with keeping our weight down is that in our society we are always eating for many more reasons that hunger.
We discuss some of the major causes of emotional eating, the common triggers and give some suggestions and alternatives to emotional eating.
In our E-mail and comments section, we answer an email from Shon about splitting up workouts, a question about the reason why your body will digest its own muscle if you don’t eat enough calories, and a question from Josh about late night snacking.
Jeff’s news items dealt with a study that found that the richer a man is the more he weighs, but for women, it is the opposite. His second article was ten weight loss tips from little kids - invaluable common sense from kids about weight loss. Russ found a good music podcast that will match the “couch to 5k” running program and a no-brainer way to cut calories.
Links mentioned in the show:
Rich men are fat, Rich women are slender
Weight loss advice from little kids
Podrunner introduces Intervals for Couch to 5K
The No-Brainer Way to Cut Calories
Recipe of the Week:
Healthy Pizza
Pizza Dough
Fat 2 Fit Support: You’re missing out.
While checking out the support forum, I checked out a topic asking for information about flavored waters. It was from Sam Gillie.
Sam asked, “I have a problem of drinking too much soda. And to consume all water I get burned out. I have started drinking some flavored water that has no calories, sodium, caffeine… What is everyone’s take on this stuff??” The members of the forum had some great responses.
John replied, “That stuff usually has aspartame in it. I don’t think that is good for you. Nothing beats water, but if it helps ween you off regular colas then I’d drink the flavored water. Just do it in moderation.”
Tex also responded, “They have crystal light which is 5 to ten calories, has many different flavors and it helped me drink alot of water at first. CL is a bit strong and flavored for me now, but it helped me alot at first. Maybe ya could try that instead?”
Some sage advice there. There were also responses by 4 other forum members. My point is, there is a lot of good information being aggregated at the forum. You’re also missing the opportunity to help motivate and be motivated by all the great stories of the forum members.
If you’re not signed up, just click on the button on the front page of the blog that says Fat 2 Fit Support. This will bring you to the Traineo page where the forum resides. You will have to be a member of Traineo to view and participate in the conversations. There are, as of this post, 269 posts in 32 topics by 97 members. You have a lot of catching up to do. See you there.
Fat 2 Fit Show #17 - Fitness Scams Prey on Desperate Dieters
If you have ever wondered which fitness product scam or diet scam is the best - they are all equally full of crap and a waste of money. We discuss all of the worthless items that seem to be advertised everywhere. They all seem to offer quick weight loss and incredible results. How is it possible that these obvious false claims don’t end up with someone going to jail? We talk about Kevin Trudeau who is the King of Scams and has been fined multiple times by multiple States and the FTC for all of his dishonest advertisements. We also offer some practical advice so that you don’t end up getting sucked into the sensational claims of these products.
Jeff’s news items dealt with a study that showed that some people are better off not dieting than going on a continuous cycle of yo-yoing with their weight and a seductively simple new diet gimmick. Russ found an article where a person is going on the “Super Size Me Diet” to lose weight. The catch is, he is going to exercise at the same time. His second news item dealt with Doctors who do not want to treat people who are overweight or smoke. He also found a very motivational YouTube video that chronicled a 77 lb weight loss journey.
Links Mentioned in the Show:
E-mailing “Eat All You Want and Still Lose Weight” for the evidence
Weight Loss: Does Dieting make you fat?
The Six Word Diet
Super Size Me Too
YouTube Video of a young woman’s 77 lb weight loss
UK Doctors don’t want to treat obese people
From MSNBC “Shape Up Solution or Scam?”
Kevin Trudeau - The King of Scams
The Weight-Loss Cure “They” Don’t Want You to Know About
FTC charges 3 electronic ab belts with false claims
Tips for buying exercise equipment
www.dietfraud.com
www.dietscam.org
As Seen on TV - TV junk in a real store
Recipes of the Week:
Game Day Chili Recipe
Low Fat Cornbread
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Negative Calorie Foods - Fact or Fiction
You might have heard this one: It takes more calories to digest celery than you get from eating it.
Most things that seem too good to be true usually are - except this one. This is True. So let me explain why.
Humans cannot digest cellulose in plants, so vegetables and fruits with a high cellulose content are not efficiently digested. Think of a cows or horses that eat grass. They can thrive by eating grass, but as humans we would starve to death.
All foods have calories in them. An 8 inch celery stalk has about 6 calories that we can digest. When you subtract the amount of energy that our body takes to digest the celery, the net caloric effect may turn out to be nothing at all. This is why celery has turned out to be a dieter’s staple food.
By eating a sensible diet that includes several of the “negative calorie” foods, you can lower the net amount of calories that you are eating. As well, if you are eating a calorie reduced diet and are finding that you are not satisfied with the amount of food that you are eating, you can eat more of these “negative calorie” foods to add more bulk to your food, and this should help you feel a little fuller from your meals.
Keep in mind, in the same way that you can’t survive on grass, you can’t survive on just these foods alone. You still need to be eating other quality foods for the nutrients, minerals, vitamins and calories that your body needs.
Here is a list of some of the more common “negative calorie” foods.
Vegetables - asparagus, beets, broccoli, cabbage (green), carrots, cauliflower, celery, chicory, chili peppers, cucumbers, endive, garlic, lettuce, onions, papayas, spinach, turnip, and zucchini.
Fruits - apples, cranberries, grapefruit, lemons, mangos, oranges, pineapple, raspberries, strawberries, and tangerines.
I’m sure that I left some out. If you know some more, leave us a comment and let us know.
Supplements - The Diet Industry’s Dirty Little Secret
Like any industry out there, the goal of the Diet Industry is to make money. It is the perfect business to be in because of all the repeat business. Almost all diets fail because 95% of the successful dieters, put the weight back on within a few years. The only way to be truly successful with a diet is to NOT go on a diet, but go on a “lifestyle” change. Simply put, if you want to look like a slender person, eat and exercise like a slender person - you will eventually get there.
Over the last few years, the diet industry realized that they can make more money after selling a diet program, than they made from selling the diet program in the first place. They started making and selling their own diet supplements - everything from meal replacements, vitamins, nutrition bars, fiber supplements etc.
Take a look at the Atkins Diet. You can buy Atkins Vitamins and Atkins meal replacement bars. The same is even true for diets such as the Zone and South Beach diets. Even the regular “Diet Centres” such as Nutrisystem and Jenny Craig sell their own supplements and vitamins.
This is such a lucrative business that companies are now creating supplements and meal replacements and then creating the diet program in order to sell them.
The most well known diet that did this was “Body For Life” by Bill Phillips. Bill Phillips is the owner of the giant supplement company EAS which makes the meal replacement called Myoplex. It is no surprise that the suggested menus in this program all list 2 meals per day of Myoplex.
In almost every instance, it is better to eat “real food” instead of a meal replacement shake or bar. To digest real food, your body burns calories in the digestion process, so your net calories are lower than the actual calories that you just ate. This is great if you are concerned with losing weight, not to mention that real food isn’t as painful on your pocketbook!
Many of these diet programs that are based on a supplement product are not necessarily bad though. If the program suggests a balanced diet, there is nothing wrong with an occasional supplement product once and while. There is also nothing wrong with eating a sensible balanced meal instead of a suggested supplement and still have success on any program.
Unless you are planning to continue to take all of these extra supplements and meal replacement products for the rest of your life after you reach your goal, it would be wise not to become used-to or dependent on them for long term weight loss.
How Much Should I Weigh for Optimal Health?
In the 50’s, Insurance Companies began releasing height and weight charts for men and women which told you how much you should weigh depending on your height. These charts fell out of favor with the public because only a small segment of the population fit into their ideals. Similar charts are still used today by some physicians, sports teams and the military.
BMI stands for Body Mass Index and is the latest measure of what an ideal body weight should be. It is technically your weight (in kilograms) divided by your height (in meters) squared. There is no distinction between men and women. Here is an online BMI calculator from the NIH.
Here are the BMI categories:
- Underweight = <18.5
- Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
- Overweight = 25-29.9
- Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater
Don’t just rely on BMI and an indicator of your health and fitness because there are some major problems with BMI. First of all, there is no distinction between men and women. Men naturally have more muscle than women and are heavier. A man and a woman at the exact height and weight would have the same BMI, but the man could look very skinny and the woman quite overweight. Secondly, people with a high body fat composition and low weight, may seem healthy according to BMI, but they may be just as unhealthy as a much larger person.
The BMI is a good measure for looking at populations as a whole, because all physicians have height and weight data. For example, you can compare average Americans to Canadians to see which country on average is heavier. As an individual, we vary too much to have a “one size fits all” approach. However, if you are out in the extremes of BMI, either underweight or obese, it is obvious that you are in a poor health category.
So how much should you weigh? The bottom line is, it doesn’t really matter. Body fat percentage is the true measure of obesity, not weight.
The good news is that it is fairly easy to find out your own body fat. There are regular scales that can now tell you your weight and body fat on a daily basis, and their prices have come down quite a lot in that last couple of years. When you stand on the scale in your bare feet, a very small current goes up one leg and back down the other (You can’t feel it) to measure your body fat.
Body fat percentage is now considered the most important factor, because that is a fair measure for everybody. According to “Shape up America”, which is the former Surgeon General’s (Dr. Koop) anti obesity initiative, it issued an advisory stating that one’s body fat percentage is superior to the currently accepted body mass index (BMI), as a measure of healthy weight.
For more information and specific body fat percentage guidelines, here is the link to Shape Up America’s advisory against using BMI and rather to use body fat percentage.
Fat 2 Fit Show #7 - The World is Fat - Really, Really Fat
We start off the show discussing a “60 Minutes” segment about forcing fast food restaurants in New York to list the calories of all of their foods right on their menu boards. Will this encourage people to eat healthier, or will they just ignore the extra info?
Jeff’s news stories dealt with a study showing that more children are starting to diet, purge, and use diet pills than ever before, and the growing data that shows that there are now more obese people in developing countries than hungry ones. Russ’ first news story also dealt with the increasing number of Americans who are now obese and a review of 5 common infomercial fitness machines.
Our main topic of the show was support in weight loss and fitness. The ideal would be to have a partner who is going through all of the same struggles and challenges that you are in your journey to fitness. In reality, this doesn’t always happen. So where can you go for support? We talk about some traditional “brick and mortar” places for support and some online places that might help you as well. We also mull over the possibility of creating a non-commercial support community at Fat 2 Fit Radio.
Links mentioned in the show:
The Five Tiers of food yet again!
Teenagers and Weight Loss
The Ever increasing American Waistline
Review of five popular infomercial fitness machines
Recipe of the Week:
Fresh Candied Yams for Thanksgiving
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