The Sad Messages Of Weight Loss Ads

Sara Rue seems pretty happy about losing 50 pounds in 35 weeks on the Jenny Craig program. So why does her latest commercial seem so sad?

While Rue seems very pleased with her results (she has been documenting the process on a Jenny Craig blog), the intro clip on the commercial, shot in December 2009, is sort of devastating: Rue talks about how it “isn't normal” to not want to leave the house because of one's weight, but instead of addressing the actual emotional processes behind these things, in terms of her own attitude towards her body image and self-esteem, the commercial (and, understandably so, as it's selling a diet plan) immediately moves to Rue's new-found happiness and her skinny jeans, as if dropping 50 pounds is really a solution for the kind of issues that would keep a woman inside of her house, feeling “not normal” about her body and her place in the world.

Sara Rue is beautiful; she was beautiful 50 pounds heavier, as well. The “before” picture shows a gorgeous woman smiling just as much as the after picture does. It's a shame that programs like Jenny Craig insinuate that happiness comes from a number on the scale, as opposed to something deeper. When I was in the hospital for an eating disorder (this is not to insinuate Rue has one at all), we had one phrase that we kept coming back to: “it's not about the weight.” And while Rue's confidence and self-esteem might have gone up as her weight went down, there's something really depressing about the idea that weight loss alone is the key to putting a smile back on one's face.

There is something very normal about the things Rue worried about in December of 2009: many, many women struggle with the idea that their bodies don't belong, that they're “weird” or “abnormal” or flawed in some way for not fitting the strict weight standards of the beauty industrial complex. I don't know if Rue had other motivations for her weight loss— and honestly, what she does with and feels about her body is her business (and Jenny Craig's), but I wish that someone would have told her back in December that she wasn't abnormal at all—that she's beautiful at any size, and it's the media that wants to make her believe otherwise. If we sold positive body image as aggressively as we sell diet plans, maybe more women would stop trying to be “normal” and start enjoying simply being themselves.

Send an email to Hortense, the author of this post, at commenters@jezebel.com.

I recently addressed the reason why weight loss drugs have historically fared quite badly, and in my view are likely to do so for the foreseeable future. Weight gain is normal when calories in exceed calories out on a daily basis. You cannot medicate away normal human physiology — any more than you give a fish a pill to let it breathe out of water.

Now, I would like to pick up the tale where I left off. Because there is more to the story of human weight gain than calories in versus calories out, as not a few of you have stressed in your comments and correspondence. Fundamentally, we are all a lot alike, but also quite a bit different.

The ways we are alike are what I have emphasized so far. It is, indeed, normal for the human body — any human body — to turn surplus calories first into glycogen (a small carbohydrate energy reserve) and then into fat (a much larger potential energy reserve).

And we are all governed by the prevailing laws of physics that relate matter and energy. Calories are a measure of energy, and matter cannot be created without energy input. Arguments against the fundamental role of energy balance in weight regulation — against calories in versus calories out — are arguments with Isaac Newton. Folks, nobody wins an argument with Isaac Newton!

And yet, I believe the innumerable patients I've had over the years who tell me something doesn't quite add up for them. I believe them when they tell me they eat and exercise the same amount as someone else — but they get fat, while the other person stays slim. Or, worse still, that happens even though they eat less, and exercise more. If they are telling the truth- and I am thoroughly convinced they are- doesn't it mean Newton had it wrong?

Nothing of the sort. All it means is that we are different, as well as alike.

While it is true for all of us that weight control is overwhelmingly, if not entirely, about calories in versus calories out, it is equally true that the number of calories required for weight loss, weight maintenance and weight gain vary drastically among us. And we even know why, for the most part.

There are, once we are done growing up, three ways we burn calories: physical activity, the generation of heat and just existing. There are technical terms for the second and third: thermogenesis, and resting energy expenditure (sometimes referred to as basal metabolic rate). What should be noteworthy right away is that you are not in charge of two out of the three!

You can choose how much exercise to do. But you don't get to choose how thermogenic you tend to be, and that can matter quite a lot. Like exercise, thermogenesis accounts for roughly 15 percent of total energy expenditure on average, but there is lots of variation on the theme of average. People who generate more heat from calories have fewer available with which to make fat. They tend to be people who can eat a bit more, and stay thin anyway.

But that's a drop in the bucket compared to resting energy expenditure. Roughly 65 percent of calories are burned to support the fundamental workings of cells and organs that keep us alive. The number of calories burned at rest, and the actual percentage of total calories burned this way, also vary substantially around the average. People with a high resting energy expenditure are, in our modern world of epidemic obesity, the fortunate few most people love to hate: the folks who cannot seem to get enough to eat, and can't put weight on when they try.

If you don't control your thermogenic tendencies, nor your resting energy expenditure — who does? The idiosyncrasies of the genetic hand you were dealt, which are not necessarily idiosyncratic at all.

Take the case of the Pima Indians, for instance.

When the Pimas live a traditional lifestyle and eat traditional Pima foods — mesquite and tepary beans, for example — they have unremarkable health. When they live and eat like everyone else in America, they develop almost universal, severe obesity and diabetes. For a time, the Pimas had the highest rates of obesity and diabetes on the planet, and they are still, alas, contenders for those laurels.

The dire plight of the Pimas resulted in intensive study of them, and it led to both revelations, and the obvious. The Pimas have, uniformly, a very low resting energy expenditure. They are, in other words, highly fuel efficient — even for a fuel efficient species — and it makes perfect sense. The Pimas lived for generations in a harsh desert climate where food was unusually scarce, and physical activity demands unusually high. Pimas who were not highly fuel efficient simply didn't survive long enough to pass on their disadvantage to any future generation of Pimas. (People who don't live to make babies make very poor ancestors.)

Presumably, the variations in metabolic efficiency to which we are all subject can also be traced to variations in the experiences of our ancestors. But for most of us, the magnitude of genetic mixing that has gone on makes those pathways impossible to follow.

So we wind up feeling — those among us who gain weight easily and lose it with extreme difficulty, if at all — that we are enigmas, outcasts, anomalies. We feel that the claim that we can eat less, exercise more, and weigh more nonetheless falls on unsympathetic ears.

Mine are not such ears. I hear you, and I believe you. It is about calories in versus calories out, but the calories required to reach or exceed a personal threshold vary widely, and under influences we neither choose nor control. That isn't fair, but who every promised it would be?

As a practical response to this, I am considering the establishment of a national exchange for the weight loss resistant, so these stories come together and reach a critical volume. I would also like to use it as a means of troubleshooting the problem; many heads will be better than any one. Let me know via email if you would like to join us.

In the interim, I remain unwilling to refute Sir Isaac. But that we are, despite being much the same, quite a bit different — I fully appreciate. I bet Newton would agree; I hope everyone does.

Dr. David L. Katz; www.davidkatzmd.com

Weight Lost

When drug companies who produced diet pills realized that ephedra was going to be removed from the market, those companies realized that they must find another natural supplement that could be used for weight loss. One of the ideas these companies came up with was to promote weight loss by reducing cortisol levels and balancing blood sugar.

Cortisol is one of the hormones that is released by the adrenal glands in excess when you’re chronically stressed, which many of us are these days. Like other hormones, cortisol is essential to good health but damaging when it’s too high or too low. Chronically high cortisol increases appetite, especially for sugar and carbohydrates; creates weight gain around the middle; contributes to short term memory loss; depletes bone and suppresses the immune system. Extended periods of high cortisol also increase your risk for breast cancer. If your cortisol is elevated for years on end, eventually you’ll end up with tired adrenals, never-ending fatigue and unstable blood sugar that may lead to diabetes.

Ideally you would revive your adrenals and reduce your cortisol levels by reducing and managing stress, eating well, exercising moderately and getting plenty of sleep in a dark room.

If you need a little extra help, the new generation of supplements such as Relacore and Cortislim are designed to reduce cortisol levels by helping you relax and stabilizing your blood sugar. The primary ingredient is an extract of magnolia bark (Magnolia Officinalis Cortex), which has a long history of use in Chinese medicine for “wind-stroke, cold damage, headache, cold and heat, fright qi, blood impediment and dead muscle (from Subhuti Dharmananda of the Institute for Traditional Medicine). The term “fright qi” probably comes closest to describing the condition of chronic stress, which Dharmananda says is associated with “emotional distress …digestive disturbances associated with fear and anxiety, and shortness of breath due to emotional turmoil.”

Along with the magnolia, both Cortislim and Relacore contain some vitamin C and calcium. Cortislim also contains chromium, which is a trace mineral that helps stabilize blood sugar; L-theanine, an amino acid found in green tea that promotes relaxation, and a handful of other ingredients that promote balanced blood sugar.

Relacore contains a bit of B vitamins, magnesium, and a bit of herbs that promote relaxation and stable blood sugar.

Source Naturals has a product called Relora that contains magnolia and Phellodendron amurense. There’s not a lot of research available on Phellodendron, but in Chinese medicine it’s used as an anti-inflammatory and to help balance blood sugar.

Chinese medicine texts warn against the use of both magnolia and phellodendron if you have digestion problems.

Thermogenics (extra fat burners), is the name provided to a group of compounds that have the impact of speeding up metabolic rate.

Thermogenesis, as the title suggests, implies the production of heat inside the body ['thermo': heat, 'genesis': the starting].
Heat is a by-merchandise of vitality creation. Consequently, if a lot more fuel is burnt up by the entire body, much more heat is generated.

Some examples of thermogenics contain selected foods, herbal extracts and fruit extracts.
For instance, capsaicin from chillis; caffeine from coffee, tea or guarana; and oxedrine from citrus aurantium.

The most effective fat burners are dietary supplements that include combinations of various thermogenic substances in concentrated types.

Extra fat burners are generally applied by individuals looking to get rid of weight. They support to produce an strength deficit by growing the body's general energy expenditure.

Every single morning the human body burns vitality. The total strength expended comes from three areas: the basal metabolic rate, any physical exercise performed and the vitality applied by the body in digesting food. If a weight burner is employed it increases the power expended in the basal metabolic pace and during physical exercise.

For instance, through a working day a man or woman may well burn 1500 high fat calories (6300 kilojoules).
70per-cent of people calories from fat may possibly appear from their basal metabolic rate (1050 high fat calories), 20per-cent may possibly arrive from their every day physical exercise (300 calories from fat) and 10% from digestion (150 unhealthy calories).

If they then acquire a weight burner, particularly 1 that consists of many potent substances, their everyday calorie expenditure might boost to 1800 calories from fat.
Of those unhealthy calories, 71.
33% may well occur from their basal metabolic fee (1284 calories), 20.34percent might arrive from their every day physical exercise (366 unhealthy calories) and 8.33% from digestion (150 calories from fat).

By raising the calorie expenditure each morning it becomes a lot less difficult to produce a calorie deficit and consequently drop bodyweight.
So if our individual in the instance above, consumes 1500 calories from fat from foods throughout the working day, with no a thermogenic their human body weight and weight will continue to be the same (calories from fat in equals calories from fat out).

Nonetheless, if they eat (and consume) the exact same quantity of food but also consider a body fat burner, then they will have a calorie deficit that will need to arrive from their body's vitality shops, resulting in a loss of body weight and fat.

It is critical to note that if their foods intake is not controlled or they don't execute any physical exercise, then it is remarkably likely that making use of a body fat burner would not be of benefit in helping them shed entire body extra fat or fat; they are not 'magic pills'.
You can't be expecting to carry a couple of capsules, then go home and eat pizza and drink alcohol and assume to get final results.

Thermogenics only work when their use is combined with a good nourishment and work out plan.
They simply support you accomplish your fat reduction aim quicker.

Thermogenics are also utilized by people who merely want an strength boost. If you really feel tired in the course of the morning or if you want a 'pick-me-up' prior to your work out session, then thermogenics can definitely help.
Thermogenic elements stimulate the nervous program supporting to increase your power and boost alertness.

For greatest final results thermogenics ought to be taken twice a morning on an empty stomach at least 30 minutes prior to meals or before work out and must not be taken following 4:00pm as they might interfere with sleep. Also, it is finest to 'cycle' their use. This signifies use them continuously for a optimum of eight weeks and then have at least two weeks off.
This prevents the system from becoming desensitised to the substances.

There are many extremely effective thermogenic dietary supplements on the industry that can accelerate progress towards your goal.
Those containing guarana and green tea extracts along with other effective herbal extracts like coleus forskohlii and evodiamine are the most efficient.
They improve your fat burning capacity and market the use of fat for fuel in your entire body. It is also finest to pick thermogenic products in capsule kind rather than pill kind simply because the elements are a lot more readily absorbed.

They might be utilized by most folks but due to the fact they have a strong influence on metabolic process they are not for everybody. In particular, folks with higher blood pressure or who have heart problems must steer clear of their use. Also men and women below the age of 18 or above 65 ought to prevent them also.

Furthermore, if you are thinking about employing thermogenics, it is important to see your medical doctor very first and acquire their approval.

If you have tried acquiring into form in the past but haven't got the final results and if you are willing to make some changes to your nourishment and physical exercise habits then thermogenics will undoubtedly help.

Amir Azam – Supplement Expert

A few more site you may be interested in….
hermogenic Fat Burners and Recovery Supplements

Aromatherapy Oils – Eucalyptus Important Essential oil Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Puppets

Everywhere I go I have people who ask me “what do you do?” As in, what kind of workouts do I do. When I give them my response “I do short but very intense interval workouts” I get a funny look.

So you dont get on the treadmill for a hour? Nope. You dont run 5 miles a day? Nope. You don't play a sport? No.

This is a huge post in my mind. If you are lucky enough to be reading my blog right now you are in for a surprise. I changed my workouts some what recently and what I got was even a surprise to me.

I have done it all…You know the truth if you know me or been reading for a long time. I found about a year ago the keys to my success as far as exercise and the results I want. I have spent countless hours doing research, reading books, articles and forums. Little did I know that while youtubing one evening I would find the most inspirational person to not only look up to as far as a bangin body but would be given all the information I needed from diet to step by step routines. I found. Zuzanna. Yes, the world is now starting to watch her and I am proud to say that I was one of the first! I started watching her videos at night before going to bed about 3 years ago. I watched her transform herself from a thin but still gorgeous women to a ripped absolutely perfect athlete. I could kick myself that I didn't ACTUALLY DO the workouts that I was watching back then. Honestly, I would watch the videos because I wanted to just SEE someone that was my own age looking fantastic. Some cut out pictures in magazine and post it on the fridge to stay inspired and motivated. I would watch a video and wish that I could look like that. Sore from pounding the weights in the gym or the hour and a half of crazy aerobic exercise or stair climber/treadmill combo. It took me to get a injury before giving it a shot. I could only work out for about 20 minutes without being in so much pain that I had to stop. I was forced to do her 10-20 minute bursting interval training body weight workouts. The verdict? Results that came so quick I couldn't believe my eyes. Within 3 months I was a new person. I had way more time to do what I wanted and I looked better than I did when I was 18. I am serious! I followed every day, changing with her and making her recipes. She said jump, I asked “How high?”. I read every post, watched every video. I was(am) hooked. First I would like to explain through Zuzanna why 10-20 minute interval training workout using your own body weight and no equipment can burn fat am make you more fit than any hour and a half cardio session ever could. Ready for the answer? Here it is:

our body burns fat or carbs depending on the intensity of your activity. You burn fat even if your body is at rest. Actually you are burning fat right now as you are reading my post. If you are an average person sitting in front of your computer reading this, your body is burning about one or two calories per minute of which about 70 % comes from fat and about 30% comes from carbs.

When you exercise, as the intensity increases, your body starts using more and more carbohydrates for energy instead of fat. At the higher limits of aerobic exercise, 100 percent of the energy is coming from carbs. When carbs are no longer available, the body will break down your muscle and use it for energy. When carbohydrate stores are depleted, the rate at which fat is used as energy is reduced and that’s why carbs are essential in order to metabolize fat.

You lose fat only if you burn more calories than you eat on a daily basis, not because you burn fat (or something else) when you are exercising.

When you eat after your workout (including the workouts that burn more fat than carbohydrates), you will rapidly replenish both carbs and fats that you have used up during the workout. As soon as an excess of calories (from either fats or carbohydrates) exists, your body will begin to store them as fat. This means that your body’s fat stores will be virtually unchanged.

The key to fat loss is to boost your metabolism so that your body is continuously burning calories at a higher rate 24/7. People with muscle mass are automatically burning more calories and fat. Every 5 pounds of muscle that you build on your body will burn up to 15,000 extra calories a month which equals roughly 2 pounds of fat. Building this extra muscle will give you one hell of an advantage and it shows that muscles are the best engine for burning fat.

High Intensity Interval Strength Training using your own body weight is the most effective way to burn fat and build lean muscles. The workouts that I do will boost your metabolism for as long as 24 to 48 hours after the workout is over. The more intense your workouts are the more fat you will burn and the stronger and leaner you will become. My high intensity interval body weight workouts will also improve your cardiovascular strength and endurance, agility, balance, speed, and power.

The reason why I keep my workouts short is because you are suppose to be pushing at your maximum effort. It is simply not possible to sustain this kind of intensity over longer periods of time. Simply put, if you have anything left at the end of these workouts, then you didn’t train hard enough. It is really that simple. Everyone has their own level of what max effort means, but the one thing that we should all have in common at the end of these workouts is that we should be completely wiped out. You are the only one that controls the intensity of these workouts. Everything depends on your effort and how much you are prepared to push in these few minutes of training. If you decide to put comfort before intensity then you are trading away your results. This pretty much sums it up. Point blank! I now want to give you her site. I didn't want to tell you about her because I was afraid you would stop reading but I know that you wont!

http://www.bodyrock.tv/

My workouts, my nutrition, my inspiration. Thanks Zuzanna for making me train smarter AND harder than ever before. I will never go back! I really hope that you all are reading this post! What a great one, in my opinion. You will thank me later!

See you tomorrow! I have a wonderful review on Friday from CSNstores and I cant wait to tell you all about my new kicks!

Bye for now!
-Heather

By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns

Everybody in the west knows the fabled effectiveness of weight-loss dietary programs designed around intense cardiovascular regimes which burn huge amounts of calories. The people who work hard, doing as much cardio as possible lose weight. Those that pump iron may get muscular, but they aren’t working as hard and they don’t lose weight, they gain it. The moral of the story? When it comes to losing weight, cardio works, weights don’t.

Yet life is more complex than that. In the real world, cardio workouts alone aren’t the failsafe way to weight loss. If you work too hard, you burn too many calories and your body eats your muscle which slows your metabolism down and makes you gain weight.

Brian’s tale

Let’s look at Brian. He’s a world class athlete. But he has been living high on the hog for quite a while. That wasn’t a problem until recently. Now, he is a bit bloated and fat and wants to go on a diet to lose weight to stay on his coach Hermann’s team. Three of Brian’s teammates, George, Jose Luis and Jose, are also in jeopardy of being cut from the team and need to lose weight. What should Brian do?

Well, Brian consults his sister Angela. She’s also on the team. While she has had a minor weight problem for the last ten years, she’s definitely in better shape than Brian right now. She tells Brian that she has dieted in the past and that the sure fire way to losing weight is working hard and burning a lot of calories in an intensive cardio program. Burning off calories has always worked for her.

Brian’s trainer, Dominque (DSK for short) tells him Angela is right and prescribes a tough cardio regimen for our friend. Brian follows the program assiduously. But rather than losing weight, he gains weight. What happened?

Does Jose Luis learn from Brian?

Jose Luis sees Brian’s experience and is petrified. His fitness coach DSK gave him the same advice. Now he’s not so sure this is the right thing to do. Looking around for answers, he asks his strength coach Rob P for advice. Rob P says "you’re working too hard and burning too many calories. Your body is eating into your muscle, which is slowing your metabolism down. And you aren’t strength training." Jose Luis is perplexed. "Wow I didn’t realize that you could burn too many calories. Rob P answers, "Let me explain how the body works. Your body needs a certain number of calories throughout the day in order to function, and more importantly for you, to maintain muscle."

Jose Luis cuts in with, “I don’t care about my muscle. What does that have to do with my losing weight?”

"Jose Luis, your muscle is going to be what regulates your metabolism. The more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn throughout the day. This is known as your base metabolic rate. If you burn too many calories by over-training, your body starts eating your muscles as well as your fat, slowing your metabolism. The result is you lose strength, you end up gaining weight and you become weaker."

"Now I get it. But I’m not sure if I can do that. If people see me doing strength training and not cutting back when everyone thinks eating a lot less is the only way to lose weight, I’m going to be off the team in a hurry?"

"Good point. I don’t know what to say.  Maybe you’re on the wrong team. Maybe you need to go solo, Jose Luis."

"Maybe."

Barry takes notes

Barry is not on Angela, Jose Luis and Brian’s team. He’s solo. So he doesn’t have the same constraints where eating less is the only way to lose weight. He has  a lot more options than George, Jose and company. If he chooses, he could try strength training too. If he does just enough cardio and just enough strength training, he might be able to lose the weight without cutting into his muscle too much. He would be stronger and his metabolism would be faster. When he went up against Team Euro, he would win hands down.

But Barry is advised by Larry and Tim who studied physical fitness at the same school DSK did. And their recommendation to Barry is that he follow a similar high intensity cardio but muscle-losing program that failed for Brian and that Jose Luis is bent on trying tempered with a bit of strength training.  Unfortunately, the cardio is too much and in all likelihood, Barry’s metabolism will slow. He will gain weight but also lose muscle.  Who cares, though? It’s not like Angela and Jose Luis are gaining muscle.  It only matters to Barry’s family who depend on how well he does to earn a living. And right now, it looks like they are looking pretty depressed.

Deficits, Spending and Taxes

Think of this as a tale of government spending and deficits. The longer-term goal is to reduce deficits as one would reduce weight. There are two ways to go about this. One is to cut as much spending as possible, the equivalent of a highly focused cardio regimen and its calorie burning intensity. The second is for the government to create jobs to increase GDP and the tax base while strengthening the competitiveness of the economy as one might pump iron to gain strength and muscle, increasing the metabolic rate. Clearly, if one over-trains by pumping iron and eating too much, one gains weight just as wasteful spending misallocates resources and increases the deficit. But, there are risks to cardio over-training which causes muscles to atrophy, slowing the metabolism and increasing weight where the economic analogue comes in the form of depression, the dead-weight economic loss of healthy companies’ insolvency, tax loss from high long-term unemployment, and ultimately higher deficits.

It looks like we’re in for a lot of cardio across the entire developed world and not enough strength training.  My prediction is serious weight gain and serious muscle loss. I now believe GDII is coming and I will have a lot more to say about this in an upcoming post.

Sources

Why Cardio Alone Doesn’t Cut Fat – EliteFTS

The dreadful potential of frugality – Edward Chancellor, FT

Do we really need another gadget to tell us we're fat and we sleep badly? Yes, we do. The KiFit armband's packing some medically developed tech which measures your body temperature, how much you're sweating, and how much you're moving. From that info, it calculates your calorie burn rate and how peacefully you're sleeping. If you're like us, you're undoubtedly already aware that your slumber is like a nightly replay of the “Enter Sandman” video, but still, it's great to see gadgets that encourage a healthier lifestyle, right? The KiFit is available for $300 plus a $20 monthly subscription price — and while it's a pretty neat little gizmo — we'd suggest you might be better off paying for a gym membership you're never going to use.