A new drug for weight loss is being developed by the afore-mentioned professor.

The drug works by switching off the appetite by mimicking the effect of the hormone that is naturally released when the stomach is full.

The hormone, Oxyntomodulin, is also found in those who have had their stomachs made small by operations such as Gastric Bypass.

The professor says that he wanted to develop something that will produce weight loss without the need for surgery.

The drug is still in the early stages of development and initially will be given to diabetics but in time could be available over the counter according the The Daily Mail.

The professor is reported to have said, "If you take away hunger, food is not attractive".  Is the professor saying that people who overeat do so because they do not have enough of the said hormone to tell them they are full or do they overeat regardless of this particular hormone's  level?  I think the answer is clear!  Given the number of overweight/obese in this country, surely they cannot all be suffering from a lack of the ability to feel full.

People overeat for a vast wealth of reasons, even when they are obviously full and obesity is the result.

One has to be cautious when another "wonder" diet pill hits the headlines.  Questions need to be asked such as will it cause more health issues than it sets out to solve?  What are the long term effects?

Indeed more and more people are turning to therapy following disastrous bariatric  surgery.  If you haven't got your emotions and mental health sussed, even bariatric surgery will fail you in the end.

Non surgical solutions to the obesity epidemic are to be welcomed but by far and away the best course of action is to look deep inside yourself to find out the root cause of your weight issues and find a way to resolve it if at all possible.

James.

According to research, men are really struggling with this issue. On the one hand, they expect themselves to be masculine and therefore couldn’t possibly suffer from a female dominated illness such as an eating disorder. On the other hand, they are becoming more conscious of their body image and therefore their weight and what they are eating. This must make it very difficult for men to talk about or seek help.

Never before in history have there been more beauty/weight products aimed solely at the male market. It's a booming industry.

The issue is whether this is a good thing or not. Of course obesity is a risk. Is it a risk worth taking? That depends on multiple factors. If one is slightly overweight but very happy with themselves then carry on! If one is slightly overweight, becomes obsessed with their body image and size, which then leads to a very unhealthy relationship with food, this can only be a bad thing.

Fortunately at this point in time, men are not resorting to drastic measures to control their weight such as vomiting or abusing laxatives. However, is this the way forward? One wonders if in the future will there be as many men as women with issues around food and weight?

If this is you, you are not alone, please seek help.

James

By slowly increasing activity by just 10 minutes a day this is enough to provide health benefits over time.

Preventing or delaying chronic conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes, will reduce future health complications and health-care costs.

In a study (1), healthy adults who received intervention and were encouraged to focus on changing their behaviour toward exercise showed a significant increase in the level of their physical activity.

Intervention based on cognitive approaches however, (i.e. changing healthy adults' knowledge about the benefits of exercise), did not improve their levels of physical activity.

Information on its own isn't motivating, but introducing strategies to change behaviour increases activity levels.

Behaviour strategies include goal-setting, self-monitoring, and feedback.

Thinking about being more active and knowing it is good for you, is not enough .
Self-monitoring, where participants record and track their own activity over time, appears to significantly increase awareness, and provides motivation for improvement when they can see their progress.

An exercise prescription  should include manageable goals within a time-frame, followed by rewards on reaching goals.

Research has shown that more successful interventions were delivered face-to-face and 1-on-1, rather than mediated via phone or mail to a larger group.

(1)The Study "Interventions to increase physical activity among healthy adults: Meta-analysis of outcomes," is featured in this month's issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Source: University of Missouri-Columbia

Approximately 37 million Americans have a BMI of 30-40 and at least one co morbid condition such as heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnoea, and premature death.

Obesity is a growing health epidemic and there is a need for additional effective treatments.

Diet and exercise is unsuccessful in 80-85% of patients over 1 year.

Weight-loss surgery is the next option.

The FDA has decided to expand the use of Allergan's gastric band, LAP-BAND® System, as a potential treatment for those patients with obesity and a related health condition, who have failed the more conservative weight-loss therapies such as diet, exercise and drugs.

Medical research has found that those individuals who are currently obese will likely remain obese unless they receive some form of treatment. However, not all weight-loss treatments are effective over the long term

Obesity is often viewed as a lack of will power, but it is a disease which requires medical treatment. Unfortunately diet and exercise alone do not work for everyone.

The LAP-BAND® System provides an effective treatment option in combination with diet and exercise, and is effective as it enables sustained weight loss.

December brings with it big Christmas meals, family reunions and munching chocolate whilst trapped around the TV. This can make weight control a precarious balancing act for many.

One bite too many of a forbidden food, one unwanted comment about your size, or feeling you have no choice but to eat the portion sizes served to you can cause weight anxiety to sore.

Imagine a dimensional scale with no anxiety about weight on one end, and extreme anxiety about weight on the other end. Where would you place yourself?

Do you shrug off overeating at this time of year and tell yourself you will do something about it next year? Maybe you allow yourself to have fun and relax, but make some attempt to compensate for the extra calories with more activity? Or do obsessive thoughts about food and calories proliferate your waking hours making you fearful of weight gain.

Your weight can become a distorted way of validating your self-worth. It can make you feel as if you are in control, when other domains of your life seem chaotic. A fluctuation in the number you see on the scales can instantly change your mood. Weight gain can shoot off negative thoughts in your head, which in turn stir up unpleasant emotions about your self-worth.

Changing the way you validate yourself and breaking any habits or rituals you have around jumping on the scales can take time. Staying the course of this journey brings freedom, and with it a shift to healthier place on the dimensional weight scale.

Each day take a few minutes to acknowledge things about yourself, your character, your personality and your achievements. Remind yourself that you are a great friend, fluent in spanish and you have run a marathon.  Search for the things that are positive and special about yourself.

This exercise will help you validate yourself in new ways, and allow you to slowly change your relationship with weighing yourself.

Please leave your comments about weight and weighing behaviour below.

Email me on info@weightmatters.co.uk if you are interested in creating a 'Healthy Christams Survival Plan' to help you through the holidays.

Have a great week!

James

The researchers surveyed chefs, restaurant owners, and culinary executives from across the country to assess their perceptions of serving healthy foods in restaurants.

In the survey, 72 percent of the 432 respondents said they could trim off 10 percent of the calories in meals without customers noticing differences in taste, and 21 percent said they could trim off at least 25 percent of the calories. This small change could lead to a major impact on the obesity epidemic.

Researchers found that many chefs were not familiar with the calorie content of the meals they served -- 7 percent were not at all familiar and 49 percent were somewhat familiar.

Chefs in the study were much more willing to create new reduced-calorie foods rather than modifying existing meals, as they might not want to modify their signature dishes for fear of losing sales or affecting their restaurant's reputation.

This highlights a common idea chefs have about restaurant food: that promoting a dish as healthy is the "kiss of death."

In the study, chefs rated their perceptions of obstacles to increasing healthy food in restaurants. Low consumer demand was the major concern -- 32 percent of chefs thought this -- followed by the need for staff skills and training -- 24 percent -- and high ingredient cost -- 18 percent. The majority of chefs, 71 percent, indicated that the success of a low-calorie meal hinged primarily on taste.

When asked about the most effective method for reducing calories in meals, chefs favored reducing portion sizes over "reducing calories per bite" -- reducing fat or adding fruits or vegetables. However, when asked to pick specific strategies for reducing calories for two popular meals -- beef stew and apple pie a la mode, chefs most often chose methods of reducing fat.

VAT volume was approximately 10 % lower in adults who reported eating three or more daily servings of whole grains and who limited their intake of refined grains to less than one serving per day.

Visceral fat surrounds the intra-abdominal organs while subcutaneous fat is found just beneath the skin. Prior research suggests visceral fat is more closely tied to the development of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors including high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol levels and insulin resistance that can develop into cardiovascular disease or type 2 diabetes.

The authors also observed that participants who consumed, on average, three daily servings of whole grains, but continued to eat many refined grains did not demonstrate lower VAT volume. This result implies that it is important to make substitutions in the diet, rather than simply adding whole grain foods. For example, choosing to cook with brown rice instead of white or making a sandwich with whole grain bread instead of white bread.

Wilfley's review of the causes, consequences, and early intervention of eating and weight-related problems highlights the important roles of psychologists in this effort.

The review examines the scope of the obesity problem, highlighting the dramatic increases in childhood obesity. The authors focus on the causes of eating- and weight-related problems in children and adolescents, attending to the complex interactions between environmental and biological factors, and dysregulated eating behaviors known as appetitive traits. In particular, the authors discuss binge eating and loss-of-control eating; satiety responsiveness or eating in the absence of hunger; motivation to eat; and impulsivity. For each trait, the authors identify screening approaches, as well as targeted intervention strategies that can be implemented by providers.

The authors find that, by far, the most effective strategies to combat childhood obesity are lifestyle behavioral interventions, and those involving the whole family in particular. These interventions promote small, successive changes in children's dietary and physical activity behaviors through the use of behavior change strategies and familial support.

Ten overweight males and females lived in a sleep research centre for two separate periods, lasting two weeks each. During each period they were on identical low calorie diets. However, during the first 2 week period they had 8.5 hours sleep each night, while in the second period they slept just 5.5 hours each night.

Although sleep duration was found not to affect the total amount of weight loss - they all lost an average of nearly 7 pounds - the dieters lost mainly muscle rather than fat during their sleep-deprived two-week session. The researchers found that:

·While on 8.5 hours sleep each night over 50% of the participants' weight loss consisted of fat

·While on 5.5 hours sleep each night, approximately 25% of the participants' weight loss consisted of fat - in other words, they lost 55% less fat than when they were sleeping 5.5 hours

Weight-loss dieting usually involves a certain amount of lean tissue (muscle) loss. The dieter should try to lose as little lean tissue as possible. This can be overcome by physical activity (exercise). However, it is clear that not getting enough sleep can undermine any attempts a dieter may make to limit lean tissue loss.

The study is attempting to explore the steady rise in the rates of obesity and metabolic disorders among humans, which have coincided with an increase in LAN and shift work.

The 24-hour rhythm that regulates the state of our internal energy levels and metabolism is controlled by an internal biological clock that works in parallel with and responds to light information. Our internal body clock ("circadian clock") prepares us for predictable events, such as the availability of food and sleep. When the function of this clock is disturbed, our bodies experience a disruption in our metabolism and body-rhythms (circadian cycle).

Put simply - the predictability of light and day regulates our body clock, which regulates our metabolism. When the light and dark cycle is disrupted, so is our body metabolism, and also when we decide to eat.

They found that mice exposed to light at night had considerably higher BMIs and lower glucose tolerance compared to mice kept in a normal day/night cycle (dark at night).

Although there were no differences in activity levels or daily consumption of food, the mice that lived with light at night were getting fatter than the others.