Biggest Loser or Massive Failure?

Everything the top obesity researchers in the world have studied, trialed and published over the past 20 years has been completely ignored by the producers of reality shows like the Biggest Loser.

Firstly, it is well documented that an extremely low calorie diet is unsustainable in the long term, it gets boring, you lose muscle mass and before long you give up, resume your old eating habits and regain all the lost weight and more. Losing 5-10 kg per week might make good TV but it is not something the viewers should be trying to emulate if they want to permanently lose weight and have a healthy lifestyle. Most overweight and obese people are not BMI 40 plus to start with and even if you are a weight loss of 1 kg per week is much more realistic and sustainable.

The same goes for doing strenuous exercise for 4-6 hours a day until you vomit. Yes it makes for great viewing but it is not the best way to burn fat, it is of course unrealistic and not sustainable. It will make them fit but are they going to keep doing this when the TV cameras are switched off and they no longer have a personal trainer on hand, highly unlikely. A research study from Oxford has shown that many of these people actually gain all of their weight back within a few years.

Research has also shown that setting unrealistic or unachievable goals has a negative impact on weight loss. Shaming participants who already have body issues, low self-esteem and a history of failure when it comes to weight loss can have serious consequences down the track as they get dumped from the show for not [...]

May 19th, 2014|Weight loss|0 Comments|
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The Tongue Patch: Absurd and Extreme weight loss measures

I thought I would write a blog about this ridiculous weight loss procedure as many of you have asked me about it.

The idea of “No pain no gain” is taken to new heights in bariatric medicine with the latest fad of having a plastic patch sewn onto the top of your tongue for thirty days to make it too painful to eat solid food.

It costs only $2000 and is touted to be more affordable and less invasive than more extreme surgical methods such as gastric bypass surgery or the lap band which can cost $15,000-$20,000. The procedure was introduced 5 years ago by a Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon Dr. Nikolas Chugay after he saw is being done in Latin America. A hard plastic mesh (a material which is typically used in hernia repair); about the size of a postage stamp is secured to the top of the tongue by six stitches. The procedure takes about 10 minutes and it’s done under local anesthesia. The Recovery is usually rapid with patients typically returning to work the following day. Although the patch can be removed any time by snipping the sutures, it is usually removed after 30 days.

So once the tongue patch is in place, the consumption of solid food becomes very painful and uncomfortable because it has a rough surface. So as you are swallowing solid food, the tongue is pushing the food up against the roof of the mouth and back into the throat which makes eating painful. In addition, the sutures, which are basically fishing line, have little sharp points as well which also rub against the top of the mouth.
So what this all means is that when you have a tongue [...]

April 14th, 2014|Weight loss|0 Comments|
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Why Diets Don’t Work

I was listening to Dr Karl Kruszelnicki on Triple J this week and a listener asked him why it was so hard to maintain weight loss after a diet. Now, as we all know, Dr Karl is very knowledgeable about all sorts of science and health matters. He explained that as hunter gatherers we were very good at storing fat and maintaining it for times of need, all very true but he didn’t answer the question of why it is so difficult to keep the weight off after you lose it. Your local GP most likely doesn’t know either so here it is, fact, proven by science.

When you go on a restrictive diet you lose fat and muscle.

As many of us know, muscle is a major determinant of our Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). This is the rate our body burns fuel just breathing, heating, cooling and functioning whilst at rest, including sleeping. Muscle burns calories 24/7 so when you diet and lose muscle mass your RMR drops and your ability to burn calories 24/7 decreases.

So after you have been on your diet for 6 weeks (or 6 days) and you come to the decision that this is way too hard or too boring and your craving for the foods you love wins out and you then go back to your old eating habits, your ability to burn the calories the way you did before the diet has decreased so you gain weight quicker than you did before.

Studies have shown that people who have never dieted and steadily gained weight throughout their lives, weigh less than people who have Yoyo dieted all their lives. These are people that had similar diets and activity levels.

The take home [...]

April 4th, 2014|Weight loss|0 Comments|
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