While millions of people are slowly dying of hunger, modern societies have to face new challenges directly linked to our way of life. Bad nutritional habits, stress, junk food and other factors contribute day after day to a dramatic explosion of obesity. But how can the obesity of today, combined with an aging population have a direct impact on the next children generation? Although no real study has ever been performed on this subject, science already proved us that obesity can have negative impacts on the sexual life and on the sperm quality.

Firstly, we should remember how body does secrete the testosterone. Testosterone is secreted in the testes, in the Leydig cells. This secretion only happens with the stimulation of the LH hormone LH hormone being secreted by the pituitary gland. Testosterone is necessary to the fabrication of spermatozoids, the development of the male sexual organs and male sexual secondary characteristics. This hormonal process can only happen to active people, doing regular physical efforts. This is where the problem lies obese people often tend to reduce physical efforts and this is why a decrease in testosterone production is clearly noticed in people suffering from overweight. This implies that obese people are less interested in sex than before.

Secondly, lets combine this problem with the female hormone, estrogen, naturally secreted in fat cells, and present in chemical component of common products; this makes the perfect infertility bomb. Note obesity and pollution by estrogen like substances are only two factors explaining the rise of male infertility. Many other causes exist.

Zinc. Many people just think zinc is solely a metal. They are right, but zinc also plays an important role in general as well as sexual health. Zinc, found in e.g. oysters and nuts, enters the body through the food. Zinc allows you to keep your hair, an healthy skin and body tissues, and also maintains the motility and quality of sperm. Sadly, overweight people, with unbalanced diets, leave out many aliments containing zinc. That is why a decrease in quality of sperm is commonly linked to a zinc deficit. A rich zinc diet should contain oysters, sea shells, nuts, seeds, beans and also meat and poultry.

There are ways to fight obesity, with the help of doctors and nutritionists, with good nutritional habits and herbal supplements that can help overweight people to get through with their diet. To fight obesity, herbal supplements like Hoodia Gordonii can be used. And to maintain the quality and motility of sperm, a daily supply of zinc is necessary. All these herbal supplements and products can be easily found and purchased on the internet nowadays.

Conclusion obesity and male infertility are two new problems that modern societies must fight. Even if no in depth study has been conducted, scientists proved us there is a link between these two problems. With the help of science, these problems can be solved, provided that obese people adapt their nutritional habits.

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What is the connection between lack of sleep and obesity?

The recommended amount of sleep per night is 7 to 9 hours; however, most Americans average somewhere around six hours. Researchers found that the further away one is from getting the recommended hours of sleep, the higher their risk of obesity is.

What is the scientific basis of sleep debt leading to obesity?

If one is lacking the optimal amount of sleep, their leptin levels drop. Leptin is a blood protein that suppresses appetite and affects how the brain registers when the body is full. Also, sleep deprivation raises levels of grehlin, which is a substance that increases one’s urge to eat. In short, if you sleep less number of hours, your leptin level falls, and grehlin goes up, resulting in overeating and weight gain.

What is the result of obesity on sleep loss?

Fat accumulation in the throat and neck cause obstruction of airways during sleep leading to poor oxygenation of the lungs. This causes pathological snoring called sleep apnea. You wake up several hundred times during the night. You have day time drowsiness, and again another night of disturbed sleep. This condition is called obstructive sleep apnea.

If so, the obstructive sleep apnea leads to more sleep debts, more stress, and more leptin and grehlin problems, more weight gain in a vicious cycle.

So what is the solution?

1. If you snore a lot, get yourself checked for obstructive sleep apnea.

2. Work on weight loss.

3. Control stress and maintain better sleep hygiene

Naras Bhat MD

You wake up one morning and you decided that you have had enough of being obese! You have a very personal reason a choice for change and a healthier you.

Whether you’re considering weight-loss surgery and want to understand what’s ahead, adapting to a new lifestyle following the procedure, or looking for non-surgical weight-loss tips, all the information is here.

Opting for weight-loss surgery is not an easy choice. To decide whether it’s right for you, consider the facts of the procedure and the post-operative road you’ll need to travel.

The challenges of dieting, exercise and even medications can seem daunting when trying to keep weight off. As a result, many have turned to weight-loss surgery as the best long-term option. But before making that difficult decision, questions need to be answered.

Which type of weight-loss surgery is right for you?
What’s involved in the procedure?
Are there any risks associated with weight-loss surgery?
In normal digestion, food passes through the stomach and enters the small intestine, where most of the nutrients and calories are absorbed. It then passes into the large intestine colon, and the remaining waste is eventually excreted.

Gastric bypass surgery makes the stomach smaller and allows food to bypass part of the small intestine. You will feel full more quickly than when your stomach was its original size, which reduces the amount of food you eat and thus the calories consumed. Bypassing part of the intestine also results in fewer calories being absorbed. This leads to weight loss.

The most common gastric bypass surgery is a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.

In a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, the stomach is made smaller by creating a small pouch at the top of the stomach using surgical staples or a plastic band. The smaller stomach is connected directly to the middle portion of the small intestine jejunum, bypassing the rest of the stomach and the upper portion of the small intestine duodenum.

This procedure can be done by making a large incision in the abdomen an open procedure or by making a small incision and using small instruments and a camera to guide the surgery laparoscopic approach.

Male gender is a predictor of morbidity and age a predictor of mortality for patients undergoing gastric bypass surgery. Open gastric bypass surgery requires up to a 5-day stay. Laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery requires a hospital stay of 2-3 days.

Obesity is a life threatening condition and is spreading at an alarming rate throughout Western society. It is particularly prevalent in the USA. However there are some steps you can take to reduce your weight and improve your health and lifestyle.

Reducing calorie intake

What are calories? A calorie is a unit used to measure energy. It is required by most governments to print the calorie value of foods on the nutrition label of all foods that are sold to consumers. Because if this it is easier to calculate your calorie intake. Reducing calories means not just cutting food intake but being careful of the actual caloric value of the foods you are eating.

Reduction but not eliminating fats and oils fat and oil is necessary for the body but we often eat foods which are too high in fats thus taking in more fat and oil than we need to. When you cut down fat and oil you will reduce calories and definitely manage to lose those pounds.

Decrease but do not eliminate carbohydrates Carbohydrates are necessary to the body but we often eat too much of this class of food resulting in the body storing these foods as fat. When you cut down carbohydrates you will reduce your weight.

Increase your protein levels It is often good to eat foods that are high in proteins as they are not as fattening as other foods. High protein foods are good to eat when you are reducing weight to prevent any muscle loss occurring as you shed those pounds.

Eat more fruits and vegetables These are good for providing nutrients to the body and are low in calories. They are a good alternative to junk food snacks. They will also increase fiber in your diet.

Reduction in sugar and sodium. Sugar is readily broken dawn by the body into energy and excess stored as fat making it a fattening food. Sodium eaten in excess can contribute to water retention by the body and prevent weight loss.

Increasing fiber in your diet this will help you to curb hunger pangs as fiber rich foods will help you feel full as they take longer to digest. Your digestive system will work better with an increase in fiber.Whole grain foods, unrefined foods, fruits and vegetables will give you more fiber.

Increase your fluid intake Drink more pure water especially. This will help to improve your health and fill you up.

Increase exercise Regular exercise will help you reduce weight and build muscle instead of storing fat. You can either work out for about 20 minutes 3 times a week or take a brisk daily walk.

When you use these steps you will reduce your weight. You will not achieve a super figure in one day but when you keep up a healthy diet you will lose weight steadily. Maintaining a healthy diet with regular exercise will ensure that you not only reduce but will keep the weight off. You will feel healthier and have more energy to do the things you really want to do in life.

If you are trying to lose weight, aren’t getting the results you want and want to give up… stop! Take stock and see if you have fallen foul of these ‘diet traps’.

1. If no one sees you eat it, it has no calories

This might sound ridiculous, but you might be surprised to find that many people act as though this were true! It is easy to turn a blind eye to what we actually eat and drink during the day. Being true to yourself with a daily food diary can do wonders for breaking through a diet plateau. Keep a small notebook in you at all times and make a quick reminder of everything, and I mean everything you eat and drink during the day. It’s just too easy to forget what you eat, especially if you are used to eating on the run. Mothers with small children at home are especially at risk. There are hundreds of unwanted calories lurking in toddler leftovers. Corners of vegemite and toast, half chewed milk arrowroots and the last sips of chocolate milk can wreck havoc.

2. You aren’t diligent about planning your meals and healthy snacks

As a weight loss coach I’ve yet to meet the person who consciously decides it’s their lifetime goal to put on weight until they are obese and desperately unhappy about how they look. Usually it’s a result of one or two decades of no-so-good food choices and not finding time to exercise that leads to packing on the pounds. Once you have five or more kilos to lose, it is going to take a deliberate change in habits over several months to get rid of the weight. This is where many folk run aground in their weight loss journey. They fail to plan. It takes conscious planning to do something different for the length of time that is required to get the results you want.

If you are not the type of personality that plans, ask yourself this. How many times do find yourself looking for something to eat and resort to quick takeaways, vending machines or skipping meals instead? Start planning ahead by keeping a bowl of fresh fruit at home and at work at all times. Fruit is great for a healthy snack. Prepare your lunch to take to work so you won’t be a victim of vending machines. Get up early so that you have time to start the day with a healthy breakfast, instead of grabbing a skinny decaf on the way to work and a diet coke for morning tea.

3. You’ve fallen subject to fad diet ideas

Keeping a balanced view of all the food groups will help you have a big enough repertoire of healthy food choices to keep you motivated and interested longer.

“You can’t look at foods individually,” says Dayle Hayes, M.S., R.D., a nutrition consultant in Billings, Mont., and member of the Council for Women’s Nutrition Solutions. “Any time you eliminate whole food groups or foods that are a major part of your diet, you wipe out important nutrients.” For instance, if you dis dairy, you zap a great source of protein. If you turn your nose up at high-fat fish like salmon, sardines and herring, you eliminate a top source of omega-3 fatty acids.

“The ‘bad food list’ is one of the oldest gimmicks in the world of fad dieting,” adds Robyn Flipse, RD., a nutrition consultant in Ocean, N.J. “As long as people can blame certain foods or food combinations for their excess weight, they don’t have to tackle the bigger issues, like planning, shopping and preparing meals for themselves and doing some form of physical activity on a regular basis,” she says.

c Kim Beardsmore

Experts tell us we are what we eat. A disturbing thought when we consider how much sugar, fat and white flour is consumed daily, hidden in ready meals and fast foods. Its time to change the bad habits we have developed over the last three decades and start eating to improve health, not destroy it!

A vital area of life that requires our attention is this.learning to answer hunger pains appropriately. If we neglect this, weight can increase and well-being may suffer.

Whether you need to lose weight, maintain weight or tone up your body; inappropriate eating habits can jeopardize your best efforts. This articles will help you start to understand how to manage hunger in a busy lifestyle.

If its sticky and sweet, made with sugar and saturated fat, then you must only eat it as a rare treat. Can the same be said for a delicious bowl of strawberries, or a juicy sweet orange? That is the problem here? Why do we choose cakes and chocolate over natures best offering?

If you do not have a genuine glucose imbalance, one cause perhaps is that sweet treats are deeply connected to our childhood, where frequently, sweeteners were given as a reward for good behaviour, or to placate or console the unhappy child. Our memory will automatically associate sweet foods as a reward or a comfort. That bar of chocolate or sticky bun you devour mid-way through a stressful afternoon could be you rewarding yourself for hard work!

If you think you may be using sweet treats as a reward or comfort and want to kick the habit, simply remember that putting on weight is NOT a reward. Then think of a reward that doesnt involve food!

Guard yourself from the sweet snack attacks by being prepared and planning your day’s food patterns.

1. Incorporate protein in to your breakfast AND lunch. Protein is key to controlling carbohydrate cravings. The RDA of protein for women is 60 grams a day. For women wanting to lose weight, health professionals recommend approximately 100 grams of protein daily. Why? One of the principle advantages of protein is that it creates a feeling of fullness and satisfaction in the body that makes overeating much less likely. Source your protein from ultra lean sources so you don’t pick up unwanted calories and saturated fats.

Even better, than providing a sense of sustained fullness, protein can block the triggering effect that carbohydrates can have on the brain. If you eat protein with a carbohydrate it will reduce the cravings caused by eating the carbohydrate.

2. Never skip meals. Research has shown that people who skip meals are more prone to obesity than those who regularly eat 3 meals a day. In fact, people who space their daily food requirements by making appropriate use of healthy snacks do even better. Why is this? When you skip meals you are more likely to get hungry and fill up on easily obtained fast foods which are often trigger foods.

3. Drink 6 to 8 glasses of water throughout the day. For some people sugar laden soft drinks are a trigger food. Make sure you don’t get thirsty in the first place. Water creates a sense of fullness and has a host of other health benefits.

4. Plan the timing of your meals so that you don’t get hungry. Despite having three healthy meals a day, sometimes your work schedule can mean the spacing of those meals still does not guard against the carbohydrate cravings. If you have a long gap between meals, make sure you carry healthy snacks to cover the distance, otherwise hunger will set in

5. Plan your snacks. Plan out your weekly snack schedule with some delicious, healthy snacks. Purchase these with your weekly shopping so that you are fully prepared. If you need to, get up a few minutes earlier in the morning so you have time to prepare and take your snacks to work. Remember, healthy snacks don’t live in a vending machine! You are less likely to get hungry when you have a ready supply of healthy snacks.

6. Carry emergency supplies of nutritional protein bars in your handbag or brief case. When you feel a carbohydrate craving, eat the protein bar instead and wait 30 minutes before acting on the craving. More often than not the craving will pass and you will be in control again. This truly works.

Severe obesity is a serious medical condition experienced by people with a body mass index of 40 or above. Previously called morbid obesity, it affects an estimated six million American adults, or about 1 in 33 of the adult population. Associated with a range of complex metabolic disorders including type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance syndrome and raised blood-fats, plus other weight-related health problems, this condition should not be confused with overweight BMI 25 or regular obesity BMI 30. It is a serious disease requiring professional help.

Since I started my weight loss consultancy over 24 years ago, I have met and spoken at length with hundreds of severely obese individuals weighing 300 pounds or more. For most of them, their weight was a major source of discomfort – both physical and emotional – yet over the years most had “adapted” to their growing waistline and were resigned to remaining seriously overweight for the rest of their life.

For doctors and other health care specialists who work with obese patients, this type of patient-resignation to lifelong obesity is no surprise. But in fact it is only one of many obstacles to long-term weight loss. Many clinically obese individuals struggle with a variety of psychological issues to which they have trained themselves to respond by overeating. Some of these issues – for example, the early loss of a parent – require sophisticated counseling and even then may remain unresolved. In addition, many obese people struggle with family, educational or financial difficulties which further reduce their treatment and recovery options. Given the complex causes, responses and conditions surrounding obesity, it comes as no surprise that many conventional treatments remain largely ineffective. Sadly, many people of normal weight – including members of the medical profession – still find it difficult to accept the intractable nature of the condition, which only adds to the sense of alienation and guilt experienced by the very obese.

Obesity Treatment Options

How effective a treatment is in helping severely obese patients to reduce weight, largely depends upon its ability to tackle the root causes of the condition. Most treatments deal with symptoms excessive calorie intake rather than causes why obese individuals overeat.

Conventional Weight Loss Diets

Now that the low carb approach championed by Atkins Diet seems to have run its course, leaving many obese dieters close to if not heavier than their initial starting weight, the efficacy of conventional weight loss diets is more questionable than ever as a means of reducing obesity. Whatever their dietary composition, most reduced-calorie diets offer insufficient support to help obese patients make the necessary changes to their eating and exercise habits.

Bariatric Surgery

Gastric reduction surgery is a vital “last resort” treatment option for patients with severe weight-related health problems. It typically leads to very significant weight loss and health benefits, but it deals with symptoms not causes. So although it compels patients to eat less, thus forcing them to lose significant amounts of weight in the 2 year period following their gastric bypass or banding operation, it tends to have less success in dealing with the root causes of disordered eating which have built up in the patient’s mind over the years. As a result, about 2-3 years after their operation, a large percentage of bariatric patients find it too difficult to follow the recommended dietary guidelines and end up regaining most if not all their starting weight.

Obesity Drug Treatment

The increasing number of obesity drug prescriptions issued to patients shows that doctors continue to lean heavily on pharmaceutical intervention for weight reduction. Furthermore, with obesity now labelled as the “trillion dollar disease”, drug companies continue to invest heavily in their search for a scientific breakthrough. Yet clinical trials of FDA-approved obesity pills continue to show minimal long-term weight loss benefits for severely obese patients, almost certainly because drugs are not yet capable of dealing with the fundamental causes of disordered eating.

Does This Mean Obesity Is Untreatable?

In view of the limited success of conventional diets, surgery and drugs, does this mean that obesity is untreatable? No. It simply means that more specialised or support-based options are necessary. The first step in finding the best treatment option for any obesity condition is to talk to a doctor, who should be able to outline what specialised treatments are available. For example, there are a number of excellent medically-supervised weight loss programs run by hospitals and clinics in the US and Canada, that offer real support and counseling. Self-help support groups like Overeaters Anonymous 505-891-2664 or TOPS 800-932-8677 can also be extremely helpful. Alternatively, contact the American Dietetic Association 800-366-1655, or the American Obesity Association 202-776-7711 for further information.

Some Practical Tips If You Are Obese

For anyone who is 300 pounds or more, seeking medical advice and getting proper support is essential. Relying upon pills, diets or willpower alone is not enough. However, you can do a number of things to help yourself and improve your chances of losing weight. Here are a few suggestions.

Stop Telling Yourself That You Can’t Lose Weight

Whatever your size or shape, and whatever your history of weight gain, the truth is you can lose weight and you can keep it off. In 24 years I have yet to meet anyone who was unable to lose weight, although I have met lots of people who lacked the motivation to stick to their diet! The point is, not being able to do something is quite different from not really wanting to do it. Yet most dieters confuse these two things. They think they can’t lose weight, whereas in fact what they are really describing is an unwillingness to make the necessary changes to their eating habits. So stop telling yourself that you can’t lose weight – because it’s not true. The real question is do you want to reduce weight, and if so, why?

Start Telling Yourself Why You Want To Lose Weight

The messages we transmit to ourselves in the form of thoughts have the same effect as radio commercials. The more often we hear a particular message, the more we believe it. Tell yourself every day that you want to lose weight and gradually it will become a bigger and bigger priority. But don’t stop there. In addition, tell yourself how losing weight will improve your life. Maybe your goal is to receive more male attention; or maybe your aim is to fit into a pair of regular jeans; or perhaps you think a leaner body will boost your confidence. Frankly, it doesn’t matter what benefit you think weight loss will give you, the important thing is to advertise this benefit to yourself at every possible opportunity. Start today and try it for three months, and I guarantee it will help you to lose weight.

Start Understanding Your Body Chemistry

There are three things you need to know about body chemistry and obesity control. First, the longer you go without food, the more likely you are to overeat later. So eat something small at least once every three hours. This reduces the risk of bingeing and helps you burn calories at the fastest possible rate. Second, the less chewy and more easily digestible a food is, the easier it is to overeat. By comparison, chewy foods tend to contain more fiber and therefore keep us fuller for longer. A good example of an easily digestible food is a creamy dessert. Even after a huge meal, most of us can demolish a serving of cheesecake or a bowl of rich ice cream, without much difficulty. In comparison, eating 5 oranges or 6 apples after a large main course would be almost impossible. So include plenty of high fiber foods in your daily diet. They contain fewer calories, they fill up your stomach, and they keep hunger at bay for longer. Thirdly, most women experience food cravings in the week before TOM. This is perfectly natural as well as forseeable. So make sure you have an extra supply of healthy snacks to keep yourself satisfied. Above all, don’t try to deny yourself the extra food your body craves – you won’t succeed – just make sure you have healthy options available.

Don’t Try To Be Perfect

God doesn’t create perfect people, he creates humans. And humans enjoy tobacco, alcohol, double chocolate chip muffins and truck-sized boxes of movie popcorn. So unless you come from Mars, don’t try to be a perfect dieter because it ain’t gonna happen! Every dieter has bad days, bad weeks, sometimes even bad months. But so what? Losing weight isn’t a race – it’s a journey. How long it takes to arrive at your destination is not important. The only thing that matters is that you do eventually get there. Besides, once you accept that your diet-wagon is going to lose a wheel from time to time, you can plan how to react when it happens. Whereas if you assume your diet is going to be trouble-free, you are less likely to be prepared when disaster strikes.

Stay Guilt-Free Under All Circumstances

Suppose you are 300 pounds. You start a diet, you start exercising with a neighbor, things go well and you lose 30 pounds, you feel on top of the world, then you have a huge bust-up with someone. Result? Your diet falls apart, you stop exercising and start comfort-eating. How can you prevent this from happening? Answer you can’t. This is Life. This is what happens. All you can do is go with the flow. If this means bingeing for a week until you feel better, so be it. But whatever you do, DON’T FEEL GUILTY. Because guilt will eat you up and will keep you obese for ever. In my experience, a dieter’s initial bout of overeating is rarely the problem – it’s the guilt which it inspires that does the damage and causes them to quit. Losing weight should be a guilt-free zone, and don’t believe anyone who tells you different. On my weight loss program and forum there is no guilt, no matter what happens.

Join A Weight Loss Community

If you are connected to the Internet, try to find an active forum where you can post your weekly weight, keep a food or weight loss journal, swap ideas with other dieters and generally have fun. Many people regard weight reduction as a totally serious matter. But it’s not. It’s a journey from A to B. And just like any journey, it passes more easily when we have fun and learn interesting things along the way. My weight loss forum is a very supportive place, but there are dozens of other forums to choose from. One of the biggest benefits of an active dieting forum is the opportunity it gives you to express your feelings. You can vent about your personal success or failure and also show your support for other people, which is equally therapeutic. So look out for a suitable online weight loss community and watch your obesity gradually disappear into thin air!

If only we could solve this question, the world for many would be a better place! Well, the reality is that there are real answers to this question that will apply to many people. It will take a good dose of reality and a brave heart to stop denying what really happens. Read on to discover some answers that may change your life forever and give you the impetus to lose weight and keep it off!

Justification?

Being overweight can be used as an excuse for being unhappy, especially when you do not do anything to help yourself. Subconsciously, over-eating is a comfort for many people and this then allows them to hide behind their weight problem and helps them to justify rejection and avoid being hurt. They can then shift the blame of rejection on their weight-problem, without addressing other aspects of their fears. Sometimes it seems easier to hide behind your weight problem, than address other matters where you may have a greater fear of failure.

Eating Without Thinking?

If you are concentrating on another activity while you are eating you are more likely to overeat because you are not fully aware of how full you are feeling. This factor can be difficult to change because it is not a conscious action. Try to only eat when you dont have a lot of other distractions. Sit down, eat slowly and enjoy the food you are eating, and remember that it is not always necessary to go back for seconds. It takes 20 minutes for food to reach your stomach and for your brain to register that you are full.

Cravings?

The famous Pavlovs dogs were conditioned to eat at the sound of a bell, and we human are much the same when it comes to habitual cravings. If you wonder why you always feel like a chocolate when you sit down to watch a movie, or you have to have a box of popcorn.think again. You are not necessarily craving these foods because you are hungry, but rather consider force of habit. During the time when you have a craving, try to ask yourself whether you are really hungry or not. If you are hungry, reach for a low fat snack rather than a chocolate bar or bag of crisps.

Indulging?

Eating or thinking about food can be a distraction from your troubles and you may therefore be unnecessarily over-eating. Emotions and hormones can trigger certain cravings, for example, if you are feeling low, chocolate and carbohydrates assist the production of serotonin in your brain. Serotonin helps you feel happier. This is why we might crave sweet or starchy foods during times of sadness or stress.

If you identify with any of the above factors, you could be on your way towards discovering what is triggering you to overeat.

The most effective method for weight loss is reducing the number of calories you consume – through eating, while increasing the number of calories you burn – through physical activity. As an example, to lose one pound, you will need to undertake physical expenditure of approximately 3,500 calories. You can achieve this either by cutting back on what you eat, changing what you eat, or by increasing physical activity, or ideally, by doing a combination of all three.

Take this situation as an example. If you consume 500 extra calories per day for one week without changing your activity level, you will gain one pound in weight 7 days multiplied by 500 calories equals 3500 calories, or the number of calories resulting in a one-pound weight gain. Conversely, if you eat 500 fewer calories each day for a week or burn 500 calories per day through exercise for one week, then you will lose one pound over the course of that week. Which would you choose?

Perhaps before you start thinking about losing weight you should take a moment to examine what you eat. Sometimes it is not just about reducing your calorie intake, but it is also about changing what you eat decrease fatty foods and increase your intake of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Examples of some high calorie popular foods and beverages include

1 slice original-style crust pepperoni pizza 230 calories
1 glass of dry white wine 160 calories
1 can of cola 150 calories
1 quarter-pound hamburger with cheese 500 calories
1 jumbo banana nut muffin 580 calories

Are any of these in your regular diet? If so, maybe it’s time to make some changes!

When it comes to weight loss, crash diets are never a good idea. Most health and well being experts will agree that a safe, healthy rate of losing weight is usually around one to 1 pounds per week. Anything more than this means that you are more likely to put your weight back on, down the track. By modifying your eating habits and adding in a little regular exercise, you will be embarking upon the most effective way to lose weight in the long term. It is also the ideal way to ensure that the weight stays off.

Starvation diets may result in rapid weight loss and give you immediate results, but this loss of weight is really hard to maintain over a long period of time. When food intake is severely restricted to something below 1200 calories per day, the body begins to think that it is poor nutrition, so it begins to shut down its metabolic rate. This can make it even more difficult to lose weight in the long run. Candidates who crash diet can also experience hunger pangs, bouts of hypoglycemia, headaches, and mood changes from overly stringent dieting which can all result in binge eating and weight gain.

Since a highly restrictive diet is almost impossible to maintain for a long time, people who attempt to starve themselves thin often start to gain weight again when they stop dieting. Hence, the reason for embarking on a gradual, long term program that increases physical fitness and well being, at the same time.

Weight loss surgery can be divided into three types

1. Restrictive procedures to reduce the size of your stomach,
2. Mal-absorptive procedures alter the flow from your stomach to your intestine, and
3. Combination procedures that involve the characteristics of both of the above procedures.

This article will be focusing on the first option.

Gastric bypass surgery is one type of weight loss surgical procedures that can be used, and is actually commonly used, to cause significant weight loss for a patient that is exceedingly obese. Gastric bypass surgery is designed to reduce the body’s intake of calories. Calorie reduction through this surgery is accomplished in two main ways

1. After the surgery, the patients stomach is actually smaller than it was. This means that the patient will feel full faster and it will be easier for the candidate to learn to reduce the amount of food that heshe consumes.
2. Part of the patients stomach and small intestines are literally bypassed in the food consumption process so that fewer calories are absorbed by the candidate.

Prior to any successful weight loss operation, the patients doctor will give the patient a complete medical examination to evaluate the patients state of overall health. A psychological evaluation will also be undertaken. If at the conclusion of the consultation and evaluation, the doctor does not feel the patient is ready, then the surgery will not be recommended. Should the doctor recommend the procedure, then the patient will receive extensive nutritional counseling before and after the surgery.

Gastric bypass surgery is always performed under anesthesia. There are two basic steps to the surgery

1. The first step in the surgery makes the patient’s stomach smaller. The surgeon divides the stomach into a small upper section and a larger bottom section using staples that are like stitches. The top section of the stomach will hold any digested food.

2. After the stomach has been divided, the surgeon connects a section of the small intestine to the pouch. This ensures that the food bypassed the lower portion of the stomach.

Gastric bypass surgery can be performed using a laparoscope. This technique is actually far less invasive than traditional surgery. The incisions are much smaller and therefore are a little less painful and a lot less noticeable, which lowers the risk of large scars and hernias after the procedure. Once the small incisions are made in the abdomen, then the surgeon passes slender surgical instruments through these narrow openings, as well as, a camera so that he or she can see the maneuvering of the instruments.

If you have gastric bypass surgery, then you will usually need to stay in the hospital for 4 to 5 days after the doctor performs the surgery on you. Your doctor will approve your discharge to go back home once you are able to do the following

1. Move without too much discomfort,
2. Eat liquid andor pureed food without vomiting it back up, and
3. No longer requiring pain medication to be administered by injection.

You will remain on liquid or pureed food for several weeks after the surgery. Even after that time, you will feel full very quickly. This is because the new stomach pouch initially only holds a tablespoonful of food. The pouch eventually expands but will generally allow you no more than one cup of food.