The number of overweight children is growing at such an alarming rate. In a nutshell, children today are now spending less time playing outside and exercising, therefore having more time in front of the television, computer, or video game consoles. A normal family today may have less free time to prepare nutritious, home cooked meals for the day. This situation is further worsened by the hectic schedules and high-pressure demands of work and school. Being quick and easy now seems to be the mindset of people, both young and old.

Since before, the number of overweight children and adolescents has more than doubled. Ten percent of kids up to five years of age and more than fifteen percent of children aging from six to nineteen are overweight. If these numbers are combined with the percentage of children who are at risk of becoming overweight, about one out of three children are affected.

Another related study on sleep has also found that lack of sleep in children aged nine to twelve is linked to an increased risk of being overweight. The researchers included in this study were working on a project called Sleep ImageIn that seeks the link between sleep duration in third and sixth grade children and their risk of being overweight. One of the researchers said that many children are not getting enough sleep, and that lack of sleep may not only be making them moody or preventing them from being alert and ready for school, but it may also lead to a higher risk of being overweight.

The researchers in this study found that children who slept for less than nine hours a day were at increased risk of being overweight, and this was unaffected by race, gender, socioeconomic status, or quality of their home environment. Among the sixth graders, those who slept the least were the most likely to be overweight, and among the third grade children, those who slept the least were most likely to be overweight in sixth grade, regardless of their BMI body mass index, used for measuring obesity in third grade. On a more positive note, this study found that every extra hour of sleep in the sixth grade was connected to a 20 percent reduction in risk of being overweight in the sixth grade, while in the third grade this was connected to a 40 percent reduction in being overweight in the sixth grade.

Based on their findings, the researchers noted that sleep patterns may have a behavior impact on children. Those who get enough rest have more energy to exercise, such as playing outside instead of lying around and watching TV. And when children are tired, they may be more irritable and moody, and may use food to regulate their mood.

Sleep studies such as this can contribute to the healthcare that children need for proper growth. Researchers advised families who struggle to get their children to go to sleep at a reasonable hour, to seek help from their health care provider. By enforcing an age-appropriate bed time, or even revising school start-times, major improvements can be made to ensure that children have enough of health-giving rest and sleep.

If you are considered overweight, whether you know it or not, you are in the majority. In America, it has been recently estimated that 65 of the population is overweight with 30 being at least clinically obese. To add to this alarming statistic is the estimate that 15-20 of the nations children are overweight. Now, obesity is beginning to spread more and more to countries that have always had a relatively low rate of obesity, like China and Japan. This is one case where being in the majority is not considered a good thing. What really matters is, how being overweight or obese affects your overall health.

According to the body mass index, you are considered overweight if your index is between 25 and 29. If your index is over 30, you are considered obese. The American collage of sports medicine defines obesity as an amount of body fat that increases the risk of disease. As a general rule, more than 25 body fat for men and more than 32 body fat for women is considered obesity.

Lets look at some of the most likely reasons that so many people are obese.
1 overeating
2 lack of exercise
3 genetic predisposition
4 psychological problems
5 too slow a metabolism
These are some of the things scientists are investigating as to the likely causes for obesity. Most of these can be overcome by lowering the fat in the diet and by exercising.

Regardless of the reasons for overweight and obesity, there is health risks associated with these conditions. According to the U.S.Surgeons report
A bodyweight of more than 20 over ideal constitutes a definite health hazard.
Obesity is associated with a reduced life expectancy.
Risk factors for heart disease such as high cholesterol increase.
Obesity increases stress on the body joints.
Obesity increases the risk of surgery.
The presence of diabetes is nearly 3 times higher in overweight people.

According to the experts, all of these risk factors can be improved by a reduction in weight. Some have estimated that a weight loss of 10 can improve the risk factors for heart disease by 20. Also, the greatest health benefits are reported to occur with the first 20 pounds of weight loss, which means that even if it seems to be hard to lose weight, it is still worth doing it. If you dont lose all of the weight you want to lose, you can still improve your risk factors by losing some of the weight.

You can make losing weight a little easier if you just set a small goal at first, then when you reach that goal, set another small goal and aim for that. A good target is to try to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week. It is within reason to try to lose 10 of your current bodyweight, or 20 pounds in about six months if you are overweight.

Who does not desire to have a fit and shaped up body? Perhaps we all do. Overweight is the biggest enemy of our health. But factors such as sedentary work, lack of time to exercise and the availability of delectable fast food have made it extremely difficult to have stabilized weight.

It is not only a persons appearance that is badly affected by being overweight but also his fitness. Usually obese people keep on confronting one or the other health problem. There are times when excess of weight becomes a mental torture and leads to depression.

It is quite an easy task to gain weight but immensely difficult to reduce it. Though there are various remedies prescribed to shed weight, all cant to followed or trusted. One old and quite effective way to become light is the use of Atkins Diet.

Dr. Robert Atkins 1930-2003 was the father of Atkins Diet. In 1972 he popularized the diet in his famous series of books. In practical application also the diet turned out to be quiet successful. Thus it became more and more popular with time.

Dr. Atkin believed that carbohydrate is the primary reason behind gaining weight. This is because carbohydrates are composed of energy providing items such as sugar, starch, cellulose and gums. So if a person reduces the intake of carbohydrates carbs he or she can greatly get rid of many pounds. Thus people should avoid potatoes and other starchy vegetables along with sugar, grains, pastas and fruits for these are the major sources of carbs. In the opinion of Dr. Atkins doing this will translate a carbohydrate-burning metabolism to a fat burning one. Atkins diet is critical of carbs related but not of fatty and protein rich stuff. In fact it recommends its users to eat food that provides them fats and proteins. In the case of proteins it particularly emphasizes the consumption of animal protein.

Though atkins diet has done wonders in many cases, it has many shortcomings. If this diet is quite popular with one set of people, some others are enormously critical of it. this is because of several reasons. Firstly Atkins meals are not only low in carbs but contain negligible amount of essential vitamins, minerals, fiber and other nutrients. Secondly atkins diet is flourishing with cholesterol boosting fats that can be very troublesome. Thirdly since atkins diet promulgates animal protein, vegetarians find it difficult to adopt it. In the fourth place according to the American Heart Association AHA, a high protein diet is not adequate to lose weight. So diets such as Atkins can cause nutritional deficiency and other cholesterol related problems cardiac arrests in the long run. Finally critics believe that eating meat and other high protein products can lead to osteoporosis, colon cancer, heart diseases and renal diseases.

However the best way to reduce weight is to avoid excess as well as complete elimination of anything. A person should take a diet rich in essential nutrients vitamins, minerals, proteins, fibers etc., stay away from fatty foods as much as possible. Also carbs such as sugar should be consumed in a regulated manner.

You can be overweight and still be relatively fit. But it depends if the extra weight you carry is muscle or fat. If the extra pounds are muscle, your risk of disease is lower than if this weight was fat. If your extra weight is fat, you are at increased risk of diabetes, cancer and stroke even if you exercise.

However, this doesn’t mean you’re not benefiting from exercise if you’re overweight or obese. You are. Regular exercise can help reduce the risk of certain diseases. However, your weight is also important to your health. For example, if you’re overweight or obese, you can reduce your risk of heart disease if you exercise but you’re still at increased risk of diabetes if you don’t lose weight. Also, carrying extra pounds into your 40s and 50s may put you at increased risk of developing diabetes and heart disease later in life even if you have no other risk factors for these diseases.

Still, it’s important to remember that the number on the scale isn’t the whole key to your fitness. Even thin people are at increased risk of heart disease if they’re not active. The exercise you’re doing helps improve your overall health. So keep it up.

Regular physical activity is an essential component to maintaining muscle and a healthy weight. Health experts recommend at least 30 to 60 minutes of moderate-intensity activity five or more days a week. To lose weight, increase the duration and intensity of your exercise, eat a healthy diet and cut back on your portions.

When combined with a reduced-calorie diet and regular physical activity, weight loss medicines can help people struggling with their weight, to lose weight over a consistent period of time. People who use these drugs may not feel as hungry, or they may feel full after eating only a small amount of food.

Weight-loss medicines include diethylpropion brand name Tenuate; phentermine brand names Apidex-P, Ionamin, Pro-Fast; sibutramine brand name Meridia; and orlistat brand name Xenical. Unlike other weight loss medicines, orlistat works by keeping your body from digesting some of the fat that you eat.

Although some weight loss supplements containing ephedra, ephedrine or caffeine are available without a prescription, it is not known whether these drugs are safe. Such supplements have been linked to reports of heart attack, seizure, stroke and death. It is important to talk to your doctor if you are considering taking a weight loss supplement or if you are already taking one.

Weight loss medicines tend not to be offered to people who are just a little overweight, but rather are reserved for people who are very obese. In fact, most weight loss medicines are designed for people who weigh 20 or more above what is the ideal recommended weight for their height and body type or who have a high body mass index BMI. The BMI is a measure of your weight and height. Your doctor can tell you if weight loss medicines might be helpful for you.

At the end of the day, there is no magic cure for being overweight. Weight loss medicines can help you get off to a good start and are a great way to get motivated early on, as you see fast results. But once you stop taking them, the weight you lost may well come back if you have not also commenced a well balanced eating plan, and begun an exercise program. To keep the weight off, you must eat a healthy low-calorie diet and be physically active on a regular basis. You must continue these healthy habits even after you stop taking the medicine. Remember that losing weight and keeping it off is a lifelong effort.

If you decide weight loss medicines aren’t right for you, you can still meet your weight loss goals. It’s important to develop healthy eating habits, but don’t expect to change everything overnight. Start by training yourself to eat without doing anything else at the same time.

It is also important to be physically active. A good goal for many people is to work up to exercising for at least 30 minutes, 4 to 6 times a week. Regular exercise helps you burn calories faster, even when you are sitting still. Exercise also helps you burn fat and build muscle. Aerobic exercise raises your heart rate and helps you burn calories. Aerobic exercises include swimming, brisk walking, jogging and bicycling. These are ideal exercise options for people who want to burn calories on a regular basis. Anaerobic exercise, such as weight training, is also good because it adds muscle mass to your body and allows you to burn even more calories.

Your body weight is really controlled by the number of calories you eat and the number of calories you use each day through things like exercise and physical activity. This means that to lose weight, you actually need to take in fewer calories each day than you use so that there is deficit in calories consumed. There are two ways to do this – by becoming more physically active or by eating less each day. Following a weight loss program that helps you to become more physically active and also decrease the amount of calories that you eat, is the best way to achieve successful weight loss.

To lose weight and keep it off, you should be aware of the different types of programs that are available. You should also look at what makes up a good program. Knowing this information can help you select a weight loss program that will really work. The four types of weight loss programs include

Do-It-Yourself Programs

1. Any effort to lose weight by yourself or with a support group either on or offline, fits in the “do-it-yourself” category. People using a do-it-yourself program rely on group support, and products such as diet books, for advice.

Non-Clinical Programs

2. These programs tend to be commercially operated, such as privately-owned, weight loss chains. They often use books and pamphlets that are prepared by healthcare providers but use counselors who are not usually trained healthcare providers. Some of these programs require participants to use the program’s food or supplements.

Clinical Programs

3. This type of program is usually provided in a healthcare setting, such as a hospital, by licensed health professionals, including physicians, nurses, dietitians, andor psychologists. In some clinical programs, a health professional works alone; in others, a group of health professionals works together to provide services to patients. These clinical programs offer services such as nutrition education, medical care, behavior change therapy, and physical activity. Clinical programs may also use other weight loss methods, such as very low calorie diets, weight loss drugs, and surgery, to treat severely overweight patients. All of these programs would be carefully supervised during implementation.

Surgery

4. Gastric bypass surgeries are combination procedures that use both restriction and malabsorption to achieve weight loss. Because it is a combination approach, it tends to be more successful for weight loss than purely restrictive surgeries. Gastric bypass surgery may be an option if you are significantly obese and have tried unsuccessfully to lose weight on diet and exercise programs and are unlikely to lose weight successfully with non-surgical methods.

If you are considering a weight-loss program and you have medical problems, or if you are severely overweight, then programs or surgery run or conducted by trained health professionals are probably your best option. These professionals are more likely to monitor you for possible side effects of weight loss and will help you to lose weight successfully and safely.

Whether you decide to use the do-it-yourself, non-clinical, or clinical approach, the program you opt for should help you lose weight and help you to keep it off by teaching you healthy eating and exercise habits that you will be able to use for years to come.

Are you looking into the different ways that can help you to lose weight? Have you tried a number of different diets in the past but still find yourself being overweight? Are you fed up with being fat? Do you yearn the day when you can buy the type of clothes that you really want? If you have answered yes to any of these questions then this article could well prove to be of benefit to you.

I am somebody who until a few years ago would have answered yes to all of the above questions. I had tried many forms of diet, I would buy clothes that suited my size rather than the clothes I actually wanted to wear. I was without doubt fed up with being fat and was desperate to find a way of losing weight which would last.

In my opinion the answer to all of weight problems was quite simple. I do not need any fancy diet, what I needed to do was to think in a logical way. I first of all had to ask myself a number of questions

Question. Why are you overweight?

Answer I eat far too much food and drink far too much alcohol. The food that I do eat is basically fat food such as crisps, chocolate, takeaways and microwave food. I also do very little exercise, therefore I do not give my body a chance to burn off some of this fat. I tend to rarely walk anywhere, I prefer to drive.

Question. Why have you been unsuccessful with your past dieting attempts?

Answer I did not really follow the program. I may have done for the short term but certainly did not over the longer term. I also gave into temptations by eating food types which I was not really supposed to.

Question. How much do you want to lose this excess weight?

Answer. A huge amount.

Question. So why do you not follow the dieting programs to the letter?

Answer. I am weak, I suppose.

As you can see, the answers to my weight issues are in the answers to these questions. Quite simply I need to

Be more disciplined

Be more determined

Be stronger

Walk and exercise a lot more

Eat in a much more healthy way

Cut down my intake of alcohol

Stick to the above for the long term

A couple of years ago I started to implement my new logical form of diet and I am happy to report that I am now at a size that I am happy with.

Everywhere we look in the western world we are inundated with pictures, images, icons and inferences of the ‘perfect’ female shape! The truth is that many of these images are altered or enhanced in some way and do not depict the typical female form. The pressure to lose weight is immense when we are bombarded every day with media selling products based on slimness, sex appeal and fashion. The constant message is that slimness will make you desireable.

With the current demographic trends in western countries, and faced with a sea of high fat, high sugar combined with physical inactivity; it is time to pay attention to our weight but not for any reasons of desirability. The most important reason for wanting to be a healthy body weight is for health rather than for how your body looks.

Overweight and obesity are major public health problems in western countries. Since the 1980s both adult men and women have become heavier, with obesity rates more than doubling in the last 20 years! Children are also becoming heavier. There is a growing concern that we are inadvertently training our overweight children to become obese adults. It has been said, we are digging our graves with out teeth! So how can we determine what is a healthy body weight for each individual?

How you tell if you are overweight

As we are all different shapes and sizes, there is not one recommended weight for your height. Instead there is a range of weights that are healthy for your height. One way to check your weight is to calculate your Body Mass Index or BMI.

Your BMI is a ratio or comparison of your height and weight expressed in a number. To find out your BMI you need to divide your weight measured in kg by your height measured in m squared. If you do not know your measurements in the metric system you can find any number of BMI calculators online that will do the conversion for you into empirical measures. One such calculator is at the website listed below.

The accepted definitions of weight categories by BMI are

Underweight – BMI less than 18.5
Healthy weight – BMI between 18.5 and 24.9
Overweight – BMI equal to or greater than 25 and up to 29.9
Obese – BMI equal to or greater than 30

These BMI values only apply to adults aged 18 years and over and are based on studies of Caucasian populations. Therefore, they are not applicable to children and adolescents and they may not be appropriate for people of other cultural backgrounds.

Another way to check your weight is to measure your waist circumference, using a tape measure. This gives you an idea of whether you have a lot of fat stored around your middle. Waist circumferences associated with increased health risk are

For men Waist circumference greater than 94cm
For women Waist circumference greater than 80cm

Being a healthy weight can help

- improve blood cholesterol levels, blood pressure and blood glucose levels
- reduce your risk of other health related problems
- improve self confidence and self esteem
- make it easier to be physically active.

If you are obese or overweighttry not to gain additional weight. This will help you in years to come as people tend to increase weight with age. Better still look after your body and follow a healthy lifestyle incorporating a nutritious, delicious, health enhancing weight loss program. Just by losing 10 pounds you can significantly improve your overall health.

c 2004 Kim Beardsmore

Have you ever wondered why there are so many diets out there on the marketplace these days? With new diets popping up on the Internet and in health and wellness journals all of the time, the phrase yo-yo dieting says it all. If the South Beach Diet doesnt work, there is always the Beverly Hills Diet, or the Cabbage Soup Dietorthe list seems endless! If you are a serial dieter then you literally have no end to the options you can pick and choose from.

What you really need to know though, is that it is not the diet that controls the weight loss, it is the person behind the diet. If you have not yet come to understand what, if any, importance food weighs in your life, and you are bouncing from one diet plan to the next diet pill, to the next gym membership then you need to realize that it isnt the diet that is failing you, but rather it is you failing the diet.

So what are some of the key things you can do to stay on track for a healthy lifestyle that involves a long term weight loss plan? Try these options

1. Dont follow a diet plan, but instead count your calories – You can buy a calorie chart at any bookstore and keep track for yourself how many calories you are consuming daily.

2. Stay away from fatty fast foods – Fast food restaurants may be fast and easy, but they serve up high calorie food that isnt nutritious in the long run.

3. Make water your best friend – Water is an essential part of life. Everyone needs water because it helps to lubricate our joints. There are minerals in water that our body needs and our metabolism needs water in order to help us break down the protein in our body to supply energy. A person needs to drink at least 2 liters of water daily!

4. Stay away from alcohol – Alcohol dehydrates you. If you want some proof, remember your last hangover? After you came away with the sluggish, headachy feeling, were you craving a big glass of water?

5. Dont skip meals – People mistakenly believe that if they skip meals they will lose weight? Skipping meals will just make your hungrier in the long-run and you will eat MORE food.

6. Stay active – Discipline yourself to be physically active. Dont overdo it and check with your doctor first. Create a program that you can work with. Set realistic goals and look around your environment for ways that will increase your physical activity without interrupting your day. Take advantage of any stairs you might have at home or in the office. Dont take the elevator or escalator, take the stairs!

7. Gather support – Talk to your family members and loved ones. Involve them in your new healthy lifestyle. Plan family outings where there is a good amount of walking. Plan vacations with activities in mind that will involve the entire family. The commitment to lose weight is within yourself.

Strengthen your resolve and keep your goals small and attainable.

Her name is Dr Suzanne Gudakunst, and she’s marching to the beat of a different drum.

And no, nothing about her “secret” is difficult — nor does it require that you do something completely out of the ordinary or anything unnatural.

Instead, the Arizonian boasts proudly “…this is something that I caught onto just before 2002 when there was so much research and exploration going around concerning the human colon and digestive system working in harmony with nutritional absorption, and I started doing independent studies just to test things at first … but which I later expanded on after seeing some fantastic results.”

This same woman medical practitioner went on to accurately determine a definitive correlation between harmful plague and parasitic infestations of the human bowel tract, and people suffering chronic obesity — and who despite intense diet and exercise appeared to be unable to lose any weight whatsoever.

Over the course of six years the Arizona doctor developed a number of natural treatments for the removal of these same harmful, even life-threatening plaques and rapidly reproducing digestive parasites — and when applied to even worse-case patients suffering extreme obesity 98 of which were in immediate danger of dying she saw a 100 effectiveness and success rate.

She then borrowed from her research on the severely obese, and applied the same strategies on milder cases of overweight persons — only to find the same effectiveness and quality results as described above although the individual weight loss per subject wasn’t nearly as much as those obese patients 100 lbs to 200 lbs or more overweight.

So powerful is her secret that she’s able to reverse diabetes, rid illness altogether in people suffering from cancer linked directly to poor diet and overweight factors, as well as an elimination of an entire spectrum of serious and otherwise life-threatening diseases.

Nearly 100 of all her case subjects were told in the alternative by “conventional doctors” that they either had just months or years to live, or they would never live a life anything resembling remotely a “normal” existence — yet after applying Dr Suzanne’s treatments saw a complete contradiction to others doctors’ prognoses.

Again, nothing about her secret is unnatural or requires someone to do any major action or modification in their lives.

In fact, her entire treatment is based completely on built-into-nature ‘protection agents’ scattered throughout the world in the form of select herbs, extracts, and organic constituents, and which can be found in a variety of plants — but when combined in specific combinations and carefully chosen amounts make for a solution to what is perhaps the world’s worst ever plague OBESITY and the illnesses and diseases resulting from it — or at least severely aggravated or exacerbated by it.

Now to everyone else’s great gain, whether suffering from just a few extra pounds and inches, to those extremely fat and overweight, this brave, bold lady doctor is releasing to the general public her secret for forever destroying the tight unrelenting closed-fist of obesity’s stronghold over the now more than 40 of Americans labeled obese, and others worldwide.

But she’s not promising any of us for how long.

Some experts and sociologists suggest that in the bigger scheme of things, the world will never tolerate a discovery of such magnitude, any more than it would be realistic to expect a car that runs on water even if very real to ever become commercially available to the general public for day-to-day use.

One well-respected and famous diet & wellness author wrote years ago that if anyone ever “truly unlocked the keys to permanent fat loss, they may actually suffer the same fate as JFK.”

It is currently available at

…so you may want to head on over there now and get it and before someone or “something” gets it forever yanked out of ever getting in YOUR hand at least.

It’s in a very easily readable format and is quickly and readily understood and mastered by anyone with even a 4th grade reading level.

While you’re there, why not scroll down and review for yourself the huge successes others are now having with this incredible breakthrough in rapid, massive weight loss and extremely improved and enhanced health, now made freely available to the rest of us?