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Weight loss

The hazards of weight loss pills reached national attention in September 1997, when the FDA announced withdrawal of Pondimin (fenfluramine) and Redux (dexfenfluramine), two prescription weight loss drugs often prescribed along with Ionamin (phentermine) to create the popular combination known as “fen-phen”. The drugs were withdrawn after they were found to be associated with a progressive, fatal illness known as primary pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure of the lungs), as well as heart valve problems, and neuron brain damage.

By January 1, 2002 American Home Products – the makers of Pondimin and Redux, had paid out $547,128,991 in settlement payments to users of the prescription diet pills; it is estimated that six million Americans have taken one or the other or both.

Americans are dying to be thin!

This March the FDA was again petitioned to withdraw Meridia from the market by consumer group Public Citizen, citing 25 deaths in people taking Meridia, as well as “unacceptably dangerous” side effects including high blood pressure and irregular heartbeat, as well as dry mouth, headache, constipation and insomnia. The FDA approved this drug in November of 1998, while ignoring the majority vote of its own scientific advisors 5 to 4 in favor of not approving the release of Meridia.

The next “runner up” in the prescription weight loss arena has been the latest ‘bomb’ called Xenical. Xenical blocks the absorption of fat from the intestinal tract; a reasonable concept in theory, until one realizes that when they eat fat while taking Xenical the lack of absorption leads to common side effects such as abdominal pain, anxiety, arthritis, diarrhea, dizziness, fatigue, fatty or oily stools, fecal urgency or incontinence, gas with fecal discharge, oily discharge, rectal discomfort or pain, and vomiting, just to name a few.

The main problem with weight loss pills is that they are not a solution for anybody. For people who just want to lose a few pounds, it’s not worth the risk of serious health problems to take any of these drugs. For people with serious obesity, where the risks associated with being overweight are greater than the risk of taking the medication, these drugs are not effective enough, since studies show that they do not produce enough weight loss to overcome obesity. Furthermore, once someone stops taking the medication, their weight goes right back up to its previous level.

So if pills can’t provide a sustainable solution for obesity, what can? One thing is clear: Long-term successful weight control requires the permanent adoption of healthy eating and exercise behaviors. The classic yo-yo effect of dieting and regaining weight is an endless exercise of futility. No matter what the diet, as soon as you go off the diet, the weight comes right back on. Long-term success means sticking with healthy eating habits and exercise permanently. But what constitutes healthy eating and exercise habits?

Of course everyone knows, “eat less, exercise more”, but medical research can now help us with a more specific instructions. Here are the Ten Commandments of Successful Weight Loss:

• DON’T DIET – If you think of a diet as something you’ll be stopping after you’ve lost weight, then you are almost guaranteed to gain it all back.
• Eat more FIBER –Foods that are high in fiber are also generally low in calories, so a high fiber diet often means a lower calorie diet. A recent discovery is that fiber slows down the body’s absorption of sugar. The slower the body absorbs sugar, the less of the heavyweight hormone insulin your body makes. So fiber can promote weight loss by helping to maintain lower insulin levels. Aim for at least 30 grams of dietary fiber daily.
• Pass on SUGAR – Well, it’s certainly not news that sweets can make you fat. We all know that too many desserts, cakes, cookies, candies and the like will pack on extra weight like nothing else. But what is news are the hidden sources of sugar in our diets – those foods that our bodies immediately turn into sugar, as if we had eaten sugar itself. One common example is alcohol – our bodies can turn alcohol into sugar in one easy step. This is the reason, of course, that a drink often serves as an “appetizer” to stimulate appetite. The same is true of refined grains and starchy carbohydrates, such as found in bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and cereals. Our bodies can convert these foods to sugar very quickly. As a result, our bodies make even more of the storage hormone insulin, which slows our metabolism and helps pack on the weight. It’s no surprise that restaurants often serve bread and wine before a meal to boost appetite and make the meal more enticing. By reducing our intake of foods containing or converted quickly to sugar, we can keep our insulin levels low and supercharge our metabolism.
• Boost your metabolism. There is only one proven and safe way to make this happen – exercise! A combination of aerobic and strengthening exercises works best to increase your body’ metabolic rate. Aim for 5 days of aerobic exercise and 2 days of strength training weekly.
• Don’t eat fast food or food fast – Besides being extremely high in fat (and the wrong kind of fat), fast food is just what it’s billed as – fast. Our bodies require the full benefit of time to digest and absorb the necessary nutrients. If time is an issue, instead of grabbing fast food for lunch, try going to a restaurant that has a high quality salad bar, and you’ll have the extra time needed to adequately digest your food without leading to weight gain.
• Move around more during the day. Of course, we all know that exercise promotes weight loss by burning more calories. But what’s new is that even activities that are not considered “exercise” can also burn significant calories. Recent studies have shown that such simple “non-exercise” activities such as “fidgeting” or chewing gum (unsweetened) can produce sustained and meaningful weight loss. Increasing physical activities in other ways such as using the stairs instead of elevators, parking farther away from the office, or using a bathroom farther away from your desk will also help to burn additional calories during the day and will further enhance weight loss.
• Don’t eat late at night. We recommend refraining from eating after dinnertime, and shifting your intake of calories to earlier in the day, while spreading out your calories over the day more evenly, to avoid large surges of blood sugar and insulin late in the day. This improves both metabolism and insulin sensitivity.
• Include protein at breakfast. Most American breakfast foods are simply sources of sugar – sugar-added breakfast cereals, refined grains, muffins, bagels, toast, donuts, waffles, pancakes, croissants – these foods will produce a large early morning surge in insulin that sets us up for weight gain the rest of the day. Eating protein for breakfast is more satisfying and you will eat less the rest of the day.
• Don’t eat under stress – Yes, stress can make you fat! When we are under stress, our adrenal glands boost their output of cortisol, our natural “stress hormone” that allows our bodies to adapt to stress. Too much cortisol can interfere with our bodies’ metabolism. Chronic stress will therefore lead to weight gain through the overactivity of the adrenal glands. Stress reduction techniques such as exercise, meditation, yoga and breathing exercises will help to reduce the levels of cortisol and will help promote weight loss.
• Before eating, ask yourself if you are hungry – If we just ate when we were hungry, a lot fewer of us would be overweight. Unfortunately, we tend to eat not just when we’re hungry, but when we’re nervous, anxious, under stress, angry, to soothe ourselves, or when we see something that we can’t resist. By being mindful of the motivations behind our eating, we will discover the many reasons other than hunger that lead us to overeat. By identifying these non-hunger motivations, we may be able to make choices that satisfy our needs and desires other than eating.

Be healthy – be mindful…stay tuned