Weight Loss Apps

For those of you with both a desire to lose weight and a smartphone, here is some interesting information on useful (and often free!) apps for weight loss.

Personally, I use Lose It!, as I find it simple and fun to use to track calorie intake as well as energy expenditure against a daily budget for weight management.

Alli- over the counter weight loss medication

Alli (R) is the over-the-counter equivalent of prescription Xenical (R), and is approved as safe and effective in weight reduction by the Food and Drug Administration.

It is safe to take with other medicines except for Coumadin (R) or warfarin the prescription blood-thinner, and organ transplant medicines.

When taken with meals, it keeps about 20% of the fat in the meal from being absorbed into your bloodstream and then being deposited into fat cells. This 20% then is excreted in your bowel movements, which may make them oily looking.

Yes, that's right. No meal is absolutely zero fat. A fifth of the fat in your meals isn't going to your belly or thighs, but is excreted out of your body. That's the point!

Alli is capable of working as well as any other medication, assuming that you change how you eat in order to minimize this side-effect rather than not taking the pills when you plan to eat pizza or ice cream.

The oily bowel movements are not intended to be punishment; it's probably better than all the fat in meals being fully absorbed and deposited in your fat cells. However it can lead to improved eating habits, too.

This mechanism of action of this medicine is particularly of interest to folks at risk for diabetes, since the growth of abdominal fat cells is what ultimately causes diabetes in the first place!

Disclaimer: I have no financial or other interest in Alli, Xenical or its manufacturers. I am only interested in helping my patients to lose weight safely and effectively.

Weight Loss Recipes

Successful and sustained weight loss requires all three of the following:

1. Reduction in total calorie (fuel) intake: eating less, reducing size of portions, avoiding snacks.
2. Reducing calorie density (richness): not buying or eating foods over 30% calories from fat (the upper left corner of any nutritional fact label), such as "junk" foods, "fast" foods, sweets and so forth.
3. Increasing calorie expenditure (exercise): walking, bicycling, sports, swimming, treadmill, elliptical trainer...

The problem is that human physiology is fantastic for surviving starvation. This is great if the food runs out, but not so great if food is abundant.

I get a lot of questions about healthy food choices and specifically suggestions or recipes, so here are some useful links to healthy recipes that range from simple to complex, basic to elegant:

New York Times: Recipes for Health
Recipe Source: Diabetic Recipes
All Recipes: Healthy Cooking Recipes
Epicurious: Healthy Food Recipes

Bon appetit!

Can I keep from becoming diabetic?

Short answer; yes.

This doesn't seem to get as much media airplay as it should, but then no one stands to profit much by extolling the virtues of moderate diet and exercise habits.

Becoming diabetic should concern you if you are overweight, and especially if diabetes runs in your family, you have high blood pressure or abnormal cholesterol tests. In fact, it's not so much what the scale says as your waist circumference (at the belly button, not at the hips). Over 40 inches in men and over 35 inches in women predicts folks who are likely to develop diabetes.

The good news?

Losing weight can reduce your odds of becoming diabetic by about 80% or more, and it doesn't take as much as you probably think. Losing 5-7% of your weight will do it. If you weigh 200 pounds, that means losing 10-14 pounds, not the usual 30-50 pounds that people often say if I ask them.

This can be done by limiting your calories to 1,800/day, avoiding any food over 30% calories as fat (check the Nutritional Fact labels) and getting a fast walk in for 30 minutes, 5 days a week. Just enough to break a little sweat will do. Sorry, "being on my feet all day" doesn't help. Yes, just eating smaller portions does help. The problem here is that many people eat up to 3,000 calories a day!

Most folks can lose about 4-6 pounds a month this way. 10 pounds off lowers your blood pressure by 8-10%, which is as good as starting doses of medicines for this. 7% weight loss, and you really cut down your odds of ever seeing me every 3 months for diabetes.

You get a taste for it and want to keep losing weight because you feel better and like what you see in the mirror, well the rest is gravy!