There are many factors that cause us to increase body weight, yet three stand out from the rest.

Our genetic make up Every cell in our body has a central control panel, that is a nucleus that contains our genes and chromosomes. This is the instruction manual for your body and this is inherited from your parents. It is this instruction manual that is largely responsible for how your body, and even your mind, behaves.

The environment in which we live Our personal environment may also contribute or cue you to adopt poor eating or exercise habits. This is especially true in today’s society, which is dominated by speed and convenience. For example, escalators, elevators and remote-control appliances make us less physically active. Also, greater availability and the constant marketing of foods that are high in calories, fat and added sugars, and larger portion sizes promote unhealthy eating behaviors.

There may also be personal reasons why you are consuming too many kilojoules from food and drinks, or not being physically active enough. For example, when feeling down or bored you may eat more than you need, or if you are feeling depressed it is more difficult to get active.

Knowing the reason why you may be consuming excess kilojoules or not participating in physical activity, is an important first step in changing your lifestyle habits to help you reach a healthy weight.

Our lifestyle What we eat and drink and how active we are. This is the gradual gain in weight as a result of eating food and not exercising enough.

The extent to which we can affect our genetic make up and our environment are limited. However, lifestyle is the area in which we can significantly manage and if need be, improve our body weight to ensure we maintain a healthy weight for our height, age and gender. This is why learning a healthy nutritious eating pattern and adopting it for life, that is, lifestyle changes has a significant impact on our ability to reach and maintain a healthy weight.

Gaining and losing weight works according to some a simple biological principle. When you consume more energy in the form of food and drinks that your body uses each day you will gain weight. When you consume less energy in the form of food and drinks that your body requires each day you will lose weight.

Despite what some advertisers would have use believe, weight loss does not occur as a result of any of the following

Supplements that will melt the fat while you sleep or while you wash

Exercises that dont take any effort and cause no sweat

Unique food combinations that will allow you to eat what you want and still lose weight

In order to lose weight you will need to know approximately your Resting Metabolic Rate RMR. Your RMR is the number of calories your body burns at rest in a 24 hour period. When your body gets about 500 less calories than it needs each day as a result of eating less or exercising more, you will lose one pound of weight per week. To illustrate how efficient the human body is in motion, the average female would need to go for a brisk walk for 1.5 to 2.0 hours in order to burn 500 calories.

When you consume 500 calories a day more than your bodys requirements, you will gain approximately one pound a week! To illustrate how easy it is to gain weight, one 7oz bag of corn chips has approximately 1000 calories. If you ate a bag of corn chips every day in addition to three square meals its possible you could gain 2 pounds in a week!

Are you tired of diet tips handed out by someone with apparently unlimited income and time? For some of us, it may just not be practical to spend half of our Sunday preparing carefully portioned meals for the rest of the week, or financially feasible to buy all our meals prepackaged in just the right portions. And there are those of us who cringe at the thought of weighing food to achieve ‘optimal portion sizes’. Here are ten real life diet tips for the rest of us.

1. Eating out? Restaurant portions tend to be enormous, and if it’s on the plate, we tend to eat it. If it’s possible, order from the kids menu, where portions are more reasonably sized.

2. Keep healthy snacks around and easily accessible. A bowl of fruit on the kitchen table, a container of celery or carrot sticks in the refrigerator, or a couple of pop-open cans of fruit salad in your desk at work will help you grab for something healthy when those first hunger pains begin. In other words, you’ll be more likely to grab something low-calorie and good for you if it’s easy to eat.

3. Substitute frozen vegetables for canned. Canned veggies tend to be high in sodium, which you don’t need, and low in real nutrition, which you do. Buy economy size bags with zip closures to make it easy to pour out a single serving for a meal.

4. Buy a vegetable steamer. Steaming is one of the healthiest ways to cook vegetables. The food retains nearly all of its natural nutrients instead of leaching it out into the cooking water. Even better, it makes your veggies taste great – which means you’ll be more likely to eat them instead of filling up on fatty foods that pack on weight.

5. Never eat standing up. One of the easiest ways to sabotage your diet is to ‘eat without thinking’. Treat eating with the respect that it deserves. Fix yourself a plate. Sit down and eat properly. You’ll be less likely to just pop food into your mouth without paying attention.

6. Spread your meals out. When you eat three meals a day, your body tends to store whatever it doesn’t need right that moment. By adopting a ‘grazing’ habit, you’ll keep your metabolism working throughout the day. Have a small breakfast, a piece of fruit with crackers or toast at mid-morning, a light lunch and an ‘after school snack’ mid-afternoon. Just remember that you’re breaking up the same amount of food into smaller meals, not ADDING more food into your daily diet.

7. Grab a fruit juice or flavored water instead of soda. Soda is nothing but empty calories. No nutrients, lots of sugar. Instead, grab a bottle of 100 fruit juice, or water flavored with a spritz of fruit.

8. Drink water. Even the FDA recommends at least 8 full 8 ounce glasses of water a day to keep your body working right. When you’re dieting, you should drink even more. It’s not just that full feeling – water helps your body digest foods properly and cleans out your system.

9. Can’t afford a gym membership? Make a pact with friends to exercise together. Make a date at least three times a week to play volleyball, take a walk or spend half an hour doing something active.

10. Skip the potato chips. Fatty snacks fried in hydrogenated oil like potato chips contribute fat and calories and not much else. Instead, grab a handful of dried fruit or a cup of yogurt for the same amount of calories and a lot more nutritional benefit.

Do you know anyone who can’t consume milk or milk-based products? The condition is not uncommon and these people are classified as lactose intolerant.

Lactose is the main carbohydrate or sugar found in milk, and in varying quantities in dairy products made from milk including yoghurt, ice cream, soft cheeses and butter. Lactose milk sugar intolerance results from an inability to digest lactose in the small intestine.

Back in the cave-days, the only time a person would ever ingest lactose would be when they were infants getting milk from their mothers. During their adult lives milk was never consumed. Only with the invention of agriculture has milk become readily available to adults. Lactose is unique in that only in milk does it exist as a free form, unattached to other molecules.

What causes lactose intolerance?

Lactose is digested in the small intestine by an enzyme called lactase. This enzyme allows the body to break down the lactose into two simple sugars, glucose and galactose. These are quickly absorbed by the intestine and provide energy for the body. The level of the lactase enzyme varies between individuals, as does the severity of the symptoms caused by lactose intolerance.

What are the symptoms of lactose intolerance?

Symptoms range from milk abdominal discomfort, bloating and excessive wind to sever abdominal cramps and diarrhoea.

Substitutes for lactose-containing foods

Lactose intolerance generally isn’t serious and can be controlled by some simple changes in your diet. The dietary changes for lactose intolerance should include the exclusion of those foods highest in lactose. There is now a wide range of fresh soy milks, yoghurts and ice creams which are lactose free and calcium enriched. Many dairy foods actually have little or no lactose so you can continue to enjoy them.

The power of soy protein

Soy-based products are on the rise for very healthy reasons. The humble soybean boasts some extraordinary benefits. Lactose-free, soy protein is a “complete protein” which contains all 9 essential amino acids in the right balance to meet your body’s needs. Soy protein is the only plant protein that is complete. This makes it a great substitute for many meats, allowing you to eliminate more saturated fat and cholesterol from your diet.

While soybeans have much to offer from a protein perspective, it is because they contain so many nutrients, such as isoflavones, that they are now the centre of so much attention. Soy protein enhances the body’s ability to retain and better absorb calcium into the bones. Soy isoflavones help by slowing bone loss and inhibiting bone breakdown.

Lactose-Free Soy Recipes

There are an abundance of wonderful soy recipes that enable you to get all the benefits of soy….without the traditional soy flavour. Further information available at the link below.

One of the first steps to realizing if you are leading a healthy lifestyle or not is determining if you are overweight. Calculating your Body Mass Index or BMI is an excellent first step. Once you’ve determined what your BMI you can use a combination of exercise and nutrition to help you reach your desire weight goal.

If you are trying to lose weight or just maintain a healthy weight, you should understand the connection between the energy your body takes in and the energy your body uses. Energy is taken in through food you eat and beverages you drink. Energy is used by activities performed. To lose weight you have to use more calories than you take in. To maintain, you have to match the calories you take in with those that you use. Eating a healthy diet and being physically active can help you reach either goal.

The number of calories you need each day depends on your age, activity level and whether you are trying to lose, gain or maintain your weight. Your diet should include the most nutritious foods including fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fat free or low fat milk and dairy products. Foods should be rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber and other nutrients.

You also must be physically active. Regular physical activity is important to your overall health and fitness. It can help you control your body weight. Aim to be physically active at a moderate intensity for at least 30 minutes a day. Increase the intensity or amount of time you exercise to have greater health benefits. Children and teenagers should be physically active for at least 60 minutes every day.

To see if you are at a healthy weight you can measure your BMI Body Mass index. To calculate your BMI, multiply your weight in pounds by 704, and then divide by the square of your height in inches. For example if you weigh 162 pounds and are 69 inches tall, your BMI is 162 x 704 divided by 69 x 69 23.9 which is normal.

Underweight

We hear it all the timelose weight for your health. Few people however, realize the extent to which this is critical to their physical well-being and ultimately their life expectancy.

In January 2003, the Journal of the American Medical Association featured a study finding that obesity appears to lessen life expectancy, especially among young adults. The researchers compared Body-Mass Index BMI to longevity and found a correlation between premature death and higher BMIs. For example, a 20-year-old white male, 510 weighing 288 pounds with a BMI of greater than 40 was estimated to lose 13 years of his life as a result of obesity.Jamie McManus, M.D., F.A.A.F.P. and author of Your Personal Guide to Wellness notes that while this study referenced extreme levels of obesity, there are still millions of overweight people in developed countries with a life expectancy rate that is three to five years less than their healthy-weight counterparts. She also estimates that there are 600,000 obesity related deaths each year in America.

Just how does obesity shorten our lifespan? The answer to this question is complex, yet there is a clear link between obesity and the development of cancer. An extensive study conducted by the American Cancer Institute involving 750,000 people showed that obesity significantly increased the risk of cancer developing in the following organs breast, colon, ovaries, uterus, pancreas, kidneys and gallbladder.

Michael Thun, MD, vice-president of epidemiology and surveillance research for the American Cancer Society ACS says one reason obesity may raise cancer risk is because fat cells produce a form of estrogen called estradiol that promotes rapid division of cells, increasing chances of a random genetic error while cells are replicating, which can lead to cancer. In addition, fat centered around the abdomen may increase insulin and insulin-like growth factors in the blood, which may increase cancer risk.

“Women who are obese after menopause have a 50 higher relative risk of breast cancer,” notes Thun, “and obese men have a 40 higher relative risk of colon cancer. Gallbladder and endometrial cancer risks are five times higher for obese individuals.There is evidence that cancer rates in developed countries are increasing at 5 to 15 times faster than developing countries. A major contributor to this alarming reality has proven to be diet. In populations where the diet consists mostly of fresh fruit and vegetables and whole grains in contrast to the typical Western diet of fatty meats, refined flours, oils and sugars the risk of cancer is much lower.

The interaction of diet and the development of cancer is an active field of research and Dr David Heber, M.D., Ph.D. and author of What Color is Your Diet, says It appears that diet has its most significant effects after the cancer has already formed, acting to inhibit or stimulate the growth of that cancer. At the risk of oversimplifying a complex set of interactions, the typical Western diet that leads to obesity may actually act to stimulate the growth of cancer cells.It is never too late to improve your health through healthful eating and adopting a more health-giving lifestyle. Here are simple steps to follow which can make an immediate improvement to your health and vitality.

1. Check your Body Mass Index BMI to determine if weight has become health risk. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 60 of Americans are overweight, defined as having a BMI a ratio of height to weight over 25. Of those, nearly half 27 qualify as obese, with a body mass index of 30 or more. In 1980, just 15 of Americans were considered obese. You can check your BMI at the website below.

2. Match your diet to your bodys requirements. If you eat and drink more calories than your body requires you will put on weight. Learn to control calories and portion sizes, make recipes leaner, and eat infrequently from fast food restaurants. Also learn how to snack with healthful choices.

3. Color your diet with a large variety of colorful, cancer-fighting fruit and vegetables. There are seven different color ranges of both fruit and vegetables and by choosing between 5 to 9 daily serves from a wide range of fruit and vegetables, we are extending our consumption of cancer and other disease fighting nutrients.

4. Eat lean protein with every meal. Protein provides a powerful signal to the brain providing a longer sense of fullness. The right source of protein is essential to controlling your hunger with fewer calories and necessary to maintain your lean muscle mass. Choices of protein should be flavored soy shakes with fruit; the white meat of chicken and turkey, seafood such as shrimps, prawns scallops and lobster and ocean fish or vegetarians may prefer soy based meat substitutes.

5. Rev up your metabolism with activity. If you want to enjoy a lifetime of well-being, exercise is a key ingredient. Colleen Doyle, MS, RD, director of nutrition and physical activity for the American Cancer Society ACS, says adults should do something for 30 minutes each day that takes as much effort as a brisk walk. Children should be active for an hour each day. We are more likely to develop habits around things we enjoy, so seek activities which you enjoy doing. It is also helpful to build physical activity into your daily routine use the stairs instead of the escalator or lift at work, park your car in the parking bay furthest from the super marketing and dont use the remote control to change TV channels.

6. Get support to ensure you develop a healthful eating plan and reach your goal weight. Whilst a small percentage of people possess the discipline to lose weight, many obese people have developed strong thoughts and habits concerning the food they eat. In order to establish new habits, most people respond well to some form of consistent encouragement and coaching. A study, Effects of Internet Behavioral Counseling on Weight Loss in Adults at Risk of Type 2 Diabetes shows that participants who had the support of weight loss coaching lost more weight than those who didnt. The study concluded that the support of a weight loss coach can significantly improve weight loss results.

Being overweight or obese has been identified next to smoking, as the most preventable major risk to developing cancer. Even small weight losses have been shown to have beneficial health effects. So its never to late to start and you can never be too young or too old to be concerned about your health and do something about achieving a more healthy weight.

c 2003 Kim Beardsmore

Everyone knows that carrying extra body fat is a potential time bomb by increasing the risks of getting heart diseases, stroke and certain types of cancers. These are potential killer diseases. By keeping your body fat down, these diseases may be avoided and even prevented.

One of the most popular methods of measuring whether one is overweight is by using the Body Mass Index or BMI calculation. The formula for calculating BMI is-

Body weight in kilograms pounds divided by height in metres ft squared.

The World Health Organization WHO recommends that a BMI measurement above 25 indicates that a person is overweight and a BMI measurement over 30 indicates that he is obese.

However, is this calculation accurate? The BMI recommendation by WHO was based on studies done largely on Caucasians. Thus the BMI recommendation by WHO may be an accurate indication of obesity on an average Caucasian. There are now findings to suggest that people of Asian and African origins have a significantly higher percentage of body fat compared to Caucasians although they may look slimmer than their Caucasian counterparts. Therein lays the danger. If you are an Asian or an African, you may look slim but may carry extra body fat of which you are oblivious to.

As a fitness personal trainer, it is not uncommon that when I measure body fat of my Asian clients who do not look fat physically, their body fat ratio are high.

According to Dr Mabel Yap, Deputy Director of the Department of Nutrition, Ministry of Health, Singapore, ethnic differences in BMI values have important public health implications as they imply that cut-off points for obesity should be lower or higher in different ethnic groups. “Lowering the cut-off point from 30 to 27 in Singapore, for example, would double the prevalence of obesity,” she said.

In a study, the School of Physical Education of the National Institute of Education, Singapore and Wageningen University of Netherlands found that body built of a person does affect the BMI calculation of various ethnic groups. This result was further confirmed by other studies in Thailand and Indonesia.

As commonly known, BMI calculation is not accurate for muscular people muscles are heavier than fat and now, it may also not be accurate across the board for all ethnic groups. For a start, Asians and Africans may want to define their BMI results as being overweight if it is above 23 and obese if above 27.