Jan 3 2013
New Year’s Resolution?
First off, Happy New Year!!! Hoping your 2013 is healthy and happy.
Now how about those New Year’s resolutions?
I know, I know we all have the same one every year: lose weight. And every year it seems as if we drop the ball. This year let’s try a different approach and see if we can lose some of those unwanted pounds.
You’re not alone!
Shocking: only 1% keep their New Year’s Resolutions for the entire year and 93% blow it by January 12th!
Dieting does not work!
Fad diets typically are impossible, so we quickly return to our usual bad eating habits and add back those lost pounds. So this year let’s try making a few subtle changes instead of extreme ones.
- Eat less. That’s it just eat less, no changes in dietary choices just less. Since 1970 American’s caloric intake has increased 23%, from 2168 calories/day in 1970, to 2673 calories/day in 2008. CDC National Center for Health Statistics, 2010 Example: instead of eating 4 pieces of pizza eat 3, that equates to 25% less calories!
- Eat breakfast. People who eat breakfast every morning are half as likely to be overweight or show signs of diabetes. Children’s Hospital, Boston, 2003. Skipping breakfast can decrease your metabolic rate by 5%, adding up to 10 lbs to your body in a year. Medical College of Cornell University, 2005.
- Eat more often. Usually we skip breakfast, eat a super fast lunch and a huge dinner right before bed. All will add to your weight. The ideal diet is 4-6 small meals. Not eating for long periods can actually lower your metabolic rate 10-20% preventing the use of 250-300 calories a day! Dr. Sears, The Zone
- Less soda. One soda a day can add 15 lbs to your weight in a year. CDC, 2006
- Of course eat better foods as well: lean protein, fruits and vegetables.
Exercise, you thought I forgot!
- This year think baby steps. So many people dive into an extreme exercise program that they just will not continue for a long period of time. It is too demanding so we stop all together. As with diet we have to make changes we can stick with. Start slow!
- Time. We are all so busy that we always feel there is no time, so exercise is left out. Did you know that there are 1440 minutes in a day? That’s right and a beginning exercise program should be maybe 10-20 minutes per day, 3-4 times per week. So what will you do with the other 1420 minutes a day?
- Strengthen your muscles. Most people when they try to lose weight only diet. If they exercise they often focus on aerobic exercise and do not strengthen muscles. Big mistake! Strengthening your muscles requires fuel to help the muscle build. This process of muscle building will actually help you burn fat, even while you sleep. Just a few minutes a day, push-ups, sit-ups etc will do the job.
- Check out the top 100 reasons to exercise from the Surgeon General.
If you have more questions about diet and exercise, and the benefit of chiropractic adjustments, talk to Dr. Lance Casazza. From all of us have a very Happy New Year!
Jan 29 2013
Obesity Epidemic!
Huge Problem: Obesity is simply out of control in the US. Look at the numbers below!
2010 2015
BMI ≥ 25 kg/m² 78.6% 82.4% BMI ≥ 25 kg/m² = Overweight
BMI ≥ 30 kg/m² 46.3% 53.0% BMI ≥ 30 kg/m² = Obese
World Health Organization, 2011 Calculate Your BMI
What is BMI? Body mass index, or Quetelet index, is a heuristic proxy for estimating human body fat based on an individual’s weight and height. BMI does not actually measure the percentage of body fat. It was devised between 1830 and 1850 by the Belgian polymath Adolphe Quetelet during the course of developing “social physics”. Body mass index is defined as the individual’s body mass divided by the square of his or her height.
More Scary Studies! 565,000 deaths a year are related to: poor nutrition, physical inactivity and excessive weight. American Cancer Society.
The adverse effects of obesity cost $86 billion last year and will quadruple over the next decade!
50% of US adults and 30% of kids will be obese by 2018 and costs will increase to $344 billion.
33% of kids and teens in the US (25 million) are overweight. If obesity rates held at current levels, the US would save $200 billion in health care costs. CDC & WHO, 2009.
Type II Diabetes Worldwide! 366 million people worldwide have diabetes. 4.6 million deaths a year or one person dies every 7 seconds. The cost? $465 billion a year!
Diabetes Atlas, Nov 2011.
Watch Your Weight! People 70 lbs overweight will spend $30,000 extra in their lifetime for health care. Scientific American, 2011
Good Idea: Try Exercise! 2½ hours of exercise per week decreases the risk of all disease by 60%.
Framington Heart Study.
“Failure to exercise a minimum of 3 times per week for at least 30 minutes in duration each time is the equivalent of smoking one pack of cigarettes each day. What this means is that exercise is no longer just good for you, it is bad for you if you don’t exercise.” Surgeon General, July 11, 1996.
Okay enough! All right convinced? Now just start a simple exercise program and in minutes a day you can begin to shed some of those unwanted pounds. Even if you are 50-100 lbs over weight losing 5-10 lbs will make a significant difference in your health.
Talk to Dr. Lance Casazza about diet and exercise to start losing weight today.
By Dr. Lance Casazza • Diet, Health and Wellness • Tags: Adolphe Quetelet, Body mass index, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Diabetes mellitus type 2, Obesity, Overweight, United States, World Health Organization