Source: NaturalNews

It is no secret that our society struggles with weight loss resistance. Researchers at John Hopkins University estimate that by the year 2015 over 75% of Americans will be overweight with a staggering 41% being obese. Many people claim the country’s propensity to overeat and indulge on junk food on a lack of will power; however, science is now showing it may be related to our hormones. New research is showing that healthy sleep cycles have been shown to balance the hormones responsible for food cravings and overeating.

Ghrelin is a hormone that is produced by the stomach during times of famine. This hormone, isolated and named in 1999, stimulates hunger and digestive function. When we fast for several hours, our body begins to increase ghrelin production which interacts with the neurons in the metabolic control center of our hypothalamus, and we begin to feel hungry.

Leptin is a hormone secreted by our fat cells that interacts with the hypothalamus and creates feelings of satiety that shut down our hunger center. When we fast, ghrelin levels rise. When we eat, insulin and leptin levels rise and ghrelin levels drop. Higher levels of ghrelin have been associated with cravings for sugar-rich, calorie-dense junk food.

Many people go on calorie restricted diets in order to lose weight. However, calorie restriction leads to dramatic increases in ghrelin secretion. This results in uncontrollable hunger and eventual over-eating. This is the hormone responsible for the classic starvation-binge cycle that ruins so many weight loss pursuits. This is also why deprivation based weight loss programs have a very poor long-term success rate.

Sleep may be the Most Important Lifestyle Factor for Weight Loss. Researchers at Stanford University found that people who sleep 5 hours or less per night had a 15% greater amount of ghrelin and 15% less leptin than those who slept 8 hours a night. Another study showed that sleep deprived individuals had a significantly greater craving for carbohydrate rich junk food.

Leptin and ghrelin work as a check and balance system to control feelings of fullness & hunger. Poor sleep cycles drive leptin down and increase ghrelin. This drives the individual to have less satisfaction after eating and instead to crave more food leading to weight gain. Overtime the individual will become leptin resistant, which virtually shuts down the body’s ability to effectively burn fat. The sleep hormone melatonin has been shown to help heal leptin receptors and restore normal leptin sensitivity, which is critical for healthy weight loss and fat burning mechanisms in the body. Sleep deprived individuals do not secrete enough melatonin to restore normal leptin function.

Sleeping has also been shown to enhance human growth hormone (HGH) secretion, which is our body’s natural anti-aging hormone. HGH secretion switches our metabolism to burn fat, build muscle, & boost immunity. Elevated insulin levels are antagonistic to HGH. Therefore, eating food (particularly carbohydrate rich food) before we sleep at night is detrimental to our efforts to effectively burn fat.

Keys to a Good Night Sleep:

1) Do not eat within 3 hours of sleep
2) Eat low carbohydrate meals throughout the day and particularly at night.
3) Keep your bedroom cool (around 70F/21C)
4) Light inhibits melatonin secretion so keep your bedroom as dark as possible.
5) If you must eat before bed – have good fat/protein such as a shake with coconut milk, almond butter, cinnamon, & stevia.
6) Regular movement throughout the day helps burn off metabolic waste in muscles and cells allowing the body to relax more effectively.
7) Avoid caffeine and stimulants after 3pm

(NaturalNews) Women who rely on exercise to lose weight are destined to fail, so says a study that appears in the Journal of American Medical Association. Researchers found that exercise alone was useful in maintaining the weight for women, but it had no effect on heavier women.

The study analysed almost 35,000 women over a period of 15 years. The scientists found that for women whose BMI was less than 25 kg/m2, there was a clear dose-response correlation between activity levels and weight gain. It took one hour’s moderate-intensity exercise each day to avoid the gaining of weight. Exercise did not, however, reduce weight and did not even maintain weight among women with a BMI from 25 to 29.9 kg/m2 or in those with a BMI of 30.0 kg/m2 or more. This was true regardless of how much exercise the participants did, with both exercise and nutritional interventions required to successfully reduce weight.

“Among women consuming a usual diet, physical activity was associated with less weight gain only among women whose BMI was lower than 25,” said the study authors. “Women successful in maintaining normal weight and gaining fewer than 2.3 kg over 13 years averaged approximately 60 minutes a day of moderate-intensity activity throughout the study. These data suggest that the 2008 federal recommendation for 150 minutes per week, while clearly sufficient to lower the risks of chronic diseases, is insufficient for weight gain prevention absent caloric restriction.”

The findings, while far from providing an answer to Western society’s battle of the bulge, act as confirmation of what many observers have known for a long time: more sweat on the treadmill does not necessarily equate a smaller waistline. Conclusions that exercise has little effect on weight loss are also premature, as the study did not make any distinction between aerobic exercise, which can inhibit weight loss through increased cortisol release, and resistance training, a preferred option for many personal trainers in improving body composition.

More than anything, the study backs the importance of a nutritional program in any efforts relating to bodyweight management. Women who wish to lose weight should work smart by addressing their nutritional needs before adding exercise related to their goal. Working smart, it appears, is highly preferable to working hard.

References:
http://www.nutri-online1.co.uk/Defa…
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle…

Gettman, L. R., & Pollock, M. L. (1981). Circuit weight training: A critical review of its physiological benefits. The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 9(1), 44-60.

Over half (58%) of Australians would prefer to gain ten kilograms than lose their laptop, according to new research from Sony Australia.

The survey, commissioned by Sony Australia, reveals how integral computers have become to everyday life. According to the research, four in five Australian respondents believe photos, videos and other files stored on their computer are more important than love letters or cards. Additionally, 35% of Australians would save their laptop first if they experienced a house fire, compared to 30% who would grab a traditional photo album instead.

The VAIO Notebook Reliability survey also revealed, rather than losing their notebook:

• Nearly three quarters (72%) would prefer it rained on their wedding day
• Seven in ten (70%) would prefer to have their eyebrows shaved
• More than a third (37%) of Australians would rather miss out on a job promotion

Source: BRENDEN WOOLLEY – VAIO Product Specialist, Sony Australia

Are you one of these people? I know I am!

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You will hear the audio of John’s story on this Conference Call (3.1MB mp3)

• As a 10 year old his mother had her first heart attack. Her weight was 320 lbs
• His father told him to get fit, exercise and eat right
• At age 13 he was into reading about nutrition and fitness and his mother had her second heart attack. Still at 320 lbs.
• At age 15 he started body building
• At age 16 his mother had her third heart attack and nearly died at the age of 42.
• He started his mum on a good nutrition, fitness, strength training and supplement program.
• In 22 months she shed a total of 140lbs moving from 320lbs to 140 lbs. He had “saved the life of the person that had given him life”
• She is now 77 and has an incredible life. She has recently done whitewater rafting, she goes roller blading 3 days a week and square dancing 3 days a week.
• John is now 52 and from the age of 18 has changed people lives and helps people understand about the challenges of heart disease, cholesterol control, blood sugar control with nutrition and exercise.
• For the last 20 years he has been implementing a program of products that helps,
  • fat burning,
  • increasing energy,
  • improving the uptake of amino acids for collagen regeneration, improving skin tone, muscle development, immune system and brain chemistry etc….
  • Facilitation the loss of excess water retention and sodium.

• He is an advocate of generating lean muscle via strength training. Muscle works for you to utilise energy which in turn burns fat.
• At the age of 30 he became Mr America. It was not the “be all and end all” for him. He wanted to be known as a person that helps people.
• He operated a business with 350 trainers under him and has had exposure on many media outlets such as 20/20, Hard Copy etc.
• He had been working with a unique program called “UltraFit”, since 1982, with many people offering him ways to bring it to market but he had always had a dream that his knowledge would be able to be exposed to a global market.
• Strength training is a big part of the program and he has recognised that too much cardio work will actually eat away your lean muscle mass, particularly from the age of 30-32.
• Women have been losing an average of 25lb in 6-7 weeks.
• Men have been losing an average of 35lb in 6-7 weeks.
• He had met with Mark McCool from Cyberwize in 1998, but the timing was not right.
• Now, the timing is right and he has an exclusive agreement with LiveSmart 360 to bring the Ultrafit product, but now labelled as ‘’LiveFit 360”, to a GLOBAL market with LiveSmart 360.
• The program will include when to eat, what to eat, shopping lists, exercise programs, suppplements etc. “Food is not the problem. Food is the solution”. It is a LIFESTYLE and easy to follow.
• You can now earn a living changing people’s lives.
• Your dreams and visions create your destiny
• John works 17 hours a day but “Lives it and Loves it”.
• He is on Facebook and Google his name John DeFendis for a more comprehensive history.

Scientists at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom have discovered a substance that reduces fat uptake in the body by more than 75 percent. This potential obesity fighter isn’t a drug but a natural substance found in seaweed.

The research team, headed by Dr. Iain Brownlee and Professor Jeff Pearson, tested more than 60 different fibers in the laboratory to see how effective they were in absorbing fat. The results? The scientists found that alginate, a natural fiber in sea kelp, blocks the body from absorbing fat far more effectively than anti-obesity treatments currently sold over the counter.

More Info: http://www.naturalnews.com/028525_seaweed_weight_loss.html

The USDA estimates that since 1970, average daily calorie intake in the U.S. has increased by nearly 25 percent.

And we aren’t the only ones with more food on our plates.

Cornell University researchers examined 52 of the most well known paintings of The Last Supper. More than 1,000 years separated the earliest painting from the most recent.

As they report in the April issue of the International Journal of Obesity, plate size and meal size enlarged by about two-thirds over the millennium. Bread size increased too… by nearly 25 percent.

Sounds like some people took the multiplying of the fish and loaves just a bit too far.

Have you ever been told to eat your food slowly? Parents often encourage their children to eat at a moderate rate and chew their food completely. It turns out that this is good advice. Recent research, conducted by three independent groups, suggests that eating slowly actually reduces caloric intake and may help curb the growing problem of obesity.

Fast Eaters Eat More

In 2008, Andrade published a study in the Journal of American Dietetic Association, which shed light on the question of eating quickly. According to Andrade`s research, the rate at which a person eats affects how many calories he ingests.

Two test groups were used in the study. Each group was given a large portion of food and told to eat as much as wanted. However, one group got to use a big spoon and was advised to eat quickly. The other group, however, used a small spoon and was told to eat slowly, taking the time to chew each bite twenty or so times. The result was clear: the slow eating group consumed fewer calories than the fast eating group. Interestingly, Andrade`s research also revealed an interesting fact. It turned out that the slow eaters reported feeling more full after the meal, while the fast eaters reported feeling less full.

Fast Eaters and Obesity

In another study published in the 2008 British Medical Journal by Maruyama et al., it was found that there is a significant link between eating speed and obesity. It turns out that fast eaters are significantly more likely to be overweight or obese. Additionally, those who continue eating until they feel full are also more likely to be overweight. Eating quickly until feeling full is likely the most potent combination for gaining weight.

Fast Eating and Hormones

Perhaps the most intriguing research is this year`s study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism by Kokkinos et al. This research gives us a better understanding of the underlying physiological effect of eating speed. According to research findings, eating speed affects certain hormone levels in our body, which in turn interact with the hypothalamus to create the feeling of hunger or fullness. The hormones PYY, GLP-1, and Ghrelin all play a role. Kokkinos found that levels of both PYY and GLP-1 are significantly higher in the body when a person eats slowly. These two hormones cause a person to feel full. It was found that Ghrelin levels were higher two hours after eating for those who ate quickly. Ghrelin causes the feeling of hunger. This research supports the previous studies. It seems hormone levels are responsible for the fullness slow eaters feel and the hunger fast eaters feel. What`s interesting is that fast eaters feel both less full after eating more food and hungrier just a couple hours after eating than do slow eaters.

Eating Speed and Dieting

These studies can prove useful resources for those trying to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. Do you eat quickly? Do you eat until you feel full? If you answered yes to either of these questions, chances are you are overweight. Of course, if you can change your eating habits and begin to eat more slowly, chewing your food 20-30 times before swallowing, then you will likely begin to eat fewer calories. More importantly, you will actually feel full after your meal, and you will go longer before feeling the need to eat again. It could be that modifying eating speed is the best dieting tip anyone could give. So take a hint from these studies and start eating slowly!

Sources included: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/… http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/… http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/…