A Critical Role For Clinicians And The Health Care System

Weight Loss Supplements In Saudi Arabia

Do you think that your butt and thighs are too big in relation to your upper body? Diets often do improve cholesterol, blood sugar and other health markers in the short term, but these gains may result from changes in behavior like exercising and eating more vegetables. Obese people who exercise, eat enough vegetables and don't smoke are no more likely to die young than normal-weight people with the same habits. A 2013 meta-analysis (which combines the results of multiple studies) found that health improvements in dieters have no relationship to the amount of weight they lose.

Speaking of summer BBQs, watch the condiments you use at any outdoor shindigs. While ketchup and BBQ sauce are popular choices, they're not the healthiest. Ketchup may pair well with burgers and hotdogs, but it typically contains around 19 calories and 4 g of belly-bloating sugar per tablespoon, and BBQ sauce is just as unhealthy, if not worse. To avoid consuming empty calories and unhealthy added sugar, have condiments on hand such as mustard and sauerkraut. While mustard will rev up your metabolism, sauerkraut will help balance the bacteria in your gut.

Marie Pierre St. Onge, Ph.D., assistant professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and research associate at New York Obesity Research Center, says some studies have shown that sleep deprived people produce more ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite. But the problem is not just physiological. It's psychological, too, she says. In brain scans of sleep-deprived people, St. Onge says, the portion of the brain involved in rewards and pleasure lights up when they eat—more so than their well-rested counterparts.

Mid-life is often a time of stress and worry, says Scott Kahan , MD, MPH, the director of the National Center for Weight and Wellness in Washington, DC. In addition to managing our personal lives, we often have stressful careers, the challenges of raising children, paying a mortgage, and so on, not to mention having to start to think about retirement, 'empty-nesting' and so forth," Dr. Kahan says. The more stressed out we become, the less likely we are to do the things we should to stay healthy such as exercise and eat right.