Should I Weigh Myself Daily

If you are struggling with overweight or obesity, or otherwise would like to maintain your weight or prevent obesity, you may be wondering if it would be beneficial to weigh yourself frequently, and, if so, how frequently.  Recent research has finally shed some light on this question.

Benefits of Daily Weights

A recent study has shown that weighing yourself daily—and then plotting your daily weights on a chart every day—can improve your weight-loss progress, particularly if you are making changes in your dietary habits and specifically trying to lose weight.

Researchers tested daily self-weighing and visual feedback (in the form of the daily weight chart) to see how helpful this could be as a weight-loss and weight maintenance tool over the course of two years. The study authors found a significant difference in weight loss, which was greater in the group weighing themselves daily. This was particularly true for male participants.

Another study also found that daily weighers lost significantly more weight than those who weighed themselves less than daily.

And yet another study, which looked at the effects of daily weighing on weight loss over a six-month period of time, found that those participants who weighed themselves daily were able to lose significantly more weight than those who weighed themselves less frequently.

The Right Combination

What these and other studies seem to show is that it is the combination of weighing one’s self daily and keeping track of these daily weights in a visual format--whether by a chart, graph, or other means—that is most beneficial for helping to achieve meaningful weight loss.

Additionally, since a common mistake that leads to weight gain is not weighing yourself with any frequency, it stands to reason that one way to stay on top of your weight and prevent obesity is to step on that scale every day. If you wait until your pants or skirt are too tight, you’ve waited too long to check in on your weight.

Do yourself a favor and let an objective measurement of your weight, such as the scale, and of your waistline, such as your waist circumference, be the information on which you rely to tell you whether or not you are slowly gaining weight. These, along with body mass index (BMI), are objective measures that you can compare with nationally recommended ranges.

Best Way to Weigh Yourself

The best way to weigh yourself is on the same scale, at the same time, every day. I advise my patients to weigh themselves first thing in the morning on their home scales before eating anything, preferably before they step into the shower so they are not wearing any clothing that can contribute to the final total weight.

For menstruating women, weights can fluctuate depending on the time of month and cycle, and for everyone, weight can vary by a few pounds dependent upon salt intake and water retention. Keeping a log of your weights will show you your patterns over a few months and the relationship of your weight to hormonal and dietary factors.

Your weight will fluctuate from one day to the next and that's normal but weighing every day will keep your mind on the goal, it helps to keep you focused. At the end of a week, you want to see that you're moving in the right direction. And if you log weight, exercise, food, and drinks you can see where your mistakes are and you will slip, but that's normal too. The log will help you get back on track.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Lose Your Belly Fat

I don't often write about something that sounded to me to be an exercise program, but as I read more I realized the article was talking about the foods we ate and how some foods will actually reduce stomach fat.

More over a lot of foods in the grocery store will actually add belly fat quickly. Let me explain, a lot of foods we buy are ready to mix then heat and serve. Or frozen food that you just pop in the microwave, put it on a plate and serve. These foods are a combination of ingredients that the manufacturer puts in the packet or box. If you have to add anything it's just milk or water. The manufacturer wants you to like the product but they have to make a profit so they'll substitute ingredients with chemicals that taste like the real thing and it's those chemicals that make the product addictive and fattening. Always read the ingredients on the box. If you can't pronounce the name "beware".

There are some simple foods that will reduce your belly fat, but we should stop eating foods that are putting on the fat first. The best way is to stop buying foods that are ready to eat. Be careful what kinds of food you order at a restaurant and try and prepare your meals yourself.
The foods that worked for me are eggs, avocados, cinnamon and dark chocolate. Eat them everyday in small quantities. Real dark chocolate you find in the baking section this is not a candy and it's not milk chocolate. Buy the cinnamon in the spice isle and use it as a spice. I like it on breakfast cereal instead of sugar. You can cook with it and add it to coffee or hot tea like you would sugar. Ofter I eat eggs for breakfast but they can be a snack when hard boiled. I like avocados on a sandwich or on a salad. Greek yogurt is another great source of protein. Look for the yogurt with  at least 10 gm of protein. Remember, no processed foods, or enriched flour, don't add sugar to anything, use spices like cinnamon. The most important is to stop drinking calories.

Try these tips and watch the weight come off. 

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

How Long Will You Live?

Or is the question,  or is the question "How Long Can You Live?" or "How Long can I stay Healthy?" This is a post I found on the HealthDay site.

Children of long-lived parents are less likely than others to die from heart disease in their 70s, new British research suggests. "We found that for each parent that lived beyond 70 years of age, the participants had a 20 percent lower chance of dying from heart disease." Specifically, the children of longer-lived parents had lower rates of vascular disease, heart failure, stroke, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, the study found. The findings aren't an excuse to turn into a binge-eating couch potato if your mother and father reached their 80s or 90s. Nor are they a sign that those whose parents died early should just give up. On the contrary, your decisions about your health can reverse trends toward the illnesses highlighted in the study, Pilling said.

I want to stay healthy until I die. I don't want to end up with an oxygen tank dragging behind me or in a wheel chair. I don't want to be pushing a walker

"Though people with longer-lived parents are more likely to live longer themselves, there are lots of ways for those with shorter-lived parents to improve their health. People can really take their health into their own hands," he noted.

Indeed, the correlation between the lifespans of parents and children is actually fairly weak, said Kaare Christensen, a professor of epidemiology with the University of Southern Denmark. As a result, he said, "there is a lot of room for improvement." 

It's known that parents who live a long time are more likely to have kids who live a long time, but Pilling and his colleagues wanted to learn more about this connection -- such as why some people develop heart conditions in their 60s and others don't.

The link between long-lived parents and heart-healthier offspring held even after the researchers adjusted their statistics for factors such as education, age, weight and physical activity. According to the study, some researchers have made similar connections in the past, but they looked at smaller groups of people. 

How might genetics explain the lower risk of heart disease in kids of longer-lived parents? Your genetic inheritance from your parents seems to affect blood pressure, cholesterol levels, tobacco addiction, drug and alcohol dependence, and levels of obesity in the participants, Pilling said.

"These are all factors that affect the risk of heart disease," he said.  "If you have a parent who died young, it is always good if it can be determined why he or she died very early and whether there is an inheritable disease for which there are treatments," Christensen said. But in general, he said, people whose parents died very early are "not generally doomed." That's because of the "low correlation"   between the lifespans of parents and their kids.

I believe that your children inherit your genes in whatever condition their in at the time of conception. I believe your genes will change during your life, depending on your condition. So if your overweight at the time of conception your child may also have that same gene. Of course, if both parents are overweight at the time of conception the child will have a much greater chance that he will suffer from the same obesity gene.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

What Kind Of Shape Are You In

Surprisingly Simple Longevity Tests

No one can predict exactly how long you'll live, but researchers have devised some surprisingly simple tests that are strongly correlated with a risk of early death - or a longer life - in the years to come.  Here's a look at some basic ways scientists are attempting to assess your physical capability and the associated chances of living longer. Being in good shape doesn't have anything to do with "how strong you are".

1.   Sitting-Rising Test:  Developed in the late 1990s by Brazilian scientist Claudio Gil Soares de Araujo at Gama Filho University in Rio de Janeiro, this test simply involves going from a standing position in a small (2 meters by 2 meters) area, to a sitting position on the floor, and then rising again.

Subjects are scored according to how many supports they require to perform the cycle: a point lost for using a hand, forearm, or knee, for example, to either sit or stand.  Another half-point is deducted for generally unstable execution.  A total of 10 points can be achieved for each full cycle.

In a 2014 paper published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, Araujo and others discovered that older adults had a 5-6 times greater risk of mortality during the 6.3-year follow-up period, if they scored only 0-3 points on the test, relative to the top-performers scoring between 8-10 points.  A total of 2002 adults between the ages of 51 and 80 years participated in the study.

Araujo's team writes that the Sitting-Rising Test (SRT) is a simple gauge of musculoskeletal fitness, with the capacity to predict mortality among community-dwelling adults in this age range.

2.    Grip Strength:   The strength of your hand grip is typically measured using an electronic dynamometer.  In numerous studies, a stronger grip has been linked with lower all-cause mortality, especially among older adults. In the 2014 UK study of adults aged 53, women's grip strength ranged from 21kg (46lb) to almost 34kg (75lb), while the men squeezed from 36kg (79lb) to 54.5kg (120lb).  Averaged across both sexes, and taking other risk factors like body mass index, smoking status and physical activity levels into account, the 53-year olds with the poorest grip strength had anywhere from a 29% to 98% greater risk of death from any cause during the 13 years of follow-up.

3.    Standing Balance Time:  The same 2014 BMJ paper examined how long its subjects could stand on one foot with their eyes closed.

 The resulting times were short, with a maximum average of just 19 seconds for men, and 10 seconds for women.  The good news: achieving simply those brief standing balance times was linked with lower mortality.  Poor performers of the standing balance test -  clocking in at just 3 seconds for both women and men - had a 2.5 greater chance of dying from any cause, during the 13-year study.

4.    Sitting Height:  If you think your overall height is the only tallness measure researchers are interested in, you're wrong.  Sitting height, an anthropometric measurement which compares the relative proportions of the torso and legs, has been linked in Western populations to the incidence of heart disease. Greater leg length (and less relative sitting height) has been viewed as an indicator of better childhood health, which may protect against age-related illnesses like heart disease and diabetes in adulthood.  

5.    Gait Speed:  Can how fast you naturally walk say anything about your longevity?  Yes - according to epidemiologists from the University of Pittsburgh and elsewhere, in their 2011 paper published in JAMA. The researchers examined 9 separate studies involving a total of 34,485 participants and found that among both sexes, gait speed was linked with survival at all ages. A natural gait speed of 0.8 metres/second (about 1.8 miles/hour) corresponded with average life expectancy for each age; walking faster than that as a natural pace was linked with better than average longevity.

Since walking requires energy, balance, and engages multiple organ systems to work together, the researchers suggest slower speed may indicate hidden illness or poor overall conditioning.

6.    Waist to Height Ratio:  Some researchers believe that waist to height ratio - calculated by dividing the waist circumference in centimetres by a person's height (also measured in centimetres) is a better predictor of disease than weight or body mass index.  The advice is simple: keep your abdominal fat down, and make sure your waist measurement is not greater than half your height.

Bottom line:  These tests are simple tools to measure the statistical probability of an early death, as indictors of overall health and conditioning.  You can improve your own odds of living a long, healthy life by staying physically active, eating an anti-aging diet, staying active within your social circle, keeping stress at bay, not smoking, and drinking only in moderation.

I like the Waist to Height Ratio as being the best way you have to know that you have too much fat. Some woman become very concerned with fat arms or fat legs but the only fat that's important is belly fat. Once you lose your belly fat the fat in other places will also drop off. 

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Why Do We Have Fat?

Good question. Human and other mammals are built to store body fat for times when they have no food and to insulate their organs in the cold weather.  Some body fat is necessary; we need it to cushion the organs in our body. Also, our body burns good fats like fats from plants, like avocados and nuts, as fuel to create energy.  Approximately  30% of all the calories burned every day to create energy come from fat that you eat or stored fat that your body keeps in reserve.

So why is fat bad? you might ask. There is good fat and bad fat, I'll explain. Your body will try and process all the food and drink you consume, but some things that we eat can't be processed; it has no value to the body, so it's stored in fat cells for an emergancy. But in modern times we have no need for stored fat we wear clothes to protect us from the weather. When your body processes food it separates it into food it can use and the waste it can't use, but if your body can't process something or you over eat and the body hasn't the time to process it, then it gets sent to fat storage cells before the body can process it.

Our ancestors needed this system of fat storage because Man  never knew when he would find food again. Because of the active lifestyle of our ancestors, always doing physical work, always walking about, there was never any thought about Man storing too much fat. Man was not designed to deal with excess body fat. Man was designed to store fat whenever possible for the purpose of survival. And yes we were given brains to deal with our evolution because over time we would evolve. But in spite of the brains we were given, we haven't done a very good job of maintaining our bodies. The body has no mechanism  to control our weight. We have no way of knowing that we are eating too much.

Our activity level is much lower than our grandparents even. Today we do most of our work with our mind's. Yes, we do small things to keep us active, but the average office worker is only on their foot about 4 hours a day.  So we do have to be more active all day long whenever possible. But that's not our only problem; American are in the habit of eating whatever and whenever they want. We have food available 24/7 and on average we consume twice the calories we should.

Her lies the problem. To stay healthy and keep a healthy weight you have to burn the calories you eat. Simply right? Not really. If man had a fresh food diet and only fresh food like vegetables, fruits and lean meat and some whole grain like brown rice and there was no other food; than Man wouldn't have a weight problem. As long as you were moderately active you couldn't eat enough to gain weight. But today we eat all types of food that give us no nutrition; the body can't process this type food and stores it as fat. We consume too much fatty foods that overload the Liver, so if the Liver can't process all the fat  it passes through into the blood stream and clog up the arteries.

To be healthy and stay healthy you have to stick to a fresh food diet. Look up "The Mediterranean diet" and look for the food pyramid that shows all the choices. If you eat healthy you will lose body fat over time. By walking more, and I recommend the 10,000 step a day program for beginners that don't exercise regularly,  you can lose the weight quicker. But losing weight does take time. Don't get discouraged, stick to the program and don't cheat. Cheat days only ruin all the good that you've done.

The Atkins Diet is an alternative. It's a little more restrictive, but it works. Check out both those, they are the best one I know.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Want To Live A Long Healthy Life?

If someone told you there really is a fountain of youth, would you believe him? What if it was one of the world’s leading cancer doctors? David Agus, MD, says you can live longer, stave off disease and feel younger than you ever thought possible if you follow his advice. Dr. Agus teamed up with Mehmet Oz, MD, to share these longevity-boosting tips.

Tip # 1: Automate Your Life
We all have busy schedules, and sticking to a routine can be difficult. But Agus says automating things like when you go to sleep, eat meals and exercise can add years to your life. According to Agus, it doesn’t matter how many meals you eat -- it could be three or even five -- as long as you eat them at the same time each day. Why? Eating meals at different times causes your body to go into stress mode, which raises cortisol levels, says Dr. Oz. High levels of cortisol lead to spikes in insulin, which causes inflammation and can increase the risk of cancer.

“If you want to live a longer, healthier life, schedule it,” says Agus.

Tip # 2: Pop This Pill Daily
You don’t have to wait for a headache to take an aspirin. Agus suggests you ask your doctor about taking this powerful anti-inflammatory pill once a day. Studies have shown that daily aspirin reduces the risk for heart attacks and strokes as well as for dying from common cancers, including colon, prostate, brain, lung and pancreatic cancer.

Aspirin therapy isn’t for everyone, so talk with your doctor before you start.

Tip #3: Stand Up
Sitting all day could be worse for your health than smoking cigarettes, says Agus. “Women seem to be more severely affected by inactivity than men,” he adds. A recent study found that women who sat for six or more hours a day were 40 percent more likely to die during the 13-year study than those who sat fewer than three hours a day.

“Bursts of exercise is not the answer; 2 hours of exercise per day will not compensate for 22 hours of sitting or lying,” says Agus. He suggests finding ways to move more during the day. Take the stairs instead of the elevator and pace when you’re talking on the phone. When you’re watching TV, don’t just sit there. Cook, fold laundry, empty the dishwasher or march in place. I have a stationary bike that I ride when I watch TV. If you have a desk job, make sure you get up and move every 30 minutes.

“Medicine can’t do it alone,” says Agus. “Patients need to take matters into their own hands -- and only then can we end illness and enjoy the fountain of youth.”

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. 

Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Sitting Is The New Smoking

Now studies show that 8 hours of sitting, which applies mainly to office workers, is just as bad as smoking and to go a step farther, if you're not exercising that also is just as bad for your health as smoking is. And if you're a smoker that doesn't exercise you need to get real friendly with your doctor. He's going to become your new best friend.

When you see someone smoking, you might question “Why would you do that to yourself when you know it could kill you?” Do you react the same way when you know someone doesn’t exercise? You should. Not exercising is a problem that affect everyone in America because we have lost the need to walk. Walking is the exercise that will help all that ails you. It gets your blood pumping and good circulation is key to good health.  Especially in North America people drive everywhere. I'm guilty of driving to the mailbox on occasion. We only walk 4000 or so steps a day. Back in the day when we all lived without a car or only had one car per family we were much healthier just because we walked more and we ate more fresh foods.

Today smoking is not as common place as 50 years ago, but  we had fewer cases of cancer as a percentage of population than we have today. Why, because we were more active and we ate more fresh foods. You wouldn’t dream of smoking (and if you do smoke, you’re likely trying to quit), so why poison yourself with inactivity? But many of us do. Nearly 80% of us don’t get the recommended amount of exercise. Many experts agree the inactivity epidemic is more concerning than the obesity epidemic. Far more people are inactive then obese, but because inactivity doesn't cause cancer then it isn't as important. 

The benefits of exercise are numerous and irrefutable. It helps prevent heart disease, diabetes, breast and colon cancer, dementia, depression, and more. If you exercise, chances are you’ll live a longer, healthier life. Period.

What’s so powerful about exercise? Take heart disease, for example. Heart disease is associated with inflammation in the body. Exercise is a natural inflammation fighter. When you move, your muscles send out anti-inflammatory chemicals.

Also, every time you get up and move, your blood sugar, cholesterol, and triglycerides improve. When you sit down, they get worse. It’s just about moving more. Most of us remember our grandparents and maybe they lived into their 90's, but in their generation, they walked a lot more and did more physical work and probably had a lot less stress. More physical activity and less stress, maybe that's the secret to a long, happy life.

If you’re not active now, I’m sure it sounds overwhelming to start an exercise program. The good news is you can see health benefits with even a small amount of activity. Even taking a daily 5-minute walk around the office will improve your health. Slowly build up from there.

Ultimately, you want your goal to be 30 minutes at least 5 days a week of moderate exercise. We’re talking about a brisk walk– hard enough that you can talk comfortably but not able to sing. But take your time getting there. Throw in resistance exercises a couple of days a week, and you’re on track.

If you’ve tried exercise before and didn’t lose weight, don’t be discouraged. You are still getting health benefits even if you’re not shedding weight. If you’re overweight but active and fit, you can expect to live as long and healthy as someone who is normal weight and fit. Even if you’re obese, being active helps you live a longer, healthier life than a normal weight person who isn’t active. Losing weight is more about diet, so even if your active and fit, you're not going to lose weight until you change your diet. Increasing your physical activity will make you a healthier person and losing weight will even make you healthier. I'm 70 years old and I don't take medications. My Doctor said I'm very healthy for my age, keep it up.

Think you’re too old for it to matter? Hardly. Regardless of your age, getting active has enormous benefits even in your 80s and beyond. We’re not just talking about living longer, but living better with a higher quality of life.

As British-American anthropologist, Ashley Montagu once said, “The idea is to die young as late as possible.”

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.