Weight loss for teens

I did it for my health. To be honest, it floored me that the teens mentioned health reasons for losing weight just as frequently as appearance-related reasons, because over and over I’ve read that teens are not motivated by health. (It’s hard to give up burgers and fries because of that heart attack you might have when you ‘re 50 or 60.) Nineteen year old Taylor S, who once weighed 250 pounds, says, “My main concern was to become healthier, rather than losing weight. I didn’t want to die in my forties because of my eating habits. Among the things I stopped drinking and eating were soft drinks, sweets, and any other type of junk food item. I was simply focused on taking care of my body. To my surprise, I began losing weight quickly. and this gave me motivation to continue. Gradually, in a period of one and a half to two years, I got down to my current weight of 150.” (He’s 5′9″) Angel W, who weighed 240 pounds, says that one of her main motivations for losing weight was high blood pressure. Her 65 pound weight loss brought her blood pressure down to a normal, healthy tips number – without medication. Vincent J, who weighed 130 pounds when he was about 5 years old, says, “When I was trying to sleep, it became harder and harder for me to breathe. I was so tired that I’d fall asleep in class. My gym teachers told me that if I didn’t lose weight, I would have a heart attack.” Today he weighs about 145 pounds and is 5′5″.

I wanted to look better. Zack A says, “I wanted to look hot!” Now, there’s honesty for you. Along the same lines, a good number of teens talked about wanting to look good in clothes – or out of them. Lee J says, “I wanted to wear cute, trendy clothes.” The turning point for my son Wes was his first college visit. “It was near the beach, and I wanted to be able to take my shirt off when I wore a swimsuit and look good for girls,” he says.

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I wanted to feel better about myself. Jenni O wanted to lose weight because she was depressed and sad, and wanted to feel good about herself. She also wanted to slim down for health and appearance reasons. Ben G says, “I was sick of being upset and depressed whenever I looked in the mirror or just felt fat.”

I wanted to improve my relationships. Many teens told me that they were motivated because they wanted to fit in better with their peers and/or to attract the opposite sex. Mary N says, “I always had lots of friends, but I could never get a boyfriend. Before I started dating my first serious boyfriend, I remember him telling me about this girl he was obsessed with. He said she was so hot. I asked him what he thought of me, and he said that I was cute. After he broke up with me, I didn’t want to be cute anymore. I wanted to be beautiful. I also knew that if I was to date again, I would first need to build up my self-esteem. At that time, I had lost both my first love and all of my self-esteem. I knew that my poor body image had a lot to do with my self-esteem.” All of this encouraged Mary to start on the path to losing 50 pounds, which she did more than 3 years ago.

I was tired of the teasing and ridicule. 13 year old Jorgey W says that before she lost more than 100 pounds, “every day, I would come home crying.” She remembers being chased around the playground, with her pursuers yelling, “Run, fatso, run,” and she was harassed both on the Internet and by phone because of her weight.

My weight held me back. About a quarter of the teens said that one of the main reasons was that their weight kept them from doing things and they wanted to change that. Paula D says, “I didn’t ever feel like doing anything, because I never wanted to go out.” Most of the comments about being held back came from kids who wanted to participate or do better in sports or other physical activities. Cole G says, “I wanted to play sports competitively, and I couldn’t with my weight the way it was.”

Don’t let the world get you down – Advice from the teens

Know that you’re above that behavior.
I felt that I was just bigger and better because I wasn’t the person that was making fun of another person and trying to make them feel bad. - Molly S

Realize the people who do that probably have some self-image problem and they’re trying to make themselves feel better. Just don’t acknowledge it. They’re like children, and if they don’t get attention, they’ll probably stop. - Ben G

Kids are teasing you about your weight because they’re insecure about themselves. Don’t let it get to you. - Kristy C

Don’t fight back
My advice to those who are overweight is “Don’t fight back if you are being teased.” It’s been my experience that the situation only becomes progressively worse if you do. Let them do what they want. When nothing happens, they will eventually leave. - John W

Just ignore them and don’t talk back to them, or it’ll be worse. The kids who made fun of me are now trying to help me lose weight and trying to support me. - Summer A

Believe that it’s what’s on the inside that matters
I reminded myself that I was beautiful on the inside and that’s what mattered to me. - Jenni O

I think the main thing an overweight teen can do to cope with teasing is to remember that as long as they love themselves, it doesn’t matter what those other kids say. - Mary N

Turn to your real friends
To cope with being teased, talk to your friends. They can always make you feel better. More often than not, your friends have been teased about something before, too, and they know how it feels. Although we all know that parents have been there and that they care about us, it’s different when a friend says something nice about you than when your parent does. - Emily B

I have great friends who have always been there through thick and thin – literally. - Sandra D

Know that weight loss is the best revenge
Keep your head up. Ignore them. Avoid them. Lose the weight and let that speak for itself. - Victor F

Looking good is a great motivator, and losing the weight and being able to show it off is the best payback. It’s great to see the people who called you names when you were younger and be so much hotter than them. High school is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. And the kids who are cruel usually end up not being able to cope with the real world and continue to be stuck in high school. It’s great to get the last laugh. - Bella S

Reason #1: Too much snacking. Molly S feels that oversnacking was the number one cause of her weight gain. Now, her mother says, “we have nothing very snack food related in the cupboard. Ice cream, cookies, chips, et cetera, have been replaced by fruits.”

Reason #2: Portion sizes too large. Erin D says that her portions were three times larger when she was overweight than they are today. “Now,” she says, “when I go to fast-food restaurants, I can’t eat a whole value meal. I’m satisfied with a kid’s meal.”

Reason #3: Not enough exercise. Victor F was able to lose 50 pounds by exercising four or five times a week, as well as by learning about and practicing good nutrition. Three years later, he still finds time to exercise regularly, even though he’s in medical school.

Reason #4: Ate too many sweets and desserts: Wes G, who feels that his number one reason for gaining weight was eating too many sugary foods, says that a major difference for him now is cutting out his nightly “giant bowl of ice cream.” (He still eats occasionally.)

Reason #5: Emotional causes (eating when lonely, bored, or sad). Sari M became overweight when her father left the family. Now when she feels like eating for emotional reasons, she usually goes to a coffee house, “where the drinks are all fairly low calorie and I can be around people and friends who will hopefully cheer me up.”

Reason #6: Spent too much time in front of the TF, computer, and/or video games. Christine F says that too much TV and computer time were the major culprits in her weight gain. The most important thing she did to lose weight was “exercised! It took a while to get motivated, but as soon as there were visible results, I was hooked.”

Reason #7: At too much fast food. Mick J told me, “Throughout middle school, I have memories of my mom bringing me a McDonald’s dinner every day after school.” Now he eats “very little fast food” and says, “I haven’t set foot in a McDonald’s since 1999.”

Reason #8: It runs in my family. With two parents and several other family members who were obese, Victoria H feels that genetics were the number once cause of her weight problem. She once weighed close to 500 pounds but has been able to lose and keep off at least 250 pounds for about 7 years. Although she is still heavier than she’d like to be, Victoria is realistic about her weight goal because of her family history.

Reason #9: Drank too much soda. Ally S sees this as the number one cause of her weight problem. When asked to describe the most important thing she did to lose weight, she replied, “I stopped drinking soda and sugar beverages. Now I only drink milk and water.”

Reason #10: Too many fattening foods served at home. This was on Sandra D’s list of culprits. She says, “My parents struggle with their own weight, so their examples were not in my best interest. I’ve lost a lot of weight because of the choices I’ve made, not because of their influence. However, they do drive me to the gym and buy healthy foods for me.”

Teens' dance aerobics

Teens often lose weight against heavy odds. Their experiences challenge conventional assumptions about teen weight loss and the role parents play in it.

Misconception: Teens who come from an overweight family have little hope of losing weight and keeping it off.
Facts: Sixty of the 70 teens who answered the question whether anyone else in their family was overweight said that at least one parent was. 23 of them said that both parents were overweight. Nicole S is typical. Her mom and dad are overweight. She decided to lose weight at 16, when she weighed 293. Although her family didn’t think she would do it, they encouraged her to try. Three years later Nicole weighs 145 (she’s 5′5″).

Misconception: Teens who have been overweight since they were young are unlikely to be able to lose weight and keep it off.
Facts: Many of the teens said that they first becase overweight when they were quite young – more than half said it was at age 10 or younger. The average age they reported becoming overweight was nine had a half. 15 year old Sandra D told, “I’d always been overweight, even when I was little, and I didn’t want to stay that way.” Part of her motivation for losing more than 50 pounds was that she was tired of being compared to her nonidentical twin sister, who never had a weight problem. “Now,” Sandra says, “we’ve both grown – and shrunk – to develop a relationship based on who we are instead of on the physical differences that separated us in the past.”

Misconception: Teen who have tried and failed at losing weight many times before don’t succeed.
Facts: Although it certainly isn’t physically or physchologically healthy for any teen to go on and off diets repeatedly, the teens provide hope for those who have tried and failed at weight management. When I asked many times they tried to lose weight before they finally succeeded (counting only the times when they lost at least 5 to 10 pounds), 7 out of 10 indicated that they’d lost and gained multiple times. Forty of them had tried to lose weight three or more times in the past. Sandra D, says, “There were so many times when I felt like trying was pointless but I finally did it. And if I could do it, then anyone can.” Wes G says, “It took me many tries until I really wanted to lose the weight for myself enough to succeed.” Kelly D, who tried to lose weight 3 or 4 time before succeeding, says that teens need to do some experimenting. “Keep trying new things until you find something that works,” she advises.

Misconception: It’s best to avoid talking about dieting and weight loss with overweight teens because it’s likely to trigger an eating disorder such as bullmia or anorexia nervosa.
Facts: The vast majority of teens losing weight are living proof that overweight young people can lose weight without developing such an eating disorder. Some studies do suggest that teens who say they diet regularly may be at higher risk for eating disorders than nondieters, particularly when they use restrictive and unhealthy dieting methods. That’s why teens need to be educated about how to lose weight in healthy ways and to be shown healthy role models. In fact, Kerri Boutelle, PhD, a weight and eating disorders expert at the University of Minnesota, states, “Several studies actually suggest that teaching teens healthful methods to control their weight may reduce weight concerns and the risk of subsequent eating disorders.”

The truth is, far more teens in our society are overweight than have eating disorders. For instance, the eating disorders bulimia and anorexia nervosa affect no more than 4 to 5 percent of teens. Yet more than 1/3rd (34 percent) of 12 to 19 year olds in the US are overweight or at risk for being overweight, according to a 2006 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association. James Anderson, MD, a weight expert at the University of Kentucky who works with teens, sums up the situation this way: “The risk of inducing eating disorders in overweight teens is very low, and the risk from their untreated obesity is much higher.”

Misconception: Teens don’t want help from their parents in managing their weight.
Facts: When I asked the teens what role their families played in their weight management efforts, a strong majority indicated that their families helped them. (Only five teens indicated that their families got in the way.) Both the teens and their parents emphasized that it’s important to let it be the teen’s decision to slim down if and when he or she is ready. But that doesn’t mean kids don’t want help and support from their families in their weight management efforts. When John W was losing 75 pounds, he says, his “family was always supportive and willing to give advice. Now they make healthier meals for the whole family.”

Misconception: Teens who say they’re “on a diet” invariably have unhealthy eating habits.
Facts: Of the teens who said they went on a diet, only some used the word as most people think of it – that is, they actually followed some sort of food plan to help them cut back on calories so they could lose weight. Few said that they followed restrictive diets, and two of those who did went to comprehensive medically supervised programs. When asked to detail their “diets,” a good number of teens simply described a healthful way of eating. Aaron T describes his diet this way: “Having smaller portions, eating the ‘right’ foods, eating more whole-grain foods, and balancing out what I ate – with the help of a nutritionist.” Mia R says, “I just stopped eating so much and so frequently. I also incorporated more fruits and vegetables in my diet.”

Similarly, University of Minnesota researchers Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, Ph D, RD, and Mary Story, Ph D, RD, who ran discussion groups with more than 200 seventh through twelfth graders to see how they defined “dieting,” learned that more often than not, teens mentioned healthful behaviors when talking about dieting – making comments about things such as eating less fat, more fruits and vegetables, less junk food, and fewer greasy foods. Another University of Minnesota report, on the dieting habits of more than 16000 teens suggested the same thing for teens who had tried to lose weight using nonextreme measures.

It’s the teens who go to extremes with dieting who are at risk for having poor diets and health problems. In yet another study, Dr Neumark-Sztainer and her coworkers found that teen dieters who used unhealthy strategies such as fasting, skipping meals, smoking cigarettes, and vomitting consumed less of some important vitamins and minerals than did teens who used healthy weight control techniques such as eating fewer sweets, more fruits and vegetables, and fewer high-fat foods. Teen weight expert Thomas Robinson, MD, of Stanford University says, “I have no problem when teens lower their calorie intake by following a healthy, balanced diet. The goal is to lose weight without compromising nutrition.”

Misconception: To lose weight and keep it off, teens need to give up desserts and fatty foods.
Facts: The teens talked repeatedly about the importance of not depriving themselves. Many indicated that they eat foods such as ice cream, chocolate, and pizza at least once a week. McKenzie K says, “If you cut everything out, you’ll go crazy.”

Misconception: The methods that adults use to lose weight are inappropriate for teens.
Facts: A number of experts say that overweight teens shouldn’t count fat grams and calories, keep food records, or “work out” the way an adult might, because these things might lead to an unhealthy obsession with weight and food. However, these are the very strategies many of the teens I interviewed used to reach a healthy weight. They don’t seem to be obsessed in an unhealthy way. In fact, virtually all of them stressed that the quality of their lives is far better since they slimmed down.

Misconception: Overweight teens shouldn’t go on diets because they will just gain the weight back.
Facts: Some of the teens I interviewed in weight loss programs in which they were placed on “diets” to help them eat less – and they’ve kept the weight off. Moreover, those who lost weight this way recognize that it’s crucial to get rid of the “diet mentality.” They’ve shifted from the idea of doing something temporarily to accepting that they have to continue doing many of the things they did to lose weight if they want to keep it off. Katie S says that she loosely followed a popular diet when she started losing 94 pounds. Today, however, she says, “when people ask me if I went on a diet, I say, ‘No, I changed my lifestyle. This is forever. I will never go back to how I used to eat.’” Likewise, Xavier L, who went to Weight Watchers and followed its Points system, whch some would consider a diet, advises, “You must change your lifestyle. This is a lifelong process. It isn’t about a day, a week, or a month.”

It’s true that some studies suggest that teens who report going on a lot of diets are heavier than nondieters, but it’s hard to know if they really were dieting – that is, if they actually ate few enough calories to lose weight. Eric Stice, PhD, a University of Texas researcher who studies teens and dieting, concludes, “I don’t think that dieting causes weight gain. On the contrary, I think that effective dieting results in weight loss – and not many dieters cut back on calories long enough to actually lose weight.” He adds, “We need to help teens diet effectively and in healthy ways as well as to make changes in food and activity that are not just temporary.”

• When choosing breads, cereals, rice, and pasta, always choose whole-grain, high-fiber, low-fat varieties, preferably without added sugar, coloring, or unnecessary preservatives. Choose brown rice over white rice, and whole-grain pastas over pastas made from white flour.
• Eat your vegetables and fruits fresh and, preferably, raw as often as possible. Water-soluble vitamins such as vitamin C may leach out of foods during cooking, be damaged by overprocessing, or be destroyed when foods are overcooked. Even fat-soluble vitamins, which are fairly stable during low-temperature cooking, can be affected by frying. For this reason, it is best to steam or microwave vegetables rather than boiling or frying them. And, unless produce is organically grown, be sure to peel or thoroughly wash it before eating to reduce such unwanted elements as waxes and pesticides residue.
• Select low-fat and nonfat varieties of milk, yogurt, and cheese. These provide the most nutrients and the least amount of fat. When eating meat, poultry, or fish, choose the leanest cuts available, trim off any excess fat, and bake or broil the foods instead of frying them.

Select as few foods as possible from the fats, oils, and sweets category. When you do use fats and oils, choose monosaturated and polyunsaturated fats instead of saturated ones. Limit your intake of sweets. Choose fresh fruits instead of cakes, cookies, and other high-fat desserts.

Food labeling

Food labels are required to include a “Nutrition Facts” section that identifies how many servings are found in each container, and how much of the following components each serving contains:

For the last four nutrients, the amount is expressed only as a percentage of Daily Value – a recommended daily intake based on a 2,000-calorie diet. For most of the other nutrients listed, the amount is expressed both in grams or milligrams and as a percentage of its Daily Value. Reference values are provided to show how much total fat, saturated fat, cholestrol, sodium, total carbohydrates, and dietary fiber should be included in both a 2,000 calorie and a 2,500-calorie diet.

Then there are the numerous potentially confusing terms you find sprinked across food labels. What many people do not know is that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has actually standardized some of the terms used on the labels of products it regulates, as well as on processed meat products that are regulated by the USDA. Following are definitions of some of the most frequently used terms:

Free: This means that the product contains no amount of, or only “physiologically inconsequential” amounts of, one or more of these components: fat, saturated fat, cholestrol, sodium, sugars, and calories. For instance, “calorie-free” means that there are fewer than 5 calories per serving. “Sugar-free” and “fat-free” indicate that there is less than 1/2 gram per serving of sugar and fat, respectively.

Low: This means the food can be eaten frequently without exceeding dietary guidelines for one or more of the following: fat, saturated fat, cholestrol, sodium, and calories. Thus, the following terms are used:
Low fat. 3 grams or less per serving.
Low saturated fat. 1 gram or less per serving
Low sodium. Less than 140 milligrams per serving.
Very low sodium. Less than 35 milligrams per serving.
Low cholestrol. Less than 20 milligrams per serving.
Low calorie. 40 calories or less per serving.

Lean and extra lean: The following terms can be ued to describe the fat content of meat, poultry, seafood, and game meats:
Lean. Less than 10 grams of fat, less than 4 grams of saturated fat, and less than 95 milligrams of cholestrol per serving and per 100 grams.
Extra lean. Less than 5 grams of fat, less than 2 grams of saturated fat, and less than 95 milligrams of cholestrol per serving and per 100 grams.

High: This means that one serving of the food contains 20 percent of more of the recommended daily intake of a particular nutrient.

Good source: This means that one serving of the food contains 10 to 19 percent of the recommended daily intake of a particular nutrient.

Reduced: This term denotes a nutritionally altered product that contains 25% less of a nutrient or of calories than the regular, or reference, product.

Less: This denotes a food, whether altered or not, that contains 25% less of a nutrient or of calories than the reference food.

Light: This designates a nutritionally altered product containing one-third fewer calories or half the fat of the reference food, or a low calorie, low-fat food whose sodium content has been reduced by 50 percent.

More: This means that one serving of the food, altered or not, contains a nutrient in a quantity that is at least 10 percent more than the reference food of the recommended daily intake.

Saturated fats, which are usually solid at room temperature, are found primarily in animal products, including fatty meats like beef, veal, lamb, pork, and ham; and in dairy items such as whole milk, cream, ice cream, and cheese. For example, the white marbling you can see in a piece of beef is saturated fat. Some types of vegetable products – including coconut oil, palm kernel oil, and vegetable shortening – are also high in saturates.

The liver uses saturated fats to manufacture cholestrol. Therefore, excessive dietary intake of saturated fats can significantly raise the blood cholestrol level, especially in people how have an inherited tendency toward high blood cholestrol.

Guidelines issued by the National Cholestrol Education Program (NCEP) and widely supported by most experts recommend that your intake of saturated fats should be kept below 10 percent of your total calorie intake. However, for people who have severe problems with high blood cholestrol, even that level may be too high.

Polyunsaturated fats are found in greatest abundance in corn, soybean, saffflower, and sunflower oils. Certain fish oils, particularly those containing the omega-3 fatty acids, are also high in polyunsaturates. Unlike the saturated fats, plyunsaturates may actually lower your total blood cholestrol level. In doing so, however, large amounts of polyunsaturates also have a tendency to reduce your HDLs – your “good cholestrol.” For this reason – and because, like all fats, polyunsaturates are high in calories for their weight and volume – the NCEP guidelines state that your intake of polyunsaturated fats should not exceed 10 percent of your total calorie intake.

Monosaturated fats are found mostly in vegetable and nut oils such as olive, peanut, and Canola (rapeseed). These fats appear to reduce blood levels of LDL cholestrol without affecting HDLs in any way. However, this positive impact upon LDL cholestrol is relatively modest. The NCEP guidelines recommend that your intake of monosaturated fats be kept between 10 and 15 percent of your total calorie intake.

Although most foods – including some plant derived foods – contain a combination of all three types of fats, one of the types usually predominates. Thus, a food is considered “saturated” or “high n saturates” when it is composed primarily of saturated fatty acids. Similarly, a food composed mostly of polyunsaturated fatty acids is called “polyunsaturated,” and a food composed mostly of monosaturated fatty acids is called “monosaturated.”

One other element, trans-fatty acids, might also play a role in blood cholestrol levels. Trans-fatty acids occur when polyunsaturated oils are altered through hydrogeneration, a process used to harden liquid vegetable oils into solid foods like margarine and shortening. One recent study found that trans-monosaturated fatty acids raise LDL cholestrol levels, behaving much like saturated fats. Simultaneously, these trans-fatty acids reduced HDL cholestrol readings. Much more research is necessary, since some studies have not produced clear-cut conclusions about these substances. But your dietary choices could become less matter-of-fact than they now appear. For now, however, it is clear that when your goal is to lower cholestrol, polyunsaturated and monosaturated are much more desirable than saturated fats, and are probably more desirable than any kind of hydrogenated fats.

Fat calories are different

Clearly, unlimtied dietary fat and cholestrol increases the risk of heart disease and other life-threatening conditions. This alone should be sufficient reason to limit dietary fat. Yet there is still another reason, especially for those of us who are wathcing our weight.

Carbohydrates, protein, and fat all provide the body with the energy it needs to function. This energy is measured in calories. But ounce for ounce and gram for gram, these nutrient do not supply the same number of calories, nor do the calories they provide all affect the body in the same way. Carbohydrates and protein each have approximately 4 calories in every gram, but fat has approximately 9 calories per gram. So on a gram-for-gram basis, fat is more than twice as fattening as carbohydrate or protein. It is no wonder, then, that when people want to lose weight, one of the smartest things they can do is to cut down on fatty foods.

In addition to having more calories than protein or carbohydrates, fat is metabolized differently by the body. Excess fat in your diet is more likely to be stored as body fat than is excess carbohydrate or protein. This is because dietary fat is similar in chemical composition to body fat, so it takes less energy to convert it into body fat. In fact, it takes only 3% of the calories in the fat you eat to turn that food into body fat, while it takes at least 25% of the carbohydrate and protein calories you eat to convert them into body fat.

It is important to recognize that although fat and cholestrol are essential for good health, you do not always need to get these substances from your diet. After two years of age, in fact, the body requires only small amounts of dietary fat, and needs no dietary cholestrol at all, as the liver is capable of manufacturing whatever is necessary. In spite of this, most of us consume very large amounts of both fat and cholestrol – in many cases, enough to increase our health risks significantly. Excessive fat intake is an important causative factor in obesity, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, and colon cancer. Excessive dietary cholestrol increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. How do these substances contribute to these life-threatening disorders? To understand this it is necessary to learn a little more about the actions of fat and cholestrol within the body.

Understanding cholestrol

Cholestrol is a white, waxy, fatty substance that is produced by the liver and is also present in foods of animal origin, including beef, poultry, fish, cheese, eggs, and dairy products. In general, the more cholestrol you put into your body by eating such foods, the higher hte level of cholestrol in your blood will be. But dietary cholestrol is not the only thing that determines your blood cholestrol level. Dietary fat – especially saturated fat – and the cholestrol that your liver manufactures on its own also play important roles.

Pure cholestrol cannot mix with or dissolve in solutions like water and blood, so it is combined in the liver with other substances – fats and proteins – to form particles that are capable of moving through the bloodstream. These particles, called lipoproteins, carry cholestrol from the liver to the parts of the body where its is needed, and then bring it back again for removal from the body. A distinction has been made between two principal types of lipoproteins: the low-density lipoproteins (called LDLs, or LDL cholestrol) and the high-density lipoproteins (called (HDLs, or HDL cholestrol). The levels of each of these forms of cholestrol in the blood can be measured separately. Together, they make up most of your “total blood cholestrol,” or “total cholestrol.”

Low-Density Lipoproteins (LDLs)

Low-density lipoproteins contain mostly cholestrol and protein. These LDLs are removed from the bloodstream by cells throughout the body, and then are broken down into their original elements, which are used for essential bodily functions. However, some people’s systems remove LDLs more slowly than others, causing the level of LDLs – and thus cholestrol – to build up in their blood. This tendency to remove LDLs and cholestrol quickly or slowly is inherited.

When blood levels of LDL cholestrol become too high, there is a tendency for the cholestrol and other fatty substances to deposit themselves on the walls of the arteries. This process, known as atherosclerosis, gradually narrows the arteries and chokes off the flow of blood through them. This is the reason that LDLs have been nicknamed “bad cholestrol.” These lipoproteins appear to be the real culprit in the development of coronary artery disease that is due to high blood cholestrol. When doctors talk about getting your blood cholestrol level down, they are really concerned about decreasing LDLs.

In most people, about 60 to 70 percent of the cholestrol in the blood is in the form of LDLs. For this reason, if your LDL cholestrol level is very high, your total blood cholestrol level is likely to be high, too. And if your LDL level goes up or down significantly, your blood cholestrol will tend to rise or fall accordingly.

High-Density Lipoproteins (HDLs)
Although high-density lipoproteins also contain some cholestrol combined with proteins and fats, these particles have a very different effect within the body. HDLs act as scavangers or “vacuum cleaners” within the bloodstream, attracting cholestrol and carrying it back to the liver. Once in the liver, this cholestrol is either reprocessed or broken down into substances called bile acids and then removed from the body. This helps to reduce the amount of cholestrol that is present in the blood and available to damage arteries. For that reason, HDL cholestrol has been nicknamed “good cholestrol.” The higher your HDL cholestrol level, the less risk you probably have of developing coronary artery disease.

Strategy #1, eating a low-fat diet, ensures that you add less fat to the fat stores. The less fat you add, the less you will have to remove later. Strategies #2 and #3 are aimed at removing the fat that already pads your frame.

Strategy #1: Eat a low-fat diet

Fat is the villain. Fat makes you fat. Unlike carbohydrates and protein, fat is not burned off when you eat it. Almost all (97%) of the fat you eat slides right into the fat stores that pad your body. It is as if you took the hamburger you just ate and wadded it onto your belly except that it is happening from the inside.

The capacity for storing fat knows no bounds. The normal lean person stores about 140,000 calories of fat. Contrast this to the body’s limited capacity to store carbohydrate (about 1200-1500 calories). And with fat storage, there is no upper limit. A person who weighs 300 pounds is storing about 200 pounds of fat.

Whereas it is extremely difficult to overeat carbohydrates if you are eating nutrient dense, fiber rich food, there are no mechanisms to protect you from overeating fat. You can overeat fat one day, and the next, and the next, and the fat stores grow larger and larger.

In short, you are overweight because you have put too much fat in cold storage.

Creating a deficit
Each day fat from the foods you eat is added to your body’s fat stores. Some is removed to furnish energy not supplied by the carbohydrates you eat. Your weight is determined largely by how much fat you add to the fat depots versus how much you remove.

If you eat just the amount of fat that is removed from the fat stores to furnish the energy not supplied by the carbohydrates, your weight will remain the same. If you eat more fat, the excess will go into the fat stores and you will gain weight. If you eat less fat than is required to satisfy your energy needs, then the body will have to make up the deficit by removing fat from the fat stores and you lose weight.

Strategy #2: Eat plenty of nutrient-dense, fiber-rich carbohydrates

Carbohydrates include both sugars (simple carbohydrates) and starches (complex carbohydrates) such as potatoes, other vegetables, rice, pasta, and bread. Fiber, a nondigestable form of carbohydrate, is found in vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Fiber is filling and helps prevent over-eating.

Carbohydrate: #1 Energy Source
The body burns a mixture of the carbohydrate, fat, and protein stored in the foods you eat to produce the energy it needs. But the primary and preferred fuel is carbohydrate. Carbohydrate provides most of the energy to fuel the muscles and other bodily functions and, in the form of the simple sugar glucose, is the only fuel your brain can use.

Eating a lot of carbohydrates keeps your BMR chugging along at a maximum rate.

The fate of the carbohydrates you eat
Each day you consume about 50-60% of your total calories as carbohydrates. Most of it is burned within a few hours of consumption to fuel your physical activity and internal functions and is not stored or converted to fat.

A small amount of carbohydrate from each meal tops up the carbohydrate stores that have been partially used up between meals. The carbohydrate is stored as glycogen – long chains of the simple sugar glucose – in the muscles and in the liver.

Glycogen in the muscle is used for short bursts of intense activity, like playing tennis, and for “fight or flight” responses, such as jumping out of the path of a speeding car. Glycogen in the liver provides a constant supply of glucose to the brain, especially between meals, when glucose levels might otherwise drop. If glucose supply to the brain falls too low, you lose consciousness – a major inconvenience.

Finding the perfect carbohydrate balance
You need to eat lots of carbohydrates to keep your BMR at a maximum level, fuel your activity, keep up your energy level, and fuel your brain. But you don’t want to eat so much that carbohydrate alone satisfies your energy needs. How do you limit the amount of carbohydrate you eat so you eat enough to reap their many benefits without eating so much you spare the stored fat from being mobilized and burned?

Bulk provides brakes: The built-in safety mechanism against overeating carbohydrates is provided by eating a healthy, nutrient-dense, fiber-rich diet. The bulk provided by fruits, vegetables, and whole grains ensures that you won’t eat more carbohydrates than your body can handle. Imagine eating 5 baked potatoes at one sitting. Your body would cry, “NO MORE!” before you even finished 2.

Strategy #3: Daily Aerobic Exercise

Daily aerobic exercise helps you to reduce fat from the fat stores in two ways.

Exercising increases demand for energy
First, and most important, by exercising you increase your total energy needs. To supply the additional energy, the body draws fat from the fat stores and you lose weight. That is, of course, if you are eating a low-fat, high-fiber diet and not adding more fat to the fat stores than you are removing.

Muscle burns fat and raises BMR
Second, aerobic exercise builds and preserves muscle. Muscle is the tissue in the body that burns fat. The more muscle you have, the more fat-burning capacity you have. The more muscle you have, the higher your BMR and the faster you burn fat.

If you don’t exercise, the muscle is broken down and not rebuilt. Over the years the loss of muscle can become significant. Sedentary adults may lose as much as 40% of their muscle mass – and their fat-burning capacity – between the ages of 20 and 70. It is no wonder that sedentary people who eat a high-fat diet gain weight as they age.

This doesn’t have to be you. By exercising you protect your muscle from being broken down.

An aside: If you have been sedentary, you are fighting the battle of the bulge with one arm tied behind your back. But it is not too late. You can reverse the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle at any time and at any age by starting to exercise and build fat-burning muscle.

Putting it all together for success

To lose weight you need to remove more fat from the fat stores than you add. The three weight loss strategies work together to make it happen. First, eating a low-fat diet adds less fat to the fat stores. Second, eating a high-fiber diet limits the amount of carbohydrates you eat so carbohydrates alone do not satisfy your energy needs and the body has to raid the fat stores for the balance. And third, exercising increases your energy needs, thus increasing the amount of fat you need to withdraw from your fat bank.

Basal Metabolism: Your body needs a certain amount of energy to function – to power your heart, lungs, brain, kidneys, and other organs and keep them in good repair. The amount of energy you use when you are completely at rest is called your basal metabolism. The rate at which you burn energy when you are completely rest is called your basal metabolism. The rate at which you burn energy when you are completely at rest is called your basal metabolism rate (BMR).

Each person has his own BMR determined partly by heredity and partly by lifestyle. Your heredity sets the upper and lower limits of your BMR. You can maximize your BMR within this range by doing daily aerobic exercise and by eating a lot of nutrient-dense, fiber-rich carbohydrates. The higher your BMR, the faster and more easily you lose weight.

Physical Activity: Unlike your basal metabolic rate, physical activity is not fixed within a range. The more exercise you do, the more energy you need to fuel it.

Total energy needs: Your total energy needs are the sum of your basal metabolism plus the amount of physical activity you do. The higher your BMR and the more active you are, the more energy you need.

Food Supplies Energy
Where does your body get energy to power your basal metabolism + physical activity? Just as energy stored in batteries powers machines to do work, energy stored in the food you eat powers your body.

The energy in food comes packed in three types of nutrients: fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. The amount of energy supplied by each of these nutrients is measured in calories.

Calorie Facts: A calorie is a unit of measurement of the amount of energy stored in food. The nutrients that contribute calories (energy) are carbohydrates (sugars and starches), fats, and proteins. Alcohol also contributes calories. Total calories are the sum of fat, carbohydrate, and protein calories: Total Calories = Fat calories + Carbohydrate calories + Protein calories. If alcohol is consumed, the alcohol calories are included in the total.

Not all calories are euqal
Many people believe that whether you eat fats, carbohydrates, or proteins, if you eat too much, the energy is stored and becomes fat. Not true. What is true is that the body handles carbohydrates, fats, and proteins differently and the calories from each have a totally different effect on weight gain.

Excess Carbohydrate Calories Don’t Turn to Fat
Although scientific research has proven over and over that excess carbohydrates are burned and released as heat, people still believe that carbohydrates turn to fat. Scientific experiments have shown that only if you were to eat more than 2200 calories of pure carbohydrate in addition to your normal daily total calorie intake for 5 to 6 days in a row might the excess carbohydrates possibly turn to fat. This is called glycogen loading and is not so easy to do.

Protein: Overrated
The role of protein in our diets is greatly misunderstood. Although many people associate rippling muscles with a diet of steaks and chops, the protein you eat doesn’t build bulging biceps and triceps. It is used to rebuild muscle.

We tend to think of muscle as a permanent structure, but it is constantly being broken down and rebuilt (in response to use). When muscle is broken down, protein is released and burned. Since only small amounts of muscle are broken down and rebuilt each day, you don’t need much protein in your diet. Scientific research has shown that adults need only about 12-15% of their calories from protein. And no matter what we eat, we generally get that amount.

Most Americans eat more than enough protein for good health. Consuming too much protein can put stress on the kidneys. In addition, since many people equate high-quality protein with red meat, and since red meat is filled with saturated fat, by eating lots of red meat you may be raising your cholestrol level and putting your heart at risk.

Taking care of thin hair

Even people with thinning hair dream of having lush, thick and healthy locks to set off their complete look. For most people with thinning hair, though, all of their styling endeavors are met with frustration and a resulting style that falls short of the image that they had envisioned.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Thinning hair does not sentence you to a life of dull and unstylish tresses. In fact, there are several things that you can do to make your thinning hair look stunning. And the best part is that these thinning hair options won’t take a great deal of your time or money either.

The first thing you need to do to make your thinning hair look fabulous is to find the right stylist. Search for a stylist who has other clients with thinning hair and is fluent in all of the right styles and techniques to both protect thinning hair and make it look thicker than it really is. You can do this by asking for referrals from friends who also have thinning hair but always seem to look like they have just left the salon.

Here are just a few of the ways that you can make your thinning hair appear lush and thick:

Cut and texture: One of the best ways to conceal your thinning hair is to find a cut that adds a lot of texture and movement to your style while at the same time makes your hair appear thicker. Choose styles with a lot of layers and textures, ends that will create movement and interest to your thinning hair style. Adding texture through soft curl can also be a great way to make your thinning hair look its best.

Color: Not only does color add more body and thickness to you thinning hair, it can also be used to draw the eye away from particularly thin spots. Using a combination of low-lights and color accents, your stylist can do wonders for your thinning hair with a color brush.

Products: There are a wide variety of products in the market that can be used to conceal thinning hair. Products such as thickening shampoos and conditioners can do a lot for thinning hair. Also be conscious of what types of styling products that you use on your thinning hair.