Re: Common issues

[Guest guest]

Makes sense if your body produces hormones to force a gain because IT THINKS

the lower weight is not healthy.

HAES. That's the only thing which makes sense. Not try to lose weight but

to change our lifestyles to include good food choices and daily exercise and

let our bodies do what they want to. Count your calories if you wish if you

think you will overeat if you don't.

HAES = Health at every size. And in a clinical study at USC, it's the first

program which has shown to be successful.

Here's the details:

Non-dieters more successful at boosting health than dieters, study finds

31 May 2005

Behavior change and self-acceptance trump dieting hands-down when it comes

to achieving long-term health improvements in obese women, according to a

two-year study by nutrition researchers at the University of California,

.

The findings suggest that significant improvements in overall health can be

made, regardless of weight loss, when women learn to recognize and follow

internal hunger cues and begin feeling better about their size and shape.

Results of the study will appear in the June issue of the Journal of the

American Dietetic Association.

" We have been ingrained to think that seriously large people can only make

improvements in their health if they diet and slim down, " said nutrition

researcher and professor Bacon, who conducted the study along with

Judith Stern, a UC professor of nutrition and internal medicine. " But

this study tells us that you can make significant improvements in both

metabolic and psychological health without ever stepping on the scales or

counting calories. You can relax about food and eat what you want. "

Although this study included only women, the researchers say that there is

no reason to believe that the results would be different for men ....

Faced with the dismal track record of dieting, the rising prevalence of

obesity, and the premise that obesity itself may be relatively benign

compared with health habits, nutritionists and health professionals began to

look for a more effective way of dealing with the health risks. One model

that has arisen is known as Health at Every Size. Rather than focusing on

calorie counting, this approach encourages obese individuals to actually

back off from monitoring how much food they eat and, instead, train

themselves to pay more attention to internal body cues that signal hunger

and fullness.

The UC study was developed to scientifically examine the effectiveness

of the Health at Every Size approach compared with traditional dieting. The

study started off with 78 female participants ranging in age from 30 to 45

years old. Half were assigned to a dieting group and half to a non-dieting

Health at Every Size group. Dieters and non-dieters

Members of the dieting group were told to moderately restrict their food

consumption, maintain food diaries and monitor their weight. They were

provided with information on the benefits of exercise, on behavioral

strategies for successful dieting, and on how to count calories and fat

content, read food labels and shop for appropriate foods.

Participants in the non-dieting group were instructed to let go of

restrictive eating habits associated with dieting. Instead they were

counseled to pay close attention to internal body cues indicating when they

were truly hungry or full, and to how the food made them feel. They also

received standard nutritional information to help them choose healthful

foods, and participated in a support group designed to help them better

understand how culture influences the experience of obese people and to

become more accepting of their larger bodies. In addition, they were

encouraged to identify and deal with barriers, including negative

self-image, which might get in the way of enjoying physical activity.

The study spanned two years, with each group meeting for 24 weekly treatment

sessions and, after that, for six monthly optional support group meetings.

They also attended five testing sessions: at the beginning of the study,

halfway through the treatment at 12 weeks, following treatment at 26 weeks,

after the support meetings ended at 52 weeks and for follow-up at 104 weeks.

At the testing sessions, factors such as blood pressure and cholesterol

levels were measured. The participants' levels of physical activity also

were evaluated, as were their eating behaviors and attitudes toward weight,

body shape and eating. Study results

Almost all (92 percent) of the non-dieting group stayed in the study

throughout the treatment period, while almost half (42 percent) of the

dieters dropped out before finishing treatments. This reinforces another

message of the research -- that in the long run, people are much more likely

to stick with a non-diet than a diet.

When the researchers tallied the results from the participants who completed

the study, they found that:

-- The non-dieters maintained their same weight throughout the study. The

dieting group lost 5.2 percent of their initial weight by the end of the

24-week treatment period, but regained almost all of it by the end of the

two-year study.

-- The non-dieters showed an initial increase in their total cholesterol

levels, but this significantly decreased by the end of the study, as did

their levels of LDL cholesterol or " bad " cholesterol. The dieters showed no

significant change in total or LDL cholesterol levels at any time.

-- Both groups significantly lowered their systolic blood pressure during

the first 52 weeks of the study. By the end of the study at 104 weeks,

however, the non-dieters had sustained this improvement, while the diet

group had not.

-- By the end of the two-year study, the non-dieters had almost quadrupled

their moderate physical activity. The dieting group had a significant

increase in physical activity right after the treatment period ended but had

slipped back to their initial levels by the end of the study.

-- The non-dieters demonstrated significant improvements in self-esteem and

depression at the end the study, while the diet group demonstrated a

worsening in self-esteem. The dieters' depression levels initially improved

but then returned to baseline.

In summary, while the non-dieters did not lose weight, they succeeded in

improving their overall health, as measured by cholesterol levels, blood

pressure, physical activity and self-esteem. The dieters, on the other hand,

were not able to sustain any of the short-term improvements they experienced

and worsened in terms of their self-esteem.

" Given the difficulties most obese people experience in sustaining weight

loss, the findings suggest that people are better advised to focus on

behavior change than weight to achieve their health goals, " said Stern, the

researcher who is a UC professor of nutrition and internal medicine.

The study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S.

Department of Agriculture's Western Human Nutrition Research Center and the

National Science Foundation.

Pat ,

pjbailey@...

University of California -

http://www.ucdavis.edu

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=25384

----- Original Message -----

> > I fail to see what you're trying to tell us here.

> > Should we all not even bother to try to lose weight because we'll

> > only end up putting it back on after a few years?

> > Just because this happened to you doesn't mean it'll happen to

> > everyone. I can't quite imagine that if I lose my weight,

> maintain

> > my good eating habits, that the weight will pile back on. It

> > doesn't make sense.

> > I guess I'll find out.

[Guest guest]

Do you know you can still get the small all american meal at Mcs even tho it is not advertised. It is just a small burger with a very small fries and a drink. Even my ww leader says it is better than the bigger ones and has very few points.

RE: Re: Common issues

“We DO have good healthy food at Mc's.”

Other than the salads, what other food (if any) do you consider “healthy”?

Carlton

[Guest guest]

Sometimes it's how you order your stuff. For example, you do not have to have cheese on everything. A regular hamburger is not any less healthy at McD's than it is at home. It's 1/10 of a lb so even if you get a double hamburger you are getting 1/5 of a lb, well within the limits that a person should have for a meal. Even a quarter pounder is only 4 ounces of hamburger, something people would grill at home and never think it was unhealthy. You do not have to have mayo on your grilled chicken sandwich. You do not even have to have a bun! The fruit and yogurt parfait is only 3 grams of fat. The fruit and walnut salad is very healthy and if you leave off the walnuts it's got even less fat and then people tell me the walnuts are good for you so you could probably have them, too. We have apple dippers, you could order them instead of fries. Take diet drink instead of regular, it amazes me how many people just seem to love putting an extra couple hundred calories into their bodies by drinking regular coke, and come up for free refills, and say they 'hate' diet drinks. I guess they like the extra weight more. You might have to be a little creative when you go out to eat but it can be done. At the McD's I work at you can have things made however you want. If you do not want butter on your muffin, we will use one without. Check the calorie count of things, don't just order without thinking. Muffins are less fat than biscuits. The bagels are just way too much bread. But no one is forcing anyone to eat it!

I'm sure you heard of the movie, Super Size Me, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390521/ about the guy who ate at McD's for a month and ruined his health. Well, recently a woman decided to prove that you could lose weight by eating at McD's. http://www.freep.com/features/food/mcdonalds11e_20050711.htm So you see, it can be done. Our new motto is "It's what I eat and what I do".

I for one got fat eating home cooking. My mom was a good cook and my mil was a good cook. I was a stay at home mom for years and we seldom ate out. I've worked at McD's for 3 years and in that time my weight and my health have not changed one bit, except for last spring when I started eating some salad everyday (at home) and I lost 7 lbs.

[Guest guest]

Eat a nourishing breakfast. Mc's

has wonderful choices

that can be part of any

balanced lifestyle, like a Fruit 'n Yogurt

Parfait, an Egg McMuffin sandwich without cheese

and plain Hotcakes

with syrup.

Grilled chicken sandwiches. They will hold the sauce.

Fruit salads

Apple dippers (great for replacement of fries in happy meals)

Milk

The font in blue I took from the Mcs website. Part of their GO

ACTIVE campaign.

You can check it out your self. at the following link.

http://www.mcdonalds.com/usa/eat.html

I'm mostly a lurker here but wanted to be sure to let you know that

there are healthy choices at McDs.

You just have to be willing to choose it when you go in. I'm not

always willing to choose it. Do I then

blame McD's for my increasing waist line, or my own lack of motivation?

TAZ

Carl wrote:

“We DO have good

healthy food at Mc's.”

Other than the

salads, what other food (if any) do

you consider “healthy”?

Carlton

[Guest guest]

Thank you Carl! (my brother's name was Carl, I know so few of them for some reason, it's good to see the name) I am glad someone understands the whole idea to blame themselves for their poor diet and not the restaurant.

Barb

[Guest guest]

> What is the Protein Platter? Just curious!

>

Heh heh heh...

When I asked the kid at Mcs what it was, he said:

" Meat. And lots of it! "

and we just laughed...it was too funny!

Remember I'm on Atkins, so it was right up my alley. They give you 1

egg (like the egg mcmuffin egg) two slices of ham, one sausage patty

and two thin slices of bacon, plus either tomatos, or lettuce and

tomatos ...it seems to depend on who's throwing it together.

Sometimes there's been a piece of cheese on the egg.

As I said, it's high in sodium, but in a pinch, if we're stuck for

time, we'll go there.

Usually we do breakfast at home, or we'll go to a proper restaurant,

but it's nice to have options.

[Guest guest]

We have not had anyone ask for the high protien meal. We do have people who order scrambled eggs with cheese on them and sausage patties. We don't have ham anymore.

Barb

[Guest guest]

--I have that book...have read it a number of times...it is great!

- In thefatmanwalking_group , " Barbara " <beyoung01@c...>

wrote:

> I read that book. It was a great book. You should check and see if

your

> library has it.

>

> Barb