Well, it turns out and is a surpise to some that diet pop doesn’t help you lose weight. In fact, it may be helping you gain more weight!
According to a study done at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio, your odds of becoming overweight or obese increase a staggering 41% with every can or bottle of diet pop you drink each day.
The study followed 1550 people, 60% of who were overweight at the beginning of the study, for eight years and measured their pop consumption. During the study, another 200 people joined the ranks of the overweight and obese.
The study found that by drinking two cans of regular pop a day, your risk of becoming overweight increased about 47%. But far more surprising was the finding that by drinking two cans of diet pop each day, the risk of becoming overweight or obese increased by more than 57%.
But Isn’t Diet Pop a No-Calorie Beverage?
The authors of the study are quick to point out that diet pop does not cause obesity on its own. Rather, its more likely that people decide that they are being good by ordering a diet pop so they so they can have the double cheeseburger and large fries.
Another theory is that artificially sweetened pop doesn’t have the same ability to satisfy your sweet tooth that real sugar does. Instead, diet pop leaves you thirsty and still craving something sweet, so indulgers are likely to try to curb their craving with another diet pop.
A third theory suggests that people who drink regular pop are much more likely to allow for the extra calories somewhere else in their diet, so their overall caloric consumption doesn’t increase as much.
Well, What Should I Drink?
Ideally, to hydrate your body and quench your thirst, water is always the best choice. Fresh brewed ice and green teas sweetened with freshly squeezed lemon are also good choices. But if you are addicted to pop, you might consider reaching for a regular one instead (still not the best choice). You’ll still decrease your odds of gaining more weight and feel like you are treating yourself to something sweet.
Lastly, remember that a diet soda isn’t a diet food. If you want to lose weight, simply switching to diet pop isn’t going to be the magic bullet that gets you bikini ready.
Cutting out soda pop altogether, switching to ice water and green tea, watching your calorie intake, making the right food choices and starting an balanced exercise routine are the best ways to stay out of the heavy majority, who more and more often, can be seen holding a can of diet pop.
Your Fitness and Nutrition Coach,
~David Modderman
Filed under Nutrition by on Jul 10th, 2009. 3 Comments. 
Does alcohol make you fat? Will going out for a few drinks with friends damage your weight loss progress? If you’re not sure whether alcohol makes you fat then check out these points – you might be surprised!
Alcohol WILL make you fat
I’m sorry to say it but alcohol will make you fat. I know many of you were hoping I would say that it wouldn’t but I have to be honest with you.
Here is some good news about alcohol and fat calories: A very small percentage of the alcohol calories you drink are turned into fat. It’s in the single digits. But the problem with alcohol and it’s calories is that when consumed it reduces the amount of fat that your body can burn off for energy.
Here is a super quick lesson about the body and burning body fat. Your body wants to burn body fat for energy. Especially when at rest. When you workout it wants to use carbohydrates and glycogen (stored carbohydrates) for energy to fuel it through those workouts. But when the activity stops your body wants to burn fat. It wants to burn it when you’re watching TV, reading a book, cooking dinner, brushing your teeth, and even sleeping. But the lifestyle of the person will dictate how much, if any fat is being burned for energy.
Things that can prevent the body from burning body fat as energy are skipping breakfast, low-calorie diets, not enough sleep or rest, skipping meals, and drinking too much alcohol.
Why does this happen? It comes down to a substance called acetate. Acetate levels rise sharply after alcohol is consumed. This substance pretty much tells the body to STOP burning body fat ASAP. And yet another problem is the body starts making another substance called acetyl CoA. This causes the body to actually start making more body fat.
There are a quite a few reasons as to why alcohol will cause you to gain weight and many of them aren’t as obvious as you might think. I will give a brief explanation of the main ones below.
•Alcohol is a weight loss suppressant and this is the main reason alcohol will make you fat.
To put it simply, the energy in alcohol is not easily used by the body so it oxidizes it into a form that is easily used. When this happens the other nutrients that need to be oxidized like protein, fats and carbohydrates miss out and get stored in the cells. Thus, alcohol helps you to gain weight by slowing down the whole weight loss process.
•Many alcoholic drinks have added sugar in them which, when mixed with the above processes, makes weight gain a whole lot easier.
•When you go out for a beer or a cocktail with your friends you may want to take watch of how your habits change. You generally order snacks at the club, then head down to the fast food joint on your way to your next bar and then you sleep in until midday because you are too hung over and thus miss your exercise for the day and your first two or three meals. So, in this indirect way, alcohol can impede your weight loss progress.
Another interesting fact about your body and alcohol is that it can only process about .5 to 1 ounce of alcohol per hour. To the body it is a toxic substance. And it is extremely hard for the liver to perform all of it’s regular functions, and even more so when alcohol is added to the mix.
12 ounces of beer has around .6 ounces of alcohol in it. So if you drank 5 beers your body would not be able to burn fat for up to 6 hours. The more you drink the longer you delay the body’s regular fat burning mechanism.
Also remember when you drink alcohol that it is empty calories. You get no nutritional benefit from it. No vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein, omega-3′s, nothing!
So what to do? Well, if you were on a fat loss plan the best thing to do would be to avoid it. But for some people that’s out of the question. So if that’s the case always remember the word ‘moderation’. I’m sure you’ve heard it before with your nutrition and other parts of your life.
Some other tips would be to choose wine or a light beer. And limit your intake to just 1-2 days a week with a maximum drink limit of 2. Drinking everyday on a fat loss plan is not a fat loss plan at all.
If you are trying to lose weight then I would skip alcohol altogether. If you want to go out with your friends then try drinking something else so that you still feel included.
A night of hitting the town and heavy drinking will generally slow down your weight loss for the next two to four days. Is it worth it?
Your Fitness and Nutrition Coach,
~David Modderman
Filed under Lifestyle, weight loss by on Jul 17th, 2009. 2 Comments.
Looking to get a nice firm behind….or add a little lean tissue to the tushie? Click the video below to see 4 moves to get that rump you have always wanted!
Filed under Training by on Jul 21st, 2009. Comment.
Anything that promises quick weight loss without changes of lifestyle habits and proper nutrition and exercise should send you running for the hills. Body wraps were popular many years ago and I noticed more recently they are coming back again. I did some research once again to see what all the new hype is about.
Many body wrap companies market themselves as providing fast weight loss and reduction of inches from your body. Most body wrapping businesses are also spas that provide other cosmetic services from face masks to tanning.
How Body Wraps Work
Measurements are taken from various areas of your body. Usually these areas are trouble spots for the person being measured. The next step usually involves being covered with some type of mixture (could be mineral salt, oil, mud, etc.) and then being wrapped in cotton bandages (basically from head to toe) that may or may not have been soaked in some type of herbal solution.
The next step is to begin the sweating process which can be achieved through methods such as light movement or lying under a thermal blanket. After the process is completed, the wrap is removed and measurements are taken again to check how many inches have been lost.
The new craze is also now the “Do at Home Wraps” the one being pushed around here in Michigan is the “Ultimate Body Applicator” from a company call “It Works”
Claimed Benefits of Body Wraps
- Tightens and firms skin
- Lose inches (typically 6 or more)
- Eliminates toxins
- Reduce appearance of cellulite
Body wraps DO NOT shrink fat cells or burn body fat – no matter what type of wrap: bandages soaked in minerals, herbs, enzymes, plastic, foil, vinyl, clay, seaweed, mud – it doesn’t matter, body wraps don’t burn fat!
And those sauna “wraps” or rubber “wraps” that go around your waist? They can’t “burn” an ounce of fat either.
Some of these products definitely CAN take off inches (for example reduce your waist measurement), but it’s temporary and it’s not fat, its water weight and fluid.
Remember, “Inches” and “fat” are not the same thing.
Suppose I made this claim in an advertisement:
* Lose Up To 20 inches in 1 Hour! *
This is legal advertising because the claim “lose inches” might be supportable (if enough circumference measurements are taken with a tape measure at enough sites, that might add up to a total of 20 inches in circumference loss)
However I feel that these types of claims are misleading (and probably intentionally so), because “inches” is not the same as body fat but you might easily confuse “inches” with “fat.”
Contrast that claim with this one:
* Lose Body Fat without diet or exercise in 1 Hour!*
that claim is totally false and unsupportable.
Again, body wraps cannot burn fat or “shrink fat cells.”
If fat loss could be achieved with body wraps it would be very easy to test and prove.
Body composition (body fat) testing (rather than measurements of inches) could be performed before and after the wrap, and the answer (“does it work”) would become easily exposed.
Since it doesn’t work, you won’t find any wrap people accepting your challenge to allow you to do independent body composition testing, nor will you find a shred of scientific evidence showing reduction of body fat from wraps.
Some experts even warn that certain types of wraps can be dangerous, mainly due to the rapid and excessive fluid loss/dehydration.
If you want to get wrapped because you find it relaxing or you consider it a “pampering”, “spa-like” treatment, that’s one thing. Just remember, wraps have absolutely nothing to do with fat loss.
All body wrapping companies vary in their process. Don’t fall for the “weight loss” gimmick that some may use to market themselves. You don’t lose fat or have long term weight loss by performing a body wrap. For the most part, you are losing water weight during the process. The loss of inches are purely for cosmetic purposes and are commonly used to “fit into that dress” or those jeans that don’t quite fit anymore.
The inches lost simply come from loss of fluid. And guess what – those inches (and or water weight) will come right back in days if not hours, as soon as you completely re-hydrate yourself.
I’d suggest completely avoiding any companies that advertise fat loss when it’s only water and inches you’re losing, because a dishonest company is one you don’t want to patronize at all.
Always keep in mind that there are no quick fixes to losing weight. You have to put in the effort through proper diet and exercise.
Last word is SAVE YOUR MONEY, and invest in something that “DOES WORK”
Your Fitness and Nutrition Coach,
~David Modderman
Filed under Lifestyle, weight loss by on Jul 25th, 2009. 1 Comment.
