Health & Fitness | Weight Loss

An essay on the topic of weight regain used an example of a patient; who after undergoing gastric bypass regained 80% of the weight she had lost. Keeping in mind that such a surgical intervention leads to weight loss as much as 60% of your initial body weight, this is some serious weight regain.

Just to give you the numbers, if the lady weighed 350 pounds with the gastric bypass she could have weighed 140 pounds having lost 210 pounds. But with the regain she would weigh about 308 pounds having regained over 160 pounds.

The question then that comes to mind is how in heavens name do you gain all that weight back on 5% of your stomachs capacity, that restricts food intake and re-routed intestines which minimally absorb calories?

Weight regain after gastric bypass is a frustration many surgeons have to deal with, unfortunately the surgery only affects your digestive system. The surgeon does not operate on your mind. And if the patient chooses not to stick with a lifestyle consistent with managing a healthy weight, regain is inevitable.

In the case of the said female patients she regained all this weight by having a sleeve of crackers on her desk. She ate a cracker every 10 minutes throughout the day for months.

With gastric bypass, the restrictive end of the procedure reduces the stomach into a small pouch the size of a golf or tennis ball. You just cannot have a lot of food in one sitting. Even further, since the intestines are so close to the esophagus (the food pathway from your mouth to stomach) it is easy to develop dumping syndrome when you eat high sugar foods like crackers.

This is because the food attracts a lot of water that tend to "flush backward" making you nauseous and can make you vomit. Though not a desirable experience it is a good thing as it teaches an individual to eat little and avoid sugary foods by force.

However the said lady managed to beat the "system" by eating small amounts of crackers all day long, a phenomenon known as grazing.

Another method of regaining weight even with gastric bypass is retraining your stomach. By the sixth to ninth month the small pouch of stomach is completely healed. It usually has restored it ability to stretch. And with slow but sure training you can stretch it to carry more and more amounts of food.

Combine an expanding stomach pouch with a high glycemic index diet that gets you hungry just hours after eating and your bathroom scale will start that clockwise movement again. Studies show that one can regain some substantial weight in 5 years from surgery if they are not careful.

More on weight loss and related topics like weight loss tools e.g. body mass index, glycemic load as well as weight loss programs

While some diet programs claim that, when it comes to losing weight, what you eat is more important than what you do, the truth is that losing weight is a two-fold commitment. Exercise is an important part of health and wellness --and losing weight-- that can't be overlooked.

Everybody has different weight loss preferences and methods. I, for example, am the type of person who prefers to exercise rather than follow a restrictive diet. During a time when I wasn't careful about nutrition, but stuck with a good exercise routine, I was still able to continue losing inches. I had tons of energy and I felt great. But although I was buying smaller sized clothing, there was no evidence of real weight loss on the scale.

Through much trial and error, I've found that I can lose a small amount of weight by watching my diet carefully or exercising, but it is only when I combine both methods together that I see faster and longer-lasting results. Dieting alone is not enough for me to lose weight... and depending on your body and lifestyle, it may not be enough for you, either.

Balancing Calories

Some diets will have you believe that losing weight is all about "calories in" verses "calories out". In other words, you have to burn more calories than you eat in a day to create a calorie deficit. In theory, this makes sense. But I have discovered that my body doesn't really work that way. I have experienced plateaus and weight gain even when I do all the things I know I need to do to lose weight, including dieting and exercise to burn off more calories than I eat.

Losing weight is a complicated process that takes time and a real devotion to a healthy lifestyle. Water cycles, medication, salt intake, dehydration, adding muscle and other things beyond your control can interfere with your weight loss progress.

When Diets Fail

Even the best diets can lead you to a plateau where you are stuck at one weight for an extended period of time. Often this happens because your body adjusts to the food and exercise routine you've adapted. This is a good time to evaluate your weight loss plan to see what's working and what isn't. Mix up your routine to keep things fresh and keep your metabolism fired up.

Plateaus can also occur at your body's natural "set point". My set point, for example, is unnaturally high. Getting beyond a certain point seems nearly impossible. By keeping a positive attitude, staying motivated and pushing forward rather than giving up, I know I can push past my set point to reach a new low.

I know that dieting alone is not enough for me to lose weight. I need to workout, have the right support system in place, maintain a positive attitude, and stay motivated to keep reaching for success. Try to find out what helps and hinders your weight loss goals, and make changes in your life that will reflect in your body.

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The secret to any weight loss regimen is to burn more calories then you take in. This is basic Weight Loss 101. There are several ways you can remedy a slow metabolism and turn it into a fat burning machine.

First though let's take a quick look at metabolism and how calories are used by the body. Calories are the fuel source for the body's cells and systems. Without consuming a certain amount of calories everyday we would not only starve but all our bodily functions would start to shut down, much like a car running out of gas. This is what makes dieting such a hard way to keep any weight off that you may lose. As you reduce your caloric intake your body reacts by going into its "I'm starving" mode. Your metabolism will actually begin to slow down as your body begins conserving it energy which is of course your fat stores.

The human body requires a certain amount of calories each day to sun at optimum efficiency. Once you go below this threshold your results will begin to diminish and your body will actually begin to turn on itself, using lean muscle tissue to get the energy it needs to survive.

But there is a way to remedy your metabolism situation. By simply making some lifestyle changes you can rev up your metabolism to not only lose weight but keep it off and live a much healthier life. There are two areas that you will need to focus on, but with a little work and patience you will see the results you want.

The first area that needs to be looked at is diet. The food you eat will dictate how much you can increase your metabolism and start losing weight. As stated above food is the fuel that powers the body. The higher the grade of fuel the better the engine will run. What happens if you pour sugar in the gas tank of a car? It clogs up the injectors and the car will eventually not run. The same thing happens to your body when you eat processed and refined foods; it plugs up the body's systems and turns easily into fat.

The best slow metabolism remedy when it comes to diet is to eat foods that have a high nutrient value. That is they are full of vitamins, minerals, complex carbohydrates, and fiber. Some of these foods, particularly the fruits and vegetables, are considered negative calorie foods and actually require more calories to digest then they contain.

The second area that will promote a metabolism boost is exercise. Both cardiovascular and weight training are proven to increase the amount of calories burned not only during the exercise session but also after while the body rests and recovers. This is especially true of weight or resistance training. The more lean muscle mass you have the more calories you will burn just maintaining it and maintenance of muscle occurs during times of rest, not during the actual workout.

The remedy for a slow metabolism is simply making a few lifestyle changes. Start eating right and get some exercise to start the process. Keep adding to what you know and what you do and before long the weight will have come off and it will stay off allowing you to enjoy life the way you always wanted too.

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Just about everyone wants to know how to speed up their metabolism. And why not? The faster ones metabolic rate runs the more calories they expend even when at rest. For those who say they have a slow metabolism that well may be true, but for many of these people some simple lifestyle changes can turn their metabolism around and turn their own body into a fat burning machine.

The human body is an engine that runs 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Its metabolic rate will vary depending on what it is doing at the time but it never shuts down. Understanding how metabolism works can help us understand how to increase our metabolism. The food we eat is the energy our body's need to function. The thing is that not all food is equal when it comes to the energy provided. Some foods provide better energy, or calories, than others.

For those who have a slow metabolism cutting calories is actually not a good idea if they are trying to lose weight. In fact doing so will make their metabolism even slower as their body starts to conserve its energy stores for the perceived lean times it is going through. By changing the type and amount of calories eaten from healthy and nutritious food sources a metabolism increase can occur.

Eating food high in complex carbohydrates, fiber, and vitamins and minerals will give a definite metabolic boost. The body will actually expend more calories digesting and metabolizing these types of food over a longer period of time then the processed and refined food found on most supermarket shelves today. These processed and refined foods and sugars are one of the main reasons for the obesity epidemic we are seeing today.

One of the best ways to speed up a slow metabolism is to start exercising. This works in two ways. Any form of physical activity naturally raises the body's metabolic rate as it takes more energy to do the activity. This can be as simple as going for a walk 3 or 4 times a week to starting a full fledged exercise program at the local gym. The other thing that exercise can do, and this is particularly true of weight training, is it raises the resting metabolism of the body. That is your metabolism is higher even during times of rest or inactivity.

The secret to speed up a slow metabolism is really not a secret. It's simply making some changes in diet and exercising more. By making these lifestyle changes you can lose weight and live a more healthy life.

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There's nothing quite like a beer belly. It takes a good amount of work to generate a good one but there comes a time when it's time for your party friend to go away. But that's easier said then done because the beer belly you spent years creating doesn't just get up and leave. You two have a history together, good times, and it's hard to throw that away.

Unfortunately losing that beer belly will take some time and dedication. The first step is figuring out the best way to do this. If you take all those TV adds at face value all you need is the latest fat burning pill or ab crunching machine that will turn that flabby belly into a six pack you can be proud of.

The truth is all those good looking bodies probably didn't get that way by using the wares they are peddling. Fitness models got that way because they follow a diet and exercise program that turns their bodies into the ideal that everyone wants. That's right; people who are in shape and always look that way are exercising and eating a healthy diet. Making the beer belly go away will take some effort, but it may not be as hard as you think.

The first thing most people do when confronted by the specter of their larger than life beer gut is either decide to start jogging or doing ab specific exercises such as sit-ups or crunches. The jogging may help some by burning off a few extra calories but those ab exercises will do nothing more than firm up the muscles that reside under that layer of beer fat. You may get a set of six pack abs but they will never see the light of day unless you embark on a body wide fat burning program.

Of course the first thing you will have to do is quit drinking so much beer because that's what got you in this predicament in the first place. You don't necessarily have to give it up but doing so will bring those pounds off that much faster.

Losing the beer belly is a two part process involving diet and exercise. You can choose between the two and do just one part but the results will not be nearly as good. Here's why. Exercise is a great way to burn excess calories and get rid of extra weight, as well as getting in better physical shape. If you continue to eat and drink as you always have you may still be ingesting more calories then you are burning, leading to little to no gain in the weight loss department.

* Eat a Healthy Diet - There is no better way to start living healthy then eating a lean healthy diet. By giving the body the nutrients it need in the form of protein, complex carbohydrates, fiber, and vitamins and minerals it will begin to mobilize its fat store more efficiently.

* Exercise - Doing aerobic or cardio and some form of resistance training is the way to go. Cardio is good for burning excess calories and building a healthy cardiovascular system. Weight training is key to increasing your resting metabolic rate and sculpting that beer belly into the type of six-pack you can show off anywhere.

If you seriously want to lose that beer belly that's been hanging of your stomach then you have to make some serious lifestyle changes. If you follow a healthy diet and exercise regimen before long your beer belly will be a thing of the past.

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