So-called fat dissolving treatments offered by spas do not eliminate fat and the companies should stop saying so, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.

Lipodissolve, mesotherapy, lipozap, lipotherapy, lipolysis, are procedures offered at spas involving the injection of substances, not approved by the FDA, for body fat reduction purposes.

So the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is coming down hard on those facilities that offer “fat dissolving” treatments for “misleading” people.

Between Botox, “salt glows”, and reflexology, spas have turned into tropical plant adorned, Enya playing, modern day witch doctor huts.

Currently, the FDA has issued warnings to spas in five different states to stop claims of “fat dissolving,” saying these products/procedures do no such thing.

The FDA also warned a Brazilian company that markets so-called lipodissolve products on two Web sites.

In clinical trials – even when vitamins and minerals are added to the mix – these injections have failed to melt away the pounds.

You’ve got to be pretty naive to think a hippie, clad in a white doctor’s coat, injecting you with hard to pronounce chemicals, is a good idea.

If you’re skeptical, just Google images of people who have received these injections, it’s not exactly beauty in motion.

[Source: Reuters]

Not just any cookies, though — cookies sold through Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet, which has been claiming cookie-induced weight loss since 1975.

So, what is so special about Dr. Sanford Siegal’s cookies?

Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet Blueberry Cookies

Actually, Dr. Sanford Siegal’s cookies come in familiar flavors such as oatmeal raisin, chocolate and coconut. They are soft, and the oatmeal raisin ones tasted authentic, with a lingering, bitter aftertaste.

Dr Siegal, who resides in Florida, explains in his book Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet Book there are more to these cookies than meets the eye.

“My cookie, although it looks, smells, and tastes like a cookie, is a lot like meat. It contains a variety of proteins derived from meats.” Dr Siegal writes.

These proteins are meant to stave hunger, allowing weight loss by eating six of the 90 calorie cookies a day as well as a 500- to 700-calorie dinner. This is based on an anecdotal evidence from more than 500,000 patients to prove that his diet works.

In the short term, most people will lose weight on the cookie diet because they are ingesting fewer calories, said Kate Kinne, a registered dietitian who works at Galter Life Center, 5157 N. Francisco.

But Kinne said clients who have tried these types of diets struggle to stay on them for a sustained period of time.

“It’s not really teaching you anything you can build on for the rest of your life,” she said. “A good diet is based on getting a variety — whole grains, fruits and vegetables, lean proteins. You’re not going to learn anything from eating one cookie or one cabbage soup.”

A simple DNA test could predict what kind of weight-loss diet — either low-carb or low-fat — would work best for the person to lose weight, according to a study by Stanford Univ. The women who followed a weight-loss diet that best fit their genes for a year lost two to three times more than those on the “wrong” diet, the study showed. Based on genetic makeup, the researchers divided people into three genotypes: low-carb-diet responsive, low-fat-diet responsive and balanced-diet responsive.

The diets were modeled after three popular diets (Atkins, Zone, and Ornish) and the U.S.D.A Food Pyramid. In this way, the researchers apparently attempted to include diets which were very low in carbohydrates, very low in fats, moderately low in carbs, and “standard diet recommendations”.

As Jennifer Thomas of HealthDay reports:

“Women assigned to the correct diet based on their genotype lost two to three times more weight at 12 months than those who were assigned to a diet that was inappropriate. When the researchers looked at only the most extreme diets (Atkins versus Ornish), the results were even more stark. Women assigned to their correct diet for their genotype lost five times as much weight as those on the incorrect diet, the study found.”

Before we get too excited about it, the researchers are quick to emphasize that this is a very initial study and more works have to be done before you can draw any conclusion.

Here are some conclusions drawn:

- A small 2005 study has showed that people who were insulin resistant tend to lose more weight on a low-carb diet while people who were normal in terms of insulin did better on a low-fat diet.

- People who are going to benefit the most from cutting carbs have underlying issues with insulin and glucose. They don’t process sugar well and it is to have less of it, and all carbs are sugar. So I would guess that some of these genes are involved with carbohydrate/sugar metabolism.

- Some of the genes in the study are apparently involved with fat metabolism, which also makes sense in terms of what kind of diet would be best for an individual.

- One of the frustrating things about large diet studies is that while we are told the differences in the outcomes between the diet groups (which is often small), we are usually not even given hints of how much difference in outcome there was between the people within each diet group.

If some people did great and some did terrible, the fact that there was a mediocre average simply does not tell the tale. We need to know why some people did great and some did terrible. This has usually been chocked up to compliance (the people who did terrible didn’t “follow the rules”).

But what if it was because of factors which had nothing to do with compliance and everything to do with a person’s genetics and metabolism and physiology?

[Source: HealthNews]

How’s your holidays? I bet you had a great time. Definitely, I did. Are you ready to start the brand new year with the aim to achieve your weight loss goal?

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Imagine yourself enjoying a delicious spread of good food and about ten minutes later, you feel a fluttering sensation in your stomach to tell you to stop eating. That sensation is caused by an electrode which emitted by a new weight loss implant gadget.

The TANTALUS II gastric pacemakeris based on new technology called Gastric Contractility Modulation (GCM) that is designed to sense naturally occurring electrical activity of the stomach in real-time. Automatically, it will apply electrical stimulation treatment during your meal times.

Basically. it works by applying programmed electrical stimulation to the stomach during food intakes. The system monitors the patient’s food intake by sensing gastric activity and automatically adapting a treatment schedule for the patient based on her eating habits. People with the weight loss implant tend to eat as little as a quarter of what they would normally do.

This kind of technology potentially can revolutionize the whole weight loss industry as long as it appears safe and not invasive to use. Currently, they are still researching and studying the technology and I believe it will take them another 2 or more years before this technology will be marketed.

I think this type of technology has the potential to revolutionize the weight loss industry as it appears to be a safe, less invasive alternative to gastric bypass surgery. Time will tell.

Source: The TANTALUS II System

Underlying cause: The numbers on the scale stop going down or start to creep up and you feel like you’ll never reach your target weight.

The Fix: “It’s important for people to understand that plateaus are a natural phenomenon and they will occur,” says Dr Christine Gerbstadt, national spokesman for American Dietetic Association.

Instead of despair, arm yourself with a list of strategies to help you break through it. Experts recommend implementing small behavioural changes such as taking a walk around the block after the diner or reducing the amount of dressing on your salad by a teaspoon or two.
And challenge yourself to run farther, lift more weigths or experiment with a new activity.
Studies show that dieters who have a postive attitude about their chances for success are more likely to take the weight off and maintain the loss.

Symptom: The workout that used to leave you huffing, puffing and sore for days barely makes you break a sweat.

Underlying cause:
Your body has become more efficient and requires less energy to do the same activity.

“When you get accustomed to your exercise program, it stops stressing your body,” says Dr Bell-Wilson. And when you stop stressing your body, you stop seeing results.

The Fix: Add weights, advised Dr Christine Gerbstadt, national spokesman for American Dietetic Association.

Strength training at least twice a week increases your lean body tissue, metabolic rate and fat burning potential. In fact, a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that women who trained with weights twice a week for 12 weeks reduced their body fat by more than 2.5per cent and increased lean muscle mass by 2kg – even without restricting calories.

Increasing the duration and intensity of your workouts is also a good idea. So, instead of logging in your regular 30 minutes on the treadmill at a steady pace, try the treadmill’s interval training program, or hit the road and take advantage of changes int he terrain.

Run in the sand or up hills and use landmarks to signify a sprint or a slow down. And squeeze in extra calorie burning whenever you get the chance, says Dr Gerbstadt. Getting up to change the television channel instead of relying on the remote control; pacing while you’re on the phone; and doing squats while you wait for your food to heat in the microwave.

Read more about Weight Loss Plateau…