weight loss blog posts and news

Alli Diet Pills (orlistat): 31 Side Effects Reported, Liver Damage Concerns

The heavily marketed diet program Alli may be worse than not worth it. Since April the UK's regulatory agency (MHRA), has received 31 reports of side effects linked to orlistat (the active ingredient in Alli).

GlaxoSmithKline chooses to call Alli side effects "treatment effects", which include headaches, diarrhea, abdominal discomfort, depression and fatigue.

More seriously, the UK's Mail reports Alli is being investigated for causing liver damage.

Alli users on the Alli web community (allicircles) complained as far back as 2007 of elevated liver enzymes. For instance, FiolaKitty states :

My doctor still thinks it's the alli. We're gonna test my liver with me being off of it for a month. I was researching fatty liver and a possible cure is losing weight and lowering your cholesterol. Obviously Alli is helping me with that, but I've learned enough to do it without the pill.

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Gastric Bypass Safer Than Ever, And Other Beauty News

RealSelf's roundup of the latest news in the trades and papers:

1. Gastric bypass surgery goes BOLDly where it hasn't been before

Gastric bypass and gastric-band surgery for weight loss has become significantly safer in recent years -- it's no more risky than any other common abdominal or GI procedure. A new database -- the Bariatric Outcomes Longitudinal Database (BOLD) -- will keep track of patient info and outcomes. Good news: complication rates from bariatric procedures dropped 21% from 2002-06. [Time]

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95 Percent Of Dieters Regain Weight Within 1 To 5 Years

While it's encouraging that weight gain in the US has leveled off, the place where we're landing is firmly at overweight. To get our collective weight down, we face long odds.  The food industry doesn't want us to reduce our eating, and the diet industry is a money pit. Plainly, diets don't work. We spend something like $40 billion each year on diets, with just five out of 100 dieters keeping weight off.

Food is manufactured so we will reach our 'bliss point'

Working against our weight-loss goals is a food industry that has us wired to eat.

In a new book, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, former FDA head Dr. David Kessler exposes the degree to which scientists formulate foods -- sold in grocery stores and restaurants -- to get us to eat more.

"Restaurants and food makers manipulate ingredients to reach the aptly named 'bliss point.' Foods that contain too little or too much sugar, fat or salt are either bland or overwhelming. But food scientists work hard to reach the precise point at which we derive the greatest pleasure from fat, sugar and salt." (Source: NYT)

We're all being stimulated to eat more than we should!

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6 Ways To Diet At The Bar

1. Eat before you go. Between salt-laden bar snacks, greasy bar menus, and the "can you carry my tab over to my table" move, if you're at a bar, chances are there's food. The less you crave, the more you save in calories (and money).

2. If it has a cute name, skip it. If it has a name that's not on a bottle, it's mixed; and mixed drinks come with a high calorie count—many starting at over 200 calories per drink. A tame-sounding Long Island Iced Tea packs well over 700 calories.

3. Order up two at a time. No, don't double-up on those Martinis. Instead, make sure you order a glass of water when you order your drink. Alternate sips between the two. It slows down your cal intake while filling you up.

4. Give yourself a spritz. A fave of models and celebs, the wine spritzer is always in fashion when looking for a low-cal drink. Opt for one instead of regular wine—it'll save you about half the calories.

5. Smaller doesn't mean fewer. Thinking smaller portions will deliver smaller calorie counts? Not if smaller means shots. Rule of thumb: a 1.5 oz. shot of any 80% alcohol is about 100 calories. It adds up—think of that Long Island Iced Tea.

6. Ask for diet. Sounds simple, but for some reason ordering diet at the bar is harder than ordering it at a table. Do it. It can save you close to 100 calories per drink. Newer on the market but hard to find in bars: McDowell’s DietMate Whiskey. And, of course, opt for Light Beer.

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Extra Co-host Dayna Devon Uses Sensa To Control Weight

Life & Style magazine reported in December of 2008 that "Extra" co-host Dayna Devon uses Sensa to keep her appetite under control, along with a diet that doesn't change much from day to day. On HSN.com, she says "at times I’ve been close to 200 pounds,"

Devon is actually the "face of Sensa" on HSN, where her official bio says that she "learned about Dr. Alan Hirsch when she was working on a story for Extra...after losing weight the first month, Dayna became a true believer and proponent and realized that Dr. Hirsch’s research represented an approach to weight loss. It has become Dayna's mission to educate people about the benefits of Sensa."

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Making Sense Of The Sensa Weight Loss Program

Sensa is, at first glance, a dieter's dream pixie dust; you sprinkle Sensa powder on EVERYTHING you eat for 6 months and voila!—you lose weight.

Sensa apparently works by playing on your sense of smell to signal your brain to believe you've eaten enough food and, therefore, you stop eating.

The Sensa diet program is the brainchild of Dr. Alan Hirsch, who has put 25 years of research and a seemingly extensive clinical study behind Sensa. Sensa's ingredients can be found everyday food like yogurt, canned fruit, and sugar substitutes like Splenda:

Maltodextrin, Tricalcium Phosphate, Silica, Natural and Artificial Flavors, FD&C Yellow 5, Carmine. Contains Soy and Milk ingredients.

So here's the million dollar question: What if I ate "normal" - including my stash of Lindt Truffles - but used Sensa? Would I lose weight?

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Detox Diet: A Marketing Myth?

Do you believe in detox diets?  Or perhaps you're avoiding foods and ingredients declared to be toxifying, like wheat, dairy, meat, fish, eggs, caffeine, alcohol, salt, sugar and processed foods.

If so, you've fallen for a "marketing myth" according to The British Dietetic Association.

"Detox is a meaningless term that is used all the time and because it hasn't been defined, it's impossible to say if it has worked or if it hasn't," stated a spokesman.

As reported in the BBC magazine (What's the point of detoxing?), "The detox fad - or fads, as there are many methods - is an example of the capacity of people to believe in and pay for magic despite the lack of any sound evidence," stated Martin Wiseman, visiting professor of human nutrition at the University of Southampton.

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Hula Hoop Workout For Weight Loss

I decided to try out the Hoopnotic TravelHoop exercise program. The Hoopnotic program is basically a ramped up grown-up version of the hula hoop you knew as a child—only now things are serious as this hoop touts the ability to get you in shape and get you a few pounds lighter.

Here's what I knew going into Hoopnotic:

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Form Diet Pills: Trick To Weight Loss?

This little weight loss gem landed in my inbox and I've been staring at the video ever since. I can't tell whether it's more like those pop-up sponges that amaze little kids everywhere--or if it's like taking a little too much Metamucil. It's called O3 Form Hunger Management System Portion Control Dietary Supplements.

But here's the concept: you take a pill prior to eating; within 1 minute, that pill expands in your stomach to create a full feeling thereby "tricking" your brain into thinking you're full--and you eat less.

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Skinny Cow Minis Best Diet Plan Yet

I was reading the latest issue of Real Simple magazine (Aug. '08)--hey, how can I not keep up with a magazine that honors RealSelf.com as one of the 10 best doctor-recommended health sites? Seriously, I've been a subscriber since Real Simple's launch--and it's because of their well...simple...approach to problem/solution conundrums...like finding the ultimate grocery-store-bought ice pops.

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