Thursday, April 23, 2009

I Am Going Into The Dragons' Den - CBC-TV

Weight loss expert will stress mission

Canadians spend $5 Billion on weight loss

Twice as many overweight Canadians despite $3 Trillion in health care spending

HAMILTON: Hamilton weight loss guru Lee Fairbanks will be entering The Dragons’ Den this fall. The Keep Canada Slim president has been chosen as a contestant for the popular CBC television reality program. Filming for next fall's series begins in May.

The Dragons’ Den gives small business owners the opportunity to pitch their ideas to successful multi-millionaire investors. Last year the Dragons invested more than $9 million in these ventures. The show has more than one million weekly viewers.

Fairbanks is excited about the opportunity and confident that The Dragons will choose to partner with him on the expansion of his business across Canada. He said he intends to stress the mission of Keep Canada Slim as well as the money.

“The timing is perfect for this opportunity with us" explains Fairbanks. "Canada is facing the greatest health crisis in its history and that is the dramatic increase in the number of overweight and obese people. Obesity leads to degenerative disease but our government health agencies have proven to be incapable of meeting this crisis. Despite spending more than $3 trillion in the past 30 years on health care we now have twice as many overweight and obese people.”

“As the Baby Boomers, the world's most obese people, move into their 60s the burden on our health care system will become impossible to fund. Keep Canada Slim is the only viable solution to this crisis because it is the only commercially available program that is not based on yo-yo diet principles."

"The Boomers are at a loss as to how to prevent weight gain and its resulting degenerative diseases since every diet program they have attempted has resulted in the yo-yo effect and has caused them to become fatter. Those who used exercise to maintain their weight are now finding with age it is impossible to keep up the pace. Canadians currently spend more than $5 billion on weight loss programs that have a failure rate of more than 90 per cent.”

“Keep Canada Slim is the only commercially available program that teaches weight loss without exercise, and without the rebound effect. It is the only program that can be effectively self-taught and is therefore available to every Canadian no matter where they live. And it is also the most economical option. I am confident that the Dragons will recognize the phenomenal business opportunity this combination of events provides."

Keep Canada Slim provides a step-by-step multi-media approach to changing shopping, cooking and eating habits for weight control and better health. The system was refined through personal consultations with thousands of Canadians over the past 11 years in wellness offices across the country. Today the system is available to the general public in CD form, DVD and written material.

Keep Canada Slim can be purchased through the company website at www.keepcanadaslim.com or through registered consultants at offices across the country in London, Simcoe, Alliston, St. Catharines, Newmarket, Brantford, Timmins, Stoney Creek, Hamilton, Winnipeg, and Sundre, Alberta.

Filming for the Keep Canada Slim segment of the show will be held on May 7 but Fairbanks is sworn to secrecy on the Dragon's decision until the show airs in September.


Contact:
Lee Fairbanks, President, Keep Canada Slim
bigskinny@keepcanadaslim.com
905.628.0279

Richard Maerov, Producer, The Dragons’ Den
richard.maerov@cbc.ca
416.205.3819

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Rat Science fools Weight Loss Researchers

Hamilton, April 15, 2009: ‘Rat Science’ Doesn't Work For Humans.

Obesity experts have failed to discover the secret to successful weight loss because their work with rats in the laboratory does not relate to real human experience. That's the opinion of one of Canada's leading lifestyle experts.

"In the past 11 years we have consulted with thousands of Canadians who are consistently consuming less than 1200 calories per day, often for months and years at a time without any weight loss," explains Keep America / Keep Canada Slim President Lee Fairbanks. “This flies in the face of traditional science which has always claimed that weight loss or weight gain is a simple equation of calories in versus calories out.”

Maintenance calorie levels for non-exercising women typically range between 1600 and 2000 calories a day.

"When I have discussed this phenomenon with researchers and scientists they simply tell me that all of these thousands of people have been lying constantly about what they actually eat. This is a personal insult to all involved and is also clearly invalid as an explanation of what we observe in the real world."

Keep Canada Slim is a weight control program that teaches a new approach to shopping, cooking and eating. It was founded 11 years ago by Fairbanks and is the only program in Canada which establishes minimum calorie levels for each individual client as well as maximum calorie levels. For information on Keep Canada Slim go to www.keepcanadaslim.com.

Fairbanks claims that a significant number of Canadians - "in the millions" - are currently undereating almost every day in a desperate attempt to either lose weight or maintain their current weight. This habit of undereating leaves them nutritionally deficient and increases their risk of degenerative disease later in life.

Perhaps more important to those trying to lose weight, Fairbanks says his research with real Canadians shows that this low-calorie lifestyle does not create ongoing weight loss and in fact has the risk of causing muscle loss in the absence of sufficient calories for energy from food.

Fairbanks says the fault lies in the way scientists use rats to study obesity.

"The human body has an amazing ability to adapt to whatever challenges it faces,” explains Fairbanks. “During repeated cycles of low-calorie diets leading eventually to a permanent low-calorie lifestyle, the body adapts its metabolic processes to allow it to survive for years without measureable health risk despite not receiving adequate levels of energy and nutrition.”

“In a lab rats are put through a single cycle of dietary adjustments and then killed so that the results can be measured. Because of this single cycle approach it's natural for scientists to conclude that weight control is simply a matter of calories in versus calories out. This equation does work in humans the first or second time they try it. However scientists never experience the cyclical nature of ongoing dieting and therefore do not observe the adaptation process.”

Fairbanks says that this knowledge is slowly creeping into academic circles (see reference below) but that it may be decades before scientists can agree on how this process occurs and be willing to put their reputations at risk by making these claims publicly.

"With advanced real-time measurement of human metabolism and continued studies of existing diet programs some scientists are starting to realize that the traditional explanations don't explain what is happening. There are clinical trials emerging which prove that people do not lose the expected weight based on the calories in - calories out equation. However no one has made this claim publicly.”

“In the meantime the millions of Canadians who are already undereating are still being told to eat less and exercise more. In our program it is routine for us to insist that clients eat more calories every day than they are currently eating. As soon as they surpass their minimum calorie level the adaptive process stops and weight loss restarts. This has been the case with thousands of real people living real lives. Lab rats are not people."

Fairbanks points out that Canadians have been following the “eat less” instructions for decades, and yet even highly-educated, highly-motivated people are not having success losing weight this way.

“Demographic researchers like to point out that obesity rates are higher among low-income and poorly-educated Canadians, but go to any $100-a-plate fund-raising dinner and you will see that obesity rates are too high in every level of our society. It’s time we stopped studying rats and starting learning what real people are doing every day. Then our message will have validity.”

Keep Canada Slim can be purchased through the company website at www.keepcanadaslim.com or through registered consultants at offices across the country in London, Simcoe, Alliston, St. Catharines, Timmins, Stoney Creek, Hamilton, Winnipeg, and Sundre, Alberta.

-30-

Contacts
Lee Fairbanks, President, Keep Canada Slim
bigskinny@keepcanadaslim.com
905.628.0279

Ref: Why do obese patients not lose more weight when treated with low calorie diets? A mechanistic perspective.
Steven B Heymsfield, Joyce B Harp, Marc L Reitman, Joel W Beetsch, Dale A Schoeller, Ngozi Erondu, and Angelo Pietrobelli
Am J Clin Nutr 2007;85:346–54. Printed in USA. © 2007 American Society for Nutrition

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Canadian Prime Minister Chooses Keep Canada Slim

For Immediate Release April 1, 2009

OTTAWA: Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced that he has chosen Keep Canada Slim (KCS) for his personal weight loss program. Harper said he intends to set the pace for the country by losing 20 pounds.

“Obesity is the Number One health issue facing our country,” said Mr. Harper, “and I believe as leader of the country I should set a good example and lead the way to a healthier future for Canada. Together we can Keep Canada Slim.”

KCS President Lee Fairbanks said he will personally supervise the PM’s weight loss plan. “It is very common for minority party members to gain 20 pounds a year in office, especially a high office such as Prime Minister,” he explained. “This weight gain comes from the stress of being responsible for the country but not having any real control in decision-making. Stress is known to increase abdominal fat, especially in people over 40.”

Fairbanks said the second leading cause of weight gain for politicians comes from eating too many cocktail wieners at political events.

For more information about the KCS program go to www.keepcanadaslim.com.

“I have been charting Mr. Harper’s eating habits for the past month as we put together a personalized program for him, and he consumes three times the normal amount of cocktail wieners, when compared to his predecessors, Prime Ministers Martin and Chrétien.”

Fairbanks said Martin, know for fastidious eating habits, rarely consumed more than 2 cocktail wieners per day, except when campaigning, when he increased his intake to as many as 8. One of Chrétien’s favourite habits was to dip the wieners in poutine sauce.

“The poutine sauce made it very difficult to accurately calculate Mr. Chrétien’s overall fat and calorie intake, but he was able to offset this habit by the fact that he was such a fast talker. Mr. Chrétien burned on average 50% more calories per word than the average PM,” explained Fairbanks.

Fairbanks says Harper’s increasing weight is also a result of his political leaning as a Conservative.

“It’s well known that Conservatives gain more weight in office than Liberals. This started with Trudeau and continued with Chrétien and Martin,” explained Fairbanks. “Liberals by nature tend to jump from one side of an argument to another depending on polls, whereas Conservatives tend to take a stand and stick with it. This jumping around causes Liberals to keep their weight down.”

Fairbanks points to former PM Joe Clark as an example. “Before he became PM he was quite slim, but within months of his appointment he developed a double chin. This was because of his inability to change his position on wage and price controls. Trudeau on the other hand was a master at reversing his position, and remained slim all his life.”

Fairbanks said Mr. Harper’s personalized plan would include limiting cocktail wieners to 2 per day, and encouraging him to change his mind more often.

“People who change their mind more often tend to become emotional in defence of their never-ending new strategies. In Parliament this results in more standing to defend positions and make new statements, which burns off more calories.”

Keep Canada Slim has also started work on a new menu for the dining hall on Parliament Hill. This will focus on adding fibre to their meals.

“We have added psyllium fibre to the poutine,” said Fairbanks. “This should increase the quality and quantity of bowel movements, which should be n the nation’s best interest.”

Keep Canada Slim is a member of the Canadian Obesity Network an association of more than 1,000 of Canada’s leading obesity researchers.

Keep Canada Slim materials can be purchased by individuals through participating offices or on the website at www.keepcanadaslim.com. Consultations are offered through medical and wellness centres in Alliston, St. Catharines, Hamilton, Stoney Creek, London, Simcoe, Timmins, Winnipeg, Sundre, Alberta and Calgary. The program is also available at the Brantford St. Joseph’s Hospital Lifecare Centre.