Showing posts with label yo-yo diet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yo-yo diet. Show all posts

Monday, March 30, 2009

Hamilton Author to Speak on Weight, Longevity at Toronto Anti Aging Show

Monday, March 30, 2009 HAMILTON – Hamilton author and Keep Canada / Keep America Slim president Lee Fairbanks is the lead speaker joining some of North America’s top anti-aging specialists at the International Anti-Aging Show April 3-4-5 at Toronto's International Centre. He opens the seminar schedule at 1 pm, Friday.

Fairbanks completes a list of more than 15 experts that includes keynote speaker Dr. Pamela Smith, a women’s hormone expert from Michigan; Toronto TV host and homeopathic doctor Bryce Wylde; Bruce Krahn (The Fat Fighter Diet); Chelation Therapy expert Bill Allin; Florida TV Host Jackie Silver; and Colleen Hoffman Smith (The Inner Workout).

Fairbanks, an award winning journalist and resident weight loss expert for CHTV’s Live at 5:30 show with Mark Hebscher and Donna Skelly, will be discussing the hidden connection between losing weight and living longer.

“I will be looking at how we tend to ‘lower the bar’ as we age, so that we continue to think we are aging well, when in fact we are deteriorating at a faster than necessary rate,” explained Fairbanks. “We have been brought up in a pro-drug culture, with a misplaced belief that we are healthy when we control symptoms with pharmaceuticals. This rush to drug ourselves and our seniors instead of promoting wellness strategies is really misplaced.”

Fairbanks claims that people accept the side effects of drugs as being necessary to maintain health, when in fact they simply mask one problem while creating others. Eventually the new symptoms become health conditions of their own. The true path to a longer healthier life is to avoid drugs unless your condition is life threatening, and to use natural means such as better food choices to support health as we age.

“A long healthy life starts with how you shop, cook and eat,” he says. “Food is nature’s pharmacy, and we need to return to those roots if we want to avoid illness as we age.”

Fairbanks says the Keep Canada Slim program www.keepcanadaslim.com teaches the necessary choices to not only lose weight and keep it off, but to extend healthy lifespan as well.

“People usually separate weight loss from health, and this mistake backfires into increased degenerative disease risk. By embracing low-calorie diets people undermine their health as they lose weight. In addition, they lose muscle and bone density as part of their overall weight loss. This increases the risk of cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis and diabetes,” he explains.

“We have discovered a way to combine the known strategies of a longer life with the goal of achieving and maintaining a healthy body weight and body composition. Our goal is not simply to ‘get’ people slim temporarily, as is the case with diets, but to ‘keep’ people slim now and throughout their life. And in the process, people will learn a way to shop, cook and eat that will give them a longer healthier life.”

Fairbanks is the opening speaker at the Anti-Aging show, going onstage Friday at 1 pm. He will also speak Saturday at 3 pm., and be available personally at the Keep Canada Slim booth all weekend.

The show hours are Friday, 12-7 pm; Sat, 10 am – 6 pm; Sun, 11 am – 6 pm. For details go to www.theantiagingshow.com

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Taking the Yo out of the Yo-Yo

Why diets don't work and how to create a lifestyle that does!

Ask 100 people the key to weight loss and 97 will say “eat less food." In our Keep Canada / Keep America Slim consulting program, we find that 97% of our clients are actually already eating too little to have permanent success. Until you clearly understand and act on this apparent contradiction you will never gain control of your weight.
It’s true that people initially gain weight because they eat too much, but losing weight and keeping it off is more complicated than simply starving yourself. And each time you go that route you make future attempts at weight control more difficult.
For more detailed info go to our website at http://www.keepamericaslim.com/.

Suppose you need 2000 calories a day to support your life’s activities, but you eat 2200 calories. You would store 200 calories each day. Since 3600 calories equals one pound, you would gain a pound every 18 days. Do this for a year and you have gained 20 pounds. Consider that half a large muffin is 200 calories and you can see how easy it is to gain weight.
So you go on a diet. Most commercial programs average 800 calories per day, so at this rate your body will burn 1200 calories from storage. This results in weight loss.
However, 800 calories is less than your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) – the minimum number of calories you need to simply exist. You are actually starving and your body reacts by metabolizing muscle for energy. This is part of our genetic programming, and dates back to our days as cavemen when food was scarce. During periods of food shortage, our bodies adapted for survival by storing fat, which protects inner organs and helps maintain body temperature, and utilizing muscle mass for energy. On a low-calorie diet up to one-third of the weight lost is muscle. This includes the muscles of the heart and other internal organs. (Anorexics often die of heart failure because they have lost so much heart muscle).

Muscle burns calories even at rest, so when you lose muscle through dieting you reduce your body's need for calories. Going back to our example, you would now need perhaps 1800 calories per day because you have less muscle. Resume your normal eating habits (2200 calories) and you are storing 400 calories per day and gaining weight at twice the previous rate. Soon you have gained back all the weight.
So you diet again, eating 800 calories a day. This time you lose a little slower, 1000 calories per day (1800-800), but eventually reach your weight goal. Again, one-third of the weight lost is muscle.
Now your caloric requirement has been reduced to 1600 calories per day and the weight comes back faster.
What’s worse is that the weight you gained back is all fat, so your body fat percentage begins to increase, going from a healthy range of 11-19% (men) or 17-25% (women) to 30, 40, 50% or more. And this excess body fat and muscle loss is the foundation of almost all degenerative diseases, from heart disease to many cancers, diabetes, osteoporosis and so on.

The more diets you go on, the fatter you become! Don’t believe me? Talk to the fattest people you know and ask them to tell you their history. They will tell you they have been on “every diet” but they get fatter and fatter each time they stop. These diets are all based on the 4 Myths of Dieting. To learn more about these myths go to
http://www.keepcanadaslim.com/index.cfm?page=myths.

So next time you decide to lose weight be sure to eat more than your Basal Metabolic requirements. This varies for everyone. Start at 1200 calories for a woman who wants to be 100 pounds, and increase by 50 calories for every 10 pounds of goal weight. For a man, start at 1500 calories to reach 130 pounds and add 75 calories for every 10 pounds of goal weight.
Keep Canada Slim is a comprehensive weight control program sold through the website, http://www.keepcanadaslim.com/ and through independent consultation offices across Canada.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Top 10 Worst Fast Foods

A&W tops list of Keep Canada Slim 2008 Worst Fast Foods

HAMILTON: A&W took two of the top three spots in Keep Canada Slim’s 2008 Worst Fast Foods in Canada competition, announced today.
A&W’s aptly named “Chubby Chicken Dinner,” won the Worst Dinner/Lunch Award, while their large Chocolate Milkshake won in the Worst Drink category. A&W narrowly missed a sweep when their Deluxe Bacon & Eggs finished third in the Worst Breakfast category behind Burger King’s Enormous Omelette Sandwich.

Note: The complete list in chart form would not "paste" into this format, so we have made it available on our website newsletter archives at http://www.keepcanadaslim.com/index.cfm?page=readArchives&newsletterId=12.

Burger King topped the list with 4 awards followed by A&W with 3, Wendy’s, Harvey’s and Subway with two each. McDonalds, KFC and Taco Bell rounded out the list with one award each. Subway and KFC also received special dishonourable mentions.
Keep Canada Slim (KCS) President Lee Fairbanks said the awards were created to focus attention on food choices. “We are asking these companies to remove these foods from their menu,” said KCS President Lee Fairbanks. “No Canadian should be encouraged to eat them. In the meantime we urge Canadians to boycott these items by refusing to purchase them.”

Worst Dinner/Lunch

The Chubby Chicken Dinner clocked in at 1230 calories with a whopping 68 grams of fat and 3180 mg of sodium. In second place in the Dinner/Lunch category, Wendy’s Triple Everything with Cheese offers 980 calories, 60 grams of fat and 2010 mg of sodium. Third place went to KFC’s Poutine with 970 calories, 54 grams of fat and 2610 mg of sodium.
“Considering that Canada’s Food Guide suggests an average woman consume no more than 2000 calories and 2400 mg of sodium, these choices virtually guarantee weight gain,” said Fairbanks. “Most people would add a side order and a drink to these meals, and if they are not careful, could consume their entire day’s calories in one sitting. The Chubby Chicken dinner wins our Heart Attack on a Plate award.”
KFC won dishonourable mention in this category for their listing of Original Recipe Chicken by the piece.
“Each piece has up to 300 calories, 19 grams of fat and 860 mg of sodium, so if you ate 3 or 4 pieces this product would be in the race for first place,” Fairbanks points out.
Subway also received a dishonourable mention for their Ranch Dressing, 320 calories, 35 grams of fat and 560 mg of sodium.
“This is really liquid fat and salt, and has more calories and 7 times as much fat as their 6-inch low-fat sandwiches,” says Fairbanks. “And again, most people aren’t even counting their dressing as a meal, so these rank as ‘hidden calories’.”

Worst Drink

First place in the Worst Drink category went to A&W’s large chocolate milkshake, registering 1720 calories, 47 grams of fat and an amazing 254 grams of sugar.
“This is really 4 or 5 meals in a glass,” offered Fairbanks, “plus about a week’s worth of sugar. Two hundred and fifty-four grams is about 60 teaspoons of sugar. It amazes me that any company could even create such a product as this. The shake also has 1130 mg of sodium. Most of us wouldn’t consider a milkshake as a major source of salt in our diet.”
Second place in the Worst Drink category went to Burger King’s large Fruitopia with 860 calories and 213 grams of sugar, with Harvey’s 14-ounce chocolate milkshake in third. The Harvey shake has 870 calories with 47 grams of fat and 92 grams of sugar. Fairbanks points out that many parents might think Fruitopia is a good choice for children.
“Considering that Fruitopia is fat-free, the calorie count is very high, and it’s mostly from sugar/glucose-fructose. This combination drives the sugar quickly into the bloodstream and is guaranteed to create a sugar high followed by a dramatic energy drop. I would call it Mood Swing in a Cup.”

Worst Breakfast

In the Breakfast category, Burger King’s Enormous Omelette Sandwich took home First Prize at 730 calories with 44 grams of fat and an even 2000 mg of sodium. The McDonalds Big Breakfast (640-38-1250) and A&W’s Bacon & Eggs Deluxe (650-37-1010) were second and third.
“Most people should aim for 3-400 calories for breakfast and focus on high fibre, low fat and low sodium foods. This sets them up for the day and allows room for higher-fat food choices later in the day when choices become more difficult,” suggests Fairbanks.
Rounding out the Top Ten list for Lunch/Dinner are: 4 - Wendy’s Baconator (840-51-1880); 5 – Burger King Poutine (750-42-2720); 6 – Burger King Original Double Whopper (850-51-990); 7 – A&W Grandpa Burger with Cheese (752-49-1200); 8 – Taco Bell Fiesta Taco Salad (850-45-1690); 9 – Subway 6-inch Double ColdCut Trio (660-39-2160); 10 – Subway 6-inch Double BMT (630-34-2640).
All contents were taken from company websites and were current as of April 7, 2008.

More info at
http://www.keepcanadaslim.com/

Lee Fairbanks
bigskinny@keepcanadaslim.com

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Don't be The Biggest Loser !

Weight Loss Expert Warns: Do Not Become The Biggest Loser

Hamilton: Joining your company’s “Biggest Loser” competition may seem like a good idea if you want to lose weight, but one Canadian weight loss expert warns not to do it.

“Results indicate time and time again that any weight lost on these crash diet programs always comes back, and often brings more weight with it,” explains Keep Canada Slim President Lee Fairbanks. “And worse than that, crash dieting virtually guarantees that you will lose valuable muscle as well as fat, whereas you will likely only gain back fat.”

This loss of muscle combined with additional fat gain is the foundation of obesity, says Fairbanks, and leads to higher disease risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and some forms of cancer.

Fairbanks quoted a recent Hamilton Spectator story on Laurel Steel’s (Burlington) annual “Biggest Loser” challenge (Big Steel Weighs In – Good diet, healthy weight – company and employees win” Jan 22, 2009) to prove his point.

“The so-called ‘winner’ two years ago went from 228 pounds to 194 pounds on the Challenge and then back up to 242 pounds,” he points out. “This rebound effect is built in to every rapid weight loss program.”

“A quote from the ‘winner’ highlights the complete disconnect from reality that diets encourage,” explains Fairbanks “He said ‘you're going out with the guys and they are all having two pounds of chicken wings and you’re there eating carrots.’ The proper solution to this situation would be to cut down from two pounds of chicken wings to one pound of chicken wings -- and then add the carrots.”

Fairbanks warns Canadians that only by committing to permanent lifestyle changes, which have nothing to do with a short-term diet, can they hope to turn the corner on obesity and start to build a healthier country.

“We need to encourage our employees and corporate wellness departments to embrace a New Year’s Resolution to promote healthy approaches to weight loss rather than supporting pop-culture entertainment vehicles which use humans as fodder for fun and games at the cost of their health,” he suggests.

Keep Canada Slim educational material is available through their website at http://www.keepcanadaslim.com/, as well as through a network of certified consultants across the country. The company also offers a free school program for Grade 3 students called the Healthy Eating Challenge. The Challenge was run in 31 Hamilton classrooms last year by Mohawk College students.

Contacts

Lee Fairbanks
President, Keep Canada Slim
905-628-0279
bigskinny@keepcanadaslim.com