According to the latest statistics, the obesity epidemic continues to grow worldwide and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. An astonishing 59.6% of Australian and New Zealand adults are overweight or obese, while 30% of Australian and New Zealand children are clinically overweight. More than half of the American population is overweight.

Those who have adequate amounts of protein in their diet, however, may find they’ve escaped being part of this alarming trend. That’s because the latest nutritional research indicates that protein has numerous dietary benefits that give a boost to weight loss and weight management efforts. Lets look at some of the ways you can benefit from a healthy daily protein intake.

One of the principle advantages of protein is that it creates a feeling of fullness and satisfaction in the body that makes overeating much less likely. Besides being filling, protein is a smart addition to any weight loss or weight management programme because of the effect it has on carbohydrate cravings.

As nutritional research has documented, carbohydrates trigger the brain to crave more carbohydrates, leading to a cycle of carbohydrate eating that becomes hard to control. Protein can block that triggering effect in the brain. If you eat protein with a carbohydrate it will reduce the cravings caused by eating the carbohydrate.

Simply adding protein to a meal (including breakfast), provides you with an incredible advantage in your quest to lose or maintain weight. But protein provides more than just weight benefits - it provides you with an important necessity as well. Adequate daily protein intake is essential for building and maintaining lean muscle mass.

It may sound like a term that applies only to athletes, but in fact, everyone has a certain percentage of lean muscle mass in their body. The higher your percentage of lean muscle mass, the more calories you can burn in a day.

Besides determining how many calories you burn each day, lean muscle mass also serves a vital function for those trying to lose or maintain their weight. If your diet does not contain enough protein to build or maintain lean muscle mass, your body will begin to lose weight from the heart, muscle and organs.

This type of dieting is unsafe and can prove fatal. So, how much protein do you need every day? Women need approximately 80-100 grams daily,* while men need roughly 120-150 grams.*

But as you incorporate protein into your diet, remember that not all protein is equal when it comes to calories. For example, a serving of prime rib has 1,500 calories! That’s why it is important to source your protein from healthy, lean protein sources such as fish, the white meat of chicken and turkey and very lean sources of beef. If you can see the fat…cut it off before you cook it, and don’t eat it.

Kim Beardsmore M.B.A. (H.R.M.), B.Sc. (Biochemistry) is an independent Herbalife distributor, weight loss coach and creator of the online weight loss & health magazine Weight Loss Health. For a free weight loss consultation, newsletter and resources to help you lose weight and keep it off forever, visit http://weight-loss-health.com.au Your online Herbalife store at http://weightlosshealth.herbalcoach.com The Herbalife home business opportunity visit: http://free2liv.com

Share This

During the past month I’ve been observing thin people and what types of things seem to set them apart from heavier people. This observation wasn’t scientific but I learned a lot from my thinner friends.

The first thing I noticed is that thinner people seem to be more active. Many of my thinner friends work out on a regular basis. They also seem to do a lot of walking.

I noticed that some of my neighbors will walk to their mail boxes instead of stopping at their mailbox with their car on the way home.
My thinner neighbors will park their car in their garage and then walk the short distance to the mail box.

I also observed that thinner people tend to use stairs and not escalators or elevators when at all possible. Thinner people seem to relish in the opportunity to be active. In a nutshell they aren’t lazy. They’re active.

The second thing I noticed is that thinner people tend to eat healthier foods and smaller portion sizes. They tend to order salads or grilled foods and seem to shy away from fried and greasy menu choices.
Instead of getting a 12 inch sub, they tend to order a 6 inch sub.

Those were the two major things that I noticed while observing thin people. As a result I’ve been trying to think and act like a thin person. I’m starting to feel like a thin person psychologically and I hope that this way of thinking translates into a real lifestyle change for me.

It’s really the little things that separate heavier people like myself from thinner people but those little things can add up to a big difference in the weight department.

I guess you want to know how I did through the holiday season? Well I gained 1.2 LBS, which isn’t too bad. My weight loss councilors thought that I did well and made some good choices. I told them that I’m starting to “think like a thin person.”

Anthony B. is the founder and owner of http://www.ItsTheRightWay.com a news, political, and sports commentary website.

Anthony has over 7 years of experience as a business professional.

Share This

Body-Mass index is a ratio of your weight to your height. Too low of a BMI may indicate that you are underweight - undernourished or suffering some kind of illness that leads to unintentional weight loss. Conversely, a higher than normal BMI correlates with being overweight.

What Conditions Are Associated With High BMI?

Having a high BMI correlates with a higher risk for conditions including:

-cardiovascular disease

-high blood pressure

-osteoarthritis

-some cancers

-diabetes

But there’s a limit to how useful the BMI is in telling you about the state of your health.

So What’s The Limit?

David S. is a 40-year-old art director; he weighs 240 pounds and is 6 foot tall. According to his insurance agent’s BMI calculator, David’s BMI is 32.5, well above the threshold for obesity. David chuckles as he recounts the story of talking with his insurance company about insurance: “Before I went to see her, she must have thought I was a candidate for a heart attack. When I visited, she realized that I wasn’t about to have a heart attack, but I think she almost did!”

In his spare time, David is a body builder. He lifts weights nearly every day, gets regular aerobic exercise in the forms of bicycling and karate, and eats well-balanced meals emphasizing lean meats, vegetables and fiber-bearing carbohydrates. Despite his BMI, his cholesterol levels are healthy, his blood pressure that of an average 25 year old, and his activity level - well, it’s obviously pretty good.

While we’re not all like David, there are two take-home lessons from his story:

1) BMI may not be a good indicator of your health and fitness.

2) A given BMI number suggests that you might be at risk for certain diseases, but it doesn’t guarantee it.

A high BMI does not mean that you have diabetes, cancer, or high blood pressure, nor that you are destined to have one of those conditions. It suggests that you may be at risk, but that’s all.

Because it presumes a certain ratio of body-fat to muscle, it may not accurately reflect whether you have a healthy metabolism, what condition your heart is in, and how you look and feel.

So what indicators should you consider in addition to BMI in trying to determine your state of fitness and what changes you might want to take in your activities and diet? Other risk factors for diseases like diabetes and cancer include:

-diet

-physical activity

-body fat

-circumference

-blood pressure

-blood sugar

-blood cholesterol

-family history

-gender/ethnicity

Just like BMI, no one of these indicators guarantees that you will have, or avoid having, a particular condition. David’s father has a genetic condition that leads to very high cholesterol; David has no cholesterol issues at all. In contrast, another designer, Laurie M., has no family history of high cholesterol, and yet she been taking medication for high cholesterol since she turned 20.

Balance Is Key:

So how do you take all these factors into consideration in designing an exercise and nutritional program that’s right for you? The key is balance. If your BMI is high and you have other risk factors indicating risk for particular diseases, then work with your health care provider to change your exercise type and level, modify your diet, and add medications if needed to reduce the chances of developing the disease in question. If your BMI is high, but your other indicators suggest that you’re healthy, it may be a matter of your comfort - do you like how you feel? are you able to accomplish the activities that matter to you? If so, check with your physician to see whether maintaining your current weight and diet might be just what you need!

Calle EE, et al. “BMI and mortality in prospective cohort of U.S. adults” New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 341 pages 1097-1105, 1999
Centers for Disease Control, “Using the BMI-for-Age Charts,” http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/growthcharts/training/modules/module1/text, 2005

Garrow JS and Webster J. “Quetelet’s index (W/H2) as a measure of fatness,” International Journal of Obesity Volume 9 pages147-153, 1985
Gallagher D, et al. How useful is BMI for comparison of body fatness across age, sex and ethnic groups? American Journal of Epidemiology Volume143, p 228-239, 1999

National Institutes of Health, “Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults,” 1998

Copyright (C) Shoppe.MD and Ian Mason, 2004-2005

Ian Mason, owner of PhenForum.com, your source for weight loss support, diet advice and exercise tips for your long term health.

Ian is a fat-to-fit student of health, weight loss, exercise, and several martial arts; maintaining several websites in an effort to help provide up-to-date and helpful information for other who share his interests in health of body and mind.

Share This