Studies Show Exercise Boon for Obesity, Diabetes

According to a study, whilst walking a little more each day can help people control their Type 2 diabetes, obese people trying to keep weight off may need to exercise harder than they had thought.

Simply walking 45 minutes more each day helped people with diabetes burn about 20 percent more fat,thereby increasing the ability of the muscles to store sugar and help control diabetes

However, the current exercise guidelines which call for people to get a 150 minutes / 2.5 hours workout each week may not be enough to help the obese keep weight off.

In fact, it has been discovered that women assigned to exercise for about an extra hour each day did not gain the weight back. Therefore, people who want to lose weight and keep it off need to get at least 4 1/2 hours of exercise a week


Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080728/hl_nm/exercise_weight_dc;_ylt=AveFtwGsNhfMw5N6ncxDkaWISbYF

Boosting Weight Loss By Limiting Fructose

The right type of carbohydrates a person eats may be just as important in weight control as the number of calories a person eats.

One of the reasons individuals on low-carbohydrate diets may lose weight is that they reduce their intake of fructose, a type of sugar that can be made into body fat quickly.

Fructose is naturally found in high levels in fruit, it is also added to many processed foods and is perhaps best known for its presence in the sweetener called high-fructose corn syrup or HFCS, which is typically 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose, similar to the mix that can be found in fruits. It has become the preferred sweetener for many food manufacturers because it is generally cheaper, sweeter and easier to blend into beverages than table sugar.

Fructose given at breakfast also changed the way the body handled the food eaten at lunch. After fructose consumption, the liver increased the storage of lunch fats that might have been used for other purposes. Which means that the lunch fat was more likely to be stored than burned.






Source : http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/116049.php

Study: Low-carb diet best for weight, cholesterol

A two year study comparing on the Atkins diet, Mediterranean diet and a low-fat diet have shown that all three diets achieved weight loss and improved cholesterol. However, the study had revealed some very interesting findings:

• The Atkins diet and the Mediterranean helped people lose more weight than a traditional low-fat diet.

• The Atkins diet improved cholesterol more than the other two.

• Average weight loss for those on the Atkins diet was 10.3 pounds after two years whilst those on the Mediterranean diet lost 10 pounds, and those on the low-fat regimen dropped 6.5.
  
  More surprising were the measures of cholesterol. Critics have long acknowledged that an Atkins diet could help people lose weight but feared that over the long term,

The study had also quell fear about the long term effects of the Atkins diet - that it may drive up cholesterol because it allows more fat. However, the low-carb approach seemed to trigger the most improvement in several cholesterol measures, including the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL, the "good" cholesterol. For example, someone with total cholesterol of 200 and an HDL of 50 would have a ratio of 4 to 1. The optimum ratio is 3.5 to 1, according to the American Heart Association.

The study also reveal that because women have more experience dieting and losing weight, they are more able to implement a complicated diet plan as compared to men. As such, men are more receptive towards the Atkins diet as it sets clear limits of what food should be consumed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080717/ap_on_he_me/med_dueling_diets;_ylt=As9c.3NMdvEb6devbS3dJfWISbYF