MD Weight Loss Health Blog

Studies show over and over again that the single most effective predictor of long term weight loss success is EXERCISE!!! In other words, in order to keep the weight off, you must exercise. You can lose weight without exercise. But you won't keep it off without exercise.

In other words, if you don't exercise, you WILL gain the weight back. How much is enough? We recommend shooting for a minimum of 3 hours a week, which is 30 minutes 6 days a week, or 45 minutes 4 days a week. What kind of exercise do you need to do? Brisk walking or something equivalent is all that's required. If you do something more vigorous, even better. But you have to do it. I have found that most people who just say "I need to exercise and I will try to do it"  generally fail. Those who make it a part of their schedule are much more successful. As Yoda said, "Do or do not. There is no try."

What do sweets, starches, triglycerides, lipoprotein lipase, weight gain, heart disease, and diabetes all have in common? The short answer is insulin. In one way or another, insulin plays a crucial role in the normal function, dysfunction, or pathogenesis (cause of disease) of each one of them. Most people think of insulin as a perfectly innocent protein that performs a vital function in controlling a person's glucose levels......and it does indeed do that. But by way of insulin, we also convert excess glucose to triglycerides and deposit it in fat cells by way of lipoprotein lipase, and gain weight, increase our risk of heart disease, and eventually develop diabetes. Our goal should be to lower our insulin levels.

What dietary change has the greatest positive effect on insulin levels? Reducing carbohydrate intake. Carbohydrates come in 2 main categories: simple carbohydrates (sugars) and complex carbohydrates (starches). By reducing our intake of this macronutrient, we can reduce our insulin levels and end up losing weight. There are two great books on the subject that I highly recommend: "The New Atkins for a New You", and "Why We Get Fat, and What To Do About It" by Gary Taube.

A recent study looking at folks taking histamine-1 receptor blockers (aka antihistamines) compared to those taking no antihistamines found that men taking the drugs weighed 20.9 pounds more than men not taking the drugs and were 70% more likely to be overweight. Women taking the antihistamines weighed an average of 9.7 pounds more than women not taking the meds and were 21% more likely to be overweight.

In addition to the weight differences, male antihistamine users had a greater waist circumference, body mass index, and fasting insulin levels, while female users had higher waist circumferences and BMIs.

In case you don't know which meds we're talking about, they include Claritin (loratadine), Zyrtec (cetirizine), and Allegra (fexofenadine).

So, you are left with a dilemma: do you take care of your runny nose and sneezing or do you gain 10-20 pounds? Hmm. Which will it be? Thankfully, there are other options for treating allergic rhinitis (nasal sprays) that don't lead to weight gain.

A recent 20-year study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) followed 3600 people between the ages of 18 and 30. A record was kept of their activity level and they were weighed regularly. Overall, men who maintained higher activity levels gained 2.6 kg (that's 5.7 pounds) by middle age than less active men. More highly active women gained 6.1 kg (13.4 lbs) less than their less active counterparts!!! Another observation was that men and women who regularly got 150 minutes (2 and a half hours) of moderate intensity activity per week (like a brisk walk), had significantly less weight gain than those who didn't meet this goal.

At MD Weight Loss, I constantly stress the importance of regular exercise to maintain weight loss. I ask all patients to aim for 3 hours of exercise per week, which is a little more than the study noted above. And I've seen it over and over again............if you refuse to exercise, you WILL regain all of your weight. All of that hard fought weight loss will have been for naught. And this study is just more supporting evidence for the benefits of exercise.

I encourage my patients to get adequate sleep. Getting enough sleep just results in a better sense of well being and energy. But does it have any impact on weight loss? It has been established that sleep deprivation results in serotonin depletion in the brain, and the lack of serotonin, in term, leads to sugar craving. But does sleep have any other benefits?

 In a recent study, participants had their caloric intake restricted to 90% of their resting metabolic rate, and were assigned to 5.5 or 8.5 hours of sleep for 2 weeks. A few months later, they crossed over to the other sleep schedule for another 2 weeks. The amount of fat lost, fat-free body mass, and some hormones were monitored. Both groups lost about 6 and a half pounds. But the people who slept for 8.5 hours lost 56% of their weight as fat, and the people who slept for 5.5 hours lost 25% of their weight as fat. The sleep deprived patients also had lower resting metabolic rates and were more hungry.

So what does it mean? If you're in the process of losing weight, you will lose more of your weight as fat if you get enough sleep. If you stay up late, get up early, run on fumes all day, and try to caffeinate yourself through the day, you will lose less fat. And if you're losing less fat, it means you're losing more muscle, which is something you want to avoid.