Healthy Weight Loss

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Losing weight is hard, but keeping it off is harder. The world is awash in techniques for losing weight, most of which work. At first. Then the pounds come creeping back. Can you honestly say you "succeeded" in losing twenty pounds if they came back? The Internet has amazing resources for us "weight challenged" souls, and some of the best are listed here. The nutrition resources in particular amaze me. Years ago I managed the office for the Public Health Nutrition Department at the University of California at Berkeley. While there I took their undergraduate course, which contained much valuable information not available to the general public. But it's available now -- on the Internet, of course.

What Keeps Weight Off For Keeps?

The National Weight Control Registry at the University of Colorado offers us important clues. The registry project studies persons who have maintained a weight loss of at least 30 pounds for a minimum of one year. The registry includes nearly 3,000 individuals. Weight Control Registry Fast Facts:

Successful weight losers made substantial changes in eating and exercise habits to lose weight and maintain their losses.
The average registrant has lost approximately 60 pounds and has maintained that loss for roughly five years.
Two-thirds of these successful weight losers were overweight as children and 60% report a family history of obesity.
Approximately 50% of participants lost weight on their own without any type of formal program or help.
Walking is the most frequently cited physical activity performed by NWCR members.

If you are interested in joining the registry, call 1-800-606-NWCR.

I've listed some sites for people willing to work to get in-depth nutrition information and some sites for people who just want to get weight off and keep it off. And some sites that do both. So, have a good time with our good sites and good recipes for good food! Webcrawler Janette

Sites To Create A Slim and Healthy You

About Walking How walking can help you reduce your chance of stroke and heart attack and lose weight. Plus links to other fitness sites, valuable fitness information, and special offers.

Choosing a Weight Loss Program The National Institutes of Health offers guidelines for selecting a "safe and successful weight loss program." They have a number of questions you should ask before embarking on something so important to your health. Good questions; good site.

Cooking Light Features light, healthy, gourmet recipes. They also have an online bulletin board where you can exchange recipes and views with like-minded people. Cookinglight.com online and Cooking Light magazine recipes are sophisticated and often elaborate. They assume that your supermarket has fresh figs, cilantro, portobello mushrooms, cilantro, dried cherries and dried cranberries, cilantro, Arborio rice . . . . you get the drift. The editor is hugely prejudiced in favor of cilantro, which I happen not to like. I haven't yet seen a recipe for cilantro ice cream but expect it any day. You can always substitute parsley, however, in everything but the ice cream, and it's a great site for gourmet cooks.

Diabetes and Weight Loss Being overweight has given you diabetes as a little giftie? The American Diabetes Association is sorry to hear that and has a nice website that will help you take off that weight. Their latest idea, ClubPed, is a neat walking program. And let me, Webcrawler Janette, tell you something the American Diabetes Association will not - you can get over type 2 diabetes. No one ever tells you this, and you think you are a hopeless case, but I read it in the Merck Manual of Medical Information, and my doctor agreed it was so. You got type 2 diabetes by gaining weight and not exercising, and you can lose type 2 diabetes by losing weight and exercising! I hate my diabetes. I have lost 21 pounds and am walking a couple of miles a day, and I am going to beat that sucker! I am working with my doctor on this. (It's important not to give up your diabetes medication until your doctor says you can.) I'll let you know as soon as victory arrives. Down with diabetes!

Fat-Free Recipes They say, "This archive has 4,667 fat free and very low fat vegetarian recipes as well as information about healthy very low fat vegetarian diets. But you don't have to be vegetarian or eat low fat all the time to enjoy one of these recipes. Browse and enjoy!" I'm not a vegetarian, but I'm a sucker for low-fat recipes. I shall return.

Fitness Journal This organization helps you set up a walking and fitness program and gives you a journal to keep up. The cost is reasonable: $15/month, at an even better rate if you sign up for longer. If it would help you to have a gentle push toward healthy activity, it's certainly worth it.

Fitness and Freebies This site offers professional advice so you can get in shape, feel better, live longer, be healthier. Not only will they help you get fab abs and deal with back and knee pain, the listings of specialized recipes just don't quit. They include high-fiber, low-fat, low-carb, and low-calorie recipes. Also gluten-free, wheat-free, and lactose-free recipes. Not to mention a complete soy guide and a "free diet buddy," whoever or whatever that may be.

Fitness Online These people have a number of fitness newsletters and some good ideas. I liked this one: "Taming Your Primal Appetite: Give it up! You can't conquer the biology of hunger with willpower. Here's how to outsmart the 7 situations that trigger your nature-given urge to overeat." If you go to this site, they'll tell you how.

Getting A Laugh From Low-Fat Cooking The site says: "Is the battle of the bulge getting you down? Don't find anything funny about eating low-fat foods? Meet the Podleski sisters, Greta and Janet. Their new cookbook has readers laughing and cooking low-fat foods at the same time. These Canadian authors, who received rave reviews for their first book 'Looneyspoons: Low-Fat Food Made Fun!' are dishing out a second helping of healthy recipes in their newest book, 'Crazy Plates: Low-Fat Food So Good, You'll Swear It's Bad for You!'"

Low-Fat Versus Low-Carbohydrate Diets

Research can help us decide. This research points to ghrelin (pronounced GRELL-in) as a key hormone in weight loss. Your stomach sends ghrelin into your bloodstream when it is empty. The level of ghrelin "goes up before meals -- making you hungry -- while the other satiating hormones go up after eating [with ghrelin going down], causing you to stop," says David E. Cummings, associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington, in the September 8, 2004, issue of the Washington Post. Most kinds of weight-loss diets increase ghrelin and cause hunger. But Cummings' research found one diet in which weight loss did not increase ghrelin levels: a low-fat one. After three months, people on a 15-percent-fat diet lost significant weight, but their ghrelin levels stayed the same. And apparently that's why so many people who are successful in keeping weight off do it with a diet in which fat provides less than 24 percent of calories. You will not be surprised to learn that we've got a bunch of healthy, low-fat recipes in this section. If you can find ones you really enjoy, they will help you get the weight off and keep it off. I emphasize the enjoyment part, because you'll never keep weight off eating things you don't like. At some point the body and mind rebel, and on go the pounds. As for low-carb diets, scientists are still researching whether they are a safe and healthy way to eat, but preliminary results are not encouraging. For a good discussion of the research so far, click here. For those whose hearts are set on low-carb, www.3fatchicks.com/, listed near the end of this page, has helpful material. But, after you've done low-carb, I hope you'll come back to this site to find delicious low-fat recipes that will keep your weight off. Without hunger pangs.

Healthy Recipes The author of the site says it was created "to give people the opportunity to visit ONE site and get all the low calorie, healthy recipes you would ever need. I do not come up with all of these recipes. I have collected them from hundreds of websites, clubs, newsletters, cookbooks and family members." Her Warm Chocolate Pudding Cakes won my heart. Or my head, to be accurate. And that's not all: most recipes have Weight Watchers' points listed. This won't mean anything to you if you've never been in Weight Watchers, but it will mean a lot to you if you have.

Light and Tasty Light, healthy recipes with commonly used ingredients your family should not view with alarm. Both this site and Light and Tasty magazine have delicious recipes an average person interested in healthy eating might try. One caveat: you might maintain a weight loss using the recipes on this and other "light" sites such as www.cookinglight.com, but in many cases -- especially with "light" desserts -- you are not going to lose weight eating this way unless your portions are sort of teensy. But who am I to knock teensy portions? My husband lost 45 pounds and is keeping them off mostly by reducing the size of his food portions.

Low-Fat Recipes They say, "By using the low-fat recipes on this site, we will help you achieve your goal of a trimmer, healthier body." Their Pork Loin Cutlets With Lemon-Thyme Sauce sounded really good to me.

My Food Diary A site which helps you change your eating habits by keeping an online food and exercise diary. The goal is for you to take weight off and keep it off. The site says, "Join the program for $9 a month." I am not sure if there are additional charges, but I didn't see any. This sounds like a valuable program for someone who needs a little encouragement to stick with a healthy eating plan, and most of us do need encouragement.

Splenda This no-calorie sweetener is made from sugar with all the calories removed! Don't ask me how. I don't know how electricity works either, but I use it. In the case of Splenda, I use it on my breakfast cereal regularly and in other ways occasionally. The Splenda people say that it can be substituted, cup for cup, in any recipe using sugar. I have to tell you that my friend Jane, who is blessed (or cursed) with an accurate palate, tried Splenda in one of her favorite dessert recipes, and she and her husband thought it gave an artificial flavor. And I'm sure they're right. Splenda.com gives helpful hints as to when you can substitute Splenda in a recipe and when you can't. If you follow their recommendations I think you'll be pleased with the results, while eliminating a bunch of empty calories.

Three Fat Chicks on a Diet "Suzanne, Jennifer, and Amy are 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet!® We are sisters, and we grew up in the South eating foods like pecan pie, biscuits and gravy, and fried chicken. . . . 3Fatchicks.com began as a personal website for the three of us to track our progress and share diet tips, recipes, and other helpful information between us. . . Soon after, we realized that our private battle had become public. Our website was publicized in national newspapers and magazines, and we were suddenly swamped with email from other women that said they were just like us. Through their encouragement, we built a community around all Fat Chicks, so we could support each other. We took their advice on what type of features to include, and included every diet - low carb, low fat, Weight Watchers, etc. - so you could easily find something for everyone here. 3FC members have lost thousands of pounds over the years, and the community continues to grow and become more supportive every day."

Weight Loss and Control This is our good old government -- the National Institutes of Health -- being just as helpful as they know how. They offer much free information and literature on nutrition and exercise, some of it in Spanish and some of it especially for African Americans.

Weight Watchers No, no, no! This is not about going on some miserable diet, suffering pitifully, and coming to loath perfectly innocent foods. Nor is it about celebrating your release with a quart of Rocky Road ice cream, thus gaining back the weight you lost. My husband just lost 45 pounds and I lost 21 going to Weight Watchers, and I never felt a hunger pang except a few minutes before a meal. Weight Watchers used to do sacrificial diets, but a little bird told them that was really stupid, because people just gained back the weight. So they don't do that any more. Now they help you change to more healthy eating habits -- acknowledging that each person has different tastes in food and therefore a different version of healthy eating habits. My own include regular doses of Chinese Orange Chicken.