Replacing soda with water helps control weight

Sugary drinks, like soda, don't produce the same satiety, or satisfied feeling, that eating solid food produces. People who cut back on sugary drinks can help control their weight. Replacing soda with plain water, as a part of your weight loss strategy, results in average weight losses of up to 15 pounds.

By the way, diet soda is not the way to go.

Diet soda will not help you lose weight. Diet soda is artificially blackened water mixed with synthetic chemicals. It is one of the biggest health scams. When we drink diets soda with sweet taste, our body expects calories to follow, and when this doesn't occur it leads to distortions in our biochemistry that may actually lead to weight gain.  

Why? Artificial sweeteners in diet soda can increase our appetite and stimulate fat storage.

5K Race for the Cure in New York

I ran in today’s Race for the Cure 5K in New York Central Park.

Over 20,000 participated in today’s event. Some ran, and some walked.

According to RunKeeper app, my time was 26:55 minutes and average pace was 8:27 min per mile.

Weather was nice, and it was a good run. Massive participation and support for the cause was impressive.  

I ran the same race a year ago. I remember it very well because it was my first official 5K race. My time was 32:22 and average pace 10:13 then.

Accountability is king! Master accountability.

Weight loss takes a lot of personal accountability. Accountability is always validated by documented evidence. What is means, in the world of losing weight, is that you must record what you do and your results.

Try this no-fail way to stay accountable – buy and use a scale. Invest in a digital scale and weight yourself on a scale daily. Your digital scale will be a top tool in losing weight. I use a digital scale that gives me an accurate readout to the nearest .2 pounds every time I step on it.

Weighting yourself every day will the focus on how quickly you are losing weight. When you see the numbers on the scale going down, you want to keep going. The act of succeeding on a daily basis will make you feel wonderful about yourself.

Those who weight themselves daily are more likely to lose weight and keep it off that those who inconsistently weight themselves.

Fat Brazilians?

Fat Brazilians? Research shows that the number of Brazilians suffering from obesity is growing.

And the trend toward the fuller figure is most prevalent among women.

Brazil is known as home of the perfect beach body - but in reality, 48% of the population is overweight and 16% obese.

Role of exercise in weight loss

Exercise is one of the healthiest things that you can do for yourself. While exercise is extremely important, it does not lead to significant weight loss on its own. Many people believe that weight loss without exercise is impossible and they expect a lot of weight loss from exercise alone. They formulated this opinion independently or were lead to believe, that the solution must be found in the gym.

I think it is important to have realistic expectations about what exercise can and cannot do for weight loss. Exercise alone as a weight loss method is particularly ineffective without paying attention to food intake. Individuals who think that they can lose weight simply by increasing their exercise program and not controlling their food intake are almost always embarking on a futile journey.
For people who are already overweight, even 60 minutes of physical activity each day may not be enough to halt weight gain.

It takes about an hour on the treadmill for a 170-pound man to burn off a donut or a medium bagel (without butter or cream cheese). Without making any dietary changes the same 170-pound man would have to walk additional 10 miles per day In order to lose 2 pounds per week. It would take this man more than five hours of active playing basketball to lose a pound. This is a lot of exercise and time.  

My view is that exercise is not an effective stand –alone weight loss solution. We cannot lose weight by exercise alone. I also believe that the most effective tool for successful weight loss is to change what we eat. The fact is, nothing causes us to lose weight and to burn fat faster than the foods we eat and don’t eat. Following a sensible eating plan and sticking to it matters most.


Aerobic exercise vs resistance training

Aerobic exercise burns more calories than resistance training but its impact on weight loss is minimal. Some find it hard to accept but exercise isn't necessarily helping us lose weight.

Resistance training is great for improving strength and increasing lean body mass. But if you are overweight, and you want to lose weight, you need to know that exercise has a disappointingly small effect on weight loss. Exercise is great for our physical health and state of mind, and aerobic exercise may be the better choice.

According to the study published in published in the August 25 issue of the American Journal of Physiology, running beats weight lifting for losing weight.

The researchers found that aerobic exercise burned 67 percent more calories than resistance training but the report did not did not mention that even if you exercised every day, in order to achieve any noticeable weight reduction, you would have to do it for hours each day.

The study at the Duke University Medical Center compared the effectiveness of aerobic exercise (such as jogging), resistance training (such as weight lifting), or a combination of the two activities.

Aerobic exercise significantly improved risk factors for heart disease and diabetes Resistance training didn't deliver these benefits. Aerobic exercise plus resistance training achieved results similar to aerobic exercise alone, the investigators found.

The role of exercise in weight loss has been wildly overstated. When it comes to shedding pounds, it is what and how much we eat that counts most. There are certain foods we should eat and certain ones we should avoid. If you we change what eat and how eat, we will be able to lose weight.

Physical activity (unless done vigorously like a professional athlete) is not a minor component to the economy of weight loss. Exercise is great for our physical health and overall wellbeing, but it has a small effect on weight loss. The critical component is what food we eat.

Why the weight loss industry has not worked for so many

A majority of adults in the United States are overweight or obese and millions of Americans are trying to lose weight. Did you ever think about why the weight loss industry has not worked for so many dieters?

We would all love a shortcut to weight loss, so we seize on one when it is offered to us and we spend lots of money each year on weight loss products and services. The diet and weight-loss industry is a multi-billion dollar industry.

There are people who stand to make a lot of money by confusing us about weight loss. They know that we are eager and desperate to lose weight. Their hopes of getting us to buy their diet foods and pills rest on convincing us that we will need experts and special help to achieve weight loss.

They are not interested in the delivery of permanent results. If they showed us how to lose weight and keep it off, we wouldn’t have to keep purchasing their products, attend their meetings, and buying their special foods. The industry is predominantly driven by profit and it is built on repeat business.

They thrive on our failure. They need us to keep coming back to them for business, keep spending money on their products, services and advertised “solutions."  It would be a very short-lived business if we all succeeded the first time. Their whole business model depends on our failure.