Aerobics and Fitness Daily

According to an article in Newsweek about “Fall’s Fattening Foods” you are at risk of expanding your waistline exponentially this season.

 Autumn is fraught with dangers including excess calories consumed from Halloween candy, extra helpings of mashed potatoes and apple pie.

 For instance just 25 jellybeans adds 140 calories, a helping of mashed potatoes is 200 calories and a slice of apple pie WITHOUT the usual ice-cream is close to 400 calories. With the ice cream you have a desert that is 530 calories. 

The worst however has to be the Starbucks Venti Pumpkin Spice Lattes , which has enough calories in it to be a meal in itself. It weighs in at 530 calories.

An article in Medical News Today confirms what most of us already women. Women smoke to stay slim.

In fact a study conducted at the University of Michigan says that fear of weight gain is the number one reason why most women do not quit smoking. The study also investigated why women might be smoking in the first place.

Not surprisingly the number one reason was that they heard that it could cause them to lose weight. The study also suggested that a way out of this type of thinking is to remind women about the other adverse effects of smoking on their appearance such as wrinkled skin, yellow teeth and bad breath.

The problem with previous weight loss drugs is that they have all had serious side effects.  This is has made obese individuals even sicker and putting them at even greater risk of developing diseases like cancer and heart disease. 

According to Medical News Today, Dr. Nir Barak of the Tel Aviv University School of Medicine is developing a drug called Histalean, which is based on a previous drug called Betahistamine.

 Betahistamine is traditionally used to treat vertigo but it is found that it chemically contains compounds that can help block cravings (the same way the drug blocks the sensation of dizziness.) The result is that there is a great potential for weight loss and millions of lives could be saved everywhere.  This new drug could also allow obese people who could never exercise before to get an initial boosting work out so that they feel encouraged to work out or stick to a diet plan.

The Body for Life challenge is down to 15 contestants all vying for the $1 million prize. Body for Life has become famous for their challenges and the amazing body transformations that participants undergo.

Cheryl Muhr is one of this year’s 15 finalists, currently leading the women’s vote. Cheryl weighed 157 pounds when she started the challenge with 29% bodyfat.

Today she’s 129 pounds and 12% bodyfat. That’s a loss of 30 pounds of fat and a gain of 2 pounds of muscle in twelve weeks. The results speak for themselves.

Fitness Daily recommends the following books from Amazon.com on Body for Life.

Even modest weight loss can add a lot to your sex life, according to a Duke University psychologist. Martin Binks presented a study to The Obesity Society that showed men and who who lost just 10 percent of their body weight felt much better about their sex lives than those who lost no weight.

At the outset, 68 percent of women said they felt sexually unattractive. One year into the diet, only 26 percent did. About 63 percent originally did not want to be seen undressed, but only 34 percent felt that way a year later.

Initially, 21 percent of women said they were not enjoying sex; only 11 percent said so after one year.

“The number of males in the study does limit what we can say about men,” but feelings of unattractiveness and unwillingness to be seen naked also applied to them, Binks said. Even when many of them wanted to have sex, the excess weight made it an ordeal.

(Houston Chronicle)