Last week's Calorie Balance Conundrum blog sparked some discussion on whether we have complete control of our calorie intake. Some readers disagreed with the presented study's claim that the combination of our environment and our biology makes balancing calories almost impossible.  Well, here's another recent study that suggests a biological inability to control eating behaviors.

The study, published in The Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences,¹ asked 23 men and women about their favorite foods. These men and women then underwent a 20 hour fast. After the fast, they were presented with their favorite foods and allowed to smell or taste, but not eat them. The study subjects were then told to inhibit, or restrain, their desire to eat the food while a PET scan examined their brain activity.

The researchers found that in the men, but not the women, food stimulation with inhibition significantly decreased activation in the parts of the brain involved in emotional regulation and motivation. Decreased activation in these parts of the brain, with inhibition, in men was also associated with decreased self-reported hunger. Thus, researchers suggest that certain regions of the brain do process the conscious awareness of the drive to eat and that women have a lower ability to suppress hunger/desire for food because of lack of decreased brain activation with inhibition. Furthermore, the researchers suggest that women's inability to inhibit themselves might be a contributing factor to gender differences in obesity.  

Still convinced that we do have control? Post your thoughts.

¹ Wang , G.J. (2009).Evidence of gender differences in the ability to inhibit brain activation elicited by food stimulation. Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences of the United States of America doi:10.1073/pnas.0807423106.

Walking workstations, employee fitness centers, and corporate recreation teams are good ways to burn calories while at work.  Here are to 10 more ways to get a workout at work:

10. Standing firm
9.  Cooking the books
8.  Tooting your own horn
7.  Leading the way
6.  Walking the talk
5.  Racing to meet a deadline
4.  Breaking the glass ceiling
3.  Pushing your luck
2.  Climbing the corporate ladder

And #1……..

……….. Making mountains out of molehills!

Ha ha ha!  What are ways you burn calories at work?

Why are so many Americans out of calorie balance and, thus, overweight? Many people believe that eating behaviors and physical activity behaviors (the two scales in the calorie balance diagram) are choices that people consciously make to satisfy their desires/cravings or to achieve their goals. And that people are out of calorie balance because they eat too much food and do too little physical activity. Seems relatively simple, right?

Maybe not. More and more public health practitioners are starting to realize that certain environmental cues are significant contributors to calorie imbalances. In a recent article published in the International Journal of Obesity¹, researchers describe an "environmental tsunami of cues and stimuli that artificially make people hungry and lead them to unintentionally overconsume and remain excessively sedentary." They argue that excess eating and reduced physical activity may not be a conscious choice, but instead the result of "automatic and uncontrollable responses" to these environmental cues.  

What are some of these environmental cues and the proposed mechanisms that cause automatic and unconscious eating? Here are some examples:

Cue: Food is EVERYWHERE (gas stations, hardware stores, book stores, office buildings) and all too easy to access.

Mechanism: The brain secretes dopamine in response to food and images of food. Dopamine creates cravings and motivations to act - a response that is not controllable. Thus, food and food images (advertising) artificially stimulate people to feel hungry and overconsume.

Cue: Portion sizes at home (e.g., food packages) and away (e.g., restaurant plate sizes) are ENORMOUS.

Mechanism: The brain's mirror neurons are the mechanism through which people automatically respond to environmental stimuli, and mimic other individuals. In a study referenced in the International Journal of Obesity article, children were observed eating when they were served an excessively larger portion of food. When their plates had more food, the children automatically opened their mouths wider to accommodate more. Thus, there is evidence that motor activity begins prior to conscious awareness of that activity and we can't help but eat more when we are served more.

What do you think? Are eating and physical activity conscious or unconscious choices that we make? What can individuals do to avoid unhealthy environmental cues?

¹Cohen, D.A. (2008).Obesity and the built enviornment; changes in enviornmental cues cause energy imbalances. International Journal of Obesity. 32, S137-S142.

On this, Martin Luther King Day and the day before Barack Obama is to be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, you might think that this blog’s title portends a political theme.  Worry not.   This blog is about is how “wishing” or naming how a person wants to change their physical activity coupled with the declaration of how they will work around obstacles to their wish may actually help people increase their physical activity level.  

A 16-week study published in the January 2009 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine randomized 256 women to one of two groups:

1. Information group – participants reviewed information about physical activity and received a diary to record their daily physical activity
2. Information + self-regulation group – participants received the same information as the other group but they also learned a self-regulation technique call “mental contrasting with implementation intentions.”  As such, they identified their most important physical activity wish and stated what would be the most positive outcome of attaining that wish.  They then identified the biggest obstacle to attaining the wish and used “if-then” statements to help them make specific plans for overcoming the obstacle.  They were encouraged to practice this technique each day using a physical activity diary.

Both groups of women participated only in a single training session.  They completed follow-up physical activity surveys at weeks 1, 4, 8, and 16.

The results?  At four weeks, the women in the self-regulation group got 111 minutes of physical activity and the information-only group did 58 minutes, increases from baseline of 65 minutes and 20 minutes, respectively.  At 16 weeks, physical activity dropped of about 15% in each group but the differences between the groups were still statistically significant.

The amazing thing about this study is that the self-regulation technique was taught to participants in a single intervention session.  Thus, it appears to be a very low-cost strategy that people may be able to learn and then use on their own.  More research is needed, of course, to determine how effective the method is beyond 16 weeks.

What do you wish for with regards to your physical activity?

Stadler G, et al.  Physical activity in women:  Effects of a self-regulation intervention. American Journal of Preventive Medicine.  2009;36(1):29-34.

Do your clothes seem to fit a bit tighter over time despite your best efforts to eat healthy and be active? Well, it's not all in your head. Controlling your weight does get harder as you get older because your body's energy requirements progressively decline with age. So while the occasional high-calorie meal in your mid-twenties used to mean nothing more than a little extra exercise that day, by your forties and fifties it can really throw you off calorie balance. What's the best way to prevent putting on the pounds as you age? Some say it's restrained eating.

Researchers at Brigham Young University recently published results from a study that followed 192 middle-aged women for three years, compiling information on their lifestyles, health, and eating habits¹. They found that women who did not become more restrained in their eating behaviors were 138% more likely to put on 6.6 pounds or more than women who did become more restrained.

How can you become a more restrained eater? Here are some tips.

• Put less food on your plate; think "petite" portions.
• Drink fewer beverages with calories - alcohol, soda, sweetened tea/coffee.
• Snack on small cubes or sticks of fruits and vegetables instead of chips, candy, or cookies.
• When eating out, ask that sauces and dressings be omitted, and that vegetables and meats be prepared without butter/oil. 
• Say "no" to dessert more often.

What tips can you share?

¹Tucker, L.A. (2009).Restrained eating and risk of gaining weight and body fat in middle-aged women: a 3-year prospective study. American Journal of Health Promotion. 23, 187.

No doubt about it.  Being physically active yields all kinds of health benefits for people of all ages.  Yet, people become less active as they get older.  Thus, at a time in life when many people are at greatest risk of disabling or even life-shortening conditions, they forego one of the least expensive, most accessible ways to reduce health risks.  How can we get older people moving more?

Of course, there is not an easy answer.  But one way may be to match people to programs that are more likely to help them change their habits.  A recent study identified predictors of increased physical activity older adults in a large, diverse group of older adults.

In this study, two community-based physical activity programs for people 50 years and older were tested. One program was a telephone-based intervention called Active Choices and the other a group-based program called Active Living Every Day.   For the Active Choices program, people who were on the younger end of the “older adult” age spectrum, those who had more support from friends and family at the beginning of the study, and those who were a more physically active at the start increased their physical activity levels more than others.  Similarly, in the Active Living Every Day Program, younger and less active participants at baseline increased their physical activity more than older and more active participants.  In addition, women, those who identified themselves as Latino/Hispanic, people who were overweight or obese, and those with more health conditions increased their exercise more than men, people of other racial/ethnic categories, and normal weight and healthier participants.

The authors concluded, “These results are encouraging and suggest that when the two behaviorally oriented physical activity programs were implemented in real-world settings, most midlife and older adults responded favorably to both, and no groups were adversely affected.” 

So, to answer our original question, it appears that there are effective programs – Active Choices and Active Living Every Day – that may help older people, especially “younger” older adults and those who are less active to start with, move more.

If you have followed this blog, you know that we have referred to the Active Living Every Day program before.  This program is based on research conducted at The Cooper Institute.  The Stand Up & Eat web site’s Get Active Program uses many of the strategies used by the ALED program.  To sign up, click here to go to the Stand Up & Eat home page and look for the “Get Active” box on the right side of the page, about halfway down.

Wilcox S et al. Predictors of increased physical activity in the Active for Life Program.  Preventing Chronic Disease.  2009;6(1).  http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2009/jan/07_0244.htm

The iFood Assistant, Kraft Foods' latest application for iPhones and iPods, was developed to make cooking (with Kraft products, of course) cost less - in terms of both money and time.  

Here are some of the iFood Assistant's features:

• 7000+ recipes
• Creates in itemized shopping list for each of the recipe's ingredients; ingredients can be viewed by grocery aisle location and deleted as they are tossed into the cart
• Locates the most convenient grocery store and promotional offers, when available
• Provides video cooking demonstrations
• Allows recipes and shopping lists to be shared

At www.iFoodAssistant.com, you can download the application (for $0.99) and check out how it works by watching videos on how to find the recipes, how the store locator works, how to make a personal recipe box, etc. 

Yes, eating out might still be easier, but as we've mentioned before in this blog, by cooking your own food you have control over the ingredients and the amount that is portioned onto your plate. Which means you have control over your calories. 

Anyone willing to try it? Please share your feedback (positive and/or negative) on this product.

People who carry much of their weight – well, actually, body fat – around their middle are said to be “apple-shaped.”  Conversely, “pear-shaped” people have most of their body fat in their hips, buttocks, and thighs.  It has been well-established that apple-shaped people are at greater risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, and many other chronic conditions than pear-shaped people.  It is believed that the fat stored around the internal organs in the abdominal area has properties that make it more dangerous than “pinch an inch” fat.  That is, the fat stored right beneath the skin.  The question that numerous scientists have attempted to answer is what will help reduce abdominal fat and thus, reduce risk for disease?

At least a partial answer is – ta da! – physical activity.  Any physical activity that contributes to you burning more calories than you eat will cause you to burn some of your stored body fat (in your belly and elsewhere) to cover the energy deficit.  But new research from the University of Virginia suggests that vigorous exercise is more effective in mobilizing abdominal body fat than light to moderate exercise¹.

In this study, 27 obese, middle-aged women participated in either a no exercise, light- to moderate-intensity exercise, or high-intensity exercise intervention for 16 weeks.  In the exercise groups, the exercise procedures were adjusted so that the two groups didn’t differ in terms of total calories burned through exercise.  The results of the study showed that the high-intensity exercisers lost statistically significant amounts of weight and reduced their body mass index and total body fat mass significantly.  Of particular interest was that the high-intensity exercisers significantly reduced their abdominal fat, including the fat below the skin in the belly area and most importantly, the fat around their internal organs.  The control and moderate-intensity exercisers did not see significant changes in these abdominal obesity measures.

Curiously, despite the differences in body composition outcomes between the study groups, there were  no differences between groups on most of the measured health outcome parameters such as blood triglycerides or HDL-cholesterol.  The researchers concluded that the study may needed to have been longer in duration and/or included more subjects to have the changes or differences between groups on  important health parameters be statistically significant.   

So what’s the bottom line?  Well, more studies are needed needed to fully understand how to reduce dangerous belly fat.  Until that time, doing some physical activity is better than doing nothing.  Then move toward regularly doing at least moderate-intensity physical activity and, if you are physically capable given your fitness and health conditions, increase to doing vigorous activity on a regular basis. 

What are ways you can include more vigorous intensity activity in your life?

¹ Irving BA, et al.  Effect of exercise training intensity on abdominal visceral fat and body composition.  Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise.  2008;40(11):1863-1872.

Weight loss your New Year's resolution? If so, watch out for pills and packets that promise to shed pounds quickly and effortlessly.

Just last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned consumers to avoid more than two dozen products marketed for weight loss because they contain undeclared ingredients that could pose serious health risks. The FDA stated that the products listed below (sold in some retail stores and on the Internet) claim to contain only "natural" or "herbal" ingredients, but actually contain (without listing on the label) various prescription medications. Some of the medications found in these products include: rimonabant (a drug not approved for marketing in the U.S.), phenytoin (an anti-seizure mediation), and phenolphythalein (a solution used in chemical experiments and a suspected cancer-causing agent)! 

Fatloss Slimming, Japan Lingzhi 24 Hours Diet, 7 Day Herbal Slim, 999 Fitness Essence, Imelda Perfect Slim, Perfect Slim, ProSlim Plus, Slim Express 360, Superslim, Venom Hyperdrive 3.0, 2 Day Diet, 5x Imelda Perfect Slimming, 8 Factor Diet, Extrim Plus, Lida DaiDaihua, Perfect Slim 5x, Royal Slimming Formula, Slimtech, TripleSlim, 3x Slimming Power, 3 Day Diet, 7 Diet Day/Night Formula, GMP, Miaozi Slim Capsules, Phyto Shape, Slim 3 in 1, Somotrim, and Zhen de Shou.

Worth the risk? Absolutely not! These products are not only dangerous, but also provide no evidence of effective, sustained weight loss. Instead, spend time in 2009 reviewing the tools and resources provided by this and other reputable web sites on decreasing calorie intake (eating less) and increasing calorie expenditure (moving more).

For more information on how to recognize false weight loss products or to report a false claim, go to the Federal Trade Commission's Red Flag web site.