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Another Weight Loss Miracle?
According to the CDC's records from 1999-2002, nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight and about 30% are obese, based on body mass index (BMI).
Being overweight is a drag. Whether you have 5 pounds or 250 pounds to lose, it is never easy for anyone. I have struggled to maintain my weight for years; right now I have another 10 pounds to lose, but in the past I have been as much as 30 pounds overweight. People look at me and think I look fine, especially those in the category of having more than 10 pounds to lose. But I'm here to tell you, it's relative. It seems as though it should be easier to lose a few pounds than a lot, but I'm sure you know the saying, "a journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step." I think it's actually harder to lose a few pounds, because you keep putting off that first step: by not changing your habits or by fooling yourself into believing that one more bite of something won't matter.
There is a new weight loss drug called Acomplia. Positive results on its weight-loss outcomes were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine (Note: the study was funded by its manufacturer, Sanofi-Aventis). Acomplia has been previously touted as a drug for smoking cessation, so we may be getting a bigger bang for our buck.
Somehow this drug seems too good to be true. If you read the two articles that are linked above, you'll see that Acomplia appears to help people lose weight, especially that all-important abdominal fat that greatly increases cardiovascular risk; it helps people quit smoking without gaining a lot of weight and it improves 'good' HDL cholesterol. Whew, quite the little miracle!
There are design omissions in the current weight-loss study that are pointed out in the first article, including that none of the participants had other health issues, such as diabetes or psychiatric problems such as depression. As far as I'm concerned "psychiatric problems" is a nice way of saying there were no food addicts in the bunch. Funny, that would be me; I love to eat and my husband trained as a chef! Now you see what I'm up against, LOL.
When I needed to quit smoking I sucked it up and quit. It was hard. Now I'm going to have to so the same thing with weight loss. I'm going to have to follow the two rules that actually and consistently work when it comes to weight loss: eat less and exercise more (calories in and calories out). When I had a lot of weight to lose, I got really excited to see a pound slip away; now that it's increments of 1/4 or 1/2 a pound somehow it's not as satisfying. It's too slow! But somehow I have to stay on this mission, because my 5th decade is coming, and I've already seen the effects of each decade on my metabolism and how hard it is to lose weight as the years pass.
I don't have time to wait for a 'maybe miracle' drug and if you're overweight or still smoking, neither do you.
Laurie
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
John Lennon (1940 - 1980)
English singer & songwriter, "Beautiful Boy"
Related Topics: Acomplia Weight Loss is Short-Term, Find the Diet That's Right For You
Technorati Tags: acomplia, weight loss, quit smoking, lifestyle
Being overweight is a drag. Whether you have 5 pounds or 250 pounds to lose, it is never easy for anyone. I have struggled to maintain my weight for years; right now I have another 10 pounds to lose, but in the past I have been as much as 30 pounds overweight. People look at me and think I look fine, especially those in the category of having more than 10 pounds to lose. But I'm here to tell you, it's relative. It seems as though it should be easier to lose a few pounds than a lot, but I'm sure you know the saying, "a journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step." I think it's actually harder to lose a few pounds, because you keep putting off that first step: by not changing your habits or by fooling yourself into believing that one more bite of something won't matter.
There is a new weight loss drug called Acomplia. Positive results on its weight-loss outcomes were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine (Note: the study was funded by its manufacturer, Sanofi-Aventis). Acomplia has been previously touted as a drug for smoking cessation, so we may be getting a bigger bang for our buck.
Somehow this drug seems too good to be true. If you read the two articles that are linked above, you'll see that Acomplia appears to help people lose weight, especially that all-important abdominal fat that greatly increases cardiovascular risk; it helps people quit smoking without gaining a lot of weight and it improves 'good' HDL cholesterol. Whew, quite the little miracle!
There are design omissions in the current weight-loss study that are pointed out in the first article, including that none of the participants had other health issues, such as diabetes or psychiatric problems such as depression. As far as I'm concerned "psychiatric problems" is a nice way of saying there were no food addicts in the bunch. Funny, that would be me; I love to eat and my husband trained as a chef! Now you see what I'm up against, LOL.
When I needed to quit smoking I sucked it up and quit. It was hard. Now I'm going to have to so the same thing with weight loss. I'm going to have to follow the two rules that actually and consistently work when it comes to weight loss: eat less and exercise more (calories in and calories out). When I had a lot of weight to lose, I got really excited to see a pound slip away; now that it's increments of 1/4 or 1/2 a pound somehow it's not as satisfying. It's too slow! But somehow I have to stay on this mission, because my 5th decade is coming, and I've already seen the effects of each decade on my metabolism and how hard it is to lose weight as the years pass.
I don't have time to wait for a 'maybe miracle' drug and if you're overweight or still smoking, neither do you.
Laurie
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
John Lennon (1940 - 1980)
English singer & songwriter, "Beautiful Boy"
Related Topics: Acomplia Weight Loss is Short-Term, Find the Diet That's Right For You
Technorati Tags: acomplia, weight loss, quit smoking, lifestyle
