How Artificial Sweeteners Cause Weight Gain

With the recent high demand for artificial sweeteners (or sugar-free edibles) on one side, the incidence of overweight, diabetes, and side effects of artificial sweeteners are also hiking on the other side. Within our India Food Industry and the FDA, there are 4 common artificial sweeteners:

Aspartame.
Acesulfame.
Saccharin.
Sucralose.

The departments have also given approval for one more natural low-calorie sweetener called Stevia. These compounds are known to give you the taste of sweetness, even without the presence of any calories.

In a quick comparison to the actual sweetness of sugar (i.e. sucrose),

Saccharine is 300 times sweeter.
Sucralose is 600 times sweeter.
Natural Stevia is 200 times sweeter.

And they have less or 0 calories! This is the reason why these components are added to the food products of diabetic patients as substitutes. Sometimes, even a centre for weight loss treatment in Bangalore suggests them for individuals preferring to lose excess fat.

5 Reasons Why Artificial Sweeteners are Bad for Health

With the use of artificial sweeteners, you are increasing your risk of getting diabetes and adding more unhealthy fat. Even several research studies support the same.

The incoming calories are noted to confuse your brain, the endocrine system, and your gut for digestion. In the case of artificial sweeteners, they do not show up in your digestive process, hence not increasing the insulin levels. Even the hormones responsible to trigger the feeling of fullness get disabled. The sugars released eventually does not provide that satisfactory feeling from dopamine. These confusions arising in your metabolic activities can slow down the process itself, ultimately leading to issues like metabolic syndrome.
One of the unusual artificial sweeteners’ side effects is that they modify your gut bacteria, hence leading to insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, and inflammation.
These components make individuals feel hungrier and trigger them to crave even more starchy food carbs.
The sugars you consume from artificial sweeteners if on a regular basis, can actually make you feel that the real sweet fruits and sweets are unpalatable. This means that the way you sense ‘taste’ changes.
Overall, the biggest side effect of any artificial sweetener is that it is highly addictive on consumption.

Recommended Healthy Alternatives to Sugar

Rather than opting for sugar, go with some natural substitutes such as the following:

Honey:

Honey has been used by our ancestors and is proven to have great health benefits. In its purest form, raw honey acts as a sweetener for desserts and drinks. But note that, anything must be in moderation. Otherwise, chances are likely that you might need support from a specialist for weight-loss treatment in Bangalore.

Jaggery:

Jaggery was also another part of our ancestral sound living as they discovered that it boosts human immunity as well as the iron levels. While sugar loses its nutritive value during the processing, jaggery retains its traces of fiber, iron, and some mineral salts.

And the good thing is, jaggery also prevents medical conditions such as constipation, cough, and even detoxifies the liver. This is the best part of your winter season to keep your body and self warm.

Yet, remember to consume in moderation.

Stevia:

One of the remarkable health sweeteners, Stevia is indeed a South American natural herb. And that is why it being advisable to consume it in its nearly pure or natural form.

To Wind Up

Sugar is the whitest, deadliest compound to eat. This is more dangerous than gun powder. Artificial sweeteners are not good substitutes for sugar in the long run. Try to go with natural alternatives such as jaggery, honey, stevia, etc. whenever possible, and in minimal quantities only.

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Low-Carbohydrate Diet for Your Weight Loss

Tips for Your Health & Weight Loss: Here is the Right Way to Consume a Low-Carb Diet

While many of us believed that the low-fat diet was good for reducing body weight, recent studies prove that a low-carb diet weight loss is much effective. And the low-carb diet is also said to be anti-inflammatory. In India, we standardly consume a diet with:

Fat – 15% to 10%.
Proteins – 20% to 15%.
Carbohydrates – 65% to 70%

Now, the moderate level of a low-carbohydrate diet, i.e. less than 40% of the calorie intake is only from carbs. So, what we mean by low-carb diet foods is the reduced amount of refined sugar, mostly present with a high GI (Glycaemic Index) and processed eatables. It is also inclusive of the less sweetened fruits, whole grains, and vegetables that are rich in proteins, healthy fats, and other complex carbs that are necessary for the body.

The Effectiveness of Low-Carbohydrate Diet for Your Weight Loss

Body Weight is gained when the insulin levels signal to add more fat into your regular food consumption. But if you cut down excess carbs out of your diet, then it will positively impact your insulin hormone. To be more precise, when you reduce the usage of refined carbohydrate, it will decrease the insulin spikes. And this lowers the overall insulin level, hence lessens its resistance, to effectively lose weight!

Points to Remember

For reducing your excess body weight, start cutting down your actual intake of carbs in your food by over 40% daily. Just ensure that 50% of your diet should consist of low-carb vegetables.
You must try your level best to prepare low-carb diet recipes and totally-avoid processed or refined foods that can affect both your body health and weight. Examples include sweets, potato chips, biscuits, white bread, maida, white rice, pastries, aerated drinks, candies, and more.
Have a moderate level of carbohydrates from food articles such as whole grains, fresh skinned fruits, lentils, and leafy green vegetables. Specific to the Whole grains, Siridhanya, Ragi, Jowar, Bajra, oats, can be considered for your diet.
Note that you must only gradually increase the consumption of natural fats and seeds into the body. Start coming minimal amounts of paneer, coconut, pumpkin, flaxseed, chia, almonds, walnuts, etc.
Proteins are to be consumed at a moderate level; particularly vegetarians (or vegans) since most of their diet lacks that needed range of protein.

Note: If you want personalised tips about the level of carbs, proteins, and fats your body should accept or if you are looking for a healthy and optimal weight loss treatment in Bangalore city, then do ring at +91 – 9986777084!

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How Long-Term Night Shift Work Affect Our health

Police officers, firefighters, nurses, doctors, pilots, waitresses, truck drivers, and similar professionals are pressurized to work in crisis and emergency conditions. Working the night shift is one such stressful point.

It is a proven fact that night shift works hamper your internal body clock, thus disrupting the circadian rhythm. Sleep loss and sleep disturbance are the results of the same. The human circadian rhythm is the chief health influencer. Affecting it can trigger numerous body functions, leading to serious life concerns. To name a few short term health risks:

Gastrointestinal symptoms such as stomach upset, nausea, heartburn, etc.
Insomnia.
A general feeling of being unwell.

Research-Based Health Perspectives of Working at Night

Here are some clinically-derived information on the long term health risks of working at night;

A research review touted that shift-working increases the risk of cardiovascular disease by 40.
Prolonged duration of night shifts cause metabolic syndrome – merged health problems, including high BP and sugar (diabetes), obesity, and unhealthy cholesterol levels.
A 2008-study correlates shift-working and chronic heartburn or GERD.
Complications during pregnancy, premature or low-weight babies, fertility issues, endometriosis, and irregular periods are all linked to night shift working.
One of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2007-subcommittee deemed shift working is “probably carcinogenic.” Hence, increasing the breast cancer risks by 50% and prostate & colorectal cancers, if sustained 10+ years.
Depression and mood disorders also follow the line of night shift health hazards.

The worst part here is you might not even be aware that you are affected with some health condition until the symptoms and side effects of working night shift turn visible!

The 5 Key Night Shift Health Tips for Professionals

Consult a nutritionist in Bangalore (or any region) and understand the pattern of diet for night shift workers. However, it is advisable to restrict consumption between midnight and 6 AM, rather than eating at the end or beginning of your shift. Stop over-consuming caffeine during the night shifts as it affects your sleep cycle in the day time.
Sleep for 5 to 6 hours continuously for facilitating a healthy day-sleep schedule.
Restrain from night shifts if you are above 40 years.
Shift to regular (day) work, if you have been working on night shift for 10+ years.
Stop practicing night shift work for more than 6 months.

It might be challenging to answer on how to work night shift and stay healthy because this context is against and beyond our physiological evolution. Yet, the takeaway is that night shift works are unhealthy!

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Spiritual Solution To Weight Loss And Wellness

Many are struggling with weight, eating disorders, always looking for the solution to the problem. They have never found the magic pill yet. What could be the problem? Their perception gets worsened every day. If you start hating yourself for being overweight, more hating comes in your life and you continue to be overweight. Do you say, “I am overweight and I hate it”? Being aware of your difficult emotions like anger and frustration is the first step towards wellness. Are you ready to unlock the spiritual secrets to weight loss in this blog?

Get rid of unhealthy thoughts swirling in your mind

Some are constantly battling with this belief which is extremely prevalent in the society – “You are not good enough”. They also struggle with low self-esteem. When you have these negative thoughts running in your thought stream, these feelings may overflow into other areas of life. As Wayne Dyer says, “Unhealthy thoughts create unhealthy molecules and attract negative energy that makes you remain unhealthy.” Hence, it is good to focus on the health and well-being of your body.

Learn to love your body

Your body is a gift from God and you are an incredible and amazing creation. Even at this very moment, your body is processing and completing so many tasks to keep you alive and well. Start by loving yourself! It can do wonders for your health and well-being.

Here is a simple 3 step process to practice self-love:

Close your eyes and start thinking yourself thin and fit despite being overweight.
Visualize the best-fit look of yourself.
Feel the happiness and emotion attached to your most fit and healthy body.

Do this in a calm mind with closed eyes twice or thrice daily. Remember, your body is your temple. So, shut out the world that tries to tell you that you are weak. Fill yourself with spiritual nature. Imagine you have wings that lift you high and know you have the power to overcome overweight issues. You look beautiful, no matter what anyone says.

The power of positive thoughts

You must have heard this,” You are what you think.” Your inner thoughts shape your outside world. Thoughts are energy and you have the ability to create manifestations through thoughts. If your thoughts are positive, you increase your powers of creation. If you think thin, fit, and healthy, you will become one. If you keep thinking about what you really want, you will get that. If you keep thinking about what you really don’t want, you will get that.

The energy in the universe is abundant. Energy for good health and fitness is already present in the universe. We only need to think and act to attract that energy to us. Ultimately, the choice is yours. It is wise to operate at high energetic levels. Choose happiness instead of sadness. Choose to smile instead of frowning.

If you are struggling with obesity and want to start a spiritual weight loss program or weight loss treatment in Bangalore, then contact Dr. Vishwanath, the best dietician in Bangalore for weight loss, or visit our health and wellness center.

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Fasting Helps You Stay Young And Live Longer

Humans have been fasting for centuries. Fasting often done for religious reasons is now being done for a lifestyle change. It is more beneficial in terms of reversing pre-diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. Fasting helps in detoxifying the body and also helps in clearing acne, which is a common problem in young people.

Intermittent fasting is becoming very popular these days. What is intermittent fasting? It is not a dieting strategy but a pattern of eating, outlining when to eat and when to avoid food. It plays a big role in weight loss, reducing insulin levels, allowing your body to use up stored fat.

The Myths About Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is a starvation diet
You are diabetic and you must not fast
You will be hungry all day long

How does intermittent fasting work?

Intermittent fasting is the most effective way to activate autophagy. Autophagy is a natural process and plays a wide role in cleaning out any unnecessary or damaged components. It has several positive health effects. It helps the immune system by cleaning out toxins and infectious agents while increasing the elimination of aging cells.

Autophagy is an important metabolic process in slowing down aging and an effective mechanism to stop cancerous growth. In 2016, Yoshimori was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology for his discovery of Autophagy in fasting. Fasting for 12 hours triggers autophagy while fasting for 24 hours increases autophagy up to 250%.

It is not what we eat is important but it is also significant how we eat and when we eat. Intermittent fasting doesn’t have to be hard. It is a time-tested method. It is essential to drink a lot of water during your fasting window. A healthy, balanced diet is essential too. The main purpose of intermittent fasting is to promote health and wellness. It also deepens our awareness of the self.

Intermittent Fasting Benefits

Improves Your Health

Intermittent fasting boosts your human growth hormone, increasing energy, and resolving stress. It can have a positive effect on muscle growth. For beginners, the intermittent fasting method involves 16-hour fasts, thrice a week. It helps in the detoxification process while improving brain health and memory.

Helps in Weight Loss

A sedentary lifestyle is the root cause of obesity and overweight. With intermittent fasting, you can experience weight loss significantly. It increases the hormone levels, boosting your metabolism to increase calorie burning. Intermittent fasting for weight loss can also have a beneficial impact on aging. Start an intermittent fasting diet plan for weight loss and restore your health. Don’t binge on junk food during your eating window.

Regulates Blood Sugar Levels

With close supervision of a diabetologist, intermittent fasting can be done to regulate your blood sugar levels. It breaks insulin resistance, which is the primary cause of diabetes. You can reduce your insulin levels significantly with intermittent fasting.

Works for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)

PCOS women show infertility and other metabolic alteration. Though most people associate intermittent fasting with weight loss, it can be an effective treatment option in women with PCOS as well. It has found that different fasting regimens can have beneficial effects on ovarian function and infertility in PCOS women.

Intermittent fasting under the close supervision of a physician can help in insulin resistance, reducing cholesterol levels, reducing weight, and decreasing sugar cravings. Commit to eating wholesome, healthy foods in your eating window. Remember, a healthy diet is essential. Allow your body to heal itself from intermittent fasting.

Consult an experienced dietician for starting intermittent fasting if you have health problems like diabetes.

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MORE YOU EXERCISE, MORE YOU LOSE WEIGHT- IT IS A BIG LIE

Exercising is good for your health, but exercising for the sole purpose of losing weight can lead to both physical and emotional health implications. This is why you shouldn’t exercise to lose weight. The human body can use up 1600 to 2400 calories a day, and exercise can help to burn only a certain number of these calories. The rest are burned during sleep or are stored in the form of fat. According to research, 70 percent of calories are burned by basal metabolism, 20 percent by physical movement, and 10 percent is burned up by the process of digesting food.

So if you are wondering why am I not burning as many calories, it is because even individuals who do rigorous exercise find it hard to burn more than 20 percent calories. Your basal metabolic rate plays a vital role in maintaining a healthy weight as it determines the number of calories your body burns at rest. Understanding your BMR is essential for determining your daily calorie intake. So if you wish to lose weight, you need to shift your focus from an exercise-only weight loss regime to one that gives equal importance to exercise and calorie-specific diet.

What causes weight gain?

Water, muscle mass, and fat are the main components that add up to an individual’s weight. Fat is nothing but sources of energy stored in the body. The body does not directly tap into the fat reserves as it uses glucose, found in carb-rich foods, as an instant source of energy. When glucose is present in the blood, insulin is produced to regulate blood sugar. Insulin also converts excess glucose into fat. It is found that high levels of insulin in the blood lead to a condition called insulin resistance, which leads to a large number of complications, including hormonal imbalances in women and extreme weight gain in the abdominal area for both men and women.

While storing fat is an important step to help you survive during famine-like situations when the fat reserves are not depleted periodically, it begins to accumulate around the visceral organs leading to obesity. This is why lifestyle diseases are more prevalent now than during earlier decades when hard labor and minimum access to food was the way of life. With exercise, you may lose excess water or may also experience atrophy; such weight loss is not sustained for an extended period and is often quickly regained, causing emotional stress.

For achieving your ideal body weight, it is imperative to lose weight in the form of fat, and this can be achieved with the right diet plan. So now that we understand the role of fat in weight gain, let us talk about how you can lose excess fat and achieve your fitness goals.

Know the right diet plan for you

Some say the food is medicine. While this is true, only the right food, eaten in the right proportion, can heal, nourish, and strengthen your body. Too much of anything, even food, can create debilitating diseases that can lessen the quality of your life. Now there are hundreds of weight-loss diet plans, but only a few can give you actual results. The low fat, high carb diet combined with exercise is often less effective for maintaining long term weight loss.

The answer to sustained weight loss is a low carb, high protein, and high (good) fat diet that will reduce or nullify the amount of glucose produced in the body and directly use the fat reserves to produce what is known as clean energy. While glucose burns only 4 calories per gram, fat cells burn around 9 calories per gram, which means you will have increased energy while losing weight. This is great news as most low fat and high carb diet leaves you sluggish all day, which is not how you should feel when you want to lose weight.

If you are worried about including high-fat food items in your diet, choose good fats over highly processed fatty food items. Sources of good fats include avocados, nuts, pure desi ghee, butter, fish, and certain varieties of cheese, etc. You can adapt a high fat, high protein, low carb diet plan that stimulates fat loss, improve your basal metabolism, and helps in weight loss. Combine such a diet with an exercise routine of your choice for sustained weight-loss.

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Intermittent Fasting – An Ancient Practice Becomes The New Fitness Trend

Intermittent fasting as the name suggests is a type of dietary routine that cycles between the period of fasting and eating.

Intermittent fasting is one of the most ancient dietary intervention techniques practiced by our ancestors during the ancient time.

It is one of the secrets of health and wellness. Intermittent fasting mimics the diet pattern of our ancestors. Buddha himself was a practitioner of intermittent fasting techniques, and he advised his disciples to have their meals between morning and later noon and nothing afterwards. Our ancestors used to eat mostly from dawn to dusk.

Nowadays with the rise of lifestyle-related diseases science has traced back the ancient practices of fasting and its impact on our body.

If done correctly, it carries great health benefits which can range from increased energy, weight loss, reversing type 2 diabetes, addressing acidity & metabolic issues, improved concentration among many other things.

INTERMITTENT FASTING AND STARVATION – ARE BOTH SAME?

You might be wondering if these two terms sound similar, don’t you?

To clear your doubts, the answer is “NO”, intermittent fasting and starvation are not the same; they are different; the science behind intermittent fasting and starvation is utilizing the energy reserve in the body which results in weight loss.

Starvation is the total absence of food and in case of Intermittent fasting, food is available in abundance; it’s your choice that you decide not to eat.

INTERMITTENT FASTING – HOW IT WORKS

The basic outcome of fasting is to burn off the excess fats stored in our body. If we plan our food intake in combination with fasting then the body will be utilizing the fats that have accumulated during the period of fasting.

After the intake of food, our body does not use all of it at once; it stores some for later use. There are two ways in which our body manages this process. Insulin is the key hormone for storing food energy in our body.

When we eat, it causes a surge or rise in the insulin levels as our body is working on the food particles to break it down and store the energy. Now, this can take place in two ways:

The diet pattern that we follow is mostly involving carbohydrate, so the carbohydrate gets broken down into sugars in the body which can form long chain molecules called glycogen that gets stored in the liver as a form of energy. When the level of glucose (sugar) is more than that is required; our body mechanism starts converting those excess sugars into fats through a process called as “De-Novo Lipogenesis”, which means creating new fats.

Some of the fat gets stored in the liver, while most of the other fats get deposited in other parts of the body which are prone to storing fats.

When we fast the exact opposite happens, insulin levels fall and it signals the body to use the stored fats as energy. The available glycogen present in the liver is utilized first and then the fat reserves will be broken down to fuel the body machinery.

So your body exists in two basic states; one that of feeding and the other one is that of fasting. Therefore, your efforts should be directed towards maintaining a balance between these two states and you will never need to worry about putting on weight, again.

BENEFITS OF INTERMITTENT FASTING

Fasting offers a myriad of benefits most obvious of which is weight loss; in addition to that, it offers a host of other benefits also.

Here are the health benefits of intermittent fasting,

Improved fat burning
Improved mental clarity and better concentration
Lower Blood Cholesterol
Reverse Type-2 Diabetes
Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease
Increased Lifespan
Increase in Growth Hormone levels
Potential to initiate cell cleansing by autophagy
Reduction in Inflammation

I will now take you through the various types of intermittent fasting that can be adopted by everyone; especially for those who are troubled by type-2 diabetes and obesity.

TYPES OF INTERMITTENT FASTING

BASIC INTERMITTENT FASTING (BIF)

This is what should be followed in the beginning for at least 1 week or for 2 weeks by Diabetes Patients.

Here one has to have an early dinner say between 7 PM- 7:30 PM and have breakfast next day between 8 AM and 9 AM.

So the fasting time here will be 12.5 hours or 14.5 hours. After breakfast, the lunch can be had between 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM and dinner back again between 7 PM – 7:30 PM.

Continue the cycle for 1 week or 2 weeks. (Ensure your breakfast timings are such that minimum fasting hours should be 12hrs and maximum fasting hours should not be more than 14hours.)

The 16/8 Method: Fast for 16 hours each day

In this method, the fasting duration can last between 14 to 16 hours and there will be an eating window of 8-10 hours.

Here dinner time stays as it is in the BIF. You need to extend your fasting time and have breakfast at 10 am for the first two weeks, in the third week; the breakfast timing shifts further to 11 am. Finally, in the 4th week, you can extend it to a half an hour more to 11:30 am. You can follow this routine 5 days a week for the best results.

You can drink green tea, water, black coffee, and other non-caloric beverages during the fast, and this will help in reducing hunger levels.

ALTERNATE DAY FASTING

Alternate day fasting means fasting every other day of the week, which means if you are having food today you need to fast tomorrow.

This must be started from 5th week. Every alternate day follow either 18 to 20 hours fasting pattern.

FULL DAY FASTING

It is an advanced form of fasting. In this fasting technique, you need to fast for the full 24 hours, you must not eat anything during that period; the next 24 hours you consume a planned diet. I suggest that this technique must be followed only after the above three techniques have been thoroughly experienced by the Diabetes patients.

IMPORTANT POINTS TO BE NOTED:

During the fasting hours: You can drink enough water, green tea without sugar, black coffee without sugar.

During the non-fasting hours have a high protein, Low carbohydrate, and moderate natural Fats based diet.

Strictly avoid these foods:

1. Processed Food

2. Canned Juices

3. Fast Food (French fries, burgers, pizza, other snacks)

4. Sugar Products (Sweet, Milkshake, Pastries etc…)

Once or twice in a month you can have a cheat meal, have your pizza, ice cream or French fries as it will keep cravings at bay and in control without making one feel there is too much sacrifice involved.

Remember, fasting also makes you feel good from the inside, naturally reduces your cravings, and helps in developing quality of resilience and self-restraint. You will feel more energetic and enthusiastic.

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What are the best tools for measuring Obesity?

Hello readers, today I will be sharing with you the most reliable tools by which you can assess your body fat percentage to determine whether you are obese or overweight and know the associated health risks.

I.Three parameters are very important in the measurement of obesity and its risks :

They are:

1. BMI

2. BODY FAT %

3. WAIST-HIP RATIO

1.How to Calculate BMI?

A healthy weight allows you to be energetic, brisk, and lets you live a fulfilling life.

The first step in finding out if your weight is ideal or not is to check your BMI or the Body Mass Index.

BMI takes into account your height and weight and indicates if you are underweight, normal, overweight or obese. This applies to adults over the age of 20 and is not age or gender specific.

Formula To Calculate BMI :

Your weight (in kilograms) ÷ [your height (in meters) x your height (in meters)] = BMI.

For example, 60 kilograms ÷ (1.65 meters x 1.65 meters) = 22.03.

Please note that BMI is not an accurate tool to be used for clinical diagnosis but it can be used as a screening tool to identify potential weight issues in adults. A person can have a high BMI, overweight status, especially bodybuilders with good muscle mass.

A woman can have normal BMI but still can have more body fat.

BMI can’t give accurate measurements of “Body Fat and Muscle Mass” but still, it’s one of the best available screening tools to know Healthy Weight Status.

2. Body Fat Percentage :

Body fat is the amount of fat in your body, compared to everything else.

By evolution, women have more body fat than men due to the demands of childbearing and hormonal changes occurring in their body.

II. How to Measure Body Fat ?

1. Look Method :

The easiest method, look at the accurate list of pictures with body % online and comparing a picture of yourself.

2.Body Fat Clippers :

Pull fat away from muscles pinch them with a caliper, measure and compare with the chart. “The Jackson-Pollack Three Skinfold Sites” formula is accurate.

The Jackson-Pollack method for evaluating body fat percentage takes into consideration three skinfold measurement. For men, the measurement sites are the chest, abdomen, and thigh; while for women, they consist of the thigh, triceps and suprailiac crest, or just above the top of the hip bone.

Men – CHEST (halfway between the nipple and armpit), ABDOMEN (about 1 inch right to your navel), THIGH (halfway between hip and the knee).

Women – TRICEPS (halfway between the bone at the top of your shoulder and elbow), suprailiac (just above the top ride of your hip bone), THIGH (halfway between hip and the knee).

3.The BOD POD:

The BOD POD uses the technique ADP which is also known as Air Displacement Plethysmograph to determine your body composition i.e. (the ratio of fatty mass to lean mass). Body composition is divided into two body mass categories (fat mass & lean mass). The Fat mass consists of all the adipose tissue (fat) present in your body and the Lean mass consists of bone, bodily fluid (blood), organs, and skeletal muscle.

The BOD POD test provides results of these two categories expressed as percentages of total body mass.This method is very accurate but expensive.

4. Dexa Sanning or Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry:

DEXA scan shows the fat and lean mass distribution for the entire body. The greatest benefit of this test is that it is reliable and can detect even small changes in the body composition. This is one of the most accurate method but more on the expensive side.

I personally recommend the simple body fat caliper along with ‘look method’

Note: Essential fat % mentioned above in the chart is the minimal amount of fat required for survival. Anything less than that is dangerous.

Even professional bodybuilders minimize body fat to essential fat only during prepping for the show, rest of the year they maintain higher fat %.

“MEN, WHO HAVE SIX PACKS, MAINTAIN FAT % ANYWHERE BETWEEN 6 to 13%.”

III. Waist-Hip Ratio and Waist Measurement :

It is not only important to assess the total amount of body fat, but also the distribution of the fat counts.

WAIST SIZE may be a better predictor of good health when compared to BMI.

A waist size of more than 35 inches (or 88 cm) in women and over 40 inches (or 102 cm) in men is unhealthy.

Having weight around the waist is a clear sign of VISCERAL FAT.

Visceral fat is that fat which wraps around organs, interrupting with their regular function. This abdominal fat is linked to chronic lifestyle diseases like diabetes, Heart disease, metabolic disturbances, and sleep apnea.

Most people store their body fat in two distinct ways: 1) around their middle (apple shape) and 2) around their hips (pear shape).

WAIST-TO-HIP RATIO also known as the waist-hip ratio is the circumference of the waist divided by the circumference of the hip.

WHR= Waist circumference/Hip circumference.

Weight around the waist has a greater risk of lifestyle-related diseases such as heart disease and diabetes than those with weight around their hips.

Ideally, women should have a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.80 or less, whereas men should have a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.95 or less.

IV.How to measure waist-to-hip ratio?

1. Stand up straight and exhale. Use a measuring tape to check the distance around your waist, just above your belly button. This is your waist circumference.

2. Then measure the distance around the largest part of your hips — the widest part of your buttocks. This is your hip circumference.

3. Calculate your WHR by dividing your waist circumference by your hip circumference.

WHR has been shown to be a better predictor of cardiovascular disease than waist circumference.

Some other studies have found waist circumference, not WHR, as a better indicator of cardiovascular risk factors.

High WHR also increases the risk for diabetes, autoimmune diseases, and even cancers. In women, Low WHR is also linked to attractiveness and good fertility rates.

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Overweight and Obesity

If you look closely at your group family photos from 30 years ago and compare them to any family photographs from recent 5 years, you can see that more than 50% of people are overweight in the recent group photos as compared to old photographs, where the number of overweight people would be hardly 20%.

Overweight and obesity is increasing day by day. Nearly 70% of people are overweight nowadays.

Obesity is not just a cosmetic consideration. It is a chronic medical condition which can lead to diabetes, high BP, heart diseases and a few forms of cancers.

In this modern technological era, obesity and its associated complications are killing many people slowly.

It is appropriately called “slow plague of modern times”.

What Causes Obesity?

The primary cause of obesity is FAT INFLAMMATION due to HIGH INSULIN.

Due to the repeated intake of refined carbohydrates and processed foods like sugars, bread, refined white rice, Maida, refined flours, creams, syrups and sugary beverages, there is a spike of insulin levels in the body as a compensatory mechanism by the pancreas to control raised blood sugars. Repeated spikes of insulin lead to high insulin levels in the blood called HYPERINSULINEMIA.

Insulin Swells Up Fat Cells. Usually swelled fat cells become normal sized after insulin levels come back to normal levels.

After a few years, repeated insulin spikes and high insulin levels develop resistance which fails to bring down high blood sugar. This condition is called INSULIN RESISTANCE AND HYPERINSULINEMIA. This persistent high level of insulin leads to persistent swelling of fat cells.

Just like the repeated use of antibiotics leads to antibiotic resistance, repeated spikes of insulin by refined carbohydrates and processed food leads to insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance leads to chronic swelling of fat cells called FAT INFLAMMATION which leads to weight gain and can lead to diabetes.

The causes of chronic fat inflammation and weight gain are:

1) Sugar and refined carbohydrates including artificial sweeteners.

2) Trans-fats

3) Refined grains like white rice, Maida, and Wheat.

4) Foods high in Omega-6 fatty acids such as fast foods, corn, safflower and sunflower oils, cakes with frosting, peanut butter, creams etc.

5) Imbalanced digestive bacteria

6) Chronic Stress

7) Lack of Sleep

8) Too little exercise.

9) Poor intake of water.

Other causes of weight gain are some medications like antidepressants, antipsychotics, diabetes medications like sulphonylureas and insulin.

When diabetic people start insulin injections, there will be weight gain due to the side effects of taking insulin.

Very rarely obesity is genetic. I keep hearing this frequently from overweight people that Fat runs in our family, that’s why I am overweight. Until very recently, we were taught that our genes determine our destiny and that our genes could not be altered or changed.

Thanks to our research in epigenetics, we are now aware that our environment, diet, and even lifestyle all make a difference in what happens with our genetic heritage and can even change genetic expression.

ALL FATS IN THE BODY are NOT the SAME

Types of Body fats

1) Subcutaneous fat

This is the fat that is found right under your skin on hips, thighs, and belly. Small amounts of subcutaneous fat give shine to skin and make you look beautiful.

We are born with subcutaneous fat, and it acts as a cushion to protect our bones and muscles against any hits and falls.

It also acts as an insulator, thereby regulating body temperature.

If you are storing too much of subcutaneous fat you are at a risk of developing heart disease, sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes, stroke, fatty liver disease.

2) Visceral fat

This is the fat buried deep in our abdominal cavity; it covers all the nearby organs such as filling the spaces between vital organs like the liver and kidneys.

Visceral fat is linked to a multitude of major health problems which includes cholesterol, insulin resistance, and diabetes.

Interestingly, there are some people who appear thin, but who nonetheless have a substantial amount of visceral fat hiding out around their organs.

This condition is called Thin outside and Fat inside (TOFI). It is used to describe people having a disproportionate amount of adipose tissue i.e. fat stored in their abdomen. Visceral fat is dangerous than subcutaneous fat.

Belly Fat Is A Beautiful Combination Of Excess Subcutaneous And Visceral Fat. Belly fat is more dangerous visceral fat.

Men and women differ in fat storage. Usually, the overweight man is likely to store more fat in his abdominal area.

In the case of Women, until menopause, they tend to store fat, mostly subcutaneous fat in the regions of thighs, hips, and butt. After the menopause, as less estrogen is produced, fat moves over and gets stored in and around waist and abdomen.

Lastly, fat in the hips, thighs, and butt carry as many health hazards as it does in the middle of the abdomen.

In my next blog, I will explain about BMI and measurement of body fat percentage.

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Top 10 Weight Loss Tips – Obesity And Wellness

Weight Loss Tips

1) Exercise regularly eat less and sleep more.
2) Check hormones like thyroid and review any of your medications are causing weight gain.
3) Eat food as raw as possible. Avoid processed foods. Eat only when hungry.
4) Avoid too many fruits.
5) Avoid Beer.
6) Avoid artificial sweeteners.
7) Follow low carbohydrate diet.
8) Follow intermittent fasting.
9) Follow ketogenic diet in resistant cases.
10) Consider Weight loss pills and Bariatric surgery if above measures fail and if BMI is too
high.
Remember, weight loss needs consistent efforts. It’s 90% mental phenomenon.
Incoming postings on obesity, I will explain each of above measures in detail.

If you find this blog informative and worth sharing please take a moment of your time to educate your friends,family members. It will help spread the awareness and ensure better health for everyone.

Leave your comments below so that I can help the community by presenting more such information on health and wellness.

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IMPORTANT POINTS TO BE NOTED:

Strictly avoid these foods:

I.Three parameters are very important in the measurement of obesity and its risks :

1.How to Calculate BMI?

2. Body Fat Percentage :

II. How to Measure Body Fat ?

1. Look Method :

2.Body Fat Clippers :

3.The BOD POD:

4. Dexa Sanning or Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry:

III. Waist-Hip Ratio and Waist Measurement :

IV.How to measure waist-to-hip ratio?

What Causes Obesity?

Types of Body fats

Weight Loss Tips

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