Caloric restriction and life expectancy

Perhaps you'll want to wait till after the holidays to read the article, Caloric Restriction and Life Expectancy in the vol. 6 issue 4, of Medscape General Medicine. Now we aren't mice, but. . .

Just in time for the holidays

"SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The most popular dieting brands are now weighing in with calorie counters and nutritional guides designed for personal digital assistants and combination PDA-mobile phones. Just in time for the season of bountiful temptation."

Wired News has the full story here.

"Weight Watchers is targeting the estimated 30 percent of its followers who already own a PDA and hopes others will buy new mobile devices -- which start about $100 -- just to help them keep count. Atkins wants to offer its mobile carb guide for all kinds of cell phones, which, unlike PDAs, already are ubiquitous."

Is there really anyone out there who doesn't know to eat less and move more? Do you need a PDA to lose weight?

Healthy Weight Chart

Source: Report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 1995 pgs. 23-24.

This chart is located at Healthy Living, which contains recipes, calculators, message boards and personal stories. Take a look.

New Dishes for Christmas?

You've heard of "portion control?" Now there are dishes to help you visualize the proper portion size.

Ordering information and other tips can be found at The Portion Plate.

Sleep loss and weight gain

You might be reading about the relationship between sleep and weight gain. There was an article in USAToday on Dec. 6. This is the URL of a summary of an article which appeared in the Annals of Internal Medicine. “Brief Communication: Sleep Curtailment in Healthy Young Men Is Associated with Decreased Leptin Levels, Elevated Ghrelin Levels, and Increased Hunger and Appetite. Brief Communication: Sleep Curtailment in Healthy Young Men Is Associated with Decreased Leptin Levels, Elevated Ghrelin Levels, and Increased Hunger and Appetite.” Karine Spiegel, Esra Tasali, Plamen Penev, and Eve Van Cauter. Annals 2004 141: 846-850.

Medscape reports: “In an accompanying editorial, Jeffrey S. Flier, MD, and Joel K. Elmquist, DVM, PhD, from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, wonder if controlled studies should be designed to measure the effect of sleep-promoting interventions on appetite and body weight. However, they note that this study does not prove a cause-effect relationship between the hormone levels and hunger and dietary intake. Other factors, such as cortisol or orexin, may affect sleep and body weight regulation.

"If the findings prove to be reproducible and generalizable, and the hormonal changes of leptin and ghrelin due to sleep curtailment cause changes in food intake over time, we might add sleep duration to the environmental factors that are prevalent in our society and that contribute to weight gain and obesity," the authors write.

"Although recommendations to get both a better night's sleep and more exercise might superficially seem to be at odds with each other from the perspective of energy expenditure and energy balance, these simple goals may well become a part of our future approach to combating obesity." “(Medscape)

Americans cause more damage

According to this Australian news source, overweight Americans cause more damage on cruise ships.

CDC maps obesity trends

This is a map of obesity trends located at the CDC with appropriate explations. Obesity is defined as BMI >30, or ~ 30 lbs. overweight for 5'4" woman. I wonder why Indiana is heavier than Illinois or Ohio?

Holiday Weight Gain

Desda Moss in USAToday writes on November 26:

"By combining an abundance of food, seasonal stress and a boatload of emotional baggage, the holidays create a recipe for diet disaster. Most of a person's total weight gain over a year occurs during the six weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas."