Posts Tagged “lose weight”

I have mentioned before that I am not a big fan of Alli and most of the trainers and experts that I have heard from do not advocate it’s use as the way to lose weight either. The “Wonder Drug” Alli that was released three months ago with lots of hype sold 2 million starter kits, the creators or Alli announced today.

GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare announced today that it has sold more than 2 million alli(R) starter packs at retail, and that alli users are enthusiastically embracing alli and its proven track record of helping people lose weight gradually. This news comes as the company is breaking the first in a series of next-generation ads for the weight-loss product that depart from the typical “before and after” testimonials and offer an intimate and honest look at the healthy diet and lifestyle changes experienced by actual alli users.

Launched nationwide on June 15, alli is the only FDA-approved weight-loss product available to overweight adults without a prescription. The alli capsule works by blocking the absorption of about 25 percent of the fat in the foods people eat, helping them lose 50 percent more weight than they would through diet and exercise alone. alli starter packs contain alli capsules in 60, 90 or 150 counts, plus user’s guides, dietary support materials, access to a free online support program and the alli “shuttle(TM)” carrying case.

In addition to its retail success, alli is garnering intense consumer interest and discussion. Approximately 5.4 million unique visitors have logged on to the alli websites, myalli.com and the Spanish-language mialli.com. In addition, more than 200,000 people have enrolled in alli’s online behavioral support program. Consumers have also posted more than 125,000 messages on the official alli message boards, and tens of thousands are talking about alli on blogs and online discussion groups they have formed themselves.

As we all know, losing weight can be difficult and when there is as much advertizing and promotion as Glaxo Smith Kline did for a product like Alli. Although this looks like a lot of product to be shipped I am not sure that it is really a good decision. There are many other places around this blog that you can get info on losing weight but really losing weight comes down to making changes to yourself.

You need to make changes like healthier eating, getting some or more exercise and being very aware of the way and how often that you eat.

Often, and I can not really remember any of the Alli commercials, a weight loss product commercial will just show you skinny people playing and laughing and looking really hot. The images are great but they of course make Alli or products like them look like wonder drugs when in actual fact there needs to be changes made that are more significant than JUST popping pills.

Oh, and I just need to take one dig at Alli, I don’t expect the commercials showed poo stained clothes from the fat leakage that the product seems to trigger

I wrote this article in anger a few months ago during season 4 of the Biggest Loser after Neil, one of the contestants gamed the Biggest Loser by cheating and drinking a couple of gallons of water right before the weight in. I am now again watching the Biggest Loser. But in reading this post you can see the anger that i had about the cheating and I certainly hope that the people that run the Biggest Loser do not let it happen again.

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Well after three almost four seasons of watching the Biggest Loser as well as blogging about it I have now decided to boycott the show for good.

Anyone that saw tonight’s episode of the Biggest Loser was a horrible farce and hurt most of the contestants and I expect most of the viewers.

So, what happened tonight on the Biggest Loser, horrible gamesmanship. One of the teams conspired against everyone else but in the end one of the players, Neil, cheated by retaining water and gaining 17 pounds and instead of getting kicked out of the game he actually got what he wanted and that was for someone on one of the other teams kicked out.

There are of course no rules against trying to gain weight on the Biggest Loser but going this far is a terrible way to try to play the game.

NBC has always tried to plug the Biggest Loser as a motivational show where people come together and support each other to try to lose weight and change their lives but then they have allowed this to happen.

I know that there is no way to change this as the show is taped ahead of time so the next few weeks have already been taped but with falling ratings you have to think that NBC has conspired with the people on the show to create a ridiculous controversy that does nothing but piss of the viewers that still support the show.

for most people it is hard to lose weight and losing 1 or 2 pounds is all that most people really expect. For this show to inspire people with 10 pound weight losses and then to allow one person to game the show with a 17 pound weight gain is absolutely terrible in my eyes

Boycott the Biggest Loser by not watching it anymore.

Most people that have tried to lose weight have heard of both the Jenny Craig Diet as well as Weight Watchers. Studies have shown pretty conclusively I believe that these diets seem to help people lose weight over the long term although the weight loss never seems to be very substantial according to the studies. So why do these diets seem to work pretty well? I have thought about this and as usual I have a list of things that I think make Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig work where most fad diets just don’t seem to.

1. Commitment by spending money - It is hard to give up on a diet that you have to pay money to every week. When you know that on Tuesday they are going to charge your credit card or some other form of payment you are going to think twice before eating that piece of chocolate cake.

2. Success all around - In a Weight Watchers meeting or at a Jenny Craig office you get to see people like you and people that used to be like you that have lost weight. It does not seem like so much of a fantasy when you see a few people that you can actually see and talk to that have lost 50 pounds and feel great about it.

3. Something to believe in - There is a long track record in both weight Watchers as well as at Jenny Craig. Both of these diets have seen a lot of other diets come and go so most people look at them both as pillars in the weight loss community.

4. Writing things down makes you accountable - This is the big one to me. Both Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig both make you right down in some form what you have eaten today and what kind of exercise or other activity that you participated in.

I don’t think for a moment that either Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers are the best thing out there for everyone but they do seem to work for most people. The real diet that will work for you is a process that you believe in without a doubt so that you will not question it and a way to hold yourself accountable.

Losing weight while watching TV seems like one of those nirvana type situations that would be great but very tough to figure out. For all of the couch potatoes that watch lots of TV everyday there has to be a way to watch TV every night and still lose weight. I laughed out loud, really out loud when I thought of this idea but it was a challenge to think of so here I am coming up with a training plan to lose weight while watching TV. So here are my ideas for how you could successfully lose weight while watching TV

1. Eat right - This is the toughest part of losing weight for many people. Night time is the time to snack and it is hard to measure how much you are eating when you are not lookin at your food but are instead just grabbing food and putting it in your pie hole.

Make sure that what you are eating is low cal by picking fruit like grapes which you can eat one at a time or  fruit salad with all of the different tastes that make you notice that you are eating. Also make sure that you are drinking lots of water as it will fill you up more than anything when you are always distracted by the show you are watching.

2. Exercise during commercials - First of all there are a few ways that you can exercise during the shows you watch but you will never do that anyway so be realistic and wait until the commercials. Have a pair of 5 pound weights dumbells that you can have sitting next to the couch. During commercial breaks you have about a two minute break and during this break you can  do a couple sets of weights. The weights that you will do are called supersets. First do 8-12 reps of shoulder presses and then 8-12 reps of alternating curls per arm. This is it for this commercial break but during the next commercial break you can do another couple of exercises maybe tricep kickbacks and one armed rows.

The reasons that you are doing weights is not because the weights will directly make you lose weight but the additional muscle that you will have will help you lose weight over time.

3. The missing cardio requirement - The real need that you have to lose weight as well as eating and weights is the need for cardio. Cardio exercise is critical and you cannot do it to help you lose weight while watching TV so my best recommendation is to decide that right before dinner or a half hour after dinner you should go for a bike, run or even a brisk walk so that you have a bit of time before sitting on the couch to have a shower and at the same time be confident that you did everything that you needed to to get yourself in just a little bit better shape then you were in the day before.

I find that when I start working out hard or eating well that I just dive into the one thing and so many other things in my life suffer because I put the blinders on. This is of course wrong and I really got a chance to see it last week when my wife was complaining that she really wants to lose some weight.

Last week my wife decided that she wanted to make changes she came up with the following:

Eat less junk
Exercise more
Eat better
Lose weight

Well all of these things are related so you would think from the outset that, “hey this should be easy”, well it seems maybe no note so easy.

I told her then and I reiterate that when you have these related ideas you just don’t worry about the past and what happened (eating and exercise are really easy to have ugly baggage about) and instead just decide.

Decide to get up and workout after dropping the kids to school.
Decide not to eat the chocolate that I have left in the pantry.
Decide to eat the three meals and snacks during the day so that you are not looking for binge foods.

Over the last few days we have been eating much better in the house and my wife has made lots of great meals with lots of leftovers in the freezer for my lunch. Looks like we will be doing this together. Also today while sitting waiting for me to get home from shopping on a Sunday afternoon my wife spontaneously decided to workout which for both of us is rare on a Sunday.