A little exercise goes a long way toward helping severely obese individuals improve their quality of life and complete important daily tasks, according to researchers at the Duke Diet and Fitness Center.

In a pre-program assessment where patients reported, on average, just under one hour of exercise per week, individuals who were more active reported better overall-quality of life. They also reported improvements in their ability to perform daily tasks as measured on a physical functioning scale.

“Things that many people take for granted like tying one’s shoes, getting dressed, or simply moving around were easier for those who reported routine exercise,” says Martin Binks, PhD, research director at the Duke Diet and Fitness Center, a residential weight loss program at Duke University Medical Center. He presented the research, which included more than 1,200 participants, at the Obesity Society’s annual scientific meeting in Phoenix AZ. Read the rest of this entry »

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MSNBC has an article today about a report in the journal aptly titled “Sleep”. According to the 6 week study those that slept too much or not enough gained weight.

Hours in the sack may have more to do with your weight than hours in the gym, finds a new study that shows too little - or too much - shuteye is a major factor in obesity.

Previous research has found that lack of sleep is associated with weight gain, but it was unclear whether the sleep problems drove the weight increase or vice versa.

To get a better handle on this chicken-or-egg issue, Canadian researchers tracked how people’s sleep patterns affected their weight over a six-year period. In the study, which appears in Tuesday’s issue of the journal Sleep, those getting six hours or less of shuteye nightly were more likely to become overweight or obese compared to those getting a solid eight hours of nightly slumber. And surprisingly, those getting nine or more hours of sleep were also more likely to become overweight or obese.

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Research has proven that if we’ve a single objective as our goal, and if we direct all our energies and resources towards the achievement of that objective, we can’t but win the goal. It is really true, and when it comes to weight loss, it is no different either! The very first thing you need to do is to make your weight loss goal your priority, and then enlist all the available resources and time towards achieving it. That is the only way you can lose weight.

I am not telling you to neglect things that are more important than weight loss, but I am pretty sure that the number of such ‘very important things’ is fewer than what you think, and I am also sure that you can, if you want, accommodate your weight loss program in this short list of ‘very important things’.

You see, nothing is more important than your health. If your health goes for a downhill, everything else that you set as ‘important tasks’ will have to stop. Now, how does this relate to weight loss? Well, you might not be aware of the fact that obesity is the forerunner of several harmful diseases such as diabetes, heart related diseases, hypertension, etc. Therefore, the main reason why you should lose weight is not just to look and feel good, but to make sure you live a healthy and long life. There are some ways you can ensure that you always find time for your weight loss program. Read the rest of this entry »

In Canada we get a lot of stories in the news about obesity in the US and sometimes I thing that we look at ourselves as immune to the obesity issue. Of course that is not at all true and bad habits in the US are the same as the bad habits in Canada. While many people look at the magic BMI number of 30 as the divider of obese or not (I of course hate the whole BMI numbering) I found this article in the Calgary Herald newspaper here in Canada.

According to the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey, 2.7 per cent of the population had “class III” obesity, meaning a BMI of 40 or more. But Padwal and others believe the prevalence of extreme obesity is now closer to four or five per cent, or about 1.5 million Canadians who are severely obese. Read the rest of this entry »