Do Extra Pounds Increase Death Risk?
Obesity Adds To Cancer, Heart Problems
A new government study suggests being 25 pounds overweight doesn't appear to raise a person's risk of dying from cancer or heart disease.
Dr. Katherine Flegal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention led the study. She said obesity was linked to about 11 percent of deaths from breast, kidney, colon or pancreatic cancer, and about 9 percent of deaths from heart problems.
"About 40 percent of deaths in the U.S. population are due to causes that are neither cancer nor cardiovascular disease, and there we found that overweight was associated with a significantly reduced number of deaths from those causes," she said.
That means being overweight may actually offer some protection.
However, the study was not based on what people may use as their own definitions of overweight and obese. It was based on the body-mass index, which looks at the ratio between height and weight. The measure is sometimes criticized because people with a lot of muscle can be considered outside the normal range.
"We define obesity as a body mass index of 30 and above. We define normal weight as a body mass index of 18.5 to 25 and overweight is the intermediate category from 25 up to 30," Flegal said.
Unless and until we clearly distinguish between "weight loss" and "fat loss" we will always have this problem.
People keep talking of weight loss as if it's equivalent to fat loss. Therefore, many think that negative calorie balance, which does cause weight loss, is what we need for fat loss. But this is false.
The body's priority is to maintain blood glucose levels. In negative calorie balance, it uses up its liver glucose stores (muscle stores cannot return to blood), and then starts eating up its muscles to convert glucogenic amino acids into glucose. So the weight lost in negative calorie balance has a lot of muscle in it, and very little fat. We only start burning fat in negative calorie balance when we run out of protein/muscle to give off glucogenic amino acids, but this only happens in starvation conditions.
I keep citing what happened to me in my early twenties. I was going along with my brother in training with weights. I was previously on the obese side, and during this training, my officemates kept commenting that I was getting thin. And my clothes confirmed their observations: they were becoming loose and I had to move my belt a couple of holes inward. But I gained 15 pounds! And I would gladly gain 15 pounds if it would remove 3 or 5 inches from my waist.
Attachment time again.
I'm attaching an essay I wrote in 2004 about this. It needs some updating, particularly the thing about breathing methods to lose fat, but I think it shows the principles of losing fat clearly. Most of you have probably seen this before. I'm just enjoying this attachment capability of this new board.
Extra weight = premature death. The heavier you are the shorter your life will be. look at all the really big people. Andre the Giant, all the huge weightlifters, etc., they all die young.
It is estimated that for every pound you are overweight, an additional 8 pounds of stress is put on the joints.(hips, knees, etc) These joints will wear out prematurely, creating additional health issues. The body is a temple, but the temple has limits..
__________________
Let Food Be Your Medicine And Medicine Be Your Food.(Hippocrates)
I got your fatloss plan back in the old forum.. It made alot of sense to me... I still try to get up and take a walk or just move around after meals.... Hopefully once I get everything else in balance, all these good habits Im building will help speed the weight loss along!!
__________________ God is and all is well
~John Greenleaf Whittier~
Extra weight = premature death. The heavier you are the shorter your life will be. look at all the really big people. Andre the Giant, all the huge weightlifters, etc., they all die young.
I think we have to look at the composition as well. Take Andre. While heavy and strong, he was just plain fat. He could have been just as strong, probably even stronger, without all the excess fat.
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It is estimated that for every pound you are overweight, an additional 8 pounds of stress is put on the joints.(hips, knees, etc) These joints will wear out prematurely, creating additional health issues.
I agree. But only if those extra pounds are just fat tissue. If those pounds were muscles, they would actually provide additional support for joints, relieving them of pressures.
I got your fatloss plan back in the old forum.. It made alot of sense to me... I still try to get up and take a walk or just move around after meals.... Hopefully once I get everything else in balance, all these good habits Im building will help speed the weight loss along!!
Actually, I've been lax in practicing what I wrote and am again in the obese side.
My emphasis now is regaining my heart-lung capacity, and Tabata intervals have really been so effective. I wrote about this a couple of months ago in this thread (click here).
For now, I don't mind the extra fat, as long as my heart-lung capacity keeps improving. My resting heart rate has been consistently below 65 per minute, almost right after I started my Tabata workouts.
Other references say that interval training is also an effective way to lose fat. So far, my belt size moved one hole back, but has remained there (it needs to move two more holes ).
I take a number of fat control supplements, but I can't vouch for what actually works. Here's one that is also supposed to help my asthma.
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Fat Burner #7: COLEUS FORSKOHLII (coleus)
What is it?
Coleus forskohlii is an ancient Ayurvedic plant and member of the mint and lavender family, which grows in the mountains of Asia. Recent research has shown that the active ingredient in coleus is forskolin, which plays a major role in a variety of important cellular functions, including inhibiting histamine release, relaxing muscles, increasing thyroid function, and increasing fat-burning activity. Though scientists are only just confirming the many benefits of coleus, there's a definite "buzz" circulating about its potential for aiding in fat loss.
How it works
The main argument for using it to drop fat is that the active chemical forskolin initiates a cascade of chemical reactions that cause fat cells to basically release their energy and melt away. In more technical terms, what happens is forskolin increases an enzyme called adenylate cyclase, which increases levels of another enzyme called cAMP (cyclic AMP), which is found in fat. cAMP then stimulates another enzyme, hormone sensitive lipase, to burn fat. Additionally, by a similar mechanism using cAMP, coleus increases thyroid hormone production and release, thereby increasing the body's metabolism, to burn more calories.
Basically, forskolin initiates a similar cascade of chemical reactions as ephedrine. Where coleus differs from ephedrine is ephedrine stimulates adrenergic receptors (which is the primary mechanism for ephedrine, even though this process is not totally accountable for its fat-burning effects) before it reaches cAMP. Unfortunately, many negative side effects can be experienced when some of these adrenergic receptors are stimulated, such as increased blood pressure, anxiety, etc. (This is basically why users of ephedrine-based supplements oftentimes experience unwanted and sometimes dangerous side effects.)
To the coleus user's advantage, however, coleus bypasses the adrenergic receptors and goes straight into the cAMP cycle, which is the next step in the ephedrine fat-burning process and subsequently also bypasses all of the potential unwanted, adverse effects associated with ephedrine. Simply stated, this is like having the option of two journeys driving to work: both will get you to the identical spot, and both will take the same amount of time, but one route (coleus) is a calm country drive with no traffic, whereas the other route (ephedrine) is a busy high-speed motorway with perils and hazards with every lane change... we know which route we prefer!
What does the science say?
Scientists have, in fact, studied the effects of coleus for over 15 years and have found an abundance of benefits, including bodyfat reduction and lean body mass enhancement. However, scientists are only now beginning to show how these effects occur in the real world. While more research is indeed needed (as is the case for many supplements), these theories and initial clinical studies adequately support its claimed benefits. Still, there is apparently some even more exciting research on the horizon.
Speaking of exciting research...
One of the most respected individuals in the field of sports nutrition research, Dr. Richard Kreider, conducted an interesting presentation called "Ephedra Alternatives" at Nutracon, held in March 2002 in Anaheim. Here he touched on a range of speculative but promising nutrients, one of them being coleus. Dr. Kreider stated that initial pilot studies suggest Coleus forskholii may promote weight and fat loss and/or mitigate (or moderate) weight gain in overweight subjects.
He also recently presented data at the 2002 Experimental Biology meeting of his own recently conducted study on coleus. In a double-blind, randomized study, 23 overweight females supplemented their diets with ForsLean (a patented form of coleus) extracted for 25 mg of forskolin two times per day for 12 weeks. The participants' body composition and bodyweight were examined every four weeks for the 12-week study period, and any side effects were recorded on a weekly basis. The study results found that although no significant differences were observed in caloric or macronutrient intake, ForsLean helped mitigate gains in body mass�that is, subjects taking ForsLean observed a slight decrease in bodyweight while subjects taking the placebo continued to gain weight. Additionally, the study showed users felt less fatigue, so they had more energy. And their appetites were reduced, so they felt fuller for longer. Also on the upside, there were no reported negative side effects.
How to take it
A common dosage range is 50 to 100 mg two or three times a day.
Fluid extracts of two to four milliliters taken three times per day are used as well.
Important Tip: An extract standardized to at least 10% to 20% forskolin is preferred.
I also take CLA, 5-HTP, carnitine, chromium, and DHEA.
Most importantly, I generally avoid all processed food and red meat(except liver & onions on Tuesdays at the Dixie Cafe). My weight loss has accelerated since I've started walking.
Can a little obesity help?
Weight loss not same as fat loss!
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