Colder temperatures can induce a massive calorie burn

by J. Anderson

(NaturalNews) Science is starting to tell us that you can actually freeze weight off by staying out in the cold! A recent article in Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism demonstrated that the optimal temperature for burning calories in fit individuals is 19 degrees Celsius, or 66.2 degrees Fahrenheit. This is due to our brown fat composition which warms the body by burning energy to make heat. Our brown fat allows us to use calories to produce non-shivering heat!

The team of Dutch scientists found that non-shivering heat production via brown fat can actually account for 30% of your energy budget! Being in low temperatures for an extended period of time can help burn the calories you have stored as fat. Study author Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt had this to say regarding the findings: "It could be a substantial influence and help in combinations with food changes and exercise."

We can actually increase the number of brown fat cells in our body in response to cold temperatures, causing us to feel warmer in colder weather. Dr. Phillip Scherer, Director of the Touchstone Center for Diabetes Research at UT Southwestern, had this to say regarding brown fat cells: "[E]ven as adults [it was once thought only infants could generate brown fat], we have the ability to generate brown fat cells in response to cold exposure. Unlike white fat cells that mostly just store fat, brown adipocytes keep us warm by burning fat at a high rate."

Brown fat cells are interspersed in a random fashion in our white fat, with increased accumulation around the upper torso and the neck. The UT Southwestern research has pointed to the fact that being exposed to the cold doesn't retool our white fat cells into brown fat cells but actually causes the completely new generation of brown fat cells. To see some of the added benefits of brown fat accumulation, a Japanese study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation found that people who spent two hours in mildly cold temperatures (63 degrees F) over the course of six weeks burned significantly more calories than people who spent that time in warmer temperatures!

The accumulation of brown fat cells due to prolonged exposure to mild cold can have us burning calories in large quantities. Burning 30% of your body's total energy budget, a substantial amount of calories, can possibly be achieved by lowering your thermostat. This can save you money in the process as well!

Sources for this article include:

http://sciencedaily.com

http://www.prevention.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.utsouthwestern.edu

http://science.naturalnews.com

Suzanne

Permanent weight loss can be as simple as getting back to nature: Six tips to help

by Sue Woledge

(NaturalNews) While losing weight can be relatively easy for most people who put their minds to it, keeping it off long term is another matter altogether. For most, lost weight will return over a relatively short time because the person losing the weight has only made temporary changes to their diet and lifestyle.

Once weight is lost, most people gradually resume their 'normal' lifestyle and diet: re-igniting food addictions, overloading the organs and undermining the metabolism with a cocktail of chemical food additives, GM ingredients and food sensitivities they don't realize they have.

To lose weight and keep it off old habits must be replaced with new ones. Food allergies and sensitivities must be eliminated and the mindset with regard food and its purpose must change.

Six tips to help you to not only lose weight, but keep it off forever

1. Avoid processed foods - Avoid highly processed foods as much as possible for both good health and weight management. Most processed foods contain highly processed sugars, processed salt that has been stripped of its minerals leaving pure sodium chloride, highly processed cheap, health destroying vegetable oils, genetically modified ingredients and synthetic chemical additives.

Read the ingredients on the labels of many packaged foods and you'll find that they contain ingredients that belong in a laboratory, not your pantry! Chemical additives combined with highly processed sugars, salt, starches and oils will gradually undermine your health by overworking organs, confusing or overstimulating the nervous system and mimicking hormones - all of which can gradually impact body fat levels.

2. Avoid gluten - Gluten has been shown to cause health problems in many people and a growing number of people realize that they can manage their weight more effectively without gluten in their diet. Whether this is due simply to the move away from a high carbohydrate diet or because they have removed a food that they are sensitive to makes no difference. The benefits of a gluten free diet are real and they are experienced by most people who make the change as long as they stick to whole unprocessed foods and avoid highly processed gluten free options.

3. Eat protein for breakfast - Eating a high protein breakfast has been shown to assist with improving leptin sensitivity in cells, ultimately improving body composition and reducing body fat levels.

4. Relax and be happy - Taking time out, meditating and doing the things that make us happy ultimately help to improve metabolism by reducing the stress hormones which can affect thyroid and adrenal function and damage metabolism.

5. Drink clean water - Municipal water supplies may seem clean if we focus simply on water that is free from harmful bacteria, but they are filthy when looked at with chemicals and heavy metals in mind. Municipal water supplies are almost always loaded with chemicals such as chlorine and fluoride and contamination in the form of pharmaceutical residues and heavy metals is also a growing issue. These chemicals and contaminants can place more toxic load on already overworked organs causing more confusion for already confused endocrine and nervous systems and eventually contributing to less health and more body fat.

6. Exercise consistently - Exercise doesn't have to mean running or jumping, but movement is essential for good health and helpful for weight management. Our bodies were made to move and without movement they become sluggish and toxic. Something as simple as walking for 30 minutes each day can be enough to keep things moving and help to manage weight.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.naturalnews.com/031660_gluten-free_diet_health.html

http://chriskresser.com/the-gluten-thyroid-connection

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu

http://www.jackkruse.com/my-leptin-prescription/

Suzanne

Living in Canada and having to go out in minus 20 degree weather, should keep us all skinny!

But it doesn't.

Probably the biggest aid to losing weight is, don't eat a big meal in the evening, and especially not just before going to bed.


Of course eating "real food" and not "manufactured" food is also important.

A Child's 'Weight Fate' May Be Decided by Age Five

by J. Anderson

(NaturalNews) While there has been a large amount of focus on decreasing child obesity in schools, recent research published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) indicates that a child's future weight (termed "weight fate") may be decided by age five. For example, the study found that over half of the children that were obese by the 8th grade were also obese at the start of kindergarten!

Child obesity and obesity in general are known to increase the risk of long-term chronic mental and medical problems. Not only can child obesity have long-term effects, but it can also have short-term consequences as well. Compared to normal-weight children, obese children are 200% more likely to suffer from at least three mental, developmental or medical conditions (overweight children are 30% more likely). Even though we know that there can be grave consequences for child obesity, about a third of all children in the United States are obese or overweight.

The NEJM study followed over 7,700 children through grade school. Of those participants, 12% entered kindergarten as obese, with 21% being obese by 8th grade. Likewise, half of the children that entered grade school as overweight ended up being obese by the time they became teenagers. These overweight children were five times more likely to become obese compared to their normal-weight counterparts!

The importance of this study is that it demonstrates to researchers, pediatricians and parents that preventing obesity should occur earlier than previously thought. This also indicates the importance of teaching good health practices early on in life. The lead author of the study, Solveig Cunningham, said, "A lot of the risk of obesity seems to be set, to some extent, really early in life." Cunningham indicated that our view and understanding of child obesity keeps changing: "we keep pushing our critical window earlier and earlier on."

The study helps us understand that we can help change or alter our children's "weight fate" by implementing healthy eating and exercise practices at an earlier age. While the study doesn't recommend having your child running laps on the track at a very young age, it does indicate that, because obesity is such a hard condition to treat, it's important to instill a healthy nutrition and fitness mindset early in life.

Sources for this article include:

http://life.nationalpost.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://science.naturalnews.com

Suzanne

If the article is to be believed, then one cause of obesity in the West, as well as its rise in the East (as their standard of living increases) is living in climate controlled indoors. So the next time you think about turning that thermostat up in the winter, consider its effect on your weight.

One thing for women to consider is that, by and large, they are not meant to eat as much as men. Yet, when people eat out, restaurants don't differ their portion sizes by sex. At home, both sexes fill their plates up equally and everyone is taught from a young age to make sure their plates are empty because of the poor children starving elsewhere.