7 Foods That Help You Lose Weight

By Melanie Haiken, Caring.com

A helpful article with tips and foods that help you lose weight. Learn about the seven foods that can actually boost your body's fat burning potential and help you lose weight.

Don't get sucked into the idea that food is your enemy when you're trying to lose weight. In fact, it's just the opposite: Befriend the right foods, and the pounds are much more likely to peel off than if you just try to cut calories across the board. Here, seven foods known to nutritionists to boost your body's fat-burning potential.

1. Oats

Wait a minute -- aren't oats a carb? Yes and no. Oats are a whole grain, and they're high on what nutritionists call the "satiety index," meaning oats have tremendous power to make you feel full. Not only that, they're also high in soluble fiber, so they cut cholesterol and blood fat. Oats digest slowly, so they don't raise your blood sugar, and they keep you feeling filled up well into the late morning. Old-fashioned steel-cut and rolled oats, with up to 5 grams of fiber per serving, are best, but even instant oatmeal has 3 to 4 grams of fiber per serving.

2. Eggs

Nutritionists have been trying for some years to restore the reputation of the lowly egg. No longer thought to be a cholesterol-booster (eggs contain a different type of cholesterol than that in humans), eggs are a concentrated form of animal protein without the added fat that comes with meat. Dietary studies have repeatedly found that when people eat an egg every morning in addition to (or instead of) toast or cereal, they lose twice as much weight as those who eat a breakfast that's dominated by carbs.

3. Skim milk

Studies in reputable publications such as the Journal of Obesity (in addition to the controversial ones funded by the National Dairy Council) show that the combination of calcium, vitamin D, and low-fat protein in skim milk and nonfat yogurt trigger weight loss and help build and maintain lean muscle.

4. Apples

To keep the pounds at bay, eat an apple -- or two -- a day. Numerous studies have found that eating an apple a half hour to an hour before a meal has the result of cutting the calories of the meal. Why? The fiber in the apple makes you feel full, so you eat less. Recent research suggests eating apples has other benefits, too; the antioxidants in apples appear to prevent metabolic syndrome, the combination of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and prediabetes that tends to accompany thickening around the waist. Also, apples are high in pectin, which binds with water and limits the amount of fat your cells can absorb.

5. Red meat

Not exactly what you think of as a diet food, right? But research in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition compared diet results for women who ate red meat and those who didn't, and the meat-eaters lost more weight. Experts think the dense protein in lean red meat helps you maintain muscle mass -- but of course this assumes you're exercising to build that muscle.

6. Cinnamon

This simple spice appears to have the power to help your body metabolize sugar, according to surprising data that came out of a USDA study involving diabetics. Eating as little as 1/4 to 2 teaspoons of cinnamon a day was found to reduce blood sugar levels and cut cholesterol from 10 to 25 percent. So add cinnamon to smoothies, sprinkle it on your cereal, or flavor your coffee with it -- particularly if you take your coffee with cream and sugar. The cinnamon will boost the health benefits of the coffee while helping your body rid itself of the added sugars.

7. Almonds and almond butter

Another counterintuitive choice; aren't nuts and nut butters supposed to be incredibly fattening? Well, almonds are calorie-dense, but they also pack a huge nutritional punch -- and they're particularly effective in counteracting cholesterol and triglycerides. One study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that eating almonds was as effective as taking a statin. Spreading almond butter on your morning toast gives you a nice protein boost while preventing the carbs in the toast from spiking your blood sugar.

Source: http://www.caring.com/articles/seven-foods-lose-weight

FDA Approves Weight Loss Drug Belviq

By Charles Feng, M.D. and Sheila Reddy, M.D.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the weight loss drug Belviq for people who are overweight or obese and have one or more weight-related health problems, the agency announced today.

"Obesity threatens the overall well-being of patients and is a major public health concern," Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. "The approval of this drug, used responsibly in combination with a healthy diet and lifestyle, provides a treatment option for Americans who are obese or are overweight and have at least one weight-related comorbid condition."

The drug, made by Arena Pharmaceuticals, acts on a receptor in the brain to help people eat less and feel fuller, according to the FDA statement.

In clinical trials people who took Belviq were twice as likely to lose 5 percent or more of their weight than people who took a placebo. The drug was also linked to improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

"It's about time that they approved a new drug," said Dr. Judith Stern, a professor of nutrition at the University of California at Davis. "Obesity drugs should be on the fast track."

In 2010, the FDA decided not to approve Belviq, citing concerns that the drug carried heart-valve risks and increased brain and breast tumor development in rats given seven times the recommended dose.

But new studies by Arena Pharmaceuticals found no increased risk of heart valve problems and only a small risk of cancer. And in May 2012, an FDA panel voted 18 to four to approve the drug, stating the benefits of Belviq outweigh the potential risks when used in a population of overweight and obese people.

"For the half of America that seriously needs some help in reducing energy intake, this has some promise," said Dr. Barry Popkin, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Other experts have expressed more caution.

"The approval of [Belviq is] a foot in the door for pharmacological treatment of obesity," said Dr. Robert Eckel, a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado -- Denver. "However, the effects are moderate at best."

Obesity is becoming an epidemic of massive proportions. According to the World Health Organization, by 2015 2.3 billion adults will be overweight, and more than 700 million will be obese. Obesity is associated with a host of health problems, including high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attacks, asthma, cancers and strokes. Indeed, obesity, along with tobacco, is a leading cause of preventable death.

The main treatments for obesity are diet and exercise. If those interventions are not effective, then a person can consider medical therapy or bariatric surgery. However, bariatric surgery, though effective in leading to weight loss, is also a surgical procedure with serious risks.

"Clearly [Belviq] is only effective in some cases, but clinicians who deal with very obese and super obese Americans are dying for an increased arsenal other than bariatric surgery," said Popkin.

The most common side effects of Belviq are headache, nausea and dizziness. And people taking Belviq were twice as likely to have neuropsychiatric and cognitive side effects.

Weight-loss drugs have a mixed track record with the FDA. Fenfluramine -- commonly known as fen-phen -- was pulled from the market in 1997 because of its association with heart valve disease. Accutrim was removed in 2000 because of its association with strokes. And Meridia production ceased in 2010 due to concerns of heart disease and strokes.

Only one weight-loss medication, Alli, was FDA-approved before today's decision.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/w_DietAndFitnessNews/fda-approves-weight-loss-drug-belviq/story?id=16661629#.T-wUuJGIW9s

10 Causes of Your Diet Fails

Many people do diet. There are successful and some are not successful. Here are some of the causes of fail-style diet:

1. You really do not understand why you diet?

2. Reducing the amount of eating, not eating.

3. Diets that are not planned.

4. You eat too little.

5. Lack of exercise.

6. Not consume the good fats. For example, milk

7. You do not have a daily record of what you eat. Sometimes we do not evaluate the programs we are running. By not evaluating difficult to determine the direction selajutnya from your diet program.

8. Not enough calories! Consuming a diet that only focus on one food group is a big mistake. Calories are needed in maximum metabolism in our body.

9. Not sharing with a friend who was on a diet.

10. Other reasons such as stress and frustration.

11. Can not wait. True success in the diet can not be measured quickly. It takes time.