The Diet Logs

Ok, if you want a good laugh, check out their website. They claim “Accomplix is a weight loss supplement which contains a mechanism of action that is different from any other weight loss supplement you’ve taken.” Please don’t be fooled. The ingredients found in this supplement are also found in dozens of other diet pills. Some of the ingredients have been found to be effective, such as green tea. Other ingredients, such as Hoodia, have not been found to do anything, although I personally have less of an appetite when I take Hoodia. But like many other diet pills, the amount of these ingredients is not disclosed so you have to be careful. I’m always apprehensive when a pill claims to be backed by “Clinical Studies.” Again, don’t believe the hype. Accomplix claims that their product was “87% successful in a clinical trial.” But they provide absolutely no details on this information. If there was such a clinical trial, and the results were so successful, don’t you think Accomplix would become a household product for all overweight families?

I’m happy to say that I’ve done my fair share of diet pill reviews, as well as doing tons of research on diet pills. I only have about 15 pounds to lose, although I would be tickled with even 10 pounds. For 2 months I was on Adipex and I loved the “speedy” feel I got and the energy was topnotch. I lost 10 pounds while on the pills and my doctor refused to prescribe me anymore because my BMI was within normal range after losing the 10 pounds. Boo-Hoo!! I looked into buying these pills online but found the price to be outrageous and 99.99999% of the sites I went to were scams. So, that lead me to find Nuphedragen. I ordered it 3 days ago and I’m hoping to have it soon. It is a stimulant diet pill and the manufacturer does not hide the fact that their product is loaded with caffeine. Caffeine has been one of the very few ingredients that has been shown to aid in losing weight. So, I’ll come back and update once I start the pills. The reviews I have read sound very promising!

Whoa Nelly! Guess what is involved with this Water Diet? Yep…you guessed it …drinking loads of water! The water diet is a diet I heard about from a wrestler. He said that a very effective way to lose weight quickly is to drink quite a bit of water on a very regular basis.

The way that it should work is that you should drink a liter of water before and after each meal. Also, you should always have a water bottle at hand to keep yourself watered up during the day. The key to this diet is staying as consistent as possible. This diet is good for athletes since it will certainly keep you hydrated. However, if you are an athlete, and even if you are not, you should still try to eat good, well-balanced meals.

Obviously, you will not be able to eat as much at meals with all of the water you will be drinking. The water bottle you carry with you is to keep you from snacking too much. If you can stay consistent, you should see results in short order. If you exercise and eat right, results will obviously be more effective.

I suppose the only obvious downside to this diet is that you will probably be making more trips to the restroom to go #1. Ask yourself if that’s too high a price to pay for losing the weight you want to lose.

Alli is the only FDA approved diet pill available for purchase over-the-counter. It is also known as Orlistat and is the half-dose version of Xenical. When Alli was first introduced, I remember seeing a commercial for the product and I looked over at my husband and said “I want to try that!” It sounded promising and it definitely had my attention. Before I decided to buy it, I looked online to get some feedback and reviews for other consumers. There was one thing that popped out and was said over and over again by so many different users and that was “Don’t wear white pants!” Ok, now certainly this scared me and I was immediately turned away from this diet pill. Basically Alli works by limiting the amount of fat that your body absorbs. It takes away about 150-200 calories and those calories come out in the user’s stool. So obviously if you eat a higher fat diet, then you are going to be spending a lot more money on toilet paper. The best thing about Alli is that its available at your local store so you don’t have to mess with the trips to the doctor, etc. The worst thing about this pill is its awful side effects and the fact that the pills are pretty expensive at $3-4 per day. Not bad for a few months but that could quickly add up.

Christian books are the largest segment of the publishng industry these days, and I guess dieters just had to jump on that bandwagon. That’s O.K. with me–jumping on bandwagons must be good exercise, too! So, the latest in weight loss support are Christian diet groups, or “pray your weight down”, as I would call it. They prefer catchier titles like “God’s Weigh”, and “What Would Jesus Eat?” (that’s a book) as reported:

A recent God’s Weigh meeting opened with prayer, but the worksheets and advice could have been torn from the pages of a secular weight loss workbook. The members talked about the importance of exercise and emotional triggers that lead to eating, such as boredom, stress and disappointment.

Another similar group is called “True Satisfaction”:

The group addresses a variety of unhealthy eating habits ranging from anorexia to overeating. Wendi Jennings, who is a co-facilitator for the five-member group, said they use a 12-step program based in Scripture to help people overcome unhealthy eating habits.  

Soda that is. Interestingly enough, there was an article I stumbled on earlier on reminded me of my own theory about diet drinks, and how they can contribute to making a person gain weight (or slow weight loss down):

So it is with our bodies, researchers theorize: Given a sweetish drink, but no calories, we go into search-obtain-and-eat mode. (Infant rats did this in an earlier study: Those given fake sweeteners craved calories more than those given real sugar).

Yes, study authors note, you can drink diet pop and consciously avoid snacking. But biochemically speaking, it’s harder for your body to cope with that, and for some it may be impossible.

It may or may not be a valuable theory, as this probably depends on people anyway (we don’t all have the same triggers, after all). I still find it quite logical, though, that drinking such sodas, and having the “sugary taste” in mouth, does have the potential to make the brain decide that it wants more. Once this is done, whether we can resist the induced craving or not is probably what makes the difference.

There is something sad about finding myself waking up in the morning and ready to take my “Happy” Zoloft pill, but also knowing that this is also making my weight “Not-so-Happy.” Found in Psychology Today, here comes a short article about the possible correlation between antidepressants and weight (whether gain or loss):

Weight gain has long been a bane of psychotropic drug treatment. Mood stabilizers such as Lithium and Clozapine are among the worst offenders, causing up to 50 percent of all long-term users to become obese. Patients on older tricyclic antidepressants can expect a steady gain of one to three pounds per month. But the medical community was caught off guard when patients on newer antidepressants complained the pounds were piling on.

Whether the weight gain is entirely due to the medication’s components or also to other factors such as increased appetite again after the patient starts to feel better, this is something I wonder, and that unfortunately doesn’t get very precise answers. At least it does give a list of some of the drugs that are likely to induce weight gain. It’s probably always good to know.

Here’s what I found this morning, while browsing through the list of feeds, newsletters and other regular blog reads that pile up every night: an article published on eDiets.com, about sugar, sugar substitutes and what is generally to know about them. Truth be told, I pondered first whether this was really a matter to go into the whole weight loss swing or not; however, considering that we’re more likely to get into these substitutes for dieting rather than health reasons, it may actually be the right place.

The full article can be found on eDiets, under the name “Sugar an Sugar Substitutes.” There would be a lot to tell about said article, that includes, among other things, a short Q&A part regarding “myths” surrounding artificial sweeteners, as well as other, less known little things such as the fact that using aspartame for cooking is not a good idea at all. Even though my own position on the matter remains “real sugar in moderation is always better”, I nevertheless found it an interesting read. It cannot hurt, right, to know a little more about these artificial products that are more and more found in our drinks and food.

Don’t laugh! Studies have shown that eating a measly 100 calories extra per day will cause the average person to gain TEN POUNDS in the course of ONE YEAR!!!!  Now how terrible is that? This article from Raphael Calzadilla (eDiets Chief Fitness Pro) has caught my eye. For anyone who, likes me, still tends to view exercising/”burning calories” as an all-or-nothing process, it’s good to find such little tricks, that can be useful and provide a certain dose of activity, even if it’s not “one full hour of cardio” or whatever else.

*Here are my top 20 in no particular order. Have fun!

1. Vacuuming — 25 minutes of vacuuming around your home will burn just about 100 calories. (Ok, now I wish my house was big enough that it took me 25 minutes to vacuum!)
2. Gardening — Like to garden? Its the digging and raking that will reap the most fitness benefits. These are the bigger calorie burners when it comes to gardening. In fact, you can burn up to 100 in just 15 minutes with these movements.
3. Walking — The easiest and one of the most natural movements known to human beings is walking. Fifteen minutes of brisk walking will burn approximately 100 calories. A brisk daily walk at lunchtime or after work will make a difference.
4. Jogging in Place — Need a quick pick-me-up before work? Jog in place for 12 minutes and burn a little more than 100 calories.
5. Dancing — 20 minutes of dancing at a moderate pace will burn 100 calories. Cmon, you know you love to do it, so have some fun with it. (Dancing in the shower also counts here!)

The whole article can be read on eDiets.com , and frankly, even though these tips can seem like an evidence, I think that if they need to be written down this way (and if they make me feel like I’m having one of these lightbulb moments of “that’s it! I need to consider things differently!”), then they probably deserved being published.

Top nutrition and weight-loss experts answer the most burning questions about weight-loss in this Health and Fitness News Service article by Sandra Gordon. Covering everything from “Is there one small diet fix that will help me lose weight?” (opt for low- or no-calorie beverages such as tea, water, seltzer and skim milk) to “Are there some foods that contribute to weight gain more than others?” (no), this informational piece covers a dozen issues such as portion sizes, cravings and restaurant food that can wreck a dieter’s plans. Here’s a sample:

2. Are there any tricks to controlling a craving?

First you need to know what’s causing it. Often, plain old hunger makes us pine for a particular food.

“Cravings are a normal and natural response to underfeeding yourself and can be prevented simply by planning and eating enough throughout the day,” says Katherine Tallmadge, author of “Diet Simple” (Lifeline Press, 2002). To stay satiated, she recommends eating three similarly caloric meals and one or more planned snacks daily.

If the craving lingers after making this alteration, it may be emotionally based. Try distracting yourself for 20 minutes (the usual length of a craving) by chatting on the phone or walking around the block, says Lawrence Cheskin, M.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, Lutherville, Md.

And you don’t need to think of cravings as necessarily being bad for you, suggests Beverly Price, a Bingham Farms registered dietitian, exercise physiologist and registered yoga teacher. One of Price’s classes, Reconnect with Food, offers information and tactics for giving up the some-foods-are-bad mentality and stopping the habit of bouncing from one unhealthy diet to the next.

“Eating mindfully is the key,” Price says. “It’s eating something you like, savoring it completely — how it feels in your mouth, how it tastes, eating it slowly and engaging your senses — and then, because you’ve really experienced the food, you’re satisfied with less of it.”