10 Secrets in Fat Loss

Obesity is an epidemic in this country. The nation’s scales are going up and it’s clear that we have a health crisis on our hands. So what can we do about America’s growing epidemic? A balance between diet and exercise will help. Here are ten trends in weight loss that can do just that.

1. Let’s get personal. Weight loss is better when there’s someone to share it with. Workout buddies keep us on task and honest about our goals. Several weight loss programs like Weight Watchers offer the same type of personal interaction at their weekly weigh-ins and meetings. If you can’t make the meeting on your weighing day, you can attend a meeting on another day. Even online programs have chat rooms and forums for their members to talk about issues and converse with nutritionists and trainers about diet and exercise. The personal touch makes us feel validated and gives us the motivation to workout.

2. Exercise should be fun. No more hours spent on the treadmill or riding a stationary bike if you don’t want to. Exercise classes offer routines like belly dancing, salsa dancing, African beats and the like to get people back in shape.

3. What about the children? Children are the fastest growing segment of the population facing obesity. Efforts are being made in school cafeterias, in doctor’s offices, and in weight loss programs to stem this tide and give our children a fighting chance.

4. Families that work out together can lose weight together. With children affected by obesity, weight loss is important to their future. Parents work with children so that they can lose weight and the entire family ends up with better health.

5. Quick recipes are great. We’ve moved from fast food to fast and easy preparation. Recipes that offer healthy alternatives to our favorite meals in half the time are perfect for busy families. Food magazines like Kraft Food and Family and Cooking Light offer recipes with few ingredients that can be fixed in a jiffy. People can also learn to use versatile foods in several recipes for a new taste each night.

6. Can I have granola with that? Functional foods are the name of the game. Yogurt containing bacteria that aid in digestion and cereal with extra vitamins and minerals do double duty to keep us healthy. Even the orange juice has omega-3 fatty acids and calcium. These additives in popular foods supplement diets that would otherwise be lacking in them.

7. Cosmetic procedures for troubled areas. A relatively new and trendy fat loss treatment is called lipodissolve. It is touted by some weight loss clinics as a great way to quickly 'melt away' fat, especially in problem areas such as the 'love handles,' thighs, buttocks, and behind the arms. The treatment is non-invasive and involves the injection of phosphatidylcholine and sodium deoxycholate (PC/DC) directly into fatty areas using micro-fine needles. Unlike liposuction, which removes several liters of fat at once, lipo dissolve is used to remove only very small quantities of fat over the course of two or three treatments. It has become popular despite the FDA's statement that, "…these are unapproved drugs for unapproved uses." Little research has been done to prove the drugs are safe and effective. It should be noted that this is not intended for large volumes of fat reduction, or general weight loss.

8. Diet programs that work. People are doing their homework. Fad diets are on the way out and I think for good. Wasting money on programs that talk a good game but provide few results is frustrating. No one program works for everybody, so individuals should seek out one they feel they can follow.

9. Health concerns fuel safer methods of weight loss. The effects of obesity include diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, stroke, and heart disease. Obesity is one of the leading preventable causes of death. We are a nation that is slowly killing ourselves. Instead of heart surgery and pills, we want to regain our health the right way—through diet and exercise.

10. Using our heads. Knowledge is the key. We choose research instead of throwing money at every infomercial. Permanent weight loss comes one day at a time. People are taking the time to learn the truth about nutrition and exercise and how they work to bring about weight loss.

Conclusion:

Obesity is not going away unless we work to do something about it. Current trends in weight loss suggest that people are ready to give up fad diets for programs that promote healthy weight loss.