» weight gain

Debbi Reveals Her Experience with Weight Gain after Quitting Smoking

Dr. G. Pepper — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:39:37 +0000

In this post Debbi gives advice to Melanie who is concerned about weight gain when stopping smoking:

Debbi writes:

Melanie: Not sure if you have read all of these posts, but a few years back, I quit and gained THIRTY pounds just as you described. Made me feel exactly like you say “humongous slug” and buying bigger clothes every 4 weeks. It drove me back to smoking. Recently, (Nov. 14, 2009), I quit again and gained 13 lb. by Christmas!!! I had to buy new clothes once again & could feel the depression rolling in again, but instead of smoking this time, I started going to the gym like a total maniac. I follow Weight Watchers also. I am 54 years old, 5′ 2″and have weighed 120-125 most of my life – now I’m ‘hanging tight’ at 135 by doing what I’m doing. It will be 6 months smoke-free for me on Friday and I don’t feel too bad about it. I love going to the gym, especially my weight-lifting classes 2x week. I also do Pilates and a lot of walking and rowing. I just came back from a 18 day vacation and only gained 2 lb. – which isn’t bad considering I did NO exercise at all! Hang in there….things WILL even out. I am waiting for the day I can drop these 10 unwanted pounds and I know eventually it will happen. Be proud of yourself for not smoking – I am!

Carol Reveals Her Weight Gain Secrets

Dr. G. Pepper — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:59:28 +0000

Carol, a member of metabolism.com, recently posted her approach to healthy weight gain. I thought it was interesting enought to post on the main blog. My major concern with her advice is that some people are lactose intolerant and a diet high in dairy products as Carol outlines, could cause severe gastrointestinal symptoms. Many people are unaware they are lactose intolerant since this problem can develop later in life (20’s, 30’s 40’s). As a kid they could eat ice cream, cheese, drink milk without a problem but slowly they develop frequent heart burn, diarrhea, gas etc and fail to attribute it to dairy intake.

Anyway, here is Carol’s secret to weight gain:

Carol writes:

Ok, I found something that helps me to maintain what I have, but as yet I haven’t been able to actually gain any weight: Dairy products, lots of them, and don’t go for the lite or skim version – go for the gold. I have been going through about a gallon to a gallon and a half of soymilk (the one with the extra vanilla in it. Has about 190 calories per serving. Also I make sure to have yogurt every day and I put honey in and granola on top. Cheese and cracker snacks are good too. I have also find that if I do anything physical (walk the dog, work in the yard etc) I need to have a large heavy (but healthy) snack right after and sit quietly for a good 20 or 30 minutes. The key seems to be stay away from the junk food….for most it packs the calories on but for us it burns right through and you just end up not feeling good as your body doesn’t get what it needs.
Take heart – most of you that I am hearing from are much younger (I am 52, 5′5″ and 103 pounds) I have been battling this since I was a kid. I was always told after kids, age 40 etc it would get better – it didn’t for me, but maybe it will for you.

Expert Advice for Those Who Want to Gain Weight.

Clinical Nutritionist — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:07:45 +0000

Yes, as we can see from so many posts here at Metabolism.com, some folks just can’t slow their metabolism down and keep their weight up! It is true some people just have a “high metabolism”… they burn up Calories like they were a fiery furnace. My professor at Columbia University’s College of Physician and Surgeons Institute of Human Nutrition was such an individual. He was tall and thin and took part in a study where he consumed an extra 6,000 Calories per day for 2 weeks and didn’t gain a pound! This can actually be frustrating for some people and needs to be addressed as seriously as the desire for weight loss is. No one wants to just gain adipose tissue (fat) either. Most people want to gain HEALTHY WEIGHT by increasing their lean body mass/muscle. A person’s total Calorie, protein, carbohydrate, fat and fluid needs depend on their height, weight, activity, gender, age, and yes, their metabolism! Metabolic rate can actually be measured by an indirect calorimetry machine. Once we know what your basal or resting metabolic rate is, we would factor in activity and other variables. It is always important to work on a weight gain program with a nutrition professional. Nutrition plans and supplementation should be developed by a professional so that you are not led astray and given misinformation. We have had inquiries about supplements such as L-carnitine and CLA for example. Always learn the basics about a supplement and see if it is really appropriate for YOU to use. I will answer quickly about L-carnitine because it is a popular supplement. Think of a CAR… it can carry things… CARnitine is like a little car that carries fatty acids across the cell membrane and into the mitochondria where they can be burned for fuel. We are able to produce carnitine ourselves and it is found in most animal based foods. However, some people may not produce enough and functional levels can be determined by a Spectracell test (see SpectraCell.com Comprehensive Nutritional Panel). Now, that is just a little Nutrition 101 for CARnitine… there is more where that came from, and as always,

Consider having an individualized consultation!
http://www.metabolism.com/beth-ellen-diluglio/

Beth Ellen DiLuglio, MS, RD, CNSD, CCN, LD/N
In regards to this reply please read the our terms of service at:http://www.metabolism.com/legal_disclaimer/

Win a Free Nutrition Consultation with Beth Ellen DiLuglio

Dr. G. Pepper — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:07:20 +0000

Have you been discouraged by inability to lose weight despite really trying? Have you ever paid for a weight loss program and felt you wasted your money? The experts at metabolism.com appreciate what you have gone through and want to help you get it right. Beth Ellen DiLuglio is a certified nutritionist and consultant who is collaborating with metabolism.com to offer a personalized nutrition program that we believe will get results.

To kick off this new service, Metabolism.com is running a contest to win a free consultation with Beth Ellen. To enter the contest simply post to the Comments Section on Metabolism.com’s homepage with the theme: ….What is the biggest obstacle to achieving weight loss?… We want to hear what you have to say about this common and perplexing problem.

Within 4 weeks the staff of metabolism.com will choose the best response to the question. The winner will then be entitled to a free consultation with Beth Ellen worth $80 but actually worth much more when the results you are striving for are finally achieved with her help.

So enter today and post your opinion to metabolism.com; What is the biggest obstacle to achieving weight loss?

EMT Offers Advice for Coping with High Metabolism

Dr. G. Pepper — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:07:51 +0000

While many members of metabolism.com struggle with low metabolism, fatigue and weight gain, there are those who struggle with the opposite. Being underweight can be as difficult to cope with as being overweight. Here is advice from one of our members who is an emergency medical technician, on how he has adjusted to this issue.

BeachEMS writes:

I am 28 y/o 5′9″ and I weigh 146 lbs. I have a high metabolism and it bothers me, too. I currently go to the gym at my rescue squad (which is free, thank god!) 3 days a week. I know that I have to eat more protein, carbs and high calorie foods in order to “pack on the lbs” especially since I workout regularly, but it is difficult to really discipline myself to eat them daily and in abundance because I get tired or sick of eating them. Anything worthwhile isn’t easy so its discipline, discipline, and more discipline.. and its pasta, pasta, and more pasta lol

I used to be really stressed out through highschool and college, too.. because of being in school, being underweight, having mild acne, not sleeping much at night, etc. Finally, I am in a good place in my life. I am with EMS, got a good job as an EMT, I go to the gym frequently, manage my stress levels with quiet/down time to myself and have cleared my acne.. I am slo getting plenty of sleep at night, which is a huge factor for those of you who work out in the gym.. because you know your muscles need time to repair and rebuild (plenty of water helps, too.. ) STRESS can cause weight loss so it might be a good idea for those of you with high stress levels to MAKE time for yourself to reduce stress. Consider every day events and feelings that cause you stress and work on eliminating them.. not for peace of body, but for peace of mind, too. Pilates, yoga, breathing exercises, meditation and a good self image are all good sources of stress relief.

How you see yourself is who you are. If you see yourself as being weak and nothing then you are telling yourself thats who you are.. and ultimately that is who you will be. A huge part of becoming someone you want to be (the best version of yourself) is to become that person from the inside out. Think like the beast and tell yourself “I am a raging beast!” When you’re at the gym, let out some groaning and moaning or shout something aggressive when you reach your peak rep of whatever set you’re doing. It will push you to go harder. What you put into the gym is what you get out of it and I have learned that recently. I’ve got to “step it up”.

Plenty of water, good/lean protein, carbs, vitamins, sleep at night (at least 8 hrs) and aggressive workouts are doing it for me, little by little, but I’ve got to step it up. My goal is 160 lbs by summer 2010. I am going to acheive my goals.. ARE YOU??

Marion Touts New Adkins Diet for Weight Loss for Ex-Smokers

Dr. G. Pepper — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:21:31 +0000

Marion brings us up to date on her progress after stopping smoking, gaining and then losing weight. Thank you Marion for sharing your experience with metabolism.com members!

Marion writes:

Just wanted to give you an update, quit smoking 8 months ago and have gained exactly 20 pounds, seems like the weight gain has finally slacked off. Last Monday a week ago I started Atkins, lost 9 lbs in 7 days, must be alot of fluid. Just the effects of being on Atkins, I feel so much better, but the best part is it forcing your body to burn fat and increases your metabolism. Try it its not as hard as you think. The NEW Atkins is alot more flexible and easy to learn than the old version. Basically the same with a few easier ways of understanding it. Good Luch I hope it works. Thanks, my goal is to wear a bikini this summer, not in public of course just at home in my pool, lol.

Smoking, Weight Gain and Hypothyroidism; Maya Shares Her Story

Dr. G. Pepper — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:31:06 +0000

Maya Sarkisyan, a consultant with metabolism.com, shares her life experiences with smoking, gaining weight and hypothyroidism. If you want to ask Maya questions about her methods please do not hesitate to make use of our forum page. Once on the forum look for the “Latest Discussions” column and then click on Topic “Add New”. Then you are ready to post questions or your own opinions and comments.

Here is what Maya writes about her own life:

I replied some time ago to this thread and would like to add something. Everybody here posted a personal story of dealing with weight gain after quitting smoking. I went through that too. I smoked since I was 15, quit to have a child, picked up just that one cigarette a year after…, and than quit again 7 years ago for good. I did start gaining weight and was diagnosed with hypothyroid condition right prior to quitting. However what was effective for me is to modify almost all my life habits, not only eating and exercising. I did go to gym every day (and worked out hard) , ate small portions, meditated, made peace with few people in my life, looked at the bright side of things, etc. I even got certified as a fitness trainer! By no means it was easy but it was worthwhile doing. I wrote down all my life patterns and changed them all – even good ones modified slightly. I did it to reset my system completely. All the women in my family are very overweight and I’m not – only due to the discipline and frame of mind I choose to keep.
I started helping people to quit smoking with customized individual hypnosis sessions, because it is the best thing you can do – quit smoking forever. All it takes is a firm decision and sometimes some help.
I know that you can do anything when you make a decision to do it. Real firm once-and-for-all decision. I came to Dr. Pepper four years ago as a mess on Synthroid, and now with Armour, Selenium, meditation, and holistic medicine even my antibodies levels are going down. I decided to get healthier and did everything it took that is healthy for me. We all are not getting younger so I choose to take care of my body and eliminate unhealthy habits on daily basis, and help my patients do the same.
Good luck to you all, congratulations on quitting, and I wish you health.

Great Ways to Deal With Carbs in Your Diet

Dr. G. Pepper — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:10:45 +0000

Carb craving seems to be a major hurdle for people with metabolic disorders like diabetes and thyroid disease. Is this just a problem all people face or is there something more specific about metabolic disorders that draws people in the direction of carbs? It is clear that when “insulin resistance” is part of the medical picture that sudden drops in blood sugar that result from this, are most rapidly corrected by consuming sugars and carbs. This may explain part of the attraction.

In her recent book, Eat Your Way to Happiness, expert and author Elizabeth Somer offers readers excellent advice for dealing with cravings and carbs in general.

We thank Elizabeth and her publisher for permission to post this excerpt again:

10 Steps for a Carb Makeover
by Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D.,
Author of Eat Your Way to Happiness

If you are a carb craver, you need to treat yourself with a little kindness. It’s not your fault you can’t keep your fingers out of the cookie jar or the bag of chips. You can’t “will away” those cravings. They are hardwired in your head.

So work with your carb cravings. Make sure each meal contains at least one whole grain. Plan a quality-carb snack at your most craving-prone time of the day (typically midafternoon or late evening). To maximize your mood and minimize your weight, you need to take this quality-carb message seriously. That means tackling the issue with a 10-step plan.

Step #1. Purge the kitchen of all white flour. Open the cupboards and toss the junk. Throw out the obvious: the white rice, the instant mashed potatoes, any cracker or cookie made with anything but 100% whole grain (you are pretty much down to Triscuits and 100% Whole Wheat Fig Newtons), all potato chips, Pop-Tarts, boxes of bread crumbs, Pasta Roni, Hamburger Helper, cans of Chef Boyardi Ravioli, Costco muffins and such. Search the freezer for French fries, hash browns, breakfast foods made from processed grains or other high-calorie/low-quality items like Marie Callender’s frozen pasta entrees or pot pies.

Definitely toss your carb triggers, junk foods that you are powerless to resist. Remember, if you have to drive to the store to get ice cream, you will be much less likely to binge.

Then read labels on the rest. If wheat flour or enriched flour is in the top three ingredients on a label, you are holding a poor-quality carb. Toss it.

Okay, okay, if this cold-turkey approach is a bit over the top, then keep two or three junk carbs and toss the rest. But beware: these items may be “trigger” foods that tempt you to indulge. Also, keep in mind that this is not so much about “giving up” as it is giving to” your health, your mood, and your belly and thighs.

Step #2. Restock the kitchen with the 100% whole grains you like, such as 100% whole-wheat bread, old-fashioned oatmeal, Kashi Autumn Wheat Cereal or GoLean Cereal, Zoom hot cereal or instant brown rice. Experiment with new grains, like barley, millet, amaranth, whole-wheat couscous or bulgur.

If you can’t imagine your spouse or kids loving whole-wheat pasta or whole-wheat tortillas, then choose the next best thing. For example, try Aunt Jemima frozen Pancakes with Whole Grains, or tortillas or pastas made from blends of whole wheat and refined wheat, such as Ronzoni or Barilla whole-wheat blend pastas.

Step #3. Switch to quality carbs in recipes. For example, if a recipe calls for

white rice: use instant brown or wild rice, bulgur, millet or other whole grains

flour: use at least half whole-wheat flour

bread (such as French toast): use whole-grain bread

potatoes: use sweet potatoes, yams, squash and/or corn

Step #4. Plan snacks and bring grains with you. When packing your lunch and snacks for the day, make sandwiches with 100% whole-grain bread, use low-fat cheeses such as Cabot Vermont 50% Reduced Fat Cheese, and include other grains like 100% whole-grain crackers or air-popped popcorn.

Step #5. Create nonfood rewards. Praise yourself with a manicure, flowers, a game of golf on Saturday or a Netflix movie. Follow the “if . . . then” rule: if you steer clear of the junk, then you get the back rub, hour of alone time or bubble bath.

Step #6. Take time. Often we grab food before we even know whether we really want it. That knee-jerk reaction gets us into trouble. Take a 10-minute pause before diving into any snack, from popcorn to leftover doughnuts.

Step #7. Identify the craving. Is it for something crunchy or chewy? Cold, sweet or creamy? Once you have pinpointed exactly what you want, then find a low-calorie food that satisfies that craving. Luckily, the better you eat, the more your cravings for fatty or overly sweet carbs will dwindle.

Step #8. Eat breakfast. As discussed in Chapter 2, eat a nutritious breakfast and you are much more likely to resist junk-food temptations throughout the day.

Step #9. Keep hunger at bay. Eat small meals and snacks evenly distributed throughout the day. This helps keep serotonin levels (and other nerve chemicals like NPY) in the normal range.

Step #10. Out of sight, out of mind. Put another way, seeing is craving. Watch out for temptations at the mall, restaurants and friends’ houses. It is easy to overdo carbs when most of the ones offered to you are the low-quality ones. For example, studies at the University of Illinois found that people ate 45% more calories when there was a bread basket placed on the table in restaurants than when the waiter came by and offered them a slice from a basket. Ask that the tortilla chips be removed when dining at a Mexican restaurant and you will save yourself 300 unnecessary calories. Avoid the coffee shop with the display of muffins, scones and croissants.

The above is an excerpt from the book Eat Your Way to Happiness by Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D.. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

Author Bio
Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D., author of Eat Your Way to Happiness, is a registered dietitian and author of several books, including 10 Habits That Mess Up a Woman’s Diet, Food & Mood and Age-Proof Your Body. She is a member of the editorial advisory board of Shape magazine and editor in chief of Nutrition Alert, a newsletter that summarizes the current research from more than 6,000 journals. She appears frequently on NBC’s Today and other national television shows.

For more information please visit www.EatYourWayToHappiness.com.

Maya Sarkisyan Offers Expert Advice on Quitting Smoking and Weight Gain

Dr. G. Pepper — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:38:44 +0000

Maya has been a long standing guest expert at metabolism.com. In her recent post Maya offers her expert opinion on the debate regarding weight gain (and how to lose it) when stopping smoking.

Maya writes:

I help people to quit smoking using hypnosis in combination with other healing modalities. It is always an individual approach. Not everyone gains weight after quitting, so I have noticed that people who do generally have other underlying health issues, such as underactive thyroid function. Why than smoking keeps the wight down? There are few possible explanations.
1. when you smoked you constantly had something around your mouth, so you ate less.
2.The taste buds are getting desensitized because of the nicotine.
3. according to some Chinese medical sources the nicotine is a very hot substance and upon entering your body it dries up your fluids – vital fluids as well, such as your blood. This is why cardiovascular disease is associated with smoking.

Now when people quit smoking their body has to go through some sort of rearrangement. Food starts tasting better and it is important to start adjusting your diet even prior to the quitting smoking in order to prepare yourself for the long and healthy life. Adding more vegetables and fruits to your diet helps a lot. Drinking lots of water.

Detoxification process is a good approach after quitting to help your body get rid of the gunk accumulated over the years. This way you give yourself a good chance to get back in balance. There are different detox treatments available to do at home and some of them are very mild yet effective.
And, most importantly, taking care of yourself helps to get you healthier in all aspects.

Thank you Maya for your comments. You can find more of Maya Sarkisyan’s articles at http://www.metabolism.com/author/Maya-Sarkisyan/. Maya also maintains her own website at www.transentient.com

Floating Our Way to Fatness on a “Bloat”

Dr. G. Pepper — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:06:44 +0000

Imagine locking the family dog in a cage for a week with an endless supply of its favorite treats. What would you expect at the end of the week? It’s obvious, isn’t it? A fat and possibly very ill pooch.

Subject a human counterpart to similar conditions and expect the same thing to happen. Yet, unbelievably, there is a huge industry devoted to creating this kind of environment and we pay a fortune to support it. It’s called the cruise industry.

During summers thirty years ago in the New York metropolitan area, many of my parent’s friends spent their vacation time in the Catskills. The Catskills is an area of rolling hills and farms and at that time years ago also the scene of a vibrant hotel industry. Hot, tired and stressed New Yorker could eat and drink themselves silly for a week or two while feeling they were healthier for breathing the fresh, cool mountain air. Because the hotels were set in an apparent wilderness vacationers had no guilt about never moving their bodies outside the compound. Eating, “schmoozing” and taking in the nightly Borscht Belt entertainment were the only activities available.

Fast forward to the present. The Catskill hotels have been replaced by mammoth floating hotels called cruise ships. The original beauty of these ships as a method of refined transportation to Europe or the islands has been lost. In transforming from Borscht Belt hotel to gigantic cruise ship merely substitute ocean for mountains. Sequestered on board the ship with no risk of being required to move more than a few hundred steps in any direction, what else to do but consume what is constantly in your face…massive quantities of food and drink and passive entertainment.

It is my impression (supported by numerous studies) that the average weight of our population is growing steadily. Paralleling the phenomena of the growing size of the average person is the ever increasing size of the cruise ships. Last week the most obscenely massive cruise ship of them all made its debut in Florida. Oasis of the Seas is 40% bigger than the next largest cruise ship and 5 times bigger than the Titanic. Oasis of the Seas will confine together 6300 passengers and 2800 crew members. Despite its size, being alone on this ship will be like trying to find a quiet corner in Times Square on New Years Eve. Looking at the ship one wonders how something so big could float. It is oddly shaped, no sleekness to this vessel with more vertical than horizontal lines. Maybe we shouldn’t call it a boat, at all. In fact I would put it into a different category altogether…something I would call a “bloat” for being a really big, big, floating boat.

I am troubled by the existence of the ‘bloat’ because as the size of the population and cruise ships increases so has the incidence of diabetes. Since I treat diabetes as a profession, I get the feeling my job is increasingly hopeless as more and more of my patients jump on board the cruise craze. As cruising has become a generally accepted way of vacationing with a vast advertising budget glamorizing this lifestyle, my advice about diet and exercise is drowned out. Once on board, there are few people who could resist the urge to say, “I paid for this, so I might as well do what everyone else is doing”.

I expect more bloats to be commissioned in the future, each one a miracle of engineering and excess. If things continue in this direction we may wind up wiping ourselves out with metabolic diseases like diabetes, coronary disease and high blood pressure. In our wake we will leave behind colossal deserted monuments of our civilization, pyramids of the sea.