I saw this on Yahoo and thought it was really interesting. It seems that getting off the couch and moving your butt while watching TV is a lot better for us than I realized:
Couch Potatoes Accrue Deadly Fat Deep Within
By Gary Gately
FRIDAY, May 30 -- A sedentary lifestyle leads to a buildup of dangerous levels of fat deep within the belly, increasing the risk of heart disease and other conditions. That's the conclusion of a new study by Duke University Medical Center researchers. They say this "visceral fat" accumulates at a surprisingly quick rate around organs and deeper in the body than subcutaneous fat, which lies under the skin.
On the upside, the researchers found that months of regular, moderate exercise can prevent the build-up of visceral fat, while vigorous exercise can significantly reduce levels of such fat.
Researchers presented the study May 28 at the American College of Sports Medicine annual meeting in San Francisco. The study is part of a five-year Duke trial on the effects of exercise, funded by a $4.3 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Researchers followed 170 overweight men and women aged 40 to 65 for about eight months. The researchers divided participants into four groups.
One group did no exercise. The other three groups were classified based on a weekly exercise regimen equivalent to about 11 miles of walking, 11 miles of jogging, or 17 miles of jogging.
Lack of any exercise led to significant increases in visceral fat, the researchers found. "This finding emphasizes the high cost of continued physical inactivity for sedentary, overweight adults," they wrote.
Dr. William Kraus, a Duke cardiologist who led the exercise trial, offers simple advice to counter the buildup of visceral fat.
"Get out and do something; don't sit," says Kraus, an associate professor at Duke's medical center. "Being sedentary is very bad for your health."
It's even worse than researchers had previously realized, adds Kraus. "The most striking result was how bad the sedentary people got over eight months," he says.
Dr. Gerald Fletcher, a professor of medicine and director of preventive cardiology at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., says the study illustrates well the "vicious syndrome" that results from visceral abdominal fat.
Fletcher, also a spokesman for the American Heart Association, says visceral fat buildup increases the risk of high blood pressure, blood clotting, elevated levels of "bad" cholesterol and insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes.
While stressing the importance of exercise to prevent the intestinal fat buildup, Fletcher notes that more than two-thirds of Americans are overweight.
"I'm just hoping this study will motivate our obese public to do things we've been preaching for years," Fletcher says. "We looked at all ways to treat [visceral fat buildup], and the best way is physical activity."
Even elderly patients who had been sedentary can benefit greatly from moderate exercise, he says.
In the Duke study, for participants who did not exercise, visceral fat increased an average of 8.6 percent. Such fat decreased an average of 8.1 percent among those who did the equivalent of 17 miles' jogging weekly. Those in the two less-intensive exercise groups had no significant increase in visceral fat, demonstrating the preventive role of moderate exercise.
Men who didn't exercise averaged a 1.5 percent overall weight gain; women, 0.6 percent. However, women averaged an 11.6 percent increase in visceral fat, more than twice that of men (5.7 percent). Researchers say determining why would require further study.
Participants exercised on treadmills, elliptical trainers, or cycle ergometers in a supervised setting, and nobody changed their diet during the study.
In another Duke study, based on the exercise trial and also presented May 28 at the San Francisco sessions, researchers found the benefits of months of heavy exercise in reducing harmful cholesterol can persist even two weeks after you stop exercising.
The researchers divided 182 sedentary, overweight men and women at risk for developing diabetes or heart disease into three groups: high-amount/vigorous intensity (the caloric equivalent of 20 miles of jogging per week); low-amount/vigorous intensity (equivalent of jogging 12 miles per week); and low-amount/moderate intensity (equivalent of walking briskly for 12 miles per week).
Those in the high amount/vigorous intensity group showed improvements in HDL cholesterol (the so-called "good" form of cholesterol), HDL size and large HDL for the entire 14 days.
Previous research has shown that small HDL particles are associated with atherosclerosis and that large HDL particles help protect against the disease, the Duke researchers explain.
Wednesday, June 04, 2003
Wednesday Weigh-In:
What will be different?
We've all been on the diet merry-go-round. When you reach goal this time, what will you do differently not to be here again?
I actually stayed off of the merry-go-round for a long time, about 15 years or so, I'd say. This time, I am focusing on overall health and not just a dress size. I think that this has helped me enormously in terms of perspective. I know that this is a life-long commitment which I have made to being a more healthy human being. My long-term goal is increased longevity and I know that if I keep the weight on (or gain it back once it's all gone) I'll just be hindering my health. If I stay focused on fitness and not thinness, I should be able to maintain whatever amount of weight it is that I end up losing.
What will be different?
We've all been on the diet merry-go-round. When you reach goal this time, what will you do differently not to be here again?
I actually stayed off of the merry-go-round for a long time, about 15 years or so, I'd say. This time, I am focusing on overall health and not just a dress size. I think that this has helped me enormously in terms of perspective. I know that this is a life-long commitment which I have made to being a more healthy human being. My long-term goal is increased longevity and I know that if I keep the weight on (or gain it back once it's all gone) I'll just be hindering my health. If I stay focused on fitness and not thinness, I should be able to maintain whatever amount of weight it is that I end up losing.
I feel good!
I wasn't sure that I would!
My Leslie Sansone DVD's arrived yesterday. I didn't pay for expedited shipping but someone at Amazon must have felt that I needed to receive them, lickity-split, because they only took one day to get here. I opened the first one, with the 1 and 2 mile workouts in it, and popped it in the TV last night. I wanted to have a preview of what I was getting myself into. I was really relieved to discover that Leslie isn't disgustingly perky (like some folks on these tapes are) and it didn't look too difficult. What I most liked was that you didn't need a huge amount of room to do the walking in. Our living room is full of furniture plus a recumbent bike so I don't have a lot of extra space for running and jumping about in. I felt confident that I'd be able to get through the whole thing and still do my regular workout.
I got myself up about 10 minutes earlier than usual so I'd have a little extra time to do the 20 minute tape. It is actually a lot more strenuous than it appears to be. I did the whole mile and felt really excellent when I was done. She suggests that you use these weighted balls (which she sells) for the arm work but I used my 2lb hand weights and got along just fine. I wasn't sure that I'd be all that coordinated as it's been a while since I've done an exercise tape but I kept up pretty much all the way through.
When I finished the cool down, I grabbed a bottle of water and hopped on my bike. I did my usual 20 minute program on that and got in about 4.33 miles. I'm so happy with myself for doing both things this morning. I feel great. I wasn't sure that I would but I do. I have a tonne more energy than I normally have and I've been almost running up and down the stairs all morning (well, walking as quickly as my sandals will allow!). I'm really feeling so much better lately. The more distance I put between myself and that end of April / beginning of May pig-out, the better I feel.
I'm really getting excited again about the progress I'm making. A really funny thing happened this morning actually, speaking of "progress." Today I wore this sun dress to work that I've had for a while (and it's really getting big on me!). When I stood up from my desk, my slip fell down around my ankles and I nearly tripped over it. I didn't know what was happening until I looked down at my feet. It was pretty hilarious! Fortunately, it happened right here and not while I was running up the stairs, I'd have probably wiped out and killed myself! I must say though, I really don't mind when stuff like that happens!!
I wasn't sure that I would!
My Leslie Sansone DVD's arrived yesterday. I didn't pay for expedited shipping but someone at Amazon must have felt that I needed to receive them, lickity-split, because they only took one day to get here. I opened the first one, with the 1 and 2 mile workouts in it, and popped it in the TV last night. I wanted to have a preview of what I was getting myself into. I was really relieved to discover that Leslie isn't disgustingly perky (like some folks on these tapes are) and it didn't look too difficult. What I most liked was that you didn't need a huge amount of room to do the walking in. Our living room is full of furniture plus a recumbent bike so I don't have a lot of extra space for running and jumping about in. I felt confident that I'd be able to get through the whole thing and still do my regular workout.
I got myself up about 10 minutes earlier than usual so I'd have a little extra time to do the 20 minute tape. It is actually a lot more strenuous than it appears to be. I did the whole mile and felt really excellent when I was done. She suggests that you use these weighted balls (which she sells) for the arm work but I used my 2lb hand weights and got along just fine. I wasn't sure that I'd be all that coordinated as it's been a while since I've done an exercise tape but I kept up pretty much all the way through.
When I finished the cool down, I grabbed a bottle of water and hopped on my bike. I did my usual 20 minute program on that and got in about 4.33 miles. I'm so happy with myself for doing both things this morning. I feel great. I wasn't sure that I would but I do. I have a tonne more energy than I normally have and I've been almost running up and down the stairs all morning (well, walking as quickly as my sandals will allow!). I'm really feeling so much better lately. The more distance I put between myself and that end of April / beginning of May pig-out, the better I feel.
I'm really getting excited again about the progress I'm making. A really funny thing happened this morning actually, speaking of "progress." Today I wore this sun dress to work that I've had for a while (and it's really getting big on me!). When I stood up from my desk, my slip fell down around my ankles and I nearly tripped over it. I didn't know what was happening until I looked down at my feet. It was pretty hilarious! Fortunately, it happened right here and not while I was running up the stairs, I'd have probably wiped out and killed myself! I must say though, I really don't mind when stuff like that happens!!
Tuesday, June 03, 2003
I had such an excellent day yesterday. I was able to keep my eating completely on plan and I even had a little bit of dessert last night. Not a lot, just a taste of white cake with some pineapple on the side. I had budgeted my calories in such a way that I could do it and I really enjoyed it.
A funny thing happened to me last night. After dinner I was watching Dr. Phil. I've taken to taping him everyday. I don't necessarily watch each episode, sometimes the topic is of no interest to me. I also find that sometimes, I can breeze through some segments if I find a particular guest to be boring. Anyway, yesterday's episode was "Get Straight With Your Weight, Part 2" and I knew that I'd be in for the long haul. I was sitting on the couch, watching the show and couldn't get comfortable. We have a bad couch, it's a futon sofa and I hate it but it'll have to do until we can afford to replace our living room furniture. Eventually, I got so antsy that I decided to get on my bike. It's comfortable and in front of the TV. I jumped on and rode it until the end of Dr Phil, which was about 20 minutes. I put in an additional 4.61 miles on it, bringing my total for the day up to almost 9 miles! Not bad huh?
The Dr. Phil episode was good but not really anything I'd not heard of or thought before. He was explaining to some women how they need to get to the root cause of their weight gain and figure out why they overeat. If they do this, they'll be able to get healthy. One woman in particular was interesting. She'd lost weight by having her jaw wired shut and then gained it all back. She was talking about getting WLS but was afraid of gaining the weight back. I'd be afraid too. You can't start this journey until you've got your head sorted out. If you do, you'll just sabotage yourself and will never be able to keep it off. Whatever she decides to do, I think she figured out that she has to resolve whatever is going on in her head before she does it. That was cool.
Oh, I also got an email from Amazon this morning that my order had shipped so I should have my Leslie Sansone DVD's in a couple of days, yay!!
A funny thing happened to me last night. After dinner I was watching Dr. Phil. I've taken to taping him everyday. I don't necessarily watch each episode, sometimes the topic is of no interest to me. I also find that sometimes, I can breeze through some segments if I find a particular guest to be boring. Anyway, yesterday's episode was "Get Straight With Your Weight, Part 2" and I knew that I'd be in for the long haul. I was sitting on the couch, watching the show and couldn't get comfortable. We have a bad couch, it's a futon sofa and I hate it but it'll have to do until we can afford to replace our living room furniture. Eventually, I got so antsy that I decided to get on my bike. It's comfortable and in front of the TV. I jumped on and rode it until the end of Dr Phil, which was about 20 minutes. I put in an additional 4.61 miles on it, bringing my total for the day up to almost 9 miles! Not bad huh?
The Dr. Phil episode was good but not really anything I'd not heard of or thought before. He was explaining to some women how they need to get to the root cause of their weight gain and figure out why they overeat. If they do this, they'll be able to get healthy. One woman in particular was interesting. She'd lost weight by having her jaw wired shut and then gained it all back. She was talking about getting WLS but was afraid of gaining the weight back. I'd be afraid too. You can't start this journey until you've got your head sorted out. If you do, you'll just sabotage yourself and will never be able to keep it off. Whatever she decides to do, I think she figured out that she has to resolve whatever is going on in her head before she does it. That was cool.
Oh, I also got an email from Amazon this morning that my order had shipped so I should have my Leslie Sansone DVD's in a couple of days, yay!!
Monday, June 02, 2003
challenges
What a week this is turning out to be. I totally forgot that our staff barbecue is today. This is an annual event, hosted by the Principal and his wife and they have burgers & dogs & chips & pop for everyone on campus. It's set up right next to our office and all morning, I've been smelling grilled meat floating in the window. I don't want to go outside and risk walking into temptation so I'm sitting at my desk eating my brown rice and veggies instead.
On Thursday, we have a professional development day and that will have a barbecue luncheon too. What are these people trying to do to me? I have emailed one of my colleagues to find out exactly what is on the menu. I may end up bringing my own food to that event. I know it may possibly seem anti-social but I have to plan my meals out really carefully, particularly lunches, or it'll throw my entire day off. Yikes.
Now, I've been invited to a Pizza Party on Friday at lunch. I RSVP'd (it's a thank you luncheon for those of us who helped out with the framing service at Convocation) but told them that I'd bring my own food. At least that one is just folks in my immediate department so it won't seem as rude. People don't make it easy for you do they?
To further motivate myself, I have broken down and ordered myself Walk Away the Pounds With Leslie Sansone: 2 Workouts and Walk Away the Pounds With Leslie Sansone: Super Fat Burning from Amazon. Hopefully I'll have them by the weekend. I'm looking forward to giving them a try, I need something else to add to my exercise routine. It's supposed to be a lot of fun, from what I've heard. I think what I may do is continue to do my 4+ miles on the bike and then do a Leslie session. That'll be the best part of an hour each day, before I go to work. Now that I'm seeing movement with the measuring tape again, I want to keep it up!
What a week this is turning out to be. I totally forgot that our staff barbecue is today. This is an annual event, hosted by the Principal and his wife and they have burgers & dogs & chips & pop for everyone on campus. It's set up right next to our office and all morning, I've been smelling grilled meat floating in the window. I don't want to go outside and risk walking into temptation so I'm sitting at my desk eating my brown rice and veggies instead.
On Thursday, we have a professional development day and that will have a barbecue luncheon too. What are these people trying to do to me? I have emailed one of my colleagues to find out exactly what is on the menu. I may end up bringing my own food to that event. I know it may possibly seem anti-social but I have to plan my meals out really carefully, particularly lunches, or it'll throw my entire day off. Yikes.
Now, I've been invited to a Pizza Party on Friday at lunch. I RSVP'd (it's a thank you luncheon for those of us who helped out with the framing service at Convocation) but told them that I'd bring my own food. At least that one is just folks in my immediate department so it won't seem as rude. People don't make it easy for you do they?
To further motivate myself, I have broken down and ordered myself Walk Away the Pounds With Leslie Sansone: 2 Workouts and Walk Away the Pounds With Leslie Sansone: Super Fat Burning from Amazon. Hopefully I'll have them by the weekend. I'm looking forward to giving them a try, I need something else to add to my exercise routine. It's supposed to be a lot of fun, from what I've heard. I think what I may do is continue to do my 4+ miles on the bike and then do a Leslie session. That'll be the best part of an hour each day, before I go to work. Now that I'm seeing movement with the measuring tape again, I want to keep it up!
Sunday, June 01, 2003
forgot to mention
I have moved my "measuring Monday" to Saturdays from here on out. The weekends are super hard for me and I always really work my ass off through the week. In the past I thought, "if I weigh in on Monday, it'll keep me on track through the weekends." I've accepted the fact that if I'm going to have a free meal, or a break day from exercise, it's going to be over the weekends so I might just as well measure up on Saturdays. This week, I lost .5 pound and .5 inches from my hips. I'm really happy about this. I've been stuck in a holding pattern for the past couple of weeks so any downward progression is happily accepted.
Also, for the first time in ages, I went into a dress shop yesterday. I didn't bother looking at any new clothes (it was Pennington's) because I don't want to buy anything new until I'm in the 3x/4x range (at present, I'm in the 4x/5x range -- down from 6x/7x - yes, sadly there is a 7x). What I did do though, was buy some new undies. My granny panties have taken to falling around my ankles when I put them on so I've thrown them all away. They were totally, uncomfortably large on me. The granny panties I threw out aren't old or anything, they just don't fit. I bought them last fall/winter and I'm so happy to be getting rid of them.
I bought some of the cheap panties (the 3 for $12 variety) which are actually kind of cute. It's so nice to be buying cute undies again. What I'm really looking forward to is getting down into the 48DD and below bra size so I can get back into cute bras again. I shouldn't say "again" really because back when I was a 48DD there weren't cute. They've really made a lot of improvements as far as large size, cute bras goes in the past 5 years or so. At the present, I can get into some of my old 50DD that I hung onto and my 52DD/54DD/F's will soon be joining the granny panties in the garbage.
I have moved my "measuring Monday" to Saturdays from here on out. The weekends are super hard for me and I always really work my ass off through the week. In the past I thought, "if I weigh in on Monday, it'll keep me on track through the weekends." I've accepted the fact that if I'm going to have a free meal, or a break day from exercise, it's going to be over the weekends so I might just as well measure up on Saturdays. This week, I lost .5 pound and .5 inches from my hips. I'm really happy about this. I've been stuck in a holding pattern for the past couple of weeks so any downward progression is happily accepted.
Also, for the first time in ages, I went into a dress shop yesterday. I didn't bother looking at any new clothes (it was Pennington's) because I don't want to buy anything new until I'm in the 3x/4x range (at present, I'm in the 4x/5x range -- down from 6x/7x - yes, sadly there is a 7x). What I did do though, was buy some new undies. My granny panties have taken to falling around my ankles when I put them on so I've thrown them all away. They were totally, uncomfortably large on me. The granny panties I threw out aren't old or anything, they just don't fit. I bought them last fall/winter and I'm so happy to be getting rid of them.
I bought some of the cheap panties (the 3 for $12 variety) which are actually kind of cute. It's so nice to be buying cute undies again. What I'm really looking forward to is getting down into the 48DD and below bra size so I can get back into cute bras again. I shouldn't say "again" really because back when I was a 48DD there weren't cute. They've really made a lot of improvements as far as large size, cute bras goes in the past 5 years or so. At the present, I can get into some of my old 50DD that I hung onto and my 52DD/54DD/F's will soon be joining the granny panties in the garbage.
The weekend is just flying by.
I did take yesterday as a break day from working out. I did spend a lot of time walking around the mall. I'm not a mall person any more. When I was a teenager, I lived there with my girlfriends, I could tell you exactly where everything in the place was. We only have a few malls here, this is the big one I'm talking about. Anyway, I had a lot of errands to do yesterday and started out at the big box store mall. This week is my parent's anniversary, my girlfriend's birthday and Father's Day is coming up, so we have 2 dad's to buy stuff for too. I spent over an hour going from big box store, to big box store and ended up at the big mega-mall. It's so huge now, I forgot that they put this big addition on the place. Of course, since I don't do malls any more (I find that the smells of all the perfumes and plastic appliances really gets to me) I didn't know where anything was so it took me twice as long as it should have to get what I needed to do, done, because I kept doubling back and wandering around in circles to find stuff. The nice thing about it is that I wasn't all pooped and winded, like at Christmas when I went through a similar ordeal. I got all the presents that I needed and I probably clocked two hours of walking in, over all.
I know that I've lost inches off my stomach and hips but where I'm really noticing it is in my thighs. I guess because of the bike riding. When I was driving around yesterday, I noticed that my jeans (my thinner jeans) are slightly baggy in the thighs when I'm sitting (something that NEVER has happened to me in my entire life) and are only tight through the tummy area. Don't get me wrong, I've still got a LONG way to go, but it's nice to notice the change nonetheless.
Today we had a lazy morning and just returned home from a big visit to the box store mall. The bulk of our purchases were made at Home Depot but we had to schlep around Bouclair and Futureshop pricing stuff out before we ended up at the Depot. We wanted to get a new A/C unit for our bedroom and some new blinds (for our bedroom, and the bathroom). The window coverings in these rooms are the ones that came with house - I've replaced everything else - and we wanted to get new ones because we're planning on painting both rooms at the end of June when we're on vacation. I've yet to workout today but I plan to do it this evening. I'll get in some time with my weights and do a good ride on my bike. Hopefully, if it stays nice, we might even get a walk around the neighbourhood in.
I did take yesterday as a break day from working out. I did spend a lot of time walking around the mall. I'm not a mall person any more. When I was a teenager, I lived there with my girlfriends, I could tell you exactly where everything in the place was. We only have a few malls here, this is the big one I'm talking about. Anyway, I had a lot of errands to do yesterday and started out at the big box store mall. This week is my parent's anniversary, my girlfriend's birthday and Father's Day is coming up, so we have 2 dad's to buy stuff for too. I spent over an hour going from big box store, to big box store and ended up at the big mega-mall. It's so huge now, I forgot that they put this big addition on the place. Of course, since I don't do malls any more (I find that the smells of all the perfumes and plastic appliances really gets to me) I didn't know where anything was so it took me twice as long as it should have to get what I needed to do, done, because I kept doubling back and wandering around in circles to find stuff. The nice thing about it is that I wasn't all pooped and winded, like at Christmas when I went through a similar ordeal. I got all the presents that I needed and I probably clocked two hours of walking in, over all.
I know that I've lost inches off my stomach and hips but where I'm really noticing it is in my thighs. I guess because of the bike riding. When I was driving around yesterday, I noticed that my jeans (my thinner jeans) are slightly baggy in the thighs when I'm sitting (something that NEVER has happened to me in my entire life) and are only tight through the tummy area. Don't get me wrong, I've still got a LONG way to go, but it's nice to notice the change nonetheless.
Today we had a lazy morning and just returned home from a big visit to the box store mall. The bulk of our purchases were made at Home Depot but we had to schlep around Bouclair and Futureshop pricing stuff out before we ended up at the Depot. We wanted to get a new A/C unit for our bedroom and some new blinds (for our bedroom, and the bathroom). The window coverings in these rooms are the ones that came with house - I've replaced everything else - and we wanted to get new ones because we're planning on painting both rooms at the end of June when we're on vacation. I've yet to workout today but I plan to do it this evening. I'll get in some time with my weights and do a good ride on my bike. Hopefully, if it stays nice, we might even get a walk around the neighbourhood in.
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