In New Diet Math, Subtracting Is Hard

Editor - Well Blogs NY Times

When Janet Holwell first joined Weight Watchers seven years ago, she lost 43 pounds in one year and considered the popular commercial weight-loss plan “miraculous.”

“I felt like I had found the magic key, the secret that eluded me all of these years,” said Ms. Holwell, who has maintained most of her weight loss by continuing to adhere to the program.

But the magic disappeared when Weight Watchers overhauled its weight-loss plan little over a year ago. Under the new system, called Points Plus, Ms. Holwell, has not been able to lose the five pounds she recently gained.

“It just doesn’t work for me,” said Ms. Holwell, 61, a research consultant who attends weekly Weight Watchers meetings in Middle Village and Glendale, Queens.

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New Year, New Diet Confusion

Gerard E. Mullin MD is a board-certified internist, gastroenterologist and nutritionist. He is the director of Integrative GI Nutrition Services at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He is the author of "Integrative Gastroenterology," "The Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease and Nutrition Desk Reference" in addition to hundreds of magazines and professional journal articles dealing with digestive health, nutrition and wellness. His new book, "The Inside Tract," is available in stores and online now.

For those of us who have resolved to eat healthier and lose weight in the new year, that goal may have just gotten tougher to achieve. If you were already confused about what to eat, a study published on Jan. 4, 2012, in the Journal of the American Medical Association most likely set you in a tailspin. Researchers led by Dr. George A. Bray of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, conducted a study to determine whether a person’s level of dietary protein independently affects body composition, weight gain or energy expenditure under highly regulated conditions.[1] The trial was carried out according to the highest scientific standards and included 25 healthy American adults. After the subjects followed matching, calorie-controlled diets for two to four weeks, they were randomized to receive diets that contained an additional 40 percent energy (954 calories) as either 5 percent of energy from protein (low protein), 15 percent (normal protein), or 25 percent (high protein) for another eight weeks.

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Eco Etiquette: 5 Eco-Friendly Ways To Lose Weight

Jennifer Grayson has always been a tree hugger -- literally. As a child, she got stuck in the top of a pine tree on a windy day and had to be rescued. A native of bucolic Connecticut, she developed a profound love for nature early on, rock hopping across streams and growing pumpkins in her backyard. An environmental journalist, Jennifer writes The Huffington Post's regular green advice column (Eco Etiquette). She is also founder of the green political blog, The Red, White and Green; a frequent contributor to sites like Meatless Monday and Healthy Child Healthy World; and is regularly featured by media outlets including MSNBC, USA Today, WGN, McClatchy, KPCC, PRN and Americablog.

Surprise, surprise: My New Year’s resolution is to get rid of that spare tire I acquired over the holidays. (I’m a sucker for eggnog.) I’m curious: Are there ways to lose weight that are better for the environment than others?

-Feeling Too Chunky To Print My Name

Don’t despair, Chunky! If you’re feeling about as round as the Earth right now, you’re not alone: Losing weight regularly tops the list of most popular New Year’s resolutions; not surprising, considering that over two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese.

Given the, ahem, enormity of the problem, it’s important to note that the method of weight loss is somewhat moot. It’s the losing weight part that matters, at least where the planet is concerned: Worldwide obesity is adding an estimated 1 billion extra metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere each year, thanks to higher fuel and food demands of the overweight.

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Is the Paleo Diet Healthy?

Dr. Melina Jampolis is a San Francisco, California, physician nutrition specialist - a specialty practiced by only about 200 physicians in the United States. She focuses exclusively on nutrition for weight loss and disease prevention and treatment.

I am obese and have been working on losing weight for three years. I have been working with nutritionists and personal trainers instead of fad dieting. On the Web, I stumbled upon the Paleolithic (Paleo) diet. Is this lifestyle change beneficial despite the promotion of saturated fats and cholesterol?

Expert answer

Hi, Courtney. I applaud you for staying away from fad diets in an attempt to lose weight. Most fad diets are simply not sustainable long term, which leads to weight regain, and their impact on overall health has not been established.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, the Paleo diet falls into the fad diet category.

While there are many different versions of the diet with slightly different rules, the general principle of the diet involves eating foods that can be hunted and fished (meat, seafood – grass-fed, wild and organic are encouraged) or gathered (eggs, fruits, nuts, seeds, vegetables and herbs).

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Fad Dieting: It’s a Don’t, and Here’s Why

Heather Bauer, RD, CDN, is a nationally recognized nutritionist, entrepreneur, author, and mother of three. Over the last decade she has taught thousands of people how to safely lose weight and keep it off through her nutrition counseling company, Nu-Train. She has written two books, The Wall Street Diet (Hyperion 2008) and Bread is the Devil (St. Martin’s Press 2012) and has been featured in The New York Times, as well as People, Shape, and Ladies Home Journal, and has appeared on The Tyra Banks Show, Fox Morning News, CNN and the CBS Early Show.

What do Kate Middleton, Victoria Beckham and Kourtney Kardashian reportedly have in common? A nasty three-letter word. Can’t figure it out?

It’s F-A-D. As in fad diet. I can’t even stifle my frustration, it’s a confusing and dangerous trend that dumbs down the science of nutrition and point fingers at unassuming foods, causing a tailspin to ensue.

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Study: High-Fat Foods Cause Brain Scarring

I’m a senior associate producer for CNN.com features. As a multimedia journalist for the site, I write stories and blog posts, take and edit photos, shoot and cut original video packages and plan in-depth interactive projects. I work primarily with our health, entertainment and technology sections.

Keeping pounds off long-term is difficult for even the most successful dieter, and scientists may now be on the path to determining why.

A study published recently in The Journal of Clinical Investigation shows that high-fat foods cause damage to the hypothalamus – an area in the brain responsible for hunger, thirst and the body’s natural rhythms and cycles – in rodents.

“These are really important papers that begin to push the idea out that we’re not in control as much as we think we are,” says Dr. Steven R. Smith, co-director for the Sanford-Burnham Diabetes and Obesity Research Center, who wasn’t involved with the study.

However, Smith says researchers must first determine if the scarring happening in the rodent models will translate to the human condition. Not everything that scientists observe in rodents also applies to humans, of course, but it is a starting point.

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The Truth About College Weight Gain

Editor - Well Blogs NY Times

New research suggests that the notion of early college weight gain is a myth.

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Weight Loss Doesn’t Have to Be a Losing Battle

Tara Parker-Pope’s recent piece in the New York Times Magazine (“The Fat Trap”) has unleashed a firestorm of reaction. “Science is uncovering a painful truth about obesity,” she writes, “that in the battle to lose weight and keep it off, our bodies are fighting against us.” Central to her argument [...]

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Why Lost Pounds Come Back

Editor - Well Blogs NY Times

In this week’s New York Times Magazine, I explore new research that helps explain why most dieters who lose weight end up gaining it all back.

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Eat, Sleep, Breathe: Passive Weight Loss Strategies for 2012

Manuel Villacorta, MS, RD, CSSD is a registered dietitian in private practice in San Francisco, California. He is a national media spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and the founder of Eating Free.

Here’s a question as we head into New Year’s resolution time: What’s the best thing to commit to in order to lose weight? Did you answer, “Hitting the gym”?

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Less Bloat, More Gloat: Using Chinese Medicine to Fight Winter Fat

Last week in Barneys those skinny jeans perfectly contoured your curves and made your butt look incredible. Now, after you’ve removed the tags and struggle to snap that waist button for your heavily-anticipated office party,

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