Tag: Rapid Weight Loss

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Weight Loss Exercise

Weight Loss Surgery Risks and Side Effects

There are a few weight loss surgery risks you need to be aware of if considering any invasive methods to lose weight. Bariatric or weight loss surgery offers many benefits and can help patients lose up to fifty percent of their excess weight within 6 months after surgery. In general, patients also enjoy improved blood sugar levels and have lower incidence of stroke and heart attack after weight loss surgery. However, there are always risk factors associated with any type of surgery, and weight loss surgery is no exception.

Weight Loss Surgery Risks and Side Effects

When talking to your doctor, ask him or her not only about the benefits but also the risks and side effects of weight loss surgery.

Weight Loss Surgery Risks – Vomiting

Vomiting is common in restrictive weight loss surgery where the stomach is made smaller. Eating too much food or not chewing it well can lead to vomiting.

Weight Loss Surgery Risks- Complications

Weight Loss Surgery Risks and Side Effects

Patients who undergo weight loss surgery run the risk of suffering from complications that may have to be corrected. A few of the most common complications include infections, stretched stomachs outlets, and bleeding. Weight loss surgery where the stomach is stapled off can result in a potentially fatal leak from the staples used to decrease the size of the stomach.

Gastric bypass patients are known to get pulmonary embolism or blood clot to the lungs. In the case of gastric banding surgery, the gastric band can migrate or move from its original placement. The band can also erode and wear into the stomach.

Weight Loss Surgery Risks – Gallstones

Another risk faced by obese patients who undergo weight loss surgery is the development of gallstones. More than a one-third of bariatric surgery patients develop gallstones. Gallstones form in the gallbladder or bile duct and are composed primarily of cholesterol, calcium salts, and bile components.

Rapid weight loss can cause a person to develop gallstones.

Weight Loss Surgery Risks – Dumping Syndrome

“Dumping” takes place when the the stomach contents pass too quickly through the small intestine. The syndrome is a side effect of malabsorptive surgery where the absorption of food nutrients is restricted. Symptoms of dumping include nausea, extreme weakness, excessive sweating, and even diarrhea.

Weight Loss Surgery Risks – Nutritional Deficiencies

Tampering with the digestive system can lead to nutritional deficiencies caused by the inability of the patient to absorb food nutrients efficiently. This may lead to anemia, osteoporosis, hair loss, or muscle wasting. To avoid the risk of nutritional deficiencies after weight loss surgery, you should take vitamin and mineral supplements.

How to Avoid Possible Risks of Weight Loss Surgery

Surgery is always accompanied by multiple risks, and obese individuals are at greater risk than most of the population. Fortunately, hospitals and medical teams are now held to higher standards to reduce the risks of weight loss surgery. Newer techniques in surgery such as laparoscopy and minimal invasive surgery have reduced many of the risk factors significantly, such as infection and bleeding.

Severely obese patients have always been considered risky but taking appropriate precautions helps ensure that the surgical procedure can proceed safely. Weight loss surgery patients are also thoroughly evaluated to make sure that their heart and lungs are functioning well. Before going into surgery, any medical conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure must be under control and beware of these weight loss surgery risks.

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Weight Loss Exercise

Low Carb Diet Plan Right For You?



I would assert that without a doubt, the low carb diet plan is the most heavily debated weight loss program ever created. In fact, the intensity with which both sides of the argument are expressed is truly incredible. This article will discuss the pros and cons of the low carb diet lifestyle, weighing in on both sides of the argument and helping you determine if this is the best way for you to reach your goals.

What is  Low Carb Diet?

As most of us are well aware, the “king” of this type of eating plan is the Atkins Diet. On this diet, you go through a series of three phases that gradually increase the amount of carbohydrates you are permitted to include in your diet on a daily basis. The first of these phases is called induction, which limits you to virtually no carbs whatsoever. You are permitted to eat all the animal protein you care to consume, but no bread, pasta, potatoes, sweets, or anything else containing carbs are allowed to pass your lips.

Low Carb Diet Plan Right For You?

low carb diet

Supporters of this program claim that the induction phase is where the magic happens, while its opponents will tell you that it’s suicidal insanity. This phase is dependent upon your body being thrown into a state of ketosis, where ketones are being expelled in the urine, indicating that your body’s fat is now being used as its preferred source of energy. The result of this is extremely rapid weight loss, healthy or not.

I can tell you from personal experience that this diet is effective. I lost 18 pounds my first 14 days on this program. And I experienced both the positive and negative effects that both sides of the issue continually argue.

Despite what some people may say, I found that my energy levels and overall sense of well-being were improved. I was eating steak, eggs, cheese, and bunless burgers constantly… and my feelings were not those of death that opponents of the low carb diet try to scare you with. I felt good. But I was really bored with my diet, which I thought was a fair trade-off given the weight loss results I was enjoying.

They also say that carbohydrates are the primary fuel source used by the brain, yet I felt no mental or emotional consequences of this diet. What I didn’t enjoy about the diet was the heaviness of the food. Meat, cheese, eggs, cheese, and meat. It was enough to bring a PETA representative to tears! I guess in my soul, it didn’t feel like the right thing to do.

So here’s my conclusion. If you want to lose a crazy amount of weight in a very short period of time, keep yourself energized, and don’t mind being a straight up carnivore in every sense of the word, then a low carb diet may be right up your alley. There are more lenient variations a person can consider, as well. The South Beach Diet is another popular low carb diet that may be easier for you to stick with. If you are interested in a low carb diet then try it out first for a week and see how you like it.

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Weight Loss Exercise

Weight Loss Contest for the Summer


Tom Venuto sent me this article about a Weight Loss Contest for the Summer. Tom as you may know is the creator of Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle. For the last couple years in the late Spring he has been putting on a big weight loss contest for the summer.

Weight Loss Contest for the SummerWeight loss contests, especially the Biggest Loser, where obese people drop insane amounts of body weight – like 10, 15 or even 20 lbs in a week – have become extremely popular. Many people say they get incredibly inspired and motivated watching these huge weight losses take place right before their eyes.

Weight Loss Contest for the Summer

I agree that fitness contests are a powerful motivational catalyst. But I also believe that there are some fatal flaws in contests that encourage rapid “weight loss.” That’s why I finally decided to host my own body transformation contest – the “Burn The Fat Challenge”…

But Our Contest Was NOTHING Like The Biggest Loser…

Our fitness contest is different because it’s a “body composition transformation” contest – not just a “weight loss” contest.

If you’re not hip to what “body composition” means, then the results of our first contest are going to blow your mind: Josh, the men’s champ, and Ryan one of the top finalists, both only lost one pound.

You might be thinking, “what kind of weird body transformation contest were you running where the winner and the finalists only drop a pound?”

Well, it might seem weird if you thought success at body transformation ONLY meant dropping large amounts of weight on the scale, but…

What About The Difference Between Fat Loss and Weight Loss?

What if you gain muscle while losing weight? Think about this – if you gain muscle in a weight loss contest, you get penalized, right? But shouldn’t you be REWARDED for gaining muscle as well as burning fat? Wouldn’t that be the ultimate prize?

That’s the fatal flaw of “weight loss” contests: Most people are obsessed with scale weight but don’t pay any attention to their body composition – the all-important fat-to-muscle ratio.

Of course, some of the contestants in our last Burn The Fat Challenge contest DID drop a lot of weight – 14, 19, even 26 lbs in only 7 weeks (49 days). In our upcoming 98 day challenge those amounts could be double that. But the person who drops the most pounds is not necessarily voted the winner in the Burn The Fat Challenge.

Weight Loss Contest for the Summer

Weight Loss Contest for the Summer

 

Some contestants became winners because they made astonishing improvements in their muscle to fat ratio, even though they didn’t lose much weight.

For example, Josh lost LESS than a pound because the solid new muscle weight replaced the fat weight. He looks leaner AND more muscular, but the scale hardly changed at all!

How Gaining LEAN Muscle While Losing Fat Helps Women Get Fit, Sexy and Bikini-Ready…

The Burn the Fat System works for women too, and replacing fat with muscle is EXACTLY what most women need, but aren’t getting, because most women are worried about getting “bulky.”

Women who don’t train for more muscle are making a BIG mistake! What most women don’t realize is that if you strip off fat AT THE SAME TIME as you put on lean muscle, you don’t get bulky – you get strong and sexy!

The idea that women who gain muscle will look bulky or masculine is completely false (except for women who take anabolic steroid drugs, and I would NEVER recommend that!)

One of our female champs, Sarah, gained an astonishing 7 pounds of muscle during one of our previous Burn the Fat contests. Her body transformation puts to rest the idea that women get bulky from gaining muscle. They also reveal why the scale can play tricks on you…

Sarah actually GAINED a pound of bodyweight according to the scale, increasing from 119 to 120 pounds, BUT her body fat decreased from 19% to a ripped 12.6%.

These results are definitely not typical. Most people don’t lose 7 pounds of fat weight and replace it with 7 pounds of muscle weight in 7 weeks. More typical results might be 1-2 pounds per week of fat lost (7-14 pounds in 7 weeks) and, if you do everything right, 2 or 3 pounds of muscle gained at the same time.

However, these body composition transformations do show what is possible with hard work, a goal, support and accountability.

3 Things You Must Know To Make Body Transformations Like These

My fat burning programs have helped dozens of men and women lose over 100 pounds, and up to as much as 256 pounds. I’ve published their success stories on the Burn The Fat Website, in the burn the fat newsletter and in our famous success story interviews at the Burn The Fat Inner Circle.

Why then, did I share the success stories above, where there was virtually no “weight loss”, instead of 100+ pound massive weight loss stories – the kind so popular on TV shows today?

There are 3 major reasons:
1. I wanted you to see real-world proof that it IS possible to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time…
2. I wanted you to realize the difference between weight loss and fat loss…
3. I wanted you to finally give up the notion that weight loss is the only goal that matters

You may have a lot of weight to lose (body fat), but weight loss is not all there is to a body transformation.

Some people are not seriously overweight, but they are seriously unhappy with their bodies.

Whichever is your situation – you want to drop 40, 70 or even 100+ pounds, or if you don’t need to lose a lot of weight but you want to firm-up, lean-out and re-shape how your body looks, here is the perfect chance for you to do it.

We hold two Burn the Fat Body transformation contests per year. Our winter contest (the holiday challenge is only 7 weeks (49 days) long and takes place over the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New year’s Holidays.

We are running another transformation contest over the summer of 2011.

It’s NOT a weight loss contest – it’s a “BODY COMPOSITION TRANSFORMATION CONTEST.”

If you choose to enter and accept this challenge, you will take a “before” photograph of yourself no later than May 25th

You will also record your body weight AND your ULTRA-IMPORTANT body fat percentage. The body fat test will then tell you how much of your weight is fat and how much is muscle.

You may lose a lot of weight, or you may lose only a little. However, the winners of the Burn the Fat challenge will be chosen based on the following:

1. The improvement in your body as seen in your before photo compared to your after photo.
2. The improvement in your body composition (the fat-to-muscle ratio)
3. The essay you will write about your experience at the end of the 98 day contest.

For full contest details, including information about the grand prize trip to MAUI, check out this page of the burnthefat.com website:

http://www.fitnesstipsforlife.com/goto/summer-challenge

The contest entry deadline is May 30th – mark your calendars now!

Tom Venuto
Author, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle

P.S. Register before Wednesday, May 25th to get in the best shape of your life and a for a chance to win a trip for two to Maui, Hawaii:

http://www.fitnesstipsforlife.com/goto/summer-challenge