There have been multiple products that were claimed to increased one’s metabolism and help with weight loss. In this “Supplements to turbocharge your metabolism” series, first we will review Xanthigen

Xanthigen is a compound derived from brown marine algae fucoxanthin and pomegranate seed oil (PSO).  Both of these ingredients are used worldwide in variety of ways.

Brown seaweed is used as soup stock, in salads, boiled as a vegetable, dried as a snack food, or soaked in soy sauce and served as a seasoning or garnish for rice dishes. One of the compounds unique to brown seaweed is fucoxanthin. Brown seaweeds are rich in n-3 fatty acids such as Omega-3, Alpha linolenic acid and Omega-3 eicosapentaenoic acid.

Pomegranate seeds are edible and are often consumed along with the sweet red arils. As “anardana” they are used as a spice in Indian, Persian, and Pakistani cuisine. Pomegranate seeds are rich in punicic acid which is a linolenic acid, one of the healthful unsaturated fatty acids.

According to the study [1],  Xanthigen-600/2.4 mg (300 mg PSO + 300 mg brown seaweed extract containing 2.4 mg fucoxanthin) resulted in statistically significant reduction of body weight.  Fucoxanthin  and Xanthigen also increased REE (Resting Energy Expenditure) in the same study.

However, the REE was assessed in only 41 of the 113 subjects, so the study did have complete data but this limited data does show promising results.

Conclusion: Xanthigen consists of two ingredients that are currently used in food products worldwide. They work synergistically to reduce body fat and increased resting metabolic rate (Resting Energy Expenditure – REE). Xanthigen is effective in reducing body weight at a dose of 600mg/day (200mg three times a day).

Reference:

1. Abidov M, Ramazanov Z, Seifulla R, Grachev S. The effects of Xanthigen in the weight management of obese premenopausal women with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and normal liver fat. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2010 Jan;12(1):72-81

Additional Readings

• The Metabolism Miracle: 3 Easy Steps to Regain Control of Your Weight . . . Permanently
• 101 Best Foods to Boost Your Metabolism
• Metabolism at a Glance

Resources:

Garden of Life FucoThin Concentrated Fucoxanthin

Garden of Life FucoThin Concentrated Fucoxanthin

Holiday Weight Gain

Holiday season is the time of festivity,  family gatherings,  social events which includes lunches, dinners, buffet. It is very easy to gain weight during this festive time. You have a tons of cookies, cakes, pastries, sweets all around you – work, home, stores, etc….one bite here, one bite there and slowly you start seeing it in your clothes. You’ve gained weight!

According to a study in New England Journal of Medicine, people tend to gain about one to two pounds on an average during holiday season. This does not sound much. But, what’s troubling is that most people don’t ever lose that one to two pounds they gain during the holidays. It is worse for people who already overweight. This means that over the course of few years, you end up gaining a reasonable amount of weight.

But with simple strategies, you can go through the holiday season without gaining weight. Here are few:

• Control your appetite.  A high-protein, low-fat snack can cut your craving at a cocktail party or holiday table and calm down the temptation to load up on desserts and heavily sauced dishes. Or enjoy a bowl of broth-based soup or hot tea before leaving the house. Most importantly, don’t skip meal. It will only leads to binging.
• Control your portion.  The best way to enjoy a sweet or rich appetizer without losing control is by sampling. Take a small portion of a very rich appetizer or sweet (if you must have it) and eat is slowly.
• Control Calories.  Pay attention to preparation and ingredients. Avoid eating too much of foods that are fried, buttered or dripping in cheese and cream. These tiny, fatty bites pack on the pounds faster. Opt instead for foods made with healthful ingredients such as pumpkin, cranberries, sweet potato and lean turkey.
• Eat slowly. It takes at least 20 minutes to reach satiety. Eat slowly to allow your brain a chance to catch up with your stomach and let you know you are full.
• Control Liquid Calories. Classic holiday eggnog is loaded with fat and calories, especially when spiked with brandy. On the other hand, a glass of red wine has half the calories, none of the fat. To cut the number of calorie-rich drinks you consume, drink a glass of water between each beverage. This will help fill your stomach, leaving less room to overindulge.
• Politely say No!: Many times you feel forced to eat because people keep putting it in front of you. Learn to say no politely, such as “No thank you, I’ve had enough. Everything was delicious” or “I couldn’t eat another bite. It was delicious”.
• Focus on socializing. After all the holiday season is for socializing, mingling and catching up. Spend more time on that than on food. Remember!!! Conversation is calorie-free!

If you are in Southern New Jersey, Dr. Adarsh Gupta is speaking at Community Event entitled, ““Holiday Weight Gain? What can I do?” on Tuesday January 10th, 2012 at 11:00 AM at the following location: Camden County Library, Voorhees Branch, Room A (Address: 203 Laurel Road, Voorhees, NJ   08043).  RSVP here.

I will give a brief comparison of all three in this review. But one thing that is common to all is that they track you whole day routine and give it in a visually appealing graphical interface which in itself could be motivating factor for many people to increase physical activity. They have 3-D motion sensor that measures steps, calories burned & distance traveled.

Resistance Bands

Resistance bands are elastic bands or ropes that have varying degree of tensile strength that work your muscles. Here are a few of them:

Exercise Variable Resistance Band 5-level Latex Tubes – Set

Set of 5 ProSource Premium Latex Resistance Exercise Bands Tubes Cords w/ Door Anchor and Exercise Manual

Black Mountain Products Resistance Band Set with Door Anchor, Ankle Strap, Exercise Chart, and Resistance Band Carrying Case

Free Weights

Free weight are another option to do strength training at home. There are some free weight that have option to adjust the weight to allow one to increase the strength training as one advances. There are also some workout routines w/DVD that allow one to follow a structured strength training program at home. Here are some resources:

Bowflex SelectTech 552 Adjustable Dumbbells (Pair)

Pair of 50 lb. Adjustable Dumbbells

Weider Core 100-Pound Adjustable Select-A-Weight Set

P90X: Tony Horton’s 90-Day Extreme Home Fitness Workout DVD Program

And Finally! the strength training workout is not complete without proper protein.

Here are some options for supplements that will help you lose fat and gain lean body mass:

• NUTRILITE® Meal Replacement Shake – French Vanilla Flavor | Chocolate Flavor
  Lose weight with a delicious, nutritious, on-the-go meal.
  Don’t settle for unhealthy choices or missed meals! Rich, decadent shakes satisfy your sweet tooth and control hunger for just 140 calories. This healthy alternative to convenience or fast foods also provides 24 essential vitamins and minerals, with less calories, carbs, and total fat, plus more protein than Slim-Fast!® Shakes.

• NUTRILITE® Switch2Slim Plan
  All you need to get started losing weight today!
  On the NUTRILITE® Switch2Slim Plan, you’ll swap one or two meals every day with a Meal Bar or Meal Replacement Shake. Both provide your body with vitamins and minerals, while helping you control calories. A 30-day supply of NUTRILITE SLIMMETRY® Dietary Supplement complements this plan by enhancing fat and weight loss.

• 4-3-2-1 Body Training DVD
  This DVD helps you work out fast – and have fun doing it! There are no dance moves or complicated routines to learn – if you can move your body, you can complete a 4-3-2-1 session!You’ll look forward to fitting cardio, resistance training, core exercises, and stretching into just 10 minutes! The DVD features:
  - Six 10-minute 4-3-2-1 workouts – do one or more at a time!
  - Motivation and coaching from Sean Foy, lead fitness consultant for the Nutrilite Health Institute.
  - A customized experience. Simply follow the exerciser in the corresponding shirt color:
  - Red = High Intensity.
  - Green = Moderate Intensity.
  - Orange = Movements using alternate equipment, in case you don’t have a piece of fitness equipment shown

Every diet plan, weight loss plan boils to the simple principle of energy consumption. Whether you buy products or watch your diet yourself, ultimately what you need to do is control calorie intake. As long as your calorie intake is less than calorie burn, you will lose weight.

Is it weight loss or fat loss?

When we talk about losing weight, we really mean losing fat. Weight loss can be muscle, water (fluid), or fat. Your weight does not tell us how much fat or muscle do you have in your body. You can get a good measure of body composition by buying one of these Body Fat Monitor Scales. These scales provides you your body fat percentage. This is what we need to focus on.

• 
  Omron Body Fat Monitor and Scale
• 
  Escali High-Capacity Bathroom Scale with Body Fat/Body Water Monitoring (440lb / 200kg)
• 
  Tanita BC554 Ironman Glass InnerScan Body Composition Monitor Elite Series
• 
  Omron Full Body Sensor Body Fat and Body Composition Monitor

How do you lose fat?

As I mentioned earlier, it’s a simple law of energy intake and expenditure. Eating more than you are using means you gain weight. Burning more than your eating means you lose weight. Unfortunately the real outworking of this is not so simple.

There are 3 principles to keep in mind – Diet (Nutrition), Exercise (Cardiovascular & Weight lifting), and Motivation (Dedication). Even the perfect diet plan can fail if you cannot stick to it.

How is weight training help me lose fat?

Weight (or strength) training is very important to lose fat. A weight training workout boosts metabolism for the whole day and helps build lean muscle. Muscle is metabolically active – it needs fuel – and therefore helps you burn more calories all the time. If you are thinking about weight training – think on this:

Do I want my body to be strong and useful, or is my body only for people to look at?

Lifting weights makes your body strong and useful.

Most of the machines that are available online uses a method called Bioelectrical Impedence Method. Bioelectrical Impedance (BI) is considered one of the most accurate and accessible methods of screening body fat and other body composition measurements in the privacy of your own home. Within seconds, BI sends an extremely weak signal to measure the inside of your body. Muscle, blood, bone and body tissue have high water content, which means they conduct the BI signal easily. Body fat, however, stores no water, so the BI signal is blocked or impeded from easily traveling throughout the body. The blocked signal (or high impedance) indicates the presence of more body fat.

Here are a few of those:

1. Omron Full Body Sensor Body Fat and Body Composition Monitor (See all Body Fat Monitors)
2. Omron Body Composition Monitor With Scale
3. Tanita BC-558 Ironman Segmental Body Composition Monitor (See all Body Fat Monitors)

The protein is broken into amino acids that are absorbed by body.

There are 20 different amino acids that join together to make all types of protein. Some of these amino acids (9 amino acids) can not be made by our body, so these are known as essential amino acids.

In the diet, protein sources are labeled according to how many and how much essential amino acids they provide:

• Complete Proteins: They provide all essential amino acids in sufficient quantity. For example, chicken, fish, eggs, milk and cheese.
• Incomplete Proteins: They either do not provide all essential amino acids or provide all amino acids in not sufficient quantity. For example, rice, beans, tofu and soy. Plant proteins are incomplete. You must combine them to get all of the amino acids your body needs.

Fat is stored in body when one consumes excess calories than they can burn out. One can take in calories from eating high calorie food items or eating a larger portion of the any food items. If one is living a sedentary life, he or she is not using up all that calories taken or not burning enough so as to have a net positive calorie gain. This ultimately leads to fat gain and weight gain.

Here are some fat loss strategies that will help you reach your goals:

• Consume low-calorie foods. When buy any food in a grocery look for the calorie content and try to chose the food that are low in calorie
• Eat at Regular Intervals. Don’t wait until you’re hungry or feel like eating. Eat every 3 hours. Build consistency
• Plan you meals the day before. Prepare your lunch and snacks for the work day the night before so that you will have them when you need it at work to avoid eating junk foods.
• Be active daily. Incorporate some kind of physical activity daily for at least 30 minutes to 45 minutes
• Do strength training. Do the strength training workouts for at least 2 or 3 times per week.

Recommended Reading:

• Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle has become known as “the bible of fat loss.” It’s the most complete, detailed, precise, by-the-numbers guide to fat loss ever created. It covers all 4 major elements of fat loss: 1) nutrition, 2) weight training, 3) cardio training 4) mental training (motivation and goal-setting). The majority of the program focuses on nutrition because what you eat is the #1 success factor for fastest fat loss.

• 25-day Xtreme Fat Loss Diet System. Includes Diet manual, Training manual, Workout log sheets, Success Journal, Supplementation Guide, plus more for $5.00

You may be able to survive a good long time without food, vitamins or minerals; however, you’d only last a day or two without water. That’s because 1/2 to 2/3 of your body is water. And while it has no calories or nutrients, water has body-building power. It’s a solvent, a lubricator and regulator of body temperature. It carries nutrients to cells and takes waste products away. It also aids digestion and is necessary in all chemical reactions in body’s metabolism.

There are many reasons why one should consume adequate water for weight loss:

• Burning calories creates toxic waste (think of the exhaust from your car), and water plays a vital role in flushing them out of the body
• Dehydration causes reduction in blood volume; a reduction in blood volume causes a reduction in the supply of oxygen to your muscles; and a reduction in the supply of oxygen to your muscles can make you feel tired.
• Water helps maintain muscle tone by assisting muscles in their ability to contract, and it lubricates your joints. Proper hydration can help reduce muscle and joint soreness when exercising.
• Drinking water with a meal may make you feel full sooner and therefore satisfied eating less. Note, however, that drinking water alone may not have the same effects. You need bulk, calories and nutrients.

You need water even if you are not thirsty. One should consume about 64 ounces of water every day. Check out these varieties and enjoy!

BOTTLED WATER IS NOT JUST WATER IN A BOTTLE

- Adarsh K. Gupta, D.O., M.S.