WEIGHT LOSS TIPS

Fast Food Blues

Dr. Flum specializes in surgical management of gastrointestinal disorders and surgical treatment of morbid obesity.

What is his advice for people who want to lose weight? He says if most people changed two things in their lives they would lose weight.

One is to avoid fast-food, the other is to walk on a regular basis (do 10,000 steps per day).

He says "One of every five Americans eats at least one meal per day in the car. Most of those meals come from fast-food franchises. There are fast-food meals with 1,400 calories (way more than half of a healthy amount for the day) and up to 800 of those calories come from unhealthy fats. If you can make one change in the way you eat, I would recommend not eating fast food or treating it as the very occasional splurge."

See more of Dr. David Flum's discussion about BMI, pear-shaped and apple-shaped bodies here.

Here's a great list of some of the top Health and Wellness sites. It includes the ten best sites for each of the categories of weight loss blogs, diet blogs, walking and other exercises, as well as a few other key health categories.

The list was put together by people at the Nursing Online Education Database. Enjoy and happy reading!

Actress Mila Jojovich has gained seventy five pounds so far in her pregnancy. This photo was taken about three or four weeks before her due date.

Most doctors tell women that the ideal weight gain for women of normal weight during pregnancy is between 25 and 35 pounds. But Milla was probably underweight at the beginning and her body may have needed to gain more than the recommended amount.

We carve pumpkins for Halloween each year and usually I throw away the pumpkin seeds. But this year I'm going to roast them in the oven. It's really easy, you just need some salt and butter. (See the recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds).

Pumpkin seeds have a lot of nutritional health benefits. A quarter of a cup of pumpkin seeds provides you with about 52% of the daily recommended amount of manganese.

You may not have heard of manganese, but high-manganese foods will

* Help your body utilize several key nutrients such as biotin, thiamin, ascorbic acid, and choline
* Keep your bones strong and healthy
* Help your body synthesize fatty acids and cholestorol
* Maintain normal blood sugar levels
* Promote optimal function of your thyroid gland
* Maintain the health of your nerves
* Protect your cells from free-radical damage

That same quarter cup of pumpkin seeds also provides 46% of the daily recommended amount of magnesium, 40% of phosphoros, 28% iron and 16% protein. See all about the health benefits of pumpkin seeds here.

Nutrient	Amount	DV (%)	Nutrient Density	World's Healthiest Foods Rating
Pumpkin seeds, raw 0.25 cup 34.50 grams 186.65 calories
manganese	1.04 mg	52.0	5.0	very good
magnesium	184.58 mg	46.1	4.5	very good
phosphorus	405.03 mg	40.5	3.9	very good
tryptophan	0.11 g	34.4	3.3	good
iron	5.16 mg	28.7	2.8	good
copper	0.48 mg	24.0	2.3	good
vitamin K	17.73 mcg	22.2	2.1	good
zinc	2.57 mg	17.1	1.7	good
protein	8.47 g	16.9	1.6	good

The above pumpkin poster is by Diane Pedersen.

Kent used to weigh over 400 pounds. He's lost 200 pounds by adhering to the Atkins diet. The weight loss was fast for him, though it was not easy initially to give up all his comfort foods such as pizza and a 4 liter per day Diet Mountain Dew habit.

He has maintained the weight loss for over two years now and is running his first marathon this week. Read his story and see him at his heaviest weight here.