Jumat, 08 Agustus 2008
Diet Rendah Karbohidrat Lebih Efektif Kurangi Berat Badan
Dalam studi termutakhir terhadap orang gemuk dan obesitas, diketahui mereka yang menjalankan diet rendah karbohidrat lebih cepat menurunkan berat badannya dibanding dengan mereka yang melakukan diet rendah lemak. Setelah melakukan diet rendah karbohidrat selama 12 minggu, para responden berhasil menurunkan bobot tubuhnya sebanyak 4,9 kilogram, sedangkan mereka yang menjalankan diet rendah lemak hanya turun 2,5 kg.
Kemudian program menjaga berat badan tersebut dilanjutkan hingga 24 minggu. Namun tidak didapatkan adanya perbedaan yang signifikan antara kedua kelompok diet tersebut. Meski begitu, menurut Dr.Kevin C.Maki, salah seorang tim peneliti, diet rendah karbohidrat tetap lebih efektif untuk mengurangi lemak dan mengontrol berat badan.
Maki dan timnya meminta para responden untuk mengurangi kadar glycemic dengan cara mengurangi asupan karbohidrat dan banyak mengonsumsi makanan yang indeks glycemic-nya rendah, yakni makanan yang mengandung serat seperti sayuran, kacang dan gandum.Selama dua minggu pertama para responden diminta tidak mengonsumsi makanan yang memiliki kadar karbohidrat tinggi seperti buah dan makanan yang memiliki zat tepung. Mereka juga diminta menghindari alkhol, tetapi mereka diijinkan untuk makan sebanyak yang dikehendaki.
Sebaliknya responden dalam kelompok diet rendah lemak hanya diijinkan mengonsumsi 500 - 800 kalori per hari, menghindari makanan berlemak dan mengontrol porsi makanannya.Setelah 12 minggu, para responden dari kelompok diet rendah karbohidrat mengalami penurunan berat yang signifikan dibanding dengan kelompok diet rendah lemak. Setelah 36 minggu, kelompok rendah karbohidrat beratnya berkurang 4,5 kg, sedang kelompok diet lemak berkurang 2,6 kg, tidak terlihat perbedaan mencolok.
Diet Tanpa Olahraga
Diet dan olahraga selama ini dipercaya sebagai cara yang paling efektif untuk mengurangi berat badan. Namun laporan penelitian terbaru justru menyebutkan kalau berdiet saja lebih efektif dari diet plus olahraga.
"Untuk mengurangi berat badan, yang diperlukan adalah memperhatikan jumlah kalori yang dikonsumsi dan jumlah kalori yang dibakar lewat metabolisme dan aktifitas fisik. Namun hasil riset kami membuktikan bahwa yang penting adalah mengurangi kalori, entah itu lewat diet makanan atau olahraga setiap hari," kata Dr Leanne Redman dari Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisana, AS.
Dalam risetnya, Redman dan timnya melibatkan 35 responden yang terdiri dari 16 pria dan 19 wanita. Setelah 6 bulan, 12 orang dalam kelompok diet mampu mengurangi asupan kalori mereka sebanyak 25 persen. 12 orang dalam kelompok diet dan olahraga, porsi kalorinya berkurang 12,5 persen, namun frekuensi olahraganya meningkat 12,5 persen. Sedangkan sisanya, masuk dalam kelompok yang tidak berdiet dan olahraga.
Kelompok yang hanya berdiet saja berat badannya berkurang, sama dengan kelompok yang melakukan diet dan olahraga. Berat badan mereka berkurang 10 persen, massa lemaknya berkurang 24 persen dan lemak di bagian perut berkurang 27 persen.
Jika tujuannya memang hanya untuk mengurangi berat badan, diet saja atau olahraga memang efektif. Tetapi jika ingin menghindari penyakit, para ahli menyarankan melakukan olahraga teratur, khususnya aerobik, untuk menurunkan risiko penyakit jantung, diabetes dan risiko terkena kanker.
Seperti dilaporkan dalam Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, penelitian ini juga menunjukkan bahwa dengan olahraga teratur lemak akan berkurang di seluruh bagian tubuh dan bukan di bagian tubuh tertentu saja.
The Importance of Shape
What is your shape?
You may think you know when you look in the mirror, or you may be too busy trying to cover up unshapely areas to really see yourself as you are. Do you know how much fat you’re carrying, compared to how much muscle? Do you know where you tend to gain weight–upper body, lower body or around the middle? Until you know the answers to these questions, you are not ready to make your personal plan for losing weight and keeping it off. Understanding your body is the first step to reaching your best personal shape. As someone who teaches both doctors and the public about obesity, I believe weight loss has been overemphasized and body shape underemphasized. You have probably read about the Body-Mass Index (BMI), which is a weight-to-height ratio. If your BMI is greater than 25, you are considered overweight in the U.S., and if it is greater than 30 you are obese. This ratio has been a powerful way for scientists to document the obesity epidemic in this country and its effects on health and disease. However, when it comes to you as an individual, it can be misleading. A football player can be considered overweight on the BMI scale, but if the extra weight being carried is muscle, he is not really fat. A thin woman can have a normal BMI, yet still be over-fat. So shape counts.
Shapes are personal and go beyond the usual apple and pear. Women can have three typical body shapes–upper body fat, lower body fat and both upper and lower body fat. Men usually only get upper body fat. The upper body stores fat in times of stress and some people can lose and gain weight rapidly in the upper body. The lower body fat in women responds to female hormones such as estrogen and progesterone and stores fat for breastfeeding a newborn baby. Women who have both upper and lower body fat will lose their upper body fat first. Women with more upper body fat tend to have more muscle than women with lower body fat and will need more protein in their diet to help control their hunger. Losing weight is harder if you have lower body fat rather than upper body fat, but the medical benefits of losing your upper body fat are greater. Losing weight around your neck, face, chest and waist usually goes along with losing fat on the inside as well. So as you look better, you are also improving your health tremendously.
Finally, there are two more body shapes to consider: The shape you can change and the shape you can’t change. It is important to know the difference and work on the shape you can change, while adjusting your wardrobe and attitudes to the shape you cannot change. Due to low metabolism, many women with lower body fat can’t lose weight just by cutting calories. These lower body-fat cells are resistant to both exercise and diet. Only a personalized program can help make sure you get enough protein to control cravings and build or maintain lean muscle.
Overweight Children
Children who watch TV while eating are twice as likely to eat "junk" food as opposed to fruits and vegetables.
Today’s sedentary lifestyle for children is raising their risk of obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis and other disorders. Read how you can help reverse this alarming trend.
Today’s parents are having their pediatrician tell them their 11-year-old son has Type 2 diabetes or their 16-year-old daughter has osteoporosis. The “out-of-control” lifestyles fashioned by the adults of the past 40 years has led to a 50% increase in the diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes–the kind of diabetes that used to be known as “adult onset” because this obesity-related disorder wasn’t usually diagnosed until age 50 or older!
Today’s sedentary lifestyle for children is raising their risk of obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis and other disorders. Read how you can help reverse this alarming trend.
Today’s parents are having their pediatrician tell them their 11-year-old son has Type 2 diabetes or their 16-year-old daughter has osteoporosis. The “out-of-control” lifestyles fashioned by the adults of the past 40 years has led to a 50% increase in the diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes–the kind of diabetes that used to be known as “adult onset” because this obesity-related disorder wasn’t usually diagnosed until age 50 or older!
Making wellness a family affair
If we begin to place an emphasis on eating healthy foods and increasing activity levels in our children, we can reverse these alarming trends. Here are a few guidelines for dealing with overweight children. Be sure the child has been evaluated by a medical doctor to assure there are no reasons why losing weight would be a problem. Children can begin their day with a Dinomins multivitamin tablet and a shake made with nonfat milk or soy milk.
Stopping the epidemic
Choose to set the example of picking up an apple instead of an ice-cream bar. Stop smoking. Turn off the television or computer and shoot some hoops with your children or go for a walk. Be sure to take your dog so you won’t have a overweight dog at risk for diabetes and heart disease–yes, they develop the same diseases as people! Let’s make the 21st century the century of wellness. Let’s start today.
