Dr. Nwe’s Blog

Losing weight….. The Ultimate Goal.

Why should I lose weight?

 

1. I want to be able to cross my legs

2. I want to be able to sit in the booth in the restaurant

3. I want to be able to bend down

4. I want to be able to reach my back

5. I want to be able to reach down and tie my shoes

6. I want to be able to do my little chores as others do without being helped

7. I want to be able to get up easy and reach places

8. I want to feel comfortable in the chair I am going to sit on

9. I want to feel comfortable and confident at what others are going to think about me

10. I want to be able enter and exit at the entrances and exits without being embarrassed

11. I want to feel light to carry my body

12. I want to go multiple places without restriction.

13. I want to play with my kids

14. I want to be healthy

15. I want to take less medications for my medical problems

16. I want to relieve my aching joints

17. I want to relieve my constant feet pain

18. I want to relieve my sleep apnea

19. I want to get better with my blood pressure, my cholesterol and my blood sugar

20. I want to cut the chain of more and more medications on my list and gaining more and more weight.

21. I want to feel better with myself, my life, my future, my health.

 

How am I going to encounter the barriers to losing weight?

 

Time

 

Life is always busy with the tasks and schedules. We have to prioritize the tasks and keep losing weight is the most important task to accomplish.

 

*Tell your family that you are planning to lose 10 pounds in 1 month and ask help and support to keep your goal in check.

 

Money

 

There is some cost to losing weight, either to join a program, to buy an equipment or to buy healthier meals. It can be costly.

 

Again prioritize. Cut back on the buying non essential items but do not cut back on the weight reduction efforts. The delay in losing weight is more costly in the long run. As you lose weight you will soon realize that you can cut back on the medications, MD visits, sick days and loss of income, etc and save a lot more money than you put in initially.

 

I see a lot of patients in consultation who do not pursue weight loss nor stop smoking because insurance companies do not pay for the cigarettes smoking cessation medications and weight loss plans. So they continue to spend money on buying cigarettes and stay unchanged in unhealthy habits for losing weight.

 

* Here is the key “losing weight and adopting a healthy habit is for our own health”. Yes, it will be nice if we have coverage for the wellness coverage and being paid for.

 

But if you do not have benefit coverage, you should have alternative plan to pursue your goals, which may include to work extra shifts for the cost, or cutting back on other non essential buys. Remember by losing weight and stopping smoking you willactually save a lot more money.

 

 

Knowledge

 

Knowledge is power. Look for the true fact and correct information about the weight loss and right weight loss program. Do not rely on the information that you receive from the advertisements of any sort. The advertisements mainly serve the purpose of selling merchandise.

 

Do not look for a quick fix. There is no quick and easy way of losing weight. You will have to go through with the diet, exercise, adopting right habits and medications (diet pills) if you can safely take them. This is the only right way of losing weight other than bariatric surgery.

 

Determination

 

Once you determine to lose weight, keep the goal alive until you achieve it. Do not lose sight on the goal. There will be festivals, parties, life stresses, falling out of plan, difficulties and all the excuses either reasonable or not, around you. But you will keep your two eyes on the goal. You will continue on with your efforts.

 

Get family supports, friend supports. Think and reward your self with non food item for your achievements. If you have short comings, you will correct them positively.

 

Action

 

When time comes for the action, I do not have words for it.

ACT NOW!

 

 

Is Restaurant Food Better than Fast Food?

 

I had a great dinner last night freshly prepared by a famous chef. I was with 8 other physicians at a special dinner, cook live in front of us by a famous chef. 

 The event is wonderful. The course of the meals is phenomenal.

The meal course is as follow:
1. Shrimp scampi puff _ appetizer _ one small piece each
2. Salad with balsamic vinegar dressing _ small green, goat cheese, dried raspberries, nuts.
3. Roasted beef with lobster stuffing _total of half of your palm size
4. Potato side dish _ two finger long size
5. Sauteed asparagus as side _ 5-6 slender asparagus
6. Banana in the brown sauce with small scoop of ice cream, a thin slice of pound cake – regular portion (not big)
7. A half glass of wine for who choose to drink.

Wonderful meal course. Portion is right! Not excessive. Usually I would not be thinking this is an unhealthy meal if I did not see what ingredients are in it.

The cooking happens right in front of us. The art and skills of the chef is amazing.

But what is going on in my mind was “nine of us share the 7 sticks of butter, 4 large blocks of Philadelphia cream cheese and a bowl of clarified butter over two and half hour meal time”.

“I cannot believe that I ate my share of nearly a stick of butter and half of the large cream cheese block in one meal”.

While I do appreciate the time, the dinner, the chef but I will not be repeating the similarly prepared meal again.

The thought of the arteries and cholesterol plaques in the lining of the arteries images are bouncing in my eyes and almost teasing me.

I discover the followings from this wonderful dinner and I thought I would share it with my readers.*

 

  • The chefs are excellent in preparing food but they may not have nutritional knowledge.
  •  The chefs’ main focus is “how to make the food taste better” and “not necessarily healthier”.
  •  The expensive upscale restaurant, compare to fast food, does not necessarily mean the food is healthier.
  •  While we are avoiding all the fast food chain and trying to eat healthy can also end up like me as above.
  • Cook at your home healthily. Do not use the butter stick or similar for cooking a meal. Or you can choose non butter spread. (I really do not believe that putting that much butter and cream cheese was necessary for this wonderful meal. As I thought of it, I recreated the meal without using the butter and cream cheese. I substitute them by using olive oil and boiled low fat milk in much less amount. It has the comparable taste and much health benefit to it)
  •  If you are already in restaurant, ask your gravy, sauce, spread to put separately, so that you do not have to eat them all.
  • Avoid the restaurants which cook with the butter and cream cheese . If you are not sure, ask the waiter.
  • After all, we are responsible for our health 

HCG injection and weight loss! Is it fact or fiction?

There is a lot of buzz about HCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin) use in the medical weight loss programs.

I am frequently asked this question; ” Do you give the ( HCG ) shots in your weight loss program ?”

HCG injection use in weight loss was  suggested a long time ago. Actually, there are multiple weight loss centers using the HCG injection outside the United States.  

I decided to look into this hype.  I did some searching in literature internationally and domestically. I found the following facts regarding the HCG. ( I will leave out the statistics for general population to understand it easier)

1. Using HCG injection for losing weight did not show any benefit in almost all of the studies.

2. Most studies did not show long term (more than few months) effects of weight loss either.

3. Most studies did not prove that desirable fat mobilization is achieved by HCG injection.

So what is all the buzz about HCG?

The original HCG protocol for weight loss was done in Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD). Those individuals consumed maximum of 500 calories per day. And they are given HCG injection for approximately 1.5 months. They did lose weight significantly, but not more than the individuals on VLCD 500 Cal diet alone.

To simplify it: It is very likely that they did lose weight because of low calorie diet, not because of HCG.

Why there is conflict in the HCG use in weight loss?

The earth was considered flat once upon a time, till we looked at it from all different angles. But we now have the open media through which anyone can say whatever. They may read an old note saying ” the earth is flat” and then blurt it out in the media.

So HCG injections are any good in weight loss?

The research found out that HCG gives you a sense of feeling good. While receiving the HCG and VLCD (500Cals), the subjects on the HCG could tolerate the misery of 500 Cals VLCD better.So it is a feel good hormone !

What about the body contouring fat loss with HCG?

It is not true. Multiple studies have looked at it and it does not mobilize the fat in the desired way.

Does HCG help  prevent wrinkles in the skin after losing weight?

It does not tighten the skin.

So will I use the HCG in my weight loss clinic?

I will not use the HCG for losing weight for the following reasons:

  1. In my opinion,HCG does not help lose weight. Its possible benefit is to make you feel good when you are on VLCD.
  2. I do not support the Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD) of 500 calorie a day ( Studies show that VLCD causes more loss of  lean mass than fat mass)
  3. If weight loss is only temporary for 3 months or less, why bother putting you through with all extreme restriction and daily shots.
  4. We do not need to use the HCG for the “feeling good” benefit as nobody need to feel bad while trying to lose weight. “Feeling bad” comes from extreme restriction and it does not work for long term. If you are making it too hard to lose weight, you are doing it wrong.
 

For more weight loss articles by Myo Nwe, MD please visit:

http://www.weightlossxmd.com/