Finally Getting Fit

Could a combination of exercise and a hormone keep you from gaining weight? A recent study seems to show it’s possible.

For a long time, the hormone leptin was thought to be the answer for helping people to fight fat. I remember hearing it on the news. But all that died off when they realized people were resistant to it. Imagine their surprise, then, when they found the key to unlocking leptin is none other than exercise!

According to the study, overweight mice on a high fat diet got the leptin to work by combining the hormone along with some time on the exercise wheel. It was that combination that got the leptin going.

I bet personal trainers everywhere are rejoicing.

Well, it’s good to see that they aren’t giving up on leptin just yet. If you aren’t familiar with what that is, leptin is a hormone that has effects on body weight, metabolism and even reproductive function. So it’s no wonder scientists have been poking and prodding it to figure out how to better use it for our benefit.

I’m not jumping up and down just yet because it will be years before we see anything our doctors are able to give us, but it does give me some hope. Just earlier this morning I was telling someone that it’s a bit more difficult for people with insulin resistance to lose weight. Having extra help is always welcome.

What do you think? Should we be cheerleading for science or should we keep our noses down with traditional proper diet and exercise?

There is so much out there to read when it comes to health. I catch myself letting hours slip by as I read this about weight, that about food…

Instead of doing a post for each cool/interesting/whatever link I find, I am going to put up “headlines” posts every now and then full of links I’ve found in the past whatever.

I hope you enjoy and find things that interest you.

Junk-Food Dieters – An article talking about the new wave of junk food dieters and what the cost of diet soda, sugar free gum, and other junk food do to your body even if you don’t put on the pounds. “According to their credo, low-calorie is good; no-calorie is better — even if the food contains more chemicals than a can of hair spray.”

20 Worst Foods When Eating Out – While some things are obvious when it comes to the calorie load, your ‘low calorie’ choices might not be as great as you think. Going beyond just the calories as well, you can see even the best of the worst of the list are very bad.

A New Diet Equation – We all know the bottom line to losing weight is to burn more calories than we consume. But there’s also the fact that we’re all different and that’s why one diet never works for everyone. So what can you do? Where you pack on the pounds could be your answer to finding out what works best for your body.

That’s it for today. If you have any links you think I and the readers here would like to read, feel free to send me the link using the ‘contact me’ button under the site description on the right.

This is a success story from earlier this month, but I don’t think a few weeks of dust on the story will make it lose anything.

Many people who go on the journey to lose weight blog about their stories not only to have somewhere to talk about things but also to find people who are going through the same experiences. Support has always been an important part of weight loss and blogging has made it easier than ever to get in touch with other weight loss bloggers.

In addition to featuring people who are on their weight loss journeys, I would also like to feature success stories I come across.

Yes, I know; success stories sometimes only serve to make you feel grumpy about what is going on in your life. However, they can also serve as a big motivation. Other people are doing it and so can you.

Thus it is my pleasure to feature the first success story here at Finally Getting Fit.

From the headlines of CNN.com comes a story of a woman who was nearing the 300 pound mark in 2004 and stepped back from that line to lose 168 pounds and thirteen dress sizes.

Writer Lynn Bering was like many of us before we started losing weight – no self-esteem and increasingly avoiding situations where we would get attention.

But Lynn is living a lovely life now and is happy to be able to pick up her granddaughter. She even has a blog where she has been keeping track of her journey. You can visit that site by clicking here.

Woo hoo! I get to use the rant category.

You may not have heard the news yet, but it’s spreading fast. According to MSNBC.com, a lawmaker in Mississippi “wants to ban restaurants from serving food to obese customers — but please, don’t be offended.”

And this guy never expected his plan to become a law in the first place.

You’re a lawmaker, you say you want to do something, and then you’re surprised when it’s possible that something you proposed could be made into a law?

Did you get the part where I said you’re a lawmaker?

The funny thing is that this guy would have a hard time under his own law.

What gets me is that there are so many better alternatives to helping people out there. Did they ever think of giving people gym vouchers? People don’t go to gyms because they’re bloody expensive. Make things affordable, and maybe you’ll seem some changes.

How about for people over a certain weight or BMI, you get a voucher – or even a free – personal trainer? Or even doing something as simple as making healthier food more affordable so people don’t have to go fast food just to be able to afford the rent.

No, they have to suggest banning obese people from restaurants, taking away one more reason obese people get out of the house.

Even if the proposal wasn’t made seriously, if you’re that concerned about obesity, quit trying to cause a media stir and start doing something about it.

Gee, thinking before speaking might be a good thing for these lawmakers to learn.