Alarming Epidemic Of Obesity

The global number of people who is suffering from overweight in adult population is approximately 1.6 billion people (age more than 15 years) and at least 400 million of that are obese. Similarly, with respect to global childhood obesity, there are at least 20 million children under 5 that either have overweight or, that can turn into obesity if their parents don't take the necessary measures. The projection of the WHO by the year 2015 is that approximately 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese.

While globally, there have been significant increases in obesity prevalence rates over the last 20 years, the following statistics indicate the alarming threat of obesity with respect to specific North American & European countries.

Obesity in USA

Over two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight or obese, and over one-third are obese, according to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003–2006and 2007–2008. According to the same estimate:

• 68 percent of all adults in US are overweight
• 64.1 percent of all women in US are overweight
• 72.3 percent of all men in US are overweight
• Similarly, according to the same statistics, over one-third of U.S. adults are obese which means:
• 33.8 percent of all adults in US are obese
• 35.5 percent of all women in US are obese
• 32.2 percent of all men in US are obese

Obesity in UK

Within the UK, English obesity prevalence rates in adults have increased by three- to four-fold since the 1980s. The most recent available data from England and Scotland indicate obesity prevalence rates are similar in men and boys at 22 percent and 18 percent respectively. The obesity prevalence rate in Scottish women is 19 percent higher than in English women (26 percent compared to 21.9 percent). Among girls, the prevalence rate of obesity is 30 percent higher in England (18.1 percent) than in Scotland (13.8 percent).

Some of the biggest causes of the increasing obese population in high-income countries and nations include:

• The global shift in diet towards increased intake of energy-dense-foods
• The decreasing physical activity due to the increasingly sedentary nature of many types of work
• Changing ways of transportation and increasingly urbanization
• More dependency on fast food as daily meals

In addition, these days is also dramatically changing the situation in low and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings, lead to the tendency to consume more food rich in fat and sugar and to the insufficient access to sport and fitness facilities.

In short, it is clear from the above discussion that obesity is now growing almost as an epidemic with rapidly growing rates especially among developed nations. Unfortunately, medical drug treatment or surgery has been unable to address the underlying causes of obesity even among affordable population.

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The South Beach Diet Reviews

The South Beach Diet is one of the odd fishes swimming in the treacherous waters of the international weight loss industry. Many people love it and are perfectly willing to swear by the good name of M.D. Arthur Agatston, while others find it hard to stick to the obligatory induction phase. The South Beach Diet belongs to the low-carbohydrates group of diets and has been derided as a fad diet, although its fans claim that it is not a fad diet and that it is, in any case, much more responsible and healthy than Atkins. Then again, not many diets manage to be less healthy than Atkins.

Dieters who choose the South Beach Diet can expect to see their food intake restricted to lean meat, seafood, eggs, low fat dairy products, nuts, vegetables (most of them, anyway), artificial sweeteners and a couple of carbohydrates of the low glycemic variety. During the first phase of this diet, the shock phase, most fruit and vegetables are still on the banned list, just like the rest of carbohydrates. Unfortunately, some people find it hard to cope with the low energy level, the fatigue and sometimes nausea that accompany this phase. However, it should be noted that not all dieters experience these symptoms. It’s all in our genetic make-up.

The bets part of this diet is the focus on removing simple carbohydrates (sweets, pasta, bread) from the diet and replacing them with the healthier complex carbohydrates from wholegrains and vegetables. The worst part is the marketing jargon that makes it sound like a fad diet and the tough first phase of the diet, which sacrifices the long-term healthy eating approach for an instant gratification technique based on the catch-all slogan “lose weight fast”. Any such approach will have the dieter lose a lot of water and not that much fat.

On the other hand, the second phase of the diet is a bunch of quite sensible eating advice and the recipes provided by the author are very good. There are also pre-packaged South Beach foods for those who lack the time or the inclination to cook for themselves. All things considered, the South Beach Diet is not a bad idea if one could clear away the hype and marketing lingo and focus on the healthy eating part and the good food choices. This information is something that should stay with you through the years if you’re looking to keep that weight from returning.

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The Abs Diet Reviews

Going through diet after diet, sooner or later everybody ends up thinking that there‚ nothing more to learn. Frankly, it doesn‚ take long to get exhaustive hands on experience with just about all the major dieting concepts and to learn in which way each of them is supposed to influence the body. And once you‚ familiar with all the pros and cons of dieting, it‚ only fair to think that nothing could surprise you anymore. Well, this is where the Abs Diet comes in with a rather strange take on the old concept of losing weight through exercises. And, no, there are no magic pills to swallow.

The basic idea is much simpler than that. It goes something like this: the body has to expend energy in order to keep the muscles and internal organs alive and in shape. This means that every addition to the muscle mass will force the body to spend more energy. Therefore, instead of lowering the daily food intake in order to lose weight, this diet focuses on increasing the ‚ above the normal level. The extra muscle mass is supposed to absorb all the calories that would otherwise be stored as fat and also force the body to burn existing fat in order to keep up with the effort.

Every 1 pound of muscle added to the body costs the body 50 calories per day on top of everything else. It‚ pretty easy to see that 10 pounds of muscle are going to keep busy 500 calories of your daily intake every single day. This is enough to make you lose 1 pound per week, which is not bad at all. It‚ interesting to notice that the diet is based on achieving a snowball effect: the more you exercise, the more muscle you put on; the more muscle you put on, the faster you lose weight, which allows you to exercise harder and lose even more weight. Once you get the snowball rolling it will turn into an avalanche on its own.

The food users are allowed to eat consists of 12 nutrient-rich power foods. These are supposed to provide all the minerals, vitamins and fiber your body needs to stay healthy over the six weeks of dieting. The 12 foods are: beans and peas, spinach and a couple of other green vegetables, almonds, instant hot oat cereal, wholegrain breads and cereals, berries, eggs, low-fat dairy products, lean meats (such as turkey), peanut butter, olive oil and protein powder. All other foods are to be shunned during the diet.

Sticking to Abs diet might seem a little hard, especially for as long as six weeks. However, the mandatory exercises should make a big difference. Not only that you lose weight, but you also get to show off a nice set of abs and a far better toned body than before. One extra thing on your side is that part of the fat will be replaced by muscle, so even if it seems that you‚ not losing much weight, you‚Äôre actually shifting weight from fat to muscle. Nevertheless, you can expect to get rid of up to 12 pounds in the first two weeks of dieting.

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The Beverly Hills Diet Reviews

From the star-studded hills located near Hollywood comes a diet rich in fruit and lacking sound ideas about weight loss. Really, if weight loss was so simple, there would be no problem for anybody to drop as many pounds as desired just by eating fruit. Nevertheless, a fruit-based diet sounds good to some people and so one may run into the happy statements of those who managed to lose weight by sticking to this eating plan.

The diet itself is very simple. It claims that papaya softens the fat, pineapple burns it off and watermelon washes it out of the body. Unfortunately, this concept hasn’t been proved yet in a scientifically sound manner. While grapefruit has a positive effect on the sugar absorption system, it doesn’t burn fat outright. The only thing that burns fat is effort.

According to actress Judy Mazel, the founder of the Beverly Hills Diet, people can lose 10 to 15 pounds in 35 days. Since the founder claims that eating different types of food together is one of the causes behind weight loss, the diet focuses on eating a single type of food for a whole day. One day you eat nothing but grapes, while the next day it’s just melons for you.

The problem with this diet is that the eating plan is really boring. The average dieter has every chance to get bored and start dreading the coming of the next day. This is more of a quick fix type of diet instead of a long-term eating plan and should not be pursued by more than one month. Fruits alone cannot provide your body with all the minerals and vitamins it needs every day.

By restricting your food to fruit will leave you exposed to malnutrition and diseases. The fast loss of weight usually means that some of that weight will be muscle mass and water, which means that some of the fat will stay in place. It also means that if you start gaining back weight, you will simply be replacing muscle mass with fat. In the long run this will do you a lot of harm.

And, for the final words, I hope you can get used to diarrhea, because eating nothing but fruit will keep you in a near constant state of diarrhea. All in all, this is not a good diet. Poor access to crucial vitamins and minerals and a lot of water and muscle mass loss is definitely not a good way to lose weight.

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The Atkins Diet Reviews

Can you say hype? If you‚ living in any Western world country then you‚ probably heard of the famous Atkins diet. Whether this is the most successful diet ever or not it‚ still up for debate, but it certainly is the more advertised one. The Atkins diet has been for a while the most hyped eating plan around and millions of people have tried it at some point or another.

This is no exaggeration. It was estimated that more than 3 million people in the United Kingdom alone have tried the Atkins diet at the peak of the hype in 2003.

The basic idea behind this diet is that cutting down on the carbohydrates, while allowing people to eat high-fat food is going to work. One of the best things in favor of the Atkins diet was the fact that it allowed people to eat eggs and cheese and steaks. It sounds like a dream diet actually. Who‚ pass up the chance of losing weight while still enjoying a good eggs and ham breakfast? Well, the downside is that you get no bread or salad with that steak. None whatsoever. Which becomes a real problem after a week or so. How much meat can you eat without touching any vegetables at all?

Anyway, the theory is that cutting out the carbohydrates will force your body to use the stored fat in order to obtain the energy needed through the day. This means that you get to eat no bread and pastries, potatoes, pasta, milk, rice, fruit, vegetables (well, there are a couple you can still eat) and, obviously, no junk food or soft drinks. On the other hand, you are allowed to eat red meat, fish, chicken, cheese, mayonnaise, cream, butter and eggs.

This is going to be your only food for the first two weeks, which are called the Induction Phase.

The second phase of the diet is called Ongoing Weight Loss and it lets you increase the intake of carbohydrates by 5 grams per day, starting from the basic 20 grams per day stipulated by the Induction Phase. The user must find how far the amount of carbohydrates can be increased before the body is unable to lose between 1 and 3 pounds per week. This is called the Critical Carbohydrate Level for Losing Weight and this is where the amount of carbs stops growing. This phase is supposed to last until you almost reach the desired weight.

With 5 to 10 pounds left to shed it‚ time to enter the third stage of the diet. This one is called Pre-Maintenance and it‚ supposed to increase the carbs intake by 10 grams a day in order to slow down the weight loss process. Welcome to the world of 30 grams of pasta per day. The final phase is called Lifetime Maintenance and a lifetime of eating around 90 grams of carbs per day for the rest of your life. Moving from 250 grams or more to less than 100 grams and for the rest of your life could be quite a challenge for many people.

The side effects of the Atkins diet depend on the user. Some people did fine on this diet, some got infections of the kidneys from the high-protein content or heart problems from all the fat food they ate. Dizziness and general weakness are also to be expected as the body goes into starvation mode when denied carbohydrates. With high-fiber fruit and vegetables out of the way you can also expect constipation to become a problem. Also, the lack of many dairy products leads to a significant drop in the amount of calcium absorbed by the body and may cause osteoporosis or other bone conditions later on.

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