The Ideal BMI Varies Each Decade

The Diet Blog has an interesting post about how BMI (body mass index measurements) have varied over the last century. They note that the mean BMI for U.S. females keeps going up. It was 28.1 in the 1990's and 24.9 in the 1960's. Yet in the modeling and celebrity world, the average BMI just keeps going down. Here's Kate Moss, who is said to have a BMI of 16. See their other examples of famous stars in each decade and their body types.

Losing 20 Pounds by Getting Off the Couch

Sally has lost 20 pounds by starting a modest running program and watching her diet. When she started jogging ten weeks ago, she could only run for about 90 seconds at a stretch. She's now surprised she can do half an hour. Her abs are starting to show, just based on the the regular jogging exercise.

She's been following the Couch to 5k (or 'couch to three miles') program. This shows you how to ease into running gradually. It recommends walking and jogging at first for 20 to 30 minutes three times a week. The objective of the program is to enable you to run three miles at a stretch in just two months.

As far as her food intake goes, she's made no strict rules, she is just trying to eat lots of vegetables and to deal with the cravings.


The above poster is a woman running through the desert landscape by Dugald Bremner.

The Natural Cure for Type 2 Diabetes

There's a good article today at NPR about the causes and cures for Type 2 diabetes. A large study has found that exercise and diet are more effective than drugs in preventing and reversing diabetes. The people in the study exercised for 2.5 hours a week.

They say that the high incidence of younger people getting diabetes is very alarming. It used to be only older people who were at risk.

See more about the benefits of exercise and diet in reversing diabetes here.

Janet Jackson Keeps the Fat Off

Janet Jackson lost 60 pounds a year ago. At that time she was on the cover of US Weekly and that magazine cover sold more copies than any other issue in the magazine's history.

So now, one year later, US Weekly has Jackson on the cover again. This time the feat is no less newsworthy. Jackson has managed to keep the weight off for the year and she looks even fitter than last year. Jackson, age 41 says she now weighs 120 pounds.

Jackson's weight loss in 2006 was probably the most dramatic celebrity makeover of the year.

Janet credits Fresh Dining with helping her lose the weight.

Losing 125 Pounds with Weight Watchers

Karen Ebbesmeyer weighed 275 pounds two years ago. That's when she got started on the Weight Watchers program as well as walking on a treadmill at least three miles a day.

She says she eats a lot more vegetables now. Before starting the diet, she says that if she opened one can of vegetables a week she was doing good.

Karen now weighs just under 150 pounds. She's gone from a size 24 to a size 6 and is flying to New York this week to do a photoshoot for Good Housekeeping magazine. She'll be featured in their August issue.

See the full story here.

The Detox Diet: Swiss Style

Epicurious recently interviewed Susan Wyler. Wyler has helped Dr. Rau write The Swiss Secret to Optimal Health: Dr. Rau's Diet for Whole Body Healing. Before she agreed to help this famous Swiss doctor to write the book, she tried out the diet for herself. She tells Epicurious;

SW: I went on [the detox diet] in preparation for meeting with Dr. Rau. Beforehand, I had the usual allergies and common problems associated with postmenopausal women. I was the queen of "eat as much as you can get away with of everything that tastes good." I wanted to see if, as a "foodie," I could recommend anyone eat like a chipmunk for three weeks and not get depressed. The difference I felt on the diet was dramatic — it had to be for me to become convinced.

Epi: What sort of changes have you seen in your body?
SW: I was never able to get out of bed in the morning. Morning was excruciating. No more. I wake up bright and energetic. I've lost 12 pounds, a lot for a woman of my small height. Bouts of depression, which occasionally visited me on and off for years, have disappeared. What thrilled me the most was the improvement in my thyroid condition. I had been on Synthroid for an unsightly neck goiter, but after eight months on the diet, it just melted away. When tested, my thyroid function had improved 25 percent.

See the full story here.

A Healthy Heart Lifestyle

Most people don't see themselves as potential heart attack or stroke victims. But it happens to many of us after age 40 and especially after age 55.

If one of the following risk factors applies to you, then it could be very helpful to look into heart health tips sooner rather than later;

* High blood pressure
* High blood cholesterol
* Diabetes
* Smoking
* Being overweight
* Being physically inactive
* Having a family history of early heart disease
* Age (55 or older for women)


The National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute has a 122 page handbook about heart health that you can download for free, or get a copy sent to you for $3.75. It's The Healthy Heart Handbook for Women '07.

Reducing Cellulite with Exercise

MSNBC has an encouraging article about reducing cellulite with exercise. They interviewed Wayne Westcott, a fitness research director. He has found that women who are not exercising and begin a program of exercise three times a week, together with a reduced-calorie diet can lose on average about 9 pounds of fat and gain two pounds of muscle in about eight weeks. Most of these women also said they thought the cellulite on their thighs and hips showed improvement.

Cellulite is more likely to appear if you don't have good muscle tone.

Cellulite is a drag. And even celebrities get cellulite.

Eat Chick Peas for Weight Loss

Chick peas, also known as garbanzo beans, are together with the whole legume family, one of the best foods you can eat for weight loss.

One cup of garbanzo beans will provide you with 50% of the fiber amount recommended for daily consumption. The high fiber prevents blood sugar levels from rising too rapidly after a meal, this being especially good for anyone with diabetes, insulin resistance or hypoglycemia.

Garbanzo beans are an excellent source of the trace mineral molybdenum which helps detoxify sulfites. Sulfites are a preservative that is often added to prepared foods such as deli salads and salad bars.

The insoluble fiber found in garbanzo beans helps to make your stools bigger and to prevent constipation, irritable bowel syndrome and diverticulosis.

A cup of garbanzo beans has amazing nutritional benefits. Of the daily recommended values of key nutrients, it provides 70% of folate, 50% of fiber, 29% of protein, 26% of iron, 84% of magnamese and 164% of molybdenum. All for 269 calories.

See the excellent overview of chick pea health benefits here.

See the recipe for the Garbanzo bean salad above here.

The Alli Diet Pill Marketing Blitz

You'll be hearing all about Alli everywhere soon. This diet pill is going to be advertised heavily this year. Over 150 million dollars will be spent in just one year to promote this drug. That would buy quite a few celebrity endorsements. It's the first diet pill drug to be approved for sale over the counter, without needing a prescription.

See the New York Times article about the Alli advertising promotion by GlaxoSmithKline.

Alli works by preventing the body from absorbing some of the fat one eats. This could have some very uncomfortable side effects if one eats too many fats.

The Best Diet: Volumetrics

Consumer Reports has just released the results of their research on diets and diet books. They have awarded Volumetrics the prize for being the best diet plan.

The Volumetrics Eating Planwas developed by Barbara Rolls, a professor in the department of nutritional sciences at The Pennsylvania State University.

The main point behind the Volumetrics Eating Plan is to focus your eating on foods that have fewer calories per bite, or low 'energy density' foods. The idea is to eat lots and lots of fruits and vegetables.

It's been shown that people who eat a low energy diet end up consuming several hundred fewer calories per day than those with a high density diet. Yet they eat a much greater amount of food in total. It's all about feeling full on fewer calories.

In the picture here, the first small dish of macaroni and cheese has more calories than the second much larger portion. The second dish replaces regular pasta with whole-wheat pasta, uses less cheese and butter and piles on the vegetables.

Ricki Lake Loses 125 Pounds

Ricki Lake has lost over 125 pounds. She was on "The View" last week and was offered the cover of US Weekly Magazine within 48 hours of being on the show.

She's lost the weight without any help from any kind of weight loss surgery. She was partially motivated to lose the weight in order to make her documentary about home birth in the tub. She's outspoken about the negative aspects of hospital births and the pressure for women to have cesareans. Cesarean births make up about 40% of births in many hospitals.

She'll be making a cameo appearance in John Travolta's "Hairspray" remake this summer.

Story Source: Ricki Lake Wows the Glossies

Gluten Free Diets are Trendy

Gluten-free diets are becoming increasingly popular.

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. A lot of people consider it a culprit in all sorts of ailments ranging from upset stomachs, arthritis, depresion, acne, infertility and gas. Avoiding all foods with flour products is becoming an increasingly popular dieting trend.

See a good article about this in the New York Times today.

Kate Moss Clothing on eBay

The Kate Moss for Topshop clothing collection was just launched last week in the U.K. and Paris and quickly sold out. It looks like a lot of people who bought the items were thinking of profiting by reselling them on eBay. There are now over 3,500 items on auction at eBay.

The Kate Moss collection is available in British sizes 6 to 16. This converts to US sizes 2 to 12. Notice thee is no size zero available, which is a good sign for not encouraging sickly skinniness. On the other hand, anyone who is American size 14 or higher is out of luck if they want to wear the Kate Moss label.

See the very few size 16's, (American size 12's) being auctioned at eBay today.

See a video of the launch of the Kate Moss Topshop clothing collection here. It's a very skinny Kate Moss in a long red dress briefly flipping her hair in the Topshop storefront window.

Eggs are Better for a Smaller Waist Size

Eating eggs for breakfast instead of bagels is a good idea if you are overweight and want to lose weight. One bagel has about the same number of calories as two eggs but a recent study found that women who ate eggs lost significantly more weight than the women who chose bagels instead.

The study also found that waist size dropped 83 percent faster for women on the egg diet. And there were no significant changes in the levels of cholesterol or triglycerides.

This is an interesting finding but keep in mind that the study was funded by the American Egg Board.

The beautiful image above is by independentman