Strategies for Weight Loss

Stress is related to your coping skills and how you deal with the
circumstances in your life.
The most important factor in dealing with and handling stress is having
a sense of control.
Stress is both cause and effect; it causes obesity by producing hormones during stress phase and cause you to over-eat. Your lifestyle, job, and your relationship could be producing stress and making you obese. If you are active, always on the run and success-oriented, and living an unbalanced lifestyle, you could be preparing yourself for obesity by improper eating and by producing unneeded hormones in your body.
You may be on your way to suffering a heart attack. Physiologically, in response to a real or perceived threat, your “fight or flight response” is activated. This stimulates the adrenal gland to produce epinephrine. The release of epinephrine in the blood stimulates release of insulin, which lowers the blood sugar level, and as a result you experience hunger. You eat to relieve the hunger and the cycle continues. Reaction to stress can be either biochemical or psychological. In response to a serious emotional situation, whether it is positive or negative, you
experience arousal that is either physiological or psychological.
You may experience physiological changes such as increased heart rate,
pounding heart, sweaty hands, increased respiration, tense muscles and
butterflies in your stomach. Psychologically, you may experience fear or
anxiety. How one perceives the situation can cause biochemical changes
in one’s body.
Studies on laboratory rats and other animals exposed to stressful situations confirm these biochemical changes in individuals exposed to stressful situations. But the interesting finding was that the level of biochemical changes varied from rat to rat, and the same for the other animals. This confirms that a healthy mental attitude and ability to skillfully handle the stressful situation can reduce the biochemical changes in your brain.
During a stressful situation several hormones produced. Of these, the three main hormones released are as follow:
Epinephrine and cortisol-- increased and tryptophane-- reduced

Role of Leptin

The protein hormone leptin is a neurotransmitter important to the homeostatic regulation of body weight. Leptin was identified as a gene in obese mice, in the genetic obesity syndrome (1994 New York University). Leptin influences hypothalamus and pituitary hormones and promotes secretion of growth hormone and thyroid stimulating hormone. It is produced by adipose tissue and synthesized in the placenta and gastrointestinal tract.
Leptin influences the regulation of appetite, energy expenditure and fat reserve. The lack of secretion of leptin rarely causes obesity itself, though some people are less sensitive to its action. Leptin increases metabolism and decreases appetite, by binding to the satiety center in the hypothalamus, signaling that the stomach is full.
Leptin signals your nutritional status to the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral organs. It influences the reproductive system and the release of insulin. Currently, researchers suspect that overweight individuals may have defective leptin utilization, causing satiety to be inhibited. Exogenous (introduced from an outside source) leptin administration may affect weight loss.
more information....www.drzaritransformation.com

Internal and External factors effecting your Weight

Willpower vs. Motivation
You have to realize that being overweight has nothing to do with your willpower, and has a lot to do with your motivation – and that motivation can be created. You can reprogram your subconscious mind to resolve addictive behavior. Get excited and motivated by your
personal reasons for wanting to lose weight and be fit, such as looking better or being healthier or having more energy. These all act as rewards for your subconscious.
Minor changes in your eating habits, such as reducing fat and simple carbohydrates, adding fiber and replacing soft drinks with water can create great results. Obesity is associated with a myriad of factors: socioeconomic status; familial conditions; your network of friends; busy lifestyles that discourage eating balanced meals; the availability of inexpensive, “super sized” high-fat food; your pattern of leisure activities; television time; excessive alcohol intake; eating meals away from home; and finally, genetic factors. Genetic factors affect the way that energy surpluses are stored (either as fat or as lean muscle) and the relative production of fats and carbohydrates used by the body. Race is also a factor in obesity, as higher body weight may be more socially acceptable in some cultures. There are also regional factors: obesity is higher in areas where high fat diets and sedentary lifestyles are more prevalent. Age is another factor, as excessive body fat is more common among adults and middle aged people. Have you ever thought much about what goes into your body each day, how food is processed, and what organ or system has a physiological or psychological role in this process? I will share that in my next article. To learn more go to www.drzaritransformation.com

External factors that influence our eating habits

Advertising – Advertising affects our nutritional choices. The messages we hear influence our choices, and in both negative and positive ways. Some of the advertisements bring some knowledge about the importance of some nutritional elements, such as vitamins
and minerals. They can also give us inaccurate information. These visual messages are very powerful, as they appeal to our subconscious.

Restaurants and eating out – In social situations when eating as a group, more often than not we forget about the quality of the food we are eating, especially if we are drinking as well. We consume more high-fat foods, such as fried zucchini and high-sugar foods such as cake and ice cream. Worst of all are the “super sized” meals from fast food restaurants.

Education–The more educated people are, the more knowledgeable they are about nutrition, and the more attention they pay to their diet.
Income/Occupation – People in higher-ranked position pay more attention to their eating and can also afford to eat in better places with better food. However, these people are more socially involved and therefore as a group they drink alcohol more often and in larger amounts. Their fast-paced jobs don’t allow them time to cook each meal, so they tend to dine out more often, dine alone, and eat on the run.
The next blog more on external and internal factors...

Role of Leptin in Weight Loss

The protein hormone leptin is a neurotransmitter important to the homeostatic regulation of body weight. Leptin was identified as a gene in obese mice, in the genetic obesity syndrome (1994 New York University). Leptin influences hypothalamus and pituitary hormones and promotes secretion of growth hormone and thyroid stimulating hormone. It is produced by adipose tissue and synthesized in the placenta and gastrointestinal tract. Leptin influences the regulation of appetite, energy expenditure and fat reserve. The lack of secretion of leptin rarely causes obesity itself, though some people are less sensitive to its action. Leptin increases metabolism and decreases appetite, by binding to the satiety center in the hypothalamus, signaling that the stomach is full. Leptin signals your nutritional status to the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral organs. It influences the reproductive system and the release of insulin. Currently, researchers suspect that overweight individuals may have defective leptin utilization, causing satiety to be inhibited. Exogenous leptin (introduced from an outside source) administration may affect weight loss (debatable).

Willpower vs. Motivation

You have to realize that being overweight has nothing to do with your willpower, and has a lot to do with your motivation – and that motivation can be created. You can reprogram your subconscious mind to resolve addictive behavior.

Get excited and motivated by your personal reasons for wanting to lose weight and be fit, such as looking better, being healthier or having more energy. These all act as rewards for your subconscious. Minor changes in your eating habits, such as reducing fat and simple carbohydrates, adding fiber and replacing soft drinks with water can create great results.

Obesity is associated with a myriad of factors: socioeconomic status; familial conditions; your network of friends; busy lifestyles that discourage eating balanced meals; the availability of inexpensive, “super sized” high-fat food; your pattern of leisure activities; television time; excessive alcohol intake; eating meals away from home; and finally, genetic factors.
Genetic factors affect the way that energy surpluses are stored (either as fat or as lean muscle) and the relative production of fats and carbohydrates used by the body. Race is also a factor in obesity, as higher body weight may be more socially acceptable in some cultures. There are also regional factors: obesity is higher in areas where high-fat diets and sedentary lifestyles are more prevalent. Age is another factor, as excessive body fat is more common among adults and middle-aged people.

Role of the Hypothalamus in Obesity

It is important to make the distinction between the physiological drive of hunger, and the psychological drive to eat which is primarily an appetite. There are external influences that encourage us to find food and eat. However, appetite is externally influenced .Hunger is regulated by the hypothalamus gland in our brain and controlled by internal body mechanisms, hormones, and hormone-like substances. The hypothalamus is a command center in the brain and governs circadian cycles (the 24-hour day), emotions and behavior and homeostasis in the body. In order for the neurotransmitter in the brain to function properly, this gland must be able to process and regulate the signals generated by the nerves responding to various mediators of food intake. At any time, the hypothalamus communicates with sixty trillion body cells. This center not only signals us to eat; but when we eat, hunger decreases, and the satiety center in the hypothalamus signals us to stop.
A comparative research study on cell metabolism compared normal rats and rats prone to obesity, showed brain cell differences in the region of the hypothalamus that controls hunger and appetite. The genetic differences in overeater rats made them less responsive to the appetite controlling hormone leptin, causing them to eat more. It is also important to know that an imbalance in your sleep hours (less than 6 hours at a time) on a consistent basis may make you gain weight, because the leptin hormone signals your brain to take in extra calories by being hungry frequently and thus causing you to eat more (reference: Endocrine society Journal).