Dr. Fitness says “Beware” of your intake of Sorbitol and do not go on a “Sorbitol Diet.”  An article in this week’s  (BMJ) warns of the dangers of excess sorbitol intake. The warning comes after doctors came across two patients who had chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain and dangerously excessive weight loss. After lengthy investigations which could not identify why the patients were losing so much weight and had chronic diarrhea and pains, a detailed analysis of eating habits put the problem down to eating too much chewing gum with Sorbitol.

Sorbitol is a laxative which is poorly absorbed by the small intestine. Sorbitol, or glucitol, is a sugar alcohol which our bodies metabolize slowly. Sorbitol can be found in cough syrups, sugar free mints, chewing gum, diet foods, diet drinks and ice creams. Sorbitol occurs naturally in some stone fruits and berries from trees of the Sorbus genus. Apples and pears also have natural amounts of sorbitol.

One of the patients, a 21-year-old woman, had been eating the equivalent of 18-20g of sorbitol each day. The average stick of gum has about 1.25g sorbitol - so, she was chewing through 15-18 sticks of gum each day. The other patient, a 46-year-old man, was chewing about 20 sticks of sorbitol-containing gum plus approximately 200g of sweets (candy) each day - his total sorbitol daily intake was about 30g, the authors wrote. As soon as sorbitol intake was stopped, both patients started having normal bowel movements (diarrhea subsided) and normal weight gain was achieved.

Picking the right tunes to exercise can be just as important as wearing the right clothes!!! I found this great article about picking the right tempo to match the type of exercise you are performing. Since I am a runner, I need hardriving up-tempo songs like AC/DC “Shoot To Thrill” or Springsteen’s “Ramrod,” or “Born to Run.” These songs match 140 - 160 heart beats/minute. Now when I swim and even though my heart rate is elevated to the same degree, swimming is a slower rythmnic movement with the arms and the legs in the water so I don’t need the same hard-driving tempo. Read the rest of this artice which I found fascinating!!!

Generally speaking there is a science to choosing an effective exercise soundtrack, said Dr. Costas Karageorghis, an associate professor of sport psychology at Brunel University in England, who has studied the effects of music on physical performance for 20 years. Dr. Karageorghis created the Brunel Music Rating Inventory, a questionnaire that is used to rate the motivational qualities of music in the context of sport and exercise. For nearly a decade, he has been administering the questionnaire to panels representing different demographics, who listen to 90 seconds of a song and rate its motivational qualities for various physical activities.

I have had this annoying cough for going on three days now. I have not slept since Saturday. I try to sleep kind of sitting up but that does not help much. I have been living on Halls cough drops (cherry) and I have tried Musinex DM Maximum Strength - a once every 12 hour cough medicine. I was a Robotussin guy but my sister recommended Musinex which hasn’t worked any better. I hope this cough goes away before our radio show on Thursday

Here are some tips I ran across from the Hartford Courant

Cough into your elbow - nice tips

Drink more fluids - I have been living off whats left of my rapidly dwindling Tavalon tea supply

Rest more - I’d like to but that hacking cough keeps waking me up

I’d add use more Purell - but you already know how i feel about that.

Here’s more of the article - click on the link to get the rest…

Because cold and flu season is here, it’s time to review what you know about treating them.

First things first: Antibiotics won’t help. Colds and flu are caused by viruses, not bacteria. If you get sick, cough or sneeze into your elbow. Don’t share your drinking glass, and practice other good hygiene habits. Get plenty of rest, drink fluids and treat the symptoms if that makes you feel better.

As an incentive to keep you healthy companies in America are now following Italy’s lead that we blogged about awhile ago and paying their employees to lose weight.

According to WCBS-TV…

Not only does Stefanie Chiras’ company pay her to develop computer memory sub-systems, but a little extra to eat right.

“Having work sponsor it makes you kind of feel like someone is buying into It,” said Chiras. “And then certainly the cash at the end of the day is an incentive.”

Chiras works for IBM. She gets an additional $150 in her paycheck for tracking her eating habits online and losing weight.

“When I reach for that next unhealthy thing, I think, oh, but I have to log it in to the tool.”

If you don’t work for IBM and want to use an online tool like theirs check out Dr Fitness and the Fat Guy’s super duper online weight loss and diet program. You can track everything and get the support you need from our members and us. Plus as a bonus we give away prizes to our members just for loggin on.

As a loyal member of Dr Fitness and the Fat Guy’s Partner Power Online Weight Loss Program, and for logging in your food and exercise, Lisa R has won an exercise DVD donated by our friend Tom Holland. We’re sending you Tom Holland’s Total Body Workout. Keep up the good work Lisa.

As you might not know members of our online weight loss support community are automatically entered to win prizes for logging their food, logging their exercises, posting on the message boards, etc. A lot of the great weight loss experts and fitness superstars that have appeared on the Dr Fitness and the Fat Guy radio show have kindly donated books, dvds and gadgets for us to giveaway to our members in order to keep them motivated, inspired and compliant on their exercise program. So keep posting everybody and you might be the next winner.

This year Dr Fitness and the Fat Guy were fortunate enough to have a lot of great food and drink related guests on our radio show this year. So since all the other big media stars were doing year end lists, I thought I’d do it too. So without further ado, here is the Fat Guy’s list of favorite almost healthy foods and/or drinks for 2007.

Number 5. Lesser Evil popcorn snacks. I like cocoa and cinnamon. My wife likes the Krinkle Sticks.

Number 4. Fizzy Lizzy sparkling fruit drink. All flavors are awesome.

Number 3. PopChips. I love the Barbeque.

Number 2. Holey Donuts. 300 calorie cinnamon rolls - enough said.

Number 1. Tavalon Tea. I must drink the lemon grass green tea everyday or I get even more curmudgeony!

That’s it for now I can’t wait to eat and drink my way through 2008!

 

 Happy Days Healthy Living, Hot Moms Club, Sleep Secrets, Back in Skinny Jeans blog: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The most entertaining weight loss and fitness podcast show on radio.” Please click on the PLAY button to listen to the latest Dr. Fitness and the Fat Guy radio show podcast broadcasting live each week from Atlanta, GA, USA. To download the show on iTunes please click on this link

On tonight’s show Dr Fitness and the Fat Guy get the skinny about Happy Days and Healthy Living from one of the stars of Happy Days Cathie Silvers who played Jenny Picolo in the hit sitcom. Cathie told us about her transition from child of Sgt Bilko, Phil Silvers to growing up in Orlando, FL to going back to Hollywood onto the set of the TV show she herself grew up watching to being a mom and having her teenage daughter encourage her to be the healthy living expert that she is now. Cathie had some great tips about how to transition from being a meat eater (go anti-biotic free and wild fish) to a vegetarian (go organic to avoid pesticides, herbicides and fungicides to a vegan (no dairy, eggs or animal products all the way to raw (no/low heat cooking). She is the host of the Healthy Living Show and the Healthy Living Kids Show. She also is involved in www.organicfarmersmarket.org where you can get all kinds of organic products. Check her shows at www.thehealthylivingshow.com or her book at www.cathysilvers.com And for all the mothers out there Cathie says “Get out of conventional food markets and go organic”

Our first guest was Stephanie, our blogger of the week with Back In Skinny Jeans. On her blog Stephanie shares her tips, successes and failures as she tries to lose 25 pounds by the end of the year. She is almost there so be sure to check out her blog and encourage her. She talked about her amazing break-up anger treadmill workout. And her training for her first half marathon. Stephanie also does a great job talking about how to deal with emotional eating. She is on Twitter and has over 300 followers. All the people who follow her and read her blog have really helped her stay focused and helped her reach her goal weight. We wish her the best and know that she will reach her goal and stay in her skinny jeans. Her blog can be found at www.backinskinnyjeans.com

Next up we had on our friend, Jessica Denay founder of the Hot Moms Club. This amazing woman has created a website that has evolved into books, products and a community for moms everywhere. She told us she has a new book coming out soon called The Hot Mom To Be Handbook…Womb With A View and in January her website will be completely redesigned with all kinds of Web 2.0 features and tools. She already has some of the best mom experts out there on her site contributing to this very supportive and inspiring community. The Hot Mom’s Club is an organization dedicated to bringing mothers together who refuse to fall into the stereotype of the typical American “mom” . They might be undaunted professionals, unapologetically sexy or simply dynamic women who break the mold, Hot Mom’s empower each other to redefine motherhood. It is more attitude than look. Check the site out at www.hotmomsclub.com

Next we had on sleep expert Lee with SleepTracker. SleepTracker continuously monitors signals from your body that indicate whether you are asleep or awake. Because you wear it on your wrist like a watch, its internal sensors can detect even the most subtle physical signals from your body. SleepTracker finds your best waking moments, so that waking up has never been easier. Dr Fitness has called SleepTracker one of his best holiday gifts of 2007 so be sure to check them out at their website www.sleeptracker.com

Dr Fitness chimed in with his best holiday gifts for 2007 list. And they included the SleepTracker, the stress eraser, the swimp3 and more. Be sure to check listen to the show to get his entire list.

Amazingly the Fat Guy is being followed by over 30 people who are interested in what he eats each day. Who would have thought? Anyone can follow the Fat Guy’s eating exploits on Twitter. Food journals are great ways to lose weight and the Fat Guy is always trying anything in order to lose those last 20 pounds. So take a peek into his food diary. You never know what he’ll write. Somehow he can stay compliant to writing on Twitter but he can’t fit in exercise each day. That’s right, moments after he eats something the Fat Guy Twitters about it and you can follow him so that one day if you try real hard you too can look like the Fat Guy. Please go to www.twitter.com/fatguy

Hot mom, Kathie Larkin was in the studio lending her thoughts and laughter. You know Kathie as the host of Real Savvy Moms. Real Savvy Moms is a great show for hot moms, fat moms, all kinds of moms and is available on most PBS’ around the US and online and now on in Atlanta. So be sure to look out for that. Remember Kathie is one of the top feet and legs model’s out there… she is so hot she got to be a body double for Alyssa Milano in that Veet commercial that is on TV 24 hours a day. Be sure to check out Kathie’s website www.getkathie.com. Also check out her hosting skills on www.RealSavvyMoms.com.

As always, more laughs, more info and more fun than any other health, fitness, weight loss podcast out there. Also check out our brand new redesigned website www.drfitnessandthefatguy.com to subscribe to our FREE weekly healthy living newsletter and enjoy all the benefits of our online weight loss community. Starting January 1 we will be giving away an exercise dvd to members of our online diet members each day until we run out. You can also email Dr. Fitness there with your specific questions and he will personally answer each one. Promise!! Please don’t keep our show a secret. Our show grows when our listeners tell their friends about us. We need your help to grow our listener base so if you enjoy Dr Fitness and the Fat guy please forward this podcast to a friend and put links to our website and show on blogs and message boards you enjoy. Thanks!

It has been well established that the Fat Guy has no friends and spends way too much time on the internet. I feel a little funny referring to myself in the third person, but I have not found a better way for you the reader to know if this is a post from me or Dr Fitness. So deal with it.

While browsing through the Archives of Internal Medicine as I sometimes do on dreary Wednesday afternoons. I read the conclusion of an Abstract that said that there was “strong evidence” that following a Mediterranean diet lowers the risk of dying prematurely from pretty much everything including cancer.

You can read the abstract for yourself here. But be warned they used a large number of big words that I did not really understand.

As you know if you have listened to the Dr Fitness and the Fat Guy radio show that Dr Fitness is a big fan of the Mediterranean diet. He loves fruit, veggies, olive oil and pizza. I am not sure if pizza is actually part of that diet but it is kind of Italian.

It looks like our buddy, Frank, and his patented low-fat, low-calorie donut, nominated by the Daily Candy, as best new product, and also the reason why the Fat Guy is checking in to rehab for donut addiction, has made the big time…..The Today Show!!!…Now they can include The Today Show and  Dr. Fitness and The Fat Guy Radio Show on their resume. Check them out tomorrow, Wednesday, December 19th between 7am - 10 am Eastern Time. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy and check our their awesome doughnuts at www.holeydonuts.net

As you may have figured out by now, I spend a lot of time online doing “research” for the show. Truthfully though it’s because I don’t have many friends. I’m not what you would call a “people person” like Dr Fitness.

So on my quest to find another great guest for the Dr Fitness and the Fat Guy show late last night I stumbled on the “Banana Guard.” Now who would need a protective device for transporting their banana one might ask. Because to the untrained eye a banana comes with a protective device already, the thick yellow banana skin. Ah, sometimes that is not enough, especially if you throw your banana in your gym bag. No one likes a smooshed banana and now you can prevent that from happening forever.

Check out the Banana Guard here and send it to that banana loving friend of yours who has everything!

A brand new web 2.0 competitor to WebMD has launched. www.iMedix.com is a “community-powered health search engine that allows people to easily find and share health information with one another in order to make better health-related decisions” according to the About Us page of their website.

Capitalizing on the “misery loves company” rule might actually pay off for iMedix. Members rate the quality of all the submitted information and can chat about their symptoms and illness with each other.

WebMD has pretty much had the consumer medical information space to themselves and it will be interesting to see how they counter this community based medical site. So next time you or a loved one is sick check out WebMD first then head on over to iMedix for a second opinion.

You know I am always looking for the easiest way possible to lose weight and this could be it. At least in photographs…As you can see from my picture I am not very photogenic. My wife and kid look great in photographs but me…not so much. Maybe if I had one of these cool cameras from HP I’d be in more of my family photos instead of being the one taking all of the pictures.  These new HP cameras offer a slimming enhancement feature that lets you drop the pounds at the push of a button.

Below is how the HP website describes it.

With the slimming feature, anyone can appear more slender—instantly.

• The effect is subtle—subjects still look like themselves
• Can be adjusted for a more dramatic effect
• See a before and after version, then decide which to keep

Man, one of the perks of this radio show is that people send us stuff to try. And our friends at Holey Donuts have a buddy at Tavalon Tea and they sent me a care package with lots of goodies. In addition to a whole variety of delicious fresh loose leaf teas including my fave the lemongrass green tea they sent a gravity teapot steeping machine. If you like tea you have to check out their website www.tavalon.com I used to order from a competitor, but not anymore these guys rock! I’m sure Dr Fitness could give you a list of health benefits of tea, like anti-oxidants, speed up your metabolism, blah blah blah…but I just drink it straight up for the caffeine.

Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John-Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham made a triumphant return last night. Robert Plant’s torso is no longer exposed but I heard he sounded brilliant!!! I think the Fat Guy was a big Led Zep fan back in the day but it is very hard for him to remember anything form the late 70’s and early 80’s. Even though he can’t remember that far back he did find this great product called “Forkchops,” a combination of chopsticks and a fork, a perfect holiday gift…..for me to give him!!!!! Available by the pair or as a set of 6 pairs. Offering 17 colors to choose from that will match the theme of any party or event and for $5 a pair, you can’t beat it. Go check them out!

Get ready for this emotional eaters….like me…..when we eat feeling lonely or blue, tend to lose the least amount of weight and have the hardest time keeping it off. Doesn’t that stink! Heather Niemeier, an obesity researcher at The Miriam Hospital and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, said in a statement. “We found that the more people report eating in response to thoughts and feelings, the less weight they lost,”
The study included 286 overweight men and women who were participating in a behavioral weight loss program.

A second group consisted of more than 3,300 adults who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least one year.Niemeier and her team analyzed responses to an eating inventory questionnaire.They focused on people who ate because of external influences, such as people who eat too much at parties, and people who ate because of internal influences, such as feeling lonely or as a reward.

What they found is that the more a person ate for internal reasons, the less weight they lost over time.”Our results suggest that we need to pay more attention to eating triggered by emotions or thoughts as they clearly play a significant role in weight loss,” Niemeier said.

So, what can you do if emotional eating is a problem?
Make a conscious effort to become more aware of how and why you may be using food or what is going on around you while you are eating. Develop new skills for mood regulation. If you need support to do so, find a professional. The focus should be on improving your emotional and physical well-being not just weight loss.

You’ve seen the adds… “All-natural” alternatives to Viagra, Stamina-RX and Vigor-25, but just use caution because using these pills can lead to STROKE and even DEATH. That is because these alternatives come from Central America and Asia and contain nitrates- drugs prescribed to lower blood pressure and regulate heart disease. When mixed, nitrates and impotency pharmaceuticals can slow blood flow catastrophically, leading to a heart attack or stroke. Read The rest of this scary story!

posted by Dr Fitness and the Fat Guy @ 5:04

Yeah Baby!!!!! I love it when I find studies that advocate my passion of futbol or for my fellow americans….soccer!!!! The study found that soccer had a greater impact on decreasing body fat percent and increasing lean body mass than jogging. Even though the study may be limited in its conclusions, any positive spin that gets people moving their butts playing soccer…or jogging…. or chasing the Fat Guy thru the streets of Atlanta is good news to me!!!!! Read on for more info!!!
Danish scientists, who conducted their research on 37 men, also found the soccer players felt less tired after exercising than the joggers because they were having more fun.

Each period of exercise lasted about one hour and took place three times a week. After 12 weeks, researchers found that the body fat percentage in the soccer players dropped by 3.7 percent, compared to about 2 percent for the joggers.

posted by Dr Fitness and the Fat Guy @ 7:38 AM 1 comments links to this post