Dr. Fitness and the Fat Guy

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   

Paris may not be a big fan of the casual shoes that have swept this nation called “Crocs.” To me, they are sandals…. but in this recent article, parents please take notice of the dangers some have experienced with the combination of Crocs and escalators!

At rail stations and shopping malls around the world, reports are popping up of people, particularly young children, getting their toes caught in escalators. The one common theme seems to be the clunky soft-soled clogs known by the name of the most popular brand, Crocs.

posted by Dr Fitness and the Fat Guy @ 2:15 PM 0 comments links to this post   

Insomniacs across the globe will be saddened to hear that there television “Ambien” Kevin Trudea, author of The Weight Loss Cure ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About, was charged again with misrepresenting contents of his book. Even though he has no formal training and several criminal convictions, not a good combination, this guy knows how to sell books! The book ranks third on the Wall Street Journal’s best seller list this week, and 19th on USA Today’s list. I have listened to his infomercial…as close as you can at 3:00 AM….and he makes a strong case for empowering people to take control of their health…and not give it to their physicians….but be very careful about this guy…he could sell you the Brooklyn Bridge as well!!

The Federal Trade Commission, which has tangled with Trudeau several times before, said he “deceptively claimed” in three infomercials that the weight-loss plan outlined in his book is “easy to do, can be done at home, and ultimately allows readers to eat whatever they want.” The informercials began airing in December 2006.

After purchasing the book, however, the FTC alleged that consumers discover it “requires severe dieting,” daily injections of a prescription drug not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for weight loss and “lifelong dietary restrictions.”

posted by Dr Fitness and the Fat Guy @ 6:28 PM 1 comments links to this post   

Gianluca Buonanno, the mayor of Varallo, a town of 7,500 in northern Italy, wanted to lose some weight. In the process of losing weight, he came up with the idea of motivating his town’s citizens to lose weight with a little cash incentive!!!! Now Italy is not known for it’s honorable government officials and I can just see this thing get out of hand with patients bribing doctors to say hey, write me down for losing 20 pounds and we will split the profit!!!! I give him credit for trying!!!!
Read the rest of the story!
“We wanted to encourage people to lose weight, and we thought that both the money and the idea of joining a group could be stimulating,” Buonanno said in a telephone interview Thursday.The town’s offer is the latest effort by public officials and employers to encourage people to exercise and trim their weight. Earlier this summer, a Baltimore company sponsored a weight-loss contest to motivate its employees.