Weight Management Still the Heavyweight Problem (Part 1 of 2)

There are many misconceptions people have about weight, weight management, and what is truly healthy. Weight loss fads come and go. Frankly, they bore me. Over the years, Ive seen diets come and go. Exercise crazes never last. Its always the tried-and-true combination of a healthy diet, supplements, and exercise that promotes long-term weight management results.

And manufacturers can play a key role by creating innovative, science-based products that will help consumers in the never-ending weight management battle.

That said, health professionals have long debated the best approach to maintain an ideal weight. In fact, manufacturers often hire health professionals and scientific personnel to develop innovative weight management products. Developing products containing anti-fat nutrients will play a prominent role in weight management moving forward and will offset the risk for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other diet-related conditions.  

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30 minutes of exercise daily may be enough to prevent weight gain, as long as caloric intake is in check. However, I recommend at least 60 minutes of exercise at least five times per week that is a strategic mix of resistance training and cardiovascular exercise for optimal results.

Still, it is vitally important to implement a long-term approach to consuming nutritious food. And this approach must do much more than simply take off unwanted pounds. It must help you feel good, as well as help you look good. The objective of this type of diet is that the result should be permanent. This is where manufacturers must develop products that are enticing to consumers and will help them accomplish their weight management objectives.

Manufacturers need to formulate supplements and develop functional foods that make meaningful changes to body composition and metabolism. And these changes do not mean a large reduction in the calories consumed. The changes depend on adjustments made to the foods eaten and on the addition of certain supplements to the diet.

Ultimately, the result will be a decrease in fatty tissue and an increase in the ratio of lean muscle tissue to adipose (fat) tissue in the body. And an increase in lean tissue not only burns calories, but also gives women their shapely figures and men their muscle tone. In any successful weight-loss regimen, a person will be able to judge themselves by how they look in the mirror and how their clothes fit rather than by how much they weigh.

Fiber is Fine!

When people think about foods that promote weight loss, the thinking goes back to low-calorie foods. Well, it is much more than that. And one of the keys to losing weight or maintaining an ideal weight is including fiber in the diet. Again, manufacturers must refocus product development efforts and think about developing products that contain fiber.

While not a magic bullet, fiber significantly helps with satiety.  And this makes perfect sense as one of the key weight management challenges is to control hunger. Appetite is affected by many things, including when you eat and the composition of meals the amount of fats, carbohydrates, protein, fiber, and water. People that eat healthy, high-fiber foods feel full. Additionally, fibrous foods also take longer to chew, which signals the brain that you have had enough to eat.

In fact, a 2009 study in the journal Appetite compared the satiety of apples, applesauce, and apple juice with added fiber before lunch. People who ate an apple before lunch ate 15 percent fewer calories than those who ate the applesauce or drank apple juice. And, as previously mentioned, crunching and chewing a whole piece of fruit takes longer to eat, a signal to the brain that you have had enough to eat.  Interestingly, chewing also produces saliva and the production of abdominal juices that help fill the stomach.

How many times have you heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Id like to change this statement to A fiber-rich breakfast is the most important meal of the day. This is where manufactures can not only help by developing fiber-rich weight management breakfast products, but can also fatten their bottom line as well.

Health professionals always recommend eating a nutritious breakfast as it has a profound impact on peoples physical and mental condition throughout the day. A healthy breakfast must always include dietary fiber of some sort that may be in the form of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Cereal such as raisin bran, oatmeal, and bran flakes are also rich in fiber.

If including fiber-rich food into your diet is a key to losing weight, why not a fiber-rich supplement? A fiber supplement, such as bran or psyllium, can delay gastric emptying and stay in the stomach longer, which helps with satiety. And there is plenty of research. In fact, a recent study found that overweight and obese people who took a fiber diet supplement daily reported less hunger after meals than people taking a placebo.

Tomorrow, Ill take a closer look at one popular ingredient that is worth the hype, along with two other options.