A judicious blend of healthy eating, balanced nutrition and regular exercise is the key to most successful weight-loss plans. To make your long-term weight loss plan a success, you should follow a healthy lifestyle by eating nutritious foods and engaging in physical activity, alter the way you think about food, and pay attention to reasons why you eat.

You must cut down your calorie intake to lose weight. Just substitute the high-calorie ingredients with low-calorie versions of your favorite dishes. The water and fiber present in low-fat fruits and vegetables will add volume to your dishes, so you end up eating the same quantity of food with fewer calories. Try sensible portion sizes and low-fat dairy and meat products.

Apart from helping you lose weight, these products can help to control high blood pressure. Any type of physical activity will boost your physical and mental health and help to keep the extra pounds off. You will find a number of popular diets which claim great success in helping you lose weight. The Zone Diet highlights lean proteins along with vegetables, fruits, and healthy fats. Starchy carbohydrates are not totally ruled out.

The Pritikin Diet focuses on fruits, vegetables, pasta, oatmeal, soups, salads, and low-fat dairy; limited amounts of low-fat poultry, seafood, and meat; few fatty foods and a limited amount of dry foods. Dr. Ornish's Eat More, Weigh Less says if you eat fat-free, healthy foods, you can feel full and still lose weight.

It puts no restrictions on meats, poultry, seafood, eggs, cheese, butter, cream, oil, nuts, some non-starchy vegetables, and artificial sweeteners. The South Beach Diet lays emphasis on a balanced eating plan of ‘good' carbohydrates such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and ‘good' unsaturated fats.

By Lynn Woods

Diabetes and obesity are closely linked, and many diabetics struggle to follow their doctor's orders to lose weight. The biopharmaceutical company Vivus hopes to market an investigational new drug, Qnexa, as both a weight loss drug and a diabetes medication.

Qnexa is in phase 3 clinical trials to treat obesity, and in phase 2 clinical development for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and sleep apnea. The most recent clinical trial of Qnexa as a weight loss drug resulted in an average 10 percent weight loss in study participants.

Qnexa is a combination of the appetite suppressant phentermine, (best known as the "phen" in fen-phen, a controversial weight loss drug that was pulled off the market in 1997), and the anticonvulsant topiramate, prescribed to treat epilepsy and prevent migraine headaches.

Qnexa was denied approval in late 2010, when the FDA expressed concerns about a slightly increased risk of adverse psychiatric and cardiovascular events, and questioned the possibility of birth defects in pregnant women taking the drug.

More than 2400 patients took part in the latest study. Study participants were all clinically obese, and also suffered from two or more secondary medical conditions such as diabetes or heart disease. Patients also saw improvements in high blood pressure, cholesterol and A1C levels (glycated hemoglobin). High A1C levels indicate high levels of blood glucose in diabetics.

Shares of Vivus have increased up to sixteen percent in value since the latest study results were released. If approved, Qnexa would be the first new weight loss drug on the market in more than ten years. Currently, the only FDA approved prescription weight loss drug is orlistat (Zenical). Orlistat prevents the body from absorbing the fat in food, and is known for unpleasant side effects such as loose, oily stools, fecal incontinence and flatulence.

A second weight-loss drug manufacturer, Orexigen, is also struggling to get FDA approval for their new diet drug, Contrave. Contrave is a combination of bupropion (the antidepressant Wellbutrin, also marketed as the smoking cessation aid Zyban) and naltrexone, an opiate antagonist prescribed to treat narcotic and alcohol addiction. Contrave is designed to curb food cravings, and proved effective than Qnexa in terms of weight loss.

Contrave passed a major hurdle in late 2010 when an FDA advisory committee voted 13-7 for its approval, but the FDA disagreed in early 2011, asking for a new clinical trial evaluating the drug's cardiovascular risks.

Arena Pharmaceutical's Lorcaserin was the third diet drug to fail to win FDA approval in 2010, when the FDA deemed that safety concerns outweighed the drug's "marginal effectiveness".

Recently I met my colleague, Michael in the marketplace. Michael’s wife was bedridden in the hospital on account of obesity.

With a BMI of 36, Catherine, Michael’s wife had high blood pressure problems. But, on a particular day her blood pressure level increased drastically and she had to be hospitalized. Blood pressure was calmed down by the doctors but Catherine was advised to spend a few days of her convalescent period in the hospital.

Desperation was apparent on Michael’s face when he spoke at length of the suffering his wife had to undergo on account of obesity. When dieting and regular physical exercises didn’t yield any successful result for Catherine, Michael went out hunting for diet pills. But he failed to get hold of a substantial diet pill that can provide him relief from the clutches of obesity notwithstanding his diabetes.

Michael’s sorry state of affairs touched me deeply and I also felt an urgent need to help him out. But the big question was how could I help Michael and his wife out of this quandary? Suddenly a thought entered my head and I straight way headed to my computer. The next thing was to search the internet for information on reasons for weight gain and their possible solutions. After a week of continuous research and study of similar cases as Catherine’s I found that a weight loss medicine named Xenical along with proper diet and exercise has been found effective in rescuing patients of diabetes from the clutches of obesity. The same day I went to Michael’s house and propped out this question to him, “Michael, has Catherine ever tried out Xenical?

Michael asked me what Xenical really is and I intimated him on the first hand information on Xenical and also that this medicine was approved by FDA on 23rd April, 1999. He had lost trust over all medicines and drugs and was completely unwilling to administer any other drug. “Xenical is different, Michael. It is specially recommended to treat obesity on persons suffering from the high risk conditions like diabetes, dislipidemia and hypertension.” I continued to argue in favor of Xenical, “Xenical acts in the digestive system unlike any other weight loss drug and has a proven track record regarding its efficacy.” The next day I again landed at his house but this time with a doctor who was aware of Catherine’s case and was convinced that it will work for her since Xenical already has a proven track record of treating obesity in diabetics. Finally Michael gave in and agreed to experiment Xenical on Catherine. In conjunction with a diet containing 30% calories from fat and with accompanied physical exercise, Catherine started off her weight loss regimen with Xenical. She experienced occasional side-effects like headache and nausea but continued to administer Xenical as per doctor’s advice. Eventually, in spite of suffering from diabetes, Catherine was sufficiently relieved of obesity with her BMI level coming down to 30.

After the much awaited weight loss success, both Catherine and Michael attended a dinner at my house. With their anxieties driven away by Xenical, they were at their best cheerful mood.

As for me, in that one week’s research I had gained so much knowledge that I could write a thesis on weight loss J…well…this thesis is still in the pipeline but I definitely have become a weight loss writer and love to distribute my knowledge and expertise in the related field by writing for various weight loss sites especially the ones that sell Xenical online.

Introduction
Unfortunately, this trend is increasing dramatically. [1]
Conventional Treatments
•Phentermine (Adipex, Fastin, Ionamin)
•Diethylpropion (Tenuate, Tepanil)
•Phendimetrazine (Adipost, Bontril, Plegine, Prelu-2)
•Benzphetamine (Didrex)

New drugs for weight loss include Meridia and Xenical:
•Sibutramine (Meridia) is a new drug that increases the levels of both serotonin and noradrenaline in areas of the brain that regulate food intake and body weight.
It inhibits and enzyme (pancreatic lipase) essential to fat digestion.

Conventional dietary approaches to weight loss focus on reducing the calories eaten in a diet. It is a simplified approach based on making the energy intake (from dietary calories) less than energy expenditure (from exercise). The low-fat diet comes from this theory, since fats have the highest amount of calories by weight.

Unfortunately, most low-fat foods are extremely high in carbohydrates. Carbohydrates (sugars) are quickly converted into glucose in the body, and are used for quick energy. Fats are used for long-term energy storage, and are the body’s second choice for energy. High-protein diets are based on the theory that the body will burn carbohydrates and fats for energy before protein.

Alternative Approaches
Alternative approaches to weight loss, in general, focus on lowering dietary carbohydrates (instead of fats). Low carbohydrate diets are routinely recommended to control diabetes, and many consider obesity and overweight to be early forms of diabetes. In diabetes, the glucose (blood sugar) levels are highly elevated. In pre-diabetes, insulin is not as effective and higher levels are needed to maintain normal glucose levels.

Metabolic Syndrome X
•Insulin resistance (the inability to properly deal with dietary carbohydrates and sugars), and type II diabetes
•Abnormal blood fats (such as elevated cholesterol and triglycerides),
•Overweight, especially abdominal obesity, and
•High blood pressure (hypertension).
Metabolic syndrome X is caused by a diet high in simple carbohydrates, such as sugar, white flour, bread, pasta, donuts, cookies, candy, etc. Refined carbohydrates not only raise glucose and insulin to unhealthy levels, they also are devoid of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients our bodies need to properly utilize these foods.

Chromium
Chromium is required to break down the cellular insulin resistance that causes higher-than-normal blood sugar levels. Insulin resistance is a component of diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome X. Overweight people usually suffer from insulin impairment that prevents the proper cell uptake of carbohydrates (sugars). Excessive serum glucose is converted into body fat.
Chromium has received widespread publicity for its ability to lower serum glucose levels by increasing insulin sensitivity. Studies have shown that chromium supplementation results in a slight reduction in body fat and an increase in lean body mass.

In 1997, Austrian researchers conducted a study to assess the effects of chromium yeast and chromium picolinate on lean body mass during and after weight reduction with a very-low-calorie diet. Thirty-six obese non-diabetic patients undergoing an 8-week very-low-calorie diet followed by an 18-week maintenance period were evaluated. During the 26-week treatment period, subjects received either placebo or chromium yeast (200 mcg/day) or chromium picolinate (200 mcg/day) in a double-blind manner. After 26 weeks, chromium picolinate–supplemented subjects showed increased lean body mass. Researchers reported chromium picolinate, but not chromium yeast, is able to increase lean body mass in obese patients in the maintenance period after a very-low-calorie diet without counteracting the weight loss achieved. [2]

Magnesium
While chromium has received the most media attention, the scientific literature shows that magnesium plays an even more important role in regulating carbohydrate metabolism.
About 80% of Americans are magnesium-deficient. Magnesium is involved in a number of enzymatic reactions required for cells to uptake and metabolize glucose. Magnesium deficiency causes insulin resistance and elevated blood sugar levels. [3-6]

Vitamins B6, B12 and Chromium
A recent study found that among overweight or obese men and women, long-term use of multivitamins, vitamins B6 and B12, and chromium were significantly associated with lower levels of weight gain. [7]

The study used data from the VITamins And Lifestyle (VITAL) cohort study of western Washington. Participants (n =15,655) completed questionnaires about 10-year supplement use, diet, health habits, height, and present and former weights.

The study defined high use as:
•Multivitamins > 5 pills/week,
•Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine) > 35 mg/day,
•Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin) > 35 mcg/day,
•Chromium > 150 mcg/day
•Vitamin B6 is a cofactor for glycogen phosphorylase, which breaks down glycogen (stored glucose) to form energy.
•Vitamin B12 is a cofactor of methylmalonyl CoA mutase, which converts methylmalonyl CoA to succinyl CoA, an intermediate in the Krebs cycle, the central energy production pathway in the body.

Conclusion
In this article we present conventional and alternative approaches to weight loss, including diet, vitamins and minerals, and Metabolic Syndrome X.

References
1. Flegal, K.M., et al., Prevalence and trends in obesity among US adults, 1999-2000. Jama, 2002.
2. Bahadori, B., et al., [Effect of chromium yeast and chromium picolinate on body composition of obese, non-diabetic patients during and after a formula diet]. Acta Med Austriaca, 1997.
3. Paolisso, G., et al., Magnesium and glucose homeostasis. Diabetologia, 1990.
4. Lefebvre, P.J., G. Paolisso, and A.J. Scheen, Magnesium and glucose metabolism. Therapie, 1994.
5. Nadler, J.L., et al., Magnesium deficiency produces insulin resistance and increased thromboxane synthesis. Hypertension, 1993.
6. Nadler, J.L. and R.K. Rude, Disorders of magnesium metabolism. Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am, 1995.
7. Nachtigal, M.C., et al., Dietary supplements and weight control in a middle-age population. J Altern Complement Med, 2005.