Want to lose weight?Get out of depression

In the current lifestyle for many women coping with obesity and depression, improving your mood might be the link to losing weight.Body Mass Index(BMI) of 30 and above increases the depression of person by 50 percent to 150 percent.

Researchers in America evaluated 203 women aged between 40 and 65 years with an average BMI of 38.3. The participants underwent baseline tests to measure their weight, depression score, physical activity and food intake. The researchers placed the women into two treatment groups - one focused on weight loss and the other focused on both weight loss and depression. Both interventions included up to 26 group sessions over 12 months and researchers followed up on participants at six, 12 and 24 months after enrollment.

It was found the most significant changes happened in the first six months and then remained stable afterwards. At six months, among the women who had at least a one-half point decrease on the Hopkins Symptom Checklist depression score, 38 per cent lost at least 5 per cent of their body weight. This compared with 21 per cent of the women who lost the same amount but had no decrease - or an increase - in their depression score.

Increased physical activity leads to improvement in depression and improvement in depression leads to increased physical activity. The present study shows that they go together, but is unable to say which causes which. Most weight loss programs do not pay enough attention to screening and treatment of depression and this study further underscores the importance of screening for depression in such programmes that can potentially lead to both physical and psychological well-being.

Burn Calories while sitting

A new weight loss pill has been in the news recently in UK and could you guess what is so special about it.The new drug called 'Meratol' increases metabolism, reduces calorie intake, blocks carbohydrates and burns calories all at once, claim its makers.It even claims to enable people to burn 310 calories while sitting at their desk.New drugs like these makes people go gaga over it.When drugs like these get introduced in the market people are not even bothered about the rates.

The drug, priced at 29.99 pounds, has racked up advance online orders of 30,000 in the UK and since its launch in the US in October, has sold over 100,000 units.Meratol makers claim it cuts food cravings too. It contains cactus extract brown seaweed extract, which has a high content of original marine polyphenols, prickly pear extract, which has antioxidant and diuretic properties, minerals and trace elements.

This is the season where people put around a lot o weight and the makers of the drug is going to have a great holiday season.Some doctors even said the drug is free from side effects.

Everything is in the mind

Each and everyone must be aware of the fact that successful diet is all in the mind.A protein found in cells throughout the body must exist in a specific set of brain neurons to prevent weight gain after chronic feeding on high-calorie meals.

It is called as longevity protein because of its apparent role in mediating the effects of dietary restriction on life span.The research has also shown that this metabolic sensor protein in peripheral tissues plays an important role in regulating metabolism, but its physiological relevance in brain neurons remained unclear.Commonly known as POMC, or proopiomelanocortin, neurons are found in the hypothalamus region of the brain and are known to play an important role in suppressing appetite and inducing weight loss.

In addition, the researchers found that SIRT1 must be present in POMC neurons for leptin to stimulate the remodeling of white adipose tissue into brown fat tissue, which "burns" fat to generate heat.

The researcher has said  said the idea of a drug that selectively could target neurons controlling specific fat depots and that could trigger the remodelling of white fat into brown fat has high potential.

Get out of depression to lose weight

Want to lose those few extra pounds then you need to improve your mood.This was suggested by the recent study and being obese also makes the person to enter the state of depression.Everyone knows how depression can affect your day to day activities and obviously your desired weight loss can't be achieved.

The recent study also found that "Increased physical activity leads to improvement in depression and improvement in depression leads to increased physical activity.We see in our study that they go together, but we can't say which causes which.


Simon and his colleagues evaluated 203 women ages 40 to 65 with an average body mass index(BMI) of 38.3. Participants underwent baseline tests to measure their weight, depression score, physical activity and food intake.

They placed the women into two treatment groups — one focused on weight loss and the other focused on both weight loss and depression. Both interventions included up to 26 group sessions over 12 months, and researchers followed up on participants at six, 12 and 24 months after enrollment.

The researchers found the most significant changes happened in the first six months and then remained stable afterwards. At six months, among the women who had at least a one-half point decrease on the Hopkins Symptom Checklist depression score, 38 per cent lost at least 5 per cent of their body weight. This compared with 21 per cent of the women who lost the same amount but had no decrease — or an increase — in their depression score.


When getting enrolled into a weight loss program we should make sure that screening is done for any cases of depression has to be made lead to both physical and psychological well-being.

Thinking about Food??You will be eating less

There is yet another study that makes you wonder how these sort of things can take place.A small-scale study in Science showed that people who had imagined they were eating chocolate wanted it less than those who had not been thinking of it.The researchers said that imagining eating a favourite food could be a substitute for actually eating it, thereby reducing the desire for it.

The researchers said the study showed that when people thought repeatedly about eating a food, it made them want it less because of a process known as "habituation".This means that the more that people have of something, the less rewarding it becomes and the less they want of it, even if that feeling is not conscious.

To some extent, merely imagining an experience is a substitute for actual experience. The difference between imagining and experiencing may be smaller than previously assumed. 

Other implications of this research include the discovery that mental imagery can enact habituation in the absence of pre-ingestive sensory stimulation and that repeatedly stimulating an action can trigger its behavioural consequences. 

Hanging out with fat friends??Read on this before you proceed

This research may be surprising but you need to read on this.A study has suggested that if you want to lose weight you need to hang out with people who are healthy and skinny and not with the ones who are obese.

The research conducted on 3,610 women aged between 18 and 46 showed that those who move in healthier circles are more likely to drop bad habits, eat well and even exercise more.

"These findings suggest that healthy behaviour may be contagious," the Daily Express quoted Professor Kylie Ball, from Deakin University in Australia, who led the research team, as saying.

The researchers tested the extent to which a fashion for healthy behaviour among a person's friends and family could influence their own lifestyle.

The women who took part in the study were asked to rate how much they agreed with statements such as "I often see other people walking in my neighbourhood" and "Lots of women I know eat fast food often".

"The importance of social environmental influences on health-promoting behaviours such as physical activity and healthy eating has been increasingly recognised," Ball said.

"Ours is one of the first studies to demonstrate the association of both social support and social norms with physical activity and eating behaviours.

"The potential to modify social norms as an intervention lever for promoting increased engagement in physical activity and healthy eating is worthy of further investigation," she added.

The findings have been published in scientific publisher BioMed Central's open access International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

Want to lose weight--.Read about the Fitness Camps

Dieting not enough for Weight Loss

A new study have found out that simply reducing caloric intake is not enough to promote significant weight loss.

In the midst of obesity epidemic in one the developed countries,physicians frequently advise their patients to reduce the number of calories they are consuming on a daily basis. This research shows that simply dieting will not likely cause substantial weight loss.

To conduct the research, Cameron and post-doctoral fellow Elinor Sullivan, studied 18 female rhesus macaque monkeys at the Oregon National Primate Research Center. The monkeys were placed on a high-fat diet for several years. They were then returned to a lower-fat diet (standard monkey food) with a 30 percent reduction in calories. For a one-month period, the monkeys'' weight and activity levels were closely tracked. Activity was tracked through the use of an activity monitor worn on a collar.

"Surprisingly, there was no significant weight loss at the end of the month," explained Sullivan. "However, there was a significant change in the activity levels for these monkeys. Naturally occurring levels of physical activity for the animals began to diminish soon after the reduced-calorie diet began. When caloric intake was further reduced in a second month, physical activity in the monkeys diminished even further."

A comparison group of three monkeys was fed a normal monkey diet and was trained to exercise for one hour daily on a treadmill. This comparison group did lose weight.

"This study demonstrates that there is a natural body mechanism which conserves energy in response to a reduction in calories. Food is not always plentiful for humans and animals and the body seems to have developed a strategy for responding to these fluctuations," added Cameron. "These findings will assist medical professionals in advising their patients. It may also impact the development of community interventions to battle the childhood obesity epidemic and lead to programs that emphasize both diet and exercise."