Do they really work?

There’s really only two ways to find out -

• spend almost $200 to buy a case of real FullBar cookies all wrapped up in fancy wrappers,

• or just make some yourself.

You can find my recipe for “Fake FullBars” here. They use the same ingredients as the real ones, but cost a fraction of the price of Dr. Snyder’s diet bars.

And after you try your first batch, come back here and tell us if they worked. And we’d like to know what you think of the real FullBar diet bars too, if you’ve already tried them.  So far, the reviews of the real FullBar diet bars on the blogosphere have been mixed – so we’d really appreciate your opinion.

Few people really look forward to dieting, but most of us decide at one time or another that we absolutely have to lose a few pounds. At that point we’re faced with making a very big decision – of all the different diet plans available, which one will we choose?

After years of helping other people lose weight, I believe there are three criteria that everyone should use when choosing a diet:

Is it an easy diet to follow?

In other words, will I be able to quickly understand exactly what I’m supposed to eat, and when, or will I need to study a book or charts and recipes for a long period of time before I start my diet.

An easy diet will get you started faster, (so you don’t lose the momentum), and it will be easier to stick with it long enough.

Is it healthy?

There’s no point in ruining your health in order to lose weight. Many fad diets fall into the unhealthy category, because they limit the variety of foods (which also limits the vitamins and other nutrients), and they limit portion sizes so much you literally starve for the few days you manage to stick with it. A truly good diet should actually improve your health, while allowing your body to let go of your extra fat.

Is it satisfying?

In other words, does it leave out the foods that make people automatically overeat, and does it include the foods that satisfy the appetite, so you are able to eat less?

In order to be satisfying, in spite of reducing the calories you normally eat, no weight loss diet should include simple carbohydrates, like sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, white rice, noodles, and most breads and pastries, because these foods cause cravings that make it almost impossible to eat right.

Unfortunately, many of the prepackaged diet meals, which should make it easy to diet, include some of these inexpensive empty-calorie foods. That means the few calories that the meals contain are made up, in part, of foods that will make you want to eat more food.

The foods that help control cravings are the saturated fats that you find in beef, lamb and coconut milk. Many people gasp at the very thought of eating these fats, because the propaganda against them has become “common knowledge” over the last 50 years. However, we have also gotten fatter and fatter over the same number of years, and many experts believe that out growing rate of obesity is caused, in part, by our insistence on eating low-fat diets.

According to Mary Enig, Phd, one of the nation’s foremost experts on dietary fats, “fats as part of a meal slow down absorption so that we can go longer without feeling hungry. In addition, they act as carriers for important fat-soluble vitamins.”

Almost anyone would agree that it makes more sense to eat foods that satisfy your hunger than to eat foods that leave you hungering for more. It also makes sense to eat the foods that contribute to good health.

And most importantly, if you want to start a diet that you can actually stick with as long as you need to, you’d have to agree that “the easier, the better.” Simplicity can be one of the key secrets to successful weight loss.

How can i motivate myself enough to stick to it for a couple of weeks? Once i see some results, i’ll be fine, but until then? (see post…)

I need to lose weight and become fitter because i would be on the low end of normal for fitness. i play sports but im definitely not fit enough… (see post…)

If you think you have the answer for them go give them your best advice.

[She] is very interested in re-defining ‘diet’ as a regime that moves us away from feelings of deprivation, defeat and depression (our past association to the word diet); and rather a regime that moves us toward happiness!

She is therefore suggesting a daily diet consisting of: happiness, creativity, self-love, and positive energy and that we feed our minds, spirit, and sense of play. That’s right!

If you feel the need to lighten up – in mind as well as body, go read the rest of her post.

I found an interesting article on the MedlinePlus website titled: Weight loss surgery improves sexual function in men.

According to the study, morbid obesity can cause a man to have the sexual function of a non-obese man about 20 years older. There aren’t too many men who would be happy about that statistic.

The report goes on to say that weight loss surgery tends to restore sexual function to “age-based norms.”

I am not normally a fan of weight loss surgery, because of the inherent risks of gastric bypass operations. However, I do realize that many people feel so discouraged by repeated failures to lose weight that they believe surgery is their only option. Perhaps for many people that’s true.

However, I do wish that reports like this would emphasis that it was the loss of excess weight that caused the improved sexual function in these formerly obese men, and not the surgery itself.

For instance, would the same effect come from physician-monitored fasting? I know that sounds pretty radical, but doctors who oppose fasting as “unsafe” may still prescribe bypass surgery, which imposes an involuntary fast on the patient at a time when their bodies are most vulnerable. When you look at it that way, it looks a little less unreasonable.

Putting my prejudices about gastric bypass operations aside, I think the fact that obesity can be so devastating to a man’s sexual health should be more widely publicized. I realize that it may not be the topic that most men – especially overweight men – may want to talk about. However, if an improved sex life was one of the things a man could look forward to when he loses a few (or many) pounds, it might make it a bit easier to stick to a healthy diet and watch the portion sizes.

If the subject were discussed more openly, perhaps more men would take steps to lose weight early on, when they first notice that they’re putting on extra pounds – and before the physiological changes that come with morbid obesity. That could help many peole  avoid the eventual necessity of weight loss surgery. (And they might enjoy many more years of a healthy sexual life!)

And that’s even true if everything we eat is wholesome and healthy.

But watching your portion sizes is only part of the dieting equation, because eating the wrong foods, even in the “right” quantities, can still keep those fat cells locked down tight.

And eating too little, as many fad diets make you do, can actually force your body to regain any weight you lose -plus a few pounds extra – as soon as you stop starving yourself.

Eating the right foods, in the right quantities, is the true secret of healthy weight loss.

Some  foods can lock up your fat cells so it’s almost impossible to lose weight no matter how little you eat. These are the foods that cause insulin resistance. When your body has too much of this hormone, it sets up a chain of actions inside your cells that makes weight loss incredibly difficult.

This is one of the reasons why diabetes is so closely associated with obesity.

According to Dr. Gabe Merkin, author of the book “The Healthy Heart Miracle,” The foods that can lead to insulin resistance are the ones that cause your blood sugar to go up too fast. The list includes any food made out of white flour, like bread, noodles and cakes; white rice and refined corn products like corn syrup; and anything that contains sugar.

Since these foods have been known to lead to overweight, diabetes, heart disease and tooth decay, there really isn’t any “right” portion size for them – if you’re trying to lose weight, you’ll have an uphill struggle if you include them in your diet.

Yet most websites that give tips for portion sizes assume that these foods will be part of your diet. After all, they’re part of almost everyone’s diet – especially for those of us who live in America. Since they assume that many of your calories will come from these foods, all of the portion sizes for everything else end up being too small.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

Take a look at one of the frozen diet meals that you find in the supermarket freezer. There are lots of brands, and many different choices – but many of them include either noodles or white rice.

They do that because noodles and white rice are really cheap. But their aim is to sell you a portion controlled meal with just the “right” amount of calories, and to do that they make the portion sizes tiny.

When you eat one of these meals, you almost always come away hungry. What few people know is that if they substituted another food for the ones that cause insulin resistance, they could eat more food. The portion sizes for all the truly healthy foods could be generous enough to make you feel satisfied, and you would still lose weight.

And if you’re watching your portion sizes, losing weight is really the point, isn’t it?