If you want more help picking out the best food choice check out StopDietingandLive.com

If you do decided to drink coffee, here are some smart decisions you can make to stay slim. Try drinking coffee the old-fashioned way. Add just a small splash of non-fat milk and a dash of sugar.

Most of the fancy, store-bought coffee drinks contain calorie rich ingredients like whole milk, whipped cream, and/or chocolate. Skipping these extra additives can significantly reduce calories consumed.

Here are some examples from Starbucks, these are all grande size, if milk is added it is 2%

Starbucks Bold Pick of the Day: calories 5

Starbucks Iced Coffee with Milk:  calories 120

Starbucks Caffe Mocha: calories 330

Starbucks Dark Cherry Mocha: calories 400

Remember, Stop Dieting and Live is about life style changes. Make small changes and keep them forever. Changing your morning coffee is just one example, try it out, see if it makes a difference.

Best of luck!

http://www.starbucks.com/menu/catalog/product?drink=brewed-coffee#view_control=product

This week was my spring cleaning. Yep, I finally got the courage to clean out the refrigerator. I had bad tomatoes, soft apples and an old avocado in the two bins below. Isn’t it funny how food hides away down there.

While I was working I realized something, there could be a way to organize food for better health and weight loss. This started a fun process of organizing the refrigerator

I emptied the fridge and put everything  fattening and unhealthy in the bottom bins. I moved the stuff the spoils quickly to the top, this included the vegetables, fruits, milk, and yogurt.

Now every time I open the fridge, rather then being tempted by sweets, I see healthy, nutrition items. Try it for yourself, you’ll feel better, and who knows, it might even save you some money.

Lipofuze claims to be an ‘extreme weight loss formula’. On their sales page they list 10 ingredients as their secret to weight loss success. I want to review each of these.

Let’s start by ignoring the patent statement, just because someone patents something doesn’t means it works. Now about their claims to science, they include scientific papers for some of their ingredients. After careful review, here is what I conclude with their science.

Thermodiamine™ – Their clinical study was done on mice. Animal studies don’t compare well to humans, we are much more complex. Also, the studies abstract concludes that evodiamine mimics the characteristic anti-obese effects induced by capsaicin. Capsaicin is the hot taste from chili pepper. So really you could probably just buy a cheap bag of chili pepper.

Razberi K™ – This is another animal study on mice. The study showed that having an antioxidant like raspberries can prevent free radical damage in heroine addicts. Honestly, this study doesn’t even address weight loss. It just says that antioxidants can prevent oxidation damage. You could just get some raspberries or blueberries.

FucoPure™ – Again we have a study on rats and mice. The animals were put on specific diets of sea weed for four weeks. At the end of this study, some of animal organs showed less fat mass. Honestly, are you going to be eating a sea weed rich diet, no, you are taking a small pill with a tiny bit of sea weed. Plus our bodies are much more different and complex.

Forslean® - This was a human study, finally. It consisted of oral ingestion of forskolin (250 mg of 10% forskolin extract twice a day) for a 12-week period. The study was only done on overweight and obese men. It raised serum free testosterone levels. This may be a red flag for any women considering the product. Do you want an increase in the male sex hormone in your body?

In men the study did alter body composition while concurrently increasing bone mass and serum free testosterone
levels in overweight and obese men. However, it was only done on 30 people. I would be careful before I alter my hormones with a supplement that is still poorly understood.

BioPerine® – This is the extract of black pepper. In this study the black pepper was shown to increase plasma levels of supplemental coenzyme Q10. The paper never spoke of weight loss. They are considering using coenzyme Q10 for diabetes, heart disease or other treatments. This study has nothing to due with weight loss.

Green Tea – This is green tea, you can get it from any grocery store.

Capsaicin – This is powder from a chili pepper, again you can get it from any grocery store..

Synephrine HCl – They gave no scientific research on this item. Be careful, there is no science to support this item. Also, HCl is hydrochloric acid.

They also listed a few other more common items like cinnamon, but I think this is enough for a quick scientific overview of their research. As you can see, most of it has no real weight loss potential.

Now let’s review cost - This is a really expensive product. We are talking about $57 dollars a bottle with shipping. Any you pay for shipping even if you send it back.

Will Lipofuze work? - I personally don’t think Lipofuze will work at all. This is another internet pill product with a very high price. And, even if it does work, do you want to pay $57 a month for the rest of your life, trapped to these pills? No, no one does. If you want to lose real weight, make permanent life changes. Invest the money in healthy foods, a gym membership, or a trainer.

Lets talk about this website and the new Moyoberry diet.

1. Their Research: They say that the university of Yaounde, Africa found weight-loss associated with their Moyoberries. I have searched everywhere and I can’t find anything published. If this study was actually conducted, there are no specifics anywhere. We can’t determine anything about it, was bias introduced, was this a double blind study or was something important left out?

Also, Moyoberries come from Cameroon, Africa, I can’t help but wonder if  the university in Yaounde, Africa will benefit from a greater sale of fruit? That sounds like bias to me.

They also claim on their website that “The Journal of Lipids and Health and Disease” studied the Moyoberry. If they did I can’t find it. Try yourself, go to http://www.lipidworld.com/ and do a search for the word ‘moyoberry.’ Nothing… how odd.

2. Their website: When you get to their website you will notice that it is covered in media symbols like CNN, People Magazine, ABC News, etc… Notice in small print that it says, “as seen on.” Most likely they bought a few cheap ads on these big media portals to appear credible.  Don’t associate the reliability and name recognition of these big companies with Moyoberry, they are not related, it’s just advertising.

3. Ratings: It says they are rated the #1 diet of 2010. That’s great, but who rated them? The rating is according to dietratings.org.  Who is dietratings.org?  I did a WHOIS internet background search on them and found that dietratings.org was registered on 05-Jan-2010 to a private, non-disclosed registrant. Wow, they are a brand new and private entity. You can see the whois report here:

http://www.whois.net/whois/dietratings.org

You can also see that they have no web history at all,

http://web.archive.org/web/*/DIETRATINGS.ORG/*

This is a bad sign.

4. Their sales: Go to the moyoberry’s sales page and prepare yourself. $111 for 4 containers of Moyoberry, $37 for one. And I’m pretty sure the containers look bigger online. I can’t find a quantity or weight anywhere, its just a guessing game for them. Plus they say below each item: In Stock. Current Sell-Out Risk: HIGH

Current sell-out risk: high! Give me a break, this is serious marketing magic. They want to put the pressure on you, to get a quick buy. But don’t do it. Take the money and apply it somewhere else.

Should you try Moyoberries? No, this is not a long term solution to weight loss. I highly doubt this system will work, but even if it does help, you don’t want to be stuck on their costly product for the rest of your life. Try something different, make life changes that work.

To learn more about safe weight loss principles visit Stop Dieting and Live

Happy Holidays,

It’s a great time for family, friends and fresh starts.  At Stop Dieting and Live we want to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season.

To celebrate this season of new beginnings we are giving a special discount on the Stop Dieting and Live package.

To learn more visit us here:

http://www.stopdietingandlive.com

General Mills cereals now have less sugar

Great news,

General Mills is planning on dropping the sugar in some of its main cereal products like Lucky Charms, and Cocoa puffs. They are doing this because enough people have complained. They plan to make changes to their advertised cereal products. This is a great move by General Mills, its something that should have been done a long time ago.

If they are going to market these foods to our kids, they had better be marketing something healthy. A study published by  the Rudd Center recently found that the least-healthy breakfast cereals are the most frequently and aggressively marketed directly to children.

I believe that changes like this are taking place because people are starting to wake up and do something about it. We can’t be afraid to recognize obesity as a real problem and challenge it head-on.

You can read the full article here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091209/ap_on_bi_ge/us_general_mills_sugar

My first impression. Their website looks very professional, with lots of testimonials, a doctor advocate, and some celebrity endorsements. When I first looked at the product I was careful. It seemed too good to be true. I had to take a moment think clearly about this new product.

Here is what is suspicious:

1. Their billing system: They tell you it’s a free trial kit. You can’t find the real price anywhere. I had to give up my address and phone number just to get to the page where they have this message.

You have a full 30 days to try your Sensa 2-Month Starter Kit. If you enjoy Sensa, do nothing. You’ll be billed one low payment of $89.95 on 11/1/2009. That’s a 23% SAVINGS off the retail price.

Plus, you’ll enjoy free enrollment in our Sensa AutoShip Delivery Service. You will automatically receive a fresh supply every 2 months so you never run out of Tastants. Plus you will lock in the low price of only $89.95 every 60 days, billed to your credit card, plus free shipping and handling. You save 23% on every shipment! If for any reason during the 30-day trial period you are dissatisfied with your Sensa 2-Month Starter Kit, simply return the products. Cancel at any time with no obligation.

CA, UT & CO residents will be charged sales tax at time of purchase. Customer is responsible for return postage. Questions? Contact a Sensa Customer Care Representative toll-free at (866) 514-2554

Hmmm…  $89.95 for small powder packages. Plus they automatically sign you up to buy more every 60 days. And if you don’t like the stuff, you pay for the return. These are red flags.

2. Their Research:

(Updated – 6/14/2010) Sensa has finally posted links to their research. They call upon Dr. Hirsch’s study called “Weight Reduction Through Inhalation of Odorants.” His study found some correlation between odorants and weight loss.

His sujects had an inhaler to administer the smells. Unlike the small packs they sell,  his subjects often used the inhaler up to 288 times a day. Also, the study states that the smells only worked for people that had specific traits:

1. a great sense of smell (identified the apple odorant in the Chicago Smell Test)
2. only ate 2-4 times a day,
3. felt bad about overeating but not about themselves

Also, there were other correlations with the weight loss like frame-size, spending time with others, and eating certain foods (chocolate, apples and mints).

At the end of the study the doctor states that their may be some benefit to smells if coupled with a nutrition and exercise program.

Considering the importance of weight loss, this was a very small study. The product has few tests, and no other scientists have attempted to repeat the study to make sure it works. There is money to be made and I am afraid a product is being marketed on hype rather than science.

Another strong argument against using Sensa is that the study was only conducted for 6 months. I would question if the human body would become sensitized to these smells. Before you spend money on this, try a nutrition and exercise program like the doctor suggests. I bet you will get similar results without the smells and high costs.

See the study here:  http://www.aromapatch.com/Hirsch_Weight_Loss_Smell.pdf

3. What others are saying: I went to RipOffReport.com to see what others were saying. People did not seem happy with their marketing practices. There were some complaints about not getting a refund. This is a bad sign.

(added 2/10/2010 - Look at the comments below, we’ve had a big response about Sensa and you can see some of it right here.)

4. What have experts said? (added 9/4/2010)

I found it very humorous that Sensa boasted that they were listed on webMD in their TV commercial. If someone actually did their homework and read the webMD article they would see that it was negative towards Sensa. I guess Sensa didn’t expect us to be smart enough to even evaluate their sources.

WebMD points out that the study was not conducted as a Clinical Trial which is the gold standard for studies. WebMD also points out that Sensa has never been validated, nor published in a peer-reviewed medical journal. Their doctor, Pamela Peeke, MD said,

“[Sensa] is not a magic bullet. There is no magic sprinkle. This isn’t even a diet,” … “It oversimplifies the complex physiology and psychology associated with appetite.” She also points out that there is nothing unique about the list of ingredients in the tastants.

So will it really work? I doubt it. I imagine that in the beginning you might feel fuller and less hungry. But over time your body will just get used to the new smells and tastes. Honestly, this is not a good way to lose weight. Take the $89.95  (every 60 days) and buy a gym membership, Wii Fit, or more nutritious foods.

Is it long term? The main reason to avoid Sensa is because it is NOT a long term solution. You do not want to buy their product for the rest of your life to stay slim.

To learn more about safe weight loss principles visit Stop Dieting and Live

Sources:

http://www.ripoffreport.com/Search/sensa.aspx

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/truth-about-sensa

http://trysensa.com/

If you haven’t heard about it yet, Chris Coleson, from Virginia, lost 80 pounds eating primarily at McDonalds.

It was a funny story. Chris Coleson said on MSNBC news that he was able to lose the weight by eating every light item on the menu. He focused on the fruits, the wraps, and the veggies entries. He kept his calories low with these foods.

This crazy diet proves that the human body can lose weight on almost anything. You don’t have to eat special-diets or fad acai berries. You just have to keep caloric intake below caloric expenditure. Having a structured plan will certainly help with this goal. That is why I suggest life-style changes.

I wouldn’t recommended this diet because it lacks variety and doesn’t have any long-term potential. However, it was fun to hear about the man that lost weight with McDonalds.

You can watch his video here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25281188/

• development of unhealthy eating disorders
• increased risk of depression or drug abuse
• elevated blood pressure and high cholesterol with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes
• joint and bone problems
• shortness of breath, this makes exercise, sports, or any physical activity more difficult
• restless or disordered sleep patterns
• liver and gall bladder disease

It’s is important that parents are proactive. Parents can prevent obesity by supporting and working with their children. Some suggests are:

1. Remove any ‘clean your plate’ policies. Kids should stop eating when they are full.
2. Encourage outdoor activities and limit time spent playing computer games and watching TV.
3. Don’t make food restrictions or limitations. Children will resist strict limitations, it is better to support and encourage health eating.
4. Eat meals as a family. This is a great way to make sure kids are eating wholesome foods.
5. Be a good role-model. If you need to lose weight, now is a great time to start.

Remember, no matter what your children weigh, show them that you love them.