Consider a quarterback’s passing game: throw the ball too soon and his receiver isn’t in place; throw the ball too late and he risks getting sacked. Either way, he isn’t in sync with his team to move the ball up field. A similar scenario may occur when eating and sleeping habits are out of sync with the body’s circadian clock, leading to metabolic disturbances. Over the past 20 years, scientists have assembled a clearer picture of the circadian clocks that... Read more →
by Barbara Berkeley, MD The short answer: it depends. Do you want to lose the extra weight that is bothering you? Do you want to get rid of, or greatly reduce, the medicines you take for blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol? Do you want to finally keep the weight off without having to deal with soul-crushing bouts of regain? If so, an understanding of how your body reacts to carbohydrate is essential. Let's begin here: Weight warriors, I love you.... Read more →
by Barbara Berkeley As you know, I generally prefer to write about issues of weight maintenance. But it would be foolish to ignore the fact that on January 1st, most Americans thoughts turn to dieting. It's well known that our country's top New Year's resolution is weight loss. Diet programs, gyms, personal trainers, and fitness equipment companies all bank on it. But they also know that the boom is short lived. The vast majority of those who toast the New... Read more →
by Barbara Berkeley, MD Holiday parties getting you down by boosting your weight? Here are some tips for negotiating those difficult moments. 1.Make it a Game! Serious weight maintainers are planners, so figure out the challenges of each party beforehand. Then set definite strategies and endpoints for yourself and give yourself a score afterwards. Make it fun! Got a low score last night? There's always tomorrow. Here are some things you can try working on: Specific amounts and types of... Read more →
by Barbara Berkeley, MD You're up against it now. The period that begins just before Thanksgiving and ends on January 1st is without doubt the most challenging part of a maintainer's year. Here are some thoughts and guidelines I've found to be successful. First, and most importantly, make it your priority to "maintain, not gain". Hopefully, you are already staying at stable weight by following successful and consistently applied maintenance rules. If so, these most likely include eating a diet... Read more →
by Barbara Berkeley, MD The huge ship that moved weightily and inevitably toward low fat eating and calorie counting has finally started to change course. This week, the Harvard Health Blog published an article titled, "There's no sugar-coating it: All calories are not created equal." As readers of Refuse to Regain, you already know that calories are simply one attribute of food....and not the most important one. Despite this, we have come to rely on calories as the sum total... Read more →
by Barbara Berkeley, MD Because of my interest in the potentially toxic effects of too much sugar on the body, I became fascinated with the work of one Otto Warburg back in 2010. At that time, I published this blog about him. Warburg believed that cancer cells were unable to live by normal cellular processes and that they relied on sugar...and large amounts of it---to live. The thought was that cancer cells might be able to be starved to death... Read more →
by Barbara Berkeley, MD Weight maintenance is in the news. Finally. Not to say I told you so, but this blog has been talking about the vital importance of studying and learning about successful weight maintenance since 2008. When I wrote Refuse to Regain that year, there was only one other book on the shelves that was focused on how to avoid regain after weight loss. Nothing much has changed. You still can't find any books on the subject. Although... Read more →
