070512 Weight gain and your health

Weight gain and your health

Eating less protein increases your chances to gain weight

Researchers at the University of Sydney, Australia and Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand believe that a low-protein diet causes people to add weight. They compared individuals whose daily diets consisted of 10% and less protein with those who daily consumed 15% and above protein over a four-day period.

Those who were eating only 10% protein averaged 1000 more calories over the four-days of the study. Granted this is a short-term glance at the connection between low-protein and weight gain but it still shows a link.

The possible reason for the weight gain in the minimal protein group could be this group may have not felt as full as those eating more protein did.

Weight gain and prostate cancer

In a study of 2,498 men conducted by the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore it was found that prostate cancer survivors have a higher risk for recurrence if they gain weight.

After looking at the data compiled from the study, it was found that gaining five or more pounds five years before the surgery and one year afterwards had a decidedly negative effect on the individual’s health. The results indicated those who had gained the weight were twice as likely to experience a recurrence of the disease when compared with those who maintained or lost their weight.

Reducing your hospital stay by walking

An article recently published in the Archives Of Internal Medicine stated that people who walk the most in the hospital after surgery leave earlier. This study looked at 485 people who were 70 years and older.

They found that patients who were able to walk and walked around their rooms or the hospital wards at least once a day decreased their hospital stays an average of one day. These patients were compared with those who stayed in their beds or remained seated instead of walking around.

Those patients who walked around the same day of the surgery spent even less time in the hospital.

The message here is to get moving, yes it may hurt, nevertheless, when the doctors are encouraging you to be mobile and you don’t take advantage of this then you’re going to spend more time in the hospital.

appq� T��� x�� lems may be held at bay by greater lean muscle mass. A new study reports that increasing skeletal muscle mass by as little as 10%, is also associated with an 11% reduction in the body’s resistance to insulin and a 12% lower risk of developing transitional, prediabetes or diabetes.

Researchers from the University of California Los Angeles look at the data and 13,644 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Since these people were involved in the study between years of 1988 to 1994, the research is somewhat old. However when the muscle mass of one quarter of the participants was compared between those with the most muscle mass and those at the bottom with the least muscle mass, those with the greatest amount of fat three muscle mass were 63% less liable to get diabetes.

After making adjustments to leave out those with diabetes, the connection between muscle mass and improved insulin resistance became even stronger. According to the study[2], “increases in muscle mass above even average levels were associated with additional protection against insulin resistance and prediabetes.”

Not only is increasing your lean muscle mass important, but also losing weight helps to improve your metabolic health. Most of us already know that the fitter you are, the healthier you are probably going to be.