Happy Halloween - Handy Candy Calorie Counter

Here's a handy candy calorie counter so you can monitor and meausre how much candy is the right amount for your kids.

This chart is from our friends at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (it's from 1997 but I'm sure its still pretty accurate).

If you want a more current listing of calories please go to Calorie King.

A good Halloween strategy that works in my house is to let your kid pick a set number of pieces that he can eat (spread out over the next few days) and then bring the rest to work with you and let your co-workers go nuts. You'll get brownie points for bringing treats in for your co-workers and you'll save your family lots of extra calories.

Believe It Or Not Eveything You Can Eat At One Sitting Is Not One Portion

Americans have no sense of what an appropriate portion size is anymore. We think that any sized bag of chips is single serving. And some products aren't helping the cause. How many times have you eaten a snack and glanced to check the calories and thought oh that's not so bad...but then looked a little closer and saw that that little bag of chips wasn't one serving but two.

Well good news... snack companies are finally trying to help. They're advertising and packaging snacks in 100 calorie bags. That way we know exactly how many calories we're snacking on. You're defintely paying a premium for them measuring out your portions for you, but to me it's worth it.

Read all about it here.

The only downside for me now is that it takes 6 or 7 bags to get the same chip high I used to get in one supersized bag.

It Stinks Getting Old...But It Beats The Alternative

We used to see this all the time especially with men. A baby boomer who hasn't exercised since they were in high school comes in and wants to lift the same wieghts they did 20 years before or run at the same pace as when they were on the JV track team. Guys are crazy when it comes to working out. No pian no gain. If they're not putting up big numbers on the bar they think they're not working out.

So guess what happens when these muscleheads start exercising too hard too soon? You got it. They get hurt and have to quit.

Read it for yourself.

Summary of Last Night's Dr Fitness and the Fat Guy Radio Show

Last night we had a great show. We had John Redmond on as a guest. He is a top executive who gave us lots of tips on how to fit exercise into the busiest schedules. He also talked about the unique challenges executives face when trying to lose weight...the travelling, the entertaining clients and as well as the crazy schedules.

The doctor and I talked about how important having a good partner is to losing weight. And we gave out some of the qualities of a good partner...reliable, supportive, firm but fair as well as others. We also talked about bad partners and how a bad partner can sabotage your efforts.

Remember to tune in to Dr. Fitness and the Fat Guy every Monday night from 8pm-9pm EST on www.radiosandysprings.com

Walk Away Your Excess Pounds

Another study recommending walking as the exercise of choice for losing weight.

The successful were able to walk for 50 minutes a day for 5 days each week. Remember you just can't stroll along at a leisurely pace.

You have to walk at a pretty good pace...Like you're trying to get to the Krispy Kreme before the "Hot Doughnuts Now" light turns off.

"Overweight people who lost and kept off 25 to 30 pounds walked briskly for about 50 minutes a day five days a week, according to the longest clinical study ever done on exercise's effect on weight loss and maintenance.

The study was presented here last week at the annual meeting of the Obesity Society, an organization of weight-loss professionals."

Good Night, Sleep Tight...Lose Weight?

Is the reason your fat due to not sleeping enough? Doubt it, but there is a new study that says that quality sleep is needed if you want to lose weight.

"Research presented at a Canadian conference on obesity this week in this west coast city shows a strong link between lack of sleep and increased fat, as well as an increased risk of several life-threatening diseases."

As Dr Fitness always tells me "If you're sleepin' you're not eatin'" Read more

Hot New "Brazillian" Diet Pill Craze Hits South FL...Speed during the Day and Downers at Night...Hmmmm That Doesn't Sound New

They're called the "Brazillian Pills." A little yellow one in the morning and you stop being hungry and a little orange one at night and you sleep like a baby. The weight falls off like magic.

How can this be? With all our pharmaceutical technology and R&D money being spent each year... some guy in Brazil discovered the magic weight loss pill. How could this have happened?

What a shock it didn't. Those magic pills are nothing but speed and Prozac.

People are spending $150 a month on these pills. How crazy is that?

Read more about the lady who tried to get a job at a hospital but failed her drug test because she was on these pills. She didn't get the job, but she looks great.

You Feel Lucky? 1 in 20 Don't Survive Bariatric Surgery

The stat they used to throw around was that 1 in 200 didn't survive bariatric surgery. Now a new study says that 1 in 20 men 35-44 don't make it. Whoops looks like they were off a little.

"The findings appear in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
Some previous studies of people in their 30s to their 50s -- the most common ages for obesity surgery -- found death rates well under 1 percent.

But in a study of 16,155 Medicare patients who underwent obesity surgery, more than 5 percent of men and nearly 3 percent of women aged 35 to 44 were dead within a year." Read more

If This News Doesn't Motivate You To Drop A Few Pounds Nothing Will

"Substantial weight loss could bring big gains in the bedroom, a new study finds.
According to U.S. researchers, obese individuals who slimmed down enjoyed enhanced sex lives, on top of feeling healthier." Read more.

Eat Right, Exercise, Support and Accountability...Sounds Familiar

USA Today article shares some research that further verifies what we've been saying for years. Read all about here.

Looking For Something To Do

The Active.com website has something for everyone. You can find fun runs, walks, every individual activity as wellas team sport you can imagine. It is easy to navigate. just put in you zip code and what you are interested in and off you go.

Babies Stop Eating When They're Full. Why Can't You?

"Babies are impressively disciplined eaters. When their stomachs growl, they demand food. When they're satisfied, they stop. Force the issue, and they swat away the offering with annoyance.But before long, most of us lose touch with what "full" should feel like. We eat for reasons other than hunger. And the weight piles on." Read the rest of the article here.

Partner Power - Our Philosophy About Losing Weight

In order to lose weight you have to do 4 things. Most people focus only on one or two things, that's why they fail. Most people focus on either
1) eating right or
2) exercising more.

And those two things are the path to losing weight. But there are 2 other elements that are just as important and without implementing those two things you are destined to fail. In order to successfully lose weight and keep it off you also must have
3) a support sytem and
4) an accountability system in place.

We discovered the importance of support and accountability during the time we owned a personal training studio. Our clients were able to stay compliant with their eating and exercise programs as long as a trainer was there to support them and keep them accountable. If a client ever left, they inevitably had a difficult time staying compliant and eventually gained the weight they had struggled so desperately to lose right back.

In order to make personal training (which is typically very expensive) more accessible to everyone we developed the Partner Power Weight Loss Program. Where we teach some of the pyschological dynamics that help trainers support their clients and keep them accountable. Obviously a partner is not a fitness trainer, but they can serve some if not most of the roles a trainer serves in the areas of support and accountability.

Through this blog as well as our Dr. Fitness and the Fat Guy radio show and our website we will be trying to motivate and support anyone who is interested in losing weight.

If you ever have any questions feel free to contact Dr. Adam Shafran at Adam@NeighborhoodFitness.com or Lee Kantor at Lee@NeighborhoodFitness.com

MSNBC article on Losing Weight Naturally

I've lost all sense of what being full feels like. I'm assuming it happens somewhere before feeling nauseous.