A new weight-loss plan: Getting paid to shed pounds
Financial rewards are the latest wellness craze, motivating Americans who are overweight to skip their potato chips. A few years ago, in an effort to cut overall health care costs, companies started dangling gift cards and even cash prizes to employees who shed extra pounds. Now an independent website is offering to pay anyone who drops a certain amount of weight in a year. Since HealthyWage.com launched in October 2009, 5000 persons have signed up for the site, which gets corporate sponsors to give a cash reward to overweight users who during a specified time period move from an unhealthy to a healthy body mass index (BMI). (time.com)
Review of calorie-counting web sites - Track the calories you eat
A computer screen won't help you lose weight, but it can help you screen your caloric intake. Carbohydrates, fats and proteins are graphed in no time. A variety of calorie-counting sites is waiting to track the food you consume. The premise is simple: Once you know what you're swallowing, you can fine-tune your diet. Whether you want to lose the beer belly or maintain your weight, it will be a lot easier if you literally watch what you're eating. "It's a good educational activity. I think everyone should do it just to realize how many calories are in food," said Irene Berman-Levine. (nola.com)
5 Ridiculous Diet Devices
(1) Diet Gum: Lollipops and chewing gum with appetite suppressants and/or metabolism-boosting caffeine. We tried one of these, and our diet candy made us nauseous after 45 seconds and left a strange taste in our mouth. It was effective: we were too grossed out to be hungry. (5) Diet Cookies: You're supposed to eat just 6 of Siegal's very expensive and very tasteless cookies, plus one meal made of 6 ounces of lean protein and one cup of vegetables per day. It's 800 calories a day: takes all the fun out of cookies and is insult to a human's intelligence. How about eating healthy foods and real cookies as a treat. (huffingtonpost)
Cell phone cameras help Japanese lose weight
Wondering how much of a diet-buster that banana cream pie is? Some Japanese have a novel way to find out: Photograph it with your cell phone and send the photo to an expert. Health care providers allow the calorie-conscious to send photos of their meals to nutritionists for analysis (service now on a trial basis). Nutritionists can work with photos from one day's meals to several weeks' worth. Results come back in 3 days. Participants also can log onto a site to get further dietary information and upload photos. (neowin.net)
Study: Wii kids lose weight
Mickey DeLorenzo claimed on his blog that he had lost 9 pounds playing Wii Sports for 30 minutes a day for a month. Now research seems to back up the claim: playing "active" games using the Wii controllers could lead to 27 pounds being lost in a year. The study tracked the gamers through 3 key measures of energy expenditure, calories burned, and heart rate. During 15 minutes using a traditional controller, energy expenditure increased above resting values by 60%, and when using the Wii, the figure rose to 156%. Heart rate was also faster when using the Wii, reaching up to 130 beats per minute, compared to 85 with traditional games. (gamespot)
Ideal Body Weight Scale
Measuring body weight for weight loss is effective when you know what percentage of that is lean muscle, body fat, and water. Only then can you determine your ideal calorie intake and what type of workouts you need. If you are like most women you probably don't drink enough water and the signs of dehydration are sneaky. You might feel more hungry, crave sugar, crave carbs, have low energy, etc. In addition being dehydrated means that your fat burning process is compromised and your dieting and exercising efforts are not as effective. Losing weight and losing fat is tied to your hydration levels. (bellaonline)