Alli for Weight Loss: Does it Work?
Alli is a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved weight-loss pill available over the counter. It contains 60 milligrams of orlistat which, in its 120 milligram strength, is a prescription obesity treatment. It has the same active ingredient as Xenical. Alli works by blocking the fat in your food from being absorbed by your body. This reduces your calorie intake and your extra weight. Alli has become the most popular weight-loss drug in just a few years of being in the market.
What Makes Alli Different From Other Weight Loss Drugs?
Alli is a lipase inhibitor. Lipase helps in breaking down the fat in your food so that it can be easily absorbed by your digestive system. When you take Alli, it prevents lipase from acting on the fats that you just consumed, directing it out of your body through your stool instead. Other weight-loss drugs work differently. Some reduce appetite by influencing the chemicals that signal the brain to seek food when you’re hungry. Others claim to slow down your metabolism. Still other pills and herbs act like common laxatives. A few are advertised as doing all these to help you get rid of unwanted weight.
The Pros and Cons of Using Alli
For most people who use Alli, the only uncomfortable side effect is frequent diarrhea, particularly during the first few weeks of taking the drug. In very rare cases, there might be more serious consequences such as vomiting, rapid heartbeat and nausea, excessive and prolonged loose bowel movement, extreme weakness and loss of appetite, yellowing of the skin and dark-colored urine. The last two Continue reading
Are Your Kids Active Enough? 5 Reasons Childhood Fitness is More Important than You Think
Almost half of children between the ages of 3 and 5 do not get enough exercise with their parents. When it comes to 9th – 12th graders, only about 25% engaged in moderate activity for more than 30 minutes most days of the week. About the same number spent at least 4 hours a day watching TV. If these statistics alarm you – they should. Childhood fitness is likely more important than you’d ever imagine.
1 – Lifelong Habits Start at a Young Age
Any adult who’s ever had a bad habit knows how hard they are to break. The reality is that many bad habits are not formed in adulthood, but are started as children. Kids who are encouraged to brush their teeth several times a day from a very young age are likely to continue to do so as adults. Children who have a set routine will be more comfortable with routines for the rest of their lives. And kids who get plenty of exercise as kids are likely to exercise more as adults.
2 – When it Comes to Exercise, Parents Often Pass the Buck
Many parents don’t get out and move around with their kids enough because they assume they’re getting plenty of exercise elsewhere. They assume that their daycare or school is nothing but a day spent running around, getting a workout. Unfortunately that’s not always the case. There are a number of reasons that kids may not get as much exercise during the day as you may think. For example, Continue reading
Sweatin’ My Way to a Happier Life
Did you groan just reading that? Not another perfectly perky, skinny person spouting off how they love to run 30 miles a day and subsist on apples and fish! Lucky for you, I’m neither perfect nor super skinny and I hate fish. And, just the thought of starting up another exercise routine raises my blood pressure.
However, I find that as soon as I commit and after that first workout, I feel really good. Not only physically, but mentally too. Then I started recognizing several improvements in my life and I remember, Oh yeah- this is why I exercised last year. Why did I stop?
Energy
As odd as it sounds, when I start running in the mornings I end up with a ton of energy all afternoon. Plus I sleep better at night. The 25 minutes of tortuous jogging pays off big time for 12 hours of zipping, zinging energy throughout the day. And without caffeine!
Improved Self-Esteem
Yes, it’s true. When I wake up in the morning mad at myself for wolfing down a plate of nachos, I feel good lacing up the tennis shoes. And after I’ve ran my heart out, even if it’s in my mind, I swear my body looks better. For the rest of the day I have a swagger in my Continue reading
Dieting and Weight Loss
Obesity increases the risk of many diseases, including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and joint problems. Although it generally takes many years to become overweight, when people want to lose weight, they want to do so quickly, easily and cheaply.
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Unfortunately, a magical weight loss therapy does not exist. Fad diets may result in some short-term weight loss, but are usually so difficult to continue that, unless you replace your less healthy habits with better overall diet habits, your weight will increase again. As a general rule, if a diet requires unusual food choices or patterns of eating, or complicated preparation and appears too difficult to sustain, you are unlikely to achieve long-term weight loss. Some diets, however, can kick-start your weight loss which can then be maintained if other lifestyle and healthy eating habits are adopted.
People eat food for energy. We use energy to live, breathe and undertake physical work. The more active you are, the more calories you burn. If you become less active, the extra calories are stored as fat. Once we have a large reserve of energy stored as fat in our bodies, we have to be prepared to take time to lose weight even if we starve ourselves. This is because our bodies will try to defend themselves from starvation. When you drastically reduce your food intake, your metabolism will slow down to protect your body from starving.
The most successful way to lose weight is to combine a reasonable reduction in food intake with an increase in regular exercise, and to be patient. Some weight loss diets are based on reducing the number of calories you eat every day to slowly reduce the storage fat. Others are designed to fool your body into preferentially Continue reading