My Weight Loss Blog

This is a guest post by Dena White.

Studies are currently underway to establish which genes are responsible for how our bodies process fat and nutrients. The main focus is determining if obesity is in fact genetic, or if lifestyle plays a larger role.

Genetic Consistency
For thousands of years, human genetics have stayed pretty much the same. However, within the last few decades, obesity has increased exponentially, causing problems such as metabolic syndrome, which could lead to diabetes and heart disease. Even some individuals are genetically prone to be overweight; the steady increase in obesity signifies that genetics is not the only player on the field.

In fact, genetics can actually be steered in the direction of obesity, but is guided by what is known as epigenetics, which are specific environmental and behavioral influences that tell the genes what they are supposed to do. The epigenetics are greatly influenced by nutritional intake. This includes eating too much, or not enough of the right nutrients.

Uniquely Human
When each of us is born, we have a unique set of genes that is referred to as our genome, which is our hardwired DNA. These genes just lie around waiting to see if they are activated or not, depending on the tagging systems that are resting on the top of our genes, known as the epigenome. Our epigenetics and genes are sort of like a computer and software. The genes work as the hard drive, while the epigenetics work as the software that tells the hard drive what it is supposed to be doing.

The chemical epigenome tags are known as methyl groups, which come from the food that we eat. Our environment and several other influences from food intensely affect the tagging of our epigenetics as well. To put it another way, the epigenetic tag system guiding the genes is greatly influenced by nutritional intake, as well as other factors.

New Weight-Related Research
Methyl groups have a number of positive effects, such as protecting us against many different kinds of cancer. In lab mice, a significant impact on weight has been noted. Innovative research in lab mice with the overeating gene, the Agouti gene, determined that mice that were given a methyl group that contained nutrients such as choline, betaine, folic acid and vitamin B12 produced leaner, healthier offspring who seemed to have a longer lifespan. Mice that were not given the supplement became resistant to insulin, obese, prone to cancer and did not live as long.

Surprisingly, the obesity or anti-obesity epigenome effects were passed down to the offspring, continuing through to successive generations. Experts noticed that the Agouti gene showed no changes; it was expressed or not depending on the DNA methylation.

Still In Control
It is true that there are genes that have the power to bless us with thunder thighs or bubble buns, but we have the power to keep these genes dormant. As long as we eat right and exercise on a regular basis, we are able to fight back against the genes in our DNA that affect our weight.

Studies continue on the effects that DNA and nutrition have on cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity, as well as how these effects are passed to our children and grandchildren.

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I can't believe June is already gone and it is the first of July! Where the heck did the month go? You may remember that I announced my biggest giveaway ever, a contest that was open all June. With 7 total prizes and cash to the top 3 including a grand prize of $250 cash to the winner I figured this would generate a lot of entries. In the end, I didn't get as many as I had thought – which was good for you if you entered! Your odds of winning a great prize were really very good. All in all there were 47 different people who entered, and a total of 110 entries.

Want to know if you won anything? Well you are going to have to check the video tape! I have posted both a high quality .WMV video and a low quality YouTube one. I suggest just watching the .WMV unless you can't view it for some reason in which case the YouTube video will have to do. I didn't have my font size quite large enough so it is very hard to see everything in YouTube but I do speak out the winners too so that should help.

So here you go, the winners:

June 2009 Contest Winners! (WMV format)
June 2009 Contest Winners! (YouTube format)

Congratulations to all of the winners! Please use my contact form to give me your PayPal email address (for prizes 1-3) or your shipping address (for prizes 4-7). Remember, I only ship to the continental U.S. If you are not eligible the prize will go back into a prize pool to be used again at some later date.

Prizes must be claimed by July 15th.

One of the things I learned in running this contest is that there are a lot of blogs out there that appear to do nothing but sign up for contests. I don't blame them, but it really goes against the spirit of what I tried to do here. In the future I will probably limit such contests to my fellow weight loss bloggers, which should really help with the odds of winning!

Anyway, I had fun giving away cool prizes. Hope you had fun winning them!

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I had my annual physical yesterday. Well, not quite annual. It's been about 20 months since my last one – I skipped last year. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I just turned 43 and I can't be skipping these things. So the good news is that even though I haven't been feeling good about myself I did suck it up and schedule a physical. And go to it.

I have to say this was one of the smoothest doctor visit's I've ever had. I arrived about 10 minutes early and before I could even finish one side of the little health survey they give you my name was called – 5 minutes early. I had a student nurse who walked me through the collection of the height and weight data. She may have been a student but she did know to have me take off my shoes. Last time the nurse didn't and I came in at 6'1". Of course she may have been seasoned enough to know she simply had to subtract an inch to get my real height. In any case, this time I took my shoes off and I came in at an even six feet.

It's a good thing I took those shoes off too, because the scale was not kind. Of course this is a different scale than I normally use and I was almost fully clothes (sans shoes) but when I first got on it registered an even 300, something I have never seen before. Then it dropped to 299 before settling in at 299.5. THAT SUCKS!

I was ushered into the exam room and went through the normal 20 questions and assessments. The initial reading on my blood pressure came in at 132/80 and when I expressed surprise at it being so high the student nurse took another reading, saying something about how she didn't like the cuff. This time it came in at 110/72, which is exactly what it was 20 months ago. I'm going to go with that one.

After the nurse left the doctor followed within a minute. We went through all the normal mumbo jumbo. He loved the family history my mom put together for me. He wasn't concerned about some residual pain I have in my legs. We talked about some of the symptoms I have which lead me to believe I have sleep apnea and he agreed enough to give me a referral at a sleep clinic.

I had to setup another appointment for the blood work so that I could fast, I'm doing that on Monday so I should have the results by the end of next week I would guess.

I hesitated even reporting these results since they are pretty meaningless without the blood work but I didn't want to hold back. But we'll see how the blood work looks. I am not expecting it to be good and I'm hoping I can use it as the impetus I need.

Have you been avoiding going to your doctor? Stop it and make the call – you won't regret it even if the scale doesn't report what you would like it to.

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I'm having a physical next Monday and this time I will finally be prepared to include some family history in my file, which they asked for the last time I was there but I neglected to bring in. Because I didn't have it. This year I have it because I thought to remember to ask my mom about it on Father's Day when we were over there. So today she emailed me the family history and let me just say: TMI! Okay, I do appreciate getting it but yowza, my mom really went into depth. Not that it isn't important and I do appreciate it, but really, I think an aunt having sore knees is not the kind of family history the doctor is looking for. Although I could be wrong.

What was in there?

Well on my mom's side everything looks pretty good. Must be the hearty Swedish blood. My mom and grandma are both doing great at 65 and 93. My mom's dad, my grandpa, died of a heart attack at 67, and his mom also died of heart disease at 67. His dad died of congestive heart failure at 87.

My dad's doing great at 65, but both of his parents died in their early 50s although the medical records are a little lacking they don't appear to be heart related. Not too much else from my dad's side, I guess that side was a little mysterious.

I did see a few different relatives with gallbladder issues and eye issues so I guess those are things I will have to look out for.

One thing I did note on my grandpa's record, according to my mom he suffered from claudication during the last couple years of his life, saying he had poor leg blood circulation and pain in his legs. Reading a little about claudication makes it sound a little bit like the pain I recently had in my legs. DVT was ruled out, but maybe I have this? That's a scary thought. I'd better be careful I don't turn into a hypochondriac.

It's easy to get depressed and sad when reading over this kind of history but it's also a great reminder of why I need to get healthier. The extra 10, 20 or 30 years would mean so much to me and my family. I have to get that into my thick skull.

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Disclaimer: The PR firm for FullBar sent me some FullBars and AquaFull samples to review, however I am under no obligation to do so nor to make the review positive. This review reflects my personal opinion about these products.

See below for how you can easily get your own sample pack to try this product for yourself!

The convenience of an individually packaged food bar cannot be overstated. When I was doing really well on my diet one of the things that worked for me was to have a protein bar in my car for the ride home – this made it such that I was less tempted to stop at a fast food place before I got home. I've probably tried about every kind of energy or protein bar there is and frankly there are only a few that I like enough to continue to buy.

Prior to being sent a couple of FullBars I had never tried them before. The concept of the FullBar is as it's name would imply – it is specially formulated to make you feel full before you eat a meal, so that you don't overeat. Here is how it is described on FullBar.com:

Here's how it works. Simply eat FullBar with an 8-ounce glass of water 30 minutes before your 2 biggest meals of the day. The upper part of your stomach is stretched out and tells your brain: "Stop! I'm full!" That's because FullBar uses the same principles as weight-loss surgery. By meal time, you'll eat less and your hunger will be completely satisfied.

FullBars come in five different flavors, Fresh Berry Bliss, Peanut Butter Crunch, Cranberry Almond, Cocoa Chip and Caramel Apple Crisp. I tried the last two flavors myself. Overall I thought the bars were OK – an interesting texture which basicially consists of puffed wheat bound together by whatever ingredients are in the flavoring. They were a little chewy, but all in all not bad.

FullBar makes a companion product called Aquafull that I was also able to try. Instead of just drinking a plain bottle of water with your FullBar you can give it a little pop by adding a packet of Aquafull to it. I'm not a big fan of adding things to my water but my kids do it constantly with Crystal Light so I know it is something some people like to do. Here is how the makers describe it:

Drink Aquafull with your Fullbar 30 minutes before meals for added fullness or alone anytime. With antioxidants and metabolizers, Aquafull is a powerful tool for hunger management. On the go, easy hydration that helps you feel full so you can get back to enjoying your full life!

Aquafull comes in three flavors, Zesty Lemon Tea, Berry Bliss, and Pomegranate Orange. I tried the first two. Of the two, I preferred Berry Bliss.

I think most everyone who has been on a diet understands this general concept. But how does eating a Fullbar and drinking water with Aquaful differ from eating or drinking anything else prior to a meal? Wouldn't you get the same benefits if you just drank a bunch more water before your meal? I know that is a strategy some people employ. Maybe some granola or bran? Here is what they say about that:

Research regarding satiety shows that it is not simply achieved by eating a fiber source such as bran; tthere needs to be a combination of ingredients to provoke the response (this would be one reason why after drinking a fiber supplement, one does not feel satisfied). The combination of ingredients is: a fiber source, a protein source, shear bulk with low calories as well as water. This combination has the best effect in specific ratios which we have perfected here at FullBar™. So, yes it is much different than eating some bran and water before a meal, plus it tastes much better.

I used this strategy twice and I can honestly say that I think I did feel less hungry at meal time and that because of that I did eat less. So that's good! However, I can't honestly say I wouldn't have felt just as full if I had just had more water. I think if I were to invest some time in doing some scientific research into it I could probably determine whether that was true or not.

SOLD OUT! Here's the thing – I don't have time to do that! However, maybe you do! Interested in trying FullBar and Aquafull for yourself? The first 10 people who comment on this post and also leave me their shipping info on my contact form (don't put your address in your public comment, US addresses only) will be sent a sample pack to try out for yourself. Your address will only be used for shipping out the sample pack, not for any other marketing purpose. SOLD OUT!

So what do you think – does it logically follow that eating a puffed wheat bar with water would make you feel fuller or are you skeptical? Leave a comment and you can try it out for yourself.

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