Grand opening of our SKOKIE office

We are excited to announce the:
Grand opening of our SKOKIE office of the
Center for Internal Medicine and Weight Management

Now open Sundays and Wednesdays from 8:00 AM – Noon
and on some Fridays
Do you or someone you love

  • Need to lose 100 lbs or more?
  • Trying to avoid a Lap Band?
  • At high risk for surgery because of weight?

Our Kosher certified meal replacement program has helped thousands like you.
Your visits and medicine may be covered by insurance.
Call today for more information 847.625.8300

Easy Grocery Store Tips for Weightloss

You can boost the effectiveness of your weight loss goals by addressing your food-shopping habits. Use the tips below before going to the grocery store.

Never clip coupons before you make up your shopping list. Coupons are great but they frequently can encourage you to buy more than what you need or products that weren’t on your list. Only clip coupons or go through your coupons after you’ve created your list.

Consider substitutions for items on your grocery list in order to save money, but make sure you choose equivalent substitutes. For instance, if you were planning on buying fish and a certain type of fish is less expensive than another kind, you can consider that a reasonable substitute. On the other hand, substituting crab legs or shrimp for a fish filet of some sort is not a reasonable substitution.

Always clean out your refrigerator before you go grocery shopping. By forcing yourself to make sure your refrigerator is clean, you’ll not only have the benefit of a clean refrigerator, but you’ll reduce the chances that you’ll go to the grocery store because you have a particular craving, rather than because you need a particular food.

Stick to your food budget even if you’re buying more expensive foods that include healthier choices. Your weight-loss goals are going to involve eating less, so that regardless of the foods you’re eating, your grocery store bill should remain the same or go down.

Approach your diet, and your grocery shopping as a dieter, and not a chemist in order to remain flexible about the foods you eat. While some diets promote how various ingredients act on your metabolism, dieting is usually based on taking in fewer calories than you’re using so that you can avoid having to buy a particular product.

Don’t wait until you have no food in the house to go shopping because you’ll likely make more impulse purchases and be less organized about sticking to your list and your dieting needs.

Don’t purchase from stores that charge you more if you don’t take advantage of the buy-two at a certain price. Most stores provide that you’ll get the sale price for a single item so that if it’s buy one and get one free you’ll get one item at half its usual price. If the store has two separate prices to encourage you to buy more, do not buy the product from that store.

Make time to shop separately for household items and personal hygiene supplies apart from your grocery shopping in order to keep more accurate details about how much you’re spending on groceries per week.

Don’t create unreasonable restrictions for yourself such as cutting out all processed food, or only buying a certain type of meat. Your diet likely has room to include all different kinds of foods so that you’re looking to control portion size rather than type of food.

Supporting your weight-loss goals can be helped by paying attention to your grocery shopping. Use the easy tips above to increase your chances of successful weight loss simply by adjusting the way you shop for food.

Metabolism and Weightloss: How you Burn Calories

You’ve probably heard people blame their weight on a slow metabolism, but what does that mean? Is metabolism really the culprit? And if so, is it possible to rev up your metabolism to burn more calories?

While it’s true that metabolism is linked to weight, it may not be in the way you expect. In fact, contrary to common belief, a slow metabolism is rarely the cause of excess weight gain. Although your metabolism influences your body’s basic energy needs, it’s your food and beverage intake and your physical activity that ultimately determine how much you weigh.
Metabolism: Converting food into energy

Metabolism is the process by which your body converts what you eat and drink into energy. During this complex biochemical process, calories in food and beverages are combined with oxygen to release the energy your body needs to function. Even when you’re at rest, your body needs energy for all its “hidden” functions, such as breathing, circulating blood, adjusting hormone levels, and growing and repairing cells.

The number of calories your body uses to carry out these basic functions is known as your basal metabolic rate — what you might call metabolism. Several factors determine your individual basal metabolic rate:

Your body size and composition. The bodies of people who are larger or have more muscle burn more calories, even at rest.
Your sex. Men usually have less body fat and more muscle than do women of the same age and weight, burning more calories.
Your age. As you get older, the amount of muscle tends to decrease and fat accounts for more of your weight, slowing down calorie burning.

Energy needs for your body’s basic functions stay fairly consistent and aren’t easily changed. Your basal metabolic rate accounts for about 60 to 75 percent of the calories you burn every day.

In addition to your basal metabolic rate, two other factors determine how many calories your body burns each day:

Food processing (thermogenesis). Digesting, absorbing, transporting and storing the food you consume also takes calories. This accounts for about 10 percent of the calories used each day. For the most part, your body’s energy requirement to process food stays relatively steady and isn’t easily changed.
Physical activity. Physical activity and exercise — such as playing tennis, walking to the store, chasing after the dog and any other movement — account for the rest of the calories your body burns up each day. Physical activity is by far the most variable of the factors that determine how many calories you burn each day.

Metabolism and weight

It may be tempting to blame your metabolism for weight gain. But because metabolism is a natural process, your body generally balances it to meet your individual needs. That’s why if you try so-called starvation diets, your body compensates by slowing down these bodily processes and conserving calories for survival. Only in rare cases do you get excessive weight gain from a medical problem that slows metabolism, such as Cushing’s syndrome or having an underactive thyroid gland (hypothyroidism).

Unfortunately, weight gain is most commonly the result of eating more calories than you burn. To lose weight, then, you need to create an energy deficit by eating fewer calories, increasing the number of calories you burn through physical activity, or both.
A closer look at physical activity and metabolism

While you don’t have much control over the speed of your metabolism, you can control how many calories you burn through your level of physical activity. The more active you are, the more calories you burn. In fact, some people who are said to have a fast metabolism are probably just more active — and maybe more fidgety — than are others.

You can burn more calories with:

Regular aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise is the most efficient way to burn calories and includes activities such as walking, bicycling and swimming. As a general goal, include at least 30 minutes of physical activity in your daily routine. If you want to lose weight or meet specific fitness goals, you may need to increase the time you spend on physical activity even more. If you can’t set aside time for a longer workout, try 10-minute chunks of activity throughout the day. Remember, the more active you are, the greater the benefits.
Strength training. Strength training exercises, such as weightlifting, are important because they help counteract muscle loss associated with aging. And since muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue does, muscle mass is a key factor in weight loss.
Lifestyle activities. Any extra movement helps burn calories. Look for ways to walk and move around a few minutes more each day than the day before. Taking the stairs more often and parking farther away at the store are simple ways to burn more calories. Even activities such as gardening, washing your car and housework burn calories and contribute to weight loss.

No magic bullet

Don’t look to dietary supplements for help in burning calories or weight loss. Products that claim to speed up your metabolism are often more hype than help, and some may cause undesirable or even dangerous side effects. Dietary supplement manufacturers aren’t required by the Food and Drug Administration to prove that their products are safe or effective, so view these products with caution and skepticism, and always let your doctors know about any supplements you take.

There’s no magical way to lose weight. It comes down to physical activity and diet. Take in fewer calories than you burn, and you lose weight. But if you’re worried about your metabolism or you can’t seem to lose excess weight despite diet and exercise, talk to your doctor.

Sixty-six percent of adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese

If you are overweight, you are not alone. Sixty-six percent of adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese. Achieving a healthy weight can help you control your cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar. It might also help you prevent weight-related diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and some cancers.

Eating too much or not being physically active enough will make you overweight. To maintain your weight, the calories you eat must equal the energy you burn. To lose weight, you must use more calories than you eat. A weight-control strategy might include

  • Choosing low-fat, low-calorie foods
  • Eating smaller portions
  • Drinking water instead of sugary drinks
  • Being physically active

NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Low Fat Recipe: Apple with Dip

Apple with Dip:
Servings: 4
Ingredients:

  • 8 ounces fat-free cream cheese
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 tablespoons chopped peanuts
  • 4 medium or 8 small apples, cored and sliced
  • 1/2 cup orange juice

Directions

  • Place the cream cheese on the counter to allow it to soften, about 5 minutes.
  • To make the dip, combine brown sugar, vanilla and cream cheese in a small bowl. Mix until smooth. Stir in chopped peanuts.
  • Place sliced apples in another bowl. Drizzle orange juice over the apples to prevent browning. Serve the sliced apples with the dip.

Rate Of Children Treated For Obesity-Related Conditions Shows Four-Fold Rise

The number of children admitted to hospital for problems related to obesity in England and Wales quadrupled between 2000 and 2009, a study has found.

Nearly three quarters of these admissions were to deal with problems complicated by obesity such as asthma, breathing difficulties during sleep, and complications of pregnancy, rather than obesity itself being the primary reason.

Researchers at Imperial College London looked at NHS statistics for children and young people aged five to 19 where obesity was recorded in the diagnosis.

In 2009 there were 3,806 children admitted to hospital for obesity-related conditions, compared with 872 in 2000. Teenage girls accounted for the biggest rises in obesity-related hospital admissions. In 2009, 198 teenage girls experienced complications of pregnancy where obesity was thought to be a factor.

The number of bariatric surgery procedures in children and young people also rose from one per year in 2000 to 31 in 2009. Three quarters of these were in teenage girls. The findings are published in the open access journal PLOS ONE.

“The burden of obesity is usually thought to have its serious consequences in adulthood, but we now see it manifesting earlier, in childhood,” said Dr Sonia Saxena, from the School of Public Health at Imperial, who led the study. “It’s clear that rising obesity levels are causing more medical problems in children, but the rise we observed probably also reflects increasing awareness among clinicians, who have become better at recognising obesity.”

National surveys in England suggest that around 30 per cent of children aged two to 15 are overweight and 14 to 20 per cent are obese. Children who are obese have a higher risk of health problems such as type 2 diabetes, asthma, and sleep apnoea.

Previous work by the Imperial team and the University of Southern Carolina found that adults in the US are six to eight times more likely to perceive they are overweight or obese if told by a doctor and five times more likely to try to do something about it. But only 45 per cent of overweight patients who visit a doctor recall having been told about their weight problem.

“It’s important that doctors speak to patients about their weight, because any attempt to help their patients must begin by recognising the problem.”

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