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pliance rate of any exercise. Commit to walking, and you’ll start committing to more than
just the TV lineup on Thursday nights.
Know your foods. Considering that
some ingredients on food labels sound like
they belong in Greek mythology, it can be
hard to decode what’s actually in certain
foods. But with a little time, you can learn to
determine which foods are healthy for you
and which will send you directly to a larger
pants size. Be on the lookout for belt-busting
ingredients such as trans fats and sugars. But
also know that some healthy-sounding
phrases (such as “made with whole wheat”)
may not be as healthy as they sound (“100
percent whole grain” is the optimum phrase
when it comes to grains). By the way, 50 percent of the sugar we eat comes from “fat-free”
foods such as salad dressings and soft drinks,
and 30 percent of these calories, on average,
are stored by the body as fat.
Let your body help you. While
many people blame a slowing metabolism
for a growing waistline, the science is pretty
clear. Our metabolism slows 2 to 3 percent
every 10 years due to decreased muscle mass
as we age, but what really drops as we age is
our activity levels. Muscle burns 50 times
more calories than fat, so when you lose
muscle, you lose the ability to eat a reasonable amount of food and maintain your
weight. The remedy: 20 minutes of the
strength and stretching exercises in our YOU
Workout. In our program, your body is your
gym, so you don’t need any equipment (which
means you have no excuses).
Use your brain, not your stomach, to manage hunger. One brain chemical, neuropeptide Y, affects the three linked
satiety centers: food, thirst and sex. We often
indulge too much in one in order to satisfy
another. For example, we often eat when
we are thirsty rather than drinking water. These satiety centers
are stimulated by leptin (released
from fat when you are full) and
inhibited by ghrelin (released from
the stomach when it growls during
hunger). When you eat foods that
block leptin, you will eat more than
your body naturally would desire. One
grehlin-rich ingredient is fructose (as in high-fructose corn syrup), which is found in many
processed foods. You can counteract the effect
with high-fiber, high-protein or spicy foods.
They’ll help you eat less without feeling hungry for your current and next meals.
Ultimately, using your brain is what
helps you gain your ideal body—so that you
can automate the healthy decisions and
choices you make. After all, you can’t beat
biology, but you can learn how to make it
work in your favor by getting intimate with
and understanding your body’s systems.
When you do that, you’ll have learned the
secret of dieting smart, not hard. C
CHRIS CRISMAN
Lean and mean team: Dr. Mehmet Oz
(left) and Dr. Michael Roizen walk the
talk when it comes to healthy living.
About THEM
(the authors)
10 things you don’t
know about your
body, fat and dieting
10
Healthy, monogamous sex is one
of the things that can help control
your appetite.
Your belly has an organ called the
omentum that specifically stores
most of your belly fat and is the source
of toxic material that can inflame your
liver and affect your metabolism.
Massage is a weight-loss technique.
Physical touch increases your body’s
oxytocin level, which helps control
appetite.
Food is processed in the intestines,
not the stomach.
The scent of grapefruit oil helps control appetite.
Liposuction is not a weight-loss technique; the average weight loss after
liposuction is 10 pounds. (The procedure
can be effective for body sculpting.)
Periodic extreme stress does not
make you gain weight; chronic
stress does.
Video games have been shown to
help people lose weight. One reason: They help keep your hands out of
the bowl of M&Ms.
Fat in food is not automatically
stored as fat. All excess calories—no
matter if they’re protein, carbohydrates
or fat—can be stored as fat.
Some weight-loss drugs being
developed are using the body’s
reaction to drugs such as marijuana and
cocaine to explore the science of hunger
and satiety.
Dr. Mehmet C. Oz is a vice-chair of
surgery and professor of cardiac
surgery at Columbia University. He
directs the Cardiovascular Institute
and is a founder and director of the
Complementary Medicine Program at
New York Presbyterian Columbia. His
research interests include heart
replacement surgery, minimally invasive cardiac surgery, complementary
medicine and health-care policy. In
addition to repeated appearances on
Oprah, Dr. Oz has appeared on Second
Opinion with Dr. Oz on the Discovery
Channel. He is the author of more than
350 original publications, book chapters, abstracts and books, including
YOU: The Owner’s Manual and YOU:
The Smart Patient. He has received
several patents.
Dr. Michael Roizen, or “Dr. Mike,” is
chair of the Division of Anesthesiology,
Critical Care Medicine and Pain
Management at the Cleveland Clinic,
where he practices internal medicine
and anesthesiology. He also developed
a program in partnership medicine at
Northwestern Memorial Hospital
aimed at helping its members reverse
biological aging and live longer, more
vibrant lives. Additionally, Dr. Roizen
is the founder and chair of the
Scientific Advisory Board of RealAge
Inc., a San Diego–based company,
which includes an interactive Web
site,
www.RealAge.com. Dr. Roizen is
co-author of the YOU book series.
