dieting

[famz]

Salaamz. Please advise, why is it that no matter how much one diets or excercises(sp) I can't lose weight. If I go to a doc, what do I check for eg thyroid etc?

[Faaizah Asmal Dietician]

salaams famz. Thank you for the message.
In order to lose weight, we need to expend more energy than we take in (in the form of food). If you feel like you are eating healthily, try checking your portion sizes of your meals and snacks. check for empty intake of kilojoules in the form of sugars and fats. Yo- yo dieting can you help to lose weight in the beginning but once a person goes back to their usual eating habits, they will put on more weight than they had initially lost. Too many unrefined carbohydrates can also cause weight gain. Swop your refined carbs for unrefined carbs like whole wheat bread, pastas, long grain/ tastic rice, low GI cereals etc.
Swop unhealthy snacks for fruits or dried fruits.

[Dr Faatima Ahmed-Akoon]

Slmz. I agree with faaizah. It starts with looking at energy put in and energy put out. Once you have really changed your carbohydrate intake and reduced portion size we need to look at energy put out i.e. Exercise. One must be exercising effectively to lose weight. Exercises like Pilates or yoga, treadmills and bicycles or circuits cause minimal calorie loss while high intensity cardio combined with weight training causes high calorie loss quicker. After that is done well we need to look at issues related to metabolism as you mentioned thyroid, etc. ask your GP to test 3 things: your fasting lipogram to look at whether your good cholesterols are higher than your bad cholesterols. Then your thyroid function looking for a high TSH ( thyroid stimulating hormone) indicating underactive thyroid and lastly a fasting insulin level looking for pre-diabetes. If those are normal you have a normal metabolism that you MUST boost with regular exercise. Hope that helps

[Unregistered]

Salaams. Please tell me a suitable diet for diabetics. Also what are the sugar levels supposed to be. On fasting and then after eating.

[Dr Faatima Ahmed-Akoon]

slmz. unfortunately discussing diabetic diet on this forum is probably unrealistic. too much information and needs to be individualised. please see your nearest dietician for professional assistance. with regards to the levels: fasting glucose should be under 6 and a random glucose (if you are not fasting, dont in the doctors room or chemist) should be under 8. but i advise if you are concerned and are NOT diabetic do a full blood test called a HBA1c which gives you an average sugar reading for a few days prior to the test.