This week is National Obesity Awareness Week .
We have produce the image you can see below to promote the week. Please feel free to share far and wide.
To find out more about the events of the week please go to http://www.noaw2014.org.uk/about/
Feel free to use the comments box below to share your tips for losing weight.
Thanks in advance.
National Obesity Awareness Week
We cover the related areas of obesity and weight loss on a frequent basis on this blog.
However one question which is of huge interest but not often explore is to the extent that people are happy (or not) with their weight!
Obesity
We, therefore, thought it would be of value to run a poll on the subject. It is just below so please feel free to take part.
Do you use the comments box below to add any further details about your vote which you think may be of interest to our readers. We are very interested in weight loss techniques you have employed which you might wish to share.
Welcome to our blog which looks at the relationship between obesity and metabolic rates.
The motivation behind this blog is a piece of research from Sweden where Professor Fredrik Nystrom, of Linkoping University tried to replicate the experiment conducted in Morgan Spurlock’s film “Super Size Me” under laboratory conditions.
Most research it seems has been carried out with people who are already overweight. In this experiment research was carried out with people of normal weight on their normal diet to see whether weight gain was a similar issue to those who are overweight. During the research it was observed that these volunteers had a higher metabolic rate than those who were overweight because they often mentioned feeling hot/warm/sweaty when overeating.
We would like you to think about this and let us know how you feel when you eat or overeat.
Obesity
In particular we are interested in the following questions regarding weight loss and metabolism
Of course we would appreciate any comments you might have on obesity and weight issues.
Please feel to contribute your thoughts and share your experiences. All you need to do is type a nickname of your choice and the put your comments into the box below.
A couple of mornings ago I received a text from my wife with a suggestion for a blog post. She had been reading a magazine on the train which carried an article on the Quantified Self Movement. Knowing my interest in social media and health she immediately thought of me. Which is nice!
As regulars know I am firmly of the view that social media has the potential to (and in some cases actually is) revolutionising healthcare. Often without the healthcare industry (or even the technology industry) being aware of the change. For a previous blog on social media and health please have a look at https://patienttalk.org/?p=585.
I have to confess that I’d never come across the term “Quantified Self Movement “before but after a few minutes goggling I was fascinated by what I read. So I felt that a brief blog was in order. The aim is to introduce my readers to the concept but also to get feedback on the effectiveness of the method.
The title of the blog links the Quantified Self Movement to weight loss but it has many other applications.
The idea is that we can use technology to collect data about our healthand use that data to monitor our own health performance. And thus to optimise the effectiveness of any interventions.
A simple example is weight loss. By monitoring food intake, exercise and weight changes it is possible to provide a frame work for long tern weight loss. What these various types of technology (such as smartphone apps) can do is to actually quantify (make sense of) the information collected. Because the information is bespoke to you it helps you develop an optimum weight loss strategy. I’m sure you have seen plenty of runners with various bits of tech strapped to their bodies which give then directly information on how they can improve their performance during the run.
Interestingly the Quantified Self Movement does not stop at technology. Across the globe there are a huge number of MeetUps where people can share information and resources. You can check out the different groups by location here http://quantified-self.meetup.com/.
But does it work? Well the theory seems good to me and there are lots of claims, especially regarding weight loss, being made. However there are critical voices; as this article in The Scotsman by Tiffany Jenkins makes clear http://www.scotsman.com/news/tiffany-jenkins-the-problem-with-quantified-life-1-3118718.
But as my old grandmother would say “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”. I’m asking my readers to share their opinions in the comments section of this blog. We are really interested in hearing your experiences of using technology for improving health via data collection. You might want to think in terms of the following questions:-
a) What were you trying to achieve through the process? E.g. weight loss
b) What technology did you use? E.g. Apps, web sites or sensors?
c) How effective was the process?
d) Can you see other applications for the Quantified Self Movement other than weight loss?
Thanks very much in advance for sharing your information. I am really looking forward to reading your responses.
When it come to medical education more ink or pixels seem to be spilt discussing how to combat
Obesity
what is described as the “obesity crisis”.
There have been a wide range of different suggestions as to how obesity can be tackled and weight loss promoted. From draconian bans to improved health education in schools.
But we want to know what you think. We have a poll below which gives a number of suggestions and it would be really great if you could take part and share your views.
Please feel free to add anything you think might be of interest in the comments box below.
Thanks in advance!