Diet Strategies: Weight Loss Shakes  

Shake that Extra WeightA study recently published in the Journal of Nutrition found that meal-replacement shakes work. For 6 months, more than 60 men and women either replaced two daily meals with shakes and bars, or followed a conventional low-calorie diet. Both groups shaved off more than 9 percent of their original body weight. Study author Manny Noakes, Ph.D., attributes the shakes' success to their ease of use. Those who had liquid breakfasts and lunches found that they had "manageable dining-out options," meaning for dinner they could order anything within reason, since the shakes had kept their calories under control throughout the day. However, Noakes recommends that you make sure your dinner contains plenty of fiber. Meal replacements left dieters 5 grams short.Whine and Dine

Next time you see a kid pitching a fit in the junk-food aisle of the grocery store, just wave a copy of the Journal of Pediatrics in his parent's face. Then explain how a recent study from Stanford University followed 150 families for nearly 9 years and found that children who regularly throw tantrums over food are three times more likely to develop weight problems than even-tempered kids are."The likelihood is that parents feed these children differently, perhaps using food to calm them," says lead researcher W. Stewart Agras, M.D.

The result: a kid who's spoiled and overweight. Instead, Dr. Agras suggests, try rewarding your child with an activity--maybe a Frisbee session, bike ride, or plain old game of catch--since the chunky kids in the study also tended to be less active. An afternoon in the park probably wouldn't hurt you, either.

A Fatherhood Gut CheckLooks like"big daddy" is something of a misnomer. Scientists at Pennsylvania State University's college of medicine recently discovered that overweight men have a fat chance of becoming fathers. The researchers measured several fertility markers in 87 men and found that as the men's body-mass indexes rose, their levels of inhibin B, a hormone necessary for sperm production, dropped--by as much as 33 percent in some cases."Fat tissue converts testosterone to estrogen," says study author Eric Pauli, Ph.D."It's reasonable to assume that these hormone rearrangements result in a lower inhibin B level." Changing your body composition--specifically by building more testosterone-producing muscle instead of estrogen-producing fat--will help correct the hormonal imbalance.

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