Is your bathroom scale lying about whether your weight is healthy -- or a health threat? The obesity epidemic is bad enough, but along comes a study that indicates that the widely used, 200-year-old healthy-weight formula is underestimating the risk for nearly half of all women and more than 20 percent of men whose body-fat levels are dangerously high. The good news? This research can help you live longer and become younger.

That's because you can be a normal weight, according to your body mass index, and be toting around extra abdominal fat that the BMI doesn't take into account.

The problem? BMI, which is computed using your weight and your height, can't distinguish between lean, sexy, healthy muscle and excess body fat -- especially belly fat, which raises your risk for heart attack, stroke, diabetes, cancer, worsening arthritis, dementia and more.

Wondering where you stand? Healthy body-fat percentages for women ages 20 to 39 are 21 percent to 32 percent; ages 40 to 59 are 23 percent to 33 percent; and 60+, 24 percent to 35 percent. For men ages 20 to 39, 8 percent to 19 percent; 40 to 59, 11 percent to 21 percent; and 60+, 13 percent to 24 percent. The researchers at New York University School of Medicine used a full-body scan to measure body fat in 1,400 people for their new BMI-bad-news study. But you can do just as good a job if you just grab a tape measure and throw it around your middle.

Waist size, it turns out, is a super-accurate way to measure risky belly fat. You may have some on board if your waist measures 35 inches or more for women, or more than 39 inches for men. (Put a tape measure around at your belly button -- and suck in!) But the health risks that come with belly fat actually begin about 3 inches before that! So, if your numbers need a trim, focus on strategies that build muscle. Lean body tissue burns calories around the clock, preventing or even reversing belly-fat expansion. Don't simply diet; slashing calories slashes precious muscle mass, too.

Instead, four simple steps can nudge your body composition back into the safety zone -- and none involves the words diet, calories or weigh-in.

Munch muscle-protecting protein. How much protein do you need? Simply multiply your weight in pounds by 0.4. If you're 165 pounds, that's about 66 grams of protein. Get yours from fish (32 grams of protein in 4 ounces of salmon or trout), skinless poultry and plants (kidney beans, nuts and edamame have 16 to 18 grams of protein per cup). With vegetarian protein, you also get fiber, protective plant phytochemicals -- and no saturated fat.

Get chummy with healthy fats. Nuts (especially walnuts' omega-3s and macadamia nuts' omega-7's), fish, avocados, seeds and a splash of canola oil are bursting with unsaturated fats that help your body listen up when leptin, the "I'm full" hormone, says "Put down the fork and back away from the table." Eat fish a couple of times a week and enjoy a small handful of nuts every day to restore your body's natural leptin sensitivity. Choosing these hunger-fighters, instead of foods brimming with saturated fat, helps, because that greasy stuff actually turns down your body's production of leptin. Pump some iron, pull some rubber or leverage your own body weight. Aim for three 20-minute strength-training sessions per week. Using a weight that exhausts you with 12 repetitions builds muscle; resistance bands are great no-impact exercises that are good for posture; and chin-ups, push ups or sit-ups (knees bent) that use your own weight build muscle safely and effectively.

Turn in earlier tonight. Short-changing yourself on sleep leads to cravings for doughnuts and super-size colas. But that's not all. Sleep deficits also raise levels of stress hormones that order your body to store the extra calories in your torso. So turn out the lights at 9:30 or 10 tonight. Set your DVR to record your favorite late-night shows, then watch 'em tomorrow after "The Dr. Oz Show," while you're doing your strength-training routine!

Dr. Mehmet Oz is host of "The Dr. Oz Show," and Dr. Mike Roizen is chief medical officer at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. For more information go to http://www.RealAge.com.

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DRS. OZ AND ROIZEN: BMI may underestimate the risk of obesity

2012 Best Performances (Long Course - Male) 4X50 MEDLEY RELAY

All aquatic athletes seeking London 2012 selection for China are now seven weeks into a meatless diet to avoid the risk of doping positives by default in a country where clenbuterol is among substances fed, illegally, to livestock.

The count of those on a meatless mission is 196 in aquatic sports alone, according to news reports in China, where elite athletes in many sports are having to settle for fish, eggs and protein alternatives to meat in their diets.

Chinas General Administration of Sport issued the meatless order in March after after Chinese Olympic judo champion Tong Wen was slapped with a two-year ban after banned substances were found in her bloodstream.

The suspension set alarm bells ringing, Huang Wenyi, who competes in Lightweight Womens Double Sculls, writing on a blog that clenbuterol had even been found in pork and chicken products, not only in beef.

:Now the only place that we could eat safely turns out to be our cafeteria," Lu Yong, Beijing mens 85kg weightlifting champion wrote on his blog. "Its a disaster for athletes as the prohibited substance in over 52 per cent of the meat products in Beijing has exceeded the drug test standard."

In swimming, clenbuterol has long caused athletes a problem come testing time, the biggest case of late that of Jessica Hardy (USA), who tested positive at the US Olympic trials and was dropped from the US team at the start of a year-long suspension. Her argument that she had unknowingly taken the drug in a contaminated food supplement was accepted by anti-doping authorities and Hardy will race for a place on the 2012 team this June.

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Meatless Mission For China 196 Aquatic Elite

NEW YORK, April 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --On May 6th, THE 17 DAY DIET: A Doctor's Plan Designed for Rapid Results by Dr. Mike Moreno (Free Press/$25.00 hardcover) will mark 52 weeks and counting on the New York Times Advice, How-to and Miscellaneous Best Sellers List.

Originally self-published in late 2010, THE 17 DAY DIET became a sensation, selling nearly 100,000 copies in just three months. When Free Press published its edition in March 2011, THE 17 DAY DIET became an instant New York Times bestseller, spending eleven weeks in the #1 spot alone. There are currently more than a million electronic and printed copies in circulation. It has been featured on "Good Morning America," "The Doctors," "Dr. Phil," USA Today, Woman's World, and dozens of other media outlets. Diets in Review, a trusted online source of tools and information for living a healthier life, ranked THE 17 DAY DIET #1 in their annual list of the Most Popular Diets of the Year in December 2011.

The 17 Day brand expanded in the fall of 2011 with the publication of a companion volume, THE 17 DAY DIET WORKBOOK: Your Guide to Healthy Weight Loss with Rapid Results ($13.99 trade paperback), as well as a Spanish edition of the original book, LA DIETA DE 17 DIAS ($16.00 trade paperback). A new book, THE 17 DAY DIET COOKBOOK: 80 All New Recipes for Healthy Weight Loss ($26.00 hardcover), was published on March 27th, 2012 and is also a New York Times bestseller.

In September the 17 Day brand takes a new direction with the publication of THE 17 DAY PLAN FOR STAYING YOUNG ($26.00 hardcover).

"We are thrilled to be the stewards of such an inspiring book and brand," said Martha K. Levin, Executive Vice President and Publisher of Free Press. "Its continued success and its longevity on the bestseller list are testaments to the effectiveness of Dr. Moreno's approach to diet and health. This book is changing lives."

Free Press is an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc, a part of CBS Corporation. Simon & Schuster is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for consumers of all ages, across all printed, electronic, and audio formats. Its divisions include Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, Simon & Schuster Audio, Simon & Schuster Digital, and international companies in Australia, Canada, India and the United Kingdom. For more information visit our website at http://www.simonandschuster.com.

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One Year on the New York Times Bestseller List THE 17 DAY DIET By Dr. Mike Moreno

Dieticians have warned of the dangers of losing weight with a 'starvation diet' available in Britain for the first time.

The British Dietetic Association (BDA) says there are 'huge risks' to the diet, in which people are given just 130 calories a day through a feeding tube that goes up their nose and down to their stomach.

The 10-day regime forces the body to burn up so much fat that people lose up to 10 per cent of their weight.

But Sasha Watkins, dietician and spokesperson for the BDA, said naso-gastric feeding tubes should only be used in hospital under medical supervision.

'They could become dislodged while people are at home and food may go down into the lungs,' she warned.

She added the severe calorie restriction and pure protein formula feed could damage the kidneys.

The fears have been robustly dismissed by the doctor promoting the Ketogenic Enteral Nutrition (KEN) diet.

Dr Ray Shidrawi is a widely respected consultant gastroenterologist at Homerton Hospital in east London and runs a private weight-loss clinic.

He told Sky News that soon-to-be published trials on more than 19,000 patients in Italy show that the diet is safe.

'KEN is a properly studied technique. We know it does not harm you in any way,' he said.

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Concerns in UK over feeding tube diet

Study findings will sound sweet to American population confronting more cases of Alzheimers Elizabeth Landau, CNN April 28, 2012 (CNN) -- As the number of Americans living with Alzheimer's disease continues to rise, researchers are investigating various ways that people can prevent memory decline through nutrients in foods we might eat often anyway.

So far, nothing has been proven to work for sure, but there's no harm in eating healthy foods.

The latest target of interest is berries. A study of more than 16,000 women over age 70 suggests there is a connection between berries and memory problems. Specifically, women who ate the most berries per week were likely to have up to a 2.5-year advantage in terms of when they showed signs of memory decline.

There's no reason think that results would be different in men, said the study's lead author, Elizabeth Devore, researcher at the Channing Laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

But note that this study, published in Annals of Neurology, received funding from the California Strawberry Commission - a potential conflict of interest. The data analysis, writing and results were done completely independently of this sponsor, however, Devore said, and did not have anything to do with the concept of the study.

Participants were asked about food consumption every four years since 1980, and their memory was tested every two years between 1995 and 2001. Researchers found that the women who ate at least 1/2 cup of blueberries per week, or two 1/2 cups of strawberries, showed the greatest benefits.

"I'd recommend that both men and women eat more berries," Devore said.

Here's how berries might help: mitochrondria are energy generators of brain cells, and have been thought to also produce substances toxic to the brain that lead to Alzheimer's disease. These toxic compounds are called "free radicals," which damage brain cells and impair cellular processing. Berries are rich in flavonoids, which can act as antioxidants, interacting with free radicals before they cause damage.

But read the results of the new study with caution, says Dr. William Hu, assistant professor of neurology at Emory University School of Medicine. The study authors did not control the diets of the participants - the information about berry intake is based on their own recollections.

And it's hard to directly translate the effect of berries on cognitive decline when other lifestyle factors may also contribute to prevention. The berries themselves may have only a modest role to play.

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Berries May Delay Memory Decline

Diet Docs hCG formula is enhanced with vitamin B12, also known as the energy vitamin. Their program combines a well-balanced diet that emphasizes vegetable, protein and essential supplements in their diet plan.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) April 24, 2012

Diet Docs hCG formula is enhanced with vitamin B12, also known as the energy vitamin. Their program combines a well-balanced diet that emphasizes vegetable, protein and essential supplements in their diet plan.

Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin (HCG), known to aid in quick weight loss, is a hormone found in pregnant women in their first trimester. It was originally used and approved by the FDA to treat infertility by inducing ovulation in women and stimulate production of testosterone in men. In the 1950s, Dr. Simeons found in his weight loss trial that the use of daily injections of the hormone suppressed his patients appetite enough for them to take in only 500 calories a day. Thus, a new diet was born appropriately named the Simeons protocol.

Diet Doc has since updated this highly controversial diet with more realistic elements like a well-balanced diet with double the calorie intake of the original Simeons Protocol. Theyve even enhanced their formula with vitamin B12, an essential vitamin known for many benefits such as encouraging the healthy production of red blood cells to converting carbohydrates into energy. Statistics suggest that as much as 40% of people in the USA are B12 deficient.1

Recommended daily intake of vitamin B12 as suggested by the Food and Nutrition Board2

Diet Docs version of the hCG Diet has proven to be successful with real-life testimonials written on their current website hcgtreatments.com. Men and women of various ages who have lost anywhere from 15 to over 100 pounds submitted their hCG

1. Gubb, Andrew. "B12 Deficiency." andrewgubb.com. 10 November 2010. http:// http://www.andrewgubb.com/b12-deficiency/

2. Diet experience to encourage others who want a quick and seemingly effective weight loss solution.

With the success of their program, Diet Doc is now offering a line of products from weight loss shakes and bars to pre-made hCG meals. Their growing company is in the running to become one of the top contenders in the ever-growing weight-loss market and they seem to have found their needed niche.

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Diet Doc Weight Loss Solutions Fights Fatigue by Adding Vitamin B12 to their hCG Formula