Healthbeat by Deirdre Cox Baker

Plans to lose weight may backfire into hurting your health, or actually making you gain weight.

A new book, “What’s your diet type?” helps to identify a personality type by a widely used test (the Myers-Briggs Type indicator), and also points out key areas in which mistakes may be made. These include:

1. Not eating enough.

Those who cut crucial calories send a human body into starvation mode, which then slows down metabolism to maintain weight. It’s a trick to reduce calories but not negatively impact metabolism.

2. Not exercising.

Dieting without exercise is much less effective than when a sensible diet is paired with regular exercise.

3. Complete removal of favorite foods.

I very much agree with this. It’s something I discovered when I lost weight almost two years ago. At first I avoided all unhealthy foods that I love, but I had the actual best luck when I severely limited intake of, for example, Hershey’s chocolate.

4. Change what you eat but not what you drink.

If you have pop, cocktails and other calorie-ridden drinks, you’ll sabotage efforts to cut down on all calories.

5. Skipping meals.

This relates to metabolism, again. Skipping breakfast means your metabolism will drop and you may also over-eat at the next meal. Better to eat five small, healthy meals a day than to skip even one.

6. Fad diets.

Diets like one a friend went on … she ate only grapefruit and drank water for a week straight … are not long-term solutions.

7. Diet pills.

These don’t teach how to make long-term, healthy changes and don’t build fat-burning muscle.

8. Forgetting about your own needs and wants.

See number 3: You need to make a sensible diet work for your personality. I, for example, get very whiney when I don’t have a chocolate fix or a salty food fix at times.

Just figure out a way to work around your own little quirks. A moderate weight loss is 1-2 pounds per week.

The book, by Heather K. Jones, Mary Miscisin and Dr. Ed Redard, is available from regular book retailers and Web sites.

The Quad-Cities “Biggest Loser” competition continues, and with less than a week to go, Ralph Valle continues to lead the men’s contest with a score of 56.87, and Joyce McClimans is still ahead in the women’s race, 36.48.

There will be one man and one woman winner in this contest, sponsored by Chick-Fil-A restaurants and Ultimate Fitness centers. It began on April 1 and ends May 31.

The contestants may work out where, how and when they wish, but their weight is checked every week at the Ultimate Fitness facility in Bettendorf.

A composite number includes both weight loss and reductions in body fat. The line-up of the top 16, as of May 22:

Ralph T. Valle, 56.87

David Belk, 48.38

David Barber, 42.84

Joyce McClimans, 36.48

Shawn Holland, 29.36

Lisa Walker, 26.64

Joey Lehman, 21.18

Mary Dunlap, 15.57

Denise Oberhaus, 15.42

Joetta Nunn, 11.07

Dave Collum, 10.09

Rhonda Mayo, 9.31

Kasey Ciccarone, 7.65

Teresa McChane, 3.90

Shiela Serrano, 1.34

Christine Barber, .96

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration took issue this week with the maker of Cheerios, one of the nation’s oldest and most popular breakfast cereals.

Regular “HealthBeat” readers may recall that I wrote a blog on April 23 that touted Cheerios.

The federal agency wrote that claims by General Mills, the cereal maker, inaccurately represent this food item. General Mills backed a study that showed twice-a-day helpings of Cheerios will reduce”bad” cholesterol, when eaten as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol. This sentiment is included in packaging on the popular yellow box.

The warning letter states: “Based on claims made on your product’s label, we have determined that your Cheerios Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal is promoted for conditions that cause it to be a drug because the product is intended to use in the prevention, mitigation and treatment of disease.”

Hey, I still think Cheerios is part of healthy breakfast or snack offerings. But I also offer double thanks to an alert reader, Eileen, who pointed out that General Mills claims are truly to benefit the company’s products and not necessarily to benefit humankind. Eileen wrote about this as a comment on the HealthBeat blog in late April, several weeks before the FDA came to a similar conclusion.

See, Eileen … you are ahead of the federal curve.

For more information about the FDA and its advisories, check out its Web site.

The Quad-Cities “Biggest Loser” competition continues, and with 20 days to go, Ralph Valle leads the contest with a score of 57.63, ahead of Joyce McClimans’ achievement of 35.53 points earned.

The contest started the first of April and ends May 31. It is sponsored by Chick-fil-A restaurants and Ultimate Fitness centers. The contestants may work out where they wish, but their weight is checked every Wednesday at the Ultimate Fitness facility in Bettendorf. A composite number includes both weight loss and reductions in body fat.

We wrote about this competition for an April Quad-City Times Health page, so you may remember the overall contest. There will be two winners, one male and one female. Organizers say there may be plenty of variations on the list as competition heats up to the deadline that’s almost three weeks away.

The official status of the top 20 who have lost weight and toned up, as of May 8:

1. Ralph T. Valle, 57.63

2. Joyce McClimans, 35.53

3. David Barber, 32.31

4. David Belk, 31.22

5. Lisa Walker, 26.25

6. Denise Oberhaus, 23.77

7. Shawn Holland, 17.92

8. Joey Lehman, 14.53

9. Tamika Dunlap, 13.57

10. Mary Dunlap, 11.60

11. Joetta Nunn, 11.26

12. Kasey Ciccarone, 9.76

13. Rhonda Mayo, 9.41

14. Rebecca Heald, 9.40

15. Teresa McChane, 9.33

16. Laura Strickland, 7.88

17. Dave Collum, 6.99

18. Sandi Wittenauer, 5.90

19. Kim Collum, 4.43

20. Shiela Serrano, 1.73

I’ve done little the last several days except to read, think and write about H1N1, better known as the swine flu.

This form of influenza has really affected the public health community as they reach out and try to keep Americans calm, while also tracking what actually happens to us Yanks.

I want to offer a couple of thoughts:

* Hand santization and cough control is the best way to protect yourself against any germ contamination, including from H1N1. That’s why you keep hearing that message … and you keep hearing that message.

* The situation is fluid and changes quickly, but it’s also slowing down across Iowa anyway. Web sites are an excellent way to stay up on what’s happening. I suggest surfing the Web as a somewhat calmer method of following the news.

* Our Web site has lots of information, and the flu site for the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta is being referenced across the United States.

* In a recent Web chat, we heard from more than 200 folks, some of whom seemed to think the local media was hitting the right tone with the coverage. I personally appreciated hearing that.

* Next to my desk, courtesy of a colleague, is a large container of gel hand sanitizer. The aim is to share with all the folks around me in this newsroom.