Most folks who are frustrated that their 1,200-calorie diet is failing them are consuming more than 1,200 calories. It has been shown that if you admit such a person to a supervised research facility and place him or her on exactly 1,200 calories a day, weight will always come off. Most folks have a poor ability to estimate the calorie content of foods.
Another factor that contributes to weight loss resistance is your medication list. Examples of medications that may contribute to weight gain include antidepressants; beta blocker drugs for blood pressure; steroids; diabetic medication; anti-seizure drugs; and hormone-replacement therapy. A slow thyroid or elevated insulin level also contributes to weight gain and resistance to weight loss. So too does chronically high stress.
A great Web resource that might help you when calorie counting is:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/
Coughing during a heart attack is unlikely to save your life
Q: I received an e-mail that describes coughing as a way of saving your life in the event of a heart attack. Does that actually work?
A: No, with very rare exceptions. What you read is an e-mail that's been circulating on the Internet since 1999. Not only will it not work in most instances when a person is experiencing a possible heart attack, it could make things much worse. The idea is that if a person was in cardiac arrest with a life-threatening heart arrhythmia, the act of forceful and repeated coughing could, in theory, increase pressure inside the chest cavity and assist the heart's pumping of blood, briefly keeping a person from losing consciousness.
