safely, although some risk of injury still exists as with
any exercise program. Injuries during exercise can
include as strained or sprained muscles, and proper
warm up and cool down procedures should be fol-
lowed to help minimize these risks. It is often best to
begin with light or moderate exercise, and increase the
intensity slowly over weeks or months.
Research and general acceptanceRichard Simmon’s diet has not been the subject of
any significant scholarly research. However, moder-
ately limiting caloric intake, eating a diet low in fats
and carbohydrates and high in vegetable and plant
products is generally accepted as a healthy diet for
most people. The Richard Simmons diet follows the
United States Department of Agriculture’s MyPyra-
mid guide recommendations for healthy eating.
As of 2007, the U.S. Center for Disease Control
recommended a minimum of 30 minutes per day of
light to moderate exercise for healthy adults. Follow-
ing Richard Simmons’ program would meet this mini-
mum recommendation. Many studies have shown that
even this amount of exercise can have significant
health benefits including reducing the risk of cardio-
vascular disease. Studies have also shown that exercise
is a very important part of any weight loss plan, and
diet and exercise combined are more effective for long
term weight loss and weight maintenance than either
diet or exercise alone.
Helen M. DavidsonRosedale diet
DefinitionThe Rosedale diet is a diet that was created by
Dr. Ron Rosedale. It limitscarbohydratesand pro-
teins and is supposed to be able to help the body
stabilize levels of leptin, a hormone believed to trigger
the brain to send hunger signals to the body.OriginsRon Rosedale, M.D. practices nutritional and
metabolic medicine in Denver, Colorado. Metabolic
medicine is generally considered an alternative medi-
cine. Practitioners of metabolic medicine believe that a
person’s metabolic activity can be altered through
diet, stress reduction, and other changes that do not
have to include prescription drugs. It is believed that
diseases and conditions can be resolved through these
types of metabolic changes, and by bringing the meta-
bolic activity of the patient back into a fully function-
ing state. It is this idea of changing metabolic activity
that underlies the Rosedale diet.
Dr. Rosedale attended the Northwestern Univer-
sity School of Medicine, and graduated in 1977. He is
the founder of the Rosedale Center in Denver, Colo-
rado, as well as the Carolina Center of Metabolic
Medicine in Ashville, North Carolina. He also co-
founded of the Colorado Center for Metabolic Medi-
cine in Boulder, Colorado. His bookThe Rosedale Diet
was written with Carol Colman who has co-authored
many diet and fitness books. The book first appeared
in 2004.
For many years, doctors, researchers, and many
others have been trying to decode all of the ways that
the body gets signals about food and hunger, and how
the body knows when and how much to eat. The
process of eating and breaking down food is extremely
complex and involves many different glands, hor-
mones, organs, and other body parts. People have
been studying leptin for more than a decade to try to
determine what role it plays in the body’s hunger,
eating, and digestion processes. Dr. Rosedale came
to the conclusion that leptin problems are responsible
for many of the issues that cause people to gain and
retain fat. Dr. Rosedale used this information about
leptin and his background in metabolic medicine to
develop a set of guidelines, called the Rosedale diet,
which he believes will help dieters restore the proper
functioning of leptin and their metabolic systems and
allow them to lose fat and become more healthy.QUESTIONS TO ASK THE
DOCTOR Is this diet the best diet to meet my goals?
At what level of intensity is it appropriate for me
to begin exercising?
Does diet or exercise pose any special risk for me
that I should be aware of?
Would a multivitamin or other dietary
supplement be appropriate for me if I were to
begin this diet?
Is this diet appropriate for my entire family?
Is it safe for me to follow this diet over a long
period of time?
Are there any sign or symptoms that might
indicate a problem while on this diet?Rosedale diet