Thursday, October 30, 2008

How to Lose Weight With Your Partner: Losing With Love

How to lose weight with your partner could mean losing at love. Not losing love for your partner of course, but it might mean you have to lose some of the foods you love. It’s always easier if you lose with love, with your partner standing by your side (or over your plate).

Learning how to lose weight with your partner isn’t just a matter of counting calories. Whether you and your partner are both trying to lose weight, or you’re struggling how to lose weight with your thinner partner around - learning how to lose weight as a couple will give you the support you need to meet your weight loss goals. Support in the form of a cheerleader isn’t enough (although you might like to see your partner in a cheer leading outfit). Communication, respect, understanding, patience, and love all have an important part in the dieting game.

If you’re engaged, you might want to study how to lose weight with your partner before you exchange your “I do have.” Getting married and gaining weight go hand in hand. A study in Psychology Today found that women carried an extra 37 pounds IF they were happily married. Women who were unhappily married must have found their comfort in food, because they gained an average of 54 pounds. The study also showed that the majority of women who wanted to lose weight thought it would help them keep their husbands, or at least liven up their sex life. Women aren’t the only weight victims in marriage though. A Cornell University study pointed out that men gain more weight than women during marriage. Fortunately, a study done by the University Department of Medicine, Royal Perth Hospital, Australia, found that the couples that diet together lose weight together.

Learning how to lose weight together means you must communicate about your weight loss plans. You’re going to have to communicate on how your shopping, cooking and eating plans will change, what dietary substitutes will have to be made, which aspect of the dieting will be most difficult, and what kind of support you would like from each other. What one partner may see as “reminding,” another may see as “nagging.” As you’re following your weight loss plans, make sure you keep the lines of communication open, and share your frustrations and aggravations, as well as your congratulations with each other. Having respect for each other is one of the most important things you can do to successfully lose weight together. Encourage your partner to lose weight; don’t condemn them if they have a relapse during their dieting. Don’t tempt them with food they can’t have. Scientific studies have proved over and over again that self-confidence is a huge factor in how to lose weight without putting it back on.

How to lose weight with your partner is just a matter of loving and supporting each other. Building each other up, with or without the cheer leading outfits on, is a great way to help each other lose weight. Coupling up on the same weight loss plan, such as the Atkins Diet Weight Loss Program, which allows substantial proportions, is a great way to make meals feel as if they are still a substantial entrĂ©e, and not just a plate of rabbit food. Losing weight with your partner gives you a stronger guarantee that you’ll lose the weight, and keep it off. Gain together, lose together, and live happily ever after - because everything is easier when you’re in love.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

How to Lose Weight: Don’t Lose Your Sleep and You’ll Lose Your Weight

Weight loss is more effective when you don’t lose sleep. One of the best ways to learn how to lose weight is to learn how to get a good night’s sleep.

How to lose weight without losing sleep is important to learn not only for your emotional well-being, but also for your physical well-being and the success of your weight loss goals. Staying up all night worrying about your diet struggles or a failure isn’t going to help you lose weight – in fact; it’s likely to help you gain weight. If you want to lose weight, you can’t lose sleep. Learning how to get a good night’s sleep will also teach you how to be more successful with your weight loss program.

Over 70,000 women were monitored for over a decade in a study conducted by the Care Western University and presented by the American Thoracic Society in 2006. This study is one of the largest studies ever conducted on the relationship between sleep and losing weight, and it found a direct correlation between weight loss and sleep. Women who slept five hours or less gained substantially more weight, (an average of 33 pounds), over the years than the women who had seven hours of sleep, and light sleepers had a higher risk of obesity. Researchers also found that sleep had a higher impact on future weight gain than eating and exercising, although they emphasized that eating and exercise are still dominating forces in weight gain or weight loss. Numerous studies around the world have conclusively shown that lack of sleep also contributes to poor cognitive thinking, a lower immune system, and an onset of adult diabetes.

Sleep also affects your hormones that communicate your “hunger” and “full” indicators, which obviously have a great deal of influence on how easily you’re going to be able to lose weight. These “eating” hormones are called “ghrelin,” which tells you you’re hungry, and “leptin,” which tells you you’re full. When you’re tired, ghrelin (hunger) goes up, and leptin (full) goes down. Despite this fact, the notable weight loss research done by Care Western University found that the dieters that slept less gained weight even though they did not eat more.

Although the idea of sleeping all day to lose weight sounds luxurious, it won’t work. Sleeping too much was also proven to contribute to weight gain. Learning how to get the right amount of sleep is the secret to learning how to use your sleeping patterns to supplement your weight loss goals. Getting your recommended sleep of 8-9 hours, getting proper exercise, and participating in a proven weight loss plan, such as the Atkins Diet Weight Loss Program, is the healthiest way to lose weight and reach your weight loss goals.

How to lose weight and keep the weight off means you need to get a good night’s rest. So stop staying up all night worrying about how you’re going to lose weight. You can sleep peacefully knowing that you’re doing the right thing to contribute to your weight loss goals. Learn how to gain some sleep, and you’ll learn how to lose weight. Use the valuable weight-loss advice from these weight loss studies and take a nap. At least sleep on it, and you’ll still be thinner and healthier in the mornings to come.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Weight Loss and Emotional Eating: Lose Weight by Discovering yourself

Weight loss doesn’t have to be an emotional affair. Discovering your emotional eating habits before you begin to lose weight can go a long way in helping you lose weight, and keep the weight off.

Weight loss experts report you’ll gain confidence after you lose weight. Although true, science is proving that it’s more important for the success of your weight loss program that you gain confidence before dieting, or even during dieting, to be able to successfully reach your weight loss goals. Emotional eating often leads to binge eating, particularly if you’ve been denying yourself your favorite foods to lose weight. Weight loss gets significantly more challenging when you turn to food for boredom, loneliness, comfort, depression, insecurity, celebration or anger. Losing weight to gain confidence means you have to gain confidence in your ability to lose weight first.

Emotional eating is common, and some studies estimate that 75% of the population participates in “emotional eating.” Short bursts of emotional eating certainly isn’t harmful to healthy diets, but more often than not, our emotional eating doesn’t result in bingeing on bowls full of celery sticks. If you’re thinking about participating in a weight loss program to lose weight, or you’re currently trying to lose weight with your own diet plan, keep of journal of when you feel the need for “emotional eating” and what foods you typically eat under the circumstances. Being aware of yourself and your habits is the first step when trying to lose weight with any weight loss plan.

Stress can lead to overeating. This could be ingrained. Studies from Emory University showed that subordinate monkeys ate more often, and ate more foods high in fat than the dominant females. Another factor is whether your emotional eating is “external” or “internal.”

External emotional eating occurs if you eat more socially at parties, or overeat because you are with someone who is overeating. Internal emotional eating occurs when you plop down on the couch with a bag of munchies and say, “I’m bored” or “I’m depressed.” A study by the Miriam Hospital's Weight Control & Diabetes Research Center found that “external emotional eaters” were better at retaining their weight loss goals than the “internal emotional eaters.” Internal emotional eaters end up regaining weight, and go on and off endless weight loss programs to continue losing weight. Recognizing your internal emotional eating habits gives you the knowledge to fight emotional eating when your emotions try to override your motivation to lose weight.

You may see yourself as a self-confident person, however, after examining your diet patterns, you might find that you lack self-efficacy; which believes you have the ability to reach a specific goal. Self-efficacy was a contributing factor in a Queensland University weight loss study. In this study, the women with higher rates of self-efficacy were able to meet their dieting goals because they believed they could, and they sought the education to do so. Gaining education, believing in you, and getting encouragement from others are recommended to increase self-efficacy levels that would have a positive affect on a dieter’s weight loss program.

Weight loss plans must consider the emotional aspect of losing weight. If emotional behaviors, weight loss education and dieting confidence are gained at the beginning of the weight loss plan, the weight loss is more likely to stay lost. Science is proving that if you believe you can lose weight, and then you’ll be able to do it. Start your journal and get a grip on your emotional eating, especially while you’re trying to lose weight.

Gain a few pounds of self-confidence, and lose a few pounds of weight. If you need help, try a weight loss program like the Atkins Diet Weight Loss Program that has a strong support group. You can control the food instead of letting it control you. Just learn and believe.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

How to Lose Weight Without Losing Meat: the Weight Loss Program for Meat Lovers

How to lose weight while still being able to eat meat has to be given serious consideration in all diet eating plans. Weight loss programs must focus on protein and nutrients. Without it, you might lose weight, but you won’t be able to function.

How to lose weight without losing the juicy meat that you’ve become accustomed to is not only possible, it’s healthy. Meat provides valuable micronutrients – nutrients that your body doesn’t naturally produce. Planning a diet to lose weight by eliminating meat from your diet can also eliminate iron, selenium, Vitamin A, B12 and folic acid.

Planning to lose weight by substituting greens in your diet’s eating plans won’t help either, because these micronutrients generally don’t occur naturally in plant derived food. Dieting with meat should be a necessary component of a healthy weight loss program. For the benefit of your health, you should seriously consider how to lose weight with meat in your diet eating plans.

Meat not only provides important micronutrients, but it’s a rich source of protein and necessary for healthy growth. Protein is one of the most important dietary resources that your body needs, especially when you are on a weight loss program. Protein takes a systematic approach to your body, from your brain to your waistline and down to your toenails. Protein helps brain cells, lung cells, muscles, bones, and repairs just about everything.

It carries oxygen to our cells and makes enzymes to digest the food we eat (whether we’re trying to lose weight or not). It also runs through our blood and is responsible for our hair, fingernails and toenails. Learning how to include meat in your diet when you’re trying to lose weight is necessary for every part of your body - from your head down to your toes. Meat, unlike other foods, contains the complete amino acids for total body functioning. There’s no sense trying to lose weight if you’re not going to be functioning after your weight loss program.

A healthy weight loss program that helps you learn how to lose weight, and teaches you how to conjure up some new recipes to help you lose weight, is the Atkins diet. This decades old diet plan survives because it is successful, and time has provided the opportunity for scientific studies to prove the health benefits of the Atkins Diet Weight Loss Program. Atkins found another benefit of meat – it lowers food cravings. And that dietary benefit works particularly well in foods with high carbohydrates, which are the foods that the Atkins diet restricts. This discovery made it possible for dieters to learn how to lose weight without losing the meat in their diet eating plans.

How to lose weight without losing the succulent meat that is now a part of your daily diet is possible with the Atkins Diet Weight Loss Program. Since meat has properties that hinder food cravings, people are more successful when dieting with the Atkins Diet Weight Loss Program compared to other weight loss programs. Losing weight while maintaining the proper level of the proteins and micronutrients will keep your body functioning healthy, even with other dietary restrictions.

The Atkins Diet Weight Loss Program is the meat-lovers diet. Learn how to lose weight with the Atkins Diet Weight Loss Program, and you’ll be able to lose weight along with the calorie-inducing food cravings that are inevitable with most diets. Try the Atkins Diet Weight Loss Program if you’re looking for a weight loss program that allows you to eat the healthy meats you’ve grown up with. Diet to lose weight, not meat.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

The Atkins Diet: Eating to Lose Weight With the Atkins Weight Loss Program

The Atkins Diet has been proven to be a successful way to lose weight. Although the validity of reducing carbohydrates has been hotly disputed – time has let science prevail. Atkins diet works to lose weight.

The Atkins Diet hasn’t been hiding under an upside-down bowl of chocolate pudding over the last few decades. The Atkins Diet Weight Loss Program has been helping people lose weight and keep their weight off for years. Decades ago, the Atkins Diet stirred things up in the dietary world – going against the conventional wisdoms of how to lose weight.

Atkins told his dieting audience that if they wanted to lose weight, bread had to take a backseat to meat. Losing weight meant losing carbohydrates. Atkins’ voiceful confidence in his dietary theories prevailed to make the Atkins Weight Loss Program one of the most recognized diets in the world. Diet eating took on a new form. Dieters were shocked that they could still savor the juicy red steak and lose weight at the same time. Flavors stayed and carbohydrates were exiled. The Atkins diet surpassed its “fad” status, and time has demonstrated that the Atkins diet is a scientifically proven way to lose weight successfully.

Back in 2007, the Washington Post reported a study done by Stanford University that compared four diets. Two were low-carb diets, one was a behavior modification diet, and one was a low-fat diet. These were all very popular diets that women chose to lose weight. The Atkins diet was one of the contenders, and the winner. More women were able to lose weight with the Atkins diet than the other low-carb diets that sought to capitalize on Atkins success. Additionally, more women were able to lose weight with the Atkins diet than they were with the low-fat diet and the diet that focused on losing weight with behavior modification.

Atkins Diet Weight Loss Program did more than just help women lose weight. It also helped women reduce their bad cholesterol. Triglycerides levels dropped. Triglycerides are linked to heart disease. The women losing weight with the Atkins diet also lowered their blood pressure, and had the highest increase in HDL – which is the good cholesterol. LDL, on the other hand, is bad cholesterol, and a major factor in the risks for heart disease.

Experts have speculated that Atkins Diet Weight Loss Program would substantially increase a dieter’s LDL. This would be a logical assumption since the Atkins Diet suggests that you can lose weight by substituting meat (high in saturated fats) for carbohydrates to help you lose weight. The results of the Stanford study showed only a slight increase in LDL levels; however, the LDL blood levels from the Atkins dieters were no different from the other dieters.

Eating to lose weight with the Atkins Diet Weight Loss Program no longer has to carry the stigma that it’s a “fad.” Dieters can feel confident that they will lose weight with the Atkins diet. Eating healthy to lose weight with a low-carbohydrate diet will not cause the imminent heart failure that some dissidents feared.

Losing weight with the Atkins Diet Weight Loss Program is the scientifically proven way to get your diet out of your book and onto your plate. You’ll lose weight, lose triglycerides, and gain some good HDL. The proven success of the Atkins diet means you don’t have to lose faith – the only thing you have to lose is weight.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Lose Weight Diet Plan Tips Free - 10 Tips to Lose Weight Fast-how Can I Lose Weight and Build Muscle

Lose weight Diet Plan free tips, articles, advice, guide, tops and plan with easy DIY method. You can lose weight in two ways through a diet plan or by doing exercises and workout. The most effective and best way to start losing pounds of fat and weight.

Lose weight advice online is not in short supply. Most of them will give you information on what kind of product to use or exercise to do. But losing weight is best done by a combination of methods and mental and physical preparedness to see it through. There are some very simple steps that you can take and Do it yourself starting to lose weight in days.

Lose Weight Diet Plan Tips # 1: Make a List of Foods

If you are trying to reduce weight by doing it yourself, then you can start by simply making a list of all the things you eat in a week. The easiest way to do this is to have a notebook with you at all times and take down all the food you eat and that includes breakfast, brunch, snacks, lunch, and even bitings. You may want to however consider the foods that are more frequent than the ones that are one offs. Once you have made your list you can now start to look at it closely with an intention of making a personal weight loss program that works.

Lose Weight Diet Plan Tips # 2: Review Your List

Your first list of foods you eat is your first step in identifying what you are eating wrong. You now need to review that list to find out which foods are unhealthy and leading to your weight gain. While reviewing your list, you should bear in mind that foods like fats do not help you lose weight, calorie intake not be too high since this only adds to more weight. Remove the unhealthy foods that you identified from your list as they cannot help you to lose weight.

Lose Weight Diet Plan Tips # 3: Replace the Foods Removed From List

Calorie intake is very critical and should not be reduced dramatically trying to lose weight. You will need to replace the foods that you remove from the list with more healthy foods that will help with your quest to lose weight. Replacing fatty foods with fiber and natural foods will help a lot.

Lose Weight Diet Plan Tips # 4: Make a Meal Plan for a Week

After replacing the foods in your previous diet, you need to make a healthy weight loss diet plan for a week. This diet plan should be the tightest, basic but healthy meal plan. Make sure that it is a well balanced diet. While making the lose weight diet program, you need to ensure that it has all the three important food types including some vitamins. The other most important thing is that your fat burning diet plan should be made such that it gradually reduces the amount of calorie content.

Lose Weight Diet Plan Tips # 5: Ration and Control Your Portions

This is where discipline is needed to maintain a program to lose weight. Most people lose out the battle in weight loss by not sticking to the defined weight loss diet plan. Sneaking and taking a bite of the banned foods just delays your body’s reaction to a diet plan. Similarly, even the portions of the right weight loss plan should be taken in moderation not to exceed the necessary daily calorie intake for desired results.

Lose Weight Diet Plan Tips # 6: Eat fiber foods

Foods with fiber are good for your stomach. It helps you to lose weight faster since fiber makes digestion and assimilation of food into the body faster. Some of the good fiber foods include dried apricots, rice, tomatoes, nuts and most fruits. Fiber foods will assist in your realizing weight loss results faster than if you did not take them.

Lose Weight Diet Plan Tips # 7: Take lots of water

Taking lots of water will also assist you to lose lots of weight fast. The body has a way of retaining water when it detects that the body is getting dehydrated. When you go on diet and fail to take enough water, your body goes in a distress mode and starts to retain water in some not so cute areas. This increases the overall weight in your body and it may make you deflated to realize little gains in weight loss. So water retention in your body is the first thing you have to get rid of and to do that you need to take more and more water.

Lose weight diet Plan Tips # 8: Work out or do some Exercise

To lose weight fast, you can decide to go either the diet plan way or the workout way. Losing weight through exercising achieves faster results and also burns fat into lean muscle. The best way to lose weight naturally however is to combine exercises and a good diet plan. Exercising also reduces the chance of developing muscular atrophy and keeps your body air and blood circulation in top form. You do not need to join a gym if you don’t have the money for that but you can do some easy exercises right at home without much stress.

Weight loss Diet Plan Tips # 9: Take aerobics

Aerobics are good for your heart and also help in faster weight loss. Most aerobic exercises will also burn the fat found in your belly, thighs, back and legs giving you a lean frame. Again, you don’t have to go to a gym to do aerobics if you can’t get the time or you don’t want to spend too much money. Some aerobics that you can do on your own include brisk walking, jogging, swimming and even dancing.

Weight Loss Diet Plan Tips # 10: Discipline, Motivation Consistency

It is not easy to follow strictly, a good weight loss diet program. Most of the times especially after the first week you will find the urge to sneak a bite of chocolate, burger or any of these foods. In fact, after sometime, your selected weight loss diet program will taste so routine you dread your next meal. But this is where you need the discipline and focus on your goal.

Again it’s good to work from a perspective of a targeted weight level rather than just saying you want to lose weight. Say, you want to be a size XYZ rather than, “I want to lose weight”. Stick to your guns and you will be propelled by the initial gains to achieve even more.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Natural Weight Loss & Its Benefits

Natural weight loss is the safest and most effective method to lose weight. When we eat good quality foods our bodies will take their own natural course and lose weight. A healthy diet combined with a regular exercise
program is definitely the way to proceed.

Natural weight loss is a big subject today for many people who do not understand the principle of eating only the amount they need for the amount physical activity they perform; nevertheless how many people follow this advice. You would think it would immediately put all those specialist diet companies and the whole industry out of business but that is not the case; a third of overweight Americans and millions globally, would disagree with this advice. Natural weight loss is related to Absolutelythin.com. Our current best medication for appetite and hunger suppression is a form of combination therapy using 2 prescription medications. Natural weight loss requires a clear vision and dedication. But, it is possible.

Natural weight loss is the perfect product for a home based business. Our natural products have many different uses, our natural products reduce cravings for successful weight loss. Natural weight loss is the best weight loss. Sustained weight loss is much easier to achieve with
a drug free weight loss regimen. Natural weight loss is the simple process of taking in less food and exercising more. This is without a doubt both the healthiest and cleanest method to lose weight.

Natural weight loss is the safest and most effective way at losing weight and helping you boost your health at the same time. If you are not a very strong willed person, then natural weight loss supplements do have the ability to give you a push in the right direction. Natural weight loss is especially important at the teenage years, as you are undergoing changes which can be stunted or dangerously accelerated without the proper fitness guidelines.

Dieting is most prevalent in western societies, so we would expect to see everyone getting thinner . No despite a vast dieting industry, the populations have been getting fatter and fatter! Dieting actually slows down your metabolic rate. For your body dieting is starvation, and it does not know how this starvation will last. Dietrine continues with this dedication though by providing the following free bonus offers with all paid offers.

Diet pills are not part of a healthy weigh loss program
and are never part of a natural weight loss plan. Most diet pills have very unhealthy side effects. Dietary Pills and weight-loss pills like Curvelle aren't subject to the same rigorous standards as are prescription drugs or over-the-counter medications. Thus, they can be sold with little proof of effectiveness or safety. The truth about dieting is that the weight comes off and in a short while we gain it all back. Most diets either have you starving your system or else
they are not geared realistically for you to follow for
the rest of your life.

Starting any natural weight loss program is an ongoing process, not an instantaneous, miracle cure.

Exercise and diet is a must: try to incorporate it into your routine activities. You can go everywhere with a little will power. The essential ingredient in a natural weight loss program is exercise; natural weight loss is improved by the addition of regular exercise, and of course, you will achieve much
better results than when dieting alone. Not only does exercise contribute to weight loss, rapid weight loss is also accompanied by reduced stress levels, an energy boost, increased body endurance, a reduced risk for diseases, and an overall improvement in the quality of life.

In this instance healthy refers to low in fat, salt and
sugar while including whole grains, vegetable and fruit. You can find a ton of healthy and delicious natural food recipes online. Healthy cooking requires just general cooking techniques. Natural cooking methods definitely provide the best flavor and also enables your food to retain its nutrition. Natural weight loss is very easy with the correct weight loss program.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Weight loss and Dieting

People who lose weight quickly by "crash" dieting or other extreme measures usually gain it all back or gain even more of the pounds that they lost because they haven't permanently changed their eating habits. As a general rule though, most nutrition experts recommend never going below 1,000-1,200 calories a day if you're dieting on your own. This explains why it's crucial to do as much as you can to protect your metabolic rate, especially when you're dieting. And this means dieting sensibly with a suitable, rather than a very low calorie intake so that you lose fat rather than muscle.

Weight-loss

Weight-loss typically involves the loss of fat, water and muscle. Weight management is about long-term success & will hopefully last a lifetime. Weight gain is often linked to certain medication, such as HRT, the contraceptive pill and steroids. Weight-Loss is something that many Americans struggle with. Weight-loss dieting increases the risk of developing gallstones. Weight cycling, or losing and regaining weight repeatedly, may increase the risk of developing gallstones. Weight reduction diets include medically supervised diets; self-administered diets; commercial diet organizations and centers; weight-loss support groups or behavior modification programs; "fad" diets; "sensible, well-balanced" diets; in-hospital fasts; very-low-calorie diets (VLCDs); prepackaged food plans; and diets supplemented by drugs or artificial food products or supplements. Weight-loss diets have long been promoted as a permanent cure for "obesity," although they rarely produce long-lasting or permanent results. Healthy rate to lose weight is about 2lb a week on average.

Diet

Dietary fiber is another food component which influences health even though it is not actually absorbed into the body. Diets affect the "energy in" component of the energy balance by limiting or altering the distribution of foods. Diets can be boring and there’s always a temptation to return to old habits.

Diets

Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people. Diets cannot help but fail because bodies were never meant to engage in repetitive cycles of dramatic weight loss and weight gain. Diets that don't include a variety of nutritious foods, or have too few calories, can be dangerous for kids. In most cases the goal is weight loss, but some athletes aspire to gain weight (usually in the form of muscle) and diets can also be used to maintain a stable body weight. There are several kinds of diets:Weight-loss diets restrict the intake of specific foods, or food in general, to reduce body weight. Many professional athletes impose weight-gain diets on themselves. American football players may try to "bulk up" through weight-gain diets in order to gain an advantage on the field with a higher mass. Individuals who are underweight, such as those recovering from anorexia nervosa or starvation, may adopt weight-gain diets which, unlike those of athletes, have the goal of restoring normal levels of body fat, muscle, and stores of essential nutrients. As more cultures scrutinize their diets, many parents consider putting their children on restricted diets that actually do more harm than good. Unless a doctor says otherwise, low-carb, low-fat, or other specialty diets for children who are not heavily obese are unhealthy because they deprive the body of the building blocks of cells (namely energy and lipids in the above examples).

Dieting

Dieting sets up a psychological state of childhood and usually fails in the long run, study finds. Dieting actually causes some people to gain weight.

Dieting can cause the following side effects:

- It may make you feel hungry and preoccupied with food (thinking about it all the time)

- Distracted and tired

- Sad and unmotivated

- Cold and dizzy

- And deprived of foods you enjoy.

Dieting before Pregnancy, many doctors do emphasize losing weight before beginning apregnancy. Dieting (especially strongly hypocaloric diets) tend to deplete the body of vitamins and minerals, and particularly of B vitamins. It is already a stress on the body; add in nutritional depletion before taking on the stress of making another little human being inside you (and all the huge hormonal changes associated with that). Dieting after pregnancy has special implications when breastfeeding.

Studies have found relations between dieting and low self-worth in 8-year-old girls and dieting and the development of eating disorders in overweight and obese adults.

Conclusion

Dieting creates more problems than it solves; dieting and overeating become a vicious circle. Dieters never stop dieting, and never stop using the dieting industry. Dieters have double the risk of getting type-2 diabetes compared to those who are overweight but do not diet.

As a general rule, until you have seen your GP, I suggest you stop thinking about dieting and losing weight and instead concentrate on eating a healthy, balanced diet that contains a wide range of foods. Did you know that by far, the biggest secret to losing fat is detoxifying your colon and liver?

Good luck dieting and remember to eat smart.

Friday, September 12, 2008

You Should Know How Your Diet Is Supposed To Work

The vast majority of people start dieting in order to lose weight. Losing weight can be accomplished in a number of ways. A diet is simply a specific method for accomplishing that task.

When one decides that they need to lose weight, the first thing that must be considered is the reason for wanting to lose weight. Is the weight loss going to be directed at a way to gain better health or is it more of a vanity reason? The reason for dieting is as important as the method used to lose the weight.

If attaining a more healthy lifestyle and striving for better health is the reason, it should not be of any concern how long the dieting takes to achieve the weight loss goal, if in fact there is a goal. If good health is the main objective, length of time should not be an issue because the diet should simply be a part of a life-style change in which the dieting change would be a long-term part of the life-style anyway.

If, on the other hand, vanity is the reason and the dieting person is hell bent on losing a significant amount of weight in a short period of time in order to fit into an object of clothing or simply to look great at the class reunion in a month, the method chosen for dieting will be completely different and, most likely, quite unhealthy.

Long term lifestyle type diets are usually of the type that occur in small increments of weight loss and continue as exercise is slowly increased and more healthy food, in smaller portions is consumed. These are usually quite simple diets that don't cause a significant amount of suffering as long as the dieting person is committed to the long-term goals.

The vanity type diet is usually a quick but very self-denying diet in which the dieting person eats very little or eats foods that do not tempt the pallet as far as taste or attractiveness go. Often, very large amounts of water are incorporated into these diets and most people do not drink enough water to begin with. When they are confronted with the need to increase their water intake significantly, they hesitate or they are not very compliant. Water, when one is not thirsty, simply does not taste very good.

The vanity diet also usually requires a substantial increase in activity in the form of exercise and most people have a strong aversion to that form of activity.

There are also diets that are not in either the lifestyle change nor the vanity dieting lists but are really a forced lifestyle change that is completely necessary for the dieting person to continue to live. Once such diet is the diabetic diet. If one ignores their diabetes and continues to eat large amounts of carbohydrates, as most Americans do, they will eventually suffer serious health deterioration. So, the necessary-for-life diets are not the ones we are really concerned with in this article.

There are a number of different diets available for each of the non-necessity diets. The basic lifestyle change diet has already been described though some of the latter day fad diets are also appropriate for long-term dieting if the person doing the dieting is indeed dedicated to the lifestyle change. Some specific fad diets that would work for this person are the Atkins or low-carb diet, The Zone diet or the South Beach diet.

The extreme vanity diet person can also use the low carb diet for fast weight loss or they can try starvation or if they really want to lose weight fast and suffer a bit more but at least retain some type of decent health, they can attempt the Lemonade Diet.

The lemonade diet is highly effective but is more a fast than a diet and a special mixture of water, cayenne pepper, lemon juice and syrup are required. One must be highly dedicated to losing weight for this diet to work as no food is allowed for a period of at least ten days and the Lemonade dieter will feel worse before they feel like a million dollars. The diet is extremely effective for losing ten pounds or more in ten days though. The added benefit of this diet is that it does a thorough job of cleaning the colon.

Each one of the above mentioned diets should be highly suspect and not just accepted for it's reputation or the current fad. One who is considering dieting should, at the very least, buy the book that is written about the diet in order to learn how the diet works with the body and effects the different body systems. Each of the authors has a lot of information included in their book about these concerns.

The main point of this article is to point out to anyone who is considering dieting that they should be very careful and choose a diet that meets their goals and health concerns. Don't blindly go into any diet without knowing how it's supposed to effect you, what you're supposed to eat while on the diet, how much weight you are expected to lose in a specific period of time and what are the benefits and health concerns that attach to that diet.

In fact, it is a very good idea to discuss any diet plans with your health care professional prior to starting or even considering one of the above diets.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

7 Simple Tips To Boost Your Weight Loss Program

If you are starting a weight loss program, it may be helpful for you to know that there are some simple steps you can take to make any weight loss program more effective. Let's share with you 7 tips that have been proven successful by millions of weight loss participants in any weight loss program of their choice.

Weight Loss Tip #1: Realistic Goals
The fastest way to lose motivation is to set unrealistic weight loss goals for yourself before you even start your weight loss program. Ask yourself some simple questions - What do you want to achieve from this weight loss program? How much weight do you want to lose in a day, a week or a month? Remember that each small goal you achieve will propel you closer to your final destination. But if you set unrealistic goals, you will only end up in frustration and disappointment when they are not achieved, even when you are making significant progress in your weight loss goals.

Weight Loss Tip # 2: Preparation is the Key
Now is the time to start a new lifestyle and start getting rid of your junk food, your colas in the refrigerator, those puddings and those chocolates you stash in your drawer! Make a new list of the food you need and start stocking on them in large quantities. Include vegetables, fruits, healthy snacks, mineral waters and vitamins and minerals supplements you may need.

Weight Loss # 3: Reward system
Give yourself a pat on the back and create a reward system for your weight loss program. For instance, you may want to get yourself a new shoe, a new CD or even a new handbag if you reach a certain point in your weight loss efforts.

Weight Loss # 4: Healthy Breakfast
This is the most important meal that you should never miss. Skipping breakfast means that you are programming your brain to think that you hungry starved and deprived, this will only cause you to feel lethargic and when the pressure is too much, you may decide to embark on an eating binge. This is sheer suicide to your weight loss program!

Weight Loss # 5: Exercise
For long lasting effects and to boost the rate of your weight loss, this is one important activity you must inculcate into your routine. No weight loss program can be successful without a good exercise program. Choose a good exercise program that lets you burn fat and gives a good cardiovascular exercise at the same time.

Weight Loss # 6: Sleep
Always get enough sleep during your weight loss program. A normal adult would need an approximately 7-8 hours of sleep a day. This helps to keep your bodily system working in perfect order, which is crucial to the success of your weight loss program.

Weight Loss Tip 7:Relaxation
This is important in any weight loss program and you should make relaxation a crucial apart of your schedule. Meditation, relaxation and affirmations can help boost your confidence and make the process more enjoyable.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Pros and Cons of Quick Weight Loss

When it comes to weight loss today, many people are searching for the quick fixes and the fad diets to answer their weight problems, when in fact these are the programs that are inhibiting their weight loss in the long run.

Quick weight loss has its initial benefits but understanding the long term affects of this type of weight loss program can help you learn the most effective forms of weight loss and how to maintain weight when you finally reach your goal.

You see, there are actually some quick weight loss methods out there that work, however, the majority of people searching for weight loss information have no idea what these methods actually are. They get fooled by the fad diets that tell them a certain food is the sole cause of their weight gain and go for the pitch with enormous hope.

In a society that is based on the love for a quick fix, many people simply do not have the time in their day for any other form of weight loss program that may have better result but takes up too much time. At least, this is how many of them feel, but nothing could be further from the truth because a great weight loss program does not require a very large investment of time.

Let's go through the pros and cons of conventional quick weight loss so you can see where the pitfalls are, and then we can explore where the true benefits of a successful quick weight loss program can be found. More importantly, let's examine how you can get great, long-lasting weight loss results in your own life.

Pros Of Most Fad Diets

* Choosing to utilize a fad diet you have the ability to place great hope in a system with large claims. In the beginning you see a great deal of weight loss and assume that you are losing fat (in reality it's water and muscle). This is enough motivation to convince anyone they are on the right track. These diets tend to be highly motivating, but just as deceptive.

* There is not much time involved for quick fixes like fad dieting. You are led to believe that you simply restrict the foods you eat as the diet calls for and you will get the results they promise.

* You do not have to go to the gym and work out with most fad diets, or at least they claim this to be true. The claims they make are enormous and unsupported in many ways, and this is the snare that gets most people. Everyone is willing to take a chance that involves no tedious work.

* Instant results! Most fad diet claim to lose double digit poundages in less than a week. This claim may be possible on a comprehensive weight loss system, but there are few systems out there that can honestly claim this. The fad diets don't even come close on this claim, yet you will never see them stop making it.

Cons Of Most Fad Diets

* When you use a fad diet or choose to lose weight any other way than with a healthy diet and exercise you are losing the wrong type of weight; water and muscle mass. This means that you are not losing fat at all and the potential to gain all this weight back is more than likely due to overall decreased metabolic effects.

* You are slowing down your metabolism by eating less and neglecting your body of calories, carbohydrates and fat because your body needs the correct types of these nutrients to function properly. When your metabolism slows down you are not only going to discover a lull in the amount of weight you lose, but the capacity to gain it all back and then some is also increased.

* You find yourself in what is known as a yo-yo diet system where you are constantly losing weight quickly and gaining it all back. This can be dangerous for your health as well as your psychological emotions as well. It can be discouraging to find yourself in this cycle and even prevent you from trying to lose weight again.

* These types of quick weight loss programs are not for the long term. They utilize variations in starvation techniques that can only sabotage your weight loss goals in the future. The only way to really lose weight and keep it off is by changing your lifestyle. Begin eating healthier and exercising regularly so it is part of your life, not a short term diet plan.

Although in the beginning of the process, quick weight loss plans can seem incredibly effective, they do not last unfortunately, and they can severely damage your metabolism as well as your overall health depending on which program you follow.

Although you are trying to lose fat and calories, your body still needs a certain amount to function properly and the more you deprive your body of these nutrients and minerals, the more harm you are doing than good. Take the time to re-adjust your lifestyle and start making time for healthy meals, snacks and exercise to lose weight at a more gradual basis.

You will find that the weight loss you lose from healthy weight loss techniques is actually fat loss and your physique will transform into the body you used to envy! So what are you waiting for? Start adopting a healthy weight loss program now and turn your body into a fat burning machine!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Why Most Weight Loss Diets Don't Work

If you've ever gone on a diet,you've learned two things: dieting is no fun. And even if you lose some weight,you usually gain it back. But why is that?

There is plenty of medical evidence to prove that dieting actually can make you fat. And that happens because your body goes to war with any weight loss diet. They aren't natural and the body craves only a natural state of being. So as you struggle to find a weight loss diet that works, your body makes it tougher and tougher for that unnatural state to persist, which results in the negative effects of yo yo dieting: weight gain.

In this article, we examine the physical reasons why your body sabotages your efforts to diet. We'll also look at ways to overcome them so your weight loss diet has a better chance of working.

Defense Mechanisms Overview
Our bodies have defense mechanisms that evolved in us throughout history. In early times, food shortages required the body to accumulate fat stores to protect against the lean times. And to this day,our bodies are still programmed this way, even though it's no longer needed.

So when we go on a diet, the body thinks hard times are here so it goes into fat-storage mode to protect us. The more dieting you do, the more your body thinks it has to store fat. Your task,if you want to lose weight, is to outsmart the following defense mechanisms.

Metabolism
We often use the word metabolism - "I have a slow metabolism", "I have a fast metabolism." But what does it really mean in terms of a weight loss diet?

Metabolism refers to all the processes occurring in the body that are responsible for life: your heartbeat, your body temperature, breathing, and the burning of calories to create energy. Your metabolism determines how many calories your body burns to do its job. That's how your metabolism can be influenced by any weight loss diet that restricts calories.

Repeated diets cause your body to slow down its metabolism in order to become more efficient and continue running on fewer calories.But when you end your diet and return to a normal caloric intake, your body isn't used to burning all those calories, so it stores the leftover ones as fat. So to prevent that, you now have to eat much less than before just to maintain your new weight. In other words: your diet can never end in order to be successful. And a diet without end is a dire prospect for most of us.

Fat-Storing Enzymes
LPL enzymes store fat. That's their job. When you diet, the LPL become more active and grow in number. The problem is, when you finish your diet, the LPL levels don't return to normal until you regain most of the weight you lost.Another way your body makes weight loss dieting very difficult. (Don't worry, we'll provide some sensible weight loss diet suggestions that DO work at the end of this article.)

Calorie Absorption
When you diet, your intestines get super efficient at absorbing calories. They go into overdrive, trying to fully stock the body with nutrients by getting as many calories out of the food you eat as possible, not letting any pass out of the body. So the result is logical: dieting makes your intestines very good at absorbing and storing up calories. Exactly what you don't want when you're on a weight loss diet to lose pounds.

The Body Fat Dilemma
Poor dieting can make you fatter than you were before. That's because when you lose the weight, it often comes from water and muscles. But when you gain it back, it returns in the form of fat. So you wind up with a higher proportion of fat to lean muscle than you had before.

Hormonal Disruptions
Low cal weight loss diets make your thyroid gland produce less of the hormone that regulates metabolism. And that can reduce your calorie burning ability by up to 15%. Not helpful for anyone trying to lose weight.

Skipping Breakfast
Missing meals may be the worst kind of weight loss diet because calories taken early in the day are burned off faster than those eaten at night. So skipping breakfast and eating more in the evening actually contributes to the weight problem. In fact, eating all your daily calories for breakfast can lead to weight loss, eating them all at night leads to weight gain.

Training Your Stomach
Overeating at meal time stretches out the stomach.That trains it to want more food in order to get that full feeling. But people who eat small meals more often need and want less food. The stomach can be trained over time to adapt to smaller meals and snacks taken throughout the day. When the stomach is smaller, it will fill faster and demand less food.

Beating Your Body's Defense Mechanisms
As promised, here are some ways to override your body's defenses and create a sensible, effective weight loss diet that really works:

1. Don't yo-yo diet. Come up with a healthy weight loss diet plan and see it through until you get results.
2. Don't drop calorie intake below 1,000 a day. The body sees this as a threat. Instead, eat enough calories that contain the right balance of nutrients like proteins and carbs while reducing fats.
3. Include fiber in any weight loss diet plan. It helps food and fats pass through the intestines quickly, rather than getting absorbed in the form of calories.
4. Avoid simple carbs like sugars: they are quickly absorbed by the body as blood sugar which increases insulin - the enemy of weight loss diets.
5. Drink caffeine in moderation for the same reason. It stimulates insulin secretion.
6. Never go hungry. Eating regular meals and snacks will help eliminate those dangerous cravings and keep your body's defense mechanisms from going into starvation mode.
7. Eat more of your daily calories early in the day and less of them later.
8. Be content with slow weight loss. This prevents the body from going on defense and allows the weight loss to continue gradually.
9. Keep the weight off with exercise.

One More Thing
Even following these guidelines, some people who are obese or very overweight find it difficult to lose weight. For them, medication may help to support their weight loss diet.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

All the Truths About Fat

Most people are focused on fat. We all hear about the idea that fat is not something good nowadays. Since the time we are small children everyone taught us that fat is not good for us. In fact, some may be worried about calories rather than fat. To be frank you should be worrying about both of them. You should try to avoid junk food. It is always a good idea to get calories from foods that are good for your health.

Most people eat bread every day of their lives. To some extents we are addicted to carbs. I know I am. I eat so much bread and other carbs. However, I will not eat too much of it. It is just like the case of fat. There is nothing wrong when you eat fat. However, eating too much of it will render problem. You will be suffering from the problem of hear attack if you take too much of fat. What is even worse is that you do not really exercise at all.

In fact, not all fat is the same though. Some fat is worse than others. There are items that are lower in saturated fat. For example, meats and cheeses fall into this category. On the other hand, there is food that contains more saturated fat. Some of the examples of such food will be French fries and potato chips.

You may think that oils are also not good since in most cases oil is just another word of fat. However, you should also know that oils such as olive oil are low in saturated fats. As a result, you should try to use this for cooking. Of course you should use as little oil as possible. Sometimes we will overuse oil because the food gets stuck on the cookware. To this end you should try to use non sticky cookware. This will help you to reduce the use of oil and this will probably make you healthier.

As you may know, you will be in health risks if you have diets high in fat. You are at higher risk of having sugar problems and heart disease. You may also have the risk of having cancer. Skin problem will also appear if you take diets of high fat. Remember, taking little fat will not render any problem to you. However, if you continuously take a lot of fat, the chance is that you will have a lot of health problem!

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Fast Weight Loss Tip - Top Fast Weight Loss Techniques

Top Fast Weight Loss Techniques

Other than physical appearance weight affects a person in many ways. This could be the overall quality of life, self-esteem, depression, health risks, and physical incapabilities. There are a lot of positive changes once a person experience weight loss. It is for this reason why a lot of people are searching for a weight loss technique that will surely trim down those fats and get a super slim head turner body.

The first thing that an over-weight should do is seek a doctor to recommend the best weight loss regimen. This will be done after a full physical examination, which leads to the determination of proper weight loss technique. And to lose weight fast and effectively four aspects of life should be changed: what to eat, how to eat, behavior and activity level.

Here are fast tips that can change an over-weight's life:

First: Fast weight loss composes of a multi-faceted technique that consists mindset, exercise, and in other cases, diet supplements. Begin by learning a diet food plan that can easily be accustomed with. Incorporate an exercise plan that allows even at least fifteen minutes a day like brisk walking, running, swimming, and dancing.

Second: Set realistic approaches. The ability to focus and have proper mindset enables someone on a diet to quickly lose those extra pounds. With discipline and proper mind set, a dieter will never be discouraged and lose focus.

Third: Listen as the body speaks. Each and everyone's body metabolism reacts differently to different fast weight loss programs and plans. Try substituting one program for another to compensate the body's reaction. Exercise program must be suitable to one's body, as others are not able to exercise as rigorously as others can. If walking is all that can be done, then walk for this is proven the best exercise. Muscles burn more calories than fats so it's also best to put on a little muscle and looking good too.

Fourth: Eat more fibers for it makes a person full sooner and stays in the tummy longer, slowing down the rate of digestion. A single serving of whole grain bread moves fat through the digestive system faster. Grains turn into blood sugar that spikes the body's insulin level. Thus, making the body more energized and ready to tell the body when it should stop burning fats or start storing.

Fifth: Keep away from fried foods especially deep-fried as this contains a great amount of fat. Although fish and chicken appear leaner than beef, this white meat can contain more fat than when a beef is fried. It is recommended for those on strict diet to opt for grilled food as this does not have or contain less amount of fat after the food is cooked.

Sixth: Takes lots of fluid. Drinking at least six to eight glasses of water a day keeps the body refreshed. Since weight loss depends on how the body eliminates body wastes, the body must stay hydrated.

All in all, discipline and consistency is still the best practice and the key to a rapid weight loss success. Light dieting, workout, and right amount of supplementation applied in a regular way everyday will result in faster weight loss than having a massive action only to be followed a return to old habits as this would only lead to gaining more weight than when the weight loss plan has started.

Losing Weight is a Journey That Starts With a Single Step

For most people, losing weight can be a lifelong struggle. There are many reasons for this. Sometimes people must take medication for another ailment or disease which causes an increase in hunger. Or the medication may affect the person's metabolism, slowing it down.


These reasons can cause weight loss. Other people suffer from psychological problems with food that can make weight loss impossible without counseling. These people turn to food for comfort or to fill an emotional void. In this case, eating is just a substitute for something else. Food can never fill this void so the person continues to eat in the hopes of filling this unfulfilled void. Both of these situations can lead to weight gain and even to obesity.

However, there are a few simple things you can do to help with your weight loss. The first is not to diet. That is right, do not diet! A diet is simply a short-term process which is meant for a rapid weight loss. However, this can not be sustained and after the diet is over, the person usually gains back all of their weight and more! Instead of diet, you must approach weight loss as a lifestyle change. A lifestyle change implies that this is a long-term process that takes time to implement but will have last effects.

I have two friends who illustrate both points. The first, we'll call "Lily." Lily went to L.A. Weight Loss and paid her fees for the 12 week program. She stuck to her diet and she lose 21 pounds! Great! However, after she finished her three-week program, she did not return. Slowly, the pounds came back and today, Lily is fatter than she was before she went on her diet. Contrast that with our next example. "Doug" was addicted to soda. He'd have one or two with lunch, one for an afternoon "pick-me-up", and one or two with dinner. (You'll need a big calculator to add up all of those "empty" calories!) So, to start living a healthier life, Doug decided on a lifestyle change. He stopped drinking soda. He instead drinks unsweetened teas and water. After six months, Doug has lost (and maintained his weight loss) 50 pounds. Plus, he claims to have more energy than ever before!

If your weigh gain is due to medical reasons such as medications that increase hunger or reduce metabolism, then talk to your doctor about it. There are hundreds of new drugs that come to market every year and there may be an alternative that doesn't have this unwanted side-effect. Or perhaps, your doctor could adjust the dose of your medication to help reduce these cravings for food or reduction in metabolism.

So, as you can see, weight loss requires an entirely new mindset. If you require medication, talk to your doctor about changing or reducing your medication. If you need to eliminate certain foods from your diet, pick one and start there. Just remember, the longest journey starts with a single step. Weight loss, and permanent weight loss, is definitely a journey worth taking.

Weight Loss Tips - 5 Simple Tips For Eating At Restaurants

Going out to eat is one of America's favorite pastimes. That's evidenced by the billions of dollars we spend each year doing so. While it may be fun eating out, it can also be very fattening if you're not careful. Here are 5 simple tips to keep in mind when eating at restaurants and trying to lose weight.

1. Just Say No To Appetizers

When asked if you would like an appetizer, just say no. The same for the pre-meal loaf of bread or rolls. At the very least, take home the appetizer for later. Just don't eat them before your meal.

2. Watch The Dinner Salad

Dinner salads are great if you watch what is on them. Lettuce, tomatoes, carrots or other vegetables are fine. But, leave off the bacon bits or croutons. Stick to an Italian dressing or an oil and vinegar based dressing. Forget about the thick creamy ranch or thousand island.

3. Watch The Sides

Many dishes you order come with some kind of rice or pasta. Avoid this if at all possible. Substitute the rice for a side of fresh vegetables or the seasoned veggies. Filling up on rice or pasta will only contribute to filling out your waistline.

4. No Fried Or Breaded Foods

A deep-fat fried chicken steak may taste good, but it also puts on the pounds. This even applies to a fish dinner. Instead, order the broiled fish or even the shrimp, etc that is not breaded.

5. Pass On The Desert

Desert may be tempting, but again, just say no. Stuffing yourself after a meal with the chocolate brownie delight is doing nothing for your diet and weight loss goals. It only goes straight to your waistline.

These 5 simple tips can greatly help you with any weight loss plan you are on. Even if you are not on a diet they can help you keep your weight in check if you eat out a lot.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Weight Loss or I Die

Every weight loss plan needs to be considered carefully. People in desperation have gone to ridiculous lengths in order to appear "socially acceptable" though the results most often have been "personally unacceptable" to their health. Many not wanting to go through the rigours and heartaches of a strict dietary plan, have surrendered to all types of surgeries from liposuction to gastric bypass whether or not they deem themselves to be suitable candidates for such. Others have embraced very strict liquid diets, while others wanting to more closely align themselves with the "perfect image" of their favourite celebrities have turned to skipping meals and other sometimes downright funny tactics for losing those extra pounds.

What's the fuss anyway? I shed those extra pounds, regain my celebrity physique and my self esteem improves dramatically. Nobody knows what I suffer privately and no one else is harmed. Wait a minute? Let's get our facts straight.

Last year alone, one source reports about 4000 deaths from cosmetic surgery related cases. Statistics show a higher casualty percentage for persons above 40 years of age. The reasons for those are self evident. Our
cardio-vascular system becomes progressively weake with age and our body's ability to recover from hard knocks received during surgery is severely reduced. Furthermore, of those that live after the anxieties of the surgery have passed, about 40% go on to complain about several types of heart, respiratory and emotional problems. complaints about fatigue, lowered heart rate, hypertension and the like are not uncommon among these ex-patients.

So when next you are tempted to turn to surgery ask yourself, "have I tried other natural weight loss methods", "Am I ready to deal with the medical consequences of surgery", "Is my health critically in danger", or "am I trying to be more socially comfortable", then you can decide to carry on with this line of action.

Liquid diets were once the rave in the 70's and 80's After all, you were not outrightly abstaining from food, you were just taking a better substitute. Well a closer look revealed a lot of things not so hidden. Most liquied diets tend to be high in protein and very low on fat and carbohydrates. This at first glance, seems the ideal combination for weight loss enthusiasts but then we notice something else.

After weeks of faithfully following this liquid diet plan, you begin to notice some things. Yes you have shed some pounds but then you observe that at certain times your heart beats frightenly irregularly, you have a much decreased metablolic rate, are more prone to fatigue and have grown very irritable, what happened? Here's the explanation. Our bodies require a certain percentage of calories for its normal
metablolic function.

These
calories are derived mainly from carbohydrates and fats. When this certain percentage is exceeded, fat cells convert the excess calories in our body into fat and given enough time, consuming above this threshold we become overweight or obese. "Isn't that what we all want to avoid". The problem with most liquid diet manufacturers is this.They think since there is so much pressure from society for a trim shape, why not drastically reduce the carb and fat content, so that rapid results can be attained in record time and people patronise us more. So what do we have, very poor fat and carb liquid diets and a host of metablolic and heart related conditions, most notably ventricular arriththmia.

But the most common weight loss misconception today is that abstinence from food, will in enough time guarantee freedom from being overweight. Teenager's routinely skip their meals and for some, anytime they feel they've overfed, privately induce vomitting, all in the name of remaining in shape.

One thing should be stated clearly here. Abstinence from food for considerable periods of time is the prime cause of gastric, duodenal and most type of ulcers. And in case you don't know it ulcers are the 10th highest killer disease in the world today. More than that, prolonged dieting has been known to shed body fat rqpidly, but when such diet conditions are removed in a moderate amount of cases, certain hormones sometimes become so active, that those lost pounds return in full force and with extra to share. The reason is pretty simple.

Dieting and abstinence from food, put the body in a sort of emergency situation. Fat cells will not normally be used for metabolic activities except when the net ntake of calories is much lower than what the body needs for its normal activities. It is in this "emergency stituation" fat cells come into play. The body converts them into a form that can be readily converted to energy needed for life support. Once this emergency situation is removed, the body resumes its normal process of accumulating a support system in times of emergency. And this means more fat, and sometimes much more unwanted fat, due to over stimulation of fat receptors, leading to obesity.

What would help in this fight against fat? Many answers abound. Eat sensibly, watch your caloritic intake, Exercise regularly and all that. But whatever you do to win this society wide battle, carefully consider the health implications , so you might live long enough to enjoy whatever benefits you reap from your battle lan.

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Sunday, February 3, 2008

How To Look Great Without Losing Weight

First of all, you do not need to lose weight to have a great body, you only need to convert that body fat to muscle tissue and you would have a body that people would be envious of. So, how do you get this god-like body when you are fairly or even slightly overweight? Furthermore, I'm not talking about building a body like those of professional body builders. I'm talking about building a nice, toned, and healthy body.

So, how do you do this without losing weight? First, the same weight in muscle tissue is much smaller than the same weight in fat tissue. Another way of putting it is... let's say you have one pound of fat tissue and one pound of muscle tissue side by side for comparison. The muscle tissue is much denser and much smaller in size than the fat tissue.

Some numbers I've seen is that muscle is 18% denser than fat tissue and another number is that fat tissue of the same weight of muscle is 3 times as large. Years ago when I went to the gym, there was a model mockup of this comparison at the personal trainers counter. I do not remember the numbers that model mentioned, only that it talked about the same issue.

Now let us get to the part that most of you want to know, how to achieve this. Do you lift weights to build the muscle or do cardio exercises to burn off the fat? The answer is a bit of both. Many guys I know only weight lift and find themselves gaining weight without looking any better. The reason for this is that they are building muscle but they are building it underneath the fat tissues, so technically, they are not burning off the fat tissue as fast as gaining muscle tissue. For some reason, most guys do not think about doing cardio type exercises but these are the best exercises to do to burn off the fat.

The best way to achieve these results is to do a mixture of weight training and cardio exercises. For weight training, 1 to 2 sets of 12 to 15 reps will suffice for each body part. You do not need to do heavy weight training, just enough weight to exercise the muscle and it's important to do both the upper body and lower body during the same session. Most weight lifters will alternate with doing the upper body one day, then the lower body the next day.

We're not going for the same results so I suggest one day of a full body workout in weight training, then the next day doing nothing but cardio. Usually, the old adage is to do 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps if you are only doing the upper body or the lower body. But, we are doing the whole body in one session so you want to spread out your energy for the whole body by only doing 2 sets for each area.

For cardio workouts, you have a lot of options. The funny thing is that most guys don't want to be caught doing aerobics even though that is one good cardio workout. The other options are swimming, boxing, and any other non-conventional aerobic type exercises. Basically, the goal of cardio exercises is to work the whole body with little to no resistance and get the heart pumping. Have you ever seen an overweight water polo player? No! By swimming laps, you work the whole body. It's like doing weight training with very little weight and reps that count into the hundreds, if not thousands. This doesn't build big muscles but it will burn off the fat very well.

So why not just do cardio to burn off the fat? Well, do you want to look skinny or toned with a bit of muscle?

Is Dieting Right For Me?

Whether dieting is right for a particular person is a difficult thing to determine, sometimes. Some who need to lose weight are not interested in doing so, and others who do not need to lose weight are obsessed with being thinner.


Both of these are unhealthy attitudes, but changing them can be difficult. A lot of people do not realize that how they think and feel can affect how they see themselves and their weight. This can be problematic for people who want to diet or are considering dieting, because they may not need to, or they may need to in order to protect their health and not be aware of it - in other words, they are in denial.

In order to weight less naturally, what is eaten is very important, but so is how much exercise a person gets. If a person is completely sedentary, he or she will not be as healthy as someone who is more active, regardless of what is eaten by either person.

Weight loss usually comes from both getting more exercise and eating less food, and because of that there are many different things that an individual who chooses to lose weight can do. Because obesity is such a problem in more and more areas of the world today, it is becoming much more important to be aware of it, and to make an effort to do something about it, regardless of what that might be.

There are many healthy options, and these include dieting tips that can address childhood obesity as well as adult obesity. If the weight problem is caught early, it will be much easier to deal with it and find ways that a person can be helped to maintain a healthy weight. Whether dieting is right for a specific person, however, is affected by several factors.

If the person is not getting any exercise, he or she should become more active. This can help a person to weigh less naturally without being required to worry too much about what he or she eats - but eating healthy is still important, because more than weight is affected by a person's diet.

Another way to determine if dieting is right for a certain person is to find out whether that person is overweight. There are many height and weight charts, as well as body mass index calculators, which can be used in order to make that determination. Once a person discovers whether he or she is overweight, the issue of dieting can be addressed, and if one is needed, the right diet can be chosen.

Water is a Miracle Weight Loss Drink

We have all heard it and most of us have ignored it; if you want to lose weight you need to drink more water. Eight 8-oz. glasses of water per day is the recommendation from health professionals for optimal health. For many people, that just seems like too much, especially because exchanging the same amount of pop or coffee defeats the purpose of drinking the water in the first place.

There are many reasons to drink up. First of all, Americans have not changed their water intake in the past ten years, but have added 20 ounces of soda to their daily intake. This excess of sugary pop is recognized as one of the reasons for the huge increase in obesity over the past 10 years. It makes sense that we are drinking more pop; since pop tends to be a regular choice for diners, and eating out and ordering in has tripled in the past ten years The colossal change in portions has not helped our over consumption of soda; in 1966 the 'regular' size of a soda was 6 ounces, now it is more than 12.

Replacing water for your soda makes good dieting sense. In one study, dieters who replaced virtually all their usual sweetened drinks with water lost an average of 5 pounds more in a year than dieters who didn't, and those who drank more than four cups of water daily lost 2 more pounds than those that didn't drink as much.

Study after study has shown that drinking water aids in weight loss, although the mechanism whereby it helps is still largely unknown.What is known about water is that your body needs enough of consistently to flush out your daily waste. Your kidneys use water to help flush out the toxins from your body. However, if you don't have enough water to maximize your kidney's function, the liver has to pick up the slack.

Usually the liver's job is to metabolize fat and clean up the blood, but without enough water they have to slow down on those jobs and take over the job for your kidneys. In the end, fat is metabolized much more slowly, so your weight loss is compromised. In addition, your muscles need enough water to contract properly. Water improves muscle tone, so if you are not getting the results you expect from your weight lifting, it might be that you are not giving your body enough water.

Many people give up drinking their full share of water within a few days of trying. That's because for many it seems that they are going to the washroom as fast as they drink it. This is actually a good thing, and temporary. You may know that if you don't give your body enough food it slows its metabolism in "survival mode." The same thing happens with fluid.

When you don't drink enough water your body thinks that it needs to be careful and store it because there must be a shortage. So when you begin to drink the amount you really need, it signals to your body that water is plentiful and your body lets go of the stores of extra fluid it has been keeping (you may see this store of water sometimes gathering around your ankles at the end of the day.) The extra water then flushes out of your system, and as long as you keep drinking the amount you require, your body will not hold on to the extra.

So how much is enough? 64 ounces (2 quarts) of water, the usual eight x 8-ounces, is okay for the average person. However, if you are overweight, you should drink another 8 ounces for every 25 pounds of extra weight you carry. Of course, if you live in a hot climate or exercise very intensely, you will need to drink more. What are you waiting for? Get up now and get yourself a glass! You're on your way to a healthier (and slimmer) you!

Causes Of Weight Gain And Weight Loss Solutions

Overweight people are becoming the norm and unfortunately this is very unhealthy. The reward for losing weight is not only a better looking body but also a body that is alert, energetic, strong and healthy. Couple this with a more positive self esteem and on the whole, the world would be a better place.

Unfortunately, people try to
lose weight by crash dieting and ingesting medicines that might have nasty side effects. Many do not know why they are overweight and merely treat the symptom (weight gain), often with little or no result. Like all challenges, we should look at the cause of a problem in order to better know how to remedy it. Here then are some common causes of weight gain followed by common weight loss solutions used today.

Genetics

Obesity and weight gain tends to run in families. This is closely related to poor family eating habits as well but research has shown a genetic link.

Metabolism

Little exercise and crash diets actually slow down the
metabolism. This makes weight loss even more difficult.

Crash diets

When food intake is drastically reduced, our bodies slow down metabolism in order to conserve energy. The body becomes convinced that food supply is unreliable and will start to store as much fat as possible. A person will then pick up weight, even when back onto a normal
healthy diet.

Psychological

Comfort is eating is quite common. Food is often associated with reward and pleasurable feelings. In time, food becomes related to emotional addiction.

Socio-cultural factors

Due to inactivity and years of eating incorrectly, people become
overweight. Diets, fast foods and quick energy fixes make a huge contribution to weight gain.

Medical Conditions

Some medical conditions result in people picking up weight. Some examples are: Hypothyroidism, Cushing's disease, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome...

Side effects

Certain medications cause
weight gain as a side effect. These include some oral contraceptives, anti-depressants, corticosteroids, lithium and anti-seizure agents.

Pregnancy

Although weight gain is normal during pregnancy, many women struggle to lose weight after giving childbirth.

Methods in use for losing weight

Drug treatment

Prescription and over the counter drugs are used to control appetite. However, many of these products contain stimulants which cause anxiety and numerous other health problems. The body ultimately suffers and lost weight often returns when use of the product is stopped.

Psychotherapy

If weight gain is linked to emotional issues, it would be better to deal with those emotions. Psychotherapy helps identify emotional triggers and to discover positive ways to deal with them.

Lifestyle change

Even though changing bad habits is difficult, it is much easier than most people think. Healthy and balanced diets, irregular exercise, a positive mental approach and a positive emotional quotient do much for a healthy body. This is a gradual process so immediate results are not expected. On the other hand, the results are very long term.

Natural Remedies

Herbal and homeopathic remedies help people lose weight in a healthy manner. They boost metabolism and stimulate the digestive system. They provide a rich source of minerals and maintain healthy metabolism. Natural ingredients assist in the breakdown of dietary fat and rid the body of harmful toxins. The result is a slimmer, energetic and healthy body. Results are noticed quickly but are very long term. The best part is that there are no harmful side effects!

Now you should try to identify exactly why you are gaining weight. Be realistic with yourself. Then decide which would be the healthiest solution for you to reach your goal weight. Remember that the body heals naturally given time (lots of time) but sometimes needs a helping hand due to the lack of nutrients in our modern diets. You should not concentrate only on losing weight but being healthy as well.

Important note

Always consult a doctor or dietitian before subjecting yourself to medicinal or drastic lifestyle changes.