Category: Weight Loss

There’s an old story about a child trying to move a heavy stone while his father looks on. The child works and works, but is just not strong enough. Finally, he tells his father, “I can’t do it. It’s impossible.”

His father responds, “Of course you can. You haven’t used all the strength you have available to you yet.” The little boy answers that he has tried his hardest, and still can’t do it, to which the father responds, “You haven’t asked me to help you yet.”

Sometimes dieting can seem like moving that heavy rock. You struggle and fight, exercise and sweat, but it’s so hard to stick to a diet and exercise schedule that you give up. There comes a time to recognize that asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness. Enlisting the aid of friends, family and a good weight loss support group can bolster your efforts and help you overcome setbacks that threaten to derail your weight loss efforts. Instead of trying to go it alone, try a few of these suggestions to help you stay on track with the help of friends and family.

1.Hook up with an exercise buddy. Making a date and a commitment to help support someone else’s efforts will help you stick to yours as well. Think you don’t know anyone you can exercise with? You might be surprised. Several years ago, I was commiserating with an online friend about another failed effort to lose weight when she proposed a novel idea. We each got a cell phone with the same calling plan, and every afternoon at 2, we ‘met’ for a walk. She did her walking in Seattle, and I did mine in Boston – but by keeping each other company, we helped each other lose 25 pounds each, and cemented a friendship that will last a lifetime.

2.Get your family on the right page. Husbands, wives, children and siblings can offer support in unexpected ways. Something as simple as a sincere compliment at the right time can be all you need to nudge you onward. By the same token, refuse to let them sabotage your diet efforts. When you recognize it, point it out but keep in mind that they probably don’t think of it as ‘sabotage’. If your husband habitually brings you a bowl of ice cream when he gets one for himself, for instance, he probably thinks he’s expressing his love. Let him know that you appreciate it, but you’d rather have a kiss than ice cream anytime.

3. Join a weight loss group like Weight Watchers. There’s a lot to be said for seeking out the support of others who are fighting the same battle you are. Whatever it is that motivates you, you can find it in a weight loss support group. Healthy competition, companionship, encouragement, applause and practical, common sense advice from others who are also fighting to take off pounds can all make reforming your eating habits considerably easier.

Many of you have given up on weight loss. I’ve been there and it feels like you are at wits end. You don’t know what to do. You’ve tried it all. Now you believe it’s impossible for them to lose weight.

I quit!

Take heart, it is not that bad. I’m happy to tell you that after decades of struggle I’ve taken and kept off 45 pounds. More importantly, my weight is stable, health superb and physical shape great.

I tell you this simply to illustrate the fact that you don’t have to give up on weight loss. YOU can lose weight with a little guidance and faith in yourself.

First of all, relax. There is no fast, quick way to weight loss. Realizing this means any small change will take effect over time. Time is on your side.

If we look at people who have been successful at weight loss and maintaining that loss, a couple of things are very apparent. These two factors are present in the lives of most of them:

1. They do some form of aerobic exercise 5 to 7 days per week. It’s as simple as talking a walk each evening. Do it minimally 5 times a week for 30 to 45 minutes at a time.

2. They have developed more healthy eating habits. Healthy eating habits are also very important. More fruit or vegetables instead of candy cake and pie on 5 days out out 7 make the difference.

I’ve had many clients tell me that their daily exercise puts them in a “healthy” frame of mind and helps them to make better food choices. Bottom line, when you are exercising consistently, youreating habits are better.

I firmly believe that a major factor in most peoples frustration with weight loss is that they haven’t been told the truth about exercise. You see, twenty minutes, three days per week isn’t going to cut it for weight loss. If you’re serious about weight loss, then you have to get serious about exercise.

I’ve seen this work for many people who had given up on weight loss. It worked for me. It can work for you.

Have you heard about the new weight loss patch? You wear it behind your ear, and it speeds up your metabolism and helps you control your appetite. It sounds pretty reasonable, doesn’t it? After all, if someone had told you five years ago that you could quit smoking by sticking a circle of fabric on your skin would you have believed them?

Unfortunately, this one isn’t true. According to Dr. Michael Myers, who maintains the popular web site weight.com, it’s just another of the hoaxes that clever promoters are using to bilk you out of your. Weight loss is a gold mine, and unscrupulous operators will use any gimmick to convince you that their product is the magic cure that will melt away your pounds without any effort on your part.

Here are a few of the current weight loss gimmicks and the truth about them.

The Diet Patch

Transdermal delivery of medication is a reality, and there are certain medications that are absorbed readily through the skin. However, the most common active ingredient used in diet patches on the market is ‘fucus vesiculosus’, a seaweed that is a major source of iodine. Iodine was once a recommended treatment for obesity, because it helps promote healthy thyroid function. It was abandoned because of side effects and the untoward effects when treatment with iodine ceases. In other words, it’s an outdated medication being revived for delivery in a new way.

Wash your fat away with slimming soap!

The claim is that this is an ancient Chinese soap that contains a unique blend of ingredients derived from seaweed which will ’emulsify’ the fat. Further, it comes in several different versions, including one that is specifically meant to give you ‘beautiful thighs’. In all truth, the ingredients sound like they’d do a lovely job of softening and toning your skin, but there’s not an ounce of research quoted anywhere that can be checked for the results. Until I see the proof, I’ll just figure that any weight loss resulted from vigorous scrubbing – not the ingredients!

Magnetic Weight Loss… earrings

Yes, earrings. According to the press, it’s another ancient Chinese Secret that has to do with balancing the magnetism in the body. By wearing a magnet near the ear, you can suppress hunger, increase metabolism, speed up the healing process and reduce pain. Again, though there’s mention of ‘studies’, none are cited, and I couldn’t find any in any medical journals. It won’t kill you, at least, and the earrings are pretty, but I wouldn’t put much stock in their weight loss properties.

All of these new weight loss discoveries should be filed in the “Yeah right” file, right next to sauna wraps, copper bracelets, and electro-slimming belts. If it sounds too good to be true, remember, it probably is. The only gimmick to weight loss is to eat less and move more!

For your weight loss plan to be a weight loss success, it’s absolutely critical that you understand the difference between weight loss fad diets and safe, effective weight loss routines that produce long-lasting weight loss results.

There are all sorts of weight loss programs out there that can help you lose weight (not necessarily fat), but they are so miserable that it’s impossible to stay on them very long – even more difficult is keeping the weight loss results you achieved.

The four characteristics for successful weight loss are:

1. The weight loss plan must avoid cravings
2. The weight loss plan must avoid hunger
3. The weight loss plan must include increasing your activity level
4. It must be a weight loss plan you can live with for a lifetime

What are cravings? A craving is when your body pushes you to want a particular food ingredient. This can occur even when you are not hungry. When you finally give in and get the food, you almost always binge, that is, eat more than you would have if you did not have the cravings in the first place. For the most part, you body is probably asking for water, but out of bad habit you might turn to fatty fast foods to fill the gap.

What causes cravings? Your body needs 6 essential food ingredients to function properly. They are carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals, vitamins and water. If you deprive your body of any of these, it will create the sensation that will drive you to get it. The most easily identified example is when you deprive your body of water. You develop thirst. Thirst is the body’s craving for water. Don’t turn to fast food, when all your body is asking for is a big glass or two of fresh cool water. Better still, don’t turn to a fad diet that restricts you to eating one or two items only. This will only heighten your body’s need for other foods.

Weight loss plans that tell you to cut out particular foods will always lead to cravings. It is this battle in your body to give it what it needs that creates conditions of discomfort and lead to most individuals ending the weight loss programs. There is an area of the brain that controls what and how much you eat. It is also responsible for creating cravings as a way for you to provide the body what it needs.

So, what is the best way to avoid cravings? First and foremost, the best way to avoid cravings is by eating all the required food ingredients. The key is that in all of the food groups, there are “good” types and “not so good” types of foods. You need to know the good types and eat only those. For example, with carbohydrates, good types (in general) are the ones with a low glycemic index (GI). GI is a measure of how fast a food increases the production of insulin. Insulin causes fat buildup. Whole grains and vegetables have low GIs and therefore are good for weight loss.

By understanding the weight loss concept of eating all of the essential foods and dividing them into “good” and “not so good” foods, you will avoid cravings and overeating.

When combined with a reduced-calorie diet and regular physical activity, weight loss medicines can help people struggling with their weight, to lose weight over a consistent period of time. People who use these drugs may not feel as hungry, or they may feel full after eating only a small amount of food.

Weight-loss medicines include diethylpropion (brand name: Tenuate); phentermine (brand names: Apidex-P, Ionamin, Pro-Fast); sibutramine (brand name: Meridia); and orlistat (brand name: Xenical). Unlike other weight loss medicines, orlistat works by keeping your body from digesting some of the fat that you eat.

Although some weight loss supplements containing ephedra, ephedrine or caffeine are available without a prescription, it is not known whether these drugs are safe. Such supplements have been linked to reports of heart attack, seizure, stroke and death. It is important to talk to your doctor if you are considering taking a weight loss supplement or if you are already taking one.

Weight loss medicines tend not to be offered to people who are just a little overweight, but rather are reserved for people who are very obese. In fact, most weight loss medicines are designed for people who weigh 20% or more above what is the ideal recommended weight for their height and body type or who have a high body mass index (BMI). The BMI is a measure of your weight and height. Your doctor can tell you if weight loss medicines might be helpful for you.

At the end of the day, there is no magic cure for being overweight. Weight loss medicines can help you get off to a good start and are a great way to get motivated early on, as you see fast results. But once you stop taking them, the weight you lost may well come back if you have not also commenced a well balanced eating plan, and begun an exercise program. To keep the weight off, you must eat a healthy low-calorie diet and be physically active on a regular basis. You must continue these healthy habits even after you stop taking the medicine. Remember that losing weight and keeping it off is a lifelong effort.

If you decide weight loss medicines aren’t right for you, you can still meet your weight loss goals. It’s important to develop healthy eating habits, but don’t expect to change everything overnight. Start by training yourself to eat without doing anything else at the same time.

It is also important to be physically active. A good goal for many people is to work up to exercising for at least 30 minutes, 4 to 6 times a week. Regular exercise helps you burn calories faster, even when you are sitting still. Exercise also helps you burn fat and build muscle. Aerobic exercise raises your heart rate and helps you burn calories. Aerobic exercises include swimming, brisk walking, jogging and bicycling. These are ideal exercise options for people who want to burn calories on a regular basis. Anaerobic exercise, such as weight training, is also good because it adds muscle mass to your body and allows you to burn even more calories.

The weight loss industry is big business world wide. In recent years in the United States, more than $30 billion dollars was spent by consumers on various weight loss products, gym memberships, exercise machines and food programs.

Choosing a weight loss program is the first step towards staying healthy, if you need to lose weight for the sake of maintaining or improving your health and well being. But staying with a weight loss program can prove to be difficult for so many. That is why, when it comes to weight loss, choosing a support program, checking with your doctor and then adding in some regular exercise is the key to success.

What ever you do, don’t to be tempted to follow a one food diet program such as the Cabbage Soup diet, or the Grapefruit diet, because your body is just not meant to exist on just one type of food for a sustained period of time. Instead, use your common sense and adopt a program because it works for you, not because it is the latest fad that all of the Hollywood stars have had success with. Remember that at the end of the day, the fad diets come and go, but your body is with you for the duration of your life, so it is important to take care of your body wisely.

People are focused on an easy and quick way to lose weight. But finding a program that will support weight loss and maintenance is the key to success.

Your mind is a powerful tool. While many people have yet to understand and harness the power of their minds, plenty of people are trying to do so, on a consistent basis, and this is helping them to reach all manner of success in their personal and professional lives. If you are at the point where nothing is working for you as far as losing weight or dieting, and you want to go a more controversial way, then you might want to consider weight loss hypnosis.

The first thing you need to do is find a qualified behavioral counselor. Many of these gifted individuals are also skilled in the area of self- hypnosis. Set up an appointment and talk with the counselor about your relationship with food. Then question the counselor as to whether or not his or her teaching you self-hypnosis will work to help you lose weight.

Self-hypnosis can be effective, but having the right person teaching you is critical. Beware of practitioners who ask for large sums of beyond the counseling session to teach you this tool. While weight loss hypnosis can be effective, you should really steer clear of tapes and books that teach you the DIY (do it yourself) technique, as you will probably end up wasting your. You really need a human guide to be able to be successful and lose weight.

Hypnosis alone will not allow you to lose weight. But if you have found a qualified counselor, you will receive advice about eating sensibly, exercising regularly and drinking more water.

Weight loss hypnosis is not a quick and easy way to cure a weight loss problem, but rather it is a means to an end. The end result is that you will gain control over your life and over what foods you choose to eat.

You have tried one weightloss program after another but they all never seem to work. In fact the last one you tried last sounded very promising but 3 months down the line the weary some pounds are still there. Is there any hope still?

But you must get rid of those extra pounds. Too much weight is already weighing you down. If nothing is done, obesity – related health problems are soon setting in…cardiovascular ailments, diabetis, perpetual tiredness…There must be a way out.

The real problem with the last program was that you really could not stand the starvation. The required workout in the gym was too straineous. And who has all that time to spend in the gym in this fast moving world? Read on. There is something up in the air…

But before I go on, I want to you to jump a sturbbon handle. Many people are so used to the ‘usual’ that anything unique is eyed with suspicion. This attitude will only tie you to the old outdated programs that scarcely produce results. You need to develop a welcome attitude to the new unique solutions to various problems facing you, otherwise you will get stuck in the mire! This way you will discover a perfect or solution to the straineous struggle with weight. You see, we are all created different. What worked for your friend may not work for you, but the program you have doubts with could be a perfect solution you have been looking for. Read on…

One such unique program is up and about. Somebody discovered a simple easy weight solution just by chance. it involves no starvation, no straineous workouts and no complicated procedures to follow. The most notable aspect is the simplicity with which the program works. You may be desperate and hopeless because nothing seemas to work for you. Worry no more. Try something fresh. What worked for your friend may not work for you because you are genetically different. You need to get up and hunt for something that will work for you.

I wish you success in your re-energised effort to loose those extra pounds. Thanks for taking your time to read.

For some, the need to lose weight is clear. Those whose body weight places them into the obese or morbidly obese categories are well aware that they are carrying too many pounds. But what about the borderline overweight? Is that ten pounds over the ideal weight raising your risk of health complications? Are you just ‘big-boned’? How do you decide if you really need to lose weight – and how much you need to lose?

Doctors have a number of different ways to measure the need to lose weight. Long gone are the years when they relied on an insurance company chart of ‘ideal weights’. The most commonly used measure is the Body Mass Index (BMI). The BMI measures your weight relative to your height. It is generally an accurate representation of muscle-to-fat ratio, though there are some limitations.

1. It may overestimate the BMI of an athletic person, because muscle is denser and weighs more than fat.

2. It may underestimate the BMI of an older person, or others who have low muscle mass.

There are many BMI calculators available online that will allow you to check your own BMI. The table for determining risk factors associated with obesity is:

Below 18.5 – Underweight
18.5 – 24.9 – Normal
25.0 – 29.9 – Overweight
30.0 and up – Obese

If your BMI is above 25.0, your doctor or other medical professional can advise you on the best weight loss plan for you. You should know that there are great benefits to losing even a moderate amount of weight. Some of those include:

* Lowering your risk of diabetes. According to the American Diabetes Association, a weight loss of as little as 10 pounds can decrease the chances of pre-diabetes developing into diabetes by 58%.
* Lower your risk of heart disease. The American Heart Association states that coronary problems are directly correlated to weight. By losing weight to bring your BMI to within normal ranges, you significantly lower your risk of developing heart problems.
* Reduce your risk of arthritis and pain from arthritis. A number of forms of arthritis are related to weight. Losing weight substantially decreases the strain that additional weight places you your knees, hips, back and ankles.

Are you motivated to get started? Here are three ways that you can start losing weight today:

Get active.

If you do nothing different in your life but exercise for one half hour daily, you will lose 5-7% of your body weight per year.

Cut out white breads and sugars.

Substitute whole grains for refined flours and sugars, and you’ll automatically reduce the number of calories that you consume daily.

Eat more fresh vegetables.

Fresh vegetables, especially raw, are a significant source of many of the vitamins and minerals that your body needs daily. They’re high in nutrition, while low in calories. By increasing the amount of fresh vegetables that you eat and reducing the amount of processed, refined foods, you’ll cut calories and carbohydrates significantly.

What will be the situation when you can gain or lose weight at will? Or you can make a man or woman gain weight or lose weight by your will power?

The pills in the market are making such weighty predictions! They guarantee results—ask for the list of satisfied customers who were so fat once upon a time, and who are so slim now that they almost fly like birds in the sky!

So many factors contribute to your present heavy weight structure! It is not your food alone, granted that you have the habit of eating like a glutton! Many things contribute to your present state of affairs! It can be your environment, your genetics and your will power! If you don’t possess a strong will power to reduce, who can help you?

When you finally decide that it is high time, you must start the process of controlling your weight. Before implementing your ideas, it is advisable to consult a doctor for your attraction to many over-the-counter products may not be well-founded in your case. The weight loss therapy varies from person to person. After getting a detailed account from you—only then can the doctor be able to decide what is best for you! Some medications and pills can do more harm than solve your problem!

Some of the useful tips that can help you with the positive assurance of not damaging you in any way are:

1. Make a regular exercise schedule and follow it.

2. Eat more fruits and vegetables. The seasonal ones must be consumed. Tinned foods do the job of poisoning your system. Some consider—that which is not seasonal, is not food at all. The underlying belief is that nature gives right things at the right time and it is in our interest to obey the laws of nature!

Weight loss products and pills mostly do the job of suppressing your appetite. Any force applied on constitution, is not going to work well in the long run. There is every chance of you regaining the weight that you had lost and your weight loss struggle for the second time may not be that inspiring. If you do anything with subdued will power, it is not going to work well for you.

So, even your well-meaning doctor will advise you a weight loss program that will assist you to find your cherished goal with sensible and sustainable ways. Your problem will be solved on a long-term basis.

Whatever may be their prescriptions, in the end they know the importance of exercise, use of appropriate fruits and vegetables full of fiber—that alone can ensure a successful weight loss program and a successful medical practice for them!

Do you really want to lose weight and get rid of extra body fat forever? If so, which is the most convenient and effective method to achieve permanently weight loss? Do I hear you say by taking weight loss pills or diet pills?

Well, by taking weight loss pills or diet pills may be convenient for you to lose those unwanted body fat, it certainly is not effective if you want to lose weight permanently. I am sure many of you have already tried taking weight loss pills and once you stopped taking them, your weight starts to creep up on you again didn’t they? That is frustrating and an awful waste of isn’t it?

There are many types of weight loss pills and diet pills in the market. Some of these pills will curb your appetite, some supposedly speed up your metabolism and some are supposed to prevent your body from absorbing too much oil from your diet or restrict absorption of carbohydrate. But they all have one thing in common. Once you are off the pills, you will put on weight again. Therefore taking weight loss pills or diet pills are only temporary solutions. They do not condition your body to burn unwanted fat forever. On the contrary, your body may even adapt and resist the effects of the pills making you waste even more and causing you more frustration.

So what is the best solution for permanent weight loss? Well, just do these 3 things:-

• Build Muscle – The more muscle you have, the more calories your body will burn. So when extra calories are being burnt everyday, over a period of time, you would have burnt off massive amount of calories. Furthermore, you will look good with a well toned body and your posture will also improve making you look even slimmer. That means you are a calorie burning machine when you have more muscle.

• Change Eating Habit – Eat your carbohydrate early in the day and restrict carbohydrate consumption later part of the day. This will help your body to regulate insulin level and reduce the chances of carbohydrate turning into body fat. Also avoid starchy carbohydrate and refined carbohydrate like white rice, refined flour foodstuff like cakes and pastries, white bread, pasta etc. Replace these with high fiber and slow to digest carbs like brown bread and brown rice. Carbohydrate turns into body fat quickly if digested too fast.

• Exercise Your Heart and Lungs – Go for regular exercise and perform exercises that will make you puff, pant and sweat such as jogging, skipping or take part in ball games. These activities not only improve your heart and lung health, they also burn massive calories.

When these 3 activities become part of your routine, you will be burning extra calories every day. That means you will not put on weight easily and will lose body fat forever. Best of all, it is free. So why spend on temporary solutions like weight loss pills and diet pills?

It’s summer time and the heat is on. One favorite choice of most people for beating the heat is to get a smoothie. But for people trying to lose weight and not miss out, are there any healthy options? Yes. You can make your own smoothies.

From a health point of view, blended smoothies are great for a concentrated meal that’s ready in a minute. You can combine a variety of fruit with some water, possibly add some dates or genuine maple syrup and make a delicious smoothie that can be enjoyed anytime as a healthy meal while on your weight loss program.

Actually friends, this may be a better choice than juicing as you will also get the fibre, which is an essential nutrient present in our fruits and vegetables for several reasons and in regards to losing weight, the fibre will serve as intestinal brooms to push all unwanted debris out. Hey, we are seeking weight loss right?

Now, the recipes listed below are my personal favorites for smoothies. I think they are creative ways to enjoy the proper diet and not entirely miss out on pleasuring ourselves occasionally. You can always experiment to find tasty recipes as well, but here are some to get you started.

1. “Chocolate” Milk

-10-15 medium dates
-3 ripe bananas.
-1 Young Coconut (I don’t usually use the water inside of the nut although I heard it has some benefits, I have tested it on me to a not so good result but again we are all different)
-16 oz cold Water

Blend everything starting with the fruits then the coconut.

2. Papaya Passion

-1 medium Papaya
-1 red delicious apple
-5 dates (pitted)

Blend everything and prepare for something outta this world!

3. Strawberry Delight

-4-8 strawberries
-1-2 Bananas
-8-10 dates

4. My Milk Shake tastes much better than yours…!

-2 cups of Durian
-8 dates
-2 bananas
-1 tsp of Carob powder

Who said fruits and veggies were boring again?

5. Mango Magic
-1-2 ripe mangos (peeled)
-8 dates (pitted)
-Juice of one orange

6. Durian Deck
-24 oz of durian
-1/2 orange
-Blend both.

Well, there you have it. Thought you’d have to give up smoothies eh? Hope, I’ll be able to save you some in buying less healthy and-as you’ll discover-not as tasty smoothies with these.

Here’s to health and happiness.

It seems like so many celebrities today market their own diet, exercise, or weight loss programs, celebrities like Suzanne Somers or Kathy Ireland. The appeal of these programs is obvious, because celebrities are always so trim and healthy-looking. And since celebrities are often amiable and trustworthy, it’s easy to trust that their products will work for you.

Most celebrities, however, do not have any professional training in the fields of exercise, health, or nutrition. Often, they are merely offering a good sales offer to the public.

Experts on health and nutrition Annette B. Natow and Jo-Ann Heslin, who wrote the book Get Skinny the Smart Way, say that consumers should be apprehensive of celebrity-inspired diet and exercise plans. They point out these kinds of books are usually based on nutritional fiction and that, while the diets outlined in these books may result in short-term weight loss, they are not always very healthy for the long term. It might be wise to instead consider a plan written by health and nutrition experts.

Celebrities aren’t the only pitchers of fad diets. There have been many ridiculous fad diets through the years, and many people have tried them, including the grapefruit diet, which suggests eating a grapefruit before each meal. Then there is the cabbage soup diet, which involves eating all the cabbage soup you can. There have been fads that require eating nothing but eggs, eating only raw foods, even fasting every other day. These diets not healthy.

No major health group ever supported the cabbage soup diet. The American Heart Association condemns it, noting that it can cause you long-term harm. Advocates of the diet say that you can lose as much as 15 pounds a week on it. However, this is just water, and when you begin eating other foods again, you will gain back all of the weight immediately. There are a few possible side effects of doing the cabbage soup diet, which include weakness, stomach cramps, and diarrhea.

Another dubious diet plan is known as food combining. Proponents of this type of dieting preach that you are overweight because you eat the wrong types of foods together. The requirements of this diet seem pretty random. For example, the diet might state that you can eat a banana only at breakfast. This makes no sense, as your stomach can digest different foods at any time of day. The goal of this plan is to consume fewer calories, but there are more efficient and healthy ways of doing this.

There are even claims that you can lose weight while you sleep. By using their product before you go to bed at night, you will lose weight in your dreams. This is an impossibility. There are even diet plans that state that you can lose weight by eating their special milkshakes or candy bars. These products are nothing more than milk and candy with added vitamins and minerals. You rarely feel sated or full after using these products, which can lead you to binge eat, and eat more calories than you would have otherwise. In addition, plans such as this make it very difficult to maintain any weight loss.

There is a lot of to be made in the diet industry. Marketing companies will continue to feed off the ill health and insecurities of overweight people. When looking for an effective diet plan, it is your job to know the fad diets from the legitimate ones. In the long run, there are no true short cuts to weight loss. A successful weight loss program takes time and determination, along with exercise, healthful eating, and portion control.

Most of us find diets really exciting since they prove to be the fastest ways of knocking of our extra pounds. We get attracted to diets that claim they can help us lose 6 pounds or more in just a week. Do all of these diets actually work? Can we actually lose weight in just a week’s time? And is that healthy? To answer your questions, not all diets are genuine. There are many diets that will claim to help you lose weight but some of them may not do that.

Some of them are healthy and some of them are not. So you have to be careful about which diet you decide to follow. However diets that work along the lines of the calorie shifting principle are very genuine and effective. They do help you shed your extra pounds and in a way that is not harmful to your body. The most famous of calorie shifting diets is the “fat loss 4 idiots diet”. This diet proves why other diets are most unhealthy and proves to you a good scientific method of losing your excess fat.

Some of the most common diets work at reducing your calorie or food intake for an extended period of time. This helps you to begin losing weight. But more often than not, you start putting on weight even while still following the diet. The weight lost does not last long enough. This is because our bodies have been designed in such a way that if you give it a considerable amount of time, its metabolism adjusts to whatever your intake is be it less of carbohydrates, fats or proteins or just less intake of the quantity of food.

The fat burnt is proportional to the rate of metabolism. If your metabolism is fast, you will burn calories fast too. If metabolism is slow, naturally the rate of burning calories will be slow too. Lesser the food intake, slower the metabolism. Most of these diets are all about taking in fewer calories and hence lesser calories are burnt up as well. And if you go out on a binge even on one day, you will land up putting on even more weight since your metabolism will be slow and you will not be able to burn much fat.

The calorie shifting diets do not work like other diets. They have a scientific background. They understand that the rotation of eating routine is required in order to keep our metabolism high at all times. Higher the metabolism, more the calories burnt. The diet encourages the rotation of food stuff. It allows you to eat one type this week and to change it next week. So basically you eat new type of food every week. Your diet this week will not be the same as last week. This way your metabolism will be always high, thus burning out more and more calories.

A strong craze that has appeared, and managed to stay around, is the blood type diet. A blood type diet is a nutrition plan based around your blood type. This kind of diet first appeared and became popular in a book written and released by Peter D’Adamo. He claims that the diet will not only bring about weight loss—but can also assist with allergy and infection resistance, in addition to overall good health. These claims have not been proven, but have not been disproven, either.

Basically this is a system diet based on blood type, going on the theory that different blood types emerged at different points in history, and by watching the history and matching it with a blood type, you can tell which sort of food is meant for which individual blood type. Blood type A, according to this diet plan, should avoid red meat, eat a lot of fish and vegetables, and eat little dairy. The book recommends only light exercises with this group.

Blood type B is supposed to avoid chicken and bacon, but eat plenty of meat (including red meat) and dairy, a little fish, and a lot of fruits and vegetables. An AB blood type combines the two diets that are meant for type A and type B (no big surprise.) Blood type O is the maverick. For type O blood, the recommended diet is very low in carbohydrates and high in protein (much like the Atkins) and low in dairy. Type O is also told to engage in a lot of exercise.

The general consensus on this diet is that weight loss and other health improvements may occur not because of blood types, but because most people who follow this will eat a lot healthier in general and includes low calorie diets that will probably bring about weight loss in anyone. In addition, the type O that has an Atkins-like diet also exercises a lot more, burning off the extra fat that would come with the meat, which once again is considered habit and not blood type driven.

While the idea is intriguing, much of the natural weight loss that occurs seems to be for very valid reasons than blood type. That being said, the advice given in the book seems to work, and therefore why question the source? If it works, then who cares if the blood type has anything to do or not? But this is a program that has worked for a lot of people. It’s not the results that are being argued, but the reasoning behind it.

Study Shows Some Americans Would Choose Divorce, Depression and Alcoholism Over Obesity

May 23, 2006 — What would you be willing to sacrifice if it ensured you would never be fat?

Would you give up a year of your life? Or 10 years?

Would you rather be divorced, unable to have children, depressed, alcoholic?

A disturbing new study out of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity found that nearly half — 46 percent — of 4,283 participants would rather give up a year of their life than be obese. Fifteen percent were willing to give up 10 years.

In fact, a surprisingly large number of participants were willing to make extreme sacrifices if they could be sure they would never be obese.

These are hypothetical questions, of course, and the answers are not set in stone. Obesity is a killer, so some participants probably figured that they were going to die earlier anyway if they were obese, but what surprised the researchers was the number of people who were willing to make extreme sacrifices.

“The percentages of people willing to make extreme sacrifices were much lower,” said psychologist Marlene Schwartz, associate director of the center and lead author in a report in the journal Obesity. “But what struck me was given how big our sample size was, there’s still a significant number of people who would give up a lot in order not to be obese.”

More than 600 persons, for example, were willing to give up 10 years of their life. And, 342 said they would rather have a learning-disabled child than an obese child.

The findings show the enormous stigma placed on being fat, and that, Schwartz says, is one of the major reasons why some people just can’t take it off.

One part of the online study examined subconscious attitudes toward obesity and found that across the board, regardless of age or body weight of the participants, “individuals more strongly associated fat people with bad and thin people with good,” the report said.

Fat people are seen as lazy and unwilling to try hard enough to lose weight.

That, Schwartz says, is a big part of the problem. Even overweight participants in the study thought poorly of themselves, and once that level of self-condemnation is reached, it becomes nearly impossible to lose weight.

“Children are constantly given the message, ‘You’re fat because you’re lazy,’ ” Schwartz said, ‘and you’re not trying hard enough.’ That child is going to internalize that message. And once somebody believes that about themselves, it’s going to get harder rather than easier for them to do the hard work that it takes to really fight obesity and be healthy.”

It’s not that all those fat people out there aren’t trying.

“I think people do try, but it’s extremely difficult to lose weight and keep it off,” she said.

Obesity, of course, can have many causes. Medical conditions,
genetics and lifestyle all play a part, but researchers contend that in many cases the remedy may be beyond the victim’s reach.

“Part of the problem is we view obesity as something that’s under the person’s control, and we blame the individual for having the problem,” she said. “But I think people overestimate how much control we have over our body’s shape and weight. Therefore when someone is fat, we immediately assume they don’t care enough to try to lose weight. They are to blame for being overweight.”

Of course, sometimes that’s true, and sometimes it’s not.

In our current environment, she notes, it’s particularly difficult to keep those extra pounds off. Junk food is everywhere, urban sprawl forces us to drive instead of walk, diets fail, and we get discouraged. So we settle down to watch a ball game on television, surrounded by comfort food.

It’s enough to make a body give up, and that, Schwartz says, is exactly what is happening. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing that can help. Lifestyle changes make a difference, she says, and if people can take steps to become more physically active, and more careful about what they eat, then some of those pounds can probably come off.

First, she insists, we’ve got to change our attitudes about obesity.

“For there to be a change, we have to stop blaming the individual,” Schwartz said. “We’ve been blaming people for a long time and it’s not working. So we need to do something else, and what I would suggest is focus on the environment, clean up the environment and make it so that every time you turn around there’s a healthy food option and it’s hard to find junk food. Change our environment so that it’s easy to walk and it’s easy to get physical activity in your everyday life.”

“I just don’t think yelling more at people is going to get us anywhere,” she said.

Given prevailing attitudes about being overweight, though, change is not likely to come quickly or easily.

The study, also by Lenny R. Vartanian and Kelly D. Brownell of Yale and Brian A. Nosek of the University of Virginia, reveals strong bias against people who are fat, and that occurs across all ages and body shapes.

Of the 4,283 participants, 30 percent (1,285) said they would rather be divorced than obese, 25 percent (1,070) said they would rather be unable to have children, 15 percent (642) said they would rather be severely depressed, and 14 percent (600) said they would rather be alcoholic.

Most drew the line at some sacrifices, but 10 percent (428) said they would rather have an anorexic child than an obese child, and 8 percent (342) said they would rather have a learning-disabled child than an obese child.

That level of stigmatism drives some toward depression, which can lead to eating disorders, which only worsens the problem.

Do you know, the people around the world searching the term “Green Tea” in Google for 40,000 times for every month? This clearly implies that the green tea is the most favorable tea out of three types of tea viz., Green, Black and Oolong. Green tea is the mostly preferred tea by the world population due to its numerous beneficial effects.

Green tea can readily be comparable with spinach, broccoli, carrots, or strawberries due to its anti-oxidant property. The main ingredients include theanine, polyphenols, antioxidants, Tannin, catechin, minerals and vitamins.

Green tea provides sweet news for diabetic patient since it reduces the blood sugar, if it has been taken 4-5 cups daily but without sugar. The presence of Fluorine in the green tea is highly used in preventing cavities in the teeth especially in the school going children.

The antiviral property of the green tea is utilized to control AIDS among the human population also (University of Tokyo, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2003). It is also confirmed through a study that flavanoids present in this beverage is having a property of controlling the blood platelets in clotting process and thereby it prevents the occurrence of heart attack among the chronic tea drinkers.

Not only the health benefits but also the green tea can be used in refrigerator to driven out the bad smell noticed in the refrigerator. This can be achieved by placing two or three used tea bags in the refrigerator overnight. The bad smell is no longer noticed in the refrigerator.

Green tea helps a lot for weight loss by increasing the level of fat oxidation and thermogenesis (burning of body fat to create heat). Catechins in the green tea help to inhibit the movement of glucose into fat cells. This prevents high insulin spikes and the subsequent fat storage.

As bottom line, green tea helps you with weight loss by suppressing your appetite, regulating your blood sugar, boosting your metabolic rate and giving you something else besides that high calorie. It’s not magic- Green tea definitely boost your health and reduce your weight!

Wishing you the best of health

A person’s metabolic rate is a measurement of how fast their body burns calories which are, in turn, a measurement of energy.

Burn more calories than your body consumes and you lose weight; burn more calories than your body consumes and you gain weight. Another way to say that is this: consume less calories than your body burns and you lose weight; consume more calories than your body burns and you gain weight.

The way to use your body’s metabolism to lose weight, then, is twofold:
Consume less calories than you burn (as in dieting);
Burn more calories than you consume (as in exercising);

The average body’s metabolic rate, and the rate at which the Percentage Daily Values of the nutrients on a food’s nutrition label are based, is 2000 calories per day.

Your body burns a certain number of calories per day just by virtue of you being alive – I other words, no exercise necessary. The process of breathing, for example, burns calories. As does the circulating of blood. All forms of burning calories based on nothing other than the act of being alive make up what’s called you Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). Interestingly enough, a person’s BMR makes up about 60% of the calories their bodies burn in a given day. The remaining 10% of the calories burned in a day are burned by what’s called Dietary Thermongenesis, comprising the heat-producing acts of eating and internally processing food.

It is entirely possible to boost your body’s natural metabolism, in other words: burn more calories in a shorter period of time, or burn calories faster. Strength training (as in lifting weights) is one way to achieve remarkable effects. When you lift weights, the muscles tear and must be repaired by the body’s natural healing processes. Those processes require the body burn more calories. The body with a bigger muscle mass burns more at rest calories in any given span of time. As a general rule, we burn 50 extra calories a day for each extra pound of muscle.

Beyond weight training, the other tried-and-true method for boosting your metabolism is simply remaining active. The mere act of moving around burns calories, so logically the more you move around the more calories you burn. Take walks on your breaks at work. Park one or two streets over. Tidy up around the house while you chat on the phone. None of these require a gym membership or an unscheduleable block of time. A little bit over a long time adds up to a lot.

Lastly, there are dietary measures you can take to help boost your metabolism. Caffeinated beverages (green tea being one of the healthier choices) and spicy foods have both been shown to increase the body’s metabolic rate. Also, if you start having more frequent smaller meals rather than jus 2 or 3 large ones (“grazing” throughout the day, so to speak), your metabolism will be in a constant state of activity breaking down and processing your many small meals.

There are so many nutrients in food, so many ingredients, so many facts to know about what’s supposedly good for you and what’s supposedly not? Fortunately for all of us, the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) created a standardized format for the nutrition label that all processed and/or packaged consumer foods must affix to the outside of their product. So, no matter what the food, you can easily compare its value to you with that of any other food.

There are 3 fundamental areas to look for first on a nutrition label, and they’re all conveniently grouped together near the top, just under the title “Nutrition Facts”.

What is the Serving Size: standardized amount (like cups or tablespoons or pieces) followed by the equivalent amount in the metric system (such as grams). In general

How Many Servings Per Container: Most packaged foods contain multiple servings in a single package, making it easy to double, triple, quadruple, etc. the caloric intake from that of a single serving.

What are the Amount of Calories Per Serving: Typically, a single serving of around 40 calories is considered low-calorie, around 100 is considered moderate, and 400 is considered high-calorie.

Keeping tabs on the amount of servings you take in, based on the caloric intake per serving, is one great way to manage your weight. Another is to balance out eating high-calorie foods with some low-calorie foods earlier or later in the day.

The next step to using nutrition labels to help control your weight is to get the most nutrition out of the calories you take in.

Use the Percentage Daily Value to tell you how rich in each of the required nutrients the food really is. Daily values are based on a 2000-calorie diet. 5% or less of a nutrient’s %DV is low, 20% or more of a nutrient’s %DV is high. Limit your amount of Total Fat, Cholesterol, and Sodium. No daily requirement exists for Trans-Fats (the most dangerous kind), though their quantity per serving does appear on the label; so just be sure to keep them to an absolute minimum. Make sure to get plenty of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium, and Iron.

Once you have gathered all the information you need, you simply ask yourself if a food choice is a wise choice for you in terms of both calories and nutrients, and whether it makes more sense for you as part of a meal or as a standalone snack. If the answers to these questions don’t satisfy you for a particular food, then the next question to ask yourself is whether you can find a suitable alternative. The answer that question is almost invariably, ‘Yes’.

Embarrassing and unsightly, no one likes cellulite, on themselves or anyone else. But while most people have no trouble identifying it, scant few understand exactly what cellulite is.

Cellulite is fat that protrudes out from the lower layers of skin into the dermis, or outer layer of the skin. Cellulite gives a dimpled appearance to the skin, often grotesquely described as a “cottage cheese” look. Commonly cellulite is seen on the rear end, thighs, and lower legs, though it can appear elsewhere.

Surprisingly, modern science still knows very little about the cause or causes of cellulite. We do know, however that between 85% and 98% of women (that’s almost all women) have at least some cellulite somewhere on their bodies. So, contrary to popular misconception, then, and despite how used to seeing cellulite on obese people we may be, cellulite is not a derivative of being overweight.

Science has also observed that cellulite is less common in men, leading many researchers to believe there is hormonal component to its formation. Prevailing theories suggest that the appearance of cellulite could be related to one’s diet, more specifically the ingestion of large amount of trans-fats as well as foods like pasta, white bread, and other foods heavy in white flour. Again, this is suspected, but not yet “known” or proven.

As is the case whenever a perceived new problem arises in our culture, manufacturers scamper to produce and release countless products targeting the cellulite-afflicted. You’ll find gels, lotions, pills and more all promising to rid you of that unsightly cellulite. Do they work? So far there’s nothing but anecdotal evidence supporting these products at best.

Another false hope in the battle against cellulite is liposuction, the removal of fat from the body through surgery. Liposuction does not suck out cellulite.

Some sufferers have found that certain kinds of massage may produce a temporary reduction in the appearance of cellulite on the body, but not a reduction in the actual existence of it. This is because there are no blood vessels in subcutaneous fat, so when the body is massaged and circulation below the skin is stimulated, the surface of the skin appears smoothed out. Massage, then, is only a superficial solution to cellulite, and one with effects lasting only for the short term.

The only steps so far that have shown to make any real and lasting reduction in cellulite are the same steps advised for proper and effective weight loss: a healthy lifestyle. Eating a balanced diet, drinking plenty of water, and getting plenty of both exercise and rest seems to be the only known remedy for unsightly and embarrassing cellulite. It’s not reinventing the wheel, and it’s no quick fix – but it works. And when it comes to looking and feeling good, what works is all that matters.

The South Beach Diet, created by cardiologist Dr. Arthur Agatston, is a safe and effective diet that differs from other diets in that it advocates not just a new way of eating but a new way of life.

The South Beach Diet puts an end to counting calories and it puts an end to portion control. The South Beach Diet also avoids putting people in a position where they feel like they’re depriving themselves from eating food that tastes good and satisfies them.

The focus of the South Beach Diet is on fats and carbohydrates, more specifically, the right fats and carbohydrates. With the South Beach Diet, you find that healthy carbohydrates and fats satisfy your hunger and feed you energy while eating the wrong carbohydrates and fats can actually make you feel hungrier than you were before eating them, causing you to eat even more and, as a result, gain weight.

The South Beach Diet works in 3 phases, dieters going through phases 1 and 2 sequentially, each for a particular period of time, then moving to phase 3 where they remain for the rest of their lives.

South Beach Diet Phase 1 – For two weeks certain forms of carbohydrates are restricted, based on their glycemic index (a measurement of their affect on a person’s blood sugar). Portion sizes for all other foods are normal. This two week period is the most intense and restrictive of the three phases. Foods emphasized in Phase 1 include chicken and turkey, fish and shellfish, vegetables with a low glycemic index (including salads with light dressing), low fat cheeses, eggs, and nuts. This is the period where drastic weight loss is usually noticed in a short time. This type of weight loss is not sustainable, however, which is why the South Beach Diet then promptly transitions you into Phase 2 where you can adjust your dietary patterns so as to achieve a more sustainable rate of weight loss without gaining back that initial poundage you just shed.

South Beach Diet Phase 2 – Here many of the carbohydrates that were forbidden in Phase 1 are incrementally introduced back into your diet. The desired effect of Phase 2 is to get yourself to a place where you lose between1 and 2 pounds each week, a rate of weight loss than you can easily sustain until you achieve your body’s individual “healthy weight” (generally best determined by your Body Mass Index and percentage body fat to muscle mass). Phase 2 lasts as long as it takes for you to reach your desired weight.

South Beach Diet Phase 3 – Now you begin to establish the balanced diet you aim to maintain for the rest of your life, so long as weight remains where it is. Should you start to gain weight again, you can simply go back to one or both of the earlier phases until you get back to where you need to be.

The South Beach Diet is not a starvation diet. In it, you eat 3 satisfying meals per day plus 2 snacks in-between meals. Your meal plans are not set in stone, so you can still enjoy variety and spontaneity in your diet.

Studies of the South Beach Diet have shown that it not only helps people lose weight, but it increases their “good cholesterol” (HDLs) and decreases their “bad cholesterol” (LDLs) levels, while also improving their levels of insulin.

Nearly everyone has heard of the Atkins Diet by now, even if not necessarily clear on what it is. Some may even know it as the source of “low-carb” diet craze in the country, but don’t know much about it beyond that. Considered as controversial as it is revolutionary, the Atkins Diet has worked successfully for a tremendous number of people, and not so successfully for a good amount of others. This article aims to place a neutral and objective eye on this popular weight loss program.

Re-introduced in the 1990’s (after an initial period of popularity in the 1970’s), the Atkins Diet is the brainchild of Dr. Robert Atkins.

The diet works in several phases, the first – or the “induction period” – lasting only 2 weeks. In this phase, dieters are not to eat any more than 20 grams of carbohydrates of any form each day. The bulk of a person’s diet during this period, then, is fats and proteins. Usually, a dieter will reach their 20 gram limit on carbohydrates simply from the small amounts in foods like salad dressing, cheese, sauces, condiments, and vegetables.

Forbidden from a participant’s diet during this 2 week induction period are fruits, grains, breads, cereal, milk, and vegetables with a high-glycemic index (a measure of the effect a food has on the body’s blood sugar).

During this period, the body enters a state called “ketosis”, where it begins burning its own residual deposits of fat in order to produce the energy for which it previously had been relying on your regular consumption of carbohydrates.

Atkins also asserts that the source of most weight problems people experience is an “insulin-resistance” that causes overweight bodies to have difficulty converting carbohydrates into glucose (or sugar) which becomes energy. In this state of ketosis induced by the induction phase of the Atkins Diet, the insulin function of the body is affected in such a way that impedes the production of more fat.

After the two week induction period ends, dieters are then permitted to increase their carbohydrate allowance by 5 grams each week. In other words: they’re allowed 25 grams of carbs per day throughout week 3, 30 grams of carbs per day throughout week 4, 35 g in week 5, etc.

Depending on the person’s body type and weight objectives, this gradual increase in carbs should level off somewhere between 40 g and 90 g per day. At this point, the dieter is considered to have entered the “maintenance” phase of the diet, where they ought to remain for the rest of their lives. Although counting calories is not a part of the Atkins Diet, studies by the North American Association for the Study of Obesity found that adhering to the restrictions imposed by the Atkins Diet led to a decrease of 1,000 calories from participant’s daily caloric intake.

A quick perusal of the recommendations published by most traditional health experts and health organizations will reveal that 40-90 grams of carbs per day is still a miniscule amount compared to that of what they consider a “standard” healthy diet.

The Atkins Diet also contradicts authorities (US FDA and the American Cancer Society included) that extol the virtues of eating fruits, vegetables, and whole grain breads and cereals. According to Atkins, even “healthy” carbohydrates are harmful in large quantities.

Studies by the Annals of Internal Medicine and the New England Journal of Medicine have actually found that participants on the Atkins Diet experienced an improvement in heart disease indicators.

Like the 80’s and 90’s were to “low-fat” and “fat-free”, Dr. Atkins has helped make the early 21st century “low-carb”. Whether that’s for better or worse is up to you.

Digital scales are electronic devices used to measure weight. Digital scales come in a variety of sizes and colours and are made from a variety of materials. Digital scales differ from traditional scales because they function based on the principle of load cell technology in which electronic load cells sense the weight of objects under certain conditions. Once the weight is calculated it is transferred to digital or electronic signals and then displayed in a digital format. They are available in different models, brands, sizes, and shapes, and usually come with batteries as well as calibration weights, scale pads, and trays. Digital scales, like every other type of product, vary in prices and quality
There are various types of digital scales available on the market. Digital scales are classified based on how they are used. Nevertheless, scales of one type can be used for other purposes as well. The most popular types of digital scales are bathroom, kitchen or food, postal, point of scale, pocket size and laboratory digital scales. Recently, scales have been taken to the next level and are able to make other calculations aside from weight. These scales are referred to as smart scales and can calculate calories and other nutritional information.
In general, kitchen food, diet, and nutritional scales are used to calculate the amount of food one consumes and allow, therefore, the calculation of the caloric intake. These types of digital scales are used by anyone who watches what and how much they eat and vary sizes, detail and of course price. These types of digital scales accompany other technological nutrition calculating tools.
Bathroom digital scales are the ones used to measure the weight of someone’s body. They are the evolutionary equivalent of the traditional bathroom scale and are used to get exact information of someone’s body weight. These types of scales are referred to as bathroom scales because they are most often kept in the bathroom of a home.
Postal scales are used to weigh small to medium sized objects and are referred to as ‘postal’ because they are widely used at post offices to weight mail and parcels. Most digital postage scales available on the market are programmed in a way that calculates the exact postage required to mail a certain size and weight object to a particular destination. They are ‘smart’ scales, just like some digital food scales. in a way that the scales are programmed with postal rate information. This helps the scales to adjust rates each time the value changes and to display the right amount for postal services.
Digital scales come in various sizes and sensitivity as well. Aside from all of the above types of scales, smaller ones exist to measure the weight of smaller objects. Jewellers use these types for weighing gold, silver and other valuable items. These types are extremely accurate. There is no space for error when a few grams can be worth a thousand dollars. In this category belong smaller and more versatile types of scales that have highly portable features. They are referred to as pocket scales, because they usually can fit in your pocket.
Lastly, one more highly accurate type of scale is the scientific or laboratory scale used primarily in medical and scientific fields. These types can weigh a grain of rice, or in some cases a particle of dust.
As you can see digital scales vary in types, sizes and accuracy. Depending on what you want to weigh you can find a digital scale that suites your needs.

If you find yourself with a few added pounds, feeling sluggish or just wanting to be the best that you can be, then your diet has a lot to do with your optimal performance. There have been many studies on which diet works the best. Although there are plenty of choices such as the Atkins diet, South beach diet, Mediterranean diet, etc. Many health professionals are quick to note that not every diet is perfect for everyone.

Most health professionals agree that as long as you stay within a healthy range, then there are plenty of ways that your diet can help you take off the weight and make you look and feel great.

Health professionals advise a person to eat a balance diet, which includes fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean meats. Using these foods, dieters can come up with some very healthy choices to lose the pounds. Unfortunately, when people are on a diet they think of all the foods they can’t have instead of the foods they can. There are dozens of fruits and vegetables that can fit into anyone’s diet and plenty of lean meats that offer flavor and give you the protein that is needed daily. Just because you can’t eat bacon or lots of butter on a diet, doesn’t mean that it’s the end of the world.

If you want to find a diet that will lose the pounds and keep it off, then don’t think of it as a diet, think of it as a lifestyle. Choose a lifestyle with all the healthy foods that will help keep off the pounds and keep you looking and feeling great.

Everyone is different. We all have different metabolic rates. Finding the ‘perfect’ weight loss program is a personal choice. Base your decision on your lifestyle and ability to be flexible. I’ve found that moderation works well for me and no one program is ‘perfect’ for me.

When on a diet, it is wise to go out to restaurants less frequently, because you won’t always know the number of calories in everything you will be served, especially the secret sauces. But whom do you usually meet at the restaurants? Your friends, is the most likely answer. So if you cut back on restaurants, you might end up with too much free space on your social calendar. I find this unacceptable. I always want to have time to see my friends.

Realizing that I could not justifiably boycott dinner plans with friends, I decided to always have a backup plan. The reasoning behind this is that I wouldn’t always know what restaurant we would eventually choose. My backup plan was to order the least complicated salad, with the dressing on the side. This allowed me to keep control over my calorie intake and see my friends as well.

I did not always believe that I could control my hunger when I frequented many different restaurants. Seven or eight years ago, I was very frustrated with myself over my failing diets. I felt like I needed to keep myself under control 24/7. When a friend would suggest that we meet up somewhere to grab a bite, I felt my control starting to slip. I would make up excuses like, “Oh, I just ate dinner,” or I would pretend that I had committed myself to a different dinner that night.

I even started to worry that friends might unexpectedly call me up for dinner on any given night. When my phone rang, I tended to let the answering machine pick it up as I listened to the caller leave a message. Suddenly, I didn’t want to talk to my friends. What if they wanted to buy me dinner…Oh my, what a crime! I always had my standard excuses ready to tell my friends. It is interesting to note that these excuses are made because we don’t want to eat. These are different than the excuses we make to explain why we ate something. Here are some of the excuses I use when I don’t want to take in extra calories:

· I’m having a medical procedure tomorrow and I can’t eat anything after 3:00 p.m.

· I just learned that I’m very close to becoming diabetic, and I’m on a very strict diet.

· I’m just so full right now, but I can take some home with me (then give it to a homeless person).

· Pretending to throw up in the bathroom (make sure someone hears you), and pretending to clean it up.

· Hiding some of the food where they might not find it (the oven, on top of the fridge). This way they don’t realize how much food they actually have left.

I think most of my friends knew what was going on inside my head. They didn’t call me on it. I’m sure they recognized that I was going through some pretty hard times, and luckily, I outgrew that phase.

When I ate with my friends at various restaurants, I noticed some recurring themes in the advice they offered. Almost all of my friends were very surprised to find that I was eating so little. They would say things like, “Johnny, you’re a big guy. You have to eat more than that,” or “You’re not really fat, you’re just a big, husky guy.” To that I would say, “Oh yeah, you’ve never seen me naked.” Sometimes that would draw laughter, other times silence.

These were times I had to reconcile what my friends were saying with the sanctity of my diet. I felt I had to take a side. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that most of my friends were just trying to make me feel better and save me from the misery of my diet. They really did like me just the way I was. The problem was that I didn’t. I knew I had to hold my ground and order that Caesar’s salad instead of that juicy steak nine out of ten times. Somewhere in this phase of my life, I learned how little I would have to eat, or how much I would have to exercise each day to lose weight. From that point on, it was up to me to perform.

Losing weight is an arduous battle that takes some time to accomplish. We can have our friends and our restaurants at the same time if we are willing to modify our thinking just a little. We all have habits we will need to change, patterns we will need to break, and emotions we will need to quell.

Keep A Diary Of What You Eat

I think you will be very surprised if before you start your diet you keep a journal of what you eat and at what times. Do this for about a week. Then study your journal and see where you can cut back and find out at what times are you eating that could cause problems. If you find you are having a snack at 10 pm at night. Try bringing the time time in. You never what to eat to soon before you go to bed.

Buy Diet Food Prepared

What can make dieting hard to stick to is the preparation? Having the diet food available to you also means having to go shopping then come home and prepare your healthy meal. Now a days it seems everyone is so rushed with no time to spare. Would it not be easier to have your diet meal already prepared for you? There are a few diet nutrition food programs that will actually ship the food right to your door. Talk about convenience. I know of a few diets that deliver food, Atkins At Home, Diet To Your Door, Diet To Go, eDiets – Fresh Cuisine, Jenny Direct, Nutrisystem, Sunfare and Zone Chefs.

Smaller Plates To Help Lose Weight

Use smaller plates to help you lose weight. This will give you smaller portions but may fool the eyes. Never feel you have to finish everything on your plate. This does not mean you have to throw food out. You can store diet food for later. If you feel full, stop.

Snacks Ready To Eat

Have healthy snacks ready to eat. Instead of grabbing for the chips have carrot slices ready to grab. You will still get that sensation of crunchy with a more healthy nutritious choice.

Water, Water, Water

If you do some research regarding dieting one thing you will hear over and over is to drink plenty of water. Not only will water help to fill you up so you do not eat to much, but it is also great for your appearance. Water is the best beauty treatment. It flushes out the impurities and gives you great looking skin.

Drinking water can also improve muscle tone. Muscles having all the water they need contract easier. Drinking water can give you a more effective workout when you exercise.

You should drink at least 8 8 oz glasses of water a day and more if you are more than 25 pounds over weight. For every 25 lbs I would drink another 8 oz glass of water.

Keep water by you. Use a straw if that will help you drink more.

Good luck and stick with it. Take it day by day. I also recommend only weighing your self once a week. As always before you start any diet or exercise program check with your doctor first.

Many people set out to lose weight with good intentions of sticking it out until they reach their goals. In fact, they intend to lose those unwanted extra pounds for good without ever seeing them again. So then, why is it that so many people lose weight only to gain it all back again? And why is it that so many people get frustrated and quit trying before they even lose any weight?

Of course dieting to lose weight takes some planning and some will power to stay with it, but a big part of the reason why so many people seem to be on a perpetual diet but never seem to lose weight often has less to do with their will to want to do it, and more to do with falling victim to some common mistakes dieters regularly make. Let’s look at some of these mistakes and some solutions to them.

One big mistake that dieters make is assuming that certain foods can be eaten in high quantities such as fat-free foods. It needs to be understood that just because a food is fat-free doesn’t mean it is calorie free. When you consume more calories than you use, you will gain, not lose, weight.

Many people who tried one of the many low-carb diets out there thought that they could eat as much as they wanted as long as the food they ate had low or no carbs. This way of thinking is wrong. It is still a matter of controlling the size of your portions that makes the difference. Keeping track of your overall calorie intake each day is imperative to a proper weight loss plan.

Another mistake that is made by dieters is expecting too much too soon. When you come to the conclusion that you want to lose 30 pounds, this is a realistic goal. When you decide that you want to lose those 30 pounds in one month, this is not a realistic goal. Maybe your 25th high school reunion is coming up and you want to be able to fit into that dress or suit you wore 25 years ago.

This is only possible if you take the time to allow yourself to properly attain that goal. Weight loss is best done at 1-2 pounds a week, not at 1-2 pounds a day, so set a small goal of say losing 5-7 pounds in a month, then set another similar goal and so on, until you reach your ultimate goal.

Not eating enough is yet another common mistake dieters make. The fact is, if you eat too little calories, your metabolism will slow down and you will go into what is known as “starvation mode”. This promotes major fat conservation for survival purposes and any weight loss will therefore come from the breakdown of muscle tissue, not fat! For the average adult female, it is not recommended to consume below 1000 calories and the average adult male should not consume below 1200 calories unless under the direction of their doctor.

One of the biggest mistakes dieters make by far is not planning for how to keep their weight down once they lose it. Often, people make the mistake of going on a “miracle” diet that promises super weight loss and although these types of diets are very dangerous and I absolutely do not recommend them, some people actually do lose weight on them. The problem is, these types of diets are designed to end at some point (which is a good thing since you would probably make it into the obituaries with a prolonged stay on these diets). That means that you would likely resume your old habits when it’s over thus accounting for the returning of all the weight you lost on the diet.

Of course getting some exercise is a key part in successful weight loss as well, but putting together a well thought out eating plan designed to stay with you for the rest of your life is the real key to taking that extra weight off and keeping it off for good. Be careful not to get caught making the mistakes mentioned here and you will have a much better chance at weight loss success.

Life has a way of fouling up our the best laid plans. First you decide to keep your car cleaner, “I’ll wash it every Saturday morning.” Great, you have a plan. Saturday comes along and someone calls inviting you to go golfing. You think, “I was going to wash the car, but I’ll do it when I get back,” and off you go. Maybe you do wash the car later that day, but maybe you tell yourself, “I’ll wash it next Saturday. It really wasn’t that dirty.”

Next week Saturday comes along and someone invited you camping so you’re in the woods thinking, “Oh, well, I can’t wash the car from here, can I?”

Another Saturday rolls around and you’ve forgotten all about your car washing plan, so even though you’re not doing anything else you’re thinking, “I don’t really FEEL like washing the car right now. I’ll do it later,” and so it goes.

“Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.” — John Lennon

It happens to all of us. You join the gym and immediately get the flu. Sign up for a adult education class and you’re car breaks down on the first night. When you need to water the grass there’s no rain in sight, but wash the car and what happens? These examples aren’t meant to give you a pessimistic outlook but instead point out why persistence in the face of obstacles is what separates the haves from the have nots.

It’s not what happens but what you DO with what happens that matters.

The best approach is one-day-at-a-time, or even lesser intervals depending on what you are attempting to do. If you’re trying to quit smoking, you might want to take things half-an-hour at a time. With food or eating it can be one meal at a time, one hunger pang or craving at a time, or whatever interval works for you.

Choose your Time Interval then Make it Happen

If you say you’ll never do something again (smoke, overeat, over drink) it never lasts (you must build in the possibility of occasional lapse), but if you wake up in the morning and decide for that day, and only that day, that you will follow through with your plan, for just that one day, then it can and will happen. There’s a real rush of accomplishment when you wake up and realize that yesterday you did it; you accomplished what you set out to do. Each accomplishment make it just that much easier to decide again to follow-through and it gets easier and easier.

Let the successes build, and let the lapses pass. It takes practice to get proficient no matter what you are learning, so plan to persist. Small lapses aren’t failures, they are only lapses, and you then decided for the next time period. Doing this allows you to pre-plan when you know you’ll not stick to your eating plan, thereby making it okay on occasion to over indulge. Holidays, special occasions. People who maintain a healthy weight do this all the time without thinking. When you give yourself permission to indulge, it’s amazing how much less you’ll feel like indulging. Take away the forbidden fruit and it’s just an apple.

Many of us are constantly in a battle to lose weight, and a lot of us want to discover a diet where we can lose weight and lose weight fast. Not looking at how to lose weight healthy. Dieting is a very hard thing to do. First you must commit yourself to modify the diet or current way you eat, which if not an easy task. Statistics on dieting are not good, so how can we find a diet that is easy and will lose weight and lose weight healthy.

There are many good diet plans out on the market today. The South Beach Diet is a very popular healthy diet plan, there is the Negative Calorie Diet, which in my opinion is also a healthy way of eating. There is also theIdiot Proof Diet Plan which is exactly that, and is a healthy plan.

One crucial aspect of dieting is to burn fat but also feed muscle as you don’t want to lose weight and have a lot of flabby skin.

Here are some important tips on dieting:

1. Do not ever skip breakfast, your breakfast gets your metabolism going, especially after a good nights sleep. Eat a healthy diet, like whole grain cereals, protein based foods that are low in fat, lowfat yogurt, etc.
2. Drink plenty of water, for one drinking a lot of water keeps you feeling full and less hungry, drink less soda and coffee and definitely less alcohol as all of those can add significant calories to your daily intake.
3. Make sure you watch your carbohydrate and calorie intake. Make sure you keep track of your intake. Carbohydrates need to be kept low, as well as eating good carbs such as fruits and vegetables, stay away from your refined sugars, flours and processed foods.
4. Take your time, don’t try to rush losing weight, lose weight healthy means lose weight slow, plus if you do it the right way, you will keep the weight off. Many people who lose weight to rapidly, as soon as they shift their eating habits back they put the weight back on quickly and usually a lot more weight than they originally lost. What happens when you lose weight to rapidly your metabolism will slow down, it slows down the rate we burn energy to survive. A resistance is built up which is called homeostasis, for example when our body heats up, we sweat, which is the response designed to cool down, this is homeostasis. The same principle happens when you lose weight, but when you lose weight to rapidly you will lose body fluid and muscle mass instead of burning the fat.

You should also take a regimin of vitamins and minerals. This will boost your energy and your metabolism.

To lose weight healthy, you must eat good foods, not just basing them on the caloric or carbohydrate content, and you must do some sort of exercise.

If you follow most of these weight loss tips, you can lose weight, lose weight healthy as well as keep the fat off.

We are so eager to lose weight that we swallow the promises of every diet guru on the planet and eagerly plunk down our hard earned cash, praying that this time it will work.

What are the costs of the popular diets? The initial cost is to buy the “Bible” for the diet or join the program. Those initial fees range from $20 or $30 for a book to several hundred dollars for a personal program.

Then there’s the food. Studies have shown that the average cost of a week’s food purchases, per individual, is slightly above $50. To start the South Beach Diet, tack on an additional $25 per week. For the Zone and Weight Watchers Diets, the additional cost is about $40, for Atkins $50, for NutriSystems almost $60 and for Jenny Craig about $85!

Wait a minute, you say. I’m losing weight by cutting back on eating. Shouldn’t that SAVE me ?

Looking at it logically, you would certainly think so. But we don’t try to lose weight logically, we approach the whole process through our emotions. It is our emotions that lead us to buy things on impulse, to sign up for programs we know we’ll never complete, and to join projects we’ll never actively pursue.

Our emotional thinking is our weakness and it has nothing to do with intelligence or education or social level. We all get suckered into scams at some point in our lives and we all occasionally suffer from buyer’s remorse – it’s a part of the human experience.

The marketers and ad men know it well and spend their days devising tricks for which we all too often fall. How often have you eagerly dialed an 800 number during one of those brilliant infomercials only to receive something that doesn’t work as it did on TV, is either shoddily made or just too complicated, and you stick it in the back of a cupboard where it gathers dust until you finally toss it?

When it comes to our weight, our emotions reign supreme. We so desperately want to be more attractive, more respected, and more desirable. We will even subject ourselves to painful and sometimes dangerous surgery to bring our reality closer to our ideal. And we will rob our piggy banks, deplete our bank accounts, and run up our cards for anything that promises us a slender future.

Do we get what we pay for? Sometimes. There are a few successful disciples in every program. It is their pictures and stories that are prominently displayed in promotional literature. It is the old “before” and “after” trick that sucks us in. Our logic (and a tiny footnote) tells us that the featured results are not typical.

The wary left side of our brain wonders if a little airbrushing might have been employed. Then the right side explodes, filled with desire, well-meaning intentions, and an overwhelming urge to believe. And we fall for it again.

Notice that we never hear or see about the failures, the hundreds of thousands who start a diet with such high hopes yet live the rest of their lives overweight. All the diets have their failures but never bother to mention exactly what their percentages are. They may caution that their program must be followed exactly if it is to work, but let’s be realistic. How many of us can follow an unswerving routine for the weeks, months, or years it is going to take to reach our ideal weight? We may be creatures of habit but life seldom fits into one unsquishable box for very long. We adapt the routine to meet our immediate needs and everything falls apart.

Sadder, wiser, guilt-ridden and self-critical, we vow to start again until, eventually, we give up. Is there a better way?

We can start by realizing that it really doesn’t matter what diet we choose. The secret is to address our emotions, that infatuation with food that has, nationally, reached crisis proportions. We have to break off our affair with what we eat and restore food to its rightful place – something that keeps us alive and healthy, not our primary source of excitement and self-satisfaction.

If you have healthy munchies in the house, it is so much easier to maintain a healthy diet. When you are very hungry, you will reach for the wrong foods. I find that if I keep and abundance of fresh green veggies in the refrigerator, it is easier to whip up a fast meal or create healthy food to crunch until I am ready to fix the next meal.

I am looking to lose weight and eat healthier. Many people can easily lose weight and healthier by eating fruits and vegetables each day. For most people you can easily lose a few pounds a month by just cutting out processed foods and eating fresh fruits and vegetables instead.

You can lose weight, and enrich your body with plenty of vitamins and nutrients by eating fresh fruits and vegetables. Fresh fruits are an excellent source of energy. Although they contain sugar, they are different than processed snack and are perfect when you are experiencing low energy during the middle of the day or during your workout.

If you are looking for great vitamins and minerals that can significantly cut your chances of cancer and other serious ailments, nothing is better than fresh vegetables. Make sure you consume plenty of leafy greens such as broccoli, spinach and Brussels sprouts. Carrots are also a great source of energy and are filled with vitamins for your eyes and skin. Most people enjoy salad, but make sure you load up on vegetables and not high fat dressing. A salad is a great way to get your daily fill of vegetables during the day. Snacks such as apples or carrot sticks are also great and won’t add lots of weight to your figure. So if you want to lose weight and eat healthier nothing is better than fruits and vegetables.

Before changing your lifestyle habits, contact your physician for medical advice

A successful diet requires a commitment to nourish your body with only the healthiest foods available. Most people understand the dynamics of caloric intake: the higher the number of calories in your food, the higher the number of energy units you will have to burn during everyday activity and exercise.

Dieting simply means that you are making the consorted effort to control the foods and content that you put into your body so that you can control the shape and composition of your body. Because dieting requires a behavioral change for so many people, it can be a difficult adjustment. Dieting with a buddy, however, can help you make the progress you seek.

Buddies help you lose the weight you desire in three main ways: 1. They offer emotional support during this often-turbulent period of adjustment; 2. They offer a meter for your success. By observing your buddy, you can learn insights into your own behavior towards your meals. 3. Buddies help to keep you on track by encouraging you to maintain the diet that you both agreed upon.

Here are some tips to help you and your partner work towards your diet goals together:

Chart Your Success
Making a dieting chart is important because it will help you to develop some quantifiable metrics for your weight loss. By glancing at the chart, you will be able to determine which areas you need to focus on in your diet and which areas are going well. You will be able to, thus, identify behavior that you may not have been previously aware of.

By creating a dieting chart, your buddy can offer you feedback and suggestions based on your behavior as well. You will both be transparent about your habits. By observing your partner’s behavior, in turn, you will be in a position to understand how others approach the dieting challenge. Often, you will gain encouragement and strategies by identifying how you both handle certain situations.

Finally, the chart is your sheet of accountability. If you slip up in your diet, you will have to admit to it. Surprisingly, because you know that you will have to add whatever food you eat to the chart, you will be keenly aware of each and every calorie that you put into your body. As such, you will be closely connected with your habits over time.

Cook for Each Other
Many busy dieting partners find that the most basic need, which is cooking healthy meals, is difficult when there are so many other obligations pulling them away from the kitchen. Dieting partners, if they live in the same town, can develop a calendar for food preparation. Several times a week, each partner can cook a healthy dinner for the other partner. If you cook on Monday and your partner cooks on Tuesday, then you know that you have to spend an extra hour in the kitchen on Monday in order to get two free on Tuesday.

Each meal can be prepared according to a certain diet, if you are both pursuing the same style. Make sure that there are plenty of portions so that it can be frozen and heated later in the week. By preparing meals, you are certain to make eating a healthy ritual rather than a rushed one not taken very seriously.

Dieting can be laborious and, for many people, create more stress than not dieting. Keep in mind that when you commit to a diet, however, you are making a commitment to enhancing the healthiness of your body and to paving the way for a more active lifestyle. In many cases, a healthy diet can save your life. Go ahead – find that buddy and share your dieting success!

Staying on your diet can be a challenge for anyone, but for a busy working mom the challenges can be especially tough. A busy lifestyle can make it impossible to get to the gym for a daily workout, prepare your meals ahead of time, or even to remember to pack your lunch for work each day. Being in a rush can make it difficult to stick to your diet when it’s so easy to grab something at the drivethrough. Here’s a collection of hints and tips from other busy women that will help you stay on your diet despite all the temptations.

Don’t try to ‘save time’ by eating on the run, or snacking at your desk while you work. No matter how rushed you are, take the time to eat like a civilized human being, to quote my mother. Set the table, put your food on a plate and have a meal. You’ll eat less and feel fuller – and not feel the urge to snack because you ‘haven’t eaten anything all day’.

Cook just what will be eaten. Ignore all those homemaker that suggest that you ‘cook for tomorrow’ to save time. Cook one portion per person at each meal. That way you’ll avoid the temptation to finish off the leftover – and teach your family healthy eating habits.

Get up early enough to eat breakfast at home. The morning rush to get ready may make it tempting to grab something on the way to work, or skip breakfast entirely. Don’t do it. You’ll end up eating up all that saved time – and a lot more calories – with midmorning trips to the snack machine, or fight off the blahs all morning long. Stock up on easy breakfast foods. A piece of fruit, a container of yogurt and a slice of toast are a healthy, balanced start for your day.

Most diets suggest that you drink at least eight 8 ounce glasses of water a day. If the thought of drinking a half gallon of water makes you queasy, there are ways to make it more appealing. Stock up on flavored bottled water in the fridge at work and keep one icy cold on your desk. At home, float mint sprigs or lemon slices in a crystal pitcher. There’s no added calories, but oh what a difference in presentation and flavor!

Trying to lose baby weight can be frustrating. You want to take it off as quickly as possible – but your body may not be cooperative. Keep in mind that your body is designed to nourish a child for up to a year after you give birth. Putting it on a starvation diet will kick it into survival gear, making it even harder to lose the extra weight. Instead of fighting your body’s natural tendency to store up nutrition for the baby, eat healthy portions and increase your activity level. And if you’re breastfeeding, remember that your body needs up to 1000 more calories a day than usual. Don’t skimp – you’ll just convince your body that it’s starving.

Employ the buddy system for moral support. Making a pact with a friend to exercise together makes it easier to stick to your resolution. Instead of meeting with friends for lunch, challenge friends to a tennis game, or take a brisk walk in the park together.

Remember that a healthy, active lifestyle and a nutritious diet are the true keys to losing weight permanently. By choosing a diet that makes sense for your lifestyle, you’ll make it easier on yourself to lose weight, and keep it off for good.

Diet and exercise are the two main essentials in making and keeping the figure beautiful. No woman can reduce weight, improve a clumsy and ungainly figure, through exercise alone. Diet comes first. Comparatively few women need fattening. What most need is reduction.

FIRST AID FOR THE THIN

Yet for those whose figure needs building up and filling out, the following facts should be borned in mind. First, relax mentally. Worry and nervous tension use up calories — the calorie is the unit by which we measure heat and food — very rapidly, and tend to reduce weight below normal. Secondly, sleep enough and breathe fresh air in plenty. Third, exercise, to stimulate the appetite and aid all the organs of the body to do their work. Fourth, eat more of the foods that are high in food value. Butter, sugar, cream and cream sauce on vegetables, cod-liver oil and olive oil, are all fattening.

FIRST AID FOR THE FAT

Do not cultivate fallacies, if you are fat and wish to reduce your figure in accord with the normal and ideal body measurements, . Shun antifat patent medicines and quack “cures.” Often they are based on mercury, arsenic or thyroid extract. Shun Epsom salts baths and too many Turkish baths. They do harm and no good. The reduction of calories is the real secret of
successful fat reduction, and a key to that unit of measurement will enable you to bring your figure within the proper limits, to keep your figure beautiful. The whole point is to know how many calories of food you need per day. Now, normally, a woman who does not “work” in any actual sense of the word, can do with 1,600 to 1,800 calories per day. If she follows some sedentary occupation, 2,000 to 2,200 calories will suffice her. If her business requires walking, standing or any lighter manual labor, she can run her calorie allowance up to 2,500. If she performs hard physical labor, she is entitled to 2,500 to 3,000 calories. All this is normally speaking.
But if you are too fat, if you wish to bring back your figure to its rightful lines, you must know what your ideal net weight should be in order to cut off the number of calories of food you do not need.

Among the kinds of food, note that Proteins, which build tissue and yield energy, may store fat.
Proteins are contained in meat, fish, fowl, nuts, milk, cheese, vegetables. Fats (animal fats, oils, chocolate, nuts) are stored by the body as fat. So are Carbohydrates (sugars, starches, including bread, cereals, potatoes, corn, etc.). Vitamins, food substances needed for growth, occur in animal fats, but not in vegetable ones, as also in eggs, milk, butter and meat, vegetable outer skins, grain germs and fruits.

BALANCE IN DIET

These kinds of food must be balanced. If you balance them properly, you can reduce your figure
to normal without injuring health or keeping to a monotonous food diet. Proteins you must eat, but neither to excess nor the reverse. And you must eat Vitamins, which abound in nonfattening vegetables and fruits. Do not be afraid of drinking plenty of water. But do not exceed your calorie allowance. Without further theory we advise the woman who wishes to eat and grow thin to avoid the following liquids and foods.

THE “KEEP OFF” SIGN FOR THE STOUT

Shun water during meals—it makes you eat more. Drink all you want between meals. Rich sodas must be avoided. But coffee in moderation and skim milk are not harmful. But every woman should know that all alcoholic drinks make her fatter if she is fat and thinner if she is thin, thus serving no good purpose. Each bit of food you eat beyond what your system and your normal weight, figure and calorie requirements demand, is fattening. Candy, pie, cakes, ice cream, whipped cream, candied sweet potatoes, cheese, rice, butter, fresh and white bread, rich meats, thick gravies and nuts are fattening.

“Keep off” fried foods, bacon, ham, pork, and all things made of flour, macaroni, dried beans, puddings, pastries and custards. But there are excellent beefsteak or lean meat, fruit and milk diets, the fruit diet especially being excellent for reduction. An occasional fast day, or certain days of low caloric eating a week are also good. A rapid method to reduce the overplus of calories is a diet of baked potatoes and a glass of skim milk, three times daily, for a week at a time. Or, instead of fasting altogether for a day, drink a glass of buttermilk every three hours. Again, small helpings of favorite fattening foods, or the dropping of one thing for another, will help attain the end — which is the reduction of your calorie overplus. This is the whole secret of reducing fat and bringing the figure to its normal physical best, its legitimate beauty of outline, where diet is concerned.

WHAT THE OBESE CAN EAT

A number of excellent books which deal in great detail with the different ways of controlling the
calories, of reducing weight and fat, are easily available. We have gone into some details ourselves, although diet and fat reduction is here only considered in its relation to physical beauty. In the books already mentioned, numerous “sample menus,” etc., will be found.

Foods you can eat, and still feel you are not betraying your figure, include: (1) Any meat or game, save pig. (2) All seafood, including lobster. (3) Fruit, with the exception of grapes and bananas. (4) Salads and meat jellies. (5) Tomatoes, peppers, olives, celery, cucumber, chili sauce and Worcestershire. (6) All fruit desserts.

Beauty and health go hand in hand. Your skin, your hair, your figure, if not healthy, rob your loveliest features of their charm. Make health the cornerstone of an intelligent study and cultivation of every iota of beauty which you have. Physical beauty, in the best sense, means well-rounded physical development on a health basis. Make the most of your figure and every charm you, individually, may possess. Such is the gospel of this article. If its teachings be followed, power— beauty’s choicest secret — will be your reward.

Losing weight is becoming a common goal with many individuals. And this task is becoming difficult and complex with all the conflicting information out there. Thus, in this article, you will find logically sound and effective tips you can follow to find the diet that will give you the maximum benefits and effectiveness.

1. Find a program that provides realistic goals.
Avoid diets that promise weight loss overnight. Diets that promise such unrealistic promise are not designed to lose weight. Diets take time to work. Select a diet based on your food preferences. Like sweet food? Opt for a diet that is high on carbohydrate intake. Allow your body to transit to the new diet easily by selecting the food that you like. By doing so, you can be on a diet and still enjoy it.

2. Research the credentials of your chosen diet.
The best diet for weight loss is the one that is created by an experienced doctor, health practitioner, or physician. These people spent years studying how the body works and what’s good for it. Before you choose a diet, make sure that you try to find out where the diet rooted from, who created it, and how many people have already benefited from it. The more background you get from the diet, the better.

3. Plan it out.
Don’t go ahead with a diet without planning at least a week ahead. Dieting is all about taking the right types of food in the right amount. If you can’t prepare your meals the proper way, you’ll end up not following your diet at all. Here’s a suggestion – before you start out on your new diet, rid your refrigerator of anything that your diet plan asks you to avoid. If you can’t do this, even the world’s best diet for weight loss won’t work for you.

4. Strictly adhere to the diet plan.
There’s no sense in looking for the best diet for weight loss only to forget about it after two to three days. Again, diet takes time to work. Following it is definitely hard. So prepare yourself mentally and physically. And make sure you are up to the challenge. Don’t worry. The results may be too grand than could you have expected.

There you have it! You now know the best diet for weight loss, so use it to your advantage!

Do you feel stressed and unhappy because you cannot lose weight? Have you tried multiples diets and nothing has worked so far? If the answer to either of these questions is yes, then you better read some of the diet tips presented below and discover for yourself the easy road to weight loss. One thing you should always remember: there is no stronger power to help you lose weight than your own inner strength and persistence!

Many people consider that a diet is represented by extreme suppression of food intake associated with a famous diet pill and intensive exercise. The truth is somewhere in the middle. If you want to achieve weight loss, then you have to reduce the calories intake, exercise plenty and add some of those diet pills to increase the efficiency of the diet. But you never want to exaggerate and most importantly, you should never stress your body too much. Stay away from those diet tips that force you to become an anorexic and do what’s right, what’s healthy.

Successful diet tips always start with the way you eat, the quantity and quality of what you eat. For many people, the weight problems start by eating too much and not necessarily healthy. Learning all about the right eating habits is essential. It ensures a smooth performance of your organism and regular burning of excessive fat. The concept of weight loss is not something that can be achieved overnight. It will take some times before noticeable results appear and you have to discipline yourself in order to maintain the positive effects of the diet. Choose a diet that is rich in fibers, vitamins and not in fats or carbohydrates. Be sure to drink a lot of water and get rid of drinks high in glucose as they contain way too much calories.

Obesity is one of the major risk factors for heart disease and cerebrovascular attacks. As more and more people suffer from this condition, scientists and medical specialists work side by side trying to find more effective methods to promote weight loss. They state categorically the importance of eating healthy and avoiding harmful food, adding physical exercise at the top of the list. As for the weight loss pill, many studies have been made and some of the research results are truly encouraging. Dietary supplements are known to act as appetite suppressants, having effects on the metabolism and preventing fatty deposits from forming. The diet pill can have different results from one individual to another. It is especially effective when associated with the right diet and regular exercise. Under no circumstances should it be taken in higher doses than prescribed and it is not recommended for those who suffer from high blood pressure or diabetes.

The reality is that there are no miraculous solutions for weight loss. It is still up to us to succeed, on our desire to be healthy and decrease the risk factors associated with obesity. In order to make informed diet choices, we need to learn about all weight loss alternatives, follow proper dietary recommendations and establish an exercise routine and stick to it. Most experts agree that losing weight quickly is not healthy as it is a step by step process and they are not wrong. It is important to start with light exercises (wiping the dust counts!), reduce your daily calories intake and choose a diet supplement that fits your needs. It takes courage and persistence to achieve weight loss and you should congratulate yourself for every step you have mastered!

I have found that there exist two different worlds in the realm of dieting. The first is the world of planning. In the world of planning you can plan out every meal for the next week or month or for however long you want to plan. If you are detail-oriented, write down how many croutons will be in your salads, or specify the appropriate length for the banana you want to eat. Why not? The more specific you are in your plan, the easier it will be to follow, right? Well, maybe not.

Let’s talk now about the other world: the world of reality. In the world of reality, you change your mind about what you want to eat, often. You go out with your friends for dinner on a few nights that you hadn’t planned for, and on two of those nights you eat pizza, lots of pizza. You eat a banana split one night because everyone else is having one, and you don’t want to stand out. On three occasions you buy and eat three candy bars within 20 minutes for no apparent reason. You eat three huge meals that your Italian mother cooked, because you know how happy she is when you have to loosen your belt just to breathe after her meals. Nothing ever goes as planned. That’s the important message. Circumstances will usually change and you will be forced to modify your original plan. I had to learn how to handle these situations.

Let’s say that for this Wednesday’s dinner, you’re planning to have eight ounces of skinless chicken with vegetables, but you have just been invited to a barbeque (hotdogs, hamburgers). Don’t torture yourself and stay home, unless you don’t like that group of people. Have fun, but try to limit yourself. You will probably take in more calories at the barbeque than your original dinner, but maybe you can adjust your week’s meal plan. Making adjustments to your eating behavior is an art form that requires a little bit of practice. Try using logic and not your emotions when making these kinds of adjustments.

Try to eat slowly at the barbeque, because they will throw meat at you if you are empty-handed. It is easy to just panic and toss down a few greasy burgers while you aren’t paying attention. I’ve done that too many times. Try to look busy, and always have a food item in your hand, but don’t take any bites. Tell the hosts you’ve already eaten three burgers when you’re actually on the first one.

Another way of looking at these two different worlds in dieting is to notice the difference between logical thought (planning) and emotional execution (reality). You can be very logical when making your plan, because you probably haven’t even started your diet yet. You will count up the correct number of calories per day, hit all the different food groups, and still be able to eat one piece of a candy bar every single day. That’s great—until the diet starts. Once you find yourself on the inside of the fishbowl rather than on the outside, everything seems to change. The rules now seem unfair. “Why do I have to eat this crap every single day?” “I have desires (pizza, enchiladas, chow fun).” “I feel like I’m in prison.” We often forget that we volunteered for this diet. And we can get so emotional that the execution of our diet, just following the plan, becomes completely impossible.

That is how we came to be overweight. The types of food and the quantity we eat became too important to us. We try to give it up, but part of us still puts up a tremendous fight. It is part of us now, unless we can change.

I have a friend named Jeff. I’ve known him for about nine years. He is just like you and me except he genuinely dislikes eating. I know that’s hard to imagine. Jeff told me one day that he wishes that he could just take all his nutrients in pill form. That’s right. Just slosh them down with water. That way he wouldn’t waste any time having to chew anything. The reason I have introduced you to Jeff is to show you that there are other ways to be. There is Jeff, us, and everyone in between. You can step into that “in between.” When your emotions are locked on a bear claw, think how much better you’d look if you lost an inch anywhere. Losing the weight has got to be more important than a one-night stand with some chocolate Kisses.

If you want to stop eating certain types of food (like cookies or pies) the best place to start is in your own home. Take a look around your house, especially in your refrigerator and freezer. Do you see anything that will tempt you greatly? I generally have to keep all types of fatty foods and desserts completely out of my house, because if I know they are there, they will eventually crawl right into my mouth. I don’t mean to do it. I may be a victim of my own genes. So instead, if I absolutely have to have something, I’ll go to 7-Eleven and buy “just one” of whatever it is (usually chocolate) and bring it back. That’s my rule—just one regular-sized piece of junk food. Of course I could go right back and buy another one, but if the same clerk is at the store, he’ll think I’m a pig to come back so soon. I don’t usually take that chance. But many other stores sell candy bars, and unfortunately, I could drive to many of them blindfolded.

Some of you don’t live alone as I currently do, and you may have to get some help from your spouse or roommate to keep fattening foods out of the house. This may be more of a challenge for you, because your food environment might not be under your control. A little give and take may be in order. Hopefully, your spouse or roommate is someone with whom you can feel comfortable sharing the details of your diet. Or maybe he or she would also like to lose some weight. Having a supportive friend would be great, assuming he or she takes the diet seriously. It is usually easy to tell if someone is taking a diet seriously. If your roommate starts declaring Wednesday as “All-You-Can-Eat Pizza Night,” or if he or she feels that two “Big Macs” is the perfect meal, you are on your own.

Almost all women have been on a diet sometime in their life; I know I have. Men diet also, but not as many men diet as women. It is hard to decide which diet plan to suffer through. The first question is, which one will work for you and how hard do you have to work to make it work? Basically most of us are lazy when it comes to losing weight and we want the fastest and easiest diet plan we can find.

Sticking to a diet is hard to do. On most ‘normal’ diets you won’t get hungry. By normal I mean you eat 3 meals a day with a couple of snacks during the day and you have to drink tons of water, that is what really fills you up. You may slush around all day but you won’t get hungry.

There are many diet plans. There are the 300 pages or more diet books and there are the diet groups that meet at least once a week. Then there are some that will have meals delivered right to your door. The basic plan in these diets is each day eat 3 healthy meals, have a couple of snacks, and drink lots of water. Next you have the diet pills that come with a diet plan, 3 meals, a couple of snacks, and lots of water, plus a pill or 2 each day.

Let us not forget the fad diets, the cabbage soup diet, the boiled egg diet, the grapefruit diet, just to name a few. These diets don’t last long, you either give up or pass out. Oh yeah, you do lose weight with these diets, but you also gain it back in a hurry, plus some.

So if you are thinking about starting a diet plan, choose carefully. Frankly in my opinion, one of the ones that meets once a week is the best. You get the support of all the rest of the group, you get to meet new people, and you get some new ideas for meals. These kinds of diets teach you how to live with a food plan, not a diet, but a way of life.

So until you decide which diet plan you think you can best follow, try to eat 3 healthy meals, a couple of snacks, and drink a lot of water each day. By the time you figure out which diet you want to tackle, maybe you will of lost the weight and won’t even need a ‘diet’, because you will of found a ‘diet’ on your own, except you now call it a food plan for life.

People who suffer from weight problems would like to believe that there is a simple, easy solution to their situation. A quick fix of some kind that will help them lose weight rapidly and without any effort. And there is a multi-billion dollar industry that revolves around getting people to believe promises of results that are qualified with fine print stating that the statements they are making haven’t been evaluated by the FDA (US Food & Drug Administration). One of the largest areas of the industry is diet pills. Not only can they cause harmful side effects, but they can become both physically and emotionally addictive.

One of the most dangerous aspects of diet pills is that they are not required by law to be tested by the FDA before they are released to the public. However, the FDA will act to remove a product from the market once it has been shown to be dangerous. This happened in 2003 when the FDA banned products containing ephedrine (ephedra) after they were suspected of being at least partly responsible for the death of a prominent athlete. Secondly, these pills can be purchased over the counter as well as by prescription. It’s up to the buyer to make sure he understands and uses the pills as they were intended. However, some people who are trying to “fix” themselves and their weight problems can be inclined to overdose on diet pills in order to try to speed up the weight loss process even more.

The pills work in different ways. Many are appetite suppressants with active ingredients like phenylpropanolamine or caffeine. Many of them are supposed to increase the rate of your metabolism and at the same time they should help in controlling the appetite. Others claim to block the body’s ability to absorb fat. Others even claim to give the same results of a bariatric gastric banding surgery without the operation. These pills expand in the stomach to create a feeling of satiety. Last, but not least, some diet pills are based on the process of eliminating waste or fluid from the body. Many include some form of diuretic or laxative.

Diet pills can be addictive and can also have harmful side effects even when they are taken according to the doctor’s directions. If you have any health problems, consult your physician before taking any kind of diet pill. Be sure that you follow the directions and be sure that you’re aware of possible side effects. Stop taking the pills immediately if you experience any of them. Some known side effects of diet pills include:

• anxiety or nervousness,
• irritability, insomnia and a feeling of restlessness or hyperactivity,
• high blood pressure,
• tightness in the chest,
• heart palpitations,
• heart attack,
• stroke or congestive heart failure,
• digestive tract problems like vomiting, diarrhea, constipation or other stomach pain,
• fever,
• dry mouth,
• headaches,
• dizziness,
• blurred vision,
• profuse sweating,
• hair loss,
• menstrual cycle and sex drive disturbances and
• urinary tract problems.

In the case of overdose, users can experience tremors or convulsions, confusion or hallucinations, breathing problems, renal failure or heart attack.

As you can see, diet pills need to be taken with caution due to all of the physical risks. But there are emotional risks too. Often those trying to lose weight may start to feel emotionally dependent on the pills. They may attribute their initial success to diet pills only, forgetting any diet modifications, exercise or other lifestyle changes that may have been the true reason for the weight loss. People will often ‘pill hop’, trying one new pill after the other, looking for the magic cure that will let them continue to eat whatever they want but still lose weight. However, only a balanced, sensible diet combined with exercise has been proven to keep weight off over any amount of time. And no pill will cause the lifestyle and emotional changes needed to stop overeating and start losing weight.

With today’s corporate marketing firms, specialized nutrition companies are really selling the powerful weight loss elements that their newest product contains. But what is true and what is false? And does there really exist a magical weight loss pill. The answer may surprise you.

For the past 10 years or so, I’ve taken all sorts of diet pills and “systems” to help with my own weight loss. What I’ve come to determine is that yes, some pills were work BETTER with your body structure than other pills. For me, personally, my body reacted quite well to a combination of ephedra, synephrine, and caffeine. Sometimes I would add aspirin to the mix as well so as to thin my blood out so that the effects of the pills would become more apparent, faster.

But before the ephedra rage, other diet pills also worked. For the most part I attributed it to the caffeine contained in the pills. I’m not a coffee drinker, so my body more readily was affected by the sudden boost in thermogenics. But, I really did well with the pills when I used them in combination with exercise and proper eating.

No, I don’t mean ordering LESS when you eat out, but changing the way you look at eating. Let’s face it, just because we order a diet coke doesn’t mean we’re eating better. Drinking water is eating better (well, drinking that is). By forcing your body to adapt to new eating patterns, increasing your cardiovascular activites, AND supplementing with some kind of thermogenic pill, you could definitely benefit from all of them combined.

It’s like the team concept. Sure, you could have a star quarterback, but he needs someone to throw too..the receiver! And who tells the quarterback which plays to call? The coach! By themselves, sure they’re good at what they do, but all together they’re awesome. Just something to think about in the grand scheme of being healthy.

When buying diet pills, there are a couple of different ways to go about it. Some pills are only available by prescription, while others can be purchased over the counter (OTC). There are several different types of weight loss supplements, which will be discussed in the following few paragraphs.

Some of the more popular prescription drugs are: Bontril, an appetite suppressant; Xenical, a pill which helps the body absorb fat; Meridia, a supplement that encourages your body to shed pounds, and Phentermine which is easily the most popular appetite suppressant in the United States today. Whereas prescription drugs are available only from a licensed physician, over the counter supplements can be purchased by anyone and contain such ingredients as amino acids, vitamins, minerals, botanicals, herbs, etc. They typically come in capsules, powder, and pill form but are not a substitute for proper diet and exercise. When combined with a healthy well balanced diet and exercise, these pills can be effective in helping you lose weight.

When purchasing any weight loss supplement, it is important to speak with your doctor beforehand. When buying an OTC supplement, it is especially important that you check the ingredients, and read the labels carefully. Some serious side effects can occur when using drugs with Ephedra in them, such as arrhythmia, heart valve lesions, and high blood pressure. Fortunately, Ephedra is no longer widely available. Even the most popular weight loss supplements can cause problems, with or without Ephedra present! High doses of caffeine (which many weight loss products have) have been known to cause problems with the heart, and still other drugs are under the suspicions of the FDA. The bottom line when taking any supplement designed to expedite weight loss is to check the ingredients list carefully, make sure it will not react with any other medications you are taking, and speak with your doctor before going on any weight loss plan.

It should be noted that even weight loss drugs prescribed by a physician carry risks. If a doctor has prescribed a supplement for you, generally they feel that the benefits outweigh the risks but that does not mean it is safe. You must always follow instructions exactly as prescribed, and stop taking them immediately if you notice any unusual symptoms. Even prescription drugs must accompany a healthy diet and exercise to work. Contrary to what diet pill manufactures want you to believe, no one pill is going to make you lose weight. It takes time and effort, and only a willingness to in both will ensure success.

If you are serious about losing weight and would like to purchase a weight loss supplement to aid you in your goal, make sure to incorporate a well balanced diet and exercise into your plans. Buying diet pills can be beneficial to your weight loss plans, but only if you are smart about your lifestyle choices.