Be Careful of People Who Can Damage Your Weight Loss Program

Ricardo d Argence — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 03:03:03 +0000

In order to be successful in a weight loss program, you need to have people who are close who will encourage and support your efforts. Unfortunately, this idealistic mindset is almost impossible to achieve in this imperfect world. There is always someone who wants to sabotage everything you do in life, including your attempts to lose weight.

Don’t let this dissuade you from your goals, rather, keep pressing on diligently until you attain your ultimate goal- not just a slimmer body, but a healthier you. Why it happens?

Why it happens? Such responses to your success are a natural, if irrational, fear of loss associated with the actual achievement of the goal. If it is a spouse, he or she may feel threatened by your new look and that you will appear more attractive to others. The feelings of jealousy from a sibling occur when loosing a friend to share good food.

This is also apparent if your best friend is sabotaging your weight loss program, they may fear the fact of losing you to a new and improved circle of friends once you get all the weight off. Here are some clues to use if you want to see if they belong to this category of saboteurs.

1. Offer you Fattening Foods. This is one neat trick that can make you fall to their plans and be a victim of these weight loss saboteurs! Over time, they may shove you with your favorite food and offer something that used to be your personal cravings. Thank them and refuse to have any of them.

2. Negative Comments. With remarks like these: You’ve never been able to lose weight, or, why bother, there’s just more of you to love. These are just a few of the ways that these tricky characters utilize!

3. Catch you Doing Something Forbidden. They watch you closely for actions contrary to your weight loss program.

4. Constant Criticism. They have a habit of criticizing everything you can and how you decide to manage your weight loss program.

So how do you face these characters in your life? They are the people dearest to you and you can’t simply shove them aside. Well, what you can do id to simple ignore these remarks, and move on with your weight loss program. You can make some attempts to reassure them that things will not change and will be what it used to be in the past. What is changing is only your weight and your lifestyle and you are doing it for your own well being and your health.

Tags: wellness, diet advice, exercise, getting fit

A Look At Weight Loss Plans For Teens

Lindelwa Maseko — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 05:53:56 +0000

There isn’t really a great secret with natural weight loss, just to eat properly (not too much) and of course get regular exercise. If it were that simple the one third of overweight Americans would be able to do something about the situation, one which is gradually affecting people around the world. There are many reasons why you would want to lose weight once you have put it on, but what reason is strong enough to actually encourage you to do it, good health or looks?

The hard thing for people to understand is it is easier to maintain your natural weight than loose extra pounds once you have put them on. This is something that all of us know deep down, that if we do not watch what we eat and how much we exercise, then we are doomed to an overweight future.

It has been shown that even when overweight people enjoy eating low calorie foods, the majority become bored and end up putting the weight back on because they slip back into previous ways. Natural weight loss is possible though and it can be done before you get stared at in the street or cause others problems because of your weight.

The truth is there is a huge price to pay with your health when you are overweight and in particular, clinically obese. The basics of eating correctly while maintaining a healthy weight is not all that complicated, in fact most people know pretty well what is best and that is losing weight naturally.

If you are planning to use a natural weight loss approach then its success will depend on the meals you eat which should be low in fat, high in fiber, some protein and carbohydrates. A meal such as this would be something like a baked potato (complex carbohydrate), the fiber is vegetables and protein is a lean cut of meat.

Dietitians also say that the body has a capacity to retain dietary fat more than calories for regular foods so weight gain is more likely. Another problem is the obsession with fat free or low fat foods that food manufactures are stacking the shelves with which despite their popularity are not stopping the problem of obesity.

What people fail to understand is that it isn’t just fat in their food that is making them put on weight, it’s the quantity of food they consume and the calorific content of it. Where this goes wrong is with overweight people who think that if it’s fat free they can eat more of it instead of eating a healthy snack.

Schools of thought differ on this subject but many nutritionists agree that eating smaller meals with a snack every 3 to four hours or between meals could be beneficial providing main meals are not missed. This is a subject that will continue to be debated for some time but natural weight loss is possible and should not be looked upon as a lost cause.

Tags: losing weight fast, lose belly fat, health, shaping up

The Very Best Diet Tips to Jump-Start Weight Loss!

Gail M. Davis — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 19:40:22 +0000

Quit fighting the same pounds over and over and use these top diet tips to help you shed that stubborn weight! These tips are easy to follow and require no special equipment. They will encourage weight loss and help you feel stronger and more confident in your battle towards your ideal weight!

The first simple diet tip requires you to plan your meals. When you eat on the spur of the moment, you often make poor choices. Either the night before or in the morning, you need to plan three small, healthy meals and two small, healthy snacks for the day. Ideally, each meal would be less than 400 calories. More than that and the chances are that some of it will end up stored as fat!

Use a food journal of some type to record your food intake. Research shows that people who use a food journal can lose up to twice as much weight as those who do not. Journals are made for this purpose, but there are printable ones available online, or a spiral notebook from the drugstore can suffice as well.

Never go into a restaurant without having a plan. Even if you have never visited the restaurant before, you’ll have a general idea of what they serve. Decide what would be beneficial to your diet and stick to the plan. Consider sharing meals or taking home at least half of the meal to further assist your weight loss. Visualize the amount of food in a typical frozen dinner. Believe it or not, those are proper portion sizes.

Many people feel deprived when dieting. If you savor each bite, chew really well, and eat slowly, you’ll begin to enjoy the taste of the food and feel more satisfied. Always eat with intention. Don’t be distracted into overindulging. Make your dining out experiences more about your companions instead of the food.

If you’re eating, you need to be hungry. Try to tune in to what’s going on when you desire to eat recreationally. Substitute another behavior for the eating process. Call a friend, take a walk, listen to some really great music, or go shopping.

Don’t severely restrict those food items that offer the most benefit. Heart-healthy oils, such as Omega-3s are believed by many health professionals to assist fat burning. In addition, fats are needed for healthy hair and skin, hormonal balance, and joint lubrication. Protein and fiber are two more items needed in a healthy diet. Both are responsible for keeping you full and satisfied.

Limit your sodas and sweet drinks. Drink plenty of water because it helps to keep you full. Calcium also boosts weight loss, so make skim milk your friend.

It’s imperative for weight loss and weight maintenance to burn excess fuel each day. If you can change your mindset and begin to think of exercise as “play”, you may actually begin to look forward to it. If not, learn to appreciate it for the benefits that it provides. Try new activities such as swimming laps or inline skating. You may be surprised to find something that you really enjoy. When you move regularly, you help ensure long-term fitness.

These simple diet tips will help jump-start your weight loss efforts and have you seeing smaller numbers on the scale in no time! You will not be disappointed in your results if you incorporate these tips into your lifestyle. After several days, you will notice small changes that will boost your motivation to continue the journey. You’ll begin to feel stronger and more in control and your confidence will soar!

Tags: lose belly fat, working out, exercise, get healthier

Two ways to control hunger & Lose Weight

Joel Riley — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 10:18:17 +0000

Being Hungry has its good and bad points. Its is Good in so far as it signals you to eat in order that you can survive. It is bad if it becomes an uncontrollable urge which results in you overeating. If you do not learn how to control this then, at the end of the day, uncontrollable eating will result in you gaining weight. In fact hunger will become you worst enemy when it comes to controlling your weight. Therefore if you wishes to lose weight, your hunger pangs must be tamed.

1. Appetite suppressants: People often ask me whether appetite suppressants really work or not. Truth to be told, I have found from my research that most of them don’t work at all! Plus many of the popular appetite suppressants can have harmful side effects on your body. The only appetite suppressant I would recommend is Hoodia, firstly because it is completely natural (being made form the Hoodia cactus), and secondly, it has worked for me! I would recommend that you stay way from any diet pill that contains caffeine or any other stimulants!

Hoodia is available in pill format or powdered form. To my knowledge, I find the powdered type to be more suitable for me and also more effective. It is easier for our body to absorb the powdered type than pill type actually. Just take one teaspoonful of Hoodia powder and mix it with one cu of water and lemon juice. For most people, the taste of the detox drink leaves a lot of room for improvement. I had to compel myself to gulp it down.

Even though the formulation tasted horrible, You will be able to to on fasting for days and not feel any hunger at all. This is because the Hoodia, really suppress your hunger pangs.

2.View positively about hunger pangs. It is not any form of Punishment or something that you should dread. They are just signals that your body is reacting with the detox drink and is slowly purging all the harmful toxins out from your body system. Once all the toxins are purged, weight loss will follow naturally.

Remember that if you can keep up with your hunger for at least a couple of weeks, you will feel as if you can go on fasting for an indefinite period of time. Now I don’t recommend fasting for too long because that would make you anorexic, but I am telling you that that you need to learn to discipline yourself! Unless you attempt to control your hunger pangs, they will lead you to the same bad lifestyle habits which made you overweight in the first place!

Tags: losing weight fast, get healthier, diet advice, health

Lose Weight In 7 Days With the Cabbage Soup Diet

Ann Huz — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 06:03:46 +0000

Keeping up with weight loss could for sure be very difficult. This forces weight watchers to constantly search for other quicker methods to shed the pounds. Well, one of those methods is called the Cabbage Soup diet which claims to help dieters drop off excess weight rapidly.

As the name implies, the Cabbage Soup diet is a diet of low calorie cabbage soup that you consume for 1 week. During this timeframe, you only eat cabbage soup together with a limited variety of foods named below. Unlike other diets, you are not required to make any major life style changes for this one. As a matter of fact, once the 1 week diet period ends, everything goes back to normal.

There are numerous cabbage soup recipes. You can add tomatoes and celery, along with mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, etc. A few dieters advocate sprinkling spicy seasonings for added flavor. And if you need to monitor your sodium intake, you can use recipes that allow for less sodium. And for more balanced meals, simply add tofu or even protein drinks as sources of protein.

A limited variety of foods are permitted to be taken together with the cabbage soup. As an example, every day for 1 week, dieters are to eat cabbage soup together with the these foods:

Day One: fruit

Day Two: vegetables

Day Three: vegetables, fruit

Day Four: skim milk, bananas

Day Five: beef, tomatoes

Day Six: beef, vegetables

Day Seven: vegetables, fruit, brown rice

Once the one week diet is all over, dieters return to their regular eating patterns. They, hopefully, would weigh less than before they began.

Outcomes in terms of weight reduction vary with individuals. There are people who have lost as much as 10lbs. However, they regained most of that when they went back to their normal dietary habit. Others said that they felt fatigued during the 1 week diet. And still others say that they didnt lose any significant amount of weight at all.

There are plenty of speedy weight loss programs available. If you want to permanently lose weight, don’t rely on temporary fad diets. Attaining safe, long-term weight loss requires long-term healthy eating and performing regular exercise or physical activities.

Regrettably, most dieters have a tough time struggling to lose weight because of unhealthy eating patterns, and/or because they have a weak motivation to do so. But if you are truly determined, you can overcome those obstacles towards losing weight.

Tags: muscle up, losing weight fast, losing weight, losing fat

How to Lose Weight During the Holiday Season

Ricardo d Argence — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 08:21:56 +0000

Those delicious puddings and those crunchy, sweet, absolutely delicious chocolate cookies maybe beckoning you to reach out and grab a handful but if you are on a weight loss program, that is exactly the thing you don’t want to do!

It’s just one cookie, it won’t do any damage…right? Well, did you realize that one little cookie a day for a month can add an extra pound to your weight? During holiday season it can be especially difficult to resist the lure of delicious food and stick to a diet. Here are some handy hints as to how you can manage to maintain your weight loss during these periods.

Never Skip Meals. This is the best formula to get you grouchy, feeling tired and hungry all the time. If you think skipping a few meals can make up for your intentions to splurge on those tasty holiday meals, you are dead wrong! What will be more likely to happen is it will turn you into a voracious eating monster during the festive season and end up feeling bloated and with a lot more calories than you could have do without if you weren’t so hungry.

Eat Before the Party. It is a good idea to snack before the party, and select a high fiber meal. A diet high in fiber can make you feel satiated and so there is less chance of binging on those delicacies during the holiday season.

Stay as far Away as Possible from the Buffet Table. Resisting those tasty looking dishes can be a real challenge and you don’t want to stimulate your senses in a negative way that may cause your willpower to be threatened unnecessarily. Choose a healthy helping of those foods you need-the salads the fruits and a snack or two and move away from the table as fast as you can. Get involved in a good engaging conversation, and soon you’ll get your mind off food to be able to survive through those threatening times (to you weight loss program) and sail through the party with flying colors.

Drink water. Water is essential to any weight loss program, not only because it keeps you from dehydrating, it also keeps hunger under control by helping you feel full. Try to drink plenty of them over the course of the party in order to avoid hunger-they’ll fill your stomach and kill your desire to binge on the food. Water helps you jolt your metabolic rate and flush away the fats.

A lot of exercise. Exercise is essential to keep your metabolism working hard burning calories; it also produces adrenalin for energy and endorphins to keep you feeling great without relying on food. Don’t use the holiday season as a reason to avoid exercise!

Tags: wellness, get in shape, get healthier, fitness

Discover The Best Food Groups & Exercises For Fat Loss

Flortentina Ryan — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 07:54:48 +0000

Fat loss is about burning more calories than you eat. Both the treadmill and the elliptical are great ways to burn extra calories. Fat loss is the reduction of body fat, whereas weight loss allows for only a small reduction in body fat initially; then you start breaking down muscle tissue and losing water weight. Your primary goal should be to lose fat, while you maintain and/or increase your lean muscle mass Fat loss is also a goal for bodybuilders during cutting phases. Fat loss takes hard work but there are supplements that can help you to reach your goals faster. Fat loss is all about calorie reduction, but a calorie intake that is too low will cause problems.

Heart rate Interval Training that provides you with your own personal yard stick to measure your progress. Whether what you are trying to get is more competition in your sports, live a more healthy life, tone your body or lose the excess body fat, you must be able to measure exactly how you are going to do it. Diseases such as heart disease, kidney trouble, diabetes, high blood pressure and liver trouble are just a few risk of the effects of carrying excess body fat.

Though the amount and kind of food we intake is not the only answer to reducing body fat, it is, along with exercise, the key elements. Muscle burns fat for fuel when the body is at rest and during exercise. Exercise maintains permanent fat loss. Muscles can store excess blood sugar (glucose) in the form of Glycogen. When the glucose levels in the blood becomes too high the muscles will absorb glucose and store it in the form of glycogen. Muscles and veins in the legs may look bigger because there is less fat to hide them.

Muscle is what drives your metabolism. For every pound of muscle on your body you need 35 - 50 calories per day to sustain it. Muscle contains about 3 times as much water as fat. So if you lose a pound of muscle you’re losing 3 pounds of water with it. Muscle mass is one of the biggest determinants of resting metabolic rate. While science continues to investigate and debate exactly how many extra calories are burned per day by the addition of one pound of muscle — what IS clear is that muscle is metabolically active = more muscle = more calories burned. Muscle burns more fat than fat does

To maintaining weight is one of the hardest part of controlling weight and is not consistently implemented in weight loss programs. Weight loss is more than a practice in America these days, it is a whole industry. Obesity and overweight people are treated like outcasts, and it is not something they can take easily. Weight loss happens or occurs only when you burn a lot more calories than you take in or eat This system helps you burn a huge amount of calories with no exercise whatsoever. Weight, body mass index, blood glucose, and lipids stay unchanged for both groups.

Building muscle mass is hard for men with low Testosterone levels. You will not get big and bulky by accident with strength training. Building strong abdominals without also developing the antagonistic spinal erectors of the lower back could easily lead to injury. Many people are under the impression that they should only do cardiovascular activities until the weight comes off, and then add weight training later on.

Rapid fat loss is something that Americans and people across the globe desire. We find ourselves neglecting those important health basics that keep us from adding pounds to our build RAPID weight loss is NEVER caused by reduced body fat. Rapid weight loss is due to the loss of glycogen, water, minerals, bodily proteins, adipose tissue, Intramuscular triglyceride and decreased GI tract storage.

Tags: tone up, losing weight fast, get in shape, get healthier

How Can You Lose Weight With No Exercise

Kaye Medalla — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 06:33:59 +0000

Most people would say that learning how to lose weight without exercises is like shooting for the stars. So, they push themselves and exercise real hard but still can’t lose weight because they failed to do the key to weight loss.

I did not know about this too before that is why I have also failed losing weight a lot of times. I even tried lifting weights which just gave me an awkward body and still have a big belly. That is because I still ate more calories than what I needed each day.

You will burn fat without exercise if you can create a caloric deficit every day. This is proven from studies made and this is a fact. I know it’s not easy to lose weight but I also know that it is not as hard as you think. If you can’t exercise, what you just have to do is eat less calories every day than what your body needs.

Take note, I did not say less food. I said less calories. Starving and depriving yourself with less food consumption will get you nowhere or it could even worsen the situation and make your weight loss harder to achieve because our body would easily shift gears instantly and adapt knowing that you are starving yourself. It will start cannibalizing your muscles for energy, thus, you’ll end up hurting yourself more.

How You Can Lose Weight With No Exercise

1. First, you will need to know how much calories you will need each day. That’s easy, weight yourself and multiply your weight by 13. So, if you weigh around 180 lbs. you will need approximately less than 2300 calories each day for energy.

2. Replace the foods you consume with foods that has lesser fat and less calorie content like non fat milk, low fat dressing and opt for raw fruits instead of chocolates and pastries for dessert. Stay away from refined sugar and anything that has starch in it.

3. If you have any injuries or you really have a very busy schedule so you can’t exercise, you can substitute a different physical activity to your daily routine each day like walking to work instead of a short cab drive or taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Find small but helpful activities to give your energy and fat burning process an extra nudge.

Tags: exercise, working out, losing fat, losing weight

Learn How Appetite Control Helps You Lose Weight

Therese Zachary — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 05:07:33 +0000

Appetite control is just as its name suggest. If you’re thinking about achieving it, you are not alone. A lot of people are thinking of the same thing. The truth is however is that this is a harder feat to achieve than you think. Here?s what you need to know about controlling your appetite.

Trying to Lose Weight

It?s hard trying to lose weight. It may seem like a simple thing to exercise and follow a nutritious diet plan. In reality though, this really takes a lot of discipline and will power. A lot of people have abandoned exercise regimens and diet plans because they cannot push themselves hard enough.

If you have already done the same, you shouldn?t really blame yourself. A lot of other people have lost their will and determination too. It is a very human trait to experience this kind of temptation on the road to weight loss. What is important is that you realize that weight loss is never impossible even if you occasionally stumble.

The Problem with Your Appetite

Plan - One key to weight loss is following your overall plan. Other than that, you also need to make sure that you are able to control your appetite. Here lies the problem. We all have different appetites. Some feel like eating a lot only after a difficult workout while others feel like eating anytime of the day. One thing is certain for all individuals though, the inability to suppress one?s appetite could greatly affect weight loss goals. In other words, you may not be able to lose as much weight as you would want to at the appointed time when your appetite for food is always running amok. What can you do?

Different Strategies

The Experts - There are a lot of appetite control experts out there. The problem is that there are so many of them that there are also so many different theories and strategies for suppressing appetite. In some cases, the strategies may even clash. Some for example would recommend drinking lots of fluids while others would advise against it. There are also some who say that exercise by nature can suppress appetite but most of us have experienced otherwise. If you?re up to it, you could experiment on the various methods and theories to find one that works for you.

What Works and What Doesn?t

As you may already know, not all suppression strategies are good. Because you are a unique individual, some strategies will simply not work on you. If you aren?t careful, you might even end up causing more problems for you. Experimenting on your diet content and eating schedule for example could be harmful if you did not receive good advice from a dietician or nutritionist. You could be depriving yourself of essential nutrients.

Suppressing Appetite Effectively

The Definite Solution - If you don?t want to hit or miss you could try one solution that is simple, safe and straightforward. You could simply take Caralluma fimbriata to suppress your appetite. This is actually an Indian herb that when eaten convinces your system that you don?t need to eat yet. Indians themselves have been using this for centuries as a natural appetite deterrent.

Yes, you don?t need to experiment on your appetite control. With Caralluma, you can be on your way to genuine and consistent weight loss.

Tags: fitness, exercise, diet advice, health

How Often Must You Exercise To Lose Weight?

Robert Kaufman — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 06:32:15 +0000

You can take a look at the weight loss industry and know that there must be many people seeking the latest weight loss cure. They are looking for a magic pill to help them loose belly fat. One thing that people sometimes overlook is the importance that exercise is to weight loss and overall good health.

How frequently do you need to exercise before you start losing weight? That can often differ depending on who you are talking to. There are a number of dissenting opinions on the topic of weight loss and exercise. With so many exercise options and plans to choose from, it can be quite challenging to decide which is best for you.

A number of fitness pros, trainers and diet experts recommend doing aerobic exercise for at least thirty minutes, four times weekly. Aerobic exercise is anything that increases your heart rate and blood flow. Work out strenously so that your heart rate is elevated, but make sure you do not exceed the healthy range for your age and level of physical fitness.

Some weight loss experts are currently recommending that an hour or more of aerobic exercise a few times a week is necessary to achieve the best results. There is no general consensus on whether that hour of exercise can be broken up or if it must be continuous.

So how much do you really need to exercise to lose weight? The fact is that most of the time, dieters set unrealistic goals for their exercise program and inevitably fall short. Of course, you should always set a goal when starting a new exercise program, but make sure to set one you can actually achieve. For example, deciding to exercise for an hour each day may not be realistic if you are just starting out.

How much should you exercise to loose weight? Try beginning with a simple aerobic exercise that you enjoy, and go at a slow pace at first. You will be more likely to stick with your exercise program if you set realistic, achievable goals for yourself. As an example, If you were able to walk for 5 minutes one day, push yourself to go to 10 minutes the next, then 15, etc. Keep adding to your workout gradually and it will become a habit to exercise, not a chore.

For some people exercise has been a naughty word and they donat know what to do or where to start. For these people, just getting up off the couch and walking around their house or apartment one time is a start. For some walking to the front door and back would be a start. Just move.

Loosing weight is hard, but can be accomplished. It may be a struggle at first, but do not quit or get your hopes up. If you set small goal that you know you can achieve, you can feel a sense of accomplishment and it will be a snowball effect, causing you to do a little more each time. So, how much should you exercise to loose weight. First start moving and go from there.

Tags: exercise, get in shape, losing fat, get healthier