Weight Loss Articles Archives

If you were to convince yourself that fitness is important, you would be more inclined to remain focused on any health related task such as exercising or eating properly.  You only have one body and one life time to take care of that body.  You need to treat it well and keep it physically fit.

Over the past few years, people are willing to engage more in physical activities, having learned how important it is to their well being.  Have you come to that conclusion?  How many times have you noticed that a positive attitude goes a long way in seeing any life’s situation through, no matter how complex it may be or seem to be.

There are thousands of online forums and fitness websites that will encourage you to take better care of yourself.  It won’t do any good, though if you don’t avail yourself of their services.

In a life threatening situation, being physically fit may just save your life.  Perhaps you have to run from danger.  Being physically fit will allow you to do that.  But if you weren’t, in a matter of a few steps, you would have to stop and catch your breath.  That could mean your life.

Building confidence goes hand in hand with being physically fit.  You look good and your inner beauty has a tendency to come to the fore.  You radiate good health and that is an attractive quality.

Coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and cancer may never become a part of your health status.  By exercising, you just may be able to avoid these problems.  Wouldn’t that be nice?

There are plenty of pollution in the air eager to let off chemicals.  A healthy body can ward off these free radicals.  Your heart muscle becomes more thicker and is able to pump more blood per minute.  Nutrient are absorbed at optimum levels and your bones grow bigger with faster healing time should you happen to break one.

What we eat determines our health and fitness as does how we live our lives.  Our lifestyle is very important.  Our involvement in daily activities, the foods we eat as well as how many times we eat all play a part in our healthy lifestyle.  Good physical fitness will make us feel more energetic and experience more vitality.  A happy feeling results in greater happiness.

You learn to realize that being fit puts us in the right frame of mind.  Our mental health becomes sharper and concentration fares better.  All because of the increased blood circulation in the brain.  Proper dieting and physical exercises all contribute to our emotional and physical well being.  It just takes our determination to incorporate those habits in our daily lives.

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Millions of people have tried both “low-carb” and “no-carb” approaches in an attempt to lose weight quickly. But few have tried a much safer and healthier approach known as the Carb Rotation Diet. It is a much more effective and realistic method of rapid fat loss.

There are two general approaches to Carb Rotating. The first approach is to follow a “no, no, no, high carb” program. This means you would eat no carbohydrates at all for the first three days and then eat a “high” amount of carbohydrates on for the fourth day. The fifth day you are back to eating “no carbs” again.

This plan can be effective, but you have to be very strict. It is an aggressive approach that may trigger your starvation response. Yes, the very same starvation response which causes elevation of a hormone called lipoprotein lipase. When this hormone becomes elevated your metabolism begins to slow down. And since that is the last thing anyone who is trying to get rid of unwanted pounds wants, it is not the approach I recommend.

Additionally, when people deprive themselves completely of “carbs” for three days they have a tendency to:

1) Go completely overboard with carbohydrate consumption on the fourth day of the rotation.

2) Not be able to go back to the three days of carbohydrate deprivation resulting in failure of the program.

The much more common sense approach is to follow a “high, low, no carb” program. There is much more room for error with this type of plan. It is much easier to follow and leads to much greater success.

Rotating your “carbs” in this manner allows you to shed fat and keep your metabolism elevated, which is the key to long term weight loss. There is a consistent transition with a “high, low, no” approach because every fourth day you repeat the cycle and you aren’t depriving yourself of “carbs” for three days straight. And again: potentially triggering the elevation of lipoprotein lipase.

We tend to eat too many “carbs”, we eat improper “carbs” and we don’t eat enough protein in our diet. But by following the guidelines laid out in a “high, low, no carb” program we are manipulating the blood sugars and insulin response in our body to achieve rapid of fat loss. Rotating Carbs allows you to control and manipulate your blood sugars and insulin response so you are allowing your body to burn more calories for energy instead of storing “carbs” as fat. This means you are shedding fat and increasing your metabolism. Two very good things!

Guest article by Jayson Hunter

Jayson Hunter RD, CSCS is the author of the Carb Rotation Diet. To discover the 5 absolute truths Every Serial Dieter Who Seeks Rapid-Weight loss MUST come to grips with visit The Carb Rotation Diet.

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There has been much debate lately about High Fructose Corn Syrup. The scientists say that it may be unhealthy for you and make you fat. Where as a manufacturer for HFCS says that is not true. Well, here are the facts as we know them right now.

Archer Daniels Midland, a company that makes HFCS, which is the main ingredient used in sodas, ketchup, barbecue sauce, cereals, snack foods and other processed foods says that HFCS does not make you fat.

Health officials and many scientists have conducted studies that show that HFCS may lead to fat accumulation, obesity and other health problems.

What they have been finding is that HFCS readily turns to fat in the body more so than conventional sugar. It is also associated with higher triglycerides and LDL (bad cholesterol).

What I think is even more important to take note of is that HFCS appears to affect your appetite so that you eat more food. It is important to note that this finding isn’t just for HFCS. It also applies to artificial sweeteners. Researchers have noticed this occurrence with diet sodas that contain artificial sweeteners.

The reason is because insulin levels do not seem to increase when consuming HFCS and artificial sweeteners. This then means that leptin another hormone which is controlled by insulin does not get released either. Leptin tells your brain when you are full and to stop eating. Without this message you tend to keep eating until you have eaten too many calories.

So what this means is that HFCS may not directly make you fat because of the ingredients, but because you do not get the message that you are full you tend to overeat which results in weight gain and a higher risk for obesity.

Your take home message is to avoid all foods that contain High Fructose Corn Syrup. Go through your cabinets and look at the labels of all your foods and get rid of any foods that contain HFCS. Then the next time you are shopping make sure to choose foods that do NOT contain High Fructose Corn Syrup.

High Fructose Corn Syrup doesn’t make you fat by itself, but it most definitely assists with weight gain by increasing your calories consumed. Since we tend to eat many processed foods that contain HFCS our chances of overeating is greatly increased.

Here is a tip to reduce the consumption of HFCS successfully. Replace one food item a week with a non-HFCS product. Better yet replace that food item with a fruit or vegetable. This one little change can have you losing weight before you know it and living a healthier life as well.

Guest article by Jayson Hunter Registered Dieititian, CSCS

Jayson Hunter RD, CSCS is the author of the Carb Rotation Diet. To discover the 5 absolute truths Every Serial Dieter Who Seeks Rapid-Weight loss MUST come to grips with visit The Carb Rotation Diet.

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Can carbohydrates make you fat? Are carbohydrates essential for fueling the body and having it run efficiently? Do I need to watch my intake of carbohydrates to prevent fat storage? The answer to all 3 questions is Yes!

So what does all this mean? Am I not to eat carbs or am I supposed to eat carbs? How many carbs should I eat? What types? The entire carbohydrate craze has gone from one extreme to the other and back again. It’s no wonder you may be confused, frustrated, mad or all of the above.

There is a ton of information flying around and much of it is garbage. Here are the facts about carbs and how you should use this information.

1. Your body can store all carbs as fat when the muscles and the liver are already full of glycogen. So if you continuously eat a high carbohydrate diet this can lead to increased fat storage. Also, you can store more of your carb calories as fat when you eat too many processed and refined carbs. The key is to consume moderate carbs and choose carbs that have at least 2gms of fiber per serving. This will help control insulin spikes, which leads us to number 2.

2. Eating too many carbs at one sitting without enough other nutrients to counteract its effect will cause insulin spikes, which then triggers your body’s fat storing mechanisms. This is why I suggest you eat whole grain carbs, vegetables and fruits with skin when possible because they will provide good sources of fiber to help control these insulin spikes. Also, make sure you balance your carb intake with lean protein to further counteract the effects of carbs in the body in regards to elevating your insulin levels.

3. Through a process known as de novo lipogenesis your body can directly increase fat storage by converting carbohydrates to fat. So I will reiterate why you need to eat carbs. Eat whole grain, high fiber carbs as well as lean protein to control blood sugar rise, which then controls insulin spikes and helps prevent you from storing carb calories as fat.

So now that you have the facts about carbs should you be eating them or not. To summarize you do need carbs. Your body does need carbs to function properly and maintain optimal efficiency. The body doesn’t need as many carbs as we feed it though. It also doesn’t need the refined flours and process carbs we have become accustomed to eating. As we have gotten lazier and our lives have become busier we tend to lean towards convenient foods and they are usually not the healthiest of foods.

We have consumed too much of those foods and then blamed it all on carbs as to why we are fat. Carbs are not the main culprit. They do play a part as I describe above as to how they can make you fat. I also mention how to eat carbs so that they don’t make you fat.

Guest article by Jayson Hunter

Jayson Hunter RD, CSCS is the author of the Carb Rotation Diet. To discover the 5 absolute truths Every Serial Dieter Who Seeks Rapid-Weight loss MUST come to grips with visit The Carb Rotation Diet.

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There are a lot of Low Carb Diet and No Carb Diet myths confusing women who are trying to lose weight fast. As America’s Trusted Weight Loss Expert I am here to educate women worldwide on the dangers of low carb diets.

I’m not going to be the one to lie to you and tell you that you can’t ever eat carbs again. There are more and more stories every day from those that have tried to eat a long term low carb diet. It’s time the truth was told and we put and end to these Low Carb and No Carb Diet Myths.

I want all women looking to lose weight fast to know the following Low Carb Diet and No Carb Diet myths like the back of their hand. I believe by shattering the following myths women worldwide will be better served and more apt to lose weight quickly.

First Low Carb and No Carb Diet Myth:

Your body doesn’t need carbs so you don’t need to eat them. You will survive just fine without them. False: Your body does need carbs for energy and more importantly your brain feeds off of sugar which primarily comes from carbs. When you don’t adequately eat enough carbohydrates for long periods of time your body suffers. This is a very inefficient way to lose weight because in time your body can start releasing hormones to prevent any future weight loss.

Second Low Carb and No Carb Diet Myth:

You won’t crave carbs when on a low carb diet. False: When you deprive yourself of a major nutrient your body tries to start utilizing other nutrients to do the job carbs normally do. Your body has to rely on protein and fat to be converted for energy. As I mentioned above this is very inefficient and your body suffers because it can’t use the protein and fat for what they are intended for. Your body will crave carbs as a result of this.

Third Low Carb and No Carb Diet Myth:

You can eat this way the rest of your life and it is perfectly healthy for you. False: It is extremely difficult to eat this way for the rest of your life and in time your body will suffer due to the constant attempts to make up for the carb deficiency. Are you seeing the common recurring theme here? Your body will eventually suffer when trying to eat this way for long periods of time.
Worst of all you will end up gaining back any of the weight you may have lost because you go back to your old ways of eating. The take home message is to avoid low carb and no carb diets. Instead learning to control your carb intake by carb rotating is a much healthier alternative.

Women Lose Weight Fast When They Know the Truth About Low Carb Diets

Learn more about the Carb Rotation Diet and how you can use it to lose the weight once and for all! Click here to go to the Carb Rotation Diet.

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Perhaps you are ready to lose weight but don’t know quite how to go about it.  Some people eat like rabbits and lose weight.  You don’t think you can do that and that is okay.

You really can eat like a normal person.  The only difference is that you will need to reduce your calories.  What you will need to learn is the kind of foods to eat in quantities and the kind of foods to limit.  Foods that are high in fat and foods with lots of sugar contain the most calories.

Lean protein comes in the form of chicken and fish.  They are an excellent source of foods to eat to lose weight.  All forms of white meat contain little cholesterol and eating large quantities of fish shouldn’t impact your weight loss program.  The only setback is to limit the amount of cooking oil and there are some people who advise against eating the skin of any fish.

Fruits increase your metabolism and that helps in burning up excess energy.  Eating fruits alone can run you the risk of developing anemia.  Most vegetarians know about this.

Beans contain a lot of proteins and a high amount of carbohydrates.  It would be best not too eat too much of this food group at a time.

The grocery stores have a lot of low sugar and low fat milk products.  Cottage cheese tastes good and is a diet friendly dairy product to include in your diet plan.

Acai berries are the “hottest” food item in the food market.  This berry is from the Amazon and has become quite popular since its praises were sung on television.  It has high fiber content and is able to satisfy hunger to the point that you will stop eating.  There is a high amount of vitamins contained in an Acai berry and you won’t become malnourished when Acai berries are a part of your menu plan.

When you adopt healthy eating habits coupled with exercise and fat binders (in some cases) you will achieve a natural way to lose weight.  Researching on the Internet will help you find other foods that are diet friendly since you will need to eat a variety of foods so that you don’t become bored with the same old menu.

If you eat a little something of each food group during each meal along with a couple of snacks, you will find that you can lose the extra weight and stay healthy doing so.  It is very important to adopt a daily menu plan that is pleasing to the eye and healthy besides.  When doing this, you will be able to eat the right foods in order to lose unwanted pounds.

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In one word, yes.  Because you can eat the wrong foods, exercise and still lose or at least maintain your goal weight.  You may not be healthy, but lack of exercise is worse than cigarette smoking.

Why?  Because exercise affects every part of your body.  Your muscles become strong.  Your heart is a muscle; it becomes strong.  There is no flab on your body when you make exercise your number one priority.

Breathing hard expands the lung area; your stamina is now increased.  Again, exercise does that for you.

But then you may ask.

“Exactly, what does exercise do for me?”

“What if I don’t have the time to exercise?”

“My schedule doesn’t allow me to exercise.”

“Why can’t I just eat less and lose weight?”

“How does exercise prevent diseases?”

“I don’t like to exercise; I can’t breathe.”

“I am just meant to have flabby arms.”

“I am way too stiff in the mornings to even think about exercising.”

Did we touch on a lot of the excuses you can come up with?  I hope so.  Here are a few things that does the body good with exercise…

Disease prevention

Yes…exercise does prevent disease.  It is necessary for physical fitness and good health.  The risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure are reduced due to exercising.

Improves stamina and physical endurance

Exercising builds up your body’s strength gradually.  You become stronger and are able to bear up under pressure.  If running is your favorite exercise, you are able to run in circles around someone who does not run and has to stop to catch their breath.    Aerobic exercise is motion exercise.  Walking and bicycling are two of the favorites.  The heart is able to acclimate itself to handle higher metabolic demands; your are able to exercise and not get tired, no matter how long you work at it.

Muscles strength

When using weights while exercising, your muscles become larger and stronger.  Your strength is improved and your grip is firm.  Posture improvement is noted.

Flexibility

A wide variety of poses are engaged in when exercising and your muscles become more flexible.  Stretching exercises also are important because the joints are lubricated and can move around more with no stiffness noted.  The incidents of fractures become lessened.

Weight loss

You simply cannot lose weight if you don’t exercise.  Your body fat is burned when you exercise.  If you have already reached your desired weight, you are able to better maintain that weight loss with exercise.  Even if you were to eat less calories per day, your weight loss will be better realized if exercise is incorporated as a daily routine.

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For many people, it is a hard thing to do.  Eating is a social time where you are able to enjoy yourself with your friends and with family.  Of course you have to wonder if suppressing your appetite is a healthy thing to do.  There is treatment for loss of appetite but not for appetite suppression.  When health risks increase, your appetite should be suppressed.  Weight loss programs are not very successful with some people and results at times are not seen for all the hard work and effort put into it.

Malnourishment is the number one end result of appetite suppression.  You eat less and sometimes not enough for body maintenance.  The right foods may not be eaten.  Your body becomes deficient in most required nutrients and the risk for infections increases.

Now that you have learned of the negative aspects of appetite suppression, how can you suppress your appetite safely you may wonder.

Eat smaller meals.  Drink plenty of water.  The goal is to keep the stomach filled.  Replace three larger meals with several smaller meals throughout the day.  Drink lots of water throughout the course of the day as well as during and after the smaller meals.  Your stomach will feel fuller faster and you won’t want to eat a second helping.

About 20 minutes before a meal, drink at least _ liter of water.  Your stomach will expand and you will feel full.  This in turn will make you eat less.  Drink another _ liter during your meal.  You will stop eating a lot quicker because by that time, you definitely are feeling full.  Another _ liter after your meal will guarantee a fuller stomach to last longer.  If you do feel hungry, drink another glass of fluids instead.

Another great way to suppress your appetite is to eat a salad before a meal.  All that green leafy vegetables will fill your stomach and prevent hunger because of the high fiber content in the salad.

Don’t eat foods that are high in calories.  Hunger always seems to attract high calorie foods and when you do eat those, you will have a tendency to eat more than you should.

Fruits should make up a good portion of your diet.  High fiber fruits such as apples, pineapples, oranges and grapes will keep you satisfied.  Of course, if you are a diabetic you will need to consult your doctor about the type of fruits you should eat.  Preferably they should be low glycemic such as any fruit ending in “berry.”

Never skip breakfast.  This meal is the most important meal to eat when you are suppressing your appetite.  If you do skip breakfast, you will find yourself more hungrier in the afternoon and will tend to overeat during those times.

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There are two classes of fats.  Unsaturated fat and saturated fat.  The unsaturated fat is made up of polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated.  There are some fats that are literally dangerous to your health.  Then there are some fats that are actually good for your health.  When fat and proteins are combined in the body they form lipoproteins.

Saturated fats

Several chains of carbon atoms form fatty acids.  Because it is saturated, the carbon atoms have no free bonds to link with other atoms.  A carbon atom has two free bonds which attach to other atoms forming a compound.  They the free bonds are used up, the fat becomes saturated due to no room for anymore attachment.  These are the bad fats.  Avoiding these fats will prevent you from becoming unhealthy.  It is hard on the body to process saturated fats.  These fats increase the cholesterol levels which in turn increase the chances of a heart attack.  Saturated fat are all forms of fat in animal meat, palm oil and coconut oil.

Polyunsaturated fat

There are two types of polyunsaturated fat, omega 6 and omega 3.  Poly indicates more than one unsaturated bond in the compound.  Omega 6 is derived primarily from vegetables and omega 3 from oily fish.  This type of fat is very healthy for you as it helps reduce cholesterol.  Consuming a small portion of this fat is very important for your health.

Monounsaturated fat

There is only one carbon atom carrying unsaturated bonds and are derived mainly from vegetables as well as olive oil and almond oil.  Cholesterol levels are reduced when you consume this fat.

Lipoproteins

Lipoproteins play an important role in developing heart attacks.  There is high density and low density lipoproteins.  The high density lipoprotein (HDL) reduces the chance of heart disease; the low density lipoproteins (LDL) increase the chance of heart disease.  If your blood panel indicates that your LDL is higher than your HDL, you have an increased chance of developing heart disease, stroke, diabetes, etc.

High energy levels are realized by consuming fats.  Daily levels should not exceed 30% of your total calories.  Say you eat 2,000 calories a day; 600 calories should be from fat.  If you are trying to lose weight, than your fat consumption should be lower.

Every gram of fat is nine calories.  That is about 66.7 grams of fat per day but less if you are attempting to lose weight.  You can achieve this by cutting down on your fatty foods and eating more vegetables and fruits.  A little carbohydrate is okay.  Eating a little fat per day will allow you soon to become used to a low fat diet plan and a healthier way of eating will be realized.

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Individuals eat two types of diets.  Either from plant and animal source or from vegetables and fruit source.  A diet is defined as the food and drink normally taken by an individual or a group of a prescribed course of what is to be eaten and what is not.

Can you not read that you are what you eat?  Your diet can predict what you will become in the future.  Some diets contribute to a long life; some diets kill you off rather quickly.

There are numerous problems associated with dieting.  When you eat an unhealthy diet, you are liable to contract a host of illnesses.  Healthy dieting is on everyone’s mind.  More and more people are developing a diet plan that is well thought out and personalized for themselves.  It is common knowledge that high fat diet can cause a stroke, hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes, obesity as well as low self esteem.

If you were to eat a low protein diet, you would risk malnourishment and a depressed immune system.  Anemia is common among vegetarians.

You can take dietary supplements in order to get all the nutrients needed for proper functioning of your body.  People eat less due to dieting but want to take supplements in the form of pills to make up for eating less.  In selecting supplements to compliment eating habits, you will need to do a thorough research and there are too many diet pills and fat binders who present with empty promises and leaving you broke.

When you diet, it is a very important habit in order to gain a healthy lifestyle.  Everyone really should be on one form of a diet or the other.  Weight loss, an illness or even wanting to maintain the weight lost are important reasons to adopt the definition of a diet.  Before you pick out the diet you want to be on, it would be a smart move to consult an expert in nutrition.  Along with your physician, recommendations can be made that will benefit you and your health in the long run.

When it comes to dieting, it is not a short term venture.  In order to see success, you will need to stick with some sort of diet for at least a year or more.  Even forever if your health is affected.  You will need to learn self control when it comes to eating the foods you choose.  Whether you will have good health or not will be greatly affected by your diet.  You can either enjoy a long healthy life or you can have your life cut short.  It all depends on what goes into your mouth and how much of it.  Wishing you well on your diet venture.

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