Turn on the television, browse through a magazine, look at the shelves of your local pharmacy, and you’re inundated with quick fixes to any potential weight problem. It doesn’t matter what the approach is, or who the experts sponsoring it are, the claims are the same: stick to this approach for a short time and you will see results.
Some diets aim to strike all carbohydrates from your diet, filling you up on only protein. Others provide simple instructions to drink some of your calories, and you’ll stop feeling hungry through the majority of the day. Other people swear by eating cabbage soup (or some other specific food) as a way to shed the pounds.
Regardless of the fad, all such approaches share the same inherent flaw – the fact that they’re all diets. The idea of a diet is straight forward: eat specific “good” foods and restrict yourself from “bad” foods. The problem is that at some point (whether it’s in a week, a month, or a few hours) “bad” foods will fall back on your plate. Any progress made will be quickly reversed.
Think back to every diet you’ve ever tried. Early on, the going is relatively smooth. The weight starts to drop off as you remove forbidden foods from your diet. Then you start to plateau. Or you’re constantly faced with those same foods that your body once used to rely on and are tortured by the temptation.
Gradually, you sneak in one of the forbidden foods, claiming that you’ll start dieting again tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes as one forbidden food becomes two – and the initially promising attempt to lose weight becomes a miserable failure.
And yet, whatever reason for stopping, months after one fad diet has failed you, you’re on the hunt for the next. Before you know it, you’re filling your grocery cart with cabbage (or whatever), hoping that the answer lies in never-ending meals of soup or Tabasco sauce or the latest grapefruit concoction.
That’s the diet side of the health industry. The other side of the equations is the fitness industry. For every quick-fix diet, there’s an equally compelling exercise program promising that in only a few minutes, hours, or routines later, you can have the body you’ve always dreamed of.
Exercise fanatics believe the gym is the real means to long-term weight success. Less dependent on what you’re eating, the true change in health, in their view, comes from how many calories are being burnt out of your system. These claims are just as straight forward as those of the diet gurus: put a small amount of work in, and see the amazing results.
The typical exercise-to-lose-weight program takes a similar course to that of the fad diets. The initial interest carries results, but a plateau eventually occurs. Or because you’re now burning more calories, you also eat more food – and the net result is zero.
For every one of us who’s tried a fad diet, we’ve also tried the quick fix exercise route. The end result is the reason that the health industry is one of the fastest-growing in our nation. Quick fix exercises don’t work, forcing you to go out and try another. Upon plateau, the exerciser or dieter starts to doubt that those washboard abs or slim thighs are going to come before the next millennium, let alone summer. Dwindling motivation, fading dedication and a busy life start to intervene, and the best-laid plans become only that. Action takes a back seat until next January.
I’ve always believed that exercise and nutrition go hand in hand. While exercise is important, the real key to losing weight and keeping it off lies in what you eat. I’m not talking here about a fad diet. I’m talking about a complete nutritional lifestyle change – a holistic approach to weight loss that takes into account that you will most likely fall off the wagon, eat out at restaurants, and plateau in your journey to lose weight and get healthy. Exercise helps, but it doesn’t get you all the way. What you eat is the single most important factor in losing weight.…
Tag: weight
What Is The Single Most Important Factor In Losing Weight?
Turn on the television, browse through a magazine, look at the shelves of your local pharmacy, and you’re inundated with quick fixes to any potential weight problem. It doesn’t matter what the approach is, or who the experts sponsoring it are, the claims are the same: stick to this approach for a short time and you will see results.
Some diets aim to strike all carbohydrates from your diet, filling you up on only protein. Others provide simple instructions to drink some of your calories, and you’ll stop feeling hungry through the majority of the day. Other people swear by eating cabbage soup (or some other specific food) as a way to shed the pounds.
Regardless of the fad, all such approaches share the same inherent flaw – the fact that they’re all diets. The idea of a diet is straight forward: eat specific “good” foods and restrict yourself from “bad” foods. The problem is that at some point (whether it’s in a week, a month, or a few hours) “bad” foods will fall back on your plate. Any progress made will be quickly reversed.
Think back to every diet you’ve ever tried. Early on, the going is relatively smooth. The weight starts to drop off as you remove forbidden foods from your diet. Then you start to plateau. Or you’re constantly faced with those same foods that your body once used to rely on and are tortured by the temptation.
Gradually, you sneak in one of the forbidden foods, claiming that you’ll start dieting again tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes as one forbidden food becomes two – and the initially promising attempt to lose weight becomes a miserable failure.
And yet, whatever reason for stopping, months after one fad diet has failed you, you’re on the hunt for the next. Before you know it, you’re filling your grocery cart with cabbage (or whatever), hoping that the answer lies in never-ending meals of soup or Tabasco sauce or the latest grapefruit concoction.
That’s the diet side of the health industry. The other side of the equations is the fitness industry. For every quick-fix diet, there’s an equally compelling exercise program promising that in only a few minutes, hours, or routines later, you can have the body you’ve always dreamed of.
Exercise fanatics believe the gym is the real means to long-term weight success. Less dependent on what you’re eating, the true change in health, in their view, comes from how many calories are being burnt out of your system. These claims are just as straight forward as those of the diet gurus: put a small amount of work in, and see the amazing results.
The typical exercise-to-lose-weight program takes a similar course to that of the fad diets. The initial interest carries results, but a plateau eventually occurs. Or because you’re now burning more calories, you also eat more food – and the net result is zero.
For every one of us who’s tried a fad diet, we’ve also tried the quick fix exercise route. The end result is the reason that the health industry is one of the fastest-growing in our nation. Quick fix exercises don’t work, forcing you to go out and try another. Upon plateau, the exerciser or dieter starts to doubt that those washboard abs or slim thighs are going to come before the next millennium, let alone summer. Dwindling motivation, fading dedication and a busy life start to intervene, and the best-laid plans become only that. Action takes a back seat until next January.
I’ve always believed that exercise and nutrition go hand in hand. While exercise is important, the real key to losing weight and keeping it off lies in what you eat. I’m not talking here about a fad diet. I’m talking about a complete nutritional lifestyle change – a holistic approach to weight loss that takes into account that you will most likely fall off the wagon, eat out at restaurants, and plateau in your journey to lose weight and get healthy. Exercise helps, but it doesn’t get you all the way. What you eat is the single most important factor in losing weight.…
Enjoy Rapid and Healthy Weight Loss With the Mediterranean Diet!
The Mediterranean approach to eating is widely accepted as one of the healthiest diets in the world. In this case, the word “diet” refers to a particular cuisine, but experts have found that this same method of eating can provide rapid and healthy weight loss!
The Mediterranean diet combines cuisines from southern France, Greece, Tunisia, Morocco, Spain, and southern Italy. Made up mostly of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, heart-healthy oils and fats, nuts and beans, and lean protein, this diet enables you to eliminate unhealthy processed foods with little effort.
Obesity has the power to shorten your life span by five to twenty years! The Mediterranean diet can help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight, without the deprivation associated with most diets. Amazing health benefits have been attributed to this particular diet. These benefits include a decrease in the risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia, heart disease, and even cancer!
Consider for a minute the ten power foods of the Mediterranean diet: almonds, bell peppers, broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, blueberries, grapes, strawberries, olive oil, and whole grains. Imagine the enjoyment you can get out of incorporating these nutrient-rich foods into your meals!
Most weight loss plans avoid fats of all kinds. The Mediterranean diet encourages you to use extra-virgin olive oil. The addition of this heart-healthy oil provides a sense of taste and satisfaction that we associate with “comfort foods.” You will be eating foods so rich in flavor that you will be satisfied with less, and shocked when the weight starts falling off.
The Mediterranean diet is not about counting calories or fat grams. If you eat the right foods in reasonable portions, and combine that with daily activity, you will experience rapid and healthy weight loss! You will discover that you are not really “dieting” but that you have simply changed your way of eating. Unhealthy processed foods will no longer hold any appeal for you. You will be tempted and enticed instead by fresh, nutritious foods that are full of color and flavor!
There are many Mediterranean diet books available and delicious, free Mediterranean diet recipes are easy to find. To get started, you simply need to focus your meals on fresh produce, olive oil, whole grains, and lean protein. Make it a point to learn more about this healthy cuisine and enjoy a long and healthy life!…
Important Nutrition Facts To Help Your Success in Losing Weight!
I have found out some very important nutrition facts that will help you on your journey of losing your belly fat. Understanding how your body works is the best weapon in losing weight.
Calories
Nutrition Fact #1. To make perfectly clear what a calorie is the definition- ” a unit of heat equal to the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree at one atmosphere pressure.” So what this means in English is that a calorie is a measurement used by nutritionists to characterize the energy-producing potential in food. Wow, nutrition fact indeed. Now you learned something new.
We need calories in our bodies. However, if you eat more calories than your body burns up, then you will be overweight. many calories do our bodies require? It ranges depending on many your age, sex, height, width, and how active you are. The range is from 1600 for non active women and seniors to 2900 for most men and active women. For myself, I need to ingest 3258 calories a day to maintain my current weight. I am 31 years old, 6’2″, thin and very active.
I suggest you use a calorie counter to more accurately define what your body needs to burn. Or buy a heart rate monitor with a chest strap that will show you how many calories you order to burn off some excess body fat, you need to have an idea of how many calories that your body requires. This nutrition facts page suggests as a general rule, you should try to eat 500 fewer calories than your body burns off. Do not decrease your calorie intake more than that, or you could damage your health.
You don’t have to count every calorie that you eat, but you should get used to looking at the labels on foods. Start having an understanding of what kinds of foods have lots of calories.
-There are 4 calories in a gram of protein.
-There are 4 calories in a gram of Carbohydrates.
-There are 9 calories in a gram of Fat.
Drink Water For Good Health!
Nutrition fact #2. Our Bodies can live without food for weeks, but we cant live without water for no longer than a few days. (How about that for a nutrition interesting!) Even though water has no nutrients or calories, it is extremely important to our health. It helps our nutrients absorb, eliminates waste, regulate circulation and body temperature. It even helps our skin complexion,. much water do we need? Average woman need 8 glasses, and the average men need 12 glasses. Replacing a bottle of soda with a cup of cold water can eliminate 155 calories. If you stop drinking that one bottle of soda everyday for a year, you will save yourself 56,575 calories or 16 pounds of fat!
Good Fats vs. Bad Fats
Nutrition fact #3. Believe it or and oils play an essential part in our diet. You just need to know which fats and oils are good for you, and which ones are bad!
Good: polyunsaturated and monounsaturated oils provide essential fatty acids that our bodies need like omega-3 and omega 6. They also serve as carriers for the absorption of vitamins A, D, E, and K. Olive, Canola, peanut, sunflower and soybean oil also contain the more desirable fats essential to maintaining a healthy diet.
Bad: Saturated fats and trans fats are the bad guys. It is best to either avoid foods with these in them, or choose foods that are very low in these kinds of fats. These fats raise cholesterol levels and increase the risk for heart disease.
Sugars.
Nutrition Fact #4. American Dietetic Association and American Diabetic Association agree that sugar intake is one of the top three causes of degenerative disease. We all already know that sugar can cause tooth decay. However, sugar is also linked to hundreds of medical problems.…
Healthy Weight Loss Diet Tips – 7 Steps to Healthy Digestion
Digestion is an often overlooked part of a healthy weight loss diet.A� A good digestive process is critical to weight loss success.A� With poor digestion, you are making your gut vulnerable to harmful bacteria and inflammatory response, which cause that ugly distended fat belly and many diseases.
Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to aid your digestive process and ensure optimal function for weight loss success.
1) Stop Eating Processed Foods
Processed foods contain a large number of chemicals used to preserve the food for long periods of time.A� These chemicals are toxic to your body and must be fought off to keep them out of the intestines and colon.A� This generates an inflammatory response and the toxins end up getting stored in your fat tissue along with a whole lot of excess water. A�
Eliminate processed foods from your diet and you will see a world of a difference in your weight loss efforts as well as the comfort of your digestive system.A� There is never room for processed foods in a true healthy weight loss diet.
2) Eat Fewer Grains
Many people are intolerant to the stuff used to produce grains for consumption and don’t even know it.A� If you have a food intolerance, this will lead to serious digestive problems and cause bloating, constipation, abdominal pain/pressure, and weakened abdominal muscles.A� None of these things are very good if you are trying to get healthy and lose weight.
3) Drink Water 15-20 Minutes Prior to Each Meal
Hydration is critical to the digestion process.A� Water is needed to move everything along and, eventually, out of the system.A� By drinking a glass or two before a meal you are preparing your digestive system for the work it is about to partake in.
It is also important to stay hydrated throughout the day, as the digestive process is working even when you are not eating.
4) Eat Vegetables With Each Meal
The properties in vegetables provide a great natural digestion aid.A� They work to better break down food and ease the particles all the way through your digestive system.A� Some work better than others, with the leafy greens generally being among the most effective.
5) Get a Good Amount of Fiber in Your Diet
Dietary Fiber is indigestible.A� Therefore, it must pass all the way through your system.A� This helps you become more regular and “finish” the digestive process.A� Good sources of fiber include almonds, pears, avocados, apples (with skin), and flax seed.A� You may also want to try to use a psyllium supplement, such as psyllium hulls, before bedtime to aid in regulation.
6) Do Not Eat Until You Are “Stuffed”
When you are “stuffed”, you are typically actually overstuffed.A� These means that your food particles will not all be able enter the colon, where they are supposed to go.A� The extra particles will float around and be directed to other areas where they can cause problems.A� By eating smaller meals throughout the day, you can avoid these problems.
7) Chew Your Food Until It’s as Liquified as Possible
This tip makes the whole digestive process easier.A� Liquid is much easier to digest than big solid chunks.A� By chewing more, you are making the workload much easier on your digestive enzymes by starting to break down the food for them.A� This will make the transport of food through the body much smoother and avoid problems of particle leakage.
Digestive health is crucial to weight loss success.A� Use these tips to create a healthy gut.A� And remember, a healthy gut is a happy guy; and a happy gut is an attractive gut!…