Archive for September, 2010

Losing Weight

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

Many people attempt to lose weight and most are successful to some degree for a while, but after a year or so almost all are back to their original weight. Losing weight and staying thinner is clearly a difficult thing to do. Before starting on a slimming regime the subject should be sure that there is a need for weight loss, that there is sufficient motivation to do so and that it is understood that eating habits will have to be changed permanently and that circumstances will allow for this. Further, although losing weight may bring better health, better appearance, more comfort and improved job prospects, it will not necessarily bring happiness or cure all problems.

At the start of a slimming regime a realistic target should be set and some degree of flexibility allowed for. Some people lose weight more easily than others. For most, there is no urgency to lose weight and a reduction of about 0.5 kg (1 lb week after the first four weeks can usually be achieved without causing much hunger or loss of muscle Power. During the first week or two there is a loss of stored carbohydrate (glycogen) and its accompanying water, amounting to about 4 kg, after which the fall in weight slows down. This has nothing to do with the amount of water taken. No attempt should be made to lose weight by drinking less fluid, which can be harmful and has no effect on the rate of loss of body fat. Diuretics should never be taken to reduce body weight.

Losing weight at a slow rate has two advantages. First, the reduction in food intake is small and most people can soon accommodate to it. Second, it enables the subject to get used to a new style of eating over a substantial period and this new eating pattern can gradually and permanently replace the previous one. Body weight should be measured about once a week, using the same scales in the morning before eating or drinking and after emptying the bladder. Change in body water and in the weight of the contents of the gastro-intestinal tract can together cause a 0.5-1.0 kg variation each day even on a constant food intake. It may take a few weeks to find the amount of food needed for the rate of weight loss desired. The diet should be as varied as possible with only a little fried foods, fatty meat, full-fat cheese, biscuits, cakes, fat spreads, snack food and alcohol. Intake of fruit and vegetables should be increased.

Diets designed to achieve rapid loss of weight can be dangerous and do not teach a satisfactory eating habit. Unlike the very small effect that losing weight slowly has on general well-being, the debilitating effect of rapid weight loss can be very marked. People taking only about 1800 kcal/day, which is near the resting metabolic rate, have a fall in metabolic rate, a fall in the pulse rate, a decrease in general activity and a decrease in tolerance to cold. All these changes are attempts by the body to conserve energy and result in a diminution of the rate of weight loss. In addition, a much reduced energy intake may produce a constant anxiety about food, irritability, lack of interest in everyday things and some degree of depression. These mental changes may persist for months after normal eating is resumed.

If, during dieting, much exercise is taken, muscles may hypertrophy, so that although fat is being lost, body weight may not be declining very much. An inactive dieter may show greater weight loss but the very active person will probably be much fitter.

People only mildly overweight (body mass index 25-27) may find that the small advantages of their losing weight are not worth the effort of dieting and will very likely be better off doing nothing. This is especially so for the elderly.) per body mass index greater than 35 needs specialist advice immediately at an obesity clinic. In addition to being obese there are very likely medical problems requiring attention.

There are no such things as slimming foods: all foods will result in overweight if enough is eaten. No food can make you thinner. Pills and preparations to lose weight should never be taken except on medical advice.

Rapid Weight Loss Diets – 2 Healthy Diet Plans to Keep You on Track

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

Rapid weight loss diets are for people who want to have changes in their body in a sudden. This kind of diet is for people who are so desperate to lose weight or else they’ll go on depression. This is also for people who are under the influence of vanity.

“I want to lose weight now! Yes and I mean it, I really, really do! I know I am fat, I feel unaccepted, I feel so depressed, down, helpless and all the words combined. I want to have a slim and sexy body, being adored and looked at. I want to wear the smallest size of shirts. I want…” It is very common to hear this from most people who are dying enough to shed their weight. Being overweight is hard. Your self-esteem and confidence will go down to its lowest. You most likely do not want to go out, you pity yourself, you are afraid people will laugh at you. You really are faced with so much tough decisions in your life. “Should I eat hamburger and fries?” should I drink cola or water? Should I eat chocolates? The difficult part of this is when you know what’s right but it’s so hard to resist foods especially you are craving for it. You know you need to exercise and eat healthy foods, and yet it’s so hard to do.

Losing weight can really be a big challenge, especially if you have so many pounds to shed. It can be difficult for you to change from pigging out to a restricted diet. However, when you really want to see the best in you and you want to get rid of your self-pity, rapid weight loss diets are important. It must involve calorie restriction, appetite suppression, metabolism enhancement. Do it, you know you need it and be willing to sacrifice for yourself. It is not the end of the journey if you managed to lose weight successfully. It’s just the beginning of a healthy life you will adopt for a lifetime.

Here are some tips to help you:

  • The very first step is to know your weight and caloric needs. Weigh yourself and get your calorie needs by multiplying your weight to 14 (Weight in Kilograms x 14). From that point, set a realistic goal. You cannot lose 100 pounds in one month, but you can lose 25 or 30 pounds in 1 month. Setting realistic goal will prevent you to be disappointed. So work for real and give enough determination to make it happen.
  • Change your diet, IMMEDIATELY! If you want to lose weight fats. You cannot eat chips or pizza or even hamburgers and expect to lose weight fast. This will not happen unless you set a limit. Here are some rapid weight loss diets:

1. The 7 Days Cabbage Soup Diet Plan

You can lose 10 to 15 pounds while on a cabbage soup diet plan. The recipe includes low-calorie vegetables such as cabbage, onions, and tomatoes.

Day One:

• Eat all the fruits you want except banana.

• Drink unsweetened tea and water.

• Take as much cabbage soup as you like.

Day Two:

• Eat fresh, raw, or cooked vegetables of your choice.

• Avoid eating dry beans, peas, and sweet corn. Baked potato with butter for dinner is good.

• Have as much soup as you like but no fruit for today.

Day Three:

• Combine days one and two except eating baked potato.

Day Four:

• Eat bananas as many as you want.

• You can drink a lot of skim milk along with your soup.

• You are supposed to have lessen your desire for sweets by this day.

Day Five:

• You may have 300-500 grams of beef with large fresh tomatoes if you want.

• Drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water to cleanse your body from toxin and it will prevent you stimulation of your hunger. Have your soup at least once for today.

• You should be eating broiled or baked chicken instead of beef and make sure that the skin is being removed.

Day Six:

Eat beef and vegetables today along with your soup.

Day Seven:

• You can have brown rice, unsweetened fruit juices, and vegetables on this day.

• Have your soup at least once a day. No bread and cola.

2. Oatmeal Diet

• Diet based on oatmeal has been promoted as a way to lose weight, reduce cholesterol, and lower the risk of certain types of cancer.

• Oatmeal cereals and cookies can be eaten daily.

Do you really want to forget your old body and get rid of those unwanted fats? You have to try the rapid weight loss diets. These, in one way or the other, will give so much benefit to you, from your physical appearance up to your health. However, it will only be made possible if and when you are willing to give sacrifice on your personal unnecessary food cravings, and you are fully determined to achieve your desired goal. It will be hard to go through the process but seeing the outcome after many weeks is worth it.

Best Weight Loss Exercise

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

There is a general misconception about the effectiveness of conventional aerobics on weight loss. The effect of aerobic exercises when done alone on shedding fat and losing weight is very minor. Effective weight loss exercise that gets results is combination of aerobics and strength training.

The best weight loss exercise is a proper combination of good quality aerobics and bodybuilding exercises. Aerobics and dieting is not enough. Studies over the past 25 years have shown that you can lose over 50% more weight with a combination of these two forms of exercises.

Many people make the mistake of dieting and doing aerobics week after week. They are often surprised at their lack of results. This is because they don’t understand how weight training work together with aerobics to help your body burn fat faster.

Aerobics are exercises like brisk walking, jogging, swimming, cycling etc. They should be done continuously for about 20 to 30 minutes to get your heart rate and breathing more for a continuous period of at least 20 minutes. Constantly doing aerobics helps you to build resistance. The best fat burning results come from a sustained period of high intensity aerobics. High intensity aerobics help you to burn calories and lose fat. The best results come from 30 to 40 minutes workouts 3-4 times weekly.

The best weight loss exercise combines aerobics and strength training. Strength training helps you build muscles. The more muscles you have, the higher your metabolism and the more fat your body is able to burn. Muscles use several times more calories than fat even when your body is at rest.

Weight training also helps you to support good bone density and cut body fat. You don’t have to become a champion bodybuilder to get the fat loss benefit of weight training. Do weight training with free weights least 3 times a week to get the best results from your weight loss exercise program. Strength training will help you to bring out more benefits from your aerobics training.

Losing Fat & Gaining Muscle – The Problem

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

In an ideal world everything you ate would go 100% to gaining muscle, and every calorie your burned would come from just fat. You would build muscle, lose fat, and end up huge and ripped. However, we don’t live in that world, which is why it’s so rare to see huge, ripped guys. Instead, we tend to put calories toward both fat and muscle, and burn both as well. The ratio of what goes where is the crux of the matter, and why losing fat and gaining muscle is so hard. What’s going on?

Ever hear about your P-Ratio? This is what researchers call the degree to how much protein you gain or lose when you over or under feed. So a low P-Ratio means that when you diet you burn low amounts of protein, and high amounts of fat. A high P-Ratio would mean the opposite; when you diet you burn a lot of protein, and little fat. It seems that the same is true for when you over feed; people with high P-Ratio tend to gain a lot of protein, and little, fat, while people with low P-Ratio gain a little protein, and high amounts of fat. So a person with high P-Ratio would never seem to gain much fat, while people with a low P-Ratio seem to oscillate wildly, gaining and losing fat, but never putting on much muscle.

How do you change your P-Ratio? It looks like most of it is controlled by your genetics. We can change as much as 15-20% of it, but no more than that. This is where the difference in exercise and diet relative to your P-Ratio come in; your diet allows you to follow the curve of your P-Ratio, losing weight as dictated by it, while exercise allows you to actually change your P-Ratio to a degree.

What are the factors that control your P-Ratio? Hormones, insulin sensitivity, and your body fat percentage. Hormones are crucial to determing how your body reacts to feeding and dieting; high testosterone levels help you gain more muscle and less fat, while high cortisol levels do the opposite (i.e. lots of cortisol = bad for body builders).Thyroid and nervous system activity also effect your fat burning processes, but all these are basically set by your genetics and so out of your control.

Insulin sensitivity is another huge factor in your body’s ability to partition calories. High insulin sensitivity means your body reacts strongly to a small amount of insulin, while low sensitivity is the opposite. What is insulin? It’s a storage hormone that stores energy in your liver, fat cells and muscle. People with high insulin sensitivity in skeletal muscle place more energy there as opposed to people who tend to store more energy in their fat cells. Optimizing your insulin usage is key to improving performance, and this can be done in part through diet; eating refined carbs is definitely not the way to go.

As you can see, the ability to gain muscle and lose fat is in great part already determined by your body’s genetics. If you’re not a natural athlete, trying to do so when it doesn’t accord with your P-Ratio can be an exercise in frustration.