Showing posts with label nutrition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nutrition. Show all posts

Monday, November 16, 2009

Turns Out The Best Weight Loss Diet Is A Healthy Diet

Try the following. Do a search in Google, or your favorite search engine, on the term "best weight loss diet". What you will see turn up is hundreds of links to diets, all claiming to be the best. Unfortunately, what many of these diets really do is starve you and your body from the kind of proper nutritional diet, and the calories, needed to function properly.

Other dieting plans are only temporary fixes, so that as soon as you go back to your normal eating habits you put any weight that you lost right back on. Some of the worst of these plans involve the so-called detox diets that force you to completely starve your body of all nutrients for certain periods of up to 7 - 10 days.

Well, I guess if you are looking for a really quick fix, and are simply trying to fit into a dress for an evening, then one of these diets might just work for you - for a very short duration. But most of these diets, as you can probably see by now, are dangerous to your health.

Diets that do not attempt to remove food from your plate, and which include plenty of nutrients and minerals, are in general good for you. Healthy diets resemble more an eating plan, or a lifestyle change, and do not really appear to be diets at all, even if we still use the term diet to describe them.

So, the best weight loss diet, or program, really involves a plan that includes a healthy selection of foods, and a lifestyle change. For example, by learning to put less food on your plate and eating slower, you effect a lifestyle change that virtually guarantees a gradual but ongoing weight loss with minimal interruption to your current dietary habits. This technique re-trains your stomach, and your brain, and gives your body time to actually process the food that you are eating. It lessens the chance of overstuffing yourself, which often happens simply because you have added too much food to your plate.

Once you get this "smaller plate" practice down, you can start eating more frequently over the course of the day. This step may come naturally, because when you cut your portions down, and stop eating when you are full, you will naturally get hungrier more often.

A good plan is to have your three (smaller) meals, along with a healthy ? a meal between breakfast and lunch, and again between lunch and dinner. Meals like ? a serving of oatmeal, a bowl of fruits, some fresh vegetables - all are good for these "snack" times.

So now, you know what to do for a healthy diet, but possibly not what to eat. Vegetables, fruits, poultry, and fish provide you with the majority of vitamins and minerals that your body needs. Carbohydrates, surprising as it may be, are another source of nutrients required by your body. Cutting back on the carbohydrates is a good idea, but you certainly do not want to completely eliminate them from your diet.

Provided that your 5 or 6 meals a day include vegetables, fruits, poultry, fish, proteins, and a little in the way of carbohydrates, you will be enjoying a healthy diet. This is the best way to lose weight, and is the best way to stay healthy after your weight loss. Eating this way trains your body and mind for a healthy lifestyle, and will even help you to live a much longer life.

To get started on your own proper nutritional diet, and get the full theory of the small-portion eating plan, check out ex-bodybuilding champion Carolyn Hansen's product Fat Loss For Keeps and learn how to eat in such a way that weight loss never becomes something you need worry about again.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

SENSIBLE DIET TIPS

Start your diet with a food diary, record everything you eat, what you were doing at the time, and how you felt. That tells you about yourself, your temptation, the emotional states that encourage you to snack and may help you lose once you see how much you eat.

Instead of eating the forbidden piece of candy, brush your teeth. If you're about to cheat, allow yourself a treat, then eat only half a bite and throw the other half away. When hunger hits, wait 10 minutes before eating and see if it passes. Set attainable goals. Don't say, "I want to lose 50 pounds." Say, "I want to lose 5 pounds a month." Get enough sleep but not too much. Try to avoid sugar. Highly sweetened foods tend to make you crave more.

Drink six to eight glasses of water a day. Water itself helps cut down on water retention because it acts as a diuretic. Taken before meals, it dulls the appetite by giving you that "full feeling." Diet with a buddy. Support groups are important, and caring people can help one another succeed. Start your own, even with just one other person.

Substitute activity for eating. When the cravings hit, go to the "Y" or health club if possible; or dust, or walk around the block. This is especially helpful if you eat out of anger.
If the pie on the counter is just too great a temptation and you don't want to throw it away, freeze it. If you're a late-night eater, have a carbohydrate, such as a slice of bread of a cracker, before bedtime to cut down on cravings. Keep an orange slice or a glass of water by your bed to quiet the hunger pangs that wake you up.

If you use food as a reward, establish a new reward system. Buy yourself a non-edible reward. Write down everything you eat - - everything - including what you taste when you cook. If you monitor what you eat, you can't go off your diet.

Weigh yourself once a week at the same time. Your weight fluctuates constantly and you can weigh more at night than you did in the morning, a downer if you stuck to your diet all day. Make dining an event. East from your own special plate, on your own special placemat, and borrow the Japanese art of food arranging to make your meal, no matter how meager, look lovely. This is a trick that helps chronic over-eaters and bingers pay attention to their food instead of consuming it unconsciously.

Don't shop when you're hungry. You'll only buy more fattening food. Avoid finger foods that are easy to eat in large amounts. Avoid consuming large quantities of fattening liquids, which are so easy to overdo. And this includes alcoholic beverages. Keep plenty of crunchy foods like raw vegetables and air-popped fat-free popcorn on hand. They're high in fiber, satisfying and filling. Leave something on your plate, even if you are a charter member of the Clean The Plate Club. It's a good sign that you can stop eating when you want to, not just when your plate is empty.

Lose weight for yourself, not to please your husband, your parents or your friends. Make the kitchen off-limits at any time other than mealtime. Always eat at the table, never in front of the TV set or with the radio on. Concentrate on eating every mouthful slowly and savoring each morsel.

Chew everything from 10 to 20 times and count! Never skip meals.

Click Here to Begin your own FITNESS Plan!!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Healthy meal planning begins with your starting point:

Healthy meal planning begins with your starting point:

Estimate your daily caloric needs. Your daily calorie needs (also called Weight Maintenance Calorie level) in simplified terms is the sum of your basal metabolic energy (also referred to as basal metabolic rate or BMR) and your Activity Energy.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)- Your BMR refers to the energy your body expends performing involuntary functions such as circulating blood, breathing, glandular activity, contraction of the intestines, etc. All these processes require energy. Test data show that the BMR depends on gender, age, height and weight.

Activity Energy & Activity Levels- Your activity level depends on how physically active you are. This leads to the amount of energy you expend over and above your basal energy. What’s your body composition?

Body composition defined as the ratio of lean body mass to body fat mass. Lean body mass includes structural and functional elements in cells, body water, bones, muscles, liver, heart, kidneys, etc. Body fat is of two types such as essential fat and storage fat. Essential fat is required for normal physiological functioning. Storage fat constitutes the fat reserves of the body. Body composition is the percent of body fat mass and percent of lean body mass.

What’s your BMI? Another accurate judge of body weight is BMI, which stands for Body Mass Index. BMI calculates a weight to height ratio and assigns a number to the result. The higher the BMI number above the normal range, the greater the degree of overweight. A BMI of 27 or above is overweight and 30 or above is severely overweight. The higher the BMI number above the normal range, the greater the degree of overweight and the greater the risk for weight related health problems.


What’s your body fat? This is the amount of body fat you carry, your body fat percentage, makes a difference to your body shape and your health.
Your physique is affected by body fat percentage because muscle tissue is more compact than fat - a balloon containing 1lb of muscle tissue would be smaller than a balloon containing 1lb of fat!

Click for Free Fitness Analysis