Archive for the 'Weight Loss' Category

Best Ways to Cholesterol and Triglycerides

Anyone who carries excess weight and has a raised level of cholesterol also will probably have an increased level of triglycerides at the same time. The association between cholesterol and triglycerides typically results from the foods that are being eaten and the way you choose to live your life.

When consumed food is not immediately used for production of energy in the body, the excess fat in foods is stored in the chemical triglyceride. In order to lower your cholesterol and triglycerides levels, you can do a number of things. The best thing is to identify the foods that are having effects on your cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

There are many information sources that could help answer your questions regarding what foods to consume for you to achieve healthier levels of cholesterol and triglycerides in your body. Learning as much as you can about different the foods that you eat can assist you making better food choices.

Implementing a meal plan that would improve your cholesterol levels and reduce your chance for heart disease would be beneficial. It is critical to be aware of the differences between foods that are problem foods for high cholesterol and those that are helpful in promoting better heart health.

A lot of people don’t know about the types of foods that can make their cholesterol levels higher. When you are educated about the types of foods that can cause trouble you can substitute these foods with more wholesome alternatives. You should seek out foods that you like to take the place of foods that are bad for you. It won’t be long before you learn to eat and enjoy healthy foods more than unhealthy foods. The reason is that you will feel so much better when you are eating this way.

If you want your cholesterol and triglycerides levels to be reduced, thirty minutes of exercise for five days a week is a proven way that would help in this situation. Exercise can make you feel physically better, as you will feel energized and rejuvenated. If you feel consistently stressed out, you may find that by simply walking for thirty minutes, in addition to the regular time you spend in walking can be very helpful. Exercise is amazing restorative and relaxing.

Dieting and exercising are just two of the methods that you can use to reduce your cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Certainly, your physician can give you a prescription medicine that will decrease the level of your cholesterol. But, if you take control of your own health and well being by watching what you eat, this is the best thing you can do to be on the road to a healthier and happier life.

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Quick Tips to Achieve Fast Weight Loss

Allow me to go out on a short limb here and say: dieting works . . . at least in the short term. But you can improve the effectiveness of most diets and improve your long-term odds of success by mastering a few easy lifestyle additions.

Over the past years, I’ve put together a long list of simple lifestyle changes that combine to form a practical, long-term approach to dieting. Add a few of these changes to your present routine one at a time until they become habit. Before long, you’ll notice better, more lasting results if you truly absorb these changes. Plus, they’ll help jump-start any fast weight lose diet.

Ice cold water: drink an ice-cold glass of water (make it at least a pint) when you first wake up and before each meal. Your body will be forced to raise the water to your body temperature, burning a few extra calories in the process. Plus, it will make you feel fuller when you eat and help keep you properly hydrated.

Add negative calorie foods: there are a handful of foods out there that consume more energy when burned than are contained within the foods themselves; i.e. they have a net negative caloric impact. Try adding asparagus, broccoli, blueberries, beets, radishes, cucumbers, strawberries, tomatoes, and similar foods.

Evening lockdown: don’t eat for at least two hours prior to your bedtime. Preferably, make your final “meal” of the day a light salad to tide you over until bedtime. There’s no sense consuming calories that will not be burned efficiently as your metabolism slows (this is especially true in the winter time).

Move your workouts: move your evening workouts to the morning. Not only are you more likely to complete your workout, but your body will burn only fat (and a little muscle) if you don’t eat before you workout. Plus, you’ll feel good all day and jump start your metabolism! Just make sure you exercise. Muscle burns calories, so build muscle to help achieve quick diet loss.

Eat brown foods: try to stay away from processed foods or foods that increase your blood sugar. Whole wheat bread, sweet potatoes, brown rice are good substitutes for white bread, potatoes, and white rice.

3:1 deficit-to-normal ratio: after three days at a caloric deficit, add a higher-calorie day. If you’re dieting at a 30 percent deficit for 3 days (e.g. 2400 calorie diet dropping to 1650 calories), make the fourth day a 10 percent deficit. That is, in this example, consume an extra 510 calories on every fourth day. This will nip any plateaus in the bud

Remember, for maximum effectiveness, add these habits into your current fast weight loss plan. When you stop dieting, retain these habits for the long-term to help you keep off the weight it took so long to lose. It’s always easier to maintain than to lose!

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How Can Hoodia Help You Get Six Pack Abs?

If you are anxious to get fat loss going, you’ve likely looked into the diet supplement, hoodia. Hoodia gordonii is a plant that was used in South African many years ago by hunters who would need to go for long durations of time without food and grows very slowly in harsh conditions and needs to be harvested for four to five years before it’s ready.

But how well does Hoodia really work for fat loss? Many people turn to hoodia thinking it is the answer to all their prayers. Never hungry? Sounds like a dietary dream. After all, following a diet should be easy if you never have any feelings of hunger, shouldn’t it?

Unfortunately, it isn’t so simple.

First off, if you are a trying to get a lean, sexy midsection, not eating is the last thing you want to be doing. Sure, you definitely will need to eat less in order to lose body fat, but if you aren’t eating enough, you’ll actually just lose muscle rather than body fat. Since muscle tissue is your calorie burning engine, destroying it would be counterproductive to getting the results you want.

Who wants a slower metabolism at the end of the day? That’ll just make further fat loss next to impossible.

If hoodia is affecting your natural hunger signals, it will be hard to get in the foods that you do need - the foods that will work with your body to lose the body fat while still keeping muscle tissue intact.

Secondly, you must understand that hoodia is not a thoroughly tested product and cannot be deemed safe. If you take enough of it, it can actually damage your metabolism, causing a variety of thyroid issues that will be stuck with you into the future. While fat loss and getting abs is important, you must do it a healthy way so that you don’t do anything disrupting to your health.

Finally, hoodia diet pills are by no means a proper method to losing abdominal fat. In order to lose abdominal fat, you’re going to have to find a method that will be sustainable over the long term. If you think that you’re just going to skip eating for the years to come, you are very mistaken. You will not get the proper nutrients you need to sustain life, therefore, to put it bluntly, using hoodia as a means to help you maintain fat loss could very well put you in the hospital with severe malnutrition.

What you need is a diet that supplies all the nutrients you need, while still being affective with stomach fat loss. Then, you’ll also need to make sure this diet is something you can work into your lifestyle so that your abs aren’t going to be just covered up by more body fat again once you move off the diet.

The more time you waste chasing after gimmicky supplements that only hurt you in the long run, the more time you spend without the results you are after.

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Ways to Lose Weight that Changed My Obese Body Forever

Have you embarked upon every new fad diet known to mankind but still don’t really understand about ways to lose weight and keep it off? Have you followed exercise routines to lose weight without success? You’re not alone, but if this rings a bell for you, as it did for me, formally Queen of the Biggest Losers/Biggest Gainers, you are definitely in need of a different approach as I was.

You may commit yourself to diets and get-fit-quick plans like I did only to be disappointed. Your body shape may balloon and shrink depending on whether you are on an up or down’ in your health cycle. If you have not been able to lose that extra fat for good and feel full of energy you need a new answer.

Obese bodies generally get that way over time from the small things we do on a daily basis. Weight just slowly creeps on until we look fat and have way less energy than we need. To reverse this unhealthy look and feel, to find reliable ways to lose weight and to reclaim our healthy body, we need to change the behavior that brought this on.

How do we start to identify these ways to lose weight? Slowly, just as we gained this weight, by making small, healthy changes over time. Some are related to the nutrition in our diet, others to our exercise and lifestyle.

Introduce gradual changes into your day-to-day living. Don’t survive the pain of weight loss, then throw out any changes that brought this about when you reach your goal weight. Don’t ignore the pounds that gradually slip back on. Eating healthy foods, by cutting out just some of those that you know you should avoid and replacing these with healthier alternatives is just one of the ways to lose weight without feeling overwhelmed.

Balancing both your food intake and your daily exercise is an important way to reduce your weight and avoid obesity. If what you eat and how much you exercise is out of balance, you WILL gain weight. Take a good look at the kind of food you eat and see how well you work this off through exercise.

Exercise is one of the most effective ways to lose weight and can be as small as walking to collect the Sunday paper from the store. Whatever you decide to do to speed up your metabolism, start slowly and set achievable goals. It is the Hare and Tortoise story again and we know who won that race!

Use different ways to objectively chart your weight loss and any changes to your body shape. Measure changes to your waist or hips as well as checking your weight. This will inform you about all aspects of your progress, not just your weight loss.

Even when they are working, ways to lose weight can get monotonous. To last the distance, build in non-eating benefits to keep you motivated and on track. Buy some new software or even new clothes to show off your changing ‘look’.

If you are prepared to look at what you presently eat and how you exercise and then start to change this little by little making the right choices, you will lose and keep weight off and stay healthy. By doing this you will be able to enjoy the benefits of sure-fire ways to lose weight that will re-shape your body and your life like I did.

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Little Known Ways To Use Green Tea For Weight Loss

Do you need something to help you to achieve the weight loss that you are striving for? If your answer is yes, you should try using green tea for weight loss. There are several choices of green teas to help you lose weight. In addition to helping shave off the pounds, green tea is also beneficial for your overall health.

Prior to drying, the leaves of green tea are not fermented. That means that the active antioxidant, antiviral, and anticancer properties are more concentrated than they are in other types of tea. With its rich flavor and easy preparation, green tea for weight loss offers a host of other health benefits that can’t be beat.

As shown in several studies, people who drink one bottle of green tea daily for three months have lost more body fat than people who do not. Catechin, a substance found in green tea, is a weight loss trigger that accounts for this difference. Catechins help your body to burn calories faster, decrease body fat, and act to suppress your appetite.

Of all the teas that come from the Camellia Sinesis plant, green tea has the most fat fighting properties. For people who dislike the taste of green tea weight loss pills are available without the taste. The pills offer similar benefits as actually drinking green tea for weight loss purposes, and can be found in many health food stores.

At each meal, you will usually take 1-2 green tea pills. Taking the pills instead of drinking green tea for weight loss throughout the day does not have an increased effect on weight loss. The main difference in taking the pills is that the green tea remains in your body for a longer period of time.

There is yet another option for those of you who do not care for the taste of green tea or prefer not to take pills. The green tea patch is a new option to use the benefits of green tea for weight loss without having to brew up a pot of tea. The patch is used as a weight loss aid that sticks to your skin all day. Remember that if you have any allergies, especially adhesive allergies, to consider what is used in making the patch stick.

You have a several choices when it comes to green tea for weight loss. But before starting any program to lose weight, consult with your physician to decide what is the best way for you to reach your health goals.

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Today’s Superfood From the Amazon, The Acai Berry

The latest craze in the world is this tiny berry that can be found in the Brazilian rain forest. The Acai looks like this. (ah-sigh-ee) All the world is talking about the berry.

This dark purple fruit of an Amazon palm tree and is packed full of healthy nutritional components. Imagine a fruit which is full of all the essential food products which give the human body energy, essential vitamins and nutrients plus an anti aging agent. This amazing superfood appears to have it all.

Better than the great benefits of drinking red wine, and even better than the act of eating fresh fruit, this berry promotes good heart health and encourages digestive system health.

The Acai berry’s health benefits don’t stop there. The fatty acids in the Acai berry enable the body to absorb those omega oils which benefit the joints and aging bodies. Joints flexibility will enable the older person to be active for much longer without the aches and pains of growing old.

The berry also lays claims to keeping insulin levels steady. Of course, this benefits not only the body because of the anti-inflammatory properties - which if left unchecked will age the body, but also diabetics may have an easier time controlling their insulin levels which could result in them using less drugs.

Even weight watchers are catered for. Some claim that the Acai berry balances the body making losing weight after taking this supplement much easier.

Cancer sufferers also claim to find many benefits from consuming Acai berry juice.

No wonder then that this small berry is being hailed the ‘wonder’ food and being advertised on prestigious TV shows.

Many people are testifying to its efficacy and have literally flooded the internet with testimonials about its effects on even the most diverse of conditions.

Of course, even if there is only a shred of truth in all of these claims, then someone somewhere will benefit from taking this supplement. Could it hurt to give it a try?

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Safe Weight Loss and a Healthy Diet

Are you carrying around a little more weight than you would like? Possibly a lot more weight than you would like and you have to do something about it? You are not without company. The obesity epidemic in America is out of control. Obesity is also a growing problem around the world as American fast-food franchises open in countries that have never had this problem on a large-scale.

Being overweight can lead to severe health issues. Having too much extra weight can make you more prone to heart problems, diabetes, strokes, and some types of cancer. You deserve to enjoy life, being unhealthy when you can do something about it is no way to live.

Just because you are on a low calorie diet does not mean you have to starve yourself or eat nothing but sprouts and brand. Understanding this can help you stay determined and take off some of that weight that is making you unhealthy. Some weight loss programs can make you weak and hungry. The good news is you don’t have go through this to lose weight. In fact it is much easer to loose weight if you eat enough of the right foods so you don’t get weak and hungry. If you eat healthy foods you will lose weight naturally and keep it off.

It is better that you do not feel hungry. Our bodies tell us that we had better eat when we are hungry. It is a matter of self-preservation, the problem is then we eat foods we should not and we eat too much. It is better to eat smaller regular meals and keep from getting hungry and gorging on ding dongs. If you eat a healthy diet long enough your body will not crave ding dongs.

A low calorie diet with foods you like will help you stick to a healthy eating plan and reach your weight loss goals. Keeping yourself from getting hungry is a key to not overeating. It is also the key to keeping from being miserable. Don’t think of it as a diet, think of it as foods you like to eat that will not add fat.

How to Loose Weight

Eating more calories than you can burn will cause you to gain weigh. Take in less calories than you burn and you will lose weight. The best way to do it is to eat less calories, and increasing the number of calories you burn at the same time. Work out and eat better, notice I did not say, “eat less food”. Eating better is always preferable to eating less. You may find foods that you like that you can eat as much as you like, as long as you do not eat any more Twinkies and walk around the block. It sounds simple and it is but this is the best safe weight loss plan. Learn what foods you like that are low calorie and eat more of them. Each week add a new food and cut out a high calorie food.

Quick weight loss diet plans work in the short run but if you want to keep it off for life you must eat fewer calories, and increasing the number of calories you burn. Your body will not like you and you will not feel good if you go back and forth between gaining weight and then doing the latest fast weight loss diet or taking weight loss pills to get it off for the next prom. For some of us there is always the next prom or reunion we need to get ready for. When it is over we go back to our normal way of eating. I understand this because I did this for years.

Another important point is that you are not eating a low calorie healthy diet to be skinny. Skinny for you may not be healthy; to me skinny people do not look right. It makes me want to buy them lunch or have them over for dinner. If you are not meant to be skinny than why make yourself miserable trying to get there. A healthy weight is different for everyone.

Even worse is believing you have to be skinny to be happy. Be happy now, enjoy the body you have and eat healthy to get to a weight that a healthy weight for you. If you want to take 10 lbs off for the prom that is one thing but if you want to keep it off for your 10 year reunion that’s something all together different.

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Soy does a body a good?

From “Misled” - A book that tells the truth about the fitness industry.

Many people concerned about the ill effects of meat and dairy products have resulted to eating soy products as a “healthy” alternative. Moreover, Soy advocates are quick to claim that it is high in protein, free of cholesterol, and very low in fat. However, they may omit that many of these products are made from unfermented, over-processed soy and that eating large quantities of these products may actually cause negative health ramifications.

First let’s understand the difference between soy products. Soy can be broken down into two different classifications, UNFERMENTED and FERMENTED. Unfermented soy products include fresh soybeans, soy nuts, soymilk, tofu, and is also contained in about three hundred other products on our grocery store shelves. Fermented soy products are found in products like tempeh, miso, natta, and shoya tamari products. Fermentation is a process in which a food’s own living enzymes are used to pre-digest the food before you eat it.

The detractors of unfermented soy products will inform us that if you look at the history of how soy was used you will find that soybeans were initially used in agriculture for crop rotation because they replenished lost nitrogen from the ground. However, there is no historical indication that soybeans were routinely eaten for food until the fermentation process was realized, which was around 440 BC. Now adays most soy products are unfermented, and have raised concerns about creating health issues that negatively affect the thyroid and even may cause cancer when taken in mass quantities from a day to day consumption.

The main problem spawning these accusations is that soybeans contain phytates, an organic acid that blocks the uptake of valuable minerals, which include calcium, magnesium, iron, and especially zinc. Soybeans actually contain more phytates than any other grain, bean, or plant. A vegetarian diet that relies heavily on unfermented soy products (as many health conscious Americans do) may be placing them selves in jeopardy by creating a serious zinc deficiency. Zinc is critical for normal functioning of the brain, nervous system, and immune system. Furthermore, zinc is necessary for over 300 enzymatic activities to take place, which include the production of white blood cells, insulin secretion in the pancreas, the production of sperm, fetal development, and the protection of the body from heavy metal poisoning.

Nutrional experts tell us that fermenting soybeans is the most significant way to reduce their phytate concentration to avoid depleting minerals. Moreover, the process of fermentation enhances our body’s abilities to absorb protein and generate compounds that inhibit tumor growth and significantly stimulate the immune system.

Supporters of the soy industry and their many unfermented soy products tell us that these claims are part of a smear campaign fabricated by the dairy industry to induce sinking sales. Also, they tells us that their products are not only safe, but also good for us.

It all boils down to this. Comparing Asians to Americans, Americans tend to eat significantly higher amount of soy products (unfermented and-or fermented), and in my opinion, many questions still need to be answered about Soy products to presuppose that it is nutritious to consume in large quantities, and especially on a day to day basis.

Many research studies lead ust to believe that fermented soy products that I’ve mentioned in this article are of nutritional value to our bodies. However, there are studies that show the opposite. With that being said, I do believe that we should use these products in moderation until we have more questions answered about the true nutritional values of these products.

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Importance Of Hoodia Gordonii Cactus

Hoodia Gordonii is a cactus like plant that grows in the South African deserts. Hoodia Gordonii is not actually a cactus, but looks very much like a cactus. The Hoodia Gordonii cactus has been found to act as an appetite suppressant, and therefore has recently been promoted as an herbal supplement used to promote weight loss.

One does wonder why we have not heard about Hoodia Gordonii plant earlier and why people are talking about it now. The truth is that very few details about this plant is available as it is a difficult plant to grow and is very uncommon.

In the late 1930’s an anthropologist discovered that the Kalahari used the Hoodia Gordonii cactus to suppress hunger and thirst when on long journeys through the dessert. This use of the Hoodia Gordonii cactus was actually a survival mechanism. The Hoodia Gordonii cactus allowed travelers to pass through the desert unscathed, which was likely the use intended by nature.

Many scientists got interested in the plant when the news of the effects of the Hoodia Gordonii plant on the appetite spread. They found it to be a potential for developing herbal weigh loss supplement from the cactus. Hoodia was used on animals to test its properties by a number of scientists during the sixties. They came to the conclusion that Hoodia Gordonii did have the ability to curb thirst and hunger.

On the other hand not too much research has been done on the plant after that. One of the manufacturers of diet pills made from Hoodia Gordonii conducted a study on the same to understand the properties further. The effects of Hoodia Gordonii on a person’s appetite has not been proven effectively so far. There is not much evidence on the other advantages as well of the disadvantages of the plant.

Food and Drug Administration has not given an approval to Hoodia Gordonii plant for being used in supplements for losing weight due to this reason. One can use it as a supplement for weight loss when more research has been done on it and its properties are established.

There is another big problem as it is very difficult to get this plant as it does not grow everywhere. The cactus needs a climate which is very hot with a little bit of humidity, which is common in South African deserts. There is not very good chance of getting this supplement easily and will also cost a lot.

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Why Do Doctors Recommend the Birmingham Cardiac 3 Day Diet?

The Birmingham cardiac three-day diet was created in the cardiac wing of the Birmingham, Alabama Hospital. Its primary use is to assist cardiac surgery patients to lose weight prior to surgery.

This diet has been widely criticized and proclaimed a fad diet good for only short-term weight loss. The diet promises that you will lose up to 10 pounds or three days. The diet has many names and is often called one of the following:

The Baptist Hospital three-day diet, American Heart Association three-day diet, bubba’s three-day diet, Florida three-day diet, three-day cardiac death, three-day army die, Hospital three-day diet, and a three day heart diet.

It could be likely that you will lose 10 pounds. However, be aware that the weight that you are losing is water weight and not body fat.

This diet makes all sorts of claims including: cleansing, rapid weight loss, decreased cholesterol, increased energy and cleansing

So, curious about how works? You are required to follow the diet exactly for three days of each week. During the remaining four days of the week eat as usual. If you want to lose more weight resume the diet for three more days.

what can you eat? this diet requires you to follow it explicitly.if you eat foods other than those prescribed by the diet, to be considered overeating and you probably won’t lose weight. Birmingham cardiac three-day diet also emphasizes that under eating should be avoided in all circumstances. The diet requires you to eat the recommended portions even if you aren’t hungry

Day one

Breakfast

* 1/2 Grapefuit or Juice * 1 Slice of Toast * 1 tbsp. Peanut Butter * Black Coffee or Tea

Lunch

* 1/2 cup Tuna * 1 Slice Toast * Black Coffee or Tea

Dinner

* 2 Slices (3 oz.) of any Meat * 1 cup String Beans * 1 cup Carrots or Beets * 1 small Apple * 1 cup Vanilla Ice Cream

Day Two

Breakfast

* 1 hard-boiled Egg * 1 Slice of Toast * 1/2 Banana * Black Coffee or Tea

Lunch

* 1 cup Cottage Cheese

Or

* 1/2 cup Tuna * 5 Saltine Crackers

Dinner

* 2 Wieners * 1 cup Cabbage or Broccoli * 1/2 cup Carrots

Or

* Turnip Greens * 1/2 Banana * 1 cup Vanilla Ice Cream

Day Three

Breakfast

* 1 hard-boiled Egg * 1 Slice Toast * Black Coffee or Tea

Lunch

* 1 Slice Cheddar Cheese * 5 Saltine Crackers * 1 small Apple * Black Coffee or Tea

Dinner

* 1 cup Tuna * 1 cup Carrots or Beets * 1 cup Green Beans

Or

* Cauliflower * 1 cup Cantaloupe

Or

* 1 small Apple * 1 cup Vanilla Ice Cream

This diet has easy-to-follow rules and works, allegedly, because it creates a special chemical breakdown within your body. If substitutions are made, however, the special breakdown doesn’t happen and you won’t lose weight. In addition to the strict menu you are allowed to consume:

* Diet soda or tea sweetened with an artificial sweetener * Salt and pepper (no other seasoning) * Stick to this diet for 3 consecutive days each week. * After 3 days eat usual food, but be sure not to over eat. * After 4 days of normal eating, start all over again,

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