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Posts Tagged ‘Body Fat’

How to Lose Weight Naturally

Thursday, December 17th, 2009
lose weight
Debby Smith asked:


ight is a goal for several obese persons. Losing weight and losing fat are inter related. When you lose surplus fat in your body, you end up losing weight. If you experience weight loss, then you are losing your body fat. There are many unnatural ways to weight loss such as patches, pills which lead to side effects. Though some of the side effects caused by quick weight loss solutions are reversible, many people suffer from irreversible effects after they follow these shortcuts. Natural weight loss is possible and everybody should try to follow natural methods to achieve weight loss without any side effect.

The first step to natural weight loss is to reduce calorie intake. You have to monitor the number of calories you consume and burn. To lose weight, you have to lose calories. Reduce the number of calories you consume and increase the number of calories you burn. You should stay away from food items which contain more fat. White foods like rice, potatoes, bread, pasta contain large amounts of carbohydrates. Obese people should take these foods in minimal quantities. You should not completely stop taking these these foods because carbohydrates supply energy to your body. You have to take a proper balanced diet to make weight loss possible. Snacking is an enemy to weight loss but if you know how to eat healthy snacks, you can lose your weight eating snacks. Healthy snacks include fruit and vegetable salads. You can try different combinations of fresh snacks and explore new heights in healthy cooking.

Following a regular exercising schedule is the key behind weight loss. It is not that all obese people should pay their gym membership to lose weight. You can buy pedometers and go for walking or jogging. Swimming is also a great exercise that strengthens your muscles and reduces body fat. If you are sports enthusiast, you can start playing your favorite game daily. This will make weight loss a fun activity.

Water is an essential element to lose weight. You have to drink a lot of water everyday. When you burn more calories, your body fat will be reduced releasing more toxins in the body. Drinking more water ensures that all toxins are cleared away from the body easily.

Above all, to lose weight naturally, you should stay motivated. Natural weight loss is a slow process and you can never losing a few pounds within a week if you are resorting to natural ways. Continue working on your weight loss schedule and in the long run, you will be amazed to know how your body listens to your words.



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Fitness: the Great Equalizer

Sunday, June 7th, 2009
fitness nutrition
Ainsley Laing asked:


(c) 2008 Ainsley Laing

One of the most rewarding things about being a fitness trainer is empowering someone to accomplish their goals and watching them do it. Everyone has a different reason for embracing a fitness lifestyle, but the outcomes are pretty much always the same. The person feels better and has more confidence because the body they live in is vibrant, healthy and able. One thing’s for sure, mentoring someone to transform is great fun.

My husband Dave and I live in an interesting community. It is full of “expats” (people who do not live in their home culture). As such, my fitness clients are from everywhere. This makes for interesting communication challenges and requires some different mentoring and leadership skills. One group that I have is a group of young Japanese women who don’t speak much English and I, unfortunately, have very little Japanese. We use lots of body language! Oops, I digress.

Getting to the idea that fitness is a “great equalizer”. What does this mean? It means that doing it means getting better at it. This applies to everyone – no matter what level they start from. As an example, I currently have 2 clients that joined me about the same time. Both are women. One is 55 and has always been sedentary except for light housework and walking. The other is a thirty year old dancer who became overweight over a period of about 10 years. The older lady is motivated because she is having health problems from her lack of activity and extra body fat. The younger lady is motivated to become leaner and stay active.

When I met the older client, I thought she was much older than her years by the way she moved and the way she talked about what she could and couldn’t do. When she started exercising, she moved slowly. Her joints were stiff and her brain to body communication was slow. She started at level one. Within weeks, however, she was moving well and fluently. She has since reported that her blood pressure is lower and she says she feels so much better. This week in step aerobics class, she was keeping up with the much younger participants!

The younger client is really seeing body changes and feeling different. She is becoming leaner and has radiance to her skin that is remarkable. She plans to run a 10K race in 2 months. She is looking good and feeling good!

The great equalizer: Both started about 2 months ago. Both are consistently exercising and making healthier food choices. Both are beginning to see and feel results after 2 months – within the scope and realistic expectations that they had when they began.

The greatest thing to witness through this transformation is what I like to call “the side effects”. When I talk to both of these ladies about what they are doing, I feel their happiness and their sense of empowerment about taking charge of their own health. It is hard work, but the rewards are tangible and visible. The changes are emotional as well as physical!

Last night Dave and I were talking about his fitness “transformation”. You see, he decided 7 years ago (age 41) that, although he was exercising and eating well, he wasn’t as fit as he would like to be. So he embarked on a journey of transformation. He was so excited about his change that he wrote a book about it! (Read about his experience at http://www.fitnessantiaging.com). He and I started dating after he had “transformed”. I said to him that I am not sure I would have dated him if he didn’t keep himself fit.

Ok, ok… even I’ll admit that this sounds superficial, but for me it’s not. Why? Although I DO appreciate a man (or woman) with a fit body – it’s much more than that. A person who keeps him or herself fit has an aura about them – a sense of empowerment about their own health and body. And let’s face it, empowered people are attractive people!

So, congratulations to all of you out there who have recently made the decision to embrace a fitness lifestyle. Enjoy the journey!



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Weight Loss Plans Guaranteed to Work

Friday, April 17th, 2009
weight loss plan
Janet Sommers asked:


If you have been searching for the longest time for a fat and weight loss program that would work for you, you have probably tried some of the most popular diet plans such as Atkins, South Beach, and the Three-Day Diet. You also almost certainly have found out that these do not really work. Let’s try to learn about the theory behind these three fat and weight loss programs.

Atkins

The Atkins diet program is based on the theory stating that overweight people tend to eat too much carbohydrates-rich food. Atkins seeks to drastically diminish your intake of carbohydrates and instead encourages you to take in more foods that are rich in protein and fat to such extent that the body goes into a state called ketosis. A body in ketosis gets energy from ketones, which are carbon fragments that are the resulting fuel produced by the breakdown of stored fat. A body in ketosis tends to feel less hunger pangs and will be able to burn off stored body fat at a more efficient manner.

South Beach

The South Beach diet operates on the principle of Glycemic Index (GI). This diet plan suggests that people who want to lose weight should stay clear of foods high in GI, typically carbohydrate-rich foods. Eating foods rich in GI triggers the release of large amounts of the hormone called insulin that are needed to transport the carbohydrates to the liver where they will be converted into fat for storage. The release of insulin in large quantities tends to make a body feel tired and hungry, and will trick it to start craving for more calories.

The Three-Day Diet

The Three-Day Diet is a fat and weight loss program that features a strictly controlled plan that must be meticulously followed for three days at a time. After each three-day period, you can resume with your normal eating habits for four or five days, and then go on with the Three-Day Diet again. The Three-Day Diet promises weight loss of as much as ten pounds in only three days.

Why They Don’t Work

Fat and weight loss diets such as Atkins, South Beach, and the Three-Day Diet do not work, or at the very least, produce such negligible results, because of one simple reason. These diet plans do not employ the calorie shifting principle.

Fat and weight loss plans that abide by the calorie shifting principle functions on the hypothesis that a body’s rate of metabolism only foresees your next food intake based on your past eating behavior. These plans feature an online diet plan generator that is configured and that computes a collection of arbitrary meals menu that is geared towards essentially confusing your body’s rate of metabolism so that it will continue to break down calories even after it has finished breaking down the food in the body. After the body has burned off all the calories in the body, fats are then burned, after which they are transformed into energy that is used to reduce fat deposits. The essential factor in fat and weight loss plans that work on the calorie shifting principle is to sustain the body’s rate of metabolism so as not to deprive the body of food and energy.

Armed with all these vital information, it is probably high time for you to go in search of a diet plan that operates on the calorie shifting theory, and you just might finally chance upon a plan that is guaranteed to work for you.



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Amazing Tips That Can Make or Break Your Fat Loss Plan

Sunday, April 12th, 2009
fat loss
Cindy Papp asked:


the fat loss plans on the market – how do you know which one will work for you? Here are some guidelines to use to help your decision.

Keep it simple. If a fat loss plan uses recipes that are complicated and extensive, it may cost you more time and money than you have.

Check out the eating program or recipes to the plan ahead of time, if you can. If each lunch and dinner is completely different, your new program might require an extensive grocery list, This may require you to spend a lot of money on new ingredients such as expensive meats, condiments, spices, and kitchen equipment, if you don’t already have it.

Read the recipes to see if you really have the time to make them. Keep in mind that when you come home from work, or school, you might be more tired and not willing to take time to cook. Will this stop you from staying on your fat loss plan? With all these in mind – the best approach is to keep it simple.

Some whole food supplements can be very beneficial for a fat loss program. These include whole food vitamins, essential fatty acids, and green tea or green tea supplements.

The types of nutrition found in these supplements are easily used by your body, as opposed to your traditional vitamin supplements. Whole food supplements are considered food and the nutrients are more easily absorbed.

These types of nutrients help you during a fat loss program in many ways. They can help reduce internal inflammation (a contributor to heart disease among other things), control food cravings, shed body fat easier and can even help keep your mood elevated and your energy up.

Fiber supplements can also be a helpful addition to your fat loss plan. It will help absorb bad cholesterol and help your body shed toxins, which may be stored in fat cells making them larger. Extra fiber can also help your body remove built up waste, which may contribute to excess weight and fat.

Be sure to incorporate some type of exercise. Exercise quickens fat loss and shapes your body as you lose weight. It also helps elevate your mood and gives you energy. Remember a body is motion, stays in motion.

Drink plenty of fresh, spring water. It helps your body flush toxins and fat to keep it moving out. It also keeps your skin healthy and fresh and what you may not realize, being depleted in water can lead to headaches, nausea and fatigue.

Drinking tea will not replace water. Most teas contain some natural caffeine, which causes you to eliminate more liquid than is healthy. So, while some teas are a good supplement, they are not a replacement.

If you don’t like the taste of water, add lemon, lime or even a squeeze of orange into your glass. It will be enough to flavor the water without adding too much sugar. And since taste is an acquired or developed sense, you will soon enjoy water if you don’t already.

Avoid drinking diet sodas or anything with artificial sweeteners. Diet sodas also can cause you to eliminate more liquid than you consume, leaving you dehydrated. Then there is controversy about whether artificial sweeteners are safe or not.

Add to this the fact that it costs the food industry only a small fraction of the cost of using natural sweeteners, so it is in their best interest that you consume these. But is it in your best interest? It is probably best to switch to healthy, natural water.

Be sure you eat plenty of fresh, whole organic fruits and vegetables. No one ever got fat from eating too much fruit. And your body needs these foods for the nutrients, the fibers and the natural vitamin water they contain.

The whole, raw fruit or vegetable is the most filling and takes time to chew. This gives your body time to register the “full feeling” so you are less likely to overeat. Try starting every meal with a fresh green salad and be sure your plate is at least half vegetables.

Using these common sense tips can help you on your fat loss plan. They can help you stay healthy while losing weight and even save you money. Take care of your body and it will take care of you for a long, long time.



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Fat Loss vs. Weight Loss

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009
fat loss
Jerome Kellner asked:


See if you agree with the following statement. Fat loss and weight loss are essentially the same thing, interchangeable.

If, like many people, you said yes, you guessed wrong. Fat loss and weight loss are not the same thing at all. In fact, they are not even close.

If you browse the diet book section of your local bookstore, or surf the Web, you will see that most books and diet programs contain the words weight loss in their title or subtitle. Most diet programs are about weight loss, which is the incorrect approach to this whole area. As a trainer and author specializing in healthy fat loss and fitness, I recommend you only concern yourself with taking off excess fat.

Here is why. Weight is good, not bad; you do not want to lose weight, and most importantly for your health, you do not want to lose muscle. Our weight is made up of tissue, muscle, bone, blood, fat, water, and the rest of our physical body. Muscle, like every other component of our physical make-up, is most important. And fat is also a necessary, vital part of our physical make-up.

It is excess body fat that is the big problem. Having excess body fat, being fat, increases your risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, hypertension and many other serious diseases. And perhaps most serious of all, if you can get more serious than a heart attack or a stroke, is that excess body fat is being linked to many more types of cancers than previously known.

Excess fat is bad news and that is what I urge you to focus on, fat loss. The following is so important it bears repeating: you do not want to lose weight. That is just a convenient way of avoiding the word fat. Fat has ugliness attached to it. No one likes to be called fat or think of themselves as fat, so we say overweight, portly, rotund, chubby and use other phrases like take off pounds, lose weight, or take off inches.

We can play word games, deny it and dance all around the fact that we are fat and we have to lose fat. But it is more effective and realistic to just face up to the job at hand, which is to lose excess fat. And in fact, once they take 100 percent responsibility for doing just that, many people become highly motivated and do the job more quickly and easily.

In my many years working in fat loss and fitness, I have learned what I believe is the best way to take off excess fat fast, healthfully and permanently. And that is through adopting a balanced, plant-based diet of whole, fresh, natural foods, and doing daily exercise.

The type of program I recommend is simple and ferociously effective. It does not include diet foods made with reduced fat. No low carb, no carb nonsense. No fat blaster pills. No processed, packaged foods delivered to your door. No meal replacement shakes or herbal remedies that melt fat away. I strongly urge my clients and readers to stay away from all these bogus and often dangerous weight loss approaches. Unfortunately, they are unending and many people are eager to buy into magic bullets or shortcut ways for losing fat.

It is legitimate to ask why is a balanced, plant-based diet of whole, natural foods so effective at losing fat. The answer is simple and irrefutable: there is no more effective way to lose fat permanently than to cut out all the fat that comes with eating animals and animal food products like dairy and eggs. And permanently eliminating all refined, processed and fast foods from your diet. These are loaded with sugar, salt and added fats, including hydrogenated fats/oil, one of the worst substances you can put in your body. Put even more simply, we are what we eat.

That is the difference between fat loss and weight loss, and the difference between the approach I recommend and all the books and programs touting weight loss.

If you are interested in permanently, healthfully losing all the excess fat you want to lose, I urge you to adopt a balanced, plant-based diet of whole, fresh, natural foods, without meat, poultry, fish, dairy products or eggs.

When you do this, along with getting daily exercise, you will really start to see the excess fat on your body melt away. Healthfully and permanently.



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