The Diet Dilemma. Why Diets Dont Work

Lets face when it comes to overweight and obesity there are 2 basic facts we have to take into account.

First, dieting is a huge industry.

Second, Industries live by getting and keeping customers and not by loosing them.

Sounds sarcastic? Maybe it is, but the fact of the matter is that if you buy a dieting product for a specific time and you do not need it any more after, say, 6 weeks you are a lost costumer. If all customers would do the same the business would cannibalize itself by curing diseases it is living from.

And, because the above fact is a general principle in every business (keep your customers and make them buy constantly) and industry I can think about, huge amount of the players run by the same mind set. Maybe the pharmaceutical and food industry for example?

Was only a question not a statement.

Bottom-line the interest in keeping people healthy, at a healthy weight or help them through dieting to get there and stay there without a need for their products anymore is at best very limited by those who make a living out of selling things like drugs, diet food or even restaurant and fast food chains.

Keep an open mind and raise all kinds of questions before you decide to use any industry dieting product to loose weight. The common experience is that weight loss using certain products without a change in mind set (more on this later) leads to building up weight again after a short period of success.

How many times have you dieted, lost some weight just to get it back and maybe even more of it only months after you ended your diet? See what I mean?

Think about it for a moment. Why does our body store more and more fat in their tissue? Maybe because it gets nutrition it can not use up within an appropriate time?

In fact our body is a very efficient system that makes sure all cells get energy and it can survive without getting fed for some time by storing energy in the form of fat. Just in case of a famine.

If we incorporate more food on a constant basis than our body can use up, we store more and more fat in our tissue transform it into energy and let the cells use it . This in turn makes us more immobile and puts extra tear and wear on our skeleton, especially the joints.

Worse, after we gained weight our tendency for moving gets weaker and weaker, because moving becomes more and more painful.

Classical vicious cycle. The only way to balance the additional energy and prevent it from becoming stored as fat would be additional movement, that is getting the cells (especially the muscle cells) to work more and to use up more energy. Yet, this doesnt happen. We get more and more propelled into a dont move behavior.

There is a second reason for overeating that adds to the issue. Eating feels sooooo gooood. Right?

We all link massive joy and pleasure to eating. Which makes sense as it helps us survive. The problem is, that we link massive pleasure to a nutrition that doesnt keep us healthy.

Now, at some point in time the pain of being fat even if we only believe it becomes more evident and we look for a way to reduce our stored energy.

We are ready for a diet. We are ready to take some short term pain for the outlook of long term pleasure.

Now we look for a way to keep the pain at a minimum. The industry answer is often using something that makes us feel we have a full stomach. We buy the wonder drug and start dieting.

Once we done that our body starts thinking, hey, a famine and releases some of the fat to overcome the threat. All the while we consciously fight with the pain of not eating what we like to eat but are still committed to follow through.

At the end of the famine, that is at the end of your dieting you have lost weight. But now your mind and your body are sad of the famine (your body) and the pain it brought (your mind).

You deserve pleasure, so you start eating all the nice stuff you have missed so long and have linked pleasure to. At the same time your body starts to immediately store fat again, just to be prepared for the next famine.

The result is devastating. You gain your weight back quicker than you would have built it up in the first place.

This is the reason why diets usually do not work.

What you need to constantly reduce your weight to a healthy level is threefold.

First you need to switch to a nutrition that is healthy and balanced (and fast food and convenience food does not go into this category).

Second you need to stop starving (dieting) to convince your body there is no more famine to come and it does not have to exploit every piece of energy your fed it.

Third you need to find a way to turn around your beliefs about what is pleasurable and what is painful when it comes to eating.

If you dont turn your beliefs about how pleasurable eating a healthy nutrition is (yes it is really as pleasurable as any other food) and on the other side build up a belief how disgusting the old kind of food is you are not going to succeed.

Turning your beliefs is certainly the most unusual advice you heard. But it is the only way to ensure you will constantly keep your weight at a healthy level.

If you have to fight pain, if you have to fight the feeling of a loss (I can never eat chocolate) you always will link pain to where you are and as soon as the pain level gets to high you will do something against it. This do something is eat the stuff you have linked pleasure to like fast-food, chocolate or whatever.

Once you done this you feel guilty and that is painful. Guess what your reaction will be to overcome that painful guilt? Yes, eat some more as it is the pleasure of the moment that makes you overcome the pain of guilt.

Bottom line. Overweight is not resolved by dieting, overweight is resolved through change in our mind. Dieting without changing what we connect pain and pleasure to has only two effects, it ensures that the producers of diet products have a constant income stream from you and it makes sure you spend money without getting the results you expect.

Do you think it is worth a second thought if I might be right? You can have the weight you want constantly and without any effort. All you have to do is change what you link pain and pleasure to.

How? There are many ways to do this but you need some assistance either through books or, better from a real person that is trained and knowledgeable in this area like NLP practitioners or Ericsonian hypnotists (see my article about hypnosis on that topic).

This article may published freely only in its whole including all appendices.

2005 by Norbert Haag.

Norbert Haag is a business consultant, entrepreneur and sought after speaker for more than 20 years. His company - Online Business Coach

The Hidden Truth About Diets

Quick, what's the first thought that pops into your head when you hear the word "diet?" Probably that when you're on one, you feel like you're going to "d-i-e" right?!

WHAT EXACTLY IS A DIET?

Most people believe that a diet is something that involves pain, suffering, and giving up foods we enjoy. Some of the symptoms of "being on a diet" usually include being hungry and cranky all the time. But this is not really the true meaning of the word and if you get hung up on all the negative stuff, you'll miss the entire concept.

Webster's dictionary defines a "Diet" as:

a: food and drink regularly provided or consumed;
b: habitual nourishment;
c: the kind and amount of food prescribed for a person for a special reason.

In other words, it's what we regularly or habitually eat and drink to nourish our bodies. That's not so bad. But here's the hidden truth that will turn your understanding of diets on its head and practically guarantee that you'll reach whatever weight goal you desire: Being "on a diet" really means having a plan for your eating instead of eating according to any spur-of-the-moment mood or habit. That's it!

This is so simple. But then most basic truths are. However, it's extremely powerful if you take the time to think about it and fully understand what it means. Let me say it again so that you don't miss it: Being on a diet really means having what you eat controlled by a PLAN instead of by your moods or habits.

WHY MOST DIETS DON'T WORK

The reason most diets don't work is because of the extreme measures most of them require. Some force you to give up everything except cabbage soup, or everything except meat and meat products, or everything except salads. This is not only monotonous, it's also pretty harsh -- not only harsh to stick with, but harsh on your physical wellbeing as well.

True, a monotonous diet is often effective at losing weight over the short term (ie: the Atkins Diet) but you have to wonder if you aren't giving up a part of your health in the process (ie: ketosis, acidosis, etc). Many conventional diets put the body in a highly acidic state which can create a number of health problems.

Our bodies are designed to absorb vitamins, nutrients, and minerals from a wide variety of foods and a monotonous diet runs directly counter to that. It simply isn't natural, and is the main reason most conventional diets just don't work in the long run.

THE RIGHT WAY TO DIET

The right way to diet is to think of dieting as a system of correct eating. Your diet should include a balanced plan for a variety of foods, taken in moderate amounts, and in the proper combination. Eat when you're hungry, not when the clock says it's lunch or dinner time.

So forget the fad diets that don't work and get started on planning a diet that you can stick with over the long term. This is the balanced approach to good health and nutrition, and it's an approach that you can live with for the rest of your life.

Hiram Perez has made good health a lifelong study. Find other simple and common sense techniques to improve your health.

The Non-Diet Diet

Diets don't work. If they did the U.S. of A. would be the thinnest, trimmest nation in the world, with over 40 million Americans spending billions each year on weight loss products. In fact, the opposite is true. The Center for Disease Control claims that at least 65% of adults are overweight or obese. With the growing list of woes associated with obesity, including heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes, the weight problem in America has become a serious concern. Yet we continue to look to fad diets as the answer to this serious problem - as if living on bacon and eggs, cabbage soup, or low-calorie meal replacement drinks could ever be construed as a healthy solution.

A review of popular diet programs conducted by the University of Pennsylvania and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, stated that most weight loss programs offered little or no proof that participants were successful in loosing weight or keeping weight off in the long run. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has stated that of the millions of people that diet, less than 5% of those who actually loose weight will be able to keep it off in the years to come. It has been surmised that a dieter may shed approximately 100 pounds in the course of a lifetime, but gain back 120 lbs. One benefit of weight loss organizations, however, was group support. Dieters who joined support groups appeared to loose more weight than those who decided to go it alone.

Fad diets themselves bring with them a plethora of health concerns. Restrictive low calorie diets can be self-defeating. The body's metabolism slows moving the system into energy conservation mode and holding on to every calorie for future use instead of burning it. Precious muscle mass is broken down, and low lethargy occurs. Low carbohydrate diets can result in dehydration and constipation. The risk of heart disease is escalated due to the increase of bad cholesterol found in animal fats. When nutritional integrity of the body is threatened due to the elimination of a particular food group, the dieter is at risk for many health problems including osteoporosis, certain types of cancers, immune system issues, electrolyte imbalances, and eating disorders. And with diets, as opposed to permanent lifestyle changes, the probability of gaining back what you have lost, and then some, is high.

In a culture obsessed with physical perfection perhaps we must evaluate how we think about weight in general. Are we dieting to be healthy, or just thin? If the later is the objective, then further investigation into dieting motivation may be necessary, but if health is the ultimate goal, then looking at lifestyle changes may the place to start. Are you an emotional eater, have a compulsive sweet tooth, or someone who eats out of boredom? Do you eat fresh foods or only things that come in a box, bag, or through a drive-up window? What is the overall condition of your health? Is your lifestyle sedentary or active? What type of physical activities do you enjoy? Questions like these help you build the foundation for creating a customized Non-Diet Diet - a common sense plan for living that will result weight loss, elevated energy levels, and improved health and well-being.

Quick fixes usually result in long term failures, and while the answer to America's weight problem may not come in the form of a magic diet, it need not be extremely complicated either. Maintaining a sensible meal plan, including complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, good fats, fruit and vegetables, and sweets in moderation, exercising regularly, and maintaining a healthy attitude regarding the weight/health connection may be the simple answer you've been looking for.

Deborah Martin is a writer, life coach, and co-founder of The Woman Project.

Tips for Effective Muscle Building Diets

One of the biggest mistakes many new bodybuilders make is that they don't pay attention to their muscle building diets with the same detail, desire and determination with which they pay attention to their weight training program.

You constantly see people throw out numbers such as your weight training program is 85% of your results or that muscle building diets are 95% of your results. I've always rolled my eyes at these sorts of statements and found them rather silly. No one can know for sure how to break this down.

But I can tell you this, if you neglect (or ignore completely) one or the other, whether it be your training or muscle building diets, your results will only be a fraction of what they could be - if you get any results at all!

So let's talk about the importance of your diet and nutrition plan in your quest to gain pounds of quality muscle masss.

The truth is, no one will ever gain muscle without food. Muscle building nutrition for muscle gain is simply a matter of eating. But that doesn't mean there isn't a lot to learn. Stuffing your face with the wrong type of food, or just eating 1 or 2 large meals a day isn't the way to gain muscle. You'll just end up with the other weight problem. That's right, even if you are lifting properly, you'll find yourself adding more fat than muscle to your body. And no bodybuilder I know wants to do that.

High quality protein should be the center point of all your meals. Intense exercise increases demand for protein, which support muscle repair and growth. When you train with weights, you should eat a minimum of 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.

If you weight 150 pounds, try and take in at least 225 grams of protein each and every day. I know this sounds like a lot and you could probably do okay with 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. But if you find it really difficult to gain muscle, this extra protein can help.

Here's a good starting guide for the number of calories you need to eat in your musclde building diets. A simple, yet highly accurate formula is to multiply your bodyweight by 20. For example, if you weight 150 lbs, you need at least 3,000 calories per day to maintain your bodyweight.

To grow and build muscle, you'll need more. Here's a quick guideline based on your weight. Remember, these numbers are for underweight people with high metabolisms trying to build lots of muscle quickly.

175 pounds and under - add 400 calories per day

176-200 ponds - add 500 calories per day

201 pounds and over - add 600 calories per day

To break down what you need in your muscle building diets:

Eat A Lot of Protein - At least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, preferably more.

Eat A Lot of Calories - If your goal is to gain weight fast, you most likely have little body fat and a high metabolism. While in the gaining weight stage, don't worry about adding a little bit of fat during your gaining weight phase. A good rule of thumb to start with is to multiply your body weight by 20 to get the number of calories you should be consuming each day.

If you weigh 150 pounds you should be consuming at least 3,000 calories a day. If you find, after a couple of weeks you haven't added any weight, you'll need to increase this number. This is just a starting guide. If you have a really high metabolism and you are working as hard as you should, you may need to increase your caloric intake.

Eat 6 meals a Day - This makes sure your body has the protein and calories it needs at all times. It also allows you to eat the high number of calories that you need.

Use Protein Shakes - This will make it easier for you to consume enough calories and protein each day, as well as making it much more convenient to have 6 meals a day.

Here's a sample weight gain drink you can make up and use in your muscle building nutrition program.

100 grams of protein powder

2 quarts of whole or 2% Milk

2 cups of skim milk powder

2 cups of chocolate ice cream

4 tablespoons of peanut butter

1 banana

Mix in a blender and drink throughout the day, in addition to your regular food meals.

Add or subtract ingredients based on individual taste preferences and number of calories needed.

Todays Diets Whats Hot!

For the person who wants to shed a few pounds (or even a lot of pounds), there are many choices of diet programs. To pick the best one for your tastes and lifestyle, you need to look at the attributes of each diet plan. A listing of just a few is below.

L. A. Weight Loss

L. A. Weight Loss is based on a unique combination of regular foods that you purchase at your local grocery store or in a restaurant. Each diet plan is personalized and includes one-on-one counseling.

Weight Watchers

Weight Watchers includes eating regular foods that you purchase at your local grocery store or in a restaurant. However, there is no pre-set combination of food for each day. Foods are assigned points. As long as you do not exceed your points each day, you can eat whatever you want. You will of course want to vary your food to include all of the food groups in your daily diet. Group meetings or internet tracking is available.

Jenny Craig

Jenny Craig includes food that is already prepared and pre-packaged for you. This saves you time and makes choosing what to eat very easy. They also recommend physical activity as a way to accelerate your weight loss. You meet with a personal counselor each week to discuss successes and challenges.

Nutrisystem

Nutrisystem food that is already prepared and pre-packaged for you. This saves you time and makes choosing what to eat very easy. You can order your foods on-line, and they are delivered right to your door. Most of the food includes low Glycemic Index carbohydrates which make losing weight easier. You have the option of calling or emailing your counselor so that you do not have to attend any meetings.

Finding the right diet program can be easy if you do your research. The important thing is to get on a program and stick to it. Diet, exercise, and counseling seem to provide the proper ingredients for lasting weight loss.

Copyright 2005 Susan Daniel and Debbie Overstreet

Vegetable Diets: Facts For Fitness

The body needs a lot of fiber, so its only common sense to add plenty of fiber to your diet. Vegetables will definitely supply you with much of the daily fiber that you need. Nature grows the required vegetables and fruits suitable for the complete nourishment of your body, so you have no excuses.

So, go ahead its perfectly OK to go crazy eating vegetables.

Here are some juicy tidbits about the benefits of vegetables, and how to prepare them properly.

1. Vegetables are your best bet when it comes to losing extra pounds. Nature provides a terrific buffet of healthy vegetables, and leafy green veggies are your best choice for dropping that spare luggage. So, always try to include a salad with your meals.

2. If you need to have a snack, stay away from the cookie jar! Choose vegetables as a healthy snack instead. We all get those pangs of hunger in between meals, but it is something that we have full control over. A great snack suggestion would be to try munching on carrots. They are a wonderful way to satisfy those hunger pangs and are good for your eyes, as well as your teeth. If people tease you about being Bugs Bunny, just remember that you wont be saying Whats up Doc? nearly as often as they will. You will be healthy!

3. Fresh vegetables are far better for you than cooked or canned vegetables, so always try to eat your vegetables raw. Wherever possible, locally produced seasonal fruits and vegetables fresh from the garden or grove should be eaten. When you cook vegetables, you are taking away nearly half of the vitamins in them. Canned vegetables are not much better than cooked. They are processed and are not nearly as good for you as fresh vegetables. Also, when you buy your vegetables its always a good idea to see if the label states whether its pesticide free or not.

4. If you do have to cook your vegetables, steam them. Try steaming them without adding anything at all. This is probably the healthiest way to eat vegetables such as cabbages, cauliflowers and a whole host of other yummy vegetables.

5. Consider carrying some sprigs of parsley with you. Parsley is another excellent thing to snack on in between meals. Not only is it good for you in terms of vitamins, but it is also a perfect way to make your breath fresher just in case you might need it.

Your mother was right eating your veggies is very important for your overall development. And if you haven't been listening to your mother, it's not too late for you to start now!

To support your Mom's advice one more time, here's one more benefit to eating your vegetables that is often overlooked. Water intake.

Most people seem to be surprised when they learn of the pure simplicity and effectiveness of water for weight and health management. And yet, its right in front of us!

Since some vegetables like tomatos (actually a fruit) are a good source of water, you now have one more reason to consume vegetables. So, dont think about it anymore; just do it.

**Water intake is a whole other topic, but one that will also enable you to drop the pounds and stay healthy. To learn more about the amazing benefits of water and how to maximize its use in your dietary routine, visit: http://www.privilegedinfo.com/waterwisdom.html.

Weight Loss Methods

On the market at any given time, there are hundreds of weight loss methods. You will no doubt see hundreds of commercials in your time for a weight loss drug, a weight loss plan, or an exercise machine. They all tell you that they are the best. They will provide for you the best solution for losing weight. Some may say that they will guarantee the weight loss if you follow their so called simple steps. The truth of the matter is that you need to actively work for the weight loss to be effective. Here, we will talk about different methods of weight loss that you can use to help you gain control of your life.

Realize that anyone that needs to lose weight has to fight for it. Sure, it might be easier for some to lose than others, but the bottom line is that there is no easy weight loss solution out there. No magic pill exists to magically melt away the pounds. It all comes from hard work, eating right, and determination. But, let us explore the different methods of getting the weight off! From the simplest to the most difficult, there are really hundreds of ways you can effectively lose weight. Just remember determination is the key to success!

First of all, it just makes sense to talk about the most effective and longest lasting diet ever. You will never believe this but this is such a powerful diet that when most people follow it, they lose weight! Unfortunately, it is the most difficult to do as well. Eating a balanced diet and getting regular, vigorous exercise is the diet in question here. Yes, we all know that you don't want to give up your favorite foods or want to exercise hard and heavy. But, again, this really is the most beneficial diet out there for weight loss. You need to maintain a healthy diet full of vegetables, fruits and the right portions of meats, grains, and dairy. You will need to exercise daily, developing strong muscles and work off that unwanted fat.

So, like many people you didn't stop reading there. You do not want to do that diet because you may have tried and found it too hard. You may have found that you just didn't have time. Whatever you excuse it, you are here and reading on to search for an easier solution.

Many people have tried the limitation diets like South Beach, Atkins, no fat, or no protein. There are hundreds of fad diets out there. Do they work? Maybe, but you need to realize that by giving up an entire food group can do damage to your body later on in life as well. High fat diets can contribute to heart disease and high blood pressure. Low fat diets can cause their own set of problems because your body needs a healthy amount of fat. In order for these diets to work, you will have to give up the "bad" food for the course of your life. This is difficult, but like we said, all weight loss is!

Exercise can be an excellent way to loose weight. You can exercise away the pounds if you like. Things like jogging, swimming, aerobics, Pilates, and all sorts of other exercise routines can in fact help you to lose weight. In many of these situations, you will have to work long and hard at it. Determination, remember? But, what you are doing is building up the muscle mass in your body. Muscles will burn fat twice as fast as weaker muscles. That means that you will burn fat faster when your body is in shape through exercising. It is important to stress that you will need to insure that you are seen by a doctor prior to starting a hard core exercise plan. Also, remember that you can be thin through exercise, but if you are eating the wrong foods, you are likely to have high cholesterol, high blood pressure or many other things.

Herbal remedies are another way to lose weight effectively. Herbal remedies are available in all sorts of combinations. Most of them are healthy and definitely non toxic. They work because they are all natural products like the foods we eat, that our bodies already know how to digest and use. That means they can be twice as effective, in some cases, as medications. But, just like eating a meal that gives you indigestion, while you may be affected, the friend may not. Herbal remedies can be quite similar meaning they are not a for sure thing.

There are, of course, diet pills that do work. Like herbal remedies, they can help speed up metabolism or help to tell you to stop eating. They can trick the mind into thinking you are full. Many of these diet pills are herbal remedies and do work on and off for many people. While there is no proof that they will work in your situation, they may just be what you need in the end.

And, we are back to the good old eating right and getting the exercise you need diet. Weight loss is a lifelong battle for many people, contributing to their death, in some cases. But, by simply eating right and getting the daily dose of exercise that many of us do not get, we can greatly reduce the amount of bad the weight does to us. Heart disease, organ failure, and many more things can be caused in part or fully from being overweight. Whatever method you decide to use as your method to lose weight do so and, remember that it will take a lot of determination and a whole lot of patience to get where you are going. You will lose the weight. You will be proud to look in the mirror, not because you look good, but because you accomplish a huge goal, a difficult goal, and a lifetime goal of losing weight! Remember to talk to your doctor about you weight loss method as well.

Hilda Maria is a freelance writer

Where Diets Go Wrong

When we discover that we are heavier than we want to be, we have a natural invlination to eat less food. We may skip lunch or eat only a tiny amount of our dinner in the hope that if we eat less our body will burn off some of its fat. But that is not necessarily true. Eating less actually makes it more difficult to lose weight.

Keep in mind that the human body took shape millions of years ago, and at that time there were diets. The only low-calorie event in people's lives was starvation. Those who could cope with a temporary lack of food were the ones who survived. Our bodies, therefore, ahve developed this built-in mechanism to help us survive in the face of low food intake.

When researchers compare overweight and thin people, they find that they ear roughly the same number of calories. What makes overweight people different is the amount of fat that they eat. Thin people tend to eat less fat and more complex carbohydrates.

Losing weight is not something one can do overnight. A carefully planned weight loss program requires common sense and certain guidelines. Unfortunately, there's a lot of misinformantion floating around and lots of desperate people are easily duped and ripped off.

Every day one can open a magazine or newspaper and see advertisements touting some new product, pill or patch that will take excess weight off quickly. Everyone seems to be looking for that "magic" weight loss pill. Millions of Americans are trying to lose weight, spending billions of dollars every year on diet programs and products. Often they do lose some weight. But, if you check with the same people five years later, you will find that nearly all have regained whatever weight they lost.

A survey was done recently to try and determine if any commercial diet program could prove long-term success. Not a single program could do so. So rampant has the so-called diet industry become with new products and false claims that the FDA has now stepped in and started clamping down.

Being seriously overweight and particularly obesity can develop into a number of diseases and serious health problems, and it is now a known fact that when caloric intake is excessive, some of the excess frequently is saturated fat.

The myth is that people get heavy by eating too many calories. Calories are a consideration it's true, but overall they are not the cause of obesity in America today. Americans actually take in fewer calories each day than they did at the beginning of the century. If calories alone were the reason we become overweight, we should all be thin. But we are not. Collectively, we are heavier than ever. Partly, it is because we are more sedentary now. But equally, as important is the fact that the fat content of the American diet has changed dramatically.

People who diet without exercising often get fatter with time. Although your weight may initially drop while dieting, such weight loss consists mostly of water and muscle. When the weight returns, it comes back as fat. To avoid getting fatter over time, increase your metabolism by exercising regularly.

Select an exercise routine that you are comfortable with and remember that walking is one of the best and easiest exercises for strengthening your bones, controlling your weight and toning your muscles.

Article by Jay Harris of IMI Concepts.

Why Most Diets Dont Work

Ever thought of, known someone, or gone on a diet? You probably have. The word diet seems like a common word for someone who is unsatisfied with their current physical condition. The problem is that most diets usually end up failingin the long run. Going on a diet usually refers to eating alot less food, in the hope that it will make us lose those unwanted pounds of fat. Although there are different types of diets, 90% of them stress a strong reduction in calories one way or another.

Everyone has a certain amount of calories that they require per day to keep themselves alive and to perform bodily processes. This requirement of calories is known as Resting Metabolic Rate or RMR for short. For the purpose of this article, we will use my body as an example. My RMR is about 2500 calories/day. I will eat about 2500 calories to just keep myself alive. Note: You can calculate your RMR at http://www.weight-loss-resources.com/calculators/rmr.html

On another note, our bodies adapt to the stimuli that they are exposed to. For instance, when one lifts weights their body adapts by growing muscle, when one runs long distances their bodies adapt by building more capillaries to enhance blood flow, when one is exposed to cold temperatures their body begins to shiver in an attempt to create heat through muscle contractions, etc. The point is our bodies adapt to essentially everything that they are exposed to, including how many calories we eat per day.

So, when our bodies are exposed to a calorie deficit (a lower number of calories than our RMR) they must adapt. Lets say that I want to go on a diet and I begin to eat 1000 calories a day instead of the normal 2500 (Actually, I eat more than 2500 calories because I exercise and perform daily activities. 2500 only accounts for the calories needed to keep my body alive. Although for the sake of simplicity, we are only using the RMR. If the message within these parentheses confused you, simply ignore it.) One of the first ways my body is going to adapt is by using up my fat stores to make up for the lack of calories. This is why most diets seem to work in the beginning. The thing is, the body does not want to keep using its precious fat stores for energy. The human body does not see fat as a bad thing; it is a backup mechanism for when a calorie deficit is introduced.

Now heres the kicker. Since my body is not going to want to keep using up its fat stores, it is going to adapt by lowering how many calories my body needs per day to keep itself running (RMR). One of the main ways it accomplishes this is by eating away at its own muscle. Instead of requiring 2500 calories a day to keep my body running, my body will eventually adapt over a period of time and only require 1000 calories to keep running. Back when our ancestors lived they needed this calorie adaptation to survive when food was short and they were starving. The trouble is, the body cannot tell the difference between starvation and dieting.

Now that my bodys RMR has adjusted to the new number of calories that Im are eating, it no longer needs to use its emergency fat stores to keep itself alive. This is when your fat loss stops from a diet. In addition to this, if I decide that I want to go off of my 1000 calories a day diet and begin to eat 2500 calories a day again then there is a calorie surplus. The body does not need these extra calories so it will store them as fat. The exception to storing them as fat is when the body needs to build muscle because it has been exposed to some type of exercise or weight lifting, and even then all of the calories are not used for muscle growth.

Now that I have changed my RMR to 1000 calories per day, I have really wrecked my metabolism and its going to be harder to get to my goal of actually losing fat. That is, unless of course If I want to stay on my diet forever.

So what is the best way to lose fat without messing up my metabolism (RMR)?

A calorie deficit is required to lose weight, but eating less is not the only way to create a calorie deficit. Another safer way is to exercise. More detail can be found on this in Tom Venutos book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, which is located at http://www.weight-loss-resources.com. You can also calculate your RMR at http://www.weight-loss-resources.com/calculators/rmr.html

Disclaimer: This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace medical advice from youre a physician or your health care provider.

Nathan Latvitis: An avid fitness researcher - helping other people realize their goals through knowledge.

Yoga and Low Carb Diets

Yoga is an ancient system of movement designed to generate vibrant health and well being. Excellent health and well being are experienced in the results of a yoga practice such as: stress reduction, increased energy and awareness, increased flexibility, focused mind and strong body. In our modern world there are so many types of yoga to choose from that it can be confusing and difficult to start a yoga program. Do you have to practice postures(asanas) in a hot room for an hour and a half in order to enjoy the benefits of this ancient art? And, is it necessary to execute postures under strict guidelines created for East Indian bodies and minds? As a yoga instructor my answer would be no. A successful yoga practice supports the goals of the practitioner without rigidity.

An appropriate yoga program should be adapted around our needs. Those on low-carb diets for weight loss or weight control can benefit tremendously by practicing yoga. A major benefit of yoga is a developed awareness. A consistent yoga practice assists us in recognizing the causes of stress in our lives. Yoga helps us observe the thoughts that cause stress. Once we are able to recognize the stress we are able to calm our carb cravings. When we develop awareness we can make conscious choices around food and feel more in control of our lives. I have taught lunch time yoga classes where students practiced forty-five minutes of yoga instead of reaching for high carb snacks. Students have reported that after class they choose healthier foods and actually eat less. Yoga can be a carb substitute, a healthy alternative.

Breath work is also an important component of yoga. Yoga trains the mind to recognize where and when we hold our breath. The less access we have to the breath the more stress is stored in the body. Yoga teaches us to fill ourselves up with breath instead of high-carb food. Yoga can inform us when we are becoming stressed so we can make the choice to sit and breathe, meditate or do physical yoga postures. With a consistent yoga practice we have less need of carbs that deplete our energy. Focus on the breath dissolves our cravings and reduces stress. We naturally reach for more nourishing foods. If we hold the breath then we become unaware of our cravings and old eating patterns take over. Cultivating awareness while we move in yoga postures is just as important as the movement, especially for those wanting to change eating patterns.

Since low-carb dieters need to be careful not to hit a sugar low during the day yoga is an excellent movement program. Yoga conserves energy while many exercise programs such as aerobics, weight training, bicycling etc. expend energy. Yoga assists the practitioner to tap into reserves of energy in the body. If the low carb dieter feels energy depleted the craving will increase. For anyone with the goal of life style or dietary change it is important that the exercise program be accessible and stress-free. Yoga postures teach us to expand into our own energy without judgment or criticism. A practice of relaxation and meditation (either seated cross-legged or lying on your back) when you have completed your postures is key in a yoga program. The relaxation assists us in integrating the movement and regenerating our energy.

How do we choose a class that is appropriate for us? How do we get started on a yoga practice? Try several styles and notice how you feel after each. An appropriate class is one where at the end of class you feel internally rejuvenated. When you leave class you should feel lightness in your step and a desire to return. Other positive signs are: more access to your breath, a feeling of well being (combination of calm and high energy). Here are eight postures that will get you started. I suggest you do them every three to four days and familiarize yourself with the movements. Again, your yoga postures should express who you are so you wont look like someone else performing the same pose. Simply follow the directions and while youre in the pose try to become as aware of your body and thoughts as you can. Breathe a simple breath based on the rhythm of your inhale and exhale. Take four or five breaths for each movement. Notice where and when you might hold your breath. I would recommend purchasing a yoga mat. You can buy them in most health food and sports stores.

1) Mountain Pose

Stand with feet together or hip distance. Imagine roots growing out of your feet into the earth. Feel your spine lengthening as the crown of your head lifts toward the sky. Inhale and exhale and feel the oppositional movement of feet planted firmly on the ground while the crown reaches upward. Keep your gaze focused at the horizon line. This posture prepares the body for a yoga practice.

2) Forward facing warrior

Stand in mountain pose and lift your arms by your ears, a few breaths and center yourself. Take a step forward on your right foot and bend your knee over your ankle. Focus your gaze at the horizon. Lengthen the torso and drop your shoulders. Repeat on the other side. This pose strengthens the thighs and brings in warrior energy.

3) Forward facing warrior with a forward bend

Repeat the above posture. Slowly straighten the front leg and extend the spine over the front leg. Relax the arms beside the leg. Repeat on the other side. This pose opens the spine and stretches both legs. This movement also soothes the mind.

4) Tree balance

Stand in mountain pose and become centered. Slowly transition your weight onto the left leg. Bring your hands into a prayer position over your chest. And position your left foot on your calf. Balance on your right leg while you breathe and focus your gaze at the horizon. Allow your body to move with the flow of your breath. Balances are never static. This pose develops balance and confidence.

5) Downward facing dog

Come on your hands and knees. Legs hip width apart and arms shoulder distance apart. Tuck your toes and lift your tailbone up toward the ceiling into an upsidedown V position. Fan out your fingers and press them into the floor. Keep moving your tailbone and elongate your spine. Bring your ears between your arms. Return to your hands and knees slowly and rest. This pose cleanses the mind and strengthens the upper body.

6) Bridge

Lay on your back and bend your knees, legs hip width apart. Lift your hips and spine toward the ceiling as you move through the front of the knees. Bring your arms underneath your body on the floor and interlace your fingers. Keep your gaze at the chest. This posture increases energy and increases flexibility in the spine.

7) Seated twist

Sit with both legs extended in front of you. Bend your right leg keeping the left in front with the foot flexed. Place your left hand below the right knee and bring the right hand around the back of the body close to the spine. Lift and rise through the crown of your head on the inhale, on the exhale twist the spine to the right, moving around the axis of the spine. Move from the lower to the upper spine, the head is the last to twist around. Slowly release from the base of the spine and come back to center. Repeat on the other side. Twists flush and balance the nervous system.

8) Reclining bound pose

Now its time for relaxation. Lie on your back and bring your feet together. Allow your knees to splay apart. You can also extend your legs and come into corpse pose if bound pose is too much for your hips. Close your eyes and focus on your breath. Let go of any stress and allow your body to release into the floor. Stay as long as you like.

About the Author

Combining twenty years of yoga and thirty years of professional nursing experience, Carmela Cattuti offers students a unique and effective teaching style. A strong medical background in childbirth allows her to provide women with valuable yogic breathing, stretching, and meditation techniques to aid with the fertility, delivery and postpartum stages of pregnancy.

Having studied extensively at the Iyengar Center and achieving instructor certification at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, Carmela also provides in depth yoga instruction to both men and women for reducing stress and harnessing ones full capabilities of body, mind, and spirit. Workshops and private sessions offer practical tools for creating balance and relaxtion in daily living and are available throughout the Boston area for individuals and corporations.

You Are What You Eat

Have you noticed how many diet and nutrition books there are in the bookshops these days?

It seems that the areas of weight control and nutrition are amongst the most popular of all reading materials, with many well-known stores stocking no fewer than 80 different dietary plans espousing the various virtues of high fat vs low fat, high protein vs low protein and high carb vs low carb. There quite simply has never been a time in history when so much information has been made readily available to us in the fields of human nutrition and biochemistry. As fitness professionals we should be jumping for joy!

Yet, before we pat ourselves on the back and congratulate ourselves for a job well done we would do well consider the fruits of our collective labour.

Despite (or perhaps because of) our increasing knowledge of the chemical qualities of foods, it is a sad fact that there are currently more clinically and morbidly obese people on the planet than at any other point in history, with statisticians from many first world countries predicting worse yet to come. And its not just obesity thats on the rise; Diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, mental illness and even cancer have reached record levels too, signifying that the human metabolism has finally reached breaking point and can no longer cope with the excessive demands placed upon it.

Clearly, our understanding of nutrition is lacking. It is time to examine the wisdom of our current nutritional strategies and change our paradigms regarding the dietary advice we give our clients.

The Problem

As fitness professionals we are often called upon to make judgements about the quality and quantity of food that our clients eat in order to maintain and improve their health. Armed with our nutritional advisor certifications and a little extra reading we often find ourselves advising our clients about the foods that they should or should not eat, classifying some foods like fruit and vegetables as good whilst we advise that red meats and saturated fats are bad and should be avoided at all costs.

These generalisations allow fitness professionals to offer non-prescriptive advice to the masses, for what is generally regarded as healthy eating or a balanced diet. The advice we give our clients has become so accepted as fact that rarely, if ever, do we stop to question the efficacy of this advice, the wisdom behind it and the effect it will have on those that follow it. Rarer yet do we ask the most important question of all;

Good or bad for whom?

The Case For Biochemical Individuality

When Lucretius first said One mans food is another mans poison he hit the nail right on the head as far our individual nutritional requirements are concerned.

Indeed, the ancient Romans of Lucretius time, the ancient Greeks of Hippocrates era and the ancient practitioners of Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine were very well-studied in human health and were fully aware of foods amazing power to heal and revitalise as well as its potentially destructive properties. Yet, far from the prescriptive one size fits all approach offered by modern nutritional experts, these healers of yesteryear recognised that the healing powers lay not in the food itself but more specifically, how that food interacted with the individual.

In more recent times, researchers like Dr Weston A. Price and Dr Royal Lee have noted from their observations of the indigenous cultures from around the globe, that macro and micro nutrient intake varies greatly from region to region without impairment to the health and well-being of those that survive on their own native diets.

For example, the Inuit Eskimos of Northern Alaska subsist almost exclusively on seal and whale meat and fat with kelp, nuts and berries forming the remainder. This diet, high in saturated fats and protein breaks every rule of modern western diets yet the Inuit people living on it lead healthy, vital lives and are virtually disease-free. Similarly, yet at the other end of the nutritional spectrum, are the Quetchus Indians of South America who live on predominantly vegetarian diets and yet are still afforded the same benefits of disease-free good health.

It is interesting to note that in each of these cases, that the indigenous peoples surviving on very different and even what would be considered extreme dietary variations are able to maintain a level of health and wellness that is virtually unheard of in western society and yet, when introduced to foods not native to their own geographic regions they exhibit the same illnesses and diseases that are now so rife in the industrialised world.

Quick to pick up on this fact was Dr Roger Willams Ph.D an outstanding biochemist who noted that just as we all have unique fingerprints, iris patterns and external physical characteristics, so too do our internal environments exhibit a distinct individuality also. In fact, Williams discovered that on every level from organ size and shape, to acid/alkaline balance to endocrine system dominance we are each individually unique with unique responses to each and every stimulus that is presented to usincluding food.

It would seem that Lucretius was right all along!

Metabolic Typing Identifying the biochemical types

Our modern knowledge of biochemical identification owes a lot to the work of three men in particular, Dr William Kelly, Dr George Watson and William Wolcott. These men, through extensive research and more than a little trial and error, spent years identifying and recording the characteristics of foods and their interactions with human biochemistry. This accumulated knowledge has resulted in the science that we now call metabolic typing.

Far from the trial and error that it once was, metabolic typing has developed into a science founded on strict principles that allow practitioners to identify specific biochemical interactions that are of benefit or hindrance to each individual. In particular, metabolic typing advisors are trained to identify and understand nine separate systems that are responsible for maintaining biochemical homeostasis.

These are:

The oxidative system The rate at which fuels are oxidised after consumption. For example, fast oxidisers will use up glucose rapidly and run out of available energy for maintenance and repair. These individuals will require diets that are higher in fat and protein, providing a slow-burn of fuel. Slow oxidisers on the other hand will not be able to get their energy from fat and protein fast enough and will require greater carbohydrates in their diets in order to remain balanced.

The Autonomic Nervous System The ANS controls all automatic bodily functions such as heart rate, respiration and digestion. Divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic branches, the ANS can provide either an excitatory stimulus fight or flight or an inhibitory one rest and digest. We are usually more dominant in one of these areas than the other and can have our balance thrown out further still by ingesting foods that stimulate either branch.

Catabolic/Anabolic balance The human body regularly fluctuates between anabolic and catabolic cycles as part of its natural diphasic rhythm. Often though, as a result of a stress that the body cannot cope with it becomes locked into one cycle with energy system disruption occurring as a result. In response to this disruption the cell membrane will either increase or decrease in permeability making nutrient provision and retention difficult.

Acid/Alkaline Balance George Watsons excellent book Nutrition and your mind highlighted the importance of acid/alkaline balance in treating psychological disorders without drugs. Specifically, he noted that rather than the acid/alkaline qualities of the foods consumed it was their interaction with the biochemistry of the individual that determined their effects. Imbalances here will often cause respiratory and renal stress to increase.

Endocrine type Research has found that we are each dominated by one of our four endocrine glands. For some it will be adrenal or thyroid whilst for others it may be pituitary or gonads. These glands determine how much excess weight may accumulate on the body. In addition, it is known that specific foods can stimulate specific glands into over or under-production and create unnecessary weight retention.

Prostaglandin Balance Prostaglandins are made from fatty acids and are involved in virtually every metabolic activity. Disruption to prostaglandin balance can affect hormone production, neurotransmission, immune efficiency, circulation and inflammatory processes as well as others. It is vital to regain balance of PG1 through the reduction of trans-fatty acids (PG2 vegetable oils) and the correct ratio of PG1(omega6) to PG3 (Omega 3).

Blood Type In Dr Peter J. Damos book Eat Right for your type he introduces the concept of blood-group biased diets that identify our nutritional requirements based upon our ancestral genetic biochemistry. Metabolic typing recognises this as a contributory factor to biochemical balance yet due to global migration and inter-racial breeding across the last few generations this is seen as less important. However, blood typing gives us a good idea about foods that you should avoid.

Constitutional Type Probably the least proven yet still highly effective area of metabolic typing relates to your constitutional type. Based upon ancient Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine this relates to the elements wood, fire, earth, metal and water and how they present within the individual foods and the individuals themselves.

Electrolyte/fluid balance When the body fluids become imbalanced or depleted the ability to transport vital nutrients is also seriously affected. In the case of dehydration for example, fluids become more concentrate and sluggish affecting the delivery of nutrients to where they are needed. This can alter endocrine response, acid/alkaline balance and create further negative consequences downstream.

The resulting information from a metabolic typing assessment will lead the advisor to steer their clients to one of three primary dietary protocols:

The carbohydrate type, for example is instructed to eat from carbohydrate rich food groups with plenty of starch and moderate glycemic index values. Although encouraged to eat proteins at every meal their quantity will be low-moderate and ALWAYS of the lower purine, leaner types.

Protein dominant type on the other hand is encouraged to eat diets high in fat, high in protein from heavier, darker meats and lower in carbohydrates.

Mixed types as you may well guess are allowed to eat from both ends of the spectrum.

Far from these three base types however, are myriad permutations allowing for individual factors to be addressed in relation to specific foods and macronutrients ratios. It is this flexibility and adaptability to individual needs that makes metabolic typing such a powerful tool in the arsenal of the health and fitness professional.

In short, metabolic typing is NOT about addressing the effects of ill health such as obesity, hypertension and heart disease, rather it focuses on the simple premise that the quality of every activity in the body, whether it be physiological, psychological or biochemical in nature, depends on the rate, quality and amount of energy available. In other words it addresses the root cause of our clients health problems and focuses on building health rather than tackling disease.

The question that we should be asking ourselves then is this; if the cause of ill health no longer exists, how can there possibly be an effect?

I think you know the answer to that one!

Dax Moy is a master personal trainer, performance enhancement specialist and wellness consultant working from his own studios in and around London.

As an International Lecturer and journalist and voted as one of the UKs top fitness experts, Dax is much sought after for his knowledge in the fields of holistic health and fitness.

How to Select the Best Diet for You?

In the old West tricksters sold a snake oil to the unsuspecting cowboys. That snake oil was supposed to cure all illnesses. Now in the Internet country it is a miracle diet that promises to bring instant slimness to your body and cure all health problems. They offer those diets as Perfect Body Solution.

Hundreds of diets compete for your attention with enthusiastic claims from its supposed users. Those diets claim to aid those who suffer from colds, flu, allergies, backaches, muscle aches, headaches, and even impaired memory. There is usually no attempt to back those claims with reliable scientific evidence.

How can you know which diets are helpful, and which are variations of the old "snake oil" formula? There are three major approaches used by all diets:

1. Reduce the damage already done. The diets called 'Fat burner' or 'Fat loss accelerator' attempt to break the fat stored in your body and "escort" it out through the normal body waste.

2. Prevent any further damage. The diets called 'Appetite reducers' attempt to decrease your appetite by artificial means in order to prevent any additional weight gains. They also hope that your starved body will use its stored fats to maintain the daily energy requirements and will get thinner in the process.

3. Substitute 'non-fat producing foods' for the high calories offenders. Those diets attempt to educate consumers in the basics of good nutrition. They are effective mainly in the long run, instead of promising instant results.

The worst diets are from the First group - the Fat Burners. They claim to 'Fight the Fat' within your body by influencing the processes of metabolism. They try to increase the metabolic rate of your body in order to burn more calories. Their manufacturers claim that "it will quite literally melt the pounds off you".

They try to convince you that by ingesting a few drops of their potion, you can eat high fat foods, such as chocolate, butter, pizza, hamburgers, and fried chicken, without worrying about putting on weight. Some of them even claim that their diets "prevent the human body from absorbing fat".

The truth must be faced - the only thing that will "melt the pounds off you" is vigorous exercise. The only other effective method for weight loss is exercising restrictions on caloric intake. All other promises are snake oils. The diets, which promise to cause fat loss while sleeping, attempt to exploit our inherent laziness. No one can loose weight by sleeping.

In the best case those diets will do nothing to your body. In the worst case they will mess up your normal metabolism, and might even damage your health in the long run. Some of them increase your blood pressure and stress the circulatory system. You don't want to let those people, who never saw you, to feed you some untested and unapproved medications. Stay away from those types of diets.

The diets from the Second group - 'Appetite reducers' can be effective only in combination with improved nutrition. You need them only if there was something wrong with your appetite in the first place.

We all need balanced nutrition in order to sustain life. If you suddenly curb your appetite, your body will use stored fat for a while, but in the long run you need more than that. You need vitamins, microelements, proteins. If you suddenly stop to eat, you might be damaging your health while improving your figure.

The diets from the Third group, which attempt to change the way you select the foods that you eat, can provide the best solution. They can eliminate the foods with "high-calories" content, while still giving your body everything it needs.

Healthy weight loss is an ongoing project. Learn more about sound nutrition. Don't fall for the promises of "Miracle Diets". They usually don't deliver. There are no shortcuts to better health.

How to Design the Perfect Diet

All Diets Are Based on the Same Premise: Eat Less Calories and You'll Lose Weight

Diets come in all sizes and flavors and all tend to rely on the formula of less calories, despite their claims to the contrary. The Peanut butter diet is low calorie with some peanut butter at every meal. The Cabbage Soup diet is unlimited amounts of cabbage soup but how much cabbage soup can you really have before you're sick of it, meaning you'll eat less calories? The Atkins Diet, SouthBeach diet even Weight Watchers all are based on the idea that you'll consume less calories than your body requires, hence you'll lose weight. No one at Atkins estimated people would eat two pounds of cheese and a pound of bacon every day, yet some people do just that and then are alarmed when their weight loss stalls.

My present diet includes a small piece of chocolate cake and a quarter pint of Haagen Daz most every night

You can design a diet around any food you want. Like cheesecake? How about the Cheesecake Diet, three very low calorie meals a day plus a tiny sliver of cheesecake equals the Cheesecake Diet. Love french fries? Here's the French Fry Diet: Eat three very low calorie meals a day, with a small order of fries to go, and you've got The French Fries Diet. The chosen focus food is whatever the diet developer wanted, in a scaled back portion so as to provide the common suggested amounts of from 1200 to 1600 calories a day. The fewer calories you have, the faster the initial weight loss; at least that is the expected outcome. Remember the liquid protein fasts (Oprah used this the first time she reached size 10)? Liquid Protein Fasts were once very popular until a few people died, and that put a damper on them in a hurry.

The sad truth is we want to believe the lies of the diet purveyors so badly we'll try anything which is why the diet industry is a multi billion dollar industry. If these diets worked such as The Zone, the Perricone Prescription, Life Choice (opposite of Atkins), the Negative Calorie Diet, etc. wouldn't we slowly see the obesity rates fall, instead of watching them continue to rise?

Design Your Own Diet

A more reasonable approach of choosing foods you love, estimating how many calories would be reasonable for your body size and designed body weight, and then getting started is usually greeted with sneers and jeers. I've heard, "2,000 calories a day? I'll blow up like a balloon!" No you won't. You'll lose weight, although slower than the other more drastic diets, wouldn't you prefer to lose it permanently this time?

How can you lose weight eating 2,000 calories a day? Think about it. The typical adult female eats about 3,500 calories a day, whether you believe it or not. Our typical lady, Carol, eats at McDonalds every day for lunch, grabs a StarBucks Latte every morning on the way to work, drinks four cups of coffee with cream during the day, pops two donuts at breaks, and stops for take-out chicken for dinner. She "treats" herself to ice cream and half a package of Oreo's for dessert. Let's see how many calories that might be:

Typical Adult American Meal Plan:

Breakfast: Skipped, we're watching our figure

Snack: StarBucks on way to work; Caffe Mocha with whole milk and whipped cream, venti (20 Oz) = 530 calories

Total Morning: 530

Lunch: McDonald's Big-n-Tasty with Cheese; 540 calories Super Sized Fries 610 calories Super Sized Coke (20 Oz) 250 calories Apple Pie - 265 calories

Total Lunch: 1665

Snack: Sugar free gum - 0

Daytime: 4 Cups Coffee with half-n-half - 160 calories (from the half-n-half)

Break: Donuts - glazed, two Krispy Kreme - 424

Snacks & Breaks: 512

Dinner: Kentucky Fried Chicken Dinner

3-piece meal: Extra Crispy Drumstick, two Extra Crispy Thighs, Potato Wedges and Biscuit: 1,420 calories

Large Soft Drink (20 Oz): 250 calories

Small Dish Ice Cream (1 Cup): 260 calories

Total Dinner: 1930

Evening Watching TV:

Oreos - 10 cookies (about 1/3 a package): 530 calories

Evening Snacks: 530

Grand Total: 5,167

You may think that's ridiculous but I think it's conservative. You maybe wouldn't have had exactly this menu but the point is we're eating far more calories than we realize.

If you cut back to 2,000 calories a day, you'd be eating far fewer calories and you'd likely lose a pound a week or more. If you don't think that's fast enough you're probably going to remain overweight. Your body cannot add or subtract muscle and fat any faster. Faster weight loss is water loss and comes back as soon as you resume eating regular foods. Remember, losing it slowly, means losing it permanently. The mathematics are not precise. I lost 80 pounds in nine months which was actually 2.07 pounds per week.

Would You Be Happy if This Time Next Year You Were at Your Goal Weight?

If at the end of a year you'd taken off 100 pounds (or however much you needed to lose if less than 100 pounds), wouldn't you be happy? The more weight you need to lose, the faster it comes off initially. It's not what the scale says that matters though. What matters is do you feel better? Are you able to bend lower and even reach your toes perhaps? Can you get up from a sitting position easier? Is walking more pleasant, are your clothes feeling looser? These are the things that matter. Is your blood pressure back to normal?

Track what you eat for one week, meaning what you really eat. Don't make an effort to eat better or less. That isn't helpful for this exercise. You want to catch yourself being yourself. Get it down on paper, what you really eat on a regular basis. If you eat out you're likely eating far more calories than you realize. We all wonder how it is we can't lose weight, then we drink a 600 calorie coffee drink! Think about it.

Once you have your weekly eating routine on paper, you can take a look to see what changes you could make. For instance, by switching from a Caffe Mocha to a Caffe Latte two days a week you'd save 540 calories right there. Once you're used to that change take it a step further and switch to a Caffe Latte every day and now you're saving 1960 calories a week. One step further and switch to a Skinny Latte (non-fat milk instead of whole milk) and you save another 100 calories every day, meaning you've gone from an additional 3780 calories a week from your morning Starbucks to just 1120 calories a week, or a calorie savings of 2660. This is how you can keep your Starbucks habit, but make a small change and suddenly you're not adding to the problem but you're well on your way to losing that pound a week. The less fancy drink costs less too so you can put that money toward the new clothes you'll be wanting soon.

Track Your Eating and You'll Get a Better Idea of What's Going on

For the next seven days write down everything you put in your mouth and start to get your eating patterns into view. I use a simple software program called the Food & Exercise Diary for Windows. Making an effort to write down my eating helps keep me on track, plus what I've eaten and how much I've exercised six months ago is still at my fingertips. That's especially handy when you develop a routine that works for you because you can always go back and see what you did differently, if you catch yourself regaining weight a year later.

One of the best things I ever did was track my weight workouts and eating habits when I got in shape so many years ago. Now, to reproduce the results I can go back and see what I did before and do basically the same thing again. Learn from your successes, keep a journal. Then, don't make the mistake of cutting back too severely because it's simply not necessary. Just cut back around 500 calories a day and you're on your way with much less trauma in the process.

Design a diet that fits your lifestyle and you've got a winning plan for the rest of your life.

~~ Kathryn Martyn, Master NLP Practitioner, EFT counselor, author of the free e-book: Changing Beliefs, Your First Step to Permanent Weight Loss, and owner of OneMoreBite-Weightloss.com

Healthy Eating Habits

I read a lot about the topics of health and especially diets. I have been experimenting with diets since 1990 and keep journals about my observations. Over time I tried several very different diets - ranging from the politically correct ones to highly controversial, along with diets of my own design. My general observation is that a healthy diet plays an essential role in the overall scheme of well being.

Why eat healthy?

Eating the natural foods humans are well adapted at utilizing, enhances ones ability to cope with the reality of every day life. This in essence improves the probability of living a longer, healthier life. Quality food consumption becomes especially important in the present world of high stress and pollution - making a healthy diet an essential aspect of modern self health care. (Although food is not the only aspect contributing to health or disease, it is significant enough to consider it's effects seriously.)

I think anybody who seriously tried living healthier through a better diet, proper physical activity, adequate rest, and by addressing mental and spiritual factors have experienced a vast range of natural health benefits. Common benefits are overall better health and a sense of well being, better sleep, improved physical endurance and strength, sharper mental abilities and lower sleep requirements. Further more, no or little time and money and energy is spend on doctors, hospitals and health insurance bills.

What is a healthy diet?

Since this article deals with healthy eating, a question remains to be answered: what constitutes a healthy diet? Unfortunately, there are more opinions about this than there are health experts. To further complicate the matter, dietary concepts change over time, leaving most people confused and uncertain about what or whom to trust. One solution to this problem is to become sufficiently knowledgeable about the relevant subjects and rely on common sense to draw basic conclusions. Along with personal experimentation, such an approach will enable one to establish healthy eating habits. This takes time and energy, but considering the long lasting benefits a healthy diet can provide, the effort is more then well worth it.

In order to determine the minimal basic requirements of a healthy diet, I concluded that it is safe to start with the following two objectives:

1. examine human diet over time - the foods humans consumed since the arrival of our species.
2. examine diets of ethnical groups known for their good health.

Looking at the type of diets humans lived on through out pre-history, provides good insights into the kind of foods human body should be well adapted at utilizing and dealing with. Further, the diets of certain ethnical groups that are well known for good health - the people of Okinawa(Japan), traditional cultures in the Mediterranean region and many hunter-gatherer societies - suggest certain health promoting dietary habits. Upon closer examination, two main denominators emerged:

• diets are based on natural, whole or minimally processed foods in accordance to heritage.
• diets are lower in calories compared to a typical western diet.

In the context of present time, one can therefore make two general assumptions in regard to the question of what constitutes a healthy diet: 1) generally, the less a food is processed the better. 2) eat less - eat what is adequate, do not over eat.

Generally, the less a food is processed the better

The reason for this is simple. For 99.9% of human existence, our species lived on foods that were either raw or minimally processed. The technology needed to increase food processing did not exist until very recently. It is therefore reasonable to assume that our bodies are best adapted at utilizing and dealing with the raw or minimally processed foods which sustained us for hundreds of thousands of years: fruits, vegetables, meats, nuts and seeds.

Often, the more recent the food is, the more likely it is to be less beneficial or even directly harmful - possibly due to lack of full adaptation to such foods. For example, it is estimated that food cooking started about 500 000 - 250 000 years ago (depending on the source, the range may vary). During this time frame, it is likely that human species have at least adapted in some way to cooked animal and vegetable foods. On the other hand, the beginnings of grain consumption are much more recent. Evidence of earliest known, systematical collecting of grains for food goes back to about 23 000 years ago - giving less time for adaptation to grain based foods.

Now, let's fast forward to recent times and consider all the new, human invented, highly processed foods so common today: fast foods, pizza, sweets, chips, convenience foods, canned foods, etc. along with the dramatic rise in heart attacks, high blood pressure, stroke, cancers, diabetes, kidney problems (and all the complications that arose from these conditions) during the past 100 years or so.

Considering the declining health of most western nations as opposed to good health of the ethnical groups described above, it seems reasonable that the most recent food inventions are directly harmful to human health. Further, it has been repeatedly observed that as ethnical groups around the world adopt the modern western diet, their health dramatically declines and they develop the same diseases that are so common to westerners. Not to mention the fact that the above mentioned diseases were far less common among westerners themselves barely 100 years ago.

The more a food is processed - through excessive cooking, pasteurization, homogenization, high heat, mechanical processing, etc, - the less natural and nutritious it becomes to a point of becoming a harmful burden to the body, rather then a useful and health promoting food. Some industrial processing practices deprive food of their nutrients to such a high degree that the food has to be "enriched" by artificially adding some nutrients back into the food. This is especially true of flours where vitamins are added back in after the processing is done.

A good diet is based on natural, whole or minimally processed foods. A large portion of it should consist of foods that can be eaten raw, such as fruits and vegetables. Fermented or cultured, unpasteurized foods such as kefir, yogurt, cheeses, miso, sauerkraut and pickles are considered highly beneficial. Cooking should be minimal and only applied to foods that must be cooked in order to be edible. Ancestral heritage also plays an important role as certain foods may need to be excluded or emphasized.

Eat less - eat what is adequate, do not over eat

During the past several decades, food in the western and westernized nations became increasingly affordable and more readily available then ever before in human history. This very fact combined with the enjoyment food consumption brings, results in all too frequent over eating. Which again leads to the above mentioned health problems.

In the past, as in the traditional way of living among the ethnical groups mentioned earlier, food consumption has always been significantly lower. Food quality, on the other hand, has always been higher. Resulting in a lower food intake, but of nutrient dense foods.

Finally, as an interesting note, it has been repeatedly confirmed through laboratory experiments on animals, including monkeys, that cutting down calories considerably lowers their susceptibility to diseases and prolongs their life up to 50%. It is believed by many, that life long caloric restriction can have similar effects on humans.

Health promoting eating habits

Over time, through reading and experimenting, I gradually arrived at several basic health promoting habits that in my experience are the most important:

Avoid or minimize:
• Avoid all junk, sweets, canned and convenience foods - including all foods with added sugar: most commercial yogurts, kefirs and juices, fruit and soft drinks.
• Avoid all refined or overly heated fats: margarine, any oil that is not cold pressed, leftover fat from cooking, all foods that contain hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats and trans fatty acids (read the labels). Such fats are considered to be among the most health damaging foods.
• Avoid consumption of fish and water animals unless certain they came from unpolluted waters. Especially predators should be avoided as the toxins accumulate in them in far greater quantities.
• Keep the intake of foods high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) low - mainly nuts and seeds and any products made from them (mostly oils). PUFAs are unstable, they oxidize readily resulting in harmful free radicals. High PUFA intake have been repeatedly linked with cancer, heart and inflammatory diseases.
• Do not cook meat or fat at high temperatures while exposed to air. Such practice will avoid fat and cholesterol oxidation - believed to be responsible for build up of arterial plaque and injury to arterial cells. Grilling and frying is especially harmful. Boiling is probably the safest way of cooking meat.
• Minimize or eliminate consumption of foods frequently contaminated with mycotoxins: alcoholic beverages, wheat, rye, barley, corn and peanuts. Mycotoxins are poisonous substances produced by certain molds and fungi which cause a wide range of health problems including cancer, asthma, multiple sclerosis and diabetes.




Emphasize and do:
• The more natural and less processed the food the better. Emphasize whole, fresh foods. Replace white rice with brown rice; white bread with whole grain bread; sugar with small amounts of raw honey or dry fruit; pasta with millet or whole grain pasta; canned foods with fresh; candy and other sweets with dry or sweet fruit; etc. Organic foods are best as they are higher in nutrients and do not contain harmful pesticides, hormones or antibiotics found in conventional foods. Always choose fresh over frozen, dried or canned foods. Fresh foods taste better, have more nutrients in them, have no added salt, sugar or unhealthy additives.
• Enjoy simple meals. Generally, the simpler the food preparation the more nutrients are preserved and the easier it is to digest. Simple meals are easy and quick to prepare and use fewer resources like electricity and water - thus are more environmentally friendly and less costly.
• Only cook foods that need to be cooked in order to be edible (beans, grains and some vegetables). Foods that are edible in a raw state (fruits, most vegetables, sprouts, nuts and seeds) should be consumed on a daily basis and preferably with every meal. Raw foods are higher in nutrients, which to some degree get lost during cooking, and are easier to digest. At least 50% of the diet, by volume, should consist of raw foods.
• Steam vegetables that need to be cooked - steaming preserves more nutrients which when boiled leech into the water. Do not overcook. Cooked vegetables should be crunchy when you eat them, not soft.
• Chew food well (simply chew it longer) and eat at a comfortable pace. This improves digestion which already starts in the mouth while saliva gets mixed with the food.

• Variety in diet is very important - to prevent allergies, malnutrition and to lower exposure to natural and man-made toxins found in many natural foods.

• Always properly wash fruits and vegetables before consumption. This lowers the exposure to agricultural chemicals (used to cultivate conventional plants) and harmful microorganisms. Peel the skin if washing is not sufficient.
• Nuts and seeds should be soaked before consumption - to lower or eliminate natural anti nutrients like enzyme inhibitors. Soaking makes them much easier to digest. Do not eat more then a few handfuls a week as they are high in PUFAs and difficult to digest.
• Grains (except amaranth, millet and rice) and beans must be soaked before consumption. This lowers or eliminates anti nutrients like phytic acid which inhibits mineral absorption that can lead to mineral deficiency.
• Fruits are best eaten alone as a snack between meals. To improve digestion only eat one type of fruit at a time.
• Regularly consume unpasteurized fermented/cultured foods like sauerkraut, miso, pickles, kefir, yogurt, etc. These are pre-digested foods that are high in probiotics (friendly bacteria) and enzymes which provide numerous health benefits. Start with what your ancestors consumed and later experiment with other foods as well.
• Regularly consume enzyme rich foods: sprouts, raw honey, grapes, figs, avocados, bananas, papayas, pineapple, kiwi, mango and fermented/cultured foods (see above). Enzymes obtained from raw foods ease the digestion by reducing the body's need to produce digestive enzymes.
• Consider the diet your ancestors ate for thousands of years - you will most likely do very well on such a diet due to the long period of adaptation to it. For example, the traditional Chinese diet is high in carbohydrates and low in fat and protein; Europeans, on the other hand, have been eating less carbs and more protein and fat; North American Indians did not eat grains.
• Drink adequate amounts of liquid through out the day. Water is best. Under normal conditions, most people need 2-3 liters of liquid/day.
• Unless very hungry, do not eat for 3-4 hours before bedtime. That way the nightly fast can be prolonged considerably. This gives the body more/adequate time and energy to perform the countless nightly tasks that are so essential to good health. (Rather then digesting the just eaten meal)
• Eat only when hungry and do not overeat regardless of food. I found this to be among the most important of all health promoting habits.

Good sources of protein:

• any meat that comes from organic, free range animals that are fed their natural diet (hard to find)
• when not organic: lean poultry meat (high fat cuts are high in polyunsaturated fatty acids which oxidize readily during cooking and in the body; toxins accumulate in the fat)
• beans
• fresh, soaked or sprouted nuts and seeds
• raw fermented milk products: sour milk, kefir, cheeses, etc (hard to find)
• wild game
• eggs

Most commercial meats including pork and beef, unless organic and not fed corn/grains/beans, contain antibiotics, hormones and too many polyunsaturated fats - thus should be avoided.

Good sources of carbohydrates:

• vegetables
• fruits
• whole or minimally processed fresh and mold free grains: rice, oat, amaranth, millet, barley, wheat, etc.
• beans
• potatoes

Good sources of fats:

• avocados
• butter
• fresh, soaked or sprouted nuts and seeds (mostly source of omega 6)
• coconuts or coconut oil
• full fat raw milk products (cheese, milk, cream, etc) from pasture fed cattle
• olives or first cold pressed (extra virgin) olive oil

Shopping

I always try to find organic foods to avoid harmful substances like hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, etc. The most contaminated fruits are: raisins, cherries, peaches, strawberries, mexican (winter) cantaloupe, apples, apricots, Chilean (winter) grapes. And the most contaminated vegetables are: spinach, celery, green beans, bell peppers, cucumbers, cultivated button mushrooms, potatoes and wheat. Lean poultry is probably the safest meat to eat if not organic.

Meal examples

What follows are weekly meals that closely resemble my diet at the time of this writing. When planning meals, the key idea is to have variety in diet and to rely on food combinations that agree with ones digestion.

TBS = table spoon
tsp = tea spoon
/ = or

• any fruit eaten alone
• 0.5L sour milk, 300g potatoes, fennel
• 0.5L kefir, 50-100g oatmeal, 25g raisins
• 0.5L plain yogurt, 300g grapes/2-3 bananas
• 50-100g oatmeal, 1-2TBS honey, cinammon
• salad head, 1-2 tomatoes/pepper fruit, cucumber/squash, 1-2TBS olive oil
• medium avocado, 1-2 bananas, cinammon
• 50-100g brown rice, 1-2 hardboiled eggs, 2-4 radishes, 25-50g leeks, 1-2TBS ground flax seeds, 50g sprouts
• 50-100g amaranth, 1-2 steamed parsnips, 1 steamed onion, 1-2 steamed carrots, celery stick, 1tsp freshly grated raw ginger, parsley, 1TBS olive oil
• 200g mung bean sprouts, 1-2 carrots, 25-50g leeks, 25g soaked pumpkin seeds/almonds/sesame seeds
• steamed broccoli/cauliflower, 1-2 tomatoes/pepper fruit, squash/cucumber, 150g turkey/chicken breast, 2-3 cloves of minced garlic, 1TBS olive oil
• 100g buckwheat sprouts, 2 carrots, florence fennel stick, 25g sprouted sunflower seeds, 25g raisins
• 50-100g amaranth, steamed onion, steamed asparagus, florence fennel stick, 1tsp freshly grated raw ginger, parsley, 1TBS coconut oil
• 50-100g millet, celery stick, 2-4 radishes, 25-50g leeks, 25g pumpkin seeds

I plan meals loosely, 1-2 days ahead. The meal preparation is very simple: meat and eggs are boiled in water, vegetables that need cooking are steamed. Since certain food vitamins become more bioavailable once exposed to low heat cooking, it is a good idea to alternate between cooked and raw vegetables. For example, Bio-carotene found in carrots becomes more absorbable after light steaming. I adjust the quantity of food according to how physically active I am during the day.

In addition to the above foods I also take vitamin and mineral supplements and drink bottled water. I use spices and salt. Kefir and sour milk are made at home from organic full-fat, unhomogenised pasteurized milk. Sprouts are home grown as well for maximum freshness. Both are very easy to make and require only few minutes of daily attention.

Final thoughts

Although a healthy diet can enormously improve ones health, it is only one essential part of healthy living. The other parts are proper and adeqaute physical activity, mental and spiritual well being, and adequate rest. All need to be addressed in order to achieve better health.

An important thing I learned while experimenting with diets and other health related approaches is to always pay attention to the signals from the body. It is essential to do this - in order to maintain good health - and adjust accordingly. As one gets better at reading the body, it becomes natural to self diagnose a lot of minor problems (which can become major if not paid attention to) and remedy them by simply adjusting the diet or other aspects of life. Finally, we are all different - what works for one person may not work for another - thus it's important to experiment with ones diet to find out what works and what doesn't.

Disclaimer: This article represents personal views and should be treated as such. Implementation of any ideas contained herein can only be done at own risk.

Dawid Michalczyk is a freelance illustrator and an artist. He enjoys learning about health, anthropology and computers. He loves to ride a bicycle and does it almost every day.

Give up the Diet

If you're thinking of going on a diet to lose those extra pounds think again. Long-term weight control through dieting is near impossible, for the simple reason is that diets promote only short term solutions not long term.

After dieting youll certainly look lighter on the scales, but in most cases this is because you've dumped a few pounds of body fluid and muscle, and not because you've lost any significant amounts of body fat.

One of the main reasons diets don't work is because they send the body into starvation mode - a survival mechanism for times when humans faced periods of famine. Cutting back on our energy intake causes the body to lower its metabolic rate, which reduces its ability to burn fat.

At the same time, hunger signals increase and we quickly start to crave high energy foods loaded with fats and sugars - the exact foods we are trying to do without!!!

Alarmingly, research has shown that repeated dieting actually makes it harder to lose weight and easier to put it on!!

This is because when you dump the diet and return to normal eating habits, the drop in metabolic rate caused by the diet means that your old eating habits actually represent an excess in calories. Not only do you regain the fat stores just lost, but you may even gain a bit extra.

"Five more reasons to stop dieting"

Diets sap energy - Too little food means not enough

energy for physical activity.

Diets lower your metabolism - Dieting causes your body

to conserve energy, making results harder to achieve.

Diets are unhealthy - A cycle of rapid weight loss

followed by weight gain can lead to a loss of lean tissue

from your body and calcium from your bones. It also

strips the body of essential vitamins and minerals.

Diets make food the enemy - Food provides nourishment

and comfort. Diets can make you afraid to eat, depriving

you of one of life's pleasures.

Diets cheat your confidence - Going from one failed diet to the next can leave you feeling depressed and create a cycle in which guilt battles against food.

Regular physical activity and a healthy, balanced diet aren't as glamorous as the quick fixes, but they do get better results.

Start with one extra exercise session and one less fatty takeaway meal per week, and gradually work towards a lifelong plan for achieving your best weight.

If you change the way you eat or exercise to lose weight, ask yourself this question. Can I see myself sticking to this routine for life!!

If the answer is "no" then its time to change what you're doing. Any healthy weight loss plan should include the following:

A wide variety of foods.

Regular and enjoyable exercise.

Enough filling foods to avoid constant hunger.

At least 1200 calories a day.

Flexibility for treat foods and social occasions.

A realistic goal of your best weight (not necessarily

your lowest weight.)

Fact

A realistic weight loss is around one to two pounds per week. Fast weight losses are not fat loss but glycogen and water. If you lose weight quickly then you will probable return back to the weight at which you started as quickly as it was lost.

Fiction

Weight loss is quick and simple.

Exercise is not necessary.

Certain exercises can spot reduce.

Carbohydrates (for example, bread, potatoes, rice,

and pasta) are fattening.

So the way to lose body fat and maintain muscle or increase it is to have a food program for life and more energy output. Increase the amount of fruits, vegetables, non-fat dairy products, whole grains and beans that you eat.

Eliminate calorie-dense foods such as cookies, sugary desserts, chips, fries, pizza, candies, crackers etc. Research on people who have successfully lost a lot of weight and kept it off long term, shows that the vast majority succeeded by consuming a low fat diet high in fibre coupled with strength training and cardiovascular activity. These are the basics you'll need to aim for.

A sound weight loss eating plan should:

Be nutritionally sound, providing all the nutrients you need.

Never promise fast weight losses.

Offer an eating plan based on real food.

Allow you to eat out.

Avoid expensive meal plans, products and supplements.

Not avoid carbohydrate foods, e.g. bread, rice, pasta, cereals and potatoes.

Make gradual dietary changes.

Provide knowledge.

Allow you to eat all foods

Recommend physical activity.

Fat calories are more fattening than carbohydrate calories. Your body can easily convert the fat you eat in food into body fat, so to lose weight you need to cut down on fats and foods that contain it.

Consider the following steps to reduce fat in your diet.

Use skimmed or skimmed milk in drinks, cooking and on cereals.

Buy a non - stick frying pan.

Buy a cheese slicer

Cut the visible fat from meat.

Eat very little pastry.

Learn how to read a food label.

Substitute low fat yoghurt for cream.

Remove the skin from chicken and turkey.

Eat fruit as snacks rather than eating chocolate and biscuits.

Eat fewer burgers and sausages.

Gary Matthews is a fitness trainer from "down under" who has been coaching clients from athletes to bodybuilders for two decades.

Fruit Diets: Facts For Fitness

Without question, fruit has wonderful natural benefits for the human body. Fruit is packed with vitamins and fiber much like vegetables, but comes in a wide variety of sweeter, more palatable flavors.

Adding fruit to your diet is an excellent thing to do, but there are a few things that you need to keep in mind:

1. Eat fresh fruit instead of drinking fruit juice. Juice is often sweetened, but fresh fruits have natural sugars. Also, you dont receive all of the needed fiber and vitamins from fruit juice as you do from fresh fruit.

2. If you do have a craving for fruit juice, then go for fresh fruit juice instead of those that contain artificial flavors and colors. Or even better, try making your own fruit juice, taking care not to sweeten it with too many calories.

3. Choose fresh fruit over processed fruits. Again, processed and canned fruits do not have as much fiber or vitamins as fresh fruit, and processed and canned fruits are nearly always sweetened.

4. Wherever possible eating locally produced seasonal fruits and vegetable fresh from the garden or grove is preferred.

5. Fresh fruit makes the absolute perfect dessert for any meal. Throw out the cake and add a fresh fruit bowl to the dining table.

6. Fresh fruit also makes the perfect snack. Its far better to grab a banana or apple when hunger pangs strike, than a bag of greasy potato chips. Plus, fresh fruit just tastes better.

7. Its interesting to note that nature produces several varieties of fruits resembling the shapes of the organs of our body, which are useful and beneficial to that specific organ. Here are some examples:

Apricot - Brain
Mango-Papaya - Stomach
Almonds - Eyes
Apple - Heart
Grapes - Lungs
Cashew nuts - Kidney

8. Fruits and vegetables have in them a natural storage of the suns energy. If we make a daily practice of having fresh fruit and vegetables, or one glass of real fruit juice and two or three cups of green juice of vegetables, our requirement for food will be reduced to a minimum. We will have enough energy to maintain the body in a healthy condition.

Overall, just remember that fresh fruit is better for you than canned fruit, fruit juice, processed fruit, or cooked fruit. Eat as much fresh fruit as you like.

Another benefit of adding fruit to your diet is the added water intake. Water is a simple, yet effective tool in the fight against the scale and the emergency room, and is often overlooked by most people.

But that is a whole other subject...

Fiber in a Nutshell?

There are numerous diets out there that guarantee that they are the ones that will work. We all know who and what they are. There is the no carb, low carb, carb and low fat, grapefruit, and soup diets, to name a few. While I believe that each of these diets can work for certain individuals in the short term, research shows that crash diets dont work. Over the long term, these diets are not sustainable. After returning to normal eating patterns the average person not only gains the weight back but often put on a few pounds more than their original weight.

I would like to suggest an alternative. Make fiber your friend. Research has shown that a daily diet high in fiber can help stabilize blood sugar, lower cancer risk and control the appetite. How does this work?

There are two types of fiber, soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber dissolves in water and forms a gel which coats our intestines. Insoluble fiber speeds up the passage of material through the digestive tract. A diet rich in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts will provide us with both types of fiber. The suggested amount of fiber for the average person is 25-30 grams. Most of us, in the United States, consumes less than one half of the suggested amount.

Some easy ways to introduce more fiber in our diets is to try to attain a goal of 90% fresh food to 10% processed. Start out slowly according to what your lifestyle requires. If you now subsist on a diet of wholly processed foods, try 50-50. Fiber has no nutrients. Therefore, high fiber foods which are low in fat are surprisingly low in calories. One of the best and most delicious sources of fiber are berries. Whole foods are better than juices. Try an orange instead of a glass of orange juice. A pear has more fiber than an apple. One ounce of nuts makes a good pick-me-up in the afternoon and has 2 grams of fiber.

A word of warning: Introduce fiber slowly to your diet over a period of two to three weeks to avoid cramping and gas. In addition to making these changes drink plenty of water. This help to create the bulk which, in turn, enhances the positive aspects of a diet rich in fiber.

Constance Weygandt is a balance mentor who specializes in finding answers for those individuals who are seeking an alternative to conventional weight management.