How to lose weight the healthy way

 

Find out how to lose the weight the healthy way, from introducing changes gradually to reducing your calorie intake.

The healthiest way to lose weight is neither crash diets nor bursts of exercise. The body likes slow changes in terms of food and exercise.
For example, someone who hasn't exercised for years shouldn't rush into running miles a day or pounding the treadmill. Not only will the struggle to do so leave you feeling disheartened and demotivated, you're also far more likely to injure yourself and set your fitness levels back further.
The same goes for people who suddenly start starving themselves. Diets that severely restrict calories or the types of food 'allowed' can lead you to be deficient in the nutrients and vitamins that your body needs.
So, if you need to lose weight, what should you do?

Energy needs and weight loss

Your body uses food for energy. It stores any excess energy as fat. This means if you eat more food than your body needs for daily activities and cell maintenance, you'll gain weight.
To lose weight, you need to get your body to use up these stores of fat. The most effective way to do this is to:

• reduce the amount of calories you eat
• increase your levels of activity.

This is why experts talk about weight loss in terms of diet and exercise.

Introduce changes gradually

Small changes can make a big difference. One extra biscuit a week can lead you to gain 5lb a year – cut that biscuit out of your diet and you'll lose the same amount.
You're also more likely to stick to, say, swapping full-fat milk for semi-skimmed or making time for breakfast each morning than a diet that sets rules for all foods.
You should think of weight loss in terms of permanently changing your eating habits. While weight-loss goals are usually set in term of weeks, the end game is to sustain these changes over months and years, ie lifestyle change for life.

Increase your activity levels

Someone who increases the amount they exercise, but maintains the same diet and calorie intake, will almost certainly lose weight.
No matter if you hate gyms – even light exercise, such as a short 20 minute walk, will be beneficial if done most days of the week.
Every single time you exercise more than usual, you burn calories and fat.
There are lots of ways to increase the amount of activity you do. Team sports, racket sports, aerobics classes, running, walking, swimming and cycling will all improve your fitness levels.
Find something you enjoy that's easy for you to do in terms of location and cost. You're then more likely to build it into your routine and continue to exercise, despite inevitably missing the odd session through holidays, family commitments, etc.

• Get out and about at the weekend. Leave your car on the drive and walk to the shops. Try to incorporate longer walks into outings to the park, coast or countryside and take a picnic, so you're in control of what you are going to eat that day.
• Every extra step you take helps. Always use the stairs instead of the lift, or get off the bus a stop before the usual one and walk the rest of the way.
• Use commercial breaks between TV-programmes to stand up and do exercise, or consider using an exercise bicycle in the living room while watching your favourite programme 

 Reduce your calorie intake

What is overweight?

Doctors use BMI to assess weight.
A BMI of 18.5 to 25 is healthy.
If you have a BMI of more than 25, you're overweight.
Over 30 is obese.
Over 40 is morbidly obese.
To calculate your BMI, you'll need to know your weight in kilos and your height in metres, then follow the example below.
1. Multiply your height by itself, eg 1.7x1.7= 2.89.
2. Divide your weight (eg 80kg) by this figure.
3. 80 ÷ 2.89= 27.7.
27.7 is the BMI.
If you're overweight, you can't continue with your current eating habits if you really want to lose weight.
It's not possible to reduce body fat while eating lots of food, cakes and sweets. This doesn't mean you can never have any treats, but you need to learn how to limit these foods to small quantities – say, for special occasions.
In terms of weight-loss, you can get your body to use up existing stores of fat by eating less and making healthier choices.
This doesn't mean crash diet (anything less than 1500 calories), which usually ends up with you either getting weaker or giving up in desperation. Quick-fix diets can lead to a yo-yoing effect of drastic weight loss followed by weight gain, resulting in a vicious cycle.
There are no shortcuts to losing weight in a healthy and reasonable way.
Eating 300 to 500 calories less per day should lead to a loss of between one and two pounds per week. This is a realistic target. It may seem slow, but it would add up to a weight loss of more than three stone in a year.
Fat contains the most amount of calories out of all the food types (protein, carbohydrates), so a good way to achieve this is to cut down on fatty foods and eat more wholegrain bread, fruit and vegetables.
Below are ways to reduce calorie intake without having to alter your diet significantly.

• Replace fizzy drinks and fruit cordials with water.
• Swap whole milk for semi-skimmed, or semi-skimmed for skimmed.
• Eat less lunch than usual. For example, make your own sandwich and limit the use of margarine or butter and full-fat mayonnaise (store-bought sandwiches often contain both).
• Stop taking sugar in tea and coffee.
• Have smaller portions of the food you enjoy.
• Avoid having a second helping at dinner.
• Cut out unhealthy treats – such as confectionary, sugary biscuits and crisps between meals.
• Cut down on alcohol intake.

All these things will influence your health in a positive way.
Finally, don't be tempted to skip breakfast – or any meal to lose weight. While skipping a meal will reduce your calorie intake for that hour, it will leave you much hungrier later on.
Not only are you likely to overeat to compensate, but you'll often make bad choices to fill the gap: a cereal bar is not as healthy as a bowl of cereal or as filling, leading you to 'need' something extra for lunch.
Irregular eating habits also disrupt your body's metabolism, which makes it harder to lose weight in the first place.

Write down your plan

Food diary

If you're not sure what's wrong with your diet, try keeping a daily diary of everything you eat and drink.
You can use a notebook or an online diary.
At the end of the week, review your entries for problem areas.
Look out for processed foods, alcohol, fast food, roasts, creamy sauces and fried foods.
If your diet seems largely healthy, look at portion sizes.
If you're not sure what's meant by 'healthy diet', read our series on nutrition.

Once you've decided on what changes you're going to make, write them down. For example:

Week 1

• Exercise: one 20 minute walk every lunch hour.
• Alcohol: none in the week, two small glasses of wine on Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
• Food: no chocolate or biscuits in the week, choose healthy snacks such as fruit, trim all fat from meat, eat no fried or fast food.
• For each week list your targets concerning alcohol, exercise and your food plan.
• Each day should then be listed in a simple chart and items you have had should be written down. It is also important to make a note of your mood and any comments you would like to get off your chest for each day.

Be patient and persevere

It might take a week or two before you notice any changes, but they will steadily appear. After the first month you'll be able to see the results and measure them in terms of looser fitting clothes.
Keeping your motivation up is one of the most difficult aspects of dieting. There will be days when healthy eating goes out the window, and there will be weeks where you may not lose any weight – or put a little back on.
This is normal for everyone – dieters or not – so don't let it undo your plans for a slimmer you. You're not doing anything 'wrong', but you may need to look at your plan. Do you need to increase your activity levels? Make a few more changes to your diet? Put more effort into sticking to your current plan?
The other side of this is to make sure you celebrate your goals. While there's joy enough in stepping on the scales and seeing them dip lower, be sure to mark long-term progress with a reward – such as new clothes or time off from domestic chores.
Celebrating is also a way to involve your nearest and dearest – it's up to you whether you want their encouragement in the form of gentle reminders not to eat certain foods. But support from other people can get you through the bumpy patches.

Health benefits of weight loss

Studies show that overweight women who lose between 10lb and 20lb halve their risk of developing diabetes. For men, the risk of heart problems reduces considerably.
Generally, we gain weight as we age. A few pounds over the years are not a problem, but people who gain more than 20lb compared to their weight as an 18-year-old will rapidly increase their risk of health problems due to that extra weight. In particular, women increase their risk of heart attack and double their risk of dying from cancer.
It may seem like these are problems to worry about in the future, but time flies by and tomorrow becomes today. By keeping your weight in the healthy range, you're less likely to be troubled by illnesses in your later years.

Other people also read:

• Body weight: what determines your body weight and what is a healthy weight.
• Obesity: around one in four men and one in three women in the UK are overweight. Are you one of them?
• Type 2 diabetes: if you are overweight you will significantly increase your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

Based on a text by Prof Arne Astrup, Dr Carl Brandt
Source

11 Foods to Avoid When Trying to Lose Weight

The foods you eat can have a major effect on your weight.
Some foods, like full-fat yogurt, coconut oil and eggs, help with weight loss.
Other foods, especially processed and refined products, can make you gain weight.
Here are 11 foods to avoid when you’re trying to lose weight.

1. French Fries and Potato Chips

Whole potatoes are healthy and filling, but french fries and potato chips are not. They are very high in calories, and it’s easy to eat way too many of them.
In observational studies, consuming French fries and potato chips has been linked to weight gain.
One study even found that potato chips may contribute to more weight gain per serving than any other food.
What’s more, baked, roasted or fried potatoes may contain cancer-causing substances called acrylamides. Therefore, it’s best to eat plain, boiled potatoes.

Bottom Line: French fries and potato chips are unhealthy and fattening. On the other hand, whole, boiled potatoes are very healthy and help fill you up.

2. Sugary Drinks

Sugar-sweetened beverages, like soda, are one of the unhealthiest foods on the planet.
They are strongly associated with weight gain and can have disastrous health effects when consumed in excess.
Even though sugary drinks contain a lot of calories, your brain doesn’t register them like solid food.
Liquid sugar calories don’t make you feel full, and you won’t eat less food to compensate. Instead, you end up adding these calories on top of your normal intake.
If you are serious about losing weight, consider giving up sugary drinks completely.

Bottom Line: Sugary drinks can negatively affect your weight and general health. If weight loss is your goal, then giving up soda and similar drinks may have a big impact.

3. White Bread

White bread is highly refined and often contains a lot of added sugar.
It is high on the glycemic index and can spike your blood sugar levels.
One study of 9,267 people found that eating two slices (120 grams) of white bread per day was linked to a 40% greater risk of weight gain and obesity.
Fortunately, there are many healthy alternatives to conventional wheat bread. One is Ezekiel bread, which is probably the healthiest bread on the market.
However, keep in mind that all wheat breads do contain gluten. Some other options include oopsie bread, cornbread and almond flour bread.

Bottom Line: White bread is made from very fine flour, and can spike your blood sugar levels and lead to overeating. However, there are many other types of bread you can eat.

4. Candy Bars

Candy bars are extremely unhealthy. They pack a lot of added sugar, added oils and refined flour into a small package.
Candy bars are high in calories and low in nutrients. An average-sized candy bar covered in chocolate can contain around 200–300 calories, and extra-large bars may contain even more.
Unfortunately, you can find candy bars everywhere. They are even strategically placed in stores in order to tempt consumers into buying them impulsively.
If you are craving a snack, eat a piece of fruit or a handful of nuts instead.

Bottom Line: Candy bars consist of unhealthy ingredients like sugar, refined flour and added oils. They are high in calories, but not very filling.

5. Most Fruit Juices

Most fruit juices you find at the supermarket have very little in common with whole fruit.
Fruit juices are highly processed and loaded with sugar.
In fact, they can contain just as much sugar and calories as soda, if not more.
Also, fruit juice usually has no fiber and doesn’t require chewing.
This means that a glass of orange juice won’t have the same effects on fullness as an orange, making it easy to consume large quantities in a short amount of time.
Stay away from fruit juice and eat whole fruit instead.

Bottom Line: Fruit juice is high in calories and added sugar, but usually contains no fiber. It is best to stick to whole fruit.

6. Pastries, Cookies and Cakes

Pastries, cookies and cakes are packed with unhealthy ingredients like added sugar and refined flour.
They may also contain artificial trans fats, which are very harmful and linked to many diseases .
Pastries, cookies and cakes are not very satisfying, and you will likely become hungry very quickly after eating these high-calorie, low-nutrient foods.
If you’re craving something sweet, reach for a piece of dark chocolate instead.

Bottom Line: Pastries, cookies and cakes often contain large amounts of added sugar, refined flour and sometimes trans fat. These foods are high in calories but not very filling.

7. Some Types of Alcohol (Especially Beer)

Alcohol provides more calories than carbs and protein, or about 7 calories per gram.
However, the evidence for alcohol and weight gain is not clear .
Drinking alcohol in moderation seems to be fine and is actually linked to reduced weight gain. Heavy drinking, on the other hand, is associated with increased weight gain.
The type of alcohol also matters. Beer can cause weight gain, but drinking wine in moderation may actually be beneficial.

Bottom Line: If you are trying to lose weight, you may want to consider cutting back on alcohol or skipping it altogether. Wine in small amounts seems to be fine.

8. Ice Cream

Ice cream is incredibly delicious, but very unhealthy. It is high in calories, and most types are loaded with sugar.
A small portion of ice cream is fine every now and then, but the problem is that it’s very easy to consume massive amounts in one sitting.
Consider making your own ice cream, using less sugar and healthier ingredients like full-fat yogurt and fruit.
Also, serve yourself a small portion and put the ice cream away so that you won’t end up eating too much.

Bottom Line: Store-bought ice cream is high in sugar, and homemade ice cream is a better alternative. Remember to be mindful of portions, as it’s very easy to eat too much ice cream.

9. Pizza

Pizza is a very popular fast food. However, commercially made pizzas also happen to be very unhealthy.
They’re extremely high in calories and often contain unhealthy ingredients like highly refined flour and processed meat.
If you want to enjoy a slice of pizza, try making one at home using healthier ingredients. Homemade pizza sauce is also healthier, since supermarket varieties can contain lots of sugar.
Another option is to look for a pizza place that makes healthier pizzas.

Bottom Line: Commercial pizzas are often made from highly refined and processed ingredients. A homemade pizza with healthier ingredients is a much better option.

10. High-Calorie Coffee Drinks

Coffee contains several biologically active substances, most importantly caffeine.
These chemicals can boost your metabolism and increase fat burning, at least in the short term.
However, the negative effects of adding unhealthy ingredients like artificial cream and sugar outweigh these positive effects.
High-calorie coffee drinks are actually no better than soda. They’re loaded with empty calories that can equal a whole meal.
If you like coffee, it’s best to stick to plain, black coffee when trying to lose weight. Adding a little cream or milk is fine too. Just avoid adding sugar, high-calorie creamers and other unhealthy ingredients.

Bottom Line: Plain, black coffee can be very healthy and help you burn fat. However, high-calorie coffee drinks that contain artificial ingredients are very unhealthy and fattening.

11. Foods High in Added Sugar

Added sugar is probably the worst thing in the modern diet. Excess amounts have been linked to some of the most serious diseases in the world today.
Foods high in added sugar usually provide tons of empty calories, but are not very filling.
Examples of foods that may contain massive amounts of added sugar include sugary breakfast cereals, granola bars and low-fat, flavored yogurt.
You should be especially careful when selecting “low-fat” or “fat-free” foods, as manufacturers often add lots of sugar to make up for the flavor that’s lost when the fat is removed.

Source 

Diet to Lose Weight | What I Eat In A Day | Burn Fats Diet

Healthy way to lose weight.  What do you think?

How I Lost 30 lbs in 30 days WITHOUT Exercise! (Pics Included)

Healthy Weight Loss and Dieting Tips

In our eat-and-run, massive-portion-sized culture, maintaining a healthy weight can be tough—and losing weight, even tougher. If you’ve tried and failed to lose weight before, you may believe that diets don’t work for you. You’re probably right: some diets don’t work at all and none of them work for everyone—our bodies all respond differently. But while there’s no easy fix to losing weight, there are plenty of steps you can take to develop a healthier relationship with food, curb emotional triggers to overeating, and achieve lasting weight-loss success.

Different views of successful, healthy weight loss

Pick up any diet book and it will claim to hold all the answers to successfully losing all the weight you want—and keeping it off. Some claim the key is to eat less and exercise more, others that low fat is the only way to go, while others prescribe cutting out carbs. So what should you believe?
The truth is there is no “one size fits all” solution to permanent healthy weight loss. What works for one person may not work for you, since our bodies respond differently to different foods, depending on genetics and other health factors. To find the method of weight loss that’s right for you will likely take time and require patience, commitment, and some experimentation with different foods and diets.

“Calories in/calories out” view of weight loss

Some experts believe that successfully managing your weight comes down to a simple equation: If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight. Sounds easy, right? Then why is losing weight so hard?

1. Weight loss isn’t a linear event over time. When you cut calories, you may drop weight for the first few weeks, for example, and then something changes. You eat the same number of calories but you lose less weight or no weight at all. That’s because when you lose weight you’re losing water and lean tissue as well as fat, your metabolism slows, and your body changes in other ways. So, in order to continue dropping weight each week, you need to continue cutting calories.
2. A calorie isn’t always a calorie. Eating 100 calories of high fructose corn syrup, for example, can have a different effect on your body than eating 100 calories of broccoli. The trick for sustained weight loss is to ditch the foods that are packed with calories but don’t make you feel full (like candy) and replace them with foods that fill you up without being loaded with calories (like vegetables).
3. Many of us don’t always eat simply to satisfy hunger. We also turn to food for comfort or to relieve stress—which can derail any weight loss efforts before they begin.

Low carb view of weight loss

A different way of viewing weight loss identifies the problem as not one of consuming too many calories, but rather the way the body accumulates fat after consuming carbohydrates—in particular the role of the hormone insulin. When you eat a meal, carbohydrates from the food enter your bloodstream as glucose. In order to keep your blood sugar levels in check, your body always burns off this glucose before it burns off fat from a meal.
If you eat a carbohydrate-rich meal, your body releases insulin to help with the influx of all this glucose into your blood. As well as regulating blood sugar levels, insulin does two things: It prevents your fat cells from releasing fat for the body to burn as fuel (because its priority is to burn off the glucose) and it creates more fat cells for storing everything that your body can’t burn off. The result is that you gain weight and your body now requires more fuel to burn, so you eat more. Since insulin only burns carbohydrates, you crave carbs and so begins a vicious cycle of consuming carbs and gaining weight. To lose weight, the reasoning goes, you need to break this cycle by reducing carbs.

Control emotional eating

We don’t always eat simply to satisfy hunger. All too often, we turn to food when we’re stressed or anxious, which can wreck any diet and pack on the pounds. Do you eat when you’re worried, bored, or lonely? Do you snack in front of the TV at the end of a stressful day? Recognizing your emotional eating triggers can make all the difference in your weight-loss efforts. If you eat when you’re:

Stressed – find healthier ways to calm yourself. Try yoga, meditation, or soaking in a hot bath.
Low on energy – find other mid-afternoon pick-me-ups. Try walking around the block, listening to energizing music, or taking a short nap.
Lonely or bored – reach out to others instead of reaching for the refrigerator. Call a friend who makes you laugh, take your dog for a walk, or go to the library, mall, or park—anywhere there’s people.

Stay motivated

Permanent weight loss requires making healthy changes to your lifestyle and food choices. These tips can help you to stay motivated:

Find a cheering section. Social support means a lot. Programs like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers use group support to impact weight loss and lifelong healthy eating. Seek out support—whether in the form of family, friends, or a support group—to get the encouragement you need.
Slow and steady wins the race.  Losing weight too fast can take a toll on your mind and body, making you feel sluggish, drained, and sick. Aim to lose one to two pounds a week so you’re losing fat rather than water and muscle.
Set goals to keep you motivated. Short-term goals, like wanting to fit into a bikini for the summer, usually don’t work as well as wanting to feel more confident or become healthier for your children’s sakes. When temptation strikes, focus on the benefits you’ll reap from being healthier.
Use tools to track your progress. Smartphone apps, fitness trackers, or simply keeping a journal can help you keep track of the food you eat, the calories you burn, and the weight you lose. Seeing the results in black and white can help you stay motivated.
Get plenty of sleep. Lack of sleep stimulates your appetite so you want more food than normal; at the same time, it stops you feeling satisfied, making you want to keep eating. Sleep deprivation can also affect your motivation, so try to get about eight hours of quality sleep a night.

Cut down on sugar and refined carbs

Whether or not you’re specifically aiming to cut carbs, most of us consume way more sugar and refined carbohydrates than is healthy. Eliminating candy and desserts is only part of the solution, though. Sugar is hidden in foods as diverse as bread, canned soups and vegetables, pasta sauce, margarine, and many foods labelled “low fat” or “no fat.” All this hidden sugar amounts to nothing but a lot of empty calories.

• Opt for low sugar products and use fresh or frozen ingredients instead of canned goods whenever possible.
• Soft drinks (including soda, energy drinks, shakes, and coffee drinks) are one of the biggest sources of hidden sugar. One can of soda or a medium shake can contain between 10-12 teaspoons of added sugar.
• Switching to diet soda isn’t the answer as it can trigger sugar cravings and contributes to weight gain. Instead, try switching to carbonated water with a splash of juice or unsweetened iced tea.
• By slowly reducing the sugar in your diet a little at a time, you’ll give your taste buds time to adjust and be able to wean yourself off the craving for sweets.
• To avoid unhealthy spikes in blood sugar, avoid refined carbs such as white bread, white rice or pasta, and opt for their whole-grain counterparts instead.

Less sugar can mean a slimmer waistline

A lot of belly fat surrounds the abdominal organs and liver, and is closely linked to insulin resistance and diabetes. Calories obtained from fructose (found in sugary beverages such as soda and processed foods like doughnuts, muffins, and candy) are more likely to add to this dangerous fat around your belly. Cutting back on sugary foods can mean a slimmer waistline as well as a lower risk of disease.

Think good fat, not low fat

Walk down any grocery store aisle and you’ll be bombarded with low-fat or fat-free snacks, dairy, and packaged meals. But while our low-fat options have exploded, so have obesity rates. Clearly, low-fat foods aren’t delivering on their weight loss promises.
Part of the problem is that many of us have swapped dairy and animal fats for the empty calories of refined carbohydrates and sugar. Instead of eating whole-fat yoghurt, for example, we’re eating low- or no-fat versions that are packed with sugar to make up for the loss of taste. 

 

Be smart about saturated fat

Prominent organizations such as the American Heart Association maintain that eating saturated fat from any source increases the risk of heart disease. However, there’s evidence to suggest that not all saturated fat is the same. Studies show that eating whole-milk dairy is actually linked to less body fat and lower levels of obesity. This may be because full-fat dairy keeps you feeling satisfied for longer, helping you to eat less overall.
Adding a little tasty fat, such as butter, to a plate of vegetables, for example, can make it easier to eat healthy food and improve the overall quality of your diet. While some people would be wise to limit the amount of saturated fat they consume, others may find that enjoying healthy sources of saturated fat and The Fat Debate can help weight loss. Some nutritionists also warn against swapping butter or lard for industrially manufactured vegetable oils due to the damaging heat and solvents used in processing.

Fill up with fruit, veggies, and fiber

Even if you’re cutting calories, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to eat less food. High-fiber foods are higher in volume and take longer to digest, making them filling—and great for weight-loss.

Fruits and vegetables – Enjoy whole fruits across the rainbow (strawberries, apples, oranges, berries, nectarines, plums), leafy salads, and green veggies of all kinds.
Beans – Add beans of any kind (black beans, lentils, split peas, pinto beans, chickpeas) to soups, salads, and entrees, or enjoy them as a dish on their own.
Whole grains – Try high-fiber cereal, oatmeal, brown rice, and multigrain bread.

Easier than counting calories

Counting calories can quickly become tedious, but you don’t need an accounting degree to enjoy fresh fruit and vegetables. It’s generally okay to eat as much as you want—you’ll feel full before you’ve overdone it on the calories.

Eat vegetables raw or steamed, not fried or breaded, and dress them with herbs and spices or a little olive oil or butter for flavor.
Add nuts and cheese to salads and use healthy salad dressings, such as olive oil.
Add fruit to low sugar cereal—blueberries, strawberries, sliced bananas. You’ll still enjoy lots of sweetness, but with fewer calories, less sugar, and more fiber.
Bulk out sandwiches by adding healthy veggie choices like lettuce, tomatoes, sprouts, cucumbers, and avocado.
Snack on carrots or celery with hummus instead of a high-calorie chips and dip.
Add more veggies to your favorite main courses to make your dish more substantial. Even pasta and stir-fries can be diet-friendly if you use less noodles and more vegetables.
Start your meal with salad or soup to help fill you up so you eat less of your entrée.

Tune in when you eat

We live in a fast-paced world where eating has become mindless. We eat on the run, at our desk while we’re working, and in front of the TV. The result is that we consume much more than we need. To practice “mindful” eating:

Pay attention while you’re eating.  Eat slowly, savoring the smells and textures of your food. If your mind wanders, gently return your attention to your food and how it tastes.
Avoid distractions while eating. Try not to eat while working, watching TV, or driving. It’s too easy to mindlessly overeat.
Mix things up to focus on the experience of eating. Try using chopsticks rather than a fork, or use your utensils with your non-dominant hand.
Stop eating before you are full. It takes time for the signal to reach your brain that you’ve had enough. Don’t feel obligated to always clean your plate.

Take charge of your food environment

Set yourself up for success by taking charge of your food environment: when you eat, how much you eat, and what foods you make easily available.

Cook your own meals. Cooking meals at home allows you to control both portion size and what goes in to the food. Restaurant and packaged foods generally contain a lot more sugar, unhealthy fat, and calories than food cooked at home—plus the portion sizes tend to be larger.
Serve yourself smaller portions. Use small plates, bowls, and cups to make your portions appear larger. Don’t eat out of large bowls or directly from food containers, which makes it difficult to assess how much you’ve eaten.
Eat early, weigh less. Studies suggest that consuming more of your daily calories at breakfast and fewer at dinner can help you drop more pounds. Eating a larger, healthy breakfast can jump start your metabolism, stop you feeling hungry during the day, and give you more time to burn off the calories.
Fast for 14 hours a day. Try to eat dinner earlier in the day and then fast until breakfast the next morning. Eating only when you’re most active and giving your digestion a long break may aid weight loss.
Plan your meals and snacks ahead of time. You can create your own small portion snacks in plastic bags or containers. Eating on a schedule will help you avoid eating when you aren’t truly hungry.
Don’t shop for groceries when you’re hungry. Create a shopping list and stick to it. Be especially careful to avoid snack and convenience foods.
Drink more water. Thirst can often be confused with hunger, so by drinking water you can avoid extra calories.
Limit the amount of tempting foods you have at home. If you share a kitchen with non-dieters, store indulgent foods out of sight.

Get moving

The amount exercise aids weight loss is open to debate, but the benefits go way beyond burning calories. Exercise can increase your metabolism and improve your outlook—and it’s something you can benefit from right now. Go for a walk, stretch, move around and you’ll have more energy and motivation to tackle the other steps in your weight loss program.

Lack time for a long workout? Research shows that three 10-minute spurts of exercise per day are just as good as one 30-minute workout.
Remember: anything is better than nothing. Start off slowly with small amounts of physical activity each day. Then, as you start to lose weight and have more energy, you’ll find it easier to become more physically active.
Find exercise you enjoy. Try walking with a friend, dancing, hiking, cycling, playing Frisbee with a dog, enjoying a pickup game of basketball, or playing activity-based video games with your kids.

Regular Sessions in Cardiovascular Exercises

Regular sessions in the cardiovascular area improve the health of your heart and lungs. It also helps your heart and lungs to function properly; therefore it is called as "cardio."
Cardiovascular exercise promotes loss of body fat. Reducing the level of appetite in many individuals is useful. For people with diabetes who have well-controlled blood sugar levels in their veins, cardiovascular exercise is good for them. There are numerous of cardiovascular exercises that you can include in your daily schedule. Examples of the most well-liked cardiovascular training include Running, Biking, Cycling, Skipping, Aerobics, Walking, Jogging, Kickboxing, Swimming, and Team Sports.

Simple tips on cardiovascular exercise:

1. Decide Your Objectives: Why would you like to fuse cardiovascular exercise into your schedule? Are you looking for endurance? Want to run around with your kids without getting winded? Do you want to lose body fat and show off those muscles? Are you interested in cardiovascular fitness for health reasons? For heart health and to get lean, you do not need steady state cardio! However, if endurance is your goal, then you shall want to incorporate some of this into your week.

2. Pick Something You Enjoy: Explore your options for cardiovascular activities. Whether you prefer to be in a gym, at home or out-of-doors, there are plenty of choices for cardiovascular training. I enjoy being outside. What do you enjoy? Jumping rope? Sprints? Biking? Rowing? Elliptical? You will probably adhere to your workouts if you enjoy them.

3. Use Interval Training: Incorporate intervals into your training by alternating between low and high radiance throughout your workout. For example, you might sprint for 1 minute followed by a moment of walking. Do this five times each for a total of 10 minutes of interval training. Beginners alternate between striking and at a moderate pace. Add a 5-minute warm-up and 5 minutes cool down to complete your cardiovascular workout in 20 minutes with better results than your hour of steady state cardio!

4. Record Your Workouts: Keep track of your workouts so you can see what you accomplished. Use a notebook or create a file on your computer or phone. Tracking your progress is an essential step in achieving success.

5. Strength Training: Always do your cardiovascular workout following your strength work. It maximizes fat burn. For best results, incorporate full body circuit work as part of your strength training. Limiting rest between sets and moving quickly from exercise to exercise increases your heart rate as you build muscle. Combine strength training, cardiovascular work, and nutrition for optimal health.

6. Healthy Eating: Nutrition is the final component in achieving your fitness goals and the most important. Not only does food provide us with valuable nutrients and the fuel we need to survive, but the way we eat is also 90% of reaching our body composition goals. Use common sense when making food choices. Eat as cleanly as possible choosing from whole foods; i.e. whole grains, lean meats, poultry and fish, nuts, nut butter, and organic oils, as well as organic fruits and vegetables. Keep a food diary so you can see what is working and where you have to change your food intake to meet your objectives.

Benefits of cardiovascular exercise are:
There are numerous recommendations on health benefits of cardiovascular exercise. In addition to improving the health of your heart, regular cardiovascular exercise can help reduce saturated fats, pulmonary function and improve the development of bones and muscles. It also contributes to solving the problem of depression.

It is necessary to adequately plan for cardiovascular exercise so that all muscles and body functions can receive the benefits of extensive training. Plan your schedule for at least 30 to 60 minutes each day. Regular exercise will make your cardiovascular system stronger.

Cardio helps to improve the level of endorphins in the body. These chemicals make us feel good, energetic and lively. Even just twenty minutes of training can lead to an increase in long-term mood. Thus, it is possible to see that people choose to exercise early in the morning. Cardiovascular Exercise releases endorphins in the brain that can give you a natural stimulant, also known as high "corridor" "Cardio also helps with depression and stress decreases while increasing self-esteem.
The positive relationship between cardio and mood can improve sleep, although it is more than that. Cardiovascular exercise, especially in the afternoon or early evening makes body temperature to rises above normal. Over the next hour, before sleeping, body temperature decreases slowly. Keep in mind, however; that cardiovascular exercise stimulates the muscles, brain, and heart, and it can prevent sleep if too close to bedtime can.

The best cardio workout
The best cardio workout has to be one that forces your heart into a workout. Yes, the heart is a muscle, and it needs to be worked out. Aside from the function of training your heart to maintain health, the best cardiovascular workout should help you burn calories, which is needed to lose weight and burn fat. More accurately, it helps you to burn off that excess fat that is not only clogging your veins and decreasing your health but also covering and hiding all the precious muscles you have worked and built.

So the best cardio workout has to include a proper diet. Not dieting but rather healthy eating. Working out with the right intensity and watching your meals. Avoiding fats and sugary food, eating small and consistent meals.

Cardiovascular workouts do not have to be long and tedious. They should be short and exciting as you add interval training and circuit work into your program.

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Great Benefits From Juice Diet

Nowadays, juices are utilized to satisfy thirst and also a kind of hydration, but we also find juices are frequently used in combination with dieting. In reality, juice diet became a commonly used diet since people consider it more effective as compared to other diets because of its composition. Several persons who do not want fruits or vegetables find that they are able to tolerate them easily once being juiced. Juice detox is truly a diet in the fluid that is composed of squeezed or macerated part of vegetable or fruit. Apples, carrots, cabbage, celery, pineapple, cranberries, kale, spinach and various greens are used popularly. The juice cleansing diet is also a fine source of minerals, vitamins and antioxidants.

Juice diet is very beneficial. Fruit and vegetable juices are excellent suppliers of vitamins and nutrients. Furthermore, they are easily absorbed compared to solid food with no irritation into the digestive system. The juice provides the body time to take away the pollutants without absorbing new toxins. Accordingly, it permits the liver to revitalize and repair itself.

The juice diet is the kind of detox diet that depends only to the utilization of juice while abstaining totally from hard food. This is the reason why the juice diet must be used only for a short period of time. The usual duration of juice cleansing diet ranges from one to three days, if it will extend longer than three days it will need medical monitoring for a secure outcome.
The following is the guidelines for juice diet:

- It is greatly recommended to carry out the juice cleansing diet in warm months, particularly during spring season. It is not good to begin the diet during chilly months because the juice alone could not be able to maintain the requirements of the body.

- A week prior to the start of the diet, reduce or eliminate foods like eggs, fish, animal meat, sugar, caffeine, alcohol, and dairy products. Start to replace these things with vegetables, fruits or beans as substitutes.

- Do not drink all the juice in one moment. It must be consumed within a day. You need to d between thirty-two to sixty-four ounces of juices each day.

- Vegetables and fruits may be combined depending in your choice; however, acidic fruits such as citrus must be evaded as they can cause stomach trouble.

- Fresh vegetables and fruits are chosen because they are very common, and they do not contain any artificial components or preservatives. Green vegetables and shoots are very excellent juice fast. When you are making juice out of the fruits and vegetables, ensure to take away pits, tops, seeds and tough skins.

After you have completed the diet period, you may go back in eating solid foods gradually. You have to introduce slowly the foods in order to evade shocking your scheme as you change from liquid diet to hard diets.

Initially, start your diet by adding two fruits into the diet and a substitute for steamed green vegetables for the following day. Increase progressively the food and the amount of food. You can add brown rice, fresh salads until you are prepared to add eggs and yogurt. You can take chickens and fishes five to six days once you have completed the diet.

Juice diet cleans the body from destructive toxins and aids to repair the body for its usual functioning. It may be tough to do the cleansing, but try to stick to it because the result is twice as satisfying with the multitude of benefits it offers.

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How On Earth To Choose Which Juice Diet To Follow

With all the different diets being promoted on TV, the internet, magazines and across the media, how do you choose which one to follow?

Juice diets vary widely and finding recipes for juice diet plans can be challenging. These diets can range in what they allow you to consume, but most of them will leave you wondering what to prepare for each meal if you haven't researched appealing recipes ahead of time.

Variety is an important factor in any diet, especially one with which a person wants to stick. Therefore, it's important to consider the options for providing variety in a restrictive diet such as a juice diet.

There are several kinds of juice diets:
Juice-only Fast: Consume only fruit and vegetable juices for a short period of time (often 2-3 days). No solid foods are consumed.
Juice & Other Liquids Fast: Consume fruit and vegetable juices along with broths made from fruits and vegetables (or miso). No solid foods are consumed.
Juice & Raw Foods Diet: You can eat raw fruits and vegetables in any form you please, as well as nuts and seeds and sprouted, soaked grains and legumes.
Juice & Solid Fruits/Vegetables Diet: You can eat raw or cooked fruit and vegetables in any form, both juiced and solid.
Partial Juice Diet: One or two meals during the day is substituted with juices, while a normal, healthy plant-based diet is followed for the other meals.

You will need to choose the juice diet that works best for your body and your goals. There are risks inherent in very restrictive diets such as a juice-only or liquids-only fast, and it should not be done without prior consultation with a medical professional. It is never a good idea for pregnant or nursing women or children to engage in any of these diets. Anyone with health issues must also consult a doctor to make sure they will not put their health at risk with this type of diet.

Most recipes for juice diet plans should contain at least a small amount of added oils and fats. Any juice plan that lasts more than a day or two should allow oils such as cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, flax seed oil and canola oil. They will usually also include avocado (pureed or whole), which is a good source of fats.

They typically also allow sea salt and sometimes flavorings such as soy sauce, honey, caffeine-free teas, ground black pepper and other spices, stevia and/or agave nectar. Consuming fats is extremely important for a variety of body processes, not the least of which is that fat-soluble vitamins A, C, K and E (which so many fresh vegetables and fruits are high in) cannot be absorbed without dietary fat. Adding oils or fats to each meal is easy, and is critical to your success.

Recipes for juice diet plans should incorporate as many nutritious vegetables as possible. While including fruit juices is important, most juices should incorporate vegetables. A juice made of kale, spinach, ginger, celery and cucumber is a great energizing pick-me-up in the morning or mid-afternoon. Mixing flax or extra virgin olive oil or pureed avocado into vegetable juices is recommended.

If you are consuming cooked solid foods that contain only fruits and vegetables, try a baked apple stuffed with dried apricots, cinnamon and nutmeg. For dinner, puree carrots and ginger with a little soy sauce and enjoy this dressing on top of steamed kale and mushrooms.

If you are on a raw diet, a wonderful salad can be made of raw kale, shredded raw carrot, onion and raisins with a dressing made from pureed avocado, salt, raw tahini, lemon juice and garlic. You can also enjoy spreading raw almond butter on apple slices.

For a juice and broth diet, make a nutritious broth by boiling as many vegetables as possible with water, sea salt and seasonings. Add fresh dill or parsley for additional flavor. Carrots, parsnips, celery and seaweed are all good additions to a vegetable broth.

Fans of juice diets say that it is easy to lose weight, increase one's energy, and combat certain chronic illnesses with juice diet plans. However, even those people for whom such a plan is impractical can benefit from increasing their intake of fresh fruit and vegetable juices.

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