Spring is here and swimsuit weather is just around the corner. If you’re like many of us, you start panicking about all the weight you need to lose to fit into your favorite swimwear. Some need to lose 5 to 10 pounds of extra fat while others require 20 to 30 pounds, or more. Most of us know that to stay trim all year round would require an improvement in lifestyle. Easier said than done. “Yes but what do I do now?” you ask. Do you diet, exercise or both? Keep in mind that although weight loss through various diet methods may improve your appearance, it may not have a positive effect on your health. According to studies, repeated periods of weight loss followed by weight gain can be harmful to health. (1)

This is why it is very important to maintain a stable weight with proper eating and exercise habits year round. “Yes but I want to lose this weight now”, you say. Well, first of all you need to realize how you gained that extra weight. Unless you have a medical condition, you probably put it on by eating too much, not exercising enough or a combination of both. The bottom line is that you have been eating more calories than your body could burn over a period of time. This surplus of calories was stored in your body as fat.

What’s the best way to tackle this problem? You could hit the gym for some cardiovascular training, or work out right at home. Exercises that use large muscle groups such as jogging, cycling or aerobics are best for achieving quick weight loss. These high impact exercises, however, are more efficient for rapid weight loss in younger people, for a couple of reasons (there are always some exceptions). Let me explain. These exercises could help melt away pounds in a short time period for someone who is 25 years of age for example.

Once you surpass the age of forty, for example, you have to rely more on diet to complement exercise, for quicker weight loss. This is because a person’s metabolism slows down with age. A forty five year old performing the same exercise would actually burn fewer calories than someone 20 years younger. Furthermore, a person over forty (there are exceptions) could not train at a high intensity level for long durations as could a twenty five year old.

It doesn’t mean, however, that older people shouldn’t use high intensity exercise methods. If your doctor gives you the green light, then by all means go for it.

Older individuals need to rely more on calorie restriction than younger individuals. That’s not to say that younger people need only to rely on exercise for weight loss. Exercise for them ranks higher on the weight loss efficiency scale. They could often get away without reducing their caloric intake during periods of exercise and still lose weight quite easily. The older generation, however, must rely on a combination of adequate exercise participation and proper diet.

Unless you are extremely over weight you should eat ten times your weight in calories to maintain a particular weight. In other words to maintain a body weight of 140 pounds you would have to eat 1400 calories daily.

So, where do you start? Let’s begin with diet. The first thing you have to do is to cut back on your daily food intake. Then you need to replace the bad foods with the good. Use good carbohydrates at the expense of the bad. Good carbohydrates (carbs) are high in fiber and low in calorie contents. These include fruits, vegetables and whole grain products. Bad carbs are processed carbohydrates with most of the essential fiber stripped away and often replaced with fat. These include white bread, products made with white flour, processed fruits and vegetables and products containing sugar such as cakes, candy bars, etc. These foods along with fried foods are high in calorie and fat content and should be avoided or extremely reduced. Although good carbs are wiser food choices they should still be used in moderation, because calories still do count.

Is a high protein, high fat type diet effective for fast weight loss? The Atkins diet, although very controversial has maintained popularity. This and other similar diets, like the Zone and South Beach diets can cause initial weight loss – especially in very obese people. This weight loss is really water loss. The same is also true of every calorie restricted diet – regardless if it’s high in fat, low in fat, high in carbohydrates or whatever. The point is that they are based on low calorie content. Remember that this is all about input and output.

If you eat more calories than your body can burn you will gain weight. If you eat less calories than your body burns you will lose weight. It’s as simple as that. Your body turns all surplus calories into fat. That includes extra calories from fat, protein and carbohydrates. The key is to ensure that your daily caloric intake doesn’t exceed the amount required to maintain a desirable body weight.

At the same time, it is important that your diet includes a balance of all food groups including fat, carbohydrate and protein. Intakes of saturated and trans fats and bad carbohydrates should be avoided or reduced. Although unsaturated and non-hydrogenated fats are healthier choices, they should be used in moderation, because they are still fats and loaded with calories.

It’s important to keep in mind that while striving to attain weight loss, good health should not be compromised. Snack foods that induce further eating such as potato chips, salted nuts and chocolate should be avoided.

One diet method that is very effective is to cut your meals in half and add 2 extra meals (equivalent to half the quantity of your normal meal). Let me explain. Let’s say you normally take 3 meals a day each consisting of 1000 calories. You would cut those meals to half the content – which would now consist of 500 calories – and add 2 more meals also containing 500 calories each.

Let’s compare. Originally your 3 meals, each containing 1000 calories, would total 3000 calories a day. If you change that to 5 meals a day at 500 calories each, that would total 2500 calories. So in this example you would be saving 500 calories a day. This is a very easy and effective method to start implementing right away because you don’t really have to do any calculations. Just visualize what your normal meal would consist of and cut it in half. Then add 2 more similar meals. It’s that simple.

Increasing the daily number of meals also helps to make this transition easier. You would be eating less per meal but you wouldn’t have to wait as long for the next one. Furthermore, studies have shown that more frequent smaller meals increase the body’s metabolism. (2) And we all know how important an increase in metabolism is for weight loss.

An efficient weight loss system must include an adequate amount of physical activity – more so for people over 35. It seems that I’m picking on the older generations here. The reason why I keep bringing up the subject is because I’m talking from personal experience. I’m 37 years old and I know exactly how much more difficult it is to shed weight today as opposed to ten or fifteen years ago. In my twenties, whenever I noticed extra weight creeping in, I would start jogging 5-6 times a week for 30-45 minutes and within a few short weeks (sometimes 2 weeks) the extra weight was gone. It was that easy – and without any adjustment to food intake.

Today I would need a combination of exercise and proper dieting to reach that goal. And it would still take a longer period of time. How much should you be exercising? Well it depends how much weight you want to lose. By the way, besides weight loss, exercise participation results in many other health benefits. It improves flexibility, strengthens the musculoskeletal system, improves blood circulation and heart condition, just to name a few.

To start getting results in weight loss you should be exercising 5-6 days per week for 30-60 minutes at a comfortably vigorous intensity level. Once you lose the desired weight you can then tone it down to maintain the weight loss. For weight loss maintenance you can reduce it to 3-4 days a week, 30-45 minutes at the same level of intensity. Be sure, however, to get clearance from your doctor first.

References:

1. http://www.newstarget.com, “Yo-Yo dieting weakens immune system”, retrieved 22 April 2005 from < http://www.newstarget.com/001427.html>
2. University of Massachusetts Medical School, “People who eat smaller meals more often during the day are less likely to be obese”, retrieved 15 April 2005 from < http://www.umassmed.edu/pap/news/2003/07_11_03.cfm>

John Tiniakos is the author of NL Natural Weight Loss Program which can be found at http://www.nulife-weightloss.com/natural.htm. He also writes a free monthly newsletter with valuable news, tips and advice on diet, health and weight loss. For a free subscription go to http://www.nulife-weightloss.com/natural.htm.

Are you or your family members amongst the 65%?

To help with weight issues and for overall improved health, many people turn to diets. In fact, government statistics show that while about 65 percent of Americans are overweight, 38 percent are actually doing something about it.

And according to a recent survey by the National Health Institute, about a third of overweight Americans who are trying to lose weight, are doing so by eating less carbohydrates (carbs) largely because of the increased popularity of fad diets like Atkins Diet and the South Beach Diet.

Although there have certainly been other low-carb or low-sugar diet plans before, and more will most assuredly come out in the years ahead, let’s take a look at the basics behind many of the major plans. And let’s take a look at how they fit into the real world today. Because while it might be great to lower the body’s sugar content and be healthier, wouldn’t it be great to learn how to do so while being part of this fast-paced world?

In the world of instant messaging, quick Internet interaction and the already multi-faceted day-to-day hectic schedules, dietary food budgeting, planning, preparing and shopping are issues that can become major sources of stress and reasons for dieting failure. Dual income families on-the-go and other super-busy wage earners and dieters often already suffer from more than their share of everyday stressors like fears of being laid off, their jobs being relocated or terminated, juggling more than one job, dependents (both elderly and minors) and trying to fund and juggle continuing education into their lives, budgets, and daily routines.

People want and need simpler solutions. And they need simpler dieting plans. Forget spending mega bucks on gourmet, hard-to-find items. Forget spending hours just to prepare meals. And forget counting, measuring, and weighing ingredients.

Either a low-carb plan fit into real-world lives, or it doesn’t. First we’ll take a look at some basic terms and definitions to help understand the science behind low-carb plans. Let’s see how many of the major players’ plans measure up.

Note that the contents here are not presented from a medical practitioner, and that any and all dietary planning should be made under the guidance of your own medical practitioners. This content only presents overviews of low-carb research for educational purposes and does not replace medical advice from a professional physician.

If you want to have a complete info on low carb diet, please enroll to our 5 day email course on low carb diet by sending a blank email to ezine@pushbuttonhealthguide.com

Good material awaits you there, free.

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In terms of books sold, perhaps the Atkins diet is the most successful of the modern age. It obviously would not be so successful if it did not work and work quickly.

However, there are several cons as well as pros to the Atkins Diet, and we shall compare it to the Go-Carb Diet (good old carbohydrate diet), and give you the opportunity to chose for yourself.

Due to the notoriety of celebrities using the Atkins diet, and the promotion of the book itself, it has become very well known and widely practiced, at least for a while.

The advantages claimed over a Go-Carb diet are:

Not all carbohydrates are disallowed. For example, those rich in dietary fiber are allowed as the fiber is not digested. This gives the dieter a great degree of choice

Similarly as so many foods are permitted, there is greater variety in this diet, so the thought is, the risk of cheating is reduced. Thus, you keep with the diet till you achieve your goal.

The diet permits you to eat the food you like best, such as meat, cheeses, creams, and other high fat foods.

The diet lets you eat large quantities and so you are not becoming hungry, and

Because the body thinks its starving, you burn fat for energy.

On the other hand, there are some real criticisms, which are:

As mentioned above, but looked at differently, if you burn fat for energy instead of carbohydrates, you will have increased uric acid and ketones (you enter into a state called ketosis), which the body takes for starvation.

Certainly you will lose weight, but can also end up with kidney problems, migraine and even gout. Eventually you will also burn muscle tissue, which is not desirable at all.

An often quoted study published in the New England Journal of Medicine providing evidence the Atkins diet works, in fact, concluded that after dieting for a significant amount of time (one year) the results of the Atkins and Go-carb diet were about the same.

That same study also mentioned (no real need to) that most people dropped out of both diets.

The Atkins diet, with high amounts of saturated fats (Omega-6) in proportion to poly-unsaturated fats (Omega-3) raises blood pressure, creates all kinds of inflammations, has a negative effect on cholesterol levels and can lead to cardiovascular disease.

As the Atkins diet is low in complex carbohydrates found in fruits and vegetables, it can also lead to chronic constipation and reduced colo-rectal cancer prevention.

Leaving which diet is better and for whatever reasons aside, we would like to state that the only real diet is a radical change in your eating habits.

This must be linked to daily exercise. Here are some real positive suggestions, based on a Go-carb diet, that if followed, you will lose weight and keep it off. In fact, instead of choosing one diet over the other, pick the best parts of both; and

1.Chose only lean protein, and not more than one gram per kilo of your weight daily. So if you weigh, for example, 75 kilos, you can have a maximum of 750 grams of quality protein daily. Make as much of this fish or non-red meat as possible.

2.When you use daily products, chose those which are low in fats; as cottage cheese, low-fat milk and sour cream.

3.Add as many fruits and vegetables as you can to our daily diet. Herein lies the secret. It is usually a dietary change, as most overweight people are eating few or any daily fruit and vegetables.

4.If you can, eat 5 smaller meals than 3 larger ones. If you need to snack, make sure its on fruit.

5.Careful of your fats. Reject all trans-fatty acids (good-bye McDonalds!) and use pure oils such as Extra Virgin Olive oil, or special margarines made without Trans-fatty acids.

6.Go-carbs are best. Whole grain breads, lentils and other pulses, non-fried and salted nuts, and only natural cereals. Avoid generally all processed food if you can.

If you combine the above with daily exercise, you will lose weight so the Go carb diet is the one to choose.

For more free diet and fitness articles and features go to our website and find an accompanying fitness workout to the Go-carb diet:

http://www.net-planet.org