Archive for November, 2007
The no-weight-gain holiday guide - Diet Do’s and Don’ts
Last December I was tempted to ask one of my friends if she would mind electrifying the perimeter of the buffet table at her annual holiday brunch. As I saw it, the only thing that would keep me from noshing away on her famous baked brie would be a zap or two. My trouble is that while I love parties, it takes me a few minutes before I launch into conversation. My companion during the settling-in period? You guessed it–the food.
Obviously, I’m not the only one with holiday eating issues. “There’s just far more opportunity to eat then than there is the rest of the year, and it’s socially sanctioned,” says Edward Abramson, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist in Lafayette, Calif., and author of Emotional Eating: What You Need to Know Before Starting Another Diet (Jossey-Bass, 1998).
Too much food and stress weighing you down? Here are 10 ways to sidestep temptation so you don’t pack on pounds.
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Is it possible? How could it be so? Eating a food that actually requires more calories to digest then it has!
Yes it is true! In nature we find several foods that require more calories in the digestion process they the number of calories that they give the body. Celery is one known food. We could call it a negative calorie food as well as several other natural foods in the vegetable, fruit, and bean categories.
Other foods that are low in fat, low in calories and high in carbohydrates. The breaking down of carbohydrates in the digestive system consumes a considerable amount of calories. Eating this “negative calorie” foods can have an immense value when dieting to lose weight. Just add a few for your required carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, and dietary fiber, not to mention amazing weight loss.
While most diets focus on foods you shouldn’t eat, those that emphasize adding low-calorie foods, like fruits and vegetables, can promote healthy weight loss, new research shows.
Some weight-loss plans shun carbohydrates while others ban fat, but in the new study, researchers found that overweight adults who were instructed to focus on lower-calorie foods lost more weight than their peers who were simply told to cut their overall calories.
The key, according to the study authors, is that foods such as fruits and vegetables have low “energy density”. Because they have a high water content, they are heavy by weight but low in calories; while such foods do not add many calories to the diet, they are still filling.
Of the 658 men and women in the current study, those who made the greatest reductions in the energy or calorie density of their diets lost an average of 13 pounds over 6 months. That compared with 5 pounds in the group that made the smallest reduction in energy density.
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The main key to lose fat is to make sure that your body burns more calories then it consumes. I would like to help you out in your fat burning process by giving you a list of low calorie foods. Before I give you the list of low calorie foods I will explain to you what calories are. Most people talk a lot about calories but in fact they don’t have a clue what they are.
Definition of a calorie?
A calorie is a unit of measurement for energy. A food calorie is the amount of heat required to raise 1 kilogram of water 1 degree centigrade. The more calories that the food contains the more energy it will be released when it is burned.
An increased metabolism provides many benefits to help maintain continuous and permanent weight loss:
- less exercise would be needed - giving you more time
- less effort if you did exercise - no need to try burning lots of calories during each session!
- less chance of weight regain later
- still enjoy some favorite foods - no need to be as strict on the diet
- less time spent preparing low / non fat recipes and meals
- save money from not needing to buy all the expensive low fat varieties
- higher percentage of fat loss over fluid loss
Factors Affecting Metabolism
The human metabolism can be influenced by numerous factors. Here is a list of the most common, some can be changed and others we are born with. The most effective way to increase the metabolism when trying to lose fat weight is to add more lean muscle to your frame. This wont mean you’ll become big, just an extra few pound can boost the metabolism and help give you more shape.
Read the rest of this entry »
What makes a walk a workout? It’s largely a matter of pace and distance. When you are walking to exercise, you don’t stroll, stop to window shop or visit. You move out at a steady clip that is brisk enough to make your heart beat faster and to cause you to breathe more deeply.
Here are some tips to help you to develop a good walking style:
- Keep your head erect and back straight and let your arms swing loosely at your sides.
- Stay relaxed, breathe deeply and take comfortable steps.
- Always land on your HEEL and roll forward, finally pushing off the ball of your foot. Walking flat-footed or on the balls of your feet may cause fatigue or soreness.
- Your toes should point straight ahead. “Toeing-in” and “toeing-out” are inefficient ways of walking and may aggravate or contribute to leg/hip joint problems.
- Questions about how far, how fast and how often you should walk can be answered by listening to your body. No one can tell you exactly how far or how fast to walk at the start, but you can determine the proper pace and distance by experimenting. If you’ve been inactive for a long time, it will take time to get into shape. Build up slowly. Try to set goals-otherwise you will be tempted to push yourself too far too quickly and exercise will cease to be enjoyable.
Putting More Exercise in Everyday Life
If you are serious about losing weight and keeping it off, you’ll want to make a permanent change in your lifestyle. Think of ways to add more physical activities to help you burn more calories. If you can burn an extra 200 to 300 calories each day, weight may cease to be a problem. Consider these activities to complement your regular exercise program:
- On family outings, allow time for activities that require walking or some other physical effort.
- While watching TV, make a point of doing something during commercials. Try calisthenics, stretching or just getting up to do something around the house.
- Replace coffee breaks with exercise breaks. A brisk walk outdoors or to another part of the building will burn a few extra calories.
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator at work. Walk to a drinking fountain or restroom on another floor of the building to get in a few minutes of exercise going up and down stairs.
- When driving to work or shopping, choose a distant parking space.
- Save money by doing your own physical work–mow the lawn, wash and wax the car, take out the garbage, wash the windows, or paint the house.
- Think of exercise as cumulative. Take a few minutes to analyze the ways you can add more exercise to everyday life.
Want To Lose Weight? Exercise!
Why Not ‘Just Diet’?
One of the worst assaults on our bodies has been the self-imposed low-calorie diet. This has never seemed to be a very good idea, and recent research supports the notion that such diets can be harmful as well as ineffective.
The body’s survival response to low-calorie diets is to lower metabolic rate in order to burn fewer calories and minimize weight loss. One study of over-weight women on low-calorie diets found these women burned 350 fewer calories per day than when they were eating more normal amounts of food.
The slowed metabolic rate seen on very- low-calorie diets does not stop when a person begins to eat more normally. In fact, metabolism remains lower so weight maybe regained quickly. This, too, is a survival mechanism allowing rapid weight gain following starvation.
Unfortunately, all too many of us repeat this cycle of weight loss and weight gain. The long-term health effects are unknown, but animal studies suggest this yo-yo pattern makes each attempt to lose weight more difficult. With each diet cycle, weight is lost more slowly and regained more quickly.
Another problem with very-low-calorie diets is that weight loss is not all fat, but includes a substantial loss in lean mass, which includes muscle tissue. Exercise helps reduce this lean tissue loss. The combination of exercise and moderate calorie reduction is best for minimizing lean tissue loss during weight loss. Read the rest of this entry »
Dieting Do’s Not Don’ts
Our weight-obsessed culture has caused many people to believe that they would be just that much better off if they were to trim off a few pounds of fat. Often, those who diet are well within an acceptable range for body weight; some are even underweight and dieting. A 1995 national health survey www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00049859.htm of college students found 46.4% were attempting weight loss at the time of the survey. The same study found only 20.5% of college students were overweight, yet 41.4% believed themselves to be overweight. The medical literature reveals more than two-thirds of high school girls are dieting and that restrictive eating behaviors are seeping into the lives of children as young as third grade.
Think twice before you make the choice to pursue weight loss. Just because the fashion industry now makes a size zero dress doesn’t mean many people should come healthfully close to fitting into it! Do what is right for the health of your body without falling prey to the perils of trying to achieve someone else’s unrealistic and unhealthy numbers. Before deciding on a diet, speak with your healthcare provider or a registered dietitian (RD) for a professional perspective on a healthy weight for you.
For individuals who do need to lose weight for improved health, a refocus on lifetime weight management and avoidance of the “quick-fix” approach will result in the best long-term success. Here are some tips:
Reduced Fat Gingerbread Drop Cookies
Recipe Ingredients:
1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/3 cup molasses
2 eggs
1 tablespoon milk
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts