Calorie here, calorie there. Every time we try to lose weight, we are asked to monitor our calorie intake. Now what the heck is this calorie? Well, as a matter of fact, each of the foods and drinks we consume contain a certain quantity of calories. Once food enters our body, those calories are transformed into energy. In turn our body uses this energy to perform its day-to-day operations.

Now our body requires a certain minimum level of energy to be able to function properly. If the current energy level is below this minimum requirement, we would suffer from fatigue, weakness, and a host of other maladies. On the other hand, if our body receives more energy than required, it would deposit the extra energy as fat for future use.

As you can see, if you want to get rid of fat, you need to control your body’s energy production, which can be done only by reducing your daily calorie intake level. One way to do that is by controlling your food intake by dieting. Dieting of course means eating balanced, healthy meals rather than fasting. Another way to keep the energy levels at normal level is by burning the excess calories with the help of workouts. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Unless you have been living under a huge rock, you have surely heard about the Flat Belly Diet! This diet has, by her own admission, helped Rachel Ray lose weight easily! Here is the cold hard truth though: only 10% of those who follow a diet are able to lose weight successfully, and then the blame game starts. While customers blame the diet program for wasting their time and money, the manufactures of the program in turn claim that the customers didn’t follow all the guidelines set by the program properly and consequently, failed to lose weight.

Truth may be both or neither. As a matter of fact, seldom would you be able to lose weight permanently with the help of diets, and that is because almost all diet programs available out there have one common major flaw in them! Want to know what it is? Read on to find out the answer!

You would be surprised to know that the Flat Belly Diet program recommends a diet which is high on fat. I know it goes against the conventional wisdom because we all know that fat is the culprit behind weight gain. However, this is also where we err slightly. There are actually two types of fats out there: saturated and unsaturated fats.

Saturated fats can be found in plenty in junk foods and make us fat! There is another type of fat which actually helps us lose weight, and that is called unsaturated fat. Unsaturated fat can be further divided into polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fats. The Flat Belly Diet essentially focuses on foods which are rich in monounsaturated fats (MUFAs).

As a matter of fact, MUFAs serve dual functions: they help you ward off constant pangs of hunger by acting as natural appetite suppressants; at the same time, unlike saturated fats they flush themselves out of your body instead of getting deposited as fat.

This doesn’t however mean that you can have MUFA foods all day long, as the diet restricts your maximum daily calorie intake to just 1,600 calories per day, which is just enough for normal adults. But the million dollar question, will this diet really work or not?

Very pertinent question indeed, and I am afraid I won’t be able to offer you an affirmative answer either! The basic thing to note is that just like other fad diets the Flat Belly Diet also focuses on just on type of food group. When you eat only MUFA foods everyday, your body would soon get accustomed to your food habit and consequently lower your metabolic rate.
Obviously, you cannot expect to burn fat and lose weight with a low metabolic rate!

The second disadvantage of following this diet program is that you would soon get bored of it and quit it as usually happens with other fad diets. So I won’t recommend this diet to you.

That doesn’t however mean that all diet programs are bad; there are a few diet programs which have proven their effectiveness time and again, and one such program is the FatLossfouridiots. Unlike most other conventional diets, FatLossfouridiots doesn’t focus on any particular type of food group.

By means of a dieting technique called ‘calorie shifting’, it helps you lose weight by making you eat foods of varying calorie levels. When you don’t restrict yourself to one type of food group, your metabolism would always be high and consequently you would find it pretty easy to lose weight!

When it comes to weight loss, you should never take someone else’s advice. One reason behind this is that everyone’s weight loss adventure is different. There are people who never reach their weight loss goals, and then there are people who not only conquer their food intake successfully but also lose weight and become slim.

There are folks who never lose beyond a certain amount of weight and then get stuck to that level; others make it successfully to the top. If you really want to lose weight, the best way to do this is to set a weight loss goal, and for that you need to have a clear idea of what you really want from your weight loss program.

Here are the four basics that you need to internalize to help you lose weight and not only continue losing but not put it back on Read the rest of this entry »