As soon as summer hits, people, especially women, start thinking about weight loss. This is that time of the year when they start working on their body in the hope that by the time Christmas arrives (or maybe even before that), the extra burden of fat would be gone forever and they would be able to flaunt their slimmer and sexier bodies to their friends and beaus. These women usually go for the common route of dieting for weight loss.

At the same time, there is also a section of women who are already dieting. They are in a dilemma over whether to continue dieting or quit it forever, because the results they are getting are either absolutely disappointing or far from what they expected from the diet program.

No matter which group you belong to, if you wish to lose weight this summer with the help of dieting, this article is the answer for you. 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.

2009 is going to be a great year for all those struggling with weight loss. Why? Well, it is no secret that since the beginning of this year the economy has been hard-hit by recession. With pockets going almost half empty, people would think twice before indulging in excesses of any kind, their junk food addiction notwithstanding.

As a matter of fact, junk foods usually cost much more than natural foods. This is why people are likely to spend less money on junk foods and more on natural fruits and vegetables. Consequently, they are bound to lose weight.

With the recession setting in, you should be doing due diligence before investing in a diet program. There are useless fad diet programs which you should avoid at all costs. Usually, diets which focus only on one type of food or other should be avoided. Read the rest of this entry »

For a considerable time, several weight loss experts have recommended the calorie shifting diet as the next best weight loss solution. While it is true to an extent. rarely do those experts recommend the ideal foods for the diet in the same vein. This leaves the common people confused.

If you already know about the benefits of the calorie shifting dieting program but have no idea of what to eat and what not to eat, this post would be the perfect read for you. For the five minutes you spend in reading it, you would collect some great recipe ideas that could form an integral part of your life.

Definition of Calorie Shifting diet

The name ‘calorie shifting’ itself is pregnant with meaning. You can easily figure out that this diet recommends “shifting” your calorie consumption levels instead of restricting yourself to a low-calorie or low-carb meal. Read the rest of this entry »

You have probably added a lot of extra annoying pounds to your body through unhealthy eating habits and now you want to get rid of those pounds as quickly as possible. There are several ways to achieve this goal. Most people tend to get attracted to ’shortcuts’ such as fad diets which promise them quick weight loss. These fad diets literally make you starve with their abnormal food restrictions. While this may help you lose a few pounds of weight (which again is water weight and NOT fat that you need to lose), they could make your body weak and unhealthy.

People generally believe that the fewer calories they consume, the faster they would be able to lose weight. When these fad diets restrict their food intake to an abysmally low level, to the point of making them starve, they are not surprised because they believe this is the only surefire way to lose weight fast.

Now there is a BIG difference between food reduction and calorie intake reduction. It is true that in order to lose weight, you should control your calorie intake, but that doesn’t mean you should eat less than normal.

If you want to lose weight healthily, here are four steps you need to follow:

1. Calculate your ideal body weight: Your ideal body weight would be the weight of a normal, healthy adult of your age. Once you know about your ideal body weight, subtract it from your current body weight and you would know how much weight you need to lose to reach the ideal weight level. This can be easily done with the help of a tool called BMI (Body Mass Index) Calculator.

2. Calculate your minimum calorie requirement: It is not as hard as you think. There are a lot of calorie calculators available for free online. You simply need to download one of them and calculate your minimum daily calorie intake requirements. This should be same as the calorie requirements of a normal adult of your age.

Now realistically you must not try to reduce your daily calorie intake to this level right at start as it is simple not possible, more so if you are either overweight or obese (that is, if your body weight is 200% or more than the ideal body weight). However this should give you an idea of the daily calorie intake level you should strive for.

3. Know the bad and good foods: The third step is to know about the calorie contents of the foods you eat. Such information is usually available for free online. You might be surprised to realize that you eat a lot of high-calorie foods and only a few low-calorie foods. It is time to set the balance right.

4. Cut down on your daily junk food intake: The last step is to set a daily goal of cutting down on your junk food intake by taking away one food at a time from your daily diet and replacing it with a healthier alternative.

Eventually you would be eating only healthy and organic foods and forget about junk foods. When that happens, your calorie intake would reduce automatically and you would lose weight fast.

Notice that not for one instant did I advise you to reduce your food intake; rather I recommended that you replace calorie-rich foods with their low-calorie alternatives. This is the right way to reduce your daily calorie intake WITHOUT starving.

If you want your kids to lose weight fast, the best option is to go the ‘dieting’ route. Of course I am not hinting at any of the popular fad diets; instead, I am talking about healthy eating. Healthy eating obviously means eating organic fruits and vegetables. However, making kids eat raw foods is a Herculean task.

Even if they are accustomed to eating organic foods as an infant, your kids’ food habits are bound to change as soon as they grow older and get in touch with the outside world. When kids see their peers sipping packaged fruit juices, would they eat the raw fruits anymore? The answer is “no”.

This is the reason why kids are consuming more soda and soft drinks than ever before, and their intake of organic foods is getting reduced in almost equal degree. When kids make junk foods their friends, their parents almost stop offering them the organic foods, thinking that buying loads of organic foods is just a waste of money if the kids don’t eat them. However, this is a wrong thinking on their part. You may or may not believe it, but through the use of perseverance and patience, it is possible to mould the food habits of your kids. Read on to find out how.

I ask you NOT to stop their junk food intake right away; if you stop them from having their favorite foods, they would secretly consume even more of them. The key is to make them eat organic foods such as fruits and vegetables in small amounts everyday, as often as possible. Remember that eating a small amount of healthy foods is better than eating none of them at all.

Even if they discard the healthy foods at first, be persistent and keep offering them the same foods everyday. Remember that most organic foods are rich in fiber and would help keep your kids full for a long time. Consequently, they’d be less inclined to eat junk foods.

I have often come across parents who complain that their kids don’t eat raw fruits, even though they themselves are enjoying a can full of soda. Remember that kids imitate adults, and if you want them to inculcate good habits, you need to get rid of your bad habits first and replace them with good habits. When your kids see how much you enjoy eating raw fruits and vegetables, they would start taking interest in those healthy foods as well. This would not only help them lose weight but also keep them healthy.

You can also try cooking some of your kids’ ‘favorite foods’ at home. Remember that homemade popcorn is any day better than the ones available from the local store.

Guess how you gained so many unwanted pounds? I am not sure whether you were eating fatty or healthy foods before your weight gain, and I won’t even ask you about that either, because the type of food you eat doesn’t always determine whether or not you would gain weight!

Case in point: almost everyone would tell you that if you want to lose weight or avoid weight gain, you should steer clear of junk foods! But if that were true, I would have been overweight by several pounds by now, because I am a self-confessed junk food addict! If someone tells me to avoid junk foods, I won’t be able to follow his advice!

Hardly a week goes when I don’t have chocolates, cakes, white breads, etc. -all high-calorie junk foods supposed to make you overweight, but they haven’t affected my body weight over the years (yes, I have always been like this). I find also find it hard to resist the temptation of going into a fast food restaurant and taking a bite!

Now, here is a second scenario: I know a friend who ate nothing except fruits and vegetables. He would eat the fruits raw and the vegetables roasted or fried in olive oil. You would think that he is slim and fit, right? Wrong!

Recently he was fired from a lucrative job, thanks to the economic downturn which is affecting the world like never before. Needless to say, he soon got depressed and began to eat more than before. Again, he was eating only ‘healthy’ foods, just more of them than before. A few months into this lifestyle and now he flaunts a very big, fat belly in place of his original flat belly!

Were you surprised? Don’t be. It is all about controlling your food portions. In my case, what I didn’t tell you is that I ‘limit’ my junk food intake. I don’t visit fast food restaurants more than once or twice per week; as far as chocolates are concerned, I have a small bar every week but no more than that. I usually have white breads and cakes every two or three days, but both the bread and cake are half the size of what my brother has!

In essence, I have learnt to control my junk food intake in a way which lets me enjoy my favorite foods without the additional headache of weight gain.

My regular food habit is something I should tell you about too. Unlike most other people, I don’t have two or three large meals per day. Instead, I split those large meals into several smaller meals, usually no more than five or six. I have each of those small meals every two or three hours.

Of course maintaining a healthy diet comes easy for me since I work from home. I also make sure that I snack between two consecutive meals, and contrary to what you might believe, my snacks are anything but junk foods! I usually have a carrot or an apple as snacks; sometimes I even cook popcorn at home using low-fat oil and then store them in my refrigerator to serve as snacks!

In case of my friend, he followed healthy eating habits all along, but he erred on one count: he increased his food intake drastically owing to depression. In essence, his body received more calories than required, and consequently deposited those extra calories as fat, thereby making him bulky!

There are people who believe that the source of calories DOES matter when it comes to maintaining a slim body; however, as you saw from the above article, weight maintenance is all about exercising portion control. Give your body exactly what it needs at a particular time; that way, it would never have any extra calorie left to deposit as fat and you would always be able to maintain your lean, slim figure!

A common mistake most people make is that of trying to lose a lot of weight at once. They think that fast weight loss is possible, thanks to the hyped and empty promises most fad diets make. However, the truth is that even if you are able to lose weight too fast, your body would put back all those ‘lost pounds’ on you as soon as you quit dieting. Remember that if your aim is to get rid of fat once and for all, you should lose weight slowly but steadily!

As a matter of fact, weight loss is not about following this or that fad; weight loss can be achieved only by making certain drastic changes in your lifestyle as well as committing yourself to following a healthy lifestyle for the rest of your life!

That said, it is not possible to get rid of your old habits too fast, as it usually takes one at least two1 days to make or break a habit! Start making small but significant changes in your lifestyle, and don’t stray! Over time you would be successful in replacing all your bad habits one by one with good and healthy habits. However it won’t happen in a day!

For example, most diets would either restrict your junk food intake severely or ask you to discard them altogether! However, if you have been eating junk foods for months, or worse, if those foods have formed integral parts of your diet, it won’t be easy for you to get rid of them so easily!

Once again you can start off by getting rid of one junk food at a time. Alternatively, you can make it a point to keep yourself away from junk foods except on certain ‘cheat days’ when you would be free to indulge yourself the way you want! As your taste buds become more and more accustomed to healthy and natural foods, you would lose your junk food cravings altogether!

The same rule of ’slow and steady weight loss’ applies to exercises too! If you have never exercised before, it is natural for you to panic in fear if someone says that you should run 10 miles per day or do weight lifting for hours in order to lose weight!

But how does the prospect of running only one mile or lifting weights for just five minuets per day sound? I am sure you would be able to manage that much. Over time, as your body grows accustomed to your new active lifestyle, you would be able to increase the intensity of these exercises easily!

To conclude, you needn’t be afraid of either dieting or exercising. Remember that while the journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step at a time, it is important for you to take that ONE step right NOW!

A teenage life is not an easy one to lead, as I can tell from my experience. If you are a normal teenager, you have the stress of studies, peer pressure, and all that. You have to keep up with the latest gadgets and gizmos, excel at studies, and bear the rules and restrictions of your parents as if you are still a baby. And if you are an overweight teenager, then all hell breaks loose.

People not only laugh and joke about your fat belly behind your back, but also insult and taunt you openly. This in turn lowers your self-esteem and makes you depressed. If you are a teenager suffering from weight gain problems, this article is for you.

Who to blame for child obesity

So far as your obesity issue is concerned, the blame has to be shared equally by you and your parents. Your parents are probably too busy to cook healthy meals for you, and even if they are not busy, they don’t like to cook. Left without choice, you have to eat junk foods from outside. In this case the onus for your obesity lies with your parents, because they failed to offer you with healthy food choices.

But on top of that, if you also eat junk foods when you don’t need to, for example, at a friend’s party, or with your classmates at a school canteen, etc., then you are equally to blame for your present predicament. This additional junk food intake (over and above your regular junk food consumption) makes matters worse for you. Just in case you don’t know, junk foods are one of the primary causes of obesity.

Junk food and teen obesity

Another thing to note is that some of the effects of your junk food consumption would have worn off if you had taken the time to workout a little instead of being a couch potato or a slave to computers and video games. Unhealthy food habits, coupled with sedentary lifestyle, became your undoing. Here again you have no one but yourself to blame.

So now that you have gained weight, you need to lose it anyhow. Consider the following options:

Visit a doctor to make sure that you are really overweight. If you are overweight, then ask about your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), for it would determine how much you need to workout and by what percentage should you reduce your food intake on a daily basis.

Try to convince your parents to start cooking healthy meals. Tell them how bad obesity is, how it can burden a person with diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary diseases, etc. If you fail to convince them, then learn to cook yourself. Once you start eating healthy meals, half of your extra weight would be gone even before you know it.

Did I tell you that you need to bid goodbye to your junk food buddies.

Stop being a couch potato. Get rid of your addiction to PSPs, TVs and PCs. Instead, do some exercises everyday; it can be in the form of walking, running, jogging, or working out in the gym, whatever you feel most comfortable with.

Just pick up a suitable exercise for yourself and DO it daily. If you lead an active lifestyle, the other half of your ‘extra weight’ would be gone too and you would become the slim and sexy teen you used to be.

Teenage obesity is fast becoming an epidemic. Even a couple of decades ago, the level of teenage obesity was not as high as it is now. So what is the reason behind such a huge increase in the number of obese teens? Junk food intake is obviously the primary cause. Nowadays, teenagers prefer to gorge on junk foods over eating healthy meals. Leading an inactive lifestyle is the secondary cause behind teenage obesity. Instead of playing outdoor sports, you would find most teenagers glued to either video games or the idiot box.

Forget about parents, even doctors are worried about the increasing number of overweight teenagers. Obesity is often linked to harmful diseases such as heart attacks, high blood pressure, hypertension, high blood sugar, etc. Previously, heart attacks used to afflict middle-aged adults; nowadays it is not surprising to find teens and young adults becoming susceptible to heart attacks, and obesity is the primary reason behind it.

It is time that we forget about high-caloric pizzas, soft drinks, colas, sodas, sweets, burgers, beer, alcohol, etc., and focus on low-caloric organic and natural foods. Obesity not only makes you physically weak and unhealthy, but also affects your mental health. Depression, which is affecting so many teens today, is often a direct side-effect of obesity.

Now, we all know that reduction in food intake is one of the best ways to combat obesity. However, you cannot ask a teen to eat less since adolescence is the period of growth for the body and as such, it needs plenty of nutrition during this time, even more than an adult. However, you can certainly ask your teenage kid to make the right food choices and lead an active life. Here are a few tips:

a) There are basically two types of calories out there: simple and complex. Simple calories are available in junk and sugary foods (cakes, biscuits, soda, pizza, etc.) while complex calories are available in natural fruits such as orange, apple. You should develop a taste for complex calories and avoid simple calories.

It is not that you would never be able to taste junk foods. Eating junk foods once in a while is okay, but eating them regularly means inviting trouble for yourself.

b) Your present sedentary lifestyle has to go. Realize that you can never remain fit if you don’t ever move your body. Participate in outdoor sports, workout in the gym; engage in swimming or dancing, etc. Do anything that MOVES your body. DO NOT sit on the couch for 24 hours because that couch is going to be your deathbed.

You would think that almost every month a new diet or two pops up out of nowhere. However, the zero calorie diet is nothing new; rather, it is just another name for the famous negative calorie diet. The concept of ‘negative calorie food’ is gravely misunderstood by many people; they assume that they would have to find special foods that have zero or less than zero calorie.

Negative calorie foods are not special foods which have to be imported from another planet; rather, these are the same organic fruits and vegetables you are familiar with. In fact most, if not all, vegetables and fruits can be categorized as ‘negative calorie foods’.

This doesn’t however mean that they have less than zero calories; there is no such food in the world that has zero or less than zero calories. These foods, being high on fiber and low on calorie, help you lose weight by creating a calorie deficit within your body; hence, they are called ‘negative calorie foods’.

Every negative calorie food contains a certain number of calories, but when it enters your body, it expends more of your body’s energy for digesting itself than what it gives back to your body. Let’s take the example of celery, which is also a negative calorie food. In order to digest celery, your body would need to expend twenty calories. But guess how many calories it gives back to your body? Only ten calories. There, it has created a calorie deficit of 10 in your body.

If necessary, your body would burn its entire stock of calories in order to make up for this deficit. If that doesn’t prove sufficient, it would start burning your existing fat deposits to produce the required amount of energy. It is when your body starts burning fat that you lose weight. As you can see, the concept of ‘negative calorie diet’ is far simpler than what you thought.

This doesn’t however mean that you should spend all your energy and focus on eating only negative calorie foods all the time. Rather, you should consume foods of varying calorie content; if you keep consuming the same amount of calories every day, your body would soon reset your metabolic rate to the lower calorie consumption level and you would no longer burn fat.
Therefore, your meal should consist of both high and low calorie foods; just make sure that the amount of negative calorie foods in your meals always exceeds that of the high calorie foods. When you eat such healthy and nutritious meals, and keep your junk food intake at a very low level, you are bound to lose weight.