Fat Loss! Stop and Think for a Second.

It is a known fact that 3500 calories is a pound of body weight and to lose one pound, you must reduce your intake of calories by 3,500. Given that information, if you want to lose five pounds in one week, you must reduce your calories by 17,500!

We are all aware that an average diet is about 2000 calories per day. That’s only 14 thousand calories per week. That’s average! That’s what keeps you healthy. If you are going to diet off five pounds which is seventeen thousand five hundred calories, you have to burn 3500 more calories than you eat for the entire week, or go totally without food PLUS burn 3500 calories in one week. That just won’t work. You can’t lose five pounds in one week by dieting. You have to have some food to stay alive.

So if you eliminate food, you’re in for a rough ride. Your body has this involuntary reaction which we refer to as hibernation, in bears. As good a name as any in people, but we usually call it metabolism. When the food stops coming in, your metabolism picks up on it and starts burning protein, which is your lean muscle. It’s 75% water, and is your first line of weight loss. You lose your water. You ever see body builders with their protein drinks and protein bars and protein powder? Lots of muscle there, isn’t there? But the next thing that your metabolism does is worse. It starts to burn carbohydrates, which means that your fat increases. You start to put more weight on!

If you can’t diet off the weight then it stands to reason that you have to work on increasing your metabolism. Normally a diet gets you to take in fewer calories and what you burn slowly reduces your size. Actually, you are just losing water. As your metabolism adjusts, you stop losing and pretty soon you start to gain again. You are in hibernation. Any food you take in is converted immediately to fat to help you through this period of starvation. Store fat and slow down. A bear can sleep though an entire winter without eating.

When you cut out food, your body will throw all of it’s protein under the bus trying to protect itself. Without food, your body makes a bunch of decisions. (This is your body, not you. It’s a physiology thing.) After it takes all of the protein out of your muscle, (I’ll come back to body builders in a minute) your body will start to live on carbohydrates and when that happens you will gain weight! Your body will go into hibernation mode. You have to change the way your body works to make fat go away. It’s called METABOLISM. Your metabolism slows down and you won’t lose any weight, you’ll gain more.

Fact is, you can’t just diet and make fat go away, so you have to make a complete lifestyle choice. You want to lose weight? Start with a little exercise. Get your metabolism kicked up. Once that starts to take off a little weight, THEN you start your diet, and after that you increase your exercise. When you start AFTER you have increased your metabolism, the work will be more effective. The pounds will come off faster and more easily. The weight loss is a lifestyle change and more likely to stay off.

Understand that you put your weight on because you don’t burn everything that you eat. You store some of it, and over time, that weight builds up. Problem is, storage is driven by what you eat and that consumption is mostly about water. Protein is 75% water. When you go on a diet, after you clear out the water you burn protein from your storehouse.

You can’t just diet fat off because your body will give away all of it’s protein to protect itself, so you start to live on carbohydrates- and gain weight. When you lower your food intake, you lose protein, and this loss lowers your burn rate.

When your diet doesn’t seem to be working, consider that 3500 calories is one pound. Here’s your chance, come to my website at the link, or see my blog. There’s lots of articles and the blog has some interesting opinions as well.

Words of Wisdom From Peoria

This morning I checked my email and an article caught my eye — one that had been forwarded by a member of my mailing list who lives in Peoria, Illinois. I had to laugh, even though I have never been anywhere near Peoria. The cause of my amusement was my memory of something one of my instructors from medical school used to say to one of my classmates way back when. “Bob, what will they think of this in Peoria?” Or, the alternate: “Bob, if you don’t watch out and start picking up speed, it’s quite possible you could end up with a practice in Peoria.

My instructor was a bit biased as to what cities were worth practicing in. In his mind, New York City and Boston were the only options, so Peoria certainly would have been out of the question.

I have a feeling that Bob knows that Peoria does actually have fully functional medical practices, and specialists as well.

For the first time ever, this year, the cardiologists from St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria held a Cardiology Cookout, which they are planning to hold each year from now on.

The cardiology staff members wanted to make a few points during this event: that cooking can be enjoyable and that food that tastes good does not have to be food that is unhealthy.

The event was a success, with over one hundred people attending. Each attendee was offered samples of heart-healthy foods to taste, and they given the opportunity to take home recipes that teach them how to prepare those healthy foods in their own kitchens or backyards.

To me, that idea is commendable.

The St. Francis cardiology staff had some excellent suggestions, and one in particular that I think is especially good.

People are always asking how many calories they should consume.

The way to figure that out is to multiply your weight by 15.

Say you weigh 170 pounds. You multiply that by 15, which equals 2550 calories. To maintain that weight, that’s how many calories you would consume daily.

For someone who wants to drop weight, they need to multiply their weight by 13 instead of 15. Using the 170 pound example, this totals 2210 calories. That equals a daily decrease of 340 calories. Two easy suggestions for dropping the daily calorie count: One, if you drink two sugar-filled sodas a day, make the change to plain tea, or water. This shaves off 220 calories right there. Two, try switching to mustard, instead of mayonnaise on your sandwich, and you will have pretty much taken care of the 340 calories that you are trying to take out of your daily diet. Follow those easy guidelines, and in one week you will have decreased your caloric intake by 2380, which pretty much equals a whole day of calorie consumption.

This doesn’t even take exercise into account.

Weight loss does occur without exercise, but doing both will speed up your success.

The St. Francis cardiology staff also advises taking fish oil supplements that contain omega 3 fatty acids. The best supplements are those that are made from fish that are low on the food chain, like sardines and anchovies. This way, there is less of a chance of contamination from environmental elements.

Now is something I know more than a little bit about, since I have an enteric-coated, pharmaceutical-grade essential fatty acid softgel of my own. The sofgels have the highest concentration of EPA/DHA that you can buy. The fish oil in the supplements comes from fish that live deep in the arctic waters of Norway, and are free of mercury, cholesterol, and PCBs. My softgels are exceptionally pure, meeting the high standards set both nationally and internationally.

A cardiologist from St. Francis, Kent Wise M.D. says, “We are not convinced that other supplements like vitamins E or C or folic acid actually have a positive impact on heart health.”

He goes on to say, “We are convinced that fish oil has an impact on lowering triglycerides, one of the detrimental fats found in the blood. Furthermore, some evidence has shown that fish oil can lower the risk of sudden death.

Additional advice:

Stay away from fast food (pack your own healthy lunch, instead).

Cut down on your salt consumption. This means avoiding foods like pretzels and chips and other packaged salty foods.

Eat plenty of fiber, including beans, barley, fruit and vegetables.

Whenever you can, visit your farmers’ market for fresh produce.

No matter if this advice comes from New York, Boston, or Peoria — it’s all good.

What’s The Fascination with Liquid Diets for Weight Loss

When it comes to food and trying to cut down on food, people struggle as they feel that they have no control over how much they eat and before they know it, hunger has ruled their better judgement and they’ve scoffed an entire fast food meal without thinking.

It can be terribly frustrating knowing what to put into your bodies, how much to put into your bodies, and when to put it in your body. These are the type of people that opt for liquid diets for their weight loss control. Whilst these kind of extreme diets do have their plus points, it is very unhealthy to stick to a diet of this kind for any sustained length of time and is highly advised against by all the professionals.

One thing to look out for with liquid diets for weight loss is that you are consuming all your essential vitamins and nutrients. Any doctor or nutritionist will tell you the same so there is no doubt that this advice must be adhered to.

Health is of paramount importance and should always come before superficial aspects of life like how much you way and what you look like when you’re naked or on the beach this summer.

Being skinny but unhealthy is certainly not the goal and you should always keep that in mind.

Crushing the Liquid Diets for Weight Loss Myths

There’s no getting away from the fact that liquid diets for weight loss are extreme diets. You get fast results as your are starving your body of carbs. Such extreme deficits of carbs for any length of time, even a few weeks, can put dire strains on your body and energy levels. So you need to take a visit to your doctors to see what they have to say.

Seriously listen to what your doctor has to say about the pros and cons about the particular diet that you are thinking about starting. This could help you in making adjustments to it to make it healthier for you.

You doctor will have a good sense of your medical history, and the medical history of your family. So he or she will know whether your body can cope with such extremes. You can also ask about side affects from liquid diets for weight loss consisting of lack of energy or dry skin. Your doctor will also explain to you the type of exercise your body will need to prevent atrophy from your muscles.

You may have thought that you wouldn’t have to exercise on these kind of liquid diets for weight loss. But the truth is that you will have to come off this extreme diet after a couple weeks or so, and you don’t want the weight to pile back on like is usually does after you finish a diet program. By maintaining your exercise regime once you return to solid foods you will keep the weight off.

There is no sense in going through a liquid diet weight loss program if you are not going to keep the weight off.

Which is Better for Me — Low Fat or Low Carb?

After completing the last part of my journey and returning to Long Island last Friday night, I checked my Inbox and discovered a large amount of emails containing questions about low-carb, no-fat, and low-fat diets.

First of all, no fat diets are dangerous, and you really shouldn’t even attempt anything like that except under strict medical supervision. Even then, I’m hard pressed to think of why it would be necessary.

Your body does need fat to operate properly. But how much is enough and how much is too much? During the last forty years or so, the consensus from the medical community has been that a small amount is enough.

The medical community has also held a similar view about carbs. For many years, the idea was that a diet high in carbs and low in fat would be the most successful. That theory has been proven to be less than successful.

Truly, the most essential factor in a successful diet is BALANCE.

That balance consists of the correct amounts of carbohydrates, protein, and fat.

As I’ve said before, and will repeat again, what you eat needs to be close to its natural state. A baked apple is close to its natural state. Fruit Loops are not. Grilled fish with grilled vegetables is close to its natural state. Kraft Microwavable Macaroni and Cheese is not.

If it comes in a package, it probably has ingredients in it that aren’t good for you. (Like trans fats and high fructose corn syrup - otherwise known as “the kiss of death”)

Additionally, almost all low fat foods have an elevated sugar content. They are made to be overly sweet so that they appeal to the taste buds. This same process is used in no-fat foods. Take a look at the label and you will find high levels of either sugar or a sugar substitute.

Low carb almost always involves a sugar substitute too, and personally, I think it always tastes terrible. You have to convince yourself that it tastes good in order to eat it. No, thanks.

A good rule to follow involving packaged foods is to choose foods that are not combined with other ingredients. It’s perfectly okay to eat plain frozen vegetables, but choosing a frozen vegetable that is packaged with a sauce is distinctly less healthy. The sauces are manufactured with ingredients that are designed to keep the sauce stable, and those ingredients will make you fat, especially since the sauce most often has more calories than the vegetables themselves.

Even though vegetarianism is considered to be a healthy way of life, there are many problems with that type of dietary restriction. Vegetarians often end up with a serious case of under-nourishment and are vulnerable to many other health risks — all stemming from the fact that they do not eat a balanced diet.

I recommend you start getting control of your diet, one meal at a time. Or as my friend Nate says, “Practice push ups instead of sit downs.” What he means is, that when you are full, you push up from the table, not sit down and eat more.

My recommendation is that you take a daily dose of pharamceutical-grade enteric coated fish oil which is manufactured to be free of contaminants. Taking this type of fish oil every day will insure that you are getting the omega 3 essential fatty acids that you need to keep you body performing at its very best.

Recently a friend recommended that I take a look at a certain bodybuilding web site. As I read what the bodybuilding author had to say, I noticed he was advocating decreasing his fish oil dose because he thought it was putting too much fat in his daily diet. It was so obvious that he didn’t know what he was talking about. Big muscles, small brain.

Because he is an athlete, he needs MORE fish oil that the average person, not less. With all the strenuous training that he does, he needs to add to his daily dose of fish oil instead of focusing on his intake of a few extra fat grams. He is obviously not aware that including the right amount of fat in his diet will surely make him look better and would probably go a long way towards helping him win a competition. I won’t hold my breath for him to listen to this advice.

Weight Loss Motivation

When I got to New York, it was covered in snow. I had been fantasizing about 50 degree weather, but no such luck.

I like how the neighborhood looks when it’s covered in show — it’s really quite lovely. This appreciation for all the loveliness is usually short-lived and I tend to want to leave when the feeling fades. This time was no different, but I have no choice — I must stay.

A major problem for most dieters is motivation. Almost every dieter starts out with the best of intentions when beginning a weight loss plan, but if they run into a problem, those good intentions can fall apart very quickly and they are at a high risk for giving up and going back to the foods that got them in trouble in the first place.

I’ve found that there are a few tactics that work well for many people.

1. Altering what you see in your mind’s eye.

2. Accurately recording your measurements.

3. Keeping a journal

4. Coming to terms with the fact that no one, including yourself, is perfect.

Comfort eating is an all-too-common way for overweight people, who tend to think of themselves as losers in some aspect of their lives, to make themselves feel better. They think “As long as I eat my junk food, at least I can feel better for a little while.”

This is delusional, but it’s true, and it needs to change. You need to start looking in the mirror and imagining yourself as healthy and fit all the time. This doesn’t happen overnight, but it is easily accomplished by practice. Changing the picture pays you huge dividends in the long run.

You will be able to become the person you imagine yourself to be — if you practice.

You can use a tape measure to get numbers if you want to, but I prefer pictures. When you start on a weight loss program, take pictures of yourself. Then imagine the new you, and get started.

A diary or a journal is an excellent way to chart your progress. You can write down the info by hand or you can work on the computer. The idea is to log in everything you eat and all the exercise you are doing. At the end of the first week, take a photo. By the time you take a look at the photos from week 3 or 4, you should be seeing real results. And when you look at the photos from weeks 10 through 12, you won’t be able to keep a smile off your face — the results will be dramatic.

Slip-ups happen to everyone who is in the midst of a weight loss routine. Don’t beat yourself up about it. The best thing to do is log it into your diary and pay attention to when and how the slip-ups happen — this will show you where your weak spots are. If you feel guilty, get in an extra workout. Don’t let you slip-ups get in the way of your progress — just take note of them, get back to your routine, and stay positive.

Your body will be grateful to you.

The more you listen to your body, the more success you will have. As you increase your fitness level, your body will begin to give you signals as to what it needs. If you ignore what your body is telling you, you are very likely to get another type of signal, and it won’t be positive.

For your body to function at its highest level, you need to be doing other things than just eating healthy foods and using a good exercise routine. Enteric-coated pharmaceutical-grade fish oil is one of those things.

The daily addition of pharmaceutical-grade enteric-coated fish oil has many benefits. It optimizes your joint mobility, aids in the function of your brain and nervous system and has many cardiovascular benefits. Add it to you routine — every day.

I take pharamaceutical-grade fish oil every day and have been for a long time, but if I slip up and skip a dose or two, my body doesn’t let me forget it, especially my joints.

(Say Bill…I don’t believe we’ve gotten any fish oil for a day or two…we’re going to send you a little reminder…how about your left knee…yeh, I know it hurts…but next time don’t forget to pack it.)

I tend to forget to take the fish oil when I’m traveling, which is often, so I’ve come up with a solution — I bring along “travel only” bottles, which never leave my side.

How To Get Rid Of Your Stubborn Belly Fat?

As we age, it becomes harder to lose fat whether by diets or exercise. Most of the time, we gain weight around our midsection and it can be very difficult to lose this fat. You may have noticed yourself developing a beer belly when you never touch the stuff; you are probably beginning to understand belly fat. This is where fat cells will typically settle in your body.

The body is naturally inclined to store belly fat against the possibility of famine. As human society has progressed, our bodies have not caught up with developments, meaning that our bodies will store fat even when there is no scarcity of food. Although we are at no risk of starvation, we still accumulate belly fat.

When you try to lose fat by dieting, the body’s metabolism sends a signal to the brain that tells the fat burning or fat storing hormones that you are experiencing a famine and hold onto any empty calories you take in. The body thinks if you are taking in calories that are empty in nutrition, you have nothing else to eat, so it holds onto as many of those calories as it can, many times as belly fat. You have to fool the metabolism by eating different foods, so it will not think it is experiencing famine.

In times of extreme stress or when you are very busy, you may eat less and still gain weight. This is because your body sees the situation quite differently than you do. Your body thinks you are going through a period of scarcity - and the stress hormone Cortisol also plays a role in encouraging belly fat formation.

Many diets do not give the brain enough variety, and it will decrease the fat burning hormones and metabolism to meet the calorie intake. So, if you drop from 2,500 calories a day, to 1,000, your metabolism will drop from burning 2,500 calories to 1,000 and your weight will plateau. If you are trying to lose fat by dieting, then you need to eat a variety of foods, changing every couple days, since it will take a couple days for your body’s metabolism to catch up.

To lose belly fat, you have to fool your brain and your fat burning hormones into thinking that you are still getting ample calories, which will move your metabolism towards using up the food energy stored as belly fat.

When you diet to lose fat, you have to make sure to eat the right amounts of nutritional calories and fat burning calories to keep your metabolism and fat burning hormones working at peak efficiency. This allows you to lose belly fat while taking in fewer calories. Your body will only use your stored fat cells after using up the calories you are taking in, meaning that reducing your calorie intake is vital to losing belly fat.

The best way to understand belly fat and lose fat by dieting is eating a well-balanced, well-proportioned diet, with a variety of foods that allows you to eat numerous times of the day to keep fueling the body’s metabolism furnace, like the FatLoss4Idiots plan that is highly recommended at the link below.

What You Need To Know About Weight Loss Supplements And Dieting

When you are thinking about losing weight, you may be thinking that you need to cut back on the candy or that you need to think about reducing the amount of alcohol that you drink, or that you need more vegetables and fruits in your diet, but the truth of the matter is that you probably have no clue what your calorie count is or what you need to eat to be properly healthy. When you are taking a look at diet supplements, you may be considering them as something that will help you lose weight, make you healthier or simply make you less hungry.

A lot of people think that diet nutrition is about consuming fewer calories and that is the key to weight loss. However, it also depends on the type of calories consumed because the metabolism uses some calories as fat and uses fat burning on others for energy. A lot of people try to make up their own diet plan, not knowing anything about diet nutrition, and they do not know which foods to eliminate, limit or increase in their diet plan.

Protein supplements, fiber supplements or other weight loss supplements can help to lose weight and some people will stick to their bad eating habits while taking the supplements and not understand why they have not lost weight, despite not cutting any calories. This is not a good weight loss plan.

There are some weight loss supplements that will cause you to gain weight, if it is not the type of nutrition your body needs to metabolize, so it will store it for later use. Many times weight loss supplements are added to a glass of juice or milk to be taken in lieu of eating a meal. You may not lose weight this way, because the body’s metabolism changes every couple days, and it may go into starvation mode, and hold on to as much of the fat stores as it can.

The key to diet nutrition and weight loss supplements is that you continue to give your body a good balance of fat burning calories, as well as nutritional calories, in the right portions and at regular intervals to keep the metabolism burning calories at a faster rate than it had been.

By alternating the types of foods and when you eat them, you can actually start to fool the brain signals that send the fat-storing or fat-burning hormones into the system and tell the metabolism to store fat or burn it for energy. If you don’t know anything about diet nutrition, then you will have a lot of trial and error in trying to figure how what foods to eat, and when to eat them.

A weight loss supplement can be good to help add protein, which helps in muscle development and helps the body metabolize food quicker. You don’t want to be replacing fat burning foods that stabilize your appetite and burn off more calories than the weight loss supplement would.

In understanding diet nutrition and weight loss supplements, it is good to have an expert in diet nutrition give you a diet plan that offers fat burning, nutritional food, in proper portions, numerous times a day, that will be satisfying enough to stay with and help you lose weight. FatLoss4Idiots is the highly recommended at the link below, it has an easy, expert plan you need to lose weight quickly.

Cabbage Soup Diet, Like Any Other Low To No Carb Diets

One of the low to no carb diets you have undoubtedly heard of is the cabbage soup diet. This diet works well for most people, at least in the short term. There is some appreciable weight loss in the first few weeks, but most people who try the diet lose interest quickly and regain the weight. This is like what happens in all of these low to no carb diets. If you want a diet which will work for you over a longer time, it needs to have the variety which will let you enjoy, not dread your meals.

Because it is also called a fat-burning soup diet, it contains ingredients in the soup, which would be considered fat-burning. Besides the soup, there is not much else that can be eaten other than low carb or no carb fruits and vegetables.

When taking a closer look at the recipe for this cabbage soup or fat burning soup, it is clear that this can be considered a low to no carb diet. The soup includes fat burning vegetables like onions, peppers, tomatoes and cabbage. You can also substitute other cruciferous vegetables such as cauliflower or broccoli for the cabbage. Spices and hot sauce can be added to liven up the soup.

Carbohydrates, which the body turns to sugar and burns or stores the unused to fat cells, is restricted in this diet. It is based on the vegetables, which burn more calories in your metabolism, than they have in them. This principle works in losing weight, however, most people cannot stand to eat the soup for more than a couple weeks before losing interest in the cabbage soup diet.

Here’s how the cabbage soup diet works: you can eat all the soup you like whenever you’re hungry. Other than this, there are different things which you can eat depending on the day of the week. On day one, you can have fruit (except for bananas), on day two you can have vegetables except for peas, corn and beans. On day two you can also have a baked potato with dinner, to trick your body into thinking that you are still eating carbohydrates.

On Day 3, you guessed it, soup, fruits and vegetables and Day 4 is soup, bananas and skim milk. On Day 5, it is low fat meat and tomatoes, with soup, of course, and Day 6 is soup, meat and green leafy vegetables. The final day, Day 7, is soup and brown rice. This diet is not a plan you can stick with very long, because if you don’t lose interest due to lack of variety, you would eventually suffer mal-nutrition.

The cabbage soup diet is a lot like the other low to no carb diets; it limits your carb intake. It also does not limit how often or how much you can eat, but it does limit your choices.

While the cabbage soup diet doesn’t restrict how many times a day you eat, and is like other low to no carb diets, the best diet is one that would include fat burning foods, as well as a variety of nutritional food, allow you to eat numerous times a day, that you could lose weight on and stick with long-term, like FatLoss4Idiots program that is highly recommended in the link below.

Fast Fat Loss Program - How To Lose Baby Weight Fast And Safely?

After pregnancy diets are a very popular subject for all new mothers. This is understandable whether or not you had a normal of cesarean birth as well as if you chose to breastfeed. More than likely you are concerned about your weight gain during pregnancy. You may even wonder what happened to your pre-pregnancy shape. Then you may wonder what kind of exercise is necessary when you diet to lose baby weight.

Everyone is full of advice. However, before starting any type of lose weight after birth program seek your physicians advice. Your baby’s health depends on your health. The best weight loss after pregnancy diet is one which is suited especially for you and your dietary needs. Your diet will only work long term when offering you variety of choice. It must also be scheduled throughout the day. This is something that is easily suited to a new mother.

After pregnancy weight loss diets should always consider the hormones that are involved with pregnancy and postpartum to work effectively. This is true of any worthwhile weight loss program. You want a program that will help you learn how to burn fat while keeping your energy. All mothers know that trying to keep up with children can be taxing as well as enjoyable. To do this properly you must gain and maintain good health and wellbeing.

The best baby fat loss program means following a sensible diet which takes into account your personal preferences and bodily requirements. This will help you to lose weight in a safe and healthy way. Obviously you are thinking about long term result which is why it is important to diet in a healthy manner. When you lose weight too fast, it is very difficult to keep it off. Also rapid weight loss can lead to other health problems and is not recommended.

You cannot expect overnight results, as it took you a few months to put the weight on. If you follow a proper diet, it will start to show results, as long as you stay committed. If you try to take the weight off too quick, your hormones can make you more short-tempered and depressed, not how you want to be with your new baby. Malnutrition will make you more susceptible to colds and other illnesses, if you do not get sufficient vitamins and nutrients from a healthy diet.

Because your body has gone through a lot of changes during your pregnancy, it has had to adjust to the additional weight. You need to get your metabolism burning fat again, which means knowing what to eat and when to eat, in order to get your body back to normal and healthy. Once you have found the diet that works to do all this, you will know it is the best one for you.

Every new mother is different so a diet might work very well for one but not at all for another. If you are a new mother and you want to lose your baby fat, you are not alone. Almost all new mothers feel this way and are looking for the best pregnancy diet advice.

You’ll get back to your pre-pregnancy weight, but it may take some time and a good weight loss plan. Research diets before you choose, the more you know about losing baby fat, the easier it will be to do. Fat Loss 4 Idiots at the link below may be just the baby fat diet you’ve been looking for.