Elite Fitness Zone » Nutrition & Diet

Go The Flat Belly Diet!

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:51:09 +0000

We all know we have to follow a healthy diet to lose weight…but oh boy, do we hate diet food! Enter the world of the Flat Belly Diet where you can lose up to 15 pounds in 32 days, while eating chocolate, and wait for it….without exercise. Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? We decided to investigate.The Flat Belly Diet, a top selling diet book, was written by Liz Vaccariello, editor in chief of Prevention, along with Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD, nutrition director at Prevention. We all want flat stomachs don’t we? The main focus area and title of this book is a marketer’s dream, which no doubt helped to push the sales.When you look carefully at The Flat Belly Diet, it really boils down to nothing more than a calorie controlled Mediterranean style diet made easy. The Mediterranean diet has been proven in a number of scientific studies to promote good health and weight loss. The Flat Belly Diet may still become one the most well known diet of its sort yet, as it provides a relatively easy how-to for the Mediterranean Diet.Another appealing feature of the diet is the energy it appears to bring with it. Calling a monounsaturated fat a MUFA almost makes it sound like a fashion accessory, rather than a food type in a diet. Add in the fact that dark chocolate counts as a MUFA and you have a thoroughly fashionable and exciting diet!As far as scientific backing for MUFAs goes, a number of scientific studies to date demonstrated the benefits of including MUFAs into your diet, not only to protect or improve your waistline, but also to improve your general health and mental ability.On The Flat Belly Diet program you are limited to four 400 calorie meals per day. Again, as far as diets go, this is a pretty good limit to set. Most people will lose weight safely and effectively on 1600 calories per day. Every meal must be accompanied by a MUFA. The MUFA will also help keep you satisfied for longer, and it will most definitely make the food taste less like diet food and more like real food.You will start off by following an initial 4 day jump-start program designed to reduce bloating and prepare you mentally before you start the Flat Belly Diet. During the jump-start program you will be limited to between 1,200- to 1400-calories, and you will have to drink 2 litres of “sassy water”, a blend of water, herbs, spices, citrus and cucumber, every day. After the jump start phase you will feel less lethargic, less bloated and less constipated.In keeping with the Mediterranean style diet the second phase (duration 28 days) focus on (aside from MUFAs) plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, beans, seeds and lean protein. As mentioned earlier each meal is accompanied by a MUFA belonging to one of 5 groups: nuts, oils and seeds, olives, avocados and dark chocolate. Red meat is allowed on rare occasions, maybe once a month.Aside from the book, the Flat Belly Diet also offers a dieters web-site that provides tools assistance and support. The online program allows for the customization of members’ calorie needs based on age, sex, height, weight and activity level. While the program does not require participants to exercise, it does encourage it in the interest of better weight loss and health results.In our experience, if you lose 15 pounds in 32 days, a large percentage of this will be water weight. You may find that despite claims of huge losses, you still only lose at a rate of approximately 1-2 pounds per week, the rate generally recommended by health experts anyway. To reiterate the view expressed earlier; this is a calorie-controlled, Mediterranean-style diet plan meaning you will lose weight (all over and not necessarily just around the midsection) safely and effectively.Still, if this diet allows you to have your chocolate and lose weight – why not just go for it?No matter which diet or weight management plan you follow, measuring and monitoring your progress is crucial to your success. At OptimalBodyWeight.com you’ll find a free tool to help you do just that. It is jam-packed with lots of cool features and all the functionality you will ever need to help you on your diet journey.

Solid And Effective: The South Beach Diet

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:51:06 +0000

As a practicing cardiologist Dr Arthur Agatson was getting more and more frustrated when his patients failed to lose weight. They were faithfully following the standard, low-fat American Heart Association diet on his advice, with no results. He noticed that, not only didn’t they lose weight, but their blood chemistry did not improve. The results he was looking for was an increase in HDL (good cholesterol) and a decrease in LDL (bad cholesterol). Eventually, he developed a new diet specifically for his patients, which later became the basis for his best seller book, The South Beach Diet, which was first published in April 2003. The South Beach Diet was on the New York Times best seller list for more than 96 consecutive weeks, and in excess of 8.5 million copies have been printed. The book was listed as #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list for 38 weeks.Like many other so-called “low carb” diets, the South Beach Diet assumes that many of us are addicted to carbohydrate-rich foods. The South Beach Diet is very similar to the Atkins Diet. They are so similar that many people believe the South Beach Diet is just a revised version of the Atkins Diet. The first phases for both diets are designed to get rid of the body’s addition to carbohydrates. Where the Atkins Diet has four phases, the South Beach Diet only has three, with a single phase replacing the second and third phases of Atkins. The last phases of both diets, again, are very similar. Since greater variety of foods are introduced earlier on in the South Beach Diet Plan, dieters tend to lose weight at a slightly slower pace than those on Atkins, but many find the South Beach Diet easier to follow because it is less restrictive.This diet focuses heavily on balancing the blood sugar levels, and as such, the Glycemic Index plays a very important role in this diet. The Glycemic Index is a ranking system for carbohydrates based on their effect on blood sugar. On the South Beach Diet, carbohydrates are selected using the Glycemic Index tables; the lower the ranking the better. This also leads us to one of the South Beach Diet’s major differences from the Atkins diet. The South Beach Diet allows most carbohydrates (preferably only those high in fiber, like multi-grain bread and wild rice), while these products are typically just too high in carbohydrates for an Atkins follower, even on the maintenance phase.Another area where the approaches of Atkins and Agatston differ quite drastically is on the healthy intake of fats. Atkins followers are encouraged to ingest saturated and monounsaturated fats in the first phase, and then gradually reduce the saturated fat content of meals during later phases as more carbohydrates are introduced. Dr. Agatston advocates mostly monounsaturated fats, like those found in olive oil, nuts and oily fish like salmon, throughout his diet. You will not find butter, bacon or anything fried in the South Beach meal plans, whereas they are positively encouraged during the first Atkins phases.One of the benefits of the South Beach Diet over many of its competitors is that Kraft Foods entered into an alliance with Dr Agatston. Together they launched a whole range of South Beach Diet convenience products, which covers breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert and even snacks. Examples of the convenience food on offer include breakfast cereal, meal replacement bars, frozen pizzas and frozen entrees. Dr Agatston once stated “My goal is to help change the way America eats, and these great-tasting, nutrient-rich products from Kraft are convenient, making it easier for people to follow The South Beach Diet – whether for a healthy lifestyle or weight loss.”As with many of the other popular diet books on the market, it is very difficult to find specific scientific proof for the South Beach Diet. Some aspects of the diet may have been scientifically studied and reviewed, for example the benefits of monounsaturated fats, or the benefits of regulating your blood sugar. In general though, it is safe to say that the South Beach Diet is based on sound principles, and can offer you a well-balanced and sustainable way of life.

Why You Should’Nt Try The 3 Day Diet

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 12:51:37 +0000

The 3 Day Diet Plan, Reviewed!Hello my name is William Messruther and I am a dieting consultant. I have been specialising in this field for around 6 years now and I focus my studies on fad diets, wether they work and the effects they can have on your body. For the next few weeks I will be writing articles for as many different fad diets as I can find myself. Here is my first installment, talking about the 3 day diet plan.The 3 day diet seems to be one of the most popular short-term fad diets these days. It offers fast weight loss of about 10lbs within the 3 days, and is based on a low carb diet and a calorie intake of around 1000c per day. The diet promises fast weight loss, lower cholesterol, cleansing and increased energy, however there is no real proof available of these said ‘facts’. This is probably why it appeals to so many people! Unfortunately, this weight loss is due to an immediate drop in calorie intake, some of which is fat and most of it is water loss. Due to this i’m sorry to say that most people put this weight back on soon after!The diet is rather strict in what you can eat and drink and you must stick to it precisely and portions must be adhered to to get the results. The combination of the select foods apparently creates a metabolic reaction which boosts fat burning, however there is no documentation to back this up! The diet is supplemented with a strict 3 day eating plan and in addition dieters must drink 4 cups of water or zero-calorie drinks, an example of this is, for one day;breakfastblack coffee or tea with 1or2 sachets of sweet&low or equivalent1/2 a grapefruit or juice1 piece of toast with light spreading of peanut butterLunchblack coffee or tea with 1or2 sachets of sweet&low or equivalent1/2 a cup of tuna1 piece of toastDinner3ounce of lean meat or chicken1 cup of green beans and 1 cup of carrots1 apple1 cup of regular ice creamThis doesn’t seem so bad I hear you saying, so now i’ll tell you how wrong you actually are! With such a low calorie and nutrient intake you will feel hungry all the time making this diet hard to stick too. On top of that you will feel tired and depressed. The biggest danger this diet imposes is that you do the 3 day dieting then go back to eating normally, while cutting out junk food, then back on the 3 day diet and so on. This causes a side effect called “Y0-y0″ weight loss meaning you are constantly up and down in weight and harming your metabolism. This ultimately makes it harder in the long run to lose weight and keep it off. Oh, and one other thing, expect to have bad wind a LOT while on this diet – you may want to keep those office windows open!!So there you have it. My verdict is that I seriously do not recommend this diet because of the side effects it poses. This is a fast weight loss solution, not a healthy weight loss solution, and even worse, not a long term option! If you are serious about healthy long term weight loss, visit my diet review website at http://www.simpledietreview.com

Three day tuna diet fast becoming today?s favorite crash diet

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:54:42 +0000

Are you desperately looking for the fastest way you can find to take off a quick 10 to 15 pounds or more? You have that wedding,sea side vacation or fancy dance just around the corner and you just have to fit into that slinky size 6 black dress; you just bought. You have heard about the 3 day tuna diet and believe it’s just what you’re looking for. Hold on, there are some things you need to know before jumping on that diet fast.It’s very true the three day tuna diet has fast become one of today’s favorite quick weight loss diet. Many people think that because the time frame of the diet is short there is no health risk. The truth is that when people use this type of low calorie diets they are adversely affecting their metabolism. Essentially this means that by using this diet you are setting yourself up for later weight gain and very possibly more weight than you lost.One of the primary reasons that this diet isn’t healthy is because it is essentially a starvation diet. If you add up all the calories allotted for a day’s meal you only get 978. Eating this few calories will put you in starvation mood within the first day.You will know when your body begins starvation mood soon after beginning the three day tuna diet. You will begin to feel sluggish and not want to do activities you normally would. You will begin to feel cold no matter how many blankets you use. In some cases people have reported dreaming about food and having food dancing in front of them when awake. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms your body is probably in starvation mood.In addition the 3 day tuna diet has such a low calorie count that it is close to being a VLCD, or very low calorie diet. This diet gives the illusion of lasting for three days. The truth is you are on and off the diet for a full month. For the most part the foods that you eat on the three day tuna diet aren’t balanced and therefore will most likely not help you lose any permanent weight. You are allowed some small amounts of fish and chicken, some peanut butter, a few vegetables and an apple for dinner. If you consider that, you then end your day with ice-cream; you can clearly see this is not a healthy diet choice.You need to be aware the refined carbohydrates, which make up a large portion of the three day tuna diet have very little if any nutritional value. Food cravings are increased when you have so few calories but have breads and sugars. The reason for this is that there is a hike in the production of insulin when we eat these carbs.When you decide to use low calorie diets like this diet you are setting yourself up for food cravings. Even if you do make it through the three days every week, you are likely to consume unhealthy foods during the four day period, in which you are free to eat what you want. Studies done as far back as the 1970s, show that the average dieter will ultimately gain up to eight pounds in the weeks after the diet.There are various diets that are geared towards weight loss. Some of these diets can be good ways to lose weight while others focus on eliminating healthy foods and calories. The 3 day tuna diet may drop pounds in the beginning but in the end you will most likely gain the weight back you lost and more.Healthy weight loss is not fast,but it’s permanent weight loss.You can take off weight and keep it off with a Glycemic Index Based Diet Plan.For healthy weight loss,its the only way to lose weight

Low Carb Diets That Work- Don’t Make This Bad Mistake With A Low Carb Diet

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:51:54 +0000

I must confess that I have always been a fan of low carb diets that work. My personal training clients are constantly coming to me for advice on diets, and frequently I will suggest a low carb diet. Unfortunately, some of them don’t heed ALL of my directions while on the diet. The result being that they experience frequent plateaus, and inconsistent weight loss. I generally discover that most of them are making this one big mistake!

During the course of just about any diet, there are periods of time when an individual is following the plan, and not losing any weight. These frustrating periods of time are commonly referred to as a plateau.

Most plateaus are caused by fluid retention, particularly if the intake of sodium (salt) IS NOT reduced while on the diet. Water is quite frequently retained right beneath the surface of the skin.

On most low carb diets that work, dieters tend to lose a great amount of water weight during the initial stages of the diet. Generally, during the first 2 weeks or so. The reason for this fluid loss is that carbohydrates act as a “dam” for body fluids. When carbohydrates are drastically reduced, the body “dumps” water that had been retained in body tissues.

However, after this initial loss of water weight, dieters notice that their weight loss dramatically decreases. In fact, their weight may increase a bit! This is caused by the body’s need to take back the water that was lost during the initial stages of the diet.

The mistake that these dieters generally make is not drinking enough water when starting the low carb diet. This is also true of low carb diets that work. Dieters MUST drink at least 8, full glasses of water daily, to curtail fluid retention.

It is interesting that consuming more water PREVENTS water being held. This occurs because the kidneys are working “overtime”, constantly releasing water.

3 Simple Tips For Uncovering Crash Diets That Work

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:50:42 +0000

One of the most popular requests I receive from my personal training clients is to help them find crash diets that work. Most of them are aware that care has to be taken when going on any diet, much less a crash diet. Many of my clients have had little or no success with traditional diet programs, so I point them in the direction of crash diets by giving them these 3 tips.

1) Participate In Online Forums

Finding online forums that focus on weight loss is very simple to do. Simply type “forums” and “weight loss”, in to the Google search box. Literally hundreds of online forums will appear on the organic listings pages. Definitely, concentrate your efforts on the organic listings, which appear on the left hand side of the search results. The search results on the right hand side are for paid advertising.

Read the search results listings, and simply start investigating forums that seem interesting to you. When you discover a suitable forum, introduce yourself and mention that you are interested in crash diets that work. You will probably have to start a new thread, which is a new topic for members to post threads on.

2) Rely On “Good Ole” Google Again!

This time, however, you are going to type in either “crash diets that work”, or “crash diets reviews”. Another possibility is to perform a search on “new diets.”

Again, look over the search results on the left hand side. When you find a particular diet plan that seems attractive, make a note of the name of the diet and perform a Google search on that name.

You should get lots of specific feedback on that particular diet!

3) Magazines

Magazine editors realize the popularity of new and exciting weight loss programs and diets. Just go to your nearest magazine rack and glance through the covers of some of the more popular women’s magazines. You should find LOTS of new diet programs and ideas. Remember to discuss the diet with your doctor before you begin.

So, why crash diets that work?

Top 10 Diet Tips For Weight Loss Success

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:51:17 +0000

Perform a search for the word diet on Google and you’ll find 175,000,000 results. Run the same diet search on Yahoo and you’ll be presented with 118,000,000 suggested sites. The popular auction site eBay has more than 26,321 diet items for sale. Finally, searching for diet on myspace.com will reel in page after page of people interested in, confused about, and seeking answers for dieting.

With the staggering array of diet pills and diet plans on the market today, it’s should come as no surprise that most people are perplexed about which diet product is right for them. Approximately two-thirds of our population is overweight, and statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that 80 percent of overweight individuals and almost 87 percent of obese individuals are trying to lose or maintain their weight. In other words, there are literally millions of Americans seeking diet tips and advice they can trust.

That’s why we’ve created this list of top 10 diet tips. As personal trainers and health club owners, our goal is to offer you sound advice on how to achieve permanent weight loss with a healthy diet program. We’re not pushing any particular diet food, diet supplement or weight loss program. Instead, our goal is to provide you with some of the best weight loss information available.

1. Our first diet tip is also our most important. We strongly encourage you to seek medical advice before beginning any diet and nutrition program. This is good advice for anyone beginning a new exercise program, as well. Nobody but your own personal physician is qualified to give you the expert advice you need to make intelligent decisions about healthy weight loss, so first and foremost get some medical advice before starting any diet.

2. Our second diet tip is to look for all the free advice on dieting you can find. Be aware that the best, most reliable health advice will come from people actually working in the industry – NOT from marketers and salespeople. With this in mind, seek tips on losing weight from doctors, nutritionists and gym owners. Be wary of health tips from marketers who are solely interested in selling you a product or plan. The ulterior motive to sell may make their weight loss tips questionable.

3. Realize that if a diet has gained national exposure, it has probably worked for someone. However, just because a diet has worked for someone else doesn’t mean it will work for you. Just as legal advice and dating tips must vary from person to person, diets are not a one-size-fits-all commodity either. So when your relative or co-worker gushes about the great new online diet they’re on, check it out before you jump on the bandwagon. What works for them may not work for you.

4. Try many different diet recipes to decide which you like best. People enjoy different foods, and finding a diet recipe that pleases everyone is like trying to give the same relationship advice to every couple on the planet. It just won’t work. Attempting to force yourself to eat foods you don’t like, just because they’re low in calories, will only lead to frustration and failure. A much better approach is to experiment with diet recipes until you find the perfect match for you.

5. Our fifth diet tip is to avoid weight loss pills and prescription diet pills that may be unsafe or even deadly. Although some diet drugs are completely safe and effective, others (like Meridia and Phen-Fen) have surprised users with serious side effects. The promise of fast weight loss isn’t worth the risk to your health, so be cautious with weight loss drugs and other weight loss supplements.

6. Good financial advice always mandates that you journal your expenses in order to find out where your money is going. In the same way, you should start keeping a journal of everything you eat. Everything! This is one tip on losing weight that is guaranteed to work for virtually everybody. It turns out that just a bite here and a taste there really adds up, and keeping a diet journal will open your eyes to how many calories you’re actually getting. Armed with this information, you’ll know where to cut and trim to lose weight.

7. Join a support group. Some of the best weight loss tips and diet advice isn’t found in a book, but comes from other people just like you. Joining a diet support group like PRISM or TOPS can make all the difference when your willpower starts to fade and you’re tempted to throw in the towel. Whether you’re swapping Weight Watcher recipes or discussing the new diet patch on the market, a support group can be a tremendous help as you write your own weight loss success story.

8. Set realistic expectations. All the doctor advice on dieting suggests that, if you’re experiencing healthy weight loss, then you should be losing no more than 1 to 2 pounds per week. Lose weight any faster than that and you’re likely losing muscle tissue and water weight instead of just fat. This is one of the worst things you can do when you’re trying to achieve permanent fat loss. So forget the infomercials that promise you quick weight loss without any effort, because that’s just not true. Focus instead on achieving your ideal weight with a healthy diet and nutrition weight loss plan.

9. A diet tip that you may not expect requires you to eat more often. That’s right! Consume small high-protein and low fat snacks every 3 to 4 hours and you’ll keep hunger pangs away all day. This will go a long way towards eliminating the binges that are so tempting during a diet. Following this advice will also keep your blood sugar stable throughout the day, giving you more energy and preventing the ‘crash’ many experience when dieting.

10. Finally, remember that any weight loss diet must include regular exercise to be effective. It’s a proven fact that when you diet without exercising, up to fifty percent of the weight you lose may actually be muscle loss. Losing muscle is the absolute worst thing you can do when you’re trying to lose weight fast because for every pound of muscle you forfeit you actually lower your metabolic rate by about fifty calories. In other words, losing muscle makes it harder for you to lose body fat. With this in mind, coupling regular exercise with your diet plan makes success much more likely.

Take these diet tips to heart and you’ll soon be well on your way to weight loss success. Good luck, and we’ll see you at the gym.

Life Is One Damn Diet After Another

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 12:50:58 +0000

A common expression is that we’re “going on a diet.” The phrase suggests that, like a vacation trip, there is a beginning and an end. We dream of the day we will reach our weight goal and how wonderful it will be when we don’t have to lead a life of painful deprivation.

In the back of our minds, there is a comforting little tape playing, promising us that when our weight loss campaign is over, we’ll be able to stop counting calories, carbohydrates, or fats. We long for the day when we no longer have to clench our teeth as we refuse a favorite dish that always causes us to salivate in our sleep. We reach for the carrot and celery sticks without anticipation or enthusiasm while torturing ourselves with visions of the special treats we’ll enjoy when the diet is over.

Uh, hello?

Allowing ourselves to think of a diet as a delineated, restricted period within our total life span is a sure avenue back to tent city (that refers to what we wear, not where we live). To have any hope of attaining permanent weight control, we must approach it as a lifelong effort, watching our intake day after day, week after week, year after year.

You feel your heart sinking in your chest. You think “If I have to live like this all the time, it’s just not worth it!” That little voice promises you that you are different. You can relax because now you know how to lose weight, you can do it anytime you want. Gain five pounds and you’ll go back on your diet and be back to goal in no time at all.

But you won’t! Think back over your chequered weight history. We all believe that once our weight is down, it will be so easy to go on a short diet if we gain back a few pounds. It doesn’t work that way, though, does it? We start gaining a pound here and a pound there, but then there are some special events coming up and a diet would be so inconvenient. We don’t go back “on” our diet until we’ve gained enough weight to develop the self-disgust that warrants a new period of serious deprivation. We have become a full-fledged member of the yo-yo club, that vast majority of dieters who cannot keep the weight off for more than a few weeks.

The reasons we go “on” and “off” diets are numerous: they are boring, depressing, and very uncomfortable. They set us apart from friends, family, and coworkers who continue to snack, to feast, and to celebrate. We resent how diets make us feel and how they impact our daily lives.

Let’s look at the whole picture from a different perspective for a minute.

Instead of “a diet” envision a way of eating that involves living on a diet for the rest of your life. While the prospect may appall you, don’t say you can’t do it just yet.

First, consider another wide-spread concept many of us accept. To lose substantial weight in a relatively short time, we need to select the diet that seems to fit us and then stay with it, religiously, until we’ve reached our goal.

Let’s now take these two concepts, squish them together, and then turn them upside down.

We are not “going on a diet.” We are starting our diet-for-life. We then pick a diet, any diet at all, and make the commitment to stick with that diet for one week, and one week only. At the end of the week, we are going to pick an entirely different diet to which again we only commit for a one week period. This continues for virtually the rest of our lives with selected diets changing on a weekly basis.

What does this accomplish? A whole bunch of things:

1.

By selecting a different diet each week, it removes those common misgivings that maybe we should have gone in a different direction. We worry that we’re not getting the right nutrients or that we’re going to get sick or develop a rare disease. We read the diet ratings and panic at the warnings posted for all the popular programs. With our new approach, you don’t have to fret about if you made a good or bad choice because you’ll be making a new choice in a week.

2.

If there are particularly painful “No-Nos” in this week’s diet, resolve to try something next week that allows a currently forbidden fruit. For example, a primarily protein regimen has been found successful for many participants who often lose five or ten pounds in a week. However, they miss the vegetables and salad they enjoy. The next week could then be a vegetables and salad only routine, also successful for rapid weight loss but a bit lean on the protein you body needs for self-repair.

You may then find yourself craving some good bread so you switch to the Subway diet for a week until your craving is satisfied. Move on to something completely different – the cabbage soup diet or liquid shakes. Since there are literally thousands of diets, a few are bound to include the food you crave.

You are never more than a week away from having what you feel you absolutely must have in order to keep going. You can include spartan fad diets that move fat quickly and you can include calorie counting or Weight Watcher diets that allow almost anything so long as you adjust your intake to stay within the totals specified.

3.

The frequent changes in your eating patterns keep your body off-balance. Give the body enough time and advance notice and it will adapt to anything, turning protein into carbohydrates and storing even low calorie carbohydrates as little pockets of fat. By totally changing what you eat on a regular basis, the body gives up trying to figure out how to thwart you and spends its time efficiently processing what you give it. You are effectively using your smart little mind to outmaneuver your smart not-so-little body.

4.

The constant changes force you to buy food in smaller packages. It’s pointless and wasteful to buy those family packs of anything. That will help you with overall portion reduction, a must for any serious dieter. Your shopping goal is only to purchase items that you can consume within a week. If you see something that you particularly want but is not on your allowed list, make a mental note to find a diet for next week that can accommodate it.

5.

The need for a new diet each week requires that you read and research a lot of diets. The reading acts as reinforcement for your goals and will assure your continuing education on nutrition and fitness. When you see something that intrigues you or just makes a lot of sense, try it out. Perhaps one week will involve barely restricted eating but require a lot of exercise. Go for it – it’s only a week.

6.

You are in the happy position of having wide choices available but also the needed structure of an organized plan to follow. The regimented eating is within each week’s diet; the power of choice is operative when you decide what the next week’s program will be.

7.

Can you stay on a diet permanently? Yes, you can, because you’re not restricting yourself from anything for life, just for a week at a time. Should you stay on a diet for the rest of your life? Yes, you probably should as long as you are getting a balance of foods from an intelligent mixing of alternative diet plans. If you like one diet more than another, or if one particular program works exceptionally well for you, by all means cycle that diet into your routine on a regular basis. Just make sure you don’t use the same plan more than once a month or your body is going to be ready for it and Zap! you find it no longer works so well.

8.

Can you over-diet? We have all seen (although they seem to be harder to find these days) overly thin, cadaverous dieters with sunken cheeks and loose skin. That can be avoided by making your selected diets very diverse so you are never without needed nutrients for very long. For example, many retirement homes and assisted living co-ops produce thin seniors with pallid skin and protruding abdomens. Replace their mushy, high starch meals with any of the myriad high protein and vegetable-fruit diets and their color will improve, their energy increase, and their tummies fade.

9.

Can you ever be too thin? Visit an eating disorder facility and you will see the results of anorexia nervosa, not a pretty sight and highly dangerous from a medical standpoint. If you have a history of overweight, you may tell yourself that being too thin will never be in the cards for you. However, there are not infrequent cases of the perennial heavy who becomes anorexic through dieting too much with resulting anxiety about gaining back even an ounce of the flesh so painfully discarded. If you have a distorted body image, and reliable friends are concerned about your being too thin, get professional help.

10.

It all comes down to using your brain intelligently. When you are at your heaviest, with the most to lose, the logical choice is a rather spartan program that will get the fat moving quickly. As you lose, more moderate programs can be interspersed so that your skin and cheeks have a chance to adjust and fill in as your weight stores become redistributed. If a particular part of your body is resistant to reduction, exercise may become a more important part of your plan than simply a dietary approach. Once you are hovering at your ideal weight, simple calorie counting or support group involvement may be all you need.

The secret is to be rational about it all and use that wonderful mind of yours to set the program for your not-so-intelligent body with its insatiable appetite and poundage conservation cravings. Don’t try to cheat unless you want to cheat yourself and then be honest and admit that, for whatever reason there is, you want to avoid further weight loss. When you want and need to lose fifty pounds, an ice cream and chocolate diet is not rational. When you are at ideal weight or below, a stringent fad diet makes no sense.

Will all this mixing of diets result in consistent weight loss? There is never consistency in weight loss because there are just too many factors involved: water retention, digestive inefficiencies, the amount of energy expended, and individual body quirks. Over time, you will lose steadily but there will always be some ups and downs along the way.

Once the concept of “going on a diet” has been discarded, a lifelong eating plan can be embraced, guaranteed to leave you in control of your weight for the rest of your long slender life.

Dangers of South Beach Diet

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:51:45 +0000

The South Beach Diet is considered to be a healthy diet, which is concerned on the right carbohydrates and the right fats for a healthy body. As such, many people were drawn to it believing that the South Beach Diet is really the best diet for them.

However, out of this good reputation that the South Beach Diet maintained, still there are some attacks and bad comments about the diet. Well, we don’t need to be surprised about this, for this is how the world is set.

What then is the importance of the principle of “yin and yang” if there is only one side for everything? There could be biases, prejudices, and imbalances, right?

So, even though there is really no noted “big” South Beach Diet danger, still there are certain resources which hold that the South Beach Diet danger surface when the improper application of the diet is made.
Lack of Information and Understanding

Numerous resources have noted that part of the South Beach Diet is the lack of information or understanding about the diet. From the word “lack” alone, a sort of South Beach Diet danger is then viewed.

According to many studies, the South Beach Diet danger surfaced for the reason that the South Beach Diet is very demanding for those that are accustomed to carbohydrate-rich diets.
Lapsing Into the Old Eating Habits

In line with such view for the South Beach Diet danger, it is also noted that one of the largest South Beach Diet dangers surface when there is a lapsing into the old eating habits.

This was considered to be a South Beach Diet danger for the reason that this lapsing will result in speedy weight gain. Along with that, this part of the South Beach Diet danger may then be a new way of life.
Lack of Willpower

In relation to such fact, another support states that a great South Beach Diet danger will also surface when there is a lack of willpower exerted for the diet, especially from the carbohydrates lovers.

In fact, it is a common view that there is always the South Beach Diet danger of lapsing back into old eating habits and increasing the carbohydrate consumption without even realizing it.
Steps To Overcome These South Beach Diet Dangers

So to battle this one of the common South Beach Diet dangers, Dr. Arthur Agatston himself recommends that the dieters who do lapse and end up on placing some of the weight back on should then be immediately switch back to the first phase of the South Beach Diet for a short while.

This recommendation is given not only to battle such South Beach Diet danger but also to prevent from the occurrence of several South Beach Diet dangers. It is also interesting to know that if this South Beach Diet danger is not prevented earlier, this will lead to an excess in weight gain.

With such mentioned possible South Beach Diet dangers, the South Beach Diet then received mixed reviews from most dieters. Despite the South Beach Diet dangers, many people still consider the South Beach Diet as an updated version of the Atkins diet that is a far more balanced diet.

Only one thing that this diet plan does do is really to educate the dieters in eating the correct food to reduce heart disease, high cholesterol levels, and other South Beach Diet dangers.

Weight Loss Programs – Which Diet Is Best ?

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:51:14 +0000

We are lucky to live in an age when information is readily available to help us find a solution to almost any problem that we may be facing. Healthy weight loss is a perfect example of this. There are many weight loss programs that will suit almost any type of person and their lifestyle.
An important thing to consider when choosing the right program is to find one that educates you long term on how to lose weight and keep it off for good. Below are some of the most popular weight loss programs on the market today:
The Diabetes Diet:
The Diabetes diet is not so much a diet as an education on what foods are healthy and what foods cause the diabetic to have an increase in glucose in the blood. Each person differs in the way that their body and metabolism burns up glucose, so the diabetic diet differs among those who use it. The Diabetic diet is less like a diet and more like a healthy weight loss program that can be used by anyone who wants to benefit from a healthier lifestyle.
The South Beach Diet:
The South Beach diet is known as one of the most popular, healthy weight loss diets of our time. A cardiologist named Dr Arthur Agatston, at a hospital in South Beach, created this diet. He originally developed the diet for patients who were overweight and had heart problems. Dr Agatston has been quoted as saying that the South Beach Diet is not a low carb eating plan or a low fat eating plan, but you can be assured that it is both healthy and really works.
NutriSystem Nourish Program:
The Nutri System Nourish Program works by controlling the foods that you eat, as well as your portions. There are a few good things about this diet. The first is that the food is already prepared and shipped right to your front door – healthy weight loss without the dishes, much like Jenny Craig. The other benefit of the NutriSystem Nourish Program is that it is very affordable, even if you are not a Hollywood star.
The Zone Diet:
Barry Sears PhD created the Zone Diet and according to recent studies, it has been found to be the most successful diet from among such diets as the Atkins diet and other high carb, low fat diets. The diet itself is said to be quite tricky to understand and works on a formula of 40% carbs and 30% of both protein and fats, for every meal. If you can understand the Zone diet, you will have a great success rate from being on it.
The Atkins Diet:
The Atkins Diet has been around since the 70s when Dr. Robert Atkins wrote the book, The New Diet Revolution. This diet became very popular a few years ago, but that popularity is beginning to dwindle. The Atkins Diet works on the principal that you are allowed to eat proteins and fat, but must avoid eating carbs in your eating plan.
This particular way of eating has created a lot of controversy and the results have been mixed. It is said that the Atkins Diet is not for everyone, but research suggests that many people have achieved short-term weight loss from this diet.
Negative Calorie Diet Plan:
This program is said to be a fad diet that is a thinly disguised low calorie diet. The Negative Calorie Diet works by eating foods that take more calories to digest than what they contain. There have been mixed results with the Negative Calorie Diet Plan, but, as a rule, many people have had a short-term weight loss solution on this diet.
The Three-Day Diet:
The three-day diet claims that those using it will lose up to 10 pounds in 3 days by sticking to the meal plan for the three days. It is based on a very low calorie-eating plan. A low calorie plan can be of little use for shedding pounds if used over a longer period than three days because, after this time, your body will begin a starvation mode and slow down your metabolism. Because the diet is based on a low calorie-eating plan, you may also feel drained of energy and hungry. This may cause many people to stop using this eating plan.
There are many other weight loss programs or diets that can help you lose weight, however it is always best to check with your doctor first before changing your eating habits or taking any diet pills.