A short post on weight control tips

January 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment

One of the effective means of achieving health and fitness is knowing how to manage or control your weight. This is because a controlled weight simply means that one is able to eat balanced meals, healthy foods, and have a regular exercise routine needed to stay fit and healthy. Below are some weight control tips to help you out.

Load up with lots of fluids, especially water

Drink more waterDehydration makes a person lose appetite and can make him or her lose so much weight, which can be harmful to one’s overall health. In order to prevent dehydration, a person is advised to drink lots of fluid, especially water.

Don’t rush when eating

Taking your time while eating can help you relish the food’s flavors well and also helps your body to adjust to the food eaten. Once the satiety signal is sent to your brain, you can now eat smaller amounts of food.

Eat more at daytime and eat less at nighttime

To achieve optimum health and fitness, it is best if you develop the practice of eating bigger meals daytime to have enough time to burn the whole day. At nighttime, people who are controlling their weight should eat smaller meals at nighttime so you can balance the body’s metabolism and burn the unwanted fats and calories.

Posted by Valen | Filed Under Weight control tips 

How to lose weight while eating out

January 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment

After knowing my metabolic type and my daily calories requirement to lose weight, what I need to do next is to create my daily meal plan following the meal planning guide given in The Diet Solution Program.

I’ve tried before following the meal plans from Isabel’s program for a couple of days and felt comfortable, so now it’s time to come up with a full weekly meal plan. This will help me do my grocery shopping and plan my cooking chores in advance.

Of course I don’t cook every day. I still eat out a couple of times each week, particularly during weekends. I know, eating home cooked meals EVERY single day can be pretty boring, huh? So sometimes it’s nice and fun to eat out at a restaurant for a change.

Question is: How to lose weight while eating out? How can you enjoy restaurant foods while at the same time making sure it will not sabotage your weight loss plan? Below are some ‘rules’ to safeguard your weight loss plan…

1. Visit vegetarian restaurants

In order to be on the safe side, visit restaurants which offer only vegetarian meals. This is not to say that non-vegetarian meals are bad. With non-vegetarian restaurants, you have to take extra care to make sure that you are not eating high-calorie or high-fat foods.

As an example, ordinary chicken meat served in most restaurants is usually laden with huge amounts of fat. Lean chicken meat, on the other hand, is good for you, but not all restaurants offer lean chicken meat as part of their menus. With vegetarian restaurants, you will be more likely to end up on the safe side.

2. Let the salad dressing go

Salads are good for quick weight loss, provided no dressings are added. Salads are nothing but raw vegetables in chopped form. Raw vegetables, as you might be aware, help you burn fat by boosting your metabolic rate. However, the salad dressing that is provided in most restaurants is rich in calorie. So whenever you ask for salads, make sure to instruct them to remove the salad dressing from the top.

3. Stay away from buffets

A lot of the foods you see at buffet tables are rich in calorie content. These foods are cooked in bulk with a large amount of oil, thereby not suitable for those who are looking forward to shedding some pounds. If you really want to eat from buffets, make sure you steer clear of fatty foods and choose the salads and other healthier alternatives instead.

4. Control your portions

Check the amount of food you are going to eat before you take that bite. If you think that the food provided to you exceeds your allowed portion control limit, eat according to your portion limit, and then pack the leftovers home as your lunch for the next day. Most restaurants will have boxes for their patrons to pack leftovers.

There is nothing wrong with eating at a restaurant once in while, as long as you know what to eat and how much to eat so that it will not spoil your weight loss plan. So go ahead and appease your taste buds! :)

Posted by Valen | Filed Under Weight loss plan 

Understanding calories

January 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Isabel De Los RiosAs mentioned in my previous post, this post will be about clarifying some questions on calories counting by nutrition expert Isabel De Los Rios, who has also helped many to lose weight and improve their health through The Diet Solution Program. This post will be presented in a Q&A format. Enjoy! :)

==================================================

Q. Is calorie a bad word?

A. No, it’s not bad—just misunderstood! Most people who use the word calorie simply don’t know what it means. Also, in my experience, most people to go pale at the mere mention of the word. Based on those facts alone, I would eliminate calorie from the English vocabulary if I could.

Q. Why is calorie such a misunderstood word?

A. The American public has been told, time and time again, that people who consume more calories than their bodies burn will gain weight. As I explain in The Diet Solution: Start Eating and Start Living, this statement is only partially true. All calories are not created equal; calories consumed from healthy foods and unhealthy foods are quite different.

Q. What exactly is a calorie, then?

A. According to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition), a calorie is “a unit equivalent to the large calorie expressing heat-producing or energy-producing value in food when oxidized in the body.” In plain English, a calorie is a unit of energy released from the food you eat to power the body.

Q. How are calories “burned”?

A. The body needs energy from food—calories—to perform many functions, the most obvious of which are physical activity and exercise. However, the body also requires energy to function at the most basic level: to breathe, digest food, and maintain organs and systems.

Q. How many calories should I eat each day?

A. The short answer is “enough.” The calories you consume must provide enough energy for your body to perform all necessary functions and activities—and bring about optimum health. The long answer is that the number of calories needed varies from person to person and depends on weight, foods consumed, sleep, stress and activity levels, age, and a long list of other factors that affect metabolism. In The Diet Solution: Start Eating and Start Living, I provide a calorie equation to help you estimate, according to these factors, how many calories you should consume to lose weight or maintain weight. It also includes charts to help you choose the right sources of those calories to support your efforts.

Q. Is it possible to eat too few calories?

A. Believe it or not, yes! The most serious problem with low-calorie diets is that although they may bring about weight loss, they also can cause serious health problems. One common side effect of low-calorie diets is muscle breakdown, which can occur when the body doesn’t consume enough calories from protein. Especially vulnerable is the heart, a muscular organ. If a person does not consume an adequate amount of calories each day, the heart muscle begins to break down, possibly leading to serious cardiac conditions (e.g., cardiac atrophy).

Q. What are the consequences of following low-calorie diets off and on over time?

A. Low-calorie diets typically do not supply enough energy to keep organs and systems healthy. In effect, they can lead to malnourishment. For clients who have repeatedly followed such diets, I recommend high-calorie meal plans that will provide their organs with adequate fuel to repair themselves and regain healthy function. Most of my clients are surprised, at first, to see how much food they can consume on a healthy weight-loss diet—not to mention the high level of health that they can achieve.

Q. Hey, wait—didn’t you say that you don’t like the word calorie? Then why does the Diet Solution Program suggest calculating calorie requirements?

A. In the Diet Solution Program, calorie calculation is simply a means to an end. You use the ideal number of calories that results from the equation to determine the correct number of servings of each food type for each meal. That’s it—from that point on, you can forget about counting calories!

Q. If I don’t count calories, then how will I control my eating habits?

A. Use the Allowable Servings Guide in The Diet Solution: Start Eating and Start Living to plan meals. However, over time, you will learn how to meet your body’s nutritional needs without referring to the servings guide. Humans are born with the ability to “know” when the body has received enough nourishment and when it needs more. My professional experience indicates that, unfortunately, most yo-yo dieters and other people who have battled weight problems don’t know how to “listen” to the body’s cues in response to the foods and portions they consume. The good news is that this ability can be (re)learned.

Q. What do you mean by “listen” to my body?

A. The Diet Solution Program is a lifestyle shift that teaches you how to determine the best foods and portions for your metabolic type. Even after just days on the plan, you will learn to pay attention to how you feel after eating. For many people, this experience of “listening” to the body will be new. However, by letting your body be your guide, you will learn how to eat your way to optimum health.

Q. Can I really expect to maintain a healthy weight without counting calories or referring to servings guides or other charts?

A. Yes! It’s how I live my life now, and you, too, can learn to recognize when your body is adequately nourished. After many years of dieting, I reawakened my body’s innate ability to tell me when I’ve had enough food and when I need more by following the same plan I present in the Diet Solution Program. Every day is different; some days I require more food and others less, depending on my levels of exercise, stress, and even hormones. But I don’t need to count calories to know whether I’ve had enough; my body tells me, and I know how to listen. Whatever you do, don’t be lured into the trap of forever counting calories, because that approach is not sustainable—or healthy—in the long term.

==================================================

So, before you start any diet plan, make sure you know the 5 Essential Truths - a FREE report you can claim at The Diet Solution Program website (just scroll all the way down to the bottom and look for ‘Free Report’). You can also learn much more about losing weight, living healthy, and great food in The Diet Solution Program.

Posted by Valen | Filed Under Calories 

« Previous Page — Next Page »