Tag Archives: weight loss

Healthier Eating Plans

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Late night snacking is an element which can ruin your diet. If your time is structured, you will be less likely to think about food. The question is why are so many people tempted to snack late at night?

The first reason is boredom. When the mind isn’t stimulated, it tends to seek pleasure; and eating is a very pleasurable experience.  Here are tips for eating healthy which will prevent those unplanned snacks that can add unwanted calories.

Do not skip dinner. Skipping dinner will set you up for failure. The temptation to eat junk food or whatever is available will become overwhelming when you are very hungry. You can help your weight loss effort tremendously by simply not skipping meals.

Include a light dessert for your dinner. If you love sweets, any light dessert will do. Desserts which are less than 150 calories can easily be added to your diet to give your sweet tooth a real treat. When you are satisfied, you will be less tempted to snack later on at night.

Watch less television. Weight loss certainly won’t come by way of deceptive infomercials. You will also be surprised at how watching television can cause you to snack and generate “out of control” eating. When your mind is not working, boredom unsuspectingly creeps in. And boredom can cause you to want something pleasurable such as food. Further to that, TV commercials, with their tempting portrayals of food constantly coming at you, are notorious for triggering you to start eating again, especially treats which aren’t healthy.

Plan some fun projects. Take note of some projects that you always wanted to do. Using your spare time to do worthwhile chores can help to keep your mind off food. Projects can include helping your kids with homework, sewing, developing some business plans, playing some family games, 30 minutes on the treadmill or stationary bike.

It is hard to believe, but very true that fun and productive projects can help you lose weight in a very healthy way.

Plan your snacks. If you are the type of person that just cannot avoid snacking late at night, then plan 1 or 2 low calorie snacks. Plan something like some sugar free hot chocolate with some light whipped cream or 1/2 bag of light microwave popcorn at the time when you are most vulnerable to eating snacks. This way, you’ll consume only 70 to 100 calories, and do very little damage to your weight loss efforts.

 

John Rifkind is a contributing editor at FitnessHealthArticles.com. This article may be reproduced provided that its complete content, links and author byline are kept intact and unchanged. No additional links permitted. Hyperlinks and/or URLs must remain both human clickable and search engine spiderable.

Weight Loss Programs For Fitness

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Fitness weight loss programs follow the principle that exercise is the first key to effective weight loss. The infamous “fat camps” are one example of this, but the variety available today goes beyond that. The single common denominator they all possess is motion.

Exercise makes your metabolism rise over time, and when coupled with a healthy diet, it allows the body to consume excess calories which are stored as fat. Choose your fitness weight loss program with one idea in mind. You’ll need to like it and you’ll need to see yourself involved in such activities for years to come.

Those poor overweight people who take up running (and dislike it) or throw themselves into high stepping aerobics classes (and also dislike it) will not keep it up for very long and therefore will not realize any benefits from it whatsoever.

They will just recall how awful it is. Had those same individuals started by walking short distances or dancing, their perception would’ve changed. They would’ve considered their efforts as fun, and fun does make a difference.

If becoming overweight took time, so will becoming fit. Walking can in turn lead to running or hiking. Performing five pound dumbbell curls can lead to performing full free weight routines sometime. Cross-country skiing could be an Olympic event, but that does not mean you cannot enjoy a simple shuffle in the snow.

So your fitness program for losing weight requires only two things: fun and possibility over time. Does not that sound a lot more enjoyable already?

 

John Rifkind is a contributing editor at FitnessHealthArticles.com. This article may be reproduced provided that its complete content, links and author byline are kept intact and unchanged. No additional links permitted. Hyperlinks and/or URLs must remain both human clickable and search engine spiderable.

Benefits Of The Atkins Diet

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The Atkins diet is the focus of the following comments from the American Heart Association:

“The Atkins diet puts forward the controversial belief that low fat is not the only way to proceed for a healthier lifestyle and weight control. Dr. Atkins blames carbohydrates (grains, pastas, fruits, potatoes) for weight gain. He believes that if you reduce your carbohydrate intake, you will then lose weight. Too many carbohydrates in your daily diet encourages your body to retain fat.”

When the body absorbs simple carbohydrates quickly, it causes a response of insulin which speeds the conversion of calories into fat. The Atkins plan focuses on the consumption of nutrient-dense, unprocessed foods and vita-nutrient supplementation. The plan also restricts processed and refined carbohydrates (which make up to approximately 50 per cent of people’s diets). It also encourages you to eliminate sugar from your diet as it contributes to a slower metabolism.

The Atkins diet is designed as a program on which you can keep a healthy weight for a lifetime and is highly suitable (but not restricted) to those who prefer to eat animal protein. The diet offers people who have failed on low-fat diets a healthy, effective and safe alternative. Instead of carbohydrates and sugar, dieters are allowed plenty of fat and protein.

Four phases are included on the Atkins diet, they are; 1) Induction, 2) Ongoing Weight Loss, 3) Pre-Maintenance and 4) Lifetime Maintenance.

During Phase 1 (Induction), you are supposed to restrict carbohydrate consumption to 20 grams each day, obtaining your carbohydrate primarily from salad and other non-starchy vegetables.

In Phase 2 (Ongoing Weight Loss), you then increase carbohydrate in the form of nutrient-dense and fibre-rich foods by 20 grams daily in the first week and then 30 grams daily in the next week until you gradually begin to lose weight. Then you subtract 5 grams of carbohydrate from your daily intake so that you continue on your goal of sustained weight loss.

In Phase 3, known as ‘Pre-Maintenance’, you make the transition from weight loss to weight maintenance through increasing the daily carbohydrate intake in 10 gram increments every week.

In the last phase of the Atkins plan (Lifetime Maintenance), you can select from a wide variety of food whilst controlling carbohydrate intake to ensure positive weight maintenance.

Mixed views exist on the Atkins diet, especially amongst health experts and dieticians. Many experts tend to be critical of low-carb diets but have not totally discounted the Atkins diet as an effective method of losing weight. Although they do assert that it’s too early to adopt a low-carb diet, health experts do accept that it’s worth trying. The main criticism of the Atkins diet is that it entails frequent meat consumption.

However, followers argue that the program can indeed be tailored to different preferences and metabolisms. After the first phase (known as the ‘Induction phase’) the Atkins diet plan may be modified. Despite the immense popularity of the diet, the Atkins diet plan continues to leave many people sceptical. Another criticism of the diet is that a person will be unlikely to keep the weight off over the long term. However, this claim can just as easily be applied to many low-fat or low-calorie weight loss plans, on which dieters are likely to feel hungrier.

 

John Rifkind is a contributing editor at FitnessHealthArticles.com. This article may be reproduced provided that its complete content, links and author byline are kept intact and unchanged. No additional links permitted. Hyperlinks and/or URLs must remain both human clickable and search engine spiderable.