photo taken from cancersrisk.com

Some people believe that you will trim down more quickly if you have a high metabolism. You should know that metabolism’s job is plainly to process the food that you eat and turn it into energy.

You are fortunate enough if you have a fast metabolism because your body can burn more quickly. But if you have a slow metabolism then the intensity of burning the food that you take is reduced leaving more food there to be potentially turned into fat.

For this reason a lot of people look for something they could use as metabolism booster in the food that they eat and the exercise that they take.

You need to look at encouraging your metabolism to work faster and harder if you want to lose weight faster.
In order to pull this off you need to kind of trick your metabolism. It won’t change right there and then but if you combine foods that are metabolism booster and exercise at the same time will help you experience fast metabolism even if your natural one is slow. Just give it a try and you’ll find out for yourself what the weight loss benefits will be with a faster and sleeker metabolism!
The following are few tips you can do to speed up your metabolism:
• Eat right foodstuff. Metabolism boosters include vegetables and fruits, sources of lean protein like whole grains, lean meat and fish, eggs, and healthy fats. Eat these kinds of foods and your metabolism goes faster.
• Eat the right amounts of the right foodstuff. Eat smaller portions and a slow metabolism has less to work with. If you’re eating metabolism boosters and it is therefore working faster in any case, then what you eat will go into energy and not into fat production. Eating smaller portions means less available to be leftover and stored. Your body has to utilize what it gets.
• Eat the right amounts of the right foodstuff, more often. Eat smaller portions more often as well and your metabolism will be trained to work more regularly. It will have less to process between meals and therefore less to turn to fat. Give it only as much as it needs, or a bit less if you want to burn fat off as well.
• Eat the right amounts of the right foodstuff, more often and get some extra exercise as well. The more exercise you get, the more energy your body needs. Take some exercise and even a slow metabolism will speed up enough to start to use your fat stores to burn for the extra energy you need.
Any person can boost their metabolism rate if they want to. This may be one of the simplest ways of getting to your ideal weight and ending fat production and storage in its tracks. Then, see if this works for you.

The Atkins diet plan, restricts the dieter to eat carbohydrate rich foods such as breads, pasta, starchy vegetables, as well as cakes and cookies. Having a grasp of the plan’s complete diet info ensures a dieter to shed off extra pounds while maintaining good health. A typical day of an Atkins diet consists of a fried egg and bacon plus a cup of cup of decaffeinated coffee with single cream for breakfast. For lunch, the Atkins diet plan allows a meal of chicken breast topped with melted mozzarella and 170 grams mixed lettuce leaves tossed with olive oil. During dinner, an 8oz pan fried rump steak is served with 80 grams of spinach that is topped with soured cream. The dieter also eats 2 slices of ham as a snack. The whole day’s meal supplies the dieter with an overall 1245 calories, 75 grams of fat (34 grams of which is saturated), 129 grams of protein, 6 grams of carbohydrates, and 4 grams of fiber.

Being low in calorie, the menu would normally result to a weight loss of approximately 1-2 lbs weekly and since the meal plan allows the dieter to consume various servings of protein, the dieter continues to feel healthy and energized.

Fad and crash diets, such as the ones described above are not only unhealthy but they also cause rebound weight gain. Also most diets, even though diet gurus write them, cause an initial weight loss but the ultimate result is that you gain all of the weight back the minute you go off the plan. If you don’t gain it back within a couple of diets, you are likely to gain it all back plus a bit more within a year.

Crash diets dehydrate you, low calorie diets put your body into starvation mode so you plateau so you can’t lose one more pound and high protein diets stress your kidneys and clog your arteries.

So how does one lose weight? There is only one answer to this question.

You need to expend more calories than you are taking in. Restricting certain foods, eating so-called fat burning foods, or dehydrating yourself with special pills or teas does not do it. It is simple math. The only way is to eat a little less and exercise a little more. Here is the equation below:

Eating Less + Exercising More = Weight Loss.

This is not a magical formula, it is just logic. It is also not a fast way to lose weight. As I have mentioned before, this is not an article about how to lose ten pounds in three days or 30 pounds in a month. It is about safe, healthy weight loss.

In order to lose weight quickly and safely and without putting yourself at risk for such health hazards as dehydration, kidney failure, malnutrition, exhaustion, nervous dysfunction, tooth loss, dull hair, wrinkles, cellulite, sudden heart failure or stroke and lose the weight so that it stays off, you should lose no more than approximately two pounds a week!

Although that might not sound like a large amount of weight to lose it actually is! If you lose 2 pounds a week that means you can achieve a weight loss of ten pounds a month! If you only have twenty pounds to lose then your weight loss is not only quite rapid, but you have the extra guarantee that it will stay off because you have followed a sensible exercise plan that did not involve starving, exhausting or depriving yourself. If you are willing to drop your impatience and desire for immediate gratification and stick to an exercise plan and healthy eating habits, then a Mediterranean Diet is for you. Remember being slim is only good if you are able to enjoy it!

Do You Need to Lose Weight?

Fascination with Fat

If you want to lose weight, you first need to assess whether you need to actually lose weight or are simply a fashion victim. Unfortunately this society is fascinated with fat – who has it and who doesn’t. As we are persuaded by so many images in the media that persuade us to believe that you can never be too thin, many of us are bad judges of our actual body weight.

If you are under the age of eighteen and reading this book, the first thing you need to do is consult with your parent about your plans to lose weight. Have her make an appointment with a physician so that he can indicate to you whether or not you are a candidate for weight loss.

If you are an adult, it is possible that you may not be overweight and are just trying to be, as Bridget Jones put it in Bridget Jones Diary “a stick insect with eyelashes.” It is also very possible that you know you need to lose weight but have no idea where to start.

If you are obese and you know it, then you have to check with a physician first to see how your health is before you embark on any exercise program or plan. The same is also true if you have any kind of medical condition but especially a thyroid condition or heart condition. Some physicians may not recommend a weight loss program for those who are over 40 as due to genetics and hormonal changes some people naturally just round out or gain weight in a way that simply cannot be changed. If your doctor tells you your spreading hips are due to menopause or genetics, believe him! It is not clever to fool with Mother Nature.

While these tasty sweeteners appear to be the perfect solution for both low-carb dieters and low-carb food producers, recent studies of sugar alcohols have painted a somewhat different picture.

To begin with, sugar alcohols are not entirely carb-free. Most studies have indicated that sugar alcohols contain approximately 1/2 to 1/3 the amount of calories as sugar–and in the form of carbohydrates.

In addition, studies have shown that sugar alcohols are absorbed by the small intestine, but the process is slower and fractured. This affects a rise in blood sugar, but again is smaller and more gradual than with sugar–and the rise tends to vary from person to person.

Sugar alcohols also have a laxative effect on some consumers. Since they are only partially absorbed, they bring water into the bowel–and undigested carbs into the colon, creating gas and bloating as the carbs are acted on by bacteria.

Over-consumption of sugar alcohols can often have an adverse effect on low carb dieters, even when they can digest them properly. Sugar alcohols can trigger cravings in low carb dieters, causing them to deviate from dietary restrictions.

In addition, sugar alcohols can often cause low carb dieters to choose an unhealthy diet of sweets, which appear to be carb-free, over a varied diet that includes essential nutrients.

If you are currently on a low carb diet and want to mix sugar alcohol products into your diet, it is very important that you monitor your total sugar alcohol intake–and keep it at a minimum while consuming a healthy diet.

One easy way to do this is to determine the total amount of carbs in sugar alcohol products you are consuming. You can do this by subtracting the amount of fat and protein calories per serving from the total amount of calories per serving. Simply multiply the grams of protein by four and the grams of fat by nine. Now subtract the sum of the two from the total amount of calories per serving.

Using these figures, you can determine whether or not carbs are being “hidden” in “carb free” sugar alcohol products you consume, allowing you to make a better-informed decision that fits the prescriptions of your low-carb diet.

Sometimes the same type of behavior exists with car rentals, but the major companies seem to keep up with service and repairs to protect resale value after one year. Even some pretty big problems can be totally cured with car surgery.

Have you also noticed that most people, even the horrible renters, do a very good job of maintenance once they own the title and the mortgage? I’m not making this up.

Are you aware that the major health problems in “modern” countries are caused by tobacco, obesity, poor nutrition, lack of exercise? Various health agencies say that such self abuse causes at least 7 of 10 deaths through resulting chronic diseases.

In other words, the majority of us are committing slow suicide by treating our biological machines as if we are only renting, able to move into other bodies if we just place a down payment and sign a contract for some low APR. Yet news reports tell us how bad our escalating health costs are, and how they will bankrupt this country, if military or other Federal expenses don’t succeed first.

Fortunately, I am not the only person who has taken heed, and changed life style to include better diet and daily moderate exercise.

The sad truth is that corrective action really is not that difficult. All we have to do is think, and be honest with ourselves. After all, “think” is not a four letter word.

While Bill Clinton was blocking his heart arteries, I was lowering my cholesterol by more than a third, merely by reducing the fats and sugars in my diet, not with pills. The only carbs I restrict are those in refined sugars, white flour, polished rice / grains, and beer. I have moved away from a high meat and dairy diet, but I am not a vegetarian. And I never go hungry.

If you crave food between meals, snack on raw vegetables, fruits, un-salted nuts, raisins, and similar. I have found that “GORP” (Good Old Raisins and Peanuts) or raisins with almonds taste extremely sweet without added sugar. The fairly small amount of unsaturated fats in the nuts will do a lot to ward off hunger.

When I realized / admitted that my muscles were pretty out of condition, I started with stretches and walking, then researched such sources as Charles Atlas, Jack La Lanne, and army calisthenics for a self regulated range of exercises which cost next to nothing, and can be done in times and places of my choice. For bad weather, I admit to having a paddle wheel exer-cycle, but brisk walking in shopping centers or other large buildings also works.

I had taken my body for granted. Now I am in better health and fitness than when I passed age 60, feel and sleep better, don’t get tired so easily, feel more alert. And my weight is the same as in my mid teen years.

My two health books and numerous free articles show that taking ownership and responsibility for one’s body is not that difficult. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see that some health advice violates biology, chemistry, physics, or just plain common sense. If the providers of advice want you to pay for more than the basic information, be skeptical, such as for magic pills to control weight.

The rewards are simply great. Slow the aging process, resist even scary diseases, lower medical costs, and on and on.

By the way, I am not criticizing vitamin and mineral pills, if not used in excess.

It nauseates me to see people running after magic pills, worthless dietary supplements, and fad diets. The truth is available on the internet if you search out good sources of information. You don’t have to trust just one reference.

Let the truth make you free from health and wealth robbing magic revelations.