Category: weight loss

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Female Weight Loss

Female Weight Loss-Its All About Control

Female weight loss begins with determining why women are overweight in the first place. Women are less likely than men to exercise and they don’t eat enough vegetables. Overweight women are also likely to be impulsive eaters and are more prone to stress eating.

How much you weigh depends on several factors

First of all, any female weight loss advice should begin with an analysis of how much and what kind of foods you eat. Most women who are not trying to lose weight should get around 1600 calories a day. But not all calories are created equal.  In addition to the calories, you need to look at the nutrients, the fiber, and the grams of fat.

But, most women get more calories than they need to maintain their weight. Part of this is due to poor impulse control. There are just too many calories available to us. But another part has to do with women underestimating just how many calories are in the food they eat. Serving sizes have exploded but people still count the calories as if they were the traditional smaller servings. Female weight loss requires that women accurately count every calorie.

weightlosstipsIf your lifestyle includes a lot of activity, you are less likely to be worried about female weight loss. However, if you live a highly sedentary life, you probably are packing on the pounds. Look for ways to move more. This doesn’t have to mean hitting the gym either. Playing with the kids, mopping the floor, and gardening are all excellent kinds of movement.

What you eat is important

What you consume and how many calories you burn off are directly under your control. But other factors that are outside of your control impact female weight loss as well. For instance, your genetic makeup has a lot to do with whether you get fat. Fast metabolism tends to run in families and it is typical to see entire families of fat or skinny people.

Your age also has an impact on your weight as you tend to burn calories more slowly as you age. This “middle age spread” must be aggressively combated if you want to keep your weight under control. And, it is important that you do so for the sake of your health. Heart disease, cancer, and diabetes are all linked with weight issues.

Finally, the state of your health can play a role in female weight loss. Some medications are known for causing weight gain. And, some physical conditions limit mobility which means that you don’t burn as many calories.

What you can control

The key to female weight loss is setting achievable goals and sticking to the plan. Accept that there are things you can control – and control them. Also, accept that there are things beyond your control and you will have to compensate in the other areas.

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Green Tea Benefits

green tea benefitsGreen Tea Benefits. Research on Health has shown that regular drinking of green tea prevents the development of prostate cancer. The twelve-year study was conducted on 50,000 men aged 40 to 69. Among men who did not drink even one cup of green tea per day, they confirmed that the probability of developing prostate cancer was twice as high. This change was drastically reduced in men who drank more than five cups of green tea a day. (https://www.zurnal24.si/magazin/lepota-telo/zeleni-caj-preprecuje-raka-na-prostati-14892).

As you know, I am a man of a certain age, and during those years, many of us men of certain years struggle with certain problems. I believe you know what I mean. Well, for those of you who may not know, this problem is the prostate.

 How green tea prevents the development of prostate cancer?

The substance catechin, which is found in green tea, regulates the level of testosterone in the blood, which is a risk factor in the development of prostate cancer. The Japanese worship green tea because of their belief in longer life and its healing properties.

 Green Tea Benefits

 Green tea has been linked to lower cancer rates in population-based studies. Scientists suspect that something called ‘polyphenols’ in green tea help to prevent the outbreak of cancer in the body.

This is where the most special of green tea benefits shine: antioxidants. These little puppies are responsible for keeping your body clean of the effects of free radicals.  And green tea has lots of them.

We also can lose weight loss, if we drink green tea on a regular basis.  It helps increase the fat-burning capabilities of your body.

Remember the properties of green tea that help prevent the intestinal tract from absorbing excess cholesterol? Less cholesterol also means fewer chances that your heart will get coated in a layer of fat, so the risk of coronary heart disease is lowered.

One of the more important of green tea benefits is its ability to control and regulate your body’s absorption of sugar. This is especially important for people with diabetes type 1, where insulin levels are insufficient to control the sugar in the blood.

Another interesting aspect of green tea benefits is its ability to ‘flush’ the toxins out of your body. And one particular organ in your body that’s responsible for filtering the toxins out of your body is your liver. Green tea helps clean up your liver by absorbing the heavy metals and other nasty stuff in your blood that pass through the liver.

Of course, it’s not just about the chemicals too. Taking it easy and sipping a cup of green tea as you stare into space helps you calm your mind and collect your thoughts. This is one of the less obvious, but equally helpful, of green tea benefits.

Conclusion

Because green tea benefits have all the makings of bogus medicines being sold in a shady corner. So, you can be skeptical about it. If that’s the case, feel free to search for scientific research from around the world about tea. You’ll find all these benefits (and much more) if you look hard enough.

And besides, people have been drinking green tea for thousands of years. That means there’s something definitely good about it, right?

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Lose Weight And Feel Great

Lose Weight And Feel Great. Many people are looking for a way to lose weight and feel great, but find it difficult to fit a good routine into their schedule. There are a few things that you can do to make sure that you get all of your exercises into your day with very little disruption.

lose weight

The first thing that you should realize is that losing weight will require you to do some exercise. It is possible to lose weight without exercise, but your calorie counts will be so low that it will be difficult to maintain. This is the reason that many people fail when they don’t include exercise. Lose weight in a much more reasonable manner with the combination of both diet and exercise and you will feel great and find that your new healthy lifestyle is much easier to maintain.

Start off your exercise routine with a few simple steps that will put you on the right track to developing your own exercise routine. You can start with something as simple as a walk in the morning to charge up your batteries for the day. It is amazing how great you will feel for the rest of the day when you start off with a blood-pumping walk in the morning. Getting up a half hour earlier in the morning is all it takes to add this exercise routine to your schedule.

Lose Weight

To increase your daily exercise, lose weight efforts and feel even better, you could try some weight-bearing exercises. An exercise that uses weight will increase your metabolism and further your goals of losing weight. Long after you put the weights down, your body will continue to burn calories and help you to lose weight. Weight-bearing exercise, lose weight, and redefine your body at the same time. Consider adding thirty minutes every other day during the week to increase your exercise efforts. Skip one television program and you will find the time in your schedule.

Small steps in your daily routine will increase the amount of activity that you have during the day.

Things such as parking further away from the door at work, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and short walks during your lunch break; can all add up during the week to increase the number of calories burned, so that you will lose weight.

When you increase the number of calories burned during the day, you will be able to eat more in your healthy diet. Simply burning more calories than you take in will cause your body to lose weight.

 

Rememberber that the quality of your calories counts as well. Eat fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, and a healthy amount of fat and you will be on your way to a well-balanced diet. Remember the key to success is to exercise, lose weight, and feel great for a long and healthy life. It’s simple if you take a little bit of time to find those areas in your life that could use a little change.

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Fastest Way To Lose Belly Fat For Women

lose weight for womenThe fastest way to lose belly fat for women is to modify their diet and do a combination of cardio and strength training exercises that make you lose weight all over. That’s because fat gets stored in the tummy first and the stomach is the last place it comes off. Women who are otherwise fit all over may feel a little self-conscious in a bikini. So, the fastest way to lose belly fat is to realize that you’ve got to get into perfect shape.

There is no one specific exercise that will make you lose your stomach if you are 20 pounds overweight. Sit-ups and crunches will help strengthen the muscles in the area but do nothing to burn the fat. And, belly fat is, at its core, fat. The only way to lose fat is to eat fewer calories than you burn.

Healthy Eating Plan

So, one element of the fastest way to lose belly fat is to come up with a healthy eating plan. This is an eating plan for life, not some fad diet. When you yo-yo in weight, you actually compound the stomach fat problem because you lose weight in other areas but you put it back on in the stomach area first. So, making a change in your diet on a permanent basis is key.
You’re developing a lifestyle, not going on a temporary diet.

lose belly fat with diet

Your diet needs to be concerned not only with the total number of calories but the kinds of calories. You need to take in at least 1 gram of protein per day for every pound you weigh. You also need some fat in your diet. A diet of 30:20:50 in the ratio protein: fat: carbohydrates makes a lot of sense for an overweight woman who wants the fastest way to lose belly fat. Fish oils are the best kind of fat for this purpose.

Training Program

Next up is your training program. The fastest way to lose belly fat is by doing both weight training and cardio exercises. A study of overweight women showed that women who alternated between cardio and strength training every other day lost significantly more fat in their stomachs than women who relied on aerobics alone.

The best way to do aerobic exercise is high-intensity interval training. This is where you do a two-minute burst of activity at the most intense level you are capable of doing followed by three minutes of moderate activity. Repeat the cycle.

lose belly fat

You will also want to track your progress. Not only will you be encouraged to see your belly fat decreasing, but if you stall or go up, you will be able to correct the problem quickly. It is a good idea to take your body fat measurements every two weeks.

The fastest way to lose belly fat is to develop good lifestyle habits. Once you lose weight, your belly fat will come off.

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Conjugated Linoleic Acid

Conjugated Linoleic Acid? And what does that means? Let’s state some facts! Conjugated linoleic acid is a natural substance found in many of our foods. That according to many studies can reduce fat and improve muscle mass in the body. Taken as a supplement with no change in eating or exercise habits, could help you lose fat. It is often taken by men looking to lose weight and bodybuild at the same time. But it can also be useful for anyone who is overweight and under-exercising. Any increase in muscle will increase the metabolism, burning more calories.

Healthy Eating Plan with CLA

Like many natural weight loss products, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) combined with a flexible healthy eating plan can lead to gradual long-term weight loss. And help you get out of the yoyo dieting cycle where you are constantly losing and gaining the same 10, 20, or 50 pounds. Yoyo dieting is very bad for the health. It is better to remain overweight than to keep on losing and gaining, losing and gaining.

weightlosstipsI agree with most experts (unless they are trying to sell you something)  that the diet that works best in the long term is the non-diet.  Instead of eating special foods and banning others, you eat slightly smaller quantities of a normal healthy diet. If you are currently living entirely on pizza, fries, and chocolate, then okay, some changes may be overdue. But you can still have small portions of all of those foods from time to time. If this is the kind of diet that you want, then CLA can help reinforce your plan by boosting your fat loss. Dr. Michael Pariza of the University of Wisconsin-Madison reported to the American Chemical Society that CLA “doesn’t make a big fat cell get little. What it rather does is keep a little fat cell from getting big.”

Studies about CLA

Many studies have been done on CLA. One study published in the Journal of Nutrition found that people taking CLA lost on average six pounds of body fat more than a group that took a placebo. The researchers discovered that you need around 3.4 grams of CLA per day for it to be effective. CLA is found in food, especially meat and dairy products, but supplementation is necessary for most people to reach that level.

Another study at Purdue University, Indiana, found that CLA improved insulin levels in about two-thirds of diabetics, and slightly decreased their blood glucose levels and triglyceride levels, suggesting that it may help to maintain normal insulin levels. But see your doctor before taking any supplements if you have diabetes.

There are no magic pills for weight loss but if you are willing to commit to reducing your body fat permanently, CLA may help you. Keep in mind that its main effect is to convert fat to muscle, which by itself will not weigh any less. But your body will look slimmer and feel healthier if you do this, and combined with a good weight control eating plan conjugated linoleic acid can help you move toward your ideal weight too.

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3 Bad Diet Mistakes To Avoid

3 Bad Diet Mistakes To Avoid. Even though there is so much information available about weight loss, the same diet mistakes are being made over and over every day. We are not talking here about little slipups where you ate a slice of pie that was not on the plan. We are talking about big mistakes that lead to failure to lose the weight that you want to lose. Understanding these errors can help you develop the attitude that will lead to permanent weight loss for you.

 The All -Or -Nothing Attitude

All-or-nothing dieters will often pick out a complicated diet that is almost impossible for them to maintain. Before beginning, they will throw all food that does not fit the plan, in the garbage. They are planning to be the perfect dieter, and so they will be, for one day. Three days, seven days, or even a couple of weeks. Then, inevitably, something happens that means they cannot keep to the diet one time. Immediately the whole thing is ruined in their eyes and the diet is over. They go to the store and buy all the things that went into the garbage last week.  And proceed to gain back all the weight that they lost, as fast as possible.

If you are this kind of dieter you need to ask yourself some tough questions. Do you really want to lose weight permanently? Or just lose a few pounds so that you can enjoy putting them back on again? The way forward is to make small changes to what you eat. That you have a slow but steady weight loss.

 The Attitude of Sacrifice By Diet

Another common mistake is to view your diet as a period of sacrifice. You do not allow yourself the foods that you enjoy most while you work on your target weight. You may have a great diet plan and be very successful in losing weight. But what happens when you reach your goal? You have not learned to eat ‘bad foods’ in moderation so as soon as you start. You are likely to go out of control. It is better to include a little of everything in your diet and learn to enjoy it in small quantities. Yes, even chocolate!

 Goal Failure With Diet

Setting achievable goals is vital in any weight loss plan. Goals should be clear, realistic, and set out in writing. While you probably do have an ideal weight in your mind, unless you are only very slightly overweight it is probably too distant to be useful. A more useful goal would be to lose two pounds per week for the first five weeks and then one pound per week after that. Some weeks you will lose more and some less, and some weeks you may even gain, but if you track your progress on a graph you will see that ups and downs are natural and do not stop you from progressing steadily toward your major goal.

If you have been making these mistakes, do not worry. The most important point in dieting as in so many other things is to move on. Learn from your failures as well as your success and do not use a mistake as an excuse for giving up. The only way to achieve your goal permanently is to make a commitment to become a healthier person. Remember that eating normally includes eating more on some days and less on others. Learn to enjoy food in moderation and you have every chance of avoiding these bad diet mistakes.

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Fad Diets

fad dietsFad Diets. It is not surprising that many people wonder why fad diets are bad when they seem to get results. You will find many sites on the internet claiming significant weight loss in just a few days. That type of weight loss is always temporary. It is usually 90% water which will be put straight back on as soon as your body rehydrates, which it must do if you are not going to suffer severe health problems or die.

Crash Diets

Other fad diets are not so obviously crash diets with outrageous claims but they are overhyped diet plans that tend to be fashionable for a while and usually make a lot of money for the inventor in associated product sales. In the best cases, these are good nutrition plans which will help you lose weight, but which you could probably have gotten for free from your doctor. In the worst cases, they will prove so difficult to follow that you will give up after a week.

The bad of fad diets

1. Diets that promise quick and easy weight loss are usually based on eating more of one food type and none of another. These do not give the benefits that you would get from a balanced diet. They may suggest you take supplements but many supplements are not absorbed by the body unless they are taken along with the foods that the diet has banned. After a few weeks, if you stick to it that long, you may begin to develop nutritional deficiencies.

2. Fad diets are often boring and over-restrictive. After the novelty of the first day or two, you will not enjoy your meals. You will then start to crave food constantly and will break the diet. You may even feel guilty, thinking it is your fault that you did not lose weight.

Most fad diets do not follow the recommendations of the American Heart Association and similar bodies for fat levels in the diet. Often the diet will recommend high-fat foods and low carbs which if taken long term, could result in heart disease. The promoters may tell you that the diet is only intended to be followed for a short time. But you probably will not reach your goal weight in that time, and then what? You either continue with a plan that is not good for your health or stop and probably gain back what you lost.

Fad Diets and Fruit

Many fad diets do not help you to incorporate enough servings of fruits and vegetables in your weight loss program, or give you the variety of foods that your body needs.

Quick weight-loss diets are just temporary solutions and do not help you to make permanent changes to your eating habits. Permanent changes are the only way to remain at your target weight once you reach it. Fad diets encourage yo-yo diet-binge cycles of fast weight loss and equally fast weight gain. This is worse for your health and your self-esteem than if you had stayed overweight all the time.

Whatever the publicity materials may say, these diets will not help you in the long term. The best way to sustain weight loss is to eat a varied and healthy diet, not overeat, exercise regularly, and avoid fad diets.

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Winter Weight Gain

Winter weight gain is a common complaint of many people. It seems that every winter we add a few pounds, and come summer we don’t lose them all again either. A few of them always stick around, making us a little heavier every year. They seem to be very hard to lose extra pounds! Why does this happen and what can we do?

Contributing Factors

There are many contributing factors. First, it seems likely that we have a genetic disposition to store more fat as winter approaches. Many animals do this and it was probably vital to the survival of our ancestors. Extra layers of fat on the body protect us against the cold and then can be used as fuel in the late winter and early spring when food stocks would historically be very low. We probably have a tendency to eat more in the fall, when food is plentiful after harvest time, to help this process along. We may also unconsciously choose foods that are higher in fat content at this time.

What Influences Weight Gain

Hormone levels can also influence our weight gain. The interaction of hormones and other chemicals in the brain can bring about variations in appetite and cravings. Some neurotransmitters can also influence the way we eat. People who are overweight often have low levels of these neurotransmitters and the results can include excessive appetite, depression, and sleep disorders. At the same time, the lack of daylight caused by the shortening days during late fall and winter can bring on the seasonally affected disorder or winter depression.

One of the quickest ways to give a boost to energy levels and emotions is to eat high carbohydrate foods including sugar treats, chips, and cereals that give us a fast blood sugar ‘fix’. So people who feel low in the winter will tend to overeat or eat the wrong foods, leading to weight gain, more depression, and a vicious cycle that is hard to break.

So altogether there are many reasons why we eat more high-carbohydrate foods such as cookies, pies, and chocolate in the winter, and of course, most of these foods also contain high levels of fats. The best way to handle this is generally to substitute other foods that are also high in carbohydrates so that we get what our body craves, but which have low-fat content and plenty of fiber. This means potatoes, wholegrain bread without butter, wholegrain rice, cereals, and fresh whole fruit.

Take More Exercise

It is also important to take more exercise. Often our physical activity levels drop in the winter and we have a tendency to want to stay home and rest. This is natural when it is cold outside. But we are not cavemen! We have heating in our homes and can be sure that there will still be plenty of food in the stores come February. We do not need to stow fat the way that they did. Sign up with a gym or get a stationary bicycle for the den. Transform those carbs into energy now instead of keeping them on the waistline until spring. Winter weight gain is easily avoidable this way.

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Visualization And Weight Loss

Visualization And Weight Loss. Weight Loss can go better with visualization. The surprising fact is that many conditions can be improved by visualization and weight loss is one of them. It works like this: you keep a vision in your mind of how you want your body to look, and subconsciously you will begin acting in a way that will go in that direction. You become much more positive about your body and more accepting of your diet or fitness regime, and you will reach your weight goals more quickly and easily.

Effecting change through visualizing desired outcomes has become more and more acceptable in recent years. Psychologists do not understand exactly how it works but clearly, the mind and body are not as separate as we often believe. It seems that if you truly want something it is more likely to happen – provided of course that it is something that is possible, and within your control. Visualization helps us to truly want to lose weight by creating a clear and happy picture of our fitter bodies. Without this, we can often put psychological traps in our own path.

Beliefs About Weight Loss

Her mind will be constantly telling her there is no point in dieting, she cannot lose weight so she should just go ahead and eat everything she wants. Visualization is the strongest technique that many people who are overweight, believe they cannot lose weight. Sometimes you may say it out loud, or hear friends say it about themselves. For other people, this belief stays in the subconscious. But it is sure that it influences our behavior. Someone who believes it is impossible for her to lose weight will be constantly battling her own negativity when she is trying to diet. e can use to overcome these negative thoughts and impulses.

If you are plagued by negativity either from your own mind or from the reactions of friends and family to your diet, go ahead and visualize yourself at your desired weight as often as you can. It works on the same level as all those negative voices and can annihilate their influence like nothing else can.

Practice every day

It is important to practice every day – morning and evening if you can. You just need to take a few minutes in a quiet place and keep an image in the mind of your body at its ideal weight. Some people can do this easily, while others need some help. If you have a photograph of yourself at your ideal weight in the past, you may find it easier to look at that. Or use a photo from a magazine but cut off the person’s face. You need to visualize your own body, but thinner.

Visualize From The Inside

You can also visualize from the inside. Close your eyes and let your awareness focus on a part of your body – for example, your right thigh. Imagine it slowly becoming thinner in your mind’s eye. Then move to the other thigh, and on through the body. It may help to start at the feet and move up towards the head, or vice versa.

As you go about your work or daily chores, think of yourself as already at your ideal weight. Create your own affirmations and repeat them often, always in the present tense (“I am glad to be flexible, fit and slim”, not “I will …”). Enjoy the feeling of having a positive self-image. Over time, this will help you to keep to your weight loss plan. You will find that fatty foods are less attractive and exercise is more enjoyable.

While your weight loss will of course be gradual, the wonderful thing about visualization is that it gives you a new body image right away. Use visualization and weight loss to make you happier right now, today!

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Menopause And Weight Gain

Menopause And Weight Gain. Talking to most women over 50 you will quickly find that menopause and weight gain are linked in their experience. It is very common to put on weight at this time. Some of this may be due to lifestyle changes, which does not explain why suddenly we develop a tendency to put on weight at different parts of the body. Especially the abdomen, while any weight gained when we were younger tended to be centered on the hips.

weight gainHormonal changes do have a part to play in this, although the process is not completely understood. At menopause a woman stops ovulating, her monthly menstruation periods end and her body produces much lower levels of the female hormone estrogen. Low estrogen has been shown to cause weight gain in animals and it almost certainly is the reason why our bodies change shape. While women of childbearing age store fat in the lower body, after menopause they store it on the abdomen instead, like men. This leads to a greater risk of heart disease.

Eating habits

At the same time, both men and women tend to find muscle turning to fat as they grow older, and the metabolism slows down. This means that if you do not adjust your eating habits you will probably find that your weight increases. A person of 60 just does not need as many calories as a person of 40.

menopause and weight gainHormone therapy with estrogen is sometimes prescribed to control menopausal symptoms. Many women will be surprised to hear that studies have shown that hormone therapy does not cause weight gain. Some women experience bloating and water retention in the early stages of hormone therapy. But this is usually temporary and they have not gained any fat. Hormone therapy can reduce the risk of heart disease by preventing the changes in the storage of body fat around the abdomen and lowering cholesterol. However, hormone therapy has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer in some studies.

If you find that you are gaining weight around menopause, there are several things you can do.

Eat a healthy

– Eat a healthy, low-fat diet with plenty of fiber, avoiding sugar.

– Take regular exercise. As people get older their physical activity levels naturally drop. Work often becomes less physically demanding, there are no kids to run around after, and we take less active holidays and do things more slowly. 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day will help to balance out the effect of this.

– Maintain your muscle strength and mass. Use weights for arm muscles and walking or cycling for legs.

– Accept the changes to the shape of your body. If you are not overweight, but simply have a thicker waist and slimmer legs, that is fine.

Consult with your doctor before starting any exercise program if you have any medical conditions or your fitness levels are low. Your doctor can also help with symptoms of menopause and weight gain.