Posts Tagged ‘fat loss’

Hoodia Gordonii, Is it Really the Weight Loss Miracle They Say?

Sunday, December 28th, 2008

by Ricardo d Argence

Hoodia Gordonii is a spiky plant found in deserts that is native to parts of southern Africa and has been employed in herbal folk treatments for decades. People native to the area have long used this herb as a treatment for indigestion, to fight infection, and even as an appetite suppressant while on long hunting trips in the desert.

This last use of Hoodia Gordonii has gained a lot of attention in the West and has since been made a part of many natural weight loss schemes.

Only a few companies have been allowed to produce it for that purpose due primarily to restrictions on cultivating the plant for mass production, since the early research into the weight loss benefits of Hoodia Gordoni in 1977.

Although there have been no proven data that shows Hoodia Gordonii to suppress appetites in humans, it has been used to suppress appetites in humans during indigenous history and similar effect have been exhibited in animal testing.

The component in Hoodia Gordonii that triggers the appetite supression response in the body of early research into the way the plant works and how to market it for weight loss were halted due to the expense and complexity of synthesizing.

Because Hoodia Gordoni is an endangered plant, it risks becoming extinct if use and cultivation of the plant is not strictly monitored.

Hoodia Gordonii is believed by many people to be able to decrease your appetite, but the dosage required to accomplish this is actually larger than most websites have reported.

The herb functions most effectively in a low-carb diet in the context of good, stable serum sugar levels because it does not react in the body like the simple and refined sugars and carbohydrates. It is important to take the correct dosage of this herbal remedy three times daily for a prolonged period in order to see results.

It would be unwise to think that you can just take excessive doses of Hoodia Gordonii and lose weight. Herbal remedies take time to work, and this one in particular works in conjunction with the kinds of foods you eat. As a result, even those considering Hoodia Gordonii as a part of their weight loss plan need to include it as a part of an overall diet and exercise routine.

Waarning: Use cation as you would any medication when taking Hoodia Gordonii, consuming large amounts can lead to illness. Also, if you are only using Hoodia Gordonii you will not get the results of exercise and diet.

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How to Remove Cellulite

Saturday, December 27th, 2008

by Dallas F Thomas

Getting rid of cellulite is a hard ask. If you have investigated the many products around that claim to reduce cellulite quickly and easily then you know that it can be confusing as to what actually works and what doesn't. However, the concept of losing cellulite is not as hard as you think - it just requires dedicated effort to reap the rewards you are after.

1) Lose Weight. Cellulite is caused by the thin layer of fat located directly underneath the skin. While skinny women can still be affected by the condition the more excess weight they have the more fat is placed into this layer and therefore the worst the cellulite will be.

If you choose to go on a diet to lose cellulite make sure you do it correctly and don't go to extremes. You can lose a lot of weight simply by eating more fruit and vegetables while removing those bad high sugar or high fat foods from your diet.

2) Stop smoking. Many health experts believe that cellulite is worsened by the accumulation of toxins in the body. Smoking contributes to these toxins in the body. By stopping smoking you can not only help your overall health but you can also contribute to the reduction in cellulite.

3) Alcohol and Caffeine. It is well known that these two substances can increase your levels of fat and cause toxins to be trapped inside your cells. Cellulite can be reduce by eliminating these substances from your diet.

4) Increase your water levels. We all know that we should drink more water. What many people don't know is that plenty of water can flush out those toxins that make cellulite worst. This is really a simple and easy tip that can work wonders.

Water can also help in weight loss. Studies have demonstrated that if you drink a glass of water before you eat you are more likely to consume less. If you are taking diet pills or laxatives you should be aware that they will reduce the amount of water inside your body.

5) Exercise. By undertaking a balanced exercise program you will burn calories and tone muscle. This can reduce your fat levels as well as tone those areas affected by cellulite.

6) Increase fiber. By increasing your intake of fiber you will boost your metabolism which can increase fat lose and cellulite.

While these tips sound easy it really takes a lot of dedication to implement them and stay on track in the long term. Getting rid of cellulite is not an easy task and will require your to keep at it even when you don't see the results straight away.

These above treatments are not the only ones that can help cellulite reduction. You may want investigate treatments like radio waves, body wraps, cellulite cream and laser therapy.

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Overtraining and Another Ways to Kill Your Muscle Gains

Thursday, December 25th, 2008

by Ricardo Daryans

Some guy in the gym finishes a hard set of barbell squats and re-racks the weight. He feels realy tired and he takes a big swig from his water bottle. He looks down at his watch and presses the start button to begin counting down backwards from 2 minutes.

He saw on TV that 2 minutes is the perfect rest time between sets, and what he wants is to do it exactly in that way. So, the watch beeps and he's be back in the squat rack ready for his next set of exercises with the weights.

2 minutes is up. His legs still feel weak, his heart still beats frantically and he doesn't quite feel 100%, but that watch beeped and that means his time is up. He must perform his next set regardless of how he feels.

He unracks the weight and squats down. His legs still burn and he wishes that he could have had more time to prepare for this set. He puts forth a mediocre effort, re-racks the bar, and sets his watch for another 2 minutes. Bobby, just like a ton of other aspiring lifters in the gym, is making a deadly, critical mistake.

By having a set rest interval between sets, he is forcing his body to train at an effort level that is far less than his maximum potential and is severely sacrificing the amount of muscle growth he can ultimately stimulate because of this.

A muscle respond to stress. WHen you lift an amount of weight doing a number of reps your body adapts to this level of stress. If you want your muscles grow, then you have to force your body to higer levels.

What you have to do then is to lift as much weight as you can again, and again, and again.

Because of this, you must always go into every single set of every single workout at your maximum strength potential. By sacrificing the amount of weight you can lift, you sacrifice the amount of muscle you can build. And there is no worse way to make this sacrifice than by not providing your body with enough rest between sets.

So, return to your exercise set when you feel you are again at 100% of your strenght capacity. When will it be? When your body tell you so, listen to it an you will know when it is time to the next set.

The time between sets cannot be always the same. It will depend on the type of exercise you are performing. Some of them will tax the body much more heavily than others and obviously will take more time to your body to return to the ideal state.

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Easy ways to lose weight

Wednesday, December 24th, 2008

by Cath Night

Do easy ways to lose weight exist? Everyone knows that diet, cutting down on food intake, and exercise, increasing calories burned, work together as a formula for losing weight.

But sticking to the diet is the hard part. It won't be effortless, but with a little work it sure is easier. Here are some tips to make it easier.

Carry a notebook to jot down everything that passes your lips. Taking notes will help you eat less. Studies show that people eat 15% less when they track everything they eat. 15% is a lot.

On average Americans consume 245 calories a day from drinks. Switch from juice, soda, and other calorie drinks to water. 245 calories a day add up to 90,000 calories a year. That's 25 lbs.

Are soda and juice really that good? Another fact is that despite their calories, drinks like soda and juice don't trigger a feeling of fullness the way foods do.

Eat five or six smaller meals a day instead of three large meals a day. Studies show that eating in smaller portions more often results in eating 30% fewer calories. Furthermore, even the same number of calories eaten in smaller portions during more frequent meals can result in weight loss. You're less likely to binge because the body releases less insulin.

Get rid of the "fat" clothes. If you don't have clothes that are comfortable when you're fat, you're more likely to be reminded to keep slim every time you dress. And if you have to purchase a whole new wardrobe you're less likely to gain weight.

Switch to smaller plates. It's been proven that people eat more when more food is in front of them, and they eat less when less food is in front of them. Smaller plates mean smaller portions, so put the salad plates into use as the main plate.

Try serving meals on the plate, restaurant style, rather than in bowls and on trays. Again, people tend to eat what's in front of them.

Don't eat white bread, sugar or white rice. Those foods are loaded with carbohydrates which lead to higher blood sugar and weight gain. Do eat whole grain breads and brown rice. Don't be concerned with the sugar, pretty soon you won't miss it.

There are a lot of other tips for easy ways to lose weight. Don't think it won't take a little work. If weight loss were easy everyone would be slim all the time.

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Burning Belly Fat and Some Reasons Why Ab Machines Seem to Fail

Wednesday, December 24th, 2008

by Ricardo d Argence

A common goal of anyone starting a diet or workout routine is to get amazing abs. After all, that's why we see in celebrities, movie stars, athletes and models and that's what we strive to be like. Seems like no matter how hard you work or how much you lift weights you still are not able to get those abs or steel. Am I right? The reason is that most individuals are not achieving their objective in the correct manner. Just working out on an ab machine will not return great looking abs.

Why ab machines won't give me great abs? Your abdominal muscles and stimulating them to grow in size and strength when you're using an abs machine, you are targeting. Wonderful, and it is needed for abs and belly fat lose that you want. But this is only one part of the whole plan to get you amazing results.

Even if you spend hours building you abs and your muscles, it all comes down to how much fate you have. If you have excess fat around your belly and your midsection no one will be albe to see any of what you have been building. They will not be seen because of ugly body fat and even if they are hard and dense they will never really look like a fantastic six pack.

And this is if the abs machines you are using are even legitimate. There are so many scams out there and infomercials where they purport that their product will target your abs in the best way possible. Many of those are bogus and a waste of both your time and money. So for starters, make sure you are using a legitimate and approved ab machine to work out your abs.

What exercises can I perform to drop the fat from my stomach and reveal amazing abs? It is necessary to stay on a balanced nutritional plan that puts the right kinds of food in you. Your body is like a machine, and it needs the right kinds of fuels to get it working properly. The junk food that has an insane amount of fat and sugar to stop stffing yourself with the discount items.

You want to maintain a healthy diet that has plenty of fruits and vegetables. Your body also needs plenty of protein to build muscle as well. And you want to restrict your calorie intake to make sure that you are burning more calories, each and every day, than you are ingesting. It's a simple formula really: if you burn more than you eat, you'll lost fat and end up with great abs! If you eat more than you burn, you're going to continue building up more fat and no matter how many reps you do on that ab machine, you'll never see the results you want.

Eating well doesn't need to be difficult and it should not be considered a "diet". The key is not having to eliminate your favorite foods but rather limiting their amount and the time at which you eat it.

The secret to losing abdominal fat and having strong abdominal muscles lies in not only exercising your abdominal muscles but also a sound diet plan.

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Girls With Abs Lift Like Guys With Abs

Friday, December 19th, 2008

by Dan Solaris

The younger members of society won't remember, but there was a time when working-out for women was almost taboo- a time where aerobics classes and female fitness buffs were virtually unheard of.

Times have changed now. Gone are the days of the busty blonde bombshell with pouting lips as the ultimate sex symbol. Nowadays, the icon of sexiness is a toned and tanned tomboy with six-pack abs.

Girls with washboard abs are abound- fighting aliens on the silver screen, Madonna strutting her ripped bod onstage, and even in mixed martial arts tournaments- ring girls before the fights and even IN the fights as contenders!

Girls with washboard abs weren't born with them of course- it's not inherited through the genes like a sexy butt or an ample bosom. Women with six pack abs get them through a combination of healthy eating habits and workouts that are optimized for burning body fat.

Because it's not possible to spot-reduce belly fat, the only way to expose those glorious abdominal muscles underneath is to avoid fatty food and burn-off excess body fat through a slew of fat-busting exercises.

The set-up of our skeletal muscle and metabolism being almost identical, it takes the same number of weight-lifting repetitions and sets, the same combination of belly-fat burning exercises and same diet and eating habits for women to get that beach-body six-pack.

The quickest path to flat, washboard abs is by doing exercises that burn fat effectively and including fat-busting food in your diet. There are citrus fruits that actually render fat easier to break down and thus shorten your time in the gym.

However, not many people are aware that building muscle (aside from looking good) also increases the metabolism. Muscle tissue actually expends caloric energy even while at rest. Developing the abdominal and other muscles then can have a dual purpose for girls and significantly shortening the time it takes to reveal that sexy six pack on the beach.

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Weight Loss Tips - It’s Not Sugar, You Can’t Fool Your Body!

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

by Henry John

Is cutting out sugar a good thing if you want to lose weight? Well, you decide to do it anyway. No more sugar in coffee for a start - and what about ready meals and fast food? You're going to take a good look at the labels and bin anything that has any sugar in it. You're taking positive action and it feels good, but are you wasting your time?

Despite what you may think, refined sugar is not a food, it's a chemical. It's extracted from plants, which contain no fiber, no minerals, no proteins, no fats and no enzymes. It is made up of empty calories.

When you eat sugar, you put your body in a bit of a dilemma. In order to metabolize the sugar it has to borrow nutrients from other cells. When your brain gets the message that its reserves are being depleted, it sends out hunger signals. Your reaction is to come to its rescue - usually with some high-calorie food. The result is weight gain.

Having stopped taking sugar you may feel the need to have something sweet - you'd be unusual if you didn't. If you choose a sugar supplement like saccharin or aspartame you are making an error.

What has been puzzling scientists is that the obesity crisis has continued to grow despite a massive increase in the use of sugar substitutes.

Scientists have now discovered that far from helping weight loss, sugar substitutes could actually be the cause of weight gain!

At Perdue University scientists carried out experiments with animals - some were fed food containing natural sweeteners and others food with artificial sweeteners. The results were alarming. The animals that were fed artificial sweeteners actually gained weight. The reason this happened is that our/their bodies associate sweetness with food loaded with calories. When the body recognizes that the food containing artificial sweeteners is not loaded with calories, it compensates by sending out hunger signals and we eat more to make up the shortfall - the result is weight gain.

So what about sugar? The best thing to do is to reduce sugar intake gradually, but most importantly, avoid artificial sweeteners.

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Lose Weight Fast With These 3 Hot Tips

Monday, November 10th, 2008

by Sandy Jameson

You can lose weight even if you could never lose weight before. However one of the hard parts for individuals to understand is losing weight correctly is more of a natural process. In many cases, losing a few pounds is something that your body has been waiting for you to do.

1. Drink Water

As your body consists of more that 66% water, this should be a good indication that you're probably not giving it enough water.

Water not only keeps your metabolism going at a higher rate, it will keep you full, which means it will help you to lose weight. Water is also the main source for flushing out toxins and waste from your body, therefore helping you feel better and refreshed.

Many individuals are surprised that just drinking more water throughout the day helped them to lose a few pounds immediately.

No. 2 Eat Healthier

One of the worse things a person can do to lose weight is to follow the fad diets. This becomes a never ending cycle.

Fad diets help you to lose a couple of pounds fast, but you pay for it in the end, because you'll end up starving yourself and that's not healthy.

When you're done starving yourself, you normally quickly gain back the weight and some more.

The best way to lose weight, and not put it on again, is to eat healthy.

A. Eating fresh fruits and vegetable that have a high water content will satisfy your cravings and not put on pounds. The melons, grapes, tomatoes, lettuce, green peppers, etc.

B. Eating the fresh fruits versus the canned variety might cost a little bit more, but it's the processed fruits that have the added sugar and less fiber.

C. Since your body loves fresh vegetables, you need to make them your friends. Most vegetables are low in calories and are highly nutritious. Processing the vegetables will keep your body busy boosting your metabolism. You will not get the same result

D. If you are a sucker for sweets you need to be careful. Processed sugars and corn syrup will go directly to your fat cells, where you least want it. However, you shouldn't give up sweets completely, it's very unlikely that you will be able to stick to that. Keep control instead, and eat less than you are at the moment.

No 3. Setting Limits

Eating 5 smaller meals per day will help you lose more weight. Also, if you want to lose weight and be healthier you can't skip any meals, or eat large meals once or twice a day.

Eating smaller meals throughout the whole day will keep your hunger in check. It will also speed up your metabolism, and your digestive system will burn more calories.

Your mini meals should contain a bit of everything. Don't eat just a bagel, that is not a mini meal. Have half of the bagel, add an egg, some cheese and maybe a glass of juice. That is a mini meal. Try to include some healthy varieties in your mini meals.

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Part-4 “The Popular Atkins Diet” To Lose Weight

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

by Florentina Ryan

Part-4 Ketosis can lead to health problems like kidney failure. Atkins followers identify ketosis as the fat-burning process, and is the main factors in making the diet different from other approaches. Practically, carbohydrate supply or provides energy, however when the body uses up all its stored carbohydrate, it needs to find another fuel source.

Glucose is a carbohydrate which our brain operates on. When we do not have any carbohydrates or have shortage of carbohydrates, we commence to convert protein to carbohydrates. Glucose then excites cells in the pancreas to secrete insulin to exclude that glucose and take it into tissues to be used as fuel or stored. Protein and fat consumption do not have the same insulin production impact due to the whole point of insulin is to sustain the sugar stability level.

Ketosis results from the incomplete metabolism of fatty acids. It comes on when the body is deprived of carbohydrates, its preferred fuel source, and turns to its own fat and the fat in food for fuel. Ketosis (so named for ketones, the byproducts of burning fat) is an abnormal metabolic state also seen in starvation and uncontrolled diabetes. In fact, ketones can kill, but the healthy body gets rid of them promptly--through the kidneys and the lungs (an unpleasant effect of the Atkins diet is called acetone breath).

Dieters involving or following the low-fat regimen had a 22% reduction in blood fats known as triglycerides and no increase in HDL, or "good" cholesterol. The Atkins followers experienced a 49% reduction in triglycerides and an 11% rise in HDL. Dieters are informed to exclude all carbohydrate for the first two weeks prior to moving on to the next section, where a few carbohydrates are reintroduced as part of the diet. After achieving their target weight loss, the dieters are then advised to keep-up with the diet. Dieters are encouraged to maintain carbohydrate intake level until their weight loss goals are met. During the Pre-maintenance and Maintenance phases, dieters determine or decide the carbohydrate level of consumption that is allowable to maintain their target weight.

Carbohydrate, in the form of glucose, is the first fuel used to provide energy to our body. Dr Atkins suggests that when we reduce our intake of carbohydrates significantly, our body convert from burning carbohydrates to burning fat as fuel.

Robert Atkins, who promises you can eat the delicious meals you like, never count calories, enjoy a good cheeseburger when you're hungry, even top things off with dessert and still lose weight. Sounds really great! Robert Atkins, who developed it from a new nutritional approach he studied in the 1960's. Atkins used his diet on himself with significant success before he began advocating it. Robert Atkins, an American cardiologist, the Atkins diet has been experiencing renewed popularity as the low-carbohydrate craze once again hits American men and women. The Atkins diet is designed to help people reduce and maintain their weight at optimal levels by increasing protein and fat intake while decreasing carbohydrate intake.

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The Truth About Low Carb Diets

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

by Ron Cripps

I'm assuming that you've thought about dieting at least once any time within the past couple of years, there's a good chance that the diet you went on was one of the many low carb diets that are available these days.

This can probably be by specific broadcasting propaganda along with a number of genuine success stories. And when you throw in a personality or two into the mix, you've the makings of a latest fashion. Every one then leaps on the bandwagon which in this case turned out to be low carb diets.

What you need to ask is if you're thinking of trying one of these low carb diets as if the Atkins low carb diet is so popular at the moment, and really assists to help you in losing your weight, why didn't it gain in popularity long before this?

What you need to ask is if you're thinking of making an effort with one of these low carb diets as if the Atkins diet is so trendy now, and really assists to help you in losing your weight, why didn't it increase in recognition long before this?

After all it has been around for as long as thirty years. That's a extended time for a diet to be around without any person noticing it until the later stages of those 30 years. And if these low carb diets are as good for you as all these books and practitioners of the diets will tell you, then why is there so much disapproval to these diets from health specialists and medical areas?

And the Atkins low carb diet isn't the only low carb diet that you will uncover. There's the ever accepted Zone diet, the South Beach Diet, the Hollywood diet, the Stillman diet, and a multitude of other low carb diets. These diets are all similar in that they encourage a high fat, high protein, and low carb intake. Each diet has its own differences and traits and which one you try is dependent on what you've heard, or read, about these low carb diets.

For the persistent fanatical dieter these low carb diets may be just what they need, since regardless of any drawbacks that it might have they do work, and they do help you to lose weight. If you're going on a diet, and it doesn't matter overly much which diet it is, you should always be sensible and diet sensibly too.

Losing a few calories swiftly won't help you in the long term. If you keep to the direction of these low carb diets though, your dieting troubles shouldn't be all that many and you might even find that you've left them all behind.

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