Posts Tagged ‘diet’

What Are Fad Diets?

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

A fad diet is a trendy diet plan that promises to help you lose weight usually in a comparatively short time. A fad diet frequently attracts a lot of media coverage, which then attracts a large number of overweight people to try it in order to get back in shape. Fad diets are frequently quickly discredited, but they keep raising their head from time to time.

The grapefruit diet was or is an example of a fad diet. People wanted to accept as true that you could lose weight just by eating. The food in this instance was grapefruits, but there is also a cabbage diet. The trouble with these fad diets is that their slimming effect is only temporary, because you cannot eat no more than cabbage or grapefruit for the rest of your life, so the weight comes back as soon as you go back to normal.

‘If you always do what you always done, you will always get what you always got’ is a true saying. But what is worse is that a lot of of these diets can be injurious to your health.

However, do not think that fad diets are a new phenomenon. Fad diets or fad medicines have an ancient history going back to fake witch doctors, medicine men and quack doctors who doubled as barbers! Fad practitioners have a prolonged and scandalous history but they are still alive and doing very well, thank you very much, today.

These days, medicine is too strictly regulated for them, so they have turned their attention to gullible, desperate dieters. Most of those that take up a fad diet are overweight teens longing to look like their favourite film idol.

Fad diets usually concentrate on reducing or completely cutting out carbohydrates. It is the low intake of carbohydrates that brings about the fast loss of weight. In fact, this quick loss is due to the rapid loss of water that these low-carb diets stimulate. Much of the fat might still be there, so that when you stop the diet, your body re-absorbs its normal amount of water and the lost weight is put back on just as fast as it was lost.

In the normal course of events, carbohydrates are the source of energy for work and exercise, but with these fad diets, the carbs are no longer there, so the body begins to break down its store of fat. This may appear advantageous but it is not necessarily so. The ketones resulting from the breakdown of fat are excreted via urine and often increased volumes of urine, which can result in dehydration. People with certain medical conditions have to be very careful too; diabetics, for example.

Fad diets are popular, but they can be very damaging to your body and when they do not work in the long-term, it can be very depressing leading to comfort eating. This is why many people start a fad diet, lose weight and are radiant for a month or two, but then slip back when they are getting near to their ideal weight. They go back to their old ways and the weight begins to return. They become depressed, certain that they will never be able to lose weight; they comfort eat some more, maybe giving up any hope of regaining a normal weight permanently.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with lose weight fast and safe. If you have an interest in losing weight, too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

How To Keep Your New Year’s Resolution To Lose Weight.

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Without a shadow of a doubt, the most frequent New Year’s resolution in the West is to lose weight. However, it is also the first New Year’s resolution most likely to be broken! Losing weight is not hard in theory, but practice is oh, so different. This is because it involves lifestyle changes.

Our bodies change as we get older and typically our level of activity decreases too. Maybe, we get an office job with a promotion, whereas we used to work ‘in the field’. But people in general, do not regulate their diet to match their change in circumstances. We sit behind our desks or in retirement and think we can still eat and drink like we did twenty years ago. Big mistake!

Fortunately, there are dozens of diets on hand to help us attain our weight loss goals. There are the traditional calorie counting diets, as advocated by Weight Watchers; there are the ‘new era’ diets like Atkins, which have us counting carbohydrates and there are no end of fad diets which are frankly not worth wasting time talking about.

The choice of which diet you want to follow is all yours, of course, but it is well worth exploring the main types of diet to see which one will suit you. Then you must decide whether you will require the help and encouragement of a weekly visit to a club or not, or whether you can get that companionship from an online club of slimmers, where you talk to fellow slimmers in the club forum online.

It is also worth fixing in your mind, why you want to diet. Is it to look better? Or to feel more comfortable in yourself? Or is it for health reasons? Or all three? Have a think about your reasons and let them motivate you. Whenever, you feel like packing it all in, remember your motivation. Get a book and journal your progress, but first write your motivation in bold capitals on the front page or cover. Keep it in front of you and read it out loud to yourself every day.

Consult some of the slimming sites online and work out a few key numbers like the typical weight people are for your height, sex and body type and your BMI or body mass index. Write these figures on the first page of your book too and use them as the eventual goals.

You could produce a graph and plot your weekly weight to see how you are doing. Set realistic goals and targets. You can get heaps of free information from the Weight Watchers and Atkins websites or / and go to see your doctor for advice and leaflets.

Aim to shed something like 10-20 pounds in the first month and eight to ten per month after that. Go slowly and aim to go slowly, because then you will hit your targets and you won’t feel like giving up. When you get within five to ten pounds of your target weight, assuming that you have lost a lot of weight, throttle back a little and allow yourself a little more leeway. Drop your target to one pound a week, so that you will get a feel for ‘eating normally’.

The dreaded exercise; you have to face it, you will have to do more exercise, but two times thirty minute walks a day is ordinarily enough. You could swim once a week too or get an exercise machine, if you are tied to the house by family.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with how to lose weight online. If you have an interest in losing weight too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

Free Atkins Diet Plan.

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

What is the Atkins diet and what will you need to sacrifice to obtain the results you’ve seen other people get? So, you’re a size twelve, but you want to drop down to at least the size six that you were once, but you’ll settle for a size eight, if you have to. It doesn’t really matter as long you’re not anywhere near your current size twelve!

You’ll need to begin with some working knowledge of what the Atkins diet is all about and what it might entail. On the other hand, if you don’t want to get bogged down in detail, you could always just test an Atkins diet free plan, which might assist you to get an understanding of how Atkins dieting works.

There’s no definite place I can say for you to get an Atkins diet free plan of course, but I’ve discovered that the Internet is a great place for you to find out just about anything and everything you need to learn. Start by turning on your computer, it’s really amazing how many snotty looks I get when I state this blindingly obvious fact! In fact you probably rolled your eyes at me just now!

So, just search the Internet for an Atkins diet free plan, you’ll be surprised at the amount of other free plans that you’ll come up with as well. And if you’re not adamant about testing the Atkins diet way, then you might just test any one of the other free plans. As it suggests, it won’t cost you a penny more than the time spent surfing the web.

So, what can you possibly expect to gain from an Atkins diet free plan? To begin with, you can pinpoint which types of foods you can eat and which type of foods you’ll have to drop. If you’re thinking of going with the Atkins diet then in the induction phase alone, there are some things that you’ll need to give up in order to maintain your diet.

On that list of foodstuffs, that you may eat and still remain on your Atkins diet free plan, you’ll find that you can eat cream, cheese and butter so long as you remain within your moderate daily carbohydrate allowance, but out go the fruits, the breads, the pastas and the pizzas. Basically everything that tastes lovely, you may think.

However, it is not completely true, as you’ll see as you inspect the Atkins diet plan recipes which may or may not come with your Atkins diet free plan. There are plenty of great tasting foods which you can eat and although you might not not it yet they’ll include many of your favourite foods, just not everything high in carbs.

As far as drinks go, the same principles remain true as in the rest of the Atkins diet free plan. That means, you must avoid sugared drinks or sodas like Coke, Ovaltine and sugared tea or coffee. Furthermore, you have to be careful with coffee, because it can be more addictive while on the Atkins diet for some people.

Likewise, caution is required with regard to alcohol. Some types, like lager or sherry contain too many carbs, while others, like Guinness or whisky are all right in moderation. However, you should always refer to your Atkins diet free plan before deciding what you can or can not drink.

Do you want to lose those excess pounds quickly? Well, take a free look at Atkins Diet Free Plan, by going to our resource called The Atkins Diet Plan

Low Carb Diet for Free

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

In our busy lives we often forget to plan healthy nutritious meals. As a result of this we end up piling on excess weight. Some people in many countries around the world are now becoming more health conscious and they are always on the look out for good diets that will help them to reach the ideal weight that they desire. There are many of us who would probably benefit from a free low carb diet rather than just gaining more and more weight.

For the extremely busy person with no time to go to gyms or health spas, having access to a free low carb diet and the information that will make it work is a great boon. Normally, we have to join a slimming club in order to gain the maximum benefits of exercise, but the Internet has a huge availability of free low carb diet links that you can look at in order to slim down.

As with any diet or exercise regimen that you decide to start on, you should get your doctors approval on whether these low carb diets are good and healthy for the lifestyle that you maintain. When you do start on a free low carb diet you should check out which type of low carb diet is going to give you the results that you desire. It is also desirable that you ought to be able to maintain this free low carb diet once you have reached your goal weight.

With all of the low carb diets doing the rounds, there are many choices that you can delve into. For the busy person, who needs a quick boost or a breakfast alternative, there are low carb products available that fill this gap. There are snacks, nutritious shakes and carb counters that will assist you count the number of carbs your food has.

You will find lots of fantastic low carb recipes to try out on any of the free low carb diet links that you will find. These low carb recipes are delicious-looking and they taste great too. In addition to, the recipes for everything from breakfast to snacks to dinner and appetizers, you will also be able to plan your weekly free low carb diet menu so that going shopping is simple.

As there are so many different sorts of free low carb diet plans available, you may want to take your time in choosing a good one. See if you can discover a low carb diet that is sensible and works with your lifestyle.

Having access to many low carb diet recipes is a benefit for the busy person. With all of these great benefits to be found you might not even realize that you’re supposed to be on a free low carb diet!

Do you want to lose those excess pounds real fast? Well, take a free look at Atkins Free Low Carb Diet, by visiting our resource called The Atkins Diet Plan

The Atkins Diet

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

The short name for the ‘Atkins Nutritional Approach’ is the ‘Atkins Diet’, which was the invention of Doctor Robert Atkins. Dr. Atkins had put on a lot of surplus weight while he was studying in medical school and after coming across a new diet in a medical journal, he made up his mind to refine it and publish it as his own.

Atkins, in his Atkins diet book, wrote that he believed that the prevailing theories about weight gain were terribly wrong. First, he mocked the notion that saturated fats were bad for weight loss; instead he said it was it was the carbohydrates that caused the weight problems Americans have these days. Atkins held that on the contrary, our obsession with avoiding fat actually worsened the problem. He pointed out that the low-fat diet foods on the market were high in carbohydrates but were not helping the nation, which probably meant that people on a ‘normal’ diet often ate foods that were worse for them than what they had been eating before.

The Atkins diet moved the focus. Atkins said that by cutting out carbohydrates, people would consume stored body fats. And, of course, if you lose the fat, you lose the weight. He said it was not just a question of eating less. Atkins postulated that your diet could actually help you burn calories and The Atkins Diet supposedly burned more calories than were consumed everyday. But the claims were contested.

Dr. Atkins also promulgated the positive influence that his diet should have on people with Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is a disease you usually get early in life, but Type 2 is more often closely associated with diet and surplus body weight. Therefore, it should follow that any diet that helps decrease weight, will help people with Type 2 diabetes. The Atkins diet is low in carbohydrates, which ought to be avoided by those with Type 2 diabetes regardless of the caloric intake, which the Atkins diet does, so Atkins claimed that those who suffer Type 2 diabetes would no longer need medication such as insulin. Doctors do not agree with Atkins on this point, although they do agree, that a lower carbohydrate intake helps control Type 2 diabetes, but there is no proof that carbohydrates cause diabetes.

What are the procedures one has to follow to do the Atkins diet? It goes in four phases - Induction; On-Going Weight loss; Pre-maintenance; and Lifetime Maintenance. Here follows a brief precis of the most important phase - The Induction Phase.

The Induction phase is probably the most difficult of the phases in the Atkins diet. Atkins is rather flexible about how long it should last ” but recommends two weeks. During this time, carbohydrate consumption should be severely curtailed ” up to 20 grammes per day. The goal is to enter a fat burning metabolic process called ‘ketosis’ which is when the body, being starved of glucose, starts to convert previously stored fat into the fatty acids needed to power the body. Weight loss during this period can be extreme ” some Atkins dieters report losses of 5-10 lbs. a week or more.

Learning the ideal carbohydrate levels for weight loss and for day to day intake after the weight loss ends, are the aims of the three final phases in the Atkins diet. Millions of people are still losing the weight they want to on this diet ” but beware the dangers of taking in too much fat.

Do you want to lose those excess kilos rapidly? Well, take a free look at The Atkins Diet, by going to our website called The Atkins Diet Plan

Lose Baby Belly Fat - Uncomplicated And Fast Ways To Drop That Annoying Weight After Baby

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Do you still have desire to drop baby belly flab? After having a baby there are scores of women that fight with losing mass. You will discover 3 tips on how to lose baby belly fat in this article.

You can still do something to leave behind baby belly flab, it does not matter if you have just had your baby or if your baby is well on his or her way up the age ladder.

Tip # 1 - Do Not Stress Out

Did you know that lots of individuals can not escape fat because they continue to stress themselves? Whether it be stressing over weight loss or stressing out over something else - stress will hang onto flab for dear life! Allow the stress to go so the weight will be able to go as well.

Tip # 2 - Do Not Abuse The Booze

There are various Moms that use a “little extra something” to allow them to escape for a bit. If you are drinking several alcohol you will in fact be killing your fat loss. You can drink a full day’s calories within a matter or hours. Taking in calories this way is not a helpful idea.

Tip # 3 - Do Not Beat Yourself Up

If you do transpire to slip up a bit, you should not give yourself a hard time about it. This will add to your stress and make you more likely to give yourself an excuse to quit your work outs or your diets. Just start back where you left off and try to make it longer in between the times that you stumble.

These are just three simple tips that you can use to get on track. There is a ton of information to hear when you desire to escape baby belly flab. It does not have to be complicated but you need to be taught it the right way.

Learn more about how to Lose Baby Belly Fat by going to http://www.LosingBabyFat.com for more free information.

Atkins Low Carb Diet Recipes

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

So, you’ve made up your mind to go on the Atkins Low Carb Diet. It’s certainly not your first diet and until you’ve tried this one, you can’t be certain that it will be your last dieting attempt either. Every diet you’ve tried so far has not worked and you’re on the verge of giving up dieting for ever. Naturally, this has been the case many a time before and yet you’ve still kept trying diet after diet without too much regret. Now however you live with the hope that with the Atkins low carb diet recipes that you have in your bag, that you’ll be able to improve on your history of yo-yo dieting.

You go back home full very excited and with plans to buy that little black dress you noticed a few months. You won’t go out and get it immediately of course, no, that might put a jinx your dieting efforts, but with the help of the Atkins low carb diet recipes you shouldn’t have very much trouble.

So, you get home and sit in your kitchen going through the lists of low carb diet foods you’re allowed to consume, and you start to worry about what you have got yourself into. You have absolutely no idea how you’re going to cook some of these low carb diet foods, and besides that they don’t sound half as appealing as Frank’s pizza from over the road.

What despair! So, you say good-bye to that little black dress. After all, there’s no way you can eat these low carb diet foods, since you don’t think you could even cook them if bought the ingredients. That’s when inspiration hits and you remember the Atkins low carb diet recipes that you have lying in your handbag.

You had put the two things in two different compartments of your admittedly cavernous bag and had entirely forgotten about the Atkins low carb diet recipes which you had acquired earlier. Your happiness levels go up again and you can see the black dress within your grasp again. So now you sit down and make a list of the low carb diet foods that you’ll need to start out on one of your very first Atkins low carb diet recipes.

The first thing you need to do though, is take all that lovely high carb food from your cupboards to the nearest shelter and make a healthy donation of food. It doesn’t matter what the family says, they’re all going to eat Atkins low carb diet recipes with you.

The next you have to do is hurry to the supermarket and buy the ingredients on your food list that you’ll need to cook the first meal on your Atkins low carb diet recipes list. And along the way, you’ll call in at the little dress shop around the corner and promise the little black dress in the window, that you’ll be it’s wearer soon, as long as you stick with those Atkins low carb diet recipes!

Do you want to lose that excess weight rapidly? Well, take a free look at Atkins low carb diet recipes, by visiting our resource called The Atkins Diet Plan

The Successful Treatment of Acne

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Acne is horrible. However, it’s not something that cannot be tackled. There are heaps of acne skin care products around. We can pigeonhole acne skin care products into 3 broad categories -

1] Deterrent or all-purpose acne skin care items; 2] Over-the-counter, specialised acne skin care products; 3] Prescription acne skin care items.

The general acne skin care products are the ones that are used as an acne-prevention measure. These include cleansers, make-up removers and similar items that help prevent acne. In the real sense, these acne skin care products are those that should be part of your daily schedule anyway. However, some of these are more orientated to work like an everyday acne skin care product.

These acne skin care products act against the reasons for acne e.g. limiting the production of sebum/oil and avoiding the congestion of skin pores. Basically, these acne skin care products inhibit the oil from getting trapped in the skin and hence impede the growth of the bacteria that lead to acne. Broad-spectrum acne skin care items also take in exfoliation products like skin peels. These work by removing dead skin cells, thereby reducing the likelihood of pore-clogging and bacteria increase.

Then there are specialised acne skin care products that are available over-the-counter i.e. without the requirement of a prescription. These include items like vanishing creams which scour the extra oil from the skin. Most of these acne skin care products are based on benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid, both of which are the enemies of bacteria (and so acne too). You must start with a product that has a lower concentration of benzoyl peroxide (e.g. 5%) and see how your skin reacts to it.

Alpha-hydroxy-acid based moisturizers are also popular as acne skin care products. You may have to test a few, before you find the acne skin care product that is most successful for you. If nothing seems to do any good, you should get in touch with a dermatologist.

Prescription acne skin care items are the ones that are prescribed by a dermatologist. These include ointments that can be applied on the affected area or oral antibiotics or just any topical medication. A dermatologist may also suggest a minor surgical process to do away with the contents of pustules. However, never try to squeeze or do this by yourself, as it can lead to the permanent damage of your skin.

Your physician could also prescribe a hormone-based treatment (since hormonal changes are also known to cause acne). Such acne skin care items are known to be very efficacious in many circumstances. So, with all those acne skin care items, tackling acne is really not all that difficult.

Are you having trouble treating acne scars? If you are or you would like to know more about acne, please go to our website entitled http://treating-acne-scars.com

What is the Atkins Grapefruit Diet?

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

The Atkins Grapefruit diet is a diet plan, not endorsed by the estate of Dr. Atkins, that hopes to play on the fame of the grapefruit diet and the Atkins diet name. However, a closer look into this diet shows that it may not be all it claims to be.

First off, it’s pretty difficult to find information on the Atkins grapefruit diet plan. Smart people know that when someone is perpetrating a deception, or a con, they will often gloss over the facts. This is what the Atkins grapefruit diet seems to do in an attempt to get people to associate it with two seemingly effective diets.

Is the Atkins Grapefruit Diet part of the Atkins Diet or recommended by the late Dr. Atkins’ firm? The answer is a loud no! But, not only is there no mention of the Atkins Grapefruit Diet on the Atkins web site, there is just no fruit of any sort allowed in the list of allowed foods in the Atkins diet Induction phase either.

The induction phase includes the following foods: fish of all kinds, all fowl such as turkey and chicken, any shellfish, any meat such as beef or pork, eggs cooked in any style including fried, cheese, vegetables, herbs and spices, fats and oils, low carbohydrate beverages including diet soft drinks.

Please, notice one thing - that fruit does not feature on that list at all! Yes, later phases of the Atkins diet do allow limited amounts of fruits such as cantaloupe and lemon juice, and the pre-maintenance and maintenance phases do even allow small quantities of grapefruit, but when judged in comparison with the amount of Grapefruit recommended on the Atkins Grapefruit Diet there is a huge difference.

The Atkins Grapefruit Diet recommends a cup of grapefruit juice or a cup of grapefruit sections, with 8 and’ carbs respectively. Even the most liberal phases of the Atkins diet recommends restricting intake to less 8 carbs per day, with regard to grapefruit. That is a direct contradiction from one plan to the other.

Most sensible people would turn to the Atkins website itself the moment they heard of the Atkins Grapefruit Diet and when they found no reference of that diet on their site, a red light would flash and an alarmbell would sound.

In general, please remember this: any diet that relies very heavily on one kind of food, such as grapefruit in a grapefruit diet, is not healthy for any but very short periods. The Atkins Grapefruit Diet is not associated with the Atkins diet, and could disrupt the results of the Atkins diet, especially in its early phases.

Do you need to lose those excess kilos rapidly? Well, take a free look at The Atkins Diet, by visiting our website called The Atkins Diet Plan

Dr Atkins Diet Products

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Following a diet is never easy, especially when you are just starting, but to tell the truth just because you’re going to do the Atkins Diet, it doesn’t mean to say that it will get any easier either. Sure, you can eat virtually unlimited quantity of high fat and high protein food, but you’re still on a diet and you still need to limit your food consumption.

For a start off, you will need to limit your carbohydrate intake especially in the initial stage of your diet, and although you are allowed to increase that incrementally later on in the diet, you might still be missing your favourite carbs, like bread or chocolate, and can still be prone to these cravings. And that’s where some of the Atkins products can help.

After having tried a few of the Atkins products myself, I have to mention that I consider them to be worth the money. They are not cheap, not by any means, however, nor are they so expensive that you’ll only be able to afford one product and go hungry for the rest of the time, although that might, in its own way help that you would lose weight those extra pounds!

Moreover, you’ll be happy to know that there is a range of Atkins products for you to select from which can help you conquer even your worst food cravings and as an added benefit, as I mentioned earlier, they taste good as well. But if that isn’t enough, you’ll be happy to hear that they will also assuage your sugar cravings too, as well as being healthy and filling you up!

So, what Atkins products can you get? Well, they cover a large range of foodstuffs, so it really depends on what phase of the diet you’re on and what you crave. If it’s breakfast bars, you’ve got the ‘Morning Start Breakfast Bars’ which are high in protein and fiber and also have the necessary amount of calcium you’ll require as well. Then you’ll come across my own personal favourite, the ‘Peanut Butter Granola Bar’, filled with crunchy wholesomeness and peanut butter.

But then again, if you truly crave a foodstuff from your diet, you can always try one of the Atkins products which reproduce different flavours, say the milk shakes. For example, if you crave chocolate, you could try an Atkins Chocolate Milk Shake. Come on, let’s be honest, where would we be without our milk shakes? Probably in the same place we would be without our ‘Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars’.

Have I said enough to sharpen your appetite? Now, do you believe that can stick to your diet with any of these Atkins products sitting on your shelves with only a minimum of moaning?

So, now you have it, what are you waiting for? Go and grab your Atkins products now. There’s only so much will power a person has and the better prepared you are the easier it will be to stick to your diet and the quicker you can lose that unwanted weight.

Do you need to lose that excess weight rapidly? Well, take a free look at Atkins Products, by going to our website called The Atkins Diet Plan