How to lose weight with out a diet
August 26, 2009 by Alex Chris
Filed under Diet
It is possible to lose weight with out a diet. In order to achieve this you need to watch what you eat, when you eat it, and in what quantities. In addition you need to start exercising more and alter your lifestyle to a healthier mode. This article explains how to lose weight with out a diet.
Drinking a lot of water is vital in your weight loss efforts
We sometimes cannot differentiate between the feeling of thirst and the feeling of hunger. As a result of this we overload our body with a lot of unwanted calories, when in reality what we really want is a fresh glass of ice-cold water. If you want to add more flavor to the water you can add a couple of lemon slices, or to drink sugar free ice tea. This is a very easy to follow technique that can help you lose weight easily with out a diet.
Lose weight by adding items to your diet and not removing
To lose weight with out a diet you certainly need to include fruits and vegetables in your daily diet. You can set a target to consume at least 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. This weight loss trick will ensure that your body takes the necessary fiber and vitamins while at the same time it is a healthy way to fight hunger. After all fruits and vegetables have a lot to offer to your health and can help you prevent various diseases.
A nice way to include more vegetables in your diet is to mix them with your food. For example you can include vegetables in your rice or soups, in chicken (as salad) or in pasta. This may be better than eating them as a side dish.
Get something in your mouth only when you feel hungry
Most of the times, our desire to eat is not because we are feeling really hungry, but it is also due to certain psychological factors. The feeling of hunger is the message of our body to inform us that we need fuel, so if the reason we eat food is not hunger then the whole process will not make us feel better but it will make us feel worse because of the extra calories we will eat. At the end of the day, eating when not hungry is not a healthy habit for many other obvious reasons and it will also break your weight loss plan.
Snacks can ruin your efforts to lose weight
A very common way to ruin your weight loss process and diet is when after the last meal of the day you lie down in front of the TV with a pack of chips or a box of crisps and biscuits. This is a case where you eat not because you are hungry but because you are get used to it.
If you feel that you cannot resist a sweet temptation, get yourself some healthy snacks such as low-calorie cereal bars or low-fat ice cream, and provide yourself the pleasure to have one per day. When you are accustomed to this habit you can try to further reduce the calorie intake by taking a cup of tea with no calories.
Lose weight by eating the foods you enjoy
In contrast to what many weight loss programs suggest in order to lose weight with out a diet you need not to exclude your favourite foods from your diet. This may create the opposite results. Recall the last time you wanted to have a chocolate but not eat one and recall what happened when you decided that you are ‘allowed’ to eat a bar of chocolate.
Instead of completely removing from your weight loss diet foods you like, you can instead buy them in smaller quantities and eat them less often, once or twice a week.
Do not try to follow a very strict weight loss diet
During the period when you are trying to lose weight, if you feel so break from your diet for a while, walk to your favourite restaurant or organize a dine out with friends. You can avoid having any sweets or other snacks on your way to the restaurant- or on the way home. You can eat as many as fruits and vegetables you want. Try not to over do it with the night outs and you will be able to continue your weight loss efforts with greater success.
Eat small meals more often
A secret on how to lose weight with out a diet is to eat smaller meals in regular intervals. The goals is to achieve an intake of fewer calories than those you burn. To do this you need to avoid being hungry all the time. Proven research identified that people who eat 4-5 meals a day find it a lot easier to manage their appetite and weight.
You can adopt this way in your effort to lose weight. Try to divide your meals and the calories you consume during a day in smaller portions. You need to make sure that you consume more calories before noon, while your evening meal should be your last meal of the day. This will not only help you lose weight easily but it is also a healthy habit since it gives enough time to your body to burn the excess calories.
Spicy food can help you lose weight
Seasonings or hot spices in your food, will not only enhance the food tast but will also give you a feeling that you eat more. Spicy food can stimulate your taste and create a sense of fullness, without actually eating more.
Fill your refrigerator with small healthy meals
Meals that can be prepared quickly may solve a number of problems (cooking time, preparation time etc) and may also assist your weight loss efforts. Having a small, easy to prepare meal will prevent you from ordering fast food because you can within 5-10 minutes prepare your own low calorie and healthy meal.
The above mentioned tips can help you lose weight with out a diet.
10 tips on how to lose weight and keep it off
August 25, 2009 by Alex Chris
Filed under Weight loss Tips
Obesity besides the looks that it gives to your body it also increases your risk of many serious health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, arthritis, and even in some cases cancer. Losing weight, even a few pounds can help you reduce these risks!
Many weight loss diets and programs on the market today promise you miracle results in a very short of time. Most of them are not only unhealthy but their main disadvantage is that you gain the weight you lost (and sometimes even more) immediately after you stop following the proposed diets.
The most important thing to notice when following a weight loss program is how to lose weight and keep it off. You can do this by following several techniques that will help you lose weight the healthy way.
One of the best tips in weight loss is to use more calories than you eat. This means that your daily activities should help your body burn more calories than those consumed by food and drinks. Here are some numbers to help you out:
• One pound equals to 3,500 calories.
• If you during a day you consume 3,500 calories more than you can burn, you will eventually gain a pound.
• If you manage to burn 3,500 calories more than the calories you eat, you will be able to lose a pound.
It should be noted and understood that the exact number of calories a person needs on a daily basis depends on age, sex, and activity level.
Typically though the situation is the following:
• Most men that are between the ages of 41 to 60 need about 2,200 calories a day.
• Most women that are between the ages of 41 to 60 need fewer calories than men, typically they need between 1,600 and 1,800 a day.
As a quick rule of thump in order to lose weight and keep it off, you do not need to suffer and for sure do not follow any stick or miracle diets available on the market! You should make changes to your diet and lifestyle gradually, things that you enjoy and can stick with them long-term.
10 tips on how to lose weight and keep it off
1. Do not hurry, weight loss takes time.
• Set your weight loss goals so as to lose only 1 or 2 pounds a week. It is proven that people who lose weight in a faster pace are more likely to gain the lost weight it back.
• Do not try the advertised miracle diets and weight loss drugs. No only they are un-healthy and dangerous but for sure they don’t work for long.
2. Be careful on what you eat and drink.
• Keep a daily journal for a while and record everything you eat and drink. Most people tend to eat without realising it and they end up consuming much more calories than they really need. A weight loss journal will help you find out this habit.
• Do not eat while watching television. When eating make sure that you sit down at the table not doing anything else.
• Eat slowly and chew your food very good. You should know that it takes about 20 minutes for our brain to get the signal from the stomach that we are feeling full. It is a fact that people who eat too fast they end up eating too much.
3. Prepare more home made food
• When you prepare your own meals at home it is easier and healthier to know what and how much you eat.
• Preparing your own food is not only healthier and safer but it is also less expensive than bying read made food or eating out.
• When you go to grocery stores or supermarkets to buy food make sure that you read the nutrition labels for each item you are buying.
4. Be selective when and where to dine out.
• It is a well know secret that if you want to lose weight you should eat out less.
• Some ready made meals and especially large fast-food meals contain more than 1,500 calories. This is almost enough for a whole day!
• When you do eat out, watch out the food portions. They are usually too large and enough for 2 people to share. In such a case try to share a portion with someone else or take the half portion as take away.
• When eating out you can select more salads. They are healthier and have less calories (without the dressing!)
5. Watch what you drink. Drinks have calories too!
• One regular can of cola has about 150 calories. These calories are known as empty calories since they have absolutely no nutritional value.
• If you do some simple mathematic calculations if you drink one less soft drink a day you can lose up to 15-lb a year, without doing anything!
• If you want to drink something, you can drink water (lots of it), unsweetened tea, or low-fat milk
6. Fruits and vegetables are your best friend
• You should aim for 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.
• Fruits and vegetables will keep you healthy and give you a feeling that you are fill up and contain very few calories.
7. You should try and fight your hunget but by consuming fewer calories.
• It is up to you to make smart choices while selecting your food. For example you could eat 8 to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables instead of eating a fast food salad (800 calories).
• When you have a choice, choose foods high in fiber that will fill you up. Such foods are fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, and whole-grain cereals, breads, and pasta.
• Before each meal you can have a broth-based soup or green salad. This will help fill your stomach up and you will end up eating less calories.
• Water, Water, Water – at least 8 glasses a day.
8. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day
• Breakfast is the most important meal of the day especially for people who want to lose weight. It is proven that people who eat breakfast can lose weight easier.
• Skipping any meals (and breakfast in particular) makes you hungrier and more likely to overeat on the other meals.
9. Eat healthy snacks
• If you really have the need to eat a snack or two then select among fruits and vegetables instead of candy, cookies, and chips.
10. Exercise and physical activity
• Exercise can improve your mood and has a lot of benefits to offer to your health besides weight loss.
• You should try and exercise for at least 30 minutes (moderate physical activity). Typical exercises can be walking, running. Repeat that for at least 5 days a week. You don’t have to join a gym and start weight lifting or very intense exercise.
• Walking is the easiest exercise to do and it will not only help you to burn those extra calories, but it also improves the health of your heart, and strengthens your muscles, which are vital to weight loss.
Do’s and Don’ts of Losing Weight the Healthy Way
July 26, 2009 by Alex Chris
Filed under Weight loss Tips
If you’re trying to lose weight, you are one of the million people out there trying to do the exact same thing: trying to find relevant, useful information on how to lose weight the healthy way, without getting cheated by fad products, without getting bogged down by misinformation and myths.
Having this in mind, here is a list I compiled together on the most common do’s and don’ts that people need to know, to benefit mostly fro their chosen weight loss plan.
Do these:
- Eat breakfast every day. In fact, make breakfast the most important part of your meal, and dinner the least important one.
- Eat a lot of fruits and vegetables to have enough fibre in your diet
- Drink at least 8 glasses of water every day. Hydration is a must!
- Monitor your progress on a weekly basis. Every Monday morning weight yourself and measure your weight. This will keep you positive and motivated to continue with your weight loss program
- Eat smaller portions for each meal and eat 4-5 meals a day. This ensures that you are never hungry so you don’t feel the need to gobble up your food during your next lunch
Don’t do these:
- Even though something might not have many calories, don’t eat is just because of the calories count if it doesn’t actually help you with your weight loss
- Don’t reduce your calories too a very low level, because this way your body thinks you’re starving and will slow down your metabolism to align with you. That’s not what you are after.
- Don’t get influenced by others, nobody knows better what’s good for you except you and your doctor (or dietician). Friends and family are not your doctors
- Don’t get discouraged if you don’t lose weight within 3 days. This is just a myth. Losing weight the healthy way needs time. This is why it is important to weight yourself every Monday morning and measure your waist. Never a better motivation booster than seeing with your own eyes your slow but steady results
- Don’t get demotivated if you have a ‘blue’ day. Yes, sometimes it happens that you need a day off from your diet. Just go with the flow and get back on track as soon as you’re off your blue soap box.
Abdominal Strength for Healthy Weight Loss
July 26, 2009 by Alex Chris
Filed under Fitness
Exercising for losing weight is a muss. Diet alone won’t cut it if you are really serious in getting those fat slices off your body. One of the most important parts of your body to exercise is the abdominal muscles. An important reason for getting abdominal strength is because usually overweight people like to eat until they feel full. If you exercise your abdominal muscles, the increase pressure will make you feel full faster than you’re really full, which means you will end up eating less. So the stronger muscles you have, the easier it gets for you to listen to your ‘full stomach’ syndrome and stop eating right away.
So when you want to get abdominal strength, your goal is to build and maintain your flat stomach with ease. Of course, this will not happen overnight. Anyone that claims to give you a flat stomach within 3 days is a liar, plain and simple. So you have to work for it. But think of the rewards, think of how nicely you will fit in those tight clothes that you haven’t used in ages, or now it’s your chance to shop for nice, new, slim clothes.
Here are a few exercises on how to lose weight and strengthen your abdomen
- Stand with your back to the wall, have your feet apart, your arms stretched overhead. Bend backwards so you touch the wall behind you with your fingers, while keeping your elbows and knees as straight as possible. Now return to your original position and right after that bend forwards and try to touch the floor with your finger, again while keeping your knees as straight as possible.
- Stand with your feet wider apart than your shoulder width, stretch out your arms sideways, parallel to the floor while having your elbows straight. Slowly twist your body to the right as much as you can. Then snap back to your original position and revert the movement to the other arm.
- Stand with your feel wider apart than your shoulder width, with the arms straight above your head. Have your palms pointing towards the ceiling with the fingers interlocked. Now bend sideways to the left as much as you can, stretching your right side at the same time. Then straighten to the original position and bend towards the right, while stretching your left side as much as you can. Make sure your knees are straight throughout this exercise at all times.
Make each of these exercises for 5 times, after which change to the next exercise. When you feel you are really tired, stop. Keep count on how many times you made the full round between these excercises and next time you do it again, try to make it just one additional time. Rinse and repeate. After about a week you will be able to double the number of exercises you did, and your stomach will help you for it as well.
3 Tips on how to lose weight the healthy way
July 24, 2009 by Alex Chris
Filed under Weight loss Tips
There are two ways on how to lose weight: the fast way, or the healthy way. There is no middle road. Both take you the same place, but you will find a difference along the way, or even in the outcome.
If you want to lose weight the fast way, you can do it. There are a lot of products out there that teach you just how to go about it and in upcoming articles we will discuss that. But now, let’s focus on how to lose weight the healthy way.
No matter how you put it, there is no magic pill in losing weight in a healthy way without making the following three changes in your life:
- Make changes gradually. You are used with a particular lifestyle, and your body is used to that rhythm too. If you make a sudden change in your life, if you don’t give you body time to adjust, the body will react sooner or later, and that will not be in a good way. Best is to give your body time to adjust. Make the changes gradually. For example, cut the sugar, and replace it with healthy honey instead. Or instead of 2 spoons of sugar in your coffee, use only one. You like that snack in the afternoon? Replace it with a bowl of fruits, or a plate of fresh carrots and other fresh vegetables that you can munch on while watching the latest rerun of Lost.
If you’re not one to make exercises, don’t worry, you don’t have to go to the gym right away and start making aerobics, but it does help to take a walk in the park, or around the block a couple of times a week.
Introducing these gradual changes in your life, changes that your body will have time to adjust, are a great way on how to lose weight the healthy way. - Reduce your calorie intake. Obviously this involves eating less calories than before. If you’re not used to what it takes to watch your calories, there are several aids available online. You can find many calorie calculators available for free online. These calculators take into account your weight, your body fat percentage and an estimate of your daily activity, to figure out your daily burned calories. This tool is great because it will tell you exactly how the calorie intake you need to maintain on a daily basis to successfully lose weight.
- Be patient grasshopper. If you want to lose weight the healthy way, it will not happen overnight. You need to have some patience, so don’t keep going up and down that scale every few hours. If you really start working on these little changes in your lifestyle, you will start noticing gradual changes after about 2 weeks. So you really need to remember that this works and keep yourself motivated and not give up. Of course, we are all humans, and we have all human needs and cravings. So you needn’t feel very guilty if you do take a bite from that Belgium dark chocolate or drink a glass of red wine, now and then. But you have to get back on track and simply keep on doing it. You will see, once you notice the first pounds lost on that scale, you will feel that much more determined to go through with it!
If you’ve wondered how to lose weight the healthy way, now is your chance to actually do it. Just remember, small, gradual, baby steps, it’s all it takes. Take it easier on your sweets and calories, and gradually introduce exercise, the light way. Lifting weights is not yet on the table for you, well, not unless you like doing it, of course.