Weight Loss For Us

Archive for April, 2012

Are you one of those that go all day without eating only to eat once you are relaxed and done for the night? Or are you one that tries to stick to 3 meals a day no matter how hungry you get in between them? Neither of these are good things to do.

When you go all day without eating, maybe your body is pulling on reserves to keep going, but it’s not necessarily going to help you burn fat. I know some people have such hectic schedules running from one meeting to another and simply feel they don’t have time to eat. It is hard to sometimes stick to a healthy diet if working.

If not eating, blood sugar counts bounce around, energy levels weaken. Your mood worsens as the day goes. Once you do eat, you eat whatever is most available. I remember the bags of chips or cookies helped me fend off hunger pains at times and also made me feel better. Got my blood sugar level a little high really quick and suddenly I would have more energy. I would still feel hungry but able to wait a little longer for the meal to be prepared.

If you are dieting, trying to burn more fat, you may not be adding a snack in between meals. Figuring the less I eat the more I will loose. What you really get again is the, I am starved, and grab what is handy to eat. My hubby is good at stopping at the drive thru on the way home because he gets hungry. What he gets is full of calories and fat. If he had simply had a light snack between breakfast and lunch, or lunch and dinner, he would have been able to drive past that fast food drive thru. He would then come home and eat a nutritious meal not over loaded with the fat and calories .This could help him burn the fat he is looking to burn.

Letting yourself get hungry will lead to diet failure. It’s just as bad as starving yourself. Pick out some items that aren’t too bad for you to eat. Some of the diet snack bars may not be too bad. Read the labels first to see how loaded they are with sodium. Pretzels are a healthy snack. It is also something you can keep in your glove box of your car for that ride home. Eating nuts is good too. Especially English Walnuts. They contain the omega 3 fatty acids that are healthy and can also help you burn fat. There are also a lot of packaged dried fruits you can choose from to carry in your car. Or keep in your office drawer for those mid morning/afternoon snacks.

At home, keep a supply of fresh fruits like grapes, apples, or salad making materials around. A salad is always a healthy alternative as long as you don’t over load it with fattening stuff. Just a basic salad with lettuce, maybe some diced carrots or broccoli, and a tad of cheese topped with your favorite salad dressing. Using one with olive oil is great, but believe me, I have my favorites. Don’t use the low fat or non fat ones. They have hidden things in them that actually may cause you to add weight. That will be covered in another article.

If you are trying to burn fat, remember, you still need to eat.

Tags: fast food drive, food drive, omega 3 fatty acids, non fat ones, drive thru

I am dieting, watching my food intake, how large of portions I am taking, but the weight loss is so slow. How can I speed it up a bit. Spring will be here before we know it and I need to fit back into that bathing suit. I hate going to the beach looking like some of those pictures of people that should not be seen out in public wearing a bathing suit. I am 57 years of age, I know I won’t ever look like I’m 25 again, but I want to look the best I can for my age. I have seem some women my age that have a very nice shape. How can I achieve that?

Can I make my stomach smaller by doing crunches? Doing crunches will tighten up your stomach muscles, it will burn a little fat, but not much, but it will not give you a flat stomach. You cannot obtain a flat stomach by doing crunches only. You still need to watch what you eat. The muscle fibers can be nice and tight, but if the fat is still there between the muscles and the skin tissue,  you are still going to have that stomach you hate.

Lifting weights will not give you any serious ability to burn fat either, not unless you do exercises that work many muscles at one time. Only doing curls, presses, pullups and other types of exercise will raise your heart rate, but not enough to burn fat. They are wonderful for toning and building muscle mass, which does use up more calories that fat, but will not burn a significant amount of fat.

To burn fat, you need to raise your heart rate. Get a little out of breath. Excerpt some energy. You need to sweat a little. Lifting weights will increase your metabolism which helps, but a cardio workout will burn fat.

What is the best cardio workouts to burn fat? I have not been running or jogging for awhile. I don’t need to start off like I just signed up for a marathon. That can be a good goal though. Sign up for one and give yourself a deadline to get into shape for it. All you need to raise your heart rate and burn fat is a good walk. Start off walking about 15 minutes at a time if you are really out of shape. Be sure to stretch before walking. You will need to walk a fast pace of about 3 miles an hour and this will wear on your tendons and muscles giving you a lot of pain the next day if you don’t. Sometimes even during the time you are walking you will experience pain. Listen to your body as to how far to take it. Don’t injure yourself. Then you may be a week or longer before you can get out and walk again.
To burn fat or calories, you need to have a program of cadio and diet. If doing cardio, you don’t have to do as strict of a diet but you do need to watch your portions.

Find a routine that works for you. Start off slow and build to walking more as you are comfortable with it. Find a partner or a pet to walk with you. Have fun, it makes this whole dieting and working out so much more enjoyable.

I’m ready to pull out that bathing suit and try it on each week to see if it looks any better than the last. I know it will. It’s time to get serious and burn fat.

Tags: going to the beach, lifting weights, bathing suit

Wow! Now that sounds like the ideal weight loss plan. I can be a couch potato and burn fat. I know there has to be a catch. I have dieted long enough to know that the more I sit around, the less weight I loose. So what is the gimmick?

There really is no gimmick. It only takes common sense to know that you won’t loose weight being inactive. There has to be some type of activity before you settle in to watch the late night movie.

Many people think that if you do exercises that increase your heart rate for a certain length of time, that you will miraculously end up with the body everyone is searching for. Well it’s not that easy. Along with walking, which is a wonderful cardio exercise, you need to build some muscle. Not do so much that you look like the Hulk, just enough to have a nice defined shape. The more muscle mass you have, the more you will burn fat and calories even watching that late night movie.

It takes both muscle building and cardio work to burn fat enough to make a difference. One can do it with only doing one or the other, but the results are slow. If only doing cardio, you may see a slimmer you, but a flabby one too. With muscle building, you will see toning but the fat may still be there covering up the muscle.

Cardio exercise raises your heart rate during the time you are exercising and a short while afterwards. That is why it’s important not to do it too soon before going to bed.

Weight training raises the heart rate or metabolism during the activity and for a longer time after you are done.

To burn fat and work on raising your metabolism during weight lifting you need to not do a large amount of repetitions of your workout. Doing as few as one and no more than 20 of the same exercise is enough. Working your muscles makes them learner and stronger. Some people who do weight training have found that their metabolism is still raised for a few days after they have worked out.

You do need to take a rest between work out days. When you work your muscles, you are actually tearing them. That is why you need to take one to two days off between working out areas. You can do the upper half one day and the lower half another day if you really want to lift weights every day. Do make sure you give the muscles time to heal between workouts or you will end up at the doctors off ice with an injury. Even when you are in your time off, you could be burning fat.

Adding your walk to the days you don’t lift weights is actually a good alternative. It works the large muscle groups a bit and could actually help burn fat even faster beings your muscles are still in the fat burning mode from the day before.

If you want to burn fat and loose weight, don’t just try to diet. Add weight lifting and cardio to your routine. You will burn fat faster and the end result will be much better. When you look in the mirror, you will be happy with what you see.

Tags: heart rate, fat burning mode, cardio exercise, wonderful cardio exercise, large muscle groups, loose weight, burn fat even while resting

What are some good fat burning foods? If I knew what some of them are, I could add them to my diet, I could burn fat so much faster. I really would like to loose this belly bulge I have. After having 4 children, it just isn’t going away. Not like it did after the first and second child. I have found age does play a role in obtaining the body we want. I know I have to settle for not a perfect body. Would look strange to be my age and have the body of a 25 year old anyway. I only want to be comfortable with how I look.

Adding a hot bowl of oatmeal to the breakfast menu is a good addition. Oatmeal is full of fiber and it keeps you satisfied for hours. When picking your oatmeal, choose the plain nothing added kind. I like to add a little cinnamon to mine.

I won’t say that mid morning snack of doughnut won’t still sound good, that takes will power. I know you are going to want something, but sugar coated items like doughnuts and cookies will only make you want more and won’t stick with you. Maybe snacking on some English walnuts would be a great idea. It also provides you with the omega 3 which so many of us are lacking in our diets. Nuts help you hold off the hunger pains a little and are very satisfying. Just beware of the type that are salted. Especially if you have high blood pressure. Too much sodium will raise your blood pressure if you eat too much. Peanuts and peanut butter are also good choices. Just don’t over do them, they do contain a bit of fat.

I use to drink a diet type shake mid morning. They come in different flavors. You can mix them with milk, and add some fruit or yogurt to them. Very tasty and filling. Sometimes after you have drank them for awhile, they loose their appeal, so don’t over do them.

So you heard fat is a bad thing. Not all fat is. Fat actually helps suppress hunger plus again the varieties you should use for cooking with are ones that contain omega 3 fatty acids. They are the essential fatty acids that our bodies cannot make, but are very much needed. They are the good fats. So cook in olive oil, canola oil, safflower oil, or sunflower oils. These are monounsaturated fats. The unhealthy type are hydrogenated oils from vegetables. These are full of trans fats which are the hidden fats not many are aware of.

An excellent snack would be grapes, berries strawberries, raspberries or other fruit. They are sweet, satisfying and loaded with fiber and nutrients.

Adding beans to your menus is very good. They are again packed with fiber and help burn fat.

You can eat meat, eggs and fish but watch out for the processed types. They will contain a lot of saturated fats. The type we don’t need. Eggs are also good for you, but if watching your cholesterol, be sure not to over do them. Pick lean types of meat. Fish is a good choice, salmon and tuna contain the omega 3 fatty acids. Vegetables always have a spot on any plate or in any diet. Don’t forget the rich nutrients they give us.

Other items are whole grains, eating fiber rich carbohydrates. Your bread should contain 100 percent whole wheat. We do need to still include our dairy products. Slim milk is the least fattening type, 1 or 2% is better than whole. Did you know that the calcium helps break down the fat in your body? It could even stop it from forming. Now that is good news. I drink a glass of milk with my dinner every day.

Green tea is suppose to be good for burning fat too. It helps increase your metabolism which helps you burn fat. Make your tea from scratch at home to get the full benefits. Teas made for sale at the local dairy mart have loss all their nutrients you are looking for. Maybe it’s time to give up coffee for tea.

I hope this all gives you some ideas on how to burn off that belly fat. Changes you can make in your diet that will burn fat instead of forming fat. Always do some type of exercise along with your diet. Diets can help you loose weight, but flab isn’t pretty either so adding some cardio to your daily routine will help give you that look you are wanting to see by swim suit season when you look in the mirror. See you at the beach.

Tags: belly fat, essential fatty acids, fatty acids, essential fatty acid, fatty acid

Cleansing diets can be hard to do, but worth while. While on a cleansing diet, you don’t eat any food for 3 days. I know I don’t promote starvation, but this is a plan to clean all the grime out of your system. It gives your digestive system a break away from the food you put in your body every day. For 3 days you do nothing but drink special drinks. You may take something first thing in the morning to clean yourself out along with laxatives, or it may call for a special fortified drink throughout the day. It all depends on the plan you choose to follow. For 3 days you will do nothing but liquids. This is hard, believe me, I just did it. After the first 3 days, you are permitted to eat but have dietary guidelines. Only certain types of foods are to be eaten. This is for the next 3 days. Then guess what? You get to do the liquid diet plan again. With the same special drinks and no food.

This type of plan will burn fat off your body. It  has burned fat off my belly, my hips and my thighs. I am wearing skinny jeans that were uncomfortable before I started this plan. I burned fat off so much that my regular jeans are starting to hang on me. I need a belt to hold them up. This feels really good.

How much did I loose in only 10 days? I lost 9 pounds. I am actually back at a weight that my hubby told me I looked good at a few years ago. I didn’t agree with him then and I don’t now. I want to loose more. I still have more fat to burn off. Shorts season and swimsuits will be here soon. I want to be ready.

I could just do the cleanse again, but my body doesn’t really require it. I should be clean. This cleanse allows my bodies digestive system to process fats better and pull on some of the fat that is stored instead on just the fat I am eating. I also need to eat different.

After those 9 days of the cleansing, you will not want to eat chocolate cake or candy right away. Not if you didn’t cheat through it. I know I went through far too much and I am seeing way too good of results to splurge now.

Today so far, I have had oatmeal for breakfast. That is an allowed item. Oatmeal is very filling and full of fiber. It will help enable you to burn fat. Right now as I am writing this, I am having a snack of pretzel sticks and some fruit I never knew existed before going on this diet. They are cuties. Little tangerine type fruit that is delicious. This is so satisfying to eat. I don’t feel like I am depriving myself. Now I do love potato chips, but they are only permitted one time a week. I will eat some maybe watching a movie on our special movie night. I do like pretzels though. Since I am only allowed 3 different cheat items a week, I may not eat the chips. Fried chicken does sound better to me. So far that is it for today. It’s only 10am.

Now for drinks. I didn’t like black coffee all the time but they say sugar is bad and so are most the artificial sweeteners. Through doing research for these articles, I found where a guy was promoting a program to burn fat that allowed the sweetener, Stevia. It’s 100% natural zero calorie sweetener. It doesn’t contain the harmful ingredients the others contain. Now I can sweeten my oatmeal too.

I also am enjoying lemonade. I am making it fresh. I squeeze a lemon on one of those lemon presses to get out the juice. Take on tablespoon full of the liquid and a bit of the pulp, add it to a cup of water and add one packet of Stevia. Not bad. It’s much healthier than drinking a man make diet drink. There I s something about using real lemon that helps burn fat. Even though it wasn’t on the diet plan, I figure making a drink using it would be good. Also adding a splash of lemon to salads help bring out the flavors of your ingredients and adds nutrition.

I plan on being on this diet for awhile. I would love to loose at least 10 more pounds and maybe 20. Even after I am done loosing, I need to learn how to maintain the level I want to be at. This is a lifestyle change I am trying to develop. The good thing about it is, other than the cleanse, I am enjoying it.

Tags: drink special drinks, different cheat items, little tangerine type, special fortified drink, diet plan, liquid diet plan