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What Makes You Vulnerable to Temptation When Dieting?

Every person is different and every dieter has his or her own unique struggles; however, there are certain situations that make almost everyone vulnerable to temptation when dieting.

A study recently published in the Annals of Behavioral medicine studied 80 people who were already trying to lose weight. They asked them to use an app on their phone to record times when they were tempted to cheat on their diet and record how they handled the temptations. Although it is a small study, the results were about what I would have guessed.

Here are the four times/situations that tempted the dieters the most:

1. When it was late at night.

2. When they were tired.

3. When there was alcohol present.

4. When friends were present.

It’s an interesting list isn’t it? Although it would be wonderful if we could just diet without life’s stresses, without tempting social situations, without feeling tired, and never being tempted by alcohol, the truth is that we have to diet during our regular life. Most of us can’t go to a spa and lose weight and come back all fit and healthy.

Each of these four common situations made it difficult for the study participants to stick to their diets and about 50 percent of the time when faced with temptations, they gave in and ate foods not on their diet plans.

I don’t drink alcohol so I can’t speak to the presence of alcohol being a factor in going off my diet, but I can certainly relate to the other three. I’ve written about the influence of other people in dieting before, and I promise you, if I was already on the fence about eating right for a particular meal, the presence of overweight friends influenced my behavior.

I also fell into poor dieting behaviors when I was tired and not getting enough sleep. The lack of sleep affects more than just how sleepy you are. It also affects hormones that control hunger and appetite. If I started the day off tired, I had much less willpower than I did when I began the day (or week) feeling reasonably rested. I still find that to be true.

Late night eating is almost always dangerous for people trying to lose weight. Of course there are exceptions and planned snacks are fine, but hanging out with friends who are eating pizza is never good when you are trying to lose weight. Another challenge late at night is if you are alone and bored. That’s when I would break out the ice cream or whip up some biscuits for myself.

The good news is that none of these situations have to mean the end of your diet. You can learn to control nighttime eating, practice staying on track when eating with friends, not allowing alcohol to influence your eating patterns, and work on getting enough sleep.

In the end it is all about lifestyle changes. You can temporarily resist all temptations, but real life dieting means successfully losing weight through tempting times, through easy times, and through those times when you are feeling stressed. After all, life is not stress free and you’ve got to learn how to live healthy even when life is hard.

What do you find tempting and how do you stick to your diet in those times? Diane

Images courtesy of FreeDigital Photos.net by StockImages

Source: http://blog.fittothefinish.com/2014/03/what-makes-you-vulnerable-to-temptation-when-dieting/

An Easy Trick to Cut Calories Without Even Trying

Calories matter in weight loss. Current diets focus on protein, older diets focused on carbs, and who knows what future diets will focus on. But at the end of the day, calories do matter in weight loss.

Although I didn’t count calories very often when I was losing weight, I had a very good sense of how many calories were in a serving of foods because I was an avid label reader and measured my portions until I knew exactly how much food was in a serving. I call this calorie awareness.

For example, I knew that a serving of Ritz crackers was five crackers and had 80 calories, a serving of ice cream was 1/2 cup and had about 120 calories, and a serving of grapes was 1 cup and had about 100 calories.

The easy trick I used to cut calories was to cut portion sizes.

For example, this plate of pasta probably has 500 or 600 calories between the sauce, the noodles, and the fake cheese sprinkled on top. If you cut the portion in half, you’ve cut the calories in half.

This trick comes in very handy if you are having a meal like the one pictured above. High calorie foods can blow your diet faster than a Mississippi minute because they are so incredibly calorie dense.

Whenever I eat at a restaurant and order a standard entree, the first thing I do when the food comes is divide the high calorie foods in half. I leave the steamed vegetables and salad alone, but the entree, the bread, and any other higher calorie foods get chopped in half first thing. (And even then, I may not eat all of it.)

Automatic calorie control — provided I don’t go back and eat the rest.

When I’m at home, I simply serve myself the right portion from the beginning so I don’t have to make any calorie cuts. I know which of our family’s standard dishes are higher in calories than the others, and make sure to serve myself a smaller portion of those particular foods. For instance, when I make Asian stir fry, I have a tiny amount of rice and lots of vegetables. And if I make vegetarian lasagna, I have a lot of salad and a little bit of the main dish.

Using portion sizes to cut your calories is a sure-fire way of reducing how many calories you consume without feeling totally deprived. If you choose to eat an occasional dessert, using this trick to cut calories can help you enjoy that dessert or “off-limits” food without blowing your diet or feeling guilty.

The key for this technique is knowing what foods are calorie dense and that takes some research. Don’t just guess. Use the USDA Nutrient Data Labs search function,Sparkpeople, or MyFitnessPal to develop your own calorie awareness.

Over time, this will become second nature and is a technique that you can use whether you are losing weight or trying to maintain your weight. It’s part of the reason I have been able to maintain my weight for almost 16 years. Calorie awareness, portion control, and exercise. It works.

Source: http://blog.fittothefinish.com/2014/03/an-easy-trick-to-cut-calories-without-even-trying/

There Are Five Key Reasons People Fail at Losing Weight

Why do so many people fail at losing weight? Laziness? Food addictions? Hereditary? While all of these things may be contributors, failure is often because of these factors:

1) People don’t truly understand the major health risks of being overweight. Why do most want to lose weight? Most would say to look better. Looking better certainly is a benefit of losing weight, but this shouldn’t be the sole reason to lose weight. There is a 1000 pound gorilla in the room and it’s often ignored. Obesity kills millions of people each year. Thousands of studies have shown and prove without any doubt that losing body fat will improve and lengthen your life. Knowing the dangers of being overweight is a tremendous motivator to lose weight and keep it off.

2) People don’t commit to permanent lifestyle changes. So many people think of a “diet” as something temporary. Often people on ”diets” restrict themselves excessively and create a miserable situation. Sooner or later failure is inevitable because of the unreasonable demands of most “diets.” Some diets have very strict guidelines such as only eating certain foods, eliminating all carbs, etc. The key to losing weight long term is to make gradual lifestyle changes you can stick to forever.

3) Most individuals are not provided the truthful facts of losing weight and becoming healthier. With the conflicting information in the media, and all of the different lose weight quick fad diets, it’s understandable why so many people really don’t know the truth about losing fat and keeping it off long term.

4) Our own warped thought process often ruins our efforts to lose weight. For example, some people justify binging or giving up because they hit a small road-block. This isn’t an all or nothing game. For example, when I was overweight, if I ate an unhealthy lunch, I’d go ahead and eat an unhealthy dinner and snack all night since I already “messed up” the day. Or I’d say, I’ll start eating healthy on Monday since I’ve already eaten poorly this weekend.” Every person at times eats too much. Successful people will not let a road bump completely derail their entire lifestyle change. If you are not implementing positive lifestyle changes and losing weight, you are gaining weight. Again, there is no “in-between.”

5) Most people don’t realize how many calories they are eating and burning each day. So many overweight people eat thousands of extra calories without realizing it. It’s tough to know if you are gaining weight or losing weight each day unless you are keeping an eye on what you’re consuming. It’s vital to write down what you consume on a daily basis. Then cross reference the calories you’re eating with the calories you burn. Use the calculators on freeweightloss.com to help you determine calories burned.

Source: freeweightloss.com

100 Painless Ways to Cut 100 or More Calories

Reaching your fat loss goals may be easier than you think. To lose a pound of fat a month, all you need to do is cut 100 calories a day from your diet, assuming the intake and expenditure of all other calories remains the same. That’s because a pound of body fat is equivalent to about 3,500 calories. So if you cut 100 calories a day for 31 days, you’re cutting 3,100 calories – or about a pound.

Wait… a pound a month? Isn’t that a little slow? Well, mounds of research indicate that you’re more likely to keep weight off if you lose it slowly. Besides, losing a pound a month doesn’t require drastic changes in your eating habits. It can be as simple as eating two egg rolls with your Chinese stir-fry instead of three. Here are 100 painless ways to cut 100 or more calories a day. As a bonus, they all reduce fat or sugar, which means, calorie for calorie, you’re getting more vitamins and minerals:

• Spread 1 tablespoon of all-fruit jam on your toast rather than 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter.
• Replace 1 cup of whole milk with 1/2 cup of nonfat milk.
• Eat 2 poached eggs instead of 2 fried eggs.
• Replace 1/2 cup of granola with 2 cups of Cheerios.
• Instead of using whole milk and eggs to prepare 2 slices of French toast, use nonfat milk and egg whites.
• Snack on an orange and a banana instead of a Snickers candy bar.
• Munch on 35 pretzel sticks instead of 1 ounce of dry-roasted peanuts.
• Replace 1 cup of sweetened applesauce with 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce.
• On your lamb-and-vegetable kabob, replace 2 of the 4 chunks of meat with fresh whole mushrooms.
• Dip an artichoke in 1 tablespoon of low-fat mayonnaise instead of 1 1/2 tablespoons of regular mayonnaise.
• Steam your asparagus rather than sauté it in 1 tablespoon of butter or oil.
• Instead of a 5-ounce glass of wine, opt for cherry-flavored sparkling water.
• For a chewy snack, have 1/2 cup of dried fruit rather than 9 caramels.
• Replace 3 slices of bacon with 3 slices of Light & Lean Canadian bacon.
• Eat a Lender’s egg bagel instead of a Sara Lee egg bagel.
• Select 1 cup of home-style baked beans instead of an equal serving of baked beans with franks.
• Replace 2 biscuits with 2 dinner rolls.
• When making a sandwich, use 2 slices of Roman Light 7-grain bread instead of Pepperidge Farm wheat bread.
• Eat 1/2 cup of steamed fresh broccoli instead of 1/2 cup of frozen broccoli in cheese sauce.
• Make a burrito with 1/2 cup of fat-free refried beans and 1 ounce of nonfat cheese instead of the same amount of traditional refried beans and cheese.
• Replace an apple muffin with a high-fiber English muffin.
• Reduce a typical serving of chocolate cake (1/8 of a two-layer cake) by one-third.
• Switch from 1 cup of whole-milk hot chocolate to 1 cup of steamed 1% milk flavored with a dash of almond extract.
• Replace 1 cup of caramel-coated popcorn with 2 1/2 cups of air-popped popcorn.
• Switch from 1/2 cup of yogurt-covered raisins to 1/2 cup of plain raisins.
• Snack on 1 cup of nonfat plain yogurt instead of 1 cup of custard-style yogurt.
• Top your celery sticks with 2 tablespoons of fat-free cream cheese instead of 3 tablespoons of regular cream cheese.
• Replace 2 fried-chicken drumsticks with 2 roasted drumsticks and a cup of peas and carrots.
• Instead of eating 5 chocolate-chip cookies, savor the taste of 2.
• Lighten your 2 cups of coffee with 2 tablespoons of evaporated nonfat milk instead of 2 tablespoons of half-and-half.
• Replace a 12-ounce can of cola with a 12-ounce can of diet cola.
• Thicken your cream sauce with 1 percent milk and corn starch instead of a roux of butter and flour.
• At the appetizer tray, choose 4 fresh raw mushrooms instead of 4 batter-fried mushrooms.
• Use 2 tablespoons of fat-free sour cream instead of regular sour cream (on baked potatoes or in stroganoff). If done twice in the day, 100 calories will be cut.
• Reduce the size of your steak from 4 1/2 ounces to 3 ounces.
• Grill a cheese sandwich with nonstick cooking spray instead of margarine.
• Replace 1 cup of chocolate ice cream with 2/3 cup of nonfat chocolate frozen yogurt.
• Snack on 2 ounces of oven-baked potato chips instead of regular potato chips.
• Instead of topping your salad with an ounce of croutons, get your crunch from 1/4 cup of chopped celery.
• Instead of 1 cup of macaroni salad, eat 3 1/2 cups of spinach salad with 2 tablespoons of low-calorie dressing.
• Cut the peanut butter on your sandwich from 2 tablespoons to 1 tablespoon.
• Serve your turkey with 1/4 cup of cranberry sauce instead of 1/2 cup.
• Order a sandwich on cracked wheat bread instead of a croissant.
• Complement your hamburger with 1 1/4 ounces of oven-baked tortilla chips instead of a side of fries.
• Split an apple Danish with a friend rather than eat the entire thing.
• Order 2 slices of cheese pizza instead of 2 slices of pepperoni pizza.
• Grab a Dole Fresh Lites Cherry frozen fruit bar instead of a Sunkist Coconut frozen fruit bar.
• Snack on 1/2 cup of fruit cocktail canned in water instead of 1 cup of fruit cocktail canned in heavy syrup.
• Switch from 1 cup of fruit punch to 1 cup of sparkling water flavored with 2 teaspoons of concentrated orange juice.
• Instead of eating garlic bread made with butter, spread baked garlic cloves on French bread.
• Rather than snack on 1 cup of grapefruit canned in syrup, peel and section 1 small grapefruit.
• Dip your chips in 1/2 cup of salsa instead of 1/2 cup of guacamole.
• Switch from 1/2 cup of Frusen Gladje butter pecan ice cream to Breyers butter pecan ice cream.
• Use 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise in your tuna salad instead of 2 tablespoons.
• Hold the tartar sauce on your fish sandwich, and squeeze lemon on it instead.
• Replace 3 fish sticks with 3 ounces of grilled halibut.
• In sandwich spreads or salads, use 3 teaspoons of dijonnaise instead of 4 teaspoons of mayonnaise.
• Use 2 tablespoons of light pancake syrup instead of 2 tablespoons of regular syrup.
• Top your pasta with 1 cup of marinara sauce instead of 1/2 cup of alfredo sauce.
• For each serving of pasta salad you make, reduce the oil or mayonnaise by 1 tablespoon.
• Replace 1/2 cup of peaches canned in extra-heavy syrup with 1/2 cup of peaches canned in water.
• Prepare 1/2 cup of steamed peas and cauliflower instead of frozen peas and cauliflower in cream sauce.
• Cut back on sampling during cooking. The following “tastes” have 100 calories: 4 tablespoons of beef stroganoff, 3 tablespoons of homemade chocolate pudding, 2 tablespoons of chocolate-chip cookie dough.
• At an Italian restaurant, snack on a large breadstick instead of a slice of garlic bread.
• Eat a 3/4-cup serving of pudding made with skim milk rather than a 1-cup serving of pudding made with whole milk.
• Choose 1/2 cup of brown rice instead of 1 serving of frozen rice pilaf with green beans or 1 serving of frozen Oriental rice and vegetables.
• Compliment your sandwich with 3/4 cup of split-pea soup instead of 1 cup of chunky bean and ham soup.
• Replace 3 tablespoons of strawberry topping on your ice cream with 3/4 pint of fresh strawberries.
• Pass on the second helping of mashed potatoes.
• Eat 3 grilled prawns with cocktail sauce instead of 3 breaded and fried prawns.
• Make a pie crust with 1 cup of Grape-Nuts cereal, 1/4 cup of concentrated apple juice and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon, instead of using a traditional graham-cracker crust. You’ll save 100 calories per slice.
• Replace 8 sticks of regular chewing gum with sugar-free chewing gum.
• Snack on a papaya instead of a bag of M&Ms.
• Substitute 3 ounces of scallops for 3 ounce of lean beef in your stir-fry.
• Rather than spread 4 tablespoons of cream cheese on two slices of raisin bread, dip the bread in 1/2 cup nonfat apple-cinnamon yogurt.
• Munch on 1 cup of frozen grapes instead of an ice cream sandwich.
• Rather than drink a strawberry milkshake, make a smoothie of 2/3 cup of low-fat milk, 1/2 cup of strawberries and 1/2 a banana.
• Replace 2 brownies with 2 fig bars.
• Eat 2 meatballs instead of 4 with your spaghetti.
• On a hot day, quench your thirst with a glass of ice water with lemon or mint instead of a can of light beer.
• Eat 1/2 cup of black beans instead of 3 ounces of roast beef.
• Replace 1 1/2 tablespoons of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter spread with 1 1/2 tablespoons of Nucoa Smart Beat margarine.
• Choose 1 serving of vegetarian lasagna instead of lasagna with meat.
• Eat 2 Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain bars instead of 2 Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts.
• Drizzle 3 tablespoons of low-calorie French dressing on your salad instead of 2 tablespoons of blue cheese dressing.
• Replace 1 large flour tortilla with 1 six-inch corn tortilla.
• Eat a turkey sandwich instead of a chicken salad sandwich.
• Choose 4 1/2 ounces of tuna packed in water instead of 4 1/2 ounces of tuna packed in oil.
• At Burger King, have a Whopper Jr. Sandwich with regular fries instead of a Whopper With Cheese Sandwich.
• Order your Quarter Pounder without cheese.
• At Jack in the Box, eat a regular taco instead of a super taco.
• Fix 1 cup of turkey chili with beans rather than regular chili with no beans.
• Use 1 cup of fat-free cottage cheese instead of regular cottage cheese.
• Order a sandwich with barbecued chicken instead of barbecued pork.
• Replace 1 cup of corn with 1 cup of carrots.
• Reduce your helping of turkey stuffing from 1 cup to 2/3 cup.
• Have a single scoop of ice cream instead of a double scoop.
• Replace 2 ounces of corn chips with 2 ounces of SnackWell’s wheat crackers.
• Eat 1 hot dog at the baseball game instead of 2.
• Shred 2 ounces of fat-free cheddar cheese on nachos instead of regular cheddar.

Elizabeth Somer

Source: freeweightloss.com

Maximize Your Weight Loss Efforts by just Checking Your Calorie Intake

As anyone who has tried to lose weight can tell you, you need to understand what really works in order to be successful. Dieting, for example, is not just about eating less each day or not eating at all for two days straight. What you really need to do is increase your activity while reducing your intake of certain foods. If you understand how to control your calorie intake, you'll enjoy far better results with your diet than you'll see from any pill.

The premise of this method of weight loss, is to take in fewer calories than your body will use up, so that when your body needs fat, it will use your fat stores. You want to raise your level of exercise, while reducing the amount of calories that you are consuming, which produces a shortage of energy.

Many people have an easier time understanding this in numerical form, so let's start with the 3500 calories that are stored in one pound of body fat. If your exercise program use 3500 calories, that's one pound of body fat that you've burned off as opposed to simply not eating that 3500 calories. So the secret to a successful diet is to combine fewer calories with more exercise.

You must be vigilant, though, not to take your aerobic workouts to the extreme, or reduce your food intake to the point of malnutrition. Slow and steady is the key, as a balanced, patient approach will increase the chances that your positive results will be permanent. You will want to avoid injuries that may be sustained from excessive exercise, and drastically reducing your intake of food will cause your body to conserve calories, meaning that it will burn fewer calories thinking that your body is being starved.

The best plan is to slowly reduce the amount of calories you take in every day day while you gradually increase your cardio. For most people, a reduction of 500 calories a day is just about right. Of course, this will require you to carefully track the number of calories you take in every day as well as the calories you burn. The best way to maximize your results is to keep a close eye on both your calories and weight loss.

Calorie counting is really the basis for any good weight loss plan. The most successful plans you can follow have calorie counting at the heart of their program. To get a hold on your weight loss plan, you must keep good track of the calories you are eating and those that are being burned. Make sure you keep accurate track. Guessing at how much you eat and how much you burn will only result in no weight loss and lots of frustration.

Source: allbestarticles.com

Weight Loss Program: Motivate yourself for losing Weight

We all have to deal with excess weight after the holidays, but we also know that it is not so easy to follow a weight loss program or a diet to lose fat. We need motivation to start the program and complete it. Here we are going to discuss the top 4 weight loss motivation tips. Listen, only if you are able to motivate your mind about losing weight, you'll be achieving it one day.

Otherwise you'll be just dreaming of those wonderful things that would be happening once you lose pounds of weight from your body - but that won't be happening if you don't motivate yourself to loss weight! So, start motivating yourself through the following top 4 weight loss motivation tips:

1. Hitting the gym and lifting weights will surely increase your weight. But should you stop there? Never! You'll see an increase in weight you were building muscles while lifting weight. And muscles weighs more than fat. For the same reason you may find an increase in your body weight in the initial stages. But then you'll start losing weight in no time.

2. Just think about what you'll be able to do once you starting losing weight. Now, take a snapshot of yours and take a print out of it. It should be the "before" pic of yours - after you have succeeded in losing weight. Your plans should be to take that "after" pic - which will be looking awesome with you having succeeded in losing weight!

3. Never withdraw yourself from wight loss programs once you start it - thinking that it is tough and you won't be able to continue any longer. The fact is - only the first few weeks are the toughest. And once you are able to go further through the same weight loss program for a couple more weeks, you'll see you losing weight pretty easily than those early weeks.

4. Never make a plan to lose weight all at once! Did you put on weight overnight all at once? So, why should you lose weight all at once? You weren't knowing that you were putting on weight since the process is pretty slow. But it is continuous. Take note of the word "continuous". You should plan to tackle it doing things for losing weight in a continuous manner. Yup, you should be consistent in following your weight loss programs.

Only then you'll be able to lose weight the same way as you put on weight!

Also remember this last part of any weight loss plan is rest: it might seem not extremely essential, but whenever you are burning that fat, the body will probably be taxed and you will be tired. Keep in mind to get at least 8 hours of sleep every night!

Source: allbestarticles.com

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Why a Brisk Walk Is Better

Why a Brisk Walk Is Better

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Walking, fast or slow, is wonderful exercise. But now a first-of-its-kind study shows that to get the most health benefits from walking, many of us need to pick up the pace.

The findings stem from a new analysis of the National Walkers’ Health Study, a large database of information maintained at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory about thousands of middle-age men and women who walk regularly for exercise. Recruited beginning in 1998 at walking events and from lists of subscribers to walking-related publications, these volunteers filled out a lengthy survey about their typical walking distance and pace, as well as their health history and habits.

As most of us would likely guess, walking is the most popular physical activity in America. But people who walk for exercise do so at wildly varying speeds and intensities. Some stroll at a leisurely 2 miles per hour, which is low-intensity exercise. Others zip along at twice that pace or better, resulting in a sweatier workout.

Exercise guidelines generally suggest that for health purposes, people should engage in 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity most days of the week. For walkers, a moderately intense pace would probably be about 15 or 16 minutes per mile.

It has generally been assumed that if people walk more slowly but expend the same total energy as brisk walkers — meaning that they spend more time walking — they should gain the same health benefits. But few large-scale studies have directly compared the impact of moderate- and light-intensity walking, especially in terms of longevity.

To do so, Paul T. Williams, a statistician at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, gathered data about 7,374 male and 31,607 female participants from the walkers’ health study, who represented almost every speed of fitness walker, from sluggish to swift. His findings were published online this month in PLoS One.

Dr. Williams divided participants into four numerically equal categories, based on their normal pace. Those in Category 1, the fleetest, averaged less than 13.5 minutes per mile, putting them on the cusp of jogging, while those in Category 4, the slowest, strolled at a relatively dilatory 17 minutes or more per mile. The majority of the walkers in this group in fact required at least 20 minutes to complete a mile, and many had a pace of 25 minutes or more per mile. (Interestingly, on average, female walkers were faster than men in all of the categories.)

Next, Dr. Williams cross-referenced his data against that in the essential if somewhat ghoulish National Death Index to determine which of the almost 39,000 walkers had died in the decade or so since they had joined the survey and from what.

It turned out that nearly 2,000 of the walkers had died. More telling, these deaths disproportionately were clustered among the slowest walkers. Those in Category 4 were about 18 percent more likely to have died from any cause than those in the other three categories and were particularly vulnerable to deaths from heart disease and dementia.

Unexpectedly, the death rate remained high among the slowest walkers, even if they met or exceeded the standard exercise guidelines and expended as much energy per day as someone walking briskly for 30 minutes. This effect was most pronounced among the slowest of the slow walkers, whose pace was 24 minutes per mile or higher. They were 44 percent more likely to have died than walkers who moved faster, even if they met the exercise guidelines.

One important inference of these statistics is that intensity matters, if you are walking for health. “Our results do suggest that there is a significant health benefit to pursuing a faster pace,” Dr. Williams said. Pushing your body, he said, appears to cause favorable physiological changes that milder exercise doesn’t replicate.

But there are nuances and caveats to that conclusion. The slowest walkers may have harbored underlying health conditions that predisposed them to both a tentative walking pace and early death. But that possibility underscores a subtle takeaway of the new study, Dr. Williams said. Measuring your walking speed, he pointed out, could provide a barometer of your health status.

So check yours, your spouse’s or perhaps your parents’ pace. The process is easy. Simply find a 400-meter track and, using a stopwatch, have everyone walk at his or her normal speed. If a circuit of the track takes someone 6 minutes or more, that person’s pace is 24 minutes per mile or slower, and he or she might consider consulting a doctor about possible health issues, Dr. Williams said.

Then, with medical clearance, the slow walkers probably should try ramping up their speed, gradually.

The most encouraging news embedded in the new study is that longevity rises with small improvements in pace. The walkers in Category 3, for instance, moved at a speed only a minute or so faster per mile than some of those in the slowest group, but they enjoyed a significant reduction in their risk of dying prematurely.

A New York Times piece on why walking is better when you pick up the pace
Well.blogs.nytimes

Fitness Training Plan

How To Create a Fitness Training Plan

How many pounds do you want to lose? Five, ten, fifty, two hundred?

You may be able to lose five pounds by starting to eat breakfast everyday, but it is going to take more than that to achieve the hefty goals. Your hefty goals are achievable though! They will take some work and you are going to need a plan, but it is worth it. As the saying goes “failing to plan is planning to fail”. If you fail to plan, don't expect to meet your goals, but if you have a solid fitness training plan, your chances of succeeding will be much higher.

Let's look at three parts of a fitness plan that you are going to need to have: the what, how often, and when.

The what

Diet. Yes, the inevitable diet lecture. Nothing will affect your health more than your diet. You can lift weights all day long and not lose a pound if your diet doesn't permit you. I suggest implementing three simple tips, from there you can decide if there is a more specific diet plan that you would like to follow.

1. Drink water before each time you eat. When we feel hungry, many times we are actually just thirsty. Drinking water before each time you eat (one or two glasses) is able to help you discern when you are actually hungry and even if you are hungry, water can sometimes help as an appetite suppressant.

2. Do not eat after 8pm. At night your body is slowing down. It is trying to “take it easy” and get ready for bed. If you keep stuffing it with food, your body is going to have to work more during the night to digest the food that you eating.

3. Radical substitution. If you are trying to meet weight loss goals, junk food is your enemy. Substituting your unhealthy food with healthy food can make a huge difference in your eating habits. Since junk food is your enemy, you need to see it as an enemy and treat it like an enemy. Getting junk food out of your house and replacing it with fruits, veggies, healthy crackers, etc. will go a long way. If you don't have a certain food in your house, there is a much smaller chance of you eating it.

Exercise. Exercising can sometimes seem intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. You don't need to be Arnold Schwarzenegger or bench press a car, start small. Start somewhere. That could mean taking a 5 minute walk around your house every morning before work. That could mean doing 5 push-ups and sit-ups before you go to bed. You don't have to have a gym membership and $200 running shoes to be able to exercise. Chose a starting point, even if it may seem insignificant, and go from there.

Sleep Studies show that those who do not get a significant amount of rest, gain weight compared to those who sleep more. When your body is tired it can be harder to control your appetite. Eating late at night, through the middle of the night, and eating junk food is all capable of ruining your overall weight loss plan.

How often

Some may suggest that if your following a diet you can have a “splurge day”. While I see the point, I think it would beneficial to stay away from “splurging” and keep your diet going 24/7/365. Your goal is not just to lose weight, it is to live a healthy lifestyle, so that you can maintain that weight loss and live a healthier life. “Splurging” will keep you familiar with how good that junk food tastes and, if you do have an addiction to sugar, it could keep your addiction alive.

So how often should you stick to your diet? All the time. That doesn't mean your diet has to be super strict or vegan, but try to have a “lifestyle change” mindset, not just a “diet change” mindset. If junk food is the enemy of your goals, it would be wise to stay away from it 24/7.

When deciding how often you should exercise, consider your schedule and base your exercise routine around that. We only have so many hours in a day and keeping your priorities inline is critical. If your weekends are often free, it may be smart to schedule workouts on Saturday, Sunday, and then one day through the week. If your time is very limited and you can only workout once or twice a week, then do that. Just make sure you start somewhere. One of the most common reasons people don't finish their endeavors is because they fail to even start them. Start moving in the right direction and do something.

When

Deciding what time of the time you will workout is actually more critical than you think. It's safe to say that if you are not able to be consistent with a specific time of day, it will be difficult to be consistent in implementing your overall plan. Your exercise routine could be scheduled for different times on different days, but sticking to what you have planned as much as possible is critical to your long-term discipline and success.

Don't wait, create your fitness training plan today! I hope you were encouraged to start moving towards your health goals. 

(An article submitted by tonycollege on www.fitness.com)

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How to Choose An Acceptable Weight Loss Program

When you make the decision to lose weight, you inevitably then have to go and choose a diet that not only will do the trick but also be a diet and exercise package that will be acceptable and stimulating. If you start off with a poor diet and exercise program, you’ll most likely drop it and that just makes your weight loss program a big waste of time. Here’s some food for thought…

Following a weight loss program is the most simple and efficient solution to getting rid of your extra pounds (or at least most of them). You can find these programs all around you: books that guide you, on-line weight loss programs, TV shows, etc. You can choose which one to follow depending on your personal eating habits and on the money you are willing to spend for such a program.

Many of us have a sedentary lifestyle, we go to work by car and then sit at a desk for eight hours or more, and we are always tempted by tasty and cheap but unhealthy food, rich in fats and carbohydrates. The result can be measured in the extra pounds we “gain” and it can vary from just a few extra pounds to obesity, depending on our metabolism & activities. As obesity became one of the major problems of the civilized world, an entire industry has developed on the basis of people’s need to lose weight. There are all kinds of products available on the market, such as different weight loss pills, fitness devices, electrical stimulation devices, etc. The problem is the majority of these products are not that efficient as their commercials are suggesting and some may indeed be seriously harmful to your health. It is much better to find a suitable weight loss program and follow it step by step.

The most essential part of the weight loss program is the diet plan, but for a more attractive commercial presentation the producers also come up with different “secrets” books, tools, analyzers, motivation tips, weight loss tricks, etc. There are also programs that include weight loss support; there are support groups such as Overeaters Anonymous or Fat Acceptance.

Here are some examples of weight loss programs:

Low Fat Diet

The low fat weight loss program recommends a diet based on low fat or no fat foods. Reducing fat intake and regular exercise results in long-lasting weight loss. This program can be very effective if produced and supervised by an expert. Many low fat programs found on the market reduce fat consumption too much and it can become harmful for your health. A very high consumption of carbs is also not good, which is often recommended by some programs. However, this diet is one of the best ways to lose weight, but it is important they are described in the correct manner.

High Protein Diet

This weight loss program is based on the consumption of high protein and low carb foods. Although it leads to reasonably rapid weight loss, it is often NOT an effective diet in the long run. It encourages the consumption of saturated fats and this increases the risk of heart diseases. It can also cause damage to your kidneys, as in the absence of enough carbs, for the rapid burning of fatty acids the kidneys have to work overtime.

Fixed Menu

This type of weight loss program indicates you apply a fixed menu diet. You get a list of what you have to eat everyday. It is easy to follow because you don’t need to keep the calorie count. Its efficiency and healthiness can vary greatly.

Points Program

This weight loss program is created by Weight Watchers, a company offering different dieting products and services for weight loss. The points system consists in quantifying the caloric intake and the energy expenditure. Foods are assigned a specific number of points and exercises are assigned a negative number of points. Based on their current weight and weight loss goals, program participants are allocated a certain number of points every week. Therefore, participants are allowed to eat any type of food, but they must not exceed their total point value that week. This is an easy to follow program, mainly because of the psychological effect is has on the participant.

Food Optimizing

This weight loss program is created by Slimming World, a British company which runs weight loss classes across the UK. During classes members are weighed and the loss or gain is shared with the others; they also share experiences, tips, ask for advice, etc.

The diet is a calorie-restricted one. The foods known as “free foods”, are considered to have a low calorie content may be eaten in unrestricted amounts. They recommend eating four small portions per day of foods that provide supplies of minerals, vitamins or dietary fiber, even if these foods are higher in calories. Days are classified in red days and green
days. There are red days “free foods” and green days “free foods”, and all other foods are assigned a syn value.

Although most of us know the do’s and don’ts in order to lose weight, it becomes much easier if we are using a precise weight loss program, this way we get more determined.

The most important thing is not to expect short term extraordinary results. Even if there are weight loss programs that guarantee this, you may cause serious injury to your health and you will only enjoy short-time results normally. A good diet should always include all of the Recommended Daily Allowances for vitamins, minerals and proteins. Also, the weight loss program must offer you solutions for maintenance after the weight loss phase is over; and this is much more difficult than the weight loss itself. It is important to know that only healthy the eating habits and exercise are the primary keys to long term weight control.

Author Ray Darken – Ray often writes for and works closely with The Mediterranean Diet. If you’d like more news and broader access to diet and nutrition information try Diet Reviews & Tips [http://diet-reviews-and-tips.com/]. If this link isn’t working, you can paste this one into your browser [http://diet-reviews-and-tips.com/]

Author: Ray Darken
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

The Truth About Exercise And Weight Loss

If you've been working out and eating fewer calories but your extra pounds won't budge, you may be wondering why that seemingly simple strategy isn't working.

The truth is you may need a reality check about what to expect from exercise.

1. Exercise is only part of the weight loss story.

There's no getting around your tab of calories in and calories out.

The obese patients Robert Kushner, MD, clinical director of the Northwestern Comprehensive Center on Obesity, treats often tell him they're not seeing the results they want from exercise.

"They will say, 'I have been working out three days a week for 30 minutes for the past three months, and I have lost 2 pounds. There's something wrong with my metabolism,'" he says.

Kushner tells patients that exercise is very good for them, but for weight loss, he emphasizes starting with a healthy diet. "First, we've got to get a handle on your diet," Kushner says. "As you're losing weight and feel better and get lighter on your feet, we shift more and more toward being more physically active. Then living a physically active lifestyle for the rest of your life is going to be important for keeping your weight off."

Other experts have had success including physical activity early on. But they stress that the amount of exercise is key.

James O. Hill, PhD, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado at Denver, says it's easier to cut 1,000 calories from a bloated diet than to burn off 1,000 calories through exercise. "But there are many, many studies that show that exercise is associated with weight loss when done in enough volume and consistently," he says. "It depends how much you do."

For Pamela Peeke, spokeswoman for the American College of Sports Medicine's "Exercise is Medicine" campaign, fitness is a crucial part of a weight loss program, but it's for reasons that go beyond calorie burning. She praises its mind-body benefits, which will help with motivation over the long haul.

Peeke asks her patients to start walking as a way to "celebrate" their bodies with activity. "For years, they've blown off their body," Peeke says. "By them actually using their bodies, they can begin to integrate them back into their lives and not use them  as a source of torture or torment or shame."

2. Exercise is a must for weight maintenance.

"I come back to this over and over and over," Hill says. "You can't find very many people maintaining a healthy weight who aren't regular exercisers. What we find is that people who focus on diet aren't very successful in the long run without also focusing on physical activity."

Hill warns that people can be "wildly successful temporarily" at losing weight through diet alone. But there's plenty of data that show that those people regain the weight if they aren't physically active.

Timothy Church, MD, director of preventive medicine research at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. says, "When it comes to weight, you can't talk about diet alone, and you can't talk about exercise alone. You absolutely have to address both issues at the same time."

3. Food splurges may undo your efforts.

Exercise may not buy you as much calorie wiggle room as you think.

"The average person overestimates the amount of activity they're doing by about 30% and underestimates their food intake by about 30%," says Kathianne Sellers Williams, a registered dietitian and personal trainer.

"When' I'm looking at people's food and activity logs, sometimes things just don't add up," she says. "People think, 'Oh, I just did 60 minutes at the gym' or 'I just did 30 minutes at the gym' and think that counteracts a lot of what they're eating. But the reality is our food portions are huge."

Plus, Peeke says, you have to look at all the other calories you ate or drank that day and how sedentary you were apart from your workout.

"The rest of the day, you're sitting down and you're also eating other things," Peeke says. "How are you going to burn that stuff, let alone this extra little treat that you just thought you wanted?"

It's hard to accurately estimate how many calories you burn working out, Church says. "If it is a hard workout," he says, "you kind of intuitively think, 'Wow! That's cool! I just put enough in the bank for two days!' and you really haven't."

4. Exercise machines may not tell the whole calorie story.

Treadmills and other exercise gear often have monitors that estimate how many calories you're burning.

Kong Chen, director of the metabolic research core at the National Institutes of Health, says those displays are "close, but for each individual they can vary quite a bit."

Chen suggests using calorie displays on exercise equipment for motivation but not as a guideline to how much you can eat.

"It doesn't matter if the display says 300 or 400 calories. If you do that every day or increase from that level, then you've achieved your purpose. But I wouldn’t recommend feeding yourself against that," Chen says.

Those machines don't account for the calories you would have burned anyway without exercising.

"It isn't 220 calories for those 40 minutes of exercise versus zero," Kushner says. "If you were sitting at work or playing with your kids, you’re probably burning 70 calories during that period of time. You have to subtract what you would burn if you didn't exercise. So the overall calorie burn becomes much less."

5. One daily workout may not be enough.

Your best bet for your weight -- and for your overall health -- is to lead a physically active lifestyle that goes above and beyond a brief bout of exercise.

"It's not just about 30 minutes of exercise," Chen says. "It's about fighting the sedentary environment."

"The message isn't that the 30 minutes on the treadmill isn't good," Hill says. "It's that the 30 minutes on the treadmill isn't going to make up for 23-and-a-half sedentary hours." Hill encourages people to weave activity throughout their day. "Do something to move and make it fun," he says.

Chen also recommends setting realistic expectations and taking "small steps all the time" toward your weight goal.

As much as calories-in vs calories-out matters, don't forget about stress, sleep, and other factors that can affect your weight, Williams says. "We need to look at someone's total lifestyle, not just whether someone hits the gym," she says. "Weight and obesity are really multifactorial, and it really simplifies it just to break it down to nutrition and exercise. Those are really big pieces but definitely not the only pieces."

http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/exercise-and-weight-loss-five-truths

Advanced Exercise to Lose Weight