Scientific Weight Loss Tips

How Sugar Affects The Brain

What the National Weight Control Registry Can Teach You

A review study directed by researchers at UCLA and published in the American Psychologist journal found that the vast majority of diets do not work. In most cases, the researchers discovered that people who attempt to diet not only do not lose much weight but very few keep the weight off. Even worse, many of the people who lost weight eventually gained back more weight than they had lost initially.

Those are depressing findings aren’t they? What can you do to make yourself be one of the ones who succeeds at weight loss and at weight maintenance?

The truth is that there is no one path to successful weight loss. However, there are behaviors that have been proven to help you lose weight and if you continue those behaviors after you reach your goal weight, you can maintain your weight loss.

As many of you interested in weight loss know, the National Weight Control Registrytracks thousands of people who have successfully lost and maintained weight. The criteria for membership is having lost at least 30 pounds and having maintained it for at least one year. Every year they send members a survey that asks about eating, exercise, and lifestyle behaviors. I’ve filled out several of those surveys because I am a member of the registry.

Looking at what worked for other people is a valuable tool, especially if those people have achieved long term success. This is especially important when you think about our tendency to fall all over ourselves praising celebrities like Valerie Bertinelli or Kristie Alley who lost weight using popular diet programs but quickly gained the weight back.

You need to emulate real people who have found what works.

So, what do those real people do that works? I’ve put together a list of 10 behaviors that successful losers use to lose and maintain weight. I hope it will help you formulate a diet plan that can help you through your own personal journey.

10 Weight Loss Behaviors to Copy

1. Make a Change in Their Diet

If your eating habits were causing you to gain weight, it makes sense that changing them is important. You need to do things differently to lose weight rather it is eating healthier, reducing portions, or doing a 180 from where you are today.

2. Eat Breakfast

Most dieters who successfully lost and maintained weight eat breakfast every morning. You don’t have to eat a lot, but eating something before your lunch meal can make a difference.

3. Exercise Consistently

Exercise doesn’t cause weight loss all by itself, but it is a valuable tool in the weight loss process. Not only does it burn calories and burn muscle, but exercising is good for you mentally.

4. Watch Little Television

The National Weight Control Registry participants watch less than 10 hours of television a week, on average. It makes sense that the more active you are the less time you have to sit around watching television. Personally, I definitely watch less than 10 hours of television a week. I usually average about 2 to 3 hours each week.

5. Weigh At Least Once a Week

Weighing at least once a week helps you stay accountable and puts you in good company. Almost 80 percent of the weight loss registry members weigh at least one time a week. I am a fan of daily weigh-ins.

6. Don’t Fall for Fads

Fad diets are designed for failure. They just are. If you want to lose weight and keep it off avoid jumping on the fad bandwagon whether it be a celery diet, a cleansing diet, or any other kind of diet your logical mind tells you is a fad.

7. Live a Balanced Life

Living a balanced life helps you keep things in perspective. Getting so caught up in the weight loss process that you avoid social get togethers, talk only about weight loss, or exercise to the extreme will do you no good in the long run.

8. Have a Support System

You do not have to join a weight loss group, but people who have a good support system tend to be more successful than people who try to go it completely alone

9. Catch Slip-Ups Before They Get Serious

It’s important to catch your slip-ups such as gaining a few pounds or skipping your exercise for no reason before they get serious. It’s a lot easier to lose 3 to 5 pounds you’ve put back on than 10 to 15 pounds.

10. Always Stay Diligent

It may seem tiring, but staying diligent is necessary for successful weight loss and maintenance. It is very easy to slip back into old habits, let the pounds creep up, and spiral out of control.

Source: http://blog.fittothefinish.com/2014/05/what-the-national-weight-

Focus More on Your Brain and Less on Your Diet if You’re Serious About Losing Weight

Weight loss is tricky business. Obviously what you eat has a huge impact on your health and body weight. But anyone who has ever tried to modify their diet for the sake of losing weight knows it isn’t so simple.

Most of us understand intuitively that broccoli is healthier than cookies. We can talk about sugar, fat, gluten and antioxidants all day, but that doesn’t change the fact that cookies taste good and you still want to eat them. Any weight loss plan that simply tells you what to eat and neglects why you make the choices you make is unlikely to help you in the long run.

Nutrition knowledge is important, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. The real secret is understanding your behaviors and motivations at their roots, and using this information to have a meaningful impact on your health. In this sense, good health starts in your brain, not on your plate.

The first thing you need to understand is that we don’t have as much control over our food decisions as most of us assume. We tend to believe that we can call on willpower anytime we wish and use it to order a salad instead of a burger, and if we fail to do so it is our own fault. However, self-control is not something we can simply turn on or off, and as a result the process of decision making––particularly when it comes to food––is much more complex.

Approximately 20 percent of the calories we expend daily are used by our brains. Because brain activity is so costly, things like self-control and decision making cannot be relied on indefinitely. As a result, willpower is a limited resource.

Like a muscle, willpower becomes fatigued when exercised too frequently. All the decisions you make throughout the day deplete your willpower, and when you start running out of steam your ability to choose healthy food over more convenient food rapidly diminishes.

Ironically, increasing your blood sugar can help restore willpower to some extent. But finding a healthy way to raise blood sugar in a state of depleted willpower can pose quite the dilemma. Tired brains find it much easier to just grab a cookie.

The way our brains cope with the willpower conundrum is to automate as much of our decision making as possible. It does this by creating habits. Habits are specific behaviors that occur in response to a trigger or cue. They are also always associated with some kind of reward, which in turn reinforces and strengthens the trigger.

For example, a buzz in your pocket is a cue to reach down, grab your phone, pull it out and glance at the screen. The information you see causes a bit of dopamine to be released in the reward center of your brain. We humans love novelty, which is why most of us have a reflexive response to checking our mobile devices when we receive a notification. This is how habits are born.

Once established, habits occur automatically without expending any willpower or mental effort. Scientists have estimated that up to 90 percent of our daily food decisions occur as a result of habits. This saves our brain energy for more difficult decisions where habits cannot be used.

How can this knowledge help us lose weight?

For one thing, it shows that willpower is not particularly reliable as a means to achieve lasting weight loss, and we’re better off spending our efforts creating healthy habits.

It also teaches us that any habit we wish to develop needs to impart a meaningful reward in order for it to stick. You can probably guess that some vague promise of future thinness is not sufficient––the reward for any habit needs to be immediate and tangible.

This means that in order to achieve long-term weight control you need to find healthy foods you actually enjoy eating, physical activities you like doing, and spend your time making these as convenient and accessible as possible.

Fabulous news, right?

Using willpower for restrictive dieting is difficult and incredibly unpleasant. We can all let out a collective sigh of relief that it doesn’t actually work. To achieve true success in health and weight loss, we’re better off quitting diets altogether and focusing on building healthy habits we enjoy.

Try starting with something as simple as breakfast. Warm muesli with a splash of almond milk and cinnamon only takes two minutes to prepare and is absolutely delicious. Invest in a pedometer and challenge yourself to reach 10,000 steps a day. Setting and achieving an attainable goal is a very powerful reward, and is one of the reasons so many people love videogames.

Since our brains are easily overwhelmed, don’t try to develop too many habits at once. Work on just two or three habits at a time, and build from there. Habits take anywhere from two weeks to six months to take root, but on average about two months. Start with the easiest ones and work your way up. Once you’ve built enough good habits, your health will take care of itself.

To learn how to stop dieting, build healthy habits, and make life awesome check out my new book Foodist.

Originally published May 6, 2013.

Source: http://summertomato.com/use-your-brain-to-lose-weight/

Healthy Monday Tip: Boost Your Happy to Lose More Weight

Many dieters lose weight to look better.  We all want to improve the way we look and feel, right? Then it makes sense to use it as motivation to fuel your diet and exercise program, right?  Well, not always.

Improve Confidence to Improve Motivation

The problem with dieting to look better is that it implies that you don't look good enough the way you are right now. If you feel bad about your body, you're not going to be highly motivated to do the difficult things that a weight loss program requires that you do - like exercise and changing the way you eat.  Confident people tend to be motivated people.  People who feel bad about themselves are not.

So how do you improve your confidence?  Start by taking steps to feel better about yourself, today.  Focus on the things you like.  Invest a little time and money into boosting those elements. Get a haircut, do your nails, buy new workout duds.  Start a journal about your job or family successes. Begin your weight loss program with an investment in the things you like about the you that you are today.

Of course, this doesn't  mean that you shouldn't be motivated by appearance - it's just human to want to look better.  But if you can try to keep your thoughts positive as you journey through the weight loss process, you're more likely to find success.

• 10 Ways to Appear Thinner and More Confident
• 7 Ways to Boost Your Confidence and Lose Weight
• How to Get Motivated to Lose Weight

(photo source: jdurham/Morguefile)

Portion Control: The Key to Weight Loss

The rigors of appearing on the reality TV show The Biggest Loser led Lisa Mosley to the emotional breakthrough that empowered her to lose almost 100 pounds. But it was portion control that kept her losing weight when she returned home from the set.

“I live on the motto “Moderation not deprivation,” she says. “As soon as I got home from the ranch, I started using a small plate instead of big dinner plates. It has been extremely successful for me.”

Mosley didn’t start gaining weight until she was about 20, when she began taking medication for a chronic anxiety disorder. The medication made her feel like a new person, but within six months she began to gain weight. Over the next 10 years she gained about 120 pounds.

By 2010, Lisa had suffered several personal setbacks. She had been laid off from her job, had lost her home and had no prospects to find work. The defining moment in her struggle to lose weight came when she discovered that her daughter had stopped eating and drinking because she didn’t want to be heavy like her mom.

That spurred Lisa to take action, including her willingness to bare her soul on The Biggest Loser.
When Lisa left the show, she had dropped 60 pounds. But she continued to lose weight, dropping another 37 pounds at home after she learned to control the size of her portions.

She recently became the national spokeswoman for Yum Yum Dishes, sets of hand-painted 4-ounce ceramic bowls. Tracy Adler, mother of two and former restaurant owner, created the bowls to help parents and kids control the size of their snacks.

“The idea for these dishes is what got me through this,” Mosley says. “A lot of times when I have entered into diets in the past, I went into it thinking I am never going to get a cookie, ice cream, or a piece of cake again. I was never successful with that,” she adds. “These dishes remind you that your life isn’t over and you are not going to be missing out.”

Today Mosley works as a fitness boot camp instructor and personal trainer. She weighs about 190 pounds, wears a size 12 and is happy with herself.

“I am literally a different person,” she says, “not just in how I feel physically but also how I feel mentally and emotionally.”

Source: copyrightfreecontent.com

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

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