What Exactly Are Carbohydrates?

We’ve all heard the term low-carb diets, bad carbs, good carbs, and the like. But what exactly are carbohydrates? Let’s break them down into a more palpable and easy to understand format.

Foods containing carbohydrates encompass sugars, starches, and cellulose. When eating candy or any sugary foods, carbohydrates are then broken down in order for them to become blood sugar.

Carbohydrates come in two forms: simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates consist of a bar of chocolate, for example. Once eaten, and because they are processed much faster in your system, you develop a sugar high, right? But then after awhile, that high wears off and you seem to crave more food.

Conversely, complex carbohydrates consist of foods that are high in fiber and contain starch. Most of these carbohydrates are processed slower than the simple carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates consist of beans, fruits, whole grains, vegetables, and potatoes, among others.

These complex carbohydrates are packed with vitamins, minerals, and fiber. You never feel hungry afterwards, due to the fact these foods are more slowly absorbed than their counterpart.

Now, here is the key component in choosing either simple or complex carbohydrates. Once either of these carbs is consumed, one of two things can occur. Either you exercise, in which case the fat produced from the carbohydrates is dissipated, or you do nothing, which would then allow the fat to build up. Thus, the diets which have become so popular in reducing carbs play a significant role.

It all boils down to this: carbohydrates and sugars are synonymous. The trick is to discern which foods are digested slower than those which are not. If you are trying to decide whether or not to go on a low-carb diet; research the appropriate foods and exercise that will ensure the efficacy of this specific diet plan.

Walking for Weight Loss

There are a lot of fad exercise programs out there. They show up, get really popular, and then you never hear about them again. But one plan that keeps showing up over and over again is walking. The reason? It’s easy to do and it actually works. The key is knowing how to do it right.

The first step is to walk long enough; about an hour a day, 5 to 6 days a week. If this is too much for you, start walking less and work your way up. If you can only make it 15 minutes, then walk 15 minutes. If you stick with it, you’ll soon find that you can walk 30 or 40 minutes. Just walk every day and you’ll reach that hour mark in no time

The second step to getting a good workout from walking is to get walk fast enough to keep your heart rate up. Once you’ve hit your goal of walking an hour, try increasing how far you walk. Aim to walk a little farther than you did the day before, while still walking for only an hour. Another great way to keep up your heart rate is to alter how fast you go within your walk. For example, start at a normal pace for a minute or two; then walk as fast as you can for a minute. After that minute just repeat the process for your whole walk. This will maintain a good heart rate without wearing you out.

The last step is to build muscle mass so you keep burning calories even when you’re not working out. If you’re just starting out, you will probably build muscles just by walking. Once you’re more accomplished, you can do this by adding hills or steep slopes to your route. You can also build muscles by having a proper walking posture, holding in your stomach, and flexing your leg muscles as you walk. If you’re a serious walker, you can learn to race walk to further build muscle mass.

Now that you’ve gotten started on your walking workout, remember to keep going. If you start to get bored, listen to your favorite tunes on an ipod or invite a friend to come along. Try altering your route and explore a new area. Just don’t give up and you’ll do great!

Staying Motivated While Losing Weight

Anyone who has ever had to lose weight knows first hand just how difficult it can be. And for those people who tell you just stop eating or just cut back, you can rest assure they’ve never had to struggle with weight issues in their lives.

The truth is losing weight is hard work and the more you have to lose the harder it is. But that doesn’t mean it’s not achievable. There are many, many people who have achieved weight loss and are living happier and healthier lives.

One of the biggest struggles of weight loss is staying motivated. Sure most of us start out with great enthusiasm and usually have great results the first week or even two but once the weight loss slows down that’s when our willpower has to work overtime to keep us from reverting back to bad habits.

Here are a few tips to help you stay motivated during your weightloss:

Picture It – Visualization has been used for years by many and it works. Take 5 minutes out of your day to visualize the pounds melting off, but don’t stop there. Imagine what your life would be like if you were thinner. Would you have more confidence, would you buy new clothes, start dating again, what would you do? Visualize it and stay motivated.

Journal It – Start a journal at the beginning of your weight loss journey, write how you’re feeling, what your goals are and what a difference it would make to your life. Then take a picture and stick it to that page. Depending on how much weight you’d like to lose you can update the journal weekly or monthly (as difficult as it may be, you should probably do it weekly). Take the time to take a new picture every week and stick it in a new page along with a few notes, if you hit a plateau, look back through your journal and see just how far you’ve come.

Reward It – Set small goals throughout your weight loss and rewards to go with it. For example 5 pounds can be a nice body lotion, 20 pounds can be a fab new outfit. Make the rewards whatever you want but try to stay away from food rewards as this is not constructive to your weight loss.

Instead do have little treats here and there throughout your weight loss phase (don’t deny yourself completely) and see these treats as everyday part of life not something to use as a reward, just make sure you eat them in moderation.

Flaunt It – Why not? You’ve worked hard, share your thoughts with friends and family members. Let them know how proud of yourself you are and bathe in their compliments. You’re taking steps to change your life and doing something that’s not easy at the best of times, so be proud of yourself and share it with others.

Setting Small Goals on Your Weight Loss Journey

We’ve all gone too bed one night and told ourselves “Tomorrow, I’m going to start eating healthy and exercising every day”. Many of us have also done it: thrown out all our junk food, bought a gym membership, and taken other big steps. The problem is that most of us have reverted to our old lifestyles within a week. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a healthy body. The key to making permanent lifestyle changes is to make small, achievable goals and stick to them.

When most people decide to lose weight, they set goals like “I will lose two pounds per week”. But various factors that have nothing to do with your lifestyle changes may affect your weight. The best goals are ones that are under your control. Set goals related to how much you exercise or what you eat. If you make these goals small and reasonable, you’ll be more likely to accomplish them.

One of my best friends went on the raw food diet. He ate one cooked meal a day, and most of the food he ate was remarkably similar to what I feed my pet rabbit. The diet worked; he lost weight, but two months later he gained it all back when he started on the Coke and fast food diet. The moral of this story is: while big changes are good for you, you can’t stick with them for the long term. Try setting goals like “I will replace one fatty snack a day with a piece of fruit instead” or “I will walk for 10 minutes every day”. Once you reach your goal, set a new one. This makes any diet easier to stick to.

While starting too fast with a diet can make it hard to stick to, starting too fast with an exercise program can be dangerous. Doing too much too soon can not only wear you out, it can cause permanent damage to your body. Remember to pick your exercise program and start small. If you decide to run, run until you’re too tired. Then walk the rest of the time. You may only run 5 minutes the first day, but if you keep it up you’ll be running the entire way in no time.

No matter what you do to lose weight, try to incorporate small, reasonable changes. This will greatly increase your chances of success.

Low GI Diet for Energy and Weight Loss

The low GI diet is not really just a diet but a very healthy and natural way of eating. This is one healthy eating plan which many nutritionists are happy to endorse.

The basis of the low GI diet plan is to eat foods which have a low glycemic index. These are foods which take time for your body to digest and keep blood sugar levels even throughout the day. In return these steady blood sugar levels help reduce cravings and hunger pangs.

One of the biggest benefits of the low GI diet plan is the increased energy people on this eating plan feel. Instead of the usual afternoon slump where you’re reaching for the coffee and donuts, on the low GI diet plan you won’t feel these sugar highs and dips.

So what Can I eat on the low GI diet?

Tons of delicious healthy food such as whole grains including whole grain breads and rice. You can have new potatoes and sweet potatoes. Lean meats and proteins as well as low fat dairy products, most fruits and vegetables, seeds and nuts. In fact you can even have chocolate. Chocolate specifically dark chocolate has a low GI score, which means you can indulge and still lose weight.

There are a few exceptions which at first may not make sense but the idea is that vegetables such as corn and carrots can rapidly raise your blood sugar levels and so are considered high GI. Fruits such as bananas and pineapples also have a high GI score, so you’re better off opting for apples or berries.

And there are also a few non expected foods you can have such as avocado, nuts and red wine.

The diet plan is easy to follow and the one huge benefit aside from feeling very energetic is that you should not feel major hunger pangs as you would on another diet. There are also some added extra benefits such as younger looking skin, reduced facial hair in some women and clearer skin.

One important thing to note is that in order to lose weight on this plan you will still need to restrict your calories. If you eat healthy throughout the day but are having one or two avocados along with a couple of pieces of dark chocolate you will not lose weight. Although these foods are healthy for you they are still very calorific.

Having three sensible low GI meals a day along with two snacks and adequate portion sizes are paramount on the Low GI weight loss plan.

Healthy Weight Loss Tips

One of the biggest industries around today is the weight loss industry. Everyone is selling machines and pills that will melt off pounds like lightning. The truth is: healthy weight loss requires time and dedication. If you’re committed to losing weight the right way, here are a few tips to help you out.

The biggest part of a healthy lifestyle is setting healthy goals. While focusing on how much weight you’ve lost may seem like a good idea, it may discourage you if you don’t lose weight even though the diet is working. Retaining water, muscle gain, and other factors can all make you heavier even if you’re healthier. Set goals related to getting enough exercise and eating right, not weight loss. You may not notice a weight loss, but if you feel better and have more energy, something’s going right.

Try to stay away from fad diets, and diets that cut out entire food groups. They may very well work, but many times they are very hard to stay on. A semi-healthy diet you stay on is more beneficial than an extremely healthy diet you don’t. If you want to go on a more drastic diet, ease yourself into it. The best diet changes are made slowly.

Don’t forget to exercise. Getting your heart rate up at least 20 minutes a day is important to keep your heart and yourself healthy, not just losing weight. If you can’t dedicate this much time to exercise, try splitting it up into 10 minute intervals. It may be hard in the beginning, but if you keep at it you’ll find yourself more energized and feeling great.

An important factor many people neglect in their weight loss program is building muscle. Muscle burns more calories than fat. If you build muscle while you lose weight, you’ll start losing faster and be more likely to keep the weight off. Normally, diet causes you to lose muscle mass along with the fat; this is why many people gain the weight back when they’re done dieting. If you’re not really active, you don’t have to do much to build muscle mass, just lift small free weights or do use machines that require more force, like rowing machines.

These are just a few tips for getting started on your weight loss journey. Good luck!

Green Tea for Weightloss

Green tea has been used for centuries and still remains one of the most popular teas in China and contains powerful antioxidants which may help fight against heart disease, cancers and other diseases. More recently studies have shown that green tea is also beneficial to weight loss.

One of the most recent studies which appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed people who drank a bottle of green tea extract everyday for three months lost more body fat than the participants who drank regular tea.

It is thought the chemical epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) found in green tea raises the metabolism while also releasing the hormone noradrenaline which is an appetite suppressant.

The study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition also indicated the consumption of catechins in green tea lead to both reduced body fat and LDL cholesterol levels.

Now that you know the many benefits of green tea, just how do you need to drink to lose weight?

Based on the recent research you would need to consume at least 4 cups of green tea daily to see any results. There are now also green tea supplements on the market which provide higher concentrated doses of green tea in a capsule form. The quality of the supplements will vary so it’s best to do your research.

But you don’t really need to take supplements to receive all the benefits of green tea. Try replacing your daily cups of coffee or regular tea with green tea. It’s also a good drink in between meals which may help satisfy your hunger pangs while providing your body with a good dose of antioxidants.

There are so many benefits to drinking green tea that weight loss is really just the icing on the cake. This is one great way to stay healthy while shedding a few excess pounds.

Foods That Promote Weight Loss

We’ve all been told that cutting calories will help us lose weight; however, where your calories come from matters almost as much as how many you get. While low fat has always been toted as the best way to go, there are many other types of food that are helpful in losing weight as well.

Fresh, unprocessed foods
If you think about it, our bodies were designed to eat natural foods. Our digestive systems have evolved over many years; preservatives and artificial chemicals have existed for a comparatively short amount of time. The foods our bodies digest and use most efficiently are natural and unprocessed. This is why you should try eating fresh foods as much possible. It is also recommended that many of these foods be eaten raw because it preserves the healthy active enzymes in fruits and vegetables.

Dairy
Incorporating low fat dairy products into your diet helps you lose weight faster than just cutting calories. A good way to get enough dairy is through yogurt. Not only do they usually come in portioned controlled cups; yogurt also contains good bacteria that helps improve your overall health.

Low sugar
When you eat sugar, your body’s response is to immediately release insulin to lower your blood sugar levels. With high-sugar foods, your body can overreact to glucose levels and produce too much insulin. This lowers your blood sugar; making you hungry again much sooner than low sugar foods. Instead of sugary snacks, choose foods higher in protein and fiber. These foods absorb more slowly, making you feel full longer.

Spicy foods
When we eat foods that are really spicy, we tend to eat less. Some studies suggest that appetite suppression is due to capsaicin, a chemical found in many spicy foods. Others attribute this effect to strong flavor of these foods being less palatable.

While cutting calories and getting appropriate amounts of exercise are both important, incorporating some of these foods into your diet may just give you the boost you need to finally shed those extra pounds.

Tone Up and Lose More Weight

Sure, exercise is important for losing weight. In fact, weight loss without increased activity is impossible for many people. But the kind of exercise you do can make your weight loss even more significant. While cardio workouts are great for getting the heart pumping and the calories burning, you need to build muscle mass if you want those calories to keep flying off while you’re sitting around doing nothing. That’s why it’s important to do exercises that tone your body while you exercise.

Adding a pound of muscle mass will cause you to burn up to 50 extra calories per day, even when you’re just sitting down. Imagine how much faster you could lose weight if you replaced 10 lbs of fat with muscle? Plus, on a normal diet, you lose muscle mass along with the fat. This slows your metabolism and causes you to gain weight when you eat normally again. If you add muscle mass instead, you keep burning more calories and are more likely to keep the weight off.

Exercises like running, biking, and swimming can burn hundreds of calories per hour, but have much less benefit after the exercising is done. While they can increase muscle mass, the increase is not nearly significant as lifting weights. Weight lifting burns fat while you work out, and continues to burn after you stop. And the more weight you can lift, the more calories you’ll burn each time. This means the stronger you get; the faster you’ll burn through your fat reserves.

With many exercise programs, doing too much too quickly can be dangerous. This is especially true with weight training. Using too much weight can not only stress your muscles, it can also cause permanent damage to tendons and ligaments. Not to mention the dangers of being crushed or trapped by extreme weight. When using weight training, always start slow and build your way up. And remember to use a spotter when lifting significant amounts of weight.

Remember that weight training should not replace a cardio workout. For best results you should alternate between aerobic exercise and weight training. This gives you the benefits of both to power maximum weight loss.

Popular Supplements for Weight Loss

The Most Popular Supplements for Losing Weight Naturally

There are a ton of weight loss products on the market. In fact, over a billion dollars was made last year selling these types of products. With all the available options, it’s hard to figure out which one is best for you. Here are some of the most popular natural weight loss supplements on the market today.

Hoodia

Hoodia gordonii, also known as the cactus diet, is a powerful appetite suppressant. It comes from a cactus in South Africa that has been used by native Bushmen for generations. It’s currently available in pill, liquid, or tea form. If you decide to take hoodia, remember to drink a lot of fluids; it’s a thirst suppressant to.

Green tea

This has become a popular item for weight loss in the last few years. It works by speeding up your metabolism so you burn calories and fat faster. Some people also claim that green tea can aid in lowering cholesterol. Green tea contains caffeine, so you should cut back on your other caffeine sources if you’re taking it.

Chitosan

While many diet pills work to suppress your appetite or boost your metabolism, chitosan is used to prevent your body from absorbing fats. The unwanted fat simply passes throughout your system instead of ending up at your waist line. While many people have lost weight with chitosan, it can also cause problems in the digestive tract.

One thing you must remember is that if a weight loss supplement works, that doesn’t mean it’s safe. Many people think that because something is natural, it’s not dangerous. Not only do many supplements have dangerous side effects (think Phentermine and Ephedra); they are usually not rigorously tested so their negative effects are not well documented. It’s always a good idea to check with your doctor before taking any supplement.

While a weight loss pill may be effective, remember that they should be used in conjunction with diet and exercise, not as a replacement. If you do, your diet may just get that extra boost it needs to finally take off excess pounds.

Running for Weight Loss

We all know running is a great way to lose weight, but did you know that running at 10 mph can burn almost 1000 calories per hour? That makes it one of the most efficient ways to rid yourself of excess calories. Before you get started you must remember that if you’re serious about starting a running program, you need to do it right. Here are just a few tips to help you out.

Instead of cutting calories, adjust what kind of calories you eat. Your body needs fuel. If you don’t eat enough, your body will not only cut into your fat reserves, but your muscle mass as well. Try to get about half your calories from carbohydrates; including fresh fruits and whole grains. Try to make protein about a third of your diet. You can do this by mixing fresh nuts in with your meals. You should also get an adequate supply of good fat. Your body can feed of your reserves but it still needs a fresh supply to function properly.

When you’re ready to run, be sure to warm up. You should not only stretch, but also walk some before you start your run. This loosens your muscles and reduces the chances of an injury. The same goes for a cool down and stretching after your run. If you do get an injury, remember to take it easy. You may be tempted to run through the pain, but pain is our body’s way of telling us something is wrong. Some soreness is normal when you first start running, but if you have an actual injury, you should take it easy for a few days and allow yourself to heal.

If you’re just starting a running program, or you’ve been inactive for a long period of time, you should gradually ease yourself into running. Start slow; eventually, you can build up to running longer distances at faster speeds. You’ll eventually want to run as fast and as far as you can to burn the largest amount of fat, but you should never run farther of faster than you’re comfortable doing.

These are just a few steps to get you started on your road to a happier healthier lifestyle. Good luck and happy running!

Portion Control Made Easy

When it comes to losing weight your ultimate success will often depend on portion control. You’re better off eating moderate portions of all different types of foods including a few treats here and there than piling your plate up with apparently healthy options.

Many of us don’t even know what an adequate portion size should be. Go to any high-chain restaurant and your plate will be piled high of food, sometimes you’ll be served up to 5 portions in one sitting! So just how do you watch your portion size and reduce your waist line?

Eat slower – you’ve heard it before I’m sure, but it’s so true, if you take time to eat your meals your brain will have adequate time to register you’ve had enough. Many of us are out of touch with our bodies and we keep eating until we feel so full we could burst. Try to make the mind and body connection by eating your food slowly and taking the time to enjoy each bite.

The Portion Plate – You don’t need to invest in any fancy plate to help you do this, it’s really easy to do anywhere. Mentally divide your plate in half, fill the first half with vegetables then divide the remaining half in half. One half will consist of a portion of carbohydrates such as pasta, rice, and so on and the other half should consist of a protein such as chicken, fish, eggs or beans.

That’s your new portion rule from now on, one quarter protein, one quarter carbohydrates and one half fresh salad or veggies.

Keep the visual image of what your plate should look like anytime you are about to make a food choice. If you’re just having a chicken sandwich for example remember the chicken serving should ideally fit into that quarter of the plate, add two slices of bread and fill up the rest with fresh salad or veggies.

This is by far the easiest way to control your portion size and if you do this with your three daily meals and replace junk food snacks with healthier options such as fruit and low fat yogurt, you are almost guaranteed to loose weight without having to follow any strict diet regimen. Still not sure, give yourself a few days to try it and see the great results for yourself.