South Beach Diet & Other Weight Loss

Robert Kamau asked:


You can start to lose weight by choosing working out the amount of food calories that you eat in each of your daily meals. The best way to effectively lose weight is not by starvation but by gradually varying your daily calorie intake.

1. Write down what you eat

Carry a small note book and record the types of food you eat on a daily basis. Once you have completed a week’s diet, you can use the calorie charts to know by how much you need to cut down guided by the charts.

2. Reduce the list

Review the list of foods you eat in a week and decide which ones you need to cut out all together to lose weight. Food with a lot of fats will need to be reduced and replaced. You should however not starve yourself trying to lose weight since your body’s metabolism also adjusts to burn the same amount of calories as eaten.

3. Find alternatives to the foods you remove from the list

You can easily reduce the foods that you feel are unhealthy like sodas and fries with something healthier like water and fiber foods like dried apricots, nuts, rice cakes, fruits, baby carrots and cherry tomatoes. White meat is a better replacement for red meats since they are low in fat. You can use fish and chicken for example to replace the pork and beef that you usually devour in a week.

4. Create a weekly menu

For faster weight loss you will need to develop a lean weekly menu that has healthier alternatives. You can use cookbooks and the internet to see your choices. It is important to ensure that your weekly diet gradually reduces the calorie intake in your food. This is how you will lose weight, not by reducing the amount of food but by lowering your calorie intake. Try to resist the temptation to take junk foods like pizza, fries and burgers.

5. Control your Food Portions

Effective and fastest weight loss will need you to cut down. The good way to force yourself to stop over eating unnecessary food is to cut a small piece of the food and put it away and then eat the smaller portion. Eating small portions of fiber and low in fat foods has been found to aid weight loss. These tend to keep metabolism running throughout the day and eventually burns excess fats.

6. Eat Some Fiber

Fiber is as important if not more as water in losing weight. Fiber has been found to assist in consistent digestion of food hence retaining just enough metabolism burning calories and body fat. The more efficient your digestive system, the more chances you have in losing weight fast and easily.

7. Drink Lots of water

How can you lose weight by drinking water? Water is a very essential part of any weight loss diet and you should take lots of it to avoid being dehydrated. When your body detects that you are facing dehydration, it retains water in very unsightly areas. This is extra weight that you can do without if you are looking for a way to start noticing weight loss goals.

8. Do lots of exercise

Does exercise help in quick loss of weight? There are two ways of losing weight namely dong lots of exercise or simply increasing your metabolism rate. Doing exercise and being able to stick to a metabolic weight loss diet plan will see you achieve results faster than using one of these 2 methods.

9. Do some weight loss aerobics

Aerobic activities will help you lose weight faster. Good aerobics include jogging, brisk walking, aerobics machines and cycling. There will not only help you lose weight but also keep your heart healthy and lean. You can reduce the risk of heart problems with a regular aerobic regime.

10. Sleep

A good night’s rest will increase your chances of losing weight. You should ensure that you have enough sleep time every night in addition to taking rest durations after every 72 hours of exercise. Lack of good rest has been found to seriously impede your rate of weight loss.

11. Lift some weight

How can I convert fat into muscle? Weight lifting further helps you in weight loss since it burns extra fat on muscles and helps convert fat tissue into muscle.

12. Patience

Most people go into a weight loss diet program expecting a miracle within a week. Metabolism is a natural process that follows a slow curve to start realizing results. Having patience will also help you to be more resilient and follow your weight loss diet plan or exercise regime to achieve results.

13. Confidence

Confidence helps you achieve your weight loss targets without giving up just when you were about to make it. If you are in a weight loss diet program, you will need to be disciplined enough to refrain from binge eating or cheating on your plan. If you are confident to achieve the weight level you set out for then you most likely will be more adept to keeping to your weight loss exercise or diet program.

14. Discipline, consistency and self motivated

It takes a relatively sustained weight loss diet or exercise plan to finally achieve results. In order for you to maintain such strict programs, you will want to be disciplined in following food and exercise regimes. The buck stops with you in keeping the consistency needed. Likewise being motivated to achieve your results should be able to enable you have a self drive towards your weight loss goals.

Phyllis Ekleberry asked:


(c) 2008 Phyllis Ekleberry

Weight loss supplements and weight loss programs are designed and retailed on a daily basis to help those who need to lose that weight. Researchers world wide have developed weight loss patches, supplements and pills to help the over weight individual. Add to this, all the people who have designed their own weight loss programs

Wow, with this many diet programs on the market, what are you as a concerned dieter suppose to do? You need to know up front that even though you may purchase these diet programs or plans or take weight loss supplements, you will also have to change your lifestyle.

You are going to have to change the way you eat and exercise more. There is no way around it; if you are wanting to loss the weight, burn the fat, develop those ever so appealing six packs, then you must change the calorie intake as well as the calorie usage. Long story short- if you don’t burn more calories than you eat - you are NOT going to lose weight!

Have you ever bought the newest ebook, program or article touting weight loss or fat burning? I bet you have bought an exercise video to get you jump-started or bought countless supplements that are suppose to promote weight-loss or fat burning? Have you sat glued to the television as some “fitness” expert touts his/ her way as the ONLY way? How about your computer, have you surfed for the latest and greatest diet, diet supplement or weight loss plan?

If you have done any of these things, you have probably been lied to. I know, they have countless testimonials and great pictures so why can’t you be just like those individuals and lose all your fat. You could lose the weight like they did- couldn’t you?

Weight loss ebooks, books, tapes, videos, programs, supplements and advice are a dime a dozen. Some of these weight loss supplements have conducted clinical trial while some have had no testing - other than to test you to see how fast you could let go of the money. With all of this uncollaborated information flying at you from all corners of the world, how can you protect yourself from just throwing your money away? I realize that you want to lose weight, but come on- let’s do it the right way!

How can you protect yourself from getting wrapped up into a diet that is not safe, ineffective or unrealistic?

You protect yourself by looking at the research behind it, the clinical studies - was it double-blind tested, read all the claims (good and bad), if there is an email address next to a testimonial, write them, and of course the ingredients (if it a supplement, patch, or prescription meds).

Protect yourself by making sure that everything in the supplement is natural and safe. There should be no additional chemicals or ingredients added in for good measure, because you only want natural, organic ingredients in your diet supplement or diet patch. Even in small portions, hazardous or dangerous chemicals are still not good for you.

Please make sure that you have addressed the BIG question Why you are over-weight?

Do you eat because you are hungry,because you think you will get a surge of energy or because you are depressed or stressed? Are you bored so you just eat or do you enjoy eating (the chewing factor)?

Some people think they are eating just a tad because they have made it a habit to grab just a little bite as you pass by the food! You know that if you just take a small bit, then take another small bite, you are never sure how much you have actually eaten. But you look down and low and behold - it’s gone - all of it!

By all means please protect your health and your life !Before starting any diet, go to your family doctor and have him/ her examine you to make sure that there are no under lying issues to your weight gain. Ask your family doctor if you are healthy enough to lose weight. Then choose an appropriate weight loss program.

After all, your weight loss is the primary mission. It is one of the hardest things to do next to lowering your debt. Why? Because a good diet program takes will power, consistency and determination. You have to approach it the same way you approach work. On a daily basis. You must change the way you view food and respond to food.

Approach the weight loss program knowing you have to increase your output and decrease your input. Get some support while you are losing weight. It does not have to be a support group of over weight individuals, although sometimes those are great. Consider asking someone from your church or gym to help you. Be accountable to someone other than yourself. A diet buddy can help motivate you and keep you focused on your weight loss goal.

Albert Alexander asked:


The Atkins diet principles lay the foundation for a healthy, more balanced way of eating than the standard American diet. Its emphasis is on using good carbohydrates in balance with adequate protein. This is in stark contrast to what most Americans eat on a daily basis. The average American eats lots of processed foods that have hidden sugars and highly processed carbohydrates. This has put most Americans on the road to diabetes and pre-diabetic conditions. What is sad is that diabetes has a predictable set of stages and that they can be easily recognized.

The road to diabetes has to do with something called the glycemic index. All carbohydrates are rated on this index with regards to the level of insulin reaction they produce. Foods that have a high glycemic index rating will cause your pancreas to release a lot of insulin to break down the amount of sugars and carbohydrates (which produce high amounts of glucose). The refined carbohydrates and sugars that make up the vast majority of the American diet rank very high on the glycemic index.

We are able to more readily digest these foods as children, because our bodies function more efficiently in our youth. There may have been side effects, like weight gain and mood swings, but they didn’t stand out. As we age, however, these symptoms begin to grow and become more prevalent. The nation-wide obesity epidemic is a result of high-carbohydrate diets and unstable blood sugar levels.

Many people who are overweight are also insulin resistant. Insulin resistance means that the insulin is not doing its job in removing glucose from the blood stream. The pancreas gets over worked and it releases massive amounts of insulin, sometimes 20 times more than the body actually needs. This results in the blood sugar dropping to extremely low levels. This sets off a chain reaction in the body that leads to a release of adrenaline to correct the blood sugar problem.

With age, blood sugar and insulin difficulties become more aggravated. The condition is called “hyperinsulinism” and is a precursor for type II diabetes. It is normally accompanied by high blood pressure and high triglycerides.

After years of using a high-carbohydrate diet, you will finally become fully diabetic. Insulin is the body’s primary fat creator and extra pounds usually accompany late onset diabetes. Pre-diabetic conditions, if not treated effectively, will lead to diabetes indefinitely.

However, there are easily identifiable warning signs to diabetes that appear early. Your family doctor can perform insulin level tests that will let you know if you are at risk for pre-diabetic conditions, and studies show that low-carb diets like Atkins can help. Controlling your blood sugar is one of the most effective methods to controlling pre-diabetic conditions.

The Atkins diet helps effectively control blood sugar. The combination of proteins, fats and good carbohydrates will keep your body satisfied without the roller coaster effect. Controlling carbohydrates in quantity as well as type will help limit the insulin spikes. This will let your pancreas work in the way that it was meant to be, and it will decrease the likelihood of your developing pre-diabetic conditions. It’s a vicious cycle that, if left unchecked, can lead to diabetes later in life. When the Atkins diet is followed effectively it produces stable blood sugar throughout the day and helps you stay off the road to diabetes.