Blog on weight, How to Lose Fat on the Cheap

To lose weight,  it helps to maintain a daily calorie deficit . In other words, you need to burn more calories than you eat each day. There are two ways to do this: Eat less and move more. Running helps you maintain a calorie deficit by increasing the number of calories you burn. You can increase your calorie deficit and your rate of weight loss — at least in theory — by eating less. The problem is that running, like other forms of exercise, increases appetite which makes it difficult to eat less — something known as the compensation effect. This is the primary reason exercise often fails to meet people’s expectations for weight loss. Individual appetite responses to exercise are varied. Working out has little effect on hunger in some people, yet makes others ravenous. There’s not much you can do about it either way. If running increases your appetite, you will probably eat more. What you can do to ensure that the compensation effect doesn’t stop you from reaching your goals is inc...

Get active. It's one of the best things you can do for yourself. If your 55+ your a senior and you should start thinking more like a senior even if you don't feel like one. It's much easier to get in shape before 60 than waiting until after 60.  Fine out from your doctor what your healthy weight should be and start working toward that weight. Losing body fat will help you to live a longer, healthier life. "Exercise is an antidote to aging," says Barry A. Franklin, PhD, director of the cardiac rehabilitation and exercise labs at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, MI. A well-rounded routine, as part of a healthy lifestyle, may help you avoid things like falls, heart disease, and osteoporosis. Experts say many of the conditions people think are due to getting older have more to do with not moving enough. At any age, these are the types of exercise you want to get: Aerobic: good for your heart and lungs Strength training: good for your muscles and bones Flexibility and b...

One of the more frequent questions I get in my email is "Do I have to diet to lose weight?" The word "diet" doesn't have much to do with losing weight. The word diet really refers to your "Diet Plan" or what you're eating everyday. Most of us have no diet plan, we simply eat whatever we have a taste for. That's the reason so many Americans have a weight problem. Bad sleeping habits is another reason for gaining weight. Sleeping more can keep you from grazing and will reduce your total calorie intake for the day. It's a fact that those people who stay up until midnight or later will consume an extra 1000 calories a day. Cutting calories is the way to lose weight. It has nothing to do with starving yourself. Eating fewer calories is accomplished by eating foods with less calories, not eating less food. Americans are famous for eating loads of high-calorie food, like dairy products, snack foods, fatty fried foods, and high calorie drinks. The ...

Dieting is hard. But avoiding "empty" calories helps you reach a healthy weight without feeling like you're dieting. So what are empty calories? All food has calories, healthy food has calories but you get nutrition with those calories. Food and drinks that don't have any nutritional value are full of empty calories.  Your body needs a certain amount of energy each day. Energy comes from food in the form of calories. Calories let you function and keep doing your daily activities. But after your body meets its needs, it stores extra calories as fat. Most of us get plenty of calories in our diet—often too many. Foods with empty calories have lots of calories but very few nutrients like vitamins and minerals. "Convenience foods," like packaged snacks, chips, and sodas, are common sources of empty calories. Nutrient-rich foods, on the other hand, have a lot more nutrients in relation to their calories. A few examples are vegetables, peanut butter, bran cereal wi...

If you want to lose weight, please see a doctor first, even if it's a doctor or nurse at a local clinic. First of all, because you have a flabby stomach doesn't necessarily mean you need to lose weight. Being flabby might mean that you need to work out. If your waist measures one half your height, then your pretty much in proportion. You have to be careful losing weight, you can lose more muscle then fat and end up ruining your health or end up pear shaped. When seeing a doctor though, remember that his motives for you losing weight are a little different than your. He wants your to improve your health and doesn't care how you look in that new two piece you just bought. But if your not going to feel better, increase your energy level and fit into some better clothes than what's the point.  Over the past few years it has become clear that weight is an important health issue. Being overweight is a risk factor for health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high...

It's a scary time for those of us that are trying to lose weight. If you plan out the way to deal with these big dinners and parties coming up you can avoid the weight gain. I know all about eating too much at those family gathering. In this case we are talking about Thanksgiving. Around my house or at anyone's house that I know there is two parts to the big feast. First we eat a huge dinner, sometimes three kinds of meat, two different types of dressing, two types of cranberries, several types of potatoes, and several different vegetables. The idea is that no one, no matter how fuzzy, will go way hungry. There is always something for everyone in unlimited quantities. Then comes the second part, which usually is about one hour later, "dessert". This is what everyone has been waiting for. If it's a big gathering like 10 or 12 or more the whole table will be filled with pies, cakes, chocolate candies, brownies, lemon squares, and other ethnic tricks that we only see...

Have you ever wondered what happened to your energy? Clients would email me constantly about the lack of energy. I ask them about their diet, what they're eating and how often do they eat, and the most important question, how much extra weight do you have? In other words, how much weight have you gain since you were 21. You see, you lose energy because you're carrying around too much fat and you probably are not eating the right food to give you energy. So maybe you haven't been exercising but that's not your problem. You have to fix your diet. With the proper diet, you will gain some of that energy you lost. Your diet is "key" to a healthy life, but with the availability of manufactured foods and the convenience and price, many people are choosing to take the easiest way and buy manufactured foods that basically have no nutritional value or very little and contain high amounts of white enriched or processed flour, salt and sugar. Those are ingredients that ca...

We make several mistakes when we try to diet. In general, when a person decides to go on a diet they only have the one goal in mind. "Lose some weight so I can get into my clothes, or maybe because your doctor wants you to lose weight. Those people usually starve themselves to lose and than a few months later gain it all back and sometimes even more. The other flaw in dieting is that we usually never make any permanent changes. We don’t actually intend on making permanent  change or even if we do we pick these diet plans that are impossible to do for the long term because the sacrifice is too much. For Instance, and this one is the most common. We start to skip meals because we know we have to cut calories and this seems to be the easiest way. Big mistake, you have to eat every few hours and you can’t skip eating. The secret is to eat food that will help you lose fat.  Normally, we eat food that puts on fat. Even if you think you’re eating healthy, you add sauces, gravies, or ...

I’ve received email lately from seniors that don’t seem to think they can lose weight anymore. We can all lose weight at any age. We can all exercise at any age. You just need to start moving. Change what your eating and start walking more. Seniors have a couple of problems losing weight. First, as you get older you lose some of the good bacteria in your digestive system which means that more of your food is not being digested. It’s being stored as fat. Cut down portions as you get older.  Second and more important, I think, as we age and gain weight over time, we lose the ambition to be active. We have a few more aches and pains and instead of working through them, we tend to pamper them. Some people take a pill for any minor problem, when all you might need is exercise. I'm not talking about a high intensity aerobics class, I'm talking about more walking around and less sitting. Maybe that means to start the day with a walk after breakfast and another walk after lunch and ano...

You might think this is too complicated for me, but you want to understand the principles behind weight loss if you're going to succeed in your weight loss journey. Body composition  refers to the proportion of fat and fat-free mass in the body. A healthy body composition is one that includes a lower proportion of body fat and a higher proportion of fat-free mass. Body composition is one measurement that is used to assess your health and fitness level. The health care system judges you by your percentage of body fat. Our doctor make a judgement call and will determine your percentage of body fat and that number will go into your medical records. You can find out from your doctor what your number is. What you pay for you health insurance can increase if you have too much fat. What Is Body Composition? Your body is composed of two types of mass:  body fat  and  fat-free mass .   Body fat   is fat that is located within the body. Body fat can be...

This is a great article, it confirms the same things I write about. Losing body fat is a big part of being healthy and doing exercise while you diet can speed up the weight loss and I've wrote about this before, exercise has a two fold purpose. You're speeding up your metabolism when you exercise and you're increasing your muscle mass. Increasing muscle mass does two things. First your body burns calories even if you do nothing. Muscle mass will burn more calories than fat. So by increasing your muscle weight and reducing the weight of your fat you actually will burn more calories just doing your normal routine. And as this article explains the more muscle and the less fat you have, the longer you'll live. HealthDay Reporter The more muscle older adults have, the lower their risk of death, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed data from more than 3,600 older adults who took part in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1988 and 1994....