Blog on weight, How to Lose Fat on the Cheap

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...

A holiday like Thanksgiving will motivate anyone to go out and buy a treadmill or some other piece or workout equipment but don’t. You don’t have to spend money to loss weight.  What you eat is what raises your level of body fat or lowers it. 70% of your weight problems are caused from the foods and the drinks you consume. The other 30% is about your activity levels.  Unfortunately, as you gain weight your activity levels drop off causing you to burn less calories. But you can reverse that by changing your diet. Eating healthy foods, drinking more water will make a big difference. FYI, the average North American consumes about 3500 calories a day. Twice what the body needs and half of those 3500 calories are from the liquids we consume. Did you ever realize how much money you would save if you stopped drinking calories.  Healthy foods are usually a little more expensive but after you cut out all the can and bottled drinks and all the snack foods, and by the way that’s whe...

We all have spent the last few weeks on an eating binge. You can’t just give up because you gain some weight and blew your diet. Don’t think your the only one who gained some weight lately.  But you can get your eating back on track. Here’s how. I know the Holidays aren't over yet, but if you start now you may avoid lots of pain later trying to lose the excess fat. First, Relax You need some perspective. You need to eat 3,500 calories to gain one pound of body fat. One unplanned treat — a slice of cake, some fries, or even a rich meal — probably won’t make a major difference on the scale. “We call these ‘taking timeouts,’ and we all take them,” says San Antonio nutrition consultant Rebecca Reeves, RD. “No one is perfect in their eating habits. What we have to learn is that we are giving ourselves permission to do this, and as soon as it’s over, we should go back to the eating plan we normally follow.” The goal is to not make a habit of it. “Most people overeat somewhere between 500...

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. Your speeding up your metabolism when you exercise and your increasing your muscle mass. Now increasing muscle mass does two things. First your body burns more 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. Th...

To eat breakfast or not to eat breakfast? That’s the big question if you’re trying to slim down. For years, diet and nutrition experts have said a morning meal is a wise idea. But after a University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) study showed that overweight breakfast eaters weren’t any more likely to slim down than those who skipped it, many were left wondering if they should bother, after all. “Yes, you should eat breakfast,” says Suzy Weems, PhD, a registered dietitian and professor of family and consumer sciences at Baylor University in Waco, TX. But that doesn’t mean you should dig into a stack of pancakes and a plate of bacon. The UAB study didn’t look at what people were eating. It didn’t look at how many calories they were getting, either. “You can’t have Twinkies and coffee and expect to slim down, or even maintain weight loss,” Weems says. “The food you choose matters.” That may be why other studies show that breakfast does help with weight loss. In fact, more than 75% of p...

 You can blame your fat on numerous things, but realistically the only think that causes excess body fat is food. It looks good, right? But there's a lot of carbs there.    I only see two things in the photo that I consider to be healthy. The spinach leaves and the Swiss cheese. I don't even think that the whole wheat bread is a health choice.  Healthy food choices I like would come from this lower diagram. Fresh Foods the right amounts and lots of water.  Fat only comes from the food we eat. Not exercising would not be very healthy but it won't add fat to the body. If you make healthy food choices you don't have to count calories or count carbs. Healthy foods are filling and you won't have cravings and you won't overeat.  Stick to the foods in the pyramid, stop drinking calories except for the glass of wine, and walk and extra hour a day and you'll lose fat over time. Losing body fat should be your goal. Read up on weight loss and losing body fat. It doesn...

Today I want to tackle the question I get most often, "How can I lose weight?" This is like solving a puzzle because everyone has a unique problem that has a different solution. But for 90% of the overweight population we can generalize. Processed foods causes most of the overweight problems. But just the words "processed foods" takes in more than you think.  If you take all processed foods out of supermarkets you would be left with a produce market and a seafood and meat market. Everything in this new store would be fresh, nothing frozen. Frozen or canned products have preservatives. Things like bread, crackers, cookies, and cakes are all processed foods. Anything in a can or box is processed food. Even most dairy products are processed. So what's wrong with processed foods? Manufacturers have to add preservatives to add shelf life and also add other things to give the product better taste.  Most of these food additives are chemical. You can tell by the ingredi...

Did you ever wonder how people in some European countries manage to stay thin. When I was in Europe I didn't see any low calorie food. Restaurants had no diet food or low calorie meals. But no one was what we call obese. I've personally been to more than 15 European countries and normal people are in better shape than American. I read a non-diet book last year "The secret of eating" were by the author explains that diets don't work. This is a weight loss book about how this woman had gained 20 pounds while going to school in the States and then losing the weight when returning to France, her home country. She goes on to say that in France women don't get fat. In the States when she was going to school the portions of food were too large and foods were too sweet. When returning to Europe she returned home and returned to eating the way she grew up. In Europe women eat sensible. Good food of very high quality and eaten in small portions. Good food does not mean ...

Eating properly is key to good nutrition. In this article, we explain the ins and outs of making correct food choices. Read on to learn some things regarding nutrition that you might have missed. Make healthier decisions slowly and don’t try to rush things. Change does not happen in a single day. You don’t want to put yourself into shock transitioning into a nutritious lifestyle. Add in healthy food items a little at a time, and you will ease yourself into the differences. Stop consuming food when your body gives you a sense of fullness. This will help prevent overeating. If you stop eating when full, you put yourself in control of your choices. Vitamin B-12 is very important for red blood cell production. It is not unusual for vegetarians and elderly people to get insufficient amounts. Anemics also may be lacking this crucial vitamin. There are supplements; however, most cereals for breakfast will increase your supply of B-12. Ground Beef Rather than using ground beef for your meals, ...

Science has proven that white sugar is dangerous to your health. I heard this the other day on a TV news program and I wasn’t surprised. Anything that is processed by man before you buy has been altered to increase profits.  White sugar was been linked to Cancer. So why after centuries of humans using sugar to sweeten food is it now labeled as a cause of Cancer. All of this is linked to why we gain weight. We are not eating our grandmothers sugar, flour, coffee, or even milk and cheese.  If we back up to the 1950’s, food was actually more expensive.  Not in terms of dollars but compared to our salaries. In the 50’s we were paying about 25% of the average monthly income for food.  Today we pay less than 10% of the average monthly income. Why!! Some of the reasons are because we have a larger number of people earning less than average wage.  Manufacturers decided decades ago that they needed to keep the cost of food as low as possible. While Europe never did that....