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Planning Meals Will Help You Lose Weight

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We talk about cutting back on food consumption but we haven’t said how. So today I have some ideas. I plan my meals the day before. Actually I started planning to save money. I was planning a week at a time so I knew what to buy. Then I found that planning not only saved me money, but I had less food in the house and I ate less. Not really by design, kinda by accident. It might sound like a crazy idea. If you try it you’ll get it. I wasn’t going out as much. I ate at home more because I knew what was for dinner. Before I started planning I’d stop and eat on the way home. It was easier and I didn’t have to clean up. But I’d just get home and turn on the TV and pull out the snacks. Now I go home, make dinner, I stick to the plan. Eat dinner and clean up. Take care of any phone calls I need to return, do my email and finish up any paper work I need to do. By that time it's usually after 8 and I find a movie I want to watch. I know many of you work-out at night, but I’m a morning p

Having trouble keeping the weight off?

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I write about this very thing every week because I get so much mail on this very subject. Most people, who aren't real fanatics on weight loss, don't always take the problem seriously. They cut back a little on the food they eat by using a type of portion control but then cheat on calories by eating one of their favorite high calorie foods. That's one type of dieter and then there's another type that exercises and never changes their diet. He might workout, and this is typical of men, burns 200 calories but then goes home and drinks a couple beers. Women are almost as bad drinking wine. Cutting back on portions and then drinking your calories won't help you lose weight. Losing weight is about losing body fat and you can't lose fat if you continue to drink calories. Most dieters think they can cut calories on their plate but never think about all the calories their drinking. "But I use artifical sweetner and I drink diet drinks". Ok, except that art

Can Dieting Part-Time Help You Lose Weight

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Among the many strategies for losing weight and aging well - following a low-carb diet, eliminating gluten, getting more exercise - there's one that's consistently recommended by researchers: calorie restriction. When you take in fewer calories than you require to maintain your current body weight, you'll lose weight. The big challenge is how to  sustain  the calorie deficit long enough to see significant results. A relatively new strategy called intermittent fasting may offer a manageable way of eating less because you're only required to diet  some  of the time. Fans say it's a plan that you can stick with over months, even years. Read more: How obesity can affect your liver What is intermittent fasting?   Intermittent fasting means severely restricting your food intake on one, two or more days of the week and eating normally the rest of the time. The so-called "fast days" aren't total fasts; rather, you take in about a quarter of your norm

The No-Diet Approach To Weight Loss

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Yes you can loss weight without dieting. Most of us gain weight because we over-indulge on the wrong foods. By simply changing the foods you eat and stop drinking anything with calories you can lose weight. By adopting sensible eating habits and practicing portion control, you can eat nutritious foods so that you take in as many calories as you need to maintain your health and well-being at your ideal weight. Often, weight loss occurs on its own simply when you start making better food choices, such as  avoiding: processed foods, sugar-laden foods, white bread and pasta (substitute whole-grain varieties instead), foods with a high percentage of calories from fat, alcoholic drinks. While nothing is absolutely forbidden, when you do succumb to temptation, keep the portion size small and add a bit more exercise to your daily workout. By replacing some unwise food choices with healthy ones, you'll be cutting back on calories. If you add some moderate physical activity

The Right Way To Weigh Yourself

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Which Is the Best Day of the Week to Weigh Yourself? This is a great post. Beginners often get discouraged because they think they aren't getting anywhere. If you're not weighing yourself the right way you might not really understand that your weight fluctuates from day to day and that's normal. You can be losing weight every day but its ounces per day, not pounds. This blog post is from VeryWell.com and will tell you the truth about weighing yourself. First I should explain that there are several "schools of thought" about weighing yourself. Some trainers will tell you to weigh yourself every day, they say it keeps you focused on your diet. Others say to only weigh-in once a week, otherwise, you can get discouraged. I'm in the camp that thinks you should weigh-in once a week. There's no point in weighing in too often. Your weight fluctuates from day to day and that's normal and even if you're losing weight every day it's only ounces and

Over 40 And Can't Lose Weight

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This post is from VeryWell.com  When I was young enough to think that the age of 40 was prehistoric, I was convinced that the worst thing about getting old was becoming dull and boring - Having supper at 5:00, clipping toenails to the dusty voices of ancient news anchors on  60 Minutes , nagging people to put chew with their mouths closed and turn off the lights when you leave the room, for Pete's sake! Now, of course, I know what really happens when you get old.  Sure you get dull and boring (which probably isn't the case!), but something worse happens: Sudden, instant weight gain. It happens deep in the night, just after your 40th birthday. The Middle-Age Fairy creeps into your room and loads an extra 5 or 10 pounds right around your belly. This mysterious fat not only appears without warning, it's also immune to both diet and exercise. What happens to our bodies after 40 is a trifecta, maybe even a superfecta, of weight gain: Hormones change, metabolism drops a

Diet Apps; The One Thing To Look For

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Apps can be handy tools to help you lose weight and eat a healthier diet, but how do you get the most out of the app you use? For advice, we turned to registered dietitian nutritionist Angela Lemond, RDN, CSP, LD,  who practices in Plano, Texas. She’s a big proponent of apps. “We know that apps can help with accountability, and the research tells us that accountability is key when it comes to consistency and being able to make and maintain changes,” says Lemond. “And changes are not easy.” The Key Feature to Look For The most important feature of any app designed to help you lose weight and improve your diet, says Lemond, is its ability to track your eating patterns over time. Why? Because what’s important is not a single meal but what and how you’re eating over the long haul. “Look at your food patterns as much as your total calories,” she says. This means using the food diary function to track your meals, snacks, and beverages on a daily basis. Most people underestimat