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Fat loss is The Key, Not Weight Loss

many people don’t actually realise what weight loss really means. Weight consists of fat and muscle, and it is the fat you need to be concentrating on.

Many people don’t consider the fact that when they lose weight they are losing muscle as well. Focus on keeping as much muscle as possible.

Muscle needs lots of calories to function. So if your body has lots of muscle, you will burn more calories by keeping it there.

Ironically your body prefers not to keep too much muscle on its frame, because it has to use so many calories to stay put and your body would rather not waste so many calories on muscle, when it could use those calories as an emergency store in the form of fat.

Back in the day when there were no supermarkets or fast food outlets the ability to store fat was beneficial so that it could be used for energy when times were hard.

Today however this ability is not such a blessing as we have food readily available to us. Your body has not had enough time to evolve to suit present day conditions. It will still want to keep the fat, regardless of your thoughts on the idea.

The majority of weight loss methods advocate large drops in calories. On top of this any exercise you do will deplete your calories further. This could appear to be ideal conditions to lose weight as burning more calories than you are consuming equals weight loss right?

Your body has it’s own ideas. Once it understands that here has been a reduction in the calories it is used to, it will go on the defensive.

Its answer to this problem is to slow down its abilities to burn calories and to find more calories from elsewhere. Your muscles will be the first place your body looks to for these extra calories. The outcome is muscles lacking in size and energy. Because your muscles have shrunk they will burn fewer calories. As your body is doing all it can to keep the calories, it will be tougher to lose any weight. You have to realise that out of the all weight you might lose initially, much of that could consist of muscle. You must have experienced this scenario. You go on a diet, at first things seem to be going well, but after a short time results start to slow down and eventually stop. It looks as if the diet has reached the end of the road, so you give up trying. The problem is that it’s difficult to get rid of fat while trying to increase muscle, however it’s not all bad news. You can minimise the amount of muscle you lose by using weight training as part of your exercise program.

An added bonus is that weight training requires calories, this will prevent you from cutting right back. Get more healthy food into your diet and get rid of the garbage.

There is weight training and there is WEIGHT TRAINING. Keep away from exercises that only work 1 or 2 muscles at a time. Focus on compound exercises; these are exercises that use lots of muscles with one exercise.

Design a program around a handful of exercises such as squatting, bench pressing, dips, dead lifting, chin ups, and bent over rows. Exercises like these force your body to send energy to your muscles, and calories are energy. Your muscles will scream for calories and your body will have to send them to your muscles, leaving less for fat storage. To get even better results, make a reduction to your carb intake and increase your protein intake. Following these strategies you will lose the fat and keep the muscle.

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A Quick Look at Some of Today’s Most Effective Diets

The idiot-proof diet is all about calorie shifting. That is, in this diet, you shift your food intake throughout the day instead of eating just 3 meals a day. The diet is popular because it’s actually very easy to follow and there are hardly any restrictions when it comes to the types of food you can eat.

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The Idiot-Proof Diet

The idiot-proof diet is all about calorie shifting. That is, in this diet, you shift your food intake throughout the day instead of eating just 3 meals a day. The diet is popular because it’s actually very easy to follow and there are hardly any restrictions when it comes to the types of food you can eat.

The ‘calorie shifting’ model takes place because you eat every two and half hours. The theory is that because your body is consuming calories (energy) constantly throughout the day, it’s always in ‘burning calories’ mode instead of the ‘saving calories’ mode.

When you sign up for the diet, you get access to a diet handbook, an 11-day diet-plan and a diet calculator. You get to pick what foods you like to eat so don’t think that you’ll be tarving in this diet!

NutriSystem

The NutriSystem way of dieting is all about proper meal planning. People love this diet because it takes away the burden of trying to figure out what to eat during their dieting phase. You see, a lot of people actually get confused as to what they can eat when they want to lose weight. That’s not really surprising because there’s so much information out there and for every yay sayer, there is a nay sayer so it’s really tough to know what to eat.

However, with NurtiSystem, they do all the meal planning and portion controlling for you. You just need to sign up to any of their diet programs (e.g., Women’s Program, Men’s Program, Vegetarian Program, etc.) and order a multi-day (usually for 28 days) diet program.

After you choose your diet program, a menu is presented to you and you simply choose what you want to eat. The meals are then delivered to your doorstep at various intervals during your diet program.

The South Beach Diet

The South Beach Diet is popular because the name alone conjures bikini-clad bodies! Add to that the fact that it was founded by a cardiologist, Dr. Arthur Agatston, then you have a sort of ‘doctor recommended, doctor approved’ seal on the diet as well.

At first glance, the South Beach Diet looks a lot like the Atkins Diet in the sense that it restricts carbohydrates during the initial phase of the program (there are 3 phases). The first phase (14 days) encourages ‘normal eating’ in the sense that you can pretty much eat whatever you want but you must NOT eat bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, or baked goods. Fruit is also not allowed. No sugar. No alcohol.

The second phase allows you to SLOWLY introduce these items back into your diet but at lesser levels that you consumed them before of course. The third phase is more about general maintenance.

Weight Watchers

Probably one of the longest running diet programs out there is Weight Watchers. It believes in the overall approach where food, exercise, behavior and support are addressed.

Weight Watchers is known for advocating a point system for foods. Using this system, one calculates the calorie intake of the foods he or she eats. The number of points you can have in a day varies depending on your weight. The beauty of the program is that there are no gut-wrenching food restrictions so you never feel deprived of anything. However, the point system teaches you how to balance your meals so that even if you indulge on one food item, you don’t go overboard and consume too much in a day.

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How to manage Bland Diet

What is a bland diet? It is a diet specially set to treat certain gastrointestinal or stomach problems such as heartburns, ulcers and gas.

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An answer to a question, what is a bland diet, is that it is a simple treatment for people suffering from any one or more gastrointestinal disorders such as chronic gastritis, ulcer, esophagitis and dyspepsia.

Bland diet is a dietary regimen for people suffering from stomach disorders. Hence, it is quite understood that ingredients of a bland diet are soft food items, which are easy to digest with a capacity to keep the acidity to low levels. Questions about diet may be asked to your physicians and he/she can suggest the diet or recommend a dietician to do it.

Diet medical questions may include the queries about the food stuffs to eat and food stuffs to avoid during the time while a person experien ces any gastrointestinal disorders. However, before a dietician could decide the bland diet for a person, he/she needs to seek answers to several medical questions related to the person such as any food allergies or irritations associated with any food items and emotions medical questions of people.

Bland Diet:

The diet prescribed as a bland diet will include food items that are easy to digest and low in fiber and acid contents. Even giving up alcohol and smoking is advised while patient is on bland diet. Also a patient is advised to have 4 to 6 light meals after regular interval to avoid heavy and large meals.

Chewing food properly and eating slowly helps in the digestion of the food. Adequate sleep, avoiding smoking and controlling anxiety are supportive treatments for the standard treatment of the problem.

Allowed Food Items:

• Dairy Products
Milk, cheese, yogurt with low-fats and other dairy products are easily digested and hence, can be included as a part of bland diet. However, there is no restriction on ice-creams and one may consume even ice creams during bland diet, but it should not have any product such as nuts that are not allowed in bland diet.

• Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Fresh vegetables and fruits are allowed to a bland dieter. However, while carrot, squash, green peas are good to eat in a bland diet, broccoli, onions and green peeper should be avoided as it forms gas. In fruits, oranges, grapefruits, and bananas are allowed.

• Proteins
Protein requirement of the body, while on a bland diet should be met with soy products and meat. Fried chicken and greasy hamburgers are not allowed to be consumed, while grilled and baked chicken is allowed.
Low-fat peanut butter and eggs are also efficient to meet the body’s protein requirement in a bland diet.

• Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are contained in whole grain breads, pasta, oatmeal, corn flakes, white rice and sweet potatoes. All these food items are allowed.

Bland diet is designed for treating certain medical circumstances such as gastrointestinal problems. Hence, to answer what is a bland diet, we can say that this is a diet that aims at improving the digestion with the help of a timed-routine diet and soft to digest food items. Once the problem is controlled patients can return to their normal diet.

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