Best Foods to Eat to Lose Weight

Trying to loose weight is a commendable goal and can give you a lot of benefits when achieved, you get a slimmer, more attractive body, you have a healthier outlook on life, you reduce the chances of heart disease and other forms of sickness. But weight is not lost on a whim, sometimes, it requires time, commitment and most importantly a change in diet. The article tells you the different kinds of foods that you can eat when trying to loose weight, these healthy alternatives come in a long list of fruits, vegetables and even meat. There is no-one-size fits all policy when it comes to a healthy diet, and you can choose the one that appeals to you the most.
 

Fruits  

Delicious, healthy and weight-loss inducing, the right kinds of fruits can cut down inches from your belly, you need only pick the right kind of fruits to have. With 18 amino acids, Goji berries are a source of high protein and make an excellent snack to have until dinnertime, they are a low-calorie snacks which are about 35 per tablespoon. Making them the ideal snack to have in-between meals. Most forms of berries are good for  you, but none more so effective that blue berries, they have a high antioxidant level compared to other berries making them the ideal cleansing agent for your body. They also contain a high amount of fiber, 3.6 grams per cup. Grapefruit is another helpful fruit, it may not contain any fat burning properties but it can help contribute to a 'feel full' stomach encouraging you to moderate your portions during meals. A study conducted by the Scripps Clinic demonstrated that overweight people who ate half of a grapefruit before each meal dropped 3 1/2 pounds over 12 weeks.
 

Vegetables 

Beans are highly recommended because they have several benefits, it's a high source of protein, but it is also high on fiber which means it will take a long time to digest meaning that you will full for a longer time after your meal. Beans are also relatively affordable and can be bought in bulk. Pureed vegetables have several benefits because they are low in calories and can be used alongside other dishes like hamburgers, research from Penn State showed that people ate these dishes and were able to enjoy at 200 to 350 calories less then without the vegetables. Lentils provide several benefits because it is an  excellent vegetable if you want to loose weight. This is because lentils prevent spikes in insulin, the hormone for sustaining excess weight.

Grain & Others

A diet for loosing weight is not just about fruits and vegetables, feel free to throw in other foods to add variety to the mix. One such example would be Quinoa is a gluten-free rice that can be eaten for breakfast with a sprinkle of almond, cinnamon and banana. Quinoa is high in protein due to high amino acid count, and an abundance of vitamin B. Chia seeds is a form of highly recommended grain, it acts like sponge absorbing sugar and excess moisture, and keeping the glucose levels in the blood stable. Chia seeds are highly nutritious, as they contain iron, calcium and omega 3-fatty acids which are good for the body.

How to Lose Weight in a Week - Ways to Lose Weight in One Week

There has probably been a time in your life when you looked in the mirror and thought losing a few pounds would be a great idea. Not just a great idea, but also an urgent need because you have that party coming up in a week and you want to look your best, perhaps you have a date and you want to impress (to be honest, who wouldn't?) While it is still possible to lose weight in a week, you have to be willing to make structural changes to how you eat and live. In order to shed those pounds in a short period of time you will have to make significant changes to your lifestyle.

Diet

One of the many changes that will take place during the course of the week is how you eat, how much you eat and how often you do it. Meals are important, it is never a good idea to skip out on a meal and avoid any diet that tells you to do this. Skipping meals only denies the body much needed nutrients causing all kinds of side-effects that will make you want to eat even more. Instead adopt a diet plan that will not tell you to skip meals but instead changes what you eat and how much you eat. These changes can be small, such as making a sacrifice, for instance, giving up that chocolate bar after lunch will help you lose several pounds in a week. Try replacing some of the unhealthy foods you consume such as soft drinks, and replace it with healthier substitutes. Choosing water over soft drinks will benefit you in several ways. For one, you will give up the hundreds of calories that come with fizzy drinks, and by drinking water you will be giving up excess water (which otherwise makes your body bloated) as well as kick start your metabolism.

Diets encourage substitution and sacrifice but also change, one useful diet to follow is the Whole diet, where you would give up processed foods as well as sugars, dairy and alcohol, as these are the kind of foods that take a while to breakdown and often stored in the body in the form of fat. During this diet, concentrate exclusively on vegetables, meat, a little fruit and be sure to drink plenty of water. There other diets that are simple and easy on the budget, such as the Mediterranean diet, which focuses on foods cooked in the style of those who live around the Mediterranean. This diet encourages you to forgo bread and other processed foods and replace them with fish, vegetables, fruit and red wine.

Techniques

Diets alone will not do the job, they must be accompanied by a change in lifestyle that goes beyond meals. One such change involves exercise, while not an absolute necessity can be extremely helpful in speeding the weight loss process up. You do not have to spend hours at the gym, especially if you have a busy work schedule, but try to incorporate some form of physical activity into your daily routine. For example, you can do 36 push-ups and lunges a day in order to help tone your body and enhance the weight loss process. Other techniques beyond meals and exercise, involve getting more sleep, an extra half an hour into your routine will help you wake up fresh, energized and developed muscle tone. Consider keeping a food diary, by keeping track of what you have eaten throughout the day, this includes types of food and the quantity.

Best Exercise for Weight Loss

Looking to lose weight seriously? Many of you had been searching and wondering for the best exercise for weight loss. Well, just go and ask a number of physical trainers, all of them would opine differently for sure. The reality is, there is not a particular exercise by which you can get rid of your extra weight; rather it’s a continuous and tiring fitness regime. The only alternate to the terrible liposuction surgery is scientific ‘hard work’ coupled with a proper diet chart.

Weight Loss have a Long Term Sustainable Goal
First of all you must have a realistic weight loss goal in mind. Unlike a liposuction surgery, you cannot get rid of twenty pounds in a fortnight; but what you can achieve through rigorous exercise is a slow but steady sustained weight loss.  Before we get into the best weight loss exercise, lets concentrate on two important allied factors such as your diet and proper warm up before starting the exercises.

Diet Factor
Diet is certainly the most crucial part of weight loss. If you are really looking to cut down some pounds you must have an overhaul of your food chart. You can’t just go on having spicy, fried junk foods and day-dream to lose weight just by working out. Actually, while you burn calories during a work-out you go on adding the same with all those fry, fast foods and white breads. Have you ever taken a look at the ‘nutritional (!)’ facts on a French fry packet or that of McDonalds’?  Well, if you are serious enough about losing weight, you surely not ‘gonna loving it.’ To keep short, try to refrain from any food containing sugar, refined carbohydrate as also the carbureted drinks. Rather, you may take occasional chocolates on alternate days; it helps in endorphin release during work out that would feel you better as you sweat. The math of weight loss is simple; you got to burn more calories daily than what you intake. So, not only you cut down on the high calorific diet, you can consult a nutritionist to chalk out a perfect diet chart commensurate with your projected calorie burning each day.

Proper Warm-Up
As we have already stated, there is no hard and fast list of weight loss exercises that are the best. To start with, you should consult a personal trainer about your physique and your weight loss goals, on which depends which exercises you should be doing. Before going into the details of exercises of losing body fats you should be doing a thorough warm-up. What it does is, prepares your body and muscles for the exercises curtaining down any chance of injury whatsoever. Though there’s no specific list of warm-ups or even the duration, we would suggest that 3 minutes of work-out is good enough. The warm-up can be anything that suits you; be it jogging, sit-ups, stair climbing or Jumping Jacks; anything that could get your cardio up. These are some basic working exercises which condition your muscles and joints and also help in developing proper body movements.  Moving on, let’s discuss about some serious exercises, not only for losing weight but also for staying fit and healthy.

Muscle Building : The Crucial Part
The most crucial part of the weight loss regime is getting your muscles ready for the workout. Toned muscles will be benefit only in weight loss, but also improving your physique as the extra fat goes. I would suggest not only to go after a particular area says Abs, rather the fitness regime should compile of a perfect mix of weights and cardio exercises. The ideal weight training routine should contain around ten exercises, specifically targeted for your thighs, abs, butt, upper and lower arms and midsection.

Obsessed with Abs!
Well, if you are really looking to lose weight by exercise and having a fit physique; you must realize that shaping up of all your muscles is equally important. Many of you are obsessed with Abs; to have it sized and toned properly (Thanks to Stallon’ic movies! I presume); but scientific weight loss and fitness training is much more than that.

What I would suggest for a sustained weight loss is Multi Joint Exercises. These are simple yet Best Calorie Burning Exercise , involving a minimum of accessories. Multi-Joint Exercises take care to about 7-8 muscle groups simultaneously; which means you can expect to burn as much as seven times calorie compared to any other exercises. There are two important points before you start with any of these multi joint exercises

1.Have proper warm up to minimize any chance of damages to your muscles.

2.Do these exercises in succession, I mean you should not relax a bit in between them. Starting on with the Multi-Joint Exercises first come Burpees.

Burpees
Perhaps the simplest and the Best Calorie Burning Exercise. The best part of Burpees is the simplicity you don’t need anything for doing these exercises. This multi-joint exercise is a combination of jump squat, hip thrust and pushup; improves your stamina, legerity and even reflexes. So you can expect to have the whole body revving up. Three sets with fifteen repetitions each day would not only help you burning the extra calories, but also enhance you cardio vascular endurance and taking care of your abs, the back and the thigh muscles. Other simple exercises include simple squat, squat and press, dead lift, dumbbell swing and like more.

Dumbbell Swing
Dumbbell Swing is another perfect weight loss exercise, but the effectiveness depends on choosing the correct weight. It is very effective in increasing the overall stamina of the lungs which means you can inhale more oxygen thus increasing the metabolism temporarily. Even a single repetition of the swing works out your entire body, especially the leg muscles, calf muscles and back muscles.

Clean and Press
A complete body exercise involving two basic exercises dead-lift and high pull. Clean and Press involves aids in building both strength and speed-- while pulling up the weight to your shoulder you use lower part of the body, whereas the upper part to get the burble up above the head. So, what you can be sure of is complete body workout involving your shoulders, leg, triceps and back muscles and a huge calorie burnout.  If you are confident with our stamina and want to go for some more weight loss through exercise, you may consider the following in tri-sets, i.e. three exercises in tandem one after another.

Alternate dumbbell clean and jerk
  • Burpee Variations with equipment
  • Plyometric jump variations
  • Alternate dumbbell snatch
  • Dips
  • Pull ups
Still looking for alternatives? Well, then you may try out some simple actions like daily swimming, running or cycling; almost as effective those we have already discussed.

Losing Weight without Weight
You can even lose weight without embracing the rigorous weight trainings. Coupled with a healthy diet, some very common activities each and every day can benefit you equally like that of weight loss through exercise.

Swimming is perhaps the best exercise for weight loss. A simple swimming session of half an hour can help you workout your entire body muscles and you can burn as much as 400 calories. Certainly this cardio exercise’s calorie burn is much more than any other activity that you undertake in a day. Another thing, it’s pretty safe from injuries, as all the body joints remain fully supported.

Certainly you are not going to be the next Lance Armstrong! All you have to do is either cycle outside in the open or even a stationary cycle at the Gym is good enough. Bicycling is perhaps another Most Effective Weight Loss Exercise, helping in fast burning some quick calories and getting rid of the extra fat. Regular bicycling routine can boost up your endurance by enhancing metabolism rate which in turn can burn hundreds of calories in below an hour. Though, you must keep in mind the fact that a faster pace of cycling will help you to burn more calories in a particular time-frame.  You can chalk out a weekly schedule, gradually increasing the difficulty level and time once a week. By this, at the end of each week you will find yourself more comfortable with the rigor of the workout and effectively increasing your energy output each week.

Run Buddy Run
Running is perhaps the simplest and most well known way to weight loss. Just go to Google and you would find scores of websites suggesting the same. Certainly we are implying ‘Running’ and not the Stroll; only by this you can burn up-to 300 calories in just half an hour. The best part is, you don’t need even a single equipment for practicing it; just go out to adjacent park and Run.

Apart from these, if you are a sports enthusiast, there’s a lot of variety for you in burning the extra calorie. You can go for rowing, canoeing, rock climbing, skiing or can try out aerobics too.  Probably by now, you have an idea of how to lose the extra fat. Well, as you can see besides a healthy diet you got to work harder; be it at the gym or in your living room. Lastly, always consult an expert before undertaking any new rigorous weight training as also your diet chart.

Eat healthy, stay healthy.

Severe obesity still rising fast in the U.S.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The number of Americans who are severely obese shot up by 70 percent in the past decade or so, though the increase has slowed down in more recent years, a new study finds.
Between 2000 and 2010, the proportion of Americans who were severely obese - at least 100 pounds overweight - rose from 4 percent to almost 7 percent.

The increase showed signs of slowing after 2005, researchers found. But the bad news is that the severely obese remain the fastest-growing segment of obese Americans, said study leader Roland Sturm, a senior economist at the non-profit research institute RAND Corporation.

More than one-third of U.S. adults are obese, which means having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher. BMI is a measure of weight relative to height.

Recent studies have found that the nation's obesity rate, among adults and kids, may be leveling off. But most of those folks are moderately obese.

"Everybody's talking about obesity leveling off," Sturm said. But what tends to get "lost" in the discussion is the fact that severe obesity - BMIs of 40 or higher - is still rising fast.

That's important, Sturm said, because those are the people who have the highest healthcare costs - about double those of normal-weight Americans.

People with a BMI of 40 or higher would be at high risk of conditions like diabetes, severe arthritis and heart disease. They are also the folks who could be candidates for obesity surgery.

But there are other costs besides the healthcare price tag, Sturm noted. There's the human cost of living with obesity-related health problems, and often a loss to the workforce.

"There's the disability and inability to work," Sturm said. "People may be basically forced into retirement because they can't work."

The findings, reported in the International Journal of Obesity, are based on data from an annual government health survey of U.S. adults. BMI estimates were made based on people's self-reported weight and height.

Moderate obesity, the study found, rose relatively slowly after 2000 and seemed to level off from 2005 on.
In contrast, the proportion of Americans with a BMI of 40 or above climbed by more than 70 percent.

That translates to about 15 million U.S. adults with a BMI that high, Sturm said.

And some Americans were consistently at greater risk over time than others. The rate of severe obesity was 50 percent higher among women than men, and twice as high among black Americans as among white and Hispanic adults.

What's more, the increases were bigger among people younger than 40 compared with older adults.
Sturm said that doctors once thought of severe obesity as a problem that affected a small and stable percentage of people who were genetically vulnerable to huge weight gain.

"That thinking has been proven wrong," Sturm said. "This is something that can happen to a surprisingly large percentage of the population."

And the implications for the healthcare system could be large, too, Sturm noted.

Experts estimate that obesity, in general, results in an additional $190 billion a year in U.S. healthcare costs - or one-fifth of all healthcare spending (see Reuters story of April 30, 2012 here: http://reut.rs/InjFnP).
Sturm said he doesn't think wider use of obesity surgery is the "answer" to the problem. "Probably the solution is preventing the weight gain in the first place."

Source : http://news.yahoo.com/severe-obesity-still-rising-fast-u-022740965.html