The Health Gazette

8 of 10 women want to get thin. It’s probably the second most sought-after goal after having access to unlimited funds... Seriously, obesity has become a disease of epidemic proportion mostly due to our sedentary lifestyle and lack of time.

Not too long ago, humans took part in a lot of physical activities such as walking, playing sports and jogging in the park. Nowadays, time restrictions or safety concerns appear to have taken these activities away from us. Our workload, studies, responsibilities and other family concerns seem to compete for our attention and exercise and proper nutrition have been pushed aside. There is no surprise in why the population became fat “all of a sudden”.

If you want to lose weight, you’ll need to make a difficult decision. You’ll have to commit time, willpower and planning in order to change your habits and lose weight. The most important thing to do to lose weight is to adjust your thinking. Here are a few things that you will have to re-learn:

- Plan your meals and stick to your plan. If you can’t plan, limit your options to foods that will help you meet your weight loss goals, not foods that will ruin your goals.

- Enjoy five or six SMALL meals per day, even if your time schedule doesn’t seem to permit it. You’re hungry and you will find a way to make time.

- Get informed. Discover what constitutes healthy foods and learn what a serving size actually is. Most fast-food restaurants serve food in tray-sized containers. Avoid these restaurants or simply throw away half of your meal when you’ve had “a serving worth”.

Obviously, it’s easier to talk about weight loss than to do it. Take it a step at a time but start right now. Don’t procrastinate and don’t wait until tomorrow. Find something that motivates you and get proper guidance if you want to begin an effective weight loss plan. Motivation is the most important factor as you absolutely must learn to say “no” that habits that will destroy your diet.

Motivation comes first because it gives you the strength to say “no” to some destructive habits that hinder your diet. Motivation can come from within and from outside sources. If you’re only trying to lose weight to please someone else, or to part away from the lazy and self-indulgent prejudice that other people have towards obese people, your motivation won’t be strong enough. It needs to come from within. If you are ashamed of your body, can’t move without getting out of breath or are afraid of heart diseases or diabetes, these powerful inner motivations are difficult to acknowledge but will prove to be the strength that you need to succeed in losing weight.

Proper guidance will teach you the difference between healthy and non-healthy foods and will prove to make or break your diet. Find a great doctor and nutritionist and get their advice.

Society imposes strong pressure on us to be healthy and thin, yet it promotes obesity through its actions and menus. Your weight and your health are in your hands. You can try yet another fad diet or you can aim for success by starting a healthy diet program of exercise and healthy eating.

Foods high in protein include: dairy products, meats (including poultry), eggs, fish, spinach, shellfish, crustacean (crab, shrimp, lobster) and soybean. Other very good, yet less obvious sources of protein include: legumes, whole grains, beans, peas, rice, corn, oats and peanut butter.

Athletes and body builders often have diets high in protein because protein helps build muscles. If you’re thinking about bulking up or trying to convert fat into muscle, you can consider switching to a protein-rich diet. It can be hard to believe that many North Americans who have easy access to huge amounts of protein-rich foods (hamburgers come to mind) have protein deficiency problems.

Health
Protein is necessary to our health. The typical adult requires about 1 gram of protein for each kilogram of bodyweight. You can be in control of your protein ingestion and be able to reach your health and fitness goals by creating your own high-protein eating plan. While soy protein is not exceptionally useful for body-sculptors, this protein source is surely very healthy. The main energy source for intense muscle efforts are carbs and therefore every athlete, no matter which sports he or she plays, must include carbohydrates in his or her diet.

The two most common factors that lead to accumulation of body fat and weight gain are undigested carbs and saturated fats. While new trendy diets say you should eat less carbs and more protein, health problems can result with low carb intake. A balanced intake of both protein and carbs is likely to be the best and healthiest option for most people.

A Healthy Body
The International Journal of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders published a study, which concluded that high-protein diets could help maintain a person's weight if such person were prone to losing weight. Certain stages of life and groups of people require more protein than others. Examples include: childhood growth and development, pregnant or breast- feeding women, people who suffered malnutrition, trauma or recently underwent surgery. When your body can’t meet its energy needs from your diet, it can start to remove protein from muscle mass, which results in a gradual decrease in muscular mass. On the other hand, if you provide too much protein for the needs of your body, it can’t be stored. Extra protein is converted into sugars or fatty acids after it’s broken down. In some people, excessive protein intake can lead to a depletion of calcium, which could result in osteoporosis or reduction in bone density in the long term.

Meat
In order to be easily digested, meat must be tender and soft. Meat is a great protein source. Chicken and lean cuts of beef are recommended. However, red meat contains lots of saturated fat, which can clog arteries and lead to heart problems. Saturated fat is also believed to increase inflammation, which then increases pain and suffering. Excessive red meat consumption can induce stress on your kidneys and liver, which could result in a reduction in nutrient absorption.

You are "fearfully and wonderfully made" declares a passage in the Bible and it is the key to conquering the battle over losing weight and keeping it off. No, this is not a Bible lesson, it's an explanation of how to boost your metabolism, that is, how to tune up your internal engine to lose weight and keep it off.

Overweight people very often blame metabolism for their troubles with losing the extra pounds and they are correct, because speeding up metabolism is known to help burn more calories. Nevertheless, in order to control your metabolic rate, you need to know exactly what metabolism really is.

A common puzzle you often see is the person who seems to eat everything and anything put in front of them and they remain thin. They eat all the high calorie, high fat, foods that they want and they have slim bodies and un-bounding energy. The solution to the puzzle is their metabolic rate. If you look at their lifestyle you like will find a person who has a very active social life and an optimistic attitude. They are always on the go and trying new things. How is this possible?

Simply put, metabolism is how your body responds physically and emotionally to demands made upon it. Metabolism is determined by physical and emotional energy moving through your body. Or, to put it another way, your body is more complex than the most expensive automobile in the world and it, like that expensive automobile, needs to be kept in tune, the right fuel used, and driven hard at times for best performance. You control your metabolism by speeding it up or slowing it down like you would stepping on the accelerator of your automobile.

If you wish to lose body fat continuously for many months until you reach your target weight, then work at boosting your metabolism rather than switching from one diet to the next. A controlled metabolic rate works better than any fad diet or herbal remedy because it automatically regulates your body weight based upon the demands of your everyday life. The key is finding the right combination of food and exercise that provides all the energy you need to look and feel fit everyday.

The problem with dieting alone is that many of the diet plans on the market actually cause the metabolism to slow down. A decreased metabolic rate is often the very reason that weight loss progress suddenly stops. Increasing exercise frequency may still have no effect at this stage. Plus, reducing food intake doesn't help because there is a net loss of protein in the overall muscle mass, and this net loss continues to lower your metabolic rate even further. This is when the body has adapted to the lower calorie intake. In effect, you are not putting the right fuel into your body to give you that balance of food and exercise. It appears complicated but it's really simple once you understand how your personal metabolism works.

Losing abdominal fat is probably the #1 complaint by all dieters. Before you decide to resort to drastic measures, consider these facts:

A high-intensity cardio workout that really increases your heart rate will make you lose the most calories and represent the most significant short-term metabolic booster; between 20 and 30 percent. However, it won't have a permanent effect on your metabolism because, after your workout, your metabolism will return to its previous level over several hours. While, you will continue burning extra calories during this slow down, this alone will not result in a fine tuned metabolism.

The diet pill industry has about the same success as the quit smoking industry - less than 50% of people succeed over a long term. This is simply because diet pills, like extreme exercise, are short-term solutions and can cause physical harm.

You would not drive that expensive automobile at full speed all the time, would you? Of course not because you know that such behavior will destroy the machine. The human body is no different.

So, what to do next? Go on the Internet and do research on metabolism. Talk to your doctor to see if they understand the relationship between metabolism and weight loss. If they do, have them provide a weight loss plan that fits your age, gender, and physical condition.

Can you no longer stand constant 'in the box' diets? We aren't all made the same. Some people will demand higher calorie intake. Meal Plans 101 ends the strict diet regime. It gives you the freedom to think of a special meal plan that is based on your body type and requirements.

Authors of Meal Plans 101, Jayson Hunter and Cris Mohr, can show in-depth knowledge in the subject of dieting. Together they developed Meal Plans 101 that will enable anybody to put an end to crazy diet plans and start with real fat loss.

Meal Plans 101 is the system used by the top weight loss specialists. It shows you how to choose from a huge number of meal possibilities. You are allowed to eat your favorite dishes and enjoy different kinds of food. The plan also helps you to track your weight loss. The tracking allows you to find out which meal plans will be best for you. Meal Plans 101 also shows you the most essential elements of long-term fat loss. Finally, you are able to stop wishing about a weight loss plan, customized to you. With Meal Plans 101 you don't have to be a movie star to get to know the ideal meal plan for you. Don't delay much longer to make a move towards a leaner body.

Just think of how much more effective sticking to a weight loss system would be if everything was laid out for you. Let Meal Plans 101 does all the counting and planning instead of you.

You may have noticed your belly growing fat but has it grown fat enough for you to be concerned about your health?

Getting a fat belly is particularly unhealthy when compared with gaining fat in other areas of your body. Extra belly fat increases your risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer.

To tell if your belly is growing too fat and becoming a health risk you want to throw out the scale and pick up a measuring tape. The key to diagnosing whether your belly is growing too fat is to measure your waist-hip ratio (a measurement of the waist size divided by the hip size). To accurately determine your ratio, first measure around your waist at about the level of your belly button; don't hold your stomach in and don't pull the tape so tight that you indent the skin. Next you want to measure around the fullest area of your hips with your feet together. Divide your waist measurement by the measurement at your hips.

A waist-hip ratio above .85 for women and above .90 for men indicates a higher health risk.

Waist Measurement ÷ Hip Measurement = Waist-Hip Ratio

While it is not unusual to gain weight as you age due to a slower metabolism and less activity, a belly growing fat seems to have additional causes. Heredity may be one factor - you may simply have inherited a tendency to get a fat belly. Hormones are also important players for women. Hormones change after menopause and effect the way your body handles fat, depositing greater amounts in the belly.

Even though belly fat tends to be found deeper inside the body than fat that is found around the hips, thighs and butt it is all removed in the same way - through proper diet and exercise.