Tag fitness

The Pros and Cons of the Atkins Diet

The Atkins diet is one of the most popular diets and thousands of people have reported benefits by going on the Atkins diet. Even famous celebrities have come out and vouched for its effectiveness.

The Atkins diet is indeed effective because it uses nutrition principles that are very sound.

The Atkins diet also known as the ‘fry up’ diet strictly limits the amount of carbohydrates consumed to the bare minimum. This is the key principle behind the Atkins diet. It aims to make the body convert the stored body fat to energy instead of using glucose as a source of energy. This is known as ketosis.

What You Can Eat on the Atkins Diet Plan

Food will be restricted but you will be able to eat foods that other diets will never recommend. You will be allowed to eat oily and fatty foods but will not be allowed to consume carbs or foods which contain sugar. You are forbidden from eating foods like white bread, pasta, cakes, etc.

You are allowed to eat any kind of meat, fish and shellfish. It does not matter if the meat is fatty. In fact, eating fats are encouraged in the Atkins diet. Most vegetables are allowed on the Atkins diet except the starchy types of vegetables such as potatoes, peas and corn.

You may eat butter but margarine is not allowed. It is recommended that you consume fish oils or omega 3 supplements. In fact, you may eat cheese, creams, sauces, condiments and spices as long as they are low in carbohydrates and do not contain sugar.

The Atkins Diet Plan Totally Rules Out Sugar

There are no restrictions on beverages either. However, as mentioned earlier, your beverages should not contain sugar. Even natural sugars like honey are not allowed on the Atkins diet. Artificial sweeteners are fine but controversial in regards to the health and safety of them. Try stevia leaf instead.

All these requirements make the Atkins diet very effective. Just cutting out the high GI foods itself is a very effective measure. The body will not experience insulin spikes and blood sugar levels will be constant. This will make fat loss easier and it will be more difficult to gain fat.

Sugar is detrimental to any weight loss program if it exceeds the daily requirement. Many people drink their calories from sodas, sweetened fruit juice, etc. The Atkins diet puts an end to unnecessary calorie consumption from sweetened drinks.

That’s the Biggest Problem of the Atkins Diet

The problem with the Atkins diet is that it restricts the unrestricted carbs for life. Any diet that uses restrictions will not be effective for the long run.

There may be occasions when you feel like having a plate of pasta or a pizza. However, if you are doing the Atkins diet, you will not be able to eat these kinds of foods.

This may be inconvenient and in some cases, the self-denial may cause you to binge on junk food. Cravings may reach a point that you just have to satisfy them and when you do, you will likely go overboard.

The best way to lose weight will be to adopt a healthy diet that does not have extreme restrictions. Eat sensibly and have a  good exercise program in place. If you are maintaining a calorie deficit daily then having a pizza every now and then can’t hurt. Life is meant to be enjoyed and having a meal that you crave occasionally shouldn’t be a sin.

Being a woman in this world may very well be one of the hardest things to do, especially considering many countries around the planet still have laws that repress their women rights severely. Regardless, if there is one thing women have always been valued for, it’s their image, at least the one they allow the world to see.

As it happens, on top of being good for your health in general, being fit is also considered, at least today, as being the more attractive type of body. Long story short, if you want to look your best you will need to keep your weight at a healthy level, and what follows are a few tips centered on weight loss for women which should help you to achieve just that.

Weight Loss for Women Tip #1 – Never Skip Your Meals

It may be tempting to hold out on a meal, and logically, it makes a lot of sense: you are going to be taking in less calories, meaning that you will be losing weight faster. However, in practice, things seldom turn out the way they are expected to in theory.

When you are skipping a meal you aren’t actually skipping it… you are just pushing it back for later. Eventually, you are going to get very hungry, and you will most likely end up over-compensating for it by eating more than you would have in the first place. If you really don’t want to eat a lot, then perhaps you should follow the next tip…

Weight Loss for Women Tip #2 – Have Many Small Meals

You eat because you are hungry, and anyone who wants to live does the same. As such, eating less would require you to find a better way to fill yourself, and one of those ways consists of eating in smaller portions, but more often.

In many cases, when you are eating a big meal you are actually consuming much more than your body actually needs, although you don’t really have a way of knowing that. Try to eat about six to seven times per day, small portions of light foods that keep you filled up for a decent amount of time.

Weight Loss for Women Tip #3 – Keep Your Emotions in Line

As demoralizing as it may sound, food and emotional comfort go together like bread and butter. Millions, if not billions of people around the world see food as being a source of comfort, and whenever they feel depressed or sad, they turn to eating as a way of relieving themselves.

There is a whole theory behind why this happens, involving chemical processes in the brain, but what you should keep in mind is that maintaining a rational approach will help you lose weight. It is true that many events, and sometimes people in our lives simply make us feel things without a second of warning, in which case you need to remind yourself that eating is just one of many ways of coping with stress.

You should try some relaxation techniques, taking up a sport as a hobby, or anything else that will keep you distracted from eating. All in all, the process of weight loss for women is somewhat different than it is for men, calling more for permanent lifestyle changes than anything else, and the above tips and those found at http://MyFitnessNut.com should help you get started on making them a reality.

Regardless of whether you are looking at weight loss as being a one-time deal or a permanent change to your lifestyle, there is no debating about one factor: you consider it to be a challenge. Otherwise, chances are that you would have gone through with it a long time ago.

In what way does the weight loss challenge manifest itself precisely? Well, there are two main aspects to it which need to be discussed, and so let us begin with the first one, your physical capabilities.

Weight Loss Challenge #1: The Physical Factors

When talking about your physical capabilities we are not only discussing your weight, your age, how far you can run or how many push-ups you can do, although these things do play a factor. There are certain other physical factors in your life that need to be taken into account, such as time and money.

Practically everyone today is living life like a rat race, running from one place to the other, barely having enough time to catch our breath at the end of the day.

As far as money goes, the good news is that losing weight doesn’t require the purchase of fancy machines or expensive foods at the grocery store. You will probably need to invest a little on gaining information, such as a dieting guide or a workout plan, or subscribe to the My Fitness Nut Newsletter and use the free resources at http://MyFitnessNut.com – but it doesn’t have to go further than that if you don’t want it to.

When it becomes a question of time things get a bit more complicated, because after all, very few are capable of controlling when the events in their lives take place. Nevertheless, eating right doesn’t really require you to have enough time to do it (in most cases at least), and your exercising routines don’t need to be very long; two or three workouts of ten to fifteen-minute will generally suffice, at least if you are looking to maintain a natural weight loss pace.

Weight Loss Challenge #2: The Mental Factor

Now, it is time to discuss the more important factor, the mental one. The truth is that if you are really motivated to lose weight, if you have a goal in mind that is actually important to you, then rest assured, you are always going to find the time, the money and the reason to go through with it.

If you are constantly finding yourself making excuses as to why you should not or could not go through with a weight loss program, then chances are that you are simply lacking in self-confidence and motivation to lose weight.

Yes, it is true that the weight loss challenge is one of the hardest things in the world to go through with, perhaps because it is also one of the most important ones as well. If you do not take action to lose weight and get in shape right now, then chances are that you will keep on living the way you do for the next five, ten, perhaps even twenty years, at which point your body will likely have had all it could take.

In other words, if you don’t lose weight now, you are much more likely to develop ailments and pass away sooner… it’s only logical, not to mention statistically-proven. If you want to really turn your life around and make some real weight loss progress, then you better re-think your mental approach to it.

To help assist you with your personal weight loss challenge we have assemble a category of weight loss tips and strategies that you can use right now to help conquer your challenges.

The benefits of green tea for health in general have already been discussed at great length in scientific journals, the media, and even personal blogs which revolve around the subject of maintaining a healthy of way living.

All the fuss is far from being unwarranted, considering in particular that those who drink at least one cup of green tea every day are about six to seven times less susceptible to developing most types of cancer than those who don’t.

However, it seems that many have overlooked the existing relationship between green tea and weight loss; indeed, it seems that green tea is nothing short of being magical with all the benefits it bears for the human body.

Fortunately, we will not need to go into speculations to determine whether or not green tea can help with weight loss; clinical studies have already touched on the subject.

A 90 Day Study on Green Tea and Weight Loss

There is one placebo-controlled, randomized study in particular that was of great interest. All of the test subjects were considered as moderately overweight adults, and they were divided into two groups. Both of them would be subjected to the same routine and procedures, with the only difference being that one group would also consume 1,900mgs of green tea catechins (GTC), the main antioxidant found in the tea.

The study lasted a total of 90 days, and at the end it was observed that the group who had consumed the green tea catechins lost around 2.65 lbs. on average, and three quarters of an inch from their waist.

It is true that the results do not seem impressive at all at first sight (barely 3 pounds in three months), but they do warrant some further examination. None of the study’s participants were forced to make any changes to their diet, nor were they made to exercise; they simply lived in a way as to sustain their current form, with the only difference being that some of them ingested green tea.

As such, it is actually quite impressive that the green tea alone led to the weight loss as it usually takes a lot more than ingesting one ingredient to get people to lose weight.

A few other studies were also performed in an attempt to elucidate whether green tea and weight loss should be used in the same sentence, and all of them have found the same thing: green tea improves the body’s fat oxidation abilities, consequently leading to an increase in your metabolic rate and energy expenditure levels.

Cholesterol Levels Lowered While Using Green Tea for Weight Loss

In addition to that, it was observed that green tea reduces LDL cholesterol levels (the bad type of cholesterol) while raising HDL cholesterol levels (as you can guess, the good cholesterol) as well as adiponectin, an important protein which prevents your body from becoming desensitized to insulin.

All in all, it can be said with great confidence that there exists a positive relationship between green tea and weight loss, and if you are looking for an easy to way to accelerate your journey to becoming fitter, slimmer and healthier, then you should definitely at least have a cup of it per day, or perhaps even think about investing in green tea-based supplements.

While in theory losing weight sounds like something you could do with your hands tied behind your back (metaphorically of course), in practice it just happens to be one of the hardest things to pull off, especially nowadays where we practically don’t have time to dedicate to ourselves anymore.

While there is no way to lose weight without having to make an effort, there are certain tips which you can implement in your daily life to make the process much easier. Here are a few quick weight loss tips that should help you succeed with whatever program you are currently following.

Quick Weight Loss Tip #1: Don’t Overdo It

One of the biggest mistakes many people make when trying a weight loss system is trying too hard. They take in even fewer calories than they are required to and they push themselves to the very limit when exercising.

At first glance, this approach simply ensures that you will get faster results… however, what it really does is ensure that your progress gets slowed down. The harder you try, the more you are at risk of suffering some kind of injury, especially if you become weak because you didn’t feed yourself well enough.

Simply stick with the program and don’t push yourself too hard.

Quick Weight Loss Tip #2: Have a Cheat Day

While some diets explicitly forbid any deviation from the program, the truth is that ultimately, we live for pleasure, and if we can’t get any, we’ll do whatever it takes to get some. It is better to control your cravings for pleasure rather than suppress them and see them running wild later.

Food is one of the greatest pleasures humans have come to know, and once in a while, about every two weeks, you should have a cheat day during which you want what you want, and how much you want of it. This will remind you that the weight loss process isn’t nearly that bad, not to mention it will make keeping your food cravings at bay much easier.

Quick Weight Loss Tip #3: Make it a Permanent Goal

When you think about it, losing weight isn’t just a one-time deal… what are you going to do once it’s over, put all the weight back on again? You need to make sure that on your list of goals, weight loss is something that takes up the rest of your entire life. Various studies have actually shown that instead of thinking of a weight loss program as an event or an activity, but rather as a lifetime pursuit, will dramatically increase your chances of succeeding.

Quick Weight Loss Tip #4: The Power of Walking

While it may sound like the most absurd quick weight loss tips on Earth, walking happens to be a very beneficial activity for the human body, especially when performed during the morning. Not only do regular walks contribute to building stronger legs and burning calories, but when done early in the day, they trigger a pleasant release of endorphins and even help to control your blood sugar levels, which in turn contribute to controlling your sweet cravings.

We are being bombarded with countless messages every day, from the television, radio, billboard and other kinds of advertisements, about how hard it is to lose weight naturally, and about how some pill or workout system will provide you with the easy weight loss ticket you were looking for all along.

However, is there really such a thing as losing weight easily? After all, many people take it for granted that nothing comes free or easily in life, and not without reason.

Easy Weight Loss is Up To You

As it happens, whether or not easy weight loss is possible depends entirely on the attitude you approach your weight problem with. In other words, if before every exercising routine you think about how hard it is and how much work you have to do to get through it, then it goes without saying that you are going to have an extremely hard time losing weight.

However, if you are motivated, if you feel that each and every move you make helps you get fitter and slimmer, you won’t so much be turned off by the pain of exercising as turned on by it. You will actually like doing things that help you lose weight, and when you are doing something that you actually enjoy, the difficulty level goes way down.

In other words, if you adopt a positive approach and maintain an optimistic outlook on your weight loss process, then you will barely experience any difficulties as you are going to be able to find joy and fulfillment in it. However, that is not to say that a bit of motivation will give you incredible powers and make your entire life a walk in the park.

You are still limited by your physical and mental capabilities, not to mention that being human, you are prone to getting distracted from your goals and principles. All in all, if you are looking for an easy weight loss method, then doing what is described above is going to be your best bet.

Is That The Only Way to Easy Weight Loss?

Can’t some external product or influence be used in order to make the process easier without having to do much of anything yourself? Well, if this is what you are looking to accomplish then without a doubt your best bet will be to look for natural weight loss supplements.

They aren’t really going to make the exercises themselves easier, nor will they make your diet any more tasty and filling than it already is. However, what these supplements can do is bring about results much faster, which means that not only will you have to follow your weight loss system for less time, but you also won’t have any trouble finding the motivation you need to keep on going; you’ll be reminded of the tremendous progress you are making every time you look in the mirror.

Unfortunately, that is really all you can do to ease the road to weight loss. As of now, there is no magical, easy weight loss method that simply makes you slim as soon as you take it, and from the looks of it, there won’t be one for a long time to come. Instead of waiting for one, you should simply make use of the methods that are already available to you and make the best of the most powerful weapon you have, your own body and mind.

Ozzy Osbourne is a man who needs no introduction in this world, being officially considered the face of heavy metal since 1969 when he and his band, Black Sabbath, released their first album. Over the years Ozzy has received a lot of coverage for his crazy antics, such as biting off the head of a bat while being on stage.

However, the media attention the rest of his family received is something to behold, especially recently when it comes to his daughter Kelly. There are a few old photos of her floating around, and the least that can be said is that she was a plentiful woman. However, it seems that a Kelly Osbourne weight loss miracle happened recently, as she followed a system thanks to which she lost fifty pounds.

The best part being that said system is now available for anyone else who wishes to duplicate her success.

Duplicate Kelly Osbourne’s Weight Loss Success

Before looking into the system itself, it has to be said that it took Kelly more than just a couple of weeks in order to lose all her excess weight. She followed the training program put in place for her by pro trainer Sara Hagaman, and it took her a lot of strength and courage to finally drop the pounds and become fit again. While the system does indeed work, you should simply know that it doesn’t offer a magical solution to the weight problem.

About the Kelly Osbourne Weight Loss System

So how precisely does her system work?

For starters, you will need to acquire a Bosu balance trainer, a nine to fifteen pound Body Bar, and some dumbbells weighing between five and eight pounds each, although depending on your strength you can change up those variables.

It has to be added that while it would be preferable to have the Bosu trainer, it is by no means mandatory as there are ways to modify the system’s exercises to be doable without one.

The Kelly Osbourne Weight Loss Exercise Routine

The exercising routine isn’t particularly hard as it only requires you to work out two to three times per week, maybe four if you are feeling particularly active. The routines start with a brisk warm-up that takes up about ten minutes of your time, and then you are going to be performing a single set of every move they teach you, one after the other.

What makes this system unique and effective is the fact that you don’t rest between sets, but you do mountain climbers, a cardiovascular exercise.

How does it make the system more effective?

Well, the longer you are performing an exercise, the more your body adjusts to it and the less calories it burns in order to go through with the required moves. By mixing up a cardio workout in between sets of muscle-building exercises you are preventing your body from adapting to anything, meaning it will constantly need to burn a lot of fat in order to keep up with the intense exercises you are performing.

The best part about the Kelly Osbourne weight loss program is that the workouts aren’t even that long, yet they still manage to make a size-able impact on the fat that you drop as well as your overall muscle development giving you strength and fitness.

Those of you who remember The Drake and Josh Show can also probably remember which one of them was the bigger boy (hint: it was Josh). As you can guess, saying that he was the bigger boy is somewhat of a euphemism. He had a real weight problem, and even though it made him look somewhat adorable as a kid, there was no question about whether it would come back to haunt him as an adult.

Nobody expected to see the Josh Peck weight loss miracle that occurred, especially because he was getting more and more used to playing the fat and chubby roles on the silver screen.

However, something amazing happened. It seems that the weight loss gods has struck once again, completely transforming Josh into a slim and fit person. Indeed, Josh Peck not only lost a bit of weight, but he actually lost enough of it to transform his entire body into something that belongs on a magazine cover. But why precisely did he do it? After all, considering the amount of fat comedians out there, he probably didn’t feel discriminated against.

The Reason Behind Josh Peck’s Weight Loss

According to Josh’s own words, he did it because of his son. He knew that for his own child, he would be the most important role model in the universe, and if he wasn’t to lose weight, he would send the wrong message to his kid. And so, he sucked up all the pain of exercising and not eating what he liked, which eventually paid off in ways he couldn’t even begin to imagine.

Josh Peck’s Weight Loss Turns Him into Role Model

On top of being a role model worth following for his son, he also inspired millions of kids around the world who have weight problems. In most cases, the obstacle which prevents them from losing weight is a lack of motivation stemming from the belief that weight loss just isn’t possible for them. By seeing Josh lose weight, they knew that it was not only possible, but that it would probably turn their lives around once it happened.

While certain comedians seem to lose their sense of humor along with their tummy, the case was far from being so for Josh Peck. Despite losing his weight and transforming his entire appearance, Josh still remains his same old self, and even after all the attention he has received, he still maintains that it doesn’t really matter how we look, only how we feel, and what we are ready to do in order to feel better.

While the Josh Peck weight loss story truly is a source of immense inspiration, it has to be mentioned that Josh wasn’t exactly the average Joe when he went on his weight loss program; he had the money and the time to have people following him around, making his food decisions for him and constantly reminding him to forgo his negative habits.

Heck, he even probably had his own fitness specialist along with him. However, it doesn’t mean making the same progress isn’t possible for you as well; you will simply have to take a more personal approach to it and harness the necessary self-discipline to get through with it.

Time is money. It seems the expression is used more and more often today, or at least it would be appropriate to do so. People seldom have free time to themselves, spending most of their lives working so that they can sleep, and sleeping so that they can work.

The problem is that the kind of work most people are doing today isn’t exactly perfect to stave off weight gain… in many cases, it actually contributes to it.

In a nutshell, people today don’t simply want to lose weight, they want to do it as fast as possible, which is why many are looking for the best exercise for weight loss and the most effective diet, hoping to combine them together and get rid of their weight problems in a couple of weeks.

So What is the Best Exercise for Weight Loss?

Well, sorry to disappoint, but there really is no such thing as one exercise that will be the best one to lose weight for every single person on Earth. It has been scientifically demonstrated that as our bodies evolve and get older, they also become more unique as they have been shaped by experiences that few others, if anyone else has had.

Different human bodies have different reactions to various types of exercises, meaning what works well for someone may be useless for someone else. While there isn’t one best exercise to lose weight, there is a way of exercising that has been observed to be extremely effective for that purpose: interval exercising.

When your goal is to lose weight, what you are really looking to do is burn as many calories as you can and sweat as much as possible. The best way to achieve that is to exercise in short intervals, meaning that your workouts will constantly have you alternative between fast-paced cardiovascular and muscle-building exercises.

The Best Exercise for Weight Loss: Interval Exercising

How precisely is it more beneficial for you? For starters, you will be required to exercise practically every muscle group you have, the pace is going be very fast, meaning your body has to burn more fat in order to make enough energy to allow you to go through with it.

The second reason as to why interval exercising is much better than traditional methods, for losing weight at least, lies in the fact that it allows you to overcome the plateau effect.

What is that?

Well, the plateau effect is basically what happens when you perform the same exercising routine for far too long and your body becomes adapted to it. When the body is adapted to something, it expands a minimal amount of energy on doing it, which results in there being practically no more results from the exercises.

When you are working out in short intervals, you are not giving your body the chance to adapt to whatever it is you are doing, ensuring that it is constantly burning fat at a high pace.

All in all, while there may not be a best exercise for weight loss, there are certain measures which you can take in order to make your exercises much more efficient in those terms, and interval exercising is one of them. As a matter of fact, it is deemed so effective that entire workout systems have been based around it, meaning it can definitely work for most people; you included.

While it is true that there are many different schools of thought on how people should go about losing weight, if there is one thing they can all agree on, it’s that you’re going to need to change up the way you eat; after all, the science of weight loss ultimately boils down to burning more calories than you are taking in via eating food.

However, what do you really know about nutrition? Unless knowing about nutrition is part of your job or your hobby, chances are you won’t know nearly enough to change your diet in a safe and healthy way. Long story short, what you need is a weight loss diet plan, and before going out there to look for one, it is important to know what factors you should pay attention to.

The Flexibility of Your Weight Loss Diet Plan

The first thing your weight loss diet plan needs to be is flexible. While practically every diet that has come out until recently required people to follow one strict way of eating, recent studies have reported that it is by far one of the least effective methods to approach the problem. We all have bodies that are wired in different ways, and what works for one person may not work for another.

Fortunately, there are a few weight loss diet programs which are flexible in the sense that they provide you with your diet plan based on your physical attributes and capabilities.

For instance, there is a program called The Diet Solution which requires you to fill out a form that contains numerous questions as to your height, your weight, age, gender, daily caloric intake, body type, and your goals, after which you are provided with a plan that is perfectly customized for you.

Your Weight Loss Diet Plan Needs to be Reliable

Regardless of what we may think right now, the fact remains that life is short, or at least short enough that we don’t want to spend our entire time going from diet to diet. You don’t really have the opportunity to give many systems a shot or make mistakes, meaning that before trying a weight loss diet plan, you need to make sure that whatever information in it is reliable.

How are you to accomplish that?

Well, there are two courses of action that you can possibly take. For starters, you can run the system creator’s name through Google to see what kind of reputation he or she has, and whether or not they actually have the proper credentials to be making dieting systems.

Another thing you can do is simply have a look at customer reviews for whatever system you are considering to buy. If you aren’t looking at something obscure that hasn’t hit the market yet, chances are that you are going to find plenty of honest customers who have taken the time to write up about their experience and depict to you the situation the way it really is.

However, you need to be careful when looking for information about a weight loss diet plan as some companies have taken on the habit of creating websites where they pose as customers, when in fact they are reviewing their own systems. All in all, simply make sure that your source of information is a reliable one, and you won’t have many problems finding a system that is right for you.