HEALTHY LIVING RESULTS

Our weight loss industry is filled with fads which promise to magically melt all your pounds away! We have fad diets which would help you lose weight within a couple of months, diet pills you simply need to pop daily in order to get slimmer, etc. In fact, there is no dearth of “magic weight loss products”, though you will rarely hear about a product which magically boosts your metabolic rate!

I am not sure why everyone’s not focusing on looking for methods to increase their metabolic rate, since it is the only key to weight loss success. In this article I will tell you how our metabolic rate influences our body weight and how you could use this tool to get rid of fat permanently!

Do you want fast weight loss? How fast you would be able to lose weight depends solely on your metabolic rate. If you have a high metabolism, fast weight loss won’t be impossible for you. On the other hand, with a slow metabolic rate you aren’t likely to be successful in your weight loss goal. Now perhaps you are wondering how to boost your metabolic rate.

While we humans are blessed with natural metabolism which keeps us fit and healthy, it is often insufficient to help you with rapid weight loss. If you want to burn fat rapidly, you need to increase your metabolic rate to abnormal levels! There are diet pills which promise to skyrocket your metabolism in no time; however they come with several harmful side effects, not to mention that the metabolism boost you gain with their help is short-lived.

In my opinion the best technique to boost your metabolism naturally is by increasing your lean muscle mass. The more muscles you have, the higher your metabolic rate would be and the faster you would lose weight. Fortunately muscle building doesn’t cost an arm and a leg; you can do it with the help of intense workouts!

Doing intense workouts on a regular basis would help you achieve fast weight loss. These intense workouts may seem to be strenuous at first look, but unlike cardios, you need to do them only for 15-20 minutes each day. By spending as little as 20 minutes per day, you would be able to burn fat at a fast rate as well as build strong lean muscles at the same time. These lean muscles would help you burn fat even when you are not working out! So what are the best intense workouts for this purpose?

Undoubtedly, weight lifting comes to mind the moment I think of intense exercises. People wrongly believe that they need to do several low intensity reps using light weights in order to derive the maximum benefit from weight lifting. Truth to be told, the higher and shorter your reps are, and the heavier your weights, the speedier you would burn fat and lose weight. I would recommend that you do no more than 10-15 reps, but you need to make sure that the weights you use are heavier than five or six pounds!

Since you would be doing strenuous exercises, it is vital that you replenish your body by increasing your water intake. When your body remains hydrated at all times, you would find exercising much less strenuous, since water would help your body recover quickly from the strain of these workouts!

Also, water is itself a great metabolism booster as well as a powerful detoxifier that cleanses all toxins from our body. The minimum recommended water intake for a normal adult is about 8-10 glasses.

If you are like others, you have certainly made a strong New Year’s resolution to get rid of all those unwanted pounds of flab which bother you so much. This time you have promised yourself that you would really show off your new-found slim body much before the Valentine’s Day! However, January is almost about to end and your body shows no signs of getting slimmer or lighter. Is the problem is with your diet, or something else? If you are confused and don’t know the answers to these questions, this article is for you!

Making and breaking New Year’s weight loss resolutions is nothing extraordinary; in fact I have done that many times myself and finally came to the conclusion that resolutions can do little if you are not willing to get started on the job! Yes, you should treat weight loss with the same dedication with which you perform at your office!

Weight loss is not about starving for a few days, or following one fad diet for a couple of weeks and then hopping on to something more attractive! Weight loss can be accomplished only when you make a long term commitment to follow a healthier lifestyle!

Believe it or not, the first few days of your weight loss journey would probably be toughest, as you simply don’t know whether you would be successful or not or if it is the right time to start losing weight, etc. Once you push yourself hard and sail smoothly through these first few days, you would be on a roll, get rid of fat and losing weight non-stop!

What I am offering in this article is solid, practical advice which works for all; what I won’t offer is suggestion for weight loss fads, since they have neither worked for me nor anyone else I know about!

1. Drive procrastination away by setting a realistic goal: The only thing that is keeping you from starting the weight loss journey is lack of a proper goal and target. You primary task should be to set a weight loss goal, and more importantly, the goal needs to be realistic!

Instead of wishing for a body like Brad Pitt or Jennifer Aniston, you could set a much more meaningful and achievable goal of losing “12 pounds by the end of March”. Assuming that you would be losing two pounds of weight per week on an average, that timeframe is more than enough for you to become as slim as you wish!

2. Fix your bad food habits: Controlling your portions is surely important, but even more important than that is to discard all the unhealthy, junk foods from your daily meals and import healthy foods in their place! To give you an example, try to have a glass of fruit juice instead of chocolates or cookies; this would satiate your sugar cravings but without making you any fatter!

Similarly, grilled chicken meat is healthier than its fried version. Also, instead of gulping down on dozens of soda cans, try to drink eight glasses of water per day!

3. Leave the couch: I know it sounds harsh but the couch is the biggest stumbling block in your way of successful weight loss and as such, you need to start disliking it right away! Leading an active lifestyle would not only help you lose weight faster but also make you more energetic!

If your local club sponsors outdoor sports, make sure you participate in them. If the club comes with a swimming pool as well, then that is an added advantage. Whether you play tennis or swim, you would be burning fat and losing weight either way! Dancing is also not a bad idea-how about joining a dance school?

Most parents dont usually monitor their kids’ calorie intake until they develop fat bellies. It is then that they take their kids to an expert who suggests that weight loss is possible only with calorie reduction. Naturally, those parents reduce their kids’ calorie intake to such a low level that kids actually end up getting malnourished! Remember that weight loss is just another way of getting healthy, and a malnourished kid cannot lose weight! So what do you do? You need to understand your kids’ nutritional requirements and then adjust their calorie consumption limits accordingly.

If you thought that the same calorie rules apply both to you and your kids, you couldn’t be further from truth! There is a major difference between the calorie requirement of an adult and that a child; unlike an adult, a child’s calorie requirements would keep changing as he grows older!

The normal growth period of a human starts at the age of twelve and continues until the age of 21. Further, the growth of human body would be in harmony with his age and body weight. For example, during the teenage period, the body is more likely to grow taller and build strong lean muscles. Therefore the teenage period is the most vital period for any kid, and you need to make sure that your kid is getting ample nutrition during this time, as lack of proper nutrition could affect his bodily growth!

Now you might ask, how much daily calorie intake is necessary and how much is too much? That is a good question. According to experts, boys should have a minimum of 1,800 calories per day while for girls it is 1,200 calories. However, these are just genetic figures! Since the calorie requirements vary from person to person, your best bet is to have a consultation with your local doctor or nutritionist!

To be on the safe side, here are some tips:

1. Split your kids’ meals into several smaller meals. For example, if he usually has 3 meals per day, split each of these meals into two; that way, your kids would be having six smaller meals per day instead of three large. The big advantage of this eating technique is that since your kid’s body is not overloaded with a lot of calories at once, there is minimal chance to gain weight. At the same time, he gets the required nutrition too!

2. Make your kids eat only healthy and organic foods such as whole grains, raw fruits and vegetables. Take note that healthy foods are more nutritious and usually contain fewer calories than their unhealthier counterparts!

Note that while an abnormally high calorie intake may make your kid obese, an abnormally low calorie intake would affect his health negatively. At the end of the day, it is all about maintaining a BALANCE!

As more and more parents are becoming aware of the health risks associated with obesity and the ‘easy’ weight loss solutions available from the market, they are spending hundreds upon hundreds of dollars to help their kids lose weight. Usually such parents have been obese for their entire life, so they know the disadvantages and risks associated with obesity! Naturally they don’t want their kids to acquire a fat belly or flabby arms like them!

And cashing in on those concerned parents is a group of unscrupulous weight loss drug and equipment manufactures. You have probably noticed all the hype generated around weight loss pills, diet supplements, exercise videos, workout equipments, etc. Such stuff usually costs hundreds of dollars and while your kids maybe able to lose some weight with their help, the first difficulty you would face is that of persuading them to use them!

Take for example diet supplements. These supplements are often low on sugar because sugar is rich in calorie. However, since kids usually don’t like anything that is not sweet enough, they are less likely to receive any decent benefit from such supplements. They would prefer to have candies and chocolates to dietary supplements.

So far as exercise videos are concerned, they are of no use unless your kids concentrate on them, and studies have pointed out that kids are more into in playing video games than watching exercise videos! They could remain glued to their PSP for hours but workout videos are least likely to captivate their interest!

Then there are exercise equipments. No matter how many such types of equipment you buy for your kids, they would prefer to sit on the couch and watch TV than do their workouts! I have noticed that even professional fitness trainers often fail to bend them. If you really want them to workout, you need to be extremely patient with them.

Moreover, certain exercise equipments, if handled in the wrong way, could cause muscle and bone injures to your kids!

Now you maybe are wondering: so what is the way out? Well when it comes to weight loss for kids, there is an easy way out and you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars to help them get rid of fat!

One obvious weight loss step is dieting, but making kids diet is like forcing the mountain to bend! However, if you are lucky to find a diet program which is tailor-made for kids, you would be successful in your aim! Since kids usually don’t like too many food restrictions, try to find a weight loss program which helps people lose weight with minimal restrictions on food and lifestyle.

Okay, I would tell you the secret: FatLoss4Idiots is the perfect program for your kids. Your kids need to follow the program only for eleven days straight and they would be able to lose a minimum of nine pounds. This diet program works on a method called ‘calorie shifting’, meaning that it helps kids lose weight even if they are eating high-calorie foods (yeah, chocolates, cakes, candies, everything is allowed)!

Did I tell you that this diet program also consists of a 4-day ‘cheat-period’ when your kids could indulge themselves the way they want!

It is a fact that men usually tend to accumulate fat around their bellies and waists, while for women the usual fat accumulation areas are hips and thighs. Contrary to what you might believe, the task of weight loss is not difficult at all. In this article I will provide you a step-by-step approach which would have you start burning fat like crazy!

Over the years several weight loss solutions promising ‘quick’ and ‘easy’ weight loss have come and gone by, and almost always people have ended up getting disappointed with them and been forced to return to the old school of diet and exercise. Believe it or not, the proven ways to lose weight are simple and old, even if hard! Yes, diet and exercise may seem to be hard to most people, but you can, if you want, make things easier for you by following the two simple tips below.

1. Your diet must contain foods from all the essential nutrients: Our body needs four kinds of nutrients in order to function healthily: carbohydrates, fats, protein and fiber. A diet rich in all these four nutrients would help keep your hormones in balance. Cut down or discard any one of then, and the balance is lost and you gain weight!

People think that they need to reduce heavily on fats and carbs for the purpose of weight loss; some even tend to starve in the hopes of losing a few pounds. However, none of these beliefs are true! Like I said, a healthy diet should be rich in all the four nutrients above, and if it is lacking in any one of them, then that diet cannot be called healthy!

Here are some of the foods you may need to add to your regular diet:

Eggs, lean chicken, or beef meat or turkey, etc.: They are all rich in protein!

Whole grains, nuts, organic fruits and vegetables, etc.: They are all rich in fiber!

Potatoes, cereals, etc.: They are all rich in carbohydrates!

Olive oil, salmon and tuna fishes, etc.: They are all rich in unsaturated or ‘good’ fats.

Something else to you need to take note is the source from which you are getting the required nutrients; for example, you can get fat both from a burger as well as a tuna fish, but the difference between the two is that while the first type of fat would make you fatter, the second one would actually help with weight loss!

2. Your workouts must be compatible for weight loss: People become bored of workouts simply because they tend to indulge in long hours of boring cardio. For one, cardios are really not suitable for fast weight loss, and for other, there is no reason to spend hours upon hours on them just to lose a few pounds of fat!

What if I tell you that you can lose fat by devoting just fifteen-twenty minutes on workouts per day? Sounds crazy I know, but it is possible with interval training. With interval training, you can burn chunks of fat simply by spending five minutes daily on it.

I usually integrate weight lifting with interval training; while I spend five minutes on interval training, it is fifteen minutes for weight lifting. By spending just twenty minutes in gym per day, I am able to burn fat not only during the workout session but also when I am watching TV sitting on the couch with my kids!

There are a lot of people out there who are somewhat addicted to salt, just as others love sugar. These people would insist on eating only salty foods all the time. If you think that salt is better than sugar because it doesn’t cause weight gain, you are plain wrong!

I would suggest that you not only decrease your own salt intake but also that of your kids. It would help in more than one way! In this article I will share with you how harmful salt can be for your health as well as that of your kids’!

a) Salt causes weight gain and stomach bloating: Ever wondered why so many people were unsuccessful when it comes to losing real fat with the help of fad diets, even though their manufactures make tall promises? These fad diets are unable to help you burn fat, and the weight you lose with their help is nothing but water weight!

Now guess what caused this water weight in the first place? Some of it is caused by water (which is okay since it is a temporary situation), but the rest is caused by salt. Salt increases your body weight by making it bloated! As a result, you would often suffer from IBS and acidity! If you simply reduce your intake of sodium, I believe it would be easier for you to maintain a healthy digestive system!

b) Too much of salt intake can also cause heart attack and high blood pressure! You know how harmful these diseases could be for your kids, don’t you?

So by how much should you decrease your kids’ salt intake?

You do not have to follow the government’s recommendations according; not only do they vary from country to country, they are also prepared in a way that it doesn’t make a negative impact on the country’s economy! For example, the UK government recommends a maximum daily intake of 1.6 gram of salt for an adult, whereas in US it is much higher: 2.4 grams!

While there is no recommendation for daily salt intake limit of kids, I think it is very important for them to form the habit of avoiding salty foods; if they get accustomed to excessive salt intake right from their childhood, they would find it difficult to kick off this habit later in life. I think you are better off doing your own math. Generally, you should try to control your kids’ salt intake to as low level as possible!

So how would you distinguish which foods are high on salt?

1. Well, if you purchase packaged foods, you would notice that almost all food packages come with decent information about the food ingredients; this is where you would find stats about the sodium content of those foods!

2. You should also keep the salt jar away from your reach as well as that of your kids. It is equally tempting for you and your kids to add several pints of salt in the food dishes when the salt jar is right on the dinner table. However, if you keep it at a safe distance, you or your kids would be less motivated to use it.

3. Very often we habitually pour extra salt not only on our plates but also those of our kids! As an adult, it is your responsibility to put a stop to this habit. Once you get rid of your ’salt’ addiction, your kids would too!

4. Decrease the amount of salt you use when cooking foods at home; try to make up for the deficit with other spices.

5. Try to avoid eating at fast food restaurants. This applies both to you and your kids! Apart from being high on oil and other spices, fast foods often contain a lot of salt as well!

People who try to lose weight the first time think that they would be able to do it very easily and fast, even faster than the time it took them to gain those annoying pounds! However, when they are faced with the dual demons of diet and exercise, they feel that it is way harder than they thought!

Some give up on their weight loss ambitions simply by hearing the names of ‘diet’ and exercise, while the more stubborn ones decide to take those methods to an extreme level by starving to the point of death and working out like never before! What if I tell you that weight loss is much easier and simpler than this?

With my weight loss trick, you will neither have to go through the pain of fasting for days on end or sustaining yourself on just a piece of lemon or carrot, nor is it necessary to work out like crazy. In order to lose weight, you simply need to change your food eating habits by eating your meals in smaller portions!

If you are eating three large meals per day, here is some food for thought: when you eat large meals, you actually overload your body with excess calories that it doesn’t need at that point of time; consequently, your body has to work harder and longer to burn those extra calories.

What happens next is that your metabolic rate slows down and so does your calorie burning rate! Ultimately all those extra calories are deposited in your body as fat deposits, for future use! That is how your body conserves extra energy, and that is how you gain weight over time!

There is yet another way you could gain weight by eating large meals. When you eat a large meal at a time, and don’t eat for several hours following that meal, you are sure to feel hungry. To get rid of hunger fast, you would probably go to your kitchen or open up the refrigerator to find junk foods which would fill up your stomach quickly!

The reality is that these junk foods only give you a false impression of ’satiation’; you are sure to feel hungry again a few hours after eating those junk foods! On the bad side, these junk foods also make you heavier and wider!

What if you supply your body the same amount of calories in installments, by providing it the exact amount of calories that it needs at a time? That way, your body would have no excess energy to conserve, and consequently, there is no question of you ever gaining weight! Sounds good in theory, but is it really possible?

Good news is that it IS! And this is where my formula of ’small and frequent eating’ comes in! If you’re currently eating three large meals per day, you just have to break them up into six, and eat each of these six meals every two or three hours!

When you eat frequently and in small quantities, your body would be able to utilize all the calories it receives from your food; on the plus side, you would get rid of constant hunger pangs, as well as feel more energetic since your metabolic rate would increase dramatically! And of course, once your metabolic rate increases, weight loss would be a smooth ride for you!

You might also want to use smaller plates as well, so as to trick your brain into believing that you have eaten the same amount of food as usual!

As years pass by, the human brain becomes smarter and more progressive, and we tend to come up with new or better solutions to existing problems. Some of these solutions turn out to be just fads, but a few others usually prove to be useful. In case of weight loss, a new and little known way to fat burning is Mesotherapy!

If you have never heard of it, I don’t blame you at all! Like I said, it is relatively unknown. Mesotherapy is not only used for weight loss but also for getting rid of wrinkles. This therapy is based on the premise that weight gain and skin problems are both the results of accumulation of toxins in our body; once we flush out those toxins from our body, these unwanted effects would go away!

In this therapy, a combination of several chemical substances such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids as we as other adequate medicines are injected into the mesoderm of the patient, which is nothing but the skin layer below the surface. This therapy was invented in the 1950’s by none other than the famed French doctor, Michel Pister!

In good old days, these injections were given by hand using syringes but these days it is being done through injection guns as they are more convenient for the doctors! Okay, let me tell you how it can help you lose weight fast!

Just like weight loss surgery, not everyone is eligible for Mesotherapy. If you want to go through with it, you would need to fix an appointment with your doctor. The doctor would not only tell you whether you are fit for the therapy or not, but also what to expect from it.

Let me assume that the doctor has approved you for the therapy. There are some rules to be followed here. If you are suffering from cough and cold then you cannot go for it! You should also make sure not to wear any cosmetics or makeup on your skin when going for Mesotherapy! Other than that, there are no more rules for the therapy!

The good thing is that Mesotherapy is pretty quick: usually it would get done in fifteen minutes or less. The location where you would receive the injection would generally depend on the remedy you want. If you are doing it for the sake of weight loss, you should receive it at the place where there is the highest concentration of fat or where you want to burn fat! When your body receives the different chemical nutrients through the injection, it would flush out the toxins present inside as well as boost your metabolic rate. Once your metabolic rate is enhanced, you would start burning fat like crazy and lose weight!

Most people tend to have unrealistic expectations from therapies and surgeries, so let me tell you one more thing: if you think that you can sit on your couch and eat whatever you like after going through Mesotherapy, I suggest that you don’t go for it, for you will surely be disappointed.

Mesotherapy would certainly help you lose the initial weight, but after that, it is up to you whether you are able to maintain that lost weight permanently. And the only way to maintain your slim body permanently is to eat healthy and start exercising rigorously!

The weight loss industry today is not what I saw four years ago. Today more and more people are jumping on the weight loss bandwagon. For some, weight loss is mainly a matter of looking good, while others are doing it for reasons of health.

As a matter of fact, several recent studies linked obesity to harmful diseases such as diabetes, heart problems, backaches, as well as many other major and minor maladies. No wonder people want to lose weight fast and the easiest way possible! This is where they make a big mistake.

The decision to lose weight is certainly not a bad decision; it shows that you are finally becoming conscious of how important it is to keep your body healthy and fit. Even if you are doing it for cosmetic reasons, it would still benefit your health in a big way! However, losing weight quick and fast is not very realistic.

People who want rapid weight loss often fall for fad diet programs whose manufactures often make tall promises that are nothing but hollow! Most of these diet programs fail to work as promised, resulting in frustration, dissatisfaction and loss of money. In fact, these marketers seem to be more interested in your money than health.

Fortunately there are still a few good honest companies who sell good weight loss supplements that are not only 100% natural but also safe! One such supplement is the Hoodia Gordonii. Read on to find out exactly how it can help you lose weight!

Now I know the straightforward question you would ask: what is Hoodia Gordonii? Well, in simple words it is a plant which grows on the Kalahari Desert of South Africa. For thousands of years the native San Bushmen have used it to suppress their appetite when on hunting expeditions, as it won’t be proper for them to burden themselves with foods when going on a hunting spree. It was only recently that it was discovered that it could be used with success on those who want to lose weight! How?

Truth is that when you are trying to lose weight, your number one opponent is hunger. It is not easy to bear with those hunger pangs day after day. How many days have you resolved not to eat anymore only to get up late at night and start munching on a packet of chips? I know it happens all the time, and this is why most people find it too hard to lose weight. However, if you manage to suppress this hunger, the path to weight loss would become smoother for you! And Hoodia Gordonii does just that: it suppresses your appetite.

The unfortunate thing is that the South African government has put several restrictions on the cultivation of Hoodia Gordonii, so that it is cultivated nowhere else! Hoodia supplements are surely available all over the world, but as with many other weight loss products, quite a number of the Hoodia products being sold in the open market are nothing but scams!

You really have to be on your alert if you want to shed fat instead of cash. There are several indicators of a fake product, one of which is its price. Usually Hoodia is pretty expensive, so if you find that it is being sold somewhere at a ridiculously low price, then you know it is fake!

Another indicator is the website it is being sold from. I would advise that you buy Hoodia only from reputed stores such as Amazon.com, just to be on the safe side; or you could also buy it from your local health store, if you trust them!

Ultimately, even Hoodia Gordonii won’t help you achieve weight loss if you don’t cooperate with it. Sure, it would keep your appetite suppressed for a considerable time so that you won’t feel hungry, but if you use that privilege to starve in the hope of quick weight loss, or start eating ‘forbidden’ junk foods, then you won’t get any slimmer! You also need to workout as usual, as Hoodia Gordonii is certainly no replacement for an active lifestyle!

In simple words, if you combine Hoodia Gordonii with diet and exercise, you are sure to lose a lot of pounds with it!

First of all, let me congratulate you on losing weight successfully. You might be thinking that your battle with weight is over, now that you have lost all that extra fat! You might also be thinking about resuming your old habits of junk food eating and sitting on the couch for 24 hours! Truth is however, not so rosy!

With weight loss, you have won only half the battle; the other half of the battle being that of maintaining that ‘lost’ weight. Believe it or not, more people struggle with weight maintenance than weight loss! Of course it is not all that burdensome; all you need to do is to continue with the same lifestyle habits which helped you lose weight in the first place, e.g., dieting and exercising!

You should start off with some workouts; if you are already doing them, that is fine. Along with your regular workout program, you might also want to do some additional activities such as walking up to the market instead of using your car, or using the stairs to reach your home or office floor instead of using help from the elevator.

If your home doesn’t have stairs, or if you happen to reside on the ground floor, there is nothing to worry about. Most of the children’s parks have stairs; you may want to use those! All you have to do is to spend five minutes in going up and down the stairs and repeat this for about four times everyday, and you would burn a lot of calories!

Let’s move on to dieting. Assuming that you would be eating healthy foods like always, you might want to eat one apple in-between meals as snack! Apple is one of the best types of snacks you could have, for it is low on sugar content and high on fiber, which means you would not only gain weight but also be able to keep hunger away for a long time.

You should also add black beans to your diet. There is no need to change your existing diet pattern; just add about half-a-can of black beans to whatever you are already eating! You should eat the same amount of black beans with at least two of your daily meals. Just like apples, these beans are rich in fiber content so that you will not only be able to suppress your hunger but also maintain your normal blood sugar levels, both of which would help you keep fit! Additionally, black beans are also rich in protein content; protein builds lean muscles for you and muscles help you burn calories!

If you follow these tips then you won’t struggle with weight maintenance like others! Think about it, maintaining healthy eating habits as well as an active lifestyle is a small price to pay for the slim and sexy body you are able to flaunt!