Can Fasting Help Me To Lose Weight?

One way to lose weight is to just stop eating. It sounds simple but in reality you have to know what you are doing to get any long term weight loss benefits from fasting. Let’s look at the weakness and strengths of fasting for weight loss.

Like most forms of dieting, fasting can be used to bring about dramatic but temporary reductions of weight. You can go on a long fast, taking nothing but juice or eating grapes or taking some other low calorie meal substitute for several weeks, and while you are on the fast you will certainly lose weight. However, during the fast you may not be able to carry on your normal social interactions. It’s not so easy to sit around sipping carrot juice while the rest of your family is eating a normal meal.

Another problem with long fasting is that your body requires vital nutrients (vitamins, minerals, protein) and your favorite juice may not contain them. Long fasting without proper medical supervision can be dangerous.

Finally, a major problem with this kind of fasting is that once you stop fasting and resume eating your normal diet, you are likely to gain back all the weight that you have lost during your crash weight loss fast.

So, does fasting have any place in a weight loss plan? Yes it does. Periodic fasting is one of the secrets of a long and healthy life. Our body’s digestive organs require a rest from time to time, just as we require days off from work. One-day fasting done in a methodical and regular manner provides the kind of rest that helps our digestive system, aids in the elimination of toxins from our body, and, yes, also helps us to lose weight in a healthy and sustainable way.

How to Do Proper Fasting

Here is a method of doing one day fasts, taking no food and (if your body is strong) no water in a period from the sunrise of one day to the sunrise of the next day.

Successful fasting has three stages: preparation, the actual fast, and breaking the fast. Each one of these stages is important.

Preparation

If you are not prepared both mentally and physically you will find it difficult to go one day without food. The mental preparation is simple, but very important. The night before the fast you have to take a firm determination that tomorrow you are going to fast, that you are not going to eat any food. If you fix your mind in advance then you will not start deliberating during the fasting day whether you should continue or not to continue. If you are undecided or waffling you can always find a hundred reasons why you should start eating!

Physical preparation is also important. The day before you fast you should eat a normal amount of food and take a good amount of liquids (especially if you are going to be fasting without taking any liquids). If you miss some meals on the day before fasting, then you may start feeling hungry during the fasting period. If you do not take enough liquids, especially during the night before the fast, then you will feel uncomfortable when you are fasting.

If you are physically and mentally prepared you will not feel very hungry while you are fasting. Once you decide to fast, your hunger just “shuts off” for the fasting period. This sounds hard to believe, but if you do it a few times you will see that it is true.

The Fasting Day

It is best to do light physical tasks and concentrate more on intellectual and spiritual work during the fasting period. It is not a good idea to spend your time thinking about what you are going to eat tomorrow! If you have prepared yourself properly this shouldn’t be a problem and you can use the time that you gain by not eating to do some constructive things that you normally don’t get time to do.

Breaking the Fast

One of the benefits of fasting is that it helps to eliminate toxins from the body. However, you can only get this benefit if you break your fast correctly. On the morning following the fasting day, take two glasses of lemon water. Put the juice of have of a lemon in one glass and add a bit of salt. (The drink should taste both lemony and salty). After some time, you can eat your breakfast. The lemon water will help you to flush your digestive system with a strong bowel movement and many toxins will be eliminated.

One day fasts like this can be done twice a month. This kind of fasting will give rest to your digestive organs, help eliminate toxins, build your will power and strength of mind. On top of this, the overall reduction in calories that you get from going two days without food each month, will definitely be one of the elements of a balanced and sustainable weight loss program.

Can Eating Certain Foods Help You to Lose Weight?

The best way to lose weight is by consuming fewer calories than you expend or conversely, by expending more calories than you consume.

Experts have discovered that certain foods can actually help you to lose weight without the stress of dieting or exercise. The down side is that many of us have a tendency to dress these foods up with cheese, sour cream, butter or other calorie-laden flavor enhancers. This causes the weight loss effect to be lost. It may be difficult to not add extra calories to these foods but with a strong will power it can be done.

A negative calorie food can be defined as a food that results in a slimming effect for the body. In other words a carrot (without anything else) will cause your body to use an increased amount of energy when digesting it and other foods, this can lead to an overall reducing effect on the body. This is partly from the amount of energy it takes to digest the carrot or other negative calorie food and partly from the elevation in metabolism that these foods naturally create. The overall effect is a net loss of energy, which is measured in calories. It should be understood that ‘negative calorie’ doesn’t mean that the food has zero calories in it, nor does it have an anti-calorie or a negative calorie.

Here is a partial list of negative calorie foods: apples, cranberries, grapefruit, lemon mango, oranges, pineapple, raspberries, strawberries, tangerines, asparagus, beets, cabbage (green), carrots, cauliflower, hot Chile peppers, cucumbers, endives, garden cress, garlic, green beans, lettuce, onion, papaya, radishes, spinach, turnips and zucchini. There are more and you can learn about them from a medical doctor’s very popular book.

In his book, Foods that Cause You to Lose Weight, Dr. Neal Barnard explains the effects these foods have on the body. A quote from Dr. Barnard’s book reveals some startling facts, "They found that those who ate foods that were very low in fat and high in carbohydrates, lost weight steadily, without limiting how much they ate. But those on high-fat diets could not effectively lose weight even if they ate skimpy portions." Dr. Barnard is referring to the published results of an experiment conducted at Cornell University and published in the May 1991 edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

A book reviewer posted on a website how he lost 30 lbs. utilizing the information from Dr Barnard’s book. It is important to exercise caution when dieting because there are certain things that your body needs to remain healthy including proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that are necessary for the body to function at its optimum level. You cannot remain optimally healthy by eating the negative calorie foods alone.

This article is for information purposes only and is not meant to diagnose, treat or prevent any health condition. Please consult a doctor before dieting.

Can Breathing Help You Lose Weight?

We all know that obesity is on the increase, we see it every day on TV and in magazines. The problem seems to be spiraling out of control. Common sense tells us that weight gain is just down to the plan and simple fact of eating too many calories and the wrong food choices but this problem can also be because of low self esteem and being in situations where you are under constant stress and use found the wrong food both as a comforter and a quick energy pick me up.

So what can we use to turn that to turn your weight gain around? What if I told you that you could make a big difference to your health from the proper breathing technique both in increased energy and relieving yourself in stressful situations?

We all know the benefits of the proper breathing technique. If you’re breathing improperly your body isn’t gaining the full benefit of the lungs and you body suffers in the same proportion. This problem gets worse when you consider that most people also don’t exhale properly and a lot of waste products and gases are left to accumulate there.

This sluggish feeling can start a vicious where the victim goes from having no energy to snacking on sugar filled pick me ups, which contain extra calories, which add to the weight gain, which add to the feeling of a lack of energy and the cycle goes on and on!

By using the proper breathing technique you can increase your intake of oxygen to the body. Because oxygen is so important, (we can live for a couple of days without food and water but only minutes without air, we can see how much our bodies rely on it) All the organs require oxygen to function properly even the process of digestion needs oxygen to process the food and burn up the waste products.

So as you can see if your bodies not getting its quota of oxygen you can never expect it to perform to the best of its abilities.

Plus the benefits of breathing exercises are that you can do them anywhere (even if you’re sitting in traffic) and you don’t have the added expense of exercise equipment or gym membership.

Calorie Definition and Weight Loss

The food calorie is sometimes capitalized as Calorie to distinguish it from the chemistry calorie; however, this capitalization is rarely observed in practice.

The Nutrition Calorie

Nutritionists measure the energy content of food in "calories" (sometimes capitalized and abbreviated as Cal or sometimes C, or abbreviated kcal as if small calories were being used), where each food calorie represents 4,186 joules. This is equivalent to 1000 of the calories used in chemistry, and thus the food Calorie would be called a kilocalorie if small calories were being used. However, in chemistry calories have been deprecated as a scientific unit of measure in favor of joules, and therefore in common modern usage the word "calorie" usually refers to a food calorie.

This situation provides two ways of talking about the amount of calories in food which look quite different but that express the exact same amount of energy. One may say that dietary fat has nine kilocalories (kcal) per gram, while proteins and carbohydrates have four kcal per gram, or, one may say that fat has nine Calories per gram while carbohydrates and proteins have four Calories per gram.

The amount of food energy in a particular food is measured by completely burning the food in a bomb calorimeter, a method known as direct calorimetry. Dieticians recommend counting calories to avoid obesity. The government of the United Kingdom recommends consumption of no more than 2000 Calories (2000 kcal) by women each day and 2500 Calories (2500 kcal) by men each day.

The Physics and chemistry calorie

In physics or chemistry, a calorie (abbreviated cal) is a unit of energy that equals the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of one gram of water by 1 degree Celsius, at a pressure of 1 atm. This amount of heat depends somewhat on the initial temperature of the water, which results in various different units sharing the name of "calorie" but having slightly different energy values:

* the 15 °C calorie,
* the 4 °C calorie,da
* the mean 0 °C to 100 °C calorie,
* the International Steam Table calorie,
* the thermochemical calorie,

The slight variations in these units can be seen if you convert them to joules. For example, one 15 °C calorie is the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of 1 g of water from 14.5 °C to 15.5 °C. This is approximately equal to 4.1855 J or 3.968×10-3 Btu. The International Steam Table calorie is approximately equal to 4.1868 J and the thermochemical calorie 4.184 J.
Of these various units, what is most commonly meant by calorie in cntemporary English text is the 15 °C calorie.

The nutritional Calorie represents 1000 of these 15 °C calories. Since this could be a source of confusion and error, these units are now deprecated. The International System of Units (SI) unit for heat (and for all other forms of energy) is the joule (J), while the (obsolete) cgs (centimeter gram second system of units) system uses the erg (unit of energy and mechanical work in the centimeter-gram-second system) - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Before start losing weight and counting calories you must first calculate the number of calories your body needs everyday, because this amount changes from person to person, depending on sex, age, weight, muscle content or height. Averages are situated around 2000 calories for women and 2500 for men. An easy, but not so accurate calculation is that for every 500 less than your normal amount of calories eaten every day you will lose up to one pound (453,6g) per week. 

Counting calories must be included as part of your diet, because when you loss weight is best to know how many calories your food has, and so ensuring that the amount of calories burned each day is more than the amount stored.  All nutritionists agree that a healthy low fat diet without counting calories could not exists, so take your time and solve that problem with various calorie calculators.

By knowing all the time the amount of calories consumed you can control how much you can eat and how it will affect your body. When dieting and counting the calories you can eat almost anything as long as you do not exceed the number of calories burned every day.

When you eat fewer calories, your body is forced to consume the fat stored to make up the deficit in your calorie count. Nutritionist’s advice is that you must combine psychical exercises with healthy eating in order to create some calorie deficit.

Calorie counting done the right way = weight loss? Absolutely!

You and I know that losing fat and staying in great shape is a difficult task because it is so hard to stay motivated and it is so tempting to cheat, especially when you can hide the cheating. We dieters have all been in a starving situation when dieting and our mind reasons very quickly why that extra piece of pie is not going to hurt us. We take it, forget about it and then wonder next day why we didn’t lose weight.

For most of us dieting is a constant battle between emotion and reason and when hungry, reason is out of the window and emotion just wins. We do not see the immediate effects of our behavior and therefore our brain is fooled into thinking that everything is all right. On the other hand, let’s say you would get very sick when eating more than you need, overeating would stop very quickly.

Getting sick after a little bit of overeating does normally not happen therefore we need to find a different way to show the consequences of our behavior. We need to show this in a factual manner, an immediate visual display of the results of our cheating. It is not punishment right away, but over time our brain will be conditioned such that taking an extra piece of pie will give negative weight loss results. Then we will start to understand why we don’t lose weight and can pinpoint the causes.

What should this visual display look like?  First I like charts, they are very easy to understand and can show trends and correlations between variables. In this chart I would like to see over a period of time, the average calories that I take in per day compared with the average calories that I burn per day. If the chart shows that the intake calories are lower than the burned calories, I will lose weight and vice versa I will gain weight. Correlate that with a chart that shows your weight or BMI (Body Mass Index) over time and I have the tool that helps me regulate my food consumption versus my daily activities.

If I add my hunger levels before and after the meals, I can fine tune my meal plans and daily activities. In this way I can sustain my dieting for a long time and preferably it will become my way of life. I have minimized the hunger pain and increase the pleasure of losing weight and feeling more attractive.

There is abundance of free online food calorie calculators. These calorie counters just display nutrition facts and are not going to help you lose weight. Nor is a simple calorie calculator that tries to calculate your calories burned solely based on your weight and average activity level. These are simple little gimmicks that are a waste of your time.

Only when you seriously can track and correlate your calorie intake and calories burned over time, depending on your age, weight, gender, height and individual activity intensity levels can you precisely measure your calorie balance. Seeing visually that your weight loss program works is a big motivator to stay on track. Also you can see immediately when you are off track and you can adjust your situation accordingly.

Acquiring great health is a complex task. Interrelating factors like diet, nutritional facts, meal plans, calorie balance, body reading measurements, supplement and medicine intake, exercise routines, daily activity intensity and costs will make it very difficult for you to see the forest for the trees.
Well designed software that keeps track of all of the above factors and can correlate them will make it very easy to manage your health, fitness, weight loss, muscle mass gain or any goal you have set...

Burning Fat vs. Burning Calories

To lose weight and get in shape you must have a good diet and exercise regularly to burn fat. The first thing you must understand about exercise is that just because you are burning calories does not mean you are burning fat. Your main focus when you exercise should be losing body fat, and you can’t lose body fat just from burning calories. When we exercise, our bodies will start burning calories, but the calories that are burned are the calories from carbohydrates in our system. In order to burn calories from your stored fat, your body requires the presence of oxygen. There is a certain amount of oxygen that your body needs in order to start burning fat and the only way for you to measure the amount needed for your own body is to keep up with your target heart rate during exercise. Please understand that if you continue to only burn calories from carbohydrates, you will lose mostly “water weight” which leads to a decrease in your metabolism. Also, think of the calories that are burned from carbohydrates as your energy calories. If you lose too much energy calories then your muscles will not receive enough energy to increase your metabolism which indirectly burn fat. Therefore you must increase your calorie intake when you are on an exercise program to replace your burned energy calories.

Burning Fat Calories during exercise

During aerobic exercise, your body goes through several stages before it reaches the point where you are burning fat. You will hear people say that you are only burning sugar (carbohydrates) not fat during the first 10 minutes of exercise. This is true to a certain extent. I say this because you will continue to burn sugar past the 10 minute mark if you are not working out hard enough for your body to want more oxygen; or you are working out too hard and you can’t supply your body with enough oxygen for fat burning. When you exercise you must move at a steady pace (not too fast, not too slow) so your body will utilize your stored fat (not carbohydrates or sugar) as its energy source. Also remember that just because you reached the fat burning stage does not mean you will stay there. Staying at the fat burning stage once again depends on if you are moving at a pace that is right for your body. Make sure that you are within your target heart rate range.

Burning Fat Calories at rest

The only way for you to continue to burn fat calories hours after you have finished working out is through the anaerobic exercise of weight training. Weight training is the key to burning fat at rest. Weight training is an anaerobic activity that will cause you to burn more calories than aerobic exercise. The calories that you are burning during weight training exercises are mostly calories from carbohydrates (meaning you must eat even more calories per day for energy); but the calories you burn at rest are mostly calories from fat. The reason you are burning fat at rest is because weight training increases your metabolism which uses your stored fat as energy.

To make your body the ultimate fat burning machine you must do aerobic (cardio) and anaerobic (weight training) exercises.

Burn More Calories in Less Time

When I work with my clients, one of the key elements that I incorporate into all of our workouts is INTENSITY.  In my view, intensity is the most critical aspect of any exercise regime and can mean the difference between someone who reaches their goals and someone who doesn’t.  Increasing your workout’s intensity will stimulate your body to burn more calories and induce a greater cardiovascular response.  It will also allow you to have a more time efficient workout.

If you are looking to burn fat and become more toned, then increasing your exercise intensity is critical.  Many people have the misconception that if you workout at a higher intensity you will no longer be burning fat since you will be in your “cardio zone”.  Whereas, if you keep your intensity low for a longer duration you will burn more fat since you will be in your “fat burning zone”.  Let me clarify this for you once and for all.  By training at a low intensity (<70% max) it is true that you use fat as your predominant source of fuel.  While exercising at a higher intensity (>75% max) your main fuel source is carbohydrate but you will ultimately burn more calories.   And since 1 pound of fat is equivalent to 3500 calories, the ultimate goal is to burn as many calories as possible to create a negative energy balance!

One of the best ways to achieve this intensity is through the use of full-body compound circuit training (strength training) in conjunction with interval training (on the cardio equipment).  The benefit of full body compound training is that since it utilizes more muscle in any given movement you burn more calories.  The intensity of the workout also means that each exercise becomes more challenging as your heart rate is sustained at a much higher level.

Here are a couple of benefits to following an exercise program combining circuit training and interval training:

1. Intervals and circuits vastly reduce boredom.  Traditional steady state cardio training and/or weight lifting can become quite boring.  Interval training and circuit training offer more variety and excitement to your workouts.

2. Interval training increases post-exercise energy expenditure (calories burned following exercise) more than steady-state exercise, which means that more fat is burned. After intense exercise, the body needs extra calories as it works to repair muscles, replace energy stores (i.e. carbohydrate) and restore the body to its normal state (e.g. reduce heart rate). As this can take many hours, you will keep on burning more calories long after the workout is over. In fact, research shows that metabolic rate is higher for several hours following interval training compared to steady state exercise.


3. Interval training burns more calories.  As an example, 30 minutes on an Elliptical machine using a steady state program will burn roughly 292 calories, whereas 30 minutes of intervals will burn approximately 584 calories!


Here is a sample workout that will leave you huffing and puffing: 

Warm-up
 

bike, treadmill, elliptical, rower                5-10 min

Circuit (45 seconds for each exercise, with 15 seconds rest between exercises)  5-7 min           
 

Lunge walks with lateral raises
Plank (on stability ball)
Squats with medicine ball shoulder press
Push-ups
Side Bridges
Reverse Pull-ups
Burpies

Interval Training (cardio equipment)
 

20 sec @ 100% : 40 sec @ 70% x 5             5 min

Repeat Circuit and Interval 3 times

Total Workout Time:                    45 – 60 min

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Burn Body Fat And Lose Weight 24 Hrs A Day – Lose Fat Even When Sleeping

Burn body fat 24 hrs a day is simple. Yes, I said simple but I did not say it is easy. That is because you must have a firm commitment and mental discipline to do it. However, it will get easier and easier when you adapt to your new lifestyle and when your lose fat goal is achieved.

So how do you burn fat 24 hrs a day? Here are some simple steps to lose fat 24 hrs a day.

• Build muscles. Muscles are active cells and they are great calorie burners. The more muscles you pack on, the more body fat you will burn because the calories you have eaten will be burned for energy by your muscles.

• Do your cardio exercises in the morning before breakfast. Make sure that your cardio exercises raise your heart rate sufficiently to burn more fat. The exercises must be intensive and will leave you puffing, panting and sweating. This is to make sure that you will continue to burn calories hours after you stopped your cardio exercises.

Do your cardio exercise 5-6 days a week. On top of that, because your carbohydrate store is low in the morning, your body will burn more body fat to fuel your cardio exercises.

• Eat 5-6 times a day with about 3 hrs intervals. Make the meals small consisting protein and complex carbohydrate. Complex carbs are carbs that are more difficult to digest so that they do not spike insulin quickly to be converted into body fat. So instead of eating white rice, eat brown rice. Instead of having white bread, substitute it with brown bread instead. Have plenty of fresh leafy fibrous vegetables.

The frequency of meals will tell your body that there is plenty of food and so your body need not store body fat for emergencies. On top of that, your digestive system will be constantly working to digest the food and so that means burning of calories.

• Do weight training 3 times a week with rest days in between. Do your weight workout in the evenings so that you will continue to burn fat. Workout with compound exercises such as bench presses, squats, lunges, dead lifts etc to activate more muscle fibers and so that these large muscles will carry on burning calories for many more hours into the night.

• Take slow release protein supplement before bed such as casein protein. This is to feed your body throughout the night and help your muscles to recover from the day’s activities and at the same because casein protein is slow to digest so will not turn to fat easily and thus your body will continue burning calories even when you are asleep.

So with a combination of all these activities, you will be burning body fat almost 24 hrs a day. Simple? Great. Let’s start to lose weight by burning body fat round the clock now.

Bulk Up Your Diet With Negative Calorie Foods!

Did you know that there are some foods, which require more energy to  metabolize than we obtain from eating them? This result is usually  referred to as the negative calorie effect. A simple example is water.

It supplies zero calories, but requires energy to swallow and warm to body temperature.

Below is a list of other foods, which although they provide calories, the  amount is less than we need to do nothing. We call this Basal Metabolic Rate..(BMR). That's the amount of energy we need to breathe, circulate the blood, remove the toxins and filter it. That doesn't count the energy  we need to get out of bed, bathe, use the toilet and dress. We call these foods negative calorie foods, (N.C.Fs.).

These must be a tremendous boost for someone wanting to lose weight.

Yes, but only if used properly. Healthy diet plans use items from all the main food groups. From these, we get the nutrients to make the building blocks, which are necessary to maintain the body in a healthy state.

A diet consisting of N.C.Fs., would result in us drawing our energy requirements from our muscles. This results in weakness and wasting of the body. Anorexics are a prime example.

So how can we use N.C.Fs. without harming ourselves?

The answer is quite simple. Use them as part of, and to bulk up a balanced calorie-wise diet.

For example,

1/2 grapefruit(vitamin C, fibre)
1 egg-white (protein)

2 slices melba toast (carbohydrate) pat of margarine
(non-saturated fat) 1 cup of 1% milk (protein, carbohydrate, low-fat,
calcium, vitamins) makes an excellent low calorie but nutritious breakfast.

Here is the list. 

    * Apples
    * Asparagus
    * Beets
    * Blueberries
    * Broccoli
    * Cantaloupes
    * Carrot
    * Cauliflower
    * Celery stalk
    * Celery root
    * Cranberries
    * Cucumbers
    * Eggplant
    * Endives
    * Garden cress
    * Garlic
    * Grapefruit
    * Green beans
    * Green cabbage
    * Lamb's lettuce
    * Lemons
    * Lettuce
    * Onions
    * Papayas
    * Pineapples
    * Prunes
    * Radishes
    * Raspberries
    * Spinach
    * Strawberries
    * Tangerines
    * Tomatoes
    * Turnips
    * Zucchini

Use it wisely, and good health.

Bulimia Treatment: Advice and Options

Bulimia is an eating disorder compels people to binge on food and then purge through self-induced vomiting, diuretics or laxative abuse, or excessive exercise. People with bulimia tend to feel guilty and disgusted about food and fat. Even though most people with bulimia begin at normal weights, they think of themselves as fat. Roughly 90 percent of the people with bulimia are women, and the disorder usually begins a few years after puberty. Genetics, social pressures, and emotional problems like depression, low self-esteem, and extreme perfectionism contribute to bulimia’s development.

Without bulimia treatment, people with bulimia become dehydrated and malnourished. This causes mineral and vitamin deficiencies, resulting in dry skin, nails, and hair. Many people with bulimia are constipated from laxative abuse. Constant vomiting brings up stomach acid that irritates the throat and mouth. Many people with bulimia have heartburn, gum infections, swollen salivary glands, and cavities from the acid eroding tooth enamel. Without treatment, some of side effects, like kidney failure, can become fatal. Dehydration can lower the body’s electrolyte levels, causing heart problems or even death. About 10 percent of people with bulimia will die from it.

Bulimia, however, is completely treatable. The sooner a person begins bulimia treatment, the sooner the recovery. Successful recovery depends on the work of psychiatrists, doctors, dieticians, and the patient. Psychiatrists work with the patient to break the binge-and-purge cycles and to educate the patient about what she is doing to her body and mind. The psychiatrist and patient must identify the triggers of a binging-and-purging episode, as well as help the patient cope with an unhealthy body image. The patient must learn to communicate openly and must increase his or her self-esteem. Doctors work with the patient to treat the effects of bulimia’s dehydration and malnutrition on the body. A dietician helps the patient develop healthy eating habits.

Group therapy and support groups are also helpful for people recovering from bulimia. Information about many support groups can be found online.

Boost Metabolism And Lose Weight By Eating Well

We've all known for some time that breakfast is an integral part of the day. Now research has shown that, regardless of physical activity, eating high fibre cereal in the morning at least three times a week leads to having a lower body mass index. This study followed 2,300 teenage girls over ten years, and was conducted by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in the US. One reason people skip breakfast is because they are trying to reduce their overall calorie intake. Whilst its important not to eat too many excess calories, having breakfast, even if its a simple smoothie, or a couple of pieces of fruit, will reduce the urge to snack on chocolate or other unhealthy options, as well as improving your performance at work and reducing fatigue. Sometimes its not just the overall calorie intake, but the types of foods we eat as well. Grab a couple of carrots instead of some toast - not only will you be getting fiber, but the phytochemicals such as carotene and other vitamins will help you get the most out of your body and your day. And if you're a bit disorganized with buying fruit and vegetables, visit the local fruit street vendor on the way to your local coffee shop before work. It beats a muffin nutritionally. 

And for the final word on going overboard with calorie restriction, recent research found that even though mice will live up to 50% longer by eating less, humans don't. The most having a low calorie diet over your life would do is extend your time span on this earth by 7%. Physiologically, having breakfast will in fact boost your metabolism. And its certainly a cheaper way to do that than investing in a bottle of diet pills. 

A couple of weight loss tips for parents and expecting mothers. Early research has suggested that those mothers who eat excessively (think Britney Spears) have children who are more prone to being overweight by the time they are toddlers. This sets up food difficulties from a young age. And beware of teenagers or children who develop poor eating habits, combined with sedentary activities like playing playstation or xbox games too much, and watching television at the expense of even non-athletic activities like having a job or joining school clubs. These kids will have a greater tendency of growing into overweight or obese adults. 

One key to integrating changes in your diet, whether with the goal of losing weight, or simply being more healthy, is to add variety. Its easy to get into a food rut, stuck for something tasty to eat that is also going to support our goals. Planning ahead, and doing a little research, can be one way of mitigating those moments when the urge to grab something unhealthy is driven by both hunger and unappetizing dishes. Following are three breakfast recipes that will add a little variety to that all important meal, as well as supplying essential vitamins, minerals, enzymes and fiber. Delicious Tropical Muesli Serves 2 to 4. Preparation time - 10 minutes. Ingredients

• Muesli - 100gm
• Wheat flakes- 50gm
• Apple - peeled and grated - 1no
• Low Fat or Skim Fruit Yogurt- 500gm
• Mango - peeled and cut into strips - 1no
• Passion fruit - pulp of 2
• Flaked almonds, toasted - 11/2 tsp

Preparation Mix together muesli, wheat, apple and half the yogurt in a bowl and refrigerate covered overnight. Divide it into four serving bowls. Top evenly with remaining yogurt, mango, passion fruit pulp and flaked almonds and serve. Choose plain low-fat yogurt for the fewest calories. Fruit and flavored products have extra calories. Nonfat yogurt sweetened with artificial sweetener is an option for dieters. Plain yogurt is the best choice for cooking. Terrific Mango Serves 2. Preparation time - 10 minutes. Ingredients

• Mango- peeled and chopped -125 gram
• Chopped pineapple - 1 no
• Papaya- peeled and chopped- 125 gram
• Kiwi fruits - chopped- 2 no
• Tropical fruit juice - 150 ml
• Honey- 2 tablespoon

Preparation Mix all the fruit pieces together and pour the fruit juice and honey on top. This is an excellent dish to start your day. Summer Special Salad Serves 4. Preparation time - 20 minutes. Ingredients

• Water melon - 1 no (medium size)
• Tomato - ½ kg
• Celery - 20 gram
• Orange -4 no
• Grapes -100 gram
• Pineapple (chopped) - 1 cup
• Raisins - 12 no
• Salt and pepper - to taste

Salad Dressing

• Salad oil - 6 tsp
• Mustard -2tsp
• Chopped onion - 2 no
• Pepper - 2tsp
• Sugar -1 tsp

Blend all the ingredients for the salad dressing in a mixer. Preparation Chop all the fruits and vegetables. Take the pulp out of the watermelon and put all the chopped fruits and tomatoes into the outer covering of the watermelon. Pour the salad dressing on top. Garnish with raisins. Serve chilled. Eating fruit and vegetables raw gives you many of their vitamins undiminished by cooking processes. It also means you get enzymes which are great for helping the digestive process. Watermelon is rich in vitamin C and is also one of the few sources of lycopene, others being tomatoes, red grapefruit and guava. Lycopene is a particularly effective antioxidant.

Boost Energy & Control Hunger

Protein is found in all of your body's cells. It is the essential nutrient that is responsible for the maintenance and repair of all of your organs, tissues, muscles, brain and bones. This individual built in repair kit occurs at the cellular level in our bodies. Protein regulates everything - our blood circulation, our metabolism and our immune system. Individuals who lack sufficient protein in their bodies have weaker immune systems than people who consume adequate protein in their diets. Also, people who are constantly on yo-yo diets where they lose and gain weight back frequently usually become protein deficient and have weaker immune systems. This fact has been proven by researchers who have found that these yo-yo dieters have about a third lower the number of killer cell activity than normal individuals. The so-called killer blood cells are essential for the immune system to function properly.

All foods are sources of energy; however, protein provides a greater boost in energy levels since it is absorbed slowly and thus produces a constant source of energy. Protein has real energy-staying power for your active, healthy, lifestyle. Fats and carbohydrates produce quick bursts of energy but cannot be relied upon to provide the body with a continuous source of energy, since they are digested and metabolized more quickly than protein. Fats and carbohydrates also tend to be stored as fat the body for later use. The Protein that we're discussing is lean protein (lean meats, skinless poultry, seafood, egg whites, low-fat dairy products, legumes and beans, soy and tofu foods, skim and low- fat cheeses, and good-fat nuts). Lean proteins are also excellent sources of selenium, which. Is a mineral that protects the body against dangerous tree radicals that can destroy normal cells in the body. These free radicals can damage many different types of cells including connective tissue, which causes joint and muscle inflammation.

High-saturated fat protein products like fatty meats, hard cheeses, whole fat milk dairy products, whole eggs, mayonnaise, luncheon and smoked meats including bacon, sausage, and hot dogs are definitely not good sources of energy production. The reason for this is, that even though these products have some protein content, its value is offset by the saturated fat content of these foods. The saturated fat content of these foods do more harm to the body (heart disease, strokes, hypertension, high cholesterol and some forms of cancer) than the protein portion of the food can repair. These are called harmful proteins and are not recommended for any healthful weight-loss program.

For appetite control, lean protein tops the charts for staying power. By adding a small portion of lean protein to your meal, you'll control hunger pangs for hours. Lean protein also has the advantage of being lower in calories than many foods, particularly saturated fat protein product refined carbohydrates and saturated fat foods. Once you substitute saturated-fat protein products, you defeat the appetite-controlling factor of the protein. The fat content of saturated- fat protein foods prevents the brain's appetite-control center from shutting down. In other words, you'll get hungry soon after your meal of a saturated protein food.

Your body needs between 15-30 of your total daily calories, however, can be dangerous, because it strains the kidneys. This is one of the reasons among many why low-carbohydrate, high saturated fat protein diets are dangerous to your health.

Body Mass Index (BMI): Are You at a Healthy Weight?

The body mass index, or BMI, helps clarify an important distinction between being overweight or being obese. If you weigh too much, you're obviously overweight. But if you have a very high proportion of body fat, you're obese. Based on your body mass index, your doctor or other health professional will classify your weight as healthy, overweight, or obese.

According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the BMI "describes body weight relative to height and is correlated with total body fat content in most adults". In almost all cases, this means that the BMI will accurately reflect your weight and proportion of body fat as a function of your height and weight when categorizing you as healthy, overweight or obese.

Calculating your approximate body mass index is relatively straightforward, although you'll probably need a calculator just to save time. To get your BMI, multiply your weight in pounds by 703. Next, divide that result by your height in inches. Then divide that result by your height in inches one more time.

As an example, let's say you weigh 180 pounds and are 5 feet 10 inches tall.

Multiply 180 by 703 to get 126,540. Next, divide this by 70 (70 inches is the same as 5' 10") to get 1807.7. Now, divide 1807.7 by 70 one more time. The result -- 25.8-- is your approximate BMI or body mass index. If you don't have a calculator handy, you can get the same result using the free interactive BMI calculator at www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bmicalc.htm.

If the above example sounds you, you might be surprised to learn that you're ever so slightly heavier than your doctor might like. A BMI from 18.5 up to 25 is considered healthy, from 25 up to 30 is classified as overweight, and 30 or higher is obese.

Generally, says the NHLBI, the higher a person's BMI, the greater the risk for health problems. In addition to causing your BMI to skyrocket, excess body fat is a well recognized health risk. Men and women with waist lines in excess of 40 and 35 inches, respectively, are much more at risk for health problems like Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Like every rule of thumb, this one also has it exception. Body builders, for example, often have a body mass index above 25 and sometimes even above 30. In this case, however, the higher BMI reflects the fact that body builders have more muscle mass without having more fat.

Finally, there's still only one sure way to lower your BMI if you're overweight or obese: Eat less and exercise more. Your body will burn more calories than you eat and your body mass index will go down over time.