Shake it Baby

The most effective method of weight loss is to increase physical activity, put a stop to sedentary life style and consume lesser calories. Losing approximately one pound every week is a realistic goal for obese people and is recommended by experts.

Increased Physical Activity

Resistance training, weight lifting, cardiovascular exercises, aerobic exercises, power yoga are the best ways of losing weight naturally, staying fit and healthy and increasing lung power. However remember that only exercising or only maintaining a diet won’t help you to achieve your goals.

You have to combine all these to attain maximum benefit. Brisk walking once in the morning and once in the evening is also highly beneficial in losing weight. You should always exercise under the supervision of or following the advice of your fitness expert. An hour or so of moderate to rigorous exercising, 6 times a week or as frequently as recommended by your instructor, is sufficient.

Alteration of Eating Habits

Stay away from calorie laden food items. Watch what you eat. Restrict the amount you eat. Keep a vigil on how many portions or servings of food you consume.

Oily fatty food, cakes, pastries, sweets, buttery cookies, oily and fried food items, butter, cheese, French fries should be almost eliminated from your diet. Replace them with fresh fruits, vegetables, spinach, olive oil, fish, lean meat, lean protein, brown bread and rice, and other such fibrous food, low in calorie, cholesterol, fat and other harmful ingredients.

Because these kinds of food are rich in fiber, you feel filled up and gratified, but at the same time, lesser amounts of calories are entering your body. Make it a point to drink 10-14 glasses of water daily. A good option for burning calories naturally is to take green tea that is rich in antioxidants. Warm water is supposed to melt fat.  Be careful about weight loss supplements.

Life style Change

A sedentary life style is the biggest reason behind weight gain. Change your life style. Include some kind of physical activities like doing household chores, cycling, jogging, running, gymming, climbing up the stairs in stead of taking the elevator, dancing, playing your favorite sports etc. Give up junk food.  Don’t remain glued to the television throughout the day and stop munching on snacks between each meal.

Realistic Targets

Don’t set unrealistic targets before yourself, enticed by advertisements which claim you can lose 7 pounds in 7 days. Consult your physician, dietician and fitness instructor who can illuminate you about your ideal weight, Use a BMI chart and don’t fall into the trap of crash dieting or mindless, excessive exercising that will wear you out in no time at all and cause damage to your body. Losing weight gradually is the healthiest formula and losing 1 to 2 pounds per week is advocated as safe.  BMI is a good way to see how healthy you are but is not the be all and end all.

Everyone should get involved in looking after their heal.  If you have a fat teen they will end up growing into fat adults.  However a fat teen today can have a much higher chance of turning their lives around by getting fit and healthy.  Be snesible with your health and don’t get involved with anything your doctor would disaprove of such as diet pills or faddy diets.

No Comments » Posted by April / Health

There are many people who have been watching their carbohydrate intake as part of a healthy lifestyle. By limiting the amount of carbs one consumes during the day, they may be able to lose weight, fend off diabetes, and have more stamina.

Low carbohydrate diets are designed to reduce the amount of simple sugars that are consumed. These diets are easy to follow if you become an avid label reader. By reading the labels on your favourite foods or drinks, you will be able to determine the amount of carbs that are in them and from there decide if it fits your diet plan.

Is there Carbohydrates is Wine?

The simple answer is yes. Wine begins with fruit, most common grapes. All grapes contain natural sugars and on the outside they have a fine coating of natural yeast. During the fermentation process, the sugar and the yeast mix together causing a chemical reaction. This chemical reaction turns the grapes sugars into alcohol.

The carbs in any wine come from the small amount of sugars that are left over from the fermentation process. Most of the sugar in the grapes has turned to alcohol so the amount of carbs found in any wine is going to be low.

There are some wines that do have more sugars in them than others. Sweeter wines contain more sugars and therefore more carbs. Dryer wines are lower in carbohydrates because they contain less sugar.

Amount of Carbs Found in Wine

Wines can contain anywhere from 2-5 grams of carbs per ounce depending on the sweetness of the wine. Dryer wines such a blanc are going to have less carbs in them, between 2-3 grams per ounce. Bottles of Zinfindel or Chardonnay tend to be higher in sugars along with higher in carbs. Dessert wines like Sherry and Port are even higher. They can hit upwards of 13 grams per ounce.

Wine is Not Alone

Beer also contains carbs. Wine and beer are similar in the amount of sugars per ounce. Beer can range anywhere from 2 grams all the way up to 8 grams of carbs per ounce.

You may think that if the beer is labelled light that the carbs would be lower but this is not the case.

Weight Gain

One of the main reasons people chose a low carb diet is to control their weight. Simple sugars are burned quickly by the body so people tend to eat more when their diet is high in sugars and starches.

There really isn’t any strong proof one way or another if wine will lead to weight gain or for that matter if any alcoholic beverage will increase the hips. There is one exception to that which is mixed drinks. Some mixed drinks do contain large amounts of sugar and are high in calories. This is because other ingredients besides alcohol are being used.

An occasional glass of wine or shifter of brandy is not going to cause weight gain. One reason people tend to gain weight when drinking is because they eat things like cheese, nuts or other snack foods high in calories, fats and carbs with their drinks. Another reason is large amounts of alcohol can slow the body’s metabolism down.  Some people are unsure about such matters but it’s a good idea to learn about all the different types of weight loss myths.

1 Comment » Posted by April / Food and Drink

If you want to keep fit and healthy and want to know how to get slim, it goes without saying that you need to exercise.  There’s no hard and fast rule as to what form of exercise you choose as we are all different and have different needs.  More and more people are realizing that an inactive lifestyle is not good if you want to live life to the full free of illness.  So much of our lives are centred around technology, whether it’s watching TV, surfing the internet or driving in our cars.  It’s for this reason that it’s very easy to become fat.  Our ancestors would have naturally got a workout by ploughing fields or carrying heavy items of machinery.  It’s very easy for people today to loose muscle tone and flexibility due to lack of moving about.  If you want to improve your fitness, exercising daily can help a lot.

Everyone seems to have a strict schedule they need to adhere to, it may be that you need to take the kids to school or buy some groceries.  Then of course if it’s howling a gale and pissing with rain it makes it difficult to go for a walk or a jog.  But now we have so many types of gym equipment we don’t even need to leave the house to get a workout.  This includes elliptical exercise equipment.  You are a busy person so need to make sure you buy the best equipment for you.

Elliptical exercise is one of the best types of equipment you can buy.  However you need one which can serve you the way you want.  It’s not an easy thing to be able to do however, finding the best one, that is.  You’ll need to spend a couple of hundred pounds, there are cheaper ones but they may not last long.

When buying any item of exercise equipment, make sure you read as many reviews as possible.  There are so many places you can buy the best elliptical exercise machine, both in fitness equipment shops and online.  You’ll want to find out how long the company has been on the go for, what their experience and knowledge is, plus return policies.  If you find a problem with your equipment knowing what their return policy is is very important.  Also make sure that you look to see what servicing and spare parts are available.

In order for an elliptical exercise machine to be considered the best, it should be able to work out your entire body.  When using the machine properly you can burn off a lot of calories and build your upper body strength at the same time.  It’s important to note that leaning over whilst on the machine is not a good idea.  With these pointers in mind you should be able to by the best elliptical machine for you.

No Comments » Posted by April / Health