Weight Loss Programs

Developing healthy food habits will help you control weight and will help you to be healthy. These two things go hand in hand. I started down this road many years ago and it as been well worth the journey. There was not a great deal of information on healthy food habits but results of studies were starting to emerge.

Even then there were some basics that appeared to be risks to long-term good health. These were high consumption of saturated fats, sugar and salt and low consumption of fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains and lack of exercise. The information available also pointed to a lack of nutrients such as minerals and vitamins because our food was over-processed.

Here are some healthy eating habits I have formed over the years that have helped me control weight and to be healthy:

1. I eat a good breakfast. I wake up hungry and if I have exercised that morning I am looking to replace some energy and fuel-up for the day. If I have cereal it will be oats, wheat biscuits or natural, unsweetened muesli. I eat several pieces of fresh fruit and a handful of walnuts. I do like eggs and have them boiled or fried in olive oil. These days I have a small piece of lean meat two or three mornings a week. I have green tea with breakfast.

2. Mid-morning I have a cup of green tea as a pick-up and may have a plain cookie.

3. Lunch might sound very boring, but I will generally have a whole grain sandwich with healthy fillings – tuna, salad, lamb or beef with a piece of fruit to finish. I will often have a coffee with a work mate, without sugar and a touch of milk. Generally, that is the only coffee I have of a day.

4. Normally I do not eat in the afternoon, unless I feel my energy is running down. A cup of green tea usually fixes that. I will sometimes have a handful of nuts or a piece of dark chocolate to give me a lift.

5. Dinner has always been our main meal. I do not eat big meals, but I eat several servings of vegetables – not white potatoes. When I have pasta I usually have salmon, bolognaise or arabiata sauce and try to keep away from the cream sauces. Generally, my only drink of an evening is a glass of red wine with my meal. I do like dessert but limit the amount I have. If I really feel like something sweet I will have a small piece of dark chocolate – it is low GI and a good antioxidant. Which means I do not have to feel guilty.

I do not suggest this is the definitive eating plan as there are many variations you could make in the place of what I do. In fact, I vary it a lot more than this. But the point is, I have thought about the food I eat and I do have a plan that suits me and keeps me healthy. Develop some healthy food habits, put some thought into what you are putting into your body and it will reward you with good health, vitality and healthy weight control.

What are you eating these days? Are you still eating the same food that helped you grow that 50 year-old stomach? If you are, you are not going to lose stomach fat. Even if you are exercising, you are fighting a losing battle. If you do not start replacing the food you have always eaten with the food you should be eating, you will be taking two steps forward and one step backwards. In the end you could give up because you are making little or no progress.

There is a wide variety of everyday foods that burn fat and that will help you lose stomach fat. The foods that do this best are the ones high in protein or high in fiber because your body has to work harder to digest them. When we think of protein we tend to think of animal protein only, but there are many vegetables that contain both protein and fiber. Here are some of the foods that you should consider making part of your diet.

Animal protein:

*Meat is the most common form of protein. Try to select lean cuts of meat and to avoid processed meats. Products like ham rolls and chicken rolls are usually high in fat and have preservatives in them. Meats high in fat are not going to help your waistline or your heart. Look for lean beef, lamb, buffalo or poultry without the skin

*Eggs are a good source of protein. These are an easy food that can be eaten in a variety of ways. It only takes a few minutes to cook an egg. Even fried eggs are easy to cook and are healthy if they are done in olive oil

*Dairy products such as milk, yogurt and cheese are high in protein but can be high in fat. Select the low-fat variety

Vegetable Protein:

*Beans have a high percentage of protein, particularly soy beans, which have almost as much protein as meat. There are a number of soy products available that can supply you with protein – burgers, milk, ice cream, tofu. There are plenty of other beans that are readily available – lima beans, navy bean, red beans, kidney beans

*Vegetables – broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, potatoes, tomatoes

*Fruit – apples, oranges, bananas, peaches, pineapples

*Grains – barley, oatmeal, brown rice, wheat, millet

*Seeds and Nuts – almonds, cashews, walnuts, peanuts, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds

As you can see there are many foods that contain protein and fiber, and most of them are easily available. This is by no means the complete list because most fruit, vegetables, grains and seeds contain protein and fiber. They not only help you lose weight but provide essential nutrients for your well-being. If you have not started to include these in your diet to replace the foods you have always eaten, now is the time to start. If you do not change your diet you will not lose your stomach fat.

If you want to lose stomach fat you need to eat the right foods and do regular exercise. While you need to do both, eating the righ weight loss food will have a greater impact initially. Listed below are five foods to lose weight and give you a flat tummy.

1. Oatmeal is a very good source of fiber and a great way to start the day. The fiber makes you feel fuller, so you will not be looking for food again for a while. It also helps get rid of the toxins in your body by proper elimination, which helps you lose weight and protects you against colon cancer. Because it lowers cholesterol it helps fight heart disease.

2. All berries are good for your body and you need to include them in your diet. They are a source of energy and nutrients. Because some of them are high in antioxidants – blueberries and cranberries – they strengthen your immune system, which helps your body fight disease. In addition to that they are low in calories. This means you are getting your energy from good food that will not put on weight.

3. Avocado has been described as a ‘whole food’ because it is so full of goodness you could live of it. It is rich in fats but they are good fats. It also contains a high percentage of potassium, which helps control blood pressure.

4. Grass fed bison is one of the best forms of protein because it contains a high percentage of omega-3 fatty acids, but without the heavy metals that can be found in some fish. Protein is important, as the body has to work to digest it. In the process it burns calories, which means just by eating protein you can lose weight. Other good sources of protein are lean beef and lamb, chicken, eggs and fish.

5. Most nuts are high in energy and are another source of protein. Walnuts are especially beneficial because they have a high concentrate of omega-3. The protein will help you lose stomach fat and the omega-3 fatty acids will help protect your heart. Try to include them in your daily diet – they can be handy as snacks, rather than cookies or candy.

This is a short list of some of the good foods you can eat to help get a flat tummy. Where you can, use fresh foods that require preparation like lean proteins, vegetables and fruits. Processed, ready to eat foods often have very poor nutritional value. In addition to that, many are cooked in trans fats, which are bad for your heart and will add to your stomach fat. If you follow these guidelines you will be healthier, feel more energetic and gradually lose your stomach fat.

I was at a barbeque over Christmas and heard a woman being asked how she had losr weight. She said ït was simple – she ate less and moved more. I thought she said exactly what we have to do but she made it sound very simple. I also thought how lucky she was to find such a simple weight loss plan that worked. If it worked for her, it should work for all of us.

We need to find a simple way to lose weight. We have to find something we can do and keep doing. It is easy to think we have to take on a complicated diet to be successful. Sometimes we just do not want to get our heads around the rules – we can eat this; we cannot eat that; we have to exercise for 30 minutes a day; we have to do certain types of exercise. It makes sense to start with a simple, common sense way to control our weight. We know we have to eat less, so we can start with that.

Use some of the proven strategies to eat less

*Use smaller plates – entrée plates instead of dinner plates

*Do not have seconds

*Do not load up your plate

*Ask for, or serve yourself, smaller portions

*Start saying “no” to your appetite – do not have that extra slice of bread or that extra potato.

*Drink a glass or two of water before every meal to help fill your stomach. Drink water during the meal to fill your stomach and to aid digestion

*When you are hungry have healthy snacks of fruit or nuts

*Eat slowly so your brain will know your appetite is satisfied – your brain needs about 20 minutes to catch up. If you eat too quickly, your brain does not catch up and thinks you need more food

Think of ways you can move mor:

*Watching TV: get up and move around during the advertisements

*In the Office: look for reasons to move. Stand at your desk for a few minutes. Look for jobs you can do on your feet. Go for a drink of water

*At home: take a positive attitude towards your chores – the ironing, cleaning and bed-making are all physical activities

Use a positive attitude to help you move more. Instead of seeing the physical tasks you have to do as a being nuisance and annoying, welcome them as opportunities to move more. Movement uses energy – using energy uses calories, using calories loses weight.

A man I know started his first job in a tyre distribution outlet, which meant handling heavy tyres most of the day. At first he resented the fact he had to work so hard but then he decided to use the opportunity to build and strengthen his body. He was playing amateur football at the time and needed to work on his body anyway. By changing his attitude he found he looked forward to work. There is no reason why we cannot think in the same positive terms. We can feel good about what we need to do to achieve what we want.

I like the simple weight loss plan of eating less and moving more. I think it is worth putting it into practice. It works for others so it should work for you.

Researchers at Georgia State University, found we are likely to eat 44 percent more when we eat with others than when we eat alone. As sharing a meal with friends is one of life’s great enjoyments, we are not going to change this.However, we need to be conscious of how these occasions affect us and what we can do to avoid overeating and eating the wrong food. There are certain occasions when we need to be particularly on our guard.

Eating out

Eating out has become such an important part of our lifestyle, we are not about to change it. But restaurant servings can be huge. They are often so much more than we would serve ourselves. Add to this a relaxing, convivial atmosphere with good food within easy reach and presented in an inviting way, it is easy to see why we can so easily forget how much we are eating. As we enjoy other’s company, we do not even notice that we are not sticking with our eating plan. The more we are enjoying ourselves the more likely we are to eat what others are eating and to linger over dessert and coffee.

Eating with others

Depending on your family situation, family get-togethers can be frequent. The larger the family, the more those occasions are likely to happen. This is another time when you are likely to eat much more or break your diet rules and eat some of the high-calorie food you would normally avoid.

Eating in front of the TV

Another study has found if we eat in front of the TV we tend to eat more than we do sitting at a table. The main reason for this seems to be we are distracted. Our mind is on the television program rather than our meal. We tend not to notice how much we have eaten, when, in fact, we may have already satisfied our hunger. We can fix this by paying attention to what we are eating.

There are some things you can do to enjoy these occasions and to keep some control of you eating plan.

* Look over the menu and look for low to medium GI food
* Choose pasta (watch the sauce), lean meat or fish
* Have vegetables instead of fries with your meal
* Give the desert a miss or have a small one or a piece of fruit.

Eating is one of the great pleasures of life and it is even more enjoyable with the right company. There is no reason why we cannot continue to enjoy these occasions but we do need to be aware of the traps and pitfalls when eating with others or when eating alone in front of the TV. You can still follow your weight loss management plan by not being swept up in the occasion, by paying attention and by choosing the healthier foods that are available.

Most diet plans do not offer a permament weight loss solution. They can work for a while but then they often fail. Some of the reaons for this are they are often too hard to follow because they are not practical – they depend on food you do not like or is hard to get. Also the food can be boring or it can leave you feeling hungry. Cost can be another factor, as some plans are quite expensive. However you can lose weight in a way that is practical and inexpensive.

Healthy Weight Management

Good eating habits are the key to healthy weight management and the key to good health. By good eating habits, I mean eating healthy food that will not put on weight and eating regular meals. Healthy food, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, lean meat and fish, will not only provide the energy and nutrients you need but will help you lose weight. Eating regular meals, that is not going too long between meals, means eating your usual three meals a day as a minimum and snacking on healthy food in between meals. While snacking was once a no-no, most health professionals agree, more frequent meals are better than fewer, larger meals. But the snacks cannot be high-sugar or high-fat.

Lower Your Expectations

Everyone wants to lose weight instantly. Most of the advertisements for weight loss plans tell you how quickly you can lose weight. They usually have the examples and endorsement of one or more people telling you how quickly they lost weight and by how much. There is no reason to believe these people did not achieve what they say. But this raises false hope, because everyone is different. We do not know their circumstances, how much effort and time they devoted to the plan nor how much help they had from others. The problem is when you try it and it does not work, you are likely to think there is something wrong with you. You feel a failure and are ready to give up.

The Healthy Lifestyle Plan

Forget about commercial diet plans. Change to your own healthy lifestyle, healthy weight management plan. This plan will bring you good health, which means it will provide natural weight loss management, almost as a side effect. You do not have to set out to lose weight, even though that may be an important objective, you simply set out to become healthy. And this is not too difficult. There are two basic things you have to do: change to healthy food and do regular exercise. Cut out the high-sugar, high-fat food you may be eating now and replace it with high-fiber, low-fat, low-sugar food.

Do not worry about how fast you are losing weight. Focus instead on providing your body with the proper tools it needs to build its immunity to disease, to get rid of toxins through effective elimination and to strengthen the heart, lungs, bones and muscles. Your body will thank you by being healthier, stronger and leaner.

You can lose weight by eating chewy food. A Japanese study found women eating chewy or crunchy foods lost weight and they had slimmer waistlines than women who ate softer foods. It was not the chewing that got the results it was the fact they were eating food their bodies took longer to digest. Their bodies had to work harder to digest the chewy food, which used up calories in the process. This is not new but it is a slightly different approach. Mind you, you would still need to make sure the food was good food – not chewy toffees or candies.

Another important reason the women lost weight is because they did not want to eat as much. This type of food has more fibre, which is more satisfying because it makes you feel fuller for longer. The longer the food takes to digest the longer it takes for the body to feel hungry again. Eating this food on a regular basis avoids the sudden spike in blood sugar, which leads to wanting more food a little later.

If you want to try this, here are some of the foods regarded as chewy or crunchy:

*Meat is an obvious one. Make sure it is lean meat. Take the skin off turkey and chicken

*Fruit like apples and pineapples are crunchy and chewy. Most fruit has plenty of fibre, which you could class as chewy

*Nuts are crunchy of course but they are also very dense in calories so you would not go onto a nut diet. But a few every day is good as they contain essential fatty acids

*Bread can be chewy, but it needs to be whole grain. Breakfast cereals like muesli, oats and bran need to be chewed and can be crunchy

*Most vegetables are regarded as chewy but some are chewier than others – celery, raw carrots, cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Cooked pumpkins, carrots, parsnips and potatoes can be crunchy or at least chewy, if they are not overcooked

*Pasta and some noodles could come under the chewy category because we do have to chew them. How chewy it is can depend on the cook of course

We can help our bodies lose weight by eating food that takes longer to digest. This speeds up the body’s metabolism, which makes it work harder, which makes it use up energy. Using energy means using calories. That’s why a balanced diet should contain protein, fruit, vegetables and whole grains, as they all take longer to digest. If we stayed away from the non-chewy food, we would not eat soft food such as cake, white bread or creamy desserts.

While the Japanese study is a new slant on an old truth, it can remind us not to feed our bodies too much of the easy food to digest, because it will have the opposite effect to the chewy and crunchy foods – it will put on weight.

We all understand we should avoid food with high calories and eat food with low calories if we want to lose weight. To do this we need to know what these foods are. While it is easy to to recognize some foods as having high calories it is not always so easy to tell some of the other foods.There are the easy ones like ice cream, cakes, cream buns, cookies, fries and others. We know we should avoid these foods or eat them sparingly. However it is the everyday food we eat that can be the problem.

There are foods we think are healthy and all right to eat that can be high in calories, which are working against our efforts to lose weight. The trouble is it can be quite an effort to suddenly change from these foods if they form an important part of our diet, but we can do it gradually.

Here are some common foods that we can replace with low calorie versions or limit the amount we have.

*Dairy – low fat milk, yoghurt, sour cream, cream, cheese

*Butter – there are some version with lower fat but margarine has less fat

*Meat – lean beef, buffalo, lamb, chicken and turkey without the skin

*Fish – low in calories and has essential oils, but be careful with tartar sauce and mayonnaise

*Nuts – most nuts are healthy but can be high in calories. Eat small quantities or replace with fresh fruit

*Pasta – stay away from the white cream sauces

*Salad dressings and mayonnaise – choose low fat versions

*Fruit and vegetables – most fruit and vegetables are low in calories. Replace white potatoes with sweet potatoes. Bananas are high in calories, but have other important elements

*Bread – not low in calories so we need to be careful what we put on it

From what I can see, it is hard to find low-calorie bread unless you make it yourself, which is not practical for most of us. If you check the calories on bread in the supermarket, some breads are lower than others but you have to wonder if that is because the slices are thinner. The best we can do is not eat too much and not load it up with lashings of butter and spreads. Bread is such a staple it is very hard to give it up entirely.

There is a lot more food with low calories available now, as so many people are watching their weight or their health. Many foods, like most fruit and vegetables, are naturally low in calories, so it is a good idea to choose these when you can. One of the problems is our tendency to use rich sauces for dishes like pasta and seafood. While the food itself is low-calorie and healthy the sauces increase the calories count significantly.

With a little bit of thought it is not too hard to gradually change to food with low calories. The main thing is to be aware of what we are eating and where possible, choose the low-calorie, low-fat alternatives. This is one of the best ways to lose weight and one of the best ways to be healthy.

You realize you have to drop your weight but do you know by how much? Do you have a target to aim for? If you do not have a specific target in mind, how will you know when you have lost enough weight?  For targets to be effective, they need to be specific. Use the body mass index calculator to help you set the healthy weight target you need to meet.

How the Body Mass Index (BMI) works

To determine if we are underweight or overweight the BMI looks at our weight in relation to our height. This then falls within a certain range, which is regarded as healthy. Outside that range is regarded as under weight or overweight and not healthy. For example, people who are six feet tall (182cm) are regarded as healthy if their weight falls between 145 and 182 pounds (67-83 kgs). Someone 5 feet 8 inches (172cms) should weigh between 131 and 161 pounds (62-74 kgs).

How to calculate the Body Mass Index

You can calculate your own BMI or you can use one of the many web sites with a calculator. If you want to do it yourself, the BMI formula is your weight divided by you height squared, then multiplied by 703, if you are working in pounds. This means for someone weighing 140 pounds who is 5 feet 10 inches (70 ins) tall, the calculation would be 140 divided by 4900 (70×70), which would equal 0.028. You multiply this by 703, which gives you a BMI of 19.68. To do the calculation in kilograms you simply divide your weight by your height squared and forget the 703. For example, someone who weighs 65 kilos and is 1.78 metres tall would have a BMI of 20.51 (65/1.78×1.78).

If you are not much good at maths and you feel your eyes glazing over when you look at the figures, just go over them again and you will see they are not that hard to work out.

What is your ideal weight?

The World Health Organisation has defined categories of BMI based on evidence of increased risk of chronic disease and mortality. A BMI of 25-29.9 is regarded as overweight, 30-39.9 as obesity and over 40 as morbid obesity. It can be a bit of a shock to find you fit into one of these categories, but it is something we should all know so we can do something about it. What this means is we should all be trying to reach a body mass index of under 25 if we want to be in the healthy weight category.

There is some discussion as to how effective the various ways of measuring ideal weight are, but the BMI has become widely accepted. The World Health Organisation and other health authorities use it as a standard in their guide to healthy weight. Many life insurance companies use it as a guide to overweight and underweight in their underwriting decisions. It is a practical way to help us manage our weight so that we stay in that healthy weight range and avoid many of the modern lifestyle diseases. You can use the BMI formula to set your ideal weight target and to keep on track while you are achieving it.

If you are trying to work your way through the various diet plans before you decide which ones are best for you, you could be totally confused. There are so many. The TV, radio, Internet and newspapers seem filled with all these wonderful plans that will make you lose weight and turn you into a slim, attractive person. In the meantime you are not getting any slimmer. While you are deciding, why not start your own weight loss plan?

So, where do you start? Here is a suggestion, start working on breakfast – the first meal of the day. Start, firstly, by having breakfast. The reason for this is if you do not eat breakfast you body’s metabolic rate is still in slow motion. You metabolic rate is the rate your body uses calories. It has slowed down while you slept and it will stay that way until you speed it up with energy, which is food. The longer you put off eating, the fewer calories your body will burn. If it is not using calories, it is storing them. That’s why it is not only important to eat breakfast but it is important to eat the right food that will use energy more efficiently.

Breakfast is not called breakfast for nothing. It is breaking the long overnight fast and your body is looking for food. You should feed it, but with the right food. The best foods for breakfast, as for any other meal, are the ones that speed up your metabolism by making your body work harder, burning calories. If it is using calories, it is not storing them and making fat.

Here are some foods to eat at breakfast to help you start losing weight:

*unsweetened natural muesli, oats, high fibre bran cereal

*wholegrain bread or muffins, rye bread

*eggs, lean meat

*low fat milk, cheese, yoghurt

*fruit – apple, oranges, pears, berries, prunes

*unsweetened fruit juices

There is a much longer list, which you can research for yourself. As a guide, look for food that has a GI rating of 55 or under.

The idea is to keep away from the high GI foods, which are high sugar, highly refined carbohydrates. Food like popular cereals, white flour products like bread, pastries and muffins. These foods send up you blood sugar, which gives you a burst of energy but lets you down just as quickly. It will not be long before you are looking for that next sugar high or lift. Each time you do that, your body responds with insulin to control the blood sugar. Insulin stores fat, the very thing you are trying to avoid.

Planning your breakfasts can be the starting point to your own weight loss plan. Make this your project. It will be hard at first, as you may have to change some of your habits, but you will get better at it. As you put thought into your breakfasts you will find this will start to affect your eating habits over all. After all, what is the point of having a healthy, calories-burning breakfast if some of your other meals are letting you down? But do not worry about that in the beginning. Just make sure you plan the best weight-fighting breakfasts you can.