You're Being Lied to About Weight Loss

by: Shawn LeBrun

Here are some of the blatant weight loss lies being thrown at unsuspecting consumers.
Well, here it is, late night TV and I'm flipping through the channels trying to find something good to watch.
As I'm surfing the tube, I notice a huge amount of weight loss infomercials.
And you know what, most of them literally make me sick to my stomach.
Not because I despise TV, but because I can't stand it when companies blatantly lie to unsuspecting consumers and make MILLIONS in the process doing it.
But as I continue to promote the truth about weight loss with my personal training business and my fitness website, the truth is muddled in the sea of confusion that's created by companies throwing weight loss solutions at consumers 24/7.
The companies pushing these bogus products will continue to make millions as I continue to fight an uphill battle, trying to shed some light for people as to what it really takes to lose weight and get in shape.
Am I bitter that these companies are making millions?
Nope.
Am I bitter that they're doing it at the expense of people who really are unsure of the best way to go about losing weight and getting their health back?
Absolutely.
I know firsthand what it really takes to lose a lot of weight and get in great shape.
And not once was it from an "Ab Stimulator Belt" you wear at work or from a "Fat-Loss Patch" you place on your arm.
Nor was it from a "Magic Juice Drink" you sip for 2 days straight while not eating another morsel of food.
And now that I think about it, it also wasn't from Coral Calcium or Metabo-Super-Fat-Burning-and-Crime-Fighting Pills.
It sure wasn't from an "Ab-Crunch-Whatever-You-Call-It", you know, the torture machine you use for 3 minutes while watching TV and are supposed to lose 20 pounds in a week.
But as I continue to watch these commercials like a deer caught in the headlights, I almost fall for the best marketing money can buy--the "pictures-never-lie" testimonials.
You know, the old "before and after" photos (as hard as I looked, I couldn't see the airbrushing).
Hey, if it's in a picture, its gotta be true!
And right before I catch myself reaching for the phone to order (chuckle, chuckle) I ask myself "Why is it these types of commercials clutter the TV mostly at night or on Saturday morning?"
Is that when the most gullible tend to watch a lot of these blatant lies and scam products being peddled to them?
Who knows, but Letterman is on and I need to change the channel before I get any sicker to my stomach.
About the Author
Shawn LeBrun is one of the internet's most publised fitness and weight loss coaches. Visit his site to see how he can make this the year you achieve your best body ever!

Your Weight Loss Problem: How To Cure It By Watching Movies

by: Beth Scott

Is it possible that you could actually lose weight while watching your favorite shows or reading your favorite books?  YES, it is!  Read this article to find out how... I don’t know anything about you but if you’re anything like me then you struggle with a weight loss problem.  Your weight loss problem consists of you struggling to keep your weight down, or struggling to make your weight go down. 
Most people who see me wouldn’t believe that I have a weight loss problem, but I do.  I’ve battled bulimia and constant gains and losses in weight, of ten pounds each time.  Thats what I call a big weight loss problem.
A lot of women and men with the same or a similar weight loss problem would sympathize with me I’m sure.  I want to look good (who doesn’t?) so that always motivates me to go on a diet. 
But after sticking to a diet for a week and dropping the unwanted weight my love for good tasting food overpowers my need to feel attractive and the weight piles back on pound by pound.
There is always exercise to help with a weight loss problem, I remind myself as I lie lazily on the couch chomping down on one of my non-diet treats.  “Sure!”  I groan “I don’t feel like wearing my butt out without seeing any results for weeks at a time.”
Whenever I start a workout regimen I only stick to it for a few weeks (usually less) and then I get bored and drop it.  So my weight loss problem continues.
How many other women I wondered (or men, for that matter) get bored while exercising?  I thought about that for awhile then I set about to find a solution to help all those poor people (and myself too, of course) with this weight loss problem.
First I asked myself: What did I like to do?  What did I find Interesting?
“Hmmmm, well” I thought “I like dancing, but long periods of it are exhausting.  I like to read, to listen to music, and I really dislike being on my feet for over long periods of time.
What could possibly combine all or most of these to make my exercising interesting and help solve my weight loss problem?
The solution to my weight loss problem was amazingly simple!
I own an old stationary bike, and I do mean OLD, but the important thing is that it operates.  You can do this with any form of stationary bike, whether it’s a twenty year old model or an up to date model. 
It doesn’t matter whether you own the stationary bike or use a gym’s or your local YMCA’s or YWCA’s facilities.
My weight loss problem solution is this:
Find something engrossing to read.  It could be a novel or your favorite magazine.  Or listen to music that you enjoy, you could even use audio books or any different CD’s or things you could listen to.
I suppose if your bike was somewhere around a television or computer with a DVD player, you could even watch your favorite movie.
The next step is to mount your stationary bide and start biking while reading or doing any of the above listed activities, and not to get off for at least 45 to 60 minutes, except for an occasional rest every quarter of an hour.
I usually just keep biking away the whole time and sometimes I bike longer because I’m so engrossed in what I’m reading, and I won’t allow myself to read it once I’m off the stationary bike.
After a week of this, without change in my eating habits, or any dieting, I’m maintaining a healthy weight.  Best of all I’m not putting on any new pounds, and my legs look visibly slimmer. 
So I've kissed my weight loss problem goodbye, and I'm saying hello to slim jeans and size 6 dresses, and you can too.
For the first time in a long while I actually look forward to putting on a bikini.t

Your Simple Plan for Weight Loss

by: Paul Buckley

The math is pretty simple. One pound of fat equals 3500 calories. Want to lose a pound a week? Then you need to consume 3500 calories less per week than you use. That's about 500 calories a day. By cutting out 500 calories a day from your normal daily diet, while keeping your activity level the same, you can lose approximately one pound a week.
All right - that doesn't sound like much, especially if you're more than 25 pounds overweight. Study after study has shown, though, that those people who lose weight gradually - at a rate of 1-2 pounds per week -are far more likely to keep the weight off and maintain a normal weight for a lifetime.
So how much exactly IS 500 calories? If you're going to reduce your daily intake by 500 calories, it helps to know what you need to cut out, right? Here's how easy it is to lose 500 calories a day:
Use milk instead of cream in your coffee. Savings? 50 calories per cup.
Skip the butter on your baked potato. Savings? 100 calories
Drink fruit-flavored water instead of a 16 ounce soda. Savings? 200 calories
Skip the Big Mac and have a salad instead. A Big Mac weighs in at a whopping 460 calories. A fresh salad with a light dressing? Less than 100! Savings? 360 calories
Pass by the bag of potato chips. An average snack size bag of chips has over 300 calories. Savings? 300 calories
Eat your corn on the ear. A 1 cup serving of canned corn has 165 calories. An ear of corn has 85. Savings? 80 calories.
Switch to low-fat cream cheese on your bagel. Savings? 90 calories per ounce.
Love those fries and can't give them up? Swap the skinny fries out for thick steak-cut ones. Thin French fries absorb more oil than the thicker, meatier ones. Savings? 50 calories per 4 ounce serving
If you'd rather look at losing weight from an exercise perspective, you can also lose one pound a week by upping your activity level by 500 calories a day. How easy is that to do? Take a look:
Take a half-hour walk around the park. Aim for a pace that's a little faster than a stroll, but not fast enough to be breathless. Burn: 160 calories.
Get out your bike and take a ride. Tackle a few moderate hills and aim for about five miles total. Burn: 250 calories
Go dancing - and really DANCE. The longer you're out on the floor instead of at the table drinking up high-calorie drinks, the more you'll get out of it. Dancing that makes you breathless and warms up your body will net you a nice calorie savings. Burn: 400 calories for one hour
Swimming is great for you, and a lot of fun, too. The water resistance means you burn more calories, and you avoid the stress impact on joints from aerobics, dancing or walking. Do a few laps at a slow crawl - if you can get up to an hour you'll be doing great! Burn: 510 calories
Get out into your garden. An hour of gardening tasks that includes bending and stretching can burn up to as many calories as a brisk walk. Burn: 250 calories.
Play a game of tennis. Hook up with a friend for a weekly tennis game and you'll be amazed at the difference. One hour of vigorous tennis is one of the best calorie burners around. Burn: 800 calories
It’s important to keep in mind that all exercise/calorie numbers are based on a woman weighing 130 pounds. If you weigh more, you'll burn more. Want an added bonus to burning calories through exercise? When you exercise, you build muscle by converting it from fat. Three guesses which kind of body tissue burns more calories - even when you're not exercising. You got it - your body uses more energy to maintain and feed muscle than it does fat.
For best results, mix and match food savings with exercises that burn calories. Do keep in mind that eating less than 1000 calories a day for more than a few days will convince your body that it's starving and slow your metabolism. Keep calorie ranges reasonable, and consult a doctor if you want a quicker, more drastic weight loss.

Will Your Plan Lead To Permanent Weight Loss? How To Tell

by: Dr. David Nganele

This article summarizes what a plan must have to be able to result in long-term weight loss. If a plan fails in any one of these, any weight loss will be short-term and the individual will experience "yo-yo dieting".
Several years ago, a colleague who had tried several weight loss plans, asked me to help her figure out why she wasn’t able to achieve permanent weight loss. After extensive research on how the body regulates weight and studying individuals who had succeeded in attaining long-term weigh loss, I concluded that there are four characteristics that a plan must have to result in long-term weight loss. If a plan fails in any one, it might create short-term weight loss but the pounds will come back and you will find yourself trying something else. At first glance, these factors might look straightforward and simple but I will present the science behind them and why they must be taken into account for you to succeed.
The four characteristics are:
1. The plan must avoid cravings 2. The plan must avoid hunger 3. The plan must call for increasing your activity level 4. It must be a plan you can live with for a long time
What are cravings? A craving is when your body pushes you to want a particular food ingredient. This can occur even when you are not hungry. When you finally give in and get the food, you almost always binge, that is, eat more than you would have if you did not have cravings for it.
What causes cravings? Your body needs 6 essential food ingredients to function properly. They are carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals, vitamins and water. If you deprive your body of any of this, it will create the sensation that will drive you to get it. The most easily identified example is when you deprive your body of water. You develop thirst. Thirst is the body craving for water.
Weight loss plans that tell you to cut out particular foods will always lead to cravings. It is this battle in your body to give it what it needs that creates conditions of discomfort and lead to most individuals ending the programs. There is an area of the brain that controls what and how much you eat and is responsible for creating cravings as a way for you to provide the body what it needs.
So, how do you avoid cravings? By eating all the required food ingredients. The key is that in all the food groups, there are “good” types and “not so good” types. You need to know the good types and eat only those. For example, with carbohydrates, the good types are the ones with low glycemic index (GI). GI is a measure of how fast a food increases the production of insulin. Insulin causes fat buildup. Simple sugars, potatoes and white bread are examples of high GI foods, while whole grains and vegetables have low GIs and therefore good for weight loss.
By understanding the concept of eating all the essential foods and dividing them into “good” and “not so good” foods, you will avoid cravings and overeating.
Next time we will discuss hunger and how successful plans avoid hunger.