WEIGHT REDUCTION TIPS

Counting Calories -

All the food you eat is a source of energy and can fatten you, but some foodstuffs are more fattening than others. For instance, fats are more fattening than both carbohydrates and proteins. Calories are a simple way to measure, how much energy and how much fattening potential your foods contain. Foodstuffs differ in their caloric content because of two reasons: Firstly they contain varying amounts of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates and secondly, they contain different amounts of water, an ingredient which truly has zero calories. Similarly the energy you spend when working or exercising can be measured in calories. So the simple basis of a "calorie control" diet would be to limit your calorie intake, while making you use up the usual or more number of calories. Your body will then have to draw upon the fat stores to fill the energy gap and you would begin to lose weight.

While on a weight reducing diet there are certain foods you must avoid the following:

1. All fried and greasy foods.
2. All sweets: Honey, ice-creams, cakes, pastries, jams, chocolates, candies.
3. Dry fruits and nuts: peanuts, almonds, cashew nuts.
4. All alcoholic drinks.
5. Fruits: Bananas, grapes, mangoes, strawberries.
6. Vegetables: Potatoes and other tubers.
7. Foods which you can eat as much as desired without causing any problems

Salads: Carrots, radish, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, lettuce.
Drinks: Clear Soups, Lemon Juice, jaljeera, Buttermilk.





To Lose Weight Sensibly -

The safest and the most effective way of slimming is to lose weight slowly. Crash diets should be avoided as they often fail. This is simply because they just cannot be sustained. Moreover, crash dieting can adversely affect your beauty, making you look haggard. An advantage of a gradual diet control is that your taste in foods can be adjusted over a reasonable period of time so that the craving for certain food items is reduced.
An average woman spends about 2,300 calories a day. If you want to reduce your weight, you should aim to eat about 1,200-1,300 calories daily. If you persistently eat about 1000 calories less every day, your body will have to make up the short fall, by using up about 100grams of your body fat daily. So in about ten days you would be able to lose a kilo of your weight. On this diet you should not expect a rapid loss of weight. It may take you sometime to lose the desired weight. Even though it would be slow; if you are steady in your diet control you are sure to be a winner.

How Fattening Are High Protein Foods?

There is a popular notion that protein-rich foods are not fattening. This is absolutely a myth. Proteins actually provide the same number of calories per gram as carbohydrates and so are equally fattening. But protein-rich (and even fatty foods) foods, do not leave the stomach as quickly as carbohydrates, so they tend to satisfy your appetite for longer periods of time and you do not feel hungry quickly. It is for this reason that a serving of mutton appears more filling than a bowl of cereal and sugar, even though the portions have been adjusted to give you precisely the same number of calories.
However a slimming diet which recommends protein foods, such as eggs, yoghurt or fish rather than starchy and sugary foods is very likely to be rich in minerals and vitamins as well. On the other hand refined carbohydrate foods can be easily eliminated from the diet without causing any deficiency of vitamins and minerals.


How to Cut Down On Fats -

Since fats contain more than twice as many calories to a gram as carbohydrates and proteins, a low fat diet would seem a very sensible way to cut down on the calories in your daily meals. The danger here lies in the fact that when you cut out on the fatty bit of your meals, you tend to feel hungry much sooner and if you succumb to your hunger-pangs, you might well end up eating more(snacks, sweets and other foods) before your next meal is due, and ruin your dietary schedule.
We consume a large amount of fat in our diet; actually 40% of our daily calorie intake is derived from fats. Half of this is visible as the oil we cook our food in, and the butter we spread on the breakfast bread. The other half, however, is not so obvious; the margarine present in the cakes and biscuits, the fat in a boiled egg and the cream in our morning cup of tea or coffee.

Calorific Values of Common Dietary Items

• Milk (1 glass Skimmed) = 70 calories
• Tea (1 cup +1/2 tsp sugar) = 20 calories
• Egg (1 boiled) = 80 calories
• Cottage Cheese (25g) = 70 calories
• Bread (1 large slice) = 75 calories
• Rice (1 helping of 25g) = 87 calories
• Seasonal Vegetables (1 helping of 125g except tubers) = 35 calories
• Pulses, lentils (1 helping) = 80 calories
• Fruit (1 helping 100g except mangoes, grapes, bananas) = 40 calories
• Curd (1 helping of 125g) = 75 calories
• Cold Drinks, Aerated Drinks (1 bottle) = 80 calories
• Oil (1 teaspoon) = 45 calories
• Sugar (1 teaspoon) = 20 calories



WEIGHT LOSS TIPS AND ADVICES


Stretch your meals to, at least, 20 minutes or longer.
Your stomach, mouth and brain are all connected and it takes 20 minutes of chewing before your stomach signals your brain that you are full. To feel full and successfully lose weight on any weight loss program, you need to eat slowly for 20 minutes or longer.
Drinking 8 glasses of water a day
Is important to your health, your normal diet and to help lose weight. Water is necessary for the metabolism of your stored fat. Weight loss cannot occur without an active metabolism which requires large quantities of water. Another way to use water to lose weight is to drink a large glass of ice water just before meals. The cold causes your stomach to shrink slightly which will make you feel full faster.




The more positive your self-esteem,
The better you feel about yourself, the faster and easier it will be for you to lose weight. When you are self-confident, you are better able to take charge of your life. It also means that after you lose weight, it will stay gone permanently.
When you go fat free or low fat,
You also cut out much of the taste of the foods you eat. Add the flavor back with herbs and spices. Strong flavors such as vinegar, garlic, chili powder, cayenne, curry powder, rosemary and tarragon can be used to doctor up any food you are eating. For your low fat and fat free diets, experiment with different herbs and spices until you find some you like. Staying on your fat free or low fat diet will be easier and your weight loss will be speeded up.
Increase your metabolism
By as much as 40% by using hot and spicy foods such as hot peppers of all varieties and mustards. Research shows these foods all increase your metabolism. For double duty, give up fat filled mayonnaise for mustard and add hot peppers to your food for greater flavor and increased metabolism.
Negative emotions will also interfere with your weight loss program.
It's difficult to stay motivated to lose weight when you feel bad. Overeating often accompanies negative emotions such as depression, anxiety, fear, guilt and anger. If this is true for you, begin a stress management program including some exercise and relaxation exercises.
To lose weight faster, reduce your intake of caffeine.
Caffeine leads to an increase of insulin in your body which retards the burning of your stored fat. This is a simple chemical reaction in your body that you can change. Reduce your caffeine intake by 50% and see what happens. Here is a rough guide to use when looking at the amount of caffeine you currently take in: Brewed coffee (6 oz. cup) - 100mg; Instant coffee (6 oz.) - 70mg; Tea (6 oz.) - 50mg; Soft drinks (12oz.) - (Coke, Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew) - 50mg; Dark chocolate (1 oz.) - 20mg and Milk chocolate (1 oz.) - 6mg.


Increase your intake of fiber rich foods.
They will help fill you up faster and will help all the food you eat pass through your digestive system more easily.
Exercise is probably the most important
Key to increasing your metabolism and burning off excess fat. Research shows that you burn more stored fat for energy when you do aerobic exercises on an empty stomach than on a full stomach. Research also shows that you burn more stored fat when you exercise late in the day rather than in the morning. Put together, the best time to exercise to lose weight by burning your stored fat is in the late afternoon/early evening before dinner. Second best is in the morning before breakfast. Our metabolism naturally starts to slow down about 8 hours after we wake up. Thirty minutes of aerobic exercises in the evening, before dinner, will not only burn off stored fat but it increases your metabolism for about two to three more hours just when it was starting to slow down. This produces a significant increase in fat burned off, even after the exercise is over.
To lose weight quickly, never skip a meal.
Your first meal after waking starts your metabolism. Your metabolism then speeds up for about eight hours and then starts slowing down until you go to sleep when it goes to low until you wake and eat and start the cycle again. Skip breakfast and your metabolism don’t get started until lunch time. You've just missed three or four hours of fat burning time. When you skip meals during the day, your metabolism also slows down. Weight loss through the burning of stored fat is all about eating enough of the right kinds of foods so you stay full and your metabolism stays as high as possible. Remember, if you feel hungry, your metabolism slows down. Stay full with healthy, nonfattening foods and your metabolism will continue to burn your stored fat as fast as your body will allow.