mercoledì 6 giugno 2012

Best Weight-Loss Diets




How to Lose Weight Quickly and Safely (for Teen Girls)

CLICK HERE

If you are "pleasantly plump" or in other words, overweight and you just want to stop being made fun of and lose up to 10-15 pounds then use this diet plan. Use this plan as a start to weight. It is suitable for anyone wanting to lose 10-15 pounds.
But if you just feel insecure and are in between weights, gradually slip into the diet plans, don't take it too seriously and try to lose weight in a healthy manner.

Steps

Make a Diet
  1. Start with your the diet program. For fast results, you must change your eating habits. Because you want fast results, you must make drastic changes. However, just because you want to lose weight doesn't mean you can't eat. In fact, you must eat, otherwise you will develop an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia. Some girls prefer to have set menus to stick to, where as some people prefer rules. This contains a bit of both.
  2. Know and understand the food pyramid. Knowing how many servings of different types of food you should eat in a day is essential for healthy weight loss. You will need to eat the followingclick here:
    • Minimum 3 servings of fruit daily.
    • Minimum 4 servings of vegetables daily
    • 4-8 servings of carbohydrates (rice, pasta, bread, etc.) daily
    • 3-7 servings of protein (meat, fish, etc.) and dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.) daily
    • 3-5 servings of fats (nuts, peanut butter, etc.) daily
  3. Make menus for yourself. Know what foods you need to eat and make healthy menus for yourself. Here are some suggestions on what you should eat.
    •  Ideas: Toast with your favourite spread; a banana (high in potassium!); cereal with skimmed milk and fruit, etc.
    •  Ideas: It's best to bring your lunch from home, as that's always healthier than what you can buy at any canteen/tuck shop/cafeteria. Try a sandwich on wholegrain/wholewheat/multi-grain bread (Don't use white bread - it's bleached flour and contains very little nutrients) with lean chicken, ham or butter-fried egg (using butter to fry egg instead of oil); a salad with veggies (tomato, cucumber, lettuce, etc); a glass of milk; veggies (carrot sticks, celery, etc.
    • Snack Ideas: veggies and fruit; natural yogurt and berries (you may need to add a tiny amount of sweetener to this, depending on how sweet your yogurt is); a handful of nuts; veggies (like carrots, beans, snow peas) and low fat dip.
    • Dinner Ideas: One idea is: 1/2 veggies, 1/4 protein, 1/4 carbohydrates. If your parents make fatty foods for tea, only have a little and make yourself a salad as well. If you're cooking for yourself here's some easy ideas: Some brown rice ( eating more lean meat than part carbohydrates helps); scrambled eggs; if you really can't be bothered, just make yourself a sandwich or eat some fish (it's high in omega 3 which is good for your brain).
  4. Follow the basic rules of healthy eating:
    • Breakfast: Carbohydrates, fat, dairy
    • Lunch: Carbohydrates, veggies, protein
    • Dinner: Pasta, carbohydrates, veggies
    • Snacks: Fruit, veggies, dairy, protein
    • For each meal, make the veggies the main part, then the protein, then the carbohydrates. There should be dairy with every meal too.
    • A serving fits in the palm of your hand
  5. Drink ! You should have at least 8 glasses of water a day! Water rinses out unwanted toxins from your body and keeps your brain sharp. It keeps you hydrated and even helps keep your skin clear and zit-free!
  6. Have it all in moderation. Don't cut anything out completely. Eat everything in moderation. Eat unhealthy things like red meats once a week or once a month - you'll enjoy them more anyway! The only thing that you should cut out (if you'd like) is fast food (McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, etc.), sweets (chocolate, candy, chips, pop, etc.), and other junk food (soft drinks, burgers, soft serves, etc.) Fast food and sweets are not natural and are not healthy. Maccas soft serves are made from pig fat, KFC fries are fried in lard, and thick-shakes have pretty much no natural ingredients in them! Gross, right? It's all preservatives and additives. At the end of the day, you know what is good for you and what isn't.
Exercise
  1. Don't spend your days sitting on the couch watching TV! Get off your butt and exercise! Fast weight loss will only be achieved with diet and exercise.
  2. Work exercise into your lifestyle! It shouldn't be a chore! Little changes make a big difference, and will keep the weight from coming back. Walk or jog to school instead of driving. Run with your dog. Do crunches during commercial breaks on TV.Cycle with friends/family.
  3. Plan your week. Have 3 days where you do intense exercise like running or a class at the gym. The other 3 days, do low intensity exercise like a long walk. The other day is your day off.
  4. An exercise "session" should go for about 30 minutes to an hour. You should burn around 400 calories in a high intensity workout session. If you aren't sweating while doing a high intensity workout, you're not working hard enough. You're working hard enough if you're sweating profusely, breathless (not the whole time, but a good part of the time), and when you're done you can drink lots of water with no effort because you need it that badly.
  5. Do some weight training. Muscles burn calories by just being there. The more muscles you have, the faster you'll lose weight.
  6. Stretch! Always, always, always stretch before and after you exercise. It's really hard to lose weight when you're injured. Stretching also helps your growing muscles not to bunch up so you might look like a weight lifter. If you did stretch right, it would have an effect of a ballerina.

Video


How To Lose Weight. Follow these steps to be able to feel great and have lots of energy. Eat plenty of vegetables, nuts, grains & water. Burn more calories than you eat.

Tips

  • Teens shouldn't have to worry about their weight unless they are overweight or obese.
  • If you worry about your weight you should speak to your doctor for help.
  • Try to avoid eating after 7 PM. This gives your body time to digest the food.
  • Stop adding sugar and salt to your food unless it's absolutely necessary.
  • You can't lose weight off one particular spot. Doing more sit-ups will not give you a flat stomach. It will just build muscles in that area. You will lose weight off the parts of your body that you are genetically designed to lose.
  • Eat 3 slim meals and 2 slim snacks "not" fattening things (or even better; 5 small/slim meals) a day to keep your metabolism in fat-burning mode.
  • Eat breakfast. If you're not hungry in the mornings or if it makes you feel sick, only have a little bit and build up to more after a few days. Breakfast kick-starts your metabolism, and therefore your weight loss. You must eat enough to keep from going into starvation mode while turning up metabolism to lose weight.
  • This is not a fad diet, this is a way of eating for life. Once you're at your goal weight, you can tone down the intense-exercise a tad, but don't stop or metabolism rates will fall.
  • Weigh yourself once a week and keep track of your progress. If you weight disappoints you too much -- then you can check it the next day or two to see how weight varies from day to day.
  • Go to your local thrift shop and get some 80's aerobics videos. The outfits are incredibly hilarious but the workouts are great.
  • Make a list of stuff you can do when you feel like eating but you shouldn't because you're really not hungry.
  • Eat before you go out and don't take enough money to buy food while you're out.
  • Cut out the sugars (no hard/chewy candies, or chocolates pastries/cookies) to avoid your gaining the next 5 pounds.
  • Buy a calorie counter book; the ones that have all the foods and what their calories are. Counting calories can be incredibly detailed, but the book has some great information at the start of the book, or Use an online source like caloriecount.com, as an alternative to an actual book.
  • Consume about 1800 to 2400 calories per day, depending on how much exercise you do. Avoid starving.
  • Get some suitable shoes for your exercise.
  • Buy a dress or a pair of jeans that are too small - now you have something to work towards.
  • Avoid buying the problem foods. If you like sugary foods or don't really eat "healthy", don't keep a supply of such junk food. But make some changes and instead of just immediately cutting them out of your diet, eat them in smaller and smaller portions. Try to see whether you can eat small, low sugar and low fat portions, and slowly cut them out of your diet. Replace them with fresh fruits, salad, cucumber, zucchinis, carrot sticks, etc.
  • Don't eat out of boredom. Find something else to do; like exercise.
  • Drink water or non-sugared tea. You may also want to consider adding plain lemon, limes, or crystal light packets (artificially sweetened mixes) to water, if you do not like the taste of water.
  • Read "Chew On This" or "Fast Food Nation." You'll never eat junk food again.
  • Listen to your body, it can tell you what it needs (thirst=water, hunger=slim snack) and when it wants you to stop packing in junk, or when you're full. Don't eat out of habit or boredom.
  • Get very good at saying no when people (or your own appetite) offer you food that will sabotage your diet. Think of saying, "No!" as a healthier lifestyle choice. That should inspire you to take care of your body. Feed it only when needed.
  • Try chewing sugar-free gum when you get a craving. Many companies are starting to come out with food-flavored gum that really helps to throw a curve in your craving.
  • Link exercise with relaxation. If you are stressed or feeling badly about yourself, go on a long walk or go for a swim instead of crashing and eating a high calorie, non-nutritious/fattening snack.
    • Fitness will pay off in the long run, and it will actually make you feel much better/more satisfied than eating the bad fatty/sugary foods.

Warnings

  • If you are seriously overweight, you should see a doctor immediately. This 'lifestyle plan' is only recommended for girls wanting to lose 10-15 pounds.
  • Don't expect to lose more than a kilo (2.2 pounds) a week. Any more than that is unhealthy. Having said that, you might just get a lucky week and lose 3 kilos. The next week you might not lose any. Weight loss is unpredictable and very hard.
  • Weight does not all come from body fat, muscle adds in weight as well. Starving yourself will weaken your muscles and destroy/lower your metabolism, thus making you even more unhealthy. Once you come to your senses, stop starving yourself, it will take awhile for your metabolism to recover. Starvation means you would put on a lot of weight very easily when start eating normally for maintenance (when metabolism is lowered your body thinks it is going to die and defends itself by putting on weight at every opportunity).
  • Puberty will cause you to gain weight, this is perfectly normal. Don't expect to look like a 12 year old when you're 15. Curves are a beautiful thing.
  • Consult a doctor before starting a diet; doctors will help you to choose the appropriate diet for your situation.
  • Never try to lose weight too quickly. You'll just end up regaining all the lost weight.
  • Do not get pills. Also everyone goes through a chubby phase it is just a part of growing up!

Related link



martedì 5 giugno 2012

Abdominal Exercises



How to Lose Belly Fat

from http://www.truthaboutabs.com/ab/?hop=inter98


There are a lot of annoying gimmicks about how to get rid of belly fat. While there's no "magic bullet" that will target abdominal fat in particular, this article will explain what causes an expanding waistline, and how you can make the spare tire go away.

Steps

  1. Figure out your body type - There are three general forms of body types we all possess. You either have an Endomorph, Mesomorph, or an Ectomorph body type. An Endomorph body type is the more "big boned" type, a Eesomorph is an "athletic" build, and an Ectomorph is more of a "lanky" body type. Knowing which body type you are will help you customize your require workout routine and diet around it, making fat loss much easier.
  2. Exercise for weight loss. Aerobic exercise will facilitate fat-loss all over your body, including your belly. You can't "spot-burn" belly fat, but it's usually the first to burn off when you exercise, regardless of your body shape or size.[1][2] Just be sure that you focus on calorie-burning exercises, rather than sit-ups or crunches. If your abdominal muscles are covered in fat, no strengthening of those muscles is going to change that. Aerobic exercise is key.[1]
  3. Add resistance training. A 2006 study published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism suggests that combining cardiovascular (aerobic) exercise with resistance training is more effective than cardiovascular training alone in getting rid of abdominal fat[3] You can do resistance training with free weights, exercise machines, or resistance bands.
  4. Reduce your calorie consumption. Unless you restrict your calorie intake, you're not going to lose belly fat. There are some tactics that might help do away with belly fat faster (discussed below) but they are only effective when you've already consistently restricted your calorie intake. Keep a food diary for a week to see how much you normally eat per day. Once you have a baseline, a good starting point is to reduce that daily amount by 300 calories per day. Measure your waistline before you start cutting calories, and measure again a month later.
  5. Switch out refined grains for whole grains. In a scientific study, people who ate all whole grains (in addition to five servings of fruits and vegetables, three servings of low-fat dairy, and two servings of lean meat, fish, or poultry) lost more belly fat than another group that ate the same diet, but with all refined grains. A diet rich in whole grains changes the glucose and insulin response in your body, which hastens the melting of fat, and visceral fat, that deep layer of fat, is easier for your body to burn than the subcutaneous fat under your skin (the fat that you can see and grab).[1]
  6. Eat the better fats. Studies suggest that a diet with a higher ratio of monounsaturated fats (MUFAs) (avocados, nuts, seeds, soybeans, chocolate) can prevent the accumulation of both types of belly fat.[4] Some experts argue, though, that it's not that these fats specifically target abdominal fat in any way; it's that anyone will probably lose weight on a lower calorie diet (regardless of where those calories come from) and as discussed earlier, belly fat is usually the first to go.[1]
    • Trans fats (in margarines, crackers, cookies--anything made with partially hydrogenated oils) seem to result in more fat being deposited in the abdomen, so avoid these as much as you can.[5]
  7. Get more fiber in your diet. Soluble fiber (apples, oats, cherries) lowers insulin levels, which, as mentioned earlier, can speed up the burning of visceral belly fat.[5]
    • Add fiber to your diet slowly. If you are currently getting 10 grams of fiber a day, don't jump to 35 grams of fiber the next day. You need to give the natural bacteria in your digestive system time to adapt to your new fiber intake.
    • Leave the skin on your fruits and vegetables. Incorporating more fruits and vegetables into your diet will add fiber, but only if you eat the skin, because that's where all the fiber is. So don't peel those apples before you eat them. If you're eating potatoes, try to leave the skin in the dish (such as if making baked or mashed potatoes) or if you peel them, make a snack out of them, such as baked garlic Parmesan peels. It's also worth knowing that keeping the skin on potatoes when you cook them will help keep more vitamins and minerals in the flesh. Just don't eat any parts of skin that are green.
    • Eat more split pea soup. Split peas is a fiber "power food". Just one cup of them contains 16.3 grams of protein.
  8. Aim to take 10,000 steps a day. In a study where a group of men were asked to reduce their daily steps from about 10,000 to less than 1,500 (without changing their diet), their visceral (belly) fat increased by 7% after just 2 weeks.[6] Get a pedometer and try to increase the number of steps you take each day. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk instead of driving. Stand up and walk for 30 steps every 30 minutes. If you have a sedentary job, consider getting a treadmill desk.
  9. Motivate yourself by understanding the risks associated with belly fat. Losing belly fat doesn't have to be solely a cosmetic goal; understanding the health issues linked with belly fat can help motivate you. Belly fat is linked with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. Specifically it's the deepest layer of belly fat--the fat you can't see or grab--that poses health risks. That's because these "visceral" fat cells actually produce hormones and other substances that can affect your health (e.g. increased insulin resistance and/or breast cancer risk).[2] The fact that they're located right next to and in between organs in your abdominal cavity doesn't help. For example, fat next to the liver drains into it, causing a fatty liver, which is a risk factor for insulin resistance, setting the stage for Type 2 diabetes.[7]
    • Wrap a tape measure around your waist at the level of your navel. A measurement of more than 35 inches (women) and 40 inches (men) is considered to be unhealthy.[2][1][7]

Video






Tips

  • An additional benefit to exercising is that it reduces stress and insulin levels, which reduces the presence of cortisol, a hormone that leads to more belly fat deposits.[5]
  • Since cortisol leads to more belly fat, and cortisol is linked with stress, anything you can do to cut stress in your life will also indirectly cut (or at least prevent more) belly fat.
  • The way your body distributes fat is largely beyond control (heredity, menopause). What is within your control is your level of body fat overall--if you keep that low, it won't really matter where the fat goes, because there won't be much fat to deposit in the first place.
  • Many women start gaining more weight in their belly as they get older, especially after menopause. The body fat distribution changes--less fat goes to your arms, legs and hips, and more of it goes to your midsection. Some people even find their waistline widening while their weight remains the same.[2] Nonetheless, the above steps will help to do away with belly fat.
  • If you don't have weights for resistance training, you can by lifting anything heavy, or you can use gravity as resistance: Do pull ups and push ups.
  • If you're having trouble getting motivated to exercise, get halfway there. If you want to go to the gym, but just don't feel like it, at least just drive yourself to gym, and tell yourself that if you still don't feel like working out, you'll go home. Odds are, though, once you're there, you won't feel like driving home. (But if you do, that's OK too. But you probably won't.) Then tell yourself you'll just walk on the treadmill for 10 minutes, even if your exercise routine involves much more. Just telling yourself to do one more thing, without having to commit to anything else, will make things much easier. And before long, your endorphins will take over.
  • An easy way to burn more fat is to walk everywhere within a reasonable distance. You save money on gas, and also save wear and tear on your vehicle. And you might save parking charges and/or cab, bus or subway fares. All you need are comfortable shoes (take your dressier shoes with you if necessary) and walk, walk, walk. Pick up the pace as you get fitter to make those short journeys even quicker and smile at all the traffic traveling bumper to bumper in the rush hour. Biking is also a good option as you are working hard and getting to your destination faster.
  • Eat smaller dinners. You don't need to stop eating the things you like, but you should try eating smaller portions inch by inch. Large dinners tend to hurt a fat loss process because most people aren't very active after dinner. This is the basis for advice along the lines of "don't eat anything within a certain number of hours before going to bed". The claim that your entire dinner is stored as fat isn't entirely true. The process is more complicated than that, but the fact you don't move after dinner is enough to hurt your cause. You can offset this by eating a larger lunch or snacking healthily before dinner.
  • If you get lots of sweet cravings, replace sweets and sugar with fruits. The sugars in fruits are digested differently than the empty calories of white sugar that are in most candy and processed foods. The fiber in fruit also slows the absorption of the sugars so you don't get as high a sugar rush (and as low a crash).
  • At times, for lack of anything better to do, some people snack. This is usually due to a craving, rather than hunger. When you find yourself wandering for food, try to do something that's not food-related to hold your attention.
  • On days where you are feeling dragged down because you haven't slept much, make sure you get some lean proteins in your body. When we haven't slept, our bodies tend to crave sugar and "junk food." We can curtail this by getting lean proteins such as nuts and fish into our diet.

Warnings

  • Doing only sit-ups and crunches can actually cause the appearance of more belly fat, as the abdominal muscles grow in size and shape, they will push out against the fat, making it appear larger and thicker.
  • If you've gained weight or been pregnant, you may have excess skin in the belly area that won't disappear no matter how much fat you burn. You will only know how much excess skin there is, though, if you get rid of all the fat first. It is also possible that your skin will tighten up again once you've lost the belly fat.

Related wikiHows

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Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Lose Belly Fat. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.