Dieting - Share Your Experience

Kayla asked:


I am looking to lose about 20 pounds, and I was wondering if anybody had any specific dieting tips, shortcuts, or suggestions. Or even a suggestion on some simple/affordable decent home workout equipment.

Thanks!!

Kaylee

JP Richardson asked:


When looking for a colon cleansing method, food is a popular choice because generally gives people the peace of mind that they are being safer than taking a drug they don’t know much about.  A homemade colon cleansing diet is a smart choice, because the foods beneficial for colon cleansing contain ingredients we should be ingesting anyway.

The purpose of a diet for colon cleansing is to remove toxins from the body, and when the process is complete, the body will feel healthier overall.  Colon cleansing can be done by simply making some tweaks to the diet.  There are two main ingredients that must be plentiful in the recipes- fiber and water.  At least 25 grams of fiber should be ingested each day, and a rule of thumb for water is to take in half your pound weight in ounces, or approximately 64 ounces each day. 

Some people cleanse the colon by drinking only juices from vegetables and natural fruits, but this fasting method is not popular because most people need solid foods.  Eating the vegetables and natural fruits are beneficial to the diet as they are high in fiber.  Whole grain and bran cereals also are good, and sneaking extra fiber in isn’t difficult.  Adding flaxseed to cereal, or taking a supplement will do the trick.

It is better to go the natural way, and stay away from laxatives, because the drugs often contain chemicals and bring on side effects.  As always, consulting a doctor before starting any homemade colon cleansing diet is the safest way to go.  After all, this is our digestive system we are talking about.



Blake

Jun Yuan Lim asked:


I’m going to share with you in this article 7 dieting tips you can follow closely to help you in your weight loss journey. These 7 dieting tips, if followed closely, will definitely help you to boost your energy and vitality, improve your skin tone, make your hair much glossier, and at the same time help you to lose weight fast.

Tip #01 - Eat Organic Foods As Well As Increase Your Intake Of Fruits & Vegetables

The next time you do your grocery shopping, select foods that are organic as well as fill up your refrigerator with more fruits and vegetables.

Tip #02 - Your Choice Of Drinks

Cut down on your intake of alcoholic drinks, fizzy drinks, and drinks with caffeine - if possible, stop drinking such drinks altogether. Instead, opt for drinks such as green tea, which is loaded with antioxidant, and make sure you drink lots of fresh water - about 2 liters daily. The reason is because water will help flush out your system and is also known to help speed up the whole fat burning process in your body.

Tip #03 - STOP Eating Processed Foods

You should stop eating processed foods such as burgers and pizzas, and opt for foods such as oats, brown rice and jacket potatoes - all these foods will help your body maintain a good blood-sugar level and also provide you with energy you need for your daily activities.

Tip #04 - Eat “Good” Fats

Your body will need some “good” fats, which will help boost our body’s immune system, as well as making our skin, hair and nails look better.

You can get “good” fats from foods such as oily fish (such as mackerel, salmon, sardines, herrings, olive oil, etc.)

Fish oil capsules are also another good source of “good” fats.

Tip #05 - Eat Foods With Lean Protein

By eating foods that are rich in lean protein will help keep you full for longer periods. It also helps prevent insulin spikes that will lead to energy falls and sugar cravings.

On top of that, foods with lean proteins contain muscle mass, which helps in the whole fat burning process in your body.

You can get lean proteins from foods such as cottage cheese, low fat yogurt, skimmed milk, egg whiles, skinless chicken, beef, kidney beans, tofu and soy products.

Tip #06 - Eat Foods That Are Fiber Rich

Fiber rich foods will help make you full, so that will will not overeat, and gain weight.

An average person could lose around 10 pounds yearly simply by doubling their intake of fiber.

Fiber rich foods are also normally low in their calorie levels. Some fiber-rich foods are strawberries, apples, broccoli, brown rice, beans, and nuts.

Tip #07 - DO NOT skip breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal in the day - you must make sure you eat breakfast everyday so as to avoid hunger pangs later in the day.

To sum up, the above are 7 dieting tips for you and if you were to follow them closely and consistently (most people follow these plans for awhile and they give up just because they did not see significant results - don’t do that - follow through the whole plan consistently over a period of time), I can guarantee you that you’ll be able to shed some weight off your body in no time.



Grace

Sasha James asked:


One of the main obstacles for fast gaining muscle mass is proper calorie - protein intake balance. I often see so many people write different things about the protein consumption importance for mass building but often I read complete misguiding and even dangerous claims. Yes, some of things about diet are dangerous because they are not complete.

To make it short I give you example of Bob Hanks, 28 year weight lifter. His weight is 167 pounds and he regularly takes 330 grams of protein a day. But he still has a little problem gaining mass and strength. He asked me to advice him regarding how many calories, carbs and fat one should take and if he should raise protein daily intake to even higher than 330 grams.

I bet you can relate to his situation which is not an unusual one. At least I get similar kind of questions very often. For many people to build lean muscle seem to be difficult. Since for precise calculation we need to know exact height, age, or current calorie consumption for the purpose of describing the basic procedure I will be free to make a few guesses.

The height and age does not have lot of influence but it does help to know these things when creating the effective plan for mass building diet. Most of weight lifters which do have this problem do lack in usually 2 things. On the first place one should really go heavy and work hard in the gym. Without creating maximum overload your muscles do not receive impulse to grow. Best and only honest advice I can give you is that you immediately start using advanced training method.

One of great tools I use is metabolic growth calculator which you will receive as a member. It is great time saver but steel you should know basics of proper nutrition in order to make sure you are consuming enough calories to facilitate your muscles to grow. I do recommend 20 - 22 calories per pound of bodyweight. So if you weigh 167lbs you will need to get (167 x 22 in winter or x 20 calories in summer period). So in winter it will make 3674 calories each day.

Now remember, as you do gain more muscle mass you need to increase your caloric intake. Let’s say after 2 weeks you weigh 170. Since it is winter you caloric intake must be 3740 calories. 170 x 20 = 3740. I hope you are already convinced about protein importance for muscle mass building. If you are not here is what I can say - in order to put on lean muscle and add strength you need lots of high quality protein. Not expensive supplements no. I said high quality protein in your diet. One greater bonus you can receive is called “Empowered Nutrition, 84 day healthy meal plans” what is in fact real secret weapon for boosting your muscle growth. So with it you will be completely prepared and you will advance fast.

Most important is to take care that half of your caloric intake comes from protein. Than 40% you should take from the complex carbohydrates and only about 10% of your daily calorie will come from fat. So, here you have simple but powerful and proven formula for calculating your proper muscle mass building diet. You must learn the trick of keeping it this low. It is not hard if you have some help.



Layla

S Reid asked:


Quick fixes in the form of diet pills or any other food supplements are to be avoided because they may pose severe health problems because most of them are full of harmful chemicals.

One of the best ways to reduce weight and get rid of extra fat is to eat a nutritious meal every time. If you really want to lose that gut then you should fill your bellies with healthy foods as much as possible. To lose weight, your diet should be composed of low calorie foods. One reminder though, you won’t see drastic results with a healthy meal plan as opposed to fad diets that promise to take the fat off almost overnight. But the bad thing about fad diets is that the fat you lose with them will return most likely .

Another problem with most fad diets is that they are prone to cause undernourishment because they usually prescribe foods that lack vital nutrients that are essential in good health and also in losing weight. Worse, nutrient-deficient diets can lead to permanent and more serious health problems. Remember that the most effective and safest diets are the ones that allow you you to slim down gradually and not overnight as most fad diets claim. A healthy diet should consist of plenty of lean meats such as fish and chicken and fruits and vegetables. Healthy fats such as fish oil should also be a part of your diet if you want to lose weight.

When losing weight, remember that your goal should be good health more than looking good or vanity. For what will you do with a fit body if you are sickly and weak? This is probably one of the best weight loss dieting tips that you will receive.



John

Alien asked:


Green tea is believed to be a potential agent, which can help you to lose weight. Weight loss has become a serious matter in the present world. The possible reasons for weight loss can be many such as lifestyle factors, the diet and stress and strain the modern life. Let me start of by saying that the number one question I am asked regarding green tea has to be whether or not it will help one to lose weight. I mean, I get this daily. So does it? Well, kind of. It has caffeine in it, and caffeine does give your metabolism a slight boost. The effect is known as “thermogenesis.” To quote Wikipedia: Thermogenesis is the process of heat production in organisms.

What is Green Tea Diet?

A Green Tea Diet is the regular intake of green tea. You may take green tea as a drink, pill or weight loss patch.

Health benefits of Green Tea Diet

Although green tea has been used for more than 4000 years in China for treating a wide variety of ailments, I will list some recent medical and scientific researches into the health benefits of green tea diet in short:

+ anti aging effect

+ refreshing effect

+ lowers high cholesterol levels

+ lowers blood sugar level

+ promotes dental health

Green Tea Diet also helps you:

+ protect against Alzheimer’s disease

+ prevent rheumatoid arthritis

+ improve insulin sensitivity in Type 2 Diabetes

+ improve immune system defenses to fight against viruses (such as flu)

+ promotes dental health

Green Tea weight loss

To get rid of fat you either need to lower you food intake (follow a diet plan), or increase your energy expenditure (do exercising).

The green tea weight loss effect is due to the EGCG antioxidant that increases energy expenditure and accelerates fat burning. That makes Green Tea Diet a very smart choice for all people who hate strict dieting, or are tired of starving, or everyday exercising.

Green tea weight loss diet is a great way for everyone to lose weight easily and naturally, without any negative side effects.

The dark side of drinking green tea.

Well, the good news is that there isn’t any bad news other than the fact that green tea contains caffeine which may or may not be something that you want in your body. The caffeine count is substantially lower than coffee and other teas, however, and the benefits of drinking green tea seem to greatly outweigh the side effects of caffeine; at least for most people.

How much green tea is right for you?

That depends upon who you listen to. Some Chinese homeopathic health practitioners call for 10 cups a day, while some health researchers say that 2 to 3 cups will do the trick. When you look at all of the varying research, and take the average, 4 to 5 eight ounce cups of green tea per day should be good enough for most people.

Keep in mind that this tea is not going to be the perfect answer to lose a lot of weight without making any other changes to your lifestyle. Don’t think you can eat thousands of calories a day and drink your tea and still lose weight, because you won’t. However, if added to a proper diet and exercise, it can help you to lose weight on a long term basis. You also need to consider the fact that this tea contains caffeine so if you have any health problems like heart condition or high blood pressure then it’s not something you can drink in large quantities. If the caffeine is an issue, consider the green tea extract as it is made from decaffeinated tea.

If however you are healthy and are looking for an edge to help you make your weight loss goals happen in an easier and faster way, then consider green tea supplements in one form or another. You’ll be glad you did.



Angelina

Sean Tan asked:


Food fads come and go, but the weight loss has stayed. As time goes by and the diet achieves greater successes, more and more people want to know about what it is. If you are not sure yet about what this diet is and what it can do, read on.

What does GI mean?

GI is an acronym for glycemic index (spelt glycaemic in UK English). It is a measurement of how carbohydrate foods and drinks can affect the level of the glucose in the blood. There are some carbohydrates that undergo rapid disintegration (metabolism) in the body, releasing glucose quickly into the system. Other carbohydrates do not do it that fast. The former kinds of foods are known as the high GI foods and the latter kinds are known as the low GI foods.

The GI is a measurable quantity. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 100. From the dietician’s point of view, foods that have a glycemic index of above 70 are considered as high GI foods while foods that have a glycemic index of less than 55 are considered to be low GI foods.

How do low GI foods help the body?

The basic principle why the low glycemic load diet is considered to be healthier is because it allows the foods to release their energies slowly in the body. That allows the foods to get digested in a much better manner. When the foods are digested slowly, the body is also able to burn all the calories present in it. Also, since the foods are slow release, the person doesn’t feel hungry as often as before.

What are the health benefits of a Low GI Diet?

By burning off the calories, the slow release foods of the healthy way to achieve permanent weight loss do not get accumulated in the arteries and veins. That is the reason when a person sticks to a diet plan; the chances of having cardiovascular diseases are significantly lowered. One more point to be stressed is that because the food is a slow release food, the person will not feel hunger. This is the principle of the dropping weight for people who want to reduce weight. The diet breakthrough is also a wonderful diet for people who want to fight the possibilities of diabetes mellitus type 2.

How to plan a Low Glycemic Diet pyramid?

Your dietician can be your best help to plan out a low glycemic index diet for you. The main part of this diet is that you have to use foods that are slow release. You can even find a list of such foods over the Internet and give you good information and tips on planning out a low glycemic index diet.



Karl