Your metabolism is simply the amount of energy, or calories, your body needs to do what it needs to do. And the higher your metabolic rate is, the less likely you are to have excess body fat. In fact, increasing your body’s metabolism is one very effective way to lose weight.

Your body uses calories for everything. It uses calories to process and digest foods you eat. It uses calories to maintain your body’s muscles, keep your heart pumping, keep your organs functioning properly, and even to make your hair and nails grow. And when your body uses more calories than it consumes, you can lose weight.

Now, there are many ways to boost your body’s metabolism. In general, the healthier your body is, the better it will utilize the calories you consume. In fact, with proper nutrition and exercise, your body’s metabolism rates can actually be increased enough to allow you to be able to eat almost anything you want, within reason of course.

People who restrict their calorie intake severely actually lower the body’s metabolism though, and this is a phenomenon many people have a difficult time understanding or believing. When you severely restrict your caloric intake, the body automatically decreases its energy expenditures to the bare minimum, because it thinks you’re starving. That’s why you don’t see very fast weight loss after the first couple of weeks on those very low calorie diets. You’re miserable, you’re not healthy and yu’re not losing weight hardly at all after a while. That’s why we don’t recommend them at all.

One easy way to start boosting your metabolism, is to continuously feed your body.

When we say continuously feed your body, we don’t mean that you should nibble on piles of junk food all day long. You should eat a small meal every three to four hours, but it should be more healthy foods which force your body to work harder when processing them.

Protein for instance, takes more work for your body to digest and process. Many raw fruits and vegetables are the same. And when the foods you eat force your body to work harder at processing them, you automatically boost your metabolism just with that one small change.

Exercise is another way to boost your metabolism, particularly if you build and tone your body’s muscles. Muscles take more energy for the body to maintain, so you automatically burn more calories, and have a higher metabolism, when you have more toned muscle on your body. To keep your metabolic rate high, and thus burn more calories, it’s good to do something active, something that brings your temperature up, frequently. Every hour or so, for instance, you could take a brisk walk or do some lunges or some “executive pushups” on your desk.

Boosting your metabolism not only helps you lose weight though, it also helps give you more energy. Essentially, when you start working to increase your body’s metabolism, you are teaching it that you need more energy throughout the day. And since it’s using more energy to keep you maintained, it will step up the process and actually provide you with more energy too. And that’s a great feeling!   –Di

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What to do when you feel that craving for a huge bowl of ice cream, preferably with chocolate syrup and pecans and whipped cream and a cherry on top, comes into your mind? Or perhaps it’s a “works” pizza that is beckoning to you. Just site there for a moment and imagine how good that would taste. Imagine the cool sweetness of the ice cream with the crunchy counterplay of the nuts, and the tart sweet flavor of the cherry. Really think about the interplay of flavors from the hot rich pizza. The crust and the cheese and the sauce and the meats. Imagine how wonderful it will taste. Imagine that slightly full satisfied feeling in your belly. Use all your senses.

Then imagine what it would be like to wake up in the morning feeling full of energy. Imagine that all your clotes are loose on your body and the most stylish designs look really good on you. Imagine looking into a mirror before your bath and seeing a trim figure. Imagine feeling lightness in your step. Imagine seats and seatbelts in airplanes having lots of extra room. Imagine admiring glances coming your way. Imagine all the possibilities of your trim healthy body. Imagine in great detail how that would be. How would you feel about that?

Which craving do you want more? Go for it! –Di

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Come to think of it, if the reason we crave chocolate is the natural substances in cocoa beans, then the most undiluted, darkest chocolate would be the most popular. Actually, it’s the chocolate made by the alkalai process that removes more constituents that is then diluted with lots of sugar and milk or just coats some other nice thing, like nuts or caramel, or whatever, that people like most in Europe and most of the U.S. So another favorite idea bites the dust.

The researchers say it’s the total sensuous experience that counts. I’ll go along with that. I believe you can eat anything on a healthy diet. Just not very much.

Take heart, though, researchers at Queen Mary, University of London, has found that flavinoids in dark chocolate at good for the heart. You need about an ounce of 75-85% chocolate a day. They will be running clinical tests to prove this and I would definitely volunteer for that, even at roughly 165 calories. –Di

You can check out the BBC’s article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6991289.stm

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But how did I fare on it? Keep in mind that I have been following a fairly conscious plan of eating for some time so I will not show the huge water losses that some people do when they first start a restricted eating plan like this one. In short, your results may vary, as the legalese goes. I lost 4 pounds on the 11 days of eating exactly what was on the list every day. Even though the plan says no exercise, I did take 40 minute walks on about five of those days, in addition to my usual 2 miles or so that I put in just doing the daily things. I gained one of those pounds back back after a weekend that included some yummy carbs like whole grain bread, brown rice, and pizza dough. So, in two weeks I lost 3 pounds. Not exactly the 9 lbs promised on the website, but a noticeable loss nontheless.

So, at this juncture, I would say one advantage of this program is that it is very easy to follow. You just choose what you like from two lists, generate the diet plan, and then go buy the stuff on the list and eat it as the days go by. Your eat four meals a day from the list in any order.

Since there are no specified quantities for anything, it is essential, as the directions say, to stop eating the moment you are no longer hungry rather than waiting until you are full. That’s good advice no matter what plan you are or aren’t on.

The variety of foods is better so boredom is less and the nutritional value higher than the previous version of the plan.

One big plus is there there are no sugary sweets whatsoever so you (I) can begin to lose your craving for those diet spoilers. You eat fruit and artificially sweetened (or not) drinks. No sugar or high fructose corn syrup or honey or any of those things.

It was reasonably effective. Really fast weightloss is usually all water and muscle and does not do a body good. This is a reasonable rate. A bit more restraint on the proportions and a bit more exercise would have made it work better for me, I’m pretty sure.

So I’m going to raise my overall rating from 2 stars to 3 1/2. If you would like to give it a closer look go here and check it out. Cheers! –Di

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They found that if a person becomes obese, their friends and family, especially those of the same sex, have a greater chance of becoming obese themselves.

If your friend puts on the pounds, your own chances of doing the same go up 57%. If two or more of your mutual friends are large, your chances go up 117%! If your brother or sister or spouse is obese (a score of 30 or more on the Body Mass Index scale), your likelihood increases around 40%.

It wasn’t that the obese or non obese people were just finding similar types to hang out with. Nope, there was a causal relationship. This was also not just due to similarities in lifestyle or environment, like eating the same things or exercising (or not) together. People, especially friends, who lived a long way away from each other were just as likely to share being obese or non-obese. The researchers wrote that the effect might be from how we establish/confirm our idea of what is “OK and “normal” with respect to body size.

“What appears to be happening is that a person becoming obese most
likely causes a change of norms about what counts as an appropriate
body size. People come to think that it is okay to be bigger since
those around them are bigger, and this sensibility spreads,” said
Nicholas Christakis of HMS.

“This is about people’s ideas about their
bodies and their health,” James Fowler, of UCSD, said. “Consciously or unconsciously,
people look to others when they are deciding how much to eat, how much
to exercise and how much weight is too much.”

A lot of what we have been reading about in the past has dealt with looking at the physical processes involved in becoming obese or thin and looking for genes that might have some effect. Now we know we also have to look at a person’s social networks - their friends, their friends’ friends, and their immediate family. (Didn’t see anything in this article about parents. Wonder what effect their weight state might have.)

The good thing is, that when one person moves out of obesity, they also help a lot of others do the same thing. So now we owe it to our friends and family to become the healthy, active, slim person we all are, deep down inside.  –Di

To read more about this: Obesity Is ‘Socially Contagious,’ Study Finds

technorati tags:obesity, weight, loss, social, networks, obese, friends

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But the fact is, for me, water doesn’t do anything useful about my hunger pangs. But, I thought, it’s probably something one should do anyway. At least 8 8oz glasses of water a day, right?

Well, not so fast. Dartmouth Medical School professor Heinz Valtin, M.D. just had an article published in the online version of the American Journal of Physiology that says there isn’t good scientific evidence to support the old advice to drink the 8 x 8 of pure water, at least, every day. He says the water in other things you drink, including coffee and tea, does count and there is also a lot of water in real fruits and vegetables. Furthermore, he says, drinking too much water can be really bad.

He says the body has perfectly good mechanism for regulating your hydration status. When you’re thirsty, drink. Seems like a good message to me. –Di
Dartmouth Medical School - ‘Drink at Least 8 Glasses of Water a Day’ - Really?

Tags: weightloss, drink water, hydration, hunger

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Anyway, for one of the meetings they brought in an internal medicine doctor who’s been on the staff here for many years. She said quite a few employees come to her for help with losing weight and she noticed that many of them seemed depressed. That’s “mildly depressed” in a clinical sense. Serious depression requires serious treatment.

She said that she had noticed that when some people took over-the-counter herbal aniti-depressants like Rhodiola, they felt more optimistic, more in control of things, and could manage their weight better. She said she has many friends who swear by the stuff. This is not hard scientific evidence, of course. This is definitely anecdotal. But I thought I would pass it along in case my dear readers might want to give it a try. Might help, probably won’t hurt.

The name of the plant involved is Rhodiola rosea. This stuff is cheap, readily available and has a very long history of not being harmful. It’s the root and/or its extract that you want, with at least 10.2 mg of Rosavins per capsule. You take one of those a day and see what happens. Will go have a look and see what else I can dig up abut this herb. –Di

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Now, instead of almost all meals consisiting of one thing only, most of the meals have at least two different constitutents. The overall plan is also more balanced. There is an all fruit day and and all veggie day in my plan, both of which are a bit tough for a person who likes varied meals. But it's only one day each and you certainly feel light after those days.

The exercise requirement is now gone for people on the computer diet.

There is also a guide to create your own diet based on carb or protein classifications of foods. So you can have a bit more variety if you want to plan your own meals. That system does require the exercise. A good thing, IMHO.

Will let you know how I fare this time around. Meanwhile go have a look yourself if you'd like. The site, again, is Fat Loss 4 Idiots. –Di

technorati tags:Fat, Loss, 4, Idiots, diets, weight, loss, diet, program

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But even before the ol’ clock says it’s time for refueling, the ol’ tum is saying “feeeed me.” “Just a little.” Well, we all know how much “just a little” can turn into.

I read this tip a while back and didn’t think much of it. But recently I did it for other reasons and it had the desired effect so I thought you should know.

Just go brush your teeth. Do a good job with toothpaste if that’s how you would normally do it. Do this right after every little meal or whenever you start to feel a hint of wanting to have a snack. For some reason, the psyche doesn’t want to mess up that clean feeling in your mouth and so you don’t want to put any junk in it any more. Or maybe the teeth brushing is something you normally do right before you go through a period of not eating and so it’s linked to “not eating time” in your mind. However it works, I was astonished at how quickly and completely my desire for a snack went away.

Try it and let me know how it works for you.  –Di

Tags: loseweight, diet, hunger

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People have noticed for a long time that if they had meals that had a noticeable amount of protein in them, they weren't hungry so soon.

Back in 1999, there was a report in The International Journal of Obesity about 65 overweight folks were put on one of two low-calorie diets. One diet had 12% of its calories from protein and the other was 25% protein. Nobody was asked to exercise. After six months, the higher protein group had lost more weight.

There are a lot of people who think that's why the Atkins diet works. People who are on this diet for more than a couple of days start to eat less than they did before, even though they can have unlimited amounts of protein and fat. Their calorie consumption goes down into the 1200 kcal range, which is where most people will lose weight, at least until they hit plateau. It was discovered that it was the protein that was suppressing their appetites, not, surprisingly, the fat.

In May of last year, Science had a report that injection of a very small amount of one of the building blocks of proteins, an amino acid called leucine, into their brains caused starved rats to eat less than their brothers who got no such injection. And, in December, there was a report on the positive effects of high protein diets on levels of a biochemical appetite suppressor protein called PYY and weight loss in mice in the journal Cell Metabolism. Of course, humans aren't rodents so the mechanism by which we feel fuller longer after protein-containing meals will still have to be worked out.

It seems pretty clear, though, that one very good natural way to rein in the appetite is to make sure our meals and snacks get somewhere between a quarter to a third of calories from proteins. My own opinion is that the ratio shouldn't go higher than that, on average, because we need the vitamins, phytonutrients, fiber, and so on from fruits and veggies, too, for our overall health. There is also some evidence protein stimulates the metabolism a little. It is also muscle-sparing, meaning we don't have to turn into skinny fatties after dieting for a while. –Di

technorati tags:high, protein, diet, weight, loss, appetite, suppression

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