Millions of people resort to crash dieting every year with the same staggering effects: They feel worse after the crash dieting than before! Crash dieting can be dangerous for your overall health and fitness. Let’s take a look at some of the dangers of crash dieting and you tell me if you’ve done some of these things before, ok?

Danger #1 - Trying to lose a lot of weight really fast. Continue reading »

The Atkins Diet is the grand daddy of the quick weight loss diets.  It’s based on severely limiting carbohydrates.   Carbs are processed by the body to become sugar or glucose.  Glucose is used by the body for energy.  If the carbs consumed for the day aren’t enough, the body transforms the fat it has stored back into glucose for energy.  Carbs also cause the blood sugar to spike which signals the body to produce insulin to remove the sugar from the bloodstream.  This causes the blood sugar to drop which results in a craving for more carbs to raise it back up. That’s the basis of the Atkin’s Diet.  Severely limit carbohydrates in the daily diet and the body has to fall back on its fat storage for energy.

The initial two week kick start program only allows 20 grams of carbs per day. The carbs from fiber are netted – subtracted from the total carb count.  So for example, while ¼ cup of blueberries has a total carb count of 5.1 grams, only 4.1 grams are counted because 1 gram is from fiber. Continue reading »

There’s rather a sad part to being overweight that goes way beyond the mere fact that you’re unable to get into your favorite outfit. Many people who are overweight, especially if they have found that they’re unable to lose the pounds no matter what they do, tend to reach a point of acceptance. They stop trying, even to the point of making excuses for their appearance. Some will even go as far as to say that there’s just more of them to love. If you’ve been there, you know who you are and what a lonely place it really is. Well, the first thing that somebody needs to do when attempting to lose weight is actual deal with the problem in a realistic way without burying their head in the sand and either pretending it will go away or that it doesn’t matter. This article will focus on some of the main things you’ll need to do psychologically in order to deal with actually taking off the pounds.

The first, and probably most important thing that you’ll have to do is to accept that you’re overweight and that you need to diet. Denial is not going to get you anywhere. You have to stare the problem right in the face and confront it head on. You have to have a positive attitude that you’re going to lose the weight. Sometimes attitude is everything. So going in with that positive attitude will make things a heck of a lot easier. Continue reading »

The South Beach Diet is similar to the Atkins Diet in that it has an initial two week phase I period that drastically reduces carbs.  The difference between Atkins and South Beach is that there are good carbs and bad carbs. The glycemic index of a food is what counts.  The glycemic index is how much a food increases blood sugar compared to the amount that same quantity of white bread would increase blood sugar.

A spike in the blood sugar or glucose, signals the pancreas to make more insulin. The insulin’s job is to get the sugar out of the blood stream into the organs for energy or into storage.  The body stores glucose as fat.  Keeping the blood sugar from spiking means less insulin is produced which means the sugars are absorbed slowly resulting in a steady level of decreasing sugar levels rather than a rush.  Low blood sugar leads to cravings for sugary foods and over eating.  And the cycle starts again. Continue reading »

So you want to lose weight and you would really prefer to lose weight fast. How do you do it? Counting carbs? Counting calories? Running? Walking? Or, dare I say…

Diet pills? Continue reading »

There’s an old saying, and for your animal lovers please forgive the expression, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Well, that saying is also quite true when it comes to losing weight. So please let me start off by saying that in this article, I am neither endorsing or condemning any of these methods for losing weight. I am simply pointing out what your options are. Hopefully, after reading this, you’ll have enough information to make an informed decision regarding what weight loss method you choose to follow.

The most common way for people to lose weight is by simple dieting. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as you’d like to think mainly because there are so many different diets out there. Each one has its own method of going about losing the weight. For example, you have the weight watchers point system diet. Each food gets a certain number of points assigned to it. Based on your current weight and what your goal weight is, you’re to eat a certain number of points each day and no more. It sounds easy, until you see how many points you’re allowed and how many you get hit with just from eating a tablespoon of peanut butter. Continue reading »

When they speak about World War II and the Battle of the Bulge, they forgot about the biggest bulge battle of all time. I’m talking about that spare tire around your middle, the flabby arms and thighs, the double chin and just about every other part of your body that’s got just a little more meat on it than it’s supposed to have. Well, fear not. While you may have tried just about every get thin quick diet in existence with no luck at all, this article, and the brief series to follow, will give you some solid info and a few common sense tips to get you off on the right foot in getting that body that you always wanted. Hopefully, after reading this series, you’ll have a pretty good idea of how to go about losing those extra pounds.

The first thing you need to do is actually determine if you need to lose weight. Oh, I know, you’re not a size three. Well, maybe you’re not supposed to be a size three. After all, each of us have different heights and bone structures. Those two things play a great role in determining just how much we should weigh. For example, somebody who is five foot seven with a small frame, or bone structure, should not weigh as much as somebody who is five foot five with a large frame, or bone structure. News flash, bones are heavy. So you have to take that into consideration. Continue reading »