Elite Lose Fat Program

Elite Weight Loss Program
The following articles focus on a Weight Loss Program that will get you results if you will apply the principles set out below.



Lessons On Dieting - Why 95% of All Diets Fail


You may have heard this alarming statistic before. 95% of all diets fail. This statistic has been published all over the Internet and used by health care professionals for years because it’s true. Let’s look at just a few numbers. Statistics show that about 40,000 people per year reach their weight loss goal. But when you consider programs like Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutritional System and The Zone who have millions of people participate in their programs, that number is mighty insignificant and downright discouraging. Only 40,000 people out of millions reach their weight loss goal!


If you’re the one who is standing on the springboard of a new diet program, seeing a statistic like this can be deflating. It doesn’t motivate many people to even try to lose weight because a vast majority of those who diet and lose even a little weight will eventually put all that weight (and many times more) back on as soon as they stop dieting. Bingo!


Therein lies the problem. Diets are doomed to fail right from the start because most people view diets as a short term solution, something they can follow for a set period of time to get the desired results and then just stop. Sure, anyone can be motivated to follow a diet plan for a few weeks or even a few months. But unless it’s a diet plan they can follow for life, they’re doomed to fail.


It doesn’t really matter if you believe that statistic or not. Quite frankly, it could easily be that 99% of all diets fail, or maybe even closer to 90%. But ask yourself this. Do you want to be in the percentage that fail? You wouldn’t be reading this article if you did.

If you want to lose weight and keep that weight off, you need to stop thinking of a diet as a temporary fix. Everyone follows some form of a diet whether they know it or not. Unfortunately, most people follow an "unhealthy" diet which leads to weight gain, high blood sugar, and for some, obesity, high blood pressure and heart disease.


Weight gain is the product of not paying attention to what you put in your body, how often you do it and when. It’s a bad habit to get into, even if you’ve never struggled with your weight. Bad eating habits don’t always just promote weight gain. They also produce long term health problems, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, constipation, fatty liver, heart disease and more.


You may be feeling great because you’ve lost a few pounds on one of those Internet FAD diets you tried. Well, good for you. It’s always good to celebrate your successes. But I guarantee you this. If you stop following that diet, and go back to your old eating habits, very soon you’ll find yourself on the wrong side of that diet failure statistic.


When you crash diet, you put your metabolism on a roller coaster ride. Instead of speeding up and giving your body more energy, the lower calorie intake that normally goes with a crash diet puts your body in "famine" mode. Your body will hold onto whatever "energy" it has. That energy is stored in fat cells. That’s why it takes more calories to lose weight than gain weight. Your body doesn’t want to let go of what it knows it needs to survive.


If you want to succeed in your diet, you have to stop thinking of FAD diets as the answer to your problem. You need to think long term, healthy eating that will help promote a healthy metabolism, not send it into shock. You also have to look at your lifestyle and learn how to incorporate fat burning exercises into your daily life so you not only lose weight, but you maintain that weight loss for life.


In the next article, we’ll talk more about how to kick start your metabolism and turn it into a fat burning furnace by eating the right foods and changing your eating habits.


Lessons On Dieting - Eating Enough Healthy Foods And Eating Regularly


Yes, I know you’re trying to lose weight and most people eat too much food, which leads to that weight gain. So it stands to reason that the first step in weight loss would be cutting back on your food intake. But not so fast. Cutting back too much can be as detrimental to weight loss as eating too much food. You don’t want to starve your body.


When you don’t eat enough food, your body will begin to take whatever it needs in the way of nutrients from other parts of your body in order to survive. That means taking nutrients from your bones, teeth, and vital organs, leaving your body depleted. Your metabolism will shut down in order to reserve energy and your body will only use enough energy to stay alive. So while you may think that by starving yourself you’ll drop weight quicker, what you’re actually doing is sabotaging your metabolism.


The operative word when thinking of food is "healthy". It’s not enough to simply eat enough food to keep your metabolism running at optimal performance. You need foods that will give your body energy while allowing it to function with a minimal amount of effort.


It is true that there are no bad "foods" if you eat them in moderation and balance them with healthy foods. No one wants to feel deprived of having their favorite dessert or a fast food burger every so often. However, if you have that fast food burger every day of the week or eat that piece of triple chocolate cake before you go to bed every evening without giving a thought to how your body will react to it, you’ve established a bad eating habit.


The trick is to balance the amount of food you eat with whole grains, fresh vegetables and fruits, along with lean meats. Choosing those foods will give you the most bang for the buck. People who are busy and trying to lose weight very often fall into the habit of skipping meals in order to cut down on their overall calorie intake. They then eat more at a later meal thinking they can "catch up". The problem is that you may end up eating your daily requirement of calories by the end of the day, but the balance of when your body receives those calories is lopsided.


For instance, if you start the day out great by having a healthy breakfast of yogurt, eggs and toast but then skip lunch and eat a big dinner, you’ve thrown your body off balance by making the end of the day to heavy with calories. Most people are more sedentary at the end of the day and like to relax. That means that whatever it is you’re eating is sitting in you while you relax rather than being burned off as you go about your day.


Furthermore, when you skip a meal, you’re famished by the time you finally do get to eat later in the afternoon or early evening. You’re body is only going to use what it needs at that particular moment and nothing more. By the end of the day, you’ve already burned most of the calories you are going to burn during the day. Your body ends up storing those excess calories in your body fat and keeps them in reserve for the next time you skip a meal.


This can become a vicious circle if you’re trying desperately to cut back calories by skipping meals and your body is desperately trying to hold on to whatever nourishment it can get. Not only will you fail in your quest to lose weight, you’ll become frustrated because all your efforts aren’t giving you the results you desire.


The best way to ensure that your body has the nutrients it needs to burn fat during the day when you’re active and when your body needs it the most is to eat smaller portions more frequently. Instead of eating 3 big meals a day, eat 5 or 6 smaller meals.


Start your day with proteins and any carbohydrates you might want to have during the course of the day. Your body will burn those carbohydrates when you’re most active. End the day with proteins and fresh vegetables such as broccoli, spinach, kale, etc. Avoid having lots of carbohydrates later in the day when you’re winding down and not able to burn those carbohydrates off.


Lessons On Dieting - Eat Plenty Of Good Fat And Breaking Old Habits


The first thing people tend to think about cutting from their diets when they decide to lose weight is fat. It’s true that most Americans eat way too much fat for their bodies to handle. That fat contributes not only to weight gain, but other health issues that are detrimental.


But not all fats are created equal. Think of a bicycle wheel. Too much heavy grease will gum up the wheel and prevent it from turning. On the flip side, no grease at all will keep the wheel from spinning properly as well.


Herein lies the issue of good fat and bad fat in your diet. Not all fats are bad for you or will prevent you from losing weight. You just need to be able to identify which fats are good fats and which are fats you need to avoid.


There are two types of fats that are good for you: monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Monounsaturated fats can be found in foods like almonds, walnuts, peanuts, avocados, and olive oil. No only are they good for weight loss, as an added health benefit they help to lower your bad LDL cholesterol.


Polyunsaturated fats also help lower LDL cholesterol levels as well as aid in weight loss. Foods rich in polyunsaturated fat are salmon, cod, corn and sunflower oils, flaxseed and other fish oils. Foods that contain polyunsaturated fat also contain Omega 3 Fatty Acids, which help aid the body in weight loss. You want to avoid saturated fats such as foods fried in vegetable oil or prepackaged foods that add fat for flavoring. Whole dairy products also contain a high amount of saturated fat. But simply switching to low-fat yogurts, skim milk and low-fat cheeses will go a long way toward reducing your saturated fat intake.


You’re probably thinking, "All that is well and good. But what can I eat?" In a later article we’ll talk about foods that will not only aid you in weight loss, but will actually jump start your metabolism and turn it into a fat burning machine.


They say old habits die hard. That phrase was never more true than for a dieter trying to change lifestyle habits. I say changing lifestyle habits instead of focusing on just the kind of food you eat and when you eat it because losing weight, getting fit, and staying that way is not a short term goal. It requires a whole change in the way you view your health and how to live your life.


That may seem overwhelming when you think of it, but it’s really not. You just need to know which steps to take and then take them. The simplest way to break a bad habit is to replace it with a new habit that is healthy. When you think of it that way, it doesn’t feel like you’re giving up something you like because you’re filling that void with something else.


Lessons On Dieting - Eating Late in the Evening And Paying Attention To What You Eat


If you’re one of the many people who love to feast on a bowl of popcorn while watching a midnight movie you need to seriously consider how that late-night snack is ruining your diet. Sure, popcorn has a high amount of fiber, something that is good when you’re on a diet. It’s not the actual food that is the problem, but the time of day. You should stop taking in calories no later than 7:00 PM and just continue to drink water to fill you up. By that time, most people have had their dinner and are beginning to wind down from their day. That means that any calories you consume will not be burned off. They’ll be stored in your body as excess nutrition for your body to use later. Stored calories are held in fat cells.


Break this bad habit by replacing your sedentary lifestyle with exercise in the late afternoon or early evening. When you exercise, your body will continue to burn calories and fat for a few hours. Another reason why exercising later in the day is good is because not everyone has the time during the morning before work or the day gets underway to do justice to a solid workout. Many times, when you miss a workout because of scheduling conflicts, you won’t make up the time later on if you haven’t planned for it.


Take this scenario. If you are a busy mom of two and need to get your kids off to school or to daycare before you head off to work, where is their time to get to the gym to workout? There isn’t. More times than not the workout gets bumped from the daily schedule and all the efforts at eating right and trying to lose weight are reduced significantly.


Get around this by scheduling your exercise at a time you know you won’t have any conflicts that will interrupt you. If your spouse is home in the evening, schedule your workout time then. If you have little ones, wait for the kids to go to bed and then workout. One word of caution though. Don’t exercise too late in the evening or it will prevent you from sleeping. Sleep deprivation can inhibit weight loss as the body sheds it’s weight while you sleep.


This might seem like common sense. But if you take the time to write down everything you put in your mouth you’ll realize that you’re actually taking a bite of food, whether it’s a few M&Ms from a coworkers candy dish or a few bites of food while you’re cutting a plate of food for your kids.


Everything you put in your mouth has calories. Most people make the mistake of only writing down the foods they eat during a planned meal. They may also write down a small snack. But they forget about the cream they put in their coffee, a spoonful of ice cream they ate when having dessert, a few crackers they popped in their mouth because they suddenly had a sugar craving.


Some people will find themselves disciplined enough to resist mindless eating. But if you’re just starting out in your diet, or not sure how your willpower will hold out, the best thing you can do to kick this habit is to keep a small notebook tucked away in your pocket or in your purse. Every time you get the urge to bring food to your mouth pull out that notebook and write down what you are about to eat. That one small move will snap you into the realization that you might be consuming calories that will negatively affect your diet.


There are a whole lot of reasons why people eat mindlessly. Sometimes it is because of depression. That depression can range from life changes or even frustration over your current health and happiness. For women, it could come at the time of the month when you’re menstruating. Some women have strong cravings during that time and eat without even realizing it. Again, using the small notebook to break that habit will significantly improve your chances of staying on track and not consuming more calories than you want to in any given day.


Lessons On Dieting - Quit Making Excuses And Don't Take The Easy Way Out



You probably have a barrel full of excuses that you pull out every time you talk about why you haven’t lost the weight you want to lose. It could be anything from a sluggish thyroid to faulty genetics to just not having enough time to think about weight loss. I’m here to tell you to knock it off! The only way you will lose weight and keep it off is stop making excuses for why you’re not succeeding. I’m not saying that any of those excuses aren’t valid. Many are. In fact, having a sluggish thyroid or other genetic problem may be an additional barrier to how fast you can lose weight. But using that excuse as a crutch will only keep you from making any progress at all.

People with "bad" genetics and even health problems do manage to lose weight when they put their mind to it. The thing that keeps them from losing weight is falling back on the reason it is so difficult for them.


To break this habit, learn everything you possibly can about this "excuse" for not losing weight. For instance, if you have a sluggish thyroid, talk to your doctor about being put on medication to regulate it, if needed. Learn what foods interfere with thyroid hormone production.


Allowing yourself to use excuses for why you are unable to lose weight will only be self-defeating. Why bother trying when you’ve already decided that you won’t succeed? Empower yourself to change those excuses around and become proactive in your desire to lose weight.


You may not lose weight as fast as someone else who does not have the same issues you have. That’s a fact of life. But that doesn’t mean you won’t lose weight. And I can guarantee that you won’t lose any weight if you continue to use your excuses as a crutch.


If you were really that easy to lose weight then everyone would do it. We wouldn’t be a society of overweight people. Losing weight takes dedication and a conscious effort to eat healthy foods and exercise regularly.


The temptation to fall for whatever promises the new craze FAD diet gurus are peddling can sometimes be overwhelming. "Lose 10 pounds in three days eating nothing but bananas!" "Eat as much cabbage soup as you want and lose 10 pounds!"


Most people see those outrageous claims and think, "Why not? I can eat cabbage soup for weeks." The problem is you won’t always be eating cabbage soup. You may lose 5 to 10 pounds in a week on some newfangled FAD diet. But those pounds will come bouncing right back on you like a boomerang out of control. In fact, many times you end up with more weight because your body is trying to overreact to the shock you gave it by following a FAD diet.


FAD diets are basically on par with starvation diets simply because to lose weight you need to shock your system. When you shock your system it’s like a wake up call. Think of it in terms of money. When the stock market crashed in the 1920s people ran to take what money they could get their hands on out of the banks because the banks were suddenly collapsing. People then kept that money right by their side in case they needed it. The old "money under the mattress" was safer than trying to earn interest in a bank that was unstable.


The same is true for your body when you suddenly are deprived of proper nutrition. Your body will want to hold on to whatever fat reserves and nutrients it has been fed with and not give it up to weight loss. To break this FAD diet habit, ignore all your friends, the television, and magazine ads that profess miracle weight-loss. It will only hurt your body in the end and prevent you from your desired goal of losing weight and getting fit. The only real way to lose weight safely, and continue to lose weight and keep it off for life, is a program that has steady progress. You may feel frustrated that you aren’t losing weight as quickly as you would if you survive on cabbage soup for weeks. But you will keep what weight you lose off longer. Your body will be healthier and more fit.
Lessons On Dieting - Stick to A Plan And Stop Lying To Yourself


The shortest path between two points is a straight line. The most important word in that phrase is "path". Without one, you’re aimlessly wandering.


Would you go on a road trip without mapping out a course? Maybe you would because it can be fun to see where the road would take you. But if you’re trying to lose weight, aimlessly wandering will only make the task harder unless you have a solid plan.


It is true that some people can lose weight simply by cutting the amount of food they eat. Not everyone is like that. Most people need a more structured regime and change to their lifestyle in general to be successful in their weight loss and fitness goal.


I want everyone to be successful at their weight-loss goal. When I work with a new client I worked hard and I expect that they will follow the plan that I set out for them. When that plan is followed my clients are gratified to see results. Nothing makes me more happy than seeing the success of my clients.


The million-dollar question for most people is how to put together a plan. Your diet and fitness plan will encompass several different things. The best way to keep track of a plan is to use a journal or log. You can spend money on a fancy calendar or you can just get a simple notebook for under a dollar. You’ll want to log how often you exercise and for how long. You want to write down how often you eat and what you’re eating along with a total calorie count for each day. You’ll also want to include periodic weigh-ins that will include what you weigh on a particular day and the change in your weight since your last weigh-in and since you started your weight loss program.


Many people find that after they have diligently recorded all this information in their journal they no longer need the journal after a month or two. It only takes 2 to 3 weeks to make a lifestyle change permanent. By that time you most likely will have solidified new lifestyle habits that you can continue without the aid of the journal.


If you feel yourself slipping back into old habits, continue using the journal and stay on course. As soon as you start forgetting to exercise or stop paying attention to what you’re eating, you’ll begin to gain weight again. That is the last thing you want to do after all your hard work.


"Me? Lie?" Yes. It may not be intentional but most people underestimate the amount of calories, fat, the carbohydrates they eat in any given day. They also stretched truth a little as to how long they exercised. If you’re supposed to exercise for 30 minutes and you only exercise for 20, you’re not doing yourself justice. Anyone would argue that 20 minutes of exercise is still better than zero minutes of exercise. But you’ll go further over the long haul and make more progress towards reaching your goal if you are honest about exactly what it is you’re doing.


This goes for portion sizes, too. When you were preparing food at home no one is policing the size of your portions. If you’re eating something healthy like fresh garden greens and lean meats it may not make a difference. You might be able to have that extra piece of chicken to make you feel full. But there will come a time when you’ve reached your weight loss goal where you’ll start introducing higher calorie foods occasionally. When that happens, every calorie will count or you will end up gaining weight back. It’s best to keep it honest right from the beginning.
Lessons On Dieting – Why Are We So Overweight?


I suppose the easiest answer is fast food, but the problem extends out to so much more. Yes, the prevalence of fast food restaurants certainly doesn’t help. As Morgan Spurlock showed us with painful reality in his movie, "Super Size Me", fast food menus offer us a heaping helping of fat, cholesterol, and calories. I highly recommend watching this movie if you find yourself addicted to McDonald’s – you could very well change your mind after you see it!


At any rate, many of these restaurants are now offering health-conscious choices including salads, potatoes instead of French fries, yogurt, and grilled meats instead of fried meats. So with these items now included on their menu, why aren’t we losing weight? The answer lies within our choices. Those choices extend to home life as well. Many people live horridly busy lifestyles, and they more often than not opt for pre-packaged foods that contain high amounts of salt, fat, and other unhealthy components that contribute toward weight gain. We tend to maintain a mostly sedentary lifestyle choosing to watch a favorite television program after dinner rather than going out for a walk like they used to do decades ago.


This type of life style unfortunately is being learned by our children as well. When I was young, we couldn’t wait to get through dinner so we could go outside and play a game of kick the can as the sun went down. We rode our bikes everywhere and only watched television when "The Brady Bunch" or "The Partridge Family" was on. Hey, we had our priorities!


Today, you’re more likely to find kids on the computer or in front of the TV with a video game controller in their hands. Kids know more about the story line on Desperate Housewives than many of their housewife mothers. They can tell you about all of the new products being offered through commercials they see in between their programs. In fact, the average child these days will watch more than 15 hours of television each and every week. Now, we’re not saying television is BAD. In fact, some programs can be beneficial and even helpful in making kids smarter. What we’re saying is that kids need to get outside more instead of sitting in front of the TV eating fries and drinking sugar rich soda. The statistics are showing this to be true. Fifteen percent of all children and teens are overweight - a number that has tripled since a previous study done in 1980. Some people blame their excessive weight gain on slow metabolisms. In some cases, this might actually be true.

However, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has confirmed what no one really wants to face: we’re overweight because we simply eat too much of the wrong foods.


Losing weight is actually quite simple – eat less, exercise more. But we’re resistant to that message. Mainly, it’s because we’re looking for a quick fix – an easy, painless way to drop pounds without sacrifice. After all, losing weight just CAN’T be that easy, now can it? No, it isn’t. You have to consider portion control, food choice, exercise, how much exercise, what kind of exercise, etc. But worrying about all of the specifics will do you little good. You need to get the big picture in mind first before worrying about the specifics.


What you want to do is lose those extra pounds. And there are many, many ways to go about that. But before you wait around for the next miracle diet, try some of the tried and true methods we’ll show you. It’s not as monumental as you think it is!
Lessons On Dieting - When You Fall, Pick Yourself Back Up


We’re not perfect. Occasionally, you will find that you have cheated on your diet or skipped your exercise program and think you’ve blown it. Instead of getting right back on the wagon after you’ve fallen, you continue cheating and then decide to start back up eating right and exercising the next day. While I applaud you for getting right back on that wagon and getting back into your weight loss and fitness program again, I need to caution you about the mindset of blowing it all the way. You’re right. We’re human and we make mistakes. But there are mistakes. And then there are disasters.


If you overindulge one evening or cheat on your diet the best thing for you to do as soon as you realize your mistake is to stop right there and make yourself get right back on track. If you have a piece of chocolate cake and figure you’ve blown your calorie intake for the evening so you just keep having another piece of cake or worse, added more calories and body weight, you’ll then have to work harder to get rid of all those extra baggages when you do get back into the program.


Allow yourself to be human and don’t beat yourself up if you do cheat on your diet or exercise program. But as soon as you recognize that, make sure you stop and get right back on the program to prevent further damaging your momentum. It’s not enough to say that you’ll do an extra set of crunches or the next 15 minutes of aerobics. You want your body to be in balance, to lose fat and gain muscle in a slow and steady pace.


Remember, it takes up to three weeks to start a new habit. But it takes just one day to break it.
Lessons On Dieting - The 12 Foods for Weight Loss


Let me be clear. There are a LOT of foods you can eat that will aid in weight loss. There are actually a whole lot of foods that are extremely good for weight loss and I’ve included more than 12 of them here.


These foods are so important because they give you the most bang for your buck. They are so high in nutritional properties and low in calories, that eating them is almost like eating negative calories. Including them in your diet regularly will insure not only that you will lose weight, but that you’ll get the proper nutrition you need while you’re trying to lose weight.


Water - Let’s start with the basics. Water is one of the most important things to have during a diet. Yet often times, people disregard it for its simplicity. They even substitute it for other things, like coffee and soft drinks. It’s not enough to simply have fluids during a diet. The benefit of clear water is that it flushes away toxins that can get trapped in fat cells. If left in those fat cells, the toxins would inhibit weight loss. Drinking coffee or soft drinks does not flush these toxins out the same way water does. Therefore, it’s important to remember to drink 6-8 tall glasses of water over the course of each day to help aid weight loss. Also, during weight loss and exercise, your body will use up more fluid than normal. You’ll need to replace that fluid in order to stay healthy. If you become dehydrated because you’re not drinking enough for the amount of activity you’re doing, your body will naturally try to hold onto as much fluid as possible, preventing you from losing weight.


Spinach - This vegetable is a high-octane vegetable filled with nutrients, minerals, anti-oxidants, and high levels of iron, calcium and lutein. It’s also an excellent source of fiber. Spinach is best eaten when it’s at it’s freshest. The longer it sits in the refrigerator, the more nutrients are lost over time. Try buying your spinach at a farmer’s market, farm stand or grow your own.


Broccoli - Believe it or not, calcium from broccoli is absorbed better by the body than any other food with calcium, even milk. Calcium is vitally important to keep your bones strong while you’re losing weight. Broccoli is also a negative calorie food. Therefore you’ll burn more calories digesting it than what is actually in the broccoli itself. So eat to your heart’s content. You’ll get benefits all the way around with this food.


Kale - Like broccoli, kale is a negative calorie food. It’s also super high in fiber, aiding in digesting food and cleansing the colon. As foods go, it’s top on the list of nutrient-filled foods and is a high source of beta-carotene.


Tomatoes - Most people associate tomatoes with marinara sauce and pasta or in a salad. Thought of asa vegetable, tomatoes are technically a fruit that is full of vitamin C and high in antioxidants that help build and maintain the immune system. During weight loss, it’s easy to get run down. Make sure you get fresh tomatoes that are firm and only cut them when you are ready to eat them. As soon as tomatoes are cut they will start to lose much of their nutritional value.


Eggs – Starting the day with a high protein food will give you instant energy and keep you energized longer than simply having a slice of toast. As far as fat burning properties, eggs have been known to burn fat in that ever frustrating tummy area that plagues a lot of people. The B12 found in eggs is excellent for breaking down fat and turning into energy. Some of you might be a little fearful of having too many eggs in your diet for fear of raising your cholesterol levels. However, high protein and low carbohydrates will actually keep your cholesterol levels from rising. If you’re really concerned, try having eggs for breakfast every other day instead of every morning.


Beans – Navy beans, kidney beans, lima beans and white beans have extraordinary fat burning benefits. They’re high in fiber, protein and in iron, another vitamin that is needed for energy. Make sure you cook your beans thoroughly. Undercooked beans are harder to digest and will put stress on your digestive system, causing you to feel sluggish. Stay away from refried beans and baked beans. The beans themselves still have wonderful properties, however, the oil and sugars added during the baking process will negate any benefits you might getfrom the beans.


Green Tea – Green tea has natural antioxidants called catechins that aid in weight loss. Drinking a cup of green tea can help fill your stomach when you’re hungry and also boost your metabolism.


Salad – One of the best ways to get nutrients and feel full without adding high calories is to eat salad every day. Three cups of salad containing fresh lettuce, tomato, green or red pepper, carrot, celery and cucumber will not only make you feel satisfied, but it’s filled with nutrition and fiber that is so important to healthy digestion and weight loss. Make sure you hold the heavy dressing. If you absolutely must have your favorite salad dressing, use it sparingly or keep it on the side so you can dip your vegetables in the dressing. You’ll find you’ll use far less dressing than if you’d slathered it all over your salad.


Fruits – Fruits may be high in natural sugars, but many of them are also high in fiber. Apples, pears, pineapples are sweet snacks that have high nutritional and weight loss value.


Lean meat – Do you know there are 213 calories in a meat patty with 15% fat and only 145 calories in a meat patty with only 5% fat? The difference in calories is significant, especially since you’re not getting any nutritional advantage for having the additional calories.


Soup – Having soup for lunch or dinner can greatly aid your weight loss program simply because soup has a lot of fluid in it which can give you a feeling of being full.


Cinnamon – A lot of people suffer from sudden sugar cravings. Studies have shown that just a little bit of cinnamon sprinkled on toast or oatmeal can keep you from having a sudden spike in insulin, making you crave sugar.


High fiber foods – Foods high in fiber help give you a feeling of fullness after you’ve eaten. If you feel satisfied, you’re less likely to reach for a snack and break your diet.


Spaghetti Squash – A lot of people who love their pasta often feel deprived when they suddenly can’t eat their favorite Italian dinner. Spaghetti squash looks like spaghetti pasta when prepared. You can serve it with marina and meatballs and still feel like you’re enjoying your favorite Italian dinner without having those high carbohydrates. It’s also high in fiber, potassium and Vitamin C.


Oatmeal – A quick bowl of oatmeal in the morning will have a lasting affect throughout the morning. Add a dash of cinnamon to it and you have a winning combination.


Salmon – Omega 3 fatty acids help aid digestion and are known to help get rid of unwanted belly fat.


Yogurt – Another belly fat buster is yogurt. It also keeps blood sugar levels even, preventing sugar cravings.
Lessons On Dieting - Foods that Make You Fatter


It’s easy to be tempted by new products on the market that promise you quick weight loss and a healthier diet. While there may be some choices that are good for a quick meal every now and then, most of the processed foods you find are garbage. They won’t teach you how to eat properly, and while you may shed a few pounds eating them initially, they’ll actually work against you in the long run.


Avoid processed foods of all kind as much as possible. Instead, fill your diet with fresh vegetables, fruits and lean proteins. Many processed foods have been prepared in such a way that any nutritional value the food might have had is gone by the time it’s packaged. In essence, you’re eating empty calories. What’s worse is that the processing of the food usually leaves a bland taste so that the manufacturer needs to add sugar and fat to give the food more flavor so it’s palatable.


But wait a minute, you say. It has HEALTHY or DIET right on the package. It may even say low fat or low carb, too, so it must be good, right? WRONG.


Don’t be fooled by the words on the package. The only important information you need to read is the label and once you start reading, you’ll quickly put down most of those "diet" foods that are supposed to be healthy for weight loss. Food manufacturers are required by law to put the nutrition label on every package so you know what you’re eating. When you take a look, you might be shocked. What it says on the outside of the package, that is, diet, low carb, low fat, healthy, etc., is only a slogan to draw you in.


Manufacturers can’t out lie to you. But they can "stretch" the truth or make the claim ambiguous enough so that only the savvy label reader will understand what they’re really eating. For instance, say you pick up a package that says low fat. Cutting your fat intake is good if you want to lose weight. There is both good fat and bad fat that you need to watch out for. Your body needs some fat in order to run properly. However, you can greatly improve your health and lose weight if you choose your fats wisely. Unfortunately, most fats found in processed foods are bad fats. And the amount of decreased fat in those processed foods is only relative to other processed foods.


Most processed foods are also filled with sodium. You do need sodium in your diet. That’s true enough. However, you don’t need it in the quantities you’ll find in a processed food. Too much sodium makes you retain fluid, making you feel bloated. It also increases your chances of developing high blood pressure, contributes to heart disease and kidney problems. A lot of processed snack foods have high amounts of sodium and saturated fats. It’s best to stick with healthy snacks such as fresh fruits and nuts.


I’m not saying that you can’t have a quick snack that is healthy. There are plenty of healthy packaged snacks on the market. You just need to be diligent about reading the labels and limiting the quantity of processed foods you eat. Make sure the bulk of your diet is made up of fresh fruits and vegetables and lean meats. In the long run, you’ll develop healthier eating habits and keep the weight you lose off for life
Lessons On Dieting - Keep it Light Before Exercise


Picture yourself running up a few flights of stairs. The first flight might be easy. The second flight will be a little harder. By the time you get to the third flight your body is starting to protest. Now picture yourself running up those same flights of stairs carrying 100 pounds of weight on your shoulders. It doesn’t seem so easy anymore.


This illustration shows you what your body goes through when you try to exercise after eating a heavy meal. The last thing you want to do before you exercise is weigh your body down. Your body will have to work that much harder to digest the food you’ve eaten while taking a beating as you exercise. Instead of filling yourself with three big meals each day, try breaking up those meals into five mini meals. That way no matter what time of the day you exercise you won’t be weigh down by heavy food sitting in your stomach. Your body won’t be working hard to digest food. It’ll be working hard to burn fat.


You should exercise 3 to 4 times per week for at least 30 minutes. That’s a minimum. If you really want to lose weight and keep your body burning fat like a furnace, you need to step up your game and exercise 6 days per week, every week. Let’s talk about the kind of exercise you will be focusing on. There are two types of exercise that when put together burn fat faster than when you do just one. They are cardiovascular, or aerobic, and strength training.


You want to build muscle because muscle burns fat better than fatty tissue. But you also want to increase your metabolic rate. Aerobic exercise such as swimming, brisk walking, running, or cycling are cardiovascular exercises and will speed up your metabolism for as much as 4 to 8 hours after a good workout. Weightlifting and strength training have their benefits as well. While they won’t help you speed up your metabolism, they will help you build lean muscle mass.


Cardiovascular/aerobic workouts can be done right in the privacy of your own home. You can fit them into your schedule any time you have a minimum of 20 minutes or more to dedicate to exercise. There are also high-impact aerobics and low-impact aerobics. The high-impact aerobics are meant to get your heart pumping. Not everyone can start out with high impact aerobics because it is too strenuous. But if you’re used to being active it won’t take you long to get up to speed. If you’ve been sedentary for a long time, or are not used to working out, I suggest you start out doing low-impact aerobics for the first few weeks of your program. Low-impact aerobics put less strain on the body and go at a slower pace. But they still get the heart pumping and still increase the metabolism. So don’t worry if you can’t keep up with the high-impact aerobics. You’ll still benefit by doing low-impact aerobics. After your body becomes acclimated to the routine and you start to build a little more stamina you can progress to the high-impact aerobics. That’s where you are really going to see a marked increase in your potential to burn fat.


Strength training builds muscles. Many people will join a gym and work with a trainer to help build muscle. But you don’t have to. There are lots of home gyms that are affordable and are small enough to fit in the corner of your bedroom. A small set of free weights and an exercise ball can also be useful if you’re worried about the price of a gym membership or trying to fit gym time into your busy schedule. As long as you incorporate strength training in your exercise routine, it doesn’t matter where you do it.


Don’t be put off by the idea of building muscles or worry that you’ll end up looking like a bodybuilder. You can work your muscles hard without building them up so much that your body looks unnatural. Your goal in strength training is to increase your body’s muscle because muscle burns fat faster. When you work your muscles during strength training, you’re actually tearing your muscles down. Your muscles then need a day or two to recover from the break down in order to build back up. If you concentrate on strength training every day, you never give your body a chance to recover and you risk causing injury to the muscle.


A combination of building lean muscle mass and aerobic exercise will give you the benefit of burning calories faster than just doing one of those exercises alone. When planning your exercise routine, incorporate one day of strength training and the next day of aerobic exercise. This will speed up your metabolism and build your muscle mass without causing injury.


What do you do on the days when you aren’t doing a heavy workout of aerobics or strength training? Those days aren’t free days to sit and be a couch potato. You want to keep your body active. Simply running around with kids doing errands is enough. On those "off" exercise days, get in the habit of taking a 20 minute walk or playing a sport with some friends. A nice game of basketball or a few sets of tennis will have you moving enough to burn calories while you’re having fun.


Remember, you want to have a good time while you’re exercising. The easiest way to fall out of sync with your exercise regime is to get bored with it. You don’t want to be a chore. You want to feel good, not feel like you have to exercise every moment of every day in order to reach your weight loss goal.


Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! I can’t stress enough the importance of drinking 6 to 8 tall glasses of water every day. If you’re burning fat during a workout, you need to flush those fat deposits away or they will be trapped in other cells. Also, when you workout you sweat. Sweating is your body’s way of cooling down. But if you lose too much fluid during a workout, and you don’t replace it, your body will start holding on to fluid for its own survival. Make sure you replenish your body with clean water during and after every workout. To make sure you are getting enough water every day, try filling a half gallon container with clean water and putting it in the refrigerator. Fill a sports bottle with water and keep replenishing it as the day goes on. At the end of the day your half gallon container should be nearly empty. If it is not, you’re not drinking enough water.