Key Factors to Weight Loss - Exercise and Good Diet

We're all looking for a way to lose weight and keep it off.  The key factors to successful weight loss are exercise and good diet.  Despite the hype we are often told about supplements and diet pills, exercise and good diet is the standard answer we will always be told by any fitness professional, dietician, or medical physician.  They are proven methods and healthier ones too.  Here are the reasons why these factors, exercise and good diet, are the key to our weight loss success.

The body has been described by many as essentially the perfect machine.  Just like most machines, it needs fuel in order to run.  And, just like most machines, the kind of fuel you use is extremely important in determining how well that engine will run.  Take the analogy of running a vehicle on regular unleaded gas verses the higher octane fuel.  Although regular unleaded gas will give a car the fuel it needs to run, often times the lower quality gas causes the engine to perform sluggishly.  The vehicle doesn't have the get up and go and gunk builds up in all of the vital parts of the engine.  Higher octane fuel found in the super or premium unleaded gas keeps the engine running strong, fuel injectors cleaner, and prevents a lot of the build up that comes from running on the lower quality gas.  The same story holds true for the food we eat. 

The less nutritious food causes us to be more sluggish and not want to perform up to our potential.  We don't have the energy to walk down the street much less perform any kind of exercise routine.  Most food high in fat and calories cause a build up in the engine.  These foods create clogging in the arteries and a buildup of stored fat in our bodies.  However, eating a diet of healthier, low fat foods that are high in nutrient density avoids clogging of the arteries and provides an abundance of energy.  And when we monitor how much food/fuel we are feeding our engines that prevent a buildup of excess calories that cause fat storage and ultimately weight gain.

Exercise plays its role in keeping our engine healthy and strong as well.  A strong running engine utilizes fuel efficiently and you get better gas mileage.  Let's go back to the analogy of an engine in an automobile. If a car you own is not your primary vehicle and frequently it stays parked in a garage, it is always recommended to start it is up on occasion.  And even more preferably, take it for a spin around the block. T his helps to clean out the gunk that does build up from the car sitting, lubricate bearings, and keep the engine running in top performance. If you have a four wheel drive, it is even recommended to use that function at least once a year whether it is needed or not.  Exercise provides the same purpose in our body's engine. We exercise to clean out the gunk.  How many times have you thought, "Wow, I have to do something to work out and get that junk out of my body from all the french fries, chocolate cake, and ice cream I ate yesterday"?  Not to mention, leading a life with no physical activity causes muscles, including our hearts, and joints to get weak and stiff.  Our engine doesn't get to run and therefore our performance lags and doesn't help us live up to our body's optimal performance including burning calories.

 

Exercise and good diet are your key words for weight loss. Maintain your machine, (your body), with a healthy dose of exercise and a good diet and you'll be well on your way to creating a high performance engine and achieving your weight loss goals.

Author:Jo Chris, http://www.squidoo.com/fastesthealthiestwaytoloseweight

Are you looking for a good nutrition plan to help lose weight and get your machine back in to its optimal performance? Click here to learn more.

How Does The Low Fat Atkins Diet Work?

The Atkins low carb diet, by nature, works by restricting carbohydrates. Because the body breaks down carbs much slower than other fuels, the Atkins low carb diet plan uses other methods of fuel that aren't in the form of carbs - so you can lose weight quickly and painlessly. In simple terms, the Atkins low carb diet plan changes your body from one that uses carbohydrates as a main source of fuel to one that uses fats for fuel. Therefore, the body's natural storage of fat becomes the body's main energy source.

On the Atkins low carb diet plan, the body uses sugars as fuel. But, to turn sugars into fuel your body must use the naturally occurring hormone insulin. Insulin allows our cells to turn carbs into glucose (energy) by controlling the amount of sugar in our blood. Insulin causes the sugar we don't use as fuel to be stored as fat and it also keeps the body from burning stored fat. Because the insulin adds stored fats to our bodies, we're in a perpetual argument with our hormones when we're losing weight.

On the other hand, the Atkins low carb diet plan allows your body to release less insulin. According to Atkins, when your insulin levels are normal, you body begins to burn the stored fat as its fuel instead of looking for new fuels. The resulting effect not only burns body fat, but it also leads to less hunger and fewer cravings. In short, the diet controls insulin levels by controlling the amount of carbs you intake.

The Atkins low carb diet plan consists of four phases of eating. The foods you eat depend on what phase you're in and your own metabolism. The phases include:

1. Introduction: This is the most restrictive phase, where you can only eat 20 grams of carbs daily. These carbs can only come in the form of non-starchy vegetables.

2. Ongoing Weight Loss: Phase two allows you to increase your carbs to 25 grams daily, and each week thereafter you can increase the number of carbs by five grams. You continue to add five grams of carbs to your diet until you no longer lose weight, then you subtract five grams of carbs to allow you to maintain your weight.

3. Pre-Maintenance - This phase allows you to transition from weight loss to maintenance. You can add 10 grams of carbs weekly as long as you continue to keep the weight off.

4. Lifetime Maintenance: This phase allows you to select from a variety of foods while still maintaining a healthy amount of carbs. It's the least restrictive of all phases.

As you can see, the Atkins low carb diet plan is a rigid plan that many people use to great success. By limiting the amount of carbohydrates you intake in your system, you're allowing your body to use the stored fats in your body as energy. This, therefore, promotes a healthy weight loss and if you maintain the diet through all four stages, you'll be healthy for years to come!

Leo's writes articles online. He covers a wide range of topics specialising in fitness, dieting and weight loss, visit his latest website at http://www.antioxidants-guide.com/ which discusses the truth about antioxidants.

Learn the 3 Forbidden Rules of Dieting & Fat Loss

You do not get fat from a lack of exercise, this is a myth.  You get fat because you eat the wrong types of food, at the wrong time - period. Sure, exercise is healthy and will help you lose further weight if you already eat at the appropriate times of the day, but without any 'order' in your diet you will not get far, whatever diet you decide to try.

The human body is like an engine. It needs certain foods at certain intervals of the day. If you don't eat the right types of food at the right times of the day, it won't burn up those calories. Think of it as wasted fuel -- Your body stores up all this wasted fuel as fatty tissue. For example, if I decided to go on an 800 mile trip in my car, I would need to fuel up my car 3 times to make this journey, roughly once every 200 miles. I could try and fill my car with enough fuel to last the whole 800 miles, but the fuel tank would just fill up and fuel would star spilling everywhere. I would still only make around 200 miles before I needed to re-fuel again. The human body is no different, there is very little point giving your body excess fuel, as once it has what it needs, the rest is wasted... but unlike a car the wasted fuel doesn't just spill over the side, it gets stored in your body, making you fat.

Your body needs at least three meals per day to function properly. And if you eat at the right intervals then you can do this and lose weight at the same time. Its no more complicated than that, and it doesn't include eating salad all day long and going out for long jogs. If you seriously want to get in shape, I would advise you stay clear of these often dangerous dieting methods:

1. Low Calorie Diets Don't Work

You can't lose weight by starving yourself (a low calorie diet) because your bodies metabolism will simply adjust to the major drop. If you are eating 3000 calories per day, then your body will burn 3000 calories a day. If you drop down to 1800 calories a day, your body will simply detect the drop, and begin to only burn 1800 calories a day. This is precisely why many people fail in their diets, they assume if they cut their calorie intake in half, they will lose weight, but its simply not the case.

Many people wonder "how can I eat so few calories and still gain weight, while my friend eats double the amount of calories i do and she doesn't lose any weight!". Now you know why.

2. Low Fat Diets Do Not Work

Everywhere you go, in every supermarket and grocery people are buying 'low fat' and 'fat free' foods, yet a lot of people are still getting fat despite this. Eliminating fat from your diet will not make you thin, in fact your body actually needs fat to survive.

3. Low Carb Diets Don't Work - and they make you grumpy!

Low carb diets are really popular nowadays, but have the habit of leaving you feeling tired and miserable. (a lot of people end up eating more when they feel tired and miserable, which is why these diets regularly fail). Carbs give you energy, no carbs - no energy. No energy means low self esteem, hardly the mindset you want to be in when on a diet.

Almost 300,000 Americans die each year from being overweight. It's a very sobering thought, and could be greatly reduced if we TAKE ACTION and start taking simple steps to lose weight the right way now.

Take control of your life, don't just become another statistic.

Ephedra Diet Pill Product Information - Smacker with Hoodia Review

Smacker Ephedra boasts that the ephedra product will SMACK THAT FAT, but can this 25mg ephedra product really delivery the extra energy and fat burning we have come to expect from ephedra? The short answer is YES. Smacker ephedra, now with the appetite suppressant Hoodia, really does increase energy, and burns fat just like the old ephedra products used to.

What Is In Smacker Ephedra

25mg ephedra
200mg caffeine from Kola Nut
105mg White Willow Extract
Vitamin B5
Hoodia Extract
Serving Size: 1 caplet


As you can see, Smacker has the full ECA stack (ephedra, caffeine, aspirin), as well as the phenominal appetite suppressant of Hoodia! Ephedra itself is an appetite suppressant, but many find they need a little bit more appetite suppressant than what ephedra can delivery, and Hoodia really adds that extra appetite suppressant.

What's New With Smacker Ephedra with Hoodia?

The nice thing about the new Smacker Ephedra with Hoodia is that it now comes in caplet form. This way, if 25mg of ephedra per caplet is too much for you, you can just break the caplet in 2 (or more) pieces and control your serving. Diet Fuel with ephedra was a 3 capsule per serving ephedra product, which was good for people who didn't want to take full dosages, while others complained about having to take 3 capsules for full strength servings. Smacker, much like products like Stacker2 with ephedra has 25mg ephedra per serving but unlike Stacker2, it can be taken at half dosage. Stacker2 came in capsule form, which makes it very difficult to take half dosages.

Where to buy Smacker Ephedra

Smacker Ephedra is now being sold through a few distributors to many retailers and online stores. The most popular place to buy Smacker is at Bing Products.

Smacker with ephedra, bottom line

Smacker Ephedra with Hoodia delivers exactly what it says, it really does SMACK THAT FAT! Whether you are looking for the extra energy, appetite suppression or a strong fat burner, you should really take a look at Smacker Ephedra with Hoodia.

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Exercise and Low Carb Diet's Make Poor Partners

Over the last twenty five years the most common questioned asked me by frustrated exercisers, has been what exercise routine will get me the body I desire? My answer is always the same. They need to start exercising better judgement and learn that exercise alone will not solve their body composition problem. I believe the number one reason for starting an exercise program is weight reduction, even before fitness and health concerns. Exercise by itself is a poor weight manager and it increases the need for better nutritional requirements. I believe I would receive very little disagreement that a combination of nutrition and exercise is the answer to improvement in weight loss ( fat loss ), fitness and health risk concerns. With obesity reaching epidemic rates and the drop out rate of most health clubs' remaining high this article intent is to lay the foundation why exercise and low carbohydrate diet's are poor partners.

Over the last three decades I have seen extreme changes in the macro nutrients ( proteins, carbohydrates and fats ) combinations in our quests for the ideal body. Everything from high carbohydrate, low fat, high protein, to the current low carbohydrate craze has bombarded us, though the failure rates in managing our weight continue to rise. The problem lies in our bodies ability to adapt to change, especially extreme change. If your goal is to lose fat you must provide your muscle enough quality fuel without being over fueled. This is especially true if your goal to lose fat includes exercise. The secret is not found in elimination of macro nutrients, but in management of them. Understanding how to fuel your muscles prior to exercise sessions and replacing fuel after workouts is critical or your body will break down muscle for fuel.

Understanding how our muscles use the calories we eat as fuel for muscle contraction is the first step in knowing what to do and not to do. A basic nutritional knowledge tells us that proteins repair and rebuild cells, carbohydrates energize cells and fats provide hormonal foundation for cells.

When we lack balance in protein, carbohydrates and fats are bodies adjust and can use all three as a source of fuel for muscle contraction and cellular energy. Though energy is needed for all cellular function, the focus of this article is muscle contraction and body composition. All muscle contraction derives energy from adenosine triphosphate or ATP. The primary source of ATP comes from glucose, which is stored in the muscles and liver as glycogen ( glucose and water ). Muscle contraction during anaerobic activity ( resistance training ) can use glycogen directly to form ATP. The process is anaerobic glycolysis, meaning it can use the glucose as energy with very little oxygen ( 90% glucose, 5% oxygen and 5% fatty acid ).

Our muscles only store enough ATP for short periods of muscle contraction, when depleted leads to muscle failure. The rest period between weight training sets allows additional ATP to be produced. During early stages of aerobic exercise, ATP is again created primarily from glucose until the heart and lungs provide enough oxygen to the muscles to allow fatty acids to be used to create ATP. So there you have it during resistance training and the beginning stages aerobic training the primary source of fuel is glucose.

This supports my claim that low carb diets and exercise make poor partners. To uncover why, we need to quickly look at the concept behind low carb diets and how they work. Any diet that provides 100 grams or less of carbohydrate daily. This article classifies as low carb diet's. This will quickly deplete the glycogen stores in the muscle and liver. This by itself is testimony that our muscle's primary source of fuel is glucose. Fatty acids stored in the adipose tissue ( fat cells ) are now released into the blood and processed by the liver and some are turned into glucose ( gluconegenesis ) and some remain fatty acids and both provide ATP for muscle contraction. One of the by products of this process is ketone bodies which can provide energy to brain and nervous system. The problem gluconegenesis ( non glucose turned into glucose ) provides fuel to the muscle less efficiently than glycogenesis ( glucose ). The end result is increased muscle fatigue, decreased muscle power, which leads to poor athletic performance.

A recent study performed at the University of Connecticut showed that exercisers who switched from a balanced diet ( proteins, carbohydrates and fats ) to a low carb diet experience the following drop's in athletic performance. There was a 7 - 9 percent drop in muscle power and 6 percent drop in VO2 max of cardiovascular performance. Another factor to consider is the recuperation of muscle between workouts is decreased on low carb diets. So why would someone go on a low carb diet, especially when exercising? Because the initial weight loss that comes from the glycogen depletion is believed to be fat loss. We have become so focused on weight loss, that any weight loss is seen as good. As identified earlier in this article glycogen is a mixture of glucose and water and the majority are stored where? You guessed it, the muscle. A large percentage of the initial weight loss is coming from muscle loss.

I don't think any exerciser's desire is to have smaller muscles as a result of their exercising. The goal of exercise should be to improve body composition, the percentage or ratio of muscle to body fat. This can only be accomplished by losing fat without the loss of muscle tissue. Maintaining muscle mass is vital to sustainable weight control. The following steps will protect your muscles as your losing fat, while reaching your ideal weight and ideal body composition.

FAT LOSS COACH Keys to losing FAT without losing MUSCLE

1. Cycle fat burning days with recovery days.

The secret to losing fat without losing muscle starts with not being too aggressive or extreme with your reduction of carbohydrates. You need carbohydrate management, not carbohydrate elimination. Over the last 12 years, with more than 10,000 clients I've found by reducing carbohydrates by 20% of daily needs and within 48 hours replenishing the glycogen in the muscle by eating 100% of daily carbohydrate requirements, allows for fat loss, without muscle loss. In essence you have two fat burning days, then a recovery day. By doing this you'll have the best of both worlds. You will experience fat loss that averages between 1-2 pounds weekly, while muscles are being well fed. You never drastically deplete the glycogen stores in the muscle so athletic performance is not affected like on a low carb diet.

2. Exercise on days where you are receiving more carbohydrates.

Exercising on days where muscle are getting more carbohydrates for fuel and taking days off from exercise when you are being aggressive about fat loss. One of the most difficult thoughts for exercisers to accept is that most of the results from exercise come when we are not exercising. They come after we exercise and in direct response to how the muscles receive nutrition after exercise.

3. Exercise 1.5 - 2 hours after eating when blood sugar levels and insulin levels are slowly declining.

As insulin levels increase in response to a rise in blood sugar after a meal, the cells are in an anabolic state ( receiving nutrients ). Insulin is the hormone that feeds are cells. As blood sugar levels drop, insulin levels drop and the pancreas produces the hormone glucagon and nutrients stored in the fat cells are released to the blood and used for energy. The management of this blood sugar rise and drop is important. If blood sugar levels go to high insulin feeds the muscle cells and deposits excess into fat cells. If insulin levels go too low, the muscle cells are being under fed. A slow rise in blood sugar provides good nutrition to the muscles and a slow drop allows glucagon to take from the fat cells. Timing your exercise to this blood sugar decline allows the muscles to receive from the fat cells more effectively. It is important to never exercise without having at least one meal left in your day so that muscles can recuperate from exercise.

Final Thoughts

Long term success managing weight starts with the right approach. If you are overweight, the real problem is that you have too much body fat for how much muscle you possess. A body composition solution is needed, not just a weight loss diet. Your goal should be to lose fat without losing muscle or sacrificing your health in the process. To maintain your results your eating habits must develop life long character. Low carbohydrate diets provide initial weight loss, but at the high cost of losingmuscle and reducing metabolism. They are inadequate sources of fuel to support exercise activity, which is vital in maintaining good health. The risks to your health long term makes low carbohydrate diet's poor solutions for life long weight management.

About The Author

By Charles Remington
Nutritionist
Founder of THE FAT LOSS COACH
Customized Fat Loss System
1303 Highland Ave
Cheshire, Ct. 06410
203-272-0014
http://www.thefatlosscoach.com
charlie@thefatlosscoach.com

Diet Versus Exercise - What's the Best Way to Lose Weight?

Diet

Educate yourself instead of going for those fad diets. Inform yourself by reading, finding a nutritionist, or by consulting a dietary physician to find the right choices for you. Collecting information about right eating habits is a bit challenging, but ultimately you'll become aware of the uselessness of fad diets. Holding on to a reasonable eating plan will involve lot of restraining and some renunciation. Heading into the closest McDonald's every time hunger kicks in, is by far the least feasible option. Lots of unwanted fat, hundreds of undesired calories that would have found their way straight into your hips, will be more worth than the sacrifice. Many experts agree that the best way to reduce body fat and lose weight is to never let the unnecessary calories cross your lips in the first place. This simple fact is lost to most of the people. It is amazing to know that it needs little to no exercise upon reducing food intake and taking the right foods in little amounts.

Though reducing the intake, the nutritional requirements of the body must be met. Proteins, carbohydrates, and in fact, fats are required. Vitamins, minerals, plenty of water, fiber, these too are necessary as minimum daily requirements. This is where self education comes into picture, over exercises can lead to fatigue, out of starvation can lead to serious eating disorders like Anorexia or Bulimia. But remember! Reasonable eating habits have lots of fringe benefits. You will have lowered cholesterol levels and triglyceride levels, that means, you will have lowered your risk of heart diseases. You will have stable blood sugar levels, which means you have minimized your risk of diabetes and many associated problems. You also reduce the risk of developing particular types of cancers.

The joy of exercise

Till this day, the only fountain of youth ever discovered is a rigorous workout. It can change the way you feel, transform the way you look, and enhance the way you perform. It has tremendously positive impact on your health and fitness and affects positively every aspect of your life. For any exercise program to work and result in positively, needs a lot of energy and a certain amount of time scheduled in your daily routine. Working long hours, busy schedules, sleepless nights and untimely eating habits, is the least ideal scenario. The solution involves a bit of self-education, discipline, restraining and prioritizing. Take a practical look at how much time you can devote to an exercise plan, and accordingly restructure your daily schedule around it. Formulate a plan that spares you time and effort doing the right thing is the key to success.

One of the dangers to avoid in exercising in the gym is to over train, working out to fatigue. This can have a crippling effect on any well intentioned novice or seasoned athlete. Not only does over training causes fatigue, it can make you sick, or cause you muscle injury. An extensive plan based on solid facts and good knowledge will help lead you through all too common problems. A nutritious well balanced diet fuels your sessions of exercises and supplies your growing muscles with adequate nutrients, at the same time requiring you to exercise less and less often. Exercise burns excess calories, improve your metabolic rate and lets you to eat more without any weight gain. It is a win-win situation. Take the best of both worlds. Don't choose in between a diet plan or an exercise plan. The comprehensive approach involving both supporting each other will lead you to health and happiness.

For interesting info visit: Acai Berry Detox Diet

Simple Facts About Muscle Building Diets

When you are out to build muscle it is important that you realize right from the start one very important fact. Weight training does not build muscle, never has, never will.

That's just not how it works, you see weight training actually destroys muscle fibers, the body then rebuilds those fiber and builds new ones to supplement the rebuild ones in order to help prevent the damage from occurring again. What we call body building is just a systematic and control process of planned destruction and predictable reconstruction performed over and over again until we achieve the results that we desire.

In order for body to be able to perform the rebuilding part of the process you need to provide it with the fuel and materials it needs to do so. Muscle is built primarily of water and proteins so you need to make sure that you are including large amounts of both into your muscle building diets. But, make sure that your muscle building diets are not mostly protein as this is unhealthy and can lead to certain medical conditions. The general rule of thumb is that you should be consuming 15%-20% for your daily calories from proteins but at the most you should never have more proteins in your daily intake that 50% of the carbohydrate you take in.

Carbohydrate, a word that has gotten a bad rap. The truth is that if you want to burn fat then you have to have carbohydrates in your muscle building diets. If you want to build muscle then you have to have cabs in your diet and if you want to stay healthy, vital, and energized then you have to have large amounts of carbohydrates in your diet. Carbohydrates are the fuel that your body runs on, proteins are the building blocks. Think about your car its made of metal but runs on gas, how far to you think your car will drive if your replace all the gas in the tank with metallic powder? And before all of the cult programmed crowd out there start jumping up and down about the special diet that a certain "doctor" made famous, let me give you something to think about, The American Medical Associations declared him a quack and tried several times to revoke his license to practice medicine citing his diets as dangerous due to depriving people of needed FUEL to repair and maintain good health. You should have about 65% of your total calories from healthy natural carbohydrates products such as grains, pasta and starches. Your body cant build without fuel, when was the last time you saw a building being built with a bulldozer that was out of gas, Carbohydrates are essential to your muscle building diets.

Water is the last consideration, it is vital to your muscle building diets. The truth is that "America runs on StarMooseCoffeeSuperCorp Cafe & Donut Co." We are a nation of people who have forgotten that nature gives us what we need and to get it we need only walk to the kitchen sink with a glass. Water accounts for 70% of your body mass and you should be drinking at least 8-10 glasses of water a day for good health more if you are detoxifying your body or are trying to build muscle mass more efficiently, If carbohydrates are the fuel we run on then water if the carrier of the fuel, water must be a large part of your muscle building diets

Keep these things in mind and you will be on the way to building muscle mass faster and more efficiently than ever before.

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