Weight loss diets

After many of us have determined to lose weight or get in shape - magazines, newspapers, television and radio bombard us with diet and weight-loss options. Diets are promoted through books and over the Internet.

Be skeptical. Some are more hype than substance. Some are downright dangerous.

Fad diets can usually be recognized by promises made by promoters. As you review the information about a particular diet plan or weight loss product, ask yourself, "Is it too good to be true?"

Unfortunately, many diets are empty promises. Beware of diet plans or weight loss products if:

• Miraculous, fast results are promised.
• No time or effort is said to be required
• Claims are made that calories don't count.
• Eating a variety of foods is not stressed.
• Claims are made that diets either high or low in certain nutrients have special weight-reducing powers.
• Certain foods have special powers to cause selective weight loss (for example, hips and thighs).

There is no dietary shortcut to weight control and long-term health. The magic pill, cream, skin patch, wrap or dietary supplement for weight loss does not exist. You have to be active enough to burn 3,500 calories to lose a pound of body fat. Fast weight loss (more than one to two pounds per week) reflects water - not fat - loss. Your plan should be to eat well and enjoy some type of physical activity daily.

The USDA's "Dietary Guidelines for Americans," released in 2005, recommends consuming a variety of nutrient-rich foods and beverages from the basic foods groups and meeting calorie needs by balancing food intake with activity.

Fad diets that ignore the principles of the Dietary Guidelines - available at www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines - might result in short-term weight loss, but might do so at the risk of your health.

How you go about managing your weight has a lot to do with your long-term success. Gradual weight loss should be your goal, unless your physician says your health is seriously at risk due to complications from being overweight or obese.

Permanent, safe weight loss involves permanent lifestyle changes in which you consume fewer calories and become more active. It also is very important that before beginning any weight-loss program, you talk with your doctor.

 What is diet?
Diet is called specially selected by a quantity, the composition of energy value and the method of preparation food ration, and also the weight loss diet program. There are diets medical and weight loss diet. Medical diets a little, they are known for a long time, necessary, checked up, effective for treatment of some illnesses and rehabilitation. To weight reduction they attitudes have no.
Weight loss diets the huge quantity, and every day appear all new and new. Among them it is possible to allocate following versions -

Separate meal.

Supporters of the theory of separate meal consider what to eat all is possible and in any reasonable quantities, impossible to use products incompatible with each other simultaneously only. However the majority of doctors do not recommend a separate meal. In their opinion, application of this technique - artificial infringement of normal digestion.

Monodiets.

Provide the use only one foodstuff . They too rigid and dangerous to body. Besides if to enter application of a monodiet into system or to not adhere to the moderate use of food after its termination, the former weight will quickly be restored.

Albuminous diets

A maximum of fiber (meat and a fish), a minimum of all rest. As a rule, it is rather "rigid" diets.

Fatty diet.

To lose weight, it is necessary to use mainly fat food, mainly meat and bacon. Animal protein and fats are easily acquired and give a maximum of energy.

Vegetarian diet

A good, healthy diet, however difficult. But it in itself does not give strongly pronounced effect of weight loss.

The most known and popular diets:

South Beach diet, Atkins diet, Lemonade and Grapefruit diet

Apply diets correctly

 

Consult with the doctor-dietitian, it will help to pick up the most effective for you diet.

if suffer any chronic disease, necessarily consult with the doctor - some diets can be categorically counter-indicative to you.

Try to pick up a diet including food which you love

Be not overzealous. At all do not use a diet, longer and more often, than it is recommended. Do not reduce caloric content too (women should consume not less than 1000-1200 calories in day, men - 1700-2000).

If at application of any diet for loss of weight at you the state of health has noticeably worsened, have appeared (aggravation) of any diseases, immediately stop application of this diet.

To loss weight it is easier, than to keep the reached result. After end of a diet do not eat all successively, and smoothly, gradually pass to the normal balanced mode.

The first thing that comes to mind when people think of weight loss is being hungry and miserable. Over the past ten years we have seen one fad diet after another claiming to help you shed those extra pounds within days. Unfortunately those diets are all doomed to failure simply because they do not promote healthy weight loss.

One well known low carbohydrate diet claims you can healthily lose ten pounds per week while another carbohydrate rich diet claims the same. Both diet plans promote drinking lots of fluids and maintaining a daily exercise regimen.

Exercise alone can help you shed the pounds and inches before swimsuit season, but don’t overlook the importance of a well-balanced diet and full-body detoxification. One of the most important steps to detoxifying your body is a simple colon cleansing. Cleansing the colon of toxins can help flush out that bloated, fat feeling as well as help enhance your weight loss goals.

There are several options for a healthy colon cleanse and full body detoxification. Simply the addition of water, fruits and vegetables to your diet goes a long way in promoting a healthy lifestyle. Steamed or raw vegetables are a great source of vitamins and minerals as well as fiber to help cleanse the colon. Adding green, leafy vegetables to your diet will also increase your fiber intake, helping cleanse your colon and digestive tract very effectively. Cutting back on red meats and dairy products is also advised, as these foods congest the digestive tract.

Fruit and vegetable juices are also very good ‘snack’ fillers for when you need a quick little pick-me-up. Avoid that afternoon candy bar and soda, both are very high in fats and carbohydrates that will only help reverse your weight loss goals. The addition of eight to ten glasses of water per day will help flush your body of unwanted toxins and fat.

To many people, adding eight to ten glasses of water to their diet per day is a bit overwhelming. One way to remember to drink your water is to drink two to three glasses before every meal. This will also help you achieve a feeling of being full more quickly; thus aiding to your weight loss.

There is also a very wide variety of herbs that help aid in the cleansing of the digestive tract and colon. Herbs such as phylum are often found in over-the-counter laxatives. Phylum adds the fiber that your body needs to help it become regular and help flush out toxins that may hinder weight loss.

Detoxification and colon cleansing is a very important part of weight loss. Just changing one’s eating habits can drastically improve your overall health. Studies have shown that the poor eating habits we all fall prey to cause our colon to store mass amounts of unhealthy toxins. In fact, the human colon can hold more than thirty-five pounds of toxins and feces.

The addition of rice, nuts, seeds, fish, beans and other protein-rich foods can help cleanse the colon of most of these unwanted toxins and pounds. Simply detoxifying your body by eating more healthily and drinking lots of water is an excellent way to jump-start any diet and exercise program. It’s also probably the easiest thing you can change about yourself.

Weight-loss and major lifestyle changes may be more effective than intensive insulin therapy for overweight patients with poorly controlled, insulin-resistant type 2 diabetes, according to a diabetes researcher at UT Southwestern Medical Center.The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health recently halted part of an ongoing clinical trial on diabetes and heart disease after more than 250 people died while receiving intense treatment to drive their blood glucose levels below current clinical guidelines.

The evidence is compelling that when insulin levels are high, certain tissues are overloaded with fatty molecules, which leads to insulin resistance. And yet, the high blood glucose levels of many obese patients with insulin-resistant type 2 diabetes are being treated with increasing amounts of insulin in an attempt to overpower that resistance. While high doses of insulin may lower glucose levels, it will also increase the fatty molecules and may cause organ damage.

In a commentary in the March 12 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association,  professor of internal medicine, wrote about the recent findings of his own and other labs that link insulin resistance to excess accumulation of fatty molecules in liver and muscle.

Dr. Unger, who has investigated diabetes, obesity and insulin resistance for more than 50 years said intensive insulin therapy is contraindicated for obese patients with insulin-resistant type 2 diabetes because it increases the fatty acids that cause diabetes. Instead, the most rational therapy eliminates excess calories, thereby reducing the amount of insulin in the blood and the synthesis of the fatty acids stimulated by the high insulin. Giving more insulin simply increases body fat.

Giving more insulin simply channels the glucose into fat production. There is now a spectrum of therapies that improve diabetes by correcting the insulin resistance by reducing the body fat. Insulin treatment would be indicated only if all these fail.

Dr. Unger said insulin should be given to patients with insulin deficiency, but not if the insulin levels are already very high but ineffective. “Giving more insulin to an insulin-resistant patient is akin to raising the blood pressure of a patient with high blood pressure to overcome resistance to blood flow. Instead, you would try to reduce the resistance,” he said.

In the commentary, Dr. Unger said the increase in the number of patients with insulin-resistant type 2 diabetes can be traced to the epidemic of obesity that began in the U.S. after World War II, when food preparation was moved from the family kitchen to factories and companies that produce high-fat, calorie-dense foods, leading both men and women to consume substantially more calories on a daily basis. In addition, technological advancements such as televisions, computers and automobiles reduced the number of calories burned per day.

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body is unable to make enough of the hormone insulin to compensate for insulin resistance.

Factors that increase the risk of type 2 diabetes include obesity, age and lack of exercise. Over a period of years, high blood sugar damages nerves and blood vessels, leading to complications such as heart disease, stroke, blindness and kidney disease.

Eating a low fat diet has long been associated with good health, weight losing, reducing risk of developing life-threatening heart diseases and multiple health issues.
A low fat diet is not a no fat diet. Some dietary fat is actually necessary. You can still enjoy dairy products and meat, simply choose lower fat or lean varieties; and sparing use of heart-healthy oils is encouraged.

Fat is not entirely evil; a certain amount of fat is critical to our bodily functions. It regulates body temperature, cushions and insulates organs and tissues. As the most concentrated source of calories (nine calories per gram of fat compared with four calories per gram for protein and carbohydrates), fat is the main form of our body’s energy storage. It also provides linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid for growth, healthy skin and metabolism, and helps absorb fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K). Furthermore, fat also does have another extremely important role (which I believe all food lovers will agree with me) – a small amount of fat in food can improve the taste of food drastically and make a world of difference!

However, one problem with fats is that they are very high in calories (i.e nine calories, as mentioned earlier). Eating more calories than your body can lead to weight gain, which increases your risk for developing health problems such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, gallstones, and gout. Foods that are high in fat includes dairy foods (e.g whole milk, ice cream, butter, cheese), fatty red meats, egg yolks, which are particularly high in cholesterol, processed meats (sausage, salami, hot dogs), and deep-fried foods. A low fat diet often comprises fruits, vegetables, fish, cereals, rice, pasta, nuts and seeds. However, we also need to understand that not all fats are equal. More and more studies reveal that bad fats increase the risk for certain diseases while good fats lower the risk. The idea of healthy eating and following a low fat diet is about knowing how to choose good fats over bad fats. In other words, the key is to substitute good fats for bad fats.

Bad Fats

Saturated fats:

These are mainly found in the harder fats such as the fat on meat, lard, and the fat in dairy products such as butter, full cream milk, etc. There are also fats called ‘Trans Fats’ (Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils). These are oils which come from vegetables but have been processed to make them hard and similar to saturated fats. They are often used in processed foods, and in commercially made cakes, biscuits and pastries.

We should try to limit our intake of saturated fats and trans fats as they contribute to weight gain and a raised cholesterol level.

Unsaturated fats
These mainly come from vegetables, nuts and fruits. They are divided into:

* Polyunsaturated fats such as sunflower oil, and corn oil.
* Monounsaturated fats such as olive oil and rapeseed oil.
* Omega 3 fatty acids. These come mainly from oily fish such as pilchards, sardines, salmon mackerel and fresh (not tinned) tuna. Some omega 3 fatty acids are found in various plant foods and vegetable oils.

Unsaturated fats are ‘good fats’ as they are less likely to raise your cholesterol level. Omega 3 fatty acids are also thought to help prevent heart disease and may help to improve our health in other ways. There is a separate leaflet called ‘Cholesterol’ which gives more details about reducing your cholesterol level.

Trans Fats:

Trans fats are actually unsaturated fats, but they can raise total and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels while also lowering HDL (good) cholesterol levels. Any item that contains “hydrogenated oil” or “partially hydrogenated oil” likely contains trans fats. Hydrogenation is the chemical process that changes liquid oils into solid fats. It’s used to extend the shelf life of processed foods, typically in stick margarine, baked and fast foods such as ice cream, cakes, cookies, chips, shortening, popcorn, and French fries. Hydrogenated or trans fats are harmful to the heart and have been associated with some cancers. You probably have noticed more and more brands of potato chips are screaming “trans-fat free” on their packaging in the marketplace. Now, take note, a food can be labelled as having zero trans fats or “Trans fat Free”- even if it contains trans fats. The FDA states that if a serving of a food has 0.5 gram or less per serving of trans fats, then it can be labelled Trans Fat Free. And when you find out what constitutes a serving (e.g 5 crackers, 2 cookies, ½ cup of popcorns…), you would realise how easy it is for those who are keeping a low fat diet to be fooled and overeat trans fat. So, next time you go shopping, even if the food label claims zero trans fat, look for the words “partially-hydrogenated”, “shortening” or even “hydrogenated” – which can all mean that the food still contains trans fats.

Good Fats

Monounsaturated fats:

These are unsaturated fatty acids derived from vegetables and plants. They are liquid at room temperature but begin to solidify at cold temperatures. This type of fat is relatively healthier than other types of fat and can be found in olives, olive oil, nuts, peanut oil, canola oil and avocados. Some studies have shown that these kinds of fats can actually lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and maintain HDL (good) cholesterol.

Polyunsaturated fats:

These unsaturated fatty acids can have a beneficial effect on our health when consumed in moderation and when used to replace saturated fats or trans fats. They can help reduce the cholesterol levels in your blood and lower your risk of heart disease. Polyunsaturated fats cannot be manufactured by our bodies, and are found mostly in fish and plant oils such as safflower, corn, soybean, sunflower, and cottonseed. They exist in liquid form at room temperature.

Omega fats:

Three very important fatty acids that make up poly and monounsaturated fats are omega-3, omega-6, and omega-9; all frequently mentioned when discussing about low fat diet and choosing good fats. They can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and also boost our immune systems. Omega-3 fatty acids are found in oily fish such as salmon, mackerel and tuna, canola oil, soybeans, flaxseed and certain nuts (especially walnuts and almonds). They may reduce the risk of stroke, high blood pressure, and other chronic disease. Omega-6 fatty acid is found in corn, safflower, soybean, and sunflower oils, and Omega-9 fatty acid is found in olive oil and canola oil.

When following a low fat diet, you don’t have to entirely give up eating foods that are high in fat content, but there are some things we all can start doing: Eat bigger quantities of low-fat foods to accompany high-fat foods, make substitutions for high fat food. Educate yourself about foods and learn some important concepts including saturated fats and cholesterol. Learn to read food labels and be informed on the fat contents. Look for keywords like “hydrogenated”, “partially hydrogenated,” and “trans fats”, and as a general rule of thumb, liquid fats are better for you than solid fats.

Pop singer Janet Jackson, whose fluctuating weight has fascinated the tabloids for years, is co-writing a book about her journey as an “emotional eater.”
A title and publication details are expected to be announced soon, but Jackson hopes to have the book out by the end of the year.

She is collaborating on the project with her nutritionist, David Allen.

“It’s not just this sterile, weight loss and how to do it book, but my journey even from when I was a kid … being an emotional eater,” said Jackson, who is 41.

“It takes you through those moments in my life up ’til now and what worked for me. And hopefully within that, if it doesn’t work for them, maybe they’ll find something that does work for them and a nice place for them to be content with who they are.”

Jackson, who said last month on CNN’s “Larry King Live” that she liked French fries, sweets, caramel and candy apples, reportedly put on 60 pounds in 2006.