The Infonian

Your acknowledgment of the need and desire to lose weight is the first and most difficult step on the path to weight loss. When your weight is of concern to you, the emotional and physical toll it takes on you can be very stressful.

But people can have a difficult time realizing that in order to lose weight they actually should eat more often throughout the day. A common strategy at the beginning of a diet is a drastic reduction in the amount and kinds of food eaten. However, that may in fact ultimately do more damage than produce any benefit.

If you are not eating enough throughout the course of the day, you are setting yourself up for a weight loss disaster. By not eating enough you set your body up to have low energy throughout the day. Your body will also go into starvation mode and try to store as much fat as possible, which will thwart your weight loss attempts. Additionally, if you are depriving yourself, you will start to experience more intense food cravings than you would otherwise.

Your body’s main goal is to keep yourself alive and operating properly and healthfully. Our systems have all sorts of survival mechanisms in place to keep your systems working. These systems will automatically start up when your body gets the signal that it is needed. One of our most highly developed defensive mechanism is our response to famine.

Your internal mechanisms do not really realize that you could sit down and eat whatever you want. If your body is not aware that you are choosing to not eat those calories, instead, your body thinks that you are starving so it will automatically adjust how it is operating to make sure that your body is able to create the necessary energy to operate properly.

Your body’s famine response will kick in automatically by keeping yourself from eating for long between meals or by not eating enough throughout the day. When this happens, it automatically slows your metabolism, making it more difficult to burn fat quickly and effectively. Having an efficient metabolism is an essential key to your success,when your goal is weight loss.

As a result of your eating habits you will start to lose the toned muscle instead of the fat. The muscles in your body will suffer and have problems with typical daily activities if you have a diet that is low in protein. The loss of lean muscle also causes your metabolic rate to diminish even further. Again reducing the amount of fat that your body is able to burn.

When you are looking to lose weight, ensuring that your metabolism is fully functioning is an essential step to ensuring your success. The key to keeping your metabolism up is to make sure that you are eating small meals about three hours apart. If you do that in coordination with a fitness program you are sure to quickly become the new you that you have always dreamed of being.

Author: Robert Bell

As a bodybuilder you already know that carbohydrates are an important part of our diet, and that all carbs are not created equal-some are good while others are not-so-good or even bad. The rate at which carbs release their energy determines where they fall on the spectrum. The carbs that release their energy slowly are the good ones, while the ones that release their energy quickly are the ones to avoid. There are three types of carbs: complex, simple and refined. Complex carbs are the slowest energy-releasers, with refined carbs releasing it the fastest. Knowing which is which used to be tough until the Glycemic Index was developed. The Glycemic Index (GI) classifies carbs based on the rate at which they release energy. Carbs that that fall low on the GI scale release their energy slowly while those that are high on the GI scale release their energy quickly. This is important to know and here’s why: Carbs that release their energy quickly produce a rise in blood sugar levels followed by a rapid fall, leading to a “crash,” which makes us feel lethargic. On the contrary, carbs that release their energy slowly help keep blood sugar levels on an even keel, which allows us to maintain our energy levels throughout the day.

Exactly where a particular food falls on the GI is determined by how much it raises blood sugar levels over a two to three hour period. The GI uses a scale of 0-100. Most people who use the GI classify any food that ranks at 55 or below as having a low Glycemic Index, meaning that it raises blood sugar levels considerably less than foods that fall higher on the scale. Foods with a medium GI are those that have a rank of 70 or below with anything above being classified as having a high Glycemic Index.

Refined carbs release their energy very quickly and therefore, have a high Glycemic Index. These are the ones you find in processed foods. Refined carbs have been processed by machines that strip the bran and the germ from the whole grain. They fall high on the GI because they release their energy quickly. Refined carbs have been largely stripped of the nutrients, meaning that they’re basically empty calories that have little nutritional value, send glucose levels skyrocketing and leave you feeling hungry a short while after you eat them. White bread and white rice are some foods that are made up of refined carbs.

Simple carbs are mostly sugar and also release their energy quickly. You’ll find them in sodas, candy, chocolate, fudge and other foods that have lots of added sugar. While you want to mostly avoid simple carbs because the majority of them have a high Glycemic Index, they’re not entirely bad because most fruits-which can be very good for you to eat now and then-are made up almost entirely of simple carbs.

There are plenty of fruits made up of simple carbs that don’t rank high on the GI. Fresh strawberries for example, rank 40 on the GI, well below the threshold of 55. Some other fruits that score low on the GI include apples, pears, oranges and cherries, among others. So even though they’re simple carbs, feel free to occasionally add a handful of these nutritious fresh fruits to your protein shake.

Complex carbs-like the ones you find in broccoli, beans and whole grains-generally score the lowest on the GI. These are the nutrient-rich, slow burning carbs. They don’t cause glucose levels to spike and since they release their energy slowly, they help keep the body feeling “full” and satisfied longer than fast-releasing carbs. This is important not only for sustaining energy levels throughout the day but is essential for maintaining proper weight.

It’s important to note that while the Glycemic Index can be a useful tool, it should serve as a general guideline, not as a hard and fast rule. If your goal is to lose weight, then you should definitely stick with almost entirely with foods that have a low GI. As a bodybuilder though, there are times when you will certainly want to mix in some foods with a higher GI-particularly after an intense training session when your body needs a quick burst of energy. In any case, the Glycemic Index really is a handy, worthwhile and easy-to-use planning tool, especially since there are lots of interactive websites that allow you to enter the name of a food to quickly find out its Glycemic Index.

Author: Mike Westerdal

Success with weight loss is often achieved when one sets personal goals. Weight loss success will come a lot closer when you make the decision to learn how to lose 5 pounds in a week. The only thing that is stopping you is the knowledge of how to achieve that goal. The only way your going to lose 5 pounds in one week is to combine the right diet and exercise. This article teaches the effective method of losing those five pounds.

Time to Shift Those calories

If your going to lose 5 pounds in a week, you need to adjust some lifestyle habits for those 7 days. To begin you must shift your daily calorie consumption. Instead of just 3 meals in a day shift to eating at least 4 for that week. The next thing to do is lessen the portion sizes of those meals. Your body will increase its metabolism by increasing meals and reducing portions so that you burn a lot more calories naturally. Also along with portion reduction stay away from salt and sodium to halt water retainage. Then to flush out your bodies water retention by adding 2 cups of water on top of what you already drink normally. Minimally changing your diet in that fashion will at least lose you 2-3 pounds or more.

Three day activity

The only that remains, given that you’ve shifted your diet, is exercise the last couple of pounds off. Choose any 3 days out of the week you are going to lose 5 pounds and pick a medium impact activity. An example of a medium impact activity is jumping rope or playing a sport for 10-30 minutes. Your selected exercise does not have to be jump rope but be sure to pick something that you can do for ten minutes and cause you to sweat.

Final Stretch

Now during those 7 days you are naturally going to have cravings. The trick is not giving in and binging, so to do so drink water. Yes water was mentioned before but when you feel like snacking, drinking water will kill those cravings. Once you made it past those 7 days you should at least see a 5 pound decrease.

Author: Jason Allan