Diet Pills That Work

Because of so many illnesses and chronic diseases, more and more individuals are paying attention to their diet. Despite hectic schedules and busy lifestyles, people can start and maintain a healthy diet if they really want to. Today, one of the major reasons why people are overweight or suffer from minor and major health risks is that they don’t practice having a healthy diet.

What’s a good, effective formula for a healthy diet ?Experts advise a mix of food choices from each food group. Having a balanced intake of calcium-rich foods, whole grains, and protein-rich products will also keep you on track. You must also know your restrictions of fats, salt and sugars levels, and intakes. Lastly, you must monitor your body weight regularly to determine if your body is absorbing all the nutrients that it needs.

How do you know if your diet is healthy ? For those who are having a hard time figuring out what is a healthy diet and what’s not, here are some tips for you. Experts say that a diet is healthy if it is: – based on starchy foods such as bread, cereals, rice, pasta, and potatoes because they are a good source of energy—not to mention being the main source of a range of nutrients in a person’s diet like fiber, calcium, iron, and vitamin B.

1– a healthy diet should consist of lot of fruits and veggies such as orange, apples, celery, broccoli, carrots, beans and peas because eating at least 5 portions of any variety can provide the vitamins the body needs which also satisfies hunger .And you don’t have to worry about fats and excess carbohydrates.

2 – a healthy diet should include fish dishes that have high amounts of fish oil because it can provide protein, vitamins, and minerals that are not available to other food groups.

3 – a healthy diet should be low in saturated fats and excess sugars such as meat pies, sausages, hard cheese, butter and lard, pastry, cake, biscuits, cream and the others because they are high in complex calories that’s stored in the muscles.

4 – a healthy diet should have less salt content because experts believe meals that uses too much salt can raise the blood pressure which can lead to more complicated diseases especially those related to coronary illnesses.

5 – last,but not lease your diet should be high in water content because experts believe that for a person to achieve optimum health and fitness, he or she should take in lots and lots of water and foods that are high in fluid content to keep the body well-hydrated.

Doctors say that though the basic principle of a healthy diet is simple, there are those who are having a hard time sticking to it. The major reasons behind this include a super busy lifestyle, work that causes a lot of stress or even an environment that is not conducive to having a healthy diet.

Obesity is a physical state that refers to excessive body fat. Chances are you have experienced the frustrations of dieting at least once in your life, if you have problems with your weight. Close to a hundred million Americans go on a weight loss diet in any given year and up to ninety-five percent of them regain the weight they lose within five years. Worse, a third will gain back more weight than they lost, in danger of “yo-yoing” from one popular diet to another. The conventional approach to weight problems, focusing on fad weight loss diets or weight loss drugs, may leave you with just as much weight and the additional burden of ill health.Today, an estimated sixty-five percent of all American adults are obese or overweight. Our culture obsesses about staying thin even as we grow fatter, but this isn’t about appearances. Obesity is known to be a precursor to many debilitating health conditions such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, osteoarthritis, and gallbladder disease. Obesity contributes to as many as 375,000 deaths every year. In addition, the public health costs for obesity are staggering. According to researchers at Harvard University, obesity is a factor in 19% of all cases of heart disease with annual health costs estimated at 30 billion dollars; it’s also a factor in 57% of diabetes cases, with health costs of $9 billion per year.Set Realistic Goals:No doubt you have fallen for one or more of the weight loss diet schemes over the years, promising quick and painless weight loss. Many of these quick weight loss diet programs undermine your health, cause physical discomfort, flatulence, and ultimately lead to disappointment when you start regaining weight, shortly after losing it. Fad or quick weight loss diet programs generally overstress one type of food. They contravene the fundamental principle of good nutrition – to remain healthy one must consume a balanced diet, which includes a variety of foods. Safe, healthy, and permanent weight reduction is what’s truly lost among the thousands of popular diet schemes.Some of the weight loss diet schemes reign supreme briefly, only to fade out. While some wane from popularity due to being unproductive or unsafe, some simply lose the public’s curiosity. Examples of such fad diets include the South Beach Diet, Atkins diet, the Grapefruit diet, Cabbage Soup diet, the Rotation diet, Beverly Hills diet, Breatharian, Ornish Plan – the list goes on and on. These fad diets advocate a specific technique (such as eliminating a certain food, or eating only certain combinations of foods) in conjunction with the basic idea that the body makes up the difference in energy by breaking down and utilizing some part of itself, essentially converting matter into energy. This self-cannibalism, or catabolism as it is referred, typically starts with breakdown of stored body fat.

Fat loss diets and dieting has been around for some time. This is not a new type of diet, not for weight loss anyway. Fat loss is one of the reasons that many people go on a weight loss diet in the first place, in order to lose the excess fat that their body is carrying. There are many fat loss diet plans throughout the world including many well known ones as well as lesser known ones. The objective of a fat loss diet is to burn the excess fat while losing weight. This can also include firming up the body as weight is lost.
A fat loss diet works on the premise of getting your body to burn more fat at a higher level. It also uses techniques such as Glycemic index and high and lean protein diets for starters to help the calories burn quicker. This combined with exercise and a balanced diet will go a long way to reducing the amount of fat that the body is carrying. Certain foods in combination with exercise and proper hydration will burn more calories safely while the dieter is cutting back on the amount of food eaten in order to lose the weight that he or she wants to lose.
All these things need to come together in a fat loss diet so that someone can lose weight safely and effectively. Sometimes medicine will also be required in order to help the person to lose weight. Vitamin supplements may also be ordered to help the body as the weight loss progresses. There are many different things that will be put into a fat loss diet in order to help the patient lose weight safely and effectively without harmful side effects. Here is a word of caution when looking at dietary supplements. Let a physician make the determination about supplements on this type of diet. This is for safety reasons.
This is said because some supplements that are herbal can wind up being a dangerous part of a fat loss diet. Some of these herbal preparations have not been evaluated by FDA or other authorities and some have been shown to be life threatening to say the very least. Caution is required when using a herbal supplement in addition to a fat loss diet. Use common sense when dealing with these types of supplements and take ONLY as directed on the bottle or as prescribed by a physician. Herbal supplements when used improperly can lead to illness and death for the dieter.
With that being said, some supplements will work just fine under a doctor’s care. When losing weight or trying to lose weight, it is too easy to take the easy way out. On a fat loss diet, this can be dangerous to say the very least. Too much of a good thing can hurt as bad as too much of a bad thing. A more proper way to look at this is the fact that a balanced diet, in proportion, with plenty of fluids and exercise along with medication if it is needed is the only way that you will truthfully lose the weight that you want to lose.

Diets and weight loss are a frequent and consistent hype. These days there is much talk about Protein diets. The Atkins diet created a protein frenzy with people striving for the quick weight loss result achieved by a protein diet. Some people are succesful but not for life. Some people are not successful and move on to the next diet.

 With so many diets turning up, and at such a constant pace, it can be difficult to know if they are viable, healthy or harmful.  Here are some tips for you to consider with regards to the famous protein diet and other areas you can turn to for diets and weight loss that encompass nutritional value and a healthy lifestyle. 

 Protein is very effective on metabolism. In avoiding carbohydrates your body wont have an immediate energy source and will have to use stored fat, which is where the weight loss comes from. So, yes, it is possible to lose weight on a protein diet – initially.

 Protein diets are usually misinterpreted. If done incorrectly, they can starve the body of carbohydrates, making it look for other energy sources such as fat stores and sometimes muscle. This process of burning fat and protein for energy creates what is called Ketones. If you have a lot of ketones in your body, your blood can become very acidic, which means it has to use calcium to buffer the acidity. We certainly dont want to do anything that causes us to lose precious calcium!

Other side effects I have heard people complain of is hair loss, skin problems, and digestive problems, mainly due to lack of fibre in the diet. I mean, why do a diet to lose the weight but then end up encompassing other issues with your health?

 Any diet that does not enable you to maintain for life is unrealistic. Restrictive diets, whether protein, low fat, or calorie counting, always has side effects. Dont look for quick fixes, they dont last, are usually very costly, and above all, usually have some sort of side effect. Dieting extremes are not the solution.

Instead, look for health diets and weight loss regimes suitable for your daily lifestyle. Be active and do regular exercise. There are diet plans that help you do this and these are the ones you should be looking at.  If you do this, you will be successful in managing your weight and will not have to move on to other diets.

 

 

The “Belly Off” Diet

The day after Super Bowl and all the festivities, eating, and drinking that this “holiday” requires.  Did you wake up all fuzzy headed, bloated, and hoarse from cheering on your favorite team?  Did you completely blow your diet plan that we all started on New Year’s Day.  Well, I certainly fell for the rivalry and fun and now am thinking of ways to get back on track with the battle of the bulge.

It is not too remarkable that one of the hot and spicy items searched for this morning was “The Belly Off Diet”.  This diet has been featured on the Men’s Health online community since 2002.  The “Belly Off! Club” has collectively lost over 2 million pounds since it was started.  This club achieved this phenominal feat by a combination of reducing intake of refined grains and sugar, portion control, exercise, and healthier eating.

The paper back book on this diet is scheduled for release on April 28 of this year.  It is written by Jeff Csatari and the editors of Men’s Health.  Not to be confused with The Flat Belly Diet written by the editors of Prevention Magazine, this diet plan is geared towards men’s weight loss while the Flat Belly Diet is targeted towards the fair ladies.

MSN actually did a preview of both of these diet plans, go to MSN Health and Fitness and enter both diets to review.

The Belly Off Diet is a well designed plan that features three satisfying meals a day with two snacks in between.  This plan encourages a high protein breakfast, a sensible lunch and varied dinner suggestions that keep the diet interesting.  As I talked about in an earlier post, low calorie and low carb diets don’t work that well and can actually be harmful to your body.  In that particular post I explained how these types of diets trigger the body’s metabolism into shutting down the weight loss that we first enjoyed at the onset of these plans.

The Belly Off Diet addresses this diet plateau by allowing a full calorie day once a week thereby insuring no weight loss plateau and so keeps your metabolism working toward your weight loss goals.  Every Tuesday is steak night with this plan accompanied through out the week with dinners such as Tex-Mex Chicken, Broiled BBQ Pork Chops, BBQ Chicken, Spicy Fish etc.  And it allows one beer a night on certain nights. Yay!

Breakfast  is varied between eggs, oatmeal, fruits, juice and coffee, lunch is usually light and the two snacks are a combination of fruit, yogurt, nuts, and popcorn.  My earlier post entitled “Pepper your nuts” explained how a handful of spicy nuts would dramatically decrease your appetite between meals.

Go and check out the 8 week meal plan that includes a daily meal plan, a weekly shopping list, recipes for all meals, and even a dining out guide which includes over 70 different dining facilities including Chili’s, Outback Steak House, Olive Garden, and Red Lobster just to name a few.

To check it out go to http://bellyoff.menshealth.com

To your health.

Clink!

While dieters may be attracted to diet plans promoted by celebrities, they should be careful of taking the word of individuals who probably have no nutritional or medical training and who are likely to be just good salespeople. Consumers are advised to question celebrity-inspired diet books, say Annette B. Natow and Jo-Ann Heslin, authors of Get Skinny the Smart Way. These books may be based on nutritional fictions, and while the diets described in such books may provide weight loss in the short term, they may be unhealthy when followed for any significant length of time. Dieters should choose to follow plans established by nutritional experts.

Diet fads aren’t limited to programs sponsored by celebrities. The so-called grapefruit diet, which requires eating a grapefruit before each meal, has been a popular fad diet for some time. Other fad diets include the cabbage soup diet in which unlimited amounts of cabbage soup may be consumed, or the raw egg diet in which dieters eat all the raw eggs they can handle. Fad diets may recommend eating only raw foods or fasting every other day. These diets are based on misinformation and may even be dangerous. The cabbage soup diet, for example, has not been endorsed by any major health organization, and it could actually cause harm. The diet claims to provide losses as high as 15 pounds per week, but does not mention that most of this is water. The American Heart Association notes that this diet can be dangerous, and once dieters eat normally again, they will regain their lost weight. Side-effects associated with this diet include weakness, pains in the stomach, and diarrhea.

Another fad diet approach is food combining. The rationale behind this diet states that people are overweight because they do not consume the appropriate combination of foods. The diet may require its followers to do arbitrary things, like eat a banana only in the morning. This is nonsense, since the stomach can handle a variety of foods at one time. The diet does promote eating low-calorie foods, but there are better methods available that will accomplish the same thing.

Some weight-loss companies claim that weight can be lost by dreaming. By using their product before bed, dieters will lose weight. This claim is totally incredible. It is impossible to lose any significant number of calories while sleeping. Other questionable diets promote the loss of weight through eating special candy bars or milkshakes. These products generally consist of milk and candy to which vitamins and minerals have been added. They rarely satisfy the appetite and may actually encourage dieters to eat more throughout the day.

The truth is that there is a lot of money to be made in the marketing and sale of diet products. As long as there are overweight people, companies will try to profit from them. Dieters must become wise enough to recognize a fad diet for what it is. There are no short cuts to weight loss. A successful program requires commitment, patience, and determination, as well as a willingness to alter eating patterns.

“The inn is not as comforting as the journey.” – unknown
For those of us who’ve battled our weight our whole lives, dieting is often a life-long companion, one we sometimes both love and hate, one in which we first grow giddy with excitement at the potential, but more often than not, one in which we feel has lets us down in the end.
But is it really the “diet’s” fault? There are certainly dozens of diets that come and go only to resurface again over the years. Fitness guru’s found on late-night infomercials are all too willing to take your money with the promise of giving you a model’s body in six weeks or less using their simple and fun program for just twenty minutes a day three times a week! Over your lifetime you have probably tried more than one diet and may have even tried the same diet several times.
Even with all these promises you see people, ordinary people, who have lost significant amounts of weight through dieting and exercising though not with any particular diet or exercise but using any one of the current diet “fads” or exercise machines on the market. Dieting does work and it has probably worked for you one or more times.
People can and do lose weight on whatever their diets of choice is. It’s clear there’s no one perfect diet but rather each person has a diet that’s perfect for them and their body. For one person’s body it might be low fat and high carb, for another it might be low carb and high fat. The actual diet itself doesn’t matter nor do the specific exercises that you do. What is important is finding the combination of the right diet and exercises the you can and will do and that work for you.
However, the single most important factor in determining your chances of success is in your mind and not your particular diet or exercise program. Your mental “game”, above all else, will determine your level of success. You must have a burning desire to reach your dieting goals, you must also create a plan, have faith in attaining that goal, review the goal frequently, and consistently overcome all obstacles until your goal is reached.
Only once you’ve mastered your mental “game” can you be assured of successfully reaching your dieting goals.
The mental factor may be the most important part of succeeding, but it is just the start. There’s one other factor most people do not realized about dieting and it’s almost as important as the mental game for long-term success. This one factor contributes more to your dietary and fitness failures than perhaps any other factor besides lacking a correct mental game.
Dieting, which is setting and reaching a goal, is only the first half of the process. Once reached, your goal is not the end of your journey. It’s only the beginning of a new goal, the second half of your complete success. It’s kind of like going through school as a child. Each year you reached toward the end of the year when school was out and you had successfully completed that grade level. But there was always another grade level to complete.
The other half of your “dieting” journey is now applying and maintaining what you’ve learned along the way to reach another goal: maintaining your new healthy lifestyle. This is not just for the short term but it is purposefully making a lifestyle change for a permanent improvement in your health and fitness.
Only once you’ve realized that all permanent health and fitness changes in your life are really two parts, reaching your dieting and fitness goals and then maintaining them with a new ongoing goal, can you then come to understand that the most important parts aren’t the goals, it’s the journey to your goals. Then and only then will your health and fitness decisions be successful for the rest of your life.

Carbohydrates come from a wide array of foods – bread, pasta, fruits, doughnuts, ice creams and pie. Carbohydrates refer to a group of molecules that is made up of small sugar units composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. They are needed by the body and therefore included in our diet as a major source of energy. Some carbohydrates are simple and are made up of small units of sugars while others are made up of several units of sugar arranged in chains or branches. A healthy diet cannot go without these molecules.

Carbohydrates give body cells the source of energy to support all their activities. This is the reason why when the body’s sugar level is so low, the person experiences a feeling of weakness and lack of energy. This can be observed with diabetics when their blood sugar level go below the normal level. They also provide us with fiber, one of nature’s brooms to purge the body of toxins and waste materials. However, one major concern in carbohydrates is that when they are taken in excess, some of them get converted to stored forms such as fat and stored in certain tissues of the body, usually under the skin. This accounts for pot bellies and love handles and other unsightly bulges on certain areas of the body.

If you are very serious about trimming your waist and dropping pounds, one diet program that you might want to try is one that is low on carbohydrates. Low carbohydrate diet programs are quite popular these days in the form of the South Beach Diet, Atkins diet and Zone Diet. Basically these diet programs promote one thing: restriction of consumption of carbohydrates.

This is on the basis of researches that show the connection between high carbohydrate consumption affecting blood insulin levels to cause metabolic syndromes and obesity. Low carbohydrate diet programs therefore limit or replace foods rich in carbohydrates with those that contain more proteins, fats and fiber. In a low carb diet, there is less bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, and cereals. They usually eat more vegetables, meat, fish, cheese, eggs, and nuts. When one opts to go on a low carbohydrate diet, one has to replace carbohydrates with fats and proteins. Carbos in fact make up less than 10 percent, and in some cases, less than 5 percent of the daily calorie intake.

Low carbohydrate diet for one, go for foods that are low in sugar. Processed sugar should be greatly reduced, if not totally eliminated from the diet. Low carbohydrate diet food is made up mostly of vegetables, more specifically non- starchy ones. A serving of at least 3- 5 cups per day is highly recommended for this type of diet.

Protein is also an essential parts of a low carbohydrate diet so foods rich in it are highly recommended. One low carbohydrate but protein rich food is soy – based food like tofu and certain meat substitutes.

Fruits that are low in sugar are also tops in the list of low carbohydrate diet foods. A serving of 1-3 per day is enough. As much as possible, it is recommended to eat the fruit itself and to not simply drink the juice to also meet the body’s need for fiber and vitamins. Fruit juices also tend to increase the body’s blood sugar so it is best to eat the fruit instead.

Nuts and seeds as well as legumes are also some low carbohydrate foods that can be included in the diet. Nuts and seeds are even used by some to replace starchier foods. They are also excellent source of healthy oils and fiber. Legumes like beans and peas may contain carbohydrates but they are those that can easily be broken down and digested so there is no need to get rid of them entirely. The same thing is also true for whole grains like brown rice and whole grain pasta.

As for oils and fats, a low carbohydrate diet opts for oils coming from olives as well as from fish. Fish oil is rich in omega-3 which is good for the heart. So eating more fish to get the full benefits of omega 3 and protein is highly recommended too.

Going on a low carb diet does not necessarily mean sacrificing a lot of food and getting deprived. It simply means shifting to foods that are less in carbohydrates and more on proteins and even fats. The foods included in the low carb diet are even more flavorful since they contain proteins and fats.

Once you’ve finally made the decision to lose weight, and you’ve decided you want to try a low carb diet plan, the hard part is practically over. All you need to do now is simply get started. So let’s look at what your first several days of a low carb diet plan might be like.
Day one of your low carb diet plan should really start with some firm decisions. First you decide you will lose weight of course, and second you decide to go with a low carb diet plan to accomplish that weight loss. Next though, you need to choose which low carb diet plan you intend to follow. Three popular ones include the Atkins low carb diet plan, The South Beach low carb diet plan, and The Glycemic Index low carb diet plan.
Regardless of which plan you choose, the goal is to lower your daily intake of carbs, and start really losing some of the extra weight and fat your body has been holding on to. So on day one, decide which low carb diet plan you will be following and familiarize yourself with how that low carb diet plan works specifically.
Day two of your low carb diet plan will involve planning and preparation. First you need to clear out your cabinets, pantry, fridge and freezer. Toss out or give away any high carb, high sugar content foods that you won’t be eating with your low carb diet plan.
Most low carb diet plans don’t allow you to have certain foods in the first week or two on the plan, but you can gradually add those foods in later. So you may find yourself getting rid of foods you have right now that aren’t overly high in carbs, but aren’t yet allowed for the start of your low carb diet plan. Don’t despair though… many of these foods will be added back in over the next few weeks.
Next you will want to make a list of what you will be eating for at least the next week. Include meals, snacks and liquids, then create a shopping list for all of those items. Last but not least, you will go to the store and buy all of the foods on your list.
Taking these steps will help you get started right with the low carb diet plan of your choosing, and it will help you stick to the proper guidelines and instructions for that plan as well.
Day three of your low carb diet plan is when you will actually change the way you eat. You don’t have to wait until this day to get started with your new low carb diet plan, but it can be helpful to start fresh at the beginning of a new day, instead of starting in the middle of a day. Starting your new low carb diet plan at the beginning of a brand new day will make you feel more committed to the plan instead of feeling like it was an impulsive decision on the spur of the moment.
Day three is a good day to do a bit of cooking too. By preparing foods that are allowed during this beginning stage of your low carb diet plan, you’re making sure you will always have something good to eat that’s easy to just grab and go. One of the biggest pitfalls of most low carb diet plans is that you need to cook the proper foods for your particular plan. And if you don’t have something cooked and ready when you want it, you’re more likely to fall off the plan and sabotage your weight loss efforts.
The next several days of your low carb diet plan might not be the best. You will experience sugar and starch cravings, you may be tired and lethargic, and you may have headaches or mild dizziness. These are all standard symptoms of starting a low carb diet plan, because your body is cleaning out all the extra starches, sugars and junk that’s been stored up for awhile. You body is going through withdrawal from the lack of sugar that it’s used to, and these early days on your low carb diet plan are when having pre-cooked foods is most important, because you’re at a higher risk of quitting when you’re not feeling well.
Once those few days of withdrawal are over though, you will very likely be thrilled with the results of choosing a low carb diet plan. You’ll have more energy, you won’t feel as bloated, and you might even notice clothes are already started to fit more loosely too!

You might disagree, but hear me out on this, if you’re thinking of going on a diet to lose those extra pounds think again. Long-term weight control through dieting is near impossible, for the simple reason is that diets promote only short-term solutions not long term.

After dieting you’ll certainly look lighter on the scales, but in most cases this is because you’ve dumped a few pounds of body fluid and muscle, and not because you’ve lost any significant amounts of body fat.

One of the main reasons diets don’t work is because they send the body into starvation mode – a survival mechanism for times when humans faced periods of famine. Cutting back on our energy intake causes the body to lower its metabolic rate, which reduces its ability to burn fat.

At the same time, hunger signals increase and we quickly start to crave high energy foods loaded with fats and sugars – the exact foods we are trying to do without!

Alarmingly, research has shown that repeated dieting actually makes it harder to lose weight and easier to put it on.

This is because when you dump the diet and return to normal eating habits, the drop in metabolic rate caused by the diet means that your old eating habits actually represent excess in calories.

Not only do you regain the fat stores just lost, but you may even gain a bit extra.

Five more reasons to stop dieting

* Diets sap energy – Too little food means not enough energy for

physical activity.

* Diets lower your metabolism – Dieting causes your body to

conserve energy, making results harder to achieve.

* Diets are unhealthy – A cycle of rapid weight loss followed by

weight gain can lead to a loss of lean tissue from your body

and calcium from your bones. It also strips the body of

essential

vitamins and minerals.

* Diets make food the enemy – Food provides nourishment and

comfort. Diets can make you afraid to eat, depriving you of one

of life’s pleasures.

* Diets cheat your confidence – Going from one failed diet to the

next can leave you feeling depressed and create a cycle in

which guilt battles against food.

Regular physical activity and a healthy, balanced diet aren’t as glamorous as the quick fixes, but they do get better results.

Start with one extra exercise session and one less fatty takeaway meal per week, and gradually work towards a lifelong plan for achieving your best weight.

If you change the way you eat or exercise to lose weight, ask yourself this question. Can I see myself sticking to this routine for life?

If the answer is “no” then its time to change what you’re doing. Any healthy weight loss plan should include the following:

* A wide variety of foods.

* Regular and enjoyable exercise.

* Enough filling foods to avoid constant hunger.

* At least 1200 calories a day.

* Flexibility for treat foods and social occasions.

* A realistic goal of your best weight (not necessarily your

lowest weight.)

Fact

A realistic weight loss is around one to two pounds per week. Fast weight losses are not fat loss but glycogen and water. If you lose weight quickly then you will probable

return back to the weight at which you started as quickly as it was lost.

Fiction

* Weight loss is quick and simple.

* Exercise is not necessary.

* Certain exercises can spot reduce.

* Carbohydrates (for example, bread, potatoes, rice,

and pasta) are fattening.

Eliminate calorie-dense foods such as cookies, sugary desserts, chips, fries, pizza, candies, crackers etc.

Research on people who have successfully lost a lot of weight and kept it off long term, shows that the vast majority succeeded by consuming a low fat diet high in fibre coupled with strength training and cardiovascular activity.

These are the basics you’ll need to aim for.

A sound weight loss-eating plan should:

* Be nutritionally sound, providing all the nutrients you need.

* Never promise fast weight losses.

* Offer an eating plan based on real food.

* Allow you to eat out.

* Avoid expensive meal plans, products and supplements.

* Not avoid carbohydrate foods, e.g. bread, rice, pasta, cereals

and potatoes.

* Make gradual dietary changes.

* Provide knowledge.

* Allow you to eat all foods

* Recommend physical activity.

Fat calories are more fattening than carbohydrate calories. Your body can easily convert the fat you eat in food into body fat, so to lose weight you need to cut down on fats and foods that contain it.

Consider the following steps to reduce fat in your diet.

* Use skimmed or skimmed milk in drinks, cooking and on

cereals.

* Buy a non – stick frying pan.

* Buy a cheese slicer

* Cut the visible fat from meat.

* Eat very little pastry.

* Learn how to read a food label.

* Substitute low fat yoghurt for cream.

* Remove the skin from chicken and turkey.

* Eat fruit as snacks rather than eating chocolate and biscuits.

* Eat fewer burgers and sausages.

In conclusion the way to lose body fat and maintain muscle is to have a food program for life and more energy output. Increase the amount of fruits, vegetables, non-fat dairy products, whole grains and beans that you eat.