Weight Loss Programs
Weight Watchers Diet
Millions of people use the Weight Watchers® diet every year in an attempt to lose weight. It’s one of the most popular weight loss programs and one of the most respected. There are definitely advantages and disadvantages to the Weight Watchers diet system. Read on and see if it’s for you.
The Weight Watchers diet is based on the idea that “healthful weight loss occurs when we consume less food than we burn.” Many of us know this, but find it difficult to apply it to our own lives. Counting calories and weighing food to make sure we accomplish this mission just isn’t all that easy. It’s time-consuming and if there’s one thing most of us are short on, that would be time.
Not only that, but putting all that thought into what we’re eating kind of sucks the fun out of food. We begin to obsess on every bit we put in our mouths; how many calories was that? Oh, I forgot about the mayo! Etc. Read More
Jenny Craig Weight Loss
So, who’s the celebrity du jour for Jenny Craig right now? Valerie, right? Or is it Queen Latifah? Well, we all know it’s not Kirstie anymore, or at least there aren’t too many commercials with Kirstie. Personally, I think Kirstie Alley is a beautiful women heavy or thin as are Val and Queen Latifah. But, when you’re advertising for a weight loss program such as Jenny Craig, weight loss is sort of important.
No matter what the flattering outfit, it became quite apparent that Kirstie didn’t quite meet the goals of the program, though she did lose weight. So, Valerie stepped in and now has a book out on the shelves about her success with the Jenny Craig diet. So, why did Kirstie “fail” and why did Valerie lose all the weight she wanted?
It could very well be that Kirstie cheated, but when evaluating the success or failure of a diet, one has to look beyond the dieter and look at the diet itself. What works for some just isn’t right for others. It’s a very subjective thing. Read More
The Zone Diet
About the Zone Diet
The Zone Diet (www.zonediet.com)
was developed by Dr. Barry Sears. The diet itself is set up to give moderate amounts of the three major nutrients: protein, fat and carbohydrate. By doing this, Dr. Sears believes that the zone diet will balance and stabilize the three major hormones or hormone types: insulin, glucagons and eicosanoids. In addition, Dr. Sears believes that zone diet food is capable of controlling gene expression by turning on or off particular genes.
- The Plan
The basic concept is that based on your daily protein needs, to stay in the diet zone you will eat a balance of protein, fat and carbohydrate throughout the day using three meals and a few snacks. These are measured in blocks. A block of protein is roughly 1 ounce of meat. As a rule of thumb, women will have three blocks, or three ounces of lean meat and men will have four ounce of lean meat per meal. You then use equal blocks of fat and carbohydrate. Read More
Pack That Fat! Why Weight Loss Is Important
In Helen Fieldings’ cult novel Bridget Jones’s Diary, frustrated singleton Bridget Jones seems to wage an endless battle against the bulge, and if you will permit me to quote a longish paragraph, sums up very nicely what it is that most of us hate about being fat. Here it is: “I hate communal changing rooms. Everyone stares sneakily at each other’s bodies, but no one ever meets anyone’s eye. There are always girls who know that they look fantastic in everything and dance around beaming, swinging their hair and doing model poses in the mirror saying, ‘Does it make me look fat?’ to their obligatory obese friend, who looks like a water buffalo in everything.” Read More
Diet Plans: Which Is The One For You?
Whenever I think diets, I can’t help thinking of Bridget Jones (I know I’ve mentioned her before), Helen Fielding’s scatterbrained singleton heroine who obsessively counts calories and is yet constantly unable to reach her dreamed of weight loss goal. At the end of Bridget Jones’s Diary, we learn that Bridget has consumed, in a single year, 11,090,265 calories. That is by her own admission, and Bridget’s mathematical skills may not be the strongest, but even so, she has consumed close to 30,000 calories per day, whereas the recommended daily count for a woman her age (early 30s) would be 1,940. As for her alcohol consumption, the count is a staggering 3,836 units per year, which means more than 10 units per day. Is it any wonder she leads a dysfunctional life? Read More
Natural Weight Loss: Will It Work For You?
For Terence Flanagan of Grand Rapids, Michigan, losing weight was not a matter of choice, but a medical necessity. At 23 and a full six feet, he was touching 400 lbs, and doctors were warning of severe consequences if he didn’t get his weight under control. “Back in 2003, I was an obese wreck,” says Terence. “I was embarrassed to go out and meet people, and my job as an estate agent meant that I was constantly having to do that. It got to a point where I seriously wanted to give it up and just hide in a dark corner.” Read More
Green Tea: A Weight Loss Miracle Aid?
Okay, this is going to be one of those ‘did you know’ beginnings. Did you know that a lot of the tea that was dumped into Boston harbor during the Boston Tea Party was, in fact, green tea? This is because until the early decades of the 20th century, green tea was a far more popular import into the United States than black tea. And of late, the wheel has turned full circle as the popularity of green tea as a weight loss aid gains ground, making it the beverage of choice in large parts of the Western world, whereas earlier, its consumption was more widespread in the Far East.
In fact, in many Asian cultures, green tea has a proud tradition as a healing beverage. There is archaeological evidence to prove that green tea has been consumed in this part of the world for close to 5,000 years, and that India and China were the first countries to grow it. Traditional texts indicate that green tea has been medicinally used in countries like India, China, Japan and Thailand to help everything from healing wounds to regulating blood sugar and promoting digestion. Spot the green tea-weight loss link here? Happily, modern science has started to recognize these properties too, which has led to widespread research on green tea, adding to its popularity. Read More