Posts Tagged ‘diet foods’

Lose Weight fast with the top 7 healthy foods!

March 17th, 2010

If you want to be lean and healthy, you have to make it easier for yourself by including food that will help you to achieve your goals. Such food will help you to lose fat faster and they will also make you build lean muscle mass. We will look at 6 of those foods in this article. Let’s start!

1. Legumes and pulses

Legumes and pulses are low in fat and high in muscle building nutrients: fiber, iron and protein. Eating more legumes will keep you full and will also ensure that you burn fat and build muscle.

2. Oats

Eating oats for breakfast will keep you full until lunch time. This is because oats are very high in soluble fiber – a nutrient to keep you fuller than non-soluble fibers.

3. Fat free dairy products

Fat free dairy products contain much less fat than full cream dairy products and the high calcium contents will also help you to lose weight.

4. Whole-grain products

Whole grain carbs are a much better choice than white carbs. This is because white carbs causes a spike in your energy levels leaving you hungry and tired. Wholegrain carbs on the other hand keeps you full for longer.

5. Lean meat and fish

Lean meat is higher in lean protein and lower in fat than other meat types (like red meat). So eating more of those will help you to stay leaner than the rest

6. Fruits and veggies

Snacking on veggies and fruit will keep you full and it is a great alternative to unhealthy (and fattening) sweets and junk food.

7. High protein bars

Protein bars (those that are low in fat), are a great fat burning and muscle building snack. If you include a few nutrition protein bars in your daily diet, you will say good bye to cravings and hello to lean muscle mass.

If you keep the smart food tips in mind, you will be on your way to be leaner and healthier. Just remember that you also have to exercise regularly and eat healthy for it to come to full effect. But if you do, you will be feeling and looking lighter and healthier. Pilates is a great exercise to try out. If you want to take it up, have a look at a home pilates machine. They tones the whole body and they also help to build a strong and lean middle.

3 Tips to Make Weight Loss Fun!

November 5th, 2009
USDA Food Pyramid

Image via Wikipedia

Weight loss can be fun if you manage to approach it properly. If you fail to do that then it can be a very tedious and boring task and as a result, you will give up and remain overweight and unhappy. The key to make weight loss fun depends on the weight loss tips you follow to lose weight. If your approach is based on weight loss tips that are easy to follow and are effective, you will at the end have good results. If on the other hand you fall into the trap of some famous strict diets then at the end you will get disappointed and possibly fatter. So, the way you approach your weight loss is a key factor for your overall success. In this post we outline 5 weight loss tips that will help you out:

1. Do not follow a weight loss diet that suggests you only eat or drink only certain types of diet  foods. This is unhealthy because our body must obtain all the vitamins and nutrients available in various kinds of foods. Not exclusively protein or carbohydrates. Such diets may have some good results in the beginning, but in the long term they are dangerous and hard to follow.

2. Do not just completely abandon items from your diet. If, for example, you eat a bar of chocolate in the afternoon and this is a habit that you like, do not cut it completely from one day to the next. Instead try to reduce the portion of the food or snack. In our example you can start by eating only half the chocolate and gradually reduce that to nothing or even better replace it with other snacks that give you pleasure but are fat burning foods.  What is important in weight loss is not deprivation, but being careful on the size of the portions and on the frequency you eat some foods. Your goal should be to change your lifestyle and eating habits to lose weight, and not just follow a diet for a couple of months, lose some pounds, and then go back to your unhealthy habits.

3. Even if some people do not want to hear this, weight loss cannot be complete and effective without exercise. You need to help your body increase the calorie burning process and the only way to do that is by moving and exercising. You need to keep your muscles working all the time by walking, doing some manual work at home, doing a sport or by joining a gym class. When your muscles work they burn more energy. This not only helps you lose weight, but it helps you build more muscles, which in turn will help you burn more fat. Adjust your daily and weekly schedule to devote some time to such activities and after a couple of months you will not only feel better because the scale will start to move, but you will also improve the state of your health and well-being.

By following the above healthy eating tips you can engage into a process where you will be able to lose weight in a way that you can follow for a long time. In fact the major objective of the above tips is to help you change your lifestyle into a more healthy style and put you into the right track for a long lasting weight loss.

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Diet Foods

September 2nd, 2009

Beware any food that calls itself “diet foods”.  Often it is a low-fat, sugar-free or low-sugar, pre-packaged food that may be low in calories, but also low in any  nutritional value.  Many of these diet foods are sweetened with aspartame which is a known neuro-toxin that can wreak havoc on your body.  Aspartame poisoning is known to mimic the symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

Splenda is another sweetener that was promised to be the next best thing, but is now coming under scrutiny for its safety concerns.  Splenda is suppose to be as sweet as sugar with none of the calories.  Unfortunately, long term studies of Splenda have never been conducted and evidence against its good benefits is mounting.  Artificial sweeteners as food additives are not subject to the same strict regulations as pharmaceutical drugs by the FDA.  Most testing of artificial sweeteners are funded by the food industry which obviously has quite a vested interest in it’s success.  Foods with these artificial sweeteners also spike your blood sugar and deliver empty calories which leave you hungry soon after you have eaten them.

The best diet foods for weight  loss  are whole, healthy foods. When you eat whole foods, you are not always hungry because you are not eating chemicals and high fructose corn syrup that keeps you addicted and hungry.  Whole healthy foods are like mother nature’s appetite suppressant.   Whole foods are also a benefit to diabetics.  Foods that are grown in the earth, not manufactured in a factory.  Many good diet foods include fresh fruits and vegetables that you can eat as much as you want.  They are loaded in fiber, anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals that your body needs to burn and break down fat cells.  A whole food diet consists of whole grains like brown rice, quinoa, and whole wheat pasta, and lean proteins like turkey, chicken or lean cuts of beef.  Substituting heavy creams and oils with applesauce, riccotta cheese and yougurt is also a great way to lighten foods up.  I like to visit my friend’s  site to learn tips on lightening up Italian food - my favorite!   A good rule of thumb to follow is if mother nature didn’t make it, don’t eat it.  A whole food diet will give you energy, vitality and all the nutrients you need to get you through the day in top form.