Lowering your cholesterol can be a challenge, especially if you day's schedule doesn't have a moment to spare. Here are 3 foods to cut fat and cholesterol while you lose weight fast.
Eat an apple a day. It's not just an old wife's tale that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Consuming a 5 ounce apple means you're adding 3 grams of pectin to your diet. Pectin is a soluble fiber that binds to bad-for-you fats cleaning them out of your system. Apples have flavonoids which are compounds that prevent holesterol's ability to cling to the inner walls of your arteries by as much as
38%. That's good news because it decreases your risk of a heart attack.
D-glucaric acid is a substance that decreases the body's ability to form LDL cholesterol, the bad cholesterol, in the liver by 35%. As an added bonus pectin also adds a feeling of fullness which means you can less than you usually do, lose weight, but still feel full. It's best to eat the apples raw to get all their benefits. Apple slices spread with peanut butter is a good way to start your day at breakfast.
Another fat fighter and food that lowers cholesterol are nuts. Only 2 ounces a day reduces the liver's production of LDL cholesterol by 33% and increases the good HDL cholesterol by 11%.
Nuts are rich in monounsaturated fats. Not only do monounsaturated fats cut cholesterol they also act as an appetite suppressant. Any kind of nut will do but almonds and walnuts are especially beneficial.
Nuts make a terrific snack by themselves. 2 ounces is what would fit in your cupped palm or about 2 tablespoons. Nuts can be added to salads, fruit smoothies, breakfast cereals and cooked vegetables. One red grapefruit daily decreases LDL cholesterol up to 20% and is twice as effective as white or pink grapefruit. The reason is red
grapefruit is richer in antioxidants which curb the liver's tendency to produce cholesterol.
As an added bonus one study showed that women who ate any color grapefruit daily lost 20 pounds in three months without any other change in their habits. Eat the whole fruit rather than just drinking the juice to take advantage of all the fiber.
Adding these three foods to your daily diet can help lower your bad cholesterol levels, increase your good cholesterol and as an added bonus help you lose weight.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Lose Weight Fast With Fruits
Green crisp apples, juicy mouthwatering pineapple, luscious red strawberries, fruit can not only be a delicious treat and a source of vitamins and overall health, but they can also help you lose weight fast. You just have to know how to go about it. Fruit has fiber which helps you feel fuller longer. Fruit also is packed with water, up to 80%. A valuable piece of advice in every diet is to drink plenty of water; it "cheats hunger" as well as hydrating your body. But you can also use fruit for a similar purpose, while giving your body plenty of fiber and prolonging the satiety sensation.
In order to lose fat fast by using a fruit-based diet, be careful about the type of fruit you choose. Choose the ones that have high water content and lower sugar content. You can go for citrus fruit, cantaloupes, and berries. Stay away from the super sweet ones unless they have a very high water content like watermelon. Sweet translates into a high sugar content and that can cause blood sugar spikes. A blood sugar spike causes your body to release too much insulin which then leads to a feeling of hunger. Also stay away from fruit that has been canned or processed in any way, the whole point of eating fruit is to obtain the maximum amount of vitamin and antioxidants with a minimal intake of fat and sugar.
Eating the whole unprocessed fruit is better than drinking the juice. The fiber in the whole fruit will keep you fuller longer. The fiber also slows down the digestive process so you won't get a sugar spike. It's better for you and your weight loss program to eat the whole unprocessed fruit rather than just drinking the juice.
Even though a fruit-rich diet might seem easy to pull off at first, a few days into it, you may be craving something else. The trick is to squeeze fruit into your daily eating habits, by replacing some of the major calorie providers in your daily diet with fruit. Make sure you always keep fruit handy, so that when you are itching for a snack, they will be the first thing you will set eyes on.
One study showed that women who ate a small apple before every meal lost more weight than woman who didn't eat the apple. It seems the pectin in the apple and fiber worked to help the women feel fuller longer. Apples contain a substance that binds to fat and helps it move through the body without being absorbed.
Fruit can help you lose weight in a delicious and healthy way, all you need to do is incorporate them into your daily eating habits.
In order to lose fat fast by using a fruit-based diet, be careful about the type of fruit you choose. Choose the ones that have high water content and lower sugar content. You can go for citrus fruit, cantaloupes, and berries. Stay away from the super sweet ones unless they have a very high water content like watermelon. Sweet translates into a high sugar content and that can cause blood sugar spikes. A blood sugar spike causes your body to release too much insulin which then leads to a feeling of hunger. Also stay away from fruit that has been canned or processed in any way, the whole point of eating fruit is to obtain the maximum amount of vitamin and antioxidants with a minimal intake of fat and sugar.
Eating the whole unprocessed fruit is better than drinking the juice. The fiber in the whole fruit will keep you fuller longer. The fiber also slows down the digestive process so you won't get a sugar spike. It's better for you and your weight loss program to eat the whole unprocessed fruit rather than just drinking the juice.
Even though a fruit-rich diet might seem easy to pull off at first, a few days into it, you may be craving something else. The trick is to squeeze fruit into your daily eating habits, by replacing some of the major calorie providers in your daily diet with fruit. Make sure you always keep fruit handy, so that when you are itching for a snack, they will be the first thing you will set eyes on.
One study showed that women who ate a small apple before every meal lost more weight than woman who didn't eat the apple. It seems the pectin in the apple and fiber worked to help the women feel fuller longer. Apples contain a substance that binds to fat and helps it move through the body without being absorbed.
Fruit can help you lose weight in a delicious and healthy way, all you need to do is incorporate them into your daily eating habits.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Calorie Negative Foods: Fact or Fiction to Help You Lose Weight Fast
Negative calorie foods is a term that is widely circulated in the world of weight loss and body building, but what does it mean for a type of food to have negative calories, how does that work, and despite all the hype, are negative calorie foods for real? Will they help you lose weight fast?
Negative calorie foods are foods that require your body to burn more calories for their digestion than the digested product will give back to your body in terms of energy. That means that not only will said type of food not provide you any calories, it will make your body burn some as well. Even though it sounds too good to be true, there are certain foods that will do just that, you just have to know how to use them.
Most of these foods should be eaten raw in order for them to have a maximum effect. After all, by cooking them you make it easier for the body to digest them in most cases, and as such, you're cheating yourself. The negative calorie foods belong to the fruit and vegetables food categories, and some examples of negative calorie foods are as follows: cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, celery, lettuce, radish, cucumber, lemon/lime, grapefruit and others.
Negative calorie foods are most effective when used on their own, or in combination with each other but certainly not in combination with calorie-rich foods, something that would render the use of negative calorie foods useless. In other words don't put cheese sauce on your broccoli or dip your celery sticks in peanut butter. Combine raw shredded cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, celery, and radishes for a crunchy salad for lunch. Add raw cauliflower and broccoli spears to your dinner. Have an entire grapefruit with your breakfast.
Negative calorie foods are not miracle foods that will make you lose weight in no time without any effort on your part. Rather, they can help you in your efforts to lose weight, complementing the effects of a balanced, low fat diet and exercise program. While these foods will not spare you the effort it usually takes to achieve positive results in weight-loss, they will help you get there faster.
Try consuming two servings of a negative calorie food with every meal. You'll get more vitamins, fiber, and burn more calories. One of the best negative calorie foods isn't really a food at all. It's ice water. Yes, an 8 ounce glass of ice water requires your body to burn up 25 calories in order to raise its temperature back to normal after consuming the water.
Lose weight fast by adding negative calorie foods to your diet.
Negative calorie foods are foods that require your body to burn more calories for their digestion than the digested product will give back to your body in terms of energy. That means that not only will said type of food not provide you any calories, it will make your body burn some as well. Even though it sounds too good to be true, there are certain foods that will do just that, you just have to know how to use them.
Most of these foods should be eaten raw in order for them to have a maximum effect. After all, by cooking them you make it easier for the body to digest them in most cases, and as such, you're cheating yourself. The negative calorie foods belong to the fruit and vegetables food categories, and some examples of negative calorie foods are as follows: cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, celery, lettuce, radish, cucumber, lemon/lime, grapefruit and others.
Negative calorie foods are most effective when used on their own, or in combination with each other but certainly not in combination with calorie-rich foods, something that would render the use of negative calorie foods useless. In other words don't put cheese sauce on your broccoli or dip your celery sticks in peanut butter. Combine raw shredded cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, celery, and radishes for a crunchy salad for lunch. Add raw cauliflower and broccoli spears to your dinner. Have an entire grapefruit with your breakfast.
Negative calorie foods are not miracle foods that will make you lose weight in no time without any effort on your part. Rather, they can help you in your efforts to lose weight, complementing the effects of a balanced, low fat diet and exercise program. While these foods will not spare you the effort it usually takes to achieve positive results in weight-loss, they will help you get there faster.
Try consuming two servings of a negative calorie food with every meal. You'll get more vitamins, fiber, and burn more calories. One of the best negative calorie foods isn't really a food at all. It's ice water. Yes, an 8 ounce glass of ice water requires your body to burn up 25 calories in order to raise its temperature back to normal after consuming the water.
Lose weight fast by adding negative calorie foods to your diet.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Lose Weight in Two Weeks with a Low Calorie Program.
The average person needs to eat about 2000 calories per day to maintain their weight. Of course this varies based on how much the person weighs, their metabolism and activity levels, but it is a bench mark. Lose weight in two weeks. There are three ways to lose weight on a low calorie program: Cut back the number of calories consumed, increase activity levels to burn off more calories, or just a combination of both.
A pound of fat requires that 3500 calories either be burned or not consumed. A calorie is the amount of energy in food. 500 calories would have to be cut from the average person's daily diet to lose one pound of fat per week. A restricted low calorie program is usually between 1200 to 1500 calories per day. A medium apple has 70 calories, an 8 oz. steak about 425. One tablespoon of fat, oil, or butter has 120 calories. As a general rule fat and oil has more calories than any other type of food. Vegetables and fruits have the least amount of calories.
Increasing the amount of exercise per day can result in weight loss. If you walk for 30 minutes daily you'll burn off 250 calories. The good news is that exercising at a brisk pace, say walking, for 20 minutes will increase your metabolism from 10 to 15% for two to four hours afterward. A brisk pace means that you can still talk while walking. If you can whistle or sing, you're going too slow and if you can't catch your breath enough to hold up your end of the conversation, you're going too fast.
Combining a low calorie program with an exercise program will allow you to burn off the fat faster.
The advantages of a low calorie program is that you can eat a wide variety of food. There are no restrictions on what you can eat, just how much you can eat. If you absolutely have to have a piece of cheesecake you can eat it as long as you include it in your daily calorie consumption.
The disadvantages include sometimes being hungry but you can lose weight in two weeks on a low calorie program.
Severely cutting back calories doesn't accelerate weight loss, in fact it has the opposite effect. Your body is conditioned to react to starvation, which is what you're doing when you decrease calories below 1000 per day, by lowering your metabolism. So you can cut back and your body will just compensate. The bad news is if you go back to a normal diet it takes your body a while to realize you're not starving and increase your metabolism back to normal levels.
A pound of fat requires that 3500 calories either be burned or not consumed. A calorie is the amount of energy in food. 500 calories would have to be cut from the average person's daily diet to lose one pound of fat per week. A restricted low calorie program is usually between 1200 to 1500 calories per day. A medium apple has 70 calories, an 8 oz. steak about 425. One tablespoon of fat, oil, or butter has 120 calories. As a general rule fat and oil has more calories than any other type of food. Vegetables and fruits have the least amount of calories.
Increasing the amount of exercise per day can result in weight loss. If you walk for 30 minutes daily you'll burn off 250 calories. The good news is that exercising at a brisk pace, say walking, for 20 minutes will increase your metabolism from 10 to 15% for two to four hours afterward. A brisk pace means that you can still talk while walking. If you can whistle or sing, you're going too slow and if you can't catch your breath enough to hold up your end of the conversation, you're going too fast.
Combining a low calorie program with an exercise program will allow you to burn off the fat faster.
The advantages of a low calorie program is that you can eat a wide variety of food. There are no restrictions on what you can eat, just how much you can eat. If you absolutely have to have a piece of cheesecake you can eat it as long as you include it in your daily calorie consumption.
The disadvantages include sometimes being hungry but you can lose weight in two weeks on a low calorie program.
Severely cutting back calories doesn't accelerate weight loss, in fact it has the opposite effect. Your body is conditioned to react to starvation, which is what you're doing when you decrease calories below 1000 per day, by lowering your metabolism. So you can cut back and your body will just compensate. The bad news is if you go back to a normal diet it takes your body a while to realize you're not starving and increase your metabolism back to normal levels.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Plan for your snacks
Plan ahead so you won't be hitting the vending machines or the cookie jar. There are lots of prepackaged alternatives at the grocery store that offer low fat, low calorie, but tasty snacks. Prepackaged costs more than the big bags but you get portion control in return. You can also package up your own snacks. Keep the calorie count to about 100. Fresh fruit and veggies are a given, but you can also have popcorn without the butter, saltine crackers with low fat cheese, a cup of soup, a handful of nuts, or pretzel sticks. Put your selected snacks in a zip lock bag and place in the fridge, when you feel the urge, they'll be ready and waiting.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
If you work outside the home, brown bag your lunch
It's tempting to run out to the nearest fast food joint for a high fat, high carb lunch. If you pack your lunch you have control of what you eat and won't be tempted by a burger and fries. If you have a fridge and microwave at your office, and who doesn't these days, you can serve up a delicious salad and soup lunch. As an added benefit you will save money. The average fast food lunch these days costs around $7.00. And you can use the time you save to run errands, relax or take a walk around the block.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Lose That Weight with Acai Berries
You know you've put it off long enough. First it was "wait until the kids were back in school," then "who can diet at Halloween with all the festivities," then along came Thanksgiving and Christmas with all the cookies. Well you're out of excuses it's time to lose that weight in 2009.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to find a food that was not only good for you but helped you lose weight and tasted good? How about a raspberry chocolate flavored juice? There is such a thing: the Acai berry. It's high in antioxidants, amino acids, and essential fatty acids. It helps you lose weight because the Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids it contains help increase your metabolism. The fiber fills you up and because it takes longer to digest, it keeps you full so you don't get hungry as soon.
Acai berries are not some brand new scientifically molded super food. It's been around for ages and has been consumed by native South Americans as a regular part of their diet. The Acai palm tree produces two crops a year. Are you now wondering why this wonder fruit doesn't show up in the produce section of your local supermarket or at least health food store? It's simply because the berries are extremely perishable once they've been harvested. Within 24 hours of being removed from the palm tree the berry starts to rot. That and the fact that the berry is a small sized fruit about the size of a grape with a rather large seed there isn't a lot that's edible.
The good news is that Acai berries products are available in the United States and other parts of the world besides South America. There's Acai berry juice, pulp, powders, extracts, and supplements.
Like any good for you food the challenge is to incorporate the food into your diet on a daily and regular basis. Here are a couple of ways to get Acai berries into your diet and boost your weight loss program. Here are a few more ideas.
Fruit smoothie - Mix 1/2 cup of juice with 1/2 cup of yogurt, whirl in a blender with a handful of chopped fresh fruit.
Mix the pulp with equal portions of applesauce
Mix half juice and half green tea
Mix half juice with half sparkling water
The amount you should use of the powders, extracts and supplements depend on the quality of the product and how the acai berry was processed. While there haven't been any side effects confirmed from Acai berries eating too much of anything isn't good for you.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to find a food that was not only good for you but helped you lose weight and tasted good? How about a raspberry chocolate flavored juice? There is such a thing: the Acai berry. It's high in antioxidants, amino acids, and essential fatty acids. It helps you lose weight because the Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids it contains help increase your metabolism. The fiber fills you up and because it takes longer to digest, it keeps you full so you don't get hungry as soon.
Acai berries are not some brand new scientifically molded super food. It's been around for ages and has been consumed by native South Americans as a regular part of their diet. The Acai palm tree produces two crops a year. Are you now wondering why this wonder fruit doesn't show up in the produce section of your local supermarket or at least health food store? It's simply because the berries are extremely perishable once they've been harvested. Within 24 hours of being removed from the palm tree the berry starts to rot. That and the fact that the berry is a small sized fruit about the size of a grape with a rather large seed there isn't a lot that's edible.
The good news is that Acai berries products are available in the United States and other parts of the world besides South America. There's Acai berry juice, pulp, powders, extracts, and supplements.
Like any good for you food the challenge is to incorporate the food into your diet on a daily and regular basis. Here are a couple of ways to get Acai berries into your diet and boost your weight loss program. Here are a few more ideas.
Fruit smoothie - Mix 1/2 cup of juice with 1/2 cup of yogurt, whirl in a blender with a handful of chopped fresh fruit.
Mix the pulp with equal portions of applesauce
Mix half juice and half green tea
Mix half juice with half sparkling water
The amount you should use of the powders, extracts and supplements depend on the quality of the product and how the acai berry was processed. While there haven't been any side effects confirmed from Acai berries eating too much of anything isn't good for you.
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