How to deal with snack attacks

Ever get a snack attack between meals? Who hasn't? But snack attacks can actually work as an advantage for your weight loss. Snack attacks are actually a good thing because eating frequently instead of waiting until you're extremely hungry is a good way to avoid overeating. It helps keep blood sugar levels normal and brain chemistry in balance. By pre-planning for snacks and eating the right food you can use snacks in your favor instead of feeling guilty afterwards. Here is a healthy snack tip. A key to losing weight and keeping it off is eating more negative calorie or fat burning foods with lots of volume but few calories. Eating fat burning compatible or negative calorie foods creates a calorie deficit that requires your body to use stored fat as energy. Here are a just few examples of healthy snack ideas that are negative calorie foods: Apples, cantaloupe, carrots, cod, corn, crab meat, grapes, lobster, low-fat yogurt, mangoes, pineapple, raspberries, strawberries and watermelon. Avoid late night snacks because your body's metabolism slows way down when you sleep. That means anything you eat just before you go to bed will turn to body fat. If you eat vending machine snacks they contain high fat and you can forget about reducing body fat because these snacks can sabotage your weight loss quickly. Also, beverages like smoothies, sweetened coffee drinks, soft drinks, fruit drinks, sports drinks and flavored teas contain a lot of sugar that will end up as body fat. Snacking on blackberries, peaches or red and green peppers can help you meet your daily recommendations of fruits and vegetables. You need two to four servings a day. Snacks such as low-fat yogurt or low fat cheese can help you meet your daily calcium requirement. You need two to three servings per day. Believe it or not, small changes like these can have a huge difference in your weight loss results. Remember, successful weight loss is just a combination of the right choices. So the next time you have a snack attack at home or at work you'll know how to use it to your advantage for weight loss success.

Weight loss diary 11

From March 11 thru 17 Back to reality this week with the shock news that my weight did not go down enough to report; probably no more than a few ounces (around 50 grams). Hence I’m sad to report that my weight still stands at 188 pounds (93 kilos). I guess I became a little too complacent after the better than expected results of the previous few weeks. This raises the big question of who, or what, is to blame? As I live by the rule that I am responsible for all that goes wrong, as well as all that goes right, in my life then it stands to reason that I am to blame. Because I am to blame for a poor week then I know that it is within my power to turn that around in the coming week. That’s the great thing about accepting responsibility – you can always turn things around. People that avoid responsibility rarely turn things around. So what happened to the positive momentum? Without using this as an excuse I have suffered a slight cold for the past week and have not been exercising at the rate I have become used to. Exercise has been a major part of my calorie burn-off routine. This has been offset slightly by the fact that whilst feeling unwell I haven’t eaten as much either. Probably this explains why my weight has remained the same rather than increasing; my calorie intake has been lower and I guess I reached the perfect balance of weight neutrality this week. That’s fine when my weight is where I want it to be but right now I still need to lose 8 pounds (3.9 kilos) to reach my target weight. In this coming week I will not attempt to lose more than my target 1 pound (450 grams) because when you start playing catch up it throws the entire routine and places you under greater pressure. Psychologically it is better to accept that I did not reach my target last week and move on. This week nothing will change, my target is one pound, my exercise sessions will still be three per week and I will still strive to put more aerobic action into my normal day. This article is copyright © David McCarthy 2006.

Can eating certain foods help you to lose weight

The best way to lose weight is by consuming fewer calories than you expend or conversely, by expending more calories than you consume. Experts have discovered that certain foods can actually help you to lose weight without the stress of dieting or exercise. The down side is that many of us have a tendency to dress these foods up with cheese, sour cream, butter or other calorie-laden flavor enhancers. This causes the weight loss effect to be lost. It may be difficult to not add extra calories to these foods but with a strong will power it can be done. A negative calorie food can be defined as a food that results in a slimming effect for the body. In other words a carrot (without anything else) will cause your body to use an increased amount of energy when digesting it and other foods, this can lead to an overall reducing effect on the body. This is partly from the amount of energy it takes to digest the carrot or other negative calorie food and partly from the elevation in metabolism that these foods naturally create. The overall effect is a net loss of energy, which is measured in calories. It should be understood that ‘negative calorie’ doesn’t mean that the food has zero calories in it, nor does it have an anti-calorie or a negative calorie. Here is a partial list of negative calorie foods: apples, cranberries, grapefruit, lemon mango, oranges, pineapple, raspberries, strawberries, tangerines, asparagus, beets, cabbage (green), carrots, cauliflower, hot Chile peppers, cucumbers, endives, garden cress, garlic, green beans, lettuce, onion, papaya, radishes, spinach, turnips and zucchini. There are more and you can learn about them from a medical doctor’s very popular book. In his book, Foods that Cause You to Lose Weight, Dr. Neal Barnard explains the effects these foods have on the body. A quote from Dr. Barnard’s book reveals some startling facts, "They found that those who ate foods that were very low in fat and high in carbohydrates, lost weight steadily, without limiting how much they ate. But those on high-fat diets could not effectively lose weight even if they ate skimpy portions." Dr. Barnard is referring to the published results of an experiment conducted at Cornell University and published in the May 1991 edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. A book reviewer posted on a website how he lost 30 lbs. utilizing the information from Dr Barnard’s book. It is important to exercise caution when dieting because there are certain things that your body needs to remain healthy including proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that are necessary for the body to function at its optimum level. You cannot remain optimally healthy by eating the negative calorie foods alone. This article is for information purposes only and is not meant to diagnose, treat or prevent any health condition. Please consult a doctor before dieting.