Diet and Weight Loss Tips

Weight Loss Information and Tips for Getting Started

Calories per Hour offers the following tips to help you lose weight to look better, feel better, and live a healthier life. These tips are short and sweet and are intended as a starting point or quick reference for individuals seeking to lose weight by using the resources offered on Calories per Hour. Read the related tutorial topics to learn more about the topics discussed in these weight loss tips

1. How Did I Get Here? Do you simply need help learning how to eat better? Probably. But if you eat poorly as a result of emotional, mental, or spiritual problems, they may have to be addressed before you can make any real progress with weight loss.
   Even people who don't feel they have an eating disorder often turn to food for comfort. To learn to eat well and exercise regularly, you may also have to learn to handle the problems life throws at you without turning away from healthy eating and exercise.
   Be particularly careful about all-or-nothing thinking. A common tendency when failing to stay on a diet is to abandon it altogether. Instead, try to learn from your mistakes and do better in the future.
   Related Tutorial Topic:  Eating Disorders
   
2. Are You Ready to Diet? Again? Diets entice us with promises of quick weight loss. But focusing on quick weight loss can lead to unhealthy eating and only short term success.
   While most diets produce quick weight loss at the outset, they often cause your metabolism to slow. The result is that you have to eat less and less to keep losing weight. You quickly become discouraged, give up, and start eating like you used to. But now, with a slower metabolism, you regain all the weight you lost, and more.
   Focus instead on improving your health, and you will become slim and healthy.
   Related Tutorial Topic:  Selecting a Diet Plan
   
3. Take Control of What You Eat There are few things that we have complete control over, but what we put in our mouths is one of them. We don't have to lose control in a restaurant or a friend's home, and we don't have to eat everything that's put in front of us.
   Consider this:  We love fat because it carries flavor, and restaurants aren't as interested in whether we'll be around in 30 years as whether we'll be back next week. And what about our friends?
   
4. Eat Frequently, and Eat Slowly It is important to understand what happens when you skip a meal or go on a crash diet. When you skip a meal your metabolism slows to conserve your energy. And when you lose weight too quickly for a few days, your body thinks it is threatened with starvation and goes into survival mode. It fights to conserve your fat stores, and any weight loss comes mostly from water and muscle.
   Never skip a meal, especially breakfast, and eat healthy snacks between meals. Eating frequently prevents hunger pangs and the binges that follow, provides consistent energy, and may be the single most effective way to maintain metabolism efficiency.
   Eating slowly gives our bodies time to tell us they are full before we've eaten more than we need.
   Related Tutorial Topic:  Raise Your Metabolism and Burn More Calories
   
5. Eat More Fruits, Vegetables and Whole Grains People who eat healthy, mostly unprocessed foods, including fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and limited amounts of lean animal protein, often find that they can eat as much as they want without gaining weight. If they are switching from a diet containing lots of processed foods, they find that they can eat more yet consume fewer calories -- and they lose weight.
   Historically, the Chinese ate mostly rice and vegetables with a little lean meat for protein and flavor, nothing like the American Chinese restaurant dishes of deep fried sweet and sour pork. A step back to more natural foods would improve our health and waistlines.
   Related Tutorial Topic:  Why Healthy Food Makes You Slim
   
6. Eat More Fiber Fiber makes us feel full sooner and stays in our stomach longer than other substances we eat, slowing down our rate of digestion and keeping us feeling full longer. Due to its greater fiber content, a single serving of whole grain bread can be more filling than two servings of white bread. Fiber also moves fat through our digestive system faster so that less of it is absorbed.
   Refined grains like white rice and those used to make white bread and sugary breakfast cereals have had most of their fiber and nutrients stripped away. They turn into blood sugar (glucose) so fast that, like sugar itself, they can cause a spike in our insulin level. This tells our body that plenty of energy is readily available and that it should stop burning fat and start storing it.
   Eating foods with plenty of fiber will help keep our blood sugar at a more consistent level.
   Related Tutorial Topic:  How Fiber Helps You Lose Weight
   
7. Cut Down on Sugar Be careful about sugar in coffee and soda pop. It can add up quickly, and these drinks aren't filling.
   Watch for "hidden" sugar in processed foods like bread, ketchup, salad dressing, canned fruit, applesauce, peanut butter, and soups. And be careful with "fat-free" products. Sugar is often used to replace the flavor that is lost when the fat is removed. Fat-free does not mean calorie-free.
   The greater concern with the insulin spike (above) is not that it tells our body to start storing fat. Whatever we eat and don't burn up eventually gets turned into fat anyway.
   The greater concern is that the insulin spike is followed by a drop in insulin level that leaves us feeling tired and hungry and wanting to eat more. The unfortunate result of this scenario is that it makes us want to eat something else with a high sugar content. When we do, we start the cycle all over again.
   Regulating your blood sugar level is the most effective way to maintain your fat-burning capacity.
   Related Tutorial Topic:  How Blood Sugar Levels Affect Weight Loss
   
8. Too Much of a Bad Thing Foods like cheese stand out as among the most fat-laden, with a great number of calories coming from fat. But as important as it is to select the healthiest foods, it is also important to consider how they are prepared.
   Fried foods, especially deep-fried, contain a great amount of fat. While chicken and fish are usually leaner than beef or pork, they can contain more fat when they are fried. Look at how the number of grams of fat in a chicken breast changes depending on how it is cooked:
   
   

   Cooking Method	Fat
   Meat Only, Roasted	3.1
   Meat Only, Fried	4.1
   Meat and Skin, Batter Fried	18.5

   "Fried food? All I eat is salad and I still can't lose weight!"
   Be careful with salad dressings, mayonnaise, and other condiments that are high in fat content. They greatly increase the calorie count and can negate the healthy aspects of a meal. Replace mayonnaise-based condiments with fat-free alternatives like fat-free yogurt, mustard, ketchup and barbecue sauce.
   And remember, a gram of fat contains more than twice as many calories as a gram of protein or carbohydrate.
   Related Tutorial Topic:  Calories in Protein, Fat and Carbohydrates
   
9. Too Little of a Good Thing But don't try to eliminate fat altogether, as dietary fat is necessary to maintain a healthy body. It is a vital component for building body tissue and cells, and it aids in the absorption of some vitamins and other nutrients. Many people eat too much of the bad fats, but also eat too little of the good fats required for optimal health.
   Related Tutorial Topic:  Good Fats and Bad Fats
   
10. Exercise Regularly People who exercise regularly not only lose weight faster, they are more successful at keeping it off. Exercise makes it possible to create a calorie deficit and lose weight without starving your body and slowing your metabolism.
    At home, at the gym, or playing sports, participate in both aerobic and strength building activities on a regular basis. Not only does the exercise itself burn calories, but your body will continue to burn calories at a higher rate even after you're done exercising.
    If walking is all you can do, then walk because it's great for you. But muscle burns more calories than fat, so put on a little muscle if you can and you will burn more calories just sitting there... looking good.
    But don't sit too long. The human body is good at adapting. If you dig ditches without gloves, you will develop calluses to protect your hands. If you sit too long, you will develop extra padding to keep you comfortable!
    Related Tutorial Topic:  Why Exercise Is Important for Weight Loss
    
11. Take It Easy Unless you are excited to be following a very specific diet and exercise plan, do not try and change too much too fast. If you have been eating poorly and not exercising, both your body and your mind will have a lot of adjusting to do.
    All the sugar and fat were actually quite enjoyable, and sitting on the couch didn't feel too bad, either. If you try and change everything too quickly the odds are greater that you will feel bad, get discouraged, and give up. So be patient.
    A time will come when a healthy snack will taste as good as the junk food you felt bad about eating, and you will look forward to your regular exercise.
    
12. Begin Now You can achieve your goals, but it won't likely happen as a result of the next fad diet. Or the one after that.
    Learning to eat well and exercise is the only solution to long term weight loss.
    Begin Here:  Diet and Weight Loss Tutorial

Boost Your Metabolism and Burn More Belly Fat

One of the keys to burning belly fat is a strong metabolism. Unfortunately, as we get older our metabolisms slow down significantly, often by as much as 25 to 30 percent! Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to give your body's natural fat-burning process a kick start... and you don't need to rely on "fat burners," stimulant-based weight loss pills, or any other form of "metabolism-boosting" product (the majority of them have little or no real effect anyway).

8 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism Naturally and Burn More Belly Fat

Never skip breakfast - If you don't eat in the morning, after having gone several hours without food during the night, your body goes into "starvation mode." This is very bad news for your metabolism because it means that your body will try to save energy and burn fewer calories. It does that by slowing down its metabolism. It's best to try to eat a large and balanced breakfast that includes lean protein, complex carbohydrates, and fresh fruit.

Eat 4-6 small, healthy meals per day - Every time you consume food, your body has to speed up its metabolic processes in order to digest and process the calories in the food. By eating frequently (about every 2-3 hours) you'll keep your metabolism in high-gear and keep your body burning belly fat. Just be sure to choose meals and snacks that contain decent amounts of protein, small amounts of good fats, and/or some healthy carbohydrates (especially fruits, vegetables, and whole grains).

Focus on protein - Lean protein is a "hot burning" food, meaning that your body really has to speed up its metabolism in order to digest it... more so than for fats and carbohydrates. Protein also contains amino acids, which are absolutely necessary for your body to build muscle tissue... and the more muscle you have the stronger your metabolism is going to be.

Move more and take the hard way - Whenever possible, take the "hard way" when it comes to getting places. Park farther from the entrances of buildings. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Take short walks. Never sit or stand in one place at a time for more than an hour. The bottom line: squeeze as much activity into your everyday activities as possible. Not only will this keep your metabolism up, but you'll also get fitter and lose more belly fat in less time.

Add some muscle - In order to permanently boost your metabolism you need to build more muscle. Muscle tissue requires more calories just to maintain itself, so you burn more fat and calories even when you're sleeping. 2 or 3 times per week do some form of resistance/strength training using weights, resistance bands, or just your own bodyweight. Shorter, more intense full-body strength training workouts tend to produce the fastest results because they cause your body to produce chemicals that build muscle while burning abdominal fat at the same time.

Get your fruits and veggies - You should try to eat several large servings of fruits and vegetables throughout the day. They're packed with the vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that are necessary for an optimized metabolism. If you can't eat at least 5 large servings per day be sure to take a good multivitamin/multimineral supplement every morning.

Drink water all day long - If your body is even slightly dehydrated, it won't burn calories and fat as efficiently as possible. You also won't have as much energy as you should. Yet most people are dehydrated to some degrees most of the time. For maximum weight loss success try to drink at least 8 large glasses of water per day. Try keeping a large bottle of water with you and sip from it all day. Avoid substances that dehydrate you, especially caffeine and alcohol.

Get enough sleep - Scientific research has shown that people who don't get enough sleep usually have impaired (slow) metabolisms and tend to store more of their fat in their stomachs. Needless to say, getting sufficient sleep is vital in order to lose belly fat, have plenty of energy, and feel your best. Most people need 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night.

How to Exercise to Lose Belly Fat Faster

Here's something that may surprise you: the best exercises for losing belly fat have nothing to with your belly. Put simply, doing lots of crunches, situps, leg raises, and other "ab" exercises is definitely not the best way to burn abdominal fat and slim down your midsection. Here's something else you might not know: "typical" cardio workouts (e.g. half an hour of treadmill jogging or stationary bike riding) really aren't that great for fat loss either. But walk into almost any gym in the world and you'll see dozens of soft, chubby people with beer bellies jogging, riding stationary bikes, and doing crunches in a frustration-filled attempt to get leaner, sexier, and healthier.

Don't get me wrong, doing any form of exercise is better than doing none at all. As long as you're also eating a good diet you're bound to see some signs of success... eventually. But if your goal is fast, healthy weight loss you need to crank up the intensity and start doing more efficient, effective exercises. When you focus on efficient fat burning exercises you'll not only burn more calories during workouts but you'll also burn fat for several hours after you've left the gym.

So what are the most efficient exercises for losing belly fat? They fall into these 2 categories:

• High-Intensity Cardiovascular Interval Training

• Full-Body Strength Training

Both of these types of exercise burn tons of calories, boost your metabolism for hours, and force your body to produce powerful hormones that burn fat while creating new muscle tissue at the same time (which will make it easier to lose weight and keep it off for good). As an added benefit these higher-intensity exercises greatly improve your overall health (especially your "heart health") and make you look and feel great after just a couple of weeks.

The "Perfect" Belly Fat Burning Workout

The absolute best workout for burning abdominal fat will involve both of the above forms of exercise. It will follow a format similar to the one outlined below...

1. Light Warmup - Any light aerobic exercise works... just make sure you've at least broken a light sweat before you finish. This will help to get your muscles ready to work and help to prevent injury.

2. Bodyweight Warmup - A few minutes of light bodyweight calisthenic exercises (e.g. jumping jacks, pushups, bodyweight squats, lunges, burpees, etc.). This will really get your body ready to work hard and burn stomach fat.

3. Full-Body Strength Training - Several sets of "compound" exercises that work all, or at least most, of the muscles in your body. Some of the simplest (yet among the most effective) examples arepushups, pullups , squats, and lunges. For best results perform the exercises in a "circuit training" manner where you do 1 set of each exercise, one after another, before stopping to rest and recover.

4. Cardiovascular Interval Training - 7 to 20 minutes of high-intensity cardio that involves "bursts" of exertion followed by brief recovery periods. A simple example is a 10 second wind sprint, followed by a minute of light jogging, and so on for several minutes. No other form of exercise really taxes the body, burns calories, and blowtorches body fat like interval training!

By the way, the reason you save the cardio until last is because, if you do it before the strength or weight training portion of the workout, you won't have the energy to push yourself like you'll need to.

Take it Slow and Get Educated!

One important thing to keep in mind is that you should never attempt to "dive" headfirst into any new exercise program... especially when your goal is to lose weight as fast as possible. It's easy to get overzealous and burn yourself out -- or get injured -- after just a week or two. Believe it or not, you'll end up making more progress in less time if you start slowly and just try to make small improvements day after day and week after week.

Also, educating yourself about exercise and working out is vitally important. Most people would do well to recruit the help of a personal trainer, at least for a few days, in order to learn how to perform exercises with perfect form/technique. Also, you might want to get yourself a good guide to exercising for fat loss. One of the best I've seen is Turbulence Training by fitness writer Craig Ballantyne. It's the perfect way to learn everything it takes to lose belly fat and get fit fast!

FOODS

All of the foods listed below are proven to help you lose belly fat, get fit, and be healthier. Try to incorporate a few of them into each meal and snack you eat. For even better and faster fat loss results, eat nothing but the "fat burning" foods listed below for a few weeks. You'll lose weight and feel better faster than you probably thought possible. No matter what, try to diversify your meals to prevent "meal boredom," eat a combination of protein,carbs, and fats at every meal, and make sure to get some protein into each meal and snack.

Fresh and frozen vegetables - Packed with fiber as well as important vitamins and minerals -- yet low in calories -- these are simply the healthiest things you can eat. When it comes to losing abdominal fat they can't be beat because they fill you up without adding significant amounts of calories to your overall diet. You can basically eat as many veggies as you want each day, as long as they're not cooked in or smothered with fats or high-calorie sauces, dips, etc.

Nuts and seeds - These are full of "good" monounsaturated fats as well as protein, fiber, vitamin E, and several important minerals. Most importantly, a handful of nuts and/or seeds can fill you up quickly and keep hunger at bay for several hours. Just be sure to avoid highly salted and smoked versions. Peanut butter and other nut butters are great choices too as long as you choose "natural" versions with no added fats or sugars.

Beans and legumes - These are packed with protein, fiber, and healthy nutrients... plus they taste great and keep you feeling full for a long time. Just watch out forrefried beans, which often contain lots of unhealthy fat, as well as baked beans, which usually contain large amounts of added sugars.

Low-fat dairy products -- There is lots of evidence that consuming plenty of calcium helps to get rid of belly fat and keep it off. Dairy products are full of the stuff. Low-fat yogurts,kefir , cottage cheese, and other cheeses are good choices.. but the best choice may be low-fat milk simply because drinking liquids tends to make you feel fuller. Plus milk is one of the best-tasting bases for whey protein shakes.

Oatmeal - This is one of the few truly "great" grain products you can eat, especially when it comes to losing belly fat and improving health. It's a complex carbohydrate that's packed with appetite-reducing, health-promoting fibers... including soluble fiber which does all kinds of good things for your body. Studies have shown that eating oatmeal helps to control blood sugar levels and insulin product better than most other foods, which is extremely important when you're trying to lose weight.

Lean proteins - It's very important to include lots of low-fat proteins in your diet when you're trying to lose stomach fat. Besides building muscle, eating protein helps to make you feel fuller, boost metabolism, burn more body fat, stabilize blood sugar and insulin levels, and ensure that you're getting the nutrients you need to be healthy. Lean steak, poultry, fish, eggs, and whey protein powders are all good choices. Eating fish once or twice a week also ensures that you're getting the super-healthy, metabolism-boosting omega 3 fats into your diet.

Healthy oils - Believe it or not, you need to eat some fat in order to burn fat... and you definitely need some fat in order to enjoy great health. The key is eating the right fats. Olive oil is one of the best choices because it's full of monounsaturated fat, speeds up your body's natural fat-burning processes, lowers bad cholesterol levels, and can be used in a variety of ways. Other good oils are peanut oil, sesame oil, and canola oil. Be sure to avoid all refined fats and oils that contain trans fatty acids, such as hydrogenated vegetable oils.

Fresh fruits - Some diet experts feel that fruits should be avoided when attempting to lose belly fat because they contain sugars. But, for the most part, one or two servings of fresh or frozen fruit per day is going to boost your health and help you lose weight. Great choices are berries, apples, and citrus fruits. They all contain lots of fiber, vitamins, antioxidants, and other good stuff. Frozen berries make a great-tasting addition to protein shakes.

THE BEST SUPPLEMENTS FOR LOSING BELLY FAT

There's a lot of "hype" surrounding diet and weight loss supplements these days. Too much really... especially considering the fact that about 98% of the products out there really have little or no beneficial effect on body fat levels. There are, however, a few supplements that can definitely help you lose belly fat faster. These are the "best of the best" fat-burning, metabolism-boosting, appetite-suppressing products on the market. You certainly don't need them in order to lose weight and reduce abdominal fat. But, if you want to speed the process up, make it easier to get a flat stomach, and/or help yourself break through a fat loss "plateau," taking these supplements may be a good option.

By the way, if money is an issue you're much better off spending your cash on good, high-quality foods (lean meats, fresh produce, raw nuts, etc.) and an effective, easy-to-follow fat loss plan than on any diet supplement! One of the best -- and most affordable -- guides to losing belly fat in a fast, healthy manner is the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle program.


The Top 3 Belly Fat Loss Supplements

All of the following supplements can speed up the fat loss process, help you get fit faster, and improve your health. However, not a single one is a "magic bullet" for losing belly fat. And, even though they are powerful all by themselves, you won't experience many visible weight loss results unless you're also eating a proper diet and exercising on a regular basis. Anyway, these are my top 3 supplement picks for reducing abdominal fat...

Whey Protein

It would take an entire article (which I may write later) just to list all the health and fitness benefits of whey protein powder. For now, just know this: whey protein has been proven to be one of the most powerful and effective health-boosting substances you can eat. Besides being one of the world's best sources of muscle-building protein, there is evidence that whey can boost the immune system and help keep you healthy even when dieting, cutting calories, and working out frequently. Due to the wide array of powerful bioactive compounds contained in whey protein, eating it frequently can help you burn more calories, boost your protein intake without boosting fat intake, stabilize blood sugar and insulin levels, and control hunger and food cravings. As you may already know, all of these things are ultra-important when trying to lose belly fat.

As an added bonus, recent research has shown that the amino acid leucine (which is found in abundance in whey protein) helps to improve body composition... which means that it helps you keep your lean muscle tissue while burning more body fat at the same time. The bottom line is that whey protein is a very effective, widely available, relatively inexpensive, good tasting food supplement that you can use to improve your health, get rid of abdominal fat, and keep or increase muscle tissue... all of which adds up to a leaner, better-looking body in less time!

Essential Fatty Acids

Essential fatty acids -- EFA's for short -- are vitally important fats that the human body needs to function properly. They're especially important for healthy weight loss and weight maintenance. But, despite their obvious significance, many people don't consume nearly enough of them on a regular basis. Some experts now believe that this common dietary deficiency is a major reason why obesity rates are increasing throughout the world (not to mention cancer, heart disease, and other serious health problems). Cold water fish contain lots of healthy EFA's -- especially the highly important omega-3 fats -- but most types of fish and seafood also contain significant levels of mercury and other dangerous toxins. For this reason it may be a good idea to take a quality EFA supplement on a daily basis and limit your fish/seafood intake to once or twice per week.There is evidence that consuming essential fatty acids -- including both omega-3 and omega-6 fats -- can significantly speed up the weight loss process, especially when combined with healthy dieting and regular exercise. Recent research has shown that omega 3 fats in particular have a powerful effect on metabolism, blood sugar levels, as well as insulin production and sensitivity. Controlling how much insulin your body produces (and how it responds to the insulin it does produce) is extremely important when attempting to reduce body fat levels. Omega 3 fats can also help to control inflammation in the body, which may make it easier to lose weight.Gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) is a type of omega 6 fat found in evening primrose oil and borage seed oil. There is some evidence that GLA stimulates a type of body fat that controls fat metabolism. By taking a GLA supplement, or an EFA supplement that contains GLA, you may be able to burn calories and body fat at a faster rate.The bottom line is that supplementing with a good EFA and/or omega 3 supplement is a good idea for most people... especially for those people interested in losing belly fat in a fast but healthy way. Supplements made with fish oil seem to be the best, but there are also products made with omega 3-rich flaxseed oil and/or walnut oil.HoodiaHoodia gordonii is a weight loss supplement with a lot of promise... but also a lot of problems. There's tons of marketing "BS" surrounding hoodia products and it can definitely be difficult to separate the fact from the fiction. The good news is that real hoodia does seem to be a powerful appetite suppressant and therefore a useful tool in the fight against belly fat. After all, the better you can control your appetite and food cravings, the easier it's going to be to eat well and lose fat. Some people also claim to experience a boost in mood and energy after taking hoodia, but without the negative side-effects of stimulants like caffeine.The bad news is that it's getting harder and harder to find products that actually contain real hoodia. In fact, some reports claim that around two-thirds of the hoodia products on the market actually contain little or no hoodia! This is mainly due to the fact that there is a very limited supply of mature hoodia gordonii plants in their native Africa. Some dishonest companies use fillers made from plants that look similar to hoodia but that have none of hoodia's appetite suppressing qualities.If you want to try a hoodia supplement to see if it works for you, your best bet is to go with one of the more popular products on the market, as these have often been tested by third-party organizations to make sure that they contain what they say the do. One of the few hoodia companies with a "good reputation" is a company called Hoodoba. Their products aren't the cheapest but they do appear to be some of the highest-quality hoodia products on the market. Currently they claim to have the best-selling hoodia weight loss product in the US.Special Note on the ECA StackThe best "true" fat burner in the world is probably the Ephedrine/Caffeine/Aspirin -- or "ECA" -- stimulant stack. But, since ephedrine ("ephedra" in its herbal form) has been banned for sale in many countries, including the US, I didn't list it above. Although I personally don't agree that ephedrine is any more dangerous than many of other weight loss drugs and supplements on the market, it certainly is an incredibly powerful chemical that has the potential to be overused and/or abused by some people. Even if you are able to buy ephedrine/ephedra supplements where you live you would do well to save it as a "last resort" and only use it after you've tried a good diet/exercise/supplementation program for a few months.