Biggest Loser - Weight loss blog

‘Dieting’ does not necessarily mean eating less to lose weight; although, this word is primarily associated with weight loss. But the word ‘diet’ also describes the food that you normally consume on a day to day basis. The aim is to improve your day to day diet by incorporating gradual but permanent changes so that you lose weight while still remaining healthy; restricting calorie intake may not always give you the desired results.

Low calorie and fad diets could have serious health implications — insufficient vitamin and nutritional intake, lethargy, reduced metabolism, hormonal effects and even dehydration. Dieters are commonly known to experience intense feelings of hunger and deprivation; this then leads to ‘binge’ eating over time.

Here are a few tips on how you can cut calories sensibly without ‘dieting’ or feeling deprived.

• Research shows that recording exercise and food intake is one of the best predictors of successful weight loss
• Understand your eating patterns as well as eating triggers
• Learn how to make sensible nutritional changes
• Read food labels as this is the key to healthy portion sizes
• Measure portion sizes
• Hold the fat; fats from olive oil and canola are healthy. Similarly, nuts are nutritious and healthy to eat but in moderation
• Limit the amount of oil used by using non-stick pans
• Skimp on butters, dressings and creams, using just enough for taste
• Blot out the fat from greasy foods
• Spice up foods, flavour with red peppers or chilli peppers; this helps boost metabolism

It is believed that making changes to your diet, that is, replacing high-fat and high-calorie foods with fruits and vegetables that are high in volume, fibre and nutrients, can in fact make you feel full faster. Similarly, whole foods are low in calories but loaded with good health

Alcohol is a favourite pastime for most people; but alcohol contains 7 calories per gram, as well as lowers self-control when a person eats after drinking in excess. So it makes good sense to limit your alcohol intake or drink in moderation after a meal.

Water is the elixir of life! Drinking water throughout the day helps curb your appetite, burns calories and gives body at least 10 minutes more energy for exercise. Lowered water levels in your body can slow down your metabolism.

For a healthy lifestyle, follow a diet that is easy to stick with, try incorporating some or all of these easy strategies to reduce calories without giving up the pleasures of eating.

Every individual’s body has a set pace for its weight-control or weight-related functions such as appetite, hunger, metabolic rate, fat and sugar metabolism and calorie expenditure; however, we have been wired to operate more efficiently with an optimum intake of vitamins.

There are a number of weight loss vitamins which assist an individual in his/her weight loss programme. Almost all the vitamins play a crucial role in maintaining optimum health and weight, and many operate synergistically, to help maintain weight at its optimum level.

The most important vitamins and minerals for weight loss are: Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Choline (part of B-complex), Inositol (part of B-complex), and Vitamin C.

Vitamin B2, also called riboflavin, is essential for normal thyroid function and body metabolism. Good food sources of vitamin B2 include: Milk, liver and kidney, almonds, hard cheese, eggs, wheatgerm, leafy green vegetables, as well as marmite.

Vitamin B3, also called niacin, is essential for normal thyroid hormone production. Moreover, this vitamin is very much a part of the glucose tolerance factor (GTF) which is released every time the blood sugar rises. Good food sources of vitamin B3 include: Wheat bran, liver, tuna, turkey, chicken, meat, eggs, mackerel, salmon, oats, barley, wheat flakes, cheese, dried fruit and brown rice.

Vitamin B5, also known as pantothenic acid, aids in fat utilization, thereby playing an important role in energy production as well as in assisting adrenal function. Good food sources of vitamin B5 include: Liver and kidney, meat, poultry, nuts, wheat flakes, wheat bran, wheatgerm, eggs, molasses, oats, barley, beans, wholegrain bread and green vegetables.

Vitamin B6, also known as pyridoxine, helps regulate the production of thyroid hormone and metabolism. Good food sources of vitamin B6 are: Brewer’s yeast, wheat bran, wheatgerm, oats, sardines, mackerel, poultry, beef, avocado, bananas, brown rice, cabbage, dried fruit, molasses and eggs.

Choline, a member of the Vitamin B complex group, it is not a real vitamin as it is made in the liver. However, this vitamin is essential for effective fat metabolism. Its deficiency leads to fats becoming trapped in the liver. Good sources of Choline include: Lecithin, beef liver, beef heart, egg yolks, wheatgerm, cauliflower, cucumber and peanuts.

Inositol, also a member of the vitamin B complex group, it is also manufactured inside the body like Choline. Inositol works to combine with Choline to assist in fat metabolism. Inositol comes from: Lecithin, beef heart, beef liver, wheatgerm, soy, eggs, citrus fruits, whole grains and nuts.

Vitamin C provides a range of health benefits, including proper conversion of glucose to energy in the cells. Good food sources of vitamin C include: Blackcurrants, broccoli, green peppers, kiwi fruits, Brussels sprouts, lemons, oranges, strawberries and cabbage.

Although, cutting calories and exercising have long been touted as the best ways to shed pounds, vitamins that people consume also affect how efficiently the body can help you lose weight.

High Cholesterol Treatments

The main goal for treating high cholesterol is to lower the LDL levels enough to reduce the risk of developing heart disease. The higher the risk, the lower the LDL goal must be. There are two main ways to treat high cholesterol:

Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC):
This includes a cholesterol-lowering diet, physical activity, and weight management. TLC is meant for anyone who has elevated LDL levels. TLC is a set of things that a person has to follow in order to achieve the targeted low levels of LDL cholesterol. TLC consists of:

The TLC Diet: This diet consists of a low-saturated-fat, low-cholesterol eating plan that begets less than:

• 7% of calories from saturated fat
• 200mg of dietary cholesterol per day

This diet recommends only limited calories for desirable weight maintenance and avoiding weight gain. LDL levels can also be lowed by increasing the amount of soluble fiber in the diet. Certain food products that contain plant stanols or plant sterols can also be added to the TLC diet to boost its LDL-lowering power.

Weight Management: Weight loss can also help lower LDL levels and this is especially important for those with a cluster of risk factors that include high triglyceride and/or low HDL levels and being overweight with a large waist circumference (more than 40 inches for men and more than 35 inches for women).

Physical Activity: Regular physical activity is recommended for everyone. It can help raise HDL levels and lower LDL levels. This is especially important for those people who have high triglyceride and/or low HDL levels and are overweight with a large waist measurement.

Drug Treatment: Cholesterol-lowering drugs are used in combination with TLC treatment to achieve positive results.

Any drug treatment to lower cholesterol is best combined with lifestyle changes to achieve positive and long-term results. This will help keep you on low doses of medicine. Several cholesterol lowering drug treatments include:

• Statins: These drugs, including Crestor, effectively lower LDL levels and are safe for most people
• Bile acid sequestrates: Also help lower LDL levels and can be used alone or in combination with statin drugs
• Nicotinic acid: Helps lower LDL levels and triglycerides while raising HDL levels
• Fibric acids: Helps lower LDL levels somewhat but are used mainly to treat high triglyceride and low HDL levels
• Cholesterol absorption inhibitors: helps lower LDL levels and can be used alone or in combination with statin drugs

Your doctor is the best person to help decide which type of drug is best for you.

To further reduce high cholesterol you must control other risk factors like:

• High blood pressure
• Stress
• Smoking

Lowering cholesterol levels brings on certain benefits:

• For every one percent fall in blood cholesterol levels, you reduce your risk for heart disease by two percent
• Even in patients with heart disease, lowering cholesterol levels will significantly reduce the risk for death and disability
• As blood cholesterol exceeds 220 ml/dl (milligrams per deciliter), risk for heart disease increases at a more rapid rate
• Blood cholesterol levels must be measured at least once every five years in all adults