Biggest Loser - Weight loss blog

Liposuction is a cosmetic surgical operation where in excess fat is removed from various body parts (like thighs, tummy and back) by suction. Liposuction or Lipoplasty or liposculpture is performed using special instrument called cannula which breaks and sucks the fat out from the body. Liposuction is not classified under the category of weight loss surgery but is only a cosmetic procedure.

How safe is it?
Liposuction can never be a substitute to healthy diet and good exercise regimen. Liposuction is never a good idea at first place to remove fatty tissues off your body and can even have severe side effects if not done under experienced surgeon’s supervision. But liposuction is comparatively a safer option than other surgical operations.

Serious complications result when excess fat is taken out of the body resulting in blood clot (that is, Pulmonary Thromboemboli), shock or heart seizure. It demands high personal involvement in recovery procedure post operation to make it safe for your health. Utmost care should be taken during recovery period. Liposuction cannot guarantee if you will remain in same shape rest of your life.

Reveal your complete medical history to surgeon before undertaking the operation. Also, make an analysis of surgeon’s credibility.

If you love junk food, you are the ideal candidate for obesity. Studies continue to prove that those who have no control over the amount of junk food they consume are prone to obesity.

Junk food and obesity
Junk food and obesity are partners in crime. Typically, junk food is the kind of food that has high amount of calories, salt, fat and sugar. It’s termed junk, because it does not have any nutritional value. The reason why it’s popular is that it’s tasty and can become very addictive. People can be as addicted to junk food as they can to cigarettes or alcohol.

The junk food addiction
When you eat food with high fat content and sugar, it works on your brain like a painkiller. The more you eat, the more you want it. The fact that it offers an ‘empty calorie’ effect is another reason behind its addiction. The immediate effect of eating junk food is one of fullness and satisfaction, but after some time you begin to feel hungry again and want another helping of junk food. As a result, you are taking in more calories than your body can actually metabolize, which leads to the accumulation of fat deposits in your body.

The subtle effect
Unlike other addictions, junk food has a subtle effect on your body. As soon as you eat junk food, you don’t feel your arteries clogging up. Or you don’t get up the next day with excessive fat deposits in the body. As you continue eating junk food, your internal organs become fat and weak. This is the reason why you feel tired, depressed and sick all the time. But, you don’t realize this fact until it’s too late and you have become obese.

So, it’s important that you avoid junk food like the plague and if you actually can’t do without it, make sure that you restrict its intake.

Excessive weight gain is a common condition these days. The reasons are many; one of the reasons for weight gain is overeating; and if you are looking for a solution for your weighty issues, tracking food habits will help immeasurably.

Why do some people overeat?
You and I both have overeaten at some point of time or the other in our lives. As a one off case, overeating doesn’t lead to weight gain. But, if you routinely overeat than weight gain will come knocking at your doors. So, the question is, why do people overeat? Here are a few triggers that are responsible for overeating.

• Boredom: Some people eat because they have nothing better to do. Eating seems to give them a purpose in life. It’s also a way of helping pass the time.
• Depression and stress: People eat to feel good. If you are depressed, you are looking for ways to feel good and positive. Eating emerges as one of the ways to feel satisfied with your lot in life. A person suffering from stress is also looking at reducing stress through eating.
• Eating disorders: A person might be suffering from an eating disorder, which means you have no control over the kind of food you eat and also your food intake.

If you are overeating, there is a good chance that you are doing it because of the triggers mentioned above.

Tracking food habits – Help weight loss
If you want to lose weight, you need start tracking your food habits. Keep a track of what you eat; what is good and what is bad. Keeping track of what you eat will help you come up with a healthy eating plan and also make sure that you stick to it. More importantly, knowing what you eat and when you eat, will also help you set weight loss goals. The best way to keep track of your eating habits is to maintain a journal. Don’t forget to write in the details of the meal. This will help you understand your food habits better as well as help you in your endeavour to lose weight.

Weight loss is a simple process of burning more calories than you consume. You must have heard it many times – to lose weight, you need to exercise regularly and monitor your diet so that you burn more calories than you eat. There are possibilities that despite of working out rigorously over last few months, you are still not able to lose extra pounds. Do not despair, there are some facts about exercise and weight loss which you may need to know.

Exercise is not all about weight loss but a part of the whole story. Exercise helps with weight loss only when done consistently but in specific volume. A lot of people fail to achieve any meaningful even after months of trying due to slow metabolism. In that case, you need to work out on improving metabolic rate to achieve weight loss. Few exercises simply don’t help with increasing metabolic rate because you just don’t get to burn enough calories with them and weight loss is all about burning more calories.

Apart from metabolism, genes and age can also be reasons if you are not able to lose weight with conventional exercise programs.

Exercise is as important for weight maintenance as it is for losing weight.

Before you start with any weight loss and exercise program, be sure to consult with your doctor. A doctor would be able to recommend exercise regimen that would be best for you.

If you have excess weight or are obese, you need to get started on a weight loss plan right away. There is also a good chance that you might be suffering from associated health risks like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure or high levels of cholesterol. This is why you need to lose weight and that too without wasting any time.

Reduce calorie intake for weight loss
Start counting your calories to achieve effective weight loss. Consult a health expert to know just how many calories are suitable for your overweight body. Also, learn about ways and means to cut down on your caloric intake and how this reduction is going to impact your health. When it comes to cutting down on calories, you need to maintain a perfect balance between a high caloric count and low caloric count. Some people might consider cutting down as many calories as they can, but this can have a detrimental affect on their body.

Smart nutrition plan for successful weight loss
So what is smart nutrition all about? Well, even if you are overweight or suffer from obesity, you still need to eat. There are some enthusiastic dieticians who might ask you to eat minimally and control your hunger pangs. But a smart nutrition plan is all about cutting down on non-essentials and providing your body with essential nutrients that are going to improve its overall functioning. An example of this can be healthy snacking. Obese people can snack as much or as less as the next person. But while someone else is eating those greasy fries, a smart nutritional plan will mean that the obese person will snack on fruits rather than fatty fries.

Both, a reduced calorie diet and a smart nutritional plan are not all about cutting down on the amount of food that you eat. It’s more about eating right and making sure that you stay away from all kinds of unhealthy food.

‘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.