Various studies show that more than two-thirds of all American adults are either obese or morbidly obese. With all the hype on weight loss and weight loss products, its no wonder that more and more people who suffer from being overweight become interested into various commercial diet plans and weight loss programs that are available in the market today.

THE PROS AND CONS OF DIET AND DIETING

Of all the means of losing weight offered by various companies, weight loss diets have become one of the most popular that overweight people use. This is because these people believe that by taking in regulated amounts of food or veering away from eating foods from a specific food group, they can lose weight easily.

But, little do they know that improper diet and dieting may result to rapid weight loss and can even lead to more serious illnesses due to lack of nutrients absorbed by the body.

Food and nutrition experts say that most obese people who are into strict diet and improper dieting have developed have a long history of dieting failure because they always go back to their usual eating and lifestyle habits.

Experts also agree that although improper diet can lead to severe health cases, it can be powerful tool in losing weight if done properly and administered by authorized health care providers. This is because weight loss diets that are monitored by authorities can evoke commitment, discipline, and dedication to those who are taking the specific diet plan. And if these weight loss diets are administered properly, people who choose weight-loss program can conquer their fear of dieting failure and depression.

Indeed, it will take a huge amount of energy for an obese person to be able to stick to any weight-loss diet or program. Aside from fighting the temptation to go back to their usual way of eating, people who are overweight have large tendencies of becoming violent and defensive in their preference of diet.

Although diet can be an effective means of losing weight, experts say that not all weight loss diets and programs can be successful. This is because some diets target the dieters weakness and make them believe that they can eat certain amount of foods when in fact, these can contribute much to their weight gain.

AVOIDING FAD DIETS

To be able to lose weight safely and properly, make sure that you know when the weight loss diet is a fad. Here are some ways to help you spot a fad diet:

– Menu offers extremely limited food choices.
– Cutting out an entire food group.
– The diet asks the dieter to eliminate all fats.
– Promises of ultra-fast weight loss or rapid weight loss.
– It aims to sell a specific weight loss product such as herbal weight loss supplement or pills.
– Weight loss diet claims they are based on unproven science.
– It opposes medical opinions.

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Though one of the most popular tools used today to determine whether someone is at a healthy weight or not is the BMI, body fat and lean muscle tissue don’t figure into the equation. This has led many experts to discount BMI as an archaic measurement that isn’t accurate for many people. What is BMI, and why is it a good measure for some, maybe, and completely wrong for others?

BMI, or body mass index, was created in the early 1800s by Adolphe Quetelet. Because of that, it’s sometimes called the Quetelet index. It’s nothing more than a way of comparing a person’s weight to his or her height, and determining if his or her weight falls into a healthy and normal range. The BMI is still used today pretty much as it was when Quetelet invented it.

The formula for figuring BMI (body fat, bone and frame size, muscle and body type aren’t included in that) is this: Take your height in meters squared (your height times itself) and divide your weight in kilograms by that number. For example, if I’m 5 feet tall, that’s about 1.5 meters. To square that number, take 1.5 times 1.5. The result of that is 2.5. So if I weigh 120 pounds, that’s about 54.5 kilograms. Divide 54.5 by 2.5 and I get 21.8 as my BMI. The normal weight range is from 18.5 to 24.9, so 21.8 is classified as a normal weight. Underweight is considered 18.5 and below, while overweight people will calculate a BMI of 25 to 29.9. A BMI of 30 or greater indicates obesity.

BMI, body fat and general health can all be used as signs of how fit a person is. But where general health is pretty self-explanatory and the percentage of body fat clearly shows whether a person gets enough exercise or not, BMI is a bit trickier.

People with a lot of muscle don’t show accurate BMI readings. Because muscle weighs so much heaver than fat but takes up less space, a relatively small statured person can carry a lot of muscle weight without looking huge. BMI doesn’t take that into account. Football players, professional wrestlers, bodybuilders, and virtually any athlete who has a lot of muscle is going to measure as overweight and even obese according to the BMI. So it’s not accurate for them. Is it accurate for everyone else?

The answer to that is yes, and no. It depends on you. The BMI typically doesn’t show an accurate result for children. And extremely tall or large-framed people will show overweight or obese classifications more easily because of the extra weight from their bones and muscles. So for very short, tall or muscular people, the BMI appears to not be a good tool.

There’s also no distinguishing between men and women in the BMI. Body fat is more natural for women who are supposed to have more than men, so some sort of distinction in the measurement of the sexes would help the BMI’s accuracy

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Are you a bit of a risk taker when you want to lose weight? If you are the 500 calorie diet may be just what youre looking for. The truth about this diet is it is considered an extreme form of dieting; but is highly popular. Low calorie diets are common and 500 calories is at the lower end of the scale.

A diet is considered low calorie if it involves ingesting no more than 1200 calories per day. The idea of a low calorie diet is to lose weight quickly. If not administered correctly they can be dangerous and as such it is important to plan your 500 calorie diet with a professional dietician or nutritionist before starting. This article will help you to decide if the 500 calorie diet is right for you.

It is well known that the way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you take in. However a very low calorie diet can actually do more harm than good. When your body is craving more calories (energy) it can affect your metabolic rate. This means your body actually starts to eat away at your muscle mass.

It is doing this for the purpose of converting the muscle mass to energy, since there are no food reserves to take from. Because gaining muscle is the path to losing fat, this can have a highly detrimental effect on your body.

500 calories per day may be sufficient for some people depending on their:
– Gender
– Activity level
– Height
– Body type
– Overall health and well being

For other people though, particularly overweight people, consuming only 500 calories a day is almost like starving yourself. Your body is more than likely used to taking in over 2000 calories per day and up to 5000 or more. If you all of a sudden drop to 500 calories or less your body moves into starvation mode. Your metabolism then slows down to conserve energy.

While you are on the 500 calorie diet your body will learn to live with fewer calories. That means if you go back to your old high calorie habits (as all too many people do) you will have a sudden gain in weight, which is more than what would have occurred, had you not gone on your low cal diet.

The only real way to determine your ideal daily calorie intake is by using a bmr/amr calculator. You will then know how many calories you need to be healthy and to support your lifestyle. If you take 500 calories away from this, then you have the ideal number of calories, to take in per day to help you get your weight down.

As men and women are obviously different their ideal calorie intake is also different. This of course means while the average woman may need only 1200 to 1300 calories a day to survive, her male counterpart may need from 1500 to 1600. Again this is why it is so important for you to consult with your physician before starting any diet.

In conclusion a 500 calorie diet can be dangerous. However, if proper precautions are taken, such as a physical, to determine your overall health fitness, you can lose weight quickly.

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Before we start calculating BMI, let’s discuss what BMI is, and what it isn’t. BMI, or the body mass index, is a tool that’s used to determine whether or not a person is at a normal weight for his or her height. It was invented between 1830 and 1850 by mathematician and scientist Adolphe Quetelet. Though it’s been almost 200 years since he created the BMI, it’s used today almost exactly as he outlined.

While BMI isn’t the final word in whether or not someone is at a normal weight, it’s one of the first tools often used to determine if someone’s overweight. Because the BMI doesn’t distinguish between weight from fat and weight from muscle (other tools must be used to determine the actual amount of fat) it doesn’t work well for very muscular people like athletes. But for most of us, BMI is a pretty accurate measure of whether we’re underweight, a normal weight, overweight or obese.

Calculating BMI isn’t difficult once you understand the formula. The basic formula is weight divided by height squared, or kg/m2. You simply take your height in meters and square it which means you take the number of meters times itself. Then divide that number into your weight in kilograms. So a person who’s five-and-a-half-feet tall stands about 1.7 meters. To get 1.7 meters squared, you simply multiply 1.7 times 1.7, which equals 2.89. Now, convert weight to kilograms.

So if someone weigh 200 pounds, that’s about 91 kilograms. To determine the BMI of someone about five-and-a-half-feet tall who weights 200 pounds, or who stands 1.7 meters tall who weights 91 kilograms, we divide the weight by the height squared, or 91 divided by 2.89. That gives us the result of about 31. This individual is classified as obese. How do I know that?

A BMI of 18.5 or below indicates an underweight person. The normal weight range is from 18.5 to 24.9. Overweight people will have a BMI of 25 to 29.9. A BMI of 30 or greater indicates obesity. So a person with a BMI of 31 is in the obese range, but not by much. By calculating BMI again with different weights, you can see that the person would only need to lose 5 kilograms, or about 11 pounds, to no longer be obese, but merely overweight. And a loss of 19 kilograms, or about 42 pounds, will put this person within a normal weight range. Calculating BMI to determine how much weight one should lose can be a big help for someone who’s not sure.

Calculating BMI can be made even more simple if you’re not sure how to convert to kilograms or meters. Simply take your weight in pounds times 4.88. Then divide that number by your height in feet, squared. So a 200 pound person who is 6 feet tall: 976 divided by 36 = 27.1. After calculating BMI, it’s clear this person is within a normal and healthy weight range.

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