How many times have you looked in the mirror and said to yourself, “I need to lose weight?” Is this a trick question? Seriously, how many minutes are there in a day? That’s probably how many times you have said these words to yourself just yesterday as a matter of fact.

Those little words, “I need to lose weight” can bring on a stress level and intimidation that is hard to get around and hard to understand. We all know for a fact that if we want to lose weight that there is no magic pill that we can take when we go to bed and we will be thin and beautiful when we wake up.

Too bad there isn’t but we all know that to lose the weight we need to lose will take some hard work on our parts and we are not sure we can sustain that level of commitment for the long haul. Maintaining motivation is difficult and most human beings are inherently lazy. I’m not dissin’ anybody, I am the same way, and I will be the first to admit it.

What we do not realize is that with just a few little adjustments we can change our lives and our weight with very little effort. If you follow a few simple suggestions and guidelines then you will be on your way to having a new body to show off to all of your friends and family.

The first thing is to eat sensibly. Go to your kitchen right now and throw out all the junk food. This may be the hardest thing you have done in a long time but it needs to be done. Ok, I will let you save one item for your first weeks reward. Pick one and put it away.

Next, when you go shopping make a list beforehand and stick to it. Start by buying fresh foods, fruits, and vegetables. Or go to a local farmer’s market on Saturday morning to get some really fresh stuff from local growers. You might have to spend a little more but the quality is well worth it.

If you really do not know where to start find a cookbook and choose several recipes that you think may be good and good for you. Make your fresh food list from the recipes. Buy only what you need for the recipes, if you want to be successful then make sure you have all the ingredients you need for the dish you want to make. I find that nothing is more frustrating than starting to make something and then finding out that I don’t have all the ingredients.

Most importantly here, drink plenty of water. Try this, put a cup (or more to taste) of fresh or frozen berries into a gallon jug and fill it with water. Let the berries infuse their juices for a couple of hours and then strain the berries off through a fine mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth to catch the pulp and seeds. This will help with the mundaneness of water and add some vitamins and minerals, too. If you feel the need to sweeten it then do so with an artificial sweetener to keep the calorie count down. Following these suggestions will change your statement from, “I need to lose weight” to “I need to go buy some new, smaller clothes”.

Tags: Cookbook, Fresh Food, Fresh Foods, Fruits And Vegetables, Hardest Thing, Human Beings, Intimidation, Junk food;, Long Haul, Long Time, Losing Weight, Magic Pill, Maintaining Motivation, Matter Of Fact, Mirror, Recipes, S Market, Saturday Morning, Simple Suggestions, Stress Level, Trick Question, Vitamins And Minerals —

You may think that to lose weight you have to learn to hate food. This is so wrong and is the exact opposite of how you should be thinking. You need to learn to love food for the fuel that it gives you to get through your day and to find foods to eat to lose weight instead of gain it.

Too many people rely on food to give them comfort when all it really does is make you fat because you eat too much of the wrong things. When you start making healthier choices and paring down your portion sizes you will begin to see some differences in the clothes you wear and the energy your have.

I am going to talk to you about foods to eat to lose weight. There are many to choose from and to mix and match. There are ways to make sure that you eat enough of everything to get the nutrients and vitamins you need on a daily basis but still not go over your calorie count for the day.

Since you need to eat five or six small meals per day to lose the weight you want, you may need to mix things up a bit so you do not get bored with what you are eating. Fresh fruits and vegetables need to play a major role in you losing the weight you want, even if you do not like them. Pick the one or two that you do like and stick with them.

If you do like them then you are basically home free. You need to eat a piece of fruit or a vegetable with every single meal. Preferably one of each. If you choose to have fruit as one of your snacks, pair it up with some low-fat yogurt or some sunflower seeds. Mix the fruit and sunflower seeds into the low-fat yogurt and make your own special granola type snack.

The low-fat dairy and the seeds will keep you fuller longer and provide you with lots of protein and essential fats your body needs to function properly. You can’t cut out all the fat from your diet because your body needs some fat to help your body absorb certain nutrients.

Lean proteins are important, too. Eggs, fish, shrimp, low-fat dairy, and poultry are all great sources of lean protein. Just make sure to keep the portion sizes to about three ounces, four if you are male.

Like I said, fats are important but only in very small amounts. If you should choose poultry make sure the skin is removed and the fat trimmed off completely. Eat red meat only as a treat every once in a while. I don’t know about you but I love steak and could not possibly go without it for the rest of my life but I could just have it once or twice a month and be happy with all the other foods to eat to lose weight for the rest of the time.

Tags: Atkins, Calorie Count, Choices, Clothes, Daily Basis, Eating Habits, Eggs, Essential Fats, Foods To Eat To Lose Weight, Fresh Fruits And Vegetables, Fruits And Vegetables, Healthy Diet, Lean Protein, Losing Weight, Nutrients, Portion Sizes, Poultry, Proteins, Shrimp, Snack, Snacks, Sunflower Seeds, Vitamins, Vitamins And Minerals, Yogurt —

There are so many supplements and remedies that claim they can help people lose weight that if you try to sort it all out and narrow it down to the one you might like to take, it can make your head spin. You best bet is to enlist the help of your doctor and get him or her to prescribe one of the few FDA-approved weight loss medications available.

Most FDA-approved weight loss medications do require a prescription from your doctor so talk to them first to see what they recommend. There is one medication that is FDA approved that you can get OTC, or over the counter, and that is the medication called Alli.

Alli is intended for people over the age of 18 and contains the fat blocking compound called orlistat. Orlistat prevents the absorption of fats from your diet by stopping the enzyme lipase from breaking the fat down. The fat is then passed directly through your digestive tract and may cause unpleasant side effects like anal leakage, oily spotting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and excess gas.

Due to this fact, Alli should be taken along with a diet low in fat. The lower your fat intake the less you will suffer from these unpleasant side effects. It would stand to reason that if you consume less fat in your diet then you will lose weight.

Orlistat also comes in a prescription medication called Xenical which is twice the strength of Alli with 120 mg of the fat blocker. Therefore, Xenical should only be used if you are extremely overweight and only under your doctor’s supervision. With the dosage being double what it is in Alli you will most likely experience serious digestive side effects and will also most likely need some supplementation because decreased fat absorption will also take with it vitamins and minerals you need to stay healthy.

Meridia is another prescription medication used for weight loss that works by affecting the area of the brain that controls satiety. This area of the brain is one of the feel good areas that elevates your mood and decreases your appetite. Side effects of Meridia include and increase in blood pressure so it must be used with extreme caution or not at all if you already have high blood pressure.

Other side effects include restlessness, dizziness, tremors, and insomnia. Meridia is mainly used to decrease the feeling of hunger and should be taken along with a healthy diet and moderate daily exercise.

There are two other weight loss medications available that should only be used in extremely obese people and only for a jumping off point for those who need to see results quickly. They are called Adipex-P and Sanorex and are both highly addictive.

Capable of some serious side effects like hallucinations, heart palpitations, high blood pressure, seizures, tremors and changes in insulin production. Both should be used under very strict supervision by your doctor due to the fact that they can also interact with other prescription or over the counter medications you are already taking.

Tags: Abdominal Cramps, Absorption Of Fats, Alli, Appe, Best Bet, diarrhea;, Digestive Tract, Enzyme Lipase, Excess Gas, Fda Approved Weight Loss, Healthy Diet, Losing Weight, Meridia, Orlistat, Otc, Prescription Medication, Satiety, Supplementation, Unpleasant Side Effects, Vitamins And Minerals, Weight Loss Medications, Xenical —

Stomach fat burning diets are everywhere. The first thing you need to ask yourself is, are they safe? Some diet plans can do a lot more harm than good. Fad diets such as the grapefruit diet for example, may work only up to a point.

When you have lost the weight and the diet is over, you just go back to the same way you ate before and what happens? The weight comes back and if you are not careful you may just add on a few extra pounds.

If you only have a few pounds to lose then by all means try one of the many fast stomach fat burning diets available so you can get into that dress for the wedding. But, if you have a lot of weight to lose you will need to make some lifestyle changes to reach your goal weight.

Take a minute to write down where you want to end up. What are your goals. Keep track of what you eat in a journal so you can see what you are putting in your body so if it needs to be changed you can change it. Writing in a journal everyday is a very effective tool to use to help you lose the weight you need to lose.

Learn every aspect about food. Become and expert. Figure out how many calories, fats, carbs and sodium are in the food you eat so you will be able to put meals together that are nutritionally balanced and satisfying. Knowing what the right numbers are helps a lot.

You can figure out how many calories you need in a day by calculating your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, or you can simply make up a meal plan that has enough food to equal 1500 calories or so. Keep it all on paper so you can see it daily. Just having a plan is not enough if it is written down you can hold yourself accountable for every single meal.

Learning to eat differently may take some practice and careful planning. When I tell you that you need to eat small meals throughout your day you are going to say you do not have the time to do that because you are at work. well then, I will say that yes you can with some precise planning.

Start packing your lunch and snacks to work with you. Stop wasting money and gaining weight by eating out when you are at work. Save your wallet and your waistline by buying an insulated lunch box and healthy food to put in it.

Now you need to figure what your lunch and snacks will consist of. Well, how about a cup of yogurt and some celery sticks? With a full glass of water that is a great snack for the middle of the morning. For your lunch, why not have a sandwich made of lean turkey breast with some light mayo and lettuce and a cup of grapes? There are a lot of things you can do to make sure you eat small meals throughout your day.

Do your best to drink enough water during the day, too. Stay away from pop and caffeinated beverages like coffee. Caffeine has a drying effect on the body and can contribute to dehydration. Drink lots of water.

If you do start one of the fast stomach fat burning diets and there are a lot of restrictions to the diet you may need to take a supplement to get all the vitamins and minerals you need.

Tags: Basal Metabolic Rate, Bmr, Burning Stomach, Calories, Carbs, Diet Plans, Eating Habits, Fad Diets, Fast Diets, Fat Burning Diets, Fat Stomach, Fats, Goal Weight, Grapefruit Diet, Healthy Diet, How Many Calories, Lifestyle Changes, Losing Weight, Lunch, Meal Plan, Snacks, Sodium, Stomach Burning, Stomach Fat, Vitamins And Minerals —