How Much Water Should I Drink to Lose Weight?

Posts Tagged ‘Dieting’

Most people join the gym or begin their exercise program with high hopes. Unfortunately, most people give up within six months of starting because they are not getting the results they want. Many figure that they will get the same results by dieting alone, but the reality is that the pounds will come off significantly faster when you combine healthy eating, portion control and add an hour- long activity, four times weekly.Adding four hour-long exercise sessions per week does not have to be as hard as it sounds. The first thing to think about is that your new exercise routine will not simple be from now until you successfully lose the weight, but these activity sessions must be thought of as activities you will continue to do to maintain the weight loss. Studies have shown that nearly 90% of individuals who successfully maintain their weight loss also continued their exercise programs.
Why does exercise speed up weight loss and help maintain your weight loss? One school of thought indicates that aerobic exercises especially, are crucial for weight loss. During aerobics sessions, your body begins to burn fat after thirty minutes of moderate intensity exercise. In order to turn your body into a fat burning machine you need to work out at 80-90% of your maximum heart rate (calculated by 220-age). This level of intensity in your work out will help increase your metabolic rate and help your body to burn fat even after you have finished working out. The amount of calories you will burn while exercising and in the hours after depend upon a number of variables, such as; your weight and the intensity of your workout. After doing aerobics exercises for several weeks, you will begin to notice that you clothes feel looser and that you feel healthier overall. Also, aerobic exercise has been shown to increase mood and help ease depression.
Another school of thought states that working out with resistance (that is, weight, or resistance bands) is the best way to lose weight. Once again, there are a lot of variables which will determine how successful you will be at losing weight this way. Previous research indicated that for every pound of muscle you added to your body, your resting metabolic rate would increase by 60 calories. That’s a fantastic finding, meaning that if you add five pounds of new muscle, you will automatically burn an additional 31 pounds of fat in a year. By adding this muscle you will also tone your look, so whether or not the scale says differently, you body composition is going to change for the better. There is merit to this plan, even though the research has not born out the claims that each pound of new muscle burns 60 calories of fat per hour. No one knows for sure how much fat you will burn by adding muscle; it seems to depend upon your gender, your age and your past history of exercise. In the end, though, there is good reason to add weight bearing exercises to your exercise plan; regardless of the amount of additional fat you will burn, you WILL burn more fat, especially in the two hours after your workout. Also, weight bearing exercise decreases your odds of getting osteoporosis, something you haven’t likely given much thought to if you are still under 60, but something you will be especially happy about when you are older.
So what should you do? Because no one can tell you for sure how much weight you will lose given either strategy, and because you need to add activity to your lifestyle for the rest of your life, the best thing to do is to add activities which you enjoy doing anyway. Promise yourself at least four, one hour activity slots per week, and PUT THEM IN YOUR CALENDAR. It’s really easy to allow exercise to drop to the bottom of your to-do list, especially if you already have too much to do and not enough time. By putting the appointments in your calendar, you are agreeing to make it a priority to keep yourself healthy. Make it a priority; the same priority you would give going to work and don’t let other people’s needs get in the way. Then, do what you love. Try new activities; curling, squash, racquetball, spinning, biking, volleyball; the list is endless. If you choose activities you enjoy, rather than repetitive exercises on the treadmill or climber, you will have a greater chance of sticking with them throughout the rest of your life. If you have been a bit of a loner in your exercises so far, getting out and being part of a team will do wonders both for your weight loss and your soul. And the great thing is that many of these activities combine both aerobic exercise and weight bearing together. If you feel that you should have some degree of real exercise each week, add a treadmill/weight lifting session to just one of your scheduled sessions. That way, you will feel as if you are doing the “real work” of exercise while enjoying your weekly activities.
In the end, any exercise speeds up weight loss. While the jury is out on how many calories, or how much fat you will lose exactly, there is plenty of research to indicate that you will build muscle, burn more fat and feel better. What are you waiting for? Go out and start having fun! Your body, and your scale, will love you for it.

Why slow weight loss is the “new” quick weight loss for women!

Losing weight is an ongoing struggle for many women.  But is quick weight loss for women the ultimate fix?

I personally have tried all the quick weight loss for wowmen diets there is out there. Yes some of them do work, but only for a short period of time.

Let’s look at these quick weight loss diets and understand why they work, but only for the short term.

How Do You Lose Weight Quickly?

In order to lose weight quickly you need to eat a much lower number of calories than you burn in a given day.

This means that you either have to calorie count or follow one of those “lose ten pounds in ten days” diets.

Many people say that in order to lose weight quickly you should only consume 800 calories a day. Wow – that’s not much food is it?

Yes you can keep this up for a short period of time and lose weight quickly, but as soon as you start eating properly again… yes you’ve guessed it – up goes your weight again.

Therefore you are back to square one. Six months later you have tried so many quick weight loss fixes and given up so you are still at your overweight state. Not exactly quick weight loss now is it!

I know this from first hand experience, time and time again. Before I know it a whole year has passed and I still have not lost any weight even though I have spent money on many quick weight loss fixes!

Why Losing Weight Slowly Is The Way To Go

Now that we’ve established that quick weight loss is not the best way to go, let’s look at why losing 1-2 lb a week is actually the “new” quick weight loss for women routine.

You see giving yourself enough calories to live off will give you a slow steady weight loss which is much more manageable to stick to and attain. After all you can eat a good amount of food plus have treats such as wine and the odd pizza slice etc.. This is just so much more natural making it much more achievable to stick to it and lose 1-2lb week.

You still have to watch what you eat and go down the healthy route with plenty of fruit, vegetables and fibre, but you can also fit in foods you like so you won’t cheat.

So in the same six months you are much more likely to be able to stick to the higher calorie diet with a slower weight loss and be able to reach your goal. As opposed to keep trying quick fix fads which are practically humanly impossible to stick to so you give up and you are back to square one.

I finally realised this a few months ago when I was still 21lbs overweight after being on a ‘diet’ for about two years! So I set a target of losing only 1lb a week. This was so easy to stick to by being able to have the odd glass of red wine and a few treats. I ate healthy most of the week and introduced some exercise in the form of swimming. I am now half way to losing my 21lb but if I had stuck to my quick weight loss diet fads, I would still be 21lb overweight!

If you are like me, you have probably been through all this before, the family wedding is coming up next month and you can’t seem to fit into that suit or dress because you have put on too much weight. So you must lose at least ten or more pounds quickly.

Losing weight quickly is not advisable as most of the loss will be muscle tissue and water; you put on the weight slowly (usually over years) so normally you should take it off slowly and then you will know that the majority of the loss will be body fat.

But you have a problem here and the clock is ticking so you will have to diet pretty hard to meet your target weight loss. Let’s look at that first, you all know that diets don’t work; they send the body into starvation mode, a survival mechanism from long age when humans faced periods of famine.

Going too low in calories causes the body to lower its metabolic rate, which reduces its ability to burn fat. At the same time, hunger signals increase and you quickly start to crave high-energy foods loaded with fats and sugar, the same foods you are trying to do without.

Research shows repeated dieting actually makes it harder to lose weight and easier to put it on because when you dump the diet and return to normal eating habits the drop in metabolic rate caused by the diet means that your old habits actually represent an excess in calories.

Not only do you regain the fat stores just lost, but also you may even gain an extra bit.

Knowing this, you really don’t want to put yourselves through this rigorous process, but for this special occasion you will. First though, you will have to boost the metabolism that has been lowered by the dieting.

To do this you will have to perform a “Strength Training” workout to generate that initial spike in your metabolism. By increasing the lean muscle on your body by using Strength Training, your metabolism will increase, burning fat along the way.

The strength training technique I use requires just twenty to thirty mins per week. Gone are the days of the five-day a week program with 6 to 12 sets per body part that, method has never worked.

One short intense strength-training workout a week will elevate your metabolism more than you ever thought possible.

While the calories expended doing exercise are important, the increase in metabolism especially after strength training continues long after the exercise is finished, burning calories at the same time.

The two main components of this technique are the intensity of the exercise and the recovery after the exercise.

Infrequent, short, high intensity weight training sessions, followed by the required amount of time to recover and become stronger is what is needed to increase functional lean muscle and lose body fat.

Small frequent meals should be consumed during the day each containing a little protein to maintain muscle mass and energy levels. A high quality broad-spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement should also be taken on a daily basis.

As before get the calories from high quality food but if you can’t, utilize a blender to make concoctions from skim milk with whatever additives you want to use, just as long as you keep count of the calories for your daily total.

Now use these blender mixtures and solid food for your daily feedings. Spread it out over many small meals a day instead of the traditional three meals a day. The way to keep track of weight loss is to buy a calorie counter and record your daily calorie intake for a week.

Now average out how many calories you consume a day with the use of a seven-day eating plan and calorie counter, once you have this figure subtract 1000 calories and this will be the target number of calories you will be aiming for.

Remembering that one-pound of fat contains 3500cals, losing 1000 calories a day will total 7000 for the week, which equals two pounds lost by dietary means alone. Another technique for low calorie eating is to watch your fat intake as this has the most calories.

Incidental activity is also very important if you want to lose this amount of weight in this short period of time, by increasing incidental activity you can burn at least another pound a week The best exercise for the purpose of fat-loss is fast walking either indoors on the treadmill or outdoors.

Walk until you are mildly puffing and hold that rate until the allotted time. If your aerobic activities leave you panting or breathless, your going too hard, your energy is coming from your carbohydrate reserves and not from your fat stores. Try fast walking for one hour a day every day of the week.

Well there you have it, as an experienced trainer I wouldn’t recommend this type of program to my clients. The weight loss is just too quick and the program would be very hard to maintain owing to the very low caloric intake.

I advise my clients to decrease their calories by just 500 per day (and no more) below their maintenance levels and they will be losing 1 – 2 pounds of body fat every week, safely, without craving and without too much disruption to their lifestyle.

In conclusion remember, think long term here and that’s between 30 and 50 pounds of fat lost in six months. Any faster and all you will be losing is water and precious muscle tissue.

If you’re wondering how to lose weight in 2 weeks I have both good news and bad news for you.
On the good news front, it is entirely possible to lose weight in that time and I have managed up to 7lbs of weight lost in a single 7 day period (though doctors would question how safe this level of weight loss was). On the downside, to really make those 2 weeks count you’re going to have to do everything 100% right. No sneaky days off or food-related treats – you need to ensure every single thing you do leads you closer to your goal of losing weight.
So with the preable out of the way, how exactly are we going to get you to lose the maximum amount of weight in just 2 weeks? My own experience suggests that for a short term goal like this, vast amounts of exercise and a virtually carb-free diet are the ways to go.
Personally, I tried the Atkins Diet and that was what led me to lose that huge amount of weight, though I found the weight loss reduced considerably over the following weeks so don’t consider this a long term plan.
However other pretty-much carb free diets like the South Beach Diet are likely to be just as helpful.
The carbohydrate free diet will involve living on items such as eggs, milk, meat and vegetables. At lkeast during the initial introductory phase there is no fruit, no cereal, no bread, no potatos and so on so it can be quite a shock to the system to give up your “normal” foods. After all, what could be more “normal” than just grabbing a sandwich, or a bowl of cereal or some pasta? Suddenly these are all off limits.
Also, be aware that due to this huge nutritional shift, some people will find at least for the first few days that their energy levels drop or that they get downright irritable. This, as I say, is normal and will likely pass within 2-3 days.
Also, appreciate that fluids will be provided by water mainly, with perhaps a sugar and milk-free tea or coffee which can be an experience in itself.
I personally found the Atkins Diet took quite a bit of getting used to, but when I started to adjust it was quite enjoyable. Who would complain at eating eggs and bacon for breakfast and still dropping a whole pound of weight that day?!
The other factor of course is exercise – and trying to burn off as much fat as possible.
In this regard, put aside at least an hour a day to go running, walking, cycling – anything, in fact – so long as it makes you sweat. You need to get puffed out and feel your heart thumping for the best result. An additional tip that can make this length of exercise more achievable is to split your session into 2 or more segments. Then try a different exercise in each section, and take a break inbetween.
An example could be walking quickly for 20 minutes, followed by a 5 minute break. Then 20 minutes on the treadmill jogging. Then another quick break for 2 or 3 minutes, and finally a 20 minute swim.
Job done, and without killing yourself!
Follow these steps and you’ll rapidly lose weigt in the next 2 weeks.

The following article presents the very latest information on Losing Weight. If you have a particular interest in Losing Weight, then this informative article is required reading.

See how much you can learn about Losing Weight when you take a little time to read a well-researched article? Don’t miss out on the rest of this great information.

You’ve made the decision to lose weight as quickly as possible. You have your diet in place and you expect to follow it religiously. At this point, you may be wondering how much weight you can lose in a given week and whether fast weight loss can be dangerous for your body.

There are a number of things that can affect your weight loss. For instance, family history, or genetics, can play a significant role. Also, your weight loss may depend upon how much exercise you’re engaging in, as well as how much stress you are under. Your metabolism, or how quickly you burn calories, can also have a major effect.

Theoretically, you could lose as much as 20 pounds a week. However, much of that weight could be water weight. That means that, once you go off your diet, you are likely to gain much of that weight back. Also, unless you engage in strength training, you will be losing muscle as well as fat, since about ¼ of the body’s weight consists of muscle. It is interesting to note that, at most, you can probably lose four pounds of fat in a given week.

Nature has a way of protecting the body against excessive weight loss. If, for instance, your calorie count suddenly drops, your body will compensate for the fact by reducing your metabolic rate. As a result, you’ll need fewer calories to maintain your weight. This explains why some people lose weight up to a point and then cannot lose any additional weight, no matter how hard they try.

If you lose weight quickly, there’s a good chance that your health will be jeopardized. For instance, fast weight loss has been linked to the appearance of gall stones. Also, you may experience loose skin as your weight goes into free fall. Perhaps most distressing of all, if you experience rapid weight loss, there’s a good chance that you will gain the weight back again. This is because it is very difficult to maintain a healthy diet regimen. You may find yourself falling back into your bad eating habits after a period of deprivation.

Fast weight loss also places you at greater risk for an eating disorder. You may be tempted to starve yourself, leading to anorexia. Or, because your food cravings are so great, you may want to binge and purge, leading to a case of bulimia. This is why it is so critically important to lose weight under a physician’s care. Otherwise, you could be doing more harm to your body than good.

Although the body has the capability of shedding a great deal of weight over a period of time, most medical experts agree that one should not expect to lose more than one or two pounds a week in order to remain healthy. This can be disappointing to a dieter, especially one that needs to lose about 50 pounds. However, doctors believe that the go-slow approach is best for long-term weight loss. Otherwise, you could end up with a number of health problems you weren’t anticipating.

There are a number of approaches you can use to lose weight. For instance, you might follow the Atkins plan, the Zone, or the diabetic diet. You might try Sugar Busters or the Carb Addict’s prescription for losing weight. However, it is vitally important that you accompany your diet plan with an effective exercise routine. One of the best exercises you can do, in fact, is the easiest—walking. It has been said that you can lose as many as two pounds a week, just by walking alone.

As has been demonstrated here, rapid weight loss should be approached with caution. It is far better to lose a few pounds each week and maintain that weight loss over the long term. In essence, all good things take time, and that is particularly true when it comes to weight loss. Perhaps the best advice is to be patient. Follow a reasonable diet, get plenty of exercise, and drink a good amount of water. That way, you should be able to slowly lose weight—without jeopardizing your health in the process.

Take time to consider the points presented above. What you learn may help you overcome your hesitation to take action.

Picture the scene. You’ve spent the last week eating like a sparrow, killing yourself at your local spinning class and saying no to that extra portion of chips that you’d usually gobble up in a second. You even said no to the tray of doughnuts being offered around the office and watched everyone else chomp away as you nibbled on the fruit bowl you spent way too long preparing that morning…So it’s time to step on the bathroom scales and see if all your hard work has paid off. Surely you’ve lost half a stone this week, or at the worst about 4lbs. You take a long, deep breath… one foot on… the other foot on… and the result… half a pound!! Half a bleeding pound?! After two or three “re-weighs” and a “tactical wee” your weight still hasn’t budged! What’s that all about?!You’ve probably heard experts say that hair loss is one of the side effects of crash dieting… what they forget to mention is that it’s usually because it’s been pulled out when your scales don’t tell you what you want to see!These 3 golden rules of weight loss will not only save you from pulling your hair out, but will help to manage your expectations and keep you motivated long enough to reach your weight loss target.1) Aim for 1lb of weight loss per week on average.Most people give up at slimming clubs because they expect too much too soon. You may have seen people lose 7lbs a week on celebrity fit club or in your glossy magazine, but they will have been on a seriously strict diet and done 4 to 5 hours exercise a day… not exactly realistic! If you’ve got a job, a family and a social life, then the most you should expect to lose is 1lb per week on average. Add up all the weeks in the last year you’ve spent dieting, giving up, dieting again then giving up again, then work out how much you’d have lost if you were losing 1lb per week consistently.2) Don’t expect to lose weight every week.Our bodyweight naturally fluctuates 3 – 4lbs a day. Long term weight loss isn’t like a leisurely stroll down a hill, it’s like a really frustrating rollercoaster! If you expect to lose weight every week you’re going to be disappointed… and bald! As a realistic target aim to lose 4lbs every 4 weeks (1lb per week on average). That means you might lose 1lb in the first week, stay the same in the second week, lose half a pound in the third week, then lose 3.5lbs in the fourth week (-1lb, -0lb, -0.5lbs, -3.5lbs = -4lbs over 4 weeks, -1lb per week on average). Or you might lose 2lbs in the first week, gain 1lb in the second week, lose 3lbs in the third week, then stay the same in the fourth week (-2lbs, +1lb, -3lbs, -0lbs = -4lbs over 4 weeks, – 1lb per week average).3) Track your weight loss over time.Although weight bounces up and down week by week, due to water levels, if you look at your weight over time you can see the trend, which tells you how much you are losing on average. Good weight loss should look like a downward rollercoaster. If you use a weight tracker you can see the trend of your weight over time, which is far more motivating that just looking at your weight bobbing up and down week by week. The winners in the weight loss game aren’t the people who crash diet, lose 7lbs a week over two weeks, give up and put it all back on again. It’s the people who lose on average 1lb a week over several weeks and keep it off.

Are you struggling with how to lose weight? If so then this article will be of great assistance to you as I’ll be discussing the best way to lose lots of weight by a diet which actually makes you burn fat from eating, no this isn’t the negative calorie diet or some fad. This diet can be maintained year round and is actually healthy for you in many ways. It is one of the best ways to lose lots of weight.So What is it?The diet is called calorie counting and what the overall impact and idea behind the diet is that you will boost your metabolism to its peak levels by eating. It works off of the idea of metabolic confusion, this is a situation where your body never allows its metabolism to relax because the types of calories you consume every day are different and at different times. You see your body is constantly adapting to your eating habits, once it adapts it will lower your metabolism. So even if you’re eating a very strict low carb, low fat, low anything diet your body will see this and adapt very quickly to slow down your metabolism to match the lowered amount of calories being consumed. The same goes for a normal diet, your body eventually adapts and your metabolism slows down.Most People Don’t Know that they CAN Control their Metabolism!Even though most people assume that their genetics dictate how effective their metabolism is, this simply isn’t true, the fact remains that there are things you can do to directly impact how effective your metabolism is. One of these things is eating, which most people are virtually completely unaware of. However a sophisticated system must be in place to allow the metabolism to become more active. This is where calorie shifting comes into play.If you’re still trying to figure out how to lose lots of weight try calorie shifting! It’s safe, easy to do, effective and best of all the results gained are not effected by a rebound effect, in fact most people continue to burn fat at an accelerated pace for weeks even once they stop!Lose 15 Pounds in Two Weeks by using Calorie Shifting Click http://www.fatloss4idiotsdietplan.com to find out HOW! ====================================================== Note: You may wish to publish this article for your website, blog, etc. As long as the article remains in its full entirety; including the links and the about the author resource box.

There are many challenges to losing weight. Knowing when to eat, what to eat, how to eat, how much to eat and dealing with your cravings are just some of those challenges. You have to exercise, and be consistent about it. And you have to weigh yourself to track your progress, right?

Weekly, or even daily weigh-ins can be a great way to gauge how your weight loss efforts are paying off, but how many times have you been sent on an emotional roller coaster because of your scale? Feelings of desperation, disappointment, frustration and even elation can send all of your best weight loss efforts into a tail spin.

Is it possible to lose the scale and still lose weight? Yes! In fact, your scale may be a huge culprit in why you are having such a hard time losing weight. Think about it, when you do really well with diet and exercise and don’t meet you weekly weight loss goals, how do you feel? Are you wanting to throw in the towel and drown your best efforts in a pint of ice cream or your mothers best cheesecake recipe? When you lose weight, do you find that you want to be more relaxed with your eating and reward yourself with food?

There are ways to measure your weight loss progress without the scale, such as how your clothes fit, how much better you are able to complete new and challenging exercises and by monitoring your food intake and exercise habits. Take a trip to your closet and pull out a pair of your favorite pants that fit snuggly before you began your weight loss efforts. How do they fit? Can you sit down in them comfortably? Try on a button up shirt that used to gap open. How is it fitting now? Consider taking a picture of yourself in these clothing items and making notations in your journal about the fit. You will see that over time, these clothes will fit better and better and eventually become too big.

If you need to see your progress in numbers then try taking measurements of your body. When you begin to lose weight always take a few minutes to measure your body. Measure every part of your body and make notations of where you put the measuring tape. Measure your wrists, waist, hips, bust, each arm, thighs, etc. Each month pull out your measuring tape for another round of measuring. Measure your waist, hips, bust, and thighs.

Progress can be subtle, but if you pay attention and keep a journal, over time you will see how good you actually feel. You energy levels will increase so that you can do more stuff during the day and this will in turn improve your mood. Eating a diet that is healthful will satisfy you, fill you up and give you more energy. Is your diet doing that for you? As you keep up with your exercise you will build muscle and improve your overall fitness level so that you can finish tasks that once seemed impossible.