Weight Loss As Simple As 1, 2, 3

Why is it so hard for most people to lose weight? Is it genetics or hormonal? Sometimes. Is it overeating? Could be. I believe it to be one thing, at least 85% of the time, and that is not knowing their Numbers. When I mean by number is their BMR number. Regardless how you like to think about weight loss, it still comes down to one simple principle. Keep your caloric intake lower than what you burn daily. So here are three steps to make weight loss as simple as 1, 2, 3.

1. Know your BMR. BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate is the amount of calories your body burns just for you to be able to stay alive. So if you are burning an average of 2000 calories a day without exercise or any extracurricular activity, your body EXPECTS 2000 calories via food consumption so it can use those calories to keep you alive the next day. By decreasing your calories by 250-500 calories a day, forces your body to make up the difference in calorie consumption by using 250-500 calories of stored fat. This is called CALORIC DEFICIT. Keep this up every day and you can lose ½ pound to one pound without breaking a sweat. Use this formula:

• Women: BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)
• Men: BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)

After you calculate your BMR, subtract 250-500 from your BMR. REMEMBER, do not lower your calories below 1200 calories for women and 1500 for men

2. 80%/20% Rule: Eating totally healthy SUCKS! Let's be honest. So instead of trying to become the lean chicken King or the Salad Queen, try enjoying some of your favorite guilty pleasures as along as it is with your calorie range you just calculated. Understanding that 3500 calories equals one pound, as long as you stay within your numbers you will lose weight. YES!

3. If you want to lose more than ½ pound to one pound a week, EXERCISE but eat more: The downfall of many fitness enthusiast is they do a calorie restriction meal plan to lose weight, but also exercise leaving their net calorie intake below 1200 for women and 1500 for men. This is a recipe for disaster. You have to take in more calories so your body will not go into starvation mode AKA fat holding mode. So to know your numbers far as with exercise, use the Activity Factor with your BMR then subtract 500-1000 calories from your total number (BMR x AF). NOW You can allow your body to burn more calories for greater weight loss. The steps are to take your BMR (without subtracting the 250-500 calories) and multiply by your Activity Factor. Here is the formula: Your BMR X Activity Factor.

• Sedentary (little or no exercise): BMR x 1.2
• Lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week): BMR x 1.375
• Moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week): BMR x 1.55
• Very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week): BMR x 1.725
• Extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training): BMR x 1.9

Now subtract 500-1000 calories from your total number. REMEMBER, do not lower your calories below 1200 calories for women and 1500 for men.

Weight loss should never be complicated. If you know your BMR, and try not to be so restrictive with your eating habits and add in extra calories if you are wanting to exercise along with your caloric restriction; you will lose weight as simple as 1,2, 3

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The Best and Worst of Your Week

Reflection is one of the best ways to review the positives and negatives of how something went. It gives you the opportunity to figure out what went well and also decide what may need revision in order to improve the results and outcome.
Question is, how does this fit in a plan to lose weight and get fit?
When you are focused on losing weight, that will be accomplished when you develop and maintain healthy living habits for a prolonged period of time. It's impossible to put an exact time-frame on the length this process will take you since everyone's situation is unique and different, but also the amount of effort put forth will vary from person to person.
Therefore instead of focusing on how long it will take to lose the weight you want, put that mental energy into frequent reflection and you'll find yourself becoming more effective with this process each and every week.
One of the main reasons why losing weight is so hard to accomplish is that each 24 hour period presents a new set of challenges. In other words, just because one day may have been lived in a healthy manner doesn't necessarily mean the next one will be exactly the same.
This is where reflection comes into play.
When you get in the habit of reflecting on how your day went, try to identify where you may have strayed from your initial plan. Think about all your nutritional choices of the day and whether or not appropriate portion sizes were maintained. You can also reflect on the various snacks and drinks you consumed and decide if those were the best choices you could have made.
Be sure to reflect on your exercise commitment also. Did you make it a point to workout even if it was just walking the dog for an hour around the neighborhood? If not, this reflection opportunity can help you figure out how and when you can fit this in at least three times into your weekly schedule.
If you come across aspects of the day you know were not positive and healthy, decide what can be done so the same mishap does not happen repeatedly. This is what you want to prevent from happening and why reflecting on your day is such a beneficial practice to do regularly.
When you get in the habit of constantly reflecting on the choices made during your day, you will find the unhealthy ones will occur less frequently than they were happening in the past. Try to reflect before going to sleep at night and see if it helps you focus more on making healthy choices to guide you through the next day morning to night. Keep this up for a week and see how much of an improvement is made.
If it helps, actually write down your daily agenda the night before so you wake up with a detailed checklist of all the healthy, positive things you want to accomplish that day. Once you have one day under your belt, you'll be much more inspired to repeat that effort the following day. Pretty soon, healthy habits will emerge and after a month or so, you will have a much better handle on what it takes to lose weight and get into shape.

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Lose Weight On Your Upper Thighs And Feel Good In Shorts Again!

Lose Weight On Your Upper Thighs And Feel Good In Shorts Again!



Have you checked your thighs and felt depressed? Do they jiggle while you walk? Do you have saddle-bags or wobbly inner thighs which rub together? 

Upper leg fat can be a concern for lots of women and men. It can contribute to obesity, help to make our jeans fit oddly, and stop us from ever pulling on some shorts. It is also a stubborn kind of fat, and shedding it may be a very long and disheartening process. 

However it does not need to be. To get rid of thigh fat once and for all, take this advice to heart: 

Lower Your Body Fat Percentage 

Sadly, spot reduction is really a health and fitness myth. Short of liposuction, that's an unpleasant and often temporary solution, there is no way to get rid of fat from a single area of your body without removing it from the rest of your body. 

To reduce the amount of fat in your upper thighs, you will have to lessen your overall body fat percentage. The old-fashioned way is still the best: Consume less food, move more. Cardiovascular and weight training will help you get leaner, more solid thighs (as well as everything else). 

Have you any idea just how much of your weight derives from fat, and just how much stems from muscle? If not, you need to use calipers or an electronic body fat calculator to find out. If you require guidance, talk with an expert in nutrition, fitness instructor, or your medical provider. 

Get a minimum of one hour of aerobic exercise 3 to 5 times each week. Do 15 - 30 minutes of weight training every second day. You will begin to notice results quickly, and the more time you stick with it, the slimmer your upper thighs are going to be. 

Physical Exercises That Target the Thighs 

Our thighs are a big muscle group. After you drop the excess padding around the upper thighs, you will want to have sculpted muscles to show off. You can obtain those toned thighs and legs by carrying out certain exercises that concentrate on the region. 

Thigh exercises that don't call for extra equipment include squats, wall sits, and lunges. You can perform these every second day until eventually you reach muscle fatigue (shaky legs). Walking or running down and up the stairway is another surperb way to develop your thighs. 

Losing Leg Fat at the Gym 

Nearly all physical fitness centers have a multitude of machines that will tone the thighs. Leg presses and leg curls are great choices, along with any sort of machine that requires you to climb steps or pedal. 

For added firming, find machines that work the abductor muscles (outer thighs) and also the adductor muscles (inner thighs). This equipment looks similar to the ThighMaster device, and they work really well. 

Toning Your Thighs The Whole Day Long 

Naturally, you will not need a gym - or even a break from your normal routine - to build toned thighs. You can actually sculpt your upper thighs and legs while you run errands, drive around, and perhaps whilst you work at your desk. 

Whilst sitting or standing, clench your thighs and butt as hard as you can. This is a popular method to sculpt and strengthen the butt, but it would also give your thighs a good workout. 

Walk longer distances than required by parking the car farther away from your destination. Or run errands on foot when it's possible to. Walk up the stairs as opposed to the elevator or escalator. Every little bit helps. 

You can even find special thigh-toning workout routines that you can do while you work. The ThighMaster and comparable devices fit in between your knees when you sit, so they really are convenient to use just about anywhere. 

You can even order online for small exercise bikes that fit below your desk. Pedal as you work to get rid of upper leg fat fast!

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The Obesity Impact on Society

The Obesity Impact on Society






In this section of Seattle Organic Restaurants I want to talk about life threatening side effects of obesity. Currently 72 million adults and 12 million youth in the US are obese and 144 million people in the states are obese or overweight. Being overweight and obese causes a wave of chronic diseases with long term serious health consequences.





Development of obesity and overweight in early ages has major early impact in accumulation of plaques and clot in the artery. Parents should be aware of the dangers of childhood obesity and should apply early life changing habits for their kids. Early obesity prevention is so important in preventing childhood obesity and unfortunately if theobesity isn’t prevented in young ages the consequences can be devastating in the adulthood life of the child. Large waves of chronic diseases are waiting for the new generation of kids with obesity and we should change the early life style habits of our kids. Life style changes include changing eating habits and increasing physical activity. The foods with high level of cholesterol and saturated fat increase the LDL. Reducing the intake of saturated fat in meat, dairy products and backed or fried foods can significantly reduce the level of bad cholesterol.





A recent study shows that a group of people whomaintained a healthy weight (from the age of 25 to middle age)were less likely to develop cardiovascular diseasethan those who gained weight from the age of 25 to middle age. Before the scientists thought that the blood pressuregoes up by age, now the recent studies prove that the high blood pressure has more to do with weight than age.


As a rule of thumb the blood pressure usually goes up about 0.1 every year after the age of 25, but there was no change in blood pressure of people who maintained a stable body mass. People who also maintained a healthy weight after the age 25 to middle age had stable sugar level and insulin in their blood. However people who gained weight had higher level of triglycerides (bad fat), blood pressure and cholesterol level than those who maintained a healthy weight. Increase in triglycerides directly increases the chances of cardiovascular disease. Helping people to maintain a healthy BMI will surely prevent a wave of chronic diseases that come with obesity such as cancer,cardiovascular disease and diabetes.





The scientific evidences show a solid prove that gaining weight and obesity directly increase the wave of chronic diseases that lead people to heart attacks and strokes. Every year cardiovascular disease causes over 800,000 DEATHS by itself in the US and currently we are spending 500 billion dollars a year on the health consequences of heart problems.


The upcoming cardiovascular disease is a direct result of obesity and being overweight. The health care as we have today isn’t affordable and in a decade from now there would be millions of new patients who have heart attack or strokes in an environment that we cannot afford.

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Why Losing Weight Is So Hard?

Why you're not losing weight?

Cutting back on sugar is a common practice for people who are trying to lose weight. A high-sugar diet contributes to weight gain by adding calories without adding nutrition (often referred to as empty calories), by increasing appetite and desire for more sugar, and by elevating insulin levels (which promotes fat storage).

Reducing your sugar intake doesn't automatically lead to easy weight loss for everyone. If it seems like the more fat you put on, the harder it is to lose, you're not imagining things! Losing weight is hard for several physiological reasons.

Fat cells never go away

When you gain weight, your body creates new cells called adipocytes to store the extra fat, and those adipocyte cells never go away. You can burn away the fat inside, but you can't burn away the adipocytes themselves.

Each adipocyte contains little sensors, and when you burn off the fat inside the cell, those sensors start screaming at your brain to fill them back up. Your brain responds to these signals by turning on the appetite center to find some calories to replenish the missing body fat. The more fat cells you have, the stronger the signals are for your body to replace the fat in the cells, and the more intense your appetite and cravings will be.

To avoid this chemical alarm system, you have to lose weight slowly, gradually lowering your fat levels so as not to arouse the suspicion of the sensors in the fat cells. This is the main reason crash diets never work in the long term — losing fat too quickly triggers all the alarms, resulting in maximum hunger and unbearable cravings.

Homeostasis

Homeostasis, or your metabolic set point, is a fancy way of saying that your body likes to maintain the level of body fat that it's accustomed to, and it makes adjustments to your metabolism and your appetite to stay that way. Hormones like leptin sense fat levels in the body and signal your brain to adjust your appetite and metabolism to maintain the status quo.

The reason that exercise, especially strength training with weights, is vital to a weight loss program is that weight training increases your metabolism and gives your body permission to burn off the extra calories you've stored as fat. If you don't exercise, your body gets stingy and lowers your metabolism when you reduce your food intake instead of giving up its fat stores.

Yo-yo dieting

The process of losing and subsequently regaining weight is referred to as yo-yo dieting. Each time you go through this cycle, losing body fat gets harder and harder.

For example, suppose your normal caloric intake (your set point) is 1,600 calories each day. You decide you want to lose weight quickly, so you go on some goofy banana-peel-and-beetle-soup diet that limits you to 800 calories a day. You're hungry at first, but you stick with the diet for a few weeks and you successfully lose some weight. Congratulations! But by losing weight with this method, you've now lowered your set point to 800 calories. When the goofy diet becomes unbearable, you go back to your normal eating patterns (1,600 calories). Because your metabolism has been reset for only 800 calories, your body stores the "extra" 800 calories as fat, and within a few weeks, you're right back to the weight you started at.

More bad news about yo-yo diets: When you lose weight quickly, a lot of the weight lost is lean muscle tissue. When you put the weight back on, it's fat, not muscle. After a few yo-yo cycles, you have less muscle and more fat than you did when you started, even though you may weigh the same on the scale. Less muscle means a lower metabolism, so even though you weigh the same, your set point is now lower, making it even easier to overeat and store even more fat!

The key to defeating the yo-yo cycle is to make small nutrition changes over long periods of time — no drastic diets — and to exercise with weights regularly to keep your metabolism elevated. When you make some basic nutrition improvements and work out consistently, you can easily trim a few pounds every month without starving yourself or driving yourself crazy with gimmicky diets

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Diets for Fast Weight Loss

Diets for Fast Weight Loss

Dansinger recommends eating a diet that minimizes starches, added sugars, and animal fat from meat and dairy foods. For rapid weight loss, he recommends focusing  on fruits, veggies, egg whites, soy products, skinless poultry breasts, fish, shellfish, nonfat dairy foods, and 95% lean meat.

Here are more tips from Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, author of The Flexitarian Diet :

• Eat vegetables to help you feel full.
• Drink plenty of water.
• Get tempting foods out of your home.
• Stay busy -- you don't want to eat just because you're bored.
• Eat only from a plate, while seated at a table. No grazing in front of the 'fridge.
• Don't skip meals.

Keeping a food journal -- writing down everything you eat -- can also help you stay on track.

"Even if you write it down on a napkin and end up throwing it away, the act of writing it down is about being accountable to yourself and is a very effective tool for weight loss," says Bonnie Taub Dix, MA, RD, author of Read It Before You Eat It .

Besides jotting down what you ate, and when, you might also want to note how you were feeling right before you ate it. Were you angry, sad, or bored? We often focus so much on foods and calories, but our emotions are a huge part of our eating habits.

If you see a persistent pattern in your emotional eating, please consider talking to a counselor about it. They can be a big help in finding other ways to handle your feelings.

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