Weight Loss Central

By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS

There have been countless studies performed on the role of protein in the muscle growth process to try and determine exactly how much protein you should consume to build muscle mass. Recently, several studies have looked at the role that dietary protein plays in helping you lose fat, and more importantly, helping you keep it off!

One thing scientists have discovered is that eating lean protein foods is important for regulating body composition because it decreases your appetite.

Read the rest here.

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

www.TurbulenceTraining.com

I was at a big event last week and was reminded how

important it is to have strategies for this season of high-calorie

parties and busy schedules. But I get ticked off by the tired old

suggestions you find on the Internet or in magazines like Woman’s World.

Often the suggestions are lack any substance, because the writers don’t want
to imply you actually have to make a sacrifice to succeed. They make fat loss
sound easy, as if all you had to do was park at the far end of the parking lot
and you’d burn all the calories from 5 shortbread cookies.

Well it doesn’t work that way…So here are my politically incorrect, unique Turbulence Training strategies to help you keep off the holiday pounds.

By the way, I “borrowed” a few ideas from contestants in my Turbulence Training Transformation Contest. The Transformation is rocking with social support and success stories right now, even while the rest of the world struggles with weight gain, these TT users are losing fat over the holidays.

Click here to get started with Turbulence Training for Fat Loss:

==> http://www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Strategy #1 - Green Tea & Almonds

One of the most common tips you’ll hear is to “fill up” before you

go to a party where there will be lots of goodies.

Unfortunately, most people I talk to have no luck with this tip.

Most people still go to a party and eat everything in sight.

But recently TT users have told me that having a cup of Green Tea and one ounce
of almonds has helped them avoid holiday cravings better than anything ever
before.

The fiber from the almonds reduces appetite while the small amount of caffeine
from the Green Tea seems to increase mental alertness and keep you “energized”
at the party.

Hopefully that might work for you…

Strategy #2 - Don’t waste your time on any fancy cardio programs

Listen, the bottom line over the holiday season is that your success depends
almost entirely on your nutrition.

You can’t expect to hit the cardio confessional and burn off last night’s 2000 calorie smorgasboard. That’s a 4-hour workout. Instead, don’t get into that situation in the first place.

Here are more nutrition tips:

- Focus on portion control (and if you have no discipline, forget even trying to eat just one)

- Nix all drinks mixed with calorie-containing beverages, or better yet, just
stop getting drunk. Period.

- Write down everything you eat to identify your problem spots. Then do whatever
you need to do to eliminate your weaknesses. If you don’t record your nutrition,
chances are you’ll miss big opportunities to change your diet and lose fat.

Strategy #3 - Take care of yourself first.

My friend Holly Rigsby (of http://www.fityummymummy.com) is always reminding
busy moms to take care of themselves first, and I think that suggestion applies
at this time of year to everyone.

So take a deep breath. Ask yourself as you’re running around to please everyone else, “Have you set aside time for yourself”

Be selfish. Make sure you have had some exercise time, some good nutrition,
and some rest before overextending yourself and doing too much for other people
when you haven’t taken care of yourself and your goals first.

Strategy #4 - Get on a roll

This one comes from a TT Transformation contestant who is too busy losing fat
to get off track over the holidays.

Don’t procrastinate till January 1st. Get started now. Dozens of men and women are doing their Turbulence Training Transformations right now- through the heart of the holiday season.

They aren’t waiting for Jan. 1st to show up. They are taking control now, and getting on a roll, and not letting anything (from work parties to peer pressure) get in their way.

Strategy #5 - Exercise in short bursts whenever you can

Don’t be afraid to dance at your Christmas party. Don’t worry, there is bound
to be at least one worse dancer than you out on the floor. Have fun and get
down!

On a more serious note, here’s how to avoid falling off the fitness program during the busy holiday season.

Get your butt out of bed 15 minutes early so you can have 3 minutes to wake
up and 12 minutes to do the December 2007 Turbulence Training 12-Minute Workouts.

Get this workout as part of your bonuses when you start using

Turbulence Training today: www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Stay healthy and fit over the holidays,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

Author, Turbulence Training

About the Author

Learn about the “Dark Side of Cardio” in the free report from Craig
Ballantyne at www.TurbulenceTraining.com. Craig is a Certified Strength &
Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum
Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence
Training fat loss workouts have helped thousands of men and women around the
world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times
per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will
help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit
www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Have you heard all the latest on dieting? You know- Low carb is it, or is it low fat?

Eat negative calorie foods. “Eat clean.” “Eat clean food.” Eat this special cabbage soup. Eat every 3 hours or you will throw your system into starvation mode. Just buy our meals and pay us more when you lose weight. Talk about negative motivation!

If you are like I use to be all the terms, theories, and testimonials are just confusing!

There is some truth to all these. That is why they work in the short run for most people. Long, well that is a different ball game.

The long term is the way you must approach weight loss if you want to keep it off. Deprivation will only make you less likely to keep the weight off. The diet you use to lose the weight needs to be the same basic diet you continue to eat. Just once you reach the weight and fitness level you want to be at you increase your calories. You do need to eat a clean diet, that being one with lots of fresh vegetables and lean meats. Your exact combination of carbs, protein, and fat will vary by person. Don’t be afraid to experiment and find the combination that works for you. The ratio that worked for me was 40% carbs, 40% protein, 20% fat. Now I can’t get exact but that is what I shoot for.

You need to avoid refined sugar, flour and high fructose syrups. They go into you system quickly and leave just as fast. The affect is a spike in blood sugar followed by a valley. This will cause you to have more and stronger cravings. The peak and valley in your blood sugar is the theory behind eating 5 to 6 small meals a day. Once your stomach shrinks to the smaller meals, when you blow it you will do less damage. At least that is my experience.

The dreaded exercise, Yep folks most of us need to add physical activity to our daily routines. The key is finding something that you will do and does not bore you. Also be willing and ready to change. Doing anything for too long will get boring.

These are the major themes that run through most of the effect weight loss programs. If you follow these suggestions, reduce your calories 15 to 20 percent below maintenance and increase your exercise. You will be on your way to weight loss success.

Learn more at Lose Fat Online

By Diana Clay
MyNewsOK Contributor

The three-month stretch between Halloween and the Super Bowl that dietitians call “The Eating Season” leaves many Americans overweight, out of shape and back to old, bad habits.

Karen Funderburg, a registered dietitian at the University of Oklahoma College of Allied Health, said it’s not the overstuffed tummy on Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day that ruins the waistline. It’s the constant munching, snacking and extra high-calorie foods we eat from Thanksgiving until New Year’s Day.

“People get into a mindset that they’ll just take care of it after the holidays by saying, ‘I’ll start exercising and eating better New Year’s Day,’” Funderburg said, “but, it doesn’t work that way.”

OU experts offer these ways to stay trim and eat your pie, too: •Practice environmental control as opposed to self control. Funderburg said environmental control works better. Keep the cookies, pies, fudge, alcoholic drinks, egg nog and other holiday treats to a minimum in your home. The less you have around, the more likely you are to avoid eating it.

•Increase physical activity. If you know you have a holiday party at 6 o’clock, take a walk in the afternoon or at lunch. Eat a lighter breakfast and a small lunch. The goal is to somehow compensate for the extra calories you are going to consume at the party.

•Don’t snack. The turkey, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes at dinner are not the issue. It’s the holiday treats that we nibble on all day, day after day. A can of fudge or a tin of wonderful Danish cookies are yummy, Funderburg said, but they are really high in calories and often high in saturated fat and sugar. Instead, save the treats for mealtime and skip fast food while shopping. Your waistline will thank you

I have always heard that “abdominals are made in the kitchen, not in the gym,” and there’s a lot of truth to that. You can do as many reps of sit ups you want, but you can forget about set of 6-pack abs, or even looking like you are in shape, if you do not watch the food you eat.

1. Drink plenty of water - you need to get 8 to 12 eight ounce glasses of water (plain water).
2. Avoid white sugar and flour. They are highly refined and go into your blood stream quickly. This will cause your blood sugar to spike and fall, which will increase your cravings.
3. Find your calorie maintenance level and stay 15 to 20 percent below that. If you want to use a more aggressive approach be careful. You do not want to keep the calories low for too long. If you take the aggressive approach you will want to increase calorie intake a couple of days a week to keep your metabolism from shifting into starvation mode.
4. Eat 5-6 small meals instead of 2-3 big ones. Also spread the calories out over the whole day. Don’t starve yourself all day and ping out in the evening. Too much of even good foods will cause the fat to stay on.
5. Eat high quality lean protein with each meal.
6. Get the majority of your carbs from a natural plant source.
7. Keep fats to less than 30 percent of your calories. Remember you want as much of that 30% as possible to be from good oil sources (I.E. flax oil, fish and nuts). Some studies have indicated that these oils may actually help you loose the fat.

You can do crunches and other ab workouts until the cows come home. But if you don’t watch what you eat, those strong muscles will always look like fat. That applies to all exercise. It is quiet possible to be fit and look obese. It is also possible to look thin and be fat.

(Here is a calorie shifting calculator. )

There is a new diet regimen that is gaining popularity across the world known as the calorie shifting meal plan. As the name implies, it is a diet based on the theory that shifting your calories from meal to meal, from day to day, will trigger the appropriate metabolic response that will induce fat burning and thus rapid weight loss.

Calorie shifting differs from other diet regimens in that you are not restricting the quantity or the types of food that you eat. You can eat as much as you want from all four food groups while you are on this diet. The only caveat is that you must group your calories together in accordance with the pattern that is most conducive to fat loss.

You can lose as many as 9 pounds in 11 days without ever feeling hungry or deprived. In fact, you must eat 4 meals every day, and you can eat as much as you want until you are satisfied, but not until you are too full. (Stuffing yourself is counterproductive to the weight loss process.)

The rules of this diet are very simple and straight-forward, as outline below:

1. Eat only until you are satisfied but not until you are too full.
2. Leave a minimum gap of 2.5 to 3 hours between meals.
3. Eat only the foods prescribed to you according to the calorie shifting meal plan at each meal.
4. You must eat exactly 4 meals per day, no more and no less.
5. You have a choice to eat any of the 4 meals in any order throughout the day.
6. You must take a 3-day break from the diet on days 12 through 14 of your diet, before you may resume the diet again. This is to give your body a chance to rest from the rapid weight loss that you will be experiencing.

Here are some sample meal plans that you would be following. The diet plan lasts for 11 days but only 3 days are included here, just to give you an idea of how the plan is structured and to give you a sense of how satisfying and sustainable this diet truly is. Keep in mind that each of these four meals may be eaten in any order throughout the day, as long as you only eat that the designated foods at each of their respective meals.

Day 1:

Meal #1: Scrambled Eggs Meal

Meal #2: Sandwich (any type)

Meal #3: Flavored Oatmeal

Meal #4: Tuna Salad

Day 2:

Meal #1: Cottage Cheese

Meal #2: Scrambled Eggs [and] Mixed Vegetables

Meal #3: Chicken

Meal #4: Banana Milk Shake

Day 3:

Meal #1: Chicken

Meal #2: Fish Filet

Meal #3: Cottage Cheese

Meal #4: Fruit Salad

So what are you waiting for? Generate your personalized meal plan now at IdiotProofFatLoss.com and you will be 9 pounds lighter in a week and a half!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hyder_Khan

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
www.TurbulenceTraining.com

At this time of year, we can use every last tip to help avoid
holiday weight gain.

So here are 5 more fat loss tips for beginner & advanced readers.

1) No liquid calories (with the exception of a post-workout drink).

Get rid of all the juices, the sodas, and the sports drinks. Liquid
sugar is the last thing you need when you are trying to lose fat.

You must also limit your alcohol intake - especially if you are
adding mix to drinks…that is a double calorie bomb! A single “Jackand Coke” is over 200 calories (100 calories from booze and 100 calories from mix).

2) No fast food.

Do not eat at fast food restaurants. Even if you choose what you
think is healthy, remember this:

Fast food restaurants are all about profit.

And in order to profit while giving you cheap, quick, and easy to
prepare foods, the quality of the food ingredients will be poor -
especially the protein.

Now you might have read that you can still make healthy choices at fast food restaurants. But you know what, that’s just
politically-correct opinion. If it’s fast food, it’s poor food.

Walking into a burger joint and grabbing a chicken breast on a
white bread bun with a piece of old lettuce and a half-green,
half-pink tomato is “barely” healthy eating.

The politically-incorrect truth is that it’s going to take time and
effort to eat properly. You will have to plan, shop, and prepare
healthy meals. You will have to spend time cleaning, cutting, and
cooking your food. That’s the truth.

But believe me, it will taste so much better than fast food, and
healthy eating will make you more alert. Eating fast food will make you feel terrible, and will make you want to have an afternoon nap at your desk.

Make one small improvement to your nutrition everyday for the rest of your life.

3) Eat more fruits and vegetables.

If you are eating 2 servings per day, then go up to 4 servings per day by the end of the week. And even if you think you are doing great by having 5 servings per day, you still need to double that (take 2-3 weeks to work your way up to 10 servings per day).

Stick with fiber-rich fruits and vegetables - organic if possible.

4) Eat 1oz of almonds or walnuts per day (1/2 oz in the AM, and the other half in the afternoon).

Most nuts are roasted in oils (possible source of trans fats), so
stick to natural or dry-roasted nuts.

Don’t panic…this small amount of nuts won’t make you fat, but will fill you up and help you lose weight.

5) Be consistent with your workouts.

And make sure the workouts are efficient and effective. To make it easy for you to follow, stick with the Turbulence Training fat burning workout system.

It doesn’t matter if you train in the morning before or after
breakfast, or at night before or after dinner, or at 1pm on days
when the moon is in line with Saturn…don’t worry about the
details, just train consistently.

Click here to get Turbulence Training
==> www.TurbulenceTraining.com

6) BONUS TIP: Go for a walk after lunch or dinner (or anytime you eat a big meal). Research shows this will help you control your cholesterol and triglycerides, plus any movement is better than sitting around watching the TV and snacking.

Improve your lifestyle everyday,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

PS - Change your workouts to beat a fat loss plateau.

“The constant shakeup is amazing. I look forward to my workouts. I feel so much better than I did 6 weeks ago. I had almost given up on fitness as I was becoming very frustrated with my plateaus. I started out at 233 lbs and am already heading for 225 in only a few short weeks. Thank you for developing this truly amazing program and for sharing with the rest of us. It’s very refreshing to enjoy working out again!”
Dave Heffernan

“Turbulence Training is AWESOME! I started working out in 2004 first time in gym at 39 yrs. Then I discovered T.T. in 2006 and started receiving unbelievable info on xercises/nutrition. Immediately I started incorporating T.T. in my busy schedule which is improving my strength, definition, flexibility and nutrition. Craig is quick to reply to questions and supportive. My confidence and strength has definitely improved. If I only knew of Turbulence Training in 2004. The gym crowd is really checking me out now.”
Kimmie Clark

“I lost 14 pounds this month and the weight is just falling off me.
My wife says I now look like when we first met and I still have
more to go. I can fit into my old jeans again which is a big deal
for me. I just cut back on starches and bread and do your routine 2-3 times a week. I never thought in a million years that just 10-20 minutes of weight training followed by some cardio would get me such steady results. I even cheat a bit on the weekends.”
Billy Williams

Turn your health around with Turbulence Training:
==> http://www.TurbulenceTraining.com
About the Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com

This is a interesting post. I agree with most of what Gary says. Wish I had said it as well.
By Garry
You cannot be blamed for thinking about the easiest weight-loss solutions after numerous attempts. Quick fix strategies like diet pills or fasting will give you temporary results but they will not guarantee weight maintenance, …

Weight Loss Strategy

We have all heard the claim that the “XYZ program” is the one that will solve all your dieting problems. You will loose weight quickly and keep it off with no effort. If you have had the experience I have then you no that they are all hype. The diet industry is full of over hyped products. If you read the fine print they all say you need to follow a diet and exercise plan. Guess what diet and exercise is the real producer of results. I have tried to follow a diet and exercise routine and have failed that way also. What is the weight loss plan that works for everyone? There is none. We are all different and have different causes to why we are over weight.

The root cause of your problem is what you must find. For me, it is emotional eating and inactivity. I am a computer professional co most of the day I get the exercise of a bored couch potato flipping through the channels.

Why do we over eat? I have found 3 main reasons:

1. Emotional eating. Eating because it makes you feel good in some way. Your emotions over come your reason and you eat.
2. Habit. You will eat at certain times of the day if you are hungry or not. At holidays you stuff yourself because you always have.
3. Poor food choices. Yes what you eat can make you eat more. Your body decides it is full based on volume more than anything else. Foods with high calorie density give you many more calories when you feel full. Salty foods tend to cause you to eat more of them. Combine a sugary cola with potato chips and look out!

 Controlling these 3 things alone will not guaranty you success at losing weight either. Your body type, amount of physical activity, age and gender will all affect how well and how fast you can lose weight.

You need to find a diet and exercise plan that you can do for the rest of your life. Find activities that require physical activity but do not bore you. That way you are more likely to stay with it. Your diet and exercise plan need to be flexible because if you do or eat the same thing long enough you will get bored! Experiment and try different things. Find what works for you. If one plan does not try another; don’t give up. What works for one will not always work for another. That is the only way I have been able to loose weight and keep it off. And remember don’t fall for the hype.

by Josh Neumann

 Let’s cut right to the chase-most people’s diet today is pathetic. The reason that so many people end their lives in poor health and disease infested is due to a lifetime of poor eating habits.

So why do so many people spend their whole life eating garbage, even when they know there is a better way? Simply, they believe that eating according to healthy diet plans is too difficult a process, and as a result they never get started.

Actually, once you’ve begun eating the right foods and feeling the health benefits it provides, you will be very encouraged and you will simply want to eat more and more healthy foods, and less and less of the junk food you used to eat. In fact, the foods you used to consume will begin to look very unappealing to you.

The best healthy diet plans include raw foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and legumes. The reason these are so good for you is that they contain enzymes which your body needs to help itself digest the food. Whenever food is cooked at temperatures over 118 degrees Fahrenheit, the enzymes cannot survive.

Therefore, whenever you eat a cooked meal, your body spends a lot of time manufacturing its’ own enzymes to aid in the digestion process; that is why you feel so tired after eating a cooked meal. Some cooked food will not hurt you, but keep in mind that at least 75% of the foods you consume should be raw.

If you already have that feeling of dread that comes with changing something you love, here is a way to ease the burden and actually make it fun and enjoyable. First of all, establish your goals; where do you want to be at the end of this process?

Do you want to lose 35 pounds within a year’s time? Be able to run 5 miles? Have 8% body fast? Try to make the goals measurable. Simply saying, “I want to feel better,” won’t give you much of an incentive.

Now that this is established, break the goals down into small chunks that are very achievable. Instead of attempting to change your diet overnight, instead maybe try to eat just one healthy meal a week, consisting primarily of raw foods. The next week, try 2 meals, then 3, and so on.

Absolutely nobody accomplishes a goal that they try to establish overnight. You will not change a lifetime of poor eating habits with the flick of a button. Ask anybody who’s ever set a goal and achieved it; they did so by breaking it down into small, manageable chunks that they could focus.

After a very short time of eating these raw foods and healthy diet plans, you will quickly notice your energy picking up, you will need far less sleep, and you will be healthy and alert all day long. Quite simply, without good health you can never achieve all the things you were meant to; let raw foods help you reach your goals in life. Changing to the raw food diet will likely be one of the best decisions you’ve ever made.

Technorati Tags: diet