Who Ever Said Low Carb Diets Meant No-Carb?
A little information if often a dangerous thing... and many people trying low carb diets failed miserably in the long-run because they took the concept to its extreme figuring that if low-carb diets were good, then no-carb diets must be better? Wrong!One of the primary reasons why low carb diets are so successful for a lot of people is that it forces them to remove the nutrient-deficient junk food from their daily food intake. In the last 20 years the average North American diet has become so polluted with refined foods, sugars, and unhealthy fats that the average American is now clinically obese!Low carb diets owe their success to common sense more that any "diet revelation". When was it ever acceptable to consume donuts, soda pop, Big Macs, deep-fried French fries and pizza on a daily basis? As people's lives became busier the advent of fast food and convenience food grew by leaps and bounds. This was all very convenient for busy families trying to get food on the dinner table in time, but only now are we realizing the true cost of this convenience.Processed and refined foods alter foods from their natural complex state, grinding them into fine powders that are easier to handle, store, preserve, and use in the manufacturing process.
The unintended consequence of this refining process is that it makes it much easier for your body to absorb the carbohydrate glycogen energy from these foods, and creates large spikes in blood glucose levels. This in turn puts additional strain and stress on your body's internal processes as they try to compensate for these glucose spikes, and in the process tells you body to store the energy as additional fat! In general, carbohydrates that are consumed in their natural state take longer to breakdown in your body, and the glucose release is dampened, leading to lower overall blood glucose levels. The success of low carb diets lies more in the fact that it forces you to eliminate most refined carbohydrates, to eat foods in their natural state, and eat foods that have a low caloric density, which ultimately forces you to consume less calories! If you'd like more ideas on how to incorporate delicious low carb foods into your lifestyle you can search the recipe database at: http://www.mylowcarbdietrecipes.com/myrecipes.asp.
S.A. Smith is a freelance writer, correspondent, and contributing editor of My Low Carb Diet Recipes resource site and can be reached at http://www.mylowcarbdietrecipes.com.Health and fitness software, what should be in it? Part 1
Let's keep the answer simple; everything that is related to your health.
The most important indicators for your state of health can be measured though your vital signs, like blood pressure, cholesterol level, heart beat, body mass index etcetera. The major input that influence these health indicators are what and how much you eat and drink, smoke, medication use, life style, daily activity and air quality.
Beside our genetic disposition, we are what we eat, drink and breathe.
A good health and fitness software program should be able to capture the above mentioned input and correlate the results with the output, or health indicators. This way you create a cause and effect system that the user can analyze and consequently take corrective measures and improve his or her overall health.
The bigger picture teaches us that an effective health and fitness software program contains modules that can monitor our food intake, record...
Diets > Health and fitness software, what should be in it? Part 1
Meet your weight loss goals with My Pyramid Tracker
Copyright 2006 Adam Waxler
As anyone involved with weight loss will tell you, there are countless weight loss plans and weight loss methods and new weight loss diets coming out all the time.
In fact, just last year, even the USDA released an all new nutrition and diet plan for healthy Americans. On April 19, 2005, the United States Department of Agriculture unveiled its new My Pyramid nutrition pyramid. However, the USDA's new guidelines for a healthy diet plan are not so much NEW as they are more in depth, detailed and helpful in getting people to meet their weight loss goals.
First of all, My Pyramid can be personalized. On the main page of their web site (www.mypyramid.gov), you have the option of entering your age, gender and activity level.
Simply submit your information and instead of getting those vague, wide-ranging recommendations, you'll get a recommendation suited specifically for you.
While this is a tremendous improvement...
Diets > Meet your weight loss goals with My Pyramid Tracker
How To Decrease Your Weight Just As Easily As You Increased It!
Copyright 2006 Phil Brull
Yes, it's always the same? You look in the mirror and you say to yourself "Oh yeah, it's OK! Could be worse?" and then a tiny little voice in your head starts whispering "C'mon? Darn it! That's awful! There's at least the weight of one big, juicy watermelon too much!" And then, maybe you say to yourself "Yes, I know? but, after all, it isn't so bad?" and maybe you plan to change your eating habits and to exercise more? or to begin with. And the best is, you are really willing to do it but then this great meal crossed your way and besides, no one who would be in his right mind would have rejected this little, yes almost tiny piece of delicious chocolate cake in the afternoon? and so, days go by and nothing really changed, except your weight but not in the way you wanted?
After some time you think maybe you would be too weak to lose weight or that being overweight might be your destiny, that the weight would be a part of you and that...
Diets > How To Decrease Your Weight Just As Easily As You Increased It!
Giving Up the Diet is the Way to Go
If you're thinking of going on a diet to lose those extra pounds think again. Long-term weight control through dieting is near impossible, for the simple reason is that diets promote only short term solutions not long term. After dieting you'll certainly look lighter on the scales, but in most cases this is because you've dumped a few pounds of body fluid and muscle, and not because you've lost any significant amounts of body fat. One of the main reasons diets don't work is because they send the body into starvation mode - a survival mechanism for times when humans faced periods of famine. Cutting back on our energy intake causes the body to lower its metabolic rate, which reduces its ability to burn fat.
At the same time, hunger signals increase and we quickly start to crave high energy foods loaded with fats and sugars - the exact foods we are trying to do without! Alarmingly, research has shown that repeated dieting actually makes it harder to lose weight and easier to put...
Giving Up the Diet is the Way to Go
Diets > Giving Up the Diet is the Way to Go