It is possible to lose weight without calorie counting, but diet and exercise alone is not enough. You need the support of a few simple strategies to help you get results.

Exercise is Key

It is possible to eat great amounts of food, feel full and still lose weight. You just need to pick the right kinds of food to eat. A study at Pennsylvania University compared the weight loss of two types of dieters.

One group followed a diet that consisted mainly of food with high levels of water and fibre (essentially fruit and veg) while the other group went on a calorie-controlled diet. The group eating a high fibre diet lost more weight.

Filling up on vegetables and fruit is one of the best kept dieting secrets. As they are fat free you can easily eat as many as you like without feeling guilty. The three top vegetables in terms of health and nutritional benefits are kale, swiss chard and greens. These contain more vitamins and nutrients than any other vegetables.

The optimum diet consists of fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds and lean protein. The fruit and veg will allow you to lose weight but you need lean protein to step up the metabolism.

Good examples of lean protein are: fish (especially salmon and fresh sardines), chicken and turkey, lean red meat and eggs.

The ideal amount of protein you should have for each meal is 30grammes. Your body needs to be able to digest the protein you put in, too much protein becomes toxic in the body, so if you add greens and salads to the protein the enzymes in the greens help to digest the proteins.

Some foods cause your body to store fat, i.e. foods that are high in sugar. Others force your metabolism to burn more stored fat for energy, like lean protein.

But before starting any new diet change, you need to clean out or detox your body, eliminate the build up of toxins.

A simple morning drink to help rid yourself of these toxins and to help with digestion is to squeeze 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon, (or lemon concentrate if you don’t have it), into a glass of water and mix with a pinch of cayenne pepper. Continue to drink 8 glasses of water throughout the day.

Popularity: 41% [?]

It often feels as if our culture is obsessed with personal appearance. Women want to be skinnier; men want to build

Popular Diet or Fad?

up giant muscles. No matter where you look, there’s bound to be a book, DVD, television program or website that’s claiming to have the newest and most advanced diet plan that’s sure to make all your weight loss dreams come true. However, any personal trainer worth his salt will tell you that these diets are almost all fads and marketing ploys, very few will actually result in sustained weight loss, and some can even be harmful to both your physical and emotional health.

First of all, many people who desire moderate to significant weight loss think that they can make the decision to try a diet, start it the next day and start watching the weight melt off. Unfortunately, like many things in life, eating is a habit that we form from a very young age. Just like biting your nails or forgetting to turn off the lights when you leave a room, bad eating habits need to be consciously worked on in order to change them in the long term. Moreover, it will take a lot of work and effort to maintain a restrictive diet that you’re not used to, especially if it is depriving you of foods you like and need.

Another thing that sabotages the weight loss plans of many people when they start a new diet is that they are simply bored with the foods that the diet permits them to eat. This may lead to episodes of staring longingly at a piece of bread, or having dreams about steak when all you can eat are steamed veggies. The truth of the matter is that the body needs a wide variety of foods in order to remain physically and mentally satisfied, the trick is that some of these foods can only be eaten in moderation.

The most important thing to remember about fad diets that restrict what you can eat is that sometimes they are actually robbing you and your body of valuable nutrients and vitamins that are usually obtained by the eating of certain foods. If you cut out carbohydrates completely from your diet, you’re likely to find that you are low on energy, and constantly feel tired. If you cut out all meats and proteins, you may find that you feel weak and may become anemic. The key is having a balanced diet plan.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Although working out and losing weight is important for everyone, women seem to have a more difficult time with the working out part than men do. This does not mean that women do not work out. It simply means that many women are not working out properly. I find that many women only perform cardiovascular exercise. This is something I see on the regular basis as a personal trainer. I have discovered that the main reason for this is a fear of looking bulky.

Many women I have studied are unclear on what this training actually does to their body. Resistance training is all about building muscle. The reason you want to build muscle is because the more muscle you have on your body the more calories you will burn. Women may find that they start to drop dress sizes after adopting a resistance training program because muscle takes up less space than fat. A woman may find that her jeans that she could never seem to fit in since high school now fit nice and comfortable. Simply put, resistance training helps reduce body fat.

Another great benefit of this type of training is an increased bone mineral density. Although most bone remodeling is done during puberty, resistance training actually can promote an increase in bone density because it puts the proper amount of stress on the bones to promote remodeling. This is especially important in women because they have a tendency to lose bone density faster than men do. Resistance training can help prevent heart disease because it is known to lower blood pressure and heart rate levels.

Popularity: 13% [?]