Weight Loss Programs

Body weight loss can be a significant challenge for many people desiring to look slimmer. Not only do individuals want to lose weight in order to obtain an ideal figure, but there are times when excess body fat causes the overweight person to become sluggish. Under those circumstances, the overweight or obese individual may typically desire quick weight loss to get back on track as soon as possible.
This isn’t always easy, and can be exceedingly frustrating at times, particularly if the right strategies are not in place and an appropriate weight loss diet isn’t followed.

Fortunately, individuals, specifically men, can take advantage of a reasonable weight loss plan.

Weight Loss Tips for Men

The average healthy male requires a substantial amount of foods, including fats, to sustain daily living. Therefore, changing one’s eating habits can seem virtually impossible at first.

The best thing to do is to start off by knowing one’s purpose for healthy weight loss. If people do not know why they need to lose weight, then there is no source of motivation. Men normally desire body weight loss because they lack self-esteem, or because they simply want to look more attractive. Another reason that males seek quick weight loss is because their health could be at risk.

Once a purpose for healthy weight loss has been formally established, it is time to prepare oneself for the long term. That is, males must realise that sticking to a weight loss plan will radically change the lifestyle that they got accustomed to. The longer one has spent in reckless indulgence, the harder it will be to modify such a routine.

Weight Loss Plan for Men

A weight loss diet is essential to any man who desires to slim down. It is all about nutrition and self-control. Consume fruit and vegetables; legumes, nuts and seeds; carbohydrates in the form of cereal, bread, potatoes, rice and pasta; and proteins in the form of fresh red meat, chicken and fish, with the occasional egg.

What good is a weight loss plan if it does not incorporate a treat every now and again? It is important to reward oneself with something that was once previously indulged in without restraint. This helps to maintain motivation levels and achieve long-term goals.

A good weight loss plan also ensures that one avoids unnecessary snacks between meals. One must also exercise daily if quick weight loss is the ultimate goal.

Healthy Weight Loss and Diet Plans for Men

Eating the correct foods and the right amount is only half the story. Self-discipline and commitment are essential attributes men must adopt for the long term, if they hope to succeed in quick weight loss. Good diet plans encapsulate all these values.

Healthy weight loss is also linked to lowering cholesterol and blood pressure.

There are probably countless things that may compromise body weight loss. The problem of emotional eating is one of those seemingly hidden elements that render fat burning and calorie restriction virtually impossible. Diet plans are constantly ruined until such an eating disorder is identified and eradicated.
Emotional eating may be recognized by a number of triggers associated with unnecessary food consumption. In order to formally identify an eating disorder, it is important to apply a special test to the suspected person.

Body Weight Loss and the Problem of an Eating Disorder in Diet Plans

There are a number of elements that may cause emotional eating in many individuals. Some of the following triggers might affect certain people while others may not. Overall, the absence of hunger is a key characteristic in any event.

Some people may eat when bored. It does not matter what time of day it is, if specific individuals are experiencing boredom, they will raid the pantry. Such behaviour will obviously affect body weight loss and fat burning, especially if the person is predisposed to frequent boredom.

Stress is another factor that may cause people to eat. Some individuals, when feeling anxious, might want to consume their favourite foods whenever they smell them.

All such factors that cause emotional eating may significantly hinder attempts at healthy weight loss.

Healthy Weight Loss and Recognising Emotional Eating

As an eating disorder can affect calorie restriction, fat burning and ultimately diet plans, it is important to recognise when one has problems with emotional eating. People are normally unaware or in a state of denial that they could be eating out of emotion.

Probably the best emotional eating test is to see if one eats when hunger is not absent. Try to see if the craving for favourite foods, especially those that are high in fat and calories, is almost constant. After that, attempt to find out if the eating takes place simply because the food tastes good.

Finally, an eating disorder, especially when one tends to overeat, usually is accompanied by feelings of guilt. Thus, a cycle occurs where the person suspected of emotional eating consumes their favourite food, followed by a session of guilt thereafter.

If people have a significant eating disorder that makes fat burning difficult and prevents them from engaging in diet plans where calorie restriction is an element – and body weight loss is rendered impossible – it is best to seek professional help.

Men and women lose weight differently. For women, this can be particularly frustrating, but there are reasons why men lose weight more quickly and women tend to struggle to lose any weight.

“Gender had a significant influence on body fat and weight gain.” (21)
Diferences of fat deposits amoung males and females starts as early as puberty when girls have fat that settles on their chest, hips and thighs. Men and women typically carry their weight differently and men have a higher percentage of muscle, which burns more fat.

Pamela Peeke adapted the Body for Life program to fit the emotional and mental needs of women on a diet. She stresses the importance of striking a balance between taking care of others and taking care of yourself.

“Women secrete less of the brain chemical serotonin than men do, making them more vulnerable to depression, mood disorders, and overeating (especially carbs) under stress.” (20)

Factors Addressed in Body for Life for Women:

Monthly periods
Menopause
Emotional eating
Poor body image
Low self esteem
Hormones
Aging

The Mind, Mouth, Muscle Formula

Peeke discusses how the mind, mouth, muscle formula works to help you lose weight.

Mind – Having a positive attitude about yourself and believing that you can do it is half the battle. Reduce your stress level to lose weight.

Mouth – How you eat makes a big difference with the number on the scale. Know what you are eating and how much, then educate yourself to make healthier food choices.

Muscle - Physical activity should be a no-brainer. Not only does regular exercise help you lose weight, it is good for your heart, helps tone your body and relieves aches and pains. Cardio, along with resistance training, needs to become a habit. Weight training is important for preventing muscle loss as you age.

The Food Plan

The Body for Life for Women food plan is sensible, requiring 5-6 small meals per day while watching portion sizes. Peeke also says to throw the idea of perfection out the window. Eat smart 80% of the time, allowing yourself some wiggle room for stressful times, holidays and cravings as long as you continue to keep an eye on your portion sizes.

The idea is to cut calories without have to track everything you eat. Learn to read labels and choose high density foods to feel full longer.

Structure of Body for Life for Women
The book is set up according to hormone stages of life. Each section addresses how a women in each stage needs to adjust the plan to meet her hormonal needs and changes. A woman in menopause and a teenager will have a different plan because of different metabolism rates, aging, hormones and activity level.

Peeke goes through the mental speed bumps we slow ourselves down with when taking the weight loss journey. She describes the 10 principles that allow you to deal with your emotions, keep them in check and successfully lose weight. She goes into great detail about the exercise portion of the program and provides a checklist to record your BMI, body measurements, weight, energy level and quality of life. Lastly, the book covers weight maintenance. She even tells readers how to maintain their weight while taking a break from their weight loss journey even when they are not at goal weight yet.

Body for Life for Women includes many before and after pictures along with success stories. While these women only had 20-25 pounds to lose and saw a big improvement in their body structure, someone with more weight to lose can continue the program at the end of 12 weeks to lose more and reach their goals too.

Let Body for Life for Women help you transform your body and mind.

Clive Thompson, author of "Is Happiness Catching?" writes about how good habits spread, just like a virus. In his New York Times article, he cites research conducted by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler. Two years ago, Christakis and Fowler analyzed data from the National Heart Institute's Framingham Heart Study. Their analysis indicated that if we keep in contact with people who are fit and want to live a healthy lifestyle, we are likely to be influenced by them, helping us become healthier ourselves.

Contact Your Friend's Friend to be Your Weight Loss Buddy

In the past, we've been told that it is easier to lose weight if we recruit a friend to keep us on track. A workout buddy or a diet buddy can help us feel like we have someone else in the game, that we are not the only ones on the difficult weight loss journey. With the help of a buddy, we can schedule workouts, plan meals, and offer emotional support.

But Christakis and Fowler found that for maximum results, we can't ask just anyone to be a buddy. Surprisingly, that buddy, they said, should not be a close friend. Rather, it should be our close friend's friend. Christakis and Fowler found that if our friend's friends are all losing weight, we will be more heavily influenced to lose weight ourselves. In this case, we are surrounded by people losing weight. It then seems like everyone is losing weight, giving us a greater incentive to join the crowd, lose weight, and keep it off.

Create a Social Network to Help You Lose Weight

So what are the implications? If we know that we need to lose weight, how should we position ourselves within our social networks so that we can be successful not just in losing weight, but in keeping it off? Finding a bunch of our friends' friends probably doesn't seem feasible in real life.
But what about cyber life? Through Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and other social media outlets, we may very well be able to connect with people that can influence us on another level than a single workout or diet buddy could. These sites exist to connect us not just with our friends, but with our friends' friends. They exist to connect us with other like-minded individuals. They may just provide us with the strong, multi-faceted networks that we need in order to truly submerge ourselves in achieving our goals.

SparkPeople.com, MedHealth.org, and FitDay.com are all sites that are designed to put us in contact with people that have similar goals as well. The only difference between them and the more traditional social media outlets like Facebook is that they bring people together who are working to lose weight and live healthier lifestyles. Do you have a friend that is using one of these sites? Join. Connect with your friend. Connect with your friend's friends. Create a universe where everyone is working on the same goal that you are.

Achieve Your Goals

If you are fighting the battle of the bulge, you are not in the minority. In fact, there are millions of Americans that are fighting it right now. Befriend them so that you can be successful, they can be successful, and as a country we can triumph over an epidemic that costs too much, compromises too many lives, and leads to too much disease. Certainly, a workout buddy that happens to be your friend is a great first step. Go one step further and connect with others, giving you yet another arsenal of support and advice. The more people that you know who are working to attain similar goals, the more successful you are likely to be.

You may also be interested in Online Diet and Fitness Tools, Smart Approach to Exercise Leads to Weight Loss, and Cooking May Be Your Best Diet Strategy.

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Cardiovascular, or aerobic, exercise is extremely useful to those wishing to increase their overall health. No resistance or weights are typically applied, which means that once the basics are known almost everybody can enjoy its life-promoting benefits.

Benefits of Cardiovascular Exercise

Regular aerobic activity helps manage blood-sugar levels by increasing the body's ability to process glucose. This benefit alone makes it a worthy practice for diabetics.

It also has weight-loss benefits; for example, a 200-pound person burns over 100 calories for every 10 minutes of jogging, and 150 calories for 10 minutes of jumping rope. 100 calories doesn't appear at first to be much, but in a month of daily exercise it adds up to the recommended caloric intake of a full day-and-a-half!

The blood is circulated during cardiovascular sessions, which can decrease post-workout soreness and rid muscles of excess lactic acid which builds up during intense training. It also speeds up the overall recovery processes of the body, and unlike weight lifting, the recovery time for aerobic activity is virtually non-existent.

Cardiovascular exercise also improves the body's profile of hormones, chemical messengers responsible for a wide-range of bodily processes. Among of effects are the release of appetite-suppressants and endorphins, the latter producing feelings of well-being and helping damper the intensity of pain.

How to Do Cardio

Cardiovascular exercise, simply defined, is any activity that increases the heart rate to 60-80% of its maximum potential. If done with vigor, having sex is cardio.

Any number of bodyweight exercises, such as push-ups/jumping-jacks/squats, can be combined into circuit training routines. Cardiovascular Circuit Training, CCT, has advantages in that combining exercises works the entire body in a comparatively short period of time.

Cardiovascular Considerations

Always be safe when exercising. This means that if dizziness or nausea occur, stop. If the effects are severe, it may be wise to seek medical advice. As with all exercise routines, if the practitioner is not at peak levels they should consider consulting a physician before beginning.

The muscle which will be worked, and preferably the entire body, should be properly stretched before beginning a cardiovascular routine. Doing so helps to prevent injury and makes the body more limber.

If sweating in excess is an issue, keep water handy. The body uses water in almost every process it undergoes, at the cellular level, and keeping well-hydrated helps the body stay revved up longer.
Once a certain comfort-level has been reached, it is a common practice to add weights to an aerobic routine. This is done by housewives in the way of wrist bands, and bodybuilders by way of kettlebells, alike.

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Have you ever noticed that the more carbs you eat, the more you crave them, especially when it comes to sweets? And why do we eat so many carbs in the first place? A lack of serotonin may be the answer. Simple carbs make up for the missing feel-good chemical in the brain, but they also leave us feeling drained, bloated and fat.

“A large percentage of overweight clients who snacked on refined sugar and complex carbohydrates, such as popcorn, chips and candy, reported relief from depression, anxiety and boredom,” according to Betty Street of the Fairland Institute.

Because carbs and sweets temporarily relieve our emotions, we repeatedly turn to these foods rather than dealing with the issues that cause them.

It was Dr. Richard and Judith Wurtman who originally coined the phrase, “Carbohydrate Craving Syndrome” during their study of overeaters at the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences of Massachusetts Institue of Technology. They found that balancing insulin levels with a chromium supplement was helpful in reducing carb cravings in addicted patients.

Symptoms of Carbohydrate Craving Syndrome

Carb cravings are commonly caused by low levels of serotonin, high levels of insulin resistance and low blood sugar.
Other symptoms include:

A family history of obesity
Not being able to take your mind off of food
Hiding food and eating habits regularly
Diets don’t work for you and you end up eating even more than before and gaining weight
Using food to satisfy emotional needs
Treating food as your friend

Tips for Losing Weight with Carboyhdrate Craving Syndrome

You can’t escape your genes and weight loss is difficult at best when the cards seem stacked against you, but there are some things you can do to make the journey a little easier.

Distract yourself when cravings hit.
Substitute a lower fat, lower calorie snack for high carb foods.
Eat smart carbs throughout the day to feel full and avoid feeling deprived on your diet.
Eat a small portion of the food you crave. Some dieters swear by the three-bite rule.
Eat all foods in moderation without binging on certain foods or omitting others.
Follow a diabetic diet to avoid sugar spikes and feel a sense of balance.
Talk to your doctor and have him or her rule out any other medical reasons such as diabetes or thyroid problems that could prevent you from losing weight.

Note: If you are also being treated for depression (due to low serotonin levels) the medicine may worsen your carb cravings. Ask your doctor about side effects and the best option for lifting depression while losing weight.