The diet Chronicle

Even with those “miracle” diet pills, you still cannot lose weight without increasing your physical activity. Exercising in some form will help to burn calories that can be converted into fat and extra weight. This is why you need to devise an effective workout plan that will fit into your abilities and interests.

Most people don’t really like to exercise. For them, it seems too much like work. And it is work, but it doesn’t have to be tedious work. There are ways to exercise doing things that you love to do.

First, you need to choose an activity that you enjoy. Do you like riding your bike as the sun sets in the sky? Maybe swimming is more your idea of fun. Even a good round of golf can be a great form of exercise – but only if you leave the cart in the cart barn!

Once you find that activity, you need to pursue it at a minimum of three times a week for at least 30 minutes at a time. The more you exercise, the more calories you will burn, but you don’t have to be fanatical about it!

Start slowly then increase your level when you feel stronger until you are at a point where you think you are at a high level of intensity. It’s OK to rest at intervals to recharge your batteries, but get back up to that level again until your workout is complete.

The ideal exercise plan is going to involve some form of aerobic exercise sustained for 30 minutes at a time. This could be in the form of an aerobic class or something as simple as taking a walk. 

This will get your heart pumping effectively so that your body can burn the calories that you have consumed!

When should you do this type of workout? Believe it or not, there is a best time to perform your cardiovascular workout for best results.

We want to tell you that the important part about exercise is that you get out and do it! No matter when you exercise, you will burn fat and calories as long as it’s a good workout. But to get the maximum benefit, try exercising in the morning before you eat your first meal.

Early morning aerobic exercising on an empty stomach has three benefits over working out later in the day.

First, your levels of stored carbohydrates and muscle are at a low when you first get up in the morning. 

This is because during the night, your body is burning any calories that were consumed at dinner the previous evening by performing bodily functions that occur even while we sleep.

As a result, you’ll wake up with lower carbohydrate levels and lower blood sugar levels which is the optimum environment for burning fat instead of carbohydrates.

How does this work? It’s actually quite simple. Carbohydrates are your body’s primary and preferred energy source. When this source is in short supply, your body must tap into its secondary energy resource: body fat.

If you do your exercise workout after eating, the body will burn off the carbohydrates you’ve consumed first. It’ll take a little longer to get to that fat you need to burn.

A second benefit to doing exercise in the morning is called the “after burn” effect. You’ll not only be burning fat during your workout, but that fat burn will continue on even after your workout is finished. How?

An intense session of cardiovascular activity can keep your metabolism elevated for hours afterward. Exercising at night won’t give you that extra metabolic lift because once you go to sleep, your metabolism drops dramatically once you become sedentary. When you sleep, your metabolic rate is slower than at any other time of the day.

The third reason for doing early morning exercise is more emotional than anything else. Your body’s endorphins are elevated when you exercise.  It lifts your mood and gives you a sense of accomplishment that will likely stay with you all during the day.

That being said, exercise is something that many consider a tedious chore. We tend to procrastinate and put off doing something we consider to be less than enjoyable. If you commit yourself to morning workouts, you’ll have “gotten it out of the way” freeing your mind from having to do it later.

This can create guilt and stress and affect your whole day – don’t let it!  Plus, you are more likely to blow off exercising later in the day because you are tired or just don’t feel like it.

You might find it difficult to get up and exercise first thing in the morning. Not everyone is a “morning person”. So how do you motivate yourself to get up and get moving?

First, remember that you are trying to lose weight. You have a goal that you are trying to achieve. That should remain in the forefront of your mind. If you stay focused on your goal, the motivation should come.

Think back to a time when you tackled a difficult task and finished it. Remember how great you felt afterward. Completing any challenge can give you a “buzz”. When that task is physically demanding, that “buzz” is both psychological and physiological.  That’s because your body releases endorphins into your system.

Endorphins are opiate-like hormones that are hundreds of times more powerful than the strongest morphine. Except for endorphins are made by YOU, not a laboratory. Endorphins create a natural high that can make you positively euphoric! Endorphins can reduce stress, improve your mood, increase your circulation, and relieve pain.
 
This “high” you feel is partly psychological too. When you get up early and get your workout done, you’ll feel a sense of completion that will kick start your day and get it off on the right foot! You will have a sense of completion and accomplishment that will stay with you throughout your day.

If you are trying to lose weight, choose food based on their weight-to-calorie ratio. You want to eat food that weighs a lot but has few calories and avoid food that is light in weight but hefty in calories.

Fruits and vegetables are the big winners in the heavy weight-low calorie department, according to Tufts University.

They weigh a lot because of their fiber and water content and yet do not have many calories. For example, one cup of cantaloupe or 'melon' weighs 5.5 ounces but only has 56 calories. A cup of cooked spinach weighs six ounces but only has 42 calories.

Now, compare that to six cups of buttered popcorn that only weighs three ounces and contains 420 calories or, even worse, one ounce of potato crisps that has 152 calories (if you ate four ounces, you would be inviting 608 calories to feel at home in your fat cells).

That's what I call "small but terrible".

Most snack food doesn't weigh much but sure have a lot of calories.

This means you can eat a lot of them without feeling full and without realizing it take in many excess calories that you don't need.

Most cookies weigh ½ ounce and contain 50 calories. Eat six cookies and you only have three ounces of weight but you've racked up 300 calories. 1.5 ounces of a chocolate bar contain 220 calories. A small croissant only weighs two ounces but has 230 calories.

According to the New Zealand University study, food that is light in weight but high in calories is probably the worse kind of food to eat if you are trying to lose weight. It's sort of like 'double jeopardy' - you are still hungry but you have already eaten many calories.

Choose lower-fat choices of the same weight food. There can be a world of difference between the caloric consumption of two people eating the same weight and type of food. How is this possible? Easy, if you consider the way the food is cooked or prepared.

Here are some examples (all of them weigh 3.5 ounces). Boiled potatoes have 62 calories compared to french fried potatoes with 328 calories. Sardines in tomato sauce contain 127 calories while sardines in oil have 372. Tuna flakes in water have 95 calories while tuna flakes in oil have 309. You get the picture.
 
Avoid the "light weight-high calorie" way of dieting. I know many people who don't want to eat regular sized meals because they think that if their stomach feels heavy, they are eating a lot of calories. Therefore, they think that by eating something light like crackers, they will lose weight.

What they don't realize is that just because a food is light doesn't automatically mean it contains few calories.
 
One could easily eat nine crackers (420 calories) and still not feel full because nine crackers only weigh three ounces. Believe it or not but you could have a satisfying meal of ½ cup steamed rice, a cup of cooked spinach, a small piece of fish, and a cup of cantaloupe for less calories.
 
This complete meal would weigh a satisfying 18.5 ounces and only "cost" you 378 calories. By making the right food choices, you can cut down on unnecessary calories without starving yourself and feeling deprived.

You should also cut down somewhat on your carbohydrate, but don’t cut them out completely! Because effective weight loss depends on exercise and activity, without some carbohydrates in your diet, you won’t have the energy you’ll need to effectively burn off calories.

What you do need to do is begin with a “baseline diet” that dictates at least half of your calories come from vegetables, fruits, natural starches, and whole grains. The rest of your diet should consist of low-fat proteins like fish, chicken, and lean beef.

You need to balance out your carbohydrates with your protein stay away from those carbohydrates at night. Periodically, you want to take “carb-up” days to get your energy levels up..

For women, it is recommended you eat five meals a day and for men, you should eat six. Try to make these meals a minimum of 2 hours apart to insure you don’t get too hungry.

The benefits will reveal themselves. By doing this, you are accomplishing the following benefits:

• Faster metabolic rate.
• Higher energy.
• Less storage of body fat due to the smaller portions.
• Reduced hunger and cravings.
• Steadier blood sugar and insulin levels.
• More calories available for muscle growth.
• Better absorption and utilization of the nutrients in your food.

But you need to make sure you eat the right kinds of foods.