Tuesday, 17 May 2011

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Monday, 16 May 2011

An Apple a Day Keeps the WEIGHT Away

It's fall for those of you living north of the equator, and that means fresh, crisp, juicy apples are readily available once again. Where I live in the Pacific Northwest, you can spend an entire day touring apple farms and sampling the different varieties.
Apples, as well as other fruits, are naturally low in calories, fat and sodium. And they contain vitamins, minerals and fiber, making them a perfect food to enhance any meal or eat as a between meal snack.
The nutritional qualities of fruits combine to make them an ideal elixir for weight loss. Being low in calories means you can eat several servings without consuming a hefty number of calories. The fiber helps by providing bulk and making you feel full, decreasing your appetite and the desire to eat other (higher calorie) foods.
Another benefit of eating apples or other fruits is their high water content. The water, along with the fiber, further aids in making you feel full. Yet because fruits are low in sodium, they will not create excess water weight for you to carry around.
One last idea is to try having an apple BEFORE your meal. It will make you feel just that much more satisfied with your meal. And remember to always eat slowly, so that your body has time to begin feeling full before you eat too much.
Enjoy the season, and make sure to take advantage of it by including fresh fall apples in your diet plan. You might even enjoy an apple or other fruit before every meal -- and end up having to tighten your belt!

Calorie Burning Drinks

To counter the declining sales of sugar-sweetened drinks, and the criticism that they increase the risk of obesity, beverage makers have created so-called "calorie burning" or "negative calorie" drinks. The manufacturers claim that their particular combination of ingredients, such as green tea extract and caffeine, boost your metabolism enough to help you lose weight.

In the small number of controlled studies done on these products, the slight increase in metabolic rate was insignificant to weight loss. According to The Center for Science in the Public Interest, many of these drinks are ineffective and their advertising claims false.
A better choice would be to simply replace caloric beverages with no-calorie drinks like water. Or for a "calorie burning" drink, try ice water! Your body will burn calories as it warms the water to your body temperature.
It takes one Calorie to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water one degree Celsius, and you will burn just under nine Calories warming up an 8-ounce glass of ice water. That's not much, but if you drink eight 8-ounce glasses of ice water a day that would be about 500 Calories a week. But remember, water has no calories to begin with -- this won't work with ice cream!
Of course I recommend sound nutrition and exercise as the solution to maintaining a slim and healthy body. But if you want a gimmick to burn a few extra calories, you might do as well drinking cold water as spending your money on dubious calorie burning drinks.

Grapefruit Juice & Squats

Ferriss said that you have roughly one hour from when you eat junk food to drinking grapefruit juice and doing the squats to counteract the “mistakes” you make on your diet. Dr Oz said that when you have grapefruit juice and do squats, you open up all of your receptors in the muscles so that the sugar goes into your muscles to become fuel rather than the sugar being deposited as fat around your belly.
Dr Oz and Tim Ferriss demonstrated how to do an Air Squat by putting both arms out in front of you for balance. Make sure to sit slowly in a pretend chair until your thighs are parallel with the ground (or as far as you can go).

30 G Protein For Breakfast

Timothy Ferris said that the next fat burning tip is to eat 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up. For example, you can eat 5 eggs, turkey sausage, or protein shakes made of unflavored whey protein. Ferriss says that this is critical because it starts your day off with the right fat burning hormones. Dr Oz said that eggs are a safe way to get protein and generally do not increase your cholesterol unless you have a genetic pre-disposition. Tim Ferriss said that this will also help you not to get a mid-afternoon slump after lunch. You should always follow how you feel as an indication of how much fat you are burning.