Replace Fruit Juices With Whole Fruits

Recent studies have pointed to children as the largest group of juice consumers today.  And this is not surprising considering that historically, pediatricians and health experts have recommended fruit juice as a healthy source of vitamins, calcium and other nutrients.  Most recently, there were claims made that some fruit juices even contain anti-oxidants that may help to fight systemic diseases like cancer and heart disease.

Although fruit juice is often thought of as an alternative to soda and other sugary juice cocktail and sports drinks, nutritionist still do agree unanimously that fruit juice cannot replace the nutrients derived from a whole fruit.  Why is this so?

What it has …

A typical juice box in the supermarket contains only a little amount of real fruit juice and much more contains a blend of sweeteners that are high in calories and is really no healthier than a can of soda.

Some brands also contain high amounts of artificial colors and flavors and are dehydrated, rehydrated and pasteurized prior to packaging.

And what it doesn’t have …

A 100% fruit juice does not contain fiber which is the key nutrient that a piece of fruit provides. In addition to this, a fruit’s skin and pulp can also be sources of other nutrients needed by the body.

What it does to our body …

Fruit juice since it is loaded with a high sugar concentration can lead to dental problems.  It can stimulate the production of insulin in the body and limit the body’s ability to burn fat thus will lead eventually  obesity.  Or, the other side of the coin can be increasing the risk of malnutrition since it can displace other more nutritious foods from the diet. Among children, cases of flatulence and diarrhea were traced to excessive amount of sugar in the gut.

Based on these, the overall health worthiness of fruit juice, we can say is a lit bit tilted to the bad side. But this doesn’t mean that adults and children alike should stop drinking fruit juices.  The best healthy choice is to still drink and supply the body with at least 60 ounces of water each day. The key here is  learning to set limits and being wise enough to be selective in what we are drinking.

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Your Diet / Eating Personality

There are many roads leading to weight loss but the most proven and effective way is still through proper diet and exercises that focus on how to burn calories. And to understand how calorie burning works is to first know how many calories you are burning for each activity you undertake. How many calories do you burn with each activity?

The number of calories that you burn in any activity depends on a lot of factors such as age, body structure, heredity and lifestyle. Below is a table that shows the amount of calories burnt on some examples of outdoor activities per 3 levels of weight: 100 pounds, 150 pounds, and 200 pounds.

Based on this chart, it shows how every step and every movement can help lead you to a healthy path. Exercising doesn’t have to start in a gym and spending hours on cardio machines, simply walking uphill and running laps through water will burn those calories down. Learning how your daily routines match up against a regular workout on the treadmill can help you plan your exercise routine based on your fitness level, time and even your budget. Turn everyday activities into calorie-burning workouts now!

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Everything we eat, no matter how healthy or unhealthy, contains calories. Calories in food provide the necessary energy for us to do our daily activities. In a week, we use up an average amount of calories per day. This is called Basal Metabolic Rate. To manage your weight, it’s important to know your BMR. Your BMR refers to the amount of calories you consume in order to perform your regular activities and maintain your weight.

Read Body Mass Index Defined for more information about BMR and BMI

How To Burn Calories

However, most don’t really want to maintain weight, but rather shed weight or gain weight (former more common than latter). Losing weight requires a deficit in calorie intake. We have to consume calories in a day that is lower than our BMR. To do that, we have to minimize high-calorie foods, control portios AND burn calories through exercise and activities.

There are three types of activities we can do to burn calories:

• Sports

If you already play sports, keep it up. For example, you can burn calories at a rate of 200 calories per hour playing golf? But increase the number of hours or days that you play as an hour’s worth of golf barely burns a regular latte. If you play tennis, you’d be glad to know it burn calories at the rate of 560 per hour. That’s a significant amount! Another sport that burn calories great is boxing. This can burn calories at approximately 420 per hour.

• Exercise

You can go to the gym or work out at home. By running on the treadmill for half an hour, you burn calories at a rate of 150 to 250 per hour. Try to increase the intensity by setting it at a faster pace. That will surely burn more calories. Lifting weights is also an important part of a workout regimen. You can burn 170 to 250 calories for an hour of light to moderate weight lifting. If you’re looking for something that’s not as strenuous, you can try Tai Chi, a Chinese martial art, one hour of which can burn calories at 280 per hour.

• Everyday activities

You’d be happy to know that simple everyday activities can expend those calories. Walking your dog for half an hour can burn calories at  100 to 150 per hour. So don’t break your promise of an afternoon walk with Fido; it will benefit you both. Do some sweeping inside the house or out in the driveway; a half hour will burn 120 to 170 calories for you. Carrying your baby while doing some mall shopping can burn calories at around 200 to 300 per hour. Now, there really isn’t any excuse for you now, is there?

The idea of having to burn calories with activity shouldn’t elicit a groan. When you exercise more, you grow muscles which burn calories more and raises your BMR. You should actually be happy because there are just so many things you can do on a daily basis that will help you burn calories and lose weight.

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To many people, dieting connotes restrictions and limitations in the foods that they take. But diet, overall, simply refers to the types of foods you select on a day-to-day basis. Some would jokingly say that they are on a chocolate diet or a diet of all things deep-fried.

Your diet corresponds to the outcome you see in your body. It is unavoidably directly related to your weight. But first, you need to know how much you should weigh; not everybody needs to be 100 pounds. We all have different ideal weights. The weight range that we need to be in tells us that falling below that range makes you underweight and being beyond it makes you overweight. Either case is not good.

There are ideal weight charts that only factor in one’s height. But the more helpful ones are those, which factor in one’s body type as well. There is a different weight range for a person who has a small frame, one who has a medium frame and one with a large frame even if they are all the same height. It’s good to consider your body frame in order to be realistic when it comes to setting weight goals.  To calculate your BMI and see if you are in the healthy range, click here.

What Is Your Diet / Eating Personality?

Dieting greatly affects weight but it should not mean starving oneself to achieve the ideal weight. That simply does not work or it could but it’s detrimental to your health. To achieve one’s desired weight, provided it’s realistic, there should be a good balance between what foods to eat and the right amount of these foods in one’s diet. Everything we consume contains a number of calories, which give us the energy to do our activities.

• Diet goes hand in hand with the activities we choose to do because to maintain our weight, we need to be eating only the number of calories we can burn.
• To lose weight, one should be eating fewer calories than he can burn. Consequently, if one needs to gain weight, he should be eating more than what he can burn. Losing weight properly and at a healthy pace happens when the person is aware of how many calories he gets from what he eats.
• Counting calories may sound tedious but instead of treating them as numbers, every person who aims for good health should look at calories in food as a way to respond to what the body needs in terms of nourishment.

Nourishment should come from a nutritionally balanced diet. If you target to eat only a certain number of calories per day, you should eat the right foods in right amounts that will add up to that desired number rather than eating only one or two food groups in very large quantities in order to achieve that desired number of calories in food. Remember that your body responds to what you put into it and what you don’t. Review the 7 Rules to Healthy Eating.

Weight is, indeed, a very important thing. It’s not just about aesthetics and it’s definitely not about believing than thin is beautiful. Weight is one of the measurements of our health. Being overweight can lead to a number of chronic diseases; being underweight shows that the body is lacking in essential nutrients and amount of food.

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Anyone who is on a weight loss program cannot afford to ignore his/her metabolism. Metabolism is the process through which food is converted into energy. This process occurs in the cells of our muscles and organs and helps in burning calories. And this is why a good understanding of our metabolism can help us in weight loss. Let’s take a closer look at the relation between weight loss and metabolism.

The process of metabolism

Fats, proteins, and carbohydrates are broken down in our digestive system to be used by the body. They are then transported to the cells of the body through the blood stream, where they are metabolized. During this metabolism process, the calories released are combined with oxygen and released in the form of energy to help your body function. When considering the role of metabolism in weight loss, it is this burning of calories which plays an important role.

Weight loss and metabolism

It is a well known fact that weight gain occurs due to consuming more calories than what your body burns. For maintaining your weight, you need to calculate your daily caloric intake. This can be calculated by calculating the amount of calories expended on the three essential components of metabolism. So, your daily caloric intake should be equal to the calories expended on your basal metabolism (calories required for the basic functioning of your body), your physical activity, and the digestion of food. For weight loss, you need to reduce your caloric intake and/or increase the amount of calories that you expend.

Besides this, an increase in metabolism helps in weight loss. If you increase your physical activity and exercise regularly, your weight loss routine can be a success.

By increasing the frequency, duration, and intensity of your physical activity, you boost your metabolism and burn more calories. Strength training and aerobics activity build muscle tissue. An increase in the lean muscle tissue means increase in metabolism. This will again lead to faster burning of calories.

Your eating habits also play an important role in increasing your metabolism and promoting weight loss. Contrary to popular beliefs, skipping meals actually slows down your metabolism.  If your body doesn’t get its regular calories, it will go into starvation mode and your metabolism will slow down. You will lose muscle tissue and excess energy will actually be stored as fat. Therefore, the right thing to do to increase your metabolism is to eat 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day. Combined with drinking the necessary 8 glasses of water a day, it will help in raising your metabolism and induce weight loss.

As you can see a weight loss routine is aimed at faster burning of calories and your metabolism is the process that is actually responsible for burning them. Calculating your daily caloric intake and taking steps to boost your metabolism can help you in losing weight in a healthy way.

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Most of us know that metabolism has a key role to play in weight loss. Anything that we do to boost metabolism will help in losing weight.

• As most of us know, metabolism is the process through which our body converts food into energy and this it does by burning calories.
  

  Raw Vegetables Boost Your Metabolism

• Increasing physical activity and exercising daily increases metabolism and we burn more calories.
• But do you know that there are certain foods that boost your metabolism? Here are a few foods that can be included in your regular diet to raise your metabolism.

Oatmeal

Steel-cut or rolled oats are a good source of complex carbohydrates and fibers. Oatmeal slowly breaks down in your stomach which keeps the insulin levels in your body low after you eat and ensures a slow release of glucose into your bloodstream. This helps boost metabolism, preventing storing of fat and helping you burn more calories. It also makes you feel fuller for a longer time, provides you with the necessary energy for your daily workout routine, and is great for your heart.

Chilli, Cayenne, and Jalapeno

If you are fond of adding cayenne pepper to your sauces and soups, you are actually increasing your metabolism by approximately 20%. Peppers contain a compound called capsaicin that speeds up your heart rate and raises your metabolism. In fact, you can actually continue burning calories even after 3 hours of eating a meal including chilli and cayenne pepper. So, don’t forget to include peppers in your food.

Fish

Essential fatty acids, in particular omega-3 fatty acids, boost your metabolism. And fish such as salmon, tuna, and trout are the best sources of these fatty acids. Essential fatty acids alter the levels of a hormone called leptin in your body. Leptin has a direct impact on your metabolism and have an influence on whether the calories are burnt or stored as fat. Lower levels of leptin mean higher metabolism. This is why fish is considered to be one of the best foods to boost metabolism. You can even try fish-oil supplements to get your daily dose of essential fatty acids.

Chicken, Turkey, and Lean Beef

If you are wondering how these foods boost your metabolism, then the word you need to know is ‘protein’. These foods are high in protein and our body needs more energy and more time to digest the protein found in meat. So, a high-protein diet translates into more work for your body in digestion, higher metabolism, and more calorie-burning.

Fruits and vegetables

Raw fruits and vegetables are often recommended for weight loss because they are high in fibers. Your body finds it difficult to digest and extract the nutrients from fibers. So, it works harder and increases your metabolism. About 8-10 servings of these foods is enough to boost your metabolism.

These are not the only foods to boost your metabolism. Foods such as grapefruits, broccoli, and celery contain low calories, but require high calories to digest. Herbs such as green tea have also proven to be great diet supplements to increase your metabolism. So, include foods high in fibers, protein, complex carbohydrates, and essential fatty acids and raise your metabolism.

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We all have different personalities. We also have different diet personalities or eating personalities. But what are these diet personalities or eating personalities?

• There are those who are too busy to eat during the day – no time to sit and have a decent meal. When they go home, they try and satisfy their hunger trying to make up for the way they have deprived themselves throughout the day. As a result, they snack well into the late night, paying no heed to proper nutrition.
  

  What is Your Diet / Eating Personality?

• There are the calorie counters, attentive to every calorie in the food they eat. They plan their meals to the T, ensuring not to eat more calories than they can burn. They tend to stick to their plan so much that they become guilty when they ‘cheat’. Eating is not a pleasurable activity for them.
• Then, there are the selective types. They prefer comfort foods and are not adventurous enough to try new things. Chances are, the nutrition that they get is not balanced.
• There are those who load up on carbs. There are those who are carnivores from day to night.

Whatever you think your eating personality or diet personality is, here are a few questions for you to answer. As you answer them, you’ll get to know more about the way you eat and how to identify habits that you can do without.

1)            In the course of a day, what type of food do you prefer eating more of?

Some are mostly carnivorous while some lean towards vegetables and fruits. Many people crave more for carbs such as pasta, rice, bread, or potatoes. A balanced diet should be 2/3 whole grains, fruits and vegetables and 1/3 protein. The calories you eat must be distributed into these parts.

2)            Besides the three regular meals, do you usually eat when you’re feeling bored? Stressed? Lonely?

Food sometimes is a response to what we’re feeling. When sad or stressed, it’s easy to turn to food for comfort, leading to bad nutrition. Food has also become a hobby to us. Those working in offices find it easy to snack away without being mindful of what they’re eating. This could be due to pressure at work or boredom.

3)            Do you prepare your food or wait for food to be prepared for you OR do you drive-thru on the way to work / home?

Today, many choose convenience over nutrition. We grab the easiest meal to get ‘more pressing’ matters done. Commerce has made it possible for a lifestyle where we can manage multiple things within a day at the expense of compromising nutrition.

4)            Do you eat only when hunger strikes or because it’s time to eat?

Usually those who eat only when hunger strikes tend to eat more. Consequently, they end up having more calories than those who eat at set times. Eating 5 to 6 meals a day helps us avoid hunger pangs, which makes it easier to manage cravings and get proper nutrition and a balanced diet.

5)            Do you keep to your diet and never stray from it?

It’s good to have a diet plan, if it gives you a balanced diet. How are you in terms of following your diet? Are you always failing or are you the type who follows strictly and perfectly, leaving you with guilt when you eat outside the plan?

6)            Do you eat food to live or do you eat food for the pleasure of eating?

Many of us struggle to limit food no matter how much calories, because it simply gives us so much pleasure. However, there are those who treat food as a means to survive. They eat only what they feel their body needs. It isn’t a bad thing just as long as they are able get a balanced diet and proper nutrition.

Understanding to how our body works and how it expresses its need for food is important. By reviewing our eating personality or diet personality, we may see activities we can change.

The end goal isn’t really the number of calories we consume in a day but to live a life that is healthy and content.

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Diet, fitness, feeling good, and lots of support are what you need when you want to lose weight. This is what you will receive if you join a dietwatch.com plan. Dietwatch.com was started by Jennifer May, a nutritionist/dietician and it is one of the first comprehensive online weight loss programs available that provides you easy access right in the comfort of your home.

You can begin exploring dietwatch.com by getting a free profile for yourself and taking a tour of the website. The free assessment tool will help design a plan suitable for you, depending on your weight, age, lifestyle, and your current exercise level. You will be asked to choose one of their 4 diet plans. These include the no restrictions plan, the reduced carbohydrate plan, the heart healthy Mediterranean plan, and the vegetarian plan.

• It is necessary to track your meals and your level of physical activity for a successful weight loss program. Dietwatch.com makes it easy for you with the help of some wonderful tools that allow you to track your calorie intake, the amount of carbohydrates and fats you are consuming, and even your exercise level.

Losing weight becomes easier with a dietwatch.com plan due to its comprehensive weight loss program.

• This includes a personalized meal planner, customized shopping list, and a nutrition tracker to keep a check on what you are eating.
• Its nutritional calculator allows you to calculate the fat and calorie content of different foods. The Dietwatch.com planner allows you to maintain a daily food diary. Simply enter the food that you eat and the planner will keep a running total of your calories, fats, carbohydrates, and proteins.

As a member of this wonderful weight loss program, you also gain access to an extensive database on different vitamins and minerals and their nutritional values and functions

• You can track your fitness goals by simply entering the name and the length of each exercise that you have done and their handy tool will provide you with the amount of calories you have burned. You can choose from among various exercise programs which include aerobics, strength training, and flexibility programs. These help you design a workout which is best suitable for you.

Feeling good is one aspect that is often not given much attention in a weight loss program. However, dietwatch.com provides you with tools and articles on how to have a good body image, manage your emotions, think positively, and goal setting. You can also get inspirational messages and tips in what is called as the “meditation room”.

If you need help or support in your weight loss program, you can use its wonderful and supportive community. You can search for members who have similar goals and interests. You can ask questions and get feedback from other members and experts in their forums. Or simply share your experiences. You can send individual messages or chat with other members. And of course, through this section you can also receive daily tips for diet and advice from experts.

What’s more, dietwatch.com plans are very inexpensive. You can get all the information you need to lose weight by just logging on and that too anywhere and anytime. So, if an online weight loss program designed by professionals sounds good to you, go join dietwatch.com.

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The word “metabolism” is often used in relation to weight loss. But most of us are not really aware about what it is and how human metabolism works. Learning about this process can help improve your understanding of how your body functions and why different foods and activities have a different effect on your body than on someone else. Here’s a brief look on how human metabolism works.

What is metabolism?

If we want to understand how human metabolism works, the first thing we need to know is that metabolism is actually a collection of chemical reactions that occurs in the cells of the body. These chemical reactions convert the fuel in the food that we consume into the energy that is required to maintain and sustain the basic functions of the body. It is a process that begins when we are conceived and it only ends when we die. It is necessary for our survival and is constantly working, even while we are sleeping.

How does human metabolism work?

When we eat food, enzymes in the digestive system break the proteins into amino acids, fats into fatty acids, and carbohydrates into glucose. Once broken down, these compounds are ready to be used by the body. So, they are absorbed into the bloodstream and taken to the cells of the body. When they enter the cells, other enzymes begin the chemical reactions and these compounds are metabolized.

As these processes take place, the energy generated from these compounds is either released for being used by the body or is stored in the tissues of the body. Anabolism or constructive metabolism is the process of building and storing energy. This process is responsible for growing new cells, maintaining the various tissues of the body, and for storing energy for future use. Catabolism or destructive metabolism has its own importance since it is this process that actually provides the energy required for all cell activities including anabolism. It also provides heat to the body and helps the muscles to contract and move the body.

How is human metabolism related to weight?

Most people want to know about how human metabolism works because they want to learn how it can help in weight loss. This is where calories play a role. Calories are the amount of energy that is provided to the body by different foods. The body either burns these calories to convert it into energy or stores it as fat. And the speed at which your body burns these calories is determined by your level of physical activity, the energy you burn while digesting and metabolizing food (thermic effect of food or TEF), and your basal metabolic rate (BMR). All three of them are important components of human metabolism and have an influence on your weight. The higher the level of these metabolic components, the more likely you are to lose weight.

Disorders such as hyper- or hypo-thyroidism, Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, and inherited disorders such as phenylketonuria are results of a faulty metabolism. Learning how human metabolism works helps us know how we can increase metabolism to lose weight and to promote the overall health of our body. So, while you are busy reading this article, remember that there are thousands of chemical reactions that are taking place right now in the cells of your body to keep you alive and healthy.

A healthy low-calorie diet is a good way to lose weight. However, often people find that despite eating a low-calorie diet, they do not achieve much success and end up feeling constantly exhausted. The reason could be a sluggish metabolism. If you have a slow metabolism and you don’t take the necessary steps to boost it, you will find it difficult to lose weight and maintain your energy levels. Here are a few quick tips that you can use to boost your metabolism.

• Calculate your basal metabolic rate (BMR) and adjust your daily calorie intake accordingly.

• If you have thyroid problems or any other metabolic disorders, get proper treatment. Thyroid disorders slow down your metabolism and make you gain weight.

• Never skip meals, especially breakfast. Contrary to popular beliefs, skipping meals actually slows down your metabolism and your body stores calories as fat rather than burning it.

• Breakfast and lunch can be substantial, but dinner should be the lightest meal of the day and there should be a gap of about 3-4 hours between dinner and bedtime. This way, your body will process the food while you are awake and burn more calories.

• Eat 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day to provide enough fuel for boosting your metabolism.

• Drink at least 64 ounces of water throughout the day. Your body needs water to boost your metabolism.

• Make sure you are getting enough supply of Vitamins B and C in your diet since they are necessary to give your body enough energy.

• Never consume less than 1000 calories a day. Anything less than that is not enough to support your basic metabolic functions. So, make to sure to consume enough calories to boost your metabolism.

• Include fruits, vegetables, fish, nuts and seeds, lean beef and chicken, oatmeal, and milk in your diet. Your body needs more energy to digest these foods and this boosts your metabolism.

• Include aerobics exercises in your daily schedule. Jogging, brisk walking, swimming, and cycling are wonderful ways to keep you physically active and raise your metabolism.

• Include weight training and muscle-building exercises in your weekly schedule. These should be done at least 2-3 times a week to increase your metabolism.

• Try and be as physically active as possible. Take the stairs or walk to the nearest shopping complex. Do whatever you can to stay as active as possible.

• Drink green tea. It’s not only good for giving a boost to your metabolism but lowers cholesterol levels, builds immunity, and prevents cardiovascular disease.

• Always look for natural and healthy ways to lose weight. Pills and powders to lose weight and increase your metabolism can harm the normal functioning of your body.

Your metabolism plays an important part in losing or maintaining weight. Use these tips to give a boost to your metabolism. It will not only help you lose weight but also promote your overall health.

For more tips and more explanations about how to increase your metabolism, please read “How to Increase Your Metabolism”.