Archive for the ‘Weight Loss’ Category

How Protein Diet can Help you Lose Weight

When I started working in a software company after finishing my college, I did not get time to concentrate on my health. Long hours of work did not give me enough time to work out and my body weight increased from 140 pounds to about 200 pounds. Also, with so many office parties to attend, it became extremely difficult for me to reduce my weight.

Soon most friends stopped inviting me to their parties because they considered me the “Odd One”. This is when I decided that I must take some steps to reduce my weight. I started going to the gym and was careful about the food I ate. I decided to eat low fat food to reduce my body weight. However, this adversely affected my health as it also reduced my protein intake.

After a few months I lost about 20 pounds but the problem was that I became smaller and weaker. Also, the weight loss was mainly due to muscle loss and I still looked obese. I was disheartened with the results of my effort and consulted a nutritionist.

When I consulted a nutritionist, she pointed out that protein is an important part of a diet. Whether I wanted to gain weight or lose weight, it was important that I included protein in my diet. It is an important structural nutrient that makes up that bulk of the organs and muscles. It is also important for the proper functioning of the immune system of the body. Protein is also an essential ingredient for people who want to repair or build their muscle tissues.

Nutritionist further explained that when I eat low fat food to reduce weight, I reduce my calorie intake. Unfortunately, my body considers the fat stored more important than muscle tissues and slowly eats up the muscle tissues to compensate for low calorie intake.

Muscle tissues are essential for people who are looking to reduce their weight and burn their calories. Having more muscles in your body can help you lose weight even if you don’t do anything. Therefore, it is important that we take steps to protect our muscle tissues.

The amount of protein that a person should take and type of protein diet will vary from individual to individual. The best protein diet for a person will depend on their fitness routine and their body structure. Most dieticians recommend that people must include casein protein powder or whey protein isolates in your diet. Casein protein power ideal for people who are looking for nutrition that can help them build their depleted muscles whereas whey protein isolates is ideal for people who are looking steady source of proteins.

Effect of Glycemic index your weight

Glycemic Index

In a recent report that was published by New England Journal of Medicine it was found that people who managed to lose weight by following a low calorie diet have a high probability to keep the weight off if their diet was low glycemic index but high in protein.

For those of you who are new to glycemic index here is some information about the glycemic index:

a)      Glycemic index is an indicator of how your body’s sugar and insulin levels fluctuate when food is eaten.

b)      Foods that have glycemic index lower than 55 are considered to be low while those above 55 are considered to be high.

c)       Generally raw vegetables and fruits are considered to have low glycemic index while processed foods have high glycemic index.

For their study, the researchers had randomly selected 800 adults who have lost at least 8 percent of their body weight by following a low calorie diet. These adults were given one of the five maintenance diets:

i)                    Low protein and low glycemic index

ii)                   High protein and low glycemic index

iii)                 Low protein and high glycemic index

iv)                 High protein and high glycemic index

v)                  Comparison Diet

Out of the 800 adults selected, only 71 percent where managed to stay on the diet that was assigned to them for the study period of 26 weeks. Among these adults, only individuals who followed low protein and high glycemic index diet had regained weight significantly. Those people who had the lowest weight gain were the ones who followed high protein and low glycemic index diet.

Burn Fat without Spending a Fortune!

Much to your surprise, you can burn fast without having to spend a fortune. Yes, you heard it right! You can burn fat without having to make huge investment in terms of money and time.  Keep in mind that burning fat is your secondary aim. The primary goal that you need to focus on is fast weight loss. For this purpose, you should know the basics of fats which are as follow:

  1. You should be familiar with the different types of fats along with their impact on human body.
  2. Trans fats and saturated fats are too risky. So you better stay away of these fats and try your best to avoid them as much as possible.
  3. Say “NO” to fast food and fried food.
  4. Balance your fats with lean proteins, fiber-rich foods and carbohydrates.
  5. If you are looking to prefer fatty diets, make sure that you include a huge amount of vegetables and fruits with your fatty diets because it will help in countering the excess fat intake.
  6. Don’t prefer canned food because it loses its value while canning and also due to the preservatives and addictives.
  7. Drink an ample of water so that it could balance the adverse effect of saturated fats.
  8. Exercise help a lot when it comes to burning fat fast

Well, when it comes to exercising, it is better to perform some three or four session per week if you are a beginner. If you want to upgrade your session making it pretty challenging you can choose to workout for some 30 minutes twice a twice. Also, you can give a try to minor aerobics such as jogging, cycling, and brisk walk. Moreover, cardio exercise is also great to burn fat as fast as possible.