Most people when starting a diet plan to be the perfect dieter which is why they pick the most complicated and restrictive diet. They may be the perfect dieter for a few days or maybe a week. Eventually something happens where they can’t follow their rigid diet for one day and next thing you know they are back to their regular eating habits. If you find that you are this kind of dieter you need to ask yourself one important question: Do I just want to lose a few pounds and than put them back on, or do I want to permanently lose weight? The way to losing weight is making slow changes to your eating habit so you have an steady and healthy weight loss

A big mistake we all make is viewing our diet as a time of sacrifice. When dieting we always think of things we can’t have like our favorite cookies or meal. Thinking like this will not lead to permanent weight loss. Why? If even if you have a good, diet plan and be successful in reaching your target weight you still have not learned healthy eating habits. Once you are finished with your diets you will go right back to eating those “bad foods” without moderation. Learn to think of your diet as a change in the way you eat. There’s noting wrong with having your favorite meal or throwing in a piece of chocolate now and then.

A lot of dieters set unrealistic weight loss goals. They plan to lose drastic amount of weight in the shortest amount of time. If you plan to be successful in losing weight, you have to set realistic goals. Write those goals down. You can start of losing 1-2 pounds a week. You have to realize there will be some weeks you will lose a lot and some days you won’t.

If you realize that you have been committing these dieting mistakes, do not beat yourself over the head. There is plenty of time for change. Learn from your failures. Remember dieting is a commitment to becoming a better and healthier person!

Eat all you want, never exercise and still lose weight!

Both of these are examples of fad diets that many Americans buy into. On television and all over the web there advertisements claiming you can lose an drastic amount of weight in a short time. Many people are surprised to learn that these fad diets aren’t actually good for you because many people have lost a lot of weight using fad diets.

While some fad diets are not actually crash diets they are over restrictive diet plans. These diets tend to be fashionable for awhile and make the inventors millions of dollars. The best diet plan you can ever get is from your doctor. The question I know many of you are still asking is: why are fad diets so bad?

Why Fad Diets Are Not Good:

The weight that is lost with fad diets are not permanent. You usually just lose about 90% of water weight which will be put right back on in a couple of weeks. So if you want to lose weight and keep it off than fad diets are not for you.

Fad diets, or diets that promise quick and easy weight loss is unhealthy. Most of the time, these diets require you to eat one type of food and even take supplements. After some time you can develop nutritional deficiencies.

After the first day or two on a fad diet you will hate it. They are excessively boring and too restrictive. You will start craving your favorite foods and end up breaking your diet and going on an eating binge.

Fad diets are not healthy weight loss programs. Most of these diets do not incorporate any or enough fruits and vegetables.

Diets are supposed to help you develop healthy eating habits so that you can always maintain a healthy weight. Fad diets will not help you do that all. Fad diets push diet binges and fast weight loss and also fast weight gain

Are fad diets for you? If you are like me and you want to lose weight permanently and develop healthy eating habits so you can always maintain your weight than the answer is NO!

Alli is an over-the-counter diet pill, it is another name for orlistat which you can get from your doctor in prescription form as Xenical. Basically Alli is a fat blocker. It blocks some of the fat you absorb from foods from entering your body. It is the one freely available drug that the FDA approves. It sounds great doesn’t it? Wait, you must read on. Many people think that if they take Alli that they can eat all the fatty foods they want and still lose weight. This is an big misconception! If you are planning to use Alli you should also have a healthy low fat diet plan you plan to follow.

The amount of weight that has been lost will Alli varies, according to many case studies. In a study where people took Alli for one year almost half of the subjects experienced a 5% or greater loss of body mass. If Alli is taken in conjunction with a low calorie and low fat diet plan than better results are expected. The participants in the study gained one third of the weight they had lost back after they stopped using alli, but most dieters gain some of the weight they lose after they stop following their diet plan.

Like with most diet pills, Alli does have its side effects. The main disadvantage is that Alli causes frequent bowel movements. The higher in fat the food you eat is the side effects will be greater. Loose stools, flatulence and bowel incontinence will be experienced, especially when you first start taking Alli. Accidents can even happen.

However if you stick to an low fat diet than the side effects will be reduced. One thing you must remember is that Alli will not do all the work for you. Alli does claim to improve your weight loss up to 50% but you must also change your eating habits and exercise daily. If you are willing to deal with the side effects of Alli and willing to follow an low fat diet plan than Alli is for you. Make sure you check with your doctor first. If you are not, than Alli isn’t for you.

Well there is. So there is no more starving yourself, downing pills and spending so much money on Slim Fast products. By consuming five meals a day you can boost your metabolism leading to weight loss. Now I know what you are thinking, five meals a day isn’t that too much? It all depends on what you eat. The key is you want to eat three whole meals which is breakfast, lunch and dinner. The other two meals you will be eating will be small and will have lesser calories than the other three.

Breakdown:

Let’s say if you were on a 1,250 calorie intake diet here is how the diet would work for you:

Breakfast: 100 Calories
Lunch: 300 Calories
Two snacks: 1st- 200 calories 2nd- 250 Calories

Each meal should be from 3 to 3 ½ hours apart. So if you were to eat breakfast at 7:00 am you would have your first snack at 10:00am, lunch would be at 1:00pm, your last snack would be at 4:00 and you should have dinner at 7:00pm. Of course sends we all lead different busy schedules you can adjust your eating schedules as circumstances allow. The only thing you have to make sure you do is eat your five meals a day.

Right now your probably wondering what kind of things you could possibly eat on a five meals a day diet. Don’t make things so complicated, remember your two smaller meals will contain lesser calories so you don’t have to go all out.

200 Calorie Snacks:

A small salad with one boiled egg: (150 calories)
Strawberry and Banana Smoothie- 60g of strawberries, 250ml of skimmed milk topped with a 100g chopped banana. (194 calories0
1 small 100g baked potato with 70g of reduced salt and a small portion of baked beans with reduced sugar. (187 Calories)

These are just a few 200 Calorie snack ideas. You can also come with your own ideas as well, just remember to count the calories.

250 Calorie Snacks:

One portion of roast potatoes and carrots: (210 Calories)
Goulash Soup (218 Calories)
Lemon potato salad: (250 Calories).

With breakfast it’s okay to have a few more calories because you need an sufficient amount to get your metabolism up and running.

100 -150 Calorie Breakfast

Oatmeal and strawberries- 1 bowl of instant oatmeal mixed with a little skim milk topped with 60g of strawberries. (144 Calories)
Pumpernickel bread topped with 20g of reduced fat cream cheese. (100 Calories)
Plain diet yogurt and 20g of stewed prunes: (148 Calories)

300 Calorie Lunch

Banana and Cream Cheese sandwich; two slices of whole wheat bread, 100g of sliced bananas and 40g of reduced fat cream cheese.
100g banana, 60g peach, 125ml fat free yogurt, and 125ml tropical fruit juice. (282 calories)

400 Calorie Dinner

Leek soup with a 250g canned potato and a slice of 80g of French bread. (346 Calories)
Chicken peas served with a brown rice salad- 100g canned tomatoes, 50g canned chicken peas, 30g of onion and a dash Tabasco, 200g of boiled brown rice and 1 tsp of basil. (376 Calories)

Free Foods

Free foods are foods you can have as much as you want throughout the day because they have no fat, carbohydrate, little/or not calories.

Onions, green peppers
Broccoli
Spinach
Collard greens (No meat)
Lettuce
Cucumbers
Tomatoes
Zucchini
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage;(No meat)
Of course water

Benefits of five meals a day:

Builds up energy
Speeds up metabolism which burns the calories
You never starve
It helps develop healthy eating habits.

Why not ditch the three times a day meal tradition? If you go with the five meals a day the pounds will go away. See for yourself.

Now, don’t feel guilty. For most people, the association of sweets as a reward for a good day’s work has its roots to childhood rearing. Do you remember when your doctor offers you a lollipop in exchange for a well-behaved check-up with him? Or, do you recall your mom giving you an extra slice of cake after you’ve helped her tidy up the house? These little efforts of reward have slowly but steadily laid the foundation of your appetite for sweets during your adult years.

Nevertheless, just like almost everything in the world, there is a scientific explanation to this appetite for sweets. It was discovered by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, constant stress inflicted on lab rats initiated a natural desire to seek pleasing activities like eating sugary foods. To relate this to humans, sweet cravings may be triggered by tensions that consequently result in your body’s release of hormones called epinephrine and cortisol. These hormones create energy in the form of blood sugar. As a result, your body reacts to stress by increasing your appetite for sweets.

ALTHOUGH THERE IS REALLY NOTHING WRONG WITH AN OCCASIONAL SWEET TREAT, A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN ITS DESIRE AND INDULGENCE WILL RESULT TO UNHEALTHY CONSEQUENCES TO YOUR BODY — LIKE UPSURGES IN BLOOD SUGAR LEVEL THAT LEADS TO UNWELCOME MOOD SWINGS AND, MORE EXCESSIVELY, TO TYPE 2 DIABETES.

HERE ARE A FEW SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO CURB THAT APPETITE FOR SWEETS:

-TRY TAKING AN AYURVEDIC HERB KNOWN AS GURMAR (GYMNEMA SYLVESTRE). THIS ‘DESTROYER OF SUGAR’ SLOWS DOWN THE ABSORPTION OF SUGAR INTO THE BLOOD VESSELS, THEREBY, STAVING YOUR APPETITE FOR SWEETS AS A RESULT.

-Take a serving of bitter foods like arugula, endive, radicchio or chicory. Chinese herbalists believe that bitter foods curbs appetite for sweets.

-Enjoy healthy servings of carefully selected fruits. Some fruits help keep blood sugar steady like berries, apples and pears. Stay away from excessive intake of pineapple and watermelon.

-Take a hike. When you are hit with the next sweet craving, distract yourself by taking a stroll until the craving passes.

Lastly, if your appetite for sweets has taken over your will power, ask for help. Behavioral therapy can help.