Top Diet Plans

Out of the hundreds of diet plans available and are endorsed by doctors, celebrities, friends and family, how does one know which one to try?  If you are new to the diet arena, you may get completely overwhelmed by all the suggestions and information you’ll find and all of the diet plans seem to work.  But the real question is will it work for you?  Here is a shortlist of diet plans to help narrow down your search.

After searching the internet for top ten weight loss/diet plans, I have discovered that there are only a few that keeps recurring.

Weight Watchers

Yes, it’s a classic, which proves that this celebrity endorsed diet plan works.  Weight Watchers is basically a calorie-controlled diet where a dieter gets a daily points allowance.  You can eat anything you want as long as you keep within the given allowance. Probably the best feature of this diet is its flexibility, availability of the recommended meals and support.

The DASH Diet

This diet was designed to the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the main goal was to help people find a healthy and natural way to lower blood pressure and reverse heart disease.  The diet features calorie counting, exercise regimen and a set of Health Food and a Low Sodium Diet.  The reason why it works it that it is based on health sciences.  The diet is highly recommended for people dealing with heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

The PALEO Diet

It can be a little restrictive but it works, especially for men.  The Paleolithic Diet simply encourages people to avoid any kind of food that is processed in any form, which include cooking oils.  The diet also encourages that food be cooked in open fire.  The general idea is to revert back to the ways of the caveman.  Though people find it very restrictive, it is also simple enough to follow.  What makes it work is the community that it has created where recipes are being shared and passed around.

The Volumetrics Diet

This diet is all about soups and large salads and other kinds of food that is low calorie but has “high-volume” - The kind that keeps you full for hours. The Volumetrics Diet offers recipes that are healthy and fiber-packed. The idea is to keep your body from gaining too much weight by stopping the constant craving that you get when you feed on calorie packed foods or simple carbs.

The Jenny Craig

The reason why it works is because it is a highly personalized plan. The one to one consultations provide support and help dieters keep their goals on track.  The meal delivery service is a big plus of course, especially for people who have very little time to plan meals let alone cook them.  The only set-back is the tag price that goes with it.

How to Get Past Your Weight Loss Plateau

It is normal.  Everybody gets frustrated when despite that fact that an enormous amount of effort is poured into the work out and an incredible extent of restraint was exerted just to make sure the diet plan is followed, we hit a weight loss plateau.  We keep our resolve and another week passes by and still no progress.  This is especially exasperating when you are just 10 pounds shy of the goal.  It happens.  But it does not mean that what you are doing is not helping you get better, it does not mean you need to drastically change your regimen either.  There are just things that are happening in your body that you need to understand. 

                It has a lot to do with our basal metabolic rate or BMR.  It is the rate at which our bodies metabolize to keep our bodies’ vital functions working – digestion, breathing, heart beating etc., while the body is at rest.  The calories required to make everything work lowers as we lose body mass.  And it takes much less effort to do things (and burn fewer calories) because there is less of you that you carry around. 

                It can also be that you have gained muscle mass as lose weight.  Which is why measuring your waistline is also a good thing.  Sometimes, our progress registers better there than on the weighing scale. 

                It is nature’s way of telling you that you have reached a certain balance between your calorie/food intake and your calorie burning activities.  So, calm down, assess your progress, and appreciate how far you have gone.  Ask yourself if this is a good weight (and look) to maintain but if you need to get farther, you need to make a few changes.

                If you have not done it yet, you need do more weight training than aerobic exercises.  It helps the toning and tightening of muscles.  It may surprise you how easy it is to do weight training now that your body is stronger.  There are fitness experts who will tell you that a sudden change in the intensity of the work out and changing diet regimen may give your body a jumpstart. 

                If you are not taking any weight loss supplements, you may want to try some now. They may just give you the boost that you need.  Most natural weight loss supplements do not have side effects so it is safe and will not disrupt your schedule (unlike ones that are synthesized in the lab that make you want stay home and keep in close proximity to the comfort room). 

                Some of the best weight loss supplements come from natural sources such as the African Mango extract, Green Coffee Bean extract, Garcinia Cambogia or Brindleberry and Raspberry Ketone supplements.  These supplements have fat burning properties that you may need to bust out of your current weight loss plateau.

References:

http://www.dbbe.fcen.uba.ar/old/materias/fac/PaperMetabolismo(2).pdf

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/weight-loss-plateau/MY01152

                

Garcinia Cambogia – Newest, Fastest, Fat Busting Supplement

Garcinia Cambogia – Dr. Mhemet Oz calls it the newest, fastest fat busting supplement.  But what is Garcinia Cambogia?  It is a sub-tropical variation of the Garcinia Tree which is mostly found in Asia, particularly in Indonesia and also in parts of India and Africa. It has quite a number of names depending on where you are from, among them is brindle berry, Malabar tamarind, gambooge, assam fruit, northern tamarind or pot tamarind. Its sour taste has given flavor native cooking in places where they are found.  It is also used for its medicinal qualities.

Garcinia Cambogia is a century old food and medicinal source.  And like most natural food sources, it is nutritious and because it is “medicinal” it holds healing properties.  Aside from these qualities, adding the fruit into a meal makes it more “filling”.  Because of all these qualities, the medical community has conducted studies to see if its fruit extract would be effective in inducing weight loss.  And the good news is that it does. There are those who say that more testing and research is needed but for some the initial positive results are enough. Among the people who endorses the supplement is Dr. Oz. - here is how he (along with Dr. Julie Chen) explained how the G.C. extract is an affective weight loss supplement.

·         Existing and recent G.C. studies show that the extract it increases weight loss by 2 to 3 times more than what people would normally lose with just diet and exercise alone.

·         According to the studies, a month of daily dosages of the supplement will result in a weight loss of about 4 pounds.  And adding   daily exercise and a healthy diet, you lose weight even faster.

·         It increases the serotonin levels so it is great for emotional eaters.   Our sleep and mood get better which then suppresses their appetite (lowers their need to eat). Less appetite, less fat intake.  

·         It also helps manage the stress hormone cortisol.  For this reason, you may expect a decrease in belly fat with the G.C. extract.

·         It prevents fat from being made and instead they are turned into glycogen which is easier to consume as an energy source. Dr. Oz then uses a contraption much like a juice dispenser wherein apparently de-clog the passageway to turn sugar into an energy source instead of storing it as body fat.

·          It is a dual effect fat buster – because it suppresses your appetite and increases the fat burning process in the body by letting the liver do its job and prevents fat storage.

 Garcinia Camborgia is a supplement that help people start their weight loss journey with ease.  The studies shows a lot of promise and since the extract has been available online for quite sometime, the only thing left to do is to try it.

The Newest Diet Fad – Fasting and Feasting

In the book The Fast Diet, Mr. Mosley speaks of dividing your week into feasting days and fasting days and apparently it works!  Well, not everyone is convinced and despite the growing number of total weight lost thanks to the “5:2” diet, the skeptics are not too thrilled.  Intermittent diet is nothing new and people in the health and weight loss community have been doing research to understand it and why it works.

The concept or basic science behind the theory is to teach the body to use its stored fats during the fasting days.  The body derives its energy from glucose and they are found in our blood, glycogen and fat stores (fat cells).  When the body is deprived of the glucose from a meal, it turns to the glucose which is already in the blood.  Once that is depleted, the body turns to the glucose stored in glycogen and finally on to fat cells.   Well, it does make sense and may make even more sense if you read the book.  Endorsers of the 5:2 diet goes on to say that this lifestyle increases lifespan, improves brain function and may help prevent dementia and Alzheimers.  This is because the intermittent fasting changes how the body functions and in a way that prevents glucose related diseases.  Fasting also shrinks the size of the stomach which is why subjects do not “pig-out” during the “feast” days.

On the other side of the fence are doctors and people who say that there is not enough scientific evidence to support the diet’s health claims.  They are concerned about the psychological implications of such a diet.  They consider the Fast Diet an extreme diet and may be abused by certain people.  Some even say it is akin to bulimia.  However, proponents of the book does not endorse going on a fasting diet for more than 24 hours because the body cannot sustain the loss of nutrients.  And on fasting days, you do not completely go without food, just extremely lowered to about 500 calories for women and 600 calories for men. And for feast days, there is no limit to what you want to eat and how much.

Intermittent dieting has proved itself to get positive results but since the diet itself is fairly new, there is no way of telling how it affects the human body in the long term.  There have been studies conducted since 1945, but they are done on mice. 

The diet has worked for a lot of people and whether it is the diet plan that may work for you, it is still considered a health decision you need to make with your doctor. 

References:

The Fast Diet :  By Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer

http://beforeitsnews.com/health/2013/03/the-fast-diet-get-thin-quick-by-starving-yourself-two-days-a-week-2476050.html

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/people-are-lining-up-to-starve-themselves-52/story-e6frezz0-1226597618586

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3511220/

The Other Break - Up Body

The Other Break up Body – Dealing with Emotional Eating

I wrote an article a while ago about two people who dealt with their break up in a positive way.  However, not everyone has the same level of determination and positivity. Others take the other route and succumb to the pain. They grab a pint of ice cream and hope they’ll find comfort in its frozen, creamy goodness.  Add that to a state of depression that robs them of the will to do anything.

Weight gain does not happen overnight but the tricky part is that you gain weight faster than you lose them.  Emotional or stress eating comes right after a break up and without support, it gets worse and it gets harder to get back on track.  The sad part is, by the time people realize what’s happening; they are 30 pounds heavier and more depressed than ever.

But no matter how bad it gets, it can get better.  The sooner you realize you have a problem, the better. We are all wired differently and for some, the realization is enough to get us on track while others require a little bit more from Mother Nature and science.  Our body is complex machinery that requires hormones and transmitters that make sure everything works properly.  Serotonin is one such hormone and it has everything to do with our mood and appetite.

Serotonin and your mood

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter found in the digestive tract and in blood platelets and is responsible for the regulation of a variety of functions in the body such as mood, appetite, and sleep among others.  What’s interesting is the fact that people suffering from depression or are stressed have very low levels of serotonin. Because of this correlation, doctors prescribe pharmaceutical drugs that raise serotonin levels as treatment for depression and stress prevention.  And as for stress eating, the theory is, the better you feel, the lesser you eat.

Increasing your serotonin

Health experts recommend exercise and consumption of tryptophan rich foods to increase serotonin levels.  Serotonin starts off as tryptophan and is found in protein rich food such as meat, chicken, dairy food and nuts.  However, consuming a protein rich meal somehow results in a drop in serotonin levels.  This is because the tryptophan competes with other amino acids in a race to the brain and only a small amount of tryptophan gets through. This can be counteracted by consuming a carbohydrate rich meal to produce a good amount of insulin that helps process tryptophan into serotonin. A daily dosage of vitamin B-6 also help increase the rate of tryptophan-serotonin conversion.

Weight Gain Issues

For stress eaters, the food treatment is not a good idea since you will need a hefty amount of protein and carbohydrates to help increase serotonin levels.  Exercise is a good idea but of course, if you are in a depressed state to begin with, the prospect of going to the gym may not be appealing. This is why medications and supplements are widely recommended by health professionals.  Depending on which health professional you consult, recommendations range from pharmaceutical drugs such as SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) and SNRI (serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors) to non-mainstream supplements such as Saffron Extract, African Mango extract and Garcinia Cambogia or brindle berry extract which are available online. 

Taking Control

It may seem that there is a pill for every ill but in the matters of the heart and d a broken one at that, a pill may not be enough.  It takes will power and a sense of self preservation. And in some cases, surrounding yourself with good friends with a cheerful disposition may be just the all the treatment you need.

References:

http://www.webmd.com/depression/features/serotonin

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/232248.php

http://www.livestrong.com/article/107778-medications-increase-serotonin-levels/

Chlorogenic Acid – The Weight Loss Antioxidant in Coffee

Coffee is more than just the most loved beverage, it is also packed with health benefits that overshadows a lot of health foods out there. This is because coffee is the best and source of antioxidants in any diet.  It is plant based and is even more appealing because it can be taken with a non-dairy creamer and alternative sweetener. There is a huge amount of studies that show the benefits of coffee from lowering the risk for certain cancers, preventing type 2 diabetes and it lowers stress levels –the latter of which is the most obvious benefit and main reason why we drink coffee in the first place.

Recently however, science looked into the coffee bean again to see if it has the potential to help promote weight loss.  Studies conducted have shown promising results and researchers believe it is because of the chemical compound called chlorogenic acid.      

So what is Chlorogenic Acid?

Chlorogenic acid or CGA is a naturally occurring chemical compound in coffee that slows down the release of glucose into the bloodstream after each meal.  It is this quality that has the weight loss community taking interest in coffee.  The compound is also found in other food sources such as potatoes, peaches and prunes but coffee has a larger concentration in each bean.

How does chlorogenic acid help in weight loss?

Glucose is stored as body fat when it is not consumed or “burned” by the body.  Glucose is a source of energy and theoretically, your glucose intake should match the amount of energy you need to complete your daily activities.  The problem with modern day diet is that they are usually energy dense – packed with simple carbs.  That is a lot of energy that goes nowhere but into the fat cells.  The introduction of chlorogenic acid in the body lowers glucose absorption so there is less of the glucose to burn. And more importantly, there are no left overs to store.  The rest of the glucose just leaves the body un-processed.

Is it effective?

There are chlorogenic supplements and there are weight loss supplements with chlorogenic acid such as the Green Coffee Bean Extract.   There are existing mice and human studies that verify the weight loss claim using the extract although there are those on the dissent.  Nonetheless, just like in any other scientific theory, the proof is always found in the real world -the actual users.  Even on this level, there are mixed results = there are those who benefit from it and there are still others who do not lose weight at all.

Now, we must understand the theory in order to understand the results. Chlorogenic acid slows down the absorption of glucose so that what goes into your system is small enough that you use it up just by doing simple tasks.  By doing this, you maintain your current weight.  On the other hand, if you start going to the gym or start exercising, your body uses up the energy already stored – then you lose body fat. Supplements are almost always used to only to augment whatever weight loss efforts we already have in place.

References:

http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=668690

http://jn.nutrition.org/content/138/12/2309.full

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_small_cup_of_coffee.JPG

   

Adiponectin and Its Association to Weight Loss and Type 2 Diabetes

Sometimes we tend to shy away from the medical aspect of losing weight.  There are those of us who shy away from the complicated jargon which honestly does not make sense at all.  Unfortunately, we need to understand at least to some decent extent, the science behind the human body – because in this case, what we do not know can really hurt us.

Pharmaceutical drugs and natural or herbal supplements are recommended to patients based on its capacity to help alleviate the anomalies that happen within the body. In terms of obesity, one of the hormones that health experts look into is adiponectin.  Adiponectin is a protein hormone that controls several metabolic processes and this includes glucose regulation and fatty acid oxidation.  Now you see why this hormone has the attention of the weight loss community. 

Effects of Adiponectin

There is a direct correlation between the level of adiponectin in obese and type 2 diabetics.  In the studies conducted, it was discovered that lean subjects have high levels of the hormone while the obese subject have significantly lower levels of adiponectin.  And prior to diagnosis of type 2 diabetics, there is a substantial decrease in adiponectin levels in their system. 

The question then is if by increasing adiponectin levels, type 2 diabetes will be prevented?  And even more importantly, will the manipulation of adiponectin levels (in this case, to increase it) result in weight loss? If so, then there is a good chance that any supplement or drug that is able to increase adiponectin levels has the potential to be a breakthrough in weight loss and the fight against diabetes.

Currently, there are a few ways to increase adiponectin hormones in your body and they are:

·         Exercise – increased movement also increase adiponectin levels, of course the more intense the work-out the higher the increase in the hormones.

·         A daily dose of Fish Oil or Omega 3 Supplement for an increase of 14 to 60% in adiponectin levels. Available in health stores.

·         Raspberry Ketone Supplements – highly disputed, nonetheless the study regarding its potency is still noteworthy and therefore included in the list. Available online.

References:

http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/497955_3

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15655035

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15682645

http://www.wellnessresources.com/weight/articles/fiber_fish_oil_exercise_boost_adiponectin/