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phoenixnutritionals.com (CLICK HERE) Dieting seems to be a national past time! At any given time you have millions of people who are trying to succeed at weight loss, yet the vast majority of these people ultimately fail, either quitting or succeeding, only to gain all the lost weight back again and usually some additional pounds. Low calorie diets, touted by the medical profession and dieticians can work for many people, but we all don’t respond to the same diet in the same way. Low carbohydrate diets tend to work much better for some than simply following a low calorie diet. If your body produces excess insulin, a low carbohydrate diet is going to have a much greater change of working than a low calorie program. Weight loss is not always easy, but it can be made easier once you understand how your body handles food. You can take our Weight Management test to determine if your body is more inclined to respond to a low calorie program and a low carbohydrate diet. Dieting will becomes easier and faster when you are on the program that bests matches your body chemistry. If you are under excessive amounts of stress, cortisol, a hormone from the adrenal glands, is produced in excess. Excess cortisol is one major cause for both weight gain and difficulty with weight loss. Cortisol can be controlled in the body by properly nourishing the adrenal glands so that they are not in a state of exhaustion. Cortisol excess causes weight gain primarily around the mid-section of the body …

If you’ve ever gone on a diet,you’ve learned two things: dieting is no fun. And even if you lose some weight,you usually gain it back. But why is that?

There is plenty of medical evidence to prove that dieting actually can make you fat. And that happens because your body goes to war with any weight loss diet. They aren’t natural and the body craves only a natural state of being. So as you struggle to find a weight loss diet that works, your body makes it tougher and tougher for that unnatural state to persist, which results in the negative effects of yo yo dieting: weight gain.

In this article, we examine the physical reasons why your body sabotages your efforts to diet. We’ll also look at ways to overcome them so your weight loss diet has a better chance of working.

Defense Mechanisms Overview

Our bodies have defense mechanisms that evolved in us throughout history. In early times, food shortages required the body to accumulate fat stores to protect against the lean times. And to this day,our bodies are still programmed this way, even though it’s no longer needed.

So when we go on a diet, the body thinks hard times are here so it goes into fat-storage mode to protect us. The more dieting you do, the more your body thinks it has to store fat. Your task,if you want to lose weight, is to outsmart the following defense mechanisms.

Metabolism

We often use the word metabolism – “I have a slow metabolism”, “I have a fast metabolism.” But what does it really mean in terms of a weight loss diet?

Metabolism refers to all the processes occurring in the body that are responsible for life: your heartbeat, your body temperature, breathing, and the burning of calories to create energy. Your metabolism determines how many calories your body burns to do its job. That’s how your metabolism can be influenced by any weight loss diet that restricts calories.

Repeated diets cause your body to slow down its metabolism in order to become more efficient and continue running on fewer calories.But when you end your diet and return to a normal caloric intake, your body isn’t used to burning all those calories, so it stores the leftover ones as fat. So to prevent that, you now have to eat much less than before just to maintain your new weight. In other words: your diet can never end in order to be successful. And a diet without end is a dire prospect for most of us.

Fat-Storing Enzymes

LPL enzymes store fat. That’s their job. When you diet, the LPL become more active and grow in number. The problem is, when you finish your diet, the LPL levels don’t return to normal until you regain most of the weight you lost.Another way your body makes weight loss dieting very difficult. (Don’t worry, we’ll provide some sensible weight loss diet suggestions that DO work at the end of this article.)

Calorie Absorption

When you diet, your intestines get super efficient at absorbing calories. They go into overdrive, trying to fully stock the body with nutrients by getting as many calories out of the food you eat as possible, not letting any pass out of the body. So the result is logical: dieting makes your intestines very good at absorbing and storing up calories. Exactly what you don’t want when you’re on a weight loss diet to lose pounds.

The Body Fat Dilemma

Poor dieting can make you fatter than you were before. That’s because when you lose the weight, it often comes from water and muscles. But when you gain it back, it returns in the form of fat. So you wind up with a higher proportion of fat to lean muscle than you had before.

Hormonal Disruptions

Low cal weight loss diets make your thyroid gland produce less of the hormone that regulates metabolism. And that can reduce your calorie burning ability by up to 15%. Not helpful for anyone trying to lose weight.

Skipping Breakfast

Missing meals may be the worst kind of weight loss diet because calories taken early in the day are burned off faster than those eaten at night. So skipping breakfast and eating more in the evening actually contributes to the weight problem. In fact, eating all your daily calories for breakfast can lead to weight loss, eating them all at night leads to weight gain.

Training Your Stomach

Overeating at meal time stretches out the stomach.That trains it to want more food in order to get that full feeling. But people who eat small meals more often need and want less food. The stomach can be trained over time to adapt to smaller meals and snacks taken throughout the day. When the stomach is smaller, it will fill faster and demand less food.

Beating Your Body’s Defense Mechanisms

As promised, here are some ways to override your body’s defenses and create a sensible, effective weight loss diet that really works:

1. Don’t yo-yo diet. Come up with a healthy weight loss diet plan and see it through until you get results.

2. Don’t drop calorie intake below 1,000 a day. The body sees this as a threat. Instead, eat enough calories that contain the right balance of nutrients like proteins and carbs while reducing fats.

3. Include fiber in any weight loss diet plan. It helps food and fats pass through the intestines quickly, rather than getting absorbed in the form of calories.

4. Avoid simple carbs like sugars: they are quickly absorbed by the body as blood sugar which increases insulin – the enemy of weight loss diets.

5. Drink caffeine in moderation for the same reason. It stimulates insulin secretion.

6. Never go hungry. Eating regular meals and snacks will help eliminate those dangerous cravings and keep your body’s defense mechanisms from going into starvation mode.

7. Eat more of your daily calories early in the day and less of them later.

8. Be content with slow weight loss. This prevents the body from going on defense and allows the weight loss to continue gradually.

9. Keep the weight off with exercise.

One More Thing

Even following these guidelines, some people who are obese or very overweight find it difficult to lose weight. For them, medication may help to support their weight loss diet.

www.undergroundwellness.com Stop the madness. A brief synopsis of Ancel Keys’ Starvation Study and the effects of low-calorie dieting. Research taken from Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. Low-fat diets may be making you sick and FAT. The last thing you want to do when reducing bodyfat is slowing down your metabolism. Low fat diets may cause depression, anxiety, cognitive dysfunction, poor wound healing, etc. Be smart. Investigate the truth. Schedule your FREE Phone/Skype consultation with Sean via email at consultations@undergroundwellness.com Please visit our websites: www.undergroundwellness.com http www.theuwstore.com http www.twitter.com www.blogtalkradio.com www.facebook.com www.blogtalkradio.com

January 17, 2008 presentation by Christopher Gardner for the Stanford School of Medicine Medcast lecture series. The case for low-carbohydrate diets is gaining weight. Christopher Gardner, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, has completed the largest and longest-ever comparison of four popular diets using real-world conditions, which he discusses – the lowest-carbohydrate Atkins diet came out on top. Stanford University School of Medicine: med.stanford.edu Stanford University Channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com

Are you serious about weight loss? This article describes weight loss myths and explains the truth about dieting.

Weight Loss Myth #1: Fat loss will come naturally if you follow a low carbohydrate diet.

Truth: The truth is that low carbohydrate fad diets are not effective for long-term weight loss. Cutting back on all carbs helps you lose weight initially and will even help you reach your weight loss goal, but the chances that you maintain the weight loss are slim. Restrictive diets are mentally challenging. What happens is the first time you give in to carbohydrate cravings you want more and try to make up for the time you deprived yourself of them. Furthermore, studies show that the brain needs carbohydrates for proper functioning.

Weight Loss Myth #2: Diet pills are the easy way to lose weight.

Truth: Some diet pills are dangerous to your health. Over-the-counter weight loss products aren’t fully tested or FDA approved. Whether it’s a water pill, a fat blocker or a metabolism enhancer, diet pills pose a health risk and have been known to cause illness and even death. Even diet pills that are approved by the FDA are risky. Products are often pulled from shelves after research show unhealthy side effects. Diet pills may help you lose weight fast; they do not provide lasting weight loss.

Weight Loss Myth #3: The top 10 fad diets are based the latest technology and information for weight loss, making them ideal to lose weight fast.

Truth: Many top 10 fad diets are just worthless weight loss products. They are scams to fool people into making the purchase. They exist only to make money off of unsuspecting overweight individuals. A top 10 fad diet may be based on a portion of a recent study that makes sense from a dieter’s perspective, but they rarely offer the big picture. Just because a book has been published on a particular weight loss topic does not make it the best weight loss plan.

Weight Loss Myth #4: Low-fat diets expedite fat loss. Eating low-fat and fat free foods is a simple plan and healthy way to lose weight.

Truth: Low-fat diets actually slow your metabolism, making it more difficult to lose weight and maintain your weight loss. Low-fat diets also leave you feeling hungry and deprived. The body needs a certain amount of healthy fats for normal functioning. Fat also helps you feel full longer. Switching to fat-free and low-fat products alone will not help you reach your weight loss goals.

Weight Loss Myth #5: Supplements are a safe method for accelerating weight loss.

Truth: Supplements advertise their natural ingredients that aid weight loss. The truth is that 97% of weight loss supplements are completely worthless. Supplements are not regulated and while they may boast all natural ingredients, that doesn’t mean they are healthy for your body.

Avoid Fad diets and Lose Weight the Healthy Way

These myths bring up the questions of why people are encouraged to buy weight loss products that don’t work. Companies that sell top 10 fad diets and run weight loss scams are simply capitalizing on a billion-dollar industry. Obviously, these companies don’t want overweight people to know the truth about healthy, simple plans that work. That would cost them sales.

The healthy way to lose weight is to avoid top 10 fad diets and weight loss scams. The best kept diet plan secrets are simply this: knowing what healthy organic and whole foods to eat and when, regular exercise and having the right mindset. This simple plan is the key to obtaining and maintaining a healthy weight.

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I must confess that I have always been a fan of low carb diets that work. My personal training clients are constantly coming to me for advice on diets, and frequently I will suggest a low carb diet. Unfortunately, some of them don’t heed ALL of my directions while on the diet. The result being that they experience frequent plateaus, and inconsistent weight loss. I generally discover that most of them are making this one big mistake!

During the course of just about any diet, there are periods of time when an individual is following the plan, and not losing any weight. These frustrating periods of time are commonly referred to as a plateau.

Most plateaus are caused by fluid retention, particularly if the intake of sodium (salt) IS NOT reduced while on the diet. Water is quite frequently retained right beneath the surface of the skin.

On most low carb diets that work, dieters tend to lose a great amount of water weight during the initial stages of the diet. Generally, during the first 2 weeks or so. The reason for this fluid loss is that carbohydrates act as a “dam” for body fluids. When carbohydrates are drastically reduced, the body “dumps” water that had been retained in body tissues.

However, after this initial loss of water weight, dieters notice that their weight loss dramatically decreases. In fact, their weight may increase a bit! This is caused by the body’s need to take back the water that was lost during the initial stages of the diet.

The mistake that these dieters generally make is not drinking enough water when starting the low carb diet. This is also true of low carb diets that work. Dieters MUST drink at least 8, full glasses of water daily, to curtail fluid retention.

It is interesting that consuming more water PREVENTS water being held. This occurs because the kidneys are working “overtime”, constantly releasing water.

There are so many fad diets out there these days that attract people with there fast weight loss and celebrity lifestyle image. The fact is that nearly all of these diets only really offer short-term weight loss solutions and can be extremely unhealthy. Iv’e put together a list of 5 popular fad diets – along with reasons NOT to try them!

Detox Diet
Claims to lose a stone in 10 days, defeat cellulite, give glowing skin and no more bloating. This diet is meant to compliment other detox methods such as massages, colonic irrigation, saunas, fasting etc. Food such as fish, meat, eggs, dairy, wheat, salt, sugar etc are banned, while fruit, veg, beans, seeds, nuts are allowed. This results in a lack of nutrients, lowered immune system, a temporary weight loss, mainly water. It can lead to yo-yo dieting, nausea, sickness and headaches. It is said to causes food cravings, resulting in eventually giving up! It can also cause eating disorders and there is no good evidence of it actually working!

Low Carb / Atkins Diet
The aim of low carb diets is to force the body to use its own fat as its main energy source. This produces something called ketone bodies to fuel body parts that can not use fat as an energy source such as the brain and red blood cells. This puts you in a state of ketosis – resulting in smelly breath and side effects like fatigue and nausea. These diets do produce short term results, which actually come from loss of muscle tissue and water. They are not a long term weight loss solution and are unhealthy if sustained.

Starvation Diet
Starving yourself is one of the worst diets that you could try. Ok, you may initially lose a lot of weight but the effect this has on your body is drastic! You will be extremely lacking much needed nutrition and this will lead to fatigue, lack of sex drive and hormones, sleep loss, possible hypothermia, poor concentration and judgement, depression, anxiety, personality changes, social withdrawal, your metabolism will dramatically slow down, you will lose organ tissue and muscles, you can get shakes, feel the cold more, and feel very week. Low calorie intakes actually slow down weight loss.

Hollywood Diet
This is basically a 24 or 48 hour ‘Juice Fast’ where you eat no food in this time. This diet has the same cons as the starvation diet. You are really just losing excess water in the body with this diet and it does’nt last long, you will soon put that weight back on. It is expensive to buy the juice, around $25! You will get no protein or iron in the body, and will be taking lots of sugar and carbs. Tastes good at first but soon turns very sickly.

Cabbage Soup Diet
This is a 7 day diet plan which supposedly offers a fast weight loss solution. This is a very short term solution and is not sustainable so is’nt a viable option for long term weight loss. There are a few benefits to this diet which include fast weight loss, a healthy beneficial change from eating junk food, and research has shown that cabbage helps to prevent cancer. However, the drawbacks do outweigh these benefits somewhat significantly. The soup is high in salt, lacking in good overall nutrition – low in protein, calcium, essential fatty acids, high in sodium and MSG, requires much will power as the soup tastes very bland and is extremely repetitive, gives you gas!, and most of all this is not a healthy sustainable solution to long-term weight loss. This diet will most probably make you GAIN weight as it has a very low calorie intake and you can get bloated!

There really is no substitute for a healthy diet and regular exercise if you want to lose weight and live an overall healthier and more active lifestyle.

In uncovering the top ten diets that work, I was also exposed to revealing insights as to why some diets work for some people, and not for others. The fact is that just about all diets “work” when it comes to some degree of weight loss. However, many individuals make the crucial mistake of picking a diet that sabotages their chances of success from the beginning.

1) The Diet Does Not Conform To Their Lifestyle

This is a mistake that the majority of dieters are guilty of. Before going on a given diet, or enrolling in a diet program, individuals should closely examine the requirements of the diet. After looking over the requirements, they should compare them to the realities of their lifestyle. As I researched the top ten diets that work, I found that each of them suited the lifestyle of a high percentage of people.

For example, if an individual has an occupation where they are constantly eating “on the run”, is it realistic that they will stick to a plan that features all prepared meals?

Probably not.

If a diet requires drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day, is it realistic to select it if you can’t make frequent trips to the bathroom throughout the day?

Probably not.

Eating preferences can determine how suitable a diet is for any given individual. If you refuse to each fruits and vegetables, a balanced and restrictive low calorie diet may be a self defeating choice. Inevitably, if an individual goes on a diet and will only eat some of the required food, they are doomed to be weak, tired, and miserable!

It is important that each dieter actually puts themselves in the mental position of actually being on the diet. Upon examining that realitiy, they may realize that a given diet program is not realistic for them.