Do Carbs Make You Gain Weight

This post from the HungryGirl website. It explains why you don't have to be afraid of  carbs.

Before you continue reading, There are good and bad Carbs. The bad Carbs are the ones in manufactured foods, the stuff in boxes on your grocery's shelves, and most bad carbs are loaded with calories. Good carbs are fruits and vegetables, beans, lentils, nuts, etc. 

Carbs can be downright confusing: Some sources claim that eating carbs can hinder weight loss and cause weight gain; others say carbs are a diet essential. I’m Hungry Girl Lisa Lillien, and I’m here to clarify the truth about carbs.

There are rumors out there that eating carbs can be detrimental to your diet. Low-carb diets have gone through periods of being super popular for weight loss. But here’s the deal:

Reality: Carbs Don’t Make You Gain Weight; Excess Calories Do

Carbs don't cause instant weight gain, but starchy carbs do have a tendency to be calorie-dense. And if you eat too many calories, you’ll probably put on weight, whether those calories are from carbs or another nutrient. Sure, it’s a problem if your diet consists only of carbs, but it’s also problematic if you’re skipping them completely. Carbohydrates play an important role in your diet; they provide energy to your body. The name of the game is balance: The USDA recommends that 45 to 65 percent of an adult’s daily calorie intake comes from carbs, with the remainder of calories coming from a mixture of protein and fat.

When it Comes to Carbs, There Are a Few Things to Keep in Mind

1. Not all carbs are created equal.

Certain carbs are better for your health than others. It’s important to limit refined carbs, which are prevalent in foods like processed white bread and cakes.

The process of refinement means the whole grains have been extracted, removing much of the fiber and nutritional value and leaving you with sugary carbs and empty calories. 

A better way to fill your daily carb quota is with complex carbs, which are found in whole foods like oats, whole grains, beans, green veggies, and potatoes.

Complex carbs are low in sugar and tend to be high in fiber. And fiber takes longer to digest than other carbs, so it keeps you satisfied and feeling full for a long time. That’s definitely true for me — if I snack on something like an apple, I’m much less likely to reach for a candy bar later in the day.

2. Even complex carbs can be calorie-dense, so watch your servings.

Always read nutritional labels, and practice portion control. One of my favorite ways to enjoy calorie-dense carbs in moderation is to bulk up the serving size with low-calorie foods like veggies: You get the health benefits of the carbs, plus a big portion and a low calorie count!

Green-leafy vegetables are carbs too and they are important to everyones diet. Complex carbs are the ones you want and the man-made carbs are the ones to avoid. 

Forget the low carb diets and stick to healthy food with low-calories. 

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

How To Lose Body Fat

Don't get hung-up on losing weight when the real goal is to lose your fat. I know it sounds like I'm talking about starvation as the only alternative for losing fat but there are safer ways.

The whole idea is to give your body time to burn the fat as fuel. So how do we do that? I eat and drink all my calories for the day in 6 or 8 hours. That means the rest of the day I don't consume any calories. It's a 16 hour fast. I can drink water, tea, coffee or any drink with zero calories. And how does this work? It take your body 12 hours to use up the food you ate and then the remaining 4 hours it has to burn body fat to maintain your body functions.

Your body has no way of storing energy. It burn the calories you eat as fuel as you need the fuel. When you sleep it burn very few calories because the body is resting but during the day it burn more calories because your active. For most of us, we spend too many hours resting and not enough hours being active. Think about the hours in a day and how many of those hours you spend at a desk, how many hours you spend sitting in front of the TV, sitting while your eating, and how many hours you spend lying down. Some of those hours might be productive but your not burning a lot of calories.

So how many calories are you burning in a day? You can add body fat because your body is accustom to the same amount of food or calories every day but you don't burn the same amount every day. So when you eat or drink more calories than you burn you add body fat. Your body stores excess food as fat in your fat cell. All excess food is stored as fat. Your body will process all the calories it needs to provide the fuel that you need at the time you need it. So if I'm writing or reading all day and working at my desk and not being active, I know I can't eat much. I will increase the fasting hours and decrease the hours I spend eating. I can eat two meals in 4 hours and fast 20 hours. If I'm very active, hiking, biking, or doing a heavy workout, I'll eat three times in 8 hours and fast for 16 hours.

You might think that you won't have any energy during the fasting period remember 8 hours or half that time your sleep or resting and after you start moving around most people skip breakfast anyway, so most people on this type of meal plan will eat between noon and 7pm and then fast. The more of your workday you fast the more fat you'll burn if you can mix in more active with work.

I know someone who has a lot of success with this plan and he only follows the plan 4 days a week. He will fast at night and during the day and eat meal from 4pm to 8 pm so he fasts from 8pm to 4 pm the next day. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday he eats 3 meals with the family.

You want to eat healthy foods and avoid sugar as much as possible. Eating fresh foods like fruits, vegetables and fresh meat will give you the nutrition your body needs.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.

Do You Read Those "Healthy and Fitness" websites

I’m sure you have read a few yourself. The one’s that advocate exercises that most of us can’t do, but there great if you want to lose inches or lose weight. No wonder most people give up trying. Last month and I think I wrote about it, less than 3% of  American adults are physically fit. We already know that 66% of adults are overweight which means another 30% of adults may not be overweight but they’re seriously out-of-shape.

Now you can understand why Americans on average pay about 17% of their income for healthcare, whereas in other developed countries the average citizen pays about 9% of their income for healthcare. If we had the best healthcare system in the world you could justify the extra cost, but we don’t. We rank number 37 in developed countries according to the World Health Assoc.

So why is this important to you. The numbers of physically fit people in our country are steadily dropping generation by generation. Americans need to realize what they are doing to themselves. Americans have a strange attitude toward themselves and it’s not just about fitness. We tend to put thing off. We have a “why do I have to do it today?” attitude with most everything and that’s one reason we are so rushed. We are in a hurry to do everything. We thing that we can do everything at the last-minute, not realizing that we are putting extra stress on ourselves.

This is one reason why we fall for all those quick weight loss methods. We want to be able to use the quick and easy method and we think that if we just keep looking we’ll find one.  Well, good luck with that. The methods for getting rich and the methods for losing weight aren’t much different and as we all know there’s no quick way to get rich.

Anytime your body loses weight quickly your body goes into starvation mode and starts to hoard calories, and the fat starts to return. The bad part is when you lose weight quickly you're losing mostly muscle weight and only about 30 fat. But when you gain the weight back, it comes back all fat. So now you’ve increased your percentage of body fat you decrease your percentage of muscle mass. So what the different you might ask. It’s your muscle mass that has to burn fat to maintain it’s size and strength. So every time you lose muscle your losing your ability to burn fat.

Overweight people constantly complain to me in emails that they eat like a bird and can’t lose weight. If you're already overweight and out of shape you have your work cut out for you. I’ll write more about this in my next post and give you tips that I used to lose my fat. Before you can get into shape you have to lose that fat.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Brisk Walking Will Keep You Thinner

Which exercise is best for keeping off weight? A long term study found that people who enjoyed a 30-minute brisk walk most days had the smallest waists and lowest body mass indexes. Brisk walking beat gym exercise and sports for staying slim. Brisk walking was associated with being thinner, especially for women, and people over age 50.

Does Brisk Walking Beat Other Physical Activity for Staying Thin?

In Britain as well as the US and many other countries, health authorities recommend 30 minutes or more per day of moderately intense physical activity for health and weight management.

The researchers wanted to find out which activity was most effective, and the data showed that brisk walking was the winner.

What is Brisk Walking?

Brisk or fast walking is at a pace where you are breathing heavier than normal and the heart rate is elevated. To be in the moderately-intense activity zone, you should have a heart rate of 50% to 70% of your maximum heart rate. Use our heart rate calculator to find this number for your age.

The study focused on brisk walking rather than strolling at an easy pace and lower heart rate, in order to compare it to jogging, gym exercise and sports.

The subjects of the study determined for themselves whether they were brisk/fast walking.

Study Finds Brisk Walking Associated with Lower Fatness Measures

The study looked at data collected in the annual Health Survey for England (HSE) from 1999 to 2012. Over 68,000 respondants reported on how many days in the past month they engaged in 30 minutes or more of moderately intense activities.

The categories were:

• walking at a fast or brisk pace
• sports or exercise including swimming, cycling, gym workouts, dancing, running/jogging, football, tennis and other racquet sports.
• heavy housework
• heavy manual activities

Measurements were made of body mass index, which uses the ratio of height to weight, and measurement of waist circumference. A wider waist shows central obesity, which is associated with developing health problems independently of BMI.

The exciting results were that brisk walking beats the other activities for predicting who has a lower BMI and smaller waist. The graphs of the data show a consistent downward trend in these fatness measures with the number of days of brisk walking each month. Brisk walking five or more days per week was a good target, consistent with the health recommendations for physical activity.

Who Benefits the Most from Brisk Walking?

The good news is that brisk walking worked best for populations who may be less inclined to join in sports or didn't have access to recreational facilities.

• People over age 50 regardless of gender
• People who are pressed for time. 
• People who are unable to do conventional exercise

There is no monetary cost to walking so it is very likely that the benefits will outweigh the costs. A simple policy that 'every step counts' may be a step towards curbing the upward trend in obesity rates and beneficial for other health conditions.”

Why would walking be found to be more effective than spending the same amount of time in the gym? Walkers may be more faithful to their regimen over time. It can also be harder to know how much of your time spent in the gym is in moderately-intense exercise and whether you are performing the exercises correctly. Walking is much easier to get right and to know when you are breathing harder and working up a sweat.

How to Start Brisk Walking

People who enjoy walking at an easy pace can take steps to walk faster and raise the heart rate and breathing rate into the moderately-intense zone. Walking with good posture and arm motion can speed up the feet.

People who have difficulty in walking faster due to arthritis or other conditions can add walking poles or small hand weights to their walking workouts. Using walking poles can raise the heart rate while walking at your usual pace.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my Ebooks at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet.

There’s two ebooks.  “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my Ebook. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new ebook is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

The Secret To Losing Weight, "Don't Diet"

Did you ever wonder how people in some European countries manage to stay thin? When I was in Europe I didn't see an low-calorie food. Restaurants had no diet food or low calorie meals. But very few people were what we call obese. I've personally been to more than 15 European countries and normal people are in better shape than American. 

I read a non-diet book last year "The secret of eating" were by the author explains that diets don't work. This is a weight loss book about how this woman had gained 20 pounds while going to school in the States and then losing the weight when returning to France, her home country. She goes on to say that in France women don't get fat. In the States when she was going to school the portions of food were too large and foods were too sweet. Now I understand students call it the "freshman fifteen", it happens to everyone. 

When returning to Europe she returned home and returned to eating the way she grew up. In Europe women eat sensible. Good food of very high quality and eaten in small portions. Good food does not mean good tasting, it means food of good quality. You can eat anything you like but eat food of good quality, high in nutritional value. Small portions eaten slowly is better for you, and is satisfying. In the States, people eat too fast, we're always in a hurry to get somewhere. Eat on the run, I see people eat while driving every day. Woman feeding their children in the car while driving them somewhere. Drive-thru windows are so crowded they should have a gas pump half way to the window. Sometimes I spend 20 minutes in line for coffee, I stopped that. No more drive-thru's, if I can't stop and eat or drink at a table or counter then I don't need to.

You know it wasn't always this way. Families use to eat together. At school, all the kids eat together in the cafeteria. But at home we eat individually when we're hungry. Maybe that's why families eat out more. It might be the only way to get everyone together.

This plan is for anyone who had trouble sticking to a diet plan. "Don't Get Fat" is a 3-month plan meant to reset your body for a lifetime of healthy weight through slow, gradual weight loss. She goes on to say that many people will love the plan because there's no fitness classes but instead plenty of daily activity and lots of walking. Lots of walking is what people do in other countries and Americans don't do. In North America we drive everywhere; I have even been accused of drive a half block to the mailbox.  

To jump start your diet you begin with two days of leek soup. It cleanses the system so you can start out on empty. Followed by meat or fish, vegetables and a piece of fruit. Drink water with meals, be careful of bottled drinks or any drinks with sugar or sweeteners, those are empty calories. Not good.

At the beginning, keep a food journal. While your losing weight you need to evaluate your diet and identify excess calories. You will be able to eat anything after you reach your goal. The big part of reaching that goal is to learn to eat smaller portions. You may want to start by eating 5 meals a day about 3 hours apart. At night I snack on yogurt, low-fat greek yogurt is filling. You can eat yogurt 2 or 3 times a day, great snack full of calcium and protein. Almonds are a good snack in the afternoon. Change what you eat and how you eat and you'll lose weight.If you change what you eat, start to eat healthy, avoid processed foods (those are pre-made foods that are ready-to-eat), no dairy but you can eat non-fat greek yogurt, no enriched wheat flour, and no sugar or any artificial sweeteners.

I know what your thinking and yes this is a weight lose diet, but it's a lifestyle change. Your learning a new way to eat, a way that you will stay with from now on.

If your going to succeed in losing weight and return to a healthy life, you have to forget everything you're doing now. You have to forget about the foods your eating now, and start over. Whatever you've been doing to lose weight hasn't worked and what ever diets you've tried only gave you temporary weight loss, so if you really want to change your life and become a thinner version of you and a healthier person who will live a longer happier life, you need to start over.

Anything you've been eating will only put weight on you. You need to find a new diet with food you want to eat and that are healthy. You don't have to starve yourself but anything you eat needs to be beneficial to your body. Your food has to give your body energy, but not the energy spike you get from carbs or sugar but real energy that will stay with you. Processed foods will give you an energy high, but then you'll crash about an hour or two later and you get more food cravings. This is what leads to over-eating. Eating foods with to nutritional value that give you a temporary boost in energy, like a soft drink, and then in a short time you need more. These foods or drinks actually cause an addiction. Sugar is an example of a food that can cause an addiction and now science believes that enriched wheat is another man-made product that causes an addiction. It may be as bad for you as sugar.

Things like sugar and wheat have not always caused eating disorders or addictions. We are not eating the same things today that your grandparents did. A few decades ago, manufactures of raw material foods like wheat, sugar and white flour to name a few decided to change the way these raw materials were processed. So now when you read a food label wheat, for instance, is now enriched wheat and flour you buy says enriched flour. In the process of enriching the grain, they added chemicals to make the grains grow faster, so grains are more resistent to bugs and so they can increase production and increase profits. You wonder why a lot of your food comes from other countries. Yes, labor is cheaper in other countries, but using chemicals to enrich foods is not against the law. They can use chemical in other countries that we have band in the U.S. For instance, some of our best pesticides in this country were band because they're harmful to humans, but most other countries still use those pesticides in food production and then they sell that food to U.S. Retailers and it's sold in your grocery stores.

But that's not the whole story, food suppliers to restaurants will buy that food to save money. Those french fries you buy in restaurants aren't grown in Idaho. Yes, in the grocery stores they have to label the food so you know what country it comes from, but restaurants don't have to tell you and in most cases they don't know.

So if you truly want to be a fit, thinner and healthier version of you, you'll have to start over. Do the research and find foods that are good for you and foods you'll stick with. Your next diet is your diet for life. I picked the Mediterranean diet, it's not a weight loss diet but you will lose weight and become a healthier person and you can stay with it for life. You can find it on the web. Remember there's no short-cuts, you have to commit and stay with the plan. After 3 months if the plan doesn't work for you, don't give up, try another plan.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

How Should I Track My Weight Loss?

Take Your Measurements

We have relied on the scale for far too long. You don't have to throw out your scale, just remember it's not your bible.

This is a great option for tracking progress because it doesn't require any fancy equipment and anyone can do it. Taking your measurements at certain areas can give you an idea of where you're losing fat, which is important since we all lose fat in different areas and in different order. 

Many of us have tried this method and gave up using it, but it's a better tracker than the scale. You know where you carry most of your fat and that's the object anyway. "Lose the fat." And the only way to lose fat is to change what you eat.

Taking your measurements can help reassure you that things are happening--even if you're not losing fat exactly where you want just yet.

Start by wearing tight-fitting clothing (or no clothing) and make a note of what you're wearing so you know to wear the same clothes the next time you measure. Here's how to do it:

• Bust: Measure around the chest right at the nipple line, but don't pull the tape too tight.
• Chest: Measure just under your bust.
• Waist: Measure a half-inch above your belly button or at the smallest part of your waist.
• Hips: Place the tape measure around the biggest part of your hips.
• Thighs: Measure around the biggest part of each thigh.
• Calves: Measure around the largest part of each calf.
• Upper arm: Measure around the largest part of each arm above the elbow.
• Forearm: Measure around the largest part of the arm below the elbow.

You can use this Progress Chart to record your measurements. Take them again once a week or once a month to see if you're losing inches.

Use Your Clothes

It may seem obvious, but don't overlook one of the simplest ways to track progress--how your clothes fit.

You may want to take a picture of yourself wearing a bathing suit and keep it in your weight loss journal. Each month, take a new picture...you'll be surprised at how many changes you notice in a picture as opposed to just seeing yourself in the mirror.

You can also use your clothes to keep track of your progress. Choose one pair of pants that are a little tight and try them on every 4 weeks to see how they fit.  Make a note of where they feel loose, where they feel tight and how you feel wearing them. 

Whatever the scale says?  Your pants will never lie.

Whichever method you choose to track your progress, be patient with yourself. It takes months for many of us to see significant changes and, even then, you'll probably notice the weight fluctuating as your eating habits and workouts change.

We can't be perfect all the time, so use these numbers as guideposts, not something that decides whether you're a good person or not. If you're not losing weight quick enough, take another look at your diet. You should eat every few hours. Eat only fresh foods with no man-made sauces, gravies, or anything with calories added to your food like cream or butter, and don't drink calories.

If you really want to lose your body fat then look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Until February 23rd Smashwords has a sale on my ebook for $.99, don’t miss out. This book is a one-stop-shop for all your weight loss questions. Use the coupon code CL77K.

Losing Weight Is All About The Food You Eat

Eat the right food and you won't add on body fat. Eat the wrong foods and you'll add body fat everyday. And then there are some foods that help you lose fat. Losing weight is not about counting calories as much as it is about eating the right foods and eating and drinking all your calories in an 8 hour period. The other 16 hours you fast, no calories.

This is a common mistake many people make. I want to lose weight so I'll go on a diet. My friend went on a 1000 calorie a day diet and lost 20 pounds in just a few weeks, I'll try that. So I'll have coffee and toast for breakfast, for lunch I'll have a salad with bottled dressing, I like that low-cal french. And for dinner I'll go to Subway and get a foot-long. I think that's under 1000 calories, I'll do that.

Okay that's under 1000 calories alright, but you have very little nutrition. Yes, you made a good choice with the salad if it has the right veggies like Kale, tomatoes, beans, spinach leaves, cucumbers etc. Just a pile of lettuce and a couple cherry tomatoes isn't a salad. It just looks like a salad and use some olive oil on that salad. Just because lettuce is green doesn't mean it's loaded with nutrition. Toast and coffee has no nutrition and you can't lose weight if you're going all morning without eating any protein. And as far as that foot-long sandwich, that about the same as lunch, If you eat the right sandwich you can keep the calories low, but if you want to stay on this diet for any long period of time, you need to pack more nutrition in those 1000 calories.

This is the typical mistake people make when they are new at dieting or their not taking the diet seriously. 9 out of 10 people who start a diet end up quitting. 9 out of 10 people who try to lose weight will quit. So what's the problem? Most people don't do their homework and are not really serious about lose weight.

If your really serious you'll first either do some homework and change the way you're eating, or get some professional help.  We are a country that loves to eat out. Restaurants will have some healthy food on their menu, but their real goal is to make food that tastes good. Restaurants have to take care of their customers, so popular food items will never go away. But because of public opinion restaurants are putting healthy food choice on the menu and if they become popular then they'll stick around.

It's  going to be the consumer that will change the grocery stores and restaurants. If we don't demand better quality foods we will only get what the manufacturers can produce at the highest profit margin. So until we can buy already prepared foods that are healthy we need to buy fresh and eat clean. That means we'll be preparing a lot of our own meal and trying to make some healthy choices on the salad bar.

So if your ready to get serious about losing weight you need to do some homework and learn what you can eat and more important the foods you can't eat.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.