What does diet involve?

What does the diet involve ?Every reducing-diet involves the amount of calories eaten to be less than the amount of calories used up. This means cutting down on the total amounts of food, especially fatty foods, and increasing daily activity and exercise. Enjoy what you do - a constant battle makes it much harder. HAVE LOW FAT MEALS AND SNACKS Throw your frying pan away and try grilling, baking, poaching, boiling or microwaving food instead (2 oz fat per day adds up to 500 unnecessary calories a week). EAT FISH AND CHICKEN MORE OFTEN AND RED MEATS LESS OFTEN Buy lean cuts of red meat. Limit portion sizes to 4 to 6 oz. Roast poultry or meat on a rack to drain the fat. Remove skin from poultry before cooking. USE SKIMMED OR SEMI-SKIMMED MILK All other milks contain more fat. Try low fat yoghurt instead of cream. TRY LOW FAT SPREADS rather than butter or margarine and spread it thinly. BUY LOW FAT CHEESE such as cottage cheese: Edam, Camembert, Brie are better than hard cheeses like Cheddar. Limit one portion of hard cheese to a matchbox size. Grated cheese goes further. ENJOY REGULAR FRUIT AND VEGETABLES All fruit and vegetables are recommended. Enjoy up to five or six portions a day (one portion is equal to one piece of fruit or a serving of vegetables). Grab a piece of fruit rather than raiding the fridge or the biscuit barrel. FILL UP ON HIGH FIBRE/HIGH CARBOHYDRATE CHOICES Bulky high fibre foods such as wholemeal pasta, wholemeal rice, wholegrain bread, etc. are more filling and curb hunger for longer. Carbohydrate foods, e.g. potato, bread, are good for you and should fill up your plate, along with vegetables at the expense of fatty protein foods.

What is a weight reducing diet?

What is a weight reducing diet ?One half of the population is overweight to the point where it will affect their health (obesity). In the last 10 years the number of people who are very overweight has tripled. The UK government has published a report called Health of the Nation . It aimed to reduce obesity in men by a quarter and women by a third by 2005. The slimming industry made an 80 million profit in 1994 on commercial "lean meals", and the figure is rising. Many people are trying to lose weight but the total numbers of overweight people keep increasing. People are becoming less active through fewer manual tasks and mechanization. Over the last few years the advice on slimming may have been confusing at times. However, all experts do agree that the best way to maintain weight loss is to follow a healthy lifestyle.What is a weight reducing diet for ?Weight loss is good for many conditions. Two stones overweight does not sound like much. Think of it as being the same as carrying a 2 year old child around all day, every day. The extra stress on your heart, blood pressure and other organs is obvious. Weight loss is of real benefit in diabetes, high blood pressure, shortness of breath, joint problems and raised cholesterol.How does a weight reducing diet work ?First of all decide how much weight you want to lose, and set yourself a realistic target, ideally with the help of your dietitian or doctor. Remember that the most weight you can lose as fat is 1 to 2 lb a week (0.5 to 1.0 kg). If you lose weight any faster than this you will lose muscle too. This could actually slow down your metabolism and make it even harder to lose weight (this is the reason why crash diets fail). You may like to work out your body mass index (BMI). This is a figure now used by many doctors and dietitians to calculate your "heaviness". Measure your weight in kilograms and your height in metres. BMI is weight divided by height squared (W/h 2 ). A calculator helps! 20 to 25 : Ideal body weight 25 to 30 : Overweight, it would be a good idea to lose some 30 to 40 : Very overweight, you must lose some weight 40+ : Obese, your health at is at serious risk Write down your target weight. Better still, draw a graph and perhaps stick it up on the refrigerator door. Check your weight weekly and ideally in the morning. If you weigh yourself more often than this you may get disappointed. Water builds up in the body on some days, and can give you the wrong impression.

What to watch out for

What to watch out for in a weight reducing dietWeight loss is individual. A diet that works for some people does not work for others. The solution is to find the approach that best suits you . For some people this may be joining a group or a club such as Weight Watchers or Scottish Slimmers. Some people prefer one-to-one contact, while many people succeed on their own with the help of books and magazines. Which ever approach you prefer, the key to long-term success is a slow steady weight loss. This is why, from experience, the most successful diets are usually the ones making small permanent changes to your normal eating habits . Beware of 'gimmick' diets which may help in the short term to promote weight loss but after a few weeks become dull and repetitive causing old habits to return. It is usually necessary to deal with the problems that caused the weight gain to keep weight off in the long term. Thus, unfortunately for those who are looking for a miracle cure or a magic bullet, the best approach to weight loss is sensible, regular healthy eating with a calorie intake which is less than your requirements (500 calories a day less than requirements leads to a 1 lb weight loss a week).What if the weight reducing diet is not followed ?Being overweight puts you more at risk of developing heart disease or diabetes. This is especially true if you tend to carry weight around the waist (truncal obesity) rather than around the hips. Men should aim to maintain a waistline less than 94 cm (37 inches): more than 102 cm (40 inches) is definitely bad news. In women the ideal waistline is less than 80 cm (32 inches): more than 88 cm (35 inches) really means that you must lose! Make day-to-day activities less of an effort, stop feeling guilty, lose weight and have fun!

Fun weight loss tip 1

Write down everything you eat and drink for 3 days. Have a look at it (or ask a friend) and see if you can pick out any weak points you may be surprised! Look for two or three ways you could improve your diet. Also think about where you eat (on the move, at a table or in front of the TV). Are you hungry when you eat? Do you eat through boredom? Or because you feel upset? Have you lost weight before? Why was it regained? Hopefully, in this way you can identify and put an end to some bad habits. Tell people what you are doing only if you can depend on their support. While counting calories to the last detail is not recommended, it is a good idea to read food labels and have an idea of the fat (especially hidden fat) content of food. Avoid shopping on an empty stomach.

Vitamins

Vitamins are only required in very small quantities. There is no chemical similarity between these chemicals; the similarity between them is entirely biological.Vitamin A: good for your eyes.Vitamin B: about 12 different chemicals.Vitamin C: needed for your body to repair itself.Vitamin D: can be made in your skin, needed for absorption of Calcium.Vitamin E: the nice one - reproduction?Return to indexMineral SaltsThese are also needed in small quantities, but we need more of these than we need of vitamins.Iron: required to make haemoglobin.Calcium: required for healthy teeth, bones and muscles.Sodium: all cells need this, especially nerve cells.Iodine: used to make a hormone called thyroxin.Return to indexFibreWe do not // can not digest cellulose. This is a carbohydrate used by plants to make their cell walls. It is also called roughage. If you do not eat foods materials which contain fibre you might end up with problems of the colon and rectum. The muscles of you digestive system mix food with the digestive juices and push food along the intestines by peristalsis; if there is no fibre in your diet these movements cannot work properly.Return to indexA Balanced DietYou must have carbohydrate, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals salts and fibre in the correct proportions. If there is not enough protein, you will not be able to grow properly and you will not be able to repair yourself i.e. wounds will not heal properly. If you do not have enough energy containing foods you will feel very tired, you will not have enough energy. If you have too much energy containing foods you will become overweight. If you think that you are overweight you might try taking more exercise to "burn off" some of the excess food which you ate at you last mealWEIGHT REDUCING DIETWhat is a weight reducing diet ?One half of the population is overweight to the point where it will affect their health (obesity). In the last 10 years the number of people who are very overweight has tripled. The UK government has published a report called Health of the Nation . It aimed to reduce obesity in men by a quarter and women by a third by 2005. The slimming industry made an 80 million profit in 1994 on commercial "lean meals", and the figure is rising. Many people are trying to lose weight but the total numbers of overweight people keep increasing. People are becoming less active through fewer manual tasks and mechanization. Over the last few years the advice on slimming may have been confusing at times. However, all experts do agree that the best way to maintain weight loss is to follow a healthy lifestyle.What is a weight reducing diet for ?Weight loss is good for many conditions. Two stones overweight does not sound like much. Think of it as being the same as carrying a 2 year old child around all day, every day. The extra stress on your heart, blood pressure and other organs is obvious. Weight loss is of real benefit in diabetes, high blood pressure, shortness of breath, joint problems and raised cholesterol.How does a weight reducing diet work ?First of all decide how much weight you want to lose, and set yourself a realistic target, ideally with the help of your dietitian or doctor. Remember that the most weight you can lose as fat is 1 to 2 lb a week (0.5 to 1.0 kg). If you lose weight any faster than this you will lose muscle too. This could actually slow down your metabolism and make it even harder to lose weight (this is the reason why crash diets fail). You may like to work out your body mass index (BMI). This is a figure now used by many doctors and dietitians to calculate your "heaviness". Measure your weight in kilograms and your height in metres. BMI is weight divided by height squared (W/h 2 ). A calculator helps! 20 to 25 : Ideal body weight 25 to 30 : Overweight, it would be a good idea to lose some 30 to 40 : Very overweight, you must lose some weight 40+ : Obese, your health at is at serious risk Write down your target weight. Better still, draw a graph and perhaps stick it up on the refrigerator door. Check your weight weekly and ideally in the morning. If you weigh yourself more often than this you may get disappointed. Water builds up in the body on some days, and can give you the wrong impression.What does the diet involve ?Every reducing-diet involves the amount of calories eaten to be less than the amount of calories used up. This means cutting down on the total amounts of food, especially fatty foods, and increasing daily activity and exercise. Enjoy what you do - a constant battle makes it much harder. HAVE LOW FAT MEALS AND SNACKS Throw your frying pan away and try grilling, baking, poaching, boiling or microwaving food instead (2 oz fat per day adds up to 500 unnecessary calories a week). EAT FISH AND CHICKEN MORE OFTEN AND RED MEATS LESS OFTEN Buy lean cuts of red meat. Limit portion sizes to 4 to 6 oz. Roast poultry or meat on a rack to drain the fat. Remove skin from poultry before cooking. USE SKIMMED OR SEMI-SKIMMED MILK All other milks contain more fat. Try low fat yoghurt instead of cream. TRY LOW FAT SPREADS rather than butter or margarine and spread it thinly. BUY LOW FAT CHEESE such as cottage cheese: Edam, Camembert, Brie are better than hard cheeses like Cheddar. Limit one portion of hard cheese to a matchbox size. Grated cheese goes further. ENJOY REGULAR FRUIT AND VEGETABLES All fruit and vegetables are recommended. Enjoy up to five or six portions a day (one portion is equal to one piece of fruit or a serving of vegetables). Grab a piece of fruit rather than raiding the fridge or the biscuit barrel. FILL UP ON HIGH FIBRE/HIGH CARBOHYDRATE CHOICES Bulky high fibre foods such as wholemeal pasta, wholemeal rice, wholegrain bread, etc. are more filling and curb hunger for longer. Carbohydrate foods, e.g. potato, bread, are good for you and should fill up your plate, along with vegetables at the expense of fatty protein foods.What to watch out for in a weight reducing dietWeight loss is individual. A diet that works for some people does not work for others. The solution is to find the approach that best suits you . For some people this may be joining a group or a club such as Weight Watchers or Scottish Slimmers. Some people prefer one-to-one contact, while many people succeed on their own with the help of books and magazines. Which ever approach you prefer, the key to long-term success is a slow steady weight loss. This is why, from experience, the most successful diets are usually the ones making small permanent changes to your normal eating habits . Beware of 'gimmick' diets which may help in the short term to promote weight loss but after a few weeks become dull and repetitive causing old habits to return. It is usually necessary to deal with the problems that caused the weight gain to keep weight off in the long term. Thus, unfortunately for those who are looking for a miracle cure or a magic bullet, the best approach to weight loss is sensible, regular healthy eating with a calorie intake which is less than your requirements (500 calories a day less than requirements leads to a 1 lb weight loss a week).What if the weight reducing diet is not followed ?Being overweight puts you more at risk of developing heart disease or diabetes. This is especially true if you tend to carry weight around the waist (truncal obesity) rather than around the hips. Men should aim to maintain a waistline less than 94 cm (37 inches): more than 102 cm (40 inches) is definitely bad news. In women the ideal waistline is less than 80 cm (32 inches): more than 88 cm (35 inches) really means that you must lose! Make day-to-day activities less of an effort, stop feeling guilty, lose weight and have fun!Other tips!Write down everything you eat and drink for 3 days. Have a look at it (or ask a friend) and see if you can pick out any weak points you may be surprised! Look for two or three ways you could improve your diet. Also think about where you eat (on the move, at a table or in front of the TV). Are you hungry when you eat? Do you eat through boredom? Or because you feel upset? Have you lost weight before? Why was it regained? Hopefully, in this way you can identify and put an end to some bad habits. Tell people what you are doing only if you can depend on their support. While counting calories to the last detail is not recommended, it is a good idea to read food labels and have an idea of the fat (especially hidden fat) content of food. Avoid shopping on an empty stomach.

Fats

FatsLike carbohydrates, fats contain the elements Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen. Fats are used as a source of energy: they are also stored beneath the skin helping to insulate us against the cold. Do not think that by avoiding fat in your diet you will stay thin and elegant! If you eat too much carbohydrate and protein, you will convert some of it into fat, so you will put on weight. You must balance the amount of energy containing foods with the amount of energy that you use when you take exercise.You must have some fat in your diet because it contains fat soluble vitamins.

Proteins

Proteins are required for growth and repair. Proteins contain Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen and sometimes Sulphur. Proteins are very large molecules, so they cannot get directly into our blood; they must be turned into amino-acids by the digestive system. There are over 20 different amino-acids. Our bodies can turn the amino-acids back into protein. When our cells do this they have to put the amino-acids together in the correct order. There are many millions of possible combinations or sequences of amino-acids; it is our DNA which contains the information about how to make proteins. Our cells get their amino-acids from the blood. Now try my Biuret test in the Virtual LaboratoryProteins can also be used as a source of energy. When excess amino-acids are removed from the body the Nitrogen is excreted as a chemical called urea. The liver makes urea and the kidney puts the urea into our urine.