Weight loss isn’t just about looking better. If you’re one of the nearly 130 million in the United States, weight loss is a basic equation based on eating the right foods and doing the right exercises.

Weight loss is really hard to achieve by yourself. Losing weight takes encouragement, support and possibly a community of people with the same goals that are determined to succeed.

Weight loss is extremely difficult when you feel like you are depriving yourself. Instead of being a positive and exciting experience, losing weight becomes a struggle against yourself. Weight loss is the major focus of the many people nowadays.

Being fat or having huge body seems losing their self confidence and could sometimes disturb ones peaceful world. Weight loss is of course, not something that merely happens overnight.

You can take pills, go on a crash diet, or deprive yourself of your favorite dessert, only to realize that you are only gaining back the weight that you want to shed off.

Weight loss is a big business. People are willing to do anything to drop a few pounds. Weight loss is not easy to do and can add to a student’s stress level and is even harder when suffering from sleep deprivation.

One must be very motivated, disciplined, patient, have a weight loss plan, be able to follow specific and realistic daily and weekly goals, and be honest with oneself.

Weight loss is simple, burn more calories then you consume. If you can fully understand that then you are on your way to losing weight.

Dieting requires present-moment frustration and self-denial with little immediate reward. Diets fail because people have not mentally prepared themselves for physical change (mind before body).

Dieting alone can help you lose weight. Cutting 250 calories from your daily diet can help you lose about half a pound a week: 3,500 calories equals 1 pound of fat.

Dieting separates us from the normal process of hunger and

sets us up for some very real physical effects which result in people who ignore their own survival mechanisms and starve themselves.

Current estimates indicate that one in five women is suffering from a severe form of an eating disorder, and eight out of ten have some of the symptoms of one or more of these illnesses. Dieting is a major industry, with so many different plans and programs for sale.

However, by living a healthy lifestyle, you don’t need to take drastic measures to lose weight and indeed, you don’t need to splash out on any fad diet plan. Diets claiming that eliminating carbs all together is the key to weight loss tend to be swimming with saturated fat and are often deficient in nutrients.

Some of these diets restrict the amount of fruits and vegetables that you eat which in many cases is not the

best choice for your overall health.

Diets that promise fast weight loss with hardly any effort don?t give you the skills you need to maintain your weight loss; in quite a few cases, these diet fads and quick fixes

can do more harm than good.

Most weight loss experts will explain that losing weight is not just about dieting. Dieting may conjure up visions of eating little but lettuce and sprouts–but you can enjoy all foods as part of a healthy diet as long as you don’t overdo it.

Many weight loss experts state that to successfully lose weight you must change your lifestyle and not merely go on

a diet. Diet pills generally come in two forms – appetite suppressors and lipase inhibitors. Appetite suppressors interact with hunger signaling chemicals in the brain.

Diets such as the Atkins diet or Zone diet suggest people eat more protein and fat while restricting carbohydrate to lose weight. Others, like those on a vegetarian diet, abandon meat altogether.

Diet pills should not be taken by someone looking to lose only a few pounds or by individuals with other underlying health issues. Dieters that make extreme changes to their diet to lose weight will soon tire of the restrictions and gain the weight back and sometimes even more.

Fad diets also contribute to many health problems including gallstones, heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.

The research on herbs by clinical physiologists led to the formulation of healthy herbal supplements that boast of the mechanism of reducing weight naturally. The variety of herbal weight loss products include pills,

injections, patches and other types of supplements. Many herbal weight loss products are marketed with the claims of being highly effective. For thousands of years herbs have been used for medicinal

purposes and has been proven to benefit our health. Herbs very simply are from certain plants and used for

What is a bland diet? It is a diet specially set to treat certain gastrointestinal or stomach problems such as heartburns, ulcers and gas.

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An answer to a question, what is a bland diet, is that it is a simple treatment for people suffering from any one or more gastrointestinal disorders such as chronic gastritis, ulcer, esophagitis and dyspepsia.

Bland diet is a dietary regimen for people suffering from stomach disorders. Hence, it is quite understood that ingredients of a bland diet are soft food items, which are easy to digest with a capacity to keep the acidity to low levels. Questions about diet may be asked to your physicians and he/she can suggest the diet or recommend a dietician to do it.

Diet medical questions may include the queries about the food stuffs to eat and food stuffs to avoid during the time while a person experien ces any gastrointestinal disorders. However, before a dietician could decide the bland diet for a person, he/she needs to seek answers to several medical questions related to the person such as any food allergies or irritations associated with any food items and emotions medical questions of people.

Bland Diet:

The diet prescribed as a bland diet will include food items that are easy to digest and low in fiber and acid contents. Even giving up alcohol and smoking is advised while patient is on bland diet. Also a patient is advised to have 4 to 6 light meals after regular interval to avoid heavy and large meals.

Chewing food properly and eating slowly helps in the digestion of the food. Adequate sleep, avoiding smoking and controlling anxiety are supportive treatments for the standard treatment of the problem.

Allowed Food Items:

• Dairy Products
Milk, cheese, yogurt with low-fats and other dairy products are easily digested and hence, can be included as a part of bland diet. However, there is no restriction on ice-creams and one may consume even ice creams during bland diet, but it should not have any product such as nuts that are not allowed in bland diet.

• Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Fresh vegetables and fruits are allowed to a bland dieter. However, while carrot, squash, green peas are good to eat in a bland diet, broccoli, onions and green peeper should be avoided as it forms gas. In fruits, oranges, grapefruits, and bananas are allowed.

• Proteins
Protein requirement of the body, while on a bland diet should be met with soy products and meat. Fried chicken and greasy hamburgers are not allowed to be consumed, while grilled and baked chicken is allowed.
Low-fat peanut butter and eggs are also efficient to meet the body’s protein requirement in a bland diet.

• Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are contained in whole grain breads, pasta, oatmeal, corn flakes, white rice and sweet potatoes. All these food items are allowed.

Bland diet is designed for treating certain medical circumstances such as gastrointestinal problems. Hence, to answer what is a bland diet, we can say that this is a diet that aims at improving the digestion with the help of a timed-routine diet and soft to digest food items. Once the problem is controlled patients can return to their normal diet.

The Atkins’ diet has been a craze for a couple of decades. Here’s how you can gain from it.

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All of you who are reading this article right now have definitely been on a diet at some point or the other of your lives. The battle of the bulge is an ongoing problem and we are always on the lookout for various means to win this war.

Along with exercise, our diet and nutrition also plays an important role in reducing our weight. Hence, this obsession persists in all of us to undertake some form of dieting. But going on a diet is definitely not an easy thing. What to eat and what to stay away from is always a perennial problem.

One of my friends told me that she ate the normal menu which she cooked for the family, but her weight loss recipe is “portion control.” This is a really simple diet plan. In this plan, you cut down on the portion of food you consume. For example, if you usually have two pieces of toast for breakfast, you should eat only one piece. If you normally eat two cups of rice for lunch, cut it down to one cup. In this way, you are automatically reducing your calorie intake by half.

Another popular method of dieting is to stop all intake of fatty foods and sugar. In this diet, you cut down on your oil, butter and ghee intake which automatically reduces your fat deposits.

While I was leafing through a magazine, I read about one of our Hollywood celebrities following the Atkins’ diet. This immediately aroused my curiosity about the diet. Though I have heard about the diet many times, I had no inside knowledge about it. So, I immediately set to work on it and found out certain basic facts’ about the Atkins diet which I want to share with my readers.

The Atkins’ diet made its first appearance in 1972 and was invented by its namesake, Dr Atkins. According to him, this method enables us to lose weight by inducing a change in metabolism. Our body burns both fat and carbohydrates to provide energy. If we reduce the intake of carbohydrates significantly, our body starts burning only fat to provide energy. This method is called “lipolysis”, which in turn induces ketosis. In ketosis, our body burns fat as fuel. Atkins also felt that ketosis will affect insulin production which will result in less fat being formed. And, once your body enters ketosis, your cravings for carbohydrates will reduce significantly which, in turn, will reduce your body weight.

The major difference between Atkins’ diet and other types of diet is that, while most diets restrict calorie, intake, the Atkins’ plan encourages us to eat more. While most of the diets recommend low fat, high carbohydrate intake, Atkins’ does just the opposite. Instead of carbohydrate and sugar, this diet wants us to consume plenty of fat and protein.

The core principle of the Atkins’ diet is that, by limiting carbohydrates, our body is forced to burn its stored fat, rather than carbs for fuel.

The Atkins’ diet has a four carbohydrates stage plan induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance and lifetime maintenance. With the help of these four stages, you can reduce as well as maintain your weight throughout your life.

Induction – phase 1: This phase lasts for two weeks, by the end of which you can obtain significant results. Another point is that, in this diet plan you can begin at any of the phase. But it is recommended to start with induction. As you cut back on your carbohydrates significantly in this phase, you will jump start your weight loss programme. In this phase, only 20 gm of carbohydrates are allowed and hence your weight loss is significant. As you drastically cut down on carbohydrates your body shifts into high gear and starts burning fat. This takes about 48 hours to occur and you may feel hungry and irritated for the first three-four days. But don’t worry, as soon as your fat starts getting converted to fuel, you will feel fit as a fiddle. Induction will strengthen your immune system and also improve our long-term health.

Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL) phase 2: In this phase, the weight loss pace slows down as you add nutrient-rich carbohydrates to your diet. During this period, you will boost your body’s ability to burn fats as well as understand your body better. You will find the right amount of carbohydrates which you can consume and still lose weight. Your body will also prepare itself for permanent weight management. The amount of carbohydrates which you can eat is increased to 25 gm per day for the first week and increased in five gm instalment for the next few weeks. If your weight loss is significant, you can increase your carbohydrate intake. A person has to be on OWL till he or she is within three-five kg of their goal weight.

Pre-maintenance – (phase 3): Pre-maintenance is a practice run for lifetime maintenance. In this phase, you are fast approaching your target. As long as you continue to lose weight, you can increase your weekly allotment of carbohydrates by another 10 gm. You will be in this phase till you reach your goal and stay on it for one month. The ultimate goal here is to achieve a state of balance called Atkins’ Carbohydrate Equilibrium (ACE). The ACE is your individual level of carbohydrate intake wherein you neither gain nor lose weight.

Lifetime maintenance phase 4: In this phase, you have to focus on your individual ACE and strive to stay within two kg of your ideal weight for the rest of your life. By following a sensible eating plan, you gain energy, better health and confidence in yourself.

By following these four phases, you not only achieve your dream weight but are also able to maintain it throughout your life. You can learn more about this diet by reading the book, Dr Atkins’ New Diet Revolution. But, as with any other diet, this plan also has its pros and cons. The good point is that this diet recommends exercise as a vital part of the weight loss programme. Another point to be noted is that you cannot start on carbohydrates after you lose weight as this will result in your gaining back all that you have lost.

Medical experts advise that people who have gout, kidney problems, diabetes or are pregnant women should not follow this diet plan. As this diet is very stringent, do consult your doctor/dietician for proper advice.

Your dietician will provide you with a proper menu chart as to what should be eaten, in what quantities, etc, based on your eating habits and general lifestyle.

Happy dieting and hoping to see slimmer and fitter readers.