Natural Weight Loss

The Power of Green Tea

2006-06-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

Today at Natural Weight Loss I would like to talk about the weight loss benefits of drinking Green Tea.

In Asia, green tea has been traditionally used both as a beverage and as a herbal medicine. Many studies have shown its antioxidative properties, how it can capture free radicals and lower cholesterol. But what of weight loss?

Experiments at the University of Geneva have shown that green tea can help you lose weight. Measurements taken during the experiment showed that green tea raised energy expenditure and lowered the respiration quotient, or RQ (a lower RQ means that more fats are metabolized for energy). In addition, the experiment showed that those volunteers taking the green tea extract were burning off more fat calories than those on placebos.

The scientists behind the experiment concluded that substances known as catechin polyphenols in the green tea were responsible for altering the body's use of norepinephrine; a chemical transmitter in the nervous system. This resulted in an increase in the rate of calorie burn off. They went on to state that green tea has thermogenic properties and promotes fat oxidation beyond that explained by its caffeine content.

Incidently, it has also been shown that people who have taken tea as a regular beverage over a number of years, have less body fat than those who have not used tea.

Breathing for Weight Loss

2006-06-26T23:35:00.000-07:00

Today on Natural Weight Loss I would like to talk about the value of breathing correctly and how it can help our efforts to lose weight.

Most of us only use the upper portion of our lungs for breathing. We take in just enough oxygen to fulfill our needs, unaware of the weight loss secret we are gifted with. What secret? The art of breathing correctly to speed up metabolism and burn those extra calories!

You see, when we breath correctly, the extra oxygen flowing through our bloodstream increases flow and helps remove excess waste and fat.

Have you ever watched a baby breath? They breath from the bottom of their lungs up. First their stomach is extended and then their lungs are filled to the top. We are born with this ability and I don't know why but somewhere along the line we forget how to do this. In doing so, we are missing out on some great benefits.

Not only does breathing correctly help burn the calories but it also helps us relax to give us an overall sense of well being. Also, in times of stress breathing exercises are an invaluable asset.

Next time you become aware of your breathing, notice how you are only using limited lung capacity! This shallow breathing is not doing any of us any good. This is another reason why exercise is so good. We are forced to take in more oxygen as we burn off more energy and in doing so increase our lung usage. Over time as we exercise more our lung capacity naturally increases. Did you know that top swimmers have nearly twice the lung capacity of the average person?

Try the following exercise to re-establish correct breathing patterns. Breath in deeply for 10 seconds through the nose. Let the air fill from the bottom of your lungs up and extend your stomach out in the process. When your lungs are full hold your breath for 10 seconds. Now breath out very slowly for 20 seconds through the mouth. Breathing out for twice as long as you breath in is a great stress buster and will help you relax. Repeat the process for 10 times. Do this exercise a couple of times a day and give your body that extra boost it so dearly needs.

Negative Calorie Foods

2006-06-19T00:40:00.000-07:00

Today at Natural Weight Loss I would like to talk about the so called "negative calorie foods."

There is a lot of hype floating around about "negative calorie foods."

It would appear that if you ate these foods all day long you would lose weight. This is because the energy expended in eating them is more than they actually contain. I would treat this theory with a certain amount of caution. But, what if we were to use these foods as replacements rather than eating more every day?

If we were to bulk up on these foods and eat less during our main meals it would help our natural weight loss program. The foods listed below are considered "negative calorie foods." However, I would just look at them as extremely low calorie foods that can help us reach our weight loss goals in a more natural way.

Fruits: Apricot, blackberry, cantaloupe, clementines, damsons, grapefruit, guava, honeydew melon and water melon, lemon, mandarin, peaches, plums, raspberry, rhubarb, strawberry, tangerine.

Vegetables: Asparagus, aubergine, brocolli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chicory, cress, cucumber, fennel, gourd, leek, lettuce, marrow, peppers, radish, spinach, tomatoe, turnip.

Metabolic Rate

2006-06-15T01:35:00.000-07:00

Today at natural weight loss I would like to talk about metabolism, in particular the impact of metabolic rate on weight loss.

Did you know that reducing calorie intake can sometimes slow down the rate of weight loss. Why, you might ask, when surely weight loss is directly related to our calorie intake? This is true, but weight loss is also related to the rate at which we burn calories. If we substantially reduce calorie intake our bodies shut down. It's an evolutionary survival mode mechanism to protect us from running out of energy. In effect, our metabolic rate slows down and we burn less calories during our activities.

Our metabolic rate is in part a function of our build. The more muscular a person is, the higher the metabolic rate. Simply put, muscle burns more calories than fat. In turn, when we lower calorie intake we lose proportionally more muscle. The less muscle we have the lower the burn off rate, the slower we lose weight.

It is clear then that building up our muscle density through resistance training will effectively increase our metabolic rate. This can also be said of Aerobic exercise. However, what other things can we be doing to increase metabolic rate? Research has identified a number of things including the following....

Eat small meals throughout the day. When we eat like this we maintain a steady burn off rate. We are not subject to 'body shutdown' syndrome after a heavy meal.

Dring lots of pure water. Doing this will flush toxins from your body allowing the liver to get on with other duties including the function of burning fat.

Add a little spice to your food. Your heart rate will increase slightly, raising metabolism in the process.

Try a cup of green tea instead of the normal coffee. Experiments have shown that the antioxidants in green tea increase cellular energy and raise metabolic rate.

The missing digestive enzymes

2006-06-08T23:29:00.000-07:00

Today at Natural Weight Loss I would like to talk about the "fast food" syndrome of rushing our food and missing out on some important digestive enzymes.

We have all been told to chew our food properly at sometime in our lives. But, were you ever told the benefits of following such advice?

Chewing is probably one of the lesser known weapons in our fight to stay trim and healthy! The modern day trend to gobble and gulp has a tendency to make us overeat. When we chew our food sufficiently, we dramatically slow down the eating process allowing the body time to signal the brain when it is full. Eating for longer puts the emphasis on enjoyment rather than trying to satisfy an immediate craving. We eat less as a result.

The process of chewing is relaxing. This aids the digestive process. This is contrary to the effects of stress where the digestive system tends to shut down. When we don't bother to chew our food we leave out important elements of our digestive system. Saliva contains digestive enzymes that contribute to the chemical process of breaking our food down. Undigested food becomes fodder for bacteria in the colon. We can only guess at the long term impact this has on our health?

There is no hard and fast rule for how many times we should chew our food but here is a guideline. If you are still able to detect the type of food you are chewing by its texture in your mouth then you probably haven't chewed enough.

Next time you are eating in a hurry, think of all those valuable digestive enzymes you are missing out on and what you might be doing to your long term health.

Taste Perception

2006-06-07T06:01:00.000-07:00

Today at natural weight loss I would like to address the issue of taste perception and the effect "junk food" desensitization is having on our diet.

Processed foods and snacks have progressively desensitized our ability to taste. We have become "neuro adapted" to processed foods with high concentrations of fat, sugar and salt.
This taste desensitization has conditioned us to think that natural products provide a bland alternative to 'off the shelf' and 'ready made' meals and snacks. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Alterations to our taste perception can be fixed; it just takes a little will power.

Unfortunately, because taste re-sensitization takes anywhere from between 30 and 90 days we find it difficult to make the switch from processed to natural food. Our previous choices of taking the easy option have led us into a subtle trap. We have become convinced somehow that artificial fast foods and products are more satisfying. The real deal is another story. They don't taste better, they just taste stronger. They only appear more satisfying because of what they do to us. They aren't called "Fast Foods" for nothing. We fill up quickly, get an artificial boost and on we go. Somewhere along the line we have lost the subtle edge of taste perception we once had and it becomes difficult to make the return journey.

One answer to restoring your ability to taste normally is to try water fasting ( only after consulting a doctor). In as little as a week you can re-sensitize your taste and truly appreciate natural produce. A diet dominated by natural produce is sure to help in your quest for natural weight loss.

Improving taste perception is key to natural weight loss!

Natural Weight Loss - Sugar Vs Fat

2006-06-01T01:05:00.000-07:00

Today at Natural Weight Loss I would like to talk about Sugar and Fat and their impact on losing weight.

A lot of diets today tend to restrict fat intake. On the surface this appears to be understandable. Proportionally, fat provides more calories than proteins and sugar based foods. Simple answer, cut the fat from your diet. Not so fast! You are only getting half the story. A lot of studies confirm that moderate fat diets are actually effective in losing weight. Fats help you feel full for longer periods of time and help maintain consistent energy levels, reducing the need to binge. The same is true of fiber. The extra bulk helps slow the release of sugars into the blood stream.

For thousands of years our intake of sugar was dictated by nature and the seasons. We led a physical lifestyle with considerably less sugar in our diet than we consume today. Sugar is present in many processed foods and snacks, and is a prime factor behind the high levels of obesity in society today. We are all familiar with the energy high we experience after consuming these types of product. Equally, the crash we experience when the energy is depleted. When we need a boost with go for the quick fix and so the cycle goes on. The whole process is completely unnatural and goes against our evolutionary development. Natural weight loss is about restoring the balance.

It is clear that in todays society it is not fat but sugar that is our main enemy in the fight against obesity. As we pile on the pounds our dependency on sugar becomes more acute. The heavier we get the more energy we require to keep us going, the more instant gratification we seek in artificial foodstuffs.

Can you see how the almost instant conversion of sugar into energy does its damage over time? Take a long hard look at your diet to see if sugar is the major contributor to your weight problems. If you do nothing else then make sure you restore the balance by looking at how nature intended us to live. Of course the right balance will differ from person to person depending on individual needs. That is why there is no "one answer fits all" solution to the problem. You have to determine your type and your personal goals in order to restore a balanced diet that is right for you. Do some research and determine the best diet regime for you at this time. Note the emphasis on time. As you begin your campaign to restore the balance, you will find that you have a greater ability to refine the process. The old habits and emotional imbalance that previously held you back will no longer influence your decisions so easily. Instead of being a slave to your diet you will become the master.

Natural Weight Loss

2006-05-30T01:51:00.000-07:00

The whole subject of weight loss is fraught with confusion. Advice given by one expert is very often contradicted by another. The problem is, most of the experts are affiliated to organisations with specific agendas. It is a bit like going to a financial advisor who receives a fee for recommending a certain products. At the end of the day these people have to make a living so how can you really trust their advice as the best? The weight loss industry is no different, every sector has its experts providing advice heavily biased to the sector they represent.

Regardless of the advice given there does exist a set of fundamental rules to achieve safe but natural weight loss. These rules do not favour any particular diet nor do they promise the world. If you have jumped from one diet to the next hoping for a miracle you will know what I mean. Conventional diets, for most of us, are in the main doomed to failure. We are asked to break a lifetime of habits, switch to some new regime and spend a lifetime avoiding foods that we actually like! I ask you, are we not setting ourselves up for failure? Don't get me wrong these diets do and can work for some people. After all they're all based on the fundamental principle that providing there is a calorific deficit after you apply the equation calories in minus calories out, you will lose weight.

Natural weight loss is all about losing weight safely and in accordance with how we have evolved. You just cannot ignore the last 100,000 years and only consider the last 100. It just doesn't make sense! Of course, we need to consider how we live today. Technology might have advanced at a remarkable speed but nature certainly hasn't! You see, we are continually fighting effects with effects. Rather than finding the root cause of a problem we create something new to solve the problem. Our approach to to fighting fat is to invent a low fat product. One can only guess at the problems we are setting up for ourselves. But that's ok, we'll just invent a new medicine :)

One thing is certain in this world though, what may be good for one person is not necessarily good for another. It is no good trying to sell the benefits of meat to a vegetarian. The last thing a marathon runner wants is to bulk up and a body builder will not thank you for asking them to cut protein from their diet! All of these people have different needs so any one diet won't suit all.

It is clear, there are many different roads one can take on the journey to good health and that each of us can only make decisions that are right for us. On this blog I hope to provide unbiased information for fast natural weight loss. I hope you can apply some of the principles and make a lasting difference in your life.