I found that daily multivitamins may be recommended for weight gain for people who are underweight, not overweight! I think some overweight people may have overheard the words, “weight gain” and “vitamins”, and come to the conclusion that their multivitamin was making them fat…

Apparently, lack of vitamins in some people may make it hard for them to gain weight, and starting to take these vitamins helps weight gain (this is what I have read online, I don’t know how scientifically accurate it is). Online, I did read about a few firsthand experiences of people gaining a few pounds after starting their vitamin supplements, so I definitely think there is some truth to vitamins and gaining weight.

So, if you are overweight, and are asking “will my vitamins make me gain weight?”, the answer is no. Its perfectly safe to continue taking supplements, or begin taking supplement, when you are trying to lose weight.  

You don’t need to worry about losing weight while taking a multivitamin, unless of course you are underweight… But I highly doubt that any of us are, so happy vitamin supplement taking!

Well, maybe you have not been decieved by this crazy calorie talk, but just incase you have, I want to clear something up; a calorie is not a calorie. Well it is, I guess, but lack of focus on the types of foods you eat, and just focusing on the calories is not a smart decision. Although Calories, will always be Calories, it is the source of these Calories which is important. Food provides things other than Calories which are absolutely necessary for your body. Vitamins, Minerals, antioxidents; you have to remember these in shaping your eating habits. Although fried chicken and blueberries have the same types of calories, the two foods which contain these calories are not made equal in nutritional benefit. A hundred calories of blueberries will provide you with a lot of nutrients your body needs, while a hundred calories of fried chicken may not. In a sense, a Calorie is not a Calorie.

If your trying to lose weight, you have to focus on the types of foods you eat, not the amounts of calories they contain. Good, healthy food, will keep you full and you won’t have to worry too much about how much you’re eating.

As a few general hints (most of this is in previous posts):

• try incorporating high volume and low calorie foods into your diet, these are usually fruits and vegetables
• avoid highly processed foods, which are stripped of most of their nutritional benefits and contain potentially toxic chemicals and preservatives
• whole grains, oats, nuts, and seeds have a lot of good stuff in them…

These are just a few examples, bottom line, just try to incorporate alot of natural foods into your diet. These foods tend to keep you full longer and provide the body with all the nutrients, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, omega 3 fatty acids, etc. which keep your body functioning well. When trying to lose weight, you want to give your body the food it needs, you don’t want to limit your calorie intake to the point where your facing malnutrition; Calories are not made equal!

Perhaps I’m  just not very good at math, but Frankly, the “simple” calorie counting solution just doesn’t sound that simple to me. With all due respect to those who champion calorie counting and have been successful with the technique, I’d rather be living my life, enjoying it, not playing number games all day long. Of course, when you take a holistic look at weight loss, its just a math problem, looking something like:  weight gained = calories eaten - calories burned  . So, when I look at this whole calorie counting thing, I mean, I understand it all, but I just don’t see how counting up these calories is going to help me really lose weight and keep it off.

I’ll always know how many calories I’m allowed to eat, but when I see that slice of chocolate cake staring me down, knowing the calories I’m supposed to eat isn’t going to help me not eat it. I don’t need math to tell me there’s way too much fat in that slice of decadent chocolate goodness. I’m still going to eat the cake, or if I stay strong and don’t eat it (suffering to the pangs of hunger), I’ll lose weight for a while… but eventually fall back into old habits and eat the whole cake, not just a slice. Calorie counting is simply unsustainable, and it really doesn’t make weight loss any easier on you. All the counting may help you in the field of mathematics, but it most likely won’t help you lose weight and keep it off.

If your fat, you’re eating too much and not excercizing enough, you don’t need a calculator to tell you that.

Learning easy ways to incorporate more excercize into one’s life, learning how to fix a poorly functioning metabolism, discovering new and nutritious food options, changing the times when one eats, and even eating a bit slower; these things, these simple lifestyle changes will help you lose weight.

I concede I may have been a bit harsh on calorie counting, I suppose I just have strong personal beliefs, so the bottom line is; do what helps you. Everyone’s different, and different things make sense to different people, weight loss is an entirely personal thing, I’m just here to offer possible hints and ideas, to make the learning process a little simpler.

I’m not just telling you this because my mom always told me that fruits and vegetables are good, there’s actually a lot of science behind it.

Consumer reports recently surveyed 21,632 readers about their excercise, eating, and dieting habits over their whole life and asked for their weight loss / weight gain over that time period. Although a lucky 3% of readers said they ate what they wanted, didn’t excercise, and were not overweight; the general trend was much different. In order to keep weight off, most readers said they excercised, practiced portion control, and ate lots of fruit and vegetables. A very intriguing finding of the study was that about half of the people who had been fit their whole life, or had successfully maintained weight loss, ate five or more servings of fruits and vegetables atleast five times a week. If your mom ever told you that fruits and veggies would keep you healthy, she was right!

So, why are vegetables so important for a healthy diet (just a few of the reasons):

• They are packed with nutrients, vitamins, minerals, etc.  that no other foods will provide! You won’t get antioxidants from a bag of cookies.
• They are high in volume and low in calories. They fill your stomach up without filling you with calories
• Basically, you can find thousands of studies about how this vegetable prevents this disease or that cancer, but the bottom line is that fruits and vegetables just provide your body with what it needs to function best.

So head down to a farmer’s market, or to a local grocery store and buy some fruits and vegetables. They taste great and will help you throw off the weight!

And crossing the finish line first was…..Dan, sure enough the most overweight man at the table. In second place, another overweight family member, and the trend seemed to actually hold very well. What I read seemed to be true, fat people tend to eat faster.

Now the question I had was, how does this fast eating contribute to weight gain? I’ve always been a fast eater myself, and at this meal I decided to experiment with slow pace eating. I found that when I thoroughly chewed every piece of food, I ate much slower, I drank a lot of water in between bights, and i became full alot faster. I didn’t eat as much! I was full.

Having chewed myself to this epiphany, I searched the internet to see if science supported what I learned. I actually found that scientists discovered that it takes about ten minutes for your brain to send signals telling you that your stomach is full. Within the first ten minutes of a meal, you can potentially cram yourself with tons of excess calories as long as you eat fast enough.

I believe that many who are overweight have just subconsciously come to the habit of eating too fast. When you eat too fast, you eat past fullness, consuming excess calories which are bound too end up on your stomach.

Other potential benefits of chewing food thoroughly:

• I can tell you from first hand experience, it really aids digestion. If you have trouble digesting your food, it may be a sign that you have just been eating too fast.
• I do not know how true this is, but I have read that thorough chewing aids the immune system (more chewing leads to an increase the secretion of parotin, which strengthens the immune system).
• Another claim I have read of is that chewing can help introduce more oxygen into the system which can help the nervous system, and lead to better thinking.

It may not be clear how thoroughly chewing your food will help you, it definitely varies from person to person; but what do you have to lose? Increase your chewing, and you will likely chew your way to some weight loss!

1. Remember why you want to lose the weight. The best way to stay motivated is to remember why you want to lose the weight. Write down a list of the reasons why you want to lose weight. Put this list somewhere where you will see it everyday. Putting it on the fridge wouldn’t be a bad idea… Every time you see this paper you will remember your motivations for losing weight, and for this reason you will continue living healthy and losing weight.
2. Keep a log. Make some sort of chart or log so that you can write down every day, if you stayed true to your weight loss regiment. Perhaps, check one box for the days on which you think you ate healthy and worked out. Check a different box for the days you forgot to workout or ate unhealthily. This way, you will be able to track how you are doing. Another good type of log to keep yourself motivated, is a sort of numerical log. On the days you stay true to your workout / eating regiment you go up one number; and on the days you don’t eat healthy etc. you go down one number. You should set a number at which you want to be at, at the end of each month. A number like 25, would show that you didn’t complete your goals on five days (depending on how long that month was), and you succeeded on the other 25.
3. Tell someone how you are doing. Try to tell a close friend / spouse / etc., how you are doing every week. You won’t want to tell that person that you gained a pound this week, so you will be more motivated to lose weight and stay dedicated to your original goals. Another way people do this is by video blogging. Which means posting videos on a website such as youtube, explaining how your weight loss is going.

These 3 techniques can help you stay dedicated to your weight loss goals. Not only will these techniques help you throw off the weight, but more importantly, they will help you keep the weight off.

A simple change in your eating habits can have tremendous weight loss results. I recommend not eating anything after 7 PM. Just making this one simple change will really help you lose weight. Eating your last food item of the day at 7 PM will give you just enough time to burn off those excess calories, so that they don’t turn into extra body fat. When you don’t eat anything after 7 PM, you will wake up hungry. This will lead to eating a larger breakfast, and less for lunch and dinner; so that most of your calories will be consumed earlier in the day.

Sometimes it may be hard to not eat anything past 7 PM, and you may get late night food cravings. I find that a hot glass of tea helps to stave off hunger (But remember, drink decaffeinated tea or else you won’t be able to fall asleep!). And if you are still hungry before going to bed, only eat very low calorie foods. Vegetables are always a good low calorie late night snack to fill up your stomach.

When Chocolate Is Bad:

Milk Chocolate is usually a bad choice. It is very sweet (lots of sugar) and very high in fat. Also milk chocolate has dairy fats that are worse for you than the cocoa butter which comprises dark chocolate. Because milk chocolate is sweet, people tend to eat too much of it, and this is what really leads to weight gain.

When Chocolate is Good:

Chocolate can actually be good for you. Dark chocolate, also known as semi sweet chocolate, is much healthier for you than milk chocolate. Dark chocolate has less sugar and fat than milk chocolate. Also dark chocolate has high levels of cocoa content containing flavanoids and antioxidents, which have many health benefits. These flavonoids and antioxidents have positive cardiovascular properties. Also, because dark chocolate is quite bitter, it is less likely that one will eat way too much of it. However, remember that despite dark chocolates various health benefits, it is still a high calorie high fat food. So, remember to eat it in very limited quantities.

The reason many people are overweight and always are going to be overweight is because they have made eating a too big part of their lives. After a hard day’s work you should look forward to seeing your family, doing some activity, pretty much doing anything other than eating. Eating will not bring you long term happiness in life. If you disagree with this statement, then I guess you just have to deal with being overweight your whole life.

If eating is your favorite thing to do, it will be impossible for you to lose weight. So, if you have subconsciously turned into a “foodoholic”, make some changes in your life so that you can look forward to things other than food. Maybe join an art class or join a basketball league, anything is good. You will feel better with yourself, and you will not be living for food. Get some hobbies, live happier, (make it so your life does not revolve around food!) and lose weight as a result!