NeoWeight – a new approach to weight loss

“Super Weight Loss Tea, it burns calories for you, and makes you lose weight without exercise or diet change!”

A simple Google search of weight loss tea will yield a ton of websites that make claims such as the one before.

I’ve never tried any of these “exotic” and “secret” teas, but I would approach them with caution. Think of it this way, even if you were to lose weight with some tea, but didn’t eat healthily or exercise, your body would likely become malnourished in the long term leading to future health problems!

Tea is not a magic weight loss potion.

However, it is still very healthy… And, when you’re having trouble losing weight with diet and exercise tea can surely be a good supplement. Notice, the word SUPPLEMENT, it can’t be a REPLACEMENT for diet and exercise!  [Read more →]

I recently heard someone ask, “will taking vitamin make me gain weight?”. I never really considered a connection between vitamins and weight gain, so I decided to investigate the subject and do some research.

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 [Read more →]

A Calorie is the SI metric unit for energy, representing 4.18400 Joules. A Calorie is just a Calorie, always, if we look at the scientific definition that is. However, many dietitians seem to have manipulated the scientific definition, to tell people it does not really matter what you eat, its just how many Calories you eat. These dietitians often espouse their basic formula of ( Calories eaten – calories burned = weight gain ) in support of their argument. When people hear this kind of talk, they are often confused into thinking, “I can eat Mcdonalds and Donuts all day, as long as I burn off all the calories.

Well, maybe you have not been deceived by this crazy calorie talk, but just in case 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, antioxidants; you have to remember these in shaping your eating habits. [Read more →]

Notepad at one’s side, high tech computer software running, TI-84 calculator ready to go… maybe its just me, but this all just sounds way too complicated. This morning I opened up the LA times health section and began reading Jeannine Stein’s article, speaking of how weight loss was as simple as a Calorie Counting Math problem.

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, [Read more →]

Simple answer, yes; fruits and vegetables are absolutely important for weight loss, and more importantly for keeping the weight off.

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 exercise, 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 exercise, and were not overweight; the general trend was much different. In order to keep weight off, most readers said they exercised, 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 [Read more →]

A few weeks back I was eating dinner with a group of friends and family. When the food came out I decided to do something I’ve never done before, pay attention to how everyone ate. I know, it sounds strange; but I had read somewhere that overweight people usually eat their food much faster than skinny people. So, I decided it would be a good opportunity to see if it was true. My friends and family at dinner were of all shapes and sizes, from the skinniest to the fattest, and almost every degree in between, so I didn’t focus on my food but instead observed the eating race which was about to commence.

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!

Weight loss is not an instant process. For this reason, many people are able to lose weight, but after a few months they forget about their original goals and are no longer motivated. They eventually forget all about losing weight, and gain all the weight back. Here are some ways to stay motivated, so that all your weight loss attempts do not end in disaster:

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.