NeoWeight – a new approach to weight loss

A big mistake that many overweight people make is eating to late at night. When you eat a late night meal or snack, the calories which you consume don’t have time to be burnt away before you go to sleep. When you go to sleep, these excess calories are converted into body fat. So, if you love eating a pint of ice cream before you go to bed, that is probably a big reason why you are overweight.

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.

Sometimes people are not very creative when it comes to working out. To some people, a work out is limited to a run on the treadmill. However, a lot of people, especially those who are older or overweight, complain of foot and knee pains after a run or other type of cardio workout. I have been swimming for years, and I believe it is the best workout for anyone with any type of foot or knee pain. When I run too much my feet often get inflamed and I feel great pain, however when I swim this never happens. An added benefit of swimming is that it works out every part of your body and tones your muscles, while burning fat. A good swim is one of the greatest workouts. If you don’t have a pool, sign up at a local gym and start swimming; it is a great workout which anyone who knows how to swim, can do.

Is chocolate really bad for you? The answer to this is sometimes yes and sometimes no. Chocolate can sometimes be very bad for you and contribute a lot to weight gain, and sometimes it can actually be… somewhat healthy!

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.

Sometimes food and eating become a too big of a part of people’s lives. Many people live to eat, and don’t eat to live. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with enjoying your food; but there is a problem when the only thing you look forward to in your life is food (i guess this is just my opinion, and you can feel free to disagree). I just think that for many people who have made eating and food the main source of pleasure in their lives, and don’t look forward to anything else, have wrongly made eating into a hobby.

My opinion is that eating will not bring you long term happiness in life. 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 a basketball league, anything is good. You will feel better with yourself, and you will not be living for food. Find deeper meaning in your life, live happier, and lose weight as a result!

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially when trying to lose weight. For this reason you need to make sure not to skip breakfast, or eat an unhealthy breakfast.

Why Not To Skip Breakfast

Skipping breakfast is a very bad idea. You should always eat a relatively big (but healthy) breakfast. When you skip breakfast your metabolism slows down, and you do not burn calories. You will also eat more later in the day. When you eat a good breakfast, you will be able to burn off these calories throughout the day, your metabolism will function faster, and you will eat less later in the day.

The main reason many people stop working out is that they just get bored of their work outs. It is nearly impossible to not get bored of running on the treadmill every single day. So mix it up! Go on a jog around the neighborhood one day, maybe play basketball with some buddies the next day, or take some ballroom dancing lessons. The best way to workout is to participate in an activity that you enjoy and that involves burning calories. So, don’t turn working out into something you hate to do. Get creative, and make it something enjoyable.

If you don’t get creative with your workout routines, exercising will turn into something you hate doing. And if you hate doing it, then you won’t do it; it is as simple as that. The bottom line is, make your workouts fun, and always mix up your routine. If you make working out something you like to do, then you will be able to do it on a consistent basis.

When you are very overweight, just changing a few things in your daily routine can help you lose weight relatively quickly. However, after an initial burst of weight loss, many times you stop losing weight quickly or stop losing weight at all. After a few months of weight loss, many people find that they hit this weight loss plateau. One way to help avoid this weight loss plateau is by speeding up your metabolism. Incorporating Cinnamon into your diet, or taking it as a supplement, is a healthy and all natural way to speed up your metabolism and to lose weight.

I haven’t been able to find studies that directly tested cinnamon’s effects on the metabolism… However, in addition to its effects on the metabolism, there is another reason that cinnamon can lead to weight loss (and this is supported by studies).

More and more research is showing that Cinnamon can help people with Diabetes and pre-Diabetes by reducing blood sugar levels and increasing natural production of insulin. A Pakistani study in which patients with type 2 diabetes were given between one quarter and two teaspoons of Cinnamon a day, demonstrated the aforementioned affects on blood sugar and insulin production in addition to lowering cholesterol (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14633804?dopt=Abstract)! The reason this is all important to weight loss is because fat cells are very responsive to high insulin levels. A recent National Institute of Health Study, showed how insulin directly stimulates fat cells to take in glucose (http://www.nih.gov/news/health/sep2010/nichd-07.htm).

So, if you are having trouble losing weight, taking cinnamon as a daily supplement may be a good idea. It’s effects on the metabolism, blood sugar levels, and insulin levels can help to overcome the “weight loss plateau”.

Also, if the cinnamon doesn’t help you lose weight, its nice to know that it may have a lot of other health benefits. Studies have shown cinnamon to: stop resistant yeast infections, reduce cancer cell growth, reduce arthritis pain, prevent food spoilage, and to fight E. coli. I’ve read that one study even showed that smelling cinnamon could improve mental function! Eating cinnamon probably won’t cure you of cancer, but its many beneficial properties will likely improve your body’s function in some way, and it will definitely provide you with long term health benefits.

I take about one teaspoon of cinnamon a day. I like to mix it into my morning oatmeal. It tastes great with the oatmeal and I also do this because of the large quantity of carbohydrates in oatmeal (carbohydrates increase blood sugar and insulin levels).

Update:

I was informed by a reader that the cinnamon you buy at the market is not “true cinnamon”. The true cinnamon spice is called Cinnamomum Zeylanicum, yet most cinnamon products come from a similar species called Cinnamomum Cassia. This may not seem very important, but if you want to use cinnamon as a weight loss supplement it may be important. This is because Cassia Cinnamon contains very high levels of coumarin which could pose health dangers (it has actually been banned in Germany!). Coumarin in too high doses can even damage the liver!

If you read the reader’s comments below, Pat has recommended a source for true Ceylon cinnamon. One pound of Cinnamon sticks from the Ceylon Online website will cost you $26.00 . I thought this was a bit on the high side, so I did some research, and actually found amazon to be a good source of true cinnamon. You can get a pound of Cinnamon Ceylon Powder for $14 from a bulk spice dealer on Amazon. If you are willing to pay a little more, then I recommend these teaspoon cinnamon packets. The cinnamon comes prepackaged in 1 tsp packets, so its perfect if you are taking it as a supplement. It’s about $18 bucks for 36 packets, but this seems like a pretty fair price, because the Ceylon cinnamon in these packets is organic! Another option is to take cinnamon in capsule form. Nature’s Bounty sells cinnamon capsules on Amazon. A 100 capsules are about 7 bucks (but take notice that the cinnamon is not Ceylon and it is not organic).