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Many Dietitians advice their clients to drink lots of water before their meals in an effort to reduce hunger. But is this method effective ?

Picture this; After drinking lots of water before your lunch, you eat just half the amount of food that you normally eat. But then, when the water gets absorbed by your body (which typically takes half an hour), you get the empty stomach feeling again. So you go ahead and eat more Food !!

Does that sound like an effective strategy ?

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Calcium and Weight Loss:

Who would have imagined that Calcium, the 20th element in the periodic table would be such a boon for people who want to get into shape.

Discovery.com has an intresting article about the role of Calciun in helping a dieter. It is based on the study of agroup of Women. I recommend you read the whole article there. In case you are just passing by, here are some of the important excerpts of the article :-

When Dr. Robert Heaney, a calcium expert at Creighton University in Omaha, recently examined the health records of 575 women, he was astonished at the results. “We were looking at mid-life weight gain and found that women with the highest calcium intakes didn’t gain weight and those with the lowest did,” Dr. Heaney said.

Similarly, at the University of Tennessee, Michael Zemel, Ph.D., reported that because calcium plays a key role in metabolic disorders linked to obesity and insulin resistance, a diet low in calcium literally stockpiles fat cells while higher calcium diets depletes them. Dr. Zemel discovered that a high calcium diet released a hormone which sends signals that are read by the body’s fat cells to lose weight.

Both exercisers and couch potatoes seemed to benefit unless they consumed more than 1,900 calories daily. All researchers said that dining on calcium-rich dairy products such as milk, cheese and yogurt achieved greater weight loss than leafy green vegetables, nuts, beans and supplements.

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I have always believed in forming good Diet and exercise habits. In my last post, I talked about Converting Fat to Muscle . This post should serve as a complimentary post and help you in kick starting the exercise habit.

Having lived a life of Laziness, people find it hard to continue their exercising schedule. They start, get unmotivated, stop ….. That is but natural. The main thing here is that you start again.

The Main Problems
So why do most people have trouble making exercise a regular habit? Well, there are probably a number of factors, but here are the main ones as I see it:

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A few weeks earlier, I published a post about loosing weight and being healthy without Dieting .While that post talked primarily about loosing body Fat without dieting, here I talk about converting that fat into 100% Muscle.

Regular readers of my Health blog will know that I believe in Methods that can be implemented over a longer span of time. This can be acheived by converting the method into a habit which ultimately gets reflected in your Lifestyle.

Build Muscle. Hit the Gym more often than not. Do barbell exercises like Squats, Deadlifts, Overhead Press that hit several muscles at the same time.Start with an empty barbell. Learn the exercise technique. Increase the weight gradually.

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The secret of ‘that lean guy’ staying lean is most probably due to his higher rate of Metabolism. Overweight people can decrease their weights by increasing their metabolism rates by eating proper food and avoiding the metabolism decreasing food .

1) Spicy Foods. Spices can raise the metabolic rate by up to 50% for up to 3 hours after you’ve eaten a spicy meal.. Some great types of spicy foods you can try include Indian, Mexican and Thai. You can also spice up your daily dishes by adding chili powder and pepper. Spicy Food should be eaten in moderation or can cause stomach problems.

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If you have a higher rate of Metabolism, the fats and clories that you consume are burned rapidly. This helps you stay slim. Most Overweight people have slower metabolism rate. The following foods slow down your Metabolism and their excessive consumption should be avoided.

1) Fried Foods. Fried Foods are very high in calories and full of saturated fats. Saturated fats are solid at room temperature, and makes your body slow down your metabolic rate. Next time you are craving them ,why not replace this with a slice of grilled, lean beef on brown bread?

2) Sugary Food. High intake of ’sugary’ food results into an increase of Blood Sugar. This in turn makes your body go into conservation mode and you will start to store extra fat and burn less calories. To avoid this, cut down on refined sugar. Cut down on the pastries, chocolate, cakes and cookies as much as possible. If you have a sweet tooth, try eating some fruit. Unlike refined sugars, most fruits contain fructose which does not cause your blood sugar levels to rise.

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If you’re overweight then chances are that you must have encountered the criticism from people around you. This kind of feedback tends to stall your ‘get healthy’ efforts. And then you go on and Blame yourself for being Overweight. But Should you ?

Probable Reason you might be Overweight :

1. Sedentary Jobs. We sit in front of our computers,TV’s and have fuel guzzling machines to move around.

2. Household Work. With the advent of gadgets like washing mashings, dishwashers, and microwave ovens, our household chores have gotten easier and simpler. Our entire culture and society is built upon laziness and convenience. Things are more readily accessible, easier to do, and simply do not support a healthy, active and stress-free lifestyle.

3. McDonald’s Policy. The McDonald’s corporation mission statement is to have a McDonald’s within 4 minutes of every American as well as to have 7% of the population eat there at least once a day. That’s just one of the many fast food franchises.

4. Slowing Metabolism. As we cut calories, and lose weight, our metabolism slows down, making it more difficult to shed the pounds.

5. Portion Sizes. Most fast food meals are over 1000 calories. Other restaurants have very large portion sizes. The temptation is there, and they’re not making it easier on us.

6. Prepared Foods. People used to have to hunt for food, or at least cook it. Now people gorge on high-sugar, high-carb, and empty calorie foods from the nearby grocery store. They’re cheaper to than fruit.

7. Fat Cells Multiply Permanently. That’s right, once you’ve gone overweight your fat cells multiplied and grew. When you lose some weight your body wants to maintain homeostasis and the fats cells want to grow again.

8. Genetic factors. It’s in the genes .Certain people have more fat cells in their bodies. That’s how some people can eat whatever they want and ‘appear’ healthy, while other’s become overweight. Seems like the environment is more to blame.

9. Harmful Fad Diets. Most of the fad diets on the market are helping you to Lose weight, by getting rid of water and lean muscle mass. That’s how you lose those 5-10 lbs so quickly, but than get them back even quicker.

10. Not Enough Daily Workouts . Even if you run every day on the treadmill you aren’t burning the necessary amount of calories to balance the energy intake of the ‘Standard American Diet’. The rest of the world may laugh, but convenience and fast food are coming their way soon.

1. Don’t diet. Diets never work, because of their restrictive and temporary nature. Once you’re off the diet you tend to gain weight again. Aim for gradual change, something you can sustain for a long period. Consider a smaller or different change in your Diet instead of temporary ones.

2. Change one food at a time. As a corollary to the above point, just change one thing in your diet, and get used to it. For example, instead of drinking a can of Cola, try drinking low sugar Tea or Coffee. Carry out the change for about a month and then, when you get used to that, change another food. Do not try to change the whole of your Diet overnight.

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Scientists have a solution for the notorious “French paradox” - the riddle of how a nation of alcohol-quaffing, croissant-munching gourmands stays healthy and slim, while a disproportionate number of health-obsessed Americans are obese and at cardiovascular risk. For many years now, scientists have suspected the part that red wine plays in this so called “French paradox.”

Researchers from the industry, the University of Florida and the University of Madison-Wisconsin now report that resveratrol - a constituent of pomegranates, grapes and red wine - when taken in low doses, can enhance the health of the heart, thereby prolonging an individual’s life and boosting its quality.

Plant chemicals in red wine, which often accompanies French meals, have been suggested as a possible explanation.

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Most of the time students find that their budget is tight and it is very difficult to make ends meet.If you are one of them and your financial situation is not one of the most favorable ones, here are a few tips on how to be vigilant on your nutrition if you want to stay healthy on a low budget:

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