Weight Loss Per Week

Archive for November, 2009

Why slow weight loss is the “new” quick weight loss for women!

Losing weight is an ongoing struggle for many women.  But is quick weight loss for women the ultimate fix?

I personally have tried all the quick weight loss for wowmen diets there is out there. Yes some of them do work, but only for a short period of time.

Let’s look at these quick weight loss diets and understand why they work, but only for the short term.

How Do You Lose Weight Quickly?

In order to lose weight quickly you need to eat a much lower number of calories than you burn in a given day.

This means that you either have to calorie count or follow one of those “lose ten pounds in ten days” diets.

Many people say that in order to lose weight quickly you should only consume 800 calories a day. Wow – that’s not much food is it?

Yes you can keep this up for a short period of time and lose weight quickly, but as soon as you start eating properly again… yes you’ve guessed it – up goes your weight again.

Therefore you are back to square one. Six months later you have tried so many quick weight loss fixes and given up so you are still at your overweight state. Not exactly quick weight loss now is it!

I know this from first hand experience, time and time again. Before I know it a whole year has passed and I still have not lost any weight even though I have spent money on many quick weight loss fixes!

Why Losing Weight Slowly Is The Way To Go

Now that we’ve established that quick weight loss is not the best way to go, let’s look at why losing 1-2 lb a week is actually the “new” quick weight loss for women routine.

You see giving yourself enough calories to live off will give you a slow steady weight loss which is much more manageable to stick to and attain. After all you can eat a good amount of food plus have treats such as wine and the odd pizza slice etc.. This is just so much more natural making it much more achievable to stick to it and lose 1-2lb week.

You still have to watch what you eat and go down the healthy route with plenty of fruit, vegetables and fibre, but you can also fit in foods you like so you won’t cheat.

So in the same six months you are much more likely to be able to stick to the higher calorie diet with a slower weight loss and be able to reach your goal. As opposed to keep trying quick fix fads which are practically humanly impossible to stick to so you give up and you are back to square one.

I finally realised this a few months ago when I was still 21lbs overweight after being on a ‘diet’ for about two years! So I set a target of losing only 1lb a week. This was so easy to stick to by being able to have the odd glass of red wine and a few treats. I ate healthy most of the week and introduced some exercise in the form of swimming. I am now half way to losing my 21lb but if I had stuck to my quick weight loss diet fads, I would still be 21lb overweight!

You have all been through it before, the family wedding is coming up next month and you can’t seem to fit into that suit or dress because you have put on too much weight. So you must lose at least ten or more pounds quickly. Losing weight quickly is not advisable as most of the loss will be muscle tissue and water; you put on the weight slowly (usually over years) so normally you should take it off slowly and then you will know that the majority of the loss will be body fat.But you have a problem here and the clock is ticking so you will have to diet pretty hard to meet your target weight loss.  Let’s look at that first, you all know that diets don’t work; they send the body into starvation mode, a survival mechanism from long age when humans faced periods of famine. Going too low in calories causes the body to lower its metabolic rate, which reduces its ability to burn fat. At the same time, hunger signals increase and you quickly start to crave high-energy foods loaded with fats and sugar, the same foods you are trying to do without.Research shows repeated dieting actually makes it harder to lose weight and easier to put it on because when you dump the diet and return to normal eating habits the drop in metabolic rate caused by the diet means that your old habits actually represent an excess in calories.  Not only do you regain the fat stores just lost, but also you may even gain an extra bit.  Knowing this, you really don’t want to put yourselves through this rigorous process, but for this special occasion you will. First though, you will have to boost the metabolism that has been lowered by the dieting.  To do this you will have to perform a “Strength Train” workout to generate that initial spike in your metabolism. By increasing the lean muscle on your body by using Strength Training, your metabolism will increase, burning fat along the way.The strength training technique I use requires just twenty to thirty mins per week. Gone are the days of the five-day a week program with 6 to 12 sets per body part that, method has never worked.  One short intense strength-training workout a week will elevate your metabolism more than you ever thought possible. While the calories expended doing exercise are important, the increase in metabolism especially after strength training continues long after the exercise is finished, burning calories at the same time.  The two main components of this technique are the intensity of the exercise and the recovery after the exercise. Infrequent, short, high intensity weight training sessions, followed by the required amount of time to recover and become stronger is what is needed to increase functional lean muscle and lose body fat. The way to lose body fat and maintain muscle is to have a food program for life. Quality food and more energy output are the basics you’ll need to go for. Bulk foods that fill you up and don’t fill you out, foods that are low in fat and sugar which aren’t refined should be the ideal.Small frequent meals should be consumed during the day each containing a little protein to maintain muscle mass and energy levels. A high quality broad spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement should also be taken on a daily basis.As before get the calories from high quality food but if you can’t, utilize a blender to make concoctions from skim milk with whatever additives you want to use, just as long as you keep count of the calories for your daily total.Now use these blender mixtures and solid food for your daily feedings. Spread it out over many small meals a day instead of the traditional three meals a day. The way to keep track of weight loss is to buy a calorie counter and record your daily calorie intake for a week. Now average out how many calories you consume a day with the use of a seven-day eating plan and calorie counter, once you have this figure subtract 1000 calories and this will be the target number of calories you will be aiming for. Remembering that one-pound of fat contains 3500cals, losing 1000 calories a day will total 7000 for the week, which equals two pounds lost by dietary means alone. Another technique for low calorie eating is to watch your fat intake as this has the most calories. Incidental activity is also very important if you want to lose this amount of weight in this short period of time, by increasing incidental activity you can burn at least another pound a week The best exercise for the purpose of fat-loss is fast walking either indoors on the treadmill or outdoors. Walk until you are mildly puffing and hold that rate until the allotted time. If your aerobic activities leave you panting or breathless, your going too hard, your energy is coming from your carbohydrate reserves and not from your fat stores. Try fast walking for one hour a day every day of the week. Well there you have it, as an experienced trainer I wouldn’t recommend this type of program to my clients. The weight loss is just too quick and the program would be very hard to maintain owing to the very low caloric intake.I advise my clients to decrease their calories by just 500 per day (and no more) below their maintenance levels and they will be losing 1 – 2 pounds of body fat every week, safely, without craving and without too much disruption to their lifestyle. Remember, think long term here and that’s between 30 and 50 pounds of fat lost in six months. Any faster and all you will be losing is water and precious muscle tissue.

People can be overweight for several reasons and not all of them are a matter of poor diet choices. Some people suffer from genetic disorders or a genetic predisposition to gain weight, neither of which they can help. Other people suffer from being overweight because they have developed poor eating habits, have a busy lifestyle or have a routine that is not conducive to good diet practices. Other than cases of heredity many people simply gain weight over time but are aware enough to keep a close eye on the situation and their health and therefore have no need of fast weight loss.
Weight matters, just ask a diabetic, so weight loss matters as well. Does fast weight loss ever matter? Moreover, if so then who does fast weight loss matter for?
People interested in fast weight loss fall into one of two categories. Those who are very large and have just had a wakeup call about how that weight is effecting their health and life expectancy and those who believe the hype surrounding every diet guru’s “secret” formula to super model slim bodies by following a special course of action, for a onetime fee of course!
If you talk to any health expert, they will tell you that the safe rate of weight loss that the average person can achieve through better eating habits and some exercise is 1-2 pounds per week. This is safe, healthy and sustainable for long lasting results. You can also use Proactol a safe over the counter product, which binds to fat, and achieve 2-3 pounds of weight loss each week. A safe easy to use product will help you attain fast weight loss.
If you are like most people who are keen on losing weight you would probably like to see it fall off much faster, like 10-15 pounds in a week’s time instead of 1 or 2. Think about what you are asking though, have you ever gained weight that quickly. More than likely not, and if your body does not put it on that fast it will not take it off that fast without serious damage to your health and well being anyway.
Starvation diets for weight loss have always been around and each generation tries a version of it. The problem is the weight that is lost is not fat but rather muscle tissue and fluid. Not to mention the sleep and money that is lost to these endeavors! Fast weight loss under these circumstances is unnatural and disturbs the natural rhythm of the body. Most often weight loss like this will quickly be reversed and more often even more weight will return.
In the cases of extreme obesity when health is seriously threatened by the excess weight, fast weight loss could be essential in saving a person’s life. This is a time when bariatric surgery may be just what the doctor orders. There are weight loss surgeries called gastric bypass or laparoscopic banding, Lap Band. During surgery, the stomach is stapled or banded to create a small pouch for a stomach. After surgery, patients are limited in what and how much they can eat by this physical change. This eliminates weight gain and spurs rapid weight loss; most people will be allowed to return to work within a few weeks of the surgery.

As the holidays approach we are annually bombarded with ads for weight loss programs, diets and clinics to help take off the extra pounds that we are expected to gain over the season of festivities. Many people take the opportunity of a New Year’s Resolution to make the decision to join a weight loss group program for support in their efforts to lose weight or at least begin a healthier lifestyle.

While many people dismiss the idea of joining a support group style health program, most will find that this is just the motivation they need to stick to a regimen of healthy dieting and exercise.

Support and Peer Pressure

The major weight loss clinics that require attendance at regular “meetings” to weigh in and get one on one counseling in their weight loss goals are actually the most successful and sustainable of the weight loss programs. People who find success with this style of weight loss aid are usually the type that needs the motivation of subtle peer pressure to keep them on the program.

Clients will attest that knowing that they will have to get on a scale at the end of the week is a strong motivational tool, when just doing it for themselves seems to lose its urgency after a few weeks. The ultimate goal is the same, the patient is there to lose weight and if it takes the praise and pressure of a group environment to accomplish a healthier lifestyle, so be it.

The support group style of weight loss clinic is also just that – a support group. It is much easier to engage in a program of diet and exercise knowing that you are with others who are struggling toward the same goals as you are. The group is with you to cheer on your achievements and help revive your drive to succeed in your weight loss goals when there is a setback. The group will be lead by a clinical dietitian who will initially be conducting weekly “classes” to teach the participants about the foundations of metabolism and nutrition, in addition to providing one on one advice about dieting as the weeks go by and a pattern of weight loss or gain is being established for each participant.

A possible drawback to this style of weight loss program is that many participants find that they have to remain in the program for most of their life. Not necessarily on a weekly basis, but most participants will find that they must still attend meetings at a regular interval to stay in tune with updates to the nutritional information and to stay motivated to maintain their new healthier lifestyle.

Remember, this type of weight loss program works well for a certain type of individual with a particular type of personality. Since the core personality of the participant is not going to change after the weight is lost, the continuation of attendance in the program may become a way of life to maintaining a healthy weight. Fortunately, most find friendships within the program structure that last a lifetime!

When engaging in any sort of behavioral change, it is vital to the success of the endeavor that you develop some sort of system of accountability. When you know that you have to report your daily habits, your tendencies will tend to be modified.
When you establish your accountability system, you can set it up so that you are accountable to yourself, to someone else or to both. The methods by which you record your habits are very similar for both internal and external communications. It is necessary, however, that you commit yourself to being entirely honest with your report. Know that the honesty of your report will lead to a change in your overall body weight.
Here are some general methods of accountability that you can use:
Chat it up with a “Buddy”
Find a “buddy” that you can develop a sustainable weight-loss relationship with. Speak with that partner via phone or email several times a week with updates on your individual weight loss routines. Sometimes all you need to make it through a challenging period in your dieting or weight loss is someone to chat with about the challenges you face.
Friday Fess-Up
Weigh yourself each Friday morning. Send the number to your “weight loss buddy” and have your “weight loss buddy” send you her number. Knowing that at the end of each week you will have to report your weight will help you to stay focused on your goal of dropping a healthy 2 pounds a week. You will also have an opportunity to gauge your success against your partners.
The end-of-week fess up can become a small competition between the two of you to see who was able to lose the most weight over the course of the week. By weighing in on Friday, you will also be encouraged to maintain a healthy routine over the weekend.
Chart Your Intake
If controlling the amount of food that you eat is important to your weight loss routine, then chart the number of calories that you eat on a daily basis. Separate a sheet of paper into columns – one for each day. Record each piece of food that you eat along with the caloric content. At the end of the day, tally your calories. Compare the tally against what is recommended by doctors for your weight and body type.
You can either compare this chart with a buddy or retain it for your internal use. Either way, you will have a record of the food you eat to keep you on the right track when preparing and eating food.
Make it Public
Many people have found that participating in public bogs helps them in their weight loss. When you post each day or week what your activities and foods have been, you are opening your lifestyle to critique from readers. Readers can suggest healthy methods to change some of your habits and can offer general encouragement. Take a look around on the Web for the blog that is right for you. Some are more helpful than others.
Most importantly, remember that you are primarily accountable to yourself and to your future. A healthy weight loss plan will help you maintain and active, happy life. A little accountability now will reap larger rewards years down the line. Go ahead: engage.

We are obsessed as a society with having things right when we want it. If we feel to want a new car, we need it right now, women go nuts if they cannot get pregnant the very moment they have realized they want to have a child and if we apply this to weight loss, then it must surely be fast and easy weight loss. We can’t settle for anything less!
Fortunately it’s already known scientifically that fast weight loss diet pills don’t work. You may burn off a couple of pounds in the beginning, but after you have lost the weight, chances are high that without some real diet changes, you will gain the weight back plus much more.
Fewer and fewer people are being tricked by false hopes and promises of fast weight loss diet pills by marketers trying to make a sale. Its been said that they take advantage of human insecurities. Really though, they take advantage of our need to have everything right here right now, and as easy as possible with no real hard work on our part, as long as we are willing to pay for the fast weight loss product they are selling.
And because the fast weight loss diet pills are not the answer, people have turned to exercise for weight loss. Marketers who promote fast weight loss exercise programs or weight loss devices take advantage of the same here and now demand. All they are doing is giving exercise a bad name as well.
The following are reviews I have pulled from a web site focused on exposing marketing scams:
The [product] is actually a good product, but it has huge flaws. The way that the pulley system works is that the pulleys are attached to the frame with a free rotating bracket. This causes an excessive amount of wobbling when trying to use any of the exercises. Using the bench press is nearly impossible at higher weights due to the wobbling. Don’t waste your $400+ for the [product].
I purchased the [product] through [website] Network. I was very unhappy with the whole motion of the machine; it was uncomfortable and unnatural not to mention very shoddy craftsmanship. I called [company] to return it. They said I was past the 1 month return.
Too bad I got pulled into the marketing hype, believing this is it. I ordered the worthless thing and did not see any results. It was a bunch of plastic. Have returned the product a week before Christmas 2006, and have yet to get a refund. They keep telling me that they have not received the item. Don’t waste your money!!!!
So the info should be clear by now for everyone to see: fast weight loss is not worth the work trying to get a refund or adding even more pounds later.
Weight loss exercise is the best way to lose weight.
Try to remember that losing fifteen pounds in two weeks is nothing to celebrate. It is important to know that the more quickly the weight is lost, the more likely it is coming from water and muscle, not calorie and fat loss.
Since muscle tissue is crucial for maintaining our metabolism working on a high level, losing muscle tissue actually hurts our ability to burn calories everyday that we need to lose in order to lose weight naturally.
You can experience what will seem like fast weight loss when you aim towards losing weight slowly. Try to lose no more than 1 or 2 pounds per week. One pound of weight equals 3,500 calories. By changing your diet to get rid of 250 calories a day from food intake and burning off another 250 calories a day from exercise, you can lose one pound of fat per week.
Exercise for weight loss and for your overall health, but give it the time for real, long term results.

If you are like me, you have probably been through all this before, the family wedding is coming up next month and you can’t seem to fit into that suit or dress because you have put on too much weight. So you must lose at least ten or more pounds quickly.

Losing weight quickly is not advisable as most of the loss will be muscle tissue and water; you put on the weight slowly (usually over years) so normally you should take it off slowly and then you will know that the majority of the loss will be body fat.

But you have a problem here and the clock is ticking so you will have to diet pretty hard to meet your target weight loss. Let’s look at that first, you all know that diets don’t work; they send the body into starvation mode, a survival mechanism from long age when humans faced periods of famine.

Going too low in calories causes the body to lower its metabolic rate, which reduces its ability to burn fat. At the same time, hunger signals increase and you quickly start to crave high-energy foods loaded with fats and sugar, the same foods you are trying to do without.

Research shows repeated dieting actually makes it harder to lose weight and easier to put it on because when you dump the diet and return to normal eating habits the drop in metabolic rate caused by the diet means that your old habits actually represent an excess in calories.

Not only do you regain the fat stores just lost, but also you may even gain an extra bit.

Knowing this, you really don’t want to put yourselves through this rigorous process, but for this special occasion you will. First though, you will have to boost the metabolism that has been lowered by the dieting.

To do this you will have to perform a “Strength Training” workout to generate that initial spike in your metabolism. By increasing the lean muscle on your body by using Strength Training, your metabolism will increase, burning fat along the way.

The strength training technique I use requires just twenty to thirty mins per week. Gone are the days of the five-day a week program with 6 to 12 sets per body part that, method has never worked.

One short intense strength-training workout a week will elevate your metabolism more than you ever thought possible.

While the calories expended doing exercise are important, the increase in metabolism especially after strength training continues long after the exercise is finished, burning calories at the same time.

The two main components of this technique are the intensity of the exercise and the recovery after the exercise.

Infrequent, short, high intensity weight training sessions, followed by the required amount of time to recover and become stronger is what is needed to increase functional lean muscle and lose body fat.

Small frequent meals should be consumed during the day each containing a little protein to maintain muscle mass and energy levels. A high quality broad-spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement should also be taken on a daily basis.

As before get the calories from high quality food but if you can’t, utilize a blender to make concoctions from skim milk with whatever additives you want to use, just as long as you keep count of the calories for your daily total.

Now use these blender mixtures and solid food for your daily feedings. Spread it out over many small meals a day instead of the traditional three meals a day. The way to keep track of weight loss is to buy a calorie counter and record your daily calorie intake for a week.

Now average out how many calories you consume a day with the use of a seven-day eating plan and calorie counter, once you have this figure subtract 1000 calories and this will be the target number of calories you will be aiming for.

Remembering that one-pound of fat contains 3500cals, losing 1000 calories a day will total 7000 for the week, which equals two pounds lost by dietary means alone. Another technique for low calorie eating is to watch your fat intake as this has the most calories.

Incidental activity is also very important if you want to lose this amount of weight in this short period of time, by increasing incidental activity you can burn at least another pound a week The best exercise for the purpose of fat-loss is fast walking either indoors on the treadmill or outdoors.

Walk until you are mildly puffing and hold that rate until the allotted time. If your aerobic activities leave you panting or breathless, your going too hard, your energy is coming from your carbohydrate reserves and not from your fat stores. Try fast walking for one hour a day every day of the week.

Well there you have it, as an experienced trainer I wouldn’t recommend this type of program to my clients. The weight loss is just too quick and the program would be very hard to maintain owing to the very low caloric intake.

I advise my clients to decrease their calories by just 500 per day (and no more) below their maintenance levels and they will be losing 1 – 2 pounds of body fat every week, safely, without craving and without too much disruption to their lifestyle.

In conclusion remember, think long term here and that’s between 30 and 50 pounds of fat lost in six months. Any faster and all you will be losing is water and precious muscle tissue.

People searching for weight loss programs and diets today seem to be searching more for rapid weight loss than permanent, healthy weight loss. Unfortunately, it is a fact that quick diet weight loss programs are seldom without their dangers, and their results usually range from erratic to nonexistent.

I would advise anyone seeking to lose weight to substitute the term ‘healthy weight loss program’ for ‘rapid weight loss program’. I hope, the following short discussion will explain my position to some extent.

You, like so many others in today’s society, are concerned about losing weight. Like so many others, you are looking for some sort of rapid weight loss program or plan. Rapid weight loss, also often referred to as quick weight loss or fast weight loss, involves, as its name implies, losing weight in a short period of time. Claims of such programs often cite fantastic results in anywhere from two to seven days.

In the United States, approximately two-thirds of the adult population is overweight or obese, and hundreds of thousands of these Americans are understandably interested in rapidly losing that unwanted weight. Many simply wish to lose weight before an important event, like an upcoming vacation or a wedding, while others are willing to accept the fact that permanent, healthy weight loss is a lifetime commitment.

While it is certainly simple to understand how you can want to lose weight as fast as possible, to tell the truth, you really need to proceed with caution. Although it is possible to lose weight, or at least a small part of it, in a relatively short period of time, you should realize that there are dangers and problems associated with doing so.

One of the many dangers of rapid weight loss is simply that which is inherent in some of the many measures that some people take. For instance, it is common to hear of individuals who have decided to fast, i.e. not to eat, while trying to achieve a rapid weight loss goal. Going without food, for even a short period of time, can be dangerous to your health. It deprives you of many nutrients necessary to health and will shortly cause your metabolism to slow down. At that point, initial weight loss will cease if it hasn’t already. At some future time, when you return to your normal consumption of calories, as most dieters do, your body will burn fewer of the calories you take in, and the excess will be stored as fat…more fat than would have been accumulated before the rapid weight loss program.

This results in a condition in which the person now weighs more than they did before the weight loss program or diet. They attempt to lose the weight by going back on the same diet or a similar program. This time, the weight loss is harder to accomplish, the basic metabolic rate may diminish more, and the person will eventually go off the diet and gain more weight! This is a cycle often referred to as yo-yo dieting, and, as you can see, it is a self-defeating situation.

During an extreme diet, one in which as little as two to three pounds a week are lost, the dieter can experience the loss of lean muscle mass. Lean muscle mass is the ‘incinerator’ which burns excess calories, and its loss can only make healthy weight loss even more difficult. Additionally, with less lean muscle, the person is less likely to feel like engaging in activity which could help burn fat.

While an actual rapid weight loss ‘danger’ is relatively small though quite genuine, the results, or lack of same, when combined with the loss of needed nutrients do not really seem worth the effort or risk. However, be aware that in the presence of some clinical conditions or while attempting to achieve rapid weight loss through extreme measures, the danger to health, and even life itself, can be quite real.

A WEIGHT LOSS SOLUTION

A better alternative to simply ‘going on a diet’ is to cut back on the food that you do eat, particularly empty foods such as those sweetened with sugar, or heavily processed foods, or to just make sure that it is healthy foods which you are eating. Through limiting of your calories, you ought to be able to accomplish some sort of weight loss in the time that you were wanting to. However, it is very important that you do stick to a healthy eating and living plan.

EXERCISE AND HEALTHY EATING AND LIVING

Along with healthy eating and living practices, another important component of weight loss should always be exercise. Unfortunately, many individuals do not realize that it can take up to one week or more to notice any signs of results from exercise, and very obvious results will possibly take weeks or even months. However, in the long run, exercise, combined with sensible diet, proper hydration (plenty of water), and rest will result in a more permanent and more healthy weight loss experience.

Note, by the way, that those beginning an exercise program, particularly one which includes a strength training component…as it should…might actually notice a small weight gain at first. This is perfectly normal and is merely the result of adding lean muscle mass, which is healthier for the body, and this will help burn fat and calories. The scary part for the individual is that lean muscle mass often increases faster than they are losing fat, hence the temporary weight gain.

With all that having been said, the good news is that the more weight you need to lose, the sooner it is that you may actually start seeing results from a combined program of regular exercise and healthy eating and living.

While exercise should certainly be a major part of any plan for losing weight in a healthy and permanent manner, it is very important that you not overdo it. This is especially important if you haven’t previously had a regular exercise plan. Running on the treadmill for two hours, instead of twenty minutes, may burn fat faster, but, at the same time, it may also land you in the hospital. It is much better to begin at an extremely safe level and gradually work your way up to more difficult workouts than to start at some higher point just because you can and either give up because maintaining that pace is just too difficult, or because of some exercise injury.

DIET PLANS AND WEIGHT LOSS PRODUCTS

Another problem that should be considered when discussing rapid weight loss, is the taking of medications or weight loss products…particularly those sold off the supermarket shelf or through some magazine ad or an Internet website. The good news is that while some of these products do work a little, and some are even safe, you may not be able to tell what you are getting for your money or what it will do to your health in the long run. These products, such as the Alli diet pill, work best, if at all, when used in combination with a regular program of exercise and proper nutritional practices anyway. If, however, you are already doing that, it is fairly certain that you are losing a safe amount of weight at a healthy rate without having to pay for an additional helper which has no permanent health benefit and stops working as soon as you stop using it.

If you think you are interested in using a weight loss product, like a diet pill or a cleanse, to help you lose weight, it is important that you do the research first. This should, at the very least, involve reading reviews of the product to learn about its effectiveness, and discusing it with a qualified healthcare professional.

It is extremely important that you proceed with the utmost caution if trying to achieve rapid weight loss still appeals to you. Although unexpected events or appearances will occur without much notice, most individuals have at least a month’s worth of time before attending a large event such as a wedding or even going on a vacation to someplace where they wear bikinis all day. As soon as you become aware of your upcoming event, you are advised to start trying to lose weight then in a healthy and sensible manner, if you are interested in doing so.

An even better tactic might simply to be to adopt a healthy lifestyle of proper nutrition combined with exercise. Then you won’t ever have to worry about such events, and you won’t have to ‘diet’ or try some other means of achieving rapid weight loss.

Whether you are following a rapid weight loss diet plan or trying to lose weight slowly, you are facing a life style change that is totally based on how your work week goes. Usually most work weeks are filled with long commutes, long hours and perhaps social outings that seem to deliberately throw us off from our plans.
If you need to loose weight quickly, then you need to be near perfect in executing your weight loss plan. Here are five tips you help you be most effective in losing weight. These should be part of your weekly routine.
Please note these tips require some thought and it is suggested you execute some of these items on your day off.
Create your weekly menu
On a rapid weight loss diet plan, your success or failure is solely based on what you eat and what you don’t eat. So, you should create a menu. The menu should serve as a guide to every meal you will eat during the week.
I suggest you buy a spiral note book or composition book and date the menus you create. This way you can take notes and review past menus.
Keep the menu with you during the week and mark down if you ate what you planned. Also make notes of when you cheated.
Create your shopping list and go shopping
After you create your menu, you need to look at the meals you have planned and make a shopping list. Your shopping list should be very simple with only the items that support your menu.
Identify Possible Cheat Days for the upcoming week
No matter how hard you try to lose weight you will always be in a situation where you may be tempted to over eat. This includes social outings with co-workers or friends. Identifying these days will help you over come them.
Prepare your meals ahead of time.
Preparing your meals ahead of time provides the following: you are making a commitment to eat that meal and you are ensuring yourself you are going to eat a meal that is helping you reach your weight loss goals.
Review your week
Always review the week to see how successful you where with your weekly menu. You’ll be able to see what you worked and didn’t work. Simply, take a look at your menu and then review the meals you ate. If you took good notes, then you’ll be able to use the review process as a learning experience to fine tune your rapid weight loss diet.

Weight loss camps help kids lose weight, gain skills

A weight loss camp is a type of program where overweight and obese children and teenagers are sent during the summer to lose weight. They are more gently referred to as a fitness camp.

These camps provide weight loss results of two to six pounds per week on average. The effectiveness of these camps varies widely and usually depends on the quality of the individual program and biochemistry of the attending campers.

This is a article from PolkOnline.com about Weight loss camps

When Tony Sparber started running weight loss camps 30 years ago, the campers were mostly teenage girls, 100 pounds plus overweight. The menu consisted of food like liver, fish and alfalfa sprouts and the exercise was running and sit-ups.

Weight loss camp for kids

A weight loss camp for kids.

The goal was to lose as much weight in as short amount of time as possible.

Now, things are a little less extreme: About 40 percent of the campers are boys. Most kids need to lose between 20 and 40 pounds. Menus offer a broader range of food, and exercise is downright fun, with activities such as tennis and kayaking. The camps emphasize healthy lifestyles and skills the kids can take home with them.

In short, so-called “fat camps” are more likely to resemble regular camps that just happen to specialize in teaching good decision-making techniques.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 percent of children ages 6-19 are overweight or obese – a number that has tripled since 1980.

The number of weight loss camps has remained relatively the same, says Jeff Solomon, executive director of the National Camp Association. There are about 15 to 20 out of a total of 10,000 camps in the organization. (Some camps have multiple locations.)

Sparber, who used to run Weight Watchers camps, says campers tend to be younger than they used to be. A large number of the 1,500 kids he expects will sign up for his three summer camps over the next few weeks will be between the ages of 7 and 12.

That age group tends to be more successful because parents have more input on the child’s eating and exercise habits, he says. Bad eating habits are also less ingrained in younger children.

And camps are all about building habits, not just handing out quick fixes. They offer classes about nutrition, portion control, emotional eating, dealing with situations like pizza and ice cream parties.

They also teach by example. Sparber said his menus used to offer 1,200 to 1,300 calories a day. Now they are sized more realistically, at 1,800 to 2,000 calories a day, with hamburgers, pita pizzas, baked chips and low-fat baked goods.

“The biggest misconception about weight loss camp is that they don’t serve you enough food and that they overwork you,” says Daniel Kriss, 15, who was featured in the MTV documentary “Return to Fat Camp” based on New Image Camp Pocono Trails in Pennsylvania. He lost 40 pounds at the camp. “It’s the exact opposite. They feed you the right amount of food and work you out just enough.”

Weight loss camps for kids

A weight loss camp for kids

Changing behavior is key to sustaining weight loss, says Ryan Craig, president of Wellspring, which runs 11 weight loss summer programs around the world, including nine camps and two adult vacations, as well as programs at two boarding schools.

Wellspring participants learn to cook, shop, order at restaurants, and work with psychologists on stress management, frustration tolerance, and emotional eating.

“It’s not a lack of information,” says Craig, referring to the reason kids are overweight. “They know what it means to be healthy. They’re resorting to food as an unhealthy coping mechanism.”

Some campers want to be there, as opposed to years ago when their parents made them go.

Rod Rezvani, 20, who at one point weighed 440 pounds, says his father suggested attending Wellspring Camp last summer. But he says, it was “completely my decision.”

“I was happy I was finally making a change,” says Rezvani, who has lost 167 pounds and is enrolled in the Wellspring college program in Reedley, Calif.

Maya Murray, 8, of Long Island, N.Y. who was 112 pounds, attended New Image Weight Loss Camps last summer and came home 16 pounds slimmer, more confident and independent, and making healthier choices. She continued to lose weight, with her family’s support, and is now 76 pounds.

“I wanted to feel better and look better,” says Maya. “I couldn’t breathe that well. I couldn’t run fast. It was hard to be active.”

Wellspring makes sure that parents are part of the process, says Craig, offering family workshops the last two days of camp, a home-transition plan for each child and an after-care program.

Losing the weight does come at a price. New Image Weight Loss Camps cost about $1,100 a week; the camp does give out scholarships. Wellspring Camps cost about $5,950 for four weeks; but insurance covers some of that because of the therapy, says Craig.

Still, those costs may put some of these programs out of reach, especially for inner city youth, who have higher rates of obesity.

There are cheaper options, says Susan Blech, co-author of the weight loss memoir “Confessions of a Carb Queen” and the senior care coordinator at Brookdale Hospital’s childhood obesity program in Brooklyn, N.Y. She recommends parents look into schools or churches that run camps, sports activities, or a program similar to hers, which is free.

The important thing is to keep kids active in the summer, says Madelyn Fernstrom, founder and director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Weight Management Center.

Solomon also says more traditional camps are now focused on children’s fitness and health, serving healthier fare and encouraging lots of exercise.

“Any camp is great because it will force the child to have structured time in the summer,” Fernstrom says. “You want to choose a camp even if it’s a special camp like arts or science that has some activity.”

Related information:

* Special Weight loss Boot Camps: Weightloss boot camps are special programs arranged for the people who want to keep their body fit and healthy.

* Low or high intensity exercising is good for weight loss: know benefit of low and high intensity exercising, especially for weight loss.

* Walking for weight loss: post about walking and how to walk effectively to lose weight.

* www.polkonline.com: A complete reflection of the news, events, entertainments, real estate and business community of Polk County Florida including Winter Haven, Bartow, Auburndale, Lake Wales and Haines City.

Source: http://letdiet.blogspot.com