Weight Loss Max

September is coming to a close and as October draws near temperatures are starting to drop, people are breaking out the long sleeves and putting away the tank tops. A word of warning though, winter wear covers up those extra pounds a lot better than a thin cotton t shirt does so stay on top of your weight both in maintenance and in loss. You may feel like you look better in your clothes during winter and that’s a good thing, but don’t let that be an excuse for you to relax your weight loss regime or you’ll regret it come spring when the shorts and bikinis come back out. It’s a proven fact that people exercise less in winter, mostly because of colder temps keeping us indoors or making us lazy about leaving the house to go to the gym. So appreciate fall, go rake some leaves and jump in them, and when it gets really cold take the stairs instead of the elevator at work, something small like that to make sure you get the exercise you would have missed outdoors. Staying active is a good way to stay warm!

Thought I would share this funny video. It’s a Japanese made tv show that gives native speakers a body AND mind workout by teaching quirky english phrases along with some equally quirky aerobic moves.

I know I’ve linked to BMI calculators before, and have mentioned in passing that if you fit into the average weight group in the BMI then you’re fine and should really think about losing weight before but tonight I want to actually go into weight loss. Too many of us out there with just ten pounds to lose achieve that goal and then decide to go for ten more. After all, everyone said “You look so great!” when you lost it, there were tons of compliments, admiring glances from classmates, coworkers, random people on the street and hey what’s better than people thinking you look nice and letting you know? There’s a limit to how much weight you can lose and still remain healthy, there’s also a limit to how much weight you can lose and still look great. I’m talking about Nichole Richie here people with the pinched look her face takes on with every pound she loses and Keira Knightley who insists she doesn’t have an eating problem while reminding us all of a skeleton in Pirates Of the Caribbean part 1. There is a limit to what your body can handle and it’s not worth fighting an eating disorder for a lifetime for those 10 pounds you wanted gone for that cruise vacation.

Nicole Richie posed for this photo shoot but she really does look like a malnourished street urchin who lives in boxes like this one in the alleyways of this country.

All the tabloids and fashion magazines are raving about Katie Holmes’ (of Dawson’s Creek and Disturbing Behavior fame) amazing weightloss after giving birth to much talked about baby Suri in April. She’s looking sleek and fit now, due to a strict regimen of regular weight sessions at the gym with a personal trainer, kicking her metabolism into high gear by building muscle to replace the baby fat. Holmes also goes for daily runs with fiancee and scientology enthusiast Tom Cruise. Her boyfriend’s kinda crazy, she’s learning how to be a mom AND she’s not just playing mommy to not just her own baby but stepmom to his two preteen kids as well, we gotta be impressed by her fitting in time to get fit!

Holmes looking very sleek and Audrey Hepburn-esque at fiancee Cruise’s 11 year old son’s football game. (Image from DailyMail.co.uk)

Yeah, I know, right now you’re looking at me like I’m nuts. You think fitness balls are just another in the long line of random weightloss products that are about as effective as the thighmaster sitting in your attic. Some of you might have no idea what I’m talking about. In which case, think oversized ball about the size of a bicycle tire.
How’s that supposed to help you lose weight? Just sitting on it provides a work out, you have to keep your abs tight in order to keep your balance on it and not fall off! They provide low impact for crunches, not to mention improving your balance. They’re great for improving your posture on top of all that, and since just sitting on them helps strengthen your abs you can swap out your lazy boy for a fitness ball and make those love handles smaller for watching TV or sitting at the computer.

Exercise.com comes well recommended, with a helpful chart for sizing your exercise ball, generally you want a ball that’s 55 or 65 cm so your feet comfortably touch the ground. Get Fit.com also has excellent Fit Balls in leather for around $25. There are lots of exercises for toning your abs using the ball, you can find some at virtualfitnesstrainer.com Most importantly though, it’s a ball, have fun with it. Don’t take your exercise so seriously and it might just be fun.

So, little known fact, 85% of women regardless of weight/BMI have cellulite. That’s right, less than 20% of women are cellulite free, that includes celebrities who have it airbrushed out in photos and magazine ads. So you’re not alone. Secondly, the presence of cellulite means you’re not producing a lot of testosterone which means your skin should be incredibly soft and you’re less likely to develop acne. The pros of cellulite don’t outweigh the cons though, everyone wants to wear a bikini and show off soft, smooth legs and so cellulite creams were invented! Consumer Health Digest did a survey of two hundred cellulite creams and created a listing of the top twenty five anti-cellulite products the top five products included Extra Strength LipoSculpt Gel, Celluthin, Cellulean, Derma Ab Solution Plus and Transculpt XR. These products run around $45 a bottle and are deemed to be the most effective on the market.

You’ve heard of Oolong teas and the benefits of drinking green tea from the Orient, well I stumbled across Asia’s new tea fad and it helps you lose weight too! Wu Long tea, as it’s been dubbed by importers is a special type of Oolong tea grown on Mount Wu Yi Shan in the Fujian province in China. Wu Long tea consumed fifteen minutes before eating carbs (your prime culprit for weight gain as carbs are broken down into sugars and then stored as fats after your body has used all that it can) puts a cap on the amount of insulin your body produces thus cutting down on your stored fat, which allows you to keep the weight off as well as to lose it. Wu Long tea has also been known to produce clearer, acne free skin and reduces free-radicals in your system which lead to age spots and wrinkles. If it lives up to its hype this sounds like an awesome product. Of course they don’t mention anything about exercise or anything of the like on the website, which we all know is necessary to keeping fat off and once you lose all that weight, what’s the point if you’re not toned no?

The 40/30/30 diet plan, made popular by The Zone diet aid company is a simple, balanced meal wherein you eat 40% complex carbs, 30% protein and 30% fats at every meal. This diet has been recognized by leading nutritionists like Ann Louise Gittleman who has a book on the 40/30/30 plan published by McGraw-Hill, a prominent text book publisher. The idea is that by balancing your diet, you will in turn take the best advantage of your body’s natural hormonal response to food, reducing stored fat and eliminating hunger pangs that occur when you deny yourself food. Most Americans get 60% of their calories from carbs every day, in particular processed carbs that have very little fiber in them to slow down their breakdown in your system as glucose which is stored as fat. The 40/30/30 plan fixes that with a reasonable amount of carbs, the necessary amount of protein and leaves you with just enough fat to make your food taste good and leave you feeling full. Sounds like a good balance to me.

Everywhere you look today Americans are being offered more value for their money. Most fast food restaurants don’t even have a small option on their menu for fries or soda. Everything is regular, large, extra large! Can I supersize that for you? Endless breadsticks okay? Portions in restaurants are increasing with prices as most people feel gipped if they get a meal that couldn’t feed four comfortably. Enormous portions lead to overeating, it is a plain and simple fact. Researchers at Pennsylvania State University discovered that we will eat as much as 50% more than we usually would if faced with a plate that contains more food than would actually fill us up. That’s like eating one and a half meals in one sitting, if we were to do that for each meal we would consume five and a half meals a day with an insanely high calorie count. You have to start taking control of what you eat. It’s okay to get a take away box at a restaurant, it’s better for you not to super size those fries, why not buy just the one pack of oreos and pass up the two for one sale. Too much of a good thing is still too much, be aware of how much you’re eating and not just what you eat. You can eat low fat and low carb potato chips and lose weight, but if you eat three bags of them then you’re going to put on just as much weight as you would with the one bag of regular chips. Be aware of your portions, learn to say no to overeating, it’s okay to stop when you’re full.

Hoodia dietary supplement, made from the African cactus of the same name is not being allowed into Canada at the moment due to the worry that the cacti it was harvested from was procured illegally. However, Hoodia with its quick control of your appetite may be the real danger if taken in large enough doses for a significant amount of time.

The Hoodia cactus produces a chemical that tricks your brain into believing your stomach is full, it is used to make skipping meals easier and to quell hunger pangs. Initially, users of Hoodia complained of nausea and headaches for the first week or so and then report weight loss but some also report not feeling hungry at all, even at meal times or in general throughout the day. Note well that eventually, if you cut out most meals your body will come to believe that food is in a time of scarcity and start storing all the fuel (fat) you ingest, so be very careful about skipping too many meals and cutting your caloric intake too low. Even with the Hoodia, if your body decides to start storing fat you will gain back the weight you lost to begin with because Hoodia doesn’t burn calories, it just suppresses your appetite.

The weight loss inspired by Hoodia can be rapid, one user claims to have lost 27 pounds in 9 days, that’s 3 pounds a day! This kind of drastic weight loss can be dangerous to your physical well being leading to malnutrition, depression, kidney disease and many other health risks. Investigative journalist Mike Adams’ personal study on Hoodia found it to not be nearly as effective as claimed and noted that there have been no widespread clinical trials on the drug so be careful if you do use it. If you are using this product, be sure to consult your doctor for a reasonable amount of weight to be lost in a reasonable amount of time for you specifically.