A low-carb diet promotes fat burning

Cells throughout your body are capable of burning a number of different fuels for energy, including carbohydrates (in the form of blood glucose or muscle glycogen), protein, fat, and ketones (by-products of fat burning). By putting yourself on a carbohydrate budget, you’ll consume fewer carbohydrates than your body uses for energy. Once your carbohydrate gas tank reads “empty,” insulin drops and stays low. Think of insulin as a switch. When it’s high, you burn carbohydrates for energy and store excess calories as fat more easily. When it’s low, your body can burn fat rather than storing it, and it will also burn triglycerides–fat in the bloodstream–lowering your risk for heart disease.

Eat your veggies daily

Are you consuming at least 3 cups of leafy and green vegetables and 2 cups of other vegetables daily? If not, make an effort to do so. Use these pointers.

• Purchase plastic food containers in various cup sizes. Fill these containers with salad greens or chopped veggies and take them with you for an easy lunch or snack. This allows you to easily know how many cups you’ve gotten in during a given day.
• Precede lunch and dinner with a salad. Starting your meal with a salad provides the side benefit of filling you up, so you are less tempted to reach for the bread or pasta.
• Buy an assortment of frozen vegetables. Many of these will steam in the bag, making them quick and easy to prepare. Serve on every night with dinner.

Try to be realistic

We all travel. We all attend dinners at friends’ homes, where choices may be tempting. Remember: It’s your choice, and you can remain in control. We all indulge from time to time. As long as you keep those indulgences to a minimum, you will be able to keep off the weight. Don’t stress about occasional luxuries. Stress is just as bad for your metabolism as poor eating habits are.

When in doubt, eat real food

If you want to indulge in something sweet, do so, but make it a small serving of a real food. Ice cream means sugar and cream, and almost nothing else. Don’t go for the low-fat or artificially sweetened varieties. These are not only less satisfying and satiating, but they also tend to cause people to lose self-control. It’s psychological. When we eat reduced calorie foods, we assume we can have more. When we eat high-calorie foods, we assume we can have less and stick to it.

The Yoga Effect

A study of 15,500 men and women determined that study participants who practiced gentle yoga for 30 minutes once a week for 10 years did not gain the typical 2 pounds a year that non-yoga practitioners did. The yoga practitioners who were overweight at the start of the study lost 5 pounds in 10 years, even though they were not dieting. The researchers speculated that increased body awareness allowed study participants to gain more control over their eating choices.

Emotional Eating

Do you eat when you are under stress? How about when you feel sad or angry? Although emotional eating is very common-among men and women-it’s also destructive. To overcome emotional eating-whether you eat out of stress, sadness, anxiety, or even happiness-you must break the association that links your emotional state with eating.

Get honest with yourself. There’s probably a little voice inside your head that’s whispering phrases such as “But I’m really hungry,” “But I really need it,” or “But I can’t stop myself.” Oh, hush. Try hunger comes on slowly. You can satisfy true hunger with any food, including broccoli. Emotional hunger surfaces quickly and centers on one or two specific finds. With emotional hunger, broccoli or a meatball won’t do. You must have the bread of bagel or cake or cookie or whatever it is that calls to you.

As soon as you realize that you are craving a specific food, you need to find a way to soothe yourself with something other than food. Thin about which emotions drive you to eat. Then think about other ways you can deal with those emotions.

Do you have a metabolic disadvantage?

The vast majority of people who are overweight – especially people who struggle unsuccessfully to lose weight – generally have a metabolic problem that is working against them. Without the right supplements, fiber, and nutrient-rich vegetables, plus a strict avoidance of certain types of both carbohydrates and fats for an extended period of time, these metabolic problems do not resolve. The enable weight loss, you must fix the problem, and, to fix the problem, you must no one exists in the first place.