How to eat during pregnancy if you have Gestational diabetes

If you have never complained extreme thirst, hunger, and fatigue and you only recognized them at any stage during pregnancy, then chances are you will be diagnosed to have gestational diabetes, which in most cases will go away after delivery, as it involves resistance by the body's tissues to the effects of insulin. 3-12 % of all pregnant women
may develop gestational diabetes between week 24 and 28 of their pregnancies.

If you are diagnosed to have gestational diabetes, you should maintain your blood sugar within the normal range for pregnancy. To achieve that you should eat all the day within the following scheme:

# Eat no less than 10 servings every day of whole fruits and vegetables
that are more nutritious and less calorie dense than dried fruits and juices. Increase your fiber intake and eat whole grains and dried beans.

# Avoid foods that are known to be high in cholesterol, so that your daily intake of cholesterol should not exceed 300 mg/day.

# Avoid Soda and fruit drinks which usually contain high content of sugar. Minimize alcoholic beverages to the least.

# When shopping read the labels carefully to make sure they fulfil the follow inf criteria:
* No more than 10 percent of your total daily calorie intake should come from saturated fat. Buy foods with less than 1 gram of saturated fat per serving.
* No more than 5% of the "daily value" per serving (less than 140 mg of
sodium per serving). Avoid too much salt.


Keep your blood sugar level as possible as you can to be consistent after and between meals. Learn what type, amount and time of the meals
you eat through the day that keeps blood sugar level within a consistent range. You may need to keep due diligence with your dietitian or doctor
to consult him about any change you need to do.

After all, those recommendations help you keep your body within a normal built, and overcome any health hazard accompanying pregnancy like overweight and or gestational diabetes.

Yogurt and Honey Recipe to alleviate Constipation and Diarrhea

Yogurt, keffir, and butter milk are the richest foods with probiotics.
Probiotics-according to Wikipedia- are live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host.
The two most abundant friendly bacteria found in gastrointestinal tract are L.acidophylus and Bifidobacterium bifidum.

Researchers from the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, states that
probiotics friendly bacteria with known benefits for intestinal health, may boost the number of bowel movements and relieve constipation. Based on the result of a pilot study investigated the potential of a probiotic mixture to alleviate the symptoms associated with childhood constipation- a condition that can affect 30 % of children in the Western World.

Another recent study by researchers from Imperial College,London, reported a 22 % drop in the number of cases of diarrhea if probiotics drink, were consumed by hospital- bound elderly patients receiving antibiotics.

There were some other trials some of which were published in The Lancet
about successful use of honey to treat diarrhea in children.

Here is a recipe that gathers the benefits of Yogurt,honey, and fruits
in treating such ailments.It is published by www.foodnetwork.com website.

Fresh Fruit Salad with Honey Vanilla Yogurt

2 cups plain yogurt
2 tablespoons good honey
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Seeds scraped from 1/2 vanilla bean, optional
1/2 orange, juiced
1 banana, sliced
1/2 pint fresh blueberries
1/2 pint fresh raspberries
1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and cut in half
1 bunch seedless green grapes, halved

Combine the yogurt, honey, vanilla extract, and vanilla bean seeds in a bowl and set aside. Combine the orange juice and banana slices in a separate bowl. Add the berries and grapes and gently mix the fruit mixture together. Spoon the fruit into serving bowls and top with the yogurt.

Fats and Fibers in your Food Determine your Blood Glucose Level

Blood glucose level is a measure of how much glucose (the cell-utilized end product of all carbohydrates) is in our blood, it is determined by how much glucose is introduced into blood externally or internally. Then what is the relation between fats, fibers and blood glucose?

Unless you ingest native food like table sugar or butter, almost all foods are naturally or artificially blends of the macro-nutrients- carbohydrates, proteins, and fats- and by virtue, how fast these foods deliver glucose is determined by their carbohydrate content, how complexed is the food, and finally how fast the stomach extracts glucose to be delivered to the blood

Glycemic Index measures how much glucose is produced from a certain food INSIDE the stomach compared to table sugar as the standard highest glucose producing food. Examples of foods having high glycemic index are sugars, refined grains made from flour, fruits and root vegetables. Glycemic index was formerly used to measure how high that food raises blood sugar, as table sugar raises blood glucose very fast, but when we compare it to Carrots that has a considerable glycemic index, we find that Carrots raises blood glucose far slower than sugar.

Foods with high content of fibers like Vegetables and fruits takes sometime to deliver its content of glucose.The high-fat meal slows the gastric emptying and slows the delivery of glucose into the blood stream, and this is clinically tested and proven. These findings led the nutrition scientists to develop a new measure to rank foods regarding their blood glucose raising effect called Glycemic Load, which tells you how fast a food raises blood glucose levels.

Implementing the glycemic load gives us a clear picture of how great and fast our blood glucose level would be after eating a certain food.
Carrots has GI of 47 and a GL of 10.
Potatoes has a GI of 57 and a GL of 45.
Air-popped popcorn, has a glycemic index of 72, and a GL of 8.
Macaroni has a GI OF 23, and a GL of 47.

If you add a tablespoonful of oil (e.g. Olive,Canola...) to your favored plate of green salad to make a snack, it would make you feel satiety while you are eating a very healthy food according to all health recommendations.
In general, Use your own common sense and eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans and other seeds. Avoid the refined carbohydrates... foods made with extracted sugars, flour, white rice or milled corn products.

Try our High Fiber diet at eDiets.com

The Good and The Bad Laxatives For Weight Loss

One popular weight loss supplements available in the market today take the form of tea. Stores all over sell slimming tea, dieter's tea and others but all of them are actually the same. They may appear to be effective, but what is not seen may actually harm you.

One of the effects of drinking dieter's tea is the frequent bowel movement. This gives people the feeling of body cleansing. These people may get toxins out of their body but it isn't exactly the only thing that slimming tea actually does to the body. Slimming tea contains herbs which are natural laxatives. These include aloe, senna, rhubarb root, cascara, buckthorn and castor oil.

These are products which are derived from plants and are used since the ancient times because of their potency in treating constipation and to inducing bowel movement.
Cascara, castor oil and senna are substances which are recognized as laxatives available over the counter and are also regulated as drugs.

Scientific studies show that diarrhea induced by laxatives does not absorb significant amounts of calories taken in the body. The reason for this is that laxatives do not act on the small intestines where most of the calories are absorbed. Instead, they work on the large intestines. If taken in large amounts for prolonged periods, it can affect fat absorption of the body. This may lead to Steatorrhea (greasy diarrhea) and loss of weight. Abuse of laxatives is common practice among people who suffer from bulimia and anorexia nervosa.

While weight loss can be guaranteed by overdosing on laxatives, it may also cause permanent damage to the gastrointestinal tract and the weakening and softening of the bones, a condition is known as osteomalacia. Drinkers of slimming teas may actually patronize the product because they are less expensive and taste better than other laxatives sold in the market. Other people, such as those with eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia nervosa drink dieter's tea because they work fast and produce watery stool and having loose consistency.

Women may even be more susceptible to the effects of slimming teas. Although they may are not known to interfere directly with the woman's menstrual cycle and fertility, they should watch out if drinking them causes them to rapidly shed off weight. It is also not safe for pregnant women to be taking in laxatives of any kind. Wise and responsible herbalists also discourage the use of senna and other herbal products with laxative properties for pregnant women and women who are trying to conceive, and the doctors do that as well.

One should be wary about these findings because the labeling of slimming teas in the market today can be absolutely misleading. For instance, they commonly refer to the laxative qualities as "natural bowel cleansing properties" and not specifically use the word "laxative", and in all cases, it does not relate to weight loss. Some even use the term "low-calorie" on their labels, when you are not going to use them for nutrition. These products, in fact, contain essentially no calories nor nutrients whatsoever; unless of course, if they are sweetened.

Taking laxatives in the form of slimming tea in more than or longer than recommended may lead to the following adverse effects:
* Nausea
* Stomach cramps
* Vomiting
* Diarrhea
* Fainting
* Rectal bleeding
* Electrolyte disorder
* Dehydration
* Death caused by cardiac arrest
* Excess use of stimulant laxatives cause severe constipation and pain for long periods due to the colon losing its function. It eventually led to surgery removing the colon altogether.

This highlights the charm of negative calorie foods ! they bear all of the claimed benefits of -laxative containing- slimming teas, like regulating bowl movement, softening the stools, and actual Calorie loss, they have the following wonderful advantages:
* They never produce side effects
* They act through the whole digestive tract and not on special part of it
* They have actual calorie consuming effect that is spent in their transport (they are the exercise tools of your gut) http://count2000calories.blogspot.com/2007/04/cause-of-energy-loss-by-negative.html
* They add essential vitamins to the body rather than taking them away
* They have safety record of thousands of years
* They have indispensable taste
* they are a part of the new recommended healthy lifestyle
* They are the resource of natural health tools like antioxidants, flavonoids ...etc
* Their regular use induces normal bowl movement so that you never need to use laxatives
* They are already included in your nutrition, yet you are required to reconsider their portion size to make them frequent large ones

Instead of swallowing large amounts of harmful products, go shop your preferences of negative calorie foods, fruits, and vegetables.

18 Healthy Foods for Weight Loss

It would be unrealistic to think you could successfully lose weight and enjoy what you’re eating with a mere handful of foods, no matter how delicious, nutritious and satisfying they may be. So we’re going to add an extra roster of fat-fighting foods you can eat along with the great foods mentioned in the last section.
They’ll lend different tastes and textures to every meal and provide a wide range of vitamins, minerals, proteins and other vital nutrients. Naturally, each one is high in fiber, low in fat and safe when it comes to sodium content, too.
Many have crunchiness and flavor we have come to desire in snack and nibbling foods. If you’re like most of us, you may have a real junk food snacking habit – a habit you’re going to have to change in order to slim down. Many of the foods in this section may be worthy substitutes.


1- Turkey :
Give thanks to those pilgrims for starting the wonderful tradition of Thanksgiving turkey. It just so happens that this health food disguised as meat is good year-round for weight control.
A four-ounce serving of roasted white meat turkey has 177 calories and dark meat has 211.
Sadly, many folks are still unaware of the versatility and flavor of ground turkey. Anything hamburger can do, ground turkey can do at least as well, from conventional burgers to spaghetti sauce to meat loaf.
Some ground turkey contains skin which slightly increases the fat content. If you want to keep it really lean, opt for ground breast meat. But since this has no added fat, you’ll need to add filler to make burgers or meat loaf hold together.
Four ounces of ground turkey has approximately 170 calories and nine grams of fat – about what you’d find in 2.5 teaspoons of butter or margarine. Incredibly, the same amount of regular ground beef (21% fat) has 298 calories and 23 grams of fat.
Buying turkey has become easy. It’s no longer necessary to buy a whole bird unless you want to. Ground turkey is available fresh or frozen, as are individual parts of the bird, including drumsticks, thighs, breasts and cutlets.


2- YOGURT :
The non-fat variety of plain yogurt has 120 calories per cup and low-fat, 144. It delivers a lot of protein and , like any dairy food, is rich in calcium and contains zinc and riboflavin.
Yogurt is handy as a breakfast food – cut a banana into it and add the cereal of your choice.
You can find ways to use it in other types of cooking, to – sauces, soups, dips, toppings, stuffings and spreads. Many kitchen gadget departments even sell a simple funnel for making yogurt cheese.
Yogurt can replace heavy creams and whole milk in a wide range of dishes, saving scads of fat and calories.
You can substitute half or all of the higher fat ingredients. Be creative. For example, combine yogurt, garlic powder, lemon juice, a dash of pepper and Worcestershire sauce and use it to top a baked potato instead of piling on fat-laden sour cream.
Supermarkets and health food stores sell a variety of yogurts, many with added fruit and sugar. To control calories and fat content, buy plain non-fat yogurt and add fruit yourself. Apple butter or fruit spreads with little or no added sugar are an excellent way to turn plain yogurt into a delectable sweet treat.


3- Sweet Potatoes
You can make a meal out of them and not worry about gaining a pound – and you sure won’t walk away from the table feeling hungry. Each sweet potato has about 103 calories. Their creamy orange flesh is one of the best sources of vitamin A you can consume.
You can bake, steam or microwave them. Or add them to casseroles, soups and many other dishes. Flavor with lemon juice or vegetable broth instead of butter.


4- Tomatoes :
A medium tomato (2.5” diameter) has only about 25 calories. These garden delights are low in fat and sodium, high in potassium and rich in fiber.
A survey at Harvard Medical School found that the chances of dying of cancer are lowest among people who eat tomatoes (or strawberries) every week.
And don’t overlook canned crushed, peeled, whole or stewed tomatoes. They make sauces, casseroles and soups taste great while retaining their nutritional goodness and low-calorie status. Even plain old spaghetti sauce is a fat-burning bargain when served over pasta, so think about introducing tomatoes into your diet


5- Cottage Cheese :
As long as we’re talking about losing weight and fat-fighting foods, we had to mention cottage cheese.
Low-fat (2%) cottage cheese has 205 calories per cup and is admirably low in fat, while providing respectable amounts of calcium and the B vitamin riboflavin. Season with spices such a dill, or garden fresh vegetable such a scallions and chives for extra zip.
To make it sweeter, add raisins or one of the fruit spreads with no sugar added. You can also use cottage cheese in cooking, baking, fillings and dips where you would otherwise use sour cream or cream cheese.


6- Figs
Fiber-rich figs are low in calories at 37 per medium (2.25” diameter) raw fig and 48 per dried fig. A recent study by the USDA demonstrated that they contribute to a feeling of fullness and prevent overeating. Subjects actually complained of being asked to eat too much food when fed a diet containing more figs than a similar diet with an identical number of calories.
Serve them with other fruits and cheeses. Or poach them in fruit juice and serve them warm or cold. You can stuff them with mild white cheese or puree them to use as a filling for cookies and low-calorie pastries.


7- Fish :
The health benefits of fish are greater than experts imagined – and they have always considered it a health food.
The calorie count in the average four-ounce serving of a deep-sea fish runs from a low of 90 calories in abalone to a high of 236 in herring. Water-packed tuna, for example, has 154 calories. It’s hard to gain weight eating seafood.
As far back as 1985, articles in the New England Journal of Medicine showed a clear link between eating fish regularly and lower rates of heart disease. The reason is that oils in fish thin the blood, reduce blood pressure and lower cholesterol.
Dr. Joel Kremer, at Albany Medical College in New York, discovered that daily supplements of fish oil brought dramatic relief to the inflammation and stiff joints of rheumatoid arthritis.


8- Greens :
We’re talking collard, chicory, beet, kale, mustard, Swiss chard and turnip greens. They all belong to the same family as spinach, and that’s one of the super-stars. No matter how hard you try, you can’t load a cup of plain cooked greens with any more than 50 calories.
They’re full of fiber, loaded with vitamins A and C, and free of fat. You can use them in salads, soups, casseroles or any dish where you would normally use spinach.


9- Kiwi
This New Zealand native is a sweet treat at only 46 calories per fruit. Chinese public health officials praise the tasty fruit for its high vitamin C content and potassium. It stores easily in the refrigerator for up to a month. Most people like it peeled, but the fuzzy skin is also edible.
10- Leeks
These members of the onion family look like giant scallions, and are every bit as healthful and flavorful as their better-known cousins. They come as close to calorie-free as it gets at a mere 32 calories per cooked cup.
You can poach or broil halved leeks and then marinate them in vinaigrette or season with Romano cheese, fine mustard or herbs. They also make a good soup.


11- Lettuce
People think lettuce is nutritionally worthless, but nothing could be farther from the truth. You can’t leave it out of your weight-loss plans, not at 10 calories per cup of raw romaine. It provides a lot of filling bulk for so few calories. And it’s full of vitamin C, too. Go beyond iceberg lettuce with Boston, and cos varieties or try watercress, arugula, radicchio, dandelion greens, and even parsley to liven up your salads.


12- Melons :
Now, here’s great taste and great nutrition in a low-calorie package! One cup of cantaloupe balls has 62 calories, on cup of casaba balls has 44 calories, one cup of honeydew balls has 62 calories and one cup of watermelon balls has 49 calories. They have some of the highest fiber content of any food and are delicious. Throw in handsome quantities of vitamins A and C plus a whopping 547 mgs of potassium in that cup of cantaloupe, and you have a fat-burning health food beyond compare.


13- Oats :
A cup of oatmeal or oat bran has only 110 calories. And oats help you lose weight. Subjects in Dr. James Anderson’s landmark 12-year study at the University of Kentucky lost three pounds in two months simply by adding 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of oat bran to their daily food intake and nothing else. Just don’t expect oats alone to perform miracles – you have to eat a balanced diet for total health.


14 - Onions
Flavorful, aromatic, inexpensive and low in calories, onions deserve a regular place in your diet. One cup of chopped raw onions has only 60 calories, and one raw medium onion (2.15” diameter) has just 42.
They control cholesterol, thin the blood, protect against cholesterol and may have some value in counteracting allergic reactions. Most of all, onions taste good and they’re good for you.
Partially boil, peel and bake, basting with olive oil and lemon juice. Or sauté them in white wine and basil, then spread over pizza. Or roast them in sherry and serve over paste.


15- Cabbage
This Eastern Europe staple is a true wonder food. There are only 33 calories in a cup of cooked shredded cabbage, and it retains all its nutritional goodness no matter how long you cook it. Eating cabbage raw (18 calories per shredded cup), cooked, as sauerkraut (27 calories per drained cup) or coleslaw (calories depend on dressing) only once a week is enough to protect against colon cancer. And it may be a longevity-enhancing food. Surveys in the United States, Greece and Japan show that people who eat a lot of it have the least colon cancer and the lowest death rates overall.


16- Carrots
What list of health-promoting, fat-fighting foods would be complete without Bugs Bunny’s favorite? A medium-sized carrot carries about 55 calories and is a nutritional powerhouse. The orange color comes from beta carotene, a powerful cancer-preventing nutrient (provitamin A).
Chop and toss them with pasta, grate them into rice or add them to a stir-fry. Combine them with parsnips, oranges, raisins, lemon juice, chicken, potatoes, broccoli or lamb to create flavorful dishes. Spice them with tarragon, dill, cinnamon or nutmeg. Add finely chopped carrots to soups and spaghetti sauce – they impart a natural sweetness without adding sugar.


17- Broccoli :
Broccoli is America’s favorite vegetable, according to a recent poll. No wonder. A cup of cooked broccoli has a mere 44 calories. It delivers a staggering nutritional payload and is considered the number one cancer-fighting vegetable. It has no fat, loads of fiber, cancer fighting chemicals called indoles, carotene, 21 times the RDA of vitamin C and calcium.
When you’re buying broccoli, pay attention to the color. The tiny florets should be rich green and free of yellowing. Stems should be firm.

18- Berries :
This is the perfect weight-loss food. Berries have natural fructose sugar that satisfies your longing for sweets and enough fiber so you absorb fewer calories that you eat. British researchers found that the high content of insoluble fiber in fruits, vegetables and whole grains reduces the absorption of calories from foods enough to promote width loss without hampering nutrition.
Berries are a great source of potassium that can assist you in blood pressure control. Blackberries have 74 calories per cup, blueberries 81, raspberries 60 and strawberries 45. So use your imagination and enjoy the berry of your choice.

Atkins Diet Review

Atkins diet was the first scientifically supported diet plan to adopt low carb food as its technique for losing weight. It has created a buzz about it , equal to or increasing the demand of the diet itself.
You have heard that starting your first day with Atkins diet with eggs and bacon, snacks on
chunks of cheese, top coffee with cream, a luxury not found on the low fat diet for example,
yet you should give up other delicious varieties that contains carbohydrates like cake, biscuits,
chocolate, pasta, rice, potatoes, crisps, even fruits and some veg in the primary stages.
Atkins diet has been tried by millions of people and has generated a non-stop debate that consumed calories that may be even more than calories lost by using the diet itself.

The Theory behind Atkins Diet :
Atkins diet is a high protein, low carbohydrate diet designed by the late Dr. R.Atkins. It is based on what is known in physiology as KETOSIS, that is, when you cut out carbohydrates, you direct the body to regulate the blood glucose ( the glucose store of the brain ), thus your body pours glucose into the blood to keep its concentration in a steady state. The body forms this glucose from amino acids and glycerol split from the broken down proteins and fats respectively.

The fatty acids split from fats are utilized for energy production, and they produce much higher amounts of calories than glucose. The whole process is hormones regulated and there is no
shortage of calories, consequently you do not need to fill in the spaces and eat extra amounts
of foods that are not needed and only determined by your appetite.

The Plan of Atkins Diet :
We can arbitrarily divide Atkins diet plan into 2 big stages which are subdivided into 2 phases
each.
The first stage is concerned with teaching and training your body to endowingly generate its
needed glucose in a regular controlled pattern that keeps it in a steady concentration. This
stage involves 2 phases:

1-Induction (20 g/day Carbohydrate Intake) :
It lasts for at least 2 weeks although it can be continued for much longer if you can bear.
This is the stage of changing your nutritional habits largely, so you should avoid carb rich foods
as : biscuits-cakes-chocolate-crisps-fizzy drinks-croissants-pastry, and ditch : bread-potatoes-rice-pasta-milk-fruits and most vegs from menu, so that your carb intake is limited to 20 g/day.
( most of us eat around 250g/day ). In the same time you can eat unlimited amounts of red meat, fish, chicken, cheese, eggs,mayonnaise, cream and butter.

2-Ongoing Weight Loss ( 25-50 g/day Carbohydrates ) :
During this phase you take the amount of carbohydrates that allows you to lose between 1-3
lb / week, so you are allowed to increase your carb intake by 5 g / day for a week at a time,
until you find your critical carbohydrate level for losing weight.
You are allowed introduce a few more veggies, fruits , nuts . and seeds. Bread , potatoes , rice
pasta and breakfast cereals are still off the list.

* The second stage of Atkins diet is concerned with preparing your body for the new lifestyle
and is subdivided into 2 phases:
3- Premaintenance phase (Increase carb intake by 10 g/day for a week at atime) :
It begins when you have 5-10 lb left to lose, it prepares your body for the final maintenance phase. The idea is to slow down your weight loss to no more than 1 lb a week in an effort to prepare your body for the final phase , weight maintenance.
By now , you can start to include tiny amounts of starchy foods such as porridge, bread and
pasta, you can eat 40 g cooked brown rice or 30 g cooked pasta.

4- Life Maintenance Phase ( Less than 90 g/day carb for most people ) :
This is the final stage. It aims at helping you maintain your weight. You can increase carb intake to no more than 90 g / day ( around one third the rest of us eat daily).

The Result of Atkins Diet :
Dr. Atkins claims you can expect to lose 6-10 lb in the first 2 weeks of induction, which should slow down to 1-3 lb a week once you enter the Ongoing weight loss phase.

Advantages of Atkins Diet :
1- The main advantage of Atkins diet is that people can lose considerable amounts of weight, quite quickly and this can be very motivating to continue a weight loss plan.
2- Atkins diet offers people many foods that are liked by many people such as red meat, high fat butter, cream , cheese and mayonaise, consequently this is attractive to people who are
reluctant to start a weight loss plan. In fact, Atkins diet is one of the best choices to start
weight loss.
3- Atkins diet focuses on digestible carbohydrates ( equivalent to the carb content present in the label on food packaging). These carbohydrates are of high glycemic index and high glycemic load which have negative impact on our health.
If Atkins diet is modulated to contain high fiber content fruits and vegs, it would be a good choice for cutting down carb intake.

Disadvantages of Atkins Diet :
1- Many low-carb diets are expensive, and many of them lack other nutrients your body needs.
They are also often higher in fat and/or calories than the standard product.
Many of them are less suitable option if you try another plan like counting calories.
2- Some unpleasant Side Effects may accompany Atkins diet like tiredness, weakness, dizziness, insomnia, and nausea. Lack of high fiber content also may lead to constipation.
3- Long term impact of Atkins diet on health :
Although there are no documented clinical findings, yet many experts enumerate some draw-backs which they see are seriously dagerous , these are :

- High intake of fats particularly the saturates may increase the risk of heart diseases.
- The unbalanced nature of Atkins diet may lead to nutritional deficincies which can cause
health problems in later life like:
* Poor intake of Calcium present in dairy products, fruits and vegs, may increase the risk of
osteoporosis.
* Poor intake of antioxidants found in fruits and vegs have been linked to a host of health problems like heart diseases, cancer, pre-mature aging and cataracts.
* High intake of protein may cause kidney problems or weak bones.

4- Many foods are banned , the diet can get very boring with the result that many people
give up after a short period.
5- Many experts , believe that Atkins diet fails to teach people about the basic principles of a balanced, healthy diet, which science proves - every day - can help us keep healthy.
6- Atkins diet is unsuitable for vegetarians who cannot ban nuts, seeds , beans and mant veggies in the early stages.
7- Atkins diet lack essential sugars.
8- Atkins diet recommendations are sometimes hard to follow, for example, Dr.Atkins suggest that you can eat unlimited amounts of calorie packed butter, mayo and cream, and these foods are typically served with others that are banned , e.g.
- Butter is traditionally spread on bread or served with potatoes and both are off limits, leaving few choices for eating more butter.

Finally to be fair with Atkins diet, one can see that it is a good choice to start a weight loss
plan with, then you can shift to counting calories, and I have a a personal experience about cutting carbohydrates and counting calories away from Atkins diet, I may tell that story
one day.

Weight Loss Made Easy in 2007

Weight loss isn't easy to achieve but with a little determination and quality information you can make it happen. Many of you will start off the New Year with excitement about reaching your ultimate goals. Keep that excitement and let's begin with weight loss.

Weight loss is not something that can be done quickly in most cases, and indeed, as long as you are not competing Claudia Shaffer, why hurry! Don't go beyond"I Lost xx lbs in a week or a month..." It's more of a lifestyle change that you desire. If you really want to change then do it, learn how to do it.
A healthier you is a slimmer you! Take a healthy approach to life if you want to reap the benefits of weight loss. Your body can't function correctly and eliminate body waste efficiently if it's not in shape.
Some points you want to consider for your new healthier weight loss program will be gaining the knowledge to succeed. Another matter is your overall health.

weight loss is not easy and effortless. You will have to put work into it just as you do with other important things in your life. You just have to decide precisely what is important to you and if it is worth your precious time. I hope that you begin to think weight loss is one of your
ultimate goals this year.
Learn about portion sizes and negative calories.Calories do count though so make sure that you do count them if you want to see greater weight loss results.Put 2000-2500 Calories/day as a start, and to quit your
dinner as your final goal.

Some nutritious foods are known as "Negative Calories Foods". What are these "magical" foods? Tomatoes actually burn more calories when you eat them then they contain. Other foods that may fit into this category are: • Apples • Grapefruit • Oranges • Lettuce • Onion • Spinach • Broccoli • Celery and more that you can see in the archives. This means that you are consuming fewer calories than you are burning by your effort to chew and consume them. You burn more energy digesting them than they actually contain,simply because they gain weight when saturated with water, then
they need more energy to be moved off than other foods(if you want to go
deeper in their mechanism of action, just go to the archive).
Most negative calorie foods contain plenty of vitamins, minerals and enzymes to break down these foods for better digestion.

Portions are another key point to consider. You must realize that you have been forced by the media and fast food restaurants to consume unnatural portion sizes. "Super size it" is a phrase that you will realize is harmful to your health. "Just say no" is your new positive motto.
Eat your larger meals earlier in the day and don't skip breakfast.You may have greater results by setting a plan to eat six smaller meals throughout the day , and to exclude dinner from them.

Exercise can also help lose weight when you choose the appropriate one for your health condition.

OK,wanna easy scheme to start with? here it is :
Put a plan that you will eat 2000-2500 Calories/day, count 1 gram of carbohydrates and protein as 5 Calorie and 1 gram of fat as 9 Calories
and there is no need for precision, approximate every thing until you reach your goals and help yourself to just do that. Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits and add fats if you want, until you find yourself having no desire in dinner! This is the key gold to weight loss and preserving a desired weight.