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Here’s what happens when you eat lots of beans, and then go to workout, on TV… Can’t decide whether it’s more hilarious or embarrassing!

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This article addresses a simple, unavoidable, and in cases of extreme resistance painful fact, that being: why crash diets don’t work.

Despite what bright, loud, attention-grabbing ads from the TV to the magazine racks tout about so many pounds lost in so many days, the weight lost usually comes back in no time at all.

Weight lost quickly is most often water and carbohydrate (glycogen) loss, not fat. The body’s interpretation of this water and carbohydrate loss is that you are starving, and therefore it slows down its metabolic rate, in effect to help you live longer on less energy.

When you do ultimately start eating again (as, by definition, all crash diets end) the body believes the food emergency is over and determines its next best way to serve your longevity is to store this food you’re putting into it in case such a food emergency should arise again.

To put it another way, the effect of a crash diet is to keep the body always in a crisis management mode, rather than help sustain a healthy body weight. This in itself is bad enough, but it gets worse.

Glycogen loss is muscle loss, and since muscles are a critical part of maintaining an active metabolism, with less muscle, our bodies burn less calories. And when we burn less calories, we gain more weight.

To lose weight for good, lose weight slowly. Try to keep it down to only a pound or two each week. It may not feed your need for immediate gratification, but you can keep yourself excited and committed to the process by knowing that the results you achieve will be lasting.

To lose 1 pound of weight, equal to about 3,500 calories, find a way to cut out 250 calories from each day’s diet and find a way to burn 250 calories each day in exercise. That’s 500 calories per day: half in diet, half via exercise. The result: 1 pound shed each week. Double the formula for 2 pounds per week. But stop there.

If you do this, you’ll notice the program you set for yourself is actually quite reasonable and easy to stick to. Discipline isn’t hard when the steps you’re disciplining yourself to take are practical and realistic.

Take the concept of the crash diet out of your vocabulary and replace it with a far easier, more enjoyable, and more enduringly effective form of weight loss: behavior modification. Simple shifts in one or two behaviors can have dramatic and lasting effects on your weight.

Crash diets achieve false and fleeting results. They lead to frustration, disappointment, and despair. And in creating a feedback loop of a chronic stress-response in the body, can even be deemed dangerous. Stay away from them, for your own good.

Aerobic or cardiovascular exercise is any exercise that gets your heart rate pumping above its natural rate. Despite any foreboding stigma the terms – aerobic, cardiovascular – may conjure in one’s mind, they don’t necessarily require engaging in particularly strenuous activity; a brisk walk can easily accomplish the task, as can playing with the kids or the dog. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator qualifies, as does using a push mower instead of a rider mower to cut the lawn.

A key note before we continue is that anyone with an unstable medical condition should be sure to get the O.K. from their doctor before starting any program of exercise, and get their doctor’s input as to what types of exercise would be appropriate. Further, anyone with a metabolic, pulmonary, or cardiac disease should initiate their exercise regimen in an environment that’s supervised by a medical professional.

The latest recommendation is that every person receive between 30-45 minutes of cardiovascular exercise 3-5 times each week.

For the best results with your choice of aerobic exercise program, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) lists several factors that ought to be taken into account:

• Impact – Do the activities you’re considering include any jumping or other forms of bodily impact that risk hurting your joints? If so, certain exercises like cycling, rowing, swimming, in-line skating, and cross-country skiing make excellent substitutes.
• Convenience – Certain exercises can only be done in certain environments (in- or out-of-doors, water or mountains, etc.). Others are seasonal. And still others require special equipment, large and expensive, that you either must buy and store or go to a gym to use. The best way to stick with an exercise program is to choose one that will be realistic for you to perform without a big hassle.
• Skill – It’s easy to get discouraged engaging in a form exercise that requires a large degree of skill to perform. While finding exercises that appeal to your desire to learn new skills is certainly a great way to stay motivated, make sure not to pick exercises that fall so far outside your skill set that you’d get frustrated at your lack of ability and give up before you developed enough skill to enjoy doing it.
• Social Factor – Not only is it often more fun and enjoyable to engage in aerobic exercise with other people, but certain cardiovascular exercises are safer when done in a group environment.

The hardest step to take is also the most important step to take is also the easiest step to take, and that’s to start. If one of your obstacles to exercise is that you have difficulty maintaining your desired stamina, if you get tired and run-down quicker and more easily than you’d like, the solution is simple. Just increase the distance or duration of your workout ever so slightly each time; walk just a little bit further, etc. The best way to build up your endurance is in slow and reasonable increments.

In order for aerobic or cardiovascular exercise to be beneficial, it must raise your heart rate above it’s natural pace, which by definition requires an element of exertion. However, no matter what the exercise, it should never be so strenuous that you can’t catch your breath and talk comfortably to another person while in the middle of it. The effort of the exercise should be present, and a reasonable amount of discomfort is acceptable, but never under any means should you feel pain.

If you feel pain during any form of cardiovascular exercise – stop! Stop right there. When you do go back to cardiovascular exercise at a later date (ie. the following day), start slower, lighter, easier, and stop sooner.

Finally, an essential component of effective cardiovascular exercise comes before and after the actual exercise. Not only does warming up before the exercise and cooling down afterwards help the body receive and integrate the benefits of the exercise, but they are necessary to preventing the body from experiencing serious strain and injury from the exercise.

According to Tufts University researcher Miriam Nelson, and author of Strong Women Stay Slim, women who lifted weights and dieted shed 44% more fat than women who only dieted. This is because muscle, unlike fat, is active tissue, meaning that it burns calories daily in order to maintain itself. Building muscle actually helps you burn fat and lose weight.

This is the “other” form of exercise, and represented separately in this list because both weight training and cardiovascular exercise are part of a complete exercise program, each one providing benefits the other doesn’t offer. Running doesn’t substitute for push-up. And bench presses don’t do the same thing as play racquetball.

For the healthiest overall results from a weight training program, be sure to give equal attention to both the upper and lower body. It’s a natural inclination to be drawn more to one or the other – desiring to build up either your shoulders, arms, chest, and back, or legs and buttocks. But for the healthiest results from your weight lifting efforts, you must develop both your upper and lower bodies. Having a disproportionately built upper or lower body can easily lead to health complications in the underdeveloped portion.

Another key to maximizing the gains and minimizing the pains when pumping iron is to balance out each exercise you perform by next performing one that strengthens the opposing muscle group. For example: if you pump your biceps, next pump your triceps; if you pump your thighs, next pump your hamstrings. A simple way to look at it is this: if you work out a muscle group on the front of your body, switch next to working out the opposite muscle group on the back of your body.

In general, 3 smaller sets of any given exercise is recommended over 1 larger one as the intermittent periods of rest after each repetitions (“reps”) strengthen the muscles enough to get more out of the subsequent rep. How much to lift and how many reps to do depends on your goals. If toning existing muscle mass is your goal, then lift more frequent reps of lighter weight. If building new muscle mass is your goal, then lift fewer reps of heavier weight.

If you plan to include cardiovascular exercise and strength training exercise in the same workout, perform the strength training exercises first. This is because the body puts the fuel it burns to use in a particular order, and while you can maintain plenty of energy to work out aerobically after lifting weights, doing cardiovascular exercise first can easily exhaust you before you get your weight training in.

Finally, there’s a deceptive aspect to the dividing of the concept of Exercise into two categories – cardiovascular and strength training – and that is this: one can also be the other. In the case of strength training, it can easily double as cardiovascular exercise as long as you remember to consciously breathe while you lift weights.

Breathing is an essential element of receiving the benefits of weight lifting anyway, as the blood cells responsible for the process of mending the muscle tears weight lifting causes feed on oxygen. The more we feed our body oxygen while we’re working out, the greater the effects of each rep. The way to breathe when lifting weights is consistent throughout: breathe in when you flex the muscle group being affected; breathe out when you relax the affected muscle group.

There are three different types of human body in the world and they are known as “somatotypes”. The three different somatotypes are: ectomorphs, endomorphs, and mesomorphs.

Ectomorphs – These people have a short upper torso with long arms and legs sticking out from it. Their shoulders and chest are typically narrow and have a long and thin muscle structure. People with the ecotomorph body type do not store very much fat on their bodies at all.

Mesomorphs – These people have a long torso with large chests and a solid musculature. People with the mesomorph body type can generally build muscle with little difficulty while not adding on very much body fat at all.

Endormorphs – These people typically have a round face sitting atop a short neck astride a torso that fans out to wide hips. Unlike ectomorophs, people with the endormorph body type can easily store quite a lot of fat on the body.

More often than not, a person’s body will be a combination of 2 of these body type, such as an “endo-mesomorph”. This might be a person who gains lots of weight unless they work out steadily and, contrarily, if they ever stop working out, find it easy to put the weight they lost back on again.

One of the primary factors determining a person’s body type is their metabolism. Some people find it easy to burn calories while other people find they have great difficulty burning calories, even if both people have the same diet and lifestyle. It should be clear from the aforementioned definitions that someone with an endormorphic body type would have much greater difficulty burning up calories, even with lots of exercise, when compared against the other two body types. Likewise a person with an ecotomorphic body type would have great ease burning up calories, and normally without having to exert themselves much to do it.

Many people are at least cursorily aware of the existence of different body types, if not then certainly of the differences in people’s metabolisms, but most people are unaware that their metabolism can change over time as their body changes. This key point can make a crucial difference in whether or not someone loses weight and whether or not they can keep that weight off.

Working out with weights, for example, increases your metabolism. For every pound of muscle that you gain, you burn 50 extra calories each day. By the same token, however, when you lose weight, your metabolism will start to slow down.

It seems counterintuitive, yes. If an ecotomorph has a naturally skinny body and a faster metabolism, then why on earth would the metabolism of an endomorph slow down if he or she got skinny? Because our bodies function best when we are at the appropriate or “healthy weight” for our particular body type.

Statistics show that losing 10% of your body weight leads to an approximate 15% decrease in your metabolic rate. What this translates to is that the more you lose weight, the harder it gets to lose any more weight.

This explains why many people “hit a wall” (so to speak) in their weight loss program where they get to a certain weight and just can’t seem to lose any more weight beyond it: why some people just can’t shed those “last few pounds”. And it is why those crash diets with the lofty claims of having you losing oodles of pounds in just a handful of days don’t work for most people who try them. This is also why people who lose weight may initially notice having less energy rather than more.

Your body type and your metabolism are always trying to stay in balance with one another, and a change in one will invariably lead to a change in the other: an opposing changed (or a contrary force) geared to push your body back into the balance.

Losing weight slowly, a pound or two a week (and no more), is the way to lose that weight for good. And as you lose weight, expect your metabolism to slow and respond accordingly.

Internet weight loss community, The Diet Channel has put out a Top 10 list of the most fundamental steps to losing weight and keeping it off. None of these tips will blow your mind as anything new and innovative, and there’s a reason for that: losing weight does not have to be rocket science. Nearly all successful and enduring weight loss programs incorporate one or more (often all) of the following primary factors in achieving and maintaining one’s ideal weight.

#1 is Cardiovascular Exercise (aka Aerobic Exercise) – The Diet Channel recommends a minimum of 5 sessions per week of 30 minutes in length each for there to be any significant affect on weight loss. Don’t have time for a solid 30 minutes stretch (nor the stamina)? No problem. 3 sessions of 10 minutes each in one day counts as one 30 minute session.

#2 is Weight Training – It points out that the more muscle tissue a person has, the more calories their body can burn. In other words: gain muscle, lose weight.

#3 is Keep a Food Diary – The Diet Channel recommends keeping a written record of what you eat, how much of it you eat, and when you eat it. In addition, it advises jotting down a few words about your level of hunger prior to eating and any thoughts or feelings you had afterwards.

#4 is Health First – The next tip is a change in belief, a shift in your state of mind, whereby you train your focus on staying healthy, not on getting thin. When you’re healthy, you achieve and maintain your natural and ideal state.

#5 is to Identify Your Triggers – The Diet Channel points out that we often eat (or overeat) in response to stress. Identify what form of stress prompts you to eat – boredom, loneliness, guilt, shame, anxiety – and you identify the path to slimming down.

#6 is Join a Group – Support groups are an essential element of a successful and lasting weight loss program,. You’re likely to find numerous options available to you in your area. Don’t cheat yourself of the benefit of support and encouragement from other human beings going through the same thing as you.

#7 is Portion Control – Oftentimes, a larger contributor to unwanted weight isn’t what you eat but how much of it you eat. Proper portion control can open up your world to a whole breadth of food choices you may previously have denied yourself.

#8 is One Day at a Time – Make realistic goals for yourself, and set realistic limits. Make it easier on yourself to succeed in your program of losing weight by avoiding placing unrealistic expectations on yourself. Don’t try to lose a massive amount of weight in a short period of time. Just don’t do it. Spread it out, slow and steady. That, they say, is what wins the race.

#9 is Eat Slower – Don’t race through your meals, advises The Diet Channel. Take your time to chew eat bite well. Not only does your food digest better, but when you eat slowly, you give your brain the extra time it requires to process how hungry, how satisfied and, ultimately, how full you are.

#10 is Smart Dieting – Yes, some foods are worth cutting out of your diet altogether. But choose the right foods. Lowering your fat intake is an easy and obvious choice as, The Diet Channel points out, fat contains twice as many calories per gram as carbohydrates and proteins.

There are so many nutrients in food, so many ingredients, so many facts to know about what’s supposedly good for you and what’s supposedly not? Fortunately for all of us, the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) created a standardized format for the nutrition label that all processed and/or packaged consumer foods must affix to the outside of their product. So, no matter what the food, you can easily compare its value to you with that of any other food.

There are 3 fundamental areas to look for first on a nutrition label, and they’re all conveniently grouped together near the top, just under the title “Nutrition Facts”.

What is the Serving Size: standardized amount (like cups or tablespoons or pieces) followed by the equivalent amount in the metric system (such as grams). In general

How Many Servings Per Container: Most packaged foods contain multiple servings in a single package, making it easy to double, triple, quadruple, etc. the caloric intake from that of a single serving.

What are the Amount of Calories Per Serving: Typically, a single serving of around 40 calories is considered low-calorie, around 100 is considered moderate, and 400 is considered high-calorie.

Keeping tabs on the amount of servings you take in, based on the caloric intake per serving, is one great way to manage your weight. Another is to balance out eating high-calorie foods with some low-calorie foods earlier or later in the day.

The next step to using nutrition labels to help control your weight is to get the most nutrition out of the calories you take in.

Use the Percentage Daily Value to tell you how rich in each of the required nutrients the food really is. Daily values are based on a 2000-calorie diet. 5% or less of a nutrient’s %DV is low, 20% or more of a nutrient’s %DV is high. Limit your amount of Total Fat, Cholesterol, and Sodium. No daily requirement exists for Trans-Fats (the most dangerous kind), though their quantity per serving does appear on the label; so just be sure to keep them to an absolute minimum. Make sure to get plenty of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium, and Iron.

Once you have gathered all the information you need, you simply ask yourself if a food choice is a wise choice for you in terms of both calories and nutrients, and whether it makes more sense for you as part of a meal or as a standalone snack. If the answers to these questions don’t satisfy you for a particular food, then the next question to ask yourself is whether you can find a suitable alternative. The answer that question is almost invariably, ‘Yes’.

The term “fat farm”, as also with the term “fat camp”, carries with it a decidedly pejorative tone, but does that mean the concept behind them is bad? Indisputably not, as it turns out. As long as the participant is attending of their own free will, the idea behind these weight loss resorts and camps is wonderful, and well worth considering for anyone having difficulty shedding those unwanted pounds.

The difference between a weight loss camp (or fat camp) and a weight loss resort (or fat farm) is simple: the former is for children and teens, the latter for adults. Both provide accommodations, fresh and delicious supervised meals, trained health and fitness professionals on staff (usually including a health clinic or at least a nurse on premises), and lots of supervised exercise.

Most weight loss camps for kids and teens include nutrition classes, supervised aerobic activities, and regular weigh-ins, and report an average weekly weight loss ranging from 2 to 6 pounds. Camp Shane one such weight loss camp, one of the more popular ones, and it emphasizes developing improved physical skills that campers can carry back home into their regular lives. Another such camp, Camp Empire Lake, eschews the whole idea of weigh-ins altogether, equating them with the defeatist attitudes like guilt and shame that get in the way of being happy in whatever body campers currently live in.

Weight loss resorts for adults add to this mix of elements more advanced and esoteric methods of weight loss, like yoga, acupuncture, and meditation. Many also employ medical professionals, nutritionists, life coaches, and physical therapists available for participants to consult. Some resorts even hold hands-on workshops in the kitchen, teaching attendees how to cook more healthy and balanced meals for themselves.

What all these short-term homes-away-from-home for young and old alike really provide, however, far more than a little structure and supervision to a person’s day, is the supportive and encouraging environment of a group of people all dedicated to the same goal of losing weight. In a world where overweight people are besieged by outside judgment, these weight loss resorts and camps provide an atmosphere free of judgment, where a person is valued for who they are and encouraged to be all the desire to be.

Taking a break from everyday society to be surrounded by other people with weight issues of their own is one of the safest ways imaginable to face your own weight issues head on.

MTV shed a bright light on this phenomenon with its acclaimed documentary feature Fat Camp: An MTV Docs Movie Presentation. The movie follows 5 teens as they attend Camp Pocono Trails in the Poconos, Pennsylvania. The show received such widespread attention and acclaim that it airs its second season (following 5 new teams and their experiences at the same camp) starting November, 2007.

As all captivating drama should, the MTV Fat Camp doc highlights the thrills of victory and the agonies of defeat. But the real fat camps and fat farms aren’t about victory or defeat. Their about support and encouragement. About loving who you are so much that it finally starts to show in how you look.

This free ebook from AtoZfitness.com is quite an interesting and great find! It is a collection of the very best articles to be featured within their newsletter. Containing over 120 pages, this ebook is jam packed with information to digest and chew on.

Article titles include the following:
- Abdominal training on a Swiss ball
- Where diets go wrong
- A training diet strategy
- Keeping weight loss simple

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This ebook was made especially for yoga students and consists of twelve easy and interesting yoga lessons.

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