Low Carb Diet Plan - How to Avoid the Pitfalls of a Low Carb Diet Plan - Fitness Diet And Exercise Tips And Information
Sunday, March 8, 2009, 11:54 PM - Diet
Fitness Diet And Exercise Tips And Information
The low carb diet plan, more commonly known as the Atkins Diet, has been popular with dieters since the 1970's. This diet offers rapid weight loss because starchy foods such as pasta, rice, potatoes, bread, peas and corn are not allowed.

Unfortunately, this weight loss plan has gotten a bad rap in recent years because it has made a number of people ill. This is mostly because people forget to use their heads when making food choices.

Here are the 3 most common pitfalls of the low carb diet plan and how you can avoid them.

1. Choose your protein wisely. Just because you are reducing your carbs, that doesn't give you free reign to overindulge in bacon, sausage, cheese and other high fat proteins. This is the single biggest mistake most people make.

The Fix: The best choices are skinless chicken breasts, seafood, and extra lean cuts of beef or pork. Bake, broil or grill for the lowest fat content. You might also include whey protein powder or low fat cottage cheese. - See Low Carb Diet Plan - How to Avoid the Pitfalls of a Low Carb Diet Plan for the complete article.

Is Atkins Right for You
Thursday, January 3, 2008, 02:57 PM - Diet
Is Atkins Right for You. A diet article.
The Atkins diet is very popular, but is it right for you? Before you start down the low carb road, you should take some time to decide whether low carb is the right way for you to lose weight. Just because it has been effective for others doesn’t mean it will be right for you. No specific diet works for everyone, and you may even find that a type of low carb diet that works better for you than another. There are many things to consider before you start the Atkins diet.

First, evaluate your past dieting history. If you’ve been trying to lose weight for a long period of time, you’ve no doubt tried a wide variety of diets. Take note of the different diets you’ve tried over the years. Write down the basics of each diet, what worked and what didn’t. Also, write down why you didn’t stay on the particular diet. Evaluate your experience with high carbohydrate diets. These types of diets include most low-fat and calorie controlled diets. How did you feel while on these types of diets? Were you hungry, obsessed with food or experiencing negative reactions? Or did you feel full of energy and generally good?

If you’ve had experience with low carb diets, write that down as well. Past the negative effects of the first week, how did eating low carb make you feel? Why did you stop using the low carb diet?

The answers to these questions will help you decide whether Atkins is right for you or not. If you’ve had good experiences with low-fat diets and bad experiences with other low carb diets, then Atkins is probably not for you. If other low-carb diets have worked but not without difficulty, then you may have been on the wrong type of low-carb diet and Atkins might work better. If you’ve had bad experiences with both types of diets, then you may have better success with a modified Atkins diet.

Your food and eating behaviors can also give you a clue - See Is Atkins Right for You for the complete article.

Get The Low Down On Low Carb Diet Foods
Thursday, January 3, 2008, 02:47 PM - Diet
Get The Low Down On Low Carb Diet Foods. A diet article.
Carbohydrates come from a wide array of foods – bread, pasta, fruits, doughnuts, ice creams and pie. Carbohydrates refer to a group of molecules that is made up of small sugar units composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. They are needed by the body and therefore included in our diet as a major source of energy. Some carbohydrates are simple and are made up of small units of sugars while others are made up of several units of sugar arranged in chains or branches. A healthy diet cannot go without these molecules.

Carbohydrates give body cells the source of energy to support all their activities. This is the reason why when the body's sugar level is so low, the person experiences a feeling of weakness and lack of energy. This can be observed with diabetics when their blood sugar level go below the normal level. They also provide us with fiber, one of nature's brooms to purge the body of toxins and waste materials. However, one major concern in carbohydrates is that when they are taken in excess, some of them get converted to stored forms such as fat and stored in certain tissues of the body, usually under the skin. This accounts for pot bellies and love handles and other unsightly bulges on certain areas of the body.

If you are very serious about trimming your waist and dropping pounds, one diet program that you might want to try is one that is low on carbohydrates. Low carbohydrate diet programs are quite popular these days in the form of the South Beach Diet, Atkins diet and Zone Diet. Basically these diet programs promote one thing: restriction of consumption of carbohydrates.

This is on the basis of researches that show the connection between - See Get The Low Down On Low Carb Diet Foods for the complete article.

Health Benefits of a Mediterranean Diet
Thursday, January 3, 2008, 02:40 PM - Diet
Health Benefits of a Mediterranean Diet. A diet article.
The people who live in countries that border the Mediterranean Sea have a significantly decreased incidence of heart disease, chronic diseases, and cancer, and the highest adult life-expectancy rate. All of these health benefits even though the traditional Mediterranean diet contains 40% of total daily calories from fat. How is this possible?

Olive oil, a staple of a Mediterranean diet, is a monosaturated fatty acid and counteracts animal fats. This type of fat does not raise blood cholesterol levels and is an excellent source of antioxidants. Monounsaturated fats are, in fact, required for the body in order to function effectively.

Another staple of their diet, fish, is high in omega-3 fatty acids, something that most people do not get enough of. Because fish is such an important part of their diet, red meat is eaten very sparingly. This increases good health as omega-3 fats are considered to be essential to human nutrition.

It is also thought that a Mediterranean diet is healthier than the North European and American diet because, in addition to olive oil, more grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, and nuts are consumed. There is also much less processed food that is eaten, a large contributor to the poor eating habits of Americans.

The diet itself, instead of counting calories, focuses on a different approach to dieting. It is not concerned primarily with which foods are the best to eat, but how to eat them. Mediterranean style means eating food slowly and savoring the taste of the food.

FEATURES OF A MEDITERRANEAN DIET - See Health Benefits of a Mediterranean Diet for the complete article.

Any Dieter Will Know The Definition Of Carbohydrates ... Good and Bad
Friday, October 19, 2007, 12:02 AM - Diet
Any Dieter Will Know The Definition Of Carbohydrates ... Good and Bad. A diet article.
Any dieter will know the definition of carbohydrates. Several diets on the market have become famous by restricting carbohydrates. However, most do not realize that not all carbohydrates are bad. Although cutting carbs will help you lose weight, you have to consume carbohydrates to maintain a balanced diet.

First, it is important to understand the terminology in detail. Carbs come from several sources such as vegetables, fruits, and breads. Carbs also come in several forms such as sugar, fiber, and starch.

Basically, once in the digestive system, carbohydrates are broken down into sugars, or glucose, so that they can be absorbed into the blood stream to provide energy. If there are not enough carbs in the system, the dieter will feel fatigued.

Certain carbohydrates can be nutritious. Sources such as fruits will also contain vitamins, fiber, and folates. Vegetable sources also contain those vitamins and fiber, as well as much need minerals. Fiber, protein, and vitamin B can be found in whole grains. For example, legumes contain protein, iron, and potassium.

In contrast to these good carbs, bad carbs will be detrimental to your health. Junk foods such as cookies, chips, and soft drinks contain mostly carbs from sugar or flour. These carbs have been refined and have been linked to dangerous conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. These are the carbs that should be restricted from the diet since they have no nutritional value but are high in calories. Since there is no fiber in these carbs, you will feel hungry as soon as they are burned off; therefore, you have no nutrients but a lot of weight gain from these bad carbs. - See Any Dieter Will Know The Definition Of Carbohydrates ... Good and Bad for the full article.

Don't Drown Your Food
Sunday, August 26, 2007, 08:46 PM - Diet
Don't Drown Your Food. A diet article.
If you are one of the generation who grew up on 70s-80s Saturday morning cartoons, you might remember a series of public service announcements that aired in between your favorite shows. Tucked in between the adventures of Batman and Robin, and even the kitschy Schoolhouse House videos were very short, very animated appeals to children about good nutrition. One that stands out in memory is Louis the Lifeguard pleading us in song not to "drown" the food we eat.

Louis was referring, of course, to condiments, as the PSA portrayed him gallantly rescuing a potato from a bowl of sour cream, and a boiled egg from an avalanche of mayonnaise. The message then is as clear as it should be now: not only can condiments can affect the taste of foods, but also affect the overall nutritional value of the meal.

Just as certain diet products are designed to supplement a weight loss program by helping people maintain a healthy diet and exercise, condiments are meant to supplement the flavor of certain foods. Note the key word is supplement. Oftentimes, however, we can get carried away with condiments, so much that they become their own food group rather than the miniscule part of a meal they were meant to be. Picture the plate of steamed broccoli smothered in melted cheddar cheese, the baked potato supporting a pool of butter, the grilled chicken coated in salsa...they make look delicious, and you might think you are enjoying a good meal with the base foods, but going overboard on the condiments can do harm.

So what is wrong with a bit here and bit there of something to complement a main or side dish? Nothing, if condiments are used in moderation. Use too much, however, and you could be adding things to your diet that you don't really need. - See Don't Drown Your Food for the full article.


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