Albert Einstein is reputed to have said that if he had an hour to save the world he’d spend 55 minutes defining the problem and only 5 minutes solving it. Our health care system is far more complex than most who are offering solutions admit or recognize, and unless we focus most of our efforts on defining its problems and thoroughly understanding their causes, any changes we make are just likely to make them worse as they are better.

Though I’ve worked in the American health care system as a physician since 1992 and have seven year’s worth of experience as an administrative director of primary care, I don’t consider myself qualified to thoroughly evaluate the viability of most of the suggestions I’ve heard for improving our health care system. I do think, however, I can at least contribute to the discussion by describing some of its troubles, taking reasonable guesses at their causes, and outlining some general principles that should be applied in attempting to solve them.

THE PROBLEM OF COST

No one disputes that health care spending in the U.S. has been rising dramatically. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), health care spending is projected to reach $8,160 per person per year by the end of 2009 compared to the $356 per person per year it was in 1970. This increase occurred roughly 2.4% faster than the increase in GDP over the same period. Though GDP varies from year-to-year and is therefore an imperfect way to assess a rise in health care costs in comparison to other expenditures from one year to the next, we can still conclude from this data that over the last 40 years the percentage of our national income (personal, business, and governmental) we’ve spent on health care has been rising.

Despite what most assume, this may or may not be bad. It all depends on two things: the reasons why spending on health care has been increasing relative to our GDP and how much value we’ve been getting for each dollar we spend.

WHY HAS HEALTH CARE BECOME SO COSTLY?

This is a harder question to answer than many would believe. The rise in the cost of health care (on average 8.1% per year from 1970 to 2009, calculated from the data above) has exceeded the rise in inflation (4.4% on average over that same period), so we can’t attribute the increased cost to inflation alone. Health care expenditures are known to be closely associated with a country’s GDP (the wealthier the nation, the more it spends on health care), yet even in this the United States remains an outlier (figure 3).

Is it because of spending on health care for people over the age of 75 (five times what we spend on people between the ages of 25 and 34)? In a word, no. Studies show this demographic trend explains only a small percentage of health expenditure growth.

Is it because of monstrous profits the health insurance companies are raking in? Probably not. It’s admittedly difficult to know for certain as not all insurance companies are publicly traded and therefore have balance sheets available for public review. But Aetna, one of the largest publicly traded health insurance companies in North America, reported a 2009 second quarter profit of $346.7 million, which, if projected out, predicts a yearly profit of around $1.3 billion from the approximately 19 million people they insure. If we assume their profit margin is average for their industry (even if untrue, it’s unlikely to be orders of magnitude different from the average), the total profit for all private health insurance companies in America, which insured 202 million people (2nd bullet point) in 2007, would come to approximately $13 billion per year. Total health care expenditures in 2007 were $2.2 trillion (see Table 1, page 3), which yields a private health care industry profit approximately 0.6% of total health care costs (though this analysis mixes data from different years, it can perhaps be permitted as the numbers aren’t likely different by any order of magnitude).

Is it because of health care fraud? Estimates of losses due to fraud range as high as 10% of all health care expenditures, but it’s hard to find hard data to back this up. Though some percentage of fraud almost certainly goes undetected, perhaps the best way to estimate how much money is lost due to fraud is by looking at how much the government actually recovers. In 2006, this was $2.2 billion, only 0.1% of $2.1 trillion (see Table 1, page 3) in total health care expenditures for that year.

Is it due to pharmaceutical costs? In 2006, total expenditures on prescription drugs was approximately $216 billion (see Table 2, page 4). Though this amounted to 10% of the $2.1 trillion (see Table 1, page 3) in total health care expenditures for that year and must therefore be considered significant, it still remains only a small percentage of total health care costs.

Is it from administrative costs? In 1999, total administrative costs were estimated to be $294 billion, a full 25% of the $1.2 trillion (Table 1) in total health care expenditures that year. This was a significant percentage in 1999 and it’s hard to imagine it’s shrunk to any significant degree since then.

In the end, though, what probably has contributed the greatest amount to the increase in health care spending in the U.S. are two things:

1. Technological innovation.

2. Overutilization of health care resources by both patients and health care providers themselves.

Technological innovation. Data that proves increasing health care costs are due mostly to technological innovation is surprisingly difficult to obtain, but estimates of the contribution to the rise in health care costs due to technological innovation range anywhere from 40% to 65% (Table 2, page 8). Though we mostly only have empirical data for this, several examples illustrate the principle. Heart attacks used to be treated with aspirin and prayer. Now they’re treated with drugs to control shock, pulmonary edema, and arrhythmias as well as thrombolytic therapy, cardiac catheterization with angioplasty or stenting, and coronary artery bypass grafting. You don’t have to be an economist to figure out which scenario ends up being more expensive. We may learn to perform these same procedures more cheaply over time (the same way we’ve figured out how to make computers cheaper) but as the cost per procedure decreases, the total amount spent on each procedure goes up because the number of procedures performed goes up. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is 25% less than the price of an open cholecystectomy, but the rates of both have increased by 60%. As technological advances become more widely available they become more widely used, and one thing we’re great at doing in the United States is making technology available.

Overutilization of health care resources by both patients and health care providers themselves. We can easily define overutilization as the unnecessary consumption of health care resources. What’s not so easy is recognizing it. Every year from October through February the majority of patients who come into the Urgent Care Clinic at my hospital are, in my view, doing so unnecessarily. What are they coming in for? Colds. I can offer support, reassurance that nothing is seriously wrong, and advice about over-the-counter remedies—but none of these things will make them better faster (though I often am able to reduce their level of concern). Further, patients have a hard time believing the key to arriving at a correct diagnosis lies in history gathering and careful physical examination rather than technologically-based testing (not that the latter isn’t important—just less so than most patients believe). Just how much patient-driven overutilization costs the health care system is hard to pin down as we have mostly only anecdotal evidence as above.

Further, doctors often disagree among themselves about what constitutes unnecessary health care consumption. In his excellent article, “The Cost Conundrum,” Atul Gawande argues that regional variation in overutilization of health care resources by doctors best accounts for the regional variation in Medicare spending per person. He goes on to argue that if doctors could be motivated to rein in their overutilization in high-cost areas of the country, it would save Medicare enough money to keep it solvent for 50 years.

A reasonable approach. To get that to happen, however, we need to understand why doctors are overutilizing health care resources in the first place:

1. Judgment varies in cases where the medical literature is vague or unhelpful. When faced with diagnostic dilemmas or diseases for which standard treatments haven’t been established, a variation in practice invariably occurs. If a primary care doctor suspects her patient has an ulcer, does she treat herself empirically or refer to a gastroenterologist for an endoscopy? If certain “red flag” symptoms are present, most doctors would refer. If not, some would and some wouldn’t depending on their training and the intangible exercise of judgment.

2. Inexperience or poor judgment. More experienced physicians tend to rely on histories and physicals more than less experienced physicians and consequently order fewer and less expensive tests. Studies suggest primary care physicians spend less money on tests and procedures than their sub-specialty colleagues but obtain similar and sometimes even better outcomes.

3. Fear of being sued. This is especially common in Emergency Room settings, but extends to almost every area of medicine.

4. Patients tend to demand more testing rather than less. As noted above. And physicians often have difficulty refusing patient requests for many reasons (eg, wanting to please them, fear of missing a diagnosis and being sued, etc).

5. In many settings, overutilization makes doctors more money. There exists no reliable incentive for doctors to limit their spending unless their pay is capitated or they’re receiving a straight salary.

Gawande’s article implies there exists some level of utilization of health care resources that’s optimal: use too little and you get mistakes and missed diagnoses; use too much and excess money gets spent without improving outcomes, paradoxically sometimes resulting in outcomes that are actually worse (likely as a result of complications from all the extra testing and treatments).

How then can we get doctors to employ uniformly good judgment to order the right number of tests and treatments for each patient—the “sweet spot”—in order to yield the best outcomes with the lowest risk of complications? Not easily. There is, fortunately or unfortunately, an art to good health care resource utilization. Some doctors are more gifted at it than others. Some are more diligent about keeping current. Some care more about their patients. An explosion of studies of medical tests and treatments has occurred in the last several decades to help guide doctors in choosing the most effective, safest, and even cheapest ways to practice medicine, but the diffusion of this evidence-based medicine is a tricky business. Just because beta blockers, for example, have been shown to improve survival after heart attacks doesn’t mean every physician knows it or provides them. Data clearly show many don’t. How information spreads from the medical literature into medical practice is a subject worthy of an entire post unto itself. Getting it to happen uniformly has proven extremely difficult.

In summary, then, most of the increase in spending on health care seems to have come from technological innovation coupled with its overuse by doctors working in systems that motivate them to practice more medicine rather than better medicine, as well as patients who demand the former thinking it yields the latter.

But even if we could snap our fingers and magically eliminate all overutilization today, health care in the U.S. would still remain among the most expensive in the world, requiring us to ask next—

WHAT VALUE ARE WE GETTING FOR THE DOLLARS WE SPEND?

According to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine titled The Burden of Health Care Costs for Working Families—Implications for Reform, growth in health care spending “can be defined as affordable as long as the rising percentage of income devoted to health care does not reduce standards of living. When absolute increases in income cannot keep up with absolute increases in health care spending, health care growth can be paid for only by sacrificing consumption of goods and services not related to health care.” When would this ever be an acceptable state of affairs? Only when the incremental cost of health care buys equal or greater incremental value. If, for example, you were told that in the near future you’d be spending 60% of your income on health care but that as a result you’d enjoy, say, a 30% chance of living to the age of 250, perhaps you’d judge that 60% a small price to pay.

This, it seems to me, is what the debate on health care spending really needs to be about. Certainly we should work on ways to eliminate overutilization. But the real question isn’t what absolute amount of money is too much to spend on health care. The real question is what are we getting for the money we spend and is it worth what we have to give up?

People alarmed by the notion that as health care costs increase policymakers may decide to ration health care don’t realize that we’re already rationing at least some of it. It just doesn’t appear as if we are because we’re rationing it on a first-come-first-serve basis—leaving it at least partially up to chance rather than to policy, which we’re uncomfortable defining and enforcing. Thus we don’t realize the reason our 90 year-old father in Illinois can’t have the liver he needs is because a 14 year-old girl in Alaska got in line first (or maybe our father was in line first and gets it while the 14 year-old girl doesn’t). Given that most of us remain uncomfortable with the notion of rationing health care based on criteria like age or utility to society, as technological innovation continues to drive up health care spending, we very well may at some point have to make critical judgments about which medical innovations are worth our entire society sacrificing access to other goods and services (unless we’re so foolish as to repeat the critical mistake of believing we can keep borrowing money forever without ever having to pay it back).

So what value are we getting? It varies. The risk of dying from a heart attack has declined by 66% since 1950 as a result of technological innovation. Because cardiovascular disease ranks as the number one cause of death in the U.S. this would seem to rank high on the scale of value as it benefits a huge proportion of the population in an important way. As a result of advances in pharmacology, we can now treat depression, anxiety, and even psychosis far better than anyone could have imagined even as recently as the mid-1980’s (when Prozac was first released). Clearly, then, some increases in health care costs have yielded enormous value we wouldn’t want to give up.

But how do we decide whether we’re getting good value from new innovations? Scientific studies must prove the innovation (whether a new test or treatment) actually provides clinically significant benefit (Aricept is a good example of a drug that works but doesn’t provide great clinical benefit—demented patients score higher on tests of cognitive ability while on it but probably aren’t significantly more functional or significantly better able to remember their children compared to when they’re not). But comparative effectiveness studies are extremely costly, take a long time to complete, and can never be perfectly applied to every individual patient, all of which means some health care provider always has to apply good medical judgment to every patient problem.

Who’s best positioned to judge the value to society of the benefit of an innovation—that is, to decide if an innovation’s benefit justifies its cost? I would argue the group that ultimately pays for it: the American public. How the public’s views could be reconciled and then effectively communicated to policy makers efficiently enough to affect actual policy, however, lies far beyond the scope of this post (and perhaps anyone’s imagination).

THE PROBLEM OF ACCESS

A significant proportion of the population is uninsured or underinsured, limiting or eliminating their access to health care. As a result, this group finds the path of least (and cheapest) resistance—emergency rooms—which has significantly impaired the ability of our nation’s ER physicians to actually render timely emergency care. In addition, surveys suggest a looming primary care physician shortage relative to the demand for their services. In my view, this imbalance between supply and demand explains most of the poor customer service patients face in our system every day: long wait times for doctors’ appointments, long wait times in doctors’ offices once their appointment day arrives, then short times spent with doctors inside exam rooms, followed by difficulty reaching their doctors in between office visits, and finally delays in getting test results. This imbalance would likely only partially be alleviated by less health care overutilization by patients.

GUIDELINES FOR SOLUTIONS

As Freaknomics authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner state, “If morality represents how people would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work.” Capitalism is based on the principle of enlightened self-interest, a system that creates incentives to yield behavior that benefits both suppliers and consumers and thus society as a whole. But when incentives get out of whack, people begin to behave in ways that continue to benefit them often at the expense of others or even at their own expense down the road. Whatever changes we make to our health care system (and there’s always more than one way to skin a cat), we must be sure to align incentives so that the behavior that results in each part of the system contributes to its sustainability rather than its ruin.

Here then is a summary of what I consider the best recommendations I’ve come across to address the problems I’ve outlined above:

1. Change the way insurance companies think about doing business. Insurance companies have the same goal as all other businesses: maximize profits. And if a health insurance company is publicly traded and in your 401k portfolio, you want them to maximize profits, too. Unfortunately, the best way for them to do this is to deny their services to the very customers who pay for them. It’s harder for them to spread risk (the function of any insurance company) relative to say, a car insurance company, because far more people make health insurance claims than car insurance claims. It would seem, therefore, from a consumer perspective, the private health insurance model is fundamentally flawed. We need to create a disincentive for health insurance companies to deny claims (or, conversely, an extra incentive for them to pay them). Allowing and encouraging aross-state insurance competition would at least partially engage free market forces to drive down insurance premiums as well as open up new markets to local insurance companies, benefiting both insurance consumers and providers. With their customers now armed with the all-important power to go elsewhere, health insurance companies might come to view the quality with which they actually provide service to their customers (ie, the paying out of claims) as a way to retain and grow their business. For this to work, monopolies or near-monopolies must be disbanded or at the very least discouraged. Even if it does work, however, government will probably still have to tighten regulation of the health insurance industry to ensure some of the heinous abuses that are going on now stop (for example, insurance companies shouldn’t be allowed to stratify consumers into sub-groups based on age and increase premiums based on an older group’s higher average risk of illness because healthy older consumers then end up being penalized for their age rather than their behaviors). Karl Denninger suggests some intriguing ideas in a post on his blog about requiring insurance companies to offer identical rates to businesses and individuals as well as creating a mandatory “open enrollment” period in which participants could only opt in or out of a plan on a yearly basis. This would prevent individuals from only buying insurance when they got sick, eliminating the adverse selection problem that’s driven insurance companies to deny payment for pre-existing conditions. I would add that, however reimbursement rates to health care providers are determined in the future (again, an entire post unto itself), all health insurance plans, whether private or public, must reimburse health care providers by an equal percentage to eliminate the existence of “good” and “bad” insurance that’s currently responsible for motivating hospitals and doctors to limit or even deny service to the poor and which may be responsible for the same thing occurring to the elderly in the future (Medicare reimburses only slightly better than Medicaid). Finally, regarding the idea of a “public option” insurance plan open to all, I worry that if it’s significantly cheaper than private options while providing near-equal benefits the entire country will rush to it en masse, driving private insurance companies out of business and forcing us all to subsidize one another’s health care with higher taxes and fewer choices; yet at the same time if the cost to the consumer of a “public option” remains comparable to private options, the very people it’s meant to help won’t be able to afford it.

2. Motivate the population to engage in healthier lifestyles that have been proven to prevent disease. Prevention of disease probably saves money, though some have argued that living longer increases the likelihood of developing diseases that wouldn’t have otherwise occurred, leading to the overall consumption of more health care dollars (though even if that’s true, those extra years of life would be judged by most valuable enough to justify the extra cost. After all, the whole purpose of health care is to improve the quality and quantity of life, not save society money. Let’s not put the cart before the horse). However, the idea of preventing a potentially bad outcome sometime in the future is only weakly motivating psychologically, explaining why so many people have so much trouble getting themselves to exercise, eat right, lose weight, stop smoking, etc. The idea of financially rewarding desirable behavior and/or financially punishing undesirable behavior is highly controversial. Though I worry this kind of strategy risks the enacting of policies that may impinge on basic freedoms if taken too far, I’m not against thinking creatively about how we could leverage stronger motivational forces to help people achieve health goals they themselves want to achieve. After all, most obese people want to lose weight. Most smokers want to quit. They might be more successful if they could find more powerful motivation.

3. Decrease overutilization of health care resources by doctors. I’m in agreement with Gawande that finding ways to get doctors to stop overutilizing health care resources is a worthy goal that will significantly rein in costs, that it will require a willingness to experiment, and that it will take time. Further, I agree that focusing only on who pays for our health care (whether the public or private sectors) will fail to address the issue adequately. But how exactly can we motivate doctors, whose pens are responsible for most of the money spent on health care in this country, to focus on what’s truly best for their patients? The idea that external bodies—whether insurance companies or government panels—could be used to set standards of care doctors must follow in order to control costs strikes me as ludicrous. Such bodies have neither the training nor overriding concern for patients’ welfare to be trusted to make those judgments. Why else do we have doctors if not to employ their expertise to apply nuanced approaches to complex situations? As long as they work in a system free of incentives that compete with their duty to their patients, they remain in the best position to make decisions about what tests and treatments are worth a given patient’s consideration, as long as they’re careful to avoid overconfident paternalism (refusing to obtain a head CT for a headache might be overconfidently paternalistic; refusing to offer chemotherapy for a cold isn’t). So perhaps we should eliminate any financial incentive doctors have to care about anything but their patients’ welfare, meaning doctors’ salaries should be disconnected from the number of surgeries they perform and the number of tests they order, and should instead be set by market forces. This model already exists in academic health care centers and hasn’t seemed to promote shoddy care when doctors feel they’re being paid fairly. Doctors need to earn a good living to compensate for the years of training and massive amounts of debt they amass, but no financial incentive for practicing more medicine should be allowed to attach itself to that good living.

4. Decrease overutilization of health care resources by patients. This, it seems to me, requires at least three interventions:

* Making available the right resources for the right problems (so that patients aren’t going to the ER for colds, for example, but rather to their primary care physicians). This would require hitting the “sweet spot” with respect to the number of primary care physicians, best at front-line gatekeeping, not of health care spending as in the old HMO model, but of triage and treatment. It would also require a recalculating of reimbursement levels for primary care services relative to specialty services to encourage more medical students to go into primary care (the reverse of the alarming trend we’ve been seeing for the last decade).

* A massive effort to increase the health literacy of the general public to improve its ability to triage its own complaints (so patients don’t actually go anywhere for colds or demand MRIs of their backs when their trusted physicians tells them it’s just a strain). This might be best accomplished through a series of educational programs (though given that no one in the private sector has an incentive to fund such programs, it might actually be one of the few things the government should—we’d just need to study and compare different educational programs and methods to see which, if any, reduce unnecessary patient utilization without worsening outcomes and result in more health care savings than they cost).

* Redesigning insurance plans to make patients in some way more financially liable for their health care choices. We can’t have people going bankrupt due to illness, nor do we want people to underutilize health care resources (avoiding the ER when they have chest pain, for example), but neither can we continue to support a system in which patients are actually motivated to overutilize resources, as the current “pre-pay for everything” model does.

CONCLUSION

Given the enormous complexity of the health care system, no single post could possibly address every problem that needs to be fixed. Significant issues not raised in this article include the challenges associated with rising drug costs, direct-to-consumer marketing of drugs, end-of-life care, sky-rocketing malpractice insurance costs, the lack of cost transparency that enables hospitals to paradoxically charge the uninsured more than the insured for the same care, extending health care insurance coverage to those who still don’t have it, improving administrative efficiency to reduce costs, the implementation of electronic medical records to reduce medical error, the financial burden of businesses being required to provide their employees with health insurance, and tort reform. All are profoundly interdependent, standing together like the proverbial house of cards. To attend to any one is to affect them all, which is why rushing through health care reform without careful contemplation risks unintended and potentially devastating consequences. Change does need to come, but if we don’t allow ourselves time to think through the problems clearly and cleverly and to implement solutions in a measured fashion, we risk bringing down that house of cards rather than cementing it.

Please visit Dr. Lickerman’s blog at http://happinessinthisworld.com to read other articles about achieving health and happiness. He can be reached at alickerman@gmail.com.

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Fad Diets and many diet pills are pitched by persistent advertising and many people, possibly even you will join the parade of followers. Yet 95% of the time, these weight loss products will prove to fail you once again — leaving you with nothing but charges to your credit card and set-up to regain all those pounds. So why are people constantly and willingly paying their hard earned money for these weight loss products?

“Stop Throwing Your Hopes Into Every Weight Loss Product That Comes By”

We want you to stop being their guinea pigs and understand and realize just how many of these diet pills and other weight loss companies are cashing in at your expense. To help you avoid getting “trapped or suckered” into believing or choosing a weight loss product or service that does nothing but contribute and add to the problems.

Stop Getting Taken! The following factors are exactly what many weight loss products and services use and exploit in order to get you to buy into their utterly false claims…

Factor 1 — HOPE
Hope is a good thing, you need hope. But the problem is that many times you have such high hopes that you put those hopes into anything, regardless if its legit or not. By putting your hopes of weight loss into products and services that are not providing the necessary means you need, your ultimately setting yourself up for failure and your hopes will get crushed. Have hope, just make sure you put your hope into the right service and don’t let your strong sense of hope blind you into not seeing the red-flags and other lies.

Bottom Line — Don’t let your strong sense of hope make you believe things that are not true!

Factor 2 — Emotion
Lets face it, your weight and appearance can be a touchy, emotional subject. And it should be, its your life! But how many times have you seen a weight loss infomercial where someone breaks down into tears while talking about how miserable they were when overweight and how deeply happy and relieved they are now … and how they owe it all to that particular weight loss product or “revolutionary system.” The product is doing this intentionally!

Weight loss products know you’re emotional about how you look … they also know that when your emotional, it causes you to act on impulse. They have a better chance to “hook- you” when you’re emotional and “touched.” Products try to stir up your emotion in an effort to get you to act impulsively and buy into their claims. You should be emotional about your health and the way you look, but don’t let them use your emotion against you. Don’t let your emotion blind you into not seeing the red-flags and real reason that they’re really there — to get the “2 easy payments of $39.99″ out of you!

Factor 3 — Marketing Savvy & Media
Just because you’re constantly seeing weight loss ads and commercials for diet pills and the new “xxx diet” does not mean it works and is credible. Just because you see a celebrity hosting the weight loss infomercial or program (who has been generously paid off … do you really think a movie star is going to do an infomercial for free?) does not mean it’s effective. What it does mean is that they have thousands, if not millions of dollars to pay for advertising and marketing so they can get their product in front of you, be it radio, television, internet etc. so they can constantly “pitch you.”

How affective is marketing? Recently, a diet pill company was making the bogus claim “take our weight loss pill and you can eat what you want and burn fat as you sleep” and made $152 million in profit over 3 short years by doing radio commercials at over 600 stations across the country! That is until the Government stepped in and cracked down! And all the restaurants that are adding the “new xxx diet approved” menus, all they’re doing is trying to make money too! Restaurants know that people are willingly paying, so why wouldn’t they add low carb diet dishes (even though the number of calories in these dishes are alarmingly high and will cause you to pack on pounds!)

Realize, that just because you see a weight loss product time and time again on the television or radio does not mean it will be effective in losing permanent weight. All these weight loss companies are trying to do is get their product in front of you over and over so it will be there when you’re ready to buy. Many people make the mistake of assuming a product is credible simply because it’s constantly on television.

Factor 4 – Repetition
Diet pills and other weight loss products figure they more they can get in front of you, the more likely you’re going to buy it when that time comes. Lets face it, if you were interested in building a deck, when that time comes don’t you think your going to choose the “smith deck company” that you saw time and time again on TV. Most people will simply use the one that’s most convenient and right there. Many times people just pick the first product or service that comes to their head and have high hopes that everything will just work out. Unfortunately, many times it’s no different with weight loss products.

This is exactly why you see the same infomercial every day, every hour of the day for like 1 month straight … and then all of a sudden it’s gone. They get in, make their money on desperate people looking to lose weight, and then they get out! And if you see it again in like 3-4 months down the road, this means they made a lot of money on it previously and are back to make more. They wouldn’t be there if they weren’t making money – period!

The product is trying to pound it into you head and keep coming at you because they know, the more you see it, the more likely you will be to buy it. Don’t get suckered! Just because they are always there, does not mean it will help you.

Factor 5 – Pressure
This is a big one. The bottom line — when people are pressured they act impulsively. Often times you put way to much pressure on yourself. In today’s society so much emphasis is placed on health and appearance. People feel pressured to look a certain way and this is certainly the case with being overweight as people will do anything to lose weight. Weight loss products go out of their way to put additional pressure on you, knowing that it will cause you to act and buy. Many of the weight loss infomercials are very good at the art of getting you to believe that … “finally this is it, the only product that’s going to change your life!” The truth is that all they’re doing is adding additional pressure.

Bottom Line — Don’t let the pressure you feel to lose weight allow you to buy into and believe false claims. A sense of urgency to lose weight is good, but don’t feel so pressured that it causes you to act impulsively and spend your hard – earned money on the first thing you come across that sounds good. When you feel pressured, it will allow you to start believing and putting your hopes into things that are not true because you feel like “I need to do something about my weight and I need to do it now!” Weight loss products know this and that is what they are wanting you to do. Don’t allow it and don’t allow yourself to be one of their guinea pigs! It will just cost you in the end!

General Rules To Keep In Mind When
Dealing With Weight Loss Products

Be Realistic — If there was a way to “lose 30 pounds in 30 days and keep it off” or “eat what you want and still lose weight” don’t you think that we would all look like supermodels?

Use Common Sense — If there were magic diet pills or easy way to lose weight and keep it off, don’t you think the top movie stars and celebrities who make millions and millions of dollars would have it.

Allow Yourself To Believe Both Sides — If you’re going to make the mistake of believing the lies and fabrications many weight loss products are telling you, at least allow yourself to believe that they may indeed be “lying and deceiving you” as well. It’s only fair that you allow yourself to look at both sides as this will help you to form a better judgment.

“If It Was That Easy…” Lets face it, if it was as easy as all these health and weight loss infomercials and ab contraptions make it, the statistic of 95% failing would not exist! There would be no problems. Don’t believe their lies and fabrications

Kenny Leonard is the President Of Excel Media and the creator of The Ultimate Weight Loss And Fitness Bible. The much talked about Weight Loss Bible is authored by Mari Kudla, who is the 4th ranked IFBB Fitness Professional And Figure Model in the world. She has been featured and contributed in numerous world wide media weight loss giants such as Muscle & Fitness Hers, Oxygen, and Flex magazines — just to name a few. Her new book, “The Ultimate Weight Loss And Fitness Bible,” has said to make weight loss …”amazingly simple to understand and easy” More info at http://www.ultimate-weight-loss-bible.com

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Many individuals find weight loss a chronic endeavor. For some, the shedding of pounds may seem lasting but it is just a temporary event.They do not know until they once again stood on the scale and found that they have regained the lost weight – worse, lost the weight regained is greater than the weight. On the other hand, several popular diets are found ineffective because they lack the lasting factors of what the best weight loss program truly is.

Thus, what do we need to find in a weight loss program? Here are the effective factors and strategies to consider:
Exercise. Exercise is a cliché in the fitness industry. Cliched the word No. matter how is but this still remains one of the genuine factors for weight loss. Recent of studies have shown that it is advisable to exercise 30 minutes for 5 days in a week. Alternatively, another study has shown that 10 minutes of exercise three times a day is so effective. Thus, there is no reason for control to give the “no time for exercise” excuse. Always find time and discipline to exercise 4 to 5 days a week and increase your exercise intensity level every two weeks. Train with weights or do some weight training. Weight training helps you shed off some body fats better. Muscles burn fats. On the other hand, cardiovascular exercises are still effective for weight loss since it burns calories but muscles gained from weight training gives you the maintenance for a healthier and leaner look. It is advisable that at the minimum, you increase your weights 5% every two weeks from its current weight. For example, if you are lifting 30 kilogram weights then you must, at the minimum, lift rerated kilogram weights after two weeks. Keep a record. Keep a document of your food intakes and the things that hinders you to your weight loss. This record is effective in tracking your food intake, activity and lifestyle. In this way, you will better have a plan and idea on how to approach your weight loss goal better. However, do not be too overly conscious in taking a record. It is not good to overdo the recording responsibility or else you will loose fun in your life. Just keep some information in your long term memory and transfer log them later in your book or journal. Stop overeating. Know the reasons and factors behind why you overeat so that you can control and ultimately stop overeating. If the primary reasons are stress and pressure, then find ways to channel your energy better. Most overeating problems due to stress are and pressure at work or family life. Learn to know the cause of your overeating and ask for psychological help if necessary. Join a support group. Create or join a weight loss support group for you. In this way, you have people to back you up and keep you motivated for your weight loss goal. These are the people that will kick your ass when necessary to keep you in your weight loss goal. Your support group must be heterogeneous in nature. This means that you must compose your support group coming from your close friends, immediate family members, office mates and other pivotal people in your life. In this case, there is always a person who can monitor you wherever environment you are. Learn from the meals. Meals in fast food chains and restaurants are not normal anymore. Some, if not most, are already supersized. If you have observed the meals in all these fast food chains, hamburgers, fries, sodas, and many more are all supersized. Thus, always watch your diet. This is already a good time to apply tip # 3: keep a record. Always have a track on what you eat so that you will know what you must learn and what you must do. Take joy in small progress. Acknowledge yourself when you have done little and consistent weight loss progresses. Do not be too harsh on yourself if you cannot shed off pounds that easily. The key here is consistently losing of unwanted body fats. On the other hand, do not be saddened for some weight gains after several exercises; it may be due to the muscles you build. Remember that muscles are heavier than fats, thus, weight gain does not necessary follow that you are getting fatter – it could be that you are getting leaner. Above all, always be honest to yourself if you really have gained some pounds due to fats or due to muscles. Chew your food well. Well by chewing your food, you eat slowly. This is because, once you have take in some food, it takes 20 minutes to signal your brain of the feelings of fullness. Thus, if you eat fast, there is a big tendency that you have taken a lot of food within 20 minutes compared to eating slowly. Aside from that, chewing your food well helps your body easily metabolize what you eat. It also prevents you from constipation and indigestion problems. Eat fewer foods with catastrophe fats. Eat fewer foods that contain catastrophe fats like trans-fats, unsaturated fats and cholesterol while eat foods that contain healthy fatty acids coming from nuts, fish oils, olive oils, almonds, and other healthy oils. Essential fatty acids contain omega 3 and omega 6 that are good for the heart that helps in promoting sound health and healthy cardiovascular performance. Be healthy, not thin. Being thin doesn’t necessarily mean that you are healthy. What is the worth of being thin when you look skinny and dull? Thus, focus your energy on being healthy by combining exercises, healthy foods, and balanced lifestyle all together. The absence of any of these factors may result from imbalance – unhealthiness. It is difficult to get lean muscles or gain muscles almost when an imbalance occurs.All in all, the best weight loss program does not solely rely on the different diet programs out there that you can avail, but more so, it’s all about choosing the best weight loss program suitable for your body.It takes research to get to know the best weight loss exercise program for you. However, always choose the program that comes in natural and not those ones that promote experiment and easy solutions to weight loss. Never do some shortcuts in your weight loss goals or you will pay the price later.Weight loss is not just a physical problem, it is also a moral and personal problem towards one self.

Martin Edland is a lifetime health fitness and wellness advocate who shares his vast knowledge on health by educating people in his community about different health concerns and problems.His work career involves helping control get leaner and achieve the balanced bodies they ever wanted.Currently, he is affiliated in planning for the best weight loss program ever created for busy people or people who have less time for exercise.

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Weight loss and diet programs come and go. Some are just the fad today and people hunt for you without fully understand if they would work for you. Naturally, there are some long-standing ones that work such as the Atkins and Cambridge diets.However, thats over relying on a special diet program not everyones due to our different genetic makeup. it side effects, the surface and long-term health problems could result.

Weight loss is a lifestyle as a physical act. We take a closer look at why most people in the their weight loss attempts fail. Survey results showed that most of the lack of proper preparation failed. To be more precise, their will and motivation to lose weight are not strong enough and you give on slightly each time if a weight loss program for you work.Many others give how there are still some food, snacks and dergleichen.Gibt temptations of personal enjoyment fast, easy one find it too hard to physical work. If you seriously take your weight loss, there is a high chance you will throw the towel after a while.

Assuming you’re seriously decrease qualify then as a good candidate this quick weight loss tips apply together. Successful weight losing requires your mindset to whichever way you chose fixed plan and goal on your quick weight loss no matter.Plans work but only if we to you to work.Ask yourself, what are the reasons you want to lose weight.Make sure that you enough motivation sind.Denken to the worst case scenario should fail; the ugly staring your fat belly, to feel not confident if you want the girl/guy approach date? the purpose of this whole exercise to Zustand.OK your thinking, if you’ve found the strong reasons to lose weight, are a step ahead many others.

Now, let us consider 3 practical quick weight loss tips:

1. Be prepared to in effort

Your fat does not melt while you sleep or dream. You need to do something.We live in a world where everything seems ideal in the media.The movies we watch have only beautiful ladies with excellent numbers, handsome men with nice looking abs, and so nice flash is weiter.TV spots advertising with a famous celebrity slimming endorsing some pills and the tractor itself as the “diet pill of the century” as your graceful numbers said gelangt.Ehrlich gimmicks fears and anxiety play on your. The celebrities or models already see have large numbers before the announcements to shoot. Everyone wants a miracle pill that helps you lose weight instantly without any effort. That is, why would people feel free to try these diet pills and supplements. Unfortunately, not the most work.

(2) Be focused in your weight loss goal

Fast weight loss can be achieved if you can keep your exercise with regime and dietary plans. It may take some time, but it will happen. Focus on your goal and you keep straight your weight loss to remember when you start on the motivating factors, disappointed.It is important to share your goal with close friends and family or even a support group to join.Your constant promotion would spur to your weight loss dream to meet.No man is an island.Remember to implement this fast weight loss tip.

3. Have fun in your weight – loss – exercises

Many people fail to realize is that weight loss requires an enjoyable experience his music.you deliberate but easy to inject fun.People have in common that weight loss, hated because your time with placing their TV, your computer games to victims and your favorite foods and seems so weiter.Gewichtsverlust any negative connotations.If you burn your calories, why engage in the games you love? how a game of tennis or diving in the pool and a relaxing swimming? for people, the physical sports don’t like can go for brisk gehen.Nehmen you walk with your lieben.Sie would not even realize that you train.

I hope this preparatory quick weight loss tips for you beneficial sind.finden out what are the 10 easy weight loss tips you can follow straightaway, to lose weight quickly in my blog.

This article may be freely reproduced or distributed in its entirety in ezine, newsletter, blog or website sein.Des must remain author name, bio and website links intact and are included with each reproduction.

Davions is a successful webmaster and Autor.finden out, how you extra pounds, regain good health and confidence, which can lose with natural and Quick weight loss tips on his blog Quick weightloss tips.blogspot.com.

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Fact #1: Diets are not a permanent weight loss solution.

Fact #2: Even a “good” diet is usually mis-handled. (Okay, one opinion.)

Fact #3: You won’t get there without exercise.

Fact #4: In place of a “diet” you need to substitute good nutrition.

Fact #5: Almost everything else is a helper or a hindrance.

Fact #6: You need your own weight loss program, not somebody else’s.

A DIET IS NOT A PERMANENT WEIGHT LOSS SOLUTION

It is well documented that dieting, that is removing certain things from you normal list of foods you eat or eating only certain foods, does not work as a permanent weight loss solution. The explanation of this could be the subject of a book itself, but to make it short, you get bored, it’s hard to stay on the diet, dieting produces changes in your body that encourage weight gain, you lose energy, it just isn’t fun and so on. Pick any diet you want. Are you prepared to spend the rest of your life eating that way? Probably not. The only real solution to a lifetime problem is a change in lifestyle and behavior.

DIETS ARE COMMONLY MISUNDERSTOOD AND MISHANDLED

Here’s a classic example: The Atkins diet! Ask almost anybody you know what the Atkins diet is, and they will say it’s a diet that lets you eat lots of things like steak, bacon…you know, the fun stuff, without worrying about those nasty old veggies and carbohydrates. That’s why it’s called “low carbohydrate”, right? Shows how far most people read. A few pages into the Atkins diet plan, you learn that eating like that is only supposed to be done for about the first two weeks, to shift your body into the proper mode for the next three phases. In each of those phases, Dr. Atkins actually instructed people to begin adding certain foods, including carbohydrates, back in because it is not healthy to remain on a straight diet of chicken-fried steak or whatever for the rest of your life.

Just to drive the point home, I have a friend who went on the Atkins diet over two years ago. After a couple of years, he was still eating the from the list of foods that were recommended for the first two weeks! He lost weight at first, he’s gaining it back now, and then some, and has no idea why the Atkins diet doesn’t work any more.

It’s interesting to note that the Atkins diet, and almost any other weight loss program, diet drink, diet pill, fitness coach, you name it, includes exercise as being important to their product being effective.

YOU HAVE GOT TO EXERCISE FOR WEIGHT LOSS

In fact, many people could lose most of the weight they need to lose just by getting into the right exercise program and staying with it! That’s half the problem. Our bodies are designed by Mother Nature to DO THINGS! Clicking the remote doesn’t count. Again, this topic is broader than the scope of this article, but the facts are that if you want to improve your overall health, defeat or at least delay dozens of mental and physical conditions, get more enjoyment out of life, live longer, live better, AND lose weight, you need to exercise.

The basic rule of weight loss and weight gain is that if you eat more calories than you burn you gain weight. If you burn more calories than you burn, you lose weight. That simple.

For most people it really seems simple. If they eat less, they will lose weight!

IN PLACE OF A DIET YOU NEED TO SUBSTITUTE GOOD NUTRITION

As pointed out above, simply cutting foods out of your diet is not the answer. However, the solution is simple – just eat sensibly. Nobody ever said you can’t eat chocolate cake, just that you shouldn’t eat two or three pieces a day, and the piece you DO eat should be a normal size. We all have at least a vague idea of what foods we SHOULD be eating, and we have a good idea of what we shouldn’t be eating, or at least eating a lot of. This is an active process. Most people drive up to the window and say, “Give me your 99 cent greaseburger and a cup of water with sugar.” When asked if they want to “supersize” it, they agree. Even the good restaurants serve a lot more food than it is healthy to eat, but most people go ahead and eat it anyway because they have no idea of how much they should be eating, because it tastes so good, or because they were taught to clean their plates.

DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE FRILLS

You see a lot of diet and weight loss products that claim that they have found THE SOLUTION to your weight loss problem. Hardly anybody gets overfat (Arnold Schwarzenegger is “overweight”) because of one single thing. Mostly, it will occur over a period of time because of a combination of factors. While nutrition and exercise are two of the absolute MOST important factors, simply changing one without the other doesn’t work as well as putting both into action. Little things like an electric exercise belt, a pill made out of grapefruit, or a secret drink from Tahiti might help your weight loss program, but if you aren’t already doing the two most important things, don’t expect to see much in the way of results. That’s why so many of these diet and weight loss products have a remark on the label that says something like “…when used in conjunction with a proper diet and regular exercise.”

There is good scientific evidence that things like cortisol and caffeine can influence weight gain and weight loss, for example, but if you were to try to control your weight over a lifetime by controlling these factors, you probably would not notice any real results. If, however, you were to begin eating sensibly and getting more exercise, taking cortisol blockers or cutting caffeine out of your diet MIGHT contribute a few extra pounds of weight loss, but it is weight you will probably lose eventually if you stay on your weight loss program.

YOUR WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM, THAT’S THE GOAL

You are not your brother, your sister, or your mother no matter how closely you are tied to them genetically. What works for one of them might not be what you need. While there is scientific fact to back up the exercise equations outlined above each person is going to react in their own unique way. You need to exercise, but maybe not as much as your friend. You need to eat less chocolate ice cream, but maybe you can’t eat as much as your friend does. You need to make any weight loss program work for you by designing it around you. Do the exercises you like to do, just make sure you are doing enough. What’s enough? Well, you will have to experiment and see. Eat the foods you like, just eat them in sensible quantities and eat primarily foods that have a lot of real nutrition in them. What foods? Again, you will have to find your way, probably by trial and error, although there are many excellent books to give you guidance.

Speaking of goals, your goal is to be healthy and happy. Wanting to weigh a given weight because somebody else weighs that amount is senseless. You shouldn’t even be trying to weigh what you weighed in high school, because, physically speaking, that was a different person. He or she was someone with a different metabolism, lifestyle, and tastes. Concentrate on getting your exercise and eating properly and let your body figure out how much it needs to weigh.

Trying to tailor a weight loss program on someone else’s results is just asking for trouble as far as weight loss is concerned. They may be able to run faster than you. They may have a higher metabolic rate than you. They may have a different bone structure. They may have fewer obstacles than you. Let’s face it, somebody like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie can have the best equipment, the finest personal trainer, and can make the opportunity to sculpt a beautiful body. Plus they have the incentive of knowing that their multimillion dollar salaries depend on their maintaining the basic equipment their genetic makeup endowed them with. You and I have an old set of barbells, a cracked sidewalk, sneakers that are falling apart, live paycheck to paycheck, and the kids are going to be home in two hours. You and I are not going to look like Brad, Angelina, or Arnold. Just do the best you can with what you’ve got, and you will not regret the outcome, trust me.

Donovan Baldwin is a Dallas area writer. A graduate of the University Of West Florida (1973) with a BA in accounting, he is a member of Mensa and has held several managerial positions. After retiring from the U. S. Army in 1995, he became interested in internet marketing and developed various online businesses. He has been writing poetry, articles, and essays for over 40 years, and now frequently publishes articles on his own websites and for use by other webmasters. He has a blog on the subjects of health, fitness, diet, and weight loss at http://nodiet4me.com/ and a website on the subject of weight loss at http://nodiet4me.com

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Weight loss online-avoid almost plans

Fast weight loss plans cause diet shock. If you are not familiar with diet shock, read the article at this link weight loss online-diet shock found.

The faster you lose weight the greater the subsequent drop in your resting metabolic rate.Your body thinks it is hungry and to save energy, it is meant slowing down the Metabolic Rate.Dies fewer calories burned on a daily basis, which in turn created a positive energy balance.

A positive energy balance is simply extra calories at the end of the day save you fat, Hurra left! unless, of course, eat less and/or exercise more compensation for the extra calories, brought to you by own slower metabolism.

So, as you can see, you should really fast weight loss plans… like if I kommt.Mein plan can lose weight at the fastest rate possible to slow down efforts raise your metabolism while minimizing your body.

Weight loss online-avoid easy plans

What’s wrong with easy weight loss plans?Nothing.If a weight loss diet actually the weight loss process easier without setting the stage for weight re gain (the inevitable weight after dieting) than all means for him to go.

Unfortunately and especially true for weight loss mean online, simply plans, bad plans and much weight re-gain in the Zukunft.Wie? Simply usually means fast (see above on fast weight loss plans) and quickly is usually reached by strongly restrict Kalorien.Da suffer hunger, in fact, your metabolism slows and the chain reaction of weight re gain.

My easy weight loss plan will not slow your metabolism because I think it is wrong to starve.My plan is exactly what it’s supposed to einfach.Es be… works still, but is easier to do the work.

Here is the plan for fast and easy weight loss online…

Week One–cut calories of 100, nothing else to do.

Week 2-cut extra 250 calories (total = 350) and add a protein shake with mostly whey protein.For most people it is will replace a net reduction of about 300-350 calories that a meal type protein shake.

Week 3-cut a further 250 calories (total = 600) and best time to drink two shakes of mostly whey protein to trinken.Die is your longest time not to eat for me in the morning and in the Middle I eat after 3 P.m. until 8 or 9 at night.So a shake in the morning and one will drink I at 5 pm.

Week 4-repeat three weeks.

Week 5-repeat two weeks by adding back 250 calories and drink a shake.

Week six – repeat week one by adding back 250 calories.
Repeat the cycle until you reach your ideal weight.

If you follow the steps outlined above, lose weight at the highest rate for healthy weight loss (4 pounds per week) zulässig.Plus is a breeze to follow.

We will all for my is fast and East weight loss Plan.Jetzt need once you start this plan, to ensure that you to your real problem…Prepare re-gain weight.

To healthy living

Michael Smith, MD

Diet basics

Dr. Michael Smith is the Chief Medical Advisor diet basics, a content rich website, the online Dieter gewidmet.Besuchen you his website at Diet basics.

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I know that sounded a little vague, but your weight loss plan does NOT have to be something that only NASA could understand or approve.

YOUR weight loss plan should include such simple things as what activities (exercise) you are going to indulge in, when, where, and so on. You will want to outline your weight loss goals, long term goals as well as short term goals. You will need to outline what your strategy will be for nutrition…notice I DID NOT say “diet”!

Why have a formal, or at least semi-formal, weight loss plan?

It has long been known to those who are successful in business, sports, entertainment, motivation, and other areas, that one way to improve your chances of success is to sit down and write out where you are, where you want to be, and how you are going to get there.

It is easier to plan for weight loss or any other goal related activity if there exists a clear picture of starting points, ending points, and how you intend to move from one point to the other. It is very easy to start a weight loss program or any other activity with intense motivation and a flurry of lofty plans only to lose site of the objective or to be led down unproductive paths by daily activities and the blurring effect of time.

Here are a few tips to consider when putting together YOUR personal weight loss plan:

1. Make your weight loss goals realistic:

Wanting to weigh what you weighed in high school is, for most of us at least, unrealistic. Using some movie star’s weight or a relative’s weight as your goal is also possibly detrimental to actually accomplishing effective weight loss. Each of those people arrived at THEIR weight by a combination of genetics, diet, and exercise which may not apply to you at all!

Most people do not realize that a healthy weight loss program should, for most people, result in a weight loss of only a pound or so a week. To many who have been striving for years to lose weight, this may seem a depressing statement. However, let me put it in perspective.

I have a close friend who was so desperate to lose weight that she opted for gastric bypass surgery. She weighed 340 lbs at the time of the surgery. When the doctor was briefing her on what to expect, she learned that even with surgical intervention, she would probably only lose about 70 lbs in her first year. That works out to 1.35 lbs a week, which would be a healthy weight loss that most people could achieve through a combination of physical activity and proper nutrition. The doctor also informed my friend that she would continue to lose weight over the following years until she reached some new level which would be determined by genetics, nutrition, and activity. This is the same expectation that anyone bypassing the bypass and opting for a healthy weight loss program could expect.

Finally, unrealistic weight loss goals insure failure, while an average of a pound a week over a period of a year is relatively easy to attain with motivation and effort.

2. Do not focus on weight loss:

I know that sounds strange since your goal IS weight loss, but it is easy to see failure if you are only looking for weight loss. For example, people’s weight fluctuates from day to day and even within the day itself. A temporary setback where weight is regained becomes inflated if viewed against the background of only weight loss. However, if your goal is to do the things which are going to make you healthy, for example, then those few days of overeating at Thanksgiving may be more excusable in your own heart if you know that you have been taking your walks, or have cut your use of sugar, or are still taking action in some other form.

This is something that should be considered in your weight loss plan. How are you going to make your life better overall? How many ways can you approach “weight loss”? Do not make it your goal to lose so many pounds this week. Rather, set a goal to walk so many minutes, lift so many pounds, garden for so many minutes. That way, even if your weight does not change that much in that period or even goes in the wrong direction, you still know that your body is benefiting from the parts of your weight loss plan that you are still in touch with.

NOTE: People who begin exercising as part of their weight loss program often experience a weight GAIN somewhere in the first few weeks of their new exercise experience. THIS IS PERFECTLY NATURAL! If you have just begun exercising to lose weight and experience a weight gain, this should be only temporary, and is most commonly caused by your body adding muscle mass faster than it loses fat.

3. Plan to go slow:

I don’t know if there is a statistic somewhere that demonstrates how many people drop out of their weight loss program due to stress, strain, pain, or just plain burnout. However, I have experienced it myself, I have read about it, and I know people it has happened to. Sometimes the simplest statements are most true. One that you will often hear is, “It took years for your body to get this way, and you cannot change it overnight.” This is so true. Also, take into consideration that, even though you might not be SEEING significant changes, if you are taking the steps that you have outlined in your weight loss plan, your body is adapting inside, in places you cannot see, but it is repairing and preparing to move to higher levels of fitness and health.

4. Plan to measure your progress:

I know I said not to stress so much about the weight loss, but you do need to see what is going on. You don’t have to concentrate exclusively on pounds lost, however. If you can walk farther this week than you could two or three weeks ago, you are progressing. Hopefully, in another two weeks, you will be walking farther, or faster. If, at the start of your weight loss program you could only exercise for five minutes at a time, and now you can exercise for 15 minutes, that is progress, isn’t it? That’s an accomplishment and is something you should be proud of.

NOTE: One measurement of progress in a weight loss program is quite simply “size”. Two weeks into a weight loss program, you might actually have gained weight, for example, as I pointed out a few paragraphs ago. However, if your clothes are looser, or you need to buy smaller clothes, or friends are coming up and asking, “Have you lost weight?” these are good signs that your program is working even if your scales haven’t gotten the news yet.

5. Plan to stay motivated:

One of the most common obstacles that knock people off their weight loss program is loss of motivation. The drive and excitement that gets you started is very seldom still around when you lace up your walking shoes for what seems like the millionth time and have only lost two lbs.

Including your reasons for losing weight, the emotional and perhaps physical triggers that got you started in the first place, as part of your written weight loss plan gives you a means of reinvigorating your desire to achieve your goals. We often forget how we felt and what we believed at the start of such a journey, and being able to pull out the paper and review the dreams and expectations can bring us back up to that original level, or at least remind us of what we are enduring this for.

I used to be an instructor for a major national corporation, and one thing that I and other instructors would tell our students was, to achieve their goals, they had to, “plan their work, and work their plan.”

Donovan Baldwin is a Dallas area writer. A graduate of the University Of West Florida (1973) with a BA in accounting, he is a member of Mensa and has held several managerial positions. He has written poetry and essays for his own use, and instructional media in many of the positions he held. After his retirement from the U. S. Army in 1995, he began writing articles on various subjects for websites he owned as well as for use by other webmasters. He has a keen interest in health, fitness, diet, and weight loss and has recently completed courses on Diet and Nutrition, and Fitness. He has posted a review on a great way to exercise and burn fat

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Well, as a physician, I too have heard these things from nutritionists, dietitians, and other doctors and expert colleagues who still work under an old paradigm of what’s right and wrong in dieting. I’m here to share a new paradigm to bust these myths so that you can lose weight safely and rapidly just as your body has been designed to do.

As a physician who has successfully helped 50 patients lose a total of 2000 pounds, or an average of 40 pounds each, in a 5 month period, I can tell you that these myths only get in the way of healthy and safe rapid weight loss. And NO! These patients did NOT have gastric bypasses or lap bands! They used their bodies’ natural weight loss tactics to succeed.

Let’s talk body basics. We eat to stay alive. When we eat extra it becomes fat. When we don’t eat enough to sustain ourselves, the fat is burned off to use up what we’ve stored. It’s that simple. All mammals have this ability. Fat allows our body to have sugar and nutrients to stay alive and disappears when we don’t have enough going in our mouths.

However there are all these little nuances to that simplicity that are used to confuse you and help perpetuate these myths to losing weight.

1. “Losing more than 1-2 pounds a week is unsafe.”
I have safely guided my patients through a 1-pound-a-day weight loss through low-calorie diets. It works and it is safe and was how we were genetically designed to use fat. I sometimes think the people who use this first myth are justifying people staying on their diets or regimens longer. It sells gym memberships and sells monthly weight-loss programs that cost 50-1000 dollars a month. If it’s normal to just lose 1 pound a week, you can keep someone who needs to lose 80 pounds on that diet for 80 weeks! That’s a good amount of cash! If you look to the Mayo Clinic website there are multiple articles explaining against losing more than 1-2 pounds per week, however you see that they discuss rapid, doctor-assisted weight loss for the most unhealthy patients. Why do we do that for them but not healthier patients? I have made no distinction and the results have been great. But yes, these patients lose weight with the guidance of a physician so that I can ensure there are no problems during the weight loss.

With my weight loss programs that I have given my patients, they can lose 30 pounds in 30 days, 80 pounds in 80 days, 150 pounds in 150 days, and so on. I just had a patient come in today who lost 50 pounds in 50 days, came off 3 medicines for blood pressure, who looks and feels great. Her blood pressure is 100/80 now when it was 150/90 when we started. Are you telling me a slower weight loss would be better for her so she could have high blood pressure even a day longer? I don’t think so. She’s healthier and safer in a rapid amount of time with my hypnosis and rapid weight loss techniques that I will explain later in an upcoming article.

2. “Don’t skip breakfast. It’s unhealthy in a diet and you won’t lose as much weight!”
Eating breakfast keeps your metabolism in line so you burn more calories through the day. This is true when you are at a steady weight. However, when it comes to losing weight, eating breakfast is not an accelerator of weight loss. The calories going in still need to go somewhere. Yes, you definitely get more obese in the long term if you skip breakfast, then eat normal amounts of food for lunch and dinner afterward. A person who skips breakfast puts their body in starvation mode so that any excess food that you eat later in the day instantly becomes fat as the body scrambles to keep any sugar available in the body after being told it’s starving when breakfast is skipped.

However, if you skip breakfast, and then take in small amounts of food for lunch and dinner, (lower amounts of calories than is needed for a full day), you WILL BURN FAT to make up for energy that you don’t have coming in from food. So skipping breakfast, during a lower calorie intake period, allows you to burn excess fat. It’s the way God designed us. When we were hunter-gatherers and we roamed the earth for the next food supply as nomads, there would be times where the winter would come in and the food supply would drop, or there would be times of famine where there just wasn’t a food supply. God was smart enough to design us with a source of sugar during these times of need for food. All mammals have this food storage system called fat. When you see those commercials asking to aid children starving in other countries, those children are relying on these fat stores to survive their lack of adequate nutrients.

God and evolution also designed us to HEALTHILY use up this fat store when we don’t have enough food. Fasting is how we were designed to use up our fat, so anyone who tells you weight loss through fasting is unhealthy has an argument with the Big Guy who designed this survival system. Through time the human body has adapted to using fat for food storage to allow survival through times of famine or starvation. If it was unhealthy, the system wouldn’t exist as it came to be through evolution and nature. The fittest survive, and those with fat storage systems survived longer when there is no food.

Well here is how this system got bastardized. After we went through the ice age and became agrarian in our economy, an abundant food supply existed. We didn’t starve anymore, and we don’t starve anymore because right now we have plenty of farms and excess food stores to supply us with nourishment. The supermarkets have been bigger and supersized as has our readily available fast food. It’s funny we call it fast food because although it is fast due to the rapid service, this is the very food that prevents us from fasting anymore since it is readily available. In fact we overindulge and never starve, and that leaves us with huge food stores in our body through obesity.

Add to that that we have, over the last 15 years, added huge amounts of sugars to our food as fillers and as fat replacements to add flavor. So not only do we not starve anymore in the middle-class western hemisphere, we also give ourselves more food than we need and thus we are more obese than ever. (Don’t get me started on our first ever epidemic of obese 6-month-olds because of recent additions of fructose to formula).

So we don’t starve anymore but we have a plentiful harvest every time we walk into a supermarket. Since people don’t starve, we have no chance at using our natural human system for sugar storage and release: Fat burning through Calorie deprivation.

That’s where Gastric bypass, mouth wiring, lap band procedures come in. Instead of having famines or food shortages or winter times to naturally allow us to lose weight as we were designed, we use artificial surgeries to force our unhealthiest members of the population, the severely obese, to lose weight the way Nature had intended. Forced calorie droughts through surgical means work but have high-level surgical risks for these unhealthy patients. Through my experience with my own patients and those of my colleagues, I’ve seen our patients die after these procedures from sepsis (Body infections), Heart conditions, complications of the surgery itself and anesthesia, malnourishment, iron deficiency anemia, vitamin deficiency, and depression-induced suicides. I even had one patient die from bulimia after the procedure. Not everyone gets the psychological support they need nor do they get the guidance of what to expect once they lose the weight.

Also there has been a phenomenon of displeasure and poor satisfaction with the results after they have lost weight. When I say satisfaction, I am talking about life satisfaction. Many people lose weight through surgery only to find that the tremendous changes they have been told would happen in their lives don’t happen. Guys who lost weight aren’t suddenly dating models, Women aren’t suddenly happy to have smaller dress sizes. There isn’t a sudden acceptance into social circles after this rapid weight loss change. This leads to a feeling of defeat.

4. “Medicines and supplements can enhance your weight loss!”
Some people use medications and miracle supplements to allow them to not notice hunger but eat less. I get asked at least 50 times a month by patients and friends to give them phentermine. Nobody I know who has used phentermine has had a sustained weight loss, they haven’t lost large amounts of weight, and the risks of the medication are great for people who already have enlarged hearts or elevated blood pressures. You aren’t supposed to take it with high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, glaucoma, or any heart conditions, conditions that many obese people already have. The medication can make you restless, nervous, dry of the mouth, and induce insomnia. But people are so desperate to lose weight they keep looking for artificial means of weight loss.

Worst of all, I’ve had a few patients in recent years come to me to find that their use of that medicine with Fenfluramine in the past has led to Heart valve problems and a lifelong cardiac condition. If you want to continue to believe in medicines and supplements as weight loss miracles, you should plan on giving up large amounts of money for minimal weight loss. There are some supplements and medicines that enhance your weight loss such as orlistat and phentermine itself. But to truly keep the results, you need to make changes that are sustainable. With the methods I use, the results are sustainable and ongoing and are real life methods… ones that the patient can understand without having to do point calculations and higher math nor do they have to buy foods processed and packaged by someone else. You can use whatever food you like. My next blog will explain how.

3. “French diets are tiny! This restaurant is gyping me!”
Now let’s look at food amounts and how people joke about the small amounts of food the French serve in their restaurants. If you look at pictures of people from the USA before 1960, you will see we were a lean nation then. People’s plates were smaller, we ate less food, and we were in trim shape for the most part. Look at your grandparents pictures and those of your great grandparents — a picture is worth 1000 words. People ate leaner and survived at a thinner weight. Compare a restaurant plate then to one now that you can get from Atlantic City or Las Vegas Buffets. Those plates are HUGE.

In these days of supersizing, buffets, and large dinner plates, the mindset is quite different. We expect a full plate these days, and we expect second helpings of what we like. We like sugary drinks. And as a whole, the population back then wasn’t as far off from what we do now in the realms of exercise and training. Sure, we have highly developed cross training and intense burning and core body exercises now, but isn’t it funny how not many of these new regimens are different from the past (Kettle bells are back in vogue for training? Lifting tires?). The only difference is our perceived eating needs have changed to explain the lean bodies of our grandparents to our own. Do you see fat skeletons of cavemen and women in the museums?

France has not strayed very far from it’s previous eating patterns. In fact in American Movies and commercials we are constantly making fun of the small portion sizes in the French diet. However what they are eating in portion is actually in line with what truly is needed. Just Google “world obesity rankings” and you’ll see where US and France currently stand. You’ll see USA at a 30% obesity rate (3 out of 10 Americans is obese) versus France at Number 23 on the list with a 9.4% obesity rate (Just less than 1 out of 10). The closest country to the USA, Mexico, is at 24%, so we are WAY over the rest ofic the world in the USA.

So these days, most of the population have a skewed view of proper food amounts in our diet, we have a food supply full of sugars and high fructose corn syrup, and we go back for seconds and clean our plates. Add to that the vast amounts of food we offer for celebrations. The last wedding I went to for 200 people there were 5 large tables of all-you-can-eat food and all-you-can-drink free alcohol. Way over the handfuls of food we should be eating. Christmas time is always a gutbuster, and Easter and Halloween are candy-based foods. Gluttony is en vogue these days. The USA has been battered by constant commercials about food and eating to make a normal portion size that of a super big burger and large sized fries and large sugary soda. We have learned to eat until full rather than to eat when satisfied. The handfuls of food in the french diet is normal and not wasteful! We no longer have to be brainwashed to eat until full. We haven’t been listening to our bodies to stop eating when we are satisfied. (This is one of the subconscious commands I give my hypnosis clients to help them lose weight). Eat when hungry, stop when satisfied. Avoid being full as that is the signal from the body that you went too far.

All these myths I’ve mentioned above prevent appropriate weight maintenance and rapid weight loss. They are just a few of the myths that make naysayers say while the doers lose weight with me. In Neurolinguistic programming and Hypnosis we talk about “Frames”: Those reference points people use to view the world. The most basic frame is optimist vs pessimist — do you see the glass as half empty or half full? People who see the glass half full are the ones who see most things in their lives as positive, those who see it as half empty have a pessimistic tone to the things that happen in their lives. If you believe in these myths, you are already framed to not accept the paradigms and information I am about to present to you in the next blog. These beliefs have clouded doctors and their patients for years as to what is right and wrong about weight loss. When we reframe these thoughts from generally accepted truths to myths and barriers to our success in weight loss, we have freed ourselves to accept that it is safe to lose a pound a day using our natural mechanism for food intake reduction.

In my next blog I will discuss my friend Dr. Alwin Lewis’s discovery on dieting and rapid weight loss, and how it has helped transform the lives of many of my patients into successful rapid weight loss and hypnosis clients without pills or surgery… see me at http://www.rapidweightlosshypnosis.com

Arthur E. Apolinario, M.D., M.P.H.
http://www.rapidweightlosshypnosis.com

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Losing weight safely, healthily and permanently is not as complicated as it
may seem. Once you know what works and what doesn’t and then apply this
knowledge properly, you can, finally, lose that ugly fat.

This article highlights 15 of the most common myths associated with weight
loss. Understanding them, will help clear up the confusion and help you to
decide how best to lose that weight forever.

#1 Fad diets work best for permanent weight loss.

Fad diets (South Beach Diet, Atkins Diet, Glycemic Load Diet etc.) are not
the best way to lose weight and keep it off. Fad diets often promise quick
weight loss or tell you to cut certain foods out of your diet. You may lose
weight at first on one of these diets. But diets that strictly limit
calories or food choices are hard to follow. Most people quickly get tired
of them and regain any lost weight.

Fad diets may be unhealthy because they may not provide all of the nutrients
your body needs. Also, losing weight at a very rapid rate (more than 3
pounds a week after the first couple weeks) may increase your risk for
developing gallstones (clusters of solid material in the gallbladder that
can be painful). Diets that provide less than 800 calories per day also
could result in heart rhythm abnormalities, which can be fatal.

Research suggests that losing ½ to 2 pounds a week by making healthy food
choices, eating moderate portions, and building physical activity into your
daily life is the best way to lose weight and keep it off. By adopting
healthy eating and physical activity habits, you may also lower your risk
for developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure.

#2 Certain types of people cannot lose weight.

We are all born with a genetically pre-determined number of fat cells. Some
people naturally have more fat cells than others and women have more than
men. The number of fat cells increase the older we get.

It was once believed that the number of fat cells could not increase after
adulthood, only the size of the fat cells could increase. We now know that
fat cells can indeed increase both in size and in number and that they are
more likely to increase in number at certain times and under certain
circumstances.

Existing fat cells increase in size when energy intake exceeds energy
expenditure and the excess is stored in the fat cell. An overweight person’s
fat cells can be up to three times larger than a person with ideal body
composition.

Fat cells tend to increase in number most readily when excessive weight is
gained due to overeating and or inactivity during the following periods:
1. During late childhood and early puberty 2. During pregnancy 3. During
adulthood when extreme amounts of weight are gained

Normally during adulthood, the number of fat cells stay about the same,
except in the case of obesity. When the existing fat cells are filled to
capacity, new fat cells can continue to be formed in order to provide
additional storage – even in adults.

A typical overweight adult has around 75 billion fat cells. But in the case
of severe obesity, this number can be as high as 250 to 300 billion!

Because of these facts, many people believe, “Well, I have more fat cells
than other people, so what’s the use, I’ll never lose weight”. Some
people argue that obesity is genetic and/or that once you’re obese and your
fat cells have multiplied, it’s an uphill battle you can’t ever win.

It’s easy to search for excuses to explain your failure. It’s easy to
justify current circumstances and low future expectations by seeking out
seemingly logical and scientific facts and explanations.

Here’s the reality.

People who say it can’t be done are just pessimists or they are simply trying
to sell another pill, potion or miracle solution.

As much as some people desperately want to believe in a magic pill or
surgical procedure, getting a lean body always boils back down to nutrition
and exercise. You can’t change the number of fat cells you have (without
surgery), but you can shrink every one of them by changing your lifestyle.

The number of fat cells you possess will certainly influence how difficult
it will be for you to lose body fat. It’s one of the reasons why some people
have a more difficult time losing weight than others and why some people
seem to gain weight more easily than others if they’re not very careful and
diligent with their nutrition and exercise programs.

However, it does not mean that it’s impossible to get lean.

#3 High-protein/low-carbohydrate diets are a healthy way to lose weight.

The long-term health effects of a high-protein/low- carbohydrate diet are
not yet known. Additionally, getting most of your daily calories from high-
protein foods like meat, eggs, and cheese is not a balanced eating plan. You
may be eating too much fat and cholesterol, which can cause heart disease.
You may be eating too few fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, which may
lead to constipation due to lack of dietary fiber and cause a lack of
essential vitamins and minerals. Following a high-protein/low- carbohydrate
diet may also make you feel nauseous, tired, and weak.

Eating fewer than 130 grams (520 calories) of carbohydrate a day can cause
your body to produce high levels of uric acid, which is a risk factor for
gout (a painful swelling of the joints) and kidney stones. High-protein/low-
carbohydrate diets are often low in calories because food choices are
strictly limited, so they may cause short-term weight loss. But a reduced-
calorie eating plan that includes recommended amounts of carbohydrate,
protein, and fat will also allow you to lose weight. By following a balanced
eating plan, you will not have to stop eating whole classes of foods, such as
whole grains, fruits, and vegetables and miss the key nutrients they
contain. You may also find it easier to stick with a diet or eating plan
that includes a greater variety of foods.

#4 A Low Fat Diet is Best

Certain amount of fats are essential, as some fatty acids cannot be made by
the body and must come from the diet. ( Fatty acids are simply one of the
main constituent parts of fat along with cholesterol) Some essential
vitamins (A D E K ) are only soluble in fat and the fatty acids act as a
carrier for them.

Certain fatty acids are also essential in the formation of cell membranes,
particularly in nerve tissue. It has been shown that patients on a fat free
diet develop scaly skin, infertility and run a greater risk of infection.

A further source of confusion is the different types of fat. In particular,
we have heard of saturated fat, unsaturated fat, mono-unsaturated fat and
poly-unsaturated fat. Without getting into the chemical differences between
each of these fats, suffice it to say that there are good fats and bad fats.

Saturated fats are the bad fats. Generally speaking, they are the ones
which are solid at room temperature and tend to be derived from animal
sources. i.e. butter comes from milk. Too much saturated fat is believed to
cause heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and cancers.

Unsaturated fats (both mono and poly ) are the good fats and tend to be
liquid at room temperature and are derived from vegetable sources. So when
we are looking at fats, keep an eye on the types of fat in the foods we are
eating and stay away from those which are high in saturated fat.

Now that we know what fat is, how much should we be eating? It is generally
accepted that about 30% of our calories should come from fat and no more
than 11% of this should be from saturated fat So, if we take a typical male
who is on 2500 calories, his fat target is no more than 750 calories (or
84g) from fat. Remember these are the maximum amounts allowed. It is much
better to err on the low side of this figure but DO NOT go below 20% of
calories from fat. (500 calories for our male example). Remember, we need
fat in our diet.

#5 Weight gain is genetic. You inherit it from your parents

Certainly, there may be what we call tendencies, but there is no such thing
as a fat gene that is passed down from generation to generation. What is
inherited are attitudes towards food and living in general. If parents are
overweight, it is likely that their food choices are unhealthy and it is
likely that their lifestyle is unhealthy. So, from a very early age, their
children are being subjected to that same unhealthy lifestyle. They have
little chance of remaining at a”normal” weight. They have learned to be
unhealthy by following what their parents have done and will carry this
learned behaviour with them throughout their lives.

Being overweight is not genetic but is another convenient excuse not to try
to lose weight. Each of us has within us the power to achieve our weight
loss.

#6 The “set point” theory determines what we all should weigh.

The set-point theory holds that we all have an internal weight regulator,
like a thermostat, that adjusts our metabolic rate up or down whenever we
gain or shed pounds in order to return our body to its predetermined weight.
Undoubtedly, some controls do exist or we would all be obese,
or,alternately, wasting away. Studies show that when we lose weight, our
metabolism actually shifts to a normal rate for that new weight, independent
of individual differences. It is important ,however, that the weight loss is
gradual, 1/2 to 2lbs per week is ideal. The body does not like rapid change
as it tends to have emergency responses to something that it doesn’t like.
For instance, by losing weight rapidly, through diet, our bodies will go
into “starvation mode” where it will slow our metabolism to preserve our fat
reserves and thus make it very difficult to lose weight. It will also tend
to make weight gain much more likely when the diet ends because our
metabolism has been slowed down so much.

People nevertheless embrace the theory to blame their bodies, rather than
their own behaviour, for their weight-loss failure. It offers comfort to
those who refuse to accept the fact that weight control requires a
commitment to a physically active and calorie-conscious lifestyle.

#7 Carbohydrates make you fat.

Carbohydrates do not make you fat. Calories make you fat. Often it’s the
sugar and fat contained in carbohydrates that make you fat. Also a lot of
carbohydrates are processed, so you don’t get the advantage of feeling full
from fiber found in unprocessed carbs. For example, whole grain pasta is
more filling and makes you feel satisfied longer than white pasta, the same
with white bread and brown bread though, both have the same amount of
calories. What will change the number of calories is the amount of sauce and
butter you put on your pasta. What you want to do is eat carbs in
moderation.

#8 Counting calories is not important.

You definitely need to count calorie in one way or other in order to lose
weight. Most people tend to overestimate their physical activity and
underestimate their calories. Don’t guess or try to estimate your caloric
intake. You cannot be accurate enough. There are many good computer
programs out there that do most of the work for you. If weight gain is
caused by your caloric intake (food) being greater than your caloric output
(living and exercise), how can you possibly know where you are and what
needs to be done?

#9 The best way to lose weight is to miss meals.

Studies show that people who skip breakast and eat fewer times during the
day tend to be heavier than people who eat a healthy breakfast and eat five
or six times a day. This may be because people who skip meals tend to feel
hungrier later on and eat more than they normally would. Also, it is now
generally accepted that people who eat smaller meals, 5 or 6 times a day,
tend to be less likely to be overweight. The process of eating in itself
tends to raise your metabolic rate and by eating more often, tends to keep
your metabolism more active for longer. Remember, to keep within your
caloric allowance.

#10 The best way to lose weight is by starving yourself.

Losing weight by not eating is an absolute no, no. There are 3 main reasons
for this. Very low calorie dieting or any “quick weight loss” will
significantly decrease our metabolism. Eating increases metabolism due to
the energy required for digestion and absorption of the food. The calories
required to digest, absorb, transport and metabolise the food we eat, can
cause a 10% increase in our caloric expenditure each day. Every time we eat,
our body’s metabolism gets a temporary boost. So one way to help increase
metabolic rate is to eat smaller, more frequent meals and snacks. Skipping
meals causes a decrease in our metabolic rate until we again eat something.

Significantly reducing calories lowers our metabolic rate. Our body treats
any sudden reduction in food intake as an impending starvation situation and
prepares itself by slowing our metabolism to conserve calories. The more
drastically we cut our calories, the more our metabolic rate drops.

Losing weight through dieting alone without exercise, depletes our muscle
tissue stores. Muscle requires many more calories each day to maintain itself.
The faster we lose weight through dieting alone, the more muscle tissue we
lose and the lower our metabolic rate becomes. Exercise prevents muscle
tissue loss and adds muscle bulk and therefore raises our metabolic rate.

#11 We shouldn’t eat late at night as all that food will turn to fat.

The fact is, eating at night does not necessarily make you fat. There are
too many other variables involved to make such a big assumption. The primary
factor in whether you gain or lose fat is not when you eat but rather how
much. Providing we have not consumed too many calories for that day it
doesn’t really matter when we eat.

However, that doesn’t mean meal timing doesn’t matter, it simply means that
it’s entirely possible to eat one of your meals late at night right before
bed and still lose body fat, as long as you’re in a caloric deficit.

It would be more accurate to say that eating large meals late at night
before bed, especially calorie dense high carbohydrate meals, increases the
probability that you will store some of those calories as fat.

It is probably more beneficial if you plan to eat your calories earlier in
the day and slightly fewer calories at night. Experience has shown that this
will accelerate fat loss or make it easier to lose fat and that’s not the
same as saying “eating at night makes you fat.”

#12 Weight loss pills are the best way to lose weight if you have failed in
the past.

Would you believe me if I said there was a pill which could make you
smarter, richer or more attractive. No you wouldn’t. You’d probably would
laugh at the thought. It is no more ridiculous to believe that a pill could
make you lose weight. Many of the so called weight loss pills on the market
have not been properly tested and we are not yet sure of the long term
effects of taking them. You will read many reviews praising this pill or
that pill. Ask yourself this. “Is the writer of that review trying to then
sell me something?” There have been no pills yet which have been proven to
help weight loss safely and healthily.

#13 You can lose weight from a specific part of your body.

It is, absolutely, physically impossible to lose weight just from a specific
part of your body. You cannot control where fat is removed from your body.
Any machine or specific exercise which claims to specifically lose belly fat
or thigh fat is lying. Certainly, a specific exercise will improve muscle
tone in that group of muscles being trained, giving the illusion that fat is
being lost.

Fat will only disappear from your body in a predetermined order.
Unfortunately for men that tends to be the belly area and the thighs and hips
for women. Tom Venuto, author of the internet’s best selling book on fat
loss gives us a very good analogy. “You cannot empty the shallow end of the
swimming pool before you empty the deep end first.”

#14 You don’t need to exercise to lose weight.

You certainly don’t need to exercise to lose weight but it is very, very
difficult if you don’t. Most diets fail because they are too difficult to
maintain. Severely cutting down on calories means we have to deprive
ourselves of too many things we enjoy. This leads to cravings which leads
to cheating which leads to failure. It is also unhealthy.

We can also burn off calories by exercising. By incorporating exercise into
our daily regime, we immediately make weight loss more attainable. Simply
by walking 30 minutes every day at a pace which raises our heart rate enough
can help our weight loss tremendously. However, the more we exercise the
more calories we burn. Additionally, exercise gives us many other health
benefits, like a healthier heart, lower blood pressure, a greater feeling of
well-being etc. The benefits are too many to mention.

#15 Don’t weigh yourself

It’s another misconception that you shouldn’t step on a scale while
attempting to lose weight. It is a good motivational tool to check your
weight on a regular basis, say once a week.It is an obvious way to gauge
your progress and alter your diet accordingly. However, only using scales is
a bad idea. Use your eyes to see body changes. Use a tape measure to keep
track of tummy and thigh inches.

However, what you must keep in mind is that what you are, ultimately, trying
to do is lose fat and not just weight. Measuring fat loss is more difficult
to do but it is a far better indicator of your progress. Body fat analysis
is best done by a professional and can be done at most local gyms or health
clubs. There are also a wide range of devices freely available which can
give you a fairly accurate measurement.

http://amazing-weight-loss.blogspot.com

Iain Anthony lives in the UK with his wife and three children. He has a BA in Sports Studies and is the author of the Ultimate Weight Loss and Fat Loss Package. If you have enjoyed reading this article and are keen to discover much , much more, please visit http://amazing-weight-loss.blogspot.com

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During all this weight loss tips large and very valid are to have you probably you memory.Instead the same repeat weight loss tips including eating low high fat foods and to limit the intake of sugar, these tips weight loss so all non-related Tipps.Diese helps weight loss tips in the weight loss mind set get you plan it and give the correct weight loss motivation to reach your goal.

Weight loss Tip # 1 – want it

May be I think to yourself, read this article would be if I wanted it not. Now, many people will try to lose weight, but because you think others feel you should lose weight. To be really successful at weight loss, you need it to itself to.

The mind is a powerful tool and can either in your quest for weight loss helpful or harmful kann.Nehmen some time to really think about what you want from your weight loss journey. Where it is supposed to be? Think weight loss and weight of a healthy is right for you.

Weight loss Tip # 2 – set a goal

You know you want it, now aiming. Write down your goal and keep it in a location that appears every day.Make a great goal and several smaller craft as a weekly or monthly target.Make you your goal realistisch.Denken remember that weight is not come over night, probably it will not come out at night.Most experts will tell you a slow but steady weight loss is best for him and keep if off.

Now make a plan to reach your goal. How do you plan to lose weight?Some people will change your eating habits, while other exercise add werden.Studien show that those not only faster, add exercise to lose weight, but keep a higher percent have off.

Regardless of how you, your weight loss plan remember always your goal to erreichen.bleiben you motivated every day by reading your goals.

Weight loss Tip # 3 – Make Changes

Now that you have your plan, you start the appropriate changes in your lifestyle, your goal to erreichen.versuchen, one or two changes, every week or every two weeks.Because the new change is a natural thing, you make another change.

Maybe start by changing the way you plan Mahlzeiten.Machen a menu plan and then shop for the items you need, selection, healthier foods or more vegetables.Get the whole family to to involved, and lead you to your new healthy food for dinner.

Weight loss Tip # 4 – keep a diary

Hold a weight loss journal or diary is a good way to your mind on your weight loss goals to keep.Your weight loss journal can be anything, have it wollen.vielleicht want food and calorie content or your exercise routines or both to verfolgen.jotting your thoughts and how you feel, every day helps you identify certain emotional eating habits.

If you had a bad day, not to fight and become guilty Fühlen.stattdessen write it down in your diary and then write a positive notation about how Morgen.Get your mind back to positive and no closer on the negative.

Weight loss Tip # 5 – Track It

There is nothing more motivational as your Fortschritte.Durch see tracking your weight loss progress you a visual aid have disabled a way to show how you tust.Ihr ultimate goal may be, and this can you sein.Also daunting if you feel feel like there is no end to your weight loss journey, look your weight loss Diagramm.Auch if it this week, there is only so far 5 pounds or only 1 / 2 pound still a loss and celebrate value.

Remember that the chart is not in the right direction go diagnostic is okay, only changes to your plan to take you back to the losing trail.

More tips for food as well as for non-food-like, it sure read this weight loss tips

Author Julie Barros is the creator of http://www.exercise4weightloss.com where to find the exercise and weight loss tips, reviews of weight loss, weight loss tools and more.

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