Fat Kills You

One pound of fat equals 3500 calories. Want to lose a pound a week? Then you need to consume 3500 calories less per week than you use. That’s about 500 calories a day. By cutting out 500 calories a day from your normal daily diet, while keeping your activity level the same, you can lose approximately one pound a week.

All right - that doesn’t sound like much, especially if you’re more than 25 pounds overweight. Study after study has shown, though, that those people who lose weight gradually - at a rate of 1-2 pounds per week -are far more likely to keep the weight off and maintain a normal weight for a lifetime.

So how much exactly IS 500 calories? If you’re going to reduce your daily intake by 500 calories, it helps to know what you need to cut out, right? Here’s how easy it is to lose 500 calories a day:

More and more people are turning to hypnosis or hypnotherapy for help with weight loss. Most people who seek the help of a hypnotherapist will have already tried numerous diets or slimming programs with little in the way of lasting results.

Many traditional weight loss programmes leave us feeling frustrated and deprived. Noticeable results are sometimes a longtime coming and in the meantime life seems to be governed by our latest “diet”. Our lack of motivation means that with no immediate benefits to show for all our hard work we tend to just give up - until the next time!

Using hypnosis to aid weight loss, you will feel healthier, more energetic and happier from day one. You will find it easy to be in control of your food intake and exercise routine and you will feel proud of your healthier lifestyle. “Dieting” has never been this good!

In just one session, lasting no more than 2 hours, you will learn to take control and enjoy a healthier, happier life.

Hypnosis is a perfectly natural phenomenon that occurs in both man and in animals and is as much a part of our everyday functioning as seeing and hearing.

An increasing trend over the last few years has been for diet books to make things complex.

I expect it’s because each one vies with the other to come out with some brand new theory or other about why we gain weight and why their diet plan is the only one to help us lose it. And the low fat, low calorie stuff has already been covered!

My problem with this new trend is that the diets all involve more counting and while basic maths was never a problem at school I don’t want to use it at the dinner table to know what I can eat. And while counting calories is one thing (most of us are probably walking encyclopaedias by now with how many calories our usual choices contain) the new diets are so much more complex.

With the new diets we need to know carbohydrate counts and fat grams, GI index and all sorts. And sometimes it’s not enough to have a straight count we have to work out our percentage of carbohydrates, proteins and fat (yes, follow one particular diet and you have to balance these at EVERY meal).

Ever wonder if you have a serious problem with binge eating?

In a recent issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter, I read a feature article about the treatment of bulimia and binge eating.

Bulimia is defined as 2 or more episodes of binge eating (consuming a large amount of food in 2 hours or less) at least twice a week for 3 months. These episodes may be followed by vomiting or purging (with laxatives or diuretics) and may alternate with fasting and compulsive exercising. People who suffer from bulimia often view this behavior as a shameful secret.

Binge Eating Disorder (binging that is not followed by vomiting, fasting or exercise) has gotten more attention recently since it is being considered for inclusion as a psychiatric diagnosis.

The criteria are tentatively listed as "a condition that causes serious distress with at least 3 of the following symptoms occurring at least 2 days a week for 6 months:

? eating very fast
? eating until uncomfortably full
? eating when not hungry
? eating alone
? feeling disgusted or guilty afterward

One of the greatest tricks that I use to stick to my diet is to allow myself a cheat meal once a week. For that one glorious meal I can have whatever my heart desires. I can eat pizza, cake, and ice cream, anything I want for that one meal. I believe that anyone who plans to diet for long periods of time should follow this principle. There are several reasons why I feel cheat meals are the key to dieting success.

First of all, we are all human. No matter who you are, you are going to have cravings for foods that you are not suppose to eat. The longer and stricter the diet, the more temptations you will have. It is human nature to want something that we are not aloud to have. Dieting is no exception to this.

We have all heard of those new diets, Atkins, low carb, high protein etc. Some of us have tried them with good results. There’s no doubt about that they work.

They all have one thing in common though - they give us the impression that we no longer have to think about, or bother about, calories.

Nothing could be more far from the truth, unfortunatly. Calories still do count! What these new diets basically do is that they make you feel more satisfied on fewer calories. There are no mystical ingredients or unknown secrets that can change the law of energy balance. In other words, nothing will ever change the fact that if your metabolic system doesn’t consume more energy than you take in, you will gain weight. If your metabolic system consumes more energy than you take in, you will lose weight. Period. The universe is made that way.

What are calories then? Are they some small evil molecules hiding in the food, just waiting to invade your body and make your life a fatty hell? No, of coarse they’re not.

A calorie is just a word that defines a certain amount of energy, nothing else.

Ephedra and Ephedrine consumers are still under the assumption that the Ephedra ban is still in place. It probably comes as a great surprise that the ban on Ephedra, one of nature’s most powerful weight loss supplements, was lifted in April of 2005. A Utah Judge overturned the FDA’s decision. So why is it that the most sought after diet pill so difficult to get your hands on? We spoke to four of the top nutritional suppliers. They tell us that the demand is higher than ever. However, they admit they haven’t been following the new ruling. As a result, they missed the boat.

There is one company, Ephedra Labs that did follow the series of rulings very closely. Just as quickly as the gavel fell on the final decision last April, Ephedra Labs purchased the entire supply of the pure form of MaHuang. They now own the entire world supply of pure form Ephedra for the next 9 months. The only place a consumer can purchase Ephedra is by visting www.EphedraLabs.com They even offer discounts if the order is placed online.

Gastric Bypass surgery is becoming increasingly more popular for the morbid obese. In order to qualify for the surgery, you must have a body mass index of more than 40, which usually translates to being 100 or more pounds overweight.

Gastric Bypass surgery is a procedure in which the surgeon will create a pouch out of your stomach, divide the stomach and then connect the pouch directly to the intestine, basically "bypassing" the lower stomach. The whole idea is to limit the amount food that the patient can consume and to shorten up the digestive track so that fewer calories can be absorbed by the patients body. Since the person cannot consume as much food, they are not going to consume as many calories and thus force the body to use stored fat.

As with any surgery, there are certain risks associated with the gastric bypass procedure and they include the following: bleeding, infections, further surgeries to correct complications, gallstones from such a drastic weight loss in a short amount of time, gastritis, vomiting (from eating more than the stomach pouch can hold), iron or vitamin B12 deficiencies, and calcium deficiency.

Ephedra has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years. However, in the last decade, ephedra products have been thrust into the media spotlight given to high profile lawsuits, the FDA all encompassing ban, and the recent ban reversal.

With all this media attention, you may be wondering what exactly the ephedra product is. Ephedra product is derived from a herbal plant called MaHuang. The main chemical compound in ephedra is ephedrine. Ephedrine is a chemical that simulates the nervous system, dilates bronchial tubes, elevates metabolism and increases heart rate.

People who use the ephedra product may do so for a number of reasons. They use ephedra product to help with asthma, colds, flu, for athletic training or to lose weight. Most users of an ephedra product may experience little to no side effects when taking the recommended dosage. When taking too high a dosage of ephedra based products, one may experience side effects such as:

· Anxiety

· Dizziness

· Headaches

· Restlessness

· High blood pressure

· Trouble sleeping

· Nausea or vomiting

· Dry mouth

· Increasing heart rate and blood pressure

In December 2003, the FDA incorporated an ephedra ban making it illegal to sell any products containing ephedra. The ephedra ban was put in place after investigation of several allegations that ephedra caused serious health problems, including death.

On April 13, 2005, a District Court of Utah judge threw out the part of the sweeping ephedra ban that prohibited the sale of products yielding less than 10mg of ephedra per day. The judge ruled that the full scale ephedra ban was not necessary because the FDA failed to prove any danger from 10mg or less of ephedra daily.

Many felt the initial ephedra ban was harsh. After the ephedra ban, some media quoted the number of deaths due to ephedra at 155. However, an FDA commissioned report related to the 2003 ephedra ban stated that five deaths could be attributed directly to ephedra. In addition, it was not completely disclosed that of the 5 related deaths, some already had pre-existing conditions that contributed to the death. Compared to the number of deaths from Ibuprofen, for example, it’s pale in comparison.