Common Questions Related
to Diet & Health

Written by Sky Taylor, Diet Bites

Health Notes for Dieters, Tips for Succeeding: The First Day of the Rest of Your Dieting Life

Do you want to read a bunch of fluffy words OR do you want the read the truth? Sad but so - if you've experienced issues with excess body weight, these issues will likely follow you throughout your life.

Harshly put, dieting never ends. You will always need to be attune to what you eat and drink - and to be careful about not overextending your energy intake.

Balancing your daily energy intake with exercise will assist in keeping your reduced body at its recommended weight - but the calories that you consume will be the greatest defining factor where pounds are concerned.

For example, dieter Mary enjoys six doughnuts [300 kcals each] and two cups of whole milk [320 kcals] in one setting. To be at her recommended body weight she should consume about 1400 kcals per day. At this point, she has exceeded that amount - and she's also done a pretty poor job where the healthy Food Groups are concerned.

Nonetheless, it will take her several hours of walking to burn off those excess 720 kcals. At some point, the amount of energy consumed is so great that it becomes impossible to burn it off - so it becomes stored in the fat cells.

The Fat Cell Factor & Body Weight

Fact is, if you are currently overweight your body has generated fat cells where the excess energy that you consumed over time was stored. The purpose of this process is to save energy and use it at a later time if necessary.

In the beginning of man's life on earth, the ability to store energy was a precious asset when harvest times were lean.

However, in today's world we have food and drink readily available so excess energy tends to equal layers of fat which are excessively difficult to remove.

How to Boost or Speed Up a Sluggish Metabolism

Many of the weight loss pills, supplements and other potions at the drugstore contain substances which attempt to rev up the metabolic rate. The results at times, can be life-threatening.

Side effects include: racing heart, palpitations, anxiety or panic attacks, jitteriness, insomnia, digestive upset including diarrhea, a feeling of loss of control and sweating.

In addition, these types of supplements DO NOT cause fat loss. At maximum, they MAY assist in curbing appetite. They are not magical pills. Your body must release the stored fat in the cells before weight loss can occur. No supplement can make that transaction at this time.

Rather than placing your health in jeopardy, try adding a dose of exercise to your reduction plan.

Walking is something that most people can do and it's not as taxing on the body as running or jumping or performing other movements which are strenuous and difficult for some individuals to perform. Walking will boost the metabolic rate and you'll lose the weight quicker.

Other things include: omitting foods high in fatty acids from the eating plan, eating several mini-meals rather than three large meals per day, and ensuring that you are getting all of your recommended daily allowance of essential vitamins and minerals.

When dieting, a multi-vitamin can assist. It's not a magical potion either - but it can ensure that you have all the elements necessary to trigger the chain-reaction where metabolic rate and the digestive process is concerned.

The Ageing Factor & Weight Gain

Ageing makes losing pounds even more difficult.

As the body grows older on the exterior, so does the interior. Cells aren't capable of repairing the damage as they were in our younger years. Our body breaks down at a rapid rate after mid-life.

Therefore, if you are reaching middle-age OR are in your golden years of life and find that you are gaining weight but have not changed the amount of food that you eat - and you have not decrease your activity level, you may need to reduced your energy intake in order to remain at your former healthy weight.

The Sodium Factor & Weight Gain

Have you ever enjoyed a meal at a fast food or fine dining restaurant only to step on your bathroom scales and see an increase in pounds - even when you didn't eat all that much?

Sure, commercially prepared foods can be excessive in sodium content - in fact, most are just that.

They also contain considerable amounts of fatty acids which in turn serves to boost caloric content. But more often than not, false weight gain is due to excessive salt consumption.

Keep in mind that current daily recommendation is at 2,400 milligrams - or about one teaspoon. Some health experts recommend 1,400 milligrams. Let's see how easy it is to go overboard when dining out.

400 kcals for breakfast is a reasonable amount. Let's say we order Sausage and Egg Burrito from Taco Bell for about 440 kcals. It also contains 870 milligrams of salt.

Let's go to McDonald's and do a comparison. Let's do a Sausage McMuffin with Egg for 450 kcals and 890 milligrams of sodium.

What about Subway? It's touted as one of the healthier fast food go-to's. Let's order Breakfast B.M.T. Melt for 240 kcals. Oh my, look at what we get for one-half the calories!

Will this menu selection also contain one-half the sodium? Unfortunately, no - at a hefty 830 milligrams.

Keep in mind that it's not on the breakfast selections which are mined with the white stuff - it's also the burgers, fries and pies - and almost everything else on the menu, including the drinks!

Subway's FUZE Raspberry Tea contains 58 milligrams for 21 fluid ounces. McDonald's Frappe Mocha contains 125 mg's per small size [12 fluid ounces].

In summary, choose wisely to avoid false pounds due to salt overload.

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