School of Weight Loss

Millions of Americans are overweight by at least ten pounds. This means that at any given time there are millions of Americans looking for ways to lose those extra pounds and create a shapely figure. They may start out doing well and then something happens, and they stop.

Weight loss doesn’t have to be a problem if you understand more about it. Your mindset has a lot to do with what will happen in your body, and if you only think that you are being deprived of food, your weight loss program will fail.

Weight loss is a billion dollar industry which shows you how much people are interested in the subject. The challenge is that most do not know that they can do simple things to lose weight.

If you are looking for a weight loss program here are some tips to find one that is right for you and that is healthy:

Put safety first – Although you might not think about safety in a diet plan it is as important as any other type of safety. A weight loss plan should include the essential vitamins and minerals that your body needs. Most often you will get these from the foods that you eat instead of taking dietary supplements. If you are counting calories it is a good idea to check with your doctor about the amount of calories that are right for you.

Slow and steady wins the weight loss – Just like the story of the Tortoise and the Hare, slow and steady progress is better than rapid weight loss. Many programs say they can lose weight fast which can be good for some but difficult to others. A weight loss of about a pound or two a week is sufficient.

Commercial Weight Loss Programs Vs. Natural Weight Loss
There are thousands of people using commercial weight loss programs every day. These are very costly when you add the cost of membership and the cost of buying special food. Statistics show that these types of weight loss programs are not working for the average person, unless they have a lot of internal motivation to do them.

A better idea is to create your own program that includes eating more vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and low calorie beverages. You can use the FDA’s Food Pyramid and the Glycemic Index as your guides for better nutrition and weight loss.

Attitude and Weight Loss
The mindset that you go into any weight loss program with will determine how successful it is for you. If you decide that you are depriving yourself of certain foods chances are you will eat those foods anyway. Instead, look for ways to improve your overall nutrition, and you will see your weight drop.

You might also try an exercise program that fits with your needs. There are a variety of in home programs that will help you get into shape in your own living room. They can provide support through the program and keep you going whether you have a few pounds or many pounds to lose.

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If you are running after the best diet in town it is time to stop. Yes, stop because it can be damaging you more than you think. There are a lot of methods that say they are the best way to lose weight and when it comes down to it, the old fashioned ways of diet and exercise always does the trick.

There are a number of natural weight loss techniques that are simple and available to everyone and they do not cost as much as some other plans. By doing simple things every day you can decrease your weight easily and more effectively than using any prepared diet plan.

Natural Weight Loss And Nutrition
When you want to lose weight the natural way it is important to understand what to eat and what not to eat. The Food and Drug Administration has set guidelines for what to eat with their Food Pyramid. If you take the Pyramid and look at it, you will see that it basically comes down to lots of fruits and vegetables and then your grains and other foods.

Most fitness experts find that snacking on whole fruits and vegetables is much better than eating processed snacks. Instead of going to the grocery store and buying prepackaged foods because they are faster, it is more important to find whole foods. A trip to the health food store will find the whole foods that are free of chemicals and preservatives. Although a little pricier they help you stay full longer. Add fruit, nuts, vegetables and a little protein to your diet and you will see the weight come off.

Drinking plenty of liquid is also very important because your body needs liquid to function. The more liquid you drink the better you can eliminate waste from your system.
According to the Institute of Medicine, men should consume about 13 cups (3 liters) of water and women should consume about 9 cups (2.2 liters). This is not only water but also includes low sugar and low fat juices and teas. Stay away from the diet sodas (studies show they actually help you gain weight) and high sugar drinks.

Natural Weight Loss and Exercise
As always you will need to do some type of exercise if you want to lose weight and stay fit. Many people find that exercise at home, works for them. Many start out with something simple like resistance bands or energy balls. Once they understand how to use these well they may add walking or bicycling as a way to get in their aerobics. Choosing more than one type of exercise keeps you from being bored.

One of the things that exercise does for you is to eliminate stress. Stress is one of the biggest contributing factors to weight gain because of the release of hormones that are detrimental to your system. If you make sure you get exercise at some point in the day you will be sure to cut the stress down, and you may eliminate it all together.

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One of the most embarrassing things for anyone is incontinence. As people get older, both men and women can suffer from it. If you watch television you will now see several commercials about the problem and how drugs can assist with it. This is a nationwide problem for many people.

In a recent clinical trial that was funded by two departments in the National Institute of Health, it was found that obesity can be the cause of some incontinence. The suggestion is that if some people, particularly women, lose weight their incontinence will stop.

The clinical trial called, The Program to Reduce Incontinence by Diet and Exercise (PRIDE) was conducted with 338 women who found they were incontinent at least 10 times each week. They choose women in Providence, Rhode Island and Birmingham, Alabama. They assigned women to one of two groups: a 6 month weight loss program that included nutrition, behavior modification and exercise, or a group that only received information about diet and exercise with no training.

The results of the trial were stunning, but not surprising. The group that received the diet, exercise and nutrition training lost more weight than the other group and decreased their episodes of incontinence by 47%.

According to research on incontinence, more than 13 million women in the United States, suffer from it. According to the study a large portion of healthcare cost — $20 billion annually — is put towards treating incontinence. Up until this study the link between obesity and incontinence wasn’t known.

The researchers continued to monitor the women for six months and they found that the women in the first group that were trained around nutrition and exercise were more satisfied with their results than those who only received information. This is to be expected we would think since the second group wasn’t given a way to fix their challenge.

Behavioral Interventions and Weight Loss
There is a strong body of research that shows that weight loss responds to behavioral interventions. In most studies that interventions have to change with modifying the way that people think about dieting, exercise and food as well as learning to eat differently. Those programs that work actually help people understand the difference between eating well and eating poorly.

Within the process they are educated about diet and exercise and how the lack of it can lead to other types of health problems like high blood pressure, type2 diabetes and heart disease. With this information and changes in the way they think about diet and health many people are finding that weight loss is easier.

The bottom line seems to be that if people are going to lose weight they need more information about nutrition and exercise. They also need to modify their behaviors around eating and about the choices they make with food.

This study about obesity and incontinence also supports the fact that the more information an individual has about weight loss the better equipped they are to make behavioral changes.

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A question that many people wonder about when they are undergoing healthy weight loss challenges is, “Does self-control really supersede temptation?” This is a long debated question by many people who deal with weight loss and weight training.

There have been studies done around the area of will power, and most say that healthy weight loss isn’t a matter of whether a person has the will power to withstand eating nutritionally; it is more about the choices that people make in what they eat.

So the question still remains, “Does a person’s self-control give into temptation or does self-control make it possible to not give in?” This is rather like the chicken and the egg question. This question has finally been proven through a study done by three psychologists that was reported in Psychological Science Journal. What the three psychologists found was that if given a choice, most people will take what is healthier than what is not, if they have a strong reason for doing it.

Their study looked at temptation through the eyes of counteractive control theory which says that desire is deflated when temptation is available, but there is also an ability to pursue more important goals. In the case of the girls in the study, their goal of being healthy was stronger than their desire to eat chocolate; hence the choice of healthier power bars over the chocolate.

What the psychologists found interesting was that even when they gave students in another study a chance to blow off a boring course by choosing a fun leisure activity, the students stuck with the course. It seemed that they were more interested in completing the course that was required for their degree.

This phenomenon has the psychologists baffled because in one sense, this could mean that dieters need to have food available to them, so they do not eat it. However, it could mean that they just need to have a desire that is greater than the need for the sweet, or the binge.

Obviously, this is a study that needs to be looked into more because people are different. Perhaps they are on to something, and it just needs to have more information brought forward. Everyone has a desire that is unfulfilled, and it could just be that the desire for weight loss isn’t as great as the need to binge on foods that aren’t available.

Dealing With Temptation
There are many ways that people deal with temptation. Some people have learned that if they get into situations where food becomes an issue they can make the situation more fun. As an example, if you have family members that push you to eat, find other ways to be with them. Start a garden or go out once a week with them to a movie.

Also look for supportive friends who want to change their lives. You can both exercise together or eat nutritional foods together instead of hanging out with friends who don’t want you to change. You will find that this strategy has you feeling better and looking great.

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Obesity has become a great problem in the United States as most people know. Statistics show that Americans are carrying more weight than they need to and most are living more sedentary lives.

Most people understand that something has to change in their lives in order for them to lose weight and now Health Advocate ™ has created a white paper to discuss weight loss in the workplace. This report gives details of the most important research on how obesity has impacted the workplace and gives guidelines to show what other employers have done.

There are a variety of successful workplace programs that the white paper gives acknowledgment to because they are cost effective programs and are impacting their employees to lose weight. According to this paper there is a reason why workplaces should be concerned about obese workers:

An obese worker is twice as likely to be the one who files a worker’s compensation plan than one who is not obese.
Often medical costs are higher to the point of seven times higher for an obese worker.
Obese workers lose about 13 more days of work because of injury or illness (according to Duke University Medical Center Analysis)
Many firms are spending about $285,000 per year in extra costs because of obese employees (based on a firm of 1,000 employees).

The programs that are working for employees take into consideration the fact that people need more education on nutrition and other aspects of good healthcare. Employers recognize that they must help obese employees find the resources they need, in order to help their weight loss.

Employers also understand that obese employees can cost them money over time because they are prone to problems like high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. By offering programs to address the health issues in their workplace employers can have a larger impact on obesity.

The challenge for the workplace is that employees tend to eat unhealthy snacks, and they are more sedentary now because they sit in front of their computers. Some of the things that some workplaces have found effective to help their employees lose weight include:

• Installing vending machines with healthier snacks
• Offering incentives to employees who become active with Health Risk Assessments
• Giving two half hour exercise breaks twice a week which helps them decrease blood pressure and increase productivity.
• Creating on-the-job employer based weight loss programs
• Providing access to coaches to help in individual weight loss programs.
• Working with community resources to initiate weight loss programs.

Since employees spend most of their time in the workplace than anywhere else, it stands to reason that employers would want to help.

Health Advocate, Inc. founded in 2001, leads the nation in independent health assistance and advocacy. They help 4,300 employers who represent over 14 million Americans. They provide information about various aspects of healthcare and wellness solutions for employers and their employees.

This white paper titled, “Obesity in America: Workplace Solutions” is available from Health Advocate.

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