Lose Weight Easily on a Low Calorie Diet

Published by deepower

The average person needs to eat about 2000 calories per day to maintain their weight. Of course this varies based on how much the person weighs, their metabolism and activity levels, but it is a bench mark. There are two ways to lose weight on a low calorie program, either cut back the number of calories consumed or increase activity levels to burn off more calories. You can lose weight easily on a low calorie diet.

A pound of fat requires that 3500 calories either be burned or not consumed. A calorie is the amount of energy in food. 500 calories would have to be cut from the average person’s daily diet to lose one pound of fat per week. A restricted low calorie program is usually between 1200 to 1500 calories per day. A medium apple has 70 calories, an 8 oz. steak about 425. One tablespoon of fat, oil, or butter has 120 calories. As a general rule fat and oil has more calories than any other type of food. Vegetables and fruits have the least amount of calories.

Increasing the amount of exercise per day can result in weight loss. If you walk for 30 minutes daily you’ll burn off 250 calories. The good news is that exercising at a brisk pace, say walking, for 20 minutes will increase your metabolism from 10 to 15% for two to four hours afterward. A brisk pace means that you can still talk while walking. If you can whistle or sing, you’re going too slow and if you can’t catch your breath enough to hold up your end of the conversation, you’re going too fast.

Combining a low calorie program with an exercise program will allow you to burn off the fat faster.

The advantages of a low calorie program is that you can eat a wide variety of food. There are no restrictions on what you can eat, just how much you can eat. If you absolutely have to have a piece of cheesecake you can eat it as long as you include it in your daily calorie consumption.

The disadvantages include sometimes being hungry.

Severely cutting back calories doesn’t accelerate weight loss, in fact it has the opposite effect. Your body is conditioned to react to starvation, which is what you’re doing when you decrease calories below 1000 per day, by lowering your metabolism. So you can cut back and your body will just compensate. The bad news is if you go back to a normal diet it takes your body a while to realize you’re not starving and increase your metabolism back to normal levels.

More weight loss tips. Dee Power is the co-author of several nonfiction books including “The Publishing Primer: A Blueprint for an Author’s Success,” “58 Ways to Find Money for Your Business, ” Inside Secrets to Venture Capital” and “Attracting Capital From Angels.” Gourmet Grilling adds flavor to any diet program.

Cutting back on calories does not lead to bone loss, as long as you eat a well-balanced diet

Cutting back on calories does not lead to bone loss, as long as you eat a well-balanced diet , according to a new study.

Researchers tracked bone loss and weight loss in 46 healthy overweight men and women on four different diet programs. The participants' average age was 37.

The control group was told to eat a healthy diet. The second group was told to consume 25% fewer calories than they expended per day. The third group was instructed to reduce energy consumption by 25% per day through a combination of exercise and diet. Participants in the last group ate a low-calorie diet (890 calories per day) until they lost 15% of their body weight, then they went on a maintenance plan. The program lasted six months, and everyone got recommended levels of vitamins and minerals, including calcium. Diet plans included 30% fat, 15% protein, and 55% carbohydrates, as recommended by the American Heart Association.

Bone mineral density and blood markers of bone resorption and formation -- processes by which bone is broken down and regenerated on a regular basis -- were measured at the beginning and end of the study. There was not significant bone loss in the calorie-restriction groups compared with the control group.

Weight loss varied by group. The control group averaged a 1% weight loss. In the second group (consuming 25% fewer calories than they expended), weight loss was on average 10.4%. Weight loss was 10% on average in the calorie-restriction-plus-exercise group. The low-calorie group (eating 890 calories per day) averaged a 13.9% weight loss.

The researchers note that other studies with older participants following similar calorie restriction have demonstrated changes in bone mineral density in less than six months.

"Our data do not support the notion that extreme weight loss (more than 10 percent) over short periods (three months) has a worse prognosis on bone health than gradual weight loss achieved over six months by moderate calorie restriction with or without aerobic exercise . We speculate that in young individuals undergoing calorie restriction, minor adjustments in bone occur as a normal physiological adaptation to the reduced body mass," the authors write. They urge that additional research with longer time frames be done.


WebMD Health News
by Caroline Wilbert

Moderate Exercise and Weight Loss

For years, we’ve been told that a few minutes of moderate exercise a day will lead to amazing health benefits. A new study, though, indicates that significant weight loss isn’t among them:

Obesity experts agree that daily exercise is essential for good health, but whether it can successfully lead to long-term weight loss is a question of much debate. What has become increasingly clear, however, is that the conventionally accepted advice — 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity most days of the week — is probably insufficient to spur any real change in a person’s body weight. A study published July 28 in the Archives of Internal Medicine adds to the burgeoning scientific consensus: when it comes to exercise for weight loss, more is better. It suggests that obese people would have to exercise at least an hour at a time to see any significant difference in their weight.

Which stands to reason, really. My lifestyle is pretty sedentary during the week: Wake up, work in front of the computer for a couple of hours, drive to the office, sit in front of the computer a few hours, drive home, sit in front of the computer some more, eat dinner, sit in front of the television for a couple hours, go to bed. Even so, I probably walk 30 minutes a day just between my desk, the coffee machine, and the bathroom. Walking to get lunch, on the days I don’t bring my own, probably gives me 20 minutes. Simply put, it’s ridiculously hard not to get 30 minutes of moderate activity on a daily basis if you’re able bodied.

Of course, no report on obesity would be complete without a “not that there’s anything wrong with that” disclaimer telling you it’s not your fault:

Still, the underlying question remains: are diet and exercise a reliable cure for obesity? Modern-day obesity researchers are skeptical — achieving thinness, they say, is not simply a matter of willpower. Research suggests that weight may largely be regulated by biology, which helps determine the body’s “set point,” a weight range of about 10 lbs. to 20 lbs. that the body tries hard to defend. The further you push you weight beyond your set point — either up or down the scale — some researchers say, the more your body struggles to return to it. That might help to explain why none of the women in Jakicic’s study managed to lose much more than 10% of their body weight. After two years on a calorie-restricted diet, keeping up more than an hour of physical activity five days a week on average, most were still clinically overweight (though much less so than before). But what Jakicic and other obesity researchers stress is that a 10% reduction in body weight represents a tremendous boon for overall well-being, lowering blood pressure, improving heart health and reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes. For the obese, the end goal should not be thinness, but health and self-acceptance, which are more realistic and beneficial objectives. “The women’s health was absolutely improved,” Jakicic says.

What none of these studies ever explain to my satisfaction is why, if obesity is essentially random, it suddenly appeared on a large scale in Western society about thirty years ago and why you don’t see random fit kids in those television reports of famine in Africa.

Scientists Develop Drugs That Help "Burn Fat, Lose Weight Without Exercising"

Good news, for those who want the benefits of exercise without sweating in gyms! Scientists are working on an exercise pill that will give some of the benefits of exercise without having to move a muscle. The US researchers have developed two drugs called AICAR and GW1516, which seem to be able to build muscle, increase stamina, and even burn fat.

Professor Ronald Evans, lead researcher from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Salk Institute in California, said that in the test, mice given the drugs had greater endurance and were able to run 44% further and also remained lean even when fed a high fat diet.

Researchers reported in the journal Cell that the two drugs are in advanced human testing to see, if it can prevent a complication of heart bypass surgery. Medical experts believe that a drug like this could help treat obesity in people who are unable to exercise due to medical reasons. They also hope the drugs could help reverse muscle frailty associated with aging, as well as diseases such as muscular dystrophy. "Almost no-one gets the recommended 40 minutes to an hour per day of exercise - for these people, if there was a way to mimic exercise, it would make the quality of exercise they do more efficient," said Professor Ronald Evans.

Researchers said the master gene PPAR can control many other genes activity and by adjusting this could in theory have an effect on the way the entire body works. In the genetically altered mice, the enhanced activity of this gene led to the development of muscle that burned fat rather than sugar. They felt the next step was to be able to produce similar effects without genetic alteration and only a drug.

Professor Evans said, "If you like exercise, you like the idea of getting 'more bang for your buck', and if you don't like exercise, you love the idea of getting the benefits from a pill."

Path breaking as this may sound experts are worried that the pills may be misused in sports and pose a new threat to the Beijing Olympics. Readily available and easily synthesized, these drugs have no existing tests to reveal their presence. Colin Palmer, a professor of pharmacogenetics at the University of Dundee, said "It's basically a drug that enhances training. The thing that raises eyebrows is the concept of a drug that improves endurance training for sports professionals." To develop a blood or urine test for the drugs, Professor Ronald Evans, and scientists are working with the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Keep fit is on the move from centre

Rutland park is new home

Keep-fit facilities are set to move as steps toward the final closure of the Albion Leisure Centre begin.

A new gym for people with special needs and a resurfaced tennis court at the Rutland Sports Park on West End Drive will be available from next month, to accommodate the former users of the East Street centre.

Forty seven of the 54 activities from the Albion have been relocated to other facilities, with a decision due on four more. Just three haven't been relocated.

But the move to keep the activities local has done little to ease the concerns of the majority of users who called for the building to be turned into a community building instead of its closure.

Erewash Borough Council decided to close the Albion Leisure Centre because there were marked year-on-year rises in costs and relatively low overall usage, despite high customer satisfaction levels and use by a wide range of groups and sports clubs.

The centre premises also needed significant capital investment of up to £600,000 in the short term to meet the council's legal duty under the Disability Discrimination Act and to undertake mechanical, electrical and structural improvements to the building, and three separate strategic assessments of the demand for sports halls in the borough
indicated that there was overprovision of such facilities.

Cllr Mike Wallis, Lead Member for Culture and Leisure Services, said: "The decision to close the Albion Leisure Centre was one of the most difficult decisions taken by the council but in the circumstances it was one that had to be made.

"I have worked hard with officers to keep to a minimum the impact of the closure and so I am really delighted that so many activities have been relocated, in many cases, into better accommodation than they enjoyed at the Albion Leisure Centre."