Does a Low Fat, Low Carb Diet Work?

Does a Low Fat, Low Carb Diet Work?

Maybe. It depends.

In theory, it works. In reality, not usually.

Why?

Many of us don’t know how many calories we burn each day during our normal routine. To find out approximately how many calories you burn, please visit the Energy Calculator. This information will give you an idea of how many calories you should be eating to gain, maintain or lose weight.

Very often we underestimate the calories in our food and drinks.

Yes, drinks have calories.

We don’t count the calories in salad dressings, snacks, oils used for cooking, butter on the bread, and so on.

For this exercise, let’s assume that you consume 2,000 calories a day and burn 2,000 calories a day. You maintain weight. If you burn more than 2,000 calories but eat 2,000 calories, you will lose weight. You must burn an extra 3,500 calories for each pound you want to lose.

The kinds of calories you eat really matters.

An average of 30% of our calories should come from fats, 15% from proteins and 55% from carbs. Less than 10% of our fats should be from unsaturated fats except for omega-3 fish oils.

Each gram of fat is 9 calories, each gram of protein is 4 calories and each gram of carbohydrates is 4 calories.

A 2,000 calorie a day diet should be 600 calories from fat, 300 from protein, 1100 from carbs.

Based on my recipe for Stovetop Chicken and Rice at 265 calories per serving, there will be 54 calories from fat in the recipe.

Fats, carbohydrates and proteins are all necessary for the body to function properly. Cutting out or severely limiting one group is not healthy.

The best way to lose weight would be to eat less calories but keep the percentages intact and exercise.

For more information please visit our website: RapidWeightLossExpert.com

Can Stress Make You Fat? YES!!!!

Now more than ever, we are under constant stress – things to do at home, children, work. We worry about our jobs, the economy and paying the bills. You would think that we would worry ourselves thin but that doesn’t happen. We decide to eat better and get some exercise but we don’t lose weight and may even gain more.

What’s going on?

One reason is stress. Cortisol is the body’s natural stress hormone. When we're under stress, our body’s produce this hormone to help us deal with it. Cortisol regulates blood pressure and insulin levels, regulates the way carbohydrates are metabolized, and temporarily increases energy, immune response and memory. BUT, too much Cortisol is harmful to our body.

Too much Cortisol weakens our bones and muscles, decreases immune response, slows cell regeneration, hinders digestion, slows metabolism, causes stomach disorders and weight gain - especially around the abdomen.

Stress can also cause nervous energy and emotional eating. We start looking for snacks and fast foods. We crave sugars, salts and fats. Ice cream sundae or yogurt? Chocolate or fruit? We make bad food choices when we are stressed. The foods we choose are typically not good for us and we may even eat more than we normally would.

Because we are trying desperately to juggle everything, we don’t find time to exercise. We’re exhausted. We’re couch potatoes. We lead sedentary lives. We sit in our cars, we sit at work, and we sit at home. We don’t burn off the calories and we don’t strengthen and tone our muscles.

What can we do about stress?

1. Relax

Sounds easy, doesn’t it. Learn some relaxation techniques. Deep breathing, yoga, biofeedback, music, meditation, hot bath and laughter are good for you. If you are stuck in traffic, instead of banging the steering wheel, put on some music that makes you happy, notice what’s around you or breathe deeply.

2. Exercise

Simple yoga, stretching, rebounding, walking, dancing – just move. You will find that these exercises will not only tone your body and burn calories, but will help you sleep better.

3. Restful sleep

When you finally lay yourself down, don’t go over everything that went wrong that day or go over the list of things to do tomorrow. Breathe deeply, stretch and let the day go.

4. Diet

Plan healthy snacks and keep them available. Eat at home. Try out new recipes that include low fat and high fiber. Sit at the table to eat.

And sometimes you just need to UNPLUG.

Turn off the cell phone, computer and TV.

Visit our website at: RapidWeightLossExpert.com.

Is the Nutritional Information Provided by Restaurants Accurate?

I thought about this when I was adding some nutritional information for restaurants to our website: RapidWeightLossExpert.com, so I had to do some research.

The nutritional information provided by restaurants is somewhat accurate. The information provided by fast food chains is usually more accurate that sit down restaurants.

How can this be?

Fast food chains strictly control the portion sizes of the foods they sell. Most of the menu items are pre-packaged into serving sizes. When dining at a sit down restaurant, the portion size and even the preparation of menu items is not pre-packaged, therefore, the portion may be larger or there may be more calories added in preparation through oil, butter, etc.

Many of the fast food chain menu items are within 10% of the stated information. This means that a menu item stating 100 calories may actually be 90 to 110 calories. Some of the items on those menus may be grossly underestimated. A little common sense will help you choose. A double bacon cheese burger with blue cheese and mayonnaise isn’t really 500 calories.

So, what’s the point of posting the Nutritional Information?

Well, it’s required by law to help the consumer make good choices. Use the information as a guideline when choosing from the menu. Understand that the information may be wrong. There may be 10% or more calories in those foods than is on the Nutritional Chart. While there are occasionally less calories, I wouldn’t count on it.

Also, the FDA allows food manufacturers a 20% margin of error in determining the accuracy of nutritional information found on the product label of food we buy at the supermarket.

http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/GuidanceDocuments/FoodLabelingNutrition/ucm063113.htm