Weight Loss Nutrition - How To Determine If Your Diet Is Right For You

With 50,000 results coming from searching "diet books" on Amazon.com, it's not surprising that so many people are confused about what they should be eating to lose weight and get healthy. Many people embark on fad diets without knowing how to tell if a diet plan is right for them or not. In this post, I'm going to share with you the principles that I believe all good nutrition programs should follow.

So let's get to it...

1. Good Nutrition Controls 'Calories In' Versus 'Calories Out'

This is not just a dietary rule but a fundamental law of nature. Known in the physics world as the First Law of Thermodynamics, it states that that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred. How does this apply to what you eat? If you eat more calories than you use, you gain weight. Or if you take in less calories than you use, you lose weight. And if you take in as many calories as you burn, you will remain the same weight.

In reality all calories aren't made equally and severe calorie-restricted diets can waste away your muscles which can end up making you gain the weight back. However, calories are an important factor and can be the sole determinant of whether you are losing or gaining weight.

2. Good Nutrition Improves The Way You Look And Your Health

Not only should you look better from a good nutrition plan but your blood chemistry should improve as well. You should take before and after pictures along with measurements to measure your change in appearance but going to the your doctor to have your blood work done is the way to tell if your health is improving. This way you make sure that your nutrition plan is also improving your health as well as your aesthetics.

3. Good Nutrition Provides Results

"I don't understand. I eat we but I'm still gaining weight." I have news for you: you are not following an appropriate nutrition plan if you are not losing weight. Maybe your diet isn't right for you, maybe your diet is good but you are not following it well or maybe your diet isn't right for anyone. The fact of the matter is that a good nutrition program is one that provides results.

4. Good Nutrition Has Flexibility

I call this the 90/10 rule. I eat a pretty strict diet about 90% of the time, but the other 10% I cheat. Never having ice cream, or drinking alcohol, or eating pizza is not my idea of a good time. Let's face it: some of the things that are "bad" for you are also pretty tasty!

I encourage my clients to reward themselves every week with "cheat" meals. Knowing that you will eventually be able to eat something that you want helps with adhering to your nutrition plan. There's also evidence that cheat meals can help with your results via a hormone called leptin.

WARNING! You might have to be really strict for several weeks (or maybe even months) to get yourself started so you can develop the new behaviors that that will put you on the track to success. Another problem that I see is that people think they're cheating 10% of the time when they are actually cheating more. 

Don't do that! Like I mentioned above, if you aren't getting results, then most likely that you are not sticking to your program or your program isn't good for you. Using a food diary is one way to be sure you know exactly what you are eating. No need to weigh your food, just start writing things down.

The Take Away

The big take away here is that your nutritional plan should be getting you results, improving the way you look and your health and allow you some room to have some treats in the process. If it isn't, then something needs to change!

Ted Ryce is a Miami Beach Personal Trainer who specializes in Fitness, Fat loss and exercises for Injuries.

Visit my website for more information on Fat Loss, Nutrition and Miami Beach Personal Training.

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Top 10 Exercises Without Weights

If you hate to go to the gym, you are not alone. The good news is - you can get results in the comfort of your own home with some simple home exercises.
Bodyweight training CAN be effective. It CAN be a substitute for weights, if necessary. Training using your own body weight as a source of resistance is a time tested technique to get results fast.
Here are the ten best bodyweight training exercises that give you great workouts and great results - without the gym.


1. Supine Pull-Ups (works major muscles in back, shoulders, and biceps) Use two chairs and a pole - a heavy broom handle works well. WARNING: make sure the chairs are stable and that the broom handle is strong enough to take your weight. You could be SEVERELY injured if the pole were to break or the chairs to slip. Lie on your back underneath a low bar. Grab the bar with a wide overhand grip. Pull up. Lower and repeat for 6-8 reps.

2. Supine Biceps Pull-Ups (biceps, some back) Use the same chairs-and-pole arrangement from #1. Sit underneath a low bar. Grab the bar with a reverse grip (palms facing you), hands about shoulder-width apart. Keeping your body upright, pull up until your chin just clears the bar. Focus on the tension in your biceps, trying to relax the rest of your body. 6-8 reps.

3. Push-Ups (chest, triceps, shoulders) The key when targeting the chest with Push-Ups is the direction in which your elbows travel. As with bench presses, the elbows must move AWAY FROM THE BODY to target your chest, and be kept CLOSE TO THE BODY to target the triceps. Place each hand just outside your shoulders, slightly behind the line of your shoulders. Hands pointing straight ahead, upper body rigid as a board. 6-15 reps.

4. Tent Push-Ups (primarily upper chest) Assume the position in #3, but walk your feet forward so your body is bent at the waist, and your hips are up high in the air. Bending at the elbows, lower yourself until your nose touches the floor. Push up. Repeat. 6-8 reps.

5. Push-Ups, Triceps Position (you guessed it - triceps, and some chest) Begin with fingers facing forward in position from #3, hands slightly LESS than shoulder width apart. Lower your body to the floor keeping arms in against your body. Push up. 6-8 reps.

6. Triceps Dips With Chairs With your hands behind your back, support yourself on your palms at the edge of a chair. Your hands should be touching; your elbows should angle outward. Dipping in this position relieves a lot of stress on the elbow and shoulder joints.
Lower yourself, keeping your back close to the chair. Bend your elbows back and slightly to the sides. Keep your body angled slightly forward throughout the motion. Press yourself up until your arms are straight. 6-15 reps.

7. One-Legged Squats (front thighs, glutes, hamstrings) Stand perpendicular to a wall, about arm's length away from it. Extend your arm out to the side and place your palm against the wall at just under shoulder-height.
Angle the foot farthest from the wall at 45 degrees. Bend the other leg back.
Keeping your body upright, lower yourself until the non-weight-bearing knee is close to (but not touching) the ground. Support yourself by leaning against the wall. Press yourself back up to starting position. Repeat 6-8 reps.

8. One-Legged Hamstring Bridges Lie on your back with one leg extended, heel on the ground. Hold the other leg up off the floor. Pushing through your heel, flex your hamstrings to lift your body. Lower and repeat for 8-10 reps. Repeat with other leg. You can control the resistance and the degree to which the glutes contribute by changing the distance you place your heel relative to your butt.

9. Lunges Begin the lunge by taking a large step forward, keeping your head up and torso erect. Lower your hips and allow your trailing knee to drop to a point just before it touches the floor - never let the knee touch the floor. To return to the start, push off with your forward leg and then step back when the knee is completely straight. Repeat with other leg, 10-15 reps each leg.

10. Stair Running Stair running isn't usually considered a resistance exercise, and in fact, it makes hefty demands on your cardiovascular system. However, it also does an incredible job of conditioning the lower body. If your knees are in good shape, try doing 10-20 one-story sprints, preferably two stairs at a time. As you get stronger, work up the number slowly, keep one hand on the stair rail to catch yourself if you lose your balance.
Give yourself a bigger challenge by wearing a backpack filled with nice and heavy books.

To read reviews on home exercise equipment and learn how to choose the best exercise gadgets for your needs, visit Nitin Chhoda's new site guide to exercise equipment

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Vegan Nutrition Is Easier Than You Think

Vegan nutrition is one of those topics of discussion filled with misconceptions. At the Thanksgiving table, well-meaning relatives are likely to have all sorts of opinions about how you can't possibly be healthy without consuming any animal products. It's easy, however, to prove them incorrect.

There are at 4 typical topics of controversy when it comes to vegan nutrition. They are: vitamin B12, protein, iron, and calcium.

Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12 is admittedly challenging to obtain from a vegan diet. And it's certainly true that it's a very important nutrient. A vitamin B12 deficiency can be very serious, so it is important to obtain enough. Nutritional yeast is one vegan food that contains vitamin B12. Many vegans enjoy its cheesy flavor and sprinkle it on popcorn popped with coconut oil.

Vitamin B12 supplements are often suggested for vegans, and you can get all the vitamin B12 you need in a day if you take a good, high-quality supplement.

Protein

Protein is not as much of a concern if one is eating a well-rounded vegan diet. While we don't think of them as protein sources, vegetables do contain protein. Nuts and seeds also offer a lot of protein. Chia seeds have 3 grams of protein in just 2 tablespoons. Hemp seeds contain a complete protein, meaning they contain all the amino acids, the building blocks of protein. Brown rice is also high in protein.

In addition to all these vegan sources of protein, most vegans do not believe that humans need the amount of protein we are led to believe is necessary. Between the lessened need for protein and the bounty of plant protein sources, most vegans with a well-rounded diet get all the protein they need.

Iron

Iron is not just found in meat. One surprisingly rich source of iron is raw cacao powder. Happily, just 2.5 tablespoons have 8% of the RDA for iron! Chia seeds are another good source of iron, with 2 tablespoons containing 8% of the RDA. Blackstrap molasses are high in iron, with 1 tablespoon offering 19% of the RDA. 23% of the RDA is found in just one ounce of pumpkin seeds, which are delicious roasted and eaten out-of-hand. Baked potatoes and spinach are also high in iron. And there are also excellent vegan iron supplements available at any health food store if iron is a particular concern for you. The best and most easily digested tend to be the liquid supplements.

Calcium

Got kale? Many vegetables contain calcium and kale is one of the most concentrated and easily digestible sources of calcium. Sea vegetables, nori or dulse, for example, also contain high amounts of calcium, as do chia seeds. And just one tablespoon of blackstrap molasses contains 17% of the RDA. It's generally accepted in the nutrition community that vegetable and other plant sources of calcium are easily digested, therefore your body reaps the benefits more readily than from animal sources like cow's milk. Speaking of milk, coconut and almond milks contain 45% of the RDA for calcium in just 1 cup!

Serena Li is a web content contributor with Basic-Natural LLC, a socially conscious company dedicated to providing consumers with up-to-date information on the sustainability industry. For news, information, and everyday green living tips, please visit the company blog.

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Some Helpful Weight Loss Tips

If you are among those suffering from obesity and overweight, you need to take some serious actions to shed extra kilos. Because, being obese or overweight, you are inviting a number of diseases, including Type 2 Diabetes, Sleep Apnea, High Blood Pressure and Chest Pain. Over and above, obesity degrades your quality of life and gives birth to depression. 

Therefore, it is vital for you to lose weight and live a healthy life.

Losing weight looks easy, but it can turn out to be a difficult task as you have to refrain from your favorite food and include physical activities in your routine. Here are some useful medical weight loss tips:

• Avoid private or public transport for short distances: You do not need a car or bike to go to the closely located market, theater, eating joint, etc. Try going on foot; it will help you burn some calories and keep your body fit.

• Say no to snacks: Though you love snacks, you have to avoid their intake to make your weight loss goal achievable. French fries and all other deep fried items add to your body fat; therefore, it is better to stay away from them.

• Exercises: Exercise plays an important role in reducing weight and makes your body slim. You can also consider swimming, aerobics and crunches.

• Household chores: It is good to have a servant who washes clothes, do dishes and keeps your home neat and clean. But, it will be better if you do most of your household chores yourself as it can help you lose some kilos.

• Don't skip meals: It is a myth that low intake of food or skipping meals can burn calories. Since our body needs calories to burn calories, it is very important to eat right amount of healthy food after regular intervals of time.

• Drink sufficient amount of water: Water helps kidneys function properly, which helps in shedding calories.

• Start playing outdoor sports: Since outdoor sports are all about running and sweating, participating in one is a good way to lose weight naturally.

If you are not able to reduce or manage your weight even after following the above-mentioned tips, you can contact any of the reliable weight loss clinics. These clinics examine your body carefully and suggest a diet plan that is best and effective for you. They also suggest a few medicines and injections, so that you lose weight as soon as possible.

Gaurav Mahajan is a professional content writer and webmaster of California Medical Weight Management (CalMWM) reputed medical weight loss centers in California offers three-step (fast, safe and effective) weight loss programs for men & women. Free Consult with our physicians for personalized diet plan and healthy weight management.

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Healthy Weight Loss Programs

People who are overweight and want to lose those extra pounds are most likely in search of a plan or program to follow. However, healthy weight loss programs for losing weight differ, or should anyway, from some of the more, shall we say, spirited claims for losing weight.

There are so many weight loss programs out there, they have become trivialized. And a new fad diet seems to come along every day. Every form of media serves as a marketing tool for the latest craze in weight loss or fitness. Truthfully, there are many good ones. There are also some that could be downright dangerous to your overall health.

Nothing beats common sense when choosing a program. That, and knowing yourself and what sort of changes you are willing to make. Most any good program will help an individual lose weight. The trick is sticking with the program. 

Remember, the process of losing weight should be about long term changes that keep the weight off for good and allow you to live a healthier life. If you go through some form of dietary torture for two months and lose 30 pounds, it is doubtful you will stick with that kind of radical change for long.

The best programs seem to be those that offer education, incremental and flexible changes in dietary consumption, varied exercise routines and long term goal setting. And, people need and want to understand the process their minds and bodies will undergo while making changes.

 Staying motivated is a huge issue, and the more educated a person is about nutrition and fitness or how well a particular program educates the consumer, the more likely the individual is to achieve their long term goals. This is not rocket science. It is just about being a cautious, well informed consumer.

Even among the many very good healthy weight loss programs out there, each one may have systems or variations that make them good for one person and not another. Gather as much information as you can on the program, study it, then decide if it fits you and your goals. Don't rely on someone else to influence your decision. 

Do the necessary research yourself. Get informed before jumping headfirst into a cloudy pool!

Most really good healthy weight loss programs have quite a bit of flexibility. It should not be too hard to find one that is right for you. As in almost all other areas, we know a great deal more today about nutrition, health and fitness. Know what you want to achieve, know what works best for you, be informed and then Go! Be happy!

Boyce Henry has over 15 years researching and managing weight loss and weight loss products. To get a free report on the top diet scams, please go to http://www.yourweightlossinfo.com

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Detox and Nutrition

General health

As the Christmas season has come to an end, most are (relatively) happy to see the back of it and thinking of regaining our health in the New Year!

Our livers have been given a good run, so the first thing to do is to take some time off drinking alcohol. Processing alcohol creates numerous toxins in your system (such as Acetaldehyde) that your liver has to process. Your liver is a resilient organ and can regenerate but needs time to do so! A few other things to consider:

Whole Foods

Try to eat whole foods (naturally grown and unprocessed foods). There are several thousand chemicals that can be used in processing foods. Your liver filters out and detoxifies these chemicals. Organic whole foods (fruit, vegetables and meat) will take pressure off your liver as it will not have to filter or detoxify the food chemicals.

Exercise

Exercise increases blood flow around the body. This enables blood to more rapidly carry toxins and waste to the liver and kidneys, to then be filtered out of the body.

Through aerobic exercise, breathing increases, allowing lungs to expel more toxins from the body.

The skin is our largest organ. Waste is eliminated through the skin by sweating.

Detox Foods

There are a diverse range of foods that are good for your liver/digestive tract and for detoxing. Some are a bit more unorthodox than others such as seaweed and dandelions (which contain powerful antioxidants to cleanse the digestive tract and liver) to household items such as lemons and garlic.

A full list of detox foods are as follows:

Citrus fruits

Citrus fruits such as lemons and limes contain Vitamin C and help cleanse the liver and digestive tract. The also alkalise the body to offset the acidity of foods.

Fresh fruit

Full of vitamins, antioxidants and fibre, fruit is great for detoxing after a boozy Christmas season. Although if you are not active/exercising try to restrict your fruit intake to one piece per day, as it is high in natural sugar.

Ginger and Garlic

Ginger and Garlic are beneficial to the liver because they help it get rid of free radicals (molecules that can damage body cells) that are built up in the body.

Greens

The chlorophyll in these plant-based foods rid the body of harmful environmental toxins, as well as help the liver in detoxification. A blood cleanser and natural antibiotic, chlorophyl also reduces blood fats, thinning the blood and lowering blood pressure.

Beets

Fiber in beets help increase the production of antioxidant enzymes in the liver, which help the liver and gallbladder eliminate bile and other toxic substances from the body.

Cabbage

Cabbage is rich in antioxidant nutrients, which neutralize free-radicals. Antioxidants have been strongly linked to the protection from numerous diseases, from heart disease to regulation of the immune system.

Dandelions

Dandelions are great for detox and particularly effective for treating a build up of toxins in the liver by helping to remove waste products. It also may help reduce side effects of medication and as it can help improve bile flow & reduce inflammation.

Seaweed

Seaweed rids the body of toxins that cause a variety of health problem such as obesity, arthritis and high blood pressure. It is rich in minerals like iodine and potassium, and is also believed to boost the body's natural immune system, and improve thyroid and liver function which also helps with detoxification.

Practical advice

Personally I can't see myself cooking up seaweed and dandelion soup! But there are plenty of practical and easy ways to detox and improve your diet. Try to make these changes permanent as a temporary change to your diet will only return temporary result.

Eat whole (unprocessed) foods

Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables although more vegetables than fruit

Eat at least two vegetables with your meals - one green and one coloured

Restrict your fruit intake to one piece a day if you are not active

Eat plenty of different coloured fruit and vegetables

Drink plenty of water (at least 1.5 litres per day), more if exercising regularly

Put a slice of lemon in your water

Stay off the booze for a few weeks

For references and further reading see:

http://www.globalhealingcenter.com

http://www.livestrong.com

XRWear was founded through an interest in, and knowledge of cycling, running, adventure racing, triathlon and hiking. We offer you a wide range of top quality products at competitive prices. In addition to our excellent product range, we have regularly updated blogs on Training and Nutrition, Triathlon Training and Adventure Racing to ensure you get extra value from visiting our site. Some of this is from experience and some is research. We encourage you to let us know your comments on our blogs and products.

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Weight Loss Nutrition Plan - Your Complete Guide To Finding Your 6-Pack

You want to find your 6-pack, and you've got a workout plan, so what do you eat? Am I eating enough? I'm not losing weight, why? Those questions, by far the most asked on the message boards. I'm going to give you the straight skinny on research I've done, what I feel works, doesn't work etc.

What You Stuff In Your Face Will 100% Impact Your Results

First, it's not a "Diet Plan", if you want a crash diet, it's not going to work long term. Really what most of us need to do is adjust our thinking on food and nutrition. In the world today it's been way to easy to sacrifice nutrition for convenience That's how I got fat, I'm lazy when it comes to cooking for myself. I'm a single guy, and making an ornate meal is about the lowest thing on my agenda, just above cutting the grass or shoveling snow. I just like to eat, and if someone else wants to make the food I stuff in my pie hole that's even better.

So what will it take to get your 6 Pack? Well I'm going to be honest, it's going to take dedication like no other. You need to be sub 10% body fat for a guy or sub 15% for a female. The food you stuff in your face is one of the few things you control in your life. Double Bacon Cheeseburger, or Extra Lean Turkey Tacos? You decide, and the path you chose will have consequences, and that is either carrying around a keg, or a 6-pack.

MATH. It's Not Just For School - Your "Food Budget"

Losing weight, in it's simplest form is easy math. Calories Eaten - Calories Your Body Needs To Live - Calories Exerted On Other Activities = Weight Loss/Gain. To lose weight you need to be in what is known as a Calorie Reduced State, a negative number.

To lose 1lb weight, you need that equation to = -3500/week. Or roughly 500/day. So how the heck do you figure that out? Well there are a number of studies and formulas, but the one I use is this:

Calories Your Body Needs To Live (aka you Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR):

Men: 66 + (13.7 x weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) - (6.8 x age)

Women: 655 + (9.6 x weight in kg) + (1.7 x height in cm) - (4.7 x age)

So lets use me as an example, 213lbs when I started, I'm 5'11 and I'm 34 years old... a quick Google calculator conversion to get from Imperial to Metric gives me this: 66 + (13.7 x 96.61) + (5 x 180.34) - (6.8 x 34) = 2,522.46 calories just to breath, and sleep.

Then we need to figure out what does life take to live, so there are some other generally accepted numbers:

1.0 Sedentary - you do nothing but sleep and veg out on the couch

1.2 Very light activity - nothing too physical, you work an office job,

1.4 Light activity - office job but a lot of walking, but no real "working out"

1.6 Moderate activity - your job requires physical labor, maybe an occasional workout

1.8 High activity - you are training a lot, running regularly, lifting etc.

2.0 Extreme activity - very physical job, plus working your butt off on the off hours.

The way I use this is NOT to factor in any working out (we'll get to the why later). So for me, I'm a 1.2, I'm a computer nerd by trade sitting in cube world so:

2,522.46 * 1.2 = 3,026.95 calories just to maintain my weight doing what I do all day or 21,188.65 calories a week. So now that we have that, lets subtract 20% to get some weight loss going. 3,026.95 * 0.8 = 2,421.56.

If you look at those numbers, reducing my caloric intake everyday by 20% will come out to a 605.39/day or 4,237.73/week deficit. Since 1lb = 3500 calories, just doing this will be a 1.21lb/week loss.

Let's take that a bit further, I want to lose on average 2lbs (a generally acceptable weight loss for someone overweight), that means I need to consume 7,000 calories less in a week or 1,000/day. So, if we take my BMR - 1,000 calories, we're down to 2,026.95 calories a day is my food budget. That is the number of calories I need to eat, each day to keep my body running, but still losing weight. AND THAT IS WITHOUT WORKING OUT. Even if you're not exercising this will work, I've done it in the past, I know it works. What that DOES NOT MEAN, is to limit yourself to 1,000 calories and lose 10lbs a week, your body doesn't work that way, it's smarter than that and there's more on that below.

How Does My Workout Plan Figure In?

So any workout plan, be it P90X (which I currently use), Insanity, training in the gym, the boring treadmill, is going to burn extra calories, just think of it as a bonus. Everyone will burn a different amount of calories depending on size, exercise, length of workout etc. If you want to know, strap a HR monitor on yourself and it'll tell you what it thinks you burned based on the metrics above (height, age, weight), but that can be inaccurate. I've done the HR monitor, and a number I'm comfortable with is 400 calories/workout on average when I do P90x for example. Sometimes way more, sometimes less, it all depends how I'm feeling, how much I put into it etc, but for the sake of a constant # I use 400.

Sooooo, where does that get us?

2026.95 calories - 400 = 1626.95 calories a day is what's left over for my body to use to sleep. Back to the top, we can easily figure out that 1626.95 - 3026.95 = -1400/day * 7 days = 9800 calories "saved" a week. Then we take what we saved, 9800 I either didn't eat or burned working out and divide it 3500 and I'm at 2.8lb/per week loss. THIS IS MY AVERAGE Loss this round so far, by eating about 2,000 calories a day. Math is math.

All Food Is Not Created Equally

Running hard for 20 on a treadmill will burn somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 calories. What is 200 calories?

two pieces of whole wheat bread - nothing on them.

or 29 almonds

or a doughnut

or less than two 8oz glasses of apple juice

or not quite a pint of Guinness

or 1.5 cans of soda

or two cans of energy drink

So, what would you rather do, run your butt off for 20 minutes, or eat/drink one of those things? The thing to remember is your body is not a computer or calculator. How your body handles nutrients is different based on the nutrients you're consuming. While eating less calories than you need will indeed help you lose weight, you should be conscious of what that food you're stuffing in your face contains. Try and eat lean proteins. Eat GOOD carbs, you know, ones that grow from the earth, not put together in a factory and have a bunch of junk added in as fillers and other junk. Get your fats from good places like nuts, seeds, avocados.

The way I usually eat is on the 50/30/20 plan. 50% of my calories are from lean Protein sources, 30% from Carbs, and 20% from fat. This works for me all the way through the workout program I use and I see great results. I'd recommend this at least through the first 30 days and then listen to your body. Different nutrients make you feel different ways. This particular breakdown, while being in a big deficit tends to make me feel hungry at times once I hit week 3 and 4, at which point I tell my brain and stomach to be quiet and drink some water. I also am intaking calories every 3-3.5 hours the entire time I'm awake (5am-9 or 10pm). The major meals have more calories than the in between "snack" times.

So how do you track all this? First, you buy all your own food, and limit going out to eat as much as possible. Second, you need to track your caloric intake, which is WAY easier than you might think. I use a website called MyFitnessPal.com. It's a free site, has a great free application for your phone, and a huge user supported and verified database of just about anything you want to eat, easily searchable by brand and what it's called on the bag (including a lot of restaurants). It sounds daunting, but once you do it a few times, it just becomes second nature. The key is to find a variety of foods that you can put together and hit your needs. The third thing you need to buy is a cheap food scale, I personally use the Taylor Precision 37204014T, it's $4.50. Then you measure out every portion you put into every meal, it takes 2 seconds. You can even create custom "Meals" on MyFitnessPal based on ingredients you're using, so it's easy to recall it later to track.

So I Should Just Really Stop Eating And I'll Lose All The Weight Right?

WRONG! Your body is a smart machine, and it adapts. I can't constantly keep eating 1,900 calories and keep that weight loss up. Some people call it "Starvation Mode", call it what you will, but your body adjusts your metabolism in an effort to keep you healthy and protect itself. After the first 30 days, I take my weight, and refigure things. I also INCREASE my caloric intake. The reasoning is because your muscles will actually burn more fat while sleeping, sitting, working out than the tubs of lard you just spent 30 days burning off. Remember, you want your body going after the fat stores, not the lean muscle mass you're working on toning and building. Your body needs more to keep the furnace pumping. If you've hit a plateau with your weight loss, my first reaction is Eat MORE! I typically will bump up my intake by 400-500 calories after the first month, and believe me, it works, there are plenty of resources and forum posts discussing this.

Anyway, that's my "quick" lesson on nutrition, this should set you in the right direction. If you have any questions at all, PLEASE get a hold of me on my website!

Learn what to eat to make the most of your weight loss journey!
http://www.pbjfitness.com

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