Weight management often depends on calculating metabolic rates, understanding fat biochemistry, and tailoring exercise programming for either muscle acquisition or structured fat reduction.
The diet industry is exploding with fad diets, where you might eat only one kind of food, such as soup, or limit yourself to “detox” beverages to lose weight fast. When you want to drop 20 pounds, a quick fix may look appealing, especially with all those “before” and “after” photos to wow you.
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Any sudden change to your diet can have a negative impact on your digestive system. Switching to a low-carb diet, especially if you go very low carb in the initial stage, can lead to less frequency in your bowel movements. You may need to increase your intake of fibrous vegetables or look at your overall lifestyle.
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A study out of Canada in June 2010 found that half of the food products targeted toward babies and toddlers contain too much sugar. This study categorized an over-abundance of sugar as having at least 20 percent of its total calories from sugar.
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You don’t have to repress your love for apples when you decide to try a low-carb diet. Depending on the plan you choose, though, you will likely avoid all fruit for at least the first few weeks of the program.
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Eat Stop Eat recommends brief, regular fasts to promote weight loss and retention of muscle. Here's how it works.
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If your waistband is feeling tighter than usual or your jeans just won’t zip up anymore, the change in your weight likely didn’t happen overnight. Americans put on weight at the rate of roughly 1 to 2 pounds a year, according to a review published in 2013 in AHRQ Comparative Effectiveness Reviews.
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The media may glorify rail-thin actresses and size 0 models, but being underweight, which means a body mass index below 18.5, is a serious matter with distinct health consequences.
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If you’re having trouble fastening your waistband, the extra weight in your belly that's causing the problem probably didn’t happen overnight.
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If you’ve been through a long illness or a period of emotional stress, your clothes may be baggy, and your family and friends might comment on how gaunt you look. A body mass index below 18.5 is considered underweight -- a condition that can affect your overall health.
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one third of all adults and 17 percent of all children in the United States are obese. Obesity rates doubled for adults in the past three decades and tripled for children, and show no signs of decreasing in the near future.
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Fad diets abound, with books, articles and websites attracting dieters who hope to shed extra pounds either for better health or to fit into a favorite pair of jeans.
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You may want to lose 20 pounds for an upcoming special event, such as a wedding, and fad diets promise fast results. But after you meet your target on a fad diet, it's likely you’ll gain all the weight back, and then some.
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The Leptin diet is a program devised by board certified clinical nutritionist Byron J. Richards, the founder of a supplement company called Wellness Resources and an expert on the hormone leptin. Leptin is produced in your fat stores, and its job is to signal your brain when you have taken in enough food.
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Your body needs all three macronutrients – protein, carbohydrates and fat – to function properly, but various weight-loss diets dictate the amount of each to eat in a day.
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Your body mass index, or BMI, depends on your weight and height, and gives you a general idea of whether you're at risk for an obesity-related illness. The BMI helps doctors quickly screen for serious issues with body weight, such as being underweight or overweight.
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The Atkins diet, probably the best known of all low-carb plans, boasts great successes on its website, including some followers who lost more than 100 pounds. However, your weight-loss success really depends on you – your adherence to the plan, the food and beverage choices you make and the inclusion of exercise.
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The older a woman gets, the harder it becomes to lose weight. At 50 years old, your body doesn’t burn calories the way it did when you were younger. You may have cut back on your activity level because of health issues or family and work responsibilities. The fact is, too, your metabolism slows down as you age.
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If you’re underweight or heading in that direction, a steady, consistent plan for weight gain will work better for you than any quick-gain method. In a period of 10 days, a woman can safely gain a little over a pound if she follows a nutrient- and calorie-dense diet combined with strength training to build muscle.
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Your best friend seems to eat everything in sight but never gain a pound, while you look at a slice of cake and start packing on pounds. It may be the luck of the genetic draw, but diet and lifestyle factors also help determine how you manage your weight.
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You may have engaged in water fasting for religious reasons or as preparation for a medical procedure. Trying to lose weight with water fasting is less common, though, and best undertaken only with supervision of a medical professional.
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