Anna Lin

Those who are what is considered morbidly obese have few options when it comes to losing weight when time is of the essence. Many have bounced from one diet to the next for the vast majority of their lives only to find failure after failure and a growing sense of hopelessness and helplessness.

One common misconception when it comes to the morbidly obese is that they did it to themselves and if they didn’t want to be overweight they wouldn’t be. While this is nice in theory it isn’t always true in practice. There are certain medical conditions that can result in a person being unable to control the weigh they gain. There are also environmental issues that can affect the weight of a person as well. It’s ironic that in many cases alcoholics and drug addicts are treated and viewed with greater compassion than someone who is obese.

The surgery itself is major surgery and not an option that should be taken lightly and without a great deal of thought. Most people find that weight loss surgery involves a major change in lifestyle before and after as well as an entirely new way of eating that is a lifelong commitment. Because of the life altering changes that result from this surgery it is recommended that those receiving the surgery have a BMI that is greater than 40. This means that it is recommended for men who are greater than 100 pounds overweight and women who overweight by 80 or more pounds.

You should carefully weigh the benefits and the risks of a surgery such as this before deciding that this is the course of action you need to take. The risks are great with this surgery and should not be overlooked in desperation to shed the weight you’ve wanted to shed for so long. Nutritional deficiencies occur in almost 20% of those who have received this sort of surgery as the result of insufficient nutrients. This can lead to osteoporosis and other conditions as you age. Complications can result from the surgery itself. You can have lifelong issues when consuming too much or the wrong sorts of foods, and there are some who achieve their goals only to find that the weight comes back in time. As with anything in life there are no guarantees when it comes to weight loss surgery.

In order to determine whether or not this surgery will be beneficial to you, you may want to ask yourself the following questions.

Is my weight significantly hampering day-to-day activities?
Is my weight causing other secondary conditions that may be harmful to my health?
Is my weight something I honestly feel I can take control of on my own?
Can I commit to the lifelong consequences and follow up that will be required?

The problem with most people who find the need to resort to weight loss surgery is that they cannot take control of their bodies back. The odds of a good candidate for weight loss surgery losing the weight of his or her own design are very slim as he or she has most likely tried and failed every diet in the books.

Only you can determine whether or not weight loss surgery is a viable option for your weight loss needs. If you decide that this is something you are interested in learning more about, be sure to discuss the possible consequences thoroughly with your physician.

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Why is it that merely saying the “D” word, you know “diet” brings immediate thoughts of failure to the minds of many men and women around the world? Could it be that we have all learned through trial and error that diets simply do not work? I know many of you are sitting back with jaws dropped at the moment. After all, this is an article about dieting, right? It is and it isn’t. Dieting is the kiss of death for many while a new phase in your life or lifestyle adjustment may be just the thing that will mean success for you and your fitness and health goals.

Eating for some is an addiction. Unfortunately, you can’t exactly give up eating all together as a smoker can give up cigarettes. I’m not applying by any means that giving up cigarettes is easy but how much more difficult would it be if you were forced to have three a day? At that point you may as well enjoy them every time the urge hits right? The same holds true for food. You must eat in order to survive. You cannot live without eating. This means that if food is a problem in your life, you must find a healthier way of viewing food.

Isn’t this where diets generally come in handy? The short answer is no. This is where diets often fail. Diets do very little to change how we view food. In fact, most diets only serve to tell us which foods are good, which foods are bad, and which foods (typically most of the foods we enjoy most) are strictly taboo. Diets begin by forcing people to feel deprived or punished. And no one likes to feel either of these things.

Even worse however, is that we punish ourselves further when we slip along the straight and very narrow pathways upon which our diets place us. This means that we are going to wallow in guilt over every little misstep we make until we give up all together and decide to over indulge once again and ignore the guilt all together.

In order to have real success you must make a lifestyle change. This is the only way that you will be able to shed those unwanted pounds without experiencing the horrible guilt that so many dieters go through each and every step of the way with their diets. Set goals for yourself. Keep them aggressive but realistic for fitness, dropping pounds, and eating new healthy foods. Even if your goal is as simple as eating 5 vegetable servings a day it is a great place to start.

Change your way of eating. Then change your way of seeing food and you will experience amazing changes in your attitudes toward your health, your body, and even your fitness level. As the first pounds begin to drop you will begin to experience more energy and less pain when exercising. This should help keep you motivated to do even more as time goes by.

Do not think that long term weight loss goals will be as easy to achieve as the first five or ten pounds. Consistency is vitally important when making these lifestyle changes. Take each day as it comes and begin again the very next day. This means that even if you fall completely “off the wagon” today, you can start over tomorrow. The trick is in staying the course more days than not and learning moderation and balance when it comes to straying from the straight and narrow.

There are many ways to fail when it comes to dieting and I know people who have failed in almost every one I can possibly imagine. There is no way to fail, however, when you are making positive changes in your life that are getting positive results. It may take weeks, months, or even years to reach your goal. As long as you are making steady and continuous efforts and progress, you are doing many great things for your health and well being.

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Very few people realize the profound effect that weight has on diabetes. Even instances of gestational diabetes are much greater in patients that are overweight than in those that are not. Type 2, or adult onset diabetes is more commonly found in overweight people than those that are within their ‘ideal’ weight ranges. In fact, almost 90% of those with Type 2 diabetes are overweight. If you are suffering from Type 2 diabetes, the best gift you could possibly give yourself just might be the gift of getting your weight under control.

Among those that suffer from Type 2 diabetes almost 40% have high blood pressure, which is another condition that is believed to be exacerbated by excess weight. Being overweight might also lead to a condition known as insulin resistance in which the body no longer responds to the insulin that is needed to assist the body in using sugar and glucose as fuel on a cellular level.

There are some things you can do to help yourself out if you have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes or labeled at risk for this devastating condition. First of all, take off the pounds. I know this is much easier said than done. Dieting is never easy and rarely fun for the average person. However, if you do not begin to take drastic steps toward procuring the best possible health for yourself you may not be able to enjoy the quality of life you had planned for your golden years. Let your condition be your motivation and make plans to enjoy watching your grandchildren and great grandchildren graduate college.

Fight it standing up. Don’t sit down and let Diabetes control you. Stand up and take control of your body back. This is a fight to the finish and if you let it, diabetes will be your end. If you fight it standing up, lose the weight, get out there and exercise, listen to the doctor’s orders and follow them. Find the strength within you to battle this disease head on. You’ll be amazed at what happens when you decide to stand up and fight for your health.

Get active. Find activities that you enjoy and get out there and do them. Don’t make those activities passive activities either. Even if it’s just going out to play shuffleboard everyday get out there and play. Enjoy your time in the sun. Pick flowers with the little ones. Take up golf. Do whatever it takes to get up and moving each and every day in order to remember why you want to live forever in the first place.

Watch what you eat. Garbage in, garbage out, right? You have strict dietary requirements once you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes. This means that you absolutely must follow your dietary restrictions. Learn to live within those limits in order to live and enjoy life to the fullest you can. The amazing thing is that there are all kinds of foods available that are friendly to those with diabetes that weren’t around just a few short years ago. It is quite possible to live and eat quite nicely with diabetes if you stick to your plan. The most important thing about dieting with diabetes is that you never lose sight of how crucial it is to do so.

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When it comes to living a long and healthy life, there are two necessary ingredients: diet and fitness. While some believe that they are one thing all together, nothing could be further from the truth. It is quite possible to have a perfectly healthy diet with deplorable fitness habits. It is equally possible to be very physically fit with less than savory eating habits.

There’s a clever little line in the Jimmy Buffet song “Fruitcakes” when his ‘lady’ is lamenting:
“I treat my body like a temple
You treat yours like a tent”

I can’t help but think of this line whenever I think about all the people around the world who are going on these garbage in, garbage out diet plans hoping to achieve the weight loss success of those who are endorsing these products.

To be completely honest, it is possible to shed pounds through diet alone. It is difficult but possible. It is also possible to be physically fit and have a few extra pounds hanging around. To a large degree we are what we eat. If we consume a high fat low substance diet our bodies are going to lack the fuel required to burn the fat. At the same time if we aren’t providing our bodies with the tools it needs to build muscle it doesn’t matter how many weights we lift.

When it comes to diet and fitness, the best results are achieved when they work together rather than separately. Use your fitness routine to burn excess calories and use your diet in order to properly provide your body the nutrients and fuel it needs to build muscle. I’ve heard many times in my life that a pound of muscle weighs less than a pound of fat. While this is not true at all, a pound is a pound regardless; a pound of muscle occupies less space on the body than a pound of fat. Pound for pound, I would much rather mine be composed of muscle than fat. Dieting alone does not build muscle and that is something you will do well to remember in your efforts.

You should also realize that as you are building muscle you may be shedding inches while not showing a great deal of progress on the scale. It is very important that you keep this in mind throughout the weight loss process. Do not measure your progress by the scales alone or you will achieve misleading results. The problem is that far too many people do just this and get frustrated and give up when they are actually making progress. Do not allow yourself to be a victim of the scales. Look in the mirror, try on your tight pants, and measure your waistline. Measure your success by how you feel after climbing a flight of stairs not by how many pounds fell of the scale this week.

By incorporating fitness into your diet routine you are also enabling your body to burn off any extra calories you may have consumed during the day. This means that if you want to have a small ‘cheat’ during your day, you can make up for it by burning a few more calories than normal in the evening. This isn’t something that should happen often but an occasional occurrence isn’t going to make or break your diet.

You should also look at dieting and fitness as a ball and glove type of relationship. While you can play ball without the glove, it seems to work so much better if you have both. Diet and fitness when combined can create fantastic weight loss results for those who take them both seriously. The thing to remember is that neither works as well alone and neither will work unless you are willing to do the work. You must make this a priority in your life in order to achieve the best possible results.

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When it comes to dieting there are very few organizations that have achieved the lasting success of Weight Watchers. They have been around quite a while and show no signs of stopping. More importantly, their success stories speak volumes for those who join and stick with the program. So what makes this program so successful when many others come and go?

Community

Believe it or not, one of the most important things about Weight Watchers secret to success, so to speak, is the sense of community that is forged between the men and women who are trying to lose weight. There is something humbling and exciting about standing in front of the scale week after week and sharing not only your personal successes and failures but also the failures and successes of others.

Far too often we those who are dieting simply do not have an adequate support system at home. The bonding that is done during the Weight Watchers meeting is a strong bond of men and women who may come from different backgrounds and walks of life but who share a common goal for their futures-weight loss and better health. That is not a bond to be taken lightly particularly when they laugh and cry together. They are in their own way going through the trenches together and the success of this type of program for motivating and encouraging is nothing short of phenomenal.

Evolution

Weight Watchers has a pattern for success but they are not beyond evolving with the needs of the time. While they will be the first to state that the most successful participants typically attend the meetings, Weight Watchers also offers alternatives for those with busy schedules and even those that are simply too afraid to go to the meetings. For these people there is the anonymity of online forums, message boards, and support groups.

Weight Watchers hasn’t limited its evolutionary process to this alone, they’ve also in recent years added a points system that allows dieters participating in their program to more easily gauge how well they are doing by their dietary standards and requirements without needing to count every single calorie or weighing their food. We live in a world of busy people and it is often more hassle than many dieters find to be worth the effort to count every single calorie (particularly when dining out).

The Weight Watchers website is another example of their commitment to evolve and accommodate the diverse needs of the men and women participating in their program. If you haven’t checked it out in a while you really should take a look and see what amazing insights and information they have to offer.

Commitment to Fitness

Weight Watchers knows that it isn’t just diet that gets results. When you combine diet with exercise the results are much more immediate and more profound. The fact that Weight Watchers stresses the importance of exercise and physical fitness in addition to proper nutrition and changing your way of thinking when it comes to food is yet another reason for their widely known success.

Weight Watchers is just one of many different weight loss and dieting programs in the market today. The fact that they have made a name for themselves and stand out above the rest in many ways is nothing to take lightly. It seems that there is a new weight loss program cropping up every other month or so and yet Weight Watchers continues to achieve visible and sustainable results in those who really work the program. Very few programs can make that claim for as long as Weight Watchers has been able to.

When you combine all of the things mentioned above with the pre packaged foods that are offered by Weight Watchers, the extensive recipes that are available for Weight Watcher’s participants, and a solid track record for success you would be robbing yourself of the potential for lasting success if you didn’t at least see what the plan has to offer you.

We have the highest teenage and childhood obesity rates today than at any other point in the world’s long history. Much of the blame for this is on the fast food, low energy society that we have become. Far too often we feel that it is safer to keep our children inside our homes rather than out and about in the great outdoors. The things we are doing for the protection of our children are actually detrimental to the health of our children.

There are things however that are being done to address the problem and get our children more involved, more active, and better educated about making the proper choices about diet, nutrition, fitness, and overall health. The problem for most teens is getting them off the computer, phone, or away from the television long enough to get active.

Even video games are getting in on the act of getting children up and active by creating games such as Play Station 2’s Dance Party Revolution and the new Nintendo Wii gaming system that seem to be taking the market by storm. These systems allow consumers, to actively participate in the game play adventure rather than sitting back and playing the game in a static environment. It is a great way to get teens off their seats and active. These games are also fun for adults and will have the same effects when it comes to activity. Whoever thought we’d be actually encouraging game play for exercise?

Get Outside and Get Active

Teens learn by example and whether they care to admit it or not, they typically enjoy doing things as part of the family. Go rock wall climbing or mountain climbing. Go bike riding as a family. Camp in the great out doors and go hiking, boating, or biking yet again. Learn a new sport together. It’s amazing how much fun you can have learning how scuba dive and while you are at it, neither of you will be consuming empty calories. Even if the sport you take up together doesn’t involve a lot of physical activity it is quite likely more active than sitting in front of the television.

Have your teen join a recreational sports team. We have all kinds of sports teams available in our community in which our teens can join. Even those with no skills at all can join and play in some of the leagues while other leagues are competitive. Getting out and about for a softball game, soccer game, and even volleyball can be a great way for the family to do something together and the games and practices are opportunities for your teen to be active.

Lawn work is another way to get out and get active with your teen. The key, as always, is in your teen burning more calories than he or she consumers. It is often easier said than done but it is quite possible if you work to get them out and about. Find things however that will be interesting to your teen and focus on those rather than torturing them with activities that hold no interest at all (well maybe not the yard work). At any rate, filling their time with activities is also allowing time that they aren’t consuming calories as well and that is something worth considering.

Encourage your teen to eat healthier foods. Eliminate calorie-loaded sods, fruit juices, and energy drinks from your pantry shelves, and encourage your teens to drink plenty of water each day. Introduce as many vegetables as possible to the diet of your teens and get rid of the prepackaged convenience goodies that teens are notorious for depleting in one sitting. Also having your teens actively participate in the preparation and clean up for meals will help them pay more attention to the things they put into their mouths as well as the messes they make in the process.

When it comes to dieting you will find all kinds of crazy and faddish diets on the market today. In addition to the many diets there seems to be every kind of diet aid you can imagine. From shakes the diet industry has evolved to include everything from candy bars and pudding to pills and patches. Each item makes the claim that it can help you drop those unwanted pounds quickly and easily. Well I can tell you for a fact there is very little easy for must of us about dropping a few pounds.

If you would like a few tips that should make your weight loss goals a little easier to achieve then perhaps the following tips will help you out.

Drink Plenty of Water

There really isn’t enough that can be said about the importance of drinking water in an effort to reach your fitness goals. Water hydrates the body first and foremost but water is also an important way of tricking your body into believing it is full. Other drinks do not work nearly as well as water in this endeavor and many drinks, even fruit juices, contain empty calories that you can ill afford when dieting.

Another great thing about drinking a lot of water while dieting is that it helps your skin retain its elasticity so you can avoid some of the ‘loose skin’ look that often accompanies massive weight loss. As an added bonus drinking plenty of water will have your skin looking radiant and beautiful as well.

Set Goals

Having goals is one of the most important things you can do when working to loose weight. Try to make sure that your goals are aggressive but can be achieved. If you are frustrated early in the dieting process by unrealistic goals you are much more likely to give up. However, challenges are always going to inspire us to achieve greater things in life. If you can find a ‘weight loss partner’ in order to have a little friendly competition for the weight loss totals for a week or a month then you are going to be far more likely to accomplish your goals than if you keep them quietly to yourself.

Eat More

Did you read that twice? Yes, eat more healthy foods that are high in fiber. Eat more vegetables and fruits-fill up on these foods that are good for you and you will not be inclined to binge on calorie laden junk food.

Move!

While this seems a little too simply stated for most, getting up and moving is one of, if not the absolute best way to burn calories. The simple truth is that you are not going to lose weight unless you use more calories than you consume. The more activities you enjoy that burn calories, the more likely you are to shed those unwanted pounds and meet your weight loss goals.

Some great activities that actually burn calories include the following: gardening, golf, dancing, playing volleyball, walking, jumping rope, playing hop scotch with your little ones, and playing tennis. I mention these activities because you can trick yourself into believing that you aren’t really exercising while burning calories. Even cleaning house requires movement and energy and if you dance around a little to some good music in the process you might burn a few extra calories.

Dieting, when successful can help restore self image and self-esteem in people who are otherwise beautiful people inside and out. The steps above are not the only things that are involved in the dieting process but they can help you reach your weight loss goals particularly when combined with a diet plan that you feel confident you can follow. Be sure that on those days when will power is non-existent that you do not derail your diet efforts all together by giving up. The most important thing you can do when dieting is to go back to dieting once you’ve strayed.

There are tons of are diet, weight loss, and fitness plans on the market. It takes years for some to become a contender and others remain a best-kept secret of sorts. One such ‘best kept’ secret would be the 3 Hour Diet that was designed by Jorge Cruise. I am sure that there are many reading along and chuckling under your breath that there is no way one can lose weight by eating every three hours however the science behind the theory is fairly common and Jorge Cruise is a mainstay in the fitness industry.

The long and short of this diet operates with the knowledge that if you do not feed your body accurately and regularly your body will go into what is called ’starvation mode’. In this mode your body holds onto the fat rather than burning it up and consuming it for use. This means that your body is burning muscle rather than fat to take the energy it needs in order to function.

With the 3 Hour Diet you will not feel hungry all the time, in fact, there are many who claim they are constantly setting alarms and reminding themselves to eat. You will also learn the proper foods to eat in order to achieve the best possible results. The key is in learning which foods are right for you when dieting with this plan. You can purchase the book The 3-Hour Diet by Jorge Cruise and you can sign up online for more information about the weight plan itself and how to incorporate it into your busy routine.

I do recommend purchasing the book if you are seriously considering this as your method of dieting as there are many wonderful hints, tips, and tricks that are mentioned in the book to help you keep things going no matter how busy and hectic your lifestyle may be. One thing you need to keep in mind is that dieting with a program such as this is no small commitment. You need to stick to the timetable as much as possible in order to achieve the results this plan is famous for. If you aren’t willing to eat every three hours then this plan really may not be the plan for you.

Otherwise, if this is something you would be interested in, I highly recommend it. There are special considerations based on the amount you weight currently and the amount of weight you are hoping to lose. It is best if you are honest throughout the process in order to achieve the best possible and most immediate results. The claim is that you can lose as many as 10 pounds in the first two weeks and there are those that have claimed to do just that over and over again. This is a diet that even many celebrities endorse for quick and immediate results.

The good and the bad about 3 hour dieting is that it is effective but takes a very real commitment on the part of the one that is dieting. This diet is one that is taking the world by storm. If you haven’t heard of it before now, please take the time to check it out and see if this is something you could incorporate into your life. The results that have been reported as a result of this diet as nothing short of phenomenal. If there were one diet I would recommend above others for those who hate feeling hungry, it would be this diet.

These dips and sauces can often make a great substitution, when paired with vegetables, for those chips and dips we love so much and often miss when dieting. Cucumbers, green, red, and yellow peppers, broccoli, and carrot sticks all have a nice little crunch to them that when combined with a good low fat dip can help cure the crave beast for greasy chips that often rears its head when dieting.

If you watch your calories carefully during meals you should be delighted to know that there are many little snack treats that are prepackaged in 100 calorie packs for your enjoyment. This means that you can indulge on occasion in those treats that you love most without sacrificing all your dieting efforts in the process. These snack packs have become one of the best marketing ploys since the invention of diet colas. We all want the benefits of losing weight and will readily admit that if it were a simple process we’d all be thin. However, having something like these hundred calorie snack packs to carry you through the worst of your cravings can mean the difference between dieting success and failure. They are definitely the difference in the old way of dieting and the new way of dieting without sacrificing flavor.

So many people view dieting as some sort of cosmic punishment for not having the perfect body. They believe that enjoying food is somehow bad for them, which couldn’t be further from the truth. If you want to be completely honest with yourself, when it comes to dieting, it isn’t about giving up food or flavor; it’s about discovering new foods and flavors. At least that is what it is for those who truly love food as well as adventure.

There are many spices out there that can make even the blandest of foods a little exciting. Fish and chicken are popular diet foods because they are lean meats. However, adding a little blackening seasoning is a great way to put a little punch in your meal that will make it taste great without packing on the calories of dressing marinades or soaking in butter before broiling. You do not have to stop there. Italian seasoning can also add a little flavor to your kitchen without adding the extra calories that you are working so hard to avoid.