Everyone knows the popular saying “burn more calories than you eat” to lose weight. But does anyone really understand what it means? I’ll try to explain it for you. There are 3,500 calories in one pound so if you want to lose one pound per week (which is considered by many experts to be a safe amount) you need to consume 3,500 less calories less then you eat or you can burn it by exercising.

Let’s say you eat 2,000 calories a day. If you reduce your daily caloric intake by 500 calories a day (or about 167 calories per meal if you eat 3 meals per day), you will have reduced your caloric intake by 3,500 calories or one pound for the week. If one pound per week isn’t enough for you or you don’t want to reduce your caloric intake so much than the other option is to exercise along with your new diet.

There are many different forms of exercising but one of the most efficient methods of burning calories is good old fashion running. On average you can burn 100 calories per mile run. So if you run 3 miles 5 times a week you can burn another 1,500 which is about another half pound per week.

It can be difficult to stay motivated to continue your running program so if you can afford it is best to make your workout program as convenient as possible with an electric treadmill or a GPS watch. With an electric treadmill you can continue on your workout program rain or shine and you can do it while you watch your favorite television programs. For those who can not afford a treadmill a running watch is a good alternative which will help you track the amount of calories burnt and miles traveled.

Blending healthy and tasty smoothies is a great way to have something that tastes good and is good for you. Using fresh fruit and vegetables to create the perfect smoothie is one of the best ways to lose weight. You can add your vitamin supplements to a breakfast smoothie.

When people are trying to lose weight, they often complain that they do not get to eat sweets and other tasty treats. One way to get that sweetness we all crave is through fruit. Fruit is a healthy snack for everyone and everyone loves fruit. That is why it is the key ingredient in a smoothie.

Many different things are added to fruit to create the perfect smoothie. Not only do we need to add some fruit juice it is also important to add the vegetables. This is a great way to get your kids to eat their vegetables. Hiding vegetables in a smoothie is one of the main reasons they are so popular. Yogurt can also be added to give the smoothie some thickness.

A number of different manufactures build smoothie blenders but there is one name that everyone knows, the Magic Bullet. The Magic Bullet is popular because it was advertised on TV across the country. It is well known because it is one of the many infomercials that everyone is familiar with due to the amount of advertising it received.

The Magic Bullet was a popular gift item at Christmas and is known for its quality. It is a top of the line machine and it is one of the more expensive ones as well. The Magic Bullet was designed so that you could make a smoothie and the cup you make it in is the same cup you drink out of without the need to transfer.

Other less expensive mini blenders can be found at the local Wal-Mart. If you are looking for a mini blender that is considered middle of the road then you want the Cuisinart. Cuisinart is a well known brand name; they have a mini blender that is in the form of a stick, which allows you to blend your smoothie in the glass you are going to use.

Though they may not be magic cures green tea’s do have some scientific studies to back up that they aid weight loss and have many wide ranging health benefits. Recently in the USA there have been countless clinical trials and studies into the benefits of tea consumption, especially in loose leaf teas. These teas have been shown to aid slimming, block allergens, increase the metabolism and protect drinkers from Parkinson’s disease. Research from scientists in Japan came to the conclusion that if a person was drinking five cups of green tea a day they would burn off an extra 70-80 calories each day through a process called thermo genesis – the process of organisms generating heat. While most of the thermo genesis in teas comes from the caffeine, studies suggest that in green teas it may also be caused by epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).

Slimming teas such as green tea and wu long tea (sometimes written as oolong tea) have long been used by dieters and slimmer’s globally to help them with their weight loss. If you consider the previous fact that loose leaf teas can burn off 70-80 extra calories per day if a person changed nothing about their lifestyle over a 43 day period, the only thing they did differently was drink 5 cups of tea per day then over that time period they would lose 1 pound in weight. It doesn’t sound like a lot but for doing nothing but drinking 5 cups a day it is actually a pretty impressive weight loss. So if you drink a lot of alcohol and it’s causing you to stick at an unhealthy weight, if you could stop drinking the alcohol and switch over to green tea, you would very likely experience even more weight loss.

Because of this small but excellent loss that really takes nothing to implement, millions of people across the world now drink these teas to help slimming and lose weight. They have been proven to really work and to be an excellent weapon in any dieter’s arsenal. So if a small but steady weight loss as a little boost is something you are looking for, why not try drinking one of the thousands of green teas out there?

When you only eat a few times a day your body has to contend with not having food for a number of hours at a time. A lot of people end up getting hungry in between meals and eating snacks, which can be okay if done right, but can wind up causing you to overeat if you are not careful about what you snack on. Also, if your body has long periods without food it tends to store more fat. The answer is to eat more often.

1. Buy Healthy Foods

If you are going to make an effort to eat more often, you need to make sure that you have healthy food options to choose from. You don’t want to eat the same old unhealthy junk or you will not lose weight. Stock up on things like whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and soups. There are a lot of resources available for free on the internet that list the healthiest foods, these are a great start for your grocery list the next time you go shopping.

2. Make a Plan

The easiest way to start eating more meals (and healthier meals) is to write down what you plan to eat for each meal and use this to make your grocery list. This way you know what you should eat and when, and you will have all of the necessary ingredients. Stick to your list and your plan.

3. Eat Every Three Hours

When you are first getting used to this new way of eating, it might be a good idea to set your phone or your watch to remind you when it is time to eat. Eventually your body will get used to the new schedule and so will you and it will be easy to remember to eat on your own.

4. Don’t Eat Outside of Your Five Meal Plan

Eating five smaller meals (with the same total calories as the three meals you used to eat or fewer) should give your body plenty of fuel. Don’t eat anything outside of your meals. Get rid of all the tempting but not so healthy cookies and crackers and things you used to snack on between meals.

5. Keep Your Eating and Drinking Separate

You will feel fuller sooner if you don’t drink beverages with your meals. Drink some water or some tea a bit before you eat, and then a short while afterwards.

The main problem with the term low carb is that people think there is no middle ground. Either you are following a diet based on an extremely low carbohydrate count, like the Atkins diet, or you don’t worry about the amount of carbohydrate grams you intake. As usual, both ends of the spectrum are wrong and finding a middle ground is the way to go.

Have you wondered why the rates of obesity and diabetes have skyrocketed in the last few years? Many doctors now believe it is because of our reliance on carbohydrates as a mainstay of our fast food culture. The fact is, loading a meal with simple carbs is cheap for the restaurant and yet gives a very tasty meal. It is no wonder that almost every meal is based on lots of cheap carbohydrate rich foods with very little protein and fresh fruits and vegetables. These carb rich foods are high in calories and high in simple sugars both of which cause unhealthy conditions in our bodies. The calories cause obesity and the simple sugars are easily converted to blood sugar in our digestive systems which overworks our insulin response. This eventually causes an inability of our pancreas to produce the insulin needed to stay off diabetes.

There also appears to be evidence indicating massive carb loading can actually alter brain chemicals and cause an addiction tendency in some people. The more carbohydrates we eat the more we crave and it becomes a viscous circle causing weight gain and obesity. This is another good reason to eat low carb meals instead of loading up on white bread, potatoes and pasta.

So the question is for a slimmer body can you eat carbohydrates? The answer is yes but, as is usually the case, you need to consume them in moderation. If you eat a diet rich in lean protein such as chicken, fish, and lean beef, along with fruits, vegetables, and complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, you will slim your body down. This diet does two things, it naturally lowers your calorie count and it allows your insulin reaction to be more balanced. Add some moderate exercise and you have a prescription for life long health.

One of the reasons that diets don’t work is that many people eat “diet” foods. They choose foods that they may not like very much just because they hold the promise of weight loss. When you change your eating habits for weight loss, you must find foods that you enjoy eating and eat the proper portion sizes. To have a healthy lifestyle for the rest of your life you must continue eating the proper amount of healthful foods.

Another reason diets don’t work is that we usually associate the word “diet” with punishing ourselves. We’ve been eating badly so now we have to be punished by eating healthy foods. Or we may think of dieting as depriving ourselves of all of the yummy treats that we desire. We may even feel isolated and alone. All of your friends are able to eat cake at the party and you can’t. Eventually, we give in to the temptations.

Diets slow down your metabolism. When you drastically change your eating habits or eat too few calories, your body will burn less calories in normal daily functions to preserve energy. When you diet and don’t add exercise your body will be burning muscle as well as fat, and then your metabolism will slow even further with the loss of the lean muscle. Once you are done with your diet your metabolism will be extremely sluggish and then as you begin to eat the fattier foods you will gain your weight back within a few weeks. You want to eat in a way that boosts your metabolism, not slow it down.

There are even so many more reasons why diets don’t work than just these, but the bottom line is that dieting is just not going to give you the long term forever weight loss that most people desire. In order to achieve long term weight loss, you must get active every day for 30-60 minutes, as well as eat foods that are nutritionally sound in the proper portion sizes each day. If you do this, then over time you will lose weight gradually and keep it off.

The common component in many of the fad diets that lead to the yo yo dieting effect is reduced calories throughout the day. This does not really teach people how to eat sensibly and maintain a healthy diet. When lean muscle mass is built up, that muscle is much more effective at burning calories throughout the day than fat is. Another common trend for these quick diet plans is to have people gain back weight that they have lost because their bodies need more calories and they end up binge eating because they have essentially starved themselves for a few weeks. This up and down weight gain and loss is where the yo yo effect gets its name from.

Many of the fad diets also start out with a period of time where people essentially fast and don’t eat any of the foods they would typically eat. The body doesn’t respond well to this treatment and will start to store fat as a way to protect against losing too much. This can be extremely frustrating for people and can lead them to take further drastic steps in their quest to lose more weight. This frustration can again lead to the pattern of yo yo dieting. The mental toll that this type of dieting can take can lead people to have lower self esteem and eating issues. Fatigue, increased stress levels and depression are also common symptoms of this type of dieting.

It has been proven over and over that yo yo dieting is harmful to the body, but because there is such an emphasis on looks in our society, people continue to hurt themselves with these fad diets. People can become so obsessed with losing weight that it can begin to affect their work and home life because it is all they can focus on. It is much more important to learn the right way to lose weight. Some very simple tips are these: consume enough energy each day to burn fat (this can be done through vigorous cardiovascular exercise), eat the right foods to maintain lean muscle mass, and set a plan to make these things long term habits.

While spices aren’t technically foods, they help your body metabolize more efficiently. Ginger expands blood vessels and increases body heat, which in turn boosts metabolism. Garlic speeds up your metabolism as well, and keeps insulin levels low, thus helping your body burn fat. Cayenne pepper and chili pepper work the same way as garlic: they trigger a thermodynamic burn that speeds up your metabolism, and that lasts for a few hours after you eat. Cinnamon helps your body metabolise sugar, lowering your blood sugar levels.

Next, stop by the fresh fruit section. Citrus fruits contain high levels of vitamin C, and as we know, Vitamin C helps dilute fat so that it can more easily exit the body. It also increases your metabolism. Apples and berries are also amazing fat burning foods, because they contain high amounts of pectin, which hinders your body’s ability to absorb fat.

And last but not least, a stop at the dairy and meat case. Pick up some fresh salmon, tuna, or mackerel, which all contain essential fatty acids. These lower leptin levels, and high leptin levels are associated with slower metabolisms and obesity. From the dairy case pick up some low fat dairy foods that are high in calcium and protein, which both help maintain muscle and burn fat.

A quick stop to your local grocery store to pick up a supply of “super foods” will quickly get you on your way to finding a new you.