Five Common Diet Tips That Really Work

Losing weight is a national preoccupation. I challenge anyone to turn on the television or radio, surf online or open a magazine without finding an advertisement for a weight loss product or an endorsement for a new diet or eating plan. Everyone wants to be healthy and look their best, and for possibly the first time in the last half century, those two things happen to coincide.

The current ideal of beauty is far closer to what's attainable by a 'real' person than it has been in decades. Thanks to the recent popularity of actresses and singers who aren’t rail thin, coat hangers are out and healthy muscles and curves are in.

If you've been working toward that comfortable ideal body weight, chances are that you've read the same diet and weight loss tips time and time again. In some cases, it's because someone said it and it got repeated endlessly. In others, though, it's because the tip really works. Here are five of the most common diet tips that really work - and why.

Tip #1

Drink a full eight ounce glass of water 20 minutes before each meal. It's only partly because you trick your body into thinking that it's full. The real trick is in giving your body all the water that it needs. The usual recommendation is at least an 8 oz glasses of water a day. That's WATER - not soft drinks, not coffee. Just pure water. Your body needs water to maintain all its systems and to flush wastes away.

When you don't take in enough water, it starts trying to conserve it by retaining water in muscle and fat tissues. Water your body as faithfully as you would a plant, and you'll find that it starts ridding itself of excess water regularly as well. Is it just water weight? Well, yes. But that water weight is weight you don't have to carry around with you as long as you're taking in enough water for your body's needs.

Tip #2

Eat your fruits and veggies raw. Aside from the fact that raw fruits and vegetables pack more nutrition per calorie, in many cases you're actually getting LESS calories when you eat your produce raw. Especially if you generally opt for canned fruits or vegetables, there are added preservatives and flavorings that can increase calories substantially.

But there's another reason as well: your body works harder to digest raw fruits and vegetables, and that means that it uses more calories in getting all the nutrients out of it. Your body NEEDS the extra roughage present in fruit and vegetables that haven't been cooked and processed to keep it working right.

Tip #3

Eat a balanced diet. It's obviously more healthy, but will it help you lose weight? The answer is yes, and here's why. When your body lacks ANY nutrient in its daily intake, it tries to make up the difference by substituting other nutrients. The result can be false messages that you're hungry, when what your body really craves is enough of ONE particular nutrient. Eating a balanced diet provides all the nutrients your body needs in the proper proportions so that it isn't telling you it's starving.

Tip #4

Half an hour of moderate exercise five times a week. Your body uses the food it eats to produce energy for your daily activities. The more energy you use, the more of your food your body will use to fuel it. When you eat fewer calories than your body needs, it will turn to stored reserves to keep it going.

Adding one half hour of moderate exercise to your daily routine five times a week increases your body's consumption of energy. But there's more. Your body is using up calories even when you're not exercising just to maintain circulation and health in its tissues. It uses up more calories maintaining muscles than fat. As you exercise, your body is converting fat to muscle -- resulting in a higher metabolic rate as it increases its activity to keep your muscles in tone.

Tip #5

Snack between meals. Our bodies were never designed for the 3-times-a-day eating schedule we've adopted. They work round the clock, and need energy all the time. Rather than eating all your calories in three sittings, spread them out over 5 or 6. The trick is to eat smaller meals - not add more food. You'll keep your digestive system busy, and your body at full energy all day long.

Don't Go It Alone

There's an old story about a child trying to move a heavy stone while his father looks on. The child works and works, but is just not strong enough. Finally, he tells his father, "I can't do it. It's impossible."

His father responds, "Of course you can. You haven't used all the strength you have available to you yet." The little boy answers that he has tried his hardest, and still can't do it, to which the father responds, "You haven't asked me to help you yet."

Sometimes dieting can seem like moving that heavy rock. You struggle and fight, exercise and sweat, but it's so hard to stick to a diet and exercise schedule that you give up. There comes a time to recognize that asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness. Enlisting the aid of friends, family and a good weight loss support group can bolster
your efforts and help you overcome setbacks that threaten to derail your weight loss efforts. Instead of trying to go it alone, try a few of these suggestions to help you stay on track with the help of friends and family.

1. Hook up with an exercise buddy. Making a date and a commitment to help support someone else's efforts will help you stick to yours as well. Think you don't know anyone you can exercise with? You might be surprised. Several years ago, I was commiserating with an online friend about another failed effort to lose weight when she proposed a novel idea. We each got a cell phone with the same calling plan, and every afternoon at 2, we 'met' for a walk. She did her walking in Seattle, and I did mine in Boston - but by keeping each other company, we helped each other lose 25 pounds each, and cemented a friendship that will last a lifetime.

2. Get your family on the right page. Husbands, wives, children and siblings can offer support in unexpected ways. Something as simple as a sincere compliment at the right time can be all you need to nudge you onward. By the same token, refuse to let them sabotage your diet efforts. When you recognize it, point it out but keep in mind that they probably don't think of it as 'sabotage'. If your husband habitually brings you a bowl of ice cream when he gets one for himself, for instance, he probably thinks he's expressing his love. Let him know that you appreciate it, but you'd rather have a kiss than ice cream anytime.

3. Join a weight loss group like Weight Watchers. There's a lot to be said for seeking out the support of others who are fighting the same battle you are. Whatever it is that motivates you, you can find it in a weight loss support group. Healthy competition, companionship, encouragement, applause and practical, common sense advice from others who are also fighting to take off pounds can all make reforming your eating habits considerably easier.

Do Not Fall For These Weight Loss Gimmicks

Have you heard about the new weight loss patch? You wear it behind your ear, and it speeds up your metabolism and helps you control your appetite. It sounds pretty reasonable, doesn't it? After all, if someone had told you five years ago that you could quit smoking by sticking a circle of fabric on your skin would you have believed them?

Unfortunately, this one isn't true. According to Dr. Michael Myers, who maintains the popular web site weight.com, it's just another of the hoaxes that clever promoters are using to bilk you out of your money. Weight loss is a gold mine, and unscrupulous operators will use any gimmick to convince you that their product is the magic cure that will melt away your pounds without any effort on your part.

Here are a few of the current weight loss gimmicks and the truth about them.

The Diet Patch

Transdermal delivery of medication is a reality, and there are certain medications that are absorbed readily through the skin. However, the most common active ingredient used in diet patches on the market is 'fucus vesiculosus', a seaweed that is a major source of iodine. Iodine was once a recommended treatment for obesity, because it helps promote healthy thyroid function. It was abandoned because of side effects and the untoward effects when treatment with iodine ceases. In other words, it's an outdated medication being revived for delivery in a new way.

Wash your fat away with slimming soap!

The claim is that this is an ancient Chinese soap that contains a unique blend of ingredients derived from seaweed which will 'emulsify' the fat. Further, it comes in several different versions, including one that is specifically meant to give you 'beautiful thighs'. In all truth, the ingredients sound like they'd do a lovely job of softening and toning your skin, but there's not an ounce of research quoted anywhere that can be checked for the results. Until I see the proof, I'll just figure that any weight loss resulted from vigorous scrubbing - not the ingredients!

Magnetic Weight Loss... earrings

Yes, earrings. According to the press, it's another ancient Chinese Secret that has to do with balancing the magnetism in the body. By wearing a magnet near the ear, you can suppress hunger, increase metabolism, speed up the healing process and reduce pain. Again, though there's mention of 'studies', none are cited, and I couldn't find any in any medical journals. It won't kill you, at least, and the earrings are pretty, but I wouldn't put much stock in their weight loss properties.

All of these new weight loss discoveries should be filed in the “Yeah right” file, right next to sauna wraps, copper bracelets, and electro-slimming belts. If it sounds too good to be true, remember, it probably is. The only gimmick to weight loss is to eat less and move more!

Helping Your Child Lose Weight

I was a chubby child. My mother, out of love and fear, tried everything to help me lose weight - bribes, threats, punishment, diets, commiseration, even hypnotism and diet pills. I usually lost weight, only to put it back on shortly after she stopped doing whatever she was doing. Her biggest worry was that I'd be unhappy - that I'd be picked on and unpopular, and no one would like me because I was fat. Now that I'm a mother myself, I can completely sympathize with her motives, but these days my concerns about my children's weight are far more serious than a little name-calling.

While the name-calling can be devastating, what's frightening these days is the growing evidence that obesity leads to serious health complications, even in young children. Doctors find that they're diagnosing children as young as ten or eleven years old with conditions that were once the province of middle-aged people. Diabetes, heart conditions, and arthritis - all of these conditions have a clear established connection with obesity, and more and more often, they are being seen BEFORE children reach adulthood. It's enough to scare a mother into the extreme methods that my mother used to try to take the pounds off of me, but there are healthier ways to help your child lose weight.

First: Consult a Doctor

Don't decide on your own that your child needs to lose weight. Many of us have grown up with distorted body images that we pass on to our children. Be sure that you're not seeing your child through your own misconceptions about 'ideals', and let a doctor make the judgment call.

If your doctor agrees that your child is overweight and should take off some pounds, your best bet is to serve up a healthy daily diet within the USDA Food Pyramid Guidelines and encourage daily exercise to help rev up his internal motors. Beyond that, here are tips for helping your child lose weight - while retaining a positive self-image.

* Put EVERYONE on a diet. Seriously. Since the best way for your child to lose weight is to eat a healthy, balanced diet in normal proportions, doesn't it make sense that your entire family will benefit from eating the same way? Your dieting child will feel far less deprived if everyone is eating the same foods.

* Serve an after school snack. It may be tempting to cut out the after school snacks, but the truth is you'll be doing harm rather than good. The human body was never designed for the 'three square meals a day' regimen that has been the norm for decades. A healthy snack in the mid-afternoon will provide fuel for afternoon play and stave off the 'I'm STARVING' feeling that leads to overeating at dinner.

* Shop smart. Leave the cookies and chips on the shelf, and instead grab the low-fat yogurt, fresh fruit and fruit cups, sugar free applesauce and other natural treats. If you make healthy snacks available and unhealthy ones hard to find, you'll keep temptation out of the way.

* Exercise with them regularly. Instead of just shooing them out to play - or taking away the Game boy, go out WITH them. Pull together a neighborhood kickball game, or take a walk around the block as a family. If you can get a family membership to a health club with a pool, make a family swim a once-a-week event. It's more than setting an example - it's having fun with your kids.

* Cook JUST enough food. Instead of trying to limit portions on the plate, limit them BEFORE you cook. Only prepare ONE portion per family member. That heads off requests for seconds before they even start asking. No, you can't have the last piece of chicken -- because there isn't one to have.

Follow those five suggestions, and chances are that no one in your family will even realize that someone is on a diet. And everyone will be healthier and happier.

How Much Weight Should You Gain During Pregnancy

If you're pregnant, you're very likely concerned about the amount of weight you're gaining, the effect it has on your body, even how difficult it will be to take off after your pregnancy. Your OB/GYN or midwife is your best source of advice about healthy weight gain during pregnancy, but there are general guidelines.

Depending on your weight at the start of your pregnancy, your doctor may tell you that a healthy weight gain for you is anywhere between 15 and 40 pounds. If you're underweight to start (a BMI of less than 18.5), 25 to 40 pounds is a reasonable weight gain during pregnancy. If you're overweight, he or she may suggest you stick closer to 15 to 25 pounds. Of that weight, 6 to 8 pounds of it is the baby.

The rest is amniotic fluid, extra tissue and blood to nourish the baby (including the placenta), and the increased size of your breasts and placenta. You'll lose as much as 15 pounds of it WITH the birth (amniotic fluid, placenta and baby).

Any doctor will tell you that pregnancy is NOT the time to go on a diet. Your body AND your baby need the nutrients of an adequate, balanced diet to keep you both healthy. This doesn't mean that you should throw all your restraint to the winds and 'eat for two', though.

Your body needs approximately an extra 300 calories a day to build a healthy baby. Those 300 calories should come from the same healthy variety of foods that your normal diet gives you. (You were eating a healthy, balanced diet, weren't you? If not, pregnancy is a great time to start.)

You can expect to gain weight along a fairly predictable pattern. In the first three months, you'll gain 2-4 pounds altogether. During the second trimester, you can expect to gain between 3-4 pounds a month (about a pound per week). During the last three months, you'll gain an additional 8-10 pounds. Your doctor or midwife will weigh you regularly, and may express concern over a deviation from this pattern. A sudden sharp weight gain, for instance, can indicate pre-eclampsia or gestational diabetes.

If your doctor advises you to try to limit your weight gain during your pregnancy, be sure to choose a healthy diet that provides all the necessary daily requirements for vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Remember that a 'diet' during pregnancy isn't meant to help you LOSE weight, but rather to limit the amount of weight gained.

Regular exercise is also good for both you and your baby. You can maintain most of your daily activities, and if regular workouts were a part of your daily routine, then by all means keep them up. You'll feel better, and your body will be less likely to protest the extra weight with aches and pains.

Do keep in mind that exercise during pregnancy shouldn't be overly strenuous, and that you should avoid activities with a risk of falling or injury. Also remember that your center of balance is different - it may feel awkward to do the things you usually do while you're carrying your little bundle of joy.

For specifics with regard to your own situation, speak with your doctor or midwife. If you're concerned about gaining weight, or feel that you're gaining too much, you can ask for a consultation with a nutritionist to help you design a healthy eating plan that will make sure the baby is well-nourished, and your concerns about your weight are met.