[sociable/]Being overtired can make you fat — that’s the latest finding from a study on sleep deprivation and weight.

Lack of sleep creates a hormone imbalance which serves to increase the appetite and encourage you to put on weight. Even partial sleep deprivation can play a part in weight gain, say researchers.

The good news is that the opposite is also true: a good night’s sleep could have a significant impact on the fight against obesity.

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University in the U.S. discovered that a quarter of Americans get less than six hours sleep each night – which may go some way to explaining why a third of Americans are now considered to be obese.

While current weight loss recommendations focus on promoting exercise and changing diet, improving an individual’s sleep patterns could help significantly, says Sharon Nickols-Richardson, professor of nutrition.

She says: “Various investigations, although diverse, indicate an effect of partial sleep deprivation on body weight management. The intriguing relationship between partial sleep deprivation and excess adiposity (body fat) makes partial sleep deprivation a factor of interest in body weight regulation, particularly in weight loss.”

The researchers reviewed research papers from the past 15 years and created comparative tables on a series of factors such as energy intake, energy expenditure, hormone measurements and more in order to identify any patterns.

They discovered an increase in hormone ghrelin and a decrease in hormone leptin among partially sleep deprived people; these two hormones help to influence energy intake.

Prof Nickols-Richardson added: “Changes in these hormones coinciding with an energy-reduced diet paired with changes in response to partial sleep deprivation may be expected to increase ghrelin and decrease leptin concentrations even further to promote hunger.”

The obesity crisis is not going away and experts have warned that more than a THIRD of all women in England and nearly HALF of all men will be obese within the next 30 years.

The portent, made by experts at the European Congress on Obesity, used current weight rises to predict the future. In 1993, for instance, only 10 per cent of men between 18 and 40 were obese. Now that figure has doubled.

Following the same logic, and assuming the obesity issue isn’t dealt with before then, 40 per cent of men will be obese by 2030, increasing to 45 per cent a decade later. That would represent a 350 per cent rise in nearly 50 years.

Women too will be getting bigger. Just like their male counterparts, female weight has also been steadily increasing in recent years. Just 12 per cent were considered obese in 1993; today, 21 per cent of English women between 18 and 40 have earned the dubious title.

As such, it is estimated that 33 per cent will be obese by 2030, rising to 40 per cent by 2040.

The figures look even worse when you predict obesity in the older population, with more than half of all women between 40 and 100 being predicted as obese by 2040. For men, the figure rises to a staggering 60 per cent.

Experts warn that the cost of treating obesity-related illnesses such as diabetes, stroke, cancer and heart disease will rise dramatically in the next two decades if the predictions come true. If the warning comes to fruition, for instance, approximately two thirds of men and women will end up suffering from type 2 diabetes.

The bill for treating these illnesses could reach £320 billion.

Researcher Tim Marsh of the National Heart Forum, pointed out that obesity-related illnesses are entirely preventable.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said: “Whilst there are going to be inevitable health care costs as the consequences of an ageing population – wear and tear that we can’t do much to prevent – this is entirely preventable.

“You need to change the environment so healthy food is more available, also better food labelling and healthier food in schools. Jamie Oliver is absolutely right – habits created in schools not only have an impact in the future, but they can impact on the family as well. If children are prepared to eat healthier food, that tends to affect shopping habits.

“Investing in school food is costly, undoubtedly, but it can be shown to be a good investment. Often people are just looking for quick returns on their investment but we are not going to get that. We have to look at the longer term, over the life course, particularly with politicians.

“It is not even going to be in their lifetime because 40 or 50 years away they are going to be dead, or beyond caring.”

The recent 20p VAT hike on hot takeaway food sparked the ‘pastygate’ controversy.

But if one health expert gets his way, ALL unhealthy food would be subject to a tax.

Dr Mike Rayner, from the Oxford University Department of Public Health, wants an ‘obesity tax’ added to chocolate, fizzy drinks, pasties and more.

We are in the grip of an obesity epidemic,” he told the BBC. “We as a nation are eating too many calories.

“We use taxes to discourage drinking and smoking. It raises lots of money for the treasury and prevented people from dying too early. There is now a lot of evidence that manipulating food prices could promote healthy eating.”

He believes something must be done to tackle the one in four British adults who now suffer from obesity or from being overweight, costing the NHS £5 billion each year.

Talking about the already unpopular 20p VAT rise on hot takeaway food, he stresses that the idea is ‘muddled’ and he cannot see the logic in a levy which doesn’t tackle unhealthy food such as cold sausage rolls and doughnuts, for instance.

Dr Rayner prefers a method where all unhealthy food is taxed – and taxed significantly.

Unlike France for instance, where a ‘fat tax’ adds just two euro cents to a can of cola, Dr Rayner’s suggestions would see the price of cola rise by 12p per can. He claims it would have the potential to save 2,000 lives a year, and reduce obesity cases by 400,000 each year.

Dr Rayner said: “I don’t care whether it is hot or cold, whether we get it from a shop or takeaway, what I want is a tax on all unhealthy food from butter to biscuits.

“That way we will be tackling a problem that will only go on expanding otherwise.”

Should politicians agree to take his advice, the UK would follow in the footsteps of other countries such as France and Denmark. The latter has a ‘fat tax’ on products which are high in saturated fat.

Dr Rayner stresses the system in the UK, however, would need to be more refined, particularly because many low-fat foods in Britain are also very high in salt and therefore still unhealthy.

It’s official… losing weight is not rocket science.

The tried and tested method of exercising more and eating less fat is the most effective way of losing weight, leading the way over fad diets or the latest dietary craze, says a new study.

Harvard Medical School, which carried out the research, looked at data from 4,000 obese men and women, 2,523 of whom wanted to lose weight, and concluded that those joining a structured weight loss programme were more successful at losing weight.

In contrast, the use of “popular diets, liquid diets, non-prescription weight loss pills and diet foods/products” failed to be associated with weight loss.

Of those people trying to lose weight, 40% lost 5 per cent or more of their weight, while a fifth lost a tenth of their weight or more over a 12 month period. All had a BMI of 30 or over beforehand.

The study’s findings reiterate what many dieticians always say: eat less and exercise more.

Dr Jacinda Nicklas said: “This is great news because studies have shown that even a 5% reduction in weight can lead to improved health. Those who exercised more and ate less fat were significantly more likely to lose weight.”

Co-author, Dr Christina Wee, from Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in the U.S., said: “It’s very encouraging to find that most of the weight loss methods associated with success are accessible and inexpensive.

“There are lots of fad diets out there as well as expensive over-the-counter medications that have not necessarily been proven to be effective.” She urged potential dieters to discuss diet options with their doctor.

We’ve all heard that not getting enough sleep could hamper your efforts to lose weight or even make you gain weight.

Now researchers have put a figure on it – getting less than five-and-a-half hours of sleep each night could see you put on nearly a stone in one year. That extra weight is likely to creep on even if your diet and activity levels remain exactly the same.

The changes in your body’s metabolism as a result of lack of sleep are responsible for the change, and could go some way to explaining why people get larger as they get older and struggle to sleep. Night shift workers who have problems sleeping during the day are also likely to be overweight.

During the study, volunteers’ sleeping habits were watched and influenced for six weeks. Participants were first allowed 10 hours of sleep each night, before this was reduced to five-and-a-half hours during the day.

The researchers from Boston in the U.S. discovered that the metabolism rate dropped by 12% when lacking sleep; this rate is the standard needed to continue the body’s normal functions.

When the rate falls, the body uses fewer calories to maintain bodily functions, meaning less fat is burned. The volunteers sleeping for just five-and-a-half hours on average burned off 120 calories fewer each day. Over a year, this would lead them to put on just under a stone (12.5 pounds).

Night shift workers are also more prone to diabetes and obesity as a result of the shift in body clock which means they struggle to sleep during the day.

Study author Dr Orfeu Buxton said: “Since night workers often have a hard time sleeping during the day, they can face both circadian disruption working at night and insufficient sleep during the day.

“Getting enough sleep is important for health, and sleep should be at night for best effect.”

If you don’t like what you see in the mirror, it’s possible to avoid it; if you don’t like what you see on Facebook, however, it’s much harder to ignore.

That’s because Facebook has become a factor in the development of eating disorders and body unhappiness. The social network is fuelling our obsession with weight, says the Centre for Eating Disorders in Maryland, U.S.

Worried about unflattering pictures appearing on Facebook, half of 600 survey participants questioned admitted Facebook made them more self-conscious about their figures and weight. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, men were the ones who suffered the most.

While three-quarters of the women questioned admitted they wanted to lose weight, compared to 58% of men, men were more likely to talk about their body issues. Forty per cent had even posted about their unhappy body image on Facebook (compared to only a fifth of women).

The problem is that it is becoming impossible to avoid Facebook as it becomes more popular and part of our daily life; likewise, the site’s new Timeline format allows us to see how our bodies have changed over time – often far from positively – at a glance.

“People are now constantly aware of their appearance, thanks to Facebook,” said associate director of the eating disorders clinic, Steven Crawford. “A common reaction is, ‘I need to be thinner’ and it’s that kind of thinking that can lead to hazardous dieting.”

The idea of being captured on photo and immortalised on Facebook – inevitably to be compared to slimmer friends or a slimmer previous you – is also causing anxiety, says Crawford; people are even missing out on important events because they don’t think they look good enough.

“Facebook is fuelling a “camera-ready” mentality,” he said. “People look at photos before an upcoming high school reunion and decide not to go.”

Perhaps the most poignant fact is that nearly a third of people feel ‘sad’ when comparing themselves to friends in photos on Facebook, with almost half (44%) wishing they had the same figure as one of their Facebook friends.

The only solution should things get too bad, says the centre, is to log off the site altogether and work on developing a healthy perspective about your weight, thus avoiding fad diets or more sinister eating problems.

Choosing the right diet can be tricky.

By the time a woman reaches 45, she will have been on an average of 61 diets.

So says a recent survey, which reveals that the number of diets equates to about two a year from the age of 16.

The survey highlights the worrying use of dangerous fad diets by women desperate to shift the pounds. A poll of 2,000 British men and women revealed that while more than three-quarters had started a diet in the past year, it was the women who would attempt the widest array of diets.

The survey shows that the obsession with food has already spread to our children as well. Six out of 10 people questioned revealed they had been asked by their child to cut out bread, fruit and potatoes from the child’s diet.

The survey, on behalf of bread company Warburton’s, reveals a worrying lack of nutritional knowledge. Eighty five per cent of people surveyed didn’t even know that calcium was important to their diet, with half not knowing that it was found in white bread.

Of course, most dieticians would recommend people switch to whole meal breads as opposed to white, but it does throw up the obvious concern that women are deliberately cutting out calcium as part of their low calorie diet obsession.

The mineral, which can also be found in dairy products, fish and leafy vegetables, helps bones to develop and stay strong. The recommended daily allowance for an adult is 700mg, which rises to 1,000mg for pregnant women or women over 40 who are at risk of osteoporosis.

TV doctor Hilary Jones comments: “An average of 61 diets over an adult lifetime could mean an awful lot of people have cut a significant amount of calcium out of their diet over the years especially if they’ve been avoiding calcium-rich food groups on a regular basis.

“It seems the British obsession with dieting could be having a detrimental effect on our nutritional intake, as many people lose sight of what constitutes a healthy balanced diet.

“All breads contribute a range of essential nutrients from protein and calcium to iron and B group vitamins.”

Research potential diets to find the right, safe one for you at slimmingresources.com.

If you struggle with emotional eating, you may need to adjust your stress levels at work – or get a new job.

That’s because women who report work burnout are more likely to eat for emotional reasons – eating when stressed, anxious or upset, rather than when hungry – and are also prone to uncontrolled eating, where they can’t stop until the food is gone.

So says a study by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, which also says the same applies to women who are fed up at work.

“Those experiencing burnout may be more vulnerable to emotional eating and uncontrolled eating and have a hindered ability to make changes in their eating behaviour,” said Nina Nevanpera from the Institute.

“We recommend that burnout should be treated first and that burnout and eating behaviour should be evaluated in obesity treatment.”

During the study, 22 per cent of the 230 women involved, all of whom were employed, reported some level of work burnout. This group scored higher for emotional and uncontrolled eating.

On top of that, they didn’t tend to cut down on their eating during the year as their non-burnout counterparts naturally did.

There was no correlation with actual weight seen in the study, however, though the researchers point out that emotional eating is a risk factor for weight gain in the future. Nevanpera also pointed out that health could also be a factor as stressed women were more likely to choose chocolate over an apple when it came to an emotionally-led snack.

Experts agree that stressful triggers such as work or personal issues in a person’s life may make it difficult for them to lose weight.

Professor Sherry Pagoto, from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, who was not involved in the study, said: “Work permeates our lives. People may be in a job where they’re unhappy, or a marriage where they’re unhappy, and eating can become one of the few pleasures in their lives.”

She stressed that it was important to tackle stress from whatever source, adding that big stress triggers in life typically make it difficult to lose weight and to maintain that weight loss.

She reiterated that emotional eating was not beneficial even if you’re not overweight.

“It’s reinforcing a habit that’s not healthy,” she said.

Bad news for anyone struggling to get enough sleep…

If you’re sleep deprived, you’re likely to eat more food and the extra calories you take in as a result can lead to weight gain and obesity, warn researchers.

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, discovered that a sleep-deprived group of volunteers, who on average slept for an hour and 20 minutes less than a control group, ate an extra 549 calories on average each day.

At the same time, the amount of energy used for daily activities didn’t change significantly between the two groups, suggesting those who slept for less time each night didn’t even burn any additional calories.

The study suggests the importance of a good night’s sleep when trying to stick to a healthy eating regime.

“Sleep deprivation is a growing problem, with 28 per cent of adults now reporting that they get six or fewer hours of sleep per night,” said co-investigator of the study, Andrew D. Calvin, cardiology fellow and assistant professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic.

“We tested whether lack of sleep altered the levels of the hormones leptin and ghrelin, increased the amount of food people ate, and affected energy burned through activity,” added Virend Somers, study author and professor of medicine and cardiovascular disease at the Mayo Clinic.

They found that the participant’s lack of sleep was associated with increased leptin and decreased ghrelin, both of which are connected to appetite.

The researchers point out that while the study would seem to suggest sleep deprivation could be a preventable component of weight gain, the study was too small to provide conclusive proof.

The research involved only 17 healthy men and women and lasted just eight nights.

Scientists have claimed that obesity could be contagious, after a study from Yale University discovered that gut microbes could be to blame for excess weight.

Obesity and liver disease could be triggered by proteins called inflammasomes which can alter microbes in the stomach, say the researchers.

The real discovery came when researchers found that this altered microbe environment could actually be passed on, meaning that being overweight could be infectious.

So far seen only in mice, if it proves true for humans as well it could go some way to explaining why husband and wife pairs seem to put on weight together, or why best friends seem to influence each other’s weight gain.

The report, published in the journal Nature, concentrated on researchers who fed a group of mice bred for fatty liver disease a Western-style high fat diet. Not surprisingly, the mice gained weight. The Yale team says this was due to microbes which changed the bacteria in the stomachs of the mice.

The real discovery came, however, when healthy mice were then housed in the same cage as the mice with fatty liver disease. The new mice also gained weight and got fatty liver disease.

The only explanation was that the altered intestinal environment of the mice was somehow transferred or contagious.

When the mice were given antibiotics to eliminate the stomach microbes, both the liver disease and obesity fell.

Yale Professor of Immunobiology, Richard Flavell, senior author of the study, said: “We could make a mouse fatter just by putting it in the same cage as the other mouse. When healthy mice were co-housed with mice that had altered gut microbes, the healthy mice also developed susceptibility for development of liver disease and obesity.”

The results suggest that bacteria may be just as important as diet in encouraging obesity.

Flavell conceded that there was still a great deal of research needed but said that examining whether obesity could be contagious in humans was the next step.

He added: “We found, in mice, that targeted antibiotic treatment brought the microbial composition back to normal, and thus eased the liver disease.  Our hope is that our findings may eventually lead to a treatment for humans.”

Private slimming clinics have been discovered handing out potentially dangerous weight loss drugs.

Two of the pills being doled out by private clinics in England are phentermine and diethylpropion, comparable to amphetamines. Both were outlawed in the UK in the year 2000 amid concerns about heart disease.

The drugs were subsequently reintroduced as a result of legal action from the manufacturer, but have since been shunned on the NHS due to safety concerns. Private doctors are also urged not to provide them.

However, in a worrying discovery that may be putting patients at risk, the Care Quality Commission found six separate clinics giving out the two drugs, without alerting patients to any possible side effects.

Some doctors hadn’t even checked their patients’ blood pressure readings or weight before giving out the tablets, even though phentermine and diethylpropion had previously been associated with heart problems.

In another case, the now shut down Diet Centre in Cambridgeshire allowed an unqualified nurse to dole out slimming pills, while Dr Anthony Adam Schiff in Newbury and New Leaf Health in Leeds were given warning notices.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) also cited ‘major concerns’ with three other clinics, but is worried this is just the tip of the iceberg and that many of the 80 registered private weight loss clinics in England may be handing out potentially dangerous medication as well.

The diet industry is worth £2 billion in England alone, not surprising when you consider that some centres charge monthly fees of £80 and registration costs of £20.

One dieter who suffered side effects as a result of taking slimming pills dispensed by a private clinic complained of insomnia, shortness of breath and palpitations.

Josy Lofthouse, a 52-year-old 5ft mother of two from North London, was given a month’s supply and was only told that they could make her feel depressed.

She told the Daily Mail: “I became hyperactive and a raging insomniac. I learned afterwards that the drugs were amphetamine-based, like those taken illegally by young ravers who want to party all night without getting tired.

“Worst of all, I developed terrifying and constant heart palpitations that I couldn’t control. By the end of the first week on the tablets I’d lost a few pounds, but I was too frightened to continue.”

Mrs Lofthouse, who wanted to go from a size 16 to a size 12, says she lost the weight anyway via a healthy eating and exercise plan.

A spokesman for the CQC said: “We would urge anyone who has concerns about medicines that they’ve been prescribed or information they’ve been given by a slimming clinic to contact their GP – but also to tell CQC.”

A person’s penchant for fatty food may be influenced by their genes, say researchers.

Researchers from several prominent universities in the U.S. say people with particular versions of the CD36 gene may be predisposed to fatty foods more than people with other types of the gene. That’s because researchers believe they may find the taste of fatty foods creamier and more enjoyable than others.

The breakthrough research may explain why some people find it hard to stick to low-fat diets, and may one day help them to select diets that are attainable. The researchers suggest the results may even allow food manufacturers to develop better tasting low-fat foods.

In animals, the CD36 gene is important for the capacity to detect and choose fat. This ability may once have been useful in humans many years ago, but now carries the potential for obesity. The new study is the first one to show its significance in humans.

Kathleen Keller, assistant professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State University, says: “We have demonstrated for the first time that people who have particular forms of the CD36 gene tend to like higher fat foods more and may be at greater risk for obesity compared to those who do not have this form of the gene.”

The researchers studied 317 African-American men and women, identified for their ethnic group’s vulnerability to obesity.

They were all given Italian salad dressings with differing amounts of canola oil, rich in fatty acids. The volunteers were then asked to evaluate the dressings for fat content, creaminess and oiliness. They also collected saliva samples to establish which form of the gene CD36 they had.

The findings show that those with the AA version of the gene – estimated to be 21 per cent of the population – regarded the dressings as ‘creamier’ than their counterparts. A questionnaire asking about their food tastes also revealed they liked oily products, such as cooking oil, olive oil, salad dressings and preferred half cream and half milk (half and half) more than their non AA gene counterparts.

Keller, who worked with scientists from Columbia, Cornell and Rutgers universities, published the study in the Obesity journal.

She added: “It is possible that the CD36 gene is associated with fat intake and therefore obesity through a mechanism of oral fat perception and preference. In other words, our results suggest that people with certain forms of the CD36 gene may find fat creamier and more enjoyable than others. This may increase their risk for obesity and other health problems.

“Our results may help explain why some people have more difficulty adhering to a low-fat diet than other people and why these same people often do better when they adopt high-fat, low-carbohydrate diets such as the Atkins diet.
“We hope these results will one day help people select diets that are easier for them to follow. We also think the results could help food developers create better tasting low-fat foods that appeal to a broader range of the population.”

For decades, women have worried about their appearance and weight and it now seems that men are equally as body conscious.

According to a new survey, four out of five British men are unhappy with their bodies and are concerned about their beer bellies and lack of muscles in particular.

The online study from the University of the West of England (UWE) questioned 384 British men with an average age of 40 and discovered that at least a third of them would trade one year of their life if they were able to get an ideal weight or body shape.

Almost two thirds of men who took the survey – 63 per cent – complained that their stomachs, chests and arms weren’t muscular enough; in a shocking reversal of gender roles, however, a quarter of those wouldn’t go to the gym to exercise because they were too embarrassed by their appearance.

The desire for more muscles may well explain why one in five men was on a high protein diet, and nearly one in three were using protein supplements.

The findings from the UWE’s Centre for Appearance Research also revealed that men now talk to one another about their body issues. Eighty per cent of respondents said they regularly talked about their bodies with male friends.

Dr Phillippa Diedrichs, from the Centre for Appearance Research, nicknamed these male peer discussions as ‘body talk’ and said: “Body talk reinforces the unrealistic beauty ideal which reinforces leanness and muscularity. This is traditionally seen as an issue for women but our research shows that men are feeling the pressure to conform too.”

Central YMCA commissioned the survey and chief executive, Rosi Prescott, added: “Historically conversation about your body has been perceived as something women do, but it is clear from this research that men are also guilty of commenting on one another’s bodies; and in many cases this is having a damaging effect.

“The high levels of body talk that we have found in men are symptomatic of a growing obsession with appearance.”

Experts in eating disorders have since called for men to be included in body image programmes as well as women.

If you want to lose weight, stay away from greedy friends.

That’s the advice from Dutch researchers who say the amount of food you eat is influenced by the people you’re eating it with.

Women who eat with a friend tend to copy their dining companion bite for bite and eat at the same pace, say researchers from the Radboud University in the Netherlands. That means that if you’re eating with someone with a bigger appetite than you, you’ll end up eating more in a bid to match them.

Observed during a study of 70 women volunteers, it was not clear whether this mirroring was intentional or subconscious, say researchers, but it does imply that women in particular tend to imitate other women in an attempt to be liked.

In the study, the volunteers were paired with a female partner, an actress, and their eating habits carefully scrutinised. Each was given the same dinner with water and told to eat what they wanted, but the actress was also secretly instructed to eat a specific amount of food and to not talk about it during the meal.

It was noticed that the women tended to keep pace with one another – even taking a bite of food within five seconds of the other person doing so – perhaps in an effort to ingratiate themselves.

Author of the study, Roel Hermans, says: “If we want to be liked, we imitate more, without being aware of it. In our study, two previously unknown women were interacting with each other, and it is possible that their motive to get along with each other, or their motivation to be liked, might have increased their likelihood of mimicry.

“We found a really strong correlation between how many bites the young women took. When the other person ate a lot they also did, and when the other person ate less, they followed them too.”

The findings build on previous research that claims women use other people as a guide for determining what is appropriate eating.

The women were three times more likely to mirror their eating companion at the beginning of the meeting than later, another indication that they were doing so to build a relationship or win the approval of a new acquaintance.

More research is needed to establish whether this mirroring effect also occurs among friends and family as opposed to a new acquaintance, and whether men are equally as vulnerable.

Previous research examining the latter seems to suggest that while men do copy each other’s eating to a certain extent, they are less likely to be influenced by worries over food-related social norms. When it comes to alcohol, however, it’s a different story, with men more likely to follow the pace of a companion when it comes to drinking.

If we’re honest, we women may admit to telling the odd little untruth about our diets.

Perhaps we inaccurately claim that we always eat five portions of fruit and veg a day, or we say that we only treat ourselves once in a while when, in reality, we allow ourselves an indulgence a little bit (or a lot) more often than that. We may even deny eating those chocolates, crisps, the cake, wine, cheese or bread in order to not be embarrassed in front of our other halves.

The harsh fact of the matter is, however, that while we may think we tell the odd harmless little white lie every now and again, women tell a whopping 474 lies a year about their eating and drinking habits, according to a new survey by Timex – nine lies a week on average. Women even lie to themselves.

The most common falsehood is those immortal words, ‘It was only a small portion’. Other typical fibs include ‘I’ll have a big lunch so I won’t eat much after this’ and the tall tale that we’re only eating the kids’ leftovers. Saying we only drink one glass of wine a day isn’t quite as accurate as we’d perhaps like it to be either.

While many women stretch the truth a little in order to save embarrassment in front of others, it’s not helping us be honest or to keep our weight down.

While it seems women don’t see the lying as problematic, with nearly 63 percent believing food-related lies are harmless, it could actually be responsible for weight problems down the line, according to experts.

Says Dr Cassandra Maximenko: “Studies show that keeping a food diary can double weight loss but it seems that rather than being honest about the food and drink which passes our lips, many women are lying about it, or completely denying it altogether.

“But while this might save them some embarrassment in front of their partner or friends in the short term, it’s not going to help them reach their health and weight loss goals in the future.
By lying to their loved ones, women are also lying to themselves and could easily see their weight creep up.”

She added: “This study proves we live in a nation of denial where image takes a higher priority than honesty and no one wants to be seen eating food they shouldn’t, or even in larger quantities than is socially acceptable.”

If you want to keep the faith with your diet, keep away from food advertising on television or in magazines.

That’s the message from researchers in Germany who have found that simply looking at a picture of tasty food can make you hungry. A picture of tempting food causes a change in the level of hormones that control the appetite; the hormones are so powerful that a photograph can make you want to eat cake even if you just had breakfast two hours ago.

The German researchers theorise that the delicious images may even be part of the reason for Britain’s growing obesity epidemic.

They tested their theory by monitoring the reaction of healthy men to images of food. They showed them pictures of mouth-watering treats and inedible objects and measured their hormone levels in reaction to both. The results revealed that the levels of ghrelin – the hormone which controls appetite – increased when the men saw the food pictures.

Petra Schüssler, author of the study at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, said: “The findings of our study demonstrate, for the first time, that the release of ghrelin into the blood for the regulation of food consumption is also controlled by external factors.
Our brain processes these visual stimuli, and the physical processes that control our perception of appetite are triggered involuntarily.”

The study is the first to prove a link between seeing a simple photograph and changes in appetite; previous studies have, of course, established connections between smelling food or seeing cake in person and an increase in appetite, for instance, but had never examined the impact of a still photograph.

The researchers took their findings even further to suggest that the frequent food photographs seen in Britain could be causing our weight problems.

Said co-author Axel Steiger: “We have proven something scientifically for the first time that people have always known: the mere sight of delicious food stimulates the appetite. Thus, the pervasive presence of appetising food in the media could contribute to weight increase in Western populations.”

Their advice to dieters or anyone wanting to control their weight was to avoid looking at tempting food photographs as much as possible.

They say you can blame your parents for your genes but now new research claims that the trend towards obesity can start before you’re even born.

Experts believe that some of today’s health and weight issues – obesity, diabetes, heart disease – could be a result of a drastic shift in habits in the Fifties and Sixties, which were passed on to today’s generation in the womb.

As women gained independence and changed society for the better, they also lost some of the time-honoured traditions that had stood us well. Women went out to work, bought convenience foods, felt pressure to keep slim despite having babies in quick succession and, in many cases, shunned breastfeeding.

The Fifties and Sixties’ generation also eagerly embraced the early version of junk food – high calorie processed foods – after years of austerity, in many cases passing that love of salt, sugar and fat onto their unborn offspring, who developed lifelong tastes while in the womb.

Young women smoking, spurning breastfeeding and dieting even when pregnant represented a dangerous ‘obesity trinity’, says Melinda Sothern, bestselling diet author and nutrition expert at Louisiana State University.

In particular, she criticises doctors for telling women to gain less than 20lbs during pregnancy – and even to smoke during pregnancy to keep the weight down, common advice in the Fifties and Sixties.

At the same time, fad-diets also took hold in the Fifties and Sixties – something we’ve never managed to free ourselves from to this day.

Helen Bond, from the British Dietetic Association, says: “Before faddy diets, food was just food. Before the rise of processed food, we used to cook from scratch. After that, nutrients began to get missed out of our diets.”

Research from Southampton University seems to demonstrate that a baby’s diet and environment while in the womb can alter its genes. When a foetus is undernourished, for instance, it is forced to prioritise what body parts to grow and concentrate on, often choosing to feed the brain as opposed to liver, kidneys and pancreas — the organs which control blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol in adults.

Studies supported by the British Lung Foundation also show that smoking during pregnancy can contribute to obesity as nicotine disrupts the body’s ability to control appetite, fat storage and metabolic rate.

The third factor in the obesity trinity was the collapse of breastfeeding during the Fifties and Sixties, encouraged by the mass advertising of bottle-feed manufacturers. By 1970, 62% of children were not breastfed at all. Not only is breastfeeding thought to protect from developing allergies, studies show that bottle-fed babies have a higher risk of obesity.

All of these legacies have created unprecedented levels of obesity, heart disease, cancer and diabetes in today’s generations, say the experts.

So what can we do about it?

The key is to be informed and to heed the warning, making the effort to change our own patterns of behaviour and those of our offspring, say the experts. Reject faddy diets, especially when pregnant, and make sure subsequent weight loss is sensible and not crash-dieting.

First, however, we have to tackle our generation’s own unique danger – overeating.

“There are women who become clinically obese because they think they don’t need to bother about calorie consumption when pregnant,’ adds Helen Bond, from the British Dietetic Association. “But women only need to increase their food intake in the last trimester and even then by only 200 calories a day.”

It seems we have a lot of work to do to give our own children and their children a healthy start in life.

The message if we want to tackle the obesity time bomb is “everything in moderation.”

If you’re someone who’s interested in experiencing fast rates of weight loss, chances are high you’re paying particular attention to each morsel of food that passes your lips as well as each exercise that you do during your time at the gym.

You’ve got your diet and workout program nailed down pat and are now just sitting back and waiting for the results to take place.

But, in all this focus on those two elements, have you forgotten a third element that will impact your success?

The third element we’re referring to here is your hormones and these hormones can have a significant influence on the results you see.

Let’s have a look at a few important things to know.

Leptin And Ghrelin

The two biggest hormones that you need to be aware of as they directly related to weight gain or weight loss are leptin and ghrelin. These two hormones are going to work in combination together, monitoring what your current body fat level is and how many calories you’re consuming on a daily basis.

When something is significantly off normal – such as when you start up on a low calorie diet plan, these two hormones start to go on ‘high alert’, signalling to the brain that there’s a miss-match in energy coming in versus energy coming out.

When this occurs, these hormones are going to do everything in their power to stop your weight loss antics because to them, you’re starving.

They don’t realize you just want to fit into your skinny jeans, they think a famine is at play and are out to save you from a tragic ending.

What’s going to happen is Leptin levels will begin to drop while Ghrelin levels begin to rise. This combination is going to cause extreme hunger pains to set in, it’s going to cause you to feel very fatigued and lethargic, and it’s basically going to make following your diet seem like mission impossible.

When these two hormones are working against you, you will be fighting an uphill battle.

Cortisol

The next hormone that’s important to know as it relates to weight loss is cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone and is secreted in your body during times of high stress, dieting being one of those times.

When cortisol levels are high on an ongoing basis, your body will actually start to promote fat accumulation in the abdominal region, thus you may find yourself more prone to gaining excess belly fat.

In addition to this, high cortisol levels can signal your body to start burning up lean muscle mass as fuel, so that will further create problems you just don’t want taking place.

So what’s the solution to these two hormone issues?

The solution to outsmart them is to use a moderate diet plan (no crash diets allowed) and be sure on these diet plans that you take regular diet breaks where you eat a higher calorie intake again.

That will help to offset the hormonal patterns causing these problems and allow them to return to a more healthy and normal level.

Yes, weight loss may be slightly slower, but you can be sure the weight you do lose will stay off and that you will be enjoying the process rather than feeling miserable all day long.

If you’re currently suffering from diabetes, chances are you’re taking a good hard look at all the different things that you can do with your lifestyle and diet to ensure that this isn’t a condition that hinders the lifestyle that you enjoy.

When first finding out that they suffer from diabetes, many people are extremely distraught and often become extremely depressed, thinking it’s going to completely change the way they have to life.

But, this is not the case. Fortunately, there are many ways that you can fight diabetes so that you can lead the normal lifestyle that you love.

One of the best possible methods to fight back is that of weight loss. Let’s look at why weight loss is so imperative if you want to beat diabetes.

Weight Loss Improves Insulin Sensitivity

The very first reason why weight loss will help to beat back against diabetes is that when you move closer to a healthier weight, your body will become more sensitive to insulin, thus you’ll be able to manage and deal with carbohydrate consumption much better.

When you’re packing a high amount of extra fat, the receptor sites that insulin acts upon will not be as sensitive, thus higher overall levels of insulin are required after eating carbohydrate rich foods.

The more weight you lose, the more sensitive your body will become to insulin and thus the less your condition will bother you.

Exercise Increases Your Muscle Glycogen Storage

The second big reason why weight loss can help to fight back against diabetes is because if your weight loss plan includes regular physical activity, you’ll be depleting your muscle glycogen stores on a regular basis.

Your muscle glycogen stores are where the body will store excess carbohydrates consumed and are located right within the muscle cells.

When these stores are depleted, then upon eating high carbohydrate rich foods, the body will immediately begin sucking up that blood glucose and transporting it to the muscles for storage.

This means less glucose is going to sit around in your blood, causing the problems that diabetics often deal with. Performing regular exercise is often one of the top treatment methods that diabetics are supposed to get involved with after learning that they suffer from this condition but if your exercise program also means that you’re going to be also following a healthy diet to promote weight loss, you’ll be even better off yet.

So all in all, for the best diabetes care and treatment, do not discount the role that weight loss will play. Simply put, if you’re overweight and suffering from diabetes, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain from shedding some of that weight so that you can manage this condition better.

There’s no need to go on a crash diet or an extreme exercise program as this is definitely not smart for someone who’s suffering from diabetes, but you should make sure that you are taking a slow and steady approach, losing weight over time until you reach your ideal body weight.

As you’re going about your weight loss program, chances are you’re going to get to a point where you just can’t seem to shake off those last few pounds. Try as you might, they just won’t budge.

When you get down to the final ten, you’re going to have to have a few additional tricks up your sleeve that will serve to shock your body and get you burning off fat at a faster pace.

At this point your body has gotten comfortable with the status quo and essentially sees no reason to change anything. It’s happy as it is and as a result, no further weight loss is taking place.

Fortunately, with any of the following quick tricks you can end this plateau and get back on track to moving closer to your weight loss goals.

Boost Your Protein

One of the best ways to instantly increase your rate of fat loss without having to decrease your calorie intake any further is to increase your protein intake. Since protein is an energy-costly nutrient to break down and digest, simply by swapping out some of the carbohydrates or fats from your diet and subbing in protein instead, you’ll increase your total daily calorie expenditure and help create a higher deficit necessary for fat loss.

Aim to eat protein with each and every meal and snack consumed, making sure it forms the basis of your dietary program.

Add Back One High Carb Day

Chances are to get that initial weight off, you’ve been utilizing a low carb diet approach. But now, your body has adapted and your metabolism is running slower than usual.

To help offset this, have one day per week where you actually add carbohydrates back into your diet. By doing this you’ll send a signal to your body that it can speed the metabolism up again, therefore allowing fat loss to take place at an accelerated pace.

If you do this once per week, it won’t offset the results you see but rather will help you finally shed those last few pounds.

Tri-Set Your Exercises

When it comes to your workout, now’s the time to really crank the intensity up a notch and take things into overdrive.

To do this, rather than doing your exercises as straight sets as you likely are, pair three exercises back to back. Perform one right after another until all are complete and then take the rest break that you need.

This is going to decrease the total amount of time you have to spend in the gym while also increasing your overall calorie burn, thus taking your progress to a whole new level.

Best of all, you’ll get in much better physical conditioning than you ever have been before.

Get More Sleep

Finally, the last quick tip to help you lose those last few stubborn pounds is to get more sleep. Most people vastly underestimate the influence that sleep will have on their progress but if you aren’t sleeping enough at night, not only will you have a sluggish metabolism but you’ll notice your cravings for carbs are a lot stronger as well.

You won’t burn many calories when sleeping but it really will have a significant influence on your total fat loss success.

So there you have the main points that you must keep in mind as you work to rid those last few pounds that don’t want to budge. If you work hard and have a few key strategies in place, you can lose those last few pounds once and for all.

Looking to lose weight? If so, the real answer may not be turning to the latest diet to hit the markets or spending endless hours toiling away in the gym. The real answer may lie right in the confines of your bedroom.

Sleep is now being proven to help boost the chances of weight loss success and enhance the results of those who are following a properly planned diet and exercise program.

You likely already know by now that how much sleep you get the night before will influence how energetic you are the next day and how much effort you put in during your workout session, but there’s much more to it than just that.

Let’s take a look closer at the sleep-weight loss connection so you can fully understand why getting a good night’s rest is mandatory if you want to see results.

The Study

The study in question that discovered this strong connection was put on by the National Centre for Complementary and Alternative medicine and had the volunteers slash their daily calorie intake by 500 calories, the typical amount recommended for a one pound-per-week weight loss rate, eating a diet that consisted of low-fat, low-sugar foods along with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.

In addition to this, they were prescribed at least three hours of exercise a week to help supplement the diet plan they were using.

The dieters also recorded how much time they spent sleeping, watching the TV, or on the computer and then the researchers correlated all of this to the results of weight loss that was seen.

The Results

So what were the results of the study? Those who got between six and eight hours of sleep each night were far more likely to achieve a 10 pound weight loss over the six month period.

What’s interesting to note however is that more does not necessary mean better. Participants who got more than eight hours of sleep each night were no more likely to achieve success than those who did and were just as likely to struggle with weight loss as those getting fewer than six hours per night.

It seems as though somewhere between the six and eight hour mark is what is absolutely ideal for weight loss purposes, so what most adults who are on a diet should strive for.

Additionally, stress was also highly correlated with weight loss success, with those who were less stressed on a regular basis experiencing much higher rates of success than those who were self-rated as having more stress.

Why These Results?

So why are these results present? How come stress and sleep are so correlated with weight loss success?

One reason could be the impact on cortisol. When you’re low in sleep or highly stressed, the body will release more of this hormone in the body and it’s the one that can encourage fat accumulation in the abdominal region.

In addition to this, it can also increase the use of lean muscle mass as fuel, so if you’re chronically sleep deprived or stress, it may cause a permanent decrease in your metabolic rate.

Furthermore, those who are lacking in sleep tend to experience less overall blood sugar control, so cravings may become an issue more often, thus it’ll be harder to stick with a reduced calorie diet.

As you likely know as well, the more tired you are feeling the harder it is to fight off the temptation to just give in and have that slice of cake you know is in the fridge waiting for you, so that too could be an influencer of your results.

We don’t even need to discuss the issue of stress-eating, as almost every one of us has experienced that at some point or another.

So if you want to make some serious progress with your weight loss goals, it’s time to turn off the late-night TV, shut down your computer, and make a date with your bed. The more time (up to eight hours) you two can spend together, the greater the chances you reach your end weight loss goals.

If you are looking to investing in yourself, the New Year’s season is the best time to start. This is because the New Year’s holiday symbolizes a new beginning where everyone is given a chance to forget all the wrongs they did and start anew. Unfortunately, studies have shown that only about 12% of all New Year’s resolution participants achieve their goal (source). Hopefully we can crank that number up this year with some of these New Year’s resolution tips that worked for me in the past.

1. Find one resolution that you truly desire

A lot of people fail to meet their New Year’s resolution simply because they have too many resolutions that they do not really care about. People say that if there’s a will, there is a way, but that will is a limited resource. Having to focus mental energy into 5 different things is a lot harder than to focus on 1 task. My one resolution tends to relate to improving my health. Since it is the thing I value most, I can always find great reasons why I would want to work towards it.

2. Make many small, measurable, and time bounded goals instead of one huge generic goal

In the past, I’ve set long generic goals only to forget about it and feel disappointed in myself when I remembered it a year later. I found that setting small, measurable, and time bounded goals work much better for me. Try breaking up your huge New Year’s resolution into weekly chucks of things you have to do to achieve that goal. Trust me, spending the effort to do this will keep you on your resolution longer and help you feel better about yourself every week.

3. Share your goals with friends/family or to the public

If you keep your New Years resolution to yourself, you are giving yourself room to fail. I say this because the only person holding yourself accountable for your actions is you. As humans, we forget even simple things (“Dude! Where’s my car?”), so it’s quite hard to always keep your goals in mind all the time. You will need other people to help hold you accountable and help be your support group. Be brave and let your friends and family (or even the public) know that you’ve committed to your goal.

4. Get in the right mindset everyday

Write down what your goal is on a piece of paper and write down why you want to achieve that goal. Keep this piece of paper handy next to your bed. Read this piece of paper to yourself everyday as soon as you wake up. As a bonus tip, make 3-4 more of these papers with different reasons on why you want to achieve your goal and read a random one each morning.

5. Start slow and ease into things

Ever noticed the first week of the gym right after New Year’s holiday? There are tons of people there. As more weeks roll by, the gym starts to empty out. Why is that? I seriously think people push themselves too hard too early. You can’t expect to go from being a full-time couch potato to exercising 7 days a week and stick to it without having a drill sergeant yelling at you at all times.

When I lost my first 45 pounds, I started by making small changes to my diet and then gradually eased my body into jogging. If I were to fix my diet and start jogging all at once, my body would have crashed. My ankles wouldn’t have been able to handle the weight and I wouldn’t have enough energy to exercise without inducing stress (stress hormones store fats). Remember that slow and steady wins the race.

6. Plan and log your progress

Make a daily plan of attack that answers, “What are you going to do each day so you can get closer to your goal?” Itemize your actions in a to-do style list on a piece of paper and give yourself a star once you’ve completed them. Here’s an example to-do list:

Sleep 8 hours ______
Drink 8 glasses of water ______
Eat healthy breakfast ______
Eat healthy mid morning snack ______
Eat healthy lunch ______
Eat healthy afternoon stack ______
Eat healthy dinner ______
Exercise 30 minutes ______

7. Regularly check your progress and celebrate every small goal you attain

Find a way to measure your progress and decide on how often you want to check in on your progress. For fitness, I like to check-in on how I’m doing every week. So every week, I step on the scale and then use fat calipers to measure my body fat percentage. I also like to have my girlfriend take a picture of myself every month.

If you’ve been sticking to your resolution, you will definitely have made positive impact towards your goal. Every time you check in is a great time to stop, reflect, and congratulate yourself. Spread the good news with your support group (see #3). Keeping the air positive will help you continue on your resolution.

8. Recognize that there will be set backs

Don’t ask yourself for perfection. There are times when life gets in the way of your resolve and throws you off your course. This is when most people get disappointed with themselves and then start building negative energy. When this happens, realize that it is not your fault, brush off the incident, and continue keeping your New Year’s resolution like nothing happened.

If you don’t achieve your goal, don’t beat yourself over it!

Last year my personal resolution was to get from 21% body fat to 16% body fat by August. Honestly, I didn’t make it into the 12 percentile last year, but I kept my resolution going strong for all 8 months long! I still wouldn’t say that I fully failed since I did lose 3% body fat in the process. I’m still healthier than I was at the beginning of year, and I’ve learned a lot about myself in the process. With that knowledge, I will be able to do even better with my next year’s resolution.

This is a guest article by Thaya Kareeson, who after losing 45 lbs. in a year launched TweakFit fitness blog hoping to help others learn how to lose weight.

One of the hottest new trends in the fitness and weight loss industry is online personal training. More and more people who simply want an alternative to going to see a personal trainer at a gym are turning towards this helpful source of information to help get them closer to their dream body.

But, if you’ve considered online personal training in the past, you may wonder if it’s really for you. What are the benefits of online personal training and will it really help you reach your end goals?

Let’s have a look at the main things that you should keep in mind when considering this smart alternative.

Instant Support

The very first reason why online personal training is a great option is because it’s going to offer you instant support. From the very moment that you sign up to use the system, you’ll have a wealth of information at your fingertips.

By browsing though the various sections of the website of the personal training program you intend on using, you’ll quickly learn all the vital components of a properly planned workout and diet program.

Then once you’re ready to get started, you’ll get your very own plan to follow.

The only drawback that you may experience is that if you do have a very program-specific question to ask your trainer, you might have to wait a few hours to get an e-mail response from them. This will vary from trainer to trainer but it will be longer than if you were talking face to face with an in-person trainer.

Customized To Your Own Needs

A second really great thing about online personal training is that the plan will be tailor made to you. Many people are so fast to adopt a cookie-cutter workout program that they find online or in some magazine.

While these may work for some people, they are not going to be targeted towards your very own body type. For this reason, you may find that you quickly become frustrated as they just don’t ‘fit’.

The online personal trainer helps solve this problem. Instead ,you’ll have a workout that has been designed with you in mind so you can feel confident that you’re doing everything you need to be doing for success.

Diet And Workout Advice

The third big benefit that online personal training offers over most in-person training services is that the diet aspect is included as well.

Most in person trainers today don’t really know a whole lot about the process of dieting itself and since this is such a vital element in success, this could really hold you back as far as progress is concerned.

With online personal training, you’ll get both workout and diet advice that are tailor made to work together. The end result is a progress level that is unmatched by anything else.

Online Tools and Resources For Success

Finally, the last great benefit of online personal training is that you’ll also have many different tools and resources to help guarantee your success. From member forums to calculators to recipes to make your diet more interesting, you’ll have everything you need right there at your computer to succeed.

So if you’re tired of not getting the results you’re after from your program, it’s time to give online personal training a try. For one of the top rated programs in the industry, check out the Connection Personal Trainer program. You won’t be disappointed.

If you’re currently on a weight loss diet and are feeling frustrated by the day at the level of progress that you’re making, the problem may not be your current program or the amount of effort that you’re putting in.

Far too many people are quick to place blame on themselves, thinking that the primary reason behind their lack of progress is because they either aren’t being strict enough with themselves or because they simply aren’t using the right diet plan.

But, could there be more to this?

Is there a chance that something else might be at play?

The answer may just surprise you.

Stress is something that many of us do experience to large extents on a daily basis and also something that very often we tend to completely overlook. After all, stress is unavoidable, right?

Well, in the case of fat loss, if you want to see optimal results, you had better find some way to get a handle on stress before it takes a hold over you.

Let’s look at why stress is so detrimental to your results.

High Levels Of Cortisol

The very first reason why stress is going to be a fat loss killer is because of the fact that it will actually cause the body to release very high amounts of cortisol. Cortisol is known as the ‘stress hormone’ and is essentially responsible for the ‘fight or flight’ response.

The problem comes though when stress is high all the time. When that occurs, then you’re going to be faced with the risk of lean muscle mass loss, a slowed metabolism, and a general sense of feeling unwell.

Excess Water Retention

Second, the next problem with a high level of stress on an ongoing basis is the fact that this can also cause the body to retain excess water. As you already know if you’ve ever had a meal that was high in sodium the night before, water retention can quickly mask any fat loss progress that has taken place.

In fact, you may step on the scale to discover that rather than losing weight, you’ve actually gained it. Not quite what you were hoping for.

If you’re chronically stressed out, you may deal with this water retention on a regular basis and this may very well make it seem as though you’re no longer losing body fat.

CNS Burnout

Finally, the last reason why being stressed out is bad for fat loss purposes is because when you’re very stressed, you also increase the risk of Central Nervous System (CNS) burnout.

Just like your physical training places a high level of stress on the body and can weaken the CNS when not enough rest is given, when you couple high levels of physical stress with high levels of mental stress, then you really have a problem on your hands.

If your CNS becomes burnt out, this could in fact keep you from performing your workout sessions and make it harder to lose body fat.

So as you can see, stress is something that you must get a hold of. Doing whatever it takes to decease the stress levels in the body will be critical. This could be taking a kickboxing class to release your anger, journaling about whatever seems to be troubling you, or talking with someone who will support you and offer words of encouragement.

Do whatever it takes to gain control over your stress because it will make a difference in your progress.

If you’re currently on a weight loss program, it’s going to be vital that you’re doing whatever you can to take control over any bad habits that are stopping you from reaching your end goal. What many people don’t realize is that it’s the smaller day to day actions that can really add up over time and while you may be doing most things right, if any of these are off the mark, you’re still not going to be getting the results you thought you would be.

Let’s take a brief look over some of the biggest mistakes that some people make that stop them from reaching their goal. Have a good look over your approach and see if one of these just isn’t a factor in your life.

Failing To Exercise

The very first big problem for many dieters is a failure to get in enough exercise. Remember, while diet is very essential for optimal fat loss, exercise is going to promote better lean muscle mass retention so that you can keep that metabolism high for the time to come.

The higher your metabolism is the more calories you will burn on a daily basis therefore the faster you will see weight loss success.

Not Planning Meals

Another big mistake that some dieters make is not planning out their meals. If you want to have dietary success, you need to have a plan. Failing to have a plan will leave that much more of a chance that you turn to the drive-thru when hunger hits so don’t set yourself up for this.

Take the time every Sunday evening to write down what you will eat during the day and make sure that you follow the plan accordingly.

Eating While Distracted

Do you often eat while browsing the Internet? Or perhaps you eat while catching your favorite TV show?

Both of these can lead to you eating more calories than you should and feeling less satisfied from the meal you just took in. When it’s time to eat, stop everything else and eat. Focus on the food – the taste, the smell, and the appearance. You’ll find that you need to consume far less to feel satisfied and you will completely eliminate any mindless eating that could be taking place.

Cutting Out All Carbs Or Fats

Another issue that many dieters face is extreme diet approaches where they eliminate all carbohydrates or all fats. You always want to utilize a plan that’s going to be acceptable for life and you simply cannot follow such a restrictive diet in the long term.

Both carbohydrates and dietary fats have benefits for optimal health and should be included in your plan. As long as you’re tracking your calories, there’s absolutely no reason to cut these out entirely.

Drinking Calories Away

Finally, be sure that you’re not making the mistake of drinking your calories away. Most people do not register liquid calories in the body like they do calories from solid foods so if you’re drinking 300-500 calories per day, this could immediately put a stop to your weight loss.

Many beverages can easily pack in a very high calorie punch as well – more than your average meal would, so you must make sure that you are watching out for this.

So there you have the main things that you must know to ensure you see success from your diet. Don’t make any of these small diet errors that will cost you big-time over the long run.

As you start off on your weight loss program, it’s going to be essential that you’re not only paying attention to what you must do on the workout side of things but also being mindful of the foods you’re consuming on a daily basis.

Without a doubt if you aren’t watching what you’re eating you won’t see the same calibre of results as you regularly would so this is a must to spend some time on.

Let’s quickly go over 10 weight loss tips that you can start using immediately to boost your results as you reach towards that end goal.

Create Balance Between Weights and Cardio

The very first thing you should always aim to do is find a good balance between weights and cardio training. Relying too much on cardio training will quickly come at the expense of strength gains and could eventually lead to overtraining as well. Unfortunately since many women do tend to prioritise cardio training, this is precisely what happens. Remember, strength training will actually make you look leaner and more toned, but it will not make you look bulky.

Women simply do not have the levels of hormones in their body to support this type of growth.

Begin The Day With Fibre

Second, always be sure that you start your day off with some fibre. This will help keep you feeling full throughout the morning and slow the release of carbohydrates into the blood stream.

Add Vegetables To All Main Dishes

Looking for a quick way to add more food to your diet without boosting the calories? Start eating more vegetables. These are virtually calorie free and will add plenty of bulk to your dish so you feel satisfied on fewer calories.

Focus On Shortening Up Your Rest Periods

One simple strategy to increase the calorie burn of your workouts is to make sure that you’re keeping those rest periods shortened. If you’re taking longer than one minute between your sets, chances are you’re dragging the workout on longer than it has to be. Aim to keep everything short and snappy.

Avoid Additional Sauces Or Condiments

One place where many people fall trap to is sauces and condiments. As much as possible try and have your foods in their natural states. This will allow you to better control calories and keep added sugar and fat down.

Make Sleep A Priority

Think you can sleep when you’re older? Think again. If you want to maintain a slim waistline, sleep needs to be a priority. If you’re not getting enough sleep at night your body is going to release more of a certain hormone called cortisol, which actually encourages stomach fat accumulation. Aim for at least seven hours a night, if not eight.

Swap Coffee For Green Tea

When it comes to waking up in the morning, try green tea rather than coffee. Both provide a source of caffeine to your diet but green tea is also going to help increase your metabolism and improve your weight loss results. Plus, it tastes great.

Find A Workout Buddy

One of the best ways to increase your motivational levels to continue with your workout program is to find a workout buddy. When you know you have someone counting on you to show-up, you’ll automatically make working out a higher priority.

Get a girlfriend and make it a contest where whoever reaches their goal first gets a day at the spa.

Look At Your Goals Daily

Another smart move to keep yourself motivated is to make sure that you review your goals daily. By reading them every morning when you wake up you’ll ensure that your mind stays fixated on what you’re looking to accomplish.

Boost Your Protein

Finally, the last weight loss tip that you must put in place is to boost your protein intake. Since protein causes the body to burn off the most calories just digesting it, by including it in your diet you can automatically see a nice metabolic increase. Many women do fall short in protein, so this is something to really focus in on.

So keep these weight loss tips in mind. If you can include even just a few of them you should see a noticeable change in your progress level.