The Top Eight Reasons Why Alcohol Can Make You Fat

There has been a good amount of research over the last few years about the benefits of red wine and safe limits for alcohol consumption, but what about alcohol when you’re trying to diet? The truth may be surprising to you.

Drinking alcohol, whether in the form of wine, liquor, or beer, can negatively affect weight loss. People who try to find the best diet but also drink alcohol have a harder time losing weight than those who do not drink at all. Here are some facts:

o Alcohol slows your metabolism.

The New England Journal of Medicine published the results of a Swiss study showing that if you’re on a 1,250 calorie diet and get just 250 of those calories from alcohol, it can slow your metabolism by 36%.

o Alcohol stops your body from burning fat.

Alcohol and fat are both processed in the liver. When the liver is processing alcohol, it can not effectively metabolize fat.

o Alcohol is a depressant.

Although you may initially feel better after drinking alcohol, the ultimate effect is a depression, which has a negative effect on the dieter overall.

o Alcohol increases fatigue, making you less likely to exercise

Alcohol decreases the liver’s output of glucose, resulting in the lowering of the amount of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) entering the cells. ATP is the fuel for muscle contraction and immediate bursts of energy and so your ability to exercise will be impaired.

o Alcohol causes dehydration.

Dehydration causes your body to retain water and thereby cause water weight gain.

o Alcohol is also a sugar and so can trigger carbohydrate cravings and hunger.

In addition, people often snack or eat in combination with drinking alcohol.

o Alcohol also makes you more likely to stop your weight loss program, as it decreases your resolve to stick to it.

o Some alcohol (like beer) is high in both carbs and calories.

The ugly truth is that these calories are truly “empty” meaning they have no nutritional value. For example, a five-ounce glass of wine contains approximately 110 calories, which represents 10% of a person’s calories if they consume 1,000 calories per day. That is 10% of their intake which did them no good.

Now we are not saying you need to become a teetotaler (a person who abstains from alcohol completely) to lose weight. An occasional glass of alcohol is fine but if you are exceeding 2 servings a week and you’re overweight, you may want to cut back.

Drinking alcohol and eating high carb foods are related in the fact that they are both activities which cause a serotonin boost in the brain and can give you a relaxed, happy feeling which can be addictive.

The Enlita Weight Loss Program is designed to teach people how to stop self-medicating with food or drugs and how to feel energetic, alive and joyful from living a natural lifestyle in harmony with nature. For more information about the Enlita Program and natural weight loss, click here.

If you narrow it down to to follow this variety of diet there are a few important things you need to bear in mind. If you don’t follow them, then you are not truly following the Aegean style diet.

First and for most, the The Olive Diet emphasizes that you get a plethora of exercise. This is not a diet where you can simply consume exceptional things and never move a muscle. The cipher to better well-being for anyone is to get many of exercise. It doesn’t matter what subdivision of exercise you settle upon, just that you start moving. Walking is a great first step, requires no equipment, can be done alone or with friends, and everyone already understands how to do it, so there is no learning curve. Do what you can at first, and then slowly add more difficulty: walk at a faster pace, walk longer, walk up hills, and so on.. Extra great exercises include swimming, biking, hiking, running, and yoga. It doesn’t matter what you opt for though, the nitty-gritty is that you start to move.

As well, this diet is focused primarily on feeding on plant-based foods, which are low in fat, often high in dietary fiber, and filled with vitamins and minerals. Fruits and vegetables are the principal staple in this diet, as well as whole grains, legumes and nuts. All of these foods are well-endowed in the things that your body requires and deficient on the things it doesn’t. You are not totally denied other types of foods while following the aegean diet. You can still eat red meat, drink, even gobble junk food, but the key is to work at restraint. For example, red meat should be controlled to a few times a month at most. For me, the best solution is to limit red meat to once a week as a special treat.

Ingesting alcohol is not forbidden, though you need to keep it low. The across-the-board advice is to stick to red wine, due to its robustness benefits, but no matter what you choose, keep the amounts low. Also, make sure to eat fish and poultry at least twice every week, unless you are going vegetarian. These types of meat are healthier choices than red meat or pork and will keep you from feeling like you are being denied and enjoying the diet. Also, make a large effort to scale down the amounts of saturated and transfat sources in your diet. The first step I have previously referred to, and that comes from limiting the amount of red meat, as well as pork products. The second comes with a focus on including olive oil into your habits and diet. With the Aegean diet, butter is not often consumed. When you can, it is best to replace products like butter with healthy fats like olive oil or canola oil. Olive oil is used in cooking, as a topping for vegetables and salads, and even as a spread for bread. Dipping your bread into olive oil on its own or mixed with vinegar is an appetizing treat and a much healthier option than slathering butter all over it.

Finally, bear in mind to take the time to delight in your food. This diet and lifestyle focuses on the importance of enjoying meals with the folks in your life: your family and friends. Have a meal slowly, savor all of the flavors of the food, and enjoy the company around you. Eating hastily is a great way to end up overeating. If you slow down and take at least 30 minutes to eat a meal instead of woofing it down because you are in a rush, you will often find that you will consume a lot less food but still feel perfectly sated. And this in turn will help you to feel healthier and since you will be consuming fewer calories, as well as eating mainly healthy things, you will begin to lose weight and inches. The primary thing is to be healthier, and the aegean diet is unmistakably designed to help you carry through that goal.

I remember reading once that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. This really got me to thinking about habit and lifestyle. It made me realize that so many of the things we do are because we have conditioned ourselves into them by making them habits. This can be good and this can be bad. We all have bad habits like nail biting and we all have good habits like getting regular exercise. But if you really think about it your entire day is filled with habits; you wake up and you brush your teeth, habit. You put your seat belt on, habit. This list could go on and on and would vary for each of us.

The point of all of this talk of habits is that I think it is an important realization when it comes to making healthy changes in our lifestyle. For instance, many people say one of their big culprits is that they eat in front of the television at night for reasons other than hunger. Because this has become a nightly habit it is not enough to simply say that you will stop doing it. Rather it needs to be replaced with a new habit so that your results are long lasting. If watching television is a non-negotiable, than you need to come up with something to do while you are watching television that is not eating. Some ideas are drinking herbal tea, always having water beside you to sip on, chewing gum, maybe taking up some hand craft or my personal favorite do some crunches during the commercial breaks or a crossword or jigsaw puzzle.

I have a friend who liked to relax with a glass of wine every night. When she decided that she wanted to stop doing that she did not just stop that habit, instead she still gets out her wine glass and fills it with a sparkling juice or flavored water. It may sound silly but she realized that it was the routine of having a glass of something that was the real pull, not the wine.

It takes time to form an exercise habit as well. Often people start out strong and quit just as strongly. Here again, tell yourself that you will take three weeks to fit it into your schedule and allow it to become a routine. It can become as normal as anything else you do in a day, a wonderful habit.

Obviously the way we eat is all out of habit and lots of times its left over habit from our childhood. The way we are fed as children has a lot to do with the way we eat as adults unless we do the work to change it. I think that this is pretty overwhelming to many as we like what we like and often don’t leave our ‘circle’ of favorite foods. If you told me when I was younger that I would be eating and loving a diet consisting solely of vegetables, fruits, tofu, tempeh, brown rice and beans and whole grain pasta, bean sprouts, live grain breads, nuts and nut butters, etc. I would have thought you we’re out of your mind! But the reality is that this is now so normal for me that I cannot imagine eating any other way. My old eating habits have been replaced by my new eating habits, thankfully.

So I guess it’s good that we all ponder this subject a little bit. What habits do you need to replace? Give yourself 21 days and make it happen!

A funny thing happens to us when we’re not paying attention. The problem? You hardly even realize it’s happening since you’re not even consciously in the same room with yourself at these moments. I’m speaking about the unconscious eating you so often indulge in. You know, you’re chatting and cooking, having a stress free hour or so and tasting this and that. Have you ever noticed that when you sit down to eat at your own dinner party that you aren’t at all hungry? You might even think to yourself, Wow, I’ve got this thing down! I cooked it up and dished it out and remained in complete control! I can’t recall ever being in this powerfully in control. I don’t think I need to go on with the obvious ending of this particular story, instead let me share a client’s story.

A client and friend was doing an amazing job having lost about 60 of the 100 pounds she planned to drop. It was slow going to say the least, but not a problem since it all did eventually come off. Every week I would review her food list for the previous week and would never see anything that stood out; mostly it was a portion control issue for her and we were dealing with it, or at least “we” thought we were. I say “we” because I she truly had no idea that she was engaging in unconscious eating

Our story takes place one winter evening when Sylvia decided to have a bunch of kids and adults for an impromptu dinner. The plan was to feed the kids while the adults visited in the living room. As it happened, I had a clear view of the kitchen from my perch on the couch, and watched as Sylvia busily served up plates of spaghetti to the ten kids. As I watched, not spying mind you, just casually observing, I was amazed at what was unfolding in that kitchen. To my utter amazement, this woman whose fierce determination had enabled her to monitor every ounce of food that had entered her body for the last year, was scooping up a forkful of spaghetti, placing it on one child’s plate, and then forking an equal portion into her mouth. After serving each child’s plate, she served herself an equal portion. By the time the kids’ meals were in front of them, Sylvia had consumed the equivalent of a very large dish of spaghetti! I was stunned, and not wanting her to think I was spying, I quickly scooted out of sight and waited for dinner with the rest of the group. When the adults were served, Sylvia enjoyed a glass of white wine and a moderate, healthy meal. She looked fabulous and felt confident in her ability to control her portion.

As you might imagine, I was anxious to review Sylvia’s food journal with her when she came for her weekly weigh in. I don’t recall if she was up or down, and honestly that was insignificant. What we needed to discuss was not a matter of good or bad, right or wrong. It was a matter of behavior, or more to the point, unconscious behavior. As anticipated, I read her food journal and low and behold, she happened to have completely omitted the kitchen caper with the kids. I shared what I witnessed that evening, and Sylvia was as shocked to hear it as I was to have seen it. She had no recollection of that extra course, and I believed her since she was meticulous about owning up to every morsel she consumed each week. The habit of tasting her children’s food or anything else she cooked was so ingrained that she wasn’t even aware of doing it. Almost like sleepwalking, Sylvia was sleepeating!

This was an enormous eye opener for the two of us, and by bringing her “tasting” to consciousness, Sylvia was able to stop the behavior and lose the remaining pounds. I gained an even greater awareness of how certain habits are so deeply ingrained that an outsider’s observant eye is sometimes needed to pick up on them. Therefore, the next time you’re cooking or serving food, please pay attention to what you are doing. If you are munching away oblivious of the amount you are taking in, you must stop yourself! This is not “free food”; these food calories contribute to your weight just like any others, and they might be the reason you aren’t having the level of success you desire.

Setting goals for your diet plan is as essential as exercising. Have you ever seen a football team make it to the Super Bowl without certain well-defined goals. Every sports team from pee wee to the pro sets goals and not just long-term goals.

This process of setting goals is very important and critical for you losing weight. The goals you set define what you need to do to lose weight. It becomes your road map to looking and feeling good on any diet plan. Use the goals as a model of different needs and activities, in other words make it your guide to losing weight and keep it off.

When you decide to lose weight you cannot mentally grasp what it would take to lose 40 pounds or more. Your mind can accept losing two pounds a week and understand the different steps it would take to achieve this goal. If you said I want to lose 50 pounds and stopped their how would you meet this goal and how long would it take. What about after you have achieved this goal do you go back to eating what got you obese. No you plan a maintenance program.

When you sit down to decide what goals you need to lose weight, take your time and do it in pencil at first. Get a piece of paper and set up three (3) groups or columns. Put a heading on them such as Daily/Weekly Goals, Intermediate Goals and long-term goals. Start with your long-term goal, Is it a weight amount you need to lose if you are not sure this is the time to make sure that you have the correct amount. Decide what your ideal weight should be and go from their. You know what you weigh now so do the math and come up with something you can live with.

After you have decided the amount of weight to lose it is time to figure a time frame that will be a doable. Take the amount of weight you need to lose and divide it by 2 pounds a week. This will be the number of weeks that it should take to lose your weight. From there you can plan Intermediate goals.

The intermediate goals are goals that can be like sign posts on a road or highway. They are designed to keep you going ion the correct direction. These goals can be hitting certain marks at certain times and giving yourself a reward for achieving these goals. It can be a dinner out a bottle of wine you like it can be anything you choose as long as you have attained the goal. Set these goals as possibly monthly goals but always make them attainable but goals that force you to work at them.

The daily/ weekly goals should be planned for a month and should be able to be used every month. You want to lose 2 pound every week, set this as your goal and then outline what you will do daily and then weekly to meet this goal. Be specific in your goals, write what and how you will attain these goals for the week. Explain as a goal how often and even as to what you will do to lose weight. Do not be afraid to map out your exercise program as part of the goals you set to lose weight and keep it off.

Plan for success and do it in a way that you can be mentally prepared and be understanding about how you are going to get their. Leave nothing to chance when it comes to your diet and health.

Nature can provide a lot of benefits to humans. Resveratrol is found in grapes, red wine, peanuts, blueberries, and a range of other plant life. In addition, it is present in nutritional products like grape seed pills and extracts, red wine extracts, and Polygonum Cuspidatum extracts and the like.

Researchers in Great Britain have found that taking the product orally can enhance functioning on cognitive examinations in Math. At the start of the research, the participants, who were adults in good physical shape, took a string of cognitive exams. Subsequent to the exams, the researchers gave either 500 or 100 milligrams of the product to a few of the participants and the rest were given a placebo capsule.

After taking the capsules, the participants underwent the cognitive exams all over again. Those who consumed the product functioned superior on the exams the next time than those who consumed the placebo capsule. It is assumed the grounds for this enhancement is that the product supplies more blood to the brain.

The product is a potent antioxidant that is produced by a number of plants to defend from ecological traumas. Maybe the most prominent manufacturer of the product is the grapevine, which yields great quantities of the substance in the peels of grapes to shield from fungal diseases and some harm. It is then not surprising that wine, specifically the red wine which is fermented with grape peels, has some of the utmost amounts of the substance compared to any untreated food.

Current researches have concluded that the product made fat connected death drop thirty one percent in fat rats. Rodents which were given the product enhanced alertness and movement functions as well. In addition, it has been shown to combat cancer in vitro at every one of the phases: beginning, promotion and development.

There are a lot of us, you know! We want to lose a couple of inches around our waistline and have the scale show less. Why does it seem so difficult to make this happen?

Well, if your beliefs are anything like my beliefs was, you are probably thinking that dieting means so much trouble, will power and tormenting. You have to go hungry all day and when the evening comes you just don’t have enough energy to cook food for your children and then put them to bed. Waking up the morning after and not really finding the motivation to keep going another day.

Stop! This is not what dieting is meant to be. Dieting should be fun and interesting. Of course, you should see less pounds on the scale every other day or so. Today, we don’t have to feel like crap to do good. We could and should feel extremely well and you should feel an increase in stamina and concentration. Are there any diets working this way?

I don’t have to tell you, but of course there is. Many of today’s diets are not killers, actually you will feel better once you start the diet. The new diet is called calorie shifting diet. It doesn’t starve you out, it won’t make you rule certain food groups out and you don’t have to read labels, weigh every calorie, no calculations and no upper limits. Do you see a but coming? There is a but, but it is only a small but. You have to cook your own meals from fresh groceries and you have to stop eating just short of full. Sounds easy? It is.

The purpose of this diet is not to starve every ounce of fat out, instead it affects your metabolism into burning fat better and at the same time your insulin level stabilizes and this prevents from putting new fat into the fat cells.

If you want to make the diet more effective you could combine it with exercising. There are new findings within the exercising area. Today there are more effective programs that take less time to use successfully.

Back to the dieting. In the calorie shifting diet you go on a diet for eleven days and then you get three free days. During the three free days you could eat whatever your heart desires but I recommend that you use some common sense, don’t go to the local fast food bar or something like that. During the diet period you are given a diet that is based on the foods you like. Alcohol is allowed but only a glass of wine per day, no more. If you don’t want to you don’t need to consume any alcohol at all.

Overview. The diet, written by Judy Mazel, is based on a food combining principle (she called conscious-combining). Her original book, The Beverly Hills diet was written in the 1980′s, she has updated the “New” version. The new one forgoes many of the earlier extremes, and now, according to its author, meets recommended standards for a balanced weekly diet. Eating proteins, carbohydrates, and fats at the same time “confuse your enzymes” and your food will not digest properly.

The diet is a 35-day program, in which you eat carbs only with carbs, proteins with proteins and fruits by themselves. Mazel claims your body uses specific enzymes to digest carbs, proteins and fruit. When you mix these foods, she believes that your body has a difficult time breaking them down. Mazel also suggests that when your body is digesting properly you will see a decrease in body fat.

What we like about this plan. One can consume steak, shrimp, salad, baked potatoes, corn and wine during the first 10 days. The diet promotes plenty of fruits. There is no caloric counting, portion restriction or and you may eat as much as you like provide you stick with the guidelines. The expense is simply the expense of the book. The meals on this diet are simple to prepare.

What we dislike about this plan. Food combining can be difficult to follow correctly. This can make it hard to eat out. The “New Beverly Hills Diet” professes that fruits contain all of the enzymes necessary to break themselves down into nutrients for effective digestion, whereas proteins and carbohydrates require extra enzymes that slow down the process. The truth is the enzymes needed for digestion are found in the body, not necessarily in the foods we eat. These statements make the diet seem bogus.

How healthy is this plan? It should be stated that Judy Mazel does not have any medical or nutritional qualifications and her theories are widely disputed by experts in the business. Her suggestion that enzymes can’t properly breakdown combined foods and turns them into fats is refuted by experts who believe the body can’t absorb food that isn’t broken down. It is only these absorbed foods that can turn into fat. And take note to this quote from her book: “In my opinion, the only reason exercise helps reduce weight is because the person exercising is too busy to eat.” This is not a healthy way of thinking, so how can the plan possibly be.

Here Is The Bottom Line. The New Beverly Hills Diet fails to undertake the issue of portion control or exercise, both of which are directly relevant to any successful weight loss program. Mazel’s theories that exercise is unrelated to weight loss, that calories don’t really matter, and that food combining is the best way to lose weight, limit the diet’s usefulness long-term. Avoid this plan and go for a well-balanced program that includes exercise and promotes all nutrients.

© 2008 – 2009 Which Weight Loss

A diet regimen that is gaining in popularity in many parts of the world is based upon the dining practices of the people that populate the Mediterranean region. Many people have heard of the Mediterranean diet but are not particularly familiar with some of the specifics of the eating routine.

In order to assist you in becoming more familiar with the Mediterranean diet, a consideration of eight useful facts regarding the elements of this dining regimen can be most helpful to you. Of course, these are merely some basic talking points about this valuable dieting routine. Before you embark on any sort of diet plan, including the Mediterranean diet, you need to take the time to consult with your physician to make certain that a proposed regimen is appropriate to your medical status.

Eight General Facts About the Mediterranean Diet

The key elements of the Mediterranean diet are, fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, olive oil, fish, and wine in moderation. Because of this combination, the Mediterranean diet is one of the healthiest dieting regimens to be found anywhere on the planet.

Meat and animal products are consumed in very small amounts in the Mediterranean diet. Indeed, when meat is included within the diet scheme, it is poultry or fish in the vast majority of instances. Red meat is not a staple in the Mediterranean diet and is rarely eaten by adherents to this dieting routine. The people who actually populate the countries around the Mediterranean Sea are rarely seen eating red meats of any kind. In addition, dairy products are used only sparingly within the Mediterranean diet. For example, if milk is included in a meal or in the preparation of food, it is of the low fat or non-fat variety. Eggs are rarely included in Mediterranean meals. Indeed, a heavy egg eater is one who has four eggs a week.

With the moderate consumption of fish, the Mediterranean diet allows adherents a tremendous source of Omega-3 fatty acids. Research has demonstrated that a diet flush with Omega-3 fatty acids works to prevent heart disease, stroke and even some cancers.

Many uninformed people can be found making the statement: “The Mediterranean diet just isn’t for me — it is too high in fat.” In truth, the Mediterranean diet is high in certain types of fat. Upwards to thirty-five to forty percent of the calories taken in through this diet do come from fat. However, the Mediterranean diet is remarkably low in saturated fat. It is saturated fat that has negative consequences on a person’s health and wellbeing.

The diet relies heavily on olive oil. (This is the primary reason why the diet is higher in fat than one might expect.) Olive oil is proven to increase the level of HDL cholesterol (also known as “good cholesterol”).

The Mediterranean diet is extremely high in antioxidants and fiber, two elements that have been proven to be helpful in preventing heart disease and some types of cancer.

The dietary practices of the Mediterranean region trace their origins back to the days of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, beginning in about the Fourth Century BC.

The Mediterranean diet became of more international interest in modern times as early as 1945. A medical doctor named Ancel Keys was responsible for encouraging his own patients in the United States to turn to the Mediterranean diet scheme. His advocacy increased the awareness of the Mediterranean diet in other countries around the world as well.

Conclusion

Armed with these basic, elementary facts about the Mediterranean diet, you will be in a better position to determine if this diet regiment is appropriate for you and your lifestyle. As can be seen, the Mediterranean diet has been followed by people in many parts of the world beyond the Mediterranean Sea region for quite an extended period of time.

The French consume fat-loaded, calorie-rich pastries baked in the oven which are not good for the health. However, they are less possible to depart this life from cardiovascular disease than Americans. It is known as the “The French Irony,” assumed to be connected to a rewarding substance present in red wine. At this moment, a research proves that a red wine pill gives extra well-being advantages than taking so many glasses of wine.

At Harvard Medical School, Dr. David Sinclair has come up with a potent type of the substance. He has tried the results on rodents and assumes it will assist to counteract the result of excessive fat diets, lessen the risk of diabetes and delay aging in people. Rodents in their mid-lives were given a diet in which sixty percent of calories originated from fat. They formed symptoms of diabetes and expired much rapidly than rodents given a usual diet.

One more cluster of adult rodents was given similar diet together with the substance. This inhibited the start of diabetes and although overweight, they existed as extensively as those given a normal diet. It proved rodents could splurge during meals without suffering from negative results afterwards.

In France, at the Institute of Molecular Biology, Dr. Johan Auwerx proved that a normal rat could jog one kilometer on a treadmill. However, rats fed with the substance doubled the distance jogged and had a decelerated heart rate, same with trained sports persons. It makes you appear like a trained sportsperson with no training at all.

For a long time, practitioners have worries endorsing the fitness advantages of wine due to the societal troubles linked with too much consumption of alcohol. Today, the red wine pill permits people to obtain the advantages of wine with no calories or alcohol. Because fifty percent of patients with diabetes expire from heart attack, the product will optimistically help lessen the difficulty in the future.