Just about everyone who has considered losing weight has heard about cabbage soup diets at some time or other. Many people, when they first hear about this diet believe that it is new or revolutionary. The diet claims to help you miraculously lose 10-15 pounds in 7 days. But is this true? Let's take a look.
There are a lot of misconceptions about cabbage soup diets, including the origins. Some sources claim that it was created by a famous doctor; some sources attribute it to a respectable hospital but there is no proof either way. The true origins are unknown.
The diet seems to have first surfaced in the 1980’s and spread by word of mouth an through the media. Once the Internet arrived, it quickly spread that way. This is one of those diets that seems like it will never die or go away.
What is the cabbage soup diet?
It's a 7 day eating plan that revolves around a soup which is comprised mainly of cabbage. The eating plan is below:
Day 1 - Cabbage soup and any type of fruit that you would like to eat, except for bananas.
Day 2 - Cabbage soup and any vegetables that you care to eat. You may also have a baked potato that has a small amount of butter on it.
Day 3 - Cabbage soup plus any fruits or vegetables that you care to eat, with the exception of potatoes or bananas.
Day 4 - Cabbage soup and bananas. You may eat up to 8 bananas. You may also drink as much skim milk as you want too.
Day 5 - Cabbage soup and beef. You may have up to 20 ounces of beef this day along with the cabbage soup. You may also consume up to 6 tomatoes.
Day 6 - Cabbage soup and unlimited beef. This day you can have as much beef as you care to eat. You can also have as many vegetables as you want, except for potatoes.
Day 7 - Cabbage soup and brown rice. You may also have any vegetables that you want this day, except potatoes. You may drink unsweetened fruit juice this day too.
It should be noted that you may eat as much of the cabbage soup that you want on any of the days. You must eat the cabbage soup at least 3 times per day. There are also slight variations of this diet. The main ingredients usually consist of the following: cabbage, onion, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, and seasonings. The ingredients for the cabbage soup also tend to vary.
Does this diet work?
Yes and no. The diet can work, if you actually stick to it for the 7 days. You are severely limiting your calorie intake. Given that you have to eat the same thing daily, will probably tend to make you want to eat less of the soup, which will even further restrict your daily calorie intake.
If you’re expecting the weight loss to be long term, don’t. Most of the weight you lose from this diet will be water weight, not fat. Once you resume your normal eating habits, the weight you lost will return. In fact, it is probable that you will not only gain the weight you lost while being on this diet, but you may even gain more weight. You could wind up heavier than before you started this diet after you resume your normal eating habits.
Is this diet safe?
Ask your doctor for his recommendation. Chances are, he will question the nutrional soundness of it and be totally put off by the lack of daily calories. It is possible to become malnourished while on this diet. Being on this diet would mean you're close to consuming less than 1200 calories. Even though it is only a week, it is a questionable practice regarding your health.
Cabbage soup diets live on because there will always be an allure and an attraction to a diet that will help you to lose weight rapidly. But there are many other safe, nutritionally sound, diets out there that will help you to lose weight if you put the effort into them.
August 29, 2009
Cabbage Soup Diets - Do They Work?
August 27, 2009
Pilates Exercise Program - Picking The Best Class For You
If you're interested in a Pilates exercise program, congratulations. You should probably have a variety to choose from, unless you live in a very small area where there may be only one or two instructors. Otherwise, there should be several different types of Pilates exercise programs available to you. Know that not all classes are the same and you should look into the different ones and find the class that is a good match for your exercise needs.
Many more areas are offering classes with the Pilates Reformer. The Reformer is a Pilates machine that you use to do various exercises. All Pilates started out using these machines, but their cost lead some people to develop Pilates routines using movements like you would use on a machine. Each class won’t offer the same thing, nor will each one give you quite the same benefit.
There are classes that don’t use the machine but still offer all the benefits of the Reformer. The movements are just more under your control and can be less structured. But they should all mimic a type of movement you can do on the Reformer machine.
Some classes involve a large group in which everyone brings his or her own mat. The instructor leads the group through the gentle Pilates movements. Some classes do have mats available, but if you choose this type of workout class be sure to invest in a mat right away. They’re inexpensive, and you won’t have to use a mat that someone else has sweated on!
Other programs use a variety of equipment instead of a Pilates Reformer machine or just mats. Balance balls are a popular item for not just Pilates these days but all types of exercise classes. Using a balance ball does what it says — it forces you to balance yourself, which works a variety of tiny muscle groups (your core muscles) that are hard to exercise in any other way.
Resistance bands are excellent for mimicking the movements of a Pilates machine and offer adjustable resistance. You’ll get more benefit out of movements with a band or some type of resistance than you will making the movements on your own. Classes that use bands are the closest to the type of workout you get on a machine.
Pilates Exercise programs for certain conditions are usually available where a variety of classes are offered. Pilates for seniors, for instance, might be a choice. It is naturally low impact, but classes especially for those with arthritis or mobility problems may be available.
Combining it with some type of dance or a more active workout is becoming popular. Pilates for pregnancy is also a type of class that’s becoming more popular as the benefits of exercise for expectant mothers is becoming more and more clear.
You could also take a session or two of private instruction to learn the basics. Try a few different classes, and you’ll better be able to tell which type of Pilates exercise program is right for you.
August 24, 2009
Weight Loss Before and After Stories of Success
What happens after you become determined to lose weight and successfully do it? Weight loss before and after stories of success are common. When you lose a significant amount of weight, your life can change in many pleasant ways. Here are some of my favorite stories.
Margie had gained 30 pounds after her second pregnancy. She was sluggish – and not just because she had to keep up with a baby and a toddler. She felt that her weight was keeping her from being the mother she wanted to be.
So Margie went to a dietitian to help her change her food choices. One of the things her dietitian suggested she eat was a variety of whole foods that were low in fat and high in fiber. Margie had been making a variety of quick meals and picking up fast food because of her duties as a mom.
She decided that it was important to start cooking wholesome meals for her family. She started losing one, maybe to two pounds a week. Within 4 months, she was back to her pre-pregnancy weight.
Another factor that was important in her weight loss was wanting to create a family of healthy eaters. She didn’t want her kids to think that food came from McDonalds. Fast food should be an occasional treat not a mainstay of their diets.
Margie’s weight loss success story is an inspiration to all new moms struggling to lose the baby weight. It can be done!
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Rob is another of my favorite weight loss before and after stories of success. He is a teacher at an exclusive public school. One of the perks of teaching at the school is that it provides a catered lunch each day. In addition, fellow teachers often brought specialty foods to share at lunchtime.
The camaraderie in the lunchroom was one of the strengths of the school program, but it was killing Rob’s waistline. He decided that he would bring a low calorie sack lunch and begin walking during 20 minutes of his lunch break. He worried that skipping the lunchroom would mean he would distance himself from his fellow teachers.
But, when they saw that he was losing a significant amount of weight on his program, many of the other teachers joined in. Soon, there was a teacher’s walking club at lunch time. A social scene based around an unhealthy eating pattern was replaced by a healthy one.
~~~~~
Kerry was a busy mom and she also put in 50+ hours a week at her job. When she wasn’t working, she wanted to spend time with her two boys, ages 9 and 11. She felt guilty about going to the gym because that was an hour and a half she should have spent with her kids.
But as she crept up near 200 pounds, she knew something had to change. One thing she did was get up a half hour earlier in the morning to take a walk. Then, when she got home in the evenings, she made a point of playing 20 minutes of basketball with the boys every day. Her new physical activity combined with a low fat, lower calorie diet, led to her losing 55 pounds over the course of a year.
Being able to increase the time she spent with her kids as well as losing the weight was a win-win for Kerry. That’s a truly great weight loss before & after story.
Do you have your own weight loss before and after story? I hope you were inspired by these and you're on your way to creating your own. When you have one, be sure to share it with others to encourage them to lose weight as well.
August 21, 2009
Safe Appetite Suppressants: A Naturally Appealing Approach
Did you know that you can structure the way you eat to trigger your own safe appetite suppressants? You don’t have to take potions or pills in order to curb your hunger, you just have to eat the right foods at the right times. That, in fact, is the key to natural safe appetite suppressantas.
Processed foods tend to be high in refined carbohydrates and low in fiber. When you eat a donut or drink a soda, you will have dramatic swings in your blood sugar levels. This then causes a hunger spike. So, while you may grab a candy bar in the middle of the afternoon to curb a hunger pang, you may actually be causing yourself to become hungrier shortly afterwards.
If you have common nutritional deficiencies, these problems become worse. Did you know that many Americans are deficient in zinc, vitamin D, various B vitamins, magnesium and other important nutrients? People have these deficiencies as a result of eating the wrong mix of foods. And many people with these deficiencies satisfy their hunger with more of the bad foods, making the problem even worse.
So what should you eat for safe appetite suppressants? What you want to do is get your calories from whole foods. In other words, shop around the outside of the grocery store and don’t go down the middle isles.
Aviod all refined carbs such as white bread, rice, flour, high fructose corn syrup, sugars, tortillas, and cereals for a month and see how the natural appetite suppressants change your hunger patterns.
This does not mean that you have to go on a low-carb diet; you can still have the carbs found in most fruits and vegetables in unlimited quantities.
Plan to eat a salad of leafy greens each day. You can use an olive oil or vinegar based dressing. Add meats such as chicken or grilled salmon to make it a meal.
When you just need something to munch on, try pickles. An entire jar of pickles has only 50 calories in it.
An apple a day keeps the diet away. Their bulky fiber makes apples great appetite suppressant diet foods.
When you start to add a variety of fruits and vegetables to your diet, you will also get the variety of vitamins and minerals you need. As you correct your nutritional deficits, you will notice your hunger diminishes.
Finally, you should start to drink more water each day. Men should have approximately 12-13 glasses (8 ounces) of water-based liquids each day while women should shoot for 8 to 9 glasses. Don't drink soda as it has a dehydrating effect which is the exact opposite of what you want.
It is possible to lose weight with these naturally safe appetite suppressants. Fill your pantry and refrigerator with foods that are good for you rather than going for the quick and easy solution of processed foods high in refined carbohydrates.
February 19, 2009
Should You Use Green Tea To Lose Weight?
There's no doubt that green tea is a popular herbal product these days. And the secret is out - you can use green tea to lose weight. There’s been a lot of talk about reasons to use green tea to help improve your health, but green tea can help you burn calories as well. Before you decide to stop your diet and quit exercising, you must realize that green tea is merely an aid for weight loss.
Green tea is a weight loss aid, which means it will help you lose some weight but it’s not going to do all the work for you. So how can green tea help you lose weight? It’s pretty simple; green tea contains caffeine. As a stimulant, caffeine naturally helps you burn extra calories. The thing is, most drinks that contain caffeine are full of calories of their own, too.
Coffee, soda, and energy drinks are never going to help you lose weight, becausethey’re filling your body up with fat and calories along with the caffeine content. Again, it’s key to remember that green tea is just a little boost, in the neighborhood of an extra 70 to 80 calories burned per day. That number is much lower than the amount of calories in a single serving of soda or coffee.
One thing that gives green tea weight loss an advantage is the compound called epigallocatechin gallate, commonly known as ECCG. The ECCG in green tea increases the effectiveness of the caffeine, leading to a greater amount of calories burned. Along with the fewer calories contained in a serving of green tea, this means the caffeine in green tea can help you lose weight where it would not ifyou got it from soda or coffee.
It can’t be stressed enough that green tea is just a small part of your weight loss regimen. If you were to lose 80 extra calories per day, that only adds up to about 8 pounds lost in a year, assuming you made no other dietary or exercise changes. If you want to shed pounds quickly, green tea can help, but it’s not the whole answer.
The good news is drinking green tea does more than just help you lose weight. As an antioxidant, green tea provides a number of benefits to your cardiovascular health – this means green tea can help reduce the risk of heart problems. Green tea can also help improve your metabolism and control your cholesterol level, and some claim that it can help your mental focus, as well.
Replacing your daily coffee with green tea can be a great way to help lose weight and improve general health. You’re replacing all the calories and chemicals found in coffee with pure herbal tea. This change can help make you feel healthier and you could lose weight with green tea at the same time.
Calorie Count To Lose Weight Quickly
While it may seem old-fashioned, counting calories still works as a way to lose weight. In order for this to work for you, you need to find out the calorie count in your food and keep a careful count of all the calories you consume. This is so you can make sure you don't take in more calories than you burn off.
To lose weight and keep it off both for the short term and the long term, it is important to exercise regularly and eat a healthy diet that is low in saturated fat. Add calorie counting to the mix and you've got a winner.
The best part about calorie counting is that it can be done by anyone. It doesn’t matter whether you are male or female, where you live, or whether or not you wish to lose weight quickly or have plenty of time to devote to losing it.
The concept behind calorie counting is that you can eat whatever you choose, but you have to make sure that you exercise sufficiently to get rid of those calories. Your energy output must be greater than your food input. You are not allowed to have any extra calories hanging around
that can easily turn to fat! It stands to reason then that calorie counting must be accompanied by consistent exercise.
Calorie counting forces you to take a closer look at the foods you consume on a daily basis. You also will become acquainted with the quantity of calories each food contains. This is something that might be very surprising for you. It can be a real eye opener but will lead to you
becoming more conscientious. Another important consideration when it comes to the idea of how to lose weight quickly is you need to learn how many calories you need in order to function at your best.
How do you begin to calorie count your way to a slimmer, and more toned physique? To start, you first need to figure out how many calories you require to maintain a stable and healthy weight. For both sexes there is a general guideline to go by. For example, females require approximately 2000 calories on a daily basis while males require more (an estimated 2500 calories per day). Keep in mind that other important considerations are your build, your height, and how much muscle you have on your body when you first start the calorie counting plan. Once you have this figured out, you can then devise a plan that is appropriate for you.
Let's look at a concrete example of this:
If you remove 500 calories a day from your diet, then your weight loss will be roughly one pound a week. Or, if you maintain your usual calorie count, and increase your exercise to burn off 500 calories per day, then your will also lose one pound a week.
So to recap, if you want to lose weight quickly then you want to consume fewer calories or increase your exercise. Count your calories to find out where you are and you'll probably be surprised where you can cut calories here and there and not even miss them.
January 30, 2009
Free Proven Weight Loss Tips
Think about this for a minute. It may not be 100% your fault you are overweight. It’s possible you may be carrying the extra weight because of genetics. But, and there is always a but; you may be contributing to your problem by not eating right and living a sedate lifestyle.
Now, even though you may have inherited some of the problem, you have to take responsibility for having added to the problem. Once you accept the responsibility, it will be much easier for you to make the decision that things have to change. Not only do you have to lose weight but you have to change your lifestyle. Failure is not an option because it can result in you cutting years off your life.
Your second weight loss tip is to talk with your personal doctor, to make sure you don't have a medical condition that is contributing to your weight problem. At the same time, your physician will tell you if you’re physically fit to begin a weight loss plan. In addition he will be able to advise you on setting realistic goals for shedding those pounds.
It is important for you to set your goals so they are obtainable. They must be set high enough to be a challenge, yet low enough so you don't get discouraged quickly. If your doctor tells you to lose 50 pounds, you need to break those 50 lbs. down into bite size chunks.
An example would be to set a long term goal of losing the 50 pounds over a six month time frame. You can break this down into a smaller goal of only 8 lbs. a month. Then you can take it down even further to two pounds a week. It appears now you have a workable goal.
For your third step you need to set out a plan for exercise. If you have been living a sedate lifestyle, you would be much better off if you start with walking. This will help you to get your muscles in your legs and arms working again.
Within two weeks you should be up to walking a half mile to a mile. As your wind and strength improve you may find yourself able to move into a brisk walk. Your walking will be the most effective when you can sustain a heart rate of 120 beats per minute for a minimum of 30 minutes.
At the same time, you should be revisiting your eating habits and start a sensible weight loss plan. Get some professional help if you need to and start changing bad eating habits for good.
This article has given you free proven weight loss tips. However, those tips are going to cost you. The price is taking responsibility and action to lose the weight.
January 19, 2009
BMI Index Calculator - How To Do It
Plain and simple, BMI, also known as the body mass index, is a tool that's used to determine whether or not a person is at a normal weight for his or her height. Even though the BMI index calculator was invented by mathematician and scientist, Adolphe Quetelet, sometime between 1830 and 1850, it is still used today nearly exactly as it was back then.
While BMI isn't the final word in whether or not someone is at a normal weight, it's one of the first tools often used to determine if someone is overweight. Because the BMI doesn't distinguish between weight from fat and weight from muscle (other tools must be used to determine the actual amount of fat) it doesn't work well for very muscular people like athletes. But for most of us, BMI is a pretty accurate measure of whether we're underweight, a normal weight, a bit overweight, or obese.
Calculating BMI isn't difficult once you understand the formula. The basic formula is weight divided by height squared, or kg/m2. You simply take your height in meters and square it which means you take the number of meters multiplied by itself. Then divide that number into your weight in kilograms. So a person who's five-and-a-half-feet tall stands about 1.7 meters. To get 1.7 meters squared, you simply multiply 1.7 times 1.7, which equals 2.89. Now, convert weight to kilograms.
So if someone weigh 200 pounds, that's about 91 kilograms. To determine the BMI of someone about five-and-a-half-feet tall who weights 200 pounds, or who stands 1.7 meters tall who weights 91 kilograms, we divide the weight by the height squared, or 91 divided by 2.89. That gives us the result of about 31. This individual is classified as obese. How do I know that?
A BMI of 18.5 or below indicates an underweight person. The normal weight range is from 18.5 to 24.9. Overweight people will have a BMI of 25 to 29.9. A BMI of 30 or greater indicates obesity. So a person with a BMI of 31 is in the obese range, but not by much. By calculating BMI again with different weights, you can see that the person would only need to lose 5 kilograms, or about 11 pounds to no longer be obese, but merely overweight. And a loss of 19 kilograms, or about 42 pounds, will put this person within a normal weight range. Calculating BMI to determine how much weight one should lose can be a big help for someone who's not sure.
Calculating BMI can be made even simpler if you're not sure how to convert to kilograms or meters. Simply take your weight in pounds times 4.88. Then divide that number by your height in feet, squared. So a 200 pound person who is 6 feet tall: 976 divided by 36 = 27.1. After calculating BMI, it's clear this person is within a normal and healthy weight range.
There you have it, the BMI index calculator. How did you come out?
January 12, 2009
Lose Weight Fast Tips
Here are my favorite lose weight fast tips:
1. Take everything one step at a time. Begin by paying more attention to what you are eating, slowly cutting back on the bad foods and implementing more healthy foods into your diet. Once you have this under control, the next step is to add exercise to your plan. If you do not like exercising, take this one step at a time as well by implementing only 15 at a time, at first.
2. Choose foods and activities that you enjoy. If you do activities that you get enjoyment out of, you will find them to be much more successful than trying to exercise in ways that you do not enjoy. The same goes for foods that you implement in your diet; choose foods that you like will help you enjoy your diet rather than craving bad foods.
3. Build muscle. You lose calories based on your weight. Muscles, surprisingly enough, burn calories more quickly than fat does, pound for pound. Work out with weights to build muscle and lose weight, and then allow your extra lean muscle mass to burn more calories for you on a long term basis.
4. Reduce your carbohydrates. Do not cut your carbohydrates out completely because your body needs carbohydrates for energy. Cut out some of the white breads and pastas and replace with whole wheat and brown carbs for better health.
5. Set realistic, measurable and attainable goals. Put deadlines on your goals, making them measurable. Make them realistic by choosing goals that you know you can attain. Set long term and short term goals and you will more readily achieve your expectations regarding quick and healthy weight loss.
6. Give up the bad stuff. It may surprise you just how unhealthy it is to eat candy, cookies, cakes and other sweets, and to drink soda and sugar laden drinks. Cut these bad goodies out either completely, or at least 80% of the time and the pounds will shrink away without you having to do much else to make the weight loss happen.
7. Have a suitable breakfast. Most of your calories should be consumed early on in the day, and breakfast is no exception. Eat a nice breakfast to give your metabolism a good foundation for the remainder of the day.
8. Control portions by leaving something behind. Make sure your portions are correct based on the actual serving size of your food, and then make sure not to clear your plate completely. Use a smaller plate to fool your eye. Exercising portion control will give you better control over what you put into your body for easy and achievable weight loss.
Implement these tips one by one and in no time at all you will begin to see a significant difference in your weight.
January 9, 2009
Gentle Detox Diet Recipes That Help You Lose Weight
You’ve probably heard the stars gushing about how they’ve lost weight with detox diet recipess, but they’re not the only ones who have found them to be beneficial for cleaning out the toxins and losing weight. Regular folks are also talking about the benefits of cleaning out their bodies and ridding it of all those toxins that have been accumulating for a lifetime. Chemicals, preservatives, fats, hormones, insecticides, and the like tend to inhabit our bodies for years, and lots of folks claim that the key to feeling better, functioning the way nature intended, losing weight, and being healthier is to enjoy recipes for detox diets.
There are some hardcore cleansing formulas that keep you hanging around the commode all day, but you don’t have to go that route. If you’d prefer a gentler approach read on.
Detox diets are meant to clean your body’s elimination system of impurities from the food we eat and even the air we breathe. Generally, detoxification diets are designed to clean the colon and liver, where impurities tend to accumulate.
The key to most blueprints for body cleansing diets is to include lots of fiber, lots of water, and eating veggies, nuts, fruits, and beans. What is missing from the above lists of foods? Meat! Meat intake needs to be reduced. What else is missing? Processed starches! Bread and pasta are notoriously absent when you are cleansing your bodies’ digestive system.
Cleansing drinks are a great way to give another boost to the healthy detoxification your body needs. Simply get some of your favorite fruits – berries are especially nutritious and delicious – and throw them in the blender with some purified water and ice. Whip them up until they are a thick-but-drinkable consistency, and you have an awesome breakfast or snack that will help your colon get rid of the yucky stuff that resides there.
Soups of various kinds are also some of the recipes for detox diets that you can find. Gazpacho soup and alkaline diet soups are very frequently used for body and colon cleaning diets. Alkaline diets are those that rely heavily on vegetables, nuts, and legumes, all of which help move things along in the digestive system and thus, are beneficial ingredients for any soup recipe.
One particularly popular and tasty alkaline soup recipe is for a vegetable broth. You simply chop up celery, broccoli, spinach, and a zucchini into tiny pieces. Add them to a big pot of distilled water, and simmer for about a half an hour.
Then, run the ingredients through a strainer or colander, reserving the broth. All those natural vitamins remain in the water when you boil those veggies, which is why you should minimally steam your vegetables when eating them. In this case, you are after the broth, so it is okay to boil the heck out of the vegetables. Discard the chopped vegetables and drink the broth.
Each of the above detox diet recipes contain viable ingredients for helping you to lose weight and keeping your body’s elimination system working as it should, without having you hang around the commode all day.
