Posts Tagged ‘weight loss’

Safely Lose Weight

Saturday, June 7th, 2008

It’s also extremely important to take measurements when you initially begin and monitor your progress weekly. Record your current weight, and body fat percentage. This way you can see if you’re losing weight every week, as well as losing fat. Lots of people can lose weight, but not very many can lose much fat. Remember, the key is to minimize lean muscle loss, and maximize fat loss. This is what will enable you to safely lose weight, and reduce your body fat percentage. Don’t stop until you reach your ideal goals! Then you can maintain your ideal physique safely and indefinitely. It truly is a lifelong process, and so this is more of a lifestyle than a mere goal. But since goals keep us motivated and are practical, then we should continue using them. Changing our mindset is the most important thing, as when we are motivated to commit to a lifestyle of healthy living, we will truly be at peace with ourselves.

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Too Much Cardio For Weight Loss?

Saturday, May 31st, 2008

Can we do too much cardio for weight loss? When doing any form of cardiovascular exercise, it is important that you understand that more is not always better in terms of losing fat. The reason is because when you do too much cardio, your body starts to go into catabolic mode and releases a hormone called cortisol, which starts breaking down muscle tissue so it can be used for energy. Although during cardio, your body uses mainly glycogen reserves, after a certain period of time you start to lose lean muscle mass. Sure you may lose weight this way, but you risk losing your hard earned muscle in the process. This is why it’s important to do just enough cardiovascular endurance to maximize fat loss, and minimize muscle loss.

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Lose Weight Safely - Part 1

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

Food CaloriesSo how many calories do you need to consume in a day to lose weight safely? After all, one can eat 500 calories of healthy foods and burn off 250 of that, and lose weight, right? Wrong! Our bodies need a certain amount of calories to give us the energy needed to carry out basic tasks, especially when we are doing strenuous activity such as cardio and weight training. And if you aren’t getting the necessary calories in the body, then you won’t have the energy needed to lose weight safely. Now the easiest way to estimate our daily requirements of calories is to calculate our basal metabolic rate (BMR). Basal metabolic rate is the total amount of calories the body requires in order to properly carry out its daily functions such as digestion, breathing, regulating body temperature etc. In other words, our basal metabolic rate gives us the approximate number of calories needed in order to maintain our weight. There is a formula that allows us to calculate our BMR, called the Harris-Benedict Formula. Once you’ve figured out your BMR then you can plug that into the activity multiplier to determine your caloric maintenance level. Once we have all that, then we can look at how to lose weight safely and efficiently while maintaining as much as lean muscle mass as possible. This should be our goal at all times.

Calculating Basal Metabolic Rate

Men: 66 + (13.7 X bodyweight in kg) + (5 X height in cm) - (6.8 X age in years)

Women: 655 + (9.6 X bodyweight in kg) + (1.8 X height in cm) - (4.7 X age in years)

Take that number and multiply it by…

Activity Multiplier (choose only one from below)

Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little to no exercise)

Lightly Active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise: 1-3 days a week)

Moderately Active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise: 3-5 days a week)

Very active = BMR X 1.725 (intense exercise: 6-7 days a week)

Extremely Active = BMR X 1.9 (intense daily exercise and strenuous physical job)

Whatever number you get is the number of calories you should be eating everyday in order to maintain proper bodily functions. Then in order to lose weight safely we must burn off MORE calories than we are consuming through cardio and weight training. Take the number you calculated and cut off 20% of calories. This should be your daily caloric intake everyday.

In part 2, we will look at an example that you can follow.

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Meditation For Weight Loss - Part 2

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

Now in order to meditate, find a comfortable place where you won’t be disturbed. Sit comfortably on the floor by crossing your legs and keeping your spine straight. You can also sit on a chair if that is more suitable for you. The key is to feel very comfortable while doing this process. Intertwine your fingers loosely on your lap and keep your head straight. Now close your eyes and keep your mouth closed. Take a few long and deep breaths through the nose to start slowing your heart rate and relaxing your body. Inhale slowly and then exhale slowly. Next, focus your attention on your inhale and exhale breaths from the nostrils. Don’t take very deep inhale and exhale breaths after your first few deep breaths. It should be normal and comfortable and fluent. Don’t breathe from your chest, but through your diaphragm and stomach. As you exhale, just feel the breath leaving your nostrils. Do the same for the inhale. Just concentrate on the movement of the breath as it flows in and out through the nostrils. If your mind starts wandering by either some form of mental imagery, or inner voice, and it starts to pull you in to those thoughts and sounds, slowly bring your attention back to the breath.

At first you will have a lots of thoughts and inner voice distractions, but overtime the mind will slowly start to calm down and become more calm and quiet. Don’t strain or try to hard when trying to do this process, but let it be gradual and just become aware that you are thinking and getting distracted, and slowly turn your attention back to the breath. Do this for as long as you feel comfortable. It can be 5 minutes, twice per day, or longer. There have been many studies done to show that meditation has it’s greatest effects after 20 minutes. So doing 20 minutes twice per day can have a tremendous effect on the mind and body. Also, doing meditation when you first wake up in the morning and before sleeping have also proven to be the best times to meditate. You shouldn’t also meditate right after you ate, but you should not be hungry either. So if you just ate, wait at least an hour before meditating.

Now after a few weeks of doing this, your mind will be a lot more sharper, clearer, quiet and calm. You won’t feel as agitated, and you will start to feel more gratitude for who you are as a person. You will be able to concentrate better and thus be more efficient and productive in all your daily activities. However, this is not the end. In the next part, I will cover specific weight loss manifestation techniques which will allow you to literally transform your body quickly. This is only the beginning, and meditation for weight loss will become easier for you the more you do it. When you learn to quiet the mind, you will be able to use these specific techniques I will show you that will help direct those thoughts into reality.

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Meditation For Weight Loss - Part 1

Monday, May 26th, 2008

Beautiful Meditation SceneryHow do you see yourself? When you wake up in the morning and go to the washroom, does the reflection show you something you are comfortable seeing, or do you start to feel insignificant because of how you look? Do you feel as if you are over weight and that no matter what you do, it never seems to go away? Most people don’t feel comfortable with themselves, and it can cause them to have low self-confidence. However, one of the primary reasons why it is hard to see any changes in the physical body is because people constantly think negative thoughts about themselves, and constantly re-enforce that this is who they are day in and day out. The negative thoughts that we think about ourselves soon become subconscious and become a part of who we think we are. We have become conditioned to feel a certain way whenever we look at ourselves, and a lot of emotions start arising which further creates more negative thoughts. It is actually a constant cycle of emotions and thoughts that tend to rule us. Because of this, we shut down any room for growth within ourselves, and no matter what weight loss diet or exercise program we try, it will not work for us they way we want. Most of the time, no real changes occur and we are left miserable. This is why I believe meditation for weight loss is a very important practice that one should implement in their daily routine if they want to start seeing some real growth. This is probably one of the best kept secrets that not a lot of weight loss gurus will tell you about. Either because they don’t think it is that important, or because they just don’t know about it’s effect on weight loss.

What is meditation and how can it help me lose weight you may ask? Meditation is a state of awareness where you literally become one with the object of contemplation. Now let’s see what that means. First of all, when you first start to meditate, you will notice that your mind is constantly wandering. You may start to think about your next appointment, or what someone said to you the other day which hurt you, or what you will cook for dinner. Along with all the thought images in your mind which are constantly appearing, there is also this inner chat box which is constantly playing like a tape recorder. It just never shuts up. And most of the time, it is useless chatter which has absolutely nothing that will help you with growing as a person. They are usually thoughts and voices of limitations which keep you in your current state of affairs. They are thoughts about what has happened in the past, or what will happen in the future. Now how can anyone move forward in life, if they are constantly thinking about their past? This is EXACTLY what is holding you back.

Now you may be saying, “Oh, but my thoughts are important to me, they keep me company, and without them I will be bored”. Or you may say, “thoughts aren’t bad, they allow us to plan and without them we wouldn’t be able to do anything, and be immobilized”. Actually, you’re right. Thoughts aren’t bad at all. They are very useful and help us to direct our lives and also give us the ability to do things and take action. However, did you know that contemporary psychology says that 99% of the thoughts we think throughout the day are repetitive? And another thing is that most of those thoughts that we think are actually self-limiting and even self-destructive. Thoughts aren’t bad things, they are natural, but it’s negative thoughts, or repetitive negative thoughts that are useless. When we think about the past or the future and are creating realities within our minds that are destructive in nature either towards ourselves, or to others, then we are actually holding ourselves back from growing. This is why when we adopt a meditation practice, it helps us to calm the mind, start thinking more positively, and ultimately change our negative beliefs that we hold about ourselves and others. By meditating, we will be able to become our ideal selves, and be will be able to reach our true potential. When we no longer hold on to thoughts that don’t serve us, we will be able to reach our weight loss goals faster than we could ever imagine since the mind will direct the body and constantly fuel it with growth thoughts. We now know in the field of mind-body medicine, that the mind has a direct influence on how the body is shaped, and so when you get a hold of your mind, you can literally manifest your ideal body. As you think, so shall you become! This is not airy, fairy, imaginary stuff, but a science. Your thoughts are what structure your physical body, literally. Stay tuned for part 2!

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