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5 Diet Plan Saving Tips !

Guilty and frustrated from cheating on your diet plan? These diet plan saving tips will keep you on track!

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It’s nine thirty at night and you have followed your new diet plan perfectly to a tee all day. A pizza advertisement comes on the commercial break of your favorite show and you notice it is close to your next mealtime.
Up to the kitchen you go to eat your next meal. When in the fridge pulling out your nicelyprepared diet plan meal, you notice some left over Fettuccini Alfredo your wife or roommate brought home. Sure looks good you think as you catch a little bit of saliva about to drip on your shirt!

“Just a little taste won’t hurt my diet plan,” you justify…

“ I’ve stuck to my diet plan all day……”

A little taste and before you know it you tell yourself the extra carbs and calories will be a good boost to your workout tomorrow!

An hour later your gut is stretching and Indigestion plagues you from cheating on your diet plan!!

“I should have stuck to my diet plan!” is going through your head as you lay down to have nightmares of a fat ass! “Tomorrow I’ll stick to my diet plan “, you chant in your head!But you fall from your diet plan only a day or two later!

The occasional stray from your diet plan can really add up!And billboards,tv’s, radios and people are everywhere pushing fast foods and junk to sabotage your diet plan!

Here are five diet plan saving tips to arm yourself against the onslaught of the Cheating War!

Diet Plan Tip #1 – Eat Slowly – Take your time when you sit down to eat.

The chances you will stuff yourself or overeat diminish and you will reach the point of satiety much more quickly if you eat slowly!

The more you are satisfied with what you have eaten the less likely you will continue to think of food. That chocolate Black Forest cake won’t be as tempting either!

Diet Plan Tip #2 – Have Delicious Meals That Fit Your Meal Plan Prepared Ahead Of Time.

Having meals prepared ahead of time makes it convenient to eat according to a plan and on schedule.

You can make it more convenient to stick to your diet plan than it is to eat that bag of candy by having your diet plan meals prepared and available when it is time to eat– and when you gethungry.

Diet Plan Tip #3 – Get Used To Eating For Your Purpose Instead Of For Your Taste Buds.

Satisfying your taste buds when you get the urge to gorge down a Big Mac will never develop a healthy, lean, muscular physique! Keep in mind you are eating to develop a lean, healthy muscular physique every time you open your mouth! The temporary taste satisfaction of a jelly-filled donut will be gone real fast but the empty calories you just devoured can defeat a whole day’s worth of bodybuilding effort!

Diet Plan Tip #4 – Be creative with your cooking to make sticking to your diet enjoyable.

Ideally, with proper preparation and some reciperesearch you can create delicious mouth watering meals that meet your diet plan criteria. Learn to cook. Employ spices from other parts of the world. India and China are twocountries with interesting choices to really spice up your diet plan. When you don’t have to force feed yourself with your nose plugged the chances are much higher you can stick to your diet plan more easily!

Diet Plan Tip #5 – Drink Water.

Drinking water between meals can help to reduce your hunger pains temporarily by giving a sense of fullness. For those of you that sabotage your diet plan munching here and there,keeping a water bottle with you wherever you go can really help.Just sip away when its oral satisfaction rather than hunger driving you.

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Eat More Food! – Are Calorie Restriction Diets Making You Fat?

Calorie Restriction Theory The basis of calorie restriction is pretty simple. People who advocate this kind of dieting imagine your body as a big rubber bag; food goes in and gets used for energy, but if you’re not using enough energy, the food gets turned into fat and the bag expands. To cut down on fat, just decrease what goes in. It takes about 3,500 excess calories to make a pound of fat, so by reducing your intake by 500 a day, you should lose a pound a week. Starvation Mode Unfortunately, things are a little more complicated than this theory suggests. While reducing the amount you eat does cause weight loss, it can backfire. This is especially common if you decide to cut out a large number of calories. It may seem like reducing your intake even more will cause you lose more weight and to lose it faster, but you could actually find yourself gaining. This is due to the fact that your body enters a phase called starvation mode when your food intake drops below a certain level. This level varies for everyone, but is usually between 900 and 1,200 calories per day. If you’re a very active person or have a naturally high metabolism, however, it could be much higher. When you use a diet that restricts you below this threshold, your body believes that it’s going through a famine and that resources are scarce. Instead of getting rid of that pesky fat, it starts holding onto it even more tightly. Instead of attacking fat for energy, it begins to use up lean muscle tissue, especially if you’re not doing any resistance training to build up that tissue. You lose weight, but you probably won’t lose much fat. You’ll also probably notice that your energy levels start to drop. You may feel tired and listless throughout the day. This is due to your body cutting down on the amount of energy it needs in an attempt to get through the famine. As your metabolism slows down in response to perceived starvation, your weight loss will probably slow down and start to plateau. In the end, severe calorie restriction and fad dieting leaves you tired, flabby and with a reduced metabolic response. Long-term Effects of Dieting Problems with calorie restriction don’t stop there, of course. In the long term, repeatedly using highly-restrictive diets to take off those last few pounds can actually lead to more weight gain. Recent studies in the weight loss field have shown that even people who successfully lose large amounts of weight tend to gain it back. That’s because the calorie restriction causes their bodies to believe that they need to return to their “normal” size as soon as food is more readily available. If you’ve been using a strict diet, after you lose the desired amount of weight, you’ll probably find yourself slipping back into your old eating habits. You may even find that you crave unhealthy foods like refined sugar and fried, salty snacks. People who’ve lost weight through restrictive diets are often actually hungrier than people who are naturally thin, since the previously-fat people’s bodies are still trying to put the weight back on. Over time, your weight may even go up. Long-term weight loss studies have shown that repeated yo-yo dieting encourages people to increase their bodies’ internal upper weight threshold, potentially getting fatter than they were before they started dieting. This tendency is highest in people who lost large amounts of weight very quickly through calorie restriction or other faddish methods. What’s the Solution? All this information can be disheartening. After all, most people want to take off fat and stay healthy and fit, not slow down their metabolisms and potentially gain more. The good news is that long term, sustainable weight loss isn’t impossible. It’s just a little more complicated than “eat less, lose more.” Studies have shown that minor calorie restriction, especially if it’s done by reducing your intake of unhealthy foods, can be quite effective, but that activity may be the real key to reducing weight. While exercise alone won’t burn enough calories to whittle your waistline quickly, it will help you keep your energy level up and maintain muscle mass. Resistance training activities are especially important for this, so it’s vital to make sure you’re taking in enough energy to stay active. Over time, you can replace fat with lean muscle, which actually burns more calories and can increase your metabolism, instead of starving your body and slowing down your metabolic rate. The more energetic and active you are, the better your results are likely to be. Reasonable Expectations It’s also important to maintain reasonable expectations when you go to lose weight. Doctors at the U.S. National Institutes of Health say that most successful dieters take off about 8 to 15 percent of their highest body weight. That means that a 200 pound person can expect to effectively lose 16 to 30 pounds. This isn’t an upper limit, of course, but it’s what most people lose without the risk of gaining it back. If you want to lose more, those figures can be disheartening, but there is hope. Slower weight loss backed by sound nutrition and an activity level powered with plenty of energy increase the chances of major loss. This plan might not get you into a bikini by the end of the summer, but it’s the best-documented way to take that weight off and keep it off. If you’re hoping to take off some fat, don’t be tempted by plans that tell you to eat nothing but grapefruit and coffee or subsist on spicy lemonade. Instead, cut those calories only a little, ramp up your activity level, and make sure that you’ve got the energy to keep moving. It might take a little longer, but you’ll do a lot better at losing fat, permanently.

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What is Dukan Diet and its side-effects?

This article gives pertinent information about Dukan Diet and its side-effects

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Pierre Dukan, a French doctor and nutritionist, challenged with the case of obesity started to look for alternative ways in curing the illness. After 20 years of thorough research he published in the year 2000, a book called, “Je ne sais pas maigrir” or translated as, “I don’t know how to get slimmer.” It gained the best-seller in France after a year it has been published.
It was made a hit in UK when Kate Middleton, now the duchess of Cambridge, tried the Dukan Diet before her marriage to the beloved Prince William, she reportedly claimed a loss of two dress sizes. It also allegedly claimed to help five million French. The book is also gaining fame in the US in the year 2011 when actress/singer, Jennifer Lopez, lost pounds after her pregnancy by following this diet.
Dukan Diet: What is it? How does this work?
Dukan Diet is similar to the famous Atkins diet. Atkins and Dukan are much alike in terms of non-intake of carbs initially and do not require portion control or counting calorie consumptions. In Atkins, it requires net carbohydrate intakes and unlike Dukan, it suggests a daily intake of oats, increase water consumption and 20 minutes of everyday brisk walking. Dukan Diet adopts four phases namely: Attack, Cruise, Consolidation and Stabilization.
Four Phases of the Dukan Diet
Attack: In this starter phase, the dieter is only allowed take protein rich foods that are exquisitely low in fat. Dr. Dukan provided 72-item list of foods to be eaten, it excludes pork, lamb, poultry products and cheeses. Food should always be cooked but without adding any fat to it, it best to cook in grilling or roasting. It also requires you to eat 1 ½ tbsp. oat bran & 1.5 liters of water per day. This phase should be followed around 2-7 days or more. Results from this initial phase within 5 days may result in 4-7 lbs. loss. This phase promotes quick loss of weight since it is strictly based on a protein-only diet.
Cruise: Cruise, the second to the fourth phase of the Dukan diet scheme. During this phase dieters who were only allowed to eat protein-only foods can now alternate a 28-items of non-starchy vegetables. They may take attack phase diet for today and take non-starchy veggie diet for tomorrow, and so this phase must go on by alternating these two types of diet each day. This phase may last long enough as much as you want by reaching your desired weight and assuring 2 pounds per week loss.
Consolidation: As one achieves the desired weight, one has to go the next phase called Consolidation, this is the maintenance phase of this diet scheme where you have to prevent putting back excess pounds. The plan in this phase is less strict compared to the first two phases. During this phase you are permitted to eat protein-only and veggie diet along with a piece of low-sugar fruit, 2 slices of whole grain bread and a portion of hard cheese. In this phase you are allowed to have 1-2 serving of starchy foods and one celebration meal per week. The phase of consolidation does not expect to loss off pounds but rather it is steadily the maintenance process.
Stabilization: Stabilization is the final phase and a life-long phase of the diet scheme. In here maintenance of the life-changing diet may be a challenging and tempting. During this portion of the scheme, one is already permitted to allow any food intake that a person wants and by also sticking to the diet rule in the consolidation phase. As Pierre Dukan suggest, that staying on the phase 1 rule once a week and eat whatever you like for the rest of the week lowers the chances of regaining weight.
Pros and Cons of Dukan Diet
Pros: The fast results of this diet scheme is beneficially rewarding and motivating. It allows you to have protein and veggie meal plan diets and does not require you to count off your calorie intakes.
Cons: It is highly restrictive and can exclude healthy foods. Dieters can experience side-effects such as symptoms of headaches, nausea, lethargy, irritable and loss of concentration. Dieters may acquire halitosis (bad breath), metallic tasting mouth and strong smell in their urines. For those people who have problems with their kidneys and liver are not advised to follow this diet plan. It is not also recommended for pregnant and nursing mothers.

Views and Opinions by Health Experts on the Dukan Diet
There are lots of critics in this diet plan. Due to the restrictive type scheme of this diet, some fruits, grains and nuts which are healthy and have high amounts of vitamins and minerals that are vital to the nutrition of the body are eliminated. Keri Gans of American Dietetic Association, said that the lost amount of multivitamins that should be acquired from those restricted foods are not compensated in the Dukan diet. Experts have also criticized that experiencing such side-effects may not be healthy at all.

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