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6 Snack Habits for Healthy Weight Loss

6 Snack Habits

Snacks, finger foods, tapas, amuse-bouche—however you term them, there’s something endlessly satisfying about munching on little hand-held bites of heaven. Problem is, America’s favorite snacks aren’t little; nor are they heavenly.

In fact, a recent study in the journal Hepatology found that 27 percent of kids’ diets come from high-fat, high-sugar snacks, and the frequent grazing is directly linked to belly fat accumulation. Fortunately, there’s also research to suggest we can snack smartly—and slim down.

Here are seven tips that will help you Eat It to Beat It! Snack-tastic!

Watch the clock

Having a bite to hold you over til lunch is common practice, but a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that mid-morning snackers tended to snack more throughout the day than afternoon snackers, resulting in hindered weight-loss efforts.

Afternoon snacking was associated with a slightly higher intake of fiber and fruits and vegetables.

Color code your snacks

A recent study suggests you can avoid a mindless binge by adding visual traffic lights to your snack.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University gave one set of students a bowl of uniform yellow chips, while another group had their regular snack layered with differently colored chips. Students who had their snack segmented ate 50 percent less than those with a uniform bowl.

Muscle up your munchies

Make sure your snack contains protein, which requires more energy to burn than carbs or fats and thus keeps you fuller longer.

But don’t take it from me: In a study in the journal Appetite, researchers from the University of Missouri compared the satiety effects of high-, moderate-, and low-protein yogurts on 24- to 28-year-old women, and found Greek yogurt, with the highest protein content, to have the greatest effect.

Swap hands

Want to snack less without going snackless? Try the left-handed diet (or right-handed…)

A study printed in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin found moviegoers grabbed for less popcorn when doing so with their non-dominant hand.

I tested the hypothesis myself earlier this year with the ABC World News team and came to the same conclusion: Eating with your non-dominant hand makes you think about what you’re doing, and may help you eat less.

Use smaller bowls

Grabbing handfuls from the bag is never a good idea, but munching from a punch bowl won’t do much for weight loss either.

Research in The FASEB Journal suggests that overeating may be associated with the size of our serveware. Participants who were given larger bowls, served and ate 16 percent more than those given smaller bowls. Not only that, the big-bowlers underestimated just how much they were eating by 7 percent!

Take advantage of the visual illusion with belly-friendly bowls or ramekins.

Source: yahoo news

Food for weight loss: Cinnamon or dalchini

cinnamon

 

You may have believed that dalchini or cinnamon is simply added to a pulav or biryani to spice up their taste but that’s not the only things these little barks do. Cinnamon is one of those magical ingredients that helps you to heal from cough and cold and also lose weight!

Cinnamon does this by activating insulin receptors and stimulating various enzyme systems involved in the carbohydrate metabolism in your body, eventually regulating the level of blood sugar and increasing metabolism. It also helps to delay the passing of food from stomach to the intestines which keeps you satiated for a longer period of time and eventually reduces your food intakes.

How to add cinnamon in your diet

Tip#1: Include about one teaspoon of cinnamon in your daily diet by sprinkling cinnamon powder on food you eat – breakfast cereal, tea and coffee, fruits such as apples and pears or curds.

Tip#2: Combine cinnamon with honey in the form of a tea by mixing one tablespoon of each in half a cup of hot water. This tea should be drunk about 30 minutes before breakfast every day to see a noticeable weight loss.

Source: yahoo news

Weight loss at any age great for your heart!

weight loss

It’s never too late to lose weight because doing so improves the health of your heart – no matter how old you are.
Researchers found weight loss at any age in adulthood is worthwhile because it gives long-term heart and vascular benefits.

In contrast, the longer an individual is overweight, the more likely they are to have cardiovascular problems in later life, including high blood pressure and greater risk of diabetes.

Adults who went from being obese to overweight, or from overweight to normal on the BMI scale reduced the strain on their cardiovascular system, says the research published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

Experts recommend lifestyle changes, including a healthy diet and more exercise, to lose weight while stressing that preventing weight gain in the first place is still the best strategy.

The research examined the impact of lifelong patterns of weight change on cardiovascular risk factors in a group of 1,273 British men and women, followed since their birth in March 1946.

It showed that the longer the exposure to excess body fat, known as adiposity, in adulthood the greater the chances of cardiovascular problems in later life.

These problems included thicker arteries, raised blood pressure and increased risk of diabetes.

But heart health markers improved for each drop in BMI, for example from the obese category to simply overweight, even if the weight loss was not sustained.

Lead author Professor John Deanfield, from University College London, said: ‘Our study is unique because it followed individuals for such a long time, more than 60 years, and allowed us to assess the effect of modest, real-life changes in adiposity.

‘Our findings suggest that losing weight at any age can result in long-term cardiovascular health benefits, and support public health strategies and lifestyle modifications that help individuals who are overweight or obese to lose weight at all ages.’

He added: ‘Weight loss at any age in adulthood is worthwhile because it might result in long-term cardiovascular benefit.’
In a commentary with the research, Elizabeth Cespedes and Frank Hu from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, US, said it was ‘encouraging’ that even transitory weight loss has benefits.
They said: ‘The results of this study affirm a continued emphasis on public health policies that enable lifestyle changes to achieve and to maintain a healthy BMI.’

The study was funded by the Medical Research Council and the British Heart Foundation.

People are most likely to gain weight in middle age, a survey has found. The danger year is 38 for women and 44 for men, according to diet firm Forza Supplements.

Source: daily mail

Morning Light Could Be Key to Weight Loss

Getting a good dose of early morning light on a regular basis appears to be a simple but remarkably effective way of maintaining a healthy weight, according to a groundbreaking new study. Researchers found that regardless of caloric intake, people who had more early light exposure were the most likely to have a low body mass index. As the researchers explain in PlosOne, “having a majority of the average daily light exposure above 500 lux earlier in the day was associated with a lower BMI,” and every hour that exposure was delayed coincided with a 1.28 unit increase in BMI.

“Light is the most potent agent to synchronize your internal body clock that regulates circadian rhythms, which in turn also regulate energy balance,” says the lead researcher, who notes that many people fail to get enough natural light in the morning, the Telegraph reports. She says the finding suggests that workplaces and schools should have more windows, and employees and students should be encouraged to spend morning breaks outside: Bright daylight provides exposure of 10,000 lux, and even an overcast day sees light of 1,000 lux. “This is something we could institute early on in our schools to prevent obesity on a larger scale,” she says

Source: newser

Can drinking water lead to weight loss?

Drinking water is often advised as a way to quicken the weight loss process. However, a nutrition expert from the University of Alabama in Birmingham says water isn’t the ‘magic bullet’ for losing weight. ‘There is very little evidence that drinking water promotes weight loss; it is one of those self-perpetuating myths,’ said Beth Kitchin, Ph.D., R.D., assistant professor of nutrition sciences. ‘I’m not saying drinking water isn’t good; but only one study showed people who drank more water burned a few extra calories, and it was only a couple of extra calories a day.’

Kitchin says another ‘water myth’ is the old advice to drink eight 8 oz glasses per day. ‘Yes, people do need to get fluids; but it does not have to be water,’ Kitchin said. ‘There’s no evidence that it melts away fat or makes you feel fuller, so if you don’t like water it’s OK.’ She notes that water is the best hydrater, but in terms of fluid replacement other options will work, including green tea or mineral water/juice combinations.

Caffeinated beverages such as coffee also provide hydration. ‘People think coffee doesn’t count, but actually it does,’ Kitchin said. ‘When you drink coffee, your body is retaining much of that fluid — especially for people who are habituated to drinking caffeine, as the body adapts, resulting in a reduced loss of fluids.’

The idea that cold water burns more calories, as the body has to work to raise the temperature, is also a myth, according to Kitchin. ‘You will hear that ice-cold water helps burn extra calories,’ Kitchin said. ‘While there may be a few extra calories lost, it won’t be nearly enough to make a dent in your weight-loss endeavours.’ The professor recommends following a long-running, research-based weight management program such as Eat Right by UAB or Volumetrics.

‘These plans were built on the premise that if you eat lower-calorie, ‘heavier’ foods, you’re not going to magically lose 25 more pounds than somebody on a different diet, but it might help you feel fuller and not hungry,’ Kitchin said. ‘While drinking water may not help you lose weight, a focus on eating foods with high water content like fruits, veggies and broth-based soups can.’

Source: The Health site:

Healthy Weight Loss & Dieting Tips

In our eat-and-run, massive-portion-sized culture, maintaining a healthy weight can be tough—and losing weight, even tougher. If you’ve tried and failed to lose weight before, you may believe that diets don’t work for you. You’re probably right: traditional diets don’t work—at least not in the long term. However, there are plenty of small but powerful ways to avoid common dieting pitfalls, achieve lasting weight loss success, and develop a healthier relationship with food.

The key to successful, healthy weight loss
Your weight is a balancing act, but the equation is simple: If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. And if you eat fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight.

Since 3,500 calories equals about one pound of fat, if you cut 500 calories from your typical diet each day, you’ll lose approximately one pound a week (500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 calories). Simple, right? Then why is weight loss so hard?

All too often, we make weight loss much more difficult than it needs to be with extreme diets that leave us cranky and starving, unhealthy lifestyle choices that undermine our dieting efforts, and emotional eating habits that stop us before we get started. But there’s a better way! You can lose weight without feeling miserable. By making smart choices every day, you can develop new eating habits and preferences that will leave you feeling satisfied—and winning the battle of the bulge.

Getting started with healthy weight loss
While there is no “one size fits all” solution to permanent healthy weight loss, the following guidelines are a great place to start:

Think lifestyle change, not short-term diet. Permanent weight loss is not something that a “quick-fix” diet can achieve. Instead, think about weight loss as a permanent lifestyle change—a commitment to your health for life. Various popular diets can help jumpstart your weight loss, but permanent changes in your lifestyle and food choices are what will work in the long run.

Find a cheering section. Social support means a lot. Programs like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers use group support to impact weight loss and lifelong healthy eating. Seek out support—whether in the form of family, friends, or a support group—to get the encouragement you need.

Slow and steady wins the race. Aim to lose one to two pounds a week to ensure healthy weight loss. Losing weight too fast can take a toll on your mind and body, making you feel sluggish, drained, and sick. When you drop a lot of weight quickly, you’re actually losing mostly water and muscle, rather than fat.

Set goals to keep you motivated. Short-term goals, like wanting to fit into a bikini for the summer, usually don’t work as well as wanting to feel more confident or become healthier for your children’s sakes. When frustration and temptation strike, concentrate on the many benefits you will reap from being healthier and leaner.
Use tools that help you track your progress. Keep a food journal and weigh yourself regularly, keeping track of each pound and inch you lose. By keeping track of your weight loss efforts, you’ll see the results in black and white, which will help you stay motivated.

Keep in mind it may take some experimenting to find the right diet for your individual body. It’s important that you feel satisfied so that you can stick with it on a long-term basis. If one diet plan doesn’t work, then try another one. There are many ways to lose weight. The key is to find what works for you.

Source: help guide

 

Revealed – how chocolate can help you lose weight

Chocolate has almost always been on the ‘Heck no!’ list when it comes to diets, but a new regimen promises eating the sweet treat helps with weight loss. Neuroscientist Dr. Will Clower penned the book ‘Eat Chocolate Lose Weight’ and says consuming chocolate can actually help you eat less each day. Studies on thousands of people have reportedly proved his theory right.

‘What we see in all these people is that the amount that they’re hungry for at the plate will drop by a half to a third,’ the doctor told CBS News Pittsburgh. ‘And the amount that they’re hungry for, the amount of between meal snacks that they have, will drop by about a half.’

However, this doesn’t mean diet followers can chow down on bricks of the stuff each day and expert results. Clower outlines specific guidelines in his book, including going with dark chocolate whenever possible. Already celebrated for its health properties, Clower stresses ‘the darker, the better.’ Dark chocolate protects against sunburn and cancer, provides energy, stabilizes blood sugar and improves mood in addition to aiding weight loss.

‘So all of the good stuff in chocolate comes from one place and one place only – and that is the cocoa,’ Clower said. Cocoa that’s 70 percent or higher is best.

Clower also recommends eating chocolate 20 minutes before lunch and dinner, as well as five minutes after these meals.

‘With the little piece of wonderful, rich dark chocolate at the end of your meal, it stabilizes the sugar onset into your bloodstream so that you have more of that blood sugar more often throughout the afternoon, so you’re just not hungry,’ he explains.

Additional guidelines include not consuming portions larger than the end joint of your thumb, savoring instead of chewing chocolate, and eating the sweet daily.

‘If they brain-scan people and have them eat chocolate while they’re doing it, their pleasure centers are like a Christmas tree — everybody’s happy in there,’ Clower said.

Other health benefits of chocolate

Curious to know how chocolate can be healthy for you in other ways too? Well, here are some more of its health benefits.

1. Makes you feel good

Just like coffee, eating chocolate too can provide a ‘feel-good’ effect in the brain. This is because chocolate contains a stimulant called theobromine which is similar to caffeine, except that it doesn’t affect the central nervous system.

2. Acts as an aphrodisiac

Ever wondered why so many chocolate ads revolve around love and romance? The reason is that chocolate acts as an aphrodisiac which boosts your sexual desire or libido. The two nutrients responsible for giving chocolate this property are tryptophan and phenylethylamine
Source: The health site

Weight loss pill turns into balloon when swallowed

image 11

A new pill that mimics the stomach-restricting nature of weight-loss surgery is helping some patients shed pounds in early trials, British researchers claim.

The pill, called the Obalon balloon, is a capsule containing an a balloon. After a patient swallows the pill, surgeons inflate the balloon inside to make them feel full and eat less.

The device is not permanent though, and needs to be removed after about three months.

“This balloon will act to educate them about portion size and retrain their brain and their mindset a little,” Dr. Sally Norton, a bariatric surgeon at Spire Hospital. Her hospital offers the procedure.

The pill capsule is attached to a tube that can be inflated. Once the capsule hits the stomach, the balloon gets released. A doctor can use an X-ray to find where the balloon is and inflate it with gas through the tube. After, the doctor pulls the tube out through the patient’s mouth, leaving the balloon floating in the stomach.

Up to three balloons are introduced to the stomach over the 12-week period, with placement depending on patient’s fullness and weight loss progress, according to the product website. This fills the stomach, in turn making the patient feel more full.

The device’s makers claim overweight and obese patients can lose up to 20 pounds in three months.

The treatment is not currently approved in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration and is not covered through the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS). Patients in the U.K. can pay more than $3,300 if they want to get the treatment. A two-balloon procedure may cost about $5,000, according to Van Marsh.image 22

However, experts are not convinced the treatment will be a cure-all for obesity, given the balloons have to be deflated and removed after the 12 weeks are over.

“When they take the balloons out, what happens is the stomach hasn’t shrunk,” Tim Bean, a U.K.-based fitness expert. “So you’re left with the same size stomach, or possibly even bigger than there was beforehand.”

Other medical options for weight loss, like the four types of bariatric surgeries, can be more invasive. Some patients undergo the Lap-band procedure. The band is an adjustable ring that wraps around the upper portion of the stomach. It can be inflated by doctors by placing a small needle into a reservoir and filling it with liquid. The more liquid, the tighter the band gets, which makes the stomach smaller and in turn limits food intake.

Other procedures include the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, the most common surgery, where a doctor staples a portion of the stomach together to create a smaller pouch to limit how much food a person could eat.

There’s also the less common form of bypass called a biliopancreatic diversion with a duodenal switch, where a large portion of the stomach is removed and the remaining pouch is attached to the last segment of the small intestine.

Another procedure known as a vertical sleeve gastrectomy can also be undertaken. Patients have most of their stomach removed, and the remaining portions are joined by staples, leaving a small tube-shaped stomach that fills up quickly.

Source: cbs news

Ear Acupuncture May Hold Promise for Weight Loss

Placing five acupuncture needles in the outer ear may help people lose that spare tire, researchers report.

Ear acupuncture therapy is based on the theory that the outer ear represents all parts of the body. One type uses one needle inserted into the area that is linked to hunger and appetite, while the other involves inserting five needles at different key points in the ear.

“If the trend we found is supported by other studies, the hunger acupuncture point is a good choice in terms of convenience. However, for patients suffering from central obesity, continuous stimulation of five acupuncture points should be used,” said lead researcher Sabina Lim, from the department of meridian and acupuncture in the Graduate College of Basic Korean Medical Science at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, South Korea.

According to Lim, the effectiveness of acupuncture on obese patients is closely related to metabolic function. “Increased metabolic function promotes the consumption of body fat, overall, resulting in weight loss,” she said.

The report was published online Dec. 16 in the journal Acupuncture in Medicine.

Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center, said, “We must avoid rushing to judge that a treatment is ineffective just because we don’t understand the mechanism. Rather, if a treatment is genuinely effective, it invites us to figure out the mechanism.”

But this study does not prove the effectiveness of acupuncture, he said. “Placebo effects are strong, particularly when they involve needles. The evidence here falls short of proof,” Katz said.

According to the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, results from the few studies on acupuncture and weight loss have been mixed.

In one study, researchers examined the effect of ear acupuncture with sham acupuncture on obese women. “Researchers found no statistical difference in body weight, body-mass index and waist circumference between the acupuncture group and placebo,” said Katy Danielson, a spokeswoman for the center.

For this latest study, Lim and her colleagues compared acupuncture of five points on the outer ear with one-point acupuncture. They randomly assigned 91 overweight people to five-point acupuncture, one-point acupuncture (hunger) or sham (placebo) treatment.

During the eight weeks of the study, participants were told to follow a restrictive diet, but not a weight-loss diet. They were not supposed to increase their exercise.

Those who received five-point acupuncture had needles placed 2 millimeters deep in one outer ear taped in place and kept there for a week. Then the same treatment was applied to the other ear. The process was repeated over eight weeks.

Other patients received similar treatment with one needle or with sham acupuncture where the needles were removed immediately after insertion.

source: webmd

Tea Promotes Weight Loss, Improve Heart Health

black tea for weight loss

Tea has been found to help promote weight loss, improve bone and heart health, slow the progression of prostate cancer and activate areas of the brain that bolster attention, problem solving and mood, say researchers.

The December 2013 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition features 12 new articles about the relationship between tea and human health. Each paper is based on presentations from world-renowned scientists who participated in the Fifth International Scientific Symposium on Tea and Human Health, held at USDA in September 2012. Highlights of some of the compelling reports published through the AJCN include the following five papers:

Tea Leaf Polyphenols May Promote Weight Loss

Tea polyphenols and the caffeine content in tea increase energy expenditure and fat oxidation, providing benefits for achieving and maintaining an ideal body weight. The results of one meta-analysis suggests the increase in caloric expenditure is equal to about 100 calories over a 24-hour period, or 0.13 calories per mg catechins. In a related review, researchers concluded that subjects consuming green tea and caffeine lost an average of 2.9 pounds within 12 weeks while adhering to their regular diet. Population-based studies also show that habitual tea drinkers have lower Body Mass Indexes (BMIs) and waist-to-hip ratios and less body fat than non-tea drinkers. In addition, green tea and caffeine also appear to boost fat oxidation over 24 hours by an average of 16% or 0.02 grams per mg catechins.

Tea May Reduce Risk for Some Cancers

Green tea polyphenols may play a role in arresting the progression of certain cancers. For example, in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, supplementation with 600 mg/d green tea catechins reduced the progression of prostate cancer. The researchers reported that after a year, 9% of men in the green tea supplemented group had progressed to prostate cancer whereas 30% of men in the placebo group had progressed.

Hundreds—if not thousands—of laboratory, epidemiological and human intervention studies have found anti-cancer properties in compounds present in tea. The types of cancer that have shown benefits of tea include cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, lung, prostate, breast, and skin. The proposed mechanisms of action for providing protection against cancer include antioxidant effects, inhibition of growth factor signaling, as well as improving the efficacy of chemotherapy agents.

Tea Catechins are Cardioprotective

Numerous studies suggest tea supports heart health and healthy blood pressure, and appears to be associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, including stroke and heart attack. New research, published in the AJCN provides further support. Study results published by Claudio Ferri, MD, University L’Aquila, Italy, found that black tea reduced blood pressure, and among hypertensive subjects, it helped counteract the negative effects of a high-fat meal on blood pressure and arterial blood flow. Hypertensive subjects were instructed to drink a cup of tea after a meal that contained 0.45 grams fat/lb. body weight. The results suggest that tea prevented the reduction in flow-mediated dilation (FMD), the ability to increase arterial blood flow that occurs after a high-fat meal. In a previous study conducted by Ferri, tea improved FMD from 7.8 to 10.3%, and reduced both systolic and diastolic blood pressure by -2.6 and -2.2 mmHg, respectively, in study participants.

“Our studies build on previous work to clearly show that drinking as little as one cup of tea per day supports healthy arterial function and blood pressure. These results suggest that on a population scale, drinking tea could help reduce significantly the incidence of stroke, heart attack and other cardiovascular diseases,” concluded Dr. Ferri.

Tea Flavonoids Improve Bone Strength and Quality

Osteoporosis is a major public health concern but new research suggests that polyphenols in green tea may help improve bone quality and strength through many proposed mechanisms. In fact, one study found that tea drinking was associated with a 30% reduced risk in hip fractures among men and women over 50 years old. In a study of 150 postmenopausal women, researchers reported that 500 mg green tea extract (equivalent to 4-6 cups of green tea daily), alone or in combination with Tai Chi, improved markers for bone formation, reduced markers of inflammation and increased muscle strength in study participants. Numerous other studies have found that green tea flavanols provide a restorative effect to bone remodeling to help maintain bone density and slow bone loss.

Tea Improves Mood, Alertness and Problem Solving

Results from new research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that drinking tea improved attention and allowed individuals to be more focused on the task at hand. In this placebo-controlled study, subjects who drank tea produced more accurate results during an attention task and also felt more alert than subjects drinking a placebo. These effects were found for 2-3 cups of tea consumed within a time period of up to 90 minutes. Several studies have evaluated the role of tea in strengthening attention, mood and performance, and the results have been promising. It is thought that the amino acid theanine and caffeine, both present in tea, contribute to many of tea’s psychological benefits.

Twelve internationally renowned researchers contributed to the AJCN supplement, including experts from USDA, National Institutes of Health, UCLA, University of Glasgow and University of L’Aquila, among others. “The scientists who contributed their original research and insights are among the best in the world, and together, this body of research has significantly advanced the science of tea and human health,” said compendium editor Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, Professor, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and Director, Antioxidants Research Laboratory, Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston.

“These new peer-reviewed papers add to the previously-published body of evidence that shows that tea can improve human health—both physically and psychologically,” added Blumberg. “Humans have been drinking tea for some 5,000 years, dating back to the Paleolithic period. Modern research is providing the proof that there are real health benefits to gain from enjoying this ancient beverage.”

Source: med india