Precision Nutrition System

Precision Nutrition System
Healthy Eating For Fat Loss

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Atkins Diet Review for Weight loss

I found this on weightlossresources.co.uk and thought I would pass it on to you.

To shift those pounds quickly you simply need to start the day with bacon and eggs, snack on chunks of cheese, top coffee with cream and feast on steaks fried in butter. Not exactly the typical foods you’d find on the shopping lists of most slimmers who’ve grown up with the idea that a low-fat diet is the best way to lose weight. But like all things that sound too good to be true, there’s a catch. And in the case of the Atkin’s diet, it means that filling up on high-fat foods needs to be balanced by giving up most carbs including bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, chocolate, crisps, biscuits, cake – even fruit, milk and some veg in the early stages.

Nevertheless, the Atkin’s diet has captured the hearts – and tastebuds – of everyone from A-list celebs such as Jennifer Aniston and Renee Zellweger to business men, teachers and housewives. In fact, at its peak in late 2003, more than three million Brits were estimated to have tried the diet in an effort to shape up and slim down.

In spite of this, the Atkins Diet has caused the biggest weight loss debate in years, generating almost as many column inches as advocates of the diet have claimed to lose from their waistline. And even today, nutrition experts have still not been won over. Here’s the lowdown…
What’s the theory?

Devised by the late Dr Robert Atkins, this is a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet. Dr Atkins' theory is really quite simple: when you cut out carbs, your body is forced into burning its fat stores to provide it with energy; as you burn more calories when your body burns fat compared with carbohydrate, you'll lose weight more quickly; by cutting out carbs, blood sugar levels remain more stable throughout the day, and so prevent overeating.
How does the Atkins Diet work?

There are four phases to the Atkins diet. The first phase is called Induction, which must be followed for at least two weeks, although this phase can be continued for much longer if you can bear it! During Induction, you must severely limit your intake of carbohydrate to a tiny 20g a day (most of us eat around 250g a day). As well as avoiding carb-rich treats such as biscuits, cakes, chocolate, crisps, fizzy drinks, croissants and pastry, this also means ditching bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, milk, fruit and most veg from the menu. In contrast, you can eat unlimited amounts of red meat, chicken, fish, cheese, eggs, mayo, cream and butter. It’s during the Induction phase that your body switches from burning carbs to burning fat and blood sugar levels stabilise.

The second phase, known as Ongoing Weight Loss, allows you to slightly increase your carb intake – by 5g daily for a week at a time – until you find your Critical Carbohydrate Level for Losing Weight. This is the maximum amount of carbohydrate you can eat each day to lose between 1 and 3lb a week. For some people, this may only be 25g carbohydrate, for others it might be 50g. Nevertheless, it’s still considerably lower than most of us are used to and really only allows for the introduction of a few more veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds. Bread, potatoes, rice, pasta and breakfast cereals are still off limits!

It’s time to enter phase three, called Pre-maintenance, once you have just 5-10lb left to lose. During this phase, you increase you carb intake by 10g each day for a week at a time. The idea is to slow down your weight loss to no more than 1lb a week in an effort to prepare your body for the final phase, weight maintenance. By now you can start to include tiny amounts of traditional starchy foods such as porridge, bread and pasta – and we are talking tiny amounts! For example, just 40g cooked brown rice or 30g cooked pasta each provide 10g of carbs!

The fourth and final phase, Lifetime Maintenance, aims to help you maintain your weight. While you can have a slightly more varied carbohydrate intake, most people need to limit carbs to less than 90g a day – that’s still only around a third of what most of us eat a day. The result: you’ll be following a low-carb diet for life.
So how much weight can I expect to lose?

Dr Atkins claims you can expect to lose 6-10lb in the first two weeks of Induction, which should slow to 1-3lb a week once you enter the Ongoing Weight Loss Phase. During Pre-maintenance, you can expect to lose 1lb a week at most.
I keep hearing about ‘net carbs’. What are these?

Not all carbohydrates can be digested by the body. Fibre, for example, passes through the body without affecting blood sugar levels. The Atkins diet focuses on those carbohydrates that can be digested and therefore affect blood sugar levels.

The ‘net’ carbohydrate value of a food, simply refers to the amount of digestible carbohydrate a product contains. In the UK, this is equivalent to the carbohydrate content given in the nutrition information chart on food packaging.
I’ve noticed there are loads of low-carb products available. Should I try them?

The availability of low-carb products has grown tremendously in the past few years and you can now buy everything from low-carb pasta, soups and bread to tomato ketchup, shakes and chocolate. If you decide to follow a low-carb diet such as the Atkins plan, these can add variety to your diet. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that these products can be expensive and many add few other nutrients to your diet. They are also often higher in fat and/or calories than the standard product, making them a less suitable option if you’re trying to lose weight by a more balanced method such as counting calories.
Does the Atkins diet have any side effects?

Unpleasant side effects can occur with the Atkins diet. To start with, burning fat results in the production of substances called ketones as your body enters a state called ketosis. This can result in bad breath, tiredness, weakness, dizziness, insomnia and nausea. Constipation may also occur as a consequence of avoiding typically high-fibre foods such as fruit, veg, beans, wholewheat pasta, brown rice, wholegrain breakfast cereals and jacket potatoes.

When it comes to long-term side effects, many health professionals are concerned that the Atkins diet may have serious dangers. While the high intake of fat, particularly saturates, may increase the risk of heart disease, there are also concerns that the unbalanced nature of the Atkins diet may lead to nutritional deficiencies, which cause health problems in later life. For example, poor intakes of bone-building calcium (found in dairy products) may increase the risk of osteoporosis, while poor intakes of antioxidant nutrients (found in fruit and veg) have been linked with a host of health problems ranging from heart disease and cancer to premature ageing and cataracts. Some experts are also worried that high intakes of protein may cause kidney problems or weaken bones.
Are there any other bad points?

Because so many foods are off limits, the diet can get very boring with the result that many people give up after a short while. It’s also almost impossible to follow the Atkin’s plan if you’re a vegetarian as nuts, seeds, beans and many vegetables are banned in the early stages. Most experts also believe the Atkins plan fails to teach people about the basic principles of a balanced, healthy diet, which science irrefutably proves can help keep us healthy and free from disease.
Any pros?

The main positive is that people can lose considerable amounts of weight, really quite quickly and this can be very motivating. The diet also encourages people to cut out most processed carbs and alcohol. Thanks to it allowing plenty of red meat and high-fat butter, cream, cheese and mayo, it’s also the one diet that’s got men talking about the need to lose weight. In many cases, this talk has turned into action, with many men following the Atkins diet in an effort to lose their beer bellies!
What do the experts say?

The scientific jury’s still out on whether low-carb diets really do burn fat and most experts agree more research is needed to identify the long-term health risks and benefits. The Atkins Diet certainly flies in the face of healthy eating guidelines, which recommend less fat and more fruit, veg and high-fibre carbs. Nutrition experts are particularly worried that the diet may increase the risk of heart disease as it’s potentially very high in fat, especially saturates. Not even revised guidelines for fat intakes from Atkins Nutritionals – the company set up by the late Dr Robert Atkins to sell his products and promote the diet – have helped qualm most health professional’s fears. While the company recommended that no more than 20 percent of our calories should come from saturates, this is still twice as much the recommended amount for a healthy heart. Most experts also worry about the dangers of encouraging people to eat less fruit and veg – there’s overwhelming evidence that these foods can protect us from a host of diseases including cancer.
Is the diet still as popular as it once was?

It seems more of us are starting to serve spaghetti with our Bolognese, roast potatoes with our Sunday lunch and rice with our curries. According to new research, the popularity of the Atkins diet has taken a massive dive in America. The latest figures revealed that in January 2004 more than nine percent of people in the US were following the diet, but by November 2004 this had dropped to less than four percent.

Meanwhile, if book sales are anything to go by, it looks like the same is happening in Britain. In December 2004, bookshops reported that sales of Dr Atkins infamous diet book were just one tenth of those a year ago, when hopeful slimmers bought more than 110,000 copies in one week alone.

Numerous health scares reported in the press have appeared to turn many people against the Atkins regime and at last we’re beginning to take notice of the concerns of nutrition experts. Revelations that Dr Atkins was obese and suffering from heart problems at the time of his death have done little to help the low-carb cause, even though it was later claimed that these problems were the result of medical treatment.

Even at the height of its popularity, a Weight Loss Resources poll in October 2003 revealed that nine out of 10 members thought there should be guidance from the Department of Health about any potential problems linked to the Atkins Diet. Now it seems, the diet will lose many of its fans before official guidelines can be developed!
Juliette’s verdict

From a practical point of view, while fried eggs and bacon for breakfast every day may initially sound tempting, most people will be left craving a piece of toast and a banana within a few days.

It’s also worth pointing out that the Atkins diet almost certainly offers a reduction in calories – and this will definitely help you lose weight. For example, even though the diet suggests you can eat unlimited amounts of calorie-packed butter, mayo and cream, the foods they are typically served with are banned, which ultimately limits the amount you eat. For example, cream is traditionally served with fruit, mixed into a pasta sauce or served with coffee – but fruit and pasta are banned and coffee is limited. Similarly, butter is traditionally spread on bread or served with potatoes – and again both are off limits, leaving you few choices for eating more butter. Meanwhile, most people find there’s only so much meat or eggs they can eat, before tastebuds become tired with the same flavour. Again, this works to limit the quantity eaten.

Like most nutrition experts, the potential high fat content of the diet concerns me. Even if followers don’t eat huge amounts, I’m not keen on the idea of a diet that suggests it’s OK to eat large amounts.

Meanwhile, having spent years trying to encourage people to eat more fruit and veg, I find the idea of ‘banning’ or ‘limiting’ these foods appalling – this to me is a huge step backwards. After all, even our great, great, great grandparents recognised the importance of eating more of the green stuff!

Ultimately, until more research is done to identify the long-term risks or benefits of the Atkins diet, I would err on the side of caution. If after reading this, you still want to give it a go, I’d suggest only trying it for a couple of weeks at most and then transferring to a longer-term, lower-fat diet that includes a wide range of foods, including carbs!



Thursday, November 24, 2005

How to lose weight - what works, and what does not




The best way to lose weight and have lasting weight loss is to eat right and workout, nothing magic or special. If you follow this advice you will lose the weight.

Now for what does not work. Eating poorly and not exercising. I guess you knew that. But even though everyone knows that they still follow that plan and add a special pill or electronic ab belt and expect to shed the pounds and lose weight. This will not do it. I am sorry to say it but you have to stick with plan A, and that is to eat right and exercise.

Diet and weight loss pills can help, but they will not do all the work for you. Feel free to use various weight loss products to help you but do not rely on them.

I have not looked at al the different diets on the market but I will tell you there are some good ones and others that are a waste of time. The one thing in common with all diets I have examined is that you must be consent and follow their directions. I know people like to add a cheat day or add a soda here and a snack there then complain that they did not see the results they had expected. Well I will say this; you cannot try a diet you have to follow it. If you do not want to follow every word they say find another program because you are wasting your time with the current diet. Remember that diets take time, you will not lose weight overnight. If you are expecting to lose 20 lbs of fat your first week, it will not happen.

Just eat right and workout



Saturday, November 12, 2005

Weight loss bad news



I hate to break it to you but you cannot spot reduce. If someone tells you that you can spot reduce, they are lying.


Genetics will decide where the fat comes and where it goes. Doing 1000 crunches, leg lifts or ab machines will not reduce your belly fat or make you thinner. Just as 1000 side leg lifts will not trim your inner thighs. Your body does not burn the fat it needs from the body part that you’re exercising. So there is no need or use to overdo an exercise for one specific body part. Do not buy into those ads for the ab machines that take inches off your waist. It just will not happen.

Exercises such as crunches or leg lifts improve the tone and endurance of the muscles, so do not give up on them. Fat will pretty much come off in the order it came on. When we exercise the body will draw upon its fat stores for energy.

Any aerobic activity that elevates your heart rate can help you burn fat and take off unwanted pounds to lose weight safely and naturally. Many experts recommend doing at least three sessions of 20 minutes of aerobic activity per week. Ideally, for long-term weight control, you should engage in at least four sessions per week, for 45 minutes each time.

Listed are a few alternatives to traditional aerobic exercise that are effective fat burners:

* Mountain Biking
* In-line Skating
* Walking
* Country Line Dancing
* Hiking
* Martial Arts
* Boxing
* Cross-country Skiing
* Downhill Skiing
* Water Sports


Friday, November 11, 2005

Eating out

How to eat for weight loss when you are not at home.

- Restaurant portions are usually twice the size they should be so start you meal by putting half in a doggy bag.
- Do not add too many calories to your salad with creamy dressing, try a vinaigrette.
- Arrive with a healthy meal in mind. Grilled fish and chicken without the sauce may be your best bets.
- For dessert try sugar free Jell-O or fruit instead of something from the dessert menu.
- Take your time enjoy the night out. Do not take the next bite until you have completely swallowed the last bite.

Hope this helps and allows you to have a good meal out.




Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Eat slowly, what will that do?

A few tips for today to help you lose weight and get the weight loss results you are looking for.

Eat slowly – The faster a person the more they consume. It takes about 15 minutes for our brain to get the signal from our stomach that we are full or have eaten enough. Eating too fast will not allow enough time for our brain to realize we are full.

Include a low fat protein-rich food like tofu, beans, eggs, and low fat milk, yogurt or cottage cheese with every meal. These foods give feeling of fullness for longer time.


Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Weight loss tip - out of sight out of mind

weight loss tip lose weight tips
Keep serving trays off the table.

May people trying to lose weight are often tempted by good food sitting in front of them. Add to that the fact that they believe that cannot have it makes most want it even more. If the food is there it is easy to help yourself to seconds and hard to get away from the table.

It makes good sense to leave the serving dishes in the kitchen or on a counter instead of setting them on the table. Prepare your plates before you sit down to eat with reasonably sized portions.

If you are still hungry load up on the vegetables and skip the meat and starches. A great weight loss tip is to treat vegetables as your main course and meat as a side dish.


Hoodia gordonii for weight loss, but is it a miracle solution

lose weight Hoodia gordonii weight loss
As people continue to search for ways to lose weight and shed unwanted fat drug manufactures continue to search for new products to aide in the fat loss battle. Hoodia gordonii is the latest product to help assistant weight loss. Hoodia gordonii claim to weight loss is as an appetite suppressant. Their claim is you eat less which reduces your calories and this should result in weight loss. Demand for this weight loss steadily climbing.

Based on what I have seen, read, and heard let me give you my thoughts about losing weight and Hoodia gordonii

Like many other new products the reviews are mixed. On one end of the spectrum some people are reporting that hoodia has not had any benefits at all, absolutely nothing. Of course there are people that polar opposite reporting that it has completely stopped their appetite, and they are expecting weight loss. Most responses lie in the middle. Hoodia does not completely eliminate your appetite, but it does help take the edge off. To get the weight loss most want disciplined exercise routine is still required.

The chemical compound P57 is one of the active ingredients in hoodia gordonii that is considered to be a piece of the equation responsible for the appetite suppressing effects. Hoodia Gordonii works by mimicking the effect that glucose has on nerve cells in the brain. The active ingredient P57 curbs the appetite by fooling the brain into thinking it is full, even when it is not.

Hoodia does show some promise. PhytoPharm conducted a clinical study, indicating the amazing appetite suppressing effects of Hoodia and the active P57 molecule. Read their press release. The problem is that Hoodia has only demonstrated effectiveness in fresh, raw pieces of the plant, while the effectiveness of powdered Hoodia has yet to be demonstrated.

A major problem with the Hoodia products currently available is that most contain very little, if any, of the active ingredient needed to suppress hunger. The reason for this is because of availability of the plant. In South Africa, Hoodia is on the endangered list of plants. Because of this Hoodia is not supposed to be exported. This in turn makes real Hoodia is very difficult to come by and equally expensive. A logical question to follow is…

Is there any Hoodia in my Hoodia?

In my opinion Hoodia shows promise, but I recommend people wait a while until there is more refutable information. The current products on the market are suspect and I have reservations.



Thursday, November 03, 2005

Go fat free but add the flavour

When you go fat free or low fat, you also cut out much of the taste of the foods you eat. Add the flavour back with herbs and spices. Strong flavours such as vinegar, garlic, chilli powder, cayenne, curry powder, rosemary and tarragon can be used to doctor up any food you are eating.

Adding flavour will help you enjoy your food more. If you enjoy what you are eating you may be less likely to have cravings for or snack on junk food that contains more fat or sugar.

Make sure that the foods you have selected as fat free do not replace the fat with sugar. The amount of calories consumed is more important than the amount of fat consumed.




Wednesday, November 02, 2005

calorie counter

To lose weight and drop those unwanted pounds you need to burn more calories than you take in. If you want to know how many calories you need visit past post
how many calories do I need per day

Now that you know the number of calories you need you have to make sure you take in less than this amount. It takes 3500 clalories to make or shed one pound of fat.

Take a look at the calorie counter below and get a handel on the number of calories you consume in a day. This will get you on tract to weight loss.


Click here if you're serious about losing weight.

Are you REALLY serious about losing weight, controlling diabetes, lowering blood pressure or cholesterol levels, or just trying to achieve peak health?


Are you genuinely tired of hype, gimmick diets, bland foods, wild claims, and wasting your hard earned money only to fail or get results that don't last? With the HealthFitCounter, you can control your diet the natural way. By simply controlling your intake of each of the nutritional categories,
you will soon begin to feel healthier.

How it works:

The HealthFitCounter Software can be used on your Pocket PC, Palm OS or Desktop computer. It has over 2,000 food items stored in memory.

You can call up foods that you eat and save the nutritional information into daily totals for each of the nine nutritional categories. You always know at a glance how many calories, fats, carbohydrates
etc. you have eaten at any time of the day.







  • Has 400 "open" locations for your favorite foods
  • Displays nine of the most important nutritional categories
  • All information "at a glance"
  • Set your own personal goals in any or all the nutritional categories
  • Can display daily, weekly, or monthly totals
  • Displays portion size
  • Includes an exercise database








Tuesday, November 01, 2005

CABBAGE SOUP DIET and weight loss

Cabbage soup diet or Russian cabbage soup diet, is a popular fad diet, that has had constant hype and marketing publicity within the press, especially with claims that some medical professions recommend this cabbage soup diet for weight loss prior to surgery.

The cabbage soup diet requires food combinations that make little sense, plus this plan is just not very healthy to begin with and is hazardous to your long term health and fitness.

The cabbage soup diet is a diet that enables you to eat as much as you like of a soup that you have stunk the kitchen out making, followed by storing in tupperware dishes within your fridge.

This diet is good for people who like to hear that they can eat as much cabbage soup as they want, as some dieters struggle if they know that they have to miss a meal or have a replacement shake. This will surely sound appealing to dieters, because after all, dieters just love to hear that they can eat unlimited amounts of any type of food.

The problem with the cabbage soup diet is that this cabbage soup is so horrible tasting, regardless of how you try and spice it up, that after a few servings you spend your time trying to wash the contents of your tupperware containers down the sink.

Weight loss from the cabbage soup diet is due to the few calories that the soup contains, and also a major reduction in water content throughout your body.

Due to the lack of energy that the cabbage soup diet will give you, your energy stores in both your muscles and liver will be greatly reduced, resulting in a lower body fluid content, which results in you feeling tired throughout the day.

As the cabbage soup diet is really a form of starvation with the added benefits of regular visits to the loo, I personally would advise against this method, however if you wish to try it, you will find the recipe below.

Alternatively you could try and make up your own recipe by boiling two hand falls from a compost heap. Personally I wouldn't try the first method, and certainly wouldn't recommend that you try the second.

For those of you that want to spend a week on the loo

1 head cabbage, shredded or chopped
2 large onions, chopped
16-28 ounces canned tomatoes, chopped
2 green peppers
4 stalks celery
1-2 packages Lipton onion soup mix
black pepper
fresh herbs, chopped
6 carrots, sliced
1/2 pound green beans, sliced diagonally
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar (optional)

Put all vegetables in a big pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil stirring in the soup mix, and boil gently for 10 minutes. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until all the vegetables are soft. Stir in the black pepper and chopped herbs of your choice to flavor.

Here is the good news, you can eat as much of the soup that you want, with the following on these days.

DAY 1: All fruits except bananas.

DAY 2: All vegetables, raw or cooked. This includes baked potato with a LITTLE butter.

DAY 3: Fruits and vegetables, but no potatoes or bananas.

DAY 4: Bananas and skim milk--eat as many as 8 bananas and drink as many as 8 glasses of skim milk.

DAY 5: Beef, skinless chicken, and/or fish--as much as 20 ounces, total. You can also eat 6 tomatoes. And you must drink 8 glasses of water. Don't forget at least one bowl of soup.

DAY 6: Beef, skinless chicken, or fish and vegetables. Drink 8 glasses of water and eat at least one bowl of soup.

DAY 7: Brown rice, vegetables, and unsweetened fruit juice.


Friday, October 28, 2005

How many Calories per hour do I burn

As you may know to lose weight and have long term fat loss you have to burn more calories than you take in. This chat will tell you how many calories you bur doing one hour of different activites. This is imporant for your weight loss goals. If you are not sure how many calories you need to stay at your current weight follow the link below. Exercise is the best method of weight reductio. Use this chart to plan out your weight loss program.

How many calories should I eat to lose weight?

1KG = 2.2lbs

BODY WT. KG

44

97

50

110

56

123

62

137

68

159

74

163

80

176

ACTIVITY LB

Badminton

265

300

325

360

395

430

465

Baseball

210

225

240

255

270

285

290

Basketball

Competitive

365

390

415

445

460

500

510

550

565

600

610

655

660

710

Boxing

400

455

510

565

620

675

730

Circuit Training

350

380

410

440

470

500

530

Cycle @ 12 mph

Racing

360

450

390

510

425

570

460

630

495

690

530

750

565

810

Dancing

270

295

320

345

370

395

420

Field Hockey

360

405

450

500

545

590

635

Football

355

400

445

490

535

580

625

Golf

230

260

290

320

350

380

410

Horse Riding

240

275

310

345

370

405

440

Rowing Crew

600

660

720

780

830

890

940

Running 6.5 mph

@ 10 mph

425

620

480

690

535

765

590

835

650

900

705

965

760

1035

Skating (inline)

250

285

320

355

380

410

445

Skiing (piste)

295

335

375

415

455

495

535

Squash

515

580

645

710

785

850

915

Swimming Slow

Fast laps

230

400

260

445

290

490

320

535

350

580

380

625

410

670

Tennis social

300

340

375

415

455

490

530

Weight Training

350

395

440

485

530

575

620

Walking 5 kph.

200

220

240

260

280

300

320

BODY WT. KG

86

190

92

203

98

216

104

229

110

242

116

255

122

269

ACTIVITY LB

Badminton

500

535

570

600

635

665

700

Baseball

305

320

335

350

365

380

395

Basketball

Competitive

710

760

760

810

805

865

855

910

905

960

950

1010

995

1065

Boxing

785

840

895

950

1005

1055

1110

Circuit Training

560

590

620

650

680

710

740

Cycle @ 12 mph

Racing

600

870

635

930

670

990

705

1050

740

1110

775

1170

810

1230

Dancing

445

470

495

520

545

570

595

Field Hockey

680

725

770

815

860

905

950

Football

670

715

760

805

850

895

940

Golf

440

470

500

530

560

590

620

Horse Riding

475

510

545

580

615

650

685

Rowing Crew

1000

1060

1120

1180

1235

1295

1345

Running 6.5 mph

@ 10 mph

820

1100

875

1170

930

1235

985

1300

1045

1365

1100

1430

1160

1495

Skating (inline)

480

515

550

590

625

660

700

Skiing (piste)

575

615

655

695

735

775

815

Squash

980

1045

1110

1175

1240

1305

1370

Swimming Slow

Fast laps

440

705

470

750

500

795

530

840

560

885

590

930

620

975

Tennis social

570

605

645

680

720

760

795

Weight Training

665

710

755

800

845

890

935

Walking 5 kph.

340

360

380

400

420

440

460