As you move through your weight-loss program, there’s a good chance that you will find yourself at a sticking point, where it just seems that no matter what you do, you just cannot lose any more weight. Typically, this happens when you’re battling with those last 5 or 10 pounds; in some cases, you may just decide to live with that extra weight. 
Don’t be so quick to give up this time. When you arm yourself with a few last strategies you can bypass this hurdle with success. If you implement two or three of the following quick changes, you should be able to drop 5 pounds in about two and a half to three weeks time, which is a safe rate that will ensure it is fat loss and not lean muscle loss.
Here are 5 quick changes to drop 5 pounds.
1- Implement extreme carb cyclingYou may already be on a diet that does make use of higher-carbohydrate days along with lower-carbohydrate days, but typical approaches tend to be quite moderate. When trying to strip off those last 5 pounds, you’re going to have to kick it up a notch and really go to the extremes.
Try making your low-carbohydrate days very low-carb, where you’re focused on strictly eating protein and fibrous vegetables. This will create a very high caloric deficit, thereby accelerating fat loss. Then, place your high-carbohydrate days on your training days and bring the calorie balance up to maintenance value -- or even slightly above -- by adding a very large amount of carbs.
Since carbohydrates are the macronutrient that most influences the metabolic rate, this drastic zigzag approach keeps the metabolism firing while you enjoy a faster rate of total fat loss.
2- Take one week off trainingIn some instances, the reason you’ve hit a wall with weight loss is because the body hasn’t received enough rest. When you’re verging on overtraining, it’s quite common for the body to actually retain water, making it harder to lean down.
Take one week off training while eating closer to a maintenance diet. This will help to reset the metabolism and water balance. Many people are very surprised at the impact taking one week off can make.
3- Shift the rep ranges of your exercisesPlateaus are quite common when you’ve been performing the same workout for a lengthy period of time and can keep you from dropping those last 5 pounds of fat. A simple way to crank up the calorie burn of your workout is to increase the reps to 10 for one single week while decreasing the rest period to only 1 minute between sets.
Note that you’re not aiming to make this a circuit training workout, but simply quickening the pace of the workout to add intensity. The nature of this protocol (10 reps with 1-minute rest periods), compared with a typical strength program of 5 reps and 3-minute rest periods, tends to produce a greater release of growth hormone in the body, which is beneficial for promoting lean muscle mass development.
We have 2 more quick changes to help you drop those 5 pounds next...

4- Increase protein intakeThe fourth way to lose those last 5 pounds is to increase the protein content of your diet. It’s important to remember that the leaner you get and the lower you take your total calorie intake, the more protein you will need. This helps to prevent lean muscle mass loss and ensures recovery.
An added benefit of bringing your protein intake higher is that it will increase the metabolic rate. Over the course of a week or two, this could mean the difference between staying at a standstill or losing another half to one pound.
Great sources of protein to include regularly are chicken, lean beef, egg whites, white fish, and low-fat cottage cheese.

5- Combine sprint training with steady-state cardioFinally, consider altering the method of cardio you’re doing so that you start with 5 to 8 interval sprints of 30 seconds in length interspersed with 90-second rest periods. Then, proceed to finish the cardio session off with another 15 minutes of moderate paced cardio.
This gives you the best of both worlds, as you’ll get the metabolic spark that interval training offers along with the benefit of moderate cardio that strictly uses fatty acids for fuel.
it’s not too late
Don’t give up too quickly. Start making a few adjustments to your training and diet program and keep monitoring how it’s influencing your progress. In time, you’ll be able to see what works so you can reach your end goal.

By Askmen Contributor(Fitness Specialist http://www.askmen.com/)

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1.     Ice Water

Probably the most powerful weight loss tool at your disposal, and also the cheapest, is plain old ice water (who’d a thunk!). Drinking plenty of water is great for your body because it helps you feel full, boosts your metabolism, and it contains zero calories. Furthermore, some studies suggest that drinking just two extra glasses of ice water per day can help boost your metabolism by as much as 30%. This equates to about 5 pounds of fat loss per year!

2.     Vegetable Juice

Vegetable juice is every bit as nutritious as fruit juice but with about half the calories. Most vegetable juices are also rich in fiber which can help make you feel full and in turn eat less.

3.     Fruit Smoothies

Mix-up a delicious batch of smoothies using your favorite fruits and a little bit of skim milk. Do not consume smoothies with added sugar, whipped cream, honey, or other sweeteners that can add hundreds of calories – in other words, don’t eat smoothies from your favorite local restaurant or ice-cream shop and think that you’re eating healthy because you’re not!

4.     Fruit Juice

Fruit juices have loads of vitamins and nutrients, but it’s important to make sure that there’s no added sugar…sorry Sunny D and Tang! Also remember that the pulpier, the better. Fruit juice with lots of pulp contains added fiber that can help you feel more full and eat less.

5.     Black Coffee

Coffee has plenty of positive health benefits and best of all, it contains no calories! Black coffee is rich in antioxidants that can help boost your mood, improve concentration, reduce the risk of diabetes and cancer, as well as many other benefits. Keep you coffee consumption at 4 cups or less per day – as with anything, moderation is the key.

6.     Green Tea

Like coffee, green tea has a plethora of positive health benefits and contains plenty of helpful antioxidants. It also helps to boost your metabolism if consumed on a daily basis, which can help to speed up your body’s fat-burning mechanism – as much as a 40% increase in some cases!

7.     Milk

The calcium in Low-fat or skim milk can help contribute to the breakdown of fat cells in your body. Too much milk, though, can pack on the pounds because it does contain a lot of calories, so stick to 3-4 small servings per day in order to benefit from milk’s weight loss benefits.

8.     Protein Drinks

Protein drinks, such as from powders or pre-mixed varieties, can have a great effect on your weight loss regiment, because lean muscle is very efficient at burning fat. In other words, the more muscle you have, the more fat your body will burn. Protein is a big part of this equation, because it’s the building block of muscle growth.

9.     Fiber Drinks

There’s many fiber-rich drinks on the market today, and they can be a great tool for any weight loss program. Fiber helps to make your body feel full, and it also has plenty of other positive health benefits as well.

10.  Apple Cider Vinegar

Sounds a little gross, and it may be too gross for some people to try, but apple cider vinegar is a sort-of “old school” health drink that was very popular in the ’70s as a weight loss tool. Although there aren’t any scientific studies that actually prove it works, many fitness gurus swear by it, saying that it greatly boosts your metabolism if taken regularly…Hey, it’s worth a try! Here’s a recipe to make your own apple cider vinegar. Kick start your metabolism with the same ingredients used in the 1970’s version of the weight loss drink. A pinch of cayenne pepper and dash of garlic juice adds spice to your apple cider vinegar drink and may increase your circulation. In addition, some dieters use this drink to wash down a B6 vitamin three times a day.

By : http://www.promotehealth.info/

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What determines your hunger signals? Boredom? Indulgent cravings? Habit?
What should determine your hunger signals?
Hunger.

Heres how to make it so.

InstructionsThings Youll Need: Just a little will power

1.RECOGNIZE IT BEFORE ACTING - When I feel the urge to eat a snack or meal, I ask myself where this urge is coming from.
Good questions to Ive asked myself to stop overeating:
Am I busy when the urge came on?
Do I feel as though I could eat a lot or a little?
What am I hungry for?
All of these small questions help me evaluate my desire for food, to see if it is genuine hunger or my mind playing a trick on me. Self-awareness is the most important thing.

2.DO SOMETHING ELSE - After Ive concluded that I want to eat purely because I am bored, I DO SOMETHING, and that helps me be productive too ;).
Laundry
Re-writing a resume
Starting a blog
Playing a game
Catching up with a friend...

I dont need to list daily activities you can do to live your life instead of eat it!

3. WHEN GIVING IN, GIVE IN MINIMALLY - Complete self-denial should never be what were after, because that only spawns self resentment and ultimate failure. If you really want a snack after sincerely trying to cure your boredom, eat one! But this is the pivotal moment to exercise your moderation skills. Heres why...
When youre eating and not hungry, youre more likely to overeat. This is because your stomach is already stretched and ready for more food, plus, and perhaps more importantly, your MENTAL HUNGER comes with NO biological indicators to make you feel full. So if its mental hunger youre feeding, you could eat forever. Yikes.

Good minimal "giving-in" snacks:

·        Fruits

·        A cup of warm milk

·        Slices of cheese

·        Handful of nuts
·        Bottle of water
·        Cup of Yogurt

These are all good things!

Tips & Warnings
• Make small changes each day
• Never think there is "nothing" you can do!
• Imagine how your life would be different if you ate a little bit more consciously
• Keep "giving-in" snacks on handBy: Laura Catella, eHow Member

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Fat burning foods are foods that burn more calories than the calorie content of the food itself, thereby fighting stored fat. Fat burning foods help lose fat even while you sleep.

If you skip meals and food, it will slow your metabolism and your health will deteriorate.

There are certain foods which actually burn more fat than the calorie content of the food itself. These fat burning foods are natural plant foods. If you eat these fat burning foods and do some exercise, it will boost your metabolism and burn more calories (fat) at a faster rate for several hours even after exercise. Full list of the fat burning foods is available.

List of Foods that burn fat: Fat Fighters

1. Fruits rich in vitamin C - Citrus Fruits: like limes, lemons, oranges, guava, grapefruit, papaya, sweet lime, tangerines and tomatoes are rich in Vitamin C and fiber and have fat burning properties so they may be called as fat burning foods or fat burners or fat fighters.
Vitamin C helps the body process fat faster and also stimulates the carnitine amino acid which speeds up the bodys fat-burning capacity.
Vitamin C dilutes the fat and makes it less effective and helps in releasing the fat from the body.

2. Apples: Pectin in apple restricts the cells to absorb the fat; and also encourages water absorption from the food which helps in releasing the fat deposits from the body. The antioxidants in apples may help prevent metabolic syndrome, a condition marked by excess belly fat or an apple body shape.

3. Calcium Rich Dairy Products: Calcium in dairy products like milk, cheese and yogurt act as fat burner that can boost weight loss by increasing fat breakdown in fat cells. According to Professor Michael Zemel at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, (Obesity Research, April 2004; vol 12; pp 582-590), dairy-rich diets with same calorie restriction can nearly double the rate of weight and fat loss. Eating 3-4 servings of dairy products a day is more effective at enhancing weight loss efforts than calcium supplementation alone. Dairy products may therefore be termed as fat burning foods or fat burners.
The researchers found:
Overweight people who consumed 3 servings a day of calcium-rich dairy lost more belly fat than those who followed a similar diet minus two or more of the dairy servings. The calcium supplements didnt work as well as milk.

4. Nuts help feel full while also increasing the bodys ability to burn fat, says author Jordi Salas-Salvado of the University of Rovira i Virgili in Reus, Spain.

5. Chillies: Foods containing chillies or cayenne pepper are considered to be as foods that burn fat. Chillies contain capsaicin that helps in increasing the metabolism. Capsaicin is a thermo genic food, so it causes the body to burn extra calories for 20 minutes after you eat the chilies.

6. Cardamom: Cardamom is a thermo genic herb like Capsaicin that increases metabolism and helps burn body fat.

7. Curry leaves (Curry Patta): Curry leaves flush out fat and toxins, reducing fat deposits in the body.

8. Garlic: An effective fat burning food.

9. Proteins: Protein rich foods and high fiber foods are the best as foods burning belly fat. Protein needs more energy to digest than fat as so eat low calorie dairy products, beans, whole grains, oatmeal, eggs, etc. as much as possible.
Lentils are high in protein and soluble fiber, two nutrients that stabilize blood sugar levels, therefore lentils are a great tummy flattener," according to Tanya Zuckerbrot, R.D., author of The F-Factor Diet.

10.  Green Tea: Studies show that green tea revs up your metabolism, so drink several cups a day.

11.  Fish oil: Fish oil supplements are a great way to shed pounds. A recent study found that fish oil is great for helping your body burn fat more efficiently. You may lose up to 2 kg over 3 months.

12.  Some of the other foods that may be included in the list of fat burning foods are asparagus, beet root, broccoli, cabbage, carrot, chillies, beans, soybeans, sweet potatoes, blueberries and watermelon.

13.  Honey: Honey mobilizes the extra fat deposits in the body.

14.  Avoid Salt and Sugar: Avoiding salt and sugar can shape you up very fast.

Note that in order to lose weight you have to burn more calories than you consume. This can be done by eating fat fighting foods and doing some physical activity. This will help your body burning up the excessive stored fat.

Article By: Padma Mehta and Prakash Mehta (www.fatfreekitchen.com)

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