The Senior Walking Fitness Blog

Hello Everybody,

Here we are, Christmas over and looking forward to the New Year. Have you noticed the clothes in your wardrobe seem to have shrunk? Or could it be…? Yes, it could - you have put on weight. Which is more of a problem than usual because we are close to the January Sales. Some have started already. That means cheap clothes, but you really do not want to buy a new wardrobe of clothes, because you cannot get into your old ones. Which brings us to fast weight loss.

I do not like fast weight loss. It can cause gallstones and loss of muscle mass . There are pills which increase heart rate and cause palpitations. You might suffer from lethargy and irritability or hair loss and loose hanging skin. Or you might not. But even if you do not suffer these side effects you will put weight back on again when you stop the diet and carry on with your normal lifestyle. But you do want to get into those clothes and Christmas is the few days a year when, on average, people eat three times their normal calorie intake. You will not put on so much in such a short time until next Christmas.

So it looks like a fast weight loss program is the solution. You could even try a diet pill. But please do not do it too often. A diet pill that does not appear to have side effects is Meratol. It is new and has been launched with the usual PR feeding frenzy, but as far as I can tell it is safe. The ingredients are prickly pear cactus, brown seaweed extract, cactus extract and capsicum extract. The PR machine says these are all natural ingredients, so must be good for you. Of course, if you were ill advised enough to have a holiday canoeing up the Amazon the poison darts blown at you by irate natives would be tipped with all natural ingredients. So do not get too excited about natural ingredients in any product.

We are also told that Meratol is a clinically proven diet pill. I can find nothing about it being independently tested. Any company manufacturing a health or pharmaceutical product would be in trouble if it did not clinically test and prove. So I suppose this was in-house.

The manufacturer of Meratol diet pill is a Scottish company named Advanced Health Ltd, which before 21 July 2009 was called Advanced Salon Supplies Ltd and before 18 September 2008 Slimdex Ltd. We are told that it is a well respected company.

The effect of Meratol diet pill is to suppress appetite, cut carbohydrate intake by 82 percent, burn 12 times more calories and speed up metabolism. Presumably it burns 12 times more calories than you would have burnt if you had not taken Meratol.

The effect of taking the diet pill is said to be that you will lose 3-5 pounds a week.

In the UK a 30 day supply of Meratol costs £29.99 and if you buy off the Meratol website you will find, on ordering, that you also pay £3.95 UK mail.

In addition to the 30 day supply you can order supplies for 60 days, 90 days and 120 days. I would advise that 30 days is plenty long enough and after that you should begin a healthy diet and exercise program to burn fat, and forget the pills.

To drop a dress size you will need to lose 8-10 pounds. With the Meratol diet pill you should be able to do this inside a month. But remember when you stop the pills your weight will go up again if you do not change to a more healthy lifestyle. Good luck in the Sales.

See you soon,

Cambridge UK

Photo. healthchocolate.net (Flickr)

Technorati Tags: burn fat fast, diet pill, diet pills, fast weight weight loss, help weight loss, safe weight loss

Hello Everybody,

A winter weight loss program need be no different to a weight loss program at any other time of year. A lot of people do gain weight in winter and you may be one of them, but the way of dealing with it is no different to what you would do in the summer. You may wonder why it is so easy to put on weight in winter and so hard to lose it. I am not convinced by the idea that we are programmed to get fat in the autumn to see us through the winter months. We are told this goes back to early man. The early man, who is said to have had the perfect diet and somehow managed a probable life expectancy of twenty years as a result.. He certainly did eat a lot in the autumn. The food was there, so he picked the berries and hunted young animals, which were available in abundance. But that did not mean his body was programmed to put on weight. He just got lucky and took advantage of circumstances. As he did not hibernate, the few extra pounds gained in autumn would have done him little good when the snow came and food ran out. So, although there are issues related to lack of sunlight, I think we can rule out matters beyond out control as the major reason for winter eating.

If we spend time outdoors in the cold we are going to burn fat keeping warm, in addition to any fat burnt exercising. But one of the reasons we put on weight is that we take less exercise. It is easier to sit at home snacking than to trot round the block on an icy pavement. In winter we are all tempted to put off outdoor exercise for a day or so in bad weather. Then another day or so, until we stop altogether. Add to that Christmas, with its family gatherings and office parties, and we have gone up a dress - or trouser - size by January. Then the trouble starts. In the Northern Hemisphere it is still cold, the weather could get colder and we want to go out even less. So we start to Google ‘Fast weight loss.’ Which is fine short term, but not too good if we want to lose what we have put on and stay that way.

If you really want long term weight loss you must begin a proper weight loss program. As at any season of the year you will need to exercise. Brisk walking is always one of the easiest ways to exercise and should be for a minimum of 30 minutes a day. It is best to do this every day, but the least you should do is 4 days a week. If you cannot get out you can try aerobic exercises at home or in a gym, or swim in your local pool if the weather lets you get there. Whatever you do make it a regular commitment to put in the time.

Diet is easy enough. Get rid of the junk food, fizzy drinks and snacks in the fridge and eat healthy food with a minimum of sugars and fats. I recommend the Mediterranean diet because not only is it a good diet but one you can eat and enjoy long term. There are plenty of recipes on Google for you to try. That’s all there is to it. Just treat winter like any other time of year. Exercise and eat a healthy diet, keep to a weight loss program and you will not have to worry about your weight.

See you soon,

Cambridge, UK

18 December 2010

Photo. jvdc (Flickr)

Technorati Tags: burn fat, fitness walking, healthy weight loss, natural weight loss, weight loss program

Hello Everybody,

In order to burn fat and lose weight you need to exercise and cut out the food which is making you put on weight. But it is not easy to stop an unhealthy diet and start a healthy one. A good way of getting started is to do it a little at a time. Swap items of unhealthy food for healthy food and as you do this your diet will improve. Here are six suggestions for swaps.

White Rice to Brown Rice. Most white foods are highly processed. White bread, white pasta and white rice all contain refined carbohydrates, which can cause weight gain as well as diabetes, heart problems and stroke. Swap for whole grain food and brown rice.

Butter to Olive Oil. Butter is high in saturated fats. One third of the 200,000 premature deaths from heart disease each year in the UK are caused by saturated fats. So swap butter for olive oil, which contains healthy monounsaturated fats. Virgin olive oil is best, and the fresher the better. Good quality oil has the packaging date on the label. Make sure it is less than a year old. This takes care of cooking, but to spread on your bread as a butter substitute use margarine. This should be ‘trans fat free’ margarine which will be soft and not come in solid packs.

Danish Pastries to Wholemeal Scones. This is a difficult one. We all love Danish Pastries. But you can get very fat on them. A large one will contain 620 calories, as well as sugar and saturated fats. This is a meal in a pastry and you will probably have a coffee as well. A wholemeal scone has about 330 calories, plus a little more for margarine. But even with jam - which is not a good idea- it will contain less calories and fat than a Danish Pastry.

Red Meat to Fish. Not all red meat is harmful - grass-fed beef eaten in moderation is fine. But most red meat equals saturated fat and that is bad news. You are better eating white meat like free range poultry or rabbit for the meat in your diet. As an alternative to red meat swap to fish. Not all fish is healthy. Some contain mercury. Some, such as tuna and Atlantic cod, are being over-fished and should be avoided for environmental reasons. But mackerel (not king mackerel), herring, salmon and trout are all good healthy swaps for red meat.

Fizzy Drinks to Water. Most fizzy drinks contain sugar, a lot contain caffeine. They are a rich source of unwanted calories and rot your teeth as well. Swap to water. If you do not mind being overcharged, or for convenience, use bottled water. Otherwise, where it is safe to drink, tap water is quite acceptable.

Crisps to Nuts. Crisps are high in fat and salt and contain not much else. Swap for unsalted nuts. Research has shown that nuts can lower cholesterol. Be careful, unsalted nuts are high in calories and although they do contain mostly monounsaturated fats they do contain some saturated fat. So do not eat too many unsalted nuts - but they are a lot better than crisps.

You will still need to exercise to help burn fat, but do these swaps and you will be eating a more healthy diet without worrying too much about the changes you have made. Be realistic - we all like an occasional treat. The sky will not fall in if you have a Danish pastry or hot buttered crumpet, once in a while. Just try not to eat them every day.

See you soon,

Cambridge UK

12 December 2010

Photo. Edvard Titov.

Technorati Tags: best way to burn fat, burn fat, healthy diet, low calorie diet, low fat diet, weight loss exercise program

Hello Everybody,

To burn fat fast and lose weight as quickly as possible is something many people want. Maybe there is a wedding or a holiday or a party in a few weeks time and they need to burn fat, drop a dress size and look good. They want it now. There’s nothing wrong in wanting results, and why not start right away? But you should not expect miracles. There is fast and fast and some of the claims made about diets are unrealistic, unhealthy or both. Remember that to burn fat you need to consume calories and that 3500 calories burnt equals 1 pound of weight lost. That is 3500 calories less than you are eating to maintain your present weight. You would have to give up 2 bars of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate each day for a week to burn fat equal to 1 pound in weight. So you will have to give up a lot to burn fat fast and that is not an easy or healthy thing to do.

It helps to know how many calories you are consuming at present. Do not become hooked on calorie counting. Just write down what you are eating for a couple of days and that is all you need. Find out the calories you consume by checking labels or by a Google search of products. Then you will know what your present calorie consumption is - it may give you rather a shock.

Recommended calorie intake is dependent on many things, including lifestyle, age, height and weight. So an average recommended intake does not mean much. But it is worth knowing that the British Department of Health estimates the average daily intake for a woman should be 1940 calories and for a man 2550 calories. To check your own needs more precisely just Google ‘daily calorie intake’ to find an easy calculator. It will only take a minute to fill in the boxes and get a result.

When you know what your calorie intake should be the only problem is how to get there. It is easy enough to recommend cutting out junk food. But what is junk food and what should you cut out? It is nor a long list. Give up sugar, not just sugar in coffee but everything sweet, also fizzy drinks and energy drinks. It sounds terrible at first, but you get used to it and then even stop liking sugar. Give up white processed foods like white bread, white pasta and white rice. Do not eat fatty meats, sausages and fried food like eggs and bacon. Avoid the dreaded trans-fats. These chemically processed fats are found in snack foods, cookies, fast foods and some margarines. They increase cholesterol levels and the risk of coronary heart disease.

What you should eat in order to burn fat is as little processed food as possible. Fresh fruit, vegetables, chicken, lean grass-fed beef, oily fish like mackerel, free range eggs, nuts, brown rice. Avoid, or look carefully at, things in packets.

Drink 8 glasses of water a day and eat 5 small meals rather than 3 big ones.

You will need exercise to help you burn fat. The easiest form of exercise is jogging, brisk walking, cycling or swimming for a minimum of 30 minutes a day. To avoid getting bored you can mix these up during a week - one day jogging, one day cycling, one or two days walking and so on. If you want to go to the gym or do weight training that can burn fat fast as well. Whatever you do is fine so long as you enjoy it and exercise on a regular basis.

A good diet is the most important part of healthy weight loss. Some say it is more expensive than eating junk food. I doubt it. You can spend an awful lot of money in fast food outlets and coffee shops. But there is time involved. You will find it takes time trawling through supermarket shelves, checking labels to make sure you are eating the 60% of food which does not contain trans-fats. It might take a trip to the local farmer’s market for your meat and eggs. It will certainly take time to exercise every day. But when you succeed in burning fat, losing weight and staying healthy it will all seem well worth while.

See you soon,

Peter Stockwell

3 December 2010

Photo. Eatbrian (Flickr)

Technorati Tags: burn fat fast, burn fat with exercise, fat burning diet, healthy weight loss, natural weight loss