If anything has been flogged to death by the Press, it is weight loss. Everyone has an new and improved gimmick that will help you to Shed Pounds in no time at all. Numerous overnight “miracles” that claim to aid weight loss are unhealthy. When you’re following their plan is the only time they help you lose weight. Once you have gone off the diet, you usually gain the weight that you lost back and more. The best thing you can do for yourself when you want to lose weight is find the healthiest way to do it. The healthiest way to shed those unwanted pounds is through healthy eating and exercise.

Healthy Portion Sizes is something that everyone should do no matter what their weight loss goals are. Eating healthy helps to keep you full of energy for all of the fun things in life. Making sure to control your portion is one of the biggest parts of healthy eating. You should eat only the serving size that is recommended for the food that you have available.

Controlling portion size, though simple enough in theory, can be quite difficult for some people. When you eat at home you have the opportunity to measure the portion size for each food you eat. Once you have gotten used to what a true serving size looks like, you can transfer this idea to meals that you eat out. As a general rule, restaurant meals contain portions that are two or three times larger than those recommended for healthy eating.

Eating continuously throughout the day is another aspect of healthy eating. One of the biggest mistakes that people that want to lose weight make is that they skip meals. In order to lose weight healthily you will need to increase the number of meals you eat everyday. The trick to healthy weight loss is to eat small meals every two to three hours.

Healthy weight loss must also include Workout Plan. Without exercise all of the healthy eating that you are doing will only go so far. You should exercise regularly in order to gain muscle. By doing muscle building exercises, you burn more calories which enhances weight loss. It is vital to have a workout routine that you do on a regular basis that incorporates both strength training and cardio exercises. The heart exercises get your heart moving and also aide in burning the calories. The strength training builds muscles that will help to keep you thin and get the weight off you that much faster.

Contrary to what some may think, healthy weight loss is not fiction. When you are trying to lose weight there is no effortless way to do it. Losing weight is something that will take time and effort on your part. A proven road to healthy weight loss is available. Healthy eating and exercising pave this road to the weight loss of your dreams.

You’ve heard it all before. Everybody that’s a so-called “expert” at your neighborhood gym has been saying the same thing for the last three decades: Fat is bad.

Carbohydrates are good. If you want to get the body you’ve been working so hard for, you’ve got to focus on those carbohydrates and keep fat to an absolute minimum. So you dedicate yourself to living by the percentages the Lords of Lowfat give you. 55 percent carbs. No more than 15 percent fat. You load up on turkey and chicken. You separate the egg whites. You surgically remove all visible fat from any piece of meat. You always broil. Never fry. But you’ve been living a lie.

Fact is, the high carbohydrate diet favored by so many bodybuilders can actually work against them. They bulk up on all those carbs and end up packing on a tremendous amount of bodyfat. Then, when it’s time to cut, too much muscle ends up being left in the gym along with the bodyfat.

A widely held misconception that ancient man was a herbivore who turned his nose up at all meat in favor of the available plant life. Current vegetarians often claim that their diet is the most natural and ancient known to man, in an effort to gain converts, but it’s simply not true.

In fact, archeological evidence shows that man’s earliest tools were put to use, at least in part, in the dressing of meat1. In many areas, the diet of primitive man was made up almost entirely of animal products. The continued affection for meat demonstrated by the monkeys and apes that are our primate cousins today is also testament to early man’s dietary preference. There’s a good reason for all this. It’s called survival.

Meat is a far superior source of amino acids than plant life. It’s also high in vitamins A, E and B complex. Fat, whose benefits we will discuss throughout this book, is also readily available in meat and not in plants. Along with many other uses, including the fact that it’s tasty and adds to the palatability of food, fat is necessary for proper breakdown and use of vitamins A, D, E and K in the body.

Use caution if you use thermogenic products at all and never use them if you are sensitive to stimulants and/or have a history of heart disease, high blood pressure, thyroid disorders or any other medical problems.

If you’re not sure if ephedra products are safe for you, check with your doctor first.
Most of your results will come from hard training and a good diet. There are no magic pills. Why is it that people just don’t seem to get this? It’s human nature, I suppose. We all want instant gratification, so it’s awfully easy to be swayed by the glossy four-page magazine spreads with those mind blowing (doctored?) before and after photos.

Certain supplement companies are partly to blame for our obsession with fast results. Instead of teaching and educating the public about healthy, sensible, slow and steady permanent fat loss, they tease and tempt with very shrewd marketing campaigns. Testimonials, endorsements, scientific studies and before/after photos are incredibly persuasive because they appeal to your emotions. “Take this pill… go to bed…wake up skinny – it’s magic!”

Even the names of the products were carefully chosen: Do you think it’s a coincidence that the #1 selling herbal weight loss supplement Xenadrine sounds a lot like the prescription drug Xenical? Not a week goes by that someone doesn’t ask me about the ”drug” Xenadrine (Xenadrine is a brand name for an over-the-counter, ephedra product; Xenical is a prescription drug).

If you want to lose body fat, get your diet and training program in order FIRST. Once you’re eating nutritiously, moderately restricting your calories, doing cardio and working out with weights, then and only then – and only if you have a clean bill of health – should you even consider a thermogenic herbal product if you need an “extra boost.”

For the past ten years because “thermogenic” fat burning pills made with the herbal stimulant ephedra have become the hottest weight loss craze in the history of the industry.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on these products every year and there’s no end in sight to this fat burning pill feeding-frenzy. Even if Ephedra is banned for over the counter sale because of FDA pressure, it’s likely that ephedra-free stimulant products will take their place in short order, even if they’re weaker versions of the original products. The strength of the brand names seems to be carrying them forward.
But are these thermogenic products all they’re made out to be? Let me set the record straight once and for all.

Open up any bodybuilding or fitness magazine these days and you’ll see multi-page advertisements boasting of “amazing”, “clinically proven,” “university-tested” results, with dramatic photos of physiques allegedly transformed overnight by using these products.

One headline says “Proven to increase fat loss 1700%.” Another says “Burn up to 613% more fat!” Still another says, “34 times more fat lost than control group.”

Where did these numbers come from?

1700% or 613% or 34 times greater THAN WHAT? Obviously, some “apples” are being compared to “oranges.”
It’s easy for supplement companies to cleverly take statistics out of context – just one of many sneaky tricks they have up their advertising sleeves. (Did you know there’s an infamous book called “How to Lie With Statistics,” written on this very topic? If you don’t believe me, go to Amazon.com and see for yourself.)
If any supplement really did burn 1700% more body fat, there wouldn’t be any overweight people left! But there are: There are more overweight people today than ever before in history!

Don’t believe the hype! It’s not that these products don’t work at all – the problem is more in the deceptive marketing and advertising than the products themselves. The claims are simply outrageous.

Thermogenic fat burners do work, but they don’t work miracles and they’re not a substitute for proper nutrition and training. Because the primary ingredients ephedrine and caffeine are strong central nervous system stimulants, they also have many potential side effects and contraindications.