Lose weight safely and easily with Carb Cycling, or Carb Rotation as it is also called. This is a little known secret for tricking your metabolism into not realizing that you're dieting. By keeping up your intake of food and nutrients it keeps your body from going into starvation mode. And by cycling or rotating the amount of carbohydrates you consume, your body better equip to use those incoming carbs instead of storing them for fat. All carbs turn to sugar once they have been broken down by your digestion. About 2-3 hours after eating. So even if you are avoiding sugar in coffee, tea, soda or pasteries, you are still consuming unknown amounts of sugar in the food you eat.
The big thing in all the headlines right now is the new weight loss product, the Acai Berry Diet. I see those ads everywhere. Packages under all kinds of attention-grabbing titles. The manufacturer is giving away free samples of the product for the price of postage and handling. Which sounds great, but in the long run, once it becomes popular the cost will be right up there with all the other amazing weight loss pills. And the hardest thing about these diets is that you regain all the weight you lost and even adding extra pounds once you go back to normal eating. I have done this over the years and every time I go off the diet, I regain the weight I lost plus a few additional pounds.
First thing to do is start a food journal writing down everything you eat for the week. This will help you keep track of how many calories and carbs you consume in a day. I know all the hype about the Atkins diet and low carbs, I have been on it a few times now. It does work too, I lost 20 lbs but its very hard to stick to as a lifestyle. And that is the only real way to keep the weight off is to change your lifestyle. Many of us don't just gain a little weight now and then, for some it's a life long battle with weight. That's why you need to find something you can live with every day and not just a temporary diet. You will be able to lose weight and maintain your goal weight because this will become part of your normal routine that can be adjusted by adding more carbs to stop the weight loss once you've reached your desired weight.
Carb Cycling or Carb Rotation, consists of cycling through high carb, low carb, and no carb days. The high carb days will be the ones where you can eat 1 cheat meal per week, weather it's pizza or chocolate cake, make it a small serving and only 1. You're not depriving yourself you're just using moderation.
Fill your cabinets and refrigerator with good healthy food. Vegetables should be a staple and not a side. Plenty of leafy green vegetables for calcium and iron and vitamin C, good in raw vegetable salads, cooked as greens, or used in casseroles. Plenty of fish, chicken and lean beef. Eggs and low fat cheese. Limit dairy consumption, milk contains sugar so use it sparingly. Cottage cheese and yogurt are good protein choices as long as they are low fat.
Choose fruits and grains and root vegetables from the Glycemic index. I will give you a place to look it up. It will give you the information of the amount of impact the carbs will have on your blood sugar. The slower the absorption, the less impact on your diet. Choose low glycemic carbs in green like: Oatmeal, Barley, All Bran, Whole Grain Kashi, and whole grain bread. Vegetables with low counts are beans, lentils, yams and sweet potatoes, chick peas and lima beans. Most other vegetable s are low count as well.
Plan to use your higher carb food choices on the days when you will be the most active or a day before a workout or sporting event sop you will be able to burn the excess carbs as fuel, choose the low carb days when you have the least activity and no carb days for when you have little to no activity. The basis of the diet works on the premise of a deficit in calories and carbs at the end of the week. Most eating plans are based off of 1,600 calories a day but some people can go a little higher. Below I have listed two very good websites to visit for more info and tips for menus and meal plans. There is just too much info for me to list everything here, and you should already know I'm a little long winded anyway.
I was reading an article on why the Japanese don't gain as much weight as Americans. One reason was that their food portions are smaller, their soda cans are half the size of ours and food is more expensive so packages are smaller. A loaf of bread has only 8 slices. So much is to be said for portion control.
Eat 5-6 small meals a day. 3main meals and 3 snacks. This can be cheese and salami, yogurt and small handful of nuts or whatever. If you maintain a steady flow of nutrients in your system you will keep your metabolism up and stay full on less food, because you will be eating every 3 hours so you wont get too hungry and eliminate overeating.
Drink plenty of no sugar liquids: Unsweetened tea or Green Tea, sparkling water or Crystal Light Drink Mix. Limit sugar and caffeine.
Stay Away from: White bread, white rice, white potatoes and noodles. Choose whole grains like whole wheat, barley, brown rice, turnips and rutabagas.
