Junk Food Equals Junk Skin

Junk food is not the be all and end all when it comes to taste. It is food that has been processed to the extreme and is now an American way of life. It is a common term used for any food item that is perceived to be unhealthy and has low or poor nutritional value.
Generally, a junk food is given a very attractive appearance by adding food additives and colors to enhance flavor, texture, appearance, and increasing long self life. Of course, it is also readily available at restaurant chains across the country in the form of French fries, chicken nuggets, shakes, soda, etc.
However there is an organization called "Parents Against Junk Food" which is a nonprofit organization with a simple mission: Stop the Sale of Junk Food in America's Schools.
It is widely believed that junk food does not contain the essential fatty acids that the body requires to keep its largest organ, the skin, healthy. It is recommended that food supplements in the form of vitamins should be taken daily if the habit cannot be broken.
The body will also be lacking in proteins, fiber and other nutrients required for a healthy diet, and the consumption of products considered junk food has been associated with many health problems including obesity, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and dental cavities.
Similarly, breakfast cereals are often regarded as healthy but may have high levels of sugar, salt and fat. The offspring of rats fed fatty, processed food had high levels of fat in their bloodstream and around major organs even after adolescence.
Nutritionists, doctors, and other health advocates often work to educate people about junk food, encouraging them to eat well balanced diets which contain a high proportion of healthy foods. These professionals almost unanimously hold the view that there are no good foods and bad foods, only good diets and bad diets.
The number of obese or overweight children in Britain aged between two and 15 has risen to about 30% in recent years. Changing your diet and taking exercise is a step in the right direction and as you replace fat with muscle, your clothes will become looser and your body firmer, but your weight may not change (muscle weighs more). In fact, the needle on the weight scale might not turn at all, but the heads of friends probably will. To lose weight, you've got to junk that junk food.
We all know that junk food is cheap and easy compared to quality raw materials (fresh veggies, organic meat, milk, fruit). For better or for worse (mostly worse), junk food is now available all over the world.
Apart for obesity, the other huge effect that bad eating habits bring on is skin rashes, eczema and psoriasis. It is reported that 25% of children under the age of five now suffer from eczema compared with less than 3% 50 years ago before junk food was so prevalent.
To combat these skin problems one of the latest discoveries is that the natural oil found in crocodile fat heals most forms of eczema in children within a few weeks. However is it not easy to get hold of and few pharmacies stock it.
The answer of course is to change your diet as junk food equals junk skin.

How to Curb Late Night Snack Cravings

I don't know about you but sticking to a diet is always hardest at night! Things are done for the day and I'd love to do nothing more than reward myself for another day done with treats from the kitchen. Resist the urge! Try these suggestions on for size!

1. Healthier Alternatives Celery, small handful of almonds, small glass of skim milk, cup of non buttered popcorn, herbal tea (wegmans has a whole selection of flavored herbal teas - even chocolate strawberry), vitamin shoppe's protein pudding (see my other articles for more suggestions)

2. Take your mind off of it If you can't sleep yet than do something else that you enjoy. Read a good book, write a blog, seduce your lover ;), take a warm bath, paint your toenails, put on the radio and dance!

3. Groom Brush your teeth and wash your face. Feeling fresh will make you less likely to eat again

4. Anticipate Breakfast Try to relax and go to the sleep and know the sooner you go to bed the sooner you will be able to eat breakfast

Knowledge is Power

As you constantly try to improve yourself and make progress towards the goals you have set, you try to educate your mind and are bombarded with endless and endless amounts of "raw" data on how to reach those goals. What you want to find is a source where it's all tied together and it makes sense. There is so much to learn and sometimes knowing the basics or fundamentals makes it so much easier to digest. The knowledge you acquire empowers you in so many ways. You learn to avoid the pitfalls that have stifled you and prevented you from realizing the things you want to achieve. In this article, I hope to ease some of the painful learning process and pull together some of the meaningful details you have probably seen yet not fully understood how to use. To begin, we all must first decide what goal we are pursuing. For the moment, I will generalize and say that I want to lose weight. The weight I wish to lose is body fat and not lean muscle. Sounds tough? It should and even more so if you don't understand the basics. What are the basics?
The basics to losing fat/gaining muscle:
We all know that in order to lose weight, you must place yourself in a caloric deficit. That means, the number of calories taken in must be less than the calories burned. The calories burned are what is referred to as "basal metabolic rate" (BMR). To determine your basal metabolic rate is extremely difficult. One way to find this is to weigh yourself at the start of a week. Monitor the number of calories taken in for the week. If your weight does not change, the total calories for the week is probably your basal metabolic rate. Of course you may want to repeat this process to nail down an average. Divide this weekly total by 7 and you will know your basal metabolic rate per day! Simple? Knowing your daily basal metabolic rate opens a wealth of knowledge. How you ask? Well say you find that your BMR is 2500 calories per day.
Now, you have decided that you want to lose weight. However, you want to maintain lean muscle in the process. To accomplish this you next need to determine your body type. The three scientific body types are: ectomorph, mesomorph, endomorph. An ectomorph has very long limbs, very low body fat, and has a hard time packing on mass. A mesomorph is muscular, has a thick and lean build and has a moderate amount of body fat. An endomorph is heavy set and carries a high amount of body fat that is difficult to reduce. Some of us actually may fall in between these types. Myself, I am an ecto-mesomorph. This is because I have some areas that are muscular and others that have been and are difficult to build. Knowing your body type and your BMR provides several significant things. In the following table, based on your body type and perceived metabolism, a value can be derived:

Metabolism	Slow	Moderate	Fast
	(Endomorph)	(mesomorph)	(Ectomorph)
Lost Fat/ Maintain Muscle	10	11	12
Lose Fat/ Gain Muscle	13	14	15
Gain Muscle	16	17	18

To interpret the table, assume you weigh 180 lbs., and have a fast metabolism. Using the table above, to lose body fat, you would simply multiply your body weight by 12. The result, 2160, is the number of total calories per day that you would consume to reduce body fat. This number has very little meaning without knowing that each gram of carbohydrate or protein equals 4 calories and each gram of fat equals 9. A 180 lbs. bodybuilder in a pre-contest 2160 calories diet who has been instructed to achieve a dietary 10-30-60 fat/carbs/protein ratio, would need to consume 24 grams of fat (2160 * .10 / 9), 162 grams of carbs (2160 * .30 / 4), and 324 grams of protein (2160 * .60 / 4).
Each nutritional component multiplied by the recommended daily percentage and divided by the number of calories per gram, provides its total grams per day. Once you have mastered these formulations, you can easily adjust your daily consumption percentages with ease! Now, having realized that your BMR was 2500 calories per day and to achieve you goal, you must adhere to a 2160 calorie diet, means you will incur a 340 calorie per day, 2380 per week deficit.
This allows you to know how much cardio to incorporate when you exceed your daily goals due to unexpected binges! To find success in any dietary scheme, you need to know "what" your consuming and how much to consume. The calculations above give you all the information you need. However, it can be confusing when deciding what foods to include and what to avoid. Personally, I feel it is important to eat healthy foods for the most part. Quality or nutritionally fulfilling food groups provide larger portioning. Eating things like, pizza, pie, cake, etc. can quickly result in exceeding your daily totals. Next time you get the opportunity, check out: http://www.fatcalories.com. This site provides the nutritional values of several fast food menus. You will surely be surprised when you see the high numbers of saturated fat in most fast food! Also, the USDA provides an interface to a database containing detailed nutritional values of just about any food you can think of. The address is: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! How to Avoid Fad Diets Like The Cabbage Soup Diet

The American Heart Association recommends adopting healthy eating habits permanently, rather than impatiently pursuing quick diets in hopes of losing unwanted pounds in a few days through fad quick weight loss plans. Many of these fad diets, such as the notorious and outright silly Cabbage Soup Diet, will undermine your health, cause physical discomfort, abdominal discomfort and flatulence (gas), and lead to the ping-pong effect of gaining weight soon after losing it. In other words the risks aren't worth the rewards.

1. First, one food or one type of food is generally overemphasized with fad quick weight loss diets. They violate the first principle of good nutrition which is to eat a balanced diet including a variety of foods.

2. Also, because no one food has all the nutrients needed for good health, these diets can result in a lot of health problems. One such diet is the Cabbage Soup Diet. This so-called fat-burning soup is eaten mostly with fruits and vegetables. The diet supposedly helps heart patients lose 10-17 pounds in seven days before surgery. Even if the weight loss claim were true, all the damage due to a lack of many essential nutrients would far outweigh (pun intended) the benefits of losing the weight. Pixies, elves and fairies, or even cabbages, can't create magical weight loss. That's why you should eat moderate amounts from each of the food groups rather than cutting out everything but a cabbage and water.

3. These crazy diets also ignore another important principle of good nutrition which is that eating should be enjoyable.. These diets are so monotonous and boring that it's almost impossible to stay on them for long periods. Consider a week on the Cabbage Soup Diet. By mid week crawling bugs would look good. If you make it to Sunday you might die of a heart attack before you ever again tasted real food.

4. Boredom isn't the only reason fad diets aren't good ones. Most don't talk about exercise, such as aerobics for 30 minutes a day every day. While doing nothing can lead to heart problems, exercise is a major element of maintaining proper weight. When a diet includes no need for a workout, run the other way. Quick weight loss is possible. But if a program sounds too good to be true, it is.

How to Follow Michael Phelps 12,000 calorie diet

Shortly after the Olympics , news of swimming star Michael Phelps Diet was released . It had been reported that the swimmer maintains a 12,000 calorie / per day diet. It is perfectly healthy to eat this many calories per day as long you spend the time to work them off. Phelps spends hours a day conditioning his body. It is estimated that he burns 1000 - 2000 calories per hour in the pool. To put it short Michael Phelps is a calorie burning machine.

1. BREAKFAST Breakfast fuels your day and is definitely the most important meal . You will need to consume 4,000 calories to be like Mike during breakfast time .Reportedly Michael's breakfast consists of two cups of coffee , three fried egg sandwiches , 1 5-egg omelet , 3 slices of french toast , 1 bowl of grits and 3 chocolate chip pancakes. You will need to follow this up with at least 1 hour of swimming or running.

2. LUNCH Lunch consists of another 4,000 calories . For lunch Phelps drinks 1,000 calories in energy drinks , 1 pound of pasta , and two ham/cheese sandwiches. As you can see so far Phelps consumers huge quantities of food per meal . It is very important that he follows up his meals with exercise. Following this meal you will need to swim , run or lift weights for about 1.5 - 2 hours.

3. DINNER For the final 4,000 calories of the day . Phelps will consume 8 slices of pizza , another pound of pasta and 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks. This meal should be followed up by another 1.5 - 2 hours of physical exercise.

Foods that Help you Stay Healthy

If is important to keep your system built up during the flu season. It may be only a matter of making sure you are eating nutrient-packed meals. It has been proven that certain foods protect they body against illness. Best of all these foods taste great.

Fresh fruits and vegetable are filled with life giving nutrients and healing vitamins. The less cooking that is done to fresh vegetables, the better the nutrients are preserves. Eat fresh fruit instead of sugar filled junk foods.

Butternut squash, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, spinach and broccoli are filled with beta-carotene.

Spinach legumes, peanuts, whole grains, leafy green vegetables, eggs and milk are filled with vitamins, folate and b12.

Oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, green peppers and cabbage are filled with vitamin C.

Peanuts, sunflower seeds, eggs, spinach, whole grains, vegetable oils, and poultry are filled with vitamin E.

Fish, poultry, beef, pork, eggs, cheese, milk, peanut butter and whole grains are filled with zinc.

Acai Berry - Where to Buy Acai Berries

The hip new taste in Rio health stores, juice bars and hot spots is Acai (ah-sigh-EE) berry juice and smoothies. But where can you buy Acai berry? Unfortunately this health giving berry perishes very quickly after it has been harvested. It is a small, deep purple colored berry that is mostly seed, that grows on a special palm tree found only in the Amazon rainforests.
Acai powder is quite difficult to find because it is so perishable but there are a few Network marketing companies do manufacture this. It is also possible to find Acai Berry powder or frozen Acai at up-market health food stores, but you should try to find a naturally extracted product. Acai berry products are also found at online stores and many of these products are from reputable sources, but also make sure that the product you order is from a natural source.
Acai has been researched and found to be one of the top ten foodstuffs available in the world today. It is a complete solution to nutrition, digestive and cardio vascular health. Athletes make regular use of Acai berry as it provides a complete solution for energy and is well know to be beneficial for muscle contraction and regeneration.
As this Acai is considered to be one of the Super-foods of the year, where to buy Acai berry should not be a problem in the near future. It is good for virtually everything that Kale is, and tastes a whole lot better. It contains naturally occurring Omega three, six and nine and I packed full of minerals vitamins and nutrients. It is also rich in protein and contains everything to make it a "complete" meal. This makes it perfect as a meal replacement and a fantastic supplement for weight loss and dieting.

Compare NutriSystem With the South Beach Diet

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Nutrisystem is a diet plan that uses a healthy balance of good carbohydrates, proteins and fats so you can eat a variety of foods and lose weight. The South Beach diet, a plan created by cardiologist Arthur Agatston, restricts carbohydrates, bans unhealthy fats and suggests healthy ones. Comparing the two plans can help you to make an informed decision on the best particular plan for your lifestyle.

The NutriSystem Plan

Choose the NutriSystem plan for ease. Meals are prepared for you and shipped to your door, and the plan includes free online or phone counseling to help you reach your goals. There are programs designed for men and women of all ages and for vegetarians and Type II diabetics.

Look at the rules of the plan. With NutriSystem, all prepared meals offer the correct calories and nutrients. You add fresh fruits and vegetables and don't have to think about the rest of the preparation.

Compare the work involved. Everything is already done for you with NutriSystem so there is almost no work involved except making sure you stick with the plan.

Check the cost of the plan. NutriSystem charges for meals and snacks and shipping, but it often offers discounts and free meals for signing up. You can also save by signing up for the Auto Ship plan.

See the results. NutriSystem allows you to follow plans losing less than or more than 10 lb. You can lose a lot initially, but you can expect to lose 1 to 2 lb. per week if you follow the program exactly.

Weigh the risks. Participants may gain weight back after going off this program since they don't learn how to prepare healthy food themselves.

South Beach Diet Plan

Choose the South Beach Diet Plan if you don't want to completely cut out food groups and want a lifestyle change, not just a quick fix.

Look at the rules of the plan. The South Beach Diet plan doesn't count carbs, but looks at how much sugar is in each carb, choosing those with a low glycemic index. The plan works in 3 phases with the first phase being the most restrictive, taking away all carbs. The second phase reintroduces the carbs in moderation and lasts until you hit your target weight. The third phase allows you to continue to eat normal foods in normal portions following the guidelines for life.

Compare the work involved. Instead of counting calories or maintaining strict portion sizes, you eat normal portions and snack strategically throughout the day, using suggested recipes and food combinations for the various phases.

Check the cost of the plan. There is no sign-up fee or meal cost. You buy the book and companion guide and visit the website for information. Then you buy and prepare the food yourself.

See the results. Weight loss may be dramatic in phase I of the South Beach Diet plan, and then continues at 1 to 2 lb. per week until you hit your weight loss goals. Staying on the plan for life means you keep your target weight and adjust as necessary with the tools provided.

Weigh the risks. Much of the weight lost in the induction phase is water weight, which can throw off your balance of electrolytes.

How to Avoid Emotional Eating

Emotional eating can be on many levels, from eating out of boredom to eating during periods of severe stress, but all situations involve going for food when you're not physically hungry. The following are some tips in helping you address this issue:

With eating out of boredom, you can try replacing food with another habit.

A good hobby can not only keep you busy but could eventually generate you a second income. Do some research of things you might enjoy that have low starting costs that you can build upon if your interest in it grows.

Step2

Keep a pitcher of ice water in your refrigerator.

When you feel the urge to eat but don't feel hungry, try a glass of water instead. Studies have shown many Americans are dehydrated on a regular basis, and sometimes drinking water will satisfy what initially feels like a kind of hunger but is actually thirst.

Step3

If your job is highly stressful, it can be very easy to internally justify bad eating behaviors such as depending on vending machines and fast food.

This often results in a cycle, and can be very hard on your body if you're sitting a lot as well. Two ways to address this issue are gradually introducing healthy foods into your daily routine (substituting a little at a time until you've completely replaced the habit) and making time for exercise (most likely during short breaks during the day). This will at least help you maintain your current weight, though you'll probably have to do more intense workouts outside of work to lose weight.

Step4

Realize that changing this issue is going to be a process and won't happen overnight.

What can be discouraging is taking steps in the right direction only to have a setback. The important thing is to keep moving forward on a daily basis and small choices-over time they do add up to a big impact. Being aware of the issue instead of acting on it on a subconscious level will help a lot.

There are going to be genuinely hard situations you're going to come up against in life. That's inevitable, but if you make the effort to change during a relatively normal point in your life, it will make choices during those times easier.

Step5

If possible, find a friend or mentor that will help you stay accountable.

Sharing this issue with someone you trust can give you an alternative to food for stress and emotional issues. This is very important during times you feel like you're not making progress on your own. Prayer about the issue can definitely help as well.

Good luck and best wishes to you!

Is Acai Berry Safe For Teenagers?

If you are a teenager, or a concerned parent, who is considering taking Acai berry, then you might be wondering; "Is Acai berry safe for teenagers?" It is good to ask this question before taking any new type of health supplement, especially when the person taking the supplement is still growing up.
Luckily, you have nothing to fear when it comes to Acai berries. Asking if Acai berries are safe for teenagers is just like asking if apples, bananas, or grapes are safe for teenagers. Acai is a natural fruit, just like those mentioned above, so it is completely safe for anyone to take. It could be possible that someone could have an allergy to Acai, but that is no more likely than someone being allergic to an apple.
Many teens are guzzling sodas, coffee, and energy drinks at an alarming rate. While these drinks can give teens a temporary boost of energy, they are known to stunt growth and promote obesity. Acai berry juice can be a great tasting and healthy replacement for these drinks. In fact, most people report that the energy they get from Acai blows both coffee and Redbull out of the water. There is no better way for a student to start off a day of school than with a glass of Acai juice.
One of the benefits that is most relevant for teens is its high Omega fatty acid content. Teenage years are full of mental ups and downs, and these essential fatty acids help improve mood and fight depression. They also help improve general brain function (they make you smarter) which will help a teen do better in school and get into a better college.
Acai is one of the most powerful antioxidant foods on earth, which will help with many teens' #1 problem: Acne. Antioxidants help repair damaged skin and hair, and are one of the keys to fight off acne.
Acai is an all natural health supplement that can help teens reach their full potential as adults. Since it's a fruit you do not need to worry if the Acai berry is safe for teenagers.

Atkins Vs. Pritikin: The Debate Rages On!

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The battle lines have been drawn and everyone has taken sides. This vicious battle has pitted brother against brother and husband against wife. It is by far the most heated subject in nutrition, and self-proclaimed gurus have crawled out of the woodwork to weigh in with their opinions on the high carb diet vs. low carb diet debate.

As a fitness enthusiast, you no doubt have been in a few discussions, some of them probably a little heated, about how much of your daily calories should consist of carbohydrates. Both sides have compelling arguments, so who's right? They both are, to a point.

Appetizers

First, you have to realize that no diet, no matter how compelling the evidence, is going to work for everyone all of the time. In other words, you have to take your individual differences into account when deciding which approach will work best for you. It is not high carb vs. low carb, it is which one will work best for you, based on your metabolism and training goals. This fact has been missed by most, and this has led to a lot of confusion and frustration among fitness enthusiasts.

The low carbs diet work, and work well, but only for some selected purposes. The proponents of the low carb diets claim that by eating less carbs and more fat you switch your body's metabolism from one that favors carbs to one that favors fat for fuel. This has obvious benefits for someone looking to lose fat. In addition, these diets tend to be very low in total calories and help to control hunger with the addition of protein and fat to each meal. That has probably been the number one positive impact of these diets on the fitness community - getting people to eat less calories, and adequate amounts of protein and good fats.

Some of these low carb diets tend to be a little extreme, namely the ketogenic carbs where carbs are virtually eliminated from the diet to force your body into a state of ketosis, where body fat is burned in the form of ketones for fuel. These diets can be very dangerous if not used properly. If you are a bodybuilder who already has low levels of bodyfat and you want to get extremely cut up, then the ketogenic diet - or better yet, its close cousin the cyclical-ketogenic diet - is perfect for you.

However, if you are overweight, and have several pounds of fat to lose to get to a healthy range, then a more moderate approach to the low carb diets, like The Zone Diet, will work best. Ketosis is not a natural state for your body to be in. It lowers the blood pH, leading to a more acidic internal environment, and long-term exposure to such an environment will cause damage to your internal organs.

Pass The Bread

The advantage of a higher carb diet - and disadvantage of the low carb approach - is that you will not get big and strong without eating an adequate amount of carbs and calories. This does not mean an extremely high carb intake, as total carb intake should still be no more than 50- 60% of your total calories. But this extra amount of carbs will go a long way in your strength and muscle-gaining goals.

Carbs fuel the anaerobic (literally meaning "without oxygen") pathways of muscular energetics. These two energetic pathways, named the ATP/ CP and glycolitic pathways, are the major suppliers of energy for activities that take less than 90-120 seconds to complete, depending on your fitness level. As I'm sure most of you have realized, the vast majority of activities in the weight room when pumping iron take less than 2 minutes to complete. In fact, most sets take less than 1 minute to complete, falling well within the anaerobic pathways of muscular energetics.

Main Course

What's my point? Well, if most of your weightlifting activities run off of stored glycogen - i.e. carbs - then why do you want your body to favor fat for energy? You don't. Several studies have shown that carbs increase performance. Cutting carbs from a mass and strength diet program is just as bad as not including protein or creatine. No one in their right mind would try to add strength and mass without those two nutrients. However, most of these same individuals will not hesitate to eat a Meal Replacement - which was designed for fat loss - in water three times a day, obtaining miniscule amounts of carbs in the process.

In addition, since intense weightlifting burns up blood sugar and stored glycogen, you will have to replace them. This can not be done optimally if you are following a carb-restricted diet. This means that you will have to allow longer recovery periods, or suffer a performance decrease, which does not help when trying to add pounds to your squat, or inches to your chest and biceps.

Most fitness enthusiasts get themselves in trouble when they become married to one concept. Frustration is brought on when they get stuck in a rut, afraid to try something radically different. Nutrition and dieting is no exception to this. Instead of debating which diet is the best, we need to look at which diet is the best for what circumstances. Eating for your specific goals, and not someone else's, is the key to figuring out which approach is best suited for you.

3 Biggest Nutritional Mistakes to Lose Body Fat

When it comes to fitness, there are certain things many people just can't seem to get it right, one of it being nutrition. Many people are so obsessed with shedding that extra body fat, they often go too far in their efforts and stall their progress or, worse, start to backslide into the awful realm of being "skinny fat" (the result of lost muscle mass without a marked loss of fat). As hard as you may workout in the gym, you still need to cozy up to the fact that your work in the kitchen and at the dinner table is just as important. The following three are the biggest nutritional mistakes people make when trying to lose their body fat.

1. Aggressively Cutting Calories - You're ready to lose body fat at all costs. No sacrifice is too great. As a result, you decide to slash your caloric intake in half, expecting to transform your body in just a couple of weeks. Big mistake - not only is this completely unhealthy, but your body also isn't likely to reciprocate with the same dramatics. The reality is that aggressive cuts in calories can backfire, causing metabolism, your calorie-burning engine, to downshift into a lower gear. The better approach is to create a mild deficit, eating 15%-20% fewer calories on a daily basis.

2. Completely Eliminating Fat - Remember that moderation is the key to steady gains. Zero anything is dangerous in the nutrition world: Zero-carb, zero-fat, and zero-cholesterol diets are all fads that should be avoided. Controlling calories by slashing bad dietary fats such as butter, gristly meats, chicken skin and fried foods is one option. Taking a good thing too far, however, many eliminate nearly all dietary fat and try to chisel their bodies with fat-free sources of protein such as white fish, egg whites and protein powder. Since there's barely any fat in most carbohydrate foods and vegetables, where you'd pick up the remainder of your calories, these types of diets are essentially "fat-free." The big pitfall is that zero-fat diets compromise testosterone levels, which can disrupt the body's ability to retain metabolic-boosting muscle while dieting. In short, when testosterone levels fall, the metabolism slides right along with it.

3. Abandoning Carbs - While lower-carb diets certainly aid in the shedding of body fat, you don't want to cut out carbs completely. It's better to watch the selection and manipulation of your carbohydrate consumption. One of the best ways to do this is to slash carbs at all meals - outside of breakfast and your post-workout meal, that is. Those are the two times of day when carbs are critical to muscle growth. At breakfast you need carbs to reverse the catabolic state you fall into from fasting while you sleep, and after training you need carbs to spike insulin levels to drive muscle growth and restock muscle glycogen (the storage form of carbs) that was depleted during the workout.

Avoid these 3 biggest nutritional mistakes while continuing with your workout routines and you'll be able to lose your body fat fast and easily.

How to and Why You should Eat like a Diabetic, when you're Dieting

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Dieters take heed! When you're on a diet, the same principle of stable glucose levels apply; eat light and spread your caloric intake over the day. Snacks are important to be able to do this.

Fruit: Berries are sweet, easy to pop into your mouth, Raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and blackberries are all anti-inflammatory, and offer immune-boosting antioxidant activity.

Fiber: The fiber in raw veggies will help fill you up, and they provide a nice, satisfying crunch. Choose a wide range of colors (broccoli, cauliflower and carrots are good choices).

Nuts: When eaten sparingly, nuts are a terrific snack. Walnuts are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Almonds and roasted soy nuts are also good choices. Nuts can be high in calories, so a few will do you.

Dark Chocolate: An ounce of dark chocolate NOE AND THEN will satisfy a sweet tooth while providing beneficial antioxidant qualities. Choose high quality dark chocolate with at least 70 percent pure cocoa, and enjoy the rich flavor.