Potatoes and Weight Loss

How long have potatoes been a staple of nearly every country in the developed world? Well I don't know either, but I do know that during the Irish Potato Famine (1845-1852) also known as Gorta Mór or the Great Hunger approximately 1 million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland to escape the famine which had devastated the Irish economy.

The humble spud has become an important component of most dinner tables, but is it really all that healthy?

Potatoes are very high in long carbohydrates and starches. Eventually every single digestible starch is eventually broken down into simple sugars in the body. The sugar is then assimilated into the blood, raising the blood glucose levels. And this in turn increases the secretion and production of insulin, which is our fat storing hormone.

Insulin is secreted in the pancreas in large amounts. It prevents fat burning and stores numerous nutrients in fat cells. After some time, this may bring about an apparent deficiency of supplements in the blood, and this brings about building up of hunger, and a yearning for something sweet. At this point people eat again, and the process will starts all over again, therefore, this vicious cycle brings about weight gain.

Then again, a low consumption of carbs gives you a lower, steadier blood glucose, and reduces the amounts of insulin produced by the pancreas. This triggers the release of fat from your fat stores and also increases fat burning. This naturally brings about fat loss, particularly around the belly in abdominally obese people.

Unfortunately, what we all need to face up to, is the fact is that we live in a nation of growing obesity. Statistics indicate that obesity has doubled since 1980. The latest figures from the CDC show that more than one-third (34.9% or 78.6 million) of U.S. adults are obese. Obesity has been cited as a contributing factor to between 100,000-400,000 deaths in the United States per year costing society an estimated $117 billion in direct costs, and accounts for 6% to 12% of national health care expenditures in the United States.

Currently our fitness level is estimated using a calculation known as BMI (Body/Mass Index) BMI is defined as the body mass divided by the square of the body height, and is universally expressed in units of kg/m2, resulting from mass in kilograms and height in metres.

Of, late there has been some discussion within the medical fraternity around the accuracy of the BMI test. Given the fact that we all carry different amounts of muscle and fat, and they both have different densities and weight the measurement must logically become inaccurate.

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Benefits of Walking 10,000 Steps Daily

Walking 10000 steps daily is recommended by health experts all over the world for complete body well being.

It is no magical number that has been found out by some scientific research. In fact it an approximate number of steps a person should walk every day.

Depending upon a person's health condition, this number can also be altered.

For example, for a person who is overweight, he/ she need to walk for more than 10000 steps for his / her well being. Similarly, for a person who is overweight and has low stamina, it may be too much in the beginning.

The benefits of walking start at 5000 steps. A person who walks more than 5000 steps daily, such a person is highly unlikely to develop metabolic syndrome.

You don't have to do step counting manually. Approximately 10000 steps mean that the person has walked for 5 miles, which is a good distance if the person travels every day.

In addition to the well being, following are the benefits of walking daily:

1. It reduces the risk of diabetes.

Walking such a distance daily helps to control the weight of an individual and in turn, this decreases the chances of diabetes. Research has proved that people, who walk this much every day, have a comparatively lower BMI.

2. It protects the brain from dementia.

Research has shown that walking regularly prevents the brain from shrinkage, this in turn prevents dementia. It has been observed that the brain size shrinks in the late adulthood. This shrinking leads to problems like the memory problem. It has been proved that people in the later adulthood that walk this much daily have an increased amount of grey matter in their brain. Thus with the physical fitness, there is also an assured mental fitness.

3. It reduces risk of heart diseases.

Lately it has been observed that heart diseases are just not prevalent among the older people but a lot of heart disease have been reported among the youngsters also. Walking helps in maintaining the fat level of the body, and thus the heart is protected from any diseases.

4. It relieves stress

Stress and anxiety have been commonly observed because of the changed lifestyles and increased work pressure. Physical exercise, in the form of walking 10000 small steps daily, lower this down. The result in the form of this benefit has been more significantly observed for the women.

The mental well being is thus assured. The healthy body now also has a relaxed mind.

5. It helps to lose weight

Increased weight problem in the form of obesity has become a very common phenomenon. Eating junk and processed food has become a part of every one's life. Increased weight leads to a lot of problems and disease. While the body remains inactive, diseases find their way easy to enter.

The solution for this is brisk walking. Walking 10000 steps daily will produce remarkable results because of the calories burned.

There 5 major benefits must have motivated you to take out time everyday for walking. Make it a compulsory part of your routine.

1, 2, 3, 4..... Here you go till 10000.

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Obesity - How to Lose It

Are you obese? At your last check up did your doctor tell you to lose weight?

Your doctor did? Please send him/her a thank you note and perhaps a gift.

The reason is that most doctors in America shy away from confronting their obese patients. Well at least the ones that are not excessively obese. Instead of meeting the problem head on, they will make mealy-mouthed suggestions like, eat fruits and vegetables, exercise more often, go for long walks, blah, blah, blah.

No wonder over a third, like 35.7% of Americans are obese. As a nation, we spend $148 billion each year for treating problems related to obesity.

So let us tackle the problem head on.

DEFINE OBESE

Medically, the following are the definition of normal and obese weight:

A Body Mass Index (BMI) from 18.5 to 24.9 is considered normal.

Adults with a BMI of 25 to 29.9 are considered overweight. There are exceptions. Some people in this group, such as athletes, may not have too much fat, and may not have an increased risk of health problems due to their weight.

Adults with a BMI of 30 to 39.9 are considered obese.

Adults with a BMI greater than or equal to 40 are considered extremely obese.

Anyone more than 100 pounds overweight is considered morbidly obese.

There are simple calculators to calculate BMI. So, a person who is 5.3" high and weighs 125 pounds has a BMI of 22.1, which is normal. A person who is 5.8" and weighs 175 pounds has a BMI of 27 and is considered overweight, not obese. Remember these are indexes for non-athletes.

HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT SIMPLY AND SUSTAIN WEIGHT LOSS

Here are some practical and common practices that will help you to lose weight without stress.

Have a thorough physical examination--blood, stools, urine and EKG. This will reveal any medical condition that may be causing weight gain such as thyroid or hormonal imbalances.

Intelligent snacking: Snack on healthy foods. Crunchy vegetables or slightly grilled meats are good because they contain nutrients and less fat. Get in the habit when you feel hungry, to drink water and munch on something healthy

Exercise. Get into the habit of regularly exercising. 

Even walking and brisk walking (see Resource guide for an excellent website) are good and less troubling to your knees. Exercise or walk routines should be changed often. Your body does have a tendency to "get lazy" if you exercise with predictable routines. So walk uphill one day and level another. Switch between cardio and lower ab, muscle resistance and stretching, push ups and jumps, etc. etc. In other words, trick your body to strain, but not overly so.

Reduce sugar, salt and alcohol use.

Stress less.

When cooking, use less oil, butter and other fats

Missing a meal once a week is good. E.g. one evening just drink milk and eat a fruit and skip dinner.

Eat a good breakfast, and a light lunch and dinner

Make sure you consume most of the carbohydrates before evening. Your body slows down its metabolism as the day progresses, which is why eating a good sumptuous breakfast in the morning is essential.

Leave at least 2 hours between your last meal for the day and sleep.

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How to Get Under 10% Body Fat in an Enjoyable Way

Does BMI Actually Matter?

Weight Loss BMI

Learning weight loss BMI
BMI or 'Body Mass Index' is an index or factor that measures how much fat you have in your body depending on your height, age and if you are a male or a female.
Fat in your body carries considerable risks that are compounded when other risk factors exist such as high blood pressure (hypertension), high LDL cholesterol ('bad' cholesterol), low HDL ('good' cholesterol), high triglycerides, high blood glucose (sugar), family history of heart disease, physical inactivity and cigarette smoking.
Weight loss BMI is recommended if you have a BMI index of 30 or more or if you have a BMI of 25 or more and two additional risk factors.
Your ideal BMI index is around 20 but that is a bit tough for most, between 20 and 24 is healthy.

If you take a look at the additional risks, there are two where you can act immediately, physical inactivity and cigarette smoking, one, family history, where there is not much you can do and all the others have to do with the amount of fat in your body.
So weight loss BMI is about moving our bodies.
On physical activity you must know that to burn calories you do not necessarily have to do rigorous aerobic exercise, there are many things you can do to burn calories, your body burns calories for anything it has to do, even while we sleep, the key is to start accumulating gradually things that you like and can easily do so they become part of your daily routine and you can make healthy habits out of them.
And weight loss BMI is about losing fat.
Losing fat will take care of your BMI index, one BMI index is approximately 7 pounds of weight.
As you lower your BMI index you will substantially improve your levels of cholesterols, triglycerides and sugar in your body, one key point thought, it needs to be done in a healthy way.
Losing weight or weight loss BMI done in a healthy weight is all about not depriving your body of the nutrients it needs, sorry, no restrictive diets, none of those that ban entire food groups or nutrients.
Your body needs nutrients from all food groups, it needs proteins, carbs, fiber, vitamins, and yes, it needs fat and sugar too, just in healthy amounts but it does need its daily dose.
One reason that restrictive diets don't work is that they eliminate entire groups of foods, your body can only take so much of that and at some point it starts fighting you and we all know who wins that fight.

At the end of the day losing weight is about the net balance of calories taken (through the consumption of your foods) and calories lost (burned by your body).
So keep track of what you eat and what you burn, decrease the intake in a healthy way and increase the burning.
I will recommend to check for diet plans that suit your lifestyle and contain the foods you like, there are many out there that are not expensive and contain multiple tips and advise as to how to increase your calorie burning and many tips on habit changing, help with meal planners, recipes, shopping lists, etc.
Good luck in your search, better one in your journey!

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