The Diet Channel’s Top Ten Weight Loss Tips

Internet weight loss community, The Diet Channel has put out a Top 10 list of the most fundamental steps to losing weight and keeping it off. None of these tips will blow your mind as anything new and innovative, and there’s a reason for that: losing weight does not have to be rocket science. Nearly all successful and enduring weight loss programs incorporate one or more (often all) of the following primary factors in achieving and maintaining one’s ideal weight.

Cardiovascular Exercise (aka Aerobic Exercise)–. The Diet Channel recommends a minimum of 5 sessions per week of 30 minutes in length each for there to be any significant affect on weight loss. Don’t have time for a solid 30 minutes stretch (nor the stamina)? No problem. 3 sessions of 10 minutes each in one day counts as one 30 minute session.

Weight Training – It points out that the more muscle tissue a person has, the more calories their body can burn. In other words: gain muscle, lose weight.

Keep a Food Diary – The Diet Channel recommends keeping a written record of what you eat, how much of it you eat, and when you eat it. In addition, it advises jotting down a few words about your level of hunger prior to eating and any thoughts or feelings you had afterwards.

Health First – The next tip is a change in belief, a shift in your state of mind, whereby you train your focus on staying healthy, not on getting thin. When you’re healthy, you achieve and maintain your natural and ideal state.

Identify Your Triggers – The Diet Channel points out that we often eat (or overeat) in response to stress. Identify what form of stress prompts you to eat – boredom, loneliness, guilt, shame, anxiety – and you identify the path to slimming down.

Join a Support Group – Support groups are an essential element of a successful and lasting weight loss program,. You’re likely to find numerous options available to you in your area. Don’t cheat yourself of the benefit of support and encouragement from other human beings going through the same thing as you.

Portion Control – Oftentimes, a larger contributor to unwanted weight isn’t what you eat but how much of it you eat. Proper portion control can open up your world to a whole breadth of food choices you may previously have denied yourself.

One Day at a Time – Make realistic goals for yourself, and set realistic limits. Make it easier on yourself to succeed in your program of losing weight by avoiding placing unrealistic expectations on yourself. Don't try to lose a massive amount of weight in a short period of time. Just don’t do it. Spread it out, slow and steady. That, they say, is what wins the race.

What is Cellulite?

Cellulite are normally seen as embarrassing by woman, on themselves or anyone else. But while most people have no trouble identifying it, scant few understand exactly what cellulite is.

Cellulite is fat that protrudes out from the lower layers of skin into the dermis, or outer layer of the skin. Cellulite gives a dimpled appearance to the skin, often grotesquely described as a “cottage cheese” look. Commonly cellulite is seen on the rear end, thighs, and lower legs, though it can appear elsewhere.

Surprisingly, modern science still knows very little about the cause or causes of cellulite. We do know, however that between 85% and 98% of women (that’s almost all women) have at least some cellulite somewhere on their bodies. So, contrary to popular misconception, then, and despite how used to seeing cellulite on obese people we may be, cellulite is not a derivative of being overweight.

Science has also observed that cellulite is less common in men, leading many researchers to believe there is hormonal component to its formation. Prevailing theories suggest that the appearance of cellulite could be related to one’s diet, more specifically the ingestion of large amount of trans-fats as well as foods like pasta, white bread, and other foods heavy in white flour. Again, this is suspected, but not yet “known” or proven.

As is the case whenever a perceived new problem arises in our culture, manufacturers scamper to produce and release countless products targeting the cellulite-afflicted. You’ll find gels, lotions, pills and more all promising to rid you of that unsightly cellulite. Do they work? So far there’s nothing but anecdotal evidence supporting these products at best. Another false hope in the battle against cellulite is liposuction, the removal of fat from the body through surgery. Liposuction does not suck out cellulite.

Some sufferers have found that certain kinds of massage may produce a temporary reduction in the appearance of cellulite on the body, but not a reduction in the actual existence of it. This is because there are no blood vessels in subcutaneous fat, so when the body is massaged and circulation below the skin is stimulated, the surface of the skin appears smoothed out. Massage, then, is only a superficial solution to cellulite, and one with effects lasting only for the short term.

The only steps so far that have shown to make any real and lasting reduction in cellulite are the same steps advised for proper and effective weight loss: a healthy lifestyle. Eating a balanced diet, drinking plenty of water, and getting plenty of both exercise and rest seems to be the only known remedy for unsightly and embarrassing cellulite. It’s not reinventing the wheel, and it’s no quick fix – but it works. And when it comes to looking and feeling good, what works is all that matters.