The Atkins diet principles lay the foundation for a healthy, more balanced way of eating than the standard American diet. Its emphasis is on using good carbohydrates in balance with adequate protein. This is in stark contrast to what most Americans eat on a daily basis. The average American eats lots of processed foods that have hidden sugars and highly processed carbohydrates. This has put most Americans on the road to diabetes and pre-diabetic conditions. What is sad is that diabetes has a predictable set of stages and that they can be easily recognized.

The road to diabetes has to do with something called the glycemic index. All carbohydrates are rated on this index with regards to the level of insulin reaction they produce. Foods that have a high glycemic index rating will cause your pancreas to release a lot of insulin to break down the amount of sugars and carbohydrates (which produce high amounts of glucose). The refined carbohydrates and sugars that make up the vast majority of the American diet rank very high on the glycemic index.

We are able to more readily digest these foods as children, because our bodies function more efficiently in our youth. There may have been side effects, like weight gain and mood swings, but they didnt stand out. As we age, however, these symptoms begin to grow and become more prevalent. The nation-wide obesity epidemic is a result of high-carbohydrate diets and unstable blood sugar levels.

Many people who are overweight are also insulin resistant. Insulin resistance means that the insulin is not doing its job in removing glucose from the blood stream. The pancreas gets over worked and it releases massive amounts of insulin, sometimes 20 times more than the body actually needs. This results in the blood sugar dropping to extremely low levels. This sets off a chain reaction in the body that leads to a release of adrenaline to correct the blood sugar problem.

With age, blood sugar and insulin difficulties become more aggravated. The condition is called hyperinsulinism and is a precursor for type II diabetes. It is normally accompanied by high blood pressure and high triglycerides.

After years of using a high-carbohydrate diet, you will finally become fully diabetic. Insulin is the bodys primary fat creator and extra pounds usually accompany late onset diabetes. Pre-diabetic conditions, if not treated effectively, will lead to diabetes indefinitely.

However, there are easily identifiable warning signs to diabetes that appear early. Your family doctor can perform insulin level tests that will let you know if you are at risk for pre-diabetic conditions, and studies show that low-carb diets like Atkins can help. Controlling your blood sugar is one of the most effective methods to controlling pre-diabetic conditions.

The Atkins diet helps effectively control blood sugar. The combination of proteins, fats and good carbohydrates will keep your body satisfied without the roller coaster effect. Controlling carbohydrates in quantity as well as type will help limit the insulin spikes. This will let your pancreas work in the way that it was meant to be, and it will decrease the likelihood of your developing pre-diabetic conditions. Its a vicious cycle that, if left unchecked, can lead to diabetes later in life. When the Atkins diet is followed effectively it produces stable blood sugar throughout the day and helps you stay off the road to diabetes.

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If you have been struggling to lose abdominal fat you are one of many. People in the US have become increasingly obese at every turn of a year. Why? Too may bad carbs and far too less exercise. Fast food joints are more prevalent than ever and it is just too easy to say the heck with it and pick something up on the way home instead of taking the time to cook a nice, healthy meal.

The first step in being able to lose abdominal fat is to change your mindset. No one can do it for you and there is no magic pill that you can take when you go to bed so you wake up thin in the morning. Losing weight takes dedication and perseverance.

Basically, you have to change your mindset and then reset your body. Our bodies work on a schedule and if you mess with that schedule then your body gets confused and because it is confused then it just stops working for you altogether and you gain weight.

If you are stuck on carbs then you need to quit them or change over to healthy carbs. Get the heck away from breads and all the processed foods you find on the shelves of your grocery store. Start eating fresh, whole foods. Get your carbs from fruits and vegetables and eat lean protein like fish, eggs and chicken.

Trim the calories you take in everyday, too. Settle on a 1200 or 1500 calorie per day eating plan. Did you know if you lose just 20% of your body fat you cut your risk for heart disease and diabetes almost in half? That’s right. It is never too late to start losing weight.

Part of resetting your body comes in the form of resetting your insulin pump. When you eat carbs, especially bad carbs, your body is ready to burn that energy you have given it up by converting it into simple sugars. When those simple sugars are not burned up the insulin that the pancreas has pumped into your system converts the simple sugars into fat and deposits that fat around your middle.

Since insulin stays in your system for a lot longer time than the simple sugars then anything you eat after that also gets immediately stored as fat around the middle. Resetting your insulin pump is the most important thing to do when you want to start losing weight.

We have all heard this one before, quit drinking pop and other sugary drinks and just stick to water. Half of your body weight in ounces every day. If you think water is boring and can’t stand to drink it, try this.

Take about a cup of frozen fruit, a berry mixture works very well, and let it sit in the bottom of a pitcher of water for about an hour. When the hour is up strain the fruit off and chill the water. Basically you have made your own type of smart water and the best part is you won’t need any sugar in it. With these tips you will not have to wait very long to lose abdominal fat.

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So, you are checking out how to loose weight fast. Well, I am here to tell you that fast is a relative term. Losing weight is difficult and the more you need to lose the longer it will take. You can probably hope to lose a pound or two a week if you are doing moderate exercise and making minimal changes to your eating habits.

If you get your doctor’s approval to hit it hard then you could safely lose five pounds a week but you also have to make significant changes in what you eat and stay away from all the bad carbs. I’m not saying you can’t reward yourself every once in a while but you must stay away from the sweets and the breads and the processed foods that you may or may not be used to.

Like I said losing weight is difficult but the theory is pretty simple. For anyone to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you take in. Putting this theory into practice is where the difficulty comes in. It is very hard to make the changes we need to make when it comes to how to loose weight fast.

I know from personal experience that motivation is hard to come by and hard to maintain when you do find it. You could be going like gangbusters and all of a sudden wake up one morning and it could all just be gone. I gave in to it just being gone and gained back all the weight I had lost instead of fighting through it and trying to find the motivation to just keep plugging away.

I regret that now and I have yet to find that same level of motivation again. So here I sit, still overweight and very unhappy with myself. Don’t do this to yourself. If you find some motivation do everything in your power to keep it.

Take pictures of yourself along the way to see your progress as you continue to lose the weight. Have a friend work out with you to help keep you motivated. Do anything you can to stay motivated until you reach your weight loss goals.

If you join a gym, make an appointment with yourself to go everyday. Don’t just poke it with a stick. You will only be wasting money and you will never reach your goals. Make the commitment to yourself and go everyday even if it just for thirty minutes at a time. You can always work up to longer routines when you feel yourself getting stronger but just start with thirty minutes.

Always speak with your doctor before starting any workout routine. The last thing you want to do, at this point, is hurt yourself. Your doctor can tell you how to start and what you can expect along the way. When you get stronger and some of the weight comes off he may even be able to tell you how to proceed and how to increase your workouts. You may want to make an appointment with a personal trainer for some sessions to get going in the right direction when first starting how to loose weight fast.

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Cholesterol is a very familiar medical term almost to anyone, particularly the middle age group. It is a common thing the word will never be a part of teen-age lingo. The main reason is, most of the dreaded ailments accompanying “high cholesterol” levels are associated with hypertension, heart failure, diabetes and other long term and acquired conditions, which does not could also happen to younger generation as juvenile complications. To make it clear, when the majority is talking about lowering cholesterol, it is all about alleviating the further progress of bad cholesterol.

There are two kinds of cholesterol accumulating or present in the human body. Bad cholesterol or low-density lipoprotein is harmful because it can cause atheroma. Atheroma is considered to be the plaque of the arteries, commonly referred to as fat streaks. If not watched carefully, accumulation of ‘macrophage white blood cells’ can happen to a child even before the age of 10.

The early symptoms may start as early as 5 years old, while the child grows up and the condition is accumulating quietly in the veins. Most of the time, the exact symptoms are only given prognosis after the onset of heart attack or stroke, which is already too late for the patient. The attack of silent killers may not cause death but chances are it can lead to lifetime disability.

It is debilitating to imagine how high levels of bad cholesterol can cause serious consequences to the body. When most people may appear healthy all the time, cholesterols can only be checked through lab tests. Sometimes it surprises people to find out how high their cholesterol build-up has soared for the past years.

There is no mystery behind the strengthening of bad cholesterol other than high consumption of saturated fats in the diet. In the advent of labels or guides in processed foods like canned goods and other packed products in the groceries, it is easy to see the amount of cholesterol a food has. This is just a small matter on how to grasp the essence of being cholesterol conscious.

The major way to lower down cholesterol levels in the body is to understand how it metabolizes in the body. Cholesterol doe not actually come from diet alone. It is a whole process within where diet is just one of the contributing factor. Good cholesterol aids in the body’s biochemical functioning like producing bile, regulating of vitamins that are fat soluble such as A, K, D, and E.

It also has impact on the synthesis of the body hormone. After cholesterol has been utilized in the body, it excretes as excess lipids in the liver and gall bladder as crystal particles. Because cholesterol is not water soluble, it circulates over and over and gets converted to bad cholesterol (low density lipoproteins). For normal individuals with healthy metabolism, bad cholesterol is minimal and comes in as large quantities. The harmful ones are those that come in many number of small sizes trapped in the veins as accumulated clogs.

When it comes to lowering high cholesterol, basically there is nothing to ponder about genetic weaknesses, the key is watching over food intake. Cholesterol is highly present in animal meats and fats, especially pork and beef. It is easy to watch fatty foods with all the precautions available today. But it takes discipline to live a life with less cholesterol consumption.

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