OK, you are getting older and you are starting to see the dial on your scale creep up. You know it is not your fault, after all, we all know that slowed metabolism as women get older is something that just happens. Or is it? Is this an inevitable and irreversible side effect of getting older?

Well, I’m not a doctor and I can’t really say for sure but according to what I have read we don’t necessarily have to expect to have slowed metabolism as women get older. As a matter of fact, from what I read, in some ways we are causing the problem ourselves!

You see one of the biggest culprits of a slowing metabolism is the loss of lean muscle mass. As we age we stop being as active as we were when we were younger.

As we become more sedentary the lean muscle mass in our bodies decreases thus slowing our metabolism.

This issue is made worse when we start to see the numbers on the bathroom scale getting higher and higher. Many of us will then mistakenly try to cut down on our food intake.

This only makes things worse because then our body thinks that it is starving so it shuts down as much as possible to conserve energy.

Once that happens we are really heading in a downward spiral. We will continue to gain weight because our metabolism is slowing down so we panic and eat less thus slowing our metabolism down even more.

The good news is that there are a few simple things you can do to combat this trend, it does not have to be an inevitable part of aging.

Here are two of the best things you can do to reverse this trend and keep that trim figure you’ve had up until now:

1. Eat better. That can mean different things to different people. For some of you that will mean to eat less food in general. Some of you may need to cut way back on the amount of bad for you fast food that you eat.

Others may just need to eat more “organic” types of food and steer clear of the overly processed foods. That may include those frozen “good for you” dinners.

As a rule of thumb, anything that is already prepared is not that nutritious. You are almost always better off making all your food from scratch with natural, fresh ingredients.

2. Weight train. If you are wasting hours every week on the cardio machines at your local gym and not doing any weight training, you are wasting your time.

You see endless cycles of cardio can actually burn off your lean muscle mass. Have you ever seen a long distance runner? They look almost emaciated, they sure don’t look healthy. That is because they have very little lean muscle mass.

To really increase your metabolism you should add as much lean muscle mass as possible. And for crying out loud ladies, don’t fret about “bulking up”. You can’t. You don’t have the right hormones to “accidentally” get big. Even if you really wanted to it would be a challenge for most women, you sure aren’t going to do it accidentally.

These are the best ways to combat slowed metabolism as women get older.

Tags: Bathroom Scale, Culprits, Different Things, Downward Spiral, Fast Food, food intake;, Lean Muscle Mass, Losing Weight, Matter Of Fact, Slowing Metabolism, Types Of Food —

Moderation is one thing that you should be looking for when you are considering which healthy eating plans are the best. To put it another way, if the plan has extreme restrictions or makes wild claims, then the chances are good that it’s unhealthy. The best diets will focus on moderation in the types of food you eat, as well as the portions it recommends.

If you have been considering various plans, then you have probably seen those that make claims that can tip you off to why they may not be so good. A common example is a diet that says you can eat as much of one food as you want, but then severely limits how much you can eat of other foods. Low carb diets may be the most popular example. They let you eat all the protein and fat that you want, but try to get you to cut out as many carbohydrates as you can.

While these so-called “healthy eating plans” say you can eat all the meat, fish and eggs you want and lose weight, you need to realize there are also risks. First, people are designed to eat a whole range of foods. Yes, you may be able to lose weight on a low-carb diet, but it could have negative impact on your health if all you’re eating is meat and eggs. Second, the idea of eating all the bacon (for example) you want sounds very appealing at first, but the craving for carbohydrates is more than most people can handle, and they end up binging on carbs…and weighing more than when they started.

Any type of diet that makes similar claims should be looked at with suspicion. A diet that tells you that you can eat all of the fat you like is just as bad as any diet that tells you to eat as much sugar as you want. It just doesn’t make sense. To be fair there are also diets that tell you to cut out all fat. Surely these must be healthy eating plans, right? Not really. Again, they are too restrictive for certain foods, and that’s your clue that they may not be good for you. The truth is that there are healthy fats. Again, the key here is moderation.

Of course the appeal for all of these types of diets is the same. What happens is that a person may try a reasonable diet, but then they find they crave certain foods. Say the diet says you shouldn’t eat cheeseburgers. There’s nothing wrong with that, but then you start wishing you could eat a big, juicy cheeseburger and go off the diet. Then later on you decide you’d like to lose weight again. But here’s the catch: you look for a diet that allows you to eat the cheeseburgers you missed on the last diet. You start off doing great, but even though you can eat your burgers, the new diet doesn’t let you eat pasta. So, you go off this diet and look for one that lets you eat pasta…and you keep repeating this cycle over and over again.

But real healthy eating plans let you eat just about anything you want, but only in moderation. In other words, they make allowances for the occasional treat, but they offset it in some way; they balance it out. Such a plan is much easier to stick to and will give you long term results.

Tags: Atkins, Bacon, Best Diets, Carbohydrates, Clue, Eating Habits, Eggs, Fats, Fish, Focus, Health, Healthy Diet, Healthy Eating, Lose Weight, Losing Weight, Low Carb Diet, Low Carb Diets, Moderation, Negative Impact, People, Protein, Suspicion, Truth, Types Of Food —

If you are wondering on how to lose pounds fast, then you need to be smart about it. The reason is because it can be done, however it can be a dangerous situation if you dont watch yourself.

The first thing I would want to do is find a good diet plan to go by. I would want to do some home work on the diet plan and make sure it would be the right one for me. Sometimes a friend may offer you one that worked for her; however that same diet may not work for you.

Make sure your diet consist of low fat foods. There are many types of food that are good for you however, that type of food may have a high fat percentage. Eating fruit is one way of knowing youre not eating anything fatty.

Start baking or grilling your meals, this way you can stay away from the fried foods. Things like chicken and fish can still taste great even though they are grilled or baked.

Dont think for one second that you have to give up all of the good stuff. There are plenty of low fat yogurts that are out there that are flat out awesome. Stick with that diet plan and everything should be good to go.

You cant rely on the diet alone; you are going to have to put some grunt work into it. Pick a good exercise program and get ready to work. Thats the only way you are going to see results.

To lose weight quickly while exercising, you will have to have some high energy type of work outs. There are plenty of high cardio workouts that are on the market right now that you can do from the comfort of your own home. This way is also less expensive than a gym membership.

If you dont want to sit in front of your T.V. and watch a video of people working out; then getting out and jogging could be the thing for you. Jogging can easily burn just as many calories as a high cardio work out.

Just make sure whatever exercise program you are going to do, make sure you are prepared for it. By that I mean getting checked out by a doctor to make sure you are ok to start a program.

There you have it, follow those simple rules and you can quickly and more importantly safely lose those extra pounds you want to lose.

Tags: Calories, Cardio Work, Cardio Workouts, Dangerous Situation, Diet Plan, Eating Habits, Energy Type, Exercise Program, Fish, food;, Fried Foods, Good Stuff, Grunt Work, Gym Membership, Healthy Diet, High Energy, high energy type, Lose Weight, Losing Weight, Low Fat Foods, Smart, Type Of Food, Types Of Food, Work Outs, Yogurts —

For anyone who has undergone the gastric bypass operation you are well aware of the challenges that can come with such a limited food intake. You know more than anyone how difficult it can be to make sure to eat properly proportioned and prepared meals so that you not only get all the nutrients you need but you can avoid a lot of the fats, carbs, and sugars that you don’t need, and that can actually make you sick. That’s why it’s so important to find good gastric bypass recipes, and the good news is that there are many places to look.

Of course, for several weeks after the procedure you will be greatly limited on the types of foods you can eat, at first you won’t be able to eat solid foods at all just Jell-o and protein shakes, then you will move up to pureed foods and finally, you will be able to eat most types of food. After the surgery, don’t be surprised if the foods you used to enjoy no longer satisfy you. Some people have reported that after the surgery they no longer liked to eat certain foods, such as meat. This may or may not happen to you, you will be spending some time relearning what you like, and what agrees with you, and what you don’t like or what doesn’t agree with you.

One thing you will need to do is to avoid eating too much processed foods that are high in carbohydrates and sugars. You will want to have a diet that is made up more of healthy, low or non processed whole foods. These are more nutrient rich anyway and are better for everyone, not just those that have had the surgery. If you eat too much highly processed carbs and sugar you will very likely get quite sick. You will experience nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

Since there is a very real danger that you can get a ‘clog’ in your stomach, you have to make sure to thoroughly chew all of your food. For this reason you may want to avoid foods that have a very tough texture such as some cuts of meat. Raw vegetables might also prove troublesome to some people and you may want to use mostly cooked vegetables such as cooked carrots.

There are very real, and important, things you need to consider post surgery when it comes to preparing the best meals for your body and your overall health. If you are interested in finding gastric bypass recipes there are many places you can look but one of the first places you should check out is right at your doctors office. They will most likely be able to provide you with some recipes to get you started, other than that you can find recipes online, or at your local library or bookstore. With the increasing numbers of people who are having the surgery done, finding tasty recipes is just going to get easier and easier.

Tags: Atkins, Carbohydrates, Carbs, Challenges, Cuts Of Meat, Eating Habits, Fats, food intake;, food;, Fruits And Vegetables, Gastric Bypass Operation, Healthy Diet, Jell O, Nausea Vomiting, Nutrients, Prepared Meals, Protein, Raw Vegetables, Recipes, Stomach, Sugars, Texture, Types Of Food, Vomiting And Diarrhea, Whole Foods —