Fat Loss

Is the Scale Helpful or Harmful?

For a solid two weeks, you followed your weight loss program to a “T”.  You followed the menu plan, you bought new kitchen tools, etc. But you step on the scale and feel defeated -the number is the same as it was two weeks ago.  Or worse, it’s gone up! First, keep the motivation, but tone down the tension.  You are definitely doing the right thing.  Plateaus can happen.  The really good news is that most plateaus are temporary and short-term.

A study tracking 16,000 men and women provides strong evidence that the scale is one of the most effective tools for losing body fat and keeping it off.  So, if you have goals of losing weight, it might be better to shift your relationship with the scale.  Here are five ways you can begin to make friends with your scale:

1. Weigh yourself daily.
Provides accountability and you can see your progress. In one study, daily weighers dropped twice as many pounds as weekly weighers.

2. Take the weekly average.
It’s normal for your daily weight to go up and down.  However, the key is to avoid riding the emotional roller coaster with your shifting scale weight.  Keep the big picture in mind and look for signs of long-term progress.

3. Don’t sweat fluctuations. There can be so many reasons why the scale is not moving. Keep in mind all the reasons for scale fluctuations, including:

  • You didn’t have bowel movement.
  • You consumed a lot of sodium.
  • You ate more food later at night, so it would be sitting in your stomach in the morning.
  • Carbohydrates will hold on to water, so if you consumed more carbs yesterday, you would retain water.
  • You are dehydrated.
  • You’ve had intense workouts, causing inflammation.
  • You’ve been sick.
  • You started a new supplement.
  • Your sleep hasn’t been consistent.
  • You feel stressed out.
  • Menstrual cycle approaching.

4. More muscle is a good thing.
If you are exercising, there is a good chance you are adding muscle! And muscle is much denser than fat, which means it takes up less volume than an equal mass of fat. This explains why it’s possible to become slimmer without a significant drop in weight.

5. Promotes good habits.
Another study found that daily weigh-ins led to “greater adoption of weight control behaviors”, such as reducing snacks between meals, cutting back on dessert portions sizes, exercising for 30 minutes or more and increasing daily steps.


4 Ways to Stop Emotional Eating

 

Emotional eating can greatly affect our weight-loss efforts. While food can give us a sense of comfort, we can also use food to relieve stress or to simply feel better. This type of eating is a way of filling our emotional needs and not our stomachs. Unfortunately, emotional eating usually makes us feel worse afterwards and leads to overeating accompanied with guilt. Emotional eating can be controlled as long as we can identify our triggers which are key to staying in control.

 

 

Start a Food Diary

Keep a food diary and log everything you eat every day. Be sure to include when you ate and how you felt while eating. Over time you may be able to find patterns between your mood and the food you ate. Identifying emotional triggers will help you stay in control and help you differentiate cravings from real hunger.

Find Other Ways to Relieve Stress

Finding other ways to relieve stress will stop us from opening the fridge or scrounging the pantry. Activities such as yoga, reading a book or writing are all great ways to relieve stress. Even simple deep breathing is a form of meditation that can be done anywhere to help us regulate our emotions.

Keep the Temptations Away

If there is no junk food at home, then we can’t eat any! Toss out or give away foods that are high in fat, sugars or calories. Replace unhealthy foods with real foods. Whenever you are feeling a little down, grabbing an apple instead of a bag of chips will not only support weight-loss, but you won’t feel guilty about it afterwards!

Seek Support

During moments of sadness or anxiety make sure to resist isolation. Having a family member come visit or even making a quick phone call can relieve negative emotions. The key to overcoming emotional eating is to find other ways to cope with our emotions other than eating.


The 10 Best Healthy Snacks for Weight Loss

A snack is generally defined as any food eaten between meals.  A snack portion should be enough to satisfy but not to so much that it interferes with your appetite for a main meal.  Snacks can absolutely fit into your diet if you are trying to manage your weight.  Having a plan on the type of snacks you pack for work and on the go will help diversify your food selection, vary the nutrients you get and keep you from getting hungry between meals.  Remember, think nutrient-dense (fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals) and your snacks will help you get the nutrition your body needs and keep you full.

Here are 10 healthy delicious snacks to try:

  1. ¼ cup hummus and veggie sticks (carrots, celery, cucumbers, or peppers).
  2. 6-ounce container plain low-fat Greek yogurt with berries (strawberries, raspberries, or blueberries).
  3. 21 almonds, 12 walnuts halves, or 45 pistachio nuts.
  4. 1 small banana with 2 teaspoons peanut, sunflower, or almond butter.
  5. One ounce of dark chocolate (at least 70% cacao)
  6. 1 slice 100% whole grain toast (e.g., Melba or Ezequiel) with 1.5 Tbsp. peanut butter.
  7. 1 piece reduced-fat string cheese with 1 sliced apple.
  8. Low-fat cottage cheese with blueberries and a sprinkle of granola
  9. 1 hard-cooked egg and 1 slice 100% whole grain toast.
  10. 4 cups organic popcorn sprinkle with 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan or Nutritional Yeast

Be mindful while you eat. Make eating a relaxing break, away from your computer and work. Enjoy it!


Spring Is the Best Time of Year to Lose Weight!

Spring seems like the best thing ever–all the showers and flowers and it is, because the season magically makes you lose weight.  You can’t argue with these facts, actual proof that spring is all the things:
Beautiful weather makes you want to be more active.
Revealing spring clothes zaps your desire to overeat.
Cold-weather drinks have fewer calories than warm-weather drinks.
The season’s most delicious foods are incredibly healthy.
With daylight savings you get more waking hours of sunshine.
Green stuff is abundant in the spring and green stuff burns fat. And it just so happens spring is prime time for seasonal veggies like arugula, kale, spinach, and broccoli.
Your mood is brighter! most people feel an increase in energy, optimism, and excitement with the arrival of spring.  This positive feeling helps to lose weight!


How To Lose Body Fat By Changing What You Eat

We help people in Massachusetts lose body fat by creating personalized science-based menus. A program of regular exercise is also important, but a healthy diet is even more important. Changing what you eat can help you lose weight, while you improve your health. The basic premise of weight loss is calories in compared to calories out, but it’s not all that easy. You need a diet that also contains all the nutrients you require. Some foods also boost your metabolism, so they increase the number of calories you burn even when you’re asleep.

Some foods are thermogenic.

Thermogenic foods take a lot of calories to digest, which lowers the actual net calories that you consume. Foods high in protein fall into that category. You burn about one-third of all the calories from protein to digest it. Foods high in protein also fill you up faster and make you feel full longer. The amino acid L-arginine boosts metabolism. It increases HGH which helps burn fat, increases energy so you burn even more calories, and burns belly fat.

Have a banana and lose a pound.

Eating one banana won’t make you lose a pound, but eating foods rich in potassium, like bananas, will help you lose weight. Potassium has many functions in the body. It can help people with heart problems, acts as a natural diuretic, and aids in muscle recovery to improve your workout. A banana isn’t the only food that is high in potassium. Leafy greens and avocados are two others that contain potassium, plus have other weight loss nutrients and benefits.

Healthy fat can help you burn fat.

When you think of fat, you might think of marbling in steak or greasy, fatty fries, but there are other options. Food can contain omega-3 fatty acids, which are healthy fats. They help prevent insulin spikes that can pack on pounds. Sardines, kale, salmon, grass-fed beef, and walnuts all contain omega-3 fatty acids. Coconut oil has saturated fat lauric acid, a medium chain triglyceride—MCT. Using coconut oil can boost your energy and help you lose belly fat.

  • Eat food containing magnesium, such as cashews, almonds, and spinach. Magnesium helps muscle contractions when you exercise and lowers fasting glucose and insulin levels. It keeps your fat-burning furnace burning at peak performance.
  • Drinking more water can help you lose weight in several ways. Drinking it before a meal can fill you up so you eat less. It can prevent dehydration that slows metabolism. If you drink it ice cold, you’ll burn extra calories to warm your body.
  • Food high in B vitamins, which includes choline, helps prevent fat storage by blocking the gene that causes fat storage. Those foods also make you feel fuller. Beans, eggs, lean meat, and milk are high in B vitamins. Bananas also fit in this category.
  • Potatoes and peas can help you lose weight. Both contain resistant starch, which increases after you cook and cool them. Store them in the fridge after cooling and make a potato/pea salad the next day for fat-burning benefits.

For more information, contact us today at ProWeightLoss


Are You on a Weight Loss Plateau?

Being stuck at a weight-loss plateau eventually happens to everyone who tries to lose weight. There will be good weeks and not-so-good weeks.  Plateaus are a common part of weight loss.  The important thing to remember here is that weight loss isn’t linear and it’s actually normal for your weight to fluctuate on a regular basis.  If you are committed to losing weight, try these tips for getting past the plateau:

1. Reassess your habits. Look back at your food and activity records. Make sure you haven’t loosened the rules. For example, look at whether you’ve been having larger portions, eating more processed foods, or getting less exercise. Research suggests that off-and-on loosening of rules contributes to plateaus.
2. Don’t mess with your diet. As long as you’re eating a healthy diet, there is no reason to change it just because you hit that weight-loss plateau.   The most important thing with dietary habits is being consistent.
3. Increase physical activity. Get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity a week, or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity. Adding exercises such as weightlifting to increase your muscle mass will help you burn more calories.
4. Focus on your non-scale successes.  While it can be exciting to see the numbers on the scale go down, this isn’t the only measure of success when it comes to losing weight.  Your weight loss journey isn’t just about numbers.  Non-scales victories such as loose jeans, better sleep, more energy are also victories!

The key to avoiding a weight loss plateau is to make lasting changes to your diet, physical activity and let time do the rest.


The Power of Two!

Losing weight as a couple, or even with a close friend, may increase your chances for success.

Trying to lose weight isn’t as easy as it seems, especially when you’re doing it alone. If you have considered starting a new health or weight loss program but hesitated, consider grabbing a partner.  Research shows couples were three times more successful at losing weight than people who were single.  Here are a few tips for couples:

Make a date and go shopping.
Having healthy foods at home sets the foundation for healthy eating.  Both fruits and vegetables should make up about half of your meals.  Help each other limit snacking.

Design a healthy eating meal plan together.
Sit down together and write out a week’s worth of meals.  Make sure that both of you agree on what you are choosing. Together, you can try new foods and explore new flavors.  Don’t be afraid to spice it up.

Focus on habits, not the number on the scale.
Focus on the eating and activity habits you want to change together.  Support each other.  Do not make competition.  It takes time to create new habits in order to lose weight with your partner.

Exercise together
Working out and exercising create bonding and intimacy between couples, which is very useful in successful relationships.

Spend more time outdoors.
A simple walk in a park with your partner may help to burn calories.


Create the new you through Pro Weight Loss

Many of us feel tired and wonder why we have no energy. On top of that, we have a very difficult time controlling our weight through the American food system. Pro weight loss is dedicated to creating a new you by giving your body the nutrient balance it’s looking for. You don’t need to be deprived to feel good about your food!  Our program allows you to detox yourself from all the toxins, chemicals, and plastic enzymes that are stored in your body. These cause inflammation, among other problems, that are connected to being overweight.

It’s one of the fastest ways to transform yourself into the new you and feel better! Luckily, your body wants to heal. Given the right nutrients and path, it can rebound quickly!

Many people report that they feel great after they have done our program. One of the main reasons why is because of the process that we take to transform an acid filled body to a PH balanced body. When your body becomes overweight, it becomes acidic. A body that has too much acid creates inflammation. Inflammation starts to cause all kinds of problems! From your metabolism to health issues related to organs as well as sleeping and energy loss.

The Pro Weight Loss process is a chance to reset your body’s balance and start a new life through food that will energize you and make you feel great!

In a matter of weeks, you can feel completely different through our program! We would love to have the chance to help you!


Keep it off

 

Although weight loss is difficult, keeping the weight off is even harder.   The truth is most people who lose weight will regain it within a few years.  How can you increase the odds that you will be in the group of successful dieters who keep the weight off? Exercise is a key factor in maintaining weight loss, in part because it stimulates your metabolism.  It can also help you maintain and increase lean body mass, which also helps increase number of calories you burn each day.
At the same time, it’s also important to keep focused on what you have learned about healthy eating.  Healthy weight management is not about dieting or counting calories.  It is about building healthy habits.  Eating healthy food that fills you up and provide real nutrients is key to maintain a healthy weigh.  Healthy food and exercise are vital strategies for losing and maintaining weight.
Here we have some general guidelines:

  • Eat breakfast.
  • 2-3 servings of fruit daily.
  • 3-5 serving of vegetables daily.
  • 9-15 oz of lean protein daily.
  • 8 glasses of water.
  • 3-4 times /weekly physical activity.
  • Limit grains from 4-5 times/weekly.
  • Avoid alcohol and processed food.
  • Sleep 7-9 hrs. per day.

Diet vs Exercise: What Matters Most?

Diet and exercise are both important for optimal health, but diet and exercise can play different roles when trying to lose weight. For weight loss, diet seems to be more effective than physical activity. Diet is probably more important for losing weight.  Physical activity for keeping it off.

Achieving a calorie deficit through diet modifications is key for weight loss, while exercise provides many benefits that help sustain your results.

To lose weight you must be in a calorie deficit, meaning your body expends more calories than you consume.  This can be achieved by eating and drinking fewer calories, burning more calories from physical activity, or a combination of two.

While both diet and exercise are important for weight loss. It’s generally easier to manage your calorie intake by modifying your diet than it is to burn significantly more calories through exercise.