Some ideas we have about dieting and nutrition are wrong, and some ideas about losing weight have changed in recent years. It was once thought that you needed to eat three square meals a day, but now it is thought to be better if you eat five small ones. Our bodies find it hard to digest a lot of food at once and that triggers bloating. Long gaps between meals can lead to stress.
Five small meals can help and less bloating makes you look slimmer. Eat foods that are nutritious and vary them so that you don't get tired of the same carrot sticks every day. Sweet corn and peas have more calories than other vegetables. To make sure you get a balance of vegetables, include as many colors as you can. This way you'll get a full range of vitamins and minerals.
It was once also thought that middle aged spread is inevitable, but now it is believed that keeping calm can help. Studies at the Oregon Health and Science University found that one reason women gain fat as they get older because falling estrogen levels and that causes a rise in the stress hormone cortisol (linked to fat storage). Yoga and drinking tea have been shown to help.
Even the idea that dieting is the best way to trim you fat is false. Adding exercise to dieting is really the only way to make significant progress. Doctors compared two groups of people trying to lose fat by cutting 400 calories a day. One group only dieted and the other group dieted and exercised. Both lost the same amount of weight, but only the exercisers had shrunk their fat cells and they looked slimmer. All they did was add three brisk 30 minute walks a week to the diet plan. Sit-ups can help tighten the stomach, but an even better exercise is the bicycle one, where you lie on the floor, do a peddling motion, touching your left elbow to your right knee, then your right elbow to your left knee. Do this exercise ten or fifteen times in a set, then repeat several more times (at least twice). If you do this daily and walk a much as you can, and you'll see results.
We've all been told that saturated fats are bad for us, but trans fats can be far worse. Trans fats are in processed foods. In lab trials, monkeys on high trans fat diets gained weight around their mid-sections even though they weren't getting fat anywhere else. Try to avoid foods that aren't trans fat free. Likewise, it was always thought that eating a lot of fruits and vegetables were good for dieters. However, experts at the University of Kansas say that 65 per cent of us may be bloated by fructose. Eat low fructose fruits, like apricots, and drink peppermint tea when you do eat them.
We've all been told to stop eating dairy in order to lose weight. However, there is a real benefit to having yogurt at least once a day. Studies show that calcium in dairy products can switch cells into a fat-burning mode. Fermented milk product like yogurt have high levels of natural bacteria that stop bloating. A yogurt a day can give you a flatter stomach in a week and two dairy products a day could fight fat long term.
There are some other things to consider. We all know that smoking is bad for your health, but it has been said for years that smoking helps keep you thin. However, it has been shown that smoker's stomachs are generally fatter since nicotine stops your abdominal muscles from burning fat. On top of this, nicotine stimulates nerve endings in the bowel, which can trigger bloating.
What about the idea that wearing high heels makes you look thinner? When you stand in high heels, your stomach muscles relax. This weakens then and over time can give you a pot bellied look. Keep heels for special events and wear flats for everyday activities.
