Comments (3)

By admin, June 26, 2010 3:20 pm

You may have already heard about the controversy surrounding the new signature attraction at Universal Studios’ “Wizarding World of Harry Potter” theme park in Orlando. Apparently, height is no longer the only bodily measurement under theme park scrutiny; weight, shockingly enough, also affects whether or not a passenger can safely ride:  ”Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey,” employs individual restraints to keep each guest safely in to his or her seat. The problem?  The restraints aren’t large enough to accommodate heavier riders.

And some fans of the Harry Potter series who traveled a great distance to experience what one theme park goer described as “the ride of my life” were turned away because they could not fit into the safety restraints–safety being the operative word here.

Universal seems to have anticipated this issue as they both stationed staff “wizards” and placed test-seats along the line and at the entrance to Forbidden Journey. But was this really enough? I mean, they have those “size-wise” testers for carry-on luggage at the airport; but I’ve never seen someone actually check their back with it.  And you always see some traveler with a carry-on bag twice the size and they still get on the airplane.

One Harry Potter fan, Jeff Guillaume of Lansing, Michigan, who measures 5′8″ and weighs 265 pounds expressed his disappointment when he was not able to ride because the restraint would not fit over his torso.  About the same time, it was reported that NBA star Dwight Howard was a rider and fit just fine in the restraint.  Now,  Howard is 6′11″ and also weighs 265 pounds. This spurred many Harry Potter fans to point the finger at Universal Studios … as how could Guillaume be denied when he weighed the same as Howard? “This must be discrimination!!!” they all cried in unison.

Are you serious?

Please. Let’s have a short lesson, shall we?  Muscle weighs more than fat, right? We’ve heard that for years, but what gets lost in the shuffle is the size difference between 5 pounds of fat and 5 pounds of muscle. See the picture to the right?  That is the difference. And if you’re like Guillaume, you are carrying at least 100 pounds more fat than you should.   That would be roughly 20 of those blobs, which is  precisely why he can’t ride Harry Potter- not because Universal Studios is discriminating against him.

Guillaume did the right thing in admitting he was overweight rather than reacting like a typical American and filing a discrimination lawsuit. Instead, he is going to use the experience as a motivator to lose weight. Good for him.  Most of us could stand to replace a few 5 lb fat blobs with smaller 5 lb muscle ones.

Universal Studios doesn’t enforce specific weight limits; they do have the test seats and a requirement that riders be at least 48 inches tall. Universal Studios states that their body dimension restrictions are not to discriminate but “to ensure the safety of our guests. It’s #1.” As it should be.

We do have a rising problem in this country in that the average American man weighs 191 pounds; in 1960 it was 166 pounds.  Universal isn’t the first theme-park operator to deal with issues raised by the growing rate of obesity in the United States. In 2007, Disney had to modify the “It’s a Small World” ride after weighted-down boats began regularly getting stuck in the plume.

Idea: Rather than blame the theme parks for being unable to safely accommodate obese riders, obese riders–Unite!!  And be no longer obese.  Medifast has been proven to be a safe and effective form of weight loss, backed by more than 30, 000 doctors and guaranteed to help you in your quest to replace enough fat blobs with muscle blobs so that you too can safely ride Harry Potter’s Forbidden Journey at Universal Studios.

Comments (0)

By admin, March 8, 2010 4:04 pm

If you’ve ever wanted to get rid of cellulite you are not alone! I think every Western woman on the planet has had this thought cross her mind at least once in her lifetime.

Cellulite–also lovingly called “cottage cheese”–is fat cells that have bulged through cell walls into the skin’s middle layer, where they pull on connective tissue to create an unattractive, dimpled skin surface.

To repair cellulite, you need to strengthen and hydrate your body’s cells and the connective tissue in your body.

Here’s what will help:

1. Nourish your body with an abundance of real, whole, organic foods from the earth. This means eating lots of fruits, greens and sea weed (think sushi.)

2. Avoid toxins like junk food, diet soda, processed food, excessive alcohol and cigarettes.

Drink water to improve your skins health.

3. Drink an abundance of filtered water to hydrate and flush out toxins. Eight to ten glasses a day are recommended.

4. Use a dry skin brush daily, preferably before bathing. This simple and affordable technique stimulates blood andlymph flow, removes dead skin cells and encourages new cell growth. I’ve done this for years, it keeps my skin radiant and beautiful! Purchase one at your local health food store for around $8.

5. Exercise your body every day to stimulate your lymphatic system. Try rebounding on a mini trampoline, yoga, brisk walking or swimming.

6. Start a cellulite loving ritual. Gently massage your cellulite with a mixture of almond or coconut oil and few drops of lavender, lemon and peppermint essential oil every day. Breathe and think loving, accepting, positive thoughts as you massage the oils into your skin.

7. Finish your daily shower with a cold rinse to tone your skin, refresh and energize your body and soul! I do this every day and I love it!

Comments (0)

By admin, November 23, 2009 10:30 am

There is one portion of a persons body that seems to always seem to develop fat more easily then other areas. With your belly withholding the most fat it can seem like a huge effort to work off that unwanted fat, but this doesn’t have to continue forever.

If you are someone who’s decided it is time to begin working off that unwanted belly fat then it is time to begin making changes to your daily eating habits and exercise routines, if you even have one yet.

By making simple changes to the foods you consume daily and adding a little extra exercise you will be on your way to working off a few of those extra fatty belly pounds.

There are many ways in which you can diminish the signs of belly fat without feeling overwhelmed with the overall effort.

Avoid the unwanted belly fat worries.

Most people tend to give up on exercises and dieting because of the effort that they have to put in, but by doing a few basic changes to your lifestyle you will increase the chances of you losing belly fat.

Medifast Diet Plans have been designed to assist in the reduction of belly fat. There are various home remedy options available that could easily help you diminish your belly fat levels even more, but ensure that you stay dedicated to the options for best results.

Your health is something you want to keep a close eye on. If you have excess amounts of fat on your body you could find yourself feeling sluggish and in need of energy boosts, which usually consist of unhealthy options. Avoid this by decreasing the percentage of fat you have on your body and living a healthier life.

If you are looking for some well needed advice on how to lose belly fat consider looking through some of our other belly fat articles. They’ll help you diminish the signs of belly fat and get the fit, healthy looking body you’ve been dreaming about.

• 5 Tips to Help You Remove Your Belly Fat
• Home Remedy for Losing Belly Fat
• Five More Tips for Eliminating Belly Fat
• Decreasing Your Belly Fat Levels

Hopefully you can finally take control of your health and avoid having that unwanted belly fat any longer. There are many options available to help you lose that unwanted weight in all areas of your body, so why not have Medifast help you each step of the way. Your life and health deserves it.

Working Medifast Coupons

Comments (0)

By admin, November 13, 2009 4:00 am

When you are confronted with the unwanted belly fat you will find yourself doing just about anything to get rid of the excess belly fat that you have. No one enjoys dealing with belly fat and no one likes the battle that they encounter when it comes to getting rid of it. This is one area that is hard to get rid of, but there are some changes that you can make to decrease the amounts of belly fat that you have.

Diet foods to lose excess belly fat.

To begin you will want to make some changes to your eating habit. The foods that you consume can play a major role on your actual appearance. If you are someone that consumes foods with higher calorie rates and fat content you are going to see that your health diminishes drastically. This is because your body is attempting to work off all this excess fat and calories instead of maintaining a healthy immune system.

This can easily be changed by incorporating a Medifast diet plan into your daily routine. The diets have a meal plan alongside them which will greatly improve your health. Each meal that you consume has all the necessary nutrients and if you eat all the necessary meals each day you’ll get the required daily amount of nutrients your body needs to be healthy.

Over a period of time you will begin losing that unwanted belly fat and feel improvements with your health and lifestyle. By taking on the diet plans properly you will have the ability to get the proper results as well. Most people lose 2-5lbs a week, which can really change your physical appearance over time. It may not sound like a lot of weight, but this is a healthy amount to lose each week, and dieting should be done with a healthy route in mind.

The Medifast Diet Plans have been developed to be very healthy and make drastic changes to your health. Not only will you begin to lose weight, but your energy will increase allowing you to lose even more weight. This means all that belly fat will finally wither away and you’ll have that healthy looking and feeling body again.

Working Medifast Coupons

Comments (1)

By admin, October 2, 2009 8:07 am

With the holiday season approaching, it is easy to think about belly fat as something that is festive and fun. Constantly seeing Santa Claus with his big belly and the Pillsbury Doughboy may make you think that the belly is in.

But belly fat never brings good tidings. Research has consistently implicated belly fat as a cause for increased increased risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer. So this holiday season, while it may be tempting to mimic Santa’s belly, you will be better off thinking about the health implications that belly fat brings.

Last month, we have shared with you 5 Tips to Help You Remove Your Belly Fat. Here are five more tips to help you eliminate belly fat:

Keep track of your waist-to-hip ratio

1. Keep track of your waist-to-hip ratio.

Always take note of your waist-to-hip ratio as well as your body mass index (BMI). Log your measurements on a notebook or a calendar every other month or so. If you find that your waist is wider than your hips, take immediate action to lose your belly fat right away.

For women, watch out if your waist expands beyond 35 inches. For men, the upper limit should be 40 inches. Remember that if your waist size falls into the danger zone and your BMI is 25 or more, you are at risk of heart disease.

2. Choose to consume the good fat.

If 20% to 35% of your daily calories should come from fat, ensure that you get most of it from the good kind of fat. Choose between mono- or polyunsaturated fats and always avoid foods high in saturated fats and carbohydrates.

When cooking with fat, opt to cook with vegetable oils, like canola, olive, or sunflower oil. Some examples of delicious foods with healthy fats include salmon, avocados, olives, and walnuts.

3. Burn off existing fat.

There is a saying which goes, “move it to lose it.” If you want to lose belly fat, then you have to engage in an active lifestyle. Routine, moderate exercise helps to fend off the fat, and the more strenuous activity burns off existing fat.

Keep the bigger picture in mind when you’re working out. Keep in ming that spot weight loss is difficult. Just doing a bunch of crunches won’t do it. You are better off going for a fat-burning cardiovascular exercise and combining that with execises that firm up and strengthen the abdominal area.

The good news about visceral fat is that it’s the first fat to go once you start shedding pounds!

Yoga can help calm your mind

4. Relax.

Research has shown that a person’s level of body stress may be related to belly fat. Always find ways to unwind and relax. Exercise can help you de-stress and yoga, with its meditative component can help calm your mind.

5. Consult your doctor.

Always check with your doctor anytime you are worried about your risks. Doctors can track visceral fat by the tape measure or with an MRI or CAT scan (a series of X-ray images of the body that are compiled by a computer to produce a 3-dimensional image).

A blood test can also be given to measure the presence of a protein called retinol binding protein 4 (RBP 4) in the blood, which is an indicator of potential health problems like heart disease and diabetes.

Working Medifast Coupons

Comments (1)

By admin, August 20, 2009 7:15 am

Believe it or not, fat in itself is not bad. The fact is, our bodies need fat to be able to do the following:

• store energy
• provide us with insulation
• regulate our hormone function
• help us absorb vitamins and minerals

But like everything else, too much of anything is not good. Too much fat in our body can make us vulnerable to illnesses as well as diseases.

Excess weight and belly fat are normally caused by poor diet and slow metabolism. Luckily, determination and hard work can help you take off the extra pounds you want. The important thing is to pinpoint the factors that cause the extra pounds and to alter your diet as well as lifestyle.

If you have a fat belly, the best option is to follow a healthy weight loss diet and combine it with a fitness exercise such as aerobics to help you burn the extra calories. You can also use a stomach-toning workout to help you tighten and strengthen your abdominal muscles. Remember that reducing a fat stomach takes time and effort. Despite what commercials say, there is just no easy way to flatten your stomach. Do not be impatient and just remain focused on your goal.

Here are some of the things you can do to help you achieve a flatter stomach:

1. Adopt a Healthier Eating Habit

To lose belly fat, evaluate your eating habits and make an effort to adopt a healthier diet. Remember that having a poor diet is one of the major sources of belly fat. Make a conscientious effort to reduce your intake of high-calorie and high-fat foods and instead opt to choose fat-free or low-fat foods.

Always pay attention to food labels and count the calories per serving. Aim to reduce your daily calorie intake by 500. Avoid consuming refined sugar. This includes cookies, candies, ice creams as well as pastries. Instead, opt to include the following food in your diet – lean meat, fresh fruits and vegetables. You may also include low-fat dairy products or low-calorie snacks into your diet.

2. Engage in Regular Cardio Workouts

Cardio workouts are ideal for losing belly fat as it allows you to burn calories as well as fat. This helps you lose weight in every part of your body. Good cardio exercises include jogging, running, biking or aerobics.
In addition to cardio, also aim to engage in core workouts as these strengthen the abdominal muscles and flatten the stomach. Core exercises consists of sit-ups, leg lifts, side crunches and pilates. You may also engage in dances that target the mid-section. These include belly dancing, salsa and samba.

Always aim to exercise for 30 to 60 minutes everyday. If this is not possible, aim to at least exercise for 90 minutes per week.

3. Drink 8 to 10 Glasses of Water

Another cause of belly fat is fluid retention or water weight. Fortunately, losing water weight is easier than losing belly fat. One method you can use to lose water weight and flatten your stomach is to increase your water intake as this stimulates the kidneys and is considered as the fastest way to flush excess fluids from your body. Strive to drink between 8 to 10 glasses of water a day. Decreasing your sodium intake is also another way to lose water weight.

Working Medifast Coupons

Comments (0)

By admin, August 18, 2009 3:00 pm

Fat itself is not bad. Our bodies need fat. Our fatty tissue stores up energy, regulates hormone function, helps us absorb vitamins and minerals, and provides us with built-in insulation. In fact, 20% to 35% of our daily calories should come from fat. Yep, our bodies need fat – just not too much, and not in certain parts of our bodies. Too much fat, especially saturated and trans-fats, and our bodies can become vulnerable to disease.

You may be asking yourself why belly fat can cause more harm than, say, the fat that dimples the thighs or heaps onto the hips. To answer that, you need to get to know the two kinds of fat we all have in our belly region: subcutaneous fat and visceral fat.

Subcutaneous fat is that fat you can see and grab onto – all those beer bellies, spare tires, pouches, and love handles. It’s the fat that makes a person look fat. Visceral fat, that’s the fat that hides inside. Visceral fat is the fat that surrounds the abdominal organs. Visceral fat is more insidious because it’s so hard to detect, and because it is also affected by genetics in addition to an unhealthy diet and physical inactivity.

Wondering now if you have visceral fat lurking inside? Researchers use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), where a magnetic field and energy pulses are used to create an image of the inside of the belly. Since MRIs are not practical for most people, you can use other methods to assess the amount of belly fat you have.

One way is to measure your waist-to-hip ratio. Apple-shaped people – those who carry more of their weight around their waist – are more likely to be storing up visceral fat. Another way is to feel your belly: is it flabby or firm? If it’s firm, you may have visceral fat. But visceral fat is not just a burden of the obese and the beer-bellied. A thin person can have too much visceral fat and be at as great of a health risk as someone twice their weight.

What Causes a Fat Belly?

Where we store fat (surplus calories) is largely a combination of gender, age and genetic inheritance. Men tend to store fat around their middle (apple shape), whereas women typically store fat around the pelvic region, hips, butt and thighs (pear shape). However, women are prone to develop an apple shape in mid-life, after menopause. This is because the female hormones are present in smaller amounts and so their shape tends to become more ‘male’.

Is a Fat Stomach Unhealthy?

Yes. For people with a BMI of 34 or less, a fat belly is regarded as an additional health risk. Fatty tissue which is stored around the stomach and abdomen (sometimes called intra-abdominal, or visceral fat) carries a greater health risk than fat located in the lower body around the butt and thighs. Some health studies show that abdominal fat leads to raised blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, high blood sugar, insulin resistance syndrome (metabolic syndrome X) and heart disease. Because of this, some experts believe that waist circumference and fat-distribution is more important than your actual weight in predicting future health risks.

Stress and Stomach Fat

Some health studies show that abdominal fat can develop as a result of stress. This is because the hormone cortisol is released during stress, and a high level of cortisol in the body appears to stimulate the storage of fat around the belly and abdomen. Researchers at Yale University studied 60 women and found that the more stress they were under, the more fat they stored around their stomachs. So it appears that a fat belly is most likely to develop in stressed men of any age, and older stressed women.

How to Prevent a Fat Belly?

If you are prone to store fat around your middle, the healthiest solution is to maintain a normal weight. By matching your calorie intake to your calorie needs and prevent weight gain, you will prevent the development of any excess fat.

How to Reduce a Fat Stomach?

However, if you already have a fat belly, the best option is to follow a healthy weight loss diet, combined with fitness exercises such as aerobics (to burn extra calories) and a stomach-toning workout to help tighten and strengthen abdominal muscles. That said, reducing a fat stomach takes time – especially if you are an apple-shape. Despite what commercials say, there is no diet-plan or type of exercise that can “target” your fat stomach. So please don’t get impatient. Your fat belly will disappear, I promise.

Comments (2)

By admin, August 9, 2009 5:28 am

One of the most common concerns of people who want to lose weight is their belly fat. Everyone wants a flatter stomach and unfortunately, belly fat is the hardest one to get rid of. The fact is, belly fat requires a lot of work to reduce it. Work, stress, and lack of exercise all contribute to the accumulation of stomach fat. While losing this will require a lot of work, it is certainly worth the effort. You will not only have a better looking body but you will also achieve an improved long term health.

Here are some of the tips to help you trim down your belly fat:

1. Do Not Eat Junk Food

One of the best things you can do is to remove all the junk food in your house. Throw away all the chips, cookies, candies and other similar products that are lying around in your house. Keeping them in your house will only tempt you to eat them. Break this habit and you will be glad you did. Just remember that junk food contains refined carbs and sugar which raises the blood sugar levels. This decreases your fat burning capabilities and increases your appetite which causes belly fat.

2. Avoid Bad Carbohydrates

While it is true that the consumption of carbs is important, do note that there are good carbs as well as ad carbs. Refined flours which are used in white bread, pasta, donuts, etc. should be avoided as they cause poor digestion which leads to fat accumulation.

On the other hand, good carbs such as fresh fruits and vegetables are healthier. A diet that takes its carbs from fruits and vegetables should be eaten instead. Wholemeal bread is a healthier alternative to white bread and biscuits as well as cakes should be avoided. Consuming too much carbohydrate can increase your insulin level and slow down your metabolism.

Remember that your body cannot metabolize too much carbohydrates at once because the body does not need so much energy. This is why the excess sugar from the carbohydrates turns into stomach fat. On the other hand, avoiding carbs increases fat burning metabolism (lipolysis) which helps reduce stomach fat.

It is recommended to always combine your meals with a good combination of protein, carbohydrate and vegetables. The Medifast Diet can help you achieve this proper amount of balance. Slow release carbs such as oats, brown rice and sweet potato are also beneficial.

3. Avoid Midnight Snacks

Late night snacks are not recommended because there isn’t any activity done after. What usually happens is that people head straight to bed after their midnight snack. This causes high sugar levels in the bloodstream which eventually turns into fat.

4. Decrease your Alcohol Consumption

When drinking alcohol, it is best to limit yourself to just a glass of wine or a bottle of beer. Keep in mind that one ml of alcohol contains 7 calories. And since alcohol comes in the form of liquid, it is easy to lose track and consume a lot at any given time.

Excessive alcohol consumption does not only cause a “beer belly” but it also does not contain any nutrients at all. This means that the entire amount of calories consumed through alcohol will be stored as fat. You don’t want this.

5. Exercise!

Exercise! We cannot stress the importance of exercise hard enough. Get off the couch, put down the beer and head on to the gym. If you do not know how to get started, you can opt to hire a personal trainer to help you achieve a new and healthy lifestyle. If you want to exercise by yourself, get some books on weight loss and exercise to help you start off on the right track.

Working Medifast Coupons

Comments (0)

By admin, July 31, 2009 2:58 pm

Analyze your food according its macronutrient content. Foods are comprised of three basic building blocks, fats, carbohydrates and protein. Fats have more than twice as many calories per gram as proteins and carbohydrates, 9 vs. 4. We need all of them in a healthy diet. The Zone Diet, one of the best balanced, urges that people get 30% of their calories from Fat and Protein and 40% from carbohydrates. Barry Sears, PhD told me that it isn’t a magic ratio, but is a good starting point for finding what works for you.

Step 2

Be fat smart. Because fats are so calorie dense, cut out the bad fats. Eliminate all trans fats, such as partially hydrogenated fat or margarine. Trans fat is an artery clogging fat that not only raises the bad cholesterol, Low Density Lipoprotein, but lowers the good cholesterol, High Density Lipoprotein. Minimize saturated fat, like butterfat and that from meat which gets converted by your liver to cholesterol.

Instead when it comes to fat, favor essential oils like canola and olive oil, fats from avocados and nuts, as well as Omega 3 fatty acids from fish and flax seed oil which are good for the heart.

Step 3

Choose whole food carbohydrates. Sugar, white flour, alcohol, and other refined carbohydrates produce a quick rise in blood sugar, which leads to an insulin spike. This roller coaster produces premature hunger. Overtime, it can lead to insulin resistance and type II diabetes. Minimize calories from refined carbs and substitute nutrient dense carbohydrates like fruits, vegetables and whole grains so that your blood stream will have a steady supply of hunger-fighting glucose.

Cut out high calorie food low in nutrients. You know the list: mayonnaise, whole milk, cream, ice cream, most desserts.

If you feel the need for something sweet, choose a small amount of very dark, semi sweet chocolate or better yet, fruit. Fat free yogurt with a touch of honey and real vanilla, makes great fruit salad topping.

Step 4

Eat enough lean protein, primarily from fish and plant sources. It’s the key keeping your calories low and losing weigh in the process. Protein is digested more slowly than carbohydrates and is the essence of the Atkins diet. Despite what Dr. Atkins insisted to me, the saturated fat allowed in his diet will eventually cause heart disease, but he was right about eating enough protein to naturally keep your calorie consumption low.