Yes, my healthy diet has at times suffered at the hands of fast food, I admit it ? I am addicted to fast food ? it makes me feel good, it makes us all feel good, that’s why its everywhere and thats why the fast food chains make millions.

But let’s face it, it’s not that simple to be disciplined and no one’s going to go to a restaurant with friends and tell the restaurant that they can’t eat that rice because its white rice and it’ll send my blood sugar levels sky high and release insulin into my body, can I have basmati instead ? ? well, maybe just the hardcore diet enthusiasts.

So what to do about fast food nutrition ? well, I am going to give you my five most important principles for choosing food generally, but also quick things to look for when you’re out in order to complement your healthy diet:

1. Find Out How The Food Was Cooked. It’s not the actual food that matters, it’s the way it was cooked. Little things like this can make a world of difference.

2. Drink Lots Of Water When you’re out, have a water bottle close by ? you’d be surprised what a difference it makes.

3. If it doesn’t look natural, then it probably won’t do your diet much good Generally the more processed a food is, the more likely that it will be absorbed into your body very quickly and will not give you sustained energy. If it looks like it’s gone through a lot of processes before reaching you, then give it a miss.

4. Steer away from unhealthy fats and highly processed carbs when you eat out This is nothing new, don’t eat those fries with that burger. But I have two very good reasons for saying this. If you successfully navigate your way away from these two ? you will be doing a lot for keeping bad cholesterol levels at bay and staving off accidental over-consumption of calories.

5. Go for raw There is nothing more satisfying than knowing that the food you’ve just eaten is burning calories even as you sit at the café talking with friends. It’s even confidence building to know that you have a healthy diet. The food that will do this is quite often raw and are adorned with fat burning principles because they have low energy density.

So step back from those fries, and consider that there are plenty of satisfying, tasty and healthy alternatives when snacking or dining out. Instituting these healthy diet principles will mean that your social life and weight loss goals are not an either / or situation.

References:

Elizabeth A Bell and Barbara J Rolls Energy density of foods affects energy intake across multiple levels of fat content in lean and obese women Am J Clin Nutr 73: 1010-1018.

Prentice AM, Jebb SA. Fast foods, energy density and obesity: a possible mechanistic link. Obes Rev. 2003 Nov;4(4):187-94.

Weil, A., (2000) Eating Well for Optimum Health p. 77-78

Want more great ideas about which foods to eat and which to avoid ? Follow up this article, with the types of food that will help you to lose weight by visiting http://www.savvy-fat-burning-food.com/get-started-today

I received a telephone call from a lady

last week. Her first word was “heeeelp”!

She was on a weight loss program and

only losing about one half pound per week.

She wanted to speed things up but didn’t

want to do anything that was unhealthy.

Here’s what I told her:

If you’re interested in losing fat, you’re

objective is to create a daily caloric

deficit. For example, If you’re consuming

1700 calories per day, and expending 2000

calories per day, your caloric deficit is

300 calories.

So, if you’d like to increase your daily

caloric deficit, you have two options; to

decrease your caloric intake by eating

fewer calories, or increase your caloric

expenditure via more activity / exercise.

However, you cannot decrease your daily

caloric intake much lower than 1200 to

1500 or so without potentially creating

health and metabolism problems. So, the

remaining factor in the deficit equation

is caloric expenditure through increased

activity / exercise.

The good news is that you can substantially

increase your caloric expenditure. For

example, if you’re exercising for 30 minutes

three days per week, over a period of

several weeks you can increase your exercise

to 60 to 90 minutes per day, six to seven

days per week. An example of this would be

60 minutes of aerobic exercise, six to

seven days per week and 30 minutes of weight

training three days per week.

So, in this example, you would increase your

monthly exercise minutes from about 360 to

1800. Plus, in addition to the calories that

you’re expending during exercise, you would

also substantially increase the number of

calories you’re burning 24 hours-a-day, yes,

you’ll even burn more calories while you’re

sleeping. You can’t beat that, can you?

So, if you want to speed-up your fat loss,

here’s your game plan..

1. Tone your muscles with weight training

three days per week. Toned muscles supercharge

your metabolism! This should be done just

after your aerobic exercise session.

2. Do some type of aerobic exercise (walking,

jogging, swimming, stationary cycling,

aerobic dancing, etc.) on a DAILY basis

(preferably in the morning) for 30 to 60

minutes! Note: If you haven’t been exercising,

be sure to gradually increase your exercise

time.

3. Do an additional 15 to 30 minutes of

aerobic exercise in the evening, five days

per week. Some people like to do this just

before their dinner meal to decrease their

appetite, but after dinner is fine too.

In the interest of injury prevention and

not getting bored with your exercise, try

to alternate the type of exercise you do.

For example, walking in the morning and

aerobic dance in the evening.

4. Incorporate “intervals” into most of your

aerobic sessions. Intervals are a powerful

tool to help boost your metabolism. they

are explained in detail in my article,

“Intervals for Weight Loss.”

5. Develop a more active lifestyle. Look

for the “hard” way to do things - the way

that requires the most energy expenditure.

Put this plan into action and you’ll like

the results - you’ll look better, feel

better, have less body fat and more muscle

tone! Get movin’!

copyright 2004 by Greg Landry, M.S.

Author and exercise physiologist, Greg Landry,

offers free weight loss and fitness success stories

and targeted, highly affective weight loss programs

for women, men, type 2 diabetics, and people with

slow metabolisms and hypothyroidism..

http://www.Landry.com