Friday, November 18, 2011

Smoking to Manage Your Weight

A very common phenomenon, which stops a smoker from quitting cigarettes and turning into a non smoker, is the fact that most smokers, tend to gain weight, when they quit smoking. Perhaps, this is the main reason, why a lot many people tend to stay away from becoming a quitter.

Indeed, this phenomenon is true to a large extent. Researches have proved that, smokers usually put on some weight, when they turn into non smokers. However, this is indeed a ridiculous reason, for turning into a smoker.

So, what is the reason, why smokers tend to put on weight, when they turn into non smoker? As it is, the following are some of the factors, which are responsible for this:

1. Appetite suppressant
Tobacco contains nicotine which is a great appetite suppressant. The more you smoke the lesser hungry you are likely to feel for a long period of time. As it is, most smokers are likely to light up a cigarette, right after a meal. This delays the digestion process, making you feel full for a longer period of time. As a result, you are saved from overeating. Hence, stops you from putting more weight.

2. Improves metabolism
Nicotine has been found to maintain the metabolism rate of the body. Now, as the metabolism rate of the body increases, the body consumes more calories. A rise in the metabolism rate, would mean, that, you are burning more calories, everyday, even while you are in a resting state i.e. even when you are doing nothing.

3. Stops you from eating
People, who smoke, usually do not eat anything, while they are smoking. This makes them cut their calorie intake. So, if you smoke twenty cigarettes a day and each cigarette last for ten minutes, then that would mean, three hours and twenty minutes without any calorie intake. Apart from that, the nicotine inside the cigarette would drastically reduce the hunger pangs.

Nicotine is great, as far as cutting down on the hunger pangs are concerned. As a result, you do not tend to put on weight while you remain a smoker. In fact, you may even lose some weight as well.

However, it has to be mentioned that, smoking is also extremely injurious to your health. It causes irreparable damage to your lungs, as well as your throat. As it is, long term smoking can cause cancer of the lungs, as well as the throat. Due to this, my advice to you, is to quit smoking; and if you are thinking of the flab, then I must tell you that, you can easily stop yourself from gaining weight, with the help of proper dieting schedule, as well as rigorous workouts.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

What Is Zone Diet Plan- Weight Loss Program

Ever since, people started getting conscious about their health, a number of weight loss therapies have evolved as well. A large number of these therapies revolve around the eating habits of the person.

Zone diet is one such therapy, which has been evolved in recent. As the name suggests, zone diet is a diet therapy, which focuses on our eating habits. Zone diet was brought to light, by Barry Sears. He said, the ideal diet chart should have, forty percent of carbohydrates, thirty percent of protein and thirty percent of fat.

Since then, zone diet has become very popular, especially amongst celebrities. Due to the endorsement of many celebrities, Zone diet has become a way of life for many. Although a large number of people, feel it has a flawed ratio and the protein content is too high for an individual.

The zone diet was founded on the basic principle that our forefathers were primarily meat eaters. Hence our metabolism has adapted itself according to a meat based diet. Till today, our body functions accordingly, although a large number of carbohydrate rich products have found their place in our plate, which caused an imbalance in our body metabolism.

In order to get our body metabolism back to its right place, the zone diet therapy was evolved, which laid its basics on the food habits of our forefathers. The zone diet therapy lays its emphasis on the fact that a person should make his focus on a high protein diet, which means, that you need to have more of protein rich food in your diet, such as lean meat, while keeping at bay foods with high starch content such as potatoes and bread.

It also states that your diet should contain more of good fat, such as olive oil and fish fat, which helps in keeping cholesterol under control. Zone diet therapy also lays emphasis on drinking lots of water. According to the zone therapy an average person should drink as many as eight glasses of water everyday, i.e. equal to half a gallon of water.

It also states, that a person should go for five small meals a day and that there should not be a gap of more than five hours, between two zone meals. According to it, this would be quite helpful in keeping the blood sugar levels under control. It suggests that a zone diet would be quite helpful in keeping the insulin level in the body, under control.

The zone diet is not based on a no fat, no carbohydrate diet. It simply is based on a proper balance between the proportion of protein, fat and carbohydrate.

Although, a number of organizations have criticized the zone diet concept, stating that the proportion of protein in the diet is too high; nevertheless, zone diet remains one of the most popular weight loss therapies, simply because it does not stop you from eating anything and it just asks you to do it in a particular proportion.