Cellulitis is a complex skin problem that affect many women, whether they are overweight or not. If you are serious about getting rid of it, we have found a site that is very full in its explanations of what is required to deal with it, on simple diet tips, on massage, on exercises and other means. You’ll find it here . We believe in addition to what they say, working out with weights is extremely beneficial to dealing with cellulitis. More in an additional article

For those that enjoy cooking and are genuinely looking for a change in diet, here you’ll find a website with hundreds of cooking recipees of dozens of countries and nations. Not exactly diet recipees, but many can represent a healthy improvement on your usual diet…Enjoy!!

For bodybuilding afficionados, you’ll find a very interesting “Is it okay to lift weights everyday if you’re
training on a split routine?” article and a very technical “Demystifying net impact carbs…”articles. I found both very useful, and you can check here to read the full articles.

A major reason is time and money. The cheapest and fastest foods available are often high in saturated fats and sugars. If you are hungry and want to have a snack, It actually takes some time to prepare some healthy meal - for example a tasty salad- and more time to wash dishes and so on, while you can have a pack of chips or even a hamburger at a fast food in no time. Even when the healthy meals take no time at all, they can often be more expensive.
Another common problem is the size of the servings. When the servings at a restaurant are too large, people will often finish off or take away their meal, even if they were already satisfied, because the idea of wasting food is not easily accepted.

For those gourmets with a large budget, and who loved Disney’s last animated movie “ratatouille” a great -but expensive - diet plan would be to take the habit to go to “nouvelle cuisine” french restaurants -if you live in a big city or are lucky enough to have one nearby-. The food is really tasty and delicious but the portions are often so small that will leave most starving. Great to apply as a diet plan.

The diet

This diet, created by David Zinczenko is similar in many levels to those followed by bodybuilders to loose bodyfat. The focus is on 6 small meals throughout the day. Each meal should contain at least one of the so called “12 power foods” and large meals should contain at least 3 power foods.

These are the 12 power foods:

• almonds and nuts
• beans and legumes
• green vegetables
• yoghurts and other low fat dairies
• oatmeals
• eggs
• Lean meat
• Peanut butter
• Olive oil
• Whole grain bread/cereal
• extra protein - Whey powder
• berries

There is also a list of foods that one should “eat often” and another list of foods to “eat sparingly” that is quite logical.

Here you’ll find their own site.

The good

The diet is actually a very good one, one of the best around, and we highly reccomend it. It is easy to follow over the long term, it contains a fair amount of proteins, fibers, good fats and carbs, it is perhaps a bit too high in sugars, and a bit too low in starches, but overall a great diet.

The bad

The diet comes with an exercise program to follow, and in order to really go down to the “abs” look they suggest in their advertising, a serious exercise and weight training program needs to be added to it.

What happens when the diet stops?

That is one of the great things of this diet. Nothing much. It is an easy and well thought diet to follow long term, learning good and healthy habits.

If you are serious about a diet, buy mostly healthy food and then wonder how to make that healthy food tasty, I think this site can be of help.

It basically proposes recipees with whatever you have available inside your fridge. Click here to check it out

The recipees in themselves are not that healthy, so you should avoid sugary and fried recipees.

Not a bad idea for a routine to burn fat with weight training. Particularly the 60 seconds break…Check the video here

For someone already overweight replacing the chins with another exercise they can actually do is adviced, and always check with your doctor before doing unusual exercises you are not used to.

1 THE DIET

Developped in 1975 by Dr. Atkins, this diet, if applied strictly reccomends avoiding all starches (rice, pasta, bread, cereals, etc) some vegetables (beans and similar) all fruits, all sugars and milk. Cheese, yoghurts, cream and butter are allowed, however, because the sugar from the lactose goes away with fermentation.

On the other hand there is no limit to either fatty or proteic meals, so that eggs, oils, meats, and even mayonnaise can be eaten freely and unrestrainedly. You are also allowed to eat up to 50 grams (roughly 2 ounces) of green vegetables per meal, and no alcohol or soft drinks.

2 THE GOOD

One of the major attractions of the Atkins diet is that you can eat all you want, provided that you stay away from the forbidden foods. This works well particularly with someone with a penchant for salty meals, or hamburgers and such. You can eat as much as you want!!
Also the initial impact of the diet may be significant, and can be up to 10 pounds on the very first week, but mostly because carbohyidrate stores in the body keep a higher level of fluid retention. So this can have a significant appeal and a boost on the morale of those following this diet. After this initial positive impact, the process of loosing weight slows down.
The sense of hunger diminishes with time, by the fact that the body produces glucose from fats (see ketosis) , as much as from sheer boredom from the lack of variety in the diet.

3 THE BAD

It is hard to think of a more unhealthy diet. True, the body is using bodyfat as source of energy for glucose, but since Atkins is a high fat diet, the body would not be reducingmuch its bodyfat reserves, but just using the fat in your diet as source of fuel.

Gradually the proportion of fat in your body is likely to grow, and both a shrinking of your muscular mass and a lower metabolism is likely to occur. Given that muscles consume much more energy than body fat, this will make it more likely to recover all the lost pounds and more, as soon as the diet is stopped.
A diet that is high in fats and low in fibers as Atkins diet also increases the risk of heart disease, as it is also likely to increase the bad cholesterol in your blood.

Last and not least, the lack of carbohydrates may make it more likely for people to become depressed or angry.

4 WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE DIET STOPS?

Dr Atkins suggests that his diet should be adopted as a permanent one, but given its restrictions and its lack of variety, that is unlikely for most patients.

Anyhow, as soon as the diet is stopped, the weight recovery to above the initial levels is likely to be SPECTACULAR!! For one, the body was in a dehydrated state, under this diet, will quickly recover its fluids, for two, the lean muscle mass loss and lower metabolism means that now the person requires less calories per day to keep his/her weight stable, and so, if the person starts eating normally again…..Ay ay ay..bad, very bad….

So this is about one of the worst diets we’ll be looking into. Most often it will lead to bad results and a worse shape than the initial one.

The fact that it is extremely effective on the first week of dieting, mostly for the fluid loss, despite being allowed to eat all that you want, have made this diet quite popular and given irrealistic illusions to many that tried it. In fact it can be an easy sell, but a poor product in the end.

One of the most effective ways to adopt a serious diet is to plan  and prepare your diet of the day either the night before or early in the morning. This is a technique that serious competititive athletes apply and allows you to keep away from the fatty and unhealthy “fast” foods that would generally be available when you do not plan in advance.

There are many site that propose detailed diet plans and help you count your calories precisely. Here is an example. With a little discipline, very significant changes to your body and looks can occur in no time.

Just drink a glass of water before any meal or snack. It is healthy and will cut down your appetite