Monday, December 31, 2018

Lose Weight Eating Fruit

Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash

In this post I will discuss how to lose weight eating fruit. Losing weight with fruit is delicious and easy. After the holidays many of us are looking for ways to cleanse, detox, and lose weight. Fruit is very cleansing, so in this post I will give you a few ways to use fruit for weight loss.

Diet #1: Replace a meal with fruit

Choose one meal a day and replace it with one serving of fruit. For example instead of your regular breakfast, have one banana. Then go about your day as normal and have your usual lunch and dinner for the day. You don't have to pick breakfast though. You could have a normal breakfast, but have a serving of grapes for lunch, followed by your normal dinner. All you have to do on this diet is replace one full meal with one serving of fruit. This is an easy way to cut calories without even counting anything.

Diet #2: Replace all sweets with berries

In this diet, you can have all your normal meals but do not have any sweets. Replace all cokes, cakes, cookies, etc with a serving of berries instead. I chose berries because of the cleansing properties and antioxidants. Your health would improve and you would detox. This diet plan is best for someone who is addicted to sweets and eats them every day. This is to help break that addiction and get you eating healthier foods. You can choose strawberries, cherries, blackberries, blueberries, etc. All of these are filled with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.

Photo by Bruna Branco on Unsplash

Diet #3: Fruit Cleanse

This diet is not for the faint of heart. You will be replacing all food with fruit for 3 days. This is a fast way to lose weight, cleanse, and detox. Make no mistake, it is HARD. If you have processed food and caffeine addictions you will suffer. Just try to have enough fruit around that you can grab some whenever any detox symptoms come along. Choose many different kinds of fruits. Include lots of berries, citrus, bananas, melons, etc. Try to have a large variety. As for drinks, only have water and nothing else. Only do this for 3 days at a time. If you need more weight loss after 3 days, choose one of the above diets to continue. You can repeat this 3 day fruit cleanse once or twice a month.

You will need to count calories and make sure that you are eating plenty of fruit. Do not under-eat during the fruit cleanse.

So I hope this post helps anyone who is trying to start off the new year in a more healthy way. Tomorrow is New Year's Day and I know many of you want to lose weight. To lose weight eating fruit is very easy and fun, and I hope this gives you some ideas to incorporate fruit in your diet.

Friday, December 28, 2018

What is 19/5 Intermittent Fasting

19/5 intermittent fasting is an intermittent fasting method where you fast for 19 hours out of the day and have a 5 hour eating window. This is used as a method for weight loss or weight maintenance. Most people would lose weight using this eating schedule. I used this intermittent fasting method to lose 25 lbs.

How To Do 19/5 Intermittent Fasting


During 19 hours of the day, you would only drink water or zero calorie drinks. In this post, I explain what drinks you can have on intermittent fasting. In short, you would stay away from diet sodas that are laden with fake sugars that will spike insulin. Stevia is okay as it does not spike insulin, and some people prefer a fat source in their coffee such as butter. But all in all, you will be calorie free for 19 hours of the day, making sure you drink water as you are thirsty. You will get hungry. Expect it. Don't try to get rid of the hunger. Instead, get used to it and know that you are gaining benefits from intermittent fasting. Waves of hunger will come and go. Sometimes it will be stronger, but just know eventually it will die down again.

As I said, you would be fasting for 19 hours out of the day. The other 5 hours of the day are your eating window. During this eating window, you can have food and drinks with calories. You can choose to count calories if you want to. I never did that. I used intermittent fasting for the sole purpose that I wanted to be able to lose weight without counting calories. But some people do choose to count calories, carbs, or follow some other diet plan. Just know that you don't have to, and it's not required to do so. Eat as you want during this eating window, then stop eating until the next day's eating window.

An Example of 19/5 Intermittent Fasting


A typical day of 19/5 intermittent fasting would look like this:

Tuesday 8 p.m: Finish dinner and stop consuming calories.
Tuesday 8 p.m. to Wednesday 3 p.m: Do not consume anything besides water.
Wednesday 3 p.m: Break your fast with a meal.
Wednesday 3 p.m. to Wednesday 8 p.m: This is your eating window. Eat as you see fit.
Wednesday 8 p.m. Stop eating.

You can change the window to be during breakfast or lunch or any hours that work better for you. Many people choose to have an eating window that is around dinner so that they can have a meal with family, but what works for some does not always work for others. It's perfectly fine to change the eating window to earlier in the day. Just try to keep it at the same time each day so that you get the full 19 hour fast.

This isn't the only intermittent fasting method. There are other ways of intermittent fasting and some may suit you better, depending on what you are looking to do.

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Intermittent Fasting 1 Year Results



This post is going to be about my past experience with intermittent fasting. I began intermittent fasting in 2012 and continued through 2013. I want to talk about my intermittent fasting 1 year results and what I experienced and learned in that year.

First off, a small introduction to intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is a schedule of eating. It's not a diet per se, but it can be used as a method of weight loss. Intermittent fasting doesn't tell you what to eat. You can eat whatever you decide to eat. Intermittent fasting just tells you when to eat. You have periods of time where you eat and periods of time where you do not eat.

As for me, at the time of starting I weighed about 140 lbs and I am a female. I exercised casually here and there. Nothing major. Just pilates 2 to 3 times a week. I ended up losing 25 lbs and effortlessly maintained that weight loss over the year. The weight came off rather quickly, within the first few months of intermittent fasting, and then I just maintained the weight loss for the rest of the time.

Now I'll explain what I did to lose 25 lbs and keep it off. I would eat my meals over a 5 hour 'eating window' every day. I would typically eat from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. I didn't eat non-stop during that 5 hour period. Instead, I would start out with a small meal at 3 p.m. that was similar to breakfast. I would follow up with a snack in a couple hours and then I would have dinner and a dessert usually. I ended up weighing 115 lbs eating dessert almost every single day. Some days I would eat out and even break my fast with Chinese buffet. That's why I say I maintained that 25 lbs weigh loss effortlessly. I wasn't starving. I wasn't limiting or depriving myself. My body just naturally set at that weight and stayed there (until I stopped intermittent fasting of course).

During this period of time with intermittent fasting, on the weekends I was a lot more relaxed with my eating window. I would usually start eating around noon and end at 8 p.m. so it was more of a 16/8 schedule.

If you want more information about what 19/5 intermittent fasting is and how to do it, click here.

So to sum up, I lost 25 lbs with intermittent fasting on a 19/5 schedule, with weekends eating about 16/8. No dietary restrictions. I just stuck with the eating schedule and lost the weight. That was in 2012 and 2013. So where am I now?

Well, I stopped intermittent fasting and gained the weight back. You do have to continue some form of intermittent fasting for weight maintenance. You can't go back to eating all day and expect to keep the weight off. But the good news is that intermittent fasting really isn't that hard. I love intermittent fasting. I believe it is a very natural way to eat. I believe the way we have been taught to eat all day is very unnatural and causes premature aging and all sorts of illnesses. I believe intermittent fasting is a great way to look and feel good.

As of right now, after these holidays, I weigh 153 lbs. I do plan to get back into intermittent fasting. I want to blog my experience and intermittent fasting journey this time. Hopefully in the near future I will have some links down here to a few results posts after a week or so of getting back into the routine.

Monday, December 24, 2018

What Can You Drink During Intermittent Fasting?


So you're intermittent fasting and wondering what you can and can't have during your fasting window. In this post I will talk about intermittent fasting drinks you can have.



During your intermittent fasting window, you should be aiming to consume zero calories. Now if this is hard for you, there are drinks you may have that could help you complete your fasting window successfully. What we want to do here is not spike insulin, as that is what breaks a fast. Anything you consume should not cause an insulin response in the body.

What Can't You Have?


So what spikes insulin? Carbs such as sugar definitely cause a spike in insulin. Do not drink sodas and teas that have sugar or honey in them, as these drinks will push you out of the fast. They are not good for your fast. Having those drinks wouldn't be considered a fast. It would be more like a liquid diet, which is not what you are trying to do.

Another thing to watch out for is fake sugar. Aspartame and sucralose may be hiding in your diet soda. It is not okay to consume diet soda during a fast just because it is 0 calories. Aspartame and sucralose have proven to cause insulin spikes, which knocks you out of a fasted state because then your body starts having increased hunger.

There are people that debate about this all day because they do not want to give up their precious diet coke, but I don't even consume those outside of a fast because in my opinion it's super unhealthy to consume these fake sugars. Be careful to watch the labels of any flavor powders you add to water because they usually have aspartame or sucralose in them. Read the ingredients and steer clear of those products.

What Can You Have?


Stevia, on the other hand, has not be shown to cause a high insulin response. The insulin response with stevia is very low, so you could find flavor packs that only use stevia as a sweetener and that would be a better alternative.

Studies have shown that it's sometimes okay to have a little bit of fat in your fasting window. Some people use coconut oil, heavy whipping cream, or butter in some of their hot drinks. You should however limit yourself to one tablespoon if you are going to do this. You don't want to be consuming very many calories. Many people swear by putting butter in their coffee.

And lastly, I would urge you to just find a way to feel comfort in the discomfort of fasting. We are trying to find intermittent fasting drinks so that we can ease the discomfort, but really you need to just accept that you are fasting. Fasting has so many benefits, and even making yourself go through the hunger is beneficial to you mentally.

How To Get Through The Fast


One way to get through periods of hunger is to read articles about the benefits of intermittent fasting, or listen to lectures about it. It will help remind you of why you are doing this and will motivate you to continue.

Try to stay busy, since hunger is largely a mental thing anyway. Reading, working on projects, cleaning, and just getting things done in general will help you. You'll notice on days that you are busy, intermittent fasting is much easier. There is a reason for that.

Slowly Adjust To Your Eating Window


You may want to think about slowly increasing your fasts day by day until you complete a full fast. This will help your body adjust so that you may feel less hunger. You will always feel some amount of hunger on just about any intermittent fasting schedule, but some people find that if they ease into intermittent fasting at first, it really helps.

You could start off with just 12 hour fasts and slowly work your way to completing 16 hours a day by adding an hour per day.

Using an app to track your intermittent fasting can really help you to watch the progress of your fasts. These apps will time your fast for you and show you how well you are doing over time.

Sunday, December 23, 2018

Burn XT diet pill review



This is a Burn XT diet pill review. I've been taking Burn XT for a couple of weeks now and want to give my full review of what I think about this diet supplement and if it works or not.


Ingredients List:
  • Acetyl L-Carnitine HCL
  • Green Tea Leaf extract 
  • Caffeine Anhydrous
  • Capsimax Cayenne Pepper Fruit extract
  • Bioperine Black Pepper Fruit extract


As you can see, it has some ingredients there that are proven to boost the immune system and help you burn more fat.

Personally, I experienced a lot less hunger. It was a very good appetite suppressant. I did not feel hungry for most of the time, and usually I am pretty hungry throughout the day. I could tell that the diet pills were working because I also felt like my metabolism were higher as I was sweating more. I did not change my diet or exercise while on these diet supplements.

What I also noticed while taking these fat burners is that it came with side effects. If you are used to having a lot of caffeine, you will probably be just fine. There are two forms of caffeine here: one from the green tea, and then there is just extra caffeine added to it. Caffeine is known to raise metabolism but it is a stimulant so it may cause nausea, jitters, fast heart rate, and trouble sleeping in some sensitive people. 

While taking this product, you should be able to avoid side effects if you are either used to lots of caffeine, or burn off the extra energy somehow. You could exercise to help you burn off the excess energy that is caused by the caffeine and that would help lessen the side effects. Don't take these pills in the evening when you are 4 to 6 hours from bedtime as they may cause trouble sleeping.

In 2 weeks, I lost 5 lbs using Burn XT. I am sensitive to caffeine though, so I would not continue using the product in the future for that reason. But if you are used to caffeine and want to try it, it may be worth a try.

I hope this Burn XT diet pill review helps you if you were considering taking it and needed more information.

Friday, December 21, 2018

10 Best Diet Pills 2018

In this post, I want to let you know what are the top 10 diet pills 2018. I give a short review, including some of the main ingredients and what kind of results can be expected with each one.




1. Burn XT: This diet pill has 2,626 customer reviews on Amazon with an average of 4.5 stars. It contains green tea extract, cayenne pepper, and caffeine among other ingredients. Green tea extract has proven fat burning qualities, but it also has many other health benefits such as cancer prevention and anti-aging effects. Cayenne pepper is known to boost metabolism and increase circulation. In the customer reviews, 86% of people have rated this diet pill at 4 stars or better. One of the top reviewers claimed to have lost 8-10 lbs within 3 weeks using this product.

2. Skinny Gal Thermogenic: This diet pill has 3,708 customer reviews on Amazon with an average of 4 stars. It contains garcinia cambogia, african mango, sunflower oil, white kidney bean, raspberry ketones, green coffee bean extract, among other ingredients. All of these ingredients have been proven in studies to be effective at aiding in weight loss. In the customer reviews, at least 81% of people rated this diet pill with 4 or more stars. One top reviewers claimed to have lost 14 lbs in a month with the help of this supplement.

3. Schwartz Garcinia Cambogia: This diet pill has 3,259 customer reviews on Amazon with an average of 4 star rating. The main active ingredient in this diet pill is 1500 mg of garcinia cambogia extract. In the customer reviews 80% of people have rated this diet pill at 4 stars or better. Some have claimed to lose 14 lbs in a month on this diet supplement. Garcinia cambogia is a proven appetite suppressant that helps with burning fat.

4. AtraFen Elite: AtraFen Elite has 1,865 customer reviews with an average of 4.5 stars rating. 83% of customers have rated this product with 4 or more stars. It contains raspberry ketones, african mango, acai fruit, green tea, resveratrol, apple cider vinegar, kelp, and grapefruit. One reviewers says they lost 11 lbs in one month on this supplement.

5. Naturewise CLA 1250: This product has 16,649 customer reviews with an average of 4 stars rating. 84% of customers have rated this product 4 stars or better. It contains mostly safflower seed oil at a dose of 1250 mg. Safflower seed oil has been studied at this dose to effectively provide weight loss results. One of the top reviewers says she lost a whopping 50 lbs in the 4 months she's been taking this product.

6. Alli: This diet pill has been around for years now. It's called alli. On amazon it has 2,931 customer reviews with an average of 3.5 star rating. 76% of customer have rated alli with 4 or more stars. The fact that it is FDA approved helps it gain credibility. The pills contain a patented fat blocker called orlistat. The one down side of alli is that you do need to watch your diet in addition to taking the pills, or you can expect to see very minimal weight loss and may suffer from some side effects. One of the top reviewers has lost 60 lbs on alli, but cautions everyone to "never trust a fart." This is because alli will flush dietary fat out of you, which may cause accidents if you are eating too much fat.

7. Lean PM: LeanPM is a fat burner that helps you lose weight in your sleep. It has 1,465 customer reviews with an average of 4.5 stars rating. It contains green tea extract, bioperine, and 5-HTP, among other ingredients. 84% of customers have rated this product with 4 or more stars. One top reviewer claims to have lost almost 15 lbs in 3 weeks with the help of this product.

8. VitaRaw Apple Cider Vinegar: This product is an all natural fat burner and contains apple cider vinegar, aloe vera leaf, astragalus root, cayenne pepper, and coconut milk powder. The main ingredient is the 1500 mg of apple cider vinegar. This product has 419 reviews with an average customer rating of 4.5 stars. 83% of customers rated this product at at least 4 stars. One reviewer lost 5 lbs in 10 days on the product.

9. Vintage Burn: Vintage burn claims to help you burn fat while also keeping your lean muscle. It contains green tea extract, green coffee bean extract, raspberry ketones, garcinia fruit, among other weight loss ingredients. It has 6,984 customer reviews with an average 4.5 star rating. 86% of customers have rated this product with 4 or more stars. One mom claims to have lost 7 lbs in 3 weeks on this product.

10. Nutratech Orlistol: This is the last product in our top 10 list of 2018. Orlistol by Nutratech has 2,374 customer reviews with an average of 4.5 star rating. 84% of customers have rated this product with 4 stars or more. It contains chitosan, apple cider vinegar, garcinia cambogia, among other weight loss ingredients. One of the reviewers claims to have lost 9 lbs in just a week on this product.

I hope this list of top 10 diet pills of 2018 was helpful for anyone who is comparing products and trying to find the best and most effective diet supplements out there.

Thursday, December 20, 2018

Intermittent Fasting For Women: How To Intermittent Fast

Intermittent fasting is a popular and relatively easy way to lose weight that has caught on a lot more in recent years. In this post, I will discuss intermittent fasting for women and how you can pick out the ideal plan for yourself. Before beginning any fasting regimen, discuss it with your doctor, especially those that are on medications.



What Is Intermittent Fasting?


If you want to start intermittent fasting, it's a pretty easy thing to do. All you have to do is eat during specific times, and not eat during specific times. The part that takes a little bit of planning is the part where you figure out which hours you will fast/eat. This is all an individual choice, and you should take into consideration your work schedule, daily activities, and lifestyle.

If you want to be able to sit down and have a meal with your family at the end of the day, then choosing an eating window that includes dinner hours would be a good idea. If you don't mind skipping dinner, and lunch or breakfast are your big meals, then choosing those hours to eat would be beneficial.

Which Eating Window To Choose


The next step is to choose how big of an eating window you would like. There are a few popular styles of intermittent fasting and these include 16/8, 18/6, 20/4, and OMAD (one meal a day). Women need less calories than men on average, so if you are hoping to do intermittent fasting to lose weight and you do not want to end up counting calories, then a smaller eating window may be right for you. A shorter or more sedentary woman may only lose weight if her ratio is closer to 22/2 or 23/1, which is essentially enough time to only eat one meal and we call this One Meal a Day (OMAD).

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

OMAD


As stated, OMAD refers to when you consume one meal a day. This is one big meal that contains all of your daily calories to lose weight. It's very popular among those who have a hard time losing weight. If you are short or sedentary, this may be the intermittent fasting option for you.

This diet is a bit extreme and can be hard to handle for days on end. Some people will widen the eating window to be 2 or 3 hours per day instead of just 1 hour. I personally have a hard time eating a large amount of food in one sitting. A lot of people report feeling very tired after their one meal.

16/8


This is when you fast for 16 hours and have an 8 hour eating window. So you day may look like the following:
Day 1: 8 p.m. (stop eating)
Day 2: 12 p.m. (noon) (eat your first meal)
Day 2: 8 p.m. (stop eating)
and repeat.

This type of fasting is basically skipping breakfast and not snacking late at night. The rest of the day is pretty normal. That is why this is a really poplar form of intermittent fasting, because it's pretty easy to start and stick to this diet.

ADF


Alternate day fasting is where you fast for 24 hours and eat normally for 24 hours. This type of fasting goes by various names, but it's also a pretty popular one among weight lifters. It can be hard for a beginner to complete a 24 hour fast, so if you are just starting out, this may not be the right plan for you. If, however, you enjoy challenges then you may enjoy trying this.

5:2


The 5:2 diet is a diet based on fasting 2 non-consecutive days of the week and eating normally for the other 5 days of the week. It yields slow but steady weight loss for those who follow it. Don't expect to lose quickly. You have to be in it for the long haul. Be patient with this diet. It does work and has been proven to work in studies.

In some cases this diet was found to be easier to stick to long term than calorie restriction. That is because you are essentially only restricting or dieting for 2 days of the week. The other 5 days are lived normally, so people tend to be more satisfied with this diet over all.

19/5


I have the most personal experience with this eating window. I was able to maintain my weight at 115 lbs and eat whatever I wanted to while I was doing 19/5 intermittent fasting. This is what personally worked for me in the past. It may not be for everyone. That's why I suggest playing around with the schedule and trying different ones before settling into an intermittent fasting schedule.

Which Intermittent Fasting Schedule To Choose?


My suggestion is to play around with the larger eating windows for some weeks. If you aren't losing weight or just not losing as quickly as you deem necessary, then just play with tightening the eating window until you reach a good place where you are losing weight in a consistent manner.

A typical schedule for a woman who wants to eat dinner with her family might be fasting from 8pm to 4 pm the next day, and then having a 4 hour eating window from 4pm to 8pm where she may be able to fit in a meal and a couple of snacks, or 2 meals. If you work a night shift job, intermittent fasting can be even more confusing, but just figure out when's the time that you would most like to eat and then have your eating window during that time.

What Can You Eat/Drink While Fasting?


What can I eat/drink during the fasting window? People ask this all the time, and the simple answer is just water. Don't consume anything but pure water. Fasting is an exercise of will power. It's not supposed to be comfortable. We live in a society that is in the habit of ridding themselves of discomfort as soon as they feel it. Get used to the discomfort and soon enough it will not be so hard for you.

I will tell you this: Hunger pangs do come and go. They don't just continue to intensify. You may be ravenously hungry for 30 minutes to an hour at some point in your fast, but then the hunger subsides and you don't really feel hungry for the next few hours. It's typical for people to believe that once you feel hunger start up during a fast, that it will continue to get worse and hurt worse but that is not the case at all. Hunger is largely a mental game.

So I hope this article has inspired women out there and let you know that intermittent fasting isn't just for men trying to bulk up, but intermittent fasting for women can be a great way to slim down.