Healthy Weight Loss

Studies have shown that drinking green tea or adding green tea extract to your diet can promote more weight loss than can exercise and attention to your calories alone The catechins in green tea not only promote weight loss, but also serve as antioxidants, helping to maintain your overall health. Though drinking green tea isn't a magical recipe for weight loss and good health, it can help support your overall exercise and weight loss plan.

Instructions

1 Create an overall exercise and weight loss plan for yourself. Green tea will only help you burn off an extra 50 to 80 calories a day, so you need to eat sensibly and exercise to actually get weight loss results.
2 Purchase bulk green tea from a specialty tea shop or a natural foods store to ensure that it is fresh. Fresh green tea retains more of its antioxidant properties and taste than does stale green tea, and bulk tea allows you to more easily brew the tea to your exact liking.
3 Drink a small pot of green tea in the morning. Green tea contains caffeine, so it can replace your morning coffee, although it has only about half the caffeine as coffee.
4 Brew and ice green tea for a refreshing beverage to drink throughout the day, especially when you feel hungry. Often, it's easy to mistake a feeling of thirst for a feeling of hunger, and green tea can satisfy your craving for a flavor as well as your craving for liquid.
5 Supplement your green tea weight loss program with green tea extract. Look for supplements that have a high level of the catechin called epogallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which is thought to best promote weight loss.

It's easy to be frustrated with extra body fat-- but it can be hard to work up the motivation to lose it. With these tips and resources you'll soon be on your way to a new life!

Instructions

1 Nothing inspires like the success of others. If you have friends who have lost weight, get them to open up to you about how they did it. If you don't have friends who have had great weight loss accomplishments, then you can look on the internet for inspiration.
2 Join the free weight loss community at Sparkpeople.com for extra support and to browse web pages of people who are succeeding at getting into shape. Do community searches to find people who share your dreams, background, interests, or challenges. They will inspire you.
3 Every day read at least one inspiration story at theweighwewere.com . This inspirational web site is devoted to success stories of people who have had significant weight loss. All safe and healthy approaches are featured. Whether you think that low carb is right for you, or you want to do a liquid meal replacement program; whether you are into Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers; whether you want to count glucose factors or fat grams, this website has success stories that will inspire you.
4 Go to the library and check out memoirs of people who have lost weight and kept it off. While you're at it, check out books about fitness and nutrition.
5 Avoid people who undermine your efforts. Being overweight is a health issue and can become as life-threatening as alcoholism. If you consume food compulsively, then avoid people who belittle your efforts or who continue in an unhealthy lifestyle. You are worth it.
6 Trade in the sweats and bag dresses for more form-fitting, tailored clothes. You're not really fooling anyone but yourself. Studies show that people who wear baggy clothes are less aware of the severity of their weight problem and tend to gain more weight. It'll be hard at first, but it's worth it.
7 Get a full-length mirror and put it in your bedroom or bathroom. Look at yourself on a regular basis. If you have been avoiding looking at yourself, then you may be hiding from the reality of how significant your weight problem is. But be sure not to berate yourself. Just be honest. Don't be cruel or brutal to yourself.
8 Start keeping a journal about yourself. It shouldn't just be a weight-loss journal, but a health journal-- a journal about what your life is like now and what it will be like when you are healthier and have more energy. Cut out pictures of what you want your life to become as you lose the weight. Are there activities that you no longer pursue because of a weight-related health condition or because of lethargy or embarrassment? Paste pictures of those activities in your journal. Then write about what it will be like to participate in them.
9 If you are a person of faith, then pray for God to help you. If you're like most of us, you could use all the help you can get.

Tuberculosis is a serious infection caused by an organism called mycobacterium tuberculosis. Although commonly known to adversely affect the lungs, this infection may also manifest in other parts of the body including the spinal cord, kidneys or brain. Symptoms of an active tuberculosis infection include exhaustion, fever, nausea, chest pain and the presence of blood in urine or as a result of persistent coughing. Weight loss may also occur as a side effect of the previous symptoms or as a separate one of its own. Here you will learn more about weight loss in relation to tuberculosis.

Latent vs. Active

Although weight loss is a prevalent side effect of tuberculosis, it is vital to first determine whether or not the infection is an active or latent one. It is possible to harbor the tuberculosis-causing mycobacterium tuberculosis within one's body without having becoming ill with a full-blown infection. This is the definition of a latent (or inactive) TB infection. In this case, an individual's immune system is successfully suppressing the tuberculosis' ability to become an active infection within the body, which would bring about the classic symptoms of tuberculosis. If one is determined to be a carrier of TB with no other active symptoms, any resulting weight loss may be caused by another unknown factor.

Loss of Appetite

Loss of appetite and nausea are common symptoms of tuberculosis. Paired with vomiting, resulting weight loss can be very dramatic. Rapid losses of weight before diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis may put one at an especially high risk of relapse, even after the commencement of drug therapy.

Treatment

Once one has been diagnosed as harboring either a latent or active tuberculosis infection, drug therapy is immediately begun both to combat the symptoms and rid the infection from the body. One to four different pills may be prescribed over the course of nine months during treatment. Rare yet potential side effects of this aggressive course of treatment include a worsening of nausea and loss of appetite, both of which may contribute further to significant losses of weight.

Expert Insight

Studies have shown that tuberculosis patients who were underweight upon diagnosis are in greater danger of relapsing, even after several weeks of drug therapy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that underweight patients who failed to gain at least 5 percent of their body weight back in the first eight weeks of drug therapy have a relapse rate over twice that of their counterparts who succeeded in doing so (51 to 18 percent). This study strongly implies both the importance of consulting a physician the second tuberculosis is suspected as well as the maintenance of a healthy body weight in order to properly combat potential tuberculosis infections.

Warning

A potentially fatal mistake one may make early in the course of tuberculosis treatment is believing that the eradication of symptoms (including weight loss) means that the infection has cleared. In fact, stronger, drug-resistant strains of the bacteria can form if all prescribed medications are not taken for their required length of time. Even if you have stopped experiencing weight loss and/or other symptoms related to an active tuberculosis infection, it is vital to strictly follow your physician's prescribed treatment plan to ensure your long-term health.

Carbohydrates get their fair share of press in the health and dieting arenas: good carbs versus bad carbs and one type of low carb diet over another. The truth of the matter is, carbohydrates provide our bodies with the necessary energy to keep our brain and muscles supplied with fuel to function. We need some carbs to stay healthy but not so many carbs that we gain excess weight. Learning to balance carbohydrate intake can help keep our bodies fueled while still managing to shed those extra pounds.

Instructions

1 Set up a weight loss and carbohydrate counting journal. On the first page, write your target weight goal at the top. Leave the rest of page one blank for now. On the next page, write today's date at the top. Draw a vertical line down the middle of the page. Label the left column "foods eaten" and the right column "carbohydrates." At the beginning of each day, create another foods eaten and carbohydrates page.
2 Weigh yourself on a scale and record your starting weight and the date on page one of your journal. Place your first weight entry under your target weight goal. Each week, weigh yourself and record your weight in the journal. Resist the temptation to step on the scale more than once a week since weight fluctuates up and down on a daily basis.
3 Read nutrition labels for every food you eat. Eat good carb foods such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains instead of bad carb foods such as white breads, white rice, cookies and cupcakes. As a general guideline, good carbohydrates have higher fiber content while bad carbohydrates tend to be highly processed and refined foods with lower fiber content.
4 Set a target daily carbohydrate count. For example, if you plan to follow a specific low-carb diet that suggests consuming 30g of carbohydrates per day for the first two weeks and then slowly raising carbohydrate counts over a period a time, use these limits to establish your daily count. Or you may choose to reduce your carbohydrate intake by 6g per day and monitor your weight loss progress from this starting point.
5 Divide up your target carbohydrate count between breakfast, lunch and dinner by dividing your carbohydrate allotment by three. This provides a guideline for carbohydrate amounts that may be consumed for each meal. If you plan to add a small snack between meals, lower your carbohydrate count for each meal slightly to build in enough carbohydrates for a snack or two depending on your hunger levels.
6 Record food consumed and carbohydrate counts in your journal. Record even the smallest of snacks in your journal. Keep a running total of the amount of carbohydrates consumed so you don't go over your goal.
7 Exercise at least 30 minutes a day a few times a week. Record your total exercise time and type of activity at the bottom of your foods eaten page in your journal. Three short 10-minute power walks per day count as 30 minutes of exercise.
8 Monitor your weight loss each week. During the first few weeks of a low carbohydrate diet, you may drop five or more pounds of weight. After the initial two weeks, aim to lose no more than one to two pounds per week for successful, long-term weight loss. If your weight loss is too rapid, increase your carbohydrate intake by 5g or 10g to reach a healthy weight loss amount. If you are not losing weight, decrease your carbohydrate intake by 5g per day to reach a healthy weight loss speed.

Weight loss is often a boost to your confidence, but loose skin can be a troubling result. Age, genetics and how rapidly the weight was lost can have an affect on how loose your skin will be after weight loss. In general, younger people have more elasticity and collagen in their skin, which makes it bounce back more quickly. When weight is lost rapidly, there is more of a chance of having loose skin, since the skin does not have time to adapt. The best way to shrink your skin after weight loss is to be patient and nurture your skin from the inside out.

Instructions

Instructions

1 Stay hydrated. Skin that is dehydrated is less elastic and resilient. Drinking a minimum of eight glasses of water per day will keep your skin supple and increase elasticity. This will aid in your skin shrinking after weight loss. Tea may be counted towards your daily water intake as long as it is caffeine-free.
2 Protect your skin with sunscreen. Damage to the skin from sun exposure is also taxing to the skin's elasticity. To protect your skin, apply sunscreen with a minimum SPF 15 every single day. This is important even if you don't spent much time outside.
3 Firm your skin with dry skin brushing. By promoting circulation and rejuvenating the nervous system, your skin will tighten. Use a large body brush and brush the skin with long, circular strokes. Start at the feet and work your way upwards. This should be done once per day. Pay special attention to the areas that of your body that have the most loose skin.
4 Keep your skin moisturized. Apply moisturizer to your skin every day, at least once per day. Most moisturizers will perform about the same. If possible, use a body lotion or oil that contains vitamin E, which will improve the overall health and appearance of your skin.
5 Lift weights. Per Cedric Bryant, Ph.D., weight training builds muscle under the skin, which will reduce loose and sagging skin. As an added benefit, the skin will appear smoother. Lift weights two to three days per week. If you are new to weight training, it may be helpful to hire a personal trainer to work with you.

Food combining can be very effective for losing weight. The basic idea behind food combining is that foods digest better when eaten in combination with certain other foods.

Some foods require different types of enzymes for their digestion. When foods that use different digestive juices and enzymes are eaten together they may not break down properly and nutrients won't be completely absorbed.

Enzymes help digest food more effectively, so combining foods compatibly will ensure optimal digestion. By digesting better you will avoid an inefficient metabolism as well as fat and cholesterol accumulation.

Improved digestion will lead to better health and will also aid in losing weight. Follow these steps to attain your weight loss goals and an optimal digestive system.

Instructions

Food Combining

1 Do not eat proteins and starches together. Proteins require an acid base for digestion and starches an alkaline one.
2 Eat fruit by itself or with other fruits, except for melons, which should be eaten alone because they digest very quickly. Fruit eaten with melon will simply sit in your stomach while the melon digests, causing unnecessary fermentation. A handful of nuts can be eaten with very sweet fruits.
3 Do not eat acid or sub/acid fruits with sweet fruits at the same meal. Some acid or sub/acid fruits include, grapefruits, strawberries, pineapple, apples, grapes and peaches. Some sweet fruits include, bananas, dates and raisins.
4 Eat fats and oils in moderation, as they will slow down digestion. They can be combined with everything except fruit.
5 Wait two hours after eating fruit to eat something that doesn't combine with it, three hours after eating starches and four hours after eating proteins.