Preventing Holiday Weight Gain

Posted on November 26th, 2007

Weigh The FAQs - Preventing Holiday Weight GainThe holidays are stressful enough without having to worry about weight gain. On a recent episode of The Biggest Loser we were treated to this bit of weight loss trivia: “The average amount of weight Americans will gain between Thanksgiving and New Years is 7 pounds.”

Maintaining a balance between physical activity and food intake is always the healthiest approach to holidays, as it reduces an emphasis on food. Physical activity also has an added holiday benefit of reducing stress.

Follow these simple tips to prevent weight gain over the holidays:
1. Focus on quality not quantity
Focus on preparing and sampling just one or two of your favorite holiday foods. Keep portions in proportion.

2. Never skip meals before or after holiday celebrations
This will only lead to the feast-famine-feast syndrome which will encourage you to gorge yourself at holiday feasts. The best way to prevent overeating at holiday celebrations is to drink a large glass of water before you eat. Avoid standing near tables full of food and place food on your plate rather than picking from the buffet.

3. Get out of the kitchen
Spend less time in the kitchen; do you really need to bake 12 different desserts? Streamline menu plans that way you won’t have too many leftovers as well.

Can You Fight Fat with Food?

Posted on November 5th, 2007

Weigh The FAQs - Biggest LoserDid you know you could increase your body’s fat burning power simply by making better food choices?

The fat burning secret to losing weight is really quiet simple. There are a group of foods that you can practically eat all you want and still lose weight. The secret is that these foods burn more calories than they contain and therefore help your body burn stored fat.

The following are some of the foods that require more calories to burn than they contain. Eating these foods will help melt away the fat:

Apples
We all remember the old saying: “An Apple a day keeps the doctor away” turns out it keeps the extra pounds away as well! Apples fat burning power lies in the chemical pectin which is in the cell walls of most fruits. Pectin is a natural soluble fiber and it limits the amount of fat your cells can absorb.

Oatmeal
The fiber contained in oatmeal boosts your metabolism by keeping insulin levels low after you eat. This is good, because spikes in the production of insulin send a signal to the body that it is time to store fat. In order to store fat, your body has to slow down your metabolism which causes you to burn fewer calories. Since oatmeal breaks down slowly in the stomach, it causes less of a spike in insulin levels.