Body mass index (BMI) is a relative measure of your weight based on your height. It is a great way to get a rough idea of the weight range you should fall in based on your height. A healthy BMI is within the range 20 – 25. BMI is calculated by the following calculation: weight (kg)/ height (m2). A BMI greater than 25 is considered overweight and a BMI over 30 is obese. BMI should not be the only consideration when deciding your ideal weight. People with higher muscle mass tend to have a higher BMI, as well has people with heavier frames. For this reason, your BMI should only be used as a guide. An alternative to BMI is to look at weight charts based on frame. This adds another element to the calculation and makes the result more realistic. Another way to assess you weight instead of BMI is to look at your body fat %. Whilst you can measure your BMI at home, to get a body fat % reading you will need to go to a gym. Males should aim to have less than 20% body fat and f

Many people believe that to lose weight that they need to make drastic changes to their lifestyle. The rise of fad diets and the mass publicity that they have been given most likely has promoted this philosophy. Radical changes to the way you live generally are not realistic to maintain long term. To lose weight and keep it off you need to develop some simple habits and educate yourself in areas that will help you live a healthier lifestyle so you can get the most out of life. Below are some steps to take to start your weight loss journey. This article serves as a ‘how to’ guide to start lose weight. 1. Keep a food journal Studies have shown that successful weight loss begins with first identifying where you are consuming most of your calories. Keeping a food journal will be a huge self education tool, as you will immediately see where you can cut out unnecessary calories from your diet. Furthermore, once you begin your weight loss plan this step also keeps you very accountable. Revi

With so many weight loss programs in the market these days it can become very difficult to work out which one to go for. The reality is most of these weight loss programs will work, however it is a matter of working out which one will work best for you. The bad news is that there are no magical program that will make all your weight just drop off, but there certainly are many options that do work. Weight loss programs can be broken down into 4 areas. These weight loss programs include: - diet/weight loss pills - meal replacements - fad diets or weight loss programs - long term lifestyle weight loss programs. Diet Pills Diet pills have become very popular in the last 10 years and certainly to some degree have shown success. Diet pills work by three different means: appetite suppressant, increased metabolism rate or decreased fat solubility. The problem is that no diet pill is without side effects. These can range from stomach cramps to diarrhoea and nausea. Without proper

Mind set is a huge part of successful weight loss. Having the correct thought patterns can make your weight loss journey sustainable long term. The reason for this is that when you create a shift in your thinking, you create a shift in your habits. Staying positive is critical. The fact is that it is difficult to lose weight. It is even more difficult to lose weight and keep it off. That’s why laying the foundations, and creating the correct mental tool kit it critical. Let’s explore how people lose weight and keep it off long term by shaping the correct habits. Below are some effective weight management tools you can use to start to lose weight. These have been based on the success of hundreds of successful case studies. 1. Eat slowly and stop eating before you get full. This might sound overly simplistic; however it has been found in a study of 3000 adults conducted by The British Medical Journal that people who eat too fast and also eat till they are full are up to three times mor

Nowadays, it is so in to be thin and being anything but that carries a stigma, along with increased risks of serious illnesses. If that isn’t enough, recent research has found that infertility, which experts define as twelve months of unprotected intercourse that doesn’t result in a pregnancy, is also related to obesity. For women, the main obstacle is lack of ovulation, which is when the body refuses to release an egg every month. Too much abdominal fat stores an excess of estrogen, the hormone that needs to fluctuate in order for ovulation to occur. At the same time, male hormone levels rise, with all that estrogen and testosterone sending the women’s brain the wrong message. When a couple is having trouble conceiving, evaluation by a fertility specialist is often a very good idea. Because it is pretty easy to count and evaluate sperm, it is easy to rule out any male problems, first. A woman who has irregular menstrual cycles should look for signs of hormonal imbalances like a

I feel that the worst sweeteners to use are the artificial sweeteners. They have many bad effects on you, including making you fatter. Many have reported many disease like symptoms that appear like diseases like MS. Artificial sweeteners are many times sweeter than sugar. They are not really foods and are more like drugs. Sugar cane is not really that bad for health. What makes it bad is the process that they put it through.They do a similar thing to with wheat and rice. They take the nutritious part of the sugar cane out. It is a thick black liquid called blackstrap molasses. You can get this is in health foods stores and it is sweet. It is very nutritious with lots of iron, potassium and chromium in it. The part that is left is called sugar and has calories, but has no nutrition. Advertisements say that people should buy chromium supplements since it is needed to metabolize sugar. The sugar robs your body of the chromium and other things. If blackstrap molasses is sold in the healt

Are you a health and fitness retreat regular? Whether you’ve been to one or all of them, you’ll find a Vita Vie Retreat (formerly Bella Vita Retreat) stands out in the crowd. If you’re looking for a health and fitness retreat that is more than just a weight loss retreat, try Vita Vie Retreat. All guests are treated as if they are part of the Vita Vie family. All of the instructors take great care and time in making sure each person receives individual, one on one attention and instruction toward reaching their goals. Vita Vie Retreat is more than just a fitness retreat – it is an experience. Situated about 15 minutes north of Fort Lauderdale on a quiet stretch of beautiful sandy beach, the retreat is located in a little town known as Pompano Beach. Vita Vie Retreat holds their retreats in South Florida at the Ocean Sands Resort and Spa, a small boutique resort with just 89 rooms. Renovated in April of 2006, the resort is sparkling new with a relaxed, calm spa feeling. Vita Vie Retreat’

Big Pharma is teaming up with other anti-supplement cohorts to spearhead a petition urging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to implement new limitations on manufacturers of weight-management supplements. It should come as no surprise that the large pharmaceutical corporation which helped launch the petition is the very same company that recently released the first-ever FDA-approved over-the-counter weight-loss drug. It is very evident that Big Pharma is after large amounts of money and will stop at nothing to eliminate its competition. The pharmaceutical industry seems to have a lot riding on the over-the-counter weight-loss pills. Natural nutrition that works with the body to support healthy weight management is a huge threat to Big Pharma’s over-the-counter weight-loss drug profits. Consumers have become more and more aware of the fact that while nutrition supports health, just as nature intended, drugs can subject them to side effects that can even neutralize nutritiona

Points to Live By for Your Health and Success!* These are traits that are common to people who experience a stable and healthy life on a mental, physical, spiritual, and financial level. Evaluate your life and put time and effort into the areas that are lacking. Keep in mind the same principles apply for losing weight— making one change at a time. If you look at an area of your life and know that you want to improve it, then make a long term goal, but do one action each day that you can build on. For instance, if you wanted to be more spiritual, decide what your long term spirituality goal is, then maybe your first action would be to pray for two minutes upon waking each day. The success of reaching your fitness goal using any diet plans has the same structure as any other area of your life. These traits are what the majority of us would like to have in our lives. I don’t think you would disagree that they all point to a healthy mind, body, and spirit. Don’t confuse success with hav

Hoodia is a plant that belongs to the milkweed family and consists of about twenty different species. It is a leafless, spiny plant, with fleshy finger-like stems. Along the stems, there are rows of thorns, while the plant bears flesh-colored flowers. Flies are attracted to the flowers by the strong smell of decaying meat, causing the flies to lay their eggs and pollinate the flowers. Sometimes spelled hootia, hodia, hoodie, and hudia, hoodia has recently gained a great amount of attention in the United Kingdom and America after being featured on BCC and CBS. Often growing in summer rainfall areas in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, along with winter rainfall areas in Nambia, hoodia gordonii is the only species that contains the chemical component that suppresses appetite. Hoodia has been used for thousands of years by San Bushmen, as it populates the arid territories of South Africa and Namibia. Because San Bushmen needed to remain active in order to survive, they