Pack your plate with vegé bs that have a high water content.They drown out calories and you’ll be deluged with vitamins. You can liquidate extra calories by eating vegetables high in H20, say scientists at Penn State University. When men ditched half the meat and rice for broccoli, they consumed 86 fewer calories and felt just as full. So you don’t have to sacrifice portion size and you’ll feel just as full. Study co-author Jennifer Meengs says, “Vegetables are satiating because they contain water, which bulks food up.” For the wettest of the bunch, dive into red peppers, zucchinis, cucumber, caulif lower and peppers.

LOSE FAT BUILD MUSCLE

Here’s the best combination for chiselling your abs: dumbbells and a fork. University of Connecticut researchers found that men who lifted weights and ate a low-carbohydrate diet lost 7.7kg of fat and gained nearly 1kg of muscle in just 12 weeks. What’s more, the low-carb dieters cut twice as much fat as lifters who followed a low-fat plan.

“Restricting carbohydrates forces your body to burn fat instead of sugar, while lifting spurs muscle growth,” says study author Jeff Volek, PhD. The TNT diet, a weight-loss and muscle-building programme based on Volek’s study, is just the right strategy.

Scramble away from overeating The breakfast of champion dieters: eggs, say Louisiana State University researchers. When 152 overweight adults ate a two-egg breakfast daily for two months, they lost 65 per cent more weight than did a control group who consumed a breakfast equal in calories but lower in protein. To increase satiety by up to 50 per cent and subsequently lighten your lunch intake by about 164 calories.

To take photos that accurately track your progress, ones you can actually show to friends (or send to us), here are the five essential tips you must follow.

1. PLAN YOUR LOOK

Take your shirt off, even in the Before photo. Yes, you should feel embarrassed. You’ll have that much more motivation to make a change. But leave your pants on, please. Or wear shorts. Do not, under any circumstances, pose in your jnderwear — you’re not in a Calvin Klein ad… yet.

2. BE YOURSELF

Its OK to look pathetic in your before shot and triumphant in the after but don’t accentuate it by blowing out your stomach or grinning like a madman. You’ll get a better sense of how much your body has changed by standing in the same positions for both rounds of photos. Once you begin your transformation, take a new set of photos every four to eight weeks, so you can see your body’s gradual changes.

3. ACT NATURALLY

Don’t flex or act crazy. But you can try some of the “mandatory poses.” Stand relaxed with your shoulders back, and take pictures of you from the front, sides, and back.

4. GO HIGH-TECH

Use a digital camera — not a 35mm, not an old cell phone, and definitely not a Polaroid. Stand against a white or light-colored background without anything else behind you and pick a
well-lit room so you can avoid using a flash. Or at least take one with and one without, so you have a couple of options to decide between.

5. GO SOLO

The picture should be of you alone — that means no friends, pets, or tropical paradises in the background. These don’t convey a realistic idea of the transformation.

Have you tried out every trick in the book to lose weight – crash diets, gyms, or simply starving yourself? Now, try a simple trick – drink a glass or two of water before meals, as that’s the best way to curb appetite and shed those pounds – says a new research.

Scientists have reported that just two 8-ounce glasses of water taken before meals, can lead to weight loss.

“In this recent study, we found that over the course of 12 weeks, dieters who drank water before meals, three times per day, lost about 5 pounds more than dieters who did not increase their water intake,” said Brenda Davy of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

The simple reason is that it fills up the stomach with a substance that has zero calories. People feel fuller as a result, and eat less calorie-containing food during the meal.

And it gets even better if you replace sweetened calorie-containing beverages with it.

Although there’s no exact amount of water one should drink, experts advise that most healthy people can simply let thirst be their guide.

The general recommendations for women are about 9 cups of fluids — from all beverages including water — each day, and men at about 13 cups of fluids.

Want to shed the flab? Try out weight loss patches which have become the latest diet fad and are already quite popular with celebrities like Paris Hilton. Traditional weight loss aids come in pill form but scientists have found the liver tends to break down the active ingredients before they enter the bloodstream. It means that anywhere between 85 and 90 per cent of the effect is wasted. Now, boffins have designed the patches look like a two inches square sticking plaster and can be attached to any part of the body. The pads are claimed to suppress hunger pangs and help the body burn off fat. Makers SlimWeight claim their new patches are better because the ingredients are absorbed through the skin and straight into the blood. A spokesman was quoted by the ‘Sunday Express’ as saying, “Every week there’s a new fad diet out. Thousands of Britons struggle to lose weight and these complex diets add unnecessary hassle to the process. “By simply applying one weight loss patch a day you can go about your routine safe in the knowledge that you’re burning fat and reducing your cravings. “The patches work by increasing the body’s ability to burn the fat it receives through food, while at the same time reducing cravings to binge eat. You consume less fat and the fat you do consume is metabolised quicker.” But, nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston urged caution. “What our bodies are really crying out for are nutrients. The food we eat is packed with calories but is so heavily processed there are relatively few nutrients. These weight patches will help suppress feelings of hunger. But if people use them they should also maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle,” she said.

The claim
A compound called Lorcaserin helps overweight people lose about five per cent of their body weight with few side effects.

The facts
According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, while the weight reduction owing to Lorcaserin is modest, the drug could have fewer side effects than others.

The drug acts on a specific subset of receptors for the chemical messenger serotonin. These receptors play a role in satiety, the feeling of fullness. “This is the first tailor-made molecule to target receptors involved in producing satiety and reducing caloric intake,” said Arne Astrup, a physician at the University of Copenhagen.
Several weight-loss drugs have been pulled from the market or abandoned in late-stage development because of dangerous side effects. Lorcaserin, however, was designed to target a subset of serotonin receptors called 5-HTC2, and as it targets brain receptors specifically, Lorcaserin has very few side effects.

The bottom line: Lorcaserin might just be the wonder drug that makes you lose weight with minimal side effects

If you thought the best way to lose and maintain weight was the slow and steady approach, then think again.

A new study by Lisa Nackers and colleagues from the University of Florida suggests that the key to long-term weight loss and maintenance is to lose weight quickly, not gradually, in the initial stages of obesity treatment.

Successful weight loss in obese individuals is defined as a reduction of 10 percent or more of initial body weight maintained for at least a year.

Nackers and her team’s study examines the association between the rate of initial weight loss and long-term maintenance of lost weight by looking specifically at whether losing weight at a slow initial rate results in larger long-term weight reduction and less weight regain than losing weight at a fast initial rate.

The authors analysed data for 262 middle-aged obese women who took part in the Treatment of Obesity in Underserved Rural Settings (TOURS) trial.

These women followed a six-month lifestyle programme encouraging them to reduce their calorie intake and increase their moderate intensity physical activity to achieve an average weight loss of 0.45 kg per week.

They were then supported for a further year with an extended care programme involving contact twice a month in the form of group sessions, telephone contact or newsletters.

The team split the women into three groups according to how much weight they lost in the first month of the intervention.

Women in the ‘fast’ group lost over 0.68 kg per week; those in the ‘moderate’ group lost between 0.23 and 0.68 kg per week; women in the ‘slow’ group lost less than 0.23 kg per week in that first month.

The authors then looked at the womens’ weight loss at six and 18 months, as well as any weight regain.

They found that there were long-term advantages to fast initial weight loss. Fast weight losers lost more weight overall, maintained their weight loss for longer and were not more likely to put weight back on than the more gradual weight losers, said a University of Florida release.

In particular, women in the ‘fast’ group were five times more likely to achieve the clinically significant 10 percent weight loss at 18 months than those in the ‘slow’ group and those in the ‘moderate’ group were nearly three times more likely to achieve this milestone than women in the ‘slow’ group.

These findings were published online in Springer’s International Journal of Behavioural Medicine.

Cornell University researchers have found out that a person can lose lots of weight if there is a change in the environment. The study was conducted over 200 participants from the National Mindless Eating Challenge  who were given diet tips from three categories: change your environment, change your eating behavior, and change your food choices.

This experiment was carried out for three months. It has been reported that people are losing 1 to 2 pound every month per tip. If the person will follow the tips for 20 days the definitely he or she can feel the change.

The researchers advised that people should use smaller plates, switch off television, computers and cell phones while having a meal and keep high calorie foods out of sight and reach. These simple changes can make a lot of difference and are easier to follow also, rather than changing eating habits or replacing foods with other healthier option. This sudy was presented by Brian Wansink, Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab at this week’s Experimental Biology conference at Anaheim, Calif.

A new study has linked nicotine poisoning with weight gain, and concludes that active smokers put on more weight than non-smokers.

Four years of analysis at the University of Navarra in Spain (UNAV) revealed that those who put on the least weight were those who had never smoked.

Researchers from the department of preventative medicine at UNAV in Spain have evaluated the link between the two cardiovascular risk factors: the ‘nicotine habit’ and the increase in weight when smokers stop the habit and when they continue smoking.

The results “are crucial for considering prevention programmes,” said Francisco Javier Basterra-Gortari, main study author and researcher at UNAV.

The data, resulting from an analysis of 7,565 people over 50 months, is based on age, sex, initial body mass index and lifestyles (sedentarism, changes in physical activity, energy/fibre intake, snacks between meals and consumption of fizzy drinks, fast food and alcohol).

Weight gain in people who stopped smoking during the study was higher the more cigarettes they smoked a day when the investigation began. Those who continued smoking also gained more weight during this period than the non-smokers.

The authors confirm that nicotine addiction is not an effective way of preventing obesity. “In fact the increase is demonstrated, especially in ex-smokers and in smokers who continue,” highlights Basterra-Gortari.

The association between being overweight and nicotine addiction is especially harmful for cardiovascular health. Therefore, abandoning the nicotine habit has been linked to a decrease in the risk of cardiovascular illnesses and cancer.

However, experts argue that weight gain after stopping smoking is, often, a reason for not quitting the nicotine addiction, especially among women, said a UNAV release.

Most of the investigations that have studied this link have observed that, although there is an increase in weight after quitting smoking, there are notable variations in weight gain.

These findings were published in the journal Revista Española de Cardiología.

People who follow a low-calories diet in the hope of losing weight shouldn’t bother unless they exercise as well, a new study has found.

“This research shows that simply dieting will not likely cause substantial weight loss. Instead, diet and exercise must be combined to achieve this goal,” said lead researcher Judy Cameron from Oregon Health and Science University.

To conduct the research, Cameron studied 18 female rhesus macaque monkeys. The monkeys were placed on a high-fat diet for several years. They were then returned to a low-fat diet with a 30 percent reduction in calories. For a one-month period, the monkeys’ weight and activity levels were closely tracked. Activity was tracked through the use of an activity monitor worn on a collar, reports dailymail.co.uk

Surprisingly, there was no significant weight loss at the end of the month. There was a significant change in the activity levels for these monkeys.

Naturally occurring levels of physical activity for the animals began to diminish soon after the reduced-calorie diet began. When caloric intake was further reduced in a second month, physical activity in the monkeys diminished even further.

A comparison group of three monkeys was fed a normal monkey diet and was trained to exercise for one hour daily on a treadmill. This comparison group did lose weight.

“This study demonstrates that there is a natural body mechanism which conserves energy in response to a reduction in calories. Food is not always plentiful for humans and animals and the body seems to have developed a strategy for responding to these fluctuations,” Cameron said.