We know that the key to permanent and effective weight loss is to speed up our body's metabolism.
Metabolism simply means the speed in which our body utilizes and burns through food.
A fast metabolism means that your body processes and utilizes the nutrients which it needs and then eliminates those it doesn't.
There are primarily two ways to naturally speed up your body's metabolism.
The first is through resistance training, lifting weights. Lean muscle tissue is a very metabolically active tissue, it requires a lot of energy to maintain.
The body gets this energy from burning calories. So the more lean muscle you have, the faster your metabolism becomes and the more calories that you will burn at rest.
The second way to effectively speed up your body's metabolism is by eating small, well-balanced, nutritious meals or snacks every three to four hours.
This alone can drastically improve the efficiency of your body's metabolism.
Now, for those of us with busy, often hectic lives, eating every three to four hours can be challenging, if not impossible.
What are the chances of eating something healthy and nutritious every two to three hours?
Unless you have a lot of time to prepare and package meals or hire yor own personal chef to cook for you, this can be a daunting task.
Well, now there is a solution.
Meal replacments.
Meal replacements are probably the most valuable and underrated supplement on the market.
People are always looking for the magic solution to weight-loss by buying some drink or pill that promises miraculous results.
We gain weight and body fat by having poor eating habits, so the only way to undo the damage is to reverse the cycle by developing good eating habits.
Meal replacements make this possible.
Meal replacements are pre-packaged powdered drink mixes that you mix with water, milk, or juice and then drink in the place of a meal.
They are convenient, inexpensive, and most taste pretty good.
For optimum fat-burning and muscle-building results, we need to consume a high-protein, moderate-carb, low-fat meal about every three to four hours.
This is approximately five to six meals per day. So, replace two or three of your whole food meals with meal replacements and you will drastically start cutting out unneeded calories, calories that can add up and, if not burned off, be stored as body fat.
Meal replacements provide a perfect, compact meal in a packet that is high in protein, low in fat (some have no fat) are low in carbohydrates, and contain a wide array of vitamins and minerals.
They are low in sugar and cholesterol. They are very nutrient dense and can be mixed easily and conveniently.
In order to get the same benefits from whole food as some of the high quality meal replacements, you would have to put together a large meal like a chicken breast (protein) a potato for some carbs, and a salad for the vitamins six times a day.
Why bother when you can just rip open a meal replacement packet and toss it into a cup with some water or skim milk. Presto!
Instant nutrition.
Check the ingredients. Stick with meals replacements that use a combination of whey, milk, and egg proteins as the first ingredient.
Most meal replacements, if taken with water, offer at least 40 grams of protein with minimal fat. Most are under 300 calories, chock full of vitamins and minerals, and taste rather pleasant.
Many people I have spoken to over the years attribute meal replacements being on of the biggest reasons why they we able to lose weight.
They are able to get vitamin-rich, high-protein, moderate carb meal for less than 300 calories. All of this for about 2 dollars. You cannot even buy a Happy Meal for fewer than 2.00 dollars and Happy Meals are loaded with fat!
Either they have an unhealthy lifestyle ? working long hours, eating out all the time, not getting enough exercise ? or they simply eat too much, often in a compulsive way.
This type of eating ? eating when one isn't hungry, for example, or eating for emotional reasons rather than physical hunger ? is really a type of addiction. It should be understood as an addiction, and it often is.
For example, the group Overeaters Anonymous functions on many of the same principles as AA or other twelve step programs. Excessive eating is treated like an addiction because that's exactly what it is.
But if that's the case, it's easy to see why this addiction might be harder to treat than some others. The way to deal with an addiction is to stay away from the behaviour that's out of control ? alcoholics can't touch alcohol, for example. The idea is to not do it at all until the addiction becomes a thing of the past ? in fact, for many addicts, they can never indulge in their addictive behavior again, not even once.
With food addiction, though, that's obviously impossible. People have to eat ? there's no getting away from it. That's why food addiction, though it's an addiction to a non-lethal substance, may be the hardest of all to deal with. And that's also why companies such as Slim-fast, who produce and market meal replacements for people to use while dieting to lose weight, actually do succeed in helping some people.
The idea behind meal replacements is that you don't really eat at all for a good part of the day ? instead, you have a special shake or other product that gives you all the nutrients you need, and stops you from feeling hungry. This works in two ways: first, it controls the calories you take in, because the meal replacements are quite low calorie. Second, it breaks the cycle of addictive behavior because you're not really eating. You can get away from the behavior much as an alcoholic can (and must) get away from alcohol, and that gives you a better chance of breaking the addictive process.
Though most meal replacement plans do recommend that you eat one ?normal? meal per day, some people who are serious about losing weight don't do even that. That's precisely how Oprah Winfrey once lost a lot of weight ? about fifty pounds. She said that she found it easier not to eat at all (subsisting on meal replacement shakes and bars) than to control her eating. When you know that you won't be eating ?real food? at all for a while, it takes the guesswork out of it. Everything becomes very straightforward, and it's a fact that many people have lost weight using this method of weight loss.
There are drawbacks, though. For one thing, while a weight loss program is supposed to teach you about how to eat for the rest of your life ? to establish healthy habits, in other words ? using meal replacements clearly doesn't do so. Once you go back to eating real food, you might find that your problems with controlling your food intake are still there. Though you will have lost weight, you are more likely to gain it back if you haven't learned healthy eating habits.
Also, there's a danger that some people will keep on using the meal replacements for extended periods of time, just because it's easier and more convenient. Thought they re designed to give you a minimum level of calories and nutrition, meal replacement bars cannot substitute for real food over an extended period.
However, if you know or suspect that your problem with food resembles an addiction or compulsion, it may be worth your while to think about using meal replacements for a while in order to lose some weight. Try to make the time you spend using them as productive as possible, though. Really come to terms with your past behaviour, and learn what it feels like to be full but not stuffed. Figuring out the answer to these and other aspects of healthy eating will help make your weight loss permanent.
Both Jules Sims & Rene Graeber are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Jules Sims has sinced written about articles on various topics from Health, Computers and The Internet and Gardening. Read about and. Jules Sims's top article generates over 90500 views. to your Favourites.
Rene Graeber has sinced written about articles on various topics from Internet Marketing, Camping and Recreation and Sports. Who else wants to get rid of those stubborn body fats, lose weight and maintain a healthy body? You've done a lot of techniques and diets? But nothing seems to work for you? Just visit Rene Graeber's free website for more information:. Rene Graeber's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.