Diet and Exercise, What you eat and When!

One of the biggest keys to losing weight is lowering your food intake and making sure you get some exercise. You have to pay attention to what you eat. Just because a salad sounds healthy, it can quickly turn into a "fat trap" after the dressing and cheese is added. A taco salad sounds healthy but is one of the worst things you can eat while on a diet. It's not just fat, but think of it as fat and empty calories, i.e. sugar. You have to cut back on the empty calories.

There are empty calories everywhere from candy to soda to soft drinks. Think about what you are drinking. Alcoholic beverages are even worse. You get the double whammy or empty calories and the effects of alcohol. Even juice has a lot of sugar, be it natural or added in. Some of them are high in fructose and may contain as much as 30-40 grams of sugar in one serving. That is a lot of sugar for one drink - especially when experts recommend you only have 48 grams in a day.

Why are empty carbs so bad, well, sugar is a carbohydrate so when it is not burned off, it turns into fat. Bottom line. If you take in more then your body, i.e. metabolism needs, it gets transferred to fat. Period.

It's not all about sugar and fat though. You have to get enough vitamins, and watch your Sodium. Sodium comes in everything from salty foods like popcorn to diet coke. It's used to preserve foods and used in everyting from frozen dinners to pudding. Sodium is bad because it may cause you to store more weight around the mid section.

The more active you are, the better, and that will only help in the long run with your diet goals. Stick to some basic fundamentals and you will have great success.

* No fried foods.
* No Empty carbs.
* Don't eat anything past 6:00 p.m.
* Drink Plenty of Water.

If you can do that, you will start to see a huge difference in no time. Add exercise to the equation, and look out new you. Every little bit helps. Drink cold water, your body has to spend calories to warm up the water you just drank. In addition to that, water encourages proper kidney function and increases the efficiency of the liver's fat burning capabilities.