While the majority of people usually reserve January 1^st as the start date for their new diet, more women are starting to fast before Christmas in a bid to lose weight for that sexy little black number for the Christmas party.

A recent study in the UK found that around 58% of women plan to shed 10 pounds between now and Christmas. The techniques that were revealed to losing weight included skipping the odd one meal here and there and in some cases not eating breakfast as a way to lower calories.

The poll (which was made up of 3000 women) also revealed that 14 percent of them were purposely buying party outfits that were too small in hope that they may reach that size.

But more than half of those have had to buy an emergency outfit after failing to lose the weight in time.

But while there hearts may be in the right place to losing weight 21% knew that they would undo all that effort, by putting back on the weight again over the Christmas holidays.

While all you men out there may think that this behavior is a sign of insanity in the female population, more than one in ten admits they diet just to impress a man at their Christmas party.

So thank you girls!

But, please if you are planning on losing weight in time for Christmas, take some time today and read some of our other posts. This way you can sensibly lose weight so you’ll good not only for Christmas but right through the New Year!!

©2009 EscapeFromFat.com. All Rights Reserved.

If I had one dollar for every time someone asked me, “What is the best fat burning exercise”, I’d be a rich man today. The best way to respond to this question is in order to have sustainable fat loss results; you must have several effective exercises to choose from.

The reason I say multiple exercises are best because if there were only one exercise you could do to burn fat, you’d probably get bored of it very quickly and also your body would quickly adapt and become stale after a few short weeks, so you’d get poorer and poorer results from it over time.

While all forms of aerobic activity burn fat, the best method for burning fat – and simultaneously increasing cardiovascular fitness – is high-intensity interval training or HITT.

Performing a series of exercises at intervals of 80-90% MHR (maximum heart rate), or an RPE (Rating of perceived exertion) of 8-9 (very hard), as opposed to maintaining a steady intensity, burns up to 50% more fat than a low-intensity exercise like walking.

But before you rush into it, you must be aware that this type of training is only suitable for very well-conditioned athletes and should not be attempted by beginners.

Once you have built up to it, high-intensity interval training is a very effective way of improving your body composition. Not only does it burn more calories during your workout compared with low-intensity training, it produces the greatest EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) and speeds up your metabolic rate for some time after your workout.

While High Intensity Interval Training may be best for fat burning the time of the day you workout at, can also make a difference.

Early in the morning before you eat, your levels of muscle and liver glycogen (stored carbohydrate) are low. If you eat dinner at 7 p.m and you eat breakfast at 7 a.m., that’s 12 hours without food. During this 12-hour overnight fast, your levels of glycogen slowly decline to provide glucose for various bodily functions that go on even while you sleep.

As a result, you wake up in the morning with depleted glycogen and lower blood sugar – the optimum environment for burning fat instead of carbohydrate.

How much more fat you’ll burn is uncertain, but some studies have suggested that up to 300% more fat is burned when cardio is done in a fasted, glycogen-depleted state.

©2009 EscapeFromFat.com. All Rights Reserved.

If you’ve been reading our blog this week you’ve probably read my post on using pictures to inspire you when things are getting tough.

But, while this can be of great help how great what it be to have a photo of you in in better shape on refrigerator door?

If it been a long time since you’ve seen yourself fit and trim  then a fun website called “Weight Mirror.com” could be the solution for you.

Basically you upload a photograph of yourself and use a simple slider rule to knock the pounds off. Then when you’re happy with the finished image you can print it off.

While it might be a bit of fun to try out with friends it also is a great motivation tool as you now have a target to aim.

Click here to take a look and see it for yourself.

©2009 EscapeFromFat.com. All Rights Reserved.

Turn on the TV and you’re bound to see an ad for a miracle weight loss gimmick. With all the pills and contraptions, it seems hard to know what will help us lose weight safely. But the answer really is simple: To rid yourself of unwanted pounds all you need are your own legs, some comfortable shoes, and a little open space.

Walking is an integral part of everyday living. We have to walk every day to do whatever it is we want or need to do, all you have to do is up it a little and you will see the pounds drop off. With walking you will improve your health as you are losing weight. So, walking for weight loss is a very good idea.

While this article is on the topic of burning fat with walking the first and best way to burn fat is to modify your current diet. There are three simple ways you can begin to modify: reduce calories, reduce sodium, and reduce fat.

For example, by substituting a glass of water for a carbonated beverage, you can cut approximately 150 calories or more, depending on how much is consumed. Even if it were fruit juice instead of water, you would still reduce calories by approximately 50 – 100.

But, while I have nothing against brisk walking as it is something that I believe is good for the body and is some thing that I enjoy, brisk walking will not burn as much fat as you are lead to believe. Yes, it does raise the heart rate, yes you are using your larger muscles and yes, it does burn calories BUT it does rank low on the fat burning scale.

“Aerobic” exercise like walking or swimming will burn a great percentage of body fat, but the down side is that you need to be motivated enough to workout frequently. And aerobic exercise only burns fat during the workout so if you want better results and more fat burned, you need to be able to exercise daily and for longer periods of time.

But there are ways around this here are 4 Ways To Burn More Fat Walking…

1. Try and find a route with inclines and walk up hill you mightn’t be able to walk as fast but that extra exertion makes a big difference to the calories you burn.
2. If your route has no inclines, start your walk with a typical steady pace then gradually increase the pace for a moment.
3. Purchase some arm and leg weights before you go walking, and move your arms briskly along with your legs. This helps to tone and also increase the calories burned.
4. If you have small kids, put them in a pram, and take them for a walk around the block. It ads resistance and helps increase the power of the work out.

Power walking workouts are a reasonable way to boost fitness and burn stored body fat. About 45 minutes of power walking burns about 527 calories. In one year, this daily exercise routine burns a total of 192,355 calories per year – about 55 pounds of stored body fat.

If you’re not sure what power walking is its walking as fast as you can as if you are on your way to a very important appointment, or 10 minutes late for it! You’ve probably seen walking like this in the Olympics.

But, while walking can be a good way to maintain weight you must be careful with your food and the necessary exercise you need to do to burn it off. For example, if you eat a chocolate bar, we may need to walk 6 km just to burn it off, down a “Big Mac”, and you could be looking to walk at least 10km to burn those calories ( and that’s not including the fries on the side!)

When it comes to losing fat, nothing is more accurate than the old adage, “calories in, calories out.” In theory, the fewer the calories you take in, the less fat you will store and the less weight you’ll have to lose and shorter you’ll need to walk.

Maybe if we considered how many steps we’d need to make to burn off every meal we might reconsider how much we put in our mouths.

©2009 EscapeFromFat.com. All Rights Reserved.

Although the numbers of adults who smoke has gone down in countries because of health reasons and smoking bans introduced in the workplace, many women, especially teenagers, take up smoking as a weight control measure.

But is it worth it and how does it work for weight loss?

Smoking has long been linked to weight loss. A St. Louis University study examining elderly nursing home patients found that smokers lost weight faster than non-smokers.

The reason smoking may help with weight loss is because as a stimulant, smoking can increase your heart rate. With every cigarette smoked, the heart will beat as many as twenty times more per minute, according to SmokeFree.gov. This causes the body to burn calories faster and a subsequent increase in metabolism, which prompts weight loss.

While smokers may lose weight, a study by the University of New South Wales and University of Melbourne found much of the weight loss was muscle mass rather than fat loss when testing groups of mice.

Also cigarettes can cause weight loss because of their appetite-suppressing qualities. Smokers will often smoke instead of eating a meal, prompting a loss in weight. On top of that smokers have a reduced sense of taste and smell and do not crave food as much.

While there is a link to smoking helping to control your appetite is it really worth smoking to for the small boost it may give your metabolism?

There are a lot of other healthier ways to boost metabolism, not eating breakfast or skipping any other meal will result in your metabolism becoming slower and slower. If you’re not getting your recommended daily calories your body will go into starvation mode and store every other thing it receives as fat.

And for all you ladies out there who are thinking of taking up the habit even for a short period of time, almost 80% of the smokers gain weight when they quit smoking. An average weight gained by an ex-smoker is around 5-15 pounds and according to a research study, women tend to gain more weight as compared to men in the first year after quitting smoking. So what ever benefits you’ve received will probably only be short lived and you’ll end up in a worse situation that before.

If you weigh up the facts, the dangers of smoking to your health are well documented. Putting on a few pounds in weight is a lot better than having to face a fight against a major illness.

©2009 EscapeFromFat.com. All Rights Reserved.

If you’re thinking “Oh God,  its Monday again and I’m back on a diet and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to lose that 20- 30 pounds!”

You’re probably in need of some inspiration, well this may be of help to you.

Here’s a lady that lost a whopping 339 pounds.

If you’d like to know about whats in this months Oxygen Magazine and order your copy you can click here

While you might think I’m only promoting this magazine here, rather I want to show you the benefits of having positive images of success at hand.

Being on a diet you can be surrounded by  failure.

• The TV shows are broadcasting shows about obesity and how its out of control.
• Your friends haven’t lost weight and are always complaining about it.

Sometimes it’s enough to make you want to give up.

But, this where having positive inspiring images like the one above can help. Although you may think that no one every loses weight there are people out there like you and me that have lost weight and kept it off.

So, here’s your task for the day.

1. Go out and buy a large scrapbook.
2. Go to your local shop/store and purchase some weight loss/dieting magazines. If you’re short of cash ask the shop owner if they have any magazines they’re putting in the trash that you could take off their hands.
3. Look for images of success, whether thats women/men who’ve lost great weight or images where people have lost weight and they’re happy and look great that and cut them out.
4. Then paste them into your scrap book. If you’re stuck for time you can get the kids involved and say its a project you need help with.
5. Now place this scrap book somewhere you can see every day, whether thats in your bed room that you can refer to it before you go to sleep or possibly in your kitchen possibly close to the refrigerator.
6. Now when ever you need a boost when things seem hard or you’re tempted to giving in, read through your scrapbook and no time you’ll notice an improvement in your mood, and you won’t feel like giving in.

A quick note – Rather than relying on the same photos to look over, continue to add more and more photos. Looking at the same photos over and over again can take the “shine” off them but by adding more and more your book stays fresh and inspirational.

…..now where did I put those scissors?

©2009 EscapeFromFat.com. All Rights Reserved.

Many well-intentioned people go on a diet to lose weight and get in shape but the majority of those sabotage their progress with mistakes.Here’s 25 of the most common ones…

1. You grocery shop on the fly. When dieting always have a list and work from that, this way you’re not tempted to buy and “goodies.” If you don’t trust yourself shop online, dieters who shopped at Web-based groceries bought fewer high-fat foods, a study from the University of Connecticut found.
2. You don’t ever count calories. While its important to exercise to burn off calories its also important to know whats going in the “gas tank.” You may be surprised at how much exercise you need to do to even burn off the smallest candy bar, so control those calories.
3. Have you set your weight loss goal too high? This is one of the biggest dieting mistakes setting unrealistic goals and not allowing enough time to see results is a disaster waiting to happen.
4. Never turn to starvation as a means of dieting.
5. Many dieters fall prey to becoming obsessed with the number on the weigh scale.  While its good to monitor your progress, it can also be harmful if you let the numbers dictate your diet and your life.  Its normal to gain weight or lose weight and for someone addicted to checking the numbers, such fluctuations can drive you crazy and possibly lead to poor dieting practices such as starvation.
6. Salads for diets are a great idea, but many people tend to stick to only salads.The thoughts of having to live on salads for the rest of your life would send even the sanest person over the edge.
7. While you might think telling others that you’re on a diet is a good thing, it can backfire on you especially if these have weight problems. While they may want the best for you they may sabotage your efforts by commenting how how badly you’re doing and that we’ve never been successful in the past.
8. So many people do well during mealtime, but forget about the extra food they’ve had along the way — the handful of nuts before dinner, the taste-testing of cookie dough, the food left on their kid’s plate etc.
9. Another great mistake when it comes to dieting is selecting a diet plan where you eat the same thing every day – (for the same reason as mistake 6).
10. Perhaps the single largest mistake that dieters make is adopting an all or nothing attitude. While it may sound like giving it 100% is the right path to take sometimes it better to improve your eating and exercise habits over a gradual period this way its not so drastic and you’ll feel more confident of staying the path.
11. Thinking diet pills, vitamins, diet food or magic creams are more powerful than they really are in achieving weight loss. Ah, if only life were so simple. Don’t get taken in by the marketing hype, if you read the instruction of any weight loss pill they always say “Your results will be better if you exercise.” In other word it may work for you but you’re going to have to put in some effort yourself to get better results.
12. Downing liquid calories is another dieting mistakes. Almost all liquids apart from water contain calories drinking anything other that this in only adding calories you’re going to have to burn off – and this is especally true with diet drinks!
13. Having long periods without eating. Remember eating small, healthy meals about every three hours is the best way to keep your metabolism revving.
14. If the key to losing weight is cutting calories then why not cut a bunch at once by skipping a meal.  If you skip meals when you’re trying to lose weight, you’re doing yourself more harm than good.
15. Thinking that “dieting” sprees — and not total lifestyle change — will garner lasting weight loss results.
16. Thinking of exercise as a chore, instead of a way to improve your health and your life.
17. Don’t be hard on yourself if you slip up. Let your failures teach you as much as your successes and you should be well on your way to the healthier person that you know is hiding inside.
18. Never skip breakfast – in reality, breakfast may influence weight loss more than any other meal.
19. Not recording what you eat every day, a simple thing of having a food diary can double your weight loss success.
20. The rule of thumb is that during the first three weeks, you’re going to lose a higher rate of weight and then it’s going to slow down. Expect this to happen and you’ll see that you’re still on the right path and not a failure, you might have a completion date but your body probably has other ideas.
21. Avoid diets that contain only a small number of food types. Diets containing unvaried food can be dangerous, as it makes your body receive only a certain set of vitamins and minerals.
22. Relieve your stress levels with some healthy eating, keep your favorite healthy snacks on hand everywhere.
23. It takes twenty minutes for the brain to sense that your stomach is full, if you still feel full after a meal takes another few minutes before eating more, just in case its old habits rather than real hunger.
24. Eating on the run and in every place (assign one place to eat in the house)this way you won’t have any distractions like television and over eating like mistake 23.
25. The final mistake when it comes to dieting that is made all too often is giving up.  You may have had a bad day or even a bad week when it comes to your dietary goals and plans.  But remember even those who have achieved monumental dieting success have met with failure on the road.

P.S – Read the above list at least once per month as its amazing how quickly we forget information and return to old habits.

©2009 EscapeFromFat.com. All Rights Reserved.

Here’s what we talked about this week on Escape From Fat….

©2009 EscapeFromFat.com. All Rights Reserved.

With weight loss surgery on the increase as obesity grows out of control, you’d assume that young people would be giving it a big thumbs up?

But unlike their parents and other elders, they don’t want it.

In a recent survey in the UK nearly 75% of children responded that they believed that weight loss surgery is cheating!

Have they got it right?

In one way I can see their point of view, losing weight by surgery is a quick solution to the problem but does it really help in the long term.

For example by having surgery it doesn’t change bad eating habits or the importance of taking up some form of exercise to control weight, and over time the weight may creep back up again.

While I also know that for some people weight loss surgery does have great results to their health with a reduction in diabetes and other health problems.

What are you thoughts do you believe weight loss surgery is cheating?

All the gain without the pain?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Here’s the video that got me writing on this posts topic.

©2009 EscapeFromFat.com. All Rights Reserved.

For those of you considering going on the “Atkins Diet” but not sure if its right for you, I’ve put together a free report that I hope will answer any questions you may have.

Here’s some topics it covers

• Is Atkins Right For You
• Pros and Cons Of  The Atkins Diet
• Atkins and Appetite Suppression
• Planning for Atkins
• Atkins Shopping Tips
• Atkins Cost Saving Tips
• Carbohydrate Cravings And the Atkins Diet
• Carbohydrate Substitutes for the Atkins Diet

Click here to download your free copy

©2009 EscapeFromFat.com. All Rights Reserved.

As we all know we should eat more fruit and veg. Its healthier, lower in calories, and full of fiber so its helps us feel full for longer and helps to keep everything moving along.

But although you know all this, put up your hands how much fruit and veg did you eat today?…(be honest now!)

Well, what I’m about to reveal may help to get you back on your veg eating path.

Researchers from the University of Reading (UK) have found that the simple tomato can do all of the above but also help to control your appetite.

In a recent test using 17 normal weight women aged between 18 and 35 they found that bread that was enriched with tomato, was greater for giving feelings of satiety or fullness, compared to bread that had been enriched with carrot.

Although, before the test the researchers had assumed that the carrot would give a full feeling for longer because of it fiber. They were surprised to find that the tomato enriched bread came out on top.

They believe that the compound “Lycopene” which tomatoes are rich in (and gives them their rich red color), may help to make people feel more full by lowering appetite hormones.

While this is great news to find an easy natural way to suppress your appetite don’t get carried away and think that you can get away with asking for extra helping of tomato on your next pizza…or smother all your food with tomato sauce.

You’re still going to have to show some restraint on your calorie intake if you want to lose weight

©2009 EscapeFromFat.com. All Rights Reserved.

Food labels are required on almost all foods, except those that don’t provide many nutrients such as coffee, alcohol and spices. Looking at food labels can guide you to make better food choices and are there to protect and inform the consumer but only if you speak the language.

The labels have to include the name of the food, the name and address of the company, how much is in the package, a list of ingredients and a Nutrition Facts Panel. The nutrition label always lists a serving size, which is an amount of food, such as 1 cup of cereal, two cookies, or five pretzels. If you eat twice the serving listed on the label, you would need to remember to double up all the numbers in the Nutrition Facts section.

While food labels can be helpful they aren’t ideal for kids as they’re based on the percentages of a 2,000-calorie adult diet.  But for children who are overweight, reading the food label to find the number of servings in the container and the amount of calories per serving can help you determine how much your child should eat. This is can be difficult if you’re not the best at Maths.

With that in mind, here are 8 tips that can help make it easier for you to use nutrition labels to make quick, informed food choices that contribute to a healthy diet.

1 – Nutritional facts are often shown per 100 grams if the product weighs 250 grams there are 2.5 portions. One serving may contain 100 calories but the whole package contains 25o calories.

2 – Try to avoid buying products with too many ingredients list, the shorter the better all those other ingredients are probably sweeteners, additives and other nasties you don’t really need.

3 – Ingredients on food labels are written in order of quantity, so if sugar or other types of syrup are at the start of the list you’ll now that they contain a lot of sugar. If they’re at the back of the list you’ll know that they’re quantities are lower.

4 – Check out fiber levels in your foods, the higher the levels the better, you’ll feel full for longer and it helps everything move nicely along through your gut.

5 – Watch out for products that claim they’re packed full of added minerals and vitamins. It may sound impressive but it the equivalent of crushing a multivitamin in to make a difference.  The more natural the vitamins like from fruit and vegetables are what you sound be aiming for rather than synthetic versions.

6 – Although the amount of trans fats (which are bad for you) isn’t yet listed on most food labels, making them hard to avoid, you can often identify that they are in a food if it lists ‘partially hydrogenated vegetable oil’ on the ingredient list.

7 – When food labels say “made with organic ingredients” it’s only saying that at least 70 percent of the ingredients are organic.  The other five percent of ingredients are fair game for pesticides and other chemicals.

8 –  If your child has an egg allergy, in addition to looking for the word ‘egg,’ you want to look for the following ingredients, including globulin, eggnog, albumin, yolk, egg white, egg substitutes, mayonnaise, ovalbumin, livetin, ovomucin, ovomucoid, vitellin, and ovovitellin.

While food labels are there to help and guide us they can be a lot of vague terms used like ‘emulsifier’ or ‘flavoring’ where manufacturers are able to hide some of their ingredients. This can be confusing and defeat the purpose of having a food label as a way of informing the customer.

Just remember this rule of thumb, if you’re not sure what’s in it, don’t buy it!

©2009 EscapeFromFat.com. All Rights Reserved.