According to Discovery news, a new government study shows a link between obesity and the amount of sleep you get.  According to them, you can’t win.  Too much or too little both cause problems.  The study is not really conclusive since it is a survey and did not take all factors into consideration (such as depression).  Well it seems keeping things in balance is a key to a healthy life.

I don’t even know what the latest diet fad is.  I know for a time it was low fat and before that there was the cabbage soup diet and there was also an ebook about negative calorie foods (I couldn’t open it though).  Last time I checked it was low carb, which unfortunately makes some people sick.  I think low glycemic rather than low carb works better for most people.  There are now more and more food choices that are low on the glycemic index.

I think the time maybe coming when the FDA allows Stevia to be called a sweetner.  If you need to sweeten your drinks, liquid Stevia is a good way to do this.  It’s kind of expensive, but is very powerful and you don’t need to use much.  Stevia is from a plant that is insoluble fiber, therefore your body does not digest any calories.  It is currently sold as a supplement.

I have been searching for new news about diets.  It seems like what they say changes constantly.  However, one of the biggest mistakes when on a diet is using unhealthy snacks for comfort food and consuming too many calories in the form of drinks.

I hate to tell you this but starving yourself is  very bad idea.  Your body adapts to the lesser intake and thinks that you are in starvation mode so it slows down the metabolism.  so what’s the solution?  Well cut back and try drinking lots of unsweetened green tea (it helped me by 1/2 pound per week).  Remember magic bullets don’t work in the long term.  You need to permanently change what made you over weight in the frist place.  Was it too many snacks, too many high calorie drinks, or something else?

I know just about everybody says to exercise, but I don’t like exercise and sometimes I just can’t find the time.  I tried walking an hour or so almost every day once (along with the Zone diet) and didn’t achieve any weight loss.  Actually walking burns very few calories unless you are really big.  One way around this is to add weight to yourself in the form of a backpack.  The more weight you carry the more calories you burn.  The only thing that ever worked for me was circuit weight training.  Since I didn’t keep this up and it went out of vogue, I gained the weight back.

You need muscle mass to maintain weight levels (this increases your metabolism).  So folks, don’t fall for the lie about how much you should weigh.  It’s how much body fat you have that matters not your actual weight.  I don’t know if they modified the charts or not but the last time I looked at a chart for my ideal weight it was ridiculously low.  I would almost look like Twiggy.  I want to look like a woman not a boy.  By the way Marilyn Monroe would be considered fat by today’s standards.

I have another metabolism boosting trick up my sleeve.  I will write about it after I have tried it.  It also is supposed to have many health benefits.