4 Tips To Fast and Easy Weight Loss

Probably one of the most difficult goals to achieve in life is that of weight loss. Weight loss is difficult, but even more difficult is keeping the weight off. While there are several ways to lose weight, not all options work for everybody. For some people, plain diet and exercise will help them lose weight. For others, simply dieting and exercising aren’t enough; they will need to take weight loss supplements and perhaps work a bit harder than others.

Remember not to get weight loss tips and advice from your friends because some of these suggestions may not work for you. Moreover, some of the suggested tips can actually be harmful for your body. Bottom line is that YOU need to decide how you are going to lose weight. If you have chosen to tread the path of the conventional diet and exercise, then I will give you some tips in this article:

1. Avoid Junk Foods: All your weight loss efforts will do down the drain if you cannot keep yourself from eating junk and processed foods. These foods have high calorie content and will add to your pounds. You should always try to eat healthy. To make sure that you don’t give in to any temptations, make sure you have a considerable stock of raw fruits and vegetables in your house. Also make sure that you cook your own meals, so you can decide how much oil to use. Keep in mind the less oil you consume, the better for you!

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2. Eat in small portions: Don’t be lazy. You may think that if you eat just once a day you will survive anyway but if you want to lose weight then eating a large meal may not be in your best interest. Ideally, you should split your large dinner into five or six small meals and eat each small portion every four or five hours. Every time you eat, your metabolism will increase and you will be able to burn a lot of fat. Plus it will help suppress your appetite as you won’t feel hungry all the time!

3. Cut down calories without depriving yourself: You can lose weight only when you consume less calories than what you burn, and to make sure that you can achieve this end, you should start cutting down on your calorie intake by small percentages everyday. However, you should look to it that in the quest of cutting down your calorie intake, you don’t deprive yourself of your favorite foods, otherwise you will start binge eating which will cause weight gain!

4. Exercise: Exercises are one of the best ways to lose weight. However much you hate to workout at the gym, you must do it if you are serious about losing belly fat . Workouts not only speed up your metabolism, it also increases your muscles mass. Increase in your metabolic rate as well as your muscle mass will help you burn more fat in less time. You should also look to it that you increase your physical activity level as much as you can. If you go to the marketplace in your car, start using your legs instead. If you reach your office room using the elevator, try to take to the stairs instead!

As you can see, there is no better way to lose weight than by diet and exercise. However, if this doesn’t work for you, then your best bet is to visit a doctor and ask for advice. More often than not, your doctor will ask you either to take some weight loss supplements and pills or go for surgery.

15 Apps To Help You Beat the Freshman 15

Whether you’re a college freshman or not you have at least heard about the ’Freshman 15’ – your ‘intro weight’ to college thanks to those numerous dorm room pizza deliveries, Chinese food runs, lack of time to exercise, and even the school cafeteria dinners available to you late at night.

Lucky for you there’s an app for everything and this includes helping you avoid the ‘Freshman 15’. So I have compiled a list of 15 of the best apps that will help you beat that annoying weight gain and keep you fit and healthy through all your college years.

Web

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  1. Daily Burn – This app is great, it keeps track of your daily water intake, your daily caloric intake, and even your activity (or non daily activity). My only problem with this app is that it’s a little too great at it’s job. It EMAILS you when you aren’t tracking your foods and includes inspirational messages within your email. Who doesn’t feel bad when you receive that in your email as you are scarfing down a tasty Krispy Kream doughnut. This app keeps you on track!
  2. Lose A Dress Size – You’ve always imagined yourself with 5 or 10 extra pounds off of your body or you find yourself constantly looking back at what once was your body, well now with this app you can LITERALLY show you with the weight loss. This service shows you a before and after of yourself based on the pounds you expect to lose. You have to try it. I also like trying multiple services to see myself in numerous angles and photos so if you are anything like me try – Weight Mirror which is also available on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.
  3. Quit Smoking – We’ve all seen and heard all the negative health effects of smoking, but the weight gain alone would make anyone want to stop. Well you can easily quit smoking with this web app. The great thing about this app is that you aren’t alone, you work as a community to get to the goal and over time can see how many years and how much money you’ve saved over time by quitting.
  4. Double Check MD - All weight gain does not come from overeating and lack of activity believe it or not, for some students, health issues are unknowingly the true issue behind weight gain and this app will help you get closer to solving the underlying problem. Double Check MD checks your problem against the symptoms of many medical issues and the side-effects of many drugs on the market. Knowing your problem will help you reach your weight goals and prevent the ‘Freshman 15’ in no time.
  5. Diets In Review - Haven’t found the right diet for you? It’s ok, this app will do it for you. It will connect you to communities of people that have tried ‘that new diet’ and give you the real feedback. Not only do you get the real deal on any diet plan you’ve heard of, but a TON of healthy recipes to boot.

Windows

  1. Weight Mania - Weight Mania is yet another app that will track your calories during the day, except it’s available on Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch, and online.
  2. GymGoal Lite – This app gives you access to over 200 exercises you can perform, which is perfect for those random dorm room spurts of energy in your dorm gym (who has room for a dorm room gym) or the late night trip to the school gym. This app is also available on the iPhone.

Mac

  1. Yummy Soup - Encourages you to actually use those helpful burners in your dorm room rather than your fingers to order your favorite pizza. Yummy Soup helps you find recipes of any type and best of all you can enter your own and keep track of it on your Mac – very cool!
  2. Calorie King – Calorie King is your ultimate Mac food diary. You can track your weight over time, input your goals, your sodium intake, and of course your daily caloric intake. This app is so feature filled, it’s just too many to mention in this post. With this app, your classmates will wonder why you look so fit!
  3. Trail Runner X – This app is for those that love everything trails – bike trails, walking trails, and hiking trails. You can plan your route for your desired distance and log how far you have traveled during the week. Now just invite the classmates or roomates on those trails with you and you have yourself a healthy field trip.

iPhone/iPod

  1. Eat This Not That - All of us need help once in while when we are out making food choices from our favorite fast food restaurants and this app is like having your own personal trainer/chef in your pocket. This app guides you in the right direction when you must make the decision between a Burger King salad and a Taco Bell 3 Layer Burrito.
  2. Lose It – Lose It! is a great app I actually use myself and fortunately and unfortunately it tracks every single think I eat easily. Lose It also tracks your daily activity and even keeps track of your fitness goals with a nice chart during the week. This app totally eliminates all your good ‘I can’t workout because….’ excuses (sadly).
  3. Whole Foods iPhone – There’s nothing better than having great, quick, tasty recipes at your fingertips to keep the weight down. It’s even better when those recipes are healthy and the Whole Foods iPhone app provides just that. The Whole Foods app let’s you access hundreds of healthy Whole Foods recipes and even has a bonus helpful grocery list inside that I use all the time. It’s very helpful!

Android

  1. Fast Food Counter – Do you notice every time you go out to eat, the only thing hard to find are the nutrition facts. Well this app makes it easy to find the nutrition facts of food from the most popular fast food chains around. Hey, if you look at the calories before you eat it, you may not commit to you favorite fattening item on the list or maybe you will just use it as a guide to figure out how many sit ups you have to do this afternoon. (Also available on the iPhone)
  2. Calorie Counter - This app also keeps track of your calories during the day, super helpful to take on the go and always have with you. No excuse to not track the food you are eating! (Also available on the BlackBerry and the iPhone)

Now that you have all the tools you need to prevent or beat the Freshman 15, actually use them. I know it takes discipline to stay in shape, but maybe these apps can help with that and your ideal body is only an app away.

5 Video Games That Work You Out

Wii FitI remember back in the day when you wanted to work out, you either had to go to the gym down the road, or maybe you had to dish out $1,599 for a treadmill. This isn’t the case anymore in today’s technological era with the Nintendo Wii and everything else.

Now, granted, the Xbox, as well as the Playstation really don’t have that many games that help you work out. Unless you want to work out your thumb muscles with Guitar Hero, you will find that most games will make you gain weight, rather than lose it.

So, whether you have the Nintendo Wii, or maybe you don’t, this may be the system for you. You don’t even need to like video games to get the system, because you will soon find out that a $300 investment will be fun and well worth it.

Listed below are the top 5 games that I highly recommend. You will need the Nintendo Wii, as well as the Wii Fit set to get the full experience.

#1 Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board:
This is probably the most popular one. If you’re going to go this route, you’re going to want to get the Wii Balance Board. In this game, you can do yoga, strength exercises, as well as balance based games. Meet up with a fitness instructor and you can work out a daily routine. Log your calories and watch your weight.

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#2 My Fitness Coach:
This game had some of the best reviews online and after playing it, I can see why. The cool thing about this right off the bat is that it’s only going to set you back $20. You will get a virtual trainer that can help you with over 500 exercises ranging from cardio to strength. Customize your own experience, play music and shed off the pounds.

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#3 EA Sports Active:
I’m a big fan of many EA games. Not only do I like the fitness games, they have a lot of other fun genres as well. I know I’m a girl, but I love Tiger Woods golf! With EA Active, you can work with a partner at home, target your upper body, or whatever you please. Your own trainer will walk you step by step on what you need to do. The thing I like about this is that they have these very cool 30 minute challenges.

#4 The Biggest Loser:
If you’re a big fan of the Biggest Loser TV show, you will probably like the video game as well. You can pick out your trainer, do 20 minute workouts and even play the challenges. While it isn’t my favorite out of the 5, I think it’s worth buying.

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#5 Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout:
From the makers of Gold’s Gym, they have a game out as well that can help you get into shape. Made by the creators of Ubisoft, it will only cost you around $15 for the game. This is the price of a meal at your local Applebee’s. Box, run, as well maintain your calendar to track your fitness and calories burned.

While the selections for fitness games are rather limited with the Xbox and Playstation, it just doesn’t compare with the Wii. As with the Wii, you can interact using the fitness board, controller, and more. If you want to lose weight while having fun, as well being in your own home, consider some of the games mentioned above!

This is guest post provided by Liz C. She contributes to FindCollegeCards, a student credit card / student blog helping students get all the information that they need regarding college.

Online Support and Tools for Weight Loss

Losing weight is not an easy task. The basics are taking in less calories than you burn. So everyone always says diet and exercise are the keys to successful weight loss. But in today’s society with all the new technology, weight loss has the possibility of being fun.

Most people these days are carrying around an iPhone or Droid. There are many applications with these new phones that can help you lose weight. A couple of the more popular ones on the iPhone are Calorie Tracker and Lose it. There are a ton of applications to choose from both phones. Not only that you since you have the internet at your fingertips you don’t have an excuse for not knowing how many calories any food item is. Now it is only a Google search away. Even the TV show Biggest Loser has created an application for the Blackberry.

Even if you do not carry a phone with the internet, accessing it from home can help your weight loss journey. There are an unlimited amount of fitness and diet websites. On these websites you log in daily and enter the food you’ve eaten so you can keep track of how many calories you have taken in. And then you enter your exercises and weight training so you can see how many calories you have burned. This is a fun way to keep a log during your diet. A lot of these website cost money, but you can find some free ones. You can even find websites that will let you take a test to figure out what kind of diet works for you.

Another great thing about the weight loss and diet websites is the community and support you will get. This is perfect for the person who is uncomfortable going to a group meeting. You will be able to read testimonies and get ideas from others who are losing weight. And some of the most motivational pages are the success stories. You can decide what level of connection you want to have whether it be reading or posting on a blog or taking part in a discussion in a chat room.

Whether you need nutrition advice or encouragement for the day, you will find it with your online dieting groups. So don’t feel like you need to be the most outgoing person who is comfortable in the gym and is already full of weight loss knowledge. Have fun with technology learning about weight loss and what works best for you. So log in, surf and start losing.