Hoodia gordonii: Hoodia and Weight Loss 2
Basic Principles for Using Hoodia for Healthy Weight Loss
The only way to lose weight is to reduce the number of calories that you consume and to take more exercise. The formula is simple, but very difficult to achieve and there are no real short cuts.
Your diet, understanding what you're eating...
Part of the problem for those who have tried to lose weight over a long period and have failed is that of re-training the appetite. The body has become used to binge eating and so the appetite needs to be normalized. Calorific intake needs to be reduced in any succesful attempt at losing weight and that reduced calorific intake needs to be maintained. This can only be done in conjunction with a healthy diet and exercise however.
Hoodia, a key to Weight-loss?
1. Protein: Even when dieting you need to consume enough protein to build muscle mass, maintain healthy skin, hair and nails and feed your brain. A large amount of protein in your diet will also help to make you feel sated (full); which is the real reason that the Atking diet works. A high-protein diet with Hoodia used to suppress appetite will undoubtedly work in terms of giving you rapid results. However, it's probably not a very healthy way to tackle your weight problem long-term.
2. Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates have been vilified of late as being a 'bad food' when dieting. However, carbs are not inherently bad for you. After all, it's recommended that we all have at least five portions of fruit and vegetables during a day (and these all contain carbodhyrate). The problem comes from the consumption of refined carbohydrates in the form of bread, pasta, biscuits (cookies), cakes etc. Ideally you should restrict yourself to no more than 40–60g of carbohydrates a day.
3. Fat: Again, fats have been vilified as a 'bad thing' in the diet. However daily consumption of the right kinds of fat (generally known as essential fatty acids is an essential part of a healthy diet. The problem, once again, comes with over-consumption of refined, hydrogenated fats (which is a component of many baked products).
The components of the diet named above are what provide the calories in your diet. Eat too many calories and you get fat. However, the converse is also true: if you eat too few calories then your body goes into 'starvation mode' and your metabolic rate will become so low that you won't really lose any real weight.
4. Water: This is an essential part of the diet that almost everyone forgets. Water is an essential part of a healthy diet. Surprisingly, water can also raise the basal metabolic rate. Researchers in Germany recently measured the resting metabolism of 14 men and women before and after they drank 450ml of water. It took only 10 minutes for their metabolism to rise. And, after 40 minutes their average calorie burning rate increased by over 30%, and stayed elevated for more than an hour. Part of the reason for this is that water is generally colder than body temperature and the body has to expend energy in warming the water. So, if you drink 5 or 6 glasses of water throughout the day you will see even more of an effect.
How Hoodia Could Help.
The Importance of Meals. Despite what you might think, meals and eating are an important aspect of succesful dieting. You want the body to have food in the stomach for as much of the day as possible. That way when you come to your next meal you actually eat less. This is the secret of overcoming 'binge' eating usually during the evening. Start out with breakfast. After all you've been starving the body over night and you should always eat a low carb, high protein breakfast. Have something to eat every three hours throughout the day. This may mean having five meals rather than your usual three (though some of these may only be a piece of fruit). The thing is to eat less overall but also to spread your consumption of food acrosss the day. This tricks your body into thinking that you're living in a 'time of plenty' that there are no shortages of food and thus no need to store fat ready for 'lean times'.
The problem with all diets is re-training the body. Getting your brain to become used to smaller but more frequent portions and to take this as normal. If you do this then you will actually end-up still eating less even when your 'diet' is over. This way you will not put the weight back on. This is where something like Hoodia can help. It is an aid in making you feel fuller during a meal so that you begin eating less. This starts the process of re-programming the brain. The aim is to bring one's view of how much food the body actually needs with how much food the body thinks it needs into line with one another.
You also need to exercise. This could mean as little as 30 minutes aerobics or rapid walking three to four times every week. Some form of weight training (anaerobic exercise) can also help as this increases muscle mass and the more muscle you have the higher your basal metabolic rate.
The whole point here is training yourself to get out of bad habits and to establish new good ones. Once you do this then you will keep with those practices and you will not begin to gain weight again.