How To Measure Your Servings?

Do you know much you eat? Maybe you do, and maybe you don't. It's amazing how many people struggle with weight loss for years, convinced that don't eat a lot. Yet the weight stays on or actually increases over time.

When, people nosh their way through the day in a distracted state and don't pay attention to the fact that they're eating. More often, they know what they eat, and they know how many servings they have of what they eat. The problem is their notion of what counts as a serving.

When doctors and other expert spell out guidelines for weight loss, they usually create a plan they recommends a certain number of servings of any food or food group. To know what they mean by the word "serving", you have to read through the particular guidelines that you're following. The side panel on a cereal box routinely reports nutrition information according to one serving. But one kind of cereal considers one serving to be one cup of the cereal, while another, higher fat, sugary cereal may specify one quarter cup. In the case of the cereal manufactures, they understand that the buying public expects one serving of any cereal regardless of its makeup to contain approximately the same number calories as the rest. So the people who make and tell cereal simple adjust the volume of the cereal that they call one serving.

On the diet programs, one serving is actually one unit of the food. One serving of strawberries might be one quarter of a cup, and you'd be allowed two servings of the berries in a single sitting. One serving of beef might be designated as one ounce, which means that at a single sitting, you would be allowed four serving. A more understanding of "serving" would be the standard total of that particular food for one meal. Thus, one serving of strawberries would be a half cup, while one serving of beef would be four ounces.

Having said all that, and even knowing all that, some people still don't know how much they eat. They don't actually measure a cup. They eyeball it. Or they measured once, and now they're gauging by what remember about how it looked in a certain dish.

They only accurate way to know how much you're eating is to measure it. If you think you're consuming one designated serving and routinely, it turns out to be twice that, you can see how you might quickly find the weight staying on or moving upward. It only takes a moment to measure food, which is far less that it takes to lose a pound of extra weight. Measuring cups and a simple food scale are all it will take to get in touch with the amounts of your food consumption.

Weight Training for Women - Fitness for Weight Loss

As obesity levels rise higher and higher around the world, there is one aspect to this problem that hasn't changed...

You have to expend some energy and put in some effort if you want to achieve weight loss and fitness with diet and slimming exercises and weight training.

While there are many ways to go about this one of the most efficient weight loss methods continually meets resistance... (Hmm. Maybe that's why it's called resistance training ...) namely, weight training.

Women generally have the hardest time accepting weight (resistance) training into their fast fighting repertoire. After all, few women want to bulk up and look muscular and less feminine...
and that's what'll happen if you pump iron, right?

Wrong!

The only time you see a female body builder is when they're posing on stage and a common reaction is 'Yuk. I don't want to look like that! I just want fitness and a nice slim figure.'

Yet if you saw those same women in normal clothes in normal situations you'd most likely want to have the trim, shapely body that they have.

The common misconception is that if you do weight training you are going to suddenly bloom out with muscles all over you. If only that were true; keeping the weight down would be easy.

The fact is, very few women could ever make themselves look like a Ms Olympia body builder. They are professional athletes who work incredibly hard in their training and on their diet in order to maximize their muscle mass and muscular appearance.

Believe me, getting too muscular is the least of your problems. So don't reject this major weapon in your arsenal against body fat on a mistaken assumption.

Instead, consider what weight bearing exercise will do for you in the war on fat:

1. Build a firm foundation to your muscle structure.

You have muscles all over you. We all do. Without them we wouldn't be able to move. Moderate resistance training is all that's required to firm and tone your muscles. Remember, it takes a lot of work to actually look muscular.

2. Burn more calories right away.

You know aerobic exercise burns calories while you've doing them but a real boost comes from weight training. Your metabolism (rate of calorie burning) stays quite elevated for 20-40 minutes after an aerobic workout. With resistance training your metabolism stays elevated for at least an hour after your workout. Overall your metabolism will stay somewhat elevated and boosts calorie burning for anything from 4 to 24 hours depending on the intensity. It is important that your resistance training be progressively increased in intensity.

3. Burn even more calories in the long run.

With resistance training you are actually building muscle tissue, which is very active metabolically in comparison to fat, which is nearly inert. A kilo of muscle requires 50-100 calories a day just to maintain itself. So the more muscle tissue you have the more energy (fat) you'll burn off just by living, even when you're resting!

4. Strengthen bones and supporting muscle structure.

This is so you don't become prematurely old, stooped and weak and susceptible to injury. This is a major reason why even women who don't need to lose fat should still be concerned about maintaining muscle tissue.

5. Improve self-esteem.

When you look good you tend to feel good. With more toned muscle you not only look better but feel good because you actually have more energy. You feel more confident and positive about life, and better able to cope with stress.

So c'mon ladies, regardless of your age, let's assist your diet and slimming program and boost your general fitness. It's time to get into moving some weights around so you can move that excess weight off your body and raise the quality of body and life. Don't wait. Start your weight training today.