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Does Fiber Help Lose Weight?



Fiber – we can’t digest it and it provides us with no calories or nutrients, yet we know that it’s good for us and most of us need more. What is it exactly, and what is it about fiber that makes it so healthy for us?

What is Fiber?

Fiber is simply the part of the plant foods we eat that we aren’t able to break down in our digestive systems. There are two types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber will form a gel when dissolved in water. This type of fiber will slow down the rate of your digestion, leaving you feeling fuller for longer, and off of fewer calories, too! Insoluble fiber doesn’t dissolve, instead, passing through your digestive tract intact. It fills you up and “scrubs out” your insides by collecting toxins and fats, and taking them out when it passes.

You shouldn’t focus on getting specific amounts of any one type of fiber. Eating a healthy and varied diet will take care of that for you. The only thing you should be trying to do to get more fiber is eat healthier foods on a consistent basis.

Does Fiber Help Lose Weight?

Does Fiber Help Lose Weight?

Does Fiber Help Lose Weight?

Fiber affects weight loss because of the effect it has on our sense of hunger. Your feelings of hunger are controlled by many things, including the amounts of carbs, fat, protein, water and fiber that are present in the things you eat. Eating healthy amounts of an appropriate mix of these foods will eliminate excess hunger and cravings.

Did you know that people eat basically the same amount of food each day. There aren’t usually any drastic changes in the amount people eat from day to day – aside from special occasions that may call for pigging out, that is. When you replace some of the foods you eat with foods that are high in fiber, you’re doing one of the best things you can for weight loss. After all, fiber adds no calories to your diet and most fiber rich foods have ver y little calories compared to other foods of the same weight or volume. It helps you feel full faster, and for longer periods of time. It also absorbs fat, leaving less of it for your body to digest. And most fiber rich foods require you to chew more because of their texture, and this simple act of slowing the rate at which you eat is the perfect way to avoid overeating.

Fiber Helps Blood Sugar

Plus it’s good for your blood sugar. You may think that’s something only diabetics would be concerned with, but everyone – especially those trying to lose weight – should be aware of the consequences of consuming sugar. When you eat sugar or foods like refined carbohydrates that turn into blood sugar quickly, your pancreas is signaled to release insulin. When the body is flooded with insulin, your brain thinks you have more than enough energy (calories) to keep you going, so it shuts off the fat burning systems in your body. Plus, the spike in insulin that occurs after eating sugar or refined carbs is followed by a big dip in insulin levels, leaving your body exhausted and craving more sugar and calories. It can quickly turn into a vicious cycle that will leave you hunting for candy bars when you should be working out.

So, now you know exactly why you should be getting more fiber, and you’re ready to start. Before you go doing anything drastic, though, you need to know how to use fiber safely. Even though it’s extremely healthy for you, it’s never a wise move to overdo anything. Too much fiber can prevent your body from absorbing nutrients or utilizing medications. Upping your dosage too quickly can lead to uncomfortable gas and possibly constipation.

The best way to get your fiber is to eat more plant based foods. Sure it’s not as convenient as those juice flavored fiber supplements you mix with water, but it’s better because supplements don’t keep you feeling as full as food sources of fiber do. Plus food sources that are high in fiber are usually high in vitamins, minerals and nutrients that will indirectly assist your body with fat burning.

Anytime you eat fiber you should be drinking lots of water to go along with it. This will keep your stools comfortably soft and help even more with weight loss, being that water is right up there with fiber when it comes to making you feel full and satisfied.

Fiber is an essential part of a healthy weight loss regimen, and most people don’t eat enough, especially with the prevalence of convenient foods. Get more fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains in your diet and you’ll notice you have less room in your stomach for the unhealthy stuff. Your weight will start dropping and you’ll feel a lot better, too.

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Weight Loss Exercise

Why You Need Magnesium


Why You Need Magnesium

Magnesium is an extremely important mineral to both your weight loss goals and your health. In fact, it’s the 4th most abundant mineral in your body and it’s constantly being depleted. Half of your magnesium is contained within your bones. The rest is found in your cells and blood. It’s needed to carry out more than 300 processes and reactions in your body. A deficiency in magnesium could cause complications and weight problems.

Increasing your intake of magnesium is likely to have positive effects on your weight, but magnesium itself doesn’t cause weight loss. It’s not your typical weight loss supplement, since your typical weight loss supplement will work either by increasing metabolism due to containing stimulants or causing you to feel full due to containing appetite suppressants.

If it doesn’t do either of those things, how in the world can it help with weight loss? It helps in a variety of meaningful but subtle ways. Let’s go into more detail

Magnesium Affects Blood Sugar

Why You Need Magnesium

Nuts are high in Magnesium

Blood glucose (sugar) levels have a big impact on weight fluctuations. The steadier your blood sugar remains, the healthier you will be and the healthier your weight will be. When your blood sugar spikes, insulin is released by your pancreas to help your cells take in the sugar where it can be stored as energy. When glucose is stored for energy and not expended, it turns into fat. Blood sugar spikes and insulin surges also signal the release of cortisol – the belly fat hormone. When your blood sugar spikes all the time, your body becomes resistant to insulin and more and more is needed. Constantly raised insulin levels also increase cortisol levels.

Magnesium helps you to maintain a steadier blood glucose level by improving the function of insulin. Adequate levels of magnesium discourage insulin resistance, making the amounts of insulin released by the pancreas more effective.

Magnesium Makes Other Nutrients More Accessible

This wonderful little mineral does a good job at helping your body better absorb other minerals too. Suffering from a magnesium deficiency leads to improper absorption of fats, carbohydrates and proteins. Think this is a good thing? Like you’ll be able to eat food and it’ll pass through you unused? Wrong. Your body needs the correct amount of fats, carbs and proteins to function properly. When your body has adequate amounts of these nutrients, it will activate the enzymes that tell your brain your body has had enough to eat. It helps you feel satisfied, leading to reduced calorie intake.

It Gives You Better Sleep More Energy

How does one mineral accomplish seemingly opposite effects? Well, as mentioned, magnesium is responsible for a number of processes and biochemical reactions. Falling short on this mineral leaves people tired but doesn’t allow them a deep, restful sleep. Getting more magnesium (if deficient) can help you fall asleep easier, enjoy a higher quality sleep, and have the benefit of increased calm energy while awake. These are all necessary for weight loss, since the sleep deprived tend to weigh more (due to increased cortisol resulting from the lack of sleep) and the fatigued have less energy to use for resisting temptation and exercising.

Magnesium: The Great Stress Fighter

Did you know that one of the most common ways people react to stress is to eat more than they usually do? And guess what they eat? That’s right, crap foods… Disgustingly delicious, easy-to-overindulge-in comfort foods. Junk like chips or ice cream. No effort required fast foods. You get the idea.

Your adrenal glands will excrete adrenaline (also known as epinephrine or norepinephrine) whenever it feels stressed. For many of us, this happens way too often. Like any other part of your body, your adrenal glands can suffer from poor health. Magnesium, though, is one of the supporters of healthy adrenal glands. Getting adequate amounts of this mineral make your adrenals less likely to overreact and flood your body with the stress hormone adrenaline.

And you already know how magnesium helps to control cortisol by helping us sleep better. Reduced amounts of stress hormones will do a world of good for your health and will help to whittle down your waistline, too.

Foods high in Magnesium

By now you’re sold on the benefits of magnesium and are ready to make sure you have adequate levels to keep your body functioning, right? Good!

Dietary sources of magnesium are bran cereals, all types of nuts, spinach, potatoes, beans, oatmeal, peanut butter, brown rice, bananas, and – oddly enough – chocolate milk. People also take Epsom salt baths to absorb magnesium through their skin. Supplements are yet another option. If you choose the supplement route, look for magnesium chloride, magnesium lactate, or magnesium citrate on supplement labels. Avoid magnesium oxide as it isn’t as bioavailable (absorbable and usable by your body) as other sources.

Obviously, you should discuss your plans to get more magnesium with your doctor to make sure it doesn’t cause you any complications. Your doctor can also give you a personalized dosage recommendation tailored to your individual health profile.

Magnesium is a valuable nutrient that can help a great deal in helping you lose weight as long as you use your common sense along with it. Please don’t go expecting a magnesium supplement to help you shed 20 lbs if you sit around all day eating cheeseburgers and fries. Take advantage of all magnesium has to offer, along with employing a healthier lifestyle as watch the pounds melt away.

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Weight Loss Exercise

Essential Fatty Acids and Weight Loss


Essential Fatty Acids and Weight Loss

Being overweight can lead to a world of negative consequences. It can affect your mental state and your physical health. Obesity and depression go hand in hand in many cases. And it’s not even just depression – the same is true of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, asthma, skin conditions and even certain cancers. If you’re overweight, it truly is in your best interest to do something about it as soon as you possibly can.

Certain essential fatty acids can help with just this. Doesn’t it sound strange that FATTY acids can help you lose weight? Well, strange as it may sound, it’s completely true.

What are Essential Fatty Acids?

Essential Fatty Acids and Weight LossEssential fatty acids (EFAs) are known as good fats because they help to improve your health in a variety of ways. We can’t synthesize them on our own, so we have to get them through food sources. They are basically long chain fatty acids that are unsaturated. EFAs can be derived from oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids. Omega 3 fatty acids and Omega 6 fatty acids fall into the essential category. Omega 9s are important for our health, but they’re not classified as essential because our bodies can manufacture small amounts of it.

Most people are deficient in Omega 3s, while consuming an excessive amount of Omega 6s. Bring your body into balance and burn more fat by consuming additional Omega 3s.

Omega 3 fatty acids increase your metabolic rate when you consume them consistently. A few simple changes to your diet and you’ll burn more calories all day long – even when you’re sleeping. In addition to that, they prevent some fat from forming in the first place. People who eat fatty fish have less of their blood sugar converted to fat. And the amount of enzymes that metabolize fat are increased as well.

Omega 3 for Muscle growth and Metabolization

These fatty acids will also help with muscle growth, by encouraging the metabolism of protein. When protein is metabolized, it’s broken down into amino acids before it can be used by the body’s muscles. Since Omega 3s improve this process, muscles have access to more of the amino acids they need to repair themselves and grow.

Maybe you’re thinking that you don’t really care about growing muscles, but if you’re interested in losing fat, it’s something you should consider. Muscles burn calories around the clock, just to live. The more muscle you have, the more calories you’re going to burn. You’re boosting your metabolism, making weight loss that much easier on you. Plus you don’t even have to bulk up if you don’t want to. Larger muscles don’t necessarily have to obvious. Every little gain makes a difference when it comes to fat burning.

Another thing these good fats will do is help you to feel fuller faster. It provides the nutrients your body actually needs, so your brain gets the signal that you’re satisfied sooner. You consume less calories and still feel just as full.

Omega 3 and Cell Oxygen

But Omega 3s don’t stop there. They also provide your body with the tools to better oxygenate your cells. When your cells are adequately oxygenated, you’ll find that your energy levels increase. You’ll be able to push harder during workouts. This is important because you’ll burn a lot more fat by working out furiously than you will be working out leisurely. You’ll also be more likely to be naturally active throughout the day as a result of this increased energy. That’s good news, considering the fact that people who move around throughout the day are more likely to be slim than people spend a lot of time sitting around, even if they hit the gym for an hour everyday!

So, how can you get more of these awesome fatty acids in your diet? Look to coldwater fish such as salmon, herring and mackerel.  These type of fatty fish both improve your health and help with weight loss, while pleasing your tastebuds at the same time! Smaller amounts are also found in meat and eggs. Avacados and most seeds are good plant based sources of some Omega 3s, also. If you suspect you’re not getting enough via your diet, you may want to consider a krill or fish oil supplement.

So, enjoy those Omega 3s a little more often because these special fatty acids will do you body a lot of good. You’ll be rewarded with more energy, clearer thoughts, a healthier body and a slimmer waistline!

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