I’m sure if you’ve read about any sort of diets in the last several years, and which ones are most popular right now, you’ve stumbled across the Paelo diet. If you search for the word “paleo diet” online you will get more than 15 million results pages, nearly all giving out guides, articles, recipes or nutrition books. Why has this diet grown to be so popular and how does it work? What is this diet about and why have so many people taken it to heart? Let’s have a real look at how this diet works and what is advises for users.

What is the Paleo Diet?

The Paleo diet is more about changing your habits with a change in the way you associate with food. It’s not a set plan that a person has to follow, but instead a lifestyle change.  There’s no set or established “Paleo” diet method that everyone needs to follow.  There’s also not just a “guy” out there who developed this diet on his own. The Paleo diet was a culmination of significant research that was packaged into a usable format for individuals.

There are several tenets of this diet that can be summarized, however. When humans evolved, we only had a select foods available to us which helped us to survive and thrive. We also avoided foods that did not provide proper nutrition typically, as these would harm us. Through this “trial and error” process humanity was able to improve our circumstances and improve our ability to survive. For thousands of generations, we did not have access to food that was very high in carbohydrates. Most of what we had was lean meats, naturally scavenged fruits/vegetables and other things. Dairy and grains were never a part of our diet until farming materialized and was widely available some 5000 years ago. Eating these whole, unprocessed foods is claimed by this diet to allow people to lose weight and remain healthier, while also cutting your risk of disease.

But What is Science Saying About These Claims

Paleo Diet Plate
What Foods You can Eat on the Paleo Diet

Sugars and processed food removal certainly  makes sense, researchers have been advising avoiding these foods for nearly a decade as an abundance of research shows their harm. Yet, what about dairy and whole grains? The science is a bit mixed on this and this is really where people need to think about adding these in with some moderation. Certainly dairy has a lot of fats, and grain has a lot of carbohydrates. However, fat and carbs are not bad for you in any amount, just in excess. For this reason, dietitians and USDA guidelines do advise having some of these foods each day.

Many of the paleo studies which have been completed show some good support for the overall diet and its goals.  A recent study showed that on average people lose 15 pounds per month with just this change in diet (note: calorie controls are not part of this diet, so this is indeed fairly remarkable). The Paleo diet has been transformed int the Mediterranean diet as well, which is just a different name for the same overall program. The long term effects of the diet are not well understood as of yet, but they do appear to reduce waist size, improve glycemic controls, increase energy, and increase weight loss.

Does the Paleo Diet Actually Work?

This is probably the single most important question. Yes, the studies resoundingly point to the Paleo Diet providing extremely good weight loss results to users. The results of these studies indicate that this diet does provide a reduction in blood pressure, blood sugar and some of the indications of early heart disease. In spite of these exceptional results, there is still much more than needs to be studied before doctors should be widely recommending this. The long-term impact of this diet still remains a bit unclear, though there should not be any harm from simply eating these more natural foods (after all, vegan diets have been shown in numerous studies to be extremely healthy).

While you may not experience the huge gains and benefits touted by many proponents of this diet, it certainly has a lot of potential benefits and the weight loss results are undeniable. It is a lifestyle change, which are historically the most difficult diets to stick to over a long period of time. Still, if you do manage to stick with it well, you can expect about half a pound of day of weight loss, without needing to starve yourself. While not the best diet in the world, it’s perhaps one of the more easy ones to adopt successfully.

 

All Natural Dieting

Recent research has committed a great deal of effort to the goal of providing a natural and effective weight loss solution, that can actually work and result in rapid weight loss among users.  However, only in a handful of instances have they found anything that truly offered progress.  A recent study examining one of the more popular methods, green tea, actually showed that the making of an extract from this resulted in significant weight loss, even without exercise, among mice.  According to Penn State researchers, sharp reductions in body fat as well as overall improvements of health were seen in mice, which they forsee as likely in human patients as well.

After 16 weeks of regular administration of green tea extracts to mice, a high-fat group which exercised regularly showed a huge body mass reduction, around 27 %, with abdominal fat reduced by 37 %.  This is a tremendous result, and has never been seen in any other lab trials, except for the HCG diet.  Without the exercise regimen, mice lost on average 17 % of their abdominal fat, with a high fat diet.  Clearly something is going on with green tea extract that researchers did not initially expect to occur.

What was the most significant in this study is that if a person wishes to lose weight, a conjunction therapy of green tea extracts along with moderate exercise results in far superior weight loss than traditional diets or exercise.  The reasons for this appear to be related to the rate in which fat is metabolized with green tea ingestion.  This means that people can really take control of their weight loss, and dictate their progress.  This is a very unique aspect of this diet, one that goes far beyond what most diets offer.  Like the HCG diet, using green tea appears to be a conjunctive therapy for obesity, that causes massive weight loss far beyond traditional methods when used along with a proper diet or exercise program.

It should be noted this study tested decaffeinated green tea, which is important as most people would likely attribute the weight loss and metabolism boost to caffeine (though that would be a far lower level).

What Actually Causes this Weight Loss To Occur?

Spoon of Green Tea Extract
Spoon of Green Tea Extract

There are a group of risk factors known as “metabolic syndrome” which calculates associated risks related to waist size, triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol levels, blood pressure, etc.  These increase your risk of heart disease along with many other major health problems, including diabetes.  Additional research examined the use of green tea to help people realize large benefits in these areas, with promising results as well.  The extract in this study, is far too much for a normal person to take via liquid green tea.  It’s equivalent to around 6 to 10 cups per day.  This is a lot, and not really possible for most people to do solo.  However, extracts were found to result in the exact same outcome, which is a unique consequence and a much simpler method for patients to use.

Tea is naturally rich in a compound called catechins, which are a type of polyphenols (natural antioxidants).  There’s been many studies on humans and other mammals which show the huge impact that polyphenols and catechins can have on weight loss and obesity control.  A recent meta analysis study looked at many different trials using green tea and found on average people lost 1.31 kg per month without any change in diet or exercise.  That’s a surprising result, for just a simple addition to our daily routine.

The most effective way to deal with obesity may be a lifestyle change, but these are incredibly hard to commit to over a long period, as Lambert notes (a noted researcher at the Obesity Center in Montreal).  Exercise and green tea had much greater impact than doing either alone, indicating better outcomes, lower blood glucose levels, and better insulin control.  There’s a combination effect occurring in these studies suggesting that green tea actually improves the body’s ability to use stored energy from fat.

For the average “joe” green-tea drinking or through an extract can have a profound effect on weight loss, and obesity control in humans.  There’s volumes of researcher so far indicating as much.  The question remains if we’re all willing to commit to it, along with moderate exercise, to see these great results.

Natural Aids

Many people have advocated high fat and low carb diets for decades.  The Atkins diet was one of the most popular in the 1990s, with hundreds of millions of people trying it at some point.  It was a highly effective method, but it also was not sustainable for long periods as people found out.  Carbs are just sugars, and as a result, it’s no surprise that your body will turn these things into fat later.  However, you cannot stop eating carbs entirely either.  Healthy moderation is an integral part of any plan if the results are to survive down the road.

Reducing Carbs and KetogenesisDr. Jeff Volek of Ohio State university actually looked at the benefits of this diet in more detail in recent years.  He found that most athletes favor high fat/high protein and low carbohydrates as part of their diet.  The effects are often seen in more modern methods known as the “Paleo diet” or ketogenic diets.  These dramatically reduced fat in patients, increased muscle and promoted significant health benefits.  Drastic reduction in carbohydrates, was found in his research, to induce rapid weight loss through a state dubbed “ketosis”, which causes stored fat to be burned instead of glucose as we typically would so with a carb rich diet.

Celebrities and Atheltes Embracing this Low Carb Paleo and Ketogenic Dieting

In a recent interview, Volek indicated that the ketogenic diet has been followed by many people for decades, even without realizing it.  He indicated that it was nothing short of an “epiphany” in his life, feeling much better, more energetic, and healthier for decades.  By reducing carb intake to a significant degree, and replacing them with healthy and natural fats/oils, you help stabilize your blood sugar, increase your mood through the release of endorphins in your brain and reduce the risk of many illnesses such as diabetes and cancer.  The benefits are really quite significant, and well founded.

Celebrities and athletes like Lebron James have come out to show that they have used this sort of diet to help them cut excess fat and increase energy for practice.  There are many benefits that go beyond the physical and impact your mental health as well.    Reducing carb intake has been shown to increase cognition and even mental clarity in some studies.  Dr. Volek points out that the brain is very good at used ketones but bad at using carbohydrate based sugars.  There’s certainly many reasons to use this diet to increase stamina and boost performance in athletic areas.

Dr. Cate Shanahan is the nutritionist for the LA Lakers.  She’s used the low carb diet for years to help players get rid of fat and stay in shape throughout the season.  She has even helped Dwight Howard clean up his act and switched him over to a reduced carb and fat rich diet to boost his performance.  The paleo inspired diet changed Howard from a 20+ candy bar per day eater to a low-carb weight loss guru.  Along the same vein, Miami heat start Ray Allen had a significantly improved recovery after an injury just by switching to a sugar-free Paleo style diet.  During this time period, he also notably lost 10 pounds of fat just by the change in diet alone.

The health benefits of having a low carb and a high fat diet are immense.  Ketogenesis is a well proven technique to help with weight loss, athletic performance and overall physical health.  Hundreds of thousands of people have struggled to lose weight with diet and exercise alone, but the reasons this occurs is because counting calories just isn’t as sustainable practice.  Rather, going on a natural diet like the Paleo method is a great way to avoid these problems, all the while cutting your risk of obesity, diabetes and even cancer.  Physicians are raving over this method still, and recommending to some of the biggest names in the world.  Even saturated fats, the once vilified food stuffs, are now back on the table as great things to add to your diet.

Weight Loss Secrets

Any attempts we make to lose weight are often met with huge resistance from our bodies.  Our metabolism slows down, our appetite increases and it becomes more and more difficult to lose any weight at all over time.  This is a fundamental problem with the human body, and can be a great challenge to overcome.  Most people both need to diet and need to exercise in order to successfully lose weight and keep it off in the longer term.  This is no easy task, and even if a person does commit to this their results often will not match their expectations.

Results from HCG Weight LossIn recent years a lot of investigation has been conducted by researchers trying to pin down just exactly is causing so many people to not lose weight permanently when they try to do so.  For the most part, people who try to lose weight in the longer term fail to do so.  The relapse rate after dieting is over 95% after only 6 months.  What studies have found is that people who try to lose weight actually think about it as a “temporary” hurdle they have to tackle and once they do, it will be over.  The reality is that people need to think of it is a fundamental life change. one that requires long term commitment.  In order to maintain any weight lost you must successfully lose weight quickly as studies have shown, but also maintain your diet indefinitely afterwards.

There is a new treatment which uses the natural HCG hormone to deliver on both of these fronts for dieters.  Physicians have been prescribing this to patients for many years, and for good reason, as studies have shown it to be a highly effective weight loss treatment.  The HCG hormone is naturally produced by women during their monthly cycles, and boosts metabolism and decreases appetite in patients that take it.  It works by directly increasing activity in the brain’s hypothalamus gland.  This works as a highly effective treatment by enabling the user to burn more calories and feel less hungry, boosting their success in weight loss.

HCG is typically administered by injections each day (the difference between HCG drops and injections), but many find this to be a challenge to keep up over longer periods.  This method is also quite expensive, requiring large scale kits for users in order for users to maintain the dosages.  As a result, much research has been devoted to alternative oral treatments like HCG drops placed under the tongue instead.  These are highly effective, but much more reasonably priced.  There are now retailers selling the real hormone in droplet form, such as the makers of HCG Plus at www.hcgplusdrops.com.  These are usually administered each day as well, but they are dropped below the user’s tongue which absorbs the hormone directly in that way.  This results in the same great weight loss that is seen with injections, but with easier administration and lower prices.

The use of HCG has been well documented to work in patients seeking weight loss.  It’s impact is primarily felt by those who have historically had problems losing weight and keeping it off over the longer term.  A recent study tested HCG on patients who were trying to lose weight, and then gave a placebo to another group.  What they found was that users taking HCG lost at least 4 times more total fat per month than those just trying to diet on their own.  This indicated that HCG did something remarkable in these patients, with an average HCG user weight loss of over 25 pounds per month of use.  This was staggering, and has led to many physicians now recommending it to patients who are struggling with obesity.  It certainly is an interesting option for those seeking rapid and reliable weight loss.

 

Natural Aids

Many people drink coffee, and it’s a great addition to your daily routine if you want to remain healthy and keep your body healthy.  Coffee contains caffeine, and there has been many studies which show that brewed coffee helps a plethora of diseases in regular drinkers.  Several recent studies took a look at three to four cup per day coffee drinkers, and found they had a much lower rick of type II diabetes, metabolic syndromes and insulin resistance in their body.  They also showed significantly better BMI (weight control) than their non-coffee peers.  Clearly something is going on there that’s worthy of a closer look.

These great outcomes for coffee drinkers have led a lot of researchers to investigate exactly how this sort of thing is achieved in users.  They have found that a particular compound, known as chlorogenic acid, is responsible for much of these benefits.  This is found in green coffee in really high qualities, though the roasting process does remove some of it from the coffee people regularly drink.  The longer and hotter it’s roasted, the less of this compound remains in the beans.  As a result, studies have centered around taking green coffee extracts to receive the most benefits possible from this unique enzyme.

There’s been efforts in recent years to catalog and understand the impact of green coffee on our bodies.  A new in vitro study found that chlorogenic acid actually helps inhibit the absorption of glucose (sugars) in our bodies.  This helps avoid “sugar rushes” and insulin crashes in those that regularly take green coffee extracts.  This also has been shown to help burn stored fats to supplement energy that is not consumed and burnt through this process.  Scientists believe this is at least largely responsible for the weight loss effects of taking green coffee daily.

Supplementation of Green Coffee Instead of Roasted

Green Coffee ExtractGreen coffee now comes in supplement form, that makes it at lost easier to take each day.  This chlorogenic acid is preserved and high quantities of green coffee extract is delivered to users.  This raw green coffee would be far too bitter to eat directly, but in this way it preserves the good parts of the green coffee and makes it easier to take each day.  If you roast coffee up to 70% of the acids above are actually lost.  Typical dosages of green coffee as recommended by doctors to patients now are along the lines of 1000mg per day.  This works out to around 500mg twice per day which is fairly typical.  Green coffee does not have high concentrations of caffeine that are created through the roasting process as well, which cuts down on feeling “buzzed” while on this supplement.

Green coffee has powerful antioxidant properties as well as recent studies have clearly shown.  Antioxidants typically cut your risk of cancer development later in life by the reduction of free radicals in your body.  Raw green coffee has around two times the antioxidants of chocolate, which is well known to help prevent cancer in patients.  The Oxygen Absorbance capacity of green coffee is over 9000 per gram (which is huge).

A recent clinical trial examined the weight loss impact of taking green coffee regularly after this new research was released showing its benefits in general.  Those that were on a placebo did not lose much weight at all, while those that took green coffee supplements each day lost on average 5.7% of their total body weight over 60 days.  This did not require any change to their diet or increased exercise.  Researchers attributed this change in intestinal absorption of calories that are blocked in part by cholorgenic acid.  There was also pronounced increases in energy in the group that received green coffee daily.  It’s no surprise given this result that this method is one of the most popular and successful treatments for weight control and health improvement today.

Successful Treatment

Regular tea drinking is a very positive thing for the health of individuals, as many studies have shown in recent years.  This practice literally goes skin deep, helping people improve their metabolism and their body’s overall health.  A recent study conducted at the University of Manchester found that green tea extracts, when taken regularly, actually helps protect the skin of those individuals against UV damage as well.  This is a fairly unexpected byproduct of treatment with this simple ingredient.

Green Tea and Its Health BenefitsIn this particular study as published, a team of researchers tested fourteen healthy subjects to see what happened if they were given a low dosage of green tea “catechins”.  They were also given a combination of Vitamin C as part of this trial.  It was found that those who had green tea extract had a much higher level of metabolites in their skin.  Researchers observed additional benefits that reduced the inflammation of skin markets, such as PGE2 and 12-HETE.  The researchers as part of this study believed these effects were caused by green tea through the production of skin cells that offered protection against long term damage from UV rays.  These catechin metabolites were linked directly to protection against sunburn inflammation and even longer UVR style damage modes.

There are other studies which have found some significant benefits to regular green tea supplementation, such as significant metabolism increases and appetite control due to several things found in green tea called polyphenols.  Green tea in another study was found to provide supplement takers with increased blood flow and oxygen delivery to the cells in their body.  Polyphenols are powerful antioxidants, to they are also thought to improve a person’s risk of cancers.  There’s some support for this in several life long trials, with regular consumption of green tea significantly reducing a person’s risk of cancer development later in life.

Green Tea Weight Loss Benefits – How it Works and Possible Substitutes

Green tea is from the plant family known as Camellia sinensis.  This is a common variety of tea that comes in many colors and varieties, but most of these plants have a high level of polyphenolic content naturally.  An alternative to green tea today is known as black tea, which is a fermented form of green tea.  This actually removes some of the polyphenols during this process, but also adds some good things as well (such as unique metabolism boosting agents).  Green tea contains up to 40 percent of polyphenols that are water soluable, and black tea only up to around 10 percent.  This is one of the reason doctors recommend drinking green tea, or taking supplements of the extract.

There are many other benefits to regular green tea supplementation.  Weight loss benefits for green tea are well established.  In a recent US based study it was found that people who took green tea supplements, at least 250mg per day, lost at least 10 pounds a month of use, even without changing diets.  This is caused by unique compounds in green tea that boost hypothalamus activity boosting metabolism and decreasing appetite.  In addition, green tea is acidic, so your stomach will more quickly process food you eat.

There are other benefits to these polyphenols in our body, such as boosting cardiovascular health, bone health, and even glucose related diseases like diabetes.  Scientists are just now starting to understand how green tea works, but each time they look at different areas it could influence, they quickly discover that there are even more benefits to this food.  There are many compounds found in green tea, like with wine, that help increase heart health and cut the risk of heart disease.  Green tea offers users a lot, from weight loss, to reduced risk of diabetes, to increased colon health.  It’s definitely something to consider adding to your daily routine.

Natural Aids

Many people try to lose weight either diet or exercise free, however, these methods carry with them many risks (along with a strong likelihood of failure).  The chances of experiencing failure when trying to lose weight using only one method is slim to none.  Most people who try to diet a lot or exercise “like crazy” will ultimately fail to lose much weight, and will quickly return to their original body weight after some time.  There are many claims of offers out there which proclaim that “diet free” weight loss is possible.  Yet, this is just completely ludicrous and can even be damaging for an individual’s motivations.  There are many products that claim to offer big results, even without dieting, but these are often not well documented in clinical studies.  Only methods that have been tried and tested and proven to work should be used by those looking to lose weight.

Supplemental Weight Loss AdvantagesMany weight loss methods claim to offer quick results, sometimes even within a matter of days.  Not all of these methods are bogus, but many of them don’t have any sort of clinical basis for their claims.  Not only are you battling your body’s own natural instincts by trying to lose weight so quickly, but there are a host of additional potential problems.  Your metabolism is highly sensitive to impacts in diet, particularly if you’re not taking a product that stops it from dropping when you cut calories.  Naturally your body will attempt to stop any sort of weight loss if you decrease your caloric intake, and it will also increase your hunger as well.  There’s no good that will come from trying to go through an all or nothing style weight loss plan.

The Weight Loss Supplement Market: What to Consider

There are thousands of treatments that are marketed every year that claim to provide massive weight loss to users, but almost never are they objectively tested in a clinical setting and actually proven to work.  The reason most of these methods “work” is they tell users to cut their calories and exercise more.  If they really were as awesome as they claimed, they would be able to help people lose weight without any real changes to their diet.  There are some treatments that actually can do this, such as Garcinia Cambogia or similar, but these are more the exception to the rule.

There are tablets, capsules, or powders out there that people recommend to help you lose weight.  Few of them work, but there are some key ways you can ensure the product you are taking actually works and delivers results.  Exercising and proper diet are one way to do it, but this carries some risk.  Many people who try to cut their caloric intake damage their metabolism in the process.  However, a lot of these problems can be mitigated with the right supplement addition.

There are a few things in particular which can help people shed pounds quickly and effectively.  The use of the HCG hormone has been shown in numerous studies to help people increase their metabolism and help them to burn off calories rapidly.  On average users lose at least 20 pounds per month during treatment, which is far more than just by dieting alone.  There are other choices out there as well, such as green tea or green coffee extract, both of which has been proven to work as well.  These treatments are much slower than something highly effective like the HCG hormone, but they do work as well.  You want to stay away from most prescription treatments because they can be quite damaging to your body over the long term.  A more natural treatment that has lots of clinical and research support is what’s important to help you improve your results.

All Natural Dieting

Many commercial plans have a much different focus from a weight loss plan that is actually healthy.  A lot of these “advertisement” heavy methods show their best customers and their most effective results, primarily those which were achieved as quickly as possible.  When you decide to lose weight in a healthy manner, you’re doing so to improve your overall quality of life, not “get quick results”.  The difference between a healthy lifestyle weight loss method and a “fad” is that there are larger goals in mind with a healthy plan.  You are changing your lifestyle at a fundamental level, and you’re picking up a new way of eating and interacting with your food each day.  Rather than going on a temporary change, you’re making a fundamental change or your life that will remain with you.  This is the ultimate goal, not rapid weight loss.

Many people would likely agree with the notion that drinking fresh juice is an enjoyable experience.  However, many people forget that drinking these juices is also a good way to reach your daily serving of vitamins, vegetables, and fruits as recommended.  Juicing, particularly if you keep much of the pulp in the juice, offers the same benefits as eating the fruits and vegetables directly including fiber allowances and other minerals.  In fact, you can mask the flavor of unpleasant foods very easily with juicing.  Many things like kale, radishes, raw beets, etc possess loads of antioxidants and important enzymes that not only help you stay healthy and energetic but cut your risk of cancer and other long term health problems.  It’s difficult to eat raw beets on their own, and cooking them breaks up many of these great natural substances in the vegetable.

Detoxify, Reduce Free Radicals and Lose Weight

Healthy Fruit Juice for Weight LossWhen you drink juice each day, it’s a great way to detoxify your stomach, your cravings and also decrease your appetite.  Your body if it has all of the nutrients it needs will not “crave” food nearly as often as you would typically experience.  The result is a much more stable and easier maintenance of your weight.  In addition, juice diets are now popular and being highly recommended by physicians.  There is good reason for this, as eating fruits and vegetables (as well as drinking them) has been shown in many studies to boost your metabolism.  On average someone on a juice diet (drinking juices for a meal per day) is going to lose roughly 10 pounds every two weeks.  This is a very fast level of weight loss.

When you drink juice each day, it also helps to remove free radicals in your body (what’s responsible for the development of cancers).  Many antioxidants are found in fruits and vegetables, ranging from grapes to blackberries to radishes.  There are also many things that detoxify your body from a lot of the poor ingredients found in many processed foods.  Good detoxifiers in studies are things like celergy, lettuce, asparagus, or cabbage.  Carrots as well are a really good detoxifying agent that people love to put into their juicers (as they taste delicious).  Watermelon as well contains beta-carotene a known cancer prevention antioxidant and vitamin C as well.

It’s common sense, or at least most people believe it is so, that you need to cut calories to burn off fat.  However, this is not entirely true.  There are foods which do contain calories but are too difficult for your body to digest and actually burn off more calories than they contain.  They also make you quite full as well, which has the advantage of avoiding large scale hunger or cravings which can disrupt your effort to lose weight.  Negative calorie foods are those things like peaches, grapefruits, strawberries, pineapples, etc.  They are also packed with antioxidant and vitamin as well, which offers even more benefits as we’ve indicated so far.  There is truly a lot of benefits to juicing and drinking such juices regularly, as well as eating these fruits directly.

 

Weight Loss Secrets