Weight Loss and Bodybuilding Supplements – Advertisements, Hype and False Hopes

You’ve probably been subjected to a weight loss or bodybuilding supplement advertisement implying that you could obtain a phenomenal transformation if you were to purchase that particular product. Claims such as “Lose 10kg in 3 weeks” or “Gain 5kg of muscle in a fortnight” are not a stranger to the weight loss and bodybuilding marketing industry.

It is quite possible are that you are going to be relatively impressionable when watching such an advertisement, particularly if you’re not overly familiar with the industry. We are naturally driven by the desire to be happy – and attaining an “ideal” body is often associated with a heightened sense of fulfilment. So, a product that almost promises guaranteed accomplishment of your ultimate goal can sometimes be far too emotionally driving to resist, even if the claims seem a little too good to be true. It’s no wonder that the dieting industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. Bodybuilding supplementation advertisements also draw upon the same emotional response as the weight loss supplements do.

But just how true are these supplement advertisements and should you trust them? Well “technically speaking”, they are true – otherwise those ads would be deemed as false advertising. Though, many are very misleading as a result of a highly subjective presentation. Let’s consider two typical examples; one in each of the bodybuilding and weight loss supplementation arena’s.

The supplement ad that claims that you will gain 600% more lean mass. Often a claim like this will be highlighted and a highly subjective article will follow. The first obvious misconception about such a statement is that “lean mass” is muscle – this is incorrect. Lean mass refers to fat free tissue. Often a gain in lean mass can be attributed to an increase in fluid retention, for example. Next, we must question 600% more lean mass relative to what? Was it compared to a placebo? Delving deeper, you should then ascertain exactly how this claim was determined – was this via an objective third-party independent study, or was this conducted by the supplement company itself?

The statement “Lose 5kg in 5 days!” Such a phrase implies that you will lose 5kg of fat in 5 days, but this is not correct. The statement suggests that 5kg of body mass can be lost in 5 days. This is not necessarily fat tissue – this could be muscle and/or fluid weight as well. Especially in the early stages of dieting, significant weight loss is common due to a reduction in fluid retention in particular.

You could analyse almost any claim and subsequently identify that there is often a lot of “hype” associated with many of the marketing campaigns in this industry. Ultimately statements can often be quite misleading and it is your responsibility to understand exactly what is being said.

Now please don’t misunderstand – supplements are of great value in aiding you in accomplishing your health and fitness goals – otherwise we would not sell them in our supplement store. When used in an appropriate manner, they can assist you significantly in obtaining significant body transformations. Supplements, in conjunction with an appropriate and consistent exercise and dietary regime have the potential to completely transform your body, no doubt about it. What you must avoid however is developing unrealistic expectations when you do see a supplement advertisement, as this may very well be setting you up for failure.

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Is the Food at Subway Healthy and Good for Weight Loss? A Review.

There are so many food choices available on the market nowadays that it can be excruciatingly painful trying to ascertain what is “healthy” and what is “garbage”. There are low-fat, low-joule, high protein, sugar-free, lite, fat-free and plethora of other marketing terms used to communicate that a particular product is healthy.

So, I have decided to use Subway as a case study in this blog post. Subway’s catch phrase is “Eat Fresh” and a few years ago they began marketing within Australia quite heavily as a fast food chain that was highly appropriate for people seeking to lose weight. Do you remember Jared? Jared Fogle was somewhat of the “Subway mascot”, who lost a phenomenal amount of weight, as shown in Subway’s advertising campaign.

But the question at hand here is not whether or not Jared lost weight on the Subway diet, rather, whether or not the food at Subway is healthy and if the food at Subway is good for weight loss. In other words, is Subway’s marketing campaign accurate with the message that they seem to be implying?

As with any marketing in the nutritional field, it is not wise to rely on what the marketing campaign purports. Just because something may be low in fat, doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily “healthy”. After all, jelly beans are low in fat, but they are high in sugar and have a high glycemic index (or have very fast absorbing carbohydrates). Milk chocolate may have a low glycemic index, yet it is full of sugar and very high in fat. Low-fat butter may be lower in fat than regular butter, but it may still be 40% fat (and not the good fats either). So a good understanding of nutrition is vital when ascertaining whether or not food is actually “healthy” for you.

Coming back to Subway and whether or not it is healthy (or good for weight loss), it really depends on the actual food that you consider. Subway have a variety of foods available, all with completely different nutritional compositions. I have downloaded the nutritional information off the Subway website and am using this as my point of reference in writing this Subway review.

Let’s begin with the Subway cookies. The choc-chip cookie is 215 calories having a total of 10.5g of fat. It’s loaded with 18.2g of sugar. Other cookies from Subway are comparable and it really is a bit of a no-brainer that these cookies should generally not be consumed if you’re looking to follow a healthy approach to nutrition.

The salads, wraps and subs at Subway generally depend on the foods that you choose to add into the salad. The meat and sauces that you choose to add on can have a profound impact on the healthiness of the meal you consume. So rather than considering each item individually, let’s look at some of the fillings instead.

To begin with, all the vegetables are great at Subway! They are all fresh and packed full of nutrients. Plus, most of them are practically neutral in regards to net calorie intake. Go for your life with the veggies!

The ham, roast beef, roast chicken and turkey options are quite good, being minimally processed, relatively low in fat and good protein sources. These are all options on the “6 grams of fat or less”. Placed in a salad, you’re eating a very low calorie and high nutrient density meal. For example, a turkey salad without sauce equates to 107 calories (less than half of a choc chip cookie!). Yes, this is quite a healthy meal.

A low-fat 6-inch sub isn’t too much of a concern, assuming that you choose the correct bread and filling. Subway have just introduced a multi-grain sub, which would be a much better option than most of the breads that have available (being white breads). Multigrain will generally not only have a lower glycemic index, but also be more nutrient dense due to the wholegrains contained within the bread. A “6 grams of fat or less” sub will generally set you back around 200-300 calories. The exception is with the sweet onion chicken teriyaki 6-inch, being 352 calories; not a good option for weight loss. The high calorie content is due to the high sugar content in the sweet onion sauce.

Now, onto the Subway no-no’s for weight loss in this review.

There are a variety of add-ons that can really boost up the calorie content. For example, cheddar cheese adds in 42 calories to a 6-inch (double for a footlong). Bacon adds in 45 calories. Chipotle Southwest sauce adds in a whopping 98 calories from a very high fat content of 10.3g on a 6 inch sub! Thousand island dressing adds in 82 calories on a 6 inch – again, definitely one to avoid. The sauces at Subway can really boost up your calorie intake – so if you’re seeking to lose weight, be aware of the effect that this will have on your dietary program.

This is where it really pays to do your nutritional research. Something that is often conceived as low-fat is actually quite the opposite at Subway. Consider this – a tin of tuna in springwater found in your supermarket is typically around 80 calories. Meanwhile, a 6 inch sub at Subway with tuna contains 393 calories! Total fat content (with no add-ons) is a whopping 16.5g primarily from the tuna!

What may come as a surprise (I know it did for me) are some of the non-low-fat subs and how calorie dense they actually are. You may be shocked (and appalled) at how high in fat (and calories) a footlong meatball marinara with a couple of additives has. Let’s consider the following recipe:

1. Footlong Meatball Marinara
2. Cheddar Cheese
3. Bacon
4. Ranch Dressing

I chose these because I know someone who likes to order a footlong with this recipe! Let’s consider the calorie content of each of the above ingredients:

1. 956 calories
2. 84 calories
3. 90 calories
4. 120 calories

Total equates to 1250 calories. To put this into perspective, a Big Mac from McDonalds is 540 calories (according to the American McDonalds website). This footlong sub would be the equivalent of consuming 2.3 Big Macs (in calorie consumption terms)!! Alternatively, 1250 calories is possibly more than a female seeking to lose weight would consume in an entire day! I feel that this is fairly obviously not appropriate for anyone seeking to lose weight, let alone eat in a healthy manner.

So the lesson here is to do your research. Yes, there are certainly very healthy options at Subway, yet there are also very unhealthy options too. The same reigns true for nearly all food outlets and restaurants. It is most important to familiarise yourself with the foods that you consume from a nutritional point of view and to never (ever) rely on the marketing that is fed to you through advertising campaigns.

If you don’t feel confident in analysing the nutritional composition of foods, I highly recommend that you sign up to our free weight loss course where we discuss food in detail and interpreting this information for your own personal use.

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Reviewing the Latest Exercise, Fitness & Health Science Research

Last year, our website introduced a brand new Exercise & Fitness Research Reviews section in which we regularly discuss new and exciting studies that have been carried out within the scientific community. We feel that it is very important to consider the latest fitness research, as all our training principles that we teach are based on results obtained objectively through the scientific community.

What I would like to discuss in this blog post is how to sift through the latest scientific research for your benefit in your health and fitness endeavours. There is often conflicting research that comes out of a lab, so how do you know what is accurate and what isn’t? For example, one day you may hear that margarine is better than butter. The next day, a new study will conclude the complete opposite!

At university I studied advanced science with a major in biotechnology. There were obviously a large number of studies that we needed to review and in doing so, it enlightened me as to the importance of taking one study at a time and never making any assumptions, such as any one particular study being correct over all others with conflicting conclusions.

You don’t need a science degree to understand the general concept of most scientific studies. However you do need to entertain each study with a fair degree of scepticism. Scientific studies are not perfect, especially those that deal with biology. Biology is such a complex topic; there so many simultaneous chemical reactions occurring with an organism that a scientist cannot possibly accommodate for every single variable. So, whilst one study may conclude that a particular training method may be the best approach for one particular goal, another study may conclude something different. This may be due to different testing environments, procedures, attention to detail, recording methodologies etc.

I’m fairly confident that you probably don’t wish to subscribe to a scientific journal and read through all the latest results from the lab. So the point of this article is to read abroad and look at multiple reports, rather than any one in isolation. If you hear something on the news that scientists have determined that “such and such” is the best way to lose weight – do your research before implementing this into your lifestyle. Yes, one study may have come to this conclusion, but there may be 100 others that disagree. Almost without exception, the media will portray scientific studies in a news bulletin in a highly biased manner without the reporter having done substantial research.

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Quick Tips for Safe, Effective & Sustainable Weight Loss

Weight loss is the most common goal of visitors to this blog and to the Amino Z website. Losing weight in a sustainable, effective and safe manner is at the very heart of our training philosophy at Amino Z. If you are a regular reader of this website or of this blog, you’ll be well aware of our strong stand against rapid, unsafe and unethical approaches to weight loss.

Losing weight in an unhealthy manner can do some serious permanent damage. You may be interested in reading an article of ours on Yo-Yo Dieting which discusses some serious side effects of rapid weight loss, including the long-term weight gain implications of following a fad diet.

Safe, effective and sustainable weight loss comes down to well-known principles. Whilst weight loss can be a difficult goal to accomplish, the principles of success are relatively straight forward. One of the most difficult aspects of weight loss is actually implementing these principles consistently into your everyday life.

Below is a list of some very important aspects to weight loss. In isolation, any one of these factors is quite ineffective. However, if you combine all of these recommendations together, you will experience some tremendous body reshaping. It is a limited list, but it will get you started on the right foot.

Eat regularly. Aim to consume 6 meals a day, rather than 3 meals a day. But here’s the catch – make your meals smaller. More regular meals can stimulate the metabolism to burn more calories.

Eat natural foods. Natural foods require more energy to break down and digest within the body, relative to highly processed foods. Thus, their “net” calories will be much lower.

Watch your portion sizes. If you’re not losing weight, try reducing your portion sizes. Don’t skip meals, but rather aim for a gradual calorie reduction until you find that sweet spot.

Minimise alcohol intake. Any alcoholic beverage is loaded with calories. Don’t be fooled into thinking that a straight spirit is calorie free – a shot of vodka can have as many calories as a snack.

Move around as much as possible. As you move around (or, perform incidental exercise), you expend additional calories. Try walking instead of driving, or park a little further away. It all adds up!

Follow a structured exercise programme. The key is to follow a structured programme. Going into the gym aimlessly will not accomplish an optimal result. Work with a personal trainer if you have to, but have a clear plan for maximum results. Your training should include both cardiovascular and resistance training, multiple times per week.

Do not rely on supplements. Supplements can aid with weight loss, but it is important not to rely on them for weight loss. Rely on a sound approach to nutrition and exercise. This encompasses everything from meal replacements to weight loss pills. If you are replacing multiple meals a day with protein drinks, this is most likely too reliant on supplements and could be quite unhealthy.

Obtain 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Good quality sleep promotes healthy hormone production which can optimise fat loss. If you under-sleep, you will be inhibiting your weight loss progress.

Guilt is your own worst enemy. We all slip up from time to time. When it happens – learn from it and you have to teach yourself to move on. The worst thing you can do is drown yourself in guilt and thus sabotage yourself completely. One binge will have a negligible effect on your progress. A week-long guilt-induced binge will have a profound effect on your progress.

Get support. Surround yourself with other dedicated people who are serious about weight loss. When you are surrounded with a strong support group, you won’t feel isolated and will thus increase your chances of long-term success.

Hire a personal trainer. Yes, I know this sounds strange coming from a personal training website! A personal trainer will provide you with the necessary professional support to get you to your goals in a healthy manner. This will compliment your support group who provide a strong sense of social support.

Educate yourself. Don’t stop with this article – continue reading and learn the specifics of weight loss. The more you know about exercise and nutrition, the more interesting the subjects will become. Weight loss will seem far less overwhelming and thus your confidence levels will improve. Knowledge is power and it is readily available to you throughout this website!

From here, I would suggest that you continue reading on this topic in greater depth with our article entitled “How to Lose Weight“. This will discuss some of these quick weight loss tips in greater detail and introduce you to more detailed discussions.

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Why Is Infomercial Exercise Equipment So Ineffective?

I was just thinking about the Cardio Twister article that I wrote up not too long ago. There is no doubt in my head that many people purchase this particular product with completely unrealistic expectations and fail to see the desired results, even though they may use the apparatus on a daily basis.

Upon considering infomercial exercise equipment in a general sense, I do hold the belief that the vast majority of these products are a complete waste of money for the vast majority of people who purchase them. Whilst this may be a result of unrealistic expectations, right now I am questioning why that is so. I have some thoughts on the matter which I am going to share with you.

Starting with the television advertisement itself, it’s obvious that these infomercials are not targeted to avid fitness enthusiasts. They are clearly designed for people who have little knowledge on the methods required to lose weight, build muscle and tone up. From my experience, it is commonly accepted by the uninformed individual that practically any form of exercise is going to result in weight loss. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Furthermore, it is a general belief that exercising a particular area of the body will necessarily result in a physical change in that particular area of the body. Again, this is not so.

These television advertisements seem to exploit these notions that are widely accepted, yet completely unsubstantiated. Furthermore, every single infomercial advertisement that I have viewed for exercise equipment hones in on the viewers emotions to promise them their ideal physique. Because your body shape is a highly personal attribute, it is far easier to close a sale by promising you the world, so to speak.

Being on television instantly gives a particular product a fair degree of credibility, just because it was aired on television. So really, these products don’t need to be effective at all – the marketing company just needs to have enough funds to put together a half-decent advertisement. Casting of some fitness models will add an extra degree of credibility to the machine, even if they have never used this equipment as part of their training regime (yes, this is a fact).

When I think about these infomercial fitness products in more depth, I have come to realise that they are all practically the same. Whilst the actual piece of equipment may be different and the motion in which you exercise varies, these infomercial products carry some common themes practically across the board:

• There is practically no science or research to back up the claims put fourth
• There are implications that minimal effort will result in maximal changes
• They suggest that exercising a particular area will tone that specific area
• They promote ridiculous and unhealthy transformations, such as losing 10kg in a week
• They promise that you will be amazed at the results in an extremely short period of time
• This equipment is a revolution in the health and fitness industry

Ultimately, we all want to hear that we can get into the shape of our lives with minimal effort – that’s just human nature. Unfortunately though, our human physiology does not allow for this. An abdominal machine, vibration machine, or any piece of exercise equipment for that matter is not going to change the way that the human body operates.

It has been proven over the years that consistency with a structured approach to both exercise and nutrition is the way to the physique that you desire. Using an abdominal machine or a vibration machine for a few a minutes a day as a substitute for a good lifestyle is not going to produce any noticable results.

A final thought. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Please be skeptical when you see exercise equipment advertised on television. These “too good to be true” products are only going to burn a hole in your wallet, make you feel bad about yourself from lack of results and waste a lot of time in the process.

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Cardio Twister Review – Will It Really Work?

This morning I viewed an infomercial for the “Cardio Twister” and felt compelled to publish my opinion on the potential effectiveness of such a product for a typical Australian seeking to lose weight and tone up. As a fitness professional, I feel that I am obligated to do so in order to assist in educating you as the consumer.

Unfortunately, yet not surprisingly, I do believe that this product strongly over-promises and will under-deliver. This opinion is based on how the product has been marketed and the science that just doesn’t seem to support these outrageous and “too-good-to-be-true” claims. In fact, the Cardio Twister in my opinion seems like the next generation of the Ab King Pro.

It claims to “target” the “problem areas” such as the inner thighs, outer thighs and butt. Sure, when you are performing a twisting action, you will be recruiting the abductors, adductors and the gluteals (or the outer thighs, inner thighs and butt muscles) – but this doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be losing fat from this area and developing muscle.

I guess that this is one of the most exploited myths within the health and fitness industry. Just because you are using a particular muscle group to generate force does not necessarily mean that you will lose fat from that area and/or develop that specific muscle’s size.

What may assist you in understanding why is if I define two commonly used (and yet highly confusing) terms, “toning” and “spot reduction”:

Toning

This term is thrown around commonly and yet not many people are aware of what “toning” actually means. Toning is a two stage process:

1. Muscle Gain
2. Fat Loss

Depending upon your current body shape, the degree to which these two constituents are required will vary. For example, if you carry a fair amount of muscle but have a lot of fat tissue to lose, then you will require more fat loss than muscle gain. The converse can also be true.

Note that you cannot turn muscle into fat or turn fat into muscle. Muscle tissue and fat tissue are two completely separate tissues and must be treated independently.

Muscle gain, or muscle development, can be induced through a number of means. Often though, cardiovascular exercise is not an effective way to achieve this goal. The Cardio Twister is a cardiovascular workout (albeit, I don’t believe it to be an effective one).

Meanwhile, fat loss is encouraged by creating a calorie deficit (or consuming less calories than what your body expends). Two major contributors to creating a calorie deficit are through regulating your nutritional intake (or diet) and through physical exercise. Sure, the Cardio Twister is exercise and thus you will be expending calories (yet, far less than other forms of cardio). However, this machine will not “target” fat loss located on your inner and outer thighs, along with your butt area. This brings me onto spot reduction…

Spot Reduction

This is (unfortunately) very commonly exploited by many marketing companies promoting products of this nature that apparently “target” a specific area of the body. Spot reduction suggests that you can use a particular set of muscles and thus lose fat from a specific area of the body. If this were true, running would result in fat loss from the legs, push-ups would result in fat loss from the chest and arms and so on.

However, the science strongly disagrees. In fact, there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever to suggest that spot reduction is possible. After decades of studies, science has concluded that we cannot consciously select an area of the body that we wish to lose fat from through exercise. Spot reduction is a complete myth.

So, coming back to the Cardio Twister, if you do consider purchasing such an exercise machine, be aware that:

1. You will not develop muscle tissue as effectively as other forms of exercise
2. You will not expend an optimal number of calories relative to other forms of exercise
3. You cannot choose to lose fat from your inner thighs, outer thighs or buttocks
4. In my opinion, “a few minutes a day”, without any other lifestyle changes (additional exercise, dietary change), will have minimal results

Having said all this, if the Cardio Twister is the only way that you will perform some physical activity, then go for it. After all, some exercise is better than none! But I would strongly suggest enquiring about our personal training services…exercise can actually be exciting if it suits you and your lifestyle!

Before concluding this Cardio Twister review, I would like to say one more thing. Although I don’t know the models who demonstrate this machine on the infomercials personally, I am very confident that they followed a structured exercise and nutritional programme to get in the shape that they are in. Whilst this is probably commonsensical, I say this with a fair degree of certainty because I was once requested to model a particular brand abdominal machine for another commercial. There were no pre-requisites (such as ever having used the machine before) apart from being in shape. Of course, I was not interested.

Anyway, I do hope that this sheds some light on the Cardio Twister and can assist you in making an informed decision if you do decide to proceed in purchasing it.

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Slim N Lift Television Product Thoughts

Not long ago, I saw an infomercial for the “Slim n Lift” product that from my understanding is an undergarment that brings in your waistline gives a female a better overall figure. Fair enough I say, although I have absolutely no idea about the effectiveness of this particular product. Actually, they have also brought out a male version too.

But what I wanted to post about was not how effective or ineffective this product is. I don’t want to review the product because quite frankly I have no idea about fashion and undergarments. What I did want to share my thoughts on was some of the insinuations put fourth within their marketing campaign.

Being such a health and fitness advocate personally, it sometimes rubs me the wrong way when an advertisement implies that it is a viable alternative to looking after your body. When I observed this particular advertisement, there was a reference to the fact that no exercise is required. Also on their website, it is written that “no dieting” is required. It’s this apparent insinuation that this product could replace exercise and healthy eating that I really do not agree with at all.

A note: I am quite opposed to fad dieting and am an avid supporter of changing one’s lifestyle to consume a healthier diet that is sustainable in the long-term.

Both exercise and healthy eating is vital for so many reasons including:

• Physical Health
• Mental Health
• Happiness
• Zest for Life and General Wellbeing
• Disease Prevention
• Self-Esteem
• Body-Image
• Injury Prevention

Considering this, if you ever do consider to purchase a product of this sort, do so knowing that it should not be a replacement for a healthy lifestyle. Sure, the marketing company may play on this psychology because it’s natural human behaviour to find the easy way out, but there is absolutely no substitute for a healthy lifestyle.

In saying this, I don’t think that there is anything wrong with purchasing a product of this nature. After all, we all buy clothes to make ourselves look better – and this would just be another addition to the wardrobe! But just always remember that if you are unhappy with your figure, you will feel so much better about yourself if you make some significant changes in your lifestyle to change yourself both inside and out.

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Fad Dieting: The Long Road to Weight Loss

Something that I have written about extensively is fad dieting. Fad dieting involves going on a highly restrictive diet for a short period of time in order to achieve massive amounts of weight loss.

Fad diets come in all shapes and sizes. There are protein shake diets, vegetable diets, soup diets, straw diets, liquid diets, fruit diets, “straw” diets and so on. A fad diet is basically something that gives a quick result for minimal effort. Well, so it seems.

If you have ever been guilty of yo-yo dieting, then you will know that fad dieting just doesn’t work. You may lose some initial weight, but, because the diet is not sustainable (or even healthy for that matter), you stop the diet, revert back to your old eating habits and gain all the weight back.

By approaching weight loss in this fashion, you are effectively aiming to achieve the end result without learning new lifestyle habits. In most cases, this frankly doesn’t work, because one’s ability to sustain these weight loss results is developed in the “journey” toward weight loss. This journey is where you learn how to establish healthy eating and exercise habits that can be sustained in the long-term.

In essence, fad dieting is the long road to weight loss because the vast majority of people embarking on a fad diet fail. What may initially seem like a quick fix, often turns out to be wasted time, money and effort. Whilst it’s human nature to opt for the quick and easy way out, achieving phenomenal and sustainable results require much more than this.

Ultimately, there is no shortcut. You and only you can put in the work to change your life in the long-term. Put bluntly, the sooner you realise this first-hand, the quicker you will achieve your goals and stop wasting your time with the latest diet craze.

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Why to NOT Lose Weight Quickly

If you’re considering weight loss, chances are that you’re after fast weight loss  and the ability to maintain your new physique in the long-term.  When presented in such a simplified manner, taking an approach to lose weight quickly seems viable.  Yet in practice, fast weight loss more often than not has detrimental long-term effects.

Although we specialise with 12 week transformations, something that I repeat numerous times is that the initial 12 weeks of training is the time in which you develop new long-term habits for sustainable weight loss.  12 weeks is not a period where the typical sedentary person you should go “all-out” and try to lose all excess weight as quickly as possible.

There is an important point to be raised here, which is essential to anyone seeking to transform their physique in the long-term. If you want to achieve long-term success, you need to get away from an “all-or-nothing” mentality. If you approach weight loss with such a mindset, you may obtain GREAT weight loss results initially, but as you (inevitably and understandably) slip up, you will feel that your efforts have been completely compromised.

This discouragement as a consequence of your mistake (as minor as it may be) can be highly detrimental to your progress and result in all that weight piling back on.

In theory, this sounds trivial.  In practice, this mindset can very easily cause you to fall into a psychological pit of guilt that does significantly more harm than good.

This is precisely why people who undertake fad diets gain more weight than they lose.  It’s not because the diet isn’t conductive of weight loss, quite the opposite actually.  The diet is such a contrast to the persons normal (and typically unhealthy) lifestyle habits that they lose weight REALLY quickly.  Cravings kick in and eventually a binge results from self-deprivation of loved foods.  This is not to mention most other food groups that are typically forbidden by fad diets.

Always remember that you are human and you will make mistakes. It is not plausible to expect yourself to adhere to a strict diet, lose weight quickly and then be able to maintain this result.  In fact, once you come off the “diet”, how are you going to maintain that weight?  Are you:

a. Going to stay on the diet indefinitely (Chances are you will be malnourished)

b. Revert back to your old eating habits (You will gain all the weight back)

c. Establish new and healthier lifestyle habits  (Why don’t you skip the diet and just follow this option in the first place?  If your revised lifestyle habits are conductive of maintaining a lighter bodyweight, then they will also result in weight loss at your heavier bodyweight.)

Ultimately, you need to focus on a “balance” mentality. Factor in cheat meals and slip ups. It is my belief that if you eat 80% well, you will lose weight. No, you won’t lose as much weight as eating 100% well in the short term, but you WILL lose more weight than eating 100% well in the long-term. It sounds counter-intuitive, but for the vast majority of people, eating 100% well results in a “falling off the wagon” scenario weeks into their weight loss endeavours. Hence why it is not a viable long-term approach.

This mindset of “lose weight quickly” is very, very common.  For this reason, we have a whole truckload of articles on Amino Z that deal with this very topic.  Here are a few of interest:

How to Lose Weight

Tony Ferguson Weight Loss Program Review…A Fad Diet?

Fad Diet, Fad Result

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Vibration Machine Review

Last week I was inspired to spend a bit of time researching and reviewing this new vibration machines that have hit the consumer market in the past twelve to twenty-four months.  Today I allocated the time (5 hours) to research the topic and write a full-on article (2,213 words!!) discussing these vibration machines and their effectiveness in regards to weight loss.

After sifting through a number of studies, I was actually quite surprised as to how long they have been around.  Did you know that these machines have been around since the 1960′s?!  Okay, they weren’t available for consumer purchase, but they were actually in use for completely different medical applications (as I have explained briefly in the review).

Apart from this, I was also quite intrigued by the potential benefits these machines have in regards to athletic power, various medical applications and rehabilitory purposes.  But upon researching their applications into weight loss, I wasn’t surprised when I found several articles concluding how ineffective this much hyped vibration technology is.

But do have a read of the vibration machine review and I really welcome your feedback.  All of these issues (and more) are discussed in detail.  I really hope that this article can be a real eye-opener for the typical consumer that has considered purchasing one of these vibration machines in the past.

Read our Vibration Machine Review here!

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