[thewomanwithin67]

Here's some info on carbs I found interesting while reading this morning:

What you eat can affect how old you look, according to Stephen Gullo, author of Thin Tastes Better and a nutrition psychologist based in Manhattan.

“Foods that increase inflammation and free radical production stimulate the aging process,” says Gullo. The good news is that this relationship also works in reverse: Eating foods that reduce inflammation and free radical production actually helps your body combat the march of time.

What, then, should an aging omnivore eat?

Dine on low-mercury—“white-colored”—seafood and lots of green and white non-starchy vegetables, Gullo says.

“Eat these foods and avoid anything high in simple carbohydrates or fat—these are foods that can help accelerate the aging process,” he adds.

Gobbling down white bread and sugar can also leave you (and your face) looking quite bloated. This is because, for every gram of simple carbohydrate<click the link to see a list>a person consumes, their body retains three grams of water, according to Gullo.

Eliminate these foods from your diet, however, and in a few weeks, you’ll notice a big difference when you look in the mirror.

“It’s the easiest way to look 15 years younger without a face-lift,” he says.

Bye, bye bagels, hello sharp cheekbones!

[thewomanwithin67]

I've been researching because I am going to start a new program to lose 20 lbs of FAT in the next 3 - 6 mths with exercise and eating ONLY <shakes in her shoes> no meds or supplements.

Some more great info:

The quickest way to succeed in losing weight, and to keep it off, is by increasing your metabolism.

Don’t be fooled by all of the fad diets. Just think of all those lean body builders. How do you think they achieved their fitness goals? They have developed incredibly fast and efficient metabolism.

The problem with fad diets is that many actually cause the metabolism to slow down. A decreased metabolic rate is often the very reason that weight loss progress grinds to a sudden halt.

Increasing exercise often has no effect, and reducing food intake often won’t help either. Because the net loss of protein in the muscles continues to lower your metabolism, the body will adapt to the lower calorie intake.

It’s a physiological fact that when we lose weight, we also lose protein from our muscles. And the quicker the weight loss, the greater the loss of protein. Because there is less intake of protein from dieting, the protein in the muscles is broken down and used for energy or to create new proteins for our immune systems.

Unfortunately, a net loss of protein will always decrease the body’s metabolism.

As protein is lost from the cells, it gradually lowers the total lean body weight. This affects the body composition and lowers the metabolism. Because of this process, we gradually require fewer calories to maintain body weight.

If the current diet is continued, weight loss will eventually stop. In fact, it’s even possible to SLOWLY GAIN BACK WEIGHT if a dieter sticks to a very low calorie diet!

The more protein that is lost from the muscles, the more fluid that is also lost, because protein holds around four times its weight in water.

Thus a quick weight loss in the first few weeks of a new diet regimen is mostly a loss of fluid, not fat.

If someone lost five pounds in the first week, for it to be all fat loss there would have to be a deficit of 17,500 calories!

To reach that kind of energy deficit in that short period of time would require constant exercise!

Over the period of a week, about only one pound of the five pounds lost is fat, the rest is mostly water.

Protein and its fluid replacement is the main reason that many dieters regain weight after a diet.

An increase in the metabolism would result in a gain of fluid. Therefore, weight loss would be more gradual. This is one reason for the recommended weight loss of one to two pounds per week. By increasing your metabolism, you are giving your body a reason to hold onto protein, so that less water is lost.

Even if more exercise is undertaken, a net loss of protein can occur if caloric intake is too low.

Remember that dieters reduce their caloric intake. But, since exercise uses extra carbs, the body must break down extra protein in order to convert into more carbohydrates. More carbs are needed because a less fit person often has an untrained cardiovascular system, and cannot, which cannot supply enough oxygen for cells to burn fat for energy during exercise.

Exercise will increase the metabolism, but the trick for those trying to lose weight is to perform the right exercises for their specific body type, and not to cut too many calories too soon.

To lose fat fast, you should prepare the body by increasing your metabolism before cutting calories. This enables your body to establish a major fat burning energy metabolism while regulating the protein metabolism.

An increase metabolism provides many benefits to help maintain continuous and permanent weight loss:

• less exercise would be needed - giving you more time
• less effort if you did exercise - no need to try burning lots of calories during each session!
• less chance of weight regain later
• still enjoy some favorite foods - no need to be as strict on the diet
• less time spent preparing low / non fat recipes and meals
• save money from not needing to buy all the expensive low fat varieties
• higher percentage of fat loss over fluid loss

[susanpesek]

I agree! I wouldn't waste a single calorie now on simple carbs. My body craves calorie-rich complex carbs...heavy, dense, nutty, chewy breads. Now if I could only get the calories to a reasonable level!