Acai products have now become big business as the pharmaceutical companies picked up on the spectacular and varied uses it could be put to. There are now many types of acai berry supplements on the market; tablets, dried berries, powders and even juices are sold. The acai berry is so popular due to it’s reputation as a weight loss aid. According to various studies, acai berries can help you quickly lose weight when combined with regular exercise and a healthy diet. Acai has now become so prominent in Western culture that it was even featured on the Oprah Winfrey show!
Acai is a small round berry, purple in colour and about 1 inch in diameter. The seed takes up most of the berry and they are harvested mainly in Brazil where the acai Palm is a major food source. The acai palm is hugely valuable to the Brazilians and provides a large amount of cash into their economy.
So what are the health benefits of the acai berry? Well, combined with a well structured exercise plan and diet it can help you lose weight. The acai has a unique combination of amino acids, healthy fatty acids, carbohydrates and many more substances that give you a boost to your metabolism. The fibre content of the acai can also speed up digestion and aids bowel movements. Effectively acai behaves as a colon cleanser which sends waste that your body has accumulated directly to the colon.
Some people are confused as to how to take the acai berry. The answer really depends on what type of acai product you have purchased. For the juices and blends it is a simple case of drinking the juice you have. It can be taken in tablet form, just swallow with a glass of water. If you have fresh or dried acai berries you can either eat it as is, or cook with it! It’s really a very versatile berry and can be consumed in so many ways that it may surprise you. The Brazilians eat it either salty or sweet depending on what mood they are in at the time, so don’t despair if you have a sweet tooth and want to use it!
Acai has now been studied scientifically and I think it’s fair to say that it does seem to be a promising diet aid. The way that I see it, the acai berry can provide excellent antioxidant properties like most fruit maybe even more so than most. Due to its ‘high in fibre’ status it makes you feel full much quicker than normal leaving less room for sweeter snack foods. I would recommend trying it even as an experiment to see if it will help you out with your dieting. Many natural remedies do have a positive effect on losing weight but acai could improve your health as well.
One of the best ways to lose weight and keep it off is to incorporate aerobic exercise into your daily life. For those who have not exercised much before you will need to take it slowly with exercises that are low impact such as rowing machines, elliptical trainers or exercise bikes. You don't need to join a gym at first as you can start with fast, power walking instead. Start slowly and don't try to do too much too soon. You are much more likely to keep up the exercise routine if you begin with short sessions and slowly increase both the intensity and time.
Starting High Intensity Aerobic Exercising
Once you have made a good start and are exercising regularly it is time to step up the intensity and length of time you do aerobic exercises. High intensity aerobic exercise classes are available that will burn a lot of calories in a short time, sometimes as much as 700 calories an hour. Classes are fun and exercising with a class can help you to stay motivated. Classes are usually held at a local gym where you can also use the exercise machines that will help you to lose weight quickly and improve your health at the same time
Low impact aerobic exercise machines, such as elliptical trainers and rowing machines, are great for burning calories and losing weight and are ideal for anyone that has joint problems. They will not put pressure on knees and backs and are fun to use. Make sure you exercise in your 'heart rate training zone' so that you burn up the calories and maximise the benefits of your exercising. You can calculate your target heart rate with this Target Heart Rate Calculator. Using a treadmill is a popular way to exercise aerobically but is not so low impact so is not so suitable if you have knee or other joint problems.
If you don't want to join a gym there are many other options to incorporate aerobic exercise into your life. You can exercise at home with DVD's. Some are great fun and include kick boxing, hip hop dancing, fitness ball workouts even exercise DVD's based on 60's, 70's or 80's music. Pick your favorites and dance off the pounds! There are many different types of dance classes you could join including jazz, salsa, flamenco etc that are all great for aerobic exercise.
Another alternative is to buy some running shoes and start power walking in your neighborhood or local park. Once you are fitter you can progress to jogging. Don't forget the exercise opportunities in your daily life. A great way to do aerobic exercises at home is to run up and down the stairs instead of walking!
How Often Should You Exercise for Maximum Weight Loss?
To have an effect on your weight you need to exercise for at least 45 minutes five times a week. At this rate, and combined with a healthy diet, you may start to see some results in about a month.
How Can You keep Motivated?
Aerobic exercising is a great way to lose weight if you keep it up so choose exercises that you find fun to do so you don't get bored and give up. Exercising with a friend is a good way to keep motivated. It's much easier to go out for a run if you arrange to do it regularly with a friend and help to motivate each other.
Conclusion
When combined with a healthy, low calorie diet aerobic exercising is an effective way to lose weight and improve your general health. It is easy to start an exercise routine but much tougher to keep it up so make sure you enjoy the type of exercise you have chosen so that you stay motivated and make an aerobic exercise routine part of your daily life.
image by Ed Yourdon
It seems that there's a product coming onto the market everyday claiming all sorts of things related to your health and weight loss. It might be some form of exercise equipment, pills, teas or even food. Sometimes there's so much talk of so-called "super foods" that's we lose track of good wholesome and nourishing foods that people have eaten for millennia. Let’s have a look at some of the different foods that claim to be great for weight loss.
Acai Berries
You can buy these from a number of different outlets in either fresh, frozen, dried, liquid or pill form. Lot’s of people are now taking them in pill form however you can cook with them and are great in smoothies, yoghurt and also ice cream. In addition to looking for foods that help you lose weight from your belly, you should also look at foods that can give your health a boost. Acai berries contain loads of antioxidants which are really important for your body as they help to combat free radicals that can damage your cells. Acai berries are even more packed with ant-oxidants than blue berries and pomegranates.
So how do these acai berries help you lose weight from your stomach and other parts of your body anyway? First off there’s the issue of Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs). Acai berries have a lot of both omega 3 and omega 6 and these are really good for general health and weight loss. Then there’s fiber which helps your digestion. The next thing that acai berries have are amino acids which is what our bodies use to build tissues within the body and to repair itself.
Goji Berries
There’s not a health food store in the land that doesn’t stock goji berries. They have really become very popular these days as a health food and weight loss-aid. Just like the acai berries, the goji berries contain fiber, amino acids, vitamins and antioxidants. If you buy them dried you can eat them as a snack whilst you are working instead of a chocolate bar. Alternatively you can buy goji berry juice, often referred to as Himalayan Goji Berry Juice.
Wheatgrass
There are different ways that you can take wheatgrass and one of them is to use the dehydrated form. Basically it expands in your stomach therefore leaving you less hungry. You can take the fresh wheatgrass juice which contains loads of enzymes, vitamins and minerals; however it doesn't expand in your stomach, which means some people say that the fresh wheatgrass isn't as effective for weight loss. However others say that because wheatgrass can help to normalize the thyroid gland, this can help with weight loss too.
Sea Kelp
Kelp has been quite a popular weight loss product for some time and most health foods shops will sell it. Apparently Sea Kelp helps with weight loss because it contains iodine which is good for improving the thyroid's function. However there are people who say that there is no deficiency in iodine in the Western diet therefore extra intake of it isn't needed. Now, if you like to be a bit more adventurous with your cooking, you could try and include kelp and other sea vegetables into your diet. It's very popular in different Asian dishes and it certainly doesn't seem to do them any harm. You can buy dried kelp from health food and Asian shops plus on the internet. You then rehydrate it and add it to soups, stews and other foods.
Hoodia Gordonii
If you are going to be buying faddy foods for weight loss you really need to be very careful about this product. Hoodia Gordonii is actually a cactus grown in South Africa which works as an appetite suppressant. The main problem with it is that there are many unscrupulous companies who are only interested in taking your money. Often what they sell doesn't even contain what they state on the label. It might be that the wrong part of the plant is used; not enough is used or that they don't contain any Hoodia Gordonii at all! Now, if you were to actually go to South Africa and eat a piece of fresh Hoodia Gordonii then you are more than likely going to experience a greatly reduced appetite. The problem is that in the West, you will probably spend a small fortune only to find you aren't getting the product you should.
So if you are looking for foods that can help you shed the fat from your belly, you can certainly try the above faddy foods, however you won't necessarily get better results compared to just eating healthily. Snaking on the Acai and Goji berries along with adding Kelp to your cooking probably will be pretty good for you. But don't expect to wake up the next morning with the perfectly flat stomach you always dreamed of. Instead, you should learn as much as you can about proper health and nutrition along with doing exercises. It might not sound as exciting but it will be much better for you in the long run.
It seems that nearly everyone in the Western world wants to lose at least some weight. Every magazine you pick up has a plethora of different diet tips claiming to help you lose x amount of weight in x amount of time or they'll tell you about some super duper new super food that has 10 times more antioxidants than the new super food releaved last month. It's all getting pretty ridiculous really. Let's just get back to basics why don't we?
The foods we eat today are largely because we've been brought up on it. In Japan a lot of people eat seaweed however for someone living in America or Europe eating seaweed is pretty strange and takes some getting used to. That is if you can even buy it locally. Therefore we end up eating basics like bread, milk, cheese and potatoes. The problem is that many of these foods aren't really all that good for us which is why we live in a nation full of obese people.
There are little changes you can make in your diet that can drastically increase your chances of losing weight but it won't require any dramatic alterations to your eating habits.
Change Pasta To Quinoa: We tend to all eat a lot of pasta. It's so simple, just stick it in a pan of boiling water and add heat up a jar of sauce. A meal in no time at all. However the problem with pasta is that it contains gluten and carbs that aren't very good for us. A simple replacement for pasta is quinoa (pronounced keen-wa). At first you might think that it's a type of grain however you'll find it interesting to learn that it is actually a seed from South America.
What's really fantastic about quinoa is that it contains roughly twice as much protein than rice and millet plus it has all the amino acids. Not to mention the soluble and insoluble fiber which really helps to keep you regular. There are loads of recipes on the internet that you can try and it's really easy to cook. So if you're looking to lose weight, are vegetarian or gluten intolerant then you should buy some quinoa then next time you're doing your grocery shopping.
Change Potatoes To Sweet Potatoes: If you've been doing any kind of reading up about the latest diets in recent years you'll know about the low GI or low GL diet. Basically it's all about eating foods that release their sugars slowly rather than quickly. This means that you won't get a spike of sugar in your blood and will feel energized. Many diabetics are advised to adhere to this type of diet too.
Anyway, if you've been eating large amounts of potatoes in the form of chips and fries it's time to switch to the sweet potato. Basically you can cook the two types of potato in much the same way but you'll gain the benefit of having the sugar released slowly, therefore helping with your weight loss efforts.
Sure you can try all these fancy different products that contain acai berries, goji berries, green tea and whatever else but ultimately you should simply look at making some small but significant changes to your diet. Always try to eat proper foods and if you want to take green tea for fat burning benefits, just buy the tea bags. Green tea is really tasty and not very expensive at all. If you don't like the taste of green tea you should look for varieties with flavours in it such as lemon, mint or jasmine. It's certainly a healthier alternative to sugary sodas!
