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Do Low Carb Diets Lower Blood Pressure?

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Researchers set out to compare the effectiveness of two different weight loss plans available to everyone. The two plans included a low carbohydrate diet and a low fat diet plus Orlistat. Orlistat is a drug designed to prevent the absorption of dietary fat, such as the brand names include Xenical and Alli.

Participants were selected at the Department of Veterans Affairs primary care clinics. The 146 participants received instructions and followed either a low carbohydrate diet or a low fat diet with Orlistat and were monitored for 48 weeks. Some of the factors researchers monitored included body weight, blood pressure, fasting serum lipid, and blood sugar levels.

Study results found weight loss to be similar between the two groups at approximately 9% body weight. Researchers found the low carbohydrate diet resulted in a lower blood pressure for participants when compared to the low fat diet with Orlistat. The low carb diet lowered systolic blood pressure on average 5.9 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure 4.5 mm Hg.

Triglycerides and HDL cholesterol improved for individuals on each diet, while LDL cholesterol improved only for those on the low fat plus Orlistat diet. Glycemic parameters, such as glucose, insulin, and hemoglobin A1C only improved for low carbohydrate diet participants … although the difference between groups was not significant.

Researchers have also analyzed the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) Diet alone and when combined with an exercise and weight managements plan and the effect on blood pressure. When the DASH Diet was combined with a weight management and exercise plan it resulted in a 16.1 mm Hg reduction in systolic blood pressure versus an 11.2 mm Hg drop with the DASH diet alone. The average weight loss over a 4 month period for individuals following the DASH diet with an exercise / weight management plan was 19 pounds versus less than 1 pound for the diet alone.

A third option evaluated is an Internet weight-management program versus a physician-managed program. This study followed obese individuals and included a liquid diet component, structured diet, behavioral counseling, and diet medications. Results show the intensive physician-managed program to be more successful with 31 percent of participants losing more than 5 percent of their body weight versus just 9 percent of the Internet group.

When it comes to losing weight on your journey to blood pressure control, what's most important is you pick a plan and stick to if for the long term if you want consistent results.

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Source by Lisa Nelson

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Embrace a Good Diet and Forget About Suffering!

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To some extent, most of us would say that there is no such thing as a “good” diet. Why we would think such positive things about a word that invokes feelings of torture and suffering? If a diet was so easy, we would all be fit and healthy-right?

Despite what you may think, a diet doesn’t have to be all rabbit food and no fun. There are ways you can still achieve a healthy lifestyle, and still be happy with your diet plan. Here’s how:

1. Do Your Research

Instead of diving head-first into a plan that starves you and your body of essential nutrients, look for a diet that satisfies your hunger, while giving your body the proper foods it needs.

Calories are important when it comes to weight loss, but you need to have a certain amount daily, depending on your metabolic rate and your current activity levels. Before starting on any diet, it’s important that you speak with your physician or a weight loss specialist in order to determine if the diet you’ve selected is right for you.

A good diet will also promote healthy weight loss, not rapid weight loss. Rapid weight loss plans are the ones that promise double digit weight loss in a matter of just days or weeks. This type of weight loss is not healthy, and is not an appropriate solution to managing your long-term goals and needs.

Speaking of these over-the-top promises…

2. Keep Reality in Focus!

Don’t expect to lose weight by strictly just working out at the gym six days a week, or only eating one meal per day. Instead of giving you the desired weight loss results you are looking for, this type of plan will do the opposite.

Intense exercise without a proper diet can lead to a lot of serious health problems, including: dehydration, malnutrition, headaches, dizziness, and even hair loss! You also won’t lose any weight simply because your body will take in any calories it consumes and store it as fat.

You need to eat at least three meals a day if you are going to maintain a good diet. Our body uses nutrition from food as energy. If our body doesn’t get this needed energy from food, it will get the energy it needs from muscular and cellular tissues instead.

This is why so many fasting diets and starvation diets make the person feel energy depleted and tired. They aren’t getting enough nutrition from their diet.

Keep reality as a priority, and never try to lose more weight than your body can handle.

3. Track Your Goals and Stay Motivated

If you want to stick with a good diet, it’s always important that you keep your goals handy.

Don’t say you are going to achieve something: write it down!

Putting it on paper and tracking your weight loss week by week will help you maintain your initial motivation. If need be, make a big calendar where you can simply pull the pages away, day by day, and week after week. This will also make the whole process go by a lot faster, and seem a lot less painless.

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Source by Amanda J. Paul

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A Healthy Way to Diet and Lose Weight

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There are numerous weight loss products available today, and all of them claim to be the answer to your weight loss and diet problems. Many of these diet and weight loss products make unreasonable claims of being the answer to rapid weight loss, though rarely do these products actually fulfill their claims.

What you need is a healthy way to diet and lose weight; this is the only sure method of getting rid of those extra pounds and keeping them off. One of the reasons that most diets fail is because they are too restrictive in one way or another. These types of diets restrict your calorie intake, carbohydrates, or fat, and when a diet is this restrictive you are setting yourself up for failure. You may lose weight, as long as you are on the diet, but not only are these types of diets very tough to stick to, but you will likely gain all the weight back, as soon as you stop the diet.

The only true answer to permanent weight loss is a healthy diet and weight loss program that allows you the nutrition that your body needs, and increases your metabolism. Without this, any weight loss you manage could be temporary, and when you do gain the weight back, you may end up weighing more than when you started.

The best way to lose weight is the old fashion way, by eating lower calorie meals that are nutritious, and by exercising to build your muscle and increase your metabolism. This is one of the reasons why exercise is so important to weight loss; not only does the activity help you burn calories, but if you are building muscle, you are increasing your metabolism, which will help you burn even more calories.

If you want a healthy way to diet and lose weight, your first step should be to find out what your normal weight should be, and then use a calorie calculator to research how many calories you will have to cut in order to reach your weight loss goal. Your second step should be a good exercise routine that includes both a cardio workout, and a muscle-strengthening workout. If you do this you will begin to lose weight, both from cutting calories, and from increasing your metabolism.

Before starting a new diet or exercise program it is best to consult your doctor about your weight loss plans.

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Source by Alex Hawk