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Everyone is talking about the cookie diet made famous by its creator; Dr. Sanford Siegal. He is a medical doctor who has devised a weight loss plan based on “healthy cookies” and shakes as meal replacements. Similar in concept to the Slimfast Plan, the diet consists of eating 6 cookies a day and 1 healthy meal for dinner.
According to his star clients, this diet does work. He has had success with over 500,000 patients following his program. He uses his own special protein-based formula for his cookies which helps with appetite control. Protein and fiber helps you stay fuller longer. He even bakes the cookies in his own special bakery every day.
There are pros and cons to this diet however. The program is calorie restricted, the basis being 800-1000 calories per day. Your meals during the day are the cookies or a shake. This diet may work well for some, but will not work for everyone. If the cookies or shake doesn’t satisfy your appetite, you will be tempted to eat more which will add more calories. Anything that is too restrictive will be hard to follow.
Another major downside is that once the weight comes off, there is no plan in place to keep it off. This “cookie diet” does not stress any kind of exercise or long-term changes to eating habits. Once your eating habits return to normal, the weight will come back. in some cases, with other diets, people have gained back the original weight plus 10 more pounds.
While this diet does help some people lose weight, and some celebrities love it, the cookie diet is not suitable for everyone. Specifically, this diet is not suitable for people with Hypothyroidism or Insulin Sensitivity. Both of these conditions are medical conditions that not only make it hard to lose weight, but can actually make a person gain weight as well. This is because the metabolism is much slower than it should be. Restrictive dieting with not enough calories causes this already slow metabolism to slow down even further. That means that this diet would actually be ineffective for people with these conditions.
Pros: For many people, this diet does work. Featured on CNN “The Morning Show”, and Today Celebrities like the Kardashian sisters, Denise Richards, Ashlee Simpson and more all endorse this diet. These cookies are much better for you than other snack foods
Cons: At 800-1000 calories per day, it is much more restrictive than other diets. Many people find it difficult to eat something besides a healthy dinner and six cookies a day. The program does not cover weight maintenance or exercise Although the cookies do in fact, help curb hunger, they are not sweet cookies, and many people say they do not taste very good
If you want to find out more about these diet cookies, use the following link for a in depth review of Dr Siegal’s Cookie Diet. Or, check out another cookie diet reviews.
The promise of the Flex Belt is both intriguing and enticing. The system promises to allow anyone to tone their abdominal muscles while doing just about anything else, anywhere including lounging on the couch, sitting at work, or even sleeping. This lazy multitasking is obviously appealing, but unfortunately, is largely grounded in wishful thinking.
The Flex Belt serves to capitalize on a common misunderstanding about abdominals. The misunderstanding is based on the relationship between abdominal strength, which is measured by the size of the muscle, and the percentage of body fat, (BF%). Body fat is found between the muscles and skin. By wearing the belt 30 minutes a day, the Flex Belt is supposed to stimulate the muscles enough to flatten the stomach. However, these contractions are not as effective as old-fashioned crunches.
Everyone wants to have a flat stomach. And we’ve been told that muscle can turn into fat and fat can turn into muscle, right? Not quite. If your stomach is made up of 3 in. of fat, then under this theory, and the resulting muscle would also have to be 3 inches. Can you picture a 3 inch ab muscle? That’s a humongous increase, (for reference to try to picture 3 inch bicep muscle.) The human body simply does not work this way. To get any muscle this big would require extreme workouts and very mindful eating. This is impossible to do with the Flex Belt’s gentle EMS contractions.
EMS stands for Electronic Muscle Stimulation. That means it uses gentle electricity to stimulate your muscles. Although this stimulation might be strong enough to strengthen the underlying muscle, it is certainly not strong enough to reduce a person’s body fat.
If you really want toned, sexy abs, then there is no fancy substitute for plain old exercising and diet. Once you begin exercising, you’ll start to use up more calories than you consume. Then, you can’t help but lose weight. If you do exercises that concentrate on the abdominal muscles, then an attractive flat stomach isn’t far behind.
Lastly, the promotion of “cleared by the FDA” is misleading. FDA clearance constitutes a recognition of safety, not effectiveness. So while you won’t likely harm yourself using this device, you will also not see any major benefits
The flex belt can assist people who have a lower BF%. So if you want get more info, use the following link for more Flex Belt Reviews or check out other fitness based diets
Hoodia gordonii, commonly referred to as hoodia, is a plant from southern Africa that is reputed to be a natural appetite suppressant. The indigenous peoples of southern Africa have used the plant to reduce their need to eat on long hunting trips. Currently, many manufacturers are producing pills that claim to be pure hoodia and that will help you lose weight by suppressing your appetite. However, many of these pills do not contain authentic hoodia, but rather a type of filler. Why is this, and how can you find pure hoodia on the market?
Genuine Hoodia gordonii is an endangered plant. Like most endangered plants, government agencies have gotten involved with all aspects of it; like how much of it to sell and harvest. This ensures the continuation of species. Because authentic hoodia is so rare and costly, it leaves the market wide open for knockoffs. In other words, some unscrupulous manufacturers use fillers rather than pure hoodia. This fake hoodia won’t help you lose weight any more than a sugar pill.
Supplements are not well regulated by the FDA, so a supplement that claims it has Hoodia does not have to have genuine Hoodia Gordonii. The reason you want authentic Hoodia Gordonii is because of the chemical known as P57. P57 is what actually suppresses your appetite. so before you buy any Hoodia supplement, do your research.
The Better Business Bureau is a great place to start. Since they keep records of companies with complaints against them, they will have records of complaints from people saying which companies are selling imitation Hoodia. These are the companies you do NOT want to buy from. As for the companies that are not listed, contact the company, and ask questions. The answers you are trying to determine is whether or not they use pure hoodia. Hoodia gordonii is only one of the two that is proven successful in suppressing the appetite. The other has no effect. Look for hoodia gordonii on the label.
With just a little investigation, you’ll find out which company sells real hoodia gordonii and which ones just sell filler. Obviously, authentic hoodia gordonii costs more than fillers, but why would you want to spend your money on a filler that does absolutely nothing? If you decide that hoodia is for you, make sure you only buy real hoodia gordonii.
When you are trying to lose weight, there are only 2 methods that will work. Reduce your calories by exercising in such a way that you know the exact number of calories burned (like on an elliptical machine) and reduce your intake of food. Your goal is a ratio producing a daily intake of less than 1200 calories. Do this everyday and you will lose weight; a cleansing patch or detox program will simply not work.
The Cleanse Patch is a mixture of three extracts; Agaricus Mushroom, Eucalyptus Sap and Tourmaline. Tourmaline is a combination of minerals in the silicate family which can help alkalize and add density to water. So perhaps the theory is Tourmaline would draw out the water in your body and like a diuretic by getting rid of an ounce or two. But you need water in your body, so this is not an answer to losing weight.
Now you may have already heard of Eucalyptus, it’s that stuff that those adorable koala bears eat. Eucalyptus is also the main ingredient for mentholated chest rubs for stuffy noses and also works well as a key ingredient in bug repellents. Because Eucalyptus has a reputation for being a ‘purifier’, the theory is that it can help rid your body of impurities By drawing them out through the feet. Even if this theory works, it’s not going to help you lose weight.
The Agaricus Mushroom is something you may not recognize by name, but you’ve probably seen one. It’s the most common of all the fungi, Agaricus can be good to eat or it can be poisonous; it comes in both varieties. Agaritine, the main ingredient in a mushroom, is a well known carcinogen that dies when exposed to heat. There is nothing about this mushroom that would suggest it being a good ingredient to help you lose weight, either in the foot patch, or when eaten.
In conclusion, no kind of detox patch or any other fad diet will help you lose weight. In fact, you already know the way to lose weight if you think about it. You lose weight by eating right and exercising. Although these patches do turn dark when they are left on the skin for long periods of time, that might not be due to impurities being drawn out of your system but rather due to a mineral reaction that happens when they are exposed to air. (Similar to the way mushrooms turn dark when you leave them out.) The only way to really get rid of excess weight is with proper eating and getting enough physical activity.
Jillian Michaels is the popular, no-nonsense physical trainer on The Biggest Loser whose past three pink contestants have been crowned the show’s champion. Jillian has created an online program based on her knowledge that is aimed at those fans of the show who wish to change their lives by losing weight and achieving a more active, healthy lifestyle. So is the online program as effective as the show?
Wanting to improve your health is the first step to any successful weight loss program. This is the motivator behind the TV show “The Biggest Loser”. However, you have a better chance of winning the lottery than you do of actually getting on that show. While people on the show have all their meals planned out for them, the best equipment, doctors, and not one, but two trainers to motivate them, those of us out here in the ‘real world’ don’t have any of that. Is it possible to lose 110, 112 or even 140 lb by doing it on your own?
Still, as the contestants that have gone home early and lost amazing amounts of weight have proven, it is possible to do it on your own. Jillian Michaels provides you with a customized plan and interactive tools to help you achieve your goal. While she won’t be there to push you in the flesh, her “tough love” attitude is evident in this online program.
Rather than forcing you into a little premade whole based on “the average”, Jillian Michaels diet program starts with a questionnaire. The questionnaire asks you about your height, age, weight, and lifestyle, including what exercises you enjoy and what exercises you do, the foods you love and your body type. It even takes into account past injuries. Then she gives you instant results showing your body type, and the best exercise and food choices for you.
Of course, like any diet program there is a small fee to use it, about four dollars a week. That’s really not such a huge amount when you think about the money it cost to join gyms and other similar programs. For some people, this might be just the thing they’re looking for. Once you join the program, you get access to all sorts of things like online buddies, advice from Jillian, information on behavior modifications, calorie calculators, meal plans recipes, fitness advice videos and printable exercises. Of course, before starting any exercise program you should consult your doctor, and wearing that pink shirt might not hurt either.
The Flex Belt sounds too good to be true; just wear it while you’re doing anything, sitting, cleaning the house or even sleeping, and it will tone your abs and shrink your stomach. True, it sounds like a miracle, but like many other things that are too good to be true, it’s simply not true.
The Flex Belt serves to capitalize on a common misunderstanding about abdominals. The misunderstanding is based on the relationship between abdominal strength, which is measured by the size of the muscle, and the percentage of body fat, (BF%). Body fat is found between the muscles and skin. By wearing the belt 30 minutes a day, the Flex Belt is supposed to stimulate the muscles enough to flatten the stomach. However, these contractions are not as effective as old-fashioned crunches.
In the context of developing what are traditionally seen as more lithe, sexy stomach muscles, the body fat percentage is vastly more important. If you have a gut that is three inches of fat, your abs would need to be around that same width to reform the outlying fat deposits. Consider your bicep: if it was three inches thicker, wouldn’t that be a substantial increase? This scale of bulking would require intense workouts and supplementation in any muscle, unachievable with a carefree diet and the gentle contractions powered by the Flexbelt’s EMS. Size increase by such a magnitude is not only unrealistic in the abdominals in even hardcore training conditions, but would ultimately result in a grotesque and distended stomach shape because the overall structure of the human body does not support this kind of growth.
EMS stands for Electronic Muscle Stimulation. That means it uses gentle electricity to stimulate your muscles. Although this stimulation might be strong enough to strengthen the underlying muscle, it is certainly not strong enough to reduce a person’s body fat.
The actual, effective path to toned abs is paved with work and dietary consideration. The simple equation of calorie intake versus calorie output is the primary guideline to follow to see real and rapid results. If you output more energy than you take in from food, your body will be forced to power the difference by metabolizing fat.
“Cleared by the FDA” is the label you will see on this as product. The manufacturers are hoping you think this means that the product has been approved by the FDA for its stated use. However, in reality, all the FDA checked was its safety. Therefore, the product is safe, but still does not work as described.
It’s a sad statistic — people all over the world, not just in civilized countries, are getting fatter and fatter. And the heavier people get, the more difficult it becomes for them to shed the weight. It may be easy to find diet programs and exercise regimens in the market, but fitting any of these into your lifestyle and schedule can be difficult and expensive at best.
Thankfully, the Fat Burning Furnace program is a cut above the rest. This dieting program doesn’t make its droves of satisfied followers starve throughout the day, slave through the gym, or take dubious diet pills. The program was developed by a young couple who, after being frustrated by their own weight problems, decided to take it upon themselves to find out why most diet programs kept failing. This is when they realized that most diet programs are poorly prepared, often with misleading information!
Perhaps the greatest appeal to Fat Burning Furnace is its strong base of successful users. The young couple who founded Fat Burning Furnace have been strong advocates for their weight-loss program. Their own success has led to thousands of people to try this program, and with great success. Fat Burning Furnace makes it easy for just about anyone to lose the weight they want, all while being able to live a normal and healthy lifestyle.
Fat Burning Furnace works in a unique way in that it does not involve using extreme dieting measures or exercise. Instead, Fat Burning Furnace requires you to eat certain kinds of food at certain times of the day. Foods that are filling and nutritious and focus on bringing your body the nutrients it needs. The trick to eating the right foods with Fat Burning Furnace is to separate the good fats from the bad fats. These are easily confused, which often leads to diet failure. Fat Burning Furnace shows you how to identify the good fats in foods, while steering clear of the bad fats.
When it comes to exercise, the Fat Burning Furnace doesn’t necessarily involve hard exercise. Some light physical activities are enough, especially those that get dieters moving. These exercises only need to be done a few times weekly, and dieters love the fact that the exercises don’t get in the way of work.
Ultimately, you’ll notice the Fat Burning Furnace does more than just help you lose weight — it also boosts your immune system, preventing common illnesses. It also shapes your ab muscles, as well as letting you enjoy more energy throughout the day.
Slim Seduction — The History Behind It
Dieting women have likely heard of Slim Seduction, a pill that allegedly helps women lose weight and increase their sex drive at the same time. It started out only as a sexual aid, but soon modified its name after users began reporting measures of weight loss. Now Slim Seduction also claims to work against cellulite. The diet pill is being developed by Global Nutritional Sciences, who has been in the dietary supplement industry for 10 years.
How Slim Seduction Works
Users are asked to take three pills twice a day, most preferably thirty minutes prior to a meal or workout. Global Nutritional Sciences claims that the unique combination of Slim Seduction’s ingredients alter the body’s mechanisms to encourage weight loss.
Ingredients
Let’s take the first Slim Seduction main ingredient — citrus aurantium, or bitter orange. This ingredient has similar effects to those of ephredine, the banned dieting ingredient — they’re both stimulants with certain questionable effects on the health. Bitter orange is suspected of aggravating or increasing the risk of arrhythmias, high blood pressure, and strokes. While the ingredient is approved for commercial use, it hasn’t really been backed up by science to help people lose weight.
On the other hand, some of Slim Seduction’s more widely-accepted ingredients include green tea extract, which is known for its stimulant properties, its high levels of antioxidants, and its ability to make users feel more energetic. These help dieters take in less food — they’ll feel full after significantly smaller servings — which brings about weight loss on its own. Green tea also boosts the metabolism, which helps the body burn fat even when not working out.
Two ingredients in Slim Seduction round out its ingredient list — guarana and yerba mate, two herbs from South Africa. Both these ingredients contain caffine, making them stimulants. While guarana hasn’t been proven to help weight loss, Yerba mate has enjoyed a certain popularity in weight loss products and dietary supplements owing to its tendency to suppress hunger. The only problem here is that the makers of Slim Seduction claim that the pill can get rid of excess fat stores in the body, which unfortunately is an unfounded promise.
But these bold claims aside, green tea and yerba mate are still forces to be reckoned with when it comes to weight loss, and have many loyal fans. Some of Slim Seduction’s ingredients may also help out in the overall effort — calcium can help with fat burn, while Dandelion extract has diuretic properties. But with everything said and done, none of the ingredients mentioned above have been proven to actually boost libido.
Consumer Feedback
Consumers have claimed about the exaggerated claims made by Slim Seduction and though some have reported losing weight, this is likely due to daily exercise and dietary changes. However, many have stated that the product has assisted them with resisting cravings and eliminating between meal snacking. A common complaint among Slim Seduction users is being charged for the free trail and having difficulties canceling their orders.
For more information, use the following link to read a full review on Slim Seduction. Not interested in Slim Seduction?, read other diet supplement reviews
What is the Slendertone Flex Belt and how does it work?
The Flex Belt is a new device that forces your abdominal muscles to contract, trimming inches from your middle even when you’re not working out. It stimulates your muscles through EMS, or electric muscle stimulation. The device is worn around the stomach, with gel-pad electrodes directly on the skin. When the Flex Belt is turned on, small electrical charges force muscle contraction. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration have cleared EMS devices for a long time now, and the Flex Belt is on the list. It’s a class II medical device, and is only bought over-the-counter as a device for muscle toning.
Slendertone Flex Belt Pros
- The Flex Belt can be used anytime, anywhere. It doesn’t require any exercise to do its job.
- Purchaser can return the product within 60 days and a warranty covers faulty electrical equipment.
- The device is rechargeable, meaning you can use it indefinitely. You can also trim down your arms and bum with special add-on equipment.
- The device is actually approved by the FDA!
Slendertone Flex Belt Cons
- It can be pretty expensive — it comes off the shelf at around $200. You’ll also need to replace the gel-pads after you use them 30 times (that’s once a month if you put the Flex Belt on everyday), and they cost an extra $15.
- If your midsection is exceptionally large, the device might not fit you in the first place.
Slendertone Flex Belt Warnings!
- Those who should not use the Flex Belt include: individuals with pacemakers or implanted electronic or metallic devices such as defibrillators and stents. As well as diabetics requiring insulin and individuals with cancer.
- Pregnant women should not use the Flex Belt and after pregnancy women should wait 6 weeks, those who had cesareans should wait at least 3 months. To be sure you are fully healed speak to your doctor first.
- Some individuals suffer mild burns from Flex Belt use.
How Does the Slendertone Flex Belt Work?
The Flex Belt device has three gel pads that target the oblique and abdominal muscles. You can control the intensity of the contractions with a range of 1-100. As you get used to the intensity, you can amp it up and get even more muscle workout. You may feel a gentle pulsation during use, and your abdominal muscles may be a little sore after the first few tries. The frequency of use depends on how much you’d like to tone your ab muscles, but the device is generally worn 30 minutes everyday for 4-8 weeks. To maintain muscle tone, the device may be worn 2-3 times a week afterwards.
Remember that the Flex Belt is meant to be used to tone the abdominal muscles only. It doesn’t encourage fat burn and doesn’t burn excess calories. If you’d like to accomplish these, maintain a healthy diet and get lots of regular exercise.
For more information on how to trim your tummy, use the following link for the Slendertone Flex Belt or consider reading other diet supplement reviews
If you’re actively dieting, then you’ve probably heard of the new diet pill NuPhedrine and the raves that follow it. NuPhedrine’s manufacturers claim that the diet pill’s three potent ingredients — Advantra-Z, Hoodia, and Slimaluma — can burn calories quickly and increase endurance at the same time. There’s also the tempting claim that it’s free from any and all side effects. Their Web site doesn’t have any less promotion, but the “before and after” testimonials can be a little tricky to verify — sometimes it’s hard to tell whether the person in the two photos are the same person. Is NuPhedrine really everything it says it is? Let’s look into its ingredients more closely.
Hoodia Gordonii
Hoodia is a cactus-like plant that naturally occurs in South Africa and Namibia and has a bitter-tasting flavor. Its use in weight loss supplements stems from its use by bushmen, to suppress hunger while out on extended hunting trips. The ingredient in hoodia responsible for appetite suppression, p57 has been isolated. However, no clinical studies have been done to back up these appetite suppression claims. Though NuPhedrine does have a certificate verifying that their product is made with real South African hoodia, there is no way to know if the product contains the active ingredient without testing from an independent laboratory. That also means there is no way of knowing if the product contains a large enough portion to affect hunger.
What’s more, no one really knows whether hoodia has any side effects or not. Pharmaceutical heavyweight Prizer once tried (and failed) to develop the hoodia exclusively, citing the difficulty of developing the plant and suspicions that it may cause liver problems. Only bushmen have used the plant extensively, so no one really knows how people from other continents react to it. So stay safe and avoid hoodia if you’re suffering from any problems of the kidney and liver. It’s also inadvisable if you’re nursing or pregnant, are underage, or if you’re suffering from diabetes. Hoodia may cause drops in blood sugar levels, bringing about dangerous dehydration in diabetics.
Advantra-Z
This is synephrine’s, or bitter orange’s, patented version — it has vitamins and some protein thrown into the mix. Bitter orange is a stimulant like ephedrine, and also makes you feel less hungry. Bitter orange has taken the place of ephredine in the diet supplement scene after the latter got banned. NuPhedrine manufacturers insist that Advantra-Z doesn’t have caffeine or ephedra, but bitter orange still has the same side effects, such as spiking the blood pressure.
Slimaluma
Slimaluma is a more standard form of another cactus-like plant, India’s caralluma fimbriata. Like hoodia, it’s been used to suppress hunger by Indians for hundreds of years. Some small scientific studies have been made on slimaluma and has confirmed the plant’s tendency to suppress hunger and burn fat. More substantial studies have to be done, though, both to support caralluma fimbriata’s weight loss benefits and find out whether it really is free of side effects.
Eventhough the feedback for this supplement is good, you should still read a full review of NuPhedrine. Also be sure to read other diet supplement reviews
