Diets And Weight Loss

Jessica Alba
From the early age of 12 Jessica Alba decided to modify her diet so she wouldn't follow in the foot steps of her heavily overweight family. She eats a balanced diet and shies away from eating carbs to keep her body in svelte shape for many of her more revealing roles.

Jessica sticks to a diet of lean meats, vegetables, egg whites and cottage cheese, and snacks on dried fruit and frozen yogurt to satisfy her sweet tooth.

Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer stays fit by exercising and eating a balanced diet. Everything in moderation is her motto! She doesn't drink alcohol at all and When she does need to lose weight she cuts back on her carbs.

Jennifer incorporates regular cardio and weight resistance training into her life. I suppose with no hangover to deal with, she's always in top form for an exercise routine..

Oprah
The queen of celebrity weight loss. She avoids carbs like the plague, including bread, rice, pasta and potatoes. She also works out everyday - she's testament to the fact that dieting isn't easy, but if you work hard you can do it.

Oprah said recently, "My one regret in life is wasting years trying to control my weight." Well it looks like she has it all figured out now.

Heidi Klum
Heidi lost 30lbs in the first 6 months after her pregnancy. How did she stay motivated?

She took photographs of herself in the buff every week, to keep track of the way her body was changing!

Angelina Jolie
A strict protein-rich diet of lean meats and fish, plus lots and lots of water. Eating more high quality protein is one celebrity diet tip that we should all take note of.

Angelina has also dined on cockroaches, crickets and bee larvae - all excellent sources of protein. However, we don't all need to go that far to stay slim!

Janet Jackson
Janet's dramatic weight loss in 2006 captured the attention of the world. Besides a full exercise routine, she has a personal nutritionist who determines her diet.

She drinks 2-3 custom-tailored liquid meals each day, containing all the nutrients she needs. As her diet progressed, she introduced vegetables, berries and frozen fruit.

Christie Brinkley
Christie keeps all junk food out of the house. When she wants to snack, its on sweet potatoes, not sweets!

Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon controls her calories and portions by eating jars of baby food. It's a great idea as top quality baby food is tasty and nutritionally dense. It's also very convenient as a snack - take it with you when you're on the go.

Marcia Cross is another fan - instead of eating fruit candy, follow her lead and replace it with a healthy pot of strawberry-banana puree.

Ashley Judd
The star of A Time To Kill and De-Lovely eats no dairy at all. Her celebrity diet starts each day with hot water and lemon, and she puts Soya milk in her cereal.

Claudia Schiffer
Eats nothing but fruit before noon. She has a light dinner of salad and steamed vegetables, and snacks on tomato juice, black grapes and herbal tea. She sticks to 3 meals a day to keep a healthy metabolism.

Demi Moore
Demi drinks herbal tea to curb her appetite. And she stays healthy by taking vitamins with her tea between meals.

Jennifer Aniston
The Zone. She lost 30lbs by cutting out mayonnaise, sandwiches and fried food. She is also a yoga fanatic.

Drew Barrymore
Drew sticks to a sensible 3 meals a day, and snacks on Diet Coke or low fat Jell-O when she's hungry. For exercise she makes sure that she enjoys herself - by going jogging, dancing and playing crazy golf!

Fergie
With such a busy schedule Fergie orders her meals delivered by Diet Designs. She also forces down 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar each day. This home remedy tonic has been used for 10,000 years for a variety of health problems. It is also thought to speed metabolism, break down fat and even block fat formation.

Tori Spelling
Tori Spelling gained 40 pounds from her recent pregnancy. She has already dramatically dropped it all and then some, thanks to the new advanced Nutrasystem plan. She loves the taste, diversity, and convenience of this diet plan and is now the celebrity spokesmodel for The Nutrasystem Diet.

Source: modeldietplan.com

Being obese can increase the risk of Alzheimer's Disease by as much as 80 percent, according to a study published Wednesday in the May issue of Obesity Reviews.

But it's not just weight gain that poses a risk. People who are underweight also have an elevated risk of dementia, unlike people who are normal weight or overweight, said the research papers.

U.S. researchers carried out a detailed review of 10 international studies published since 1995, covering just over 37,000 people, including 2,534 with various forms of dementia. Subjects were aged between 40 and 80 years when the studies started, with follow-up periods ranging from three to 36 years.

All kinds of dementia were included, with specific reference to Alzheimer's Disease and to vascular dementia -- where areas of the brain stop functioning because the blood vessels that supply them are damaged by conditions such as high blood pressure or heart disease.

"Our analysis showed that obesity increased the relative risk of dementia, for both sexes, by an average of 42 percent when compared with normal weight," says Youfa Wang, lead researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "And being underweight increased the risk by 36 percent."

"But when we looked specifically at Alzheimer's Disease, the increased risk posed by obesity was 80 percent. The increased risk for people with vascular dementia was 73 percent," said the authors.

The detailed analysis clearly shows a "U-shaped" relationship between weight and dementia, with people who are obese or underweight facing a greater risk, they concluded. "We believe that our results show that reducing the prevalence of obesity is a promising strategy for preventing the progression of normal aging into Alzheimer's Disease."

Source xinhuanet.com

Avoid these 5 types of diets for best weight loss results:

1. Diets that focus on only a few foods or food groups (like the cabbage soup diet, grapefruit diet, strict vegan diets, raw food diets, and many low-carb diets). Beware of any diet that rules out entire food groups. People need to eat from a variety of food groups to get all the nutrients they need, says ADA spokeswoman Andrea Giancoli, MPH, RD.

Yale University's David Katz, MD, author of The Flavor Point Diet, says that while restrictive diets do work initially, they fail over the long haul. You can lose weight on diets that focus on single foods (like cabbage soup), but how much cabbage soup can a person eat? Before long, you grow weary of eating the same foods every day, and cravings for favorite foods lead you back to your former eating behavior.

Keep in mind that all foods can fit into a healthy lifestyle in moderation -- even things like bacon, super-premium ice cream, and chips. And when diets forbid certain foods and dieters envision a life without their favorite treats, those diets usually fail. "Any time you restrict a certain food, it triggers cravings for the forbidden fruit and sets up a restriction-binge cycle," says Blatner.

And what about restrictive diets that offer a rewarding "cheat day"? May labels them "absurd."

"It just doesn't make sense to try to be perfect (whatever that is) on Sunday to Friday while obsessing about everything you are going to eat on Saturday," she says.

2. "Detox" diets (like Master Cleanse, the Hallelujah Diet, and The Martha's Vineyard Diet Detox). Extreme regimens calling for procedures like liver flushes, bodily cleanses, colonics, hormone injections, and more are highly suspect, experts say.

"All the flushes and cleanses are pure nonsense, unnecessary, and there is no scientific basis for these recommendations," says Pamela Peeke, MD, chief medical correspondent for the Discovery Health channel. "Your body is well equipped with organs, such as the liver and kidneys, and the immune system, to rid itself of potential toxins and does an excellent job of cleansing itself without needing flushes or cleanses."

3. Diets with 'miracle' foods or ingredients (like supplements, fructose water, bitter orange, green tea, apple cider vinegar). Dieters are always searching for the food, pill, or potion that will help them lose weight, but unfortunately, there are no such miracle ingredients. "No one single food or group of foods eaten together or at a certain time of day has any impact on weight loss," notes May.

Be leery of any plan that recommends a shelf full of supplements, enzymes, or potions (especially if you purchase them from the diet book author or company).

"You don't need expensive supplements," says Blatner. "If you want to take a once daily multivitamin for nutritional insurance, that is fine, but otherwise, we recommend you get your nutrients from food."

4. Fasting and very low-calorie diets (like the "Skinny" vegan diet, Hollywood Diet, and Master Cleanse). Fasting has been a cultural and religious tradition for centuries, and is fine for a day or so, but fasting for weight loss is counterproductive, Giancoli explains.

"When you ... consume too few calories, your body thinks it is starving and adjusts the metabolism," she says. "But when you go back to eating normally, your metabolism doesn't readjust and therefore you need fewer calories than before -- otherwise known as the yo-yo syndrome."

What's worse, weight loss during a fast is usually a combination of fat, fluid, and muscle, but the pounds regained will probably be all fat. Not convinced yet? Giancoli says you won't feel good, nor will you have much energy to be physically active while fasting.

And what about very low-calorie diets? Blatner say that diets promising losses of more than a half to 1 pound per week are simply not realistic.

"When you see diet books touting 5, 10 or 15 pounds in a short period of time, it is unrealistic," says Blatner. Depending on how much you have to lose, you may experience some initial water loss. But over time, weight loss averages out to around a pound per week, she says.

5. Diets that sound too good to be true (like The Weight Loss Cure 'They' Don't Want You to Know About.) If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Diet plans that claim to have a "secret," that make dramatic statements against respected health authorities, or make recommendations that contradict those of scientific organizations are suspect.

Source: webmd.com