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Are you the type who keeps trying to lose weight but keeps failing? Have you tried all sorts of diet programs but never seem to succeed? Well, you may have habits that ruin everything. Or you just picked up a wrong diet program filled with misconceptions. Here are some tips that may break the cycle for you.

1. Don’t starve yourself. Starving yourself never works. Your body is smarter than you think. You may lose some weight the first couple of days. But as soon as your body realizes your eating less, it will go into “save mode” and will drastically lower your metabolism. It will conserve the minimal food you eat and burn less calories for your activities. Instead, eat in small quantities frequently. This will prevent you from overeating.
2. Eat more fruits and veggies. Make fruits and vegetables a staple in your daily diet. Consuming more fiber is not only good for your health, but it also fills you up more than sweets or junk food. Soda and junk food are loaded with so much sugar and saturated fats — there is no question that you will gain weight that would be so difficult to lose if you take them regularly.
3. Not all food and drinks labeled as low fat or low cal or diet are good for your weight loss program. Diet soda inhibits the hormone leptin that regulates metabolism and appetite. Fruit juices, cereal bars, yogurt, rice cakes, and granola bars actually have high calories and sugar that aren’t really weight busters. Watch the dressing in your salad too.

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Most of us are watching what we eat and exercising. Yet, losing weight has been difficult, if not near impossible. Well, there may be things or habits that we do that keep us from achieving our goals.

1. Get more sleep. Studies show that your glucose levels can rise with only 4 to 7 hours of sleep every night. Though new parents are excluded, everyone else should try to get at least 8 hours of sleep as often as possible. Every hour of rest before 12 a.m. is twice as valuable as the hours after midnight because our cortisol levels are lowest before midnight making recovery better.

2. Eat fewer refined and processed foods. Try to avoid fast and fried food and consume as many real foods. It’s also imperative to get enough fiber for better elimination — fruits and veggies are a great way to fill up without the extra calories.

3. Avoid drinks loaded with sugar and get more water. Water is best for digestion, eliminating toxins in the body, and transporting important nutrients to our cells which need energy to burn calories.

4. Cook your own food. I may take more work, but the truth is we eat out or order in too often. We have more control on what we eat if we cook it ourselves.

5. Slow down when eating. Don’t wolf down when eating. The monks chew each bite of food 100 times, but they also eat only until they are full. They recognize that chewing their food more makes it easier for the body to digest.

6. Breathe. Practice proper and regular breathing. Close your eyes, pull that air deep into your stomach via your nose and let all the junk out through your mouth. Whether its a stressful day, or you just want to start and end your day on the right foot, breathing is important.

7. Don’t starve yourself. Not eating is the worst diet program. It tells our body to slow metabolism. And don’t skip breakfast because people who skip breakfast are over 4 times more likely to be overweight.

8. Exercise regularly. Even with a work out program or a diet program, everything has to be balanced. You cannot lose weight with just one. And it always help to keep a positive outlook — try to keep stress out of your life.

As obesity continues to rise worldwide, a new gadget was created to help those determined to lose weight or keep track of their calorie consumption. BodyBugg keeps track of the number of calories one can burn daily or by the minute. It facilitates the weight loss programs that many are practicing. It is tied to the arm and measures skin temperature, air temperature, motion, and perspiration.

The Bodybugg can be personalized to include your weight loss goals. The date is uploaded to your PC and a push of a button on the device will reveal your progress. It is also uploaded to your online profile and you can see minute by minute profile weight loss and calorie burning progress. It sounds like a great device for those intending to watch those calories. However, the catch is the price. It ranges $250 and $350 dollars, depending on the program one may choose to purchase. Moreover, the device and the program is subscription-based. You need internet access and your subscription needs to be current. The full BodyBugg program can cost up to $400 dollars, including only 3 months of subscription and the device.

For something this expensive, I believe it should be able to make you lose weight effectively without lifting a finger. I doubt the device will gain popularity because of the price. It doesn’t directly make you lose weight — it merely monitors your progress in your weight loss program. You still do all the hard work, not to mention the fact that it may end up discouraging a subscriber from pursuing his goal if the current program being undertaken does not produce positive results.

Losing weight is a difficult process. It takes a lot of hard work and determination. A slight obstacle such as delayed results could make anyone frustrated. When I do take on a new weight loss goal, I usually delay monitoring of my progress until I am certain I have lost a considerable amount of weight. I get discouraged easily and it wouldn’t work for me doing regularly monitoring. Well, good luck to those who feel the Bodybugg will work for them.

Studies have shown that starving yourself doesn’t really work in losing weight. It will always have you craving more food later in the day and you end up eating more than you should. Rather than starvng yourself, take in food that increase your body’s ability to burn calories and curb your cravings. Here are food suggested by experts to help you trim down fat faster than eating less.

1. Quinoa - It packs both fiber (2.6 grams per 1/2 cup) and protein, a combo that can keep you satisfied for hours.

2. Steak - Beef is known to be a diet buster, but eating it may actually help you peel off pounds. In a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, women on a diet that included red meat lost more weight than those eating equal calories but little beef. The protein in steak helps you retain muscle mass during weight loss. Eat it grilled or broiled together with your salad or some veggies.

3. Eggs - Women on a low-calorie diet who ate an egg with toast and jelly each morning lost twice as many pounds as those who had a bagel breakfast with the same number of calories but no eggs. Egg protein is filling, so you eat less later in the day.

4. Kale - One raw chopped cup contains 34 calories and about 1.3 grams of fiber, as well as a hearty helping of iron and calcium. If you have problems with kale’s earthy flavor, you can take spinach as an alternative.

5. Goji berries - These berries have a hunger-curbing edge over other fruit. It has 18 amino acids, which make them a surprising source of protein and contain more beta-carotene than carrots with a calorie cost of only 35 per tablespoon. Snack on them midafternoon to stay satisfied until dinner.

6. Buckwheat pasta - Buckwheat is high in fiber and, unlike most carbs, contains protein. Those two nutrients make it very satiating, so it’s harder to overeat buckwheat pasta than the regular stuff.

7. Almond butter - Adding this spread may lower bread’s glycemic index (a measure of a food’s effect on blood sugar). A study from the University of Toronto found that people who ate almonds with white bread didn’t experience the same blood sugar surges as those who ate only the slice. The higher blood sugar levels rise, the lower they fall; that dip leads to hunger, causing people to overeat. Furthermore, blood sugar changes cause the body to make insulin, which can increase abdominal fat.

8. Pomegranates - In addition to being loaded with folate and disease-fighting antioxidants, they’re low in calories and high in fiber, so they satisfy your sweet tooth without blowing your diet.

Make sure to blend these superfoods into your diet for a successful weight loss program. Eating less doesn’t necessarily mean you burn fat. It can actually stump your metabolism and your body will preserve itself by burning less calories. Eat regularly with the proper food and exercise. This is still the best weight-buster.