Oklahoma University researchers gave some of the 28, healthy, but sedimentary, participants a fat burning supplement containing, black pepper, niacin and capsaicin. The other participants, (they didn’t specify how many), were given a placebo after 30 minutes of rest.

After resting for an additional 50 minutes, they walked on the treadmill for an hour with an additional 50 minute rest period.

What did they find? The participants that took the thermogenic supplements burned more calories and experienced a large increase in their aerobic capacity.

Although this is not a long time study, these fat burning supplements are an indicative aid in your weight loss efforts.

Originally posted by Brianna from the Live Naturally Healthy blog

First, avoid the alcohol. Cocktails and beer are usually served at holiday parties, but they can be full of calories. When you drink, you also have a decreased will power when it comes to saying no to other holiday foods and your appetite will be stimulate, so you’ll eat even more than you normally would eat at a party. Having one drink on a special occasion may be fine, but don’t overdo it every time you head out to celebrate the season.

Another great tip to stick to your plan during the holiday season is to show up fashionably late after you’ve already eaten a meal. If you do this, you won’t feel pressured to eat an entire meal of junk foods or snack on cookie or hot chocolate. Of course, showing up late may be insulting at smaller parties, so make sure you are not rude to the party host.

Use the holidays to get outside as well. You can play in the snow if the weather allows, which actually burns tons of calories. Walking up the hill to sled and having a snowball fight are great ways to get your heart pumping as well as work off those candy canes.

If the weather isn’t cold or snowy, use your time to head to the mall. When gift shopping, make a number of laps around the mall and take the stairs instead of the escalator. Keep this in mind at parties as well—get up and move around as much as possible. Christmas caroling is also a great way to stay off of your rear. This will allow you to do some walking while spreading the holiday cheer.

Lastly, avoid gifts of food. Of course, you can’t tell people what to buy for you, but if you find yourself with a bunch of brownies or boxes or chocolates, why not share the love? You can take these products into work or even donate unopened items to your local food bank. These tips keep you staying slim, as you’re surrounded by goodies.

Do you measure yourself? Have those numbers increased, also?

Bought new clothes? Let me guess, the old ones’ don’t fit anymore, right?

If you’re reading this, you probably do some sort of exercise or are looking to start.

So, what plans or goals are you using or setting in order to drop that weight and inches?

Are you going into the gym or on your home treadmill and running for 30 minutes at a time?

Current recommended guidelines for exercise call for 150 minutes per week or 30 minutes per day for five days.

Unfortunately, that’s not enough.

A study  published in the “Archives of Internal Medicine,” showed that 201 overweight and obese women were broken up into two groups doing the same exercises. One group burning 1000 calories per week versus 2000 calories per week for the second group.

What they found was after six months was that they all lost 8-10% of their original weight. However, the group exercising for only 30 minutes per day, burning 1000 calories per week, gained back some and only lost 5% of their starting weight.

The group that worked out for 275 minutes per week and burned 2000 calories, were able to keep that weight off with a total loss of 10%, or more, of their starting weight.

If you’re already doing 30 minutes of exercise daily, why not increase it gradually by 5 minutes per week until you get to almost one hour for five days?

As you age, your metabolism slows, making it harder to lose those extra holiday cookies you ate.

Increase that exercise duration and it will help with your longevity.

She explains that we can overcome the natural cycle that controls the storing and burning of calories by boosting your metabolism. This can be done by alternating what she calls carb-up, carb-down, and baseline days. She prescribes 5 to 6 meals per day and claims your body’s thermostat will shut off if you don’t eat 5 or 6 times throughout the day. She believes that without frequent eating, your metabolic rate and thyroid function will slow down. This frequent eating prevents your body from going into a survival mode and will “send a red alert to your hormones to store more fat as a preventive measure”. The book controls the balance of protein, fat, and carbohydrate intake in a way that “tricks” your body into thinking it is not on a diet.

She doesn’t call it a diet at all; she calls it a change of lifestyle. This new way of eating works but does take planning and commitment. The foods you love are allowed on specified days. She gives you two days per week to eat the foods you enjoy.

If you’ve ever done the Atkins Diet, it starts out similar but gradually changes and allows carbs after the first week. It’s not as drastic and Atkins, some carbs are allowed, even during the first week.

Wendy provides you a lifestyle eating plan, and she doesn’t ‘dump’ you once the weight is gone. It’s an 8-week program broken into smaller cycles, and after the program ends, you can either repeat (if you have more weight to lose), or stay on the maintenance plan and live your life healthy.

You won’t starve. You won’t go hungry. You’ll just eat healthy! So, buy the book, “Crack the Fat-Loss Code” and it won’t get any better than that!

But, the book, The Fat Resistance Diet by Dr. Leo Galland, M.D., offers a different way to think about controlling your weight.

He claims the above conditioning is the wrong approach. He feels the big part of why people have such a tough time losing weight has to do with inflammation. This can naturally interfere with some of the body’s regulatory systems.

Inflammation is a signal telling your body it has too much stress and can be caused by different things. Whether it is poor nutrition, injury, disease or emotions, it all leads to it.

This can seriously degrade your body.  For example, says Dr. Galland, “inflammation disables the leptin signal” which controls your appetite by telling your brain and body that you’re storing enough fat.

In the program Dr. Galland provides, the problems of weight gain can be overcome by changing your diet with anti-inflammatories found in fresh whole foods, like vegetables. They are rich in antioxidants, anti-inflammatories and even required minerals.

The one key thing Dr. Galland stresses in his book is nutrient density. Eating 1200 calories of candy or snacks is not the same thing as consuming 1200 calories of a nutritious meal.

The main things Dr. Galland says to be some of the essentials of your diet are,

•    To consume plenty of foods with Omega-3 fatty acids
•    Eat at least nine servings of vegetables and fruits each day
•    Avoid Trans Fats
•    Do not get more than 10% of your total daily calories from saturated fat
•    Use fruits for sweets
•    Eat two healthy snacks a day
•    Eat at least 25 grams of fiber per day
•    Eat fish at least three times a week
•    Choose foods that have plenty of nutrients

So, to control your unhealthy weight gain and inflammation, you’ll need to eat the critical nutrients in the healthy foods mentioned in his book, The Fat Resistance Diet.