Burn the Fat - You Are What You Drink

When people consider the overweight epidemic sweeping our population, most of us tend to think about fast foods, processed meals and microwaveable foods. All of these are designed to save us one important commodity, time. We don't have meals that are prepared at home, eaten in a leisurely fashion at a table as a family.

Not having enough time for meals is one of the side effects of our economy, where it takes two people to earn enough to provide us with all the things that have become necessities. Diet and sports drinks have become a way of life and many people are getting a lot of calories from liquids instead of following a healthy diet.

Considering the fact that we can consume almost 30% of our daily calorie requirement in liquid form such as sodas, sports drinks or diet supplements, it makes sense to include liquids in our daily diet if we are trying to lose weight. Most soft drinks and sports drinks come in twenty ounce bottles and not many of us realize that they can contain more than twice the number of servings listed on the nutrition chart. Many people on a diet will routinely consume several servings of diet soft drink in the belief that this will help them lose weight.

It is estimated that as many as one-third of our population is overweight, or just fat. And many of us are on a roller-coaster ride of diets and recriminations to try to lose the excess weight. Losing weight is not easy, it takes a combination of diet and exercise to do it right.

The objective of a diet is to reduce the number of calories we take in and exercise causes the metabolism to go up to burn the calories we take in and hopefully, a few more. To help us with our diet, there are thousands of supplements available that will do all kinds of advertised wonders.

Many of them give the impression that losing weight is easy, if you use this or that product. None of them will work by themselves and you will not get the physique shown by the models, unless you include a reasonable diet and exercise.

It has become popular in recent years to supplement our diet with liquid supplements to make sure we get all the nutrients we need on a daily basis. Everyone from infants to old folks now have some kind of liquid supplement that can take the place of a meal. Again, it is important to read the labels and find out exactly how many calories are in the drink. Pay special attention to the number of calories and the amount of sodium you are drinking and the number of servings in the container.

It is important to distinguish between healthy drinks and those that merely sound healthy. There are some drinks that have as much as one-fourth to one-third the daily calorie requirement. These calories usually are in the form of sugar added to make the drink taste good. Read those labels and divide the grams of sugar by four and you will know how many teaspoons of sugar is in the drink.

There are a lot of liquid diet supplements and sports drinks on the market, but only a few that have been evaluated by the FDA. So, it is up to the individual to do his or her homework and find out which supplements might be the right one to use. Read the labels, find out what the side effects are and make sure that you can live with them. If you have a medical condition, you certainly want to avoid any supplements that might cause the condition to worsen. It is also a good idea to consult with a medical professional before starting on a strenuous diet. But the bottom line is to include the total number of liquid calories in the daily count.

There are many good reasons to maintain a healthy weight. The best one is to stay in good health. Some of the of good things that happen if we are healthy:

1. We are able to do more physical things.

2. We feel better about ourselves and our self esteem and confidence goes way up.

3. There are fewer doctor visits, prescription drugs and the associated costs. We can save tons of money.

4. Other people do not judge us as inferior because of our weight or the shape of our bodies. They will have to find other reasons to be critical.

Weight loss is not easy. If it were, there would be no overweight people in the world and a billion dollar weight loss industry would not exist. But you can lose the weight if you use a sensible diet and exercise program and combine those with persistence, commitment and dedication.

If you are using a liquid supplement or replacing water with diet sodas, check the amount of sugar and extra calories you are consuming. You might just be surprised.