These days it seams that everyone is an expert. Maybe it’s your next door neighbor trying to sell you some new cure all or maybe it’s your sister-n-law giving you advice on how to lose 10 lbs in 2 days with some secret diet used by natives in the Amazon jungle. We are bombarded with these wild and exaggerated claims on a daily basis. Discarding some of these common misconceptions will help you drop those unwanted pounds.

So let’s break down some of these weight loss claims and see what’s real and what’s myth.

It’s that time of year again when we start making our New Year’s resolutions. Now is the time to start planning on how you are going to get that body in shape by summer.

Here are some simple tips to make sure that you don’t fall off the wagon starting in ’09:

BMR – Basal Metabolic Rate

In order to determine how many calories to cut from your diet you first need to know what your baseline calorie burning rate is. This is where your BMR comes in. The BMR calculator will calculate how many calories you typically burn in a day based on your height, weight, and activity levels. To find out your BMR enter in your information below in the calculator.

Once you have calculated your BMR you can use this number as your baseline and reduce your calorie intake accordingly.

Part 3: The Sugar Busters Diet

The Sugar Busters Diet book was written by three medical doctors and went on to sell over 100,000 copies by word of mouth alone. The diet essentially is a take off of several other low carb diets that came before it.

To understand more about the Glycemic Index read my article Insulin: The Fat Hormone.

A breakdown of some common foods and their Glycemic Index (GI) categories:

Insulin is a very important hormone found in the body that deals with the uptake of sugar in the blood. For those of you who don’t understand the concept of insulin and how it relates to low carb diets

Omega 3 Fatty Acids: α-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)

Many people have the common misconception that all fats are bad. It is true that some fats have a deleterious effect on the body but several studies have now shown that low fat diets are not very effective when it comes to losing weight.

Part 2: The South Beach Diet

The South Beach Diet was created by Dr. Arthur Agatston, director of the Mount Sinai Cardiac Prevention Center in Miami Beach, Fla. Unless you have been living on a deserted island most of you are familiar with this best selling book. At first glance there are a lot of similarities between the Atkins diet and the South Beach Diet.