I gained a bit of weight over the winter. For the first time in my life, I actually have a little bit of a muffin top!  And I can pinch almost an inch on my back (yeah, the dreaded back fat that ladies hate, I think I have a little of that too!).  Hey, it’s inevitable when you gain weight and your body has nowhere else to store it, it’s gonna go in the most unsavory places you can think of. No avoiding that.

Muffin top, as you well know, and as I’m sure you heard, has been added to our American lexicon officially when it was added to Websters Dictionary just months ago, is that overflowing flub that comes out over your jeans when you sit down. Hey, sometimes it comes out when you’re standing, but my experience has been that it’s worst when you sit down since everything compresses together, and kind of squishes out, which fat loss can greatly help.

I don’t know if any of you reading have ever experienced this, but I most certainly have. Have you noticed that when you start to lose some weight, you notice that everything gets really jiggly suddenly? It’s almost like the fat becomes less firm and starts to “loosen up” in order to be shed from your body. So parts that may have seemed they had an extra inch to pinch may suddenly get a lot looser when you just start to lose the weight.

That’s what’s happening to me now. I’m going hard core low carb right now so that I can lose the excess weight that I need to in order to feel comfy in my clothes again.  It’s hard for me, but unfortunately going very low carb is the only way I’ve found for my body and metabolism type to get the weight off quickly and effectively.

Losing weight and toning up is the only sure way to get rid of love handles, muffin tops, and back fat.  It’s easier said than done though, especially as we get older and our bodies and metabolism naturally slows down. 

Going on diets that strip fat off the body quickly, as well as exercise regimens that do the same, like intense, short burst workouts (my favorites are Jillian Michaels Thirty Day Shred series).  That’s the type of diet and exercise that really peels the fat off the body, and gets rid of that extra stuff you don’t want to see pouring out over your clothes!  Fat loss supplements are also a good way to speed up the burn, or help your body get in gear to do it on its own.

The term “BMI” seems to have entered the diet, weightloss and fitness fray only in the past decade or so. I was totally unaware of this way to count your body fat and your muscle composition until about 5 years ago myself.

I had heard the term bandied about, but I never knew what it actually meant until I did some research on it for an article I was writing on how to reduce body fat safely and what a good weight was for your height.

Essentially, what I was writing about WAS in itself BMI, since the very thing that BMI (Body Mass Index) measures, is your weight, calculated along with your height, and then it comes up with a number that is either good or bad, depending on the standards that are set at the time. 

The BMI measurement differs between the sexes, like so many other measurements do.  For women, they often report they are more satisfied with their bodies when their BMI is between 20 to 22.  I tend to feel my fittest and trimmest – my HEALTHIEST, somewhere in this range myself. 

In fact, I feel like I look good and feel good when I’m closer to the 20 BMI number, but that’s just my personal comfort zone. 

For men, a good BMI usually tends to be 23 to 25.  Anything lower than these average BMI’s for men and women means that you definitely don’t need to lose any weight, and that your average longeivty is longer than those with higher BMI’s.

You can find BMI calculators online in many places, so you just plug in your weight and your height, usually along with your sex, and you get that magic BMI number. Then you can determine whether you think you need to shed a few pounds or not.

It really depends on what your personal comfort level is as well. You should definitely pay attention to this measurement, because it is somewhat of an indicator of your overall health since so much of our health is connected to our weight. 

However, don’t put all stock in it. If you feel good and have minimum health and medical issues, yet this number is just a little off, then well, I say you just blow it off!

Cellulite Treatments at Home - Cheaper and Effective

Cellulite.  Every woman knows that name and every woman hates it.

We all have it, no matter how much weight we lose or how much we work out.

Why do women almost always have cellulite? Well, we manufacture estrogen out the wazoo, and estrogen is thought to be the primary reason behind cellulite formation.

Estrogen stores itself in fat actually, and the more fat we have on our body, the more cellulite we have as well, because the contraction process of the collagen bands that are beneath the surface of our skin intensifies, trying to hold that fat in.

What you get as a result is the pouchy, puckered look of cellulite that we all despise.  Unfortunately it’s a really tough thing to overcome.  You can spend thousands in ongoing treatments at the salon or spa, and it still will come back.

This is why so many women choose to treat cellulite in their own home as part of their ongoing campaign to reduce the puckered looking stuff.

First off, to reduce cellulite the most, of course weight loss helps to dramatically reduce it’s appearance. I notice that as soon as I put on a few pounds, the cellulite comes roaring back full force on my trouble areas like my butt and thighs.

This is where most women have the problem, it’s not unusual. However, even after losing weight, you will still notice it.  See our suggestions for the best cellulite creams and treatments here.

I’ve chosen to manage my cellulite at home because of a few things. I’ve actually received professional treatments to reduce cellulite in the past. They literally cost me hundreds of dollars, for only a few sessions.

I realized that not only did they not make a dramatic difference like I’d expect for that amount of money, but I also realized that with practice and diligence, I could get those same results doing it myself in my own home.

I also realized that I’d have to forever fork over the dough to get continuous treatments, because even those are not permanent – you have to go on a “forever” maintenance schedule. Who needs that huge bill added to their financial burden every month?

So, I use the Revitol cellulite cream in my own home, and I apply pressure, massaging it deeply into my skin.  Two things help reduce the  cellulite. First, the tightening ingredients in the cream help to reduce the appearance topically, and reduce the puffiness that creates the illusion of cellulite.

Second, my manual compression and kneading actually helps to break up the collagen bands that cause the puckering.

One thing that I have always struggled with was cellulite. I think that every woman can relate to what I’m saying. Even when I’ve been at a perfect weight in my life, I still see that flabby looking, dimpled and soft flesh that seems to cling to my thighs, buttocks and belly.  And if I even gain a few pounds, watch out. It gets a lot worse.  Because the more body fat you have, the more cellulite appears, making it look worse.

Cellulite is caused by lack of circulation and also excess fluids and fat built up in the subcutaneous layers under the skin. There are these things called collagen bands, which constrict the fat and fluid, and make your skin appear dimpled or give it that “orange peel” appearance that you hear talked of so often.

This look is exactly what women are trying to get rid of, and body wraps for cellulite reduction do just that. They help to eliminate excess water and fluid retention, and they also work by the principle of compression, meaning that they sort of “hold everything in” a lot better, and make the body appear slimmer, and reduce the appearance of the cellulite sponginess that we all hate so much.

Cellulite body wraps at home are a much better deal than you’ll get at most salons and spas, which can charge anywhere from fifty to a hundred bucks for a body wrap. Now of course, in a spa you get the pampered feeling of having someone else wrap you up, but then what? You just sit there with the wrap on you for a while, that’s it!  Well, for roughly thirty bucks an application, you can get this high quality at home cellulite body wrap.

Body wraps really help, especially over time, by slimming and streamlining the body, reducing those lumps, bumps and bulges that make the body look more uneven and unappealing. Body wraps for cellulite are exceptionally effective against cellulite because they work so well as helping reduce those excess fluids that make cellulite appear severe.  They are well worth a look in to if you can’t stand having cellulite and you want an economical and convenient way to help treat your cellulite.

Well, it’s no wonder we all find fat so darn tasty.  It’s because, as researchers have recently discovered, fat is actually another one of our many senses of taste. In addition to sweet and salty (nothing like a pretzel and chocolate, yum), fat is actually it’s own taste to the human taste buds, and there are actually sensors on the human tongue that can detect the distinctive taste of fat.  Some people, it was found, are actually a little more sensitive to the taste of fats than others are.

The people who are fortunate enough to be very sensitive to these fatty flavors are actually less likely to be obese and to have the desire to over eat.  Because they can pick up the taste of fat so well, they actually don’t want to eat a lot of it.Conversely, people who don’t have all that great of a sense of fat detection on their tongue’s taste buds, tend to over do it on consuming fat because they are just simply less dialed in to the flavor.

I’m not sure where I’d fit in personally on the spectrum. I dare say I’d be considered down the middle of the road on that count. Where do you think you fall?  Oh, and this fits perfectly with one of our last topics, where researchers have found that junk food is just as addictive as drugs like cocaine because of what it does to the dopamine levels in the body, and the intense cravings it creates when someone eats a lot of it at one time.