Anytime you plan on making a significant lifestyle change, it helps if you have a social support structure around you to help you make that change. It's very difficult to quit smoking when everyone in your house smokes. You can't lose weight if the rest of your family keeps eating unhealthy food. One way to incorprate weightloss and a social support structure is through social applications. Smartphones are great becasue they have great apps! And some of them can help you lose weight.

One of the best apps for this is Calorie Conter by MyFitnessPal.com. You can search for it on your phone and download it. It is completely free.

You enter your sex, age, height, and weight, Then you give it a goal weight. It calculates your daily caloric intake allowance. For example, it may say, you may eat 1500 calories per day, and in 5 weeks, you will weigh 160 (assuming that's your goal).

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One of the many interesting articles on religious fasting and it's effects on human health. This is a more recent 2010 article on the effects of fasting on health. The article reviews the findings of multiple studies on religious fasting. It finds that Ramadan fasting gives mixed results, while other types of fasting offer improvement in health benefits. This tells me that Muslims are fasting incorrectly; gorging, binging, eating more total calories, eating fattier and more sugary foods.

Here are a few excerpts. You can download the full article from the link below.

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Exercise is good for you and makes your heart stronger and wards off cardiovascular disease. But it is not necessary for weight loss. Tieing diet and exercise together only give everyone an excuse not to lose weight, when they realize they don't have time (or won't make time) for exercise.

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I discovered the best grilled chicken marinade and technique ever today! Thanks to one of the nurses in the stress lab, who gave me this great idea.

I was in the stress lab talking to Shirley telling her that I was planning on grilling a whole chicken today. She gave me some tips and gave me a marinade/bbq sauce idea. This may not be new, but it was new to me. I modified it slightly to suit my needs. It turned out pretty awesome!

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The USDA has moved away from the Food Pyramid and is now going with the Food Plate. This is obviously easier to understand. They also stress portion size. 

This should make it a lot easier for people to visualize and understand the amount of each food category that should be eaten.

In 2005, the USDA used a new pyramid with a person running up the side to emphasize activity as well as diet. That pyramid was complicated and hard to understand. It also over emphasized grains.

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All the drink manufcturers have decided to show the full calorie count per bottle on their labels in an easy to read format. So instead of reading that each surving in a 12oz Coke contains 45 calories (each can is 3 servings), it will just say 135 on the can.

This should help people quickly identify the "calorie burden" of each product they consume.

If only people knew what calories meant and how much they need per day. People severly underestimate how many calories they consume and severly overestimate how much they burn.

Read more on the Alo Diet section on caloric needs!