Riboflavin is a common name for vitamin B-2 and was once known as Vitamin G. You will see Vitamin B-2 described as Riboflavin on the back of vitamin bottles and in other food packaging.

An interesting and curious fact about Riboflavin is that it is naturally produced by the bacteria in your gut. Although it may not be produced in sufficient quantities to prevent deficiencies. Intestinal production, however, can reduce the symptoms of a deficient state.

Some experts claim that B-2 deficiency is the most prominent nutrient deficiency in North America. Those who eat a diet largely constructed of refined and fast foods may be at risk. And of course, alcoholics are at higher risk of B vitamin deficiencies. Low-income individuals may also tend to be at higher risk due to diet.

Problems with blood proteins may lead to deficiency. And states that block or reduce the uptake of riboflavin into the cell can also be responsible for a deficient state. Therefore, just having an adequate supply of Riboflavin in your food does not necessarily preclude deficiency.

Brewer’s yeast and organ meats are sources that are high in Riboflavin. Lower amounts may be found in milk, eggs, green leafy vegetables and some fruits.

As a side note, I once had a biochemistry teacher whom offered two pieces of advice to his students. He told us to drink a gallon of water per day and to take some brewer’s yeast every day. As I remember it, he talked about how brewer’s yeast was excellent food for the cellular processes of the body. That was probably due to the fact that brewer’s yeast is an excellent source of the b vitamins.

Drinking a gallon of water per day was slightly unusual advice as most experts and nutritionists agree that 2 liters is an adequate intake. This biochemistry teacher was recommending twice that amount. Remember to consult with a physician before changing your diet, supplement or water intake.

Riboflavin is very important in cellular metabolism, the process by which your body produces usable energy. It is important in forming the coenzymes that are necessary to make ATP, which is the energy currency of the cells.

A partial list of deficiency symptoms include fatigue, sensitivity to light and dermatitis. Nerve tissue damage and retarded growth in infants and children can result from a deficiency.

More detailed and technical information about Riboflavin can be found at emedicine.com. If you have any doubts about your health as it relates to Riboflavin, ask your doctor for a proper diagnoses and treatment. Each human body is different with different needs and contraindications, that is why it is important to consult your physician.

This article is for information purposes only and is not intended to prevent, treat or diagnose any health issue. If you have or think you might have a health condition or issue, please contact your primary care physician for proper diagnoses and treatment. The statements in this article have not been evaluated by the US FDA as far as I know.

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included and any hyperlinks are left active on web pages. You may make minor editorial corrections only.

Our metabolic rate determines the rate at which we burn up our food, and by increasing this rate, we can lose weight more quickly, easily, and safely.

When we diet, by decreasing our calorie intake too drastically, we cause our metabolism to slow down, making it progressively more difficult for us to lose weight. Most diets fail, yet we continue to try one after another, always hoping that each new regime will provide the magic solution. If this sounds like your problem, there may be a simple answer. Lets look at why most diets fail, and how strength training, combined with a healthy food intake can speed up your metabolism, making it easy for you to lose weight.

By drastically cutting our food intake, our bodys natural instinct is to switch to a starvation response.’ The fewer calories we consume, the more our bodies become efficient at using these calories – leading to slower weight loss. This was once a useful mechanism for our ancestors when food supplies were less predictable, but this vicious circle can make life almost impossible for the modern dieter.

When the body is persistently kept short of calories, it breaks down muscle tissue to use as fuel. Our body, using water from our tissue cells, quickly washes this away causing an instant reduction in weight through water loss. However, this weight loss will be short lived, and will quickly be regained when we take in water and the muscle we have lost will slow down our metabolism in the long term.

The reason for this is that each pound of muscle requires a certain number of calories each day just to maintain it. Therefore, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn even when youre doing nothing, even sleeping! If you lose muscle, then your daily calorie requirement becomes less. For example, imagine a dieter loses 10 pounds of muscle along with maybe 20 lbs. of fat on a strict diet. Now suppose that each pound of muscle had been burning 50 calories a day. Together, those 10 pounds of muscle had been burning 500 calories a day. With this muscle tissue gone, the dieter must now consume 500 less calories a day in order to maintain that weight-loss!

However, of course people do not stick to their diets for ever and when they return to their old eating habits, the weight that they have lost, invariably comes piling back on. Unfortunately, whilst they lost both muscle and fat during the diet, all the weight they regained was fat. So, even though they may weigh the same as they did when they started, they now have a lot more fat and a lot less muscle than they did before the diet. Therefore, their metabolism is slower and their calorie requirements are less. Even if they return to their pre-diet eating habits, they still require 500 fewer calories a day due to the muscle loss. Thats one reason dieters are prone to regaining all of the lost weight, and conversely sometimes even gain weight afterwards.

A good solution is an active lifestyle that includes aerobic exercise, a good weight-training program, and a healthy diet containing fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain cereals and plenty of lean protein. It is a good idea to eat little and often keeping your metabolism in high gear by eating 4 to 6 small meals a day, rather than one or two larger ones. No food is forbidden, but sweets and high fat junk food are eaten less often, and in smaller quantities. A healthy diet is a realistic and permanent way of eating not a diet that you suffer through for a week or two and then give up!

The goal is to consume as many calories as you can, while still losing body fat and maintaining or adding lean muscle at the same time. If your calories are already below normal, dont restrict them further. Instead, maintain your current amount and instead try to become stronger and more active, so you can gradually increase your calories to a normal healthy level. If your calorie intake is already in a healthy range, decrease it only slightly, if necessary. A small reduction of about 250 calories a day, or 10-15 percent less than usual, is more likely to protect your lean muscle, and less likely to trigger a go-slow in your metabolism.

If you follow this type of routine, its possible to gain about one pound of muscle per week and lose about one pound of fat per week. The end result is that the number on the scale might not move much at all, it may even go up. Your clothes will feel looser, and youll feel great. Yet the numbers on the scale won’t move!! It’s at this point that a lot of people give up the weight training because they don’t understand what’s happening.

The truth is that when you’re strength training it’s possible to get smaller and heavier at the same time, as muscle is a much denser tissue than fat. The fat takes up more space on your body. At this point, it’s best to ignore the bathroom scales and rely on the way you look and the way your clothes fit.

The conventional way of dieting can lead to a weak, tired body, exhausted by the constant cycle of starvation and weight gain, unable to enjoy food. However, by following these easy steps above, you can easily reach your goal – the slim, strong, healthy body of a naturally lean person who can enjoy their food without guilt, for life!

Eat less … lose weight?!? Here’s the other stuff you can do to get leaner.

1 Dont diet to extremes. Reducing calories by 15-20 a day will almost exclusively burn fat while larger cuts in calories will burn a combo of muscle tissue and fat. Muscle drives the metabolism calorie burning. If youre currently eating 3000 calories, reduce to 2400-2550, but do so according to smart guidelines like those laid out in The Living Health Weight Loss Audio.

2 Graze all day. Professional athletes and models eat all day long yet keep their total calories under control. The grazing method, 5-6 small meals, elevates the metabolism. Each time you eat, the metabolism increases, and over a 6-10 week period, that increase can parlay into another 2-3 pounds of fat loss.

3 Increase Protein. Carbs, protein and fat are equal in their efficiency to be stored as body fat, but protein exerts a greater metabolic boosting effect than carbs or dietary fat. When calories drop, protein saves muscle which helps keep the metabolism elevated. Aim for 1.2 grams per pound of bodyweight daily.

4 Play with Carbs. Carbs help retain metabolic boosting muscle yet they can stimulate fat storage. Following a modified low carb diet staggering your carbohydrate intake is one of the most effective ways to jump start your
metabolism and to burn stubborn fat fast as outlined in Maximize Your Metabolism and the Living Health Audio Program.

5 Go Backward. One reason fat loss comes to a halt; the body downgrades its metabolism to meet its dwindling intake of calories. The solution dramatically increase your calorie intake once every 2-3 weeks. The one day splurge re-sets the metabolism by restoring thyroid levels, the calorie burning hormone that declines with dieting.

6 Skip the Late Night Carbs. Carbs eaten before bedtime are more likely to be stored as body fat so focus on lean proteins and fiber based vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower and salad fixings. The lone exception if you train late at night and your goal is to build muscle mass, youll need the carbs to replenish glycogen and support growth.

7 Go Fish. When calories are controlled, the inclusion of omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon, trout and sardines may promote speedier fat loss. One study revealed dieters who ate fish on a daily basis lost more weight than those who ate fish just once a week Am Journ Clin Nutr 70817-825, 1999

8 Go Spicy. Red peppers, the spicy ingredient in Mexican and Indian dishes contains Capsaicin which can increase the metabolic rate by effecting the Sympathetic Branch of the Nervous system. Spiking your chicken dishes with red might be a small benefit or you can gulp 5 to 10 encapsulated grams of Capsaicin from your local health food store. Journal of Nutrition 1161272-1278, 1986.

9 Dont Be Cardio Crazy! Radically reducing calories slows the metabolism short circuiting fat loss. Same is true with radical caloric expenditure. You know 2 cardio sessions a day. Excess cardio slows the metabolism, promotes a loss in muscle and even can lower testosterone levels. For real results, stick to 4-6 sessions a week, 30 45 minutes at a clip and maintain a high level of intensity.

10 Separate Cardio From Weight Training. What happens when you do cardio first and follow it up with weight training? You dont build as much muscle density. How about cardio after training? You risk overtraining and the negative hormonal milieu that can stifle the metabolic rate. The best scenario; hit the cardio in the morning on an empty stomach get in a few meals and return to the gym later in the day to build muscle density.

11 Serotonin Control. Serotonin is a brain chemical that helps controls hunger. Guess what? It can take a nose dive with dieting. R.J. Wurtman and J.J. Wurtman, Brain serotonin, carbohydrate-craving, obesity, and depression. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology 398 1996 35-41. One way to prevent a drop; smaller, more frequent meals.

12 Garlic Chicken! Mother Earths flavor enhancer stimulates adrenaline and uncoupling proteins UCP. Adrenaline triggers fat breakdown and UCP, located in metabolically active brown fat, increase calorie burning. Garlic also controls cortisol levels which can supports muscle retention while dieting. For best results use fresh raw garlic in your salads or on your other meals, but if you can’t handle raw garlic then use fresh bulbs in you cooking or give supplements a try. Oi Y, et al., Allyl-containing sulfides in garlic increase uncoupling protein content in brown adipose tissue, and noradenaline and adrenaline secretion in rats. J Nutr 129336-342,1999. Wang HX, Et al., Natural products with hypoglycemic, hypotensive, hypocholesterolemic, antiatherosclerotic and antithrombotic activities. Life Sci 652663-2677,1999.

13 Sip Green Tea. Green tea contains caffeine and polyphenols called epilgallocatechin gallate which have been shown to increase calorie burning. These special calorie burning compounds help burn an extra 100 or-so calories a day, about equal to a brisk walk. In maximizing fat loss, every calorie counts. Dullo, A.G., et al., Efficiency of a green tea extract rich in catechin polyphenols and caffeine in increasing 24-h energy expenditure and fat oxidation in humans. Am J Clin Nutr, 1999. 706p.1040-5.

14 Fat? Yes Fat! To rip up, you have to eat fewer carbs, but on occasion say once a week – you can add a little healthy fat, 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil, some red meat, walnuts or cashews. The reason? Dietary fat can make the body more effective in using and burning fat as long as calories and carbs remain under control. Thomas CD et al. Nutrient Balance and Energy Expenditure During the Ad Libitum Feeding of High Fat and High Carbohydrate Diets in Humans. Am J Clin Nutr 1992;55934

15 Thyroid Support. Irony of Ironies. When you eat less and try to dump body fat, a lot of times the metabolism adapts and burns quite a bit fewer calories. One way to get around the slowdown is with phosphates. A combo of 537 mgs of calcium phosphate, 107 mgs of potassium phosphate and 25 mgs of sodium phosphate given to strict dieters yielded a 12-19 more elevated metabolism than dieters who did not use phosphates.

16 Write It Down. This one seems simple, but its one of the most overlooked tips in shedding fat. Dieters who record what they eat, meal by meal, day by day, not only make better choices, but cheat less and eat fewer total calories. Writing it down keeps you honest and is a tool for reminding you that getting lean is a day by day process.

Yo-yo dieting, skipping meals, eating fat-free foods, no exercise and low thyroid all have one thing in common they promote a low metabolism. Your basal metabolism rate BMR is the rate at which your body burns food when you are at rest. When you hear people refer to their slow metabolism, they are really saying that they have a low BMR. Metabolism is the reactions that take place inside our cells to create energy. All the food we eat is broken down to produce the energy needed to maintain body temperature, to breathe, to move our muscles and keep our weight in check. A peak operating metabolism can burn up a lot of fuel food and create plenty of energy. Conversely, a slow metabolism will store fuel as fat. We can rev up our fat burning furnace quickly with clinically researched metabolism boosting foods and nutrients.

Breakfast

Eating a protein rich breakfast can increase your bodys ability to burn fat by 25 per cent, and that fat-burning action will last for up to eight hours. When you skip meals, your metabolic rate slows to conserve energy because you are starving your body. When you do eat, the body stores the food as fat because the body thinks you are in a famine. The answer eat a protein based breakfast every day, such as eggs, a chicken breast, a protein shake or protein powder mixed into plain organic yogurt. Protein enhances your metabolism and stops hunger pangs.

Fat for Fat Loss

Yes, eating fat can help you lose fat, but the fat you eat must be good fat. Fatty acids from fish or flaxseed oil omega-3 fats and conjugated-linoleic CLA acid help burn fat. Recent research shows that the hormone leptin is low in those who do not get enough good fats. Leptin is a hormone that regulates appetite, the size of our fat cells and how quickly those cells burn fat. Fatty acids enhance Leptin, decrease our appetite and burn fat faster. Make sure you eat fish a couple of times per week, use extra virgin olive oil, put ground flaxseed on your food, and, if you dislike fish, take fish oil capsules daily.

More than 500 studies support CLAs unique abilities. In 2000, it was reported that even without a change in diet or lifestyle overweight participants had a 20 per cent decrease in body fat and an increase in lean muscle mass. Minimum dosages of 4000 mg per day are necessary to obtain fat loss.

Metabolism Boosting Herbs

If you are one of those people who have reduced your calories, are dedicated to exercise and still cant lose weight you will want to add the clinically-researched herbs that kick-start your metabolism. Thermogenic herbs rev up and reset your rate of metabolism making fat loss more effective.

Green Tea

Sipping a cup of green tea or swallowing green tea capsules can help aid fat loss. In one study overweight participants took three capsules per day containing 200 mg of green tea extract. Participants experienced increased fat loss without accelerating heart rate. Switch from coffee to green tea to achieve a faster metabolism. Drinking three cups of green tea provides about the same caffeine as one cup of drip coffee.

The secret to weight loss also lies in your kitchen cupboards. Hot, spicy foods also jump start your metabolism. Have you noticed how curried foods make you sweat? This is one of the symptoms of an increased metabolism. Switch from black pepper to cayenne pepper for faster weight loss. Add ginger to foods and eat hot salsa to enhance your fat-burning furnace.

Fat-burning foods and supplements support a healthy diet and exercise program to quickly reset your metabolic rate safely.

Many of my clients were initially overweight, not all, but most were. In fact, more than 60 of my clients came to me to help them lose weight. The other 40 is a mixture of people who want to live longer, who want to look sexier, who want to add muscle to their physique, or who just want to live a
healthy, energy-rich life.

Today, I’m going to focus on helping those people who want to lose weight, not because I think that the topic of weight loss is more important than other topics I could cover, but because I think I need to clear up a few false ideas that are circulating in the industry.

First and foremost, if you’re overweight, there’s a very good chance that you have a low metabolism! I know that might not be shocking to you. You may have already thought that you had a slow metabolism, but here’s why I’m re-stating it…

Having a slow metabolism means that you can eat ‘only a little food’ and still gain more weight than your neighbor who eats far more than you every day of his or her life.

Your metabolism is basically a bunch of organs and glands that are responsible for regulating how your body burns food for fuel and how it converts that food into energy. These include the thyroid, pancreas, stomach, small and large intestines, and the colon.

When you have a slow metabolism there’s a good chance that one of more of these systems is out of balance or just plain not working properly and that’s almost always due to improper living, disease, drugs, or a severe accident.

But there are more causes for being overweight other than having a low metabolism. You see, overweight people tend to eat when they’re not hungry, they tend to have a larger appetite, they tend to eat “diet foods” more often which are rarely conducive to weight loss as the label suggests, they tend to eat before they go to bed, and worst of all they tend to see themselves as being overweight.

Now you can clean up almost all of this mess by living a healthy lifestyle, or if you’ve read any of my books or listened to any of the audio programs my company has out, then you already know all the basics associated with living a lean, healthy lifestyle.

But the underlying problem that can never be cleared up simply with your actions, is the way you see yourself when you close your eyes.

My studies at the National Metabolic and Longevity Research Center have taught me that overweight people constantly think about their weight in a negative way, thus creating the undesired effect. It’s true that you become what you think
about, and if you constantly see yourself as being fat, you’ll never be thin!

Here’s a tip…for the next 30 days it takes 28 – 30 days to change how you subconsciously think of yourself take a few minutes in the morning and picture a great looking, tight, sexy body from head to toe – then put your face on that body.
Do this exercise again in the mid afternoon, and then again right before you fall asleep at night.

Do this for 30 days and I guarantee that you’ll experience a dramatic change in the way your body looks.

The best way to lose weight is by consuming fewer calories than you expend or conversely, by expending more calories than you consume.

Experts have discovered that certain foods can actually help you to lose weight without the stress of dieting or exercise. The down side is that many of us have a tendency to dress these foods up with cheese, sour cream, butter or other calorie-laden flavor enhancers. This causes the weight loss effect to be lost. It may be difficult to not add extra calories to these foods but with a strong will power it can be done.

A negative calorie food can be defined as a food that results in a slimming effect for the body. In other words a carrot without anything else will cause your body to use an increased amount of energy when digesting it and other foods, this can lead to an overall reducing effect on the body. This is partly from the amount of energy it takes to digest the carrot or other negative calorie food and partly from the elevation in metabolism that these foods naturally create. The overall effect is a net loss of energy, which is measured in calories. It should be understood that negative calorie doesnt mean that the food has zero calories in it, nor does it have an anti-calorie or a negative calorie.

Here is a partial list of negative calorie foods apples, cranberries, grapefruit, lemon mango, oranges, pineapple, raspberries, strawberries, tangerines, asparagus, beets, cabbage green, carrots, cauliflower, hot Chile peppers, cucumbers, endives, garden cress, garlic, green beans, lettuce, onion, papaya, radishes, spinach, turnips and zucchini. There are more and you can learn about them from a medical doctors very popular book.

In his book, Foods that Cause You to Lose Weight, Dr. Neal Barnard explains the effects these foods have on the body. A quote from Dr. Barnards book reveals some startling facts, “They found that those who ate foods that were very low in fat and high in carbohydrates, lost weight steadily, without limiting how much they ate. But those on high-fat diets could not effectively lose weight even if they ate skimpy portions.” Dr. Barnard is referring to the published results of an experiment conducted at Cornell University and published in the May 1991 edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

A book reviewer posted on a website how he lost 30 lbs. utilizing the information from Dr Barnards book. It is important to exercise caution when dieting because there are certain things that your body needs to remain healthy including proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that are necessary for the body to function at its optimum level. You cannot remain optimally healthy by eating the negative calorie foods alone.

This article is for information purposes only and is not meant to diagnose, treat or prevent any health condition. Please consult a doctor before dieting.