Go Bananas! =]

[ValRiggs]

I just read a really interesting article in "Womens World" Magazine (One of my FAVS!!). The article was titled "Japanese Diet Craze" and I just HAD to share the info with all of you on here!

I'm trying to type this out from the magazine article so bare with me on any mistakes, lol!

What you do:
It couldn't be easier: Enjoy a banana (or two!) for breakfast. Follow with a sensible lunch and dinner. Alcohol, sugary drinks and desserts are off-limits, but you can have a little something sweet at an optional 3 p.m. snack if you are hungry. Other than that, aim to stop eating when you're full and finish your evening meal by 8 p.m. "It's a healthy, satisfying and energizing way to eat," notes the Dallas Dietetic Association's Neva Cochran, R.D., "And most dieters will find that having a banana for breakfast will boost their results dramatically!"

Why it works:
Breakfast turns up your metabolism by 300 calories!! Your metabolism sleeps when you do--and it only wakes up when you eat your first meal of the day. So the sooner you eat, the better, "Research shows that breakfast eaters burn an extra 200-300 calories a day," notes Gillitt. And if you're already a breakfast eater? At 100-200 calories, a banana breakfast is probably fewer calories than you'd normally eat, yet you'll still get the same metabolism boost.

Bananas speed fat burning by 25%! Bananas are one of the best sources of "resistant starch," a type of carbohydrate that's suddenly in the spotlight. Thanks to breakthrough new research techniques, it is now known that resistant starch ferments in our digestive tracts, creating by-products that increase fat burning by 20-25%. "This increase in fat burning lasts all day--even if you only eat the resistant starch at breakfast," reveals University of Colorado's Janine Higgins, Ph.D. It's an effect so powerful that, in a new Mexican study, dieters given a drink spiked with resistant starch from bananas doubled their weight-loss results compared with dieters who got the same drink but no resistant starch.

Banana fiber blocks fat and hunger! A two-banana breakfast starts your day with six grams of fiber and no fat. "Fiber bulks up in your stomach so you feel full longer," says Gillitt. "And fiber pulls some of the calories you eat through your digestive system before they can be absorbed. So fiber helps reduce overall calorie intake in two key ways." No wonder Finnish researchers found that overweight folks who consumed more fiber and less fat lost three times more weight than folks who didn't. And that's really only the beginning of what the banana plan on these pages can do for you. So dig in to the plan, it's been specially designed with American tastes in mind--and it can peel off up to a pound a day!

Just Google this information to find the plan, or similar plans.. basically you eat 2 bananas for breakfast.. Eat a good lunch, have a snack at 3 pm IF you are hungry, and then finish your last meal of the day by 8 p.m. I hope this information helps some of you on your weight loss journey! I'm definitely going to give it a try and I will keep you all updated on my success and progress!!!

[twehner5]

I have to get to sleep - remind me to read this, will ya?  I haven't been able to gag down a banana in years.  I only eat a 140-170 calories yogurt every day for breakfast, which serves as one of my 3 servings of dairy.  I don't like milk...unless it has chocolate in it!

Don't let Ranae read that!  I hope she wasn't lookin' at my computer.   zzzzzzzzzzzz nite!

[Ranaesheart]

Thank you for providing this information and taking the time and energy to type it in .. most interesting!  While I've always incorporated bananas into my diet, will now select them with more regularity!