Richmond, VA -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/29/2011 -- The resurgent focus on health and wellness in today's lifestyle has created a rather confounding paradox: diet sodas and other diet treats can actually endanger your weight loss plan.

While Americans typically don't like the government intervening in what they put in their mouths, appending the word "diet" to almost any food has become a double-edged sword, says Ellen Wright, website manager of Weight Loss Center.net - http://www.weight-loss-center.net.

There are other ways to mislabel foods like the words "reduced fat," "less sugar" and "reduced calorie" and the average consumer can't really distinguish the ingredients at the back of the package and how sugar is possibly reduced. "Like for example, how much is too much sugar in food that will result to weight gain or diabetes and other diseases?" she adds.

The first defense for the consumers against mislabeling is to educate themselves through many resources on weight loss online. On the downside, there are thousands and thousands of articles on the Internet that it can be a challenge to sift through all of them to find out which information is accurate.

"Is 50 grams of sugar better than 100 grams? Yes. But can you make the so-called diet treat as a meal substitute just because it has less sugar in it? That is the question," she says.

Consider the diet sodas for example, which use aspartame as a sweetener in place of sugar. While there are studies that suggest that it can be harmful to your health, most of these are inconclusive. There are also researches that link diet sodas to higher risks of stroke or weight gain. The San Antonio Heart Study which was first presented to the public in June 2005, showed that those who are addicted to diet sodas are 65 percent more likely to become overweight while 41 percent are more likely to become obese. Weight gain can easily lead to the development of type 2 diabetes.

And there are the indirect causes, like the false assurance one will get when drinking diet sodas and so consume more food than necessary. Diet sodas, Ms. Wright explains, create a vicious cycle as it also boosts the cravings for more sugar and also cause you to become even more hungry, which will only be satiated by drinking more soda.

Ms. Wright points out that sodas are linked with fast foods and unhealthy food options, so if you can't get rid of your soda fix, and substituting regular to diet, there's something wrong with your diet in the first place.

She says that any information about weight loss can be found in their website. What makes it different from all the other online sites is that it is run by dieters who contribute articles, blogs, recipes based on their own successful experiences.

She explains: "We personally know about the challenges of weight loss and hope to help you discover how to reach your healthy weight loss goals. The first step to successful dieting and weight loss is to educate yourself - not just about fad diet programs, or calorie counting, or exercise routines, but about your health in general and how to live a healthier lifestyle for the rest of your life. Successful weight loss requires life-long weight management and commitment beyond cutting calories and we can help you do it now."

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“Will consuming caffeine risk your weight loss plan? Unfortunately, unlike coffee, there's no black and white answer,” admits Ellen Wright, website manager of Weight-Loss Center - (weight-loss-center.net.)

Richmond, VA -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/29/2011 -- "Will consuming caffeine risk your weight loss plan? Unfortunately, unlike coffee, there's no black and white answer," admits Ellen Wright, website manager of Weight-Loss Center - http://www.weight-loss-center.net.

Technically, caffeine can help reduce weight by triggering the ephedrine, particularly its fat-burning properties. It also increases your basal metabolic rate, which simply means the amount of calories that you burn when your body is at rest.

Black coffee, without the sugar and other additives, contains very low calorie to even impact on your weight. Ms. Wright says a cup will net a maximum of eight calories but when designer coffees were introduced by coffee chains, the calories add up. Sugar and cream alone can add another 100 calories to a cup of coffee.

"You can get 260 calories from a cup of Caffe Mocha from one of the largest US coffee chains, for example. That is already equivalent to eight grams of fat.The Grande White Chocolate Mocha has about 550 calories," she says. In order not to gain excess pounds, women need to avoid exceeding 2,000 calories per day and 260 calories is already about 12 percent of the total.

Caffeine also boosts production of cortisol, a stress hormone. High levels of cortisol are linked with increased appetite, cravings for sugar and insulin resistance, which in turn is linked to the development of type 2 diabetes.

To avoid derailing your path toward weight loss, Ms. Wright offers the following suggestions:

- Avoid going designer brands from coffee shops and drink your coffee as plain as possible. Don't put too much sugar in it and stay away from sweeteners like aspertame which can affect your hormones;

- Regulate your coffee consumption. If you are drinking five to six cups a day, you may develop caffeine addiction.

- Coffee encourages snacking. So avoid a slice of cake or pie when you do drink coffee.

Ms. Wright says that the Weight-Loss Center is home to hundreds of articles, weight loss tools, healthy recipes, and "the busy Weight Loss Forum devoted to helping you maintain a healthy body and lifestyle."

"The Weight-Loss Center is run by dieters just like you. With today's fast paced lifestyles it is harder and harder to get into shape and stay that way. Yet there are thousands of products and services (diet programs, supplements, pills) available for just that purpose," she says, which explains the difficulty in sorting out the false information from the truthful ones.

She says the weight watcher needs educate himself or herself particularly on the many factors that go into determining which diet programs will work best for you. These factors include age, sex, genes, and attitude.

"For any weight loss program to be successful, experts all agree that it must include the three basics. They are: an eating plan that reduces the amount of daily caloric intake, a strong physical activity component and some behavior modification to change old habits," she says.

Ms. Wright explains further: "This is the fundamental difference between a weight loss diet and a weight loss program. A diet usually only covers the food aspect of dieting like what you can and can't eat, nutritional content, meal plans, and recipes. A weight loss program is more all encompassing and will include at least the three basics with some incorporating pills, supplements and even alternative medicine practices."

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