Everyone knows what fat is.

If you were to look at fat under a microscope, you would see that it’s made of fat cells.

Just like the cream filling inside a cream puff, Triglycerides are the fat filling inside fat cells.

So, when you eat a slice of bacon, you are eating fat cells filled with Triglycerides.

There are two other important sources of Triglycerides–
Carbohydrates and Alcohol.

Carbohydrates are broken down into the simple sugar, glucose. Whatever you don’t need immediately for energy is converted into Triglycerides and stored in your fat cells.

Similarly, Alcohol is also converted in Triglycerides.

What should my Triglyceride level be and what is too high?
Normal levels are less than 150. Levels 200 and higher cause narrowing of the arteries which can result in a heart attack or stroke.

What can I do to lower my Triglyceride level?
– Reduce your portions of baked goods, white rice, pasta, potatoes by 1/3 of what you’re currently eating.
– Substitute white bread with whole wheat bread and white rice with brown rice.
– Substitute regular soda with diet soda and sugar with Splenda or Equal.
– Cut off the fat from meats.
– Substitute Mayo/Big Mac Special Sauce/In-N-Out Spread with mustard.
– Men should restrict Alcohol to 2 drinks daily and women 1 drink daily.
– Exercise 20 mins 3 to 5 times weekly. Try using the stairs.
– Quit smoking or substitute cigarettes with nicotine lozenges, gum or patch.
– See the post Calorie Trackers for Weight Loss
– Your doctor may also prescribe medication.

There are some great Web-based/iPhone/Blackberry apps that track your calories to help you lose weight.

1. Calculate your Ideal Body Weight with a Calculator. Men should use the Devine formula and women the Robinson formula.

So, using myself as an example, I’m 5 ft 10.5 inches. My Ideal Body Weight according to the Devine formula is 163.5 lbs.

2. Calculate your daily calorie goal based on how much weight you want to lose per week.

You can do this on a website like livestrong.com/thedailyplate. Warning, while the basic features are free, they’re certainly interested in getting you to upgrade.

I set my Goal: to Maintain my current weight and my Activity Level: to Lightly Active which gives me a Calorie Goal of 2221 per day.

3. Track your daily calories based on the food you eat and how much exercise you do.

There are also iPhone and BlackBerry versions for $3 which make it convenient to enter food/exercise through the day. iPhone users can also use the free app Lose It!

Hope this is helpful!

I am still amazed that you can get a 30-day supply of medication for $4. A particularly good deal is loratidine (Claritin). Also, for those of you paying exorbitant prices for albuterol inhalers, they sell them for $9.