How many times do you hear overweight people say things like, “I’m only this way because I’m big boned” or “both of my parents are big so it’s in my genes” or even “all of the women/men in my family are overweight”.

So now the question is, if other members of your family are overweight and have always been, does it mean that you might have inherited the “fat” gene and are predisposed to being overweight yourself? Is there anything that can be done about it, or are you doomed to be overweight for the rest of your life?

There are some facts that must be considered before you assign blame for your weight problem to your family tree. Genetics do decide what the shape of you body will be as well as determining your height and possible risks to your health. If there is a history of obesity in your family, you may have a higher potential for it, but it does not mean that you are doomed to a life of plumpness.

The fact is, even though you may have inherited a higher concentration of fat cells from your family gene pool, it is the bad habits that you inherit from them that will contribute more to your weight than your genes.

Here are the facts about what makes you overweight that you must know to help you break the family tradition of living with that extra padding.

For openers, the food choices that you make play a very important role in whether or not you will become overweight. Not knowing what a proper portion size is during mealtime will also hurt your weight. If as a kid growing up, your parents always went back for seconds during meals, you probably will have inherited that habit as well. If your parents always ate high calorie snacks at night while watching TV, well, you get the picture.

Another downfall to losing the weight gain battle is physical inactivity. While just being physically inactive does not add extra fat by itself, most overweight people are inactive and that means you will burn less calories throughout the day. When an inactive person eats even a normal amount of food daily which is usually still more than they need, they are more likely to store the extra calories as fat.

Your age plays a part in your weight also. When people age, they typically become less active. Also, after age 30 or so, an inactive person will lose around ½ to 1 pound of muscle tissue per year. This makes your metabolism slow down being that muscle is active tissue and the more you have, the higher your metabolism, the less you have, the lower your metabolism. This will account for weight gain.

Most overweight people are not that way because of the genes they inherited, but because of the bad habits they inherited as well as ones they developed on their own. According to the American Medical Association, less than 2% of all obesity can be directly attributed to any kind of metabolic disorder or hormone imbalance.

The bottom line is all of the excuses in the world for being overweight won’t take one pound of fat off of you. The whole thing comes down to modifying your lifestyle to one that is conducive to proper weight control. That means eating less than you’ve been used to eating and being more physically active than you’re used to being.

Weight loss can be achieved by increasing your physical activity level, together with eating a nutritious diet. Crash diets, fad diets and yoyo dieting do not help you lose weight. Dieting can also cause stress and increase the likelihood of binge eating.

The key to weight loss is a simple equation: Use more energy than you consume.

There are ways of manipulating the foods you eat and the manner and times at which you eat it which will assist you to lose weight in a rapid and sustainable manner. You don’t get fat because of a lack of exercising. If that was the case then ascetic Tibetan gurus would be fat as whales. If you eat the wrong kinds of food at the wrong times of day, in the wrong amounts, then you will get fat and find it difficult to lose these extra pounds. There is a pattern to eating which suits each body and provides the correct type of calories at the right time. Once you become more in sync with how your body likes to be fed, you will find that the weight falls away swiftly and without you being hungry.

The sensible answer to losing excess body fat is to make small healthy changes to your eating and exercise habits. These changes should be things that you can maintain as part of your lifestyle – that way you will lose weight and keep it off. A hint to remember is that to lose weight sustainably and effectively, you will need to eat more than three meals per day. Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But the truth is that by eating four of five small meals a day, incorporating nuts, fruit, vegetables, meat and grain, you will never feel hungry AND your stomach will decrease in size so that you feel fuller, faster.

It is ironic that many people, when they decide to pursue weightloss, think that the best way to lose weight quickly is to start to skip meals. WRONG! This has two bad effects.

First: Your body notices that it is not being fed at the times it is used to. Hormonal levels change to adapt to these irregular feeding times and protect the body’s stores of energy, by laying down more fat! Not what you want to teach your body to do.

Second: By skipping meals, when you do get around to eating, you find that you are starving and eat and eat and eat until you cannot move. Your stomach grows LARGER to accommodate the huge amounts of food being pushed into it once a day. Which makes you more hungry during the hours you are not eating. Once again, not the response you are looking for from your body.

Another thing that happens, is that when you lose weight rapidly and irregularly like described above, you lose muscle as well as fat and your metabolic rate adjusts itself to handle the periods of starvation by using less energy. Muscle uses far more energy than fat. When you do put weight back on, there is less muscle to fat than before, so your metabolic rate remains set on low. Weight loss becomes even difficult.

Even worse is the fact that using a “deny” diet such as above almost inevitably ends up in a weight loss/weight gain/weight loss/weight gain cycle. Where the yoyo effect gets worse with each cycle. Self esteem plummets and weight rises.

What overweight people need to realize is that the best way to lose weight quickly, painlessly and without feeling hungry all the time, is to eat the right foods at the right intervals each day. To do this, it is necessary for you to identify the times when you eat that you really do not need to eat.

For example:

. Night eating while watching late night movies
. Social eating while out with friends.
. Habitual eating, where you just eat because you are bored while watching television or reading a book.
. Eating food while drinking alcohol.
. Emotional eating, where you eat to soothe emotional problems. Oddly enough, these emotional problems often have links back to the problems caused by being overweight.

The next step is to have a plan when it comes to eating. You can lose body fat by making a few easy changes to your eating habits. It will help you lose body fat if you:

* Avoid yoyo diets.
* Eat a wide variety of food from all food groups. Check that you eat from the following food groups every day – bread and cereals, vegetables, fruit, milk and dairy, and meat, fish or legumes.
* Have six small, frequent meals and snacks rather than three large meals a day.
* Reduce your intake of foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt. Make soft drinks, lollies and snack foods an occasional ‘extra’. Most adults should eat no more than one or two ‘treats’ a day. If you are very overweight or inactive, you may need to limit treats to less than one a day.
* Try to balance an ‘extra’ food with extra exercise. The more energy you burn, the more treats you can afford to have. Remember, you should only add extra foods after you have covered your nutrient needs with choices from the healthier food groups.
* Cut down on saturated dietary fats and alcohol.
* Try to eat more fresh foods and less processed foods.
* Avoid using food for comfort, such as when you are upset, angry or stressed. Explore other healthy ways to cope with these feelings.
* Try to stop eating once you’ve had enough. If you continue to eat, particularly foods high in saturated fat, the extra kilojoules will be stored as fat.

If you really and truly want to change your body shape with weightloss, you may wish to consider purchasing one of the many diets or programs available. I have tried many diets in my quest to be thin but the one that worked for me is linked in my bio box.

Weight loss can be achieved by increasing your physical activity level, together with eating a nutritious diet. Crash diets, fad diets and yoyo dieting do not help you lose weight. Dieting can also cause stress and increase the likelihood of binge eating.

The key to weight loss is a simple equation: Use more energy than you consume.

There are ways of manipulating the foods you eat and the manner and times at which you eat it which will assist you to lose weight in a rapid and sustainable manner. You don’t get fat because of a lack of exercising. If that was the case then ascetic Tibetan gurus would be fat as whales. If you eat the wrong kinds of food at the wrong times of day, in the wrong amounts, then you will get fat and find it difficult to lose these extra pounds. There is a pattern to eating which suits each body and provides the correct type of calories at the right time. Once you become more in sync with how your body likes to be fed, you will find that the weight falls away swiftly and without you being hungry.

The sensible answer to losing excess body fat is to make small healthy changes to your eating and exercise habits. These changes should be things that you can maintain as part of your lifestyle – that way you will lose weight and keep it off. A hint to remember is that to lose weight sustainably and effectively, you will need to eat more than three meals per day. Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But the truth is that by eating four of five small meals a day, incorporating nuts, fruit, vegetables, meat and grain, you will never feel hungry AND your stomach will decrease in size so that you feel fuller, faster.

It is ironic that many people, when they decide to pursue weightloss, think that the best way to lose weight quickly is to start to skip meals. WRONG! This has two bad effects.

First: Your body notices that it is not being fed at the times it is used to. Hormonal levels change to adapt to these irregular feeding times and protect the body’s stores of energy, by laying down more fat! Not what you want to teach your body to do.

Second: By skipping meals, when you do get around to eating, you find that you are starving and eat and eat and eat until you cannot move. Your stomach grows LARGER to accommodate the huge amounts of food being pushed into it once a day. Which makes you more hungry during the hours you are not eating. Once again, not the response you are looking for from your body.

Another thing that happens, is that when you lose weight rapidly and irregularly like described above, you lose muscle as well as fat and your metabolic rate adjusts itself to handle the periods of starvation by using less energy. Muscle uses far more energy than fat. When you do put weight back on, there is less muscle to fat than before, so your metabolic rate remains set on low. Weight loss becomes even difficult.

Even worse is the fact that using a “deny” diet such as above almost inevitably ends up in a weight loss/weight gain/weight loss/weight gain cycle. Where the yoyo effect gets worse with each cycle. Self esteem plummets and weight rises.

What overweight people need to realize is that the best way to lose weight quickly, painlessly and without feeling hungry all the time, is to eat the right foods at the right intervals each day. To do this, it is necessary for you to identify the times when you eat that you really do not need to eat.

For example:

. Night eating while watching late night movies
. Social eating while out with friends.
. Habitual eating, where you just eat because you are bored while watching television or reading a book.
. Eating food while drinking alcohol.
. Emotional eating, where you eat to soothe emotional problems. Oddly enough, these emotional problems often have links back to the problems caused by being overweight.

The next step is to have a plan when it comes to eating. You can lose body fat by making a few easy changes to your eating habits. It will help you lose body fat if you:

* Avoid yoyo diets.
* Eat a wide variety of food from all food groups. Check that you eat from the following food groups every day – bread and cereals, vegetables, fruit, milk and dairy, and meat, fish or legumes.
* Have six small, frequent meals and snacks rather than three large meals a day.
* Reduce your intake of foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt. Make soft drinks, lollies and snack foods an occasional ‘extra’. Most adults should eat no more than one or two ‘treats’ a day. If you are very overweight or inactive, you may need to limit treats to less than one a day.
* Try to balance an ‘extra’ food with extra exercise. The more energy you burn, the more treats you can afford to have. Remember, you should only add extra foods after you have covered your nutrient needs with choices from the healthier food groups.
* Cut down on saturated dietary fats and alcohol.
* Try to eat more fresh foods and less processed foods.
* Avoid using food for comfort, such as when you are upset, angry or stressed. Explore other healthy ways to cope with these feelings.
* Try to stop eating once you’ve had enough. If you continue to eat, particularly foods high in saturated fat, the extra kilojoules will be stored as fat.

If you really and truly want to change your body shape with weightloss, you may wish to consider purchasing one of the many diets or programs available. I have tried many diets in my quest to be thin but the one that worked for me is linked in my bio box.

Weight Gain During Pregnancy

It is natural for one to have food cravings during pregnancy, but it is your job to make sure that what you’re eating is healthy, and not junk. Putting on weight during pregnancy is absolutely normal as well, and by eating the right food, you help your body gain weight where it should, and not build up on unnecessary fat. As you lose all that bad fat in your body by going on a healthy diet, the weight that is there, will be due to other factors. These are.

Weight Gain Chart
Reason
Weight
Blood supply
4 pounds
Baby weight
8 pounds
Amniotic fluid
2/3 pounds
Fat stored for breastfeeding and delivery
5/9 pounds
Placenta
2/3 pounds
Increased uterus size
2/5 pounds
Tissue in breast
2/3 pounds

Diet for a Healthy Pregnancy

It is crucial to watch what you eat as you progress through one trimester to the next. Here’s how you can help yourself to stop piling on the unnecessary calories, that will come about from unhealthy eating.

Low Fat Milk Products
It is important to opt for low fat/non fat milk products, that include besides milk, even yogurt and cheese. It will help you cut down on those unwanted calories, where you have to up your portions of this, to about 3 to four servings in a day. So when you drink a glass of milk, have one during the day coupled with low fat cereal and fruit, then have a non fat/low fat yogurt as a snack during the mid day and then eat some brown toasted bread, with low fat cheese at sundown. Any foods that you eat should be fat free – check behind the product to make sure it isn’t whole fat.

Eat Food Made at Home
It is important to avoid outside food made by another’s hands, to be on the safe side when dealing with bacteria and germs. Go to a very hygienic restaurant in that case, if you want to down some gourmet food. Stay clear from delis, or small joints that have fast food options, and greasy food.

Go Easy on Salty Foods
Don’t overindulge in salty foods, since this causes the body to retain water. Try out these, meal ideas for pregnant women while cooking.

Healthy Cooking Methods
It is important to cook foods without frying or deep frying. Opt for healthier options like roasting or baking. It will help you stay clear from oily foods, and charred meats from grilling.

Salads
Eat a good healthy portion of leafy greens, peppers, a dash of chili flakes, garlic, cheese and anything that you find as a great add on. This will fill you up nicely, and serve as a good way of providing everyday minerals and vitamins, that the body needs. Also remember this healthy diet during pregnancy can include the use of proteins like eggs (not raw) and organic chicken.

Avoid Packaged Foods
Besides healthy foods like milk products that come packaged, don’t overindulge in preservative-soaked foods, like tinned fruits and vegetables, soups, ready to eat meals and so on. Make everything from fresh produce, and put these eatables together from scratch. It will give you a whole lot more of the healthy stuff than something that contains harmful additives. Look into these foods to eat while pregnant, for help in knowing what’s good for your system and baby.

Drink Plenty of Water
Your body will constantly expel water, making you run for the toilet frequently. Make sure you drink at least 8 glasses of water in the day, in order to keep your body hydrated at all times.

Going Brown
Make sure you eat carbohydrates like breads, in their healthier brown versions, or in whole wheat. If you like eating rice, opt for brown instead to add on healthy elements, and benefit from a better alternative than white rice. Couple brown bread with non fat, unsalted butter, and use seasonings of your choice. You can also indulge in capers, since spicy food is given the green light in a pregnancy diet for overweight women, to increase your metabolic rate.

Exercise
Pregnancy exercises are important to include during this time, and requires certain easy to do exercises, that don’t have any strenuous moves. Brisk walking and swimming are healthy options to keep extra weight off, but consulting with your doctor is advisable first, on what kind of exercise is all right to do.

Foods to Include During Pregnancy

Now that a good pregnancy diet plan is put forth to you, it is now time to find out which foods are okay to eat when having meals during a diet.
Fruits and veggies
Organic chicken
Sweet potato
Cod
Non fat cereal
Shrimp
Cashews and almonds
Low fat dairy products
Probiotic drinks
Whole grains
Pollock
Legumes and beansOlives
Olive oil
Low fat, unsalted butter
Occasional dark chocolate
Catfish
Low fat ice cream
Pickles
Chilies/capers
Crackers
Foods on Red Alert During Pregnancy

These foods are best not eaten, and should be avoided during the nine months of your pregnancy, in order to help the baby grow into a healthy infant, and cancel out chances of birth defects. These are the foods to avoid while pregnant.
Raw food (meats of all kind)
Milk or any other liquid that hasn’t been pasteurized.
Unwashed vegetables and fruits.
Avoid fish high in mercury, like tilefish, shark, king mackerel and swordfish.
Cheese that hasn’t been pasteurized.
Raw eggs
Caffeine
Alcohol
Carbonated/aerated drinks.
Pate
Smoked seafood
Eggnog
Please remember that the previously mentioned diet plan for pregnancy, cannot be altered with the foods you cannot eat. I understand how hard it might be for you to avoid these foods, especially when your cravings are at an all time high. Just think of your health, and the baby’s, and it should give you a strong motive in following through on your diet. I hope that you follow the help given in the pregnancy diet for overweight women, and see the results unfold as the months fly by. Have a healthy tomorrow.

How many times do you hear overweight people say things like, “I’m only this way because I’m big boned” or “both of my parents are big so it’s in my genes” or even “all of the women/men in my family are overweight”.

So now the question is, if other members of your family are overweight and have always been, does it mean that you might have inherited the “fat” gene and are predisposed to being overweight yourself? Is there anything that can be done about it, or are you doomed to be overweight for the rest of your life?

There are some facts that must be considered before you assign blame for your weight problem to your family tree. Genetics do decide what the shape of you body will be as well as determining your height and possible risks to your health. If there is a history of obesity in your family, you may have a higher potential for it, but it does not mean that you are doomed to a life of plumpness.

The fact is, even though you may have inherited a higher concentration of fat cells from your family gene pool, it is the bad habits that you inherit from them that will contribute more to your weight than your genes.

Here are the facts about what makes you overweight that you must know to help you break the family tradition of living with that extra padding.

For openers, the food choices that you make play a very important role in whether or not you will become overweight. Not knowing what a proper portion size is during mealtime will also hurt your weight. If as a kid growing up, your parents always went back for seconds during meals, you probably will have inherited that habit as well. If your parents always ate high calorie snacks at night while watching TV, well, you get the picture.

Another downfall to losing the weight gain battle is physical inactivity. While just being physically inactive does not add extra fat by itself, most overweight people are inactive and that means you will burn less calories throughout the day. When an inactive person eats even a normal amount of food daily which is usually still more than they need, they are more likely to store the extra calories as fat.

Your age plays a part in your weight also. When people age, they typically become less active. Also, after age 30 or so, an inactive person will lose around ½ to 1 pound of muscle tissue per year. This makes your metabolism slow down being that muscle is active tissue and the more you have, the higher your metabolism, the less you have, the lower your metabolism. This will account for weight gain.

Most overweight people are not that way because of the genes they inherited, but because of the bad habits they inherited as well as ones they developed on their own. According to the American Medical Association, less than 2% of all obesity can be directly attributed to any kind of metabolic disorder or hormone imbalance.

The bottom line is all of the excuses in the world for being overweight won’t take one pound of fat off of you. The whole thing comes down to modifying your lifestyle to one that is conducive to proper weight control. That means eating less than you’ve been used to eating and being more physically active than you’re used to being.

- When you are planning to lose weight quickly, it is better to shift to a vegetarian diet. A vegetarian diet has a lot of advantages over non-vegetarian foods. You are advised to restrict your intake of non-vegetarian foods. If you are an egg-lover, you should limit your intake of egg to just one egg per day.

- Apart from fresh fruits and vegetables, you should also eat wholesome grains and beans. Wholesome grains supply to you the proteins and other nutrients to your body. Only if your body gets the required nutrition, your craving for food will reduce, and you may not over-eat, thus helping you to lose weight quickly.

- To lose weight quickly, you must reduce your intake of sweets. If you are a sweet-lover, that can be tackled by adopting several tricks. You can eat sweets made out of sweet-substitutes. Drinking lots of water has been proven to reduce your craving for sweets. In fact, drinking plentiful of water makes you feel full and therefore, eating of not only sweets but any item can be kept under desirable limits. By eating fruits also, you can satisfy your sweet tooth.

- Diet experts suggest that you take smaller meals every two hours instead of binging on three large meals daily. Large meals are bound to result in weight gains. By splitting, them into smaller meals, your digestion process becomes easy, your system will be consistently and continuously supplied with the required nourishment and energy and above all, there will not be any weight gains.

- Avoiding altogether your favorite foods that you have been advised to stop eating is not the right strategy to get over the craving for them. In fact, once in a while, you must eat them to a limited extent so that your craving does not become irrepressible.

- Likewise, you must not totally avoid eating fats. Fat content is needed by your brain to function efficiently. Your intake of fats should be well within the prescribed limits.

- Like sugar, salt, if added more than the required dose to your food, may harm you. It is proven that excessive salt will result in high blood pressure; obesity and kidney-related diseases. It is better if you halve your present level of intake of salt so that you can lose weight quickly and avoid these diseases.

- Water helps you in many ways. If water is drunk prior to eating your food, your intake of food will come down. In the same manner, if you drink several sips of water during your eating, you will feel the fullness sooner. Thus you can avoid over-eating and lose weight quickly.

The author is a regular writer on health topic, real estate topic. At times he also write on other topics such as sleeping bags for girls.

In this era of invention & innovation, our mental ability has almost overtaken all our physical aptitude. It is not uncommon today to play tennis indoors, thanks to the highly advanced version of video games. No, I am not a technology antagonist, in fact can never be given the benefits it has added to our lives, but it is their application in the most obsessive way by us is what frets me. Mechanization of job & convenient transportation, erratic working hours, hardcore partying, easy availability of ready to cook food & hectic schedule have all led to less physically active lifestyle. Results are increasing health issues & one of the most prevalent being overweight & obesity. According to the research, there are more than one billion people suffering from overweight & it is women, who are more prone to obesity.

The term “overweight” means having extra body weight from muscle, bone, fat or water. “Obesity “means extra body fat. No, it is not a disease largely but has been made one through our own customs. Being fat is not at all bad but being obese definitely is. What can be avoided has increased vividly in the following years because we can’t avoid munching on the relishing cheese popcorns, burgers, fries, coke & the list goes on. Agreed it is not the only reason but precisely the major ones.

Overweight & obesity are worldwide and there is no specific age bar, victims can be children, adult& teens. Being overweight & obesity would put you in risk in diseases like high blood pressures, breathing problem even certain types of cancer. Genetics also play a vital role in overweight & obesity. Genetically passed obesity is not your fault but controlling it is your major task. Being a strong food lover, I can never recommend you to give up on delicacies entirely but knowing what proportion to gobble down is also important. We have all heard about varied technology to reduce obesity but according to me the real go-getter is your determination & will power. Once you are head-on with your laziness & eating obsession the problem is half solved.
You can next follow some simple steps…ask right about exercise & on… Extract support from your friends to encourage you or your dietitian.

Remember all the ghosts surrounding obesity are virtual & it is you who, through your preferences can either bring them to life or wipe them out.

How many times do you hear overweight people say things like, “I’m only this way because I’m big boned” or “both of my parents are big so it’s in my genes” or even “all of the women/men in my family are overweight”.

So now the question is, if other members of your family are overweight and have always been, does it mean that you might have inherited the “fat” gene and are predisposed to being overweight yourself? Is there anything that can be done about it, or are you doomed to be overweight for the rest of your life?

There are some facts that must be considered before you assign blame for your weight problem to your family tree. Genetics do decide what the shape of you body will be as well as determining your height and possible risks to your health. If there is a history of obesity in your family, you may have a higher potential for it, but it does not mean that you are doomed to a life of plumpness.

The fact is, even though you may have inherited a higher concentration of fat cells from your family gene pool, it is the bad habits that you inherit from them that will contribute more to your weight than your genes.

Here are the facts about what makes you overweight that you must know to help you break the family tradition of living with that extra padding.

For openers, the food choices that you make play a very important role in whether or not you will become overweight. Not knowing what a proper portion size is during mealtime will also hurt your weight. If as a kid growing up, your parents always went back for seconds during meals, you probably will have inherited that habit as well. If your parents always ate high calorie snacks at night while watching TV, well, you get the picture.

Another downfall to losing the weight gain battle is physical inactivity. While just being physically inactive does not add extra fat by itself, most overweight people are inactive and that means you will burn less calories throughout the day. When an inactive person eats even a normal amount of food daily which is usually still more than they need, they are more likely to store the extra calories as fat.

Your age plays a part in your weight also. When people age, they typically become less active. Also, after age 30 or so, an inactive person will lose around ½ to 1 pound of muscle tissue per year. This makes your metabolism slow down being that muscle is active tissue and the more you have, the higher your metabolism, the less you have, the lower your metabolism. This will account for weight gain.

Most overweight people are not that way because of the genes they inherited, but because of the bad habits they inherited as well as ones they developed on their own. According to the American Medical Association, less than 2% of all obesity can be directly attributed to any kind of metabolic disorder or hormone imbalance.

The bottom line is all of the excuses in the world for being overweight won’t take one pound of fat off of you. The whole thing comes down to modifying your lifestyle to one that is conducive to proper weight control. That means eating less than you’ve been used to eating and being more physically active than you’re used to being.

Health authorities hope the measures will arrest the rise in obesity among middle-aged men and slow soaring medical costs. All employees over 40 – about 56 million people – will be required to take the test to determine whether they are at risk of metabolic syndrome – symptoms associated with being overweight that, if left unchecked, increase the risk of strokes, heart disease and diabetes. Men with girths of more than 85cm (33.5in) will be given exercise and diet plans and, in urgent cases, told to see a doctor.

The health ministry estimates that 13 million Japanese suffer from metabolic syndrome, while another 14 million are at risk. Men are about 10% fatter than they were a decade ago, while women are more than 6% heavier. The ministry hopes to see a 25% reduction in the number of people at risk over three years.

According to reports, firms will be required to cut the number of overweight workers and their dependents by 10% by 2012. Those that fail to reach the targets face surcharges of up to 10% on contributions to a welfare fund for the elderly.

“If it can prevent even a small number of people from developing cardiovascular diseases it will be good news for them and their families,” Yuji Matsuzawa, director of the Japan Society for the Study of Obesity, wrote in the Asahi newspaper.

A congregation had gathered at the Riverside to celebrate the arrival of Middlesbrough’s £12.7m record signing, Afonso Alves, but in the month since that midweek fanfare precious little has been seen of the Brazil striker.

Hyped as the man whose goals would save Gareth Southgate’s side from relegation while possibly firing them into the FA Cup final, Alves seems to be suffering from a case of acute culture shock. Despite being one of just three fit strikers available for tonight’s FA Cup fifth-round replay at home to Sheffield United, the forward paraded so proudly on the pitch four weeks ago appears likely to begin on the bench.

Aware that Boro fans are starting to query whether Alves is a man or a myth, Southgate has been at pains to explain that he needs time to adapt to the pace and physicality of English football after life in the Dutch Eredivisie where he scored 34 goals for Heerenveen last season.

While such reasoning sounds eminently sensible it is at odds with the Boro manager’s initial intention to put Alves straight into his starting line-up at Newcastle in early February, a plan thwarted when the British embassy in Holland failed to issue the man from Belo Horizonte with a visa in time.

Once Alves started training it became apparent that he was struggling as a result of a lack of games in the previous month and a weight problem. Southgate opted to ease him in gently with three cameo substitute appearances. In each instance he looked a mere passenger, barely noticeable on the game’s periphery. It seems Southgate believed he was purchasing a bespoke, fully hand-assembled piece of expensive furniture but has instead ended up with a flat-pack version which may take some time and effort to put together.

“English football is a lot quicker than what Afonso’s been used to,” said the Boro manager yesterday. “I wouldn’t expect to see the best of Afonso until next season. We could still see something very good from him before the summer but, if I throw him in from the start too early, people might think he’s not up to it. I look at the way Arsène Wenger gives his new Arsenal players time to settle.”

A classic penalty-area predator whose technique, movement and two-footedness are shown off to best effect inside the 18-yard box, the 27-year-old, who does not speak English, has always been a specialist rather than an all-rounder.

In an interview in the Netherlands he explained: “I look like I’m lazy, like Romario, but it’s not the truth. I’m just playing a game with defenders. It’s a tactical thing. They are not looking at me and by the time they do look it’s too late, I’ve suddenly scored. Defenders don’t know how to defend against me.”

Gert Verbeek, Alves’s former Heerenveen coach, explains: “Afonso has phenomenal qualities. He decides matches in single moments, you don’t see a goalscorer like him every day.”

The intriguing thing about the player – a centre-half until the age of 15 – is that he has taken his time to learn to fool opponents. Until that remarkably prolific period with Heerenveen the striker – who barely got a game at his first Brazilian club, Atletico Mineiro, and swiftly moved on to Sweden, where he played for Orgryte of Gothenburg and then Malmo – had never scored more than 14 times in a season.

Even so, he was considered promising enough for Heerenveen to pay a record fee of €4.5m (£3.4m) and he repaid such faith by eclipsing the goalscoring feats of previous club favourites including Ruud van Nistelrooy, Marcus Allback, Jon Dahl Tomasson, Klaas Jan Huntelaar and Georgios Samaras. “Because of the way of playing in Holland, a striker has a lot of space,” said Alves, who won his first Brazil caps last summer. “But in Sweden the football is much more defensive and scoring is a lot harder.”

Boro, whose fingers were previously badly burnt by a former record attacking signing called Massimo Maccarone, can only trust that Alves proves more of a Van Nistelrooy than a Tomasson or Samaras, flops at Newcastle United and Manchester City respectively.

A winning goal from the “Samba Man” tonight would be the perfect way to start vindicating Southgate’s judgment.