Thursday, October 30, 2008

5 Helpings of Vegetables A Day

Research studies deliver the goods that people on a weight loss program or not who run through a great deal of fruit and veggies may sustain a lower gamble of developing sicknesses, such as heart disease and many cancers. For this rationality, health authorities recommend eating at least 5 servings of fruit and veggies every day. Whether fresh, canned, frozen, cooked, juiced or pickled - run through your veggies.

How much is a serving?

1 medium apple, banana, or orange
1/2 cup chopped fruit or berries
3/4 cup fruit juice

How can this work out for you? How to get your 5 a day?
Here are a few ideas:

1 Glassful of fruit juice for breakfast = 1 serving
1 Small package of dehydrated apricots for mid-morning bite = 1 serving
Side salad with lunch = 1 serving
1/2 Cup of peas and asparagus, served with main meal = 1 serving
1/2 Cup of strawberries with dessert = 1 serving

If you run through a banana with your breakfast (1 serving); or entree salad for lunch (which may be at least three cups of greens, or 3 helpings); or grapefruit for an afternoon bite (1 serving); a bean salad to go with dinner (1 cup, or 2 helpings); or a blended berry compote with a spoonful of plain yogurt for dessert (1 cup, or 2 helpings).

For most people it is not essential to actually measure each helping of food. The serving sizes are contributed only as a average guidepost. For mixed in foods you can appraisa the food group serving of the essential fixings.

For instance, a cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato can be counted as: 2 bread (two sides to the hamburger bun), 1 meat (the beef patty itself), 1 dairy (the slice of cheese), and 1 veggie (the lettuce and tomato.)

Unrefined and refined carbs

Aside from potatoes, the foods listed in this grouping started out as a grains. Potatoes and grains are very hearty and satisfying All The Same, it is even more hearty to choose unrefined renderings of these over refined renderings.

Unrefined carbs still contain the complete grain, including the bran and the germ, so they hold more fiber and will fulfill hungriness longer. That is consequential if setting about to drop off fat. Instances include whole-wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, and whole grain rice.

Refined carbs relates to foods that have been modified by treating to transfer the high fiber parts (bran and germ) from the grain. Good examples include white rice, white bread, and sugared cereals.

To get more dietary fiber or bar hunger pangs, try these good for you switches:

Refined Switch to Unrefined

Sugar coated flakes Bran flakes
White toast Whole oats
Cereal bars Rice cakes
French bread Whole wheat bread
Regular pasta Whole wheat pasta
Breadsticks Dark rye crispbread


Simple and complex carbs are frequently muddled with refined and unrefined carbs. The terms simple carbs and complex carbs concern the chemical construction of a carbohydrate instead of it comprising whole grain or not. The ordinary person has more or less 4 teaspoonfuls of sugar circling in their blood stream.

Complex carbs are the most common sort of carbs there are and are comprised of 3 types:

Glycogen. The body's leading fuel reservoir - sometimes denoted as blood sugar. Glycogen is forged from glucose. Glucose is found in almost all foods.

Starch. Starch is unique to in plants and doesn't make you fat. The rich sauces, fats and oils slopped on pasta, potatoes, rice, noodles and bread that is the reason you can pinch more than an inch.

Fiber (non-starch polysaccharide). Fiber is superabundant in unrefined carbs, fruit and veggies. Fiber helps to process waste expeditiously and helps maintain your belly filled longer.

How much is adequate?

Nutritionists urge that breadstuff, cereals and taters grouping make the majority of your diet - close to 50 % and run through 18 grams of fiber a day. An easy way add these to your diet is to bring food from this grouping at every meal and choose for fiber-rich unrefined carbohydrates.

Intelligent ways to commence finding the good carbohydrates you need:

Oatmeal with natural yoghurt, raisins and sunflower seeds for breakfast.
Lunch - whole wheat bread banana sandwich or tater and chilli.
Dinner - seafood or fish, made with brown rice.

Working to lose weight? Step-up your activity and trim back the empty calories. Beware highly processed carbohydrates encountered in junk foods, white bread, sugared pop, and enormous servings of fat-free eats. Recall just because it is fat-free does not mean it contains no calories.

Eat On your fruits and veggies. We have been heaing that forever. Now, scientific studies deliver the goods that people who run through a great deal of fruit and veggies may sustain a lower gamble of developing sicknesses, such as heart disease and many cancers.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Genetics and Body Fat

Genetics play a primary part in body composition and our bodies are hard-wired to lay in fat as a guard against future starvation. With a steady physical exercise schedule you can overthrow your body's sensitivity to salt away fat. Diet pills are a fantasy! Diet pills will not allow you to lose weight on their own! A physical exertion plan is the true-to-life approach to dealing with body make-up. All those common myths and tales about burning weight instantaneously using expensive work out equipment and pills are lies! Finding a way to make physical exercise exiting and switching workout programs sustain your motivation and keep you from getting spent.

Dropping off fat by not consuming anything.

Keeping weight burned from starving yourself does not work. You will gain everything back the second you cease the diet. In addition, your metabolism will slow to a crawl as a result of the extensive reduction in calorie intake. This means that not only will your body start using calories less often (as a consequence you will be capable of assimilate even less food before you touch the total at which you initiate gaining weight), but it will likewise go into starvation mode (since your body doesn't know when its next meal is coming, it will attempt to salt away as much energy as feasible in the form of fat to build up for a potential starvation regime).

A medical grounding of why starvation dieting is not the most effective way to lose weight. 1st, when you are not consuming enough your body drops weight by feeding on its own muscle mass (muscle weighs more than fat). When you do feed your body is more likely to draw other fats and things you do not need because it is in a starvation mode. Hence when you suppose you are dropping off weight it in truth is an increment in fat and step-down in muscularity. When you lose muscular tissue you also retard down your metabolism.

Just don't do it - blend exercise and diet (Yea, yea, you in all likelihood already heard it a million times).

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

How to develop a weight loss plan

How to develop a weight loss plan

If your weight loss plan includes looking lean and cut then thinking of your body as a machine that needs fuel can benefit your weight loss goals. Having a nice display of muscle details throughout your physique while not looking thin and depleted is the goal of most dieters. There are weight loss plans that are shocking by how quickly you can reach your goal. Thinking of your body as a machine that needs fuel, can make your endeavor a success. As the body ages, one problem is that the rate at which fat is used inside the body tends to drop as we get older. This is known as basal fat oxidation. As fat oxidation drops, fat burning slows down and fat increases. What can be done to prevent fat-oxidation rates from slowing down? Build muscle mass. Researchers recently studying a large volunteer group of common women, aged 18 to 73, the testers found that the best prediction of the decline in fat-burning was the depletion of muscle tissue not aerobic endurance. Losing muscle volume causes the adipose tissue-reduction to spiral down much more hastily, compared with progressing age or diminishing fitness. Anyone can reduce or even reverse the bias for fat oxidation to decline with age simply by bolstering their muscles. Maintaining high fat-burning rates would make it hard to develop a big gut or thunder thighs and would increase athletic endurance. Weight training two to three times a week for 30-45 minutes will end up with a stronger, thinner you. Eat six small meals spaced during the day. Evenly Spacing food intake every 2 1/2 to 3 hours provides a host of metabolism-enhancing benefits such as: Improved hunger control Improved glycogen storage in the liver and muscle cells Adequate fuel stores to adequately fulfill the muscle’s and organ’s minute to minute nutritional needs Decreased gastrointestinal transit time from the stomach to the muscles. You should eat whether you feel hungry or not. Hunger indicates a deficit of nutrients. Women always want to ready to supply their body’s needs when it comes to adequate cellular nutrition. Increase your good carb intake. A strict carb diet limited to baked potatoes or white rice isn’t advised. Vary your diet by eating more carbs that metabolize slower - yams, sweet potatoes, brown rice and assorted grains. Eating salads and vegetables. Vegetables require more energy to process, a few vegetables require more energy to process than the energy they contain. To keep your body working optimally, vary your carbs. To keep your cells working, change your intake of carbs. Take in the your normal amount of carbohydrates your diet calls for on day one; on the next day, drop carbohydrate consumption by 250 calories (62.5 grams), day three, increase carbohydrates by daily level by 250 calories, day four, return to your standard intake of carbohydrates. For additional shock to your metabolism, decrease your carb intake by 500 calories every week or two. A weight loss plan that keeps your body guessing will prevent your body from going into a state of homeostasis, but don't vary the carb changes too radiaclly, you want to shock your system not create rapid weight loss. Increase your fat-burning furnace- by varying the intensity of your aerobic workouts. After a good warm-up, add a few short bursts of speed to increase your heart rate up a little higher for a minute or two. Then decrease your speed and recover at your normal pace. Called interval training adds variety, burns more calories, doesn’t allow your body to sink into a training rut, and increases your cardiovascular fitness level. Drink Lots. Muscle mass is 70 % water. If you want to get a lean and hard body, drinking plenty of H2O is required. Water is essential for metabolism. The conversion of carbs to energy cannot take place efficiently without plenty of H2O. Without water, muscle cells won’t load with glycogen or deliver amino acids to muscle tissue. The process of mobilizing fate – hydrolysis – requires enough water to break down fat, much of which is stored just under the dermis. Hydrolyzing the fat just under the skin gives the lean, defined look seen in athletic people. Get enough protein each 24 hour period. To limit muscle mass decline get enough protein delivered evenly throughout the course of each day. A good way to estimate the amount of protein you should consume daily use a reasonable weight at which you think you would look good if you were lean. Multiply that number by 0.8 grams. If that number is, 170 pounds, the 24 hour requirement is 136 grams of protein, which requires 27 grams per meal on a 5 meal a day weight loss plan. Stop starving. Many studies show that dieting has both physiological and psychological results. Food depravation is a signal for the body to store fat. Food deprivation is known to prompt binge eating in previously ordinary eaters. Alter the workout routine. Mentally, the same routine, week after week, has the potential to lead to burnout and boredom. Physiologically, the body needs change to avoid hitting a wall and reducing results. Change your workout routine a little after 4-6 weeks. Change the type of activities in your workout, change up the order of your exercises, the intensity and reps of your workouts. Adding these proven techniques to your weight loss plans, keeps your fat furnace working.

Friday, October 10, 2008

BMI - A Better Perspective on Body Fat

The BMI formula factors your height and weight to detect if you have excess body fat. BMI measurement is a better appraisal of fatness, as opposed to body weight alone, since it relates height to weight. For example, knowing a person weighs 200 pounds isn’t sufficient info to assess whether they are overweight. Factoring in a person’s height helps place their body weight into perspective: An individual who is 6-foot and 200 pounds may not be excessively fat, while another person who is 5-foot-8 and 200 pounds is more than in all likelihood to have extra body fat.

BMI and Health Assessment

Higher BMI numbers are connected with increased dangers of disease and death. Higher BMI numbers are connected with diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers. Studies has discovered that the lowest and highest BMIs are connected with the highest health risks. So BMI figures are categorized into classes meant to reflect the degree of jeopardy a person faces.

Those people with the lowest risks of disease seem to land in the 18.5 to 24.9 BMI scope, so they are regarded to be “normal.”

Wellness perils significantly increase with a BMI of 25 or more, so BMI ranks above 25 are broken into "overweight" and "obese".

Extremely high BMIs are associated to even larger perils of certain health perils. The “underweight” class is included because being too thin is also tied in with increased health perils.

BMI Classes - Overweight and Obese

Underweight <18.5
Normal 18.5 - 24.9
Overweight 25.0 - 29.9
Obesity 30.0 - 39.9
Extreme Obesity 40+

Possessing a BMI meter reading of 25+ is an indicant of being heavy, but not necessarily fat. A BMI of 30 or above is an indicant of carrying too much body fat.

People who are heavy may be that way because they are highly muscular. Muscular people may have a very low percentage of body fat, even though weighing more on a scale. So their BMI amount might not be a authentic way to specify if they have more body fat than they do. Beefed-up people, often have higher BMIs. But since they are fit and lean, they are not necessarily at magnified risk of certain health risks only because they sustain a higher BMI.

In certain illustrations BMI is not a sure indication of body fat.

Older people may carry more body fat and less muscularity, but their BMI total may stay along the low end of the BMI scale, indicating that they have less body fat than they do.

People under 5 feet may as well have BMI numbers totals that do not reflect their degree of accumulated fat. People who are sick or on medicinal drugs that cause exceptional quantities of edema, or swelling in the body, may weigh to a greater extent from surplus fluid collection. In this example, a larger BMI total may not suggest the absence or presence of body fat.

As a statistical tool utilizing 1000s of cases, BMI is functional when working with scientific data points to approximate the numbers of the overweight and obese and linked disease perils. For the individual, BMI is a functional way to monitor changes in weight over time.

Because BMI does not directly measure body fat, or where in the body fat is divided up, it may not be the best method of judging personal tiers of fatness and how it links to health risks. Waistline, and other factors should be taken into account when valuing a person’s overall health endangerments.

How to Check Your BMI

A laboratory is the proper setting to measure your BMI. Some laboratory body testing equipment such as underwater scales, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and the Bod Pod measure body fat directly. There are other methods (although less reliable) to quantify body fat. Including skin fold testing or using a commercial body fat scale, some gyms offer up these body fat testing services.

The BMI screening is a improved mode to check out if you have surplus body fat. BMI associates height to weight and is a better judgment of fatness, as opposed to using body weight only.


Scientific research has determined that the lowest and highest BMIs are tied in with the highest health hazards such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes.

BMI numbers are classed into categories meant to interpret the degree of risk a person faces. A BMI of 25 appears to be the threshold where health peril really steps-up, and a BMI of 30 entails even heavier health perils. Extremely high BMIs (40+) are coupled to even more grievous dangers of certain health hazards. The BMI “underweight” category is part of the chart because being too trim is also attached with raised wellness perils. Having to take the time to get your BMI appraised may be an unreasonable or overpriced proposal for some people, but there are alternatives such as skin fold measuring, that are not as correct, but less costly or free and are accessible at local health clubs.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

The Atkins Diet

Review - The Atkins Diet

I have worked the Atkins Diet and lost 34 lbs. I was able to keep until I stopped the weight loss plan and started back on my previous way of eating. The diet lets you intake fats and proteins, but limits carbs to encourage the body to enter a metabolic state of ketosis. The body then begins breaking down fat to burn as a source of nutrition. Fats and proteins will leave the body feeling fuller and hold off your appetite between meals.
The Atkins Diet theory is based on maintaining your body in a state of ketosis. Ketosis is a metabolic state where the liver excessively converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies which in turn are used by the body for energy.

Dr. Robert Atkins, the author and founder, says the theory behind the Atkins Diet: your body's main source of energy is from carbohydrates. If you significantly decrease your intake of carbohydrates, it forces your body to utilize your stored fat for energy.

The Atkins Diet Advantage program offers pre-packaged low-carb to make meal planning quick and convenient.

Studies are continuing to determine if the Atkins Diet affects weight for more than 1 year. Studiesthat were conducted on the Atkins Diet for 1 year showed quantifiable fat loss.

Details of the Atkins Diet program are written in an easy to follow format in the Diet Revolution and the New Diet Revolution, by Dr. Atkins

Atkins Diet - Four Phases
The weight loss program is set up into four phases.

• Induction
• On-going Weight Loss
• Pre-Maintenance
• Lifetime Maintenance

Atkins Diet - Induction

For the induction phase (approximately 2 weeks) carbohydrates are restricted to 20 grams per day. Only leafy, green carbohydrates are allowed. Cheeses, meats, oils and creams are the bulk of this phase. Alcohol and caffeine are not allowed during induction. The ketosis state starts and causes calories to be burnt at a higher rate, usually producing the largest amount of weight loss throughout the diet.

Atkins Diet - On-going Weight Loss

Cheeses, meats, oils and creams are still the main focus of Atkins, but carbohydrates are increased weekly by approximately 5 grams. If there is an increase in weight or weight loss stops, it is advised to decrease your intake of carbohydrates. This phase is continues until you're within 10 pounds of your desired weight.

Atkins Diet -Pre-Maintenance

Following the Atkins Glycemic Ranking, carbohydrate intake is again increased. The goal is to find level of carbohydrates that can be eaten while maintain the desired body weight.

Atkins Diet - Lifetime Maintenance

Lifetime Maintenance is maintaining the desired body weight while trying different amounts of carbohydrates. Varying the types of carbohydrates to determine how much of each food can be consumed without affecting body weight.

Atkins Diet – Exercise

Walking is one recommended exercise to maintain fitness levels while on the Atkins Diet. Walking is aerobic and will encourage the body to utilize fat for fuel.