2011/06/27

Fat Loss With Science

We hear people frequently talking about their fitness, discuss the diet, weight loss programs, blogs etc in all places. Workplace, restaurants, bars, clubs, social events or at local trains, everyone wants to learn the formula of looking young, fit and appealing. I am confident while you reading this piece of writing the same things are flowing through your mind that how some people challenge the evolution of aging and stay young and dynamic throughout their life time. Look at the models, actors, fitness trainers, why they look so appealing? What do they do to keep themselves fit and healthy? What is their formula of defying age? Now, I am sure your mind has begun thinking and you apparently will be standing in front of the mirror in next two minutes to see how your body looks like, am I right?

Okay without keeping you more in anxiety, I will come straight to the point and will tell you about the facts of how our internal body system works. How we get in and out of shape, how we look lean or fat, how we look young or old and how we challenge our aging process. To start with, how often you hear people saying, "I want to run five miles every day but my work routine does not allow me to do so", "I want to spend one hour each day at my gym but needs more time to spend with family", "I eat very low calories a day but still not losing any weight", " I have cut down my fat consumption but I still have not lost any weight". Why? Why? Why?

The case is easy, these people either makes excuses of not working out or they do not understand the physics of fat burning and try to do everything wrong which slowed down their metabolism instead of losing weight. So what shall we do to lose weight, look young, energetic and attractive? To lose weight first understand how we gain weight, what is the process of gaining weight? What leads to the growth of fat tissue and what lowers our metabolism? If you understand the process of gaining weight then all you need is to do the exact reverse of it to lose weight. Am I right?

Now, how we gain weight? Our human body is very difficult to understand. We need to know how it creates energy and stores it when not fully used. Our body uses two fuels to create energy for our daily activity, these two fuel types are carbohydrates and fats. Carbohydrates are by default is body's best-loved and ready available fuel to generate energy. All the carbs we eat get converted into energy instantly and raise our blood glucose levels. Carbs gives our body the instant energy which if not utilized fully will then start converting that energy into fats tissue to lower down the glucose levels. This leads to our weight gain. Now what happens if we stop eating carbohydrates? Our body still needs energy for its everyday activities and to get this energy, our body will convert fats into energy to meet its daily needs. This is scientifically confirmed and tested. This is the physics of our body. As a result to lose weight, lower down the carbs intake and our body will become a fat burning furnace automatically without spending hours in gym.

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Food and Exercise Tips That Will Help You Shed the Pounds

We normally associate food with pounds or gaining weight. But there are foods that might just burn those calories away. These are foods that are rich in anti-catabolic, metabolism-friendly, and figure friendly enzymes that may help your weight management. The best part is they don't just help you loose weight, they are also pretty tasty. Did you know that calcium rich food helps your body to quit storing fat and burn them? Just like yogurt, this delicious snack is not only good for dips; it is also waistline-friendly. Another calcium rich food is skim milk. We all know that skim milk has lesser fat than whole milk. Egg white is another food rich but that is good for you. Egg white has less fat than consuming whole eggs. So don't miss breakfast, eat your egg whites! When it comes to fruits and vegetables, blueberries are a good source of vitamin C, an antioxidant and it strengthens the immune system. Now it is proven to keep loosing those inches.

Apples are also a hit in the weight loss world as they have more water content than calories. So in the event of snacking attack, grab an apple instead of junkies. Grapefruit is a citrus fruit also rich in vitamin C like blueberries, and they help you curb that appetite for unhealthy stuff. Mom always says "eat your veggies". So let it be, eat your beans. Beans are considered to be protein replacements for people who are vegetarian or have medical meat prohibitions. Beans are great source of fiber as well which helps our digestive tract on track. You can also substitute beans with its by-product which is tofu. Tofu is the most popular vegetarian food. Vegetarians make use of this soy by-product as a meat substitute. They use it for everything! The good thing with tofu is that it is low in saturated fat that meat have. Less saturated fat is equal to that body you've always wanted. And as to any weight loss, water is very important.

It keeps us hydrated during the day and that keep us from feeling always hungry. And water is always good for you. So skip the soda, skip the caffeine, skip the energy drink, and get the best beverage that your body hunger for: H2O. Making the right food choices can either make or break you, that's why you should think before you eat, and you might lose some inches with simple these small decisions. Now let's move on to exercise. Yeah its true food plays a big part of health, losing weight and removing fat altogether. But hey if you eat but do not exercise, no movement, and be lazy, all of the weight will go hunt you back. Exercise is one of the best options that you can do together with these food that are mentioned above. Move that butt and get off that couch, don't be a couch potato, remember that in achieving your goals required determination, discipline and making it work for you. Food and exercise can be the best of friends that will help you go further.

Get more fat busting tips and exercise routines that will trigger your metabolism at http://www.575weightloss.com/ and get more out of life!

Kris Kim has written dozens of article about weight loss, weight loss programs and earning money online that help people decide and choose the right products to help people loose weight fast, easy and keep it off for good and earn money fast, easy online the legitimate way.


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2011/06/26

Childhood Obesity: Destruction From Within

As I take a look around at the news and news documentaries on obesity, it seems that the most serious threats to the welfare and well-being of American youth may not be a terrorist attack, but rather the succumbing to the effects of astutely targeted food advertisement, fast food restaurants marketers, and the video game industry. How so? All of the aforementioned contribute to the ongoing epidemic of childhood obesity. Let's examine some of the facts related to the growing numbers of overweight and obese children.

For too long, Western society has used food as a reward and a behavior modifier. We have become a "super-sized" society that makes poor food choices that will eventually overburden the U.S. health care system along with shorter life spans.

What is the cause of childhood obesity?

This is a complex question consisting of the interactions between many factors such as environment, behavior and genes. With two-thirds, or 60 million American adults being overweight, children are bound to succumb to many of the same negative health and eating patterns. For example, adults who gaze mindlessly at the TV after dinner don't set too good an example of an active lifestyle for children to follow. Instead, they establish and instill negative eating and health patterns that may take years for youngsters to break free from.

Another looming issue is that children today have been zeroed in as pawns by money hungry marketers of fast food restaurants, video games manufacturers and the proverbial "boob tube." These practices entice children into overeating. A child-sized meal is often packed with 700 or more calories. Children are enticed to eat a nutritionally void meal as long as a high tech toy is in the box. The child has a double whammy as the normal youngster's eyes often lead him into trouble. Is it any wonder that 15 percent of American children are overweight?

Further, consider the fact that children forty or so years ago enjoyed wholesome outdoor activities which included: hopscotch, jump rope and "hide and seek." Today, due to safety and other fears, outdoor exercise is often shunned.

What are the health risks?

The health risks are many. With the figures reaching epidemic proportions for childhood obesity within the general population, Latino and African American male children are at even higher risk with the number ballooning up to 25% of such children, many of whom are in lower income brackets. This fact predisposed a child to pick less nutritious but cheaper snacks such as $.25 packs of cookies and candy.

Other ominous health risks include:

High cholesterol often requiring medication with the commonly prescribed statins. Sadly, long term effects with youngsters who could be condemned to lifelong usage are simply unknown.

But the following is a brief list of potentially life threatening chronic illnesses:

Cardiovascular diseases, such as high blood pressure and clogged arteries
Poor self image due to teasing and being ostracized
Sleep apnea and asthma
Reproductive problems

Unfortunately, researchers are now seeing how grave the future is unless some drastic changes are made.


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Aerobic Exercise Helps With Weight Loss

You've probably heard of the hundreds of weight loss diets that people are trying these days. They hope that by adopting a certain diet, they will be able to shed the pounds. Some weight loss diets can be very effective, but you usually have to do more than eat a certain way. To lose weight, you usually need to get physical activity, too.

Why is physical activity so important to weight loss? We may not fully understand all of the reasons, but we do know some things about why physical activity assists with weight loss. First of all, physical activity builds muscle. Muscles require your body to burn calories to keep them healthy. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories your body burns automatically.

As you increase your muscle mass, your body burns up more and more calories. If you are limiting your calorie intake by eating a healthy diet, you may end up burning more calories than you actually eat. The extra calories come from your fat stores. Your body actually burns up your fat stores to provide your growing muscles with energy. That's a pretty sweet deal.

Now that you understand why physical activity is an important component of a weight loss plan, you can learn about aerobic exercise. It is a particularly effective form of exercise for those who are trying to lose weight.

The word "aerobic" basically means "using oxygen." When you get aerobic exercise, you do need a lot of oxygen. That's because you'll be breathing hard. Aerobic exercise is a step up from other types of exercise, such as weight training. It's the kind of exercise that involves getting your heart and lungs working.

If your current exercise routine doesn't involve aerobic exercise, you may not be losing weight as effectively as you'd like. Adding in aerobic exercises might be just the thing to tip the scales in your favor. Even adding one or two aerobic exercise sessions a week into your routine can help significantly.

So, how do you get aerobic exercise? The possibilities are almost endless, as long as the activity gets your heart rate going. The trick to getting enough aerobic exercise is figuring out what works for you and sticking to it.

Are you a person who enjoys walking? You can make your walks aerobic by simply picking up the pace. Walk fast enough that you strain your heart and lungs just a little. If you are a jogger, make sure that your pace gets your pulse racing, and the same principle applies to runners, as well.

You can also get aerobic activity from swimming laps, dancing, playing soccer, or joining an aerobics class. Don't forget the thousands of aerobic workout videos on the market today. If working out at home is your forte, you can find a video that you can enjoy. Finding an activity you enjoy significantly increases the likelihood that you will stick with your exercise plan and lose the weight that you want to lose.

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Does Alcachofa Really Help You Lose Weight?

There have been many fads in weight loss methods, from the Atkins Diet to Fen-phen and everything in between. Some of them seem to live up to the hype and some of them don't. A newer, trending weight control aid is Alcachofa supplements. This trend started in Mexico and is now becoming more and more popular in the United States. But the real question is, "Does Alcachofa really help you lose weight?"

Alcachofa supplements are based primarily on Artichoke extract. How exactly does the artichoke extract in Alcachofa help you lose weight? The main way that Alcachofa products help you lose weight is by helping the body remove extra water. For various reasons, the human body retains water and thus causes us to feel and look bloated. This also gives us extra water weight. Artichoke is a naturally-occuring diuretic, so by taking Alcachofa, the excess water in our bodies gets flushed out. Without that much extra water in our bodies, we lose inches because our bodies are less bloated, and we lose pounds because we no longer carry the weight of all that water.

Now losing inches and pounds is a great thing, but what most of us are interested in is losing fat also, not just water. The basic premise of losing fat is to burn more calories than we eat. Even if we lose as much water weight and size as we can, our bodies can still increase in body fat if we end up eating more calories than we can burn. So in terms of losing fat, Alcachofa supplements that only contain Artichoke extract as the active weight loss ingredient are insufficient. They will help with water weight, but not with fat loss. Alcachofa supplements would work best when combined with other ingredients that actually help you lose fat. Two other naturally-derived plant extracts that can help with this are African Mango and Bitter Orange.

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, in order to lose fat, we must burn more calories than we eat. And for a lot of us, that's a difficult feat! Unlike Artichoke extract which deals with water weight, African Mango extract actually contributes to losing fat. African Mango extract helps increase the body's metabolism by increasing the energy used by the body. This means that your body will burn more calories than it normally does if you consume African Mango extract. And on top of helping you burn more calories, African Mango extract also helps reduce your appetite, so you eat less calories than you normally do. This makes African Mango extract an excellent weight loss aid because you end up burning more calories than usual and eating less calories than usual.

Another natural plant extract that can help with fat loss is Bitter Orange extract. Bitter Orange extract, like African Mango extract, also helps in suppressing appetite to help you consume less calories. But unlike Artichoke extract which helps you lose water weight and unlike African Mango extract that increases the amount of calories your body burns, Bitter Orange extract not only helps you eat less, it actually aids in breaking down body fat directly. One important thing to note with Bitter Orange extract is that it contains stimulants, so you should only consume it earlier in the day so that it does not interfere with your sleep.

In conclusion, Alcachofa itself is an effective method to lose water weight and size, but it is ineffective for fat loss. Other natural active weight loss ingredients that are more effective for fat loss are African Mango and Bitter Orange. So an effective combination of losing inches and pounds more quickly is to combine Alcachofa, African Mango, and Bitter Orange together to target weight loss in all directions: flushing out excess water, reducing appetite, burning more calories, and burning fat.

Alcachofa is a dietary supplement, as with any dietary supplement, consult your health care provider before use. Dietary supplements should not be used by pregnant or breastfeeding women. Alcachofa is the same family as sunflower seeds and chrysanthemum, so if you are allergic to any of these you should not take this supplement.


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Older men don't live longer with weight-loss surgery (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Weight-loss surgery may not help obese middle aged and older men live longer, according to new research that runs counter to earlier findings in younger people.

The results mean doctors should be extra careful when counseling obese patients about their treatment options, Matthew Maciejewski of Durham VA Medical Center in North Carolina and colleagues write in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In 2009, more than 220,000 Americans had some type of weight loss surgery, at a price of about $20,000 per patient, according to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

Experts say surgery is the most enduring way to bring down one's weight, and earlier studies have suggested it will increase life expectancy by up to three years.

At first, the new study did appear to confirm those findings, but the benefit didn't hold up when comparing similar patients who did or did not have surgery.

The researchers looked back at the outcomes of 850 veterans, mostly men over 50 years old, who'd had weight-loss surgery between 2000 and 2006.

Six years after their surgery, about seven percent of the men had died, compared to 15 percent among a comparison group of obese men who didn't have surgery.

But when patients from the two groups were matched closely according to weight, age, race and other factors, the survival gap disappeared.

Previous studies have found that about seven percent of patients having weight-loss surgery experience complications, although most are minor wound problems.

Serious complications -- such as massive bleeding or kidney failure -- occurred in 2.6 percent of patients in one study from last year.

The new study is the first to compare death rates among heavy middle aged and older men who did or did not have weight-loss surgery, the researchers say, but it did have a number of limitations.

For instance, it's possible that following the patients for longer than six years would have changed the picture in favor of those who had surgery. And, the researchers stress, patients may still want surgery, even if it turns out not to affect their life expectancy, because the weight loss is likely to improve other medical conditions and quality of life.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/ifujZX Journal of the American Medical Association, online June 12, 2011.


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How Overweight Pregnant Women Can Limit Weight Gain (LiveScience.com)

Overweight pregnant women who weighed themselves weekly and received text-message reminders about weight early in their pregnancy gained less weight than women who didn't, a new study shows.

Gaining too much weight during pregnancy can bring on diabetes and may pose risks for babies.

"There is not a lot being done in early pregnancy to avoid weight gain and the complications," said study author Catherine Lombard, of the Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine in Melbourne, Australia.

The preliminary results from the ongoing study will be presented Sunday (June 12) at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in Boston.

The women in the study were overweight, not obese, but were considered at high risk for gestational diabetes due to their weight, age and ethnic background. Further results from the study will determine whether the healthy lifestyle program in which the women participated also reduced gestational diabetes, a serious condition that can cause complications for both the mother and child during the pregnancy.

Overweight and pregnant

Among pregnant women in the United States, about half are overweight or obese, said Dr. Raul Artal, chairman of the Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology and Women's Health at Saint Louis University. Artal conducts research on weight gain during pregnancy but was not involved in the study.

“I and many of my colleagues believe excessive weight gain in pregnancy is a major reason for the obesity epidemic in our country,” Artal said.

The Institute of Medicine guidelines on pregnancy weight gain, which were released in 2009, suggest a gain of 25 to 35 pounds for women of normal weight, 15 to 25 pounds for women who are overweight and 11 to 20 pounds for women who are obese.

Artal said the recommendations "have done a disservice to women." "It is allowing too much weight gain" for women who are already obese or overweight, he said.

Complications from being overweight or obese during pregnancy include higher rates of birth defects and higher risk of gestational diabetes. Women with gestational diabetes are at seven times the risk of getting diabetes later in life than women who do not have the condition, Artal said.

Babies born to mothers with gestational diabetes have their own complications. “These babies have a tendency to be very large and therefore have traumatic deliveries, and more complications in delivery and in the first few days of life,” Artal said. These infants are at higher risk for obesity as children and adults.

Text messages and weekly weigh-in

Lombard’s study included 200 pregnant women who were at risk for gestational diabetes. The participants were divided into two groups, one that underwent the educational program and a control group.

At 14 weeks of pregnancy, researchers gave both groups information that emphasized making small, healthy changes to eating and physical activity, such as walking and eating more fruits and vegetables. One group also received information about how much weight they should gain during pregnancy, an instruction to weigh themselves and frequent reminders by text messaging.

At 28 weeks, the women who had received the extra information had gained, on average, about two pounds less than those in the control group.

This difference might seem small, but it is important at that stage of pregnancy, Lombard said.

Further results will measure weight gain during the entire pregnancy, as well as the rates of gestational diabetes in the two groups. The study is following patients through delivery and the first six weeks of each baby’s life.

Pass it on: A healthy lifestyle program conducted early in a pregnancy can help overweight women avoid excessive weight gain.

This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, sister site to LiveScience.


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