Showing posts with label weight loss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weight loss. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Are You Doing the Wrong Type of Exercise to Lose Weight?

 

While exercise is a critical component of any fat loss program, you might be exercising incorrectly. This means that your particular goals require certain kinds of exercise, performed in certain amounts, at certain times. What you're currently doing might not be right for you. For example long, boring cardio on the treadmill is quickly being replaced with the far more effective "interval training" for reaching one's fat loss goals. Interval Training consists of working hard for a short period of time (i.e. a 100 yard sprint) and then resting before performing another short burst of intense exercise. Working out in this way boosts fat loss, increases the number of calories burned, improves cardiovascular fitness, decreases workout time, adds variety to your workouts and will likely be much more fun than many other workouts you have tried.
Time and time again, interval training has proven to be the fastest method for burning fat. It does not require any equipment, it shortens your workouts considerably and it is far less boring, and more effective, than walking on the treadmill for hours at a time. For ultimate fat loss, interval training is one of the most effective ways to burn fat, beyond what any other type of exercise can provide.
Obviously there are limitations to who should perform this type of exercise and if you are new to it, you will want to start slowly and talk with your physician before embarking on a more intense level of exercise.
Here is just one example of an interval type workout:
Perform 20 repetitions of dumbbell squats, followed by a 60 second rest, then perform 12 push-ups, followed by another 60 second rest and repeat this process three times.
So in other words, it would look like this:

  • 20 squats, 60 second rest
  • 12 push-ups, 60 second rest
  • 20 squats, 60 second rest
  • 12 push-ups, 60 second rest
  • 20 squats, 60 second rest
  • 12 push-ups, rest 90-120 seconds and perform the next two exercises

For the next super-set, you would perform 15-20 lunges with each leg, followed by 12 dumbbell rows (or pull-ups if you have a bar). You would these in the same fashion - lunges, followed by a 60 second rest, dumbbell rows, 60 second rest, etc.
After your last set, you could then take a short 3 minute rest and perform 3-5 sprint intervals - run as fast as you can for approximately 60 seconds, then walk at a semi-brisk pace for approximately 2 minutes before performing your next sprint.
That is a great workout that will help many people lose fat rapidly.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Natural Weight Loss for Good Health And Well Being

Weight loss is becoming an unhealthy obsession dealing with body images, but in some cases can improve health and fitness. When weight loss is a result of eating healthy, exercising and/or taking natural weight loss supplements in contrast to synthetic prescription drugs with the risk of harmful side effects, weight loss can be effective, rewarding, and greatly improve overall health.

Extra weight, especially extra fat on a person's body, applies significantly increased stresses on the heart, joints and back. These stresses can be extremely detrimental to one's health. Healthy weight loss can reduce the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, arthritis and other health problems, as well as generally extending an otherwise average life span. Recently, the scientific root cause or explanation of obesity has been revealed as being part of one's physiology. The internal functions of an obese person are different than those of a healthy person, and cause intense hunger pains and food cravings.

Natural weight loss supplements can help counteract this constant hunger and lead to healthy weight loss. Unbalanced hormones are a common cause of weight gain, therefore taking natural hormone balancers and herbal supplements would help to create a healthy weight loss regimen. Restoring your health allows you to lose weight naturally, without excess frustration and effort. It's all about losing weight from the inside out.

Emotional issues always accompany change, especially changes in our bodies e.g. natural weight loss. Weight loss affects our perception body image, our sense of identity i.e. who am I?, and how we feel about ourselves in general. Weight loss also effects our social relationships in that there may be people in our family or social contacts that are emotionally invested in our remaining the same i.e. overweight with all that it symbolizes e.g. friendliness, non-threatening, protective, jovial, helpful, etc. Beyond our physical health, it can be said that "size matters" cognitively and emotionally to ourselves and others. Eating and food have come to symbolize being accepted, being cared for and comfort. Having the support of others in our efforts to naturally lose weight and regain our health is a huge advantage.

We have been "conditioned" to fear any kind of loss, including weight loss. Especially if what we may lose is something with which we identify i.e. use to tell us who we are.

The emotions of fear, anger, anxiety and depression effect our weight. We often tend to "stuff our feelings" or numb these emotional feelings or stress by overeating. We may even overeat, thinking that will ease the physical discomfort caused by excess weight e.g. physical pain, lack of sleep, and lack of energy caused by moderate depression. To improve our overall health and support us through the process of natural weight loss and the emotional dynamics around it, we can take advantage of natural sleep aids, natural depression relief and natural pain relief health care products.

Our weight and health is greatly dependent upon our having a healthy digestive system or metabolism. Our digestive system converts, on a cellular and muscular level, the foods we eat, eliminates toxins, and uses and stores glucose for energy. Natural enzymes trigger hunger signals and facilitate absorption of nutrition. Good digestion with the help of natural enzymes aids in the conversion of fat to muscle.

Allergy and sensitivity to food, parasites, yeast overgrowth and emotional stress are signals of digestive disruption and inflammation. Natural essential fatty acids work to reduce intestinal inflammation, decrease harmful acids, help the liver process proteins that grow muscle, balance hormones and facilitate the elimination of toxins. Natural essential fatty acids help clear our digestive system of heavy metals, harmful bacteria, pesticides that we are increasingly encountering in our environment. Essential fatty acids along with natural fiber help us clean out the intestinal debris that harm our health and often lead to weight gain. Essential fatty acids also help our brain's neurotransmitters to function properly in order to deal with stress, emotions, and cravings that can lead to overeating and weight gain.

Natural amino acids are the building blocks that make up proteins. Next to water, protein makes up the greatest part of our body weight. Amino acids help increase metabolism, build muscle, ease moderate depression, and help burn fat. Natural antioxidants help carry more oxygen to cells and muscles to help increase energy, burn fat, build muscle and process the foods we eat.

Hormone balance is essential for natural weight loss. Our metabolism slows as we get older because of the decrease or imbalance of hormones. This contributes to weight gain. Hormone balance also helps us deal with stress that leads to weight gain. Proper hormone balance helps to decrease cravings and binge eating. There are many natural hormone balancing products available, e.g. natural progesterone, promensil, soy isoflavones, essential fatty acids and hormone balancing formulas.

Our metabolism's primary task is to nourish our brains. We need healthy neurotransmitters to help us curb craving, ease depression, and deal with stress that lead to weight gain. Balancing our natural brain chemistry has a calming effect and allows us to feel a sens of well being and safety. There are many natural health care products to help balance brain chemistry, e.g. essential fatty acids, natural depression relief products, natural products to increase serotonin, and more. When our brain feels well and safe, it is prone to change our metabolism from calorie saving to calorie burning.

Our bodies were designed to move and be active. Movement requires muscle activity. Muscle activity uses the glycogen supply found in our muscles. When this glycogen supply stored in our muscles is used, our body is forced to use stored fat as an energy source. Using this stored fat through movement and exercise, results in natural weight loss. There is no reason for us to become athletes to accomplish natural weight loss. Low impact exercise like swimming, walking, etc, can be done slowly and without strain. In order to lose real weight rather than "water weight", it is important to drink extra amounts of water when exercising. Drinking more water will also help our digestive system and metabolism to use and eliminate extra weight.

Remember, the first objective, accomplished through natural weight loss, is to improve our physical and emotional health. This involves having a healthy digestive system, a healthy emotional system and a healthy nutritional system. We can build these healthy systems with natural vitamins, amino acids, antioxidants, natural digestive aid, pain relief aid, natural sleep aids, natural emotional and mood aids, essential fatty acids and many more helpful natural health care products. We need to concentrate on improving our general health, feeling good, and living well through natural weight loss, rather than constantly comparing ourselves to someone else's idea about appearance from some magazine. Physical and emotional health is primary. Appearance may be important to us, but it is secondary. Through natural weight loss, we can live well and live long.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Best Time to Workout

In general, there is no best time to workout for fat burning. Training in the afternoon should get you the same results as training in the morning, all other things being equal (i.e. nutrition, workout intensity, etc.).

Here are some important considerations for determining your workout time:

a) Are you able to train with at a proper intensity or are you tired?

b) Will you be able to eat properly before and after your workout time?

c) Will you stick to your workout program?

d) Will exercising in the morning be hard on your back?

Why do I bring up point “d”?

Dr. Stuart McGill, an expert in low-back disorders, recommends waiting at least an hour after waking up before engaging in any exercise that includes trunk flexion (i.e. traditional ab exercises such as crunches). Overnight, the discs between your vertebrae fill with fluid and are more susceptible to injury in the morning. That’s the reason behind this recommendation.

So don't roll out of bed and start doing sit-ups (not that most people should be doing those anyway – and as you’ll notice in my reports, I don’t include sit-ups in the programs). If you choose to exercise in the morning, you’ll be fine if you pay attention to your form and exercise selection (just as you should no matter when you exercise).

If you have soreness in the lower back, it is also a good idea to avoid bending over early in the morning (use another posture that is more back friendly when putting on your shoes, socks, picking up dumbbells off the floor, etc.). Always use proper lifting posture when training - no matter what time of day.

Basically, the bottom line is that you can still workout in the morning as long as you are extra careful of your back and lifting technique.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

AAGGG .. Weight gain

Gaining weight in adults is a major problem now a day. Reasons can be many behind it. Eating habits, life style, addiction, lack of physical exercise, metabolism complications can be some of the reasons. According to doctors and other taught men, as we get older, your body changes and slows down with each passing decade. Aging changes our body composition, decreasing the amount of calorie-burning muscle and replacing it with fat. And adults become much less active as they get older but continue to eat as much as they did in their early decades. Deadly combination of aging, less exercise and a healthy appetite are the reasons so many of us eventually experience increased weight. Oldest and best way to stop gaining weight is to power up your metabolism by increasing muscle mass.

Diet experts and doctors recommend strength training a few times week to both retain and build muscle. As muscle is metabolically active, and to minimize naturally occurring muscle loss, we need to be physically active every day, including resistance training two to three times a week. By being active, we can enjoy more calories without gaining weight. Common mistakes people make that lead to weight gain include not taking out time for physical activity, senseless eating in front of the TV after dinner, intake of too much alcohol or sweetened drinks like specialty coffees, regular skipping breakfast, having irregular meals, taking kids' meals, intake of too much of junk food and not enough protein. We should figure out where your own problem areas are, and find solutions to control calories and fit in more fitness. When ever we are sweet eater, just work a small portion of sweets into diet.

Having healthy diet does not mean following a super-restrictive diet, instead we do have to watch what you put into your mouth. Diet high in simple junk food creates a vicious cycle. As more we eat, the more we want, because these foods aren't as satisfying as foods with protein and fiber. Pitch around the idea that we need to cut calories to maintain weight we will be benefited enough. Diet which includes whole-grain bread, fruits and vegetables, should always include lean or low-fat protein with meals and snacks. Diet experts recommend eating regular meals, paring down portions of high-fat and high-calorie foods, and never skipping breakfast. We don’t have to go to great lengths to stop gaining weight. Just avoid adding extra pounds by making some simple changes to your lifestyle. Subject experts recommend adding 2,000 steps a day to your routine, doing strength training two to three times a week, and shaving 100 calories from your diet each day. And eat two fewer cookies.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Well... it's time...

Back on Dec 2, 2005 I was involved in a horrific motorcycle accident with serious injuries. I feel lucky to be alive. I sustained 4 broken ribs, a punctured lung, fractures to both knee caps and a fractured left hip. It has taken me almost 15 months to recover and rehab my injuries. I am happy to say that I am 95% recovered and I lifted all time personal records at weightlifting in the gym. I am so HAPPY !! But the downside is that I have experienced a weight gain of about 18 lbs. My normal weight is around 180 lbs. I am a professional personal trainer so being 18 lbs overweight is NOT a good thing. I feel strong enough now to start an aggressive weight loss program to lose the additional weight. Since I have an abundance of muscle I feel its time to lean out, strip away the body fat and look and feel my best. At 56 I still feel my best years are ahead of me. The purpose of this blog is motivational for me. I will write here daily, making all known about what I am doing and what I am eating. My goal is to be my best on September 30, 2007. I would appreciate any feedback !! Now it's time to go out and run 1.5 miles. Have fun !!

Thanks


Fred