Latest Lose Fat Tips!

I have finally realized the magic formula to weight loss. It has always been there in the journals and training manuals for exercise and fitness. According to American Council On Exercise, if you want to lose weight, you need to do at least 4 to 5 sessions of cardio per week.

In the beginning, I thought that this is definitely over training. That is crazy to most people in the world. It is hard enough for people to join the gym but to then to commit 4 to 5 hours a week, it is sometimes a turn off for people.

But then, when they slowly ease into the lifestyle of going to the gym, they start to get the benefits of exercising and then slowly, they will get addicted. Then, this is the time when they are ready to do 4 to 5 sessions of cardio a week and 3 sessions of weight training a week without feeling the pressure.

When people who want to lose weight manages to commit to that kind of time, they will see the body fat roll off and their muscle gets really toned!
The other thing is that the cardio session should be done after the weight training. Cardio sessions done after weight training can really burn lots of body fat because the sugar content in the body is very low at that time. The sugar in the body is used for weight training and when the time comes for cardio, the body will tap into the fat stores for energy.

I used to think that it does not matter but it really does! You can see major difference in the matter of weeks! Next time when your friend or your trainer tells you that you need to exercise 5 to 6 times a week, don't freak out!

You can see the difference if you just commit the time!
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February 4, 2008 23:30 - Free Weight Loss Tips

Many people are discontented with their current body. A few people just would like to lose a little body fat whereas other people would like to totally change their body shape. If you're one of these many people searching to lose fat then this article is for you. Below I've drafted 8 valuable tips that can help you burn off fat.

1) RESTRICT YOUR CALORIES:- You might not want to listen to this but the bottom line is that you need to eat less calories if you want to lose fat. There are a a few methods you can go about this. The first technique is to write down everything that you consume in a normal week and calculate the average amount of calories you're eating each day. Then adjust your eating patterns so that you're consuming fewer calories daily than your current average. Another technique is to write down your target weight in pounds and then multiply this by 12 if you are female and 14 if you are male. This will give you the rough number of calories you will require to eat to accomplish and maintain your target body weight. A third answer is to apply a Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) calculator (that can be found for free on the Internet) which will advise you the amount of calories you ought to be eating.

2) EAT THE RIGHT FOODS:- Besides constraining your calories, consuming the proper foods is an crucial component when attempting to lose fat. You need to be consuming lots of healthy, nutritious, low calorie foods such as fruit, vegetables and whole grain carbohydrates. Eating smaller portions more regularly throughout the day can also help you lose weight.

3) DRINK MORE WATER:- Drinking water has a a few of benefits which can assist you lose weight indirectly. First, being properly hydrated keeps your body functioning at its best level meaning you'll be able to burn body fat more efficiently. Second, it brings down water retention and the extra weight that this may bring. Finally, it makes you feel fuller so that you're less likely to eat too much.

4) EXERCISE:- A good diet program is half of the challenge when slimming down but you also require to exercise. Begin with trying to do 15 minutes a day of walking, cycling, sports or whatever else you fancy. As long as you keep moving daily you'll be burning off extra calories and losing fat. Remember, the more exercise you do the more fat you'll burn off.

5) CONSUME POTASSIUM:- Avocados, bananas and apricots are all abundant sources of potassium. Potassium can assist remove sodium from your body and has been linked up with fat loss.

6) CONSUME PROTEIN:- Protein can be found in raw meats, dairy products and even supplements. Study has linked up the consumption of protein with a temporal fat burning effect and suppressed appetites, both of which can assist you burn off fat.

7) SET OUT A PLAN:- Even if you've all the correct data, poor preparation can mean that you do not take action and in the end you don't lose weight. Consider how many calories you're going to be eating daily. Which meals allow you to achieve this? How will you make sure you consume enough water each day? Where are you going to source your daily protein and potassium? When and where are you going to exercise each day? You need to consider all these factors and then create a plan. Write down how you are going to incorporate all the above into your daily routine and then stick with it.

8) STAY POSITIVE:- Sometimes the right information and a plan are still not enough. If you are following a plan half-heartedly you are not likely to lose weight. Negative thinking can be your ultimate downfall. Keep thinking positively about your weight loss plans and you will continue to lose weight. Every time you start to feel down think of the weight you have already lost and how good you will look once you have reached your target weight.

I hope this article assists you in your fat loss efforts. If you follow regular exercise, a healthy diet program and make a solid weight loss program you should lose fat. Stay positive, act on the information in this article and you will succeed.

Article source: http://ezinearticles.com/?8-Top-Tips-to-Help-You-Lose-Weight&id=961924
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February 6, 2008 07:47 - Over Weight People Have To Wait Longer For Kidney Transplant!

Here is another news to motivate you to exercise. There is a report that says that really over weight people that need to get their kidney transplant need to wait longer for a donor compared to the other patients that are thinner! This is according to a research.

There are also evidence that there is some unfairness in the method that the donor kidneys are allocated. According to the study, overweight patients were 44 percent less likely to get a donor compared to a normal weight individual.

"It is possible that providers are bypassing obese patients and instead transplanting non-obese patients because they feel that kidneys are a scarce resource and they want the kidneys to go to the patients who will benefit most from them," Segev said.

Segev or Dr. Dorry L. Segev is the lead researcher on the study. He also states that there is biasness in the organ allocation system and its is not consistent with the goals of the allocation system.

Regardless of what it is, some how, it pays to lose weight and take care of your health.

Article Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080201/hl_nm/kidn.....
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February 8, 2008 23:38 - Killer Workout After A Big Eating Session

Yesterday, I had a very big eating session; in fact, the eating session started the day before because of a Chinese Celebration. So, my family, my relatives and me gathered around and ate our heart outs.

After 2 days of eating chicken, roast pork, rice and various cookies and pastries, my brother and me decided that we definitely need a workout. Not just any workout but a hardcore workout.

So this morning, we head out to the gym and planned a killer session before breakfast. The goal for today's workout is to burn as much of sugar as possible and then burn lots of fat on the cardio.

So, to achieve that, we decided to work on the back and leg muscles. The first exercise was the lat pulldowns. We did 3 sets of those. We moved from lightweight to heavy and the reps moved from 12 reps to 8 reps for the last set. Then we did upper back row on the Hammer Strength Machine superset with push-ups till failure. We also did 3 sets of those. Then, we did bent over cable rows and barbell rows. That also we did 3 sets pyramid style. We moved up the weight and dropped down the reps as we proceed from the first set to the third.

Then we hit the squat rack and did four sets of barbell squats. We did high reps as we really wanted to burn as much sugar as we can. Then we move on to a superset of cable squats and power lunges. We did 15 reps of cable squats and the 10 reps of power lunges on each leg!

My bro is already complaining that his butt is aching and wanted to skip cardio but no way that I am going to let him escape! It is the magic window! This is the best time to do cardio as it will hit the body fat directly!

For cardio, we did 5 kilometers. It is already very taxing as our legs are tired out and lots of energy has been spent on the back workout. We did a 3 kilometer non stop run then we stopped and walked for 200 meters. Then we ran again till 3.5k, then increase the speed till we ran till 3.7k then increase the speed further till 3.9k and then sprint for 100 meters to finish of the kilometer. We repeated the same routine for the next kilometer to finish of 5 kilometers.

At the end of the session we felt really good. It is a much needed workout session. We felt that we lost some weight already and also got rid of some water retention!
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February 9, 2008 08:22 - Aha! Weight Training Is A Plus For Weight Loss

For those who want to lose weight, doing weight training is definitely a must in your weight loss program. There are some schools of thought that if one needs to lose weight, you just need to do cardio.

A study recently has just enforced the idea of doing cardio or endurance training alone is not enough and weight training is required. Researches from the Boston University School of Medicine have showed that weight training helps weight loss by improving metabolic parameters like insulin resistance. According to them, by increasing type 1 and type 2 muscle fibers benefited overweight people.

I hope this shines some light to those individuals that just comes to the gym and do cardio for hours and doesn't touch any weights and yet complains that they are not getting any results. This is because their metabolic rate is so low and their calorie burning capacity is so low.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080205121740.htm
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February 11, 2008 23:02 - Important Weight Loss News!

There is a recent study that shows that it is vital that people keep on exercising all year round and in this study, it showed that you can become fat is you are on a on off kind of exercising regime!

The study done by the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shows that the weight gained during exercise layoff can be very difficult to shed off when the exercise program is resumed at a later date.

From the study, it shows that people really need to think twice before taking a break from an exercise routine. This is regardless of work and family obligations, which also includes fading motivation.

From that study conducted by Paul Williams of Berkeley Lab's Life Sciences Division, at distances above 20 miles per week in men and 10 miles per week in women, pounds gained by running less were about the same as the pounds lost by running more.

He also found that people who gained weight by running less faces a difficult task to lose it if they take a break from exercising. Not only that, he also found out that people who decreased their running distance from 5 miles to 0 miles a week gained 4 times as much weight as those who decreased their distance from 25 to 20 miles per week!

That's a lot of weight! This evidence is string enough to tell you that you should not stop exercising. You make the time!

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080204094505.htm

Adapted from materials provided by DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
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February 24, 2008 02:11 - Don't Take Sweeteners For Weight Loss!

There is some report that suggests that there is a link between artificial sweeteners and weight gain. We take artificial sweeteners to help us lose body fat not to gain it, so what is going on?

Well, psychologist at the Purdue University's Ingestive Behavior Research Center reported that their test rats that ate yogurt sweetened with zero calorie saccharin gained more weight and gained more body fat compare to the test rate that was given yogurt sweetened with glucose.

Authors Susan Swithers, PhD, and Terry Davidson, PhD, surmised that by breaking the connection between a sweet sensation and high-calorie food, the use of saccharin changes the body's ability to regulate intake. That change depends on experience. Problems with self-regulation might explain in part why obesity has risen in parallel with the use of artificial sweeteners. It also might explain why, says Swithers, scientific consensus on human use of artificial sweeteners is inconclusive, with various studies finding evidence of weight loss, weight gain or little effect. Because people may have different experiences with artificial and natural sweeteners, human studies that don't take into account prior consumption may produce a variety of outcomes.

Three different experiments explored whether saccharin changed lab animals' ability to regulate their intake, using different assessments --the most obvious being caloric intake, weight gain, and compensating by cutting back.
The experimenters also measured changes in core body temperature, a physiological assessment. Normally when we prepare to eat, the metabolic engine revs up. However, rats that had been trained to respond using saccharin (which broke the link between sweetness and calories), relative to rats trained on glucose, showed a smaller rise in core body temperate after eating a novel, sweet-tasting, high-calorie meal. The authors think this blunted response both led to overeating and made it harder to burn off sweet-tasting calories.

"The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity than would consuming the same food sweetened with a higher-calorie sugar," the authors wrote.

The authors acknowledge that this outcome may seem counterintuitive and might not come as welcome news to human clinical researchers and health-care practitioners, who have long recommended low- or no-calorie sweeteners. What's more, the data come from rats, not humans. However, they noted that their findings match emerging evidence that people who drink more diet drinks are at higher risk for obesity and metabolic syndrome, a collection of medical problems such as abdominal fat, high blood pressure and insulin resistance that put people at risk for heart disease and diabetes.

Why would a sugar substitute backfire" Swithers and Davidson wrote that sweet foods provide a "salient orosensory stimulus" that strongly predicts someone is about to take in a lot of calories. Ingestive and digestive reflexes gear up for that intake but when false sweetness isn't followed by lots of calories, the system gets confused. Thus, people may eat more or expend less energy than they otherwise would.

The good news, Swithers says, is that people can still count calories to regulate intake and body weight. However, she sympathizes with the dieter's lament that counting calories requires more conscious effort than consuming low-calorie foods.

Swithers adds that based on the lab's hypothesis, other artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose and acesulfame K, which also taste sweet but do not predict the delivery of calories, could have similar effects. Finally, although the results are consistent with the idea that humans would show similar effects, human study is required for further demonstration.

Although artificial sweeteners have helped us get through our diet better and easier, it might not be the best solution to help us lose body fat after all. Even though they still need test to be done on humans to confirm these findings, consumption of these sweeteners should be reduced. These are chemicals. Try natural healthy sweet stuff instead like fruits. Use the moderation principle.

Source of article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080210183902.htm

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February 24, 2008 16:52 - Exercising Is Good Stroke Prevention

If you are still contemplating on exercising and taking care of your health, here is another reinforcement for you to start exercising. There is a report that says moderate exercising can lower stroke risk. It mentioned moderate, it is not even full blown workout program. So, time is definitely not an excuse.

A study that has been done by Steven Hooker, Ph. D shows that moderate level of aerobic fitness activity can significantly reduce stroke risk in both male and females. The study was presented in the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2008.

"Fitness has a protective effect regardless of the presence or absence of other stroke risk factors, including family history of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels and high body mass index," said Steven Hooker, Ph.D., the study's lead author.

"This study is the first to suggest that there may be a significant independent association between cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and fatal and nonfatal stroke in men and nonfatal stroke in women," said Hooker, director of the Prevention Research Center at the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health, Columbia, S.C.
About 780,000 U.S. adults suffer a stroke each year, and stroke is a leading cause of serious, long-term disability in the United States, according to the American Stroke Association. It's often fatal, claiming about 150,000 lives and ranking as the No. 3 cause of death. Researchers analyzed data on more than 60,000 people - 46,405 men and 15,282 women who participated in the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study between 1970 and 2001 at the Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas. The participants, ages 18 to 100 and free of known cardiovascular disease when they entered the study, were followed for an average of 18 years. During that time, 863 people - 692 men and 171 women - had strokes.

Upon entering the study, each participant took a test to measure CRF in which they walked on a treadmill at increasing grade and/or speed until they reached their maximal aerobic capacity.

Although many previous studies have looked at an association between self-reported physical activities and cardiovascular disease, few have used direct measurements such as the CRF measure used in this study, Hooker said. This is also the first study to explore the association between CRF and risk of stroke in women.

Men in the top quartile (25 percent) of CRF level had a 40 percent lower relative risk of stroke compared to men in the lowest quartile. That inverse relationship remained after adjusting for other factors such as smoking, alcohol intake, family history of cardiovascular disease, body mass index (an estimation of body fatness), high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol levels, he said.

Among women, those in the higher CRF level had a 43 percent lower relative risk than those in the lowest fitness level.

The overall stroke risk dropped substantially at the moderate CRF level, with the protective effect persisting nearly unchanged through higher fitness levels. That corresponds to 30 minutes or more of brisk walking, or an equivalent aerobic activity, five days a week.

"We found that a low-to-moderate amount of aerobic fitness for men and women across the whole adult age spectrum would be enough to substantially reduce stroke risk," Hooker said.

"Although stroke death rates have declined over the past few decades, the public health burden of stroke-related disabilities continues to be large and may even increase in coming years, as the population ages."

Physical activity is a major modifiable cardiovascular disease risk factor. Increasing the nation's CRF through regular physical activity could be a vital weapon to lower the incidence of stroke in men and women, he said.
One of the study's limitations is that most of the participants were white, well-educated and middle-upper income, he said. He recommended that data be collected from other populations.

Co-authors include Xuemei Sui, M.D.; Natalie Colabianchi, Ph.D.; John Vena, Ph.D.; James Laditka, Ph.D.; Michael J. LaMonte, Ph.D.; and Steven N. Blair, P.E.D.
The study was supported by National Institutes of Health grants and the Communities Foundation of Texas.

Thirty minutes in a day is not much at all. Think of it in percentage, it is like 1 out of 48, which is 0.02 % of your total time spent on your health. Come to think of it, if you still find 30 minutes time consuming, then you totally do not love yourself and your family. You can definitely achieve this; just plan your day ahead. You can do your cardio in your neighborhood, in the park, in the gym or in a pool. There are many choices.
Take your health and body seriously. Get started today!

Source of article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080221161356.htm
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February 25, 2008 23:42 - Say No To Fast Food And Yes To Exercise

The next time you plan to stop by a fast food restaurant for a fast hunger fix, think again. Maybe think three times because there a study that shows that too much fast food and too little exercise will harm the liver. This study is reveled in the journal called Gut.

The findings are based on 18 slim, healthy people (12 men and six women) who took a “fast food challenge” for four weeks, and another placebo group, matched for age and sex, who ate a normal diet.

The fast good group restricted their levels of physical activity to not more than 5000 daily steps and ate at least two fast food meals, preferably in well-known outlets, every day.

The aim was to double calorific intake and increase total body weight by between 10% and 15% to see if these had any impact on their liver health.

Blood samples were taken before the challenge began and then at regular intervals throughout the study period, to check on their liver enzyme and fat levels.

Liver damage is often identified by symptom less increases in enzymes, of which alanine aminotransferase (ALT) is one.

Usually, higher than normal ALT levels are found in people who regularly drink large amounts of alcohol or who have been infected with the hepatitis C virus. But in a significant proportion of people, there is no obvious explanation.
Too much fat in the liver also indicates damage, and is known as “fatty liver.”

At the end of the four weeks, those in the fast food group had put on an average of 6.5 kg. Five increased their weight by 15%, and one person put on an extra 12 kg in just two weeks. There were also sharp increases in ALT occurred after just one week on the fast food diet, and more than quadrupled from an average of 22 U/l to of 97 U/l over the entire period.

In 11 people ALT rose to levels indicative of liver damage. The increases were linked to weight gain and especially higher sugar and carbohydrate intake.

Only one participant developed “fatty liver,” but test results from the other participants showed a steep rise in fat content in their liver cells, which is associated with insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance is associated with the metabolic syndrome, a collection of biochemical abnormalities, which are linked to an increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

No such changes were seen among those who continued to eat their normal diet. After reading this study, you might consider your diet and choose other healthier options.

Getting a gym membership and starting to workout is also a goal for you if you want to keep your liver healthy. It is not very difficult and time consuming. You just have to get your priorities right.

From the study you can also see that eating lots of junk food and lack of exercise can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, these two should enough motivation for you to change into a healthier lifestyle.

Journal reference: Fast-food based hyper-alimentation can induce rapid and profound elevation of serum alanine aminotransferase in healthy subjects

Online First Gut 2008; doi: 10.11.36/gt131797

Source of article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080217222513.htm

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