Healthy Exercise For 2010
January 23, 2010 by Dr. Gary Gendron
Filed under Diet
Have you been an avid fitness member participant for years?
Have you gotten results from the workouts?
Many people have different reasons for going to a fitness club and engaging in various activities that range somewhere in the spectrum from aerobics (exercise which requires oxygen) and anaerobic (exercise that does not require oxygen) examples of these would be spinning classes and weight lifting respectively.
Some people go to the gym because they want to change their cholesterol levels, for example they want to increase their HDL, high density lipoprotein number, by starting an aerobic activity that’s sustained at least for 20 minutes 3-5 days per week. Some people wish to build more muscle mass, so they lift weights to challenge the muscle fibers to breakdown and build at rest. Some people do it purely for aesthetic reasons and wish to change their appearance by redistributing their muscle to fat ratio and thus become slimmer. Others do it simply for social reasons. You might be able to identify these right away.
Albeit, the reasons listed so far, I have always been intrigued with people I have observed to have exhibited no discernable outward changes in their appearance despite the fact they are in the gym/fitness center several times a week for a long time. This leads me to a personal theory that I will call “The Fitness Paradox.” I wish to explore this phenomenon further because one would think that the cumulative effects of a fitness program would bare the fruit of the effort and hours spent in the gym!
Basically, why don’t people change? They often embark in a pledge of fitness January 1st, before or after major holidays, class reunions, or several summer months only to rebound to their original state.
Oh, there may be many theories, to why, but I have a few observations that I have witnessed.
I have seen some people doing the same routine for years. They use the same order, same amount of weight, the same machines, guess what? They get the identical results. If you find that you are not mixing up your routine with mixed repetitions, changing the different machines, pyramiding up the weight, increasing weight, or pyramiding down (decreasing the weight), using momentum (swinging the weight opposed to using the muscles in your body to move them) or practicing bad form, you won’t find a positive change. My advice to start reading literature on working out properly and then invest in a qualified fitness instructor to help you reinforce the correct form and range of motion that is appropriate for your body and desired goals.
This itself will not be enough. It leads to the next paradox. Why is it that those with a trainer sometimes never show changes? Well, it could be for several reasons, one very obvious one is that some people simply cannot work out alone because of lack of self confidence or loneliness. Recognition of this should help to eliminate it, because having a trainer should be an expedient means to an end. Confidence should become greater in proportion to the positive changes felt and seen by the client. My advice is, make sure you are using your trainer as you should. They are not your confidante and are not there for social reasons! They should help you attain your fitness goals. They should be attentive to your workout, not your conversation. I have observed people workout for an hour session with a trainer who has not corrected poor form on machines, and has not varied a client’s workout in weeks. (Some of these instructors may realize this and justify to themselves that they are providing a service by helping the client). In actuality, they are performing a disservice to their client. If you are experiencing this with yourself, you may want to address this tactfully with your instructor and ask them to vary your workout and reiterate your goals. If they are unable to do this, find a new instructor! It’s your life!
The next paradox is seeing the overweight person really working up a sweat, exercising at maximum capacity to 45 to 60 minutes, they always look the same. I often wonder if they work out for the cardiovascular benefits or the social benefits and do not interrogate themselves as to why they are not thinner! Without discounting any positive factors in weight loss, remember when weight loss usually occurs when calories consumed is less then calories expended. So…no matter what the physiological barriers that may impair weight loss, the end result remains because they did not expend enough calories for their body to utilize their fat reserve as fuel, toward their becoming thinner.
If you have experienced this for yourself - realize that you are consuming too many net calories; probably this is not a conscience decision. I have heard many people who have “over exercised” to “over compensate” to lose fat. They cannot fudge the scale! They continue to exercise vehemently out of fear! Should they quit this new level of challenge, they fear they will tip the scale in the opposite direction!
Sometimes I feel some of these individuals who are on this “never ending wheel” are actually increasing their appetite by over exercising! Then they find that they are consuming a net amount of calories that are greater than before they embarked any exercise they are engaged in! If this is the case, I would try to lessen the overall intensity and/or time interval and see if there is any decrease in the appetite. Or, another alternative is to become cognizant of your carbohydrate and choose those that are high in fiber and favorable sugars. Make sure you consume monounsaturated fats and low fat proteins concurrently with your meal to sustain your blood sugar levels from dropping and insulin steady.
The next paradox is that clients will over exercise muscles on the weight machine. Remember that muscles build at rest, not when working out. Certain muscles, such as the largest muscle, the gluteus maximus, aka buttocks takes a longer recover period than a smaller one such as biceps ( or arm muscle). I see people work out and work out and work out the same muscle every workout without taking a break!
Along with rest is the correct nutrition. If you do not fuel your body with proper nutrition, muscle growth will cease occur. Taking this one step further, certain vitamins and minerals become essential to facilitate the biochemical changes in the body which will produce the external changes that will be witnessed by yourself and others.
So… being present physically in the gym is not enough! Intensity and frequency is not always the solution. The cliche, “Exercise smart” is a good recommendation. So is, “If you are doing what you’ve been doing, you are going to get what you’ve got.”
I hope I have planted a seed which may help you reflect on how you can make some personal positive changes in your life and health. For more cutting edge information about weight loss, visit our weight loss blog at http://www.SOSFormula.com
Before you begin a healthy exercise routine. Check out www.Docofthefuture.com to maximize your healthy lifesytle regiment today!
Fat Loss Diet that is Easy for You to Understand and Follow
January 20, 2009 by Christine G. Shannon
Filed under Diet
There are many reasons why to lose fat; these reasons will vary from one individual to another. In general, many individuals are searching for quick and easy fat loss diets. However, when you are trying to lose weight, it is not always an easy thing to do. This is especially true when you are on a special diet and find that it does not live up to its promise of instant or long term results. It is not always easy to find the best type of fat burning diet that will work for you.
One of the first things you need to understand when it comes to dieting as it will take time to burn fat and calories. It does take a bit of patience to learn how to eat the right foods and when to eat them. You want a weight loss program that does increase your energy. You do not want to feel tired and miserable while you are dieting. Keep in mind that various types of diet secrets involve starving yourself. A starvation diet will never be truly successful for long term results.
It is important that you find a fat loss diet that is easy to understand, stick with and is the right weight loss diet for your habits. A diet can be hard to commit to if you have a hard time understanding it, you will end up getting frustrated and depressed, then quit the diet, or give up dieting all together. It makes it more difficult for you to stick with future diets, as well.
Most pre-packaged diet programs can become boring after a while. It is also nicer to be able to eat normal, everyday foods when you are dieting. Pre-packaged diet programs can be expensive and the majority of them is hard or confusing to follow and does not lead to the desired weight loss you have in mind.
Low carbohydrate diets are much too strict and can make you completely uncomfortable since your body does require a certain amount of carbohydrates. They can also cause you to gain back the weight after you begin to lose.
Low fat diets are often high in calories which can cause weight gain rather than weight loss. Low fat foods can be expensive, especially if you are eating them every day. Just because something is low fat does not mean it is low in calories. Following a low fat diet can be boring and bland because many low fat foods are low in flavor and this type of diet can cause cravings.
To lose weight you need a diet program that will actually work for you and your choices of foods. Something you can incorporate easily into your daily routine.
If you have tried all the easy fat loss diets that you have found and still are not satisfied with the type of results you seek. You should try out another diet that can work for you. When you want to lose weight and are committed to finding a workable diet program, Fat Loss 4 Idiots at the link below may be just what you are searching for.
Lose Weight with a Diet of Your Own Favorite Choices of Foods
January 18, 2009 by Richard Olson
Filed under Diet
People’s reasons to lose fat vary. Some people might have noticed their weight creeping up and they want to restrict the damage. Other people might be very large and perhaps this is causing other health problems. Quick and easy fat loss diets are highly sought after but losing weight is not always easy. There is a lot of hype about different fat loss diets but most of these diets are disappointing and do not live up to their promise of long term or instant results. It is not always simple to find a fat burning diet that works.
You have to be patient when you are on a weight loss diet; it is going to take time to burn fat and calories. You have to learn how to eat the right foods and when to eat them to keep your metabolism going. You also want a diet that will make you feel more energetic, and not worn out and deprived, while you are dieting. Some types of diet secrets involve starving yourself and this never works on a long-term basis, as your metabolism will adjust.
It is important that you find a fat loss diet that is easy to understand, stick with and is the right weight loss diet for your habits. A diet can be hard to commit to if you have a hard time understanding it, you will end up getting frustrated and depressed, then quit the diet, or give up dieting all together. It makes it more difficult for you to stick with future diets, as well.
Most pre-packaged diet programs can become boring after a while. It is also nicer to be able to eat normal, everyday foods when you are dieting. Pre-packaged diet programs can be expensive and the majority of them is hard or confusing to follow and does not lead to the desired weight loss you have in mind.
Many people fail at low carbohydrate diets because they are much too strict and your body does require a certain amount of carbohydrates to be healthy. You can regain the weight once you start eating carbohydrates like before the diet.
Not only are low fat items too expensive to continue in their use on a long-term basis, many have a higher calorie content. Sometimes, just because it says it is low fat doesn’t mean it is low calorie. Many people fool themselves with this diet. In fact, many of the items don’t even really taste good and are expensive. They can actually make you want to eat something else more nutritious and better tasting.
In order to lose weight, the answer is a diet program which supports you and your preferred foods. The best diet program is one you can incorporate into your daily routine.
After you have tried all the fast weight loss diets, you may still not have gotten any results. You need to try a weight loss diet that can work for you. Once you have committed to losing weight and finding a program that works for you, Fat Loss 4 Idiots at the link below may be just what you are searching for.
Healthy Way To Lose Weight Fast - 9 Lbs Every 11 Days
January 13, 2009 by Christine G. Shannon
Filed under Diet
Many people want to know how to lose weight quickly, perhaps up to six pounds in a week. It can be confusing when you see the hundreds of different diets available, each promising amazing results. Some diets restrict your food groups, others only allow you one food and some diets are so boring that they are almost impossible to stick to for any length of time.
Cut out all fatty foods, fried foods, sugars, high carbohydrates and fat-filled items. These include juices and sodas, and alcoholic beverages, which are high in calories and sugar and substituting water, unsweetened tea, or black coffee. If you are trying to figure out how to lose weight, then get yourself mentally prepared, visualizing yourself thinner helps to lose weight, but it won’t just fall off.
When you are looking to lose weight, you will soon discover that eating lean meats and getting good portions of vegetables and fruit can actually make you drop weight at first, but keep in mind that this is often water weight. Keeping in mind that your body is ninety percent water, you will find that the loss of water when you change your diet is normal, but that when you return to eating normally that it will come right back.
If you want to drop six pounds in a week, you need to lower your calorie intake. It needs to be below what you burn to lose weight, so you might want to take up an activity such as swimming or walking. This will speed up your metabolism and tone your body. Doing such an activity means you should soon be losing weight successfully.
If you have cut out the fat, sugar and carbohydrates, and started walking and being a little more active, you may think you have figured out how to lose weight, but then you may find your body weight plateaus, as the metabolism has adjusted to the changes. The key is to control your metabolism by “fooling” the brains signals of fat burning hormones or fat storing hormones.
This is the point at which a very restrictive diet stops working. The metabolism will try to make up for the deficit calorie intake. It will try to work with fewer calories, less sugar and fewer carbohydrates and hold on to fat stores in your cells. It is common at this point to feel like you are depriving yourself, give up the diet and adopt your old eating patterns again. This is the reason why some people end up even bigger than they were when they began dieting.
If you want to know how to lose weight, you need to balance food types, learn about portion sizes, nutritional requirements and fat burning techniques. By eating different foods and different times throughout the day, you can speed your metabolism up without strenuous exercise and burn more calories.
Learning how to lose weight with fat burning, good portion sizes and eating healthy foods which are rich in nutrients at regular times throughout the day, you can lose nine pounds every eleven days and still enjoy a variety of foods. This means you will feel happy to continue with the diet and continue to lose weight.
Healthy Way Of Losing Weight Fast - 9 Lbs Every 11 Days
January 13, 2009 by Christine G. Shannon
Filed under Diet
A special occasion is coming up and you want to know how to lose weight and drop six pounds in a week. Well, besides trying to starve yourself, you can start losing weight fast if you start watching what you eat.
If you are interested in losing weight fast, you need to cut out fried foods, fatty foods, high carbohydrates, sugars and anything fatty. This list includes alcohol which is high in sugar and calories, sodas and juices. You can drink water, unsweetened tea or black coffee instead. If weight loss is your goal, you need to prepare yourself mentally. Visualize the new, thinner you but do not expect this weight loss overnight.
When you are looking to lose weight, you will soon discover that eating lean meats and getting good portions of vegetables and fruit can actually make you drop weight at first, but keep in mind that this is often water weight. Keeping in mind that your body is ninety percent water, you will find that the loss of water when you change your diet is normal, but that when you return to eating normally that it will come right back.
You must lower your calorie intake below what you burn to start losing weight if you want to drop six pounds in a week, so you may want to take up walking daily, to speed up your metabolism and it helps clear your mind and may help you start losing weight fast.
When you have cut the sugar, carbohydrates and fat out of your diet and started a fitness program, you might think you have the key to weight loss but as your metabolism adjusts, you might find that your weight plateaus. What to do here is to fool your brain signals of fat storing or fat burning hormones into controlling your metabolism.
This is where a highly restrictive diet stops working. The metabolism starts making up for the deficit calorie intake and learns to function with fewer calories, fewer carbohydrates, or less sugar and starts holding on to the fat stores in the cells. So then you feel like you are depriving yourself, and give up and go back to eating like you did before. This is how some people not only gain back weight they lost, but end up weighing more than before they started.
If you want to know how to lose weight, you need to balance food types, learn about portion sizes, nutritional requirements and fat burning techniques. By eating different foods and different times throughout the day, you can speed your metabolism up without strenuous exercise and burn more calories.
Learning how to lose weight with fat burning, good portion sizes and eating healthy foods which are rich in nutrients at regular times throughout the day, you can lose nine pounds every eleven days and still enjoy a variety of foods. This means you will feel happy to continue with the diet and continue to lose weight.
Is Atkins Diet A Safe Way To Lose Weight Fast?
January 12, 2009 by Christine G. Shannon
Filed under Diet
When you begin to wonder about the Atkins diet, you wonder who Atkins was. Atkins is actually doctor Robert Atkins. He was an overweight physician who read a diet in the Journal of the American Medical Association and revised it to suit his needs. He wrote a series of diet books about his success back in the 1970’s.
The Atkins diet is a low carbohydrate high protein diet. The Adkins food list may include such items as, unprocessed meats that include pork, lamb, beef, veal, mutton, ham, venison and sugar free bacon. It also includes poultry such as chicken, duck, goose and quail as well as unprocessed fish such as tuna, trout and catfish. You can also eat unprocessed shellfish like clams, oysters and shrimp.
Fats and some dairy products are accepted, you mainly are watching carbohydrates, which the body converts to sugar and stores as fat. Because most fruits contain natural sugar, these are restricted except for unsweetened berries, cherries and grapefruit. You have to watch salad dressings and condiments, normally sugar free are fine. The same is true of beverages and sweeteners. Basically, anything containing sugar or carbohydrates that can be converted to sugar are restricted on the Atkins diet.
Of course, if you can afford it the Atkins diet program does feature the use of its brand name quick and easy mixes, sugar free syrups, low-carbohydrate breakfast bars, diet shake mixes and various other products to aid you in weight loss. They also offer a 14-day starter kit to encourage you to learn how to start the Atkins diet. However, to really learn how to start the Atkins diet involves reading the books and finding out what you are really involving yourself in with this program to be successful. This can cause a problem for many individuals who want to try this diet program.
Following the Atkins diet means that you will be counting carbohydrates rather than calories. There are different phases to the diet, the first of which is the induction phase. In the induction phase many foods are restricted. With the next phase, you can add more carbohydrates back into your diet. With the final phase, you are allowed more carbohydrates but you are still restricted in the amount of carbohydrates you can consume.
There is an Atkins diet support system which offers online support via a newsletter, discussion groups, sample menus, a research library, topics of frequently asked questions and recipes. You can also get support from fellow Atkins dieters.
The Adkins diet does work well for many individuals who seek to lose their extra weight. However, like so many other things in life, the Adkins diet does not work for every single person. If you have tried and failed while using this diet program or any other diet program, then you need to find another diet that will work for you.
Maintaining a healthy weight or keeping the weight off can be the hardest part of any diet, especially if it is in your genetics or heredity. The main way to succeed in maintaining your weight loss is by committing to a diet plan and changing your habits of eating and your lifestyle. Fat Loss 4 Idiots at the link below may be just what you are searching for.



