Archive for April, 2009

1. Are just abs exercises enough to flatten my tummy?

It is one of the biggest myths circulating around fitness. Abdominal exercises certainly strengthen the stomach muscles but do not reduce fat. Fat accumulates in the abdomen region by the consumption of calories and the only way to get rid of belly fat is a balanced diet and more intense exercises such as running, cycling, aerobics and swimming. However, there is a trick which can give the impression of a flat belly: exercising the transverse abdominal muscle, known as «girdle muscle». This exercise is simple: Just suck in your stomach maintaining a steady pace in your breath. To know if you are doing this exercise correctly you should start feeling a light burning sensation in the stomach. You can purchase the following exercise and diet ebook (its around $5 dollars) to learn more details how to lose belly fat and flatten your stomach. It is the best book on the internet. Get it HERE.

2. Although I run five kilometers, three times a week, my silhouette and my weight remains the same.

In the early stages of this exercise, results improve dramatically. Then a few months later the pace of improvement slows as the body has become adapted to new conditions. If anyone ever wants to see results, you should increase the pace of activity, increasing the running speed or distance traveled.

3.       Exercising the triceps muscle will make fat disappear from the bottom of my arm?
Many women of a certain age gather more fat at the bottom of their arm than they would have wanted. There are many misconceptions about how to eliminate that fat. The truth is that exercising a single muscle, unfortunately, will not burn the fat.

4. The body mass index (BMI) is a good way to understand if I am overweight?

The BMI is used by many doctors to determine if a patient is overweight. However, this method has the problem that is very old and therefore outdated. Although I am a trainer, I do exercise every day and follow a balanced diet, my BMI is 25.3. Theoretically, this means I am overweight. Obesity is not defined by such measurements, rather is determined by the levels of fat in the body.

5. Do we burn more calories running one kilometer or walking one kilometer?

The answer is more complicated than you might think. Studies have shown that a 70 kg man burns 5 calories per minute walking at a speed of 5.5 km / h and 18.2 calories per minute if you run with 16 km / hour. That means 85 calories if you walk 1.5 km, which mean 109 calories in basic metabolism (BMr), ie the daily energy needed for humans to perform the essential functions of the organs. Generally, the body at rest is spending from 1200 to 2400 calories a day according to sex, age and genetic predisposition. When walking or running is added in our daily activities, our basic metabolism burns from 1800 to 3000 calories.

6. Until what age can you exercise with running?

Generally, the age is no barrier in this exercise. On the contrary, running is proved beneficial in keeping the heart and bones strong and also reduces cholesterol and is considered a shield in the development of osteoporosis. If someone is not suffering from pains on the joints, there is no reason to stop running because of age.

7.       Is there a way to lose weight on hips and thighs?
Anyone, whether specialist or not, who argues that certain foods and exercises help to extinguish the accumulated fat from those parts of the body, is lying or is badly informed. Unfortunately for women it is very difficult to completely burn the fat from hips and thighs.

Fastest way to lose belly fat

Many people ask me what is the fastest way to lose belly fat especially this period that summer is approaching. Let me tell you what: There is NO fastest way to lose belly fat….period. If you asked me what is a proper and safe way to lose belly fat then I would say that you approach your problem from the correct angle.

 

You shouldn’t try to get rid of your stomach fat as fast as possible. This approach will lead you to start thinking about some “super foods” or “diet pills” that promise you to burn your tummy fat in X weeks or even X days. This approach is totally wrong. You should base your efforts to lose belly fat on two pillars: Proper Diet and Nutrition and Proper overall Exercise. Do not fall to those myths and advertising fads that people all over the Internet or on TV commercials promise. They know your bad psychological situation when you feel obese and unhealthy, so they try to take advantage of it and push those “lose weight fast” products to you. Try first to educate yourself for the proper way to lose belly fat , and get advice from expert professionals only. Do not fall to “Fast Ways to Lose Belly Fat”. Rather, do it properly and safely.

Calorie Consumption Table per hour

The following table shows how much calories you will burn per hour for the following types of sports/exercises.

CALORIES BURNT PER HOUR

Body Weight 110 pounds 155 pounds
Walking 150-350 kcal 210-490 kcal
Jogging 250-500 kcal 350-700 kcal
Cycling 150-400 kcal 210-560 kcal
Aerobic 250-350 kcal 300-450 kcal
Basketball 150-600 kcal 210-840 kcal
Soccer 250-600 kcal 350-840 kcal
Tenis 200-450 kcal 280-630 kcal

Tips For Losing Weight

Losing body weight cannot be done quickly. A proper weight loss plan needs to be designed carefully with lots common sense and certain guidelines. Unluckily, there is a lot of misleading information going around and many desperate people are duped and ripped off.

Every day, one can open the newspaper or a magazine and see ads touting with new products, pill for losing weight quickly. Everybody seems looking for that “wonder” weight loss drugs or pills. Millions of people are trying to lose weight and spend countless dollars each year on the diet programs and products. However, if you confirm with same people after a few months, you can find that all have gained their weight again, what they had lost.

A survey was done to determine whether a commercial diet plan could prove long-term success. Not even a single plan could do that. So uncontrolled our diet industry has become with latest products as well as false claims that FDA has stepped in and began clamping down. Being overweight and obesity may develop in number of illness and diseases, serious health problems and needs to be kept in check.

Myth among people is they increase their weight by eating extra calories. The calorie part is true but that is not the only reason. People who are on a diet without even working out put on with time. However, your weight might initially drop when dieting, because all weight loss programs include of water and muscle. When weight comes back, it returns as fat. To avoid getting heavier over time, raise your metabolism just by exercising frequently.

Here are some good tips for losing weight.

1) Doing the right Exercise: A good number of us do not like to exercise. It is complex, monotonous, it can exhaust you rapidly, and you have to do this everyday. There are people who want to do exercise but time is a criteria for them as life is very busy at the present time but still this is one of the best of ways of losing weight.

2) Having the Right Kind of Breakfast: consumption of healthy breakfast each day will help you keep weight off. It will not help you drop weight but will surely will help in not gaining it back.

3) Healthy Food: The food, which you eat, is very significant part of your health how you eat in generally is also significant. The meals should not be very heavy and should be healthy.

Fortunately there are a few great training and diet programs on the internet that will teach you the proper way to lose weight, and especially belly fat, for good. For the best weight loss training and diet program click here.

It was supermodel Kate Moss who writhed around on a pole in the music video “White Stripes” and since then pole dancing has become the latest fitness craze for women of all ages. Pole dancing is providing women with fitness along with fun.

Earlier pole dancing was related to sex appeal. Today the changing scenario has converted this art to offer cardiovascular benefits and muscle-building workout. Women from California to the Bible Belt have benefitted from this exercise. They appreciate the increased fitness and self-esteem that comes with learning pole dancing. For women who practice pole dancing at home have installed removable poles in their recreation rooms.

According to pole dancing instructor Angela Edwards, “We get preachers’ wives, teachers, nurses, accountants, lawyers, anyone between the ages of 18 and 70. The dancing part is where you get the cardiovascular benefits. You see good results. We have women who come in here 40 to 50 pounds overweight and drop it in about six to eight months and they get great, nice, hourglass curves.”

On the pole, the dancer learns to balance and exercise at the same time. These movements are actually forms of weight training. Pole tricking is an art and to learn this skill, students need to do a plenty of stretching before getting started. This will avoid undue accidents or injuries. The students should also warm up, cool down and exercise carefully when learning new moves.

Few popular pole tricks that students learn in class include:

Fireman Spin – the pole allows the dancer to balances her weight while spinning.

Bridge – in this form of pole dancing the dancer holds the pole with one hand and straddles it between her legs. Then she arches her back while bending her knees to see the person behind her.

Walk Around – While performing this trick, the dancer pulls back her shoulders, pushes out her chest and buttocks. She holds the pole in the crook of her arm and confidently walks around the pole.

Leg Grip – to perform this art, the dancer holds onto the pole with both hands. She then jumps on the pole and grips it between her thighs with one leg bent and the other extended while she spins around the pole.

For safety measure mats are laid under the poles. Before attempting pole exercises, the trainers train students to perform stretches similar to Pilates. These stretches help the body muscles to become flexible and the students do not get injured.

Pole dancing has given women a fit body and has increased their level of self-confidence. Most women who have mastered this skill have received praises from their partners, who find them attractive and sexy.

Pole dancing is thus a smart way to feel more sexy and fit.

Weight Loss Surgery. Is it the best option ?

Weight Loss Surgery

For shedding all that flab that envelopes a person, regular exercises and a perfectly balanced diet should go cheek by jowl. When these combine together into a harmonious regimen, most people are able to maintain the proper weight.

Nevertheless, this equation does not balance for everyone. By a combination of reasons resulting from a bit of lethargy, genetic tendencies, and hormonal or eating disorders, flab in some people may become comparable to the blubber of a blue whale.

Surgical procedure for weight loss might become necessary in such extreme cases, where diets and dietary supplements are rarely effective. When zeroing in on a particular type of surgery, its side effects have to be carefully considered, besides the result it is supposed to produce.

What a weight loss surgery essentially does is manage to reduce the food consumption. This is brought about either by reducing food intake itself or by restricting the amount of food absorbed into the system.

Gastric bypass surgery is a common form of weight loss surgery. The procedure involves removal of a part of the digestive system and stitching together the remaining portions to make it continuous. Though the procedure results in weight loss, the users have to be on nutritional supplements for the rest of their lives. Other nutritional problems also being rampant in them, this is not a highly recommended method.

Another method, stomach stapling, is also a much used method, though not as old as gastric bypass surgery. The procedure has become comparatively safer in the last ten years, though risks cannot be completely ruled out.

In stomach sampling, parts of the digestive system are pinned with surgical staples. A modification has been effected over the time in that there is no need for abdominal incision nowadays. Laparoscopy has made it possible to drill a hole in the abdominal area and carry out the surgery through it.

Insufficient nutrition is the risk of this method also, forcing the patients to be dependent on supplements for the rest of their lives. And they will never again be able to have more than a specified amount of food. The risk of bleeding is also there.

All these surgeries work towards shrinking the digestive system in one way or another.  Those who have undergone the operation are able to eat only little, forcing the body to burn up the stored fat for daily requirements.

A Lap Band constricting the stomach is a novel weight reduction method. It eliminates the need of incision and the band can be adjusted when fat gets reduced. It is much simpler than surgery at any rate, but is expensive and cannot be reimbursed via medical insurance.

Weight loss is ensured in this method also. The risk here is that of hormonal changes. The patient has to be monitored constantly to avoid risks.  All these surgeries, collectively known as bariatric surgeries, can be Biliopancreatic Diversion, Sleeve gastrectomy, Vertical Banded Gastroplasty, Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, or Adjustable gastric band.

A proper regimen of diet and exercises is any day a better bet than surgery.  Those who are left with no option should at least be careful enough to get proper medical guidance.

My opinion is to think about it twice if Weight Loss Surgery is the best option for you.

The ‘Rectus Abdominus’ are the easiest muscles to corrupt and the most difficult to develop. So, if you developed something of a ‘pot belly’ and have decided that it is time you got yourself something that resembles six pack abs, you should prepare yourself for the fight of a lifetime. In order to get yourself six pack abs, you must workout for as many months as the number of years you have neglected them.

To give your abs a brick-like structure, diet is important, but also vital is the knowledge of which group of muscles others have willingly ignored that you need to focus on for getting that washboard wonder look!

It is not enough just to exercise the abdominals alone: the Rectus Oblicus (muscles on the side, just above the hips, known as the ‘love handles’) must also be exercised. Leg lifts and working the back muscles are very important in order to get the perfect abdominals.

On your way to developing your six-pack abs you will need to lose fat deposits in all your muscle groups. You can do this by lifting weights, though not too heavy. Some form of cardiovascular exercising for at least 20 minutes daily will also be a great help.

You must also wake up and keep your metabolism going. You can do this by eating a small meal such as, potatoes and salads every three hours, just to keep the hunger pangs away. Have smaller dinners, plenty of fibers and never forget to have breakfast.

There are many videos available today that help you learn about abdominal exercises from a  certified personal trainer; all stress on the importance of warming-up before trying out various crunch exercises, like the bent knee crunch, bicycle crunch, exercise ball crunch, long arm crunch and the V crunch. Equally important is learning assorted leg and hip raises that help to strengthen and condition abdominal muscles.

Be persistent and disciplined and before you know it you will be able to see results in the shape of six-pack abs.

Importance of eating a healthy breakfast

The Importance of breakfast

Everyone is so busy these days that many people forget, haven’t got the time or simply don’t bother doing one of the most important daily activities. Eating a healthy regular daily breakfast has been proven to improve your general health and allow you to be more productive doing your daily tasks.

This article contains some facts as to why breakfast is such an important part of your diet and has some simple and healthy breakfast ideas anyone can make every morning.

Eating a healthy breakfast has many benefits. Firstly it helps you to wake up in the morning, become more alert and stave of those patches of mid morning tiredness. It improves your concentration throughout the day which in turn allows you to become more proficient at whatever tasks you have lying ahead of you. Recent studies have compared the performance in a number of everyday tasks of people who had eaten breakfast and those who had not eaten breakfast. The results of these tests confirmed that almost every person who had eaten a healthy breakfast outperformed those who hadn’t.

Studies have also shown that calories gained in the morning are burned off easier and quicker than those consumed later in the day. This is because your body is most active during the earlier hours of the day and utilizes the energy better. People who don’t eat a healthy breakfast are also more prone to snacking during the day.

Whole grain cereals or breads, whole grains contain 75% more nutrients than refined cereals. They contain two different types of fibre which help to lower cholesterol levels and promote healthy gut bacteria and which help with the regular movement of food through the intestine.

Probiotic yogurt contains very little saturated fats and lots of friendly bacteria that enhance the immune system.

Fruit is packed with vitamin C plus carotenoids, folate and fibre. It is naturally low in fat, has very few calories and contains natural sugars to give you a great energy boost at the start of the day.

Eggs contain protein, vitamins A, B, D and E, iron and zinc. Eggs are best cooked in a way that doesn’t include extra fat so boil poach or scramble your eggs. Eggs are delicious and are a great alternative to fatty bacon or sausages. Eating an egg a day is healthy but if you suffer from cholesterol its best to limit yourself to two to three a week.

Many people suffer from energy loss or fatigue throughout the day. This list includes simple things you can do during your day to ensure you stay in tip top condition and perform to your best each and ever day.

  • The most important and necessary thing to do is to stay hydrated. Drinking room temperature water throughout the day reduces fatigue and helps you feeling good.
  • Stay active, movement helps you feel mentally alert and keeps that energy flowing. If you sit in an office all day stand up and stretch or take a small walk every hour, sitting in the same position for hours on end makes you feel sluggish and tired.
  • Ensure you are eating a healthy diet, food is your body’s only energy source and without it you won’t function. Ensure you are eating a healthy and balanced diet. Stay away from oily and fatty foods and try to include fruit, vegetables, lean meat, fish and whole grains.
  • Remember to do something that you enjoy every day. This will give you a boost of mental energy and will give you something to look forward to. It gives you a chance to de stress and unwind. This is pivotal to maintaining a high energy level as an unhappy mood makes you feel drained and exhausted.
  • Finally, keep a healthy sleep pattern. The amount of sleep needed varies from person to person but ensure you are getting a minimum of six hours a day. Try keeping your sleeping times regular and sleep in a calm and tranquil environment.