Archive for August 26, 2011

Fat Loss Tips

Posted: August 26, 2011 by williampower in Exercise, Nutrition
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Fat Loss Tips

• Never skip meals
• Exercise daily
• Maximize the thermogenic effect of food (calorie converting process) by keeping protein levels up, increasing activity, and taking advised supplemental factors.
• Vigorous resistance training will maintain or increase your lean body mass (muscle). Muscle burns calories, which means that, for every pound of muscle gained, you will be burning more calories and increasing the rate of fat loss.
• DO NOT DRASTICALLY REDUCE YOUR TOTAL DAILY CALORIC INAKE.
• Reduce fat intake to fewer than 25% of total daily calories.
• Increase foods high in fiber and complex carbohydrates to help satisfy hunger.
• Avoid foods high in salt and fat, like all processed foods or snack foods.
• Eat fresh foods.
• Do not fry foods or use oil or fat in the cooking process. Instead bake, broil, or microwave foods.
• Avoid using heavy sauces on foods.
• Learn to read food nutrition labels. Look for foods that have less than 2 grams of fat per 100 calories.
• Aim for fat free foods.
• Eat low fat protein foods.
• Ask about low calorie protein supplements to help meet daily protein requirements.
• Eat egg whites as a snack to help reduce hunger pangs at night.
• Do not eat out daily and avoid eating fast foods. These foods are usually high in fat, salt, and calories.
• Eat plenty of vegetables.

Why Most Fat Loss Diets Fail
Most people are interested in quick weight loss gimmicks that are easy to use. They want a magic pill or food that melts away fat. While many of these diet programs can reduce weight, recent evaluations report that they have less than a 10% success rate in keeping the weight off. This is because these plans do not use real food and do not advocate sensible exercise. They also result in loss of lean body mass, which means lowering your metabolic rate. When you lose lean body mass, even if you are losing fat, your percentage of body fat may not change or even increase if the amount of lean body mass lost is greater than the body fat lost. Avoid weight loss gimmicks and drugs. Use an integrated approach of good diet and appropriate exercise as an approach to reach your goals.

What’s your body type…or should I say Somatotype?

Posted: August 26, 2011 by williampower in Genetics
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Everyone’s body is different; they look different, smell different, work different, move differently, etc. Your body type is a big factor in determining how easily you gain or lose fat and muscle. Some people are genetically predisposed to being large and muscular like a bodybuilder #ArnoldSchwarzenegger and others stay skinny no matter what they do #JessieEisenberg. The three categories of body types are Ectomorph, Mesomorph and Endomorph.

Ectomorphs
Ectomorphs are what we in the industry call “hard gainers”, in order to build muscle you have to work extremely hard and eat any and everthing. You usually have low body fat, small muscles and thinner skeletons. In order for you to gain weight with this body type you need a structured workout and eating plan that allows you to gain quality lean muscle mass without all the “excess baggage” so to speak.

Mesomorphs
You are the “genetically gifted” people who excel at things like bodybuilding and pack on quality muscle mass easily. You arent exactly “easy gainers” but you aren’t “hard gainers” either. You are most likely very athletic looking; you build muscle faster than ectomorphs and lose fat faster than endomorphs (as long as you exercise and diet properly). In order to take full advantage of your gifts you need to train in the proper modalities that challenge your body and force it to maximize its own potential.

Endomorphs
Endomorphs have the toughest time losing fat out of all body types; you are usually larger than most and soft in appearance. No matter what you do it seems impossible to lose fat on a permanent basis, if at all. Your body type however, is moldable with proper nutrition and a proper dedicated workout routine.

To sum up, genetics play a big role in how we look . You can’t control what genetics you receive nor can you change them now. However, just like genes can be manipulated through the science of biology, your body can be manipulated by the science behind exercise and nutrition #fact. All it takes is a little bit of know how and the right guidance. Where there’s a Will there’s a way (pun intended)…

10 Common Misconceptions When Losing Weight (ACSM)

Posted: August 26, 2011 by williampower in Exercise, Nutrition
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Severely restrict their caloric intake. A starvation diet ( i.e., reducing your caloric intake to less than 50% of what your body requires) presents a number of problems to people who are trying to lose weight. First and foremost, it doesn’t work. Any weight that may have been lost is subsequently regained because most individuals cannot maintain such a restrictive eating plan over the long haul.

Have an unduly narrow perspective of the problem at hand. Too many people view losing weight as simply a matter of cutting back on what they eat. In reality, it’s an issue of basic physics – balancing energy in with energy out. As such, if you really want to lose weight and keep it off you need to increase your level of physical activity and eat in moderation.

Ignore the need to maintain their level of lean body mass. A common tendency among individuals who exercise is to focus their activity efforts only on aerobic exercise. In this process, they lose muscle mass, which is replaced by fat when they inevitably regain whatever weight they lost. In turn, their metabolic rate as well as the number of calories that they need to maintain their current weight, is diminished. This adjustment creates a cycle that is counterproductive to sustained weight loss.

Misinterpret food labels. It is extremely important for individuals who want to control their weight to be aware of the fact that labels that state that a particular foodstuff is either “no fat” or “no sugar” does not mean “no calories“.

Try to lose too much weight too rapidly. Research shows that a weight-reduction program that involves a slow and steady loss (i.e., approximately 1lb or less per week for women and 2lbs or less for men) has the best chance for success, particularly when it is combined with an effort to change any inappropriate lifestyle habits.

Believe that spot reduction is possible. The concept of spot reducing is a complete myth. No exercise will eliminate fat from a specific area of the body, just as no change in your caloric intake will guarantee that the fat will melt away in the area of the body you most want to address. As a rule, the pattern in which you lose body fat is genetically predetermined.

Mistake water lost through sweating for actual fat and weight loss. Your body has millions of sweat glands that cover your skin, excreting water and electrolytes. When you exercise, the amount of water (sweat) that is perspired increases in an effort by your body to keep you cool and regulate your body temperature. The water you lose from perspiring can mislead you into believing that you’ve lost more fat and body weight than you may have actually lost. Such water weight is replaced when you subsequently consume fluids.

Buy into the “magic beans” theory. Selling supplements and related pills and powders and potions that will purportedly somehow facilitate a person’s efforts to lose weight is a multi-billion dollar a year industry. Other than being a waste of money and a purveyor of false hope for individuals who are looking for an easy and quick-fix approach to losing weight, such items also can have negative health consequences.

Follow unproven and spurious dieting advice. The number of unsound diets that target unsuspecting individuals with undocumented claims and unhealthy practices seems to grow exponentially every year. Truth be known, these diets share at least two traits – they don’t work, and they may actually be harmful (physically and financially) to a person who tries them.

Consider a surgical solution to their “weight” problem. Some individuals consider a surgical option for losing weight. In this regard, two procedures tend to receive the most attention – liposuction and gastric bypass surgery. Liposuction involves the removal of fat from specific regions in the body. Gastric bypass surgery, on the other hand, is a procedure that makes the stomach smaller and allows food to bypass part of the small intestine, resulting in fewer calories being absorbed. Although guidelines vary, gastric bypass surgery is generally reserved for severely obese individuals.