Month: March 2012

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exercise weight loss

5 Reasons Strength Training is Important for Everyone

When people contemplate the art of strength training, they think of body builders. The truth is though strength training is beneficial for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re in your 20s or 80s. The simple act of lifting small weights or doing body-weight exercises can have numerous benefits. Whether you want to protect your bones from osteoporosis or burn calories more efficiently, strength training can do wonders. Here are just five reasons strength training is important for everyone.

Bone Protection

There are two ways strength training can protect your bones. First of all, strength training is said to make your bones stronger. Another reasons is that building muscle can protect your bones during an injury. This is especially real when you’re older in age and suffer from osteoporosis disease. Having muscle can mean the difference between a few bruises or a broken hip.

Natural Fat Burner

Think of your muscles as an engine that needs fuel. That fuel comes form calories consumed. When you have more muscles, your body is able to burn more calories. Anyone that wants to lose weight or maintain their weight should definitely make strength training part of their routine.

Offers Better Focus

As we get older, it can be harder to concentrate. There have been studies done that suggest a strength training routine may help senior citizens to stay better focused.

Muscle Loss Prevention

We have a choice as we age. We can sit back and watch our health decline or we can do something about it. When it comes to our muscles, regular strength training is essential because it prevents muscle loss. In other words, muscles are something that will lose if you don’t take action.

More Energy

Last, but not least, those that practice regular strength training have more energy and aren’t as easily fatigued. This is a wonderful benefit whether you’re in your 20s or 80s. After all, who couldn’t use additional levels of energy? Best of all though is that this is a natural energy boost and is beneficial in so many other areas.

Strength training is a wonderful form of exercise that has several benefits. Best of all, strength training can be low impact. You don’t need 25 pound dumbbells in order to train your muscles. In fact, those that simply hope to tone their muscles need to focus on smaller weights with more reps or even using your own body weight. And remember, if you don’t use your muscles, you will lose them. Start a strength training regime now to get your muscles in shape and your body toned.

About the Author: Mabel Hickingbotham loves exercising and stresses the importance of strength training in any routine. Many people just want to know how to get ripped fast, which is fine for some, but many others need to learn how to move from an out-of-shape body to one that is carefully cared for. Take your time and you’ll soon be healthier than ever.

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8 Easiest Ways To Lose Weight

Do you love the character Garfield? Who doesn’t; the over-sized tabby is amongst the most popular comic characters of all times. Garfield’s obsessive craving for juicy lasagna may earn him brownie points (pun intended!), but in real life, it would ensure a trip to the dieticians’ clinic. His nonchalant attitude makes no difference to his weight troubles whatsoever, but would not have taken him far in the real world.

It goes without saying – in reality it is a tad difficult to feel great about being overweight. Weight loss or control is a commitment which you need to keep for a lifetime. You should have what it takes; to face the truth and introduce few lifestyle changes.

Actually, it is easier to take one baby step at a time, than pushing full steam into a weight loss program as per various researches conducted over the years.

Walking for Weight Loss

Image Credit: o5com

A simple formula of burning more calories than your total intake works wonders than any fad diet. As per experts if your goal is to reduce 2 pounds a week, try to burn as many as 7000 calories. Why? Because 1 pound is the same as 3500 calories!

But how will you manage to achieve this goal? Follow a few easy (& obvious) guidelines to achieve your perfect weight (calculate your BMI first which is: BMI – [Weight in Pounds / (Height in inches x Height in inches)] x 703)

Simple Methods For Weight Loss

  1. Set Simple Achievable Goals – Lose weight gradually as research indicates that people who lose their weight in achievable parts (e.g. a pound per week) have a better chance of maintaining their optimal weight.
  2. Eat Small Portions – It is easy to stuff yourself with anything and everything resulting in weight gain. Stick to 5-6 small portion sized meals/snacks in a day so that your metabolism rate is maintained.
  3. Do Not Miss Breakfast – Breakfast is the most important meal of the day as it helps to provide necessary energy to launch your day. Eat foods that are high in fiber such as cereals to make you feel full for longer duration. Add some low fat milk or yoghurt and you are ready to go.
  4. Eat Foods From All Groups – Experts believe that it is better to add than to cut down. Hence increase your intake of high fiber foods such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables. This will automatically cut down the need for high calorie and high glycemic index foods. And since weight loss does not mean becoming unhealthy keep the nutritive value intact by eating food that offer benefits of proteins, carbohydrates with low glycemic index, vitamins, minerals, essential fats and amino acids.
  5. Drink Water Aplenty – Water carries nutrition in the body and removes toxins. By replacing sugar and calorie laden juices and carbonated drinks with water, you will notice a drastic fall in your weight. For instance you can cut down as many as 150 calories by drinking one less can of soda per day.
  6. Sufficient Snooze Time – Research indicates that people indulge in binge eating if they sleep less. So to aim for lesser calories increase your snooze time which ideally should be 7-8 hours for adults.
  7. Build Muscles With Exercise – Exercising not only improves your metabolism but it also helps build muscle mass which again contributes to burning of comparatively more calories (as much as 35 – 50 calories for 1 pound of muscle). Opt for exercises which can be switched between high intensity and low intensity to avail optimal burnout. If you cannot exercise, take a walk down the block or climb stairs.
  8. Track Changes – Keep tabs on how much you lose so that you are motivated to continue with your program. Seek support from family and friends to keep your motivation levels soaring.

And once you have lost weight, wear outfits that garner compliments. This will serve as an impetus to maintain your optimal body weight!

The author has been writing articles on health issues such as yoga, growth hormones, essential oils, hair care and acne solution.

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exercise weight loss

How to Monitor Your Heart Beat Rate While On The Elliptical Trainer

Even though most fitness novices do not really understand the necessity of monitoring heart rate while on the training machines, this guide is compelled to point out that there is a solid reason why most of the top cardio machines like treadmills, bikes and elliptical trainers come equipped with a heart beat rate monitor. In general, when you make the generous investment of purchasing one of the cardio exercise machines, you probably want to ensure that your workout routine is at an optimal level. But getting in shape as fast as possible implies far more than owning a high-end gym and training equipment; it also implies the ability of monitoring your progress and adapting your workout accordingly.

Use Heart Beat Rate To Avoid The Plateau Phase

In essence, what you need to avoid is getting stuck in the plateau phase, where the body is no longer forced to push the strength and resistance threshold further, therefore the muscles are no longer developing and you are not burning any adipose tissue during the exercise routine. For the goal of determining the level of exertion of the workout, the heart rate is an excellent indicator.

Avoid Excessively High Heart Rate

However, remember that while the heart rate under the recommended level means you are in plateau, the excessively high heart rate can be equally counterproductive. Therefore, what you will need to do is ensure the heart rate is at an optimal level and here is how the reading for each of the five zones should look like. On a side note, the maximum heart rate for an individual can be calculating by subtracting your current age from 220.

Primarily, warming up the body for the exercise routine is necessary, so this part of the workout should be designed to stimulate the heart rate no more than simple walks. The advantages associated with this part of the routine include lowering the blood pressure, the bad cholesterol and diminishing the percentage of adipose tissue. In the warm-up phase, the exertion should only solicit 50 to 60 percent of the highest heart rate. Next, you will be moving to the temperate zone, where the exertion increases from 60 to 70 percent of the highest possible heart rate, burning up more calories in the process.

The aerobic zone, which has the same level of exertion as the constant-paced jog, implies you will need to use between 70 and 80 percent of the high end heart rate in order to keep up. The aerobic zone of the workout routine has the purpose of boosting the functioning of the respiratory and the cardiovascular system and strengthening the heart. In the anaerobic zone, which is basically the equivalent of intensive running; the level of the heart rate should vary between 80 and 90 percent of the maximum capacity.

Finally, the red line zone which is a part of the routine that aims to push your limits should be performed only for a short amount of time; this utilizes between 90 and 100 percent of the max heart rate. When using the cardio vascular exercise machines, most coaches and trainers advise people to shift between these zones frequently in order to attain optimal results.

Pauly Singh was reading some reviews of elliptical machines on the internet and was amazed to find the importance of monitoring your heart rate while using it. So he would like to share his experience to help you find the best elliptical trainers through his article.

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3 Simple Tips to Achieve Natural Weight Loss

Mother Nature has an abundance of natural food and medicinal sources that sustain the individual. They are free from most side effects, and rarely do they pose a threat to the life of a person. If you are up to date with FDA news, then you’re probably aware that most pharmaceutical appetite-suppressing pills that dieters take are dangerous, or more appropriately – lethal. They have been argued about, banned, re-packaged, and remain controversial even today. This is reason enough for people concerned with their health (not just their figures) to turn to organic and natural remedies for weight loss.

What is ironic is the fact that a lot of people looking to lose weight do so for the fear of developing chronic troubles that could threaten their life, but in their desperation these people turn to equally life-threatening ways of weight reduction such as taking non-FDA-approved diet drugs or harmful “slimming pills”.

What most people don’t know is that there are better options. This includes:

  1. Eating naturally appetite-suppressing foods like protein, specifically the lean kind of animal protein or plant-based ones. Protein foods lower the spike of insulin levels which is the cause of food cravings or hunger pangs. Eating protein early in the morning would effectively control your appetite throughout the day.
  2. Going on a raw food diet is also beneficial. Including more raw foods in your daily diet can help your body detoxify, get more energy and nutrients (meaning less cravings), and ultimately help you lose weight. Aside from the non-plant based “super foods” that burn fats (like turkey, eggs, low-fat dairy, salmon, etc), you can also rely on the following plant sources as “fat-burners” or wonder health foods that give you your body’s most needed amount of fibers. These will either actually burn your excess fats or help you feel full throughout the day and stop you from binge eating: apples, green peas, pinto beans, cannellini beans, fresh berries, leafy greens, avocadoes, almonds, grapefruit, tomatoes, hot chili peppers, broccoli, oats, and green tea.
  3. You can also try to go on a Vegan Diet. Most foods today, especially the processed foods you buy from the supermarket, are manufactured with preservatives, trans fats, and refined carbs and sugars which are all bad for one’s health. Going on a Vegan diet means completely eliminating all the food that contain these unhealthy ingredients, but rather substituting instead with foods that have whole wheat, olive oil, or honey or natural Stevia. If you do this within 3 weeks at least of your weight loss program, then you will lose about 1 to 2 pounds per week even without exercise. Even if not, then you’re at least sure you are a lot healthier than when you began.

The author is a freelance writer. He writes about online fax and email fax services.

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The Low Fat Fryer – Giving Dieters a Helping Hand

Every year people commit to a diet in order to improve their health and appearance, and do so with the very best of intentions of seeing it through until they reach the goals they have set for themselves. Once they start, though, they often find that it’s not as easy as they first thought – and with temptation constantly in their path, it’s all too easy to for them to give in and undo all the hard work that they’ve put in so far.

One of the hardest things about trying to stick to a diet is having to give up many of our favourite “unhealthy” foods. By making a sudden and complete change to what we eat it’s only natural that our bodies take time to adjust, and during this time we crave the foods that we always enjoyed eating. Giving in to temptation during this is the worse thing that we can do – if we start to make exceptions during this early phase, the diet is almost certainly doomed to failure.

A more sensible approach would be to try and find some way of being able to eat some of our old favourites without going against the healthy eating principles of our diet, and we can often do this simply by cooking these foods in a different way. It’s for this reason that the low fat fryer has become so popular in recent years, as they allow us to continue eating all sorts of foods that would traditionally have been deep fried, but as they’re cooked without using any (or a very minimal amount of) oil, they are far healthier.

The most popular of the low fat fryers currently on the market is the Philips Airfyer, and it’s actually a very simple device to use. It works by circulating hot air around the food as it cooks so that the surface dries out and forms a crispy coating, similar to that which it would get from being cooked in a fryer. As no oil is needed for the cooking process, anyone who’s on a diet can carry on eating chips or French fries and ‘fried’ meats with every meal… diets have never tasted so good!

By allowing ourselves to eat these types of foods whilst remaining completely guilt-free, we’re far more likely to carry on eating healthily into the long term rather than just as part of a temporary fad. The Airfryer is big enough to cook enough food for a whole family, so you can improve the health and well-being of your kids without them even knowing – and anyone who has a fussy eater for a child will know just how hard this can be!

There are many benefits that using a low fat fryer can bring, and you can read more about them here. They can be bought fairly cheaply these days, just as many kitchen appliances can – but what sets them apart is that while most modern kitchen appliances aim to make your life easier, low fat fryers aim to make your life better.

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What is the best time to do weight exercise for weight loss?

Author: Mario Tomic, owner and writer at ShockingFit.com, my website is dedicated in helping people with fitness, bodybuilding and weight loss. Jump to my website from time to time if you like to learn the latest proven techniques on how to building muscle, lose weight and develop an amazing body. Thanks!

You could simplify things and say “I exercise every day and I’m successfully losing weight”. That might be true, but maybe I can help you burn more fat and lose more weight by making an easy adjustment. I’m writing this article for people that want to learn how to maximize their results. This is not something you have to do, but I believe that every person want the best possible results when doing something. Research shows that to lose weight we have to spend more calories each day then we eat. The formula seems quite easy, but there are some tricks on how to get more results in less time. One of the tricks I’m writing for you today is how to pick the best possible time to exercise each day if you want to burn more fat.

How the time of the day when you exercise directly affects fat burning?

If you exercise early in the day, once you had only 2 meals your body will burn more fat then if you did the same workout later that day, an example would be:

  • 7:00 – You just woke up and had breakfast
  • 10:00  – You ate your Second meal
  • 11:30 – Weight training + 20 min cardio after
  • 13:00 – Post workout meal etc…

Secret here is that your resting metabolism will burn more fat after the exercise and also will use up more energy to recover as you will be awake for more time if you do the exercise early. Problem with working out late is that you go to sleep soon after your workout is done and then the metabolism boost goes to waste, since metabolism naturally slows down when sleep hormones are released.

Pros and cons of working out early

Biggest pro of early exercise is that you’ll burn more fat, that sounds amazing and it is. However exercising earlier has its cons, one is that you will have most definitely have less strength then if you trained in the late afternoon. The other con is that it might be harder to warm up and you will have to spend more time doing it just to be sure you are ready for the workout to avoid any injury. Research shows that the body gets stronger as the day goes on, and the peak strength is somewhere around 18:00. If you goal is to only build up strength and mass without worrying about fat loss  i suggest that you train in the late afternoon and save the early workouts for the cutting phase. They say Arnold Schwarzenegger used to exercise early when he was cutting for Mr. Olympia, he trained very early in the morning claiming that the peak testosterone levels in the morning help build muscle and burn fat at the same time.

Building a perfect daily exercise routine

Most successful people in the fitness industry use a simple technique in planning. They come up with the perfect exercise day and try to make each day as close as possible to that. We are all human and there are a lot of factors involved in weight loss, for example one day can be a bit stressful and stress is proven to affect weight loss and maybe the next you got some other urgent issues to attend to so you have to skip your workout, these things happen and there is no way to escape life. But we will all admit that this is not something that happens every day, most of the days you have spare time for workout but you decide to watch TV or do something else that will not bring you any closer to your goals. Even if you don’t have time in your busy life to visit a gym every day there are no excuses not to try a home workout routine with no equipment required. You must motivate yourself to overcome these obstacles and just be goal oriented, once you start getting results you will easily find inspiration by simply looking at the man in the mirror. You don’t need to look at any fitness photos, your own mirror can be the motivation that keeps you going when it is the hardest.

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