Showing posts with label how to lose weight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label how to lose weight. Show all posts

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Heat Production and Fat Loss - Thermogenesis

In the world of weight loss there is an obvious link between fat loss and heat production. More often than not, you would find advertisements that encourage you to subject your body to heat so that you get rid of your fat easily. This is becoming a popular process of getting rid of fat commonly known as Thermogenesis.
How Does It Work?
Whenever you fry bacon, or simply heat it in the microwave, you instantly see oil coming out of the food, even if you didn’t add oil in the first place. As you can see, when subjected to heat, the fats in the bacon suddenly come out in the form of oil. This analogy is one good illustration of how Thermogenesis works.
It is actually the process in which your body generates energy or heat, by increasing your metabolic rate to above normal levels. Once you attain a rise in your metabolic rate, this is what you call “the thermogenic effect”. However, some schools of thought also refer to it as the “Specific Dynamic Action (SDA)” or “thermogenic response”.
How Can You Get Thermogenesis?
You are able to attain Thermogenesis via a number of methods, some of which include: supplements, exercise, nutrition, and cold exposure.
Nutrients And Their Thermogenic Effect
Among the nutritional sources of thermogenesis, the different macronutrients also have different effects in regard to the thermogenic response. Whenever you consume food, you experience an increase in your metabolic rate. In fact, it goes way above your fasting level.
As for protein, it is processed to be used as energy, which is in turn used for repair and growth of tissues. Conversely, carbohydrates and fat primarily function as fuel and are also used more efficiently by the body. Hence, fat and carbohydrates have lesser thermogenic effect compared to protein.
Heat Creating Supplements
Supplements that have thermogenic functions usually have key ingredients such as: ephedra, salicin and caffeine. Generally, they boost your metabolic rate, which makes your body burn more calories at a faster rate. They also help curb your appetite.
These agents are intended to counter your body's mechanisms for fat storage by making your body preserve a high metabolic rate. In consequence, it turns up your internal thermostat. Hence, you get to burn fat faster.
However, with thousands of supplements that fall into this kind of category on the market today, it could be very confusing to pick the best. Nevertheless, most thermogensis products have the same ingredients and may just differ with one or two special contents.
Keep in mind that getting the best thermogenesis products would mean achieving all its effects minus the side effects, which include: heart palpitations, jitteriness, or nervousness.
On Dosage And Caution
It doesn’t really mean that the higher the dosage of your heat creating supplement it will give you faster weight loss results. In fact, what happens is you do get the same effects, yet the side effects are increased.
Moreover, there are also precautionary actions that you should keep in mind, if you do undergo thermogenic supplements. First, you would not want to become dehydrated. Thus, you should drink more water. Another, you shouldn’t skip meals. This is because you’ll have low blood sugar when undergoing this kind of program. Lastly, don’t take these supplements at night. Keep in mind that they have caffeine content, which could lead you to being up and awake all night long.
Popular Heat Makers
One popular heat creator for the body is green tea. Drinking this kind of tea through the day could actually aid you in burning an extra 70-100 calories in a day via thermogenesis. Studies also show that EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), which is a chemical in this kind of tea,  is responsible for its fat burning properties.
Additionally, some studies show cayenne peppers have chemical compounds that are able to increase the body's thermogenesis. Hence, just like green tea, it is able to heighten your metabolism. Some research also shows that it can decrease your appetite, which is similar to what thermogenic supplements do.
AllAboutHealthWellness Recommends: Heat Blast

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Alternative Strategies When Dieting

As we have now seen, with the extensive and colorful history of dieting, it is undeniable that there have been countless weight loss strategies that have surfaced through time. However, not all of them have acquired the fame and fortune that popular diet programs such as the After Six Diet, South Beach Diet and Atkins Diet have achieved. Nevertheless, it would still be interesting to know some of the less popular dieting methods.
Hypnosis For Weight Loss
This is probably one of the last methods of weight loss that would cross your mind, but yes, there are actually weight loss hypnosis therapies available.
In this kind of program, you go to a hypnotherapist who can administer the proper procedure.  You are brought into a state of mind in which you will be able to control your food cravings and suppress your appetite. Hence, you won’t experience the pitfalls of overeating.  This would then lead to weight loss.
Subliminal Messages
Just like hypnosis, subliminal messaging is also used for getting rid of fat. While subliminal messaging has been quite an issue for some time there are still institutions that believe that the human mind is capable of getting subliminal messages that are embedded in various kinds of media.
For instance, you can listen to an audio track or music that subliminally tells you to control your appetite and not eat fatty foods. You may also go for pictures. The messages that you want to get can also vary depending on your need. There are companies that actually render this kind of service. All you’d have to do is tell them what you want to achieve and they can even embed a subliminal message to your favorite music!
This is one good way of getting motivated so that you can easily exercise on a regular basis thus, leading to weight loss.
Stomach Stapling
If you do not mind extremes, one weight loss method would be stomach stapling. This entails a medical procedure known as Vertical Banded Gastroplasty. Although it is a legal procedure that is used to manage obesity, the whole surgery itself is considered to be dangerous and is only used as a last resort. It is used primarily for those who are considered morbidly obese.
The procedure involves staples along with a band. These would be used to make a small pouch in your stomach. At the bottom of this pouch, there is be a 1 cm hole into which the contents of the pouch could flow into the rest of your stomach and continue to the rest of your digestive system. The aim of this procedure is to regulate your metabolic rate along with your calorie intake.
Acupuncture
Another alternative method is acupuncture therapy. According to traditional Chinese medicine, people tend to have excess weight because of an imbalance within their system. This imbalance is generally caused by malfunctions of your spleen and liver.
Hence, by acupuncture, certain pressure points on your body are targeted to return the normal function of your liver and spleen. The therapy would also target the well-being of your endocrine system, which can leave you with a happier disposition.
Massage Therapy And Weight Loss
Another alternative is massage therapy. Believers of this kind of method claim that getting a massage can actually help in losing weight due to various reasons. Since massage can enhance blood circulation, it is also thought that it can increase the metabolic rate. This increase in metabolism can tap the stock energy inside the body and lead to losing fat.
It also improves the strength of your muscles, which makes them more fit when exercising. However, you should understand that getting a massage is only considered to be a support for weight loss and not really a main activity for you to shed some fat.
AllAboutHealthWellness Recommends: Subliminal Health & Fitness Videos


How to Trick Your Metabolism by Varying Calories - Calorie Shifting


 
Another popular kind of diet that has been hitting the crowds is Calorie Shifting. This diet plan is well known for its aim of tricking one’s metabolism. Basically, it tries to avoid the "plateau" which is common among a majority of diet plans on the market.
The Frustrating Plateau
If you’ve been dieting tried different kinds of diets then you are probably familiar with hitting the dismaying "plateau" which is also called "the wall" at times. This is basically the strange phenomenon which occurs when someone has successfully dieted and brings weight loss to an instant halt. Hence, no matter how hard you try to continue losing weight, nothing happens.
This so-called plateau occurs most of the time during the 3rd or 4th week after you’ve started dieting and seems to be a persistently reoccurring factor in that period of your diet onward.
It’s A Reflex
However, what most people do not know is that these frustrating periods during dieting are actually the their body’s natural defense mechanism. This is how it works.
When your routine of taking in food changes, your body instinctively knows what you’re up to.  In a frantic attempt to avoid starvation your body gets into a protective attitude against this change. In turn, it tries to slow down your metabolism to prevent losing further weight.
Frustration On Its Way
Other than trimming the total sum of weight that you want to lose, dieters start to believe that they’re simply unable to lose weight. This is where you start getting frustrated. This also leads to the point where people start giving up.
The Trick
Calorie Shifting diets are the answer to this problem. It tries to eliminate the occurrence of this plateau. By changing the number of calories you eat every day, the diet effectively attempts to trick your metabolism.  In doing so it makes your body believe that a steady or slow weight loss or diet is actually occurring. Your body believes this trick and it doesn’t get into that protective mode.
Once you get past this point, your body’s metabolism does not slow down. Consequently, it wouldn’t prevent you from further losing weight. Thus, you get to continue weight loss and get the most out of your current diet.
How To Execute The Trick
There are various ways to could integrate this kind of dietary plan into your everyday routine. Thanks to its versatility, it’s a diet that is relatively easy for roughly anyone to integrate into their present lifestyle, regardless of what kind of lifestyle you have. There are a lot of different Calorie Shifting diets out there that you can follow. Here are some of the most popular methods.
The 14 Day Method
One popular diet is the 14-day method. Here, you’ll be doing the diet for 14 days. Within those days, 11 days would be allotted to following your scheduled diet plan, while the next 3 days would let you freely eat whatever kind of food that you want.
The entire diet itself also rotates the various types of foods that you eat throughout the day, which also helps in tricking your metabolism. The 3 cheat days in the program not only prevent your body from making a defense mechanism but also prevents you from being frustrated with having a strict eating regimen and falling off the routine. You could continue doing this 14 day plan as long as you feel that it is necessary for you to get rid of excess weight.
The 2 Day Method
Another popular method is the 2 Day diet plan. This includes having an “up day” and a “down day”. The whole program is based on a 2-day schedule. The up day would be the day where you can eat regularly, while the down day would be the day in which you would limit your calorie intake by 20-35% less than your normal consumption. You simply continue the pattern until you are able to get your target weight.
AllAboutHealthWellness Recommends: Cabbage Soup Diet

Exercise - The Best Way To Lose Fat


If you’d be asking people what would be the best way to lose fat, you’d probably get the answer “Go exercise!” However, although you may think that it is a cliché for an answer, it still never loses its magic and effectiveness.
On the other hand, just like diets, there are a lot of misconceptions regarding exercise and fat loss. So, as a guide here are some of the essential things that you should know about the reality of how you can lose fat while exercising.
You Can Lose More Fat With High Intensity Exercise
One piece of common knowledge is that you can lose more fat when you undergo high intensity exercise.  However, you should be able to do enough of the exercise. If someone tells you that going for a 20-minute high-intensity training on an interval circuit or the stationary bike burns more fat compared to treadmill jogging for 40 minutes, then you’re not getting the complete story.
It requires hard work to undergo this kind of training and you would have to do it sufficiently for the results to be significant. Sadly, not all people are up for the challenge of undergoing high-intensity interval kinds of exercise regularly. Hence, you shouldn’t believe advertisements that say '15 minutes-a-day for a great body'. More than likely it’s just a publicity stunt.
Burning Fat Means Losing Weight
Another belief is that losing fat mean losing weight. This is true, however, you do not really need to go directly to fat burning. First off, you should consider how your body processes energy storage. Fat isn’t a permanent fixture of cells or it would come and go according to your body’s fuel requirements.
When glucose in your blood is low, which happens during early mornings, fat would be your body’s main fuel. However, after you get some food into your system, the amount of glucose in your blood would rise. This leads to insulin storing fat and glucose in cells. Consequently, your body also starts burning blood glucose.
When your glucose level in your blood gets low again, fat from fat cells are retrieved to be used as fuel. This is what’s called “fat burning.”
After burning a lot of glucose, your body fat would get its turn to be burnt up since your blood glucose would be low. Hence, in a way, you really do not have to make fat burning your problem but instead focus on food fuel burning along with energy balance.
You Can Lose More Fat With Low Intensity Cardio Exercises
This assumption is true; however there is more to it that just that. This is actually the same as with high intensity training and losing fat. You should be able to do just enough of it before you can shed off some fat. Generally, low intensity exercises that fall into the zone in which you could comfortably talk while exercising, is actually where fat could get burned better and be used as body fuel.
High intensity exercises like weight training or interval training would use more glucose fuel coming from carbohydrates. However, some fat still gets burned during higher intensities. Hence, if you exercise that hard long enough, you might be able to burn more, or just the same amount of fat during higher intensity compared to less or equal work at lower intensities.
This after-burn could also contribute to an increase in your metabolism rate after undergoing high intensity workouts. Ultimately, your body doesn’t really care what fuel you’re burning. Hence, you’d get the same results: what you intake in excess of what you’ll be expending would be stored as fat, even if there’s a significant metabolic difference among carbohydrate, fat, and protein.
Lose More Fat With Weight Training
Just like other beliefs, this is true if you do it regularly and with a high level of duration. It’s really not recommended for you to do just a few heavy lifts coupled with a couple of minutes break in between, then expect that your body has already used tons of energy and is able to burn a huge amount of fat.
Believe it or not, one hour of vigorous walking can burn 300 calories. Just the same, one hour of walking around the weight room chatting, drinking and completing 10 moderate intensity exercises would only burn a maximum of 300 calories.
AllAboutHealthWellness Recommends: Fat Loss Quickie