What Does Your Body Weight Really Tell You About Your Health

Your dietary habits significantly affect your body weight, body composition, and physical health. Recent studies show that over 60 percent of Americans are overweight or obese predisposing them to various diseases and degenerative problems.  But what does overweight really mean?  By public health standards being overweight is weight that is higher than what is considered as a healthy weight for a given height as determined by your Body Mass Index or BMI.  Categories for BMI fall into the following:

Underweight =  less than 18.5  
Normal weight = 18.5–24.9
Overweight = 25–29.9
Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

It is generally assumed that people in the overweight and obese BMI categories are at a higher risk of developing diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and a host of other degenerative problems. But, does BMI give the best indication of the health risk associated with your body weight?  I think body composition is a much better indicator for associating body weight with health risks because it takes into account both muscle weight and fat weight. Please click here to see the entire post

Are You Doing Too Much Cardio and Not Enough Strength Training?

As a personal trainer I’m always curious to see what people do for their exercise programs.  Most often I see people come into the gym and head straight to the treadmill, or some other piece of cardio equipment for 30 to 45 minutes.  Then they breeze through the strength training equipment in about 10 to 15 minutes, doing lots of repetitions with very light resistance.  And after a period of time doing this type of routine they eventually come to me questioning why they seem to be getting fatter while exercising more and eating less.  To which I reply, "you are doing too much cardio and not enough strength training".  Please click here to see the entire post...

Whey Protein: Health Benefits and Side Effects - page 2 - Medical News Today

If you've read many of my posts you know I'm an advocate of protein supplementation, especially as you age.  Below is a link to a great article by Medical News Today about the benefits of adding whey protein to your diet.  Wishing you a healthy day!

Whey Protein: Health Benefits and Side Effects - page 2 - Medical News Today

Strength Training Over 50; The Benefits

While I can personally attest to the benefits of strength training in my life, below is additional information from the Fitness Professional's Guide to Strength Training Older Adults by Thomas R Baechle, and Dr. Wayne L Westcott.  After reading this, you will not have any doubts about the value of incorporating a regular strength training program has in your life.

Research indicates that older adults may experience many health-related benefits from a sensible program of strength exercise that is performed at a relatively high effort level.  Some of the possible benefits include the following:

• Better body composition with up to 4 pounds more lean weight, and 4 pounds less fat weight after 2 months of regular strength training.
• Increased metabolic rate of up to 7 percent higher resting metabolism and up to 15 percent greater daily calorie requirements after 3 months of regular strength training.
• Decrease low-back discomfort, as evidenced by approximately 80 percent of patients reporting less or no pain after 3 months of specific low-back strengthening exercise.
• Reduced arthritic pain, as indicated by subjective ratings of symptoms in strength trained adults who have arthritis.
• Increased bone mineral density that minimize age related bone loss and offer protection against osteoporosis.
• Enhanced glucose utilization that may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.
• Faster gastrointestinal transit that may reduce the risk of colon cancer and other motility disorders of the gastrointestinal system.
• Reduced resting blood pressure, including lower diastolic readings and lower systolic readings.
• Improved blood lipid profiles, including lower levels of LDL cholesterol and higher levels of HDL cholesterol.
• Improved postcoronary performance resulting from higher muscular functional capacity and lower cardiovascular stress from routine and unplanned physical activity.
• Enhanced self-confidence, as reported by previously sedentary men and women following 2 months of regular strength training.
• Relieved depression in older adults clinically diagnosed with mild to moderate depression.

Did You Know Body Fat is Your Muscles Fuel of Choice at Rest?

In most gyms you will find the majority of the people on the cardio equipment in hope of losing weight and body fat.  They spend most of their time on the treadmills or the elliptical machines and very little time hitting the weights.  After several weeks of this they get frustrated because they see very little progress.  They just can't understand why they are working out so hard and can't seem to lose any body fat.

The answer to the above situation is they haven't built enough muscle to burn the body fat they want to get rid of.  Here's a fact you probably don't know about your body. Your muscles fuel of choice during most of the day is body fat.  That's right, your muscles prefer to burn fat as fuel when you are doing low intensity activities, and and also when you are at rest.  More specifically, the metabolism of fat furnishes about two-thirds of the energy your body requires at rest.

Even while you are asleep your muscles are active and they need fuel to survive.  Actually, you burn most of your calories just doing the activities of daily life and when you are asleep.  Your body's aerobic energy system supplies your muscles with fuel during these times and this fuel comes mainly from burning body fat.

Strength training or weight lifting is the most effective way to build and maintain your muscle mass.  Cardiovascular exercise does little to build muscle, and in fact, too much cardio can lead to muscle loss.  Additionally, you start to naturally lose muscle as consequence of age.  Thus, the less muscle you have the less body fat you burn.  So, the best long-term approach for losing that stubborn body fat is to maximize your muscle mass through strength training.  With this approach you  burn body fat 24 hours each day.  Just think of burning fat while you sleep, how sweet is that?

Add Muscle to Lose Fat

As the New Year approaches, people make resolutions about weight loss and most of them start a low- calorie diet in January to accomplish this goal.  By the end of February, if they can hold out that long, some people will have lost a significant amount of weight and will return to their old eating habits.  "Let's face it, we are creatures of habit".  However, when they begin eating the same things they did before starting their diet, they quickly find the scales zooming past their original weight, and wonder, "what is happening to their body"?

The above scenario happens millions of times each year.  At any given time more than half our adult population is dieting, only to be disappointed with the results when they return to their normal eating habits, and here's why.  You have to add muscle in order to lose fat.

On a typical low-calorie diet over 25 percent of the weight loss comes from muscle and this is detrimental to maintaining weight loss in the long-run because muscle is key to having a high resting metabolism (the calories your body burns just to survive).  Think of it like this; if you were an automobile, your muscle mass would be the engine that provides the power for your movement, and the bigger the engine the more fuel you consume.  Just as in this illustration, the more muscle mass you have the more calories your burn on a daily basis.

Adding muscle mass has a two-fold effect of increasing both physical capacity ( a larger engine), and resting metabolism (daily caloric requirements for survival).  Thus, the more muscle mass you have the more calories you burn both when you are active and when you are at rest.  And your muscle's favorite fuel at rest, and during low intensity activity is body fat.

So, how do I add muscle your ask?  Here's the answer, research clearly demonstrates that regular strength training can add muscle to your body at any age.  Results of studies show that people who engage in a strength training program 2 to 3 times each week that addresses all the major muscle groups on average gain 3 pounds of muscle and lose 4 pounds of body fat in a 3 month period. As a result of the increased muscle development and energy requirements of strength training, they increase their daily caloric requirements by approximately 15 percent.  For the average person that's equivalent to burning an extra 250 calories each day.

As you can see from the above, the best approach to long-term weight loss and an improved body composition is to add muscle, and the best way to build muscle is by regular strength training.  If you are convinced that this is the way you want to lose weight while improving your strength, checkout my strength training routines at Forever Fit and Firm.

Want to Increase Your Metabolism? Strength Train

Science is revealing more and more information about how important building and maintaining muscle is to your health especially as you age.  Losing muscle as you age is a natural process and along with that muscle loss is a corresponding decrease in your metabolism and a consequential increase in fat storage.  Thus as you age, you lose muscle and you you get fatter (yet, another negative aspect of aging).

But, be of good cheer you can do something to counter this process, and it's called strength training on a weekly basis.  Strength training is simply a form of exercise in which you lift a resistance that's more than your body weight and your body responds by increasing your muscle size to adapt to the increased demand.

Look at it like this, your muscle mass is the engine in your body that burns calories.  The larger the engine, the more calories you burn.  But unlike an automobile engine, your muscles burn calories when you are both moving and resting.  Thus, as you build more muscle mass through strength training you increase the amount of calories you burn each day even when you are asleep.  Regular strength training increases your resting metabolism by about 7 percent which is typically more than an additional 100 calories burned per day while you are resting.  Other things being equal, that amounts to almost 1 pound of fat loss per month just to sustain your normal metabolic function. 

Just think, by strength training of a regular basis (2 to 3, thirty minute sessions weekly) you can increase your metabolism and lose body fat.  This is s much better and healthier way of reshaping your body than dieting.

You can start strength training now and reshape your body in a few months.  Download my Beginner's, Intermediate, and Advanced strength training programs by clicking here: Forever Fit and Firm.

Protein's Effect on Weight Loss

Scientific research is now revealing that people who consume higher amounts of protein (20 to 30 percent of their daily caloric intake), while cutting back on their carbohydrate intake, tend to lose weight faster and stay leaner than those people on low-fat diets.

The reason higher protein, lower carbohydrates diets are more conducive to weight loss and maintenance is interesting. First, high-protein foods slow the movement of food from the stomach to the intestines, meaning you feel full longer and don’t get hungry as often. Second, protein has a leveling effect on your blood sugar which means you are less likely to get spikes in your blood sugar that lead to cravings for carbohydrates. Third, your body uses more energy to digest protein than it does to digest fat or carbohydrates.

Getting the proper amount of protein at breakfast is especially important if you are trying to lose weight. Breakfast is the first meal of the day and what you eat determines whether you start your day in fat burning or fat storage mode.

Eating a breakfast rich in carbohydrates and low in protein (the typical American breakfast) starts your day in fat storage mode. The cereal, bread, fruit, and juice you have for breakfast are all carbohydrate-based and are converted into sugar by your body, thus causing a spike in your blood sugar. Then your body produces insulin to take that blood sugar and store it in your body mostly as body fat. Soon after your blood sugar drops and you feel famished, and you crave more carbohydrate-based foods which starts a cycle of blood sugar spikes and crashes and its insuring sugar cravings.

On the contrary, having a breakfast that contains the proper amount of high quality protein such as eggs, lean meat, and low fat dairy starts your day in a fat burning mode. Consuming 25 to 30 grams of protein is necessary for maximal protein synthesis. This building and repair of muscle cells is very energy intensive and it burns body fat mainly as fuel for this process. Thus, having 25 to 30 grams of protein at breakfast activates muscle cell regeneration and also alleviates blood sugar spikes which lead to cravings.

Below are some good sources of protein listed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help you get the proper amount in your daily diet.

1 ounce meat, fish, or poultry equals 7 grams of protein

1 large egg equals 6 grams of protein

4 ounces milk equal 4 grams of protein

4 ounces low-fat yogurt equals 6 grams of protein

4 ounces soy milk equals 5 grams of protein

3 ounces tofu, firm equals 13 grams of protein

1 ounce cheese equals 7 grams of protein

1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese equals 14 grams of protein

1/2 cup cooked kidney beans equals 7 grams of protein

1/2 cup lentils equals 9 grams of protein

1 ounce nuts equals 7 grams of protein

2 tablespoons peanut butter equals 8 grams of protein

1/2 cup vegetables equals 2 grams of protein

1 slice bread equals 2 grams of protein

1/2 cup of most grains/pastas equals 2 grams of protein

Maximize Fat Burning in Your Exercise Program

With warm weather approaching, most people want to look good in their more revealing summer wardrobes. This time of the year I hear a lot of complaints like this, "I put a pair of my shorts last week and I don't like the way I look in them."  Then I get the question of how to get rid of the extra layer of fat that was put on during the winter? My answer is always diet and exercise.  While diet is the major part of the answer, in this post I want to talk about exercise, specifically, cardio.  In order to most efficiently burn body fat you have to do a combination of strength training and cardio.

A brief explanation of how your body responds to exercise will help you understand how to do your cardio in a manner that is most efficient in helping you burn body fat and firm-up.  Your body has two basic ways of generating energy for your muscles in response to exercise. One involves your body using oxygen to burn calories to provide fuel to exercising muscles. In this method, your body is most efficient in burning stored body fat because fat must have oxygen present to be converted into energy to fuel your muscles. Activities that cause your body to use this method to generate energy are called aerobic. Examples are brisk walking and slow running. When you are doing activities such as these, you are exercising in the aerobic zone.

The other method that your body uses to provides fuel to muscles does not require the use of oxygen. In this method your body primarily uses carbohydrates that are stored in the muscle to generate energy. Anaerobic activities that require a quick burst of energy such as heavy weight lifting and sprinting require your body to use this method. Activities that cause your body to use this energy production system are called anaerobic exercises.

Knowing which energy system you are using when you exercise is important if you want to maximize fat burning. In my fitness program, I do strength training in the anaerobic zone to build and maintain muscle, while performing cardio in the aerobic zone to burn fat.

When planning your cardio exercise program, design it around the following three concepts:

Frequency – I recommend you do at least three sessions of cardio each week but no more than six. This is ample exercise to achieve the health benefit, and burn body fat, while also giving your body maximum recovery time to build and maintain your hard earned muscle mass. I personally do four to five cardio sessions per week as a part of my fitness program.

Intensity – I suggest you do your cardio exercise in the range of 60 to 80 percent of your estimated maximum heart rate. This is called your aerobic zone and is where your body is most efficient at burning fat as fuel. Anything above 80 percent of your estimated maximum heart rate will tap into your anaerobic energy production system, meaning you will stop using stored body fat to feed your muscles.

Use the following method to calculate your estimated maximum heart rate and your aerobic exercise zone. Take the number 220 and subtract your age. This is your estimated maximum heart rate. Now take 60 percent of this number to get the lower end of the range of your aerobic zone and 80 percent of this number to get the upper end.

For example, I am 55 years old, so my estimated maximum heart rate is 220 – 55 = 165 beats per minute (bpm). Therefore, the lower end of the range of my aerobic zone is 165 bpm x 60% = 99 bpm, and the upper end of my aerobic zone is 169 bpm x 80% = 132 bpm. So when I do my cardio exercise, I work out at a heart rate between 99 to 132 bpm.

The easiest way to see if you are staying in your aerobic zone is with a heart rate monitor. If you do not have access to a heart rate monitor, you can use the following method to check your heart rate and stay in your aerobic zone. Take the lower and upper range numbers you calculated above and divide them by four. This is your 15 second heart rate count. Then during your workout periodically stop and check your pulse for 15 seconds to see if your heart rate falls between the two numbers you just calculated.  I’ll use my example again. The lower and upper ends of the range of my aerobic zone are 99 and 132 bpm, respectively. Therefore, my 15 second heart rate count is 99 bpm / 4 = 25 for the lower end of the range and 132 / 4 = 33 for the upper end. Thus, when I’m doing cardio, I stop to check my pulse for 15 seconds making sure the number I get is between 25 and 33, so I’m in my aerobic exercise zone. This is the intensity range that my body is most efficient at burning fat for fuel to provide my muscles the energy to exercise.

Duration – It is my observation that you get the most benefit from your cardio program if you combine it with strength training and do between 30 and 45 minutes three to six days each week. Do the 30 minute sessions after strength training and the 45 minute sessions on the days that you do not weight lift.

Design your cardio exercise program around the three principles above and you’ll notice a real difference in the way you look and feel.

Choose Your Carbohydrates Wisely

The popularity of the low-carbohydrate diets has probably led you to believe that all carbohydrates are “bad” for you.  Just reading the hype in the media would make you think that carbohydrates are the cause of the obesity epidemic throughout the United States. 

Eating a lot of easily- digested carbohydrates from white bread, white rice, pastries, sugared sodas, and other highly processed foods may contribute to your weight gain, and therefore, interfere with your efforts to lose weight.  On the contrary, consuming whole grains, beans, fruits, vegetables, and other intact carbohydrates promotes good health.  A healthy diet is about balance and moderation.  A basic knowledge of what carbohydrates are and how you body uses them is essential to understanding how to balance them in your diet.

Carbohydrates are essential nutrients that are excellent sources of energy (measured as calories) for your body; they are the preferred fuel for your brain and nervous system.  Carbohydrates are found in an array of foods such as bread, beans, milk, popcorn, potatoes, cookies, spaghetti, soft drinks, corn, and desserts. The most common and abundant forms are classified as sugars, fibers, and starches.

The basic building block of every carbohydrate is a sugar molecule, a simple union of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.  Starches and fibers forms of carbohydrates are essentially chains of sugar molecules, some containing hundreds.

As mentioned above, most carbohydrates come from plant sources and are in the form of sugars, starches, and fibers.  Sugars, also called simple carbohydrates, include fruit sugar (fructose), corn or grape sugar (dextrose or glucose), and table sugar (sucrose).  Starches, also known as complex carbohydrates, include everything made of three or more linked sugars.  Starches include foods such as breads, cereals, grains, pasta, rice, and flour.  Fibers are technically classified as a starch because they are complex carbohydrates that your body cannot breakdown into sugar molecules.  Fibers are more abundant in whole grains, legumes, and vegetables.

Your body breaks down all carbohydrates, except for fibers, into single sugar molecules regardless of their source.  These simple sugars are further converted into glucose, also known as blood sugar.  Your body is designed to use blood sugar as a universal source of fuel for energy.

Fiber is the form of carbohydrate that your body cannot break down into simple sugar molecules.  It passes through your body undigested.  Fiber comes in two varieties: soluble, which dissolves in water, and insoluble, which does not.  Although neither type provides energy for your body, they both promote health in many ways.  Soluble fiber binds to fatty substances in your intestines and carries them out as waste, thus lowering your low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or bad cholesterol).  It also helps regulate your body’s use of sugars, helping you to keep your hunger and blood sugar in check.  Insoluble fiber helps push food through your intestinal tract, promoting regularity and helping to prevent constipation.

Here’s what happens when you eat a food containing carbohydrates.  Your digestive system breaks down the digestible ones into sugar, which then enters your blood.  As your blood sugar level rises, specials cells in your pancreas churn out insulin, a hormone that signals your cells to absorb the blood sugar for energy or for storage.  As your cells soak-up the blood sugar, its level in your bloodstream begins to fall.  Now, your pancreas starts making another hormone called glucagon, which signals your liver to start releasing stored blood sugar.  This interplay of insulin and glucagon ensures that cells throughout your body have a steady supply of blood sugar.

Maintaining a steady blood sugar level is a very important component of your diet.  While you’ve just seen that your body breaks down all digestible carbohydrates into blood sugar, some are converted into blood sugar faster than others.  Thus, some carbohydrates cause a spike in your blood sugar level causing you to feel hungry faster and to crave more sugary foods.  Other carbohydrates are converted into blood sugar more slowly, leveling out your blood sugar and resulting in less hunger and food cravings.

For this reason, the Glycemic Index (GI) was developed to classify how quickly your body converts carbohydrates into blood sugar as opposed to pure glucose.  Glucose has a GI of 100, and all other carbohydrate-based foods are ranked against it.  Foods with a score of 70 or more are considered to have a high GI, while those with a score of 55 or less are considered low.

Eating lots of food with a high GI causes spikes in your blood sugar level, which can lead to many health issues, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.  Eating low GI foods causes your blood sugar level to stay steady thus keeping your energy level balanced and causing you to feel fuller longer between meals. The following are some additional benefits of eating low GI carbohydrates.

·       Helps you to lose and manage weight your weight.

·       Increases your body's sensitivity to insulin.

·       Decreases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

·       Reduces your risk of heart disease.

·       Improves your blood cholesterol levels

·       Reduces hunger and keeps you fuller longer.

·       Helps you prolong physical activity.

·       Helps you to refuel your carbohydrate stores after exercise.

You can get the GI rating of hundreds of carbohydrate-based foods from the Glycemic Index Foundation, sponsored by the University of Sydney in Australia.  It maintains a searchable database of more than 1600 entries at http://www.glycemicindex.com.

The GI is interesting because some of the foods that you think would have a high rating actually do not.  For instance, fructose, or fruit sugar has a minimal effect on blood sugar, while white bread and French-fried potatoes are converted to blood sugar nearly as fast as pure glucose.  In other words, you can’t classify foods as having a high or low GI based on the sweetness of taste.  Many factors affect a foods GI such as:

·       Processing: Grains that have been milled and refined have a higher GI

·       Type of starch:  Starches come in many different configurations.  Some are easier to break into sugar molecules than others.  For example, starch in potatoes is digested and absorbed into the bloodstream relatively quickly.

·       Fiber content: The sugars in fiber are linked in a way that is hard for your body to break down.  Thus, the more fiber a food has, the less digestible carbohydrate, and consequently, the less sugar it can deliver into your blood stream.

·       Fat and acid content:  The more fat or acid a food contains, the slower its carbohydrates are converted to sugar and absorbed into your bloodstream.

·       Physical form:  Finely ground grain is more rapidly digested, and so has a higher GI than more coarsely ground grain.

The basic technique for eating the low GI way is simply a "this-for-that" approach, swapping high GI carbohydrates for low GI carbohydrates. You don't need to count numbers or do any mental arithmetic to make sure you are eating a healthy, low GI diet.  Follow these easy to implement suggestions.

·       Use breakfast cereals based on oats, barley and bran

·       Use breads with whole-grains, stone-ground flour, or sour dough

·       Reduce the amount of potatoes you eat

·       Enjoy all types of fruit and vegetables

·       Use brown rice

·       Enjoy whole-wheat pasta and noodles

·       Eat plenty of salad vegetables with a vinaigrette dressing

The above information is from my book Forever Fit and Firm. In this book you will find many other fitness tips to help you get and stay fit.  You can purchase a copy of this book and my other publications by following this link: Forever Fit and Firm
 

Getting the Biggest Return for Your Efforts to Lose Weight

This is that time of the year you are bombarded with all the new and improved weight loss gimmicks such as, "Just take this pill, or wear this belt, or do this exercise and you are guaranteed to lose x amount of weight in a week."  Well, if you don't it, I'm telling you now, there are no magic pills, or mystical secrets to weight loss.  Regardless of what you hear, to lose weight you have to expend more calories than you consume.

Your body needs energy (measured in calories) to survive and you get that energy from the food you eat.  How much energy you need on a daily basis is primarily a function of the following factors:

• Your resting metabolic rate (RMR)
• Your physical activity level
• The thermic effect of the food you eat.

Your resting metabolic rate (RMR) is the number of calories your body expends during quiet rest.  Your RMR makes up 60 to 80 percent of your total daily caloric requirements.  Your physical activity level constitutes between 20 to 30 percent of your daily energy needs.  And, the thermic effect of the foods you eat makes up only a small piece of your daily calorie expenditure.

You can see from the above your RMR is the largest component of your daily caloric needs. Your RMR is comprised mainly of the energy requirements of your organs, and the energy requirements of your skeletal muscle.  The energy requirements of your organs make-up 60 to 70 percent of your RMR,  while your skeletal muscle comprises 20 to 30 percent.  The daily energy requirements of your organs remain fairly constant thus, your skeletal muscle is the piece of you RMR that you can change.  By increasing your muscle mass you consequently increase your RMR which means you increase your daily energy expenditure.

As I mentioned above losing weight involves burning more calories than you consume, so building muscle gets you the biggest return for your efforts to lose weight especially in the long-term.  "How do I build muscle you ask?"  The answer is by lifting weights also known as strength training.  Strength training helps in your effort to lose weight by building muscle which increases your RMR and also by increasing your physical activity level (the 2 largest parts of your daily caloric needs).

In my next post I will talk about the additional benefits of strength training and what a good strength program consists of.