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What Is More Important – Diet or Exercise?

November 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

With all the emphasis on low-carb diets that made the news for so long, it seems that the emphasis on low-carb is not as prevalent as it once was. Why is this? Where did the low-carb diets go? The popularity of Atkins and the South Beach diets may come and go, but the bottom line is that any successful diet–whether low-carb, low-fat, body type, blood type, or whatever the gimmick–has one thing in common. It cuts calories. Low-carb diets cut calories by reducing carbohydrate intake. Low fat diets reduce calories by reducing fats.

Another problem with fad diets is that everyone has something different to say, which only adds confusion. Many dieters are so bombarded with conflicting information that they no longer know who or what to believe. When the fad diets are written by doctors, as both Atkins and South Beach are, it can be even more confusing. The trick is to get through the diet hype to the real information that is useful.

In the simplest terms, the only way to lose weight is to take fewer calories in than are used. In order to lose a pound of fat in a week, daily caloric intake must be reduced by 500 calories. This can be accomplished through food intake or in a combination of reducing food intake and increasing exercise. However, even when you are reducing calories, you need to eat a healthful balance of foods to get the nutrients you need. This is where a lot of the confusion comes in. Low-carb diets restrict carbohydrate intake. Some restrict carbohydrates a great deal, while other diets are more flexible. However, carbohydrates are not only simple sugars and breads. Fruits and vegetables fall into the carbohydrate category, and both contain a wide range of healthy nutrients.

The body needs proteins, carbohydrates, and fats in order to function. How much the body needs of each of these will continue to be debated. The U.S. RDA recommends fat intake between twenty to thirty-five percent of total intake, proteins between ten and thirty-five percent, and carbohydrates between forty-five and sixty-five percent. Making healthful choices within each category is essential for overall health. Your choices can also have an effect on your mental outlook as well, because if you are watching caloric intake, you will be able to eat more of low-calorie foods, which can help reduce feelings of deprivation. Often, healthier choices are lower in total calories.

In general, the following tips can help you make better choices:

  • Limit saturated fats
  • Choose a variety of fruits and vegetables
  • Eat whole-grain foods as opposed to refined flours
  • Eat lean meats instead of high-fat meats

Exercise is also a key component to a healthy lifestyle. Most fad diets recommend some type of exercise, but many do not put a great deal of emphasis on exercising. The fact is that it is possible to lose weight with diet alone. However, diet combined with exercise is the most effective weight loss strategy, and some type of exercise is simply good for health. Exercise can help make your heart stronger, bones, and muscles stronger, all of which make even daily activities much easier.

While there is no doubt that a regular exercise routine can be highly beneficial, many studies indicate that short bouts of exercise throughout the day can be just as effective as a more structured exercise program. Squeezing in just ten minutes a day in increments can be beneficial. Also, consider that exercise comes in many forms. You do not need a home gym full of equipment; even vacuuming can provide benefit. Think of little ways you can add extra activity to your day. Park a few blocks from work and walk the rest of the way.

  • Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
  • Increase the intensity at which you do household chores.
  • Take a few minutes to dance around the house.
  • Go for a walk (all you need is a pair of shoes).

In short, fad diets such as Atkins and South Beach are tempting and promise fast results. If you want the most effective weight-loss strategy, reduce calories and add exercise. In addition, while rapid weight loss is always desirable, losing a pound or two per week is a safe goal; more than this can be dangerous. Eat a wide variety of healthy foods to maintain nutrients, and remember that a healthy lifestyle is the long-term goal.

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Bodybuilding With Low – Carb Diet

November 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

For many years carbohydrates are in center of attention among fitness and bodybuilding community. Everyone who has ever wanted to find out more on “zero fat” perfect body has stumbled across this dilemma. There are virtually no diets out there that would not base on different rules for quantity and type of carbohydrates one can eat. So we frequently find different guides, telling us which carbohydrates, when and how should be used in advanced fitness or bodybuilding programs.

There are different recommendations on which and how should they be taken on training an on training free days. Thousands of articles have been posted on different forums and blogs dealing with the subject of low carb/high protein diets for bodybuilders. Nowadays it is hard to ignore all those ads on TV and in other media and the flood of products based on low carb nutrition. Both food and drinks for professional fitness are influenced by low carb/high protein nutrition suppliers. The market has developed from low fat to high protein in just couple of years. Not just advertising but also actual diets that top athletes were using advanced from diets for minimizing fat to diets limiting carbohydrates. There are pro and contra arguments on both sides. It has become a struggle to find out which diet suits better bodybuilding community.

Who is right?

Which diet will make us achieve best results?

Speaking from a standpoint of bodybuilding and fitness, low carb nutrition beats low fat nutrition. Every professional bodybuilder who wants perfectly carved out muscles would follow extremely restrictive carbohydrate diets.

What exactly is going on with our body when following low carb diets?

Decreasing the level of carbohydrates in body leads to glucose deficit in blood (carbohydrates are transformed into glucose – final product). This leads to decrease in insulin production and stimulates production of growth hormone. In order to sustain necessary energy levels, body is forced to burn fat as an additional energy source. And this is alright. But there is a thin line that should not be crossed. When level of carbohydrates drops under a certain point, body starts to drain proteins stored in muscles. In order to avoid that happening carbohydrates should be cut step by step. Even more important is to know which carbohydrates we need to cut and when to cut them.

Recommended and highly effective diets on the long run are diets that contain app. 200 g of carbohydrates per training day and 100-150 g on a training free day. Some individuals would do once per week so called “carb loading”. They would take in 300-400 g of carbohydrates that specific day.

Common mistake made by many is exaggeration in decreasing carbohydrates. A drastic cut in carbs leads to a completely exhausted body. Diets with daily carb intake under app. 50 g are extremely dangerous on a long run. Sustaining 30-50 g daily carb intake on a long run makes your body burn proteins. That causes a decrease in muscle mass and it drains the power out of your body. Additionally to that, such diet will kill the will to exercise.

There is another issue attached to extreme low carb diets in bodybuilding. After ending such diet, a normal carbohydrate intake leads to excessive growth of fat tissue.

Concerning the selection of nutrition and carbohydrates, following points should be considered:

  • Eat right carbs at a right time
  • Focus on carbs with low GI (leads to a steady increase of glucose in blood)
  • In first half of the day (before training) take in app 40 % portion of the whole daily carbohydrates (low GI carbs)
  • Right after the training you have 30 min to take in 30 % of high GI carbs (glucose, maltodextrin)
  • Within next 1 hour you should take in the rest 30% of carbs with low GI (basmati rice, pasta made of whole-wheat flour)
  • Eat high fiber food (vegetables, whole-wheat cereals).

Finally there has to be pointed out that there is no such thing as “universal” diet, suitable for each and everyone. The choice of right menu and diet is to be left to individual needs. The only hard proof advice one can give is to listen to your own body and observe carefully effects different diets will have on you. This will take time before one finds out which diet fits best a specific fitness or bodybuilding training. But once we have tested them and picked out the right one, achieving those perfectly carved out muscles should not be a problem anymore.

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Effects of Low Carb Diets

November 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Low carb diets are currently the most popularity type of diet regimen being used by many fitness conscious people. The low carb philosophy is taking the world by storm as millions of people are now trying out this new diet in the hopes of losing excess weight and fat.

Proponents of the low carb diet philosophy are also saying that aside from losing weight, it also has other inherent benefits. They said that it lowers cholesterol, helps control diabetes or completely stop it from developing in certain individuals. These are claims that seem to have been supported by actual facts as followers of a low carb diet plan have reported the same thing.

This is well and good because it is a good development to finally find a diet plan that is not only going to help you lose weight but will also have very noticeable and significant medical benefits.

But it cannot also be denied that there are many diet plans out there that are either not effective, bogus or even harmful and have a detrimental effect on one’s health. So the question also remains. Are low carb diets safe?

Not surprisingly there are certain arguments that are being presented against low carb diets and ultimately there are also moves to debunk the low carb diet philosophy. In fact, in 2004 a Canadian court made a ruling that foods that are sold in the country are prohibited from being marketed with reduced or no carbohydrate content. This is because, as the court ruled, carbohydrates have been seen as having no health risks. The ruling also stated that all packaging that has and indication of “low carb” or “no carb” be phased out by 2006.

According to some critics and detractors of the low carb diet philosophy there are side effects to following this diet regimen. Some of the side effects of consuming low amounts of carbohydrates include ketosis. This is a certain metabolic state that is characterized by headaches, nausea, tiredness, dehydration, and dizziness. There is also the emanation of an sweet-smelling breath odor. There is also a chance of constipation because dietary fiber is usually cut down in the prepared dishes. In fact, because of the prevalence of constipation among Atkins Diet followers, there is now a clear guideline for the addition of fiber supplements during the induction stage.

The cutting down of calories that are taken from carbohydrates and replacing them with calories taken from meat may also increase the likelihood of raising the intake of both saturated fat and cholesterol – and this could increase your chances of getting heart disease. It has also been a contention that with the lessened carbohydrate – increased protein intake the kidneys will have to work harder to flush out impurities in the body. There is also a marked change in the acidity levels of the blood which can result in bone loss.

But according to trials made to prove the hypothesis, there was no evidence that following a low carb diet will damage the kidney or result in bone density loss.

The frustrating part will be that after you are off the low carb, you will very probably gain back all the weight that you have loss and even more. This is because your muscles are active and they continuously burn calories. Since you have less fewer muscle mass now, your body’s metabolism or capacity to burn calories slows down tremendously.

In other words, when you put on weight again, you are putting on body fat instead of muscles if you do not exercise. You will be fatter and less healthy than before you went on the low carb. To compound matters, because of lesser muscle tissues resulting in lower metabolism and thus lesser calories being burnt, you are going to get fatter.

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The Importance of Exercise While on a Low Carb Diet.

November 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The Atkins Diet, which received widespread public interest in 1972, did not fail to encourage the introduction of regular exercise. The dieter who has agreed to abstain from carbohydrates must appreciate the extent to which new chemicals can build up in a system that looks to protein as an energy source. Those chemicals form in the body muscles.

Still, the formation of those chemicals should not be viewed as a reason to cut back on the use of muscles (or in other words, to cut back on exercise). In fact exercise can help to push unwanted chemicals out of the muscles. Prolonged exercise improves the circulation of blood in the muscles.

Exercise should be seen as an essential part of all low carb living. After all, even low carb food contains calories. Exercise gives the dieter an added way to burn off those calories. Moreover, the expected changes in the body biochemistry, changes that take place in a body on a high protein, low carb diet dictate the need for exercise.

Following exercise, the number of muscle capillaries increases by as much as 50%. At the same time, the existing muscle capillaries develop an even larger opening. Blood flows faster in those capillaries. The faster-flowing blood speeds removal from the exercised muscles of unwanted chemicals.

At other locations on these low carb pages you will find information about low carb recipes and low carb snacks. While those foods all contribute to the value of a low carb diet plan, the willingness to stick with those foods does not guarantee success with that same plan.

In order to feel secure about the results expected from adherence to a low carb diet, the dieter needs to take time to exercise his or her muscles. Research on weight loss has revealed that any effort aimed at a reduction of body fat should include sessions during which the dieter engages in muscle strengthening exercises.

A person on a low carb diet might take-in a good deal of fat. Of all the tissues in the body, muscle tissues are best equipped to use the calories that are found in fat. The more muscle that a dieter can develop, the greater the amount of fat that his or her muscles will manage to burn.

Those muscles do not need to be exercising at all times. A muscle burns some fat, even when it is at rest. Still, muscle building exercises can help a dieter to develop a set of fat burning “tools.”

One word of warning: Muscle weighs more than fat. At first the stronger muscles formed by someone on a low carb diet can cause a slight weight gain. Eventually though the dieter will loose weight. Moreover, the exercising dieter will facilitate removal from his or her muscles of any chemicals that form while the body uses protein as an energy source.

Dieting should make the dieter feel healthier. A dieter is more apt to enjoy that feeling if he or she takes time to exercise while adhering to any sort of low carb diet.

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Low Carb Dieting and Its Impact on Athletic Performance

November 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

When a dieter has chosen to restrict him or herself to only low carb food, then that dieter has decided to obtain all of his or her energy from protein. That decision can have an effect on the body muscles. In order to keep the muscles in good shape, the person who is adhering to a low carb diet plan should focus on flexibility.

A focus on flexibility requires a certain amount of stretching. Stretching does wonders for the muscles. At the conclusion of a diet, a person who elects to continue with his or her low carb living should take time every day to do some stretching.

Of course stretching is a lot like dieting. There are certain dos and don’ts associated with stretching. While these low carb pages concentrate on low carb recipes and low carb snacks, they also offer advice about activities that take place away from the table. This article offers details on the dos and don’ts of stretching.

The dieter should think of his or her muscle as a rubber band. The dieter might even want to spend time playing with a rubber band. The dieter would soon be reminded of the way that a rubber band behaves when it is stretched. A stretched rubber band has a breaking point. If the rubber band is not released from a stretch before reaching that breaking point, the rubber band becomes a rubber string.

A taught rubber band does not have much stretch. If one pulls it several times and then releases it gently, that rubber band will eventually become more flexible. The same thing can be said about the muscles. Stretching muscles helps them to become more flexible.

A person on a low carb, high protein diet is in a perfect position to concentrate on developing more flexible muscles. The person on such a diet needs to focus on squeezing from the muscles any by-products of the body’s need to obtain energy from protein. The athlete on a low carb diet can improve his or her flexibility, while also facilitating the removal of those unwanted by-products.

Of course the athlete on a diet must not forget the rules that apply to an athlete not on a diet. Some of those rules relate to stretching. One of those rules is this: Don’t force your body parts to try a motion that is beyond your normal range of motion.

Stretching should help the body not hurt it. An athlete should not try a stretch that might damage his or her back. A dieter who is stretching should avoid trying deep knee bends.

A person can combine adherence to a low carb diet with a routine of stretching. Such a routine can help the dieter to maintain the soundness of his or her muscles. Such a routine can improve a person’s flexibility. That improved flexibility could lead to improved athletic performance.

A person on a low carb diet does not need to put forth a great deal of energy in order to stretch.

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Dining Out Without Cheating On A Low-Carb Diet

November 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

You can hardly turn your head these days without seeing new studies that have been done that show the importance of cutting carbs out of your diet. New diet plans are coming out all the time that claim to have the perfect combinations of foods that will magically allow you to lose all of your extra weight without lifting a finger or sacrificing any of the tastes you love so much. Eating low carb foods sounds so boring and hard, but it doesn’t have to.

You don’t have to stay home to eat healthy. Most restaurants have low fat options and are quickly adding low carb menus. Before going out, call around and find a restaurant with a menu that will be a good match for your diet. Once at the restaurant, there are ways to enjoy a guilt free meal.

The secret to success is in the initial ordering-you don’t want to find yourself staring at a plate of bad choices, and regretting it only after the plate is empty.

Some experts suggest that once served, you should ask for a take-out container and put half of it away for the next day’s lunch or dinner. This works great if you are incredibly self-controlled. However, if the knowledge that there is more food under the lid of that Styrofoam container is too much-change the way you order.

Side dishes, children’s plates, and appetizers are all great alternatives. Request that extras like gravy, butter, sauces, salad dressings, and sour cream be served on the side. Slightly dipping a fork in a condiment before you stick it into your food is a great way to limit the extra calories while adding flavor to your food.

Don’t be afraid to substitute. Substitute a salad for fries, a green vegetable for potatoes, or low fat versions for their fat laden counterparts. If there are no substitutions available, ask to have the item left off the plate. Such a request may result in your waiter explaining that you have to pay for it anyway. Simply let him know that you don’t mind-or you’ll end up paying with your waistline.

Sometimes another person at the table will want the item you want left in the kitchen. If this is the case, ask the waiter to serve the item on a separate plate.

Fast food restaurants offer a challenge to the average weight loss plan. However, if you must go to one, there are usually a few healthy choices you can make.

Order a salad, grilled chicken, or a roast beef sandwich. If you are on a low carb diet, request a plate and a fork with your sandwiches so that you can eat it without the bun. In casual and fine dining scenarios, simply choose items according to the way they are cooked, avoiding anything that is battered and fried. Instead, order items that are steamed, broiled, baked, roasted, or poached.

Stay away from food that is creamed, cheese sauce, or items marinated in oil. Especially destructive to your weight loss efforts are casseroles and pastry crusts.

As for drinks– water, diet sodas, and ice tea are all good choices. A single glass of wine fits nicely into most diets, but only if you have the willpower to pass on a second glass when offered.

Desserts don’t have to be off limits, especially if everyone else at the table in partaking. This will only cause you to dig into the ice cream in your freezer with wild abandon once you get home. Choose a dessert that does not come with ice cream, whipped cream, or any kind of sauce. But only order it if you have someone willing to share it with you. Have the waiter bring it out already divided up.

There is no reason not to enjoy a guilt free dinner out. There are many options available, you just have to make the right choices.

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Diets, Exercise and the Road to Better Self-Esteem

November 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

In everything in life that we do, self-esteem is crucial. Self-esteem makes people feel better about whom they are and provides these same people with the strength to do new things. With the right amount of self-esteem we believe in ourselves and our abilities and have the capacity to do the right things even when confronted with different circumstances. Self-esteem is essential for us to be able to handle the curveballs that life hands us with a positive understanding. Different circumstances can occur where we start to lose confidence in our abilities and stay in the midst of people who are killjoys who see nothing good in life. Hanging around people who are constantly negative can lead to a situation where we become negative ourselves. With these risks evident special care should be taken to avoid such individuals and their lifestyles.

Health and self-esteem also go hand-in-hand. Overweight people often spend the time thinking about of the bad things about themselves and forget all the good things they’re able to do. Hormones sometimes make us overreact and remain frustrated over the simplest of issues. Some things can be changed while others remain permanent, if something is bothering you and the circumstances can be altered then you can change what needs to be changed. If this isn’t the case then you have to learn to cope with what you dislike and see what joys you can derive.

Different things can affect the way you appear and feel regularly. Teenagers are often affected by a terrible sense of low self-esteem when they’re faced with pimples and acne. The irony is that the situation can be easily avoided simply by cutting down on their intake of sugary things.

With adults on the other hand, sluggishness tends to come when they haven’t had proper food to eat. Exhaustion and illness have never been keys to personal well-being and we feel terrible when we seem exhausted and ill most of the time. By building up your body you can easily get rid of this ill-feeling and start to feel a whole lot better about yourself. By eating well and getting plenty of rest and exercise, you tend to look better, feel better and see life through a whole new set of eyes. A fit body works a whole lot better and gives you the required energy to do whatever it is that you feel needs doing.

Self-esteem is something that can always change and it isn’t a bad idea to get rid of your fears now and get into that better body and a better life. By taking good care of your physical self. You open the door to taking better care of your mental and emotional self as well.

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