January 15, 2010

5 Good ways to loose weight and get in shape

Posted in Loosing weight tagged green tea, lose weight, sleep, wellness at 8:48 am by motanuincaltat

1) Do daily cardio!!! .

Remember what cardio is? Check out my previous posts. Do at least 20-30 min of cardio each day for weight loss and well being. What cardio does for you? Well..

a) It burns calories – One of the benefits of cardiovascular exercise is that it is a good way to burn calories. To lose weight by cardio you need to do it for a large period of time combined with healthy nutrition.

b) Can raise your metabolic rate – Some studies have shown that with regular cardiovascular exercise your resting metabolic level will increase.Your decreased metabolic rate is the thing that keeps you fat and flabby

c) It lowers the risk of heart disease – Some research suggests that even just walking 20 minutes, three times a week and can lower your risk of heart diseases

d) It makes you feel better : – David Blumenthal and a team of researchers at Duke University Medical Center found that an aerobic exercise program decreased depression and improved the cognitive abilities of middle-aged and elderly men and women.They followed 156 patients between the ages of 50 and 77 who had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder. They were randomly assigned to one of three groups: exercise, medication, or a combination of medication and exercise. The exercise group spent 30 minutes either riding a stationary bicycle or walking, or jogging three times a week. To the surprise of the researchers, after 16 weeks, all three groups showed statistically significant and identical improvement in standard measurements of depression, implying that exercise was just as effective as medication in treating major depression.
e) It literally makes you SMARTER! – A trial experiment was held. Before enrolling in the trial, and four months later, the cognitive abilities of the participants were tested in four areas: memory, executive functioning, attention/concentration, and psychomotor speed.
Compared to the medication group, the exercisers showed significant improvements in the higher mental processes of memory and in “executive functions” that involve planning, organization, and the ability to mentally juggle different intellectual tasks at the same time.

d) It prevents helps prevent Alzheimer’s disease : Physical exercise has a protective effect on the brain and its mental processes, and may even help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Inactive individuals were twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s, compared to those with the highest levels of activity (exercised vigorously at least three times a week). But even light or moderate exercisers cut their risk significantly for Alzheimer’s and mental decline according to a five year study at the Laval University in Sainte-Foy in Quebec

and the list can go on..

2) Eat many small , well balanced meals a day : (3 to 6)

A well balanced meal should contain 3 things – Proteins (dietary sources include : meats, eggs, nuts, grains and dairy products : milk and cheese).

- Fiber (dietary sources include : fruits,vegetables,whole grains)

- Carbohydrates (not simple sugars) ( breads, pastas,beans,potatoes,rice, cereals)

So..instead of eating 1 or 2 big meals a day eat many small meals. This will accelerate the metabolism and keep your body from entering starvation mode. Give your body what it needs = Energy. Eating many small meals a day also helps your body from dehydration. This will make you feel good and look good.

3) Drink lots of water :

How drinking water affects your weight loss is unclear. Scientist are having a hard time agreeing with each other. For example :

” Researchers in Germany report that water consumption increases the rate at which people burn calories.” ” In an effort to prove this, Michael Boschmann, MD, and colleagues from Berlin’s Franz-Volhard Clinical Research Center tracked energy expenditures among seven men and seven women who were healthy and not overweight. After drinking approximately 17 ounces of water, the subjects’ metabolic rates — or the rate at which calories are burned — increased by 30% for both men and women. The increases occurred within 10 minutes of water consumption and reached a maximum after about 30 to 40 minutes.The researchers estimate that over the course of a year, a person who increases his water consumption by 1.5 liters a day would burn an extra 17,400 calories, for a weight loss of approximately five pounds. They note that up to 40% of the increase in calorie burning is caused by the body’s attempt to heat the ingested water”

Some scientist state that this findings are inconclusive and that further studies on larger number of subjects are needed and that even if this studies are proven the impact of drinking water on weight loss has only a little affect.

Another study conducted by the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, Oakland, California states that drinking water iis associated with weight loss in overweight dieting women independent of diet and exercise. The study was on 173 premenopausal overweight women (aged 25-50 years) who reported <1 l/day drinking water at baseline. Diet, physical activity, body weight, percent body fat (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry), and waist circumference were assessed at baseline, 2, 6, and 12 months.

RESULTS: Absolute and relative increases in drinking water were associated with significant loss of body weight and fat over time, independent of covariates.

The previous study  from Berlin’s Franz-Volhard Clinical Research Center shows that the effect of metabolic increase from drinking water is larger in men than in women .

Put two and two together and you can deduce that drinking lots of water has an effect in weight loss.

If you are still not convinced consider the pros and cons of drinking lots of water. Pros plenty, cons none!

4) Drink green tea ( I will post more data about Green Tea in another article)

Health benefits of drinking green tea :

-reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer

-beneficially impacts bone density, cognitive function, dental cavities, and kidney stones

-has a potent antioxidant effect (it carotenoids, tocopherols, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), minerals such as chromium, manganese, selenium or zinc, and certain phytochemical compounds)

-It contains ECGC a tochopherol wich is believed to burn fat, prevent neurodegenerative diseases

-It contains caffeine wich also boosts your meabolism.

However green tea has a diuretic effect so do not over do it . It can affect your liver and your kidneys especially in taking green tea extract or concentrates on an empty stomach.

5) Get enought sleep

How much is enough? Well..for an adult the average is 8 hours/day. Many studies have shown that people that sleep less usually weight more. Sleep depravation can seriously impact your metabolism, can lead to hormone disorders and a general state of sickness. Do not sabotage yourself by depriving yourself of sleep. During sleep your body recuperates , regenerates and so on.

A healthy sleep pattern is directly linked to weight loss.

How much sleep do you need?

Well..most people need between seven and nine hours of sleep a night. Some more, some less. Very few of us actually get the minimum of seven. How do you know how much sleep you really need? Experts say to sleep as long as you want for several days (best done on vacation). Then, your sleep should stabilize and you’ll find yourself waking up after the same number of hours daily, within 15 minutes or so. Once you know about how much sleep you need, start getting into a steady routine. Set a regular time for sleep. Start getting ready ahead of time.

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