Archive for June, 2009

23
Jun

Stimulating Your Fat Burning Hormones

   Posted by: author1    in Health and Fitness, Weight Loss

The balance between the action of fat burning hormones and fat storing hormones is the determining factor in whether or not a person loses or gains weight and body fat. Although the fat burning hormones outnumber the fat storing hormones, they are weaker in their overall effects. In fact, all of the effects of the fat burning hormones can be completely blocked by high levels of just one fat storing hormone.

Because of this, it is important to understand how the hormones that control body fat interact with each other and the factors that control the relative effects of these hormones. With this understanding, it will become much easier to spot the mistakes you may be making in your weight loss program and to correct those mistakes to obtain the most efficient fat burning.

The primary fat burning hormones are thyroid hormone, adrenailne (epinephrine), glucagon, testosterone, growth hormone, and insulin-like growth factor.  A full discussion of how each of these hormones works would be quite lengthy and is beyond the scope of this article, but there are some basic concepts you can apply that will assist you in promoting the effects of the fat burning hormones.

To stimulate the release of the fat burning hormones and to maximize the action of them, there are three major factors to consider. These are diet, exercise, and sleep.

The dietary aspects of maximizing your fat burning hormones may not be what you think. With regards to enhancing the effects of these hormones, the main consideration is promoting the health and functioning of the liver. The liver is responsible for the conversion and activation of many hormones, including the ones that promote fat burning. If the liver gets overworked, it cannot do its job as efficiently as possible, and the effects of the fat burning hormones decline as a result. While most people are aware that excess alcohol consumption and medications can be bad for the liver, many are unaware that a diet that is too high in fat and/or animal protein can also put excessive strain on this vital organ.

Perhaps you or someone you know has tried the Atkins diet and did well at first, but then hit a point where the weight loss stopped. This is actually to be expected because the Atkins diet is very hard on the liver over the long-term. While the low-carb aspect of it is good, the excessive fat and animal protein, particularly combined with the lack of healthy nutrients from vegetables and fruits, will make the liver tired and sluggish, and the result is decreased effectiveness of the fat burning hormones.

While there are other aspects of diet to be considered with respect to minimizing the effects of the fat storing hormones and providing lose weight help, the main concept here is to eat a diet that maintains the health of the liver.

In addition to diet, the proper form of exercise is critical to maximizing the work of the fat burning hormones.  Controversy exists about what type of exercise is best to promote fat burning.  While most current research indicates that low intensity, high duration exercise at your target heart rate is the most effective type of exercise for fat burning, there is an important distinction that needs to be made between the fat burned during an exercise session and the overall fat burning effect of an exercise session.

During the exercise session itself, low intensity, long duration exercise does burn more fat than high intensity, short duration exercise.  The overall fat burning effects of high intensity exercise are considerably greater than for low intensity exercise though, even when the low intensity workouts are much longer.  This is because high intensity exercise stimulates the production of certain fat buring hormones and increases the body’s metabolic rate.  Increased fat burning continues for about a day or so after the workout.  In the case of low intensity exercise, the fat burning effects mostly stop when the workout ends.  This means that a high intensity exercise session can produce many times the fat burning effects of a low intensity exercise session.

Closely tied to the effects of high intensity exercise on fat burning is the effect of sleep. One of the reasons that high intensity exercise stimulates metabolism is that it stimulates the release of growth hormone, which we mentioned earlier is a fat burner. This brings me back to the importance of the liver. The liver converts growth hormone to insulin like growth factor, which stimulates fat burning to keep your blood sugar levels steady when you go for long periods without eating. For most people, the usual time when they go the longest without eating is when they are sleeping. When you do not get adequate sleep, you don’t produce as much insulin-like growth factor, and therefore you don’t burn as much fat.

For the majority of people, about 7 hours of sleep per night is enought to provide maximum effects from the fat burning hormones.  Because of the effects of light on the pituitary gland (which produces growth hormone), nighttime sleep results in better production of growth hormone, and therefore results in better fat burning effects.  Night shift workers are advised to make their sleeping area as dark as possible for their daytime sleeping.

In conclusion, to maximize the effects of your fat burning hormones, it is very important to eat a healthy diet that supports the function of the liver, to do high intensity exercise, and to get adequate sleep. Failure to handle any one of these factors will decrease the effectiveness of your weight loss program, and can lead to frustration when you are trying your best to lose weight.

To learn more about fat burning hormones, visit Dr. Best’s website and get a free copy of his Ebook, The Total Solution For The Weight Loss Impaired. 

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23
Jun

Simple Planning For Losing Weight and Burning Fat

   Posted by: author1    in Health and Fitness, Weight Loss

Doing the math is pretty easy and simple. One pound of fat is the equivalent to 3500 calories. Would you like to lose a pound a week? You will need to intake 3500 calories less a week than you use. That’s about 500 calories a day. You can lose one pound per week if you cut 500 calories from your normal daily diet and keep your activity level the same.

I know that doesn’t sound like much, especially if you are over 25 pounds overweight. Studies have shown that those who lose 1-2 pounds a week, are more likely to keep the weight off and maintain a normal weight for the rest of their life.

So how much is 500 calories exactly? If you’re going to reduce your daily intake by 500 calories, it helps to know what you need to cut out, right? Here is how you lose 500 calories a day

* Use milk instead of cream in your coffee. Savings? 50 calories per cup.

* Skip the butter on your baked potato. Savings? 100 calories

*Drink fruit flavored water rather than soda. Savings? 200 calories

* Skip the Big Mac and have a salad instead. The Big Mac equals 460 calories. A fresh salad with a light dressing? Less than 100! Savings? 360 calories

*You can walk right by that bag of potato chips. The average snack bag of chips has over 300 calories. Savings? 300 calories

*Eat corn on the ear. A 1 cup serving of canned corn has 165 calories. An ear of corn has 85. Savings? 80 calories.

*Change to a low fat cram cheese spread on your bagel. Savings? 90 calories per ounce.

* Love those fries and can’t give them up? Swap the skinny fries out for thick steak-cut ones. The thinner frech fries absorb a whole lot more oil than the thicker ones. Savings? For every 4 oz. seving there is 50 calories

You cna also lose one pound a week if you up your activity level by 500 calories, if you want to look at it from a exercise perspective. How easy is that to do? Have a look:

* Take a half-hour walk around the park. Aim for a pace that’s a little faster than a stroll, but not fast enough to be breathless. Burn: 160 calories.

*Go for a bicycle ride. Tackle a few moderate hills and aim for about five miles total. Burn: 250 calories

* Go dancing – and really DANCE. The longer you are out dancing on the dance floor, you wont be at the table drinking those high calorie fruit drinks and the more calories you will burn. The kind of dancing that makes you breathless and that warms up your body will give you a nice calorie savings. Burn: 400 calories per hour

*Swimming is something that is great for you to do and a ton of fun as well. The resistance in the water means that you will be bale to burn more calories dancing or walking in it and you will avoid the stress impact on joints from aerobics. A few laps as a slow crawl is wonderufl-if you can get up to an hour you’ll be doing even better! Burn: 510 calories

* You should get out and do some gardening. An hour of gardening tasks that includes bending and stretching can burn up to as many calories as a brisk walk. Burn: 250 calories.

*Play a game of tennis. Hook up with a friend for a weekly tennis game and you’ll be amazed at the difference. One hour of vigorous tennis is one of the best calorie burners around. Burn: 800 calories

Keep in mind that all of the exercise and calorie numbers are based on a woman’s weight of 130 pounds. If you weigh more, you’ll burn more fat. Would you like an additional bonus to burning calories through exercise? You turn fat into muscle whenever you exercise. Three guesses which kind of body tissue burns more calories – even when you’re not exercising. You got it – your body uses more energy to maintain and feed muscle than it does fat.

For best results, mix and match food savings with exercises that burn calories. Do keep in mind that eating less than 1000 calories a day for more than a few days will convince your body that it’s starving and slow your metabolism. You need to keep your calorie ranges simpmle, and if you seek a more drastic weight loss measure consult your doctor.

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23
Jun

What Is The Zone Diet And How Can It Help You

   Posted by: author1    in General, Health and Fitness

The zone diet is considered a fad diet created by a biochemist named Barry Sears. For additional information about the diet please visit Fat Loss for Idiots. In reality it’s not a fad diet in that it is not planned to only be consumed in short periods, but rather to become the normal eating habits for a person. It is considered a low carbohydrate diet; however more is based on balancing hormones and therefore does not restrict carbohydrates as much as other low carbohydrate diets such as the Atkins diet.

The basis of the zone diet is a ratio of calories from carbohydrates, proteins, and fats all of 40 to 30 to 30. Several nonscientific studies completed by various television shows have shown that the diet can in fact produce reasonable weight-loss. Actually, many of these nonscientific studies show that people gain muscle mass while losing weight on the zone diet. Many of the people in these studies also reported that of all the low carbohydrate diets, the zone diet was easiest to fit into an everyday lifestyle.

The zone in zone diet refers to a hormone balance in which insulin levels are perfect, glucagen levels are perfect, read more at Fat Loss for Idiots, and thus the body releases various anti-inflammatory chemicals similar to aspirin but without side effects.  In addition, claims Sears, the natural anti-inflammatories help with heart health. One more advantage of the zone diet is that once the human body is in this hormonal balance it becomes more efficient and stops storing excess calories as fat.  Thus, with no fat stored, and with stored fat used as energy, the body loses weight. Later Sears added a Omega three and Omega six fatty acids to the diet, through such supplements as pharmaceutical fish oils.

A typical zone diet meal was described by its creator in the following manner. In every meal eat enough protein to fit in the palm of your hand, as many non-starchy raw vegetables as you can take just enough carbohydrates to maintain mental clarity, and just enough oils to stop hunger. 

This zone diet has a famous weight loss case in its files, that of the man who weighed over 1200 pounds. More can be found at Fat Loss for Idiots. After two years on the zone diet he lost nearly 1/3 of that weight, all that after trying everything he could think of including liposuction that had nearly been fatal. The man’s present diet consists of 2000 calories choppy up into six meals per day. It includes egg white omelets, fresh salads, chicken, fish, and other healthy foods authorized by the zone diet.

Give the zone diet a try, but be cautious.

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