Why do Typical Diet & Exercise Programs Fail?

March 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The most recent statistics provided by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute reveal that nearly 100 million Americans fit within the classifications of being either overweight or obese. According to the Surgeon General’s 1996 report on physical activity and health, 25 percent of Americans are totally sedentary and another 46 percent are not regularly active. These statistics prompted the American Heart Association to upgrade obesity from simply a contributing factor, to a major risk factor for heart attack.

 

Obesity is a stronger risk factor for diabetes, hypertension and several forms of cancer, than physical inactivity is. In a letter written by former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop, Dr. JoAnn Manson of Harvard Medical School and Dr. Theodore VanIttallie of Columbia University, “Obesity causes 318,000 excess deaths per year.” Obese people are 26 times more likely to have diabetes and 3.5 times more likely to die of heart disease. Obesity leads to more preventable deaths than all other causes, not including smoking. These facts alone should terrify you. If you don’t get your weight under control or maintain your current body ratio of fat, chances are, without help, your weight will increase as you age.

 

At or near thirty-five years of age – or for some earlier – our metabolism begins to slow. This promotes a gradual but steady increase in our body fat. You need to have a successful weight management program that can decrease the possible outcomes of obesity. If you have been waiting for one miracle product that will cause you to lose as much weight as you want, chances are you are going to be waiting forever. If you or someone you know is overweight, it’s because your metabolism is not working efficiently.

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Does Caffine cause Fat?

March 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The stuff in sodas and cola which causes you to gain weight is sugar, plain and simple. Caffeine, which is a stimulant for most, probably actually boosts your metabolism a tweek or two, so I doubt it’s another “culprit” in weight gain. If you stop drinking sugared drinks, and don’t increase your calorie intake from other sources, and aren’t already gaining weight, and continue exercising, then you’ll probably lose weight.

 

I think all this stuff about sucrose (white sugar) being some sort of Commie plot to poison us all is just so much hogwash. Yeah, it’ll help rot your teeth. So will orange juice, rice, and just about anything else you eat, if your dental hygiene is poor. Yeah, it’ll help you gain weight. So will orange juice, rice, and just about anything else you eat, if you don’t exercise enough to work it off. (Yes, and if you have a medically-diagnosed metabolic problem which requires prescription drugs – for you Phen-Fenatics out there).

 

Moderation in all things, is probably the best course for most of us. Eat properly, don’t deprive yourself, get plenty of exercise, both aerobic and weight-bearing. Get sufficient rest. Feed your head with knowledge, and your heart with kindness toward others. Work to make the world a better place for your friends and your children.

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Weight loss-body conditioning

March 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Ok, I’m fat. Unfortunately I have been for atleast 10 or so years. I need to get back into shape and lose at leat 50 pounds. One problem I have is finding someone to have as a “mentor”. I’m not expecting a lot, just someone that knows this stuff and is willing to work with me via e-mail on this project. Quite frankly, my motivation sucks big time. Anyone interested? Here is a start for you: Your mirror and your tape measure need to become your Best Friends.

 

Also, the fit of your clothing. Strip off and look at your body as objectively as you can. Where do you want to improve? Don’t say “all over” – choose the things you like least. Now, get your tape measure and take the measurements of those areas, and record them. Put them somewhere you’ll be able to find… Also, again with the tape measure, do the “Seven Deadly Sites” measurement with all muscles relaxed, measuring largest circumference for all – 1. Chest above the breast area 2. Dominant arm mid biceps

 

3. Dominant arm forearm 4. Waist directly across the navel 5. Hips and butt, around the saddlebags (if any) and the main booty 6. Dominant leg, upper thigh 7. Dominant leg, mid-calf Write all of those numbers down and add them up. Keep the total (put it with the other measure), and toss the rest. You’ll do both sets of measurements again in six weeks.

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Fat people are fat because they choose to be

March 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Actually for the most part, this is true. Unless there is a health problem, for the most part if you exercise, and watch what you eat (meaning proper diet) you won’t get fat. No one can convince me that all the fat people I see watch what they eat and exercise moderately on a regular basis. There is far too much fat in what most of what the population eats. Yes yes yes, there are those that say fat is necessary, but not in the amounts that the public at large (no pun intended) eats.

 

Perception may not be reality but it is how we perceive reality. If I say I have no choice then guess what? No matter how much you say I do have a choice, I don’t. Even if you label it a self discipline or character problem the element of choice is missing for anyone that doesn’t see it. If I tell you to choose one of several items but one of the items is completely obstructed from your view you could say “I didn’t have the choice of that item because I didn’t know it was there” or you could say “I had the choice of that item but I didn’t know it was there”. Either way at the moment of choice that item was unavailable to you.

 

What exactly is your outcome or goal with this topic? Do you think that the shades are falling from the eyes of the fat and unfit and that they will wake up tomorrow with a new found ability to tackle their problems? I know it all makes sense from where you are looking but not everybody can look from the place where you are and so they don’t have the choices you have. Your telling them that they do isn’t going to make it happen. If what you want to do is contribute to people then you might re-think your approach. If what you want to do is raise hell then I would respectfully ask that you do it somewhere else.

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Hip and calf pain

March 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Once in a while I get this dull pain in my hip and inner calf. It usually happens on the left side but sometimes also on the right. I tend to get it after walking around a lot or vigorous exercising, and it could get bad enough that I have to limp a bit. But it goes away after a week or so. First of all, most of us here on this newsgroup aren’t physicians, but we can all tell you that if you’re doing exercises which cause actual pain or physical debility, you should immediately stop doing them and get some medical opinions.

 

Going into what you said, you describe “vigorous exercising”. What form does that take? Your article gives no clue. If, in fact, you get this pain just doing normal everyday activities, such as walking around, I think you need to talk to a physician pronto. Worry? No. Get some professional opinions and advice, and fix the problem. Worrying about it solves nothing.

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Need advice on workout equipment

March 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

My main goal is to look better. Which is to say that I want to loose the flab around my belly. I don’t really care if I loose weight or not, as long as I’m looking thinner and more fit. In fact my weight seems to remain constant but as I get older I seem to be getting fatter. As a secondary goal, I would like to tone my muscles a little bit. It’s my understanding that to accomplish this I should be doing a fairly long aerobic workout at my target heart rate. My question is, what type of exercise equipment should I buy which will help me exercise at this target heart rate. I don’t really care for tread mills and I would prefer a stationary bike to a stair machine.

 

I’m just not sure if one type of exercise machine would be better then another for this type of work out. Most of the sports stores in my area are carrying this new type of workout machine where you pull yourself up with your arms and legs (I think the most popular brand is the E-Force). It’s suppose to give you a “total body workout”, exercising your muscles and giving you an aerobic workout, is this what I need? However, exercising for the same amount of time at a high intensity (i.e., 75% of maximal exercise capacity versus 50%) burns approximately 400 calories. At the 35% fat utilization figure, 140 calories burned come from stored fat. In both cases, the rest of the calories burned come from carbohydrates (unless you are overtraining).

 

Consider a program that involves both aerobics AND strength training. You ultimately want to increase you lean body mass (muscle) so that it is working for you even when you’re not exercising. This is referred to as “resting metabolic rate” (RMR). There aren’t many all-in-one machines that can do this – especially not in the “home equipment” category. Check your local clubs for this type of equipment.

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Calorie intake/expenditure and fat loss

March 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I have been exercising regularly since november last year, mainly to lose about 10 pounds of excess fat. I’ve been cross-training (aerobics, swimming, roller-skating, some running since 2 weeks, and some squash in the weekends for fun), mainly because I like a lot of sports and want to do them. My metabolism has gone way up (I’m hungry all the time) and therefore I’ve started to eat much more than before. My fat% has dropped by about 0.5% a month (caliper measurements) but I’ve gained about as much muscle, so I’m not losing weight. There still is a lot of fat to be lost.

 

I’ve been reading the posts about calorie expenditure and that in order to lose fat, you have to expend more than you take in. My question is: I don’t want to have that ‘hungry’ feeling the whole day. I try only to eat when I feel hungry (of course I don’t always succeed). I can imagine that you have to take in less than you expend (it sounds logical) to lose fat, but it doesn’t seem right to feel hungry the whole day (and I have to eat very regularly to avoid that, my metabolism is quite high from exercising 5-8 hours a week).

 

I don’t want to feel as if I have no energy. What should I do? My fat loss is stagnating now, after about 6 months. I have to say that I’m not doing cardio exercise anymore (as I was mainly doing in the beginning), just organized workouts (my exercise habits have shifted from weight-loss- based to fun-based), I’m just interested in a lot of sports. Should I cut back on the food intake and feel hungry (I really try not to eat when I’m not hungry), or should I add more cardio into my program?

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How to reduce the tummy/waist and still gain weight?

March 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I am trying to lose some flab around my tummy and at the same time I am trying to add mass to the shoulders and arms. It seems like I have conflicting objectives here. To lose the flab, people advised me to run a lot and eat less calories. To add mass on the upper body, I was advised to eat more and lift weights. Now, I am thoroughly confused. If I try to increase my shoulder mass and eat some weight gainers (available in GNC), would I end up increasing my abs and tummy size in the process?

 

I would really appreciate if someone could help me figure out what I should do to increase my weight (especially shoulders, arms and shoulders) while losing the flab around the tummy and waist. Any guidance on this would be very welcome. My background is that I am a 25 yr old male and I am new to fitness regimes of any sort. Only recently (past month) or so I started taking protein shakes and started lifting weights. If you want to lose the paunch and replace it with washboard ab muscles, shouldn’t you do sit-ups/ab crunches? I’m fairly new to exercise. I was 250 pounds (I’m only 5’9″) up until about 3 months ago.

 

After starting to incorporate situps into my routine, my flabby belly has gone down a lot. I used to wear 42 inch pants, now 36. At first I could only do 10 at a time; now I can do 80. My abs are getting defined. At first I had a lot of muscle spasms in my abs (like Charlie Horses) but those are getting infrequent. One question. Are full situps, in all their excruciating reality, really necessary? or is one of those ab roller machines better and just as effective?

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Jogging and Weight Loss

March 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I have been working out for awhile by walking on the treadmill. I have recently started adding some jogging but am not sure about how much to do. Is it better to run for a longer time at a slow to medium pace (5.0 mph) or run faster (6.0 to 7.0 mph) for a short amount of time to achieve weight loss? The usual suggestion is to either increase distance or increase speed, but don’t increase both at once. It’s also important to have fun at what you’re doing, maybe creating some little goals to meet like being able to run a mile in some time, being able to run 3 miles at some minimum pace, etc.

 

If you’re primarly interested in weight loss rely more upon dietary changes than on burning more calories, but also remember that you can usually burn more calories walking up an incline/running at slow speed for longer periods than by running at a higher speed for a shorter distance. I also like playing ‘calories burned’ games on the treadmill, where I walk up inclines while watching a movie or something else on the tube, noting that I was able to maintain some calories burned per minute rate for some time or distance, some overall calories burned etc., in addition to the usual speed/distance goals while jogging.

 

Why make it an either or. Do both and see for yourself. It is of benefit to me to mix them up. Besides, it eliminates much of the tedia of the treadmill. Somedays I’ll run at 6 to 7 mph; others I’ll do 10-12 mph for shorter distances. Also vary the slope and work your quads a bit. Fitter people burn more calories per unit of time (while exercising) and recent research demonstrates that risk factors are reduced significantly by fitness increases not total calories burned. There is no substitute for the feeling of being up to the physical tasks that present themselves (like shoveling a driveway); slow low grade exercise does not provide this advantage.

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Accuracy of Counting Heartbeat for 10 Seconds

March 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

How accurate is counting your heartbeat for 10 seconds?. I don’t have a heart rate monitor(dont intend to get one) and 60 seconds count is too long during exercise. Considering that you will have fractional heat beats that won’t be counted and that you mulitply by 6, I would guess that the 10 second method would be within say 5 beats of the actual rate. A lot depends on how soon you can find your pulse and begin the count. Assuming you need to slow or stop your exercise during the counting, your HR will drop down from your exercising rate. This effect will be greater for those with better cardio conditioning.

 

Not very accurate, I’m sorry to say. Most of the time you would want to check your heart rate after a frisky cardio workout. Unfortunately, at this time a more important consideration is keeping your feet moving to avoid venous pooling. The movement of the feet can interfere with your count. I have read in a couple of articles that a 6 second count (after some practice) is more accurate than a 10 second count. The argument is that your heart beat slows much more in 10 secs than in 6. However, the compounded error that Tom mentionned from missing fractional heart beats is greater with the 6 sec method. I dislike the heartbeat method as a method of measuring exertion because it doesn’t take into account gender, fitness level, or exercise history.

 

I much prefer the perceived exertion test, and studies have shown that people are very accurate when it comes to perceiving how hard they are working. Basically, you ask yourself, “Are you working hard?” If the answer is yes, then you are working hard. I also like the breathe test. If you could sing an aria while you are exercising, then you aren’t working very hard. If you can carry on a conversation (breathe) with the person standing next to you (breathe) without gasping, you are working hard (breathe). If you (gasp) can’t get (gasp) a sentence out (gasp) without gasping (gasp), you are (gasp) working too hard (gasp).

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