Pomegranate juice
Pomegranate juice is great for reducing belly fat and also helps lower blood pressure! Just 500ml daily could make a difference.
Run with weights
Burn more calories when running by carrying hand weights. Make sure the weight is no more than 5kgs though, any more will alter your body’s natural alignment.
The Truth about Exercise
If the BBC’s Horizon special, The Truth About Exercise is to be believed, the latest research suggests we only need to exercise THREE minutes a week in order to maintain a healthy fitness level. Sounds too good to be true? Well, it’s not a lie – but it’s also not the full picture.
HIT – High Intensity Training has long been proven as a credible method of strength training. The idea behind it is: if you perform quality repetitions with heavy weights to the point of muscle failure (i.e. the point where you cannot manage any more), you are maximising the number of muscle fibres used and therefore increasing your strength. Now, Nottingham University scientists claim to be able to apply this HIT principle to cardiovascular training. The Horizon programme saw Professor Michael Mosley pedalling on an exercise bike as fast as he could for 20 seconds. He then repeats the process a further two times. The scientists believe doing this three times a week (so a total of three minutes across a whole week) will increase your V02 max – which is your maximal oxygen capacity. This, they allege, is enough to keep you fit and healthy, as it affects the way you metabolise food and makes you more efficient in burning fat quicker. Hurrah! Great news for those of us that hate or simply cannot commit to hours and hours of exercise every week.
The other topic examined in the programme was NEAT – Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. This is the energy we use for everyday activity that does not involve sleep, eating or exercise. The simple idea is that we will burn more calories and have higher metabolisms if we try to use as much energy as possible during NEAT. This means standing up as much as possible, taking breaks from the sofa/couch/office desk, walking more, using the stairs, etc etc. As the programme highlighted, sitting down for eight consecutive hours a day at work and then hoping to offset this with an hour or two at the gym is simply not enough. We need to be more active in life on a more regular basis. Again, the fact that we could burn more calories by simply standing up more is welcome news for exercise haters!
So is that all it takes to be fit? Three minutes of exercise and paying more attention to one’s NEAT? Not quite. Bear in mind, if you’re looking to LOSE weight, not just maintain a healthy level of fitness, then HIT and NEAT isn’t enough. You still need to put in the hours to burn existing fat and increase lean muscle. But it doesn’t have to be a hard slog. There are plenty of activities that are fun that will help you lose weight – dancing, walking, sports – even vacuuming! There are plenty of tips on this blog on how to lose weight. For the rest of you that aren’t looking to shift pounds, yes HIT and NEAT are good starting points for maintaining a basic level of fitness, but that will only ever be half of it. As well as your fitness levels, it is equally important to watch what you eat. No amount of exercise can change the fact that we all have to maintain a varied and controlled diet. But again, this doesn’t have to mean chomping on celery all day! There are plenty of fun foods that are good for you! Search this blog for more nutrition tips.
Personal Trainers: are they necessary?
It’s a common dilemma: should you exercise on your own or is it worth investing in a personal trainer? Different people will have different reasons to exercise. If you are looking to get specific results in a specified time, a personal trainer might be what you need to motivate you and get you on track e.g. if you have a certain amount of weight to lose before a wedding or if you’re training for a triathlon. Qualified trainers will also help those that have struggled to incorporate exercise into their daily lives. It’s a trainer’s job to help you find motivation and find the time that you’ve struggled with up until now. They are also trained to take into account any medical problems and/or special nutritional needs you may have. Getting into an exercise routine on your own whilst trying to balance health issues can be tricky and put people off, so why not leave it to a professional to work it all out for you?
The alternative is to do it yourself. Nowadays, there is handy technology out there to help you train on your own: mapmyrun.com or walkjogrun.net are good websites and mobile apps to help you track progress and build your own cardio goals. In terms of resistance training, it gets harder to form goals but common sense indicates if you are trying to get bigger then you should be keeping note of how much you are lifting and try to increase it methodically (see Resistance Training). Any regular gym will have instructors who can take you through a resistance program for free and are obliged to construct follow-up programs for you at regular intervals too.
If you are thinking of hiring a personal trainer make sure they are properly qualified and registered with a reputable body like the Register of Exercise Professionals. They should take you through your goals and any health issues BEFORE your first session. Good luck!
daily nutrition stats
Many people like to use the 1g per kilogram of bodyweight rule when calculating how much carbohydrate and/or protein to consume for a healthy diet. For a rough guideline, however, these are the daily vital stats for an average 2,000 calorie diet (slightly higher for men):
Carbohydrate: 250g
Protein: 50g
Fat: 70g (of which no more than 20g saturated)
Fibre: 18g
Sugar: 50g
Salt: 6g (for men and women)
Water: 2-3.75 litres (for men and women)
You will need to increase all of the above if your day is very active.
Dairy ain't all bad!
Slimming shakes? Bad choice!
If you’re one of the many dieters that uses shakes to replace meals, please think again! Losing weight by eating less does work, but you have to do it safely.
Firstly, on the days that you work out, it’s important you’re getting enough calories from carbohydrate, to provide enough energy for your workout. Refrain from restricting your calorie intake on these days. It is generally not advisable to restrict your calories more than twice a week.
If you are embarking on a taxing resistance session, whey protein shakes are useful for supplementing your diet and ensuring you get enough protein to repair the muscle fibres post workout. Just remember, they are supplementary – not food replacements!
Slimming shakes, on the other hand, are designed to replace meals. Unfortunately, they are not very effective in facilitating weight loss. By restricting your calorie intake so drastically, your body ends up reacting by going into starvation mode. At this time, it holds onto fat as it doesn’t know when the next source of energy is expected. Cave man style! For more effective ways to lose weight, read my ‘Weight Loss’ posts under ‘Categories’.
cardio & weights or weights & cardio??!
It’s the age-old question…cardio first or weights? Cardio and weights, or weights and cardio?! Well…if you’re trying to achieve a svelte form, go for weights first. This will mean your body’s carbohydrate stores are used up lifting weights. Then, as you move onto cardio, your body has no choice but to use its fat stores for energy, leaving you with a toned but slimmed down look. If you’re not trying to burn fat (because you don’t need to!), go for cardio first and finish on weights to get a nicely beefed up look.
negative calorie foods
You know what my favourite foods are? Negative calorie ones! Each of the following foods require more calories to digest them than they contain:
Cucumber
Aubergine
Lettuce
Celery
Carrot
Cauliflower
Onion
Asparagus
Apple
Watermelon
Pineapple
Orange
Tomato
Go slow to burn fat, not carbohydrate
When it comes to fat burning, lower intensity workouts are best. Don’t get me wrong, a calorie deficit is the goal of any weight-loss regime, so even high intensity workouts can achieve this, but the most efficient way to burn fat is to go slower for longer. You want to be sure you’re burning fat and not carbohydrate. Try a 20-30 minute power walk before breakfast. At this time, your carbohydrate stores are depleted, so your body has no choice but to use stored fat. Also, make sure you’re incorporating weight-training in your workouts too. Lean muscle boosts your metabolism. Burn, baby, burn!
