Fat Kills You

If you want to reduce your body fat, focus on increasing the amount of exercise you get rather than decreasing your food intake. A recent national study was done using two groups of sedentary men, one group in their 20’s and the other over age 65. A lot was learned from this accumulated data and it is interesting to note that there was a significant relationship between lack of physical activity and fat. Not surprisingly, the most sedentary men had the most body fat.

These studies have also indicated that the government current recommended daily allowance for calories does not correlate with the body’s actual energy needs. For example, although 2400 calories have been calculated for older men, they in fact burned an average of 2800 calories daily. The leading experts now recommend that people who want to lose weight start increasing their physical activity. Just being more active in general (such as climbing the stairs instead of taking the elevator, moving around instead of sitting still, sitting up instead of lying down as well as showing some excitement and enthusiasm instead of boredom), are things that more effectively burns calories and reduces body fat. Everyone seems to have lost sight of the value of being active. Consider this, a half-hour aerobic workout accounts for far less energy expenditure than our minute-to-minute movement in the office or at home.

Try asking people how to gain weight and you’ll likely see some bewildered faces staring back at you. For the majority of people, hearing that question is akin to hearing the questions, “How do I stub my toe?” or “How do I run out of gas?”

Those confused faces not withstanding, the question is a legitimate one and one that frustrates those who find themselves on the light end of the scale. While those on the heavy end can’t get through a commercial break or flip through more than five pages of a magazine without someone offering up a solution to their weight problems, it can be a lonely struggle for those who want to put on weight.

If you are lucky enough to get a reasoned response to your question, it will probably involve the words “eat more.” That, despite being obvious, is great advice. Quite simply, to gain weight you will need to up your calorie consumption to the point where you consume more calories than you expend. Couple an increased caloric intake with a little weight training and you have the recipe for healthy weight gain.

Did you know that when we breath oxygen, it interacts with certain molecules in our bodies to create free radicals and that these free radicals damage important cellular structures such as DNA and cell membranes? Well, it is true and this damage may cause cells to function poorly and mutate. Free radical damage may lead to disease and aging.

We are exposed to huge amounts of free radicals from pollution, and pesticides. Every time you breathe, you take in millions of free radical molecules created by cigarette smoke, radiation, and automobile emissions. Every time you eat, you consume free radicals in the form of pesticides and preservatives.

This is where antioxidants come in. Our bodies have a natural defense system against these free radicals. Our immune system creates antioxidants which are able to neutralize free radicals and prevent much cellular damage. We also need antioxidants from other sources such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, some meat, poultry and fish.

I bet you may recognize these antioxidants: vitamin E, C and beta carotene (a form of vitamin A. Others include luetin, lycopene, magnesium, and zinc.

You are going to be pleasantly surprised! Most people think that in order to lose weight you have to do strenuous exercise, continuously, and lots of it! Well, Guess what? NOT TRUE!

I know you are thinking? That’s crazy! It doesn’t make any sense! I thought the same thing, when I first heard this. But it all comes down to understanding how your body works.

By exercising 20 minutes a day average, you can reduce your craving for the wrong kinds of foods that result from your life stresses. SO let’s explore that concept of how the body really works! Your body has two ways to create energy. Your body can turn fat into energy, or it can turn blood sugar, glucose, into energy. But it can’t do both at the same time. At any time, your body is either burning fat, or blood sugar. When your energy demand is low, your body burns fat. When you are walking, working at your desk, driving a car, and even sleeping - the demand for energy is low so the body is burning fat. But as soon as your activity levels increase - your body turns to blood sugar since fat cannot be converted into energy quickly enough.

Last week the media circus surrounding the flu vaccine reached a crescendo.

Half of all the flu vaccine supply is not available this year!

Why? Because the British company that supplies half of the U.S. flu vaccine supply was shut down by health officials.

Does it really matter?

Unless you are under 2 or over 65 and are in poor health, It doesn’t matter.

Because of the flu vaccine shortage The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have said that healthy people under the age of 65 should do without a flu shot.

Gee, that’s what we just talked about.

So even if there were enough flu vaccines, why would You be urged to get one?

The CDC just said that healthy people under the age of 65 can do without a flu shot.

Those of you who take care of your immune system Year ’round don’t have anything to worry about.

The question you want to ask yourself is "Do I really want to have a live vaccine injected or inhaled into my body when my immune system is not in the best of shape?"

Let’s not talk about diets. Diets are punishment ? like being sent to bed without dinner. Diets take some of the fun out of living. Many diets or supplements are harmful to your health or even dangerous, if you have certain risk factors.

Forget any past diet failures and push aside any guilt or shame you harbor about your weight. It’s time to look forward; not back. You have the whole future in front of you to get better every day. It’s time to eat healthy.

This is not a short term fix. Isn’t your health more important than your weight? Let’s be sensible and talk about eating healthy for life.

Don’t get me wrong ? diets do help many people lose weight ? for a time. Almost any restrictive diet can give one a jump start on weight loss; and many people are so encouraged by the rapid weight loss that they are motivated to stay on the diet.

Studies have shown that the only diets that work are the ones you stick to. That why the majority of people who successfully lose weight on a restrictive diet run into trouble when they move to the maintenance phase. So again I say, you need a plan to eat healthy for life.

I would like to raise a question: Is Rejuvenation possible and how to approach it? This is just my own opinion about possible procedures. I used certain techniques based on a theory. As strange as it sounds some of those techniques and procedures might actually worked.

There are several hundreds theories of aging. New and old ones. Different authors classify them differently.

I would divide all those theories into 2 groups :

1. Theories of Deterioration from external cause. “Wear and tear”. Theory of free radicals damage is most fashionable at present time. Antioxidants are considered a cure. Benefits of caloric restriction are often explained by that theory. The theory has good objective support in scientific literature. Other theories of this group included changes of bacteria in the gut, radiation and accumulation of mutations during life of an individual, etc. - many more of those theories were discussed in the XX century. 2. Internal clock - theories.

I would divide the “internal clock” theories into 2 more subgroups: 1. Internal clock on the level of cell. Telomeres shortening is the most discussed in literature at present. 2. Internal clock on the level of organism. Growth hormone changes was a recent example of discussion.

Some (not so) Silly Diet Tips and Why They’re Not

At first glance some of these diet tips may seem downright silly. You may find yourself thinking, "That’s couldn’t possibly make enough of a difference. Plus I’d feel silly doing it." I have a response to those negative thoughts. First, the longest journey begins with a single step. And second, would you rather feel silly being overweight and unfit or doing something about it?

Diet Tip 1: Fidget

Every little movement burns calories. Twiddle your thumbs. Squeeze one of those little exercise balls while you watch TV to burn calories and tone your arms at the same time. Take that more distant parking spot. Walk wherever possible. Even if you have physical limitations, you can tailor a program to your needs. Move whatever you can, whenever and wherever you can. And just think - laughing is good exercise. It’s like jogging on the inside.

Diet Tip 2: Portions and Proportions

Consider this:

Already since 1972, over 60 million people in the USA alone have successfully quit smoking!

At one stage over 60% of the adult population was addicted to this drug. Today it is 28% and dropping.

Now, isn’t this a fair thought.

If all these people can do it (60 MILLION OF THEM!) - and they include EVERY TYPE of person imaginable - surely that is PROOF that IT IS POSSIBLE to successfully quit smoking.

Here’s another Fact.

We now know from the latest scientific research, that although nicotine is one of the world’s fastest acting drugs — the actual PHYSICAL withdrawal pangs when you give up ARE SO MILD, YOU WILL HARDLY BE AWARE of THEM WHEN YOU STOP.

YES, you have read that sentence right!

I know you will want to argue with me on this point, but, first, let me first make the following points.

The Desire to Smoke

Yes, when you stop smoking you will feel the desire AGAIN and AGAIN to smoke.

We all know that feeling — ‘I must have a cigarette’. But that desire in itself is not bad or painful.

If you’re a low carb diet enthusiast, you’ve probably tried some of those tasty low carbohydrate bars, candies or maybe even broke down and baked a loaf of that really easy to make and great tasting low carb banana bread.

And after getting your head around the concept of ‘net carbs’, you may still be wondering what are those sweeteners listed on the labels, such as mannitol, maltitol, sorbitol and others, and how they fit into your Atkins, Protein Power, South Beach or other diets.

Known as sugar alcohols, these and other low carb sweeteners are being seen more and more in diet products. And usually you can find several types in your low carb food. Although they are all effectively no to low calorie sweeteners (0.5 to 3.0 calories per gram) they are generally much sweeter than sugar, which allows even the higher calorie per gram products to be classified as low carb and low calorie sweeteners.