Health Specialist » diet

How Can I lose Stomach Fat

Health Specialist — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 01:27:30 +0000

As a personal trainer, one of the most common questions Im asked is how do I lose stomach fat?

Well to put it as simple as possible, you cant.

No matter how may crunches you do, or leg raiser, you will not be able to target the fat in your abdominal region. The reason being, you can NOT localize fat removal. Doing sit ups and crunches only work the abdominal muscles and have absolutely no effect on the fat burned in that area.

When your body burns fat, it uses fat stores from where it can find fat. Your body does not know that it should be concerned with your love handles. The fat on your body is distributed differently on each of use. For many males, the majority or most noticeable is the fat on the stomach areas. When you lose fat, your body will do so in its own natural balance.

The best way to lose that ugly fat is through diet. Once your diet is in tune, you will slowly se the fat melt away. There is no hidden secret, magic pill, or piece of equipment that will quickly remove any fat. You have to work for it, and depending on your genetics, it may take awhile.

To Eat or Not To Eat Exclusion Diets for the Migraine Sufferer

Health Specialist — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 23:36:45 +0000

Migraine is a chronic illness much like asthma or diabetes, with sufferers ranging from all ages and walks of life, and is more common in women than in men. The term migraine comes from the Greek word hemikrania, or half of the head. The persistent and distracting pain that sufferers experience has been described as an intense throbbing or pounding on or around the temple and is frequently felt only on one side of the head. It may last anywhere from about four to seventy-two hours, and it is often so excruciating that sufferers are unable to go through their daily routine largely because simplest of movements can aggravate the pain. Other symptoms of migraine include nausea, sensitivity to light and noise, facial pallor, cold hands and diarrhea.

Migraines can be triggered by a number of factors. These include lack of sleep, smoking, fasting, bright lights, noise, odors, medication such as birth control pills and certain foods. In women, migraines can also be triggered by the onset of menstruation, which some medical experts speculate has something to do with fluctuating hormone levels, especially that of estrogen. Others are affected by changes in the weather and humidity.

One of the ways that doctors use to eliminate possible migraine triggers in a patient is to put them on an exclusion diet. Also known as an elimination diet, it is a systematic removal of specific food items or ingredients from a person’s diet that may possibly be the cause of the symptoms of illness. It is usually done with the full supervision of a doctor and the guidance of a nutritionist. During the time when the diet is put into effect, a diary is kept by the patient, listing all food intake and the time and date it was ingested. Patients are also taught to read food labels and limit dining out so that the preparation of food is uncontaminated by the items being eliminated from his or her diet. To ensure that the patient’s health does not suffer from the deprivation of food items, vitamin supplements and a list of replacement foods can be given to him or her.

Among the most common food items that trigger migraine attacks are cheese; cheesecake; chocolate; citrus fruits; hot dogs; monosodium glutamate MSG; aspartame; fatty foods; ice cream; caffeine; yogurt; chocolate; cocoa; citrus fruit; berry pie filling or canned berries; banana; beef; pork; chicken liver; processed meat, such as salami; sauerkraut; smoked, cured or pickled meat or fish; egg plant; fish; shellfish; soy products; spinach; strawberry; tomato, and tomato-based products; yeast and foods containing yeast; pineapple; and alcoholic drinks, especially red wine and beer. Scientists have suggested that these food items contain certain chemicals called amines, such as tyramine, phenylethylamine, and histamine, which are often found to be the culprit in triggering migraine attacks. This may be because they are influencing the release of serotonin, causing constriction and dilation of blood vessels, or by directly stimulating areas of the brain.

The exclusion or elimination diet cannot be considered as a cure for migraine attacks. However, the significance of discovering which food items actually trigger these attacks is important to sufferers, because the knowledge can help them prevent attacks from occurring.

Health By Chocolate Why Dark Chocolate May Be Good For You

Health Specialist — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 19:10:57 +0000

It’s that time of year when giving and indulging in the sweetness of sweets especially with your sweetie is seen as perfectly acceptable.

But, new research shows that there are more reasons than ever to NOT avoid or deny your chocolate cravings all year long.

According to some studies done in Italy, dark chocolate has many of the same benefits as vitamin C helping the body use insulin more effectively and lower blood pressure.

The research examined two out of three chocolate varieties, dark chocolate and white chocolate. Dark chocolate is made up of cocoa solids and sugar but no milk solids prevalent in milk chocolate and white chocolate, although referred to as chocolate had no cocoa solids, but instead is made of cocoa butter the fat in chocolate, mil solids and sugar.

According to the study, participants who enjoyed 100 grams of dark chocolate daily for 15 days had reduced blood pressure and become more sensitive to insulin than they were prior to the “experiment”.

Researchers believe that the benefits of dark chocolate are because of the flavonoids it contains, which are associated with the ability to lower the risk of heart disease and some cancers. However, white chocolate exhibited no effect on patients since it is free of cocoa solids, where the flavonoids are found.

So what does this mean for you and me? Is it time to replace the celery and carrot platters with chocolate samplers and related goodies? Is it time to switch from “an apple a day” to “a chocolate bar a day”? The answer to this is probably a big “no”. Nonetheless, knowing this little tidbit and what other discoveries it may lead to in the future sure won’t inhibit a healthy person from treating themselves to the oh-so-desirable rich goodness of a nice piece of dark chocolate on occasion.

Discover How Vitamins Supplements Can Affect Your Life

Health Specialist — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 23:58:54 +0000

Vitamin supplement or supplements are very important for us because if we do not intake enough vitamins required for our bodies, the vitamin supplement will substitute for the shortage of the quantity of vitamins in our system.

Of course, the virtually obvious benefit to consuming multi vitamin supplements is convenience. It is far quicker for somebody to acquire one dose of a multi vitamin supplement that incorporates all of the essential vitamins compared to consuming each one one by one. This is especially the case for children as it could be arduous for them to acquire a large number of vitamin supplements but one dose of a multi vitamin supplement is far easier.

Vitamins diet supplements are supposed to improve your physical well being by making sure you get your recommended amounts of vitamins, or even more than what is needed.

It should be used in addition to a healthy diet, so everyone should take vitamin supplements in moderation. However, some medical conditions make it difficult for our bodies to absorb certain vitamins so a vitamin dietary supplement certainly has an important role to play when it is truly needed.

Nutritious content claims for dietary supplement vitamin describe the level of extraordinary type of vitamin or vitamins in that supplement. For instance, agreeing to a lot of health organizations, a dietary supplement vitamin with at least twelve milligrams per serving of vitamin C could have the following on its label&8221; “Superb source of vitamin C.”

To make the decision more easier there are now a number of multi vitamin supplements made for particular people. For instance, there are multi vitamin supplements that are planned for children. These multi vitamin supplements contain the particular nutrients that children need for them to grow and acquire properly. Pregnant women have singular nutrient demands to assure that their baby gets the indispensable nutrients and there are multi vitamin supplements developed for pregnant women.

If vitamin supplement ratings are anything to go by, supplements will continue to grow in popularity over the coming years, and many people could enjoy a wide range of benefits from such products. However, vitamins and supplements can have both pros and cons, and in order to avoid the cons and promote the pros it is important to follow some simple rules when taking any sort of supplement or vitamins. A few precautions will ensure that you really benefit from your supplement intake instead of damaging your he

It is crucial to consider the contents of any multi vitamin supplement prior consuming too many. Many vitamins can be poisonous if too much is assimilated and this can occur more easily with multi vitamin supplements as a few of the content may be unnoticed. The labeling of the actual portion of the recommended daily allowance for each vitamin in a multi vitamin supplement should be clearly labeled and must be evaluated prior to a person acquires them. Always seek professional medical advice prior to accepting any multi vitamin supplement if there is any question as to the benefits of the contents.

The Importance of Shape

Health Specialist — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 17:42:21 +0000

You may think you know when you look in the mirror, or you may be too busy trying to cover up unshapely areas to really see yourself as you are. Do you know how much fat youre carrying, compared to how much muscle? Do you know where you tend to gain weightupper body, lower body or around the middle? Until you know the answers to these questions, you are not ready to make your personal plan for losing weight and keeping it off. Understanding your body is the first step to reaching your best personal shape. As someone who teaches both doctors and the public about obesity, I believe weight loss has been overemphasized and body shape underemphasized. You have probably read about the Body-Mass Index BMI, which is a weight-to-height ratio. If your BMI is greater than 25, you are considered overweight in the U.S., and if it is greater than 30 you are obese. This ratio has been a powerful way for scientists to document the obesity epidemic in this country and its effects on health and disease. However, when it comes to you as an individual, it can be misleading. A football player can be considered overweight on the BMI scale, but if the extra weight being carried is muscle, he is not really fat. A thin woman can have a normal BMI, yet still be over-fat. So shape counts.

Shapes are personal and go beyond the usual apple and pear. Women can have three typical body shapesupper body fat, lower body fat and both upper and lower body fat. Men usually only get upper body fat. The upper body stores fat in times of stress and some people can lose and gain weight rapidly in the upper body. The lower body fat in women responds to female hormones such as estrogen and progesterone and stores fat for breastfeeding a newborn baby. Women who have both upper and lower body fat will lose their upper body fat first. Women with more upper body fat tend to have more muscle than women with lower body fat and will need more protein in their diet to help control their hunger. Losing weight is harder if you have lower body fat rather than upper body fat, but the medical benefits of losing your upper body fat are greater. Losing weight around your neck, face, chest and waist usually goes along with losing fat on the inside as well. So as you look better, you are also improving your health tremendously.

Finally, there are two more body shapes to consider The shape you can change and the shape you cant change. It is important to know the difference and work on the shape you can change, while adjusting your wardrobe and attitudes to the shape you cannot change. Due to low metabolism, many women with lower body fat cant lose weight just by cutting calories. These lower body-fat cells are resistant to both exercise and diet. Only a personalized program can help make sure you get enough protein to control cravings and build or maintain lean muscle.

What Would You Prefer To Eat ?

Health Specialist — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 16:35:54 +0000

Weve entered the Twilight Zone when it comes to the multitude of diets being promoted today. Starting with the Atkins Diet, then the South Beach Diet, now the Hamptons Diet and more. All higher in protein, lower in carbs, but the dissimilarity should be quality of carbs, not singling out one nutrient entirely. If you are on the Atkins Diet, South Beach Diet or any other deviation of a high proteinlow carb diet simply adjust from eating low quality carbs like refined flour and sugar products think if it comes in a box, its likely low quality to eating more whole food products like fresh vegetables and fruits – yes fruits.

Judge your own diet

The traditional Atkins Diet doesnt sponsor much fruit too high sugar but think about that for one minute. An apple is a good food, a bowl of Apple Jacks cereal may not be on an equal level. One is highly processed sweetened by added white sugar and corn syrup, and one is natural, plucked from a tree and sweetened by the sun. Which would you choose? Dont shun fresh fruit for the sake of following your low carb diet to the letter.

Eliminating healthy, wholesome foods is not the best way to learn to eat better, but severely cutting back on the frequency of eating highly processed foods is. I saw a site which called it GM or MM God Made or Man Made. If you think of those terms when you go to choose your foods, it starts to make more sense. No one says you shouldnt eat chips, or whatever strikes your fancy, but make them a treat – and eat the GM foods more often.

Common Sense Diet

Common sense will answer the question about what to eat. If you are on Atkins, South Beach or any distinction of low carb diet, avoid processed foods, not natural foods. Stop using instant breakfast, and cook whole rolled oats for instance. Sure you might have to get up 10 minutes earlier, oh well. Youre worth it!

You can still stay on a higher protein food plan, but this one minor adjustment will allow you to continue with your eating plan for a lifetime, rather than a short-time.

Addiction to Fruit

The person who refuses to eat fruit because they believe it is too high in sugar, probably does eat cookies, crackers and sugary cereals. They might even drink artificially flavored and sweetened drinks, but they refuse to eat a natural food, grown from our earth? That makes no sense, if you think about it. Did our planet develop and thrive based on processed foods? No, of course not. They are very recent in the evolution of our world. Very recent. In fact, weve had processed foods less than 200 years while our planet is millions of years old.

With the high incidence of obesity, and our high consumption of processed foods, its hard not to draw the conclusion that one causes the other. You wont hear big industry stating that case because our economy depends on us buying the products being produced by the companies that employ us. Youll never see it reported that scientists discovered refined flour kills, even if it were proven true because it doesnt support our way of life. We need industry.

Witnessing the epidemic of food illnesses such as Mad Cow, and now Bird Flu, I can envision a society without the mass produced meat industry. It will come to pass – nothing but your local farm will be allowed to sell meat because the big farm industry cannot guarantee safety of the food supply. Meat will become much more expensive because when they can no longer mass produce it, there is nowhere for prices to go but up. So do we whine and cry and moan about our misfortune or do we start to think of meat as something to savor and enjoy like the Sunday roasts we had years ago? We never ate meat every day then – and we werent so fat either. We simply didnt eat as much processed foods. Most of us had moms at home cooking us dinner, making our lunches and even fixing our breakfasts.

Yes, progress marches on, but when it comes to your body, common sense rules the day. The Common Sense Diet! Try it on for size today.

Is Your Metabolism Broken?

Health Specialist — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 15:29:27 +0000

Is Your Metabolism Broken?

As the founder of the KimkinsDietI&39;m asked many questions about the low calorie low carb Kimkins Diet. Without a doubt the most common question is "But won&39;t lower calories ruin my metabolism?" Not a chance.Why do people stop losing after several diets? There&39;s a variety of reasons that come into play.

First, people tend to be a little sloppier in later diet attempts. Whether carbs or calories, there may be too much "guessing" or "forgetting" going on, bites here and there don&39;t get counted, quantities that are under estimated.

Second, how old were you when your metabolism wasn&39;t "broken"? Our body clock naturally begins dropping around age 40 and continues dropping 10 each decade. This means the 1500 calories you could eat at age 25 and still lose, isn&39;t going to work at age 50. At least not in the same way. Chances are you were also a bit more active 25 years ago.

Third, we need to compare apples with apples and notoranges. The weight lost on a traditional diet will be moderate at best. The dogma of "safely" losing 1-2 lbs a week is in no danger of being threatened!

However, the weight lost on a low carb diet will easily double that number, particularly if it&39;s a low calorie low carb diet like Kimkins.Fortunately, TV shows like The Biggest Loser and Celebrity Fit Club have shown us that it&39;s entirely safe and desirable to lose 5, 10, 15 lbs a week if obese.

A tip to keep in mind is that your body will never lose more quickly than is safe. This is why a person with 100 lbs to lose might lose 10 lbs in a week, while a person with only 10 lbs to lose will not lose the entire 10 lbs in one week.

Our metabolism is a living, dynamic system. Throughout the day it fluctuates depending on our body clock and activities. New dieters are often afraid of "ruining" their metabolism by dropping calories. Hogwash! Does your metabolism drop when calories drop? Yes, but not to any great degree. Want proof? Look at the Success Stories at the Kimkins website! Look at the amazing losses each week on The Biggest Loser.

Ask yourself this. Knowing that your metabolism drops to its lowest level while you sleep at night, do you set your alarm for 2 am to eat and keep your metabolism high? Of course not! When you wake in the morning, your metabolism automatically rises as soon as your eyes open, get out of bed, take a shower, get the kids ready for school and get yourself together for your own day.

If you&39;re still on the fence about whether lower calories means ruined metabolism, keep in mind that gastric bypass patients are intended to eat around 500 calories a day after surgery. It&39;s the entire purpose of the surgery. Those that follow the 500 calorie instructions lose extremely fast. Those who can&39;t commit and pick easily digestible high calorie foods like mashed potatoes, candy, soda, chips, alcohol and ice cream don&39;t lose or may even gain.

If you&39;re considering a diet don&39;t be afraid of losing quickly. Do be afraid of the side effects of obesity. It only take a few extra pounds before developing Type 2 diabetes and once you have it, it&39;s for life. Your cells never regain their ability to use insulin.

Naturally I&39;d like to suggest the Kimkins Diet for anyone who&39;s serious about losing weight. But the Kimkins program is strict, it&39;s not for sissies. It&39;s for people who want to lose now.

If you don&39;t pick Kimkins, please find something. Obesity is dangerous and expensive. Call a local hospital and ask what the typical hospital bill is for a heart attack or diabetic limb amputation.

Why People Are Wanting Vitamins Supplements? Discover Here

Health Specialist — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 16:58:03 +0000

For many vitamin and herbal products, vitamin supplement ratings seem to indicate that consumers are becoming more and more concerned with their health, and increasingly keen to protect themselves against health problems. Many people now combine supplement and vitamin intake with a healthy diet to promote a more natural way of protecting their health and enhancing the body&8217;s ability to treat illness.

In today’s very fast paced world we do not ingest a appropriate diet all of the time. Whenever you conduce a engaged life and do not get adequate vitamins for your body to operate decently then you should be counterbalancing with natural vitamin supplements.

Neverthless, a efficient diet based on foods with richly concentration of vitamins is always a better solution than supplements. But once a diet is not sufficient, dietary supplement vitamin can be the answer.

Nutrient content claims for dietetical supplement vitamin describe the level of some type of vitamin or vitamins in that supplement. For example, according to a lot of health organizations, a dietetical supplement vitamin with at least 12 milligrams per serving of vitamin C could have the following expressed on its label “Superb source of vitamin C.”

Vitamins diet supplements are supposed to improve your physical well being by making sure you get your recommended amounts of vitamins, or even more than what is needed

Whenever you are sure that you are not acquiring decent vitamins to provide what your body needs, then you should accept a vitamin supplement.Finding a vitamin supplement that can help you attain optimal health may be less laborious than you consider. There are a lot of vitamin supplements from which to decide. In order to come up with the correct vitamin product, you need to interpret labels and compare products.

Vitamin supplements are accesible in a number of different forms, including capsules, tablets, liquids, and even chewable tablets. In addition, there is a big variety in the brands and the real content of the vitamin supplements.Do some research and find out what these vitamin supplements carries. Pay attention to dosages, ingredients, safety precautions, and other significant info.Purchase the right supplement for you, and when in doubt, consult a physician or your health professional before taking any vitamin supplements.

Why Elliptical Trainers are Growing in Popularity!

Health Specialist — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:23:51 +0000

If you work out at a health club you probably noticed that in the last few years there are fewer treadmills, because they are being replaced by elliptical trainers. And although treadmills still outsell ellipticals in total numbers, elliptical sales are growing at a faster rate.

What is driving the popularity of elliptical trainers? There are two factors that make elliptical trainers so appealing

Low Impact Workout
Upper and Lower Body Workout

Benefits of a Low Impact Workout

Most types of exercise require some type of impact andor reverse action. For example, when you walk each step is impacting force on your ankles, knees and lower back. That impact is minor in comparison to running, which can be as much as 2.5x your body weight. Over the years that constant pounding can result in long-term injuries and strains.

Elliptical trainers reduce the hazards of impact through an elliptical motion.It feels like you are naturally walking or running without any real impact or reverse action, and yet it is a weight bearing exercise that contributes to building muscle and bone density.

If you look at the side of an elliptical trainer youll notice the shape of the motion is like a flat circular pattern. Budget ellipticals tend to be more circular and bouncy, while quality machines have a flatter circular motion and more of an even stride. Regardless, the elliptical motion significantly reduces the impact to your joints, and that is why elliptical trainers are appealing to older individuals and people with injuries. It is becoming the exercise machine of choice for the baby boomers.

Benefits of an Upper and Lower Body Workout

The concept of exercising the upper and lower body simultaneously is revolutionary. An elliptical workout utilizes the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, chest, back, triceps and biceps. There is no other machine that offers this benefit. You are not only exercising more muscle group, you are also optimizing your energy expenditure. That means it is taking less time to achieve more results, like burning calories and increasing your cardio capacity. A number of elliptical trainers allow you to reverse the motion, thereby emphasizing resistance to even more parts of your muscles.

By exercising more of your muscle mass you improve fat mobilization, which results in burning more calories and building muscle endurance more efficiently. Certain experts have suggested that this dual action process reduces the perceived rate of exertion. In other words, you are exercising harder without a noticeable difference from a less strenuous workout.

The benefit of an upper and lower body workout, combined with low impact exercising, are the reasons why elliptical trainers are so popular. And there is one other feature that should be noted. In comparison to treadmills, elliptical trainers require considerably less maintenance. That is due to the fact there are fewer moving parts, and less wear from impact.

If you havent tried an elliptical trainer, get to your local health club or a fitness equipment store and take one for an elliptical spin. Avoid the budget models and test the machines that are at least 1,000. They have a more natural elliptical motion and are more stable and durable.

Youll find that an elliptical trainer can have a major impact on your health and fitness.

The Overlooked Health Benefits of Exercise

Health Specialist — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:51:36 +0000

With the advent of desk jobs, television, and contraptions like remote controls, lawn mowers, and many more, the 21st century included countless individuals with sedentary lifestyles. Studies show that in America alone, there are about six out of ten adults with inactive or under-active lifestyles. This is probably the reason why there is a growing number of overweight and obese individuals. These individuals might be prone to health risks like cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, certain cancers and diabetes, and coronary heart disease. It is shown that any significant weight loss may improve one’s health and may prevent the occurrence of these ailments.

Exercise and nutritious diets are safe and effective ways to lose weight and improve overall health. In addition to weight-loss, exercise itself can bring beneficial effects on cholesterol levels even without accompanying weight-loss. This is according to a study conducted by Duke University Medical Center. In this study, the participants did the caloric equivalent of brisk walking or jogging for 12 to 20 miles a week, doing them either in moderation or vigorously. The study suggested that in terms of cholesterol levels, the amount of exercise and not the intensity of exercise made significant health benefits. A healthier heart can be achieved through exercising because this activity is vital to overall health of the blood vessels and the heart. With regular exercise, the heart will be able to pump sufficient blood and deliver additional oxygen with increased efficiency. Individuals who are not losing weight despite frequent exercise should not be discouraged because exercising itself can be beneficial. Even if people don’t lose weight, physical activities may help them live longer.

Physical activity or exercise may not only improve one’s physical well-being but also their mental state. Many medical studies point out that exercise, especially aerobic exercise jogging, brisk walking, and jumping rope as one of the best treatment for stress and anxiety. This is possible because of the production of endogenous morphines or endorphins. These are substances that is produced by the brain that might work as the body’s natural pain-killers. It said that endorphins might be capable of elevating one’s mood, self-esteem, and mental functioning. Partaking in moderate or vigorous physical activities may promote the production of endorphins.

Exercise should be done properly and in moderation to achieve health improvements. Individuals who want to improve their health don’t have to train like marathoners or even join a gym. Strength training push-ups, pull-ups, etc coupled with 30 minutes of jogging or brisk walking can keep your body toned and improve metabolism. These regimens can be done with little or no equipment at all. Many health experts claim that the key to improved health is not intensity or using sophisticated equipments but continuous physical activity. Exercising properly can make people feel better, have more energy, and become less prone to stress. Before partaking in physical activities and making adjustments in food regimens, individuals are encouraged to seek the advise of health experts. They may prepare a workout routines that are recommended for individuals based on their specific health conditions and fitness goals.