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Weight Loss Exercise

Does Conjugated Linoleic Acid Work?

Conjugated linoleic acid is a natural substance found in many of our foods that according to many studies can reduce fat and improve muscle mass in the body. Taken as a supplement with no change in eating or exercise habits, it would not make you lose weight but it could help you lose fat. It is often taken by men looking to lose weight and bodybuild at the same time, but it can also be useful for anyone who is overweight and under-exercising, as any increase in muscle will increase the metabolism, burning more calories.

Conjugated Linoleic Acid

Like many natural weight loss products, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) combined with a flexible healthy eating plan can lead to gradual long term weight loss and help you get out of the yoyo dieting cycle where you are constantly losing and gaining the same 10, 20 or 50 pounds. Yoyo dieting is very bad for the health. It is better to remain overweight than to keep on losing and gaining, losing and gaining.

CLA SupplementsMost experts (unless they are trying to sell you something) agree that the diet that works best in the long term is the non-diet, where instead of eating special foods and banning others, you eat slightly smaller quantities of a normal healthy diet. If you are currently living entirely on pizza, fries and chocolate, then okay, some changes may be overdue. But you can still have small portions of all of those foods from time to time. If this is the kind of diet that you want, then CLA can help reinforce your plan by boosting your fat loss. Dr Michael Pariza of University of Wisconsin-Madison, reported to the American Chemical Society that CLA “doesn’t make a big fat cell get little. What it rather does is keep a little fat cell from getting big.”

Many studies have been done on CLA. One study published in the Journal of Nutrition found that people taking CLA lost on average six pounds of body fat more than a group that took a placebo. The researchers discovered that you need around 3.4 grams of CLA per day for it to be effective. CLA is found in food, especially meat and dairy products, but supplementation is necessary for most people to reach that level.

Conjugated Linoleic Acid Studies

Another study at Purdue University, Indiana, found that CLA improved insulin levels in about two-thirds of diabetics, and slightly decreased their blood glucose level and triglyceride levels, suggesting that it may help to maintain normal insulin levels. But see your doctor before taking any supplements if you have diabetes.

There are no magic pills for weight loss but if you are willing to commit to reducing your body fat permanently, CLA may help you. Keep in mind that its main effect is to convert fat to muscle, which by itself will not weigh any less. But your body will look slimmer and feel healthier if you do this, and combined with a good weight control eating plan conjugated linoleic acid can help you move toward your ideal weight too.

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Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

Why Most Diets Suck




I get tired of watching the latest and greatest crazy diet fads come and go. You have probably heard that the whole diet industry makes their money by taking advantage of fat people.

It is true

The reason that the diet industry is screwing over fat people is because almost every diet out there has some magic bullet in it. Eat this and lose weight, avoid that and lose weight. Lose weight eating cookies, lose weight drinking sweetened lemon juice.

Most of it is crap and we all have to realize that. Every time I go to the bookstore I get intrigued and then leave shaking my head.

The trouble is there is no magic bullet. Losing weight always comes down to bringing in less calories than are going out. The trouble is there are lots of variables and the diet makers are always looking to exploit people that are having trouble losing weight by depressing people, confusing them, and then offering the newest magic to lose weight.

Don’t fall for it.

Only Three Things Matter for Losing Weight

What you really need to lose weight is to get your eating under control, your metabolism high, and your exercise up. Lets just looks at these three pieces in isolation

Get you Eating Under Control – almost everyone gets portion control wrong. Your body is a machine and whatever food you can not use your body will just eliminate or store. If you have a burger, fries, and soft drink then no matter what crazy diet you would use you will still have to burn off that 1100 calories or so and it is just not possible, so you eliminate some and store the rest. Now if you eat a normal meal which would be about 400 calories or so you would not be hungry but not full either.

Now again if you eat just the hamburger for a meal you may drop the calorie count but you are not getting the nutrients and vitamins that you need and also you are getting a lot of those calories from artery clogging fat. So if you just had fruit and veggies and lean meat in your diet then that 400 calories would go a lot further and keep you healthier.

Is Running Healthy

Is Running Healthy

Get a Higher Metabolism – This is a bit stranger to look at. Your body really just runs like it should. Your body burns calories to keep everything going, your muscles healed, maintaining your organs and giving you the energy to run or not or whatever you need to do as you have over the last little while.

When you look at your metabolism this way then it is obvious that your metabolism is naturally going to be faster when you are working out a lot (your body is prepping for your lifestyle) and your metabolism will be slower if your are in an office and then living on the couch all evening (the most your body needs to do is get you to the fridge) so your exercise history over the last little while will make a difference to how many calories you burn at rest. Still this is only going to make a smaller difference then eating or exercise.

Get Your Exercise Up – The third piece of the calorie in/calorie out equation is your exercise. If you were to walk well and burn 350 calories in an hour or run hard and burn 1500 calories in the same hour you are doing three things that are helping you. You are raising your resting metabolism, your are making your body work better an more efficiently, and of course you are burning up those calories.

So exercise is going to make a big difference not just for that one workout a day but also the other extraneous exercise. Walking to work, biking with the kids, doing laundry. An active lifestyle means that you are letting it all add up and burning more and more calories as you get stronger and better. Just think, how long would it take for you to going from walking for an hour to running fast for an hour and burning 5 times the calories in an hour.

What About Diet Plans

So bearing in mind these three critical points to losing weight where does everything else fall? Did you know that there are over 37,000 diet books on Amazon.com?

Well if we look at the GI Diet, the Atkins diet, the Mediterranean Diet, in fact any kind of Carb restricting or Fat restricting diets is that the diet itslef is based on moving around your carbs, fat, and protein and these can be important but not as important as eating and exercising right.

The other diets that we see are centred around a food or pill. Eating Acai berrys, or PGX pills are only going to have a small factor on increasing metabolism and do all their work in reducing your hunger.

Finally we have specialized diets like Paleo Diet, Vegan Diet, non-wheat diets, and carb cycling diets. These have their place and the thing that I really like about these diets is that they use science as well as a very passionate group of people teaching others about the benefits of their particular diet.

This gets back to the two diets that I support here on the blog.

Fat Loss for Idiots – Based on what you like or don’t like this diet uses carb cycling to make an exact menu for you to eat. This diet tends to be very successful because you eat what is right and don’t have to become a dietitian to use it. I have more comments on the review for this diet than almost any other post and mostly because people are surprised and excited about the success.

Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle – This is a one book based diet and exercise program that a former bodybuilder teaches us how to eat and exercise to make sure that you lose weight and know how to do it. Tom Venuto is a guy with a track record and a best selling book for years teaching you how to lose the weight and keep it off.

 


Why Most Diets Suck, 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating

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General Weight Loss Tips

DC and Back Part 1

Photo from left: me, Josh, Miranda, Krissie and Tina (missing our hosts, Ashley and Marques in this photo)

I don’t want to use the word epic to describe this weekend, but it pretty much was. We laughed, ate, walked, ate, laughed, talked, walked, visited and took photos all weekend. It was pretty grand. We visited three memorials, saw the rain-beaten cherry blossom trees, missed Obama at the Licoln memorial by just a bit, and ate some glorious food.

I think I will do a post dedicated just to food, because we ate well and there needs to be a food post. I took photos of everything I ate and tried to be as mindful as possible when faced with a plate of fries and gyro meat or cashew chicken.

The drive home yesterday left me bloated and retaining water like a mouse in the desert heat. I’m parched and my ankles are swollen. I’m ready to start eating simple food again. Planning a trip to the gym tonight for strength training and getting back into insanity. I’m back to the real world with a mountain of projects to catch up with. I’m thinking I’m going to have to push Spring/Summer Wear it Well back a week or two to get caught up. It’s going to be good, I can promise that.

I’ll be back this evening with the food for today and some more DC photos.

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