Tag: Muscle Mass

Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

How To Figure Out How Many Calories You Burn Each Day


Although there are a few reasons we become overweight, the simplest explanation is that we consume more calories than we burn off. Do this for long enough and youâ??ll pile on the pounds, unless youâ??re lucky enough to be one of those people with a super-fast metabolism!

If you want to lose weight, then you should definitely know how many calories your body burns on a daily basis. The idea behind dieting and exercise is to create enough of a caloric deficit so that your body starts burning off fat, and knowing how much your body needs to start with is an important step to figuring out how you are going to create a caloric deficit.

What Does Your Body Spend Energy On?

First of all, you should know what exactly your body spends energy on. For one thing, your body uses energy on metabolic processes, in other words, the most basic bodily functions that keep you alive such as breathing, blood circulation, excretion, and so on.

Besides that, your body additionally expends energy on simple things you do throughout the day, such as brushing your teeth, bathing, cooking, and so on.


If you are on your feet a lot and exercise frequently, then your body burns even more calories. Also, if you have a high amount of muscle mass, your body burns more calories for metabolism than it does if you have the same amount of fat.

How to Calculate the Number of Calories You Burn

To calculate how many calories you burn each day is difficult to do manually, so the best way to go about doing this is by using an online calorie needs calculator. Just fill in the short form in the calculator, and click calculate. You will then get an estimate of how many calories you should consume on a daily basis.

Alternatively, you can join a calorie-tracking site that calculates how many calories you can eat every day, select your activity level as sedentary, and then manually track in any extra exercise you do throughout the day. This way you will get a better idea of your caloric burn each day.

There are even gadgets you can wear all day to get an estimate of how many calories you burn. These can cost a fair bit but make a very worthwhile investment for anyone whoâ??s really serious about losing weight.

And thatâ??s all there is to finding out how much you burn every day. Itâ??s wonderful that you are committed to ensuring your body is in good health by keeping your weight under check. Good luck!


Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

Children And Exercise



If you have a child of 6 to 8 years old that wants to start exercising and lifting weights, you may find yourself wondering what you should do. While some think it is perfectly fine for children to exercise, there are others that think differently.

The long and short of it is that yes, it is beneficial for your child to partake in exercise or a weight training regimen although there are a few things that you should keep in mind once this starts to happen.

Children And Exercise

No matter how you look at it, children aren’t minature adults and therefore you can’t use the same methods with growing children that you can use with adults, as children are different from adults emotionally, anatomically, and physiologically.

Children And Exercise

Children And Exercise

All children have immature skeletons, as their bones don’t mature until they get 14 – 22 years of age. With girls, exercise during childhood can have very critical effects on bone health that can last for their entire lives.

Children are often times vulnerable to growth related overuse injuries such as Osgood schlatter disease. Children have immature temperature regulation systems due to their having a large surface area compared to their muscle mass which will cause them to be more susceptible to injury when they aren’t properly warmed up.

Children don’t sweat as much as adults do, so they will be more susceptible to heat exhaustion as well as a heat stroke. Due to their low muscle mass and immature hormone system, it makes it harder for them to develop strength and speed. Their breathing and heart response during exercise are also different from an adults, which will affect their capacity for exercise.

On the other hand, young boys and girls can drastically improve their strength with weight training although opposed to adults, neurological factors instead of muscle growth factors are mostly responsible.

When you consider programs for children, first and foremost you should obtain a medical clearance. The first approach to designing a program is to establish a repetition range of 8 – 12 and keep the work load appropriate for the range.

You should ensure that workouts are spread out enough to have at least 1 – 2 full days of rest between workouts. The main focus when working out should be on the form of every exercise performed, and not on the amount of weight being lifted.

Before weight training, warm up and stretching should be done. Start your children off with light loads and then make adjustments accordingly. No more than 3 non consecutive exercise sessions should be done in a week. You should also see to it that they drink plenty of water before, during, and after exercise. Getting enough water is very important with exercise, as it is often times very easy to get dehydrated – especially with children.

Children And Exercise, 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating

Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

Potassium and Weight Loss



Did you know that potassium is classified as a metal? Strange as it sounds, your body needs this metal – it’s an essential mineral that occurs in abundance in your body. Roughly 95% of your body’s potassium is stored within your cells. It’s called an electrolyte, like sodium, calcium, magnesium and chloride, because it conducts electricity when dissolved in water.

Potassium and Electrolyte Balance

It’s very important for our bodies to maintain the correct amount of potassium. A deficiency can manifest itself as muscle weakness, fatigue, irritability, confusion or heart problems. Potassium is often loss through sweat, which is why athletes drink electrolyte balancing drinks – to replace loss potassium and other electrolytes. The same is true of alcohol consumption, so down a sports drink after a night of drinking too.

This mineral can have a big impact on your weight through indirect means. It won’t cause fat to magically melt away, but it will support some bodily processes that your body must go through for weight loss.

One thing potassium does is contribute to healthy muscles. Healthy muscles are able to contract correctly, heal after injuries, and grow with the correct exercise techniques. This is important because muscles are 24 hour calorie burning machines. The more you engage your muscles, the stronger and bigger they’ll become – making them burn more and more calories whether you’re actively trying to or not. Muscles take up a lot of energy (calories) just to survive. Fill your body with more muscle mass, and fat will naturally start being reduced.

Another thing potassium will do is assist your body in converting food into energy. Potassium is important to the health of your cells. Inside your cells, an organelle called mitochondria is busy combining your food’s nutrients with oxygen, thus converting it into energy. Potassium helps keep this process running smoothly. With the increased energy, you’ll find you have better workouts and more energy to keep up with your weight loss goals.

Potassium and Water Weight

Potassium also helps to balance sodium levels. This helps a great deal if you have problems with water weight.

There are many differences in expert opinions about just how much potassium you need on a daily basis. There’s no number set in stone, but aim for around 3500 mg a day. In most American’s existing diets, only 2000 mg of potassium is provided. Although it doesn’t seem like too big of a deal, it means most American’s are slightly deficient in potassium and may be suffering from minor ill effects of that deficiency.

Luckily, it’s easy to increase the amount of potassium you’re consuming by adding more healthy foods to your diet. Potassium is found in large quantities in many fruits and vegatables. Look to swiss chard, mushrooms, spinach, celery, romaine lettuce, squash, basil, tomatoes, cauliflower, asparagus, cucumbers, bananas, oatmeal, peanuts and yogurt to name a bunch.

Whenever possible, avoid cooking or adding water to foods when you’re eating them for the purpose of increasing potassium levels. Doing so will reduce potassium intake. If you think you’re not getting enough potassium because you like to cook your potassium rich foods, consider drinking parsley tea, which extracts large amounts of potassium from the parsley, leaving it in the hot water.

And although potassium does so many great things for you and will help with weight loss, it’s important that you don’t go overboard. You can go too far, and taking too much potassium could put you in danger. Excess amounts can cause hyperkalemia. Hyperkalemia may cause stomach irritation and possibly trigger a heart attack because it causes irregular heartbeat. It’s hard to overdose on food and supplement sources, though. It usually only becomes a danger if you take potassium salts or if you’re naturally prone to develop hyperkalemia.

Potassium is a great tool to help you reach your weight loss goals. It’s simple to obtain too, as you simply have to eat a variety of healthy foods, which should have been the first commitment you made when deciding to lose weight anyway.

Related Blogs

  • Related Blogs on Alcohol Consumption
  • Related Blogs on Bodily Processes