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Why You Need Magnesium


Why You Need Magnesium

Magnesium is an extremely important mineral to both your weight loss goals and your health. In fact, it’s the 4th most abundant mineral in your body and it’s constantly being depleted. Half of your magnesium is contained within your bones. The rest is found in your cells and blood. It’s needed to carry out more than 300 processes and reactions in your body. A deficiency in magnesium could cause complications and weight problems.

Increasing your intake of magnesium is likely to have positive effects on your weight, but magnesium itself doesn’t cause weight loss. It’s not your typical weight loss supplement, since your typical weight loss supplement will work either by increasing metabolism due to containing stimulants or causing you to feel full due to containing appetite suppressants.

If it doesn’t do either of those things, how in the world can it help with weight loss? It helps in a variety of meaningful but subtle ways. Let’s go into more detail

Magnesium Affects Blood Sugar

Why You Need Magnesium

Nuts are high in Magnesium

Blood glucose (sugar) levels have a big impact on weight fluctuations. The steadier your blood sugar remains, the healthier you will be and the healthier your weight will be. When your blood sugar spikes, insulin is released by your pancreas to help your cells take in the sugar where it can be stored as energy. When glucose is stored for energy and not expended, it turns into fat. Blood sugar spikes and insulin surges also signal the release of cortisol – the belly fat hormone. When your blood sugar spikes all the time, your body becomes resistant to insulin and more and more is needed. Constantly raised insulin levels also increase cortisol levels.

Magnesium helps you to maintain a steadier blood glucose level by improving the function of insulin. Adequate levels of magnesium discourage insulin resistance, making the amounts of insulin released by the pancreas more effective.

Magnesium Makes Other Nutrients More Accessible

This wonderful little mineral does a good job at helping your body better absorb other minerals too. Suffering from a magnesium deficiency leads to improper absorption of fats, carbohydrates and proteins. Think this is a good thing? Like you’ll be able to eat food and it’ll pass through you unused? Wrong. Your body needs the correct amount of fats, carbs and proteins to function properly. When your body has adequate amounts of these nutrients, it will activate the enzymes that tell your brain your body has had enough to eat. It helps you feel satisfied, leading to reduced calorie intake.

It Gives You Better Sleep More Energy

How does one mineral accomplish seemingly opposite effects? Well, as mentioned, magnesium is responsible for a number of processes and biochemical reactions. Falling short on this mineral leaves people tired but doesn’t allow them a deep, restful sleep. Getting more magnesium (if deficient) can help you fall asleep easier, enjoy a higher quality sleep, and have the benefit of increased calm energy while awake. These are all necessary for weight loss, since the sleep deprived tend to weigh more (due to increased cortisol resulting from the lack of sleep) and the fatigued have less energy to use for resisting temptation and exercising.

Magnesium: The Great Stress Fighter

Did you know that one of the most common ways people react to stress is to eat more than they usually do? And guess what they eat? That’s right, crap foods… Disgustingly delicious, easy-to-overindulge-in comfort foods. Junk like chips or ice cream. No effort required fast foods. You get the idea.

Your adrenal glands will excrete adrenaline (also known as epinephrine or norepinephrine) whenever it feels stressed. For many of us, this happens way too often. Like any other part of your body, your adrenal glands can suffer from poor health. Magnesium, though, is one of the supporters of healthy adrenal glands. Getting adequate amounts of this mineral make your adrenals less likely to overreact and flood your body with the stress hormone adrenaline.

And you already know how magnesium helps to control cortisol by helping us sleep better. Reduced amounts of stress hormones will do a world of good for your health and will help to whittle down your waistline, too.

Foods high in Magnesium

By now you’re sold on the benefits of magnesium and are ready to make sure you have adequate levels to keep your body functioning, right? Good!

Dietary sources of magnesium are bran cereals, all types of nuts, spinach, potatoes, beans, oatmeal, peanut butter, brown rice, bananas, and – oddly enough – chocolate milk. People also take Epsom salt baths to absorb magnesium through their skin. Supplements are yet another option. If you choose the supplement route, look for magnesium chloride, magnesium lactate, or magnesium citrate on supplement labels. Avoid magnesium oxide as it isn’t as bioavailable (absorbable and usable by your body) as other sources.

Obviously, you should discuss your plans to get more magnesium with your doctor to make sure it doesn’t cause you any complications. Your doctor can also give you a personalized dosage recommendation tailored to your individual health profile.

Magnesium is a valuable nutrient that can help a great deal in helping you lose weight as long as you use your common sense along with it. Please don’t go expecting a magnesium supplement to help you shed 20 lbs if you sit around all day eating cheeseburgers and fries. Take advantage of all magnesium has to offer, along with employing a healthier lifestyle as watch the pounds melt away.

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General Weight Loss Tips

Can Vegetarianism Help People Lose Weight?

The number of obese people in the United States (and around the world) has increased dramatically in the past few decades. And as just about all overweight people know it’s not too  easy to lose that excess fat once you’ve got it. Many frustrated people turn to drastic measures such as going on a crash diet or getting liposuction and a tummy tuck.

However, there is no need for one to do anything so drastic. A much better choice for most people is to go on a vegetarian diet as it’s one of the simplest and safest things that a person can do to lose weight. Below are explanations on how a vegetarian diet can help with weight loss:

Fruits and vegetables are high in fiber

The average adult needs between 25-30 grams of fiber per day. Most overweight people are only getting 10 or 11 grams. Fruits and vegetables are rich in this nutrient. That is why people who follow a vegetarian diet usually have no problem getting the recommended amount of fiber.

Fiber helps promote a feeling of fullness. Studies have shown that people who eat plenty of fruits and vegetables actually consume less food throughout the day. Additionally, fiber also helps prevent blood sugar spikes. Blood sugar spikes often lead to food cravings and overeating.

Fruits and vegetables are low in calories

The key to losing weight is to burn off more calories than one consumes. Studies have shown that vegetarians consume fewer calories than non-vegetarians. Animal-based foods are typically very high in fat and calories. Eliminating meat, eggs and dairy will help one reduce his caloric intake naturally.

A vegetarian diet is low in sugar

Sugar is one of the main culprits behind weight gain. Studies have shown that sugar causes the body to store more fat. Vegetarians consume less sugar than the general population.

A vegetarian diet can help raise your metabolism

Metabolism is the rate at which the body burns calories. People who have a high metabolism will not only have an easier time losing weight, but they will also be more likely to keep it off for the rest of their life. Fruits and vegetables have been shown to have a fat-burning effect.

A vegetarian diet does not cost thousands of dollars!

Tummy tucks can cost anywhere from $5000 to $14,000. However, people who follow a vegetarian diet will lose weight naturally and will not have to worry about having to spend thousands of dollars on such a procedure.

Additional benefits

There are also a number of other benefits that can be reaped from following a vegetarian diet. Below are some of those benefits:

Live longer – Excess red meat consumption has been linked to heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer. Because vegetarians do not eat meat, they can greatly reduce their risk of developing those conditions. In fact, studies have shown that male vegetarians can reduce their risk of dying prematurely by up to 50 percent. The mortality rate is 30 percent lower in female vegetarians. Researchers have also found that vegetarians live about three to six years longer than meat eaters.

Have more energy – People who eat a diet that is filled with animal-based products often complain about feeling tired and sluggish. Those who follow a vegetarian diet will notice that their energy level has increased. Plant-based foods contain the vitamins and minerals that the body needs to sustain energy.

Healthier skin and hair – Feeding the body the right nutrients is one of the keys to healthy skin. Fruits and vegetables contain the antioxidants that the body needs to reduce free radical damage. Many people who have become vegetarians have noticed that their skin is clearer and healthier. Additionally, plant-based foods also contain the nutrients that help promote hair growth.

Talk to your doctor

People who are trying to lose weight should talk with their doctor about going on a vegetarian diet. Eliminating animal-based foods will allow a person to lose weight safely and naturally. A vegetarian diet will also help increase energy, promote healthier skin and hair as well as help a person live longer.

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Weight Loss Exercise

Carbohydrates for Energy


There are essentially three types of diets these days. There is the Atkins diet which stresses low to zero carbs. There is the low fat diet which stresses no fats and there is a vegetarian diet which stresses low fat and low protein but allows higher carbohydrates.

Today I would like to demystify the need for carbs. And then in the future we can deal with fats and protein as well as what diet is best.

Where to find Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are the main component of grains, rice, fruits and vegetables. You essentially need carbohydrates for energy and fibre. When your body is looking for a source of energy it tends to use the simplest form available. The very simplest form of energy is glucose and although this is pure table sugar its next closest form is found in fruits as sucrose. These carbohydrates are called simple carbs because they are easy for your body to break down into energy.

If your body can not find one of these sources of sugar for energy it will move down the food chain and try one of the next most easily available carbs next would be grain based or what we look at as ‘white’ carbohydrates such as bread, potatoes, or rice. (Chocolate bars although not an official food group are closer to sugar than veggies or other carbs). Your body will use any of the complex carbs as well as vegetables for fuel before moving to fats or proteins.

Now that we can see where our carbs site in the energy chain it is a good idea to see what happens when we eat one and what happens to our energy from them. When you eat a sugar it immediately increases your blood sugar otherwise known as your insulin level.

What happens when you rely on sugar?

When you blood sugar spikes from sugar, chocolate, or pop you will get a bit of a euphoric feeling from this extra unneeded energy but because it is quick pickup it is also a quick drop for energy and thus you will get a sugar crash 30-45 minutes after the initial energy peak, this is very bad and bad for your body. If on the other hand you only had potatoes or bread or rice for your carbs you would have no nice spikes but no crashes either and would feel after a couple days on a very more even keel, you would feel like you energy is pretty good all the time but never to low or to high. This is the key that we are looking for.

Tomorrow I will write more about bad foods just for a nice way to start minimizing them not to scare people away from them. But now you know energy wise why you would rather get you energy from more complex carbs than simple carbs.

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