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Weight Loss Exercise

What is a low carb diet

What is a low carb diet? I realized that I have mentioned a bunch of times about how people should lower the amount of carbs in their diet and increase the amount of protein in their diet. This is sometimes called carb depleting but the way I look at it if you drop your carbs somewhat and increase protein you are going to be in better shape. Just so not drop the carbs too far.

Low-carbohydrate diets for control have been very popular. Anyone who is considering losing has heard about low carb diets. Key questions you may have are: What are low carb diets? Are they safe? How do they work? Can low carb diets have any negative side effects to my health in the long term?

What is a low carb diet

Low Carb Diet – Meat

As the number of over and obese people has increased, calls to over people encouraging them to lose have also increased. As a result, there are more searches for diets that can help people lose and keep it off.

Today, more people who are deformed and over are engaging in the low carb dieting for their better health and vitality; and also to prolong their lives. It is noteworthy that low carb diets have also been followed by even those who are healthy and who are not over; bust would like to maintain their well-being, energy, vitality and health by following the basics of the low carb diet.

Benefits of a Low Carb Diet

The low carb diet has brought huge benefits to most people. There have been a lot of new diets introduced over the years, but the low carb diet is considered as the best diet fad that is effecting in combating the true cause of obesity, high cholesterol, hypoglycemia, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Due to the fact that low carb diet have been very effective and have made significant contributions to the health and wellness industry, many doctors, nutritionists and food manufacturers are now starting to recognize the nature about the low carb diet, and are incorporating its principles in their practices.

There are various types of low carb diets. The key ones are the Protein Power, Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution, The Carbohydrates Addict’s Lifestyle Plan, Life without Bread, among others. All these diets are based on the same principle; namely reduction in the intake of carbohydrates.

Low carb diets recommend high consumption of protein and fat, while eliminating or reducing foods that contain sugar, grains and starches. With each of these products being labeled as carbohydrates, they are replaced with other foods containing increased fat and protein. The emphasis is on meat, cheese, and eggs, while reducing intake of carb foods such as bread and pasta, among others. Although the specific recommendation of the individual low card diets differ, they are all based on this same principle. If you are on the low carb diet, it is recommended that you get at 60-70% of your normal calorie intake from fat, with the carbohydrates accounting for 5-10% of your daily calorie consumption.

How Much to Eat on Low Carb Diet

With the low carb diets, you can eat until you are filled up, as long as you eat only those recommended foods. So basically as long as you are eating the low carb food such as meats, fish, poultry, and cheese; and avoiding carbohydrates, then you can still lose weight.

There is always controversy around all sorts of diets do they work? what are the risks? A lot of medical and science experts have offered their views about the low carb diets. Some experts believe that low carb diets pose some risks and possible side effects in the long term; including headaches, fatigue, nausea, or dizziness. Lowering fiber intake can also cause constipation. Yet another school of thought argues that the replacement of cholesterol and foods high in saturated fat my increase the risk of developing heart disease.

Overall, the low carb diets has proved to help people to lose and keep it off, and live better lives.

Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

Alpha-M With Great Fitness Tips

I was told about this guy on YouTube called Alpha M a couple months back, his name is Aaron Marino but I love that he uses the name Alpha M as it makes him sound really Like an Alpha Male.

I watched a few of his videos and his shtick is really about making yourself more handsome and more attractive to women. But after watching a bunch I really got hooked. Lots of good fashion and handsomeness tips even for a middle aged guy like me.

Today though I caught a really good video from Alpha M. One thing I didn’t know earlier is that he was a champion natural bodybuilder, so his fitness level is not just high but he has a lot to share for making the best fitness gains.

Tips in this video include the following:

  1. Make sure that you are doing curls with proper form
  2. Don’t overtrain, only work each muscle group once a week
  3. be careful with abs, don’t swing, instead make sure you are getting good from and don’t swing your body or legs.
  4. Get a good amount of high quality protein
  5. Use great form for pushups, if it is too hard then modify by pushing from your knees instead of your feet.
  6. Fasted cardio is a great way to burn bodyfat, also take L-Carnatine and CLA to drop bodyfat
  7. Make sure to work your legs regularly. Don’t have skinny legs
  8. Don’t worry about the weight that other people are using. Make sure to contract muscles well and be very controlled with reps
  9. Do Dips, these work your Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps, use a machine is needed to help if not strong enough
  10. Get the workouts in. It is so important to get your body trained, this is the most important thing you can do for yourself

I really liked this video. Alpha M is very upbeat and he just exudes confidence and you can tell that his heart is in the right place wanting to help people improve themselves. In all the videos I have never heard him belittle anyone and in most of them he admits that he is uncomfortable with some of the stuff he talks about.

Check this video out and see some of his others, they are really great, entertaining, full of knowledge and fun to watch.

Categories
Weight Loss Products

Science or Snake Oil: is Garcinia cambogia the magic weight-loss pill it’s hyped up to be?

The burgeoning field of complementary medicines, including weight-loss products, is now a billion-dollar industry. Every year, more people are spending disposable income on complementary and alternative medicines that may prove to have no benefit for our health.

Garcinia Cambogia is one such example. Marketed as a weight-loss pill, it has had an exponential rise in sales since it was featured on the Doctor Oz show.

Garcinia cambogia is the former scientific name of a native Southeast Asian plant, belonging to the family Clusiaceae, that bears a pumpkin-shaped fruit. The skin of the fruit contains the active ingredient, hydroxycitric acid (HCA). HCA inhibits an enzyme that produces fatty acid, thus suppressing fatty acid and the processing of cholesterol.

But does this mode of action translate to the weight-loss claims associated with it? Or is it just clever marketing convincing us this product helps us lose weight?

An Australian advertisement for the weight-loss supplement Garcinia Cambogia.
Screenshot, http://www.garciniacambogiasave.com/, CC BY

Double-blinded, randomised controlled trials are the gold standard of clinical study and whenever possible should be conducted to test the effectiveness of a treatment compared to a placebo. Weight-loss products should be assessed for a minimum of six months, with a further six-month follow-up period (12 months total).

There has never been a long-term study investigating the efficacy of Garcinia Cambogia. Most of the studies have been conducted in animals.

In fact, the majority of well-designed trials investigating the effect of this product on weight loss have found no effect that is of clinical relevance. In a 12-week double-blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted in humans, people receiving 3000mg of Garcinia Cambogia extract (1500mg of the active component HCA) per day lost the same amount of weight as the control group.

Another 12-week study with a four-week follow-up (16 weeks total) also found no greater weight-loss effect than for a placebo control group. For those studies where a statistically significant effect was reported, the weight loss was around one kilogram more than for those receiving a placebo pill.

Positive and greater weight losses were found in some studies, but this effect is suppressed when looking at all of the studies combined.

The Garcinia Cambogia plant.
Livia Lacolare/Flickr, CC BY

With respect to other health benefits from taking this supplement, the evidence to suggest it can improve blood cholesterol levels is lacking.

Most importantly, the product safety profile of Garcinia Cambogia has been adequately tested and there appear to be no issues.

Some complementary medicines have been found to contribute to improved health outcomes, through increased efficacy and cost-effectiveness. However, if there is to be a role for such complementary and alternative weight-loss products and medicines, we must build upon the evidence to investigate whether these increasingly popular products are a viable treatment option.

A recent Obesity Australia and Price Waterhouse Coopers report found obesity cost Australia A$8.6 billion in 2011-2012, with the indirect costs far higher. We must establish whether complementary medicines have a role to play in preventing and treating obesity. If we take no action to reduce obesity rates, an additional 2.4 million people will become obese at a cost of $87.7 billion over 10 years.


Please visit this website if you’re interested in taking part in our clinical weight-loss trials on Garcinia Cambogia and other weight-loss supplements.