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Calcium Needs and Requirements

Calcium, the most abundant mineral in the body, is found in some foods, added to others, available as a dietary supplement, and present in some medicines (such as antacids). Calcium has many important jobs. The body stores more than 99 percent of its calcium in the bones and teeth to help make and keep them strong. The rest is throughout the body in blood, muscle and the fluid between cells. Your body needs calcium to help muscles and blood vessels contract and expand, to secrete hormones and enzymes and to send messages through the nervous system.

Why do you need Calcium?

Calcium is required for muscle contraction, blood vessel expansion and contraction, secretion of hormones and enzymes, and transmitting impulses throughout the nervous system. The body strives to maintain constant concentrations of calcium in blood, muscle, and intercellular fluids, though less than 1% of total body calcium is needed to support these functions.

Calcium Needs and Requirements

The remaining 99% of the body’s supply is stored in the bones and teeth where it supports their structure. Bone itself undergoes continuous remodeling, with constant resorption and deposition of calcium into new bone. The balance between bone resorption and deposition changes with age.

Bone formation exceeds resorption in growing children, whereas in early and middle adulthood both processes are relatively equal. In aging adults, particularly among postmenopausal women, bone breakdown exceeds formation, resulting in bone loss that increases the risk of osteoporosis over time.

It is important to get plenty of calcium in the foods you eat. Foods rich in this mineral include diary products such as milk, cheese and yogurt, and leafy, green vegetables. The exact amount of calcium you need depends on your age and other factors. Growing children and teenagers need more calcium than young adults. Older women need plenty of calcium to prevent osteoporosis. People who do not eat enough high-calcium foods should take a calcium supplement.

Calcium Intake Needs

Intake recommendations for calcium is 210 and 1200 milligrams a day a day depending on age and sex with pregnant and older women needing the most.

Calcium Needs and Requirements

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Weight Loss Exercise

Facts on Fiber

Fiber is one of those things that we are told to eat mroe of yet there should be some confusion. Not all fiber is alike.

Most Americans know that foods high in fiber are full of nutrients because they are less processed. There are two kinds of dietary fiber and you need both.

Two Types of Fiber

Facts on FiberInsoluble fiber (the type that does not dissolve in water and is found in wheat bran, oats, whole grains and vegetables) helps promote regularity, prevent hemorrhoids and diverticulosis. It may also help prevent colon cancer.

Soluble fiber (the type that dissolves in water, found in oat bran, oats, beans, apples and carrots) helps lower blood cholesterol levels and control blood sugar levels in people with diabetes.

According to the American Dietetic Association’s(ADA) Dietary Guidance for Health Children aged 2 to 11, the perfect fiber intake has not been defined. Several organizations have suggested that children over 2 consume a daily intake equal or greater than their age plus 5 grams per day. So if you have an eight year old, he or she might consume 13 grams of dietary fiber per day. Ultimately, they should build up to consuming 25 to 35 grams per day after the age of 20 years. But that may seem a long way off for your child.

How can you Incorporate Fiber into your Daily Diet?

First, start consuming high fiber foods in small amounts. Let your body adjust by increasing the fiber you eat in small increments. If you increase your fiber intake dramatically, gas, diarrhea, and bloating may result. However, increasing your fiber intake gradually should minimize these effects. Substitute whole grains, beans, fruits and vegetables for some of the processed foods you eat. Think about replacing high fat or highly processed foods with high fiber foods.

Second, drink plenty of fluids to help the fiber do its work.

Third, choose foods, not fiber supplements, to gradually increase your intake of fiber. Fiber containing foods offer other nutrients like vitamins, minerals and protein while supplements may not. Here are some healthful combinations that can be incorporated into your daily menu:

Visit the Family Health site site to see a table with the amount of fiber in common foods.

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Weight Loss Exercise

Bicep Workout Mistakes You Must Avoid

So you are a novice in workouts and someone just suggested bicep workout to you. On one hand you don’t know how to do it and on the other, you are too shy to approach the experts for help. You are not alone. There are lots of people who don’t like to ask “silly” questions to fitness professionals. In this article I will tell you about four things you should not do when doing a bicep workout.

Bicep Mistakes to Avoid

Bicep Workout Mistakes You Must Avoid1. Don’t cheat yourself: Many people try to cheat during the bicep workout session, either by swinging the weights instead of lifting them or not lifting them high enough. Truth to be told, if you cheat in your workout session, you are basically cheating yourself. Remember that honesty in workouts would pay off big time in the long run, while cheating would only lead to disappointment and frustration.

2. Don’t focus on quantity: Instead of focusing on doing an x number of workouts, try to focus on doing fewer but quality workouts. Remember that doing more sets doesn’t mean you would become fit quickly, especially if those sets happen to be of poor quality. Doing 10 sets of bicep workout where you lift the weights reasonably high in each set, is much better than doing thirty sets of workouts where you don’t even lift the weight properly. At the end of the day, it is quality that matters, not quantity.

3. Don’t be too hard on yourself: It is too easy to get in the motion of workout and forget about taking enough rest in between each set of workout. You see, resting is as important as working out. When you workout on your biceps, you are basically wearing and tearing your bicep muscles in order to shape them up. To help those muscles recover from the wear and tear, you should take rest and help the muscles grow and develop.

4. Don’t use light weights: Some people believe that the more reps they do, the stronger their muscles would be. This is nothing but a myth. While there is no hard and fast rule regarding the number of reps you should do, the golden rule remains that if you do fewer reps with heavier weights, you would build muscles faster than by doing more reps using lighter weights.

So, instead of focusing on the number of reps, focus on using heavy weights for your bicep workouts, reduce the number of reps and increase the number of sets.

In doing a bicep workout you need to look at the number of sets and the quality of sets for your bicep workout. You will need to probably do about 3 exercises of two sets to exhaustion, that means doing sets where you can not do any more reps. Have a great bicep workout.