Want to try out a beginner 30 minute at home workout? Take a look at the video below:
I'm going to try to get these up roughly once a week so keep an eye out for them.
30 Minute Workout
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Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Uses of BMI
It seems that no matter what health or fitness website you go on, there will always be a BMI calculator and then some information on the uses of the BMI calculation that it came up with.
I won’t bore you with the entire history of the BMI but just a few key points that are worth going over.
The Body Mass Index (BMI) was originally known as the Quetelet Index and was invented (shockingly) by a guy named Quetelet in 1832.
His goal was to:
He did this by:
The interesting part is that Quetelet didn’t intend for this equation to be used as a way to define obesity or define whether someone was more at risk for obesity related diseases.
Maybe even more importantly, he stressed that information obtained from BMI measurements were more reflective of POPULATIONS and not for individual assessments.
In other words, the way the BMI equation is today is not what it was originally intended to look at.
Presently, it’s almost considered the gold standard in how you are assessed, health-wise.
There’s the added issue that someone with a low body fat but with a lot of lean mass could be considered overweight with following the BMI.
I’ve gone back and forth on what I think about the uses of BMI. Although it’s not being used the way it was originally intended, and it might not be accurate for those with a low body fat percentage, for the most part, I think that it is still an fairly accurate assessment of an individuals “fatness” for 98% of the population.
But, there is a “new” health assessment that is getting some fanfare. It’s called the Weight-to-Height Ratio (WHtR).
To determine your WHtR), you simply take your waist measurement, in inches (at the belly button), and divide it by your height, in inches. The link above will give you a breakdown of what your number means.
The reason this might be a better measure of heart disease risk or other risk factors is because abdomen fat has been found to be more of a predictor of cardiovascular health.
Although I still think that there are uses of the BMI for assessing overall populations and population trend swifts in how the proportions of our bodies change, I’ll be interested to see if the use of the WHtR will be more widespread in the future as it seems like a fairly good, simple measuring tool and seems to have more of a relationship to determine actual health risks.
www.leanbodytraining.com
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I won’t bore you with the entire history of the BMI but just a few key points that are worth going over.
The Body Mass Index (BMI) was originally known as the Quetelet Index and was invented (shockingly) by a guy named Quetelet in 1832.
His goal was to:
describe the standard proportions of the human build—the ratio of weight to height in the average adult.
He did this by:
Using data collected from several hundred countrymen, he found that weight varied not in direct proportion to height (such that, say, people 10 percent taller than average were 10 percent heavier, too) but in proportion to the square of height. (People 10 percent taller than average tended to be about 21 percent heavier.)
The interesting part is that Quetelet didn’t intend for this equation to be used as a way to define obesity or define whether someone was more at risk for obesity related diseases.
Maybe even more importantly, he stressed that information obtained from BMI measurements were more reflective of POPULATIONS and not for individual assessments.
In other words, the way the BMI equation is today is not what it was originally intended to look at.
Presently, it’s almost considered the gold standard in how you are assessed, health-wise.
There’s the added issue that someone with a low body fat but with a lot of lean mass could be considered overweight with following the BMI.
I’ve gone back and forth on what I think about the uses of BMI. Although it’s not being used the way it was originally intended, and it might not be accurate for those with a low body fat percentage, for the most part, I think that it is still an fairly accurate assessment of an individuals “fatness” for 98% of the population.
But, there is a “new” health assessment that is getting some fanfare. It’s called the Weight-to-Height Ratio (WHtR).
To determine your WHtR), you simply take your waist measurement, in inches (at the belly button), and divide it by your height, in inches. The link above will give you a breakdown of what your number means.
The reason this might be a better measure of heart disease risk or other risk factors is because abdomen fat has been found to be more of a predictor of cardiovascular health.
"The size of the hips seems to predict a protective effect. In other words, a big waist with comparably big hips does not appear to be as worrisome as a big waist with small hips," said Dexter Canoy, M.Phil., M.D., Ph.D., a research fellow in epidemiology and public health at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.
Although I still think that there are uses of the BMI for assessing overall populations and population trend swifts in how the proportions of our bodies change, I’ll be interested to see if the use of the WHtR will be more widespread in the future as it seems like a fairly good, simple measuring tool and seems to have more of a relationship to determine actual health risks.
www.leanbodytraining.com
Friday, May 14, 2010
Long Term Benefits of Exercise
In a society that tends to focus on the “here and now” sometimes it’s hard to think about and focus on things like the long-term benefits on exercise.
I wrote about my own experiences with how to age well and how even though I’m still fairly young, I can feel the benefits already of exercising and eating right over the last decade than probably someone who hasn’t followed that same healthy lifestyle.
But I came across an interesting article that looked at the true long term benefits of exercise in men that had been taking a bootcamp style class for over 20 years.
The class was 45-minutes in length and involved no exercise equipment, just the use of bodyweight exercises such as pushups and situps.
The results over a 20 year period are pretty staggering:
The men also lost, on average, 27 pounds.
The article goes on to cite other studies that eleven percent of men that exercise five or more times a week developed heart failure compared to 14 percent of men who didn’t exercise.
Another study of women with an average age of 55 found that over the course of eleven years, the women who exercised were 40 percent less likely to have a heart attack then those women that didn’t exercise.
I think this is a great statement in the article:
Keeping those legs moving is essential. These are some of the strongest muscles in your body working together and the workhorse for any type of fat loss that you want to obtain. It’s also the muscles that are most involved in pushing various hormones out when you stress them that are then used across your entire body.
How much exercise is needed for middle to older age folks?:
Which is interesting because my 30 Minute Workout that I offer is all of this put together: minimal exercise equipment needed, using just your bodyweight, 30 minutes long, three days a week.
Although it’s great to look at the immediate short-term fat loss and health benefits of exercise, don’t underestimate the long term benefits of exercise on what you are doing now and to just stay consistent with it.
www.leanbodytraining.com
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I wrote about my own experiences with how to age well and how even though I’m still fairly young, I can feel the benefits already of exercising and eating right over the last decade than probably someone who hasn’t followed that same healthy lifestyle.
But I came across an interesting article that looked at the true long term benefits of exercise in men that had been taking a bootcamp style class for over 20 years.
The class was 45-minutes in length and involved no exercise equipment, just the use of bodyweight exercises such as pushups and situps.
The results over a 20 year period are pretty staggering:
Among the 20 who continued coming to class -- 3½ times a week for more than 20 years -- low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the bad type, dropped 27 percent after the first year and 60 percent over 20 years. High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the good type, increased by 60 percent after the first year and continued to improve for the next 15 years, according to research published in 2009 in Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport.
Total cholesterol (LDL, HDL and other lipid components) dropped nearly 18 percent after year one and 40 percent over 20 years, the study found. Triglyceride levels decreased every year, including 23 percent after the first year and 61 percent over 20 years.
The men also lost, on average, 27 pounds.
The article goes on to cite other studies that eleven percent of men that exercise five or more times a week developed heart failure compared to 14 percent of men who didn’t exercise.
Another study of women with an average age of 55 found that over the course of eleven years, the women who exercised were 40 percent less likely to have a heart attack then those women that didn’t exercise.
I think this is a great statement in the article:
"The most important organ in an older person's body is their legs," said Dr. Walter Bortz, a professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. "If your legs stay good, everything else takes care of itself. You don't fall down and break your hip. Your heart stays good. You don't get frail. Your sex stays good, your brain stays good and you cost less money."
Keeping those legs moving is essential. These are some of the strongest muscles in your body working together and the workhorse for any type of fat loss that you want to obtain. It’s also the muscles that are most involved in pushing various hormones out when you stress them that are then used across your entire body.
How much exercise is needed for middle to older age folks?:
So how much should middle-age people or seniors strive for? At least three, 30-minute sessions of exercise a week, though more is better, Bortz said.
Which is interesting because my 30 Minute Workout that I offer is all of this put together: minimal exercise equipment needed, using just your bodyweight, 30 minutes long, three days a week.
Although it’s great to look at the immediate short-term fat loss and health benefits of exercise, don’t underestimate the long term benefits of exercise on what you are doing now and to just stay consistent with it.
www.leanbodytraining.com
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Life Without Food
Could you imagine what life would be like without food?
I’ve talked in the past about low carb diets and specifically the process of ketosis and I’ve talked about my past experiences (and I still follow it today) about intermittent fasting.
The recent trend in health and fitness is that you must eat 5-6 times a day or your body will fall into “starvation mode”, and really that concept is a bit overblown.
But I came across just a very bizarre story about an 83-year-old Indian yogi that claims he has survived without any food or liquid for over 70 years.
A team of military doctors are going to be observing him for 24 hours in a sealed off area of a hospital for a couple of weeks and also conduct medical tests throughout.
They’re going to be testing brain and heart activity, his electrodes, as well as blood tests which I’m assuming will contain glucose and cholesterol information.
The yogi states that he gets the energy that he needs for his body from meditating and
It really truly is something that is hard to believe and I guess that with this observation doctors will be able to tell whether this is real or something fraudulent.
At the same time, though, even though I watch what I eat and eat fairly healthy 90% of the time, would I really want to live a life without food? To never be able to enjoy the tastes of the various foods that are out there? I think I would be missing out on a lot.
What about you? If you could live a normal healthy life but it would be a life without food, would you want to live like that?
www.leanbodytraining.com
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I’ve talked in the past about low carb diets and specifically the process of ketosis and I’ve talked about my past experiences (and I still follow it today) about intermittent fasting.
The recent trend in health and fitness is that you must eat 5-6 times a day or your body will fall into “starvation mode”, and really that concept is a bit overblown.
But I came across just a very bizarre story about an 83-year-old Indian yogi that claims he has survived without any food or liquid for over 70 years.
A team of military doctors are going to be observing him for 24 hours in a sealed off area of a hospital for a couple of weeks and also conduct medical tests throughout.
"This may help in working out strategies for survival during natural calamities, extreme stressful conditions and extra-terrestrial explorations like future missions to the Moon and Mars by the human race," Ilavazahagan said.
They’re going to be testing brain and heart activity, his electrodes, as well as blood tests which I’m assuming will contain glucose and cholesterol information.
The yogi states that he gets the energy that he needs for his body from meditating and
Jani, who dresses in red and wears a nose ring, grew up in Charod village in the Mehsana district in Gujarat and claims to have been blessed by a goddess aged eight, which has enabled him to survive without sustenance.
It really truly is something that is hard to believe and I guess that with this observation doctors will be able to tell whether this is real or something fraudulent.
At the same time, though, even though I watch what I eat and eat fairly healthy 90% of the time, would I really want to live a life without food? To never be able to enjoy the tastes of the various foods that are out there? I think I would be missing out on a lot.
What about you? If you could live a normal healthy life but it would be a life without food, would you want to live like that?
www.leanbodytraining.com
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Craving for Sugar
We have an incredible craving for sugar in this country. You walk into the grocery store and you can almost smell it.
Back in the late 70s and early 80s, we started seeing the beginnings of the low-fat and no- fat products. The problem with this though is that when the food manufacturers took out the fat, all they did was replace it with sugar and other additives. So a food that had fat in it that added up to 200 calories was replaced with a food that didn’t have fat in it but had more sugar (or High Fructose Corn Syrup) that added up to…200 calories.
The whole concept of taking out the fat from products (we were told) is because we wanted to fight heart disease and dietary fat (saturated fat to be specific) was the main culprit.
But now a new problem.
A new study has come out saying that too much sugar can increase a person’s risk of heart disease.
The researchers reviewed what 6,000 adults ate and then grouped them by sugar intake and cholesterol levels.
What they found was:
If someone was getting in 2000 calories a day (which honestly, I think the plurality of people are probably consuming way beyond that), 16 percent of that would be about 80 grams of processed sugar a day. That seems like quite a bit to me and that’s on just a 2000-calorie diet.
The conclusion was
The article goes on to say that
Now remember, they are talking about ADDED sugar to any food you are eating. And when I say “added” I’m talking about pretty much any food that is processed and contains the words “sugar” or “high fructose corn syrup” in the ingredient. Don’t think that it only means what sugar YOU might add to a food (like sprinkling sugar on your morning cereal), it’s any added sugar that is not naturally in the food (like fruit).
That’s why I like just keeping it simple when it comes what to eat to the basics of meat, fruits, veggies, some nuts and oils and leave it at that. No processing of foods, no added salt/sodium, no added sugar. It takes the guesswork out trying to figure out whether the other food in the store is actually healthy or not.
When you essentially throw out the processed food with all that sugar in it and focus on getting sugar from fruit, you still have a craving for sugar but, it’s a different kind of craving. The craving is specifically for the sugar in fruit. Might sound strange but, a candy bar just doesn’t satisfy that craving.
Don’t let those cravings for added sugar get a hold of you and your heart will be better off in the long run.
www.leanbodytraining.com
Facebook
Back in the late 70s and early 80s, we started seeing the beginnings of the low-fat and no- fat products. The problem with this though is that when the food manufacturers took out the fat, all they did was replace it with sugar and other additives. So a food that had fat in it that added up to 200 calories was replaced with a food that didn’t have fat in it but had more sugar (or High Fructose Corn Syrup) that added up to…200 calories.
The whole concept of taking out the fat from products (we were told) is because we wanted to fight heart disease and dietary fat (saturated fat to be specific) was the main culprit.
But now a new problem.
A new study has come out saying that too much sugar can increase a person’s risk of heart disease.
"Just like eating a high-fat diet can increase your levels of triglycerides and high cholesterol, eating sugar can also affect those same lipids," Dr. Miriam Vos of Emory School of Medicine, who worked on the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, said in a statement.
The researchers reviewed what 6,000 adults ate and then grouped them by sugar intake and cholesterol levels.
What they found was:
On average, nearly 16 percent of people's daily calories came from added sugar.
The highest-consuming group ate an average of 46 teaspoons of added sugar per day, while the lowest-consuming group ate an average of only about 3 teaspoons daily.
If someone was getting in 2000 calories a day (which honestly, I think the plurality of people are probably consuming way beyond that), 16 percent of that would be about 80 grams of processed sugar a day. That seems like quite a bit to me and that’s on just a 2000-calorie diet.
The conclusion was
...people who ate more added sugar were more likely to have higher risk factors for heart disease, such as higher triglycerides and lower levels of protective high-density lipoprotein or HDL cholesterol.
The article goes on to say that
The association warned last August that Americans need to cut back dramatically on sugar consumption, recommending that women eat no more than 100 calories per day of added processed sugar a day, or six teaspoons (25 grams), while men should keep it to just 150 calories of added processed sugar per said or nine teaspoons (37.5 grams).
Now remember, they are talking about ADDED sugar to any food you are eating. And when I say “added” I’m talking about pretty much any food that is processed and contains the words “sugar” or “high fructose corn syrup” in the ingredient. Don’t think that it only means what sugar YOU might add to a food (like sprinkling sugar on your morning cereal), it’s any added sugar that is not naturally in the food (like fruit).
That’s why I like just keeping it simple when it comes what to eat to the basics of meat, fruits, veggies, some nuts and oils and leave it at that. No processing of foods, no added salt/sodium, no added sugar. It takes the guesswork out trying to figure out whether the other food in the store is actually healthy or not.
When you essentially throw out the processed food with all that sugar in it and focus on getting sugar from fruit, you still have a craving for sugar but, it’s a different kind of craving. The craving is specifically for the sugar in fruit. Might sound strange but, a candy bar just doesn’t satisfy that craving.
Don’t let those cravings for added sugar get a hold of you and your heart will be better off in the long run.
www.leanbodytraining.com
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Jillian Michaels and Pregnancy
I'm not a big fan of Jillian Michaels and I've ranted about her in the past.
I'm a little late to the show on this one but, she got into a bit of controversy over some comments that she made about pregnancy.
She's quoted in Women's Health as saying that she's not going to have biological children of her own and that:
Some media outlets took that and misquoted her as saying that she said something along the line that she "Won't ruin my body with pregnancy."
Okay fine. She was misquoted. But quite frankly, I don't think her actual comment is much better.
As someone who is in the spotlight, has had weight issues in the past, and has a rather large following of her weight loss programs from young women that do not have kids yet, she needs to be careful with comments like this that could greatly influence (or terrify) them into wanting to have a child.
Besides, just because you have a child doesn't mean a woman's figure is ruined. In fact I would almost go as far to say that for the most part, women that I know that had great figures before getting pregnant returned to that figure after a little bit of time after they gave birth.
Bottom line, I think she could have easily said "I'm going to adopt" and ended the sentence there and no one would have blinked an eye.
Thoughts?
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I'm a little late to the show on this one but, she got into a bit of controversy over some comments that she made about pregnancy.
She's quoted in Women's Health as saying that she's not going to have biological children of her own and that:
"I'm going to adopt," and, "I can't handle doing that to my body."
Some media outlets took that and misquoted her as saying that she said something along the line that she "Won't ruin my body with pregnancy."
Okay fine. She was misquoted. But quite frankly, I don't think her actual comment is much better.
As someone who is in the spotlight, has had weight issues in the past, and has a rather large following of her weight loss programs from young women that do not have kids yet, she needs to be careful with comments like this that could greatly influence (or terrify) them into wanting to have a child.
Besides, just because you have a child doesn't mean a woman's figure is ruined. In fact I would almost go as far to say that for the most part, women that I know that had great figures before getting pregnant returned to that figure after a little bit of time after they gave birth.
Bottom line, I think she could have easily said "I'm going to adopt" and ended the sentence there and no one would have blinked an eye.
Thoughts?
www.leanbodytraining.com
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Weekend Calories Can Hurt
Weekend calories can absolutely kill any chance of trying to lose weight.
You start off Monday morning and work hard all week on watching what you eat, measure out your serving sizes, count your calories, and do your exercise.
You then get on the scale the following Monday and the scale hasn't moved. You get frustrated and think "Why am I not losing weight? I was good 90% of the time last week but had a little fun on the weekend. I should have seen some change on the scale."
Your problem might have been that "fun" you had on the weekend.
You can put yourself in a calorie deficit all week long but on the weekend you head out for dinner a couple of times, have a few drinks and snack on some "fun" food that you wouldn't normal eat Monday through Thursday.
Maybe you head to a Mexican restaurant, order your food, and then snack on the chips and salsa while you wait. Your meal comes, but you could have very easily chowed down 500 calories from those chips.
Then Sunday comes around and you have a big family dinner that includes snacks beforehand, followed by a nice main meal, some dessert after and some wine or other alcoholic beverages in between.
But in your mind, you're thinking "I was eating as planned during the week so all of this won't cause a problem." But the scale doesn't lie come Monday morning.
There's a recent article about how weekend calories can wreck your diet that talks about a study that pretty much confirms the scenarios above.
A couple of professors reviewed data from 600 men and women that tracked exactly what they ate over a period of two weeks (they were reviewing data collected from a marketing research survey).
What they found was,
Dietitian and exercise physiologist Kim Gorman, MS, RD, Weight Management Program director at the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado at Denver says it perfectly about the effects of these weekend calories:
The weekends tend to not have the structure of routine that we have during the weekdays. I don't think that's a bad thing. We need frequent breaks from the normal day in and day out activities that we do. But that doesn't mean we should go off our regular healthy eating habits 100% of the time during the weekend.
The article gives some tips on ways to avoid weekend calories that cause a "two step forward, two step back" to your weight loss goals.
1. Wake up the same time on the weekends that you do on the weekdays. This one can be rather difficult to do, especially if you're up at 5:00 like I am every weekday morning. But if you can do it, go right ahead.
2. Eat Breakfast. But make sure it's not a bigger breakfast than what you're use to having during the week.
3. Weigh in Friday morning and then again Monday morning. This is a great tip and can really be an eye opener as to how much the weekend calories are causing you to be at a standstill. I've done this a number of times after a "bad" weekend and it definitely raises an eyebrow.
4. Keep a log. I find it difficult for people to keep a log as most people tend to fall off with tracking things pretty quickly and they tend to under report how much they actually eat.
5. Watch your alcohol intake. Alcohol can be a big factor on adding to the weekend calorie total due to how alcohol can shut down the natural fat burning mechanisms that we have.
6. Workout on the weekend. If you don't normally include a workout for yourself on the weekend, add a quick one in. Go on a longer walk with the dog than you normally do as well.
The simplest advice that I can give on this is to continue with your healthy choices of meats, fruits, veggies, and some nuts and oils during the weekend like you normally do, but just take one (and only one) meal on the weekend and use it as a cheat meal. Eat what you want but only for that one meal.
Taking and "cheating" for one meal during the weekend is going to go a lot longer in seeing fat loss results and avoiding the extra weekend calories than using all 9-12 meals during the weekend as a cheat meal.
www.leanbodytraining.com
Facebook
You start off Monday morning and work hard all week on watching what you eat, measure out your serving sizes, count your calories, and do your exercise.
You then get on the scale the following Monday and the scale hasn't moved. You get frustrated and think "Why am I not losing weight? I was good 90% of the time last week but had a little fun on the weekend. I should have seen some change on the scale."
Your problem might have been that "fun" you had on the weekend.
You can put yourself in a calorie deficit all week long but on the weekend you head out for dinner a couple of times, have a few drinks and snack on some "fun" food that you wouldn't normal eat Monday through Thursday.
Maybe you head to a Mexican restaurant, order your food, and then snack on the chips and salsa while you wait. Your meal comes, but you could have very easily chowed down 500 calories from those chips.
Then Sunday comes around and you have a big family dinner that includes snacks beforehand, followed by a nice main meal, some dessert after and some wine or other alcoholic beverages in between.
But in your mind, you're thinking "I was eating as planned during the week so all of this won't cause a problem." But the scale doesn't lie come Monday morning.
There's a recent article about how weekend calories can wreck your diet that talks about a study that pretty much confirms the scenarios above.
A couple of professors reviewed data from 600 men and women that tracked exactly what they ate over a period of two weeks (they were reviewing data collected from a marketing research survey).
What they found was,
...that people tended to eat more on weekends than they did during the week — particularly at breakfast, when they likely had more time to eat than on weekdays
Dietitian and exercise physiologist Kim Gorman, MS, RD, Weight Management Program director at the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado at Denver says it perfectly about the effects of these weekend calories:
"Many dieters feels as though they're dieting all the time but not losing weight, when, in fact, they're creating a calorie deficit Monday through Friday but filling it — and more — during the weekend,"
The weekends tend to not have the structure of routine that we have during the weekdays. I don't think that's a bad thing. We need frequent breaks from the normal day in and day out activities that we do. But that doesn't mean we should go off our regular healthy eating habits 100% of the time during the weekend.
The article gives some tips on ways to avoid weekend calories that cause a "two step forward, two step back" to your weight loss goals.
1. Wake up the same time on the weekends that you do on the weekdays. This one can be rather difficult to do, especially if you're up at 5:00 like I am every weekday morning. But if you can do it, go right ahead.
2. Eat Breakfast. But make sure it's not a bigger breakfast than what you're use to having during the week.
3. Weigh in Friday morning and then again Monday morning. This is a great tip and can really be an eye opener as to how much the weekend calories are causing you to be at a standstill. I've done this a number of times after a "bad" weekend and it definitely raises an eyebrow.
4. Keep a log. I find it difficult for people to keep a log as most people tend to fall off with tracking things pretty quickly and they tend to under report how much they actually eat.
5. Watch your alcohol intake. Alcohol can be a big factor on adding to the weekend calorie total due to how alcohol can shut down the natural fat burning mechanisms that we have.
6. Workout on the weekend. If you don't normally include a workout for yourself on the weekend, add a quick one in. Go on a longer walk with the dog than you normally do as well.
The simplest advice that I can give on this is to continue with your healthy choices of meats, fruits, veggies, and some nuts and oils during the weekend like you normally do, but just take one (and only one) meal on the weekend and use it as a cheat meal. Eat what you want but only for that one meal.
Taking and "cheating" for one meal during the weekend is going to go a lot longer in seeing fat loss results and avoiding the extra weekend calories than using all 9-12 meals during the weekend as a cheat meal.
www.leanbodytraining.com
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