Why Salt is Bad for Health

Deep fried foods and other processed foods are considered the most unhealthy foods that contain minimum nutrition and maximum calories that are responsible for weight gain & lifestyle related health disorders. What is often forgotten yet an important culprit behind weight gain & health issues is excessive salt consumption.

The daily requirement of sodium is 2300 mg, as per the Indian guidelines of dietary intake, which is got from 5 grams of salt. The most important mineral got from salt is sodium that has many health benefits like enzyme operation and muscle contraction and fluid regulation in the system. This requirement is easily met by the regular meals in the home cooked food.

It’s not about the regular salt content in the home cooked food but the consumption of extra salt through foods like Pickles, chutneys, sauces and ketchups, papads, chips and salted biscuits, savoury items, cheese and salted butter, canned foods (vegetables, dals & meats), bakery products, ready made soup powders, dried salted fish, smoked meats, chinese food. These were some of the obvious products but there are still some not so obvious pre-packaged products that might be harming you. Here is how  : to improve the shelf life of a food product preservatives are used. Besides many chemicals that are used to preserve food the two most common artificial or natural preservatives used are salt or sugar. Both are equally harmful for health if taken in large quantities over a period of time. Read more

How to Control Over-Eating

Are you tired of your binge eating habit? Do you find yourself giving into temptation to gorge down delicious food and before you can control its too late and the damage of consuming excessive calories is already done. Why do we find ourselves making the same mistake over and over again and how can you salvage the situation and control overeating in future.

The need to obsessively over eat is mostly triggered by emotional factors. Either you are too sad, too happy, too tired or simply bored when you get this intense urge to eat. Some studies even blame our ancestors for our compulsive binging behaviour. According to them our primal ancestors were hunters and gatherers and went without food for long periods, so once they found it they would eat everything they could get their hands on.  The latest research suggests that starving leads to overeating  and is also responsible for slowing down of metabolism. This leads to storing of food in our bellies which is linked to heart diseases and acquiring diabetes type 2.

A binging outburst can set you back to a minimum of 1000 calories per meal and above your daily calorie intake. This means that you could be potentially adding upto1 kg each time you have 2 bags of chips while just chilling infront of the TV! Read more

Vegetarian Diet for Better Health

Health is a major concern for most people but we only take it seriously when we know someone who is a victim of an unhealthy lifestyle or are affected by health disorders. Indian is the hot seat for two major lifestyle disorders diabetes and heart health. Diabetes is a lifestyle disorder and usually the main reason of people becoming diabetic is due to sedentary lifestyle, lack of exercise and physical activity and eating excess junk and unhealthy foods which affects the pancreatic functions.

Numerous studies on health have quoted that the cure for type II diabetes is removing the very cause of the disease which is a unhealthy lifestyle can reverse the disease. The chief cause of diabetes type 2  is excess weight from unhealthy diet and inactivity.

Chronic diseases not only inflict pain and cause health deterioration but their diagnosis is costly, time consuming and doesn’t provide full recovery at times. Also the stress and burden it adds to your life is less anticipated than the reality. Eating plant based vegetarian food products and eliminating meat and dairy products from the diet will considerably reduce the risk for chronic diseases like  obesity, cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

According to new dietary guidelines emphasizing vegetarian diet that is nutrient-rich plant foods can enable modern populations to dramatically improve their health, dramatically reduce healthcare costs, while at the same time save millions of needless deaths from heart disease, strokes, cancer and diabetes.

Digging for reasons whether meat products which are considered to be a good source of protein along with dairy products could lead to chronic diseases. Also diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure are pre-cursory to heart diseases and health. Meats and dairy products are high in saturated fat which increases the bad cholesterol and decreases good cholesterol from the body. Consuming excess amounts of these products regularly can lead to accumulation of saturated fat on your visceral and body which increases your cholesterol levels in the body leading to chronic diseases.

Sodium in meats and dairy is high which increases the blood pressure which acts with high cholesterol further decreases the heart health. Overall if you see as the cholesterol and blood pressure keep rising to the danger zones it also effects the metabolism of the body. This slow down in the metabolic rate further aggravates the problem where calories that are not consumed get stored as fat in the body resulting in weight gain and other problems related to it.

Thinking practically one should avoid foods that are not healthy for the body. Switch to more vegetarian diet that has plants based food sources which are natural, healthy and keep you in good shape. Also many plant food sources are low in calories and fat free this helps avoid consuming any useless and saturated fat in the body. And if you are wondering that would a vegetarian diet that has plant food sources meet all your nutritional requirements including protein. The answer is yes, a vegetarian diet can meet your daily nutrition requirement intake that will not only make you lose weight but make your body healthier and stronger.

To get a vegetarian diet plan you can mail us at fitness@fitho.in or call 011-41040070 to speak to a dietitian now.

 

Are Salads Healthy?

Salads are popularly known as the dieter’s delight. Unfortunately a lot of salads that are often promoted as healthy might not be as healthy as they appear. Infact sometimes might even carry double the amount of calories than a bowl of pasta!  Its very easy to add calories to a dish but how do you make it equally easy to reduce them.

The secret to the calorie count of every salad is in the sauce.  Four signs that make salad fattening are : creamy dressing, red meat like bacon toppings, oily dressings and lastly cheese. Your next question would be how to choose a healthy salad from the menu without compromising on the flavour of it. We have a few answers explained for you right  here:

Combine fruits with vegetables for that extra flavour: Fruits contain natural sugar that adds flavour without burdening the salad with extra calories. It is also the best substitute for artificial sugar. Citrus fruits can be added to enhance the flavour and give it a tangy taste for more variety. Both fresh fruits and dried fruits add flavour, texture and nutritional benefit to the salad. This combination adds antioxidants, fiber, vitamins and minerals to your diet. Besides the reduced calories your body is getting the best of nutrition packed in one meal! Read more

Weight Loss for Overweight People

People struggling with excess weight or simply being over weight find it the most difficult to lose weight even though they know that all they need to do is eat healthy and exercise to lose weight. But despite that why are overweight people considered lazy? Maybe they are not as active as thin people but there is a definitive reason behind it.

As one starts putting on weight is gained it gets difficult to move the body with ease and the easiness that a fit man would experience. The weight is exercising pressure on all the joints in the body impairing agile movements. Carrying excess weight overtime can result in hormonal imbalance causing disorders like hypothyroid, diabetes, PCOS etc. Overweight people also find it maintain body balance . This might prevent them from participating in activities like jogging, running etc. For most over weight people exercise is very stressful for the body. Besides they suffer from high blood pressure, their joints are under pressure and they tend to get tired very easily.

Here are some easy ways to get you started on a weight loss plan with ease:

Managing Nutrition: The ideal way forward is by revising your daily nutrition intake. The idea is not to suddenly cut your calorie intake by half but to slowly start reducing the non-nutritional foods from the daily diet. The main point to be  calorie intake has to be reduced over a period of time yet as all these problems surface before a overweight person while losing weight, there are ways that you can start losing weight. Read more

HCG Diet Plan

Adding to the list of popular diets HCG Diet plan is trending on google by people as it promises fast and effortless weight loss accompanied with a low calorie diet.What is this HCG? HCG is Human Chorionic Gonadotropin is a hormone in the human body which is produced naturally in pregnant women after conception. This hormone converts the fat present in the body into nutrition to feed the growing embryo. Its main function is to support the growing embryo in women.

How does the HCG diet plan work? HCG diet plan is a new concept for weight loss using HCg though injection or orally. Injecting HCG injection everyday and eating a low calorie diet comprising of vegetables, fiber, water etc can help you lose weight very fast. HCG stimulates the hypothalamus to release energy from the unhealthy fat tissues in the body. HCG releases 3000-4000 calories from the fat deposits in the body and keeps you satisfied with just 500 calorie diet.

The course of the HCG diet plan usually lasts minimum for 26 days and maximum upto 43 days and a person can discontinue in between if he/she reaches her target. It takes about three days for the hcg to show its effect and quit it three days before you plan to resum your normal diet so that the body can wash away the hcg from it. It has a limit of 40 days as the body may become immune to it thus reducing its effect. Also if you plan to again take up the plan you need to take a six week break and limiting it to four times in total.

The upside of this diet is that it actually makes you lose weight. The downside is that its like any other fad diet where if you reduce the daily calorie intake to the minimum you will automatically lose weight. Suppressing your hunger can make you go back to eating with a vengeance. Reduced calorie intake might also deprive your body of nutrition and can also trigger deficiencies in the long run. Read more

Interval Training

Among the latest and most effective exercise routine for  fast fat loss, improving performance, raising fitness levels, increasing endurance or getting started on a regular fitness regime interval training has been the touted to most effective routine.

Short burst of high intensity training for a short period of time is known as Interval Training. You can do interval training with almost any kind of exercise. Interval training requires you to do a certain exercise with full power for a small duration and then rest for some time and repeat. For beginners Fitho recommends a 1:3 ratio. It means every exercise is done for 10 seconds, also called a set, which is then repeated three times for ten seconds each without giving a gap.

Interval training helps in burning fast calories and is highly effective for someone who is looking to get into shape fast. You can do interval training with sprinting, cycling training, high intensity interval training etc. Interval training is tough but effective in improving your performance. You can increase the intensity of the exercise according to your capacity and fitness levels. You can do 60 seconds of interval training which will test your guts and then rest. You could do skipping, squat jumps, sprinting etc for high intensity interval training which will quickly burn the energy reserves and then burn the fat in your body.

This mode of training is effective for beginners as well as regular fitness enthusiasts. Interval training increases the heart rate and builds enduarance and strength. It must be noted that a high intensity workout must be alternated with rest or moderate workout for recovery. Read more

Are Vegetable Soups Healthy

Soups are often categorized by general people as non-fattening or healthy foods. But are they as healthy as they are known to be. Popularly soups can be divided into two groups: clear and thick soup. Clear soup are generally more healthy as they have the least amount of calories while thick soups are usually contain a lot of starch, sometimes cream and other high carbohydrate ingredients.

To help you further explain the difference clear soups do not contain anything else except for the strained liquid. Any liquid that has vegetables, meats or even noodles is considered a thick soup.

A bowl of clear soup can help you lose weight. This doesnt mean that you get on a only soup diet. It means that adding a bowl of clear soup before your meal can help you prevent from overeating while adding important nutrition. A clear vegetable soup contains vitamins & minerals while a bowl of non-vegetarian clear soup has zinc, protein besides vitamins & minerals.

Vegetables and poultry can be added to your soup to make it a healthy meal but it might add to the calories count of the food. You can then prepare the soup with enough vegetables and poultry to work as  a substitute for a meal. While it control the calories it adds the correct amount of essential nutrition to the diet. Also often soups especially served in restaurant carry cornflour, high sodium to make it more appetizing also add empty calories to the soup. High sodium content in the soup often results in water retention leaving one feel bloated.

While eating out choose the healthier soup option to avoid putting on weight and adding empty calories to the diet. Following ingredients that are often added to the soup like milk, cream, butter are fattening and should be avoided.Avoid packed and processed soups as they are high in sodium and contain no antioxidant properties.

To summarize it stick to clear soups that are made of clear, strained broth. If you want to add vegetables & meat to your soup then make the soup as your meal and not an appetizer, incase you are watching your weight. Check the ingredients of the soup before ordering. If you can ask the chef to prepare you a clear vegetable soup without any corn flour and low salt in it.

Hope this article helps you chose better while eating out or wondering what can be eaten when you are on a weight loss program.

Spinning for Weight Loss

Spinning is a popular group  stationary cycling session which promises to make your fitness goals a reality. Spinning involves different techniques like interval training, high intensity and variations in cycling for burning calories, building endurance and stamina and strength. Spinning is a hybrid form of stationary cycling that is conducted by an instructor to the beat of fast music.

Spinning is getting popular  as many find spinning a fun way to lose weight. But is spinning as effective for weight loss like other forms of exercise? Does it focus on overall body toning? Does it exercise every muscle of the body and support a complete body workout.

The basic position of the body is sitting and cycling all the time pedaling with a few variations to keep the sessions interesting while cycling to the music. Therefore spinning is mostly a lower body workout. The  leg muscles are worked while the upper body is neglected. It is an incomplete workout for those looking for an upper body toning or overall body muscle development. This routine burns quite a few calories at a moderate level of intensity but you could literally burn more calories and get a better toned body with running with same the effort put in a spinning session.

As every form of exercise has advantages and disadvantages the biggest plus point to spinning is that it is highly motivational  as it is a group training session which keeps you pushing harder to be more competitive. The cycles can be adjusted to ones comfort levels and the entire concept is a lot of fun. It is basically cardio exercise that  can be compared to running. The only difference being you engage your entire body while you run but here you only move your legs. Read more

Is Flavored Yogurt Healthy

We require 2 teaspoons of sugar in a day if you are looking to lose weight and  about 4 teaspoons if you just want to manage your current weight. But don’t just count the sugar consumption in your tea and coffee but all the other sources that you might consuming sugar indirectlylike your sweetened soda’s, colas, candies, sweetened cornflakes and flavoured yogurt. Often diet programs and nutritionist brag about eating yogurt in the diet as it has probiotics, vitamins and minerals, protein etc which promote better health and is low in calories as well. But is flavored yogurt as healthy as non-flavored yogurt?

Flavored yogurt which come in a variety of mouth watering flavors don’t contain the real fruit in it but conatins the pureed form which is high in sugar content. Compare the ingredients of regular yogurt and flavored yogurt to understand the difference in  calorie intake. Around 200 gms of flavored yogurt contains 25 grams of added sugar. The extra sugar gets stored in the body as fat and over a period of time this continuous weight gain can cause health complications. The sugar in the flavored yogurt increases the calorie intake by 100 calories for a 200 gm serving.

We are not saying that flavored yogurt is the main reason behind your weight gain. What we mean is that foods like flavoured yogurt are often marketed as health foods. They might be relatively more healthy than the other processed foods but they still are hidden source of high calorie food that are often misunderstood as fat free.

When talking about weight loss it is not just important to eat healthy foods but manage calories either by portion control or choosing healthier options. Sugar provides instant energy and no nutrition. People who have blood sugar problems could experience a sudden increase in sugar levels with flavored yogurt. Instead flavor your yogurt seperately with fruits that you want. Flavored yogurt is also high in sodium content causing water retention in the body and resulting in bloating. Read more

Best Exercises for Abdominal Fat or Love Handles

After belly, thighs and arms and butt the other common weight gain area is your waist. Over a period of time weight starts to collect on the side of your stomach which is also known as “love handles” or “tyres”. All these terms are nothing but common slang for abdominal obesity.

Eating unhealthy food and no exercise is the most common cause of love handles. These tyres were mostly seen on women in the past but now more and more men seem to develop it in their late twenties & early thirties. Indians are genetically inclined to accumulate fat around their waist which is also linked to Type 2 diabetes and heart health.

The simplest way to check for abdominal fat is to measure your waist. Run a tape measure around your waist at about the level of your navel. Breathe minimally, and make sure not to pull the tape measure so tight that it depresses the skin. The average BMI  (Body mass Index) of an Indian woman ranges from 18-24.9 , a waist circumference greater than 34-35 inches is considered high risk to lifestyle diseases.

Another way to measure abdominal fat is by calculating the waist to hip ratio. This is done through simple calculation of taking the ratio of the waist and hip. The healthy range in women is less than .7 and men is less than 1.

The best way to lose weight is to exercise and watch what you eat. Ensure that your body is getting adqeuate nutrition to improve the metabolism. Do not resort to fad diets as they might show you weight loss in the short term but in the long term you put the weight back on besides depriving your body of important nutrition resulting in multiple deficiencies in future. For healthy weight loss consult a good professional weight loss expert to help you lose weight and get fit. Read more

Ideal Weight Loss

If you were given a choice to lose weight how much would you want to lose and what should be your ideal weight loss.It would make life comfortable if you know that how much weight you could lose within a month and after x months you would reach a desired weight. Suppose you lose 4 kgs a month and by the end of 6 months you would be able to lose 24 kgs. You could actually calculate the expected weight loss and set the time limits according to your own choice. Read this article on ideal weight to set target for your weight loss.

There are some important points that you should keep in mind while planning your ideal weight loss.

Body Composition Analysis: This is the first step towards Ideal weight loss. Body composition analysis gives you a report which tells you about how much fat and muscle percentage is there in your body at different parts. BCA also tells you what your daily caloric requirement is and how many calories you require to maintain the same weight. It also tells how much visceral fat is present in the body. BCA also includes on the basis of your height and weight to be more precise and effective weight loss.

Once you have your BCA report it is time to start taking action. We understand that we have to eat a limited amount of calories per day as the body requires it whether we are at rest or work. It is advisable to not starve yourself as it makes weight loss difficult. Suppose if your daily caloric requirement is of 2000 calories then spread your meals through out the
day on the basis of this. You could break 500 calories for each meal which would be 1500 calories and the rest 500 calories you could distribute for your snacks, biscuits, mid meals etc.

Keep things in mind that don’t assume your daily calorie requirement and eat on an assumed basis. Choose healthy food options which are low in calories and not provide empty calories. Choose fruits, vegetables, whole grain cereals, legumes, dairy, lean meats, nuts and seeds etc. Follow the food pyramid for correct distribution of carbohydrates, protein, fats and
fiber. Read more

Exercises to Lose Fat on Arms

Eating extra calories gets stored in the body in the form of fat and at various places like arms, tummy, legs etc. Different women have different weight problem points. One of the most common weight problem point are the arms and thighs. We recently covered a story on the best exercises to lose weight on the thighs. Click here to read the complete story. In this article we will help you find out how to lose weight on the arms and tone them up.

Upper arm consists of triceps and biceps. Women have a higher tendency to accumulate fat on this area then men. Also losing weight and toning arms is also one of the most difficult thing to accomplish. Everyone wants a quick solution or spot reduction to fat arms. Unfortunately there is no such thing as spot reduction and exercising alone doesnt help you get results. Its always a combination of diet and exercises that get you faster and better
results. Often we have seen people using heavy weights in the gym to lose weight on the arms. The simplest trick to losing weight on arms is starting cardio that will help reduce fat and then adding resistance to your training in the form of weights to get the right results.

Here are some exercises for the arms to help you tone up

Running: Any kind of cardio exercise is recommended for fast fat loss in the body. You could do skipping, running, sprinting, jogging, cycling, swimming or play a sport. All the above options burn faster calories and help reduce maximum fat from the body.

Women Push ups: Pushup has multiple benefits including working out the arms. For more stress on the arms perform close grip push up. To perform get into a plank position with knee on the ground for women. Keeping the body straight, lower body to the ground by bending arms at the elbows. Raise body up off the ground by extending the arms. Repeat.Body weight should be lifted by the arms. Read more

Does Low Calorie Diet Work?

Have you ever wondered why you have gained weight over a period of time? Many of your answers would point to not eating healthy food, not exercising or some would say it just happened. If you know the reasons that have resulted in weight gain then working on these factors could help you lose those pounds again. But does it work this way or there is more to losing weight than just eating food.

Lifestyle has a major impact on your weight loss or if you are gaining weight. You were lean before and were eating the same nutrition as now but how did you start gaining weight. Weight gain can happen due to many other factors than just by eating foods that are unhealthy. Your sleeping patterns, stress in work, late nights, changing eating patterns, hormonal change, skipping meals, alcohol, smoking, no workouts, no activity, leisure lifestyle etc. The list can go on as these are some of the factors like many others that are small but have a huge impact on weight management.

Exercise impacts weight management as it helps to improve blood flow in the body and accelerate metabolism for faster calorie burns. Most people who are really not into fitness walk for 20 minutes or jog for a while, do some hand and body movements wondering that they have done thier part. What happens after this workout? Drinking some energy drink to refill those calorie burnt and resting for the rest of the day! If you are looking to lose weight then you need to burn the stored fat to see weight loss.

It is difficult to count calories everytime as we eat regularly and can be boring at times. Knowing what are healthy foods and unhealthy food is also not enough. Unhealthy foods are fattening but healthy foods could also impact in gaining weight. Dairy is healthy but excess of it leads to weight gain. Eating food more than the body requirement will store the extra calories and over a period of time this will count as a pound and then many more. Read more

Should You Eat Junk Food?

Junk food is  not healthy and we know it. Eating junk food can almost be compared to the warning sign on cigarette packets. All smokers know its bad for health but yet they smoke. Junk food only provides empty calories to the body without any nutrition. But prolonged consumption of  junk foods can even cause irreversible damage like diabetes, high cholesterol, heart diseases etc.

Some of the universal favorite junk foods are potato fries, salted chips and snacks, candy, sugar, high sweet content food, sweet desserts, fried food products, fast food fried foods and products like sweetened sodas. A lot of food companies are marketing foods like sweetened cereals, packaged soups, biscuits as health products. But if you read the ingredient content you would notice the high sodium, sugar and corn syrup content of these products. This does not mean they are lying . These so called healthy foods might contain some nutrition than others but are still not completely healthy. The similarity between partially healthy and completely unhealthy foods is that they are high in calories that only leads to storage of fat.

Junk food products that are salted are loaded with sodium that increases cholesterol in the body affecting heart health, results in water retention and slowers metabolism.It also causes high blood pressure and hypertension. On the other hand sweets lead to excessive calorie intake which leads to increased blood sugar levels causing type 2 diabetes in the long run. It causes storage of fat and increases visceral fat than reduces the insulin effect. Yet if you reverse your nutrition from empty calories to healthy foods then you would experience weight loss and better health.

Below are some unhealthy food options  that can be easily replaced with somewhat healthy options:

Cheese Burger with Coke: This is all season snack for us and is so satisfying and filling is what we feel. This is a monster diet when we look at the calories it provides. The combo provides approx 380 from the cheese burger and 210 from an 500ml bottle. The cheese and, high sodium in the burger and sweet in the drink is not so healthy choice.  Instead choose from vegetarian wraps that are made of healthier grain as a good substitute for white bread.

Cholle Bhature: Famous indian food which is combination of chick peas and fortified flour which in high in oil and sodium. Its taste makes you eat more of it which spikes the calorie intake to 170 calories from chick peas and 275 calories from two pieces of Bhature which is deep fried. Why not instead eat sprouts or boiled chick peas with salt, pepper and lemon with a slice of garlic bread.

Potato Wedges with Salsa Dip: The touch of the salsa dip on widgets is mouth watering but is high caloric. Its small size and shallow dips with each bite increase the caloric intake. 380 calories from the wedges and 80 calories from the salsa dip. Drinking some sweetened beverage could further increase the caloric intake as it is high sodium which makes you feel thirsty making you eat and drink more. Instead look for finger foods that have green vegetables in them for better nutrition. Eating grilled vegetables can be tasty too if you are open to giving them a chance.

Hot Chocolate Fudge: Sweet desserts that promise happy moments are certainly not healthy with their calorie intake. One hot chocolate fudge adds 350 calories to your diet. What about eating some dates insted for the sweet tooth? You could drink a cup of cappucino instead. Dark chocolate is healthy and could make a healthier choice. ‘

Cheese Pizza Slice: Dont be confused that sharing a pizza and eating two slices would not be unhealthy. Cheese and the pizza provide nearly 450 calories eating two slices. Some sweets or sodas increase the intake again. Choose veggie or chicken pizza with out cheese. Opt for thin crust, whole wheat pizza without any fillings in between.

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