How to Lose Weight

How to lose weight is the most common question asked by people who want to lose their weight but are not sure how to go about it. Fundamentally, losing weight is about burning more calories than you eat. This seems simple enough, but if it were really that simple, none of us would have a weight problem.

The healthiest way to reduce weight is neither fad diets nor long exercise sessions. Weight loss works on the simple philosophy of striking an optimal balance between eating healthy food and exercising regularly. Human body likes slow changes in terms of food and exercise. Though weight loss goals by most of us are usually set in term of weeks, the end game is to maintain these changes over months and years, hopefully maintaining the lifestyle change for life. Permanent changes in your lifestyle and food choices are what will work to remain healthy in the long run.

 

The following weight loss tips should help. If you follow then, it will certainly assist you to lose your weight effectively:

Burn More Calories than You Consume to Lose Weight: The tips that follow won’t work if you are consuming thousand more calories into your body on a daily basis than you are burning.

Healthy Diet: Eating a healthy and nutritious diet is most important factor to lose your weight other than exercise. We have a daily nutritional requirement that we have to meet and anything extra than this gets stored as fat.

- Prefer Complex Carbohydrates: Avoid processed and refined carbohydrates, e.g. white bread, white pasta, and sugary baked foods etc. and choose complex carbohydrates such as brown rice, oats, and legumes. Complex carbohydrates provide dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals, which decelerate digestion and make you feel fuller longer period. Refined carbohydrates are highly processed and often full of added sugars.

- Emphasize on Fruits & Vegetables: The high water and fiber content in most fruits and vegetables makes them hard to overeat. You’ll feel full long before you’ve overdone it on the calories.

- Don’t Drink Calories, Drink More Water: You can easily cut down your daily calorie intake by replacing soda, aerated drinks with water. Do not drink milk or fruit juice. The juicing process that turns actual fruits into juice actually removes the edible skin & fiber, which contains the majority of the nutrients of fruits and thus reduces the nutrients.

But Caution…!

- Fried vegetables or that have been soaked in heavy sauces are no longer low-calorie and don’t help to lose weight. Choose healthier cooking methods, such as steaming, and use low-fat dressings and spices for flavor.

- Salads are very good unless you soak them in high-fat dressing and toppings.

- Be careful when choosing the dried fruit, which is high in calories and, often, in added sugar. If you do choose to eat dried fruit, keep your serving size small.

Exercises: You may control your diet and eat as per your daily nutritional values but to burn the extra fat you will have to exercise.  In today’s busy world it is very hard to find time to go to gym or even go for a run. Start exercising at least 30 minutes per day. Regular exercise coupled with a healthy well balanced diet is enough to lose your weight successfully.

How Exercises Help in Losing Fat -

- Exercises increase the number of calories you burn each day.

- Exercises increase your metabolism as your body builds new muscle tissues. Muscles use more calories than fat even when at rest!

- Exercises help to use glycogen reserves which trigger the fat burning hormone called glucagon.

Don’t forget that you should focus on sports that increase your heart rate (aerobics). Every extra step you take helps to reduce weight. Always use the stairs instead of the lift.

For a week or so, keep an activity journal and use a calorie calculator or heart rate monitor to know how many calories you burn throughout the day.

Motivation: Diet and exercise are the most important but being motivated is equally required. When we are used to the habit of eating without any restrictions then following a fat free diet and no junk food makes us give up the resolution due to high desire. But once we are motivated nothing can stop us. See what motivates you, maybe celebrity fitness or some friends who worked out and got into shape or the best – a lifestyle makeover. High Motivation is among the most important how to lose weight tips.

Reduce Your Stress Level: Stress diminishes the efficiency of human body as well as the mind. Often, when people are stressed they conquer it by eating something sweet or something that suits their taste buds which don’t help in losing weight. While there are everyday stressful issues you cannot keep away from, there are certain things you can still do to reduce your stress.

- Avoid arguments; whenever you differ to someone then simply agree to disagree.

- Try not to think too much and if you feel yourself starting to tense up then just do some activity that can take away or reduce your stress level.

Get At Least 7 Hours Sleep a Day: Human body needs to recuperate and reboot itself to be energetic again. Irregular sleep patterns spoil the body cycle and reduce the efficiency and recovery time for the body. Lack of sleep makes people want more food, eating constantly and not be able to control hunger. The less you sleep each day, the more tired your body gets which leads to a desire for sweet and high carbohydrate foods to replenish the energy that is missing.

Downsize Your Kitchenware: A simple way to keep your food portions under control and to lose weight! Use smaller dishes, serve meals on a salad plate instead of a dinner plate, and use teaspoons instead of serving spoons to dish out. Using smaller bowls, plates, and containers can subconsciously influence how much you serve yourself.

Chew Your Food Thoroughly: Various studies have shown that the longer time you spend chewing your food, the lesser calories you consume. Chewing food for longer prevents over-eating, by giving the brain more time to receive signals from the stomach that it is full. This is good for digesting the food. Try chewing your food 30 to 40 times for every bite.

Avoid Distractions while Eating: When you do multi tasking during your meal times, your brain can’t focus on the amount of food that you consume and you are more likely to consume more calories than you requires. Try to avoid having food while working, watching TV, using a computer, reading or driving.

Do Not Abandon Your Favorite Foods: Although, it’s not practical to reduce your body fat while eating lots of food, cakes and sweets. Then how to lose weight by including your favorites? Well, it doesn’t mean that you can never have any treats; in fact you need to learn how to limit these foods to small size, e.g. for special occasions.

Many people do neglect that we all have different body types with different metabolism. So, you need to make sure that your weight loss program is individually tailored for you.

Anyone considering a weight loss plan for effective results should seek  advice from a reliable weight loss service – where the weight loss plan is customized to your needs, should have worked for other people (look for weight loss success stories), and should use the latest research to help you lose weight.

In case if you are looking for professional help to get you started on customized nutrition and exercise plans then write to us at fitness@fitho.in.

Being Thin Does Not Mean Being Healthy

Increased body fat percentage and being overweight result in lifestyle disorders that cause heart disease, hypothyroid, diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure. Excessive saturated fat consumption increases the cholesterol levels in the body. Certain types of fat are bad for health and some are  equally important which are commonly referred to us essential fat without which the body will fail to absorb and process nutrition in the body. Read here to know more about this.

The distribution of fat varies between gentics and gender. Women tend to store more subcutaneous fat which is under their skin. Distribution of fat in women is generally in their hips and thighs area while men tend to store more fat in the middle area or the abdomen. Once the person enters adolescence the fat cells don’t increase in number instead they only increase or decrease in size. Its the male and female hormone that decide the fat deposit destination in the body. For example women with big bellies are considered  to have higher levels of testosterone ( male hormone) in their system that causes fat accumulation on the stomach. While if men have large hips its due to the high levels of estrogen (female hormone) in that body part.

We presume that fat people are more prone to metabolic disorder ( also known as lifestyle disorders) but a study by Ruth Loos at the Medical Research Council in the U.K. found that lean people with a specific genetic variant were equally at risk of diabetes, heart disease even though the reports confirmed lower fat percentage in the body. Read more

Five best exercises for weight loss

Exercise is a weight loss booster as it accelerates burning of calories and the fastest mean to burn fat and lose weight. You can choose exercise according to your body type for losing weight from specific areas like glutes, thighs, belly etc. Playing sports or lifting weight is equivalently beneficial in dropping some extra pounds from the body. More muscles induce higher metabolic rate and exercise helps build muscle for you to burn more calories while resting.

The idea behind losing weight with exercise is to cut down on accumulated fat. As our body needs fuel for daily functioning we have to eat a certain amount of calories to meet the requirement. Diet can make us lose weight but exercise accelerates the weight loss process. Balanced diet with exercise is the best combination for weight loss. Start your exercise plan
according to your body type and shape up your self from losing the hanging belly to bulging biceps and a toned body.

Shake yourself and get started with your exercise plan for quick weight loss and define your own body. Here are some exercises for weight loss.

Planks: Start your exercise routine with plank exercises as it warms  up the body while stabilizing the muscles. Planks are one of the best exercise for building abs and building core strength. Core is required in anything that we do from lifting, walking etc. Strong core with help  move the body with ease and be active for intense workouts. Most of us have hanging bellies which start getting conditioned and toned with plank exercise. Include side planks to further increase the benefits.

Squats: Toned legs get many eyeballs rolling down and squats is a super exercise to work the legs. Less people work on their lower body which makes the body look uneven. Toned legs will give you are better and confident walk. Squats work the entire body and can be done in variations. It tones and burns fat in the glutes, thighs and hamstring areas. You can use weights to make squats intense or can do it using body. Check whether you are doing the right posture otherwise you could complain for back ache.

Push ups: The exercise works the upper body and increases the strength of forearms, wrist, upper arms, shoulders and chest. They accelerate the blood flow in the body and improves heart health. Using various grips like diamond pushups, close grip, wide grip benefit and work different muscle in the upper body. If you are a women you can do women pushups to slowly strengthen your upper body.

Russian Twist: If fat on your sides and belly is troubling you and you want to increase your enduarance  then do Russian Twist. This exercise works the core and obliques working for a flat and defined waist and stomach. Include the exercise in your routine and burn fat around you belly. Use swiss balls or snay thing to hold between your hands to increase the intensity of the exercise.

Bur pees: It is a great aerobic exercise that works the entire body and tests your guts too. It involves your legs, back, torso, neck and arms. It involves in jumping, squatting and stretching in one exercise. It accelerates the calorie burn as it involves many muscles and involves lots of fast movements. To intensify the exercise set time limit to perform a definite number of repetitions.

6 Steps to a Flat Stomach

Getting restless seeing your belly fat? Well you should be a concerned (see how belly fat is harmful). But since you’ve decided to take action, here are 6 simple steps you can take to reduce flatten your belly.

To reach your goal there are certain factors you should take into consideration while on your quest to a perfect flat belly. Follow the following guidelines to kick start your efforts.

Wake Up and drink water: Rehydrate your body with 500 ml of chilled water as soon as you wake up in the morning. Research shows that following this routine will boost your metabolism by 24% for an hour and a half afterward. Body performs well when it is hydrated. What’s more, a previous study determined that muscle cells grow faster when they’re well hydrated. You know what more muscle means…. higher
metabolic rate, and more fat burning.

Eat Your Breakfast: A recent research shows that people who miss their breakfast are more likely to have bulging belly by about 4 & 1/2 times to a person who has regular breakfast and breakfast size is inversely proportional to waist size. So have a good breakfast before heading out for the days work: have some oatmeal, fruits, yogurt, eggs, … or anything that you enjoy

Track it: Monitoring your diet and exercise is important as it keeps you focused towards your objective. Research says that people who tracked their diet and exercise are more likely to reach their goal, than people who do not.

Carry Your Lunch: Practice the habit of carrying lunch. This helps you in two ways. If you’re busy, you can eat at your desk, and avoid skipping meals. And when you’re hungry, you don’t have to eat the unhealthy options available in the cafeteria.

Pick the Right Exercise: You have abs, but they are under that layer of belly fat which needs to be burnt off for your abs to show. So doing 100 crunches a day will not work. You will have to spend as little at 20 minutes a day to follow a proper exercise plan, and see the belly fat melt away. The perfect exercise plan is a combination of active (like cardio) and passive (weights, yoga, etc).

Get the 7-8 hours of sleep: Sleep well and schedule your sleep because research says that lack of sleep might disrupt the hormones that control our ability to burn fat. It says that the muscle cells become resistant to insulin which results in storage of fat around your belly.

So, start your flat belly plan now, and see how this 30 year old client went from flabby to flat in less than a month.

Watch cricket, get a six pack

In our previous article, we showed you how watching cricket can make you fat. With just a simple changes, you could fix, completely fix that:

Breaks: During the ad break, walk around. Get your chores done. Move around, burn some calories! Get some water and drink it- water can help you lose weight.

Read below how to make muscle during the game..

Build muscle, burn calories: For every 4 or 6, crank out 10 pushups. It will help to build muscle and get you a six pack. While they score runs, you could be scoring a six pack, and much more..

Easy on beer: No brainer, but seriously.. go easy on the beer. You know its got empty calories, and it does all this damage to your belly. Limit yourself to say 2, and minimize the damage. Or better yet, skip the beer completely. Instead, have this to drink- fresh lime soda unsweetened or lightly sweetened. Get some vitamin C and build your immunity.

Healthy Game Grub: Skip the chips. Make a veggie platter, and make a healthy dip. Eating the veggies gives you minimal calories, vitamins, fibre and promote weight loss, since they fill you up. In our next article, check out our yummy recipe for healthy dip.

Is Cricket making you Fat?

Wondering how cricket might be making you fat? Plenty of ways actually..

Your Couch: The reason people gain weight is because they’re not burning any calories. While watching cricket, you may be sitting on your couch ranging from 3 hours to 5 days! Besides not burning calories, you might be promoting weight gain. A recent study showed that sitting for long hours promotes fat gain around the belly area.

Read below for more…

Beer: With a game of cricket, a few beers seems synonymous. With each beer, you’re not only consuming calories, but you’re also promoting fat gain by consuming alcohol. Did you know that alcohol consumption can cause man boobs- know how.

Grub: Along with the beer, are the chips and dip, the snacks, the ice cream and the sugar loaded juices and soft drinks. They’re all high on calories. All those extra calories just get stored as fat. Besides that, these are all high on simple carbohydrates (chemically, same as sugar), which further promotes fat gain- know how.

So, while you’re supporting your team, you’re also showing serious support to your belly fat too! Read our next article to know how you can stay fit and even burn calories while watching the match!

Keep off the wedding season weight

The Indian wedding season is here. With so many weddings, its a ‘make-me-fat’ mine field trying to avoid the fat loaded food. To make the food taste better in these gathering, its loaded with oil, cream and butter and lots of refined, simple carbohydrates.

So the wedding food you consume is loaded with calories- high fat and sugar. No matter how much you might want to watch your portions you still are in the grave danger zone of adding fat to your system. Then, there’s the free flowing alcohol which slows your metabolic rate and because of the high calorie and sugar content, promotes fat storage. Lastly what throws you off the edge is the high sodium content food that promotes water retention, to make you feel even more bloated.

To fix this, you can completely avoid any weddings. But since that’s a really tough one, and you don’t want to be the social recluse, Fitho has some tips that you can use to avoid those pants getting tighter through the wedding season:

Snack well: Have a heavy snack before you head out to the wedding, so you avoid snacking on the deep fried, calorie loaded wedding snacks.

Portion Control: Buffet style served food always makes portion control difficult, so to help yourself, load your plate only once, and then drop the plate (not literally).

Skip the desserts. If you really want some, ask for small portions, or share your plate with a friend.

Go Italian or Chinese: Most weddings have a pasta station, or a stir fry station. Ask them to make you a sauté of vegetables, and go easy on the pasta. Since they cook everything right there, chances of them loading it up on the oil and the salt are low. Also, most pasta stations would use olive oil, that’s good for you.

Have the salads- not the creamy, calorie loaded potato salad, but the leafy, green one.

Now you can enjoy the wedding season without your pants getting tighter. For more tips, check out our tips to stay fit in the festive season.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie Breakfast Recipe

Everyone’s heard that breakfast is good for you, but here’s a breakfast that really is. It is lip smackingly delicious and healthy.

Take 1/2 cup of low fat milk, 2 tbsp of chocolate syrup, 2 tbsp of peanut butter, 1 frozen ripe banana and 1 cup low fat yoghurt. Place it all in a blender and process until smooth. To make it better, you can use vanilla flavoured yoghurt. To increase the protein content and reduce carbohydrate count, substitute the chocolate syrup with chocolate whey protein powder.

This breakfast is loaded with protein, fiber to keep you satiated for longer. So you won’t get to the office and dig into all that junk food. Potassium from the banana will help you keep the blood pressure down on the morning drive The calcium from the dairy is good for your bones, and a recent study showed that dairy promotes belly fat loss. Also, this smoothie gives you good carbohydrates which will fuel your body through the morning.

This is a great breakfast smoothie recipe. Or even a pre workout smoothie. For a post workout smoothie, we recommend using only 1 tbsp of peanut butter.

To make it a weight gain smoothie, swap the yoghurt with vanilla ice cream and enjoy

Quick Fitness Quiz

What’s your Health IQ?

Try this quick myth buster fitness quiz, and test your fitness knowledge. For each question, note down your answer (True or False). Once you complete all 9 questions, check your answers with the correct answers given below.

The best part about this fitness quiz is that if you crack it, you can gloat in the glory of being a myth-buster And if you don’t crack it, then read the answers to become a myth-buster.

State whether the following statements are True or False -

1. Toe touching helps to reduce fat?

2. Potatoes are fattening?

3. A non-vegetarian diet makes you fat?

4. By doing a 200 crunches a day, I can lose my paunch and get a six pack?

5. Eating Banana and Milk will make me fat?

6. Walking is a great exercise to get in shape?

7. I’m diabetic. I should avoid sugar, but refined flour (Maida) is okay for my diet?

8. Nuts are high in fat, and thus bad for you?

9. Running is only for kids and athletes?

Answers are given below -

If you score:

0-3: This is the average score for this fitness quiz. Don’t believe any information without understanding why it is so. You should read the explanations below to understand better.

3-6: Congratulations, you are above the average fitness awareness levels. Read the answers below to understand more.

6-9: You are well aware of fitness information. You should educate the people around you with this information. Hope you are using your knowledge of fitness information to your benefit.

Answers -

1. False

2. False

3. False

4. False

5. False

6. Partly True

7. False

8. Partly False

9. False

Answer Explanations -

1. Yoga has some toe touching exercises. From that a common myth has spread in India that toe touching will help lose fat from the belly. But what does toe touching do?

- Every time you bend to touch your feet, you stretch your back muscles, and compress your belly. So, your belly fat is getting compressed.

Now, think about an analogy – take a rubber ball. Compress it 20 times. Has the rubber reduced? Similarly, by compressing your fat, it doesn’t reduce. You might burn some calories doing this, but that calorie burn is minimal.

2. Potatoes are very healthy vegetables – they’re loaded with energy providing carbohydrates, fiber, protein, iron, Vitamin C and other minerals. They Glycemic Index of a potato is not high.
But potatoes absorb fat, so depending on the cooking process they might absorb the oil/butter. So, its the potato concoction that can be fattening, but not the poor spud by itself.

3. Many meats like fish and chicken are high in protein, and low in saturated fat (bad fat). The protein helps to build muscle, which in turn burns calories.

Again, the cooking process might make it fattening. If you eat butter chicken, its not the chicken itself that is fattening, but the curry that is loaded with cream and fat.

4. Crunches help you work those abdominal muscles, but not lose fat on that belly. Read on to see why crunches won’t help you get that six pack.

5. Banana and milk are not fattening. Both banana and milk have a relatively low Glycemic Index, so its not the carbohydrate content that makes you fat. The total calories from this concoction are lower than a bag of chips. Besides, it provides you with lots of nutrients.

6. Walking is an exercise and may help you burn calories. But the calorie burn is not significant enough to make a big enough dent in your fat loss plan.

Also, your body gets used to walking very fast, so it burns fewer calories when walking the same distance. What do you do then? Read to find out how to overcome weight loss plateau!

7. Maida (refined flour) has a very high Glycemic Index, and has the same effect on your body as sugar.

8. Nuts are loaded with unsaturated fat (good fat) and have cholesterol lowering power, along with protein.

9. Most adults in India assume this. But why should running be limited to kids and athletes. According to a recent study, running can actually help you live longer and healthier.

Banana milk shake- unhealthy fattening?

Banana milkshakes (banana and milk combination) are a common topic of health debates- whether banana milkshakes are unhealthy, fattening & weight gaining or good for health? Many people believe that if you have banana and milk together, it will make you gain weight! This is one of the biggest myths- banana milkshake does not make you fat- Let’s show you how..

Let’s analyze this a little. For a basic banana milkshake, you need one banana and one glass of low fat milk. A banana by itself has negligible fat. See banana calories & nutrition. Milk is a dairy product. And a recent study linked dairy consumption with reduced storage of belly fat. So, we know its not the fat that is the problem.

Both banana and milk have a low-medium Glycemic Index, so it is not the carbohydrate content that makes you fat. Besides, it provides you with protein, fiber, calcium, vitamins, and minerals, which if anything, don’t make you fat. As you see, there is nothing in banana and milk that makes you fat.

If you’re worried about calories in bananas and milk, then 1 banana is about a 100 calories. 1 glass of low fat milk is about 60-80 calories. So, a plain banana milkshake would be about 160-180 calories. The total calories from this concoction are lower than a bag of chips (about 600 calories). What the culprit probably is all the additives in a banana milkshake to make it taste better- sugar, ice cream, unhealthy sweet syrup (basically, sugar and water), and all the extra flavouring. These additives are loaded with calories, and are what make a banana milkshake unhealthy and fattening.

The other reason why people associate banana & milk with being fattening & unhealthy is that in general people who are overweight are consuming more calories than they’re burning. If they added a banana milkshake to their diet, did they remove something from their diet to replace with a banana milkshake? We all know the basic rule of weight gain: More calories in, less calories out and you gain weight. As you can see, the poor banana and milk are just scapegoats for people not burning the calories that they consume.

If you just have a simple banana milk shake, it is loaded with benefits- healthy carbohydrates, protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and more. All you need to do to make a banana milkshake, is throw in one banana with a glass of low fat milk, and some ice cubes in the mixer.

Simple Banana Milkshake Recipe Tip: Next time you have a banana shake, add a pinch of cinnamon to it, or try some elaichi (green cardamom)- makes it delicious. The spices are loaded with antioxidants and make it even healthier!

Healthy Sleep and Weight Loss

When we’re dealing with overweight people, one thing common among all of them is that they rarely get enough and healthy sleep. Most common physical symptoms of sleep deprivation can be lethargy or dark circles.  But do you know that lack of sleep can even make you fat! Lack of sleep has much deeper effects on your health than you can imagine- It can adversely affect your mood, weight and general health.

Sleep is a function of body that is still not completely understood, but it is known to be used by your body for regeneration, building immunity and restoring all the damage done to your body through your daily activities, exposure to pollution, etc.

Not getting enough and healthy sleep means not giving the body enough time to perform these important functions. The lack of sleep makes your brain go into a stress mode. Your body’s physiological reaction to stress is to store energy, since it thinks that it will need this energy sometime in the future. So, your body releases the hormone cortisol, which leads to higher storage of belly fat. As Indians, we are already genetically prone to storing more fat in our belly. Cortisol increases that tendency even more. The ‘stressed out’ brain thinks that we need to store energy, so it make you want to eat more, especially food categories that are high on calories.

Think about the last time you jumped into the fridge for that midnight snack- was it celery and carrots, or was it calorie laden mind-blowing deliciousness. Yes, your brain is manipulating you into eating that food because you’re not giving it enough healthy sleep. Bad enough that you’re storing more belly fat. To make it worse, you’re eating high calorie food.
So not getting enough sleep could be making you gain weight!

Sleep helps you regenerate. It gives your body a chance to strengthen your immune system. While daily activities create wear and tear on your muscles, sleep gives your body a chance to repair and build those muscles.

Sleep is a good thing, so get 7-8 hours of it. But too much of a good thing is probably not that good. Beyond 9 hours of sleep, the benefits reduce.

So snooze to get fitter!

Drawback of Ab Crunches

If you’ve tried to lose weight around your belly or hips, we’re positive someone you know suggested that you do ab crunches (commonly known as sit ups). We’re also positive, that the person suggesting this would not exactly be a picture of fitness.

 

 

We say this because, there is actually a myth and huge drawback of ab crunches that sit-ups can help you lose weight or get a six pack.

We’ll show you how this is a myth and a huge drawback of ab crunches. I first want you to understand a basic principle of losing weight or fat. To lose weight, you have to burn calories. To burn calories, you need to exercise. And exercises vary in the amount of calorie burning. Some exercises are more effective than others. The number of calories burnt per exercise is dependent on three factors – the amount of muscle moved, the distance of muscle movement.
‘Amount of muscle moved’ means that if you move larger muscles for the exercise, you burn more calories.

Say for example your thigh muscles are much larger than your bicep muscles. So, a squat (thigh exercise) burns more calories than a bicep exercise.

The ‘distance of the muscle movement’ is just that. If you move the same muscle through a larger distance, you burn more calories.

Now Ab Crunches or Sit Ups work your abdominals muscles. These are a set of 8 small muscles in your abdominal region. When you perform sit ups, it only works this set of small muscles. Since the muscles are small, the calories you burn are also small. Actually, too small to make a dent in your fight against fat!

In fact, researchers at the University of Virginia found that it takes 250,000 crunches to burn 1 pound of fat — that’s 100 crunches a day for 7 years!

So, if someone swears by doing crunches to lose weight, tell them to go take a hike. Crunches help you work those abdominal muscles, but not lose fat on that belly. To lose fat, you need to burn more calories. Crunches don’t burn nearly as much calories as other exercises, like squats or push-ups. The key to burning more calories and building muscle is to work out larger muscles, like your legs, chest, shoulders and back muscles.

So to get a six pack, keep your crunches only as an additive to your workout. Kind of like dessert, not an everyday thing.

Relationship Between Age and Weight

Here in this article we’ll try to explain to you in detail the relation between age and weight and why people gradually gain weight as they get old. In your early 20′s, you’re young, in college and have an active life. Your hormones are peaking, metabolic rate is on all time high, your immune system is strong. You can abuse your body-tank up on all the alcohol, go on late night eating binges, barely sleep and still look great. You feel like you’re body is like steel plated Armour.

In your late 20′s and early 30′s, you start settling down, maybe have some kids. The partying still goes on, probably not as crazy. You slowly start developing a belly, but ‘its small’, so it seems like ‘not much to worry about’. After a crazy night of whiskey shots and butter c
hicken, you might get the occasional heart burn. But you pop a pill and life is good again. You might think about exercise, but you feel like you’re in good shape.

In your late 30′s, early 40′s, that small belly has gotten bigger. Occasionally you and your friends face health issues like blood pressure, diabetes, etc. Things get more serious and you wonder what you can do to slow things down. Go for a walk, do some yoga, occasionally
You’ve still got 30-40 years to live and want to live them in good health. How do you make it happen? Skip the fried stuff, but it really doesn’t make a dent.

What you need to do is really take control of the situation. As you get older, your metabolic rate starts slowing down. So, for the same amount of food that you ate in your 20′s, your body needs more exercise to burn the same amount of calories. With age, your body starts storing more fat. It is biologically designed to do so, since your body sees fat as stored energy, which it might need in the future. It does not realize that you’re in the 21st century and there’s plenty of food. That’s where your brain needs to step and control what goes into your body. Alcohol consumption increases fat storage in your body. All that fried food along with the beer, leads to even more fat storage. Stress releases cortisol which further increases fat storage in our body. And Indians have a high tendency to store fat on their belly – belly fat is most dangerous fat which is the most dangerous kind of fat.

To fix this, don’t go on crash diets with side effects. Get on a proper plan that combines good diet and exercise. That doesn’t mean spending hours in the gym, or eating boiled veggies. It’s about knowing what you consume and how it affects you and about giving your body some exercise. Build some muscle, look better, feel better, improve your sex life.

Sure, you’re busy with work and travelling. A good health plan does not come in the way of that. It works around it, and keeps you healthy. Did you know? That Brad Pitt is over 40 and still sports a six pack You might not become Brad Pitt, but you can get close. So, take charge of your health. If you need a diet plan to help you lose weight call us or email us at Fitho!

Truth About Six Pack Abs

Before we get into this, what do you think is the truth about an easiest way to a six pack … those defined abs … a washboard belly? Call it whatever, it still eludes most of us. Mostly because we don’t know the truth and how to go about getting it.

Do you think it hundreds of crunches, expensive trainers, supplements, countless hours in the gym, or silicon implants? The answer is none of them. Those are all myths. Every time a superstar comes out with their shirtless rock hard abs, that’s the myth hype that starts doing the rounds. But getting those abs are easier than that.

We all have abdominal muscles in our mid-section. These muscles support us in doing our everyday activities, from walking to sitting, to lifting anything.. even breathing. So, if you think about it, these muscles get a pretty serious work out everyday! … and you thought you weren’t working out

The size of these ab muscles varies on your diet, exercise, etc. But we all have our own set of abs.

So, if we have abdominal muscles, then why don’t they show? Because they are covered under belly fat.

Yes, removing the belly fat is a key to showing of that washboard belly that makes people at your neighborhood pool, think you’re smoldering hot! Now, how do you remove that layer of belly fat? With the right combination of diet and exercise, you can reveal those rock hard abs. Any regular person can do it, so why not you?

Now, you know the truth about six pack abs. The next time you see that defined six pack on someone, don’t feel jealous or awed. You have them too… they’ve just been shy, under the layer of fat. So, remove that belly fat, and start flaunting your six pack.

Besides the obvious advantages of that six pack, there are many others, but we’ll get into that another time.

Side Effects of Weight Loss Diets

Before we get into side effects of weight loss diets, let us first define what is diet – “It is the foods eaten by a particular person”. Often, “diet” is assumed to be a low calorie diet to lose weight, etc. But it is not. Its simply what you eat. So, we are all on diets regardless of what we eat. What we use that diet to do is what classifies it – regular diet, weight loss diet, weight gain diet, etc.

Now, when most people decide that they have to get in better shape, often its about losing fat on the belly or hips/thighs. Now, everyone wants to lose weight fast. Regardless of how many months or years it took you to add the fat, everyone’s looking for a quick fix. Search for Weight Loss Diets and you find all sorts of diets. Now, the problem with diets on the internet, is that if you pick them up from just any site, there can be side effects of weight loss diets. There is no way for you to be sure that the diet is good for your health, or will help you lose weight.

Most people think that if your calorie intake is low enough, then you are bound to lose weight, i.e. Weight Loss = Less Calories in & More Calories out. Sure that sounds right but its not as simple. You might lose weight by that way, but you might land up losing is a lot of muscle instead of fat. With less muscle in your body, your body stores more fat. What you need to ensure that you’re losing the right kind of weight, which is fat. Know whether to lose fat or lose weight?

The following are major side effects of various weight loss diets:

- Crash dieting or significantly lowering your calorie intake, is an unhealthy way to attempt weight loss. Since your diet reduces drastically, you are perpetually hungry and thus unsatisfied and this makes people moody, short tempered.

- If your diet has inadequate carbohydrates, it will cause ketosis. If it has inadequate protein, it will create muscle catabolism and reduce your metabolic rate. If it has inadequate fat, it can affect a number of biological processes.

- You will also be low on energy. Since its an unhealthy diet, this can have significant side effects, including affecting your appearance. Its been known to cause dark circles, stretch marks, etc.

- Besides calorie intake, and the basic protein, carbohydrates and fat, your diet should include adequate water, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.

- Another key factor is the timing of your food. You shouldn’t just skip a meal. Skipping meals actually puts your body in a mode where it reduces your metabolic rate (and hence burns fewer calories), eats muscle and starts storing fat. Consuming food at the right time is key for providing optimum nutrition to your body, and increase fat burn.

There are many well endorsed diets like the Atkins Diet and the GM Diet (General Motors Diet), which at Fitho we don’t use because we consider them unhealthy since they are not balanced diets. They have their share of side effects -

Atkins Diet: Because of no carbohydrate intake, lack of calcium and high saturated fat content, it is considered dangerous. Your body goes into ketosis resulting in bad breath, weakness, insomnia, constipation, etc

GM Diet: We don’t consider this diet to be balanced. There are claims of hair loss, etc. Drastic loss of weight is not due to fat loss, but due to water loss.

Diets have to be customized to your needs. At Fitho, we provide you diet plans that are customized to you, that you will enjoy, and produce results. See our weight loss success stories.

So the next time you think about losing weight, get advice from a fitness and nutrition expert and also understands you and your needs.

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