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.

Does Sweating Result in Weight Loss

One of the most common myths in fitness is that sweating helps you lose weight and burn more fat. There are lot of weight loss companies that use the technology of steam/sauna baths to make you sweat for weight loss. In reality the weight loss experienced with high temperature is water weight lost through sweating.  Sweating is our body’s natural way of cooling the system. Whenever there is rise in temperature which could be due to physical activity or general increase in temperature we break  in to sweat.

Let us give you an example of what we mean by losing water weight. Start with weighing yourself. Then sit in a room, in the middle of summer, without a fan and ac. You will sweat a lot due to the heat. After one hour you go and weight yourself. You will see you have lost a few grams on the weighing scale. Now go and drink a litre of water and then weigh your self. You will see that the weighing scale is back to your original weight. A note that it is impossible to put on weight with drinking water as it has zero calories. So now you might be more wise before you sign for a spa weight loss program.

There are genetic and fitness reasons why some people sweat more than the others. For-eg men sweat more than women because women sweat at higher temperatures than men. Then fitter people tend to sweat lesser than non-fit people doing the same physical activity  and lastly overweight people tend to sweat the most is because fat acts like an insulator under the skin that raises the body temperature a lot faster. Read more

What is Making You Fat

We know enough about the repercussions of being fat, unfit or eating unhealthy foods which can cause metabolic disorder and cause weight gain. Though we read about healthy food options to include in our diet and presume to have fixed all the factors for weight loss but yet weight loss seems to not happen.

Did you fix quitting junk food that adds only calories, fats and not nutrition ? Have you started eating foods that are healthier than what you were eating earlier? You are reading the best of advices and following them too but the outcome is not satisfying. Where is it that you are going wrong and what is it that you do to make weight loss happen and not get fat. Fix the loopholes where you are going wrong and correct it to lose weight.

Its not just about eating the right amount of calories , it is about ensuring they meet the daily nutritional requirement intake for a healthy metabolic rate. Read below for factors that probably are holding you back from losing weight.

Fluids: It is lots of water that you have to drink through out the day and not energy drink, iced teas, lemon drinks, sodas and sweetened beverages. Do you know how many packets of sugar are these pre-packaged drinks are adding to your diet  even if they are being marketed as healthy. These drinks might even sabotaging your fitness routine by increasing your daily intake of required calories. Instead stick to water to rev up metabolim and keep the body hydrated.Water is zero calories and preloading with it before a meal can help you lose weight fast.

Portion Control: You feel unsatisfied when you eat small meals. Large meals make more calorie intake which is over your daily nutritional requirement and gets saved as fat. Eat in small plates, chew slowly and stop eating once you feel full.

No Fiber: Fiber helps in better digestion of food and absorbs lots of water from the body. If you have water retention then add fiber to your diet. Fiber also keeps you feel fuller for a longer time without adding any extra calories.

No Exercise: Exercise boosts weight loss. You are eating to your requirement which will help you lose weight but exerise will accelerate the calorie burn in the body and give quicker results. As more muscles are improtant higher metabolism and weight loss, regular exercise will develop muscles in the body.

Missing Meals: Some people miss meals to fasten their weight loss presuming to save calories for the day. Missing meals makes the body go in the mode of starvation where the body burns the reserves slowly. Eat you meals at time as you would miss on the nutrition for that meal. Eating the next meal after the missed meal makes you consume more calories as you are hungry, which would get saved as extra calories as skipping meals slows the body’s natural metabolic rate.

Cheat Meals: It is alright to have a cheat meal once or twice a week but if you are cheating more unhealthy meals for healthy meals then you are slimming your chances of losing fat. It disrupts the weight loss process as the body takes time to adjust to a pattern before showing results.

Best Weight Lifting Exercises

Weight Lifting builds muscles and accelerates the metabolism of the body. More muscles inthe body will result in higher metabolic rate. You can do compound exercises, means multi-joint movement exercises that work multiple muscles at one time, either by using body weight or lifting weights that have been designed to work specific muscles in the body in order to build them.

Weight lifting is a technique that provides resistance to the muscle to increase their mass and strength. It is one of the more popular forms of strength training that helps building the size and strength of skeletal muscles. Skeletal muscles are the voluntary muscles in our body that are attached to the bones through bundles of fiber.There are many exercise that help develop and strengthen various skeletal muscles in the body. Below is  the list of  best weight lifting exercises for different muscle groups like biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest, back, abs, quadriceps, hamstring, calves and forearms.

Best Weight Lifting Exercises

Best Weight Lifting Biceps Exercises

Barbell Curl: This is the most basic of bicep exercise where to increase its effective increase the weight with which you do not moe than 10 reps. You can do it alternately and do it with barbells for proportionate growth.

Preacher Curl: Preacher curl works the muscle in isolation and exerts stress on the muscle for increase in mas and strength. Helps work the fore arms also.

Close Grip Chin Ups: This is a great compound exercise where it requires lifting the body weight with biceps working the core as well. Build strength and stamina in the muscle.

Best Weight Lifting Triceps Exercise

Dumbbell Tricep Extension: You can do tricep extension either on the bench lying or sitting or on a decline bench. Triceps extension helps the muscle work in isolation and build triceps big.

Dips: Keep your body upright to allow maximum tension on the triceps to build power , strength and mass. You can do dips with a bench, parallel bars or by the side of your bed.

Bench Press: On of the most effective tricep exercise where you can increase tension by add extra weight. You can do bench press with dumbbells or barbells. It works the triceps and the chest also.

Best Weight Lifting Shoulders Exercise

Upright Rows: This exercise builds muscle mass and stregth and brings power to the shoulders. You can do upright rows with barbells or dumbbells.

Overhead Press: You could do overhead press with dumbbells or barbells. Overhead press is a highly effective shoulder exercise. Maintaining the right positions will build immense strength and muscle.

Lateral Raises : Lateral raises can be done with dumbbells and you could do two types of the raises. Front lateral raise for front deltoids and side lateral raise for side deltoids.

Best Weight Lifting Chest Exercise

Bench Press: It is a effective exercise for building upper body especially the chest and triceps as they exert maximum tension on them. There are many variations you can do with bench press like with dumbbells or barbells on decline, incline or flat bench. Increase weight for muscle mass.

Butterfly Machine: Butterfly machine pumps up the chest and builds big chest muscles. Cable cross over and dumbbell fly are also highly effective exercise.

Incline dumbbell Fly: Mind the posture while doing this exercise. It is a isolation exercise for chest and works for a big bulging muscular chest.

Best Weight Lifting Back Exercise

Pull Ups: One of the best back building exercise. The exercise is difficult in the beginning but gradually build endurance and strength in the core which involves the back. You can do variations with chin ups or pull ups. Do palms facing inwards, outwards, inverted chin ups and parallel grips.

Rowing: Rowing helps build overall back muscles in mass and width. You can choose between barbells and dumbbells and increase weight to increase intensity. You can do bent over row, dumbbell row or machine row.

Dead lift: It is a complete back exercise which involves power. The deadlift works the thighs, glutes and calves along with the complete back. Builds power, mass and strength and size.

Best Weight Lifting Abs Exercise

Crunches: Highly effective exercise for the rectus abdominis (6 packs). It is a beneficial exercise for beginners and works in building muscle and strength.

Hanging Leg Raises: This exercise works the entire core and involves hanging in the air while performing the exercise. It works the lower abdomin region and can be done with bent knee raises and staight knee leg raise. It buildd strength and enduarnce in the ab region.

Twist: As you need to burn fat from the sides and build oblique muscle twist exercise is a highly effective exercise for strengthening core muscles and losing fat from the sides. Tones the back and abs.

Best Weight Lifting Quadriceps Exercise

Squats: It works the front thighs, glutes and lower back. For strong lower body and and big muscles squats is highly effective. It can be done with barbells for increase in intensity. Mind the posture while doing squats.

Lunges: Maintaining a right posture and keep back straight is important while doing lunges. Exert pressure with front thighs to push body weight up and not the back. Tones the thighs, glutes, back and hips. Use dumbbels for bigger and toned muscles.

Leg Extension: This exercise is an isolation exercise for front thighs. It pumps up the thighs and helps build muscle mass and strength. One of the best exercise to build quadriceps.

Best Weight Lifting Hamstring Exercise

Romanian Dead lifts: This deadlift works the hamstring, glutes and lower back. It build muscle mass and strength in the hamstring for muscular thighs overall.

Straight Leg Dead lifts: It takes a lot of effort to do this exercise where you are supposed to keep your legs staright and not bent. Though is a compound exercise which works the calves, glutes but very effective for hamstring.

Lying Leg Curl: It is a isolation exercise completely for hamstring. Again a great exercise to build strength and muscles in the hamstring. Do it easily and properly for maximum benefits.

Best Weight Lifting Calves Exercise

Standing Calf Raise: It invoves raising your body slowly on your toes and stretching the most while at the top. Don’t jump while doing the exercise and add weights on the shoulders to increase the intensity. You can use a barbell, smith machine, hip belt, dumbbells to do variations with calf raises.

Seated Calf Raise: Concentrate on the bottom and top part while performing the exercise. Use weight to build big muscular calves. Check the momentum of the exercise and don’t hurry through.

Best Weight Lifting Forearms Exercise

Wrist Curl: This exercise works the inner forearms while it increase the width of the wrist for building muscles. It involves curling the wrist and can be done with weight for more muscle mass and strength.

Reverse Curl: This exercise works the outer forams. Usually this muscle of the forearms get missed out reducing the size of the forearms. Use weights to increase intensity of the exercise.

 

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 Read more

Lean Body Tips

You can get lean body as fast as you lose fat from your body and bring fat down to 10% of the body weight. Lean body mass is the weight of bones, organs and muscles in the body other than fat. Reduce the fat on the body and increase the muscle percentage for a leaner body with muscles.

Tips for lean body

Fat: Burn the fat in the body and get the fat percentage below 10%. Reducing fat from the body is important in getting a lean body. Quit eating fattening food and oily food.

Build Muscles: Building muscles will increase the lean body mass and also increase the metabolic rate to burn more fat in the body. Muscles will make the body toned and make you look fitter than usual.

Preloading: It is important to eat according to the body requirement because all the extra calories other than the daily body requirement gets stored as fat. Preload with water half an hour before the meal which will make you eat less along with portion control.

Nutrients: If you are looking for a ripped professional body then you need to balance the intake of protein, carbohydrates and sufficient vitamins and minerals. If there is more carbohydrates and protein in the diet than the body requirement then the extra calorie from them will be stored as fat. Read more

Weight Loss for Women

There could be many reasons behind women gaining weight like sedentary lifestyle, emotional reasons, theureupatic reasons,  eating habits and the love for chocolates. If you are a woman and looking to lose weight then here are tips to make you understand the body psychology.

For healthy lifestyle it is important to get all the daily nutritional requirement like protein for muscles and hair, carbohydrates for energy for the work that you do, good fats like omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids and goof fats for normal growth along with vitamins and minerals for various bodily functions. On the other hand to maintain a healthy and fit outer appearance it is important to balance the food intake and and body requirement and not starving the body with its nutritional requirements.

Diet: Women are fond of food and love gossip munching which unrealisingly makes them consume hundreds of calories through different sources. Our bodies require a certain number of calories, in order to manage the weight the calorie intake has to be monitored, again not missing on the nutrition. Read more

Anti-Inflammatory Foods

Wrong posture or over working the muscle can causes inflammation in the tissues causing pain, redness, swelling and stiffness. Inflammation can happen in any patrt of your body from your toes, legs, joints to the neck, eyes etc.

People who play sports, workout in the gym or general physical exertion can result in inflammation where the body starts to fight the wear and tear of the tissues of excess exercition causing inflammation in the area.

Too much of fat in the body, sugar, protein and dehydration can increase inflammation in the body. Stress and lack of sleep also cause inflammation in the body which can lead to aging and developing diseases. Diseases causes by severe inflammation may not get perceived by the body and grows in the body without much of physical pain.

The following foods can help to reduce inflammation Read more

Strength Training

Strength training is anaerobic style of physical activity that increases the strength of muscles through resistance training, isometric training or weight lifting. The Strength training routine puts the muscles through short duration, high intensity activities that result is better performance and effective weight loss.

Strength training is safe for both men and women of all ages and can be worked according to one physical ability and benefits mental and emotional health. Strength training also helps people with health problems like diabetes, arthiritis, osteoporosis and heart diseases can benefit from it with a good exercise program made around their needs. Old people have many problems like knee pain, back pain which can be a problem in movements. Strength training with light exercise can slowly work on the problem and help you reduce the pain and become fit.

Working on your muscles has many advantages. Read more

How to Reduce Weight

Reduce Weight by managing your diet and exercise. If you are over weight then it doesn’t mean that you have a disease and you need to go on a medication. Eating fat burners and  pills for weight loss will not be the ultimate step in reducing weight but you would gain it back in sometime. We spoke about liposuction and how one gains back the weight after an year at different places.

You have gained weight over a period of time by eating simply more than your body requirement. Suppose your daily caloric requirement is 1500 and you are eating 2000-2500 calories per day, then your body will save the rest 500-1000 calories as fat which adds on by time and becomes a problem.

Here are tips to reduce weight Read more

Weight Loss Diet Plan

Different people at different stages of their lives find it difficult to manage their weight. Everyone knows if you consume more calories than you burn you start putting on weight. The most popular reason behind weight gain is eating unbalanced food.

Sometimes our intake of food with high sugar, salt or the fat content is higher probably because they tend to satisfy us more easily than other foods. Besides these foods are also addictive, the more we have it the more we want it.  All this leads to weight gain. Extra kilos soon start to bother you  and you start finding your own pet solutions to get rid of them. Over a period of trial & error you give that up too and finally start searching for the most effective and healthy weight loss plan which makes you lose weight and keep it off.

Mostly everyone knows what is healthy and what is not.  The biggest challenge, and often the culprit to any weight problem, is identifying what works best for them. People find it difficult to get on a diet program because they think the food will be tasteless and consist of options that you wont enjoy eating. Fortunately there are diet plans  available that are tasty , healthy and promote weight loss without starving you. Which means you dont have to pay someone to starve you to lose weight!

The next question is “how to get started and find the right weight loss diet plan”.  The first step towards losing weight and getting on a weight loss diet plan is to identify a source that understands your daily nutrition requirement based on your lifestyle & food preferences. You must know that  no two people have the same bodytype, metabolic rate or lifestyle  and therefore no generic weight loss diet plans give the same results.

A good & successful Weight loss diet plan should be especially created for you and will help you lose weight by bringing a balance to your diet with the right intake of food as per the body requirements.

Experts at Fitho understand this individual difference and therefore create weight loss diet plans that focus on your eating patterns, routines and habits. The focus of the Weight loss diet plans is to ensure that you get enough food to eat to  maintain your adequate  nutrition intake that is required for the body to function correctly.

The Fitho Weight Loss diet plan is based around a healthy balanced diet, according to the age, taste and preferences and appetite.You get eat what you are used to eating  like vegetarian, non-vegetarians, Indian or non-Indian. We ensure that the diet is based around your individual eating habits for practical, effective and sustainable weight loss results. The food options are easy to prepare with a new menu every day.

For the first time you get a diet plan that makes eating a happy experience!

You can try  the Fitho weight loss diet trial  and decide for yourself.

For more information on Weight loss diet plans you can mail us at fitness@fitho.in

Side Effects of Unhealthy Fad Diets

Any average person suffering from weight issue has at least once in their life have given a shot and tried these fad diets. Its natural for anyone to first indulge in self help before they fail, or their situation in some case worsens, that they seek out professional guidance. Take a minute and reflect on what might you have exposed your body to unintentionally.

Most of the fad diets are popularly termed as “yo-yo” diets that give you a short term solution to quick weight loss but do not guarantee any long term sustenance of the weight loss. Besides it deprives body of nutrition resulting in low blood pressure, reduced energy and fatigue. If you continue to under nourish your body with an unbalanced diet your metabolism also starts to slow Read more

Best Minerals for Weight loss

If losing weight was a child’s play, obesity would never have been an epidemic. Losing weight requires a scientific approach and a planned routine along with proper micro-nutrient supplementation (vitamins and minerals).

In our attempt of losing weight we become obsessed with our carbohydrates, protein, fat and vitamin consumption however nobody really bothers about their mineral intake…..Although it is important but has a very small percentage in our body so without the consultation of your doctor you should not increase the consumption of these important minerals. Moderation and balance is required for healthy living.

You would be surprised to note that body’s weight-related functions – like appetite, hunger, metabolic rate, metabolism of fats and sugars, blood-glucose levels, calorie-burning, and so on – operate more efficiently when we have an optimum intake of minerals.

Therefore it is worth keeping a watch on your minerals. Let’s have a look which minerals are the best for losing weight

Calcium

Recent clinical studies demonstrate a positive relationship between calcium intake and weight-loss. Controlled weight loss studies indicate that increasing calcium intake by the equivalent of two dairy servings per day can reduce the risk of overweight, perhaps by as much as 70 percent. Also, it’s worth remembering that lower-calorie fat-free milk contains the same amount of calcium as full-fat milk. The
same goes for low fat yogurt and reduced fat cheese.

Chromium

Chromium is required for the metabolism of sugar. Without sufficient chromium, insulin is less effective in regulating blood-glucose levels. In this way, chromium helps to control cravings and reduce hunger. Good food sources of chromium include: egg yolks, molasses, beef, hard cheese, liver, fruit juices, and whole grain bread.

Manganese

Manganese helps regulate fat metabolism and blood-glucose. It is needed for a healthy thyroid function which itself is essential to maintain a healthy weight. Good food sources of manganese include: tea, wheat germ, spinach, split peas, nuts, oat germ, oatmeal, pineapple, green leafy vegetables.

Zinc

Zinc helps to regulate appetite. Zinc is also needed for the correct functioning of hormones, like insulin. Zinc deficiency is common among smokers, heavy drinkers, some vegetarians, people with chronic illness and those on non-nutritious or very low calorie diets. Good sources of Zinc include: shellfish, herring, wheat germ, lean beef or lamb, eggs, lentils, Brazil nuts,
almonds, chicken.

Caution: Please discuss with your doctor, before consuming any supplements. Self prescription and over dosage can have serious side effects.

Fire Up Your Metabolism

Firstly we need to understand what metabolism is and then can we have a picture of how metabolism effects weight loss . Metabolism is the amount of energy (calories) your body burns to maintain itself. Whether you are eating, drinking, sleeping, cleaning etc… your body is constantly burning calories to keep you going.

Metabolism is affected by your body composition i.e.  the amount of muscle you have versus the amount of fat. Muscle uses more calories to maintain itself than fat. People who are more muscular… Read more

Whey Protein- For Healthy Diet & Fat Loss

Protein helps build/maintain muscle and perform biological functions. The Indian diet is high on carbohydrates and low on protein, so most Indians actually do not get their daily protein requirement. Its even harder for vegetarians- an egg contains 6 grams of protein, and a glass of milk contains 8 gms. The daily recommended intake for protein is 56 gms for men and 46 gms for women.

Without enough protein in your diet, your body will eat into its own muscle for maintenance. This slows down your metabolism- so you burn fewer calories, and store more fat! Worry not- Protein powder can supplement your diet to ensure you get the recommended protein intake. One scoop of whey protein delivers 20-25 gms of high quality protein. Mix it with juice or milk, yogurt, fruits and you get a delicious, nutritious snack! Here’s a protein packed delicious dessert recipe.

If you play sports, workout or have a physically active occupation, your protein requirements are higher- they can vary from 1.5-2 gms per kg of body weight. So an 80 kg athlete might need to consume 120-160 gms of protein per day. That much protein is hard to get without protein supplements.

A recent study published in the Journal of Nutrition, found that over a 12 month period, participants on a moderately high protein diet lost as much as 38% more fat, than those who followed the USDA Pyramid guidelines- more on how protein helps reduce fat

Myth: Whey protein is only for ‘body builders’. Fact: its for anyone who wants to ensure that they’re getting enough protein in their diet.

Note that not all protein supplements is equal. To make sure you get high quality whey protein- buy from a reputed international brand. Whey protein is higher quality than soy protein. Currently, Indian protein brands produce lower quality protein as compared to international companies like MegaPro.

Next Page »