Get Fit in Five Minutes

HT City : Ready to get fit in five minutes.

Fitho Wellness shares with the readers of HT City the most effective  High Intensity Interval Training  program to lose weight and get fit. A quick, high intensity five minute workout routine chart for beginners and people with moderate fitness levels that can be done at home.

For more read our article.

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 their 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 every time 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.

If you are looking to lose weight and get fit then look out for a healthy weight management course where the plan is made according to your lifestyle. A successful plan should be able to offer you flexibility as well as a structured routine to compliment your fitness level. This is key to keeping you motivated. Your goal should be fitness and not simply weight loss because the main incentive to lose weight is to be healthy.  Going after only weight loss might deprive you of key elements like exercise and nutrition that might make you look thin on the weighing scale but not fit.

How to fuel your workout

If you are doing a moderate workout of 30-50 minutes then fueling your body before workout is not required. The energy required for the workout session is enough from our daily consumption of meals. Fueling before workouts also depends whats your objective is , whether it is  losing weight, building muscles, toning up etc. Only if you are working out for a very long period like marathons then extra energy is required. Regular workouts do not require additional energy.

To increase efficieny in the body it is important to keep the fluid levels balanced. Dehydration and less fluid leads to cramping and decreased release of energy for the body slowing down the metabolism. Water is sufficient to keep you hydrated during your regular gym workouts. Energy drinks and bars are required for marathon trainers or bicyclers where they train for hours. Eating high carbohydrate food or drinks before or during the workout only adds to the calories.

Timing the meal is important as if you overload yourself then you would feel sluggish, vomiting, feel heavy to actively move around etc. If you haven’t eaten for much time before a strenous workout then you will feel fatigued and have a heavy head and not feel comfortable and concentrated. Plan your meals atleast two hours before the workout for effective results.

Diet: Choose carbohydrates before a meal as they are more important for providing energy for the workout and maintaing the glycogen levels. Choose complex carbohydrates which quickly breakdown for energy and eat less of fibre before a workout.

Fuel your self rightly and don’t experiment on yourself. Eat protein rich food post workout for muscle recovery and growth of muscles. Push yourself and reach higher fitness levels. Keep the water levels recovering and become all the more resistant.

Exercise Tips for the Perfect Body

If there are clothes available according to your body type then why not have personalized workouts that work the best with your individual body type. To make it simple we have divided the most common body shapes in women in four different categories. The categories are: pear,straight, curvy and athletic.
Here are some easy tips to keep in mind when working out to get the best body shape.

Pear Shaped: Like an pear the body is wider from the base and thin from the top. This kind of body tends to show you heavy at the bottom. Tone up your arms and shoulders to increase in size and tone down the bottom to find the balance between bottom and top. Shift the focus to the top. Read more

Push Up your Fitness & Fat Burn

To be fit is to be healthy and able to do work efficiently. To do work you need muscles. To do more work you need to develop muscle strength through exercise and weight training. Muscles are all over the body useful in performing various movements like running , walking, lifting, pushing etc.

Have you been doing your push ups ? Whether you are male or female, performing push ups in your workout schedule will help you burn fat & tone your arms, shoulders, abdominal, mid section and Read more

Build Muscle With Your Mind

We want an ideal body to look muscular and be in shape but just cant do it. If you give up your resolution by the end of the day then you probably lack the imagination of seeing your self like how you want to be. Do you have the power to think, imagine and picture about what you want?  Well, if the answer is yes, then you could build muscles with your mind and enhance your training to next level. A recent study concluded that people who are able to imagine about the kind of body they desire are able to achieve their targets much sooner than those who can’t imagine. We look for miracles when it comes to staying fit, but it is in your mind. Picturization in your mind can help you achieve the body you crave for.

Think Positive: Building mind muscle will help you build real muscles. Spending so much time exercising everyone wants it to show physically. Think positive about the exercises that you do, irrespective if it is showing results. Feeling positive about your workouts will show better and effective results.

Priority: You have many thoughts running in your mind simultaneously. Clear your head of all the thoughts. Concentrate and start thinking about your workout. If you are looking to build muscle than visualize your target muscle gaining size or simply focus on the target area where you need to lose weight and imagine the fat melting away.

Acceptance or Denial: Our minds accept or denies, when our mind accepts we move forward with the thought and if it denies we quit. Imagining the workout pattern before helps the mind accept to the challenges it will face and thus becomes prepared to take it on. Imagining also tells the mind what to do and what not to do.

Eat Fuller Calories: Pre-imagining  of fruits, vegetables and other nutritious foods in your diet helps you to eat it more often than people who can imagine. Seeing yourself eating healthier options helps you consume more of it. Eat in smaller plates to psychologically feel that you are eating a lot. Same portion of food in a smaller plate gives you a sense of feeling fuller.

Thinking of the workout pattern before hand gives you the support and advantage to execute and reach the goals. Thinking prepares you for the challenge you will face. A quick tip to try next time you are working out: While running focus on your core muscles. At the end of the workout you will feel the difference!

Caution: Child Obesity in India on the Rise

Pizza’s & Burgers  and junk food joints have become a hot spot for children now a days to fill their tiny stomach’s. Well, pizza’s & the burgers taste nice and exciting but are unable to provide the nutrition that is required for healthy living. Obesity in children has tripled in the past two decades and an alarming concern for us to take note of the fact. The rate of development of mind and body in children decreases with junk food due to the empty calories it provides. A regular pizza provides about 600-800 calories whereas a burger provides you with around 300 calories.

A research report written about a study on Prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents. According to that report 16 % children 6-19 year old are overweight or obese
“this is three times what it was before. In addition, this report brings out the fact that also during this same time period an additional 15% were “at risk of becoming overweight”.

Researchers also warn that children who are fed with junk food have lower IQ than their counterparts who ate nutritious food.  Junk food may fill the stomach but cant provide the quality of energy which nutritious foods provide. Junk foods are high in saturated fat and oil which leads to high cholesterol levels make you feel lazy and drowsy, resulting in lower concentration levels in children. Junk food decrease the efficiency which is important for children. Heart related diseases are growing with obesity and weight gain is normal for people on a junk food diet.

Once the habit is developed for junk food, it gets very difficult to get rid of the addiction. To ensure that kids do not make this unhealthy lifestyle a permanent part of their life one should start inculcating good nutritional habits from the beginning. Ensuring enough physical activities is an equally important aspect of every child’s growth. In case you need professional assistance to get you started on a healthier lifestyle for your family call us for a free consultancy and speak to our expert now.

Jump Start Your Workout

From now on doing proper workouts will not be a problem once you learn a few basics for workout which you should know. Understand how you can start exercising with some suggestions.

How to start?

Divide up your time through out the day any way you want. 4-6 ten minute workouts can do the wonders Read more

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.

Burn more fat from the same exercise

Do you workout or exercise before breakfast? If you’re trying to lose fat, turns out you might be doing the right thing. Recent research says that to burn fat more effectively, you should skip the pre-workout snack. European researchers found that cyclists who trained without eating burned significantly higher amount of fat than their counterparts who ate.

Wonder how this works? If you haven’t eaten before exercising, your body Read more

Is the gym making you fat?

If you’re doing all the wrong things, then it could be possible that your gym is making you fat! Many of us religiously work out at the gym with very little change. Read this and find out what you could be doing wrong and fix it:

Only cardio training: Cardio is great to lose weight, but to get muscle definition in your arms, lift your sagging muscles or get that six pack, you need to do some resistance training. And ladies, you will not get bulky muscles from lifting weights. In fact, you can’t. Else, there wouldn’t be puny guys in the gym trying to gain muscle.

You miscalculate calories: Often people over calculate their workout calories, and under calculate those in their food. More calories in, and less calories out, means weight gain! So, don’t eat those unhealthy samosas after your 30 minute walk.

Same ineffective workout routine: You’ve been doing the same routine, since the dawn of the century. So, you’re body is used to it, and is so efficient at doing the workout, then it doesn’t need to truly exert. You must keep changing your workout routine to make it effective.

Which stretching exercise is best for muscles?

In the first part of this article, we wrote about when you should stretch, how static stretching before a workout can be detrimental, how warming up is good for your workout, and how to warm up effectively.

Instead of static stretching before your workout, try dynamic stretching. Dynamic stretches are specific to the sport or workout. For runners, an ideal warm-up might include squats, lunges and “form drills” like kicking your buttocks with your heels. Athletes who need to move rapidly in different directions, like soccer or basketball players, should do dynamic stretches that involve many parts of the body. “Spider-Man” is a particularly good drill: drop onto all fours and crawl the width of the court, as if you were climbing a wall.

Now, after your workout, you should do static stretching. During your workout, your muscles contract and expand, and go through a lot of rigour. After a strenuous workout, your muscles are sore and devoid of nutrients. Do static stretching now. Stretch each major muscle part of your body (list below). Hold each stretch for 30-60 seconds. The benefit of stretching is that it helps the muscle fibers relax, which in turn helps your body deliver nutrients faster your muscles.  Stretching will help to deliver nutrients faster to your body, and thus help muscle growth. With more muscle, your body will burn more calories at rest, and thus help you lose the fat faster! Stretching post workout also reduces muscle soreness the next morning, seriously!

Below is a list of major muscles in your body, that you must stretch after your workout. In your lower body, stretch your thighs, hamstrings, calves and your glutes. In your upper body, stretch your shoulders, triceps, back, chest, abs and your biceps.

So remember .. stretch after your workout, not before. Spending those 5-10 minutes doing static stretching after your workout is very beneficial!

Stretch After Exercise, not Before- Why

When you look around the gym or the running track, you see people performing stretches before a workout. Why? Because traditionally, we were taught stretching is key before a workout. But recent research disagrees with the old adage of static stretching before a workout. It is now believed that static stretching before a workout besides being a waste of time, is also detrimental to performance.

In a recent study conducted by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, athletes generated less force from their leg muscles after static stretching than they did after not stretching at all. In another study, it was found that stretching decreases muscle strength by as much as 30%!

[ Note: Fitho always stressed the benefit of stretching post workout, like in this article on tips to run ]

To prepare your muscles for a workout, its important to do two things- loosen muscles and tendons to increase range of motion and to physically warm up. A warm up increases body heat and blood flow. Warm muscles use your muscle fuel more effectively and can withstand better loads.

To raise body temperature, begin with some aerobic activity, like light jogging. That’s why your tennis coach made you run around the court before training.

Just don’t run too much, so you’re too tired for the real workout! (click here for running tips)

Check out our next article to know more how what stretches to do before, after your workout!

Nutrition timing is key to muscle building

Before most of the women stop reading this article, we have to tell you that this article is as important for you as it is for guys. Building muscle is key to looking good and being healthy for both men and women. Losing fat is good, but if you don’t have muscle, how will you get those toned arms, that flat midriff, the shapely butt, and those hot legs. All these body parts have muscle supporting them. And if the muscle is in good shape, then it looks good

Coming back to the topic- timing of nutrition. For ease of explanation, I will break the day up into 3 parts, pre workout, post workout and regular.

Pre-workout nutrition is important because this is the fuel for your workout. Sure, you might be eating through the day- remember that your body was probably using up what you ate. So, before your workout, eat a snack which is low in fat, and has a carboydrate:protein ratio of 1:1. So, if it has 25 gms of carbohydrates, then it should also have 25 gms of protein. This ratio is suggested, since the carbohydrates will help to fuel your workout and the protein will be used to supply to the muscles during your workout. Note, that it should be a low fat snack/meal. Fat slows down the absorption of nutrients into the body, so if your pre workout snack is high fat, then it won’t be absorbed quick enough by your body to really fuel your workout. Ensure that the carbs are not all simple carbohydrates, since that will give you instant energy, but will also create an energy crash, which affects motivation. A good protein shake should provide you with this mix of nutrients (Note, protein shake mixes vary, so note their contents). If you don’t have access to protein shake, then a chicken/turkey sandwich, with some cheese and wheat bread should do. If you’re vegetarian, then try the protein shake, or some lightly spiced chole (since they have both complex carbs and protein in them)

Post workout nutrition is key since after your workout, your muscles are sore and all the glycogen from your muscles in completely depleted. Your muscles are in a repair mode, and you want to supply it with nutrition to ensure that they repair themselves and build further on the existing muscle. Your post workout snack should be eaten within 30 minutes of completing your workout. It should again be a low fat snack, with a carb:protein ratio of 2:1. Low fat because it will speed up the absorption process. This snack needs a higher carbohydrate content because your muscles’ glycogen stores are depleted and to repair them, to supply them with nutrients your body needs fast dissolving carbohydrates. So, this is the time you want to eat simple carbohydrates (carbs with high Glycemic Index). The protein should be preferably whey protein since it is absorbed faster by your body. For this snack, high nutrient absorption rate is key. If your snack is liquid, all the better. An ideal post workout shake is low fat chocolate milk. Or a protein shake with honey, or other simple carbs. Another simple snack is low fat yogurt with sugar- yogurt has a combination of whey (fast absorbing protein) and casein (slow absorbing protein), and the sugar/yogurt will give you fast absorbing carbohydrates. At this time, you can also pop in a multivitamin with your snack. The vitamins and minerals are micro-nutrients that help perform body functions and help with building muscle.

Rest of the day: Through the rest of the day, feed yourself every 2-3 hours. Your muscles need food for maintenance, so you need to keep supplying them with it. Ensure you get healthy fats, from sources like nuts, fish, olive oil. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables to ensure you get all the nutrients.

Time your nutrition correctly, and you’re all set to get that hot body!