Sunday, December 27, 2009

Portion Control

When it comes to losing weight or maintaining a current healthy weight one of the most important things is portion control. Portion control is so simple and yet companies like Jenny Craig, Medifast, Nutrisystem, and various other companies make a fortune selling meals that are nothing more than 300-500 calories per serving. Not to mention I'm sure many of these meals have a ton of preservatives in order to keep them "fresh" and they end up losing a lot of their nutritional value because of this. All you have to do is read the ingredients on the box and I'm sure that you haven't heard of 90% of the ingredients. So many experts tell people that if they don't know what the ingredients on the box or package are you shouldn't eat it and I couldn't agree more. Look up some of these ingredients on an online search and you'll be astonished about what they are. It's pretty amazing what ingredients these companies put in their products and it's even more surprising that people are willing to consume them on a regular basis.

Being someone who has been a health and fitness fanatic for about 15 years now I can't begin to tell you how many books, articles, blogs, and various other publications I have read on health and fitness. One thing that most publications, personal trainers, and doctors all agree on is that eating small meals throughout the day is crucial if you want a healthy and fit body. One of the biggest reasons eating small meals is so important is because your metabolism speeds up when your body is processing food. This is why breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It breaks your fast from the 7-8 hours of sleep you've hopefully just had since you didn't eat when you were asleep and gets your metabolism cranking to start your day. Experts say that people who skip breakfast typically have a higher body fat percentage than people who don't because their bodies store fat in the absence of food. There are so many people who feel that if they skip meals and work out that their body will use their body fat for energy and burn it right off. This is completely false. Your body will feed off your lean muscle before it starts feeding off your body fat for energy. That is why it's so important to eat healthy foods every 3-5 hours depending on your calorie needs for the day. The average American eats about 2,000 calories a day but keep in mind everyone's calorie needs are different depending on age, activity level, sex, weight, and height. To give you an example of how many calories you should consume here is the formula I use on a daily basis to maintain my current weight of 155 lbs. When I have tweaked it to get to a desired weight it has also never failed me:

The first thing you want to figure out is your Basal Metabolic Rate, also known as BMR. Use this link to figure out your BMR:

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

My BMR is 1684.45. I'm a 5'8" 31 year old male who weighs 155 lbs. Here is how BMR is actually calculated in case you're wondering:

Men: BMR = 66 + (6.23 X weight in lbs.) + (12.7 X height in inches)-(6.8*age in years)

Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 X weight in lbs.) + (1.8 X height in inches) - (4.7 X age in years)


Once you know your BMR the next step is to determine your activity level to figure out how many calories you need to maintain your current weight. You can also adjust the weight in the formula's above to reflect your desired weight which will allow you to set your daily calorie intake to help you achieve your goal of weight loss or more simply use the website link above and put in your desired weight on the site.

Now figure out your activity level to figure out how many calories you need:

Sedentary (little or no exercise)=BMR*1.2
Lightly Active (exercises 1-3 days a week)=BMR *1.375
Moderately Active (exercises 3-5 days a week)=BMR*1.55
Very Active (exercises 6-7 days a week)=BMR*1.9

Using myself as an example I need to consume about 3,200 calories per day since I'm very active. Doing this is very easy but it does take dedication and calorie counting. I measure my food by reading food labels to determine serving sizes and I use a measuring cup religiously so I know how many calories I'm consuming during each meal. I have been doing this for about 2 years now and it has never failed me.

As far as meals go I recommend eating whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and lean protein such as chicken and fish. I also recommend cutting out alcohol or allowing yourself a couple of drinks a week. This was the hardest part for me since I'm a single guy who likes to go out to the bars with friends. It's still something I do once in a while but I don't drink as much as my college days. By doing so I feel much better and I have seen mo body fat percentage drop significantly by doing so. When you consume alcohol your liver starts metabolizing the alcohol as soon as you take your first sip and will ignore processing body fat when it does this. It can take 2 hours for your liver to process up to 2 drinks during this process.

In conclusion, work on eating small meals of 300-500 calories throughout the day until you reach your recommended caloric intake. Make sure you put healthy foods into your system and cut back on alcohol intake. Even if you don't exercise, controlling your caloric intake will keep your body weight in check and make you feel great.

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Sunday, December 20, 2009

What's the Secret to Living to 100?

I've been an advocate of healthy living for about 15 years now and I truly love eating healthy and exercising because it makes me feel good. I also do it because I would like to live to 100 and with all the experts talking about the benefits of exercise and healthy eating and how it is your best chance of living disease free and also increasing your life span I have made sure my lifestyle includes exercise and healthy eating on a regular basis. I can't say I don't cheat because let's face it, life isn't worth living if you're not going to have fun and indulge every once in a while.

Another thing I love to do is read. I read about 1-2 books a week because I truly love to learn (and show off when Jeopardy is on). One of the things I love to read about is health and fitness. I have read several books on the subject and consider myself pretty educated when it comes to this topic. Because I enjoy reading books on these subjects I also enjoy reading news articles related to health and fitness. One subject that really interests me is Centenarians. These are people who live to the age of 100 and over. I enjoy reading about these people and how they've lived their lives to be able to reach this age and beyond. What amazes me the most is that most of these people haven't lived an overly healthy lifestyle and some of them have quite a bit in common. One common trait a lot of them do share is that they never overeat. In a country like the US that is extremely rare since the portions we're accustomed to are huge compared to other countries all over the world. Over 70% of Americans are overweight with around 25% of these overweight people being obese. I know how I feel when I eat to much and it is a terrible feeling. Eating small portions throughout the day is something almost every book and article talks about in regards to living a long and healthy life and it's interesting to see that most Centenarians have always lived this way. Another trait they have in common is that the majority of them have always had healthy blood pressure levels throughout their entire lives. We all know the importance of maintaining healthy blood pressure levels but hyptertension is a problem many people have. One thing I found extremely interesting about Centenarians is that a lot them were never big into exercising throughout their lives. I find this fact extremely interesting because I associate a sedentary lifestyle as being unhealthy but I'm sure they were active in other ways. Some Centenarians believe that having an alcoholic beverage once a day throughout their adult lives has contributed to their long lifespans especially since some research says a drink or two a day is actually good for you. Some Centenarians even took up smoking in their later years but they definitely don't associate this with living long. It's just an unhealthy habit they took up in their later years that hasn't affected their health.

In closing, many things contribute to living a long life. Overall, I think it comes down to heredity, eating small portions, and taking the necessary supplements and medications your doctor recommends. I've read so many stories of how people who are big into fitness drop dead from a massive heart attack and it makes me wonder if there is really a benefit to it if your goal is to love to 100. So many people I know who live a long life are not gym goers and don't eat overly healthy. What they do have in common is a positive attitude, the ability to eat small meals and not give into the temptation of stuffing their bellies, healthy blood pressure levels, and taking the recommended medications and supplements that their doctors recommend. What do you think the secret of living to 100 is?

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Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Why Are People Scared of Pills?

I was recently looking at the news online and came across an article that talked about pills that have a positive effect on cancer prevention and/or treatment and why people don't use them.

I don't know about you but I've been taking multivitamins for years now and I'm all for taking medications that help prevent diseases as well. With such tremendous breakthroughs in technology over the past several years I personally have a lot of faith in most medications that the FDA approves and that companies market to help prevent diseases. I think the reason I'm so confident in these medications is because they have gone through rigorous testing prior to being approved. If a doctor suggested that I take a pill in order to prevent a disease I would do my own research before saying yes but most likely I would take the pill.

According to an article I was reading it appears that most people who are at high risk of certain cancers would rather not take a pill because they are afraid of side effects. And this is even after their doctor has explained that the benefits far outweigh the risks. This just doesn't make any sense to me since the only other alternative might be a painful and agonizing death brought on by the disease. I must say the human psyche is very interesting in this regard. This is known as Omission Bias which means people tend to worry more about a low risk of harm from something they do than about a higher risk of harm from doing nothing. I must say I'm truly amazed by this finding. I can't say I have this bias since I have too much faith in technology nowadays. I think the media plays a big role in why people are so scared of side effects to be honest with you. I have to admit that I don't watch the news very much because 99% of it is just negative. A common theme I see on the news is people dying from taking medications that were supposed to help them. Of course they usually fail to explain that of the 100,000 people taking a drug that only 5 have died from it. I do realize there are side effects to taking these kinds of medications but in all reality your risk of developing serious side effects are very low. I would rather take a pill knowing that there is a 95% chance I will benefit from it than a 5% chance I will have serious side effects from it. I think these are better odds than doing nothing and having a 99% chance that I will die from a particular disease because I was too worried about possible side effects.

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