Diet or exercise: Which is more important for weightloss?
This has been an ongoing controversy for many years. For optimal fat loss, should you focus more on your diet or your exercise routine? All in all, you do need a balance of both. You must follow a diet and exercise in order to get the absolute best result. But when it comes down to which contributes more, you may be surprised as to what the answer is.
Simply put, exercise is the easy part…at least for most people. A majority of the population finds it much easier to get to the gym and break a sweat than to put down that piece of bread or stop themselves from another serving of dinner.
Exercise is always more favourable than dieting. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just exercise and eat whatever you want? Well, that’s sure as heck not the case! Dieting contributes to about 90 per cent of fat loss, leaving only 10 per cent to exercise. This may come as a big surprise to you, but it is true. How come? Read more to find out why dieting has an advantage over exercise when it comes to weightloss.
You can’t out-exercise a bad diet
This is such a popular phrase in the fitness world and it is probably one of the truest statements out there. Many people believe that if they work their butt off in the gym, that they can go home and eat what they want.
The main idea behind exercising is to burn calories. The unhealthy foods that you reward yourself with afterward are chockfull of unnecessary calories. Take this for example: You stop by the McDonald’s drive-thru with some friends and splurge on a Big Mac. In the back of your head you’re thinking ‘I’ll just go to the gym later’. Well, hold that thought and put the Big Mac down! In order to burn off a Big Mac, you would need to bust your butt in the gym for at least 90 minutes of full-on intense cardio, just to create a small calorie deficit.
This goes for all foods, not only Big Macs. In order to lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume. If you have bad dietary habits, chances are that’s not happening and that’s the reason why you aren’t losing weight. All the exercise in the world can’t help a bad diet.
Foods That Help You Sleep
Getting a good night’s sleep makes your work day (or school day) go so much better. If you have difficulty sleeping, you already know how tough staying alert during the day can be. But did you know that sleep is also important for your health? People who have chronic sleep loss are also at a higher risk of being obese, having heart disease, diabetes and kids with ADHD often have sleep disorders.
If you don’t get enough sleep at night, you might rely on caffeine to keep you awake during the day. Drinking a cup or two of coffee in the morning is fine, but you’re drinking more than that, you may need to cut back, especially if you’re drinking a lot of that coffee in the afternoon. Quitting the caffeine habit isn’t easy or comfortable. Many people suffer from withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, drowsiness, flu-like feelings, irritability and lack of concentration when they give up caffeine cold turkey. You can avoid those symptoms by gradually withdrawing. Try blending decaffeinated coffee with regular coffee. Increase the amount of decaf over a few weeks time.
The relationship between your diet and good sleep doesn’t end with caffeine. There are several other ways to use foods to help you sleep better.
Avoid heavy or spicy foods. Or any foods you know that may cause heartburn, making it difficult for you to sleep at night.
Don’t drink too much alcohol. Although alcohol may make you drowsie, over-consumption of your favorite adult beverages may cause a very restless uncomfortable night.
Eat cherries. Not only are they rich in vitamins, cherries contain melatonin, a substance also found in the human body that helps regulate sleep. Eating fresh or dried cherries before you go to bed at night may help you sleep better:
Enjoy a light bedtime snack. Choose carbohydrates and dairy products, like a small bowl of whole grain cereal and non-fat milk. Carbohydrates make it easier to fall asleep and dairy products contain tryptophan, which may also help. Other foods that contain tryptophan include bananas, oats, and honey.
Avoid eating excessive fats. People who eat a lot of fatty foods may also have more difficulty sleeping. Be sure to get enough omega-3 fatty acids each day, however, because eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA – one type of omega-3 found in fish, especially tuna, salmon and trout) has a role in sleep induction in your brain.
Healthy Foods to Help You Gain Weight
Do you need to gain weight? You’re underweight if your Body Mass Index is below 18.5. If you fall into this category, you need to eat more calories every day in order to reach a healthier weight. However, that isn’t always as easy as it sounds. You don’t want to just add extra calories by eating junk foods that are high in calories but not nutritious. Choose foods that are nutrient-dense and energy-dense whenever possible.
Bagels
Pasta
Dried Fruits
Healthy Fats and Oils
Avocados
Nuts and Seeds
Granola
Fruit Juice
Foods That May Help Keep Eyes Healthy
Your vision is important, and the foods you eat may help to keep your eyes healthy. Your eyes require vitamin A for normal vision, and research indicates that nutrients such as vitamin C, vitamin E, beta carotene (vitamin A precursor) and an antioxidant called lutein may help to reduce the risk of advanced age-related macular degeneration – a leading cause of blindness in the elderly. Other studies suggest that omega-3 fatty acids may help protect eyes from retinal degeneration and ease the discomfort of dry eyes.
The researchers used large amounts of nutrients in these studies — similar to what you may find in specially formulated dietary supplements. However, there are some superfoods that are high in some of these eye-protecting nutrients and pack a powerful nutritional punch.
- Carrots and Carotenes
- Sweet Potatoes Have Vitamins and Minerals
- Strawberries Have Vitamin C and Folate
- Oranges Have Vitamin C and Potassium
- Almonds and Healthy Fats
- Oysters and Zinc
- Green Leafy Spinach
- Salmon and Omega-3 Fats
Vitamin D lowers bone-fracture risk only at high doses
If you’re wondering whether to take a vitamin D supplement to keep your bones healthy, it’s understandable if you – and even your doctor – are at a loss.
The study, a re-analysis of data from 11 clinical trials comprising more than 31,000 people age 65 and older, found that vitamin D supplements – which are often combined with calcium supplements – are associated with a lower risk of bone fracture only when taken at high doses.
New study hints loneliness can play a big role in person’s health
When it comes to health, loneliness seems to matter, suggests a new study that found a connection between feeling lonely and shorter lifespans.
The study appeared in June in the Archives of Internal Medicine and focused on a specific population: adults over the age of 60. As study participants were tracked over six years, those who self-reported feelings of loneliness were more likely to experience “functional decline” — i.e. decreased mobility, difficulty with activities of daily living and so on — and also died sooner.
The study piggybacks on another piece of research, also published last month in the Archives of Internal Medicine, that found increased mortality among adults who had heart disease or were at high risk of heart disease and who lived alone.
So does this mean loneliness is a threat to health? Some of the headlines have been blunt in concluding this — “Being lonely can kill you, studies say,” to name just one.
Egg for breakfast best way to fight the flab
Eggs are the best way to start the day for those who want to lose weight.
A major UK review of studies into the effects of eating eggs has found that egg contains a powerful ingredient that can help to cut the amount of calories people go on to eat at lunch and dinner.
Scientists say boiled, fried, poached or scrambled, eggs keep people fuller for longer compared with other common breakfast foods.
This appears to help people who are desperately trying to resist tempting but naughty afternoon snacks such as biscuits, cake or chocolate.
The review, published in the journal Network Health Dietitian, also revealed that the specific proteins found in eggs are far superior to other types when it comes to keeping hunger at bay.
Dietitian Dr Carrie Ruxton examined the results of six different studies over eight years.
The studies show a consistent effect on satiety and short-term energy intake. Two studies found changes in appetite-related gut hormones, which may explain why egg-eaters feel full.
A single, longer-term study revealed that people who ate an egg breakfast rather than having cereal had a significantly greater weight loss and lost inches around the waist.
The Massive Arms Home Workout
Junk food inflames fatty tissue more than lard
The study analyzed inflammatory responses in rats fed different diets: control diets, a lard-based high-fat diet, and a “cafeteria junk-food” diet consisting of nutrient-poor snacks such as salami, chocolate, cookies, and chips.
“The diet that consisted of human junk food caused the most inflammation and dramatic metabolic changes,” says Liza Makowski, assistant professor of nutrition at theUniversity of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health and the study’s senior author.
A junk-food diet contains many ingredients associated with increased risk for coronary artery disease, stroke, and Type 2 diabetes, including saturated fat, trans-fats, sodium, and cholesterol. The diet also is low in protective nutrients such as fiber.
While it has been known for some time that obesity can cause inflammation in fatty tissue, Makowski says, this study is one of the first to show that a junk-food diet may cause dramatic alterations in certain metabolites—molecular chemicals created when food is converted to energy.
These alterations may be responsible for obesity-induced inflammation and increased insulin resistance and could be a major contributing factor to metabolic syndrome, the cluster of factors that increase a person’s risk for coronary artery disease, stroke, and Type 2 diabetes.
The junk-food diet used in the study may be superior to high-fat diets for modeling modern human obesity trends, including exposure to energy-dense and nutrient-poor diets, early and rapid obesity development, and elevated markers of metabolic syndrome and inflammation.
New Study Suggests Low-fat Diets Aren’t Effective
With Americans becoming increasingly overweight each year, weight loss is big business. This paves the way for any number of diet books and fads. Some of these are based upon sound scientific principles, while others may not work at all, or may result in a modest weight loss followed by rebound weight gain.
A preliminary scientific study — one neither large enough nor strong enough to be considered conclusive at this point — suggests that low-fat diets may be less effective than other weight-loss strategies from a metabolic perspective [1].
The study was conducted upon a very small group of individuals (21 in total) who had already lost some weight. The participants followed three different diets (in no particular order) for 4 weeks each: a low-fat diet, a low-glycemic diet, and a low-carbohydrate (Atkins-type) diet.
