Is Swimming an Effective Exercise in Helping Me Stay Healthy?

Is Swimming an Effective Exercise?  The secret to getting exercise work wonders is through consistency. You will never lose that excess weight and stay healthy if you don’t keep religious with your exercise schedule. One of the major causes of inconsistency is lack of discipline, commitment, and motivation.

To counter this, I advise that you seek exercise that is enjoyable for you. By creating an enjoyable exercise regimen, you won’t have to dread each coming exercise session. Instead, you’ll be looking forward to it! One of the most fun and enjoyable exercises out there is swimming.

Swimming is a great form of aerobic exercise that everyone can learn and practice. It’s great since it practically exercises all the muscles in your body, including your heart muscle! A healthy dose of swimming weekly can keep you healthy, young, and strong.

A lot of people find swimming fun and exciting. If you are one of those people, then you’d better sign up to the nearest gym with a pool. You can use this as your exercise and you can remain consistent since it’s something you like to do.

So, is Swimming an Effective Exercise?  Swimming, like most aerobic exercises, increases your heart rate and body metabolism. This means that it burns calories and helps you shed off weight. To make it effective, you should swim for at least 20 minutes each session. The 20 minutes must be spent doing laps, not wading and splashing around. You can do this after your exercise to cool off and have fun.

There are a lot of strokes you can use when doing your swimming laps. You can either do the freestyle or frontstroke, backstroke, breast stroke, or the butterfly stroke. The freestyle is probably the easiest to learn and exercises all your muscles. It is a great stroke for beginners. The backstroke and breast stroke are strokes that are a bit tough to learn, but once you get a hang of them, you can easily use them for more variety in your exercise. The butterfly is the hardest stroke to learn. It is a high-intensity stroke for advanced swimmers.

Start out with easy strokes and a few laps each day. Work yourself up when you feel your usual laps aren’t that hard to do anymore. Don’t over exert yourself and do bobbings every end of a lap. Never forget to stretch and warm up before swimming, and cool down after. You don’t want to get hurt, especially while you swim. Finally, it’s best to bring a swimming buddy with you. You can not only motivate yourselves, but you can also watch out for each other in the pool. Is Swimming an Effective Exercise?  With everything mentioned above, yes it is. 

Weight Loss Myth #3: Eating One Meal a Day

Here is another weight loss myth. People often get the concept that in order to lose weight, they should eat one meal a day and live off water. Well, that may be an exaggeration but you get my point. But in truth, dieticians encourage people who want to lose weight to eat at least five meals in one day.

You might be wondering if you’re reading some bogus advice. However, this fact is accurate. According to experts, eating 5 meals in a day will help you lose weight because you will be feeling full the entire day, you won’t get cravings for impulsive meals like burgers, fries, potato chips, and all those other food that gets your mouth watering when you see a commercial.

These five meals must contain a health and well-balanced breakfast, lunch, and dinner and two light snacks. The food you need to aim for are high fiber (green, leafy vegetables, and fruits), moderate carbohydrates (rice, bran muffins, whole wheat toast), good sources of fat (fish oil, vegetable oil, olive oil and the like), and lean proteins (fish, chicken, pork, and steak without the fatty parts).

The main food you need to stay away from are those loaded with bad cholesterol and sodium. They can be in the forms of canned food, junk food, burgers, pizza, fries, sodas, instant noodles and the like. Typically, all fast foods are unhealthy and almost all processed food too. Remember, it doesn’t mean that if it’s not salty, it’s low in sodium. You should learn to read content labels when choosing your food.

Eating five meals in a day doesn’t mean you’re overeating. You need to balance out your five meals or get a consult from a dietician if you need advice about what to eat and how much. It’s not the number of meals you eat in a day, but how you control what you eat.

Depriving yourself of adequate food will starve and hurt your body in the long run. You may not see the effects of starvation, but as it progresses, you could die. Giving yourself adequate food through 5 divided meals daily will keep you well-nourished and cancel out sudden impulses on food cravings. Make sure to cross out this practice as a weight loss myth. 

Learn How to Count Calories - Step 5 - Tracking Your Daily Caloric Intake

Welcome to the last step of your 5-step How to Count Calories guide. I bet each of you have finally formulated plans circling around your daily calorie targets. If you’ve done that, then good! You’re almost done. If not, then take your time. This is not a race and we need to make sure we do things the right way.

So if you’re ready for the fifth and final step, then it’s all about tracking your daily caloric intake. Since you’ve done the planning and done the implementing, it’s time to do the evaluating. How many calories were you able to eat today?

Well, if you try to recall everything you ate today on the top of your head, you’d probably miss some items and end up with a bad answer. The most effective way to keep track is to keep a Food Journal. This journal can be the size of your palm, so you can carry it anywhere and write down things on the go. Write about all the things you ate and by how much. However, if you have high-end phones, PDAs, or other gadgets, you can use them as well.

At the end of the day, open up your journals (or phones) and calculate how much calories you were able to eat. Did you fall on or below your daily caloric intake target? If yes, then congratulations! Make sure to keep it up! If no, then don’t worry. We’re still starting out. They say the best start is to begin at the bottom and end on top. It would be bad if it were the other way around.

If you exceeded your daily target and ended up with more calories than you intended, try to review the things you’ve eaten today. You will probably find some things you can live the day without. Like a cupcake, a glass of soda, pieces of fries, a bag of chips, or other things that shouldn’t be in your diet. Try to keep a mental note to avoid these foods the next day.

If you’ve lost all the junk food in your diet but you’re still exceeding limits, try to minimize your eating. For example, instead of eating 1 serving of potatoes per meal, try half a serving. Apply this concept in other things too.

Just remember, when your cutting things out of your diet, start with the non-healthy and calorie packed food first. So if it’s a choice between your usual chocolate dessert for dinner and your morning apple, lose the chocolate.

All these calorie counting may be hard at first. But if you put your mind into it and integrate it in your system for 1 week, you’ll find that it’s human nature to count calories. You probably won’t remember the time when you didn’t count them. By now, you should be an expert when it comes to how to count calories. 

Learn How to Count Calories - Step 4 - Controlling How Much You Eat

By now, you’ll have already learned about the basic concepts of calories, how to count them, and have decided how much calories you’re going to take daily. Congratulations on making it this far! This is the fourth step of your 5-step plan in learning how to count calories.

Now that you have decided on a daily calorie intake that can help you lose weight, we’re going to talk about controlling how much you eat. Obviously, counting calories and setting goals won’t be enough. You need to put that into action and lose that fat.

I understand this may be the most difficult step. What we need to do to help you out, is to keep things real, practical, and feasible. What I mean is we need to taper or wean you off your usual eating habits until you fully implement the number of calories you’re supposed to be eating daily to lose weight.

Let’s say for example you drink 10 glasses of soda daily. That’s a lot of soda (and a lot of calories)! So you can lose weight, you’ll need to get rid of this habit completely.

Saying that starting tomorrow, you won’t drink soda (not even 1 drop!) is impractical, unrealistic, and not feasible. You’re mind might be set on the idea but your body will be screaming for your daily dose of soda. So what we need to do to help you completely get rid of the habit is to take things slowly.

Instead of immediately getting rid of the soda-habit on day 1, why not drink 8 glasses of soda on day 1 instead of 10? On day 2, you can drink 6 glasses and so on until you reach day 5 where you shouldn’t be drinking any glasses of soda at all. This way, we taper your body off your habits until it gets used of not having them. Apply these on your other eating habits. This will help you control what you eat.

Another technique on controlling what you eat is to drink a glass of water before meals. This will help you get full faster. A major advice most professionals can give you is to eat 5 meals a day. That’s three nutritious meals and two light snacks. This will help you feel full throughout the day and diminish those sudden food cravings and eating impulses. Just make sure you fit your daily caloric intake within those 5 meals. That should be a cinch for you, now that you know how to count calories!

Learn How to Count Calories - Step 3 - Knowing How Much to Cut From Your DIet

Let's continue to step 3 in how to count calories correctly. By now, you’d have determined how much calories your body needs daily to function and keep you going. Now, it’s time to make a choice on how much calories you need to cut. 

The choice is totally up to you. However, I need to advice you that you may only shave off 250-500 calories from your daily calorie needs. So, if you have a daily calorie need of 2, 500, then you may only go down as far as 2, 000 calories a day. Under no circumstance are you allowed to cut down on more than 500 calories from your daily requirements. This will leave you weak, fatigued, and could make you susceptible to sickness.

For every 250 calories you cut down on, you will be reducing your weight by 0.5 lbs per week. So, if you cut back on 500 calories daily, you will lose 1 pound a week. Remember, that’s on dieting alone. You could lose more when you exercise. Simple walking for 30 minutes in a day will be enough to get you going.

Now that you know how many calories you should take in daily, it’s time to count calories from food labels! You can find these labelled as Nutrition Facts. They can be found in every packed, canned, or boxed product in the grocery store. Some grocery stores are kind enough to post calorie contents for items that are not packed, like fruits and vegetables.

There are two things you need to look at when you check out the Nutrition Facts. The first one is the serving size. This can refer to the average amount of product provided per serving. For example, 1 cup from a bag of sugar is equal to one serving. Another good example would be 1 piece of chocolate from a box of assorted chocolates is one serving.

The second and most important thing to check is the calories contained per serving. So for example, one chocolate from a bag of chocolates is one serving, and the box says each serving contains 100 calories. Let’s say you ate 3 pieces of chocolate. That’s equal to three servings, which is equal to 300 calories.

You will depend on these two numbers for you daily calorie counting. If you can’t find Nutritional Labels for some food like meat, fish, chicken, vegetables, and fruits, you can always research online and check how much is considered one serving for these foods and how many calories are contained per serving.

You can do these methods to plan out your meal so you can comply with your calorie restrictions. Make sure not to starve yourself. Stick to your calorie requirements and you should stay healthy while losing weight. This ends step 3 in learning how to count calories. 

Learn How to Count Calories - Step 2 - Determining How Much Calories Your Body Needs to Function

Now that you know what calories are for, and how they are very important in your daily life, I think you are prepared for step 2 when you want to learn how to count calories.

So that we’ll know by how much you need to limit your calories, let’s talk about calculating how much calories your body needs to stay functional and healthy. Everything above the number we will come up with will be slashed out from your diet. So for example, if you body only needs 3000 calories to perform all your activities and bodily functions, then we need to limit your daily calorie intake at around 3000 calories too.

But before we go on to calculating, let’s cover some few basic concepts so you don’t get confused. Let’s start by asking this question: What is the basis in determining how much calories our body needs daily?

The answer here is BMR or your Basal Metabolic rate. Your basal metabolic rate is the total amount of calories your body needs to perform daily activities and bodily functions.

Now, I don’t want to explain the equation to get your body’s BMR because I know how people get when explaining math equations. So, to help your life easier, I will provide a link at the end of this article which can lead you to a site that automatically calculates your BMR. All you need to do is input some information like your age, weight, and daily activities. STOP! Before you skip right on to the bottom of this article for the link, read on for 1 more minute. I need you to get to know one more concept, which is vitally the key in weight loss and one of the main points in counting calories.

Presuming you know how much your BMR is now, you now need to know how much calories you’re going to take. The Harris-Benedict equation can help you solve how much calories you need to take daily to MAINTAIN your weight. I know, you’re probably thinking that you want to LOSE weight, not maintain it. Hold on to your horses and let me explain for just a bit more.

The Harris-Benedict equation shows that if you perform absolutely no exercises daily, multiply your BMR with the number 1.9. The answer is the amount of calories you need to take daily to maintain weight. If you exercise 1-3 days a week, multiply your BMR with 1.375. If you exercise 3-5 days a week, multiple it by 1.55. If you exercise 6-7 days a week, multiply your BMR by 1.725. And if you exercise twice a day, everyday, then multiply it by 1.9.

Now, hold on to that number you got. Harris-Benedict equation lets you get the amount of calories you need to take to maintain weight. So let’s apply this in LOSING weight. Let’s say you got an answer of 2,500 calories from the equation. That means you need to eat 2,500 calories daily to maintain weight. If you reduced the amount to 2,000 calories, then that would mean that you will get a 1 pound weight loss every 7 days. And the great thing is that’s just from diet alone! Imagine what you can do if you added exercise with it!

Now that you’re fortified with the necessary education and concepts behind calories and counting them, you can now visit this website (http://www.stevenscreek.com/goodies/calories.shtml) which can help you count your BMR. When you’ve got your BMR, use the Harris-Benedict equation to calculate your calorie needs daily to maintain weight. Subtract a few hundred calories from your answer, and you’re on your way to a healthy weight losing diet! I hope you're getting better as you learn how to count calories by now!

Learn How to Count Calories - Step 1 - Do We Need Calories?

So you want to learn how to count calories? The general principle with dieting for weight loss is to eat lesser calories than your body burns on a daily basis. Weight loss using effective dieting is basically a game with numbers.  You need to eat lesser calories than the actual amount your body will burn as it functions throughout the day.

Before jumping in to counting calories, let’s cover the fundamentals first and help you know what you are dealing with.

By now, you probably think that calories are the villains that are making your life miserable. Well, at one point, you’re right. However, calories are not all that bad. In fact, they’re keeping you alive and breathing as you’re reading through this article right now. Let’s get to know calories a little bit.

Let’s pretend were in a 4^th grade classroom and our teacher asks us a few health questions.

Teacher: “What makes our bodies move?”

Pupils: “Our muscles!”

Teacher: “Very good! What makes our muscles move?”

Pupils: “Ummm... cells?”

Teacher: “Well, to be specific, it’s your nerve cells and muscle cells. Now, what makes a small microscopic cell move your entire body?”

Pupils: “...”

Well, probably our boy-genius classmate could have answered that when we were on 4^th grade. But for our whole class’ benefit, the answer to the last question is CALORIES.

We do a lot of things daily. Can you list some of your daily activities? I bet they include walking, running, cooking, washing, bathing, driving, typing, talking, laughing, and all other things that make life dynamic. Your cells help you do these things, and they expend calories so you can do them. Calories act as your body’s energy source, same way as a car runs on gasoline. By now, you’ve probably realized the thousands of things we do daily, and the thousands of calories we need to maintain those activities.

If you still have a bad impression of calories, then please read on. You’ve probably thought about the thousands of things you do that spends calories. By now, you’re probably thinking about walking more each day to burn more of those villains. If you think that way, then swell! At least were starting to get a move on with your lifestyle changes. However, have you ever thought of the involuntary stuff your body does to keep you alive? Breathing, pumping blood, digesting food, thinking, and feeling all expend calories. So as you can see, you don’t only need calories to move, you need it to live.

Now that you are enlightened with the use of calories within our bodies, I am sure you won’t go off and do extreme dieting that could shrivel up your bodies and cause more health problems. Remember, WE NEED CALORIES. It’s just a matter of counting them so we know how much we need, and how much we can lose. Proceed to Step 2 to learn how to count calories better. 

Am I Morbidly Obese? Know if You Are!

Am I morbidly obese? morbidly obese person is an individual that is experiencing health problems due to obesity. They can also be people who are at risk for these health problems for being severely overweight but are not yet experiencing any effects. In short, a morbidly obese person is someone who’s excess weight could contribute to his demise.

So how do we answer the question: Am I morbidly obese? There are two calculable ways to check if the person is morbidly obese. However, you should take note that despite being overweight, you are not immediately classified as being obese.

The first way is to take out your weighing scale and a chart to check for the normal weight for people of your height. You can find these charts in books or in the internet. Get your weight from the weighing scale and compare it to what your weight should be for people your height.

 If you are over a hundred pounds that what your weight should be, then you may be morbidly obese. If you’re below a hundred, then you can still be considered obese. If your fifty pounds or less overweight, you may not be considered obese but just simply being overweight.

A more definite way to calculate if you are morbidly obese is by using the Body Mass Index (BMI). To explain things simply, your body mass index is the equivalent of your total weight in kilograms divided by your height in meters, squared. The resulting number determines your BMI. You can be classified as the following:

Severely underweight (less than 16.5 kg/m²)

Underweight (from 16.5 kg/m²-18.45 kg/m²)

Normal (18.5 kg/m² - 24.9 kg/m²)

Overweight (24.9 kg/m² - 29.9 kg/m²)

Obese class I (30.0 kg/m² -34.9 kg/m² )

Obese class II (35 kg/m²  - 39.9 kg/m² )

Obese class III (above 40 kg/m²).

If you exceed the 40 kg/m² margin of the BMI, you are considered morbidly obese. However, if you have a BMI of around 35 kg/m², but you are experiencing health problems due to your weight, then you can be medically classified as morbidly obese.

Morbidly obese people can have problems with hypertension, heart attack, stroke, diabetes mellitus, difficulty in breathing, mobility and a lot of other health problems. The best way to resolve this is by weight reduction.

Physicians advice extensive and closely monitored diet and exercise. However, if these measures seem futile, then surgical means to reduce weight may be implemented. An example of this is a gastrectomy, where a surgeon removes part of your stomach, making it smaller. This way, a person gets full faster when eating. Another surgical procedure is liposuction. 

To calculate your BMI, you can go to this site and calculate for it: http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/  I hope this answers your mind-boggling question of “Am I morbidly obese?”

Weight Loss Myths - Skipping on Dinner (Number 2!)

They say that you shouldn’t eat dinner because you don’t do anything when you sleep. People think that this means everything you eat during dinner will stuff you with a few pounds when you wake up the next day. This is a weight loss myth.

The principle with weight loss is to eat lesser calories than you burn during exercise. With this in mind, it then follows that it doesn’t matter when you eat, but by how much you exercise daily. If your total calorie consumption per day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) is around 1, 500 calories and you burn 2, 000 calories when you work out, it still means you’re going to lose weight. Just remember not to deprive yourself of less than 1, 000 calories a day since this will be bad for your health. Consult your doctor to help you calculate ideal amounts of calories for weight loss.

Depriving yourself of dinner each night can cause weight loss but take a huge toll on your overall health. Remember, the last meal you ate before sleeping would probably be during snack time at 3pm. When you wake up at 6am, you eat breakfast before going to work or school. That’s a total of 15 hours without something to eat. Your body will starve!

As a consequence, your body will leech off your internal energy reserves from your fat or muscles. If it takes energy from your fat, ketones are released to your blood stream. These ketones are harmful if in high concentrations and could cause coma. If you’re out of fat, your body uses your muscles for energy, causing muscle wasting. This is when your previously formed biceps turn to nothing. It doesn’t matter where your body is getting its energy. Either it’s from fat or muscle, your body is literally eating itself.

Dinner is as important as any meal in the day. Dieticians even recommend to people who want to lose weight to eat at least 5 meals a day. That’s 3 meals, and 2 snacks. This is a weight loss SOP. When you really don’t feel comfortable eating dinner, then eat a light meal or anything that will fill your stomach.

Your body does a lot of things while you sleep and it needs calories to function. Breathing, pumping blood, digesting, and all things that keep you alive require calories. Don’t deprive your body of its basic needs just so you can lose weight fast. There is a better solution for weight loss and it is certainly not through missing dinner. 

Benefits Of Obesity - You Are Kidding, Right?

Is it true? There are benefits of obesity? Surprisingly, statistics has shown that obese people with heart diseases outlive slimmer people with similar heart diseases. Thus, researchers are trying to determine how obesity is able to protect the heart and keep overweight individuals from dying earlier than slimmer individuals.

Researchers have a hypothesis that since an overweight person’s heart is attuned to the condition of working hard to cope, then a slimmer person may be at risk more since his or her body is not that well accustomed to heart difficulties. This is a new finding and there is not much data yet to help find the exact cause or reason. Nonetheless, it is a great benefit of obesity.

Furthermore, obese individuals have more energy reserves which they can use to fight infection. Not only that, but since they are known to be overweight, they will seek medical consultation earlier than slimmer people, helping them find health problems first and get necessary treatment.

The leading cause of increased blood pressure, increased bad cholesterol levels, heart disease and diabetes has been obesity. However, these people are least likely to die from a heart attack or stroke compared to a slimmer person with the same health problems. The reason for this is because the obese person’s body is accustomed to the condition of having these factors in the body. Therefore, the body has adapted ways to compensate, compared to a slim person’s body which has not yet learned the means to live like this.

However, gaining weight is not a slim person’s answer to fixing these health problems. In fact, sudden weight gain could cause severe side effects on a person’s body, destroying the body’s equilibrium and homeostasis.

Researchers are trying to isolate the gene that causes obesity in people. If this gene can be found, we can be one step closer to finding a solution in stopping obesity, subsequently finding a massive cure for people at risk of stroke, heart attacks and more.

No matter what your size is, you should know that it is ideal and beneficial to exercise and diet. Eat nutritious food and stop eating those bad cholesterols, large amounts of sodium, and all those bad chemicals and substances for the body. Eat right and drink lots of fluids to flush out toxins from your system. But for now, learn to love yourself. Even in the current situation, there are still benefits of obesity.

Does Obesity Affect a Woman's Fertility?

Does obesity affect a woman’s fertility? Approximately 7 million people in United States alone suffer from infertility at present and still counting. By medical definition, infertility is the inability to conceive after 1 year of unprotected intercourse. Primary infertility refers to situations in which there has been no prior conception while secondary infertility occurs after one or more previous pregnancies.

 For most women who suffer from such condition, infertility goes beyond the confines of a medical dictionary. More than its biological effect, the emotional and psychological stress that goes along with it makes it such an unbearable state.

For women, infertility is a long-drawn-out screech of hurt that makes no noise. It is when they turn away each time they pass by a baby in a stroller, becomes teary-eyed at the display of a diaper ad and goes uncanny when a friend announces that she’s heavy with child.

Until now, people are still baffled as to what is the primordial cause of infertility. Studies can only present vague links and possibilities increasing the risks of falling into such condition. According to past and recent researches, individuals who smoke, who are overweight, who use drugs and/or alcohol regularly, who has a history of sexually transmitted infections, endometriosis, DES exposure, tubal problems or are over the age of 35 are at risk of having infertility problems.

Although these studies has not yet revealed the direct causal link between infertility and obesity, doctors and specialists in this field were in consensus in declaring that this factor increase the risk of infertility.

Cases of infertility among women have been increased by obesity and other eating disorders. A study which appeared in the December issue of the Human Reproduction journal divulged that a woman with a BMI of 35 is found to be 26% less likely to achieve a spontaneous pregnancy than women who were of normal weight or overweight but not obese. Moreover, a woman with a BMI of 40 or more is 43% less likely to get pregnant. So, does obesity affect a woman’s fertility? The answer is YES.

As measured by the BMI, a 5-foot 6-inch woman who weighs between 155 to 185 pounds is considered overweight and she would be considered obese at a weight of 186 or more. Research has shown that obese women have a menstrual disturbance rate that is three times higher than that of women who are not overweight.

With that, losing even just ten percent of your body weight may improve menstrual regularity, ovulation and pregnancy rates. Getting your weight into a healthy range will also improve your overall health, increase your chances of getting pregnant without intervention and provide you with a healthy pregnancy with positive outcome.

What can you do to get your weight into a healthy range? Well, there are a million ways for you to choose out there.  You can opt for the natural way which is to exercise.  You already have every reason to finally go to the gym and start sweating it up. So as to speed up your weight loss program, you can also try fat burners readily available in the market.

Fat burners help curb your appetite naturally thus helping your body use stored fat as energy. They operate on the principle of thermogenesis or the breakdown of body fat. A good fat burner will do three things for you. First, your stored fats will be burned for energy. Second, your fat cells will be broken down and mobilized. Third, it will "rev up" your metabolic rate to "burn" stored fat and inhibit fat cells from enlarging.

Remember, encouraging speedy fat loss is the most important element of losing weight. With a combination of gym exercise and fat burners, you are surely on your way to a healthier you. Now that you know that obesity affect a woman’s fertility, you should be more motivated to lose weight and stay reproductively healthy. 

Weight Loss Myths (First ONE)

Weight loss is an answer to a lot of weight problems out there. Since a lot of people talk about this topic a lot, it is unavoidable that some Weight loss myths will come afloat. Let’s discuss some myths about weight loss and the consequent truth behind them.

It is said that tremendously cutting down the calories you take in will help you lose weight faster. Well, this is true. You do lose weight if you cut down a lot on your calories. However, you’ll be barely left alive to enjoy all your lost weight. This is the first weight loss myth. 

Calories play a vital role in our bodies. Similar to how a car runs with fuel, our body works with a rich supply of energy from calories. You need energy on things you do like walking, talking, laughing, running, and a lot more. However, did you know you also need energy to do things you can’t control within your body? You need calories to breathe, pump blood, digest food, fight infection, and a lot more.

Depriving yourself of adequate calories will starve your body. This can leave you feeling weak, dizzy, light-headed, and in pain.

Tremendously cutting down calories will deprive your body of its source of energy and will result in looking for alternative sources of energy. Energy is stored in fat and muscles, so it metabolizes fat and muscles for energy, making you lose weight. Isn’t that great? Wrong. It’s not. Excessive fat and muscle metabolism releases toxins and wastes to your blood stream. These harmful chemicals are called ketones. When too much ketones are in your blood, you develop a coma. That’s when you fall out of consciousness and you can’t wake up until the problem is resolved.

Doctors say that taking in lesser than 1, 000 calories a day can be dangerous. That is why you need to take in adequate amount of calories. You don’t need to cut them all out of your daily meal. You just need to eat them in moderation. Consult your doctor for a safe amount of calories to take daily, which can keep you healthy and help lose weight.

Never starve yourself in an attempt to lose weight fast. There are a lot of ways to lose weight that doesn’t involve you risking your life. Consult a professional when looking for a weight-loss diet. Never experiment because the price could be your health. Please be aware of this fundamental first of the many weight loss myths. 

The Diabetic Diet for Type 2 Diabetes

The diabetic diet for Type 2 diabetes does not need any special diabetic food but rather the need to pay attention to the right nutrition which is needed by the body. In most cases, your doctor will provide or perhaps help your formulate an effective diet regimen for your case. This regimen will not only be good for you but this will also help you shed the extra weight especially if you are obese and maintain it so that your body will have blood glucose levels that are healthy.

The goal of a type 2 diabetic diet is to maintain a healthy blood sugar level to avoid further complications. This is also followed so that blood fats will remain at a level where it will not risk the diabetic person to have vascular diseases which are common complications of this medical condition. 

Nutritional requirements will differ from person to person. It can be influenced by a lot of factors like the current health condition of the person, the financial status, the location and the willingness to subject oneself to diet modifications. Now, these are not the only factors that are going to influence the nutritional intake of a person. There are factors that can easily be altered while there are others which are very difficult to change.

Basically, a diabetic diet for Type 2 Diabetes will comprise of the following nutrition recommendations.

·        High Fiber (leafy vegetables, oatmeal, and fruits)

·        Low Fat Dairy Products (Non-fat milk, and the like)

·        Increased Water Intake (8 glasses or more a day)

·        Oily Fish (have you tried White Marlin? Perfecto!)

·        Fresh Fruits and Vegetables  

·        Reduction of Saturated Fat Intake (this includes French fries, burgers, junkfood, and such)

A diabetic diet for type 2 diabetes will not require you to make drastic changes in your diet. You just have to be very mindful of what you are eating and the amount that you consume. It is even not necessary to restrict your diet except if the doctor requires you to do so. You have to pay attention to what your body needs because this way, you will know which diabetic diet is best for you and your condition.

If by chance you may have been overeating, you have to counter this with a healthy dose of exercise so that you will not gain the extra pounds that you are aiming to avoid in the first place.

A type 2 diabetic diet is really not that complicated. It just involves healthy eating with constant monitoring, the right dose of healthy exercises and the right medications. 

Three Ways to Lower Your Stress – Even if You Can’t Change Your Life

It’s a good thing I have these three simple steps to help you lower your stress without having to change your life.People everywhere often misconceive the idea that you need to undergo a life-changing process to get rid of all the stress in their lives. Avoiding stress is never the answer. You can run away from doing household chores by paying for someone to do it for you, but you can’t run away from your job, raising kids, or paying the bills. 

         

Step 1: You should really stop multi-tasking.

Most of us often think that the more things we do at the same time, the faster we can get done. However, if you keep doing this, your body builds up stress which eventually brings you down to rock bottom. Isolate your activities by setting plans and goals. You can do this best buy making a To Do List. At the start of the day, write down the things you want to do in order. Set a personal rule of not jumping ahead to the next task when you’re not done. And after you complete an errand, crush it out of the list. It often feels relieving and motivating to do that, which makes it easier to move on to the next task at hand. This is one good way to lower your stress.

Step 2: When things get overwhelming, stop and take a pause.

There are times that stress and frustration build up when we’re on a hurry to have something done or happen. Like working in front of your pc and typing as fast as you can, waiting in line at the bank, or getting stuck in traffic. Tension builds up within you that feels like your chest is getting tighter and and your head is about to blow.

The best thing to do is take a pause. STOP. Cut that busy and rushing train of thought and focus on your body. To help you out, practice the 4x4 or square breathing. What you do is take a breath for 4 seconds, hold it in for 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds, pause for 4 seconds, then do the whole cycle again. This is what therapists call a “conscious breathing”, where you divert your attention to your breathing and helps you forget the tension building up.

Step 3: Go out and enjoy the scenery.

A research done at the University of Essex found that spending 5 minutes outdoors, especially near a body of water (beach, river, pond or fountain), can raise self-esteem and improve your mood. Why not try to take a break during your busy day to go take a walk along the park or coastline?

These are very simple steps anyone can do. Try to incorporate these in your daily life when you feel life is crushing down on you. There are more ways to lower your stress but these three have been found to be most effective!

After Getting Infected, How Long Does The Flu Last?

After getting the flu, a major concern for infected people infected will be how long does the flu last and if ever there are any difference between adults and children. This is always a concern because there is nothing more important than eventually being free from the virus and its symptoms.

Before asking the question of how long the flu lasts, the very first thing that you should consider knowing would be what flu is. So, what is flu? The flu is caused by the influenza virus. This kind of virus is airborne which means that it can be acquired through having a close contact with a person who has the virus. Droplets which are infected by the virus will travel through air when the person with flu is going to cough or sneeze. Touching items which are infected by the person with the virus can get the person infected as well.

So, how does flu feel like? The symptoms of the flu are the same with the symptoms experienced in a common cold. However, the symptoms associated with the flu are more severe compared to the symptoms of the common cold. Now, the main difference that can be seen between the symptoms of the common cold and the flu will be the high temperature. The flu will also keep the infected person bedridden for a few days. Other symptoms that are associated with the flu are fatigue, sore throat, chills and shivering.

The best way that can be done before acquiring the condition is to prevent it from happening. Flu prevention is best achieved through proper hygiene. This way the chance of touching the contaminated items will be minimized. If you want, you can also get the flu shot so that you can have less chances of acquiring the condition.

If ever you already have the flu, you may ask the question of how long does the flu last? You should take immediate interventions so that the symptoms will be controlled. If you do this, you will be able to decrease the length of the occurrence of symptoms significantly. Over the counter medications will simply make you feel better and will not address the goal of decreasing the length of the occurrence of the symptoms.  Generally, when you feel like you have acquired the virus, all you need to do will be to take a rest and to drink lots of fluid. When you do this, you will significantly decrease the usual length of how long does the flu is going to last.

So, how long does the flu last? It can approximately last around 4 to 10 days. However, the length will usually depend on how you rest and recover from the infection. So, it is important that you are going to rest until you have fully recovered so that there will be less chances of worsening your symptoms and you can get back to your daily activities in just a matter of days.

Common Reasons for Obesity

Why Am I Fat?

(Reasons of Obesity worth Considering)

Fat is a politically-incorrect adjective. That is what feminist groups keep on saying in lieu with fats as the subject. Yes, it is true that being sexy and beautiful is largely based on every person’s preferences. However, one cannot also ignore the statistics of fat people having health complications like diabetes and hypertension. If you feel insecure about your obesity, it is best to address it with the right ways. Before beginning an exercise or diet program, you may want to examine yourself with the reasons why you are overweight. Finding out the root causes of obesity will help you create effective plans for weight loss in a healthy way.

Bad Fat Genes

Look around you. Examine your parents’ and other family members’ bodies. Are most of them fat? Yes, some people have genes that make them fat. Your hormones or hypothalamus may not be working normally thus producing hormones that invites you to eat more than the regular person. Your family may also have other congenital disease linked to being overweight. It doesn’t mean though that genes should rule your life. See a doctor and let him examine which aspect of your body needs to be corrected.

Lack of Aerobic Activities

If you are a workaholic and are content with sitting in your office swivel chair finishing a task for several hours, then you are a candidate of obesity. Sedentary lifestyle is one of the top reasons which often lead to obesity. Though you are mentally-stressed, your body is not doing any physical exercises that burn fat. Remember, oxygen burn body fats. Your regular breathing is not enough, you need to stretch, take a walk, dance or swim to burn accumulated calories. These days, some offices have mini gyms and workers are allowed to take a break in between shifts to exercise. Take advantage of these periods to sweat it all out. Instead of drinking coffee or eating your favorite snacks, try simple stretching routines with your colleagues.

Depression, Stress and Sleep Deprivation

These are activities that bring negative energy to our system. It is a misconception that stressed and tired people automatically will grow thin. Some reacted to stress and depression negatively. Some love to eat comfort foods like chocolates and sweets when depressed. You should be aware of this behavior. Studies have also shown that sleep deprivation contributes to being overweight. It is in sleeping that our bodies perform tremendous oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange. Without sleep, our body cannot metabolize well.

Other Clinical Diseases

Yes, kidney and cardiovascular problems and thyroid disorders are health problems that should be monitored. Our kidneys help in the metabolism of fats. A dysfunctional kidney will make some people look bloated. A hormonal imbalance in the thyroid glands or a liver dysfunction may also be related to obesity.

Food Choice

Most people held this factor as a culprit of their obesity. We get tempted easily with processed and express foods. We made our busy lifestyles as an excuse not cook fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables. Examine the food you prepare in the table. Are they healthy? Do they contain the right carbohydrates and essential fats that can be metabolized easily? These questions are important to keep your health and your family’s health intact. 

Am I at Risk for Hypertension?

          It's hard to tell if you have hypertension because there aren't any symptoms to deal with in its earlier stage until it reaches complication. That's when the real problem comes in. But if you feel some severe headache and occasional nosebleed along with it chances are you might be hypertensive.

          Hypertension or high blood pressure is a common condition that may lead to complications and severe health problems. Normally, it is a symptom of many illnesses such as coronary heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and heart failure. In USA alone, almost half of its population has severe hypertension according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.

          Hypertension comes in three major types namely essential, secondary and systolic hypertension. Essential hypertension occurs without any known cause. On the other hand, when hypertension is triggered by other conditions such as a disease, it is called secondary hypertension. Lastly, systolic hypertension is where the systolic blood pressure number is higher than normal. This type of hypertension is common in the elderly.

          However, despite having a general lack of symptoms, one can easily detect an uncontrolled hypertension since some of the major organs, like the kidney and the heart, can actually feel some discomfort whenever such condition attacks. If you feel an excessive and ongoing pressure in your blood, it's an indication that your blood is actually fighting its way through the walls of your arteries as it is pumped from your heart to your body.

          Aneurysm or an abnormal "ballooning" of arteries is also one of the effects of hypertension which can lead to vision changes and blindness due to bursting of one's arteries. But take to heart, hypertension isn't so bad the symptoms show. Most of the time hypertension is just a minor wake-up call. It is just a signal that we have to take it easy on either our lifestyle or in the food we eat. 

          Just to make sure, you have to keep an eye on your blood pressure. It usually rises as your age progresses. But if you're the kind that keeps a detailed track of your blood pressure, you need not worry much. Obesity is also a concern as it is sometimes hereditary and very hard to fix.  

          Most of the time, if you can find the right means to take control and manage your body rhythms and your emotional responses, the blood pressure stays at a fairly normal level. Looking at a beautiful scenery or a radiant baby’s face, reading a good book you like, taking a leisurely walk in the afternoon are just some of the natural hypertension cures. To sum it all up, take it easy!