Archive for the ‘Healthy Eating’ Category

Diet + Exercise = Weight Loss

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Here is a study that proves what I believe and most of my fitness gurus out there do as well, that diet alone is not enough to lose weight.  It is a combination of diet and exercise that works the best.  In some cases dieting alone can actually work against you.  If you cut your calories too much your body goes into a starvation mode and starts holding onto its fat because it is afraid it is not going to get the calories it needs.  In many cases a lot of diets don’t consist of the true calories and nutrition our body needs.  That is why the best way to lose body fat is to moderately lower your caloric intake and exercise 5-6 days a week for 30-60 minutes a day.  The combination of both is what will work the best and the fastest!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100413170710.htm

Belly Fat

Friday, December 18th, 2009

One of the most common questions my clients ask me is:  What is the best ab work out to lose belly fat?  The answer that most people don’t want to hear is that most ab work outs will not help you actually lose your mid-section body fat.  Work outs targeting just your abs will help you tone your abdominal muscles.  However, it will not help eliminate the fat in that area.

 Unfortunately, fat tends to go more to the belly. Especially as we get older.  It is also the worst fat to have since it surrounds your organs.  It causes stress to your organs and can gradually damage them.  So, it is really important to keep off the belly fat, but if doing 1,000 crunches a night won’t get rid of your belly fat than what will?

 Here are your best options:

 1.  Muscle burns fat.  So you need to target bigger muscle groups.  Target leg, chest and back muscles.  Strengthening these muscles will actually help you burn more fat and lose inches around the middle.

 2.  Interval training.  This is doing cardio at two different speeds for about 30 minutes.  The best interval training is to run at a fast speed for about 2 – 3 minutes and then walk for 2 minutes.  Of course make sure you warm up for 5 – 10 minutes prior to doing this.  The slower speed burns fat and the faster speed burns carbohydrates.  So you are losing the fat that is already there and the carbohydrates that are waiting to turn into fat.

 3.  Cut down on your carbohydrates.  We need carbohydrates for energy, so completely eliminating them is not the best thing to do.  However, whatever carbs we take in and do not use for energy our bodies will store away for later use and convert to fat.  This will add to those unwanted inches on the belly!

 Try these few things and you should notice that the inches start disappearing around your middle.  Keep at it and you will have a flatter stomach in no time!

Dr. Oz – weight issues

Saturday, December 12th, 2009

Since I am a huge fan of Dr. Oz, I thought I would share this video with you. It is a quick video that talks about slowly changing your eating habits rather than just going on a strict diet. This is what will not only help you lose weight but keep it off and be healthy. Because you can be thin but not healthy. Some of the quick diets out there are not the healthiest for our bodies.

http://health.discovery.com/videos/health-issues-with-dr-oz-weight-loss.html

Calories Burned

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Whenever I find a quick little tool like this I will forward it to everyone.  This site is an easy tool to calculate how many calories you can burn with any type of activity you do.  It can calculate it for all different types of exercise activities.  I like how it calculates home activities as well.  Even childcare!  Now keep in mind the calories it says you burn is the amount of time you are chasing or running around with your kids, not sitting in front of the TV with them.  And if you are a mother like me you know that sitting down during the day is a luxury!  When you are calculating your calories keep in mind that 3,500 calories equals one pound.  So if your goal is to lose one pound a week you need to burn or take away 500 calories that you are eating each day!  Doing an exercise activity that will burn around 300 calories and take away 200 calories from your usual diet each day is a great start to get to that 500 calories a day goal! 
http://www.aolhealth.com/tools/calories-burned

The Body Sculpting by Susan Blog is for advice only and before beginning any exercise or diet program please consult your doctor.