Supplements Made Easy – Part 3

By Jonathan Faccone

This is Part 3 in my “Supplements Made Easy” Series for runners and other endurance athletes. Make sure to also go back and read Part 1 and Part 2!

Shopping for supplements can be a daunting task, but remember to keep it simple and that supplementation will only help if you first help yourself by doing your best in giving your body what is needs via your food intake.

Once you have taken care of proper eating, you can move onto supplements. Keep in mind, everyone’s body is different and therefore supplementation choices that you pick should be as unique as yourself.

BCAA (Branched chain amino acids) include the leucine, isoleucine, and valine. They are essential for aerobic metabolism and may have performance enhancing qualities for endurance events lasting longer then three hours. Lack of BCAA’s during endurance events could accelerate the breakdown of muscle glycogen and cause premature muscle fatigue.

Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid found in the body and is usually used for strength training as a muscle recovery agent, but may benefit endurance athletes as well. Evidence has shown that in times of stress, like exercise, the body cannot produce enough of this amino acid. This has been shown to contribute to muscle breakdown, diminished immune function and reduced performance.

Supplementation with 6-8 grams/day of BCAA and glutamine has been shown to decrease protein degradation during ultra-distance triathlon competition, decrease exercise induced muscle damage after prolonged running, and has shown to improve performance in 40K cycling time trial performance

Calcium may be the most needed supplement in athletes. A study was performed on 10,000 male and female athletes from ages 7-50 and a little less then half of them actually consumed the recommended dietary intake of 1,000mg/day. Those athletes who do not consume enough calcium, especially those who do not dairy, are recommended to take a calcium supplement.

Iron is a trace mineral and supplementation is not recommended for the casual athlete who trains less the four hours per week. However, athletes who train more then six hours per week often have iron-deficiency anemia. This occurs more often with female athletes than with males. Iron-deficient athletes should take some form of a supplement (please check with your doctor first!). Sometimes this can be done simply through an advanced multi-vitamin like GNC’s ProPerformace Gold with Iron (This comes in a vegetarian formula as well for our herbivore readers!).

Vitamin E is an antioxidant which may interest endurance athletes because their cells undergo more oxidative damage. Research shows athletes have less cellular damage when they ingest more vitamin E. In a study of 30 top-class cyclists, five months of supplementation with natural vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) at an 800-IU daily dose significantly decreased markers of oxidative damage to muscle tissue. However, vitamin E did not benefit specific athletic performance.

The Myth of Moderate Exercise

By Laura Blue

Obesity experts agree that daily exercise is essential for good health, but whether it can successfully lead to long-term weight loss is a question of much debate. What has become increasingly clear, however, is that the conventionally accepted advice — 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity most days of the week — is probably insufficient to spur any real change in a person’s body weight. A study published July 28 in the Archives of Internal Medicine adds to the burgeoning scientific consensus: when it comes to exercise for weight loss, more is better. It suggests that obese people would have to exercise at least an hour at a time to see any significant difference in their weight.

The study, led by John Jakicic at the Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh, followed nearly 200 overweight or obese women ages 21 to 45 through a two-year weight-loss program. The women were given free treadmills to use at home, regular group meetings and telephone pep talks to help keep them on track. Participants were also asked to restrict their food intake to between 1,200 and 1,500 calories per day, and were randomized to one of four physical activity intervention groups based on energy expenditure (either 1,000 calories or 2,000 calories burned per week) and exercise intensity (high vs. moderate). By the end of the 24-month intervention, the women who managed to lose at least 10% of their starting body weight (which was, on average, about 193 lbs.) — and keep it off — were exercising twice as long as health authorities typically recommend and expending more than twice as many calories through exercise as women who had no change in body weight. The biggest weight losers were active a full 68 minutes a day, five days a week (about 55 minutes a day more than they had been before the trial began), burning an extra 1,848 calories a week.

Jakicic and his colleagues originally designed their study to measure whether weight loss could really be achieved and maintained through moderate-intensity exercise, akin to "walking when you’re late for a meeting," he says, or whether it was preferable to engage in shorter bursts of more vigorous-intensity activity, "like, when you’re late for the bus, chasing it down." The problem was that not enough of the women stuck with their assigned exercise categories for the researchers to gather enough meaningful data. Within a few months, most of the participants had resorted to exercising as much as they chose to. That left researchers with a slightly different data set than they had planned for, but they were still able to associate women’s reported physical activity with their weight loss. Indeed, exercise was more strongly associated with weight loss than any other factor, including diet. Overall, the more the women exercised, the more weight they lost.

More than half of the study participants managed to lose at least 10% of their body weight within the first six months. At the half-year mark, however, most of those women relapsed and started gaining the weight back — a discouragingly common phenomenon. "The major outcome of this paper is the maintenance issue," Jakicic says. Once a patient hits her target weight, he says, it’s imperative that she stick with her exercise and diet regimen to maintain her new weight.

Still, the underlying question remains: are diet and exercise a reliable cure for obesity? Modern-day obesity researchers are skeptical — achieving thinness, they say, is not simply a matter of willpower. Research suggests that weight may largely be regulated by biology, which helps determine the body’s "set point," a weight range of about 10 lbs. to 20 lbs. that the body tries hard to defend. The further you push you weight beyond your set point — either up or down the scale — some researchers say, the more your body struggles to return to it. That might help to explain why none of the women in Jakicic’s study managed to lose much more than 10% of their body weight. After two years on a calorie-restricted diet, keeping up more than an hour of physical activity five days a week on average, most were still clinically overweight (though much less so than before). But what Jakicic and other obesity researchers stress is that a 10% reduction in body weight represents a tremendous boon for overall well-being, lowering blood pressure, improving heart health and reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes. For the obese, the end goal should not be thinness, but health and self-acceptance, which are more realistic and beneficial objectives. "The women’s health was absolutely improved," Jakicic says.

Jakicic, in fact, seems heartened by his findings. "I think the beauty of this study is that we now have a target" — a better idea of how much exercise is needed for weight maintenance. There is, of course, some variation in how people respond. Some of the study participants fared well with less exercise than the additional 275 minutes per week (about 55 minutes per day, five days a week) that the study’s author now recommends for weight maintenance. Others needed more. But the keys to success, according to Jakicic, were embracing the weight-loss program fully, and finding a way around the daily obstacles to exercising — that’s something he says many of his participants were able to achieve, regardless of their socioeconomic group. So, if you’re aiming to lose weight and keep it off, his message is clear: don’t slack off.

 

Six Pack Abs – How to Get It

 

If you will be asking a woman if what is the best part of a man’s body is, definitely, the answer is the rock hard abs of a man is the sexiest and best part of a man’s body. Those abs muscles are the ones that making a good definition of a man’s body.

It’s not a surprise why many men are always on the gym to work out and most of their routine is to make their abs firmer and in shape. Most of the routine to enhance their abs are sit-ups, crunches, leg raises, body twisting and many more. Some of them spend a lot of time doing these routines but unfortunately few are successful to have the perfect abs they want.

Maybe now you are wondering the reason behind not having six pack abs amidst of all the effort of doing ab exercises. There are some erroneous beliefs or wrong notions that some individuals believe in.

Misleading notion #1. You have to do lots of abs-specific exercises in order for you to get six pack abs. The mentioned above exercises which are leg raises, crunches, sit-ups, and many others are the exercises that can help you get six pack abs.

But you have to know that even if you do thousands of crunches or any of these exercises will not help you get rock hard abs that you desire especially if you have fat layers or belly fats that can cover it up.

In order for you to develop six pack abs, you have to eliminate belly fats first and foremost. You have to focus on removing your belly fat before starting to work out on your muscles. If not, you will just end up having bigger waistline and thicker love handles since the muscles developed will just add up to the layers of your fat.

What you need to do? You have to burn your fat by taking good care of your diet. You need to make sure to be the healthiest person possible by providing your body with all the macro-nutrients it needed.

Misleading notion #2. In order to immediately develop six pack abs, you have to make use of gadgets, electronic gizmos, machines, supplements and slimming pills.

Actually, you must not believe in that. All of these are claiming to help you get your desired six pack abs because they want to earn from their products. Do not rely too much with the machines since these won’t really be the answer to get six pack abs. You need the right key in order for you to effectively develop six pack abs.

Proper diet, cardio workouts and great training associated with weights are the keys in having six pack abs.

Misleading notion #3. Since you do work outs regularly, you can eat any food you want.

You have to remove the fats in your belly in turn for you to show off your abs, that’s the truth. Mild-deficit caloric restriction diet is what you need to have for you to permanently lose the fat in your belly area.

It is not true that you can eat whatever you want, since you need to burn more calories than what you intake. All your work outs will not be worth it if you do not take good care of what you eat and drink. Since if not, all your unwanted fats will just stay in your body and will not get six pack abs. So, see to it that your body will have the proper nutrients needed.

There are things that you have to bear in mind – to get rock hard abs, you have to have mild calorie deficit diet, cardio workouts and training with weights. With all of these, you will be able to burn fats and develop six pack abs.

If you really desire to have six pack abs; you have to get rid of your bulky midsections in your body to make yourself attractive and sexy.
One more thing, you have to really get rid your fats since this can bring health risks such as accumulation of cholesterol, hypertension, and obesity. With all of these health risks, there are lots of fat loss strategies and products that are out in the market.

For you to lose the fats in your midsections, you have to trim other parts of your body as well, that is what you need to know. If you have fats, of course, you won’t just simply find it on your midsections, you can also find fats in you chin, neck, arms, thighs and chest.

For you to get your desired six pack abs, you must not only remove the fats in your belly but also with the other parts of your body. This is a problem to other people. They thought that in order for them to get six pack abs, they only have to target their tummy area. Of course, you have to come up with stringent diets for you to get your desired abs.

To eliminate fat loss, you have to control your food intake, this is a fact that you must take into account. You have to lose your overall weight if you really desire to eliminate belly fat. Before targeting your abs, you must get rid of the fats of your arms, legs and face. This comes for men. For women, they have to target the fats in their hips, buttocks and thigh before going with their tummies.

The best way for you to lose weight and get your desired abs, you must have physically and healthy active lifestyle. With this, you can effectively get rid of your fats and soon develop six pack abs.

The best program which is designed to help you lose weight, get flat stomach and obtain rock hard abs is The Truth about Abs. It is made by Mike Geary to teach you on how to effectively get your desired six pack abs.

Click Here to see the FULL The Truth About Abs review

Detox Diets 101: Keeping Your body in Shape through Proper eating

 

If you’re feeling sluggish, or you think you’re always full and the food has settled in your stomach, undigested. If you think you’re fat and need to lose weight. And if you think that you’ve ingested more than the allowed preservatives and additives into your body and your liver’s starting to show symptoms of abuse, then it’s time for you to go on a Detox program.

Detox or detoxification is the process of neutralizing or eliminating toxins from the body. Detox plans may be in different forms and ways – from regular exercise to body scrubs and spa massages, to yoga and meditation. But the simplest and the most common perhaps is to go on a detox diet.

A detox diet is a program that minimizes the chemicals ingested into the body by going for organic food. It highlights food like vitamins and antioxidants that the body needs for detoxification. It also involves taking in of food that will aid in the elimination of toxins like high fiber food and water. It generally suggests a high intake of fresh vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts and lots of fluids, while cutting down on caffeine, alcohol, yeast and sugars.

So why go for a detox diet? If you’re a regular fast food chain eater, you’ve probably ingested many fat-soluble chemicals contained in the French fries, cheeseburgers, twisters and soft drinks you’ve consumed. An ‘overload’ of these chemicals in the body can lead to illness and conditions like liver malfunction, kidney problems, hormonal imbalance, nutritional deficiencies and inefficient metabolism. And the most common symptoms of these illnesses are the usual fatigue, poor skin and low tolerance to pain.

By going on a detox diet, people would have improved energy, clearer and fairer skin, a regular bowel movement, improved metabolism and digestion, increased concentration. Generally, it spells wellness and a better well-being.

A word of caution…though anyone is allowed to take on a detox diet, pregnant women or those who are nursing are cautioned not to go on such plans as they need the necessary nutrient for nursing. And unless recommended by a doctor, people with anemia, eating disorders, heart disease, low immunity, low blood pressure, ulcers, cancer, the underweight or those suffering from alcohol or drug dependency should try on a detox diet. Furthermore, such detox diet programs should be properly planned with the doctor and a nutritionist.

Other Things You Need to Know

Side effects may occur within the first few days of starting the detox diet. There’s headache and a general feeling of weakness as the body is adjusting to the change in food intake. So it is recommended to start your diet plan gradually or on Fridays when you won’t be doing much physical activity or requiring much energy. Others may experience diarrhea as the body eliminates the toxins, so take care not to be dehydrated. Drink plenty of water.

Take note that such detox diet programs should not be done for a long time. They are normally recommended to be done at least one to two times a year, and should be done during the warm months.

If you’re thinking of getting started, make sure you consult a doctor or a nutritionist. Read up on detox diets and seek advice from the experts. Remember: Too much is bad. After all, you’re doing it to improve your health, not ruin it!