exercise

Losing Weight: Diet Versus Exercise

February 14, 2013 by admin Leave a Comment

You always hear that to lose weight you must consume a healthy diet and exercise regularly. This is not inaccurate as both do lead to weight loss and maintaining a healthy weight. However, one is more effective than the other in helping you to shed the pounds. This information will help you to make the right choices when it comes to shedding those extra pounds.

Diet

The key to a successful diet is not being overly restrictive. For example, some people try to do too much at once and this backfires. Cutting to 800 calories per day is not only unhealthy for most people, but it is just not enough to be satisfied. If you are not satisfied you will not stick to your diet for very long. You need to make sure that you can eat at least two to three meals a day that are satisfying plus a snack or two. This is why most people do not cut below 1,200 calories. 1,200 allows you to still eat a decent amount of food and get your necessary nutrients in so that you feel good as you strive to regain your health.

With a 1,200 calorie diet you can do a 300 calorie breakfast, a 200 calorie lunch and a 500 calorie dinner. This will leave you 200 calories for a snack or two. If you snack smart, this can be as many as three snacks. Or, if you are not really into snacking, you can use this extra 200 calories for something like a glass of wine after a long day.

Exercise

Regardless of whether you need to or not you should exercise for 30 minutes at least three times per week to maintain a strong heart, lungs, bones and muscles. However, if you never exercise, but only eat right, you will maintain a healthy weight. If you restrict calories and never exercise, you can lose weight. However, you want to exercise during weight loss because this helps to build muscle and lean muscle will contribute to burning more calories, thus increasing your weight loss. It also works to tighten and tone which will help to prevent some loose skin as you lose weight.

Exercise should consist of cardiovascular exercise, flexibility training and strength training. This will give you overall benefits that help you to fight disease and age-related issues like osteoporosis, heart disease and reduced lung capacity.

Which Works Better?

You can exercise seven days a week, but if you are consuming twice what you need to lose weight then you are either going to slowly gain or just not lose depending on your activity level and how many calories you burn. Now, with dieting, you are restricting calories to just what you need. Most people cut 500 calories per day and this alone will knock off a pound per week. Of course, the more a person weighs, the faster the weight will come off, but it will come off anyone who is cutting calories every day.

The bottom line is that you should be doing both to maintain overall health, but diet alone can result in weight loss.

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: dieting, exercise, Fitness, Health, weight loss

Top Five Sports and Fitness Injuries Common in Women

February 7, 2013 by admin Leave a Comment

Over the last decade more and more women are getting involved in sports and regular exercise. This is a really great thing, but unfortunately, this means that more and more women are experiencing injuries related to sports and exercise. You are always at risk for injury, but knowing what these injuries are can help you to take some steps to avoid experiencing one of them.

ACL Injuries

You often hear about ACL injuries if you watch sports or catch the sports report on the news. Well, women are an increased risk up to eight times higher than men to experience this injury. This is a really big difference and the sports that women most often experience this in are sports like soccer and basketball where you need to make sudden changes in the direction that you are running. Why women experience this more is not completely known, but women’s muscle balance is different and this is believed to play a role. The differences in women’s hormonal makeup could also be at play. Being aware of your movements and wearing a knee brace that supports the knees well could help to prevent this injury.

Patellofemoral Pain

This is pain at the front of your knee and you tend to feel the pain more when you are going down the stairs or a hill after you have been resting for a while. Tight muscles in the area and over-pronation are generally what cause this to occur. To prevent it you want to make sure that your muscles are always well-stretched and limber and you can wear arch supporting insoles to prevent over pronation.

Stress Fractures

Stress fractures are common in women, but occur especially in older women whose bone density tends to be lower. This means that the bones are weakening and are more prone to damage. Stress fractures can occur just about anywhere, but in women, they are most often seen in the bones in the feet, lower legs and spine. The best way to prevent these is to start slow and gradually increase your physical activity. Having well-cushioned shoes and a diet that helps to keep bones healthy and strong are also largely helpful. In terms of diet, you want to make sure that you are getting plenty of vitamin D and calcium. Strength training regularly can also help to increase bone density.

IT Band Syndrome

The Iliotibial band can cause the outside of your knee to hurt if it rubs the lateral epicondyle in the upper leg bone. This is due to repetitive friction. Since women have an increased Q angle and wider hips, they are more prone to experiencing this. You should make sure that the soft tissues associated with your knee are well-stretched and a supportive knee brace can be worn during physical activity to help prevent this.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

This is not reserved solely for those who type multiple hours per day. This means that the medial nerve gets compressed and you notice tingling, weakness, pain and burning in the affected hand. Now, this can be a difficult injury to avoid. When you use your wrist repetitively, such as with badminton or tennis, you can fall victim to this. To help to prevent this you should ice, elevate and compress your wrists following any activity where you used your wrists.

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: exercise, exercise injuries, female athletes, Fitness, Health, sports injuries, women

How to Conquer a Fitness Plateau

September 24, 2012 by Denise McGrail Leave a Comment

3 Methods to Help You Achieve Your Fitness Goals

These past few weeks have been incredibly frustrating. A conditioned, moderate mileage runner, I have spent the better part of two years building my base and racing resume. Starting my season early this year, during the cold, cruel month of February, I gained speed and endurance fast. My first 5K of the season I came in just under 30 minutes. As spring and early summer flourished so did my speed work. I was running 400 meters well under the 2:00 minute time goal my training plan recommended. At this rate, I knew I would have no problem placing within the top 5 in my age category during my October 7 race, a goal I had set back during the winter months. Plenty of time to train and plenty of time to succeed. Also, plenty of time to reach an unexpected plateau.

The unthinkable happened. It was as if someone had erected an invisible brick wall, dropped it directly in front of me and no matter what I did the structure was impenetrable.One small injury led to a quick recovery only to lead to another small injury. A hot, humid summer affected my speed. It suffocated my lungs. The physical difficulties led to mental frustration.Within a few short weeks, I lost my speed. I lost my endurance. I lost my desire. My chance at placing in my upcoming race dwindled.

I use the example of running because the majority of my physical exercise that keeps my heart healthy, my muscles strong and my waistline trim is running. But reaching a physical and mental plateau can occur with any type of exercise. The tell-tale sign of a plateau is when progress becomes stagnant. You are caught in limbo, unable to reach that next goal. It is downright frustrating, but there are ways that you can trick your body into catching back up to those fitness goals. Check out my suggestions below for three proven ways to get you back in the fitness game. You can do all three or pick the one that jives the most with your personality.

Rest

While this may seem counter-productive to your fitness goals, a tired body and mind are like a toddler. It doesn’t matter what you bribe your body with or how many promises you make (I promise you can have desert before bedtime), if your body is exhausted it will resist any effort you make. Allowing your body 2-3 days to relax, will help it catch back up with your plans.

Are you worried that you might fall out of the habit of exercising? That is a valid concern. So, if total rest may not work for you try the next level of rest.

Active Rest

Active resting is basically toning down the intensity of your workouts. For a period of 2 days up to a week, lessen
intensity of your workouts by adding a day of stretching (try a Yoga class). Maybe throw in a couple days of just walking
briskly around your neighborhood. You are still setting aside a time each day to be active, but by bringing the effort down a notch you are providing your body with the rest it is craving.

Again, some people feel stagnant with a full week of active rest. I get that. Really, I do. But remember that allowing time
for muscles to heal and repair is necessary for us to achieve our fitness goals. So, if here is an alternative to active
rest.

High/Low Intensity

For a full six days alternate high intensity workouts with low intensity active rest exercises. On the seventh day
completely rest. No cheating on this. If you want to conquer whatever is hindering your progress and you are following this plan, a full rest day is crucial. I mean it. Absolutely no cheating.

Everyone has times when their progress has surpassed their body’s ability to keep pace. It is nature’s way of telling us we may be pushing it just a little too much. Take it easy on yourself. Maybe I pushed things too quickly in the beginning and was to stubborn to realize that those small injuries were warning signals. Will I reach my goal in a couple of weeks?

Maybe. I don’t know. Right now the goal is to reclaim that desire again. Following my own advice, I think some rest days are what I need to succeed.

Have you reached a hurdle obtaining your fitness goals? What are some methods you have tried that have worked?

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: exercise, Fitness, fitness goals, Fitness plateaus, running