Losing Weight: Diet Versus Exercise

February 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment

choosing diet or exerciseYou 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: , , , ,

Drink to Shrink: Can Alcohol Help You Lose Weight?

February 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Drinking and dietingMany people skip going out for drinks when they are trying to shed some pounds. It is true that alcohol has empty calories and when drank in excess can and will cause weight gain. However, some experts are now saying that drinking in moderation could actually help your weight loss efforts.

How Alcohol is Digested in the Body

Alcohol generally contains sugar, ethanol and carbohydrates. Your cocktail goes straight to your stomach after you take a sip and then the lining of the stomach absorbs the alcohol and it gets into the bloodstream. Ethanol makes its way to the liver and then the sugar and carbohydrates are digested as normal. Since the ethanol is being worked on before anything else, it is believed that the sugar and carbs are not taken care of as efficiently, which in turn, leads to weight gain.

Now, this is true when it comes to drinking a lot. If you know someone that tends to hit the bottle hard and frequently, you will eventually notice that he or she is packing on some pounds even if they do not eat much and/or have a healthy diet. Calories are calories.

Losing Weight with Drinking?

If you are someone who enjoys a glass of wine – or even two – every evening to wind down after a long day you could be helping yourself in the weight department. New research that was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine is looking at those who have just a standard drink or two each night and how this resulted in less weight gain than those who binge drink on weekends. This is believed to occur because since you have a drink or two daily, your body becomes accustomed to this and has figured out a way to digest it in a way where the metabolism of alcohol is altered. You are torching more calories as you sip that nightly cocktail and the extra calories are not turned into fat.

Now, this does not mean that you can skip wine all week and then have six glasses between Friday and Saturday night. For the results shown in this study to hold true, you need to have at least one drink every night so that your body can make the necessary adjustments.

So, can I Skip Exercise and Diet?

No. Unfortunately, drinking wine does not substitute a healthy diet and regular exercise. However, if you are a healthy woman who eats pretty well and exercises at least three days per week then that evening glass of wine could be a good thing. The key is to drink standard-sized drinks. This means that a 32-ounce draft beer is not a good thing, but a standard four-ounce glass of wine is. You do not want to overdo it because then you are putting yourself at risk for weight gain and other issues associated with drinking too much alcohol. Don’t forget that red wine is also associated with other health benefits, such as boosting your heart health, when consumed in moderation.

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Hypothyroidism in Women: Do I Really Have It?

February 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Hypothyroidism warningsHypothyroidism is one word that women never want to hear. It can occur at any age, but what is interesting is that this condition only affects a very small portion of the population in the United States, so do not automatically blame your difficulty losing weight on this condition. On average, 10 percent of women have a degree of low thyroid, so as you can see, this is really not that many.

What is Hypothyroidism?

This means that your thyroid is just not providing your body with enough thyroid hormones. In the early stages most people do not even know that they have it because there are rarely symptoms. However, as time goes on you will start to notice things like joint pain and weight gain. There are accurate tests available that can get you diagnosed and treated quickly so this is good news.

Risk Factors and Causes

Hypothyroidism can happen to anyone, but there are some factors that put you at an increased risk. These include:

  • Family history of autoimmune diseases
  • Radiation to the upper chest or neck
  • Pregnancy or delivery in the last six months
  • Having an autoimmune disease
  • Received anti-thyroid medications or radioactive iodine
  • Thyroid surgery

There are also a number of causes that can result in this condition. These include:

  • Having an autoimmune disease
  • Radiation therapy
  • Certain medications like lithium
  • Pituitary disorder
  • Being treated for hyperthyroidism
  • Iodine deficiency
  • Congenital disease
  • Pregnancy

Symptoms

Like was stated above, in the early stages you likely will not feel different at all. As this condition goes untreated, you will start to experience symptoms that generally get to a point where you will see a doctor to figure out what is going on. Symptoms can include:

  • Fatigue
  • Constipation
  • Unexplained weight gain
  • Hoarseness
  • Increase blood cholesterol level
  • Joint pain, stiffness and swelling
  • Thinning hair
  • Depression
  • Increased sensitivity to cold
  • Dry skin
  • Puffy face
  • Muscle weakness
  • Muscle tenderness, aches and stiffness
  • Irregular or very heavy menstrual periods
  • Slowed heart rate
  • Impaired memory

Diagnosis

Diagnosis is actually quite easy and generally only requires a blood test. You will relay your symptoms to your doctor and he or she will order the test. You only need to give a quick blood sample. With new testing methods, you can be diagnosed even when you are in the early stages where you really do not even have symptoms yet.

Treatment

There is no one dose of thyroid medication so it may take a little bit to get your dose just right for you. You will generally be started on a thyroid medication and then have your thyroid levels checked after two or three months to ensure that your levels are within an acceptable range. After your dose is correct, you will have your TSH levels checked annually to ensure that everything is still within an acceptable range. You will almost always need to take thyroid medication for the rest of your life and continue to always have your TSH levels checked annually for life just in case any dose adjustments are needed over the years.

Once you start treatment, you will notice your symptoms going away, such as you will have more energy, be able to lose the weight and will not be so cold all of the time.

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: , , , , ,