Strength Training and Weight Loss; A Perfect Combination by Ross Cohen

Strength Training and Weight Loss: A Perfect Combination

When you need to lose weight, whether it's a hundred pounds or five, you know you need to exercise. Unfortunately, it's often difficult to make that first step. Perhaps you're apprehensive about your appearance while you work out. Maybe you are simply dreading working out that first time. No matter where you are, there are weight loss exercises that will help you shed those unwanted pounds. You know that you could crash diet, or take some unsafe pills, but just by reading this exercise article, we know that you want to do things the safe way.

Before you begin an exercise regimen, particularly if you've not been exercising at all, it's important to consult a doctor. Your physician will most likely have helpful, specific to you tips and strategies. He or she may even suggest some exercises to do in addition to the ones we'll discuss. Plus, you'll feel more at ease while you work out, knowing that you'll be safe.

Cardio

There are two major categories in weight loss exercises. The first is cardiovascular exercises. Cardio, as it's called for short, elevates your heart rate to a range that is ideal for fat and calorie burning. Furthermore, your blood circulation is enhanced, supplying your muscles with Some examples of cardio include:

Walking

Jogging/Running

Swimming

Aerobics

Zumba

Martial Arts

Dancing

Rowing

Of course, these aren't the only cardio activities out there-truly there is something for everyone. It's important to note a prolonged amount of time, around twenty to thirty minutes, maximizes the benefits of cardio.

Strength Training

Strength training is the other main category of weight loss exercise. It's also the category that people are most likely to overlook. Strength training, often performed with weights, increases your muscle density and Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). What's the benefit to that? Increased muscle density leads to a higher level of calorie burning, even while you're doing nothing! Combining this with cardio is an excellent way to boost weight loss.

Many individuals, particularly women, are often wary of strength training. They don't want to look like body builders! You can rest assured. The types of exercises that would produce that result are far beyond what you'll need to do. Some examples of strength training activities include:

Squats

Lunges

Dips

Pull ups

Push up

Crunches

Of course, strength training's effectiveness is enhanced by adding in the presence of weights, even if they're only the handheld, two pound ones. Here's some further strength training exercises that are done with weights:

Bicep curls

Chest flies

Deadlifts

Bench presses

Shoulder presses

In Closing

As we mentioned before, the best strategy is to combine weight loss exercises from both cardio and strength training. You'll maximize your results that way and lose more weight. You might even find yourself enjoying your workouts because of the variety. No more running on the treadmill night after night! You can add in a number of activities to that treadmill and shed those pounds.

Weight loss is undoubtedly a difficult task. Visit http://www.Ways-To-Lose-Weight.com for wonderful tips, tricks, diets, & exercises, all focused on getting you lean, toned, & thinner.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ross_E_Cohen

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The Livestrong App for iphone

Here I have a little information about an app that was commented about by Jentry Nielsen - http://www.healthymaniswhatiam.com/ - after I posted a blog about top apps for health and fitness. This one wasn't listed but thought I should be kind enough to mention it as Jentry left the message, saying he loved it.

Check the blog and comment in question here; http://exerciseandhealth-harvey1234j.blogspot.com/2011/11/top-mobile-apps-for-monitoring-health.html#comments

Now to the LIVESTRONG App

The LIVESTRONG.COM Calorie Tracker application is the companion tool to The Daily Plate service, available for $2.99 at the iPhone App Store. The Daily Plate at LIVESTRONG.COM helps you determine a daily calorie target based on your weight and weight goal. Then you can search the extensive database of more than 625,000 foods for nutritional information including fat, sugar, carbohydrates, cholesterol and more. You can also search 2,000 fitness items and calculate how many calories you can burn with those activities. With a simple tap, you can track how many calories you can consume, burn and net on a daily basis.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/iphone-calorie-tracker/#ixzz1fhWCjW62

FEATURES

Search for any food or restaurant item and track with ease

Search any workout or activity and log your calorie expenditure

Sync with you online account at LIVESTRONG.COM

Manage your weight on-the-go with daily progress summaries and weight progress graphs

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/iphone-calorie-tracker/#ixzz1fhW5pMDA

Healthy Eating; Starting Young!

Good nutrition doesn't have to be complicated – for most children, and parents too! it boils down to eating more fruit & veg and eating less junk food.

By encouraging good eating habits in our children from an early age we can help to prevent health problems in later life, such as:

• Overweight and obesity
• Heart disease & stroke
• Type 2 diabetes
• Certain cancers

You might think that these illnesses strike later in life – and you’d be right – but they take a lifetime to develop and have their roots in childhood. By helping our kids to eat right from an early age, we can help them to avoid these illnesses in the future. It is up to you as a parent to help your children  get the healthy diet, as they don't have the capability of making the correct decision when it comes to health eating. Children follow trends and what their friends are having, so start your children trending fresh fruit and vegetables now!

Eat More Fruit & Veg

Eating fruit and vegetables every day is vital for good health. Worryingly, most children (and most adults!) do not eat enough of these essential foods.

Reports from the World Health Organisation (WHO) reckon that up to 2.7 million lives worldwide could be saved every year if we simply ate more fruit and vegetables.

Experts recommend that we eat 5-10 portions of fruit and vegetables per day – where a portion is roughly a handful. So in the case of a small child, a small apple or a handful of chopped carrots would count as a single portion.

Remember that the recommendation “eat 5 servings of fruit or vegetables every day” is a minimum – 5 pieces per day is not the target, it is the minimum that you need for long term health!

So start getting the health eating habit into your child from as early an age as possible. And encourage cooking and baking with your children; this will help them gain more knowledge of foods and health, and will help them try more variety of foods. Healthy foods can be tasty foods!

2 Vital Health Questions Answered

Here I have another short blog answering a couple of questions I have been asked myself, as well as seeing them in various magazines and websites.

Along with reading the blogs I publish, check out the adverts at the side and between the blogs. These will show you equipment, supplements, additional advice and much more!

So here we go, the first question I'll be answering today is one asked quite frequently.

Q. Is chicken a better choice than beef? A. All in all the answer is not about whether chicken is a healthier choice than beef, its all about how the animal has been raised. Free-range chicken is extremely healthy! The cheaper version has 266% more fat than it did in 1971 according to studies from the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition! Again with beef, grass-fed is better than grain-fed, with 27% less fat and 10% more protein. Its important when shopping to check different products and their nutritional information. You will find the healthier more expensive!

And the second question is; Q. 'is brown rice a lot healthier than white rice?' A. It sure is! The extra fibre content ensures you feel fuller for longer. But if this fibre is removed (as with white rice), rising blood sugar triggers a flood of insulin from the pancreas, which encourages the body to store fat. Studies showed that people eating wholegrains lost 2.4 times more fat!

I hope these questions and answers were helpful and please leave comments and check back soon for more blogs.

By James Harvey

Building Muscle - A Great Diet For Gaining Weight

This is a great article I found by a guy called Adi Crnalic, about the foods to eat when trying to gain muscle. Give it a go and let me know how you get on. I will get more articles from this guy.



Building muscle mass means that you'll have to consume more calories than your body burns on a daily basis. In this article, I'll outline an effective sample muscle building diet and proven guidelines that you can use to pack on muscle mass and gain weight fast.

Too many guys make the mistake of training too frequently in the gym and not feeding their body's properly to in order to support muscle growth and recovery. Eating to build muscle and gain weight is not rocket-science, but there are certain guidelines that you'll need to follow in your diet to ensure optimal muscle growth and recovery.

When you eat the correct muscle building foods, your mass gains will increase almost overnight because certain foods produce an anabolic environment in the body, which means that your body will be very efficient at building new muscle tissue.

Here are some proven guidelines that you'll want to follow when you're looking to design your own muscle mass building diet.

Guideline #1: To gain weight and build muscle fast, eat at least 2 grams of carbohydrates per pound of bodyweight each day. So for example, if you weight 160 pounds, you should be consuming at least 320 grams of carbohydrates every day to support energy production and muscle growth.

Guideline #2: To support an anabolic or muscle building environment in your body, strive to eat at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight every day. Taking the example from above, you should be eating at least 160 grams of protein every day in order to pack on muscle size.

Protein helps to re-build damaged muscle tissue from intense weight training and speeds up to recovery as well as the muscle growth process.

Guideline #3: In order to support muscle growth and reduce muscle inflammation that's caused by intense weight training, eat plenty of healthy omega-3 fats in your diet. If you weigh 160 pounds, you should consume at least 70 to 80 grams of fat every day which comes out to roughly 0.5 grams per pound of bodyweight.

Now that you know how much protein, carbohydrates and fats you should be eating every day to gain weight and build muscle, let's design a sample muscle building diet based on the guidelines above.

Breakfast:

2 Whole Eggs (Boiled)

21 grams Protein powder

1 cup Low-Fat Milk

1 cup Oatmeal

2 tsp Olive, Flax or Salmon Oils

Pre-Workout Snack:

28 grams Protein powder

1 cup Low-Fat Milk

2/3 cup Oatmeal

1 ounce of mixed nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts)

Post Workout Snack

30 Grams of protein powder mixed with 3 cups of fruit juice

Post Workout Meal (Lunch):

6 oz Tuna Steak with Rice and Vegetables

1 cup of rice. Season the rice and vegetables

2 Bell Peppers

2 tsp Olive, Flax or Salmon Oils

Dinner:

6 oz Chicken breast, skinless. Chicken with Salad and Applesauce

1/4 cup Cucumber. Baking the chicken is an easy way to cook it.

1 Pepper. Can make a tasty salad dressing from balsamic

1/8 head Lettuce, iceberg, vinegar, olive oil, garlic and any spices of your choice

1 cup Cherry tomatoes and a side of rice.

Dessert

1/2 cup Applesauce

1 Ounce of almonds or walnuts

Before Bed Protein Shake:

28 grams Protein powder. Late Night Protein Shake with Oatmeal

1/3 cup Oatmeal. Put all ingredients in a blender over ice and blend.

2/3 tsp Olive, Flax or Salmon Oils. Adding water to create desired consistency.

1 cup Low-Fat Milk

Total Daily Calories = 2500 to 2700

Total Carbohydrates = 340 to 360 grams

Total Protein = 160 to 180 grams

Total Fats = 65 to 80 grams

The diet above is an a good example of what your day to day diet should look like if your goal is to build muscle and gain weight through healthy foods and high-protein snacks.

Notice that the diet above includes pre and post workout protein shakes. Although protein shakes are not essential to build muscle, they're very convenient and allow you to easily meet your daily protein requirements.

You can substitute some foods that you don't like or don't have access to with foods that are similar. The muscle building diet that I've outlined above is a great example for someone who weighs 150 to 170 pounds and wants to pack on muscle mass quickly with very little fat gain.

If you weigh more than 170 pounds, you'll have to increase the portion size of each meal in the sample above in order to meet your daily carbohydrate, protein, fat and calorie requirements.

To sum up, building muscle and gaining weight means that you'll have to eat plenty of muscle building foods on a daily basis. Foods that are high in protein, healthy carbohydrates as well as healthy fats will all support weight gain and muscle growth if they're eaten in the proper amounts every day.


Next...

Discover The 4 Killer Muscle Building Mistakes That 95% Of All Skinny Guys Make When Trying To Build Muscle And Gain Weight Fast Click Here

About the author

Once a skinny, pencil-necked weakling, Adi Crnalic is now an all natural bodybuilder, certified personal trainer and creator of the explosive new muscle building course that shows you how to pack on 20-40 pounds of muscle in just weeks! - Massive Muscle Building

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Adi_Crnalic


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6674186

Thanks for reading, and check back soon for more great blogs about health and fitness.

Top 5 Reasons to Eat Fruit & Veg!

Here I have found some vital information on the importance of eating your fruit & veg; Top 5 Reasons!

1. Studies have shown the risk of a stroke will decrease by 42% if eating nine portions of fruit and veg a day.

2. Bananas lower blood pressure and their potassium helps to regulate your heartbeat.

3. An orange a day will reduce your risk of larynx and stomach cancer by 50%.

4. Eating foods high in vitamin C, like oranges and broccoli, increases your protection from heart disease. It is said that men can even achieve a six-year life extension as a result of this.

5. And finally, your chances of a long life increase by a quarter if you eat a fig a day.

So, there you have it. A few vital facts about the importance of eating your fruit and veg. Please keep checking back for more great information and this subject and much more, and please recommend my blogs on twitter and anywhere else you can, thank you.