Fitness Tips
TIP #1:Grocery Shopping
Stick to the outside of the store. There you will find your meats, veggies, fruits, eggs, and milk. All fresh food and good for you. Everything else in the store will be processed food and will quickly go to your waist. Next time you go food shopping, resist the urge to go up and down the isles.
TIP # 2: Protein
When you eat food, your body does more than just add calories, it also burns them. The act of digestion takes energy and therefore burn calories, which is also known as the "thermogenic effect of food." This effect accounts for five to 10 percent of your metabolic rate, so you want to make sure to eat the right foods that stimulate the most thermogenic effect. Protein has the most thermogenic effect of all nutrients. A whopping 30 percent of the calories from protein are used during digestion! So if you eat 100 calories of protein, 30 calories will be burned through digestion leaving you with a net 70 calories. The fiber and complex carbs in vegetables will also force your body to do some extra work.
Tip #3 Fat Burning
How Hard Do I Need to Exercise to Burn Fat?
To answer this question we need to focus on two areas of the FIT principle (Frequency, Intensity, and Time of exercise). These two areas are intensity and time.
Let's look at 2 sample workouts performed by the same individual exercising on a stairclimber.
SESSION #1
Percentage of MHR 85%
Exercise time 30 minutes
Calories expended during exercise 480
Percentage of calories from fat 50%
Fat calories utilized 240
SESSION #2
Percentage of MHR 65%
Exercise time 30 minutes
Calories expended during exercise 300
Percentage of calories from fat 80%
Fat calories utilized 240
These numbers are used for the sole purpose of demonstrating how a higher intensity cardiovascular workout can achieve an equal or greater number of fat calories utilized as a lower intensity workout. Individuals caloric numbers will vary.
So you can work out at a higher intensity and still burn an equal or greater number of fat calories as compared to a lower intensity workout. The following are added benefits of the higher intensity workout.
Larger number of total calories utilized
Metabolism remains elevated for a longer period of the time after exercise.
You gain a higher level of cardiovascular conditioning.
Keep in mind that individuals who are ill or injured should start at a lower intensity level until they have regained their health.