Tag Archives | dieting

The Truth About Metabolism

By on April 25, 2009 in Exercise Articles, Motivation Articles, Nutrition Articles

The Truth About Metabolism and How To Facilitate Metabolic Increases Without Ever Dieting!

If you want to change your physique, and a part of that change involves losing body fat, it’s critical that you understand the concepts of metabolism.

Fat burning, calories, energy, they all deal with one thing. HEAT!

Think of metabolism as your internal fire with calories providing the necessary fuel to keep the flame burning…and a calorie is actually a measure of heat! More accurately, a “calorie” is a kilocalorie. It’s the amount of heat necessary to raise 1 kilogram of water 1 degree Celsius. What does that have to do with burning fat? You’ll soon understand.

Most often people refer to metabolism when they are referring to someone they know who can eat anything and not gain a pound of fat. Everyone thinks those people are genetically gifted with a fast metabolism. The truth is, we are victims of our metabolism, but the creators! We can speed up or slow down metabolism regardless of age.

Metabolism simply means the speed at which your body burns through calories. Therefore, in order to increase metabolism, you must consume more calories frequently throughout the day! Eat more to lose weight? That’s right!

There are 3 synergistic components that control your metabolism or metabolic rate.

1. First is the amount of muscle you maintain or gain. Muscle is metabolically active tissue, therefore, the more muscle you have on your physique, the more calories you are going to burn. To break it down further, for every pound of muscle mass you add to your frame, requires approximately 50 extra calories per day to maintain. That doesn’t include the amount of calories burned to create that muscle or the amount of calories burned during exercise to keep that muscle – these 50 calories are simply the amount of calories needed to support that muscle while it’s sitting there. That’s why resistance training is critical if you seek long term weight reduction.

2. Second, your natural production of thyroid hormones can be negatively impacted by continuous periods of caloric deprivation (dieting). To support optimal thyroid production and metabolic function, make certain you consume adequate calories frequently throughout the day.

3. Third, the types and amount of calories you ingest with frequent feedings. Consuming a lean protein, starchy carbohydrate, and a fibrous carbohydrate every 3 hours is a supportive nutrition program guaranteed to rev up your metabolic furnace. The simple act of eating and digesting foods produces heat, but not all foods are created equal. Fats are simple for your body to digest and produce a small amount of heat. However, lean proteins and starchy carbohydrates require a lot more work and produce a tremendous amount of heat. By replacing high fat foods with more heat producing proteins and carbs, the act of eating will boost your metabolic rate.

With the proper combination of supportive nutrition, resistance training, and cardiovascular training, you too can become one of those “I Can Eat Anything and Not Get Fat” People!

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Crossfit in the Orange County Register

By on April 20, 2009 in Exercise Articles, Motivation Articles
Crossfitters

Crossfitters

Crossfit’s in the OC Register!  Here is the story below:

What are the hot workouts now?

By JENNIFER MUIR
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
CrossFit: A workout with a competitive edge
David Miller is like a machine, feverishly pressing 75-pounds over his head as fast as he can before the minute ends.
After this, he’ll spend another 60 seconds sprinting on a rowing machine — the second of five exercises he’ll do as fast and precisely as he can before moving on to the next minute of lifting or pulling or squatting hell.
And when he’s done, he’ll lay on the floor sweating until his heart rate dips below frantic again.
This grueling workout is called Fight Gone Bad. And while Miller, 22, is pushing through it alongside friends at a Huntington Beach gym, thousands across the world have undoubtedly already completed same workout within days of this mechanical engineer.
They’re all part of a growing movement called CrossFit.
Every day, people log on to the Cross Fit website to see the workout of the day (W.O.D.) — strength and conditioning exercises that sometimes will take only 10 minutes to complete, but will leave you feeling like you’re going to puke when you’re done.
CrossFit’s mantra is functional fitness; each exercise is designed to prepare participants for situations they might encounter in real life, whether it’s fighting a fire or pushing open a garage door that’s falling shut.
It’s also controversial — critics say beginners can overdo it, causing injuries and even death by a condition called Rhabdomyolysis, which is caused when muscle fiber breaks down and is released into the bloodstream, poisoning the kidneys.
But those who do it say the risks are worth the benefits.
In Orange County, there are at nearly 20 CrossFit affiliated gyms, populated largely by people who have heard about the workouts through word of mouth.
“You can’t hide what kind of person you are here,” says Steve Serrano, a retired Santa Ana police sergeant and former Naval Special warfare officer who owns CrossFit Marina in Huntington Beach. “If you’re the kind of person who will cheat to get ahead, it’s going to come out here.”
The Orange County Fire Authority adopted CrossFit as its training model, and Santa Ana police has stocked a third of its gym with functional fitness equipment used in CrossFit workouts, such as kettle bells, medicine balls, Olympic bars and plyometric boxes.
“It’s the standard now for the department,” OCFA Capt. Greg McKeown said.
It’s grown so popular that this year that — for the first time — there are regional qualifying events for the annual CrossFit games, which bring together athletes from around the world in a competition of raw strength, endurance and stamina.
Miller, a former college soccer player, is training for the Southern California qualifier being held this weekend at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department training facility.
“It’s kind of marketed to hard-core competition, people who want a kick-ass workout that leaves me crying,” says Mariessa Marlow, who owns CrossFit South Bay. “But we also have people who come in and want to lose weight or who are bored at the gym.”
Sure, the 70-year-olds who do CrossFit aren’t doing handstand pushups, but instructors provide alternative exercises and recommend lighter weights for anyone who needs it.
About 30 CrossFit “newbies” showed up on the sand one recent weekend for a free introduction to the fitness regimen. There were men and women, some in their 20s and others in their 50s.
Everyone did the same workout. Some could lift more or push through each station faster. Others needed to rest between every couple pushups or squats.
The common thread among those who decide to keep coming back to CrossFit isn’t an innate athletic ability, Marlow says. It’s a competitive edge.
“You’ll see the clock running, and you’ve got the guy next to you who you want to kick his (butt), and lift more weight than him,” she says. “It’s functional fitness with a competitive edge.”

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