Weight management often depends on calculating metabolic rates, understanding fat biochemistry, and tailoring exercise programming for either muscle acquisition or structured fat reduction.
Assessing your weight helps you determine whether you're at risk for chronic disease or if you have compromised immunity. Too much fat, even on a person of normal weight, can have deleterious health effects.
Read more →
You'll do almost anything to reduce belly fat in a snap because it's physically unattractive and a danger to your health. But quick fixes, including infrared wraps aren't the answer.
Read more →
Regular exercise on an elliptical trainer helps you burn calories, which is key in the battle to lose weight. Getting on the machine every day doesn't guarantee weight loss, though.
Read more →
Meal plans can help you stick to your resolve, optimize nutrition and streamline grocery shopping. Estimate the number of calories you need to maintain your weight by multiplying your weight in pounds by 12, suggests registered dietitian Joanne Larsen, and then subtracting 500 calories.
Read more →
Lean, shapely legs that look good in shorts, a mini or tight leggings can be yours, but not with spot reduction. It's impossible to use targeted exercises to lose weight in a specific part of your body.
Read more →
Whether you want to lose weight for health or to look slimmer in your jeans, you must burn fat to achieve your goal. Your body loses fat when you create an environment in which it's not getting enough energy and must turn to fat stores to fuel all its function.
Read more →
Puberty causes changes in the shape and feeling of your body. "Man boobs" on a 13-year-old boy may be an effect of having too much body fat, but they can also develop as a result of hormonal shifts occurring during puberty. This growth of breast tissue in a teenage guy is known as gynecomastia.
Read more →
Most body fat measurements tell you what percentage of your weight is made up of fat tissue. When you know this percentage and your total weight, you can easily figure the number of pounds you carry in fat.
Read more →
Avocados are often avoided by dieters because of their high fat content. Although avocados offer more fat than most other fruits or vegetables, you must consider the type of fat they contain and the other nutrients provided. Avocados can be part of a weight-loss diet as long as you practice portion control.
Read more →
Your lifestyle, certain medications and illness can squash your appetite, leading to possible unintentional weight loss that endangers your health. If you are too thin and have a body mass index of less than 18.5, this can compromise your immunity, energy, hormonal function and bone health.
Read more →
You've had enough of being overweight and not feeling your best -- you want change now. Chances are, though, that you didn't gain the weight in just a few short weeks, so it's unrealistic to think you can take it off in that short of time.
Read more →
Gaining weight can take as much effort as losing it. A caloric surplus, which involves consuming a greater number of calories than you burn, helps you put on pounds. No specific vitamin, regardless of its claims, will make you gain weight -- vitamins don't contain calories.
Read more →
Some bodybuilders achieve muscle growth by bulking -- increasing weight and presumably -- muscle by overeating. They then "cut" when going into the competition season by prioritizing fat loss and maintaining any muscle the bulking helped them build.
Read more →
The ring of fat around your waist may affectionately be referred to as "love handles," but you don't love it. Love handles show you're carrying a little too much extra fat. They keep you from looking your best in clothes and discourage you from taking off your shirt at the beach.
Read more →
Obesity has been designated as a worldwide health problem for only a few decades, and since 1980 its prevalence across the globe has doubled. The World Health Organization defines obesity according to body mass index, which is your weight in kilograms divided by your height in meters squared.
Read more →
Smoking not only increases your risk of developing lung cancer and heart disease; it also causes you to store fat around your middle. Despite its ability to squelch hunger pains, a study published in a 2012 issue of "PLoS One" found that smokers had more belly fat than their non-smoking counterparts.
Read more →
Many weight-loss plans include recommendations for strength training, so you gain valuable muscle mass to help with calorie burning. The two to three resistance-training sessions suggested per week for these plans won't turn you into a body builder, but will help you preserve some tone and function as you slim down.
Read more →
Youβre typically told to eat less and move more to lose weight. But if you eat too little, you'll face a metabolic slowdown that interferes with weight management. Eating enough calories at predictable intervals will help boost a metabolism that has stalled.
Read more →
If you just couldn't keep your hands off the hors d'oeuvres at happy hour, polished off a pint of ice cream and a package of cookies after a stressful day, or ate far more than your fair share at Christmas dinner, you may feel pounds heavier.
Read more →
The notion that an ideal weight exists for every age and gender fails to take into account differences in body fat percentage, height and body shape. An ideal weight for your age really isn't relevant unless you're measuring growth rates of a child.
Read more →