Carbohydrates are the body's preferred energy source. Eating carbohydrates provides energy to your muscles, brain and nervous system; facilitates the metabolism of fat; and ensures that the protein in your muscles is not broken down to supply energy.
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Fast-digesting carbs are effective after a workout, to help replenish your muscles' depleted glycogen stores, or before a workout, if you need a quick boost of energy but don't have time for a meal.
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Losing weight at any age requires a combination of regular training and dietary adjustments. To start shedding the extra pounds, implement a training schedule that combines different styles of exercise, and focus on eating natural foods and drinking plenty of water.
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Trimming your lower body, including your thighs, calves and even your buttocks, needs a focused and strategic approach. Just running on a treadmill every now and then isn't going to cut it -- you need to overhaul your lifestyle if you really want the change to be noticeable and permanent.
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Reducing belly bulge comes down to a combination of dietary and exercise strategies. Eating lots of junk food, drinking alcohol -- particularly beer -- and living a sedentary lifestyle inevitably leads to belly bulge.
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Losing weight can be very beneficial for your long-term health if you're overweight. However, it's important to do it at a sensible pace, as very rapid weight loss can lead to serious health complications and "yo-yo" dieting in the future. A healthy and sustainable rate of fat loss is roughly 1 to 2 pounds per week.
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Cheat days are a tool to use when you're dieting heavily. If you're eating at a significant caloric deficit during the week, a cheat day will give you both psychological relief and protection from hormonal disruption. A cheat day's routine is not just about the workout for the day, either.
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Working out for two hours at a time is extremely demanding. It can be useful to push yourself through a plateau or to prepare for a particular event but should only be undertaken by people with plenty of training experience.
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Lifting weights is a highly effective way to lose fat from your body. However, lifting every day is going to do you more harm than good. Weight lifting is extremely taxing on the central nervous system and the musculoskeletal system, and sufficient rest between your sessions is vital.
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Getting toned buttocks and thighs is a tough but rewarding goal. Be realistic in your expectations -- any significant change is likely to take at least six months and will require total consistency in your diet and training.
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Energy drinks have been successfully marketed as providing a burst of energy and focus for athletes, students and tired office workers. While many of the active ingredients in energy drinks occur naturally in other foods, the high concentration found in energy drinks may be associated with kidney damage.
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Found in certain tree bark, cinnamon is an aromatic spice well known for its versatility in cooking, and its ability to reduce blood sugar and soothe an upset stomach. Cinnamon, however, can have several negative health effects if eaten in too great a quantity or when paired with particular drugs.
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Ketosis is a metabolic state that occurs when the body has used up its available glycogen stores, and starts burning fat to provide energy to the brain. Dietary ketosis typically happens on low-carbohydrate diets, or when you've eaten an insufficient amount over two to three days.
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Sprinting is a highly effective form of exercise that combines the benefits of cardio training with resistance work. Sprinting is an anaerobic activity -- it forces your body to draw on your stored energy in order to meet its demands. It also triggers a hormonal response that causes the development of muscle mass.
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You've probably heard that coffee is a diuretic that will cause you to lose large amounts of water, and will leave you dehydrated if you're not careful. Recent research has shown that this is not case, due to the high water content in coffee.
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Eating certain foods will lead to the release of dopamine, a chemical that can cause a "feel-good" response in the bloodstream. Dopamine is integral to experiencing emotional responses in a variety of situations, as well as the ability to feel pleasure or pain.
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Eating a balanced diet is important for maintaining an optimal weight and protecting your long-term health. The U.S. Department of Agriculture dietary intake recommendations include foods that fall into five categories. Selecting foods from each of these groups will ensure you are eating a nutritionally complete diet.
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To build muscle and lose fat, you need to carefully create and meticulously follow a healthy eating plan. The process of building muscle is very different from that of losing fat, but by making changes to your eating plan and the beverages you drink, you can do both successfully.
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If your child is overweight, it's important to help him start to return to a normal weight as soon as possible. It's unwise to impose drastic changes as this will likely cause stress and conflict and can be harmful to your child's health.
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Training frequency is a really important part of developing your body. Train too little, and you won't see any results. Train too much, and you risk injury, illness and mental burn-out. Each body part should be trained two to three times per week on non-consecutive days. Aim for one or two full-body workouts per week.
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