Posts Tagged ‘diet’
Weight loss, exercise, and diet are all interrelated in a very fundamental way. There as many diets out there as there are calories in an avocado, and every one of them is based on the same basic premise: energy balance.
The fundamental ethos of the energy balance view is that if your energy intake exceeds your energy use, then you will gain weight, and conversely, if your energy use exceeds your energy intake, then you will lose weight. Simple, isn’t it? Perhaps not as simple as it seems, however, since there is a body that disputes this theory of weight loss to some extent, and you can read about that later. However, there is an overwhelming body of evidence to support this equation for the vast majority of people.
We are often asked how effective is walking as an exercise. 
Walking is an effective form of exercise, and it has certain advantages over other exercises in that it is easy to do – it is low-impact, and does not require a significant amount of investment. It is possible to start today, and even such small changes in activity level add up over a period of time. In addition, it is extremely easy to vary the exercise routine to avoid getting bored – simple changes such as location, pace, walking style, or by going for a hike. There is also some scientific evidence that suggests that by incorporating some additional tools, effectiveness of walking as an exercise could be increased by as much as 20%, without becoming more tiring. Because most people live a sedentary life style, simply adding an hour to walk around the block in the evening adds a significant amount of needed physical activity. Talk to your doctor, do some planning, start easy, gauge yourself, and get going!
The August 2009 Issue of Circulation (the Journal of the American Heart Association) contains the AHA’s Scientific Statement on Sugars Intake. It finds that Americans consume an average of 22 teaspoons of added sugar, over 350 additional calories, every day. This is almost 3 times the recommended amount of calories from sugar (as advised by the 2005 US Dietary Guidelines), and provides no nutritional benefit. In the past 25 years, the intake of sugar increased by more than 70 extra calories every day. If these extra calories are not offset (and there is a substantial amount of evidence that they are not), the extra calories could cause a gain of approximately 7 pounds per year. The AHA’s position (echoing many underlying research authors) is that the increasing trend in consumption of added sugars, particularly colas/ sodas, correlates to the increasing trend of cardio-vascular health risks and obesity. It is possible to improve this condition by being more mindful of what is eaten.
Research seems to highlight the potential of this little-known tissue in the human body as a weight loss dynamo. Brown Adipose Tissue (or Brown Fat) plays a key role in metabolism. A typical person has about ½ oz of it (about 13g), while almost 2 oz (50g) of this tissue could use up to 20% of your calories for the day! Cooler temperatures activate its weight-shedding by causing it to generate body heat, which increases metabolism. But, there is still a lot to learn about Brown Fat and its role of increasing your metabolism and controlling your weight.
