Posts Tagged ‘lifestyle’

Metabolism is a convient catch phrase; it really is taken out of context most times.

METABOLISM-ONE PART

If you just look at one part of weight loss you lose the whole picture. Your metabolism is influenced by chronological age, sex, genetic make-up, and proportion of lean body mass.  A few facts that will show you that this is a small part of most weight loss plans.

“Some people just burn calories at a slower rate than others” says Barrie Wolfe-Radbill, RD, a nutritionist specializing in weight loss at the New York University Medical Center. There are a few intriguing reasons for this.

YO-YO DIETING

What most people do not realize, the heavier you are the chances are your metabolism is running faster.

It may only be a small amount faster, but the fact is your body has to work harder to sustain itself.  

For that reason it is sometimes easiest to loss weight at the start of a diet. A small cut in calories when you are obese results in a fast weight loss at first.

But, then as you lose both muscle and fat you need fewer calories to sustain body functions. This makes it easy to put on the pounds again if you go back to your regular eating.

Yo-yo dieting: you loss weight and then gain back more than you lost, when you return to your old eating habits.

LIFESTYLE

At the end of the day, what it comes down to is lifestyle. As engaging as all the theories are, weight follows your lead. To change weight you have to change your habits. You have to handle stress, food, and activity differently than previously. The thing that matters is the way you work with the metabolism that you have. This is a realistic goal.

Walking and any type of physical activity help speed up your metabolism.

Eating the right foods, at the right time of day often helps boost your metabolism.

PLATEAU

If your binge after you drastically cut calories your body will hold on to the calories as if you are in a famine.

With that said, the answer really is in a healthy lifestyle. It is not just calories in and calories out. It is where you are getting your calories from. To boost your metabolism should not be the focus of your dieting plan. Here is the key the modern processed food diet that we gobble up is the culprit not a slower metabolism. Previous generations did not know all the buzz words for weight loss yet; they were not nearly as overweight as we are.

HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP

Here is a clue high fructose corn syrup can switch metabolism from a fat-burning one to one that stores fat.

It promotes the formation of long chain fatty acids that are resistant to oxidation.

The amount of long chain fatty acids you produce is directly related to the amount of fat in and on your body.

We need to stop talking about a slow metabolism and concentrate on what is your source of energy. Yes, that source is from the food you ingest.

The fructose in fruit is a small amount and it is ingested with the vitamins, minerals, enzymes and fiber which are present along with any fructose.

What we are talking about is the high fructose syrup that is in our food in epidemic proportions. This is the first generation to consume processed food with high fructose corn syrup. Coincidentally, this is the generation that is facing an obesity epidemic, and a laundry list of chronic health problems.

ANSWER

The answer to becoming slimmer, is to become healthier. The way to do that is through an individualized nutrition plan, one that becomes a lifestyle. To keep using the metabolism excuse will keep you from being healthy. By concentrating on a healthy lifestyle, everything will work as it is mean to, including your metabolism.

It is a fact that lifestyle not genes predict aging.

British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiology at the University of Leicester Professor Nilesh Samani, of the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, who co-led the project explained that there are two forms of ageing – chronological aging i.e. how old you are in years and biological ageing whereby the cells of some individuals are older (or younger) than suggested by their actual age.

He said: “There is accumulating evidence that the risk of age-associated diseases including heart disease and some types of cancers are more closely related to biological rather than chronological age.

Aging

All of us age at different rates, and yes some people seem to age better. That is usually attributed to good genes. While that is not entirely wrong, there are a few factors to consider. Genes are turned on and off by lifestyle factors. Entering the world with good genes is nothing to sneeze at. Everyone, would like to be blessed with good genes.

However, the expression of these genes can be turned on or off by the way one lives. Chronological aging and biological aging can be on two different clocks. Age associated-diseases conditions are more closely related to biological aging than chronological.

Telomere Length

Individuals are born with telomeres of a certain length and in numerous cells telomeres become shorter as the cell divide and age. Telomere length is a marker for biological ageing.

The results of a recent study in JAMA suggested a link between inactivity and aging. They found the telomere length of individuals exercising with moderate to high intensity workouts of 199 plus minutes per week had telomere length of individuals 10 years younger than their sedentary counterpart.

Biological age should be lower then one’s chronological age.

Use It or Lose It

Use it or lose it has relevance in this study. Since diet and exercise are ways to stay biologically young, than taking care is survival 101. Genes aren’t your destiny. Your outlook, diet, and exercise routines may be the most important components in increasing both the length and quality of your life.

It was time again to repeat last year’s resolutions. Personal New Year’s resolutions some how fade away as the days progress. Very few are preserved throughout the coming year. Being only a few days into this, the failure rate may not be too high yet.

Standard

The promise of changing is a story that is familiar; it’s the power that is missing. Most resolutions are based on hope. These resolutions are the standard ones made year after year. People are looking for a second act, not necessarily a better way.

This is an annual ritual is a vow to get on course. When it fails to materialize you are in the free and clear till next year.

Get Real

Year resolutions are commemorative of last years. A new vision is something that is generated any time of year. It is not a thunderbolt from out of the blue. It seems that the conditions that prompted the most memorable resolutions are ones geared to self-improvement.

It pays to be a skeptic of all key initiatives made this time of year. What’s the chance of everything changing because it is verbalized and/or written down? Getting down to business and confronting the problem is an evolutionary process.

 Driving Change

Changing is a challenge that any veteran of New Year resolutions knows. Sometimes it appears that people want something for nothing. New Year resolutions are used as a cause for celebration. By just pronouncing the proclamation everything is now different.

What drives change is a healthy resolution, which is designed to steer you in the right direction. Every little bit counts when improving health and fitness. It is far easier when working at small incremental changes.

Hope not Hype

It is part on a New Year ritual to try to clean up the act. It is in an attempt to start anew. By now many see this as a pointless proclamation. Action is overshadowed by words. These are not a grand opening to a new life. It is estimated that less than 78% can even stick to the resolutions for any amount of time.

People, who keep their resolutions, took action in small steps. They followed a plan and evaluated the results.  The overall attitude was that this was not a one day fantasy, but a framework for reform. The focus was on the benefit not the proclamation.

 New Year Resolutions that unravels fast.

 Top New Year’s Resolutions

   1. Get Fit

   2.Stop smoking

   3. Lose Weight

   4. Enjoy Life More

   5. Quit Drinking

   6. Get  Organized

   7. Learn Something New

   8. Get Out of Debt

   9. Spend more time with the Family

   10. Help Others

Once-a-year initiatives aren’t something American’s should depend on. These shouldn’t have to wait a year to be a priority.  Failure is not an option; everything listed is a day to day choice. This shouldn’t be a spur of the moment statement. Every one of the top resolutions is going to be life altering when accomplished.

Realistic Resolutions

  1. Read Labels in the Supermarket

  2. Cut down of food with ingredient labels

  3. Don’t buy food with ingredient labels

  4. Buy more local and organic produce

  5. Add more vegetables and fruits to diet

  6. Walk more often

  7. Become more active

  8. Watch less television

  9. Spend more time outdoors

  10. Get the family involved in these activities

Better Results

These are smaller steps and the results are weight loss, better health, and a healthier family. It is easier to be kind and break habits when you feel good. These steps do help with emotional eating. One of the things that emotional eating responds to, food that stimulates senses. That is what food manufactures count on. 

Keep Your Word with Dr. Jonny Bowden