Avoid unnecessary high calorie foods like mayonnaise salads, fast food etc. Instead of a high calorie salad dressing for instance try cottage cheese, yogurt and fresh vegetable salads to improve the salads taste and peel of the pounds.
Older women who take hormone therapy to relieve menopausal symptoms may get the added benefit of reduced body fat if they are physically active, according to a new study. The results were presented at The Endocrine Society’s 91st Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
The study provides new information on the health benefits of any type of physical activity, not just exercise, said the presenting author Poli Mara Spritzer, MD, PhD, a professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and chief of the Gynecological Endocrinology Unit at the university’s Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre.
After menopause, a woman’s percentage of body fat tends to increase and redistribute to the abdomen, Spritzer said. Excess belly fat is a risk factor for diabetes and heart disease. Postmenopausal women who exercise have a lower percentage of body fat than sedentary women, past research shows. However, Spritzer said less is known about the influence on body fat composition of physical activity in women receiving hormone replacement therapy, or HRT. Some data suggest that estrogen treatment may add to the effect of exercise in reducing fat.
Spritzer and her colleagues studied 34 healthy women who had an average age of 51 years, had experienced menopause for less than 3 years and sought HRT to relieve hot flashes, night sweats and vaginal dryness. They evaluated the women’s cholesterol levels, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (a measure of abdominal fat) and percentage of body fat before and after 4 months of HRT. The women received estrogen plus progesterone therapy in either non-oral (nasal and vaginal) or low-dose oral preparations. For 6 consecutive days before starting HRT and 6 days at the end of HRT, women wore a pedometer to estimate their level of physical activity. The device measured the steps they took, including walking, working, and doing house chores and leisure activities. They were instructed to not change their usual activities. Most of the women did not play sports or do any structured physical exercise, according to Spritzer.
Results showed that 24 of the women were physically active-defined as taking 6,000 steps or more per day-and 10 were inactive (less than 6,000 steps a day). For a woman who has a step, or stride, length of 2 feet (60 cm), 6,000 steps would be around 2.25 miles (3.6 km), Spritzer estimated. For active women, the higher the number of steps they took, the lower was their waist measurement and the better their level of “good” (high-density-lipoprotein, or HDL) cholesterol, the authors reported. The inactive women did not have any changes in body fat or cholesterol. However, when all 34 women were considered in the analysis, body fat still declined significantly after HRT.
“Data from our study suggest that active women could benefit from hormone therapy beyond the relief of menopausal symptoms-by preserving a good body fat percentage and distribution,” Spritzer said. “Further studies with a larger number of subjects are needed in order to answer whether a specific physical activity is better than others.”
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The Brazilian National Council for Science and Technology and the Brazilian National Institute of Hormones and Women’s Health funded this study.
alohr@endo-society.org
240-482-1380
The Endocrine Society
Let’s liken our body to an automobile, you wouldn’t think about getting in your automobile and trying to go a half a mile to the grocery store with no fuel in the tank. Just like your car, your body needs fuel. You have to have fuel in your vehicle for it to run and not only do you have to have fuel, but you have to have the proper fuel. We would not think of putting diesel in a gasoline engine, we would put only gasoline. So, let’s think of our bodies as our vehicle and we need to start our day with food because we have been fasting overnight and our reserves are exhausted. They are down in the bottom; in fact most people’s blood sugar is the lowest in the morning.
Your reserves are down and you need to refuel, that is why breakfast is so important. Another fact that most people are unaware of about our bodies is that about four hours after we have eaten our last meal our body begins to revert from using our fat store to using our glycogen and our muscle stores of energy, this even happens during the night. Luckily we don’t need as much energy during the night, but it still will switch us from the fat stores to glycogen and muscle stores. By getting up, running around, getting ready and getting to work, and not first refueling our self, we are setting our selves up for muscle loss. We are not giving our body a good source of protein in which to fuel the energy need. Another time we will talk about proper fuel.
Until then…
Have a great day!
Dr. Jo Lynn Hawthorne
Impacts of Stress
Stress management is an essential step for you to take once you have determined you are facing stressful situations in your life, regardless of the cause. Although there are helpful types of stress that enables you to cater this added burst of energy into something positive and productive, it is not recommended for your body. Long term stress can specifically produce negative impacts on your health and is recognized to deteriorate your health faster than some other diseases.
Furthermore, stress can reduce your capacity to perform and function well, either at school or in the workplace. Therefore, stress isn’t something to be dismissed. Aside from the personal impacts you can experience from stress, it also affects how you deal with the environment and the people in your lives.
Knowing Your Stress Level
When it comes to stress management, determining the source of stress is often not enough. For people who are often stressed, keeping a stress journal is highly recommended in order for you to monitor the different levels of stress you are experiencing and what effects it produced. This is an effective way for you to closely study your levels of stress, its triggers, and for you to pinpoint exactly what you can do to relieve yourself from it.
Starting on Stress Management
Now that you know the effects that stress can do to you, getting started on a stress management method is necessary. Managing your stress helps you regain control over your life, instead of being consumed by the amount of stress you had to deal with. Here’s how you can get started:
Steps on Stress Management
One thing you need to keep in mind is that you cannot expect to totally get rid of stress. It is a process wherein your initial goal would be to reduce the amount of stress in your life until you eventually get rid of it.
The following ideas will help you establish a stress management method that could work for you:
Benefits of Stress Management
If you cannot fully understand the importance of stress management, then try thinking in reverse. Imagine yourself not suffering from the negative impacts of stress. Without the negative results of stress in your life, then a person is able to enjoy a more satisfying and stress-free life.
To sum it up, here are the benefits that can be derived with practicing an efficient stress management method:
You might want to begin by downloading our free audio by signing up on the form at the top right of this page.
There are two main types of exercise that you can do – aerobic and anaerobic. The first one, aerobic, means with oxygen. Aerobic type exercise has an important distinction, it burns fat as the main fuel.
Anaerobic on the other hand, burns sugar as the main source of fuel. Despite common myths, exercise doesn’t have to be drastic in any way to provide massive benefits. Even if you choose light exercise, you will still burn fat.
Light exercise will clear out lactic acid, which is a waste of the body, and stimulate your cells to regenerate. To be sure that you are burning fat rather than sugar, it’s very important to make sure that you are doing several things as you exercise.
You might want to begin by downloading our free audio by signing up on the form at the top right of this page.
The most important thing you can do as you exercise is breathe deep. You should always breathe in deep into your stomach through your nose, hold it for a few seconds and then exhale hard through your mouth.
Second, you should make sure that you exercise at a comfortable level. You should exercise at a level of 7 out of 10, and still be able to carry on a normal conversation while you exercise. You should do this for 45 minutes or so each day, then you’ll begin to notice just how much your energy will explode.
Even if you don’t think you have the time to exercise, rest assured that there is always time. If you have to, use the time that you would
normally spend sleeping. With exercising, you’ll actually need less sleep than before.
You can also use the time of your lunch break to exercise as well. The increase in productivity will have you more on the ball, and you can save your time through the dramatic increase in your overall productivity.
Cellularise, or rebounding, is one of the best forms of aerobic exercise there is. If you have access to a rebounder, you shouldn’t hesitate to use it. Use any break you have at work to engage in some type of movement and deep breathing.
Any type of exercise you do will strongly benefit your heart. It will make it a stronger and larger organ. Deep breathing will help your lungs become stronger and larger as well. There is research now that links exercise to helping benefit and almost prevent each and every type of disease or ailment.
Movement of the joints will promote proper blood flow and create energy, as sitting down all day will rob your body of much needed energy. If you sit down all day, it’s very important that you promote blood flow, circulation, energy, brain flow, and the strength of your heart. With just a little bit of your time devoted to exercise, you’ll find yourself healthier than you have ever been in the past.
Even though exercise may not be the most exciting word in your vocabulary, it sure is a word with a lot of benefits. Participating in daily exercise will not only make you healthier in general, but it can also diminish the effects of stress on your body as well.
Think about all the times you have heard someone say “the doctor says it’s stress related.” Normally people will laugh it off, concluding that doctors say that when they don’t know the real answers or diagnosis. The truth of the matter is that too much stress will play a role in many diseases.
To help increase your immune system and decrease your stress level as well, try exercise, as movement is the key word here. Bending, stretching, reaching and walking. There’s really no need to buy any expensive equipment either, as you can implement more movement into your daily routine and reap the benefits.
If you like aerobic exercise, you should grab a partner and have a blast with one of the basic aerobic videos. Or, you can simply go out for a walk and enjoy spending time together. As you may have heard, walking really is the best overall exercise you can do for your health. As long as you have a pair of walking shoes, you’ll be fine.
As you go through your daily activities, make it a point to walk a little farther, bend down and pick something up without using a pick up stick or moving the item towards you with your foot. While you are sitting, you should also do some simple and quick stretches for your neck and shoulders.
If you enjoy sitting around watching television, you should consider buying a jogging board. These padded boards will make running, jumping, or walking in place less stressful on your knees and joints. They are easy to store as well and also very portable.
In many people’s opinions, jogging boards are the best pieces of equipment you can buy. They are also far cheaper than bulky treadmills and stationary bikes.
There are several different exercises that you can do to help you eliminate the stress in your life. Walking is by far the best, as you can easily lose yourself and your troubles by walking. Even if it is just around the block, walking can do wonders for your health as well as stress.
If you have a lot of stress in your life, you may want to consider a gym. Working out then sitting in the sauna is also a good way to relieve tension. If your gym has a pool, you may find swimming to be very beneficial as well, as it helps you to relax.
You might want to begin by downloading our free audio by signing up on the form at the top right of this page.
Looking for tips for weight loss for teens? Today’s world puts a lot of extra pressure on teens to look thin. Popular TV shows aimed at teens all feature thin, pretty young characters, overbearing parents can put undue stress on their kids to lose weight, and even worse still, is teenagers peers can be incredibly judgmental of a their weight.
Being the “fat kid” throughout high school can be a recipe for life-long self-esteem problems. There is no easy solution to this problem. Weight loss is tough, and all the added anxiety that comes with being a teen only makes matters worse. Taking advantage of some of these pointers can help make the teenage experience less scary for overweight teens.
One of the most important tips, especially for young girls, is to make sure that you understand what a healthy person looks like. A lot of girls and young women on TV are, or at least appear, dangerously thin. The media may portray this as the ideal, but the truth is, it’s not a healthy lifestyle. Many young girls develop eating disorders trying to match the looks of women they see on TV, and this is a recipe for disaster.
Young men can fall victim to eating disorders, too it’s not a problem exclusive to girls. It’s not uncommon for many teens to look in the mirror and see only ugliness and fat, when in reality they are a perfectly healthy young person. If you constantly feel severely depressed about your weight or your look, you should seek help from a psychologist. They can help you improve your own self-image and pursue weight loss goals in a healthy manner.
Another in the list of tips for weight loss for teens is to keep in mind what your body is growing through. During your teen years, your body can undergo a number of changes that affect how you grow. For instance, you might hit a late growth spurt and gain a few inches in height, making your weight even out across your frame. Puberty is a complicated time and if you know that you’re following a proper diet and exercise plan but aren’t seeing results, you might just have to wait until you’ve fully grown into your body.
Regardless of other factors, diet and exercise are always going to be an important factor in weight loss. Keep this in mind as you go throughout your school day, and think of ways to improve your health. If your school cafeteria only serves greasy, unhealthy foods, talk to your parents about bringing a healthier lunch every day. Make sure to participate in gym class, and if you can, get involved in extra-curricular sports, too.
Another factor that can be a great help in losing weight is enlisting the aid of your family. In almost every case, your family wants to be healthy too, and they will help you out as best they can. If one of your parents is the primary family cook, talk to them about healthier options for food. Furthermore you can offer to help your parents with renovations or yard work for a little extra exercise.
These tips for weight loss for teens can make a huge difference for you.
You might want to begin by downloading our free audio by signing up on the form at the top right of this page.
As we all know and hear all the time, exercise can do a body good. It can help you to stay trim, tone muscles, and help to boost energy as well. What you probably don’t know, is the fact that exercise can actually help you achieve the complexion that you’ve always wanted.
It’s true that regular exercise will nourish the skin all over the body with fresh blood, oxygen, and nutrients. As well, the increased blood flow and circulation that come with working out will help to draw toxins out of the body and improve the condition of all your vital organs, including the epidermis.
A lot of people think that sweat can trigger acne flare ups. The fact is, sweating is great for any type of congested skin, as it helps promote the flushing of impurities from the epidermal layer and will clean out the pores. As well, vigorous exercise can actually correct the hormonal imbalances that can trigger blemishes, therefore reducing the likelihood of outbreaks.
Any physical routine that you like to do, such as yoga, running, biking, spinning, pilates, boxing, and such, will help to lessen the stress that you encounter on a daily basis and help to prevent stress related acne.
Keep in mind that exercise may not be a miracle cure for everything, as you may still experience breakouts from time to time although your acne will certainly be less severe and last for a much shorter time frame.
Exercise is also great for other skin conditions that may or may not have to do with the presence of acne. Your skin losing its elasticity or becoming thin and less resilient is something that we all encounter. This is a common problem for may of us as we get older.
As we all get older, we start to lose collagen, which will make us look tired. As many of us don’t know, physical activity can actually help to promote the growth of collagen in your skin cells, which will plump up your facial skin and make you look younger and more vibrant.
If you are worried about wrinkles, you should consider relaxation that comes after you exercise. This has the effect of making your muscles, facial muscles included, soften up. What this means, is that your lines will appear less pronounced, helping to contribute to the youthful look that you are trying to achieve.
With exercise you can achieve a smaller waist, better muscle tone, softer skin, fewer blemishes, and an overall younger, more fresher look. If you’ve wanted to add or change to your complexion, you shouldn’t hesitate to exercise. Exercise will help you feel more alive as well as improve your body. All you need to do is take a little bit of time out of your schedule to exercise – its as simple as that.
You might want to begin by downloading our free audio by signing up on the form at the top right of this page.
Before we start calculating BMI, let’s discuss what BMI is, and what it isn’t. BMI, or the body mass index, is a tool that’s used to determine whether or not a person is at a normal weight for his or her height. It was invented between 1830 and 1850 by mathematician and scientist Adolphe Quetelet. Though it’s been almost 200 years since he created the BMI, it’s used today almost exactly as he outlined.
While BMI isn’t the final word in whether or not someone is at a normal weight, it’s one of the first tools often used to determine if someone’s overweight. Because the BMI doesn’t distinguish between weight from fat and weight from muscle (other tools must be used to determine the actual amount of fat) it doesn’t work well for very muscular people like athletes. But for most of us, BMI is a pretty accurate measure of whether we’re underweight, a normal weight, overweight or obese.
Calculating BMI isn’t difficult once you understand the formula. The basic formula is weight divided by height squared, or kg/m2. You simply take your height in meters and square it which means you take the number of meters times itself. Then divide that number into your weight in kilograms. So a person who’s five-and-a-half-feet tall stands about 1.7 meters. To get 1.7 meters squared, you simply multiply 1.7 times 1.7, which equals 2.89. Now, convert weight to kilograms.
So if someone weighs 200 pounds, that’s about 91 kilograms. To determine the BMI of someone about five-and-a-half-feet tall who weighs 200 pounds, or who stands 1.7 meters tall who weighs 91 kilograms, we divide the weight by the height squared, or 91 divided by 2.89. That gives us the result of about 31. This individual is classified as obese. How do I know that?
A BMI of 18.5 or below indicates an underweight person. The normal weight range is from 18.5 to 24.9. Overweight people will have a BMI of 25 to 29.9. A BMI of 30 or greater indicates obesity. So a person with a BMI of 31 is in the obese range, but not by much. By calculating BMI again with different weights, you can see that the person would only need to lose 5 kilograms, or about 11 pounds, to no longer be obese, but merely overweight. And a loss of 19 kilograms, or about 42 pounds, will put this person within a normal weight range. Calculating BMI to determine how much weight one should lose can be a big help for someone who’s not sure.
Calculating BMI can be made even more simple if you’re not sure how to convert to kilograms or meters. Simply take your weight in pounds times 4.88. Then divide that number by your height in feet, squared. So a 200 pound person who is 6 feet tall: 976 divided by 36 = 27.1. After calculating BMI, it’s clear this person is within a normal and healthy weight range.
Need some help with your BMI? You might want to begin by downloading our free audio by signing up on the form at the top right of this page.
Motivation is the reason why people work hard at their work and jobs. It is the reason why you are able to stick to a diet plan even as your colleague enjoys a chocolate mousse for dessert. And it is also the reason why people are energized to do the things that need to be done in order to achieve their goals.
While a lot of people look for motivation outside, the most effective form of motivation comes from within. Once you have decided that you want to achieve a goal you need to motivate yourself for it.
Motivating yourself to achieve your goals is not just about talking to yourself but also includes making the time and effort to realize your dreams and goals and developing skills that will help you achieve them.
You might want to begin by downloading our free audio by signing up on the form at the top right of this page.
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