* BlipsFit *

Most people seeking to lose weight will need to cut back on calories and increase exercise. A long-range goal is to lose two to four pounds a month while feeling energized. Diets that cause rapid weight loss, rely on stimulants, or go too fast tend to disturb thyroid and leptin, provoking the yo-yo diet response.Eating triggers a variety of hormonal responses. Eating in harmony with hormones enables a person to extract energy more efficiently from food. When a person eats is as important as the quality of food and how many calories a person consumes.

The Leptin Diet™ consists of five key dietary rules, called the Five Rules.

Rule 1: Never eat after dinner. Allow eleven to twelve hours between dinner and breakfast. Never go to bed on a full stomach. Finish eating dinner at least three hours before bed.
Rule 2: Eat three meals a day. Allow five to six hours between meals. Do not snack.
Rule 3: Do not eat large meals. If you are overweight, always try to finish a meal when you are slightly less than full: the full signal will usually catch up to you in ten to twenty minutes. Eating slowly is important.
Rule 4: Eat a breakfast containing protein.
Rule 5: Reduce the amount of carbohydrates you eat.
Complete information about these rules and the science behind these guidelines is explained in the book “the leptin diet” (How fit is your fat?)

This will be the content of a talk at welnessresources today, more to follow.

High Intensity Interval Training

Now that was fun. Last night I started a new thing I call it the 5.6.7.8. training on the treadmill. This is how it goes;

Start with 5 miles per hour for 1 minute. Then 6 miles per hour also 1 minute, all the way to 8 miles per hour 1 minute and slow down to 5 miles per hour for 1 minute and repeat. That means every minute you go a different speed. Do this as a total of 30 minutes and you know you worked out. The whole thing is to give your body a boost. Unfortunatly my heartbeat does not even go beyond 123 beats per minute but I can still feel it.

It is something different for sure and I like it, nice to break the standards.

Although I’m still working out and eat right I think I hit a plateau. I’m idling between 180 and 183 pounds, going up and down. Somewhere I read that changing a few things might help. Like eating different food and doing different exercises. Now I have to find out what to do and see what works. Anyone have tips? This is for the one reader of my blog

Then I went to my physical today. A very surprised doctor I can tell you that. The one thing that was odd is my blood pressure. It was kind of high (150/80) , maybe work stress or too much coffee. I have to monitor that. For the rest I was more healthy then ever. I’m so glad it all works out.

To higher my HDL (”good” cholesterol) he advised me to take more fish oil. (Omega 3 or HDA)

This morning I finally stepped on the scale. To my surprise I only gained 1 pound. The trick I talked myself into last week was to drink 2 bottles of water in the morning and two bottles of water in the afternoon. The urge to eat all the bad things that were offered at the seminar was less because water will fill you up. (needed to go to the restrooms badly after each session tough) It was good to be on track again with fitness Saturday and Sunday, it is getting addicted very quick, i missed it a lot.

Now I’m happy to work on my next 10 pounds.

Last week I was in Las Vegas. In my suitcase I brought sportshoes, sportshorts, sportshirts and my MP3 player ready to work out every night. My hotel was “the Venetian”. I was under the impression as a guest I could use their fitnessroom. Yes I could for the incredible scam-rate of $35 a day after I pay already $239 a night. No wonder 90% of the gamblers are overweight. And lets not talk about the fatening food everybody serves there.

Oh before someone might think I was out for gambling, nope this was a business trip for a Microsoft convention. I’m so happy to be home again. Today I’m having healthy food again and go to the Y to get my body in gear again. I did not step on the scale today, afraid it might be to much gain.  Getting back on track, I missed working out a lot.

It works I’m so happy that I can use a slogan from a statin commercial without using statins, I lowered my cholesterol without any prescription drugs!

Yesterday I went in to do my lab-work and today I have the results;

My HDL is still not within the standard I know it will get there eventually. This proofs you do not need statins to lower your cholesterol.

One other remark I want to make; The standard range is made up by the FDA and not necessarily a MUST have number or a healthy number for that matter.

There were more tests done and some I had no clue what it was for. To decipher your tests you can look it up here; www.labtestsonline.org/map/aindex.html a very handy website.

I was the runner up with earning $50 for our biggest loser contest at work. Lost 10 pounds in 12 weeks. The winner lost an impressive 20 pound. He wins everytime we have such a contest. So now its time for him to gain weight again. I’m happy with my $50 it was not a big deal at all, was losing weight no matter what.

Monday March 31, 2008

According to an article in the Marine Times, the Corps will soon announce new body-fat standards, which take into account the Marine’s age. Current standards do not allow adjustments for age. According to the article, the new standards, which may be released as early as June, will be:

• Age 26 and younger: 18 percent for males and 26 percent for females.
• Age 27-39: 19 percent for males and 27 percent for females.
• Age 40-45: 20 percent for males and 28 percent for females.
• Age 46 and up: 21 percent for males and 29 percent for females.

No it is not about a run for a cure of some sort but a cure for your cold.

We’ve all experienced the sore, scratchy throat, the non-stop running nose, the malignant sneezing, the headache and general malaise brought on by the good old common cold. And we’ve all heard that it can’t be cured. But that doesn’t stop us from sucking on zinc lozenges, throwing back vitamin C tablets, chugging echinacea tea and gobbling all manner of over-the-counter medications.

Problem is that none of these things really work. There are a lot of anecdotal reports about all the above ‘treatments’ working to reduce the severity and duration of a cold, but when tested under the same stringent double-blind, placebo-controlled methods used to vet drugs, they fall short. Most don’t work any better than placebo. And, alas, a trip to your local doctor won’t help you much either because the common cold is caused by a virus, and as we all know, there aren’t really any medications including antibiotics that kill viruses. So we are left in despair to wait it out until our own immune system rallies and overcomes the evil virus causing our misery.

Read tho whole story here; www.proteinpower.com/drmike/uncategorized/a-cure-for-the-common-cold/ I’m off to the store.

PS

On another notice; Last Friday I lost a record amount of total weight, it was my 30 pound lost day. To celebrate I bought new pants and get this I’m a size 34 now (coming down from 38 to 36). Again time to donate size 38 and 36 now I am so happy!!!!

Body fat measurements and the measuring tape are recognized as superior methods for measuring “weight loss” or in my case a scale that can measure this. When one declares that they want to “lose weight”, what they often mean is that they want to lose fat. So, now that you’ve had your body fat percentage measured, what does the number really mean?

First, your body fat percentage is simply the percentage of fat your body contains. If you are 150 pounds and 10% fat, it means that your body consists of 15 pounds fat and 135 pounds lean body mass (bone, muscle, organ tissue, blood and everything else).

A certain amount of fat is essential to bodily functions. Fat regulates body temperature, cushions and insulates organs and tissues and is the main form of the body’s energy storage. The following table describes body fat ranges and their associated categories:

Knowing your body fat percentage can also help you determine if your weight loss goals are realistic. Remember, weight loss doesn’t always mean fat loss. For example:

Let’s say you’re a 130# woman with 23% body fat, and you goal is to “lose 20 pounds”:

Initial body fat: 130# x 0.23 fat = 30 # body fat

Lean body mass: 130# total - 30# fat = 100# lean body mass (bones, organs and all else)

Goal: 130# - 20# = 110 pounds

As you can see, the goal of losing 20 pounds is not realistic or healthy. At 110 pounds, this woman still requires 100# of lean body mass (bones, organs, etc.), but would only be carrying 10#, or only 9% body fat. From the chart above, you can see that this is a dangerously low percentage.

A better goal might be for the woman to reduce her body fat from 23% to 18%. In this case:

130# x 0.18 = 23 # body fat

100# lean body mass + 23 # = 123# goal weight

So, for this individual to achieve a lean, but healthy 18% fat, she would need to lose only 7 pounds of fat, reducing her weight from her current 130 pounds to 123 pounds. Losing more than 7 pounds means losing lean body mass (usually metabolically-active muscle tissue), which is clearly not desirable.

So before you decide that you need to “lose weight”, remember to consider that “weight” consists of both lean body mass and body fat. Try to keep your weight loss goals realistic, and remember, keep the calorie-burning muscle, and lose only the fat.

source: http://www.healthchecksystems.com/bodyfat.htm

see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage

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