Dr. O's Health, Diet & Fitness Blog

The best plan for weight loss is one that focuses on your overall goal.   You can lose excess pounds with a combination approach; that is one that successfully combines a healthy diet and a top weight loss supplement.  By adding a regular exercise program to the mix you will achieve much more than simple weight loss.

It turns a diet into a lifestyle with food choices to reduce weight, a routine to tone and firm muscle adding the best diet supplement allows you to increase your overall health and get some extra muscle tone, fat and overall weight  loss.

It is not unusual for breathing to become labored during periods of intense exercise.   It’s a common part of cardio exercise and we expect to be breathing heavily or even gasping for breath at the end of our morning run.

Our lungs are automated wonders, expelling a used breath and expanding to inhale as needed.   Respiratory muscles in the chest also expand and contract to adjust to the changing size of our expanding and contracting lungs and these same muscle groups also control posture.

Breathing is a two part process.  Respiration brings oxygen into the lungs while circulation disperses the oxygen throughout the body to where it is needed.  Circulation of the oxygen is possible due to the respiratory muscles such as the diaphragm, the abdominals, and the intercostal muscles.  The oxygen we inhale doesn’t provide energy but unlocks energy stores in food we’ve eaten. It basically helps fuel the process by which units of biological energy (ATP) are released from caloric stores (carbs, proteins, lipids)

Alveoli in the lungs allow oxygen to be taken up by the body and only oxygen which reaches the alveoli is utilized when we breathe.  Only oxygen that reaches the alveoli can be utilized by our body.  This is demonstrated by the physical response of someone who is taking very shallow, rapid breaths during a panic attack.   The person may black out from lack of oxygen.   The persons is feeling the lack of oxygen but the lack is caused by shallow breathing where oxygen is not reaching the alveoli of the lungs.

This is why adequate respiration and ventilation – deep breathing are very important. Your lungs a have a certain amount of volume – called “dead space” that is not involved in gas transfer. Instead these areas are primarily conduits; larger pipes that transport gasses to the alveoli. Because a small part of each breath is used to move gas through these conduits(bronchi) rapid shallow breathing will decrease the volume of gas brought to the alveoli. Fortunately Oxygen transport is a relatively quick process. It is CO2 transport from the blood (carried as lactic acid) that takes longer and is thus – more sensitive to decreased ventilation and gas exchange duration. Even without lactic acid build up, simply hypoventilating will lead to a build up of CO2 and actually have the same effect of increasing lactic acids in your body from sustained muscle work!! (cardio, weight etc)

Yes breathing, and more importantly – how we breathe is very important. The concentration of oxygen in your body is a balance of the supply of oxygen to the alveoli for circulation and the amount of oxygen your body is demanding.  When you are at rest, the balance is easily maintained but when you exercise your body demands more oxygen which requires more breaths per minute to supply sufficient levels of oxygen to the lungs.  During exercise, deeper breaths turn into faster breaths and eventually the exertion will leave you gasping for oxygen as your body expends more oxygen than it is able to take in.

Lactic acid is an alpha hydroxyl acid (AHA) produced in our bodies and is also referred to as milk acid.  If you feel the burn during an exercise, you can thank lactic acid for that.

Exercise causes sugar to be broken down producing energy for the muscles.  This breakdown of sugar yields carbon dioxide and water in the end if you are getting all the oxygen you need.

Strenuous exercise may cause a deficit in oxygen and result in lactic acid being produced and accumulating in your muscles.  Through a complex chemical process, lactic acid builds up in muscles during vigorous exercise.  Muscles may contract more efficiently when lactic acid is present and this is why athletes like to feel the burn during exercise.   To them, it signifies their muscle is being worked to capacity.

When lactic acid buildup makes your muscle begin to hurt, you breathe faster and usually slow down to allow your body to catch up with the oxygen it craves.   As the depleted oxygen is restored (returning to normal breathing), the lactic acid converts to carbon dioxide and water that are expelled as you breathe.

It is lactic acid buildup during intense exercise that provides need for allowing muscle groups to rest and recover on alternate days.   Your muscles may be sore the day after you exercise and this is due to lactic acid buildup.   Resting for a day or two allows the lactic acid to dissipate and the muscle to recover.

Weight training is often the focus of those who want to increase strength and provide definition of muscles in targeted areas of the body.   While cardio exercise is also important to health, weight training is the winning strategy for changing your appearance.

Muscle tone is especially important when you are dieting.   It’s not enough to simply lose the ring of fat around your middle.  You want to replace that belly fat with strong, toned muscles.  A good weight loss supplement that targets abdominal fat is the best choice.

Health advantages to weight training go far beyond muscle tone.  The exercises help boost your metabolic rate and increase your endurance during physical activities.   They also strengthen bones and help prevent injury.

Training with weights also improves your balance and coordination.   It makes sense that stronger muscles would center your body for balance and allow controlled movement that is streamlined and more graceful.

To begin weight training, use a weight that will allow you to complete the repetitions necessary but will be difficult to lift for the last part of the training routine.  Within just a few days you will notice your body becoming stronger and more resilient. My preferred series of repetition during sets follows 1of 3 patterns

1.    Maintenance and strengthening (10,10, 8,5,3). This pattern is great for maintaining and improving muscle tone. The first set is a warm up, while the last should be close to your maximum lift. Also, the 8 and the 5 should certainly be difficult, but you should be able to get through them without a problem.
2.    Muscle increase (10,5,3,8,10). These sets are great for really straining your muscles, tearing individual sarcomeres (muscle cells), thus stimulating hyperplasia and hypertrophy. Remember, proper diet and sufficient proteins are of paramount importance in increasing muscle mass. The First set is a warm up, but the second “5” should be seriously heavy weight for you. The “3’ should be your “max”. Make sure to have a spotter to get the best benefit from these sets. The last two sets are designed to “burn out” the muscles and build muscle unit endurance. This should be weight that you would normally do earlier in a conventional maintenance set.

When the weights become easy to lift, it’s time to change the exercise routine.   You may do this by adding more weight, adding more repetitions or changing to a different body position.   For those new to weight training, the initial weight might be used for the first month and more weight added the second month.   During the third month you may choose to use a different type of resistance or increase repetitions.

When adding more weight you need just enough to balance the increased strength you built with the previous weight limit.   If you must swing a weight to accomplish the reps, it’s too heavy.   The goal is to use your limit of strength to accomplish the repetitions necessary with nothing left over.

The changes made to weight training routines are based on your goals for the exercise.  Adding more and more weight will lead to stronger (and larger) muscles but bulk may not be your goal.

Adding more repetitions to your exercise without more weight will strengthen muscles without bulking up.   For the most effective weight loss it’s best to vary the routine by adding more weight for some exercises and more reps for others.

Weight training should not be rushed.   The days when you rest your body are important in reaching your goals.   If you choose to work out several days in a row, target a different group of muscles each day to allow previously worked muscle groups to recover and change.  The results from weight training are due to taxing a muscle group and then allowing time for rest before stressing those same muscles again.

A warm up period is required before beginning your exercise routine as warm muscles are more flexible and less likely to be injured.  A simple cardio exercise and a few light repetitions is enough to prepare for your exercise session

The warm up also prepares you mentally for the training to come.   Focus on posture, don’t hold your breath and focus on slow controlled body movements using the range of motion necessary for the exercise.

Combined with a healthy diet and good weight loss supplement, weight training will transform your body.  While your muscles gain strength and become sleek and defined your self-confidence makes a giant leap as you see and feel the results of your efforts.

Burn Off your Flab with Anti Fat Pills:  Combined with Diet and Exercise, Fat Pills Can Work for You

Whether you call them anti fat pills, diet supplements or dietary aids, there is no magic pill you can take that does not require some thought and effort on your part to show significant weight loss.

No magic fat pill will melt away love handles or a fat tummy.   Taking a pill alone will not streamline your thighs or tighten your derriere.   A good, high quality diet supplement will ease hunger pangs that can lead to afternoon snacking or late night forays to the refrigerator.

The best anti fat pill will provide support for the health of your body as you follow a diet plan that includes good nutrition with a regular program of exercise.   By supporting the health of your cells, helping your body process sugar and providing ingredients that boost your metabolism, Of all the weight loss and anti-fat pills that we reviewed, cutting edge combination supplements best support and enhances your health as you lose weight without stimulants that boost you up only to crash a couple hours later.

At the end of your weight loss plan, you want to feel more than “thin”.   You want to be healthy and full of energy that will motivate you to maintain your new slender silhouette.

Obesity is a growing problem in our society that cannot be ignored.   If you are overweight, you can easily become uncomfortable.   Bending over to pick up something you dropped is not easy.   You may feel awkward and hate to shop for clothes or even go dancing with your spouse.

When you are overweight you are the one who suffers and you are the only person who can rid yourself of those extra pounds.   You may be pleased to learn the old diets that make you feel deprived and depressed are no longer recommended by nutritionists.

Losing weight is about making choices, not about will power.    If you think about it, changing your eating habits isn’t the end of the world as you know it.   It’s a new way of living that will allow you to feel better both emotionally and physically.

Big may be beautiful, but it’s not healthy.   Some cancers, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and other serious medical problems have been proven by scientific studies to be closely linked with obesity.

It is truly amazing that simply by losing the extra 50 pounds you carry you can reduce your risk of heart problems and diabetes immediately.   That is close to a medical miracle if you think about it.  Drop the Big Mac and the fries and choose a salad and shrimp.   Clear your pantry of potato chips and processed snacks and fill a celery stick with low fat peanut butter instead.

There are no magic pills – anyone that makes a claims of instant weight loss without some attention on your part are just fooling dieters.   However, Some products will offer diet tips and consult with you if needed to boost your weight loss by adjusting your diet plan.   Many of us groan when we think of dieting, imagining ourselves starving or eating nothing but rabbit food.   The reality is that you don’t have to give up every food you love to lose weight.   You need to make substitutions by choosing food for nutritional value rather than from bad eating habits formed years ago.

Starting to exercise even if you only take a long brisk walk every day will boost your diet efforts and help your body process food efficiently.   Certain weight loss supplements can help by stopping hunger pangs and by boosting the fat burning capacity of your system to get rid of abdominal fat while increasing your energy with safe, all-natural ingredients.

BMR stands for basal metabolic rate and is the rate at which you burn calories while doing nothing at all. That’s right; you burn calories just by sitting there on the couch watching television. Of course, you are not really “just” sitting there, are you? You are blinking, which involves moving tiny muscles in your eyelids to open and close. You are breathing, which means that your lungs are inflating and deflating, your diaphragm is moving up and down. Your heart is beating, contracting and expanding, beat after beat after beat. And all of these complex processes are happening because your brain is sending out billions of electrical impulses, neurons interacting via synapses making it all happen. All of this major activity, whether you realize it or not, is going on or not, takes energy. Your BMR is the amount of calories that you burn to simply maintain life.

But, why, you might ask, is it important to know your BMR in the first place? First, you must know this number so that you have a baseline to work with, when you are trying to decide how many calories you need to eliminate from your diet each day. Too few and you will never lose any weight. Too many and you will never lose any weight. It is a game won and lost by inches, and too often people just blast for the bleachers when all they need is an in-field bunt to get the job done.

If you cut too many calories out of your daily diet, your body will become convinced that it is starving to death and will send up the panic flags. All non-essential systems will be slowed or stopped. The metabolism will slow to a crawl- all fuel that is being brought in now will be considered essential and will be immediately stored to protect against impending doom.

On the other hand, if you are eating too many calories, the body will be overwhelmed. Storage systems will be overwhelmed with all of the food that is being brought in- the body will start storing everything for future sorting. Sadly, the body is not so great at file retrieving and new foods just keep coming in every day. Keep flooding the body this way and your metabolism will walk off the job in utter frustration.

Trying to lose weight requires a lot of information. You need to know how much your maintenance is costing you in terms of total calories. Once you know what your BMR is you can experiment by reducing your total daily calories by 500 for a week or two. If you do not lose any weight at all, you can go up to 1000 calories. At no point should you drop more than 1200 calories per day without a doctor’s express notice to do so. Steady weight loss is what you are aiming for, not dangerous weight loss. The faster you lose it, the faster you will regain it is the old adage – aim for a slow and steady weight loss of two pounds the first week and then one pound every week thereafter.

Every new diet program, book or weight-loss guru eventually mentions water, but only after touting their program, book or own personal fabulousness. They have the order backwards, I am afraid. Water is important to your weight-loss efforts, no matter what you are using, eating or doing. In fact, water should be mentioned at the start, middle and end of every diet book and program, regardless of who wrote them or what they are suggesting. Yes, water is that important.

Quick! What is the difference between feeling thirsty and feeling hungry? It may be harder to tell than you think and you may be reaching for a snack when all you need is a nice, big glass of water. The feelings of thirst and hunger may be similar because they are similar signals; they are both ways for the body to tell the brain that there is a need. If you cannot tell the difference between the two, stop and ask yourself a few questions.  When was the last time that I ate something? Did I eat enough then? Have I been exceptionally active between that meal and now? Should I really be hungry?  If you cannot say yes to most of those questions, start with some water and see if you still feel the same way.

Not drinking enough water will slow the digestion. In turn, the slower digestion will slow down the metabolism, which leads to stalled weight loss efforts. The body is in a constant state of searching for a very delicate balance called homeostasis. One thing thrown off kilter could put an entire system out of whack.

Digestion starts in the mouth. We chew our food, moistening it with saliva as we do. If you are not drinking enough water, you will not make enough saliva to lubricate your food and the result will be more work for the stomach to do. The stomach receives the food and churns up the stomach acid to further break down the food. The more work it must do, the more stomach acid must be produced and the longer it will stay in the stomach which could lead to heart burn and acid reflux. Not drinking enough water could lead to heartburn? Who knew?

If you are trying any kind of weight loss program, you do not want to do anything that will slow or stall your metabolism. Your body will take longer to digest the foods that you have already eaten. Your brain will not receive a signal for new food (hunger) for a while, so the fat burning furnace known as metabolism will be shut down. You will not lose weight at all, and in fact, you may gain as your body strives to hold onto every single calorie that comes through. A slowed metabolism is a dieter’s worst enemy, far worse than that chocolate cake you feared.

Drinking water keeps the body’s systems working in proper rhythm, including digestion and metabolism. In fact, consider this: you burn calories just by drinking water. Not a lot of calories mind you, but you do get the action started as your body works to use the water. If you drink ice cold water, you increase this calorie burn because your body must first work to warm the water before it can use it. The more you rev up your metabolism, the more efficiently your body will burn those calories, regardless of where they came from.

You can bring about your best health right now — whether you’re 25, 55 or even 75 — with four simple steps that require little effort and take barely minutes a day. Now you won’t learn about them watching television or reading a glossy magazine in line at the Checkout counter. Instead, I’ll tell you right now about several extraordinary (but completely natural) ways to make you stronger and healthier, making your body look better in the process.

In fact, I’ve found that these four steps can make an especially big difference if you’re over age 35. This is the time when most of us have started to feel the effects of a slowing metabolism. All hope is not lost – we just have to be sure to take some extra measures to combat this .

Step 1 – Get some Morning Exercise

Exercising in the morning is great for many reasons. For starters, you’re able to get into a calorie deficit early in the day, but more importantly, raise your resting metabolism for much of the day. Other important by-products of this early activity are increased focus, strength and stamina. Just make sure that you eat low glycemic index (complex) carbs, and don’t work out TOO hard. You’ll find that your energy levels will soar, while your appetite will remain low. Avoiding a fatty meal post-workout can also help maximize your metabolic increase.

Step 2 – Don’t neglect you Abdominals

Probably the area of most concern are those tires that sometimes grow around our waist. Developing a larger belly is not that surprising – and is a simple by-product of 1) eating excess calories and 2) little/no abdominal exercise, leading to atrophy of abdominal muscles and deposition of fat. Simply exercising your abdominal muscles a little bit every day will go a long way towards helping you maintain the look that you want and deserve. This is always a popular subject and is something that we’ll periodically share some tips and even uncover a few secrets regarding how to easily keep your abdominals in shape.

Step 3 – Supplement Wisely

Did you know that the right multi-nutrient can make a world of difference in how you feel? I know this because we’ve spent a lot of time researching the healthiest supplement ingredients, studying the healthiest people, and searching for the best health solutions.

I’m absolutely convinced that the use of a powerful, all-natural, health supplement containing daily multi-nutrients is the best way to take care of your whole body and feel a difference in your energy, vitality, and strength.

That’s why the first easy step I recommend is to switch — or start taking — the right multi-nutrient. The one I use myself and recommend hands-down is Liporidex. It includes every single nutrient — in the right potencies and forms — that helps bring about real weight loss and health improvements.

There’s simply nothing out there that measures up. To learn more about the science behind Liporidex® go to:

http://www.liporidex.com/natural_top_weight_loss_supplement

Your body can’t function well without the most important co-factors and essential vitamins. Make sure that you supplement with enough essential Minerals and fatty Acids. The CLA in Liporidex for example, is an important fatty acid – backed by years of clinical research, and has been instrumental in reducing fat content and increasing lean body mass.

Step 4 – Don’t eat late at night

Eating Late in the day is a bad idea for weight loss and your health. The calories have a low chance of being metabolized properly and will likely wind up being stored. Try and eat earlier in the evening, and get some light exercise after the meal, a walk or something else. Consult the Liporidex Weight Loss tools to learn which activities can help you best increase your metabolism.

So there you have it — four easy steps for your best health now.

I know you care about staying healthy and work hard at it. And whether you do one of these simple steps or all four, you’ll feel stronger and healthier than you have in years.

Did you know that Women between the ages of 20-55 have nearly double the Iron requirement as their male counterparts! While the daily requirement for males is 8mg/day, this can be as high as 18mg/day for women.

Another important fact is that the absorption of dietary iron is influenced by many factors – namely whether the iron is bound to hemoglobin, the concentration of iron and/or the presence of cofactors which can enhance or hinder iron absorption.

What do you think the best sources of iron are?

Environmental conditions and harmful diets can cause DNA damage and mutations that have been linked to many diseases including cancer. This damage is commonly caused by excited electrons knownas “free radical”. Individuals cannot alter their DNA, but diseases can be prevented and DNA can be protected with a proper, nutritious diet containing antioxidants and vitamins along with a healthy lifestyle including regular exercise.

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Our common goal is healthy weight loss – “When you lose weight, you shouldn’t have to compromise your health.