Exercise Tips To Reduce Fat with these Ideas
People generally are unsuccessful with their weight-loss goals because of the lack of motivation they had. Knowing how you can make exercise enjoyable, you will not dread it. This article details some tips to help you.
Music has an almost magical quality that gets even the most sedentary people moving. No one can prevent moving their feet to a snappy beat or singing along to popular tunes. Making music the center of your work-out routine is essential. Crank up some music and shake your body! Music can lift your spirits and give you the extra push you need to follow through with your fitness goals.
Try to exercise with a group of friends. You can make use of this time to catch up on the latest events. When you have a friend to talk to, you may be able to forget the fact that you are exercising. It's not hard to be sidetracked from challenging exercise when you're engaged in a magnificent chat. Bringing friends along is likely to make training much more fun.
Distractions will make the time fly. A great way to take your mind off your routine is to use a video game exercise routine. There's a significant assortment of games to get your interest. Maybe bowling a strike or even racing a speedboat interests you. Perhaps you would like to box like a heavy-weight champion? With a remarkable variety of options, video games workouts make it easy to find ones that will help get you up and moving before you even realize you are exercising.
Get out there and invest in some fitness clothing you find ideal. A whole new workout outfit really can encourage you to manage your weight. There are various styles and colors to select from. Watch your fitness routine kick into gear when you wear your new workout clothes.
Because workout routines could get boring fast, be ready to modify your routine often. It's important to bring in new approaches to exercise to avoid becoming bored. Keeping motivated is crucial. Should you lose interest in training and stop, you are going to lose your momentum. That will make it hard to get started again.
While chasing your health and fitness goals, be sure to toss in an incentive every now and then. It doesn't matter what your reward is. As long as it's something that you love and will keep your motivation high, it is a good one. You do not have to spend lots of money or go overboard in any way. Find something to remind you of how much you have already achieved and to keep you motivated to continue on your journey to better fitness levels.
While many people are sure that exercising is difficult, it does not need to be. It's real can be a lot of fun. Simply by applying a few of these tips, you'll be ready to start exercising a satisfying physical activity.
Recently published research in the University of Eastern Finland found that fatty acid composition in blood is not only a biomarker for the quality of dietary fat but also reflects the quality of dietary carbohydrates. For example, the proportion of oleic acid was higher among children who consumed a lot of candy and little high-fibre grain products. Earlier studies on the topic have mainly concentrated on the association of the quality of dietary fat with fatty acid composition in blood. In the present study, the association of the quality of dietary carbohydrates with plasma fatty acid composition was investigated for the first time in children.
A higher consumption of candy and a lower consumption of high-fibre grain products were associated with a higher proportion of oleic acid in blood. One explanation for this finding may be that children who consumed more candy and less high-fibre grain products also consumed more foods rich in saturated fat. Saturated fat, that is known to be harmful to health has previously been shown to correlate positively with oleic acid intake in Western diet not favoring olive oil.
A higher consumption of candy was associated with a higher estimated delta-9 desaturase that indicates the activity of delta-9-desaturase in the liver. A higher intake of carbohydrates has previously been shown to be associated with a higher activity of delta-9-desaturase in adults, but the studies on this topic are lacking in children. The delta-9-desaturase is an enzyme that catalyzes the reactions of producing monounsaturated fatty acids from saturated fatty acids. Thus, it prevents the accumulation of saturated fatty acids in the liver but at the same time it promotes the excretion of fatty acids to the blood stream. The increase in delta-9-desaturase activity may be related to an increased production of saturated fatty acids from sugar in the liver that is harmful for lipid metabolism.
A higher consumption of vegetable oil-based margarine containing at least 60 percent fat was associated with higher proportions of polyunsaturated fatty acids, linoleic acid and alfa-linolenic fatty acid in blood that is in line with the results of the previous studies in adults and children. A higher consumption of vegetable oil-based margarine was also associated with lower proportions of saturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids known to be advantageous to health.
The Physical Activity and Nutrition in Children Study investigates health of children in Kuopio
The present study was conducted in the University of Eastern Finland and it was based on the Physical Activity and Nutrition in Children (PANIC) Study. The PANIC Study is an ongoing exercise and diet intervention study in a population sample of 512 children 6-8 years of age from the city of Kuopio. The consumption of foods was assessed by 4-day food records and the fatty acid composition in blood was evaluated by gas chromatograph from a fasting blood sample.
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Children who are exposed to scenes of nature while exercising are more likely to experience health-enhancing effects after activity, according to a Coventry University study published this week in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Sports science academics in the University's Department of Applied Sciences and Health asked kids aged 9-10 years to complete a series of 15 minute moderate intensity cycling activities -- one whilst viewing a video of a forest track synced to the workout bike and another with no visual stimulus.
The researchers found that after the 'green exercise' the children's post-activity blood pressure was significantly lower than it was without the simulated forest environment, indicating that the nature scenes promoted positive health effects.
Data showed that the children's mean systolic blood pressure -- the pressure in the arteries when the heart beats -- was 97.2 mmHg a quarter of an hour after green workout, compared with 102.7 mmHg after normal activity (over 5 percent lower).
Lower blood pressure is normally associated with a lower risk of developing health problems, whereas high blood pressure -- also known as hypertension -- is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
Dr Michael Duncan, lead author of the study and associate head of the Department of Applied Sciences and Health at Coventry University, said:
"Hypertension is a chronic health problem across the world, so given the results we've seen in our study it's crucial that we continue to try to understand the role physical activity and -- in particular -- green workout plays in blood pressure.
"If there is indeed a correlation between viewing scenes of nature and a lower blood pressure post workout, as indicated by our data, it could have very positive implications in encouraging public health practitioners to prescribe outdoor training to reduce health risk."
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By manipulating a biochemical process that underlies cells’ energy-burning abilities, investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have made a novel discovery that could lead to a new therapy to combat obesity and diabetes.
Published in the April 10 issue of the journal Nature, the new findings show that reducing the amount of nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT) protein in fat and liver dramatically reduces the development of obesity and diabetes in mice.
‘With this discovery, we now have a means of metabolic manipulation that could help speed energy production and lead to weight loss,” explains senior author Barbara Kahn, MD, Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine at BIDMC and George Richards Minot Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Our findings are particularly exciting because the antisense oligonucleotide [ASO] technology we used to inhibit the NNMT gene in our study is already being used to treat other diseases in humans.”
NNMT is an enzyme that processes vitamin B3 and has been linked to certain types of cancer, as well as Alzheimer’s disease, explains co-corresponding author Qin Yang, MD, PhD, a Klarman Scholar in the Kahn laboratory at BIDMC and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Now we have identified an entirely new role for this enzyme in fat tissue, and that is to regulate energy metabolism,” he adds.
The new findings hinge on a biochemical mechanism known as a futile cycle, in which cellular reactions are sped up, thereby generating more energy. “We all know people who can seemingly eat whatever they want and not gain weight,” explains Kahn. “Part of the reason for this natural weight control owes to basal cellular metabolism – the body’s inherent rate of burning energy. A futile cycle is one way to speed up energy utilization in cells.”
The investigators first confirmed that levels of NNMT were increased in obese and diabetic mice.
“In a comparison of genetic profiles of fat from mice that were either prone to or protected from developing diabetes, we discovered that the animals that were likely to develop diabetes had a lot of NNMT in the fat and liver,” explains Yang. Together with co-first author Daniel Kraus, MD, Kahn and Yang hypothesized that reducing NNMT levels in these tissues would accelerate a series of metabolic reactions involving molecules called polyamines, thereby leading to increased energy expenditure, increased leanness and reduced risk of diabetes and its complications.
“Polyamines are a group of biological molecules that are found throughout the body, which have fundamental functions, including regulating cell growth,” explains Kraus. “What’s interesting about the polyamines is that the process of building and degrading them creates a biochemical cycle in which energy is used up. This is a futile cycle.” The team discovered that NNMT inhibition speeds up this futile cycle, resulting in more dietary calories being burned for energy and fewer calories being incorporated into fat.
Importantly, notes Kahn, the team used antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) technology to knock down the NNMT gene. ASOs are short molecular strings of DNA, which can be designed to prevent the synthesis of specific proteins.
“When an ASO is transferred into a cell, it can target a particular gene and suppress it, as was the case with NNMT,” explains Kahn. “Because ASOs have already been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration [FDA] for the treatment of genetic causes of elevated cholesterol or hyperlipidemia, as well as the treatment of a viral eye infection, it’s possible that clinical trials to test an ASO anti-obesity therapy in humans could readily move forward.”
More than one-third of the U.S. adult population is currently obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “Obesity is a serious economic burden to our healthcare system and a major risk factor for developing insulin resistance and diabetes,” says Kahn. “While diet and exercise are important in controlling weight, anti-obesity therapies could be of tremendous help, and NNMT looks to be a promising target for future therapeutic development. Furthermore, because obesity is associated with an increased incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and certain cancers, disease states in which NNMT is also elevated, an NNMT ASO could potentially also be beneficial in managing these other devastating conditions.”
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As unlikely as it sounds, green tomatoes may hold the answer to bigger, stronger muscles.
Using a screening method that previously identified a compound in apple peel as a muscle-boosting agent, a team of University of Iowa scientists has now discovered that tomatidine, a compound from green tomatoes, is even more potent for building muscle and protecting against muscle atrophy.
Muscle atrophy, or wasting, is caused by aging and a variety of illnesses and injuries, including cancer, heart failure, and orthopedic injuries, to name a few. It makes people weak and fatigued, impairs physical activity and quality of life, and predisposes people to falls and fractures. The condition affects more than 50 million Americans annually, including 30 million people over age 60, and often forces people into nursing homes or rehabilitation facilities.
"Muscle atrophy causes many problems for people, their families, and the healthcare system in general," says Christopher Adams, M.D., Ph.D., UI associate professor of internal medicine and molecular physiology and biophysics. "However, we lack an effective way to prevent or treat it. Exercise certainly helps, but it's not enough and not very possible for many people who are ill or injured."
More muscle, less fat
In a new study, published online April 9 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Adams searched for a small molecule compound that might be used to treat muscle atrophy. He zeroed in on tomatidine using a systems biology tool called the Connectivity Map, which was developed at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University. Adams discovered that tomatidine generates changes in gene expression that are essentially opposite to the changes that occur in muscle cells when people are affected by muscle atrophy.
After identifying tomatidine, Adams, and his team tested its effects on skeletal muscle. They first discovered that tomatidine stimulates growth of cultured muscle cells from humans.
"That result was important because we are looking for something that can help people," Adams says.
Their next step was to add tomatidine to the diet of mice. They found that healthy mice supplemented with tomatidine grew bigger muscles, became stronger and could exercise longer. And, most importantly, they found that tomatidine prevented and treated muscle atrophy.
Interestingly, although mice fed tomatidine had larger muscles, their overall body weight did not change due to a corresponding loss of fat, suggesting that the compound may also have potential for treating obesity.
Designing healthier foods
An attractive aspect of tomatidine is that it is a natural compound derived from tomatoes. It is produced when alpha-tomatine, which is found in tomato plants and in green vegetables, in particular, is digested in the gut.
"Green vegetables are safe to eat in moderation. But we don't know how many green tomatoes a person would need to eat to get a dose of tomatidine similar to what we gave the mice. We also don't know if such a dose of tomatidine will be safe for people, or if it will have the same effect in people as it does in mice," Adams says. "We are working hard to answer these questions, hoping to find relatively simple ways that people can maintain muscle mass and function, or if necessary, regain it."
Adams and his team previously used this same research strategy to discover that ursolic acid, a compound from apple peels, promotes muscle growth.
"Tomatidine is significantly more potent than ursolic acid and appears to have a different mechanism of action. This is a step in the right direction," Adams says. "We are now very interested in the possibility that several food-based natural compounds such as tomatidine and ursolic acid might someday be combined with science-based supplements, or even directly incorporated into everyday foods to make them healthier."
To accelerate this research and translate it to people, Adams, and his colleagues have founded a biotech company called Emmyon. The company recently received funding from the National Institutes of Health to develop strategies for preserving muscle mass and function during the aging process. The company is also using tomatidine and ursolic acid as natural leads for new medicines targeting muscle atrophy and obesity.
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Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who participated in any level of moderate to vigorous physical activity had a lower risk of hospital readmission within 30 days compared to those who were inactive, according to a study published today in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.
Researchers examined the electronic health records of 6,042 Kaiser Permanente patients in Southern California who were 40 years or older and who were hospitalized with COPD between Jan. 1, 2011 and Dec. 31, 2012. As part of Kaiser Permanente's clinical practice to inquire about Exercise as a Vital Sign, the patients' self-reported physical activity was documented in their electronic health record during routine clinical visits along with other vital signs such as blood pressure.
Patient data was then categorized into three physical activity groups: inactive, insufficiently active, and active. Researchers found that patients with COPD who exercised 150 minutes a week or more had a 34 percent lower risk of readmission within 30 days compared to those who were inactive. Patients who reported less than 150 minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity still had a 33 percent lower risk of 30-day readmission compared to those who did not exercise at all.
"The results of this study are groundbreaking because measures of physical activity were derived from routine clinical care, instead of lengthy physical activity surveys or activity devices in smaller research samples," said the study's lead author, Huong Nguyen, PhD, RN, of the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation. "Previous research has only analyzed the relationship between physical inactivity and increased mortality rate and hospitalizations, but not 30-day readmissions in patients with COPD."
The patient base in this study was ethnically diverse; the group of patients analyzed were 68 percent white, 15 percent black, 12 percent Hispanic, and 4 percent Asian/Pacific Islander. The number of men and women in the study was also similar to the overall COPD patient population.
"Many health care systems are currently focused on providing interventions at or soon after hospital discharge for reducing readmissions," Nguyen said. "This study is novel in that we were able to capture information about patients' usual physical activity well before the initial hospitalization and provides evidence that supports the promotion of physical activity across the COPD care continuum. Our findings suggest that regular physical activity could buffer the stresses of hospitalization. Future studies will focus on determining whether we can reduce hospitalizations by improving physical activity in patients with COPD."
According to a 2013 joint statement by the American Thoracic Society and the European Respiratory Society, exercise training, as part of pulmonary rehabilitation, has demonstrated improvement in quality of life in COPD patients. The two groups developed a set of physical activity training guidelines, which state that exercising three to five times a week will help improve COPD symptoms, physical functioning and quality of life.
In 2009, Kaiser Permanente became one of the first healthcare organizations to log systemically patients' physical activity in their electronic health records. As part of clinical practice, patients are asked about their level of physical activity during routine outpatient visits and their responses documented in their electronic health record. A Kaiser Permanente study in October 2012 found that the initiative was successful in compiling accurate and valuable information that can help clinicians better treat and counsel patients about their behavior and lifestyles. A December 2013 study found that asking patients about their physical activity habits resulted in weight loss in overweight patients and improved glucose control in patients with diabetes.
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A new University of Melbourne study has found that women who take iron supplements, experience a marked improvement in their exercise performance.
Published in the Journal of Nutrition, researchers undertook a systematic review and analysis of the effect of iron supplementation to the exercise performance of women in child-bearing years.
Lead researcher, Dr Sant-Rayn Pasricha from the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health found that iron supplementation improved women's exercise performance, in terms of both the highest level they could achieve at 100% exertion (maximal capacity) and their exercise efficiency at a submaximal exertion. Women who were given iron were able to perform a given exercise using a lower heart rate and at a higher efficiency.
"This was mainly seen in women who had been iron deficient or anemic at the beginning of the trial and in women who were specifically training, including in elite athletes," he said.
"The study collected data from many individual smaller studies which generally could not identify this beneficial effect on their own. However, when we merged the data using meta-analysis, we found this impressive benefit from iron."
It is the first time researchers have been able to confirm that iron supplementation has beneficial effects on exercise performance.
Dr Pasricha said the findings could have implications for improved performance in athletes and health and general health and well-being in the rest of the population.
"It may be worthwhile screening women, including women training as elite athletes, for iron deficiency, and ensuring they receive appropriate prevention and treatment strategies. Athletes, especially females, are at increased risk of iron deficiency potentially, due to their diets and inflammation caused by excessive exercise," said Dr. Pasricha.
Other studies have shown that women given iron experience improved work productivity.
In addition, this study confirms that iron deficiency can impair exercise performance in women. Iron deficiency can also produce fatigue and lethargy and eventually result in iron deficiency anemia.
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Gaining both too much or too little weight during pregnancy appears to increase the risk of having an overweight or obese child, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published today in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
In one of the largest studies to examine current Institute of Medicine recommendations regarding pregnancy weight gain in relation to childhood obesity, researchers reviewed the electronic health records of 4,145 racially diverse female members of Kaiser Permanente in Northern California who had completed a health survey between 2007 and 2009 and subsequently had a baby. Researchers reviewed the medical records of those children between ages 2 and 5 years old and found that:
- Among all women who gained more than the recommended weight during pregnancy, 20.4 percent of their children were overweight or obese, compared with 19.5 percent in women who gained less than recommended weight and 14.5 percent of women who gained weight within the guidelines.
- Women with an average Body Mass Index measurement before pregnancy who gained less than the recommended amount were 63 percent more likely to have a child who became overweight or obese.
- Women with a normal BMI before pregnancy with weight gain above recommendations were 80 percent more likely to have an overweight or obese child.
"The stronger association we found among normal weight women who gained too much or too little weight during pregnancy suggests that perhaps weight gain in pregnancy may have an impact on the child that is independent of genetic factors," said senior investigator Monique M. Hedderson, PhD, Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif.
"Gaining either too little or too much weight in pregnancy may permanently affect mechanisms that manage energy balance and metabolism in the offspring, such as appetite control and energy expenditure," said the study's lead author Sneha Sridhar, MPH, Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. "This could potentially have long-term effects on the child's subsequent growth and weight."
Starting BMI guidelines and weight gain recommendations used in the study are from the Institute of Medicine. For obese women (BMI of 30 or greater), the recommended weight gain during pregnancy is 11 to 20 pounds; for overweight women (BMI between 25 and 29), it is 15 to 25 pounds; for normal weight women (BMI between 18.5 and 25), it is 25 to 35 pounds; and for underweight women (BMI less than 18.5), it is 28 to 40 pounds.
For their children, overweight/obesity was defined as a BMI between ages 2 and 5 that was greater than or equal to the 85th percentile of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention child growth standards.
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David J. Berkoff, MD, sports medicine physician and associate professor of orthopaedics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, presented, "Corrected Error Video vs PT-Instructed home Exercise Program: Accuracy of Performing Therapeutic Exercises" last week at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans, La.
The purpose of his research was to determine if a Corrected Error Video (CEV) is as effective as a single visit with a physical therapist to teach subjects to perform properly shoulder rehabilitation exercises. Dr. Berkoff hosted a prospective single-blinded interventional trial analyzing 28 subjects (16 using CEV; 12 in PT -- one session with handouts), neither of which had any shoulder complaints and no experience with shoulder PT. Each group had one week to learn four exercises: scapular retraction, standing row, external rotation with a band and internal rotation with a band. Subjects were then videotaped individually as they performed the exercises. Two physical therapists scored the tests using the shoulder exercise evaluation tool (SEAT).
Total SEAT scores showed no difference between the two groups, thereby suggesting that using a CEV is as effective at teaching subjects to perform proper shoulder rehabilitation exercises as an in-person single visit with a physical therapist.
"These results are significant for two reasons," said Dr. Berkoff, who also serves on the AMSSM Board of Directors. "First, having an additional tool to augment what the patient learns at an initial PT visit may help with exercise accuracy and hopefully therefore improve outcomes. Additionally as access to physical therapy becomes more limited due either to cost or insurance, identifying new tools to help better outpatients will be essential."