Protein is a building block for healthy muscles, bones, skin and other tissues. Athletes drink protein shakes as a way to build and repair muscle as well as enhance workout performance. But if you think having a protein shake will all of a sudden give you bigger muscles, you’re sadly mistaken. It is true that as an athlete exercises, more amino acids and protein are used by the body than a sedentary person, thus the need for dietary protein may increase, but contrary to popular belief, extra protein doesn’t build more muscle, nor does it give you extra strength. The only way to build muscle is through exercise. In fact experts say that adding more protein but no more calories or exercise won’t help you build more muscle mass, but it may put your other bodily systems under stress. According to web MD, a diet in which protein makes up more than 30 percent of your caloric intake, can cause a buildup of toxic ketones. Too much protein can also make weight loss more difficult as excess protein is stored as fat!

The recommended daily intake of protein for healthy adults is 0.75 g of protein per kilogram of body weight, or about 45 to 56 g of protein a day. The majority of which, if not all, should come from a diet rich in whole foods. However, as is the case with numerous other nutrients, we sometimes fail to meet our daily intake. The body does not store protein, and therefore getting an adequate amount through our diet is very important for a healthy body. Protein shakes can add as much as 200 grams of protein and 800 to 1,200 calories a day.

According to The International Society of Sports Nutrition, protein shakes are a safe way to ensure enough protein, when used as part of a balanced, nutrient-rich diet. In other words, adding protein shakes to your diet from time to time is OK but using them regularly as a meal replacement may not be. Drinking shakes in place of a meal can be an effective way to cut calories but when used too often, a person will almost certainly experience nutrient deficiencies.

If you are considering using a protein shake, one of the best forms of protein available and a popular ingredient in many protein shakes is Whey. This type of protein is an excellent source of essential amino acids. It’s a soluble, easy to digest protein that’s efficiently absorbed into the body.

Be sure to examine the ingredients in any protein powder or shake and watch out for artificial flavorings and products high in sugar and fat!

Many of us don’t realize that fat is metabolically active, producing proteins and chemicals. Triglycerides are a form of stored fat in the body. They consist of three chains of fat linked together, and can be metabolized to yield energy. It’s important where in the body we store fat. Some places are better than others, which is where apples and pears comes in to play.

If we are going to accumulate fat, we want to store it on our hips, thighs and buttocks. WHAT?!

I know, I hear all you ladies that are probably in complete disagreement with this, but even though we may not like the appearance of fat on our hips, thighs and buttocks, it is healthier to store it there!

Why? When we store fat in our mid-section or ambdomen, the fat is literally suffocating our organs. The fat that covers our organs is more metabolically active. When fat builds up in certain cells such as in your muscle, your liver, your pancreas, it can be very dangerous. The fat interferes with the use of glucose and with signaling pathways. That’s why it’s important to measure our fat and know where we are carrying it.

Apple or Pear?
Our waist to hip ratio is a very important number that we all should know. It’s more accurate than waist or BMI alone. Waist/Hip ratio can be calculated very simply. Using a tape measure, record your waist measurement (measure just above your belly button) and then your hip measurement (position tape around the thickest part of your rear end). Do the following calculation: waist /hip = waist to hip ratio.

For women, anything above 0.8 is considered apple shape. Anything below this number is considered pear. The higher the number, the more at risk we are of developing a number of weight related symptoms and diseases, such as heart attack, diabetes, high blood pressure, stoke and even cancer. For men, anything above 0.9 is considered apple shape. The difference being that for men there is a higher risk of stroke as compared to women. According to the Berkeley Science Review, people who carry fat on their buttocks and thighs, rarely display these symptoms. But things don’t end there, “X-ray imaging reveals that people with apple body types may carry fat either deep inside their abdominal cavity or just underneath their skin. While people in the former category show symptoms linked to high heart attack risk, apple body types carrying fat just beneath their skin don’t,” says Sherry Seethaler of the Berkeley Science Review.

By  educating ourselves about our body’s shape and size, we can help decrease our risk of developing many life-threatening diseases. Find out if you are an apple or a pear today!

The main problem with this logic is that drastically restricting calories is both dangerous and counter productive. Starving yourself will leave you feeling fatigued and sick before you ever witness any weight loss. Let’s face it, the body needs food to survive and there is no getting around this.

With today’s busy lifestyle, most people don’t eat often enough. Skipping meals is a frequent occurrence that’s detrimental to any successful weight loss program. The body has two modes, feast and famine. When the body is inconsistently fed, it naturally moves into famine mode where it stores calories as fat, and converts excess carbohydrates into fat.

The feast mode is most effective for weight loss as the body is consistently fed at regular intervals. In this mode, the body does not hold onto excess calories or carbohydrate as fat, because it has a constant fuel source. The body automatically begins to burn excess stored fat because it no longer needs to hold onto it. People who feed their bodies regularly with small, nutritious meals will see results faster.

Your metabolic rate is directly influenced by your eating habits. Your metabolism is comparable to a fire. A slow metabolic rate is comparable to a fire that has burned down to coals. Even if a log is thrown on to the fire, it still takes a long time to burn. A high metabolism is comparable to a raging fire, it doesn’t matter how big or small the log is, it still consumes the wood at an incredibly fast pace. The human body is the exact same way. No fuel, small fire. More fuel, bigger flames. The more frequently you consume food, the faster your body will naturally burn it. In short, the body needs to be fed a minimum of 3 healthy meals daily with 1-2 snacks.

According to the book  Eat More, Weigh Less, by Dean Ornish, MD, who advocates eating a high-fiber, low-fat vegetarian diet to help you lose weight, you can eat as much of the following foods as you would like, whenever you are hungry:

• Beans and legumes
• Fruits — anything from apples to watermelon, from raspberries to pineapples
• Grains
• Vegetables

In a world consumed by the 9 to 5 routine, sitting too long behind a desk and driving everywhere, it’s becoming increasingly evident that as a nation, we need to get moving!

Hundred’s of years ago, before the invention of the elliptical and treadmill, people moved more without being conscious of the fact they were burning calories and maintaining good cardiovascular health. Recent research suggests that we could once again benefit from this approach to exercise by simply thinking less and doing more. According to smallstep.gov, the movement we do throughout the day, may be even more important than our planned exercise sessions, when it comes to weight management. Tasks such as walking to the grocery store, raking up leaves, vacuuming the stairs, or walking the dog, are all excellent activities that will help you maintain a healthy body, and when done regularly, can help you lose weight.

The American College of Sports Medicine outline their basic recommendations for physical activity to include 30 minutes of moderate intense cardio, five days a week, or 20 minutes of vigorous intense cardio, 3 days a week. In addition to cardio they also recommend doing eight to 10 strength-training exercises which should involve eight to 12 repetitions of each exercise twice a week. In case you were wondering, moderate exercise means working hard enough to raise your heart rate and break a sweat, yet still being able to carry on a conversation. If you think about it, raking up the leaves for an hour qualifies as moderate exercise!

Perhaps even more encouraging is the advice one health expert gives Time.com “You cannot sit still all day long and then have 30 minutes of exercise without producing stress on the muscles,” says Hans-Rudolf Berthoud, a neurobiologist at LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center who has studied nutrition for 20 years. “The muscles will ache, and you may not want to move after. But to burn calories, the muscle movements don’t have to be extreme. It would be better to distribute the movements throughout the day.”

So on those days when squeezing in a gym workout just doesn’t seem feasible, try adding 10 minute bouts of exercise instead. Research suggests this may be just as effective as exercising for 30 minutes straight. You can also dial up the intensity of many household chores to burn extra calories. Next time you are vacuuming the house, try incorporating some lunges and squats. Instead of bending and lifting with your back, think about releasing your hips into a squat and holding it for a time.  The trick is to increase our time spent moving throughout the day, by making small changes to our lifestyle that are easy to stick to. Smallstep.gov makes the following suggestions; don’t sit when you can stand, don’t stand when you can pace or walk and don’t just walk when you can walk briskly!

1. Eat more to weigh less: I know this sounds like a total contradiction, but believe it or not, by eating enough calories throughout the day we can keep our metabolism ticking over nicely. The average woman requires 1,200 calories per day  just for basic biological functioning. When we eat less than this, our metabolism slows down and breaks down muscle reserves for energy. As we know, muscle burns calories and so we need to retain as much as we can. Try to eat just enough so that you’re not hungry!

2. Drink water ice cold: I don’t know many people who prefer their water room temperature but for those of you who do, switching to ice cold water can actually help boost metabolism. How? Our body uses energy to heat the water to body temperature. Researchers in Germany discovered that drinking 6 cups of cold water a day can raise resting metabolism by approximately 50 calories a day.

3. Make the switch to whole grain: We’ve heard it time and time again but swapping your refined carbs for whole grain, as well as eating more fruits and veggies, will increase fat burn. Studies show fiber can increase fat burn by as much as 30%. Three servings of fruits and vegetables each day is all you need to meet the requirements for dietary fiber and battle the blubber!

4. Reduce alcoholic beverages: Putting the breaks on after one cocktail might seem like a challenge but doing so can step up your metabolism. Alcohol slows down our metabolism, reducing fat burn by a whopping 73%.

5. Pump your diet with iron: Essential for carrying the oxygen muscles need to burn fat, iron rich foods are a very important part of a metabolism boosting diet. Add more shellfish, lean meats, beans and spinach to your diet.

6. Load up on vitamin D: Essential for preserving muscle tissue, vitamin D is produced by the body from exposure to sunlight. It can also be found in foods such as fish and fortified milk. A 3.5 ounce serving of salmon provides 90% of your recommended daily value.

7. Drink more Joe: Caffeine  is a central nervous stimulant that can help rev your metabolism. A cup of coffee can increase it by 8 to 9% and perhaps more surprising, a cup of tea by 12%, reveals a Japanese study.

Oh and don’t forget to take Ignite Maxx™. Our breakthrough micro-encapsulation technology gives you the maximum thermogenic, calorie burning benefits of chili peppers without any oral or gastric irritation. Boost your metabolism to a new and higher level, safely.

Experts coined the phrase “skinny fat” to refer to an individual who appears skinny on the outside, are within a perfectly normal weight range, but have an unhealthy amount of fat on the inside. An individual who is skinny fat may have a healthy Body Mass Index but still have a high body fat percentage. Subsequently, this makes them susceptible to all the same obesity related illnesses as an overweight person, namely type 2 diabetes, heart disease and metabolic syndrome.

So now you know, there is a difference between being thin and being healthy. Many people go through their lives thinking they are just genetically blessed with a thin body and that therefore they must be healthy. However, a person who eats poorly and doesn’t exercise is at high risk of being skinny fat.

So how do you know if you’re skinny fat?

This is where body composition comes in to play. According to Mosby’s Medical Dictionary, body composition is the relative proportions of protein, fat, water, and mineral components in the body. It varies among individuals as a result of differences in body density and degree of obesity. The number on the scale is not the only thing that dictates a person’s level of health. A healthy body composition is determined by the percentage of fat versus lean muscle mass. Ideally it is best to keep fat lower and lean muscle mass higher. An altered body composition arises when the percentage of body fat is too high.

According to NutriBase a normal or desirable body fat percentage for women should be between 22-25%  and between 15-18% for men. Anyone can have their body fat measured at their local gym.

What can I do about it?

The key thing to remember is that you want to burn excess fat and build muscle, but remember, your goal isn’t to change the number on the scale. You want to flush out the fat and build a healthy strong body.

Combine cardiovascular exercise with some weight/resistance training.

Eat small well balanced meals regularly and try to reduce your sugar intake.

Try to eat protein with every meal. Protein builds muscle and muscle burns fat!

Does your workday appear as a black spot that makes it impossible to achieve the lifestyle you want? There are many reasons for this. First, sitting in an office sloped over a desk for hours on end doesn’t exactly promote an active lifestyle. The workplace can also be a junk food trap filled with co workers ordering takeout, meetings supplied with pizza and even peer pressure from co workers to eat an equally unhealthy diet.

Ending these habits can be the breakthrough you’ve been looking for, after all, you spend 8 plus hours a day at work. A small change that can go a long way at work is to take a small break every hour or so. Walk through your workplace, stretch your legs, walk a flight of stairs or bring exercise equipment and do a quick set of exercises in a vacant conference room. Believe it or not, but this intermitant activity will make a big difference in your health. The regular activity will create more energy to keep you focused throughout the day. It will also raise your metabolism and cause you body to burn more calories, even while sitting at a desk.

Fast food diets are often encouraged in many workplaces, but there are ways to kick this nasty habit. One simple way is to bring leftovers for lunch. This is  an inexpensive, time-efficient way to consistantly  eat well while co-workers stumble through the drive-through. Keeping healthy snacks like almonds, oatmeal and granola bars stashed in your desk is also a great idea. These snacks will keep you eating 5-6 times a day, which will prevent overeating during larger meals like lunch and dinner.

The key to losing weight and changing your health is reprogramming your lifestyle. Meaning, the little things you commit to can make the biggest changes. Adding these small practices to your workday can add up and make quick changes for you. Your newfound habits at work could end up inspiring others in your workplace.

Weight gain varies greatly from one woman to the next. The general guideline for women of healthy weight prior to pregnancy, is to gain anywhere between 25 and 35 pounds.

There is no rush to lose the weight following the birth of your baby, in fact it’s advisable not to restrict your calorie intake for the first six weeks after the baby is born. If you plan to breast feed though, then restricting calories just isn’t possible. Let’s face it, the first few months postpartum are sleep-deprived and physically and emotionally draining, so this is no time to limit your main source of fuel and energy. Instead, you should focus on meeting daily nutrient and calorie requirements in order to provide optimal nutrition to your infant. Eat a healthy diet that provides important nutrients such as folic acid and calcium.

Studies do show however that women who don’t lose their baby weight within the first year, are more likely to hold on to the weight long term or even permanently.

So what’s a new mom to do?

Another added benefit to nursing, in addition to the nutrient and immunological benefits breast milk provides to the baby, is the extra calories breast feeding can help the mother burn. According to caloriecount.about.com, the average breast feeding woman loses 1 to 4 pounds per month without restricting their calorie intake. 

Whether you choose to nurse or not, integrating some light, regular exercise is one of the best ways to boost your energy levels and reclaim your pre-baby body.  Some women actually achieve a better body post pregnancy than before. The key is to stay motivated and to find an exercise program that you enjoy and can stick to.  Walking for 20 to 30 minutes every day is a great way to ease gently into a new exercise routine.  Investing in a jogging stroller will provide you with the added convenience of keeping your baby with you for a workout. Remember, when the weather doesn’t permit you to exercise outdoors, take full advantage of precious nap time to workout at home!

Getting enough sleep is imperative if you want to be an effective parent but it’s also an important component of successful weight loss. While a lack of sleep in the first few months is to be expected, it is important for both you and the baby to establish a regular sleeping pattern. If you don’t get enough sleep, not only will you be more tired, you’ll be more hungry, and have a tendency to crave “comfort” foods that are high in fat. Getting the recommended six hours of sleep can help you avoid gaining weight and support continued weight loss.