Motion Health & Fitness

Category: weight loss

  • The Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

    The Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

    A lack of sleep may be a big contributor to America’s considerable weight problem.
     
    The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) recommends 7-9 hours of sleep each night for adults, ages 18-64. Yet, more than a third of American adults are not getting enough sleep on a regular basis, according to a CDC study.
     
    Sleeping less than seven hours per day is associated with an increased risk of developing chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and frequent mental distress, according to the CDC.
     
    The hunger hormones leptin and ghrelin have gotten a lot of attention in recent years. Though you may have heard of them, you may not be familiar with their functions.
     
    Think of the ‘l’ in leptin standing for lose. Leptin suppresses appetite and therefore contributes to weight loss. Think of the ‘g’ in ghrelin standing for gain. Ghrelin is a fast-acting hormone that increases hunger and leads to weight gain.
     
    When you’re sleep deprived, research shows, ghrelin levels surge while leptin plummets. The result is an increase in hunger.
     
    The key to reducing your nighttime cravings is to get more sleep; 7-9 hours.
     
    Another key to successful weight loss technique is intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating.
     
    Recent research shows the benefits of intermittent fasting, and those who have tried it often view it as a sustainable, long-term solution.
     
    In the simplest form, intermittent fasting would amount to 12 hours on and 12 hours off. For example, food can be eaten only between 7am and 7pm or 8am and 8pm.
     
    However, research shows that the sweet spot seems to be 10 hours on and 14 hours off. For example, eating only from 9am to 7pm, and then fasting until 9am the next day.
     
    Some intermittent-fasting proponents use only an eight-hour feeding window, with 16 hours of continual fasting each day. For example, eating meals between 12pm and 8pm each day, and fasting at all other times.
     
    This helps to thwart any late-night snacking habits.
     
    The benefit of time-restricted eating is that it allows you to naturally reduce your food intake without counting calories. That’s preferable to most people.
     
    Ultimately, intermittent fasting is about the “when” of eating, not the “what” or “how much.”
     
    Some researchers believe that the rise of later nighttime eating may have thrown off our evolutionary circadian rhythm, the 24-hour cycle that governs the physiological processes of humans and most other living beings, which may be contributing significantly to increases in obesity.
     
    Some studies suggest that by honoring the circadian rhythm and restricting feeding primarily to the daylight hours, we can improve our health and prevent disease.
     
    Fasting allows us to eat in harmony with our circadian rhythm. Circadian rhythms — which determine the sleeping and feeding patterns of all animals, including humans — can be modulated by external cues, such as sunlight.
     
    However, living in the 21st Century has disrupted our circadian rhythms. There is so much artificial light at night that the mind can confuse it with daytime. We also spend an exceptional amount of time (up to 12 hours a day) in front of screens (TVs, computers, tablets and smart phones) that emit blue light, which stimulates the retinal nerves and brain.
     
    21st Century adults spend, on average, 87%-93% of our 24-hours indoors and less than 5% of hours outdoors during the day. This light-dark rhythm disruption leads to less daytime alertness, and promotes depression (especially in older adults) and ADHD.
     
    This has resulted in circadian misalignment, in which our central and peripheral clocks are out of synch. Examples: too much light at night, sleep during daytime and food intake at night.
     
    Time-restricted feeding (12-16 hours of non-feeding) has proven to be the best match to our circadian clocks. The key is to eliminating nocturnal eating. The health benefits of time-restricted feeding double every extra hour of non-feeding time beyond 12 hours, up to 16 hours.
     
    While it is certainly wise to eat a variety of whole foods with high-quality sources of protein, fat and carbohydrate, timing may be the most crucial element when it comes to our eating habits.
     
    Another key is mindfulness. Being a more conscious (mindful) eater also helps you make healthier decisions during your eating window each day, so that you have adequate protein, fiber and water in your diet.
     
    In one study (by Dr. Satchidananda Panda, PhD), participants who adjusted their feeding time from their typical 14–15 hours down to 10 hours not only shed an average of 4% of their body weight, but also reported significantly improved energy levels and more satisfying sleep. Most remarkably, they ate their normal foods and didn’t change their exercise habits.
     
    Choosing to commit to intermittent fasting is easier if you do it with your partner/spouse or family. Any lifestyle change made in conjuncture with someone you live with can make a big difference. It creates a support system and can help keep you accountable.
     
    At the least, focus on getting 7-9 hours of sleep each night and eliminate nighttime snacking. However, you may want to try intermittent fasting / time-restricted eating for about a month to see how it works for you.
     
    It’s not very challenging. I do it and it’s made a difference for me. In fact, I highly recommend it.
  • Any Diet That Restricts Calories Will Lead to Weight Loss; You Just Need to Stick With It

    Any Diet That Restricts Calories Will Lead to Weight Loss; You Just Need to Stick With It

    When most people think of a diet, they think of weight loss. But we all have a diet, regardless of whether we’re trying to lose weight. As a healthy-weight person, my focus is on maximizing nutrition — the quality of the food that goes into my mouth and nourishes my body. Most athletes think this way. Eat well; be well. 

    However, with 70 percent of Americans being overweight or obese, according to the latest government data, much of the public is still seeking the “perfect diet” for weight loss. The truth is, there isn’t one.

    A diet study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that when it comes to weight loss, how much you eat matters more than the proportion of fat, carbohydrate and protein in your foods.

    The results of the study were consistent with the findings from many previous studies:

    • The major predictor for weight loss was adherence to the diet.

    • The study had a high drop-out rate (hence the importance of adherence).

    • People on all of the diets lost weight by six months, but regained some of it by two years (if you don’t adhere to your diet, it won’t work).

    • It was hard for people to stick to the diets, especially those at the extremes of one dietary component or another.

    The key point is that if you restrict calories and adhere to your eating program, any diet will work for weight loss.

    Case in point: The Twinkie Diet.

    For 10 weeks, Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, ate a diet primarily consisting of Twinkies, donuts and other junk foods. In the process, he lost 27 pounds, which is a considerable amount of weight in such a short span. Overall, his body fat dropped from 33.4 to 24.9 percent, a decline of more than 8 percentage points. 

    While this may seem shocking, the reality is that Haub didn’t ingest very many calories — less than 1,800 a day. The average American consumes more than 3,600 calories per day – a 24 percent increase from 1961, when the average was just 2,880 calories.

    Haub’s results were especially surprising since he was eating such a carbohydrate-heavy diet, which would cause him to hold more water — and water is heavy. That makes his results all the more powerful.  

    Haub said he followed a basic principle of weight loss: he consumed significantly fewer calories than he burned. And he simply maintained the same level of moderate physical activity he was performing before going on the diet. 

    The professor’s experiment was a great reminder that no matter what you eat, it all comes down to calories in versus calories out.

    However, the health outcomes of his experiment are the truly amazing part of the story. Haub’s LDL (bad cholesterol) dropped 20 percent and his HDL (good cholesterol) increased by 20 percent. He also reduced his triglycerides by 39 percent. That’s hard to figure. Interestingly, once Haub started adding meat back into the diet, his cholesterol level increased.

    I spoke to the past president of the American Dietetic Association (who was my client) about Haub’s results. He was attending an ADA conference the week the story broke and, naturally, the topic came up. He said that one of the major points the dieticians all agreed on was that maintaining caloric balance (calories in = calories out) was the most important factor for heart health and blood lipids.

    Being overweight is the central problem that leads to complications like high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol. 

    So, that’s the takeaway from this remarkable story. The lesson is not that you should follow this radical (and ridiculous) diet to achieve these results. It’s that if you limit caloric intake, you will lose weight — no matter what diet you’re on. 

    For the record, despite his intriguing results, Haub does not recommend replicating his Twinkie-based diet. He said he realized that he was simply eating too much, so he started his Twinkie diet to focus on portion control.

    It worked. After all, there are only so many Twinkies someone wants to eat, day after day for 10 weeks.

     

  • Why Your Weight May Be Fluctuating So Much

    Why Your Weight May Be Fluctuating So Much

    Many people veer from happy to unhappy to utterly confused watching their weight go up and down each day. It’s not uncommon for our bodyweight to fluctuate from 1 to 5 pounds overnight.

    The main culprit is water retention and there’s a multitude of things that can cause this. One pound equals just 15.34 fluid ounces of water or 450 ml. So, if you have just 1 liter of extra water in your system, that’s more than two pounds of extra weight.

    Carbohydrates encourage your body to retain water, so the more carbs you eat, the more water you retain.

    One gram of carbs tends to store 3-4 grams of water — so if you’re consuming more carbs in one meal than you can efficiently use, they’ll end up getting stored as glycogen and make you hold onto more water.

    For example, eating 50 grams of carbohydrate will result in the storage of an additional 150-200 grams of water in the liver and muscles. That’s a total of 200-250 grams between the carbohydrate and water, which is half-pound (1 pound = 454 grams).

    This water retention occurs because your kidneys retain sodium in response to carbohydrate consumption. Your body reacts to the higher sodium levels by storing more water to keep the sodium-blood concentration at a healthy level.

    When you eat too much salt, the cells of your body must compensate by absorbing more water to balance out sodium concentrations.

    Consuming 400 milligrams of sodium, the amount in a single gram of table salt, causes your body to retain an extra 4 cups of water, which equals roughly 2 pounds.

    Eating fast food and processed food, which are high in sodium, can cause weight fluctuations of 2 pounds or more.

    The best way to reduce water retention is to reduce your salt intake. According to the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines published by the US Government, adults should limit their sodium intake to 2300 mg (1 teaspoon) or less. However, on average, Americans eat more than 3,400 milligrams of sodium each day.

    The second most important way to reduce water retention is to drink more water. This may seem counterintuitive, but it’s the solution. Drinking more water causes the excess salt to diffuse out of your cells, and it can then be flushed from the body by your kidneys and skin.

    Ironically, skimping on your H2O results in water retention. If you’re not drinking enough water, your body holds onto every last drop inside to prevent severe dehydration. Dehydration causes your body to hoard water, which in turn causes bloating.

    The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) recommends a total daily water intake of 120 ounces (15 cups) for the average adult male and 88 ounces (11 cups) for the average adult female.

    Intense exercise also helps to quickly flush excess sodium out of the body.

    In summary: cut your salt intake, drink more water each day and exercise intensely most days of the week.

    Get in Motion. Stay in Motion.

     

  • Here’s Why You Should Supplement Your Diet With Psyllium

    Here’s Why You Should Supplement Your Diet With Psyllium

    The most recent edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that adults consume 1.5-2.0 cups of fruit per day and 2-3 cups of vegetables per day.
     
    However, about 90 percent of Americans don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables, according to a 2017 CDC report. Specifically, just 12.2 percent of American adults are meeting the recommendation for fruit and only 9.3 percent are meeting the recommendation for vegetables.
     
    Aside from being packed with valuable nutrients and phytochemicals (helpful chemical compounds produced by plants), fruits and veggies are also packed with fiber, which aids digestion and can help treat digestive problems. Fiber also helps prevent constipation and can reduce cholesterol levels. Adequate fiber intake may even help protect against heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some forms of cancer.
     
    The national fiber recommendations are 30 to 38 grams a day for men between 18 and 50 years old, and 25 grams a day for women of the same age range. However, most of us are falling far short. The average American consumes a mere 14 grams, meaning many of us eat even less than that.
     
    A great way to increase your daily fiber intake is by supplementing your diet with psyllium, a natural, water-soluble fiber made from the husks of the Plantago ovata plant. Psyllium can aid our health in each of the following ways:
     
    • Lowering cholesterol
    • Improving digestion
    • Eliminating toxins and heavy metals (psyllium acts like a sponge, soaking them off the walls of the intestine)
    • Slowing the production of blood glucose during digestion
    • Encouraging the growth of healthy intestinal bacteria
     
    For all these reasons, psyllium is a highly valuable dietary supplement. Here’s more detail on each of the above:
     
    Being a soluble fiber, psyllium is able to pass through your digestive system without being completely broken down or absorbed. Instead, it absorbs water and becomes a gel-like substance that slows down the rate at which the stomach empties. As a result, psyllium tends to slow the movement of food through the digestive tract. Since fiber-rich foods take longer to digest, they result in an increased feeling of fullness and satiety. Consequently, psyllium can aid weight loss by reducing the amount of food consumed during meals.
     
    In addition, a more gradual absorption slows the entrance of glucose into the blood stream, thereby preventing large blood glucose and insulin spikes. For this reason, psyllium helps control blood sugar levels, which is particularly helpful to diabetics. It’s recommended that you take psyllium with food, rather than on its own, so it has a greater effect on your blood sugar levels.
     
    Psyllium has also been shown to help lower blood cholesterol. Soluble fiber binds to bile salts in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, causing them to be excreted as part of our fecal matter, rather than being re-absorbed by the colon, as they usually are. Since blood cholesterol is needed to make bile, the body must pull more cholesterol out of our blood to make more bile and replace what was lost. This ultimately lowers the amount of cholesterol in our bloodstream.
     
    Additionally, psyllium also helps with constipation and diarrhea, and perhaps even benefits blood pressure, according to research.
     
    Psyllium is a bulk-forming laxative that also softens stools, which means it makes bowel movements much easier. Quite simply, psyllium promotes regularity and overall digestive health, which matters to millions of people.
     
    A total of 60 to 70 million Americans are affected by digestive diseases, according to the National Institute of Health. This means one in five Americans suffers some type of digestive illness. That’s because the modern American diet is so unhealthy. For example, the top sources of calories in the US are grain-based desserts, including cakes, cookies, donuts, pies, crisps, cobblers and granola bars. Americans also consume copious amounts of sodas, candy, potato chips and pizza.
     
    Having a healthy gut is vital to our overall health. Psyllium encourages the growth of healthful, “friendly” intestinal bacteria, such as Lactobacillus acidophilous and bifidobacteria.
     
    These are among the healthy or “good” bacteria in your GI tract that keep your entire digestive system at its peak, while boosting the health of your immune system. In fact, 80% of your immune system lives within your digestive tract and, obviously, a healthy immune system is vital to your overall well-being.
     
    It is crucial for us to maintain a healthy ratio of “good” to “other” bacteria in our GI tract for optimal health. A healthy and balanced digestive system even helps you better regulate your weight.
     
    The good bacteria in your GI tract need good nutrition to flourish. Dietary fiber can make a huge difference by feeding these good bacteria, allowing them to grow and proliferate. While the less-than-desirable bacteria like to eat refined sugars and fats, beneficial bacteria love to feed on fiber, such as psyllium.
     
    The average recommended dosage for psyllium is about one or two tablespoons with meals, once or twice daily. However, I suggest starting with a lower dose and gradually working up to this level. A tall glass of water should be taken with each dose.
     
    The most common brand of psyllium is Metamucil, which has added sugar and ascorbic acid. There are also 100% pure psyllium versions available, without added sugar, which you can find at any health food store. You may find that finely ground, powdered psyllium, which can be mixed with either water or juice, is easiest to drink.
     
    It should be noted that Metamucil is different from Citrucel, which is made from man-made cellulose fiber. Citrucel is merely a fiber laxative and does not offer the same health benefits of psyllium.
     
    So, there are many good reasons to add psyllium to your diet regimen: it’s all natural, inexpensive, easy to take and has a multitude of health benefits. Ultimately, psyllium is one of the very best supplements to include in your daily diet.