Archive for the ‘How to get healthy’ Category

Gaining Muscle Without Gaining Fat – 8 Tips to Bulk-Up on Muscles, Get Rid of the Fats

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

Almost every male species in this world would dream of having a well-built body, and therefore, they tend to build up on weight as much as they can. A well-built body is one that has a good amount of muscle mass, because it’s the muscles that keep the body to stay in perfect shape. But the question that most body builders would ask is this, “Is gaining muscle without gaining fat possible?”

Consuming more calories is the key to gaining muscle mass, and too much calories could lead to fat buildup. But if you are aiming for a well-toned body, you should rid yourself of these stubborn fats. The key to gaining muscle without gaining fat is to speed-up your metabolic rate so that those extra fats that you have consumed will be converted to muscles, and will not be stored as body fats.

The following are tips on how to boost-up your metabolism and gain muscles sans the fats:

Eat Right

One of the most important things that you have to do in order for your metabolic rate to increase is to watch what you eat. By eating the right foods, you are preventing those stubborn fats to build-up in your body, and instead, you will end up gaining the right amount of weight. Your diet must consist of complex carbohydrate and proteins, and examples of these are cereals, fruits, whole grains and vegetables – these foods help to shred-off those extra fats that you’ve accumulated.

Cardiovascular Training

Contrary to what a lot of people believe, cardio exercises are actually important if you are trying to bulk-up on muscles. One of the reasons why some people would gain fats despite of doing muscle training exercises everyday is because they do not include cardio training on their workout program. So the next time you hit the gym, make sure that you include high intensity cardio exercises in your workouts, so as to burn all those extra fats that you have accumulated.

Strength Training

We all know that strength training is very important if you are trying to build muscles, so make sure that your workout program consist a lot of weight training exercises. It is highly advised that you consult with a fitness trainer to know the appropriate strength training exercises that could speed-up your muscle building process. There are some trainers who would recommend doing heavy weights with less number of repetitions, while others would advise you to lift lighter weights, but with more repetitions – ask them what’s best for you.

Drink Plenty of Water

In order for you to end up gaining muscle without gaining fat, you have to increase your daily water consumption. If you are working out, remember to consume several glasses of water at regular intervals, and do not forget to drink plenty of water after you eat your daily meals. Water is very important as it helps to keep our muscles hydrated, and it is also responsible for the distribution of nutrients all over our body.

Eat More

Since you are trying to bulk-up on muscles, it is important that you fuel your body by eating more foods daily. But this does not mean that you can just eat whatever you want – as earlier mentioned, you’ve got to watch what you eat and limit your food consumption as well. Your daily calorie intake must not exceed to 20 percent than your usual calorie consumption, and the best way for this is to space-out your daily meals.

Plan Your Meals

As previously mentioned, you have to eat lots of foods daily if you are trying to gain weight and bulk-up on muscles. But the key to gaining muscle without gaining fat is to actually plan your daily meals in advance and dividing your meals up to six small meals all throughout the day, making sure that the meals are equipped with the right amount of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. If you practice eating more meals in a day, instead of the usual three square meals, your metabolic rate will be increased and therefore, you won’t have to worry about gaining fats while you bulk-up on muscles.

Monitor your Calorie Consumption

Tracking the amount of calorie that you consume everyday is also very important for you to gain muscles without fats. There are a lot of devices now that were made for the purpose of calculating the calories that you consume out of the foods that you eat daily. Aside from these devices, you can also refer to some websites in the Internet which offers a free calculation of the calories that you have consumed from your daily meals.

Get Enough Sleep

Even if you follow all the tips into increasing your metabolic rate, you will still not achieve your ideal body weight if you forego the most important aspect in your muscle building process, and that is sleep. Your muscles would actually build-up and recover during your sleep, so you have to make sure that you get the right amount of sleep every day. Getting at least 8 hours of sleep daily is also the key to increasing your metabolic rate.

Multivitamins: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

Ideally, humans would eat wholly nutritious diets rich in protein, vitamins and minerals. The fact is, most people do not meet all their nutritional needs through their food. As a result, many of us rely on multivitamins and supplements to achieve more complete nutrition.

Question: Do you know what those vitamins and minerals are doing in your body? Do you know how much of the product your body actually absorbs when it comes to taking a multivitamin

No federal regulations

Vitamins, minerals and nutritional supplements produced and distributed in the U.S. are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. In fact, if you or I wanted to start selling our own personal brands of vitamins, mineral supplements or similar products, we could do so without anyone, including the FDA, having a say in the matter.

This lack of regulation should sound a warning signal about these products’ contents. Most supplements on the market are basically garbage. While they may contain good-for-you ingredients, they do nothing to bolster your nutrition because your body cannot absorb them.

Nutritional companies spend thousands of dollars marketing their products to convince consumers how great they are. For example, the best-known multivitamin brands found in drug and discount stores are virtually useless. Rather than trying to dazzle you with their exaggerated claims, supplement companies would be better off spending their dollars on research to determine that their products really are benefiting you. The quality of a supplement’s contents is far more important than any sexy claims its manufacturer can make. Your main concerns should be the quality and bioavailability (level of absorption and use by the body) of any product you purchase.

Supplements cannot repair the effects of bad eating

Hippocrates said it best, “Let food be thy medicine and let thy medicine be thy food.”

Eating naturally nutritious food is the most important aspect of your diet. The foundation you lay with proper eating habits is far more important than any food supplement you can take. Examine your eating and exercise habits before you consider seeing a doctor for almost any problem.

However, even the best vitamins and supplements available will not propel you to optimal health if you otherwise eat unhealthy food. Say your diet consists mainly of pre-packaged and/or fast foods, but you take your Centrum or One-a-Day, so you talk yourself into thinking you feel fine. Your body knows otherwise, and you may find yourself in big trouble in a few years. All this amounts to is killing yourself slowly.

Why take supplements at all?

Even the most healthful eater might want to consider supplements, due to the lack of nutrients in our soil. Soil in the U.S. slowly has been losing more and more nutrients each year, making our foods less tasty and less nourishing to our bodies.

The single most important health factor is nourishment. If we lack proper nourishment, we will slowly die of disease, obesity and malnutrition. Yes, extremely overweight people are largely malnourished! The way to achieve optimal health is to eat as few calories as possible, while still providing your body with the highest levels of nourishment.

This is where organic food plays a key role. Organic food has been shown to contain 40 percent more nutrients than regular commercially produced food. Add high quality supplements which provide your body with bioavailable vitamins and minerals, and it becomes easy to live a long, healthy life while consuming fewer calories and still obtaining the nutrients you need to function optimally.