If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) helps enzymes which process fuel in the body. Some food sources of ALA are spinach, broccoli, potatoes plus kidney heart and liver meats. ALA is also an important signaling chemical that regulates body weight.

An Oregon State Universtiy study found ALA supplements helped prevent hardening of the arteries in mice. It worked by reducing inflammation, triglycerides (blood fats) and obesity. This article explains how those mechanismas work. From this it was concluded ALA supplements might help prevent heart disease and obesity.

In other studies, rats given ALA reduced their food intake and lifted meatbolic burn. The ALA rats were 20% lighter than their controls.

ALA is a powerful antioxidant and protects from free radicals which are produced as a result of metabolism. These are linked to cell membrane destruction and immune system breakdown. ALA also improves bloood sugar control, thus increasing insulin sensitivity in people with diabetes.

ALA has promise as a supplement, but there have not been any large scale human studies to date.

Well this isn’t about health or fitness but it is about visibility. I installed a few plugins to my WP blog and am now testing them. You might even see an automatic Twitter update too.

The Plugins I installed allowed me to display the last few Twitter tweets, auto updates of blog post headings to my Twitter account, easy post meta-tags and descriptions, tag cloud, a greeting that asks you to subscribe to my feed and the Seesmic video comment widget, which allows you to post video comments without having to login to any sort of account including my blog.

Ok enough for now - I have to go find something relevant to my blogs content philosophy to publish now

Live long. Live well.

Adding Web 2.0 Friendly Plugins to my Blog 

It was reported today that the State Government is giving community prizes of up to One Million Dollars each year for the best suggestion to combat the “obesity epidemic”.

The money is to be used by the winners to create some sort of community facility like a pool to get people slimmer. Maybe a school auditorium full of Wii fits will do the trick?

What happened to proper food and exercise? Turn off the TV, computer and Playstation, and drag the kids down to a park or beach for a few hours with a hamper full of salads, fruit and good protein sources…

As far as building community swimming pools - well how are you going to convince an overweight woman whose self image is already suffering - to put on a swimming suit and parade in front of the neightbours at the local pool?

Live long. Live well.

Well it seems the scientists have come up with yet another “easy” way to lose weight.

Being the natural sceptic that I am, I did a little investigation. See I know what it is like to be overweight. Even though I was never touching on obesity like some of my clients, those extra 10 kilos made life pretty uncomfortable for me. And it is human nature to want to do anything in life the easy way if we can get the result we want…

So the thought of taking a pill and losing weight AND getting exercise at the same time without actually having to do any movement- well…

Who wouldn’t be instantly attracted to that?

You remember the last couple of weight loss supplements that were the “next big thing in weight loss” - Ephedra and Alli.

Well it seems they were not without their difficulties as explained below…

“The Federal Trade Commission today announced three enforcement actions against direct marketers of weight-loss products containing ephedra. The two settlements and one complaint, filed in U.S. district court, target deceptive efficacy, safety, and “no side effects” claims for weight loss supplements containing ephedra (also known as Ma Huang). The FTC actions challenge false advertising claims that the ephedra supplements cause rapid, substantial, and permanent weight-loss without diet or exercise, and that “clinical studies” or “medical research” prove these claims. The FTC also challenges claims that the ephedra weight-loss products are “100% safe,” “perfectly safe,” or have “no side effects.” Resources for consumers, businesses, and the press are available at www.ftc.gov/dietfit. The FTC has the following tips for consumers who are interested in weight-loss products or programs:

    * Products and programs that promise quick and easy weight loss are bogus. To lose weight, you have to lower your intake of calories and increase your physical activity.

    * There are no miracle weight-loss products. Be skeptical of products and programs that claim they can keep weight off permanently. Be skeptical about exaggerated claims.- Copyright Federal Trade Commission June 2003

According to the FDA, ephedra can cause nausea, irregular heartbeats, insomnia, and nervousness (http://ageless.com/ephidrine.htm).  In Texas there have been two deaths linked to ephedrine products.

The Metabolife label has a long list of different diseases or problems that should be advised before taking Metabolife.  Another FDA report stated that ephedra can also cause high blood pressure, tremors and headaches, seizures, heart attacks, strokes and in extreme cases like in Texas, death.

So much for Ephedra… How bout Alli

“Alli is the reduced-strength version of orlistat (Xenical), a prescription drug to treat obesity. It’s approved for over-the-counter sale to overweight adults 18 years and older. Alli is meant to be used in conjunction with a low-calorie, low-fat diet and regular exercise.

What are the side effects?

You may experience bowel changes when taking Alli. Ads and marketing materials refer to these changes as “treatment effects.” These side effects can include:

    * Gas with an oily anal discharge

    * Loose stools or diarrhea

    * More frequent bowel movements

    * Hard-to-control bowel movements

These bowel changes result from the undigested fat going through your digestive system. You can limit the side effects by eating a low-fat diet.

When shouldn’t you take Alli?

Don’t take Alli if you:

    * Are at a healthy weight

    * Are taking cyclosporine

    * Have had an organ transplant

    * Have problems absorbing food

The drug also may pose risks for anyone who takes blood-thinning medication or has diabetes or thyroid disease.

Orlistat decreases the absorption of certain fat-soluble vitamins — for example, vitamins A, D and E. If you’re taking Alli, you need to take a daily vitamin supplement (at a time different from when you take Alli) to prevent potential nutrient deficiencies.” - Copyright Mayo clinic Staff June 11 2008

Now it has been proved that a low fat diet is actually dangerous to your long term health, and that we need certain fats to be able to function healthily. I don’t know about you but the thought of not absorbing fat and vitamins is a bit scary. So much for Alli. And you notice the common thread here - diet and exercise still required for success.

This newest miracle pill, AICAR,  has “worked” on mice and is possibly years away from being fit for use with humans. Even if it does everything claimed.

The mouse tests were all about skeletal muscles and endurance, not about the drugs’ safety or ability to mimic the many other benefits of exercise, such as improving cardiovascular health and making some types of cancer less likely. That won’t help you get your life and figure back in the meantime will it?

If you want to play Russian roulette with your health - fine. Take a pill, eat whatever you like and don’t exercise. If the side effects don’t permanently damage you (or perhaps kill you) then the subsequent obesity, type 2 diabetes and other health problems surely will.

Look, there is no shortcut here.
Correct eating and exercise are still required to lose weight unfortunately.

Fitness by Phone® has the only healthy weight loss program with a 100% money back guarantee (to my knowledge). We have a ten year success track record to back up that guarantee.

So fill out the form to see if you qualify.

Live your life

Rick

Here is a story that has a lesson in it.

My sister in law called me the other day. She was a bit concerned because she had just received a report from her doctor about her bone density. Her spinal bone density tests had shown a 10% loss over the last 8 years and she was finally motivated to do something about it. She is only 48 btw.

Last Wednesday she came down for our first session, and I tested her strength and flexibility.

Now she is pretty active, with a tall thin build. Burns calories quite well it seems. However she has one chronic problem which is currently in remission - rheumatoid arthritis.

Hillary was a sporty type, but like all mothers is busy busy busy, and didn’t put much stock in looking after her own needs when everyone elses came first (she and my brother had their children fairly late).

She also trained as a PE teacher in her earlier years. Despite the lack of regular structured exercise she thought she was reasonably healthy and strong because of her day to day activities.

Our tests proved otherwise and she was quite shocked. In fact next day she complained of muscle soreness, and that from doing minimal work, not even a proper training session.

Needless to say I gave her an in home program to get started using minimal equipment. Luckily her son wants to do it with her, so that will help keep her on track and less likely to backslide.

Here is the point.

Instead of waiting to lose 10% of her spinal density before doing something about it, (and sorry to say, despite all my efforts over the last couple of years to get her involved with weight training…)

Wouldn’t it have been better to do the strength training to prevent the loss instead?

The risk of spinal fracture at the age of 48 is bad news from a lifestyle perspective, especially for a busy mum.

However this does bring up another point I have to belabour over and over again. Why are some of you so resistant to getting tested for various things? Such as bone density, hormone levels (thyroid, estrogens, androgens, insulin etc).

Lots of folks go onto a weight loss program blind. Wouldn’t it be better to know where any imbalances lie, then take appropriate action?

And for heavens sake don’t wait til a doctor tells you you are a wreck before trying to reverse the problem.

Doesn’t it make more sense to take preventative action instead?

Food for thought…

Live life - it’s the only one you’ve got.

Rick

Well my wife went and bought a vibration trainer last weekend.

So now the money is spent I had to do a lot more research. It seems that short term studies of WBV (whole body vibration) are positive for a number of reasons. But there are caveats.

First, no session should be longer then 10 minutes. And no longer that 30 minutes accumulated in any 24 hour period.

The main benefit my wife felt straight away was an increase in circulation. Having a poor circulation at best, I would be happy if this was the only benefit of the machine for her. But research indicates it could also help the osteo arthritis in her hips and possibly knees.

We will see, that will depend on the types of exercise she does. 

This is I guess an ongoing sort of case study that is close to home (gee it is inside the home). So I will keep you updated.

Live your life, this is not a dress rehearsal…

Here is my first podcast - listen at your own risk

BTW, the material is intriguing and will give you some clues as to why your body fat may be hard to shift and why your constant diet and exercise attempts are still failing
AND
some solutions.

Enjoy!

Thanks for reading…

Everyone knows this inescapable fact - the metabolism slows down as we age. It’s one of the reasons why baby boomer women get fatter as they get older.

Really?

Unless you understand what affects the speed at which you burn fat (metabolism) how can you believe such blanket statements. I know a lot of women who are over 40, some in their 70’s who are leaner now than when they were in their 20’s and 30’s.

So how do they do it? How can you do it too?

Here are some of the major metabolic facts…

Heredity.

You can’t do anything to change your heredity, but you sure as eggs can change the way you approach your lifestyle if you come from a long line of larger women.

It just may take more work by you, or you may find something like an inherited problem (a sluggish thyroid gland can run in families for instance). Whatever the cause of overweight in your family, you can take steps to counteract it by properly investigating why.

Muscle Loss.

This is probably the major cause of a low metabolic rate in everyone to a greater or lesser degree. First muscle is an active tissue - every pound takes 40-60 calories a day just to stay alive.

Thus the more of it you have, the more energy it burns.

And it is a lie that you will look like the muscly body builders - they are dedicated to their art 24 hours a day. Remember muscle is more compact than fat too.

You as a woman can pack on quite a bit before it shows up. So the simple fact is, the more muscle you have, the more fat it burns.

And don’t believe for a minute that we naturally lose muscle as we age. We don’t. It is just because we get more sedentary as we age. Lazier. Means you have to work out.

Hormones.

This is actually a symbiotic partner to more muscle. The more muscle you have, the more growth hormone you will produce. The more of that you get, the more of all the other hormones your body produces, to keep you in balance and burning fat properly.

Hormone imbalances are a primary cause of weight gain, even after menopause.

Note that growth hormone is produced under 2 circumstances… After a heavy duty strength workout and during sleep. Means you have to work out. Which leads us to…

Not enough deep sleep.

Researchers are proving with more and more studies that people who don’t get enough sleep get fattter than those who do (all other things being equal).

It seems that modern women are existing on about 1 hour less a night than previous generations.

Trouble is we are all different. I need eight hours a night. Yet one of my clients is quite happy with three hours and catnaps during the day. You have to figure out what is your ideal amount of sleep. I suspect it is more than you are getting at the moment.

Toxicity in your environment.

There is a growing body of research that shows toxins the body can’t excrete are stored in fat (adipose) tissue.

In fact some scientists are now calling adipose tissue a gland, just like the pituitary or thyroid. So if you are carrying toxins, your body is smart enough to not let them go once stored away.

This may be a reason why some women can’t shift stubborn fat even though they eat correctly, and exercise a lot. Fat also produces certain hormones linked to insulin resistance- a key factor in a lower metabolic rate.

Insulin resistance.

Insulin is the hormone responsible for shoving the blood sugar into your cells so they burn it. If your cells become resistant to insulin doing its job, caused by other hormones over produced from your body fat, the pancreas has to produce more.

It becomes a vicious cycle with the poor pancreas giving up eventually. And then you get Type 2 diabetes.

This has a huge impact on your metabolic rate. It is why overweight women feel so much better when they lose all that body fat. Their cells are burning energy more efficiently, the load on the pancreas is decreased, and the missing fat is not producing an overload of “bad” hormones any more.

So your body balances up.

Eating the wrong foods.

Protein that has 100 calories takes about 30 calories to digest and absorb. Carbohydrate with 100 calories takes about 7 calories to digest and consume. Sugar even less. You might think that the secret is having a protein only diet like Atkins et. al. so you lose even more weight.

Sure that works for a while, but the energy you need for optimal brain activity comes from carbohydrates, not protein (that’s why folks on high protein diets get grouchy and mean). In other words you must eat a balanced diet to sustain and grow.

The secret to keeping your metabolic rate up is eating a lot of small meals during the day. This also keeps your blood suger levels balanced, so you don’t overwork your pancreas, which if overworked for too long can fail giving you Type 2 Diabetes.

As you can see, all your body systems are like a set of dominoes.

Any negative effect on one system is reflected in all the others eventually. Losing fat through diet and exercise is a simple balancing act if you want to get it right and do it for the rest of your life.

It isn’t hard to do, just requires a change in thinking and creation of some better habits.

At Fitness by Phone we teach you how your body really works, so you can make the best lifestyle decisions for you.

Vibration training seems to be a good thing on the surface of it. I know women who have dumped cellulite where nothing else has ever worked, and swear by it for overall fitness training.

But is it doing you harm long term?

Well the answer is - maybe…

Studies done since World War 2 show that chronic exposure to vibration increases stress hormones like cortisol (a known precursor for type 2 diabetes), adds to anxiety, can increase coronary artery disease and impair skin circulation. It is also linked to spinal disc injury and arthritis.

And vibration transmitted to the head via the spinal column has caused hearing loss, balance problems, visual impairment and bleeding on the brain.

Researchers at NASA and Houston University have concluded that whole body vibration training has the potential to do harm. But remember, 30 minutes of vibration training is not the same as a full day working a jackhammer, or operating machinery or truck driving for long shifts.

My take is a lot more research needs to be done. Before committing to a wholesale vibration training program, I would want a couple more years to go by and a few more studies before  did it.

The old standbys we use here are conservative, but proven safe and that is what I want for my clients at Fitness by Phone - results you can trust long term.

Have a great day.

Rick Rakauskas

I am doing some interesting research at the moment regarding fat that won’t shift despite the best intents of great diet and rigorous exercise.

Seems to point in this direction.

Our envirnoment is so laden with toxins that the liver and other excretory organs can’t get rid of them. What to do with the nasty stuff then?

The body effectively “buries” the nasty stuff in adipose tissue i.e. fat.

And becasue it knows this tissue is poisoned, the body then holds onto it come what may, rather then release it back into the body.

At this stage I am still exploring this issue, and will write a report in the near future on ways you can eliminate these types of toxins so you don’t store them in fat!!

Remember to “swap fat for shape” right here with Fitness by Phone

Rick Rakauskas