Not All Carbs Are Bad! Learn the Difference Between Good and Bad Carbs
What is the Difference Between Good and Bad Carbs
No carbohydrates are good or bad. No food is truly bad or good.
Carbohydrates and food items simply cause different things to happen in your body when you eat them.
It is better to think of carbohydrates as whether you should eat them or avoid them, as opposed to them being bad or good. Carbohydrates could get their feelings hurt if they heard you referring to them as bad, or evil.
That having been said, there are distinct differences between certain types of carbohydrates.
You understand that not all fruits look and taste the same. The same is true with vegetables. There are any number of variations of pizzas. So there are definitely different types of carbs.
Let’s take a look at the construction of carbohydrates, because that really is what makes carbs either healthy or unhealthy for your body.
The Difference Between Simple and Complex Carbohydrates
When a food has a very simple molecular construction, it is broken down very quickly. In the case of simple carbohydrates, they enter your bloodstream almost instantly. This is not a good thing. When the carbohydrates you eat are complex, they are hard for your body to break down. Imagine a simple puzzle or brainteaser as opposed to the New York Times crossword puzzle.
Solving a simple puzzle doesn’t do much, if anything, for your brainpower. Solving the New York Times crossword puzzle gives you an incredibly healthy brain boost.
The same difference applies to simple and complex carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates are sugars.
They come in a couple of forms, simple and complex. You may hear simple carbohydrates referred to as simple sugars or simple starches as well. Simple carbohydrates, as mentioned above, enter your bloodstream rapidly. They raise your blood glucose levels quickly. Unfortunately, the sugar in these “bad” carbs is rapidly converted and stored as fat, to be used as an energy source later.
Complex carbohydrates are very difficult to break down. Their construction is intricate, so they are hard to take apart. They are usually much higher in dietary fiber than simple carbs, and any glucose in these carbohydrates is efficiently processed before it goes straight into your bloodstream.
Simple carbohydrates include soft drinks, candy, artificial syrups, table sugar, pastries and desserts, white rice, white pasta and white bread.
Complex carbs, “good” carbs, are found in beans, legumes, nuts, whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
If you just do what mama told you when you were a kid (Eat your fruits and vegetables!), you will avoid most simple carbohydrates, enjoy lots of complex carbohydrates, and treat your brain and body to better health and wellness.
Cardio versus Weight Training To Burn Calories
Cardio versus Weight Training To Burn Calories
Should I do cardio or weight training to lose weight is a common question.
There are many reasons anyone may want to lose weight. They may be wanting to lose weight to achieve better health, to look better in clothes, improve chances of finding the right relationship, be able to do more with family and many others.
Woman Weight Training
When discussing weight training as a way to lose weight many are concerned they will gain muscle and actually look bigger. Making weight training a routine part of your exercise regimen will result in the building of muscle. Initially, it may seem you are not making any progress from a weight loss standpoint; however, if you stick with it you should start noticing changes such as clothes fitting better, more muscular tone, and an increase in energy.
Weightlifting can be an incredibly powerful tool when it comes to losing weight and may just be what is needed to give your weight loss program the boost it needs.
If you want to learn more about how weight training may help you start losing weight right away and move forward to achieve your weight loss goals:
Does Weight Training Help You Burn Fat
Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Weight training is not typically looked at as an aerobic activity
Weight training primarily utilizes the glycogen system for producing energy, your heart rate will increase during weight training exercise, and if you workout for about 40 minutes you should burn about 500 calories.
The average person burns about 2000 calories per day just doing their normal daily activities. Adding 40 minutes of weight training can help you burn an extra 500 calories each day you workout.
One pound of fat is equivalent to about 350o calories, so burning an extra 500 calories per day or decreasing your intake 500 calories may help you lose about one pound per week.
Running for the same amount of time will result in your burning a similar amount of
Cardiovascular Exercise Using Treadmill
calories.
You should consider investing in a fitness tracker and see how many calories you are burning.
Lifting weights tends to work several muscle groups even when you are focusing on one area of the body.
This stimulates the release of hormones such as testosterone and growth hormone helping in the repair of muscle after your workouts. The involvement of multiple muscles helps to boost your metabolism and burn more fat.
What’s more though, is that simply having more muscle means your body has to work harder to keep everything running smoothly. Muscle requires energy to maintain and as such, if you build some biceps and abs you’ll actually burn more calories in your sleep.
Weight training will help you get more toned, may help get rid of stretch marks, and give the illusion of weight loss even if you are not showing evidence of weight loss on the scale.
Resistance cardio involves combining cardiovascular exercise with resistance exercise (weight training). Examples of resistance cardio include riding a stationary bike on a high setting, or performing rows against a lot of
Cardio Resistant Exercise
resistance.
So when your goal is to lose weight, look more toned and get healthier a combination of cardiovascular and resistance exercise should be an excellent starting point.
How To Work Your Abs When You Are Obese
3 Great Abdominal Exercises For Obese People
Heavier people need to do special abdominal exercises for obese people to avoid injury. Many of the popular exercises people do today are too much for someone not in shape. Some abdominal exercises for obese people are even especially designed for those who have trouble standing for long periods or getting up and down from the floor.
Because some obese people have special exercise needs, abdominal exercises for obese people that they can do while sitting are ideal. Sitting exercises are less likely to put strain on joints like the knees. An obese person may already put a lot of pressure on their knees, so low impact exercises are best.
The first sitting exercise may seem like a very easy one. But for some obese people it’s enough to start them down the road to getting healthier. And when done regularly, this exercise will start to tighten and tone the muscles of anyone who does it. It’s good for thin people and obese people, as well.
Sit in a chair and keep your back straight—don’t slouch. If you have hand weights or dumbbells, then you can hold them in front of your chest. If not, you can hold a can of soup in each can, or start out without anything at all.
Hold your abdominal muscles in and slowly turn your upper torso to the right, while keeping your hips firmly planted on the chair and facing forward. Use your stomach muscles to turn your body back to the center position. Do the same thing now, going left. Start out just doing 12 to each side and build up. The heavier the weights you hold, the more it works the muscles.
Another of the great abdominal exercises for obese people is simply to sit in the chair and lean over like you’re going to touch your toes. Make it a small movement, don’t lunge forward, and slowly draw back up. Make sure you’re using your stomach muscles and not your back.
You can also do these a little to the side to work the sides of your tummy. Just instead of leaning straight forward, turn your torso lightly and go straight down a little to your right, then back up. Once you’re raised, then turn and go down a little to your left. Slowly raise back up.
You can also cycle through all of them for the best results. Go straight down, to the left, to the center, to the right, then back to the center. Do these until you’ve done the center one 12 times, then build as you get stronger.
Another great exercise if you can lie down on the floor on your back is to do simple leg lifts. Bend your knees then straighten one leg. Raise that leg straight up several times, then switch. This tones the neglected lower stomach.
These are some of the best abdominal exercises for obese people that don’t take long to do, but if you do them every day you’ll see a difference.
How Many Calories Do You Burn Daily
How to figure out how many calories you burn each day
Now that we realize that calories are an important component in any weight loss or even in maintaining a healthy weight it’s important to know how to calculate what you need in terms of caloric content each day in your diet. There are several ways to do this, one is figuring your BMR and activity level and using a formula. Another is just using charts and guidelines put out by the government or given to you by your doctor.
How many calories you need is a function of your body type, age, height, weight (or desired weight) activity level and gender. The BMR is a good indicator but it doesn’t take into consideration those who are super athletic and have a high muscle mass. But, if you don’t fit into that category likely you can do the BMR and activity level formula and come up with your caloric needs so that you can either lose weight to become your desired weight, or maintain your current weight.
The important thing is to be honest about your activity level, and realize that the numbers can be shocking. Most people eat far too many calories and if you’ve not gained a lot of weight yet, but you’re regularly ingesting too many calories, you will soon. We can be tempted to blame outside factors and health issues on weight gain but it’s really quite rare for most people. Unless you’re entering perimenopause, it’s likely you can lose weight just fine by sticking to a high nutrition, low calorie plan based on the BMR formulas. Of course, it’s important to get your overall health status confirmed by a doctor before embarking on any weight lose regime.
First write down your age, the weight you want to be,(lbs) and your height in inches. Now determine your activity level. If you don’t do any type of intentional exercise then you are considered to be sedentary or not active. If you walk at least 1.5 miles per day at a brisk pace, in addition to your job, this is considered to be moderately active. Be honest about your activity level and realize that if you’re not you’ll only have yourself to blame if you don’t reach your weight loss goals.
Now look at the BMR charts and equations on this page. Using the formula let’s figure the calorie requirements for a 5.5 inch woman who is 140 lbs and wishes to maintain that current weight. She is moderately active. From the charts we have the following formula.
BMR for women — BMR = (65.5 + (4.35 x weight in lbs) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years)) x 1.55 (activity quotient)
This woman, when figuring out the formula in its entirely, should eat no more than 1272 calories per day if she wishes to maintain her current weight. She can up her exercise levels, in order to increase her calorie intake, but for the most part, this is what she can eat each day to maintain her current weight.
To make it easier to stick to it is important to eat high water content and high fiber foods to stay full, get all the nutrients needed, and to not feel deprived.
Obesity Versus Overweight- What Is The Difference
Obesity versus overweight, what is the difference.
A lot of us are closer than we’d like to admit to being medically obese. You might think that you need to be 100 lbs or more overweight to be considered obese but actually someone can be obese and at risk for all the illnesses associated with obesity by just being 40 lbs over eight. Take a look at this BMI Chart:
Now let’s use an average height woman at 5 foot 5 inches as our guide. According to this chart a 5 foot 5 inch woman who is 140 lbs is within a normal BMI range, with a BMI of 23.3. So, how much weight does she have to gain to be 30.0 or above? Surprisingly, only 40 lbs.! At 180 lbs, the 5 foot 5 inch female, will have a calculated BMI of 30.0. That’s quite scary when you think about it.
There are different classes of obesity, with the morbidly obese woman having a BMI of 40 or greater. So, how much weight does our 5 foot 5 inch woman need to gain to become morbidly obese? She’d have to weigh 247 lbs to be classified as morbidly obese. However, even before she gets to that level she’s in danger of many illnesses associated with obesity such as heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. Once a woman gets to the level of morbid obesity she likely has one or more conditions present and unfortunately, without drastic intervention most morbidly obese people don’t lose weight and keep it off.
This is not to say they cannot, it’s just to say that statistically, it’s unlikely. But, the fact is if you remain morbidly obese you’re not going to live a long and happy life. You will die early from a whole range of painful and deadly diseases. While statistics put the obese person as unlikely to lose weight and keep it off, the truth is, you can stick to a diet that considers your nutritional needs, caloric needs, and mobility so that you can give yourself a chance at a long, healthy, and happy life.
You don’t have to resort to surgery, although for some this may be an answer, though a dangerous one. Sticking to a whole food diet, rich in veggies and fruits, and low in processed GMO (genetically modified organisms), low in processed foods, will improve your health and lead to a slow and healthy weight loss.
However, it has to be an entire lifestyle change, and not just a diet that has a finish line.
There is no weight loss race in spite of the diet industry and reality TV’s portrayal of weight loss.
The best way to permanent weight loss is through a permanent change in what you eat. Even if you do resort to surgery, the truth is, you’ll be also making a huge change in what you eat, if you made those same changes without surgery the result would be the same. Weight loss.