A Trainer Answers Once and For All If Cycling Actually Burns Belly Fat
https://ift.tt/2LvNA3A On the quest to burn belly fat, you may have tried all the tricks of the trade: loading up on belly-fat-fighting foods and beverages, ditching processed junk, and incorporating core-strengthening exercises. And while this is all well and good, what if some of your favorite cardio exercises could also help you lose fat around your midsection? As someone who is obsessed with indoor cycling classes, I was curious if my favorite workout could help me burn my stubborn belly fat. Unfortunately, you can't exactly spot-target fat loss. You can lose body fat overall, and it's up to your genes to decide where this fat comes from. Luckily, cycling can help you burn fat. "Cycling is one of the best exercises to burn body fat," dietitian and personal trainer Jim White, RD, ACSM, the owner of Jim White Fitness and Nutrition Studios, told POPSUGAR. However, he recommends taking a LISS (lower-intensity steady state) approach to cycling instead of a HIIT (high-intensity interval training) approach. "Cycling requires a steady pace to cycle for a more elongated period," Jim said. "HIIT uses an extensive amount of energy in a short amount of time. Thus, cycling with a moderate amount of energy will allow you to go longer and burn more calories than if you wore your body out quickly performing a HIIT workout." So being able to ride for longer will inevitably mean you are burning more calories. If you are riding outside, this could translate into lasting an hour or two longer on the bike than normal. But for indoor cycling, HIIT may be an effective way to ride since you are only on the bike for 45 minutes to an hour. Since many indoor cycling studios focus on HIIT-style rides, you will end up burning more calories in that short time than you would during a LISS ride. In fact, both moderate-intensity and high-intensity interval training are equally effective at burning body fat. A 2017 study found that MICT (moderate-intensity continuous training) had the same fat-reducing results for obese young women after a 12-week trial. Both groups had "successfully produced significant reductions in the fat mass of the whole body," according to the study. Bottom line: cycling will help you burn fat, but not necessarily belly fat; that all depends on your body. "Cycling burns many calories overall, which will help burn fat, but it does not work specifically with burning belly fat alone," Jim said. Health via POPSUGAR Fitness https://ift.tt/2mWxwLI July 29, 2018 at 11:38AM
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Kick Your Workouts Into High Gear With This 20-Minute Full-Body Blast
https://ift.tt/2Oq2ZjG Get ready to burn major calories in this quick 20-minute sweat sesh. Victoria Sport Ambassador Lindsey Harrod leads this full-body workout that hits every muscle from multiple angles. By working in multiple planes of movement - front to back, side to side, and twisting - you will keep your entire body guessing to burn maximum fat. Oh! And there are cardio moves thrown in, jumping included, to keep your heart rate up to torch calories. Best of all, this workout requires no equipment. You can do it anywhere. Press play and get at it. To shop the looks in the video, visit Victoria Sport. Health via POPSUGAR Fitness https://ift.tt/2mWxwLI July 29, 2018 at 11:18AM
Beat the Heat With These Low-Impact Workout Options
https://ift.tt/2LNhxLR Summertime can be glorious: the sun, the call of the great outdoors, long days, and warm nights. But it can also mean blazing-hot temperatures, humidity, and clouds of gnats and mosquitoes that make working out a challenge. One of the best ways to make sure you survive your Summer workouts is to choose a low-impact version of your favorite format. Instead of running, try walking, or find a low-impact cardio routine you can do indoors or in the shade. You can also switch things up with a pool workout or even some poolside yoga. Read on for more ideas for your Summer fitness journey. Health via POPSUGAR Fitness https://ift.tt/2mWxwLI July 29, 2018 at 09:59AM
How Brianna Lost 100 Pounds in 1 Year and Still Ate 8 Times a Day
https://ift.tt/2LQRW4R After gaining 70 pounds during her pregnancy, Brianna Bernard's goal was to lose the baby weight, but she ended up losing way more! Find out how this 32-year-old mom lost 107 pounds in just one year, which inspired her to become a personal trainer and nutrition coach so she could help others become healthy and strong. If you're a mom with baby weight to lose, Brianna's story will motivate you to make healthy habits not only for yourself, but also as an example for your family. Health via POPSUGAR Fitness https://ift.tt/2mWxwLI July 29, 2018 at 05:39AM
Cheese-Lovers, Here's All the Dairy You Can Eat on the Keto Diet
https://ift.tt/2uVDfDS Over the last year, the keto diet has skyrocketed in popularity, probably for one very distinct reason: it encourages you to eat fatty foods. The only major caveat is that you have to keep your carb intake low. Offsetting this often-difficult task, however, is the keto diet's allowance of another beloved food group: dairy. Most cheeses are low in carbs, making them perfectly acceptable for the keto meal plan. The same goes for fatty dairy foods like butter and heavy cream, which almost seems too good to be true. A diet that gives you the thumbs-up when you eat butter? It's not hard to see how it caught on and spread like wildfire. Although you won't be able to enjoy the glorious combination that is cheese and bread (bye-bye, buttered toast and bagels with cream cheese) if you've gone keto, you'll still be able to indulge in plenty of decadent recipes. Click through to see which dairy products you can eat on the keto diet, along with some keto-friendly recipe ideas. Health via POPSUGAR Fitness https://ift.tt/2mWxwLI July 29, 2018 at 04:19AM
This Celebrity Trainer Shares His Go-To Moves For Carving Out a 6-Pack
https://ift.tt/2OmpzcV A six-pack may seem impossibly unattainable, but we promise you can get there with the right tips in your back pocket. As for how long it takes to see results, the answer really varies from person to person. It all depends on your body type and how much dedication you're willing to put in. According to celebrity trainer and BodyArmor spokesperson Don-A-Matrix, whose clientele includes stars like the Kardashians and Fergie, some may see changes in as little as a month, whereas others may need to stick to a strict regimen of diet and exercise for six months. Unfortunately, there isn't a single timeline that applies to everyone. Personal trainer Lauren Clare always tells her clients that "abs are made in the kitchen." When it comes to decreasing body fat in your midsection, eating clean, whole foods and training regularly will help you make progress. Additionally, Lauren suggests working your abs in all directions, including flexion, extension, and core rotation. Here are three moves that Don likes to incorporate into his ab workouts:
Health via POPSUGAR Fitness https://ift.tt/2mWxwLI July 28, 2018 at 11:42AM
I'm Not Shredding For My Wedding, But I Am Finally Getting Healthy
https://ift.tt/2vczhpy Let me be clear: getting engaged made me want to get healthy - not skinny - both in my diet and in my lifestyle. It's not really about the big day for me, or about how I might look in the pictures (though I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to look my best). I don't want to look like someone I won't recognize when I look at my wedding day pictures years later. But getting engaged was a nice overdue wake-up call. There was no longer any denying my status as an adult. At the time of my engagement last year, I was thin and active, but I wasn't healthy, and I decided it was finally time that I changed that. After years of struggling with disordered eating, this change to conscious and nutritious eating has completely changed my outlook on my body. My relationship had been heading towards engagement for a while, but having a ring on my finger has compelled me to think about the future in ways I had previously cast aside, believing those thoughts could be to be dealt with later. "Later" is no longer in the distant future. I will have a wedding, and in the years that follow, I want to become a mother. It was those things that were top of mind when I started to reevaluate my daily choices: not squeezing into the tiniest dress I could find, but being a strong and healthy woman and mother. Up until this year, dieting for me has always meant restricting. I thought it meant eating less and carefully counting calories. I thought it meant choosing the granola bar that has 100 calories rather than the one that has 200, and drinking Slim Fast instead of most meals. And yes, in the most basic sense, that is what dieting is. Rather than focusing on losing weight, which is not something I want anyway, my focus this year has turned to nutrition. I initially started tracking my macros, entering my daily intake of protein, carbohydrates, and fat into an app, but keeping tabs on every little thing I consume is triggering for me. I did it long enough that now I can balance my diet between the three without actually keeping track. My fiancé and I have also started making meals. Rather than the dry chicken and broccoli with quinoa we started making soon after the engagement, we now order meal kits each week and make elaborate dinners together. My plates have become more colorful than I could have ever imagined back in college, where I subsisted on a steady diet of chicken fingers. Creating these meals together is usually my favorite part of my day, and it's something that brings me real joy. That's the other part of my health that I've focused on in the months leading up to my wedding day: my mental health. After years of struggling with disordered eating, this change to conscious and nutritious eating has completely changed my outlook on my body. I want to raise kids who appreciate and love their bodies rather than abuse them, and I can only instill those qualities in my children if I embody those qualities myself. I may have looked like someone who took good care of herself when I got engaged last Summer, but on my wedding day (and in the years that follow), I will now actually be someone who takes good care of herself, both inside and out. Health via POPSUGAR Fitness https://ift.tt/2mWxwLI July 28, 2018 at 11:42AM
I Lost Weight and Boosted My Sex Drive - All by Getting an IUD
https://ift.tt/2OopcPe I woke up on the morning of my 13th birthday with a surprise gift from Mother Nature: my first period. Ever since that fateful seventh-grade year of gangly limbs, training bras, pimples, and braces, I've been on a hormonal roller coaster. One week out of every month brought on waves of cramps strong enough to keep me in bed, nausea and digestive issues, the token monthly breakouts, and mood swings to end all mood swings. My flows were so heavy, I would become lightheaded and extremely fatigued, and I went through super tampons with backup pads on a near-hourly basis. I went on birth control at age 15 to help ease the pain. After being diagnosed with PCOS a few years later, I learned many of my horrid PMS symptoms could be attributed to the extreme hormonal imbalances taking place in my body. I tried nearly every birth control pill out there in an attempt to regulate my cycle, clear my skin, and calm my symptoms, to no avail. After my sister mentioned she got an IUD, I decided to ask my doctor about doing the same. A year and a half ago I got the Mirena IUD, and I haven't looked back since. I will be honest: IUD insertion is less than comfortable. I experienced cramping for about a week after, but once the cramps subsided, I never noticed them come back that fiercely again. I can't feel my Mirena, except when I reach for the strings to check placement each month, so I hardly know it's there. Pound by pound, the extra puffiness I'd gained around my middle from PCOS seemed to melt away. At first, I continued to get my period monthly, with only two days of breakthrough bleeding in my first three months. As time went on, my flow became lighter and lighter until it stopped all together. Saving money on tampons is now one of the many perks of my IUD, especially when I was used to cycling through a super tampon nearly every hour. But the biggest benefit of switching to Mirena? I lost weight. Yup - pound by pound, the extra puffiness I'd gained around my middle from PCOS seemed to melt away, and my sweet cravings all but disappeared. This feel-good benefit carried into the next few months, and I eventually adopted the Whole 30 diet and discovered a new way of eating more in line with what my body needs. The IUD isn't perfect, and everybody is different, so what worked for me may not work for you. I still get some PMS symptoms, and I can anticipate my cycle (even sans bleeding!) like clockwork. I know when to expect my mood changes, my one token monthly zit, and minor bloating. But I no longer experience the loss of sex drive or extreme crankiness I once attributed to my cycle (my partner is more than stoked).
Related:
Getting My IUD Was the Most Painful Thing I've Ever Experienced - I'd Do It Again in a Heartbeat
I finally feel like I am more in control of my cycle. No longer am I a slave to the birth control pill alarm on my phone, stopping by the pharmacy every month, and freaking out if I accidentally skip a pill, forget to bring it on vacation with me, or - gasp - drop one of those microscopic suckers into the great abyss that is my fluffy carpet. The IUD suits my lifestyle, PCOS, and lack of desire for children in the near future. For me, anything that helps lighten the load of an awful period is worth celebrating. Health via POPSUGAR Fitness https://ift.tt/2mWxwLI July 28, 2018 at 11:39AM
I Counted Macros For 1 Month and Here's Why I'll Never Do It Again
https://ift.tt/2v1zv3N Has anybody else seen those Instagram accounts with fit people showing of their amazing desserts and delicious meals that actually look really unhealthy, yet their bodies are super ripped? Yeah, I never understood how somebody could be eating ice cream, sugary cereals, and pizza yet maintain such a low body fat percentage. So what did I do? I decided to try it out. I gave myself one month to do exactly what these fitness influencers were doing: set my macros using IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros). It's a completely free macro calculator that tailors a program unique to you. Macronutrients, or macros for short, are basically the major nutrients our food is made up of. So that's carbs, protein, and fats. Based on my height, current weight, and goals, IIFYM gave me a strict limit in grams of carbs, proteins, and fats that I was allowed every day. According to my activity level, my body burns around 2,400 calories a day, which I'm still finding very hard to believe. IIFYM calculated my macros to lose weight and the results were in. I could have 106 grams of protein, 55 grams of fat, and 276 grams of carbs for a total of around 2,000 calories. Essentially, I'd be losing a pound a week. My first thought was wow, I can make anything fit into this. I could treat myself every night to something sweet as long as I left enough fats and carbs by the end of the day. I was so excited because I was thinking, for once, this is not like any other diet. It's not telling me what to eat and what not to eat. But those positive thoughts changed really fast. IIFYM ExplainedIIFYM creators believe it to be the easiest and most sustainable eating plan to follow. Many people choose to do IIFYM because it can restore healthy eating habits by allowing you to eat whatever your heart desires as long as you keep a close eye on how much you're exactly eating. IIFYM even allows you to calculate your total daily calorie expenditure and customize it depending on if you want to lose weight or gain muscle. It takes into account your height, weight, and weight goal and customizes a nutrition plan for you. IIFYM is not a diet; it's considered freedom from a diet. All you have to do is set up a tracking app and log in everything you eat throughout the day to make sure you hit the macro numbers it calculated for you. Here's What I LikedI loved the food freedom. I like how I wasn't restricted to certain food groups. I didn't have to cut out carbs and sugar if I didn't want to. I could have cereal for breakfast instead of my usual eggs. Eating and cooking were no longer boring when it came to IIFYM. As long as I planned out my day accordingly, I could eat exactly what I was craving that day and I no longer felt deprived. Another amazing part of IIFYM is you can even track when you're out and about. Although it is a bit harder than eating at home, the MyFitnessPal app can find restaurants near your location with the nutrition of tons of dishes you can order. This made eating out less stressful, making this non-diet a lot more flexible. Another huge advantage with IIFYM is that I began to understood more about the foods I was eating. I understood portion sizes a whole lot better and learned which foods were higher or lower in protein, fats, and carbs. For example, I never noticed just how much sugar one serving of cereal had. I also wasn't aware of how much protein I was eating every day. I had just assumed that if I was eating protein with every meal, I'd hit my goal; but when I just started tracking, I found I was far below my daily goal. IIFYM allowed me to preplan my meals to make sure I hit those macros on the dot. And Here's What I Didn't LikeI ate a lot more than I normally would eat. Maybe this is a good thing for some who are trying to gain weight or struggle with appetite. But I found myself eating when I wasn't all that hungry because I still had macro counts to fill. If, after my last meal of the day, I found I hadn't hit my protein requirement, I'd force myself to eat something else. While following IIFYM, I did not listen to my body. I no longer ate when I was hungry or stopped when I was full. My eating was completely controlled by whether I had hit my count or not. Even though it's called flexible dieting, it started to not feel all that flexible. If I had too many fats at breakfast and lunch, I was limited to carbs and protein for dinner. If I went over my count for any macros, I'd feel like my nutrition wasn't on point for the day and I failed. Because I could eat what I want, I found myself having more sweets than usual. It's not because I was craving dessert, but just because I knew I could have it. And even though it fit my macros, I didn't feel good eating all that sugar. The worst part of IIFYM was I stopped listening to my body. If I were to count macros again, I'd tailor a plan myself because 2,000 calories a day led to weight gain for me, not weight loss. The Final VerdictWhile I won't continue IIFYM, I am not completely against it. It really taught me to eat enough protein to help build muscle. If you don't know much about nutrition or portion size, tracking your food can really help so you understand exactly what you're eating. Once you get the hang of it, you no longer need to track every single meal. You'll be able to understand your body more, what it needs, and the foods that it thrives on. Some of us need more carbs than fat and some of us are the opposite. From now on, I'll be intuitively eating because that allows you to listen to your body, which can never guide you in the wrong direction. Health via POPSUGAR Fitness https://ift.tt/2mWxwLI July 27, 2018 at 08:18PM
4 Signs Your Chronic Stress Is Actually a Symptom of Adrenal Fatigue
https://ift.tt/2vamrZ2 There's a good chance you've never heard the words "adrenal fatigue" until just now, but it's probably not the first time you've dealt with serious stress. Carolyn Mein and Merethe Najjar at YourTango explain how chronic stress may actually be due to our body's overactive flight-or-fight response. Tired of feeling burned out? Adrenal fatigue symptoms can look a lot like the signs of chronic stress. So how can you tell the difference, and what is adrenal fatigue exactly? Adrenal fatigue is a stress-related condition where your adrenal glands - the ones that control your "fight or flight" response - never shut off, and as a result, your body feels drained from the chronic stress it's experiencing. According to Dr. Carolyn Mein, adrenal fatigue is very common. Our brains, which developed over millennia of fighting battles and working hard to survive in the wilderness, are completely lost when it comes to dealing with the stressors of our modern-day lives, so our "fight or flight" response is triggered constantly. What's amazing is that this primal instinct still works as well today as it did thousands of years ago. But the problem is your animalistic brain doesn't understand the difference between getting chased down by tigers and having to finish that big project for your business meeting with the boss on Friday. So whether you've just choked on the microphone in a room full of people or have someone threatening you, your brain gives your adrenal glands the exact same order: Save me! The resulting panic that can flood your system over a minor issue in your personal life feels exactly the same to your brain as the impending doom of an attack. This back-and-forth of stress hormones can send your adrenal glands into high gear, constantly readying you for the next big life or death situation - and resulting in chronic stress. But over time, this response can essentially burn itself out and leave you in the "on" position, since your brain doesn't know the difference between when it should be in high-adrenaline fear mode or the fact that you got embarrassed in a crowd of people. And since adrenal glands are some of the strongest in the body, says Dr. Mein, they begin draining energy from other parts of your body when they're overworked. This is what leaves you feeling constantly stressed and exhausted. Here are four signs that your chronic stress and exhaustion might actually be symptoms of adrenal fatigue: 1. You can't fall asleep, even though you're exhausted.Even though you're tired literally all. the. time, you find it difficult to fall asleep (and stay asleep!). Whether it's racing thoughts or your body feels wired with adrenaline, you simply can't unwind enough to go to bed and get the rest your body desperately needs. 2. Your immune system is down.Does it seem like you're always battling a cold or your lymph nodes are swollen? All of this emotional and mental fatigue, plus a lack of sleep, can wreak havoc on your immune system, making it easier for you to get sick. 3. You crave salty foods.Your adrenal glands produce a steroid called aldosterone, and aldosterone's job is to help regulate your body's sodium levels. So if you crave salty foods often, it could be a sign your sodium is low as a result of adrenal fatigue. 4. You shut down when you're overwhelmed.If your stress and exhaustion levels are through the roof constantly, at some point, your mind and body may have had enough. As a result, you might simply shut down when you have to deal with any stress at all and become detached or non-reactive. Stress is a constant in life, but if your chronic stress is causing symptoms of adrenal fatigue, it's time to take action. How your body reacts to and deals with adrenal fatigue depends on your personal body "type," says Dr. Mein, and so what works for one person's body type may not specifically work for the others (there are 25 body types total). Dr. Carolyn L. Mein is a chiropractic physician with an active practice in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. She works with people to develop healthy eating based on their body types as well as to help them overcome obstacles that are keeping them from attaining lasting love and happiness. You can contact her here for further information. Check out more great stories from YourTango:
Health via POPSUGAR Fitness https://ift.tt/2mWxwLI July 27, 2018 at 06:19PM |
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