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Eat Fat to Burn Fat
by Jesse Cannone
http://www.guaranteed-weightloss.com/
For about 50 years now, Americans have been eating low
fat (some no fat) diets and the funny thing is we have
gotten progressively fatter and less healthy. Who ever
said low fat diets were healthy, and more importantly,
why does eating less fat mean you'll be less fat?
In attempt to keep this easy to understand, as most of what
you read and hear is complicated, confusing, and
contradictory, I'm going to be direct, to the point, and
explain things in a way that most people can understand.
Where to start??? Well, I've done some research on this and
have found very little science to back up the claims that
eating less fat will keep you trim. I have also found many
examples that totally dismiss this idea. For example, the
French eat significantly more fat than we do here in the US
while there obesity AND disease and illness rates are quite
a bit lower.
Another example is the Alaskan Eskimos. They consume as
much as 70% of their calories from fat (whale blubber and
fish) and they have one of the lowest rates of heart
disease in the world ~ until they come to the US and eat
like us!
Before I cover other examples I'd like to talk about some
the reasons why the "low fat diet" is not only making us
fatter, but also killing people faster than you can
imagine!
Does that shock you? If so, do I have news for you!
Ok... here are just a few reasons:
Eating less fat means you have to eat more protein or carbs
and most people end up eating more carbs (and the wrong
type!)
Dietary fat is very slow burning in the body so when you
replace the fat with faster burning carbs you tend to feel
less energetic, risk burning muscle tissue, and wreak havoc
on your metabolism and hormones because your energy levels
(blood sugar) are like a roller coaster.
Dietary fats supply some of the best, and most stable
sources of energy. So if you want to feel good all day
long, you need to make sure you are getting enough fats,
and the right types. I'll touch on which types to avoid and
which to include in your diet later in this article.
The human body needs fat just to function properly, let
alone optimal health.
Certain amounts of fat are necessary for proper hormone
production. If hormone production is off so will your
metabolism be. Hormones regulate many things in the body
including your ability to build and maintain muscle tissue,
which is responsible for a large portion of your energy
expenditure. In simple terms, muscle burns calories 24
hours a day and if you eat a low fat or no fat diet you
will have a hard time building and maintaining muscle.
Here are some facts:
obesity increased from 14% of the American population in
1960 to over 22% by 1980
the Harvard Nurse's Health Study which ran well over 10
years found that not only did low fat diets not decrease
the risk of heart disease but also that saturated fat
wasn't so bad after all, and that too little was just as
harmful
To read more of the facts about dietary fat and health
check out these great resources:
http://www.gunnarlindgren.com/nutritionx.pdf
http://health.discovery.com/diseasesandcond/encyclopedia/1898.html
http://www.drlam.com/A3R_brief_in_doc_format/2002-No3-FatandCholesterol.cfm
So to sum things up...
If you want to lose weight and be healthy - DON'T eat a low-
fat diet! You would have to be absolutely insane to after
learning the truth about dietary fats. If you have doubts
or questions please do some research and you will be amazed
at what you will find out. In the meantime, go eat some
healthy fats!
Jesse Cannone is a certified personal trainer and author of
the best-selling fitness ebook, Burn Fat FAST. Be sure to
sign up for his free email course as it is full of powerful
weight loss and fitness tips that are guaranteed to help
you get the results you want. http://www.guaranteed-weightloss.com
Introduction to Physical Fitness
For years everyone has known that regular exercise along with good
nutrition is good for their health. The trick is how to build sound
exercise habits and a balanced diet into your busy schedule. The stress of
modern times mandates that you develop and maintain a fit, trim and fully
functioning body. Being active and physically fit heightens your
self-expression and self-esteem.
Research polls indicate that people today are becoming more health
centered. As a result, people are becoming more interested in making
fitness exercise an integral part of their life-style. This article will
introduce you to the why of fitness. You will learn all about exercise and
it's benefits and will also learn how to structure a personal exercise
program that is safe, reasonable, effective, and, most important,
rewarding and fun.
Give some thought to the following statements:
* In the past, health meant only absence of disease. Today we have a much
broader perspective and consider physical fitness to be a key component of
total health.
* The modern life-style fosters unfitness because technological advances
have eliminated much fitness producing physical exertion from everyday
activities.
* Everyday activities, even for the laborer, no longer adequately
stimulate the heart, lungs, and muscles to produce physiological benefits.
* Society, especially the corporate world, is beginning to realize the
importance of health promotion and the role of exercise in developing and
maintaining good health habits.
* Being physically fit means living at your fullest physical potential.
Physical fitness is the capability of the heart, blood vessels, lungs, and
muscles to function at optimal efficiency. It provides a basis for living
a full and rewarding life style.
* The basic health components of physical fitness are cardio-respiratory
endurance, strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body
composition.
* To be physically fit does take effort (yes, some sweat, too!), but
exercise does not have to be punishing to help you develop and maintain
physical fitness.
* Regular and vigorous exercise of the total body is a necessary
ingredient of muscular and circulatory fitness - the key to good health
and well being.
Why Physical Fitness?
Although the most opportune time for developing lifelong fitness habits is
in the childhood years, it is in the late teens and early twenties that
men and women develop a fitness consciousness. At this stage in life you
have reached physical maturity; your body is at its natural peak of
physiological efficiency and health. However, observe friends in their
late twenties and early thirties. In many of them this natural fitness has
begun to disappear. Lack of exercise is beginning to show its effect. An
increase of body fatness, a loss of muscle tone, and a lessened breathing
capacity are some of the obvious signs of physiological deterioration.
These middle-aged characteristics begin to reveal themselves in many
Americans in their mid to late twenties. Unfortunately, our bodies are not
programmed to stand the stress of sitting or of being inactive.
Our modern life-style fosters unfitness. Many technological advances are
intended to eliminate physical exertion from everyday activities. The
automobile and television are key contributors to our sedentary lifestyle,
and we have become accustomed to other automated energy savers: elevators,
riding lawn mowers, motorized golf carts, snow blowers and various remote
control devices. The eighties brought us the home computer. Such advances
enable us to carry out our everyday chores more easily. Microcomputers not
only enable us to keep our home or business records in order but also
provide hours of enjoyable play with computer games of many kinds. Or just
surfing and chatting. However, the rapid repetitive movements required in
manipulating the controls and/or keyboard does little for physical
fitness.
Overeating, addiction and laziness are other detrimental characteristics
of a sedentary life-style. At the same time, we live in a competitive
society characterized by pressing domestic problems, business obligations
and deadline tensions. All of these have an impact on the physiological
systems of the body and appear to affect our state of health. Your
emotions, nerves, glands, and mental state along with your heart, lungs,
and muscles are all fused into a complex, wonderful organism - your body.
Thus, there is a dire need, more than at any time in the history of
humankind, to seek out stimulating exercise that will offset the perils of
modern living. In fact, working out regularly to maintain a high level of
fitness enables you to enjoy the privilege of all our modern gadgets and
our computers.
Many men and women feel that their daily work provides them with enough
exercise for fitness. Running up and down stairs or standing all day at a
job seems to be physical exertion. It is exertion, of course, but such
limited activities do not use the lungs fully or provide adequate
stimulation for the heart to produce a training effect. If normal, day to
day activities leave you fatigued at the end of the day, then you need the
increased energy and vitality that comes from regular physical exertion.
You must use energy to gain energy. In other words, regular stimulation of
the total body through vigorous exercise produces increased strength and
endurance, characteristics associated with good health. These attributes
cannot be acquired from sitting at a desk all day, watching sports on
television, riding elevators, or snacking.
Now that inactivity has been recognized as a threat to physiological well
being, some authorities have suggested that exercise may be the cheapest
preventative medicine in the world. Researchers in medicine, nutrition,
psychology, physiology, and physical education agree that exercise,
properly performed, is necessary for maintaining functional physical
fitness. No responsible health educator will ever suggest that exercise is
a panacea. But it is clear that, just as we need food, rest and sleep, we
need daily exercise for the maintenance of our physical capacities.
Physical fitness is not an end in itself but a means to an end. It
provides the basis for optimal physiological health and gives us the
capacity to enjoy a full life.
WAY OF LIFE:
Detriments to Good Health
1. Inactivity
2. Improper nutrition
3. Smoking
4. Poor management of stress
5. Excessive use of alcohol
6. Drug abuse
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