10 Worst Eating Habits

March 4, 2010 by Perfect Shape
Filed under Diets, Food, Health

Have you ever wondered if there are any rules that apply almost every time when you are trying to lose weight, improve your health or have a healthier lifestyle in general!?! If so, the below information will be extremely useful for you as we managed to conclude which are the 10 worst eating habits.

1. Not Eating Nutritiously or Variously Enough

A well balanced diet, with meals and snacks rich in nutrients is essential for your health. Nowadays people seem to be too busy to take care of their own diet. This phenomenon has led to the increased demand for pre-prepared or semi-prepared food which is low in nutritious value, thus leading people to supplements. Prevention is always better than treatment, so instead of wasting your money on supplements, it would be better to just take your time and make yourself a well balanced and nutritious diet.

2. Skipping Breakfast

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Most people, however, don’t have time for it and just grab a sugary snack which calms their appetite. Sugar does make the hunger go away, but it only lasts for about one or two hours and it doesn’t help in terms of nutrition…not mentioning the weight gain. Make time to eat a consistent breakfast and you’ll start your days much better and you will improve your health.

3. Fast-food

Fast-food products have a high content of sodium and a lot of calories from saturated fats. Such products lack a lot of nutritious elements and, therefore, relaying too much on them might cause vitamins and minerals deficiency. Sure, fast-food is not poison and it’s not a crime to indulge yourself once in a while, but be careful not to make a habit out of it.

4. Eating Late in the Night

eating night
It’s not a good idea to dine right before going to bed. During sleep, the stomach reduces its activity, thus taking longer to digest food. Also, calories have a higher chance of turning into fat due to body’s inactivity. This is also why you should avoid snacks after dinner.

5. Lack of Exercises

Exercise is vital for a healthy body. It increases metabolism and burns the food we eat as energy. You don’t have to exercise just for the sake of it. If you enjoy activities like: running, soccer, basketball, dancing, tennis, bike riding, skating, or even taking a walk in the park, stick to them and your body will have a lot of benefits and you will fell much better.

6. Relaying on External Stimulants When Eating

Surveys have shown that US citizens stop eating when they have a clean plate, while some Europeans relay on their internal stimulants (like feeling full) to stop eating. Furthermore, the serving sizes differ greatly from country to country thus bringing a possible explanation as to why some nations are more exposed to obesity than others. It’s simple to solve this problem: just listen to your body and stop eating when you feel full, even if you’re at the restaurant or fast food, you don’t have to eat everything on your plate.

7. Using Food To Calm Down

Often, when we’re sad, impatient or bored, we relay on food to calm us down. But this never really help dealing with the cause of the emotional problems, so experts advise us to recognize when we’re really hungry or at least to pick up a healthy snack.

8. Excessive Snacking

Most people turn to snacks to get them through a stressful day at work. This doesn’t necessarily have to be unhealthy as long as you choose healthy snacks and you don’t exaggerate.

9. Eating in Front of the TV or Computer

eat while watching tv

Studies have shown that watching TV often distracts you from what you’re eating and you’re likely to consume with about half more than what you really need to. Sure, indulging yourself with some popcorn in the company of your friends at the cinema or some chips on your horror movies marathon night is fine once in a while, but taking your meals in front of the TV is just an exaggeration. The TV doesn’t belong in the kitchen so just relax and just try to enjoy your meal.

10. Not Drinking Enough Water

Some people fail to see the importance of water for our body. Water is important for the brain and all other organs. It also reduces hunger and helps detoxify the body. It is recommended to drink about 2 liters of water a day, plus the water from fruits, vegetables or other food products we eat. Some drinks, like soda and coffee, deplete our water reservoir so it’s best to avoid them when thirsty.

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Tags: breakfast, burgers, chips, distraction when eating, drink water, eat in front of TV, eating habits, eating late, eating late at night, exercise, fast food, food to releave stress, food variety, habits to avoid, how to lose weight, nutritious, obesity, skip breakfast, snacks, stay healthy, stress, water

11 Tips for Running Outdoor During Winter

January 7, 2010 by Perfect Shape
Filed under Exercises, Food

Best 10 Methods of Boosting Your Immune System

November 1, 2008 by Perfect Shape
Filed under Health

2 Comments

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”

Hippocrates

The summer is long gone and now autumn is here. But, how do you see autumn!?! Autumn has its charm as this is the season when grapes are ready to be tasted and when leaves become more and more colored. However, autumn also has a certain „dark side”. In addition to the fact that a lot of us fall into a strange depressive mood (mainly due to the bad weather conditions like rain, cold etc.), autumn bring the „flu season”.

Flu season is that part of the year in which there is a very high increase in flu cases. This season starts as soon as weather becomes colder. Flu is mainly caused by Influenzavirus A, Influenzavirus B or Influenzavirus C, which are also known as human flu virus strains. During the years, Influenza virus has suffered genetic changes in order to adapt to human hosts. This virus never goes away completely as it passes from person to person.

For those of you that think that this is not really a big problem, I would like to say that flu season, in the U.S. for example, results in more than 200,000 hospitalizations and approximately 35,000 – 40,000 deaths each year. In addition, this season is also responsible for a total expense of more than 10 billion dollars in the U.S. As you can see, this is indeed a serious problem and everyone should consider it as such.

But how can this be explained? What really triggers this flu season to occur? This might be explained by reasons like:

Cold temperatures

viruses resist more on exposed surfaces

easily transmitted

Probably a lot of you are now thinking of how we can defend against this virus. Well, here the immune system plays a very important role. The immune system comprises multiple mechanisms within an organism that protects against diseases by identifying and destroying pathogens, tumor cells etc. The immune system is able to distinguish pathogen agents from healthy cells and tissues.

In order to reduce the risk of infection, we have to make sure that our immune system in functioning at full capacity. For this reason I tried to find the BEST WAYS OF BOOSTING THE IMMUNE SYSTEM. Here is my selection:

1. Eat lots of vegetables and fruits

Because they are best source of vitamins and minerals for the human body. Of them, to help your immune system fight against infections, the best would be to include in your diet:

- Foods rich in vitamin C –

kiwi

strawberries

broccoli

- Eat red foods –

- Eat garlic –

- Eat more fibers –

- Drink natural juices (made of fruits and even vegetables) –

2. Eat yoghurt

Studies have shown that people who eat at least one yoghurt a day catch a cold more rarely than people who do not eat yoghurt often. This protection is provided by probiotics (friendly bacteria) in yoghurt (like bifidus or acidophilus). Probiotics means “for life” in Greek and refers to living organisms that provide health benefits when consumed in proper quantities.

3. Take nutritional supplements

If you consider that you do not assimilate sufficient vitamins and minerals through your daily diet, nutritional supplements are the solution for filling up the gap.

4. Echinacea

Taking Echinacea reduces the risk of infection. This plant leads to an increase of immune cells in the blood. Echinacea increases the ability of cells to destroy harmful bacteria and viruses and also activates body reactions meant to increase immune level. It is recommended to take it over limited periods of time with breaks in between.

5. Drink a lot of water

Water prevents infections by keeping respiratory tract mucus membranes moist and healthy. In addition, water helps the flow of lymph in our bodies ( the lymphatic system is responsible for waste disposal by breaking down toxins before passing them into the blood stream – a low intake of water will disturb the flow of lymph in our system, making the body less resistant to infections).

6. Do not take antibiotics too often

Antibiotics are effective against numerous infections. However, they must be used wisely in order to prevent them for causing more harm then good. Although this might sound strange, antibiotics won’t do a thing for viral infections such as flu… in other words, they can’t help you if a virus is responsible for your illness (like flu). Such products are used for treating many bacterial infections, fungal infections and some parasites. By using antibiotics in improper situations we risk to destroy friendly bacteria within our bodies. In addition, this might lead to developing antibiotic-resistant germs (some effects of antibiotic resistance are: illnesses last longer, the risk of developing complication increases, persons are contagious for longer periods and, therefore, are able to spread the resistant strains bacteria to others, treatments last longer and are more expensive).

7. Wash your hands more often

Especially in cold season, viruses are more resistant on exposed surfaces with which we enter in contact and, therefore, by washing hands more often we reduce the risk of infections. Some studies have been conducted concerning this matter and the results were that people who wash their hands at least 5 times per day reduce the risk of catching a cold or other infections by half.

8. Keep exercising but do not exaggerate

Exercising 30- 40 minutes a day, 3-5 times per week, can make our immune cells more active. Studies have shown that persons who do not exercise get sick more often than persons who do exercise. However, long exercise sessions can do just the opposite. In such long sessions, the level of stress hormones adrenalin (boosts the supply of oxygen and glucose to the brain and muscles) and cortisol (increases blood pressure and blood sugar) rises, leading to a suppress of the immune system activity.

9. Reduce stress level

Stress level has a direct connection with illnesses. Numerous studies have been conducted on this matter and proved that stressed people are more likely to become ill. We have to make sure that we keep stress to a minimum by taking time just to sit back and relax, watch a good movie, read a good book etc. It is good to know that laughter can counteract many of the effects of stress.

10. Get enough sleep

Sleeping less than 6-7 hours per night can increase the risk of catching a cold because during deep sleep your body increases the production of natural killer cells. Sleep deprivation weakens the immune system leaving us vulnerable to diseases (like flu). Also, sleep deprivation increases the level of stress which, again, weakens our immune system.

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Tags: antibiotics, boost immune system, drink water, eat fruits, eat vegetables, echinacea, exercise, flavonoids, flu, flu season, garlic, get enought sleep, Health, immune system, influenza virus, lycopene, medicine, nutritional supplements, prevent flu, stay healthy, stress, triggers of flu, vitamin C, wash hands, yoghurt

Top 4 Best Ways to Burn More Calories

May 20, 2007 by Perfect Shape
Filed under Calories

4 Comments

The name “calorie” derives from the Latin word “calor” which means HEAT. The calorie is generally used as an energy measurement unit and specifically for the amount of food energy.

There are 2 definitions related to calories:

The small calorie (gram calorie) – represents the energy needed to increase the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius (about 4.184 Joules). The symbol of this unit is “cal”.

The large calorie (kg calorie) – represents the energy needed to increase the temperature of 1 kg of water by 1 degree Celsius (about 4.184 Kj). The symbol of this unit is Kcal and is often referred to as a Calorie (with a capital “C”).

Burn more calories However, there are a lot of other definitions for calories. For example, the thermochemical calorie (4.184 joules exactly), which is almost the same thing as the small calorie, is used to define the power of TNT. The equivalent of one tone of TNT is 1 billion thermochemical calories.
In order to reduce body weight, dietitians recommend to reduce the intake of calories. So, in a lot of countries, producers of food products are obliged to label the nutritional value (including calories) of their products. The energy obtained from a certain food product is expressed in both Kilocalories (Kcal) and Kilojoules (Kj). In this way, everyone can calculate the daily intake of Kilocalories and can balance it with the needed quantity of Kilocalories for their life style.

In order to estimate the energy value of a product, the first step is to estimate product’s digestible constituents (fat, protein, carbohydrates, etc.). The result of this analysis is then converted into an equivalent energy value based on a standardized table of energy densities:

FOOD COMPONENT/Kcal/g

fat/9
ethanol (alcohol)/7
proteins/4
carbohydrates/4
organic acids/3
polyols (sugar-free sweeteners)/2.4

Vitamins, minerals and water do not contribute in any way to the energy value of food products.

The recommended daily energy intake values for young adults are: 2,500 Kcal per day for men and 2,000 Kcal per day for women. However, the lifestyle is very important when establishing the daily needed energy intake. Children and old people require less energy, while active persons require more energy than the recommended value.

It is very important to remember that the human fat tissue contains approximately 87% lipids. This means that 1 kg of body-fat tissue has the caloric energy of 870 g of pure fat, representing about 7,800 Kcal. So, in order to lose 1 kg of body fat, you have to create an energy deficit (consume more than assimilate) of 7,800 Kcal.

Still, this can work in the other way too. If your energy intake exceeds your energy use with 7,800 Kcal, you will gain 1 kg of body fat.

These approximates assume that there is no gain or lose in muscles (muscles are built using food energy too) and that there is a direct relationship between calories provided by food and calories stores in the body as fat.

So, in order to lose weight quicker you have to burn more calories. The best solution for this is to increase your metabolic rate.

The metabolic rate represents the rate at which your body burns up calories. There are multiple solutions for speeding up the metabolic rate. The most important thing is to know what solution is more effective for your body, what determinate your metabolic rate and how can you influence it.

Usually, the energy provided by burned calories is used for three main functions:

BASAL METABOLIC RATE (BMR) – represents the amount of calories a person burns in order to stay alive, even when standing still. BMR uses approximately 60% of the energy provided by calories burned for an average person.
BURNING CALORIES FOR ACTIVITY – represents the energy used during movement. This function uses approximately 30% of the amount of energy provided by burned calories.
DIETARY THERMOGENESIS – represents meal-induced heat production (calories burned in the process of eating, digesting, absorbing and using food).

These functions can be influenced in order to speed up your rate of burning calories. Some of the best solutions for this are:

Exercises
Move More
Eat Less and Often
Eat Spicy Food

1. Exercises

The muscles in the human body are very important when it comes to burning calories. It is known that for every extra pound of muscles you put on, your body will burn an extra quantity of 50 Kcal a day. Also, a lot of exercises boost basal metabolic rate, allowing your body to burn calories at a more accelerated rate (for example: regular weight lifting training can increase the basal metabolic rate by about 15%). The main explanation for this is that muscles are metabolically active and can burn more calories that any other tissue in the human body, even when standing still.

Generally speaking, there are 2 types of exercises:

Low intensity exercises
High intensity exercises

The low intensity exercises are usually of a long duration (45 minutes or more), burn mainly fats and not carbohydrates, preserve joints, etc.

The high intensity exercises are usually of a short duration (20 – 30 minutes the most), burn a lot of calories and increase the metabolic rate throughout the day, etc.

Referring to the effectiveness of exercises when it comes to burning calories, the main 10 most effective exercises are:

step aerobics
swimming
bicycling
rock climbing
racquetball
cross-country skiing
running
elliptical trainer
rowing
brisk walking

The upper mentioned 10 general exercises can help you burn from 150 to 400 Kcal in 30 minutes time. Still, there are other more effective exercises but of a much higher intensity, like:

sprinting
jumping rope

2. Move More

Burn more calories Most people burn around 30% of the calorie intake through daily activities. For sedentary people, this rate might drop to even 10%, leading to a considerable calorie surplus.

In order to maintain the usual rate of burning calories through daily activities, or even improve it, you have to keep moving. Small daily activities, that usually are not considered as a solution for weight loss, can help you a lot. You should make use of every opportunity to move, like:

Do not park your car at the entrance in the office building;
Swing your legs;
Stand up when your talking on the phone;
No elevators;
Stand up and stretch;
Release your muscles;

3. Eat Less and Often

There are proven evidence that eating smaller and regular meals will keep your metabolism going faster than larger and less frequent meals.

Burn more calories There are two main reasons why your metabolism rate is increased by small meals:
Hours after eating a meal, thyroid hormones begin to drop, slowing down metabolism. So, by eating more often, the thyroid hormones will remain active, maintaining your metabolism rate at a high level.

The thermogenic effect of eating smaller meals is slightly higher than eating the same amount of calories all at once. This means that calories are burned faster and better (the body has the ability and time to burn more calories) when eating little and often.

In order to help you estimate the daily intake of calories, here are some products that can provide 100 Kcal each:

6 egg whites;
1.8 oz if roasted chicken;
400 g of cooked spinach;
300 g of raw broccoli;
a 250 ml glass of milk;
22 g of say flour;
1.7 oz pf grilled beef;
37 g of haricot beans.

4. Eat Spicy Food

Not many people know that chilies are the second most common spices in the word, after salt. The heat of chilies and peppers is caused by a substance called CAPSAICIN, a flavorless and odorless substance.

Capsaicin has a lot of positive effects on the human body, like:

Lowers blood pressures;
Speeds up the metabolism;
Reduces cholesterol;
Pain control;
Treats fevers and colds;
Prevents heart attacks;
Prevents ulcers.

Some even believe that capsaicin can even help prevent cancer. Researchers say that capsaicin attacks mitochondria of cancer cells, triggering them death.

Referring to these aspects, Dr. Timothy Bates (a lead researcher in the field) stated: “as these compounds attach the very heart of the tumor cell, we believe that we have in effect discovered a fundamental ‘Achilles heel’ for all cancers”.

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Tags: benefits of chilies, best exercises to lose weight, burn calories, burn fat, Calories, capsaicin, exercise, fat, how to burn more calories, lose weight, prevent cancer, spicy food, stay fit, stay healthy