Menstuff® has compiled the following information on Losing
Weight.
Food for Thought: Feeling brain-dead? Eat
this when you need to get smart fast!
The New Science of Weight Loss
Perfect Meal Timing
20 Reasons to Drop 20 Pounds
1. Because you whine that you need to. Have you ever been wrong about anything?
2. Twenty pounds of warm human fat can refill every bottle in an empty case of beer, with enough left over to fill your blender.
3. The statement "There's more of me to love" has an actual bedroom translation of "There's more of me to endure."
4. It's not scaling Everest or writing the great American novel. You can do it in your spare time.
5. You'll speak of toaster pastries the way you talk about that dirty blonde from the blues bar in Berkeley, another whiskey-soaked lament over a love too great to last.
6. It's the difference between being thought of as jolly or witty.
7. You'll lose weight everywhere, including the suprapubic fat pad at the base of your penis. So as your belly shrinks, something else appears to grow.
8. Decreased: your chances of developing heart disease, prostate cancer, diabetes, sleep apnea, depression, back pain, impotence, gallstones, joint problems, high blood pressure, low sperm counts, and an impressive collection of prescription-drug bottles.
9. Increased: your chances of putting four fingers on a basketball rim.
10. You'll literally get closer to women.
11. Holy sh-- . . . abs!
12. Men who lose weight never have less sex. They may not have more, mind you, but they never have less.
13. You'll shock the world at your local pool by being the only "big splash" champ to win the "little splash" crown.
14. Research shows that since you'll have less weight propelling you into the windshield, you'll also have less risk of dying when your car hits a semi.
15. Every time you pick up a 20-pound dumbbell, you'll remember.
16. You'll be able to reach even more places to scratch.
17. The clothing cliche: It's liberating the first time your pants fall down by themselves.
18. More pullups, because there's less to pull up.
19. Wait till you ride a WaveRunner, quad, or snowmobile when you're 20 pounds lighter. Vroom, baby.
20. In our society, people respect weight loss. Even if you do nothing cool or interesting or memorable for the rest of your life, you'll have done that.
The New Science of Weight Loss
If there's a god of weight loss, he's probably laughing.
For the past 40 years, virtually every weight-loss model has been based on the same principles, and virtually all of them have been wrong. The experts intoned, "Eat less, exercise more." They said that weight loss is all about "calories in, calories out." They informed us that a pound of fat contained roughly 3,500 calories, so if you simply deleted 500 calories from your daily meals or increased your daily exercise by 500 calories, or some combination thereof, you'd lose a pound of fat a week. And if you wanted to lose 2 pounds a week, you just had to double your savings to 1,000 calories a day.
Which is exactly how an anorexic would approach the problem: Starve and strain until you get that perfect, fat-free body, regardless of the muscle you lose or the damage you inflict on your metabolism. And if Lara Flynn Boyle has the body you want, go right ahead and try it.
For the benefit of the rest of you, I want to make two arguments, supported by the latest nutrition and exercise science. That science points toward a new, improved approach to weight loss. First, I want to show that when you eat has a profound effect on how your body deals with the calories you feed it. And I want to present a more sophisticated approach to exercise. This approach not only preserves your body's metabolism, the key to weight control, but also makes more productive use of your precious time and energy.
Grab a bite to eat, then chew on this.
10 lb of Fat
According to a Gallup poll, the average man believes he's overweight by the equivalent of this pile of lard. He's right, and it's likely gathering around his gut. Sure, he can easily hide it under a sweater, but abdominal fat is the worst kind, surreptitiously releasing fatty acids and other toxic substances that increase your risk of disease. Make that 39 diseases. Maybe you ought to nip this in the bud, huh?
Energy Balance is the Key to Weight Control
If you want to understand energy balance in an instant, think of your body as a car that operates 24 hours a day, says Dan Benardot, Ph.D., R.D., a nutrition researcher at Georgia State University in Atlanta. You would never expect your car to get you from one place to the next without systematic refueling, just as you know there's no point in putting more gas in the tank than it's designed to hold. But that's how many of us operate our bodies.
We try to run on empty for hours, then dump in more fuel than we can handle. Benardot's research shows how self-destructive this strategy is.
Let's say you really want to lose fat, and decide to jog first thing in the morning, on an empty stomach. "The easiest way to get energy is to break down muscle mass," Benardot says. Your body can convert specific amino acids--the building blocks of muscle--to glucose, the sugar that powers human activity. "Someone running before eating may actually be breaking down the very tissue he's trying to improve. Sounds counterproductive to me."
Call it the "muscle loss" diet.
The second way is probably more typical of most of us. You can call this one the "fat gain" diet. You wait a long time between meals, and then, when you're ravenously hungry, you wipe out an entire buffet line. This guarantees that you'll get a larger surge of the hormone insulin than you ordinarily would. That means more fat storage.
And you can probably combine the "muscle loss" and "fat gain" strategies and turn your body into a perfect muscle-burning, fat-storing machine. Hard exercise slows down appetite in the short term, but as you get used to it, your appetite matches your exertion level. So if you go out and run 10 miles on an empty stomach, then eat enough to fuel a 15-mile run, the net effect is that you've lost muscle on the run and gained fat from the postrun meal.
Energy balance, the focus of Benardot's research, is the answer to both of these dilemmas. The athletes in his studies get the best results when they stay within 300 to 500 calories of perfect energy balance throughout the day.
This means . . .
1. Eat as soon as you wake up in the morning.
2. Make sure you eat something before you exercise, no matter what time of day it is.
Not only does the food prevent your muscle tissue from becoming cardio chow, but it increases the number of calories you burn during and after exercise. A 1992 study at Arnot-Ogden Medical Center in Elmira, New York, shows that exercise following a meal enhances metabolism.
3. Eat soon after exercising, when your body has depleted its energy stores. Act fast, or you'll start burning muscle for energy.
4. Eat a total of five to six small meals a day.
One of Benardot's studies showed that athletes who added three daily snacks to their three squares lost fat and gained muscle, on top of improving in all the other things that are important to athletes, such as power and endurance. Of course, you can't simply add a few hundred calories to your diet and lose weight, but you can redistribute your daily calories so you're eating more often but consuming less at individual meals.
However you do it, it's clear to Benardot that the worst strategy
is cutting out tons of calories indiscriminately in hopes of sudden,
dramatic weight loss. "If you're more subtle and try to lose a pound
a week or 1 pound in 2 weeks, not only can you do it, but you'll be
less likely to regain the weight," he says.
Source: Lou Schuler, www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel=weight.loss&category=diet.strategies&conitem=1a0a99edbbbd201099edbbbd2010cfe793cd____&cm_mmc=BellyOffNL-_-2023_11_03-_-Weight_Loss-_-The_New_Science_of_Weight_Loss
Here's a great meal-planning system, courtesy of Mark Verstegen, a trainer of elite athletes (including Nomar Garciaparra) and author of Core Performance (Rodale, January 2004).
If You Work Out in the Morning
Meal 1 - Preworkout Snack - 1/2 whey-protein shake or banana and hard boiled egg or cereal w/fat-free milk
Meal 2 - Breakfast (immediately following workout) - egg-white omelette w/veggies, oatmeal, and OJ
Meal 3 - Midmorning Snack - yogurt and fruit or whey-protein shake and fruit
Meal 4 - Lunch - salad w/grilled chicken and olive oil-based dressing or tuna or lunchmeat sandwich on whole-grain bread
Meal 5 - Midafternoon Snack - peanut butter or cashews and an apple or meal-replacement bar (such as Balance Bar) or jerky
Meal 6 - Dinner - grilled salmon, chicken breast or sirloin steak and green salad w/olive oil-based dressing
If You Work Out at Lunch
Meal 1 - Breakfast - scrambled eggs w/whole-grained toast or oatmeal w/crushed flaxseeds and yogurt
Meal 2 - Midmorning/Preworkout Snack (no more than 1 hour before workout) - whey-protein shake and fruit
Meal 3 - Lunch (immediately following workout) - chicken-breast sandwich on Kaiser roll and fruit
Meal 4 - Midafternoon Snack - peanut butter or cashews and an apple or meal-replacement bar (such as Balance Bar) or jerky
Meal 5 - Dinner - hamburger made w/ground sirloin (90% lean) or turkey on whole-grain bun and cucumber-tomato salad drizzled w/olive oil
If You Work Out Right After Work
Meal 1 - Breakfast - scrambled eggs w/whole-grain toast or whole-grain cereal w/blueberries and skim milk
Meal 2 - Midmorning Snack - yogurt and cashews or whey-protein shake w/peanut butter
Meal 3 - Lunch - chicken-breast, steamed veggies, and roll
Meal 4 - Midafternoon Snack - peanut butter or cashews and an apple or meal-replacement bar (such as Balance Bar) or jerky
Meal 5 - Preworkout Snack - 1/2 whey-protein shake
Meal 6 - Dinner - grilled salmon, chicken breast or sirloin steak
and green salad w/olive oil-based dressing and wild rice
Source: www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel=weight.loss&category=diet.strategies&conitem=4a0a99edbbbd201099edbbbd2010cfe793cd____&cm_mmc=BellyOffNL-_-2023_11_03-_-Nutrition-_-Perfect_Meal_Timing
Food for Thought: Feeling brain-dead? Eat
this when you need to get smart fast!
Don't recall any of that happening? Our point exactly. You need emergency help. That's why, like UNICEF for your malnourished mind, we've prepared a relief package and parachuted it onto these pages. Each food has an immediate benefit (improved memory, sharpened concentration, wittier pickup lines) that'll give you a brain boost anytime, but especially when you need it most--on the job. We call it "The Thinking Man's Diet," and frankly, you'd be an idiot not to try it.
MONDAY, 8:00 a.m. PowerPoint presentation
You need to eat: oatmeal with cinnamon and brown sugar
University of Toronto researchers recently found that eating certain carbohydrate-rich foods like oatmeal is the same as having a shot of glucose, a.k.a. blood sugar, injected into your brain (without having to explain why there's a syringe sticking out of your head). "Your body quickly takes glucose out of the carbohydrates and feeds it to your brain to help it function," says Arnold Scheibel, M.D., former director of UCLA's Brain Research Institute. In other words, the higher the concentration of glucose in your blood, the better your memory and concentration. No oatmeal, or just can't stand the stuff even with cinnamon and brown sugar? Grab a banana or a bagel instead; they turn into glucose fast, too.
TUESDAY, 3:30 p.m. Midafternoon slump
You need to have: one cup of coffee and two chocolate-chip cookies
The original fresh-brewed brain fuel. In one study, British researchers found that those people consuming the caffeine equivalent of approximately one cup of coffee experienced improved attention and problem-solving skills. Try downing your joe with two chocolate-chip cookies, a powdered doughnut, or half a cheese Danish. "The fat in foods like these triggers the release of cholecystokinin, a hormone that slows stomach emptying, which may help maximize your absorption of caffeine," says John Allred, Ph.D., a professor of food science at Ohio State University. Just stop at one cup; another study found that men given more caffeine did worse on attention tests.
WEDNESDAY, 10:30 a.m. Emergency meeting with the boss
You need to eat: a handful of raisins
Skip the exotic fruits; raisins are loaded with old-fashioned boron. USDA researchers found that subjects taking in the most boron--3.2 milligrams (mg) a day--performed about 10 percent better on attention and memory tests than those eating the least. "Half of all men get only about 1.2 mg of boron a day," says James Penland, Ph.D., a USDA research psychologist. Raisins help you make up the difference with 1.8 mg in a half cup. Apples and nuts pack boron, too.
THURSDAY, 6:45 p.m. Putting in overtime
You need to have: an egg-salad sandwich and a glass of milk
Eggs and milk are the richest sources of choline, a nutrient that'll make for a memorable evening. Studies have shown that college students given 3 to 4 grams of choline 1 hour before taking memory tests scored higher than those who didn't receive the choline supplements. "We believe choline increases the release of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that helps your brain store and recall information," says Steven Zeisel, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina. Although studies have used supplements, Dr. Zeisel says that eating your choline should do the trick just as well.
Friday, noon. Working through lunch
You need to eat: a six-piece order of Chicken Tenders from Burger King
Every order comes supersized with the amino acid tyrosine. U.S. military researchers found that soldiers did better on a multitasking and memory test when they had eaten a tyrosine-enriched food an hour earlier. "Tyrosine may help your body maintain brain levels of dopamine, one neurotransmitter important to working memory," says Patricia Deuster, Ph.D., the study author. Burgers are also high in tyrosine, but hold the bun; carbohydrates can interfere with the absorption of the amino acid. --Additional reporting by Shelley Drozd
CAUTION: OLD ABANDONED MIND
With age comes wisdom--and Alzheimer's. Wise up now, while you're still young, and start eating this insurance policy we took out on your brain.
PIZZA WITH VEGETABLES
Possibly better than formaldehyde for preserving your brain (and better-tasting, too). Just ask the rats. Tufts University researchers found that rats fed a diet of antioxidant-rich vegetables and fruits actually showed a turnaround in their age-related mental decline. "Antioxidants should repair oxidative damage in the human brain the same way that they do in the rat brain," says James Joseph, Ph.D., chief of the USDA neuroscience laboratory at Tufts University. Try snacking on dark-colored fruits, such as strawberries and blueberries, in between your slices of vegetable pizza.
TUNA-FISH SANDWICHES
Skip the cat-food-quality cans and buy solid or chunk white tuna in springwater instead; it's filled to the gills with docosahexa-enoic acid (DHA), a type of fat that may help prevent Alzheimer's disease. In one study of more than 1,000 people, those with the highest DHA levels in their blood had a 40 percent lower risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's than those with low levels. Tired of tuna? Crack walnuts; they're one of the best nonseafood sources of DHA.
Source: By: Mike Zimmerman, Illustrations by: Gary
Taxali, Katrin McDonald, www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel=fitness&category=food.for.fitness&conitem=2ed999edbbbd201099edbbbd2010cfe793cd____&cm_mmc=BellyOffNL-_-2023_11_03-_-Fitness-_-Food_for_Thought
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