Essential Vitamins for the Overweight

Often our diet is not good enough, or we have off days. At times like this we can supplement our diet with vitamin tablets. However, if we are carrying a few extra kilograms that we don’t want then there are certain vitamins that we must ensure we are getting enough of, whether this is through food or supplements.

Vitamins C, D and E are essential vitamins in this scenario. With extra weight, our bones take more load making them weaker. This is where vitamin D is vital. Vitamin D is a bone strengthening vitamin and can help to counter the extra weight being put on the bones.

Being overweight also increases the chances of developing diabetes. Vitamins C and E come in here. Both this vitamins help to protect blood vessels and to control blood sugar levels.

So, while we may just think that any extra weight will look bad, there are other issues that can arise and it is important that we are aware of them and combat them.

Aerobic Workouts - Let's Mix It Up

Aerobic Exercise

Aerobic exercise is important for many reasons, depending on what our goals are. Weight control, heart health and general fitness are just a few reasons as to why aerobic exercise is vital. There are many ways in which we can get an aerobic workout. Running, jogging, skipping, swimming, cycling and walking are all examples of aerobic exercise. However, as with any exercise regime, it is vital that we avoid getting stuck in a rut. It is important, therefore, to mix things up.

Short Blasts of Aerobic Activity

To change things up a bit, and make some great gains in the process, we can try the following with our aerobic routine.

• Select any type of aerobic exercise (our favourite) to complete 3 times a week
• Warm up at a steady pace for a few minutes
• Increase the pace, but remain comfortable
• For 15 seconds go at our maximum speed
• Return to a comfortable pace and keep this pace for a minute and a half
• Repeat the 15 second blast!
• Complete around 5-10 intervals in the same manner
• Ensure we have a cool down of a few minutes at a very relaxed pace

Changing our aerobic routine will help us to continue seeing the results that we want, preventing any chance of a plateau (if there is such a thing).

Alcohol

Alcohol

Many of us enjoy alcohol and in certain circumstances, a moderate amount of alcohol drinks can be beneficial. However, generally, alcohol is bad for us – especially when we have workout goals to aim at.

What is Alcohol?

Alcohol is the common term used for ethanol. It is used in alcoholic drinks and is actually toxic, at moderate to high levels, to us humans. Despite feelings of euphoria when drinking alcohol, it is actually a depressant. Alcohol has a number of impacts on our health.

Benefits of alcohol

There is some evidence to suggest that, when consumed in moderation, alcohol be beneficial to us. Some research shows that the risk of heart disease can be reduced with a moderate intake of alcohol.

Another potential benefit is seen from drinking red wine. It contains flavonoids that can act as anti-oxidants (which have been discussed here). This helps to reduce the build up of atherosclerosis.

Negative Effects of Alcohol

However, for most of us, the amount of alcohol we drink will impact us in a negative manner. Aside from the hangover of the next day, there are more long-term effects that we may endure from drinking too much alcohol.

First of all, there are a lot of calories consumed when we go for a few drinks, and this is why drinking alcohol can lead to weight gain, as well as making it so difficult to lose the gut – there is a reason it’s called a beer belly.

The liver is one organ that it is at major risk of damage due to too much alcohol. There can be progressive damage caused through a condition known as cirrhosis. This can lead to liver failure, liver cancer and in extreme cases death.

There is evidence to suggest that the nervous system can be damaged on various levels. The brain can get damaged, and this can lead to problems such as depression.

Problems such as a weakened heart, high blood pressure and stroke can all develop from excessive alcohol consumption.

Recommended Units

There are a number of sources to find out the recommended units of alcohol. If we stick to these then alcohol poses little risk to our health. Two to three units of alcohol for women and three to four units for men, is a generally accepted amount of alcohol to consume per day.

What Are Calories?

What are calories?

I think that a major problem is that people simply do not know what a calorie is. I hear and see people looking to lose weight and they purchase ‘low fat’ foods, and foods with reduced sugar. I am someone who does not advocate low fat foods because we need fat for our body so it is important to know what calories are and from there we can alter our diet to get the best from our bodies.

So what are calories?

Calories are, essentially, a measurement of energy. The technical definition of a calorie is how much energy it takes to change the temperature of one gram of water by 1 degree Celsius. As a matter of fact, when talking about food energy, a calorie is actually 1000 times more than 1! On food labels we will find ‘kcal’ and this literally means 1000 calories. However, 1000 calories (1 kcal) is generally referred to as 1 calorie.

So calories are needed for us to complete our daily lives. We each have different calorie requirements and this number varies depending on what we do for our job, our hobbies and our social lives. For the average adult, calorie intake is from 1500 to 3000 on a daily basis. It is important that we know how many calories we need to consume and that we do not go over this amount, or indeed below this amount, as we will gain or lose weight and body fat accordingly. However, our body can only use so many calories at one time, so whatever energy is not needed is stored as fat. This means that eating too many calories is why people gain fat.

A calorie break-down

Overall calorie consumption is the key to weight control but here is a break down of the amount of calories in protein, carbohydrates and fats, per 1 gram of each:

• Protein – 4 calories
• Carbohydrates – 4 calories
• Fats – 9 calories 

So calories are units of energy and we depend on them to live! Different nutrients have different amounts of calories in them, but it is overall calorie intake that we need to be aware of in order to control our weight and body fat storage.

Weight Loss Facts

I think that it is fair to say that some people just do not ‘get’ weight loss. Weight loss is not as difficult, in principle, as it is sometimes made out to be. Some things that I have mentioned in previous blog entries will also be discussed here but it never hurts to refresh the memory.

Calories are the key – the really key to weight loss is calories. The simple science is that to lose weight we must use more calories than we consume and it really is as simple as this. To lose weight we need to create a calorie deficit (burn more calories than we need). To lose a pound we must burn off 3500 extra calories, so a 500 calorie deficit a day will see us lose 1 pound per week.

Fat does not make us fat – this is a common misconception that is still around today and ‘low-fat’ food products are being produced. The simple truth is that we need fat in our diet. It is true that not all fats are created equal (avoid trans fats for example) but we must not cut fat from our diet.

Fat contains the most amounts of calories – although we should not cut fat out of our diet, it is true that, per gram, fat contains more calories than protein and carbohydrates.

Excess energy is stored as fat – when we eat more calories than we need we store the excess as fat. So basically, do not overeat!

Crunches does not lose belly fat - we can do as many crunches as we want, but the calories we burn from this will simply not be enough to burn belly fat and/or lose significant weight. This rule applies to other abdominal exercises too. 

Reduced risk of diabetes – through weight/fat loss, we reduce the risk of developing diabetes and for men, it is suggested that weight loss reduces the risk of heart problems.

You should eat when you are hungry – this is such a key one for me. I have heard so many people say they skipped a meal or that they felt hungry but didn’t want to eat because they are trying to lose weight. This is so ridiculous to me. Our body is giving us a sign that we need to eat, so we should eat. A major problem of skipping meals is that we send a sign back to our body that food is not available when we need it. Starving ourselves leads to the body storing fat for other times when we do not eat.

Drinks and Calories

I regularly listen to the Jillian Michaels Podcasts and there is a regular guest doctor who appears on the show. We all know that fizzy drinks/sodas/pop, or whatever else you may call them, are not good. However, the doctor suggested that what we drink has had a major impact on weight gain, and suggested another major drink that can really hinder with regards to calorie intake. The drink(s) in question is fruit juice. I decided to investigate all of this further and so this blog will look into drinks and calories.

Fizzy drinks/sodas/pop

Firstly, fizzy drinks/sodas/pop. A medium coke at McDonalds (this is based on UK data) contains a massive 170 calories. For a drink this is quite remarkable to me. Too many of these drinks and the calories really begin to mount. It is really important, with regards to weight control, to not drink too many of these drinks.

Diet fizzy drinks

When choosing diet drinks the calorie intake and sugar intake is reduced significantly. However, other additions to the drink maybe even worse for us! So in terms of weight control these are good, but there are many issues with other things added to diet drinks.

Fruit Juice

It is pretty common knowledge that fruits contain plenty of sugar. However, this is not really a problem as fruits contain a lot of vitamins and minerals to make them worthwhile eating, plus the calories are not that high. Fruit juices, however, contain a large amount of calories. For example, 200ml of orange juice can have around 90 calories in it. The main issue, in my mind, with fruit juices is that we automatically expect them to be good for us and so have no worries when drinking them, however, the calories can easily add up through drinking them.

Overall fruit juice is the best of these types of drinks as they have far more nutritional value to them than the others but it is important to watch just how much we are drinking because of the relatively high calorie amounts.

The importance of a treat

 Treats (listened to a great playlist while writing this, find it here)

When focussing on a fitness regime and diet plan it is very easy to get yourself in a mode where you feel you must resist all ‘bad’ foods. This blog post, however, will encourage the occasional treat and explain why it is (or at least can be) quite importan to weight management. 

It is important to understand that a ‘cheat day’ is not being promoted here. A bingeing session can easily undo all the good work that has gone on before. The point of this blog is to encourage the occasional treat in order to keep our fitness aims on track.

First of all there is a simple psychological issue to deal with. The less we are allowed something, the more we want it. If we have it in our mind that we are not allowed to eat cake, we will want it even more. Having a treat now and again will help to stop this craving happening and therefore we can stick to our regime far easier, without so much temptation!

Another problem is just how easy it can be to punish ourselves is we do ‘slip up’. This can lead to things like comfort eating (a big problem that I know all too well) and overtraining (which I have discussed here). It is important to remember that if we do ‘slip up’ we can always rectify it. We can easily change the diet plan to fit in treats and we can always put in some extra exercise sessions. 

It is also possible that, through depriving ourselves completely, when we reach our fitness or weight loss goals, we simply go off our diet plan and then all the hard work is ruined.

To conclude then, as long as we still get the right energy and nutrients from our diet through fruits, vegetables, wholegrain, protein and the right fats there is still a place for a treat. It is important, however, to know that they are a treat and should not replace meals. Be aware of the extra calories and alter the diet to incorporate them. Small treats every once in a while will help us to control ourselves but depriving ourselves of all sweets will more likely lead to binge and over eating.