Here’s to your health! And here’s to living longer, no matter how you do it. That’s the word in the latest edition of “This Week in Fitness.” Every other week, the Under Armour Connected Fitness editorial team hand-curates the biggest stories, trends and goings-on around the world that aim to motivate you to be the healthiest you — whether you’re running a marathon or going for that perfect game. That 7-10 Split, Though…What’s the best sport for burning calories? It’s gotta be running, right? Yes, according to a study by the Mayo Clinic. After calculating caloric burn for 36 different active pursuits, it found that a 160-pound person can burn up to 861 calories by running 8 mph for one hour. But guess what else made the list? Jumping rope, racquetball and even bowling are good enough to torch some calories. Let’s roll! Running: Catch the Fever, Live LongerIt’s that simple, according to a new study by Iowa State University that claims runners live an average of three years longer than non-runners. And yet another study by MIT suggests running is contagious. So why aren’t you out there yet? Check out MapMyRun’s three easy tips to start running. … Or Maybe It’s CyclingIf getting on a bike is more your cup of tea, a recent study by Scottish scientists suggests cycling will help you live longer, too — specifically by reducing your risk of heart disease and cancer. Here’s our guide on how to get riding. WATCH > FIT TIPS: WORK OUT IN THE MORNING Hot Takes From BostonIt’s been a couple weeks since the Boston Marathon, but the post-race takes are still coming in hot. First start here, with this mesmerizing sped-up video of how spectators are methodically ferried across the race route. Then get your mind blown by this story of a runner who took an extra finisher’s medal for his wife — and then wrote an apology letter. A Little TLC to Lose WeightWhole30 is so yesterday (here’s our dietitian’s take on that). How about a new diet trend with a decidedly not-as-zippy name? The TLC Diet is actually meant to keep our cholesterol levels in check, but has some pretty good side benefits for weight loss, including maximizing plant products and low-fat animal protein. Just make sure you’re keeping yourself informed of what’s a trend and what’s actually effective. Bourdain Says NoWe love our food trends here at TWiF, and we love it when Anthony Bourdain endorses them. But what happens when he thumbs his nose at some of our guilty pleasures? The food celebrity and traveling chef stopped by “The Tonight Show” and bashed many of them — in his inimitable way. Check out the clip and brace yourself if you’re a defender of brunch, juice bars and craft cocktails. Looks like we’ll have to find some new trends … Trendy Food, Coachella StyleHundreds of thousands love the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which wrapped last weekend. A lot of people don’t — the heat, the scene and the dozens of hipster indie bands aren’t for everyone. We won’t necessarily endorse the food, either, but it’s definitely a microcosm of food trends gone wild. Check out these seven interesting food trends from Coachella, including Japanese-Mexican hot dogs, waffle pops and matcha cocktails. READ MORE > STOP! IS YOUR COFFEE A CALORIE BOMB? Sleep Better with Science… and ToysHappy Sleep Awareness Week! We started it off with our immersive infographic on how your habits measure up against the world’s, then we went to our friends at Thrive Global for five science-backed methods for a better night’s sleep. How about some help from gadgets? Check out Money magazine’s roundup of snooze-assisting tech, from lamps to headbands. Spring Clean Your WardrobeNews flash: Your skinny jeans may be hurting your health. Seriously. Check out this from U.S. News & World Report on how your fashion choices may actually be bad for you. Goat Yoga — Yes, ReallyAnd finally, we’re not sure how we missed this nugget, which made the rounds this past winter. If your lifelong dream has been to practice yoga alongside goats, you’re in luck: Goat Yoga is a thing in Oregon. And now it’s set to spread to Colorado. (Note we at UA cannot vouch for the safety of your clothing, which goats are known to savor…) The post Yes, Bowling Burns Calories! | This Week in Fitness appeared first on Under Armour. Source: http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/yes-bowling-burns-calories-week-fitness/via Blogger Yes, Bowling Burns Calories! | This Week in Fitness
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Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bNy7Ebrbsw
via Blogger STORY TIME: WHERE I'VE BEEN +NEW FAMILY MEMBER Burpees are sweet, sweet torture. What other exercise provides a head-to-toe fat-burning workout with zero equipment? The answer is none, at least not to the degree that burpees do. That’s the good news. The bad news is that burpees are often performed with bad form and poor planning. Take an effective exercise, do it incorrectly with no rhyme or reason and suddenly you’ve got a not-so-great situation. But never fear. This article will show you how to do burpees with pristine technique — and how to regress them if necessary — and give you a workout plan that takes just five minutes. READ MORE > HIIT FOR BEGINNERS WEEK 2: BODYWEIGHT STRENGTH CIRCUIT ARE YOU READY FOR BURPEES?Not everyone is ready to do burpees on Day One. Because burpees are supposed to be done quickly with maximal effort, it’s challenging to maintain perfect form. Sloppy technique could irritate your shoulders, wrists or lower back, so try these regressions first: HANDS-ELEVATED BURPEE The simplest way to make a burpee easier is to elevate your hands on a box or bench. This decreases the upper-body demands and takes stress off the lower back. MEDICINE BALL THRUSTER If burpees are a no-go for whatever reason, medicine ball thrusters provide a solid full-body alternative that mimics the burpee without any impact on the shoulders or lower back. THE WORKOUT: BURPEE PROGRESSION LADDERThis five-minute workout combines three burpee progressions for an all-out fat-burning attack. You start each round with the easiest exercise and progress to the hardest exercise, reducing the number of reps each round. This allows you to keep working hard even as you fatigue. ROUND 1 ROUND 2 ROUND 3 ROUND 4 The post Burn More Calories in Less Time with Burpees appeared first on Under Armour. Source: http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/burn-calories-less-time-burpees/via Blogger Burn More Calories in Less Time with Burpees Ever since I was 8 years old, I understood the importance of stretching. As a dancer, athlete and performer, I can say without a doubt that stretching plays one of the biggest roles in my success. In ballet class, we’d spend the entire time active stretching at the barre. We would stretch before and after every class. After so many years, I became hard-wired to “active/dynamic stretch” to prep for dancing, then stretch after dancing to recover and get rid of toxins and lactic acid build up. It was ingrained and automatic, and one of the best healthy habits that I’ve held onto. Stretching is not just sitting in a position and holding it there until you want to cry. It starts with observing what’s tight or achy, then researching various ways to lengthen and stretch the muscles in different ways. Lastly, and most importantly, there’s breathing. BREATHE AS YOU STRETCH Learning how to breathe before, during and coming out of a stretch is what people neglect the most. Use your breath to increase the intensity of your stretches. Move into your stretch on an exhale. Every time you inhale, hold the stretch. On each exhale, try to go further into the stretch, without forcing or tightening your muscles. Basically, sometimes there’s a point in a stretch where your body reflexes out of it, focus on breathing out and through that to retrain your muscles to tolerate more flexibility. The appropriate time to be in a stretch is actually two minutes! THE BENEFITS OF STRETCHING Being limber helps your body have more range of motion so that you can assume new and different positions without the risk of tearing or straining something. My boyfriend is a professional skateboarder and has no prior knowledge of stretching and how it can help prevent injuries. So I’ve taught him to loosen areas where he’s been really tight — and he had no idea! It was really cool to coach him through loosening his hips and to see how much it has helped him. READ MORE > 8 MUST-DO STRETCHES TO PREVENT AND RECOVER FROM WORKOUT INJURIES As a professional dancer, we don’t have guided warmups before auditions, rehearsals or even live performances. Our bodies have to be 100% ready when we step on stage. There’s a lot of prep before a performance so we can do our ultimate best each time without getting injured. HOW I STRETCH I love coming home after a long eight-hour rehearsal and stretch out the day. I’ll just plop down on the floor with a foam roller and some lacrosse balls and close my eyes. I’m not that talented at meditating, so I use stretching to help me calm my mind. I’ll find my breath and wring out any residual stress. It’s like a mental cleanse before hopping into bed then starting a new day. READ MORE > 5-POSE YOGA FIX FOR DESK DWELLERS Stretching isn’t just for those who are really active. It helps everyone. Even on a 9–5 workday when you don’t leave your desk once and you’re too tired to go to the gym, you go home and stretch! Stretch while reading or while watching TV. After sitting in that chair all day your back needs to be lengthened, your shoulders and chest opened from hunching over, your hips loosened and wrists unlocked. You will feel like a new human, trust me. Shop Dani Vitale’s favorite Under Armour gear. The post A Flexible Lifestyle: The Power of Stretching appeared first on Under Armour. Source: http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/flexible-lifestyle-power-stretching/via Blogger A Flexible Lifestyle: The Power of Stretching Walking is great exercise. It burns calories, strengthens muscles and bones, improves balance, boosts mood and helps prevent health problems ranging from heart disease to Type 2 diabetes. But walking is about more than putting one foot in front of the other. To reap all of the health benefits — and avoid injuries — it’s important to avoid making these four common walking mistakes: 1. SKIPPING THE WARMUP Warmups aren’t just for marathoners and professional athletes. In fact, Kathy Kaehler, author, celebrity trainer and host of the “Fit and Sexy For Life” podcast, believes the more often you skip the warmup, the more likely you are to get injured. For a proper warmup, Kaehler suggests walking at a comfortable pace for five minutes and then stopping to stretch all the major muscle groups from head to toe, including shoulder rolls, side stretches, hip circles, quad stretches and ankle rotations. Once your muscles are warm and stretched, proceed with your walk. 2. WALKING THE SAME ROUTE AT THE SAME SPEED It’s OK to have a favorite walking route and a comfortable pace, but refusing to change things up could be bad for your body. “You want variation of terrain so your body can also have different muscular reactions and challenges with varied routes, inclines and steps,” says Ashley Borden, Los Angeles-based master trainer whose celebrity clients have included Reese Witherspoon and Mandy Moore. To mix it up, Borden suggests incorporating intervals into your walk, switching speeds every block. A few times per week, try a different route. Adding variety to your workout will prevent burnout and keep you from hitting a plateau. 3. GOING TOO HARD, TOO SOON When you start a new workout, even if it’s “only” a walk, it’s important to ease into it. “Your muscles need to be developed and strengthened for flexibility and endurance and that doesn’t happen the first week out,” says Kaehler. “You need to focus on progression rather than going all out right away.” Doing too much too soon can leave you with sore muscles and, potentially, injuries. Instead, work up to faster speeds and longer distances. 4. IGNORING YOUR POSTURE Taking pounding steps while staring at the ground might get you from point A to point B but poor walking posture takes its toll on your body. “Posture is so critical,” Kaehler says. “When your form is bad, you’ve got muscles doing jobs they are not qualified for and, over time, that creates muscle imbalance that leads to injuries.” For the best walking posture, Borden suggests imagining a string lifting you from your breastbone toward the sky to keep the hunch out of your back; keep your eyes on the horizon, engage your glutes and abdominals and pump your arms. Walking is a safe and effective workout if you take the time to prepare and avoid making these common mistakes. The post 4 Major Walking Mistakes and How to Avoid Them appeared first on Under Armour. Source: http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/4-major-walking-mistakes-avoid/via Blogger 4 Major Walking Mistakes and How to Avoid Them What’s the whole story with the Whole30 program? It’s a nutritional reset plan that has worked for countless people, and many of those who have done it swear by it — and defend it up and down. I know this for a fact, because last month, I wrote a piece on this site that was my attempt to deconstruct some of the latest, most trendy tactics to lose weight quickly. You can read it for yourself and judge the conclusions, but the one tactic that drew the most attention and passionate feedback was my quick take on Whole30. Here’s just one example of the literally dozens in the comments section: “I think that Whole30 is over-simplified in this article. It is not meant to be a long-term thing or even a weight-loss program. Why would you ever include Whole30 in a roundup like this?” That was one of the nicer ones. I was even called out by Whole30’s co-founder, Melissa Hartwig, on Twitter.
I get it. The piece was a slide show, which means I had to be very short and sweet on each of the nine “gimmicks,” as we called them. Many readers voiced criticism for my not being thorough enough on Whole30. I won’t spend extra time breaking it down, but I do recommend going straight the source for an excellent in-depth explanation from the program’s creators. READ MORE > 67 SCIENCE-BACKED WEIGHT-LOSS STRATEGIES Many of you strongly criticized my decision to classify Whole30 as a weight-loss diet. While it isn’t advertised as such, the program rules deem it beneficial for anyone “having a hard time losing weight, no matter how hard you try.” In the benefits section on the official website, it also claims “more than 95% of participants lose weight and improve their body composition.” That’s great! But you can see why I chose to categorize Whole30 as a diet that some people use for weight loss. Ninety-five percent is a quite impressive statistic, and certainly translates to a successful way to lose weight for those interested. And 30 days — in my professional opinion as a registered dietitian — is most certainly quick when it comes to weight loss. Anything that eliminates that many healthy foods from your plate is, in my opinion, extreme. These are all great things! In addition to likely losing weight, you may also find yourself with improved energy levels, better sleep, a healthier digestive tract and a more balanced immune system. If everyone cut back on added sugars and processed foods, we wouldn’t be faced with an obesity crisis right now. Even I’ve greatly reduced the amount of added sugar in my diet since January 1 and I feel great. But strip down all the hype and you basically have a 30-day elimination diet. Of course you’ll lose weight when you disallow not only empty calories (sugar) and liquid calories (alcohol), but also 50% of what many people fill their plate with on a daily basis in the form of grains, beans and dairy. That’s where I begin to have issues. In the grand scheme of things, 30 days isn’t long enough to discern what’s causing your problems. And by eliminating so many food groups at once, there’s no clear way to truly pinpoint what it is that’s making you feel terrible. WATCH > FIT TIPS ON LOSING WEIGHT I’m fine to give those things up for 30 days, but what you really have to think about is day 31, 32, 33, etc. What happens next? What will you do to sustain the weight loss you’ve accomplished once your 30 days are up? I’m all for continuing with no added sugars and keeping alcohol consumption to moderate levels. But grains, legumes and dairy all deserve their place in a healthy diet. They contain calories, too — good calories, but calories that your plate hasn’t seen in a month. So you’ll need to readjust the balance of whatever it is that makes up your plate as you add them back in. If you’re Whole30-ing to reset your digestive tract, you may end up doing it more harm than good. Grains, legumes and dairy-based, probiotic-packed yogurt are beneficial to gut flora. Remove them and you could unfavorably shift your microbiome, according to Gerard Mullin, director of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Celiac Disease Clinic. Maintaining a healthy weight isn’t about depriving yourself of the things you love for the rest of your life. It’s also not about short-term elimination diets. In no way am I setting out to discourage consumers from embarking down the path of Whole30. Again, I think it’s a terrific way to educate yourself about the food industry, to reset your mind and body, or to jump-start your adventure into eating more plants and whole foods. If that’s what you’re after, you’ll likely be among the thousands who swear by Whole30. What you should not do is trick yourself into believing it’s a sustainable tool for weight loss. It is a tool, absolutely. So use it to learn about your body in the way you need to. But don’t let your whole-grain, grass-fed Greek yogurt, fresh-ground peanut butter-loving taste buds suffer for too long. The post What’s the Whole Story on Whole30? | Ask the Dietitian appeared first on Under Armour. Source: http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/whats-whole-story-whole30-ask-dietitian/via Blogger What’s the Whole Story on Whole30? | Ask the Dietitian No grill? No problem! These succulent chicken skewers can be made in the oven. Each skewer is threaded with tender veggies and roasted along with healthy chicken breast. Paired with a savory peanut dipping sauce, these skewers will surely be a crowd-pleasing appetizer. Chicken-Veggie Skewers with Peanut Sauce Ingredients
Directions Soak skewers in water at least 30 minutes. Whisk together peanut butter, water, brown sugar, vinegar and soy sauce. Set aside. Thread chicken, zucchini, mushrooms and tomatoes evenly on skewers. Brush with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Preheat broiler. Place skewers on a foil-lined baking sheet. Broil 10–12 minutes, turning once, until chicken is done and vegetables are tender. Serve with peanut sauce. Nutrition Information Serves: 4 | Serving Size: 4 ounces chicken and 2 tablespoons sauce Per serving: Calories: 252; Total Fat: 13g; Saturated Fat: 2g; Monounsaturated Fat: 7g; Cholesterol: 65mg; Sodium: 414mg; Carbohydrate: 10g; Dietary Fiber: 3g; Sugar: 4g; Protein: 30g Nutrition Bonus: Potassium: 304mg; Iron: 3%; Vitamin A: 3%; Vitamin C: 10%; Calcium: 1% The post Chicken-Veggie Skewers with Peanut Sauce | Recipe appeared first on Under Armour. Source: http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/chicken-veggie-skewers-peanut-sauce-recipe/via Blogger Chicken-Veggie Skewers with Peanut Sauce | Recipe You’ve long heard that intriguing rumor about how lifting weights and building muscle burns fat. It’s not just wishful thinking: Science supports this sweet-sounding promise.. But still, it’s a bit tricky to fully understand exactly how pumping iron battles the bulge. Here’s our crack at explaining it — with the help of fitness experts, of course. HOW MUSCLE BOOSTS YOUR BMR Warning: Math ahead. But don’t worry. The equations are pretty simple. In fact, there are just three numbers involved: Total Calories Burned = Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) + Activity Activity is what many fitness articles spend their time talking about: What exercises you should do, when you should them and so on. It also includes any movement that does not qualify as exercise, i.e. the energy you expel when you stroll to the mailbox, take the stairs at work or cook dinner for friends. What we’re more concerned with here is your BMR, or the baseline number of calories your body burns just by being alive. Your brain, heart and organs require a constant stream of energy. Your muscles are also metabolically active tissues. Though you don’t hold a ton of influence over what your other major organs do, you do have a say in how much heat your muscles add to your metabolic fire. “You can’t make your brain burn more calories, and you can’t make the organs in your torso burn more calories,” explains Mike Roussell, PhD and author of “The Meta Shred Diet.” “Muscle is the major determinant of calorie burn that you have power over.” The more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns at its baseline as you rest. The rule also applies when you move: The more muscle you carry, the more calories get scorched when you’re active. “When you have more muscle, you burn more calories during everyday tasks such as housework, gardening or even unpacking your groceries,” confirms Lee Bell, who holds a masters degree in exercise physiology and is a lecturer at The Muscle Mechanic UK. THE NON-MUSCLE BENEFITS OF RESISTANCE TRAINING So more muscle burns more calories. That much seems simple. Where things get more complex is the cascade of bodily responses that get set off when you do weight training. “The things that you do to build muscle create a hormonal environment and stimulate your physiology in a way that makes fat loss better,” Roussell says. For example, when you lift weights your body releases adiponectin, a hormone that enhances insulin sensitivity, meaning it makes your muscles more apt to take in sugar and carbohydrates, Roussell says. “Lifting weights increases blood flow to your muscles, increases nutrient delivery to your muscles and sensitizes your muscles to take up carbohydrates,” Roussell says. The positive effect here works like compounding interest. The more muscle and less body fat you have, the more insulin sensitive you’re going to be, Roussell explains. Resistance training also improves something called “nutrient portioning.” Basically this means that, after lifting, your body is more likely to use the food you eat for good (building and repairing muscle) rather than evil (turning it into fat). “The more you’ve activated, the easier your body finds it to divert incoming calories into maintaining that muscle as opposed to storing it in fat cells,” Bell says. To help you harness the fat-burning effects of weight training, Bell recommends two techniques. The first is called “Escalating Density Training,” or EDT. In it, you simply pick two exercises that work opposing muscle groups — pushups (chest) and rows (back), for example. Next you set a stopwatch for a block of time, like 15 minutes. Then you alternate back and forth between those two exercises, performing no more than 5 reps per set and resting as needed. As the workout wears on and you start to fatigue, you may need to cut reps per set. That’s OK. The goal is to accumulate a large number of reps across the entire time period. Record the total number you’ve hit when the clock strikes zero, then try to beat it the next time you do the workout. READ MORE > WHY MUSCLES SHAKE DURING A TOUGH WORKOUT The second technique Bell recommends is “Peripheral Heart Action.” Though similar to EDT, there is one key difference. Rather than working opposing muscle groups, you alternate between an upper-body and lower-body exercise. “Going from upper body to lower body and back again is a real challenge,” Bell says. “Focus your sessions on big, multi-muscle exercises such as squats, deadlifts, presses and pulls. These burn more calories and target more muscles in less exercises.” As we’ve already explained, the more muscles you have working, the more calories — and fat — you’ll burn, and the better your body will perform after your workout. The post How Building Muscle Boosts Fat Loss appeared first on Under Armour. Source: http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/building-muscle-boosts-fat-loss/via Blogger How Building Muscle Boosts Fat Loss What gets your morning started and keeps you energized throughout the day? For 54 percent of American adults, it’s coffee — we consume an average of 3.1 cups per day, fueling our early mornings and late nights. But is your daily caffeine fix putting a dent in your health and nutrition? With the right approach to consuming caffeine, your daily pick-me-up can actually benefit your health. CAFFEINE: HARMFUL OR HELPFUL?Caffeine is a drug that works to stimulate the brain and gives you that classic jolt of energy. Research has recently supported the idea that drinking coffee may serve to reduce inflammation and thus reduce the likelihood of cardiovascular and other inflammatory diseases. (I always love research that supports my caffeine fix … don’t you?) For adults who consume about three cups of coffee per day, there is little evidence of health risk and some evidence of health benefits associated with coffee consumption. In general, the main risks associated with coffee consumption kick in at high amounts of caffeine per day — generally more than four or five cups depending on how strongly the coffee is brewed. Of course, some people are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of caffeine. If you’re pregnant, breastfeeding or have another health concern, it’s important to talk with your doctor about your caffeine intake. The Bottom Line: Everything in moderation. The caffeine content of coffee shouldn’t be a health concern unless you are drinking more than four or five cups per day, having trouble sleeping due to its effects or have a specific health concern. Note that sometimes generalized anxiety can be affected by caffeine intake. READ MORE > SHOULD YOU DRINK COFFEE BEFORE WORKING OUT COFFEE ADD-INS: SUGAR, CREAM, SYRUPSA standard 8-ounce cup of black coffee checks in at just 2.7 calories with 0 grams of sugar. But the strong flavor and bitterness of coffee can make it tempting to pour in cream, sugar, syrups and other sweeteners; 65 percent of Americans take their coffee with sugar or cream. This is when the trouble kicks in: Anything added to your coffee tacks on extra calories. The first thing to cut out of your morning cup of joe? Sugar. Too much sugar can be linked to health complications such as obesity and diabetes. Syrups and “flavor pumps” (Think: that hazelnut flavor that you love) are made with high amounts of sugar and added calories. If you can’t drink coffee without something sweet, try adding a small amount of Stevia or other natural sugar alternative that is calorie-free. Buyer beware: Some coffee shops might add a syrup or sweetener without you explicitly ordering it. Starbucks’ iced coffee comes with Classic Syrup, consisting of sugar, water and natural flavors. Cream (like half-and-half) can be a delicious, low-sugar add-in in but in small amounts because those tablespoons can add up calorie-wise (1 tablespoon of half-and-half = 20 calories). Milk and soy milk are great additions for a boost of protein without so many calories. HOW TO ORDER A HEALTHIER CUP OF COFFEESTIR IN CINNAMON Looking to take the edge off your coffee without adding empty calories? Try adding a dash of cinnamon! Cinnamon consumption has been linked to improved glucose sensitivity and cholesterol for those with Type 2 diabetes. DOWNSIZE If you just can’t live without your speciality latte or mocha, consider ordering a smaller size to eliminate at least some calories. CHOOSE YOUR MILK WISELY The default milk in most speciality drinks is 2% or whole milk. Consider substituting nonfat milk, almond milk, soy milk or coconut milk to shave calories on speciality drinks that use large amounts of dairy. Be careful though, many coffee shops will use milk substitutes that contain added sugar, so ask the barista to show you the ingredient label if you are trying to reduce sugar intake. SPRINKLE ON COCOA POWDER Another great low-calorie add-in is unsweetened cocoa powder — it adds a boost of aroma and flavor without any added sugars. RECONSIDER WHIPPED CREAM Many speciality drinks automatically come with whipped cream; order your favorite drink with no whip to save around 80 calories and cut back on sugar intake. TRANSITION TOWARD BLACK COFFEE In an ideal world, your coffee would be just that — coffee. With almost zero calories, drinking black coffee leaves extra room for more nutritious foods that fill you up and keep you energized. Take baby steps toward this goal by slowly cutting back on sugar, creamers and syrups. Your taste buds can adjust over time. TEA: THE NON-COFFEE OPTIONLooking for an alternative to coffee that still allows you to get a caffeine fix or sip on something warm? Tea is an excellent substitute, ranging from non-caffeinated chamomile to caffeine-packed Earl Grey, you can pick and choose a tea variety for any time of the day. Black and green teas also comes packed with powerful antioxidants, such as flavonoids, that are associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. Herbal teas are great for more than just the morning — they offer calming, soothing effects for the afternoon and evenings. Use these tips and tricks for ordering and drinking coffee to turn your favorite morning ritual into a healthy one. The post Stop! Is Your Coffee a Calorie Bomb? appeared first on Under Armour. Source: http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/stop-coffee-calorie-bomb/via Blogger Stop! Is Your Coffee a Calorie Bomb? You don’t have to look too far to see the latest diet gimmicks promising quick and easy weight loss. To set things straight, we’ve debunked some of the most popular weight-loss hacks that frequently backfire. Cutting carbs can be a quick weight-loss strategy for some because it eliminates many highly processed or sugary foods, snacks and drinks from the diet. However, most people don’t know that much of the initial weight loss is simply water weight, since carbohydrates cause the muscle to retain water. Maintaining a very low-carb diet is difficult and not sustainable for most, which is why that weight returns so quickly once carbohydrate consumption resumes. Following strict diet rules all week long can be exhausting and boring. Such a stringent regimen can make you feel like you need a “cheat” meal or a day to reward yourself for your “good” dieting efforts. This way of thinking backfires because it often leads to binging and consuming too many calories, which may undo all of the progress you made during the week. Instead of rewarding your healthy diet efforts with food, treat yourself to new workout gear or another nonfood reward that keeps you motivated and on the straight and narrow. Take away food guilt by allowing yourself to have indulgent foods during the week, but keep portions in check so you don’t go overboard. READ MORE: CLEANSES, WHOLE30 & MORE — DEBUNKING THE TRENDS 3. EATING “CLEAN” (ALL OF THE TIME) Swearing off sweets and junk food, eliminating processed foods and getting back to the basics with nutrition all sound like a great game plan — and it’s what many aspire to do; however, eating this way 100% of the time just isn’t realistic for the long haul. Instead of setting unachievable eating expectations, consider following a moderation approach to wellness: Eat more whole, minimally processed foods 80% of the time, and keep your diet more flexible 20% of the time. Even if you’re eating healthy foods, too much of a good thing can still undermine your efforts. All calories count, which is why overconsuming healthy foods will still lead to weight gain. While eating frequently throughout the day is helpful in maintaining an active metabolism and regulating your appetite, it’s still important to keep tabs on portions so that you don’t end up blowing your calorie budget. While science tells us calories in need to be less than calories out, losing weight and keeping it off are more than a mathematical equation. They’re also an art of figuring out what works best for you. It may seem that the more calories you cut out or burn, the faster you’ll lose weight, but the body is smart and wises up quickly to what you’re doing by reducing your metabolism. As you lose weight and as your exercise routine changes, your calories need to be adjusted slowly and strategically for sustained weight loss. The post 5 Common Weight-Loss Hacks That Can Backfire appeared first on Under Armour. Source: http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/5-common-weight-loss-hacks-can-backfire/via Blogger 5 Common Weight-Loss Hacks That Can Backfire |
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November 2020
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