Fat Reduction

Muffin Top Got You Down?

I gained a bit of weight over the winter. For the first time in my life, I actually have a little bit of a muffin top!  And I can pinch almost an inch on my back (yeah, the dreaded back fat that ladies hate, I think I have a little of that too!).  Hey, it’s inevitable when you gain weight and your body has nowhere else to store it, it’s gonna go in the most unsavory places you can think of. No avoiding that.

Muffin top, as you well know, and as I’m sure you heard, has been added to our American lexicon officially when it was added to Websters Dictionary just months ago, is that overflowing flub that comes out over your jeans when you sit down. Hey, sometimes it comes out when you’re standing, but my experience has been that it’s worst when you sit down since everything compresses together, and kind of squishes out, which fat loss can greatly help.

I don’t know if any of you reading have ever experienced this, but I most certainly have. Have you noticed that when you start to lose some weight, you notice that everything gets really jiggly suddenly? It’s almost like the fat becomes less firm and starts to “loosen up” in order to be shed from your body. So parts that may have seemed they had an extra inch to pinch may suddenly get a lot looser when you just start to lose the weight.

That’s what’s happening to me now. I’m going hard core low carb right now so that I can lose the excess weight that I need to in order to feel comfy in my clothes again.  It’s hard for me, but unfortunately going very low carb is the only way I’ve found for my body and metabolism type to get the weight off quickly and effectively.

Losing weight and toning up is the only sure way to get rid of love handles, muffin tops, and back fat.  It’s easier said than done though, especially as we get older and our bodies and metabolism naturally slows down. 

Going on diets that strip fat off the body quickly, as well as exercise regimens that do the same, like intense, short burst workouts (my favorites are Jillian Michaels Thirty Day Shred series).  That’s the type of diet and exercise that really peels the fat off the body, and gets rid of that extra stuff you don’t want to see pouring out over your clothes!  Fat loss supplements are also a good way to speed up the burn, or help your body get in gear to do it on its own.

What is a Good BMI to Have?

The term “BMI” seems to have entered the diet, weightloss and fitness fray only in the past decade or so. I was totally unaware of this way to count your body fat and your muscle composition until about 5 years ago myself.

I had heard the term bandied about, but I never knew what it actually meant until I did some research on it for an article I was writing on how to reduce body fat safely and what a good weight was for your height.

Essentially, what I was writing about WAS in itself BMI, since the very thing that BMI (Body Mass Index) measures, is your weight, calculated along with your height, and then it comes up with a number that is either good or bad, depending on the standards that are set at the time. 

The BMI measurement differs between the sexes, like so many other measurements do.  For women, they often report they are more satisfied with their bodies when their BMI is between 20 to 22.  I tend to feel my fittest and trimmest – my HEALTHIEST, somewhere in this range myself. 

In fact, I feel like I look good and feel good when I’m closer to the 20 BMI number, but that’s just my personal comfort zone. 

For men, a good BMI usually tends to be 23 to 25.  Anything lower than these average BMI’s for men and women means that you definitely don’t need to lose any weight, and that your average longeivty is longer than those with higher BMI’s.

You can find BMI calculators online in many places, so you just plug in your weight and your height, usually along with your sex, and you get that magic BMI number. Then you can determine whether you think you need to shed a few pounds or not.

It really depends on what your personal comfort level is as well. You should definitely pay attention to this measurement, because it is somewhat of an indicator of your overall health since so much of our health is connected to our weight. 

However, don’t put all stock in it. If you feel good and have minimum health and medical issues, yet this number is just a little off, then well, I say you just blow it off!

You’ve Lost the Weight, Now What About that Cellulite?

Cellulite Treatments at Home - Cheaper and Effective

Cellulite.  Every woman knows that name and every woman hates it.

We all have it, no matter how much weight we lose or how much we work out.

Why do women almost always have cellulite? Well, we manufacture estrogen out the wazoo, and estrogen is thought to be the primary reason behind cellulite formation.

Estrogen stores itself in fat actually, and the more fat we have on our body, the more cellulite we have as well, because the contraction process of the collagen bands that are beneath the surface of our skin intensifies, trying to hold that fat in.

What you get as a result is the pouchy, puckered look of cellulite that we all despise.  Unfortunately it’s a really tough thing to overcome.  You can spend thousands in ongoing treatments at the salon or spa, and it still will come back.

This is why so many women choose to treat cellulite in their own home as part of their ongoing campaign to reduce the puckered looking stuff.

First off, to reduce cellulite the most, of course weight loss helps to dramatically reduce it’s appearance. I notice that as soon as I put on a few pounds, the cellulite comes roaring back full force on my trouble areas like my butt and thighs.

This is where most women have the problem, it’s not unusual. However, even after losing weight, you will still notice it.  See our suggestions for the best cellulite creams and treatments here.

I’ve chosen to manage my cellulite at home because of a few things. I’ve actually received professional treatments to reduce cellulite in the past. They literally cost me hundreds of dollars, for only a few sessions.

I realized that not only did they not make a dramatic difference like I’d expect for that amount of money, but I also realized that with practice and diligence, I could get those same results doing it myself in my own home.

I also realized that I’d have to forever fork over the dough to get continuous treatments, because even those are not permanent – you have to go on a “forever” maintenance schedule. Who needs that huge bill added to their financial burden every month?

So, I use the Revitol cellulite cream in my own home, and I apply pressure, massaging it deeply into my skin.  Two things help reduce the  cellulite. First, the tightening ingredients in the cream help to reduce the appearance topically, and reduce the puffiness that creates the illusion of cellulite.

Second, my manual compression and kneading actually helps to break up the collagen bands that cause the puckering.

Body Wraps for Cellulite Reduction?

One thing that I have always struggled with was cellulite. I think that every woman can relate to what I’m saying. Even when I’ve been at a perfect weight in my life, I still see that flabby looking, dimpled and soft flesh that seems to cling to my thighs, buttocks and belly.  And if I even gain a few pounds, watch out. It gets a lot worse.  Because the more body fat you have, the more cellulite appears, making it look worse.

Cellulite is caused by lack of circulation and also excess fluids and fat built up in the subcutaneous layers under the skin. There are these things called collagen bands, which constrict the fat and fluid, and make your skin appear dimpled or give it that “orange peel” appearance that you hear talked of so often.

This look is exactly what women are trying to get rid of, and body wraps for cellulite reduction do just that. They help to eliminate excess water and fluid retention, and they also work by the principle of compression, meaning that they sort of “hold everything in” a lot better, and make the body appear slimmer, and reduce the appearance of the cellulite sponginess that we all hate so much.

Cellulite body wraps at home are a much better deal than you’ll get at most salons and spas, which can charge anywhere from fifty to a hundred bucks for a body wrap. Now of course, in a spa you get the pampered feeling of having someone else wrap you up, but then what? You just sit there with the wrap on you for a while, that’s it!  Well, for roughly thirty bucks an application, you can get this high quality at home cellulite body wrap.

Body wraps really help, especially over time, by slimming and streamlining the body, reducing those lumps, bumps and bulges that make the body look more uneven and unappealing. Body wraps for cellulite are exceptionally effective against cellulite because they work so well as helping reduce those excess fluids that make cellulite appear severe.  They are well worth a look in to if you can’t stand having cellulite and you want an economical and convenient way to help treat your cellulite.

Fat Has It’s Own Taste Bud?

Well, it’s no wonder we all find fat so darn tasty.  It’s because, as researchers have recently discovered, fat is actually another one of our many senses of taste. In addition to sweet and salty (nothing like a pretzel and chocolate, yum), fat is actually it’s own taste to the human taste buds, and there are actually sensors on the human tongue that can detect the distinctive taste of fat.  Some people, it was found, are actually a little more sensitive to the taste of fats than others are.

The people who are fortunate enough to be very sensitive to these fatty flavors are actually less likely to be obese and to have the desire to over eat.  Because they can pick up the taste of fat so well, they actually don’t want to eat a lot of it.Conversely, people who don’t have all that great of a sense of fat detection on their tongue’s taste buds, tend to over do it on consuming fat because they are just simply less dialed in to the flavor.

I’m not sure where I’d fit in personally on the spectrum. I dare say I’d be considered down the middle of the road on that count. Where do you think you fall?  Oh, and this fits perfectly with one of our last topics, where researchers have found that junk food is just as addictive as drugs like cocaine because of what it does to the dopamine levels in the body, and the intense cravings it creates when someone eats a lot of it at one time.

The Significance of BMI

When it comes to weight watching and fitness levels today, there is a new buzz word, or shall I say buzz acronym, on everyone’s lips from pediatricians who are cautioning parents about their children’s track to weight gain, to adult weight and health counselors who are counseling their patients about how to lose weight, to your local gym worker who is training you to reach your fitness goals. You see, BMI, or Body Mass Index, is a measurement like no other that can measure your body’s overall health and “portions” of the bad stuff vs. the good stuff.

It basically measures the fat content of your body, which should never go over a certain percentage that quite frankly seems to be pretty low at first glance, but when you consider that most of your body is soft tissue and muscles, and organs and all that good stuff, then you see why too much fat is a bad thing.

For one thing, visceral fat, which is the fat that surrounds and is between your vital organs like your stomach, your liver and kidneys and so on and so forth, is a major factor behind heart disease, as it’s been discovered over the past decade or so, and this is why doctors caution against a lot of belly fat and put patients on diets and recommend changes to them.

BMI is significant not only to how you look and how you feel, but it’s also important for your health and longevity. Since that has become painfully obvious, there are many gyms now that will measure your BMI for you. Heck, even the Wii Fit system measures your BMI for you and gives you rave reviews or high marks for getting a good reading. Either that, or it has your little gravatar holding it’s belly and looking depressed. All this has a point to get across, that if your BMI is at a healthy level, you will enjoy not only the fit and trim, fat reduced body that you deserve, but you will also enjoy a longer, more productive, more energetic life.

HGH in Spotlight for Fat Reduction, Muscle Building

HGH, or human growth hormone has been used as an anti aging regimen for a while, except the catch is that doctors cannot prescribe someone HGH for anti aging or for weight loss or muscle building and fat loss, but they have to hear the words “hormone deficiency” before they can give out that magical little piece of paper that allows people into the elite world of HGH injections. As you probably know, as we age, there is a certain amount of muscle wasting that happens, along with additional fat gain in parts of body that tend to hold onto fat in the first place.

Hence men and women with spare tires and beer guts as we age. This is because our bodies metabolisms slow as we get older, and also our ability to gain muscle and lose fat becomes harder to activate because our levels of human growth hormone start to go down, and this hormone is responsible for that easy physique that seems to come to us in a breeze when we are younger, even forgiving our occasional forays into the burger and fries joints with greater ease than it does when we get older.

Have you ever heard the expressions that your body changes and rearranges as you age? Or that you seem to just look at a plate of food and gain weight, whereas you didn’t have that problem when you were younger? A lot of that is due to a deficiency in HGH as we age, because this is essentially the hormone of youth. You can help your body produce more by taking an HGH supplement, and by living a healthy lifestyle, but also getting enough sleep is vital, since your body makes this hormone primarily at night when you are getting a good nights sleep.

I just watched a documentary that was about the world of illegal injections such as steroids and other abused performance enhancing and muscle building drugs, and found that HGH was not as widely prescribed as we think, mostly because the FDA prohibits it from being prescribed for what most people think it should be, which is for anti aging purposes, muscle building and fat loss, along with energy enhancement, but rather can only be prescribed for a hormone deficiency of some sort or for people with special health problems that need it.

That of course doesn’t stop some people from getting it on the black market since it is available that way if you can’t get it from a doctor. However, beware that there could be potential side effects using these injections, and that it is illegal which means you could get in trouble if you don’t have a prescription. Also be aware that they have no long term studies on these since they are used so seldom for long term and therefore they have no basis to provide a study.

What is This “Secret” to Belly Fat Loss as Seen on Ads?

I’ve been seeing this recurring ad on CNN, MSNBC and even Yahoo while I’m getting my mail, all referring to some new secret weight loss regimen that involves various women and their blogs about losing belly fat at a very fast rate.  The one I ran across and checked out was one about a woman named Nicholle who was saying that she lost 45 lbs in three months, which is a very fast paced 15 lbs per month, more than some experts may recommend, but as I can personally attest, it is very possible to do it safely, I’ve done that with the Zone diet, and I felt fine doing it.

The “secret” to Nicholle’s weight loss ended up being one of these new Acai berry herbal weight loss pills that supposedly helps you lose weight by increasing the energy levels and helping to remove toxins from the body.  I think acai berry is incredibly excellent for you, but as far as it’s weight loss appeal, I’m not really sure how it actually helps to burn fat, however I can see how it would definitely help you increase energy levels and feel better, which sometimes is half the battle of losing weight.

I also think it’s a great idea to add this super fruit to your diet, no matter what purpose you’re adding it for – weight loss or just to feel and look a lot better and to maintain and promote the health of your skin, organs and digestive system.  Oh, they also claim that this supplement can help your digestive and waste tracts (colon) clean which also helps to contribute to weight loss – I would agree with that claim although I haven’t tried this particular natural diet pill, I do think that colon health is pivotal to anyone’s weight loss and healthy weight maintenance after weight loss.

Nicholle says she used two products in conjunction though – one was the Acai berry supplement and the other was specifically made for colon cleansing (see Bowtrol review for our recommendation for colon cleansing), so those two together are what she says helped her to reach her weight loss goals and maintain them.  On the blog, there are pictures of Nicholle, without her head and face showing, demonstrating how much weight she lost with a large pair of pants she fit into in the Before picture and the same pair of pants, now two times too big for her.

This is certainly a very desirable outcome for many women and men.  I’d love to hear if anyone else has had this experience, or a bad experience or review with these very products being advertised so widely so we can publish it here.  Thanks!

SRT1720 a Promising Fat Burning Drug

Wow, if this was ever a “miracle pill” for people who wish they could just lose weight without even working at it, or at least eat whatever they want without gaining weight, then this is it.  It’s a new drug in development by French scientists called for the time being at least “SRT1720″.  It’s being tested on mice currently and has been found to protect the mice on the drug from weight gain even when they are put on a high fat diet.  It somehow tricks the body into going into fat burning mode supposedly, which prevents weight gain when ingesting large amounts of calories and fat.  In essence, it mimics a low calorie diet without the low calorie diet. 

Sounds great, right?  Who wouldn’t want this wonder drug?  Problem is with  drugs like this, there isn’t much information out there yet on long term effects.  Although the mice this SRT1720 is being tested on have not shown any adverse side effects as of yet, there also hasn’t been quite enough time to tell of any potential long term effects. 

The questions I would have on this drug are things like, ok once you get off of the drug, do you forever have to go back on it since your body probably reverts back to it’s old way of metabolizing and burning fat to stay thin?  They mentioned in the study that the mice that were on a lower dose of the drug did not get as much benefit as far as fat burning and no weight gain, while the mice that were on the higher doses were the ones that maintained a healthy weight and did not gain weight while on the higher doses. 

Would this then be something one could grow accustomed and therefore immune to, needing larger and larger doses in order to stay thin? Could it somehow then sabotage the body after one goes off the drug, kicking the body into maximum fat storage, making even a glimpse at a high fat meal to adhere to their thighs and belly?  Hmm, these are all questions that I’d want to know before taking this drug. 

The SRT1720 drug has not yet been tested on humans, so there is a lot more research and clinical trials that will be needed before this unique metabolic helper would make it’s way to market.  There is also another possible use for it besides weight loss and weight control, which would be for blood sugar stabilization.   Oh, and there were no side effects such as changes in eating patterns observed in the mice. 

Body Composition and Weight Control

Body composition is related to your metabolism as science and biology clearly state.  The higher the ratio of muscle to fat, the faster your metabolism will be.  It is a fact that a pound of muscle at rest will burn 60 times the calories than a pound of fat will.
Apply this theory to what type of workout you do when considering diffferent types of exercise for weight control.   Cardiovascular types of programs are great for your heart and lungs but may not have as much benefit for as long of a time as a weight training program would do.
So, the ideal workout would combine a cardiovascular and a weight training routine into your exercise program.   A weight training program will help you to build muscle and therefore fuel your metabolism to burn your calories faster and more efficiently.
As we age, we often lose muscle mass which can result in gaining weight even when we cut calories and constantly diet.  Often, people do a cardio workout alone to attempt to control weight.  With a cardio workout only, you will burn calories during the workout and for a short time afterward.
If you weight train and build muscle mass, you’ll burn more calories 24 hours a day, even at rest.
Weight training should be done at a level appropriate for your personal fitness and age.  It should be started with guidance from a trainer, gradually starting with resistance training.
Combine the weight training with cardio and adjust your diet to include more protein, vegetables and carbohydrates that are unrefined whole grains.  You’ll notice you’ll feel better, look better and have improved weight control.
Weight training is not just for body builders. It is part of a complete exercise routine that should not be overlooked.  Weight training has the added benefit of slowing bone loss that occurs with aging.