Not eating a healthy breakfast is a overlooked contributing factor to obesity.
Best Way To Lose Weight? Eat A Healthy Breakfast
If you were to ask for my professional opinion of what is the single most effective strategy for long term weight loss I would say with no hesitation that it would be to always eat a healthy breakfast. We have all heard since we were kids that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, however despite studies showing its importance in ensuring a longer lifespan and its role in appetite control and optimal performance; it is still the meal most often neglected. A survey of 1000 adults conducted by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) found that while 90% of Americans are aware that having breakfast is important for health and peak function, a little less than half of them admitted to eating breakfast every day. We can also see from the many studies done on the significant decrease in academic performance by schoolchildren that do not eat breakfast that not only is a good breakfast vital for ideal brain function, but sadly that many adults here in the United States simply don’t appreciate the importance of breakfast for their families.
Want To Stop Your Cravings- Eat A Healthy Breakfast
In the grip of today’s hectic lifestyles, breakfast in general has been relegated to an ‘on-the-run’ meal in the best of cases and a skipped meal in the worst of them. It’s my belief that this trend is an overlooked contributing factor to the pandemic of obesity in this country. Over the past two decades working as personal trainer helping people lose weight and get into shape, I have always found that people who skip breakfast or have a cursory meal consisting of a quick donut or a bagel with some coffee, tended to be the ones who had a very difficult time not consuming large amounts of junk food in the later part of the day. Going over my training notes over the past 5 years, I can also point out that 100% of those who reported their junk food urges as being uncontrollable did not eat a proper breakfast- this from a sampling of well over 200 individuals of varying ages and fitness levels.
A Healthy Breakfast Is An Easy And Inexpensive Way To Control Your Weight
As simple as it may seem, one of the easiest ways to really take control not only your midsection, but also your appetite is to simply eat a healthy breakfast, and then follow through by eating balanced meals throughout the day. The better your breakfast is, the easier it will be for you to continue eating well throughout the day. It has never been my practice to stand idly by while others struggle and so about two years ago I wrote and published a free e-book on my website, The Naturally Intense™ Breakfast Guide- Keys To Long Term Weight Management. It took me just about a night to put it together, and having seen how much of an impact it has had, I don’t regret a minute of sleep that I lost that night. With almost three thousand copies downloaded from people all over the world, I constantly get emails saying how much better they feel and how much weight they have lost after following the guidelines outlined in the book. It’s a quick read and there are no supplements to buy or specialized meals to purchase- just rudimentary information that I have gleaned over the years that you can use to lose weight and keep it off.
Get A Free Copy Of The Naturally Intense Breakfast Guide- Keys To Long Term Weight Loss
I invite you to download a free copy and share it with your friends, and please feel free to write me if it helps you in your own quest for a better quality of health and fitness. I am always happy to hear from everyone.
Kevin Richardson is the founder of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™ and one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City. Learn more about Kevin and his revolutionary high intensity 10 minute workouts at his official website at www.naturallyintense.net
For the most part my blogs tend to deal with more health and fitness type issues and not topics like ‘Can a healthy person get swine flu’, but being asked so many time by my personal training clients as well as friends and family members about the H1N1 virus, I felt it important to lay out the facts as we know it. Personally I don’t pay much attention to flu season. As a healthy young man in pretty good shape, the flu virus is not a life threatening concern. Swine flu, or as I prefer to call it- H1N1 virus is a bit of a different story.
As a father of five, including a newborn, it does raise some cause for concern as the flu season steadily approaches. I have never had, nor advocated flu vaccines at any time, as my lifestyle tends to not need to much in the way of medical interventions outside of the occasional acupuncture treatments that I would give myself. And while I am not yet fully convinced that vaccination is a be all and end all solution to the problem it does have me thinking as healthy persons in great shape can indeed contract H1N1 and in some cases with fatal consequences.
Image courtesy Wikipedia Commons
Being In Good Shape Is Not A Defense Against H1N1
In terms of actually contracting the flu, it is really simply a matter of being exposed to it. That happens from being in direct contact with someone that is infected, or coming into contact with the virus by touching something that has been contaminated by an infected individual. Being healthy really doesn’t apply here, it is a matter of exposure, where your defense can only be avoidance of infected individuals or really great hygenie practices, like hand washing. Both carry no guarantees unless you live in a bubble, as your level of health can affect the way in which your body responds to a virus- but not whether you can contract it or not.
My mantra for the uninsured has always been to keep yourself in as perfect health as is humanly possible since being in great shape does in most cases bring some prevention of serious disease, or in some cases, milder effects from serious disease and is certainly less costly than paying for extensive treatment. With the H1N1 virus however the typical at risk population isn’t only the very old and the very young, but instead young and healthy individuals seem to be at risk as well. The Bird Flu, (H5N1) has a similar profile and this because both viruses are very much new to the human immune system.
When the human body has no experience dealing with a virus it sets off a powerful defensive response. It is that defensive response that makes us feel really sick in the first place. A newborn or elderly person has a relatively weak immune system, which explains why they are usually the primary concerns in flu season, as they are the ones most likely to succumb to complications due to the flu. Interestingly enough, with both babies and the elderly their immune response to the flu virus is a pretty weak one. Infants don’t have much of a developed system while older adults have systems that have been exposed to many viral strains and can be somewhat weakened over the years and thus have a limited response as well. So if both groups have such small responses, why are they the ones with the most fatalities? The problem for these two populations stem from complications from what are called opportunistic infections. Infections such as pneumonia that seize the opportunity to spread after the host has had their immune systems compromised by the flu virus, and this can in many cases be fatal.
The Problem With Healthy People and The H1N1 Virus
The problem with healthy people and new flu viruses is that when their bodies are faced with an unknown virus, it can some cases trigger a disproportionate response called a “cytokine storm” or hypercytokinemia. During the 1918 flu epidemic, which killed millions, many of whom were indeed young and otherwise healthy adults, the reason for this occurrence was attributed to this same overreaction on the part of the immune system.1 Cytokine storms as well were believed to be the cause of many of the deaths from the 2003 SARS outbreak as well.2
A ‘cytokinetic storm’ is characterized by an overreaction by our immune cells to a new and unknown flu virus, to the point where it proceeds to attack the healthy organs of the body. As a result, individuals aged 15 to 60 can also be devastated by the H1N1 virus or any other new viral infection. So far there is some debate as to whether cytokine storms are responsible for the deaths of younger people at this point. Some suggest that it is indeed as a result of cytokine storms, while the CDC so far has said that more data would be required to make that assessment.3 However the reports of healthy middle aged individuals succumbing to the virus has raised more questions than answers.
Can The H1N1 Virus Be Treated?
One of the problems with a excessive cytokine activity is that it can very disrupt the central nervous system and cause major respiration problems. In extreme cases the treatment is usually to put the patient on a s breathing machine- while their body copes with the virus. Unfortunately the worries that most health experts are having comes from the very small number of such machines in hospitals and that there is simply not enough to deal with a full scale epidemic. There are antiviral drugs available that when taken at the onset of infection can reduce the severity of the symptoms, but have limitations in terms of when they must be administered. So what is the answer to the H1N1?
Is The H1N1 Vaccine the answer?
As I said before, normally I stay away from the idea of flu vaccines completely. I worked with HIV/AIDS and formerly homeless population s for the past 14 years and every year we would administer the yearly flu vaccines. It was available to me as well, but I never took it, for two reasons: number 1 I dislike putting anything in my body unless absolutely necessary my drug free policy extends to all drugs unless it is an immediate matter of life and death and number 2: None of the nurses administering the vaccines ever took the injections themselves. It is always a hit and miss- every year the Center for Disease Control makes an educated guess as to what the seasonal flu will be, and creates a vaccine from the cells of the dead virus.
This time, they are a bit more certain that the H1N1 virus could be a problem and are mandating some health care workers and teachers to be vaccinated less they lose their jobs. I have given the speech for years- the vaccine cannot give you the flu- and am not particularly troubled by it, I would just rather not have to have a vaccine unless it was absolutely necessary. However the vaccine is the most effective tool against the spread of the virus outside of having us all encased in bubble wrap for the flu season.
I hope that this turns out to be a big scare that never materializes like so many other media blitzes, and so far the virus has not increased its mortality rate and has not grown into the widespread killer that so many expected earlier on. Hysteria aside it does help to know the facts so you can make an educated decision as to what you should do. In the meanwhile keep your hands clean, stay away from anyone that might be sick, and keep eating well and exercising. After all, there are still many other flu viruses that you could pick up this season, and it does help to be in good shape if you do. Excelsior.
Disclaimer: All information in this article is for informational purposes only and is not to be used as a subsitute for medical advice.
References:
1. Osterholm, Michael T. (2005-05-05). “Preparing for the Next Pandemic”. The New England Journal of Medicine
2. Huang KJ, Su IJ, Theron M, Wu YC, Lai SK, Liu CC, Lei HY (February 2005). “An interferon-gamma-related cytokine storm in SARS patients”. Journal of Medical Virology
3. “Interim Guidance for Clinicians on Identifying and Caring for Patients with Swine-origin Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Infection”. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 2009-04-29. http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/identifyingpatients.htm.
Lose weight, build real muscle and get Superfit training only 10 minutes 3 times a week! That’s the slogan and the 100% guarantee of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™ created by visionary NYC personal trainer, internationally renowned natural bodybuilder and fitness expert, Kevin Richardson. Get a copy of Kevin’s free award winning weight loss ebook here!
Having A Low Body Fat Percentage Doesn't Mean You Are Healthy!
Nowadays the gold marker by which all health and fitness levels seem to be measured seems to be body fat percentages. Ask just about anyone that is seriously into their fitness regime what their body fat percentage is and nine out of ten times they can tell you exactly what it is. When I started out as a personal trainer, some 18 years ago, I kept calipers as part of my training kit and was very dedicated to measuring my clients on a regular basis. One day my coach came to me and asked me why I had the calipers and the clipboard and I answered that the training manuals said that it was key to measure body fat percentage as an indicator of progress. He laughed and gave me some of the best advice I ever got as a trainer and said that if a client can’t look in the mirror and see the differences themselves in their body, then I am not doing my job! He added that at the end of the day, a change in numbers means nothing when they still have a sizeable layer of fat obscuring their midsection. To this day I don’t use body fat testing as a tool in the Naturally intense System of Deit & Exercise, and in this post I wanted to explore the various ways of testing available on the market to toady as well as why in the end it is really how you look that matters, not just the numbers.
Body Fat Measurements- BMI Examples
Body fat testing can serve a useful purpose to some degree in that it helps give some idea of how much body fat and how much muscle you are carrying at any given time, a reading that the scale or simple Body Mass Index estimates sometimes cannot give. I remember when I enlisted in the U.S. Navy and weighed in at a hefty 220 lbs at a height of 6 feet even. I was told that I was significantly overweight and would have to lose at least 30 to 40 lbs before I could get in. My BMI was 29.8, which gave me a reading saying I was in the higher end of the overweight chart and almost at the point of being obese. I couldn’t tell you how funny that was as I had a body fat level of 6% at the time, with my abdominal muscles rippling and not an ounce of fat really visible on my frame and when the recruiter saw what I looked like under my clothes, he said not to worry about it, and that I would be fine. To this day at 225 lbs and at a body fat level of 5% or lower I am just about listed as being obese, which really highlights the limitations of the BMI scales. (To be fair- it is a noted fact that an athletically built human being’s measurement cannot be used to determine BMI using traditional methods.)
Body fat is a bit more reliable, but again, there are always limitations based on the method used to define it. There are many ways to measure your body fat, some being more accurate than others, but at the end of the day, it isn’t the number that matters, but the changes in the numbers as you keep on measuring using whatever method you choose.
The Simple Tape Measure Method
With tape measure and caliper testing, people who are muscular can get numbers 3 to 5 percent higher than their true percent body fat percentages. This is because they don’t have a lot of fat inside their muscles, so their measurements may be lower than this tape measure test indicates.
Conversely, if a person is skinny but doesn’t have much muscle, this body fat test may yield a number 3 to 5 percent lower than his or her true percent body fat. Though they look thin, unfit skinny people really have more than the usual amount of fat inside their muscles, which you can’t see from the outside. So, what’s the bottom line? For many people, this tape measure test is quite accurate, it puts you in control, it can be done frequently and it costs nothing.
Bioelectrical Impedance Testing
Bioelectrial impedance testing is a fairly common method and is being used more and more in scales that you can have at home. The way it works is that a small electrical charge is sent through the body. The greater the resistance (measured in ohms), the more fat is present, because fat interferes does not conduct electricity as well as muscle does. The lesser the resistance, the more muscle tissue is present, because lean tissue is highly conductive due to its high water content. It can be off by quite a wide margin, as to be accurate hydration levels have to be exactly the same each time as well as the amount of food in your stomach and intestines. The test also tends to overestimate percent body fat in very lean individuals, (sound familiar?) and underestimate body fat in obese people.
Additionally the handheld devices only measure fat levels in the upper body- sending a current through one arm and out the other arm, while and digital scales only measure fat levels in the lower body- current goes up one leg and down the other). Both types models won’t take abdominal fat storage into account, so you’re not getting a full picture of the fat level of your entire body at any time.
Skin Fold Caliper Testing
With the skin fold testing, calipers are used to pinch certain parts of the body and then determine the body fat percentage based on the assumption that the amount of fat stored at these various sites is proportional to a person’s overall body fat, thus by measuring several sites, total body fat may be calculated. It is a pretty reliable test, if the same person performs it each time (it is a skill and there can be wide ranges in reading from different people performing them, as it does take some practice to master.) However there are limits. Some people just don’t pinch easily- and it is hard to get reading from them. Others have such high body fat levels that the calipers cannot open wide enough to pinch accurately and the tests will thus underestimate their levels.
The Golden Standard- Hydrostatic Testing
This can be a pretty involved (and expensive) process, bordering on the extreme for most. Hydrostatic testing for years has been the golden standard, where you are completely immersed in water and then asked to blow as much air as possible out of your lungs. Not exactly a great way to spend and afternoon, but it does give a very precise reading, but is far more involved for most people (myself included) and while more accurate than the caliper tests or simple measurement estimations based on taking measurements from various parts of the body, it still has some degree of error, especially when it comes to athletes- who tend to have higher bone densities than the rest of the population and thus can read to have a higher fat percentage than is actually true. Differences in bone densities based on race also can throw readings off to a degree as well.
There are other methods that are being used more and more, from Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computed Tomography (Cat Scans), Near Infrared Interactance and Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry. All seeking to find more and more accurate ways to measure body fat. Most are way too expensive and time consuming for most as part of a regular regime to record someone’s progress outside of a clinical setting.
What Is A Healthy Body Fat Percentage
Personally, I shy away from the whole idea, as with the Naturally Intense System of Diet and Exercise, a healthy body fat percentage is attained when you can look in the mirror and see very little evidence of fat on your body- end of story. The numbers and the charting means very little to most of us if we don’t look great with our clothes off. That being said, there are some standards that you should know to start off with, in terms of what is healthy and what is unhealthy.
The American Council on Exercise and says men’s body fat should be 6-25%, and women’s should be 14-31% while the American Dietetic Association recommends that men have 15-18% body fat and women have 20-25% body fat.
Healthy male athletes might be as low as 5-12% body fat, and healthy female athletes could be as low as 10-20%.
Body Fat Is Not The Only Indicator Of How Good You Will Look Or Good Health
One of the reasons that I stress that the mirror is more important than any reading you may have, no matter how accurate the method used, is that where you hold your body fat is more important than what your percentage is. For example, my experience has been that two people can have exactly the same body fat percentages and look as different as night and day. Some people can have rippling abs with 15% body fat whereas others have to go as low as 6% to start seeing real definition in their stomach areas.
More importantly the risk of fat related conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, stroke, diabetes and certain cancers is determined by where you hold your body fat. Fat around the abdominal area holds the greatest risk for potential health problems, while fat around the hips and thighs for women seem to be relatively harmless with respect to these health problems.
Although two people can have the weight or the same body fat percentage, that doesn’t mean they face the same health risks. Where body fat is located can place a person at far greater risk for fat-related health conditions such as: cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes and even certain types of cancers.
It is important, for health and well-being, to not only know your body fat percentage but to also pay attention to where that fat is located. Fat around the abdomen may present the greatest risk for health problems. In contrast, fat around the hips and thighs is most common in females and seems relatively harmless with respect to these health problems. So don’t get too hung up on the numbers.
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Learn more about the science behind the 10 minunte workouts of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise here and visit his official website at www.naturallyintense.net. You can also get a copy of Kevin’s free award winning weight loss ebook here!
Common question: Will bread make you fat? One that I get asked over and over, and of course no one food can make you fat, but there are certain foods that can contibute easily to and increase in your weight and that seem to correspond to an overall decrease in performance and possibly have a detrimental overall effect on your health. This two part piece will explore the issue and I will detail my theories on wheat products in general. I hope you find it to be of use.
One of the first things that my personal training clients get is a dietary guide with a caveat of sorts, warning them to stay away from certain foods. Highlighted on that list are all wheat and bread products. It is a commonly accepted fact that consumption of bread and wheat products is an absolute no-no for anyone trying to get into and maintain really optimum condition, and so it doesn’t come to many as a surprise. It seems pretty cut and dry, bread and wheat products equals getting fat and holding excess water, but I have to be honest with you and say that it isn’t that simple.
You see the foundation of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise has always been a return to the foods that we as a species have been consuming for thousands of years over the modern post industrial revolution foods that dominate our food supply today. Before the push for more and more quick and easily stored mass produced foods to support the ever growing numbers during the huge manufacturing and population boom of the late 18th century, there were no epidemic level mortality rates from Type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In fact all of the ills that we take for granted as just another sign of aging are really simply a byproduct of eating modern food products. Products that either contain ingredients that are foreign to the human body, or made in a way that disrupts the natural biochemical ratios of the micro and macronutrients in our foods. A disruption that ultimately wreaks havoc with the way that our body has been designed and adapted to over the course of our hundred thousand plus years of existence.
Bread, then falls into a bit of a questionable category, as it has been around for almost as long as civilization has existed, providing a convenient source of both carbohydrates, micronutrients, fats and some protein to millions over the centuries without any ill effects. It is still eaten daily by many in cultures where modern processing has not yet found a foothold, and those populations seem untouched by the idea that it is somehow bad for your health. True bread does not grow on trees, nor is it a non processed food in the purest sense of the word, but just like rice, the human body learned to adapt to it over the course of the thousands of years that it was consumed. This process, called micro-evolution is one that occurs over a long period and one glaring problem with modern foods is that they simply are too new to our body to learn how to adapt to it. Perhaps over the course of several thousand years we will be able to consume high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils with no problem whatsoever, but I for one don’t want to see what humans would look like at that time.
The problem with modern bread is twofold- number one- it is not made in the manner that traditional bread was made, (and don’t be fooled into thinking that the so called organic breads on the market are any better, because 99% of them are not) and the ingredients that it contains. In PART 2 I will detail exactly why bread today is not what we think it is, and why even the organic brands are suspect. Keep on reading!
Lose weight, build real muscle and get Superfit training only 10 minutes 3 times a week! That’s the slogan and the 100% guarantee of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™ created by visionary NYC personal trainer, internationally renowned natural bodybuilder and fitness expert, Kevin Richardson. Get a copy of Kevin’s free award winning weight loss ebook here!
Supplements are always a bit problematic in terms of figuring out what works and what does not, as the placebo effect is so strong if someone thinks that a substance has a health benefit. As a personal trainer over the past 18 years and working with a lot of individuals with osteoarthritis, I can say that my opinion is mixed. I do not and never do advocate any unproven supplements, but when my clients use something, I take notes to see if there is any validity to the claims. What I saw with 8 clients using glucosamine- some of them used glucosamine with chondroitin, all but one reported an initial sense of relief, but as the months went all of them said symptoms that they had were doing better. (Keep in mind as well that this is just what I saw, the dosages and other control issues were not in any way controlled). The problem with taking this into consideration is that they were all doing supervised resistance training, focused on helping them improve their joint mobility and increasing the strength of their surrounding muscles (6 of the clients had knee issues, 1 had elbow issues and 1 had problems with his fingers).
Was the glucosamine responsible, or was it the training? I am inclined to go with the conclusion that it was the training, as many other clients who did not use any supplements had similar relief over time. What I recommend everyone to use as an authoritative tool in evaluating any supplement claim is the Cochrane Review. They essentially are a well established peer review group that evaluates and confirms the results of thousands of studies in many fields. Their findings were that glucosamine’s effects on humans are thus far questionable at best.
Hope this helps.
NOTE: If you liked my blog post and are able to forward it to a friend, or give me a Stumble thumbs up or review, Digg it and add it to a few other social networking sites or link it to your blog, I would very much appreciate it! Thanks for reading!
Kevin Richardson is one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City, a prominent health and fitness writer and the founder of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™- a system designed to help you do everything from lose weight to build muscle using 10 minute workouts.
