Intermittent fasting (IF) is an umbrella term for various diets that cycle between a period of fasting and non-fasting. Intermittent fasting can be used along with calorie restriction for weight loss
A 2014 review described that studies done in animal models have shown fasting improves indicators of health—blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, and inflammation—likely through adaptive cellular responses to better handle stress. These findings suggest intermittent fasting has the potential to improve health and reduce the risk of chronic diseases; however this has not been reproduced in long-term human studies. The review concluded that intermittent fasting has not been studied in children, the elderly, or the underweight, and could be harmful in this population.
They also suggest that those choosing to fast for periods of time greater than 24 hours should be monitored by a physician, as changes to the gastrointestinal system or circadian rhythm can occur.
The Expendables 3 star, former American football player and all-round MF favorite Terry Crews shares his opinions on how not to conduct yourself in the gym. Which one are you guilty of?
1. Hogging ALL the machines
2. Littering your weights EVERYWHERE
3. Leaving a trail of sweat on all the kit
4. Doing arm curls in the squat rack
5. Using your phone mid-workout
See Crews’s advice for correcting these heinous gym crimes and diet and share with a friend you know is guilty of one of the above. Lesson learned.
Everywhere you turn, people give out diet tips and advice for how to lose fat or build muscle fast. The problem is, most of that advice is terrible and will not help you to get to your goal any faster. As a matter of fact, many popular diet tips will do exactly the opposite of what they are supposed to be helping you to do. In this video, I cover four of the most popular diet and meal plan tips that need to be buried right here and now.
Right off the bat, some will have you believe that eating fat makes you fat. That can’t be further from the truth. Eating fat, COULD make you fat if you eat in excess of your daily caloric maintenance levels just as eating too many carbs and protein can as well. The simple act of eating a fat molecule will not cause it to be stored as body fat in your body. In fact, nutritional fats are a necessary part of a healthy diet plan, with fat making up a portion of the surrounding layer of nearly every cell in your body.
Next diet myth that needs to die is the concept that eating after 6PM at night is somehow going to make you fat. Again, it comes down to where you are at in your daily caloric intake in relation to your maintenance levels. If you are 800 calories below your daily caloric maintenance intake, eating these calories at 7 or 8 or even 10PM is not going to adversely affect you in your pursuit of getting a ripped six pack. The fact of the matter is, you are still at or below your level to maintain your current level of body fat and simply shifting the time at which you consume these calories does not change their thermal effect.
That said, eating your meals too infrequently throughout the day can wreak havoc on your blood sugar levels. Having wildly unstable levels of blood sugar can lead to severe alterations in mood, focus and most importantly cravings. When you allow your cravings to build too significantly, you often find yourself in a position where you will grab foods that don’t align themselves with your healthy eating approach needed to get ripped and stay ripped as you build muscle.
The next popular eating and diet tip that is dispensed all too often these days is the concept that you cannot build muscle if you are following a vegan or vegetarian meal plan. Why? There are plenty of protein options available to those following a meat and dairy free meal plan including quinoa, chick peas, and even pea protein powders that enable vegans to get adequate protein without having to follow a meat based eating plan. The total amount of protein needed to build new muscle is still a hotly debated topic however it has been shown to vary from individual to individual and could be far less than what you may have been told previously.
Finally, there is a mistaken belief by some that taking supplements and fat burners will get you ripped. That is simply not the case if you refuse to also take your daily diet plan seriously. If you think that you can eat like garbage the whole day and simply pop a supplement and get lean, ripped abs you are wrong. That said, someone that is committed to eating healthy and then supplements their diet plan with workout and nutrition supplements is often able to get much faster results than those that don’t.
A lot of the success of workout supplements has to do with their ability to help you remain consistent with your nutrition plan and stay accountable to it. Starting your day with a supplement that you are financially invested in will help you to be emotionally invested in the goals you set forth for getting ripped and muscular that you set when you initially purchased the supplement. The consistency that supplements provide in helping you to get in high quality nutrition in a portable and easy to prepare way is likewise priceless.
As you can see, there are many workout and nutrition or diet myths that are popular and preventing you from getting abs and building muscle. If you want to follow a step by step diet plan for building muscle and getting ripped at the same time, head to http://athleanx.com and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System. Get a six pack and build athletic muscle and keep it year round by eating like an athlete.
A woman’s health depends on a lot of factors. Every woman should make time for healthy habits — regular exercise, stress management, choosing the right foods — and she should also be scheduling routine health screenings so potential problems can be spotted early. In fact, health screenings can make keeping tabs on your health simple.
So what screenings should you be getting? These 5 are a good start.
1. Blood pressure screening. Starting at age 18, every woman needs to have her blood pressure checked at least every two years. This health screening involves wrapping a cuff around the arm and pumping it up tightly. Ideal blood pressure for women is less than 120/80 mmHg (millimeters of mercury). If your insurance doesn’t cover a blood pressure screening (though most insurance companies do), check into free screenings in your community.
2. Cholesterol check. Women should have their cholesterol checked at least every five years starting at about age 20. This screening is important for decreasing your risk of heart disease, and can be done at your doctor’s office or at a lab with a doctor’s order, as the test only involves drawing a blood sample. Some community health fairs offer quick cholesterol screenings, involving nothing but a finger-prick. If you get a high reading on this screening test, you will be referred to your doctor for more complete testing. The ideal level is below 200 mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter) for total cholesterol.
3. Pap smears and pelvic exams. Beginning at age 21, or earlier if you are sexually active, women need to have a pelvic exam and Pap smear every two years to check for any abnormalities in the reproductive system. Guidelines for this cervical cancer screening recently changed from once a year, as studies found no benefit to such frequent screenings. Barring any problems, women age 30 and older only need a Pap smear every three years if they have had three normal tests in a row. To take the Pap smear, a speculum is placed inside the vagina to widen the vaginal canal, and your doctor uses a small tool to take cells from the cervix to detect any cell changes that can lead to cervical cancer. Your doctor can also screen for sexually transmitted diseases.
4. Mammograms and breast exams. Starting around age 20, women should have a clinical breast exam at least every three years until age 40, when this should be done annually, according to most experts. This is a manual exam — your doctor uses her fingers to examine the breasts for any lumps or abnormalities. A mammogram is a screening test for breast cancer and involves applying moderate compression to the breasts so that X-ray images can be captured. Mammograms are done every one or two years beginning at age 40. (The United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends mammograms beginning at age 50, but the American Cancer Society still recommends earlier screening.)
5. Bone density screen. Women should start getting screened for osteoporosis with a bone density test at age 65. Women with risk factors for osteoporosis, such as having a slender frame or a fractured bone, should be screened earlier. For this test, you lie on the table while a scanning machine takes X-ray images of certain bones in your body. Healthy bones show a T-score (the measurement used to describe your bone density) of -1 or higher. The frequency of this health screening varies from woman to woman based on bone density and risk factors.
Zhou is one of the many victims affected by the lead contamination in Lower Klity Creek, a remote village in Thailand close to the Burma border. For more than 20 years its residents, who are mostly ethnic Karen, have been coping with the contamination caused by a nearby lead mine which has been dumping the wastewater into the main river flowing through the village. People dependent on the river for drinking and fishing have fallen sick; many have been diagnosed with lead poisoning. Although there are no medical reports recording many of these problems, villagers claim that more than ten people have died. The rest still suffer from symptoms such as aches, fatigue, dizziness, loss of memory, and numbness. Some children, like Zhou Sen, have been struck with developmental and mental disorders. Other villagers have been blinded.
Although the mine shut down 17 years ago, the creek has never been restored and the concentration of lead in the sediment remains 20 times higher than normal, and the consequences for the village have been severe.
“In the past, people in Klity used to lead a self-sustainable life. They have had rice plantations or livestock. When they had to go to the hospital, for example, they would sell a buffalo,” said human-rights lawyer Surapong Kongchantuk. “But after the contamination, their livestock could not drink water from the creek and many animals have died. Their life has changed. They cannot fish anymore, they have to buy the fish instead.”
CHRONIC INSOMNIA – I have been an insomniac all of my life. Even as a young child I remember laying in bed night after night, trying to occupy my mind to starve off the crazies.
It has stayed with me my whole life and I will probably have to deal with it forever. I’m lucky if I sleep 3 hours a night, if I sleep at all. I get an average of about 20-25 hours sleep in a week, sometimes a little more, sometimes less.
Over the years I’v developed strategies to deal with the problems that sleep deprivation cause, but it is still really hard to deal with sometimes.
Is there anyone else on HUB that suffers from sleep problems? How do you cope with it? How does it affect you and those around you?
Pollution in Minnesota’s drinking water has gotten worse in recent years, but no one wants to call out the industry responsible. It’s been the primary source of water pollution for decades, making water in some areas of the country dangerous to drink and costing local taxpayers millions of dollars to clean it up.
And what Minnesota residents may not know is that this pollution could double their chances of getting bladder, thyroid, and ovarian cancer.
The culprits are big agricultural operations that are heavily reliant on synthetic fertilizers and chemicals, causing toxic contamination to flow from crop fields into local rivers, lakes and even groundwater.
Big growers apply a lot of fertilizer to their fields, which runs off into groundwater in the form of nitrates. A 2012 EWG study based on United States Geological Survey data found that water in Minnesota streams had eight times more nitrates than streams that are not vulnerable to agricultural pollution. And shallow groundwater that’s a common source of drinking water in Minnesota had four times as much nitrate as the national background level.
Minnesotans should worry about that, because high levels of nitrate in drinking water roughly double a person’s chances of getting several cancers.
A 2010 study led by Dr. Mary Ward of the National Cancer Institute found that public water supplies high in nitrates were linked to a more than doubling of thyroid cancer risk. And in a 2001 study led by Peter Weyer at the University of Iowa, nitrate contamination in water was associated with almost tripling the risk of bladder cancer and almost doubling the risk of ovarian cancer.
Both of these studies involved public water supplies with nitrate levels below what the EPA deems safe to drink.
That’s because the EPA sets the nitrate thresholds so as to prevent the life-threatening effects of drinking highly contaminated water, such as Blue Baby Syndrome, a condition that cuts off the flow of oxygen to a baby’s brain. But the threshold doesn’t protect against cancer and other diseases caused by long-term exposure.
Also, shockingly, big agricultural operations are largely exempt from the Clean Water Act, the landmark 1972 federal law that protects drinking water from nitrates and contaminants from other sources.
To add insult to injury, farm subsidies create incentives for growers to plant and fertilize crops on erodible soil that pours even more nitrates into the water.
Here’s a thought: Instead of encouraging growers to pollute more, we should require growers who collect federal farm subsidies to curtail cancer-causing contaminants in our water.
When it comes to obtaining the micronutrients your body needs, your best possible source is food, especially fruits and vegetables. But circumstances may prevent you from eating optimally every day. The main reason I take supplements is for insurance against gaps in my diet. Also, researchers are finding that some important vitamins (D and E particularly) and minerals are protective against disease in amounts that may be difficult to obtain through diet alone, no matter how conscientious you are. This is another reason I take supplements faithfully and encourage my patients to do so as well.
I recommend a comprehensive antioxidant and multivitamin for women and men as the basic foundation for nutritional insurance. My recommended daily antioxidant regimen includes 200 mg of vitamin C, 400 to 800 IU of natural vitamin E (or 80 mg of mixed tocopherols and tocotrienols), 200 mcg of selenium, 15,000 to 20,000 IU of mixed carotenoids, and 30 to 100 mg of coenzyme Q10.
Supplementation to cover dietary gaps is only one aspect of optimum health, which also includes the following lifestyle approaches:
Be active
For optimum health, I recommend walking every day.
Eat a diet rich in antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids Vegetables and fruits are the best sources of antioxidants, although tea and dark chocolate contribute as well. Cold-water fish, freshly ground flaxseed and walnuts all provide omega-3 fatty acids.
Do not smoke and avoid secondhand smoke
Smoking is the single greatest cause of preventable major illness. The best defense against the harmful effects of tobacco is to never use it.
De-stress Practice breathing exercises and explore other relaxation techniques such as yoga and meditation to find ones that work for you.
Question and answer Q. What is the optimum time of day to take vitamin and mineral supplements? Are there certain foods that interfere with absorption?
A. There are no rules about the best time of day to take supplements. My advice is to take them when they agree with you most. Many people find taking pills of any kind as part of a morning routine makes it easier to remember, so taking them with breakfast is a popular option. Vitamin and mineral supplements can cause nausea, heartburn, and other gastric disturbances, especially when taken on an empty stomach. For best absorption and the least irritation to the stomach, I generally suggest taking your supplements with a meal containing fat. This is particularly important for the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D and E). Experiment with taking your supplements with lunch or dinner if they cause you problems with breakfast.
