5 ways to fight obesity

Obesity is a huge problem worldwide and is always increasing. Ireland have big problems to do with obesity. We are set to be the most obese country in Europe according thwe WHO. In this blog I'll discuss the ways in which we can fight obesity so Ireland can become healthy again

When 2030 hits obesity in women will jump from 23% to 57% in Ireland, for men it will jump from 26% to 48%. These numbers are very worrying.
Here are 3 simle ways to fight it:

1. Strength and cardio training.
This is extremly important when trying to lose weigtht as they reduce your body fat and increase your muscle mass. There are hundreds of great training programmes out there for weight loss. In order to see results, a good balance of strength and cardio training is important. The cardio will mainly help with loosing fat [ along with decreasing your calories ] and the strength training will help increase muscle mass. I would recommend hiring a personal trainier to assist you in perfecting the exercises. Consistancy is how you are going to see progression, the longer you stick at it, the better results you'll see. For kids, they need to focus on getting their couple of hours exercising. Parents and teachers need to keep encouraging kids to do so. 

 

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2. Good nutrition.
Following on from exercise, a good diet is required. Adults need to keep track of their caloric intake for effective results. In previous blogs, I have mentioned that decreasing your daily caloric intake from your regular caloric intake will help reduce weight. I feel that the parents and teachers really need to focus in on teaching the kids about good eating habits. They should do this by leading by example, going to Mcdonalds regularly does not help. They need to teach the kids to make good choices for themselves. In Primary schools across the country, interactive nutrition programmes should be given out by the government. This way kids will have a basic understanding of nutrtion and will be able to make good choices for themselves.

3. Motivating each other.
Having people around that support and push you is so important as it will keep you in the game for longer. The journey will become much easier with good friends that will be there for you through it. The one thing you don't need is negetivity, so if there are people in your life that constantly bring you down, leave them. They won't help you in achieving your goals. Have positive people around you.

Obesity can be defeated if we all help and encourage each other. We all need to do our part.

intermittent fasting

Intermitted fasting is an eating pattern for people who want to lose weight. However many people think that this type of diet is starving yourself to lose fat, this isn't true! In this blog I'll discuss what it actually is in simple terms and the pros and cons of this method.


Intermittent fasting is how you arrange your meals throughout the day. This is a common dieting  method for bodybuilders who are cutting down for a show and want to get lean quickly. The purpose of intermittent fasting is to reduce your daily caloric intake. This is done by fasting throughout the day, usually lasting 16 hours and then eating for about 8 hours after. This may seem like a bizzare way of dieting, but research has shown that it does actually reduce body weight and helps with fat loss. 

So how do you do it? When you wake up you consume barely any calories, water and zero calorie drinks are good. Then in the afternoon time you can start taking in calories. Continue eating until around 8-9 pm and then fast for the night. It's a good way to control your appitiet. I recommend that you eat big, calorically dense meals as you aren't eating as frequently throughout the day. This is an easy diet plan to follow and means you won't have to cook as much. The cons of this diet is that not having breakfast worrys some people as they consider it the most important meal of the day. This could lead to fatigue throughout the day, which coud affect physical performance. It's also bad for anyone who struggles to consume enough calories as they need to focus on eating more regularly

Intermitted fasting is a diet that is effective if followed properly. I would recommened it, but make sure that it suits your daily lifestyle.

What is 'bulking'

                                                Bulking

                
     Bulking is one of the most common terms when it comes to nutrition among active people. However many people do not really know what it is or how to use this dieting terms. In this blog I'll explain what bulking actually is and how to bulk.


Bulking means increasing your calories from your maintenance level of calories. For example, Tom eats roughly 2700 calories each day to stay at around 90kg. Tom wants to get to 95kg, so in order to achieve his goal he must increase his daily caloric intake of 2700 calories to 3200 calories for example. In order to see good results he must be consistent in hitting his new daily caloric goal of 3200 calories. Remember it is easier to put on weight than lose it.

 

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To be able to gain weight at a steady, consistent rate, we have to accurately find our daily caloric intake. Today the easiest way to do this is to download a calorie tracker. A fantastic app that millions use is myfitnesspal. To find your daily intake, track the calories that you consume for a week to get an accurate answer. Then on the app you can put in how much weight you want to gain gain over the months. You need to consider this carefully as if you gain too much too quickly, you may put on unecisary fat. You need to gain weight at a healthy rate to see good results.


There are two types of bulking: clean and dirty bulking. Clean bulking is keeping track in terms of calories and the food that is being eaten. It's eating healthy food for the most part with a few cheat meals thrown in there aswell. It's harder to gain weight quickly than a dirty bulk as the healthy foods don't contain as much calories, but you won't put on as much fat and so you'll look better. Dirty bulking is easier to gain weight quickly, but you'll also gain fat quicker aswell as the food choices will not be as healthy. I feel that combining the two together is very effective in gaining weight. Allow yourself a treat once or twice a week for the cravings and be reletively strict for the rest of the week

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Bulking is all about making the right choices for your personal goals

What does fat do for the body ?

                                            Fat

Fat is essential for our body and we cannot live without it. Many people believe that fat, the macronutrient is what will directly make us fat and that's all there is to them. This isnt't true.

Fat is made up of fatty acids and helps transport and absorb vitamins A, D, E and K . They have an important job of the making of hormone, testosterone. Testosterone triggers muscle growth and increases strength. Having a high fat diet can increse testosterone levels. Fats are very important in the membrane surround the cells, a good, healthy membrane is vital to the cell itself to function properly. Fats cushion our organs, the kidneys, heart and intestines are all cushioned by fat to protect them from being injured

http://www.theissnscoop.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/healthy_high_fat_foods_draft_2.jpg Fats release energy slowly throughout the day, which can keep  you full, unlike many carbohydrates which relese energy very quickly. Each gram of fat gives us 9 calories.

Fats are made up of  three fatty acids: Saturated fats, Monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. I will briefly explain what each of these fats do.

 Saturated fats: They are found in animal fats. Meat, milk, cheese, yougurt and butter all contain saturated fat. Although there are no major links between saturated fats and heart disease, foods with high saturated fat content can still increse your cholesterol levels. So eat these foods sensibly

Monounsaturated fats: They are found in olive oil, rapeseed oil, avocados and nuts. The Mediterrainian diet has a high monounsaturated fat content,which is very healthy and reduces the risk of heart disease.

Polyunsaturated fat: They are found in oils such as sunflower and corn oil. The omega-3 and the omega-6 fatty acids are two types of this fat. We need thse fats in our bodies as our bodies can't naturally produce them. This is an simple explaination of them to keep it short.

So to finish off, fats are not the enemy, they play a vital role within our bodies. So don't neglect fats when dieting, they will keep you full along with all the other benefits mentioned above.



  

Is a low carb diet effective

Low carb diets

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Low carb diets have been in use for many years. It would make sense to decrease your carbohydrate intake as it stimulates the release of hormone insulin, which is the body's main fat storing hormone.

So how does a low carb diet work? First off, I think that there is a big misconception on the term 'weight loss'. People think that they have to eat less food and burn loads of calories doing physical activity. This is true but it is a very hard and draining way of losing weight as you are eating less food and therefore less calories. The result of this will mean that your energy levels will drop when doing physical activity.

In order to lose weight, you MUST be in a caloric deficit. This means that you have to eat less calories than  your maintenance caloric intake that your body consumes every day  in order to keep at the same weight. Low carb diets are helpful as you may be eating less food because you will be eating extra protein and fat, which will keep you full for a while.

                                                                                                                                                                      There has been a big debate about low carb vs low fat diets. There has been studies showing that more weight has been lost through doing a low carb diet over a short period of time than low fat diets but, more people found it harder to stick to the low carb diet. This was probably because lowering your carb intake generally makes you more hungry. It can also be hard maintaining high protein intakes.

Low carb diets can help prevent high blood pressure and diabetes and can help improve cholesterol levels and blood sugar levels. However as explained above, low carb diets aren't easy to stick to. The typical side effects of this is usually: Tiredness, feeling weaker than usual[ which can effect physical activity ], Mood may be affected and constipation can also occur, Essential vitamins can be lots as a result of having to pee more often.

So to summarize, low carb diets are proven to be affective in the short term and can  reduce the risk of sugar related problems e.g. diabetes. It can also discipline the people who are doing it about future food choices as it is an easy diet to stick to. However as mentioned above there are side affects which leads to many people dropping out. Like all diets if you put in the work you will see results. I personally would recommend this diet as it is straight foward 

Introduction about me

Hello, my name is David Stevenson and my blogs are going to be on nutrition and supplementation for those who want to learn more about one of the most important aspects of an active and inactive person