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Everyone knows exercise is good for you – for everything from reducing the risk of chronic disease to improving our quality of life (1).
But, which exercise is best?
Like fad diets, new workout fads come and go. It’s hard to keep up and establish which type of exercise is most beneficial, especially when it comes to weight loss.
Is it cardio, strength training, or high-intensity exercise?
Exercise researchers have tackled this question time and time again.
Their results: It’s complicated.
Cardio Versus Strength Training
A study out of Duke University compared aerobic exercise, resistance exercise, and a combination of the two in a group of overweight or obese adults (2). For weight loss alone, the study found that the best results in terms of kilos lost comes from aerobic exercise.
However, the weight loss from the participants doing aerobic exercise also included the loss of lean muscle. In contrast, the resistance exercise group gained weight due to an increase in muscle mass, while the combination group lost slightly less weight compared to the aerobic group.
The combination group also experienced the greatest reduction in waist circumference. The result suggests that there’s potential for a greater loss of inches with a smaller overall weight loss resulting in better body composition.
For those who solely desire weight loss, more cardio could be the answer.
However, research has shown that for those who want to improve overall body composition, the best exercise is going to be a combination of both cardio and strength/resistance training.
High-Intensity Interval Training
A good way to combine cardio with strength training in a short amount of time is high-intensity interval training (HIIT).
Studies have consistently shown that HIIT leads to greater fat loss, specifically abdominal fat loss (3). HIIT typically involves alternating intense bouts of exercise, ranging from 30 seconds to several minutes, with recovery periods spanning one to five minutes.
HIIT can incorporate cardio moves, body-weight exercises, and weightlifting, making it a form of exercise that works for people with a wide variety of fitness goals.
PRISE Protocol
Notable for its incorporation of the nutritional timing of protein, HIIT, stretching, and endurance and resistance training, the PRISE protocol allows participants to benefit from each type of exercise.
With the PRISE protocol, each exercise is performed one day per week. Studies that have evaluated effectiveness of PRISE have found that its integration of nutrition and training leads to significant reductions in body fat (4-6). Additionally, the protocol leads to greater gains in muscle mass and improved cardiovascular health (4-6).
The Verdict
There are two caveats worth noting when it comes to your weight loss efforts and exercise, as noted in the research (7):
Yes, physical activity can make a stark difference in your weight loss efforts, but exercise alone rarely makes the biggest difference.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that successful long-term weight loss is nearly always reached by a healthy balance of both exercise and nutrition.
To your weight loss success,
Tiffany Mika
Content Adapted from Isagenix Health Site
References:
Plus you can be more inclined to eat those higher calorie foods to keep you warm on the inside, but what happens during the winter when you eat higher calorie foods? Yes that's right you put on a few kilos and it gets harder to take it off when you approach the spring weather.
All of this can make it really tough to stick to your exercise routine and keep your eating regime in check.
But, remember, just an hour of exercise daily is usually enough to maintain your weight loss and to avoid any weight regain (1).
Here are 4 Reasons How Exercise Can Benefit You in The Winter.
1. You Will Keep Your Muscles In Shape
While working out alone rarely leads to significant weight loss, studies have shown that it does support body composition by helping you keep muscle. That hard-earned muscle is valuable, as it’s more metabolically active than body fat, helping you have a higher overall calorie burn and helping you make better use of carbohydrates and other calories consumed. It looks good, too.
2. You Will Keep Your Immune System At It's Best
Exercise in moderate amounts, followed by adequate recovery periods in between workouts, is the most beneficial exercise routine for immunity (2-4).
It’s a major reason why you should be consistent with exercise during the winter instead of scaling back. Engage in moderate-intensity exercise for approximately one hour, three to five times a week.
You can also take your workout outdoors to avoid gym germs. Despite common misconceptions about staying indoors to avoid a cold, you are much more likely to pick up an illness from someone at the gym than the outdoors. Just be sure to dress appropriately and focus on your warmup.
3. You Will Stay Much Happier
Winter can be a time of susceptibility to the “winter blues.” However, oftentimes the sadness associated with cold weather might be due to a disruption of normal routine.
Scheduling in a daily workout, even if you’re on a holiday or visiting family, can help keep structure in your day to prevent negative feelings.
Plus, exercise and getting outside can improve mood by helping your body produce more feel-good endorphins (5).
4. Enjoy The Benefits Of Exercising Out In The Cold
By exercising in slightly colder temperatures than what your body is accustomed to, your heart works harder to distribute blood flow throughout the body to keep it warm.
Incorporating cold-weather workouts can strengthen your heart, and in turn, improve your endurance (6). You might also burn extra calories because your body is working harder to keep you warm.
Don’t be afraid to try out some training workouts throughout the winter.
To your weight loss success,
Tiffany Mika
Content Adapted from Isagenix Health Site
References:
Fortunately for all of us, there are science-backed strategies that can help you successfully get rid of belly fat.
The goal of achieving a flat stomach may be all the motivation you need to work toward eliminating belly fat, but there are important benefits for your health, too.
Carrying excess weight around your waistline has been linked to significant health risks (1). Belly fat is considered the worst kind of fat due to its association with these increased risks.
Here are 3 science-backed strategies to help you shed those stubborn kilos and get rid of belly fat.
1. Increase Your Protein Intake
While a balanced diet is essential for a healthy lifestyle, protein is a key nutrient for promoting fat loss and stimulating muscle growth. Consuming a diet that is rich in protein has been shown to support increased metabolism, greater muscle building, enhanced weight loss, and long-term weight maintenance (2,3).
You can maximize the benefits of protein for your waistline by consuming the right amount and the right type of protein at the right time.
The Right Amount of Protein:
Researchers have found that 1.2-1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day is optimal in promoting sustained weight loss (3). To reach this level, a typical woman needs approximately 90-120 grams of protein per day while a typical man needs approximately 105-140 grams per day.
The Right Type of Protein:
Look for a source of protein that is high in branched chain amino acids (BCAAs). Protein that has a higher concentration of BCAAs is more effective in building muscle and supporting weight maintenance (4,5).
Dairy protein, like whey, has a naturally high amount of BCAAs making it the protein choice for many (6).
Type of whey protein you can investigate:
The Right Time To Eat Protein:
Evenly distributing your protein intake throughout the day, otherwise known as protein pacing, has been shown to support fat loss and improve muscle strength and growth. Depending on your specific protein needs, you should aim to get 20-30 grams of protein in each meal, spaced over four to six small meals a day (7).
End Your Day With the Bedtime Belly Buster
Providing your body with a serving of whey protein before bed has a thermogenic effect, which boosts your metabolic rate and can help to support weight loss (8, 9). Because inadequate sleep has been linked to weight gain, it's important to get a complete night’s sleep (10).
3. Keep Up With Your Intermittent Fasting
The science behind intermittent fasting, following a full-day fasting protocol such has been shown to support improved body composition, loss of body fat, and benefits for improved insulin sensitivity (11, 12, 13, 14).
To your weight loss success,
Tiffany Mika
Content Adapted from Isagenix Health
References:
By decreasing the expression of genes (which is the production of specific gene products (protein or RNA - Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation, and expression of genes.), in relation to skeletal muscle contraction, the study found that visceral fat cells were more likely than subcutaneous fat cells to contribute to muscle wasting.
Published in the prestigious journal Diabetes, French researchers demonstrated that cells from the visceral fat of obese people decreased muscle growth and caused a state of muscle wasting (1).
The effect was significantly more pronounced in visceral fat cells in comparison to subcutaneous fat.
During obesity, the growth of fat cells is associated with inflammation and cell dysfunction. The two most prominent types of fat in the body, visceral fat and subcutaneous fat, differ in their inflammation status (2).
Visceral fat is much more of a problem when it comes to obesity-related illnesses and disease (3). In fact, obese people have been noted to have abnormal hormone secretion that leads to disruption of highly metabolic tissues like the liver and muscle (4).
More muscle is protective because it increases metabolism, reduces blood glucose, insulin, and lipid levels (1). Impaired muscle function and degeneration, however, increases with age. Increased amounts of visceral fat in obesity has been proposed to cause metabolic dysfunction due to decreased muscle (5).
When the researchers surgically removed visceral fat from obese rats they found that the rats’ muscle tissue increased. The rats also regained insulin sensitivity (5). This recent study sought to identify the specific mechanisms behind visceral fat in worsening muscle wasting, inflammation, metabolic syndrome, and chronic disease such as Type 2 diabetes.
They found that visceral fat cells caused inflammation and atrophy in muscle cells by decreasing gene expression of the main proteins found in muscle.
Visceral fat was much more potent at reducing muscle-related gene activity compared to subcutaneous fat.
Additionally, visceral fat significantly increased pro-inflammatory proteins like IL-6 and G-CSF while inhibiting the genes necessary for muscle building.
Visceral fat also affected the liver by causing insulin resistance reducing the necessary delivery of nutrients to muscle for growth and recovery.
To a better you,
Tiffany Mika
Adapted from Isagenix Health Site.
References
If you want to speed up belly fat loss, here are 3 ways suggested for you to do it;
According to clinical research on Isagenix products performing Cleanse Days and Shake Days can help you get rid of belly fat . But the fact is that we all have a certain degree of stubborn belly fat and it’s usually the last few kilos that can be the most challenging—not to mention frustrating—to make the shift.
1. Caffeinate
There’s no need to become disenchanted when new studies find that you can look to caffeine to re-energize your goals. According to the Journal of Applied Physiology, caffeine can help not only cheer you up about exercise, but also increase the amount of food calories burned during and after exercise (1).
Caffeine can come in many forms. Most people turn to the traditional coffee or tea for a caffeine fix, which will work surely enough as long as you don’t pile in the sugar and milk.
Recommended source of natural caffeine to use just before exercise, is the Isagenix e+ also will provide an 80-milligram dose of naturally-sourced caffeine needed for a pleasing workout.
2. Move Fast
Spending endless hours in the gym aren’t needed either. In fact, according to new studies, a short few minutes a few times a week of high-intensity interval training, or HIIT, should be enough to help you burn off that last belly fat bit.
As reported in the Journal of Obesity, HIIT is more effective than traditional aerobic exercise for belly fat reduction (2). According to the researchers, the reasons may have to do with increased fat metabolism during and after exercise, better balance of blood sugar, better sensitizing of the body’s insulin response, and even decreased appetite post-exercise.
How to shrink your waist with HIIT? (High Intensity Interval Training)
It involves a mix of speed and power in intervals lasting from 30 seconds to several minutes, followed by rest periods lasting for about one to five minutes. So you might try sprinting as fast as possible for 30 seconds followed by walking for five minutes, then sprinting again, four to five times a session.
What you’re doing, in short, is getting the biggest belly-fat-busting bang for your exercise buck. It should be enough to be metabolically demanding for hormone modulating, cardiovascular conditioning, and better fat burning (2). But we advise you to work with your personal doctor to find out what level of HIIT is most appropriate for you.
3. Go High Protein
Following your HIIT workout (and even when taken just before bed), extra protein promotes belly fat loss. Plus, it helps boost muscle growth, increase metabolism, satisfy appetite, and helps balance insulin levels (3). As much as we like to say it, it’s worth repeating:
Protein indeed is king.
But don’t overdo it. Protein in excess, especially when presented with extra calories from fat like in a big steak, can also just end up as extra belly fat. Also, not all protein (ahem, not soy) has the right combination of branched-chain amino acids to truly accelerate fat loss.
Isagenix Whey protein is a safe bet for the job for burning fat in the fewest calories; and Isagenix IsaPro supplemental undenatured whey protein is choice for quality.
Putting it All Together for Flat Abs
Remember, the studies show that the combination of intermittent fasting on Cleanse Days and calorie restriction on Shake Days is truly key to optimal belly fat loss.
But flat bellies and six-pack abs also can take work through exercise. By adding on caffeine from e+, combined with HIIT, and followed by whey protein, you’ll only improve upon the value of your Isagenix lifestyle.
It could also be just the bump you need to bust that belly fat for the better.
Recommended Products to assist belly fat loss below;
To your success,
Tiffany Mika
Adapted from Isagenix Health site
References
You have been on losing weight but you have now hit a weight loss plateau. What should you do?
I share with you in this video below, what to do!
What I have done in this weight loss series is that I am using me as the guinea pig.
I have now been on this weight loss journey for 8 weeks. The reason I am sharing this with you as I want to document it and show you what is working, what is not working, the process the body goes through and yes even what happens when we hit a plateau.
In this weight loss series today, I am going to talk to you about weight loss plateaus because I believe I have hit one.
Please note I did take measurements with tape measure so that I had a starting point to show you what is happening with my body. The measurements taken were, neck, chest, arms, waist, hips, upper thighs, and calf muscles.
I started recording this on 1st May 2017, even though I changed my eating regime 2 weeks prior to tracking. I will tell you I wish I had started tracking the first day, but I wasn't game enough to see what the results of the measurements were.
Anyhow, I started tracking on the 1st May 2017 and I had total measurements of 576cm. My weight was 74kg. The recording of the above video I have showed that my total measurements are now 553.5cm and I weigh between 69kg and 70kg, depending on what day I weigh myself. This video above was recorded on 20th June 2017. But the exciting thing is that I have lost between 4 to 5 kilos.
If you have seen the previous video I shared with you my total measurements were 553.1cm. So I am sure there is a bit of margin for error in there but 2 weeks on into where we are now, there is no change in the body measurements, which have lead me to believe I have it a weight loss plateau.
However in saying that I have reached a plateau... plateaus are all part of the process. There is not going to be a steady of growth of improvement and it goes on forever. At some point there will be a time where the improvement or in this case weight loss will slow down... this is where the frustration will come in, again it is all part of the process, so you don't let this get you down.
Up until this point you are feeling that you are doing every right and you have seen results but now there has been no change.
The question is what is the next step?
It's important to continue to do what you are doing. All the actions that you have done have led you to get these results and you have to allow the compound effect to take over. It's all the little actions that you have been doing on a daily basis which have led you to get the results you now have.
You can tweak things a little such as increase your training regime and do more high intensity workouts etc.
However for the purposes of what I am doing, I am going to continue down the same path and keep what I have been doing to this point and then report back to you in 2 weeks to report on any changes.
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It's really frustrating when you feel that you're putting on weight is not absolutely it doesn't matter to you what your weight is compared to someone else it's about what you think of your weight.
Now if you're finding that you're putting on some extra kilos you don't like you're feeling uncomfortable in your body then we can do something about it.
I'm going to share with you my experience. Also if you are putting on weight and you're carrying a lot of weight this is also going to work for you as well... because what I'm about to show you is some results of what's actually been going on with me.
I'm giving you a progress report on actually what's going on so that you actually seeing the numbers.
Look at carrying those extra kilos and its really frustrating to do that. Actually if you look down and you see your body and your are saying to yourself “yes I'm putting on weight I'm carrying extra weight and I really don't like it. I feel really uncomfortable in my skin".
That's how I was feeling and I don't know if you've heard my story before but when I was playing professional tennis and I was teaching tennis and golf because I was so active I was eating a lot. But because in the last four to five years I've actually changed what I've been doing I've started to build businesses online so I'm sitting down a lot more. I'm not as physically active.
I'm still training and so on but I'm not as physically active in the teaching side of things as I used to be.
But the thing was I still eating a lot of food, big plates of healthy food. And I was still putting on weight, I could see it and feel it.
Yet, I thought it was my age being over 40, I am 46 when I have recorded the video above. I thought because I was getting older and the body was responding the same way it used to.
How wrong I was at that thought!
It was the fact that I ate big meals (of healthy food).
So now I don't eat over 250 calories per meal and depending on how I am feel on the day I could eat 6 meals no more than 250 calories per meal or 4 meals no more than 250 calories per meal. This I do 5 days per week, I do 1 day for a cleanse (fasting day) and the remaining day I eat whatever I like.
Now what I want to share with you is that I have been tracking my measurements so I can see how my body is responding... but also the importance of why you should be tracking your measurements, so that you know how your body is responding.
When I started tracking the measurements on the 1st May 2017, my body measurements were a total of 576.5cm (not 567cm as I said in the video).
I have just taken measurements on the 6th June 2017 and I was 553.1cm which is a loss of 23.4cm in the body and has taken just over 5 weeks to do so.
Even though I have lost centimetres off various parts of my body measured, the noticeable difference is my upper thighs. I have lost 10cm off both thighs (5cm off each thigh).
It is interesting to not where the body fat is coming off the body.
So can you do this too?
Of course you can!
You just need to get your head around it. And you want a METHOD that is going to get you results.
The first step you need to do is to make a DECISION that you are going to do it. This is most important because if you don't decide that is what you are going to do, you just won't do it.
Go back and review what I am doing to get these results and then copy it. This is why I have produced this for you for that reason. Weightloss Series: The Perfect Way To Lose Weight.
Then the second step you need to do is TRACK YOUR MEASUREMENTS.
Recap:
You have got to put you first and look after you. Then you can look after everyone else around you.
You will be more alert, you will feel great within, you will have more energy... there is so much more than you can do when you feel fantastic.
Plan this out to do it for 30 days/31 days… you won’t notice a difference after doing it for a day, you will notice slight changes after a week, but you will notice your body responding and changing after 30 days.
But don’t just do it for 30 days… 30 days is the starting point, not the finish point.
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What is the perfect way for you to lose weight and kick that diet good-bye and yeah... actually get results and feel like things are working?
The reason that I have put this weight loss series together and go through the process myself, is because rather than just someone telling you what to do, you get to see what is actually going on... and you are not alone.
It has been an interesting time... you may have already seen the previous videos but if not here they are here;
Weight Loss Series: Are You Aware of How To Lose Weight and Weight Loss Series: How To Lose Weight - Overcome the Frustration. ... as well as being over 40 (46 at time of recording this video) I too was finding it hard. My body just wasn't responding the way it used to when I was younger. And as you will see in these videos above it wasn't the hormones or me getting older, it was the amount of food I was eating (even though it was healthy food)!
So moving forward... what have I been doing to get the results and weight loss or should I say reduction in body fat occurring?
I share here with you below.
I was aware that to lose weight you shouldn't eat more than 1500 calories. (That is for a woman, for a man it is 1800 calories). This is what the information is saying online... so my thoughts were ok! Let's test it! I will use me as the test!
Now it was to figure out which is the best way to eat 1500 calories throughout the day without starving?
What I could see there were 3 options.
Option 1:
Option 2:
Option 3:
Option 1 was not appealing as I could only have 3 meals and no snacks... I would have felt like I was depriving myself, I couldn't eat any snacks throughout the day. This option was not going to work.
Option 2 again was not appealing either as I was limited in the amount of calorie snack options and again I didn't want to feel like I was depriving myself from eating, nor feeling as though I have to fill up again waiting around for the next time I was going to eat. It feels like an obsession then. Not a good feeling.
Option 3 appealed to me as even though the meals were smaller than the meals I was brought up on and have been conditioned myself to eat over the years, I found this option more appealing as I could eat more frequently and I wouldn't feel as though I was missing out.
So Option 3 was the decision!
The next step was to look at the food I was going to be eating (no more than 250 calories) per meal. I didn't want to have that feeling I was going to be starving for food. So I wanted to ensure I would feel content (not full) but not feeling like I needed to have more food either.
This is basically what I do on a daily basis;
7am Breakfast: Half Protein Shake
10am: 2 eggs with tin of chicken (omlette)
1.30pm: 1 tin of chicken with beans & broccoli
4pm: Protein snacks, apple, rasberries, blueberries, strawberries, 6 almonds etc.
6pm Dinner: 1 tin of chicken with beans, broccoli & sweet potato.
7pm Dessert: Half Protein Shake
I do that 5 days per week. I schedule it in what days I do that.
I have 1 day where I do a cleanse day (fasting) and 1 day that I eat whatever I like.
The most important point here I want to make to you is that if you truly want weight loss. Make the decision to do it. Once you make the decision and make a few behavourial changes it actually is much easier to do.
But it is up to you to make that decision.
Plan this out to do it for 30 days... you won't notice a difference after doing it for a day, you will notice slight changes after a week, but you will notice your body responding and changing after 30 days.
But don't just do it for 30 days... 30 days is the starting point, not the finish point.
Are you really aware of what you are eating?
You know that thing you say, you are what you eat!
I am going to take you on my journey, and share with you what I was eating that was putting on the weight, even though 80% of the food was really healthy.
I was really frustrated with putting on weight, I was watching it happen over time. I was actually feeling depressed about it and I thought it was just me being over 40 that was holding me back from dropping some weight.
Yes it was me that was holding me back because it was the decisions I was making .
What I am going to show you are the foods I was eating (refer to video) before I decided to make a change and then leading into a conversation with my Chiropractor and we talked about what was actually going on by the food I was consuming.
A few years ago I was carrying extra weight and I decided to make the first change. I started to eat a lot more vegetables (than I had been)... but not much protein. I ate a lot of sweet potato, green peas, beans and broccoli plus quite a bit of tofu, as I had gone off meat, just lost the taste for it... and I ate a lot of nuts (almonds). I didn't eat eggs etc.
I was tossing up whether to go vegan or vegetarian, I wasn't really sure which path I was going to head down but both were the better option at the time when I started down this path.
Also I was listening to a podcast (as I listen to many), and in that podcast show the interviewee was talking about if you took protein 20 minutes within the first 20 minutes of waking up that would help kick start the fat burning process and increase metabolism.
Now I was already having a protein shake for breakfast so added to the food regime was then half a protein shake prior within the 20 minutes of awakening.
So the daily routine was this;
Of course I did get some results, and trimmed down a bit. I ended up losing around 15 to 20 cms off body in that time. Which was over the course of about 3 to 4 months. The process seemed slow, but I was ok with that as I was tracking measures and lost a few kilos. Therefore I was seeing some results.
I do love food. I love to eat food, who doesn't? However I am a guts, I do like to eat a lot of food. So by making a few changes as above I could justify it because I felt I could still eat a lot of food. I have always been active for most of my life, as I played pro tennis, had tennis coaching business, kids sports skills business and golf coaching business... but not as active over the last 4 years. Simply because I was working on building my business online. However, I still ate the same amount of volume of food as that is what I had always done. However the last 4 years I had not been as active.
Sure too, I did have a few lollies and chocolates here and there (not over the top either)... but I was still putting on the weight.
So when it came time to actually looking at what I ate... the reality was I was eating too much food and I also identified I wasn't burning enough energy ( I share this more on another video).
What you want to do here is to analyze the type of food you are eating and how much food you are eating... because at the end of the day it is going to be the amount of calories that you are going to put in your body versus the amount of calories that you are burning.
It is as simple as that!
It sounds obvious wouldn't you agree?
This is a suggestion on your first step;
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Are you frustrated that no matter what you are doing you are just not losing weight?