Sunday, May 27, 2012

Quick Fat Loss Workouts

Fat loss is a hot topic nowadays.  Although I'm not an expert in this area, I would want to share a sweetly short article with you today.  When we talk about fasting, many would say 'I can't survive without food'.  When we talk about workout, you'll hear this a lot - I'm busy.  In fact, no matter how busy you are, you can workout if you want to and if you know how to.  Here's a short article telling you how.

Quick Fat Loss Workouts

‧ Do you find yourself strapped for money and/or time?
‧ Would you like to be able to lose weight quickly without the use of gym equipment?


If you answered yes to both of these questions then this quick fat loss workout is perfect for you. Not only will it take less than 10 minutes to complete, you will feel as though you got an amazing workout in the process. Not only will you feel the benefit of losing weight this workout will also serve to tone your lower body.

For best results perform these exercises in a circuit. In other words perform these exercises with no breaks between exercises.

‧Walking Lunges x 20 steps per leg
‧Step-ups x 20 steps per leg
‧Bodyweight Squat x 20 reps
‧Wall squat isometric hold x 1 min


Repeat circuit after resting for 1 min.

These exercises serve to fire up the major muscle groups of the legs. If you found this workout to be effective for you, then stay tuned for more quick fat loss workouts.

Written by Dan Miller, author of Fat Loss 4 Life

Friday, May 11, 2012

Fasting and Cleansing

While I'm enjoying the benefits of fasting weight loss, fasting is not only responsible for weight loss.  It is also responsible for cleansing - I mean the cleansing that is far beyond many products being marketed for the purpose of cleansing and detoxing.

Many people questioned the science behind fasting, and insisted that any type of "fasting" was inherently dangerous. I've recently read an article written by Brad Pilon (author of Eat Stop Eat and a nutrition researcher) in which he describes the science-backed benefits that support fasting, and describes the real way to cleanse your body.

As the original article is quite long and technical, I've tried to do a summary here.

The Truth About Fasting and Cleansing

To understand the long-term health benefits of true cleansing, we need to look into a unique process within the human body called 'autophagy'.

Autophagy: The Anti-Aging Solution?  The term autophagy is derived from the Greek language meaning 'eating of self'. In short, it is the internal 'custodial system' that your body uses to identify and discard the damaged or malfunctioning parts of a cell.

If you are interested in how autophagy works, check it out from Wiki.

The more time you spend in the fed state, the less time you have to really ramp up the autophagic (cellular cleansing) process within your body.

This is where short-periods of fasting come into play.  One of the major health benefits of fasting is that it improves autophagy. The principle signal to "turn on" the autophagy dial is the act of entering the fasted state. And if fasting is the signal to turn on autophagy, then eating is the signal to turn it off.

By allowing for growth when we eat and the autophagic process of repair maintenance and cleansing when we are fasting, we help restore a balance in the cellular maintenance process, not to mention the possible prevention of muscle loss as we age.  So you can consider fasting as an anti-aging solution.

The key is there needs to be a balance - You can't overeat all the time or fast all the time without expecting some sort of negative repercussions. It is the optimal balance of these processes that allows for the breakdown of damaged pieces and their replacement with new well-functioning pieces.

By allowing for growth when we eat, and the autophagic process of repair, maintenance, and cleansing when we are fasting, we help restore a balance in the body that may be a missing link in the prevention of many of today's deadly and debilitating diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease, liver disease, and even loss of muscle size and function.


Brad Pilon is one of the world's most recognized advocates of Intermittent Fasting - You can learn more about his approach to intermittent fasting in his newly revised and expanded book Eat Stop Eat.