Specifically, sleep loss has been shown to affect the secretion of cortisol, a hormone that regulates appetite.(3) As a result, individuals who lose sleep may continue to feel hungry despite adequate food intake. Additionally, sleep loss may interfere with the body's ability to metabolize carbohydrates and cause high blood levels of glucose, a basic sugar.(3) Excess glucose promotes the overproduction of insulin, which can promote the storage of body fat, and can also lead to insulin resistance, a critical feature of adult-onset diabetes.(4)
"Sleep loss is associated with striking alterations in hormone levels that regulate the appetite and may be a contributing factor to obesity," said Michael Thorpy, MD, director of the Sleep-Wake Disorders Center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. "Any American making a resolution to lose weight in the New Year should probably consider a parallel commitment for getting more sleep."
Weight loss is the number-one New Year's resolution in America,(5) with approximately 40% of the population promising to diet.(6) A nationwide survey found that more than 75% of women between the ages of 25 and 54 make diet resolutions each year or most years.
Unfortunately, nearly 90% of the respondents reported either occasional or no success, with almost half losing little weight or actually gaining weight instead.(5,7)
Sleep Loss Impact on Body Weight
In addition to changes in sleep quantity, reductions in sleep quality can also affect weight. For example, decreased amounts of restorative deep or slow-wave sleep have been associated with significantly reduced levels of growth hormone(1)-a protein that helps regulate the body's proportions of fat and muscle during adulthood.(8) "Sleep loss disrupts a complex and interwoven series of metabolic and hormonal processes and may be a contributing factor to obesity," said John Winkelman, MD, PhD, medical director of the Sleep Health Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "What most people do not realize is that better sleep habits may be instrumental to the success of any weight management plan."
Sleeplessness in America
Sleep loss is a common problem in America. According to the 2002 "Sleep in America" Poll sponsored by the National Sleep Foundation,(9) less than one third of adults (30%) reported getting 8 or more hours of sleep per night on weeknights. Only about half (52%) reported getting 8 or more hours of sleep per night on weekends. Although many Americans elect to forgo sleep to increase their leisure or work time, a majority also suffer from sleep disorders that interfere with both the quantity and quality of their sleep. For example, nearly three quarters (74%) reported experiencing at least one symptom of a sleep disorder a few nights per week or more. Insomnia was defined as any of the following four symptoms: difficulty falling asleep, waking a lot during the night, waking up too early and not being able to get back to sleep, and waking up feeling unrefreshed. Fifty-eight percent of respondents reported experiencing at least one symptom of insomnia at least a few nights per week.
"People who experience sleep disturbances for more than a few weeks should see their doctor," said Thorpy. "In addition to making behavioral and lifestyle modifications, there are newer prescription sleep medications that can help individuals fall asleep quickly and increase their total sleep time with minimal next-day effects."
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
I’ve been browsing a lot of wedding message boards lately. It’s a fun pastime. You take polls. You read arguments that could only happen in America. You learn what preoccupies engaged folks. Which? Besides the usual etiquette questions and endless recaps of Bridezilla, is losing weight.
To a certain degree, this is to be expected. It’s certainly a concern of mine. (Those photos will last for-freaking-ever.) But there are a disturbing number of fad diets floating around those boards: cheap pills, single-food fasts, and bizarre old wives’ tales. Needless to day, they’re expensive and frequently harmful, and the results are usually only temporary.
Of course, when it comes to successfully losing weight (and more importantly, keeping it off), nothing is written in stone. What works for one person may not work for her twin sister. I certainly don’t know all the answers.
But I kinda know some of them. These ten rules have been echoed time and again by medical professionals, nutrition experts, and the media in general. They’re fairly essential to any weight control. Many have worked for me over the years. Hopefully, they’ll help you along, too.
If you have more rules to add, I'd love to read 'em. Please fire away in the comment section.
1) Seek information.
Read. Research. Watch. Absorb. Flip on your interweb button and learn about food. Get facts from experts, health professionals and reliable sources who know what they’re talking about. Gather good data and apply those numbers and strategies to your own situation. Do not let advertising make your decisions for you.
2) Ignore dumb fads.
A good rule of thumb: if it sounds like something your crazy co-worker would try, keep on walking. This includes master cleanses, herbal laxatives, TrimSpa wannabes, apple cider vinegar diets, grapefruit diets, chicken soup diets, cabbage soup diets, that godforsaken cookie diet, and their ilk. As mentioned above, these are often dangerous, pricey, and based on bum science (when they’re based on any science whatsoever).
3) “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Of all the theories I’ve heard on healthy eating, Michael Pollan’s credo seems to be the most reasonable and potentially effective, not to mention the most conscious of the financial, environmental, and social consequences. Let’s break it down.
EAT FOOD: consume whole foods and/or products with very short ingredient lists. “Don't eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.”
NOT TOO MUCH: check your portions.
MOSTLY PLANTS: eat less meat. Increase your produce intake. Serve more whole grains.
4) Cook.
By cooking at home, you regulate portions, control ingredients, spend less money, and reduce wasteful packaging. It keeps you out of restaurants and fast food joints, where serving sizes are much larger than they were 30, 20, or even 10 years ago. So, experiment with dinner. Learn how to use a knife. Pick up How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. A few minutes in the kitchen could save you a few years of heartache down the line.
5) Get up and move.
To lose weight and keep it off, you must consistently burn more or as many calories as you ingest. This is an unassailable fact, and means some degree of daily exercise, probably for the entirety of one’s life. Use it or lose it, folks.
6) Drink water.
It’s been estimated that soda makes up 10% of all calories in the American diet. That’s practically enough for its own food group. Plus, USA Today and Yale University say: “[Soda drinkers] do not appear to compensate by reducing calories somewhere else in their diets, so they tend to pack on extra pounds.” By replacing pop with water, you’re cutting calories and hydrating your body in a healthy way.
7) Kill your TV.
According to the National Institute of Media and Family, “children who watch more than three hours of television a day are 50 per cent more likely to be obese than kids who watch fewer than two hours.” If TV is that detrimental to kids, you know it can’t have a spectacular effect on adults. Same goes for your computer and/or Playstation. That’s time you could be cooking, moving, socializing, learning, reading … you get the picture.
8) Have breakfast.
The National Weight Control Registry is a reputable organization that monitors people who have kept 30 pounds off for at least one year. (On average, it’s 66 pounds for five-plus years.) Of those successful individuals, 78% eat breakfast every single day. It prevents overeating through the rest of the day, and “may leave the subject with a better ability to perform physical activity.”
9) Remember: everything in moderation.
Are you a cold turkey kind of person? More power to you. But lots of us are baby-steppers, and when we attempt to overhaul everything at once, it results in massive burnout. So, unless it’s a medical crisis, take baby steps. Change your behaviors a little at a time. Don’t starve yourself. Work your way up to more intense exercise. You may not even notice the difference after awhile, because it’s become such a part of you.
10) Don’t diet.
Change your lifestyle. The vast majority of successful dieters gain the weight back, maybe because he very word “diet” implies a temporary modification of habit, as opposed to a lifelong adoption of behaviors. For weight loss to work, it’s gotta be for the long term.
And that’s it. Readers, what would you add to these basic tenets? What essential rules have worked for you? The comment section is open.
To a certain degree, this is to be expected. It’s certainly a concern of mine. (Those photos will last for-freaking-ever.) But there are a disturbing number of fad diets floating around those boards: cheap pills, single-food fasts, and bizarre old wives’ tales. Needless to day, they’re expensive and frequently harmful, and the results are usually only temporary.
Of course, when it comes to successfully losing weight (and more importantly, keeping it off), nothing is written in stone. What works for one person may not work for her twin sister. I certainly don’t know all the answers.
But I kinda know some of them. These ten rules have been echoed time and again by medical professionals, nutrition experts, and the media in general. They’re fairly essential to any weight control. Many have worked for me over the years. Hopefully, they’ll help you along, too.
If you have more rules to add, I'd love to read 'em. Please fire away in the comment section.
1) Seek information.
Read. Research. Watch. Absorb. Flip on your interweb button and learn about food. Get facts from experts, health professionals and reliable sources who know what they’re talking about. Gather good data and apply those numbers and strategies to your own situation. Do not let advertising make your decisions for you.
2) Ignore dumb fads.
A good rule of thumb: if it sounds like something your crazy co-worker would try, keep on walking. This includes master cleanses, herbal laxatives, TrimSpa wannabes, apple cider vinegar diets, grapefruit diets, chicken soup diets, cabbage soup diets, that godforsaken cookie diet, and their ilk. As mentioned above, these are often dangerous, pricey, and based on bum science (when they’re based on any science whatsoever).
3) “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Of all the theories I’ve heard on healthy eating, Michael Pollan’s credo seems to be the most reasonable and potentially effective, not to mention the most conscious of the financial, environmental, and social consequences. Let’s break it down.
EAT FOOD: consume whole foods and/or products with very short ingredient lists. “Don't eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.”
NOT TOO MUCH: check your portions.
MOSTLY PLANTS: eat less meat. Increase your produce intake. Serve more whole grains.
4) Cook.
By cooking at home, you regulate portions, control ingredients, spend less money, and reduce wasteful packaging. It keeps you out of restaurants and fast food joints, where serving sizes are much larger than they were 30, 20, or even 10 years ago. So, experiment with dinner. Learn how to use a knife. Pick up How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. A few minutes in the kitchen could save you a few years of heartache down the line.
5) Get up and move.
To lose weight and keep it off, you must consistently burn more or as many calories as you ingest. This is an unassailable fact, and means some degree of daily exercise, probably for the entirety of one’s life. Use it or lose it, folks.
6) Drink water.
It’s been estimated that soda makes up 10% of all calories in the American diet. That’s practically enough for its own food group. Plus, USA Today and Yale University say: “[Soda drinkers] do not appear to compensate by reducing calories somewhere else in their diets, so they tend to pack on extra pounds.” By replacing pop with water, you’re cutting calories and hydrating your body in a healthy way.
7) Kill your TV.
According to the National Institute of Media and Family, “children who watch more than three hours of television a day are 50 per cent more likely to be obese than kids who watch fewer than two hours.” If TV is that detrimental to kids, you know it can’t have a spectacular effect on adults. Same goes for your computer and/or Playstation. That’s time you could be cooking, moving, socializing, learning, reading … you get the picture.
8) Have breakfast.
The National Weight Control Registry is a reputable organization that monitors people who have kept 30 pounds off for at least one year. (On average, it’s 66 pounds for five-plus years.) Of those successful individuals, 78% eat breakfast every single day. It prevents overeating through the rest of the day, and “may leave the subject with a better ability to perform physical activity.”
9) Remember: everything in moderation.
Are you a cold turkey kind of person? More power to you. But lots of us are baby-steppers, and when we attempt to overhaul everything at once, it results in massive burnout. So, unless it’s a medical crisis, take baby steps. Change your behaviors a little at a time. Don’t starve yourself. Work your way up to more intense exercise. You may not even notice the difference after awhile, because it’s become such a part of you.
10) Don’t diet.
Change your lifestyle. The vast majority of successful dieters gain the weight back, maybe because he very word “diet” implies a temporary modification of habit, as opposed to a lifelong adoption of behaviors. For weight loss to work, it’s gotta be for the long term.
And that’s it. Readers, what would you add to these basic tenets? What essential rules have worked for you? The comment section is open.
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
A look at the physical workout routine that Hrithik Roshan follows to maintain his physique
Hrithik Roshan has a fabulous upper torso and a lanky frame. His well toned body is a result of years of dedicated workouts and the right kind of diet and nutrition.
Hrithik Roshan’s Physique – How He Works Out
Hrithik Roshan’s workouts are short and intense. His 40-minute regimen, four days a week, includes 20 minutes of cardio-vascular exercises. He maintains a daily journal of his exercises and uses a Polar watch to monitor calorie count and pulse rate. He focuses on different parts of the body every day.
For biceps, triceps and shoulders, he uses dumbbells. For the chest, uses the bench press and variations of the dumbbell press. For strengthening the back he performs chin ups and rowing. For strengthening his legs he does squats, lunges, leg curls and calf exercises.
Hrithik Roshan’s Physique – What He Eats
Hrithik Roshan’s
Hrithik says that he is not too fussy about his diet as he works out regularly. However, he tries to keep away from oily and sugary foods and ensure a high protein diet. He only fills up 70% of his stomach. He starts his day with a heavy breakfast of egg whites, protein shake and fruit.
Lunch consists of two rotis and green vegetable or chicken, dal, protein shake and fruit. The actor’s dinner contains a protein shake and egg whites as well as a fruit. Hrithik recommends no more than two teaspoons of oil in a day and absolutely no refined sugar. He also recommends adequate sleep and rest.
Hrithik had to put on eight kilos for his role in Guzaarish (2010), besides having to stop exercising for two months. Post Guzaarish, he went back to concentrated exercise and a strict diet to knock off the extra kilos in just 40 days.
Hrithik Roshan has a fabulous upper torso and a lanky frame. His well toned body is a result of years of dedicated workouts and the right kind of diet and nutrition.
Hrithik Roshan’s Physique – How He Works Out
Hrithik Roshan’s workouts are short and intense. His 40-minute regimen, four days a week, includes 20 minutes of cardio-vascular exercises. He maintains a daily journal of his exercises and uses a Polar watch to monitor calorie count and pulse rate. He focuses on different parts of the body every day.
For biceps, triceps and shoulders, he uses dumbbells. For the chest, uses the bench press and variations of the dumbbell press. For strengthening the back he performs chin ups and rowing. For strengthening his legs he does squats, lunges, leg curls and calf exercises.
Hrithik Roshan’s Physique – What He Eats
Hrithik Roshan’s
Hrithik says that he is not too fussy about his diet as he works out regularly. However, he tries to keep away from oily and sugary foods and ensure a high protein diet. He only fills up 70% of his stomach. He starts his day with a heavy breakfast of egg whites, protein shake and fruit.
Lunch consists of two rotis and green vegetable or chicken, dal, protein shake and fruit. The actor’s dinner contains a protein shake and egg whites as well as a fruit. Hrithik recommends no more than two teaspoons of oil in a day and absolutely no refined sugar. He also recommends adequate sleep and rest.
Hrithik had to put on eight kilos for his role in Guzaarish (2010), besides having to stop exercising for two months. Post Guzaarish, he went back to concentrated exercise and a strict diet to knock off the extra kilos in just 40 days.
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