Fitness & Wellness

It’s almost a badge of honor to say you’re getting too little sleep. It’s as though you’re working harder, but that’s not always true. In fact, lack of sleep, can affect your productivity at work or at school. It also can make weight loss harder. You burn calories as you sleep and getting adequate sleep can help you burn even more calories.

Too little sleep can cause an imbalance of hunger/satiety hormones.

When you don’t get enough sleep, your body starts producing less of the satiety hormone, leptin, which makes you feel full. It also boosts the production of ghrelin, the hormone that makes you hungry. It’s pretty hard to control your appetite when your hormones that are sending messages to your body are out of whack. Too little sleep can also cause a craving for sugar and sugary treats, to give you a boost of energy.

You’ll slow your metabolism when you don’t get enough sleep.

Your metabolism helps burn the calories you consume, even when you’re not working out or simply sleeping. That can cause weight loss to be even more difficult. One mega study that reviewed a large group of studies showed that those who lacked adequate sleep increased their potential to be obese by 55% if they were an adult and by 89% if they were a child.

What you eat at bedtime may make a difference, too.

Sometimes, it’s hard to sleep and you need a little snack to sleep better. It’s built into our DNA from early man, who kept hunting until he ate. If insomnia that’s keeping you awake, try eating a high protein food, such as cottage cheese. Cottage cheese contains casein protein, which also increases the number of calories you burn as you slumber. You’ve probably heard about drinking a glass of warm milk before bedtime, it’s based on the same principle. It also takes about seven hours to digest, so your digestion will be working throughout the night, while providing protein during the night for muscle repair.

• Room temperature can make a difference. A cooler room helps you sleep better, but also help you burn more belly fat. Studies show a room temperature of 66 degrees is ideal for shedding visceral fat.
• If you sleep well at night and get enough sleep, you’ll have more energy throughout the day. That can help you stay more active and burn more calories.
• There are several degrees of sleep, with deep sleep being the time when you burn the most calories. Creating a sleep schedule and sticking with it, even on weekends, can boost your deep sleep time.
• Avoid hitting the snooze button if you want the best type of sleep. When the alarm goes off, get up. You’ll get more uninterrupted sleep that way.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Is raw food healthier than its cooked counterpart? There is no yes or no answer. Things are a bit more complicated. Let’s start with raw fish and meat. Why do you cook them? It kills parasites and bacteria that can make you sick. However, with some raw meat, egg and fish dishes, like sushi and steak tartare, using only the best meat or fish and preparing it in a highly sanitized area can remove the risk. Some recipes for tartare may contain some vodka, which also can cut the amount bacteria. Raw fish can contain more nutrition, like omega-3 fatty acids.

Some vegetables are toxic if eaten raw in large amounts.

With some vegetables, like eggplant or green beans, eating them raw can be dangerous. Eggplant contains solanine that’s bitter and toxic if you eat too much, but cooking destroys it. Green beans contain lectins that are anti-nutrients and destroyed by cooking. Raw red kidney beans are toxic, so are Lima beans and the green part on raw potatoes.

Some vegetable taste better cooked and have more nutrition, while others are delicious raw.

Raw veggies are definitely healthy, but so are many cooked ones. Some taste better cooked, such as eggplant. Some cooked vegetables actually contain more of certain nutrients than their raw counterparts do. Tomatoes, for instance, increase in the amount of lycopene per spoonful as it cooks down, but the cooking also destroys the vitamin C. Most people love raw celery with dip, but don’t love eating a bowl of celery, while cooked asparagus is yummy, raw asparagus isn’t and may even be hazardous.

It also is a matter of absorption of nutrients.

You can consume all the vitamins you want in food, but absorbing and using them is another matter. In a large study of women that contained three groups, one group ate the average American diet, the second ate one on dietary recommendations including both raw and cooked vegetables and the third ate a raw food diet. While those that ate the raw food diet consumed more nutrients, such as vitamin C or beta-carotene, the group that ate the healthy diet of both cooked and raw vegetables absorbed more nutrients. Cooking the veggies made the nutrients more bioavailable.

• Eating raw fish may expose you to parasites, food poisoning and higher amounts of mercury, PCBs or other contaminants. Most studies find that raw meat or fish provide no nutritional benefit.
• If you love to snack on fresh veggies and dip, try a boiled and chilled asparagus with seasoned lemon vinaigrette. Boil for 2-3 minutes, chill on ice, drain and dry. Toss with vinaigrette and keep in the refrigerator for snacks.
• How you cook the food makes a huge difference. Fried food is not healthy and shouldn’t be used, especially deep fried. Steaming, grilling, broiling and boiling are good cooking options.
• You can eat crucifers like kale, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts both cooked and raw. If you choose raw, introduce them slowly into your diet or you may suffer from gas or upset stomach.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

When people come to Body Sculptors in Louisville, KY, they often feel they simply can’t lose weight and that their body isn’t capable of it. That’s simply not true. While there are conditions that make weight loss more difficult, there are also ways to improve the condition and help you on the road to normalcy. Hormonal imbalance, chronic stress, inflammation and many other conditions respond favorably to a change of diet and a program of regular exercise. No two people are exactly alike, which is why we focus on your needs and problems.

Change your diet and reduce inflammation, calories and additives.

Diet makes the biggest difference in weight loss. Most people who want to lose weight first try dieting. Actually, diets don’t work, at least not in the long run. What does work is healthy eating. Eliminating processed foods, cutting out foods with added sugar and processed flour goes a long way to aiding in weight loss. Those types of food often trigger inflammation, which interferes with the normal weight loss process. More whole foods and fewer processed foods often results in lower calories and a reduction of insulin resistance, which also helps weight loss.

Of course, exercise should be part of the program.

While you can’t out exercise a bad diet, you still need to get more active if you want to lose weight. Exercise helps burn more calories. It also helps burn off the hormones of stress. One of those hormones is cortisol, which is linked to belly fat. Stress can cause weight gain and make it harder to lose weight. Exercise and a healthy diet can help get your hormones back on track and aid in normal weight loss. Not only will you lose weight, you’ll feel fabulous.

Are you eating more than you realize or emotionally eating.

Sometimes people eat a snack on the go. Maybe it’s grabbing a quick candy from the candy bowl as you pass a cohort’s desk, or you “clean the bowl” after dinner, eating those last few spoonfuls rather than store them. Emotional eating is also a problem. Do you crave crunchy things when you’re angry or sugary treats when you’re sad? Keep a food journal and log in everything you ate. If you had an emotional experience right before eating, list that as well. You’ll learn a lot about yourself and your eating habits.

Do you understand portion control? Too often we overestimate what one serving looks like and consume several portions at once. Snacks are particularly notorious for this, since their serving size is often far smaller and you eat more.

Depression can actually cause weight gain. Luckily, a healthy diet and regular exercise are good for both weight loss and depression

Maybe you don’t get enough sleep. Lack of sleep can cause an imbalance of the ghrelin—hunger—hormones and leptin—satiety—hormones. Get more sleep and you’ll feel less hungry naturally.

Are you drinking enough water. Studies show that people who increase their water intake to at least eight glasses a day can increase their ability to lose weight.