Archive for the ‘Vitamins’ Category

Measuring your Weight Loss Progress

Weight Loss ProgressHow do you measure the result of your changed healthy lifestyle? Obvious changes in health-related behavior patterns like decreased dependence on medications, increase in ability to perform physical activity, reduced intake of fat, and the increased intake of fiber, vitamins, and minerals in your diet point towards an improvement. If you have started cooking your food in a healthier manner, watching out for labels, checking out new health recipes, using alternate low fat ingredients, etc. then you are on the right track. This means you are comfortable with your new lifestyle and are looking forward to betterment. You start feeling good and keep moving forward.

Physical indicators include reduce in the waist hip ratio and waist circumference. Abdominal obesity has consistently been associated with risk factors for diabetes and heart disease, thus any positive change in this front is an obvious improvement. It directly implies weight loss as well as a healthier fat distribution. Physical progress can also be determined by hydrostatic weighing, electrical impedance, or by using skin fold calipers. Although it might not be as accurate as the former method it gives you an upstart of the path in which you are treading at least. A certified personal trainer can help you measure the percentage of your body fat.

However, a weight scale is not a good indicator of your progress. Simply because, it does not differentiate between the lean body mass and mass of your body fat. It does not give you the actual information about the change in body composition that you are going through. The scale might show that you have not reduced any weight, but actually, you might have lost fat which would have been replaced with firm, fat-burning muscles. This is indeed a progress which goes unnoticed while using scales. Two people who weigh the same might not necessarily be healthy in the same way. This is the huge disadvantage of using weight scales.

How Does a Low Carb Diet Plan Help Diabetics?

DiabeticsAre diabetics supposed to live on a low carb diet plan throughout their lives? It is the only way to be healthy even with diabetes? The American Diabetes Association disagrees with the statement saying that it is not required to go on a low carbohydrate diet for treating diabetes. However, a recent research conducted by a team of researchers in Sweden suggests that diet is definitely one of the important elements to be considered when you are trying to treat or manage diabetes. In fact, the effect of a low carb diet is such that diabetics might not require medications for treatment as well.

Instead of a low fat diet, a low carb diet seems to be more effective in treating diabetes on the whole. However, you are likely to come across many proponents of both these diet types claiming to help you attain a desired body weight. But it is now being widely recognized that a low carb diet plan is the best for weight loss and for preventing many diseases as well as including diabetes, cardiac problems and weight loss.

Of all the low carb diets available on the market today, Atkins Diet, Zone diet and the South Beach diet are very popular. Low carb meal plans advocate the concept of portion control that helps in keeping your body weight in check while maintaining your insulin levels. When an individual eats refined foods or sugary foods, the bloodstream is flooded with excessive glucose within a couple of minutes and that makes the pancreas release higher amounts of insulin for transporting the blood sugar to its destination. This causes the blood glucose level to rise and the additional amount of glucose is stored in the form of fats. This is the cause of diabetes, heart diseases and obesity.

Therefore, instead of indulging in sugary foods and processed gourmets, you need to eat complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates are essentially helpful in preventing the sudden rise and fall in the blood sugar levels, thus providing energy to the body that would last longer. Simple carbohydrates contained in processed and junk foods make us lazy and weak over time. Have protein rich foods, fresh fruits and vegetables instead of breads, white potatoes and pasta.

Proteins are the best sources of fuel for our metabolic activities. A protein rich meal will not only help in burning more calories, but would also prevent the development of various diseases including type II diabetes by limiting starch intake. Consuming lesser amounts of carbohydrates have greater benefits than one can imagine. It helps in weight loss and also allows you to maintain a healthy body weight throughout your life.

How to Stop Ears Ringing

Ringing ears can be somewhat annoying. Anyone who has had this has talked about the discomfort of having ringing ears. They might try all the remedies or they might not know any. No matter which boat you are in, here are some that you can try to stop ears ringing. They are simple and you might just find something that works for you if you or someone you know has ringing in the ears.

The first method to stop ears ringing is to take different vitamins and minerals. We all know that most doctors swear by these. There are a few that are however recommended to stop ears ringing. They consist of zinc, magnesium, and ginkgo balboa. If this did not work however, there are things that you can do to make sure that it does not get worse. Now, we know what you are saying. How can this help with the ringing in my ear now? Well, what you might or might not know is that some of the things that you are experiencing are things that could be causing the ringing ears.

One of those things is in fact ear wax that is caught in the ear. There have been other doctors that have linked the ringing in the ears to the idea that there is too much insulin in the blood. For that, it is recommended that you follow a certain diet.

The diet that they suggest that people use to stop ears ringing is a diabetic diet. An even simpler way to alleviate the ringing in the ear is by cupping your hands over them. Start with one ear then switch to the next. Beware though, if both ears have the ringing in them this will not stop ears ringing. This sometimes works. This is the first thing you should try when you first begin to notice the ringing.