If you weigh yourself before and after an hour or two of exercise, the difference is likely to be fluid loss. However, in events lasting several hours or even several days, measurable fat loss can occur. At a competitive 12-hour indoor stationary bicycle marathon, one athlete took fluids and food throughout the entire competition, and still lost 2.64 pounds (Schweizerische Rundschau für Medizin Praxis, July 2007).
Of this weight loss, 1.98 pounds was due to loss of fat. His calculated muscle weight increased by 1.46 pounds due to damage to the muscle cells, which results in fluid retention in the cells.
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One concern that some individuals have when it comes to their supplement routine is making sure that what they are taking is being absorbed effectively. You’ve likely heard that getting your nutrition from real foods is often better than taking it in pill form, and this is a big reason why. Generally the body will absorb nutrients slightly better when it comes from food because this is how mother nature intended it.
Read the rest of this entry at our partner site: HesFit.com
Athletes can expect to feel fatigued when their blood sugar levels drop. Researchers at Loughborough University, UK showed that athletes who did not take sugar during soccer competition lasting 90 minutes felt more tired, had less competitive desire, and had far lower blood sugar levels than athletes who took a sugared drink every 15 minutes during their game (Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, October 2007).
Your brain gets more than 98 percent of its energy from sugar in the bloodstream. However there is only enough sugar in the bloodstream to last about three minutes. The liver must constantly release sugar into the bloodstream, but there is only enough sugar in the liver to last eight hours during rest and far less than that during exercise. So athletes who do not take a source of sugar during events lasting more than an hour can suffer the psychological effects of low blood sugar levels what include a mental feeling of fatigue and lowered competitive desire.
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I’ve often wondered, who is the worse gas guzzler, you or your car?
My dependable 1999 Saturn SL-1 according to the Marketplace Fuel Survey Data (read the full story here), gets about 52 miles per gallon highway, and about 32 miles per gallon city driving with air conditioning and traffic.
Let’s take the human body for example.
Recently, I had no choice but to eat at McDonalds during a business trip. I had 2 Egg-Sausage-Cheese-McGriddle sandwiches for breakfast and a meduim orange juice. That’s about 1270 food Calories (or kCal) and it cost me $7.28. Here is the breakdown:
If you add the 3 items above, that’s 55% Carbs, 18% Protein, and 26% Fat! No wonder North America has an obesity problem!
Since an average human body burns about 100 kCal per mile, whether you walk or run, that’s 1300 kCal for 13 miles.
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There is no evidence that it will. Runners get fuel for their muscles from fat and sugar in muscles, fat and sugar in the bloodstream and, to a lesser degree, from protein. The key to increasing endurance for racing is to store as much sugar in muscles before you race and keep it there as long as possible. Muscle sugar gives you the most energy for the least amount of oxygen.
Restricting carbohydrates does not stimulate muscles to store more sugar (Sports Medicine, April-May 2007). A low carbohydrate diet may impair performance if carried out for extended periods because a runner cannot train on a low- carbohydrate diet.
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How fast you can move and how long you can exercise intensely depends on the amount of sugar (glycogen) stored in your muscles. The same rule applies in all sports: when muscles run out of their stored sugar supply, they require more oxygen and you have to slow down.
Fluid is less important than muscle sugar because dehydration will not cause you to slow down until your blood volume is reduced. As you lose fluid from sweating, interstitial fluid stored around cells is released into the blood to maintain blood volume. When you compete is sports at a very high intensity, your muscles run out for stored sugar long before your blood volume is reduced, and you slow down from lack of muscle sugar before you slow down from reduced blood volume (Sports Medicine, April- May 2007).
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Most athletes know that lack of fluids weakens and tires them, so they take adequate amount of fluids, before, during and after competitions.
However, many do not know how much they need extra calories. They often are told incorrectly that the human body has so much fat on board that lack of calories is not a significant problem.
Researchers at the University of Wales in the United Kingdom found that moderate calorie restriction two days prior to competition slows down endurance far more than reduced fluid intake over that same period (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, February 2007). Moderate dehydration does not harm performance until a person becomes severely dehydrated. On the other hand, lack of calories stops you cold in your tracks.
Read the rest at our partner site: HerActiveLife.com
This article is written by a TFS guest contributor, Mr. Seth Braun, natural health expert and best-selling author. Seth can be contacted for a complimentary consultation through his site or at his clinic, (303)-444-2357.
I know, the name is a clue. Interesterified oil is the way food manufacturers are bypassing the new trans fat labeling laws.
I just posted an article about the next generation of trans fat on three of my websites and wanted to give you the readers digest version.
This was a big piece of news for me. I was at my aunt and uncle’s home and read the label on a box of crackers and there it was, a food ingredient I did not know. So after some research, I learned that I am a bit behind the curve and I thought you might want to know about this too!
Some of you know this, but it was news to me. there is a trend in food manufacturing to replace “interesterified oils,” for partially hydrogenated oil in food manufacturing because the industrial application and manufacturing processes are almost identical with this product when compared to partially hydrogenated oil.
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Need advice? Injured? Confused? Overwhelmed? Bored? ASK FLASH!
ASK FLASH is a free advice column to help you with all of your running, fitness and nutrition inquiries. To ASK FLASH — simply fill out the form at the conclusion of the column.
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The most frequent topic that I get asked about is nutrition. We are all in search of ‘the perfect food‘ or ‘the ideal diet’ to complement our training.
Furthermore, many runners, and athletes in general, are looking for the ‘quick fix’ or supplements that will lead to certain improvement. It is a topic worthy of considerable discussion, but also one that can be difficult to fully grasp and/or resolve.
However, there a few fundamental concepts (that many of us are already familiar with) that everyone should keep in mind:
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A healthy heart is so strong that it is almost never a cause of tiredness during exercise.
Tiredness during exercise comes from your muscles. They run out of fuel or out of oxygen. Skeletal muscles use both fat and sugar for energy.
When your muscles run out of their stored sugar supply, called glycogen, they cannot contract and function adequately. You feel tired, your muscles hurt and you have difficulty coordinating them.
On the other hand, your heart muscle gets energy directly from fat and sugar in your blood and even from a breakdown product of metabolism called lactic acid. It is virtually impossible for the heart muscle to run out of fuel unless you are starving to death.
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