Monday, March 21, 2016

How is Your Strength Training Looking?



When you go to the gym, you probably see this scenario: lots of ladies on the cardio machines (elliptical, treadmill, StairMaster, etc.) pounding hard to shed those few pounds, and then you see the gentlemen by the weights piling on as much as they can with no interest in cardio. I will only address the ladies today and explain why strength training is equally as important to help you shed those pounds. I know it doesn't seem intuitive, and I know you probably detest lifting weights, but it is necessary.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Do Spicy Foods Really Help You Lose Weight?



Have you heard time and time again how capsaicin (the active ingredient in a few types of peppers) aids in weight loss? Have you heard that all you need to do is to amp up this heat level on your food and you'd be burning mad calories? If this is true, we need to all run to the store today and buy all sorts of peppers for an easy weight loss option.

Let's assess the theory, shall we? When you eat spicy foods, you experience a very warm feeling that makes you sweat, maybe shake a little bit, do a dance, etc. So you feel like this heat must be burning all kinds of things in you. I believe it is the same reason why believe believe spicy foods cure colds or other sicknesses.

Now, it is not totally untrue that capsaicin does speed up your metabolism a little, but this increase has been shown to be very negligible and will most likely not affect you overall if you eat and exercise the same. But you do FEEL like you are losing more because you are sweating. Another theory is that because spicy foods make you feel fuller quicker (or simply because you can't eat as much as you're sweating and blowing), you probably can't eat as much as you would regular food. This means smaller portions, not a considerably faster metabolism.

While spicy food is yummy, and while it does make us feel like we're achieving something, there really is no evidence to definitely say it helps a lot. But it doesn't hurt as well ;) So continue with your spicy food, but please make sure that you get the right diet and exercise if weightloss is your goal.

Cheers Eights & Weights!


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