Category: Obesity

How to get rid of Chest Fat

| October 1, 2012 | 0 Comments

People consider chest fat as feminine and unsightly and are looking at ways of getting rid of their chest fat. They do regular chest exercises to get rid of the chest fat but they are unsuccessful because regular chest exercise alone cannot help them eliminate chest fat. You can get rid of chest fat by not only doing regular exercise chest exercises but also losing overall body fat. Here are some tips that will help in your losing body weight and getting rid of excess fat from the chest.

Reduce calorie intake

You must build a diet plan that will reduce your calorie intake. When building a diet plan you can use a metabolic rate calculator. The calculator will require you to enter your weight, height, gender and age and will help you determining the calories you must consume to reduce your weight. You must try building a diet plan that contains about 500 calories less than your metabolic rate which is determined using the basal calculator. If you can reduce your calorie intake by about 500 calories a day, you can lose up to 1 pound per week.

Cardiovascular Exercises

You must do cardiovascular exercises at least 4 times per week. When you do cardio vascular exercises, it will help in maintaining your metabolic rate even when you consume fewer calories. You can do any exercise that will improve your heart rate and try to do at least 15 minutes of exercise in the first week. You can increase the duration and the frequency of the sessions as your endurance and fitness improves.

Chest Exercises

You must do chest exercises at least 3 times a week. Even though these exercises will not help in weight loss, they help in developing your underlying chest muscles and will create an impression of improved leanness of chest muscles. Your training sessions must include at least 5 chest exercises that you are comfortable doing.

Best Chest Exercises

Bench Press

To do this exercise you will need a pair of dumbbells and a bench. You must take the dumbbells and lie down on the bench. Using smooth motion, use your triceps and chest to push the up until the arms are fully stretched. Make sure you don’t lock your elbows as it can damage them. You must return the arms to the starting position. Initially you can do 3 sets with 20, 15 and 10 repetitions. Once you are comfortable doing this exercise, you can increase the weight and the number of repetitions.

Push-ups

Doing push-ups at least thrice a week will help in toning your chest. To do this exercise, you must lie on the ground and place your palms down on the ground. The palms must be placed a little wider than the width of your shoulder. Keep your back straight and push your body up from the ground until the arms are fully extended. You can do 3 sets of push up with maximum repetition of 25 in each set. If you are unable to do regular push-ups, you get on the knees instead of getting on the toes.

Cable Flys

You can do this exercise using cross cable station. You can start by putting the handles on the cables and selecting the appropriate weight. Make sure you use the same weight in both sides. Grab the stand and the cables in the middle. Lean forward by putting one foot out in the front. Push the cable inwards and outwards using the triceps and chest. Your arms must be fully extended when you push the cables and you must avoid locking your elbows. You can do 3 sets of 15 repetitions each.

Should you eat just 500 calories in a day?

| October 1, 2011 | 0 Comments

There are many people who are choosing extremely low calories diet plans to lose weight. They opt for high calorie restricting diets like HCG diet to lose weight quickly. These diet plans require people to consume just 500 calories a day. Health experts are of the view that intake of less than 1,110 calories in a day can cause serious health problems. Even if you are able to survive on this diet for a few days, you cannot survive on these extremely low diet plans for more than 6 weeks.

Effect of Low Calorie Diet on your Health

Some of the problems that are associated with low calorie diet include fatigue, hair loss, gallstone, muscle loss, electrolyte imbalance in the body and bone loss. Women who consume 500 calories a day for a prolonged duration can suffer from menstrual irregularities. Also, pregnant women who restrict the intake to 500 calories a day could be putting the health of their child at risk. Some diet plans that restrict the intake of proteins and sodium can cause phyponatremia which can led to confusion, dizziness, fatigue and even death.

Expert View on Extremely Low Calorie Diet

Most experts are of the view that selecting a diet plan that restrict your calorie intake to about 500 calories will not help you lose weight in the long run. Also, these diet plans can cause long-term health problems which can even led to the death of the person who has adopted this diet plan.

When people adopt these low-calorie diet plans they initially lose weight because they have drastically reduced their consumption of calories. However, the benefits of these plans are not going to last. Also, some of the long-term side effects of adopting these diet plans include irritability, tiredness, electrolyte imbalance, bone and muscle loss.

Another major disadvantage of adopting these diet plans is that it can lead to malnutrition. When you consume food that has less than 500 calories, it can lead to deficiency of nutrients like proteins, minerals and fats. Depriving the body of the essential nutrients can cause malnutrition. Some of the symptoms of malnutrition include weight loss, bone and muscle weakness, dizziness and fatigue.

How much calories should you consume in day?

To find out how many calories you should consume in a day, multiply you ideal weight (in pounds) by 12 to 15. For instance, if you are a 25 year old woman who is very active and you want to maintain a weight of 120 lbs., you must consume about 1800 calories (120 lbs x 15). However, if you lead a less active lifestyle, you must consume 1440 calories (120 lbs x 12).

The food that you eat must be a well-balanced diet and must include items like fruits, low-fat dairy products, vegetables, grains, lean proteins, seeds and nuts.