Fitzilla

Intro!

2008-06-02T18:25:37Z

Name: Cody
Age: 17
Current workout: gym 5 -6 times a week - cardio for 5mns, weights for 45mns, some abs for 10 - 15mns and about 10mns cardio to finish, with swimming thrown in for good measure.
Current workout goal(s): Body like a God? I don't want to be huge but looking like Ryan Reynolds is kinda high ... ^^;;
Interests: Swimming, Tai-chi, and the generics: writing, and I'm a dab hand with Photoshop. Would it sould clichéd if I said "going to the gym" too? 'Cause it's true ...

Question too: I hate fish, and I'm not a big fan of vegetables - potatoes and carrot juice are the only two I have. So how can I work my diet around this? I know it sounds immature and pathetic but they just don't agree with me ... :\

Intro post

2008-05-26T06:00:40Z

Hiii everyone!! Just stopping by to introduce myself. :-D

Name: Kimberly

Age: 27

Current workout: I workout with a personal trainer 3+ times a week, I've been doing this since July 2007. Currently he's fixated and recently Cross Fit certified..this is mainly what we've been doing for the last few weeks. Typical workout, 15 min cardio, 45 minutes weight training, circuit training, etc. It varies...

Current workout goal(s): lose those last 20 lbs (I've lost over 80 since last May)

Interests: reading, mobloging, sharing fitness and workout info, healthy eating, recipes, graduate school (I graduate in December), wii fit, camping, shopping, many more that I'm not thinking of...lol.

Experimental

2008-05-24T20:34:56Z

Then I went to the pool, and they had closed it for laps so that they could have a water-aerobic class., so I decided to participate in that. It was flail-and-curse for the water. They kept admonishing everybody to keep their back straight. I have no idea whether my back was straight or not, and since most of the moving around was under water, it was hard to model the people who'd maybe done the class before.

I noticed I was creating a lot more splashing than the other people, which might have meant I was doing something wrong, or it might have been because I was the only one there who seemed to be expending much energy; a lot of the people there were way older than me, and seemed to be there more to socialize than to exercise. A couple of them were gabbing about some movie the whole time.

I finished up with a soak in the whirlpool, a few laps now that they were open for it, and a shower and dry-off in the sauna with a book. Not a bad day for my body.

Anyone here have experience with "aqua-robics" or whatever trendy name they have for it these days? Is it worthwhile? Anyone still reading this community?

intro post :D (hi!)

2008-04-02T18:20:55Z

Name: Mare
Age: 38
Current workout : While not doing a Challenge, I am following the BFL program. I like the structure. :)
Current workout goal(s): I'd like to get much stronger - esp. my upper body - than I am now. I am also trying to motivate my daughter to a more active lifestyle.
Interests: Oh, dear. Um. *points at interest list on profile page* They won't let me post more than 150! But briefly - writing, reading, learning, biking, music, and enjoying life. (vague, no?)
Also? Since I have /dramatically/ increased my water intake, I have become a (gold medal)Champion of the 100 meter Women's room dash.

Hey everyone!

2008-02-20T22:22:14Z

I have hypothyroidism and PCOS.. I gained a little over 40lbs over a two year period (2004 & 2005).. I haven't done much (no exercise or dieting) and somehow lost 30lbs in three years.. My doctors still want me to lose at least 11lbs so I am going to try to lose 15lbs in three months.. here are my before pictures (I included the before picture from last May since I have lost some weight since then along with my measurements.. I can't tell a difference in the picture but I can with my clothes since I have gone from a size 10 to a size 8 since May).. I eat balanced as it is and since I am losing weight on my own without doing anything my doctors highly recommended that I keep my eating habits the same.. so no dieting.. I just plan on increasing my activity..

Yoga-
This is a class offered at my gym.. it's Yoga Fitness that is an hour long

Cardio-
This just means I have to do some sort of activity of movement for at least an hour (as recommended by my Doctor..) It will mostly be brisk walking at the park or on a machine at the gym.

self portrait from todays bike ride

2007-09-28T02:57:25Z

heres a self portrait of me sweating like a dog during todays bike ride through suburbia

fitzilla @ 2007-08-13T19:31:00

2007-08-14T02:29:37Z

The flail-and-curse instructor never learns.

Today we were made to do our crunches while lying across enormous inflatable yoga balls. And she calls out, "Now, doing the exercise on these balls should make you feel reeeeelly unstable!

So, of course, I have to call out, in time with my exhale, "Kill....Kill...Kiillllll...

And they all fell off their balls laughing, in that there Group W Class.

fitzilla @ 2007-07-19T15:24:00

2007-07-19T19:25:03Z

Hello folks,

My name's Barry. I'm 25 and living in Boston.

I've recently become determined to lose weight, gain muscle, and increase flexibility.

I've been stretching for an hour or so each day, hitting as many different muscle groups as I can. I've been running/jogging/walking 2 to 5 miles daily. I've been lifting weights and doing crunches and push-ups.

My main problem is my diet.

I've decreased the amount of food I eat on a daily basis, because I realize that I was just eating way too much. For the last week or so I've been eating salads and yogurt.

Now, I know this is a bad idea. The problem is: I don't really know what to do. I've been losing a decent amount already, but I know as far as the exercise goes, I need to eat differently in order to get the most out of my workout.

So, what I'm looking for is for someone to tell me what I should be eating to get the best of both worlds. How can I eat right, but still lose fat and add muscle?

Much thanks!

Whoa

2007-06-07T03:59:05Z

My husband's good friend Jayson competed recently. They know each other through our local powerlifting circuit:

These were taken at the WPO Finals on March 2, 2007. One picture is of him beginning to deadlift 661 lbs. The other picture is of him completing the lift.

From the chart I guess his total was 1774.703 pounds... yet did not place. He sure worked hard though geez. His "best" squat was 340 pounds.

His body weight? 164.9 lbs.

Doing the Flail-and-Curse

2007-05-26T16:48:03Z

I managed to get out of work early enough to hit Y fitness twice this workweek. They brought back the hulking Carson prototype, and he'd apparently consulted with the female instructors because he'd brought out the medicine balls, rubberbands, Congressional subpoenas, leather whips and other implements of destruction to shape my body into 180 lbs of You Know Your Girlfriend Want Me.

I knew to steel myself for the worst as he started a workout tape that sounded like hypertempo Don Martin sound effects: FWUMPadada-dupppada, FWUMPadada-dupppada, FWUMPadada-dupppada, FWUMPadada-duppada... and yes, he DID sing "YMCA" with a great exuberance while leaping and lunging on the floor. He is SOOOOOO Carson!

An important discovery: Apparently I have "obliques of steel". I found this out when we were asked to lie on our sides, arms straight overhead, and do side crunches, lifting our torsos and legs at the same time into a v-shape. Not only did I not have much trouble with this move, but the only other person who could do them right was the instructor. The women in lycra, who have eight inch waists and shame me at everything that doesn't emphasize upper body strength, couldn't do it. And to think, this time a month ago, I thought obliques meant the look you gave people who still publicly admire George Bush.

Fortunately, I am humble about my newfound superpower, because when we lie on our backs and try to do the same v-crunches, my motions resemble those of a just-tasered banana slug.

Hope you're all the same.

Current Music The cramps with a difference, never mind the weather! When you work with Carson, a Charley Horse forever!

More Elvish Workout Weirdness

2007-05-05T18:26:23Z

Crossposted to my LJ

Golly Jeepers, but the Y sure has a lot of instructors! Today they sent a bodybuilder to teach Grunt-and-Proud (the official name o' the class is "Body Sculpting", but they just seem to throw anything they want into the class, as long as it burns calories and hurts a lot).

This was the kind of bodybuilder who could do splits, despite being built like a fireplug that eats other fireplugs. He looked like a healthy, bouncy cross between Carson from Queer Eye and a He-Man action figure. He was scarier than the women. His workout emphasized circuit training, with a lot of stair running and heaving medium dumbells to failure.

Odd realization du jour: My legs are the buffest part of me, from decades of walking, running and nordictrack. My lats and shoulders are pretty wimpy, from decades of not regularly putting heavy things on and off of overhead shelves, which is about the only motion that really uses those muscles. They get really exhausted during circuit training. And yet, the day after the workouts, I feel the lactic acid ache in my legs, and not in my lats and shoulders. For the life of me, I can't figure out why.

I've been doing these classes two or three times a week since about mid-March, and I'm getting some decent definition everywhere except in my gut, which is just going to take a while.

More than anything, I'm discovering the inherent silliness of the human body. We are a goofy-built species, we are.

fitzilla @ 2007-04-29T20:25:00

2007-04-30T03:27:19Z

I'm getting tired of calling the thump-and-gasp class "girly exercises". Henceforth, I will refer to any full-body workout that emphasizes core muscles and aerobic conditioning as "Elvish exercise", and macho training that emphasizes learning to bench press your buick and eat glass as "Dwarven exercise". Most Asian martial arts are Elvish; boxing and fighting with explosives are Dwarven. So. There.

I mention this because the normal trainer at heave-and-sweat is a friendly lassie with a healthy farmer's daughter body, who smiles a lot and encourages people to believe that self-torturing one's way to health is fun. This time, however, she was absent, and we had a spandex-clad ELF.

She was about five feet tall and breathtakingly beautiful, with ice-blue eyes that looked like they could see through you, and gymnast muscles that rippled and bulged whenever she moved. I may have imagined the bit where the fly landed on her shoulder and instead of brushing it off, she just twitched her left shoulder without looking, but not by much. The usual mat, stability ball and dumbells on the floor had been supplanted by a frightening array of medicine balls, playground balls, floppy cylinder-discs, big colored rubberbands, stair risers, climbing pitons, potato sacks, rubber chickens, dental tools, handcuffs, jumper cables, raw eggs and a couple of half-frozen sides of beef hanging from the back wall.

"Brother", I whispered to myself, "You are in bad, bad trouble."

My God. This girl was held together by wires. She had us do set after set of abdominal crunches, without her legs, her back, or even her butt touching the mat. That's right, just sort of levitated in the air. At least that's how it looked to me. Then we had to wrap the rubber bands around our legs and do the penguin shuffle-hop-step up and down the floor. Somehow, I ended up suspended from the ceiling with the rubber bands around my head. The rest of the class was spent on autopilot.

At least this time, I managed to get through the whole thing without having to drop out while a group of super-powered ladies tut-tutted and wondered if I needed medical attention. On the other hand, I pretty much cheated during the last half of the set, doing the push ups, er, "Elvish" style, on my knees. I think I pulled something in my back, just trying to sit up.

I'm not an Elf. I'm an Elvish Impersonator.

How many servings of fruits and vegetables did you eat yesterday?

2007-04-21T08:02:01Z

Lose weight by vegging out
Sneaking fruits and veggies into your diet can help you slim down
By Barbara Rolls
Ph.D.
How many servings of fruits and vegetables did you eat yesterday?

If it was less than two servings of fruits and three servings of vegetables, you're not alone. Barely 11 percent of American adults are meeting the government's minimum Dietary Guidelines for Americans for both fruits and vegetables, according to two studies published earlier this month. A surprising 62 percent did not consume any whole fruit servings and 25 percent ate no veggies in a day.

Most people know that a diet filled with fruits and vegetables is linked to decreased risk of obesity, heart disease and some cancers. Despite a wider variety of produce being available to us than ever before, as well as a government campaign intended to boost consumption, we're still not eating our fruits and veggies.

People are actually eating fewer vegetables than they were 20 years ago, according to data recorded between 1988 to 2002 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, which track American eating habits. Fruit intake didn't budge during the same period.

No matter our best intentions, we eat foods because we like them, not because they're good for us.

That means if we're going to increase the amount of fruits and vegetables in our diets, we're going to have to learn to like them. And that means starting young. Really young.

Raising veggie lovers
In fact, our tastes may be determined before we're even born.

A fetus is able to experience a variety of tastes in amniotic fluid, which is flavored by what the expectant mother eats, researchers Julie Mennella and Gary Beauchamp at the Philadelphia-based Monell Chemical Senses Center found. If moms downed 10 ounces of carrot juice four days a week during their last trimester, they had babies who liked carrot-flavored cereal, the researchers discovered.

Drinking carrot juice while breast-feeding had a similar effect on babies' palates. And when formula-fed babies were offered a variety of pureed vegetables over nine days, they more readily accepted carrots and other new foods.

If parents want to raise vegetable-loving children, they need to be persistent in offering new foods, says Leann Birch, director of Pennsylvania State's Center for Childhood Obesity Research, University Park.

“Children who see parents and other children eating vegetables are more likely to try them,” she says. "If your child does not like broccoli at first, keep trying, and make sure you are eating it, too.”

These early flavor experiences provide the foundation for the food preferences we have as adults.

Try the ‘stealth’ approach
But what about grown-ups who don't like veggies? Is it too late?

Maybe you can't learn to like vegetables, but you can trick yourself by sneaking them into your diet.

In my research lab at Penn State, we use the “stealth” approach — adding finely chopped and blended vegetables to dishes such as casseroles, stews, soups and pasta. We tuck veggies in wherever we can — bulking up sandwiches, tweaking the toppings on pizza, adding them to frozen meals.

In several of our studies, we have found that when people served themselves from a buffet they took the same amount of a food, whether it had added vegetables or not.

What's surprising is that people didn't notice the extra vegetables and rated the foods just as tasty. The people who ate extra vegetables consumed fewer calories and didn’t feel any hungrier later.

Because fruits and vegetables are primarily water, adding them to the diet allows bigger portions while limiting calories.

If you don’t like fruits and vegetables, bigger portions won’t be particularly appealing. But sneaking even small amounts of vegetables and fruits into foods will lower the calorie density, increase intake of produce and help us eat fewer calories.

And what do saved calories mean? Weight loss, of course.

Barbara Rolls is the author of “The Volumetrics Eating Plan,” which offers tips on how to eat more fruits and veggies and lower the calorie density of recipes.

© 2007 MSNBC Interactive
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18079934/

© 2007 MSNBC.com

Personal Training

2007-04-20T14:52:16Z

Hi.

My name is Sarah, I've been a member of this community for a while, and I'm also a Certified Personal Trainer through NASM. I train people in the gym and at their homes, but I'm now trying to start a new business venture.. Online training. I will be starting up my own website in a few months which will be geared towards creating very individualized plans in both nutrition and workouts to reach whatever goal you may have. I will have many options for plans and prices, however I'd like to get a few people started early (at EXTREEMLY discounted rates) so by the time my website is up I can have a section of "testimonies" and "successes". I dont want to get into any details right now (only because I don't want to clog up people's Friends pages) but if anyone is interested in my services PLEASE reply and I will contact you! I will charge only $10 per plan per month for the clients (through paypal), when regularly I will be charging $50 and up depending on plans. Each plan will be very detailed. This is a great oppertunity, so if you're intrested, comment and I'll get more info to you. Thanks!

(Mods: If this isn't allowed please let me know and I'll take it down!)

x-posted like crazy

For April

2007-04-01T16:08:30Z

My body becomes desensitized to my training and am looking for more ideas for April.

New month. New workout schedule?

- A brief background. Been working out since I was 15. Includes lifting weights, martial arts, yoga, etc.

- I've lost 22 pounds in the last year even though I look the same. (Or at least I think I look the same.) I drastically cut down on refined foods including sugar a la Atkins and I lifted weights throughout this process. Weight/mass loss was not my goal. Please see below.

- My main goals are to maintain my good health as well as to deter the development of diabetes and ovarian cancer.

What do you plan to do for April as it pertains to working out?

I am looking for workout ideas.

For example:

1. Length of workout
2. Order of lifting exercises: reps and sets
3. Ab work
4. Times per week
5. For people studying any martial art... what do you do when training?
6. Order of workout (for example, cardio then lift or lift then cardio)
7. What are you doing for your workouts in April?

If at all possible please be specific because I am working on my workout schedule for April and I like to incorporate other things since my workouts sometimes become stale and/or my body becomes desensitized.

I am looking for workout ideas to incorporate into my routine. Someone has already suggested I return to HIIT which I plan to start again in June but April is here and I would like a new challenge or at least something different than I would normally do since I have been training for about 25 years.

If you just want to tell us what you plan to do for your workouts in April that's fine too. I would love to read what others are doing this month because that is usually how I incorporate some things into my workout.

Thanks in advance.

Don't forget to breathe, girls!

2007-03-27T15:17:38Z

The "Power Aerobics" class at the Y is a lot more strenuous than the "Body Sculpting". I couldn't keep up with them. Part of it was that I had no idea what the moves were. The lady up front would chant, rapid fire, "One-and-up-and-two-and-touch-and-out-and-thrust, and by the time I had watched to see what part of me was supposed to be out-and-thrust, they'd gone on to in-and-front. The other part was, I'm just not in good enough condition for girly stuff. Not yet, anyhow. I shoulda stuck with the weightlifting and the nice, nonjudgmental epileptical machine.

Here's how I managed to do the workout regardless. The first thing was, I wrenched my face into the Sears catalog grin and kept it there. Seriously. Things don't hurt as much or even seem as frustrating if you do that. Plus, I associate it with being on stage, at which point part of me zones out of the mechanics and something else takes over. Just as if I'd rehearsed it.

The other thing I did was focus on the girl right in front of me. the one with the pneumatic superpowers and the tummy that looked about the consistency of the palm of my hand. I imagined puppet strings connecting all my joints to hers, and rather than listening to the twist-and-sweat commands, I just did what she was doing. I'm told the workout isn't as great if you do mechanics rather than focus on every sit-and-spin muscle group, but this called for desperate measures.

By the end of it my heart was going like a trip-hammer and one of my quadriceps had popped off and was flopping around on the floor like a beached mackerel, but I'd done it. Then, half the class left, and the others brought out the arr-arr pilates balls. I stuck around.

I'd learned about ball exercises from David Kirsch books, and it turned out I'd been doing them wrong. I thought "obliques" referred to the look you were supposed to give the illustration. Turned out, I discovered I had a muscle group called obliques. In fact, they're still getting to know me this morning. Hi there, obliques! Maybe you don't know about the manners of putting your feet on people's ribs the first time you're in their home.

I got some revenge when they did the tricep pushups on the ball. I have actually been doing bench dips and stuff, and my triceps are old friends. I can actually move as much weight with them as with my isolated shoulders. So they were impressed with something I could do after all. Go upper body st

And that was my adventure in physical conditioning for the day. I expect I'll come back for more, but not right away.

Interesting article on feeling full from CNN.com

2007-02-03T23:07:07Z

Satisfaction guaranteed: How certain foods help you feel full
POSTED: 8:53 a.m. EST, February 1, 2007

By Maureen Callahan, M.S., R.D.
CookingLight.com

Many of us worry about overeating when we sit down for a meal. But what, beyond overindulgence, makes people feel full -- and how can we leverage foods' filling powers to help control portions?

"It's a complex sequence of events that starts with the eyes, the mouth, the stomach, and the gut," says Barbara Rolls, Ph.D., professor of nutritional sciences at Pennsylvania State University and author of "The Volumetrics Eating Plan." "But hunger and satiety, the scientific term for that full feeling that comes after eating, are also influenced by our environment."

Armed with insight about the environmental cues that compel you to eat and the foods that offer the most satisfaction, you can make smart choices that will fill you up, and not out. (How not to pig out at that Super Bowl party. )

Mind over matter

"People are not like gas tanks. Our bodies do not tell us, 'Stop now, you've eaten 375 calories,' " says Janet Polivy, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, Canada, who studies the connections between food and feeling. "Eating is much less determined by biology than by psychology." The size of the portions you eat and whom you eat them with have a direct effect on your intake. (Learn the top habits of the world's healthiest countries. )

When you're served larger portions, you'll most likely finish them and then some, according to University of Illinois researchers, who invited subjects to eat soup from bowls equipped with hidden refilling devices that kept the amount of soup in each bowl constant. Subjects who supped from these bowls consumed 73 percent more soup than those who used ordinary bowls; however, they didn't rate their feelings of satiety any higher than those who consumed less.

The presentation of portions can also influence the amount of food you eat. Most of us are likely to eat considerably more than usual from a buffet-style table. One study showed that just increasing the variety of foods available increased intake by 60 percent. In other words, you really do eat with your eyes.

Eat with friends or coworkers, and chances are you'll model the amount you eat based on their plates. "As long as you have a big eater in the room, our research suggests people then feel free to eat a little less than whoever sets the pace," Polivy says. She and her colleagues tested the hypothesis on people who had been deprived of food for 24 hours and found that subjects regulated their food intake by keeping an eye on their colleagues' plates, eating more when in the presence of someone who ate heartily.

Inflation rates

The flexible physiology of the stomach helps place us at the mercy of environmental stimuli. Although ordinarily about the size of a closed fist, the stomach expands as food enters. "Our stomachs can hold about three pints of food," explains Julie Schwartz, M.S., R.D., coordinator of nutrition services at Emory Bariatric Center in Atlanta, Georgia. "That's about the size of a football." While useful in the event of food scarcities that plagued our ancestors, the stomach's ability to expand can undermine our best sensible-eating intentions.

Fill the stomach too quickly, and your body won't have time to recognize messages from the hormones that help regulate appetite. Insulin, leptin, cortisol, and ghrelin are some of the chemical messengers that send signals between the stomach and the brain, inducing hunger and registering satiety. "We don't have immediate feedback from our bodies telling us we've eaten enough," Polivy says. "It takes about 20 minutes for food to be digested enough that glucose gets into the bloodstream and the hormones start working." If you have already consumed most of a meal in 20 minutes' time, your brain will receive satiety signals too late to slow your eating.

How nutrients help

Although environment is a powerful factor that drives people to eat, certain nutrients -- most notably protein, fiber, and water -- can help tilt our internal scales toward "full" before we reach the red line. (Experts pick their perfect food )

Protein is the most satiating nutrient, says former Harvard University researcher Thomas Halton, Ph.D., who recently co-wrote review of 50 satiety studies in The Journal of the American College of Nutrition. Something about protein tells our bodies to stop eating it after a while. Researchers aren't quite sure of the mechanism but believe that part of protein's advantage may come from its thermic effect, the rate at which calories are consumed simply by the act of digesting food. "The digestion and absorption of protein takes more work than the digestion and absorption of fat and carbohydrates," Halton says. About 25 to 35 percent of protein calories are used as the body converts protein to energy; only five to 15 percent are used when carbohydrates are converted.

Carbohydrates are the next most satiating foods. "The type of carbohydrate plays a role," Halton says. "Whole grains are more satiating than refined sugars and refined white flour." Whole grains, along with fruits and vegetables, tend to be filling because they contain higher levels of fiber. Unlike other food substances, fiber is not digested. It adds bulk to foods, which helps fill the stomach, slowing the rate at which food is digested. The result: You notice feelings of fullness sooner.

Fruits, vegetables, and grains also have another satiety-related benefit: Because these foods contain high percentages of water, they generally have a lower energy density, the number of calories per gram, than meats, dairy foods, and confections. That means you can eat more of them without the consequences that high-calorie foods can bring. A number of studies coordinated by Rolls show that eating salads and other low-calorie foods can help people eat less without feeling deprived. In one study, Rolls found that eating a salad with low energy density before a meal enhanced satiety enough that subjects consumed 12 percent less food from the meal.

While fat's palatability certainly provides satisfaction, it isn't technically "satiating," according to Dana Gerstein, M.P.H., R.D., specialist at the University of California at Berkeley's Center for Weight and Health. "I think of 'satisfying' as fulfilling a desire," Gerstein says. "Fat fulfills desire but is not satiating. Satiation is a physiological process."

All of this information yields a plate containing a small amount of fat, a lean source of protein, and a variety of fiber-rich fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. "This is pretty much what we know we should be eating anyway, but it also helps with satiety," Rolls says. "It's a new way to encourage people to practice good nutrition."

Maureen Callahan, M.S., R.D., is an award-winning food journalist and recipe developer. She lives in Colorado.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/diet.fitness/01/26/CL.satisfaction.guaranteed/index.html

More efficient workouts

2007-02-01T06:51:28Z

3 times as much fat loss in half the time? Sounds good to me.

Eight seconds key to weight loss

Researchers at the University of NSW and the Garvan Institute studied 45 overweight women over 15 weeks, putting them through a 20 minute cycling regime in which they sprinted on a stationary bike for eight seconds followed by 12 seconds of cycling lightly.

"They lost three times more weight as other women who exercised at a continuous, regular pace for 40 minutes," UNSW Associate Professor Steve Boutcher said.

Read more....

Short bursts of exercise could boost weight loss

2007-01-25T06:54:17Z

23/01/07
By Jo Willey

AN exercise regime that burns fat three times as fast as a normal gym workout has been developed by scientists.

And it works without the need to diet.

The interval training programme uses frantic bursts of effort followed by periods of much slower exercise.

It prompts the body to produce chemicals that allow more fat to be burned under the skin and within muscles.

Experts at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, studied 45 overweight women over 15 weeks.

They were put on an exercise bike three times a week and made to sprint for eight seconds, then ease off for 12 seconds, a pattern repeated for 20 minutes.

"They lost three times as much weight as other women who exercised at a continuous, regular pace for 40 minutes," said one of the researchers, British-born associate professor Steve Boutcher.

The women lost the flab mainly from their buttocks and legs.

"It seems that we've stumbled on a unique form of exercise," he said. "We don't know exactly how it works yet, but it's far more responsive in getting the body to yield its fat."

The scientists believe the regime would also be applicable to swimming, walking, running and rowing.

"For a lot of overweight people this is going to be a revolution," Professor Boutcher said.

The method will also be useful to diabetics, as tests showed insulin resistance was lowered by about 32 per cent.

The "spinning" regime of short bursts appears to work by having a greater effect on the person's metabolism.

This is because higher amounts of chemicals called catecholamines are produced during interval sprinting than in normal exercise.

The resulting chemical reaction causes faster burning of fat and hence greater weight loss.

Interval training - repeated bursts of near-maximum, high-speed intensity work followed by periods of low activity - is most commonly used by long-distance runners to improve their performance.

But Professor Boutcher said types of interval training which use longer interludes than the short bursts he recommends are not as effective for overweight people.

And government recommendations for exercise are largely ineffectual. He said: "Walking for 60 minutes, seven times a week, does not result in much fat loss, usually 1.15kg (about 2.5lb) over 15 weeks."

The scientists now want to study the effect of combining their exercise regime with a Mediterranean-style diet plus a daily supplement of fish oil capsules, which helps burn fat more efficiently.

http://express.lineone.net/news_detail.html?sku=1095

Gut bacteria levels may contribute to obesity

2007-01-24T08:34:59Z

So now there finding a link with the type of bacteria in your gut and obesity. Makes sense since these bacteria evolved with us. Those people with the obese bacteria would be more efficient at extracting calories during famine.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,1976637,00.html

"They transferred samples of the gut bacteria from obese and lean mice into two groups of microbiota-free mice. The mice given the "obese" bacteria extracted more calories from their food than those given the "lean" bacteria. They also found that the bacteria in obese mice was rich in genes for enzymes that broke down otherwise indigestible sugars. "The bacteria in obese mice seemed to assist their host in extracting extra calories from ingested food that could then be used as energy," Prof Seeley said."

dirt trail bike ride [page [1 of 4]

2006-09-26T15:12:56Z

.............
today i went dirt trail rideing ...i took 19 pictures while rideing the bike and if you click on the pic it will take you to the best 4 pictures that looked pritty good ...get a bike to stay fit its the fun way
click pic for next

fitzilla @ 2006-09-19T20:08:00

2006-09-20T01:08:55Z

Anyone here tried Yoga...what do you think of it? Does it calm you? Does it make you feel stronger (both mentally and physically?)

I'm tempted to try it...I have alot of stress at work and I'm in need a good way to get rid of it...also I need to tone up bigtime...I've gained a bit of weight and I'm frustrated with myself for that but the more I try to lose it the way of the gym sometimes the more I get frustrated with myself...it sounds crazy but I'm thinking of trying yoga to branch out and try something different so I'm just curious to know what others might have thought about it...

New communities

2006-09-12T02:26:57Z

Hey everyone! I just created a couple of new communities for people who participate in certain types of fitness, namely triathletes, </a></b></a>triathletes and swimmers, </a></b></a>swimswamswum. If you fall into one of these categories, I'd love for you to join. This community and other fitness communites are a wealth of information and encouragement for me (and I'm sure all of you), and I'd like to get that kind of stuff for these sports as well. Thanks!

spanish models

2006-09-10T01:54:11Z

Good or bad?

Spanish fashion show rejects too-skinny models

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14748549/