Is it Harder to Lose Weight When Your Older?

by | Apr 5, 2013 | Exercise, How Your Body Works, Metabolism, Weight Loss | 0 comments

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So the question has been asked. Is it harder to lose weight as you get older?

Well for those of us who are over 45 or 50 the answer is it can be more difficult but most of that is down to lifestyle changes rather than any real biological effects.

The thing is as we get older we start to lose muscle mass and at the same time we start to put on fat. So even though it might seem that you are staying roughly at the same weight the simple fact is you’re getting more fat and less muscle which obviously isn’t good for the body.

Most of the time that is caused by simply not enough activity and because you aren’t active well, there’s a metabolic rate change due to the fact that the ratio between your muscles or your muscle mass if you prefer and your fat mass has changed.

As the muscle mass goes down and the fat mass goes up well, the metabolism starts to slow down which of course just makes the problem a little bit worse.

So what can you do about it? Well it’s actually quite easy to break the cycle.

The first thing you need to do is obviously become more active. You could do such things simply as walking, resistance training, going dancing, you know like you used to do when you were young.

If you combine that with healthy eating well, you’ll find that you’ll start to reverse the muscle loss because you’ll be more active and you’ll also reverse the fat gain so you might even stay at roughly the same weight but you’ll be a lot fitter and a lot healthier and certainly a lot more active because of it.

You know age does have its advantages. You might be older but in terms of health just make sure you’re wiser too. 

Low-Carb Diet May Slow Alzheimer’s Disease

by | Apr 3, 2013 | Degenerative Diseases, Diabetes, High Fat Diet, How Your Body Works, Low carb diet, Nutrition, Preservatives, Sugars | 0 comments

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You know it’s curious when many people ask me about what I think they should do about such and such a condition. They all seem surprised when I say “well, let’s have a look at what you’re eating before we go any further” because over the years I found truly that so many of the problems, diseases, illnesses both physical and mental far too often have a source or certainly a highly contributory factor in what we eat and having watched my mother suffer with Parkinson’s disease and many of her friends and those in that generation suffer with Alzheimer’s as well.

Nothing yet has convinced me that there’s not quite a bit of truth that the gradual lowering in quality of our food has contributed quite strongly to the gradual increase in many of the health problems that we as a society suffer which is why I’m quite happy to  recommend the article that I’m linking to below by Dr. Mercola who’s looking at the work of another doctor, Dr. Ron Rosedale, who’s a prominent  expert in low carb and high-quality fat approach to improving health and the article points to a very interesting conclusion that Alzheimer’s might well be considered as brain diabetes.

It’s well worth a good read as not only do they point out some of the more cutting edge work about exactly what casues Alzheimer’s but they lead on from that and tell us about how we can avoid Alzheimer’s just by simple changes in our diet and behavior to a certain extent anyway, fairly recommend as well and I hope it helps you.

Link to the article

Taking the good with the bad

by | Apr 3, 2013 | Digestive system, General Health, How Your Body Works, Metabolism, Sensible Eating, Vitamins & Supplements | 0 comments

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Did you know that the number of bacteria in our body outnumbers the number of cells in our body?

That is something that I personally find totally amazing. But you know in many ways we wouldn’t be able to live without them. Our bodies even use bacteria for digesting our food along with a healthy dose of enzymes and some really remarkable and well balanced processes but without those friendly bacteria in our digestive system we would find it very difficult to get the full range of nutrients that we need.

Now if you don’t know anything about the digestive system particularly about how the bacteria within our digestive system works, then the article I’ve linked to below is probably a very good primer and well worth reading. Enjoy!

Link to the article

Kids Who Exercise Are Less Likely to Have Fractures in Old Age

by | Mar 27, 2013 | Exercise, General Health, How Your Body Works, Obesity | 0 comments

It turns out that strengthening bone to avoid fractures starts at a very young age.

Bones become more porous and brittle with age, because the cells responsible for building bone become less active and can no longer keep up with the cells that destroy and remove old bone cells. Physical activity can shift this balance toward maintaining a healthy amount of bone growth,

Physical activity, such as the exercise children get in school gym classes, is important for fighting obesity, but the latest research suggests it may help to keep bones strong as well

Link to the article

Womens study

Fat accumulation in stool?

by | Mar 11, 2013 | How Your Body Works, Weight Loss | 0 comments

There are in fact a whole host of reasons why there can be excess fat in our stools. 1309116783E3Z1e3

In addition to what Mackay has said one of the most common causes is a lack of balance in our digestive ecology. By that I mean our stomach bacteria may be out of kilter which can readily be corrected by taking a good quality probiotics and also we may be slightly deficient in enzymes or our pancreas is not producing adequate quantities of the right type of enzymes to help deal with the change in diet.

And as another thing that can obviously affect the quantity of fat in our stools as our diet changes particularly  if we change it rapidly then it takes the body a little while jus to catch up with producing what it needs to do in order to handle new things  that we’re eating.

Now aside from natural processes another thing that can cause fat in our stools is that we don’t have enough stomach acids and strangely enough that may be indicated by heartburn or something like that whereas the normal way of dealing with that would be to take an antacid, it is actually the opposite that may be needed.

There is plenty of information about that on the web but one place you might care to look at is scdlifestyle.com. They do have a slight commercial edge to what they say but much of the information is quite good and for many it will be an eye opener.

Now another thing that can also cause fat in the stools is through eating artificial fats. Obviously we try to steer clear of those but they can sneak in some of the most unlikely places so it’s well to make sure that there are no artificial fats in what you’re eating. By artificial I also mean things like hydrogenated and overly processed so that’s something you need to look at.

Now if you’re fond of sushi this can also be somewhat of a risky area particularly if you have a taste for white tuna. Only a few years ago there were a number of restaurants that were found to be serving escolar having it labeled as white tuna. The oil that this fish produces can produce keriorrhea but that would only be if you ate it in larger quantities. In smaller quantities it could produce fat or at least oily stools.

The last thing to look at is medication. One of the prime candidates for this type of effect is our gold old friend the statins in all its different forms as can our good old friend that over the counter weight loss pill called Alli. As you’re probably aware that works by causing us to not absorb the fat that we eat which in my opinion is totally doffed but the conclusion we have to come to is if it’s not absorbed it must be passed out the body somehow.

So there you go those are some of the reasons at least that I’m aware of that will cause our stools to be a little bit fatty. I just hope that answers your question adequately.

Cheers,

Mark

This is a copy of the recent comment I made on a forum post about fat in stools

Looking at current pictures makes me mad!

by | Mar 6, 2013 | Diet, How Your Body Works, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Those of you who are parents and particularly moms will instantly understand what I’m talking about now.

It seems we spend our lives wanting the best for others and loving others more than we ever do ourselves and truthfully even  if we’re not parents in many ways it’s  human nature to want the best for others quite often more than we want the best for ourselves.

None of us I believe would deliberately want somebody else to be harmed by our actions and in fact most of the time we do our very best to ensure that those around us get the best out of life and that action and understanding and attitude is all fine and dandy except when it comes to ourselves.

If we had truly loved ourselves as much as we loved those around us then we would not let ourselves get into the state physically such that just catching a quick glimpse of ourselves can be so disheartening, disappointing and a shock  that brings us back to reality and it’s that shock that presents us with two new  challenges.

The first is really a continuation of what we’ve been doing all of our lives. If we truly love those around us, those that we really care for then that unselfish drive that we have deep within us requires us to stay around and be there for them. That obviously means that we need to be healthy if we want to live a long life.

That is probably something that underlines the real reason why many of us chose to do something about our unhealthy, overweight and unfit state but the real key here is not doing what we’re doing just for others but start doing it for ourselves as well.

The real challenge here is just like we love our children unconditionally is to start loving ourselves unconditionally as well simply because the things that we love the most get the most care and attention from us.

So here’s the challenge ladies and gentlemen, next time you pass a mirror look at yourself right in the eyes and say with feeling “I LOVE YOU”. You might go silly, you might feel daft telling yourself that you love yourself but frankly unless you can start doing that you’re missing out on one of the most powerful forces that we have.

It is after all not for nothing that it’s written “Love overcomes all evil”.

Hope that helps,

Mark

This is a copy of the comment I recently made on a forum post about weight loss