Body Fat
Is the obesity epidemic causing a rise in disease?
As America has gotten more fat, America has also experienced more disease than ever before. We are better at treating disease and diagnosing it, however there are more diseases and more cancers than ever before and it's because of the things that we put out in the environment and it is also due to the things that we ingest on a daily basis. We have the ability to control and reduce and even eliminate many of these diseases and it begins with our diet. It begins by eliminating processed foods, eliminating the three whites: flour, sugar, and salts from our diets, or at least drastically reducing them. When we do this, our bodies will shrink down to the appropriate size and we will drastically reduce the incidence of disease that we're currently experiencing.
What percent of body fat is normal?
Optimal body fat for a male is approximately 15 percent, and for a female its about 22 percent. An athlete for each gender can go 5 to 7 percent below that proportion of body fat. For a woman you wouldn't want the body fat to get too low because she could have amenorrhoea which is cessation of the menstrual cycle, which can lead to other health considerations that are not good. The average American body fat for a man is probably about 22 to 24 percent, and for a female it's into the 30 percentile range. This disproportionate amount of body fat is a leading cause of a lot of the disease processes that we now see all across America.
What is the best way to lose fat?
The best way to lose fat is to combine proper eating with strength training and cardiovascular training. The proper eating means whole foods. No processed foods. Minimize sugar, flour and salts. Strength training as a general rulelasts twenty to forty minutes, three times a week using major muscle groups, involving larger movements such a bench press, a squat, and the suchlike. They will incorporate more muscles across multiple planes and axis of motion. Cardiovascular exercise could be done for twenty to forty-five minutes again three to five times a week. Always start out easier. Consult your physician beforehand. However, these three things are absolutely essential to be combined together to ensure your success to lose fat and weight.
What are the health risks to being overweight?
There are many health risks to being overweight, for both kids and adults. First of all, diabetes. Being obese is one of the number one reasons why people get and acquire diabetes. The other thing that a lot of people don't know is that the fat is where a lot of the toxins in your body are stored. Therefore if you have less fat, you will store less toxins, and because of that, you are less likely to acquire the diseases that the toxins are attributed to. There are just a whole host of things: it can be stressful to your body, it can be stressful to your cardiovascular system, it can raise your blood pressure; it's endless. People need to understand that they must do something to control their weight, and it is proper eating, cardiovascular exercise and strength training, and behaviour modification. It's everything all put together.
What is "lean mass" and "fat mass"?
Lean mass is your total body weight minus fat; it's that simple. Your fat mass is your total pounds of fat on your body. For example, if you weigh 100 pounds, and you have a fat mass of 30, that means you have 30 pounds of fat on your body. Again, just the opposite is so for the lean mass. So, if you weigh 120 pounds, and your lean mass is 100, that means 100 pounds of your weight is everything but the fat.
What is "body fat distribution"?
Body fat distribution is simply how your body fat is distributed or dispersed throughout your body. The two examples are the pear shape (and that's where you carry it more in the lower half, around the buttocks, the hips, the thigh, and the lower abdomen) and then the apple shape (more around the chest, the shoulders, and the back). Unfortunately, the apple shape contributes more to heart disease and stress on the cardiovascular and respiratory system simply because the amount of weight that the person has to carry, for example, in their breathing at night when they're trying to sleep. That can lead to more susceptibility to sleep apnoea and things of that nature as well. Although the pear shape may not be desirable from an aesthetic perspective, overall it is a better weight distribution.
How does exercise reduce the size of abdominal fat cells?
Exercise can help reduce fat cells specifically in the abdominal region for a couple of different reasons. When we have stress in our body, we produce a hormone called cortisol and cortisol makes us hang on to more body fat, specifically around the mid-region. Now there are some manufacturers of certain products that will make outrageous claims that all you need to do is take their pill and you will reduce this adipose tissue caused by cortisol around your midsection. It is my opinion that that is false. What happens is you need to do exercises that reduce your stress so you don't produce the cortisol and then you will reduce the belly fat and lose weight. It's that simple.