Carb-Cycling: A Diet that Works!

Most diets simply don’t work due to the fact that they slow the metabolism and eat away at your fat burning muscle. A good diet can certainly help in reaching those weight loss goals though.  Now, when it comes to successful diets, one place to look professional athletes and bodybuilders. In doing so, you’ll find that the majority of them use some sort of carb‐cycling when it comes to their “cutting phases.” So, today we are going to provide you with a general carb‐cycling diet that is well‐suited for most individuals.

To start, let’s begin with a bit of a foundation as to the overall concept behind this diet. 

For starters, get it out of your head that you are looking to “lose weight.” What you really want to do is lose fat. Losing fat is what improves your overall figure. As such, you want to lose as much fat as you can on your diet, but at the same time, you want to maintain your muscle.  With that in mind, it is far more important to keep track of your inches than it is your weight. After all, losing five pounds of fat and gaining five pounds of muscle would certainly help improve your figure (since muscle is far denser than fat), but a scale won’t show this type of result.  Instead, use a measuring tape around various areas of the body, such as the stomach, hips, thighs, arms, etc. This will give you a more accurate measurement of your progress. Even better, track your body fat percentage. This can be done with various equipment. At New Beginnings Baltimore we use a hand held bio-impedance device, as well as a professional grade Tanita scale to measure the percentage of body fat and the percentage of water in the body. This allows us to double check the accuracy of our readings.

Now, the basics of a carb‐cycling diet is to keep your protein and fat intake relatively consistent, while you rotate between low‐carb and high‐carb days. The most basic method that has been shown to work best for most individuals would be a three‐day low‐carb, one day high‐carb rotation. What this cycle does is it causes your body to tap more into fat stores during the low carb days. However, typically the body gets used to this by slowing the metabolism. So, in order to counter that concern, you have a high carb day once every four days. That fourth day replenishes your muscle glycogen, so there is little concern of it being stored as fat, given you don’t go too overboard with the carbs. So, the fourth day keeps the metabolism from slowing down (aka – prevents you from losing muscle), while the other three low‐carb days gets your body shedding that fat. Another great perk of the high‐carb day is that it makes it much easier to stick with the diet, since you know every fourth day, you get to look forward to having a higher caloric intake again.

Read more at: http://www.newbeginningsbaltimore.com/blog/carb-cycling-a-diet-that-works/

5 Magical Strategies to Reduce Weight

It is extremely frustrating when you are trying to lose weight and you can’t seem to make any progress, despite the fact that you are working hard. If this happens to you, you can supplement your weight loss regimen with these helpful tips.

Take a look:

#1 Hydrate

Water is the best hydrator and an ideal weight loss tool too. In a recent survey conducted in the US, people who drink 17 oz of water three times a day before every meal, lose around 5 lbs in 12 weeks. Lisa Renn, the dietician says, “The noticeable thing in this study is that the people who shed weight were the ones who were drinking water prior to eating. This is to reduce the capacity of stomach by eating smaller portions of food”. Therefore, drinking more water before meals will help you eat less.

#2 Do not munch the whole day

Are you always keeping an eye on the cookie jar or sipping on a soda? If so, you should remove this from your daily routine. Eat a balanced diet with a gap of two to three hours between meals. Consume meals in small portions and take lesser quantities, as it keeps levels of blood sugar stable. Eating meals this way makes you recognize true hunger and forces you to eat healthier. If you are snacking all day, you will put on extra useless calories you don’t actually need.

#3 Start Resistance Training

Body muscles are ultimate fat burners which cannot be built on the treadmill. The slimmer your tissues are, the more calories you are likely to burn. Surprisingly, such tissues can be built only through resistance training. To lose weight, move every day. Do both high intensity interval training and resistance training two times a week.

#4 Add Protein and Ditch Wrong Carbs

Sweets, white breads, pasta, processed food and high GI carbohydrates reduce digestion power and produce insulin, which is not good. Too much intake of these foods and production of insulin makes you gain weight and could lead to type-2 diabetes in extreme cases. Instead, consume wholegrain breads, fruits and oats to keep fats away from the body. These foods are low GI carbs so they are good for you. Renn says, “Add protein to your diet like tuna, four bean mix, light ham and chicken etc.”

#5 Get 8 hours of sleep

Getting 8 hours of sleep is a perfect key to weight loss. In one study researchers found the following, “The body is active during sleep in terms of metabolism. So the more we sleep, the more our fat burning ability gets turned up”. Lack of sleep is destructive for leptin and ghrelin, which are hunger controlling hormones. If you don’t get enough sleep, ghrelin increases and leptin decreases, which makes you crave food. As a result, you eat more sweets, baked foods, chips and soda, thus making you gain weight.

While some of these tips seem simple, being diligent and sticking to them every day can be a challenge. Adopting these simple strategies will help you lose weight in a healthy and natural way. These weight loss strategies can be implemented in addition to any other weight loss programs you are using. These are some simple steps to introduce into your lifestyle to make you look smart and fit.

Source : http://www.newbeginningsbaltimore.com/blog/5-magical-strategies-to-reduce-weight/ 

How Low Carb Diets can Prove Valuable for Your Health?

Some evidence shows that low carb diets can help people lose weight quickly, quicker even than being on a low fat diet. A low carb diet can be your perfect, rapid weight loss tool. In addition, low carb diets can have a major impact on preventing heart disease.

Lowering your carbohydrate intake remains beneficial to reducing triglycerides, which is the major fat carrying substance in blood. Plus, HDL cholesterol – which is the good kind of cholesterol – receives boost if you reduce carbs in your diet. When cutting carbs, it is important to understand that whole grain carbohydrates are still good to eat. It is the processed, white starches like pasta, white flour and white bread that do the most damage and provide the least amount of nutritional value. Substitute foods like vegetables, fruits and whole grains to intake a sufficient amount of minerals, vitamins and phytonutrients. 

Thigh Liposuction vs. Thigh Lift: Which is right for you?

A healthy diet and regular exercise can do a lot for you and your appearance, but unfortunately, lean and sculpted legs are not always the end result. In fact, when it comes to the size of your thighs, sometimes genetics make it nearly impossible to have the shape you want. Fortunately you're not without options!

LIPOSUCTION

In experienced hands, liposuction is a powerful means to permanently improve those genetically determined selective fat storage areas that can be challenging if not impossible to improve by means of diet and exercise, says Dr. Michael Law If you are not happy with your saddlebags, thick thighs or a combo of the two, "lipo" just might be the answer to your prayers. After all, it can reshape the body beautifully and help keep fat from returning to the treated area.

This cosmetic procedure can slim and contour specific areas of the body by removing excess, localized fat deposits. A small incision is made, where a small tube or cannula is inserted and used to suction out the excess fat. A plastic surgeon’s critical eye is key when performing this procedure. Dr. Law believes in a conservative approach with removal of fat from the upper medial thighs. He says, "A small amount of space between the upper inner thighs is aesthetically ideal, but a wide space between the upper inner thighs looks post-surgical, unhealthy, and unnatural." Not a look anyone should strive for. Regarding the upper inner thighs, he says "post-liposuction contour irregularities can be severe if the plastic surgeon is not skilled at and experienced with the treatment of this particular area." Make sure you check out the surgeon's side-by-side “before and after” images before you decide to proceed with surgery to make sure your aesthetic vision and the surgeon’s are similar.

THIGH LIFT

Though liposuction is an ideal solution for a lot of patients, it's not a magic bullet for all who are unhappy with their thighs. If you have skin laxity in your thigh area, you might need thigh lift surgery in your future. Dr. Law says, "A lateral thigh lift can improve saddlebag area skin laxity / cellulite and can be extended across the posterior midline to lift the buttocks as well. A medial thigh lift is designed to address skin laxity in the upper medial thigh." Many candidates for thigh lifts have experienced significant weight loss, or have had changes in body contour and skin tone following one or more pregnancies.

A small percentage of patients undergoing thigh lift surgery do not have excess fat in the area that would require liposuction beforehand - but most do - and must therefore first undergo liposuction treatment, followed by thigh lift surgery two to three months later. The later surgery involves removing excess skin and any underlying excess subcutaneous tissue and fat, clearly significantly more invasive than liposuction alone.

LIPO VS. LIFT?

The only way to know what's right for you is to consult with a board-certified plastic surgeon. Dr. Law says, "Procedure selection really boils down to the nature of one’s skin in the treatment areas. Youthful elastic skin will tolerate a significant amount of fat removal by liposuction without resulting in unfavorable skin laxity. As degrees of skin laxity increase, the amount of liposuction that can be performed decreases, and with significant degrees of skin laxity, liposuction alone is not a good option."

If diet and exercise have not gotten rid of your stubborn or disproportionate pockets of fat, your weight is stable and you're close to your ideal weight, you might be a good candidate for one or both of these procedures. In general, "lipo" is an easier surgery to recover from than thigh lift surgery but sometimes liposuction alone is not sufficient. In either case, it's crucial to seek evaluation with a board-certified plastic surgeon who is experienced with liposuction and thigh lift surgery. Dr. Law says, "There is no substitute for experience and expertise in the process of determining whether a patient should undergo liposuction versus thigh lift surgery, or a combination of the two as a single procedure or as staged procedures."

Source: 
http://www.smartbeautyguide.com/news/body-contouring/thigh-liposuction-thigh-lift#.VtaSBfl97IV

Genesis Elite full body vibration machine benefits and effectiveness

The newest machine from Vibra Pro, the Genesis Elite is a multi motion machine designed for people looking for rapid weight loss, increased core strength and improved lymphatic drainage. This machine also includes an Integrated Vibration Dampening System. This system ensures that all vibrations are harmonic for maximum effectiveness.