Showing posts with label obese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label obese. Show all posts

Monday, March 10, 2014

work place workouts for obese

Workplace sometimes becomes a place of stress and fatigue. The average adult sits for 8-10 hours a day. Almost 40% of Americans are overweight or obese. Sitting at a computer desk all day can increase the risk for diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, arthritis, and certain types of cancer.  

People spend hours on the computer with high levels of concentration. This leads to fatigue and tiredness. To keep yourself fresh and energetic during work hours, a few methods can be followed which will give you complete relaxation to the entire body and you can work more efficiently. Here are a few tips to preventing the dreaded “secretary spread” and whittling the waistline while you work.

Healthy and easy methods to reduce tiredness while at work
  • Keep a good posture by holding your back straight. This might not be possible always, but keep trying and you can do it.
  • Keep moving your body frequently.
  • During the breaks, stretch your body and relax
Here are a few simple excercises that can be followed during work hours
Have a deep seating and Straight up your back. Also Straighten your arms and push down your chair and lift yourself. Now, take deep breaths and Straighten your upper half of the body. Breath for about 5 times. Do this every 40 minutes.
Put your right hand on the back of chair and put your left hand on the right thy, and twist your upper half of the body by applying a little pressure. Move your lower part of the body the other way by breathing out. Do this on both the sides. Breath in while in normal position and breath out while your stretch.
Move to the edge of your seat. Straighten your legs and keep your heels down and toes straight. Bend and move your upper half of the body down as like your navel touch your thigh. You can stop moving down your body as and when you feel. Keep natural breathing while you are bending. Move up slowly. Repeat this 3 times slowly.

Stand up next to a table which is as high as your waist. Stand 1 and half feet away from the table. Put both your hands on the table and open your legs to the breadth of your shoulder. Now slowly straighten your body and legs
Now slowly bend without folding your hands or legs by moving your hip backwards and bringing down your head. You might have to hold your grip properly on the table and rest on your heals. While doing this take deep breaths.
Now after bending, put one of your legs a step forward and stretch further. Do the same for the other leg also.

Friday, February 7, 2014

Why Were Obese An Intro to Food Reward

Obesity is complex. I think we all know that at this point. There is no one reason why any of us become obese; its a combination of several factors including genetics, physical activity, hormones, calories, fat, carbs, junk food, and much, much more. We can of course say that we get fat from eating more calories than we expend, thats a fact... but that doesnt tell us anything about why were consuming more food than we need. Likewise, we dont truly know the best way to lose excess weight. We need to eat fewer calories than we expend, duh. But we have to worry about complicated things like hunger, willpower, and cravings... and why it feels like your body just wants to hold onto that extra fat.

Enter: Food Reward.  Ive touched on this in the past but I havent given it a proper explanation.  I first heard of the concept via Stephen Guyenet a couple years ago, as most people in the ancestral health community did.  Its taken me a while to fully warm up to it and truly understand it, but Im now convinced that this is a major reason, perhaps the major reason, for the obesity epidemic.  Allow me to explain.

The Reward System
Our brains contain a "reward" system that is critical to our survival.  Actions that promote our survival are reinforced by the brain by making us feel good... this makes us want to do them again.  For example, running around in the sun playing frisbee makes us feel good; the sun is good for our health (in moderation), physical activity promotes fitness and survival in the most primal sense, and it gives us a sense of community and kinship with our friends.  Our brains tell us that playing frisbee in the sun is a good thing, and were likely to do it again in the future.  But the reward system also works the other way, discouraging actions that harm us.  If we pick up a baking dish out of the oven with our bare hands, well burn our skin, and so our brains send a very strong signal for us to STOP (pain).  Addictive drugs essentially hijack this reward system.  Heroin, for example, will bypass the environmental sensory aspect of the reward system and latch on to the receptors in the brain.  Drugs like these provide a super strong stimulus, hence they are reinforced by happy feelings, and youll want to do it again and again until you become addicted.

The same goes for the food we eat.  We do need to eat to survive, after all.  Something sweet, tender, and high in calories?  Rewarding.  Something bitter and fibrous?  Not so much. Think of humans in the wild, or in hunter-gatherer times... the foods that best help us survive elicit the strongest reward signal, and were motivated to eat more. There are several qualities of food that have been found to be inherently rewarding (1):
  • Fat
  • Starch
  • Sugar
  • Salt
  • Meatiness (glutamate)
  • The absence of bitterness
  • Certain textures (soft, crunchy, liquid)
  • Certain aromas (fruits)
  • Calorie density
  • Variety

The Reward System in the Modern Food World
Now thats all well and good for survival.  This reward system works perfectly in a natural setting to guide us in what to eat.  Were perfectly happy eating fresh fruits, meats, potatoes, veggies, etc., and well eat just as much as we need until were full and we stop.  Even 50 years ago, we ate mostly natural, unprocessed foods, we ate as much as we wanted until we were full, and we stayed lean.

Since the 1950s, the average American has increased his/her caloric intake by about 500 calories.  In that same time period, the prevalence of obesity has nearly tripled (2). 

What changed?  The food industry figured out how to sell more food to the same number of people, something that was previously thought to be impossible.  Once they figured out that they could make food that is so appealing and rewarding, combining all of the factors listed above, that we would continue eating it regardless of our hunger cues... the game was over.  Theyre preying on our most primal of instincts.  And we cant stop, because our bodies are telling us to keep eating.  Were designed to keep eating.  Its not our fault.  Sounds a lot like heroin doesnt it?


How exactly do they do this?  Lets count.

  1. By combining fat, sugar, and salt with calorie density, crunchy, and chewy... The Oreo, for example.
  2. By drizzling sweet, salty, fat condiments on top of already sweet, salty, fatty foods... TGI Fridays Jack Daniels Grill.
  3. By increasing portion sizes... McDonalds burgers.
  4. By adding MSG, a meaty flavor, to already hyperpalatable snacks... Doritos, or even worse, that ridiculous Doritos Locos Taco.
  5. Through convenient product placement... Candy bars at the checkout line.
  6. By adding sugar, salt, and fat to already-addicting caffeinated drinks... Starbucks anyone?
  7. By marketing junk food to children... How cool is the Kool-Aid man?
  8. By offering a variety of food from all around the world in unlimited quantities... Home Town Buffet.
  9. By capitalizing on the drunk munchies at the local diner... Disco fries.
  10. By putting Coke machines everywhere... Everywhere...

This is deliberate, its no accident.

Just look at that shirt... God hes cool.

The Conclusion
The goal of the food reward system is to get us to eat enough real food to satisfy our nutritional needs, no more and no less.  The reward system is NOT designed for processed, hyperpalatable food.  We are designed to eat sugar, fat, starch, and salt, but not excess sugar, fat, starch and salt... and definitely not at the convenience and in the sheer quantity that were getting it in today.  

I know food companies need to make a profit, but somethings gotta give.  The cost of the obesity epidemic is immense... we cant keep this up.

The solution isnt sexy. Just eat real food. Call it Paleo, call it ancestral eating, call it what you will. Just opt out. Get back to basics and eat real food again. Take your health into your own hands and keep it real. Im out.