Metropolisfitness- Fitness and Health Blog

1. Refined Carbs – You may be consuming too many sources of simple and refined carbohydrates, all of which is heavily processed. You can think of it as the same difference that exists between whole grain bread and processed white bread, brown rice vs. white rice, popcorn cakes vs. corn on the cob. Include sources of carbohydrates that are natural like nuts, beans, potatoes, brown rice, products made out of whole wheat in lieu of crackers, chips, canned foods, etc.

2. No fat at all? – Zero fat per day is bad for you. This may sound counter intuitive, but adding about 2-3 points of fat per day is considered very good. Our bodies need enough fat in order to properly function. Consume foods like vegetable oils, margarine, butter, salad dressing, avocados, regular or reduced fat (not fat free) mayonnaise, olives, peanut or soy butter, etc. As per nutritionists, 30% of total calories in fat per day are essential for optimum health. The reason lies in that fact that fat contains an essential fatty acid: linoleic acid that our body can’t produce on its own; this fat is needed for proper metabolic and digestive function. If you’re on a super low fat diet, there are increased chances of you to develop gallstones.

3. Drink enough water every day – As a rule, overweight people need more water, because fat cells hold more water than other fat cells in the body. So if you are obese, you cannot just go by the rule of 8 glasses per day. Ideally, you must consume half the amount of water of your body weight. If you weigh 180 pounds, you must drink 80 ounces of water, i.e. about 10 glasses. The color of the urine is the best indicator of your water consumption. If your urine’s color is pale yellow, it’s good. If it is deep yellow, you are not getting enough fluids.

4. Five servings of fruits and vegetables per day – Include non-starchy vegetables, fruits, soups, etc. in your diet. Try to consume all varieties of fruits and vegetables so that you get the best from all. Try out a new fruit or vegetable each month. Have a bowl of soup before dinner to feel fuller.

5. Increase the frequency of your physical activity – If you are not exercising at all, you are not serious about losing weight. There is no excuse to exercising if you really want to shed off extra calories. Find something that you enjoy doing and just do it! Start with as little as a five minute walk and gradually increase it. You will notice that a 5-Min walk will be so enjoyable that you won’t come to know when 10-15 minutes pass by.Gradually include exercises and maintain the rhythm; increase the intensity step-by-step to get the maximum out of your physical activity.

You are exercising well, eating right and losing the desired number of pounds. But all of a sudden, puff! The scale stops moving… it’s just stuck, week after week. Many of you may have experienced this dreaded plateau. Don’t think that this just happens to very few; in actuality most people who are trying to lose weight, experience it one point or the other. If you come across a situation where the scale won’t budge and you still have 5, 10, 15 pounds to lose, you’ve got a choice to make. If you lost enough weight and even with 10 more pounds to go, you sleep well, feel good about yourself and have good amount of energy, then maybe you have been overly ambitious about losing your weight; you may have already achieved your goal. But if you haven’t, you may like to use one or more of the strategies given below to melt your last pounds.

1. Maintain a journal and refer to it every week – At the end of each week, use your journal as a detective tool to see where you may possibly be going wrong. Sometimes you may be thinking that you were eating the right food whereas actually you were not. Your journal can be an eye-opener and help you to access the things rightly.

2. Proper nutrition is essential – You may be eating the same kind of food all the time, ending up consuming more proteins without enough carbs, fat, etc. You need to check your protein to carb ratio and the food choices that you make.

3. Weigh and measure portions – Portions size matter a lot. At times, our portions grow bigger without us realizing it. Use measuring spoons and weigh your portions to ascertain if you are consuming the right amount.

4. Count your points’ right – Read labels carefully for the products that you eat. You may be eating more points than you calculated if you are eating a bigger serving size than the one listed on the label.

5. When it comes to food, zero multiplied by zero is not zero – If you eat one serving of a fat free product, it’s zero points. But if you eat 4 servings with 2 tbsp. of fat free whipped topping, it’s one point. Beware of such hidden extras that may never seem to get counted.

We will bring you more points next time. Stay tuned.

If you went for sneaker shopping recently, you probably may have realized how complicated and confusing it is to choose the right pair of shoes, especially one for exercising. With so many options available, consumers are bound to fall for the latest gimmicks, ending up with wrong choice of athletic footwear while at the same time spending above their budget.

As the New Year ushers in, we bring you some guidelines that you can follow to make the correct choice. Start right by buying the right pair of shoes for you and strive to indulge in some form of exercise this year. We, at Metropolis, wish you a healthy 2014!

The first thing that you must consider is to know what exactly you need. This is the most important step because most sporting goods stores have a variety of shoes for different activities such as walking, jogging, running, playing basketball, football, tennis, etc. Cross trainers (multi-purpose shoes) are good for those who indulge in several activities in a single workout.

Now that you know what kind of shoe you need, the next step is to get a good fit. Make sure to try the shoes and walk some distance with them. This is important because even some of the most popular shoes aren’t comfortable with everyone and can result in blisters if they don’t fit in comfortably.

Guidelines for Buying Athletic Shoes

• Consider your foot type before purchasing shoes for fitness or sports. People with high-arched feet should buy shoes with good cushioning because they require greater shock absorption than people with average feet. Conversely, people with flat feet should buy shoes with less cushioning but greater support and heel control.

• Foot size is maximum at the end of the day, so try to get fitted for footwear towards the evening. It is not surprising for an individual’s foot to increase one-half a shoe size in a day.

• Choose a shoe that is wide enough across the forefoot without slipping from the heel.

• Athletic shoes lose their cushioning after 3 to 6 months of regular usage. If you shoes are no longer absorbing the pounding and jarring action of the sport, it’s time to replace them to avoid knee and ankle injuries.

Some of us can’t resist stepping on to the scale every morning despite having been told that daily weighing is not necessary. Whether you weigh yourself daily or once in a fortnight/month, you need to know some facts associated with the scales.

According to exercise physiologists, when we eat 3,500 calories more than our body is able to burn, one pound of fat gets stored in our body. To store 5 pounds of fat, a whopping 17,500 calories are required to be consumed, which is virtually not possible. So, when you see the scale going up by 3 or 4 pounds overnight, don’t worry. It’s most likely to be water, glycogen, and weight of your food that shows in the scale. 

Factors that influence the scale:

• As a matter of fact, a single teaspoon of salt contains 2,000 mg of sodium. Our body needs between 1,000 and 3,000 mg of sodium a day, which is actually too less. Most of us easily go overboard. Sodium is most highly concentrated in salty crackers, chips, nuts, etc. Even instant pudding that is not salty, contains four times as much as sodium as an ounce of salted nuts. Processed foods have high sodium content. So, limit your consumption of processed foods and consume more fruits and vegetables if you want to keep your weight under control. 

• Prior to menstruation, many women retain several pounds of water. Pre-menstrual water-weight gain can be controlled by drinking enough water and indulging in exercises. 

• Glycogen is another factor that influenced the scale. Glycogen is like a fuel tank full of stored carbohydrates, some of which is stored in the liver and some in the muscles. This energy reserve in the body weighs more than 3-4 pounds when it’s stored. The glycogen supply usually shrinks during the day if you don’t consume enough carbohydrates. When the supply shrinks, you experience hunger. It’s absolutely normal for the weight to shift up to 2 pounds per day even when you are not taking in any calories. So, if you are obsessed with the number on the scale, you need to know that these fluctuations have nothing to do with fat loss or gain.

• The best time to weigh is early in the morning empty stomach, without having water or any food. When you eat something, the weight of the food will reflect in the scale; this weight goes after several hours once you have finished digesting it.

So, now you know that it’s not just the fat that weighs, it’s also muscle, bone, water, internal organs, food we eat and everything else in our body. When you lose weight, it’s not necessarily the fat that you lose; you may also lose muscles, which is not a good thing. An active person eats more than a dieter who is unwillingly decreasing muscle tissues. So, be active, eat well and celebrate a healthy life.

Breast cancer is one of the most common diseases in women. About 1 in 8 women have high chances of getting diagnosed with breast cancer at some point during their lives. Here are 4 ways to help protect your breast health.

1. Keep your weight under control: Being obese often carries a high risk of breast cancer. The chances are more so after menopause. For post menopausal women, the main reason of estrogen is not ovaries but the accumulation of fatty tissues. If you have a healthy weight, try to maintain it all times. However, if you carry extra pounds, take extra steps to lose weight to lower breast cancer risk.

2. Eat healthy and exercise regularly: We have been posting various blogs on healthy eating. Go through them and chose a well-balanced, healthy diet to reduce breast cancer risk. Besides, exercise regularly for a minimum of 20 minutes per day to lower the risk further. You can also do 75 to 150 minutes of brisk walking if you can’t indulge in vigorous activity on a regular basis. Make sure to indulge in some form of physical activity daily.

3. Avoid smoking and alcohol: Women who consume alcohol and smoke have double the chances of getting diagnosed with breast cancer compared to those who don’t drink and smoke at all. The American Cancer Society recommends to have not more than 1 drink per day for women and 2 drinks per day for men, a single drink amounting to 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine and 1.5 ounces of hard liquor.

4. Limit menopausal hormone therapy: Taking estrogen and progesterone for troublesome symptoms of menopause increase the risk to develop breast cancer. If you have problem of night sweats, hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms, discuss with your doctor about all the safe options that you can use.

However, if at all you decide to use HRT’s, take the lowest dose that works best for you for as short a time as possible. According to researchers, breast cancer risk returns to normal within 5 years of discontinuing using the combination of hormones.