Exercising 'better than dieting for cutting calories

A new study has shed light on the effects of dieting in relation to losing weight.

Researchers at Loughborough University have found that exercising is more effective than dieting in limiting how many calories a person eats.

The pilot study set out to investigate how exercising and restricting diet changed a woman’s physical and behavioral responses to food.

12 women were first asked to restrict their diet by 3,500 kilojoules, or around 836 calories, for 8 hours. They were then invited to eat as much as they liked at a buffet, where researchers secretly measured what they consumed.

Following this, the researchers then asked the women to burn the same amount of calories they had previously removed from their diet with exercise lasting 90 minutes.

After exercising, the women Health and Fitness were then again invited to eat freely at a buffet.

The results showed that women ate 944 calories on average at the buffet when they restricted their diets, compared with 660 after exercising.

This is thought to be because limiting food intake causes a spike in the hunger hormone ghrelin and a drop in levels petitide YY, which suppresses hunger.

Dr Stensel, a Reader in Exercise Metabolism in Lough borough’s School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, said: “We’ve shown that exercise does not make you hungrier or encourage you to eat more - at least not in the hours immediately following it. Our next step is to see whether this benefit continues beyond the first day of exercise.”

The amount of exercise you need to do to lose weight is beyond most people. This study highlights the level of self-motivation needed to lose weight, you are fighting physiology by eating less.

”

[Source: http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/health/exercising-better-than-dieting-for-cutting-calories-suggests-study-a3201596.html]

Healthy and Portable High-Protein Snacks

Whether you're fueling up before hitting the gym or taking a midday snack break to avoid the 3 p.m. lull, high-protein snacks are the tastiest way to keep on going. These snacks that pack in plenty of protein along with other nutrients are the perfect way to fill up, and give us longer-lasting energy than carb-heavy options.

1. Nut Butter Boat

Any vehicle for nut butter is perfection in our book. Try loading a few celery sticks with a serving of any nut butter (like almond, cashew, walnut) topped with a few whole almonds or raisins. If you’re not a fan of celery, try scooping out the middle of an apple and filling it with your nut butter of choice.

2. Jerky

For health and fitness Be careful to avoid sodium- and sugar-filled brands, but low-sodium, natural, or lightly-flavored options are a great source of protein—here are some of our favorite healthy brands! This chewy snack is also keeps fresh for months when packed properly.

3. Mixed Nuts or Trail Mix

Mixed nuts provide an easy way to get a delicious dose of protein in a convenient, shelf-stable package. Try a mixed bunch for variety and a combo with dried fruit for some added sweetness. The best bang for your protein buck? Almonds and pistachios. They're higher in protein than their nutty peers.

4. Pumpkin Seeds

Those orange gourds aren’t just for carving. Pumpkin insides, scooped out to make room for spooky faces, can actually make a healthy little snack full of fiber and immunity-protecting zinc once they’re washed, dried, and nicely roasted.

5. Deli Rollups

Consider it a sandwich without the bread! This Paleo-friendly savory snack packs in almost double the protein of a hardboiled egg, and sneaks in a few vegetables to boot! Remember to stick to a lower-salt variety of meat to keep those blood pressure-spiking sodium levels in check.

6. Chunky Monkey Shake

If protein powder is just not your thing, there are plenty of alternatives to creating a high-protein beverage, including this banana-y pick-me-up, bulked up with chocolate milk and peanut butter, which provides both healthy fat and cardiovascular benefits in addition to protein. It’s time to get funky, monkey!

[Source: http://greatist.com/health/high-protein-snacks-portable]

A Diet and Exercise Plan to Lose Weight and Gain Muscle

If there is a holy grail of weight loss, it would be a program that allows someone to shed fat rapidly while hanging on to or even augmenting muscle. Ideally, it would also be easy.

A new study describes a workout and diet regimen that accomplishes two of those goals remarkably well. But it may not be so easy.

For most of us, losing weight and keeping it off is difficult. If you consume fewer calories than your body requires for daily operations, it turns to internal sources of fuel. Those sources consist of body fat and lean tissue, meaning muscle. When someone on a diet drops a pound of body mass (a measure that does not include water), much of that pound consists of fat. But about a third or more can be made up of muscle.

The problem with losing muscle is that, unlike fat tissue, muscle burns calories. Having less muscle means a lower resting metabolic rate, so you burn fewer calories throughout the day. Losing muscle may also discourage physical activity, which is important for maintaining weight loss.

So researchers have long been looking for weight loss programs that produce hefty amounts of fat loss but diminish any decline in muscle.

For scientists at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, that goal seemed to demand a high dose of protein and also plenty of exercise.

As the scientists knew, amino acids in protein help muscle tissue to maintain itself and to grow. Many past studies have suggested that low-calorie but high-protein diets can result in less muscle loss than the same number of calories but less protein.

However, the best dosage of protein in these circumstances has remained unclear, as has the role, if any, for exercise.

So for the new study, which was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the McMaster researchers rounded up 40 overweight young men who were willing to commit to an intensive weight-loss program and divided them in half.

All of the young men began a diet in which their daily calories were cut by about 40 percent (compared to what they needed to maintain weight). But for half of them, this consisted of about 15 percent protein, 35 percent fat and 50 percent carbohydrates.

The other 20 volunteers began a diet that mimicked that of the first group, except that theirs swapped the protein and fat ratios, so that 35 percent of their calories came from protein and 15 percent from fat. Over all, their protein intake was about three times the recommended dietary allowance for most people.

The researchers handled that switch by changing the make-up of a supplied drink. In the low-protein group, the beverage contained high-fat milk and no added protein. For the others, it consisted of low-fat milk and a large dollop of whey protein.

All of the men also began a grueling workout routine Functional Exercise. Six days a week they reported to the exercise lab and completed a strenuous full-body weight training circuit, high-intensity intervals, or a series of explosive jumps and other exercises known as plyometric training.

The diet and exercise routine continued for four weeks, by the end of which time, “those guys were done,” said Stuart Phillips, 

who holds a research chair in skeletal muscle health at McMaster University and oversaw the study. “All they could talk about was food.”

The routine had succeeded in incinerating pounds from all of the participants. The men in both groups weighed about 11 or 12 pounds less, on average.

[Source: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/03/a-diet-and-exercise-plan-to-lose-weight-and-gain-muscle/?_r=0]