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Myth about Spot Reduction

Myth about Spot Reduction
One of the common questions as a fitness trainer I have encountered is if spot reduction- reducing fat from a particular area is possible or not?

If a gym client has a problem collecting more fat around the abdominal area or generally a woman collecting more fat around the lower body they always request the trainers to give them more exercises for the abs or the lower body. But, is spot reduction actually possible? or is it a myth?

As a teenager we collect less amount of fat despite eating all the junk food. One major reason for this is while in the youth, the amount of muscle mass that we carry is more as compared to an elderly person. Hence, the BMR of a youth is quite high when as a teenager and it remains high up to the age of 24 or 25 years of age. Post 25, the degeneration sets in and the muscle mass starts to decline. Muscle being a metabolically active tissue contributes towards increasing the BMR. With the muscle mass degenerating, the BMR also drops and the individual starts collecting fat all over the body. But, in every individual there is a spot where he/she collects more fat then the other parts of the body.

The collection of fat in particular spots is dictated by an individual’s genetics. When, I say pre-decided by genetics, it means that it runs in the family. It is now important to understand how this happens?

Here we need to understand the role of 2 important hormones in our body

1)      Insulin and 2) Glucagon.

Insulin acts like a transporter of micro and macro nutrients into the liver and muscle cells. Insulin also plays a role of maintaining the blood sugar levels after a high carbohydrate meal by lowering the blood sugar levels and avoids a person from going into Hyperglycemia (high blood sugar levels).

Glucagon on the other hand is a hormone that again maintains blood sugar levels by increasing the blood sugar level during long hours of starvation or when an individual lowers the carbohydrate intake in his meals. Here, glucagon plays the role of raising the blood sugar levels and avoids the state of hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar levels).

After having simple carbohydrates such as sugar, chocolates, white rice, white bread, some fruits with high glycemic index, potatoes and other starch, the conversion of these foods into sugar is very fast and it increases the blood sugar levels.

Please note the sugar that is stored within the muscle as muscle glycogen is preserved by the body for any high intense anaerobic activity that we perform in our day to day activity (like running fast or lifting some heavy object etc)

In order to loose fat, a person needs to cut down on simple carbohydrates and keep complex carbohydrate in a reduced quantity (as and when required) as well as start in taking good amount of fibres and protien.When carbohydrates are reduced,
the body is deprived of energy so it starts surviving on the blood sugar for energy. The blood sugar levels drop then to normal thereby leading to hypoglycemia. This activates the pancreas to release Glucagon.

Glucagon starts to maintain the blood sugar levels by raising it. Since the sugar inflex is reduced from outside, the glucagon has no option but to use liver glycogen to raise the blood sugar levels. Once, the liver storage of glycogen is over, it moves to the muscle glycogen. Muscle glycogen is not released by the body as it is reserved for a high intense activity. Now glucagon has no other option but to move towards the fat cell to get energy for survival. Here, one more enzyme known as the HSL (Hormone sensitive lipase) which is on the fat cell allows the triglycerides to exit from the fat cell in the form of free fatty acid into the blood stream and it is used up by the tissues as a source of energy.

This is already programmed by our genetics and cannot be changed through any exercise or spot reduction techniques.

Performing abdominal exercises will definitely strengthen the abdominal muscles which will help an individual to increase his or her functionality in day to day activities as well as it will also help in lifting a decent poundage in functional movements like squats, Lunges, Bendover rows, Overhead presses and Regular deadlifts. But, abdominal exercises DO NOT give you a spot reduction. Hence, the intention of abdominal workout is increasing strength of the abdomen and not spot reduction.

Fat loss is all throughout the body because it catogorized as BODY FAT and not fat of the abdomen, arms, back, chest or legs.

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Stay Fit Stay Healthy

Stay Fit Stay Healthy
All of us are keen on being fit. Most often we keep complaining about being overweight and therefore I need to do something about it. The most common thing said is, “I am going to go for a jog every morning, so I will lose weight”.

Other common assumptions that people have is that if they walk to office or home they do not have to do any other workout, yoga is the best way of keeping fit,  I have brought dumbbells at home so I am doing workouts at home and so on…

Is this correct?  As I mentioned in my previous blog (http://goqii.com/blog/benefits-of-physical-activities-part-2/) every person must invest minimum 3 days a week in physical activities as per American College of Sports &Medicine (ACSM) guidelines.

To improve Health we must focus on basic health related components of the fitness.

Focus on basic components of Fitness

  • Cardiovascular Endurance or cardiovascular fitness

It is the major component of fitness. The word Cardio means heart. It is also known as cardio respiratory fitness and aerobic fitness. It refers to the capacity of heart, lungs and the vascular system to supply oxygenated blood to the working muscles tissue and the muscle capacity to use that oxygen which helps in producing the movements. If we involve ourselves in cardiovascular fitness regularly, the heart becomes stronger and efficient to supply oxygenated blood to the body. Cardiovascular exercise should be done for prolong period of time. These include jogging, running, cycling, swimming, skipping, aerobics and lots of exercise.

 

  • Muscular Strength

Muscular strength refers to the ability or a capacity of lifting a weight. This activity is fall under anaerobic zone because in this workout oxygen is not used .To improve muscular strength we need to do weight training.

 

  • Muscular Endurance

Muscular endurance refers to the performance of the repetitive contraction for extended or prolonged period of time. The exercise may be for the single muscle or the group of muscles. Activity which is more than fifteen seconds but less than two minutes includes in the muscular endurance training. Weight training helps to improve muscular endurance.

 

 

  • Flexibility

Flexibility refers to a range of joint motions. Stretching can help improve flexibility. Dynamic stretches are done before we start our exercises. Static stretches are done after the workout during the cool down phase. During, static stretching we need to hold each stretch minimum fifteen seconds to get maximum benefits.

 

  • Body Composition

Body composition refers to the ratio between fat mass and fats free mass in the body More the muscle and less body fat is consider a great body composition. More fats and fewer muscles indicate poor body composition. Greater body composition can be achieved with following the above basic components of fitness such as muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance and flexibility with the support of balance nutrition.

In as short if you are only jogging or brisk walking does not help. You have to look at the entire exercise components to achieve the necessary fitness and health goals. You can do alternates days of weight training and cardiovascular exercise. Following the above routine is one of the best examples of targeting all the components of the fitness.

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More power to the Force

GOQii investor
Once you really want something, the entire universe conspires in helping you achieve it.

With GOQii we have set out on a quest to help people #betheforce, A force of good, A force which helps others by helping yourself.

A force comes from knowledge and ‘The Force’ is getting more powerful!

It’s a proud moment for team GOQii. I am very excited to welcome Neeraj Arora and Marco Argenti as part of the GOQii Family both of whom have invested in GOQii in their personal capacity. 

I know both Neeraj and Marco for several years, they can immensely help GOQii in its vision of helping millions of people become fit and happy by taking the wearable tech space to the next level by not just providing people with data but motivating them to bring about a positive change in their life.

Neeraj is an IIT graduate who, gave up his high profile job managing global M&A at Google to join one of Silicon Valley’s hottest starts-ups WhatsApp now part of Facebook and a household name that most are addicted to

Marco Argenti, himself a fitness freak and 5 times marathon finisher is the Vice President, Mobile for Amazon Web Services. A graduate with a computer engineering degree from University of Pisa, he also has the experience of having started his career as an early web entrepreneur in 1995. He has the experience of running an e- commerce start up in Canada and a mobile startup in Italy. Apart from being passionate about technology, he loves to play and collect electric guitars.

GOQii already has an exciting list of angel investors on board that includes Amit Singhal (Google), Anil Godhwani (Habitera), Gauta, Godhwani, Bharat Vasan (Mybasis), Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit Nene, Dr Shriram Nene, Mahesh Samat (Epic Television), Mike McNamara (Flextronics), Prashant Gulati(TiE), Sanjay Parthasarthy (Indix), Sanjay Vaswani, Steve Luczo (Segate), Taher Khorakiwala and Vijay Vashee (Microsoft) and We are glad that today Neeraj and Marco join us.

#betheforce

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Inflammation –What you should know

Inflammation –What you should know

When you think pain, think inflammation.
 
Inflammation is a good thing. It’s your body’s way of rising up to fight out germs/bacteria/infections, heal bruises when you fall, heal torn ligaments/tissues/tendons etc.
Once it does its job of fighting out these invaders or foreign organisms, the inflammation should reduce back down to normal.
The problem arises when that does not happen.

Have a torn ligament or muscle pulls that your struggling to heal? Seen the best doctors, therapists etc and still not fixed? Struggling with arthritis and joint pain?
Check your CRP (C-Reactive protein) levels and focus on reducing inflammation. The cure is in reducing inflammation.

Many of us live with chronic inflammation and that’s dangerous. It’s also one of the reason people –struggle to lose weight, experience excruciating joint pains,
age faster than normal
feel tired through the day,
higher chances of cancer and heart disease,
Fibromalgia / Headaches/Migraines,
higher chances of Alzheimer’s/dementia, struggle with diabetes,
feel depressed and low.

Silent inflammation like the ones described above can destroy your nerves and cellular health, suppressing and weakening your immune system, leading to deadly diseases like cancer, etc.



What’s scary is the fact that you can be extremely healthy and fit, but silent inflammation could be eating into you from inside, which is one of the many explainable reasons why cancer or heart attacks can strike down a healthy and young human being.
Checking cholesterol levels, Vitamin D3, B12, SGOT, SGTP is imperative, but what most people miss out on is checking their CRP levels. (C-Reactive protein). This is an important protein level to check and a simple blood test will cover that for you. This level will tell you volumes about the amount of inflammation you have in your body.

In my years of experience what stands out in a cancer report of a person is an increase in CRP levels and white blood cells and the immediate action is to reduce inflammation thru food and lifestyle change.
Diseases breathe in inflamed environments, in environments that are acidic and in environments where there is less oxygen supply to the cells.

Over training causes inflammation.
Vigorous exercise, inconsistent exercise and high intensity training which is not planned for your body type will make your CRP levels soar and kill your immunity, which is why many trainers ask their clients to take a Vitamin C and E post workouts.

Running marathons without proper nutrition causes massive inflammation.
Stress causes inflammation (chronic stress).
Improper nutrition (high fat foods, sugar, artificial sweeteners, doughnuts, white sugar, aerated drinks, salty foods, packaged foods), and Smoking  causes inflammation. (I’ve seen CRP levels fall in a smokers’ blood report within 10 days of kicking the butt)



How to keep your inflammation in check:

Smart and moderate exercise such as meditation and controlling your stress and BP levels, nuts and seeds,
green leafy veggies and fruits,
good fats ( like nuts, olive oil, coconut oil) helps in keeping your inflammation under check. Finally, I should not be saying this but it has been proven that a small amount of alcohol can actually lower CRP levels. Vitamin D3
, Curcumin (turmeric extract) is one of the best spice based inflammation fighters.

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