Obesity and Sleep Deprivation

When it comes to gaining weight, the amount of sleep you get may have a bigger impact than you think. More and more, sleep deprivation is becoming known as a leading predictor of obesity.

It seems in the western culture, sleep has a bit of a bad connotation. Many people feel guilty for getting a full night's sleep, due to pressing deadlines, and endless other time commitments. In the past 40 years, the percentage of the U.S. population (and likely comparable to Canada) who get less than 7 hours of sleep per night has gone from 15.6% to 37.1%. Cutting back on bedtime hours can not only impact your working life and ability to function optimally, decrease the quality of your workouts, hinder stress reduction, and even make you fat!

Not getting your zzz's messes with your hormones that control appetite. Specifically, getting less than 6 hours causes hormones that signal fullness (such as leptin) to decrease, and hormones that tell you to eat (ghrelin) are increased, along with hunger. That said, getting more than 9 hours of sleep per night is also associated with weight gain similar to that of the short sleepers, but to a less degree. Not surprisingly, the snacks of short sleepers are found to be higher in Calories, and slightly higher in carbs.

Short and long sleepers also tend to have higher fasting blood sugars, which amounts to a 2.4 fold higher risk of type 2 diabetes!! Those with Obstructive Sleep Apnea also have a higher risk of metabolic disorders, high blood pressure and heart problems. So there you have it. Now hit the sheets!

Info taken from presentation based on Speigel K et al. Ann Intern Medicine (2004).

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Fitness Tip - Triceps

Kalev's Personal Trainer exercise of the Week - Triceps

"The other major muscle group which make the arms look big and fill out your shirt are the triceps. Since the triceps function is to extend the arm we are isolating here with tubing to create the resistance.

Again the key focus in this video is to keep your elbow stationary and close to your head during the entire movement."

Check out the video here!

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Alcohol

I don't know many people that don't enjoy a nice glass of vino (or two or three) occasionally. But how much should you really be having?

A little bit of booze is actually not such a bad thing. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 2 drinks per day for men, and one for women (And no, you can't bank your weeks allotment and have 7-14 glasses on Saturday night!). Drinking more than the recommended amounts has the opposite effect, and is detrimental to your cardiovascular health. So what is 'one drink' exactly?

• 12 ounces of beer
  
• 5 oz of wine
  
• 1.5 oz of spirits

However, not all alcoholic bevies are created equal in terms of health or Calories. Alcohol contains 7 Calories per gram (compared to 9 Cal/g for fat, and 4 Cal/g for protein and carbs). That definitely adds up. Unfortunately, alcohol isn't readily usable form of energy for our bodies, so it has to be converted and stored as fat before it can be used. And we all know what happens to fat if we're not burning a ton of Calories - it's staying put! As for health, red wine contains antioxidants, but white wine and many other alcohols are lacking or don't contain any. And let's not forget the mix with your whiskey... adding pop or juice to an ounce of your favourite elixir can add a few hundred Calories to each drink!

So if you're going to partake in some wobbly pops, remember to choose smart, mix with a low-Calorie mix such as soda water, and limit your intake. Be good to your heart and your waistline, and keep the adult beverages to a minimum.

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Food of the Week: Margarine

Have you ever wondered what exactly is margarine, and whether or not you should be eating it? Is it better or worse than butter? Today, margarine is available in a wide range of types, low Calorie, low-sodium, non-hydrogenated, with omega-3's, etc, etc. No doubt, it can get a bit confusing even for the nutrition-savy shopper.

Here's the low down on the stuff in the tub...

Margarine was invented in the 1800's when Napoleon III offered a reward to the first person who could come up with a suitable substitute for margarine that he could feed to the military and lower classes. Today, margarine is a household staple for many, and is made up of primarily vegetable oils. The margarine crazy took off when we discovered that butter was high in unhealthy saturated fat. So we took healthy vegetable oils and put them through a process called "hydrogenation", which produced what we now know to be even worse... trans fats. So, for a while, margarine was actually worse than butter in terms of health. Since then, nearly all margarines on the shelf are non-hydrogenated, putting them back to par or better than butter in terms of fat.

HOWEVER, although margarine now mainly contains healthier fats, the proportion of fatty acids has been altered, and we're really not sure if that has an effect on the body or not. Possibly, this could be a harmless issue, but no one can say for certain.

My opinion, use unsaturated oils, like olive and canola, as much as you can when cooking. As I've mentioned many a time before, I'm not a fan of foods altered a lot by people in lab coats, so I tend to stray from margarine myself. It may not be my first choice, but please don't buy into those crazy email forwards claiming margarine is the root of all evil, and one molecule away from plastic(though it's good for a laugh).

The fact is, if you have a healthy heart and you're dying for a spread, a thumb tip size spoon of the real stuff (butter) won't hurt. That said, if you've got high blood pressure, cholesterol, or other heart or kidney conditions, low sodium, low fat margarine is your best bet. Of course, always check with your doctor.

I'll leave you with a few last tidbits on the yellow stuff:

• Margarine was actually banned in Canada in the early 1900's.
  


• It was not legal to sell "butter-coloured" margarine in Ontario until 1995.
  


• Margarine is naturally white or near-white in colour, and it was illegal to add artificial colour in many countries for many years, due to pressure on governments by the dairy industry.

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Fitness Tip - Infomercials

Infomercials…..could it really be that easy?

It seems these days there are so many new fitness gimics out there it’s hard to stomach as a personal trainer. From infomercials promising a six-pack in 6 weeks by just dancing, to phoney doctors selling weight loss in a pill. Dancing for 15 minutes a day is a great start into fitness but a six-pack you will not get. Magic Pills that make you lose incredible amounts of fat, I think they sell those next to the beans Jack bought.

One thing to remember when analysing these products is, if it is so easy why isn’t everyone walking around with a beach body. The truth is that it takes hard work, dedication to a program, and internal drive to achieve those fitness goals. The great thing about having a personal trainer is that we make sure you are putting in the hard work, we create a program for you to follow which will get you to your goals as soon as possible, and we push you to help you find that inner drive. Even commercials advertising machines promising amazing results, well, you might see initial results but one of the most important aspects of fitness is muscle confusion.

When you workout the same muscle the same way for too long, your body stops adapting and growing, it gets bored. You should be always changing routines, and in certain cases repetitions and sets, every 6-8 weeks. Put time in at the gym, following Canada’s Food Guide for basic nutrition, and being consistent will get you to see the results you are looking for. A combination of weight training, cardiovascular training, and nutrition is the most efficient way to achieve weight loss.

by Kalev Personal Trainer - Alex Jack

www.kalevtraining.com

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How much Water do I need?

Here are some quick answers to common questions about water...

1) How much water should I be drinking? The old "8 glasses a day" is severely outdated. Just as everyone needs different amounts of Calories, we also need different amounts of water. In fact, your fluid requirements are directly related to your energy (Calorie) intake. We need 1ml of fluid for every Calorie we eat. So on a 2000 Calorie/day diet, you need about 2L of fluid.

2) What about exercise? Exercise definately increases your requirements... especially if you're exercising in the heat. Read more about exercise hydration here.

3) Does coffee/tea count? In short, yes. Read more on that, here.

4) Do other beverages count? Milk, juice, etc, all count towards your total fluid intake. Fluid is fluid. But watch out for high Calorie and high sugar beverages. If you stray from water, go for beverages that are also high in nutrients, like milk and 100% fruit juice. Most of your fruits and vegetables should be coming from whole foods though, so try to limit juice to 1 cup/day.

5) Is it possible to drink too much water? It sure is. Most people don't need to worry about it, but it can happen. Overhydration messes with electrolytes, and can lead to a lot of the same symptoms as dehydration, such as dizziness.

5) What about sports drinks? As I mentioned here, sports drinks are unnecessary unless you're exercising intensely for over an hour. They are meant to replace fluid and electrolytes lost through sweat, and generally shouldn't be consumed if you're not working out.

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Green Tea, Cancer, and Autoimmune Disease.

Green tea originates from Southeast Asia and is now cultivated in tropical regions all over the world. The majority of tea is still produced in China and India. Green tea is made from steaming fresh leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant and has been used historically for centuries in ceremonies and as a stimulant to stay alert throughout long meditations. Green tea is usually brewed and consumed as a drink, but today the extracts can also be produced as concentrated capsules, and are even added into skin products.

Green Tea has long been suspected and studied for its health benefits in humans. It is mainly recognized as an antioxidant, but is also associated with having anti-cancer, cardio-protective, and anti-inflammatory effects. The main components believed to be responsible for these health beneftis are phenolic compounds called flavinols. The main flavinol which has been shown to elicit health benefits is Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).

Green tea has been thought to benefit a multitude of conditions and diseases ranging from lowering blood cholesterol to cancer prevention. Green tea has been credited with increasing mental alertness, aiding in weight loss and skin protection from the sun. Perhaps the most commonly studied area in regards to green tea and its health benefits is cancer prevention. Flavinoids in green tea have exhibited strong antioxidant and free radical scavenging activities in animal studies, resulting in protective effects against coronary heart disease and inhibition of carcinogenesis. In addition to cancer, oxidative damage and free radical formation also contributes to heart disease, multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune disorders.

Green tea is perhaps less known for its potential benefits against autoimmune disorders, but studies have shown promising results in this area. Autoimmune disorders occur when the body’s immune system can not properly distinguish between a healthy cell and a foreign antigen. This results in an overactive immune system which targets and attacks the body’s own healthy tissues, resulting in damage to various tissues and can potentially decrease organ function. Examples of autoimmune or autoimmune-related disorders are: Multiple Sclerosis, Systemic Lupus Erythematosis, Celiac disease, Rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren’s syndrome, and Type I Diabetes.

Evidence has shown that the prevalence of certain autoimmune diseases such as Sjorgren’s Syndrome and Systemic lupus erythematosis are lower in China and Japan, the two leading green tea-consuming countries. Compared to other populations, residents of Shizuoka, Japan, where large amounts of green tea are produced and consumed, also demonstrate a lower mortality rate from various cancers, including stomach, lung and liver cancers. Another epidemiological study, found that the amount of green tea consumed positively correlated with life span, cancer, cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes mellitus in both males and females. Studies conducted on the effect of EGCG on multiple sclerosis in animal models found that the disease was significantly suppressed with supplemental EGCG. It was found that EGCG plays a role in reducing clinical severity by limiting brain inflammation and reducing neuronal damage associated with disability in people with MS.

Green tea is an attractive potential therapy, as positive health and chemoprotective benefits are thought to occur at the concentrations commonly taken by humans. However, in spite of the numerous studies on a variety of health benefits of green tea, the results remain inconclusive.

In addition to EGCG, a number of other nutrients and food components have been shown to have anti-inflammatory effects such as: zinc, omega-3, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and probiotics, and can act as immunomudulators. “Immunonutrition” refers to the effects of nutrients that show pharmacologic effects on immune and inflammatory systems. Immunonutrition and the effects of these food components, may provide a less invasive alternative to immunotherapy and prevention against cancers and diseases associated with chronic inflammation.

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Fitness Tips - Top 5 Popular Fitness Myths

Kalev Personal Training Tip: Top 5 popular fitness myths - Beginner training tips

#5 - Lifting weights will make you bulky. When you see the big guys walking around the gym what exercises are they doing? Bench press, squats, shoulder press, pull downs and other compound and isolated muscle specific exercises. The reason they are big is not because they choose to do these exercises it’s because they have good diets, exercise consistently for many years and train specifically to gain muscle. Will this happen to women? Probably not… Women produce 20 times less testosterone than men and generally have diets that aren’t catered to muscle growth.

#4 - If you do cardio you won’t be able to gain muscle. Cardio burns both carbohydrates and fat for energy while muscle is made out of protein. It will be harder to build a lot of muscle if you are doing cardio everyday but not impossible. As long as diet has enough calories for your body to build new muscle and your workouts are intense enough, you will gain muscle.

#3 - If you look fit you must know a lot about fitness. Some people are blessed with bodies that look fit no matter what they do. Just because they are in the gym it doesn’t mean they know anything about fitness.

#2 - Dead lifts and squats are dangerous. These are two of the most functional exercises in the fitness arsenal, they both work a large number of muscle groups and will help build new muscle. Yes, many people injure themselves doing squats and dead lifts but this is because they use improper form or push themselves beyond their physical capabilities. There is nothing inherently dangerous about these exercises.

#1 - Doing crunches will give you a flat stomach. The only way to get a flat stomach is to lose body fat through cardio and diet. Crunches will help tone the muscle underneath the body fat but you won’t see results from crunches until the fat is gone.

By Kalev Personal Trainer - Eric Walker

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Food of the Week: Coconut oil

I was recently asked about the benefits of coconut oil, or if there were any. A few years back, coconut oil was all the rage in the fitness industry. So what's the deal?

At first glance, coconut oil certainly doesn't seem very healthy. It is about 90% saturated fat (!), and of those, most are medium-chain triglycerides (MCT's). While it does contain some good monounsaturated fat (6% oleic acid), the 2% polyunsaturated fatty acids are made up of linoleic (omega-6). Read more about what that means here.

Coconut oil has some cooking benefits, mainly that it is more stable than most oils. Due to its high saturated fat content, it is slow to oxidize and resistant to rancidity.

The downside: many coconut oils are hydrogenated in order to make them more stable at higher temperatures. This increases the saturated fat content even further, and can also produce nasty trans fats.

MCT oil: MCT oil is made when the long chain triglycerides are removed from coconut oil, leaving only Medium-chain triglycerides. This process is called "fractionization" and makes the product entirely saturated, and more heat and shelf stable. MCT oil is sometimes preferred by bodybuilders and athletes, because MCT's are believed to be broken down quicker for use as energy in the body, and less likely to be stored as fat.

Health effects

There has been some evidence to show that coconut oil may reduce the risk for heart disease in rats. However, Polynesian populations who had high intakes of coconut meat had higher cholesterol levels, although there was no higher incidence of heart disease. Coconut oil has also been shown to reduce the risk of blood clots, although replacement of some coconut oil with polyunsaturated fats resulted in improved cholesterol levels, and a reduced risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

According to some, coconut oil has positive benefits on everything from aging (due to its antioxident properites) to immunity, kidney and liver problems, and digestion. I don't think research on these topics is conclusive yet, so don't take those claims at face value.

Interesting facts:

• The largest producer of coconut oil is the Phillipines and has been used as a commercial product since the 1860's.
  
• Coconut oil is used for making margarine, soap and cosmetics.
  
• Hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated coconut oil is often used in non-dairy creamers, and snack foods.
  
• Coconut oil is currently used as a fuel for transport in the Philippines.
  
• In February 2008, a mixture of coconut oil and babassu oil was used to partially power one engine of a Boeing 747, in a biofuel trial sponsored by Virgin Atlantic.

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