Excess Calories Is Not The Real Reason For Overweight Teenagers

We always think that our teenage kids are obese because they eat too much. However, a recent study does not vindicate our opinion.

"For older children and teenagers, increasing involvement in physical activity may be more important to weight and health than is their child’s diet," said study researcher Asheley Cockrell Skinner, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

As parents, we need to educate our kids the importance of physcial activities. Not just any activity. But it should be one that can expend their calories.

Furthermore, we should teach them about healthy eating. Knowing when to stop eating is important too as this should prevent overeating.

Read more about teenage obesity here.

How Is Your Body Similar To A Car

You want to lose weight, become leaner and improve your body's condition but do you know how to do it? If you understand how your body works, you can come up with a plan that will successfully get you to achieve your health goals.

[caption id="attachment_238" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Your Body Is Like A Car | Photo Credit[/caption]

Todd Bassler, a certified personal trainer with Premier Fitness, compares our body to a car. Making this comparison should give you clearer picture on what your body needs to be in tip top condition.

First, he talks about fuel. The kind of fuel you put in your car determines how smooth it runs and the efficiency of the engine. Likewise, the food we eat is fuel for our body. Get the right kind of nutrition and your body will function efficiently. Your body can produce more energy if you eat the right combination of carbohydrates, protein and fat. You should know that a nutritional meal will give you more energy than junk food, even if the caloric count is the same.

Next, Todd compares a car's alignment to our joint stability and strength. Our skeleton will be pulled out of alignment if some muscles are tight while others are loose. This could lead to joint and back problems. To improve joint stability, strength training is essential. Stretching exercises to keep your muscles flexible is important too.

Last of all, revving up your car's motor is akin to your metabolism. The longer your rev up your car, the hotter the engine gets. Likewise, raising your metabolism will get you burning more calories. You can raise your metabolism by increasing your muscle mass. Muscle cells burn more calories than fat cells. So, gain more muscle through strength training or lifting weights.

Changing the way you eat will affect your metabolism too. Instead of the 3 standard meals per day, break your meals down to smaller portions but eat more often. Todd used the idea of building a campfire to help us understand this concept. A couple of sticks won't help to build a roaring fire. However, if you keep adding sticks to the fire every few hours, you'll have a nice bonfire for a long time. That's the reasoning to why eating smaller meals consistently can help you burn more calories.

How you exercise will also determine how fast you burn calories. The best is high intensity aerobic exercises as it ups your heart rate and that gets more calories burning. Todd recommends that you burn a minimum of 500 calories every hour of exercise.

Milk May Help In Weight Loss

Drinking milk may prevent obesity. Scientists found a natural ingredient in milk that have similar effects as resveratrol. Maybe it'll become the next metabolism-boosting supplement.

"The researchers identified this ingredient, known as nicotinamide riboside, as they were searching for alternative ways to boost the well-known gene SIRT1, which comes with benefits for both metabolism and longevity."

"Mice that took nicotinamide riboside in fairly high doses along with their high-fat meals burned more fat and were protected from obesity while keeping them fit and energetic. They also became better runners thanks to muscles that have greater endurance."
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-06/cp-mid060112.php

The question is that how much of nicotinamide riboside you need to see the effect?