What Muscle, Fat and Water Have To Do With Your Weight

Have you ever wondered how long and how intensely you would have to athletically train to turn all that loose body fat into toned muscle? When you stop training, how long will it take before the muscle turns back into fat? It is essential to clarify that it is a complete myth that you can turn fat into muscle with training.

Body fat and muscle are two completely different tissues. They have different structures and functions, they react to training in different ways and, simply put, one does not have the capability to turn into the other.

Body fat is completely related to calories, and the amount that we have is directly influenced by the number of calories consumed versus calories expended. Calories consumed obviously come from the foods we eat. It is important to recognize that when we consume any type of food in excess, whether it is carbohydrates, protein or dietary fat, it will be converted to body fat.

Muscle is very different from fat. Each muscle is made up of thousands of individual cells, also called muscle fibers. While the number of a muscle's cells/fibers can not increase, each individual muscle fiber has the potential to increase in size, density and efficiency. These changes may occur together but not necessarily to the same degree, however, all will translate to an increase in strength.

This is important because one of the key problems with the so-called "yo-yo diet" is that people lose weight rapidly from muscle and fat stores by following a strict or crash diet. When they return to more normal eating habits, weight is re-gained, but it is always fat gain and never muscle.

This often means that while they can be back to their pre-diet weight, it's all fat, which is unhealthier than the original starting point.

Quick Summary of Fat

Fat can not become muscle and muscle can not become fat. Fat can only be reduced if the number of calories expended in a day exceeds the number of calories consumed in a day. Fat will be gained if the opposite occurs.

If you stop training, and compensate for this with a slight reduction in diet, your body fat will not increase. If you begin training but also increase your dietary intake, you can gain fat. Fat cells act as one, meaning you can not choose where you lose it or gain it.

Quick Summary of Muscle

Changes in muscle size, density and/or efficiency cause an increase in strength; however, these changes only result if the muscle is stimulated beyond what it is accustomed to. Weight training is the easiest way to control and monitor the changes in your muscle physiology.

Because of this, it is possible to increase your strength without adding bulk, and it is also possible to increase both. When you stop stimulating the muscle, your muscle composition may return to normal or, depending on your regular routine, it may simply stay as is.

Unlike fat, each muscle can be specifically targeted, so you can choose the specific area you would like to improve. With that said, realize that while you can work your abdominal muscles, for example, you may not see the enhanced shape and form if you have a thick layer of fat covering them up.

Over-exercising is not the answer though, particularly if you are not used to physical activity. The best way to approach your weight loss is to change the way you eat, so that you are beginning to lose weight at safe levels. Your goal for a successful diet is to make sure that you are eating the right foods for your body.

Controlling what you eat, along with moderate physical activity will help you to see how you can make your eating habits, weight loss and weight maintenance a positive part of your life.

The Importance of Water to Your Body

Since we are mostly made up of water, true health cannot occur without proper hydration of the body. We need to drink a minimum of half our body weight, in ounces, of water each day. (For example, if you weigh 200 lbs, you should consume 100 ounces of water.)

Every organ in the body heavily depends on water to function properly and to its capacity. Did you know that the human body is 60-75 percent water? The brain is 85% water, bones are 35 percent water, blood is 83 percent water and the liver is 90 percent water?

Water serves as the body's transportation system which therefore is used to energize every cell and organ in the body. It is crucial to every bodily operation and when we become dehydrated, the body instinctively begins to ration water to each organ. The brain, being the most important organ, gets the most water.

The skin, being the least important, is rationed the least amount of water. Chronically dry skin and/or dandruff are signs of advanced bodily dehydration, as are asthma and hyperventilation.

The body will do what it has to do to survive, which in this case means the most important organs get served first. If the body didn't do that we would suffer the ill effects of dehydration much more rapidly.

Check out these statistics: seventy-five percent of Americans are dehydrated. One glass of water deters hunger pangs for ninety-eight percent of dieters. Even mild dehydration can slow down someones metabolism by three percent. The biggest trigger of daytime fatigue is lack of water. Drinking five glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by forty-five percent, breast cancer by fifty percent.

So what does staying hydrated mean when it comes to losing weight? Well, since you body is loaded with toxins, it is a must that you get these toxins out of your body immediately. By taking in enough water each day you allow your body to flush out these toxins which in turn will increase your energy levels, eliminate depression and anxiety and best of all help you lose weight.

Here is a helpful tip to keep energy levels and metabolism up. Drink a glass of water immediately upon rising in the morning. This will start the your body's metabolism and cleansing process.

To Your Health,

Michael Toscano & Brue Baker

Owners / Founders
http://www.DietHealthandFitness.com/

Secrets Bottled Water Companies Don't Want You To Know About

As a rule of thumb, you should drink at least 8 cups of natural or purified water daily because 90% of our body is made of water. Water is the key ingredient to life, yet most of the time people drink coffee, soda, alcohol, and store bought fruit juice instead.

Unfortunately, all of the drinks I just listed are incredibly dehydrating, so if you are drinking those, you need to be drinking even more purified water than someone who is not drinking coffee, soda, alcohol or fruit juice.

You should not drink tap water because most tap water, other than in a few select places, is loaded with flouride and chlorine in order to kill off many harmful types of bacteria caused by environmental pollution.

Flouride, even though they use it at the dentists office, is horrible for you to ingest, and can lead to certain cancers. Chlorine ingestion can lead to many types of cancer and weight gain. Both flouride and chlorine are two chemicals that are extremely dangerous toxins to have in your body.

The problem does not stop at tap water, however. Most bottled water is a scam and is awful for you to drink. Why? Because there are hardly any regulations on the bottled water industry. Almost all of the bottled waters are merely acidic tap water from one region, barely filtered, then bottled and shipped somewhere else.

Ever wonder why some bottled waters are more expensive than others? There is a reason. Did you think that your local grocery store has a natural spring out back so they can produce their own brand of great spring water for $3.00 a case? It's tap water.

Why should you believe me? I have a very close friend who worked for a reverse osmosis filtration company, which performed independent tests on all kinds of bottled water to find out which were the healthiest and which were not.

So what water can you drink?

Dasani and Aquafina, although ironically made by soda companies, are the least expensive of the safe bottled waters. They are still made with tap water, but the tap water is filtered using a reverse osmosis filtration system, which removes harmful chemicals, such as flouride and chlorine and makes it less acidic. Reverse osmosis is hands down the best way to purify tap water.

Better still is completely natural spring, or artesian water. Why? Because it's untouched and pure, right from the source and requires no filtration. This water is also loaded with essential minerals to keep your body healthy and naturally has an alkaline pH.

Here are the top bottled water contenders:

* Fiji
* Evian
* Voss
* Volvic
* Penta
* Evamor
* Poland Spring

There are also several smaller bottled water companies that produce very healthy bottled water as well. You can usually find them at your local health food store. If you have any more questions on what bottled water you should buy, I'm sure someone at your local health food store would be more than happy to help you out.

Why is most fruit juice bad to drink? Because most fruit juice that is sold is anything but fresh juice that is healthy for you. The stuff you think is healthy juice is basically soda. Pick up a soda and pick up a sports drink, or a bottle of juice and compare the ingredients. Usually the only difference between them is the carbonated water and the flavoring.

Fresh juice goes bad in about two or three days. Compare that with most juice you can buy at the grocery store, which can last up to a month after you buy it.

Basically the only way to drink really healthy juice is to make the juice yourself at home with a juicer, or go to your local health food store, they usually make fresh juice daily.

Even though fresh juice can provide you with essential vitamins and minerals, it's still not enough to hydrate your body on its own. Most fruit juice is loaded with sugar, which is dehydrating and acidic, so you don't want to consume too much juice anyways.

Water, water, water, is really all you need to drink. It will give you more energy, make you more tolerant to exercise, make your mind clearer and can reduce hunger cravings. Water reduces hunger pangs by 98%, so if you are dieting or trying to lose weight, drink more water. I think that you will be surprised by the results.

As usual, good luck on your journey towards health and wellness!

To Your Health,
Michael Toscano & Brue Baker
Owners / Founders
http://www.diethealthandfitness.com/