LOSE WEIGHT WITH HIGH INTENSITY TRAINING

Black male model Ngo Okafor medicine ball abs

Push your muscles harder: Using heavier weights, in reducing the amount rest between sets,  may help you blast more fat, according to new research in the Journal of Translational Medicine.

In the study, scientists had two groups of trained lifters do different workouts. One group performed four sets of 8 to 12 reps of these 8 exercises: 1. Bench press 2. Machine row 3. Military press 4. Biceps curl 5. Triceps extension 6. Leg press 7. Leg curl 8. Situp

They did the exercises in straight sets—a traditional method—completing all four sets of the first exercise before moving on to the next. They rested for 2 minutes after each set of the compound exercises, but just 1 minute after the biceps curl, triceps extension, leg curl, and situp. They lifted to failure in each set.

The second group of men used used a “rest-pause” technique and did just three exercises: 1. Leg press 2. Bench press 3. Machine row

For each exercise, they chose the heaviest weight they could lift six times. (Their six-rep max.) Then they performed six reps. As soon as they were done, they rested 20 seconds, and using the same weight, immediately did as many reps as they could—usually two to three more. Then they rested another 20 seconds, and did as many reps as they could again. After the third series, they rested for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. That counted as one total set. They did three of these sets of the leg press, and then did two sets of the bench press followed by two sets of the machine row.

This created a workout that used heavy weights to “induce mechanical effects on the muscles,” while the short 20-second recovery periods gave it an effect “comparable to high intensity endurance training,” say the study authors. (Note: The rest-pause technique has been around for years, but hasn’t been studied for its benefits as a potential fat-loss protocol.)

Twenty-two hours later, the rest-pause group had a resting metabolism that was 452 calories higher than it was before their workout; the other group saw an increase of just 98 calories. This is despite the fact that the rest-pause lifters exercised for just half the time as the conventional lifters.

The reason: When your muscles work harder, they have to do more post-workout rebuilding. That burns calories and lifts levels of metabolism-boosting hormones, says study author Antonio Paoli, M.D., of the Università degli Studi di Padova in Italy.

One caveat: The researchers didn’t measure energy expenditure during the workouts. And given that the traditional-lifting group did a significantly higher volume of work, it’s likely they burned a greater number of calories in their actual training session than did the rest-pause group.

Posted by Ngo Okafor

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From Menshealth.com

HOW MUCH WEIGHT CAN YOU LOSE IN A WEEK…SAFELY?

How much can I lose in a week? This is a question that people ask their personal trainer everyday. It’s always a major emergency!! They don’t ask about safety, they just want to lose the weight. Well, for me, it’s safety first. This summer, Matthew McConaughey dropped nearly 30 pounds to go from a ripped stripper in Magic Mike to a drug-dealing HIV patient for an upcoming role. And contestants on The Biggest Loser often shed double digits’ worth of weight in a week.

But when it comes to your own weight loss, experts recommend you aim for a measly one to two pounds a week. It’s fair to wonder: Why?

The above examples and a little math confirm you certainly can lose a lot more. If you start at a weight of 250, cut back to 500 to 800 calories, and work out for two hours daily, you could expect to drop seven to nine pounds a week, says obesity expert Yoni Freedhoff, M.D., author of the forthcoming book Why Diets Fail and How to Make Yours Work.

But besides making your life a living hell, dropping weight this quickly has other downsides: Muscle loss, nutritional deficiencies, and loose skin, just to name a few. And don’t forget gallstones and even potentially fatal cardiac arrhythmias, Dr. Freedhoff warns.

OK, fine, so losing 9 pounds a week isn’t reasonable or healthy. But can you aim for three or four while still preserving your hard-earned muscles—and your health?

Could you become a similar success story? Research does tell us that your fat-burning potential depends on a few factors, some you can control and some you can’t. Namely:

Your starting point. The flabbier you are at first, the larger the percentage of lost weight will come from fat, says Kevin Hall, Ph.D., a researcher at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Say you start at 300 pounds—a modest goal of 1 percent fat loss per week means you’ll shed three pounds in a week, Perry says. But if you’re just looking to drop 10 pounds from a relatively lean frame, you’ll probably have a harder time hanging on to all your muscle.

Your workout. You’ve heard us say it before: Resistance training is key to keeping muscle while burning fat. In one Columbia University study, participants cut calories and were assigned either to strength-train or do cardio three times a week. After eight weeks, everyone lost more than 9 percent of their body weight. But in the aerobic group, 20 percent of that came from lean tissue (mostly muscle), while the resistance group limited lean-tissue loss to 8 percent.

Your protein intake. Protein provides essential amino acids that your body uses to make muscle. Skimp and you’ll lose more muscle. In one study, athletes who cut calories by 60 percent were told to eat either 35 percent or 15 percent of their calories from protein; the high-protein group lost 20 percent less muscle over two weeks.

Your sleep habits. Not getting enough shut-eye throws hunger and metabolism hormones like leptin and ghrelin out of whack, Perry says. In a small study published last year in Annals of Internal Medicine, volunteers on a reduced-calorie diet slept either 5.5 or 8.5 hours a night. In two weeks, they both lost a little more than 6.5 pounds—but those who slept more lost twice as much of that from fat.

How much you’ve already lost. The smaller you are, the fewer calories you’ll burn, Dr. Freedhoff says. But there are even more complex hormonal and metabolic shifts at work, making it harder to burn fat the longer you’re losing. Scientists are still working to understand the mechanisms, but a paper Hall published last year in The Lancet outlines the results: Say you start at 220 pounds and cut 480 calories at day. You’d eventually hit 165, but it’d take you a year to get halfway there, and another two to lose the rest. Things get even wonkier the faster you lose. Hall’s group studied contestants on The Biggest Loser season 8, who after 30 weeks had lost more than one-third of their body weight, more than three-fourths of that from fat. However, their resting metabolisms dropped so much that they were torching 500 fewer calories daily than would be expected given their new weight.

From Menshealth.com

Posted by Ngo Okafor

The most downloaded black male model photo gallery and blog

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BEST TIME TO EAT FOR WEIGHT LOSS

Certainly, what we eat has an enormous impact on our health and weight status.  But did you know that when and how we eat also make a huge difference? Eating at  the appropriate times throughout the day will help to maximize fat burning and  keep hunger at bay.

Aim to eat every 3 to 4 hours. Most people eat three meals and one  snack, while others may prefer four smaller meals; you’re free to find the  combination that works best for you. Timing your meals in this way will improve  your fat loss by preventing excess insulin, allowing leptin to work its magic on  appetite control and metabolism, and by balancing the stress hormone cortisol.  You should also enjoy your meals at the same time every day.

Eat within 1 hour of rising. Your mom was also right when she told you  breakfast was the most important meal of the day. When you skip breakfast, you  lose its stimulating benefits on your metabolic rate. You also become more  likely to eat unbalanced meals, more calories, and larger amounts of saturated  fat throughout the day. Plenty of research shows that those of us who skip  breakfast are actually heavier. Missing out on a healthy morning meal also  increases stress hormones.

Never eat within 3 hours of bedtime. Eating too close to bedtime  raises your body temperature, increases blood sugar and insulin, prevents the  release of melatonin, and cuts down on growth hormone release. All these factors  interfere with the quality of your sleep and the natural fat-burning benefits of  a good night’s rest. Furthermore, sleep deprivation leads to more cravings and a  greater likelihood of overeating the next day.

If you must eat before bed, opt for a light meal or snack that’s high in  protein and low in carbohydrates and fat, such as a protein shake made with  berries and water, salad with grilled chicken, or a shrimp and veggie  stir-fry.

Start the day with protein. For better appetite control throughout the  day, try combining your starchy carbs at lunch, dinner, or after your workouts  rather than at breakfast. Stick to eggs or whey protein smoothies for breakfast  and you’ll eat less throughout the day.

Always eat within 45 minutes of finishing your workout. This meal or  snack is the only one of the day that should not contain much fat and should be  higher in carbohydrates. For example, have a smoothie made with juice, fruit,  and protein powder, but no flaxseeds or oil.

Never do your weight training on an empty stomach. You will need  energy from your foods to perform optimally. You may, however, complete your  cardio before eating if your session will be less than 30 minutes.

Focus on your food. Do not eat while you are doing anything else  (i.e., watching TV, working, surfing on the computer, etc.). Focus on chewing  your food and relaxing while you eat.

Eat protein first. Eat the protein on your plate first to help speed  the signal to your brain that you are full.

Drink alcohol last. If you have alcohol or wine, do so after your meal  to enhance the hormones involved in appetite control and digestion.

From Women’s health

Posted by Ngo Okafor

The most downloaded black male model photo gallery and blog

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THE BEST DIET FOR KEEPING THE WEIGHT OFF

You’ve lost weight, but will you keep it off? A low-glycemic-index diet may work better than others at burning calories and helping people ward off those pesky Lbs, reports a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In the study, researchers had 21 people who’d lost 10 to 15 percent of their body weight try three different diets, each for 4 weeks. The diets consisted of a low-fat, a low-carbohydrate, and a low-glycemic-index—which endorses carbohydrates that keep blood sugar levels low—eating program.

The result: Even though the participants ate the same amount of calories on each of the plans, they burned an average of 300 fewer calories per day on the low-fat diet compared to the low-carb option.

But the low-carb diet wasn’t a win-win alternative, either. Although it was better at encouraging calorie burn, it also caused the greatest increases in cortisol and C-reactive protein levels—both of which may elevate heart disease risk—among the study participants.

The low-glycemic-index diet, however, seemed to strike the right balance in terms of heart health and resting metabolism, says study authoer Cara Ebbeling, Ph.D., associate director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. And any help you can get torching extra calories is beneficial after a big weight loss. That’s because the more weight you lose, the more your metabolism slows, making it  increasingly difficult to burn calories, explains Ebbeling. (Here’s the truth behind the glycemic index, a notion many experts disagree with entirely.)

So is a low-glycemic-index diet the savior for people who want to keep the excess baggage from creeping back? The problem of “weight maintenance” may not be so easily solved, warns Alan Aragon, M.S., and a Men’s Health nutrition expert. “You can’t tell a whole lot after 4 weeks,” he says. “And looking at the nutritional makeup of the diets used in the study, you’re really comparing two extremes in the low-carb and low-fat diets to a more moderate diet, which will almost always be best in the long run.”

Avoid diets that condemn whole nutrient categories, he suggests. Instead, eat proven weight-managers—whole foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts, as well as proteins like fish and meat. “Your body requires about ten times more energy to process a gram of protein than a gram of fat. So you’ll burn more calories just by eating more protein-packed foods,” Aragon explains. Follow our 6 Grilling Recipes for Weight Loss to cook up some of the leanest, healthiest, and tastiest dishes of the  summer—and effortlessly drop pounds  while you’re doing it.

Exercise will also play a big role in whether you’re able to fend off the old weight, Aragon says. Running or other aerobic exercise is good, but you should mix in weight training at least half of the time. “Resistance exercise boosts lean body mass and metabolism, both of which help your body burn calories even when you’re not working out,” he says. Shoot for a minimum of three 30-to-60-minute workout sessions a week, he advises. Try the 18 cutting-edge workouts found in the Speed Shred program. They’re fast-paced and designed to blast fat and light your muscles on fire.

From Men’s Health Magazine

Posted by Ngo Okafor

The most downloaded black male model photo gallery and blog

www.getingo.com

MTV WANTS YOU TO LOSE YOUR VIRGINITY IN NEW REALITY SHOW

I thought that this was a joke or prank when I first saw this, but it is NOT!! This is crazy! Do you think MTV has gone too far? Read on:

DO YOU WANT TO TAKE THINGS TO THE NEXT LEVEL? LIKE, ARE YOU READY TO HAND OVER YOUR V CARD? OR DO YOU HAVE A FRIEND WHO IS READY TO LOSE IT?

Young adulthood is a time for exploration. New relationships, fresh experiences and sexual firsts…

Now MTV is looking to frankly capture that journey in a new series called My First…We’re looking for adults who are ready to go all the way. Let MTV come along on your journey… as you try to lose your virginity! (Note: We will be filming whether or not you accomplish this goal… but NOT the act itself. Duh.)

If you are 18 years or older and are willing to candidly allow MTV to accompany you on the journey toward “losing it,” please send us an email.

MTV can and undoubtedly will hide behind the fact that 18 year-olds are legal adults, but you can prey on adults just as easily as you can prey on children, especially young adults conditioned by pop culture outlets like MTV to believe celebrity and narcissism are virtues.

And the bait here is celebrity. Debase yourselves for our cameras and we’ll make you a star! This isn’t about love or finding love or even losing your innocence to someone you love. This is about the lie that…

Young adulthood is a time for exploration. New relationships, fresh experiences and sexual firsts…

I seem to remember when we were the kind of culture that protected young people from the indignities of loveless sex and did everything in our power to educate about the financial, emotional, and medical pitfalls of leading with your sexuality over your heart.

What MTV is doing might be legal but it’s still a sleazy exploitation of some of our most vulnerable citizens. And the dangling of celebrity and a camera from a swanky studio lot is no different than dangling candy and a camera from your open raincoat.

If you want to debase yourselves, it’s a free country. To entice others, however, is an act of evil.

Since this posting, MTV has pulled the plug on the Virginity show. 

By

Ngo Okafor

The most downloaded black male model

Nigerian American black male model photo gallery and blog

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