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Yes, believe it or not, your waist size can tell more about the state of your health than you think. It’s obvious that a bulging waistline is far from aesthetically pleasing. However, just as unpleasing could be the hints it’s giving you about the state of your health. To get right down to it, there are links between increased risks of morbidity, cardiovascular disease, and other serious heart conditions and the fat around your waist, the visceral fat.

Visceral fat is the fat that is packed in between the organs in the abdominal area. Excess visceral fat pushes the organs out and leads to a pot belly. One of the dangers of visceral fat is that since it is between the organs in the abdomen and underneath the muscle, it can go undetected until there are large excesses of it and the pot belly forms.

Visceral fat is a very dangerous threat. Now you may ask, isn’t all body fat a threat? First let me say that there are two kinds of body fat. There is subcutaneous fat, which is fat that is underneath the skin. Then there is visceral fat. What makes visceral fat so dangerous is that, according to Donovan Baldwin,

Unlike “subcutaneous fat” which is found below the skin, visceral fat secretes inflammatory hormones which can cause organ damage (heart, kidney, brain) at a cellular level. So, while obesity in general is a problem to be dealt with, visceral fat (belly fat) in particular demands immediate and special attention.

So exercising and eating better to trim down that pot belly won’t just make your clothes fit better, it will also decrease your chances of serious health conditions. And you can also say that your slim stomach isn’t just sexy on the outside, but it’s healthy on the inside.

Can Infomercials Sell More Than Just Promises?

If you’re like me, you’re a sucker for infomercials. Lazy Sunday mornings eating breakfast and flipping through the numerous infomercials that are on. One that caught my attention, besides the Magic Bullet and the 3 second omelet, was The Perfect Pushup. There were a few reasons for that.

I love to see and research the latest fitness fads. Actually, critique might be a better term. It seems that just about any fad can have an infomercial developed around it. But, when it comes to fitness fads, I really like to see if they can be for real or not. While many of these types of infomercials don’t really amount to much, there are a few that are serious products. Take Bowflex as an example. This is a company that puts a great amount of research in the mechanics of their home gyms and continuously update them with new technology to give you the ability to have a great workout. And they have had an infomercial for as long as I can remember.

And secondly, I’m always looking for something new to add to my workout routine. Doing the same routine over and over can quickly get stale. With something new, you actually get excited to workout and use it. And it seems that doing the same exercises predictably allows your body to adapt so after a while, you hit a plateau as far as gains go.

Push Ups That Don’t Hurt

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with doing push ups. It’s a great exercise that uses your own body weight as resistance. However, the pressure put on my wrists is a killer. I wasn’t able to do push ups on a very regular basis because my wrists would hurt too much. This was terrible because the pushup is not just a great stand alone exercise, but is also great in conjunction with other chest exercises, like the bench press.

I kept talking about it, and for Christmas I got it as a gift from my sister and brother-in-law. The Perfect Pushup seemed to have such a simple design, but yet at the same time put a new twist on an old exercise, literally. For those who haven’t see it, click here to see what the Perfect Pushup looks like.

Essentially, It is a handle that sits atop a circular disk that rotates 360 degrees. The package comes with two, one for each hand. You place the two handles opposite each other, and you can vary the distance for variations of the exercise. As you do the up and down motion of the exercise, you are also rotating the handle to workout your arms in addition to your chest and back.

For an “As Seen on TV” product I was pleasantly surprised by the build quality. These are very sturdy devices. The handles are magnificent. Doing pushups holding the handles takes away the pressure from my wrists. My wrists are no longer sore after doing the routine. The twisting motion is very smooth and is something I got used to very quickly. They are nice and small and can be stored easily under a bed or in a closet.

Because of the comfort, I am able to do push ups more frequently and do more reps per set. I am getting awesome results in my arms, chest, shoulders, and back. These results can be seen and felt.

Included in the package are instructions showing different variations you can do with The Perfect Pushup, this way the pushup routine doesn’t become stale. It also maps these variations out in what they call the “Get Ripped Plan.” It is a routine that maximizes your time and the exercise variations to get the best results. After two and a half months of being part of my regular workout, I can say that I am very happy with the results that I can feel and see as a result of the Perfect Pushup. If you are looking for something to mix up your fitness routine or a better way to do a great exercise, The Perfect Pushup is definitely something I would recommend using.

Big Fitness
Regular Price: $54.95

Sale Price: $39.95

Bodytrends
Regular Price: $49.95
Sale Price: $39.95

GNC
Regular Price: $49.99
Sale Price: 39.99

Diet soda is probably making you gain weight, although it takes a study for people to wake up and realize that artificial sugar replacements and slapping the word “diet” on a soda and other products doesn’t make it a healthy choice or alternative.

About 59 percent of my readers are paying close attention right now. That is the percentage of Americans who consume diet soft drinks.

This morning I was having breakfast and a cup of coffee and had Good Morning America on, where I saw an interesting segment on Can Diet Soda Make You Fat? They teased it for about an hour, so I made sure to watch it. The segment highlighted emerging studies that show people who drink diet soda, which use artificial sweetener, didn’t lose weight and actually gained weight.

Wait. Diet soda has no calories, why is this possible? There are several theories behind it, but studies show diet sodas sabotage a weight loss plan. This segment and research I have gathered over time reveal the theory behind diet soft drinks causing weight gain.

The first theory is the drink has no calories, unlike regular soda, people consciously eat more because they think they are “saving” calories. To put it another way, I’ll have a Big Mac, fries, an apple pie, and a diet soda.

The next theory is a bit more complex, dealing with your body mechanisms and how artificial sweetener found in sodas, other soft drinks, and foods interact with those mechanisms. Lately I’ve heard several ideas that your body “learns” and connects the taste of a food or drink with the calories associated - this sounds likely, just how your sense of smell can affect appetite and cravings. So when we taste and eat food or taste and drink a beverage, the body prepares for the calories. Diet soda and artificial sweetener confuses the body since the expected calories are absent. This tease now causes you to become hungry and crave food since the body still wants and expects those calories, which then makes you eat more. The studies on Good Morning America say that it only takes one 12oz can of diet soda a day to affect your metabolism. ONE diet drink a day could increase your chances of gaining weight. I don’t know any soda drinkers that only consume one can of their favorite soda a day, do you?

Worse, diet soft drinks are “the second most popular low-calorie, sugar-free products in the nation” - Calorie Control Council. Yes, there is one.

I am inclined to agree with the second theory that the body learns and relates the the flavor of beverages and foods with the associated calories, based on personal experience alone. A friend told me ten years ago that he linked feeling lethargic and mediocre workouts to drinking soda. Another “quit” soda and most other manufactured beverages all together and not only felt more balanced throughout the day, he also lost several pounds within the first month - and he is not overweight.

The calorie management debate seems endless and this blog is no stranger to this fact. No more than a week or so ago I responded to emails about two previous posts Diet versus Meal Plan with a blanket Diet versus Meal Plan Response to restate my case.

I see a theme developing from all the health and diet studies over the last several years: It’s not just the quantity of the calories you take in, but the quality of calories. Sure diet soda has no calories, but if drinking diet soft drinks makes you crave food and ultimately snack on the wrong kinds of foods, then is it really helping you?

My brother decided to join the gym I go to. I really liked the idea because now I have a more consistent workout partner. Having someone to workout with is a great idea. It makes everything seem a whole lot less tedious because you have someone there to talk to.

I don’t know the last time he’s been in a gym, and I don’t think he knows either. He’s not that out of shape, it’s just been a while since he’s had a regular workout routine. Well, last night was his first chance to go since he joined on Sunday morning. We get there and do our 10 minutes of cardio warmup and decide to hit the weights. It was chest and back routines on the agenda. He starts piling on the weights and I asked him why? He tells me that was what he was used to. I reminded him that he hasn’t been in a gym for awhile and it was wiser to start with a more manageable amount of weight and work his body into a routine, then slowly add the resistance. He decided to be macho and keep the weight on…and could only do a few reps.

When starting a new fitness routine or adding a new exercise, it is important to start with a manageable weight. This way you don’t risk serious injury. It is also important to get the correct motion down first. It is easier to learn the motion of the exercise when you have a manageable amount of weight and not straining to keep the bar up. Don’t be macho! Don’t go into the gym and try to impress anyone.

If you expect to make gains and be successful in your workout, you need to make sure that you have a strong nutritional foundation. A good multivitamin is one of the essentials. No matter if your workout is designed to lose weight or put on muscle a multivitamin is key. The reason is that the body requires several of the micronutrients provided by the multivitamin for certain processes.

When you workout, the muscle breaks down and then heals during your recovery time. Each time the muscle breaks down and recovers it gets stronger. As your workout continues, it takes more effort, or weight, to break the muscle down. This is how you make gains in your workout and build muscle, whether that be lean muscle or gain bulk. During the process of breaking the muscle down, chemical byproducts are released that are called free radicals. The free radicals interfere with the recovery process and can prevent gains in your workout. Vitamins with antioxidant properties, such as vitamins C & E, help eliminate free radicals. They help boost your immune system.

To lose weight, your metabolism needs to be operating at peak efficiency. B vitamins are essential for energy and your body’s metabolism.

The multivitamin that I use and recommend is GNC’s Ultra Mega Gold. It is high in all essential vitamins, including B vitamins and vitamins C & E. They also have several other speciality vitamins available. You can information on GNC’s Multivitamins here.