Squats

The gluteals — your butt muscles — are the largest and strongest muscles in the body. Their function is hip extension, or driving the upper legs backward. I cannot overstate how important it is to make sure these muscles are getting their workout. Activities that engage this muscle group include walking, running, jumping, and climbing. Lunges, leg lifts, and squats are all great for exercising the glutes. Here's the lowdown on some of my favorite squats.

Traditional squat (good if you're a newbie): Stand with your feet hip-width apart, with your weight on your heels. Keep your abs tight and your shoulders squarely over your hips. Sit back and down as if you were going to sit on a bench. Keep your back straight. Then stand up, straightening your legs, and repeat.

Sumo squat (good if you're a little more advanced): Place your feet as wide apart as you can and point your toes outward. Lower your body until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Hold for a beat, then exhale and press back up to the starting position. Repeat. This squat modification places a greater emphasis on the inner and outer thigh muscles.

One-legged squat (good if you're a hard-core exerciser): Stand with your weight balanced on your right leg. Lift your left foot an inch or so off the ground. Keep your head up, and don't lean forward; abs stay tight, and the right heel stays on the ground. Don't let the knee extend over the toe. Slowly lower yourself as far as you can comfortably go. Exhale and stand up straight, still balancing on the right leg. Continue for a full set on the right leg, then switch to the left leg and repeat. This modification requires tremendous balance and allows you to strengthen each leg. 

Squat Right

Don't let good form slip when you're busting your squats. Be mindful of the following:

Keep your eyes focused forward.

Don't lean forward or let your heels come off the ground.

Don't let your knees travel forward over your toes or turn inward as you lower or rise.

Keep your belly button sucked in toward your spine as you stand back up, being careful not to arch your back.

Can You Drink and Lose Weight?

Whether it's cocktails on ladies' night out, a beer at the bar, or a glass of wine with dinner, most of us enjoy a drink (or two!) every now and again. But remember what I've been teaching you: In addition to being aware of the foods that are good for you, you need to know which ones are not so great. And let's face it — alcohol is in the latter camp.

Simply, alcohol can sabotage your weight-loss efforts. It releases estrogen into your bloodstream, promotes fat storage, and decreases muscle growth. As soon as you have a drink, your body eats up all the glycogen (stored glucose) in your liver, makes you hungry, and reduces your inhibitions, so you're more likely to grab that chicken wing or stuffed potato skin at happy hour. Plus, alcoholic drinks contain many more calories than most people think — a 20-ounce serving of beer can pack 250 calories, a 6-ounce glass of wine contains 120, and a 1.5-ounce shot of liquor contains about 100. And that's without any sugary mixers.

If you're serious about losing weight, it's best to put alcohol aside until you're in maintenance mode. If you are going to have a drink, choose wine, which may protect the heart and help lower inflammation, or a drink with clear alcohol and no sugary mixers, such as a vodka and club soda or a Patron on the rocks with lime. One drink a day probably maxes out the benefits, though, so keep a cork in your alcohol consumption.

Water Intake

How Much Water Should I Drink?

Q: How much water should I drink each day? I hear all kinds of answers, including 1 ounce of water for every pound of body weight, and six to eight 8-ounce glasses. Which is right?

A: Water is a vital part of any diet and exercise program — not to mention life in general — because it aids every aspect of bodily function. Water is a huge component of muscle and is important for energy production, so if you want to make the most of your workout, make sure you're well hydrated.

There is no real one-size-fits-all approach to water consumption. As a general rule of thumb, men should consume 128 ounces of water daily, and women should consume 88 ounces, but this doesn't mean you need to drink this amount of water every day. Other beverages, as well as the moisture content of foods, also count toward your water intake. The following factors affect how much water you should consume:

Exercise: If you exercise or engage in any activity that makes you sweat, you need to drink extra water to compensate for that fluid loss. Drink 12 ounces of water two hours before a workout, and another 12 ounces 30 minutes before you begin. While you are exercising, you should drink 4 to 8 ounces every 15 minutes. You should consume an additional 12 ounces within 30 minutes of the end of your workout. During intense exercise involving significant sweating — say, during a marathon — you may need a sports drink rather than plain water, to replace the sodium lost in sweat.

Environment: In hot or humid weather, you need to drink additional water to help lower your body temperature and to replace what you lose through sweating. You also need additional water in cold weather if you sweat while wearing insulated clothing. Heated indoor air can cause your skin to lose moisture, increasing your daily fluid requirement. Additionally, altitudes higher than 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) can affect how much water your body needs — higher altitudes may trigger increased urination and more rapid breathing, which use up more of your fluid reserves.

Beat the Heat

5 Tips for Beating the Heat


Summer is in full swing and the mercury is rising. When you're exercising or playing outdoors, it's important that you take care to keep yourself cool. My fitness plan is tough enough — you don't need to add heatstroke to the equation! Follow these tips to make sure you stay safe in hot or humid weather.

Time it right. The hottest part of the day usually falls between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Do your workout early in the morning or in the evening, when the sun isn't directly overhead and the temperature is a little cooler.

Dress for the weather. Your body cools itself in part by perspiring. You'll help the process if you wear lightweight, somewhat loose-fitting clothing that allows the sweat to evaporate from your skin. Choose lighter colors because they won't absorb as much heat from the sun, and consider a hat or a visor to keep the sun out of your eyes.

Wear sunscreen. The last thing you want is a sunburn — it'll keep your skin from cooling off and sap precious fluids. Choose a sunscreen free of oxybenzone, a chemical that has been linked to hormone disruption. Use Skin Deep, the Environmental Working Group's cosmetics database, to see if your sunscreen is safe, and apply it at least 30 minutes before you head outside.

Drink lots of water. Sweating can dehydrate you very quickly, so it's important to keep drinking water. Drink 4 to 8 ounces every 15 minutes while you work out. If you exercise for more than an hour, you may need a sports drink or a snack to replace the salt and other electrolytes you lose as you sweat.

Watch your heart rate. In reaction to heat, your body increases blood flow to your skin in an effort to cool you off. The result is less blood for your muscles and an elevated heart rate. If you're not used to working out in the heat, you might find that you'll reach your target heart rate with less intense exercise than usual. Take it slow at first, and gradually increase your intensity.

Know the Warning Signs


What can happen if you get too dehydrated or exert yourself in the heat too long? Here are some possibilities, from the least to the most severe:

Heat cramps — muscle pain or spasms

Heat exhaustion — a state of elevated body temperature that's a precursor to heatstroke

Heatstroke — a life-threatening condition in which your body temperature rises above 106°F

If you experience muscle cramping, dizziness, fast and shallow breathing, cold and clammy skin, or nausea or vomiting, get out of the heat immediately and get some water. Heat-related illnesses are no joke, so don't take any chances!

HGH

The Hormone You Always Want More Of


Growth hormone (sometimes referred to as HGH, for "human growth hormone") is something we all want more of. It builds muscle, burns fat, helps you resist heart disease, and protects your bones — among many other health benefits. By increasing your muscle mass, growth hormone raises your resting metabolic rate and gives you more power for your workouts. It also helps you tap into your fat stores for fuel and discourages your fat cells from absorbing or holding on to any fat floating around in your bloodstream.

In addition to these amazing feats, growth hormone helps your liver synthesize glucose, and it promotes gluconeogenesis, a really cool process that allows your body to create carbs out of protein. This helps you lose fat faster while providing your brain and other tissues with the energy they need.

As with so many other beneficial hormones, production of growth hormone declines with age, and many things we do speed the decline:

1. We deprive ourselves of good-quality sleep. Growth hormone is released in adults in an average of five pulses throughout the day, the largest of which happens during deep sleep. Shortchange yourself on sleep and you'll shortchange yourself on growth hormone.

2. We eat too many low-quality carbs. Refined carbs, such as those in white bread and white rice, keep our blood sugar and insulin levels high, which suppresses the release of growth hormone. Protein, on the other hand, can facilitate the release of higher levels of growth hormone.

3. We don't exercise enough. When you don't exercise and your muscles become insulin-resistant, you increase your level of circulating insulin, which further suppresses growth hormone. We need to get off our butts and capitalize on this incredibly healthy hormone! One surefire way we can turn our bodies into growth hormone factories is with intense exercise. During intense exercise, and especially during interval training, growth hormone encourages the body to use fat as its fuel instead of glucose. Not only does this help you burn fat while you exercise, but it stabilizes your blood glucose level so that you have the energy to keep exercising.

Enhance Growth Hormone Naturally

You may have heard about HGH injections, but whatever you do, don't get HGH shots just yet. Taking HGH is controversial and risky, and it may even cause insulin resistance. You should try to change the behaviors that reduce your production of growth hormone before you ever consider injections!

Natural Sweetener

Looking for a Natural Sweetener?


If you've been reading this newsletter, you may already know how I feel about synthetic sugar substitutes. To put it mildly, I really, really don't like them because they confuse your body and mess up your metabolism. If you find yourself reaching for one of those blue, pink, or yellow packets to sweeten your coffee or tea, I want you to stop and try a natural alternative rather than putting chemicals into your body.

Sugar, of course, is natural, but its calories add up. Sugar is also murder on your dental health — the more you consume, the higher your risk of cavities. That's why I want you to try crystalline xylitol or stevia as a sugar substitute. Both are produced from natural sources rather than being chemically engineered: Stevia is made from the stevia plant, and xylitol is a sugar alcohol derived from the fibers of many fruits and vegetables. Xylitol does have a few calories, but it has less of an effect on insulin levels than sugar does. I prefer the taste of xylitol to stevia, but they're both good choices.

A possible benefit of xylitol is that it may help prevent cavities. In a recent study, researchers at the University of Washington gave teething babies and toddlers xylitol syrup and found that it prevented tooth decay. It's theorized that xylitol inhibits the growth of bacteria that can cause cavities to form, and for this reason the sweetener is used in many toothpastes and gums. Like other sugar alcohols, xylitol may cause mild gastrointestinal trouble if you consume a lot of it, but I've never had this problem.

If you like your coffee or tea unsweetened, more power to you! But if you need that little kick of sweetness, don't put your hormonal health at risk with artificial crap. Also, if you chew gum or use breath mints, be sure to choose products that contain xylitol or stevia (which may be listed as rebiana) rather than nasty artificial sweeteners such as aspartame.

Outdoor Workouts

Burn Those Cardio Calories Outdoors!


Does doing the same cardio routine at the gym make you feel like a hamster on a wheel? If so, why not go outside and get a change of scenery? Exercising outdoors can be a hit-or-miss proposition depending on where you live and the season, but when the weather is decent, there should be nothing stopping you. Take advantage of summertime to enjoy the fresh air! Here are some great alfresco cardio options to get you out of the gym.

Hiking: This is an awesome workout that I happen to love. It allows you to spend time in nature and discover your surroundings. Also, because of irregular terrain, you'll work your core muscles more than you would on a treadmill.

Running: Getting off the treadmill and running outside might help you burn even more calories. Try performing intervals by running or jogging in quarter-mile bursts. You can also work different muscles in your legs by doing intervals in which you run backward.

Swimming: Cool off, tone muscles, and get your cardio in. If you're just beginning to exercise, the pool is a great place to get started. Water provides more resistance than air, so it can make your muscles expend more energy than they would on land. Use a kickboard if you have one: Hold on to the board and use your legs to power you across the pool. Run or walk across the pool, tread water, or hold on to the side of the pool and just do kick drills for as long as you can.

Biking: Why not ride your bike to work instead of driving? You can commute and burn calories (not to mention save gas money)! Biking is an excellent means of exploring and a good calorie burner. It can be a great option if you're dealing with an injury, because it's low impact, causing less strain. But remember, a road bike is a totally different animal from a stationary or recumbent bike, so take it nice and slow at first until you get used to being on the open road.

Don't forget your everyday sports either — basketball, soccer, and the like are fun activities that allow you to get together with friends, get a cardio workout in, and enjoy the great outdoors.

Not Sure Where to Go?

Yes, the machines at the gym make it easy to track your cardio workouts by telling you exactly how far you're "traveling." But it's also a snap to plan outdoor runs and bike rides of whatever distance you want. You can log on to Mapmyrun.com or Mapmyride.com beforehand to find a great route. To get an accurate reading of calories burned, use a heart rate monitor. This goes for outdoor and indoor workouts — the calorie-burn readouts on gym machines are almost never accurate, so you don't want to rely on them.

clean water?

Are You Drinking Clean H20?


Want an easy way to be good to your body? Stay hydrated by guzzling down more water throughout the day. Water has zero calories, so it doesn't add to your waistline. Plus, it aids in just about every bodily function, including fat burning and energy production.

Unfortunately, the water that comes out of your tap may not be free of flaws. Water authorities do not yet regulate many endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and conventional water-treatment methods weren't designed to remove them. Studies have found trace amounts of pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and other substances in municipal water supplies.

Don't be worried thirsty, though. You can get clean water by using water filters religiously. First, go to EPA's Web site to learn about your local water quality and the substances you're dealing with. Then, consider the following three types of filters. Each has its pros and cons, but combining two kinds of filters should get good results.

Reverse-osmosis unit: Using a semipermeable membrane (which allows some molecules to pass through but not others), this type of filter removes particles and molecules of dissolved contaminants. Reverse osmosis can remove heavy metals, bacteria, and viruses, and it may remove some pharmaceuticals. However, it isn't effective for removing pesticides.

Distillation unit: This type of filtration system brings water to a boil, then collects the steam and condenses it back into water, leaving impurities (which need higher temperatures to boil) behind. Distillers can remove heavy metals, bacteria, and viruses, but they can't remove pesticides or pharmaceuticals.

Activated carbon filter: This type is the easiest to find and use. It's available in faucet-mounted models, under-the-sink units, and pitchers. Water flows through a carbon filter that attracts and traps many impurities. The types of contaminants filtered vary by brand, but all activated carbon filters remove chlorine, improve taste, and reduce sediment. Most remove heavy metals and disinfection by-products, and some remove parasites, pesticides, radon, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Bottled Water Isn't the Answer

The fewer plastics in your life the better, I say. However, I know you can't lug around water filters all day. Instead, when you're away from home, carry along a stainless-steel or ceramic-lined drinking bottle filled with filtered water. Avoid hard-plastic drinking bottles; many of these are made of polycarbonate, a type of plastic that contains an endocrine disruptor called bisphenol-A (or BPA). Also, don't be duped into buying "organic" water either — when it comes to water, that term doesn't mean anything!

Veggies

How to Get the Most Nutrition From Your Veggies


I have some good news and some bad news about vegetables. The good news: They're packed with vitamins, antioxidants, and other good-for-you, cancer-preventing nutrients. The bad news: By the time those veggies hit your plate, a substantial amount of those nutrients can be lost. Vitamins are sensitive to heat and air exposure, and some are water-soluble, meaning water will absorb them and carry them away. As a result, some cooking methods are better at preserving nutrients than others. To get the biggest bang for your vegetable buck, try these tips:

Put your microwave to good use. Microwaving helps to retain a vegetable's nutrients because it exposes it to very little water. Wash and chop your vegetables, then put them into a glass or ceramic microwave-safe dish with a lid. (Don't use plastic containers, which can leach chemicals into your food when heated.) Add a few tablespoons of water to the dish and place the lid over it, leaving it slightly ajar. Microwave until the vegetables are tender but still crisp — for roughly four to ten minutes, depending on the vegetable and the strength of your microwave. (Tougher, more fibrous vegetables will take longer to cook.) Check them periodically so you don't overcook them.

Learn to blanch. Blanching is a method of boiling cut vegetables for a very short period of time — two minutes, tops — and then plunging them into cold water to stop the cooking process. You may lose more nutrients with blanching than with microwaving, but far less than you would with boiling. This is a great option for people who don't like raw veggies because it makes the vegetable slightly more tender and removes some of the raw taste. Try blanching some asparagus or broccoli and then tossing it into a salad.


Buy Fresh, Buy Organic

Vegetables start losing their nutrients from the moment they're harvested, so you want to buy the freshest produce available. Your best bet is your local farmers' market, where it's likely that your produce was picked that very morning (as opposed to trucked across the country for days and days). Buying organic helps too. Organic produce is more nutritious than conventional because organic farming methods don't deplete nutrients from the soil.

Exercise

Exercise: Good for the Body, Good for the Mind


It may come as a surprise to you that I don't love to exercise. Sometimes I actually hate it. But I do it anyway, because the rewards far outweigh whatever discomfort I feel during a workout. Regular exercise leads to better health, more energy, a lower risk of heart disease and diabetes, and a longer life. But it isn't just the physical benefits of exercise that push me — it's what it does for my mental health.

The mental-health benefits start right after you exercise. Have you ever noticed how good you feel when you complete a workout? That you feel relaxed, or even euphoric? That mood lift, often called "runner's high," comes courtesy of natural morphine-like chemicals called endorphins. Exercise floods the brain with endorphins, which help to relieve pain, enhance your mood, and relieve stress.

But the feel-good effects don't stop after the endorphin rush subsides. Over time, exercise provides a major boost to your confidence. As you start working out and getting stronger, your sense of strength in other aspects of your life will naturally flourish as well. To put it another way, if you can survive my workouts, you can do anything — and when you feel that sense of empowerment, nothing will be able to stand between you and the life you want to live.

A Natural Antidepressant

Not convinced that those dead lifts can lift your mood? Check this out: A growing body of research suggests that exercise can relieve symptoms of depression, including sadness, irritability, stress, fatigue, anger, self-doubt, and hopelessness. It's unclear exactly why, but researchers think that exercise's effect on endorphins and other mood-lifting neurotransmitters may be at play. Exercise also lowers your levels of the stress hormone cortisol and helps you to sleep better. Okay, I think that's enough reasons to work out — now get to the gym and start feeling better!

How Much Exercise?

How Much to Exercise Each Day


You may have heard the U.S. Surgeon General's recommendation of at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week (and that breaks down to just 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week). What's important to understand is that this is intended for people who want to maintain the most basic level of fitness — but not for people who want to lose weight. But if you want to drop those pounds, you're going to have to be prepared for a bit more work.

I much prefer the World Health Organization's recommendation of 60 minutes at a time as a starting point for my clients — an hour is ideal to get the most out of your workout and see significant results. Your 60-minute workout sessions should always include a 5-minute warm-up, followed by 50 minutes of your primary cardio or strength-training exercises, followed by at least 5 minutes of cooling down and stretching.

Of course, putting in more time will get you more results — but there's a limit. Excessive intense physical activity releases stress hormones, such as cortisol, into the body. This can actually inhibit weight loss, causing your body to react by storing fat and retaining water out of self-protection. So, to reach your goal, I recommend limiting intense exercise to no more than two hours a session.

Interval Cardio

One of the most effective aspects of my program is the mix of resistance exercises with cardio bursts. Cardio intervals will keep your heart rate up while you use weights, which enables you to get results in a shorter amount of time. Butt kicks are a typical interval cardio move: Stand with your feet hip-width apart and jog in place, bringing your heels up to your buttocks as you lift your feet. Keep your pace as fast as possible and really try to kick yourself in the butt.

Healthy Lifestyle Prevents Sudden Death

Healthy Lifestyle Makes Women Less Likely to Die Suddenly


By Charles Bankhead, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

Published: July 05, 2011

Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston.





Video Source: JAMA



Women who adhered to a healthy lifestyle had as much as a 90% reduction in the risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) as compared with those with a high-risk profile, data from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) showed.



Compared with women with none of the low-risk attributes, the risk of SCD declined linearly as the number of these attributes increased, ranging from a 46% reduction for a woman who had one to 92% for those who had all four.



About 80% of attributable risk for SCD was associated with the four lifestyle factors included in the analysis: smoking, overweight, inactivity, and poor diet, according to an article in the July 6 issue of JAMA.



Action Points

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



■Explain that adherence to a healthier lifestyle was significantly associated with a lower risk of sudden cardiac death in an analysis from the Nurses' Health Study.









■Note that the low-risk lifestyle factors included no smoking, BMI <25, daily physical activity of at least 30 minutes, and consumption of a Mediterranean-type diet.



"In this cohort of female nurses, adherence to an overall healthy lifestyle was associated with a lower risk of SCD and may be an effective strategy for the prevention of SCD," Stephanie E. Chiuve, ScD, of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and co-authors wrote in conclusion.



"Because SCD accounts for more than 50% of CHD mortality, widespread adoption of a healthy lifestyle in the population may make a substantial impact on reaching the American Heart Association's 2020 Impact Goal of further lowering cardiovascular disease mortality."



While most episodes of SCD occur in people who have underlying coronary heart disease (CHD), SCD is the first manifestation of CHD in the majority of people, especially women, the authors wrote in their introduction.



Primary prevention of SCD has focused on use of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators in patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction, but only a minority of SCD events occur in this high-risk group. Prevention strategies are needed to reduce SCD incidence in lower-risk populations, the authors continued.



Because several modifiable lifestyle factors are associated with SCD, Chiuve and colleagues examined the individual and cumulative impact of these factors on SCD risk in the NHS.



The analysis included 81,722 women ages 30 to 55 at enrollment and followed from June 1984 to June 2010. NHS participants completed lifestyle questionnaires every two to four years, beginning in 1984.



Investigators defined a low-risk lifestyle as no smoking, BMI <25, at least 30 minutes of exercise daily, and top 40% of the alternate Mediterranean diet score. The diet emphasizes consumption of vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, whole grains, and fish, and moderate alcohol consumption.



The authors found that 321 SCD events occurred during the 26 years of follow-up, involving women whose median age was 72 at the time of SCD.



Each of the four low-risk lifestyle factors had an independent, statistically significant association with a lower risk of SCD (P<0.001). Multivariable analysis showed that the magnitude of the risk reduction increased with the number of low-risk factors, as compared with women who had none of the traits:



•46% for one low-risk factor

•59% for two

•67% for three

•92% for all four



The authors determined that 81% of attributable SCD risk was related to smoking, inactivity, overweight, and poor diet. After exclusion of women with clinically diagnosed CHD, the attributable risk declined only slightly to 79%.



Women are 50% less likely compared with men to have severe left ventricular dysfunction and 66% less likely to have a CHD diagnosis prior to SCD, the authors noted in their commentary. Consequently, women are substantially less likely to meet current guidelines for use of preventive therapies, including ICDs.



"Prevention efforts that can be applied across broader populations, such as healthy lifestyle practices, are crucial to prevent SCD, particularly among women," they wrote.



But the authors noted a number of limitations to their study, most of which can be traced back to their use of population attributable risk. Population attributable risk, they wrote, assumes a causal relationship between lifestyle and risk of SCD, an assumption the authors characterized as "large."



They also noted that their population was mainly white health professionals.



The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association.



Co-author Teresa Fung disclosed a relationship with UNO's restaurant.

PMS

Five Tips for Taming PMS


Here's a statement I don't think too many women will disagree with: Premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, is a little slice of hell on earth. In the five to seven days before their period, up to 75 percent of women experience at least one unpleasant symptom in the constellation that PMS can cause — from the stereotypical cramps and moodiness to insomnia, fatigue, and nausea. One in 20 women experience premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), a serious and often disabling condition that can cause persistent depression, marked anger or irritability, and severe aches and pains.

The good news is that there are ways to tame PMS naturally. Try these five tips:

Exercise! You may not want to, but get in your workout anyway. The endorphin rush will help relieve cramps and raise your levels of serotonin, a mood-lifting neurotransmitter.

Get some R&R. Adequate sleep and less stress will put you in a better hormonal position to handle the physiological imbalance that PMS brings.

Cut out most alcohol, caffeine, and salt. Alcohol can exacerbate feelings of depression, so steer clear. Reducing caffeine may minimize breast tenderness and irritability, and cutting salt can reduce bloat.

Minimize simple sugars. Ideally, you're doing this all the time, but it's especially important before your period. Simple sugars may increase inflammation, making cramps feel worse. Eating regular meals and snacks with fiber and protein will help keep your blood sugar stable, which is a lot better for those raw nerves than blood-sugar swings.

Consider supplements. Calcium may reduce symptoms of PMS, so shoot for at least 1,200 mg a day. Magnesium is also helpful, as are B complex vitamins. To reduce the inflammation of cramps and breast tenderness, try a primrose-oil supplement; it's a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory that may work in ways similar to ibuprofen

Sleep

Why You Should Get Seven Hours of Shut-eye


A full night's sleep is not a luxury — it's a basic necessity for healthy hormone balance. Once you dip below seven hours a night, you are increasing your risk of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, depression, and obesity.

Some researchers believe that slow-wave sleep — the deep, dreamless sleep that you ideally sink into about three or four times a night — may actually regulate your metabolism. Sleep researchers break down sleep into five stages. Stage 4 slow-wave sleep, which begins about an hour after we fall asleep, is when we release our greatest pulses of growth hormone, the hormone that prompts the body to burn stored fat. When we're young, we spend about 20 percent of our time asleep in slow-wave stages 3 and 4. But as we get older, we may only spend about 10 or even 5 percent there.

Sadly, just two nights of bad sleep will cut your satiety hormone leptin by 20 percent and increase your hunger hormone ghrelin by 30 percent. That one-two punch makes you much more likely to snack on high-carb treats, which couldn't come at a worse time for your insulin levels. In a recent study, University of Chicago researchers found that just three nights of poor sleep made the bodies of young, healthy test subjects 25 percent less sensitive to insulin. This level of insulin resistance is comparable to that brought on by carrying 20 to 30 extra pounds.

In order to block fat-storage hormones and allow the full release of fat-burning hormones, you need to get at least seven hours of sleep a night!

No Carbs Before Bed

To slip into stage 3 or 4 sleep, you need to have a high level of ghrelin before bedtime. Carbs depress ghrelin faster than any other nutrient, so eating anything, especially carbs, before bed can delay your entry into deeper sleep for several hours. If you don't get enough restful sleep, you're likely to be hungrier and eat more. So to help you sleep well and deeply, let the hormones do their thing and don't eat after 9 p.m.!