Weight loss

When you lose weight, where does it go?

In the midst of a global obsession with dieting lies an oft-pondered question that not even many healthcare professionals can answer correctly: Where do the lost pounds go? A new study from the University of New South Wales says the mass is exhaled as carbon dioxide.

"There is surprising ignorance and confusion about the metabolic process of weight loss," says Professor Andrew Brown, head of the UNSW School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences.

Losing 10 kilograms of fat necessitates inhaling 29 kilograms of oxygen, according to Dr. Brown and his research team, who say this process produces 28 kilograms of carbon dioxide and 11 kilograms of water.

The authors traced the atoms in 10 kilograms of fat during the weight loss process and said 8.4 of them were exhaled through the lungs as carbon dioxide, becoming part of the atmosphere.

The rest of the weight -- 1.6 kilograms to be exact -- becomes water that leaves the body in the form of fluids such as urine, feces, sweat, breath and tears.

The authors interviewed 150 health professionals including doctors, dieticians and personal trainers, 50 percent of whom had mistakenly thought the fat was converted into energy or heat.

"This violates the Law of Conservation of Mass," says co-author Ruben Meerman, a physicist and Australian TV science presenter. "We suspect this misconception is caused by the energy in-energy out mantra surrounding weight loss."

Other troubling misconceptions revealed themselves, for some respondents thought that the fat's metabolites were excreted in feces or converted to muscle.

A frequently asked question was whether breathing more can cause weight loss, the answer to which is no, say the authors.

Breathing more than the body's metabolic rate requires leads to hyperventilation, which can cause dizziness, palpitations and loss of consciousness, according to the authors.

Still others were curious to know whether weight loss could contribute to global warming.

"This reveals troubling misconceptions about global warming which is caused by unlocking the ancient carbon atoms trapped underground in fossilised organisms," says Mr Meerman, who also presents the science of climate change in high schools around Australia. "The carbon atoms human beings exhale are returning to the atmosphere after just a few months or years trapped in food that was made by a plant."

The authors, whose study was published in the British Medical Journal, recommend including its basic concepts in secondary school curricula

Drop sets

The Right Sets for Strength and Size

Drop Sets

What they are: Three or four sets of one exercise performed without rest, using a lighter weight for each successive set. They are also called descending sets or strip sets.

Why they're useful: Drop sets are a great quick workout, fatiguing your muscles in a short time, getting your heart going, and giving you an impressive post workout pump as your muscles fill with blood.

How to use them: Use drop sets when you're pressed for time. Don't do them more than three times a week; you'll get so tired you won't be able to accomplish much else. Start with a warm-up, using 50 percent of the weight you expect to use in your first set. Now use the heaviest weight you'd use for eight repetitions of that exercise to perform as many repetitions as you can. Drop 10 to 20 percent of the weight and go again. Continue to reduce the weight and go again, always trying to complete the same number of repetitions (even though you won't), until your muscles fail.

When performing drop sets on the incline leg press you may want to have some help so as to expedite your workout.

10 motivational workout tricks

10 Tricks That'll Motivate You to Work Out

It's true what they say: 80 percent of success is just showing up. Once you're there — you're there. This advice can be hard to take when, after a late night of fun, your alarm goes off before the sun is up. Propelling yourself to the gym, pool, mat, or trail can feel like a hurdle in its own right, but it's always one worth jumping. If you've resolved to work out more this year and get fit for 2013, motivate yourself to keep on sweating with these tricks.

• Channel that glorious post-workout feeling. Whenever you feel the instinct to skip a sweat session, imagine how accomplished and energized you feel after just 30 minutes or an hour of exercise. Just get there already.
• Make a date with a friend or fitness trainer. If you set a time to meet someone, you'll feel obligated to go, even when your mind and body are telling you otherwise. If you're looking to get your sweat on outside of the gym, here are some favorite ideas, cycling, rock climbing to ice skating.
• Create a healthy post-workout routine and make time for it, too. Reward yourself after a workout by scheduling extra moments to relax in the steam room, or get a hot coffee or a protein-rich smoothie.
• This is the simplest, and possibly hardest, piece of advice to follow: schedule your workout early in the morning before the day's distractions detour you from lofty intentions.
• Carry a motivational token or photo with you to the gym. Instead of commissioning a masterpiece, snap a shot of the dress you want to wear on your next date, a beautiful beach you hope to visit this year, or even yourself at your best, and make it the wallpaper on your phone. When you feel like caving, look at it.
• Instead of going home to watch your favorite show on the couch, suit up and watch it on the treadmill. If your gym doesn't have TVs on each machine, load up your iPod or iPhone.
• Try something new. Sign up for an exercise class you've never taken before, take a hike to a vista point, ride your bike to a new trail, or work out at a different time of day.
• Throw on your favorite workout wear and some lip gloss.  For the guys, those new runners or download the lastest workout song to your ipod
• Avoid taking a physical dip by fueling your body with a healthy pre-workout snack. You'll have something to burn and a boost of protein to keep your eye on the prize.
• Give yourself a gold star. Plot out a reward system and treat yourself when you hit your goal of workouts per week, weight loss, or the finish line. Wouldn't a massage or a pedicure feel great after all your hard work?

Fall exercise

How to start your fall exercise routine?

Strength, Cardio, Hiit, Spin, Yoga?... the list goes on...

Try a ‘Day Challenge’

All available on the Web

Awesome Ab Challenge

Amazing Arm Challenge

Coming in October we have our very own Preva Workout challenge

Food Substitutes

Unintended Consequences of Food Substitutions

Life is always a series of tradeoffs, but you may have unintended nutritional consequences when you substitute one food for another. In the quest to cut calories, sugar, cholesterol or fat, you can sacrifice important nutrients. Here’s a look at the cost of common food swaps:

Egg Whites for Whole Eggs

An egg white omelet is a high-protein, low-fat breakfast much loved by fitness enthusiasts and dieters. While egg whites are healthy, egg yolks are the real goldmine of nutrients. Half of the protein in an egg is in the yolk, along with all of the vitamins A, D, E, B6 and B12, plus the minerals choline, iron and zinc. The yolk does contain all the cholesterol, but eggs are very low in saturated fat —the fat that has the most impact on blood cholesterol. A large egg has 215 milligrams of cholesterol and one whole egg a day is within the dietary guidelines for healthy adults. So, next time you want an egg for breakfast, don’t toss the yolk.

Almond Milk for Dairy or Soy Milk

Plant-based milks are all the rage, but did you know that almond milk has only 1 gram of protein per cup, compared with 8 grams for cow or soy milk? Getting sufficient protein at breakfast is a challenge for many of us, so if you are a cereal-and-milk lover, remember that almond milk on your Wheaties won’t deliver a protein punch. Almond milk is also short on potassium at 120 milligrams, compared with 382 milligrams in cow’s milk and 287 milligrams in soy milk. Potassium is a shortfall nutrient in the diets of many Americans, so a good breakfast strategy is a whole-grain, high-fiber cereal with dairy or soy milk. You can toss in a few whole almonds to boost the nutrients without shortchanging your protein or potassium intake.

Popcorn for Nuts

Popcorn is a whole grain and that’s the good news, but nuts deliver so much more. All nuts are healthful, providing protein, vitamins, minerals, fiber and phytonutrients that popcorn can’t deliver. Studies have also found that a small portion of nuts is high on the satiety scale, meaning they help you feel full longer. Movie theater popcorn is especially high in calories and added fat. The Center for Science in the Public Interest found that a medium popcorn ranged in calories from 600 to 1,200 (9 cups to 20 cups) across three movie theatre chains. To be sure, nuts are high in calories and eating a whole bag of smoked, salted almonds or dark chocolate-coated pecans can sabotage a healthy diet, but a small handful is a good snack to curb hunger and to add variety to a salad, a grain or vegetable dish.

Post-Workout Whey Protein Shake for Real Protein-Rich Food

Whey is one of two milk proteins (the other is casein) and is an excellent source of branched-chain amino acids such as leucine, which appears to be an anabolic trigger to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. However, whey protein shakes are the not the only way to get the anabolic effects. Real food delivers high-quality protein and leucine, often at a fraction of the cost. Milk has been studied as a recovery beverage and found to be a good delivery vehicle for amino acids, with the added bonus of providing naturally occurring sugar (lactose) and a host of vitamins and minerals. Another good real food option is cottage cheese; a cup of low-fat cottage cheese has 28 grams of protein (most of it whey). Pair it with fresh fruit (pineapple, peaches or melon) and you’ve got a perfect recovery snack with more nutrients than your shake (and I’ll wager it tastes better, too).