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What is the Difference Between Saturated Fats and Unsaturated Fats

Saturated Fats vs Unsaturated Fats

Many of us have heard the term saturated fats, but we may not understand exactly what saturated fats are, or how they work exactly. While we have been told to avoid saturated fats, most of us don’t know why and moreover, whether unsaturated fats should be avoided as well. Here is some information on the differences between saturated fats and unsaturated fats and how you should use them.

The first thing that you should know is that saturated and unsaturated fats are found in quite a few different foods and that they are completely different. In fact, unsaturated fats can actually be good for you, especially good for your heart. Saturated fats on the other hand can raise your cholesterol and cause heart problems.

Where Are These Fats Found?

Saturated Fats are in animal products and in processed foods. Some commonly examples include potato chips, dairy products, meats and pastries. Saturated fats are known to raise your LDL cholesterol. Unsaturated fats are found in more healthy foods like nuts, olives and avocados. Unsaturated fats are heart healthy and can lower LDL cholesterol and raise HDL cholesterol. See the table below for more information.

good fats vs bad fats

How Much Saturated Fats Are Safe to Eat?

Since we know that too much saturated fat can raise your cholesterol and put you at risk for heart problems, the question then becomes how much saturated fat is safe to eat? The exact amount depends upon the calories that you eat, but most experts agree that less than 10% of your calories should come from saturated fats. For instance, on a 2000 calorie per day diet, 200 of your calories should be coming from products that have saturated fat. If you were to figure it out in grams, you can assume 1 gram of fat for each 10 calories, so on a 2000 calorie per day diet, around 20 grams should be your maximum.

What About Unsaturated Fats?

Medical experts do not recommend more than thirty percent of your diet being fat. That includes the ten percent from saturated fats previously discussed, so you can make up the difference with unsaturated fats, above the saturated fats that you eat, to a maximum of thirty percent. That means, for a 2000 calorie per day diet, you should be getting 600 calories or less from fats, and 200 or less or those should be from saturated fats.

The Bottom Line When It Comes to Unsaturated and Saturated Fats

The fact is, it is impossible to avoid having fat in our diet, but most people eat far too much fat, and when they do it is normally the saturated fats cause spikes in cholesterol and heart problems later in life. Try to stick to the recommended amounts of saturated and unsaturated fats and you will be thankful for it later on, as well as being on your way to creating healthy eating habits that will do much more than keep cholesterol in line.

Benefits of a Personal Trainer for Weight Loss

One of the best tools that a person can have when it comes to losing weight is a personal trainer. A personal trainer is someone who has been educated in the proper techniques and the right methods of working out for the most effective and safest workout available. A personal trainer can do a great deal for someone who is trying to lose weight and get in shape, and while there is usually an additional cost involved, it can be completely worth it to know that you are doing things the right away. In addition, many gyms include a first session with a personal trainer free of charge with a membership.

What is a Personal Trainer?

A personal trainer is usually someone educated in physical fitness from a college or university program. They are taught how the human body works, and more importantly, how to keep it fit and train so that it can reach its maximum potential. In additional, personal trainers at the gym are almost always in terrific physical condition themselves so you can be assured of getting someone with both education and experience. Personal trainers will usually work with you for a period of time, such as thirty minutes or an hour, for a flat hourly fee.

Benefits of a Personal Trainer

There are quite a few benefits to having a person trainer, but the one that usually comes to the forefront of everyone’s mind is that a personal trainer will help to motivate you and keep you going. Working out is difficult, but having someone there to push you, or even to check your results every once in a while can be the extra boost that you need to keep going. Most people don’t use a personal trainer each time they work out, but instead have the trainer work with them once a week, or once every two weeks. That way, your trainer can evaluate your progress and keep you on track.

do exercises correctly Another major benefit to having a personal trainer work with you is that you can be sure that you are doing certain exercises correctly. When you begin to work out, it is likely that you won’t understand the technique involved for lifting free weights like the bench press. You will need someone to show you exactly the way to lift it so that you not only get the maximum benefit from your work, but that you are lifting the weights safely. Lifting the wrong way will not give you the workout that you want and it could result in a serious injury.

Also, a personal trainer can help you to set the fitness goals that you need to be following. Many times, people will start out a weight loss program that includes exercise with extremely high standards set for themselves. While this is a noble pursuit, most of the time it turns out to be a roadblock instead because they realize how much work they have to put in to achieve the goals that they have set for themselves. This is where a personal trainer is most useful, with the ability to point out flaws with the plan, and how much work is truly involved to reach the goals that the client has set for themselves.

Terms You Need to Understand for Weight Loss and Fitness

bmi bmr carb calories? Have you ever noticed how some things have their own vocabulary. Certain jobs have words or phrases that are completely unique to that particular occupation, and when you first begin working in that field you have to learn those new words and phrases to be able to communicate effectively. Weight loss works in very much the same way. There is an entirely new set of vocabulary words that you are going to have to understand in order to be able to achieve weight loss. We have put together a list of the most common terms that you will come across as you try to lose weight.

Aerobic Exercise: This term refers to exercise that is done to work out the larger muscles in the body, and goes for a lon period of time. Aerobic exercise is mostly done for cardiovascular benefit, but the calories that are burned will certainly help you lose weight. Jogging, walking, swimming biking and skiing are all examples of aerobic exercise.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): Similar to the RMR, or resting metabolic rate, this is the number of calories burned each day by your body to stay alive, and is partially based upon how active you are. There are hundreds of BMR and RMR calculators available on the web.

BMI, which stands for Body Mass Index: This is a numerical value that is assigned to every person to determine whether a person is overweight. You can use online BMI calculators, or you can do it manually by converting your weight to kilograms, and your height to meters and then dividing your weight by your height. Then, find your BMI on a chart and determine if you are overweight.

Calories: Calories are the measurement of the energy from food. Nearly everything that you consume has calories, and nearly everything that you do for exercise or activity burns calories.

Carbohydrate or Carb: This is a group of foods that include gums, sugars, starches and cellulose. The body converts carbs into a simple sugar for fuel.

Cholesterol: Cholesterol is actually a type of fat that is present in your blood. You get cholesterol naturally from your body and you get it from any foods that contain animal products.

Food Triggers:These are events or situations, or sometimes emotions that cause you to overeat. You need to make a plan for these food triggers before they happen.

How to Make Your Exercise Routine Exciting

The reason that most people don’t stick with an exercise routine is that they get bored by it very quickly. Doing a run at six in the morning over the same stretch of ground can get very boring very fast. However, there are things that you can do to make your exercise routine just a little bit more interesting and therefore be able to work out for a longer period of time, and more often, or simply stick with the exercise program longer. Here are four things you can do to make exercise as painless and fun as you can.

play video games instead of working out Tip Number One: Don’t workout! Play Video games instead! Now, with the advent of the Nintendo Wii, the Playstation Move and the X-Box Kinect, you can get a workout while you play video games. Whether you prefer playing sports like tennis, golf or riding the rapids down a river, you will find a game to do it on these systems. They also come with much more involved fitness games that can take you through a workout while tracking calories, body fat percentage, weight lost and much more at the same time.

Where to Get Motivation to Lose Weight

Motivation to Lose Weight Losing weight is a challenging process, and it takes months or years of hard work for some people to reach their fitness goals. Those who have been skipping the exercise routines and not watching what they eat for a long time may find that the process is extremely arduous and lengthy, but there are some ways that you can remain motivated on your journey to lose weight. Not all of these may work for you, because everyone is different, but you should be able to find at least one or two of the following tips that will help you stay motivated and continue down to the road to reach your fitness goals.

Some Diet Tips That You Have Never Thought Of

Dieting is hard work, and mainly because you are attempting to change a habit that is fully ingrained in your brain and body. Your body needs the amount of food that you have been feeding, and the high sugar and fat content. At least, that’s what your body thinks. The truth is, that you can untrain your body relatively quickly, but it will take some hard work. Here are six diet tips that you may not have ever considered before, but that will make a huge difference in your weight loss journey.

more mirrors for your house

1. Consider getting some more mirrors for your house. This may seem scary to some, who are uncomfortable looking at their bodies, but that is precisely the point. Putting mirrors in your house will allow you to remind yourself to stick to your diet and exercise plan. Putting mirrors in the kitchen is especially important, since that’s where all the food located. You may just get some extra motivation by seeing yourself in the mirror everyday and being reminded of your goals.

Five Tips to Create a Low Fat Diet

When you are trying to stick to a low fat diet, there are some severe challenged that are faced, because if you have been feeding your body a great deal of fat in the past (or sugar, carbohydrates or other types of food) then it will have become used to getting that amount and will balk at the reduced fat intake. However, there are some tips that can help you make sure that you stick to a low fat diet and maintain a healthy lifestyle, and while these are all common sense tips, and may include a few that you are already aware of, they are super important and should not be overlooked.

Never Skip Breakfast

Tip Number One: Never Skip Breakfast

Some people just don’t eat breakfast. They wake up in the morning and have a couple of cups of coffee and fail to eat anything at all. However, this can be very detrimental to your diet because of a couple of reasons. First, your body is not getting nourishment in the morning, and doesn’t know for sure when it will get fed, so it is reluctant to burn any fat cells before there is a steady stream of food coming in. Another reason why breakfast is so important for many people is that they end up being much hungrier later in the day and eat a much larger meal for brunch or lunch, then they would if they had simply eaten a healthy breakfast. Skipping breakfast can also lead to health conditions like acidity, gastritis and even obesity. Eat fruits, vegetables and dairy with calcium each day for breakfast.

Fat Burning Foods That Make Weight Loss Easier

When trying to lose weight, you need every advantage you can get, and adding some of these fat burning foods to your diet will certainly give you one. Fat burning foods are those that increase your body’s ability to burn fat for the same amount of calories as other foods. While any weight loss plan should still include measuring the number of calories eaten against the number of calories burned, using foods that burn fat can give you a bonus burn. Here are some of the best foods to burn off your fat, that you should seriously consider adding to your diet.

Swap Your Cereal for Oatmeal

Swap Cereal for Oatemal

One of the easiest to make and the least expensive fat burning foods is oatmeal. Oatmeal is great for a few reasons. First, the consistency of oatmeal helps it to stay in your stomach longer. Oatmeal takes a while to leave your stomach so you feel fuller for a longer period of time. Oatmeal contains a lot of fiber and therefore can stay in your stomach for hours after you eat it, which can make holding off the need for a snack easier. However, keep in mind to skip the flavored oatmeal, as well as the butter and sugar. Use berries to sweeten plain oatmeal instead.

How to Get a Flat Stomach

If you are one of the millions of people in the world that are trying to figure out how to get a flat stomach, there is some good news and some bad news. The good news is, that getting a flat stomach doesn’t require any special diet, exercise video or device, and it certainly doesn’t require any of the drugs or supplements that exist for the purpose. However, the good news is also the bad news, because getting a flat stomach, especially one with well-defined abdominals, will not happen overnight, and it will not happen as a result of some drug, supplement or exercise program.

That being said, there are some specific techniques that do help to build abdominal muscles and allow you to get a flat stomach. The first thing that you need to understand is that the myth that you can do crunches and build up your abdominal muscles is just that – a myth. The fact is, that unless some other factors fall into place, there are no amount of crunches in the world that will allow you to get flat abs. If you have belly fat, you must lose it before you can have flat abs, and having the genetic makeup for a six pack doesn’t hurt either.

How to Get a Flat Stomach: Three Things You Can Do

1. Cardio Workout
So begins the cliches. Yes, the first thing on our list of three things to do to burn fat and get a flat stomach is to do a cardio workout every day, for at least twenty minutes. You can adjust the time depending upon how many calories you are consuming per day and how much you are trying to lose, but a good cardio routine should be part of the equation.

2. Strength Training

Get a Flat Stomach
Strength training regiment that includes abdominal exercises. That does not mean that you should skip the rest of your body, but it does mean that you can focus a little more on any problem areas. The reason why it is so important to work out at strength training, is that it helps burn the belly fat even if you didn’t work out that particular muscle group.

Flat Stomach Exercises

3. Diet
Flat Stomach Diet
Finally, a diet that is low in calories and that is nutritious and you will have even an easier time burning that belly fat. Again, these are the same old tenets of weight loss that you have probably been hearing your entire life, but the fact is, a careful combination of these three things will not only result in weight loss and fat burning, but will develop and show that flat stomach you have been dreaming about.

Why Glucomannan Fiber is an Effective Weight Loss Tool

With all the supplements that exist for weight loss these days it can be almost impossible to try to determine which ones are effective and which are just plain scams. One supplement that does not fit into any of the other categories and is most certainly effective is Glucomannan. Glucomannan is a fiber that you take before a meal, allowing you to feel full before you even start eating and therefore cause you to eat less food. Glucomannan isn’t a fat burner, or a fat blocker, and simply does not fit into the other categories of supplements.

How Glucomannan Works

Glucomannan Fiber Most of the time, Glucomannan will come in capsule form. The capsules of full of the Konjac fiber in a very condensed form. You simply take between one and four capsules, depending upon how much you are used to eating and drink a whole lot of water with it. Make sure that you drink at least 8 ounces of water per capsule because the fiber could expand in your throat and cause you to choke otherwise. You want it to expand in your stomach and not your throat, but it is easy to prevent as long as you take the capsules with water.

One you take them, wait about 30 to 45 minutes before you eat. You will notice yourself starting to feel less hungry after just 20 minutes, and you will not feel that hungry at all by the time that the fiber expands all the way in your stomach. Then, you can simply eat a meal and move on. Make sure to prepare less food than you normally do, because you will eat a lot less.

How Much Weight Can You Lose?

This is a very difficult question to answer because each person is different. Just remember that for every 500 calories you cut out of your diet over a week’s period, you will lose one pound. So, if you take Glucomannan with every meal, and you cut each meal by half, you could cut out around 1000 calories per day, assuming that your total consumption is about 2000 calories per day. This will result in a loss of two pounds per week.