Category Archives: Lose Weight Fast

Fat loss coach Ben Carpenter. Martin Irvine

Relying on cardio to burn calories is the biggest mistake people make when trying to lose fat, trainer Ben Carpenter told Insider.

It can ramp up your appetite, which can lead to more eating, he said.

Cardio is important for health, but eating in a calorie deficit is most important for fat loss.

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Cardio is the most overrated form of exercise for fat loss, personal trainer Ben Carpenter told Insider.

Although cardio can help keep your heart healthy, relying on cardio when trying to lose weight is where many people go wrong, he said.

Aerobic exercise, like cardio, has a range of benefits, including boosting your immune system and improving cholesterol levels.

But doing too much of it to lose fat can backfire, Carpenter said, because it doesn't burn as many calories as people think, and it can ramp up your appetite.

"Lots of people start doing cardio because they want to lose body fat, but unless you're doing a really high workload, cardio doesn't burn a huge amount of calories," he said. "And for at least a subset of people, it increases the appetite disproportionately to how many calories they've burned."

For example, you may think you've burned 200 calories by running on the treadmill for 30 minutes. The activity can increase your appetite, which can lead to eating extra calories later in the day. If you continually eat more calories than you burn off, you won't be able to maintain a calorie deficit, which is crucial for weight loss.

"Over-relying on cardio without dietary intervention" is a common mistake, Carpenter said.

Research shows that activity trackers overestimate calorie burn, and if you are tracking calories and eating back what you think you've burned (which most experts advise against), you may be moving further away from your goals.

If you want to lose fat and maintain muscle, strength training while eating in a calorie deficit is key. But that doesn't mean cardio will hinder your progress, as long as time spent doing cardio is not taking away from your resistance workouts.

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There's no one-size-fits-all workout regime that's best for fat loss, but a 2020 meta-analysis suggests that resistance training increases metabolism more than cardio, which can make weight loss maintenance easier because the body burns more calories at rest.

However, doing some exercise of any kind is better than none at all, so if a form of cardio is what you enjoy and will stick to, you should do that.

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Don't focus on cardio for fat loss. You're probably not burning as many calories as you think, according to a personal trainer. - Yahoo! Voices

If one is looking to lose weight, they must be consistent about their fitness routine. Since every body type is different, people may look to different things to reach their desired weight goal.

Mayur Gharat, a lifestyle and fitness influencer says that when it comes to picking economical, efficient, and do-anywhere exercises, running and jumping ropes stand out as top contenders. Both the exercises help to build endurance, strengthen heart muscles, maintain a healthy weight and bone density, increase longevity, and improve overall fitness, he says.

But which one is ideal? There are pros and cons of each, says Gharat.

Benefits of jumping rope

Faster weight loss

If your goal is more caloric expenditure, then jumping rope is a better option than running. One minute of it can burn 10-16 calories, which means skipping rope for 30 minutes, segmenting into three 10-minute rounds can burn around 480 calories. Ten minutes of jumping rope is equivalent to running for an eight-minute mile, which can result in faster fat loss, especially around your abdomen and trunk muscles, he explains, adding that people who have high blood pressure or heart problems should avoid it.

Strengthens lower body muscles

Jumping rope can make your lower body muscles stronger. Light and repetitive movements put less strain on your knees, improve ankle stability and develop the shape of your calves. Thus, jumping rope is a great exercise for people who have an injury that does not allow them to run.

Improves coordination and agility

Jumping ropes require quick footwork and full-body coordination with the wrists rotating in order to create continuous jumping motions. It is considered to be a great exercise for athletic conditioning, enhancing balance and coordination and building stamina.

Benefits of running

Improves cardiovascular endurance

Running is an excellent exercise to condition your cardiovascular system, strengthening the walls of the heart and increasing its overall efficiency. It also supports healthy blood flow and reduces bad cholesterol levels in the body. People who run every day tend to have stronger hearts and low pulse rates, which reduce their risk of developing hypertension or other cardiovascular issues by 35-55 per cent.

Reduces mental burden

Running at moderate or vigorous levels helps your body release chemicals in your brain like endorphins and serotonin, which reduce stress levels and anxiety. Besides, running out in the open lessens feelings of depression, loneliness, and isolation, which also improves the quality of sleep.

Clears out lungs

Running helps to cleanse your lungs by removing excess carbon dioxide, decongesting mucus and even phlegm. Besides, running builds the endurance capacity of your respiratory muscles, allowing more fuller and efficient breaths, which helps prevent the risk of lung-related disorders.

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Running vs jumping rope: Which is a better way to lose weight? - The Indian Express

The latest weight-loss trend to conquer social media is coffee mixed with lemon. Videos of people trying the concoction on platforms like TikTok have become common and searches for the terms "coffee, lemon, and weight loss" have increased substantially over the last year.

Uploads like the one posted by Hilda Ama Braso, which showed the TikTokker drink a coffee and lemon brew on her third day of the diet, have received thousands of likes.

"Millions of people are being benefited by the coffee lemon mixture to lose fat and weight which are itself two unique ingredients best known for its calories burning and fat cutting abilities," claims website Health Buffet, which features different ways to mix the two common kitchen staples.

Is there any truth in the claim that coffee mixed with lemon is a "weight-loss hack" or that it is the "STRONGEST BELLY FAT BURNER," as one YouTube video which has been viewed over 600,000 times boldly states?

"This is nonsense," Marcela Fiuza, dietician and member of the British Dietetic Association (BDA), told Newsweek. "There is no physiological explanation that would justify mixing coffee and lemon to lose weight."

Fiuza, who operates the website Marcela Nutrition, adds that as there is no evidence of coffee and lemon assisting in weight loss, she wouldn't advise anyone going down this route.

The dietician adds: "Not only it is unlikely to have any beneficial effect on weight, but too much caffeine might also cause nervousness, insomnia, nausea, increased blood pressure, and other problems."

Aisling Piggott is a nutritionist and registered dietitian with the BDA. She told Newsweek that there was no scientific evidence of coffee and lemon assisting weight loss in humans.

"Much of the research into either lemon or coffee and weight loss is done in mice. Mice are not human and have very different metabolic pathways to us," she says. "There is not a scientific basis to link weight loss to coffee and lemon in humans."

Like Fiuza, Piggott also points to the possible negative effect of too much caffeine in a diet, adding that alongside the possible benefit of boosting alertness comes side effects like withdrawal.

She continues that while lemons can be considered healthy due to the fact they are high in vitamin C, which is an antioxidant, it would be wrong to consider the fruit a "wonder food" or a pill for weight loss. Any benefits conferred by lemons depend on the diet in which they sit.

Fiuza offers her opinion on why trends like the coffee and lemon "hack" spread so easily on social media platforms like TikTok.

"People compare themselves to others and social media creates an environment in which people compare their lives, eating habits, etc to the perceived ones of the person posting, often in sponsored posts which have been heavily edited," she says.

The dietitian added that the best solution for weight loss suggested by science is still a combination of a healthy diet and exercise." The best diet needs to be one that works for you in the long term," Fiuza continues. "Overly restrictive diets are not the solution and often lead to yo-yo dieting which is harmful to overall health. "

Piggott believes that there is no easy answer when it comes to weight loss, seeing it as a complex problem that hinges on dietary balance and individual needs.

Both BDA dieticians warn against the tendency to seek "magical solutions" to weight loss. Fiuza says: "Posts promoting quick fixes and magical solutions can be extremely damaging and trigger problematic behaviors."

While Piggott highlights why such solutions may seem appealing: "When a professional like me is saying it's a complex area, with lots of effort and energy required to solve and an Instagrammer comes up with this magic solution of lemon water... which one is more appealing?

"We love a magic solution to a complex problem!"

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Does Drinking Coffee and Lemon Juice Help With Weight Loss? The TikTok Trend Explained - Newsweek

Bernardo Barbosa, 31, shares with Men's Health how he transformed his body and his mind after making some lifestyle changes post-Covid.

Following the end of a relationship in the middle of the pandemic, I realized I wasn't happy. I was no longer the confident, outgoing guy that people were used to. I'd reached a real low point, which then affected my friendships and relationships, and I knew I wanted to make a positive change.

I signed up for a 12-week transformation program at Ultimate Performance Manchester, and started working out with my trainer, Christian. With someone on your side, it is so much easier to stay motivated: they are there to push you when you think you cannot do it. We only trained three times per week, in hour-long, full-body sessions. For the first four weeks, I did these workouts remotely, and then after I started to lose weight and see promising results, I joined Christian in the gym.

I overhauled my entire diet and nutrition. I weighed all the food I ate and started paying attention to the times when I was consuming caffeine, how much water I was drinking, and especially to my macros per meal. I cannot say I had a bad diet before, but I didnt necessarily know what I was eating, and what my body needed in order to develop. I was doing the standard diet that everyone does when they are looking to develop their bodybut I learned that each body needs a different approach.

Over the course of 12 weeks, I went from 158 pounds to 132 pounds, a total loss of 26 pounds. I also cut my body fat by 4.6 percent.

In the beginning, it wasn't easy. I lost a lot of weight, and my friends and family were not used to see me like that. It was a complicated process when you do that for the first time and when you are not used to managing your macros, going up or down when needed. But after my photoshoot, everyone was shocked by the difference.

It was definitely more a non-physical change than a bodily change. With this experience, a workout is important, but it a small fraction of our whole transformation.I gained a lot more confidence, and I got more active during the day with more energy. But most importantly, I feel happier with myself. My next goal is to enter a bodybuilding competition, Mens Physique, in 2022. I will apply everything I have learned during my time at Ultimate Performance to keep improving myself.

If you are at the start of your own fitness journey, I would highly recommending getting the help of someone trained, who can help you to understand exactly what your body needs Dont think it will be an easy process, and stay focused on what you want to achieve.

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How This Man Lost 25 Pounds and Got Shredded in Just 12 Weeks - menshealth.com

Since the pandemic started, people of all ages have gained weight. At the same time, the rate at which youth and young adults are seeking treatment for eating disorders, particularly anorexia nervosa and binge eating disorder, has increased.

While the reasons for these changes are complex, pandemic-related stress and weight bias the belief that a thin body is good and healthy, while a large body is bad and unhealthy are prominent contributors.

As researchers who study health behaviors and are also parents of young children, we often see health research and health initiatives that place a disproportionate emphasis on weight.

Thats a problem for two big reasons.

First, it draws attention away from better predictors of chronic disease and strategies to address these factors. Although a high body mass index, or BMI, is one risk factor for various chronic diseases, it is only one of many, and far from the strongest. And while moderate weight loss does reduce chronic disease risk for some people, about 80% of individuals who manage to lose weight regain it. The other 20% describe their ongoing efforts to maintain their weight loss as stressful and exhausting.

Second, disproportionate emphasis on weight reinforces weight bias. Weight bias, in turn, contributes to weight-related discrimination, like bullying and teasing, which is common among youth. Across diverse samples surveyed, 25% to 50% of children and adolescents report being teased or bullied about their body size, and these experiences are linked to disordered eating and depression, as well as poorer academic performance and health.

To best support the physical and emotional health of children during this pandemic, we suggest reducing the emphasis on body size. Below are some specific tips for parents, teachers and medical providers.

When asked, children and adults with larger bodies consistently indicate that these are the least preferred and most stigmatizing terms to talk about body size, while weight and body mass are the most preferred.

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So, consider modeling less stigmatizing language. For example, if your teen refers to her friend as overweight, respond by saying, Yes, your friend does have a larger body. Likewise, if your doctor refers to your child as obese, ask them to share their body mass index percentile instead. Or, better yet, ask them not to talk about weight at all which leads us to our next recommendation.

Physical activity, eating habits and emotional support from friends and family are stronger predictors of disease and death than BMI, and all of these have been greatly affected by COVID-19.

Considering that behavioral weight loss programs are ineffective for the majority of people, we recommend focusing on behaviors that are more easily changed and have stronger influences on health and well-being. Regular physical activity, for example, improves mood and lowers risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes, even in the absence of weight loss.

Building and sustaining new health behaviors can be challenging. Parents are more likely to be successful if they start by setting realistic goals that include the whole family rather than singling out one child based on their body size.

Like adults, kids enjoy activities more when they have a say in the activity. So let them choose whenever possible. There are additional physical and mental health benefits if these activities are done outdoors.

Weight bias stems in large part from the belief that individuals are responsible for their body size, and if they are unable to lose weight or keep it off, they are deserving of blame and ridicule. These beliefs may contribute to an increased risk of disordered eating in children through parental behaviors like overly restrictive feeding practices and negative comments about weight.

Parents are also greatly affected by this bias, reporting guilt and sadness for their perceived contributions to their childs weight.

We suggest that parents challenge weight bias by acknowledging that quite literally hundreds of factors outside of a persons immediate control contribute to body size, including genetics, racism and trauma, and environmental factors, like levels of crime and proximity to green space and recreational facilities.

Weight is the No. 1 reason youth are teased, according to a large sample of teenagers in the United States. However, weight bias is lower in schools where body weight is part of anti-bullying policies. Consider talking with your childs principal, attending the next PTA meeting and advocating for the inclusion of weight discrimination into existing bullying policies.

If your child is being teased, get curious. Ask them how they feel about it. Acknowledge that weight discrimination is a very real phenomenon. Do not take this time to encourage weight loss. Instead, help your child appreciate their body as it is. Then, talk with their teacher. Schools who have teachers who are willing to intervene have less bullying.

And if your child is struggling, consider working with a mental health professional, in-person or remotely. During the pandemic, there has been a twelvefold increase in psychologists in the United States providing care remotely, and although there are some reported challenges like finding a private, quiet space youth in treatment for eating disorders describe an appreciation for the accessibility, convenience and comfort of this approach.

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Youth who spend more time on social networking sites feel more dissatisfied with their bodies and engage in more disordered eating. Furthermore, more than half of adolescents surveyed reported increased experiences with weight discrimination on these sites during the pandemic.

Of course, social media isnt all bad. Research suggests that it may depend on how youth engage with these sites, with photo-based activities being most closely linked to disordered eating symptoms.

Parents can help their children learn to notice when posting and viewing photos or following appearance-focused influencers leaves them feeling bad or comparing their body to others, and encourage them to take a break. They can also suggest that they consider unfollowing those accounts and instead seek out people who inspire them, make them laugh and help them feel empowered.

The last year and a half has been hard. As people consider how to resume some of their pre-COVID activities, it is our hope that food and movement can help families and communities to reconnect and feel good. Our bodies have carried us through an extremely trying time and are deserving of respect and kindness.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Nichole Kelly, University of Oregon; Elizabeth Budd, University of Oregon, and Nicole Giuliani, University of Oregon.

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Nichole Kelly receives funding from the University of Oregon and the National Institutes of Health for research focused on children's health behaviors and mental health. She has no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Elizabeth Budd receives funding from the National Institutes of Health for research related to promoting COVID-19 testing and other preventive behaviors among Latinx communities and from the University of Oregon for research focused on children's and adolescents' health behaviors and health outcomes. She has no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Nicole Giuliani receives funding from the University of Oregon, the National Institutes of Health, and the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon for research focused on parental influences on child self-regulation and related health behaviors. She has no conflicts of interest to disclose.

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If you want to support the health and wellness of kids, stop focusing on their weight - Yahoo News

ComplexCon returns to Long Beach Nov. 6 - 7 with hosts J. Balvin and Kristen Noel Crawley, performances by A$AP Rocky and Turnstile, and more shopping and drops.

Secure your spot while tickets last!

With Adeles long-awaited comeback finally on the horizon, the singer-songwriter opened up about her divorce and much more in a cover story forBritish Vogue. Writer Giles Hattersley notes the artisthasnt spoken to a journalist since 2016, the year after her monumental25album arrived.

Adele filed for divorce from Simon Konecki in 2019,finalizingthe process in March of this year. The 33-year-olds new album30is expected to broach the topic, and she got candid about how the split impacted her relationship with her andKoneckis young sonAngelo James.

My son has had a lot of questions. Really good questions, really innocent questions, that I just dont have an answer for. Why cant you still live together? she said. I just felt like I wanted to explain to him, through this record, when hes in his twenties or thirties, who I am and why I voluntarily chose to dismantle his entire life in the pursuit of my own happiness. It made him really unhappy sometimes. And thats a real wound for me that I dont know if Ill ever be able to heal.

She also elaborated on why she chose to end her marriage, saying it was more of a drifting apart situation than anything headline-grabbing. It just wasnt right for me any more, she said. Nothing bad happened or anything like that.

Adele has made it clear she doesnt tolerate bullshit before, and was quick to fight back against the common misogynistic narrative that a divorced woman isspinning out of control.

Like, Oh she must be crackers. She mustve decided she wants to be a ho. Because what is a woman without a husband? Adele said. Its bullshit.

As for her new relationship, she confirmed that shes been dating Rich Paul since earlier this year. Yes, were together, she said. Were very happy. Hes great. Hes so fuckng funny. Hes so smart, you know.

The Hello singerfamously keeps her private life out of the public eye, and when she posted a photo in May 2020 she surprised her fans with her weight loss. I think one of the reasons people lost the plot was because actually, it was over a two-year period, she said. After keeping to herself for at least two yearsshe had lost 100 lbs,explainingthat exercise was a means to help deal with anxiety.

Working out, I would just feel better, she said. It was never about losing weight, it was always about becoming strong and giving myself as much time every day without my phone. I got quite addicted to it. I work outtwo or three times a day. As for her routine, she added that she does weights in the morning, boxing or hiking in the afternoon, and cardio at night. I was basically unemployed when I was doing it, and I do it with trainers, she said. Its not doable for a lot of people.

Circling back to the reaction around her body image, she insisted, I did it for myself and not anyone else. She thinks people were shocked because at no point did she share her journey, which might appear common in the social media age of documenting everything.

People have been talking about my body for 12 years. They used to talk about it before I lost weight. But yeah, whatever, I dont care, Adele said. You dont need to be overweight to be body positive, you can be any shape or size.

With her album on the way, the story also briefly teases a few elements to expect. There areno big-name guest features when it comes to vocals, which is perhaps wise considering few singers could match Adele, but there are a number of interesting names behind the scenes. Pop producer Max Martin, London producer Inflo, andBlack Panthercomposer/Donald Glover go-to Ludwig Gransson all worked on the album.

In what could be considered a massive flex, Adele also appeared on the cover of the American edition ofVoguefor a separate profile. In Abby Aguirres piece, the artist said she doesnt think she deserved to win Album of the Year for25at the 2017 Grammys, and that BeyoncsLemonadeshould have taken home the award instead.

My personal opinion is that Beyonc definitely should have won, Adele said. I just got this feeling: I fucking won it. I got overwhelmed, with, like, I will have to go and tell her how much her record means to me. After winning the award, she went to Beyoncs dressing room and wasinitially unable to expressjust how muchLemonademeant to her.She burst into tears before paying Queen Bey a second visit.

I just said to her, like, the way that the Grammys works, and the people who control it at the very, very topthey dont know what a visual album is, she elaborated. They dont want to support the way that shes moving things forward with her releases and the things that shes talking about. For my friends who are women of color, it was such a huge acknowledgment for them, of the sort of undermined grief that they go through. For her to nail that on the head, and also bring in the entire globe? I was like, This album is my album, she just knows what Im going through. That album was not written for me. But yet I could still feel like, this is the biggest gift.

Read the fullBritish Voguefeaturehere, and theVoguecover story here.

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Adele Opens Up About Divorce, Weight Loss, and Why Beyonc Definitely Should Have Won Album of the Year Grammy - Complex

Ill admit it; when I first heard that Adele had lost weight, I was crestfallen. Ditto Lizzo, who took to Instagram last winter to defend her juice cleanse; ditto Jessica Simpson and Rebel Wilson and almost every other larger-than-straight-size celebrity Id ever looked up to. As a currently fat woman living with an eating disorder whos been every size under the sun, I understand better than most how much weight can fluctuate (even if youre not actively trying to fit into a size 4). But there was still part of me that felt left behind as I saw woman after woman Id admired slim down in the public eye.

I maintain that my initial skepticism was well earned, given the lack of fat representation in Hollywood and media overall, as well as the still-punishing societal body norms that tell the 42.4% of Americans who have obesity that we can only hope to be seen as full, actualized human beings if we lose weight. But once I got over that knee-jerk disappointment and began to think about what I was really asking of these celebrities, I saw that my initial reaction had been more than slightly unfair. After all, one of the goals of the body-positivity movement is (or should be) creating a world in which all of us feel empowered to live safely and joyfully in our bodies, regardless of their size; what was I saying to Adele, or to Lizzo, if I made my appreciation of them contingent on their bodies looking a certain way?

Of course, weight loss and weight gain arent a one-to-one exchange; sadly, thinness will likely always be societally lionized in a way that fatness is not. But was my chagrin at seeing these women lose weight really so different from the stigma I facedcourtesy of everyone from doctors to not-so-great partners to family memberswhen I gained weight? Ultimately, wouldnt I and all other fat people be better served by working to create a culture that actually appreciated and respected bodies of all sizes, rather than electing a select few fat representatives and insisting that their appearances be fixed and immutable?

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When I reach out to Stephanie Yeboah, a London-based fat-acceptance advocate and author of Fattily Ever After: A Black Fat Girls Guide to Living Life Unapologetically, she has plenty to say on the topic. There is still this general impression that if you are somebody within the fat-acceptance community and people start noticing that youre losing weight, then you must be doing it for insidious reasons or to fit in with societal standards of beauty, says Yeboah, noting that she has lost about 40 pounds herself since the COVID-19 pandemic began, due solely to an exercise routine shes undertaken to rebuild strength in a once-broken ankle. I definitely think that you can be part of the fat-acceptance community and also lose weight. I just think it gets a bit shifty if the reasons for losing weight are purely to do with your appearance, desirability, accessibility, or wanting to fit in with other people.

If youre a person in the public eyelike, say, Adeleand your weight loss coincides with an increase in exercise devised to make you feel stronger and help you take on mental health challenges, is it fair for the world to scrutinize you and snidely say youre just doing it to be skinny? For that matter, was it fair for the world to zero in on Adeles physical appearance when she weighed more than she currently does? The best solution is arguably learning to abstain from a celebrity culture that encourages us to place more value on a famous womans appearance than on her body of work.

The media industry stands to profit when we click on exclamation-point-riddled gossip articles about so-and-sos dramatic weight loss!!!, and the diet industry thrives when we chase the ideal of thin bodies that may not actually bear any relationship to health and comfort. But what about us? What do we stand to gain from evaluating and placing expectations upon other womens bodies, and what could we be doing with all that mental energy instead?

Virginia Sole-Smith, a journalist specializing in body-image issues and the author of The Eating Instinct, wishes our conversations about women in the public eye could evolve past issues of weight, full stop. Last time I checked, there is not a body type that one needs to have in order to be a talented musician. Musical ability is not tied to BMI in any of the research Ive read, says Sole-Smith, adding, I think it would be so great if we lived in a culture that talked about peoples art and didnt talk about their bodies. And then if their bodies changed, we wouldnt have to examine that quite so much.

Sole-Smith acknowledges that the issue of celebrity weight loss is a fraught one, explaining, Teenage girls look up to Lizzo and Adele, so there is some responsibility there. But I also think it is a mistake to expect that just because one individual broke a boundary and became famous in spite of their weight they then have to be the poster child for fat artists everywhere. It just really speaks to how far we have to go in terms of increasing representation.

A call for increased representation can often feel like a hedge, a way of acknowledging the severity of an issue while passing the buck to the nebulously defined scourge of society. But when it comes to fat acceptance and body positivity, its frankly hard to imagine anything else working. One musician or two or evengasp!three will not meaningfully move the needle in terms of convincing fat people everywhere that they are worthy just as they are; what it will do, however, is reinforce the pernicious notion that these individuals need to look a certain way to earn admiration and respect.

While fat individuals in the public eye can act as much-needed role models, asking them to take up the mantle of self-love all on their own, with no substantive or structural changes to a society that still profits off of rampant fat phobia, simply isnt enough. Hopefully, someday, well have enough fat musicians, dancers, actors, comedians, and artists of all kindsand a culture that actually supports them with fat-positive policies and meaningful consequences for size-based discriminationthat one persons weight fluctuations will no longer make headline news.

Originally Appeared on Vogue

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How Our Obsession With Celebrity Weight Loss Is Holding Us Back - Yahoo Lifestyle

Are you running to lose weight? Or at least thinking about it? Running is a popular form of exercise for many reasons. Not only does this easily accessible form of cardiovascular exercise have brilliant health benefits like being able to boost your mood, lower your risk of cardiovascular disease and help you sleep better running can also help reduce body fat.

If you're trying to lose weight by using a treadmill or running outside and not seeing any results, were going to get to the bottom of how this form of exercise can safely help you manage excess fat. We will delve into the research and reveal how much running youll have to do, what factors affect weight loss, how many calories you should be consuming, and whats the best exercise to drop some extra weight. Armed with this knowledge, youll be able to understand how running to lose weight can work safely for you.

Yes, running really can help to support weight management and it can do so through a few avenues.

"It helps regulate an individuals metabolic rate, helps reduce stress which impacts weight management, helps manage inflammation especially systemic/chronic inflammation helps improve skeletal muscle mass quality and quantity, and can help reduce body fat," said Catherine Saenz, assistant professor of kinesiology at Jacksonville University in Florida.

As Dr. Saenz notes, running has its many benefits, especially related to the cardiovascular system, however, running to lose weight goes hand in hand with dietary habits and genetics.

She says: "Research has found that running may or may not result specifically in weight loss, the weight loss component seems to be greatly impacted by dietary habits, in conjunction with exercise, and genetics."

And the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases agrees. The institute believes a persons: race, age, sex, sleep, weight, and calorie intake can all have an impact on weight loss.

Calories in particular, which are the units of energy we get from the food and drinks we consume, are important to consider. Thats because when we eat, the calories in the food are converted to physical energy or stored in our body as fat. These calories will store in your body as fat unless you use them up, according to The Mayo Clinic. To use them up, you should reduce your calorie intake, forcing the body to draw on this energy, or increase your physical activity. Running provides a means of increasing energy expenditure and burning calories. And its believed that running burns more calories than most other types of exercise like weight training or cycling.

But according to Dr Saenz, its not just about your caloric intake, you also need to concentrate on the caloric quality.

She says: "Some may argue quality maybe even more important than quantity. In fact, not everyone needs to be in a calorie deficit, but all individuals do need to consume a diet rich in essential nutrients, that is satiating, and that is sustainable.

"The dietary approach should also be reflective of the individuals health needs. Rather than just cutting calories, it is better to find a diet rich in high-quality, whole foods with enough variety to support the many nutrients the body needs, especially when starting or continuing an exercise program."

As we touched on before, running to lose weight doesnt just happen overnight and is highly dependent on a number of factors.

According to a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, when it comes to weight loss, there needs to be a balance between reducing energy intake and exercise-induced energy expenditure.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) refers to the balance of calories burned and calories consumed as caloric balance. According to the CDC, if you are maintaining weight, you are in a caloric balance. This means you are roughly consuming the same amount of calories you are burning.

If you are in caloric excess, you are eating more calories than you are burning meaning you will gain weight. While if you are in a calorie deficit, you are burning more calories than you are eating.

But as Dr. Saenz highlights: "Caloric prescription is highly personalized and extremely variable."

Generally speaking, as stated by the American Council on Exercise, a 120-pound person will burn 11.4 calories a minute while running, a 140-pound person will shed 13.2 calories, a person who weighs 160 pounds will burn 15.1 calories, while a 180-pound person might burn 17.

According to Dr. Saenz, any movement that helps an individual feel better is beneficial. But when talking about weight loss in particular: "Emerging evidence suggests high-intensity exercise and or resistance training improve body composition best," Dr Saenz adds.

"Combine this with a healthy diet, proper sleep hygiene, stress management options, and ensuring other aspects of the body are happy like our hormones, microbiome, and mental health and we are looking at a measured and sustainable health and weight management journey."

Those looking for other forms of weight loss exercise could consider the following:

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Running to lose weight: How it really works - Livescience.com

Just about anyone who's tried it knows that losing weight is hard. When calorie restriction and cardio workouts leave you tired and hungry, anything that could hurry progress seems worth a try especially something as easy as a pill.

Americans invested $2 billion on weight-loss supplements in 2015, despite the industry's complicated history. When it comes to diet pills, there are two types: prescription drugs, and over-the-counter supplements. And they are not created or regulated equally.

Here's what you need to know about each and whether they can help you lose weight.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved five prescription drugs for long-term weight loss based on research about their safety and effectiveness:

A few other medications most commonly phentermine are approved for short-term use. But prescription weight loss medication isn't for everyone. Doctors often reserve these treatments for people with a BMI of over 30 kg/m or those who have obesity-related health complications, like high blood pressure or diabetes .

These pills aren't a perfect solution for obesity. Weight loss medications are used along with a healthy diet and exercise regimen that need to be continued after treatment. Also, side effects are common and can be severe.

There are many more diet pills available that aren't FDA-approved or -regulated. "Federal law does not require dietary supplements to be proven safe to FDA's satisfaction before they are marketed," the FDA's website says.

Since over-the-counter diet pills don't have to be vetted for safety or efficacy, it's much easier to get them onto shelves and into your medicine cabinet. In fact, many manufacturers of weight loss supplements don't test their products in humans before taking them to market.

So if you're considering a diet pill supplement, there are a few things you might want to know first.

These types of diet pills often contain vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and herbs. The most common ingredients can be found in a database from the National Institutes of Health. It will tell you everything that researchers know about an ingredient so far. Is it safe? Does it work? That's where you'll find out.

For instance, there's Garcinia cambogia, which comes in products like Hydroxycut and Plexus Slim. It's supposed to suppress appetite and decrease the number of fat cells your body makes. Though its considered "fairly safe," there's no evidence that it actually helps with weight loss, and excessive use has been linked to liver problems.

Other diet pills may contain chitosan, from the shells of crabs, lobsters, and shrimp. In theory, it's supposed to bind fat in your digestive tract so your body can't absorb it. In reality, according to the NIH, the amount of fat it binds is probably not enough to help you lose a significant amount of weight.

The most common ingredients are stimulants like caffeine, yerba mate, bitter orange, or guarana. When it comes to the data on these ingredients, there's not a lot to suggest they help in any way with weight loss, said Katherine Zeratsky, a registered dietitian at the Mayo Clinic.

For example, a 2019 study found that rats given caffeine burned more calories than rats doing the same amount of exercise without a stimulant. But there is no evidence that the effect carries over to humans.

Theoretically, all these ingredients should help with weight loss, but it's extremely difficult to figure out if they work, Zeratsky said. That's because most diet pills are made up of multiple ingredients and the directions suggest you take them while having a diet that's restrictive in calories. So it's hard to tell whether you lost weight because of the product or because you simply ate fewer calories.

No matter what diet pill ingredient or program you're considering, it's critical that you talk to your pharmacist first, Zeratsky said, especially if you take other medications.

Though many of the ingredients are considered safe, they can have toxic effects at high doses. And it's possible that they could interfere with your other medications. Your pharmacist can walk you through a cryptic ingredient list and point out any red flags.

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Prescription weight loss pills: Do they work? - Insider

School is back and so are extracurriculars kind of. Its still being figured out.

Some clubs are staying virtual, others have gone on pause and lost members, and some extracurriculars have disbanded entirely. Student activists in particular have struggled with an additional test how can they re-energize and sustain their movements after a year filled with anxiety, financial uncertainty, and a lack of in-person connection?

Prior to the pandemic, older youth were already dealing with an intense pressure to retain a sense of financial, social, and emotional stability amid growing national mental health concerns. Now, these students are heading into a new school year with the loaded weight of pandemic anxiety.

Last year's school closures and hybrid in-person schedules left these movements without physical organizing spaces. The pandemic's effect on national employment impacted many teens, as well, from parents and caregivers losing income sources to plummeting rates of student employment last summer.

On top of that, are mental health concerns. According to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health policy research group, the number of children utilizing mental health services has only worsened since spring 2020.

The problems posed by the pandemic disproportionately affect communities of color, as well as low income communities. Black teenagers still have the lowest employment rates in the nation. And non-white communities continue to have higher rates of COVID infection and death.

Joseph Williams is the director of operations and campaigns for Students Deserve, a racial justice and education advocacy group partnered with Black Lives Matter Los Angeles. He said that the members of Student Deserve chapters around the city are at a particular risk for disengagement from their form of youth-led activism. Some of our most vulnerable students have been some of the most affected by this shift. Folks who are either dealing with housing instability, or don't have quality internet or have had to step into breadwinner roles because their parents or their caregivers have lost jobs through the pandemic, he explained. These students have had the hardest time plugging back in to consistent activism.

But the last year and a half has offered an opportunity to evaluate what's needed to re-energize student movements, and how to integrate those lessons into new hybrid club settings.

Student activist groups have adapted to the changing world and are heading back into the school year with new lessons for other youth leaders.

Justin Funez is a second year student at the University of Chicago and a leader for Students Demand Actions Summer Leadership Academy, a youth-led program that mentors local activists. Funez helped with the expansion of the academy mid-pandemic, which, before 2020, had hosted only one session in Los Angeles. Funez was an attendee, one of the first things he did after moving from Mexico that same year. Now, the academy has sessions in five cities, with the hope to double that amount by next year.

He said that the academy had to change its priorities because of the pandemic, moving away from getting more people on the ground advocating and rallying in their own communities, and shifting to expanding the education and mental health resources already offered to members. It also tailored sessions to the specific needs of the city, student leaders, and gun violence survivors who participated.

Rather than just finding and developing new activists, it now invests in student activists who already felt committed to the cause. The sessions cover what it means to be an activist, the history of the movement, building a community that will support each other, and keeping your activism sustainable.

The Leadership Academy also allocated resources to help lower-income participants, which the organization recognized have been significantly affected by both rising gun violence and the global pandemic. Students Demand Action, with support from its parent organization, Everytown for Gun Safety, offered paid opportunities and internships for the academy's leadership team, as well as laptops or other technology for those who normally rely on school resources.

For Students Deserve, city-wide leadership stepped in to figure out how to support the needs of students at each chapter to ensure their steady participation, including the recognition that they might need help outside of the movement itself. "There was a necessity to shift towards more of the invisible work with the pandemic, having to figure out different the different needs of our students," Williams explained. "Students are coming back to school after being out for a year and a half or more during this global pandemic when family members have lost jobs, housing, or their lives. They've been dealing with massive amounts of interpersonal, familial, inter-communal trauma... There's going to be trauma."

Always a community-centered organization, Students Deserve continued strengthening its network through local and city-wide meetings with community members intended to connect a wide variety of voices. Williams witnessed different chapters coming up with unique ways to continue safely having direct conversation with each other going into this school year, from hosting outdoor meetings on school property to continuing with virtual meet-ups outside school settings.

Things are in different stages of transition in different places, he explained. But, definitely, one-on-one outreach is always more effective, whether it's calling somebody up, texting them, group messaging them. Many of the students involved in Students Deserve already face hurdles to their participation, and were at more risk of dropping out of the organization as things moved to virtual spaces that felt like less of a commitment. Creating deeper personal connections builds a sense of responsibility and safety in Students Deserve spaces.

Students Demand Action also began reaching out to members through text and phone banking. "We utilized texting and phone banking to continue engaging with our students and making sure that, even though things were going through a drastic change, students who were able to prioritize their activism could still get in contact with their local chapters," Jeannie She, member of Student Demand Action's national advisory board, explained. She joined the organization in 2019, after her father survived a random mass shooting in her hometown.

This ensured that both new and dedicated members didn't feel estranged from the networks that used to meet in-person before the pandemic. These relationships can now carry into chapters that are meeting in school settings.

She believes that one of the most important parts of reenergizing student activism is giving students space to step back from the movement for their own mental health. She, like many of her peers, is taking a gap year before starting her undergraduate degree at MIT. She doesnt view this pause as a hindrance to her involvement, but rather an opportunity to dig deeper into what it means to fight for national gun reform. I definitely had a moment where I was like, OK, I need to reevaluate my priorities, she said. "I know that I need to show up for myself before I can show up for other people, especially in a movement where people rely on my leadership." For She, that means spending the next year thinking about things other than school, finding hobbies that take her mind off of the country's gun violence crisis, her own family's trauma, and reconnecting with the friends she's made in Students Demand Action groups.

Students Demand Action will strengthen its mental health support moving forward, as She and her fellow leaders create more virtual and in-person spaces to discuss and share student experiences of the pandemic and beyond. "These last two years, we have created spaces for students to come together, to speak with others who are going through similar situations. And that can look like our calling team, our texting team, the summer leadership academy, or affinity groups," She explained.

Affinity groups are spaces created by Students Demand Action chapters for students with similar identities to connect, share their experiences, and bond over their particular needs and goals in the movement. This is particularly important to She as a young Asian woman, as she dealt with both racism and targeted violence towards her community this past year. "It made me realize how important it was for every person in the gun violence prevention movement to really own their identity. It impacts us all differently and we need to recognize that," She said.

Funez said opening up spaces for mental health conversations during the summer leadership academy strengthened the organization's activist network. "It really created a safe space where we could connect with other volunteers and understand how we feel just be a team together..." he described. And, like She, he said this should be incorporated into the larger movement. In addition to a 10-week training session for core leaders, which includes conversations about community relationships, mental health, and sexual assault, this year's city sessions (such as Detroit) have made a point to center mental health discussions across their programming, Funez said. These initiatives will remain and hopefully grow moving forward.

"During the pandemic, it was very easy to be able to step in and step back when it was necessary. So we thought people were way more invested in this because they were also able to take some time for themselves, and know that as a community, as a group, other people also have their backs," Funez said.

In February, Students Deserve and a citywide coalition of racial justice and education advocates, convinced the Los Angeles Unified School District to cut $25 million from the school police department budget and allocate $35 million to a Black Student Achievement Plan. In September, Students Deserve successfully advocated against a new proposal that would allow schools to bring back police this school year.

Williams credits these wins with the flexible organizing student activists learned during the last 18 months. I think the pandemic has opened different opportunities for folks to plug in, he explained. Being virtual has allowed a lot of those folks to plug in even more to our citywide stuff, to build connections between folks from different schools in ways that we haven't always been able to before.

This has also allowed chapters to start outreach with younger populations that couldnt participate before, Williams said, like middle and elementary school students whose parents might not feel comfortable sending them into citywide student gatherings. They can literally sit in on meetings with their kids and see what their middle-schooler is engaging in, what they are a part of, he explained.

Students Demand Action has taken advantage of a two-pronged approach, engaging as directly as possible with individuals and local chapters on the ground, while continuing to use the digital strategies forced on them during the pandemic. Most of their national leadership offerings are virtual, including the Summer Leadership Program, and local events and virtual field offices are still hosted online. Its a result of the weird nuances of teens navigating the pandemic, social anxiety, and virtual schooling, who might prefer the comfort of a device.

We actually saw a slow decrease in recruitment when we were reaching out for students who wanted to get involved, Funez observed. But on the other hand, we had other students that said Since I'm virtual, I can do more. And they were more passionate and way more involved than they would have been in an in-person setting. He said that the leadership will continue to include virtual programming since their generation is all just one click away from each other.

As a national leader, She agrees that the pandemic's reliance on digital activism from social media campaigns to Zoom meetings was helpful for younger activists. She said that while the lack of in-person meetings is a kind of "double-edged sword," things like virtual town halls and meetings with lawmakers are still beneficial to young people. They break down some of the barriers between the activists and officials.

"I had experiences in person, where I was speaking to a representative and I felt a layer of judgment between us. Whether it was due to the fact that I was like a teenager or I couldn't vote, they didn't really consider me as a constituent maybe it was just the environment that we were in. But then, we looked to having these conversations over Zoom. And over Zoom, we're literally at the same head level. There's a sense of equality there," She reflected.

The new school year proves at least one thing: the resilience of youth movements. Young people, already in a period designed for change, have navigated a year and a half of extreme transition, and are emerging with new ideas, new motivations, and a desire to reconnect with those around them.

The rest is here:
How to revive student activism after a year of loss and trauma - Mashable