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burning calories

Saving Calories on the Weekend — What's Your Strategy?
healthy eating tips

How Do You Save Calories on the Weekend?

Weekends are relaxing in more ways than one — you can pick and choose what you want to do, and your schedule is often a lot less rigid than the grind of the week.
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Weekends are relaxing in more ways than one — you can pick and choose what you want to do, and your schedule is often a lot less rigid than the grind of the week. Whether that means a longer workout or time to catch up on your favorite shows, you often have time to do more of what you want to do.

Sometimes, the free-flowing weekend can also mean a less-strict diet or exercise plan. But even if you feel like you are indulging more on the weekends than you would during the rest of the week, do you pay attention to burning and saving calories, or would you rather not think about them when you're off-duty?

Ways to Boost Your Metabolism
metabolism

Ways to Boost Your Metabolism

Who, regardless of age or body type wouldn't want to burn calories more efficiently?
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Who, regardless of age or body type wouldn't want to burn calories more efficiently? Boosting your metabolism is fairly easy and can be as simple as eating regularly, not sipping some super caffeinated energy drink.

Here are some ideas on how to boost your metabolism:

  • Eat breakfast. Eating in the morning will help to jump-start your metabolism for the rest of the day. Plus studies show that eating breakfast will help to increase your resting metabolic rate by 10 percent. I'm not talking about coffee and a danish here. Make sure it's full of fiber, protein, and whole grains.

  • Don't skip meals or deny yourself food when you're hungry. Food fuels our bodies, and not giving your body the fuel it needs will slow down your metabolism, so you burn less calories.

  • Make sure you're getting your fill of B vitamins (B6, B12, folate, thiamin and niacin). These are important when it comes to metabolizing carbs, fats, and proteins. Not getting enough will slow down your metabolism, not to mention make you feel tired, depressed, and increase your risk for chronic disease.
  • Get your fill of magnesium since it's also important for energy metabolism. Eat dark green veggies, halibut, almonds, cashews, peanuts and peanut butter, soybeans (tempeh or edamame), whole grain breads and cereals, oatmeal, and beans.

What else can speed up your metabolism? To find out read more

Should I Do High Intensity Cardio or Low Intensity Cardio?
burning calories

Should I Do High Intensity Cardio or Low Intensity Cardio?

The cardio world can be a confusing one.
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The cardio world can be a confusing one. One of the biggest questions I hear from people is: How hard should I work when I am doing cardio?

There is no magic formula and the truth is that doing any form of cardio will be beneficial to your life, but here is a simple guideline:

Low Intensity Cardio means you should be getting your heart rate up to about 40-60% of your max heart rate (220 - age = max heart rate) -- It is more about duration (length) than intensity (how hard you work). Training at low intensities often means picking a comfortable pace and sticking to it throughout the duration of the session. Examples can include brisk walking, jogging and swimming. Those that are less fit, have led a previously sedentary lifestyle, are overweight, have a history (or a risk factor) of heart disease, as well as the elderly, and anyone with arthritis and those of us with special instructions from our doctor should opt for low intensity workouts initially.

High Intensity Cardio means that you should be getting your heart rate up from 70-85% of you max heart rate -- Oftentimes it can include interval training. Examples of high intensity workouts include jump roping, sprinting and spinning. Since higher intensity cardio workouts burn more calories in a shorter period of time, it can be rough on your bones and joints. Those who could be doing high intensity cardio workouts are those that are already physically fit and those who are training for an event and those that are fit. Start by adding a high intensity cardio session in place of a low intensity session once a week and then you can build up from there.

Source

Get Physical: Explore a Museum
couples

Get Physical: Explore a Museum

Looking for something active to do this weekend with your significant other?
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Looking for something active to do this weekend with your significant other? The problem is that it's cold outside and depending on where you live possibly rainy or snowy.

Check out a new museum! Walking around a museum is not highly vigorous, but it gets you off the couch, out of the house and walking around. Not sure if your husband will be excited to see the Titanic Exhibit? Mine neither, so try going to different museums that might strike his fancy like The International Spy Museum in Washington DC. Maybe it will even encourage him to get in shape, since it's hard to be an international man of mystery if you're huffing and puffing while running after enemy #1. Or how about The Museum of Sex in NYC. Unless you want to rush through the museum, be sure to let him know that sex burns calories too after you see the exhibits. To find museums near you, check out the American Association of Museums.

Fit's Tip: Be sure to bring a pedometer so you can see how many steps you are really taking. Be careful when eating at the food courts at museums, it could be very easy to eat more calories than you actually burn seeing the sights.