3 Simple Ways On How To Measure Body Fat

There are 3 simple and effective ways to measure body fat: 

Skin-fold caliper test

Underwater weighing

Height and weight cart

How to measure body fat by skin-fold caliper

One of the accurate way to measure body fat is in use at doctors' offices, sports facilities, health clubs, and gyms all over US. The skin-fold caliper test attempts to measure the fat which lies directly beneath the skin. Measurements of this subcutaneous fat are made with a caliper, usually at three sites on the body - the back of the upper arm, between the elbow and shoulder, 1 cm below the shoulder-blade, and 3 cm above the hipbone, on the abdomen.

The measurements are then compared to an established standard for obesity, or used in a formula to yield an obesity index. The major drawback to the skin-fold caliper test is the difficulty in getting reliable measurements. Measurements vary from technician to technician, and often a technician will obtain different readings at different times on the same subject.

Underwater weighing

Of the simplest methods for measuring body fat (potassium 40 whole body counters, specific gravity tests, and body water measurements), the specific gravity method is most familiar to sports enthusiasts and fitness buffs. In this method, the individual is weighed underwater. Because fat tends to float and muscle, which is more dense, tends to sink, we can measure the proportion of fat in the body by comparing your body weight out of water to weight underwater.

Height and body weight charts

Another way to determine if you are obese or overweight is to compare your body weight to established standards for height and weight. The height and weight chart is based on weight in normal clothing, and height in 5 cm heels for women, and 2.5 cm heels for men. Broadly speaking, being 15-20 percent over desirable weight for your height, frame size, and age is classified as obesity.

There are several problems in using the height/weight tables to determine if you are overweight or obese: 

In order to use the tables, we must first decide whether we are small, medium, or large framed. Human nature being what it is, we tend to choose the category which will be the most flattering.

The height and weight tables can be extremely inaccurate if there is a high proportion of either fluid or muscle in the body. In other words, if you are a very muscular athlete, your weight will be higher than the normal range, because muscle weighs more than fat. Similarly, if you are suffering from an abnormal accumulation of water in the body, your weight will be artificially high. (Women who suffer monthly weight gains of 1-2 kilograms are familiar with this syndrome.

When using the tables, it is important to remember that the standards are based on figures made available by insurance companies. These figures represent the weights at which there were the lowest mortality rates, and do not necessarily reflect the weights at which individuals enjoy optimal health.

While these body fat measurements are by no means 100 percent accurate, they can be helpful in giving you an idea of how to determine frame size, percentage of body fat, and proper weight for your height and age. They're also fun to use and fun belongs in any eating management program.

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Common Side Effects Of High Blood Pressure Medication

Some of the drugs listed below can affect certain functions of the body, resulting in bad side effects. However, drugs that lower blood pressure have proven effective over the years. The benefits of using them far outweigh the risk of side effects. Most people who’ve taken these drugs haven’t had any problems.

Diuretics — Some of these drugs may decrease your body's supply of a mineral called potassium. Symptoms such as weakness, leg cramps or being tired may result. Eating foods containing potassium may help prevent significant potassium loss. You can prevent potassium loss by taking a liquid or tablet that has potassium along with the diuretic, if your doctor recommends it. Diuretics such as amiloride (Midamar), spironolactone (Aldactone) or triamterene (Dyrenium) are called "potassium sparing" agents. They don’t cause the body to lose potassium. They might be prescribed alone but are usually used with another diuretic. Some of these combinations are Aldactazide, Dyazide, Maxzide or Moduretic.

Some people suffer from attacks of gout after prolonged treatment with diuretics. This side effect isn't common and can be managed by other treatment. This is because of hyperurecemia caused by diuretics.

In people with diabetes, diuretic drugs may increase the blood sugar level. A change in drug, diet, insulin or oral antidiabetic dosage corrects this in most cases. Your doctor can change your treatment. Most of the time the degree of increase in blood sugar isn't much. Impotence may also occur in a small percentage of people.

Beta-blockers — Acebutolol (Sectral), atenolol (Tenormin), metoprolol (Lopressor, Mepressor, Merol), nadolol (Corgard), pindolol (Visken), propranolol (Inderal) or timolol (Blocadren) may cause insomnia, cold hands and feet, tiredness or depression, a slow heartbeat or symptoms of asthma. Impotence may occur. If you have diabetes and you’re taking insulin, have your responses to therapy monitored closely.

ACE inhibitors — These drugs, such as captopril (Capoten), enalapril (Vasotec), lisinopril (Zestril or Prinivil), may cause a skin rash; loss of taste; a chronic dry, hacking cough most common side effect; and in rare instances, kidney damage.

Angiotensin II receptor blockers — These drugs may cause occasional dizziness.

Calcium channel blockers — Diltiazem (Cardizem), nicardipine (Cardene), Nifedipine (Procardia) and verapamil (Calan or Isoptin) may cause palpitations, swollen ankles edema, constipation, headache or dizziness. Side effects with each of these drugs differ a great deal.

Alpha blockers — These drugs may cause fast heart rate, dizziness or a drop in blood pressure when you stand up i.e postural hypoteson

Combined alpha and beta blockers — People taking these drugs may experience a drop in blood pressure when they stand up.

Central agonists — Alpha methyldopa (Aldomet) may produce a greater drop in blood pressure when you're in an upright position (standing or walking) and may make you feel weak or faint if the pressure has been lowered too far. This drug may also cause drowsiness or sluggishness, dryness of the mouth, fever or anemia. Male patients may experience impotence. If this side effect persists, your doctor may have to change the drug dosage or use another medication.

Clonidine (Catapres), guanabenz (Wytensin) or guanfacine (Tenex) may produce severe dryness of the mouth, constipation or drowsiness. If you're taking any of these drugs, don’t stop suddenly, because your blood pressure may rise quickly to dangerously high levels.

Peripheral adrenergic inhibitors — Reserpine may cause a stuffy nose, diarrhea or heartburn. These effects aren't severe and no treatment is required other than to change the amount of drugs taken. If you have nightmares or insomnia or get depressed, tell your doctor. You should stop using the drugs.

Guanadrel (Hylorel) or guanethidine (Ismelin) may cause some diarrhea, which may persist in some people. This side effect usually becomes less of a problem if you continue treatment.

These drugs reduce blood pressure more when you stand. Consequently, you may get dizzy and lightheaded and feel weak when you get out of bed in the morning or stand up suddenly. If you notice any of these reactions — and if they persist for more than a minute or two —  sit or lie down and either reduce or omit the next dose of the drug. If symptoms continue, contact your doctor.

When you're taking guanethidine, don't keep standing in the hot sun or at a social gathering if you begin to feel faint or weak. These activities cause low blood pressure. Male patients may experience impotence. Contact your doctor if this occurs. These drugs are rarely used unless other medications don’t help.

Blood vessel dilators — Hydralzine (Apresoline) may cause headaches, swelling around the eyes, heart palpitations or aches and pains in the joints. Usually none of these symptoms are severe, and most will go away after a few weeks of treatment. Minoxidil (Loniten) is a potent drug that's usually used only in resistant cases of severe high blood pressure. It may cause fluid retention (marked weight gain) or excessive hair growth.

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Heart attacks can creep up on you when you least expect it. Are you prepared?

Heart disease is one of the nation’s deadliest killers taking the lives of almost one million Americans each year. Each of us has a different susceptibility to cardiovascular disease. Your fitness level and what you eat plays a major role. Approximately 64 million Americans have cardiovascular disease, and here’s the shocker; as many as 40 percent of those who suffer a heart attack have no symptoms. A heart attack may occur due to heart disease but not always and although it is the leading cause of death it can be prevented. Women usually have fewer heart attacks than men but after menopause women catch up to men in the number of heart attacks experienced.

So, what are the factors that lead to heart disease?
The most commonly recognized risk factors are:

1 Stress
2 Smoking
3 High levels of LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol)
4 Low levels of HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol)
5 High Blood-pressure.
6 Obesity
7 Diabetes
8 Destructive form of amino acid called homocysteine
9 Heredity

The heart is the most crucial organ to sustain life and to keep it ticking efficiently, our priority should be to prevent its deterioration. The simplest Mantra for prevention of heart disease is; eat well, exercise and adopt a healthy lifestyle. This has been said countless times before and the simple truth is that those who do follow through with the advice enjoy a much healthier and longer life.

NOTE: Always check with your physician first before changing or implementing any sort of a diet or exercise program especially if you're taking prescription or over the counter medicines.

Some factors to consider when adopting a healthier lifestyle include but not limited to: (also check with your physician)

  1     Cut down on dietary fat and cholesterol

  2     Check your blood pressure regularly

  3     Don’t smoke (fortunately there are a lot of resources available for those wanting to quit).

  4     Learn to meditate, this will lessen stress.

  5    Exercise - Being sedentary is one of the biggest risk factors for heart attacks.

  6   Control your weight - If you're obese

  7   Control your diabetes


Symptoms of a heart attack

NOTE: These symptoms may or may not indicate a heart attack. In any case medical help should be sought immediately because some heart attacks are the ’silent type’.

The American Heart Association lists them as:

-Uncomfortable pressure, fullness or squeezing and excruciating pain in the chest.
-Pain spreading to shoulder, neck, and arms. Specifically left sided neck and arm pain.
-Light headedness, fainting.
-Shortness of breath with little exertion.
-Profuse sweating.

The first hour is very critical. So, don’t waste time thinking its gas or flatulence. Act immediately and call 911 don’t waste time calling your doctor, he’ll most likely ask you to call 911 anyway. Heart disease can be easily prevented it's just a matter of implementing a healthier lifestyle.

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Bicycling Down Memory Lane

Many adults only remember riding a bike. They gave it up as they became older. Adults can and should take advantage of bicycle riding to get some exercise. Older folks may want to ride the large tricycle with a basket on the front.

I remember my first bike. It was blue with a bell attached to the handlebars and when you worked the little tab back and forth with your thumb, you would hear a tinny ring. All the kids in my neighborhood had bikes, of course they were two speed bikes, stop and go, unlike the many different bikes that are available now.

I don't remember any of us being overweight back then. We rode bikes rather than watching some silly or violent program on TV. In fact, there was no TV, no McDonald's, no computers, no Gameboys; the only video games we had were pictures in our heads.

During the daylight hours we didn't have many sedentary games. We ran around in the yards playing imaginary games. It was great fun. At night the whole family would sit around the supper table eating and talking. The meal usually consisted of a meat, two or three vegetables, and dessert with tea or milk to drink. No one opted for bottled water, oh yeah, there was no bottled water.

The only time we had hamburgers was on Saturday nights, no fries. Instead of fries we had goulash. During the summer we cooked outdoors on a homemade barbecue pit made out of stone. There were no charcoal, electric, or gas grills, we used wood in the pit.

Some of the neighborhood kids were always invited to eat supper with us on Saturday night. We would eat on a wooden picnic table in the backyard. After supper we would play basketball or horseshoes, or some other game. We got plenty of exercise.

Maybe if we had kept on doing those type of things, we would not have so many lazy and overweight people now. Get some "kids" of all ages together and go for a bike ride at least once a week. When you are riding, maybe along the way you'll ride upon a backyard barbecue pit where you can fix some burgers the old fashion way and pitch a few horseshoes after supper.

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2 Simple Steps To Ripped Summertime Muscles

Summer is on the horizon, and the time has come to kick back and relax under the sun. It’s time for beach days, barbecues and pool parties, and for any serious weightlifter these activities also mean one thing: it’s time for the shirts to come off and to showcase that rock-solid physique they’ve been working on all year. No one wants to be walking around with a soft, smooth and flabby body, and for the next month or two, all of those serious lifters will be shifting into “get ripped” mode.

How do they usually go about this?

They lighten up the weights and perform higher reps.

This has always been a widely accepted method of “cutting down” and if you ask most trainers in the gym they’ll tell you that “heavy weights bulk up the muscle and lighter weights define the muscle”.

Do you want to know the reality behind the “light weight and high reps” method of obtaining a ripped and defined physique?

It is completely, totally and utterly DEAD WRONG.

It couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact, there is no logical basis for this way of training whatsoever, and whoever dreamt up this downright ridiculous way of thinking has caused the vast majority of lifters to waste their time and impede their progress in the gym.

Let me clear this up once and for all: you CANNOT spot reduce. In other words, it is physically impossible to target fat loss from a specific area on your body. Performing bench presses with light resistance and high repetitions will not magically burn fat off of your chest or cause it to appear harder and more defined.

Every single time you wrap your hands around a barbell, dumbbell or cable, your goal is to stimulate as much muscle growth as you possibly can. There are no special, secret weightlifting exercises that will “define” your muscles or cause them to become more “ripped”.

Training with weights builds muscle mass, end of story.

So how exactly do you “define” a muscle?

The only way to “define” a muscle is by lowering your body fat level in order to make your muscles more visible. Body fat reduction can be achieved in two ways:

1) Modify your diet.

You should lower your overall caloric intake to around 15x your bodyweight and focus on consuming smaller meals more frequently throughout the day. This will keep your metabolism naturally raised at all times and will keep your body in a constant fat burning state. Limit your intake of saturated fats and simple sugars, and focus instead on consuming lean sources of protein and low glycemic carbohydrates. It is also very important to keep your water intake high at a level of around 0.6 ounces per pound of bodyweight.

2) Perform proper cardio workouts.

Let go of the traditional method of moderate intensity cardio in 30-45 minute durations. If you want to maximize your body’s fat burning capacity and also minimize the muscle loss that inevitably accompanies a fat burning cycle, focus on shorter cardio workouts performed at a high level of intensity. These types of workouts will shoot your resting metabolism through the roof and will allow you to burn maximum amounts of fat even when you are at rest. I recommend 3-5 high intensity cardio sessions per week, spaced at least 8 hours away from your weight workouts.

That’s all there is to it, folks. Take the notion of “light weight and higher reps” and throw it right out the window, down the street and around the corner. Following this misguided method will only cause you to lose muscle mass and strength, and will not assist you in burning fat or defining your physique.

All you need to do to mold those rock-solid muscles for the summer time is this:

1) Train with heavy weights and low repetitions to build maximum muscle mass.

2) Modify your diet and implement cardio workouts to eliminate body fat and create visibly harder and more defined muscles.

End of story.

I’ll see you at the beach!

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48% Of Women Have Thinning Hair!

How your hair grows

Your hair is made of keratin (KER-uh-tin), the same protein that makes up your nails and the outer layer of your skin. The part you see and style is called the hair shaft. It's actually dead tissue made by your hair follicles tiny bulb-like structures beneath your scalp's surface.

We have all heard of someone who has thinning hair problem, but do we really know how extensive this thinning hair problem is? Let us take a look at the figures here..

1. 70 million Americans Have Fine or Thin-looking Hair And it's Growing
2. 4 million more women and 4.7 million more men will have noticeably thin-looking hair by 2005
3. By age 65, 48% of all women report they have thinning hair and 75% of all men report they have noticeably thin-looking hair.
4. Research has shown that the problem of thin-looking hair can begin as early as age 17.
5. The problem will grow more extreme as our population ages.

How does hair loss start?

Hair loss is a normal symptom. 50 to 60 hairs are shed each day from a normal scalp. Losing more than 60 hairs a day is called excessive hair loss and leads to generalized thinning of the hair. Hair becomes fine in texture. Loss of hair in men is often determined by heredity or by the Allopetia Androgenetic hormone. Hair loss in women is often caused by pregnancy, stress, fatigue or medical treatment.

Can Thyroid Disease Cause Hair Loss?

An overactive or underactive thyroid can cause hair loss. One may get her thyroid numbers in order after beginning a regimen of thyroid medication. However, there have been reported cases of women experiencing hair loss FROM the thyroid medication.

Hot Tips!

Coloring: If you inherited a tendency for hair loss, you likely have very healthy hair overall. Therefore, your hair can benefit from permanent or semi-permanent color to give body and volume to hair.

Volumizing Products: Many volume-building hair products contain paraffin, which is beeswax. That's not good for hair, because it builds up and can make hair break.

However, volumizing products sold in salons do help. They won't weigh hair down, and they won't damage it. Mousse, for example, can be applied at the root area for support. Then, begin blow-drying the root area, applying tension with a brush to build volume. Use a light finishing spray to hold it.

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Ab Exercise Equipment - An Honest Review

Are you in perfect shape for summer yet? Those sunny days are just around the corner and everyone is out shopping for their revealing, sexy bathing suits. How will your new swimwear fit on you? Let's run a quick check. Are those legs toned and those arms fit? Have you been keeping up with your daily crunches and sit-ups?

Uh-oh, that one always gets people, I know it . Those darn abs workouts. Let me tell you the truth. Although they can be a little annoying at times, they're necessary to say the least. I can't overemphasize them. Come on, we all want to display a great set of abs and walk around showing them to everyone. Why else do you think we have so much abs exercise equipment reigning the fitness market at all times? Regardless of your gender, the abs are absolutely critical. Are you testing out some of the new-age abs exercise equipment?

When it comes to abs exercise equipment, I don't have any. I prefer to do all my exercises without machine interference. You know, all those traditional exercises like pull-ups, push-ups, leg-raises, dips, etc. Now, this is not the chosen route for every individual who is striving to stay fit. Many people prefer some of the latest benches, treadmills, stairmasters, and abs exercise equipment on the market. This stuff is great if you can afford it. Why not take advantage of any contemporary aids if available? If you have the money and think it fits you, I say go for it.

Let's take my wife as an example. My wife has one of those big rubber balls you see pretty girls swear by on television ads. While I'm pretty certain that they have a more politically correct name, I don't know what it is. She uses this abs exercise equipment for a wide array of stomach and back workouts. I have to admit that I was rather surprised the first time I saw it. I could certainly see how it would provide you with a strenuous workout and build your muscles. She continues to use it daily for a variety of exercises.

What abs exercise equipment do you prefer? Maybe you get your frequent dose of abs exercise equipment at the local gym or fitness club. They typically have a variety of abs exercise equipment ready at your service. Regardless of what regimes you prefer, you know that your daily dose of abs workouts are compulsory for keeping that bare, tight, flat tummy. If you are in need of advice concerning abs exercise equipment or just simple routines, you can hop online and acquire anything your heart desires. From diet plans, to fitness regimes galore, you will find it all on the World-Wide-Web. They are abundant and free! Get started today and get those abs you've always wanted!

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