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Today’s Health Upgrade
Double your fat loss
Let's take this outside
Muscles and mortality
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Double Your Fat Loss?
Wouldn’t it be nice if — for a change — you were told you could eat more of a particular food instead of less if you’re trying to lose weight?
Research suggests eating more protein can help you lose more body fat — even when consuming more calories.
To lose weight, you need to consume less energy than you burn. But small dietary changes can make a big difference where it counts. In the study, participants were put into one of two conditions: either they consumed less protein and approximately 300 fewer calories or ate 250 more calories, with all those calories coming from extra protein. Both groups followed a resistance training program and lost weight, but the high protein group lost twice as much body fat.
The study does not show that you can eat as much protein as you want or that calories don’t matter. Instead, it suggests that eating certain foods — such as protein — can support muscle gain and fat loss and help you avoid aggressively cutting your calories at all costs. (Remember, protein is the most metabolically active macronutrient, burning up to 30 percent of calories.)
As a rule of thumb, aim for about .6 to 1 gram of protein per pound of your goal body weight. So if you’re 200 pounds and want to weigh 180 pounds, then you’d try to eat roughly 100 to 180 grams of protein daily.
Let's Take This Outside
A little sun could be a life-extending decision if you care about your longevity.
A 20-year study on more than 29,000 people found that sun exposure might significantly impact extending longevity.
To put the findings into context: Non-smokers who avoided sun exposure had a life expectancy similar to smokers who got the most sun. In other words, avoiding the sun took away years in a similar fashion to smoking.
When the researchers compared those with the most sun exposure to those who avoided the sun, those who weren’t afraid of getting sunkissed lived up to 2 years longer.
And this wasn’t the only study suggesting the powers of the outdoors. Another analysis examined 143 studies involving more than 290 million people from 20 countries. They found that spending time outdoors is associated with a reduction in type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, premature death, and high blood pressure. And scientists also suggest it increases sleep duration and decreases stress levels.
If you want to get a little more sun in your life, aim for roughly 20 to 30 minutes of sunshine daily. But don’t forget to protect your skin and use the SPF sunscreen of your choice.
Of Muscles and Mortality
If you think you’re too old to get better, let today be the first day on your road to redemption.
Research suggests that you can build new muscle into your late 90s. And it doesn’t take much time in the gym either.
The study looked at subjects between the ages of 91 and 97. They followed a 12-week program consisting of just two workouts per week. Those who stayed consistent saw significant improvements in strength, muscle, and power.
We’re not sharing this to flex on you. We do it to impress upon you the importance of building muscle. Research suggests that those who strength train have a 40 percent lower mortality risk than those who don’t. And just 1 hour per week of weight training per week is associated with up to a 70 percent decrease in cardiovascular disease. And scientists have found just 30 to 60 minutes of strength training per week could result in a 10 to 20 percent drop in cancer risk.
Put simply: longevity studies suggest that people with more muscle tend to live longer.
Need a place to start? Try our 15-minute workouts. They can all be done at home. Give it a try, and get busy (building muscle and) living.
