Is is a good idea to take in sugar during your exercise training session to improve athletic performance? How does it pertain to power, and endurance? These are the big questions of the day! Should you, or shouldn’t you ingest sugar during your aerobic, or anaerobic fitness training session?

There has been a recent study completed in Copenhagen, Denmark that showed sugar consumption during exercise increased endurance, and power.  The study was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, June 2009.  There were two groups of men studied. Group 1 was given a solution of 6% sugar to consume during an extended endurance training session. Group 2 was given an artificially sweetened drink to consume during their leg of the endurance exercise.

The sugar supplemented exercise leg had 14% more power, and a 30% greater time to exhaustion. Therefore, if you want to improve athletic performance, it is important to consume sugar throughout your training session. This is especially true for endurance training workouts. Therefore, taking in carbohydrates throughout your endurance training session will increase power, and endurance.

Now the whole key towards increasing  aerobic performance is your bodies ability to preserve stored sugar in cells. Ingesting sugar during your training session will do this. Also, taking a caffeine supplement  30 – 60 minutes prior to exercise will  cause a preservation of stored blood sugar in cells.

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Have you taken your caffeine supplement before working out today? If not, why? One of the most effective, scientifically proven ergogenic aids, caffeine, is available everywhere you turn, and for very little money.

When it comes to sports nutrition, and increasing athletic performance, all the scientific studies say it is a go. Many professional athletes are taking in supplement caffeine from Tour de France cyclists to professional baseball players. The bottom line – it works!

So how  does a caffeine supplement effect metabolism, and improve athletic performance? First off, it is a stimulant that stimulates the central nervous system to enhance metabolism of free fatty acids. This, in turn, may spare the use of glycogen during physical activity. Caffeine supplements have also shown in studies to improve muscle contraction.

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I’ve got a great fitness tip (in audio) for you to help improve your fitness performance in 2009. This post workout tip is not something I just made up, but a topic that has been researched, and published recently in a scientific journal. Therefore, since it is based on sound exercise science, I am eager to share this fitness secret with you in hopes that you can achieve greater exercise results in less time.

 I sure hope your 2009 has started off well! If not, there still is time. Get back on your program, stay focused, and committed. Make 2009 your most fit year ever!

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture has just added a free menu planning feature to its MyPyramid nutrition website.  After taking a close look at the new nutrition planning feature I was pleasantly surprised. Hats off to the Department of Agriculture for creating such a powerful free tool!

After entering in your personal data such as height, weight, and physical activity level, the software asks if you want to maintain your weight, or lose weight, that is if they consider you overweight. Once you select that option the program will calculate your fat loss daily calorie zone, as well as determine how much of each food group you should consume. Read More…

The results of a small study involving the safety of energy drinks was released today.  When I refer to energy drinks I am referring to drinks such as Red Bull, XO, Roaring Lion, Jolt, etc. You can generally find these pick me upers in gas stations, and convenient stores.  To find out more about name brand energy drinks visit  http://www.bandddesigns.com/energy/ .

The study, which had a sample of only 15 healthy individuals, was conducted at Wayne State University and showed those that consumed two energy drinks a day had an elevation in blood pressure, and heart rate. Read More…

A new study at John Hopkins Bloomberg School Of Public Health revealed 75% of American will be overweight, and 41% obese by the year 2015. Both of these numbers shocked me! It seems Americans continue to gain weight even though they are reminded that obesity is an epidemic.

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Do you like paying retail for your bodybuilding supplements? I expect your answer to be a big no! The good news is you can get cheap bodybuilding supplements rather easily by making them yourself. By quickly making them yourself you have instant affordable bodybuilding supplements.

You probably think muscle building, and fat loss supplements are difficult to make. Well, think again. They are extremely simple to make if you know what you are doing. Read More…

How to lose weight naturally requires an understanding of energy balance. Energy balance is when you consume the same amount of calories your body burns off for energy. Forget the weight loss pills, and potions, and focus on the simple concept of negative energy balance. Another words, your body burns off more calories than are consumed. With that said, you will lose weight naturally.

When your energy balance is negative enough to burn off 3500 calories, you will lose one pound of bodyfat.

You body burns energy in 3 ways.

1. Basic metabolic functions of your organs and system (60%)
2. Physical activity (30%)
3. Thermogenic effect of foods eaten (10%)

Now how to lose weight naturally involves understanding your energy balance numbers. That is, how many calories are needed to maintain your body weight.

A real quick estimate of this number can be found the following way:

Men – Body Weight X 10 + Double Your Body Weight
Female – Body Weight X 10 + Your Body Weight

With that number determine your activity level. If you exercise to lose weight for more than 1 hour each day add 400 to that number if you are a man. For women, add 300.

The sum of this number will be an approximation of your energy balance. This is the amount of calories you should take in to maintain your weight. Now to lose, you must decrease your calories, or increase your activity in order to enter the negative energy balance. To gain weight, increase your calories to the appropriate level. This will bring about positive energy balance.

So the next time you wonder how to lose weight naturally, you can begin paying attention to your energy balance in order to maintain, lose, or gain weight.

To discover how you too can lose weight quickly while working out in only half the time visit Wellness Word.

A diet research report was released this week as a result of studying 31 weight loss studies. Researchers concluded two thirds of dieters gain all their weight back, and even more, five years after going on a weight loss diet. Thus, after a fat loss regimen, participants gain back more weight than they lost.

The study concluded most people fall into the yo yo dieting plan category. This, in turn, can be bad for your health showing an increase in heart disease and stroke. Accoring to studies, it would be better not dieting at all, than going up and down, up and down.

Weight loss enthusiasts really need to think lifestyle. Your eating habits need to change from today through the rest of your life.  That is what works. Think healthy eating for a lifetime. Exercise was shown to be the best “pill” for maintaining weight loss.

Just as I expected, after the Stanford study concluded The Atkins Diet is more effective than The Dean Ornish Diet, The Zone, and LEARN, the so-called losing diets are fighting back. Here is a link to a statement made from the Dean Ornish camp. He feels the study was flawed for the reasons he states in this Ornish Diet statement.