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Information about Fat
Many people say they need to burn calories, carbs, and fat but how come it's in three categories but when you burn them it's still burning fat? Is it only one that's actually making you fat? My friend is fat and does EXTREME excercing for a year! Walking 3 km a day, and many excercises one hour a day and even eats healthy but she hasn't even gone skinny. Any advice for her? And which excercises would workl to burn fat, caloires, and carbs and which one of these three are actually making you fat?
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Maybe give some free advice about: Fitness?
Sabine's answer is really good. I wont repeat that part about the nutrients since that was covered already. I just want to add a thing or two about exercise.
The idea in weight loss is to burn more than you eat. Diet and exercise go hand in hand here, each complementing the other. The effects of exercise can be twofold. One it can burn calories directly (e.g. running 10 mins and buring 200 cals for example). The second is that it can have a positive impact on your metabolism (such that you burn a few more calories even while you are at rest).
What works best in a proper weight loss program is cardio (running, stairmaster, etc). However, some articles I have read pointed to the benefit of weight training, partially because of the way it is supposed to benefit the metabolism. I have seen, and I have had, great results with a combination of weights and cardio. These can be done as a split routine (e.g. morning cardio, afternoon weights), but also works just fine on alternating days (3 times a week of each with Sunday off).
I do believe that some people are more prone to gaining weight than others. However, I am equally certain that your friend can lose the weight. If she is exercising a lot now, the problem is with her diet. Again, Sabine's answer was very good, the key lies with eating many small balanced meals (every 3-4 hours), with drinking lots of water, with eliminating/ minimising saturated fats in the diet, and with eating fewer calories than one burns.
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Okay. Calories are units of energy. When we eat food, we take in three primary kinds of nutrients. The first is protein. The second is carbohydrates. The third is fat. Carbohydrates and proteins have about 4 calories per gram of food. Fat has 9 calories per gram. It gives much more energy per equivalent sized piece than either carbs or proteins. However, when we eat, our bodies are efficient at getting all of the calories out of our foods and storing what we won't use right away. Those stored calories (whether from proteins, carbs, or fats) are usually stored in our bodies as fat (adipose tissue) which we can see. The carbs are used mostly for short-term energy needs, but they can be converted to cholesterol and stored as fat. The proteins are usually broken up into amino acids and used to build or repair cells. These are all very important nutrients. You cannot survive without any of those three. Fats and proteins are found in animal and plant sources (meat and beans, dairy, etc.). Carbohydrates are usually vegetable or grain-derived.
The bottom line is that your friend should watch her intake of all three components, but that she should watch her intake of fats because they are particularly calorie-dense (and remember, whatever calories we don't use right away are deposited on our rear-ends). She would be careful about carbohydrates, including starches and sugars as well as alcohol, because those can be converted to fat. She should be careful with her protein intake because protein and fats are almost always coupled together. So, the carbs and the fats and the proteins are the foods which, in our bodies are converted into body fat.
The only way to lose weight is this: burn more calories than you are taking in. There are some places, such as diet centers, who claim to be able to measure your metabolism (see how quickly your body burns energy, since we all burn it at a different rate). Those may be able to help her figure out how long it takes her, personally, to burn off one cupcake. Since you seem to be in Europe (metric references), I don't know where your friend shoud go to get this measurement done.
In any case, she should not cut out any one food. We need all kinds of foods. She should be aware of quantity and balance between the three groups.
The advice you were given before is also true. There are many studies out now which indicate that at least some of us carry genetically slow metabolisms. Our bodies are naturally efficient at storing calories and we burn our calories much more slowly than others. Your friend may have to come to the conclusion that sometimes a person can be big or 'fat' and also healthy. She should continue her exercising and know that she is in shape and healthy.
Didn't mean to write a book. Sorry. :)
Sabine
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Tell her to check out the website www.sparkpeople.com if she has internet access. It has a great section on there on what to work on and what foods are healthy. Its a great support site! have her check it out :)
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