JKFFH Blog
A blog about fitness, working out, feeling good, losing weight, and gaining muscle; but in a cool way that's hopefully humorous and helpful.
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Good Enough for Me, Good Enough for Oprah, Good Enough for You?
As an aging runner with bad knees, I’ll be on a lifelong quest to find suitable cardio alternatives to my first workout love, running.
Luckily I’ve come across a piece of equipment to be my fitness companion as I continue the journey of health and wellness. The Octane elliptical machine is a great advancement in low-impact cardio training. The thing I noticed first is how well it approximates the running movement with an adjustable stride length and handles that allow for a closer simulation of the “arm pump” used in running.
Furthermore, anecdotally, it feels much closer to the workout I get while running. Continue Reading . . .
Part I - What's up with fat cells?
In my time of working with clients, this question has been posed to me frequently. And the short answer is yes, fat does seem to beget fat. The longer answer is it’s complicated.
Let’s take a look at the commonly accepted basics about human fat tissue.
Fat, also know as adipose tissue, is made up of individual cells called adipocytes. There are two main types of fat cells – white and brown. However brown cells are found in very small amounts in adults, so we will ignore them for now.[i]
It turns out fat (the white type for this article) plays a pretty major role in our daily lives, for the good and the bad.
The Good[ii]:
•Energy Metabolism
•Heat Insulation (it keeps you warm, like the blubber of a whale – yeah sit with that image)
•Mechanical Cushioning (hehe – a fancy way of saying it provides a protection layer, for say perhaps falling on your buttocks)
Fat is the body’s main source of energy storage, specifically over longer durations of time. Keep reading on our blog page . . .
Part II - Is there something, like, to eat my fat?
Bringing us to the next logical question, how does a person lose fat? Well, glad you ask, cause I just happen to help people do that for a living, gosh how did this happen, fortuitous I suppose.
Just as the body is really adroit at storing fat for energy in food crisis, or in the case of the modern person, when you haven’t eaten in awhile or are working out for a long period of time, it’s also quite good at using that stored fat. In fact, do you know that muscle is uniquely designed to burn fat through beta-oxidation and the oxidative system during aerobic activity? And as previously mentioned that the liver can breakdown fat to maintain glucose levels in the body?
Part III - So what do I do now?
Losing more than 4 lbs in a week is discouraged because this weight loss is made up of a ratio of about 60% Fat Free mass to less than 40% fat deposits.
A more realistic weekly weight loss goal is about 1 pound per week. This can be achieved by eating a balanced diet of proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
