Training & Nutrition - What are the negative effects of simple sugars..

Even if I watch my calories, how will simple sugars effect me and weight loss? Also, I weigh 260 got a decent amount of muscle. My doc said if I wanted to lose weight for me to eat only 1600 calories. Isn't that a little low? I lost 60 lbs a couple years ago by eating just 1500 a day but i gained it all back. I nedd some serious educated advice. Thanks y'all.

If you are trying to lose weight while sitting in front of the Tee Vee, then you'll have little choice but to severly restrict your caloric intake. In such case, a 1500-1600 calorie diet would probably work . It will not, however, be a good way to lose weight.

What you want to do is lose fat, not weight. At your weight, when you lose fat you will also lose weight, but the object is to get rid of the fat. This takes aerobic exercise. The best way to burn fat is using the muscles, especially the large leg muscles. This generally means execise like cycling, jogging, stair climbing, swimming, etc at about 70-80% of your maximum heart rate. You should try do this at least 30 minutes per day for 5 to 6 days per week. More is better so long as you don't overdo it and hurt yourself.

Of the food you eat, you should strive to reduce the fat content of your meals as much as possible. Since you are trying to burn fat, you don't want to keep adding it back. Try to eat sensible, balanced meals with primarily carbohydrate calories. You don't need massive amounts of protein. Stay away from the Atkins Memorial Diet. Stay away from fast food restaurants.

Do not neglect to eat breakfast. A bowl of cereal with non-fat or low-fat milk, a couple of slices of toast (no butter), a bagel, etc. Eating breakfast provides neccessary carbs for your brain and helps keep you from overeating at lunch.

Don't starve yourself. The body has remarkable self-preservation mechanisms and if you cut back too much on calories, it will respond by slowing your metabolism and break down muscle tissue to create them.

After you lose the fat, you have to keep up the good habits. That's the hard part. But if you make regular exercise part of your lifestyle, you will less prone to put the fat back on - even if you do have an occaisional cheeseburger.

Sugar zooms into the blood. Your body looks at this and says 'Wow, too much, time to shove some of this into fat'. Then your blood sugar level drops, and you're hungry, or worse. If you're exercising, your body is not likely to have that reaction.

Unless you are exercising hard or fast enough to immediately utilize it relying on simple sugars for energy will overwhelm your bodys ability to store and utilize it as it hits the bloodstream really fast.You end up with swings of energy(with more sugar cravings for a quick boost every time the blood sugar hits a low) and chronic problems over time.Second as simple sugars generally have a "good" taste they are easy too overcomsume and become "addicted " too compounding the above problems.You can only store a finite amount of carbs of any type(as glycogen)for energy then the rest are stored as fat.Generally more complex carbs(such as oatmeal/brown rice)make better storage carbs while simple sugars are better for quick immediately utilized energy for sprinting or to take advantage of a storage window immediately post exercise.
About your calorie question as I have said before a low calorie diet may work initially if you have a lot of weight to lose but you will eventually stall out particularlly if you exercise much as your metabolism slows down to compensate as a defensive mechanism.A better approach (either initially or once you plateau from a lower calorie diet)is to create a more modest calorie deficit particularly if you exercise much and lose the fat at a more gradual but sustainable pace .View it as a lifestyle change to healthy eating habits .

Thinking to get rid of fat alone by aerobic exercise is almost complete BULL**** as well. I've cycled 17 000 km (a bit over 10 000 miles) in 1997 but barely lost any weight as high-intensity exercise induces hunger pangs that were uncontrollable.

No, your best bet is
- LOW-CARB, severely reduce % of carbs in your diet and limit them if possible to those necessary for workouts and cardio exercise and increase your protein intake to 2 g/kg body weight.
- WEIGHT TRAINING is the KEY element for losing fat while maintaining muscle mass
- the right type of cardio exercise, INTERVAL training works best... not the typical slog that is being recommended... you've got to work up your HR to higher levels.. it increases fitness and eventually burns more fat (after burn or EPOF)..

If anything, don't overdo cardio, limit it to high-intensity work for let's say maximally 45 min indoor or 80 K/50 mi outdoor if you want to do it 3x/wk.
Ideal combo is 3x/wk weight training (e.g. upper/lower body split) and 3x/wk cardio... 7th day is for rest.

This is all very similar to the program of Philips at Body-for-Life.. I've followed it for a while but now devote my time more to basic exercises (deadlift, squat, bench, cable row, chinning etc.)

Good luck!

Ivana

The key point is that it is necessary to get both diet and exercise right if you want a lean muscular body.Extremely low carbs is not necessary(particularly if you are active) but if you have problems controlling carbs and using them correctly it can be effective as a way to break the old habits while gradually learning to use carbs correctly .
As for intensity of cardio all exercise will burn calories and result in fat loss.If you are limited to an hour or less you will probably be better off working to up the intensity as much as possible to burn as many calories as possible and up the metabolism.For longer duration you can and need to sustain the exercise longer with a more moderate pace . You will burn a larger % of fat but must extend the distance/time to burn more total calories. Keep in mind high intensity or distance are a fairly advanced techniques that you need to work up to so it is generally wise to start at a more moderate pace/distance until your fitness improves to the point that you can work to improve the distance or intensity through intervals.I suggest you chose which ever style is more suited to you or use both to take advantage of the strengths of each approach.

If you want to go by pure numbers it depends on who you want to listin to.

The World Health Organization suggests no more than 10 percent of your total caloric intake to be in the form of siimple sugars. The Institute of Medicine came up with 25% (they got alot of flack for setting such a high limit). However, in general, the medical establishment concurs that we need to increase the amount of protein and vegetables and lower the carbohydrate requirements in the food pyramid. However, as Supcom stated, nothing to the ridiculous extent of the Atkin's diet which may work intially but besides some medical complications, difficult to sustain indefinately.


see a synopsis of their recommendations below

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/441639
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/452897



Even if I watch my calories, how will simple sugars effect me and weight loss?

In a nutshell, for every calorie you consume in simple sugars vs. say protein or complex carbohydrates your postprandial insulin levels are higher (The insulin levels in your blood right after eating). Thus, not only do you have the propensity for hypoglycemia 2-3 hrs later but insulin is a strong appetite stimulant which is why overconsumption of simple sugars actually increases your appetite, (not to mention you are just consuming empty calories without alot of nutrients.) A balanced approach as everybody above stated is definately in your best interest.