I had an ACL surgery back in the beginning of September and am still recovering from it. So it is with interest that I read the recent news that a new ligament in the knee was discovered. It’s interesting that the scientists didn’t discover it until now, even though a French surgeon had predicted it already back in the 19th century. This news is helpful for people who have had ACL surgeries, as a number of them, even after a successful surgery, still have knees that give way. This is caused by the fact that their anterolateral ligament is injured as well, something that had not been known up until now. This discovery could result in new techniques in ACL surgery.
Category: Health Page 2 of 3
We have all seen the notorious beer bellies. Whether on the beach or anywhere else, many men sport a protruding gut which makes them look pregnant. 🙂 This is actually something that can be even seen with skinny guys. Some skinny guys, while otherwise very thin, can also be seen sporting pot bellies, leading to the very sad condition of being skinny-fat. So how does drinking beer and alcohol in general affect weight gain and fat gain?
Drinking water is one of the basic things that you need to do every day. Your body needs water in order to function. That’s why it is very important to stay hydrated and to keep constantly replenishing your fluids. This is especially important if you want to gain weight and muscle and generally if you do any type of exercise. When exercising, your body raises its temperature and so in order to cool down, it starts releasing sweat, which is primarily composed of fluids. So in this way your body is losing fluids fast and needs them to be replenished. Dehydration is a serious health risk. You also need to keep a balance between the amount of fluids in your body and electrolytes. If this balance is not maintained or if in general your body loses its fluids, then serious problems will arise.
Do you remember the scene from the movie “Idiocracy” where they talk about electrolytes? Throughout the movie they keep repeating the phrase: “It’s got electrolytes!” WTF are electrolytes? That was the initial reaction that I had (people who know me know that I use the phrase “WTF” a lot 🙂 ). I’ve seen it on sports drinks, but never had any idea of what it actually means.
What is a microbiome you ask and why I should I care about it? Also what does this have to do with weight gain? The microbiome are the communities of microorganisms, literally trillions, that live inside the human body. Many people don’t realize that besides things like organs, blood, hormones…etc., the body also contains trillions of little microorganisms that live inside it and have a significant impact on it. These are most often single-celled organisms belonging to the Archaea kingdom. Archaea are prokaryotes and have no cell nucleus or organelles within themselves. There are however some bacteria as well. All these are generally considered harmless and usually do not cause disease (except for some rare circumstances). Many of them can aid the human body in a variety of functions, but recent changes in the human environment have also altered some aspect of the microbiome for the worse. Recent research indicates that some of the microorganisms can play a significant role in how a person gains weight.
If you want to gain weight in a healthy way (or even lose weight), then eating healthy fats is a must. One of the sources of these are avocados. You can eat avocados in different ways, either fresh straight up or you can add them to a wide variety of salads if you want. You can even mix them up in a mixer and drink them, maybe adding them to other fruits and making a refreshing drink for yourself. Avocados contain all kinds of good stuff: fiber, vitamins A, B, C, E, K, and minerals such as phosphorus, potassium, zinc, magnesium, iron and manganese. Above all however, the avocado is known as a prime source of healthy fats.
We all want to get big and strong, gain weight and muscle, and there are different routes that people take to get there. Some people take the steroid route and get big and strong fast, however this often has direct health effects later on in their life. Taking steroids was actually legal back in the day and many of the old school bodybuilders like Arnold freely admit that they did take them. However many of us decide to take the natural route. Even with the natural route, you can however take different supplements that are supposed to be safe and without any illegal substances. It turns out that sometimes they are not.
What is fast metabolism and what does it have to do with a person gaining or losing weight? Basically metabolism means the collective chemical processes that your body uses in order to convert the food that you eat into energy that the body can use to function. By eating, you ingest a certain number of calories and those are then broken down. The basal metabolic rate (BMR) is a term that is often used when discussing issues concerning weight loss or weight gain and refers to the rate at which your body breaks down food. This rate is measured at the time that the body is not engaging in physical activity (is at rest) and therefore measures the amount of energy that your body is using in order to sustain the basic life functions (things such as breathing and your internal organs such as the lungs, heart and others). A fast metabolism refers to your body breaking down food at a fast rate.
Many people wrongly assume that the BMR = maintenance calories. That is not so. BMR (basal metabolic rate) is the amount of calories that your body needs just to function. That means to sustain all the vital organs like the heart and the basic functions like breathing.
Most people, besides breathing and staying at rest, also do other things during the day, like walking and sometimes even being active. 🙂
All these activities require a greater expenditure of calories than the BMR. So in order to change your weight you need to find what your MAINTENANCE calories are. Maintenance calories are your BMR calories + the amount of calories that you expend throughout the day on going around doing your daily activities (for example walking or doing sports).
If your goal is to gain weight, then you should eat more calories than your maintenance calories. For people that are trying to lose weight, they should first calculate their BMR and their maintenance calories. After that they need to eat less calories than their maintenance calories, but still more than their BMR.
