Most people experience water retention or bloating at some point or another. Eating certain foods or health conditions can increase it. It leads to increase water storage in your body, leading to increased weight, bloated feeling and overall feeling heavy.
Wonder how you can avoid it or reduce it. We have tips for you, on how you can reduce your bloating belly.

Note, that these won’t reduce the fat! For that, you need to get on a proper weight loss plan. Read below for tips to reduce the bloating

Bloated belly (Mamo@flickr)

Reduce salty foods- Salt contains sodium. Water molecules are attracted to sodium, so you’ll retain more fluids if you pour on the seasoning or eat lots of processed foods. Examples of high salt (or high sodium) foods are pickles, chips, many canned foods, processed foods- excess sodium is added to increase shelf life.

Soft Drinks- The gas content (carbonation) in soft drinks can cause bloat. Alcohol, coffee and some fruit juices also can cause intestinal irritation and swelling, so stick mainly to water and unsweetened teas that will help your body flush out waste products.

Eating certain Vegetables- Broccoli, cabbage, kidney beans, onions and peppers are top examples of healthy foods that contain difficult-to-digest carbohydrates, which can cause gas. Even if you’re susceptible, don’t stop eating these vegetables; try limiting servings to a half cup at a time. Cooking raw veggies also helps. (Wonder if people on raw food diets are really gassy?)

High Fat foods- Fried dishes in particular take a long time to digest. That’s why it may feel heavy and bloated. Aim for healthy fats such as salmon, olive oil, nuts and seeds.

Some more tips:
- Avoid chewing gum- it promotes intake of air into the digestive tract.
- Eating slowly helps digest your food better
- Lactose intolerance can also cause bloating.

Post from: Fitho.in. If you'd like to read more health and fitness information, check out Fitho.in

You’ve probably heard that you need to eat 5-8 meals per day to get fit and lose weight .. its everywhere: on TV, on the internet, in magazines, etc. Eating a large number of meals seems to be the secret behind the weight loss of many people.

But is it really? Do you think they lost weight because of the number of meals that they ate? So, going from 3 meals per day to 6 meals per day will make you lose weight?

Healthy fruits vegetables- grocery bag

At Fitho, we believe that this multiple meals per day concept has become a bit of a fad, so let’s get real about this, and help you solve the mystery of multiple meals. Let’s delve into this, to really understand this

Multiple meals per day are recommended for 2 main reasons:
- Having long gaps between meals can lead to craving, and consumption of unhealthy foods.
- The metabolic advantage: more often you eat, more calories you burn. We’ll explain this in a bit.

Let’s talk about the metabolic advantage. Basically, your body burns calories trying to digest food. Now, by increasing the number of meals that we eat, we are trying to ‘cheat the system’ by making the digestive system work more, and thus burn just a few more calories.

Now the question is how many more calories does your body burn by eating multiple meals per days. The fact is not that many more. Most people’s daily calorie burn (by Basal Metabolic Rate) ranges between 1300-1800 calories per day. By increasing the number of meals from 3 to 8, you probably increase it incrementally. Let’s be generous and say 5%. That is a total of 60-100 calories more per day.
To lose 0.5 kg per week, your body needs to have a deficit of about 500 calories per day. So, in the bigger picture of calorie burning and weight loss, 60-100 calories per day is not enough to make a real dent in your weight loss!

So, even if you do eat 6 meals per day for the ‘metabolic advantage’, the key to weight loss is to make sure that there is enough calorie deficit. So, one of the keys is that over a larger number of meals, you need to eat fewer calories. Doesn’t that seem tougher? It might or might not be. The real key here is to control your cravings and your mind. Even with 6 meals a day, you could land up craving unhealthy foods, so its not a fool proof method to cut cravings & calories.

The last point that we have about the 6 meals per day diet is somewhat cultural. We are Indian, and from the land of Yoga. From all the latest research, it all goes to validate that Yoga principles seem to be  deeply scientific. Even Yoga recommends eating after an interval of 4 hours, which leads to 3 meals a day. The idea is that is the time your body needs to complete the full digestion process, before you start another one.
We are not Yoga experts, but we believe that it must have some healthy relevance.

So, is 6 meals too many? How many meals are you eating?

Post from: Fitho.in. If you'd like to read more health and fitness information, check out Fitho.in

Ever wanted to buy a treadmill, or a cycle, or even dumbbellls, but not sure how to decide, or what points to keep in mind, while buying any kind of fitness equipment.

We’ll tell you how you can get the best deals on fitness equipment, and also what really matters when buying, whether its a resistance bands, or a multigym. Read below for more..

metallic-dumb-bells

We have introduced an equipment buying service, where you tell us what you’re requirements are. Our fitness experts, will advise you on what features you should really look out for, and what’s just a frill (and not required). For eg, when you buy a treadmill, along with the power of the motor, you need to make sure that the running area is structured to your requirements. Also, cushioning is important. Read more about buying treadmills.

Also, did you know that its not just the equipment brand that matters. It is also the country of manufacturing that can decide the quality of the product.

That way, you only buy equipments & features that will really be good for you.

Then, since we work in this space, we can get you discounts with the leaders retailers and brands on all kinds of fitness equipment in India. We are not associated with any brand or retailer, so we do not recommend specific products.

So, if you want to buy a little pair of dumbbells or a want to equip your home gym or office gym, all you need to do is call 011-2923-6553/54 or email fitness@fitho.in

Here is the list of fitness equipments that we cover: Treadmills, Cross Trainers, Exercises Cycles, Dumbbells, Resistance Bands, Total Gyms, Multi Gyms, Free Weight Stations, Swiss Balls & more.

If you need help with buying any equipment, or to get the best deals and discounts, try our Fitness Equipment Buying Service. To know more, call 011-2923-6553/54 or email fitness@fitho.in

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Arms are the most exposed body part of most people- men and women. So, everyone wants toned arms. Women wonder how to lose arm flab. Men wonder how to get muscular arms. By doing a few simple exercises, you can easily get toned arms.

Red Small Dumbbell Weights

Note that there are two parts to your arms- biceps and triceps. So, the exercises listed below are both bicep exercises and tricep exercises, which as a combination give you great arms!

Bicep Curl: A beginner’s exercise but most classic and effective of all for biceps. Biceps curls can be done using any of the following equipment: Dumbbells, Barbell, Cable machine, Biceps curling machine. Try the variation by alternating bicep curl as it allows you to focus on one arm at a time and give the other arm a rest. How to perform bicep curl.

Lying Tricep Extension: Skull Crusher or Lying triceps extensions are an effective way to gain muscle tone. One of the most important things to remember when performing this exercise is to focus on technique.
This Triceps exercise will add on the progress if you perform it correctly. How to perform Tricep Extension.

Bench Dip: Dipping is one of the oldest exercises known. Long before the barbell and dumbbell were invented, ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian athletes and soldiers used dips to develop muscle and power. More people have used this movement for upper-body development than any other exercise. Dips are also used by every sports person as part of his conditioning program. How to perform Bench Dips.

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If you live in Delhi or actually India, you have probably heard about the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2010. Its an annual event, over the last 5-6 years, and each year it grows bigger. Each year, more people participate in the event.

Wonder why people participate? First, because its a lot of fun, and many people use it to get fit!

Now, there are 2 events- the 7 km fun run and the 21 km half marathon. Most people do the 7 km fun run. If you have never run 7 km, don’t worry about it. We can help you with that. Read below..

Tips to run better (omsel@flickr)

At Fitho, we have a run training plan for you. With as little as 20 minutes per day, you would be able to do the 7 km fun run, and get into the best shape of your life- lose the fat, tone up, get fitter, and at the end of it, accomplished a 7 km run! See our running success stories, with photos: how she went from 0 km to 7 km

To know more or get started, call 011-2923-6553/54 or emal fitness@fitho.in

Our marathon training plan is both for new runners and present runners. For those who run currently, we can help you increase distance, improve speed & performance & overall make you fitter and a better runner.

See our list of running tips, places to run in Delhi. and more running information.

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Most people want to look fit and toned. If you pick those body parts that are expose your fitness and tone the most- calves are one of them! Toned calves help you look good in anything that’s higher than ankle length. Great calves give great legs.

The fortunate part of toning your calves is that they’re small muscles, so they only need a couple of exercises to focus on them. Compound exercises like squats and lunges will also tone them. Besides these, running, stair climbing, cycling are also great for toning calves.

calf-muscle-leg

Here are exercises that can help you carve those calves! Make sure you focus the weight on the calves, control the movement and go through the full range of motion at the ankle to maximize the benefits from the exercise:

Standing Calf-Raise: The calf Raise is a really versatile exercise- can be done on stairs, in a park or in the gym, with or without equipment. If it’s too easy, add some weights and watch those calves tone up!
See how to perform standing calf raise exercise.

Seated Calf Raise: The seated calf raise is a variation of the standing calf raise. See how to perform seated calf raise exercise.

Strengthening legs and calf muscles transfer more power to walking, running, and jumping.

As always, after your workout, do your muscle stretches for maximal benefits, reduced pain and relaxation. So, after you perform calf exercises, make sure you stretch.

See more leg exercises.

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We have the official dates for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2010. Its on Nov 21, 2010.

Registrations should open in September. As is standard, there should be 2 main events: 7km fun run and the 21k half marathon. Other details are still pending, but we’ll keep you updated! To be totally updated, sign up for our Marathon Updates.

Read below on how to get ready for the 7k or the 21k

Marathon Runners (varcos@flickr)

Preppring for the 7km run
If you’re not a runner, it takes approx 2-3 months based on your fitness level to be able to run the 7k.
If you are a runner, it can take less time- anywhere between 1-2 months. See the 7km run training program.

Prepping for the 21km run
If you can already run 5k, then it takes 3 months to prepare for the 21k
If you’re a veteran run, then it can take you less than 2 months for the 21k.
See the 21km run training program.

Sounds like too much- don’t worry, with 2 months, we’ll comfortably get you on track and running! Both these plans will get you into phenomenal shape and they are a lot of fun!

See our run training success stories. To know more on how to get started for the 7k or the 21k or just start running, call 011-2923-6553/54 or email fitness@fitho.in

We have lots of running information for you- see our running section. If you’re not a runner, get started now! Its the time to start preparing. We have enough tips on our site to get to started: Tips to Run Better Part 1, Tips to Run Better Part 2, Tips to Run Better Part3.

Here is a list of running routes in Delhi. If you have never run before, and want to, we have a training plans for both 7k and 21k runs.

To stay updated on how to participate in the 2009 Airtel Delhi Half Marathon, sign up with our Marathon Updates newsletter - registration, dates, routes, fees, age eligibility criteria, etc! Sign up with our newsletter and we’ll keep you updated!

In case you can’t wait to know more, here is information on the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2009.

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Toned thighs are great for your body. They help you look good in shorts, and provide functional strength to perform any of your daily activities.

The trick to getting nicely sculpted thighs and glutes is specifically targeting these muscle groups -the quadriceps (front of the thighs), hamstrings (back of the thighs), and gluteals (butt).

slim-woman-stretching-beach

Thigh muscles are the largest muscles in the body, the upper leg muscles, are made up of quadriceps (front of your thighs), hamstrings (back of your thighs), abductors (outer thighs), and adductors (inner thighs). Working these out helps you burn calories faster than working smaller vanity muscles like abdominals or arms.

You can perform thigh toning exercises from the comfort of your own home without fancy gym equipment and still see results in as little as four to six weeks. It also helps reduce, even remove cellulite. Below are a few leg exercises that help you tone your thighs and help you develop functional strength and help.

Wall Squat: Wall Squatting is said to be an ancient Chinese temple exercise that has been secretly practiced for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Even if you practice it now, you’ll see the benefits. See how to perform the wall squat.

Seated Butterfly: The seated butterfly exercises the inner thigh. Another exercise that belongs to the royal family of compound movements. Much like the squat, this is another movement that you can literally base an entire training program around and see amazing results. See how to perform seated butterfly exercise.

Lying Leg Curl: The lying leg curl is a highly popular and effective exercise that aims to tone and strengthen the hamstrings, the muscles that stretch from the back of the hip to the back of the knee. See how to perform the lying leg curl.

Perform these exercises 2 times a week and see the benefits See more leg exercises.

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