Fitness For All Teens

When we talk about fitness, it can either be performance-related fitness or health-related fitness. This teen fitness article focuses on both type of fitness that affects both the mind and the body of teen guys and teen girls. Being fit gives you more energy for work, school, and allows you to enjoy life better. It wards off heart attack, colon cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure; and being fit does not only assures good health but it makes you feel good about you and lets you stay active.

Yoga does a lot of great things to the mind and body of teenagers. It’s a simple solution to beating stress from exams, peer pressure, social anxiety and fear of being ridiculed common to teen guys and girls alike. If perform before and after study hours, yoga can have tremendous relaxing benefits that allows the mind to perform better.
Teens who are independent and loved variety can engage in aerobic exercise outside the gym. Running, cycling, swimming, tennis, dancing, are just some of the many that you can engaged in to build stamina and endurance while strengthening your heart muscle for better health. A 20 minute intense aerobic exercise three or more times a week is recommended by the American Heart Association. Active teenagers are most likely to develop active and healthy lifestyle as they grow older, and are healthier than their sedentary counterparts.

Teen wants to stay on top of everything; why not stay on top of your self defense. Martial art such as Kung Fu is a fun and exciting way to stay fit while building your confidence that comes from knowing that you can protect yourself. Martial art training relives tension and stress you experienced as a teenager whilst building up your fitness level. Spending time training martial arts is also a great diversion to occupy your self learning productive activities than otherwise.

The cheapest way to stay healthy and fit for teenagers is to have a good, well balanced diet rich in vitamins and minerals, and fibers from fruits and vegetable. Boys trying to beef up their muscles need to eat more protein rich food to spur muscle growth. It’s not so much about dieting but rather it is about healthy eating. When you are younger, your body’s metabolic processes are most likely working well so that you do not need to worry too much about calories. Naturally though, teenagers are active so that you need more calories than adults. However, if you tend to be sedentary often, that’s when you get the problem of sugar and fats in your body. That is why you need to live like a teenager, go out and have fun.

You do not need a lot of money to finance your fitness activities. You can seek advice from your friends or relatives who knows about staying fit and healthy, and just try to fit their advice on your lifestyle, and financial and physical capacity. Certainly staying away from smoking is the cheapest and surest way to ensure healthy lungs and tip-top stamina.

Atkins Diet - Eat Well Lose Weight?

Now there is a diet that will help you in losing weight with a promise of never being hungry. Sounds impossible right? No, it is not because of a new diet revolution called the Atkins diet.

The Atkins diet is a low-carbohydrate diet that was formulated by Dr. Robert Atkins. It is also known as Atkins and Atkins Nutritional Approach. Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution along with other series of books was authored by Dr. Atkins to discuss his concepts and ideas on the diet. Some of the health benefits are better memory and heart functions to name a few.

Dr. Robert Atkins formulated the Atkins diet to solve his own overweight problem. Based on a theory, overweight people ingest more carbohydrates. Since carbohydrates and fat are utilized for energy and carbohydrates are burned first, eating lesser carbohydrates means that body fat is burned in its stead.

The Atkins diet, even though has many success stories for losing weight is primarily for preventing disease, good health and maintaining weight. Further, it has four phases. The first phase is the induction phase wherein you are restricted to having only 20 grams of carbohydrates in a day. Alcoholic and caffeinated drinks and beverages are prohibited in this phase and mostly 4 ounces of meat, cheeses, 3 tablespoons of cream, 2 cups salad vegetables and 1 cup low carbohydrate vegetables is allowed. It has been reported that weight loss often occur at this stage.

The second phase of the Atkins diet is the ongoing weight loss (OWL) phase wherein 5 grams of carbohydrates is added every week to find the critical amount of carbohydrate intake that is essential for losing weight. If 4.5 kilograms or 10 pounds is reached within the target weight then the OWL phase stops.

Pre-maintenance is the phase succeeding the OWL phase where there is an increase in carbohydrate intake so that the amount of carbohydrate intake for maintaining weight is found.

The last phase of the Atkins diet is the lifetime phase. Under this phase, it is assumed that the habits achieved throughout the other phases are maintained so that you will not go back to pre-Atkins habits and weight. This phase values unprocessed food and it is a choice to go back to earlier stages if weight gain is experienced.

There are some people who are for or against the Atkins diet. It is important to see their views before embarking on the diet regimen right away.

Anti-Atkins

• Atkins is connected with renal disease, heart disease, colon cancer and osteoporosis.
• Since it is a protein diet (mostly meat products) it is not vegetarian-friendly.
• It is a diet low in fiber but high in cholesterol and saturated fats.
• Calcium, potassium and magnesium are below the recommended daily values for the body.

Pro-Atkins

• Fat and protein can be taken in.
• There is weight loss (steady and rapid).
• Appetite is reduced.
• Sugars and processed grains taken in are lessened.
• Atkins diet is a life-time diet plan.
• You can never be hungry with this diet plan. The popliarity of the Atkins diet was during the years 2003 and 2004.

Statistics also showed that for every 11 adults, 1 was on the Atkins diet in the peak of its popularity. But with Atkins gaining popularity, sales of carbohydrates-heavy products declined tremendously. Soft drink companies even tried their hand in low-carbohydrate products to keep up with the trend. But when Dr. Robert Atkins had a fatal injury in the head which also lead to his death in 2003, rumors circulated that he suffered from a heart condition that was caused by his weight. In the year 2005, the company Atkins Nutritional filed for bankruptcy because of poor sales.