"Know your basics"


"Know your basics" section. 


1.0 - Contents


1.0 - Contents
1.1 - About me and the blog
1.2 - Explanations and tables
1.3 - Where to begin
1.4 - BMI and Co.
1.5 - Body water percentage
1.6 - Body fat
1.7 - Next steps


1.1 - About me and the blog



My name is Valeed Ghafoor, I have decided to try and create a blog regarding health management in the hopes it might benefit even 1 person for a lasting change.


I have enjoyed eating as much as the next person, often indulged in unhealthy snacks, eating patterns and was too busy with life to really care, more concerned about upcoming exams, watching tv, playing games and just generally looking for ways to pass time.


As the years went on my eating patterns and tendencies worsened and I quickly found myself overweight and then eventually obese, now feeling uncomfortable with my size and appearance I began feeling depressed and before I knew it I became more irritable, angry and unsociable.
Whereas this was just my personal reaction to the situation or not is irrelevant, I know others who have been though similar phases, and so I tried working out, eating healthy, hitting highs and lows. Having weeks where my diet and work outs were amazing and then weeks were I could not care less and I just wanted to enjoy myself.


The problem is that most people work out too hard and go at the entire weight management situation too strongly making it soo difficult, that a person cannot realisticly actually stick to it. 


Having studied human psychology, the human anatomy and physiology through studying Medicine and most importantly personally being through many different stages of weight gain and loss, muscle gain and loss, I felt it would be helpful if I tried to create a guide of some kind that gave tried and tested advice, and where possible with medical and scientific evidence.


This guide will be in 2 (and eventually more) parts:


1) A general information, advice section almost to teach the value of knowing key facts such as the relevance of water to weight, exploring the meaning behind water-weight, teaching how to accurately measure body fat and deduce the lean body mass of your own body.


2) A more specific section, detailing tips and advice for those with their specific goals, e.g. gaining muscle size, gaining definition, losing weight and how they apply to different situations, along with the do's and don'ts of how to get there.


Future sections should hopefully include, specifics relating to foods and breaking down calories, fat types (LDLs, transfats, saturated fats etc) and explaining more about the science relating to energy input and output.


Also another hopeful section will be regarding illness, diseases, views on these and their managements.


The purpose of this blog is to increase the well being of the reader both physcially and  mentally meaning tips and advice will be given depending on the goals you had in mind. This is important because what is good for weight loss is not good for muscle gain etc.


Before you read the different sections, I would like to point out there are no shortcuts in health management. If there is say a shortcut to looking physically ripped, it could depending on the methods used, lead to nutritional deficiencies and low blood pressure. Which could have immense conseqences such as black outs, light headedness and progressively fainting and in the long run even muscle damage and weakness.


Results and achievements are all specific to the person, if you feel you are doing everything correctly and not seeing any results, it might be worth going to see a Doctor, incase you have a genetic predisposition (increased chance) to gaining weight, or perhaps a problem with metabolism such as an under or over active thyroid gland.


I am not aiming to compete with any other sites, blogs, organisations or doing this to make a profit, if you find faults or inaccuracies in the information I provide please don't follow it and let me know so i can edit it. The focus is to entirely benefit you and so if something is not relevent or I have made a mistake simply send me an email and I will correct it.


1.2 - Explanations and tables



Abbreviations and Explanations
There will be abbreviations and terms you may not be used to, this page exists to explain those terms.


1)Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) : Is the rate at which your bodies "Metabolism" occurs, it gives you this information as a number, illustrating in the form of "Calories" what your daily intake should be simply to sustain yourself, meaning the minimum number of calories a person needs, to not lose or gain weight.


2)Metabolism ; Is the processes of breaking apart large molecules for energy aka Catabolism, and the process of fusing 2 small molecules together to make a larger one aka Anabolism. A fast or high metabolism means molecules in the individual are quickly broken down and fused together to give rapid amounts of energy, this is very typical for a person who is a bodybuilder and so has increased their metabolism (which is why they need to eat a LOT and are always hungry lol) to keep up with the demands of their muscles.


3)Body Mass Index (BMI) : Explained in detail later, but is basicly something the NHS recommends Doctors to use to assess the risk of their patients developing heart disease due to the relationship between their height and weight.


4)Lean Body Mass (LBM): Is the amount of weight of a person that does not take into account their body fat, typically a person may exercise and see no long term loss of weight, only a loss in the short term. This is usually because initially the persons muscles were working and burned the fat in the body for fuel, hence the persons weight decreases due to loss of body fat. Later the person could find the weight actually increases, and even though they may appear slimmer this is because the muscles have begun to grow, so even though body fat may continue to drop the LBM is actually increasing, and since muscle weighs approximately 2.5-3 times as much as fat, weight gain is often seen in people who take up strength dependant sports such as Boxing and Wrestling. Note the weight gain is only in measurement and the person themselves may appear toned or slim or even bigger, in these people measuring the BMI is inaccurate.



LBM continued : Once a person knows the LBM they can go on to work out the BMR, which will be shown later. However this only gives a rough value and must then be multiplied by a factor proportionate to the activity of the person:
> A lazy person, factor = 1.2
> 1-2 gym sessions or mild exercise a week, factor= 1.35
> 2-4 gym sessions or regular - competitve sports, factor = 1.55
> 5 or more gym sessions or Athlete training , factor = 1.75


BMR x factor = True BMR usually around 1700-2300 for lazy person, 2400-2600 for an average person and over 3100 for a serious person at the gym, range would be skewed a little bit lower for females.


Body fat percentage: This is a theme that will come up and be discussed later but see below for the body fat percentage categories:


                    Women body fat %          Men body fat %
Classification
Essential fat                  10-12%                        2-4%
Athletes                       14-20%                        6-13%
Fitness                         21-24%                       14-17%
Acceptable                   25-31%                        18-25%
Obese                          32%+                           25%+


1.3 - Where to begin



There are many aspects to being healthy, and many things to take into account. Falling within the ranges can be difficult and sometimes the ranges themselves are not entirely accurate or have a deeper meaning to them, or sometimes even need slight tweaking so they are correct for you. Things to consider are: 


> Your weight (below on this page)


And perhaps most importantly what range you should be aiming for.


These things will be considered inthe next few sections.


1.4 - BMI and Co.



Those of you who know about BMI have probably noticed the joke regarding the "and Co." this is because BMI is almost never mentioned on its own, but rather always along with how its very inacurate, and central obesity is a better measure, and even a step further how we should use the "Waist-Hip Ratio" instead. Its all covered on this page.


This is a method which takes your weight and height into account and uses the formula:
Weight in Kg /  (height in meters)^2.       


In other words multiply your height in meters by itself and call it "b", take your weight in kg and call it "a". Finally divide a by b to get your BMI. 


the BMI ranges are as follows :
>Men ideally 18-24.                                  (16.5-22.5 for south asian men)
>Women ideally 18.5-24.5.                        (17-23 for south asian women)


Women have a typically higher body fat % than men and that is healthy. This is partly to do with the female biology and the need for natural steroid production which is dependent on cholesterol (from fats), and partly to aid the female frame for pregnancy etc. 


It has been shown that the south asian population has a greater risk of developing diabetes, some say this is due to the traditional south asian diet and lifestyle and others say there is also a slight genetic predisposition for them to gain weight. Hence the ideal BMI for them is lower than the average person.


Your BMI being above your range indicates you are overweight and a BMI nearing 30-31 usually indicates obesity and suggests you have an increased risk of developing heart problems.


However notice that BMI is a measure of your weight against your height, and not specifically your body fat, and so if you are infact "Big or heavy boned" or are rather muscular, you will have an inaccuratly high BMI, nevertheless it is a good indication to give a general idea if you do not do weight training.


A more accurate way to assess your weight range is to combine your BMI and compare it to your "Central Obesity" which is a measure of your waist in inches usually slightly above your belly button.


Central obesity is usually used in conjuction with your hip measurement in inches to give a ratio. Known as the "Waist-Hip Ratio".
A man's ideal Waist-Hip Ratio is approximately equal to or under 1.   (e.g. both waist is 32" and hip is 32", gives ratio of 1)
A female's ideal Waist-Hip Ratio is approximately equal to or under 0.8.   (e.g. waist is 32" and hip is 40", gives ratio of 0.8)


Using the combination of BMI and the Waist-Hip Ratio you can usually quite accurately gauge if you are overweight, obese or simply big boned or muscular.


1.5 - Body water percentage



When people talk health usually it starts and ends with talks about weight, however a portion of your weight is water, as atleast 50% of our body should be made up of water. having too little water in your diet can lead to having a low blood pressure, kidney problems, dehydration, constipation, headaches and light headedness to name a few. The ironic thing is its also very easy to have too much water which leads to having a high blood pressure which goes without saying is very dangerous.


Even if people do not drink the recommended 3.5-4L of water a day they shouldnt be dehydrated or have severe side effects, and people rarely would drink in large excess of 4L to the point of developing blood pressure.
this raises 2 questions:
1)Why can water affect blood pressure to such an extent? 
2)What is it that affects the body water % so much?


1)Water travels in the blood vessels mixed with blood and nutrients, the vessels have elastic walls which regulate the pressure inside them. When the water levels increase significantly the amount of fluid in the vessels has increased and so there is a greater strain on the vessel walls, this is known as there being a "high tension" in the vessels aka "Hypertension" (the medical term for high blood pressure), this leads to an increased strain on the heart and especially kidneys, and when present for many years can develop along with its complications and become severe and prove fatal.


2)Salt. Salt is made of sodium and chloride, and sodium has the ability to "take water wherever it goes", if you sweat you lose Sodium from the body and as a result lose water, and if you have too much salt in your diet you will consequently have too much water and so your blood pressure will increase. So even though water is immensly important, always remeber to maintain an appropriate salt level, so your Sodium levels do not rise too high or low. Approximately 5g of salt a day is the limit, however remember salt is present in many products and so it's important to take into account ready-made food when checking your daily salt intake.


Having an ideal body water % means, muscles and cells in the body are receiving the blood at the correct pressure and contain the essential amounts of nutrients. This is important for muscle recovery and growth aswell as general body and muscle function. Having deficiencies in ions and nutrients can affect the body water %.


Tips from me:


1) If you have an increased body wter % it could be a reason for appearing bigger and overweight, and so simple water-weight loss methods may be all you need to lose weight such as:
   > Using a sauna suit
   > Sitting in a sauna 
   > Reducing your salt content
The converse can be true if you are underweight but have a low or ideal body fat % already, it could just be you don't have enough water, and may need to increase your salt intake slightly.


2) If you do use a sauna suit or do things to heat your body in order to sweat and lose Sodium and water, please take into account other valuble nutrients are also lost and so it might be wise to also take vitamin and nutirent suppliments to ensure you do not become nutrient deficient.


1.6 - Body fat



When people worry about weight, it's usually just that, the weight. The weight of a person takes every single thing about them into account such as organs, water, bones, muscle and fat, however to get the most reliable measure of health by checking weight, what we must focus on is the fat, appropriately named "Body Fat". Some scales can measure body fat for you, however they may be expensive and not entirely accurate. I have found a website which some of you may have come across, it gives you 4 different readings for body fat each of which has used a different system to come to an answer, and usually when you take the average of all 4 you get a quite reliable answer. 
(Here is the link http://www.healthstatus.com/cgi-bin/calc/calculator.cgi ) 


The measurement is usually given as a percentage after taking multiple measurements from your body into account. Body fat percentage is very important in knowing whether or not you are overweight or obese, and is the gold standard compared to BMI, there are also a number of things we can do once we know our body fat percentage. The first is to work out our body fat in Kg, to do this take the percentage as a decimal and multiply it by your weight.
e.g Say you are a male and your weight is 100Kg and you were 29% body fat you would do the math as : 0.29 x 100Kg= 29Kg     Hence 29Kg is your body fat (as weight).


If you subtract your body fat from your weight you obtain your LBM so: 100Kg - 29Kg = 71Kg this is the LBM.


This can now be used to figure out what your BMR is by using the following formula : 370 + (21.6 x LBM)= BMR.  
In this case: 370 + (21.6 x 71)=1903.6 or 1904.   


Now this is a raw value and to work out your accurate value you should multiply this by a "factor" which is dependent on your activity level. In this case lets say the person is 29% body fat because they do not exercise and so we would categorise them as "Lazy", you would therefore use the factor "1.2" (refer to "Continued and Tables" section for guide to factors).


1904 x 1.2 = 2284.8 or 2285. Normally an adult male is recommended to consume 2500calories a day for basic needs, but in this case because the person is lazy or does not workout and has a poor diet, his metabolism is lower than what it should be, so to simply lose weight he should reduce his calories by 15% (more than this could have adverse affects on him), and so he would need to reduce his calories by 343. 


This means if this man continued as normal and changed nothing but his calorie intake from 2285 to 1942 (after the 343 has been subtracted), then within 5-6 weeks he should notice some results.


It is important to note that if you have a slow metabolism it means your body does not need much energy to run on, and so it uses what little it needs and stores the rest as fat, and so to see noticable changes in appearance ideally 2-3months should be given, as it takes time for your body to use the fat reserves and to begin increasing your metabolism (taking energy from your food and fat at an increased rate) as it begins to realise it is not getting enough calories to sustain itself.  A person could theoretically starve themselves in terms of calories and see fast results, but this can cause immense pain, nausea, cramping, headaches, a low feeling and the dreaded "Stretchmarks". 


Also as mentioned in the "Introduction" section our body processes do require fat to make hormones, and that is a part of how we function so suddenly using all your fat supplies and having an abnormally low fat intake has disasterous affects on your health.


1.7 - Next steps


Now that the basics have been established, abbreviations, certain phrases and terms should no longer be confusing and hopefully eventually second nature. 


From this stage, actually now viewing your target body shape, weight, catering your diet, rest, workout routine and workout technique are the next steps and are discussed in section 2.0 "Getting the body you want".






No comments:

Post a Comment