Sugar – How Much Is Too Much?
I always thought I was pretty aware of the food I was eating. I knew to stay away from some foods because they were high in sugar, but I had no idea of how much sugar was too much sugar until I started doing some research. My research was prompted by the cleanse I was following from Tony Horton’s book, Bring It!, which required the elimination of sugar duing a portion of the cleanse.
Between Tony’s book and an article from our Team Beachbody Newsletter, I feel like I have a better understanding of what sugar can do, why I need to limit my intake of added/hidden sugar, and what my daily limit should be. By the way, you can get Tony’s book at a local bookstore or online. The weekly newsletters are free and full of useful health and fitness information. You can get the newsletter free when you open a Beachbody account which is also free.
Here’s the skinny. The average American consumes 124 grams of sugar per day which is about thirty one teaspoons of sugar per day or put in another perspective, about 500 calories per day! And added sugar is hidden in many foods like yogurt, ketchup, spaghetti sauce, and even Vanilla soy milk – all foods in my healthy pantry. It’s no wonder I had sugar cravings every day before I did the cleanse.
In addition to weight gain and sugar crashes, excessive sugar in your diet can contribute to a host of diseases and conditions. It contributes to hyperactivity, depression and anxiety. It suppresses the immune system and increases the risk of blood clots and strokes. It can also lead to hypoglycemia, kidney damage and an elevation in harmful cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, tooth decay, and even the excerlation of aging.
After detoxing from sugar for a few weeks, I am no longer craving ice cream or chocolate on a daily basis. I have not experienced the highs and lows I attributed to hormonal changes. I feel content and balanced.
So, how much sugar is too much? The American Heart Association recommends limiting sugar to 6-7 percent of your daily calories. Sugar is a simple carbohydrate which has four calories per gram, so let’s do the math. For a 1200 calorie diet, your limit should be 21 grams (1200 calories x 7 percent, divided by four). For a 1500 calorie diet, your limit should be 25 grams (1500 x 7 percent, divided by 4).
26 grams might sound like a cake walk (sweet pun intended), but it’s not. One Tablespoon of the Fat Free creamer I used to use in my coffee has 5 grams of sugar in it! That’s 20% of my daily limit…and I probably poured twice that in each cup of coffee.
Learn to read labels and Tony says to watch out for the following words, especially the High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS):
Beet Sugar
Brown Sugar
Coconut Sugar
Corn Syrup
Fructose
Glucose
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Molasses
Raw Sugar
Sucrose (table sugar)
Sugar
I find all kinds of helpful information from the Team Beachbody newsletter every week. I feel like I’m getting a free education from experts in their fields. I highly recommend opening your free account, so you can get the newsletter, too.
90 Days of Rev Abs with Brett Hoebell
I’m still working on my Turbo Fire, ChaLean Extreme hybrid so what I am about to write surprises even me. My best friend is new to Beachbody and wants to do Brett Hoebell’s Rev Abs but has challenged me to do the workout with her for accountability. She lifts weights, does cardio and yoga but does not quite have the abdominal definition that she would like. Is Rev Abs the right product to get those cut abs everyone wants? Well, we’re about to put it to the test.
I have accepted the challenge and will be sure to write about our progress reports. I plan on continuing to mix in Turbo Fire and ChaLean Extreme. I have watched some of the video footage for Rev Abs. I am familiar with some of the martial arts type of moves Brett uses. They are similar to some of the martial arts exercises in Tony Horton’s P90X and Chalene Johnson’s Turbo Fire. That is right up my alley!
When the program arrives, I will review the workout schedule and get a better idea of how I can mix my two favorite programs without over exercising. When you get a new Beachbody work at home fitness exercise program, it is important to review the whole program before starting your first workout.
Rev Abs is a 90 day ab solutiona that has nine workouts on seven dvds. One of the techniques Brett uses is Capoeira. I was first introduced to Capoeira in Turbo Jam with Chalene Johnson. From what I hear, Brett specializes in the development of sizzling six pack abs by attacking them from six angles and teaching you how to engage your abs when you are doing other exercises such as squats.
With workouts such as Mercy Abs and Merciless Abs, I think I might be looking forward to some P90X Ab Ripper X. Oh, my. Like many people, working the abs is not my favorite thing. If I miss a workout during the week, it is probably an abdominal session. Maybe that is why so many people do not have the flat, sliced abs they want.
Can ordinary people get abs worth bragging about? Can we get abs worthy of a digital camera? We are about to begin a Rev Abs journey sure to answer these questions.
By the way, if you have not heard of Brett Hoebell (hoe – bell), watch The Biggest Loser this season. He is one of the new trainers. I think I will tune in to get to know him a little bit better as a trainer. In the meantime, I have some Turbo Fire to do today. Stay tuned for more updates on Rev Abs.
Roundhouse versus Side Push Kick in Turbo Workouts
aIs there a difference between the roundhouse and side push kicks in the kickboxing workouts trainer Chalene Johnson does in Turbo Jam, ChaLean Extreme, and Turbo Fire? Yes!
In the front push kick, your foot is flexed and your leg is pushing out in front of you as if you are pushing open a door. As you execute the kick, your belly is actually turned to a forty five degree angle. Your hips rotate while the kick is straight to the front.
According to Chalene, the biggest mistake people make with the front push kick is not rotating their hips. The abs and back are engaged with each kick when the kick is done with good form.
The side push kick is similar, but done to the side. You can imagine you are pushing someone away. The foot is still flexed, so if you made contact it would be with the bottom of your foot.
The roundhouse on the other hand, brings the foot around so the top of the foot slaps the object if contact is made. With the roundhouse, the toes are pointaed. With the push kick, the foot is flexed.
These tips come straight from Chalene Johnson in her Trainer Tips available only to Beachbody Club members. Traner Tips are usually videos. In this one, you can see Chalene performing these kicks and talking about the differences. The Beachbody Club membership allows exclusive access to Trainer Tips, nutrition planning and other cool benefits including a ten percent discount on all Beachbody products.
If you want to get a flavor of club membership, try out a free Beachbody account. You will not have full access to the members only areas but you can still use the online supergym to schedule your workouts and track your goals and progress.
TurboFire Day 17 Results and Review
Hi again! This is day 17 of my TurboFire program. It is week three, and today is my “rest” day. I guess this is actually week four if I include the 5 Day Inferno Plan week. Anyway, time is flying by because I abosolutely love doing the Turbo Fire workouts. This is one of the best Beachbody home fitness dvd workout programs, yet!
I knew TurboFire would be good because of how much I loved Chalene Johnson’s training methods in ChaLean Extreme. She is a “turbo” charged trainer who’s personal mission is to coach other people to live fuller lives.
The Fire 45EZ program this week was a totally different routine from the Fire 45. The only thing “easy” about this routine if anything is it does not have any fire drills. It is an invigorating cardio program that is non-stop from beginning to end. My heart rate was high and stayed that way. In a six second count, I was counting twenty beats. That is high for me.
By the end of the full routine, my legs were extremely fatigued. I could tell my intensity was decreasing because I was running out of juice. I had maxed out. Hmmm. Have I ever done this in a workout?
Tuesday’s class was another new routine. It was a HIIT 25 which sounded overwhelming to me when I say it on my workout schedule. The HIIT 15 is challenging. The HIIT 20 was just five more minutes, but something about twenty-five minutes just sounded impossible to me. Guess what? It is not as intimidating once you show up for class and just keep doing what Chalene asks you to do.
I think one of the successful things Chalene does is she changes the moves enough to forego boredom. You do not have time to realize you are tired. The breaks are frequent and just long enough to recover. Before you know it, you are in another fire drill and then, another break. Twenty-five minutes of HIIT seems much shorter than twenty-ve minutes on the elliptical.
Chalene always has encouraging words whether you are listening to her during class, following her on Twitter or Facebook, or reading a snipet in the TurboFire Tracker. The tip she talked about at the end of HIIT 25 was about the importance of wearing good shoes.
I workout in running shoes right now, but I want to get a good pair of cross-trainers. I think I would do better with a pair of court sport shoes (like those made for basketball, volleyball, or tennis) with all the plyometric jumping and quick lateral movements in TurboFire.
I do find that using floor mats helps absorb the shock of jumping. Before I used mats, doing knee lifts made my left knee hurt. I think it was because of the stress of the lateral movement. Anyway, it has been my experience that foam floor mats are a great investment whether you are doing TurboFire, Insanity, or P90X Plyometrics.
If you already have TurboFire, I would love to hear your progress on Twitter. Look me up. My screen name in Twitter is JustGetMeFit. By the way, if you are doing TurboFire but you have not signed up for your Free Beachbody account, yet what are you waiting for? There really are some cool fitness calculators as well as fitness and nutrition tips. Let’s get healthy together. Order TurboFire if you want to get started on this awesome program. And, sign up for your Free Beachbody account if you already have Turbo Fire or another Beachbody program.
Five Steps to Figuring Out How Many Calories You Can Eat and Still Lose Weight
Beachbody gives you tools you can understand to help you lose weight and get into shape. Most people think they have to eat 1200 calories or less to lose weight. Then, they put the weight back on even faster than they took it off. Most people actually need to eat more than 1200 calories per day to continue to lose weight. That’s right. Eat more!
Eating less than 1200 calories in a day may lead to nutrient deficiencies and affect your health. You can follow a 1200 calorie per day diet for about a week, but after that, you need a smarter eating plan. Follow this short formula to determine how many calories you can eat each day and still lose weight: RMR + DAB + DE – CD.
RMR stands for resting metabolic rate. This represents approxiamately how many calories your body burns naturally while you are at rest to maintain body functions such as breathing, circulation, and digestion. To calculate your RMR, multiply your body weight times ten. So, if you are a 160 pound woman, your RMR is 160 x 10 which is 1600.
Next determine your daily activity burn or DAB. This number depends on whether you consider yourself sedentary, moderately active, or very active in your daily routine outside of an exercising program. Now, most of us probably project too high here, so let us assume we are the sedentary type. To get your DAB, multiply your RMR by ten percent. 1600 x 10% is 160.
The third step is to calculate the calories you will burn in your daily exercise or DE. According to Beachbody, an average TurboFire workout burns about 650 calories. So, if this same person used the TurboFire program, her DE would be 650.
The fourth step is to determine your caloric deficit or CD. Since one pound is 3500 calories, you need to have a CD of 500 calories per day to lose one pound per week. If you wanted to lose two pounds, you would need a deficit of 7000 calories per week or 1000 calories per day. This number depends somewhat on your current weight. Again, you do not want go below 1200 calories per day nor do you want to stay on a 1200 calorie per day diet more than one week.
Finally, plug all the numbers into the formula RMR + DAB + DE – CD to determine the number of calories to eat each day and still lose weight. Let’s plug in the numbers for our example of a 160 pound woman using the TurboFire program and having a goal of losing one pound per week. RMR (1600) + DAB (160) + DE (650) – CD (500) = 1910 calories per day to lose one pound per week. Nice!
While you are trying to lose weight, you should periodically go through this formula again to adjust your caloric needs. Let’s say this woman has lost ten pounds and is recalculating her eating plan. She now needs 1800 calories per day to continue to lose one pound per week. (RMR 1500 + DAB 150 + DE 650 – CD 500 = 1800)
If you do not know how many calories you are burning with an exercise program, you may be able to find a chart online or in a book to help you estimate how many calories per hour you burn with a particular activity. You can also get a calorie monitoring device based on your heartrate such as the Bodybugg from 24 Hour Fitness (retails at $199). Or, you can use the free tools from your free Beachbody account.
The Caloric Needs calculator is easy to use and will estimate the number of calories you will burn with various Beachbody workout programs. It also has a few other exercising activities such as aerobics and cycling. All you do is answer a few basic questions such as how many times a week you will be exercising and what activity you plan on doing.
The cool thing about this calculator is it will tell you not only how many calories you should eat to lose weight but also how many you should eat each day to maintain your current weight. To use this caluculator as well as a few other helpful weight loss tools, all you need to do is sign up for a free Beachbody account.
Once you have your account, go to the Eat Smart tab of the Teambeachbody website. Click on Nutrition Tools. Then, click on Caloric Needs and fill in your answers. Ok, so you can do the math with the five steps above or just answer a few questions and let the online caloric needs calculator work for you! I hope you have found this article useful. Keep pressing play!
