Belly fat in women: How to keep it off

As you age and your metabolism slows down, the amount of fat in your body slowly increases. Women experience an even greater fat percentage increase than men do. Then after menopause, your body fat distribution tends to shift — less in your arms, legs and hips, and more in your abdomen.

Measure it up : To measure your waist, run a tape measure around your midsection at about the level of your navel. Breathe normally, don't hold your tummy in, and don't pull the tape so tight that it presses your skin down. In a woman of healthy weight, a waist measurement of 35 inches or more indicates an unhealthy concentration of abdominal fat.

Fight back the bulge

Since visceral fat is buried deep in your abdomen, it may seem like a difficult target for spot reduction. As it turns out, visceral fat responds well to a regular exercise routine and a healthy diet. Targeted tummy exercises can help to firm the abdominal muscles and flatten the belly.

Exercise. Daily, moderate-intensity exercise is the best way to lose belly fat — when you lose weight and tone your muscles, your belly fat begins shrinking, too. In fact, you may notice that your tummy bulge is the first area to shrink when you start exercising. The amount and type of exercise you should get varies depending on your current activity level and your health goals.

Strength training. Some research has shown that exercising with weights is effective in trimming tummy fat.

Healthy diet. Changing unhealthy eating habits can help fight belly fat. Replace saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats. Increase portions of complex carbohydrates like fruits and vegetables, and reduce simple carbohydrates like white bread and refined pasta.

Tone your tummy. While you can't "spot-burn" belly fat, you can firm up your abdominal muscles and get a flatter belly. Traditional sit-ups aren't the most effective way to firm your tummy, however. Instead, use these exercises to target both deeper and lower abdominal muscles:

• Deeper abdominal muscles. Target deeper abdominal muscles by doing "abdominal hollowing" or "drawing in the belly button." First, get down on all fours. Let your tummy hang down as you take a deep breath. Let your breath out, and at the end of your exhalation, gently draw your belly button inward and upward toward your spine. You should feel a slight tightening around your waist — think of it as trying to squeeze through a partially closed door. Hold for 10 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds. Work up to 10 repetitions. During each effort, your spine position shouldn't change and you should breathe freely. Eventually, you'll be able to do this exercise standing up. It's so subtle, no one should be able to tell you're doing it.

  

• Lower abdominal muscles. Tone your lower abdomen by doing pelvic tilts and pelvic lifts. To do a pelvic tilt, lie on your back on the floor with your knees bent. Flatten your back against the floor by tightening your abdominal muscles and bending your pelvis up slightly. Hold for 5 to 10 seconds. Repeat five times and work up to 10 to 20 repetitions.

  For pelvic lifts, lie on your back with your knees bent up toward your chest and your arms relaxed by your sides. Tighten your lower abdomen and lift your buttocks up off the floor, with your knees aimed toward the ceiling. Hold for 5 to 10 seconds. Repeat five times and work up to 10 to 20 repetitions.

Hormone therapy. Although there are good reasons for some women to try hormone replacement therapy (HRT) after menopause, fending off belly fat isn't one of them. It's true that some studies have demonstrated that postmenopausal women who take HRT are less likely to accumulate abdominal fat than are postmenopausal women who forgo HRT

This is a mayo clinic article for belly fat reduction.

Monitoring Head injuries with helmets

The HIT System is the first and only system that can measure head accelerations (impacts) in real-time during games and practices. The HIT System's sensor/encoder, contains impact sensors, a processor and transmitter, and transforms any helmet or headgear into a head impact monitor.

A data collector receives impact data continuously from encoders that can be hundreds of meters away, and can monitor dozens of players or soldiers simultaneously. The software analyzes those data and sends a pager warning if any impact has a potentially injurious profile.

The data collector stores all of the key signatures of the impacts: peak linear acceleration, rotational acceleration, duration, location, time stamp, etc, for future analysis.

After more than a decade of research , the HIT System was put to the test in the crucible of elite college and high school football stadiums and practice fields. Using the HIT System we can record over one-quarter of a million impacts and corresponding head injury data.

Researchers are using the analysis of these data to shed new light on the biomechanical causes of mild traumatic brain injuries. This research may lead to advancements in protective equipment or other injury reduction strategies.

Hope i can get my hands on one of that for my own analysis of concussive forces during impact fo any kind>>

Offbeat >> Music

Saturday night music.... Love this trance... This was made in 1970's, way ahead of ages.


"Magic fly" by Space

10 tips for permanent weight loss

1. Exercise 30 to 60 minutes each day. If time is limited, exercise for several brief periods throughout the day — for example, three 10-minute sessions rather than one 30-minute session.

2. Eat three healthy meals during the day, including a good breakfast. Skipping meals causes increased hunger and may lead to excessive snacking

3. Weigh yourself regularly. Monitoring your weight can tell you whether your efforts are working

4.Don't keep comfort foods in the house. If you tend to eat high-fat, high-calorie foods when you're upset or depressed or bored, don't keep them around. Availability of food is one of the strongest factors in determining how much a person eats.

5. Create opportunities to be active. Wash your car at home instead of going to the car wash. Bike or walk to the store. Participate in your kid's activities at the playground or park.

6. Sit down together for family meals. Avoid eating in front of the television. TV viewing strongly affects how much and what people eat.

7. See what you eat. Eating directly from a container gives you no sense of how much you're eating. Seeing food on a plate or in a bowl keeps you aware of how much you're eating.

8. Eat at home. People eat more food in restaurants than at home. Limit how often you eat at restaurants.

9. Walk for 10 minutes over your lunch hour or get up a few minutes earlier in the morning and go for a short walk.

10. Reward yourself. Celebrate your success with nonfood rewards, such as new clothes or an outing with friends.

Is Medicine really a profession worth all this effort?

Whats happening Medico's ?

Medicine is lately becoming the least fashionable profession. You slog over 4 and half years of subject, then you are made to work day after day for another 365 days of internship. and still they say you are not fit. Then starts the tough fight for Entrance into a PG institute. You need to prepare in advance for this preparation or else you will have to do 2 more years of heavy slogging, and still you cant say you will be through. Then once you get a seat starts your real hard work as it is what makes you the Real Doctor. Then...... Still its not over. You have to start over again to survive the competition of well settled doctors and those who have finished with you. And every year more and more of them are just added to your struggle.

If its just this much, pooh.... it would have been ok. But you see your fellow Engineers settling in early 20's and they start earning quite well. There are more professions now which need less sloggingcompared to medicine but give even greater fruits from early on...... Medicine doesn't sound Cost effective or effort effective.

The sad part of the story is that Creative and talented people who lack hard work find this profession a hard one to survive. It seems to purely depend upon Memory and without slogging you wouldnt have it. Even the use of talent comes only after slogging. I dont say that other professions dont need memory but comparitively this one needs mindbloggering content. Many students are already finding this profession hard to go on and are finding alternate paths to go after their dreams.


If only i could change the past !!