"Sitting" Is The New Smoking

Originally publish on HealthDay, this article tells about the dangers of too much sitting, a typical problem that office workers have, but they're not the only ones today. Road truck drivers, some factory workers, even some instructor have to spend there days in front of a computer screen and they do that sitting.

Medical science knows more today about why we have health problems, and pills don't do much good. The truth is we don't eat the right foods, we smoke, we drink alcohol, and we aren't active enough. Doctors will suggest that you cut back on all your vices, but they're afraid to tell you the truth because no one wants to be accussed of a bad "bedside manor". They lose patients like that. 

Regular exercise doesn't erase the higher risk of serious illness or premature death that comes from sitting too much each day, a new review reveals.

Combing through 47 prior studies, Canadian researchers found that prolonged daily sitting was linked to significantly higher odds of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and dying.

"We found the association relatively consistent across all diseases. A pretty strong case can be made that sedentary behavior and sitting is probably linked with these diseases," said study author Aviroop Biswas, a Ph.D. candidate at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute-University Health Network.

"When we're standing, certain muscles in our body are working very hard to keep us upright," added Biswas, offering one theory about why sitting is detrimental. "Once we sit for a long time . . . our metabolism is not as functional, and the inactivity is associated with a lot of negative effects."

About 3.2 million people die each year because they are not active enough, according to the World Health Organization, making physical inactivity the fourth leading risk factor for mortality worldwide.

Among the studies reviewed by Biswas and his team, the definition of prolonged sitting ranged from eight hours a day to 12 hours or more. Sitting, or sedentary activities ubiquitous with sitting such as driving, using the computer or watching TV, shouldn't comprise more than four to five hours of a person's day, Biswas said, citing guidelines issued by Public Health Agency of Canada.

"We found that exercise is very good, but it's what we do across our day," he said. "Exercise is just one hour in our day, if we're diligent; we need to do something when we're not otherwise exercising, like finding excuses to move around, take the stairs, or carry groceries rather than use the [shopping cart] at the supermarket."

The biggest health hazard stemming from prolonged sitting, according to the review, was a 90 percent higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Among studies examining cancer incidence and deaths, significant links were specifically noted between sedentary behavior and breast, colon, uterine and ovarian cancers.

One study in the review showed that fewer than eight hours of sitting time per day was associated with a 14 percent lower risk of potentially preventable hospitalization.

Dr. Joshua Septimus, a clinical associate professor of internal medicine at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas, praised the new research, saying it "gives us more data to help counsel our patients."

"The idea that we could exercise for 15 or 20 minutes a day and that could completely erase any harms of a sedentary lifestyle for the other 23 hours a day is just too hopeful," Septimus noted. "This showed us that yes, there is some benefit to physical activity . . . but it's not enough."

Biswas and his colleagues offered additional tips to reduce sedentary time, including:

• Taking a one- to three-minute break every half-hour during the day to stand (which burns twice as many calories as sitting) or walk around,
• Standing or exercising while watching TV,
• Gradually reducing daily sitting time by 15 to 20 minutes per day, aiming for two to three fewer sedentary hours over a 12-hour day.

When you sit after a while, your metabolism will slow-down and other body functions will start to do the same thing. As your body functions slow down you become a target for disease and illness from others you come in contact with. It seems like prolong sitting will put the body into a state of hibernation almost like your sleeping. Doing more work while your standing will keep the body fully functioning. Sitting should only be done for short periods of time.

Think about a stand up desk that you can use part of the day. Think about taking short breaks often just to walk around the room for a few minutes. Even standing is better for your health than sitting.

If you really want to lose the extra flab you can get help, I write 4 blogs and I’ve written two E-books. Read some of my other blog posts.

gettingtoahealthyweight.blog

idropped40pounds.wordpress.com

howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight.blogspot.com

blogonweight.blogspot.com

E-books are the easiest and cheapest way to learn about any subject without groping through hundreds of websites looking for the material you want.

My first e-book is “HowBadDoYouWantToLoseWeight” and it sells for $2.99 on most online bookstores like Amazon.com, BN.com, iBook, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, and Gardner books in the U.K.

My second e-book is available in the same stores. And on smashwords.com. If you use the Smashwords' promotional code You can get my second book for $1.99 (TL96R). Just type in the search line “getting to a healthy weight”.

The Dangers Of Salt

We take so much for granted in our lives and than we wonder why we can't control our weight.

You may think twice about "salt" after reading this. I found this post on VeryWell.com. Take a minute and read this, it might be one of the reasons you have body fat.

We all know excess salt in our diet raises our blood pressure. But did you know that Americans have a 90 percent lifetime probability of developing high blood pressure? Even if your blood pressure is normal now, if you continue to eat the typical American diet, you are at risk of acquiring hypertension during your lifetime. In addition to causing 62 percent of strokes and 49 percent of coronary heart disease, high blood pressure also harms other body systems. 

2

The Cardiovascular Side Effects of Salt

In addition to elevating blood pressure, salt has other damaging effects on the cardiovascular system. Research has established such a strong relationship between salt consumption and death from stroke, that it is all not accounted for by salt’s effect on blood pressure. Excess use of salt over time leads to stiffening of the arteries. Recent research also found that blood vessel function is suppressed within 30 minutes of eating a high-salt meal.

3

Salt's Impact on Autoimmune Diseases

Excess sodium may exacerbate the inflammation associated with several autoimmune conditions. Inflammation-promoting cells become elevated in people who eat salty fast food. In fact, studies of these immune cells in different sodium concentrations corroborate sodium as the culprit. It is also observed that mice, predisposed to an autoimmune disease, develop disease quickly when given a high-salt diet compared to a lower sodium diet.

4

An Increased Osteoporosis Risk

Consuming a large amount of salt also puts you at risk for osteoporosis because excess dietary sodium promotes urinary calcium loss, leading to calcium loss from bone, decreasing bone density. Even in the presence of a high calcium diet, high salt intake results in net calcium loss from bone. 

5

Ulcers and Stomach Cancer

Salt is the strongest dietary factor relating to stomach cancer. A high-salt diet also increases growth of the ulcer-promoting bacteria H. pylori in the stomach, which is also a risk factor for gastric cancer.

6

Salt's Other Effects

High dietary sodium has been implicated in kidney disease, headaches, and obesity. A high-salt diet may also increase the severity of symptoms for asthma sufferers. 

7

Put Down the Salt Shaker

It has been estimated that 2.3 million deaths per year worldwide are due to excess salt consumption, and many (40 percent) of these deaths are in people under the age of 70.  Excess sodium needlessly shortens millions of lives. This applies to regular table salt as well as the gourmet salts that are trendy right now. Reducing your intake of sodium is essential for anyone who wants to remain in good health. A person eating the Standard American Diet (SAD) consumes about 500 percent more sodium than they actually need every single day. Almost 80 percent of our sodium comes from processed foods and restaurant meals. By, preparing your own meals, you avoid most of the sodium in the American diet.

8

Salt is Not a Health Food

For millions of years, human diets contained no added salt, only what was naturally present in food. In the United States, our salt intake is about 3500 mg. per day. The American Heart Association recommends a maximum of 1500 mg. daily. I recommend even less.  Salt is not health-promoting. Rather than use salt, it is better to spice up your dishes with natural herbs and other flavorful spices. A Nutritarian diet with plenty of fresh greens and other colorful vegetables, including raw chopped onions and cooked mushrooms, beans, nuts, seeds and some fruit is the ideal diet.

You can tweet me at #ray0369

I write several blogs and e-books, check out some of my other sites.

gettingtoahealthyweight.blog
idropped40pounds.wordpress.com
howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight.blogspot.com
blogonweight.blogspot.com

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. I’ll give you a discount coupon you can use at checkout. (PJ42H) not case-sensitive the price is $1.99 w/coupon

How To Make Walking A Real Workout

Walking can be a real workout but it can also do nothing for weight loss. If you use "walking" the right way it can be the weight loss exercise you have been looking for.

How It Works

Walking may be the simplest way to work out. You can do it almost anywhere, and it’s a snap to get started: Just put one foot in front of the other.

There are many great reasons to walk. Your heart will get stronger, you’ll lower your blood pressure, and your bones will get stronger. Walking also eases stress, helps you sleep better, and can boost your outlook on life.

Walking at a brisk pace for 30 minutes or more at least 5 days a week is your goal. Do it alone or with a friend. Try a walking club or recruit your family for an after-dinner walk. All you need is a pair of walking shoes. If you can do a brisk walk, twice a day, 5 days a week, that might be all the exercise you need. Combine that with a diet of healthy foods and you will lose body fat over time.  

You can match your pace to your fitness level. For a more intense workout, try walking faster, longer, or uphill. Than for a more advanced workout, I do a walk, run routine. After I warm-up, I'll walk fast for one minute, than run for one minute, than walk fast for one minute, than run for one minute and so on. Do this about eight times and then about 5 minutes of cool-down walking and your done. I usually follow up with some stretching so I avoid cramps.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my Ebook at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet.

“How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?”, is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites and search the title to find my Ebook. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

How This Man Lost 400 Pounds in 3 Years

I found this post on WebMD.com and I know that most of us don't need to lose 400 pounds but more people than you might think should lose 100 pounds or more and don't want to admitt it.

Sal Paradiso can't tell you his starting weight in early 2014, when he began his weight loss journey. Not because he doesn't want to reveal the number, but because no scale could effectively measure his weight.

He estimates it was close to 700 pounds, a weight that made everything difficult, says Paradiso, now 35. “Putting on my shoes was a struggle. Taking a shower every day was a struggle. I was basically under house arrest [since] it was such an ordeal to go out.”

In February 2014, the Tampa, FL, resident hit a turning point. His father died from a massive heart attack at 42, and Paradiso realized he was on the same path unless he made a big change. “I said to myself, 'I need to take a drastic U-turn in my life if I'm going to make it to age 40,'” he recalls.

After attending a seminar about weight loss procedures, he decided to discuss surgery options with a doctor. The doctor told him he needed to lose some weight on his own before surgery and put him on a high-protein, low-carb diet. His new 1,500 to 1,800 calorie per day plan was a drastic change from his previous 7,000 to 9,000 calorie per day diet, packed with soda and juice.

The Journey Begins

On his new diet, Paradiso started losing weight quickly, about 5 to 6 pounds per week. Not that it was easy. “Early on it was a big adjustment,” he says. “My body was so used to eating how I had been eating that it was rebelling at first. It was a rough first few weeks.” He'd crave more food at night, but no matter how miserable he felt, he wouldn't let himself raid the fridge. “I'd tell myself, 'I'm not working this hard to sabotage myself,'” he recalls.   

But overall, Paradiso says he didn't feel deprived. Instead of giving into a craving for unhealthy food, he'd look up recipes for lighter, healthier alternatives. “That would be enough to cure my craving without blowing my calorie budget for the day,” he explains. Instead of ordering a pizza, for example, he'd top a low-carb pita with tomato sauce and some cheese. 

Working out was a challenge at first, too. Because of the damage done to his knees from the excess weight, he has to do low-impact exercise only. He started by walking back and forth in the pool, first for an hour; then he'd tack on another 30 minutes at night. Although he was worried about being too heavy for exercise equipment, he found that a recumbent bike could hold his weight, so he added that into his routine, as well as strength training with dumbbells at home.

He underwent his first weight loss surgery in November 2015, but it didn't go as hoped. The doctor had to abort it midway because the excess abdominal weight prevented him from completing the surgery. After losing even more weight on his own and getting down to 433 pounds, in July 2016 Paradiso had a successful surgery, called vertical sleeve gastrectomy.

As of March 23, he is down to 309 pounds -- a weight that just 3 years ago, he never thought he would see. “When I started I didn't think I'd ever get to where I am today,” Paradiso says.

Now the only thing in the way of the finish line is his loose skin, which his doctors say adds up to 65 to 80 pounds. Removing it would put Paradiso right in his target weight range, between 200 to 225 pounds. But that process may be the toughest part of his weight loss journey, says Brunilda Nazario, MD, lead medical director at WebMD.

“When you have been overweight for many years, your skin loses elasticity -- it's like a balloon that's been stretched out, and it can't easily regain its original shape,” Nazario explains. People want to remove it for cosmetic reasons, but it's also a medical issue since the skin folds can lead to ulcerations and infections due to sweat and fungus, she says. Plus, it can be risky and expensive to remove, usually requiring multiple complicated surgeries.

Giving Others Hope

Today, Paradiso is proud of his progress -- and for his ability to motivate and inspire others. Since several media outlets have covered his story, he says strangers from around world have reached out on Facebook to tell him how much his incredible weight loss has encouraged them.

Paradiso today, after his incredible 400-pound weight loss.

“People who have 20 or 30 pounds to lose message me saying how I inspired them to stop complaining and making excuses.” He's trying to write back to every message, because their support motivates him too. “Their comments inspired me on days I don't want to ride the bike or lift weights, he says. “Motivation goes both ways -- they motivate me, I want to motivate them. How can I let them down now?”  

Still, all the congratulations and media coverage are “humbling,” Paradiso says. “I'm just a guy trying to get the life back that I once thought was lost.”

For anyone else with 100 or more pounds to lose, here are a few tips he's learned along the way.

1. Find a support system. Sal's friends and family provided plenty of encouragement. He has a few longtime friends whom he'd reach out to on a daily basis for support, as well as a good friend he met in a weight loss group on Facebook. And his mom has been “a rock” in her support from the start, he says.

2. Fight for every pound. Weight loss surgery isn't an easy way out,” Paradiso says. “It's a tool; not a magic pill. You have to work at it, whether you're doing it on your own or through surgery.” Stay strong, make good decisions, track what you eat, and the scale will follow suit, he says.

3. Break up your ultimate goal into small segments. No doubt it's daunting to imagine shedding 400 pounds. What helped Paradiso was breaking it into smaller steps, like losing 50 pounds at a time instead of 400 all at once. “That makes it a lot easier to think, 'I've lost 30 of 50 pounds,' rather than 'I've only lost 30 of 400 pounds,'” Paradiso says.

If you really want to lose the extra flab you can get help, I write 4 blogs and I’ve written two E-books. Read some of my other blog posts.

gettingtoahealthyweight.blog

idropped40pounds.wordpress.com

howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight.blogspot.com

blogonweight.blogspot.com

E-books are the easiest and cheapest way to learn about any subject without groping through hundreds of websites looking for the material you want.

My first e-book is “HowBadDoYouWantToLoseWeight” and it sells for $2.99 on most online bookstores like Amazon.com, BN.com, iBook, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, and Gardner books in the U.K.

My second e-book is available in the same stores. And on smashwords.com. If you use the Smashwords' promotional code You can get my second book for $1.99 (TL96R). Just type in the search line “getting to a healthy weight”.

Is Saturated Fat Bad Or Good?

It's something almost everyone who is interested in nutrition knows: Saturated fats are bad for us. They clog our arteries and cause heart attacks.

It wasn't until recently, however, that many people stopped to ask if saturated fats were truly unhealthy. Many of the other "facts" about nutrition we've thought were true since the 1960s or so have been disproven. In fact, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, on which the famous food pyramids and food plates have been built, have been changing in recent years.

They have stopped emphasizing the importance of eating a low-fat diet. They now advise limiting sugar. White sugar recently has been linked to Cancer.  They stopped the long-time idea that cholesterol in the diet is bad. But they still advise serious restrictions on saturated fats.

How Much Saturated Fat Is Advised?

The American Heart Association advises that no more than 5 to 6 percent of calories come from saturated fats, which is about 12 grams of saturated fat for the average person eating 2,000 calories per day. The 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends limiting saturated fat to 10 percent of calories, which is about 22 grams of saturated fat.

I talked to my Doctor about this very subject and he said 12 to 14 grams a day. So, how much is that? 14 grams is 1/2 ounce. The saturated fat we consume comes from animal fat and cooking oil. 

Did You Know that a Tablespoon of Olive Oil Contains 2 Grams of Saturated Fat?

We think of saturated fats as mainly being in fatty meats, full-fat dairy products, and coconut oil, but all fats are a mixture of different fats, and they usually include some saturated fats. This is the main reason why it is quite difficult to eat a diet as low in saturated diet fat as the American Heart Association recommends.

It is also very difficult to get all the essential nutrients that are recommended on a daily basis on a diet that is very low in saturated fat.

So, What's the Verdict?

Although eating too much saturated fat could be bad for some people, or perhaps in some contexts (such as what else is in the diet) the evidence for it being bad all the time and for everyone isn't holding up very well. Like many other things we eat, if we consume too much saturated fats it will cause high cholesterol and excess fats in the blood stream. Your liver has to process nutrients in food before they go into the blood stream, but if you eat too much saturated fat the liver can't handle more than about 1/2 ounce per day and the rest will enter the blood stream without being processed first, which will cause clots in the arteries.

Does This Mean That Saturated Fat is Good?

Some of the results I've mentioned might make us think that saturated fats in our diet are not only "not bad," they are actually "good." Like Christopher Ramsden, I would counsel humility on this point. We just do not know at this time.

However, here are some intriguing thoughts and possibilities:

• We often say "saturated fat" as if it's only one thing. There are actually lots of types of saturated fats, many of which are known to be used in different ways by the body. 
• 
  
• Saturated fats are more stable, and less prone to oxidation than other fats. It could be that some of the negative results found from adding polyunsaturated fats to the diet come from the fact that they are more easily oxidized, and this definitely would have negative effects on the body.
• The oils used to provide polyunsaturates are mainly full of omega-6 fats, which could have inflammatory effects in the body, not good.
• 
  
• Obviously, we still have much to learn about this subject. However, the way I read the current evidence, people can stop assuming that the next burger they eat will clog their arteries! It all depends on how much saturated fat you're consuming.

If you really want to lose the extra flab you can get help, I write 4 blogs and I’ve written two E-books. Read some of my other blog posts.

gettingtoahealthyweight.blog

idropped40pounds.wordpress.com

howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight.blogspot.com

blogonweight.blogspot.com

E-books are the easiest and cheapest way to learn about any subject without groping through hundreds of websites looking for the material you want.

My first e-book is “HowBadDoYouWantToLoseWeight” and it sells for $2.99 on most online bookstores like Amazon.com, BN.com, iBook, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, and Gardner books in the U.K.

My second e-book is available in the same stores. And on smashwords.com. If you use the Smashwords' promotional code You can get my second book for $1.99 (TL96R). Just type in the search line “getting to a healthy weight”.

Can White Sugar Cause Cancer?

Science has proven that white sugar is dangerous to your health. I heard this the other day on a TV news program and I wasn’t surprised. Anything that is processed by man before you buy has been altered to increase profits. 

White sugar was been linked to Cancer. So why after centuries of humans using sugar to sweeten food is it now labeled as a cause of Cancer. All of this is linked to why we gain weight. We are not eating our grandmothers sugar, flour, coffee, or even milk and cheese. 

If we back up to the 1950’s, food was actually more expensive.  Not in terms of dollars but compared to our salaries. In the 50’s we were paying about 25% of the average monthly income for food.  Today we pay less than 10% of the average monthly income. Why!! Some of the reasons are because we have a larger number of people earning less than the average. 

Manufacturers decided decades ago that they needed to keep the cost of food as low as possible. While Europe never did that. They wanted the quality of food to stay the same, so the price of food in Europe is higher than in this country. Actually, I don’t know of any country that has the same food we do. 

Most countries don’t import food. They grow their own. Spices may be the exception to that rule and sugar is conceded a spice. 

If you travel to other countries you can tell the difference in the food. Of course, things are different today and the manufacturing of food has spread to other countries. But in other first world countries the quality of food is closely guarded. 

For instance, in Mexico, manufacturers of soda like Coca Cola have to use real cane sugar in their soda. In this country Coca Cola uses a chemical substitute. Most food manufacturers don’t use real sugar in anything. Not in breakfast cereal, or anything else o

n the grocers shelves. 

Even if a product says sugar on the food label, it’s not real sugar. Additives are put in all processed foods and if the read the food labels you can see it for yourself and people have been reading and they have been complaining.

This has caused such a disturbance  in the food industry that manufacturers  been scrambling to clean up the food labels. The consumer want the labels but they don’t like what they read. They don’t like chemicals in their food and consumers are switching to fresh food. Even frozen foods are taking a backseat to fresh foods. 

The new immigrants in our country are helping to change the food industry. They want to buy the same fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh meat and seafood that they use to buy in their country. Most of them don’t want packaged food. And new immigrants eat more at home than Americans. 

North America is the part of the World with the most Cancer cases and we can limit our chances of getting Cancer by limiting our consumption of white sugar, animal fat, stop smoking, lose body fat and be more active. It’s not that hard. We have learned to avoid caring for ourselves and now 2/3’s of the adult population is weight. 

You are the only one that can keep you healthy. Chemicals in food is not something that kills you quickly. It might take a couple of decades, but as you age the chemicals you consume over a lifetime stay in your system and if you live long enough you’ll end up with Cancer or something even worse. The chemicals I’m talking about will be absorbed in your fat cells and just keep growing. 

Does Body Weight Exercise Work?

Using the weight of your own body to create resistance was one of the earliest forms of strength training. It's easy to learn, effective, and you can do it just about anywhere. In years past, body weight exercise was taught in school and used in the military for several generations around the world.

Although you can get quite inventive, the following exercises are the primary bodyweight exercises and how to do them. It's a somewhat fine distinction, but the core resistance bodyweight exercises are not the same as calisthenics, stretching, plyometrics or most yoga exercises (in my opinion anyway), although they may include elements of all these disciplines.

The exercises form the core of any bodyweight workout program. Many others are variations and trivial modifications.

Push-ups

The push-up is a classic bodyweight exercise, and it demonstrates quite clearly the principle of bodyweight resistance training.

Lie face down on the floor, preferably on a firm carpet or mat or rubber surface, with feet together.
Place your hands on the floor at shoulder level, facing forward. Keep a slight bubble in the hands and fingers, rather than positioning them flat on the hard surface.
Raise your body up on the hands and toes until elbows are nearly straight, then lower to a point where the elbow is at a right angle. Don't let your body touch the floor.
One "up and down" is one push-up repetition. Don't go too fast or too slow. Keep the head and neck steady.
Do as many as you can in one minute, rest, then try again. Rest your knees on the ground if you find the exercise difficult when you first start out.
The push-up develops strength in the chest, shoulders and the triceps muscles of the upper arms.

Variations include resting knees on the floor, using a wide or narrow hand position and using one arm to perform the push-up motion (for the tough guys and girls).

The Squat

The squat without weights may seem easy, but once you get up around the 20 rep mark it starts to take a toll on the knees, upper legs, and butt until you build some condition. I do a flat footed squat, but some prefer to do the squat on their toes.

Here's how it goes:

Stand with feet about shoulder width apart. Keep hands on your hips, crossed over the chest, held out in front, or at your sides. I like the hands out in front because it allows you to settle back a little into the squat and put some emphasis on the butt muscles and hamstrings.
Keeping the back straight, bend the knees and squat down until your knees are at approximately 90 degrees (a right angle).
Push up to the starting position and repeat. The squat develops legs and butt muscles and, over time, may strengthen knee joints. However, be cautious with this exercise if you have an existing knee injury or feel knee pain at any stage in the workout.
Start with 3 sets of 10 repetitions.

Lunges

The lunge is a fundamental bodyweight exercise. Done in sets of 8 or more (each leg), lunges provide strength, balance, and flexibility training. You can see how to perform the lunge in this example of a weighted lunge.

Options include a variety of arm positions -- at the sides, straight out in front, raised at each side, crossed at the chest or straight up overhead.

Try them all, as each arm position provides a slightly different emphasis and perhaps level of difficulty. For example, the arms raised at the sides provides better balance and stability than arms crossed at the chest.

Other more advanced options include the backward lunge and the 45-degree angle side lunge.

Crunches

Crunches are a key exercise for strengthening the abdominal muscles. Many different types of crunches are possible. Some of the best are:

Standard crunch, in which the shoulders are raised off the floor while you contract the abs
Reverse crunch, in which the legs and knees are raised off the floor while you contract the abs
Combo crunch, which is a combination of both of the above
Bicycle crunch, which includes all of the above and you peddle the legs in the air as well.

Some people believe you have to exercise to lose weight and it will help, but you can't sweat off pounds and expect them to stay off. Only a change in your diet will create permanent weight loss.

I write several blogs and ebooks, check out some of my other sites.

gettingtoahealthyweight.blog
idropped40pounds.wordpress.com
howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight.blogspot.com
blogonlosingweight.com
blogonweight.blogspot.com

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my Ebooks at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my ebooks. 

There are two ebooks. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my Ebook. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new ebook is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. I’ll give you a discount coupon you can use at checkout. (PJ42H) not case-sensitive the price is $1.99 w/coupon