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Focus On Small Goals

Focus On Small Goals

Published by on March 25, 2023 | Leave a response

Who doesn’t love a big goal? It can get your juices flowing. Big goals take time, and that extra time can destroy motivation. If you have a big goal, break it down into smaller, easier-to-achieve goals and focus on the small goals, crossing them off your list of achievements, one by one. Every great journey begins with the first step and smaller goals are not only that step, but every step after it. The best thing about having small goals is not just achieving them, but also surpassing them.

Don’t let your goal overwhelm you.

Big goals are exciting, but that excitement only lasts a short time. Then those same goals become intimidating and daunting. If you need to lose 100 pounds, it sounds almost impossible. However, if you break it down into 2 pounds a week over 50 weeks, it doesn’t sound so bad. Instead of focusing on the 100 pounds, you focus on losing the two pounds. It gives that boost of confidence you need.

Maybe you’re not overwhelmed by big goals, but you are impatient.

Some people love both big goals and the challenge they offer, but don’t have the patience or motivation for the long path ahead. Instead of saying I will lose 100 pounds, with no other guidance, breaking the big goal down to smaller goals with a quicker timeline, can help keep people motivated and ensure progress. After all, without a time set to achieve that goal, success always comes tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes. You need a specific time frame for any plan to work and some quick gratification.

No matter how big or small your goal, it is still exciting to achieve it.

If a toddler is taking his or her first steps, you don’t say anything disparaging because you can walk a mile with ease. No, you applaud that child, marvel at the accomplishment, and give it special attention because he or she has started on the road to moving freely. Treat yourself with the same respect. Just like the toddler, you’re making progress. Make a big chart to show the weight goal you have each week and give yourself a check mark when you achieve that week’s goal. Remember the stickers you got in elementary school? They were simple, just like the checkmark, but motivating.

  • Make initial goals easier to reach if you’ve never exercised previously. That way you can crush those goals and boost your morale and confidence. As you progress, you can increase the level of difficulty to challenge yourself.
  • Start with a point of reference. Weigh yourself, take your measurements, and write down the exercises and number of reps. Do that every time you workout. You’ll be able to see the progress you made just by taking small steps.
  • Never compare yourself to anyone else. Always use your initial point as a reference. Everyone is different and has different starting points and goals. Your job is to achieve your goals, not theirs.
  • If you aren’t sure where to start, at Iron Fit, we can help. We’ll help you make big achievable goals and break them down into smaller ones you can achieve quickly. We’ll provide the tools to help you achieve them.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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Feel Your Best This Year!

Feel Your Best This Year!

Published by on March 15, 2023 | Leave a response

If you’ve felt out-of-sorts for quite a while, maybe you just need to make some changes in your life to feel your best. Rather than looking at it as something you HAVE to do, make it something that you WANT to do for yourself. It’s all about mindset. You deserve to be healthy and you deserve to feel good. Look at the time you spend exercising and planning healthy meals as an indulgence that you’ve earned. Luckily, you don’t have to empty your bank account for this indulgence. You just have to make smarter decisions about food and schedule a time each day to workout.

A great body starts in the kitchen.

You can’t out-exercise a bad diet, so focusing on your diet should be at the top of the list. Start by cutting out food with added sugar and highly processed food. Start by using a journal to identify when you consume those foods. If you buy a couple of candy bars a day from convenience stores or the office vending machine, make sure you pack healthy snacks, like fruit, for the day. Switch from sugary sodas of coffee with added syrups, cream and sugar, to water.

The body was created to do hard work.

If you never move, do hard physical labor or workout, you’ll rust out. The body does not wear out when treated properly. That doesn’t mean you do intense workouts for hours every day. That is counterproductive and can cause muscle mass to waste. It simply means you need to do something physical each day, whether it’s walking for an hour or working out at the gym. When you workout at the gym and have guidance, you’ll work all muscles and achieve flexibility, strength, endurance and balance.

Cut out stress and be cool.

There are a lot of insignificant stressors that can make you lose your temper and stew for hours. That guy that cut you off on the highway, the rude sales clerk or the angry boss that blames you for his mistakes are all examples. You can’t control those who deliver stress, but you can control how you deal with it. Learn ways to eliminate that stress and mellow out, whether it’s breathing techniques, mental gymnastics or meditation. Exercise helps control stress, too.

  • Certain foods can add to your stress, like sugar. However, some foods reduce inflammation and stress on the body. Food high in B vitamins, magnesium,omega3 fatty acids, and protein
  • Get adequate sleep. When you have enough sleep, the whole day goes better and your body is less stressed. Your body heals and deals with conflicts when you sleep. Set a sleep schedule to help you develop that healthy habit.
  • Make it a habit to carry a bottle of water and hydrate frequently. Drinking more water can help you lose weight. It also will help you become more alert and energized if you suffer from mild dehydration.
  • Give up negative habits that affect your health like smoking, abuse of drugs or alcohol. If you have a sedentary job or spend the weekend binge-watching videos, get up once an hour and move around or exercise.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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What Is Calisthenics?

What Is Calisthenics?

Published by on March 5, 2023 | Leave a response

At Iron Fit in San Antonio, TX, we focus on clients and ways to help them get fitter faster. One type of exercise that’s often used requires no equipment, but it does require knowing the proper form and how to organize the workouts to be the most effective. It’s the ancient art of calisthenics. Between 600 and 400 BC, Spartan soldiers used calisthenics. The word calisthenics is derived from two Greek words that mean beauty and strength. Around 550 BC, Chinese Shaolin Monks began practicing it to develop the strength to fight off looters and robbers. It has a long history in major military training.

Calisthenics doesn’t require equipment, since it uses body weight and gravity.

Building muscle tissue with calisthenics is not different than lifting weights, which also use the force of gravity. However, the weight you are lifting is your body weight. Building muscle requires three things, a stimulus to build muscle, recovery and adaptation. The stimulus in this case is the resistance against gravity. You also need a recovery time to allow muscle microtears to heal and when it heals, the muscle becomes stronger and adapts. At that point, you need to find a new stimulus to boost strength and muscle-building further.

Like any form of exercise, consistency is the key.

If you only do bodyweight, or any other type of exercise, once in a while, you won’t see any progress. You can’t catch up on the missed sessions and try to do three hour-long sessions at once. You could be setting yourself up for an injury if you push too hard. You also need to find the number of repetitions that will challenge you, but won’t be so hard you can’t finish. For people just starting an exercise program, the number will vary, but many find that 6-12 repetitions hard to do.

Your body should be getting stronger.

As you continue to work out and get stronger, you’ll also find your bodyweight workouts are getting easier. It isn’t because of weight loss that makes you lighter, but due to increased strength. That’s when you switch up your workout and increase repetitions and sets. No matter what type of calisthenics or other forms of exercise you do, before starting, first check with your healthcare professional.

  • To get the maximum benefit from any workout, use compound calisthenic exercises. Compound exercises work several muscles and joints on a variety of different planes.
  • Eating healthy and getting adequate calories and macronutrients is also important when building muscle tissue. A pre and post-workout snack consisting of protein and carbs aids muscle-building and speeds recovery.
  • Focus on allowing your muscles to heal between sessions. Healing requires between 48 and 72 hours. You can still do calisthenics between 3 and 5 times a week, as long as you vary your workout to different areas of the body and rest the muscles you worked a day or two previously.
  • Always warm up before doing any workout. While some bodyweight exercises improve flexibility, including specific flexibility workouts can improve your workout. Doing circuit training adds cardio.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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How Much Protein Do I Need Daily?

How Much Protein Do I Need Daily?

Published by on February 25, 2023 | Leave a response

If you’ve read much about building muscles, diets or healthy eating, you’ll find a lot of high protein diets and supplements. Most of the articles and products fail to address just how much protein is necessary daily. Protein is an important macronutrient that you need on a daily basis, but you can get too much. In fact, most people in the US get adequate protein in their daily diet. However, since it’s responsible for aiding in the creation of enzymes, which trigger biological reactions like creating connective tissue, muscle, building the immune system and providing energy, ensuring you have adequate protein is also important.

Each person requires a different amount of protein.

Your protein needs aren’t set in stone or the same for every person. They vary by your activity level, age, gender, weight and total calorie intake. If you’re supposed to consume a 2000 calorie diet to maintain your weight, based on your gender, age and activity level, you should be getting between 10 to 35% of your calories from protein, which would mean from 200 to 700 calories from protein. That would mean the protein equal to 3 to 9 ounces of ground beef each day.

Not all protein is equal.

There are 20 amino acids in the standard genetic code, of which nine are considered essential amino acids. An essential amino acid is one that the body can’t make, but must come from the food we eat. While animal protein contains all nine essential amino acids, plant protein doesn’t necessarily. The plants that contain all amino acids in adequate amounts contain complete proteins, while those that don’t have incomplete proteins and must be combined with other plant sources that contain the amino acids they lack.

Different levels of activity require differing levels of protein.

It’s only natural that since you burn more calories the more active you are, that you’ll need more calories from protein. Sedentary people require one gram of protein for every 2.2 pounds of body weight. An active person requires 1.3 grams for every 2.2 pounds. If you’re at a high level of activity, like an athlete, you need 1.6 grams per pound of body weight. Just divide your weight by 2.2 and multiply that number by the number of grams based on your activity level. Divide 220 pounds by 2.2 and you’d get 100. If that person were sedentary, they would require 100 grams of protein. If they were active, 130 grams and extremely active 160 grams.

  • You can get too much protein. If you consistently consume too much protein, it can damage the liver and kidneys, cause bone disorders, cancer and artery disease. However, studies show that consuming as much as 2 grams per 2.2 pounds had no negative effects.
  • Choosing high quality protein is also important. Chicken, salmon, and beans are healthier options than red meat and especially processed meat. If you chose red meat, choose meat that came from grass fed beef, since it’s healthier than traditional beef.
  • People who are older, even if they’re inactive, may require more protein than younger people, due to problems processing it. The very young need more for growth.
  • Choosing protein over a sugary treat is always a wise choice. Not only is it more nutritious, it will keep you feeling fuller longer, since it takes longer to digest.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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Are Multivitamins Good For You?

Are Multivitamins Good For You?

Published by on February 15, 2023 | Leave a response

It’s not just the people in San Antonio, TX, who are spending their money on multivitamins. People across the United States spend about $12 million every year on multivitamins. Half the general population takes multivitamins and for the population over 65, that percentage goes from 50% to 70%. There are a plethora of multivitamins from which to choose. In fact, it’s a multimillion dollar industry that grew dramatically during the covid-19 epidemic with a 19.6% sales growth for women, a 33.7% growth for men and a 37.2% growth for children from the end of 2019 to the end of 2020.

Do multivitamins provide benefits?

Three recent studies were reviewed by nutrition experts at John Hopkins and concluded that multivitamins may be a waste of money. The total number of people in the three studies was over 457,000. One studied the potential to reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. One followed people recovering from a heart attack and the potential for a future heart attack and death. The third studied the effect of multivitamins on reducing mental decline. All three studies showed the same results. Taking multivitamins, compared to a placebo, did not reduce the risk of coronary disease, cancer or mental decline. It also did not increase life expectancy or reduce the risk of a second event after a heart attack.

Healthy eating has proven far more beneficial.

There are a lot of reasons healthy eating is far superior to taking a vitamin and mineral supplement. Even though some foods contain nutrients that can help prevent some conditions, like heart disease, and others can help bring relief from illness or disease, isolating the nutrient doesn’t bring the same results. That occurs for a number of reasons. One of those is the synergy of phytonutrients and vitamins. The total benefit of the combination of phytochemicals, like anthocyanin, is greater than the benefit of each individually. Most vitamins don’t contain phytochemicals, like anthocyanin, which gives color to red, blue and purple fruits and vegetables.

Absorption is a problem with many multivitamins sold.

Vitamins are created to have a longer shelf life, but to do any good, they have to disintegrate quickly, within 20 minutes. Most multivitamins don’t, so they’re often intact and flushed out in fecal matter. One of the reasons is the binders and fillers used. Another is the hard coating many have to prevent moisture from entering. One final problem with taking multivitamins is that they often have sweeteners, particularly liquid vitamins and chewable ones. The sweeteners can block absorption of some vitamins.

  • You can overdo vitamins. High doses of vitamins can be dangerous, particularly if taken over a prolonged period. You can’t overdo vitamins when they’re in the food you eat.
  • Not all vitamins are bad or unnecessary. As people age, their body may be less able to absorb certain vitamins. Vitamin D is another vitamin that’s often deficit, particularly for people living in northern areas.
  • There are some multivitamins that are better than others for your body. Normally, the ones that are most beneficial can also be extremely expensive. It’s far more economical to eat healthier.
  • Another vitamin that’s often recommended for women of child bearing age is folic acid. Taking folic acid before and during pregnancy can help prevent birth defects.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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How To Lose Belly Fat Fast

How To Lose Belly Fat Fast

Published by on February 5, 2023 | Leave a response

If one of the resolutions you made was to lose belly fat, that means you have to make a multi-pronged attempt to do it. It requires more than just losing weight. Belly fat is different from other types of fat, subcutaneous fat, which is just below the skin. You can pinch an inch of subcutaneous fat. Belly fat is deep inside, crowding the organs. It contains certain proteins that can cause inflammation of organs like the stomach, intestines, liver, kidneys and even heart. It also makes getting a flat stomach nearly impossible, unless you make several lifestyle changes.

Eating healthier and a program of regular exercise can be a great way to start.

In order to lose any weight, you have to eat fewer calories than you consume. Once the deficit reaches 3500 calories, you’ll lose a pound. Some people start by exercising, thinking spot exercises can help them lose weight in a specific area, like the belly. The problem is that fat doesn’t come off just one area of the body and spot exercises may strengthen the muscles, but it won’t get rid of fat in a specific location. You’ll lose weight all over your body. When you combine eating healthy with exercise, it helps you lose weight faster.

The type of food you eat makes a difference.

Eating a low carbohydrate diet can help, especially if you focus on cutting out food with added sugar. Don’t forget about what you drink, either. Sugary drinks can be just as bad as a donut or other sweet treat. Eating a diet that’s higher in fiber is also good. There are two types of fiber, insoluble and soluble. Insoluble fiber helps prevent constipation and doesn’t digest. Soluble fiber turns to a gel, also providing an aid to fight constipation. It feeds the friendly bacteria, which in turn helps reduce the amount of belly fat you have. Fiber also slows sugar absorption, reducing the risk of insulin resistance, which can cause belly fat.

Mellow out and you’ll notice a difference.

Stress is a killer. It triggers the fight or flight response that causes hormones to prepare the body for both fighting and running. The hormones of stress, like cortisol, are linked to both an increased appetite and belly fat. Exercise helps burn off the hormones of stress, but you can’t always exercise when stress occurs. To avoid the accumulation of stress hormones, consider learning ways to mentally decompress, like controlled breathing or meditation.

  • Drinking plenty of water, particularly before a meal, can help reduce both the amount you eat and belly fat. It can boost your energy, while flushing your system.
  • The microbiome, the microbes that inhabit your body, can make a difference in whether you’re fat or thin. The bacteria fed by soluble fiber produces short-chain fatty acids that help you lose belly fat and lower the risk of developing it in the future.
  • Don’t think that switching your cola or soda to a diet version that uses artificial sweeteners can help you avoid belly fat. A recent study showed that people who consumed these drinks had more belly fat than people who didn’t drink diet soft drinks.
  • Get adequate sleep. Sleep is often neglected and burning the candle at both ends is often praised. However, lack of sleep can cause stress, which increases the chances of accumulating belly fat.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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Should I Be Timing My Workouts?

Should I Be Timing My Workouts?

Published by on January 25, 2023 | Leave a response

Sometimes things you don’t realize will help you make faster progress are the most important things. At Iron Fit in San Antonio, TX, we emphasize consistency, which includes not only scheduling workouts at the same time, but also timing the workouts. Having a consistent time for your workout is a bit easier to understand. It helps you develop a habit and when you schedule it like an appointment, improves the chances of you making it to the gym. However, timing the workout is often overlooked.

Unless you have commitments after your workout, it’s too easy to waste time.

One important reason for timing is to ensure you have just enough time to workout, but not so much time that you waste it. It’s simply too easy to walk around visiting or push your workout far longer than it needs be by doing things that have nothing to do with exercise. Even taking too much time between exercises can be a negative and not burn as many calories as you should for the time spent.

You may have heard people talk about how many hours they spend at the gym.

Everyone has “that friend” who thinks they are “bigger than life.” No matter what you’re talking about, they have a bigger story, do more or can top what you say. They probably also tell you they spend hours in the gym every day, but they certainly don’t show it. What’s happening? Maybe they are spending hours, but they aren’t exercising. If they are exercising, they don’t push themselves to do any high intensity workouts or pick up the speed.

Maybe “that friend” is really working hard the entire time and not showing results.

Your friend may be working out too much. There is such a thing. More is not always better. In fact, when you’re working out, sometimes less is more. It’s about including both intensity and a chance for your body to rest and heal. If you’re working out long hours, particularly at high intensity, you may be counterproductive. If you’ve done a tough strength training workout, your muscles have small tears. Those heal and as they do, build the muscle bigger and/or stronger. Not taking a break doesn’t offer that time for healing. Working out too long at high intensity can place too much strain on the muscles, causing injury. Aim for about150 minutes of high intensity workout a week or 150 to 300 minutes of moderate.

  • Judge the intensity by your heart rate or your ability to talk while working out. The higher the intensity, the harder it is to talk. If you can just gasp a few words, it’s high intensity and you don’t need as much time working out.
  • Watch for signs you’re overworking your body. While exercise burns off the hormones of stress, it also causes stress. If you’re not making progress, getting sick more often or even have mood changes, you might be overworking.
  • Never do strength training on the same muscles on consecutive days. Let the muscles rest between 48 and 72 hours, especially if your workout was intense. Focus on other muscle groups or other type of training.
  • Count the minutes you’re actually working out and consider the type of workout you’re doing and adjust your time. A HIIT workout—high intensity interval training—will take less time but be far more intense.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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How To Start Your Fitness Journey

How To Start Your Fitness Journey

Published by on January 15, 2023 | Leave a response

It’s that time of year when everyone has his or her own special resolution. A lot of people focus on getting healthier, losing weight and boosting their energy level. If you’re one of those who is about to start your fitness journey there are some ways to help boost the potential for success and even make the journey far more fun and enjoyable. One tip is to find a workout buddy. A workout buddy holds you accountable, since you’ll be meeting that person to workout. It’s harder to skip a workout when you know someone is waiting for you.

Dress comfortably but also make your clothing work for you.

If you’re going to the gym, don’t worry if you don’t have the latest clothing seen in workout magazines. Make sure what you’re wearing is comfortable, but still fits well enough not to get in the way of your workout. Have clothing that supports you whether you’re doing a push-up or jumping jacks. Having comfortable, good shoes is also important. One tip is to mimic some of the moves you’ll make. If your clothing pinches when you bend, don’t buy it. Have clothing that breathes and ones you can wear in layers, especially in the winter, so you can remove a layer as you warm up.

It’s all about your mindset.

If you go in hating exercise or feel deprived with a new healthier diet, you’re starting defeated from the beginning. Get exciting. Think of how great you’ll feel and focus on that. Enjoy every bite of healthy food. Focus on the flavor. If you’ve given up sugar, you’ll be amazed at how really sweet fruit starts to taste after a few weeks. That’s because the more added sugar you eat, the more you need to get that sweet taste. Once you quit adding extra sugar, your taste buds come alive. Start collecting healthy recipes you love and share them with a friend.

Get fit by setting goals and focusing on both a healthy diet and regular exercise.

One thing is certain, you can’t out exercise a bad diet. So, if weight loss or getting fit are your goals, add both to your “to-do” list. Schedule a time every day for exercise. You don’t have to go to the gym every day or do calisthenics. Go to the gym on alternate days and on your days away from the gym taking a walk, dancing or biking could be viable exercise outlets. Find something active that you love and do it in your scheduled exercise days on your days away from the gym.

  • Be precise in your goals, have a way to measure them and track your results. Find an appropriate measure for your goal. It’s often pounds lost but can be the number of stairs you can run up in a few minutes, your blood pressure or blood sugar reading or other important number.
  • Spend the first few weeks focusing on form for each exercise. Once you know your form is correct, then worry about repetitions. Don’t forget to warm up and cool down for each session.
  • Always carry a bottle of water with you when you exercise. Sip on it throughout your workout. Staying hydrated is extremely important no matter what the weather.
  • Write down your reason for setting your workout goals and keep it prominently posted. Every time you want to put off exercising, or eating healthy, reread your goals.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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Why Diet Is As Important As Fitness

Why Diet Is As Important As Fitness

Published by on January 5, 2023 | Leave a response

What do you want to weigh? Do you have a health condition that a lifestyle change can help? Do you just want more energy? No matter what your fitness goals, your diet is just as important as exercising is. The two go together to help you be your best. There’s a saying, “You can’t out-exercise a bad diet.” It’s normally used when talking about weight loss, but the same is true for any type of wellness issue.

Your diet provides the building blocks for the body.

If you’re choosing your food wisely and in normal health, your body should have all the nutrients it needs to keep going strong. For those who don’t process the food as well, such as seniors, you need to take that into account when you’re creating your menu. If you’re including high processed foods or foods with added sugar, you’re adding calories, but with few or no nutrients. Choosing highly processed foods can also add toxins that affect the body negatively. Processed meats are some of the worst. No matter how much you exercise, it won’t provide the nutrition or detract from the toxic effect of unhealthy food.

Your diet also feeds your microbes.

You have more microbes in your body than you have cells. That’s right! You’re a walking nation of microbes. Some of them are good and some aren’t. Your diet determines how many you’ll have of each kind. Foods with sugar can feed harmful microbes, while those with fiber and healthy nutrients feed the beneficial ones. The beneficial microbes are part of the digestive system and make nutrition available for the body. They also play a role in almost every function, including your mood. Exercise also plays a role in the number of beneficial microbes your body has.

No matter what your fitness goals, it takes a healthy diet to achieve it.

Most people understand how a healthy diet can help them lose weight and even stay healthier, but don’t normally consider that it also plays a role in building muscle tissue. Just like other parts of the body, you need the raw material to build muscle tissue. You need a diet that’s high in protein and other nutrients, plus exercise, to build muscles.

  • Consider the calories in food compared to nutrition. If you ate a large order of fries, you’d be eating the same number of calories as you would in 120 asparagus or 240 string beans! However, you’d get far fewer nutrients.
  • No matter how healthy you eat, if you’re drinking soft drinks throughout the day or overly glorified coffee, you’re drinking sugar and a lot of calories. What you drink is also part of your diet.
  • Don’t be food by artificial sweeteners. Eating healthy means more than just cutting calories. Artificial sweeteners are also unhealthy, and in some cases, worse than sugar. One study showed that diet soft drinks also increased abdominal fat.
  • No matter what your fitness or health goal is, both a healthy diet and regular exercise can help you reach it. Also don’t forget about other healthy lifestyle changes, like adequate sleep.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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Is Monk Fruit A Good Sugar Alternative?

Is Monk Fruit A Good Sugar Alternative?

Published by on December 25, 2022 | Leave a response

What is monk fruit? It’s a fruit that looks like a smaller version of a watermelon and was grown by Buddhist monks for centuries. Its home is southern China and northern Thailand, which is still where most of the fruit is grown. The outside rind and seeds are removed, then it’s crushed to remove the juice. That juice is dried down until it’s a powder that has the concentrated sweetness of the fruit and can be used as a sugar replacement. It contains glucose and fructose, like many fruits, but also contains mogrosides, making it 250 times sweeter than sugar, yet it has no calories, fat or carbs per teaspoon, according to the USDA.

Monk fruit was used in Chinese medicine for centuries.

One focus in Chinese medicine is the yin and yang nature of the body, with the yin being cool and yang being hot. Luo Han Guo—the Chinese name for monk fruit– helps balance the yin and yang, while the sweet taste slows down reactions and detoxifies, plus acts as a tonic. Western medicine has found that the sweet taste of this fruit with the low glycemic index is a great alternative sweetener for people with diabetes. It’s also helpful in preventing complications from diabetes. Some studies find that it not only doesn’t cause blood sugar to rise, but it may also reduce blood sugar levels.

Since it has no carbs or calories, it may promote weight loss.

Think of how many calories you might save if all the sugar in your diet had no calories. Also think of how important that would be for your waistline. While there’s research still going on to the benefits and drawbacks of monk fruit, most scientists believe that it could be a huge benefit to help control the epidemic of obesity and aid diabetics. However, just like many sweeteners can have unintended consequences, the same may be true of monk fruit. There’s simply not enough research to declare it the panacea for weight loss and other health issues.

The mogrosides that make it sweet also provide another benefit.

Monk fruit is best known for its sweetening properties, but it also has another benefit. It’s anti-inflammatory. It’s the mogrosides that make it super sweet that are antioxidants and provide that benefit. It also helps to slow the growth of harmful cells, has antioxidant properties and can aid in the prevention of chronic disease.

  • Because of its extreme sweetness, a little goes a long way. You don’t have to use much to get the sweet flavor. Some manufacturers combine it with other types of sugar, like corn syrup or sugar alcohol that aren’t as beneficial and have some of the negative factors of the other sweetener.
  • Monk fruit has an aftertaste. Some people like it, but others find it’s a deterrent to using it. However, most people believe it’s far less bitter than other types of sugar substitutes.
  • Even if it doesn’t have carbs or calories, overusing sweets can have a detrimental effect on your body. It can cause weight gain, cravings and even digestive issues, since it may affect the microbiome of the gut.
  • You can use monk fruit to sweeten most things. It can be used in frostings, sauces, oatmeal, tea, coffee, smoothies and salad dressings. If you have a serious health condition, always check with your health care provider before adding monk fruit to your diet.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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