No weight loss from exercise?

When people start an exercise program, some lose a lot of weight, while others lose nothing. An effective exercise program for weight loss should be 1) continuous, 2) use all of your major muscle groups, 3) include one intense workout a week for each muscle group, and 4) be done on land, rather than in the water. Stop-and-start exercises, such as lifting weights, do not require that you use your muscles continuously enough to burn a lot of calories. Those that use just one muscle group, such as doing situps or pushups, won't help you to lose a lot of weight because the stressed muscle groups tire quickly so you can't exercise very long.

Exercising at a leisurely pace won't help you lose a lot of weight either. You burn calories while you exercise and after you finish exercising. Intense exercise raises body temperature which continues to be elevated and burn more calories for several hours after you finish exercising. This also explains why swimming is not the best exercise for weight loss, because water conducts heat away from your body so fast that your temperature does not rise. When you exercise on land, air insulates your body so your temperature rises.

Pick sports in which you can exercise intensely, but don't exercise very hard in one sport more often than once a week. Every time that you exercise, your muscle fibers are torn slightly. You can tell this has happened to you when you muscles feel sore on the day after you have exercised. If you exercise intensely on days when your muscles feel sore, you are at increased risk for injuring them. Instead, alternate two sports, one that stresses your upper body and one that stresses your lower body. And (of course) don't forget healthful eating habits.

Urinary tract infections: treat with antibiotics

Many men suffer from constant irritation in their urinary tubes, urinating frequently at night, urgency to urinate when their bladders fill, and discomfort during urination. Often doctors do a culture which shows no cause, so they prescribe doxycycline antibiotics for a week or two, and their patients get no relief. A study from Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden shows that many of these patients are infected with a bacteria called mycoplasma genitalium which cannot be cured by taking doxycycline, but can be cured by taking an erythromycin antibiotic such as Zithromax, or Biaxin (Sexually Transmitted Infections, August 2006).

If you are a man or woman who suffers persistent urinary symptoms, check with your doctor and ask for a urine culture for mycoplasma or just an extended prescription for an erythromycin-type antibiotic.

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