We cannot run away from the fact that supplements can help you to reach your fitness goals faster. Most of them have well-known ingredients or cutting edge that have the required scientific backing. The challenge is knowing the workout supplement to choose. I know you could have been hearing about supplement scams in local news on a daily basis. This article will guide you on what to avoid and what you need to look for while choosing workout supplements. You need to choose a brand that uses scientific minds to build great products on the basis of solid science and results. Below are some of the things you need t check out for when making your next sports nutrition and weight loss product purchase.
Make Sure You Know the Brand :
Companies spend a lot of money every year while attempting to build trust. You can compare trust to consumer preference and loyalty. Most supplement companies that have been in existence for a long period should have invested a lot in the quality of their products and good manufacturing products that comply with the industry practices. All supplement companies must meet the standards that are set by drugs and poisons board or FDA. If you are not sure of the company, search for their brand name on reputable review sites or bureaus in the region. You need to identify a company that deals with best selling workout supplements in the global market.
Can You Get to Their Customer Service?
Confirm whether the company has a toll-free contact with real human beings to handle the phone calls. Some companies spent a lot of cash on infrastructural investments that support their products in the marketplace. Some small companies like outsourcing their operations and production of products. therefore, customers may have to way of talking to them. Be wary of any company that you cannot reach with a lot of ease.
Does the Mark have a Trust Mark or Third-Party Analysis Label?
A reputable brand should undertake a lab analysis of their products to confirm whether they meet the claims that are on the label. You can go ahead and request a certificate of analysis from that manufacturer to make sure that the product has the ingredients written on the label. You can also search for trust marks from third-party organizations as another way of verifying the supplements. Some of the marks include USDA organic, USP and NSF and they are given to the supplement company after meeting stringent product audits.
Search for Clinical Studies :
Sports nutrition or weight loss products must have one or multiple ingredients that are in amounts that are clinically validated. This is what makes them make assertions like ‘lose weight,’ ‘build muscle,’ or ‘recover faster.’ The product packaging or company website must reference these clinical studies. The product should have the amounts of grams, milligrams, and micrograms of all the active ingredients that are listed on the product. Ingredients such as essential fatty acids, creatine, and proteins have a broad range of source types and dosages. Therefore, be keen to look at the specific ingredients when doing your search.
Only Buy from Reputable Stores :
Leading retailers carry out their independent analysis and thus you need to buy your sports nutrition or weight loss products from a store you trust. Some stores have trained associates that can answer any questions you have regarding the products. This will help you in making the right decision especially if you are having several products to choose from. Finally, you need to check on the ratings and reviews of the company. Find out the manufacturer’s consumer rating on its website and third-party retailers. Go through the common comments and questions on these sites. Also, read the consumer experiences on other posts so as to gain some form of confidence in the products.
All the above tips will help you to find the best workout supplements that the market has to offer. All you need is an effective product that is safe for your health. The market has several high-quality companies and products but you cannot identify them unless you do your assignment well.
I enjoy writing and I write quality guest posts on topics of my interest and passion. I have been doing this since my college days. My special interests are in health, fitness, food and following the latest trends in these areas. I am an editor at Content Rally.
The holiday season is officially over, which means it’s time to start working off some of the extra pounds you picked up at mom’s house. While people generally love the idea of looking like the dudes who do commercials for home-exercise equipment, most of us still hate working out and dieting. If you are one of them, don’t worry. There are a ton of startups offering the kind of motivation you need in the form of mobile apps. Such apps use activity tracking as well as fitness and health risk assessment apps.
Today we’ll be exercising our startup muscles by taking a look at some of these young companies and what makes them tick.
8 Motivations to Start Up Health & Fitness:
Fitness gamification is huge right now, which makes sense given that it adds a much-needed dimension of play to the arduous task of getting fit. A great example of fitness gamification is Tep, which is basically a cross between a fitness tracker and a Tamagotchi; though, in the case of Tep, the star is a niftily-designed giraffe rather than a globular cluster of black pixels.
The more a user exercises, the better the giraffe does (users can buy their long-necked pets treats with rewards points they earn from walking, running and cycling). If users slack off, though, it’s curtains for the poor creature.
According to the app’s creators, a group of five super-talented self-starters from Szeged, Hungary, «Tep’s competitive edge relies on emotional connection and the mental „threat“ that the beloved pet might suffer from the lack of proper physical activity and thus offers a solution for curve fatigue effect.»
Does that sound a little dark? Sure. But it’s for a good cause. The founding team’s goal is to help users lose eight million pounds of fat in the next three years; there’s also talk of buying a giraffe.
The founding team built Tep on their own time and dime, but are currently funded by Traction Tribe and prizes from Microsoft’s Imagine Cup.
Tep is available in beta for Android and Windows phones, with an iOS version coming soon.
Wokamon
If you like the idea of a digital workout buddy helping you toe the line, but giraffes aren’t really your thing, then you might dig Wokamon, which comes to us from Mars Zhu and Hazim Abdul Hamid of Noodum.
Wokamon features dozens of animated monsters that get bigger and stronger as you do. Since it comes with a pedometer and syncs with wearables like Jawbone, Fitbit, and Up, you can be sure that every calorie burned gets counted and fed to your growing army of critters.
Connecting with friends on social media through Wokamon earns you reward points, which you can burn on unlocking new creatures.
Noodum and Wokamon are currently being funded by an $18,000 seed investment from Manchester Metropolitan University’s Innospace Incubator.
Gamified fitness apps like Wokamon and Tep have a lot of options when it comes to future monetization. They can either take the Zombies, Run! The approach of charging for downloads (which works if you’re as niche and well-made as that app) or offer in-app purchases for things like new backgrounds, characters, or crystals and boosters for your pet monsters.
For now, though, we can take advantage of both Tep and Wokamon for free.
Teamster
Teamster is an iOS app that, contrary to its name, has absolutely nothing to do with trucking. What teamster does do, though, is help you connect with other people in your area who are interested in the same sorts of athletic activities as you.
Conveniently, users are able to identify which sports they like and their level of skill in each on a scale of 1 to 5, which means you won’t be totally outmatched when you meet up for a game with other users.
When you find another user who shares your interests and skill set, swipe right in the app to add them to your team. Sounds like Tinder is ubiquitous, doesn’t it? Users can then create activities for other users or teams to join.
Teamster comes to us from the Melbourne based duo of Henry Chan and 22-year old Sam McCallum, who has a background in competitive running, cycling, and skiing.
Actually, 2015 is shaping up to be an awesome year for apps that bring social networking logic to the gym. Take Boston-based Perspyre, for example, which is coming out soon with a beta version for Android and iOS.
The whole point of Perspyre is connecting people who love to sweat and giving them access to workouts, advice, and motivation. Users can log into the app via Facebook and take post-workout selfies, record workouts, and brag about new personal records.
Though it’s admittedly a little intense for beginners, Persypre is perfect for those who are already «motivated and dedicated» enough to willingly visit Crossfit and P90x classes.
Perspyre is the brainchild of Jason Chisholm and Jeremy Mays and has received $25,000 in seed funding from John Piret of the investment firm Newbury Piret & Co.
If Perspyre sounds like it’s right up your alley, keep an eye out for the soon-to-be-launched SternFit iOS app which also gives workout buffs a great platform for sharing pics, tips, and workouts.
Rocket Journey
If your meteoric rise to peak physical perfection is still in the launch phase, you’ll find a helpful companion in RocketJourney, which bills itself as the «smartest and friendliest way to a fitness lifestyle.»
The app’s founding trio of Carlos Ayala, Pablo Artee, and Ernesto Cambuston has received funding from 500 Startups, the seed fund and startup accelerator comprised of Google and PayPal alums.
RocketJourney tracks all of your fitness activities from cycling to yoga to lifting to competitive eating — just kidding about that last one — and verifies that you’ve actually worked out through GPS and wearables integration.
The app motivates you to stick to your fitness regime by giving you points for completed workouts and taking away points for missed ones. The same logic holds true for user-created «teams» which add the pinch of peer-pressure that it just might take to keep you on track.
You can register for updates on RocketJourney’s release on the website.
OneSet
OneSet — «Vine for Fitness» — is another promising app to stay tuned for in the months to come. Users can create 15-second videos demonstrating an exercise or «stack» other users’ videos into workouts.
Since videos are organized by muscle group or goal, it’s easy to find the right moves for you.
OneSet’s founding team is based in Waterloo, Canada, and consists of brothers Amad and Shameel Abdullah, as well as full-stack developer George Xu.
GYM radio
Sometimes all it takes to reach the athlete within is finding the right music to sweat to, or the right gym to do it in.
Though GYM radio’s online music streaming service has been around since 2013, its new iOS, Android, and Windows phone releases have made it easier than ever to get amped up and pumped up at the same time.
The app features three music settings — cardio, gym, and hardcore-tailored to give your workout the right feel. Here’s the best part: GYM radio is completely ad-free, which means your runners high won’t get interrupted by voice-actors pitching toothpaste or discount car insurance.
GYM radio also offers a premium upgrade which, for a monthly or yearly subscription, will let you listen offline, skip songs, and get access to material unavailable on the standard version.
Gymhopper
Gymhopper — «Uber for gyms»- is a Swiss startup that aims to help you find the right gym by offering its users discounted individual training passes. Gyms benefit from the app by getting a little extra exposure as well as a shot at their target market, people who are actively searching for a new place to get sweaty.
Gymhopper is currently in series A fundraising but expects an iOS release later this year.
What can fitness startups learn from RunKeeper?
Figuring out how to actually make money with your app is a problem that can plague even the biggest of startup fish. Each of the aforementioned apps will have to figure out the right monetization strategy for their product and user-base. One good model employed by the leading fitness tracker RunKeeper is to partner with other businesses to provide sponsored advertising to users.
That means Teamster’s users could theoretically get discounts on Nike products for showing up at local softball games, and Perspyre users could get 25% off gym memberships for visiting p90x classes 3 times a week.
There are a lot of good ways to get back in shape, and a lot of good startups out there creating more every day.
Read Also:
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Are you tired of belly fat? Belly fat is more than a nuisance, it is more harmful than many people realize. It not only makes your clothes feel tight but may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, and heart problems.
Losing belly fat is extremely difficult, but it can be much harder if you are doing it wrong. There are many things that you do for losing weight that can actually increase your belly fat. In this article, we have listed the most common mistakes you should avoid. Have a look!
Not Getting Enough Sleep:
The most common mistake is staying awake at night. Whether you are having late-night coffee or scrolling through Instagram or Facebook. When you don’t get 6 to 8 hours of sleep every night, you will feel tired the next morning. You will not have the energy to keep up with everyday chores. Additionally, this will have an adverse effect on your weight. Instead of losing weight, you will be gaining weight.
This is because when we are sleep deprived, the hormones are not balanced. It has a direct impact on our hunger. The hormones that affect our hunger levels are leptin and ghrelin. Ghrelin makes us hungry while leptin promotes the feeling of fullness. When we have a lack of sleep, ghrelin levels increase and leptin level decreases.
It indicates that when we are awake, we will be eating more and feeling less satisfied. This is why you should go to sleep early and keep your hormones balanced.
Eating Too Much Sugar:
Losing weight becomes challenging when your diet includes a lot of sugar content. When you are trying to lose belly fat, you must keep a check on the calories and sugar you are intaking. You must avoid drinking sugar-sweetened drinks, sports drink, and other sugary foods.
Though many people tend to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables when losing weight, it is not a great approach. This is because fruits and vegetables havea high content of natural sugar. Many people even consume low-fat foods, such food also have high sugar content. So, it is advised to check the food label before using them.
Doing Crash-Dieting:
Though crash diets can help you lose weight in the start, it will not help keep the weight off. You need to keep in mind that intaking few calories can do more harm than good. This is because when you have low-calorie intake, your body will enter starvation mode. It will slow down the metabolism that makes it harder to lose weight.
You must try and keep the intake of carbohydrates to a minimum. When you will reduce the carbohydrates intake, you will be able to reduce your belly fat. If you want to make healthy changes in your eating habits, this menu will tell you what you should eat to lose weight.
Therefore, these are common mistakes made by people when trying to lose belly fat. You should gradually make changes to your lifestyle and habits to starting losing weight effectively.
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You may be constantly following a diet program and daily exercise, but weight loss seems to be an impossible task. A lot of imbalances in the body make weight loss a difficult task to accomplish and enhances the chances of obesity. Keep reading further to know about the imbalances in the body hindering the weight loss efforts.
Inflammation
Do you know what inflammation is? It is the physical condition of the in which a body part becomes reddened and swollen. A various number of body disorders like digestive problems, allergies, asthma, eczema, autoimmune disease, arthritis, abdominal fat, headaches, and sinus disorders lead to chronic inflammation. Recent studies have reflected that inflammation is also a major cause of obesity and weight loss problems. Apart from this, it is also a reason for other diseases like aging, heart diseases, and cancer. The california weight management in Monterey CA also shows that inflammation is the root cause of rising rates of obesity across the world.
Insulin Resistance
Insulin is the hormone released by the beta cells of the pancreas and plays an important role in glucose metabolism. Insulin regulates the glucose level in the bloodstream allowing the body cells to use it as a source of energy. When your body is resistant to insulin, the cells do not respond properly to insulin which increases the glucose level in the body. Hence, the pancreas produces and release more amount of insulin. Increased insulin level lets your body store unused glucose as fat. The fat stored in the body cannot be used as a source of energy which leads to weight gain. Hyperinsulinema is a body disorder that is characterized by a high insulin level, obesity, and higher lipid levels. The medical weight loss center in Monterey reflect insulin resistance as a major cause of obesity these days.
Thyroid Problem
Thyroid hormone secreted by the adrenal glands is a major hormone responsible for the body metabolism. Hypothyroidism is a condition in which the level of thyroid hormone increases in the body. People suffering from this condition feel tired, sleep more than usual, and suffers from constipation resulting in weight gain problem. A thyroid problem is hereditary. It leads to associated autoimmune illnesses which are accompanied by weight loss problem. The body loses its ability to lose weight and thereby the fat deposits increases leading to excessive weight gain.
Hormonal Imbalance
Hormonal imbalance in the body results in problems in weight loss mechanism. Low levels of serotonin lead to weight loss problems. Serotonin exerts a lot of influence over the mood, memory, appetite, and cravings. During the depression, the body tends to crave more sugar and starch stimulating the release of serotonin which affects the weight loss mechanism. Another hormone which results in obesity is the excess level of estrogen in the body. The estrogen receptors present in the brain is responsible for keeping control over food habits, energy utilization and distribution of fat in the body. The low of testosterone increases the fat deposition in the body and loss of muscles. It increases the chances of obesity and stress in the body. Recent findings have established that low testosterone is linked to depression, obesity and a number of heart disorders.
Genetics
The genetic has an important role to play in the weight loss in the body. Many genes in the body are involved in weight control as the bodyweight has an effective genetic component. These genes are responsible for increasing the endurance to survive when the food is scarce and thus making weight loss a difficult thing to accomplish. If the problem of excess weight is a part of your family, then you are likely to be obese. The weight loss program in Monterey is designed for effective weight loss.
Read also:
Tips to Lose Weight Naturally
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Chronic Stress
Stress, whether it is physical and mental, is a major cause of weight loss. Our body releases a lot of cortisol hormones which acts against the weight loss mechanism. Increased level of cortisol leads to enhanced appetite and belly fat. The doctors at California Medical Weight Management (CALMWM) also suggest the stress is one of the major reasons for poor weight loss regime.
These are the important imbalances in the body which are hindering the efforts you put for weight loss.
