Ram Tiwari

Hello Ziddis! Have you heard of the term DOMS? DOMS or Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness is a common condition most gym-goers experience when they engage in physical activities that push their muscles beyond the usual limits. It is an uncomfortable and often painful sensation one feels for 24 to 72 hours after an intense workout or trying a new regime. But what is DOMS, what caused it and how to cure it? Let us understand this condition better.

What Causes Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness?

Understanding the causes of DOMS requires us to understand what happens to our muscles when we exercise. While engaging in physical activities that involve weights, the act of lowering the weights can cause tiny tears in our muscle fibres. These micro tears can cause inflammation and muscle soreness for hours after working out. Now wear and tear is quite a natural part of muscle growth but this sensation can be very disturbing and painful at times.

Delayed-onset muscle soreness can peak within 48 hours of the said intense workout. This should be taken as a sign that the body’s muscles are repairing themselves. The inflammation triggers pain points and causes a sensation of delayed-onset muscle soreness.

What Causes DOMS?

What leads to delayed-onset muscle soreness? There are many factors as culprits.

• Starting a new training
• Increasing the intensity of the current routine
• Losing the practice of working out
• Starting strength-building regime
• Doing an unfamiliar exercise.

Over time, our muscles get used to this and the severity of DOMS starts to reduce with constant and consistent weight training.

Preventing and Managing Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness

While delayed-onset muscle soreness can’t be entirely avoided, there are several strategies to minimize its intensity and help your muscles recover faster:

1. Proper Warm-Up and Cool-Down

Make sure that you have done your warm-up well before you start exercising. Prepare your body for what is coming. Hop on the treadmill for some light cardio or do some stretches to improve the blood flow to your muscles. This reduces the risk of DOMS. Similarly, to cool down make sure you stretch and relax your muscles

2. Gradual Progression in Exercise

Do not surprise your muscles with more weights, more reps or higher intensity. Make sure your body is prepared for it by progressively increasing the intensity. This reduces the chances of injuries as well.

3. Hydration and Nutrition

Make sure you hydrate yourself. Water and electrolytes are the best fix for tired muscles. What is also a good fix? Right food. A nutritious meal is a way for our body to deal with DOMS and get us back on the grid. Add some multivitamins to your diet to make up for any loose ends. If you want to stay natural there are also ayurvedic alternatives available at MuscleBlaze to recover and reduce inflammation.

4. Foam Rolling and Massage

Foam rollers are all the hypes but sources say they are a great investment to make so that your muscles are relaxed and massaged well. Do pamper yourself with a professional massage once in a while to relax your body to bounce back stronger.

5. Rest

Rest is very important. Do not push yourself when you are not at your best. Make sure to give your body the space and time to heal itself. During this time you can do some yoga, brisk walking or swimming.

Takeaway

Delayed-onset muscle soreness is not a serious matter but your body’s natural response to heavy lifting which it isn’t used to. Muscles go through wear and tear as a part of the process of growth. It can be unconformable and painful but remember to follow all the advice on how to deal with it. It is nothing but your body asking you to rest while it helps to keep you well-functioning. Do not panic and neither try to push yourself if you experience any discomfort in your muscles. Listen to your body and your body will pay you back with good health. So the next time you feel sore after a workout, remember that it’s part of the process—your muscles are getting stronger!

Hello Ziddis! Since we were kids, we were told fruits help us grow stronger and healthier. We hold the belief close to our hearts when growing up. Even during our fitness journey, we think of ordering a fruit salad for breakfast or dessert. Now someone comes around and tells us that fruits are bad for weight loss! How do we deal with this information? How to verify it? Shall we just leave having fruits? In this blog, we will try to understand which fruits serve what purpose while balancing calories and nutrients and which ones should you avoid to steer clear of weight gain.

Healthy Fruit: The Basics

Fruits are the key element of our nutrition and offer tonnes of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and most of all fibres! These sweet treats offer fewer calories than our pastries are have more fibre to help our digestion. All in all, fruits have it in them to support our overall health. But, overconsuming even elixir has side effects. We must make sure that we know our fruits before we have them so that those fruits can help us in our specific fitness goals! Some all-rounder healthy varieties of fruits are apples, berries and citrus fruits. Adding these to your plate can support your daily needs for minerals and antioxidants.

Do Healthy Fruits Make You Gain Weight?

Fruits support our overall well-being. However, the question arises: do fruits make us gain weight? It depends on your portion and total daily calorie intake. While fruits are not innately fattening, eating loads of them in one sitting can be a bit much for your body. Not only would it cause weight gain but also could lead to gut health issues.

Which Fruits to Avoid for Weight Gain

Some fruits are higher in calories than others. They are thought to be fattening but they majorly provide healthy fats. These are bananas and avocados.

Some fruits are thought to be extreme in sugar content. Those could be custard apples (sitaphal) or mangoes. But their sugar content is all natural sugar and they do shoot up your glucose levels and blood sugar levels.

Some fruits which may lead to weight gain are mangoes, grapes, bananas and dried fruits. They are higher in sugar and calories so make sure you eat them mindfully instead of avoiding them completely.

Fruits Good for Weight Loss

Now that we know which fruits to avoid for weight gain let us understand which fruits are good for weight loss and add them to our cart ASAP! Some low-calorie high-nutrition fruits are:

• Berries: Be it strawberries, blueberries or mulberry, berries are rich in antioxidants
• Citrus Fruits: Grapefruit, oranges and sweet lime.
• Watery Fruits: Watermelon, musk melon and apple are great in water content and keep you hydrated.

Best Fruits to Eat Daily

We know which fruits to have and which to avoid but our plate still needs to be filled up. Let’s add some apples, oranges and berries every day to our diet to make sure we are equipped with fibres, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. For quick energy, have some bananas or pears.

Swirl the berries in Greek yoghurt, top it up with nuts and make juices out of citrusy, watery fruits. By pairing fruits with protein you can manage your hunger and reduce overindulging.

While mangoes and grapes are supposed to be avoided make sure when they are in season you relish them. Your body needs to experience seasons with seasonal fruits and vegetables.

Best Fruits for Gut Health

Fruits have a very helpful element. Fibres! This is important for our gut to remain healthy. A healthy gut makes for a good digestive system and better health. Some fruits which assist in the gut health betterment are also rich in fibres. Apples, kiwis and berries are great at supporting smooth digestion, promoting the growth of healthy gut bacteria and preventing constipation. They also help reduce bloating and improve nutrient absorption.

Healthy Fruits for Heart Health

If you did not know it, some fruits are better than others in supporting our heart health. Fruits packed with potassium and vitamin C which also have antioxidant and anti-inflammation qualities are great for your heart. Some of these fruits are:

• Berries: They help reduce cholesterol, especially strawberries and blueberries.
• Bananas, Apples, Oranges, Grapes, Mangoes and Papayas: support heart functions are rich in potassium.

Healthy Fruit Vitamins

Fruits already are power-packed with vitamins but some ace the test! There are some of the best fruits with vitamin-rich content.

• For Vitamin A: Grab some mangoes and melons.
• For Vitamin B: Have some bananas
• For Vitamin C: You should have oranges, kiwis and strawberries.

Takeaway

Adding a variety of fruits to your diet can definitely improve your overall health without contributing to weight gain. But remember to enjoy them in moderation. Be mindful of eating fruits and know which fruits are better for your health goals. No fruit is extremely bad, it just may not be the right choice for you. Choose healthy fruits that support your personal goals, whether it’s weight loss, gut health or heart health. You can complement your fruit intake with balanced meals including oats protein or green protein from MuscleBlaze. By using these, you can make a nice smoothie with fruits to start your day on a fuller and more nutritional note. Let us keep up with our nutritional needs while staying on track with our fitness goals.

Hello Ziddis! We all have grown up hearing alcohol is a bad substance and we should refrain from it. As we grew older we started lobbying for alcohol saying a glass of wine is good for the heart, beer is good for kidneys and so on. But let us understand what is the actual truth behind this. Is alcohol all bad or a little good? Does it make you put on weight? Don’t worry. In this blog, we will try to answer most of these questions liked alcohol benefits for you.

Does Alcohol Have Any Benefits At All?

Let us cut to the chase and not debate about the goodness or evils of alcohol. Does alcohol have any benefits whatsoever? Yes, it does! It is worth mentioning that a regulated, moderate amount of alcohol consumption does have benefits. Studies have shown some alcohols like red wine are enriched with antioxidants. How it helps our body is for us to explore later on but this quality can help us relax and form better social bonds if consumed in an acceptable quantity. It also reduces stress levels and helps fall asleep.

Does Alcohol Make You Fat?

While alcohol itself does not contain fats it is very high in calories and can lead to some fat gain. 1gm of alcohol contains 7 calories and that is as calorie-dense as fats which have about 9 calories per gram. But leaving aside the raw calories that directly add into to our intake, when we drink alcohol our liver ends up giving more preference to breaking down that alcohol instead of focusing on the metabolism of other nutrients like carbs and direct fats. This can make the fat metabolism slower by a margin and cause the fat to accumulate near the abdomen area. This causes weight gain.

Interestingly because beer is one of the most fatening alcohols, this phenomenon of fat storage and increase in tummy size is called having a Beer Belly.

How Does Alcohol Cause Weight Gain?

Now let us understand in-depth how alcohol causes weight gain. Several factors explain how alcohol can lead to weight gain:

• Increased Caloric Intake: Alcohol has loads of calories that do not have any nutritional benefit for the body hence these are also known as empty calories. An average glass of beer can have up to 150 calories easily which adds up to your intake. Imagine the amount of calories you may end up adding on a night out!
• Reduced Fat Metabolism: Alcohol confuses your body, especially the liver which is in charge of metabolism and instead keeps it busy trying to process alcohol. The unprocessed fat now moves and settles near the abdomen making you gain weight.
• Increased Appetite: Alcohol can give you serious hunger pangs because it affects hormones related to hunger and satiety. 
• Slower Digestion: Because of all the above reasons, baseline digestion is highly impacted and the necessary nutrients are not absorbed properly into the body. 

Beer: The Alcohol for Weight Gain

Beer is the most infamous culprit among alcoholic drinks to cause weight gain. This is because beer has tonnes of carbs along with the empty fats in alcohol. This makes beer double the trouble drink of choice for your waistline. You can end up having a “beer belly” if you are not careful how many bottles you down. Frequent beer drinkers are often found with a huge round belly because they struggle with fat getting stored in the belly area. Beer can also cause bloating, fluid retention and sluggish feeling and all of this adds up to weight gain.

5 Positive Effects of Alcohol

While we have focused majorly on the ills of alcohol and how it makes you gain weight there are some positive effects it has as well if consumed in moderation.

• Heart Health: Red wine is considered to have a positive effect on heart health.
• Kidney Stone Relief: Beer is said to be suggested by doctors to treat kidney stones naturally.
• Social Bonding: Alcohol can potentially make one more confident to interact socially.
• Stress Reduction: A glass of wine helps as a relaxant after a long day
• Improved Circulation: Moderate alcohol intake has been linked to improved circulation, potentially lowering the risk of blood clots.
• Enhanced Mood: Alcohol triggers the release of a feel-good hormone, dopamine which uplifts our mood.

Conclusion

Alcohol in itself can not be termed as good or bad. It all depends on how well one takes it. If taken in moderation it can have positive effects. But the truth remains that some alcoholic drinks have too many empty calories which will lead to weight gain. So self-control is very essential to make sure you do not cross the line. Limiting alcohol, opting for lower-calorie drinks and balancing it with healthy food and movement can help cover up for the negative impact alcohol may have on your weight.

Carbohydrates have always been treated as the bad ones, the villains, to be banished from our plates. But are they the bad guys of nutrition? They have been under scrutiny for far too long. In reality, we all need them and avoiding them entirely is not the smartest way to get fit. Let us understand what are healthy carbs and bad carbs and how we can make the most of them.

Importance of Macros

Carbohydrates fall in the macros category with proteins and fats. Macros or Macronutrients are the components which are very essential for many bodily functions. Carbs being macros, play a huge role. They give us the energy to carry on with our daily work. Ignoring any of these macros can lead to imbalances in energy levels and overall health. We need a plate full of macros and that does not mean only stuffing the plate with proteins. They have their rightful place in your diet. And some can also help you in your weight loss journey.

Healthy Carbs and Bad Carbs

Big reveal! There are good and bad carbs. Not all deserve to be blamed. The problem isn’t carbohydrates themselves but the type we consume. Good carbohydrates support weight loss and help keep you healthy. They are unprocessed and natural. The good ones come from whole grains, fruits, legumes and root vegetables. These are accompanied by fibres, vitamins and minerals making them healthier and digested well.

Bad carbohydrates are found in processed foods like white bread, pastries, and sugary drinks, They are refined and cause your blood sugar levels to spike. These result in crashes in energy, weight gain and chronic illnesses. When you are advised to avoid them it means the ones in processed foods, not the natural ones that you should embrace in your diet.

Healthy Carbohydrate Foods

Healthy carbohydrate foods support our health and fuel our bodies without causing sugar spikes or energy crashes. Some of these are:

• Sweet potatoes: They are Rich in good carbs, proteins, minerals and vitamins. They can be a good replacement for your french fries craving and keep you full for longer.
• Quinoa: For those embracing a healthy life quinoa is a great option.
• Brown Ricee – White rice is usually processed so as a healthy replacement you can have brown rice. It also helps to keep you satiated.
• Oats – Oats are great for heart health and maintaining stable energy levels.

Healthy carbohydrate foods can accelerate your fitness journey once you realize their power and potential.

Good Carbohydrates for Weight Loss

You may think cutting them is the best way to lose weight but you don’t need to do that! How can carbohydrates help in weight loss? Yes, good ones can help in weight loss! If you are hoping to shed some weight seek help of good carbohydrates. This is how good carbs help in weight loss:

• They help in digestion
• Prevents from overeating
• They help keep us fuller for longer.
• They provide steady energy for a good workout.
• They help avoid energy crashes that cause lethargy.
• Lower the risk of chronic diseases like diabetes and heart conditions.

Having a balance of good carbs with other macros can help you stay healthy. By being mindful of what we are consuming like whole grains and vegetables in your diet you can maintain a calorie deficit without sacrificing essential nutrients. Sweet potatoes, quinoa, and oats are all good carbohydrates for weight loss, as they keep you full while supporting your metabolism.

How to Add Healthy Sources of Carbs to Your Plate?

By adding healthy carbs to your diet you can step up your fitness routine. Here is how you can do it:

• Your breakfast can have whole grain roti or bread
• You can swap potato for sweet potato
• You can add brown rice to your meals like lunch or dinner
• You can add quinoa to your meal or salad
• Avoid sugary cereals and have oats instead
• Always add a side of fibre and protein
• For snacking try adding Fit Foods to your routine. They have a great blend of proteins and carbohydrates so that you can reach your health goals without compromising on your taste or convenience.
• Have protein bars enriched with quinoa for a balanced snacking option.

Final Thoughts

Carbs have long been misunderstood, but by focusing on the importance of macros, choosing healthy carbohydrate foods, and steering clear of highly processed options, you can enjoy their benefits without guilt. There’s no need to label them all as bad. Instead, aim for balance, and remember to add good carbs for weight loss can actually help you reach your fitness goals.