Sweet Temptation: Enjoyment Without Guilt
Sweet temptation in the form of chocolate, cake, candy, and other treats lurks around every corner and often puts our willpower and self-discipline to the test. Since sweets are packed with sugar, we're often helplessly at the mercy of these little indulgences. After all, sugar triggers a reward mechanism in our brain and creates a good feeling when we consume it. But did you know that you can also actively stimulate your reward center with exercise and create moments of happiness? Our trainers at our fitness center in Ebikon will explain exactly how this works and which type of exercise is perfect for it.
Instead of Banning Sweets: Healthy Eating and Exercise with Occasional Indulgence
As with everything in life, when it comes to snacking, it's all about moderation and the right approach. Enjoying the occasional sweet treat won't make you fat or sick. Such small exceptions won't prevent you from losing weight or ruin your otherwise healthy diet if you create the right balance. You can achieve exactly that with a professional training plan and regular workouts at our fitness center in Ebikon. Here you have access to a wide range of training equipment. Our fitness coaches will show you how to use it properly. During your fitness training, you burn plenty of extra calories, which allows you to enjoy an unhealthy treat now and then—completely guilt-free and without self-doubt. If you ban sweets and instead rely entirely on a diet without sugar and too many proteins, cravings are inevitable and you'll get caught in a vicious cycle. Instead, try to create a balanced relationship between nutrition, exercise, and mindful eating. We're happy to support you with a nutrition plan and fitness plan to help you establish this balance in your life.
What Are Healthy Alternatives to Sweets?
Nature offers some sweet foods that can quickly satisfy your cravings for industrially produced sweets and even provide benefits for your training at our gym in Ebikon. This mainly refers to bananas, as they're rich in nutrients, easily digestible, and quick energy providers. Ripe bananas taste wonderfully sweet and even support muscle building as a pre-workout snack. This applies to both strength training on our weight benches and endurance training on the treadmill or spinning bike. Dried fruits shouldn't be underestimated either and are an important source of nutrients. While they also contain a lot of sugar, it's significantly healthier than processed industrial sugar and therefore suitable for a healthy diet. Dried fruits can be easily mixed into your morning porridge, which gives you the necessary energy for early training at our fitness center Ebikon. In the evening in front of the TV, dried fruits are the healthy alternative to chocolate, popcorn, and other sweets. You can also reach for nuts here, as they're wonderfully filling, provide your body with healthy unsaturated fatty acids and other nutrients. If you tend to have hunger attacks after training at the gym in Ebikon, nuts are also a perfect snack.
Come to Our Fitness Center Ebikon!
Have you set a weight loss or fitness goal and need help achieving it? At our gym in Ebikon, modern equipment awaits you, combined with an inviting atmosphere and a professional team of trainers. Here you exercise on the latest equipment and benefit from many other advantages. We're happy to create an individual training plan for you that helps you quickly work off small indulgences from the sweets aisle. Are you also interested in nutrition? Feel free to talk to us and our experts at the fitness center Ebikon will work with you to develop a holistic training and nutrition plan for your personal goals!
Salad with chicken breast and strawberries, packed with high-quality protein and fibre
At the Ebikon gym, it’s not just about targeted muscle building—we also want to help you see fitness as a complete concept. Alongside workouts and enough sleep, what you eat is one of the factors that can influence your fitness. For this important point, we’ve found a recipe that’s not only delicious, but can do much more. Because this salad gives your body everything it needs. The chicken breast provides high-quality protein, the salad adds fibre, and the strawberries contain important minerals and vitamins.
What makes up a meal
We know that only a well-nourished body can perform at its best. Even if you just want to get a little fitter with us at the Ebikon gym, your diet can help you reach your goal even faster. Protein is always essential for building muscle. Even though men and women differ in protein metabolism, protein is important for all athletes. It helps both men and women build muscle faster. That way, you support your training at Gym Ebikon and see results sooner. That’s why we chose a recipe where chicken breast plays a central role. It ensures your body gets enough protein. But that’s only the tip of the fitness iceberg—this salad has hidden qualities too.
Small things with a big impact
Vitamins play a role, as do micronutrients. These are mostly found in spices. Pepper doesn’t just make food tastier—it also plays an important role in metabolism. The piperine it contains activates fat metabolism and is even said to slow the growth of fat cells. So those small black grains can be a big help when you’re working on your fitness at Gym Ebikon. Strawberries contain lots of vitamin C, which is known to boost fat metabolism and speed up fat burning. So our recipe suggestion includes many nutrients that positively affect your metabolism. And the best part is: this salad is also really delicious.
The recipe:
Prep time: 20 min
Ingredients for four people:
- 600 g chicken breast fillet
- 4 tbsp honey
- 6 tbsp peppercorns
- 2 tbsp Rama Culinesse plant-based cream
- 500 g strawberries
- 250 ml Rama Cremefine for cooking, 15% fat
- 2 tbsp vinegar
- 1 tsp each salt, pepper
- 200 g mixed leaf salad of your choice
Preparation:
- Rinse the chicken breast fillet, pat dry, and salt. Brush with honey on both sides and sprinkle with coarsely crushed peppercorns, pressing the pepper in lightly. Heat the plant-based cream in a pan and sear the meat on both sides for about 2 minutes each. Put on a lid and continue cooking the chicken breast over low heat for about 6 minutes, until cooked through.
- Meanwhile, clean the strawberries and halve or quarter them. Purée 100 g strawberries with Cremefine. Season the dressing with vinegar, salt, pepper and, if you like, a little sugar to taste.
- Wash the salad, drain well, and tear into bite-sized pieces. Mix with the strawberries and drizzle with the dressing. Slice the chicken breast diagonally into thicker slices and arrange on top of the salad.
Enjoy your meal!
Train optimally at Gym Ebikon
This salad gives you plenty of valuable nutrients and also tastes great. If you’d like to learn more about nutrition and sport, we’re happy to help. At Gym Ebikon, you’ll find not only all the equipment you need for targeted muscle building. Our trained specialists can also advise you on your nutrition. They’ll be happy to help you achieve well-rounded fitness. With the support of our trainers at the Ebikon gym, you can train with a clear focus. That means, with our guidance, you optimise the areas of your body that matter to you. With our help, you can also boost your metabolism and focus not only on your muscles, but also on your overall fitness.
Let it burn – muscles vs. fat
Losing weight is an ultimate challenge for many people. Whether it's saying goodbye to a comfortable and familiar routine for a while or simply finding the necessary motivation to let the pounds drop. In many cases, it comes down to small but important details that need to be considered to get rid of those unwanted love handles in the long run. In addition to physical activity in the form of strength and endurance training, these details also include a little knowledge about the human energy balance. Our gym in Ebikon offers the perfect opportunities to reach your long-awaited goal.
The three different macronutrients in nutrition
At the beginning, you should clearly define which goal you want to achieve. Some want to build muscle, while others prefer to reduce their weight to fit back into their favorite pair of pants.
If you want to lose weight, you should know about the different macronutrients that make up our food. One of these macronutrients is carbohydrates. Among other things, these are essential for regulating our blood sugar levels.
When you eat carbohydrate-rich foods, your blood sugar level rises. In healthy people, this is regulated by the production of insulin, which transports the sugar from the blood into the cells. The cells can then produce energy from it.
A distinction must be made between good and bad carbohydrates. The "good" ones are long-chain and are found particularly in potatoes, rice, vegetables, and whole-grain products, while the "bad" ones are in processed foods, sweets, and sugary drinks. This is where the devil is in the details: while good carbohydrates keep blood sugar stable, their unhealthy counterparts cause a rapid rise and fall, which can result in food cravings. Generally, 1 gram of ingested carbohydrates provides 4.1 calories.
In addition to carbohydrates, proteins are another essential component of our food. Like carbohydrates, they have an energy density of 4.1 calories per gram. Proteins, also known as egg whites, contribute significantly to the maintenance, building, and regeneration of muscles by providing the body with valuable amino acids.
The third group of macronutrients is fats. At 9 calories per gram, they provide more than twice as much energy as carbohydrates and proteins, so high fat consumption should be avoided if your training goal is to reduce body fat. Of course, the human body needs fats, but as with everything, a distinction must be made between good and bad fats. Fish, olive oil, and nuts, for example, contain healthy, unsaturated omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. With their anti-inflammatory effects, they are an important part of maintaining health.
A balanced diet with the right distribution of these three macronutrients is the first step toward a healthy lifestyle. Nothing is forbidden, but as Paracelsus once said: "The dose makes the poison!" At our gym in Ebikon, you will receive the best advice on suitable nutrition plans.
Negative energy balance: The be-all and end-all of weight loss
In addition to a balanced diet, physical activity is the second important building block for losing weight. Physical activity burns additional calories on top of the resting metabolic rate that we take in with our daily diet.
An iron motto applies here: if you want to lose weight, you must have a negative energy balance. This term means that over a certain period of time, you burn more calories than you consume through your diet. This can be achieved through targeted muscle training and endurance training. Now, you have to keep in mind that you don't start burning fat from the very first second of exercise; no, first the carbohydrate stores must be emptied. If these stores are completely full due to a lack of exercise and an unbalanced diet, usually 300 to 400 grams of carbohydrates must be burned, which corresponds to about 1,200 to 1,600 calories. That's quite a lot!
Only when these stores are empty does our organism switch to fat burning and let the accumulated deposits shrink. This requires a good portion of self-confidence, motivation, and perseverance. A combination of endurance and strength training at the gym in Ebikon is ideal for setting new training stimuli, providing variety, and utilizing the so-called afterburn effect. During "afterburning," extra calories are burned to regenerate the muscles even hours after training while at rest. The better trained the body is and the more muscle is built, the more calories are burned.
With the innovative training equipment at the Ebikon gym, variety and the setting of training stimuli are guaranteed.
Give it a try!
If you need help taking a significant step closer to your goal, then you've come to the right place at our gym in Ebikon. In a pleasant atmosphere, innovative training equipment for endurance and muscle training is available to you, where you will receive professional instruction on how to train correctly.
The state-of-the-art studio offers further benefits with the development of tailor-made nutrition and training plans that you can practically apply and integrate into your new daily routine at any time. We are happy to sit down with you and provide professional advice.
We look forward to seeing you!
Intermittent Fasting: What Methods Are There?
The various fasting methods help you take your fitness and physical well-being to a new level. They also contribute to healthy and sustainable weight loss. Fitness Studio Ebikon is here to support you.
History of Fasting
In all religions, people fast for spiritual as well as medical reasons. Therapeutic fasting as a means of improving well-being and health goes back to Otto Buchinger (1878–1966). The physician, who experienced positive health improvements after a three-week fasting cure, dedicated himself to researching therapeutic fasting. From 1991 onwards, positive effects on rheumatism, high blood pressure, and elevated fat and sugar levels in the blood could be demonstrated. A study published in 2019 by Françoise Wilhelmi de Toledo described significant improvements in diseases as well as in blood fat and sugar levels.
Why Fasting Is Beneficial
The health benefits of various fasting methods are undisputed today. A primary benefit is weight reduction. Depending on the method used, fasting can lead to rapid reduction in body weight. In addition, studies report positive effects on cardiovascular diseases as well as chronic inflammation or psychological problems. The risk of heart and circulatory diseases as well as diabetes is reduced. Regeneration and healing processes begin to work in the body. People who fast often experience a mental high during the process. A welcome side effect that comes from successfully resisting the temptations of food.
Therapeutic or Intermittent Fasting?
While therapeutic fasting is completed within a limited time period, usually several days to weeks, intermittent fasting can be practiced throughout the entire year.
Since this involves alternating intervals over the course of a day or week, the associated physical strain as well as the challenge of perseverance is much more manageable. The weight loss success is smaller, but it works long-term. After a period of therapeutic fasting, the yo-yo effect often sets in and the lost pounds return.
The Different Methods
There are various fasting methods in which food and stimulants are avoided for hours or days at a time.
- 16:8 Fasting: Fasting for 16 hours a day and eating for 8 hours. The rhythm of eating and fasting times can be chosen individually.
- 5:2 Fasting: Eating normally for 5 days a week and consuming 500–800 kcal/day on 2 days. Fasting days should not be consecutive.
- Alternate-Day Fasting: Eating days alternate with fasting days. On fasting days, 25% of the usual food amount is consumed.
- Dinner Canceling: With this variant, there is no dinner on 2–3 days a week.
Food and Drink
You don't have to starve or count calories. It's important to ensure your nutrient needs are met. Therefore, you should consume vegetables, fruit, whole grain products, little meat, fish, and sugar. Additionally, you should drink 2–3 liters of water or unsweetened tea per day. To find the most suitable method for you, we're happy to provide expert advice at our fitness studio in Ebikon.
The Right Fitness Training
The different fasting methods and exercise can complement each other very well. Food restriction already creates a better energy balance, meaning the ratio of calorie intake minus calorie expenditure. During fasting, the sugar stored in the liver as glycogen is used first. Once this storage is empty, the body begins to break down protein as an energy source. According to research studies, intermittent fasting has a positive effect on muscle biochemistry and metabolism. During training, the body additionally draws on fat reserves. However, if it's fairly intensive endurance training, caution is advised. The body now draws more energy from the muscles, which can reduce muscle mass. Therefore, the workout, as offered at Fitness Studio Ebikon, should include an appropriate amount of strength training to counteract muscle loss. The respective fasting method now even helps promote muscle growth. Growth hormones are responsible for this, which in combination with testosterone ensure that the organism works energy-efficiently. Optimal training should be a combination of cardio and strength training with moderate intensity. At our gym in Ebikon, you'll find all the conditions that enable you to get the most out of improving your fitness.
If, after all this theory, you feel like putting your knowledge into action, we warmly invite you to our fitness studio in Ebikon. Here you can train in a state-of-the-art studio in a pleasant atmosphere and get advice on any questions at any time. We offer individually tailored training and nutrition plans to suit your needs and are naturally here to support you whenever needed.
Proteins: What Are They Needed For?
Along with carbohydrates and fats, protein is an essential dietary component, especially for strength athletes and bodybuilders. Muscle fibers, blood, internal organs, and all other tissues in the body are made of protein. Even the antibodies of the immune system and all enzymes are built from proteins, which in turn consist of amino acids. Proteins ensure that our muscles aren't broken down during a diet, for example, or that our immune system functions properly. Protein helps you maintain and build your fitness.
What Are Proteins?
Protein consists of amino acids. There are 21 different amino acids in total that can make up a protein. Of these 21 amino acids, nine are so-called essential amino acids, which the body cannot produce on its own. Therefore, these essential amino acids must be obtained through food. The essential amino acids are leucine, isoleucine, lysine, valine, phenylalanine, methionine, threonine, and tryptophan. The amino acids leucine, isoleucine, and valine in particular stimulate protein biosynthesis in the body and should therefore be consumed after training. Essential amino acids are now also available in the form of BCAA powders or ready-to-drink beverages. BCAA stands for Branched-Chain Amino Acids and is a mixture of leucine, isoleucine, and valine. Protein plays a central role in muscle recovery and regeneration and is therefore an indispensable component of protein biosynthesis. At the Ebikon gym, we offer high-quality protein powders as well as BCAA drinks to help you boost your protein biosynthesis after training.
How Much Protein Do I Need?
The German Nutrition Society recommends 1.0 g of protein per kg of body weight. For athletic activities, diets, or muscle building, 1.5 to 2.0 g per kg of body weight is recommended. When it comes to protein intake, you should pay attention not only to quantity but also to the quality of the protein. A measure of protein quality is biological value, which describes how efficiently the consumed protein can be converted into the body's own protein. Generally speaking, the biological value of animal proteins is higher than that of plant proteins.
This is because animal protein sources typically contain a broader spectrum of amino acids than plant protein sources.
The egg serves as the maximum value with a biological value of 100. Other foods with high biological value include fish, meat, cheese, and quark. It's best to combine plant and animal protein sources so that the meal contains as much of the complete amino acid spectrum as possible. At the Ebikon gym, we recommend that our members eat a balanced diet and pay attention to their protein intake.
Protein Is Especially Helpful for Weight Loss
Losing weight is difficult for many people. Losing fat sustainably seems impossible for most. To successfully lose weight sustainably, you need to reduce your calorie intake and increase your physical activity. This is the only way to break the vicious cycle of dieting and the yo-yo effect. At the Ebikon gym, we know about the important role of protein in weight loss, because protein keeps you full longer and increases the body's thermogenesis. Eating healthy also means consuming enough protein. Protein helps keep insulin levels stable and prevents cravings.
This makes it easier to consume fewer calories than the body burns. This creates the foundation for successful weight loss, because increased exercise alone is not enough for sustainable weight reduction.
1 kilogram of body fat consists of about 9,000 kcal. To lose 1 kilogram of fat, you would have to do about 30 hours of exercise at a calorie burn of 300 kcal per hour. This is exactly where protein helps us save additional calories through its long-lasting satiety effect.
Ebikon Gym: Success Through Planning
At Gym Ebikon, we're happy to advise you in a pleasant atmosphere. We'll provide you with a personalized training and nutrition plan to help you reach your goals. In our state-of-the-art studio, you can optimally implement your training plan and get closer to your dream body. Whether strength or endurance training, our qualified staff will help you with all your training questions.
Feel free to reach out—we're here to help!
Sources:
1. Kompendium der Sportmedizin, Physiologie, Innere Medizin und Pädiatrie, ISBN 978-3-211-99715-4, https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-211-99716-1.pdf
2. Wirksamkeit von Diäten zur nachhaltigen Gewichtsreduktion bei Übergewicht und Adipositas, Deutschen Institut für Medizinische Dokumentation und Information, https://portal.dimdi.de/de/hta/hta_berichte/hta345_bericht_de.pdf
