Some weightlifters take protein supplements to provide them with additional ENERGY.?
If you are ONLY considering caloric values, proteins can provide as much calories as carbohydrates. If you want to cash in on huge amounts of energy, fats are the best source. Here's the breakdown: Fat: 1 gram = 9 calories Protein: 1 gram = 4 calories Carbohydrates: 1 gram = 4 calories Alcohol: 1 gram = 7 calories Of course, if you are considering other aspects of health, excessive fats and alcohols aren't the best options. Eating a lot of protein leads to excessive amounts of ammonia, so the person has to drink a lot more water for protein metabolism than if the person was taking in more carbohydrates. Edit: Becky is totally wrong because many proteins are broken down into intermediates or precursors of the TCA/Citric Acid cycle.
What is the best way for a woman to lose weight if she is already exercising?
Loosing weight is mostly about diet, not so much exercise. Studies show that gym enrollment is up more than ever and we still have an obesity problem in this country. The key is being able to quantify your nutritional intake so you can make objective decisions about what to and what not to eat. Otherwise you're just guessing and that will frustrate you more than anything else. Even "healthy" foods will cause you to gain weight if over consumed. Simply eating less can force your body into austerity, slowing down your metabolism to conserve energy. Eating too much obviously causes you gain weight. Assuming you have no condition that would be adversely affected by diet, programs like weight watchers help you to calculate more than just calories. The point system takes into account sugars, proteins, carbs and fat in everything you eat. These values are then expressed in a point system and you are given a specific amount of points per day which you can consume anyway you like. If measuring and tracking isn't your thing, you can always try plans that will provide prepared food, to which add a certain amount of fruits and vegetables to supplement. The basis of both is portion control. Water is also key. You should be drinking at least 1 oz of water for every 2 pounds of weight. I weigh around 200 lbs so I drink as close to 100oz a day as I can. Every process in the body requires water as a transit system; everything from the synaptic firing of neurons in your brain to the simple movement of nutrition in and out of cells, and removal of the waste all requires water. Make small dietary changes at first; add more water one week- maybe try to have a salad a few times week ( with lemon and salt instead of dressing). Small changes help your body and mind acclimate in healthy way. Crash dieting will indeed cause you to loose weight but isn't sustainable and can be unhealthy in many ways. You want to establish good or better behaviors and that takes time. Finally don't obsess! You shouldn't weigh your self more than once a week. In my own experience the body is slow to change, so if you have a good week of eating that doesn't show on the scale, it may show the following week. Be patient and concentrate more on learning to eat well, than the weight you are trying to loose.Good luck to you.
I love exercising (weightlifting mainly) and I hate rest days. Are they necessary?
Yes! Rest days are very important! We have a hormone called cortisol that is released when you exercise. It's called a stress hormone. Its also released in any stressful situation. As you get older, it gets harder to regulate. It's the main cause & reason for belly fat. But when your young to much cortisol can Frey your nerve endings that cannot be repaired. When you rest and relax your cortisol drops. Massages, hot bubble baths. A glass of wine is just as beneficial as working out. There is a balance for life. Whether it being for working out, eating, working at a job. Take time to enjoy other life's pleasures. That adrenaline rush you get with weight lifting is a wonderful high. But like any drug, to much is unhealthy. I've been a personal trainer for 10 years. Your muscles need to tear & repair. Rest and be fed well. But laughing & relaxing is good for the most important muscle of all!! The brain!!! Keep loving your body in every way!!
What are the contents of a synapse in a neural network? (Are weights, like in graph structures, usually what is stored in a synapse?)
This may be more information than you need, but the short answer is that the weight is more like part of the synapse. The synapse itself is an equation defining inputs and a single output. You can then feed these outputs into other synapses as inputs to construct multi layeref neural networks.Long answer:The simplest neuro network is called a perceptron which, conceptually, is a single ball for input, a connecting weight, and a ball for output. The simplest equation applied is:Output = weight*inputory = m*x + b (where b=0)I point out the linear equation because it helps identify an interesting point going on here. By adjusting the slope of the line, the line tilts through problem space as it learns where the division for right and wrong is. You may wish to map the output to true and false, or interpret the result as you see fit.So after you construct this simple neuron, lets say you provide the inputs 1,2,3…10 and desire that 1 to 5 be true and everything else false.Backpropagation is the simplest method I know of to achieve this type of learning. Check out backpropagation on wikipedia, the article is very well written but will require high school level calculus to understand. It explains how to construct the error function but also assumes a multi layered neural network (many synapses or “connected” equations).So, while inputs ar giving you wrong outputs, you would use the derivative of the error function to adjust the slope. Basically, the change in slope is equivalent to the change in error. You stop doing this when the error for all outputs reaches some threshold that you are comfortable with. Preferrably the error should reach 0 but no gurantee there.Also note, that the line could tilt in more than one valid way to divide right and wrong. This may appear to work for the training data but it could still be wrong for certain, unforseen, inputs as the line may not have tilted enough. For example, if you never trained it with a 6 then it might think 6 was true when it encountered it in the real world. That’s the main reason why neural networks are so hard to train. You need to cover a lot of bases that you might not have thought of.
What is the smallest functional unit of the neuron that has a significant role in cognition?
Most neuroscientists would probably answer "the neuroreceptor."There are on the order of 10 - 50 receptors at each synapse, and synapses are the connection points between neurons that mediate memory (among other things).The receptors are essentially tiny physical objects that are installed into the neuron's membrane at the synapse. The number and type of receptors determines the strength and computational properties of the synapse. The neural network as a whole modifies itself by adding and removing individual receptors at the synapses. And each receptor operates individually as a switching mechanism, opening when a neurotransmitter molecule binds to it for example.So the receptor would be a good candidate for the smallest functional unit; and since collectively, the receptors in the context of the network mediates cognition, together they have a crucial role.The brain is sufficiently robust, however, that one receptor can make no real difference to cognition. Even one neuron won't make a detectable difference, due to parallel processing and graceful degradation.Just as one vote can decide an election, one receptor could theoretically decide cognition. However usually one vote makes no difference, and the same is true of individual receptors.RelatedAre memories stored physically? What is the molecular basis of memory? How are memories made, stored and retrieved on a molecular level?
Why do resting muscles prefer to use fats as their energy source?
The simple answer is time. As you know, glucose (or stored glycogen) is the most efficient fuel for energy, so the body wants to essentially 'save' it for when it really requires a lot of energy (eg. exercise). At rest there is no urgency for ATP, so your muscles utilise fats for energy. The process of lipolysis to create Acetyl-CoA is much slower than glycolysis, so when there is no urgency, the muscles use the 'less important' fuel source, and the fact that it takes a while to produce the ATP simply isn't an issue. Also, fat catabolism produces a greater number of ATP per molecule than glycolysis, but at a much slower rate as mentioned. During strenuous exercise, ATP is obviously required much faster, so glycolysis kicks in and fatty-acid metabolism becomes only a secondary source of energy. As the intensity of the exercise increases even more, we move into anaerobic glycolysis, which is even faster at producing energy, but can only be sustained for up to 2 minutes generally. (This also has to do with the efficiency of the electron transport chain and a build of matbolites, but that's another topic). Hope it helps. EDIT: I was actually studying this a little more this week for one of my cases, and came across a really good article that pretty much sums up your question in a much clearer way than how I answered it lol. I'm not sure if I'm legally allowed to post a quote from the article here, but I've left the reference below.
Why do I have bright spots in my vision after exercise?
The bright spots (sometimes called "stars", as in "seeing stars") are the result of synaptic misfires in the optical region of you brain. They occur in the event of a cranial trauma (a hit on the head), or when there is insufficient fuel to keep all the nerves working (low blood sugar), or when available oxygen is inadequate [fuel plus oxygen runs cars, and fuel plus oxygen runs brains. A shortage of either causes mis-fires]. Dizziness is a result of brain starvation also (sugar or oxygen). If you tip upside down, the "rush to your head" is actually deprivation as your body closes the arteries leading to your brain. Too mush blood never makes you dizzy; too little does. You do not describe a cranial trauma, so you are either exercising without providing enough fuel or your exercise is exceeding your cardio-pulminary capacity. This latter situation is alarming only if your exercise regimen is inconsistent with your age and state of fitness. In a worst case scenario, you have a cardio problem. More likely, your recent exercise exceeds the conditioning of your most recent lifestyle. Even very young, fit people "see stars" whenever they push themselves too hard. High school football players pass out on the training field. You did not state your age or whether you are an at-risk individual (like a smoker, or a diabetic). So, it is possible you have a blood sugar control problem. It is also possible you have a coronary problem. It is most likely that you are pushing yourself too hard. Checking for sugar problems and cardio problems is not major, so I suggest you do it. We can all hope that you are just pushing your work out too hard, but the alternatives are a bit scary. In any event, see a doctor.
What does Omega 3 Fish Oil do for you?
There are a number of things that it does for you. For one it is very good for you, you can also get Omega-3 from other things such as eggs. One of the things that fish oil is good for is if you have a couple extra pounds in you stomach area, Omega-3 fish oil is one of the best supplements to take to shed those extra pounds. If you take two before you go walking it burns like 3 times as much stomach fat that if you didn't take it.