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Femme Fitness
Femme Fitness
Dr. Stacy Sims, an expert in female-specific nutrition and exercise physiology, provides comprehensive insights into optimizing women's health, performance, and longevity through tailored training and nutrition protocols. She addresses crucial topics such as fasted training, meal timing around workouts, menstrual cycle considerations, and effective exercise combinations including resistance, high-intensity, and sprint interval training. Dr. Sims also covers supplements, caffeine use, sleep needs, cold exposure, and sauna benefits for women. By challenging common misconceptions and offering evidence-based recommendations, she empowers women to enhance their metabolic health, body composition, hormonal balance, and cognitive function while promoting healthy aging. Her advice spans various life stages, providing actionable strategies for women to improve their overall well-being and athletic performance.
Exercise and Heat Loss
Exercise and Heat Loss
By Nichole Ahn
According to Stephenson and others the human body can lose heat through conduction, convection, radiation and evaporation (2020). The environment plays a role in how heat is dissipated through exercise. In cooler environments, body heat is lost through convection and radiation. In heat however, the body expels heat through evaporation.
During rest, the body transports heat through conduction and convection. During exercise the body generates heat and expels it through several different methods like radiation, convection, and evaporation. One way is through the surface of the skin. With exercise comes an increased blood flow. The blood vessels near the skin’s surface dilate which then radiates the heat from the warm blood to exit the body. Another way the body expels heat through exercise is through sweating. The body produces sweat as the body temperature rises with exercise. Sweat then evaporates and cools the body temperature. Just as blood flow increases, so does one’s rate of breathing. Some of the heat generated through exercise is expelled through exhaled air.
REE & Body Composition
REE & Body Composition
By Nichole Ahn
Just as the world is always changing, so are our bodies. The sum of physical and chemical changes that occur within our body at any given time is called metabolism. Metabolism is human energy (Rawson et al., 2020). Expenditure of energy utilized at rest in relation to body composition and size is called the Resting Energy Expenditure rate (REE). One way to calculate REE is an online REE calculator https://calculator.academy/ree-resting-energy-expenditure-calculator/. In essence it is the number of caloric needs your body uses to function daily. Evidence illustrates the rate at which the body utilizes its energy stores varies from person to person and in addition to body composition it can also be influenced by stages of life; intensity and consistency of exercise; and metabolic rate of organs and tissue (Fernández-Verdejo et al., 2024).
Understanding body composition is important as it’s a measure of your overall health and wellness. In short, body composition describes what the body is made of: fat, bone, muscle tissue, organs, and water. Body composition affects the rate of REE. Of all the mass calculated for REE, fat free mass is responsible for most of the variance between individuals (Fernández-Verdejo et al., 2024).
More fat free mass increases REE. Muscle and organ tissue are more metabolically active, requiring more energy, than fat mass. Thus, fat mass has a smaller impact on REE. Yet overweight individuals may have a higher REE due to the fact there is more mass (muscle, water and fat) to be accounted for in the REE equation.
Body composition is fluid can be changed through lifestyle and nutritional modifications. According to Kolnes, REE accounts for roughly 60% of total energy expenditure while physical activity accounts for approximately 40% (2021). Weight loss may decrease REE as the body composition altered. According to a study of 1,317 obese, survivorship persons, the best exercise modality to reduce inflammation and improve your body composition is through combination of aerobic exercise and resistance training. Specifically, this exercise combination had the highest reduction of body mass, waist circumference, percentage of body fat compared to aerobic exercise, HIIT, and moderate-intensity exercise. (Hooshmand et al., 2021).
In sum, body composition affects REE in a multitude of ways. Fat free mass is metabolically more active than fat mass and may increase REE. Changing your body composition will change your REE and it is important to check REE often to ensure you are nourishing your body adequately.
Resources
Fernández-Verdejo, R., Sanchez-Delgado, G., & Ravussin, E. (2024). Energy Expenditure in Humans: Principles, Methods, and Changes Throughout the Life Course. Annual Review of Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-nutr-062122-031443
Hooshmand Moghadam, B., Golestani, F., Bagheri, R., Cheraghloo, N., Eskandari, M., Wong, A., Nordvall, M., Suzuki, K., & Pournemati, P. (2021). The Effects of High-Intensity Interval Training vs. Moderate-Intensity Continuous Training on Inflammatory Markers, Body Composition, and Physical Fitness in Overweight/Obese Survivors of Breast Cancer: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial. Cancers, 13(17), 4386. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13174386
Kolnes, K. J., Petersen, M. H., Lien-Iversen, T., Højlund, K., & Jensen, J. (2021). Effect of Exercise Training on Fat Loss—Energetic Perspectives and the Role of Improved Adipose Tissue Function and Body Fat Distribution. Frontiers in Physiology, 12(12). https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2021.737709
Rawson, E. S., J. David Branch, & Stephenson, T. J. (2020). William’s Nutrition for Health, Fitness & Sport.
REE/RDEE (Resting-Energy-Expenditure) Calculator. (2024, March 27). Calculator Academy. https://calculator.academy/ree-resting-energy-expenditure-calculator/
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