Here are great news about metabolism.

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SAN FRANCISCO — Silicon Valley has always been a land of big, bold dreams. In the first Internet boom its start-ups either grew fast or died trying, sometimes spectacularly. The casualties of the bust, like Pets.com and Webvan, became legendary.

In this downturn, say investors and entrepreneurs, start-ups are adopting a strategy that they hope will let them hang on instead of flame out.

To preserve cash, many tech start-ups are rushing to lay off employees and cut expenses. They are shelving their dreams of Google-size riches and getting small, humble and thrifty, all with the more modest goal of surviving the coming economic winter.

Once upon a time, an unprofitable Internet start-up like Zivity, a social site that revolves around photos of models, might have turned into just another dot-bomb. Though it has paltry revenues and just 20,000 registered users, the company pays only $8,000 a month to rent its offices in San Francisco and has received $8 million from investors. This month it laid off 8 of its 22 employees — saving enough money to stay alive through 2011 and survive even a prolonged recession.

“We think we have a valuable product,” said Cyan Banister, Zivity’s co-founder. “We should be able to weather the storm.”

Even in normal economic times, a majority of start-ups fail. But the same factors that have made it so easy to create Web 2.0-style start-ups — low fixed costs, access to inexpensive overseas programmers and cheap ways to advertise online — also make it relatively easy for even faltering companies to cut back their operations to the bare minimum and hang on through a slump.

Web start-ups “don’t fail in the same way they used to fail,” said Brad Burnham, a partner at the venture capital firm Union Square Ventures, adding that the previous generation of Internet companies lived hard and died young. Knowing when to pull the plug on the current crop of more frugal companies is now “different, more subtle, more problematic,” he said. “They don’t run into a wall.”

The Web companies in this new generation are so efficient with capital that venture capitalists “may not have the plug in our hand,” Mr. Burnham said.

The only certainty in Silicon Valley is that survival is quickly becoming more challenging. The growth in online display advertising, which helps fuel the new Internet ecosystem, is declining. Venture capitalists and other investors in start-ups, like hedge funds, are cutting back. The market for initial public offerings remains closed and potential acquirers — Google, Yahoo and the rest — are deep in their own problems. Many entrepreneurs and deal makers agree that a shake-out is indeed coming.

Venture capitalists have begun preaching frugality, urging the start-ups they have invested in to cut costs and get profitable. Their advice shares themes: cut employees, do not count on raising more money and move quickly.

The entrepreneurs appear to be listening. AdBrite, an online advertising network in San Francisco that raised $35 million in venture capital, recently laid off one-third of its staff, or 40 employees, to get to profitability next year. The company’s chief executive, Iggy Fanlo, ran the e-commerce site Shopping.com during the first dot-com bust, and he said he recalled how wave after wave of layoffs sank morale.

“I had gone through this before and we had death by a thousand cuts,” Mr. Fanlo said. “I wanted to credibly look people in the eye this time and say we are profitable.”

Every day seems to bring a new round of layoffs. In the last two weeks, the music site Imeem, the social search site Mahalo, the visual search engine Searchme, the real estate site Zillow, the Internet radio site Pandora and the social network Hi5 all cut as much as a quarter of their employees.

For many entrepreneurs, the lone goal has become survival. At Seesmic, a video blogging service, the day of reckoning — when it runs out of the $6 million it raised in May — will come in three years. To make the money last, Loïc Le Meur, the chief executive, recently laid off seven employees, or one-third of his staff, and cut all projects not directly related to the video service.

“If I can’t make this work in three years it will be a failure,” Mr. Le Meur said. “If I can and I get through this, it will be much stronger.”

Even companies with less than stellar track records and revenues say they can live through a protracted slump.

Watch this video about how to increase metabolism. :)

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Read this new about metabolism.

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CHAMPAIGN, Ill., May 30 A study conducted at the University of Illinois has found ingesting soy protein may help an individual increase their metabolism and lose weight.

The research by University of Illinois professor Elvira de Mejia and her colleagues found that rats injected with soy proteins showed a marked increase in their metabolism and lost weight during the length of the study, The (Champaign, Ill.) News-Gazette said Wednesday.

A similar study by de Mejia and graduate student Laura Kim found a soy diet may likely limit the body's fatty cell growth.

"It reduces the number and the proliferation of the cells," de Mejia said. "That we know." The professor pointed out that in her studies the rats had soy proteins injected into them, therefore eating soy products may have a different effect.

The News-Gazette said that de Mejia has begun a new study to determine those effects and will implement additional studies to test soy's effect on satiety.

Here are some great news about metabolism.

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Science Centric | 30 October 2008 15:16 GMT —

In a discovery that counters prevailing thought, a study in mice has found that inactivating a pair of key genes involved in 'fat-burning' can actually increase energy expenditure and help lower diet-induced obesity. These unusual findings, appearing this week in the JBC, might lead to some new roads in weight-loss therapy.

Humans and other warm-blooded animals need to continually 'burn fat' in order to maintain body temperature, and it's currently believed that an individual's fat-burning capacity, or thermogenic potential, is connected with obesity risk; that is, people with more thermogenic potential are less likely to become obese. In fact, bodybuilders and dieters looking to burn fat commonly use thermogenic supplements like ephedra.

In theory, lowering thermogenesis should increase the chances of obesity, but Leslie Kozak and colleagues at Pennington Biomedical Research Centre found that this may not be the case. They knocked-out two thermogenic genes in mice, Ucp1 (mitochondrial uncoupling protein) and Gdm (glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase) and then fed the mice a high-fat diet while rearing them at a cool 20 C (68 F).

Surprisingly, these mice were actually quite resistant to obesity, which resulted from the mice turning on backup heat generators, so to speak. Lacking Ucp1 and Gdm, genes that have been designed for the efficient production of heat, mouse white fat cells activated alternate, and more inefficient, fat burning pathways. In this case, though, inefficiency is beneficial, as the mice had to burn more fat than normal to stay warm (by analogy you burn more wood by warming your house with an open fire then with a well designed wood stove).

Importantly, after spending 10 weeks at 20 C the mice retained these alternate pathways even after transferring to 28 C (82 F), suggesting their bodies had adapted to the change. Thus, Kozak and colleagues note, fat burning does not necessarily require making thermogenesis easier; by making it harder and forcing the body to use inefficient methods to stay warm, the same goals can be reached.

Source: American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB)

Here are some great news about metabolism. :)

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Contact: Iqbal Pittalwala
iqbal@ucr.edu
951-827-6050
University of California - Riverside

UCR-led study offers an explanation for life's organization

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Why are some species of plants and animals favored by natural selection? And why does natural selection not favor other species similarly?

According to a UC Riverside-led research team, the answer lies in the rate of metabolism of a species – how fast a species consumes energy, per unit mass, per unit time.

The researchers studied 3006 species, the largest number of species ever analyzed in a single study. The species list encompasses much of the range of biological diversity on Earth – from bacteria to elephants, and algae to sapling trees.

To the researchers' surprise, they found the mean metabolic rate of the species at rest fell on a narrow range of values – 0.3 to 9 Watts per kilogram.

"This narrow range is in dramatic contrast to the 20 orders of magnitude difference in the body mass of the species we studied," said Bai-Lian Li, a professor of ecology at UC Riverside, who led the study along with two colleagues. "At physiological rest, the biosphere appears to run, on average, predominantly at the optimal rate defined by this narrow range of values. This remarkable phenomenon is likely associated with the pervasive biochemical universality of living matter, and could provide us with clues to understanding how life is organized."

Study results appear in the Nov. 4 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

According to Li, the metabolic optimum explains the ubiquitous and seemingly unrelated features of life organization we see all around us – complex adaptations such as animal breathing and flat, green leaves.

"Organisms whose designs fit the physiological window have been favored by natural selection across all of life's major kingdoms," he said. "This observed, narrow range might therefore be considered as the preferred, optimal range for the functioning of living matter as a whole."

Unlike the genetic code and protein composition, metabolic rate cannot be inherited from a common ancestor. Rather, a particular range of metabolic rates is maintained by natural selection.

"Species had to invent diverse tricks to remain near the metabolic optimum, from which the progressive evolutionary increase in body size – from prokaryotes to largest vertebrates and plants – was continually taking them away," Li said.

He was joined in the study by co-leaders Anastassia M. Makarieva and Victor G. Gorshkov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg. Their co-authors on the research paper are Steven L. Chown of Stellenbosch University, South Africa; Peter B. Reich of the University of Minnesota, St. Paul; and Valery M. Gavrilov of Moscow State University, Russia.

The U.S. National Science Foundation, the University of California Agricultural Experiment Station, the Wilderness Research Foundation and the Rainforest Concern and Global Canopy Program supported the study.

The University of California, Riverside is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment of about 17,000 is expected to grow to 21,000 students by 2020. The campus is planning a medical school and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Graduate Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion. To learn more, visit www.ucr.edu or call (951) UCR-NEWS.

Cant Lose Weight? Maybe You Have A Slow Metabolism :). Watch this video.

Here are some useful tips about how to speed up your metabolism. :)

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To tone your stomach and shed fat, it's certainly important to exercise consistently. However, what you eat is at least as important. They say that a great midsection is built in the kitchen, so this aspect of toning your stomach must not be neglected. The good news is that there are foods that are excellent for losing fat - foods that will help tone you up very quickly.

Well, what are they?

1. High protein foods. More calories are burned by breaking down protein than for carbohydrates or fat. Of course, burning calories is a good thing, and the more you burn, the leaner you become. The protein keeps the metabolism active, which enables efficient fat burning throughout the day.

2. Low fat dairy items. Studies conclusively show that those who regularly consumed skim milk or low fat yogurt lost 65 percent more fat than those who did not! Furthermore, the added calcium helps build strong bones, so it is certainly wise to get in the habit of consuming dairy products.

3. Foods high in Vitamin C content. This consists of fruits (which are perfect breakfast alternatives to bagels or cereal). Fruits are great because the sugars are digested and burned quickly to boost your metabolism. Careful with fruit juice though - they include refined sugar, which is not good for metabolic purposes.

4. Whole grains. It's a myth that all carbohydrates are bad for you - they're essential for energy. It is the processed carbs that can be detrimental to your health because of the artificial processes and additives that strip away the necessary nutrients and dietary fiber. This leaves the carbohydrate items with high starch contents, which can help build fat. These processed carbs include white bread, pasta, and white rice. Avoid these foods, and substitute them with brown rice and whole grain bread. The dietary fiber is helpful for breaking down food, which further speeds up your metabolism.

These are only a few of the food types that are essential for fat burning and toning your stomach. There are certainly many more, and a more specific listing of fat burning foods are listed here

For the best tips on toning your stomach, burning fat, and looking your best, please check out Tone That Stomach! Your abs will thank you!

You feed it with fuel to keep it burning, but you have to stoke every once in a while too.

The more you do, the hotter it burns. Strength training is one way to keep your internal fire going,
but to really become a calorie incinerator, you need to increase the intensity of your workouts.

"People think of their metabolism as being set- 'I burn 1800 calories a day'-nut it encompasses all the calories your body uses, including those exercises, so it changes all the time", says trainer Peter Donohoe, owner of Focus Fitness in Boston."If you want to really speed up your metabolism, you have to workout harder." The bonus: while upping the intensity will churn through extra calories, your body continues to guzzle them for a few hours after you finish, a phenomenon dubbed the afterburn.

To get your firmest & leanest physique, you should incorporate strength training and intense workouts into your fitness program so you are running on high day and night. If you do each of these proven routines once or twice a week, you will look sleek and sexy and feel more energized.

Plus, you will never have to worry about a sluggish metabolism again...

Although there's no short cut to getting your metabolism going (regular exercise and a balanced diet are not optional),

knowing what foods to consume to give your metabolism a bit of a boost may help you drop those last few kilos, and keep them off.

But remember that however good and healthy the food may be, calorie count and portion control still rule. And much research is still needed to prove the potency of foods, as well as how much you have to consume to have significant impact on your metabolic rate.

How should you know about your metabolic rate ? This article will help you to understand what is metabolism and how it is important to your body

Info on metabolism & fitness : http://metabolismeforyou.blogspot.com/

Here are some tips that speed up metabolism.

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The standard way to lose weight down through the years has been to burn more calories then one takes in. This was accomplished by eating fewer calories which was supposed to allow the body to burn away excess body fat. This works well in the short term and people were able to lose weight but as soon as they stopped their diet and returned to their old caloric intake the weight simply returned. There is a new wave of dietary thought that eating certain foods will speed up metabolism and make this problem a thing of the past.

There are a couple of problems with eating a calorie restricted diet, the first of which is it's difficult to do. Being hungry all the time is not a whole lot of fun and makes it hard to stick to a diet plan. This is one of the primary reasons that most people on a low calorie diet usually fail in their weight loss attempt, they get hungry.

The second problem has to do with how the human body uses calories as its energy source. The fact of the matter is you need a certain amount of calories everyday. Once your caloric intake goes below the minimum needed your body will begin to react in a negative manner. Your body reacts to this lack of calories by slowing down its metabolism to conserve energy. This is a natural reaction to starvation and that's what a low calorie diet is.

By keeping your caloric intake within your maintenance range and increasing your metabolism you stand a much better chance of not only losing weight but keeping it off as well. By eating healthy foods that are rich in vital nutrients you can actually do this because of the way your body must digest and process these foods.

These so called negative calorie foods rely on the age old theory of how to speed up your metabolism. It takes energy to burn energy. What makes these types of foods different from the processed and refined fare that lines most supermarket shelves today is how the body must digest and process them. It takes caloric energy to digest any food and the more nutrient dense a food is the more energy it takes to break it down.

With a negative calorie food it actually takes more calories to digest the food then the food contains. Let's look at a simplified version of how this works. At different times there have been various versions of the grapefruit diet, which for many people worked for a short period of time. Let's say a grapefruit contains 50 calories but it takes 90 calories for the body to fully metabolize that same grapefruit. That grapefruit you just ate burned an extra 40 calories. Unfortunately you can't live on just grapefruit, but there are plenty of other healthy foods that have the same metabolism increasing affect.

A simple change to healthy foods that speed up metabolism can be the first step to losing weight in a healthy way. By eating these negative calories foods you no longer have to starve your self which makes keeping weight off long term much easier.

For more information about foods that speed up metabolism and to learn more about metabolism please visit the website Metabolism by clicking here.