Showing posts with label and. Show all posts
Showing posts with label and. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E330 Full Specifications and Details

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E330 Full Specifications and Details

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E330 Full Specifications and Details, When hearing ThinkPad, most people will still think of the robust but somewhat conservative notebooks from the T, W and X Series. The fact that there are also more modern versions has been proven by Lenovo since quite some time with the ThinkPad Edge Series, which is available with display sizes ranging from 11.6 to 15.6 inches. We have already reviewed the 11.6 inch (Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E130/E135), 14 inch (S430) and 15.6 inch (E530/E535) versions, and have repeatedly determined a good manufacturing quality and long battery runtimes. The last remaining device in the generation is now the E330 with a diagonal display length of 13.3 inches.

It is now just over a year ago since we reviewed the 13.3 inch ThinkPad Edge E320. Time which Lenovo has put to use in order to rework the device. Whether the previous weaknesses have been ironed out with the new model, and to what extent the cosmetic changes compare to the predecessor models, will be revealed by our comprehensive review.

Notebook specifications Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E330 NZS4RGE:
  • Processor : Intel Core i3-2370M 2.4 GHz
  • Mainboard : Intel HM77 (Panther Point)
  • Memory : 4096 MB, 2 slots, 1x 4096MB (Hyundai Electronics), PC3-12800 800MHz
  • Graphics adapter : Intel HD Graphics 3000, Core: 650 MHz, Memory: 667 MHz, 8.15.10.2656
  • Display : 13.3 inch 16:9, 1366x768 pixel, Samsung LTN133AT20, TN WLED, glossy: no
  • Harddisk : Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT007-9ZV142, 320GB 7200rpm 7mm high
  • Soundcard : Realtek ALC269 @ Intel Panther Point PCH - High Definition Audio Controller
  • Connections : 1 USB 2.0, 2 USB 3.0, 1 VGA, 1 HDMI, 1 Kensington Lock, Audio Connections: Microphone/headphone combination socket, Card Reader: SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC, RJ-45
  • Networking : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller (10/100/1000MBit), Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 (bgn), Intel Centrino 4.0 Bluetooth
  • Size : height x width x depth (in mm): 27.8 x 322 x 228
  • Weight : 1.791 kg Power Supply: 0.345 kg
  • Battery : 63 Wh Lithium-Ion, 5600 mAh, 11.1V, 6 cells, 317g
  • Price : 569 Euro
  • Operating System : Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit
  • Additional features : Webcam: 0,3-Megapixel-HD-Webkamera (720p), Speakers: Stereo, Keyboard Light: no, 12 Months Warranty


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Sunday, April 24, 2016

Guidelines before and after Getting AdSense!


Dos and Donts in AdSense Program


This topic might be very useful for those who wanna place AdSense Ad in their websites or blogs. In this post Im giving you some guidelines that maybe useful for you to get Adsense and to maintain it after getting this. 

If you carefully follow these guidelines, it will be easier for you to earn some cash from Adsense. Otherwise you may suffer just like me! Regular visitor of this site should know that Ive already rejected 4 times from AdSense Program! And waiting to be rejected for the 5th time! 

Lets start our AdSense concern. AdSense provide a specific set of rules for publishers. You can find it here- AdSense Program Policy. But very few of them read this carefully and consequently they suffer and lose their account. 

So I will try my best to make the rules clear to you. Lets start. 


Before Getting AdSense - Be Steady . . .


  • Your site must be easy to navigate. And it should be user friendly. 
  • It shouldnt contain any types of illegal, matured, adult or violent contents.
  • It shouldnt redirect users to unwanted websites.
  • It shouldnt contain any copyrighted material.
  • It shouldnt contain any types of hacking, cracking or gambling related contents.
  • It shouldnt contain any pop out ads that bore users. Know More . . . 
  • Dont place any third party Ads (Although AdSense allow this)
  • Your site should have sufficient visitors. But make sure that it doesnt get traffic only from a certain source. And never participate any paid-to-click program to increase your site traffic. 
  • And finally try to publish the unique contents that drives more traffic. 


After Getting AdSense - Be Careful!
  • The very first thing you need to do after getting AdSense is to be careful. Because your AdSense account maybe disabled at any time! 
  • Never click your own Ads. And not a single click to test. 
  • Never encourage others to click the Ads by any means.
  • Never try to make artificial clicks.
  • Place the Ads in a way so that it doest disturb the visitors.
  • The Ads should be distinguishable from your sites contents.
  • And finally follow all the rules that you did before getting AdSense.

If this post is useful for you then please let me know it by your valuable comments. 


Stay with Marks PC Solution to get more interesting IT topics!



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Nokia Lumia 530 Price in Pakistan and Specifications


Nokia Lumia 530 Price in Pakistan and Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES:

Nokia Lumia 530 Price in Pakistan and Specifications: Nokia Lumia 530 - Power For The People.
Nokia Presents Lumia 530 for those design and functionality conscious people. The new smartphone Nokia Lumia 530 is a convenient and powerful device with a small size and ergonomic body. Pretty identical dimensions as Nokia Lumia 520, the successor weighs 129 grams just a bit more heavy. Pleasant and convenient Nokias Lumia 530 not only lets you make calls but has a compact organizer with quite useful apps for entertainment and business. Nokia Lumia 530s large touch screen allows you to comfortably view the photos, videos and perform other operations. Nokia Lumias 530 has a 4.0 inch large display, with a resolution of 480x854 pixels it can display up to 16 million colors. Powerful and fast Nokia Lumia 530 smartphone runs on convenient and popular Microsoft Windows Phone 8.1 Operating system. Nokia Lumia familys latest addition 530 Provides performance at its best with Qualcomms Dual-Core Snapdragon 200 processor clocked at 1.2 GHz. Having just 512MB RAM theres a Rumor of Nokia Lumia 535 to raise productivity and increase the speed with 1GB RAM. Built-in memory of Nokia Lumia 530 is not bad with 4GB. 530 Lumia also provides support for memory cards up to 128 GB. Lumia 530 by Nokia has a battery capacity of 1430 mAh, allowing a talk time of up to 10-13 hours, Music play of up to 50 hours and standby time up to 528 hours. The only self explanatory difference we see while comparing Nokia Lumia 520 VS 530 is Windows Phone 8.1.
 Dimension 119.7 x 62.3 x 11.7 mm
 Weight 129 g
 Battery Talk time up to 13 hrs 20 min
Stand-by up to 528 hrs
Music play up to 51 hrs
1430 mAh
 OS Microsoft Windows Phone 8.1
 Memory 4GB built-in, 512MB RAM, microSD card (supports up to 128GB)
 Processor 1.2 GHz Quad-Core, Qualcomm Snapdragon 200, GPU: Adreno 302
 Connectivity Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP, USB (microUSB v2.0), WLAN (Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot), GPRS, EDGE (Up to 236.8 kbps), 3G (HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps)
 Display Size 480 x 854 pixels, 4.0 inches (~245 ppi pixel density)
Sensors: Accelerometer
 Display Colour TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors, Multitouch
 Operating
 Frequency / Band GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
 3G Band HSDPA 900 / 2100
 Browser HTML5
 Colors Bright orange, Bright green, White, Dark grey
 Entertainment FM radio, 3.5mm audio jack, MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player, MP3/WAV/eAAC+/WMA player, Video/photo editor, SNS integration, Games (built-in)
 Camera 5 MP, 2592 x 1936 pixels, 1/4 sensor size, Video (480p@30fps)
 Other Features GPS + A-GPS support and GLONASS, Micro Sim, 15GB free OnDrive storage, Document viewer/editor, Predictive text input, Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic, Speakerphone
 Ring Tones Downloadable, Polyphonic, MP3, WAV
 Messaging SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
Nokia Lumia 530 Price in Pakistan: Price in Rs: 10,850    Price in USD: $110  


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Nokia Asha 210 Price in Pakistan and Specifications

Nokia Asha 210 Price in Pakistan and Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES:

Nokia Asha 210 Price in Pakistan and Specifications: Nokia Asha 210 - Life that’s worth sharing
Keep in touch with all your friends using Nokia Asha 210 built-in WhatsApp key, Chat, upload, like, comment & share in an instant, Follow the inbuilt voice guidance to get a great self portrait, Then share it with your friends straight from Nokia Asha 210 camera in a few quick clicks to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, Connect to the internet via a wireless hotspot to quickly stream video from YouTube and zip around the web on Nokia Asha 210 The spacious QWERTY keypad & quick access to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube & WhatsApp make sharing easy, Nokia Asha 210 allows you to play top games titles for free, including FIFA 13, Need for Speed Shift, Medal of Honor and Bejeweled.
 Dimension 111.5 x 60 x 11.8 mm, 76.3 cc
 Weight 97.3 g
 Battery Talk time Up to 12 h, Stand-by Up to 1104 h
 Memory 64MB built-in, 32MB RAM, 1000 Phonebook entries, Call records, microSD card (supports up to 32GB)
 Connectivity Bluetooth v2.1 with EDR, USB, WLAN (Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n), GPRS Class 33, EDGE Class 33
 Display Size 320 x 240 pixels, 2.4 inches, (~167 ppi pixel density)
 Display Colour TFT, 65K colors
 Operating
 Frequency / Band SIM 1: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
SIM 2: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
 Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
 Colors Yellow, Black, White, Cyan, Magenta
 Entertainment Stereo FM radio with RDS, FM recording, 3.5mm audio jack (Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic), MP4/H.263/WMV player, MP3/WAV/WMA/AAC player, Whatsapp, Games (built-in + downloadable)
 Camera 2MP, 1600x1200 pixels, Video (QCIF@10fps)
 Other Features SNS apps, QWERTY keyboard, Organizer, Dedicated Whatsapp key, Predictive text input, Voice mem, Speakerphone
 Ring Tones Polyphonic, MP3
 Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, IM
Nokia Asha 210 Price in Pakistan: Price in Rs: 7,800    Price in USD: $79  


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Saturday, April 23, 2016

Study Suggests Frozen Veggies Worse Than Common Wisdom Says Frozen Asparagus Zucchini and Green Beans Lose More Antioxidants During Boiling

Green asparagus from the fridge and  from the market are not created equal - at least not when they finally end up on your plate after a short bath in hot water.
You just have to watch one of the consumer report shows on television to hear it: "Frozen veggies are way better than their reputation would suggest." Actually, here in Germany this sentence has been repeated to soften that Ive even heard people say theyd buy the frozen broccoli because it contained "more vitamins and the other good stuff, you know." And you know what? For some veggies like spinach, for example, this may actually be the case. For others, like broccoli or peas, the nutrient status of the frozen and the raw uncooked vegetable appears to be more or less identical (Favell. 1998). But thats something you cannot say for the green asparagus stems, zucchini and green beans in a recent study from the Università degli Studi di Parma in Italy.
Warning: Dont take this article as an excuse and stop eating veggies completely. The frozen stuff may lose more vitamins, when you boil it, but (a) you can still blanch it and (b) even with significantly reduced antioxidant effects veggies are still among the healthiest things you can eat.
I am not an asparagus expert and can still tell that the cell structure of the Transverse  sections boiled (C - from raw | D - from frozen) is profoundly messed up compared to the raw (A) and blanched (B) variety | legend: c = collenchyma; vp = vascular bundle; p = parenchyma; f = fissure.
In the corresponding experiment, the Italian researchers bought Green asparagus stems (Asparagus officinalis L., var. Grande), zucchini (Cucurbita pepo L., va Quine) and green beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L., var. Giamaica) from a local producer and processed them within 24 hours from harvesting. For each of the veggies four samples were prepared: Raw/uncooked  (R), raw/boiled  (B), blanched (BL) and industrially frozen/boiled (FB)

The raw (ten kilograms of each vegetable), blanched (five kilograms of each vegetable) and industrially frozen  samples  (five  kilograms  of  each  vegetable) had been transported were  transported  to  the  University of  Parma laboratories  under  adequate  refrigerated conditions to avoid the exuberant nutrient loss that occurs upon inadequately slow (re-)freezing.
SuppVersity Suggested Read: " Conventional vs. Organic: Its Not About Getting More, But Getting Less For Your Money. Less Pesticides, Dioxins & Co" | read more if you want to know if the claim "organic is always better" is a similar misconcept as "frozen over fresh".
If you "freeze" your veggies in the freezer compartment of your fridge, this will make the cells blast, so that even before they are cooked, and the nutrients flow out. It is generally assume that the latter would not happen, if the veggies are shock-frosted.
Figure 1: Total antioxidant capacity of green asparagus, zucchini and green beans raw, blanched, boiled and frozen and boiled (Paciulli. 2014); as the data tells you frozen veggies with similar  icy grease on them like you see on the right may not really be a better source of antioxidants than fresh veggies from the farmers or even the supermarket.
If we look at the data in Figure 1, though, it would appear that the cells may have "cracked" already so that they are more susceptible to the subsequent heat assault and the frozen + boiled samples end up having consistently lower total antioxidant (Figure 2) and feric acid reducing capacity than their raw + boiled counterparts.

For a similar reason (nutrient retention), the blanched samples have been cooled immediately after blanching in an ice-water bath for 3 min before they have been transported to the laboratories, where their analysis shows that only the Zucchini lost a small, but significant amount of their total antioxidant activity.
Figure 2: It would be interesting to see if the negative effects of freezing and boiling occur in all vegetables. In view of the fact that previous studies compared raw vs. frozen, but nor raw + cooked vs. frozen + cooked, frozen Broccoli + cooked broccoli could be exactly as "bad" as asparagus, zucchini and green beans.
The thing that is of most practical relevance, tough, is the significant negative effect of freezing + boiling on both, the total antioxidant capacity (Figure 1) and the ferric reducing capacity (Figure 2) of all three vegetables.

The previously "cited" statement that youre better of with the "fresh" frozen veggies is thus probably only right, if you eat them raw. Compared to fresh veggies, the previously frozen asparagus, zucchini and green beans lost almost 11-30% of their antioxidant prowess during the cooking process - and the same may well happen to other veggies, including broccoli, which have been compared in previous studies only on a raw vs. frozen, but not on a cooked vs. frozen + cooked basis. Unless youre afraid that all the good veggies may limit your gains due to their potent anti-oxidant effects, it appears smart to stay away from their frozen varieties.
References:
  • Paciulli, Maria, et al. "Impact of the industrial freezing process on selected vegetables Part I. Structure, texture and antioxidant capacity." Food Research International (2014).


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Friday, April 22, 2016

Nokia Lumia 625 price and specifications

         Nokia added another windows smartphone to Lumia series
  
Main features:
     Lumia 625 has 4.7inch IPS capacitive screen
     It runs on windows 8 os
     It has 5MP rear camera and VGA front facing camera
     It is supported by 1.2GHz dual core processor
     Has 512MB ram and 8gb internal memory,card slot is provided for micro SD
     Lumia 625 is powered by 2000mAH Li-Ion battery
     Currently price of Lumia 625 is around 16000INR and is available in 5 different colours



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Dual booting Ubuntu and Linux Mint


Most Linux enthusiasts know how to install both Linux and Windows on the same PC, and then boot either; this is known as dual booting (or multibooting). However, dual booting two Linux distributions is not as easy as dual booting one Linux distribution with Windows.

Ubuntu and Linux Mint are both popular Linux distributions. If you wish to compare them on the same PC (such as an older, spare PC), this document can help you dual boot them.

Creating a boot-repair live CD - Before you can dual boot Ubuntu and Linux Mint, you need to create a boot-repair live CD as follows:
  1. Download the newest boot-repair-disk.isodisc-image file.
  2. Burn (write) the ISO file to a blank, writable CD.
  3. Label your CD as "Boot Repair Disc."
Installing Ubuntu and Linux Mint - To install both Ubuntu and Linux Mint on the same PC, do the following:
  1. Download a 32-bit Ubuntu live-disc ISO file, burn it to a DVD, and then use that DVD to install Ubuntu as the only operating system.
  2. Install all Ubuntu updates, and then reboot your PC.
  3. Download a 32-bit Linux Mint live-disc ISO file, burn it to a DVD, and then use that DVD to install Linux Mint, as a second operating system, alongside Ubuntu.
  4. Install all Linux Mint updates, and then reboot your PC.
Note: Until after you have run your boot-repair CD according to the section below, you can boot only Linux Mint.

Running your boot-repair CD - Your boot-repair CD lets you repair your boot process, which includes the GRand Universal Bootloader (GRUB). To run your boot-repair CD, do the following:
  1. Install both Ubuntu and Linux Mint on the same PC according to the section above.
  2. Place your boot-repair CD into the optical drive, reboot your PC. and then follow the boot-repair prompts.
  3. As explained in the section above, boot your boot-repair disc as a live disc, and then follow its prompts.
  4. When you see the Boot Repair window, click Recommended repair (repairs most frequent problems). Be patient, each boot-repair phase usually requires more than the "several minutes" that it promises.
After you have run your boot-repair CD successfully, you can boot to either Ubuntu or Linux Mint through GRUB.






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Thursday, April 21, 2016

Creating and booting a UNetboootin live USB drive

You can use a bootable, live CD to evaluate and/or install any distribution of a Linux operating system. Alternatively, you can use a bootable, live USB drive for testing and installing Linux. This document explains how to create a live USB drive through the UNetbootin utility running under either Windows 7 or Linux, and then boot that live USB drive on almost any PC. While creating your live USB drive, you can either select a Linux distribution through UNetbootin or use an ISO file that you have previously downloaded.
Note:You can use either a live CD or a live USB drive to scan for viruses in a PC that runs Windows 7, or earlier. Please see Using Linux to rescue Windows.
Creating a live USB drive through Windows - If you are running Windows on your PC, you can create a live USB drive for evaluating any Linux distribution. For example, if you are running Windows 7 on your PC, you can do the following:
  1. Connect a USB drive to a USB port on your PC. It should display UDISK in an AutoPlay window.

  2. Go to unetbootin.scourceforge.net, and then click Download (for Windows).

  3. Open your Downloads folder, double-click unetbootin-windows-578.exe, and then click Yes (in the User Account Control window) to display the UNetbootin window.

  4. Select Distribution, select a Linux distribution, such as Puppy Linux, and then click OK to download and install UNetbootin and create a live USB drive. Be patient, this takes time.


  5. After the installation completes, remove your live USB drive, and then click Reboot Now.
Creating a live USB drive through Linux - If you are already running Linux on your PC, you can create a live USB drive for evaluating any other Linux distribution. For example, to select another Linux distribution through an ISO file that you had downloaded previously, and create a live USB drive on your Linux PC, you can do the following:
  1. Connect a USB drive to a USB port on your PC.
  2. Go to unetbootin.scourceforge.net, and then click Download (for Linux).
  3. Open your Downloads folder, right-click unetbootin-linux-578, click Properties, click Permissions, click the Allow executing file as a program checkbox, and then close the Properties window.

  4. Double-click unetbootin-linux-578, type your password, and then click OKto display the UNetbootin window.
  5. Select Diskimage, and then click the Select disk image filebox ( ... ) at the right.

  6. Click Computer, double-click the unlabeled folder, double-click Home, double-click your home-folder name (such as Dave), double-click Downloads, select an ISO file to install onto your live USB drive, and then click Open.
  7. On the UNetbootin window, click OK to install UNetbootin and create a live USB drive. Be patient, this takes time.


  8. After the installation completes, remove your live USB drive, and then click Reboot Now.
Booting a UNetbootin live USB drive - After creating a live USB drive according to either procedure above, you can boot that live USB drive to evaluate and/or install your previously-chosen Linux operating system. To boot a live USB drive, do the following:
  1. Connect your live USB drive to a USB port on your PC.
  2. Boot according to the boot sequence on your particular PC. (Here are two possible examples: While your PC starts to boot, press F11 to display a Please select boot device window, and then select USB: UDB DISK. While your PC starts to boot, press F9to display a Boot Menu window, select Hard Disk, and then select USB-HDDO: UDB DISK 2.0 1.0.) Note: Write down the step-2 boot-sequence for your particular PC; you will need it each time you boot your live USB drive.
  3. Continue according to the Linux distribution that you have booted through your live USB drive.
Note:If you cannot boot your live USB drive, verify that the BIOS on your PC supports booting a live USB drive. Typically, you can access BIOS setup by pressing Delete while your PC starts to boot. Alternatively, you can test your live USB drive by trying to boot it on a separate PC.




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Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Vitamin A D E K How Much and What Type of Fat Do You Need to Absorb These Fat Soluble Vitamins

Some butter on top of the broccoli would allow for the assimilation of the absorption of the 101.6?g vitamin K
623IU vitamin A (various).
There are a handful of very basic questions in nutrition science, no one appears to have an answer to. One of these questions, which is directly related to the  well-known fact that the vitamins A, D, E & K are "lipid soluble". This means that they are "solved" and thus made absorbable by fats and oils. The general assumption is thus that the vitamins A, i.e. the retinol and carotenoids, all forms of vitamin D, the tocopherols and -trienols (vitamins E) and the two major forms of vitamin K, i.e. phylloquinone (K1) and menaquinone (K2) will only be absorbed, if you consume them with a sufficient amount of dietary fat. Now, the questions obviously are (a) is this correct and (b) how much is sufficient.
Is there a rule of thumb? Well, I guess if there was one, it would be to consume 5-10g of low PUFA fats with every meal to maximize the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins. Needless to say, that this does not imply that youd have to start adding olive oil to your post-workout shake ;-)
In view of the fact that the answers to (a) and be are not necessarily identical for all four vitamins of interest, it appears sensible to tackle them one after the other.


A
Starting with vitamin A and the various forms of carotenoids, we can already confirm that (a), i.e. the assumption that we need dietary fats to optimally absorb vitamin A is correct. As Karin van het Hof and her colleagues point out, the "amount of dietary fat required to ensure carotenoid absorption [does yet] seem low (?3–5 g per meal), although it depends on the physicochemical characteristics of the carotenoids ingested." (van het Hof. 2000) In spite of the fact that 5g of fat are not exactly much, the classic uncooked vegetarian orthorexic salad often comes with a total of only 5g of fat of which 95% remain at the bottom of the salad bowl. If that sounds like your favorite dish, you should be aware that you are risking that all the good  beta- and other carotenoids in the salad will pass right through.
Red Palm Oil is an excellent carotene source that comes with tons of fat for optimal absorption | learn more
With carotenes you should keep in mind that they have individual and "vitamin A"-related effects that occur after their conversion to retinol and the uptake of the latter through the lymphatic system in the gut. For this to take place the presence of a couple of ~5g of fat  (Jayarajan. 2013) in the intestinal lumen is paramount importance. Even more than preformed vitamin A, carotenes do thus rely on the presence of dietary fat in your meals to be optimally converted (Goodman. 1966) and absorbed.
Figure 1: Changes in hepatic vitamin A (retinol) and carotenoid stores in gerbils after 14 days on high fat (30%) vs. low fat (10%) diet (Deming. 2000)
In that, the concomitant presence of both dietary fat and carotenoids in a meal is a necessary prerequisite for the absorption of vitamin A, also because the fatty acids will trigger the conversion of of beta-carotene into vitamin A and its subsequent absorption via the lymphatic system (Ribaya?Mercado. 2002). It is thus not surprising that animal studies by Lakshman et al. (1996) and Deming et al. (2000; see Figure 1) suggest that low fat diet can lead to a depletion of the vitamin A tissue stores even if the serum levels remain constant. The amount of fiber in the diet, on the other, has no influence the absorption of vitamin A (Mills. 2009).

Interestingly enough, the provision of the fat blocker Orlistat reduces the absorption of vitamin A only insignificantly, as a 1996 paper by Angela T. Melia, Susan G. Koss?Twardy, and Jianguo Zhi would suggest (Melia. 1996).

E
Which takes us right to vitamin E, the absoprtion which is - in spite of being "blocked" by the fat blocker orlistat (Melia. 1996) - less susceptible to the absence of dietary fat than you may think. Annet JC Roodenburg, Rianne Leenen, Karin H van het Hof,  Jan A Weststrate, and Lilian BM Tijburg do in fact argue that the optimal intake of vitamin E requires only "a limited amount" of dietary fat (Roodenburg. 2000).
Figure 2: Vitamin E serum levels after 7 days on control (low fat, 3g) or high(er) fat (36g) diet with and without supplemental vitamin E (Roodenburg. 2000)
As you can see in Figure 2. A minimum intake of only 3g per day was sufficient to keep the vitamin E levels stable. The short study period of 7-days (each) and the absence of measures of tissue concentration of vitamin E do yet reduce the practical relevance of the data, Roodenburg et al. present in their Y2k paper in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The PUFA advantage: Aside from the issue of serum vs. tissue levels, there is yet another experimentally verified fat vitamin E and fat carotenoid interactions we should take into consideration, when we are talking about "optimizing" our dietary vitamin E supply; and thats the type of fat we consume: Dietary fats with increased ratio of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids enhance absorption of carotenoid and vitamin E by increasing both efficiency of micellarization and lipoprotein secretion (Chitchumroonchokchai. 2010).
If you take a look at the high prevalence of vitamin E dieficiency among the fat (and PUFA) "loving", or at least eating, majority of Americans, it does yet become obvious that a lack of dietary fat is not just theoretically, but also practically not exactly the #1 reason you may become deficient in tocopherols and -trienols. That the latter is an increased demand due to chronic inflammation and the (over-)consumption of exactly those PUFAs that come with a shitload of vitamin E in nature, for a reason would yet be a topic for another SuppVersity article and thus something we will skip to fast forward to ...

K
...Vitamin K, obviously. Vitamin K is a relative newcomer to the publics understanding of the alphabet soup. Aside from being it a good tool to rip customers vitamin K, or rather K1 (plant sources) and K2 (animal sources) are thus also the only fat soluble vitamins not everyone knows. The fact that the amount of phylloquinone (K1) that makes it into your blood stream is ~70% reduced if you eat your spinach without fat (Gijsbers. 1996).

And if we take the results researchers from the Gifu University School of Medicine present in a 1996 paper in the Journal of Pharmacological Sciences, as a reference, the amount of fat you need to optimally absorb your K2 (menaquinones), is not exactly low.
Figure 3: For optimal absorption of K2, there has got to be a huge amount of fat in the meal - but who wonders. K2 comes with a high amount of fat (Uematsu. 1996)
Uematsu et al. had to supply their subjects, who consumed otherwise identical test meals with 8.8, 20.0 and 34.9g of fat in them with the maximal (i.e. 35g) of fat before the K2 absorption maxed out. In that the total area under the curve did not really differ between those subjects who consumed the K2 before and those who took it immediately after the test meal.

Thats a pity, cause a high intake of vitamin K (menaquinone from animal sources) has been associated with a 27% reduced risk of developing heart disease (Geleijnse. 2004), an ailment of which many still believe that it was brought about by the fat they need to optimally absorb their vitamin K.

D
For vitamin D, our last "V" on the list, things look differently. For one, everybody knows about this miracle vitamin and for two, it may be "fat soluble", but the amount of fat thats required to optimally absorb it turned out to be much lower than previously thought (see "A Fat D-Ficiency! Do You Really Need More Vitamin D or Simply More Fatty Foods? Study Shows, Even 50.000 IU of Vitamin D3 Useless, When You Ingest It Without Fat. " | read more).
Actually you could argue that its not fat, but cholesterol that should be essential for optimal D levels. Its not necessary to absorb supplements you should not be taking, but rather as a raw material thats used to produce vitamin D in the skin, once the latter is exposed to the sun. The allegedly logical assumption that statins which lower the production of endogenous (=your bodys own) cholesterol would lower vitamin D levels, however, has been refuted in study investigating the effects of fluvastatin and rosuvastatin, of which the latter actually increased the 25-OHD levels (probably due to anti-inflammatory effects and a reduced use of vitamin D as an acute phase reactant | learn more)
In fact, Niramitmahapanya et al. found in 2011 that its not necessarily a high amount, but rather the right type of fat that determines if and how much of the vitamin D you take in capsule form or find in comparably low amounts in your foods that determines how much of the vitamin D actually makes it into your bloodstream:
"The change in plasma 25OHD (nanograms per milliliter) during vitamin D supplementation was positively associated with MUFA, (? = 0.94; P = 0.016), negatively associated with PUFA, (? = ?0.93; P = 0.038), and positively associated with the MUFA/PUFA ratio (? = 6.46; P = 0.014)."
In plain English this means, that the "good" seed and vegetable oils with their high PUFA content will effectively inhibit the absorption of vitamin D - an observation that adds to the many reasons the modern sedentary, sun-avoiding, sun-screen using, soybean oil (MUFA:PUFA = 0.4) guzzling American is low in or  quasi devoid of vitamin D.

Figure 4: 25(OH)D levels of 30 healthy men and women after ingestion of 50.000IU vitamin D3 supplement in conjunction with a normal or low fat breakfast (Raimundo. 2011)
Against that background its not surprising that you will not find a conclusive answer to the question how much fat you actually need. In a study that used a fatty meal with soybean oil in it, the effect would be totally different from one in which the subjects consumed meals that were made with sunflower oil, an oil with a MUFA:PUFA ratio >1. In view of the results Gnadinger et al present in a recent appear it does still seem appropriate to consume at least some fat alongside your vitamin D supplements. As far as the food-borne vitamin D is concerned, you dont have to worry, anyways. Foods that are high in D3 usually come with all the fat you need to absorb it.

How much fat, exactly you would need to make the most of dietary and supplemental vitamin D, on the other hand, is still not known. The previously mentioned data from the study by Raimondo et al. (see Figure 4, to the right) I wrote about in "A Fat D-Ficiency" is obviously still valid. The extremely high amount of vitamin D (50,000IU!) could yet require a correspondingly high amount of fat to be optimally absorbed and the fact that the fat in the study came from a "vegetable margarine" with an undisclosed ratio of MUFA:PUFA does not make the real-world effects any more predictable.
So what do I need to optimally absorb my "fat soluble" vitamins?
Vitamin A & carotenes require relatively high amounts of fat for optimal absorption.
Vitamin D absorption benefits from additional fat in the diet. While we dont know the optimal amount, we do know the optimal type: A high MUFA, low PUFA fat (the effects of saturated fat are unknown, but I gather they will be positive, as well).
Vitamin E requires only minimal amounts of fat (~3g) for optima absorption.
Vitamin K appears to be most fat hungry. The more fat you have in a meal, the better it is absorbed. If you supplement, always take the pills with your highest fat meal in the day.
Bottom line: If you take a look at the natural sources, it should be obvious. The fat soluble vitamins are meant to be consumed with fat... well, not really. Carotenes (pre-vitamin A), one of those vitamins for which the presence of dietary fat in a meal is most important do not necessarily come with their own "absorb me better"-portion of fat. Your carrots, pepper, and other high carotene veggies and fruits do thus require a butter, olive oil or cream topic not just to be absorbed, but - more importantly - to get converted to retinol aka "active vitamin A".

Vitamin E, on the other hand, requires much lower amounts of fat to be absorbed than many of you may have thought. In fact, you could argue that good vitamin E sources are not high in fat to facilitate the absorption of vitamin A, but rather the other way around: Soybean oil (my absolute favorite poison ;-) is high in vitamin E to make sure that whoever consumes it does not die immediately from the pro-inflammatory omega-6 load it contains.

Which takes us right to the 18-20g and 12-15g of PUFAs the average US man and woman consume on a daily basis (Kris-Etherton. 2000) and their negative impact on the absorption of the already low amounts of dietary vitamin D in a diet that rarely contains the optimal amount of 35g of fat in meal that actually has a significant amount of vitamin K the absorption of which would be improved by the presence of this allegedly unhealthy and fattening macronutrient.
References:
  • Chitchumroonchokchai, Chureeporn, et al. "Dietary fats with increased ratio of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids enhance absorption of carotenoid and vitamin E by increasing both efficiency of micellarization and lipoprotein secretion." FASEB J 24 (2010): 539-3.
  • Deming, Denise M., et al. "Amount of dietary fat and type of soluble fiber independently modulate postabsorptive conversion of ?-carotene to vitamin A in Mongolian gerbils." The Journal of nutrition 130.11 (2000): 2789-2796. 
  • Geleijnse, Johanna M., et al. "Dietary intake of menaquinone is associated with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease: the Rotterdam Study." The Journal of nutrition 134.11 (2004): 3100-3105.
  • Gijsbers, Birgit LMG, Kon-Siong G. Jie, and Cees Vermeer. "Effect of food composition on vitamin K absorption in human volunteers." British Journal of Nutrition 76.02 (1996): 223-229.
  • Goodman, Dew S., et al. "The intestinal absorption and metabolism of vitamin A and beta-carotene in man." Journal of Clinical Investigation 45.10 (1966): 1615.
  • Jayarajan, P., Vinodini Reddy, and M. Mohanram. "Effect of dietary fat on absorption of ? carotene from green leafy vegetables in children." Indian journal of medical research 137.5 (2013).
  • Kris-Etherton, P. M., et al. "Polyunsaturated fatty acids in the food chain in the United States." The American journal of clinical nutrition 71.1 (2000): 179S-188S.
  • Lakshman, M. R., et al. "The effects of dietary taurocholate, fat, protein, and carbohydrate on the distribution and fate of dietary ??carotene in ferrets." (1996): 49-61.
  • Melia, Angela T., Susan G. Koss?Twardy, and Jianguo Zhi. "The effect of orlistat, an inhibitor of dietary fat absorption, on the absorption of vitamins A and E in healthy volunteers." The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 36.7 (1996): 647-653.
  • van het Hof, Karin H., et al. "Dietary factors that affect the bioavailability of carotenoids." The Journal of nutrition 130.3 (2000): 503-506.
  • Raimundo, Fabiana Viegas, et al. "Effect of high-versus low-fat meal on serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels after a single oral dose of vitamin D: a single-blind, parallel, randomized trial." International journal of endocrinology 2011 (2011).
  • Ribaya?Mercado, Judy D. "Influence of Dietary Fat on ??Carotene Absorption and Bioconversion into Vitamin A." Nutrition reviews 60.4 (2002): 104-110.
  • Roodenburg, Annet JC, et al. "Amount of fat in the diet affects bioavailability of lutein esters but not of ?-carotene, ?-carotene, and vitamin E in humans." The American journal of clinical nutrition 71.5 (2000): 1187-1193. 
  • Uematsu, Toshihiko, et al. "Effect of dietary fat content on oral bioavailability of menatetrenone in humans." Journal of pharmaceutical sciences 85.9 (1996): 1012-1016.


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Monday, April 11, 2016

Want to Design a Killer Workout Reduce the Rest Times and Burn 37 More Energy During Your Workout!

The squat may be a power exercise, but trust me, it will also help you to "look good naked"!
I guess it would be hilarious to call the simple insight that cutting the time you rest in-between sets during your squats can turn a regular into a killer workout would be news, right? Well, what about some figures to define "killer" as in one minute rest between sets vs. "regular" as in three minutes rest between sets squats, then? Thats news, right; and we have to thank Nicholas A. Ratamess and his colleagues from the College of New Jersey for these insights.

I mean, huffing and puffing is one thing, but your subjectively perceived level of exhaustion and the very concrete, objectively measured data on the difference in energy expenditure and the contribution of aerobic (fat) and anaerobic (glucose) energy sources during a workout, as they are presented in the paper at hand, are two different animals.
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Apropos animal, you dont necessarily have to be a similar "animal" as the 22-year old subjects of the study at hand with their ~8-year training experience to perform the tightly controlled experimental workout, the researchers describe as follows:
"After BL [baseline] measures, each subject performed a warm-up consisting of 3 minutes of stationary cycling and 2–3 lightto-moderate sets (40–60% of 1RM) of the bench press and squat. Respiratory masks were temporarily removed from each subject during the warm-up to allow subjects to consume water one last time before initiating the protocols.

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The protocols consisted of performing 5 sets of the bench press and 5 sets of the back squat for up to 10 repetitions using 75% of their predetermined 1RM. The BP group performed the bench press first, whereas the S group performed the back squat first. For all exercises, resistance remained constant while total numbers of repetitions were recorded. Heart rate and oxygen consumption data were collected during the entire protocol. In addition, a linear position transducer (Tendo Sports Machines, Trencin, Slovak Republic) was attached to the bar to measure power and velocity during each completed repetition."
On each of the three occasions the subjects reported to the lap, a different rest interval was used. With 1-, 2-, and 3-minutes of rest in-between sets, the and a standard 2-minute RI was used in between exercises, the study represents more or less what I see trainees do at the gym on a daily basis, as well... ok, the lazy "I just want to be strong"-10-minutes-of-rest-between-sets-fat-ass was not accordingly represented in the study at hand, but lets be honest, how many of the average trainees do actually fall into this category? I mean, if you ask people why they are going to the gym, they will either lie or tell you that they are there to "look better naked".

"Looking good naked" is a valid training goal, folks - so admit to it!

For most people sculpting their body may be only one of the reasons, but in the end, it usually comes down to this and "health" or "fitness", when youre getting honest answers from gym users.
Figure 2: The amount of energy the trainees expended on bench presses and squats was significantly higher with the 1-min rest periods (17% and 36%, for squats; 8% and 18% for bench presses; data based on Ratamess. 2014)
Against that background, the insight that short rest periods lead to significant increases in energy expenditure is highly relevant (Note: The energy expenditure was calculated by multiplying the total VO2 for the session x 5.05kcal/L). Losing fat is after all number one on the "looking good naked" priority list of most trainees and in spite of the fact that you wont lose any fat without dieting, the 36% higher energy expenditure of the 1min vs. 3min rest time workout could make the difference between ordinary and outstanding fat loss results... in spite of the increase in the respiratory exchange ratio, an indicator of an increased anaerobic contribution to the energy expenditure, by the way!
And what about building muscle? There is insufficient data to draw a firm conclusion, but based on the few hardly comparable studies we have suggest that shorter rest times in the 1-2 minute realm are also associated with a more pronounced growth stimulus (Willardson. 2006; de Salles. 2009) and have either no or a hardly significant, yet positive effect on muscle growth (Ahtianen. 2005; Willardson. 2008). Resting for more than 2 minutes between sets does therefore make sense only if you are training for strength.
Short rest times + 6 Simple Rules of Reasonable Weight Loss = Succes!
Unfortunately, the myth that "burning fat" during exercise was in any way relevant to your weight / fat loss success is as die hard as it is stupid and flawed.

Especially for the leaner folks out there, "burning fat" is absolutely irrelevant. In fact, the whole HIIT research appears to suggest that short intense, highly glycolytic exercise regimen are more suitable to shed body fat for athletic individuals than arduous multiple-hour workouts in the non-existing (!) "fat burning zone".

The reason I still recommend LISS as a preferable type of cardio training for the advanced trainee with three to four resistance training sessions per week is that all the "high intensity stuff" (dont neglect your strength workouts!) is going to overtax the sympathetic nervous system. The classic light-intensity steady state (LISS) work, on the other hand, offers a welcome parasympathetic stimulus to balance all the intense explosive training youre doing at the gym.
Never train to burn fat! I know this article could create the impression that it would be worth going to the gym to "burn fat", but in the end, the main determinant of fat loss is your diet. If the latter aint in check, all the training is not going to help. So, you better think of your workouts as the tool to control the fat / muscle loss ratio on a diet.
Bottom line: If "looking good naked" is your goal and "losing fat" among your top priorities, the results of the study at hand clearly support the longstanding wisdom that cutting back on your rest times will give you the edge.

You got to be careful, though, without cutting back on your energy intake and following the 6-simple rules of reasonable weight loss, you are not going to be very successful. No matter, if you rest for 1, 2, 3 or 20 minutes - diet and exercise, exercise and diet: If you want to look good naked, the two are simply the front and back of a single coin - you cannot separate them.
References:
  • Ahtianen, Juha P., et al. "Short vs. long rest period between the sets in hypertrophic resistance training: influence on muscle strength, size, and hormonal adaptations in trained men." The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 19.3 (2005): 572-582.
  • de Salles, Belmiro Freitas, et al. "Rest interval between sets in strength training." Sports Medicine 39.9 (2009): 765-777.
  • Ratamess, Nicolas A., et al. "Acute Oxygen Uptake and Resistance Exercise Performance Using Different Rest Interval Lengths: The Influence of Maximal Aerobic Capacity and Exercise Sequence." Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 28.7 (2014):1875–1888.
  • Willardson, Jeffrey M. "A brief review: factors affecting the length of the rest interval between resistance exercise sets." The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 20.4 (2006): 978-984. 
  • Willardson, Jeffrey M., and Lee N. Burkett. "The effect of different rest intervals between sets on volume components and strength gains." The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 22.1 (2008): 146-152.


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