Facts About BMR Every Health Enthusiast Must Know

BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate is not just a number, but it is very important value for the health enthusiasts. It plays a major role in weight loss and many times sluggish metabolism is the reason why you don’t lose weight even after lot of hard work and strict diet. If you are into weight management or health fanatic then the term BMR would not be new for you, however here are some interesting facts about BMR that you need to know as well. 

1.       What is BMR?

BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate is the number indicating the calories consumed by your body at rest. These are the minimum calories your body would need to stay alive! This means that if your BMR is high then you would lose more pounds or burn more calories even when you are at rest or doing nothing. The extra efforts you put in will burn some extra calories for quicker weight loss.

2.       BMR plays a major role on your weight loss goals

If you are on weight loss program then it is important to know your BMR to plan your workout and diet regime. According to the studies, out of total calories burnt, 70% accounts to BMR, 20% accounts to exercise, and 10% accounts to diet. The component of physical activity can be increased to 50% by increasing the level of physical activity and it may also get lower than 20% in case of sedentary lifestyle. Hence, BMR is the driving force to achieve your weight loss goals.

3.       BMR can be increased or decreased because of your lifestyle

Every person has BMR according to body structure, muscle mass, fat percentage, bone structure, and water content in the body. It is the unique number for every individual, but it is not the constant number that cannot be changed. It is not the number that you will attain since birth or due to your genetic structure. This number changes according to your lifestyle. You can increase your BMR by not skipping the meals, eating small meals at regular intervals, exercising regularly, building more muscles, and leading a healthy lifestyle.

4.       Skipping a breakfast is the biggest blunder you make

You might have read this at many places that skipping a breakfast is quite uncalled for, and this is true as it brings down your BMR drastically. When you skip your breakfast, the first meal in the morning then you are more likely giving your body a message to store more fat. The body in turn reacts adversely and stops burning more calories, which would lead to lowered BMR. It is rightly said that have breakfast like a king to lead a healthy life.

5.       Sleep deprivation, a major blow to your metabolism

Hectic lifestyle and work commitments have left many people sleep deprived. Getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep has become difficult in today’s time and that brings down your metabolism. Studies have shown major decline in metabolism due to lack of sleep. Sleep deprivation reduces the activity level of the person due to lack of energy, which will negatively affect the metabolism. Lack of sleep also triggers other health disorders like diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.

6.       More muscles mean better BMR

The ratio of muscles to fat content in your body would affect the BMR to great extent. The muscles that are formed through weight training would increase your BMR substantially. Hence, it is important that you work on the muscle training as much as you work on fat reduction. Building muscles would increase the BMR that would also help you in weight management post weight loss program.

7.       Stay hydrated

Drinking water at regular intervals have lot of importance in health management. You may lose water during the course of day and this will affect your activity level tremendously. This would further turn out to be slow metabolism and low BMR. Drink enough water depending on your weight and body structure. Remember, every person has different hydration need depending on his weight, muscle mass, and fat store. The external condition also decides the hydration needs.

BMR is a number that works for designing an efficient weight loss regime. Use this number effectively and also put in efforts to keep this number up for quick and healthy weight loss.

6 Supernatural Events That Really Happened

Listening to fictional ghost stories is one thing, but knowing that certain paranormal events were true, can surely give you the creeps. So all you faint-hearted readers, steer clear; for this is a list of 6 Scary and True Supernatural Events, without any holistic explanation till date!

The Aleya Ghost Lights

The swamps of Sunderbans in Bengal attract a number of scientists, historians and tourists every year. Apart from being a biodiversity hotspot, a great place for adventure-tourism and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the biggest tidal mangroves of the world are situated here. If you happen to visit, the locals will definitely warn you about the Aleya Ghost Lights. These mysterious lights appear above the swamps at night, and tend to lure observers into dangerous spots, where they eventually meet their death.

Faces on the Floor

This real-life paranormal event can be traced all the way back to 1971, in the Belmez Village of Spain. It was just a normal day for the Pereira household on the 23rd of August, till Maria Gomez observed a human face pattern forming on the concrete floor of her kitchen. Shocked beyond words, she screamed for her husband Juan and son Miguel. Together they used a pickaxe to destroy the image and lay new concrete. But over the course of the next 30 years, faces of different shapes, sizes and expressions kept recurring on the floor, drawing in flocks of curious observers. Despite floor samples being sent for scientific examination, no plausible explanation could be found. It was later discovered, that the house had been built over a graveyard.

The Haunted Dorm

Almost every teen-horror flick, or violent slasher-movie has started off in a creepy dorm, deeming the concept as jaded as ever. But it turns out, such bone-chilling instances have actually occurred in real life! The most well-known example is that of Room 428 of the Wilson Hall Dormitory at the Ohio University. For those who are unaware, this is probably the only university room in the world that has been officially termed as ‘haunted’ and locked up forever. Whoever has entered Room 428 till date has seen objects flying around, along with weird noise, the sound of footsteps and shadows appearing every now and then. But the most eerie occurrence has been that of a demon-like face on the door that appears and disappears mysteriously. It is believed that the room is inhabited by the spirit of a man who died a violent death in the 1970s.

Testimony from beyond the Grave

This is amongst the ultra-rare instances in history, when the testimony of a ghost indirectly led to the conviction of her murderer. Way back in 1897, Zona and Erasmus were a married couple who stayed in West Virginia. One evening, Erasmus called a doctor home saying Zona had suffered from a cardiac arrest. Upon arrival, the doctor declared Zona dead. It would have been an open-and-shut case, but for the fact that Zona’s mother Mary Jane, encountered a visit from Zona’s ghost who told her that Erasmus was an abusive husband, and he had strangled her to death. Upon her petition, Zona’s body was autopsied and it was indeed found that her wind pipe was broken. Despite the ambiguity of the evidence from ‘beyond the grave’, the mother’s testimony was legally used to re-open the case and sentence Erasmus to Life Imprisonment.

The Savior Ghost

Not all ghosts are evil; some of them can be extremely benevolent. As is the case with the mysterious ‘Grey Man’ who warns locals before an approaching hurricane, in the coastal town of Pawley’s Island. It is said that whoever this kind, shadowy figure has warned to leave the area before an impending storm, have always retuned back to find their houses surprisingly ‘undamaged’ despite rampant destruction in the surroundings!

The Cursed Village

The village of Kuldhara in the Jaiselmer, India is believed to have been cursed to abandonment. Occupied by the wealthy ‘Paliwal’ Priestly Community for years, the village was suddenly deserted overnight. But the big mystery is that the inhabitants didn’t relocate elsewhere; one fine morning (about 500 years ago), they just disappeared, and were never heard of again! Residents of neighboring villages have cited probable reasons such as oppression by a tyrant ruler or a tale of forbidden love. Either way, it’s believed that the residents cursed the village before leaving, to ensure that it remained unoccupied forever. True to their word, Kuldhara remains unoccupied till date, and paranormal investigators have cited a ghostly presence.

How Secret Intelligence Gathered Information in the Past

A vital part of every war or conflict for both the sides is to gather information about the opponent to ensure their winning. History has been the witness to numerous ways formulated time and again for bringing out that vital information.

Here are 6 ways through which secret intelligence services gathered information in the past:

Sardines

Secret intelligence activities paved way from World War 1 by different world powers. One such clever method was used by the Germans to use sardine shipments. Ludovico Zender was a German spy who used sardine shipments as a disguise for describing British shipping movements.

In 1915, he ordered a big shipment of Norwegian sardines, requesting to be sent to Peru. However, the shipment went to Oslo, which was the collection point for German intelligence. The British intercepted Zender’s shipment and he was exposed because it was not the season for sardines.

Silver Bullets

It was during the American War of Independence that both the parties developed amazing techniques to sneak in for information. One of such techniques was to write information on tissue papers and stuff it into small hollow objects like buttons or silver balls. The catch here was that in case the messenger was caught, these balls could easily be swallowed.

Music and Spies

The medieval times had a number of elite musicians making money by performing in the royal courts. The fact that they were simply musicians proved them to be the perfect picks for spying. Pierre Alamire was a famous musician employed by Henry VIII in 1515.

His job was to collect information during the War of Roses about Richard de la Pole who waged war against the British later. Alamire hence went to Metz in France where Pole was. However, the twist here came when Alamire somehow ended up being a double agent and passed information to both the sides.

Captain Allan Mclane

Captain Allan Mclane was the bravest spy for George Washington during the American Revolutionary War. McLane would disguise himself and go behind enemy lines whenever Washington wanted vital information. His first disguise was when Washington wanted information on where the British planned to go after Philadelphia in 1778.

Hence, McLane disguised himself as a farmer and imitated to stroll into a British camp. On gaining access he gathered quite imperative information which helped Washington to attack Monmouth Courthouse. 

His other disguise was as a country bumpkin to enter the Stony Point Front which was under British that time. From whatever he saw, he created a battle plan that helped the Americans win the fort in mere 25 minutes. 

The Black Spies 

Jefferson Davis and his wife Varina lived in the White House throughout the Civil War in Virginia. However, what they were oblivious about was that every part of their lives was listened to and closely watched by the black servants they had employed.

In 1862, their coachman William Jackson somehow escaped and revealed full details of Jefferson’s plan for the war. Another employ of Davis’s was Mary Elizabeth Bowser planted as a waitress with an extensive network of Union spies. Her efforts along with her network did provide essential military information to her Union.  

Sylvanus Morley

Sylvanus Morley played a pivotal role in preventing the Germans entering in Mexico during World War I. Morley was an archaeologist first and hence travelled Central America taking pictures of ancient structures and ruins.

He reached Honduras in 1917 and tried taking a picture of the old Spanish fort, but was stopped by the soldiers. He actually argued he was up to the Honduran president to be allowed to continue with his photography.

He was finally allowed to photograph, little did the Hondurans knew that he was in turn identifying the German agents, hunting German broadcasts, and photographing submarines. It took him 3,200 kilometres to document through his pictures the presence of Germans in Central America. Historians owing to Sylvanus Morley’s efforts identified him as the best secret agent United States have had during World War I. His methods in turn became the prototype for efforts in World War II.

Irrespective of the times, the work of spies as secret Intelligence agents is daring and extremely perilous. It does require a great valour and determination to be able to do justice with their job. 

Six Times Pilots Committed Suicide While Flying a Plane

There some few cases that highlight the queer nature of humans to commit suicide, for instance, “Suicide by pilot” events. Suicide by a pilot is an event when pilot tenaciously crashes or attempts to crash an aircraft, just to kill himself. Suicide by a pilot is a tough situation to prove. More than fifteen cases were proved as Suicide by Pilot from 1976 to 2015. Few of them were equal to ‘massive murdering’.

1. Japan Airline Flight 350, February 1982

Flight 350 was leaving from Fukuoka to reach Tokyo. This was the first crash of the 1980s and 24 passengers died out of 166.

Though its captain Seiji Katagiri deliberately crashed the plane by throwing two of the four engines into reverse, he, however, survived and was the first one to catch the rescue boat. Despite the best efforts by the First Officer and Flight Engineer to regain control, it crashed into the sea, 980 feet short of the runway of the Haneda Airport.

A later investigation stated that Katagiri was suffering from schizophrenia.

2. Royal Air Maroc Flight 630, August 1994

RAM or Royal Air Maroc Flight 630 was scheduled from Agadir to Casablanca with 44 passengers. All the passengers including the crew members died in this crash. This flight carried a Kuwaiti prince, his wife, Italians, American, Dutch and other Kuwaitis too.

The 32-year-old pilot Younes Khayati intentionally disconnected the autopilot and entered the aircraft into steep dive somewhere in the Atlas Mountains just after ten minutes from the takeoff. At the height of 16000 feet, pilot straight way crashed the plane into the mountains.

There was even a message from the co-pilot, “Help, help..! The Captain is…”, before the crash. The captain was rumored to be heart-broken at that time.

3. SilkAir Flight MI 185, December 1997

SilkAir Flight MI 185 was leaving from Jakarta to reach Singapore but instead landed into the Musi River and killed 104 people instantly. This mystery still continues to baffle today as the sudden disappearance of the pilot for a drink and failure of the flight recorders point to something else.

The reports by Indonesian government stated the crash was an accident but the U.S. NTSB reported that the Captain Tsu Way Ming of this flight deliberately manipulated the flight controls for a suicidal nosedive into the Atlas Mountains.

It was found that Tsu was completely broke and had arranged for an insurance policy from having to pay half of the home mortgage in the event of his death. And it was no surprise that this insurance came into effect on December 19, 1997, the day of the crash.

4. EgyptAir flight 990, October 1999

EgyptAir Flight 990 was one of those air crashes that had killed more than 200 passengers (217 to be precise). No other air crashes till today (except Malaysia Airlines Flight 370) was such a big devastation.

The government of Egypt and the USA is still unclear on what exactly happened in EgyptAir Flight 990 when it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. Leaving from Los Angeles to reach Cairo, the flight had 203 passengers and 14 crew members.

Both the government did their investigations and had different opinions, though the “Suicide by pilot” was the official report.

Another close report which was never published officially framed Gameel Al-Batouti, relief First Officer as a man of allegations for sexual misconducts. Hatem Rushdy, captain of flight 990 and Batauti was not on good terms. The last words exchanged between them were something like “this is your last flight”.

5. LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470, November 2013

All 33 people on board on the Mozambique Airlines Flight died due to the air crash. Captain of the flight named Herminio dos Santos Fernandes had locked himself in the cockpit.

He manually changed altitudes three times to order a descent to the ground and ignored all aural warnings. The flight that was to take passengers from Maputo to Luanda but got them crashed into the Bwabwata National Park in Namibia.

No official reports stated as to what was the reason behind the Captain’s suicide but many unverified rumors suggested that he had marital problems and his son died recently.

6. Germanwings Flight 9525, March 2015

After many investigations, a final report by French BEA was published recently in March 2016 that Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed near Prads-Haute-Belone, France was due to “Suicide by Pilot” event.

The flight departed from Barcelona with 150 people on board and was crashed into a mountain by its co-pilot named Andreas Lubitz, killing all the people.

Lubitz locked the cockpit and made several adjustments to the selected descent speed. He never responded alert calls from air traffic control nor allowed the captain to enter the cockpit. Lubitz was suffering from a psychosomatic disorder.

Brutal Torture Techniques Used in the History of Mankind

Torture has been a common theme when we take the history of brutality into consideration. Time and again, humans have found unique ways to torture their counter parts just because they were consumed with power, ego and money.

From religious genocides to treating people like animals, innocent people have faced a lot in the past. All we can do is hope that by learning more about the past, people can learn from the mistakes of their ancestors.

Here are some of the brutal torture technique ever used in the history of mankind:

The Rack

The Rack was considered as one of the most gruesome torture techniques in the medieval times. It was a wooden rack with two ropes on top and another two on the bottom that were used to tie victim’s hands and legs.

Once the victim was fixed on the rack and couldn’t move, the torturer would start turning the handle which in turn would pull the rope nearer to the edges. The handle was turned till the victim was so stretched out that all of his limbs were dislocated.

And that did not even stop the torturers; they would keep turning till they were convinced there was no functional bone left in the victim’s body.

Tongue Tearer

This metal device was also heavily used during the medieval times by kings’ guards to get rid of anyone who spoke against the king. First the mouth of the victim was fixed open, and then this device, which looked like a big pair of scissors was used to dissect and tore out the victim’s tongue.

Rat Torture

Rat torture has to be one of the most sadist forms of torture, and it’s not about leaving someone trapped with rats in a room, it’s even worse. This method takes ordinary torture to a whole another level.

The victim was first laid down and tied so that he couldn’t move even if he wanted to, then a cage with one side open was kept over him. First, a big rodent was put inside the cage and the side opposite to the victim was heated with a device. The rodent, going by his instincts, would try to escape the heat by borrowing inside the victim’s body. Some torturers used this mechanism to kill their victims, while others just used it to torture victims every day.

The Chair of Torture

Also known as the Judas Chair, this chair was introduced in medieval ages, and was used by kingdoms in Europe till the 1800s. The chair was made of metal and every surface of the chair was filled with spikes, most of them had 500 to 1500 spikes.

Heating elements could also be used beneath the chair to heat it up, since the chair was made up of metal, it hardly took any time to get the spikes heated up. This chair was mostly used for getting out confessions from the victims.

Cemented Shoes

This method of torture was used by American crime mafia to get rid of their traitors, spies or enemies. The victim was first made to stand inside cinder blocks which was then filled up with wet cement. After the cement dried up, the victim was thrown into the sea or a deep water body, and was left to die.

Republican Marriage

During the French Revolution, Jean-Baptiste Carrier was known for using torturous techniques to kill those who spoke against him. As if burning people at the stake and guillotine wasn’t enough, Carrier thought of a different way to kill large number of people together.

He would tie up naked bodies of men and women and then throw them into an icy river to drown. If the waters weren’t available, his guards use swords to kill the people after tying them up. Carrier often used this method during his time to execute priests and nuns.

Hanged, Drawn and Quartered

This method was used in the British Kingdom to kill people accused of treason. In this method, the victims were first hanged on a wooden plank till they neared their death, then they were removed from the hanging rope, their genetilia was drawn and burnt in front of them. To kill the victim, his body was divided in four pieces. This form of punishment was abolished in 1814.