fitness
Fat loss secrets

fitness1Strength Training is a must
Posted 5/30/08
Strength Training is NECESSARY component of your fat loss program.

Fat can’t burn fat, ONLY Muscle can burn fat! The more muscle density you possess, the more fat it can eat. It is simple as that. Those people who do diet programs where they forbid you to exercise, especially weight train, do this for two reasons. One, so that you won’t impede their weight loss (notice I said “weight” loss, not “fat” loss) process by putting on more muscle as you diet (which muscle has weight) and two, because you are also losing muscle along with Bodyfat with their “weight-loss-at-all-costs’ mentality.

This will lower your overall metabolism with less muscle mass performing as the only active tissue in your body. Remember the News Show 20-20 had some doctor taking some serious hits from his colleagues on national TV because he stated that “cardio” is useless in the whole fat loss regimen and that strength training was the preferred method of exercise of fat loss was your ultimate goal. They were just giving him absolute hell over this statement and as they quieted down, he spoke up and said ‘Go into any gym in America and go look at the masses on the endless rows of treadmills and look at their faces and bodies.

They look miserable, tired, cranky, and bored. Their bodies are lifeless masses and look unfit. Then take a trip to the weight room of the same gym. Everyone for the most part looks relatively happy, more vigorous, toned and generally more fit. I rest my case.’ The others nay-sayers couldn’t say a thing.
'Steady state' won't work
 Posted 5/20/08
Unless you are a beginner or completely de-conditioned, “steady state” aerobics is a huge waste of your time.

If you walk into a gym and they say that they want you to do endless amounts of cardio at the same manual pace for miles on end… WALK OUT OF THAT GYM! The fitness industry used to preach… 20 minutes 3-5 times a week. All America did was get fatter. If one JUST trains aerobically – one undeniably get weaker and eventually injured as a result of said weakness. Xavier Jouen MD wrote: Men whose heart rate increased the least during exercise (less than 89 bpm) were 6x as likely to die than men whose heart rate skyrocketed. Men whose heart rate didn’t decrease by at least 25 bpm within one minute after exercise also had an increased risk of cardiac death. This is TRUE fitness!

How fast can you recover exercise? Research has shown us for years that steady state aerobics after the 60-day mark, is essentially useless for fat loss purposes. You have to step it up a notch. Interval training is that next step and it can increase your fat burning potential significantly as well can cut your cardio time to a third! Interval training is safe but not EASY. One must develop an aerobic base first. “One can’t run to get fit – one must get fit to run”… a physiologic truism. Why Interval Training? You burn a higher percentage of fat at lower intensity = greater percent of a small number OR higher intensity burns more calories and more fat.

RUN or WALK = burns same calories
• ONE Mile example:
• 20 minutes @ 7.5 mph (8 minute mile) = 2.5 miles = 250 calories
• 20 minutes @ 3.0 mph = 1 mile = 100 calories
• 2.5 more calories / minute burned than distance covered
• Higher intensity WILL burn more calories thusly more FAT.

EPOC (Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption) (“Afterburn”) Calories burned at rest. “Recovery of metabolic rate back to pre-exercise levels can require several minutes for light exercise and several HOURS for hard intervals”

The Battle of the Numbers
Posted 5/12/08
It’s a battle of numbers these days boys and girls. Do I count fat grams, carbs grams, protein grams or just do the “Weight Watchers” thing and count my caloric intake? I hate to say it, but it is both. Here’s the deal. Mathematically, it’s still a matter of numbers in and numbers out. You got to burn more calories than you ingest. Plain and simple. You have all heard it before, but the gram count still plays a major role. Protein count must stay high to maintain and hopefully accrue more muscle, carb intake must be timed throughout the day so that you take in carbs only when your body can process them, not after. And fat grams have to be accounted for being the most dense of the molecules and has the most potential to do damage to your hard earned fat loss. Everyone knows by now that there are good fats and bad fats but essentially they are still fat and they have to be kept low for the most part.

Fitness Tip of the Week
Posted 4/7/08
Your diet choices are 80 percent of your fat loss program. Well I will start out with a corny phrase ”You are what you eat”. Corny or not, It is still physiologically and metabolically VERY true. No truer words have been spoken. All those 11 boxes of crackers you inhaled unconsciously while watching 13 hours of football on Saturday afternoon (I am partial to college ball) or all those 24 diet Pepsis you drank one after the other thinking that you are watching your calories just did about equal amounts of harm to your body. Yeah, I know that the examples given was pretty exaggerated and as I told you at the beginning of this article, I have been in this business for a long time and I have those EXACT stories before so, I know your situation isn’t that extreme, but the point is still the same. The point is that everything you put in your mouth is “raw material” for the house you call your body. Do you want a house made out of Doritios? Your body needs good solid nutrients to maintain health, give you energy, fuel your body and brain and maintain a low body fat and high degree of muscle mass / muscle tone. You have all seen houses, or for that matter any structure, fall apart because of the substandard materials used in its construction. Same thing goes here. Complete animal proteins, complex, high-fiber, low-GI starchy carbs as well as fibrous carbs (vegetables) and plenty of water need to be the skeleton of your fat loss exploits.

Start with the basics
 Posted 4/7/08
Having been in the training business now for almost 25 years now, I think I have seen the full gambit of what the sales & marketing fitness industry has to throw at us. Everything from no carb to no fat to endless hours of exercise to now the laughable “motionless exercise”. (Isn’t that an oxymoron?) Infomercials are the worst at preying on the desperate or lazy to sling their particular brand of “snake oil” of the month. The copious amounts of misinformation and disinformation that these guys spit out is sometimes outright criminal and fraudulent. Not to say that they are ALL bad and evil, but they know who they are.

Having said all that and now climbing off my soapbox, Let’s get to the real reason your are even reading this article… you want to shed some (or a lot) of unwanted body fat.

The Basics First:
Secret No. 1: Make your fat loss goals a priority.
This was a conscious decision on your part to finally do whatever it takes to lose that beer belly, or don-lop (you know what that is… when your belly don-lopped over your belt), or saddlebag hips or whatever ails you. Your body is very stubborn mechanism. It doesn’t like change and it will fight you every step of the way. So if you think that a decent meal choice here or there, or that if you just give up your favorite vice that it will somehow miraculously just disappear, I know you don’t believe this. It HAS to be an overlying theme for the way you live your life...period. The amount of sleep you get, the kinds of foods you pick, the timing of those foods, the amount of fluids you take in, your vitamin / mineral regimen, your exercise selection and routine and so on all have large impacts on your fat-loss attempts. Take some time out this crazy existence we call LIFE for yourself and make the decision to commit to this noble goal you have. It’s not selfish of you to think of your health, your quality of life for you and your loved ones, your self esteem and confidence. You deserve this and you NEED this.

By: Jeff Green MS,CSCS,USAW,USATF,PES,CES,NSCA-CPT
Icon Performance - Total Fitness. Superior Athletics. Functional Rehabilitation - Leave Your Mark.
Exercise Physiologist
Performance Enhancement Specialist
Clinical Exercise Specialist
NASS Alabama State Chairman
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
USA Weightlifting Club Coach
USA Track & Field Level 1 Coach
Birmingham Barbell Strength Sports
3156 Sunview Drive
Birmingham, AL 35243
205.970.BFIT (2348)
205.516.3061
www.iconperformanceonline.com

E-Mail Jeff!
November Birmingham, Alabama

  

 
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