Archive for the 'Weight Loss' Category

08
Jan

Town Sports International Presents ROCK THE SCALES

By petar 0 Comments
Categories: Weight Loss

It’s time to ROCK THE SCALES! This week Town Sports International (Washington, New York, Philadelphia, and Boston Sports Clubs) unveiled its second annual weight-loss challenge. It’s a great deal for all of you who have new year’s resolutions that deal with losing weight. What it is is an 8-week challenge to loose weight. You can register on the web site and participate at your local TSI gym. Once registered on the official Rock the Scales Website participants are provided with a 1-2 pound a week weight loss plan. Each week they have to participate in a weigh in at their local TSI gym and track their progress. In addition to receiving the guidance and support to follow up on their new year’s resolutions, participants also have the chance of winning $50,000!

I think that this is a great initiative on behalf of TSI. It provides a great incentive for people to commit to a weight-loss regimen. They weekly weigh-ins are wonderful, because it holds members accountable for their progress and also offers a supportive environment within which they are encouraged to stick to their fitness plan.

04
Oct

Appearance is a Consequence of Fitness

By petar 0 Comments
Categories: General, Weight Loss and Strength Training

“Apperance is a Consequence of Fitness.”
-Mark Twight

Think about that. Appearance is the consequence of fitness. Not too many people understand this concept. It makes sense, though; true fitness leads to good appearance. I is more than just pure strength. It is also about performance, endurance, power, balance, coordination, agility, and speed. To obtain true fitness, one needs to excel in all of these areas. And excelling in these areas leads to a better appearance. This means that fitness is not the end result of apperance, but rather, the other way around.

Not too many people adhere to this principle and that’s why they plateau and become stuck in one place. They go about training the wrong way and get lost. I see too many people in the gym following routines designed for professional bodybuilders and not follow a regimen that is tailored to their own needs. And in doing so they are wasting their time. For instance, if you are a tennis player and want to improve your game, “chest and shoulder day” is not going to help your serve. Instead, you need to focus on improving your fitness, which would help with that. Better appearance will also come along with it.

Bodybuilder workouts are not the best way to get in shape nor to become more fit. They are appearance-oriented and miss the point. They revolve around isolating muscle groups, long resting periods, and lack functionality. This is not the way to get fit. As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, intense cross training is the solution. Cross training done properly hits all the aforementiond components of fitness. This in turn leads to a higher level of fitness, and a higher level of fitness leads to a better physique.

Does this all make sense? It is important to take a break from the mold that working out means training like a body builder. Working on the various components of fitness will naturally lead to a number of positive benefits, better appearance being one of them.

If what I have just said interests you, you can read more about this philosophy of fitness here, on the Gym Jones website.

13
Aug

LSAT Question

By petar 3 Comments
Categories: General, Nutrition and Weight Loss

An actual LSAT Question:

Frequently, people who diet to lose weight become trapped in a vicious cycle. When those people diet, they not only lose weight, but their bodies becme used to fewer calories and become accustomed to functioning at that lower rate of caloric intake. As a result, when they stop dieting and go back to eating amounts of food that would have just maintained their weight in the days before the diet, they take in far more calories than they need. Those ecess calories produce excess weight.

The passage above best supports whihc one of the following conclusions about people who diet to lose weight?
(a) They are bound to end up weighin more than when they started dieting.
(b) They should not diet if they desire to maintain their reduced weight.
(c) They must not go back to eating pre-diet amounts of food if they are to maintain their weight at the reduced level resulting from dieting.
(d) They will have to eat even less than the amount of food allowed by their diets if they are to avoid gaining weight after they stop dieting.
(e) They never can go back to their pre-diet caloric intake without regaining all of the weight lost by dieting.

01
Aug

The Bodybugg

By petar 0 Comments
Categories: General and Weight Loss

bugg.jpgWeight management is based on the correlation between calories consumed versus calories burned. As we all know, keeping track of both can be a hassle. That’s why the folks over at Apex Fitness Group created the Bodybugg. It is a gagdet that you strap on your arm which measures how many calories you burn. At the end of the day you connect the gadget to your pc, which then uploads your information to the BodyBugg’s website where you can keep track of the progress that you’ve made and get tips on losing more weight. At least, that’s the jist of it. According to an article in USA Today, the Bodybugg measures how much heat the body is producing and losing, to calculate the overall calorie consumption.

The Bodybugg has gotten mixed reviews. The people over at Starling Fitness critiqued the device for being too expensive without having proven to be accurate.

At the same time, there are rave reviews coming from users of the device. USA Today cites Jennifer White who says she lost 24 pounds on the device. Josh Hillis of Josh’s Garage says that his clients used Bodybugg to manage their calories in addition to their workouts in the gym, which helped them all achieve fantastic results. And the comments section on Starling Fitness is full of people talking about the positive results that they gained from using the Bodybugg.

So if you need some extra help at losing weight, shell out $399 and get yourself the Bodybugg.

18
Jul

drink more water!

By petar 1 Comment
Categories: Nutrition and Weight Loss

WATER!

DRINK MORE WATER!

Did that get your attention? Good.
I’ve been told that I am obsessed with water. Well there is a reason for it. Water is very important to our bodies. It’s so important that it takes up 55-55% of our bodies. There’s a lot of it, because it does a lot. First, it carries nutrients and other chemiclas to our cells and carries wastes out of it. Second, it regulates our body temperature. Third, it prevents dehydration. Dehydration, loss of body fluid caused by an inadequate amount of water, leads to fatigue, loss in performance, sugar craving, and a strain on the heart. Fourth, it controls metabolic function. Meaning, that drinking more water will increase your metabolism. Fifth, it keeps your liver fundctioning properly.
Thats a lot of stuff! Important stuff.

Given that water is responsible for all of these things, an adequate supply of water is necessary. Are you drinking enough though? Here’s how much water you should be consuming:

According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine,
-On average, 96 ounces per day. 8 ounces for every 25 pounds carried above ideal weight.
-Even more if you are exercising briskly or in a hot climate.
In addition to that also,
-16 ounces 2 hours before exercise
-20-40 ounces for every hour of exercise
-16 ounces after exercise
Basically, you should be drinking your 96 ounces outside of the water that you drink during exercise.

If you are running to the bathroom, then you are doing it right. It is hard to adjust to, but I guarantee you that if you keep a good intake of water, you will see great improvement in body composition and functioning. So drink up!

10
Jul

Weightloss Facebook Application

By petar 0 Comments
Categories: General and Weight Loss

For those of you out there that use facebook, you might find this interesting. There is an application that you can add to your profile which can help you track your weightloss goal and diet. Now ultimately, the application leads users to the developer’s site, which happens to be a diet and weightloss site. I checked it out, and the problem with the site is that it focuses on diets, and not a combination of nutrition and exercise. Also, it promotes different trendy diets and doesn’t really stress the importance of proper eating habits, which I talked about in an earlier post. Either way, the facebok application is nifty, and if you want check it out, then you can get it here.

Thanks to Nick at Allfacebook.com for bringing the application to my attention. You can read his own entry here.

08
Jul

Cardio Training for Fat Loss

By petar 0 Comments
Categories: Cardio, Weight Loss and Body Composition

To follow up on my previous post about the myth of the fat-burning zone, I decided to write about proper cardio training for fat loss.

There are two basic principles to keep in mind. The first is that cardio for loss requires higher intensity. As I pointed out in the other post, a greater amount of fat is burned from intense exercise. This means that shorter but intense sessions of cardio are more effective than longer and more mellow ones.

The second principle is that of adaptability. The body is able to adapt to different things. Through practice, it learns how to deal with different tasks and challenges. Thats why we are capable of progress. Unfortunately, this same ability can hinder us. Because the body can adapt, it is possible to hit a plateau. For instance, by following the same workout regimen a person will see results in the beginning but as time passes there would be smaller and smaller change until there is stagnation. Then their efforts will yield no results. For this reason, its important to constantly keep our bodies guessing and not allowing them to fully adapt to our workouts. Only then will progress be constant. Too often do I see members at my gym following the exact same training regimen for months without seeing any of their hard work paying off. So what am I getting to: its very important to vary your cardio workouts!

What this all adds up to:
To lose fat its necessary to keep your cardio sessions intense and to vary them. Constant change will keep “shock” the body and prevent it from hitting a plateau. Don’t just stick to one form of cardio, do different things. Cycle between rowing, cycling, running, etc. Also, mix up your workouts so that some days are more intense than others, or, do interval training where you go back and forth between hard and moderate intensities.

Here is a sample 3-day cardio workout:
Monday
20 minutes on the treadmill. Cycle between:
1 minute 90% effort,
2 minutes 65% effort

Wednesday
20 minutes rowing. Cycle between:
sprint for 500 meters,
moderate row for 800 meters.

Friday
30 minutes:
10 minutes Cycling at 85% intensity,
10 minutes Elliptical at 70% intensity,
10 minutes Running at 85% intensity.

The two principles of cardio training for fat loss are evident in this sample regimen. The same workout is not done twice in the same week and all of them are intense. Modeling your own cardio regimen after this one is the key towards effectively burning off unwanted fat.

31
May

Strength Training: The Fountain of Youth

By petar 0 Comments
Categories: Weight Loss, Body Composition and Strength Training

462.bmpIt is common knowledge that strength training can induce fat loss and improve athletic performance. However, a recent study shows that the it can also reverse the effects of aging. According to a Reuters article, a small study was conducted at Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato, California which showed that older muscles can be rejuvinated through exercise. Basically, the study found that resistance training improved gene expression in older muscles. The improved gene expression meant that the functioning of the mitochondria got better, a sign that the muscles looked more youthful. Hence, the study concluded that strength training not only preserves muscles, but also prevents age from taking its toll on them.

Therefore, this study re-inforces the saying, “age ain’t nothing but a number.” So if you are trying to look younger and keep your age from showing, you need to hit the gym.

20
May

Diets vs. Healthy Eating

By petar 0 Comments
Categories: Nutrition, Weight Loss and Body Composition

If diets worked, how come there are so many of them?”
-Tim Keightley

diet.jpgWhile most of us at one time or another have tried to go on some type of diet, few can say that they actually stuck with it and achieved long-lasting results. Why? They are too restrictive and hard to stick to. They are too extreme and are centered around a negative perception of eating, i.e. “eating carbs is bad, stay away from them at all costs.” A diet puts nutrition and eating in terms of negatives. However, that is the wrong way to look at them. As humans we do not respond well to negation. We don’t like it when our choices are restricted. And that is why diets are not very successful. They attempt to enforce a regimen that we cannot conform with.

That is the psychological explanation as to why diets do not work. But there is also a physical explanation. They are usually based on extremes. However, our bodies do not like extremes. They demand moderation and consistency. We eat because our bodies require a certain balanced amount of nutrients to function. The nutrients are divided into two groups: macro and micro. Macro are those that we need large quantities of: protein, fat and carbohydrates. Micronutrients are those nutrients that we need a smaller amount of: vitamins and minerals. For our bodies to function properly they need a proper amount of each of the nutriets. Unfortunately, diets are centered on cutting back on the nutrients that we need. Therefore, while there might be some short-term results, diets are hard on the body. By not getting the nutritients that the body needs, it is hard to sustain both the the results of the diet and a healthy life-style. I could go on and critique every diet that exists out there individually, but I have just described the fundamental reason as to why diets do not work.

Clearly, proper nutrition is important. Therefore, there is a distinction between healthy eating and diets. Healthy eating, as opposed to diets, is based on moderation and consistency. It is a positive outlook on eating because it does not place a restriction on what can and cannot be consumed. Rather, it limits the amount of consumpion of different foods. Healthy eating centered around portion-control allows for the body to obtain all of the nutrients that it needs without creating a surplus. This approach is much easier to follow than diets which makes it easier to maintain over a period of time.

What exactly constitutes healthy eating? That I will talk about in my next post.


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