A Well Rounded Approach to Weight Loss
By: Andres Ramirez
Let me
give you a couple of facts: Fact, the average 150 lb person burns about 500 Calories
when running at a speed of 5.5 miles for 45 minutes. Fact, In
order to shed 1 lb of fat you have to burn approximately 3500 Calories. Now,
with this information let me give you a little math problem. How many days a week
will it take for you to lose five pounds of fat if you only follow this 45 minute cardio program? Using the facts above,
it would take approximately 37 straight days, without any rest days in between; And if you decided to take it easy and do
this workout only 3 times a week then,
assuming no other factor in your lifestyle has changed, it would take you 60 days or 12 weeks to lose
those sneaky five pounds. No wonder most people who try to lose weight by doing
cardio give up after six or seven weeks. Now, I a??m sorry to be so harsh, but the reality
is that if you are only focusing on one component from the big ??fitness picture?
this is only going to make your fitness goals much more difficult to achieve.
From
the experience I have gained from myself and the clients that I have trained I
have learned that there are two types of people in the trying-to-get-fit industry:
the ones that succeed and the ones that do not. And as I gain more experience, it has become
more and more evident that the ones that succeed have something that the "non-succeeders" lack, and that is the determination to follow a well-rounded approach to
fitness that focuses on weight training, cardiovascular training, and sound
nutrition. Combining all of these components is the most efficient way to
achieve you results, be it fat loss, muscle mass increase, or a combination of
the two. Most people only focus on one component and they become frustrated because
most of the time they end up with no favorable results. In this article I am
going to briefly explain how each of these components affects your body and how
you can incorporate them in your favor to help you maximize fat loss.
WEIGHT TRAINING
When it
comes to weight control, weight training is important for two things: One, doing
resistance exercises is going to stimulate your muscles and lean body tissue
(bones, tendons, ligaments, etc) to grow; and two, building muscle is not only
going to give you a firmer and stronger look but it will also increase your
resting metabolism throughout the day, allowing you to burn more fat. However,
it must be noted that to significantly speed up your post-exercise metabolism
with weight training you should try exercising at a high intensity, doing
between 6-15 reps (to almost failure) for every exercise; this can be achieved
through traditional weight training or
through other less conventional methods
like circuit or cross??fit training.
A lot of women stay away from weight training
because they think they a??re going to bulk up and end up looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger
back in his Mr. Olympia days, but the
truth is that most women are not genetically built to get big, they have a very
high level of estrogen in comparison to testosterone (the get big hormone) in
their bodies, which makes it difficult for them to bulk up on muscle.
Men, on
the other hand, have a higher potential to increase muscle
mass and if your goal is to lose weight this can also be great; an intense
weight training session will increase your metabolism for hours and as you
build muscle you will in turn be burning more fat calories, as muscle is
metabolically active (needs energy) and the more you have, the more fat you
will be able to burn. Also, pound for pound, muscle takes 1/3 less space than
fat, so gaining muscle mass will help you look slimmer and stronger.
Also, although
it does no??t directly relate to weight control, weight training can help you improve
your strength, coordination, and posture and give you a higher level of confidence.
AEROBIC TRAINING (CARDIO)
Aerobic
exercise is the second part of the
equation, and although I might have discouraged some of you with the little
math problem above, it i??s important to point that long and steady aerobic exercise is really beneficial for your
cardiovascular health, bone health, and it is
the best way for people who have never
exercised before to get started. With
that said, if you a??re looking for fat loss results, your best bet would be to
try High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). Like weight training high
intensity interval training will rev up your fat burning furnace throughout the
day and, as a result, will help you burn more fat. And since it i??s anaerobic in nature, high
intensity interval training can help you maintain your muscle mass and maximize
fat loss and not loss of lean body tissue.
You
might have heard that slow and steady cardio burns more fat calories than HIIT and
although this is true it i??s really not that important. When it comes to fat loss, it i??s not the fat
burned DURING exercise but rather the fat burned IN BETWEEN your exercise
sessions that really counts. Worrying about how much fat you burn during
exercise makes as much sense as wondering how much muscle you a??re building while
youâ??re lifting (You do no??t actually build
muscle during training; you break it down to trigger growth). Exercise is what STIMULATES
the change and NOT the change itself. During HIIT your body burns more carbohydrates
instead of fat, but it stimulates your metabolism to speed up, which in turn
attacks your fat stores in between your workouts.
NUTRITION
And
last but not least comes the big part of the equation: Nutrition. You can have
the best intentions in the world, but without the right nutrition your glorified
exercise program will go right to the garbage can. I consider nutrition to be
70% of what determines success in a fitness program. Designing your own nutrition program can be a
very complex process or it can be as simple as reducing your calorie intake/ by a slight amount (250-500 Calories/day). This is not as difficult as those crazy diets
out there like the Atkins, or those strictly-no-fat diets and if combined
effectively with a sound exercise program can allow you to lose 1-2 lbs of fat
per week.
Although reducing your calorie intake might
seem daunting, it i??s really not that difficult once you begin to analyze your
current diet thoroughly and make small changes accordingly. For example, A 12
oz glass of soda has about 200 calories, so If you usually drink two of these
bad boys per day, decreasing your
calorie intake could be just as simple
as replacing them with water.
Also choosing
healthier options when it comes to snacks and desserts can be a great diet
modifier; for example, eating an apple instead of fries, or eating a frozen
fat-free yogurt instead of an ice cream.
Another
option to help you reduce your calorie intake would be to control the portions
you eat at each meal; for example, instead of eating a cup of rice for lunch
eat ¾ of a cup or instead of having three hot dogs at that barbeque have two.
These small changes can ensure you achieve your desired calorie deficit without
causing you to feel over-restricted.
As a
tip, when decreasing your calorie intake try have a cheat day (which you
probably already have in your weekend diet), this will prevent your metabolism
from panicking, due to the calorie shortage it has experienced lately, and will
prevent your metabolism from slowing down permanently, which we do no??t want
because it will slow your progress.
CONCLUSION
We have
briefly touched on each of the main components of what makes a sound goal-oriented
fitness plan. All of these components, when adjusted appropriately, are going
to help you achieve your desired goals, be it to help you lose fat, gain muscle
mass or a combination of the two.
I hope that I have sparked your interest on
each of the topics outlined above and encouraged you to learn more about each
one. All in all, the take home message from
this article is that a well-rounded approach to fitness that involves
nutrition, cardio, and weight training will give you a better shot at achieving
your goals than just focusing of one specific aspect of fitness. So next time
you a??re on that treadmill for 45 minutes ask yourself: What are my goals? Is it to improve my
cardiovascular health? To lose weight? Or both? If it i??s the former then you a??re doing great, but if is the latter you might want add some pushups
to that and maybe reconsider that pizza you a??re going to visit in
your refrigerator at 2:30am!
