Getting the Biggest Return for Your Efforts to Lose Weight

This is that time of the year you are bombarded with all the new and improved weight loss gimmicks such as, "Just take this pill, or wear this belt, or do this exercise and you are guaranteed to lose x amount of weight in a week."  Well, if you don't it, I'm telling you now, there are no magic pills, or mystical secrets to weight loss.  Regardless of what you hear, to lose weight you have to expend more calories than you consume.

Your body needs energy (measured in calories) to survive and you get that energy from the food you eat.  How much energy you need on a daily basis is primarily a function of the following factors:

• Your resting metabolic rate (RMR)
• Your physical activity level
• The thermic effect of the food you eat.

Your resting metabolic rate (RMR) is the number of calories your body expends during quiet rest.  Your RMR makes up 60 to 80 percent of your total daily caloric requirements.  Your physical activity level constitutes between 20 to 30 percent of your daily energy needs.  And, the thermic effect of the foods you eat makes up only a small piece of your daily calorie expenditure.

You can see from the above your RMR is the largest component of your daily caloric needs. Your RMR is comprised mainly of the energy requirements of your organs, and the energy requirements of your skeletal muscle.  The energy requirements of your organs make-up 60 to 70 percent of your RMR,  while your skeletal muscle comprises 20 to 30 percent.  The daily energy requirements of your organs remain fairly constant thus, your skeletal muscle is the piece of you RMR that you can change.  By increasing your muscle mass you consequently increase your RMR which means you increase your daily energy expenditure.

As I mentioned above losing weight involves burning more calories than you consume, so building muscle gets you the biggest return for your efforts to lose weight especially in the long-term.  "How do I build muscle you ask?"  The answer is by lifting weights also known as strength training.  Strength training helps in your effort to lose weight by building muscle which increases your RMR and also by increasing your physical activity level (the 2 largest parts of your daily caloric needs).

In my next post I will talk about the additional benefits of strength training and what a good strength program consists of.

If You Build Muscle, You Will Burn Fat

English: Fitness Model posing with dumbell. Photo by Glenn Francis of www.PacificProDigital.com (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Remember the line from the movie Field of Dreams, "If you build it they will come".  Well, here's a line to remember if you want to lose body fat, "If you build muscle, you will burn fat".

A significant gain in weight and body fat results from an energy imbalance over a prolonged period of time, which means that energy intake exceeds energy expenditure.  In other words, weight gain and body fat accumulation results from a prolonged period of eating more calories than you burn.  Thus, you didn't go to bed one night fit and trim and wake-up the next morning fat and over-weight.

Consequently, you can change your energy balance by either altering the amount of calories you consume or increasing your energy expenditure.  Your total daily energy expenditure is the sum total of the following: your resting energy expenditure + the thermogenic effect of the foods you consume + the energy expenditure related to your daily activity.  Consequently, if your total daily caloric intake exceeds your total daily energy expenditure, you gain weight in the form of body fat.

Under most circumstances the largest component of your total daily energy requirement is your resting energy expenditure (also referred to as REE).  Your REE is composed of the metabolic requirements of your organs, and muscle mass.  The energy requirements of your organs remain fairly constant under most circumstances therefore, the energy expenditure related to muscle metabolism is the only part of your REE that varies considerably.

Muscle is the active component of your body that burns the most calories at rest.  It is estimated that a pound of muscle burns approximately 6 calories daily at rest. So, for each pound of muscle you gain you also increase your energy expenditure by 6 calories each day.  While that may sound like a small number, it makes a big difference over time.  For example, let's say you gain 5 pounds of lean muscle in the course of a year.  That equates to an additional 30 calories in your daily energy expenditure.   Over the course of a year that equates to nearly a 11,000 calorie increase in your REE.

The synthesis and breakdown of muscle protein is principally responsible for the energy expenditures of resting muscle.  The energy to provide for this process of muscle protein turnover is derived mainly from the oxidation of fat.  Yes, body fat is the preferred fuel of resting muscle, and it is also the preferred fuel for your muscles during low to moderate intensity activities.

Now, let's look at the above example of a 5 pound muscle gain in a different light.  It takes a 3500 calorie deficient to lose 1 pound of body fat.  So, the 11,000 calorie increase in your REE due to a 5 pound gain in muscle equates to a 3 pound loss of body fat over the course of a year.  Now, do you see why it's important to build and maintain your muscle mass if you want to get lean? Thus, I remind you again, "Build the muscle and you will burn the fat".

Heard of The Metaboliq ?

The Best weight maintenance system that I have ever seen in my 18 years as a personal trainer.
http://youtu.be/ueoHu_Uj9tM.

Heard of Qivana Yet?

Every heard of a company name Qivana? Neither had I, but that’s not unusual. I’m a personal trainer and I’ve been in the health and fitness industry for over 17 years and I’ve been approached by more network marketing companies with their so called cutting edge nutritional products than I can count.

Earlier in my career I’d gotten involved with a couple of these companies only to find that their nutritional products didn’t deliver half of what they claimed and they were mostly based on pseudo science. I have to admit, I came away feeling very negative about these network marketing based nutritional companies. It seemed these companies were all about making money and cared little about the product they were selling.

I like making money too, however for me to stand behind a product and sell it, it has to be of very high quality and company must also be of high integrity. I’d always thought that the network marketing idea was a great way to leverage myself but I had never found a product or a company that I felt good enough to get involved with. That is until recently when I came across a company named Qivana.

When I was first approached about Qivana and saw that it was a network marketing based nutritional company I thought, “oh no, here’s another one of those companies pushing some half-baked nutritional product.” However, I am an open minded person and I did some research about the company and I ordered some of their products to sample for myself. I was very impressed with the quality of their products. I thought about joining there company, but my plate was full with my personal training business and I had just opened a studio.

A few weeks later I got the opportunity to hear Dr. Marcus Laux speak about Qivana. Dr. Laux is a well renowned naturopathic physician who created one of the Qivana product systems. I was impressed. However, I was more impressed by what Dr. Laux said to his audience about health and healthy weight loss. It was the same things that I personally do and recommend to my clients.

I had found a nutritional company that base their products on the philosophy that I have adhered to for over 25 years to maintain my health and fitness. I had to become a part of this company and I did. The more I find out about Qivana and it’s line of amazing natural nutritional products the more I am impressed. If you haven’t heard of Qivana, believe me you will soon.

Check out this amazing company and it’s products at www.myqivana.com/darvis.

Strength Training, The Key To a Firm Body

Image via Wikipedia

I believe, as you age strength training is the best thing you can do to improve your health and fitness level. Strength training is important because around age 40 you start to experience muscle loss. “If you don’t do anything to replace the lean muscle you lose, you’ll increase the percentage of fat in your body,” says Dr. Edward Laskowski, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Left unabated, you can lose up to 10 pounds of muscle each decade starting at age 40.

Loosing muscle is detrimental to your fitness because muscle is the component of your body that burns the majority of the calories you consume each day. Therefore, when you lose muscle your body requires fewer calories to function. Consequently, those extra calories you consume are stored as fat around your waist, hips, and other places.

Your body constantly burn calories, even when we’re doing nothing. This resting metabolic rate is much higher in people with more muscle. Every pound of muscle uses about six calories a day to sustain itself, while each pound of fat burns only two calories daily. This small difference can add up over time. In addition, after a bout of resistance training, muscles are activated all over your body, increasing your average daily metabolic rate.

Fortunately, strength training can mitigate, and even reverse the loss of muscle at any age. Thus, increasing the amount of calories needed to function. That’s why you hear some people say that their appetites increase after they have been strength training for awhile. This is a sign that they are starting to build muscle.

Increasing your metabolism isn’t the only benefit of strength training. It also helps:

• Develop strong bones. By stressing your bones, strength training increases bone density and reduces the risk of osteoporosis.

• Control your weight. As you gain muscle, your body burns more calories more efficiently which can result in weight loss. The more toned your muscles, the easier it is to control your weight.

• Reduce your risk of injury. Building muscle protects your joints from injury. It also helps maintain flexibility and balance which are crucial to remaining independent as you age.

• Boost your stamina. Building muscle helps to increase your energy level.

• Improve your sense of well-being. Strength training can boost your self-confidence, improve your body image, and reduce the risk of depression.

• Sleep better. People who strength train on a regular basis are less likely to have insomnia.

• Manage chronic conditions. Strength training can reduce the signs and symptoms of many chronic conditions, including arthritis, back pain, depression, diabetes, obesity, and osteoporosis.