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.

Make Strength Training the Foundation of Your Fitness Program

It's the first of the year and I already see my gym flooded with people eager to get healthy and fit for the New Year.  Most of the new comers spend most of their time on the cardio equipment, then they spend a few minutes lifting weights, and then they go home.

While cardio is a very important component of your fitness program, it shouldn't be where you spend the majority of your time in the gym.  I recommend you build your fitness program around strength training, also known as weight lifting and here's why:

Strength Training builds and helps to maintain your muscle mass.  Muscle tissue is always active and thus burns calories even when you are at rest.  Thus, by building and maintaining your muscle mass you  increase your resting metabolism, which means you burn more calories even while you are sleeping.

Muscle is key to long-term weight loss and body fat reduction.  As a personal trainer I often hear statements like this "ever since I tuned 40 I can't seem to lose weight and I've developed these areas of fat that I can't get rid of either."  Muscle loss is the primary reason for this scenario.  Beginning as early as your 30s you start to naturally lose muscle mass, and this process accelerates with age if you don't do anything to stop or slow it down.  As I previously mentioned, muscle is that active part of your body that burns calories even when you are resting.  Thus, as you lose your muscle mass your metabolism decreases, and consequently your calorie burning capacity also decreases.  Additionally, body fat is the fuel of choice for your muscles while you are at rest, and also for low intensity activities such as casual walking, cleaning house, and yard work.

Strength training increases your bone strength and makes your joints stronger.  Regular strength training has been proven to decrease the risk of developing osteoporosis, and also to make the activities of daily life easier to perform.

Strength training helps reduce blood sugar, and thus, reduces the risk for developing Type 2 diabetes.  Strength training plays a particular role to in reducing blood sugar and improving insulin sensitivity because when you lift weights the main fuel used is that stored as muscle glucose. Building extra muscle also provides a larger storage area for glucose, so the combination of these two factors -- increased muscle and regular emptying of these muscle stores -- improves the body's glucose processing, a factor crucial in preventing and managing type 2 diabetes.

Hopefully you can see why I think strength training should be the foundation of your fitness program.  If you are new to weight lifting, I suggest you find a nationally certified fitness professional to help you develop a strength training program, and to teach you the proper form and lifting techniques.

Don't Get Swept Away by Deceptivce Weight Loss Claims

This is that time of the year you get hit by a sea of advertisements for weight loss programs and products. The weight loss industry is big business with annual revenues of over $20 billion, with lots of players trying to get a hold of your cash.  You'll hear about products and services ranging from prepackaged meals to things you can sprinkle on you food to help you loss weight.  Here are some things you should know to make sure you don't get swept away by deceptive programs and products promising dramatic results in only days.

Diets don't work for long-term weight loss.  At any one time there are over 100 million people in the U.S. on a diet.  Most people lose 5 to 10 percent of their starting weight within the first 6 months on a diet, however over 90 percent of them regain their weight within 1 to 5 years.

The reason why so many people fail on a diet is because they don't make the necessary lifestyle changes to lose the weight and keep it off.  Making healthy lifestyle choices that you can stick to for the long-term is key to losing weight and keeping it off.  Any diet that places severe restrictions on what you can and cannot eat is going to fail because it is nearly impossible to adhere to for very long.

There are no magic pills or dust that's going to make you lose weight, or at least not in a healthy way.  I'm a personal trainer with over 20 years of experience in the health and fitness industry and I have never seen a single pill or product that will miraculously cause you to lose weight in a healthy manner.  Weight loss has always and will always be a result of taking in less calories than you expend.

Put little belief in the celebrity hype.  Most of the major weight loss products and services have celebrities who endorse them who are paid $500,000 to $3 million to do so.  So think twice the next time you hear some celebrity talk about how they lost weight on some fantastic product or service.

Always remember that healthy eating and  regular exercise is the best combination for losing weight and keeping it off.  Not only will you look better, you will also feel better.

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".

Eating Good Fat Is Good For You

Image by net_efekt via FlickrFat has taken a bad rap over the years but, it is very essential to your health and well being.  “Eat a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet” has been the mantra for healthy eating for decades now. Touted as a way to lose weight and prevent heart disease and other chronic conditions, millions of people have followed this advice. Seeing a tremendous marketing opportunity, food companies re-engineered thousands of foods to be lower in fat or fat free. The low-fat approach to eating may have made a difference for the occasional individual, but as a nation it has not helped us control our weight or become healthier. In the 1960s, fats and oils supplied Americans with about 45 percent of their calories and about 13 percent of the population was obese and less than 1 percent had type 2 diabetes. Today Americans take in less fat, getting about 33 percent of calories from fats and oils, yet 34 percent of the population is obese and 8 percent has diabetes (mostly type 2).

Your body packages fat and cholesterol into tiny protein-covered particles called lipoprotein in order to get them into your blood stream. Some of these lipoproteins are big and fluffy, and others are small and dense. However, the most important ones to remember for your health and well-being are low-density lipoproteins, high-density lipoproteins, and triglycerides as explained below.

Low-density lipoproteins (LDL) carry cholesterol form your liver to the rest of your body. Your cells latch onto these particles and extract fat and cholesterol from them. When there is too much LDL cholesterol in your blood, these particles can form deposits in the walls of your coronary arties and other arties throughout your body. These deposits, called plaque can cause your arties to narrow and limit blood flow resulting in a heart attack or stroke. Thus LDL cholesterol is called your bad cholesterol.

High-density lipoprotein (HDL) scavenge cholesterol from your bloodstream, from your LDL, and from your artery walls and ferry it back to your liver for disposal. Thus HDL cholesterol is referred to as your good cholesterol.

Triglycerides make up most of the fat that you eat and that travels through your bloodstream. Triglycerides are your body’s main vehicle for transporting fats to your cells and thus, are very important for your good health. However, an excess of triglycerides can be unhealthy.

The type of fat your diet determines to a large extent the amount of total and LDL cholesterol in your bloodstream. Cholesterol in food matters too, but not nearly as much. You can basically break the fats in your diet into three categories; good, bad, and very bad.

Good Fats

Unsaturated fats are called good fats because they can improve blood cholesterol levels, ease inflammation, stabilize heart rhythms, and play a number of other beneficial roles. Unsaturated fats are predominantly found in foods from plants, such as vegetable oils, nuts, and seeds. They are liquid at room temperature.

Further, there are two types of unsaturated fats. First monounsaturated fats which are found in high concentrations in canola, peanut, and olive oils; avocados; nuts such as almonds, hazelnuts, and pecans; and seeds such as pumpkin and sesame seeds. Secondly, polyunsaturated fats which are found in high concentrations in sunflower, corn, soybean, and flaxseed oils, and also in foods such as walnuts, flax seeds and fish.

Research has shown that replacing carbohydrates in your diet with good fats reduces harmful levels of LDL and increases protective HDL in your bloodstream. A randomized trail known as the Optimal Macronutrient Intake Trial for Heart Health showed that replacing a carbohydrate-rich diet with one rich in unsaturated fat, predominantly monounsaturated fats lowers blood pressure, improves lipid levels, and reduces the estimated cardiovascular risk.

Bad Fats

Saturated fats are called bad fats because they increase your total cholesterol level by elevating your harmful LDL. Your body can make all the saturated fat that it needs, so you don’t need to get any in your diet. In the US and other developed countries saturated fats come mainly from meat, seafood, poultry with skin, and whole-milk dairy products. A few plant sources are also high in saturated fats, such as coconuts and coconut oil, palm oil, and palm kernel oil.

As general rule it’s a good idea to keep your intake of saturated fats as low as possible. Saturated fats are a part of many foods, including vegetable oils that are mainly unsaturated fats, so you can’t totally eliminate them from your diet. Red meat and dairy fats are the main sources of saturated fats in most people’s diets, so minimizing them in your diet is the primary way to reduce your intake of saturated fat.

Very Bad Fats

Trans fatty acids, more commonly known as trans fats are made by heating liquid vegetable oils in the presence of hydrogen gas, a process called hydrogenation. Partially hydrogenating vegetable oils make them more stable and less likely to spoil. It also converts the oil into a solid which makes transportation easier. Partially hydrogenated oils can also withstand repeated heating without breaking down, which makes them ideal for frying fast foods. This is why partially hydrogenated oils have been a mainstay of restaurants and the food industry.

Trans fats are worse for cholesterol levels than saturated fats because they raise bad LDL and lower good HDL. They also increase inflammation, an over-activity of the immune system that has been implicated in heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and other chronic conditions. Even small amounts of trans fats in diet can have harmful health effects. For every extra 2 percent of calories from trans fat daily (the amount in a medium order of fast food French fries) the risk of coronary heart disease increases by 23 percent. It is estimated that eliminating trans fats from the US food supply would prevent between 6 and 19 percent of heart attacks and related deaths (more than 200,000) each year.

Keeping Your Muscle Is The Key To Fitness Over 40

Image by Rtist MrB via FlickrAs a personal trainer, I am in and out of health clubs all day. I love to observe the things people do in their efforts to "get in shape". The major thing I notice, is the over-whelming amount of cardio I see women doing while neglecting to do much strength training.

While cardio is an important part of any fitness program, it should not be the primary focus, especially if you are female and over 40 years of age. In your 20s you could knock off those extra pounds by just running on the treadmill a few extra times each week.  However, as you approach your 40s and beyond that plan isn't effective anymore and here's why.

As you enter your late 30s you start to lose muscle, and muscle is that part of your body that burns the majority of the calories that you consume each day.  A pound of muscle burns about 6 calories a day even while your are resting, and a pound of fat only burns around one calorie per day.

 If you don't do anything to combat the above scenario, you can lose as much as 10 lbs of muscle each decade beginning in your 40s.  That decreases your metabolism by about 60 calories a day every 10 years of your life.  So, that's about 21,900 calories a year that's being converted to fat, which is approximately 6 lbs of fat you gain each year.


I know, this is a very sad scenario, but there is hope.  Your savior is called strength training.  By incorporating strength training in your fitness program you can slow, and in some cases, even reverse muscle loss.  And, it's never too late to start, studies have shown the positive results of strength training in people well into their 90s.

Balance and Moderation the Key to a Healthy Diet, Part 4 - Carbohydrates

Image by fishy_ via Flickr

In this segment I'll talk about carbohydrates. There seems to be a lot of confusion these days about carbohydrates in your diet. Whether you should have them and how much? In this post I will explain what carbohydrates are and how your body uses them.

The popularity of the Atkins, South Beach, and other low-carbohydrate diets has probably led you to believe that carbohydrates are “bad” for you. Just reading the hype in the media would make you think that carbohydrates are the cause of the obesity epidemic throughout the United States.

Eating a lot of easily- digested carbohydrates from white bread, white rice, pastries, sugared sodas, and other highly processed foods may contribute to your weight gain, and therefore, interfere with your efforts to lose weight. On the contrary, consuming whole grains, beans, fruits, vegetables, and other intact carbohydrates promotes good health. As I mentioned before, a healthy diet is about balance and moderation. A basic knowledge of what carbohydrates are and how you body uses them is essential to understanding how to balance them in your diet.

Carbohydrates are essential nutrients that are excellent sources of energy (measured as calories) for your body; they are the preferred fuel for your brain and nervous system. Carbohydrates are found in an array of foods such as bread, beans, milk, popcorn, potatoes, cookies, spaghetti, soft drinks, corn, and desserts. The most common and abundant forms are classified as sugars, fibers, and starches.

The basic building block of every carbohydrate is a sugar molecule, a simple union of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Starches and fibers forms of carbohydrates are essentially chains of sugar molecules, some containing hundreds.

As mentioned above, most carbohydrates come from plant sources and are in the form of sugars, starches, and fibers. Sugars, also called simple carbohydrates, include fruit sugar (fructose), corn or grape sugar (dextrose or glucose), and table sugar (sucrose). Starches, also known as complex carbohydrates, include everything made of three or more linked sugars. Starches include foods such as breads, cereals, grains, pasta, rice, and flour. Fibers are technically classified as a starch because they are complex carbohydrate s that your body cannot breakdown into sugar molecules. Fibers are more abundant in whole grains, legumes, and vegetables.

Your body breaks down all carbohydrates, except for fibers, into single sugar molecules regardless of their source. These simple sugars are further converted into glucose, also known as blood sugar. Your body is designed to use blood sugar as a universal source of fuel for energy.

Fiber is the form of carbohydrate that your body cannot break down into simple sugar molecules. It passes through your body undigested. Fiber comes in two varieties: soluble, which dissolves in water, and insoluble, which does not. Although neither type provides energy for your body, they both promote health in many ways. Soluble fiber binds to fatty substances in your intestines and carries them out as waste, thus lowering your low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or bad cholesterol). It also helps regulate your body’s use of sugars, helping you to keep your hunger and blood sugar in check. Insoluble fiber helps push food through your intestinal tract, promoting regularity and helping to prevent constipation.

Here’s what happens when you eat a food containing carbohydrates. Your digestive system breaks down the digestible ones into sugar, which then enters your blood. As your blood sugar level rises, specials cells in your pancreas churn out insulin, a hormone that signals your cells to absorb the blood sugar for energy or for storage. As your cells soak-up the blood sugar, its level in your bloodstream begins to fall. Now, your pancreas starts making another hormone called glucagon ,which signals your liver to start releasing stored blood sugar. This interplay of insulin and glucagon ensures that cells throughout your body have a steady supply of blood sugar.

Maintaining a steady blood sugar level is a very important component of your diet. While you’ve just seen that your body breaks down all digestible carbohydrates into blood sugar, some are converted into blood sugar faster than others. Thus, some carbohydrates cause a spike in your blood sugar level causing you to feel hungry faster and to crave more sugary foods. Other carbohydrates are converted into blood sugar more slowly, leveling out your blood sugar and resulting in less hunger and food cravings.

In my next installment I'll explain how carbohydrates are rated as to how fast your body converts them into sugar. I'll also show you why most of the carbohydrates you consume should be those that you body converts to sugar more slowly.

Balance and Moderation the Key to a Healthy Diet

Image via Wikipedia

As I mentioned in my previous post, fad diets don't work because they are hard to stick with over a long period of time. Consequently, as soon as you return to your old eating habits you are most likely to regain any weight you may have lost and more.

The key to eating healthy over the long-term is balance and moderation in the foods you consume daily. You can eat any food you desire as long as it is in moderation and balanced with the rest of the foods you consume. For example, I love brownies, so when I have a brownie for dessert, I only have one. I also balance the carbohydrates in the brownie by not having bread with my meal.

The first step in learning balance and moderation in your diet is knowing how to classify foods into their basic source of protein, carbohydrates, and fats and knowing how they are used in your body. The second step is mastering portion. Knowing how many calories you consume from each food source and what your serving sizes are will enable you to balance your meals. Eating this way can be easily incorporated into your lifestyle, it's a plan you can stick with over time.

In my next post I'll show you how foods are classified into their basic components of protein, carbohydrates and fats and how your body uses them.