Maybe I’m just weird, but I don’t think Kim Kardashian is hot.
And she’s certainly not fit.
So when I caught this commercial where she endorses QuickTrim weight loss supplements, it made me sad.
The music makes me think of 70’s porn films (don’t ask me how I know that), as does the whispered voice over.
Then she shoves her chest at the camera and asks “How hot do you want to be?”
Quick note: QuicTrim didn’t give her those breasts. Sorry.
But since I’m curious by nature, I decided to check out the ingredient list and see just exactly WHAT so many people are putting in their bodies.
You can read the product info at: http://www.quicktrim.net/supplement_facts.html
Ok, the “burn and cleanse” capsules contain 400mg of caffeine – which is equal to 4 or 5 cups of coffee. They also contain black pepper and willow bark, both of which boost the potency of caffeine.
The caffeine in there is designed to raise your metabolism, but unless you burn a lot of calories while you jitter around, it won’t do much for your body.
There is also green tea extract, which might contain caffeine. Green tea in its liquid form is good for you, concentrated forms are not.
And since it might contain caffeine, along with all of the other sources and boosters in the pills, if you wash this down with a cup of coffee you could overdose on caffeine and really mess up your heart.
The “IsoCleanse and Flush” pills have TWO kinds of laxatives:
These pills are designed to speed up the movement of food through your intestines. And unless you’re severely constipated, this is a BAD IDEA.
You’ll get dehydration and diarrhea (“How hot do you want to be?”), plus loss of nutrients. On the bright side, you’ll weigh less. Your body fat won’t have changed, but you’ll be nice and sick.
And even better, your system will become dependent on these pills for bowel movements, so you’ll become constipated if you ever stop supplementing. You’ll also gain all the water weight back right away if you ever stop.
Bloated and constipated. (“How hot do you want to be?”)
These pills also have a lot of diuretics in them, which will cause even more water loss and dehydration, without leading to any fat loss.
Added bonus: The ingredients juniper berry, uva ursi, and horsetail extract all become toxic over time. Hooray!
Again, you’ll lose water weight, but not FAT weight. And you’ll put every ounce of it back on.
While you’re dehydrated from these pills some of the side effects may be:
extreme exhaustion
severe muscle cramps
memory loss
coma
kidney stones
kidney failure
bloating
seizures
The rest of the supplements in this system are just more of the same: laxatives, stimulants, and diuretics. Boooo.
Bottom line: These pills won’t help you lose weight, and they’ll do your body internal harm if you take them.
(Even flappers in the jazz age were taking weight loss pills. Check out how fat Jane became slim Jane!)
One of my clients recently compared me to the speaker Tony Robbins.
It flattered the heck out of me. (Tony is awesome!)
Just one problem – my personal motivation speeches are too short.
When someone tells me they want to lose weight but don’t want to exercise or change what they eat, here’s the speech I give them:
“You’re lazy.”
If someone comes in and says they aren’t going to follow the advice they paid for in a consulting session, seminar, or course of mine, my two word speech is a little harsh:
“You’re stupid.”
Sometimes people announce that, in spite of overwhelming evidence that aerobic exercise actually causes muscle loss and fat gain, leads to more illnesses, and beats up your joints like a bookie with a baseball bat, that they are going to keep running for a hour a day anyway. My response?
“You’re stubborn.”
Last week a woman told me she can’t follow her diet because she doesn’t want to lose weight and make her family and friends feel bad….
“You’re crazy.”
To people who order diet pills and “magnetic weight loss earrings,” I usually say:
“You’re deluded.”
See, most people aren’t willing to face reality.
The great author Robert Ringer wrote, “Reality isn’t the way you wish things to be, nor the way they appear to be, but the way they actually are.”
Until you own up to reality you can’t start making changes. I use my rude two word speeches to try and wake people up to what they’re doing.
Last week I teamed up with Dr. Brian Russell to do a presentation on keeping young athletes healthy and performing at the top of their game. We did four seminars for the parents at Capital City Volleyball Club (Where I’m the strength and conditioning coach)
One of the questions we received was “What do you think of crossfit for my volleyball player?”
Well, as I’ve said before, I don’t like Crossfit for ANYTHING. (But if you’re a consenting adult, you’re welcome to make your own bad decisions
But it’s time to point out a few of the problems with Crossfit that are SPECIFIC to volleyball players.
1) Volleyball isn’t an endurance sport.
Any volleyball player who trains by running anything more than 50 or 60 meter sprints is not only wasting their time, they’re ruining their volleyball performance.
I don’t know who said it first, but it’s well known by top strength and conditioning coaches that distance running “turns jumpers into joggers.”
Volleyball is a strength and power sport, NOT an aerobic sport. Honestly, if your daughter is in shape enough to text her friends, she’s in good enough AEROBIC condition to play volleyball.
Here’s an example of a crossfit workout that would sap a volleyball player’s strength and power:
“Jerry”
For time:
Run 1 mile
Row 2K
Run 1 mile
Not only would this be a waste of time for anyone serious about volleyball, it would destroy hard-won fast twitch muscle fibers, promote fat storage, increase carbohydrate cravings, beat up joints, take inches off your vertical jump, promote illness, mess up hormones, shorten joint range of motion, and reduce explosiveness.
2) Crossfit is more random than a Pauly Shore movie.
No matter what you think about “muscle confusion” and “being ready for anything,” volleyball is a SPECIFIC sport and needs a specific workout.
Volleyball players get sport-specific injuries and asymmetries that can only be fixed with a SPECIFIC training program.
When a player comes in to see Dr. Russell because she has a glenohumeral internal rotation deficit, scapular dysfunctions, lack of stability, kyphosis, and a severe knee valgus, the last thing she should even think about doing is something like this:
Five rounds for time of:
5 Muscle-ups
135 pound Power clean, 10 reps
Run 220 meters
Or:
Three rounds of:
35 Double-unders
95 pound Thrusters, 25 reps
15 Pull-ups
One of the core principles of success in anything is the idea of SPECIFICITY.
Crossfit is a mishmash of a bunch of systems. To quote the legendary Charles Poliquin (on Crossfit): “Looked like a bunch of cachexic fitness-model wannabes searching for their souls in the weight room.”
Or, to paraphrase my Grandpa, you can’t ride two motorcycles when you only have one butt.
To get better at volleyball, you need a volleyball training program – not an epileptic writing fit of someone who has never actually trained anyone.
3) “Fatigue makes cowards of us all”
I have a rule about doing things RIGHT before you try to do them a lot.
If a volleyball player has a crappy serve, practicing that serve will just ingrain bad habits even more leading to injury and ineffective performance.
Lots of crossfit workouts have athletes doing complicated weighted exercises for a certain number of reps and trying for their lowest time. Two bad things with this: 1) It encourages poor form and shortcuts 2) as they get tired, injury risk goes WAYYY up.
Poor exercise technique is bad for anyone, but volleyball players are even more injury prone than other athletes. One in five competitive female athletes will suffer an ACL-based knee injury this season, 68% of female volleyball players will have some sort of shoulder injury this season. The injury rate goes up when you factor in everything else that will go wrong too! Thumbs, wrists, etc.
The goal with a volleyball strength and conditioning program is to 1) keep the girls on the court 2) improve performance. In that order.
Racing to see who can get the most power cleans done is a sure recipe for injury. Even more when you remember that we’re dealing with tired athletes who just want their workout over so they can get back to checking their facebook pages.
4) Leaving out the important stuff.
For the moment let’s forget that crossfit is totally inappropriate in exercise selection, loading, and volume – just focus on the fact that crossfit workouts leave out important injury prevention movements for volleyball players.
Volleyball players need a lot of hip mobility, thoracic spine mobility, scapular stability, anti-rotational core stability, anti-extension core strength, and lumbar stability.
If you waste all your time screwing around with nonsensical crossfit workouts, you won’t have any time, energy, or motivation left to pay attention to this stuff.
5) Volleyball shoulders aren’t normal shoulders.
Ok, when I was in college I actually dissected shoulders and spent a lot of time learning how everything works. So believe me when I say that I’m VERY concerned when I hear about volleyball players doing crossfit.
It’s almost a cliche that after an experienced volleyball player serves, she grabs her shoulder. Dr. Russell realigns shoulders daily at his practice.
Heck, I know a school bus full of 16 year-old volleyball players who have already gotten cortisol shots just to be able to finish playing the season. It shouldn’t be like that way.
Here are some of the notes we made while talking about volleyball players and shoulders: “Most have significant shoulder and full body laxity (aquired, congenital, and monthly hormonal), diminished rotator cuff strength in serving shoulder (especially with no rest all year), abnormal labral features, supraspinatus tears, inactive serratus anterior, jacked up scapular upward rotation, retroversion, and impingements.”
Basically, it goes back to the title of this section: Volleyball shoulders are nothing like regular shoulders.
Add in an imbalanced training program, poor posture, and improper form and I’m surprised that the number of shoulder injuries isn’t higher than 68%.
When scholarships are on the line, any coach who recommended crossfit for shoulders with all of these problems should be beaten to death with a folded-up ballcart.
With all 5 of these problems with crossfit in mind, I recommend that anyone looking to improve their volleyball performance find a REAL strength and conditioning coach, not just someone who paid $1000 bucks for a weekend seminar in destroying athletes.
When I first started my own fitness business, one of the most helpful people I met was the celebrity trainer Rocco Castellano.
Rocco is a really cool dude who knows his stuff COLD. And he’s been on just about every news station out there.
Since this dude has trained Spike Lee, JFK Jr., Bonnie Raitt, Endless Beauty Pageant Contestants and Fitness Models I asked him to give me something for our blog.
I didn’t expect a rant like this….
Why should we accept Fat? …and the people who are fat?
I have read articles upon articles about the National Association for the Acceptance of Fat People; an organization that started out as a social group for chubby chasers and has now grown into a civil rights advocate group. I have always tried to help my fellow man in their quest for self improvement but I can never accept a mentality that is entitlistic and self destructive; a mentality that this association has built its whole platform.
Right off the bat, don’t start sending hate mail because you read the headline and think I’m some sadistic radical that believes all fat people should die. That’s just not true. The reality is that I’m fed up with FAT people believing that America and American citizens owe them something… because we don’t. You owe yourself the self respect of not asking people who try hard every day to not be a burden on the health care system and live healthy and unselfish lives to accept the way you want to live. Why should I accept the fact that fat people in general have placed a huge burden on the health care system?
Heart disease, Diabetes and Cancer are the three major causes of death in the United States and they are usually linked back to not just obesity but fatness. It’s amazing to me that I am told by Fat people every day that it isn’t their fault. I must have been punched in my head too many times when I boxed because I don’t know who else’s fault it could have been. I’m pretty sure that anyone who is fat can exercise, doesn’t have to eat like they are going to the chair.
Of course, the 2 big reasons I get that it isn’t their fault is 1) my genetics 2) a medical problem. I want to impart on you a little information: Genetics play a large role in weight and not fat. Most Americans are usually 20 lbs heavier than our European counterparts. Most of the weight is from muscle and bone not fat. You become fat because you store fuel. There is nothing in your DNA that provides for you to become fat. Lack of movement and over eating is why you get fat. Don’t blame your DNA. Certain thyroid conditions can cause weight gain but with the proper exercise programs and thyroxin treatment your fat gain can be managed. The percentage of this condition is 1% of 1%, so how can 65% of the population blame a faulty thyroid. Most of the problems with thyroid conditions are no one is willing to do the necessary work to keep their fat in check. They resign themselves to having a problem and let themselves stay fat. If you have broken your leg, do you need to do more work or less work to get your leg back to normal and what happens when you don’t do the necessary therapy? Exactly… nothing , and you walk with a limp the rest of your life.
The fatter you are the more work you need to do, not less. Anything that promises you quick results without work preys on your ignorance and more often stupidity. Gaining and losing fat is all a numbers game. That’s it…In a nutshell!
If you want to lose 30 lbs in thirty days don’t think you can sit around all day and do nothing. To burn one pound of fat per day you will need to expend 3500 calories during the course of that day over your basic caloric expenditure…and that takes work. You will need to change the way you look at food and they way you look at working out. You will need to learn how to burn as much fat as you can within the shortest amount of time.
The answer is not “cardio”. The answer is teaching your body and it’s systems to burn fat (fuel) consistently and limit your portions to not exceed your daily caloric consumption. If you believe you have no time to implement a basic workout program to get you started than nothing will help you and you should die of a heart attack sooner than later. It is our decision to stay fat and accepting fat like accepting the fact that we are Black, female, male, Asian, and other reasons why there are laws against discrimination is not going to change the reality that fat is a condition we place on ourselves. No one can change that condition but us, we need to look into our very being without excuses and change our attitudes and then begin the journey of self respect, self reliance and breath the freedom of self confidence.
About the Author
Rocco Castellano is an internationally recognized extreme weight loss specialist, certified personal trainer (CPT) and the author of the internationally popular fitness program Lose 30 in Thirty. Go to www.Lose30InThirty.com to get your FREE copy of your own Lose 30 in Thirty Starter Kit”
This weekend I put together a new bookshelf to help hold my growing collection of pulp-fiction mystery novels.
Of course, I managed to put in two shelves upside down and put a hammer through the back. (I had a mechanical bypass at 3 and haven’t been able to use tools ever since )
It got all messed up because I didn’t bother reading the directions. After all, I figured I knew how to put together a bookshelf better than the people who make bookshelves for a living.
Lesson learned. I’ll read the instructions next time.
That wrecked bookshelf reminded me of a conversation yesterday.
She literally said, “I’m following my meal plan exactly, but instead of the veggie/egg omelete I had a muffin and a coffee for breakfast.”
I hesitated to ask what kind of coffee she had.
“A Christmas gingerbread latte with skinny milk.”
That’s not quite the same.
Did you know that what people say comes with subtitles that only personal trainers can read? It’s true.
Just today someone said, “It’s too hard – I want an EASIER diet.”
And the personal trainer subtitles read: “I’d rather eat garbage than look or feel any better. I’m making a conscious decision to go ahead and get fatter because I love food more than I love myself.”
It’s simple: Follow a proven plan and actually FOLLOW it.
If you’re not following a plan, don’t be surprised when your bookshelf turns out to be messed up.
A decade ago the average personal training client was looking to lose 15-30 pounds. People could actually fit into the machines at the gym.
Today being 15-30 pounds overweight is considered “carrying a few extra pounds.” Most of the average personal training clients can’t even fit into the machines at the gym.
It’s sad…. really sad.
Do you know what’s going on?
Let me show you….
I’ll bet some of the people in these pictures have kids. What kind of a message are they sending?
Why are all of these people eating themselves to death?
I don’t know.
Maybe they blame someone else. Maybe they think there’s no hope for them.
I don’t know what the problem is.
But I know that most fat loss programs won’t cut it anymore.
One of my classmates in exercise science did a 12 week project training his obese mother. He put her on a TEXTBOOK low fat diet and aerobic training program.
He got an A on his paper.
His mother died of a heart attack a week later.
His exercise program failed her.
Knowing what I know now, I could have taken 30 pounds off of her in those 12 weeks and probably saved her life.
She could be hanging out with her 2 young grandkids right now.
But she’s not. Why not?
Because 95% of what they teach you about exercise and nutrition is DEAD wrong.
Most fitness experts approach fitness completely backwards.
Don’t listen to them, listen to me.
I’m giving you the first page of the manual from last Saturday’s Rules of The Game Seminar.
You’ll see WHY most exercise programs are doomed to fail you.
And you’ll see what I’ve decided to base all of my fat loss programs on (it’s in bold, so you can’t miss it).
UNSTOPPABLE FITNESS FORMULA – RULES OF THE GAME
FAT LOSS FACT: 56% of Americans are currently “dieting”
One third of Americans are obese
Two thirds are overweight
In year 2000, obesity caused 400,000 US deaths – 16% of all preventable deaths and number 2 behind smoking (which caused 435,000 deaths – 18%)
This is due to the FAILURE of the fitness professions.
Despite fat loss, body composition, and physique transformation being the number one fitness goal of most people, this is actually a very new concept. 30 years ago we didn’t really need fat loss programs.
30 years ago the purpose of exercise was to ENHANCE an active lifestyle. But now we have to create programs specifically designed to enhance fat loss.
Exercise science has focused on aerobic training for HEALTH – not fat loss. Actually, the idea of training just to lose fat was an alien concept until the 1980’s.
Fitness guys knew it was time to create fat loss programs. They just didn’t know where to start. The first fat loss programs were designed by copying endurance athletes and hoping that somehow the program of a marathon runner would help a fat lady lose weight even when the program was cut down to 20 minutes 3x a week.
Problem: Fat loss was never the goal of endurance athletes. It was a side effect.
Then fitness guys turned to bodybuilding. Remember “Body For Life”? Another failure. To take the program of a full time, genetically gifted bodybuilder and use it to design a fat loss program for Mrs. Krensky was nonsensical.
But hey, at least they were trying something.
Bodybuilders are some of the most dedicated and driven people on the planet. They also devote ALL of their life to bodybuilding.
Then supplement companies (grandchildren of the traveling snake-oil doctors of the Midwest) jumped on the bandwagon and told us their miracle powders could give us the benefits of drugs without actually using the drugs.
This approach was closer. Fat loss WAS a goal for bodybuilders. But the low levels of bodyfat they achieved was a result of their increased muscle mass and metabolism.
Here’s the basis of my Unstoppable Fitness Formula: Before we start to program for fat loss, we have to understand exactly HOW it occurs. Then we design a program based on these principles – not on tradition, junk, or outdated beliefs.
———————————————————————
Now think back on all of the exercise programs you’ve seen or tried. Were they just bastardized, watered-down versions of bodybuilder routines mixed with endurance routines?
I’ll bet they were.
If you’re serious about speeding up your metabolism, losing weight, and looking so good that you’re confident in your appearance everywhere you go, a lame edurance program or scaled-down bodybulding routine won’t do it for you.
You need something designed SPECIFICALLY for your goals.
I’m going to share my “master system” for rapid weight loss in the posts on this blog, so be sure that you’re subscribed by entering your name and email address in the box below:
After a while, you start getting the same questions over and over about a program like this…
Aaron (my friend) had heard on Facebook that I’d come up with a new done-for-you meal plan and workout routine. That there was FINALLY a system that anyone could use that would let even people with “bad genetics” lose pounds and inches quickly.
And it was done WITHOUT a starvation diet, doing any long, slow cardio, or spending hours in the gym.
So I called Aaron back. He asked all of the usual questions, until…
“Does it work?” he asked me.
“Of course it #*$&%^ works!”
“Do you mind if I try it out?”
“It’s a $(&*$^*&^@ how-to plan. The whole POINT is to try it out”
As you can see, I’m very charming when my friends wake me up in the middle of the night….
Anyway, he paid for the nutrition plan and I emailed it to him. (Since he lives in Seattle, Washington, he couldn’t come to the bootcamp workouts)
I promptly forgot about the whole thing.
And then I got another text. He’d actually gone and followed the plan!
“Sweet! 12.8 pounds and 2 inches in 3 weeks!”
Of course, he had to be a killjoy and text me five minutes later that he would always be better-looking than me, no matter how much he weighs….
People on the 21 Day Plan send me texts of their progress:
Here’s one from John: “8 days = 5.2 pounds down.”
And from Melissa: “FYI down 10pds! Unbelievable!!!!!!!!!”
And Terii: “In just 18 days I lost 10.5 pounds and 1in from my hips. thank you!”
And from someone who will remain nameless: “i’m not totally on it and my only two pants that i can wear are getting too loose. i’ll be naked in about 5 days”
Well, yesterday afternoon I stopped by another gym in Carson City to talk to one of the trainers. I saw lots and lots of people, pretending to work out, spending lots of money on “magic potions” that don’t work, and wasting their time on boring pieces of cardio equipment.
And that got me thinking this morning…
If the five random people above could benefit so much from my 21 Day Rapid Fat Loss Plan, isn’t it time for you to cowboy up and give it a shot?
This year has really gone quickly. I mean, I could hardly believe it was 2009 and now it’s almost 2010!
And in January of 2010 everyone will set the same old resolutions. Just 3 months away.
But don’t get depressed! 3 months is a long time – you can get a LOT done in 3 months.
I used to train a group of lawyers and I asked those guys if there was any law stating that the only time you can set goals is on December 31st. Luckily, there isn’t any law. You can start making progress towards your goal ANYTIME!
Do you want to lose fat? Is that your goal? You could easily lose 2-3 pounds per week by starting now, working hard on your training, and tightening up your nutrition.
Since there are still 12 whole weeks left until New Years, you could lose 20-30 lbs before New Year’s Eve.
12 weeks left in the year. Imagine how you’d FEEL if you started out 2010 already 20 pounds lighter than you are now? You’d feel great!
Now, there are TWO main things you need if you want to lose weight and feel great:
1. The right mindset so that you’ll TAKE ACTION
2. A set of skills that guides you through the various stages of weight loss
Now here’s the cool thing: When someone comes into my gym for the first time they fill out a quick form and one of the questions I ask is, “What are your biggest frustrations when it comes to health, fitness, and weight loss?”
More than 63% of people write: MOTIVATION.
And when I ask why, it turns out that most people aren’t motivated is because they don’t believe in themselves.
They KNOW that my Unstoppable Fitness Formula works, they’re just unsure that they’ll be able to stick to the plan.
I used to think that the way to do anything was to get motivated, then do the thing.
But after having worked with hundreds of people, I found out the TRUTH…
FIRST you do the thing, THEN you get the motivation!
So you start off following a proven plan designed to take you through the various stages of weight loss.
Here’s what is going to happen:
You lose a couple pounds….
…………….Then you get some motivation.
The workouts feel easier…
…………….You get some more motivation.
All of your clothes are too big….
…………….You’ve got some much motivation that you’ve developed an UNSTOPPABLE mindset!
One of my newest bootcampers sent me an email this morning. She said: “thanks for the meal plans. FYI down 10pds! Unbelievable!!!!!!!!”
Do you think that losing ten pounds in 2 weeks would motivate you?
Find a proven plan and follow it for a few weeks. My favorite is my 21 Day Rapid Fat Loss Plan (it’s what helped my bootcamper above lose 10 pounds in only 2 weeks).
And THEN you’ll be motivated to finish out 2009 with a bang!
If you haven’t started anything it’s not too late. Make some goals NOW and get a huge jump start on 2010.
Don’t let these next 3 months slide by without doing something!
Pretty much everyone has heard of the great Jack LaLanne.
He started his first health clubs back in the thirties (30s!).
He invented many training tools and techniques that we still use today.
Well, Jack used to have his own health and fitness tv show.
My Grandma Margie used to work out with Jack every day. And my mom remembers seeing grandma doing handstands along with Jack on the show!
I could go on and on about how neat Jack is, but I’d rather share some clips of the man himself….
Have you ever noticed that everyone you see looks like the picture on their driver’s license? Why is everyone so unhappy all of the time? Here’s Jack’s take on unhappy people:
If you haven’t heard, besides running Wold Fitness and Fit Body Bootcamp, I’m also the strength and conditioning coach for Capital City Volleyball Club.
The volleyball club has several hundred female athletes, mostly between 12-18 years old.
Coaches have noticed that even in the last few years athletes are getting softer, they just LOOK different. Jack says they look like sugar because they EAT sugar. (It’s true, these girls eat nothing but candy and nasty-sports drinks on their breaks)
Of course, I’ve noticed that while the girls are getting softer around the middle, their PARENTS are getting even WORSE.
What does Jack have to say about “sugarholics”?
The other day I wrote an article about how to Have More Energy. Of course, Jack has his own techniques and they’ve kept him going like a rocket well into his ninth decade!
Here are his energy secrets:
This is a great story and a great analogy, Life Is A Battlefield. Make up your mind to win!
A lot of people don’t do well in life because they don’t FEEL well. Here’s how to feel good and deal with problems:
The problem with being fat and having poor health is that it doesn’t happen as a single, cataclysmic event. It is the results of just a few errors in judgment, repeated every day for years. And that’s how we end up where we do. (I love the part of this video where Jack says that most people think the body is made up of coffee and cigarettes…)
Are you a slave to your body?
Lots of people I know spend all weekend shuttling back and forth to home depot to make their house look BETTER THAN NEW. Why don’t you take some time to remodel your body?
Jack LaLanne was wayyy ahead of his time. And I love the way he talks to us like we’re all his best friend.
And so we’ll end with a quote from the man himself:
The only way you get that fat off is to eat less and exercise more.
A lot of people ask me why I say aerobic exercise sucks when it comes to losing fat.
Simple – I say it because I’ve seen it time and time again in my clients.
One lady came to me after she had faithfully jogged 6 days a week for a year. When she started, she did a half an hour a day and quickly lost five pounds. Then the weight came back.
She upped it to an hour a day. This time she went down 8 pounds in 2 weeks, but had gained 7 of them back by the end of the month.
By the end of the year she was doing an hour on the treadmill and an hour on the elliptical every day PLUS pilates classes 3 times a week. Fifteen hours of exercise a week. For most of a year. And she only lost a total of 7 pounds.
Now, I’m not faulting her effort. Far from it! That’s a heck of a lot of really hard work!
The thing is, she wasn’t that big to start with. So she plateaued quickly. Someone a little larger at the beginning might have lost 15 pounds but then reached a point where she wasn’t seeing any results from her efforts.
And THAT is one of the big problems with aerobic training for fat loss. It doesn’t get you to the body you want! (Other problems are orthopedic damage, monotony of sessions, body shape stays the same as weight goes down, and more)
Here are the simple basics of how incorrect exercise programming – focusing on aerobics – can actually REDUCE your metabolism and make it HARDER to lose fat.
Here are 5 Reasons Aerobics Suck For Fat Loss:
Loss of Lean, Toned Muscle
Your lean muscles burn a LOT of fat. Losing muscle as a result of too much aerobic work means you’ll burn fewer calories.
Total Weight Loss
The less you weigh, the fewer calories it takes to move your body. Simple physics.
Exercise Economy
As you become more skilled at performing repetitive exercises, like pedaling a bicycle, you become more efficient and burn fewer calories.
Stimulus Adaptation
Your body changes and becomes used to the workload (remember the woman who jogged an hour then jumped on the elliptical?). As it adapts you will burn fewer calories.
Improved Fitness
Because of everything above, you won’t burn nearly as many calories going about your daily routine. You’ll actually burn fewer calories when you’re resting.
The good news is that all of this can EASILY be avoided by following a sound training program.
You can maintain and even toned up your muscles with resistance training. (At Fit Body Bootcamp we use your own body as resistance, so you won’t bulk up, but will tone instead)
You can prevent an adaptation to the stimulus by changing exercises, sets, reps, rest, and loading. Planned variation and progressions are the keys to prevent going stale. Plus, it makes it a lot more fun!
See, my Unstoppable Fitness Formula focuses on raising your METABOLISM so that you burn calories all freakin’ day!
No matter whether you train with me or on your own, you need to train in ways that maximize your metabolism, to turn your body into a fat-incinerating furnace. Now get after it!
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