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Don't fool yourself - crash dieting and "marathon" gym sessions simply don't work. Your body was never meant to be fat. And getting it back in shape is easier than you think... |
Not All Exercises Are Created Equal
By Will Brink
The number of people who attempt to lose fat by simple calorie restriction alone and ignore the absolutely vital role of exercise always amazes me.
Many of you reading this may also think, “No problem, jump on the treadmill and do some aerobics and I am all set for exercise.” That would be a mistake.
Although your aim may be to lose fat rather than build muscle, everybody likes a lean and “toned” body, and that’s what weight training (resistance training) will accomplish. Also, muscle mass is steadily lost after age 30 by about 1 percent per year or more, depending on variables such as nutrition that can slow or speed up the age-related loss of muscle mass. Therefore, it’s essential to maintain our muscle mass as we age.
It’s a little known and underappreciated fact that the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, and a higher resting metabolic rate (RMR) is the result.
Several recent studies have found that resistance training maintains resting metabolic rate (RMR) better than aerobics, and that it’s far superior to aerobics for maintaining the metabolically active tissue we need (muscle) for a superior fat burning metabolism while on a diet.
Resistance training will burn approximately the same number of calories as if you went for a run or hopped around in an aerobics class, but the calorie burning and metabolism raising effects of weight training continue far after the activity has ended.
After aerobic exercise, RMR returns to normal within an hour or so, resulting in the consumption of only a few additional calories. After weight lifting, RMR remains elevated for up to 15 hours! Bottom line: weight training builds muscle, and muscle is far more metabolically active than body fat.
The goal of any successful fat loss plan should be to maintain muscle while losing fat, rather than just weight loss per se. Studies have shown people in their 90s can gain strength and muscle from resistance training, so it’s never too late to start.
Everyone knows aerobic exercise helps burn calories and is good for the heart and vascular system. As a general rule, aerobics is best done on alternating days from resistance training, but can be done after weight training if time does not allow an alternating schedule.
Some studies suggest that aerobics done on an empty stomach may optimize the use of fat for energy. This is why many people choose to do their aerobics first thing in the morning when blood sugar is low and free fatty acids are being used as the primary fuel. However, it may be more beneficial to have a small amount of protein before doing morning aerobics for preserving muscle mass.
You need not kill yourself with aerobics. Three to four days per week for 40–60 minutes at a steady manageable pace is adequate and will also pay dividends in improving your health in general.
People who are well conditioned to aerobics will get additional benefits by employing tactics such as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), as well as other more advanced nutritional and exercise approaches fully covered in my e–book “Fat Loss Revealed.”
Eat Off Smaller Plates
Tips such as “don’t go to the store hungry” or “don’t keep junk in the house” are common sense; this one is less so. However, I find it helps. Again, how much we eat is based on many variables. One of them is the visual cues we get from looking at the food we are about to eat.
We are extremely visually oriented creatures and we decide how large an object is by comparing it with other objects. In this case, we compare the food with the size of the plate we put it on. You may remember this little visual test from grade school. Looking at these two horizontal lines below, which one is longer?
Answer: both lines are identical in length. As you can see, (b) looks longer then (a), yet they are the same length. It’s a visual illusion that shows how our brains are set up to interpret certain visual cues.
It is my experience that people will put less food on their plates if they eat from smaller plates, as a smaller plate full of food looks like much more to eat than a large plate with the same amount of food on it. For example, I tend to put 2 slices of pizza on a small plate and three on a large plate.
Now, this is only one minor cue we have to regulate how much food we eat, and other feedback loops (i.e., hormonal, psychological, etc.) can kick in and easily offset this strategy. For example, you could simply come back for a second helping using the smaller plates.
However, it’s my hunch (and it’s only a hunch as research is lacking here) that over the course of, say, a month, a person will end up taking in fewer total calories using this strategy. This has been my (admittedly anecdotal) experience, which has been confirmed by many of the people I have given advice to over the years.
"Used for Thousands of Years" Debunked
Another supplement industry classic. So if the product has only been used for 300 years, is it no good? People have also been eating things like tiger penis for thousands of years. Does that mean it’s effective or safe? The answer is (drum roll)… No!
Of course at one time the earth was considered flat, and it was once believed the sun revolved around the earth, but times change.
Sure, an herb being used for a few thousand years, such as ephedra (Ma Huang) does lend some legitimacy to the claims, but it's far from proof that the herb in question is either safe or effective.
The bottom line here is that people have been using all sorts of things for thousands of years, some good, and some not so good, some safe, and some not so safe. The term should not drive anyone to buy a product and assume that because it's been used for a thousand years—and remember we are assuming the company is even telling the truth about that—it's safe and effective.
So the next time you see that one, you can have a little laugh to yourself.
You Should Sign Up for Will Brink’s Program, Fat Loss Revealed, Here.
