I’m Not Losing Weight, Why?

Q: Six months ago I started doing cardio to lose weight. I began walking 30 minutes three times a week, now I’m running 60 minutes five days a week. I feel like I’ve been putting in a lot of time, but I haven’t lost any weight in the last two months, why?

A: To continue to lose weight you may need to adjust your training regime. The problem is the fact that your body adapts to the stimulus you give it. If you lift weights, for example your body responds by getting stronger allowing you to lift heavier weights; if you eat only two meals per day your body adapts by slowing your metabolism (not a good thing if you want to lose weight) so you don’t starve. When you do aerobic training as in your case, your body becomes more efficient at running, so your body requires less energy to complete the task, resulting in less caloric burn.

When you started running 60 minutes it used to be very hard, on an intensity scale of 1 to 10 it might have been an 8 or 9 (meaning it’s harder), now that you’ve conditioned yourself it may only be a 5 or 6 (meaning it’s easier). So to continue to improve you have to workout harder and harder to achieve weight loss. To do this you can run longer, add hills or go faster which will bring your intensity back up to an 8 or 9. If weight loss is you goal, there’s no fun in running 70 minutes up hill to burn the same amount of calories you used to burn in 60 minutes on flat land.

While you can increase the time of your run to burn more calories, to make your workout more time efficient my recommendation is to add hills or speed increases. The best way to do this is with interval training, which will be a little harder, but saves you a lot of time and gets a much better result. If you can currently run 30 minutes you'll add work intervals such as small hills or all out sprints (level 9 or 10) for 60 seconds every four minutes.

As you improve from month to month gradually decrease your rest interval time from 3 minutes to 2 minutes and finally to 1 minute. The shorter rest intervals will keep your work intervals feeling hard; a level 8 or 9. As you get better conditioned you can also add steeper hills and faster sprints keeping it at a level 9 or 10 and you’ll never stop burning fat.

Example:
Minutes 1-3 normal pace
Minute 4 sprint or hill (level 9)
Minutes 5-7 normal pace
Minutes 8 sprint or hill (level 9)
Minute 9-11 normal pace
Minutes 12 sprint or hill (level 9)
Minutes 13-15 normal pace
Minute 16 sprint or hill (level 9)
Minutes 17-19 normal pace
Minutes 20 sprint or hill (level 9)
Minute 21-23 normal pace
Minutes 24 sprint or hill (level 9)
Minutes 25-27 normal pace
Minute 28 sprint or hill (level 9)
Minutes 29-30 normal pace

Train With Weights To Lose Fat

Did you know that for every pound of muscle you gain, your metabolism increases enough to burn an extra 50 calories per day? This may not sound all that impressive, but if you gain five pounds of muscle you’ll burn an additional 250 calories a day just sitting there carrying around that added muscle. Over the course of a year you’ll shed 26 pounds without any added cardio or diet changes.

If you’re not lifting weights start today and begin shedding fat and tone up. For help with muscle building workouts visit workoutquest.com.

Is 15 Minutes of Cardio Enough?

Question: I can only get 15 minutes of cardio work in, is it worth my time?

Answer: Definitely. The American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association recommend healthy adults do 30 minutes five days per week at a moderate pace or 20 minutes of vigorously intense cardio a day three days per week to maintain health and reduce the risk for chronic disease. Even 15 minutes produces positive benefits.

There are a couple of ways to get a great cardio workout done in 15 minutes. The first is doing interval training. Although it’s a bit more challenging, you burn more calories and improve your endurance faster than when you workout at a moderate intensity. To do it, work at intensity higher than your regular pace for one minute then slow down for one minute of recovery. Repeat the pattern for 15 minutes. This can work whether you are jogging, cycling, rowing, stair climbing or to name a few.

The second option is adding cardio cycles into your resistance training workouts. Instead of sitting there for 30 to 60 seconds between your sets, try jumping rope, doing mountain climbers or squat thrusts between your sets to keep your heart rate up and burn more calories. Cardiovascular workouts don’t have to be done on a machine in their own workout; it simply means to work your heart and lungs. This type of workout is guaranteed to give your cardiovascular system a great workout and doesn’t take any more time than you’re already working out.

Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

This is just a little something to think about while enjoying the holidays with your friends and family. You already may know the importance of drinking water or non-calorie beverages for health reasons and weight maintenance. With holiday parties and festive gatherings approaching many alcoholic beverages may be served. It's just as important to make smart choices when choosing higher calorie alcoholic beverages. Because it's easier to drink a high calorie drink without noticing the extra calories than it is to fill up on whole food, make sure you know how many calories are in your drinks to make a more informed decision.

One cup of eggnog can contain 340 calories and a shot of spirits adds about another 60 calories boosting your drink to 450 calories. Two of these drinks will set you back 900 calories without noticing it.

Red and white wines have about the same amount of calories, 125 calories per 5-ounce glass.

When it comes to hard liquor, a 1.5-ounce glass of 53-proof Kahlua has 170 calories, which is only 10 calories shy of a whole wheat Krispy Kreme doughnut.

One Pina Colada, made with Malibu rum, pineapple juice and cream, packs about 312 calories, or 32 calories less than the Small Chocolate Sundae sold at the Dairy Queen.

The Mudslide, made with vodka, coffee liqueur, Irish cream and vanilla ice cream, is the bomb of all cocktails. It packs 820 calories in a 12-ounce serving, the equivalent of an entire restaurant meal.

For the same calories packed in a Mudslide cocktail you can eat one Arby's Roast Beef and Swiss Market Fresh Sandwich (810 calories); one Denny's Buttermilk Pancake Platter (890 calories); or two slices of Domino's Classic Hand-tossed Pizza (510 calories) and a soda.

Knowledge is power. Know how many calories are in your drinks so you can make an informed decision. If you know you should only be eating X amount of calories a day, are you going to go over the limit by having a couple of drinks, or cut back on some of your meals first?

The Biggest Loser

If you've ever seen the show The Biggest Loser on television you may wonder how those people lose such massive amounts of weight in such a short period of time. The answer diet and exercise. This is an oversimplification but what you really want to know are the specifics, what type and how much.

I was going thru a recent health and fitness magazine and came across an article about the show. Two of the shows contestants were interviewed and they shared some of their secrets to success. According to the article they ate five to six times a day, which has been shown to increase metabolism and shed fat. They coupled that with exercising five times daily which included weight training, hiking and running to burn up a ton of calories. They also ate breakfast within 30 minutes of waking up to get their metabolism revved up to shed calories and controlled portions of the food they ate.

Living on a reality show however, is a little different from the real world we live in. On the show they are there to do one thing, lose weight so they can spend all their time doing that. For a regular person with a full-time job, school or a family; working out six to seven hours a day is not an option. Another thing to keep in mind is the more you weigh the more calories you burn by exercising (that’s why cardio machines always ask you for your weight). The shows contestants are weighing between 250 to over 400 pounds so they can lose a bit more than someone half their size. Don’t be discouraged though there is still hope for you, you just have to make the most of your time and plan ahead to succeed.

What you can do is eat five to six meals per day to get your metabolism working for you. Find out how many calories you eat in a typically day. Track everything (including gravy and butter) for a few days to get an average and start by cutting 200-300 calories from that, then split the total between five to six meals. So if you currently average 2800 calories a day, start by dropping down to 2500 a day. Split that between five meals averaging 500 calories per meal. The goal is to eat more frequently, but less overall. Get an early start by eating breakfast within 30 minutes of waking up in the morning and eat every three to four hours after that. Follow breakfast with a mid-morning snack, lunch, a mid-afternoon snack, dinner and possible a light evening snack. With your busy schedule it may be hard to eat every three hours so be prepared to bring cheese sticks, low fat yogurt, apples, oranges and other whole grain snacks that provide fiber and keep you full. Don’t forget to measure your portions with a food scale to avoid overeating.

Be smart about working out. Because you can’t workout five times a day, you need to work smarter not longer. Resistance training is a must to build muscle which in turn torches fat. Stick to compound exercises that work the large muscle groups, think squats instead of leg extensions. Because interval training helps you burn more calories in less time, choose this option over long low intensity cardio sessions. For more tips or to get a customized exercise program visit our website.

Stop Dieting and Start Losing Weight

Every year millions of adults in the U.S. are starting diets in an attempt to lose weight. Many of these adults are frustrated with the results they are getting, and the difficulty of staying on the diet. Those that find success with diets often find that achievement to be temporary only to regain the weight back. Below we’ve listed some reasons why diets are failing and a better approach to safe weight loss.

Why Diets Fail

1. Diets deprive you of foods you like and nutrients you need

Diets are very difficult to maintain because they control the food you can eat, so you are constantly feeling restricted. Because many diets eliminate certain foods or even entire food groups they can become unhealthy affecting mood, brain function, and activity level.

2. Diets are temporary

Even if you are successful with a diet and lose 20 pounds, when you go back to your original way of eating, you will eventually gain the weight back and probably more.

3. Diets can lower you metabolism

Because your body is smart and adapts to changes you make, when you drastically cut back on calories as many diets do, your metabolism will slow down and your body stores those calories as fat. This was a good thing back in the day of hunters and gatherers because they had to endure days without food and this kept them alive. Today however this isn’t a good weight loss strategy because it leads to fewer calories being burned making the diet inefficient.

How to lose weight safely

1. Eat small frequent meals every 2-3 hours

Plan to eat a meal every 2 -3 hours. When you eat more often, your blood sugar level tends to stabilize, which means you are less likely to experience severe hunger. Since your body only needs so many calories at a given time, excess calories become stored as body fat. The longer you wait between meals, the more likely you are to overeat at your next meal prompting your body to store more body fat.

2. Eat Correct Portion Sizes

Research has shown that Americans often underestimate how many calories they are consuming each day by as much as 25%. Therefore many people think they should be maintaining or losing weight, when they are actually gaining weight. Get a food scale to measure your portions. Drastically cutting calories has adverse effects, but slowly reducing your calories to a normal amount will lead to proper weight loss and maintenance.

3. Exercise to increase metabolism

Research has shown resistance training not only builds muscle but also significantly raises metabolism leading to weight loss. High Intensity Interval Training is another method to elevating your metabolism, burning more calories than traditional steady state cardio in less time.

Equalizing Your Training Volume

When I first started resistance training as a teen I did what a lot of guys my age did: lots of chest, biceps and abdominal exercises. While I was looking to improve my athletic performance, I also wanted to look good; I needed a muscular chest, bulging biceps and a six pack to match. The problem was I was training my ‘mirror muscles’ which are the one’s I could see in the mirror with lots of volume, but paid little attention to the opposing muscles groups. After all people don’t ask you how much you can lat pull, everyone wants to know how much you can bench. While I was getting stronger in all the exercises and building some size I was setting myself up for problems down the road.

Because my workouts lacked balance, eventually I hit plateaus in my lifts and hurt my rotator cuff muscles. Failure to work the muscles that oppose the mirror muscles results in underdevelopment of those muscles, such as the lats, rhomboids, traps, lower back, glutes and hamstrings. These muscles work together to stabilize the spine and come into play in most exercises whether they are the prime movers or just assisting.

In the end I had to take time off from pushing, add more pulling exercises and perform additional exercises to strengthen my weakened rotator cuff muscles. This all added up to recovered shoulders, improved posture and helped me to become stronger across the board.

To avoid this problem yourself make sure to use equal volume for pushing and pulling exercises. Upper body pushing and pulling exercises can be broken down to vertical or horizontal, depending on which way the resistance is moving in relation to your body. A few examples are listed below.

Upper Body Pushing

Vertical – Military press, Dumbbell shoulder press

Horizontal – Bench press, Push up

Upper Body Pulling

Vertical – Lat pull down, Chin up

Horizontal – Seated Cable Row, Bent Barbell Row

Lower Body Pushing

Leg Press, Squats, Lunges

Lower Body Pulling

Deadlift, Leg Curl

To use equal volume, take two opposite movements; for example upper body horizontal push (bench press) and upper body horizontal pull (Bent Barbell Row). Using three sets of eight reps for each will allow equal volume at 24 reps each. However if you are doing three sets of bench press, three sets of push ups and three sets of barbell rows, now you are doing six sets for horizontal pushing and still only three for horizontal pulling.

Be smart and stay healthy. Don’t just choose random exercises and training volumes without thinking about why you are doing it and what harm it may be causing to you down the road.