CategoriesFat Loss Strength Training

What’s Better For Weight Loss: Cardio or Lifting Weights?

I’m a member of a local neighborhood bank here in Boston. I joined a year ago when I finally grew tired of all the shady hidden fees my previous bank was hammering me with – maintenance fees, minimal balance fees, checking fees, etc.

It’s been a lovely experience and I appreciate the more personalized approach my current bank provides. In particular I appreciate Nelson, the gentleman responsible for helping to set up all my business accounts.

Every time I walk in he greets me by name, asks how business is going, and it’s not uncommon for us to detour into some movie small talk.1

Also, since he’s the one who manages my business accounts, Nelson also knows what I do for a living and he’ll often ask me for some fitness advice…like he did today when he asked my opinion on what’s better for weight loss: cardio or lifting weights?

Copyright: traviswolfe / 123RF Stock Photo

Cue Jaws Theme Music

Now, normally when I’m out in public and stranger or even casual acquaintance asks me that question one of two things happens:

  1. I immediately fall to the ground and feign an epileptic seizure.
  2. The theme music from Jaws reverberates in my inner dialogue.

It’s such a murky and convoluted question with so many variables to consider that there’s no one definitive way to answer. What’s more, if I were to be honest, my answer is usually not what most people want to hear and all I get in return are a bunch of “mmm’hmms” and “uh-huhs” peppered with a few “so, that’s great and all , but what I read on the internet was…….”

I’d rather swallow live bees.

However, in Nelson’s case it’s the least I can do. He’s helped me out a ton in the last year, and, I’m not a dick.

So, of course I’m going to answer to the best of my ability and hopefully point him (and you, dear reader) in the right direction.

Losing Weight 101

At the most basic level, losing weight comes down to one umbrella theme: eliciting a caloric deficit via taking in less calories than you burn2. I often tell clients of mine that this can be as simple as not inhaling that bowl of Fruity Pebbles on a nightly basis…….

……one’s nutrition and being dialed-in with calories in vs. calories out always has been and always will be the main obstacle to consider/tackle with regards to weight loss.

But too, eliciting a caloric deficit can also be achieved via consistent exercise whether it’s by taking a spin class or by lifting heavy things.

Which is more effective or optimal, however?

Well, that depends.

BOTH work and I often reiterate to people that the answer is not to perform one in lieu of the other. In fact, I encourage everyone to implement both strategies if they have the time and means to do so.

I understand why the bulk of people tend to gravitate towards the cardio end of the spectrum.

  • Hopping on a spin bike or lacing up a pair of sneakers for a jog tends to be more “user friendly.”3
  • Cardiovascular’centric endeavors tend not to require a gym membership.
  • They can also be performed anywhere.

What’s more, one main reason why I feel a lot of people shun lifting weights – outside of not knowing really where to start – is that they see a picture like this…..

Or this…..

And proceed to destroy the back of their pants.

They see pictures of advanced, highly-trained individuals performing seemingly unfathomable feats of strength and think to themselves “that’s a whole lotta nope right there.”

[I’m not going to get into the “will lifting weights make me bulky” argument right now. For starters, “no, it won’t.” But mostly doing so will just make me want to throw my face into a brick wall repeatedly.

FYI: Read THIS.]

The other, more germane reason (I think) why many shun weight-training is, hate to break it to you, sheer ignorance.

I’m Biased – But Here’s Why I Think Weight Training Works Well And Should Often Take Priority

I try to limit the number of blank stares I receive when trying to explain why weight training is important for weight (fat) loss.

Here’s my go-to elevator pitch:

NOTE: Yes, I understand there are many nuances to consider when breaking down the topic. This is a blog post, not a dissertation.

“Comparing minute-to-minute…accounting for intensity, cardio will almost always burn more calories compared to lifting weights – I’d say somewhere in the range of 2-3x more. However, it’s what your body is doing afterwards, when you’re sitting at home binging Stranger Things on Netflix or playing Magic the Gathering (<— can we hang out?), that’s the difference maker. When you hop off the elliptical machine you’re pretty much done burning calories. However, when you lift weights, in the hours after4, you’re not done. It goes by several names – Thermal Effect of Exercise, Afterburn Effect, being a brick fucking shit-house – but when you lift weights, you’re burning calories looooong after you’re done.” 

You can also think of it this way:

  1. Again accounting for intensity, lifting weights, for all intents and purposes, breaks down muscle to a (much) larger degree compared to cardio. It takes energy to build that muscle back up. This requires more energy from the body. This is what’s often used to best explain the AfterBurn Effect mentioned above.
  2. Muscle is more metabolically “active” tissue compared to fat. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest.
  3. Cardio doesn’t build (that much) muscle. You lose weight, but then you just end up looking like a smaller, weaker version of your original self. Sad face.

At the end of the day, though, it does come down to personal preference and what people are actually going to do.

If someone really hates lifting weights or just really likes doing cardio…I’m going to encourage them to stick with whatever modality allows them to remain the most consistent.

But Here’s My Final Say

#1. Don’t eat like an asshole

After that….do both (cardio & lifting weights).

I’ll tell people they should prioritize 2-4x per week of weight training and use their cardio to either compliment those days or serve as ancillary “bonus” days to get some exercise in.

I just feel the benefits of adding strength and muscle to the mix far out-weighs any misconceptions that may exist (and will only help to expedite the process).

As far as how to lift weights or where to start? A great option would be to read The New Rules of Lifting by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove (HERE’s the version for men, and HERE’s the version for women) or maybe check out my CORE Online service.

CategoriesMotivational

The “Key” to Results. A Hollywood Actor Tells the Fitness Industry What’s Up.

I had an interesting interaction on Facebook yesterday I wanted to share with everyone. No, it has nothing to do with an internet troll trying to one-up me (although it happens a lot).  And no, it has nothing to do with ice or buckets or pouring anything over my head (which, I happily did thank you very much).

<—– LOL (and, I smell an abs alert!!!!!!!!)

It has everything to do with a story I shared on my Wall concerning actor Chris Pratt and his sincere interaction with a fan admiring the actor’s physical transformation for a recent movie role.

For those of you who have no idea who Chris Pratt is, he’s probably best known for his role as Andy Dwyer on the television show Parks and Recreation.

In addition he’s also had bit roles in a handful of hit movies such as Moneyball, Zero Dark Thirty, Her, and most recently as the lead (voice) character – Emmet – in The Lego Movie.

Even more recently, you can see him in the movie Guardians of the Galaxy as the lead character and protagonist Peter Quill/Star Lord.

It’s been regarded as a “break out” role for Pratt who, up until now, has never been the main attraction in anything he’s been associated with. Movie geeks like myself, however, have been familiar with his work for some time now and understood that it was only a matter of time before people jumped on the “where did this guy come from?” bandwagon.

Not for nothing:  he has several HUGE projects in the pipeline. He’ll be the main character in the upcoming Jurassic Park reboot, Jurassic World, and it’s been rumored that he’ll also be involved with the Knight Rider reboot.

And before I give my hopes up that this will actually happen, can I just say how obsessed I was with Knight Rider when I was kid!?! I may or may not have pretended that my BMX bike was Kitt and I was Michael Knight (sans the chest hair).

Anyways, all of this to say: Chris Pratt is kind of a big deal and don’t be surprised if you start seeing him all over the place.

More germane to the point of this post is that, outside of how awesome Guardians of the Galaxy is (4.5 lightsabers out of 5) and how perfect for the role Chris Pratt was, is the fact that it’s widely known he got into phenomenal shape in order to play the part.

You see, he’s never been associated with muscles or anything to do with fitness, and he’s certainly never been mentioned in the same breath as The Rock, Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), or hell, even Gina Carano.

But it’s hard to look at his transformation and not be impressed.

Like, whoa!

As is the case whenever a Hollywood actor makes such drastic changes to his or her’s body, people want to know how they did it?  What’s their secret?

Of course, we can’t forget that these people have many more resources at their finger-tips compared to the average person and it’s their job – and often in their contracts! – to “look the part.” So part of me feels we have to put things into perspective and perform a little “expectation management” when comparing ourselves to actors.

I.e., what works for them in a span of six months won’t necessarily correlate to “bringing sexy back” in the same six month span for us.

Regardless, people are always curious and want to know how said person was able to accomplish their goal(s), in addition to looking up to said actor/actress for inspiration and insight.

And it’s with that I want to share Chris’s answer to a question he received asking him “how did he do it?”

I LOVED his answer.

It’s amazing how his answer makes much more sense (and I suspect will resonate with more people) compared to much of the garbage and hearsay that’s promoted by a lot of quote-on-quote “fitness experts and gurus.”

I wasn’t able to link directly to the video, but you can watch it below. It’s only like three minutes long and worth the time.

HERE

Was I right, or wha I right?

He didn’t fluff anything. He didn’t allude to a magic pill or elixir or special gadget that’s going to lead to better results.

All he said was START.

Doing SOMETHING, along with CONSISTENCY is the key.

Whatever your goal is -whether it’s to shed some weight, lose a few inches, or look like a badass – there’s no need to make things more complicated than they have to be.  You need to START and be CONSISTENT.

I had someone make a comment in the original thread on Facebook:

“I agree everybody makes everything so complicated. Just move more and eat less!”

I couldn’t DISAGREE more.

Listen, people aren’t stupid. They know that crushing a bag of Doritos before bed isn’t the wisest (or healthiest) nutritional choice they could be making.  They know that regular exercise – any form of exercise – is far more productive than trash talking some 13 year old kid who lives across the country while they attempts to increase their kill rate in Call of Duty.

People KNOW they should move more and eat less. That’s not the problem. The problem is trying to figure what obstacle(s) prevent them from exercising more and eating less in the first place!

If someone’s cupboards are filled with nothing but highly-processed foods – cereal, chips, cookies, etc – and they have easy access to such foods…..it’s going to be really hard to lose weight.

The answer isn’t telling them to “just eat less.”  The answer is figuring out a way to get those foods out of their reach in the first place.  Educating them on how to make better food choices would come in handy.  If the shitty food isn’t there to eat, then we’ve tackled a huge obstacle.

From there we just have to make sure there’s a level of CONSISTENCY!!!!

Likewise, if lack of exercise is the bottleneck.  Just telling someone, “dude, you idiot, you just need to move more!” isn’t going to help matters.

Maybe they don’t have easy access to a gym. Showing them some bodyweight routines to follow or directing them towards something they can do at home with minimal equipment would help.

For shits sake, maybe the reason why they don’t go for walks is because they don’t have a decent pair of walking shoes!

Sometimes, you just need to lead the horse to water, ya know!?  But of course, as the saying goes, you can’t make it drink the water.

I understand the frustration, though.  At a time where people have entire conversations in 140 characters or less and want (and expect) instant gratification, it’s a tough sell to say to someone “you have to be consistent.”

Unfortunately health and fitness doesn’t happen instantly. It just doesn’t.It doesn’t come down to simply telling someone to follow “x” program or “y” supplement.

And what I LOVED about Pratt’s message is that he makes no connotation to that point.

Many of us (fitness professionals included) would be wise to listen to Star Lord.

CategoriesFemale Training

Should You Use Scale Weight as a Measure of Success? Hint: No

There’s certainly no shortage of articles, blogs, and rants out there in the digital world decreeing, loudly, that using a scale to measure success is kind of pointless.

SPOILER ALERT:  this is going to be one of those rants.

I’ve been working as a trainer and coach for well over a decade now working with various females – short, tall, skinny, overweight, athletic,  blue-collar, white-collar, Team Jacob, Team Edward – helping them achieve “the look.”

What “the look” entails I’m not exactly sure, as different women have different goals and different viewpoints on what they’d prefer to look like.

More often than not, though, for most, it just comes down to feeling and looking better, and not being bashful at rocking a strapless dress whenever the time calls for it.

Or, to put it more succinctly (and a tad less narcissistic):  just becoming the best version of YOU that you can be regardless of sexiness factor or societal standards.

If I had to narrow it down to one celebrity who gets the most “Yeah, I want to look like her” nods it would undoubtedly go towards Mrs. Justin Timberlake (AKA: Jessica Biel), circa whenever it was she did that redunkulous spread in GQ Magazine.

Don’t shoot the messenger!  I’m just stating that in my experience this is “the look” which many women I’ve worked with have gravitated towards.

But again, it’s just one example and doesn’t represent a universal mindset – so please, please, PLEASE don’t mistake this as me saying “hey ladies, this is what you should look like!”

Because at the end of the day, it’s about you, not me.

But here’s the deal: it’s a fairly well known fact that Jessica is a very active person who routinely lifts weights, plays sports, and leads a healthy lifestyle.  Or, at least that’s what all the magazine articles and interviews tells us.

Her celebrity status aside, I look at her and see a full-figured, athletic woman who doesn’t look frail, weak, emaciated, or the second coming of that creepy skeleton looking guy from Tales of the Crypt.

Unfortunately, many (not all) women are under the impression that in order to achieve said look they have to diet for months (if not years on end), do copious amounts of long-duration, steady-state cardio, and avoid lifting weights like the plague.

To justify my point – especially with regards to the dieting side of things – Elizabeth Walling had an amazing guest post over on Nia Shanks’ blog the other day on the stress and damage caused by chronic “dieting.”

To steal a quote:

We’re often given the impression by the diet industry and mainstream media that dieting and metabolic health go together like peas and carrots. But in reality, most diet plans that claim to boost your metabolism are really just low-calorie deprivation diets in disguise. Just a quick internet search reveals a disturbing trend: these diet plans that promise to raise your metabolism often recommend eating as little as 1000-1400 calories a day.

I don’t think it’s wrong for me to say that many women fall into this trap (guys do too, by the way) and often end up stuck in this never ending cycle of dieting, feeling like poop, not getting ideal results, dieting some more, feeling even more like poop,  not getting results, and well, you get the idea.

They’ll hop on the scale – as if that’s somehow the end-all-be-all panacea of health – and see that they’ve made little (if any) headway in terms of the number going down, feel even more desperate and frustrated and repeat the cycle over and over and over again.

Why doesn’t dieting typically work?  To steal another quote from Elizabeth:

Because the body views dieting as a famine (it doesn’t know what a bikini is or why you’d want to starve yourself to wear one). The body detects a lack of energy coming from food, so it turns to alternative energy sources to cope with the shortage. And how does the body access alternative energy sources? By releasing stress hormones.

And while it’s much more complicated than this (I’m going to refrain from going into the actual physiology), the body will go into “preservation mode” and start storing fat to stave off a perceived threat.

As such, many women will continue this perpetual cycle, jump on the scale expecting that all their suffering will somehow lead to weight loss, only to be disappointed, pissed off, frustrated, and thiiiiiiis close to punching a kitten in the mouth.

True story.

On the training side of the equation, we typically have the treadmill/Zumba class/step-aerobics/ avoid lifting weights at all costs camp.

Listen, I’m not here to bash “cardio.” I recognize that it’s part of the equation and that any well-rounded fitness/health routine will include some (key word: some).

That said, 100% of the time I feel it’s drastically overemphasized and could be more deleterious than beneficial.  While I don’t want to go into the semantics here and start WWIII, I’ll just defer to an excellent (albeit controversial) article that John Kiefer wrote a while back titled Women: Running Into Trouble.

With that little song and dance out of the way I’ll admit it:  I’m biased.  I’m a strength coach, so of course I’m going to be adamant that women actually lift weights.  Appreciable weights.  None of this soup can/pink-dumbbell high rep nonsense.

Listen: If you want to change how your body looks – like, in a “holy shit, did I go to high school with you?” kind of way – you actually have to put forth some effort.

You need to actually provide enough of a stress to make it change.

Deep down, do you really think that lifting a weight that weighs less than your purse is going to do anything as far as body composition goes?

Come on, really?

No seriously, really?

You get out of it what you put in. If you lift light weights, your body is going to represent that fact: You’ll look frail and weak.

Maybe that’s what you want.  And if so, more power to you. I guess.  But I doubt that’s the case.

Now I’m not saying women have to lift weights so that they can win a knife fight in a back alley or challenge The Rock to an arm wrestling match, but I can’t stress enough how crucial it is to, you know, actually challenge the body and work.

Only then will you see the fruits of your labor.

Which is why I’d much rather see women focus more on strength/performance based goals rather than the scale to gauge progress/success.

Without getting overly technical, one lb of muscle weighs the same as one lb of fat, albeit takes up 25% less space. This is why you will often see contestants on the television show “The Biggest Loser” weigh the same as many professional athletes, despite being the twice the size.

Following a resistance training program helps build muscle which increases strength and firmness. Aside from that, muscle is also metabolically active tissue which will also helps you burn more fat. In essence, someone might see very little overall weight loss or even GAIN weight in order to achieve “the look.”

The latter is especially true for petite women.

As an example, a 5 foot 4 ,140 lb woman with 25% body fat wants to look leaner and achieve that “toned” look. I just threw up a little in my mouth using the word toned, but I’ll run with it to get my point across.

She wants those flabby arms to go away and she wants to fit into those pair of jeans that she used to wear back in college. To do so, this particular woman feels she should lose weight and get down to 110-115 lbs through restrictive dieting and copious amounts of cardio. If she takes that course, she may look thinner, but at the expense of looking like a smaller, weaker version of her original self.

Conversely, let’s take the right course instead.

Six months later the same 5’4” woman has followed a resistance training program (which is also great for strengthening bones and preventing osteoporosis), changed her diet to include more healthy fats (fish oil, nuts, avocado, olive oil, butter, coconut oil, etc) protein (ie: chicken breast, lean beef, eggs, cottage cheese, whey protein shakes) and less refined carbohydrates (ie: cereal bars, bagels, 100 calorie snack foods), and most importantly, she threw away her scale.

She made more QUALITATIVE goals and challenged herself to work up to being able to do five, un-assisted chin-ups as well as deadlift 200 lbs.

Mind you:  when she started, she wasn’t even close to doing ONE chin-up, and could barely deadlift 100 lbs without shitting a liver.

Now she’s 135 lbs with 18% body fat. She lost eleven lbs of fat and gained six lbs of lean muscle, for a net loss of only five lbs.

But she looks like she lost 15 lbs. She’s not “skinny-fat.” She’s stronger and healthier. And she can fit into those jeans no less!

Using a more real life example, here’s a before/after pic that’s made its way around the internet which I feel gets the message across pretty concretely:

Most women would faint at the notion of GAINING nine lbs, but try to tell me that the after picture doesn’t look like she LOST weight?

You see:  the scale only measure QUANTITATIVE progress.  For some, especially those who are morbidly obese and need to lose weight for health reasons, it makes sense to track weight using the scale.  For everyone else, however, it’s nothing more than mind f***.

Seeing the number on a scale go down doesn’t really tell you the QUALITY of weight being lost. As noted above, many will sacrifice muscle – which I’d argue you want to keep as much of as possible – in lieu of just seeing a loss. Any loss.

Hell, losing weight is easy.

1.  Don’t drink any water for a day.

2.  Go to the bathroom and drop it like it’s hot.

Problem solved.

See what I mean? Seeing a number dip on the scale doesn’t tell you the quality of the weight being lost.

And just to save face, as I noted above, for some, using the scale makes sense. Those who need to lose weight for health reasons would be high on the list.

Likewise, I’d even go so far as to say that those who take more of a Curious George approach and are very inquisitive or “in tune” with their bodies (think: physique athletes) would fall into this camp as well.

For most, they just want to see what variables – following a certain diet plan (low carb/high carb, intermittent fasting, Paleo?) or exercise routine (5/3/1, body part splits)  – will do as far as fluctuations in their body weight.

This even applies to those who don’t compete, too.

As an example, I was having this conversation with one of my female clients, Claudia, who mentioned not too long ago how if she has a heavy salted meal the night prior, it’s not uncommon for her weight to go up 5 lbs (or more) the following day.

She likes to fiddle with “stuff” and see what affects her weight.

But she knows better and won’t jump in front a mack truck if she sees the scale go up a few lbs. She understands that if she gets back on task, the weight will go away after a few days.

To her credit, Claudia, who’s 48, always (and I mean always) stresses performance based goals over the scale.  Here she is crushing an EXTRA set of softball grip pull-ups after performing four sets prior:

And you know what?  I garner a guess that there’s plenty of women HALF her age who would kill to have her body.

Did I mention she’s 48?

She’s 48.

[And yes, I had permission to divulge her age]

Closing Up Shop

Many women make the mistake of equating progress with the number on the scale going down. If they don’t see the number going down on a weekly basis, they feel they’re failing. Let me make this simple. The scale can be very misleading and in a lot of ways, invalid.

How do you know the weight you’re losing is fat and not valuable muscle?

You should be more concerned with what the mirror is telling you. Are you losing inches around the body? Do your clothes fit better?  Are you lifting more weight now compared to two months ago?  Can you bang out ten crisp push-ups whereas before you could barely do one?

Perhaps these results are less quantifiable and harder to notice, however, the sooner you realize that these are better indicators of progress, the better off you will be.

This isn’t to say the above is an all encompassing mentality either.  I realize that there are extenuating circumstances, and that utilizing the scale does have some merit. But for 95% of the women who are reading this post, it doesn’t correlate to much.

Actionable Item

Do yourself a favor:  for TWO months ditch the scale.  Give yourself a goal. It could be squatting “x” weight for “y” reps, improving bench press technique, performing your first chin-up, doing a handstand!  Anything!  Whatever you do, just focus on that instead.

Don’t let the scale dictate your mindset.

Two months. Thats it. (<======= DO IT!!!)

CategoriesFat Loss Female Training Nutrition

7 Ways to Lose Weight Without Counting Calories, Tracking Points, or Going Crazy

I made an executive decision yesterday that with Christmas Eve and Christmas right around the corner (NINTENDO 64!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I’d treat myself to a little blog-cation.

Now, don’t get me wrong:  I love writing this blog. But sometimes I just need to take a break, smell the fudge roses, take a dee breath, and chillax.

So with that said, you won’t be hearing back from me until the day after Christmas (Wednesday).  Thankfully my good friend, Sirena Bernal, reached out and wrote this spectacular guest post for the site.

Sirena and I have been chummy for a little over a year now, and we actually live in the same neighborhood, sometimes bumping into one another at the local Panera on a Friday night when we’re both trying to catch up on some writing or reading.

Yeah, we’re cool like that.

Anyways enjoy!  And Happy (and safe) Holidays to everyone!

Before we even knew what a calorie was, we survived by relying on instinct, on feeling, and on the wisdom that was passed down to us from our elders – from people like grandma. Meaning, before we started to read labels, we just ate food.

We didn’t rely on measuring, tracking points, or distributing macronutrients, and we certainly didn’t rely on counting calories.

In fact, the idea of the calorie that we are now familiar with, was originally a term derived to describe the combustion energy produced from a steam engine (1), not the metabolism of a homosapien.

Steam engine and human being? Not exactly in the same genus, and thus, in my opinion, one reason why it’s a flawed model to follow in regards to nutrition – for the long term health and well-being. Again, IMHO.

I am not saying that creating a calorie-deficit (expending more energy than you consume) will not lead to weight loss, as it most certainly will. However, I am saying it is not the only way to approach weight loss.  And as you will see in a minute, I’m going to share with you 7 others.

Why Calories Don’t Work for Humans

As beautiful and unique individuals as we are, so are our metabolisms and our body’s ability to digest, breakdown and utilize foods.

No two people are the same, and thus no two metabolisms are the same. However, most diet and nutrition literature will lead you to believe that a standard formula can be used to accurately gauge the amount of food we need to consume.

It’s easy to find an online calculator in which you input your weight, height, and activity level and in return get an arbitrary number that doesn’t take some of the most influential factors that affect our metabolism into play.

Factors such as the weather, temperature, stress levels, amount of sleep, hormonal fluctuations, prescription medications, supplements, thought-patterns and travel patterns can all affect our body’s ability to metabolize food, and thus affect the amount of “calories” we need to function at our best.

Thus, focusing on tracking calories without considering the dynamic flux of our metabolism can further create a hypometabolic state (low metabolism), which the majority of our culture suffers with.

You Are Not a Cyborg

Before you whip out the calculator and start crunching numbers, understand that it’s never a clear cut answer.

And for some, that may be frustrating to hear because we all just want to know exactly how much, at what time, and when.

But here’s the thing: life is not exact.

And neither is your schedule, or the weather, or your biology…unless of course you’re a cyborg, which I’m assuming you are not. (But if you are, I need to meet you).

If we allow it, our body will tell us exactly how much food we need, what we need, and when we need it, if we only listen.

Developing this skill does take time and patience but once we learn to listen to our body, we will begin to find the process of losing weight, much much easier than trying to calculate how many calories 30 grams of carbs, 20 grams of protein and 5 grams of fat equal.

There are much easier ways to approach weight loss that does not require counting calories, and here are 7 of them:

1. Eat with smaller plates, bowls and spoons.

Research has shown that the bigger your plate or bowl, the more you end up eating – choose a smaller bowl and you end up eating less.  Participants in a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, served themselves 31 percent more ice cream when they were given a 34-ounce bowl instead of a 17-ounce bowl.

2. When filling your plate fill about 75% of what you would normally fill.

Our eyes are generally bigger than our stomachs, so prevent over eating before you actually eat.  The next time you plate your food, take a “normal” scoop, and then put 25% of it back (before you actually put it on your plate, because putting food back once it’s on your plate is just bad manners.)

After you fill your plate, follow the rest of the steps below, and then decide if you’re still hungry before going back for seconds.

3. When eating, stop when you are 2/3 full.

You know that point when you’re so full that your belly is pushing against your belt buckle? Yeah, don’t get to that point.

Before you feel the need to unbuckle your belt, stop yourself when you feel like your 2/3 of the way there, and take a few moments to ask yourself if you are really hungry or if you are just eating to eat.

4. Always eat a protein, a carb and a fat source together.

By combining a protein, fat and carb you optimize your hormonal response to your meal thus keeping your blood sugar levels balanced, which will keep you satiated longer, thus preventing you from snacking after a meal.

5. Eat in peace and not on the run and without the distraction of computers, t.v. or reading which will help slow you down and level up your digestive powers.

Eating on the run is as effective for your digestion as being in 2nd gear on the highway is for your car.  Not very.

When your brain and/or body is stimulated while you are eating, like if you are watching t.v. or eating in a rush, you end up activate your sympathetic nervous system which stimulates stress hormones.

However, being relaxed and calm while you eat, activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which, is responsible for digestion and breaking down your food to be absorbed.  When you break down food better, you absorb your meal better, and thus get fuller faster.

6. Chew your food thoroughly before swallowing and take your time with eating, putting your fork down between bites.

It doesn’t matter if you count your chews, count seconds, or meditate when you eat.  What does matter is that you take your time and actually chew.

Here’s a little challenge: Next time you eat, try to chew long enough until your food is liquefied. $5 if you can eat a whole meal this way.

7. SLOW down (or take your meal on a date.)

This is what I mean by this: when you are on a date, let’s say, a first date, or with someone you’re really into, you’re not gonna be checking your phone, or other people in the area. You’re in the moment, you don’t want to rush.

Now, with that same fervor that you would show your date, show that same attention to your food.  Remove distractions, take your time, appreciate the food, and take your time with the food.

The same attention you’d give to a date, give to your food. This will not only allow you to slow down and thus eat less, but you’ll actually enjoy what you’re eating, appreciate your food and the eating process.

Final Pearls of Wisdom

The idea of losing weight without counting calories is clearly not as tangible or concrete, and may take some time to adjust to.  However, if you can begin to practice these tips, it’s one of the most liberating and stress-free ways to approach weight loss.

The idea behind this process is to get you to a point where you can begin to listen to your body and just know, like Grandma did, when enough was enough.

This process does take more time and commitment on your part, but is very rewarding when you begin to tune in and know exactly what you need, when you need it, and how much you need.

References:

  1. http://jn.nutrition.org/content/136/12/2957.full
  2. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/08/060803082602.htm

 Author’s Bio

Sirena is a nutrition and lifestyle expert in Boston, MA, and she holds her B.S. in Kinesiology from UNH.  She has been training clients in the fitness industry for over 8 years and runs the Lean Body Challenge, a 28-day nutrition program designed to help women lose weight without dieting and over-exercising.

Her clients consistently lose 8-15 lbs. during the challenge and maintain the weight loss without the need to count calories or rely on cardio. Her work has been featured in PTonTheNET.com, Greatist.com, and she is a regular blogger for BostonMagazine.com

 

CategoriesMotivational Nutrition

A Discussion: Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss

Today I’m throwing everyone a bit of a curve ball, and doing something a little differently compared to what I normally do. To be as succinct as possible, I had an interesting email exchange with one of my female clients last weekend about the difference between weight loss and fat loss, and I thought I’d share the dialogue both she and I exchanged here as I felt it would make for some decent blog fodder.

I think this is a topic that leaves a lot of trainees flummoxed, and it’s something that unfortunately, despite our best efforts, is a message that gets lost in translation – especially within the mainstream media.

If nothing else, I thought my insight would serve two purposes:

1.  I think it’s a topic that a lot trainees (especially women) need to hear more often, and is something I feel pretty strongly about.

2.  Hopefully help turn the tides and help people realize that it’s not necessarily an “education thing” (we all know that pounding beer isn’t the answer), but rather a BEHAVIORAL issue that we need to address.

With that said, below is the email exchange between her and I, which has been edited slightly so that it would “flow” more easily in blog format.

On that note: Bagels suck!

Female Client:  Hey Tony, it’s been several weeks since I’ve seen you and I’m excited to get back to CP to train!  Having said that, while I still have some things I’d like to work on in terms of some aches and pains, and I definitely want to get my strength back,  I would like to work on weight loss, do you have any good suggestions for me in that area?

Me: Hey Kate Beckinsale (name has been changed to protect the identity of the actual client)!  Great to hear from you. With the weight loss issue, I think it’s important to understand that there’s a huge difference between weight loss and fat loss.

Far too often – at least in my experience, and this may or may not pertain to you – women get overly caught up on what the scale tells them. Weight loss can be completely subjective, and the truth of matter is the scale really doesn’t tell you anything.

If I told you to not eat for eight hours, you would weigh less.

If I told you to not drink water for a day, you would weigh less.

If I told you to cut off you right arm, you would weigh less.

In all three scenarios you weigh less, but does that really mean you made any significant progress?

Answer:  Um, no.

Sure, you weigh less……….but all you’ve really accomplished is to make yourself a smaller, weaker, armless, version of your original self.  There’s no shape, form, or contour to the body. What’s more:  now you have to do everything with your left arm.  And that just sucks!

How most women (and I’ll throw a lot of men under the bus here, too) approach weight loss is wrong.  Many would bode well by changing their mindset altogether and start thinking in terms of FAT loss.

More to the point:  to MAINTAIN as much muscle as possible (even better, build some muscle) and focus on fat loss.

One lb of muscle weighs the EXACT same as one lb of fat – well, DUH!! –  the difference, however, is that muscle is more dense than fat and takes up less space.

Stealing a little thunder from my good friend, Nia Shanks, here’s a great example of why it’s often a VERY good idea for women to not only toss their scale into the trash, but to not be skeered of adding a little muscle to their frame as well:

Muscle is more dense than fat, and that’s why a woman who’s been training hard and, despite losing body fat, hasn’t seen the number on the scale change much, if any, because she’s built muscle, too.

This is one reason why building muscle is a very good thing for women.

Here’s a picture to show that you can look better even if you gain weight. This is one of Jason Ferruggia’s clients.

As you can see, she gained 9 pounds but looks leaner, more “toned”, and more athletic because she lost body fat and built muscle. Good thing she didn’t let the number on the scale upset her!

I could write an entire book on what type of training one should follow in order to elicit similar results (Note to Self:  write a book), but I don’t really want to get into that here with you.

This might come across as beating a dead horse, but when it DOES come to fat loss, almost always, nutrition is going to be the biggest determining factor.

So, with that said, we need to come up with some “system” that starts to change your behaviors. I’m sure we can sit here and figure out a multitude of things that you need to change from a nutrition standpoint (eating more veggies, stressing protein with every meal, increasing healthy fats, food prep, etc), but that’s not going to help you.

Instead, and this is a concept I “stole” from another buddy of mine, Mark Young, who has a lot of experience in these sort of things,  we need to figure out a way to fix/change your behaviors one at a time. As an example, on a scale of 1-10 (one being “I’d rather swallow a live grenade and ten being “I could do that in my sleep”) how confident do you feel about omitting fast food or weekend brunches out of the mix?

If it’s not at least an eight or above, then we need to take a step back and figure out a better approach.  It’s only when we can figure out a way for you to be successful and to carry that over into a CONSISTENT behavior that things are going to really make a difference.

If you don’t feel overly confident about eating protein with every meal (using another example), then what about two meals?  Once you start making two meals a day a habit, then we can push the envelop to four meals per day, so on and so forth until it becomes standard procedure.

You go girl!

But remember:  YOU CANNOT OUT TRAIN A POOR DIET

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ In case you were wondering, I used capital letters so that you’d understand that this is kind of an important point

You. Can. Not. Out-Train. A. Poor. Diet.

It’s just not going to happen.  I can write you the most kick-ass fat loss plan in the history of the human race – training 4-5 times per week, throwing in any combination of circuits, finishers, or anything else we can think of that will make you hate life – but it’s not going to matter if we don’t tackle the nutritional side of things.

Using an analogy I’ve used in the past, if we KNOW that fat loss is (more or less) determined by calories in vs. calories out, which seems to be a more efficient use of our time:

A) Spending upwards of 45-60 minutes (maybe) burning off 350-500 calories (depending on the mode, intensity, duration) exercising ?

Note to Everyone Reading: trust me when I say this, despite the machine telling you otherwise, you DID NOT just burn 700 kcals walking on the treadmill for 30 minutes at a 5% grade.  Those machines are WOEFULLY off and not remotely accurate.

Seriously, think about it. Unless you’re walking with Volkswagon on your back, you’re not burning that many calories.

OR

B) Electing not to eat that bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios before bed?

Ding, ding, ding, ding.

If we were to take the simple equation that a lb of fat equals 350o of excess kcals (which I know can be argued, but bare with me, I’m trying to make a point), we can surmise that subtracting 500 kcals per day (whether through diet or exercise, or both!) leads to a lb of fat loss per week. Give or take.

Again, from a time efficiency standpoint, and with FAT LOSS as the goal, nutrition is going to trump exercise in terms of better use of our time no matter what.

Here’s the rub though:  as I noted above, it’s not an education thing.  You know that it’s not the best idea to crush Doritos (or whatever) or to forego preparing a home cooked meal in lieu of hitting up McDonald’s on your way home from work.

You know that eating a boatload of highly processed carbohydrates on a day where you’re less active probably isn’t the best idea.  You know ALL of this. So what’s holding you back?

It’s all about behavior change.

We need to have some sort of default “path” to help you succeed.  So,  instead of McDonald’s, maybe you hit up Chipolte Grill and order a meat salad with a heaping pile of guacamole on top?

While still not the best option, it’s a heckuva lot more conducive to your goals, and a step in the right direction.

The same can be said for trying to include more veggies, healthy fats etc.  We need to find a “spot” where you feel confident you can be successful. Going back to the scale suggested earlier: how confident are you that you can include five servings of vegetables per day?  Is it an 8 or above?

If not, then what about three servings? Two?

Hopefully this all makes some sense, and more importantly sheds some light on why I feel weight loss is not where your head should be at at the moment.

Still think cutting off that arm is a good idea?…..;o)

CategoriesUncategorized

Morning Cup of Vomiting in My Mouth: Worst Diet Advice, Ever?

Haven’t done one of these in I don’t know how long.  This one’s a doozy.

New York, New York:

Not that this is going to come as any surprise, but a plastic surgeon and an orthodontist (huh?) have recently teamed up to promote an extreme weight loss plan that involves daily injections of the pregnancy hormone hCG in conjunction with a 500-calorie per day diet.  Of course they would!

Here’s the basic logic (from the story linked above):  despite the fact that there’s absolutely no scientific research that it actually does anything, you tell people to inject themselves with this hormone (which coincidentally isn’t cheap) so that they won’t feel hungry when they’re only eating 500 calories per day.

What the shit!?!?!?!

I don’t know about you, but I’d like to see the percentage of people who actually keep the weight off once they stop “treatment.”

My guess is not many.

Moreover, I’d love to be a fly on the wall as this soul-less, asshat of a doctor explains to people that following a 500-calorie per day diet, long-term, is in any way healthy.  Why not just tell them to drink battery acid and eat paint chips?  Surely they’ll lose some weight that way, too.

I really don’t know how these people sleep at night.  Hey, anything to pay off that BMW and fake tan, right?

And, I don’t care what anyone says, despite their claims to the contrary, the reason why they’ve never lost any weight (even though they’ve tried everything) is because they crush Dunkin Donuts like it’s their job and their idea of exercise is taking the elevator to the second floor.

People don’t like to be held accountable for their own actions.   It’s well established in the research that people vastly UNDER-report how much they really eat, and OVER-report how much they actually exercise.  We’re not honest with ourselves.

It’s pretty amazing how many people out there follow a “strict” and “clean” diet (supposedly) and run a marathon before breakfast everyday (supposedly); yet, low and behold, they’re still 40 lbs overweight.

Simply put, we’re just not as active as we think we are.  Sadly, for many, their ONLY form of exercise is the 3-5 hours per week they spend in the gym – and, that’s assuming that when they go to the gym, they’re actually exercising.

Think about it:  THREE hours of exercise per week.

While there are exceptions to the rule – more often than not, that’s not going to cut it (particularly when things like yoga, elliptical trainers, and pink dumbbells are the staple for most people).  We’ve all seen the infomercials selling exercise machines that promise the body of our dreams with only three, twenty-minute sessions per week.  Yeah, right.  And I’m going to drive over to Brittney Daniel’s house in my tank and take her out to T.G.I.Friday for dinner tonight.

In your dreams!

Listen, most people watch three hours of television before bed every night; so you’re kidding yourself if you think your Pilates class you take three times per week is going to do anything.  Even still, like I said, most people aren’t moving around as much as I they think in the first place.  Something’s better than nothing, but lets be real here.  What’s more, as my good friend Mark Young has noted repeatedly, if we’re talking strictly caloric deficit and it’s effect on weight loss, exercise takes a back seat to diet anyways.

Which brings us back to Dr. McDouchington.  Really?  You’re going to tell me that you have your patient’s best interests in mind by telling them to stick a syringe in their body and inject a hormone that 1) isn’t even being used for its intended purpose and 2) has no proof that it even works other than a few suspect studies?  On top of that, you’re then going to advocate they eat only 500 calories per day?

Excuse me while I go throw an ax into my face.

I’d love to hear what all of you have to say.  Do you find this just as absurd as I do?