Ask most people what their New Year’s Resolutions were and you’ll likely find the answer- lose weight. With so many of us wanting to shed the pounds, why is the obesity pandemic reaching new heights?
Weight loss tends to conjure up images of near starvation and tons of cardio. Most of us do not even start on our New Year’s Resolution simply because the thought of it stops us dead in our tracks.
What if we had some tools for weight loss? 4 simple ideas that are practically guaranteed to shed fat, drop the weight, and slim us down? That would be a major first step towards a weight loss program.
Tool 1- Strength Training
We have to recognize this as a viable fat-loss method. Every pound of muscle burns 35-50 calories per day. Adding lean muscle mass is the best way to jump start and sustain fat reduction.
Tool 2- Cardio
Cardio is good, but it’s not the only tool we should use. Cardio should be done as a partner to the other ideas. Anything that gets your heart pumping will do: walking, jogging, running, dancing, swimming, biking, or house cleaning.
Tool 3- Nutrition
Nutrition is often the hardest part of the weight loss process. We simply forgot how to eat well in our culture. We need to eat protein, carbs, and fat to sustain our way of life. Cut one of the three out and imbalances will occur.
Tool 4- Rest
Rest is not a luxury. It is a necessity. We should eat well every day and we should workout 5-6 times per week. The leftover 1-2 days are meant for rest. Our muscles need time to rebuild and repair themselves.
Using strength training, cardio, nutrition and rest to our advantage will result in fat loss. There is no magic bullet. Just simple and effective tools to create the body we want. Make a promise to yourself right now. Try using the above tools consistently and to the best of your ability for 4 weeks. You’ll look great and feel amazing.
Copyright 2005 http://www.strength-training-woman.com
Lynn VanDyke is the proud owner of http://www.strength-training-woman.com. She is a personal fitness professional, yoga instructor and nutritionist. Her site is quickly becoming the authority for all things strength training.
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A recent article touting the wonderful effects of adding strength training to your regular workouts for results in the weight loss department. I thought this was common knowledge.
I discovered this myself shortly after my pregnancy. I had always been nice and fit. Ex-gymnast, ballerina etc and just a high metabolism person. But months after my pregnancy I couldn’t seem to lose those “last 10 pounds”. You hear it often but I had never experienced it. I didn’t have the freshman 15 in college. Didn’t gain weight like everyone promised after high school and even starting my 30’s I was still the same weight as in high school. But pregnancy? That did me in.
I worked out daily with my sister. We were determined. Cardio, cardio, cardio. A few squats here and there. Some crunches but man I was still big! Then I happened upon some well known weight training videos for women in a second hand store. They were hard but they were fun. My body wasn’t used to the weight so I started small. Three and Five pound weights. I was having so much fun. Then I had to get eight pounders. Oh i also needed ankle weights. The weight was dropping off! It was so wonderful.
Then I plateaud. Common with heavy workouts. I got kind of sad about the whole thing and put the weights down. I still had 2 or 3 I would have liked to removed. I thought it was about that much. My lower regions were still kind of chunky. So I lost my momentum and put the weights away.
A few weeks later I picked up a well known female exercise enthusiast’s 20 minute workout. Nothing big. I knew her stuff was easy but it had been a few weeks since I worked out. It was all cardio too and I was kind of tired of weighs. OHMIGOSH! I lost about 5 pounds that week! I know I sound like an informercial. The bottom line for me was a combination of both. The weights definitely started the ball rolling but I had pretty much omitted the cardio because the weights were so fun and actually for me easier. Cardio made me breathe hard. Ick!
Well that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. Get some weights ladies (and gents). Workout carefully and make sure you lift right. There are some videos to show just how it’s done too.
Have fun!
O Quinn is a wife and mother who likes to look for the best ways to get things done.
Visit her at http://www.homemakingorganized.com
Tags: cardio, exercise, fat, fat loss, fitness, lose weight, strength training, weight loss, weightscardio, exercise, fat, fat loss, fitness, lose weight, strength training, weight loss, weightsShare This
Ok, I’ll stop shouting. However, one of the most frustrating comments I deal with is “I’m exercising, I’m eating right, and I’m not losing weight.”
Allow me to first say that our obsession with the scale borders on fanatical. At the extreme some of you jump on the scales many times a day. This is a recipe for frustration, despair, disappointment, and failure. (Can you think of any other really bad things to add here?)
The reasons are,
1) your bathroom scale weight is ONLY a reflection of the force of gravity against you, meaning, it doesn’t tell you the important stuff like how much of your weight is body fat and how much is lean tissue.
2) Your weight can fluctuate WILDLY during the course of the day, depending on, among other things, your hydration level. And you ladies have a really tough time with this during your monthly cycle.
A couple of the most accurate ways to tell you are progressing toward (or maintaining) your goal weight is to have periodic pictures taken of yourself, and, also, gauge how well your clothes fit. Pictures and clothes don’t lie. Period. Even looking at yourself in the mirror is subjective, but picture and clothes tell the whole story.
If you must use a bathroom scale use one that also measures your body fat %. Several of these are available on the market at affordable prices. Links to some are below. If you exercise (and you do don’t you? hmmm) please look for a model with an “athlete” mode.
Personally, I use a TANITA model, but that was the best model at the time I bought mine 3 or 4 years ago. Do your own research.
My friend Jack gave me a great tip on using the scales to YOUR advantage. He and his wife, Terri, take their bathroom scales and skew the indicator to read something that is completely out of line with reality. E.g. Instead of an initial setting of zero you might choose 18.
How does this help? Well, when you look at the number. . .it’s just a number and doesn’t mean anything to you. Then record this number in a chart or spreadsheet and take the difference between this weigh-in and the last. Over time you can watch your “weight” trend up, down, or sideways.
Monitoring you “weight” this way removes the obsession with watching the scales. You then focus on progress. If you see the trend going up and you haven’t been in the weight room building muscle, then you can arrest the fat gain before it’s out of control.
On the flip side, if your “weight” is trending down and that’s the direction you want to go, great! However, if you are in maintenance, or you are losing too fast, action can be taken immediately.
It is still better if you use a scale that measures body fat %, however, short of that this is a great tip. Don’t overdo it on the weigh-ins however. Weighing yourself more than once a week can be counterproductive.
Lance Curtis is a personal trainer and author of “7 Keys to Unlock The Sexy Dream Body Inside of You!”
To claim your free copy go to http://ThePersonalTrainingGuru.com
Tags: excercise, fat loss, fitness, weigh loss, woman weight loss, women fitness, women weght lossexcercise, fat loss, fitness, weigh loss, woman weight loss, women fitness, women weght lossShare This