Saturday, February 19, 2022
PHOTO: file
I was talking with an old friend of mine last week, and we were discussing overall health.
We were comparing our blood work numbers, and he concluded that he was healthy EXCEPT for the 40 lbs. he needed to lose.
I stopped him immediately and said, “A healthy body doesn’t carry a lot of body fat, and a fat body can’t be healthy”, so you can’t be both. I said “You are either in good health, or you are not, you can’t be fat and healthy at the same time.
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We debated several health risks, and how being overweight is like playing Russian roulette then discussed a plan to help him turn things around.
He said he was watching what he ate, and doing the treadmill 3x per week, however, after digging deeper, I gave him some advice that I will share here with you.
Losing body fat, gaining muscle, and becoming leaner and stronger should be everyone’s goals.
That’s the formula for fitness. Plain and simple…. gain muscle and lose fat.
If you are working out and this isn’t happening, it’s time to make a change.
Time is too valuable to waste, and exercise is too difficult to be doing for nothing.
Here are a couple of alternatives to what you are doing.
You put too much of a stranglehold on your nutrition and pay too much attention to calorie counting.
My first and most important advice goes to food quality. Get rid of processed cheap food and eat quality whole organic foods.
Because you count calories, you end up eating low-quality heavily processed fat-free products, like fat-free mayo, fat-free yogurt, and other processed fat-free dairy products loaded with sugar, along with packaged meats, and reduced calorie beverages to try and save calories. You also sacrifice healthy fats by eating egg whites and low-fat peanut butter.
Instead, purchase quality organic whole foods, eat yolks and full-fat butter and dairy products (if you need to eat dairy). This type of food is lower glycemic and absorbed nutritionally by the body, so it gets properly utilized and digested. In addition, you will feel more satisfied, and you will eat less.
Remember your body needs fat and nutrients to function effectively and efficiently, build muscle, and fight disease and sickness, so don’t deprive yourself of nutrients to cut calories.
When you eat quality foods, it becomes more unlikely you will overeat or consume more calories than you burn, because quality food is less calorie dense, so you eat more volume in exchange for fewer calories.
Once you master the role of quality eating, now you can eliminate certain things and portion your foods accordingly.
By this time, you will have lost some weight and will look and feel better.
It is a good idea to track your food with a nutrition app to ensure you get enough protein in your diet.
Overtraining in general results in a negative outcome in several ways.
I see a lot of people (like my friend) spending hours a day exercising on elliptical machines, treadmills and recumbent bikes and they still do not get the results they are looking for. On the contrary, these people usually get flabbier, due to the fact they are burning muscle and not building it.
Training for longer amounts of time with little intensity nets you poor results. My suggestion would be to cut down on the cardio time and up the intensity. Hit it harder and shorter.
Hands down, doing a Providence Fit Body Boot Camp workout for 30 minutes will net you FAR BETTER RESULTS over walking for an hour on the phone, or watching tv on a stationary bike any day.
I hear women always worrying about getting too big from lifting weights. This is the main reason they neglect strength training. I feel the number one most important part of any exercise program is strength work. When women build muscle, they get leaner, look better, and their metabolism works faster. For women to get big and bulky, they need to work hard, lift heavy weights, and eat a ton of calories due to their genetic makeup. It won’t happen by accident.
We always do a mix of bodyweight, strength, and cardio work in every workout at our facility, so we hit all aspects of fitness. Not only does this make you look better and move more effectively, but it also revs up your metabolism to make your body burn more calories at rest.
The higher your muscle to fat ratio is, the more efficient you become at torching the unwanted body fat. It has also been scientifically proven that after a bout of resistance training, you burn calories longer than if you did a session of cardio.
Currently, things are getting blown out of proportion as to what it takes to get in shape. It is a simple formula; however it isn’t easy. Anything that nets good results requires hard work and discipline.
I believe exercise should be looked at like medication: too much= overdose. Too little= not effective.
Prescribe just the right dose and you will get the results you need.
I hope these tips clarified a few things for you. 1. Change your nutrition plan and start eating quality foods before calorie counting. 2. It takes strength training to get leaner. And 3. The formula for fitness is to always build muscle and burn fat.
Committed to your success,
Matt
P.S. If you need a jumpstart with your health and fitness plan, reach out to me here.
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