How do I Lose Weight?

There is only one healthy answer to the question of weight loss. Unfortunately, we are bombarded with hundreds of different messages telling us that weight loss would only be achieved using a particular product. Wrong!

There are three components to losing weight. Each of these components must be mastered before someone can seriously expect to lose weight.

The first component is mental. You must learn how to lose weight and then dedicate yourself to losing weight while maintaining your health. Reading this article is a great way to start your education. Determine how much weight you need to lose (see my next post about healthy weight). Write out a goal statement. Make it exact. Say how much you would like to lose and how long it will take. WRITE this statement twice a day, everyday, until you reach your goal. This will help remind you what you are going to accomplish.

The next component is your diet. I would strongly recommend meeting with a registered dietician if you are serious about losing weight. They can help you plan your meals and teach you how to eat for maximum health. If that is not an option, begin keeping a record of the approximate amount of calories that you eat. Make sure that as you begin your exercise program, that number does not increase. Also, focus on eating a lot of fruits and vegetables. It is very difficult to over eat fruits and vegetables because they are mostly water.

Exercise is the third component. Begin with light activity such as walking for 20 minutes  per day. Keep a record of how long you walk. Gradually, increase the amount of time that you walk until you are walking ~1 hour per day. At this point, walking faster or jogging can burn additional calories. Strength training is also very important to losing weight while maintaining your health. Consult with a personal trainer, staff at a local gym, or search around on this blog to find additional information on beginning a strength training program.

Good Luck!

chrisnasti.com

What Cardio Machines Burn the Most Calories?

In order to appeal to a wide variety of consumers, health club owners will often decide to purchase a wide variety of aerobic exercise machines. However, this can leave their patrons confused about which machine they should use in order to get the best results. Are you curious about which machine you should use?

My first recommendation would be to pick the exercise that you like the most so that you enjoy your time in the gym. If you are havnig fun, you will be more likly to exercise on a regular basis work out at a higher intensity.

If you do not have a preference, I would recommend using the treadmill. Running on a treadmill uses all of the muscles in your legs and gets your abs and lower back involved as stabilizers. Treadmills are also the best cardio machines for maintaining bone density and preventing osteoporosis. Elliptical machines are great if you experience any joint pain, but do very little to help your bone health.

Impact of Sex on Training

I checked the active.com message boards for questions people had about fitness. The most interesting question I found asked what effects pre-race sexual activity had on an athlete.

 To be honest, up until now, the only thing I have ever heard on the subject was Mickey yelling at Rocky that “Women weaken legs.” So I did a little research and found a study that actually looked at the topic. They study only looked at men, but it found that sex before attempting a maximal cycling test had no detrimental influence on the athlete’s maximal workload. Sex also did not affect these athlete’s abilities on math tests.

 They did say that the athletes had a higher post-exercise HR on the day they had sex. This would mean that their recovery time following the exercise might be longer than normal.

 (Sztajzel, J., et. al, 2000)

Strength Training Intensity

I read a lot of articles and books on the topic of strength training. The authors will often tell the reader that he or she should select the weight they use based on a one repeition max (1RM).

 A 1RM is the heaviest amount of weight that one can lift for a particular exercise. Someone may recommend that you perform an exercise for 20 reps at 50% of your 1RM. That is very specific and would be an excellent way to recommend a program to someone who has been working out with weights for a while.

 Why is this a problem? Most people in the world do not lift weights on a regular basis. If you are just beginning to work with weight training, you should not attempt to find your 1RM. You might end up lifting more weight than your body is able to handle and you will risk injuring yourself. That is not a good way to start off a program.

  Instead of hurting yourself finding your 1RM, start off with a light weight. Make sure you are performing the exercise correctly. When you can perform the desired number of reps while maintaining good form, challenge yourself by increasing the weight. Once you learn correct form for each exercise and have given your body some time to adapt to the stress of lifting weights, it will be much safer to find some of your 1RMs.

Hello

Hi, my name is Chris. I get annoyed when I hear news reports about misleading fitness information so I have decided to create this blog to help people learn the truth about their health and fitness.

I am not yet sure what kind of material will end up on this page. However, if you feel that you have any questions related to exercise, fitness, weight loss or sports conditioning, please feel free to post the question as a comment. You can also e-mail a question directly to me at chris.kines@gmail.com. I will do my best to answer these as they come in.