Plateau is just a myth

I would like to think, that during me writing and you reading my blog, you have realized, that weight loss is nothing more than simple math. Adition and subtraction are the only two functions that you need to know to lose weight. If that's the case, then can someone please explain to me why is my mailbox filled up with questiona on how to break a weight loss plateau?

After being in this business for as long as I have I can honestly say that you can’t hit a weight loss plateau because such a thing does not exist. At all!

Let’s start with the only way a plateau would even be possible. I was once training someone who was obese. This person had more than 50kg to lose and whatever we did, the weight just wasn’t coming off. His electrolytes were completely balanced, his diet was perfect and I switched up his exercise routine every week, to keep his body in a constant state of wander (and as far away from adapting to exercise as possible). 3 weeks into the program he lost about 0.5kg in total so I told him to go and see his doctor to get his blood tested for any abnormalities. It turns out that this man had a horrible hormone imbalance and that this was the cause of him not being able to drop the weight. A year has passed after this. During this time he was (and still is) working with his endocrinologist and a registered dietitian as well as a few trainers. He managed to lose 30kg of pure fat and is on his way to achieving his goal weight.

Apart for that, there are three other reasons why people perceive that they have reached a plateau.

1)      Vanity kilo

2)      Attention to detail

3)      Water retention and electrolyte imbalance

Vanity kilos are those last five to ten kilos that everyone struggles with at the end of their weight loss journey. At this point the body thinks that it is healthy, and let’s be honest, the person with this little kilo is a completley healthy individual, but they want to drop the weight only for the esthetic reasons. He or she will try and eat less than recommended and will burn more and more calories as his frustration grows. Remember when I talked about starvation mode? Well, this is essentially it. For an example a person has an active metabolic rate of 1900 calories and is eating 1400 calories per day, creating a daily 500 calorie deficit. On top of that, he/she is exercising 6 days a week and burns about 800 calories per session. Now if we take these numbers and look at how much of a deficit this individual is creating on a daily basis we see that he/she is creating a deficit of 1300 calories on the day they are working out and 500 calorie deficit on the day they aren’t working out. A prolonged deficit of 1300 calories will surely cause your metabolism to slow down substantially!

The solution is simple. Your daily calorie deficit, when it comes to vanity kilos, should no smaller than 500 and no greater than 1000 calories (around 700 is ideal if I’m judging from my experience). So, this plateau myth is debunked.

Lack of attention to detail is the most common problem with almost everyone I have ever met. They either don’t count their calorie intake or they don’t count how many calories a day they are burning with activity and exercise.

The solution here is simple: COUNT YOUR CALORIES! Look at my previous posts about how to calculate your BMR, AMR and how to track your calorie expenditure (calories you burn with activity) and be consistent with it. Don’t forget, living healthy is not a 2 month plan or idea. It is a way of life!

Water retention and electrolyte imbalance are the last piece of the puzzle. I have seen people who didn’t lose weight like they were supposed to due to an illness (a cold, flu or something more severe) because they were retaining water in their bodies. When we are sick, our bodies are fighting off an infection and we do retain a lot of fluid due to the drugs we are taking and the electrolyte imbalance.

Stress is also an important factor that inhibits weight loss. When we are stressed our adrenal glands release cortisol (stress hormone). Cortisol promotes weight gain by storing fat in our bodies.

Until next time, stay strong and be kind.

Picture taken from: http://tiny.cc/tv11hw

Aerobic exercise - Tips

As you know regular cardio exercising brings a whole array of positive things from reducing your weight, preventing diabetes, reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, it boosts your immunity, reduces stress and it can really lift your spirits when you’re down. It’s kind of like a magic pill filled with health. Unlike strength training, that most of us can only picture doing in a gym, cardio exercise can be done by anyone anywhere. I’ve compiled a list of 10 tips to help you start and stick to whatever suits you best.

1)      There is more to cardio exercise than just running and cycling. There is virtually an unlimited number of options for you to chose from. Finding the right one for you might seem a bit tedious at times, but once you have found it, you have a partner for life. At the gym you can chose from elliptical trainers, stationary bikes, rowing machines, treadmills, stair steppers, circuit training or even some interval training or plyometrics during your strength training. Why not join a zumba course, bootcamp, aerobics or a martial arts class? Some people find it easier and more motivating to work out in a group instead of doing it themselves. And even if you are not an “indoors” type of person you can always go out for a walk, jog or run. You can cycle, rollerblade, swim or do about anything.

2)      Have some good equipment. Proper shoes are a must for almost anyone. Find the right pair that will keep your foot stable and in place.

3)      Start small. Don’t push yourself too hard in the beginning. If you can, do a 30 minute jog with 5 1 minute running intervals.

4)      If you plan to join the gym, don’t be afraid of the more experienced people there. 95% won’t be mean and almost everyone will lend a helping hand should you need one. Don’t forget, everyone started somewhere.

5)      Not big on the outdoors? Or being in the room filled with sweaty people? Try out some work out DVDs. They are really cheap and will last you a lifetime.

6)      Invest in some new music. Research has shown that the right kind of music for you can help your performance, making you go longer and faster.

7)      Make it social and not a chore. You would be surprised at what some good company can do for you. And I’m not talking just about the social aspect. A partner can motivate you on the days when your performance is lacking.

8)      Switch your routine up. Everyone gets bored of repeating the same thing over and over again. Try something new and exciting.

9)      Get plenty of sleep. 6 to 8 hours per night are best. A well rested body is a regenerated body. If you don’t sleep enough, your performance will suffer, you will be cranky and you will probably overeat due to the hunger hormone – grelin.

10)   Drink plenty of water. Enough said!

Until next time, stay strong and be kind.

Picture taken from: http://tiny.cc/j0c2hw

How to measure your body composition?

For a very long time, the scale and the mirror were considered to be the best tools to determine your progress with fitness. But due to a rise in psychological syndromes like body dismorphia, anorexia nervosa and bulimia, this has become a bit out dated and definitely not right for some populations.

By now you know the basics on how your body is composed, but to determine the real percentages we need to dig a little deeper into the literature and in some cases, our wallets.

the body mass index (BMI) whit which we can see if an individual is in the healthy weight range, or maybe over or underweight. This methods biggest disadvantage is that it focuses only on the weight of the person and that it doesn’t distinguish between lean body mass, water, fat mass and bone mass.

In my opinion, I would definitely stay away from this method if you are lifting weights or if you are very “number driven” person (number driven – your whole self image is dependent on the number on the scale).

The best and cheapest way to measure your body composition is the skinfold measurement. It is the most widely used body composition test method for assessing the body fat percentage and it is 98% accurate. Just be sure to have the same person doing it, because the results can vary greatly. You can use a 3 or 7 site skinfold method.

3 site skinfold is measured differently in men and women. In men we take the measurements on the abdomen (vertical fold; 2 cm. to the right side of the umbilicus), chest (Diagonal fold; one-half the distance between the anterior axillary line and the nipple.) and the thigh(Vertical fold; midway between the knee and hip).

In women we take the measurements on the triceps(Vertical fold; back of the hand, halfway between the elbow and shoulder), thigh (same as men) and on the suprailiac (about 2.5cm above your right hip bone) location.

The 7 site skinfold is done on the chest, triceps, abdomen, thigh, and on the subscapular, axillar and suprailiac locations.

Even though it is a very easy and an inexpensive method (plus if you have the caliper at home, you can take measurements as many time as you would like) it still has some disadvantages. The results can vary greatly if there are multiple people taking the measurements, due to different experiences. Plus it isn’t the best method for obese or very lean people.

The last one I would like to describe is the Water weighing method. It uses the Archimedes principle of buoyancy to determine the body composition. Fat floats so the more the buoyant the client, the bigger his/her fat reserves are because muscles and bones are denser than water.

This is a great method, but it isn’t accessible to a lot of people due to the magnitude of the equipment involved. You can usually find it in research centers or in universities.

Until next time, stay strong and be kind.

Picture taken from: http://tiny.cc/zkgnhw

References:

http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwfit/bodycomp.html

http://thibaulta.blogspot.com/

http://www.topendsports.com/testing/bodycomp.htm

Introduction

For most of my life I have been an overweight person. My eating habits were horrible, I didn’t get enough sleep, I didn’t exercise and I drank heavily since the first time in my mid teens when I have tasted the “joy” of numbing out all emotions with alcohol. It got so bad that when I was 21 I weight more than 125 kilo (fortunately the scale went only to that number, but I think that I weight more than 135 kilo).

There is a thing in taking the easy road. I mean, you don’t have to think about anything other than just sticking to whatever you are doing and just cruise through life on auto mode. But doing that will, for the most part, get you nowhere. Even if you do decide to change something, it is still more convenient to take the easy way and just blindly follow some ones guide. But unfortunately the gained results are short lived and you find yourself back at the beginning of your journey, not learning anything in the process. I didn’t want that happening to me, so I decided to become well educated in that field.

In my six years of studying about sports and clinical nutrition as well as exercise and sports psychology I have seen a rapid growth in overweight and even obese people in my surroundings. Whatever the reason is, there is a big gap between people and the right kind of information that they need. Lately there has been a storm of all different kinds of diets and diet books from the zero diet, alkalizing diet, fruit diet, vegetable diet, ketogenic diet, carb diet, no fat diet and so on and so forth. Trust me, if you start reading more than one at a time, the conflicting information in them will surely drive you mad and want to give up. And even if we do have all the right information in one place, it is still very difficult to stay motivated and very easy to lose sight of your goals. Especially if you don’t see the number on the scale getting smaller on a weekly basis.

I lost a substantial amount of weight due to trial and error. Unfortunately for me, one of my errors was that at one time at around 24 years of age, I realized that a weight of 65 kilo is not healthy (considering I’m 1.83 centimeters tall). At that time I was eating no more than 2 apples a day, and I considered myself lucky if I did not throw up every time I took a bite. I was anorexic and bulimic. To top that off I realized that I have body dysmorphia syndrome. An injury I sustained at the age of 25 came as a blessing in disguise. I managed to get to 90 kilo and am currently in the process of gaining muscle mass and losing those pesky few kilo, that remain on my body.

These are just few of the reasons why I have decided to create this site. I wanted to educate people about healthy weight loss, healthy nutrition, exercising and how to stick to your plan, even when your motivation is low.

So to sum it all up, welcome to my site, where I will try to teach you everything that you need to know about losing weight and keeping it off with great and healthy nutrition, exercises and motivation. 


Picture taken from http://tiny.cc/7nvmhw