Most people aren't successful reaching their weight loss goals because they don't have a thorough understanding of how their body works and as a result, they end up wasting time and effort doing things that don't get results. This is longer and more technical than most of my blog posts but if you take the time to read and learn the principles I'm about to outline, you'll save a ton of time and effort in your weight loss efforts
There are countless strategies out there for losing weight. One thing most people will agree on is that in order to lose weight, you need to create a "caloric deficit" where your body burns more calories than it takes in. What most people don't realize is the approach you take towards creating a caloric deficit can have a profound impact on your results and your ability to sustain them. Here are two of the most common weight loss questions I hear as a personal trainer and the answer to each of them.
Can't I just follow a strict diet where I eat fewer calories than my body uses?
Yes, and you'll probably even lose some weight from this approach, but your chances of keeping the weight off are pretty slim. Here's why... First, you will most likely get sick of the diet quickly and chances are you'll revert back to your old eating habits. But, for the sake of this article, let's just assume for a minute that you do have the willpower necessary to stick with a low calorie diet. The problem is your body is going to quickly adjust by slowing down its metabolism to more closely match your caloric intake. Don't get me wrong, limiting the number of calories you eat each day is important. But in order to successfully lose weight and keep it off, you need to look at other factors as well.
OK, then can I lose weight by starting a "cardio" routine (long runs, bike rides, elliptical, etc.)?
Yes, you can lose weight with this approach but again the results will likely be short lived because your body will lower it's metabolism in order to conserve energy. Even worse, your body will start to view muscle as unnecessary burden and will start breaking it down for energy. This is bad because your muscle mass is largely responsible for the total number of calories your body burns at rest (also known as your Resting Metabolic Rate or RMR). Your RMR is really just the number of calories your body burns to sustain basic life functions and this represents the majority of the calories you burn each day. So to state it more simply:
Lower Muscle Mass = Fewer Calories Burned = Less Weight Loss
The good news is, adding muscle can have the opposite effect (more on that later). For now, let's take a closer look at what comprises your body's overall metabolism:
Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)
As you can see, the majority of your metabolism (or burned calories) is attributable to your RMR. The most important factors responsible for your resting metabolic rate are:
1. Amount of muscle mass in your body - if you increase muscle mass, you increase the number of calories you burn at rest
2. Adequate Nutrition to meet activity needs. If you reduce calories too much, your body will burn FEWER calories at rest.
3. Intense workouts will increase the number of calories your body burns at rest for up to 48 hours after the workout.
As you can see, in order to create an environment where you burn more calories than you take in, it's important to focus on both your diet and activity level.
Now that we know the major components of your overall metabolism it should be clear that running long distances isn't a very effective way to lose weight. Your activity level only accounts for 20-30% of your overall caloric burn, and long slow distance exercise will negatively effect your Resting Metabolic Rate which is responsible for 60-70% of your total caloric burn.
We'll talk about Activity Level and the Thermic Effect of Food in a minute, but let's first review the main points so far...
- In order to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you take in.
- Muscle mass is largely responsible for the number of calories you burn at rest.
- The number of calories you burn at rest makes up the bulk of your total calories burned throughout the day.
- Long bouts of "cardio" and very low calorie diets can both cause your body to break down muscle for fuel and can slow down your metabolism.
Activity Level
Many people try to lose weight by focusing solely on increasing their activity level however activity level only accounts for 20-30% of your overall metabolism. Maintaining an active lifestyle is a very important component of overall health however it's important to remember that exercise is only a component of your overall health and weight-loss strategy. You can significantly enhance your results by strategically designing your exercise sessions so they magnify the effects of the other components of your overall metabolism. Here are a few important facts that influence the effectiveness of an exercise program:
Ø An intense resistance training session can increase your metabolism (or RMR) for up to 48 hours after the workout while jogging and other long slow distance exercise modalities typically increase your metabolism for less than 24 hours.
Ø The majority of the benefits that come along with exercise actually happen between exercise sessions (not during each session) so rest and recovery are important!
- By timing the workouts so each muscle group gets 48 hours of rest between sessions, you increase the effectiveness of each workout for two reasons:
- Your muscles need approximately 48 hours to repair and grow from the breakdown associated with exercise.
- By allowing your muscles to fully repair, they will be "fresh" for your next session and will result in more energy for added intensity..
- By focusing on more intense resistance training, you can increase muscle mass which will increase your overall resting metabolic rate.
- You will adapt relatively quickly to any new demand you impose on your body so if you don't build variety into your workouts, your results will quickly taper off.
- On average, adults lose between 5 and 10 lbs. of muscle mass each decade after the age of 30. During this time period, adults also experience a significant decline in power (ability to generate force quickly). By incorporating full body strength and power exercises in our programs, we can reverse these trends.
While your activity level only represents an average of 20-30% of your overall number of calories burned, it's important to know that you can leverage the principles above to create exercise programs that actually have a much more profound impact on your overall metabolism and ultimately, will help lead you to more significant, sustainable results.
Thermic Effect of Food
The thermic effect of food is just the amount of energy it takes to digest food. Said another way, it's the number of calories your body burns in order to break down and absorb the food you eat. Not all food is created equal in terms of its thermic effect. When you eat protein, your body actually burns 25-30% of the calories you ingest just to digest it. By comparison, the thermic effect of carbohydrates is 6-8% and the thermic effect of fat is 2-3%. This is one of the reasons we recommend eating lean, complete protein with every meal. One other way you can leverage the thermic effect of food to your advantage is to eat every 2-3 hours. By doing this your body will not only be getting a consistent supply of fuel as energy for your workouts, it will also be constantly burning calories from digestion.
Putting it All Together
There are countless approaches you can take to lose weight. Many will yield results over the short term but most will lose effectiveness over the long term if they aren't part of a bigger, more dynamic strategy. By learning as much as you can about your body's response to the various weight loss strategies, you can maximize your results while reducing the amount of time you waste on ineffective approaches.
If you'd like to learn more about how to maximize your weight loss results, visit the link in the resources section of this article.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_M_Chaves
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