When I first set out on my fat loss journey from fat to fit, a lot of (misinformed) people told me that the only surefire way there is to losing fat is by exercising in the Fat Burning Zone. The theory is that in this zone of exercise intensity, the body uses stored fat for energy. At 60-70% of your maximum heart rate, 85% of your calories burned in this zone are fats, 5% are proteins and 10% are carbohydrates.
In a nutshell, the theory was that if I worked out at this pace, my body would burn only fat for energy. In other words, to get into this “fat-burning zone”, I needed to commit to hours of low to moderate intensity cardio every week so that I could shed my flab.
I’m sure you’ve heard this advice before. It's one of the biggest misconceptions in the fitness and weight-loss world, so I decided to spend some extra time writing about it. If long, slow, steady-state aerobics was the key to fat loss every person who crosses the finish line of a marathon and all of those people you see at the gym who are endlessly on the treadmill would have very low body fat. This just isn't the case.
Endurance exercise solely for fat loss does not make sense. Your goal as an endurance athlete is to become efficient and better at running, biking or swimming. A different plan of attack needs to be used to burn fat--a more effective and efficient plan.
The “Fat Burning Zone” has been greatly misinterpreted. The fat-burning zone is a concept that the body burns a greater amount of fat at lower-intensity aerobic exercise than it does at higher intensities. Actually, the body burns a greater percentage of fat at lower intensities than at higher intensities. At lower intensities, the body may burn 50 percent of the calories from fat, while at higher intensities it may only burn 35 percent. But at higher intensities you burn way more total calories—and more fat calories overall—than you do at lower intensities.
That is a key difference!!!
Remember, metabolism is largely a function of how much muscle you carry. Since aerobics does little to even maintain muscle, let alone build it, unlike resistance training, your metabolism is not increased while at rest.
You can forget all about long, boring cardio exercises with the BusyBod Workout for Fat Loss, we’ll have none of that!
The TRUTH About the Fat-Burning Zone
Let's Not Forget The Health of Our Kids
I have two little girls and I'm always wondering if they're getting enough phys ed in school. Since they only have "gym" twice a week for 30 minutes, I can tell you that they certainly aren't. So like anything else, it's usually up to the parents to make sure that their children are being educated on the importance of exercise and good nutrition and are actually doing something about it.
It's ironic then, that the "guvanah" Arnold Schwarzenegger (once known for his passion for building the human body to perfection) announced earlier this year that he was cutting the state's education budget. As a former adjunct professor and as someone whose wife is very active in our school district, I can tell you that this often means that phys ed budgets are among the first to go. As if things could get any worse...
I was shocked to read in Men's Health the other day that:
- Only 4% of elementary schools provide daily gym classes
- Only 8% of middle schools do
- Nearly 1/3 of American children are at risk for obesity (this I knew already)
But unfortunately we can't depend on the schools to teach our kids the benefits of exercise and eating healthy. We need to not only educate them, but integrate both into their lives until they become the norm. The same way that parents need to be responsible for what their kids watch on television, it's up to us to make sure our children understand the importance of physical activity and good nutrition. How can we do that? Well, here are some of the things I do:
- Keep a bowl of fruit on the kitchen counter. That way when they're looking for a snack, they have fruit handy for them. The rule in my house is that they can have fruit at any time without asking, but if they want something like chocolate, they need to ask. In this way I can moderate how often they're eating sweets. I can hear some of you saying "Yeah, right. That won't work in my house", which leads into my next two points.
- I started early, really early. From the time they were wee tots I spoke to them about the importance of eating healthy, what bad things like potato chips did to their bodies and the different benefits of each fruit or vegetable they ate. I did this consistently and 8 years later I still do it at least 3 or 4 times a week. The result? My kids understand the benefits of what they are eating and often brag about (especially my little one) what they're eating! Imagine that! A 7 year old bragging about the apple she's eating!
- Practice what you preach. I do all of my workouts at home so my girls will often see me working out and will often try to mimic me. I explain the benefits of each movement to them as I'm doing them. They understand the importance of exercise because they see their dad do it almost daily and they see the results.
- Remember, they're just kids. Do I constantly try to teach my girls about nutrition and exercise? Yes! Do I encourage proper habits when it comes to eating? Yes! Do I let them eat snacks that aren't necessarily healthy? Yes...but in moderation. Trying to keep any child away from the junk their friends are eating will just cause them to be resentful and will eventually just end up sneaking unhealthy snacks behind your back. Although I secretly cringe just thinking about it, they're allowed one snack a day that's not on my "healthy snack" list (fruits, carrot sticks, almonds, etc...). We just make sure to keep the portion sizes small.
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Are You REALLY "Trying Everything?"
Last week I was returning from a family vacation. Our return flight was in the middle of the day (around lunch time) and we wanted to grab lunch before we got on the plane. There were three places you could get food from, all right next to each other. One was a sports bar type of place (burgers, sandwiches and beer), one was a Pizza Hut to Go and one was a salad/health food type of place that had mostly different types of salads, smoothies and fruits.
As you would guess, the sports bar type of place was overflowing with people since it was Sunday and the football games were on. But between Pizza Hut and the health food place, guess which one had NO people on line and which one had 18 people on line?
Guess what most of those people on the Pizza Hut line looked like. Only 2 of the 18 weren't overweight.
How many of them do you think that if asked, would say that they would like to lose weight? My guess would be almost all of them.
So if all of these people want to live a healthier life and lose fat, what's stopping them from making the right or "healthiest" decisions?
I'm sure marketing has much to do with it. Whether consciously or sub-consciously, we're all brainwashed to some extent to make certain choices based on the messages of these companies that we're bombarded with daily.
Maybe it's the smell of the fast (fried) food.
Maybe it's the perception that healthy food is more expensive? For the record, in reality for one meal you're talking a $2 to $3 difference on average (isn't that worth eating better, feeling and looking better and making a contribution towards a longer life?).
I'm not sure what the answer is. But it's definitely something to consider when you're making your day to day decisions on what to eat (and what not to eat).
Be honest with yourself, ask yourself "am I REALLY trying everything to lose the weight I want to lose?"
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Did You Fall for This "Weight Loss Miracle" Food?
You can't really miss it on the Internet these days. Seems like everywhere you look there's another company promoting the nutritious Acai Berry as a weight loss miracle.
And that's why I thought it was critical to write you today. I want to make sure you know my opinion on the subject.
First, you know better than to believe you're going to pop some pills - ANY pills - and have the pounds and inches melt off like magic. If you've been listening to me for any length of time you know true fat
loss comes from a variety of factors, including exercise and proper nutrition.
Second, any fitness expert worth their fees will tell you that any diet that promotes you eat any one food all day long and then eat a sensible dinner, well, don't bother. Yes, you will lose some weight short-term,
but as soon as you go back to your old eating habits - and you know you will - you know exactly what happens.
Third, the Acai Berry contains VERY powerful antioxidants and it is getting a lot of good press for that very reason. Yes, antioxidants as in the extraordinary nutrients that help fight the free radicals associated with aging, cancer risk and other degenerative diseases.
And while on the subject, I wanted to fill you in on something that has recently come to light in case you didn't read my post from yesterday. Did you know that coffee berries (the berry that covers the coffee bean) is one of the most powerful antioxidants on the planet? It's something researchers have discovered in recent
years.
What's really cool is my friends at Prograde Nutrition have just created an amazing Whole Foods based Anti-Aging formula called Prograde Longevity that includes both Acai Berry and Coffee Berry. Oh, and it
also utilizes Green Tea, Pomegranate, Wolf Berry and Biovin Grape (Red Wine extract.)
Just to give you an idea of how powerful this formula is, well, you'd have to eat an entire POUND of raspberries to get the same ORAC value. And in case you're not familiar with the term, ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity.
You can check out Prograde Longevity for yourself here: http://getfitnesstoday.getprograde.com
Oh, and just so you know, you can't find Prograde products in stores anywhere. They're so exclusive they only let fitness experts work with their company to help them get the word out.
Yours in health,
George Louris
Halloween Fat Burning tips
And while I want you to have a great time, I do NOT want you to kiss your fat loss goals goodbye. Here are four quick Halloween Fat Burning Tips to help keep you on track.
1) Make sure you get a good workout in that day. Preferably strength training. It'll have you blasting fat all day long.
2) Whatever you do, do NOT starve yourself all day long in anticipation of your big night out. That's one of the worst things you can do.
3) If you're having a chocolate craving - it is Hallowen after all - you want to have some good dark chocolate on hand. (Note: I recommend Prograde Cravers. )
4) Start Halloween off with 2 large cups of water when you wake up. You also want to drink 1-2 cups before each meal as it will help you from consuming WAY to many calories.
Happy Halloween
