A few more weight loss secrets

We've talked about how to estimate how many calories you should aim to eat if you're trying to lose weight.  See my post on August 22nd if you  missed it.

Now, let's talk about how to use those calories. My suggestion:  spread them out through your waking hours.  This is beneficial for several reasons:

-You get to eat often :-)

-You don't get hungry

-Your metabolism stays a little elevated above resting level because you're digesting the food

-Your blood sugar stays stable so you feel better (as long as you make wise food choices)

Here's a sample breakdown of what a 1,700 calorie meal plan might be broken up:

Breakfast:  300 calories

Snack:  200 calories

Lunch:  500 calories

Snack:  150 calories

Dinner:  400 calories

Snack:  150 calories

Using the numbers you get in your own calculation, divide them up between 3 meals and 2-3  snacks.  Then plan what you'll eat and shop for it!

Notice I allotted  more calories to lunch? You could also transfer the higher calorie meal to breakfast, too. I'd like to see you eating more earlier in the day, and dialing the calories back a little toward the end of the day.  This won't work for everyone, but it's worth a shot if you can work your lifestyle around it.

When you're planning what you'll eat, try to get some lean protein, a fibrous veggie and good fats (from olive or walnut oil, nuts or seeds) at each meal or snack.

Now on to homework for folks at my Almaden and Campbell boot camps....

It's interval time again.  Choose your exercise (running, walking, swimming, or a cardio machine at your gym) and do the following:

3-5 minute warm up (at a level "5" on our perceived exertion scale of 1-10)

30 seconds HARD (at a level "8" or "9" on our scale)

30 seconds recovery (level "5" or "6" on our scale)

Continue for 12-20 minutes depending on your fitness level.  Newbies to camp, please don't over do it!

Cool down and stretch.

Committed to your success,

Becky

The Secret to Accelerated Fat Loss

Well, it's actually not a total secret if you're in one of my lifeSport Fitness boot camps. We do this all the time in our camps.

Another study has shown once again that high intensity interval training is THE method to incinerate calories, increase fat loss and improve your fitness.  The coolest part?  You do interval training workouts for less time than traditional, steady state exercise.  Very cool for those with busy lives!

Results from a  recent study by Professor Steve Boutcher from the University of New South Wales showed that women who alternated between bike sprints and moderate/slow pedaling for 20 minutes lost more weight than women who cycled for 40 minutes at a steady pace.  The high intensity group also improved their aerobic fitness faster and reduced their insulin sensitivity (great news for Type 2 diabetics!).

So, for this week's homework, we'll be doing the exact training protocol of Dr. Boutcher and his test subjects.  You don't need a stationary bike, though.  You can walk, jog, run, swim or hop on a cardio machine at your health club.  Grab your mp3 player, load in some fast music and let's get crankin'!

Warm up:  3-5 minutes

All out exercise:  8 seconds (yup, just 8 seconds!)

Recovery pace:  12 seconds

--Do as many rounds as you can, or up to 20 minutes--

Cool down 3-5 minutes

Stretch!

A note to newer exercisers:  Aim for just 5 minutes of intervals, and don't go "all out", just go faster.  For the remainder of your twenty minutes, work at a moderately paced effort.  It's important not to overdo it with high intensity exercise if you're a new exerciser.  Start with just a few intervals and build up.

We've had a week off of bootcamp.  How are your workouts coming along?  What are you doing for workouts?  Share your stuff here and motivate your fellow campers to get moving!

Committed to your success,

Becky

More on weight loss

A couple of posts ago, I shared with you a calculation to use to estimate how many calories you should eat in order to lose weight.  It's based on your current size and current activity level.If you haven't done your calculation, please do it now.  

Another important factor in weight loss is eating at regular intervals--about every 3-4 hours or so.  This is SO important!  It should look something like this:  Small meal, snack, small meal, snack, small meal, snack.  You can divide the calories that you came up with in your calculation between all these mini-meals.  

My snacks are usually 100-180 calories, and then I make up the bulk of my calories with the three small meals.  I don't count calories most of the time (although I do log into my FitDay account every now and then to see how my calories are adding up), as I've gotten pretty used to "eyeballing" portion sizes or weighing them on a food scale.  You'll figure out what works best for you.

So, if you're really serious about losing some body fat, this is an important thing to do:  spread your calories out over your waking hours.  This keeps your metabolism running a little higher (it takes calories to digest food), it keeps hunger from creeping up on you, it keeps your blood sugar levels steady (as long as you make appropriate food choices!), and it lets your body know that it will be fed at regular intervals (so it doesn't need to hold on for dear life to body fat as reserve fuel).

Give this a try and I'll be back in a few days with more exercise  homework and a few more weight loss tips.

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

Committed to your success,

Becky

Lose some more body fat!

Get excited--I'm ahead of schedule with my boot camp homework this week :-).

 I have another another high intensity interval workout for you.  You'll definitely burn some serious calories with this one.  You can  scale it to your current fitness level. Newbies, take it easy and go for one round or two.  Folks who have been exercising for awhile--crank out 3 or 4 rounds. As always, please do a 3-5 minute warm up before you start any of my high intensity workouts.

This is homework for Almaden bootcamp participants, participants in both Campbell boot camps AND my in-home personal training clients.  I should have customers in Campbell, San Jose, Cupertino, Los Altos and Saratoga doing my workouts this week without me there (gee, I feel so powerful).  

 It's a little scary how I sometimes get rather excited about workouts, isn't it?  The reason:  combined with supportive nutrition, they make you look better and feel better.  When you look and feel better, life is just a little more fun (and you're a nicer person to be around).

I had SO much fun in the last few weeks measuring body fat on leaner people--I want the next round of tests to show more results.  So without further ado, here is your workout:

After a 3-5 minute warm-up, do each of the following exercises for 45 seconds straight (or repetitions to fatigue), and then take 15 seconds to rest and transition to the next exercise.  Complete as many rounds as you wish.  As always, stretch afterwards.

Here you go:

Lunges in place

"The plank"

Jump squat (or a regular body weight squat for non-jumpers)

Push ups 

Jumping jacks

Horizontal row w/exercise tubing (see Perform Better catalog if you need a band)

Feel free to post a comment after you've done the workout (just trying to instill a little accountability!).  

Hey, we could have a contest to see which boot camp scores the most "homework completed" posts!

In-home personal training clients, I'll be waiting to hear your homework report at our next workout!

Have a great week!

Committed to your success,

Honey, I've shrunk the boot campers!

Yes! lifeSport bootcampers are shrinking! I've done body fat tests on a handful of boot campers and body fat numbers are decreasing! I've been measuring some 3% and 4% body fat losses. Yeah! Scale weight hasn't necessarily changed in everyone. Just goes to show ya that muscle weighs more than fat :-).

Now, I can't take all the credit, because I do believe that solid nutrition must back up a good workout plan, and since we only meet twice a week, I needle everybody to work out another 2-3 times per week. Apparently some of you are listening. Well done!

Now, for those of you who are still struggling to strip off some body fat, I've got homework for you. Not the homework you're used to, though. This homework involves math. Sorry. If you want to lose body fat, you need to get to boot camp, do your workout homework AND eat fewer calories than you expend. It's also important to spread your calories out throughout your waking hours (roughly three small meals and 2-3 snacks per day).

So, your homework is to figure out approximately how many calories you should be eating to lose weight, and then log your calories for a few days. There are a lot of fancy calculations to figure out your metabolic rate. I'm going to give you a very simplified one. It's not exact, but it will be a decent ballpark. Your metabolic rate can be influenced by genetics, gender, hormones, and muscle mass. We're all a little different.

If you're trying to lose weight, multiply your current weight by the following numbers based on your activity level:

Sedentary: Body weight x 10-12
Moderaly active: Body weight x 12-14
Extremely active: Body weight x 14-16

For example, a 140 lb. sedentary woman would multiply her weight by 10 and again by 12 and get this calorie range: 1,400-1,680. This is a ballpark calorie range for this person to lose weight.

The next step is to write down everything you eat. I suggest you log on to FitDay.com (see sidebar for link), create a free account, and let the FitDay software do all the calculations for you. You'll learn how many grams of carbs, protein, and fat you're eating. Cool stuff. By doing this, you'll see if you're close to the range in which you should be for weight loss.

Now, you probably thought I'd stop at the math homework. Nope.

Here's something to work on over the weekend:

Take a break from interval training this weekend and do a steady state cardio workout (yes, I said it, "steady state"--hey, you have to mix it up once in awhile!). Whether you choose a run, a power walk, or a cardio routine on a machine at the gym, get out there and get to a "7" on our scale of 1-10 and stay there for a solid 45 minutes.

Have a great weekend,

Becky

Train like an athlete to look like an athlete

The Olympics start today. Time to celebrate and train like an athlete! Those of you in my Campbell evening boot camp did the "Olympic Buns" workout already. Campbell morning folks--it's coming on Tuesday! Almaden morning folks---you'll get it on Monday!

For your weekend homework, I'm sticking with short burst cardio work--no strength stuff. Just really hard cardio followed by recovery periods. Think of yourself as one of those lean, muscular short distance sprinters (runners or swimmers) as you power through your intervals. Drive it as hard as you can during your short burst intervals.

Afterwards, treat yourself to a great post-workout meal of whole grain carbs and good quality protein (aim for about a 2:1 ratio of carbs to protein).

You can do your workout on any cardio machine at the gym or at home, running/walking on a track or around the neighborhood, or swimming.

Here is your workout:

Warm up with low level activity for 3-5 minutes (just a slower pace of what you're doing for your cardio)

Do an all-out sprint for 30 seconds

Recover for 90 seconds

Repeat this short burst interval/recovery cycle for 5-10 times depending on your fitness level and time frame

Cool down with low level activity for 3-5 minutes

Stretch!

Enjoy your weekend.

Post a comment here and let me know what you did for your "Olympic Sprint" workout!

Committed to your success,

Becky

What should you eat before a workout?

I know some of you morning exercisers don't like to eat before working out. I hear this a lot from people in my early morning fitness boot camps in Almaden (at the very cool Shamrock Martial Arts facility) and in Campbell (at John D. Morgan Park).

If you can handle it, it's a good idea to have just a small, easily digestible snack before heading out the door (something on the order of 100-150 calories). If you've got some readily available fuel in your body, you'll do much better in your workout. Obviously, if a small amount of food 30-60 minutes before a workout would make you ill--don't eat!

If you can stomach a little food before an early morning workout, here are some fueling ideas. They're easily digested sources of carbohydrates. Eat these 30-60 minutes before working out:
-1/2 of an energy bar ( one with more carbs than protein--save the huge protein bar for another day)
-1 piece of whole wheat toast
-1/2 or 1 whole banana
-1/2 cup cooked oatmeal (not the instant kind that's full of sugar!)
-6 oz. yogurt (this is a combination food--it contains carbs and protein)

If you're going to work out later in the afternoon, any of the above examples eaten about 30-60 minutes before a workout will do well for you as well.

I'll address post-exercise nutrition in a future blog.

Fuel yourself well for optimal workouts!

Becky