Weight loss
Weight loss is the topic of most conversations when it comes to working out and fitness. Yet, with something that is so widely talked about, and is the forefront of most conversations, weight loss is one of the most elusive things in America and the world! How can something so talked about, be so elusive and hard to obtain? I’m going to give you tips and tricks to help you on your weight loss journey, and capture that ever elusive weight loss that you have been searching for! Anyone starting their weight loss journey, anyone in the middle of their weight loss journey, or anyone who has tried a weight loss journey and did not get the results they desired, are not getting their desired results, or is trying to understand how to design a program to achieve their weight loss goals in beginning their journey should take the time to read this!
PAR-Q
When understanding how to approach a successful weight loss journey, we need to understand quite a few things about ourselves if we have any chance to succeeding on our journey. What do we need to understand, or how do we go about understanding more about ourselves? First, we need to look up and take a questionnaire regarding our health to make sure we are physically ready to start and fitness programs regarding weight loss. Fitness trainers, instructors, personal trainers, coaches, etc, should have a questionnaire readily available for clients, it is called a Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire, or PAR-Q. With this, you should be asked some questions that go over a brief account of your medical history, talk about any major surgeries that would require doctor approval to start a training program, any major health concerns that would require a doctor or physician approval before starting a training program, and a trainer can add their own questions to find out more about you. Some of those questions might ask about previous levels of fitness, if you’re a member of a gym, how often you workout, if you’ve played sports growing up, if you still play sports, etc., and this is a good time to ask questions about your personal goals, what you are trying to achieve, why you want to achieve these things, what kind of timeline that you are looking at to reach your goals, etc. Finding a person’s why is huge, because when you know their why, you can then eliminate the why nots and focus on what is going to help them break through any walls or break are from anything that is hiding them back. If the why is powerful enough, nothing will stand in their way!
Assessments
Assessments are the next thing to understanding your body, and how to reach fitness goals. This is where a trained professional comes in handy, because they are taught to observe the body to notice any imbalances, and this helps the professional design a program catered not only to your specific goals and needs, but also to help you with any imbalances going on in your body. Why is this important? This is the reason you seek out personal trainers, and this is what they go to school for and continue their education for, so that you can get your best results, and not suffer from any setbacks by getting injured. Assessments help trainers know how to train your body, how to push you, how to increase or decrease certain movements, what muscles are too active, what muscles are not active enough. Assessments will help gauge your level of fitness, where your heart rate should be during workouts, how much stress and resistance to put on your heart as well as your muscles. Assessments will give a trainer all the information they need to design a program formulated for you specifically, that will address your health, your level of fitness, or body functionality, movements, imbalances. The program design should improve your overall physical health, heart health, mental health, flexibility and function of your body, and help you achieve the goals and concerns you came in with. Every aspect of your daily life should be improved as part of the program design a personal trainer makes after doing a PAR-Q and Assessments for their clients!
Diet
I think we can all agree by now, a diet is not something you go on, or something you do for a short period of time. Diet is what you consume, and we are all on a diet, as we all eat and drink as a way of functioning. What we eat and drink gives us fuel, gives us energy to perform our daily tasks, and can either give us the ability to crush our daily tasks, or can inhibit us from being able to complete what we set out to do. When taking about weight loss, our diet is crucial in helping us being able to achieve what we want. This one thing can be the biggest difference in whether or not we accomplish our weight loss goals. This is the first thing we have to dive into, the first thing that we have to take a deep, hard look at, if we want to make any change in how we look at ourselves. Our body will is directly affected the most by our diet, whether that be with how we look, or how we feel. We have to take a hard look at what we consume on a daily basis to better understand how our body functions. Depending on how active we are, or what our fitness goals are, will also play a role in what we consume as well.
Our diet plays such a huge role on our daily lives. Our strength, our energy, our focus, our ability to function, everything we do on a daily basis is greatly affected by our diet. If we are tired or sluggish, or if we are bright eyed and full of energy, it depends on our diet. Depending on our specific fitness goals, we should tailor our diet around what we hope to accomplish, or have it tailored around our fitness program design. Our diet will help play a pivotal role in our fitness goals, and if our goal is weight loss, then we need to plan our diet accordingly to help us achieve that goal better. There are many ways to achieve the goal of weight loss through our fitness program, so that means there are many different ways what we consume can help us achieve those specific goals. The most important thing is that our diet consists of enough foods to give us enough energy to not just push through our workouts, but be able to handle the daily tasks that we ask of ourselves each day. Furthermore, understanding our workouts, and their effects on our body, our diet has to be able to keep up with the demands that the workouts have on our bodies after our workouts. What I mean by that, is many workouts are designed to burn calories for periods of up to 48 hours after a workout, so what we consume has to be factored into being able to handle that. So when we design our fitness programs, we have to make sure that our diets are tailored to handle to stresses that workouts like HIIT, resistance training, bootcamp training, or anything that offers and after burn effect with the workout.
Fitness
Fitness is defined as the condition of being physically fit and healthy. The quality of being suitable to fulfill a particular role or task. Physical fitness is a state of health and well-being and, more specifically, the ability to perform aspects of sports, occupations and daily activities. Physical fitness is generally achieved through proper nutrition, moderate-vigorous physical exercise, and sufficient rest. The ability to carry out daily tasks with vigor and alertness, without undue fatigue, and with ample energy to enjoy leisure-time pursuits and respond to emergencies. Fitness is a journey, and one that takes a long time before you can really start to feel that you are at your best. These are sentiments that I have expressed before, and definitions I have used before to define fitness, but they are important to know and understand, especially when it comes to weight loss and fitness. Years of bad habits lead to poor physical fitness and the need for a weight loss program, so you should come into the program understanding, that it also takes time to create those good habits and correct what we have done wrong for so long. You do not become overweight over night, the same way you do not become a physically fit athlete over night. Everything takes time and patience.
The first thing that most people do when they decide they need to lose weight is cardio. Now, cardio is not a bad thing at all, and can get you great results, but there are many other forms of fitness that get you much better results in a shorter period of time. The other thing people do, is understand that they need some weight training, but they use up all of their energy during cardio before ever lifting weights, and this is another huge no-no for the very reason I already stated, you use up all of your energy, plus risk injury this way. Another thing people try doing is cutting carbs and sugar from their diet, while doing cardio, which may give you some great results immediately, but usually leads to people feeling very fatigued and tired, and this is because you burn through all of your energy storage, burn through the fat storage saved for energy, and start burning through protein so your body starts eating away at muscle causing fatigue, weakness, illness, and potentially injury. The other thing people do as well, is they jump in full throttle, and they burn themselves out before ever making any real progress, and they get frustrated and give up. So what are our other options? How do we avoid any health risks, or injury? How do we avoid getting burnt out? How do we get results?
The most important thing you can do is understand yourself, and know who you are. The person who is at the gym the longest does not necessarily get the best results, they just have the most time to spend at the gym. A way of looking at yourself is, are you a dip your toe in the water type person, or are you a dive right in and fully emerge yourself under water type person. In other words, do you know your body well enough, to know how much you can handle right now? This is important, because for some people, starting off with a 5 or 10 minute workout might be far more beneficial for them and their progress, than if they were to workout for 2 hours. It is vital to understand this about yourself, so that you do not risk burning yourself out or causing injury by pushing your body passed it’s physical limits. Remember, this is a journey, so if you progress slowly, be patient and stay the course, and listen to your body. I would much rather you progress slowly, than push yourself passed your limits, get injured, and risk starting all over again.
We briefly discussed cardio, or cutting carbs and sugar, all beneficial, but if done incorrectly, or all right away, this could lead to some health risks, injury, or illness. Keep in mind, all of these are good ways to experience weight loss, but the best thing we can do, is something that is sustainable for long periods of time. So, if we cut carbs, to have some kind of sustainability, we have to know how to substitute to replace the carbs, and the same goes for sugar. This helps in limiting the effects of any major health risks, and also, as we slowly wean ourselves off of anything, we add the substitute so our body can better recognize what is going on. The same thing goes for when we want to reintroduce foods back into our diet, in an effort to not throw the body completely out of whack, we slowly incorporate those items into our diet, so our body can recognize what is happening. When we start cardio, we do not go out and run a marathon right away, we slowly build up our endurance, stamina, strength, and energy, and slowly start running further and further distances. Something to keep in mind, if we do cardio as our main way to lose weight, understand that for cardio, one of the best energy sources for our body is carbohydrates, so it might not be a good idea to cut carbs while starting a cardio program.
What are our other options for weight loss? Some of the best options for weight loss consist of resistance training, more specifically, time under tension resistance training. This allows for the body to burn calories for up to 48 hours after a workout, so you can effectively workout 3 or 4 times a week and get better results than if you were to run 7 days a week. Cardio burns calories, but only burns calories while you are exercising, so if you burn 240 calories on a treadmill, that is all you burned off. High intensity interval training, or HIIT, is a better way to burn calories, much the same way as doing a bootcamp training is, because like resistance training, or time under tension training, you put your body in a state that creates an after burn effect. The after burn effect helps your body continue to burn calories for periods of 24-48 hours after a workout is complete. The way these workouts get the best results is by creating great time and tempo within the workout, keeping your body in a constant state of movement, and by using compound movements within the workouts as a way of burning more calories by using more muscles during the workouts. Again, you need to know and understand your body so you know how much you can handle when doing these types of workouts. They are more demanding on the body, so you also have to design and develop a great diet so you can keep pushing forward and getting the most from these workouts. The goal is always to stay healthy during your workouts, so avoiding illness and injuries so that you keep progressing in your weight loss journey should be very important to you.
Health
The entire reason for starting a weight loss journey is because of your health, because you are worried about your health, or you want to remain healthy. So, what is health? The condition of being sound in body, mind, or spirit. The general condition of the body. Condition in which someone or something is thriving or doing well, their well-being. The state of being free from illness or injury. A person’s mental or physical condition. What is health when related to physical fitness? The state of well-being and, more specifically, the ability to preform aspects of sports, occupations and daily activities.
Our health should be the single most important thing when designing any kind of fitness program and diet. The more we understand about ourselves and our health, the better we can create a plan and program that will work for us. We are all different, so it would only make sense that we would all benefit differently from different programs. We can design programs all day that will get results for a mass amount of people when those people follow the program on a daily basis, and if we have a suggested meal plan for that program, know that those people that follow the meal plan most likely will see greater results than those just doing the workouts. The thing that sets personal trainers apart, is when you meet with them one on one, they can design a program specific to you, and your needs, and the more information and the better they understand you, the better your results will be.
Our health, as talked about in the form of weight loss, is becoming more of an epidemic in America. The rise of people being over weight, obese, and the rise of chronic disease in America is alarming to say the least. “Not surprisingly, chronic diseases have become the leading cause of death and disability in America, accounting for 70% of deaths in the United States. Indirectly, chronic disease takes a toll on the nation’s economy by lowering productivity and slowing economic growth as a result of escalating corporate health-care costs and the fact that 75 cents of every dollar spent on health care, or about $1.7 trillion annually, goes toward treating chronic illness.” -National Academy of Sports Medicine.
In the United States in 2006, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that chronic diseases were responsible for 5 out of 6 leading causes of death. OF these leading causes of death, 57 percent were caused by cardiovascular disease and cancer, and nearly 80 percent of these deaths could have been prevented if a healthy lifestyle was followed. Direct and indirect costs for cardiovascular disease in 2010 alone were estimated at $503.2 billion. When we look at numbers like 66% of Americans over the age of 20 are overweight, and 34% of Americans are obese, and this covers approximately 72 million people in America alone, and we factor in that over 9 million Americans ages 2-19 are overweight or obese, we can begin to understand why our health and weight loss is so important.
Your health is important, it is vital, and you can take control of your health today. Your health is vital to your success in whatever your fitness journey may be, and especially if that journey is weight loss. Managing your health through diet and exercise, a monitoring your health during fitness activities, before during and after, gives you a better understanding of yourself and can help you preform better and get better results faster. Many people are fighting back against conditions such as being over weight, obese, or heart disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or even cancer, by taking control of their lives and starting healthy lifestyles. Understanding yourself, and knowing that most of these are preventable, curable, and reversible, but also knowing that some of these are manageable by a healthy lifestyle should be encouraging for all people.
If you feel overwhelmed with where to start, if you are in over your head, or just need guidance, seek out a professional to help you get started. Take some of the tips in this post, whether it be deciding a training program for yourself, or planning your diet, use anything helpful to get started. Feel free to ask questions, leave comments if you would like more information. It is never too late to take back control of your life, and I would love to help you get started, and help you break through any walls or obstacles in your way on your journey. There is strength in numbers, so do not be afraid to ask for help. We all need a push sometimes.
So, what are the important things to remember during your weight loss journey? Take a PAR-Q, be honest with yourself, understand yourself, and provide any and all information you can think of to help your progress. Assessments will help you even better understand your body, and the stresses that it can handle, and the imbalances you may have to work on during your journey to help your body function at it’s best. Your diet and fitness are essential to making sure your health is at peak performance. At the end of the day, anything to do with fitness is about your health and being able to handle daily tasks, and to preform those tasks to the best of your abilities, and still have energy for the things unexpected and not asked of yourself. Your health will help you preform better in every aspect of your life, so having your diet under control, having your fitness levels and functionality preforming at it’s best, and living your best life by understanding yourself better and managing your weight will help you go a long way in living your healthiest, and best life. Also, remember that if your why is strong enough and powerful enough, there will be no excuse great enough to stop you or derail you from your journey! Get out there and live your best life today, besides, what are you waiting for?
Ryan Baker
NASM- Certified Personal Trainer
Team Beachbody Coach
Fitness Instructor/Coach
Athlete