As I have tried to emphasize before, fitness is all encompassing, it must be an ever present part of our lives. If your goal or definition of fitness then is yourself 15lbs lighter and more toned, then you must eat, sleep, and live in a way the progresses you towards that self-made definition.

Eating smarter is step number 1. Sure everyone says, oh but I am eating better and adhering to a more rigorous nutrition schedule but if I asked you to document your every intake, what would be the true story. Weight loss is simply taking in less calories than you expend, and maximizing the quality of those that you decide to ingest. That means low GI foods, with higher ratios of protein and good fats than carbs. Take care of your diet and bust your ass (excuse the vernacular) in the gym, and trust me, you WILL see results. Sure some people have more stubborn fat deposits than others or are prone to retain fat in key areas, but that is something again that can be targeted and eradicated. I just get so fed up with people that complain about not being able to be who they want to be and I know they are the kind of person that barely breaks a sweat or reads a magazine on the treadmill. Put up or shut up.

So to take away from this, remind yourself every day that if you have a weight goal in mind, do not simply rely on your one hour in the gym; accomplish your goal through a combined effort of excellent nutritional techniques, hard work, and a constant reminder that the quality time you put in, will produce results.

It’s what pushing for implosion means: You are who you are, if you want to change, even if only slightly do so by releasing your image of who you are currently and rewrite yourself.

Defy your Limits.

Let’s first preface this discussion with some basic math stuffs. Your body is like a battery, excuse the sorry analogy. To do work it must intake a sufficient level of calories to convert into usable energy, which in our bodies is ATP or adenosine triphosphate. At the end of the day, excess levels of ATP are stored as either fat glycogen or other sugar substrates… or excreted. This is a gross simplification but it is sufficient for our purposes.

So let’s say you intake 4,000 calories over the course of the day but only do enough activity to burn 3,000. Well, chances are a portion of that unused energy is going to be stored as excess weight. How your body deals with this excess is specific to you, but in general, the above rule holds true. So you might ask next if there is a baseline as to how much you should consume per day. Well there is and it is called your basal metabolic rate. It is the measure of how many calories your body requires to be able to support its basic functions were you to be asleep all day. Figuring out your BMR requires rather strict testing conditions and calorimetric analysis of your breathing. For our purposes we will use a resting metabolic rate prediction or RMR. RMR is a rough estimate while BMR is precisely the number of calories your body requires while at rest.

The primary reason that most people cannot maintain a certain weight, or achieve a particular weight related goal, is because they are consuming more calories than they are using in a given day. Other factors do contribute, but this is the primary reason. The following resource provides an excellent calculator that will estimate your RMR. Use this as a baseline number of how many calories you should be consuming per day. Also, pay attention to the various levels of activity and how they require more or less calories. For example, a strenuous level of activity requires more calories per day than a sedentary level of activity. http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php

Once there, click on “BMR & RMR Calculator“, populate the blank fields and see what it reports. If it tells you that your RMR for a light level of activity is 2,500 calories, and you are consuming 3,500, then you can assume that it is likely that if you want to drop some weight then you should lessen your caloric intake.  It is a give and take model, you want to provide as many calories as you are going to use and if you consume excess calories, expect weight gain.

For a lengthier discussion on BMR/RMR, the following is a excellent, concise read.

http://www.caloriesperhour.com/tutorial_BMR.php

If you google secrets of fat loss, http://topsecretfatlosssecret.com/ is the first link that comes up. First let me say that anyone or anything that makes you buy knowledge relating to health and fitness is nonsense. This does not include trainers, dietitians, nutritionists or doctors as they are charging you more for a one on one assessment of your needs. Back to, “Dr Suzanne Gudakunst”. She is making the claim that all people who are overweight are overweight because their intestines plaque buildup that is preventing the digestion of food, but to remedy this you need to buy her secret.

First of all, if you believe that you are overweight because of something other than your lifestyle i.e genetic predisposition, hormone imbalance, or other health disorder, consult a physician. You cannot make such an assumption though without first invoking a rigorous overhaul of your diet practices and incorporating a fitness routine into your daily lifestyle. This self proclaimed doctor is not known to either the American Medical Association or any state licensing board of practicing medicine. Thus she is more like a witch doctor, than anything else. When deciding on who to take advice from, at the most basic level, take the time to do research on who exactly the person that is giving you the advice is.  And again I will repeat this, NEVER purchase “secret information” from anyone or anything. Later posts will discuss good resources for finding legitimate health information.