My First Serious Blog (Kinda)

Well, I guess it's time to post my first serious blog. And since I'm a trainer, I thought I would share with you some things about fat loss that you may not have known, or you may have known but it needs to be reiterated, or it's one of those things that you probably knew from hearing it from your significant other, but you had to hear it from someone else to believe it. It's like when you're outside and your spouse says, "dang, it's really hot out here", and you reply with, "I think it feels good". Then a stranger approaches you and says, "dang, it's really hot out here", and you reply with, "Dang, you're right", while your spouse gives you a look that can singe a hole in your favorite Run DMC t-shirt.

1. No matter how hard you train, you can't out-train your nutrition. Some people think by simply starting with an exercise program that they will lose fat. Not true. Let's say you've been taking in an extra 300 calories per day that you don't need, so it gets stored as fat. A pound of fat is approximately 3,500 calories. That means about every 12 days, you are gaining a pound of fat. (Go ahead and get your calculator.... 300 X 12 = 3,600 calories.) Let's say you don't change your diet, and you hit the treadmill every day, burning an additional 300 calories per day. 4 weeks later, you see no results. Well, that's because you're just now breaking even. You CAN'T out-train your nutrition.

2. Calories in, Calories out.... I freakin' hate that. Yes, it's true that you need to burn more calories than you take in in order to lose weight. But if "John" is eating 2,000 calories of lean proteins, fruits, and vegetables and "Robert" is eating 2,000 calories of Cokes, ice cream, and pizza, I'll bet money that "John" will have better results than "Robert". By the way, if you are reading this and your name is John or Robert, that's pretty cool.

3. No, 100 repetitions every day on the new gadget you saw on TNT the other night will not give you a 6-pack. I don't give a crap what the infomercials say.

4. People always ask me what I think the best supplement for fat loss is, and I like to say, "depending on the quality of the supplement, it's whatever you put on your fork and spoon". Don't get me wrong, there are some supplements that can help with your efforts, however, they are SUPPLEMENTS. They "supplement" your efforts, not replace them. Get your nutrition in order first. A good start along with your nutrition program is a quality multi-vitamin and fish oil. But before taking the multi-vitamin, you'll burn more calories if you do the Humpty Dance just before taking them. No, not really. But it is fun and that's what I do.

5. I love it when people ask me how I lost all that weight and tell them I had to exercise and change my eating habits. Many of them look so disappointed. It's like they were anticipating some miracle diet or supplement. The look of, "ahhh crap. I have to work hard for it? That sucks" is priceless. Yeah, it takes work. But trust me, there's no better feeling in the world.

6. Doing 20 minutes of cardio intervals is better than 60 minutes of steady-state cardio for fat loss. Yeah, that is good news. Go ahead, you know want to do the chicken dance now.

7. The whole myth that females shouldn't lift heavy because they get "bulky".... ohhhhh geez. I'll just leave it at that.

8. Want to improve your posture while driving? Raise your rear-view mirror.

9. Protein takes longer for the body to assimilate than carbohydrates or fat. Hmmm, that means your body will burn more calories to digest protein. Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if you increased your protein intake and decreased your processed carbs intake. Do that for 6 weeks and you tell me.

10. Yes, it's true. I'm the 126th person to tell you this and it's a shame you haven't done it yet. Eating more frequent, small meals throughout the day is an amazing weapon for fat loss. You won't get hungry, your metabolism will ignite, and you'll get more energy. Did you know the last 4 lottery winners admitted to eating smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day? I just made that up, but wouldn't that be cool?

OK, enough seriousness. I think I'm ready for a rant again ... Til' next time...
Mikey