Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Avoid the Starvation Response

When someone decides that they want to lose weight, they diet. 95% diets fail because exercise is rarely incorporated. In order to lose fat, your body must use more calories than you eat in order to use its fat stores for energy. There are two ways a calorie deficit can be accomplished.

The first way is to eat fewer calories. The second one is to use more calories (exercise).  The best way to accomplish fat loss without failing is a combination of both. If you try to accomplish a calorie deficit only by eating less calories, then you're body thinks it's starving, and will go into "starvation mode" where it lowers its metabolism in order to prepare for a period of little food (this is a protective response from caveman days when food actually did become scarce, unlike today). Another reason that the metabolism is lowered is because when there is a period of little food, your body tries its best to protect the brain. The brain always requires glucose (carbohydrates) to run; however, glucose cannot be stored in the body. Therefore, the only way for the body to get glucose is to eat its own muscle (muscle can be converted to glucose) - which lowers your metabolism and causes the starvation response. So, the body accomplishes two things by eating its own muscle: it provides glucose for the brain and causes your body to require less food, since less muscle equals a lower metabolism. When the starvation response is elicited, you smack into the fat loss plateau and your diet fails.

When you incorporate exercise into your routine, your body feels more comfortable with not lowering your metabolism. If you are exercising frequently, the starvation response is mostly avoided. Two important forms of exercise to produce this affect are weight training and aerobic exercise (cardio).   

The goal of aerobic activity is to burn calories while avoiding the starvation response. Many times when you mention "exercise" or "cardio", people immediately get negative thoughts in their head about the extreme difficulty of doing such exercise, but these thoughts are misguided. Cardio gets easier as your body adapts, is very rewarding, and can even be fun.  

As you do more cardio, your body begins to adapt and become better at performing the same work, but with less perceived effort. The body becomes more efficient and moves nutrients and oxygen around faster because you build new capillaries, the cells produce more mitochondria (the powerhouse of the cell), your heart becomes more powerful, your body produces more blood, and a host of other adaptations that would cover a whole textbook. The main thing to note is that you still burn the same amount of calories, even after your body adapts and it becomes easier. However, with your new, more adapted body, you will be able to perform more strenuous exercise that burns even more calories resulting in even more fat loss. For instance, in order to burn 300 calories, you would have to walk for about 1 hour and 45 minutes. In contrast, jogging for about 25-30 minutes (depending upon your speed) will burn 300 calories. Obviously, the latter is more practical unless you just have a huge amount of time on your hands. Walking also doesn't elicit the endorphin high that running/jogging does either.

The Overload Principle

When you begin a cardio program, your first goal should be to adapt to the point where you can burn a sufficient amount of calories. This involves the overload principle. The overload principle is simple: in order to initiate adaptations within your body you must exercise with either a greater intensity, duration, or frequency. Depending upon the type you decide to overload (intensity, duration, or frequency), you will adapt to that type.  For instance, if you want to run faster in the same amount of distance, you should run faster, and your body will adapt to that. If you want to run farther, you should run farther, and your body will adapt to that.  For instance, if you do the same aerobics routine everyday your body will never adapt any further - since there is no need for it to. However, if you were to perform a more advanced routine, this would initiate an adaptation in your body, and so on. Keep in mind though, if you decide to stay at the same level of fitness and do the same routine, then you will still burn the same amount of calories, and if your goal is just fat loss this may be a potential option for you.

Just Get Started!

If you haven't done any exercise for a while, you should start out small. Start out with just a brisk walk, then intermittent jogs while you are jogging, then finally, you will be able to jog the whole time, and then increase your times/speed to the point where you are happy. The hardest part is really just starting. Once you get your momentum going by exercising for the first time, you have already accomplished the hardest part.

Your Body's Reward to You: An Endorphin High

In addition to burning off unwanted fat, doing cardio gives you something called an "endorphin high". This all natural high induces a feeling of well-being, relaxation, improvement in mood, and increase in your ability to think more clearly. It's theorized that this is the reason why many long distance runners are "addicted" to running - they love the high they get afterwards! Once you've experienced one of these, you're even more likely to continue your regime and therefore continue to burn off fat.

The hardest part about a cardio regime is starting. Remember to incorporate the overload principle when trying to cause an adaptative response and to stay hydrated while performing your cardio regime.  Once you get passed that point and experience some of cardio's effects such as fat loss without hitting a plateau, a feeling of accomplishment, and that awesome endorphin high, you'll become addicted. However, no exercise routine is complete without the proper support from an intelligent nutritional program.  ONE Training has nutrition programs that are informative, easy to maintain and allow you to succeed!
 

The Exact Reason Why Cardio is Essential: Avoiding The Starvation Response
 

Thursday, January 3, 2013

GET IN THE HABIT


 “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

Here we go!  Let the New Year's Resolutions Begin!!  Wait, what if we call then habits instead? Habits are do-able, habits you stick with.

If you could just pick one or two (or more) habits to pick up — habits that will have the most impact on your life — what would they be?  We often get asked this question, because change can be overwhelming.  Where do you start, what will make the most impact, how can you get results?  These are not easy questions to answer.  There are so many changes people go through, from quitting smoking to reducing debt and many more.  And they are all life-changing, and they are all important.  You have to decide which are most important for you.  

Follows these tips to develop your own good habits -

Do a Challenge, like our  ONE Fit Challenge Challenges provide accountability and keep you on track.  They can also be a great bonding experience and an opportunity to make new connections and friends. The prizes and the competition can be a great motivator for keeping you on track. 
 
Write it in a journal or blog - Putting it in a journal or a blog and reading it back to yourself can be a very powerful tool that reinforces your motivation, documents how you overcame obstacles and the strategies you used.  Who knows, it might be a good read for a friend who has their own obstacles to overcome.

Commit fully, in a public way – Tell everyone about what you are doing.  They will offer support, motivation and advice.  You will build a support network that will keep you going.

Log your progress – It is empowering to see where you came from and all that you have achieved.

Remain publicly accountable — report on your progress each day – it will allow others to celebrate with you, which will motivate your to go further. Or it will allow others to motivate you to keep trying, especially on those bad days.

Have support for when you falter — either in real life or online.  Connecting with others helps us find those encouraging words we need to keep going or good advice from those who have been there.

Reward every little success - Never reward yourself with food (you’re not a dog) – do something nice for yourself...take an extra 15 minutes with a good book, buy a new phone app, get a massage, put a quarter in a jar each time you make a good choice and save for a new pair of jeans or a vacation.

If you fail, figure out what went wrong, plan for it, and try again - Never quit quitting, such a cliché yes, but if you keep giving up you will never get there.  Remember, you are given the power to choose hundreds of times each day- will your choice be a good choice or a bad one?
 

Make a good choice today and like our facebook page - lots of laughs, great motivation and all the latest news and events for ONE Training in Novi