And the Oscar Goes to...

Friday again and it's time to for the media round up. A little bit pressed for time today so you'll have to settle for this guy, who got completely snubbed by the Oscar committee for this DeNiro-esque bit of method acting.

It was a fun segment to shoot though, and it's good to see kettlebells being more accepted by the general public. With any luck KPTV will have me back on more segments talking about fat loss training and other topics.

Coincidentally an article I wrote for Men's Health UK is online too. I don't know why kettles and I are omnipresent this week, but I'll take it. This is not a bad little workout for anyone that only has 30 minutes.

Compounding your isolation
In our recent article on the top 10 muscle-building mistakes, personal trainer Chris Bathke lamented the scores of gym-goers who spend every session pounding specific muscles with ineffective movements while ignoring the bigger picture. Escape from your isolation and use his compound kettlebell exercises workout to build full body muscle fast. "After four weeks not only will your shoulders and back be more injury proof, but they'll look substantially better," says Bathke.

Programme loading…
"This type of workout will work shoulder, core, and hip stability that exercises done lying on a bench won't," says Bathke. Do it twice per week for four weeks and choose weights that are challenging but that you can complete with perfect form. Together with chin-up and squat work on another day you'll see good progress.

Sets and reps
Turkish Getups 3x3 reps each side
Renegade Row 3x5
Kettlebell clean and push press 3x10 each side
(Rest 60 seconds in between sets.)

"Each consecutive week add one rep per set until you can comfortably do an extra 4 reps per set, then increase the weight and drop the reps back to the initial level," says Bathke.

1. Kettlebell clean and push press
Begin with the bell in front of you on the floor. Perform a swing and clean the weight up into what’s called “the rack position” with the bell resting in the crook of your elbow between your shoulder and wrist. Next, drive the weight overhead ending with the elbow locked out and arm next to your ear. “Initiate the overhead portion of the lift with a slight dip and leg drive,” advises Bathke. To finish the lift, drop it back into the rack position, then down into a swing and repeat. Try to look as cool as this guy throughout.

See an example of this exercise here.

Works: This movement just about does it all. “The posterior chain is used in the clean portion, while the press hits your pushing muscles. Grip endurance, shoulder flexibility, and shoulder stability will all really be taxed,” says Bathke.

2. Kettlebell renegade row
Assume a push-up position with each hand on the handle of a kettlebell. Do a full range push-up, then while holding your torso and hips still row one KB at a time. Row each side once. This is one rep. “The goal is to not allow your hips to move, nor your body to twist while rowing,” says Bathke.

See an example of this exercise here.

Works: “The renegade row is a great movement to work both core strength and horizontal pushing and pulling muscle groups.”

3. Kettlebell Turkish get-up
Start lying on the floor. Bring the kettlebell into a locked out position straight up with your right hand. Your right shoulder should be pulled back into the floor to stabilise the joint. Your right leg will be cocked, with your right foot alongside your left knee. Pushing off your right foot, roll onto your left hip and up onto your left elbow. Push up onto your left hand. Holding yourself up on your left hand and right foot, raise your hips up off the ground, and thread your left leg back to a kneeling position. You should now be in a lunge position, right foot on the floor, and KB locked out overhead. “Make sure that your elbow is not flexed,” says Bathke. “From the lunge position brace your core and shoulder and drive through your front heel to rise up to a standing position.” To complete the movement, simply reverse the process until you are lying flat on the ground again.

See an example of this exercise here.

Works: Turkish get-ups boost shoulder stability and strength, anterior core strength, and glutes/hamstring/quadriceps. “In other words it works pretty much everything, which is why experts such as physical therapist Gray Cook utilise it with everyone from average Joes to pro athletes,” says Bathke.

New Rules of Lifting for Abs

Lou Schuler & Alwyn Cosgrove are soon releasing the third book in their New Rules series, and since Lou was kind enough to provide me a copy I gladly read it and think it worthy of review.

But first Lou would like to explain the inclusion of 'abs" in the title on this Fitcast podcast.

For your benefit listen to the entire podcast. Some nuggets of knowledge are within.

Right away I loved this book that for no other reason it proclaims no more situps or crunches. Seriously though, Lou pulled in some great research from luminaries such as Dr. Stuart McGill regarding core and back health.

For the lay person that does not dig into research from the Journal of Strength & Conditioning and other such sources (even I find some of it quite boring) much of the material regarding what the "core" is, it's many roles, and how it functions will be quite eye opening.

I read this kind of material all the time and yet got a lot out of the informational chapters. Lou has a knack for connecting the dots and entertaining us along the way.

One part I would quibble with is spinal flexion for fighters. Yes, fighters do need ab armor and do alot of spinal flexion in sport specific training, but according to Dr. McGill that doesn't mean fighters should use flexion movements in the gym. Rather he says they should save those lumbar bends for competition. But I doubt any of you are pro-MMA fighters anyway so lets carry on.

The title of Part 3 "All Training Is Core Training" says it all.

Everything we do affects our core, and so it makes sense to be aware and utilize that fact in every movement we do. Within this framework Lou & Alwyn put together a great library of static, dynamic, and integrated core stabilization exercises, then set them in the context of three phases of strength training programs.

For most people it would take many months to get through these programs, and they should see a good bit of progress along the way. Even for the experienced lifter there are some serious challenges.

The programs are organized so that one can go back and repeat them with heavier loads or other changes such as doing ladder sets, density circuits, or other methods of causing adaptation so that progress will continue.

And as any experienced trainer knows the basics never go out of style.

My favorite part of the book is the last third which deals with lifestyle issues, nutrition, and strategies for developing a healthier lifestyle.

We all know that without adopting better lifestyle and nutritional habits change will not happen, and Lou presents some interesting studies showing how hours spent in front of the computer (yes you may stop reading now and go outside), TV, video games, and other sedentary forms of entertainment kill your abs.

Yep. They shoot them dead.

I tell my clients this everyday but sometimes it takes reading it in print to accept it, which is why I've already been using some of Lou's material to help my own clients. And it works.

So if you are a trainer don't hesitate to recommend this book to clients, as it will help you help them. And if you are a person working out on your own, then you have an excellent guide at your side.

The book is now available for pre-sale on Amazon for $16, and ships out Dec. 30th. Check it out.

Why Can't I Lose Weight?

My friend Lou Schuler, author of The New Rules of Lifting series just wrote a little article intended to answer unanswerable questions for a forum we both contribute to. And out of the kindness in his heart he agreed to allow me to reprint it for you here.

By the way, Lou and Alwyn Cosgrove have a new book in the series, "The New Rules of Lifting for Abs" coming out in January 2011, and after having read an advance copy I can say without hesitation that it is one of the best written, clearly presented, and well researched books on fitness for the general public. In fact I've already stolen some ideas and research out of there for use with my clients. Just don't tell Lou.

So here's Lou:

"Why can't I lose weight?"

Homeostasis is a bitch.

Unless your current weight is an aberration, you’re walking around in an organism that has remodeled itself to be exactly the size you are now. You have muscles and bones that are just the right size to support the load you carry around. You have an appetite that probably isn’t satisfied unless you give it enough food to maintain your weight. If you eat more or less, your metabolism probably adjusts accordingly: it speeds up when you eat more than you need, and slows down when you don’t.

Experts like to say that diets don’t work, but that’s wrong. Eating less always works for as long as you can bear it. Which, admittedly, probably isn’t a very long time. That’s why the best approach includes a combination of three interventions: exercise, diet, and lifestyle modification.

1. Exercise

Of course this is obvious: burn more calories than you take in, and you lose weight. But exercise by itself rarely induces significant weight loss. Why not? Mainly because you aren’t burning nearly as many calories as you think.

Let’s say you read in a magazine that someone your size will burn 400 calories with an hour of walking at a brisk pace. You do the math: Since a pound of fat contains 3,500 calories of energy, you figure that you’re just 9 workouts away from losing that pound.

It sounds good, until someone explains the fine print. You might burn 200 calories just going about your normal routine for that hour. So exercising at that pace means a net deficit of 200 calories – half what the magazine promised. Then you consider that you might be less active the rest of the day, simply because you’re tired from the workout. That might cost you another 100 calories.

You can try exercising more, or exercising harder, and those are both good ideas. You’ll improve your health and probably speed up your metabolism a bit. If you’re a complete beginner, you might add some muscle to your lower body, and shed some fat. But you aren’t likely to lose a lot of weight, and the idea that you must always “do more” is both self-limiting and demotivating.

2. Diet

All the magazines will tell you this: Cut 500 calories a day, and you’ll lose a pound of fat a week. They’ll even tell you which “empty” calories to cut. You start with the liquid calories (everything except milk) and snack foods. The women’s magazines in particular will show you an infinite number of ways to modify recipes so you can eat fewer calories at every meal, including dessert. (They love to show you elaborate desserts constructed entirely of fruit and air.)

So you try it. And you’re hungry all the freakin’ time. Why? Because your body isn’t stupid. The calories it’s accustomed to receiving from your meals aren’t “empty.” They provide a combination of energy and building materials. The magazine says you don’t need any of the 240 calories in that 20-ounce bottle of Coke. But if your body is used to having them, it’s going to notice their absence.

One solution would be to replace low-nutrient foods, like Coke or potato chips, with high-nutrient foods like lean protein, fruits, and vegetables. And that’s a legitimate strategy. The protein and fiber will help you feel fuller longer between meals. Protein takes more calories to digest, and will help you add new muscle tissue. And, of course, the micronutrients in fruits and vegetables (and to a lesser extent in protein-rich foods) will benefit your long-term health.

Now the net change in calories isn’t as dramatic, but it’s more sustainable, and it makes more sense to your body. The addition of protein and fiber helps mitigate the hunger you’d feel if you’d slashed calories indiscriminately.

On the downside, this slight but sustainable calorie reduction isn’t causing the pounds to melt away. Even when you combine your new diet with your old exercise program, the needle on the scale still swings past your target weight, even if it stops short of your original weight.

3. Lifestyle modification

Nobody wakes up one morning and decides to follow a completely different routine. Well, no, that’s not right. Lots of people think they can flip a switch and go from being a soft, sedentary office worker to a rock-hard gym rat. But it rarely works that way.

Look at that hour before work that you think you’ll spend in the gym: Are you really prepared to get up and moving an hour earlier than you ever have before? Are you prepared to go to bed at least an hour earlier every night, even though it means missing The Daily Show and whatever art-house fare Cinemax is featuring?

That’s just exercise. Modifying your life to accommodate a clean, low-junk, high-nutrient diet is a lot harder than it looks. Most of us don’t eat or drink in isolation. Certain foods are associated with particular events. You associate that 20-ounce Coke with your mid-afternoon break with your favorite coworkers. Most of the chips and dip you consume are on weekends, watching football games with your buddies. And that 700-calorie “coffee” drink you have every morning – that’s your best opportunity to chat one-on-one with the boss, to get a read on her priorities and how she thinks you and your colleagues are performing.

If you’re going to make serious changes that involve regular exercise and a sustainable diet that’s lower in calories, you have to figure out a way to navigate all of this, and more.

4. The combo special

Your time, energy, patience, and motivation aren’t infinite, so the best way to ensure success in a weight-loss program is to start with your limitations in mind. Here’s what I mean:

Exercise: Over time, you’ll burn more calories in a program with built-in progressions, ensuring that you get some variety while doing more total work in the same amount of time. If your progression plan assumes that you’ll be able to expand your workout time, it probably won’t work. You might start with just 2 hours a week devoted to training, and build up to 3 or 4. That’s realistic. Starting a program with the idea that you’ll have the energy and motivation to train 5 to 6 hours a week isn’t. It might work out that way, but I wouldn’t count on it right out of the gate.

Diet: Whatever modifications you make must fit into the parameters of your life. If you’re a skip-breakfast, grab-lunch-on-the-run, eat-everything-in-sight-for-dinner type, you can’t assume that an inversion of that plan is realistic. Aim for the possible: eating something at breakfast instead of nothing; eating real food for lunch, even if you don’t have the time to linger over it; having a mid-afternoon snack to take the edge off your usual late-day hunger; and then having a substantial but not unlimited dinner. Make sure you’re sated by the end of your dinner, and clear your house of the things you tend to eat by the bucket if you aren’t sated.

But let’s say you’re doing all that and you still aren’t losing weight, or not losing as much as you’d like. That’s when you start looking at the more advanced strategies discussed on our Nutrition and Fat Loss forums: manipulating macronutrients (fewer carbs, more protein), cycling carbohydrates, etc. Most people with a lot of weight to lose will probably need those strategies eventually. And most people who’ve lost weight and kept it off will probably tell you that they work best when you have the three major elements – exercise, diet, lifestyle – under control.

Reality Intervenes

A colleague forwarded this to me on Facebook so thought I would share. The title alone aludes to the seriousness of the issue of perception and illusions about our own condition:

Many Americans Don't Even Know They Are Fat

This quote says a lot concerning how effective the diet/fat loss industry has been:

Thirty percent of those in the "overweight" class believed they were actually normal size, while 70 percent of those classified as obese felt they were simply overweight. Among the heaviest group, the morbidly obese, almost 60 percent pegged themselves as obese, while another 39 percent considered themselves merely overweight.
These findings may help to explain why overweight and obesity rates in the United States continue to go up, experts say.
"While there are some people who have body images in line with their actual BMI, for many people they are not, and this may be where part of the problem lies," said Regina Corso, vice president of Harris Poll Solutions. "If they do not recognize the problem or don't recognize the severity of the problem, they are less likely to do something about it."

I see people in the gym all the time that may be unaware of issues they should be working on and how weight loss actually works. And these are the few that are motivated and aware enough to get off their asses and do something!

This Is Your Body On TV

According to a study published in the Journal of the American Diatetic Association if Americans ate only what was advertised on TV we would all end up looking like the guy to the far right above, or worse.

Results suggest that a diet consisting of observed food items would provide 2,560% of the recommended daily servings for sugars, 2,080% of the recommended daily servings for fat, 40% of the recommended daily servings for vegetables, 32% of the recommended daily servings for dairy, and 27% of the recommended daily servings for fruits.

The really scary part is that ads during Saturday morning cartoons figured prominently in the study. Is it any wonder that there is a rapidly growing obesity problem among kids?

We all know kids watch way to much TV, not to mention that Phys Ed. is becoming a rarity in schools.  That all adds up to serious health concerns such as type II diabetes becoming more common even among teens, something unheard of a couple decades ago.

Among adults the health concerns are of course no less dangerous. Diabetes, heart disease, and any number of potentially fatal issues are associated with obesity.

People are naturally influenced by what is pitched to us on TV. Advertising firms are full of very smart people that do nothing but figure out how to exploit our brains in order to get us to want what they sell.
Therefore the best option is to not watch TV. Or at least channels that do a lot of this sort of advertising.

It's funny how many people I hear say they don't have time to get in 3 hours of physical activity a week, yet can give you all the details on any number of TV shows.

The way I deal with this is to say fine, pick a few shows you like to watch but stretch or get on the foam roller while watching, and don't snack.  And that they MUST schedule regular times to exercise, as this is the only way it's likely to get done - much the same as people know when their favorite shows are on, know ahead of time when it's your time to focus on your health.

Pretty soon I notice those clients begin to like exercising more, have less stress, and of course become more fit. Funny how that works.

Throw Away Your Chair

This week there was an interesting article in the New York Times Magazine concerning what role exercise plays in fat loss in relation to diet. The first half of the piece discusses what role, if any exercise plays in fat loss (I prefer fat loss to the more generic term "weight loss"). This jist of it is this from an American College of Sports Medicine study:

The newest science suggests that exercise alone will not make you thin, but it may determine whether you stay thin, if you can achieve that state. Until recently, the bodily mechanisms involved were mysterious. But scientists are slowly teasing out exercise’s impact on metabolism, appetite and body composition, though the consequences of exercise can vary. 

 It goes on to say that in a study those that reduced calories by 25% alone lost the same amount of weight as those that reduced cals by 12.5% and increased caloric expenditure through exercise by 12.5%.

In other words calories in calories out.

But here is the problem. That doesn't differentiate between the intensity, and suggests that the exercise in question was low intensity cardio. And as we know from other research higher intensity exercise tends to raise your metabolism significantly and thus produce greater caloric expenditure over time.

I'll further quote a longer passage from the article that addresses higher intensity exercise and differences in male and female reactions to low intensity cardio:

In one study presented last year at the annual conference of the American College of Sports Medicine, when healthy young men ran for an hour and a half on a treadmill at a fairly high intensity, their blood concentrations of acylated ghrelin fell, and food held little appeal for the rest of that day. Exercise blunted their appetites. A study that Braun oversaw and that was published last year by The American Journal of Physiology had a slightly different outcome. In it, 18 overweight men and women walked on treadmills in multiple sessions while either eating enough that day to replace the calories burned during exercise or not. Afterward, the men displayed little or no changes in their energy-regulating hormones or their appetites, much as in the other study. But the women uniformly had increased blood concentrations of acylated ghrelin and decreased concentrations of insulin after the sessions in which they had eaten less than they had burned. Their bodies were directing them to replace the lost calories. In physiological terms, the results “are consistent with the paradigm that mechanisms to maintain body fat are more effective in women,” Braun and his colleagues wrote. In practical terms, the results are scientific proof that life is unfair. Female bodies, inspired almost certainly “by a biological need to maintain energy stores for reproduction,” Braun says, fight hard to hold on to every ounce of fat. Exercise for many women (and for some men) increases the desire to eat.

In other words low intensity cardio, the kind I see the vast majority of women doing at the gym, has even less of an affect on fat loss than it does in most men. Ironic isn't it?

But research suggests that for those already thin even low intensity exercise can be effective in maintaining weight. No surprise there.

One final interesting bit is that a new ACSM study suggests that standing has big advantages over sitting regarding burning calories:

In a completed but unpublished study conducted in his energy-metabolism lab, Braun and his colleagues had a group of volunteers spend an entire day sitting. If they needed to visit the bathroom or any other location, they spun over in a wheelchair. Meanwhile, in a second session, the same volunteers stood all day, “not doing anything in particular,” Braun says, “just standing.” The difference in energy expenditure was remarkable, representing “hundreds of calories,” Braun says, but with no increase among the upright in their blood levels of ghrelin or other appetite hormones. Standing, for both men and women, burned multiple calories but did not ignite hunger. One thing is going to become clear in the coming years, Braun says: if you want to lose weight, you don’t necessarily have to go for a long run. “Just get rid of your chair.”

I couldn't agree with his last statement more. Sitting for extended periods everyday has shown to cause a multitude of back, neck, and hip problems. And it hinders our efforts at having a good physique.

Stand up, move around, stretch. Common sense prevails.

All About The Kitchen

Anyone who has waged the weight loss battle knows that the bulk of the work (pun intended) comes in the kitchen. It is simply the fact that you must be able to control what you eat in order to lose fat and keep it off.

TMuscle asked various fitness coaches, Docs etc... 5 things people should have or do in the kitchen and unsurprisingly many of the same things popped up over and over. It's no coincidence.

You MUST know how many calories per day you need to keep it at, and you MUST know how much you are currently taking in. Aside from that simply having a good selection of clean, healthy food at home is mandatory. The more junk you have the more tempted you'll be to eat it.

Virtually everyone in the article recommended monounsaturated fats (olive oil, nuts, fish oil) and abundant protein sources, along with veggies. These should be the staples of your diet. Period.

Cooking most of your meals at home is another must do. Those that eat most of their meals out have a harder time.

My five:

1. A computer to keep a food log. You've got to know how much you're eating in relation to your caloric expenditure in order to see the elusive rectus abdominus.

2. Tea. Be it green or otherwise, make tea the beverage of choice rather than soda or beer. I prefer loose-leaf green tea and cold mugi (barley) tea.

3. Healthy fats. Avocados, olive oil, peanut butter, nuts, etc; all are great for using instead of mayo or other spreads. Show monounsaturated fats some love.

4. Mixed nuts. See #3. Great to have on hand for the inevitable evening snack.

5. Invest in a good knife and cutting board for preparing the fresh veggies and lean meat that should be a staple of your diet.

Get a handle on your diet, do some effective exercise program you enjoy. Done.

Paced Density Circuits for Maximum Fat Loss

Today TMuscle.com published my first article for them. A timely one too, as it concerns fat loss.

Timed Circtuits: Pace Yourself for Mximum Fat Loss

The idea for the concept came from experimenting with two training protocols: Density circuits, and timed sets of the kind used in kettlebell sport. I've found timed sets done at a set rep per minute pace were quite effective for building conditioning, technique, and of course body composition, so just applied the idea to circuit-style training using other tools.

There has been some research published that shows standard weight training circuits producing a huge caloric expenditure, which means you'll lose alot of fat in a short amount of time. Now, this isn't quite the holy grail as these circuits are pretty damn tough. You've got to have something of a strength base and experience with the exercises to maximize results. But for those who have put some time in the gym give it a try and let me know what you think.

I've got some other variations of this protocol for other specific goals for those interested.

Omega 3s, Fat Loss, and Your Heart

I'm sure most of you have seen all sorts of items in the grocery store that advertise added Omega-3s. While that's well and good, getting your doses of healthy fats through food that naturally contains omega-3s will probably do much more good for a couple of reasons.

1. Eating more fish and leafy vegetables (a good source of Omega-3) will undoubtedly be good for you, and most of us eat far to little of both. You'll also get quality protein and a host of other nutrients essential to your health.

2. Eating more fish and vegetables will mean you'll be eating less starchy carbs and sugars, providing you keep your total caloric intake in check.

Rather than buying bread or anything else marketing added omegas just get some fish, veggies, and also a quality fish oil tablet.

As to the benefits of Omega-3s there are many. For those training to improve body composition/fat loss there have been studies done suggesting that a higher intake of omega-3s aid in fat loss. This is because it protects against insulin resistance (a common problem among the overweight population), and works like this.

Omega-3s increase the permeability of a cell's membrane, which allowing it to absorb more glucose (sugar that provides energy). If someone is insulin resistant than the sugars one consumes is more likely to not be absorbed but stored as fat. Omega-3 then functions to help raise your metabolism, which has obvious effects regarding fat loss.

Other benefits include preventing heart disease and cardiovascular disease. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2006;83) contains a study showing that Japanese who consume 30% more omega-3s than Americans have 4 times less the rate of death from heart disease.

The New England Journal of Medicine (1997;336) ran a study that showed increasing omega-3s reduce chances of heart attack by a third.

I don't know about you but I'm about ready for some sushi!

Fill It To The Brim. Or Not.

My friend Leigh Peele made this short video concerning common mistakes concerning counting calories and measuring your food.

And if you are someone that is trying to lose weight I can't overestimate the importance of knowing (not guessing) how much you are eating every day. Nobody wants to try and lose weight forever so you might as well go after it and get the results you want. After that it's all gravy (so to speak).



It's true you can't out train bad nutrition

A New Hope

Welcome to the New Year. I hope you all had some relaxing time off and are back and ready to hit your goals.

Yeah yeah, I know you are probably tired of all the ridiculous resolution topics we see in the media, but nevertheless goal setting is important so please bear with me.

Whether your goal is to get stronger, lose weight, improve joint health, or look better nekkid the most efficient way to do this is to think it through and come up with as specific a goal as possible. Then write it down.

If you want to lose weight then write down how many pounds of fat you will shed and by when you'll do it. Not doing this will only make it easier to cheat on your nutrition and training.

Having a concrete goal on paper makes planning a whole lot easier, both on you and your trainer *wink*. And make no mistake you do need a plan.

Have you seen all the new members wandering around your gym moving from machine to machine looking rather confused? If they don't hire a trainer or otherwise start working from a program, odds are they won't achieve much if anything and thus won't be there a few months from now. That is a fact, and one the big box gym industry banks on. This is why you see so many membership specials going on now.

But back to planning, let's say you decide you want to lose 10lbs of fat. Give yourself a timeframe, because nobody wants to keep trying to lose weight forever - it isn't much fun.

Let's be generous and give yourself until the end of February. That's roughly 8 weeks, which boils down to 1.25lbs per week. A very doable amount. In terms of nutrition 1lb equals 3,500 calories, which means that you need to burn roughly 4,375 MORE calories than you take in each week.

Break that down and you get 625 calories per day.

Now calculate your Resting Metabolic Rate. Just subtract 625 from your RMR and that is how many calories you should be taking in each day.

Of course training will impact this, so let's say you are getting in the gym twice a week do do weight training. Using a calculator will give you a rough estimate how many calories you burn, then figure that into your plan.

Though with a BIG caveat. Working at a high intensity for an hour from a program designed for fat loss will have a much bigger impact than just going in to the gym and doing some chest, arms, and abs (useless).

Figuring out your plan of action won't take any more time than reading this so what are you waiting for?

And remember to have fun in the process - exercise should be enjoyable and make you feel good.

Calories In Calories Out

The New York Times recently ran an article regarding new regulations for restaurant chains in NYC that requires menus to display calories.

Needless to say many people were surprised.

The number of calories in food shocked most New Yorkers, according to a September survey by the health department. A Starbucks blueberry scone delivers 480 calories. A Quiznos regular tuna melt is 1,270 calories. Wraps, the refuge for low-carb sandwich lovers, can top 800 calories. Bagels pack more calories than doughnuts. A large bucket of buttered movie popcorn has more than half the calories anyone should eat in a day.

Even people for whom nutrition is a way of life had no idea how many calories they were eating. Kate Adamick, a consultant who helps corporations and school districts improve their food, took a hard look at her Starbucks habit, which included bran muffins and chocolate cookies.

“Just because I work in the food world, I am not immune from this human tendency to self-delude,” she said. “I can look at a cookie that is the size of a man’s hand and think it’s only twice as big as a regular cookie, but it actually has the caloric content of four or five cookies.”

For the majority of people it really is simple. If you are having trouble losing weight then you are eating too much. And if you eat out often chances are what you are eating has too much saturated fat and starchy carbohydrates - a feature of most restaurant food, and guaranteed to pack on layers of flab. Tasty sauces, pasta, and breads are culprits here.

The first step is to figure out how many calories you are using each day. To do that use a resting metabolic rate calculator.

Now figure out how many calories you are taking in. Write down everything you eat for three days only, then use a calorie calculator to assess your average intake.

And be honest with yourself. Most people are experts at deluding themselves, myself included. You have to ask yourself if you really want to feel and look better.

Now if your caloric intake is too great then eat smaller portions and increase your activity level. Get control of your eating habits and subsequently your life.

For more resources I highly recommend TNT Nutrition. I've seen many people get great results and literally change their lives by learning to eat better and exercise smarter.

So the next time you are about to eat something think about if that momentary pleasure will help you reach your goal or carry you further from it.

Simple.

Fitness vs. Meltdown

Today I came across this article from the New York Times regarding staying healthy during stressful times. Needless to say in the present financial climate many people are finding that devoting time and money towards fitness is becoming more of a challenge than it normally is. A number of people, mostly executives, are used as examples in the piece, and two basic points emerged:

1. Most people recognize the need to find ways to remain healthy and 2. Getting healthy helps one to cope with stress.

However, two common misconceptions I come across nearly daily in my career run throughout the article. Namely that improving one's fitness is difficult and time consuming.

Addressing the first point I'll state that improving one's fitness, whether it be losing fat or building muscle is simple, but takes effort - both to eat smart and  exercise efficiently and effectively.

To quote my friend and one of the smartest people out there when it comes to fat loss, Alwyn Cosgrove, priority #1 is good nutrition. Priority #2 is see #1 - it's that important. When it comes to fat loss you MUST create a caloric deficit (using more calories then you consume) while getting enough protein, healthy fats, and micronutrients.

If #1 and #2 aren't happening then you aren't losing fat. It's that simple. Grocery shopping is key here - get lots of vegetables and lean protein sources and go easy on starchy carbs (bread, pasta, cereal). By preparing your meals at home you have complete control over portion size and ingredients.

Getting back to the NYT article the point regarding devoting time for exercise is crucial - but maybe not what you think. When it comes to changing your body composition the most efficient method is to do exercise that raises metabolism - a clue here: It isn't aerobics. 

Activities that increase muscle mass and force your muscles to work hard are what will raise metabolism. Steady state cardio may burn calories, and are fine if you have plenty of time, but it won't raise your metabolism much, if at all. Strength training is, to the best of our knowledge, the best way to both promote muscle mass, stress your muscles, and best of all - it doesn't take much time.

I've trained plenty of busy people that have lost considerable amounts of fat and gained muscle training two to three hours per week. That's it. No hours of cardio on treadmills required. 

However, and this is a big caveat, to get good results forget bicep curls, leg extensions, and other relics of the 1970's bodybuilding era. You need to do compound movements such as squats, pullups, deadlifts, lunges, and presses. If you can only find time to exercise a couple of hours per week than doing fullbody workouts comprised of such movements is the call.

In the space of one hour we typically spend 10 minutes working on tissue quality, mobility (keeping joints healthy), and warming up followed by 30-40 minutes of hard exercise, and some flexibility work at the end. In and out in one hour - no wasted time.

As for stress relief, it goes without saying that a good workout goes far in this regard. Make your training fun and purposeful and you will not only stick to it, but also get results. 

The number one reason people stop going to the gym is no results. Number 2 is boredom. So get in the gym, outside, or wherever you like and have some fun moving your body.

I'll leave you with a bit of what I call fun (these are the guys that trained the actors from 300)