Magically Delicious?

It's MAGIC! That's what some people would have you believe about certain foods. You've heard of them before I'm sure – food that actually MAKE you lose weight! Everything from grapefruit to celery have been grouped into this category and I suspect many a person have made a pretty penny (or thousands) telling us all about it.

Folks, I'm here to tell you there is no such thing as Negative Calorie Food! That's an oxymoron of the likes of “jumbo shrimp,” “Dodge Ram” and “Holy War.” It just doesn't make sense. Food, by its nature, has calories.

Admittedly, the essence of most of the arguments are somewhat true (if not quite a bit off base). Celery for instance. The argument is that you burn more calories chewing it than are actually in it. Guess what? IT'S TRUE (please keep reading before you go buy a cart load). The net “negative calories” from chewing a stalk of celery is about 10 calories. You can eat yourself skinny? Puh-leeaasse!

Given that there are about 3500 calories in a pound, you'd need to eat 350 stalks to lose 1 lb. But even that probably wouldn't work because of the kind of calories you'd be putting into your system (namely celery calories). We won't go into detail on this one, but your body is not going to thank you for it and it is likely to have an overall negative impact on losing weight (I guess, in that way, it is a “negative” calorie food).

The bottom line is that some of these foods might make good snacks, but quite frankly most fruits and vegetable make good, low calorie snacks. There is nothing magical about certain ones.

Don't look for magic beans (or celery or grapfruit or whatever). Weight loss takes really serious commitment, exercise, and a well planned and monitored diet...and there's nothing magical about that. It is hard work – but it is SO worth it!

Mid-week check in and I've lost another 3 lbs. That's a total of 30 lbs so far. I've gone down one shirt size and lost about 3 inches in my waist.

I'll be on hiatus for a few days. So, in the meantime. Keep at it and use the time to think about what other fitness related topics you want to know about...and then let me hear from you!

Crunch Time?

Crunches\Sit-ups will not help you lose weight around your tummy...at least not any more than push-ups or many other exercises.

There is a long standing myth that if you want to lose that belly, you need to do more sit-ups. I can not tell you how happy I would be if that were true, but the reality is: targeted weight loss (weight loss that focuses on one specific "problem area") is a scam.

The reason for this is pretty simple actually. When your muscles burn fat (that's a big part of their fuel) they don't just burn it from the fat closest to them. Your body is a fully integrated system. When muscles burn fat, it comes from all over.

Crunches\Sit-ups ARE a great exercise. When you exercise you want to get as many muscles as possible involved and there are a lot of muscles in your mid-section. And...that washboard abs look is achieved (in part) by doing crunches. The problem is, you can actually have washboard abs but they can be covered by fat if you aren't living a healthy lifestyle.

The trick to losing belly fat is the exact same trick to losing ANY fat. Exercise (build muscle, keep your resting metabolism up) and eat a healthy diet (very little bad fats, sugars and enough protein, vitamins and fiber).

For many of us, when we start a weight loss program some of our belly goes first (probably sub-cutaneous belly fat), but that last bit (probably visceral fat) seems to be the hardest to get rid of. The trick is, just like before when you hit plateaus (I still can't believe that's the way to spell that), trust your system.

Also, now that you are in better shape, it might be time to step up the interval training a bit. So, try short bursts of whatever exercise you are doing followed by a recovery period of exercise. In other words, if you are jogging in place (a great weight loss exercise), try doing a 45 second burst of energy every 5 minutes and then resume your normal jogging pace. This has lots of health benefits, but the one I like best is that it is a very good way of encouraging your body to burn visceral fat.

So, it's not that crunches are bad – they are actually good! They just might not be doing what you think they are!

Keep at it – you can do this! And let me know what fitness tip you'd like to know about!

What Do You Want?

My message at church today (don't worry I"m not going to give you a sermon here) was “Wisdom vs. Truthiness” and I looked at how God delights daily in wisdom. As I prepared for it, I came across a story that I didn't use, but thought it would be great for this blog.

It's a story about a proud young man who came to Socrates asking for knowledge. He walked up to the muscular philosopher and said, "O great Socrates, I come to you for knowledge."

Socrates recognized a pompous numbskull when he saw one. He led the young man through the streets, to the sea, and chest deep into water.

Then he asked, "What do you want?"

"Knowledge, O wise Socrates," said the young man with a smile.

Socrates put his strong hands on the man's shoulders and pushed him under. Thirty seconds later Socrates let him up. "What do you want?" he asked again.

"Wisdom," the young man sputtered, "O great and wise Socrates."

Socrates crunched him under again. Thirty seconds passed, thirty-five. Forty. Socrates let him up. The man was gasping. "What do you want, young man?"

Between heavy, heaving breaths the fellow wheezed, "Knowledge, O wise and wonderful..."

Socrates jammed him under again Forty seconds passed. Fifty. "What do you want?"

"Air!" the young man screeched. "I need air!"

"When you want knowledge as you have just wanted air, then you will have knowledge."

...The question is “what do you want?” The last time I lost a lot of weight my parents were talking to me about it. I told them that I had arrived at the conclusion that losing weight (particularly a LOT of weight) is only for those who really, REALY want it. Sort of like the guy in the story wants air. Otherwise, you set yourself up for mild success and ultimate failure, and let's face it, we overweight people tend to feel bad enough about our weight; we certainly don't need something else to feel bad about!

You have to need it. That's what's going to give you the determination to exercise diligently, put down foods with wasted calories (like cake, chips, and yes even salad dressing), and say a polite “no thank you” when offered an extra adult beverage or bowl of ice cream.

Wanting it is not quiet enough. Lot's of us fat people WANT to lose weight. Self-help guru Tony Robbins would say that if you want something you are ensuring exactly that – that you'll continue to want it. You have to be determined to get it. It's the mindset of needing it and determination to have it that will ultimately work.

I can't help but quote Yoda here as well. when it come to weight loss, "Do or do not. There is not try."

Lost one more pound! That's five for the week - 27 total!

Seriously, let me hear from you! What would you like to know more about?

Why You Stressin'?

You have probably heard it said that stress causes you to gain weight. Those of us who eat to deal with stress have no doubt that it is true, but those who can't eat when they are stressed probably think the whole idea sounds a bit nutty.

The reality is our bodies actually are wired to get fatter under stress (we'll talk about why in a minutes). For those of us trying to use our natural external response to stress (over or under eating) to argue for or against stress having a role in weight gain, I'd just ask you to pause for a minute and think about it. It is not the actual stress that is making you gain or lose weight – its the over or under eating!

What I'm talking about is much more diabolical than that. It relates to all kinds of stressors. It can be the stress of life, the bodily stress of an internal injury or even the stress put on your body from under-eating or fasting. (I know - it seems odd that that fasting can make you gain weight...that's because it can't).

The reality is the concept that stress cause you to gain weight is sort of true...but not really. What I mean is (while certain stress might make you gain weight) what stress really does is increase the amount of fat produced by the body, which deceases its ability to burn fat and increase its desire to make more fat.

It's a primative instinct of the body. A long, long time ago (in a land far, far away), stress was primarily an indication of threat (come to think of it, it really is sort of the same thing now) and in the face of threat the animalistic instinct is simply survival. One of the keys to survival is sustenance. So, when stressed our bodies start converting more of the food that we eat over to fat in order to have something stored up for the tough times in order to insure survival. So, while it is possible that you are still loosing weight while stressed out – it is very likely that you are also becoming less fit because you are increasing your Body Mass Index.

So, stress is evil. It's that simple. Stress can kill a fitness program – and you may not even know it is happening. What can you do? Well...(your going to LOVE this), one of the VERY best ways of relieving stress is exercise! (I told you that exercise is more important than diet!).

Other things that will help: Support group; don't keep it inside, talk with family and friends. (First walk it out, then talk it out). Laugh: a lot, even at things that aren't that funny – maybe even the thing you are stressed about. Sleep more. Slow down; maybe yoga is for you (it's not for me...so maybe its for you...it's gotta' be for somebody). Take a few really deep breaths; you'll be surprised what a little extra oxygenated blood will do for you. Finally, learn to let go of the things you can not control; try using my mantra for such occasions which came from my Benedictine Monk Spirituality Professor, “It is what it is.”

Dropped another 2 lbs – that's 4 for the week so far! 26 total.

Let me hear from you. What do you want to know more about.

And keep at it – you can do this!

Die Diet, Die!

Diets don't work. Really. Sure you can lose weight with diets, but making your diet your primary focus (which is what diets do – hence the name), does not address the problem.

Look at it this way, if (before they were outlawed) your neighbor had tossed a Lawn Dart that inadvertently crossed your shared fence and landed directly in your noggin and you went to the doctor and his or her solution was simply to shoot your head full of Novocain and then send you home – well let's just say I am quite certain you'd never be going back to that quack again. Yet, we go back to diets over and over again, even though each time we only receive temporary fixes that don't address the real issues at hand.

Much like the doctor who treats the symptom (pain in the head) rather than the issue (there is a lawn dart sticking out of your head), we treat the symptom (weighing too much) rather than the real issue (unhealthy lifestyle and bodies that are bad fat burners) when we go to diets over and over again, only to never quite lose all the weight we needed to lose and frequently gaining much of it, if not all of it, back.

We don't need Novocain (diets) to mask the issue and when we make a particular “diet” the primary way we lose weight, that is actually what we are doing. We are probably losing some weight, but in the end we are not transforming our bodies into lean bodies – just lighter bodies.

You can not permanently become a skinny person on a diet. End of story. Diets do not produce muscle. Worse yet overweight people actually store up more fat from the calories they do eat than skinny people (I know, I know – life is very cruel). You need to change your body to that of a lean person not a lighter person. You need to be treating the real issue not the symptom.

There is only one way to do this. Exercise. Plenty of skinny people, while not over weight, are over fat...because they don't exercise. Even blessed with naturally high metabolism, they are very unhealthy because their Body Mas Index (indicator of body fatness) is high and it is always a big surprise to friends when they have heart problems. A diet will not fix that situation. Exercise will.

A diet will not fix my issue (or yours). Exercise will. And not just a walk around the block every day. While that is a good start, it is not what your body needs to build more muscles to convert yourself to a lean fat burning machine rather than the fat producing machines that we over-fat people are.

You need, at least 4 times a week, to exercise for more than 20 continuous minutes (no stopping and starting) at 65-80 percent of your maximum heart rate. Now, forget about that “65-80 percent of your maximum heart rate.” Don't forget about doing it, just don't worry about calculating it. We could learn to do it and to measure our heart rate while exercising – but where's the fun in that. Just use one of these two measures. After 12 minutes you should either be breathing deeply but not gasping for air or you should only be able to carry on limited conversations not tell stories. After you hit 20 minutes you are in the zone for turning fat marbleized muscle in to lean mean fat burning machines.

I do need to say, the RIGHT diet will help you get to your lean body faster, but it should not be your primary focus – that should be exercise.

Since my last post, I've dropped another 2 lbs. That's a total of 24 lbs in a little over 4 weeks. I had hoped for 25 in 4 weeks, but that's still pretty good!

Keep at it – you can do this! And, please, let me hear from you. What do you want to hear more about?

Lean Not Light or Weights not Weight

In my last post, Give Me Some Skin, I said I'd go into some more detail about what you can do to reduce your body fat percentage.

The good news is that you already know all of the answers...the bad new is that, really, you already know all of the answers. If you have been reading this blog from the beginning, you have the foundation for loosing body fat. Yes, this is a weight loss blog, but my approach to weight loss isn't to make the scales give you a lower reading. If it were, I wouldn't have allowed myself to go about 10 days with no weight loss what-so-ever. I could have easily lost weight during that time by encouraging the loss of muscle. Instead, I spent the middle of those 10 days, watching my weight increase by 4 pounds – and I continued to lift weights KNOWING that it might increase my weight for the short term. Why?

Because I trusted my system, a system that is actually more interested in a healthy body than a low weight body. A health body is one that has an appropriate body fat percentage. The interesting thing is that when you have the right body fat percentage – you tend to be an appropriate weight for your ages, sex and height.

Much like in my second article, Kick It Up A Notch (or 2 or 3), where I said the most important thing about losing weight isn't calories, or protein, or exercise but rather metabolism - the goal for losing weight isn't to get the scale to read the number for which you are looking; it's to get your body fat to an appropriate level – everything else you want (including no loose skin) comes with it.

So, my personal system isn't so much a “weight loss” system as it is a “fat loss” system. That's why, in post after post, I talk about what good fat burners muscles are. Changing your diet alone will not help you get rid of loose skin (fat loss); it may help you lose weight, but as we know now – the two are not the same.

For continued fat loss you have to build muscle. That also means that eating too low a calorie diet, while possibly helping you lose weight, is not going to help you lose loose skin (you have no IDEA how hard I worked to use those two words next to each other – English major in me I'm afraid...). When you deprive your body of the appropriate amount of calories it goes into starvation mode, saving up the long term energy sources (fat) and burning of the quick sources (muscle). So, the first thing is to eat enough.

The next thing to do is don't eat too much – because you want to build muscle, not fat.

Then, begin understanding your metabolism – that's your best tool for burning fat (as long as you are not eating too little). One of the keys of ramping up your metabolism is building muscle. And the best way to build muscle is exercise.

So, like with everything else in weight loss, there is no magic pill (and don't believe the marketers that try to tell you otherwise). It takes work and dedication. It takes exercise and just the right amount of calories …. and enough patience to trust that over time the system will work.

And that is a great lead into my latest news. Since my last check in where I had lost 3 lbs after going 10 days with no weight loss, I have lost another 4 lbs! W00t! That's 7 lbs so far this week!

Keep at it and let me hear from you!

Give Me Some Skin

If you have ever lost serious amounts of weight before (I've lost 60 lbs and 90 lbs), you know about one of the most difficult problems that comes along with it (the following may not be suitable for squeamish readers): loose skin. Uggh.

Some would have you believe that the only/best solution for this problem is surgery. I have good news. That is not true. I also have bad news – it does take time and patients. OK, AND perseverance. Even after hitting your target weight, if you have skin that doesn't quite fit your new body, you still have some work ahead of you. Of course, if you think about how good you feel about your new body size, how proud you are of yourself for doing it, well – you can only imagine what it will fill like when you are no long afraid to hide it at the pool or beach.

So here's what you need to know about “resizing” skin (I've “resized” from XXXL to L before so trust me it can be done). First know that skin is very elastic (every once-pregnant woman can tell you this). The other thing to understand is fat and its relationship with your skin. As long as there is a thin layer of fat under that skin, it will be difficult for it to contract. So, your body fat percentage is very important in getting your body to completely resize. What that means is even if you have hit your target weight, you may now have to start thinking about a target body fat (something around 16% for men and around 26% for women). Here's something I can promise you, you will not see someone with loose sin who has very low body fat. Except in extenuating circumstances, it just doesn't happen.

How long you've had your skin stretched out also plays a role in its ability to return to your new body size. After all a pregnant woman has stretched her skin for only nine months therefor it still retains some of its original elasticity. So, returning the skin to its original size will probably happen faster. If you've been overweight for years it may take much longer to get it back to size. But remember – IT IS WORTH IT!

As I mentioned in my last article, H20 plays a vital role in the body, particularly in the operations of your organs. Well, your skin is an organ and hydration also plays and important role in its elasticity. So, stay well hydrated!

There are a few other things that have been shown to be beneficial in trying to tighten skin back up. The best results I've read about are with copper. So make sure you have the Recommended Daily Allowance in your diet (or daily vitamins). Other supplements that can be helpful: Vitamin C and E.

Don't think for a minute that you will need to resort to surgery (besides that might just be masking the issue not fixing it). What you need to give it is a little time, perseverance and patients.

Hey! This was my first response to one of you. Thanks for the question! Keep them coming.

After a week and a half of no weight loss, I've lost 3 lbs in the past 2 days! W00t! Keep at it – you can do this!

Update: I will be posting about WHAT to do to reduce your body fat percentage tomorrow.