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Eating MORE Calories Can Sometimes Be A Good Thing... HUH???

When you first start on a weight management plan, it’s easy to look at calories as your enemy. In fact, many people fall into the trap of actually consuming too few calories, which can make it harder to lose weight, especially over time. Your body needs to have fuel in order to run properly and if it doesn’t you may notice that you just don’t feel right, and that you don’t have enough energy. This makes it hard to stick to your diet, and if you are too deprived, you may actually be slowing down your own metabolism.

The first step to take is to figure out your basal metabolic rate. This is the bare minimum of calories that your body needs for basic functions, such as running your brain, keeping your heart beating and keeping everything running smoothly. It’s not wise to drop below your basal rate, particularly for any extended period of time. This will end up slowing your system down and you may find it impossible to lose weight. In fact, many people that plateau may have simply reached their basal rate and they are not eating enough to lose weight.

You can find a basal metabolic rate calculator online that will help you determine your basic needs. They will need information such as your height, current weight, your age and how much exercise you get. Be honest so that you can get a good idea of just how many calories you really need. If you do need to burn fat, it is acceptable to go a little below that basal rate, but you should never drop below 1200 calories. You can also add more exercise to increase the amount of calories that you burn, which will actually help you raise your metabolism.

Once you determine what your daily basic needs are, you’ll be able to start working on a basic diet plan that will provide you with the weight loss you need, without sacrificing your health as a result. Try not to go more than 500 calories less than your basal rate, and instead, add more exercise to help you burn more calories.

Some signs that you are not consuming enough calories can be a headache, which is common when you are suffering from a lack of protein, general tiredness, fatigue, simple malaise and generally just not feeling up to snuff. While it is common for your body to through a few of these changes initially when you start a weight loss plan, within a week or so you should actually start to feel energized. If you don’t, you may not be eating enough to keep your body functioning properly.

While we all want to lose weight quickly, it is much smarter to take the time that it takes, watch your caloric intake and make sure that you don’t go overboard when it comes to cutting those calories. Your body needs fuel if you want to get healthy.

Yours In Health,

Brian

Link: http://www.buffalopersonaltraining.com

OK...OK...OK so Ive been on a roll lately talking about such things as "synergy" "balance" and how they apply to your health and fitness program. Bottom line is if you want great results you need to find a harmony between diet and exercise (there is another one "harmony")

So where do we begin? I am a very analytical person and I always like to reflect on the past and see what has NOT worked. So I always start there. I ask clients to list what they have tried in the past and what has worked and what left them frustrated. Trust me I have heard it all!

Once we identify where we have been I can then come up with a plan to achieve the desired results. Body A..... into Body B.

As I have mentioned in many prior BLOG posts exercise has a profound hormonal response in the body. While Cardio is the most popular, it is infact, light to moderate strength training that will increase metabolism and burn fat at a graeter rate.

OK...OK..OK at this point your probably confused and wonder if doing any cardio is good. Well, thats a great question and the answer is yes!

The true answer to the age old question "should I do cardio or weights" is actually very simple.... DO BOTH!

30 minutes of interval cardio training on certain days and 30 minutes of total body funtional training on other days.

I know it sounds simple...almost too simple. But it really is just that basic. Ofcourse the proper intensity and routine to follow is where the "science" comes in.Thats for another day! I hope this help as a baseline to get you started.

Yours In Health,

Brian

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Link: http://www.buffalopersonaltraining.com

Have you ever wondered what may be holding you back from the FASTEST fat loss?

Why you've only been able to lose fat at an "average" speed, if at all?

Well, the fact of the matter is this: there's probably certain things built in to the very diet and exercise program that YOU are doing, things that you don't even realize are inhibiting you from achieving the most rapid results.

Fortunately, you're in luck, because that's exactly what this article is all about—uncovering what I consider to be the top 3 fat loss "killers" plaguing diets and training programs alike, ultimately slowing down your results despite your most intense efforts.

Limiting Factor #1: Your Metabolism

In reality, it's not really your metabolism that's the problem, but rather the effect that most fat loss programs, particularly diets, have on your metabolism.

In order to understand this, we need to go back in time a bit to the day in which our "hunter and gather" ancestors roamed the Earth.

For those individuals, survival was king, and in order to survive, they had to do the whole “eating” thing just like we do.

Unfortunately, things weren’t quite as easy for this group as they are today. No supermarkets. No drive-through meal deals. Instead, when our primitive ancestors wanted a nice steak, they had to go find it.

This inevitably meant that there were plenty of instances in which our yester-year counterparts went without food for days at a time. And at other times, namely during the winter months, their bodies were forced to get by on very little food and calories each day.

And the reason why they didn’t die? There’s only one—the body’s natural defense against starvation.

Don’t get enough calories for an extended period of time? No problem, the body simply causes ”bad” hormones, fat storage enzymes, and hunger to all increase while “good” hormones, metabolism, and fat burning enzymes all take a dive.

Enter “starvation mode.”

Friend to our ancestors; anything but to the dieter.

You see, dieting, although planned, is nothing more than a lesser degree of premeditated starvation.

Go on a diet—any diet—and it wont be long until the body begins fighting for every ounce of your body fat. You want to lose it; your body wants to keep it. And guess what? Your body wins every time.

Sad scenario, I know.

Limiting Factor #2: Inadequate Negative Calorie Balance

There's no getting around the fact that if you want to lose fat as fast as humanly possible you have to create the greatest negative calorie balance possible.

But, at the same time you'll need to do it WITHOUT pissing off your body to the point in which it shuts down and begins to fight against your fat loss efforts (i.e. the "starvation mode" that we just talked about).

Indeed, it is a thin, fine line in which, unfortunately, almost all diets fall somewhere to the left or the right.

You have those diets that create a moderate calorie deficit, leading to moderate results (at least for short while). That's OK, but if we're talking about the FASTEST fat loss, the deficit simply isn't great enough.

And on the opposite end of the spectrum we have "crash" diets and other severe diets which fail to take in to account ANY knowledge of the body and the regulation of human bodyweight and metabolism. A week or two on any of these approaches and you'll likely:

1. Lose muscle
2. Lose a bunch of water
3. Lose a bit of fat
4. Destroy your metabolism
5. Set yourself up to quickly rebound back beyond your original bodyweight
6. Achieve a "skinny fat" physique in which you're still carrying substantial body fat, only now with no muscle.Awesomen't. (And by that, I mean, not awesome.)

Limiting Factor #3: Zero Synergy Between Your Diet And Exercise Programming

I honestly think this is the most overlooked area of fat loss. Most people simply pick a diet and then pick a training program, or vice versa, without ever really thinking how those two programs work hand in hand, or if they DON'T provide any additional benefit to one another.

Allow me to illustrate my point with a few mathematical equations:

1 + 1 = 0
1 + 1 = 2
1 + 1 = 3

And believe it or not, I actually did graduate first grade.

While not true in the absolute mathematical sense, all three of the above equations are representative of the results people achieve from their diet and exercise programs.

In each equation, think of the first number as diet, the second as exercise, and the third as the result achieved by the combination.

Or simply, Diet + Exercise = Result

So, in the first equation, Diet + Exercise = Zero Result. Unfortunately many people are stuck in this boat because of damaged metabolisms and some of the reasons we've shared previously.

In the second equation, we have Diet + Exercise = The expected result (and additive effect of the two).

But in the third equation, this is where the magic happens—when diet and exercise team up to achieve a greater result than the additive effect of either of them alone. That's synergy—when the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Unfortunately, most diet and exercise programs are respresented by one of the first two equations, because they simply aren't designed to work together in every aspect.

Believe it or not there is a science behind fat loss. Also, keep in mind that everybody is different and each should take a individual approach. Learn what works best for you and achieve the results you want!!

Yours In Health,

Brian

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