YOUR FITNESS COACH
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The Right Approach to
“Weight Loss” for the New Year
&
By Willie B. Ray, Personal Trainer,
Art of Strength Kettle Bell Gym
1301 Winchester Road #129
Lexington, KY 40505
Especially
true during
the holiday
season and beginning the New Year, I would
say the majority of my clients tell me that their
main goal is “to lose weight”. But what does
that really mean? What are they trying to lose?
Bone density? Muscle mass? Organ weight? Of
course not, that would be absurd…everyone
should want to lose body fat without losing
muscle. The only problem is that the popular
methods for shedding weight often result in
excessive (but really, any amount is excessive)
muscle loss. These popular methods include
the quick fix diets that will probably help you
lose weight, but a ton of it will come from your
lean mass. Running fifteen miles a day and living off canned tuna and rice cakes is a way to
lose weight if your goal is the skinny-fat chic
without any muscle at all.
But if you would rather have a strong, lean
body and maintain your agility, power, and
strength, then your goal is to burn fat while
maintaining (or even building upon) your
existing muscle. To be precise, you need
muscle to burn fat. Muscle is hungry and craves
protein and fat to run effectively, along with a
bit of glycogen every now and then to fuel up.
Next to the organs and brain, muscle mass is
one of the biggest consumers of energy in the
body. The more you have, the better your fat
loss.
It’s just too bad that most of the mainstream
quick fix diets promote muscle loss with weight
loss – if muscle loss is even considered which
most often it is only about the number on the
scale. Let’s hope you read this and realize it
is not necessary to compromise your muscle
mass to lose weight. Here are some tips to preserve your muscle while losing the weight:
Nutrition:
Eat lots of vegetables and fruits and lean
meats. Avoid fatty foods and junk food, which
will only add to the fat already on your body.
Healthy foods like vegetables will help you lose
fat, while protein consumption will help add
muscle to your body.
Cut your caloric intake by at least 500 to
1,000 calories to help you lose about one
pound a week.
Keep carbohydrates low, no more than 50g
or so for most people, and don’t obsess over
calorie counting (in either direction).
Focus on saturated and monounsaturated
fats (with some fish oil to supplement) and
take in about a gram of protein for every pound
of lean body mass.
Eat protein about 2 hours before
engaging in your resistance exercises to help
propagate muscle preservation.
Exercise:
stuff) is harmful to our hormone
levels and helps pack on pounds and eat away
at our muscles.
You fail to move it, you’ll lose it. You can’t
forget about lifting, whether it’s with a heavy
barbell or your own body weight.
Resistance training increases bone density,
which is an important factor in healthy body
weight, and it (obviously) also increases (or
Exercise 1.5 - 2 hours after eating when
blood sugar levels and insulin levels are slowly
declining.
Do about 30 minutes of cardio at least three
to five times a week - such as jogging, power
walking, swimming, playing sports, dancing
and cycling.
Sprinting (or any exercise that stimulates lac- COACH Continued on Page 47
tate production) is a
great way to increase
growth hormone
production and
burn body fat while
maintaining fast
twitch musculature.
Avoid constant
chronic cardio – it
retards muscle
growth, interrupts
protein synthesis,
and can even reduce
existing muscle
mass. Too much
exercise (especially
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