8 Reasons You're Not Losing Weight. Part 5

In part five of our series we will now touch on how the wrong cardio can stop you from losing fat.

I know this might get some people fired up, but that’s alright. After all, this is the Hype-free, Fad free zone, so you need to know the truth. Sometimes the truth that challenges traditional thinking gets push back, but my jobs to get you results.

If you want to lose fat, cardiovascular exercise is part of what we call the FT Essentials: resistance training, moderate aerobic exercise, supportive nutrition and accountability/support system. Think of it like a four legged chair. If one legs missing the chair falls over. Hopefully without you in it!

Cardiovascular exercise doesn’t mean you have to run or be on a treadmill. It means we have to elevate your respiration and heart rate. There are endless ways to do this. Your body doesn’t know the difference between chopping firewood and going for a run.

The key is many people have a misconception that more is better and that aerobic exercise is the key to losing fat. I’m here to tell you it’s not.

Oh boy, I can imagine the remarks going on in some people’s heads now! But stick with me, today may be the day you end your fat loss frustration and the painful, long and boring cardio forever. Part of the reason for this myth and misconception is what people see on the cardio equipment dashboard. You will often see a chart explaining the “Fat Burning Zone”. It gives you the impression that if you stay within a certain heart rate zone you will burn fat, but if you’re out of this zone you won’t.

Often it’s explained that you have to stay within an aerobic state to use more fat for energy. You will have some inexperienced trainers explain that you should maintain a conversational pace to stay within this zone. This means you should be able to hold a conversation while doing aerobic exercise.

I debunk this entire misrepresentation in another blog I wrote on March 12th called the Fat Burning Zone, so I won’t go into length about it here.

The reality is that you do use more fat for energy in this aerobic state described on the cardio machines, but I’m not concerned with how much fat you use for energy during a given amount of time. It doesn’t mean it’s the most effective to lose overall fat and get you to your long range goals. I’m also not concerned just about the amount of calories you burn during this time. Although the method I will suggest in a moment can equal the same amount of calories burned in a shorter period of time.

Most importantly, I’m interested in the hormonal responses I can create from exercise to send the right signals to the body to release fat for fuel. Here’s the kicker. I’m more interested in what happens to your body after you’re DONE with a cardio workout, then while you’re working out.

If you would do high-intensity cardio or what we often call interval training. It’s the most effective way to release and burn fat for fuel because it’s the post exercise responses created by this method. Interval training stimulates the central nervous system to release growth hormone. If you read my previous blog posts in the series I wrote about hormonal responses and the effects on fat release for energy you now know how important creating the right hormonal environment is to losing fat. Specifically, interval training will stimulate adrenalin and noradrenalin. It drives the good guys to go to the cells to open them up and use fat as fuel. If you want to not only burn fat during exercise, but throughout the day, you will want to do interval training. In addition, you will have raised your metabolic rate for a longer period after you’re done exercising. The good news is interval training is often done in half the time, so it’s a double win for the busy person.

If you're still skeptical, see the results our Fitness Together Transformation contestants are gettingand specifically listen to Michael Long explain how he was surprise how 25 minutes of cardio has helpedhim lose over 60 pounds: http://www.fitnesstogether.net/

I do want to say, I’m not bashing regular lower intensity cardiovascular exercise because you can’t do interval training every day. It has its place in your overall exercise plan. In fact, I don’t recommend doing interval training more than 3 times per week. Therefore, two other times per week you can do low intensity cardiovascular exercise, but you don’t need to do more than 30 minutes if you apply a balanced approach to your overall fitness and nutrition plan like we do with the FT Essentials. This balanced approach is not only physiologically more beneficial to achieving your goals, but psychologically more stimulating.

From an exercise prescription standpoint, know that high intensity cardio is always going to be better than lower intensity steady state cardio. Also know that you have to progressively build up to interval training. You don’t want to just jump into a program that is too intense for your ability level or you won’t enjoy yourself. When working with our clients we always use progress exercise prescription principles. It allows the client to work at their ability level and often exceed what they thought they ever could do because we progressively increase the challenge as their fitness level increases. Our comprehensive health and fitness assessments allow us to specifically target heart rates to the client ensuring a perfect cardiovascular prescription and intensity.

Please do not think because it’s often call high intensity interval training that you cannot do it unless you’re in great shape. High intensity is relative to the individual and why appropriate exercise prescriptions are important.

You can read a previous blog I wrote to get more details on what interval training is and additional recommendations. It was written on March 20th and call Chuch Saves The Day.
Thank you for allowing me to guide you through the health and fitness maze.
In good health,

Pete Piranio BS, CSCS
Owner/Fitness Consultant
Fitness Together
Brookfield: 262.780.6350
Delafield: 262.646.5444
Wauwatosa: 414.453.9800
Woodbury,MN: 651.436.8137
http://www.fitnesstogether.net/

P.S. If you would like to learn more about our services you can schedule a complimentary introductory session and consultation or request our DVD and information guide at our website: http://www.fitnesstogether.net/

8 Reasons You're Not Losing Weight. Part 4

Today we will be continuing our discussion on why you may be eating healthy
and exercising, but still not losing weight.

There is nothing worse than seeing the frustration on someone's face that
feels like they are doing everything right, but just can't shed the weight.
I've consulted with hundreds of clients and this always hits you right in the
heart.

The hardest part for us is knowing that we have a psychological battle on our
hands with a client in this situation. We also know that the clock starts
ticking to win this battle before they consider us another failed attempt.

The fact is everyone (except for rare instances) can achieve a healthy
weight if they are committed to it. You have to truly commit to making
changes in your life. Sometimes the changes you have to make don't always
fit into the exercise and nutrition category alone, as you have been learning
in this series. Today, we will discuss hormonal imbalances as one more example.

Before we dive into hormonal balances I want to discuss a very important
point that is a critical piece to the fitness and fat loss puzzle. It's
critical because without understanding this point, you may never get a chance
to put all the pieces to the puzzle together.

You have to accept that making health, fitness and weight loss changes may not
come easy. You have to accept that it's a process and the process may have
many ups and downs. The right methods and approach will make it easier, but
there is no silver bullet.

If you read one of our Fitness Together Transformation contestant's blog
entries on May 16th, you will see a perfect example of how easy it is to get
frustrated, lose focus and potentially derail yourself for good. I'm happy to
say Jason Fritz stayed mentally tough long enough to start seeing terrific
results. These results have fueled his fire ever since and now he's on a roll.
Unfortunately, some people give up before they experience success. Read Jason's
May 16th post here:
http://jasonfritz-ftc.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html

If you can understand it is a process and for many, this process is not
"quick and easy", you are much more likely to stick with it. You are much more
likely to put all the pieces together. You are much more likely to get the 8
Reasons in this series right.

If you have gained the knowledge to put together the right fitness and weight
loss plan, you must trust your plan and avoid the gimmick temptations. This
is what we asked our Fitness Together Transformation contestants to do and
they are getting terrific results (www.fitnesstogether.net). I'm sure contestant Michael Long was skeptical when he discovered he was only going to
do 20-25 minutes of cardio, but after losing 60 plus pounds lost later I'm sure
he's not.

We live in America and culturally we want everything fast, so let me reassure
you can still have ups and downs in the process and achieve quick results.
Jason Fritz had a few mental ups and downs, but he also lost 20 pounds in less
than three months. Heck, there are a lot of people that would be very happy!

Here is another example, a month and a half ago I had a phone conversation with
a client that was frustrated because she was not losing weight, but felt like
she was doing everything right. Understandably, she wanted to vent some
frustrations and I was going to be on the receiving end. She had stated that
our web site said we never fail and she obviously felt like we did. I responded
by stating we never do. We will never give up until we are successful with the
client. We weren't giving up on her either. The question was she going to give
up? Was she going to commit to making the necessary changes? Was she going
to accept responsibility or blame someone or something else?

We know our methods are scientifically based and proven to be successful and
we have hundreds case studies to prove it. In each and every one of our success
stories we were able to help the client not only learn what has to be done, but
commit and take responsibility for making the changes necessary. Sometimes
these changes were easy and results came quickly and other times it's tough
like the aforementioned example.

I am happy to report that this client did accept responsibility, made the
recommended changes and has since lost 30 pounds!

The moral of this story is there are reasons for your struggles. It's very
rare that someone is genetically "stuck" with being obese. Very rare! I don't
care what you read in a magazine or see on TV. You just have to be willing to
stick with it long enough to get all the pieces working together and to find
what's missing in your fat loss formula.

Let's look at hormonal imbalances as one possible problem in the fat loss equation:

I've been writing a lot about this in the other posts for good reason. Many
of the exercise and nutrition strategies and techniques I've previously
discussed are to create the right hormonal response to release fat for fuel.
You can have one hormonal imbalance and do a lot of work for nothing. Even one
imbalance can be the missing piece to the puzzle.

Over the years I discovered hormonal imbalances to be one of the biggest reasons
people were not losing fat, even if they truly were doing just about everything
else right. I've found that if people are hitting a plateau we just need to dig
a little deeper to find out why, rather than, make drastic changes.

I've seen people drastically cut calories or start excessively exercising when
they are stuck on this plateau, when really they needed to find the real culprit.

The best way to make sure your hormones are not the culprit is to see a medical
specialist. We typically recommend our clients see a physician for testing of
hormonal imbalances and metabolic diseases if every other possibility has been
exhausted. They can either discuss this with their physician or see a few of our
recommended physicians who specialize in this area.

The four key areas to ensure are normal are:
1. Thyroid levels
2. Insulin
3. Cortisol
4. Testosterone and Estrogen

In the previous post in this series we have discussed how Thyroid levels
significantly affect your metabolic rate and caloric expenditure. We also discussed
the importance of stabilizing insulin to optimize the release of fat as fuel.
Insulin resistance can have a dramatic impact on your ability to lose fat because
the body continues to secrete higher and higher levels if the cells are not
accepting insulin. This ultimately creates an environment that will increase
calories store as fat.

In earlier posts we discussed how cortisol levels can be increased with stress
and poor sleep because the body perceives the lack of sleep as stress. You can also
have high cortisol levels even if you get adequate sleep and handle stress properly.

Lastly, low levels of testosterone in men and low levels of estrogen in women will
increase a person's fat storing. Women can often experience weight gain when
entering menopause because of drops in estrogen.

Understanding that any imbalance in these hormones can make fat loss very difficult
even with the best exercise and nutrition plan can save you a lot of frustration.
We work with our clients to create an optimal hormonal environment with an exercise
and nutrition plan first, but if progress is at a standstill we often work with
medical professionals to find if this is the missing pieces. If you have the right
exercise and nutrition plan that will naturally create the right hormonal balance for
fat loss and have hit a plateau you may want to do the same.


Thank you for allowing me to guide you through the health and fitness maze.

In good health,


Pete Piranio BS, CSCS
Owner/Fitness Consultant
Fitness Together
www.fitnesstogether.net
Brookfield: 262.780.6350
Delafield: 262.646.5444
Wauwatosa: 414-453-9800
Woodbury,MN: 651-436-8137

8 Reasons You're Not Losing Weight Part 3

In this blog series we’ve been discussing some of the most overlooked reasons you may be hitting a fat loss plateau or not losing weight. Today we are going to discuss diet imbalances.

First, I usually don’t like to use the word “diet” when discussing this topic because it implies calorie restriction or changing your nutrition temporarily. My preference is to use nutrition versus diet.
You might be saying, “Pete this is being pretty picky. What difference is this going to make for me losing weight or not losing weight?” It actually can make a big difference because it’s a state of mind. It’s your point of view and how you see food mentally.

Most people I know that have good nutritional habits look at food differently than those who don’t. People that have good nutritional habits tend to look at food as fuel or energy. They don’t diet. They don’t look at food as the most important thing in their day. They don’t use it as emotional comfort. They don’t use it as a reward. They don’t think they “deserve” food after a hard day’s work.

This doesn’t mean these same people don’t enjoy food. They just don’t make the enjoyment of food the most important event of the day. They see food as something that is needed to be healthy and effectively do other things in their day that are of greater importance to them.
People who see food as fuel, energy and a necessity don’t “diet.” They change their nutritional selections in order to increase or decrease their weight.

The quality of your food, not just quantity makes a big difference in achieving your fat loss goals. I have consulted with many people who tell me, “Pete, I already eat healthy. There is no need for me to participate in your nutritional program.” Their assumption is they will only need the exercise program.

Unfortunately, many people think they are eating healthy, but after further diagnoses they discover they are not. This can be for two reasons. First, their education about healthy food is inaccurate. Second, food companies have very deceptive marketing and people get tricked into believing they are eating healthy.

However, even if a client is eating healthy, they may not be eating to support fat loss. Let me give you an example:
Let’s say you wake up in the morning and have a bowl of Wheat Flakes with milk and a glass of orange juice. This is a healthy breakfast right? But does it support your fat loss goals? If you look at your body’s hormonal response to this breakfast you may be surprised.
There are three macronutrients most people are aware of: proteins, fats and carbohydrates. The combination of these macronutrients has a significant effect on your body’s hormonal responses and fat loss. If we look at the breakfast described you will discover this breakfast may be healthier than bacon, eggs and a donut, but it won’t help you lose those extra pounds.

Let’s look at each of the breakfast foods described above. First, the Wheat Flakes is almost 100% carbohydrates. The milk has very little protein and is practically all sugar. Most people won’t argue that milk contains a lot of Lactose. Lactose is a form of sugar. Anything ending with ‘ose’ is a form of sugar (sucrose, fructose, etc.). Yes, milk is not the best option if you want to lose fat. I know this is going to throw some people off their rocker. I’ve had people go bananas over this in my seminars before, but it’s the truth. Lastly, let’s look at the content of orange juice. Yes, this is practically all sugar as well. If you don’t believe me look at the nutrition label of a bottle of orange juice and hold it side by side with a Coke. I think you’ll be shocked!

This healthy breakfast we have been breaking down is all carbohydrates. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating carbohydrates are the devil like some would have you believe. Carbohydrates are an essential macronutrient especially when you are exercising often. The problem with this breakfast is it contains a lot of simple carbohydrates, which in many cases is sugar. It also doesn’t contain any protein. In short, the macronutrients are not in balance, thus creating an unsupportive physiological environment for fat loss.


Meals high in simple carbohydrates will stimulate high levels of insulin and put the body into a fat storing state. If we are trying to lose fat we want to keep the body in a fat burning state all day. The best way to do this is by controlling your insulin levels.


The best strategies to control insulin levels and keep them steady through the day is to have a balance of carbohydrates, fats and proteins in every meal or snack you eat. In our nutrition program we teach our clients easy ways to get the right percentage of each without counting grams or other tedious methods. There is an easy way to do this. You also want to make sure the quality of carbohydrates, fats and proteins support your goal as well. This is a whole other topic that will have to be covered in the future.


The second way to control insulin is by implementing frequent small meals throughout the day. Just ask a diabetic. It’s why frequent meals are important for them. They are living proof this works to control insulin.


Not only will these two strategies stabilize insulin for an optimal fat releasing environment, but it will also improve your energy, mental alertness and control your appetite so you don’t over eat. Many people will reach for a coffee when their energy is low, when in reality their energy is low because they have not eaten in awhile.


The second component of nutritional imbalances that affect fat loss is low calorie dieting. This is the most common mistake I see. Many people restrict their calories too low, creating a series of events that inhibit fat loss.


This is one of the most difficult concepts for people to understand because for years people have been told to eat less to lose weight.



Yes, in some cases people simply need to eat less, but in many cases people are not eating enough.
There are two scenarios I typically see. First, there is the person who simply cuts their calories too low or is following one of a hundred restricted calorie diets. The second case is what I call the American Epidemic. This is the person who only eats two meals a day. Either scenario has terrible consequences to your fat loss goals.


What’s important to understand is that your body perceives any extended period of time without nutrients as a form of starvation. This perceived starvation causes a series of physiological responses necessary for the body to preserve and protect itself. It doesn’t require days of starvation for this physiological response to kick in. It can occur when you haven’t eaten in 4 or 5 hours. Obviously, the longer the period of time or lower amounts of calories the greater the physiological response.


This self preservation tends to decrease your metabolism or the rate at which your body uses energy and creates heat. It also wants to store excess energy as fat for a rainier day. First, your body will create a surge in an enzyme called Lipo Protein Lipase. The sole job of this enzyme is to store calories as body fat. Second, your Thyroid Hormone production will decrease, thus decreasing your metabolic rate. It does this to conserve energy and control your body’s heat production.


If we look at the American Epidemic scenario, you will see how important this is. This person may eat breakfast, but doesn’t eat the rest of the day until dinner. Throughout the day the body’s metabolism decreases and surges of Lipo Protein Lipase are released. Now this individual will go home and eat a large dinner because they are starving after not eating all day. Not eating all day not only causes over eating, but now many of these calories are more readily stored as fat with the presence of Lipo Protein Lipase being so high. This person has essentially created a fat storing machine and can’t figure out why they gain weight, when “they don’t eat.”


The solution to creating balanced nutrition and an optimal state for fat loss is to eat 5 frequent meals/snacks every 3-3 ½ hours with a balance of good proteins, fats and carbohydrates. No gimmicks, no fads and no starving. It really is simpler than you think! This is assuming you know the other 7 Reasons You Are Not Losing Weight.


Thank you for the opportunity to lead your through the health and fitness maze.

In Good Health
Pete Piranio BS, CSCS
Owner/Fitness Consultant
Fitness Together
Brookfield 262-780-6350
Delafield 262-646-5444
Wauwatosa 414-453-9800
Woodbury, MN 651-436-8137
http://www.fitnesstogether.net

P.S. Don't forget to check in and vote for our Fitness Together Transformation Competition contestants here: http://www.mycommunitynow.com.

P.P.S. If you need help putting together a complete program to achieve your fitness goals and want a support system to implement customized plan, come see us for a complimentary introductory session and consultation. Learn more here.