In Weight Loss Losers Are Winners

This past week has really been busy. My company does major event support for NASCAR and I have been part of that project, left no time to update my blogs. NASCAR, and any competitive activity for that matter, there can only be one winner. The great thing about losing weight, everyone can be a winner. And I don’t mean in a mushy self-esteem massaging manner. Neither I am referring to the fact you lose pounds and therefore are winning. No, I am specifically talking about decades of research that show people who make an honest attempt to lose weight, even though they may not succeed, still enjoy some long-term health benefits from the lifestyle changes they made. Indeed, I remember one report I read years ago showing that people who are overweight (but not obese) but try to lose the weight often end up living longer than people with normal weight, but are sedentary and/or eat poorly. That is why everyone who makes an honest (not a for-show) effort at weight loss winners; they still benefit regardless if weight drops. Obviously, it is better to lose the weight, though that is not always easy. I should know, because for years I was obese, weighed in at a fat-laden 240 pounds. Finally I learned what I was doing wrong, and had a runaway success. Please check out my website and see what I’ve done to lose 80 pounds in 4 months.

Burn Fat & Gain Muscle At The Same Time - Yes, And No

t has often been said that it is impossible to build muscle while losing fat. They point out to build muscles you must consume more calories than you burn off. Others say that is not true and point to themselves as examples. I have built muscles and lost fat in the same period as well. In the amazing, complex way our bodies work, both parties are right and at the same time "wrong". It is true, according to the laws of mass-energy conservation, you must input more energy than you burn to build mass, whether its fat or muscle. However, several factors influence this process. First, unlike fat stores, when you lose proteins from exercise, there is a deficit your body tries to fill. If you eat quick digesting carbs and proteins, they go immediately to fill this deficit. This is not the case with fat stores; the body does not automatically attempt to replenish fat burnt off from intense physical activity. If your fitness goal is to gain muscle mass, you can in fact do intense cardio several days a week, burn off excess fat, and still eat enough to grow your muscles. This is in fact advisable because gaining fat is linked with growing muscle - you cannot separate the two.
Now, it is true, sort of, muscle growth does not occur at the exact same time as fat is being burnt. Because the body is in a catabolic state during exercise, your muscles cannot grow, they only grow during rest especially during sleep. Your body is still tapping your fat stores, but at much lower levels, at levels where we often say we are not burning fat, though that is technically incorrect.
The conclusion, if you time your eating perfectly, minimize cardio - but not completely eliminate it, you can lose fat, while growing muscles. The most important thing is to keep eating, if you fail to eat enough, you will not have any appreciable muscle growth and all your weight training is for nothing.
Please visit my sites, here or here, to see a real life success story of a guy that went from being medically obese to having an athletic physique.

And now on protein leeching.

Yesterday I talked about fat burning, today I am going to touch on protein leeching. Pick up just about any fitness magazine or read any website devoted to fitness, you will hear warnings about how your body leeches proteins, particularly when you start any physical activity. Read how some of them go, you would think that if you do not take the extreme precautions, your muscles would shrivel up by tomorrow. That is not quite how bad it is. Yes, protein leeching is real, and needs to be taken into consideration. However, it is also quite easy to remedy. Eat lean white meat such as chicken 60 to 90 minutes prior to exercise, or if you miss that window, you can take 20 to 30 grams of whey protein, depending on how intense you will be exercising. Problem solved; you will have the amino acids in your bloodstream that your body needs. Even if you miss doing so, it is no major problem. It is more important that you eat fast-digesting proteins after your workout or any other physical activity. There is a golden window, which lasts 30 minutes at most, where any foods, particularly proteins, are consumed, they go straight to your muscles once digested, and not converted to fat. Long time body builders, who have physiques to back this statement, said consuming fast absorbing food immediately has helped them sustain the largest muscle gains.

What is more cause for concern, is protein leeching when you skip meals or try to cut back on food to lose fat. For all the talk about proteins and muscles, proteins are in fact used in every cell of your body. When you starve yourself, your body’s system, being stupid, assumes you are in a state of famine. It steals proteins from your muscles, not for energy, but for repairing other parts of your body. It also shrinks your muscles to slow metabolism. Then your muscles do shrivel up. When you finally had it and stop your diet, the weight you have lost is mostly muscle. That is why people who know what they are talking about always warn you to never starve yourself when trying to control your weight. You need to eat plenty, but healthy.

I am a real life runaway success story with my weight. Click here or here to find out how I lost 80 pounds in four months.

When Do We Enter "Fat-Burning Mode"?

A common question I hear being asked, how long does it take for the body to enter fat-burning mode when doing cardio. The common answers floating about are 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and I have seen 30 minutes. However, technically speaking, all those answers are wrong. Our bodies are always in a state of fat-burning.
For decades, it was thought that our fat stores were generally immobile, except in conditions of aerobic exercise or famine. But in 1935 the biochemist Schoenheimer using radioactive Hydrogen-2 tracers demonstrated our fat stores are highly mobile, undergoing constant turnover. This means we are always burning fat, that is good. However, it means much of our carbs and fats we eat are immediately converted to fat, which is bad. This actually made sense to me when I first read this report. Our 50 trillion cells constantly need energy, and it seemed to me that what we eat could not constantly supply the energy our cells need to function. I've gone as long as 36+ hours without eating, and still survived. But reading the results of Schoenheimer's research, now I see how. What we think of fat burning during cardio, then, is simply an existing process accellerated, triggered by chemical signals produced during extended cardio. Knowing this information, you can "tease" and trick your body to constantly burn off fat, but without feeling hungry, and without depriving yourself. Eat whole grains, lean meats, and raw leafy vegetables during the day, they have low density in calories. Right after a workout, you can eat more liberally.

My research uncovered information like this entry, allowing me to experience outstanding success in losing weight. Click here or here to find out how I lost 80 pounds in four months.

A very common observation, and trap, I have seen many people trying to control their weight be unduly affected by daily changes in their weight. I've been there myself. Step on the scale one day, weight a certain amount. The next day, weight 2 pounds less, or perhaps three pounds more. Then become joyful, or frustrated. Especially when the weight has gone up. Its easy to become real upset, discouraged, and even to the point quitting. Yeah, I have done that too. But when thought about rationally, there is no reason to be concerned. To gain two pounds of fat in a single day, you must consume 7000 calories more than they burnt off - in one day. Now do you really think that you did that, in a single day? Probably not, not if you have been trying to lose weight.
Daily fluctuations are part of the game. It is not unusual for a person's weight to change a couple pounds a day. The overwhelming cause is fluid changes, e.g., water. Drink a lot of water, you will increase weight. Sweat and urinate without drinking a lot of water, your weight will go down. For that reason, it is better to weigh yourself every week. Doing this will show the trend, hopefully a downward trend. Another tip, try and weigh yourself under identical conditons to minimize variations. I always weigh myself on Monday morning, after my morning workout, after I used the restroom. Weighing weekly while trying to do so under consistent conditions, I have an idea if what I am doing is still getting the results I want. It also keeps my focused on the long-term big picture.

My Weight Loss Story

It is simple, for the last 15 years or so, I struggled with being overweight. I "tried" losing weight, I tried diets, exercises, pills, all without any success. I would lose some weight, keep it off for a few months, and then gain it all back plus extra. After becoming fed up, I attacked my problem from all angles. After extensive research, I came up with a plan and went to work. Well, I dropped 80 pounds in just four months. The first six weeks I lost six pounds each week. This was March 2007 and the weight is still gone. People want to know what I did to obtain such success. I will be sharing that on various blogs.

To read my complete story, please visit my site