Do you exercise five, six days a week hoping to burn enough calories to lose weight?
Do you really believe that juggling balls for a few minutes daily as seen on a network news show recently will burn enough calories to get the job done?
Did you buy a pedometer to track the total number of steps taken each day and calories burned?
While all of these fads have, at one time, been the topic de jour, the fact is focusing on calories burned to lose weight is guaranteed to short circuit any chance of reaching your goals.
Surprisingly scientific research shows little evidence of exercise being effective in promoting weight loss.
Yet millions continue to add exercise to their weight loss strategy counting on the calories in/calories out theory to produce results.
There is a way to lose weight with "effective exercise" that doesn't require hours of jogging, sit ups, aerobics or stretching. A program that requires minimal will power, commitment, or perseverance.
And, what if it was possible with just two short workouts a week?
It is possible.
But first take a step back and look at the science of the body to see why the typical exercise and eating plans of the past few decades are not working.
Why does the body get fat in the first place and why does it hold on for dear life to this fat, even "trapping" it in the fat cell.
The short answer is the body is being overwhelmed by sugars, hidden sugars and carbohydrates at every meal and in every snack.
Some of this sugar will be used immediately for energy, but the excessive sugar presents a problem and must be dealt with right away as it is toxic to the cells, arteries and tissues.
The response by the body to sugar in our blood is to excrete "insulin" from the pancreas.
The overall action of insulin is to take this excess sugar and store it in the muscle and liver. But there is only so much room there and the excess gets stored in the fat cells.
What is most detrimental to weight loss goals -- and what the main stream health care industry doesn't understand-- is that insulin also serves to keep the fat stored in the fat cell, "locked up" until the blood sugars are low again.
If most of what we are eating is being locked away in the fat cells due to the high sugar, high carb diets we are consuming, we are left with very little energy available for our muscles and organs.
The result is constant hunger which leads to more eating, which leads to more fat storage if we continue eating the same foods.
It becomes a vicious cycle.
And when faced with a dwindling energy supply, the body has another response: it slows down all functions, conserving energy at the cellular level, creating a feeling of laziness.
So now the body is both hungry and lazy!
Now if the goal is to lose fat, not just weight, and it is as we don't want to lose muscle, we must find a way to get at the fat that is locked away in the fat cell and use it for energy.
Here is where the weight loss industry's focus on reducing calories to lose weight doesn't hold water.
Why?
When muscles and organs do not receive enough energy from the foods consumed due to this energy being locked up in the fat cells, the body will compensate by conserving energy. The metabolism, which is every cell in the body, will slow down.
This conservation of energy may even offset any reduction in calories (dieting) resulting in no weight loss.
Additionally, the body can and will use sources other than fat for energy. If the body can't get at the fat to convert to energy, it will begin to recruit lean tissues like muscles and organs as raw material for energy production. When this happens there is no reduction in fat!
For the obese, the addition of exercise into the mix can be life threatening.
If the fat is unavailable for use as energy because it is locked up in the fat cells, and fewer calories are consumed resulting in even less available energy, when exercise is introduced, where does the energy come from?
It comes from the muscle and organs such as the heart.
Weight loss may occur, but it will be at the expense of lean tissue. This also leaves these tissues susceptible to deficiencies.
Although it may sound simplistic, the answer to most weight loss problems (outside of the bio-chemical glitches of the body such as thyroid) is simply a matter of being able to access the fat reserves by eliminating the foods that stimulate the body to produce excessive insulin.
So why exercise?
If the greater influence to losing weight is the diet, the overemphasis on exercise may be having a negative effect on weight loss, as exercising while the fat stores are locked up, may only serve to stimulate hunger, laziness and fat deposition.
The answer is to create an environment where the fat stores are available for use for energy.
Now adding exercise into the weight loss protocol would be a good way to reduce fat stores and therefore weight.
But the exercise must be "effective" to bring desired results
Although "effective exercise" can aid in weight loss and benefit the quality of life, all exercise beyond the ability of the body to adapt is counterproductive!
So what is "Effective Exercise"?
A practical, effective exercise approach to health and fitness is to SIMPLY focus on muscle retention, and even adding a few pounds of muscle, as it is the most critical element of human fitness.
Skeletal muscle plays key biological roles in keeping the body strong, functional and healthy. Muscle is needed for physical movement, participates in the regulation of blood sugars, uses fat for energy and keeps the body from becoming insulin sensitive or diabetic.
Over the years, resistance exercise has proven as a great way to add exercise to a limited schedule. It can be safely performed by all age groups and fitness levels and is more beneficial to overall fitness than any other exercise protocol.
Resistance training delivers improvements in strength, endurance, flexibility, conditioning, muscle tone, and in all cardiovascular parameters. It is a stress reliever, limits repetitive activity on joints, and minimizes oxidation. Resistance training also taps into the fat stores to supply the energy for "protein synthesis" (the recovery stage ).
The big news is that science and decades of experience with thousands of clients has demonstrated that the benefits of resistance exercise can be achieved with just two workouts a week.
By not overemphasizing the volume of exercise as most programs do, the emphasis is on the real problem, the foods that are stimulating excessive insulin.
With the emphasis on the foods that will keep insulin levels low and an exercise program that challenges the largest muscles of the body twice a week... large amounts of fat will be recruited to provide the energy to recover from this type of workout. Best of all this fat burning process goes on seven days a week, contributing to weight loss goals.
The typical game plan of walking or riding an exercise bike for 30-60 minutes daily, along with a few "toning" exercises will probably not do the job.
If you do get some results it will be the result of a tremendous cost in time and energy which eventually leads to giving it up and weight gain.
It is important to note that high intensity, short duration exercise has a stimulating effect on the metabolism whereas the body perceives long duration workouts as an unrelenting stressor, a cue to shut down metabolic activity and hormonal output to conserve energy (the same shut down caused by fasting or even low calorie diets).
In other words workouts should be designed to be invigorating, not overwhelming, long and fatiguing.
By focusing on only two exercise sessions a week, eliminating hunger by eating the right amount of the right foods and engaging in effective exercises that are prudent and appropriate for all fitness levels, the chances of sticking with an exercise program are substantially improved.
The result? Consistent healthy weight loss and a stronger, leaner and more fit body.
Rick Bramos has trained thousands of clients beginning in 1973 as a Physical Activities Specialist in the U.S. Army. Rick opened the first Gold's Gym in S.C. in 1982 and was one of the few men certified to teach Step, Cycling Classes, Body Pump And other classes in the late 80's and early 90's.
He recently co-authored a book (2 Days to Fitness) featuring his 3 Cycle Training System.
Rick is still in constant demand as a trainer. He was recently the featured trainer for Greenville S.C. WYYF 4 News Anchor Gordon Dill.
For Rick's Free Fitness Tips or information on his book go to... http://2daystofitness.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Rick_Bramos/315984
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