Weight Loss: What works?
February 25, 2010 by CarpetGuy · 4 Comments
When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Can you tell by looking, or stepping on a scale, whether you are too fat or just too heavy? No, you can’t, that is why a body fat measurement is vital to any weight or fat loss program, without this simple test, you don’t know whether your efforts are doing good, or bad. Most people assume that they are just too heavy, and all of the fad diets, and fancy pre packaged meals focus on this to make money from the unfortunate, fat, ill-advised consumer.
Yes, if you are active, work hard, and yet eat the wrong food, and drink too much, you can still be fat, and maybe one of those fad diets can do you some good, at least temporarily, the same goes for the fancy pre packaged meals, but, how do you know what is working? Measure your fat!
The graph above is for me, for about a month, with un-regular measurements, meaning, I did a couple of fat measurements only a couple of days apart, here and there, and it looks like the curve flattens out, when in reality, it doesn’t, so, let’s just use the results for my example.
Over this time period, I lost a total of about 18 lbs of body fat and gained about 11 lbs of lean body weight, for a net loss of 7 pounds. It is recommended that one should lose no more than about 2 pounds a week, but no one ever says anything about the details of fat vs lean weight.
No matter what diet you get on, all they ever talk about is weight, eat this, lose weight. The problem with that is that you can do more harm than good, by simply losing weight and not monitoring what type of weight, fat or lean, is being lost, and this is the most important detail, but all they care about is selling you a book, a membership, or some over-priced food!
So, what works? Yes, exercise, but, not just any exercise, because things like spending hours on a treadmill, will cause you to burn muscle, as well as fat, and that is not good, because muscle is your best friend when it comes to burning fat, so, what do you do? Resistance training, more specifically, weight training, is the answer, but, this too must be done properly, or, it is not much better than running, you must train heavy! No, you don’t have to become a power-lifter, but a man, doing a set of curls with a dumbbell that weighs about the same as a beer, just will not give you the desired results, the effort must hurt!
Before you get crazy, and do something dangerous, by hurt, I mean it must be something beyond what you would normally do, like drinking a beer, we have all heard the term “12 ounce curls”, and personally, I have done sets of 20 or 30 in the past! What I am trying to say is that it requires a bit of “discomfort” to get results, the keyword being, Intensity. Intensity, is what determines whether any exercise does anything, and it must be adjusted to your own level of fitness or health, so, get informed, if you go to a gym, or fitness center, the trainers there should be able to help you, and if you let them know that you want to gain muscle as well as lose fat, by training with weights, they can get you started in the right direction.
Just remember the old K.I.S.S. acronym, which means, Keep It Simple Stupid. If you eat food, as close to the way God made it as possible, meaning, NOT PROCESSED, and without added sugar and so on, and start training with some good ole iron, you can do it!
What is the MOVE Program?
Today was my second meeting with the MOVE program, and somehow, I still feel a bit disappointed. The VA offers the MOVE Program to help us overweight Vets to lose weight, the name implies action, but, so far, it is a basic, and I mean very basic nutrition class. The first meeting, we read a story about a 600+ pound woman that lost weight by kicking a ball around her apartment, this meeting we played a “Jeopardy” like game, after our standard weigh in. Yep, that was it. Oh, by the way, I was the “biggest loser” this month, I lost 9lbs.
I never expected much from the program, after all, it is a government thing, but, at the weigh in, and they saw I had lost weight, I broke it down for them as to the fact that I had lost about 16lbs of fat and gained almost 6 lbs of muscle, something that one would think might make someone ask a question or two as to how, and yes, it was mentioned that I was going to the gym, but that was as far as it went, a wasted opportunity in my opinion.
I had told them the month before that I was going to get the software etc to keep track of fat loss, when I told them the numbers, the doctor for our group said something like “oh yeah, you mentioned that before”, why was there not more attention paid to this? From what I can see, as long as you do not gain weight, everybody is happy!
Somehow I feel that the name MOVE implies some sort of action, but, the highlight of the meeting was how many nuts make up a quarter cup? I have to be honest, the nutrition stuff doesn’t mean a hill of crap if you don’t have any exercise. The nutrition councilor even mentioned that briefly, while explaining an answer to one of the questions in the game we were playing. She told us that there was a lady in a wheelchair that started doing leglifts with a small weight and eventually got out of the chair because of it, but that was about it, again, a missed opportunity to actually teach the group or even maybe motivate someone, but no, it was all about somebody ringing a bell or blowing a whistle to answer the next question. The game itself is not where I have issues, it was actually an ok thing, you can find similar ones here, but, the meeting only lasts an hour, and so did the game, and everyone there participated, it was fun, but, was it productive?
I am usually way too critical about everything, and, in this case I am sure of that, but, as I see it, this MOVE Program is a waste of time. Here is the good news, we don’t have another one until April, something to do with Spring Break and somebody’s kids or something, to be honest, I don’t want to go back, but, I will, because somehow, I need to help. Being fat is not fun, being old and fat is even worse. I missed six years of training because I was in pain, and couldn’t breath, now that I have meds for this, and know that my pain is there forever, whether I train or not, I am sticking with it, the gym has been my life since I was a kid, I need to help others, it keeps me motivated. If you read this, and are a member of the MOVE Program, do as I am going to, Take Charge! Make the Move Program be more like the name implies!
Gym Etiquette: Flirting and Training, a big no no!
Gym Etiquette is one of those things that have “evolved” over time. Back in the day, throwing plates, chalk bags or even dumbbells was a normal thing. Getting mad that you missed a lift, or something was out of place was common. This was also a time when girls were not often found in a gym, but when they were, they were serious about training. Women almost always hung out in those “girly” places, like “spas”, and then “fitness centers”, but now, even a “Gym” like Golds, is nothing more than a fitness center, I often wonder if Joe Gold saw that coming back in the day, I doubt it.
Anyway, here we are in the present, and today, I just almost had to have a talk with one of the trainers. I have no idea what the exercise is called that he was attempting to teach this little girl, but between the two of them, there was more talking, and flirting, than training going on. What is the problem with that? Well, for one, it ties up the equipment, and another, it makes the trainer look like he has lost control of the trainee. Yes, I said it, control!
When at the gym, it should be all about the training, not flirting. Even though in this case, it was the girl, not the trainer, that was starting the “small talk”, but, his lack of control was obvious. When he would attempt to teach, the girl would dodge the lesson and move on to how she came to the gym 6 days a week or more. To be honest, that girl could go the gym 100 days a week and never get a workout! I’m sorry if I sound too strict, but, by not keeping the girl focussed on training, he was wasting her time, time she is paying for! Being nice is not a good quality for a trainer, a trainer should be tough, and rigid, otherwise it shows a bad example, goofing around, joking, flirting and anything else that distracts you, or anyone else, from the work at hand is just wrong!
Weight Loss through Weight Training?
If you are over-weight, this may interest you, if you are over-fat, this may help you, if you don’t know which one you are, this may clear it up. What happens when you get on a scale? Does it yell, “One at a time PLEASE!” or does it show a number that doesn’t tell you why your pants no longer fit?
Soon, I will be posting my personal training and FAT-LOSS reports, I am currently waiting on software to do this, and once I have it, I will tell you all about it, how to use it, and why you may need it to get the best results in your battle of the bulge!
For now, the topic is what does Over-Weight mean to you? To me, it means nothing, I am used to not fitting the “standard” height/weight requirements, I am a freak, according to them, and maybe you are too. These standard charts do work out ok as a guideline for most people, but, if you have a “wider” frame, with more muscle than a “normal” person, it may scare the heck out of you!
Below is what the chart says for me, here is the link to the whole chart.
|
5’7″ |
138-145 |
142-154 |
149-168 |
|---|
As you can see, there are three columns, one each for small, medium, and large frames, I currently weigh 278.8, that means I am 110.8 pounds over the max for large frames! Obviously, this chart does not work for me, according to my height, weight and measurements, I currently have 35.28% bodyfat total, which is down from 37.13% two weeks ago, my goal is about 12-15%. Based on the numbers I have, I still need to lose about 20-23% bodyfat, See where the confusion comes in?
In the last two weeks I have lost 3.8 pounds and just under 2% bodyfat (BF), but, I have gone from 104.93lbs (BF) to 98.36lbs (BF), that is a loss of 6.57lbs of fat! At the same time, I have increased my lean weight (LW) from 177.67lbs (LW) to 180.44lbs (LW) for a gain of 2.77lbs (LW).
If I were to stay at this same rate, in twenty weeks, I should lose 38 pounds total weight (TW), 65.7lbs of fat, and gain 27.7lbs (LW), lets do the math and see if this works out right. Subtract 65.7lb from 278.8, then add 27.7lb, that comes to 240.8lbs (TW) and ten times 1.85% (BF) is 18.5% (BF), which would put me at 16.78% (BF), I would be almost to my goal, but, wait a minute, I would still weight 72.8lbs too much, according to the chart!
Can you see my point? I know that the actual numbers over the next 20 weeks will vary from what we used here, but once I can print the reports, it will be easier to show you, who knows, it could be even better!
My point here is to ignore the charts! Measure your bodyfat and track your progress that way. Weight training is better than any aerobic training alone, because you will not gain any lean body weight, you will just lose weight, from both muscle, and fat! Yes, treadmills and such do play a part in getting your heart beating and burning calories, but, if you train properly with weights, you can get there and be stronger in the process. Personally, I would rather stay fat, than be a tiny little guy from running, been there, done that, and yet, never got below 14% body fat! So, get in the gym, move some Iron and watch your body change!