8 oz of fat free milk

2 oz of keylime juice

2 scoops of American Whey Protein

Couple of drops of butter extract

Add Splenda to sweeten

6 Cubes of Ice

What is the difference between exercise and activity?  

A good example for activity would be walking your dog or a taking a morning stroll. Exercise is typically more structured and purposeful. Good examples would be a power walk, run or aerobics class. For most people, your heart rate is probably the best indicator of aerobic exercise and caloric expenditure. In order to find out where you should exercise you need to figure out your Maximum Heart Rate, which according to the American Heart Association is 220 minus your age. Then, multiply that number by 65% for a low intensity workout or 85% for a higher intensity workout.

Here is an example for a thirty year old:

220 – 30 years of age = 190BPM (beats per minute) This would be her maximum heart rate

Heart rate for a low intensity workout would be 123.5BPM  (190 X .65) 

Heart rate high intensity workout would be 161.5BPM  (190 X .85) 

Tracking your heart rate can be pretty easy when using a treadmill. Most treadmills have a chart on the machine to tell you where you need to be, but what if you are out walking in your neighborhood? You can either buy a heart rate monitor or you can get an estimate by counting your heart beat within a ten second span and multiplying it by six.

For example, the same thirty year old would need to maintain a heart rate of 21 beats over a ten second span for a low intensity workout. For a higher intensity workout the ideal heart rate would be 27 beats. Of course it is not as accurate as a heart rate monitor but it is much more convenient.

Although heart rate is normally the best indication of caloric expenditure, there are some exceptions. Some people’s resting heart rate is slower than normal, a condition called Bradycardia, or it can be faster than normal, called Tachycardia. However, for the general population the heart rate is the best way to monitor aerobic exercise and calories burned.

So, if you are not sure if you are exercising at the right pace, just ask your heart.

What do you do first? Cardio or Weights?

This is one of the most popular questions when it comes to adding weights in your fat-burning routine.

Learn how to make the most of your workouts by knowing what order to train.

Weight Training & Cardio = Success

In our opinion, diet is by far the most important part of losing weight, then burning calories and then weight training.

BUT, a combination of all is ultimately the best and the most effective for weight loss.

Remember - weight loss is 80% Diet. If you think you can work it off your wrong.

For the best results, journal your food at Fit Day!  CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE!
 

COMMON MYTHS ABOUT WEIGHT TRAINING:

Crunches will give me a six pack. They may, but if you aren't eating right and doing enough cardio to lose your body fat, you may never see them. Most of the time, the answer to the "pooch" is cardio and reducing your calories.

Weights will make me look like a man. Only if you take testosterone. Most women don't have enough testosterone to promote masculine muscles. Weight training will actually help you slim down when combining it with diet and aerobic activity.

Lifting weights makes you gain weight. Well, muscle does weigh more than fat, but it also burns more calories than fat. In the beginning, you may have a temporary weight gain, probably for the water we retain in the muscles (which actually makes our muscles feel firm). Don't stress about that. In the long run, it is SO much more beneficial to add weights to your program.

You should lift light and a lot of repetitions. You should exhaust the muscle no matter how many repetitions you do. It doesn't matter if you are lifting 10lbs and doing 100 repetitions, if you never reach exhaustion then you are not working the muscle effectively. Normally the standard is 3 sets of 12-15 repetitions for upper body and 15-18 for lower body. No matter how many repetitions you choose to do, the last 3-5 should be extremely difficult.

Just think of it like this: A pianist can't play the same piece over and over and get better. They must attempt harder pieces in order to improve. In the same way, you must challenge your body in order for it to improve and change.

Fat vs Muscle

The picture (left) is a replica of 5lbs of Fat (the yellow mass) and 5lbs of Muscle (the red mass). Since fat takes up a lot more space than muscle, you can see how you could gain 5lbs of muscle and lose 5lbs of fat and actually be smaller even though the scale says you weigh the same.

It is important to understand what your body goes through when you begin an exercise program. This is also why we now have the InBody 320 (full body composition scale). A standard scale does not effectively measure FAT LOSS, only overall weight.

Our Need For Muscle

Most women will say they don't want to "BULK UP", but the truth is, most women couldn't even if they tried. Others say they will start lifting weights once they lose some weight first, but lifting weights speeds up the metabolism helping you to lose weight faster. This is why you need to increase your lean muscle mass.

Women lose about 10lbs of muscle every decade. One pound of muscle burns 6 calories a day where a pound of fat only burns 2 calories a day. This is why your metabolism slows down when you lose muscle and speeds up when you increase lean muscle tissue.

How to Lose Weight without Losing Muscle

It is important you not only weight train, but you eat to maintain lean muscle mass. Your body treats muscle as a luxury and fat as a necessity. If you don't eat enough, your body will use your muscle for energy. This means you will lose lean muscle mass and, in return, your metabolism will slow down making it even more difficult to lose weight.

1.  Eat 5-6 times a day in order to keep your metabolism up.

2. Make sure you are getting enough protein. Women who lift weights want to eat approximately .5 -.75gms of protein per pound of ideal body weight. If you want to be a 140lb lean woman, you would take in about 70-105 grams of protein in order to promote muscle growth and help healing from training. Women who train hard or are athletes may take up to one gram of protein per pound of body weight.

3.  This is for all of you that are addicted to crash diets. Try slowly reducing your calories each week in order to maintain the lean mass and a high metabolism. In other words, don't go on a unrealistic starvation diet which will not only make you miserable, but you'll be more likely to burn valuable muscle. For example, a bodybuilder will cut his calories a little each week in order to be as lean as he or she can while maintaining the most muscle mass. If you cut calories too drastically, you may be shooting yourself in the foot.

4. Don't be afraid to lift HEAVY!! You must challenge your body to improve. Remember, women can't build muscle as easily as men so DON'T WORRY!

How to Get Rid of Cellulite

Cellulite is basically clumps of enlarged fat cells in supported loose skin. Like a deflated water balloon that becomes bumpy and unshapely, fat is more noticeable when more body fat is gained and muscle is lost. As you lose fat and gain muscle, the clumps will reduce in size and the skin will appear smoother and more firm.

The appearance of cellulite can actually APPEAR to increase in the beginning of a diet program just because as you lose fat, your skin is a little looser than it use to be when it was packed with fat. Eventually your body will catch back up, lose the excess skin and gain the muscle needed to make everything look great again. So, if you were getting worried because your skin was kind of soft and mushy, when it once was firm - even if it WAS from fat!...don't be scared. It's just a phase and your body will change.

"I feel so strong and I have regained some confidence that I was starting to lack because of not seeing any result for the longest time.

I also wanted to tell you that my knee is doing so much better!!! Following your advice again, with stretching made my knee 100% better

within only a few days. I thought that was amazing!!! I have amped up my workouts continue to write everything down and so far so good!

I feel stronger and more energized and more determined than ever before! You were the only one to help me, the only one to take time

to write me and give me the knowledge so that I can have the tools to go for it and I want to give you a BIG BIG hug for that!

I'm well on my way thank you, thank you, thank you!!"  Lisa

Getting Started

1. Get a good pair of tennis shoes. A good pair of shoes can reduce hip, knee and leg pain and make your feet very happy. Asics gels are my personal favorite.

2. Exercise in your fat-burning zone. Your heart rate should be between 65%-75% of your maximum heart rate which is 220 minus your age. For example - if you are 40 years old, then you maximum heart rate is 180. If I wanted to workout at 75% of my max, then my heart rate should be (180 x 75%) 135 beats per minute.

3. Buy a heart rate monitor. This is a great tool to make sure you are working out with enough intensity. your heart can't lie. A pedometer only tells you how many steps you've taken...not how fast pace those steps were and whether they actually were productive enough to burn many calories. A heart rate monitor is the best way to tell how many calories you are burning and to monitor your workout intensity.

4. Fat burning workouts should be at least between 30-45 minutes. As you get stronger and faster, your walks should be longer in distance. They should ALWAYS be challenging. Weight loss plateaus are almost always because of a training or diet plateaus. 

5. Do cardio on an empty stomach. As long your health allows, doing your cardio on an empty stomach forces your body to burn fat stores instead of food stores for energy. However, you MUST eat before lifting weights or doing an intense workout like boot camp in order to power you through your workout. If you do both (cardio and weights), eat before coming to the gym and do your weights first. By the time you are finished with your weight workout, you'll most likely have used up most of your food so you can then do cardio to burn fat stores.

6. Wearing Spandex can increase comfort while walking. Large people may have problem with irritation where their legs rub. Spandex biking  shorts, etc., worn alone or under clothes can help with chafing.

7. Find a partner. Begin a walking/jogging group, talk a friend into working out with you at the gym or make a new friend in your favorite aerobics class. The added accountability is great.

8. The more you exercise, the faster the results. You can do cardio everyday. You can even do it two times a day. The more you put into your exercise routine, the more you'll get out of it. It's all up to you! If you are not getting the results fast enough and you feel like you are definitely exercising enough, then you are taking in too many calories. That is when it is necessary to count calories and find the missing calories that are sabotaging your weight loss program.  REMEMBER: You can't just exercise weight off - you MUST diet too.

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