Sorry for my absence, I'm back now

It has been a while since my last entry. Over the past month, I've been studying for IT exams, and regrettably that has taken up a great deal of time. Now, this has passed, so I look forward to continuing my weight loss blog, which I hope has helped at least some people who have read it. If all goes well, next week I should resume my weekly entries on topics and that I found to help me with my weight loss. Stay tuned...

The First Six Weeks

My biggest period of my weight loss was during my first six weeks. During those weeks, I was losing six pounds each week. I refer to it now as my "first six weeks plan", but my plan actually called upon me to carry out this program until I reached my target weight. If interested, you can read my journal about my plan here on my website. However, on the seventh week of this plan, I lost two pounds, which is still a respectable loss, but I was still aggressive, and I still had 40 to 50 pounds to go. But since what I was doing was no longer working I needed to come up with a new plan, which I will be sharing in future entries. Anyway, my program required me to start off with doing cardio twice a day, initially at 30 minutes each. I would increase each session by 10 minutes each week until I hit 90 each session, which I would continue until I reached my target weight. I already had been doing cardio, so I was in decent shape. Thrown in would be 3 sessions of full body workouts consisting of compound exercises. My diet would consist of about 1600 calories, proteins being the largest macronutrient. I allowed a cheat day, but after the first two weeks I was so pleased with the results I dropped them. But, when it did not affect the outcome, I resumed them. The execution did not go nearly as good as planned, but the beauty was I still lost the weight.

Please read more about my first six week plan and other ways I used to lose weight, please visit my site.

Why I Love To Hate Deadlifts

I'm going to digress a little and explain why I love to hate deadlifts. Deadlifts, for those not familiar with them, are a compound exercise that works most of the muscles in the lower body and midsection, especially the lower back muscles. One takes the weight usually from the ground, while bent over, and lifts it to about waist level. So how does performing deadlifts help with weight loss? First, because so many muscles are being trained, overall body development is being improved upon. This will help you with your posture, and I have noticed it helps me doing cardio exercises longer and more intensely. In addition, because deadlifts workout so many muscles, you will burn a significant amount of calories, further as those muscles grow, you will continue to burn a significant amount of calories. I have also noticed improvements in my back as well. Any weight loss plan will greatly benefit by incorporating deadlifts. However one must be cautious when performing deadlifts. Deadlifts done with incorrect form or too much weight can cause serious and permanent injury. This video shows the correct form in performing deadlifts. I also found a video that shows a bad form. However, if you have not done deadlifts before, I highly recommend you have a personal trainer demonstrate the correct form and critique your form before starting deadlifts.
So if deadlifts are so good, why would I hate them? Well, for all the benefit they give me, they are a major pain to perform. Even so, performing deadlifts was the smartest fitness move I made – but you would never think so watching me do them.

For more ways to lose weight and weight loss plans that helped me lose 80 pounds in 4 months, please check out my site.

You Slipped Up, Now What?

Okay, you had a bad day, you ate stuff not good for losing weight or skipped a workout – or even several workouts. Like many people do, you're probably feeling like failure, or worse. Well, you're not. You're human. During my weight loss I had plenty of slip ups, gave into temptations, got lazy and skipped workouts. Sure, for those particular incidents my weight loss progress probably took a hit. I felt and still feel the frustration whenever I foul up. But I keep going. When – not if because we all will slip up now and then – you slip up, acknowledge it. Try to learn what triggered it and if you can avoid such triggers in the future. And keep going with your weight loss. The worse thing you can do is quit – no one loses in the battle for weight loss, except those who quit.
Let me share my own, recent, very bad slip up – we're taking about the atomic bomb of slipping up. On the July 4th weekend I decided to purchase I chocolate mousse cake. I hadn't enjoyed any desserts for a few weeks, and America's birthday seemed like a good time to have some. My intention was to only eat 2 slices, three at most, then toss the rest of the cake. Well…I ended up eating the entire, 4800-calorie cake within 2 days. When considering I was at that time eating at a slight calorie surplus to build muscle, the consequences were not going to be good. Nothing happened immediately but by Tuesday my barely visible abs were now covered again. In two days, I obliterated that which took me 6 weeks of highly intense, tortuous workouts and bare minimal eating to accomplish. I weighed myself, predicting I had gained between 3 to 4 pounds, and sure enough my weight jumped 3.4lbs – all fat. This was not the smartest thing I could have done as one concerned about fitness. On the other hand, that cake was to die for.
But let me also share the rest of the story. In spite of this major foul up, I continued to do my intense weight lifting, I continued, or I should say resumed, to eat healthy, I continued my cardio. Despite still eating at a slight calorie surplus to maximize strength gains, by the end of three weeks I nearly repaired all the "damage" eating that cake had done to my physique. I did not even make any special effort to lose the fat. By simply staying on my lifestyle, the consequences were mitigated and I continue towards not only having the physique I had before the cake but even improve upon that.
The moral of this story is we are all going to make mistakes in life including fitness and weight loss – its all part of being human. It is what we do afterward that will make all the differences. Another thing to ponder and think on; it has often been the case where a person's mistake sent them on the path to their greatest personal triumph. If you had a bad day, bad week, or even a bad month, you're not a loser, you're not a failure, you're simply human. Dust yourself off and get on track. As you will see on my website, in spite of my many slip ups along the way, I still pressed on with using my ways to lose weight and effective weight loss plans to lose 80 pounds in 4 months.

When Does Fat Burning Begin?

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 be given as the answer. However, technically speaking, all those answers are wrong. Our bodies are always in a state of fat burning (actually, technically speaking we don't even "burn" fat so to speak, what we refer to as fat burning is actually a process called gluconeogenesis, a process which converts one substance, in this case fat, into glucose, the primary and prefered energy source of the body and especially the muscles).
For decades, it was thought by doctors and scientists that our fat stores were generally immobile and static, except in adverse conditions such as aerobic exercise or famine. But in 1935 the biochemist Schoenheimer using radioactive Hydrogen-2 tracers demonstrated our fat stores are highly mobile and dynamic, undergoing constant turnover. This means we are always burning fat, this 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 ongoing process that becomes accelerated, triggered by biochemical signals produced during extended strenuous activity, such as 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 and will maintain constant blood glucose levels. Right after a workout, you can eat more liberally thanks to elevated metabolism. In fact, that is a common practice of mine; on a day I plan to go out for fun for the evening, I will perform an extended intensive cardio workout so that I may enjoy the evening without worry that I have jeopardized my weight loss. For more such useful tips on ways to lose weight and effective weight loss plans, please check out my sites.

Daily Weight Fluctuations

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. It's 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 and careful about your eating habits.
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 conditions 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.
For other tips on ways to lose weight and effective weight loss plans, please visit my site.

Point Of Diminishing Returns

In my last post, I have shown how it is possible to strike a balance between losing weight and then maintaining a healthy weight and still enjoying the fattening foods in moderation. This post, I will examine the concept put forth by many people that in order to have a long life and an active and independent life in one's senior years, you must also give up on those foods we love. A lot of these people will tell you that you can only eat leafy vegetables, tofu, etc., everyday for the rest of your lives. For some people, that is what they prefer and that's fine. But most of us, especially me, do like to enjoy other types of food. So, is it true we must eat what most of us consider bland foods every day of our life to reach a healthy and active old age? I looked into this, particularly into the lifestyles of super centenarians, people who made it to 110 or beyond. I also recalled my great grandmother – she lived to 104. My great grandmother loved to eat ice cream, greasy – and fatty – German sausages, and drank coca cola, and she enjoyed baking and eating pies. She ate and drank these items up to and a little beyond her 102nd birthday. There was a French woman, Jeanne Calment, who lived to 122; I took a particular interest in her lifestyle. This woman indulged in 2 pounds of chocolate per week, she ate desserts, and even smoked until she was 119. However she was very active, going for bike rides until she was 110, and still stayed physically active after that. Other super centenarians were not so well-documented, but I still got a glimpse into their lifestyle and noticed some commonalities. One, they were physically active for most of their years, two, they handled stress supremely. It was reported that Jeanne Calment was smooth as ice when dealing with stress. My great grandmother also seemed to let very little get to her. The one thing I did not see was where any super centenarian credited their long life to eating bland but healthy foods each and every day of their life. Indeed, those who feel this is the only way to eat often stress heavily over their meals, or stress about seeing others eating foods they disapprove of, and stress does appear to compromise longevity. However, when it was reported, most of them did include healthy choices most of the time, only most of the time, not all the time. In the final analysis, whether one lives to extreme age or not, whether one has an active old age or not, is going to depend on many factors. Having an overall healthy diet is one of those factors and an important one at that, but it does not mean one must have it 24/7/365 for all the days of their lives. If it is your desire, go ahead and enjoy an occasional treat of your favorite food. Just keep control and don't overdo it. And don't stress out over it.
Please visit my website to see how I was able to still eat my favorite foods and lose weight.