Fat is a type of cell in our body that helps to store excess energy that we had in take for future use.
Many people assume that when we exercise we are reducing the amount of fat cells in our body but in actual fact, the amount of fat cells in our body are fixed and cannot be reduce. What we want is to reduce the amount of "energy" stored in the fat cells for us to look leaner.
The next misconception is that fats will convert to muscles which is wrong. Muscles will get it's energy source from fat cells in order for the muscles to do work. Muscles only grow when you ingest protein.
So how do we really reduce the amount of excess energy stored in the fat cells? Well like what is mentioned above, muscles feed on fats. So what we need is to work out our muscles by training the big muscles like the legs, back and chest in the form of cardio and weights training.
Have you ever think about how your body actually deposit excess energy disproportionately in different parts of our body? For guys it will be more towards the tummy area while for gals will be towards the hip and thigh area.
Does that mean we need to train our tummy and hip muscles more to reduce the amount of fats there? The answer is NO. Trying to train a specific area to reduce the fats around that area is call spot training and spot training will not help at all.
First you need to understand how the body works. When you are working out and your muscles are hungry for energy, your body will distribute energy from the fat cells all around your body to your muscles not just those that are near the muscle your are working out. Also like how excess energy is disproportionately distribute to your fat cells, your body also disproportionately hands out energy from fat cells to the muscles. The energy storage and energy usage in fat cells are proportional, those area where you store energy faster also burn energy faster and those area which store slower will also burn slower.
So what you need to help reduce overall fats is to do full body work out so that all your major muscles can help to eat away access energy stored in fat cells. Hope I answered the ultimate question about fats.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Decrypting the $2k for 3 month weight loss package
Ahh yes.... there are a lot of people selling different weight loss packages which requires the intake of pills and protein shakes which really helps people to lose weight. So what is in those pills and shakes which enhance your ability to lose weight even though you are not doing much exercise?
Well they should comes in the form of 3 items:
1) Pills that increase your metabolic rate
2) Some forms of multi-vitamin
3) Protein shake for meal substitution
1) Pills that increase your metabolic rate
Basically the main ingredient in those pills are made from natural food products which increase your metabolism, e.g. green tea extract, etc. A hyped up metabolic rate will in-turn increase your body's ability to burn fats.
2) Some forms of multi-vitamin
And together with those pills that gives you hyped up metabolic rate, they will most likely also include some form of multi-vitamins in the package as that programme will cause you to be in some form of diet or caloric deficit, and those multi-vitamins will help you to get all the important nutrients that you didn't take in via food.
3) Protein shake for meal substitution
As you know, in-take of protein can help a person to lose weight and by substituting a meal with it will help your body to lose weight and gain muscles and everyone knows muscles eats up fats so with increased muscles means more fat burning. To really increase muscles and drop your body fats you will need about 2g of protein per kilogram of your body weight.
So the package does work and is actually quite efficient for weight lose but is it really worth the $2k just for 3 months? Doing a little bit of math, the so call programme will need us to spend about $20 per day to lose weight. Let me try to produce the same or even better formula while keeping the price low. I will be common food product pricing and using the price from a widely known health product store.
1) We will need some form of metabolic boost
- Try drinking the REAL green tea as your new cuppa - a box of 50 pack of green tea cost about $7, so for a day you will need about 4 pack to really enhance your metabolism plus providing you with great antioxidants which cost us about $0.56.
- Try eating a pink grapefruit a day as it is pack with tons of antioxidants and also the vitamin C from the grapefruit will protect the green tea's antioxidants which promotes weight lost. 1 grapefruit cost about $1.20. Orange or other form of citrus fruit can also be use as a substitude for pink grapefruit.
2) Multi-vitamins is a must have when on diet
- It helps our body to get all the necessary nutrients while we are eating less. 1 bottle of hyped up multi-vitamins cost about $80 which will give you about 120 tablets and you will need about 2 tablets per day which cost about $1.30 per day. Remember to eat it after a meal for better absorption by your body.
3) Finally the protein source that our body needs to produce fat burn muscles
- A high protein low fat low carbohydrate formula would cost you about $166 for 2kg. According to the instructions to make 1 serving we will need about 37g of the powder with 250ml of water which gives us about $3 per serving.
So lets tally how much we will be spending per day $0.56 + $1.20 + $1.30 + $3 = $6.06
Wow out of the $20 I am still left with $14 to spend. Okay let me recommend you 2 more products to further enhance your weight lost diet.
1) Flax seed oil
- It contains alpha-linolenic omega 3 which supports cardiovascular system, joint health, digestive health and other tons of benefits, try googling it for more details. It is great for a low fat diet. It cost about $60 for 180 capsules and you will need from 3g to 9g of flax seed oil per day, assuming 9 capsules it will cost about $3 per day.
2) Fish Oil
- Comes with EPA and DHA omega 3. It will promote weight lost and help to improve your blood pressure. Like flax seed oil try googling it for more details. A bottle of fish oil in cost about $70 and you will need about 1000mg of EPA and 500mg of DHA so it will cost you about $2.50 per day.
So with the addition of another 2 day weight lost promoting supplements our total cost comes up to $11.56 still about $8 short of the $2k programme per day.Ha-Ha! But remember you will also need to eat in caloric deficit before you can start lose weight, example of an adult male needs about 2400calories per day and you eat less than that amount, your body will need to get the rest of the calories from your fats. I will be talking more about it in another blog entry.
But diet a side, a slim looking person doesn't not mean that person is fit. That person will still have problems trying to run/jog or move and carry heavy objects in his/her daily life. So besides diet you will still need some form of regular exercises even simple ones such as simple jogging, swimming and weight lifting is better than no exercise at all.
Remember the ultimate form of health and fitness is actually made up of %50 diet and %50 exercise.
Well they should comes in the form of 3 items:
1) Pills that increase your metabolic rate
2) Some forms of multi-vitamin
3) Protein shake for meal substitution
1) Pills that increase your metabolic rate
Basically the main ingredient in those pills are made from natural food products which increase your metabolism, e.g. green tea extract, etc. A hyped up metabolic rate will in-turn increase your body's ability to burn fats.
2) Some forms of multi-vitamin
And together with those pills that gives you hyped up metabolic rate, they will most likely also include some form of multi-vitamins in the package as that programme will cause you to be in some form of diet or caloric deficit, and those multi-vitamins will help you to get all the important nutrients that you didn't take in via food.
3) Protein shake for meal substitution
As you know, in-take of protein can help a person to lose weight and by substituting a meal with it will help your body to lose weight and gain muscles and everyone knows muscles eats up fats so with increased muscles means more fat burning. To really increase muscles and drop your body fats you will need about 2g of protein per kilogram of your body weight.
So the package does work and is actually quite efficient for weight lose but is it really worth the $2k just for 3 months? Doing a little bit of math, the so call programme will need us to spend about $20 per day to lose weight. Let me try to produce the same or even better formula while keeping the price low. I will be common food product pricing and using the price from a widely known health product store.
1) We will need some form of metabolic boost
- Try drinking the REAL green tea as your new cuppa - a box of 50 pack of green tea cost about $7, so for a day you will need about 4 pack to really enhance your metabolism plus providing you with great antioxidants which cost us about $0.56.
- Try eating a pink grapefruit a day as it is pack with tons of antioxidants and also the vitamin C from the grapefruit will protect the green tea's antioxidants which promotes weight lost. 1 grapefruit cost about $1.20. Orange or other form of citrus fruit can also be use as a substitude for pink grapefruit.
2) Multi-vitamins is a must have when on diet
- It helps our body to get all the necessary nutrients while we are eating less. 1 bottle of hyped up multi-vitamins cost about $80 which will give you about 120 tablets and you will need about 2 tablets per day which cost about $1.30 per day. Remember to eat it after a meal for better absorption by your body.
3) Finally the protein source that our body needs to produce fat burn muscles
- A high protein low fat low carbohydrate formula would cost you about $166 for 2kg. According to the instructions to make 1 serving we will need about 37g of the powder with 250ml of water which gives us about $3 per serving.
So lets tally how much we will be spending per day $0.56 + $1.20 + $1.30 + $3 = $6.06
Wow out of the $20 I am still left with $14 to spend. Okay let me recommend you 2 more products to further enhance your weight lost diet.
1) Flax seed oil
- It contains alpha-linolenic omega 3 which supports cardiovascular system, joint health, digestive health and other tons of benefits, try googling it for more details. It is great for a low fat diet. It cost about $60 for 180 capsules and you will need from 3g to 9g of flax seed oil per day, assuming 9 capsules it will cost about $3 per day.
2) Fish Oil
- Comes with EPA and DHA omega 3. It will promote weight lost and help to improve your blood pressure. Like flax seed oil try googling it for more details. A bottle of fish oil in cost about $70 and you will need about 1000mg of EPA and 500mg of DHA so it will cost you about $2.50 per day.
So with the addition of another 2 day weight lost promoting supplements our total cost comes up to $11.56 still about $8 short of the $2k programme per day.Ha-Ha! But remember you will also need to eat in caloric deficit before you can start lose weight, example of an adult male needs about 2400calories per day and you eat less than that amount, your body will need to get the rest of the calories from your fats. I will be talking more about it in another blog entry.
But diet a side, a slim looking person doesn't not mean that person is fit. That person will still have problems trying to run/jog or move and carry heavy objects in his/her daily life. So besides diet you will still need some form of regular exercises even simple ones such as simple jogging, swimming and weight lifting is better than no exercise at all.
Remember the ultimate form of health and fitness is actually made up of %50 diet and %50 exercise.
Cheat Day
Cheat Day, ahhh the holiday for my week.
If you try googling for 'cheat day' you may see tons of argument and various forms and ways in doing it.
So what the heck is a cheat day anyway? Usually body builder and gym goers will be very cautious of what they eat and how much they eat but cheat day is the day where you can eat whatever you want.
Basically it really works for me and I lost 6kg of fats in 6weeks because of it.
This is how i do it.
=My Example=
On top of my usual workouts, I will try to control my intake of calories to about 2000 or below per day. Then comes Saturday my Cheat Day, I will eat whatever I want which I usually end my day with a tub of ice-cream. I will try to eat as much as 9000 calories. Then for the rest of the week I will maintain my intake of food to 2000 calories and less.
So usually when I weigh myself on Sunday, I would have gain about 1.5kg. But on the sequence Tuesday, I will lose 2.5kg so I get a net lost of 1kg.
So what really happen? How come I can eat like crazy and yet I am still losing weight? Well basically when you suddenly increase your calorie intake, your body will increase the amount of lepin in your body which in-turns increase your body's ability to burn fats. With the increased lepin on Cheat Day and still continue to eat less on the other days, your body will burn away the food that you eat on normal days and will continue to burn your fats away.
=Caution=
I am still doing all my regular exercises while applying cheat day, I believe you will not see much improvement if you are using a cheat day and not doing regular exercises or following a diet for the rest of the days.
If you try googling for 'cheat day' you may see tons of argument and various forms and ways in doing it.
So what the heck is a cheat day anyway? Usually body builder and gym goers will be very cautious of what they eat and how much they eat but cheat day is the day where you can eat whatever you want.
Basically it really works for me and I lost 6kg of fats in 6weeks because of it.
This is how i do it.
=My Example=
On top of my usual workouts, I will try to control my intake of calories to about 2000 or below per day. Then comes Saturday my Cheat Day, I will eat whatever I want which I usually end my day with a tub of ice-cream. I will try to eat as much as 9000 calories. Then for the rest of the week I will maintain my intake of food to 2000 calories and less.
So usually when I weigh myself on Sunday, I would have gain about 1.5kg. But on the sequence Tuesday, I will lose 2.5kg so I get a net lost of 1kg.
So what really happen? How come I can eat like crazy and yet I am still losing weight? Well basically when you suddenly increase your calorie intake, your body will increase the amount of lepin in your body which in-turns increase your body's ability to burn fats. With the increased lepin on Cheat Day and still continue to eat less on the other days, your body will burn away the food that you eat on normal days and will continue to burn your fats away.
=Caution=
I am still doing all my regular exercises while applying cheat day, I believe you will not see much improvement if you are using a cheat day and not doing regular exercises or following a diet for the rest of the days.
Green Tea
Why do green tea has anything to do with getting a great body?
First of all green tea can increase your metabolism which in turn help you to burn fats, less fats = more obviously abdominal muscles
Second it contains antioxidant which help you in many many ways
Trying wiki-ing 'green tea' to get a more in-depth understanding of it.
=Recommendation=
Drink 4 cups a day to enhance your fat burning for the day.
First of all green tea can increase your metabolism which in turn help you to burn fats, less fats = more obviously abdominal muscles
Second it contains antioxidant which help you in many many ways
Trying wiki-ing 'green tea' to get a more in-depth understanding of it.
=Recommendation=
Drink 4 cups a day to enhance your fat burning for the day.
Sets and Reps ?
If you just step into the gym world, you will be hearing a lot of gym regulars talking about sets and reps.
Basically reps meaning repetition - the amount of repetition you need to do a certain exercise.
And sets - the amount of time you will repeat the repetition you did for the exercise.
Example: When I am doing chin-ups, I will do about 8 chin-ups each time which is 8 repetition and I will repeat this 8 chin-ups for 3 times which is 3 sets. This means I am doing 3 sets of 8 repetition for my chin-up, or what I usually call it 3x8.
So now I know what sets and reps mean but how much do I need to do?
Well for a start it is good to know 2 very common and special formula 3x8 and 5x5.
===============================================================================
For muscle growth do 3 sets of 8 repetition for that particular exercise.
For strength and power do 5 sets of 5 repetition for that particular exercise.
===============================================================================
There are a lot of articles with in-depth explaination for them and a lot of argument regarding them which you can easy search by type 3x8 or 5x5 in your favorite search engine portal.
But what I can say is I have tried them personally and they work for me. It may not be the most efficient sets and reps as argue by various trainers and expert but it is a simple guild for new comers to use as.
=Recommendation=
For a beginner, I would always recommend doing 5x5 until you have enough strength to carry heavy weight for 3x8 exercises to increase mass.
=Advance=
If you think that doing 3x8 for a particular exercise doesn't improve your mass anymore, try to slot in a few 5x5 for 1 or 2 sessions and proceed back to 3x8 to see improvements. This is because your muscles will eventually learn to take in the 3x8 regime and will cease to grow, doing 1 or 2 sessions of 5x5 will 'shock' your muscles as it is always for your 3x8 and it will improve the growth. Give it a try.
Basically reps meaning repetition - the amount of repetition you need to do a certain exercise.
And sets - the amount of time you will repeat the repetition you did for the exercise.
Example: When I am doing chin-ups, I will do about 8 chin-ups each time which is 8 repetition and I will repeat this 8 chin-ups for 3 times which is 3 sets. This means I am doing 3 sets of 8 repetition for my chin-up, or what I usually call it 3x8.
So now I know what sets and reps mean but how much do I need to do?
Well for a start it is good to know 2 very common and special formula 3x8 and 5x5.
===============================================================================
For muscle growth do 3 sets of 8 repetition for that particular exercise.
For strength and power do 5 sets of 5 repetition for that particular exercise.
===============================================================================
There are a lot of articles with in-depth explaination for them and a lot of argument regarding them which you can easy search by type 3x8 or 5x5 in your favorite search engine portal.
But what I can say is I have tried them personally and they work for me. It may not be the most efficient sets and reps as argue by various trainers and expert but it is a simple guild for new comers to use as.
=Recommendation=
For a beginner, I would always recommend doing 5x5 until you have enough strength to carry heavy weight for 3x8 exercises to increase mass.
=Advance=
If you think that doing 3x8 for a particular exercise doesn't improve your mass anymore, try to slot in a few 5x5 for 1 or 2 sessions and proceed back to 3x8 to see improvements. This is because your muscles will eventually learn to take in the 3x8 regime and will cease to grow, doing 1 or 2 sessions of 5x5 will 'shock' your muscles as it is always for your 3x8 and it will improve the growth. Give it a try.
High-intensity interval training (HIIT)
What is HIIT? It is a short cut to burn tons of fats while still be able to gain some muscles, increase your overall power and stamina in a relatively short period of time.
Basically instead of just doing your typical cardio exercises(jogging, cycling, swimming, etc) for a long period of time at a constant pace, you will be doing them in as what the title says doing interval training with high intensity.
Example:
Instead of jogging for long period of time you will be doing this:
=========================================================
5 minutes warm up jog
30seconds sprint at 90%-100% of your full speed
60seconds of slow jog for you to catch your breathe
Repeat the 'sprint and jog' set for another 9 times
Do some stretching after completing all sets to reduce ache on the following day
=========================================================
When you are at your 3rd-4th set, you should feel that you cannot maintain the speed that you start with but it doesn't matter. All you need to do is to give your 90%-100% of what strength/stamina you have left with at that point of the time, meaning if your max speed is already at jogging pace so be it and jog your max for 30seconds.
If you notice that the entire workout takes only about 20minutes. But you will feel like you have ran a marathon and you will feel your body burning for the whole day.
HIIT is not just for jogging it can be use for all form of cardio exercise, but don't try it on the treadmill as it is hard to adjust the speed to do a proper HIIT.
+Advance+
For those who feel like the work out above is too easy, you may want to increase the sprint time to 45seconds. And if it is still not a challenge for you, you can decrease the resting jogging time to 30seconds.
*Warning*
Like all exercise, especially with HIIT if you are feeling unwell before or mid of exercise, just stop and take a break. There is always another day for training, losing a day of training is better than injuring yourself and lose weeks and months of training opportunity.
Imagine a professional sprinter and a professional marathon runner which body do you want?
Basically instead of just doing your typical cardio exercises(jogging, cycling, swimming, etc) for a long period of time at a constant pace, you will be doing them in as what the title says doing interval training with high intensity.
Example:
Instead of jogging for long period of time you will be doing this:
=========================================================
5 minutes warm up jog
30seconds sprint at 90%-100% of your full speed
60seconds of slow jog for you to catch your breathe
Repeat the 'sprint and jog' set for another 9 times
Do some stretching after completing all sets to reduce ache on the following day
=========================================================
When you are at your 3rd-4th set, you should feel that you cannot maintain the speed that you start with but it doesn't matter. All you need to do is to give your 90%-100% of what strength/stamina you have left with at that point of the time, meaning if your max speed is already at jogging pace so be it and jog your max for 30seconds.
If you notice that the entire workout takes only about 20minutes. But you will feel like you have ran a marathon and you will feel your body burning for the whole day.
HIIT is not just for jogging it can be use for all form of cardio exercise, but don't try it on the treadmill as it is hard to adjust the speed to do a proper HIIT.
+Advance+
For those who feel like the work out above is too easy, you may want to increase the sprint time to 45seconds. And if it is still not a challenge for you, you can decrease the resting jogging time to 30seconds.
*Warning*
Like all exercise, especially with HIIT if you are feeling unwell before or mid of exercise, just stop and take a break. There is always another day for training, losing a day of training is better than injuring yourself and lose weeks and months of training opportunity.
Imagine a professional sprinter and a professional marathon runner which body do you want?
My Personal Training Schedule
=MONDAY=
Rest Day
=TUESDAY=
-Upper & Mid Back-
wide grip chin
narrow grip chin
wide lat pull down
narrow lat pull down
wide bend over row
narrow t-bar row
seated narrow grip cable row
single hand cable row
-Abs-
roman chair / cable crunches
vertical leg raise / lying leg raise
crunches / machine crunches
=Wednesday=
-Cardio-
HIIT
5mins warm up
8 x (30sec 100% + 60sec 75%)
=Thursday=
-Chest-
bench press / dumbell press
incline press / incline dumbell press
dumbbell flys / machine flys
dips
machine press
-Biceps-
Dumbbell curls / barbell curls
machine curls / cable curls
-Forearms-
reverse dumbell curls
-Abs-
roman chair / cable crunches
vertical leg raise / lying leg raise
crunches / machine crunches
=Friday=
-REST DAY-
=Saturday= *cheatday
-Legs-
Squats
Deadlift up straight leg down
leg extension
leg curl
seated calves raise
-Lower back-
Good morning
Hyper extension
-Triceps-
machine tricep extension
cable pulldown (bar)
cable pulldown (rope)
=Sunday=
-Shoulder-
behind the back shoulder press
push press
vertical pull
cable lats
front raise
bend over flys/ straight arm underhand pulldown
shrugs
-Abs-
roman chair / cable crunches
vertical leg raise / lying leg raise
crunches / machine crunches
Rest Day
=TUESDAY=
-Upper & Mid Back-
wide grip chin
narrow grip chin
wide lat pull down
narrow lat pull down
wide bend over row
narrow t-bar row
seated narrow grip cable row
single hand cable row
-Abs-
roman chair / cable crunches
vertical leg raise / lying leg raise
crunches / machine crunches
=Wednesday=
-Cardio-
HIIT
5mins warm up
8 x (30sec 100% + 60sec 75%)
=Thursday=
-Chest-
bench press / dumbell press
incline press / incline dumbell press
dumbbell flys / machine flys
dips
machine press
-Biceps-
Dumbbell curls / barbell curls
machine curls / cable curls
-Forearms-
reverse dumbell curls
-Abs-
roman chair / cable crunches
vertical leg raise / lying leg raise
crunches / machine crunches
=Friday=
-REST DAY-
=Saturday= *cheatday
-Legs-
Squats
Deadlift up straight leg down
leg extension
leg curl
seated calves raise
-Lower back-
Good morning
Hyper extension
-Triceps-
machine tricep extension
cable pulldown (bar)
cable pulldown (rope)
=Sunday=
-Shoulder-
behind the back shoulder press
push press
vertical pull
cable lats
front raise
bend over flys/ straight arm underhand pulldown
shrugs
-Abs-
roman chair / cable crunches
vertical leg raise / lying leg raise
crunches / machine crunches
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