One of the most serious, albeit silent epidemics we face is that of obesity. It plagues youth, adolescents and adults alike. We now have the fattest society of people to ever inhabit North America.
Despite countless books, movies and television programs and the efforts of experts the scale is still steadily moving upwards. Millions have tried dieting to lose their excess weight only to fail and with each failure comes disappointment, discouragement and even heartbreak. They turn from each new and highly touted “miracle” diet or pill in desperate hopes that this might be the one. The one that makes the fat go away.
In reality the solution is not really that difficult. It comes down to energy in versus energy out. You need to think of food and eating as energy in and if energy going into your body equals the same amount of energy that your body is putting out then you probably should and would maintain the weight you are now at. If the amount of energy going in is less than the amount of energy going out you will lose both fat and weight.
Here are a number of suggestions that will help you lose weight.
1)     Food: you should try eating whole foods and stay away from the fattening processed foods. A good rule of thumb (yes there are exceptions) is that anything in a box it is probably pre-packaged and processed and not the most optimal of food value. Taking these things out of your diet still leaves you with a multitude of choices such as meats, vegetables, fruit and nuts.
2)     Have a protein source with each meal. Your body works harder to process protein than it does with sugars or fats. Your body looks at protein differently than a lot of other things and does not store it as fat (unless you are eating an enormous amount of protein and not doing anything). Protein is the main building block of lean muscle.
3)     Eat 5 to 6 small meals per day. Instead of eating the 3 meals we have all previously been taught to eat we now should be having more and smaller meals. This serves to actually rev up your metabolism and the food you put into your body will not be stored as fat. Five to six small, high protein, low carb and low fat meals will keep you from the ups and downs of hunger pains and energy crashes during your day.
4)     Stay away from white starches. These include things like white pasta, white bread (actually any bread that is not made with a whole grain), white rice (brown is the rice of choice) and of course pastries. All of these products will probably be turned into fat, as these carbohydrates are going to be too much for your body to burn efficiently and your body will find a place to store them in the form of fat.
5)     Don’t use fat burning or diet pills. The solution is not in a bottle in the form of a magic pill. Other than making the manufacturers of them countless millions of dollars they are not going to do what you want, in fact many times by taking them your body will actually rebound on you and eventually slow down your metabolic rate. Most of these diet pills contain some form or another of caffeine, some less than a cup of espresso, and can lead to depression and many other undesirable side effects. While they may have a place later when you are much farther along on your fitness journey or are working towards a competition, I do not believe they have a place at the beginning and especially not until you have established a strong work ethic and have put in an appropriate amount of sweat equity.
6)     Exercise. Now that I said that the solution was not a fat burning pill I feel I better tell you what the best solution is and that is exercise. Each of us needs to lift weights and do cardio if we want to lose fat and look good. Lifting weights provides a multitude of positive effects for all of us, young and old, men and women. Things like better bone density, ease of mobility and added strength are just a few of the side effects of lifting weights. By doing cardio you are able to increase your lung and heart strength which will help you walk farther and do more before you run short of or out of breath. The best weightlifting sessions usually last close to an hour and cardio should consist of at least 20 minutes of continuous exertion.
I could have included such other topics such as getting enough “quality” sleep, drinking enough water, setting realistic goals as well as giving yourself at least 6 weeks for your weight loss program to show results, but I wanted to give you just a few of the things that worked for me and for my wife (bodyspace: judimax). I want you to achieve your weight loss and body transformation goals, get fit and be proud and happy with your body and I especially wanted to pass on some of the things I learned through trial and error.
I hope that you found something useful here and if you wish to contact me feel free because there is nothing I like better than to talk with people who wish to achieve their own body transformation and are embracing fitness.
Good luck.
Captain Ahab
 

Part Two

It may seem during part one that I was picking on the ladies and maybe I was so now it is time to go after the guys. 

I would like to start with a similar observation as I did in Part one. If you are one of the many people mostly men, who are throwing around really heavy weights using poor to ridiculous form then you are NOT really challenging yourself (professional or high ranking amateur bodybuilders exempted) but rather you are not hitting the target muscles you are after and you are guilty of most likely working your egos. If you are unable to do at least 3 sets of 8 reps with perfect form then you need to decrease the weight you are using. 

A great example is happening in the gym where I work out. There is one fellow in particular who has been there for over 3 years and no matter what exercise he is doing he piles on the plates or picks up the really heavy dumbbells. He then proceeds to do less than half reps for his squats, lays back almost flat out when he is doing his wide grip pulldowns, jerks the bar only about ¼ the way up on T-bar rows and has never raised his traps over 1 inch towards his ears on his shrugs. For barbell curls he throws his shoulders back so far that he is almost bent over back wards and then practically dropping the bar back to the start position he curls himself forward so that the bar is just about to touch his knees and then he again throws himself and the bar back and calls these barbell curls. I used just a few of his exercise flaws as examples, as there are many more I could have chosen from. The part that is really sad is that he is constantly complaining the he is a hard gainer because he is not seeing any results and is always downing the most advertised brand of weight gainer protein shake because he thinks that by doing so it will help him grow muscles but the only part of him that is actually growing is his waist. 

Now for the other side of the coin. There is another fellow at my gym who has been there for about a year and he is getting results like crazy and has everyone gawking at him when he is working out, but instead of gawking they should be taking note of what he is doing that are giving him these great results. Every single exercise he does is with what I believe is almost perfect form. When he squats his butt almost touches the floor and he slowly lowers himself down and equally slowly rises back up. When he does T-bar rows not only does he bring the bar all the way up but he even holds it for a count and then slowly lowers it back rep after rep. When he does his shrugs his traps almost touch his ears and again he holds at the top for a long count before lowering down again. When he does barbell curls he stands ramrod straight all the time and only bends his elbows while raising the bar and at the top he squeezes his biceps on each and every rep. 

I used these two polar opposites as prime examples as to why one person is getting bigger and achieving his goals and why the other person while not achieving any decent results is actually gaining in a place that he should not be gaining. I hope that if you see any examples of yourself in the first man I spoke of you will identify that it may be your ego that is getting worked by lifting the heaviest weights you can and if you are not seeing actual muscle gains you may want to take a page from man number two’s workout regime and lower the pounds and raise the gains. No one will think less of you if you drop down a few pounds and start using good form.

Challenge yourself.

Part One

I not only say those words to people but I also write it a lot when I leave comments on Bodybuilding.com members’ bodyspaces, and it just dawned on me recently that I am failing to explain what I mean when I say challenge yourself. 

To some folks here it may be self-explanatory and to others it may be totally foreign to their normal way of working out and so in the best interests of all concerned I hope to clear up any confusion. 

Challenging yourself means trying to best you previous numbers either in pounds lifted or in reps. Don’t be content with doing for example 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps with 10 pounds over and over again day after day. Try to do 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps with 12 or 15 pounds. Always be aiming to better your previous personal best. That is the way you not only challenge yourself but achieve great results. 

I would like to start with an observation. If you are one of the many people especially women (don’t worry I will get to the men later) who are still using those little pink 2 lb dumbbells after more than 4 weeks of working out then you are NOT challenging yourself (those with medical or disability issues exempted). I have and continue to see on a day-to-day basis ladies effortlessly using lightweight dumbbells and wondering why they are not seeing any results. I recently read a piece in one of the women’s health magazines that stated if you can do 3 sets of 12 repetitions with the same weight then you need to increase the weight you are using and I agree with that 100%. 

If you are one of what I have found to be many women out there who are living under the misconception that lifting weights, even lifting very heavy weights will make you into a muscle monster then you need to understand that something like that will not happen and quit using that as an excuse. If you see a woman with man like muscles then chances are this particular lady is ingesting or injecting man like hormones so that she can achieve that particular look – it does not come naturally. With that out of the way cast your eyes on most fitness models and when you see their wonderful shape and definition realise that it came from lifting weights, decently heavy weights for a fairly long period of time and they are not behemoths by any means but rather very attractively built whose images many of you wish to duplicate. Even if you see then lifting 5 lb dumbbells in whatever magazine article you are reading they didn’t get that great shape by using just light weights. 

To achieve your goals there is a good chance that you will need to lift weights and lifting progressively heavier weights will help you get there faster.

 I have found as has my wife (bodyspace: judimax) that the scale is just about the last thing we should be using to gauge our fitness results and yet it is the first thing we turn to.
We both have had a love/hate relationship with the scale and have finally found that it does have a purpose but not to tell us if we are getting fit. It is to only tell us how much we weigh on any given day and nothing more and should be the last thing we use to check our progression.
First and foremost but almost never done is to take our body measurements. Using a flexible or tailor’s tape measure record the size of your neck, shoulders, chest, waist (at the bellybutton) hips (yes, men too) thighs, calves, biceps, forearms and wrist. You should do this once a month and record the numbers and check to see where you are losing inches. I call it shape-shifting and it is a better indicator of whether your workout routine is working than the scale.  If you are losing inches you are making progress and although it may not show up on the dreaded bathroom scale mostly because of the possibility that you are gaining muscle along with losing fat and the fact that muscle weighs more than fat it does prove you are going in the right direction.
Next I believe comes bodyfat. There are a number of devices on the market that will give you a close estimate of your bodyfat percentage, none will give you an exact unless you are willing to invest big dollars and get tested in a dunk tank device, which for most of us is taking it to the extreme. The one I use is a hand held device that you hold in both hands after entering a few things like your age, height and sex and a few seconds after you hit start it gives your bodyfat percentage and BMI readings. By recording the results of this device once a week you will get a fairly decent indication if what you are doing and how you are eating is working.
Last and definitely least, I check my weight on the bathroom scale and enter that in my log and by looking at all three of these I can ascertain whether I am progressing towards my goal or regressing back to where I no longer want to be.
Another not so accurate but still useful way to see if you are getting fit is to check how your clothes are fitting. If pants that used to be tight on you now slide way down your hips on their own then you are doing something right and need to be keeping on doing what you are doing. If you can no longer get into those same clothes then I believe you should reevaluate your current program and choose another that has you consuming less and exercising more.
The bathroom scale does play a role in your fitness program but it is not the end all – be all, and although we are going to be tempted to judge our progress by what it says it is best to use some of the other more accurate ways to evaluate our progress.

After finishing our morning workout my wife wanted to pick up a couple of things from the store and while she was doing that I went next door to the local bookstore to browse while I waited for her, and while I was looking at the fitness and bodybuilding magazines this older lady starts speaking to me in a very loud voice.
“I know you, you’re into fitness and you were on the cover of that magazine.”
I turned to look at her and she continues on…
“My name is Irma and I am 71 years old and I was a personal trainer for over 40 years. I may not look like it right now but I still lift weights and do yoga and Pilates.”
Now this was obviously a very outgoing lady and the next thing I know she pinches a bit of a roll of flesh around her hips and continues, “I might have a bit more here than I should have but I am Austrian and I love my desserts, but I don’t have arthritis or high blood pressure and I am out walking every single day. I think I look pretty good for my age.”
I start to say that I think she does also when she just continues on…
“Everyday I am trying to get people in my apartment building, some as young as 50 or so to go for a walk with me and they tell me they are too tired. I tell them that you are too tired because you are not going for walks. I tell them that they need to lift weights but they look at me like I’m crazy.”
She proceeds to tell me that she is always trying to get folks to exercise. Then I find out she goes to the same gym as I do and it seems we have never run into one another because we work out at different times of the day.
Apparently she had recognized me from the cover shot and story in Beyond 50 magazine and went on to tell me that she loves the fact that I am trying to get as many people to embrace fitness as I can. She tells me that she volunteers at the local senior center and leads them in exercises and takes them for walks and tries to keep them active.
As I was telling her that I thought what she was doing was great she reaches up and wraps her hands around my left bicep and says, ” I really like your muscles.”
So with a growing crowd both listening to her louder than average (or necessary) voice and watching her holding onto my bicep though I am still smiling, I start to blush.
Here I was enjoying having met this wonderful gal but wishing that she would not only use her indoor voice but also unwrap her hands from my left bicep.
She finally lets go but then takes my hand in both of hers and says, “ I am so glad that I got to meet you. Getting to meet you has made my day.”
Wow. Here was a lady who had been a personal trainer for over 40 years, who volunteers to help keep seniors active and who pushes and cajoles folks half her age to get out and exercise and she was glad to have met ME, and meeting me made HER day.
“No,” I told her, “ I am the one who is really glad to have met you, and YOU have made MY day.”
I made sure to find out what time she was going to be at the gym next and both my wife and I are going to make sure to spend some time with her.
It is not every day that you get to meet someone this special.

How often do you get to meet a 71 year old lady who had been a personal trainer for over 40 years and who is still that active with that outgoing of a personality and who knows the value of lifting weights and exercise?
She just reaffirmed to me why working out and why getting others to exercise is so important.
She just reaffirmed why I am committed to getting other people to embrace fitness.

She truly made my day.

 I have heard this term bandied about and used quite a lot but usually only when it comes to home renovations. I don’t believe I have ever heard it used when it comes to fitness or when attempting to make a body transformation, and so from now on I am going to start utilizing it on a regular basis and stressing how important it is when it comes to fitness.
I bring this up because the other day my wife (bodyspace: judimax) and I were in between sets at the gym and I looked around and for whatever reason or maybe because we were both seating, I decided to see if other people were sweating also. It was about 11:00 AM and there were about 30 people working out with about 10 doing cardio and the other 20 doing some sort of weightlifting exercises.
The temperature in the gym was far from hot but I had sweat running down my back and my wife’s workout top had indications where sweat had soaked through and in looking around we saw only one other person sweating. This was a young man in his early twenty’s who was working his legs and was pushing himself pretty darn hard at this point doing one legged dumbbell squats. My wife and I had been doing a back workout and as always she was pushing me and I was challenging her and there was not much slacking off.
In looking around I saw many of the same people who I normally see at this time of day and they were doing most of the exercises I have come to know them to do and in taking notice I actually saw how little they were working or pushing themselves. I also saw that every single person doing cardio was either reading or watching the TV and not one was breathing hard or had broken a sweat.
A large number of these same people had previously approached either my wife or myself and asked how we had managed to get into such great shape and also how they could achieve the same results. We had taken the time to talk about the Body for Life program we followed and its nutrition, weightlifting and cardio segments along with explaining high intensity cardio and what good form when lifting weights was and how they needed to try to push themselves a little bit more each and every time they either lifted weights or did cardio, or they would not be able to effect positive changes in their bodies. We had actually shown a couple of these folks what we meant by pushing harder and challenging themselves and had them do a work out with us. In looking at these folks I saw a number of them putting very little effort in, in the way of exertion. I saw them lifting very light weights and using poor form, and not sweating and these were both men and women. I saw one man who is always there who uses very heavy weights along with the worst possible form doing his usual 4 to 6 inch biceps thrusts. I can’t call them curls because he bends his back and thrusts his hips as well as keeping his elbows locked and rocks the barbell up and down. Then after 4 to 6 reps and still not sweating he sits down for at least five if not ten minutes before repeating any of the exercises. I have heard this same man complain about not seeing results.
I know that there are a number of people in our gym who really have great bodies and I know these people to push themselves hard when they are working out and I have seen them sweat.
The young man I mentioned a bit earlier who was sweating had a very good body that I am sure many other young men would like to have and I believe he achieved this body through a number of things, one being sweat equity. I know that my wife and I both received our results with the addition of a lot of sweat equity and I am sure that if any others want to achieve good results from their workout regime they also need to put in the required amount of sweat equity.
I guess it doesn’t matter if it is a home renovation or a physical body transformation you won’t get too far without a good old fashioned dose of sweat equity.

 Having whole grains in a person’s diet has long been associated with a reduced risk of cardio vascular disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity, and when it comes to whole grains or any foods made from whole grains they should contain all three components of the original grain kernel, which are the bran, germ and endosperm.
Typically when manufacturers are refining grains that process ends up removing a lot of the good parts from the whole grain, which are the bran and germ resulting in a loss of beneficial dietary fiber, B vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
When it comes to the labeling of grain products the manufacturers can be and many are guilty of being a little, how shall I put this, of yes… deceitful, and that is why it is best to not only educate yourself about the process but also to take the time to read labels. An example of why it pays to read labels and an illustration of what some companies will do is in one company’s brown bread, which they made with refined totally white flour and just so you thought that you were actually getting something nutritious they turned the white flour brown with the addition of molasses which they sold as brown bread. So just because bread is brown does not mean it is made with whole grains.
Grain products labeled “multi-grain,” “wheat flour,” “stone ground,” “100 per cent wheat,” “seven grain” and even “cracked wheat” can be and usually are Madison Avenue marketing words designed to make us think that we are getting something nutritious, but the products in question are usually not whole grain products but rather a marketer’s trick to make you think it is a whole grain food. Wheat flour is used to make most white breads and multi-grain just means a variety of grains are used in the product.
When looking for and choosing wholesome, whole grains make sure to look for the word “whole,” it should appear before the grain ingredients name. For example, the first ingredient in a whole-grain cereal might be whole oat flour and a good quality brown bread should be made with 100% whole-wheat flour.

By following the “Holy Trinity of Fitness” as I call them you will be able to achieve not only your fitness goals but also quite possibly even your fitness dreams.
The members that make up the “Holy Trinity” are nutrition, weightlifting & cardio AND in that order.
It all starts with a great not good but great nutrition program which means you must eat 5 to 6 small, protein rich, low (high glycemic) fat, low (bad) fat meals per day of which 2 to 3 of these meals can and are recommended to be in the form of protein shakes.
This routine has you eating something every 2 ½ to 3 hours all day long and what this does is cause your metabolism (digestive system etc.) to kick into high gear so that it can process the foods you have taken in and get ready for what you have trained it to know is the next meal which is on its way shortly.
None of the food you’re eating will be stored as fat as long as you are working out with weights and/or doing cardio. In fact if you are doing cardio properly your body will pull its energy needs from your fat stores and not replace any of the fat because of your new nutrition program.
You can find all of the nutrition information at the Body for Life website and the only hard part about their nutrition program is remembering to eat as often as you should. Where some weight loss programs cause you to be hungry much of the time this does just the opposite, which I believe, is the better of the two options.
As a side note BFL builds in one “cheat” day a week during their 12-week program where if you have any unfulfilled cravings or wish to indulge in anything and everything that is full of calories sugar and fat, go for it. They have factored in that people have lives and many times there are anniversary dinners, birthday parties, office get-togethers etc where you are faced with poor choices if you are on a weight loss program so by factoring in a cheat day you can attend and eat as if you were not on a weight loss regime and not feel any guilt whatsoever. The only thing is that starting the nest morning you are back on your 5 to 6 meals per day until your next cheat day.
Next comes weightlifting. The only way that you will be able to shape your body and get that great V-taper that both men and women like is to lift weights and lift them correctly so that you are able to work each of the target muscles that you need to work. I believe that you should lift weights at least 4 times per week for about one hour per session. You can work upper body one day and lower body the next or at another time or you can do one or two body parts per sessions so that each muscle group gets a workout at least once per week.
After that and only after lifting weights comes cardio.
Cardio needs to be done with a purpose rather than just going for a walk on a treadmill or pedaling a bike while reading a magazine or some other type of reading material. I have always felt that if you can read while doing cardio then you are not pushing yourself hard enough to cause changes to occur in your body. Cardio should either be done directly after lifting weights or on a day of its own for at least 20 minutes but working up to 30 then 45 and finally one hour per session.

On almost every list of good carbs you see a recommendation that brown rice should be used in place of white rice and just in case you might be wondering why you should quit using good old Uncle Ben’s or whatever equivalent you use I thought that I would answer that little question.
Brown rice is the exact same rice that is used for white rice, but the protective coating called bran is removed. The reason behind removing the coating and leaving behind the white rice has to do with providing a product that gives us quicker cooking times and also making a product that is visually fluffier and more delicate in texture once cooked. The cost associated with making it quicker to cook and better to look at is that we end up with a much less nutritious product because many valuable nutrients are lost once the bran is stripped away.
Brown rice is significantly higher in fiber than white rice and getting enough fiber is something that is both helpful and something that is missing from most North American diets.
Brown rice also contains higher levels of vitamins, minerals and many other “good things” such as vitamins B and E, calcium, protein, phosphorus, riboflavin and iron.
It used to be that brown rice was only available in health food stores but with the growing awareness of the nutrient value among other things brown rice is fast becoming more mainstream and is available in almost every grocery store. Brown rice now even comes in long grain, medium grain, short grain and basmati forms, which can fit in perfectly with whatever type of cooking you like to do and what types of white rice you wish to replace.
The downside to brown rice and something that you should be very aware of is that with the bran coating still intact it can go bad or rancid much more quickly than white rice. In that case I would caution you to buy only what you feel you would use within a month or at the most two months, and to be safe I would suggest storing it in a tightly sealed container and keep the container in a cool, dark place or as some people do, store it in the fridge.
 
 

I was discussing fitness with my doctor the other day and he said that the number one thing he is telling his patients is that they need to lose weight. He says that they then ask him the best way and he tells them they need to eat a number of smaller nutritious meals rather than 2 or 3 big ones, lift weights along with doing cardio. He then says that about 9 out of 10 of his patients then ask if there is an easier way to do it. They usually ask if he has any recommendations for pills for them and some even ask about gastric by-pass surgery, anything other than changing what they eat and exercising.
What is wrong with our society?
Using my wife (bodyspace: judimax) and myself for examples it took us 12 weeks (using the Body for Life program) to get our body transformations. Out of those 12 weeks we went to the gym 3 times per week for a total of 36 workouts. These workouts consisted of lifting weights for 1-hour maximum followed by 20 minutes max. of cardio, for a total of 80 minutes spent in the gym 3 times per week.
We ate 5 to 6 high protein, low carb, low fat meals per day with 2 to 3 of those meals being in the form of either a protein shake or a protein pudding (that my wife made). Following Body for Life allowed us to have one built in “cheat” day per week so that if we had any cravings we wanted to address or an event or party to go to we could eat as we pleased rather than just pick at some vegetable so out of the 12 weeks of eating correctly we also had 12 cheat days where we could eat anything and everything we wanted.
So by going to the gym and doing both weights and cardio for 80 minutes per session we had 4 days off from working out every week plus 1 cheat day every week. At the end of the 12 weeks I had lost over 50 pounds and gone from more than 36% to about 10% bodyfat and my wife had gone from a size 12/14 to a size 4/6.
I don’t say this to brag but to showcase how easy it actually is to change our shapes and achieve a complete body transformation. I do not believe that my wife and I are special human beings with an extraordinary ability to lose weight and get into great shape. I think we are just two ordinary folks who made fitness a priority and followed a proven program that took us step by step through the whole process over the course of 12 weeks. I have gone on to use the Body for Life program with a number of my clients and only 1 out of about 20 did not see the same kind of results as my wife and I did. The 1 person who did not respond was someone who did not challenge themselves while lifting weights and did not follow their meal plan. They would work at cardio but with all else no matter how I tried to get them to push themselves they just basically went through the motions and the end result was they got out of it exactly what they put into it. The other 19 all had from good to absolutely astounding results.
So my questions to you is, if it really is as easy as I have proven it is, then why won’t people try it rather than looking for the magic pill or an operation?