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.