It's already the middle of July.  The winter always seems interminably long and the summer forever away, and then BANG suddenly it's half over.  

I don't know about you, but I don't want to spend a lof time in the gym when the weather is delightful and warm.  Maybe you also spend time out of the city, where you don't have a gym.  At the same time, you're wearing a swim suit or shorts and a tank, so you want to keep your body looking as good as possible.  Here are a few tips that require very little of you, but taken together will make your body look and feel better very quickly.  

1) Drink a lot of water.  Seriously, it flushes your body and decreases the appearance of bloating. Drink at least one ounce for every two pounds of body weight every day.  

2) Cut the Crap - The best general nutrition advice can be found in my Guide to Supportive Nutrition. But since we're already half way through beach season, lets do some carbohydrate manipulation to get your body to selectively burn more fat.  Cut out all of the carbohydrates (including, and especially the sugars) on up to three days each week.  Your body's preferred fuel source is sugar (and the white and/or processed carbs that your body treats as sugars). Oh, and sorry about it, but alcohol, too.  When your body doesn't have sugar for a fuel source, it turns to the only other source can burn for energy - body fat.  This trick alone will have a huge impact in how you look in that bathing suit in just a week or two. And always, remember that Protein is your friend and Sugar is your enemy. 

3) Supercharge your cardio with interval training. Instead of doing long, steady, boring slogs on the treadmill, do shorter workouts with intervals of intense all out work and  very slow (catch your breath) intervals.  Intervals can be anywhere from thirty seconds to two minutes. And they can be done anywhere, though doing jog/sprints on the beach is quite enjoyable.  twenty to thirty minues will cut it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

4) Make your strength work a fat-burner.  Instead of resting between each set of exercises, combine eight exercises, work straight  through them all without resting, and then rest.  Big, full-body exercises are best for this.  For example, do the following without resting, 15 repetitions each:
Split Squats, Push-Ups, Squat Jumps, Bench/Chair Dips, Alternating Lunges, Narrow Push-Ups, Hip Bridges, Bicycle Crunches. 
Do three rounds with two minutes of rest between each round.  

Implement these four simple strategies, and you will definitely feel and look better as the summer progresses into Labor Day.  

If you want help and/or motivation and structure, come take my new 6-week, single goal Focus Groups (just $65/week).  One focuses on fat loss and getting more toned/ripped.  The other is for adding muscle weight, especially good for "hard gainers"  ;-)
Check them out on my program page:
www.getempoweredfitness.com/our-programs 

In this brave new world of "alternative facts", in which our illegimate "leader" lies 70% of the time (*Politicact *FactCheck.Org), it is easy to get confused; in fact, I think it is part of his plan for us.  If he has the capacity to plan.  

I feel even more compelled to find honesty in everything - my friends, my family, and yes, the work I do with people in fitness and nutrition. 

There are falsehoods and confusion everywhere; this is not new, but it is magnified.

As a fitness professional and physical therapist for more than two decades, I feel like I have seen and heard it all - the good, the bad and the ugly - when it comes to what it takes to get ones body looking, feeling and functioning at its best.  There is SO much confusion among the general public (and trainers, too) as to what it takes to reach ones personal best in the most efficient ways. 

A lot of this confusion stems from the myriad myths that are everywhere - in the media, in late-night infomercials, in gyms all across America.  "Take this pill and it will melt the fat off your midsection"  "Try this exercise and build muscle overnight"  "Use this machine and develop ripped abs in ten minutes a day"

The companies and people that market these products are very effective.... at taking your money.  This is an $80 Billion industry that is built largely on fraud and misinformation.  Alas, there is no "magic pill" that will suck the fat out of your stomach.  Fortunately, the REAL solution is actually very simple (not to say "easy") - Absolutely anyone can develop a body they are happy with once they understand how to strip away the myths and get to the truth.

I'm going to write about the myths and falsehoods more than usual in the coming year.  It is maybe another small way to Resist.

This week, I write about the big falsehood that our government told us for decades - Fats are unhealthy and cause cardiovascular problems, cholesterol problems, and they make you fat.

Here's the truth: FATS DON'T MAKE YOU FAT.  Sugars do; and the simple carbohydrates that your body treats like sugars.

Obesity in America
 
This information comes as a huge surprise to most people.  The obesity epidemic began in the 1950s with the increased use of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) and accelerated in the 1980s with our government scientist’s VERY strong recommendation of low-fat diets.  The real problems began with a Senate committee which in 1977 recommended lower fat diets and more so when the National Institute of Health (NIH) made the same recommendations.  Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on studies of this, none of which proved that dietary fats made humans fatter, nor that they adversely affect our health. 
 
But, with all of this focus on eating a low-fat diet, the food companies went into overdrive to replace the flavor of the fat with other things so that their products would still taste good.  Welcome to the world of trans-fats (the enemy of every cell in your body) and HFCS (which is like sugar on steroids).  It was not a good trade-off; quite the contrary.
 
Those food pyramids that were put out for decades by the NIH and FDA, with which everyone older than 30 is familiar, had it backward and upside down.
 
Recently, in 2014, Time Magazine had this cover:

Yes.  Eat butter. 
 
It is not, I repeat, not, fats that cause obesity and myriad other problems, including heart disease. Rather, it is the triglycerides that we get from eating sugar (especially fructose) and refined carbohydrates. And trans-fats (aka hydrogenated fats)
 
Finally, some sense.  For two decades, since I began working with people, I’ve been practically screaming about how people have been misled.  Its very hard for a guy like me to make an argument against government scientists. But for decades they were wrong about this.  Fortunately, my clients had the right information. 
 
And the result of this failure on a national scale:  35% of Americans are obese (20% or more above the normal parameters) and a full 75% are overweight.  FATS DON’T MAKE YOU FAT.  I’m being repetitive because, as I said, so many people find it hard to believe because they’ve been misled for so long. 
​

If you are like most people, around this time last year you were getting frustrated with not being at the fitness level you had hoped for going into the summer.  At this time of year, more than any other, I get a lot of questions from friends and relatives about why that is?  I've been dieting since the beginning of the year, why can't I lose this last 10 pounds?  I've been doing cardio every day, why can't I see my abs? Lets find out.  

Today is chilly for mid-March, but summer is coming; I can feel it.  I think everyone feels it in the air.  For a lot of people, myself for sure, this is the beginning of their favorite time of year.  Warm weather, the beach, the pool, refreshing drinks, a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables from the grocery or the green market.  Last week I wrote a bit about the best nutrition for moving toward your goals for a body that you feel good in going into this season of bathing suits and tank tops.  The bottom line is that it is not hard to eat in a supportive way, to get leaner, stronger, healthier.  I find that the hardest part is to unlearn all of the ineffective and often harmful fad diets and bad advice from our national food scientists (so many of whom have espoused horrible nutrition for many decades, resulting in our obesity epidemic). I write about that travesty not infrequently, and I some words on that in the book that I'm now in the process of publishing. Keep an eye here on this blog for more on that soon.

I hope everyone is making good food decisions.  It's really is simple; and intuitive.  Here's the nutrition primer from last week, in case you missed it: 

Now, how about a quick lesson on the most efficient, effective things you can do in the gym right now to improve the way your body looks and feels by the time the mercury hits 80 degrees.  

For most people, a leaner, more toned body is what is desired, the coveted swimmer’s build or gymnast’s body. So, many people want to know the best toning exercises. I want to be very clear and dispel a major myth in the fitness industry here: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A TONING EXERCISE. None.  Not low weights, high reps; not "the three best exercises to tone the arms" article that was on the cover of whatever monthly magazine you read.  None.  Muscles can only grow or not grow when they are exposed to forces, like lifting weights.  They do not have a "tone" setting.  Done correctly, strength exercises will make muscles grow. In order for the body to appear leaner, more cut, we need to burn the fat that lies all around the muscle tissue. Bodies with muscle, in the absence of fat, are what we think of as “toned”.
 
Whether your goal is muscle building, fat loss or both, the first step should always be adding muscle by doing a strength and growth phase. Muscle is metabolically active and adding just a few pounds of muscle to your body will increase your metabolism so that more fat is burned from your body around the clock, even while you sleep. Once we add some strength and muscle to the body, the next step toward that sculpted swimmer’s or gymnast’s build is fat burning, about which I will post next week.



In the next weeks I am starting
NEW small-group programs, Focus Groups,
which are 6 Weeks and focus on just one goal.  

Do you want to add muscle, get bigger, more snatched (as the kids say)?  
Do my Muscle Up Group. 

​Do you want to lose weight and fat, lean out, see some curves or abs that are hidden under too much fat?
 Do my Lean Down Group

Like my 10-week Programs I've been doing for going on a decade
(which started in 2008 as "recession proof fitness",

these are just $65/week.

 Check out more info here

Now, In order to add muscle to the body in the most efficient way, there are only a few things that we have to do, but we have to do them very well. Muscle will grow only when subjected to a force (weight) at which the muscle reaches fatigue, also called Momentary Muscle Failure (MMF). So, if we are doing 12 repetitions of an exercise we should choose a weight at which we can complete 12 repetitions with good form but not 13 (or as close to that as possible).  You may not choose the right weight the first time, but pay attention and make adjustments so that will quickly be the case.
 
When a muscle reaches MMF, a process called Adaptation begins which causes the muscle to grow stronger and larger. This is similar to what happens when we go out into the sun at a certain strength for a certain length of time. The Melanin will cause our skin to grow darker in order to protect it from burning. It is much like this with muscle - there are signals which strengthen the muscle so that it is capable of lifting the weight to which it has been subjected.
 
What happens next? During the time we spend outside the gym between workouts, say 48 hours, the muscles adapt to the last workout by growing stronger and larger. If we were to come back to the gym for our next workout and lift the same weights for the same number of repetitions, no further growth would take place; the muscles are already capable of lifting at that intensity so no further adaptation would occur.  To go back to sun tan analogy, if we go outside the next day for the same amount of time, and the sun is at the same strength, our skin needs not darken further.  This is where the next concept comes into play. In order to continue to grow stronger and add muscle to the body, the muscles must be subjected to a greater force (weight) each time we work out - This is called Progressive Resistance (PR).
 
From a conceptual standpoint, this is all we really need to know about how to gain strength and size. We just need the nuts and bolts of an exercise program to start the process. It is important to choose some of the best exercises for each part of the body, for each muscle or muscle group. This is the most efficient way to add muscle without spending hours and hours in the gym.  Choose big exercises that target multiple muscle groups like Squats, Lunges, Dead Lifts, Chest Presses, Lat Pulldowns, Rows, Overhead Presses, etc.  
 
The body can add muscle aggressively for 4-6 weeks for most people. We want to optimize muscle growth in this first phase of the exercise program so adding muscle is our only goal, though you will burn more calories (and fat) just by increasing metabolically “expensive” muscle.  The focus on fat loss comes later for the reasons discussed above. If you try to add muscle and lose fat at the same time, you will not get very good results for either. The Chinese Proverb applies: ‘He who chases two rabbits catches none”.
 
There is one other important tool that a lot of people forget. We want to track our exercise program; This is so important. And if you’re looking for a trainer and watch one who doesn’t write down his/her client’s program/workout information, run. If we do not do this, we will never know exactly the right weights, sets and repetitions we should be doing to get the best results. So, create a simple workout sheet, bring it to the gym with you and track your numbers so that you will be able to progress from workout to workout and from week to week.  I cannot stress how important this is - not doing this is a big part of why MOST people fail to get results in the gym.  This is so simple, but could not be more true.  I can’t accentuate this too much.
 ​

Adding some lean tissue to the body is always the first step toward developing a more toned body, that swimmer's build or gymnast's body.  Next week, I will post about the next step - fat loss. and the most efficient and effective ways to get moving in that direction.   

If you are like most people, around this time last year you were getting frustrated with not being at the fitness level you had hoped for going into the summer.  At this time of year, more than any other, I get a lot of questions from friends and relatives about why that is?  I've been dieting since the beginning of the year, why can't I lose this last 10 pounds?  I've been doing cardio every day, why can't I see my abs?

I tell them that the answer is simpler than you think.  Very simple, actually.  You are not combining the right nutrition with the right kinds of exercise.  I'm not talking about diets; calorie restricting diets do not work.  They never have.  They never will.  A lot of cardio, say jogging on a treadmill for an hour several days of week, will also not work.  Never has.  Never will.  I've written about the reason for this here in my fitness blog.  If one eats in a way that stabilizes their blood sugar and employs exercise which has a concern for adding or preserving lean muscle tissue, one will create a metabolism that for FOR them, instead of AGAINST them 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Add to that, short bouts of cardio done as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), and you will burn away the excess fat in your "trouble spots"

Nutrition is the first place to start.  Go to my "downloads" page and get the first 2 PDFs there.  These are my supportive nutrition guides.  Page 1 lays out the rules of supportive nutrition that you will want to follow to improve your energy, retain lean muscle tissue, and burn unwanted body fat.  See how close you are to eating in a supportive way.  In areas where your habits are different, take one of them at a time and make some changes. You will find that you start feeling more energy throughout the day almost immediately and that within weeks your body will start burning more fat as you use carbohydrates for fuel rather than storing them as fat.  Page 2 has a list, for each macronutrient category, of the best foods; if it's not on that list, it is not going to help you in your journey toward a more efficient metabolism and a leaner body.  These are real foods, not package, processed chemicals that your body doesn't know how to handle.  Michael Pollan, a writer and food activist has said "if your grandmother wouldn't recognize something as food, it's not food".  A good adage to live by.  

Also, check out my post on How to Eat

As far as exercise goes, you need to pay attention to just two components: Strength Training and Cardio Training.  I will write about these in a post next week.

LATE NIGHT EATING FOR MUSCLE GROWTH & FAT LOSSIf you ever get hungry late in the evening, but are worried about eating anything because the conventional wisdom is that it will pack fat onto your body, then worry no more.  


It is true that eating starchy carbs and sugars in the later part of the day will pack on the pounds.  This is because these foods produce a strong insulin response.  Insulin is a storage hormone, so those calories will VERY likely be stored as fat as you are winding down your day.  AVOID THESE AT NIGHT.  


On the other hand, there are some great, delicious foods that you can eat to stave off hunger and feed your lean (muscle) tissue throughout the night.  Some of them will actually help you burn MORE fat, EVEN WHILE YOU SLEEP.  Good news!



#1 Green Vegetables

If you get hungry after dinner time, you can fill up on a few vegetables without effecting much of an insulin release.  Green vegetables, especially the leafy ones, have very few calories and a ton of fiber and water.  

I recommend snacking on a cup or two of kale, arugula and green beans with just a drizzle of good olive oil.  This is very filling and will kill any late-night cravings you might have. 


#2 Cottage Cheese or Yogurt 

Both are good choices containing slow-digesting proteins which will aid in recovery from your workouts.  Eating these will also release Glucagon, your fat-release hormone, which will help your body to burn more fat late into the night.  Cottage cheese is also known to coat the stomach, aiding with digestion and improving sleep quality.  

Just be sure to choose plain varieties with no sugar (or VERY low sugar).  And wherever possible try to buy your dairy organic.  You don't want to get your milk products from stressed-out cows (cortisol from stress is a fat-storage hormone). Nor do you want the antibiotics injected into factory-raised animals to keep them alive under horrible conditions.


#3 Chicken or Turkey Breasts

The protein in these is released very slowly and can nourish your muscles and aid in exercise recovery for many hours.  

These, too, have the effect of releasing Glucagon, helping your body to utilize blood sugar and stored fat for energy.   Definitely a win-win situation.  


#4 Protein Shakes

If you're feeling hungry after dinner time but don't really feel like eating a meal or snack, a protein shake is a great substitute.  They can keep you feeling full for hours, making it easier to sleep.  The best protein powders will contain both Whey and Casein proteins.

I generally mix the powder in the blender with six ice cubes, a tablespoon of peanut butter and 2 tablespoons of organic, no-sugar yogurt.  Delicious.  And helps the body to recover and burn more fat while you sleep.  





EAT MORE, LOSE MORE FAT

Have you ever been on a diet?  
If you are like most people, you've probably been on many.  

What was the biggest problem with the diets you have been on?
For a lot of people, the number one problem is HUNGER.  When you are hungry, you need to eat, but doing so could wreck your diet.  It's a catch-22.  But there are ways around it.  
One of the best tricks for being satiated when you are trying to stay within your calorie limits involves a concept called caloric density.  

Let me explain.  Some food are very calorie dense, so that there are a ton of calories in just a small amount of the food.  Others, conversely, have a very low caloric density and you can eat  LOT without getting too many calories.  

For example, a cup of pasta has 390 calories and one slice of bread has 185 calories.  If you eat a lot of these types of calorie dense foods, you will end up eating too many calories and you will gain weight.  On the other hand, foods like spinach (7 calories per cup), kale (33 calories per cup) and tomatoes (16 calories, whole tomato) have very low numbers of calories per volume.  And volume is what makes you feel satiated so that you don't eat too much.  You literally could not eat enough spinach to equal the the 390 calories in just a cup of pasta - unless you think you could eat 55 cups of spinach in one sitting.  

Eating vegetables (especially leafy and green ones), fruits (especially berries), many legumes, seeds and lean proteins and dairy will allow you to eat until you are full without getting excess calories. 


Another great thing about many of the foods with low caloric density is that they are also very high in fiber, which is not digested, so one can basically subtract those calories from the total.  


Replacing just a few of the high calorie density foods with a few lower density choices may be all you need to start losing weight, especially the excess belly fat that so many people have.  




​

​The Quick Six:
 
Here are the “quick six” rules for eating to be lean and creating your Magic Metabolism:
 

1) Eat Breakfast, then eat every three to three and a half hours– Eating a balanced breakfast is the best way to kick-start your metabolism for the day. It is best to get a mix of lean proteins and complex carbohydrates within thirty minutes of waking up in the morning. Adding a fruit or vegetable to that mix is ideal. And because our modern food supply is lacking in many of the vitamins and minerals that our bodies need to function properly, it is essential to get a good multivitamin.  I use and recommend Prograde made from more than 25 organically grown fruits and vegetables. This is better than those that are synthesized in a lab. You can only buy them online.  Information is on the resources page at the end of the book. They make one specialized for men and for women. 
 
Eating breakfast early kick-starts your metabolism for the day.  Eat the right amount of calories by eating until you are “satisfied” but not “full”.
 
Then, eat a supportive meal or snack every three to three and a half hours.  This is the fuel that keeps your “furnace” (metabolism) burning optimally.  It is really that simple.  Make sure to choose foods that are “best” or “good” from Page 2 of the nutrition guide.  These are also called “A” and “B” grade foods. 
 
Your body is incredibly powerful and has self-regulating mechanisms.  This is how you make them work optimally.
 
2) Sugar Is Your Enemy – It is sugars (and white carbohydrates and processed foods that your body treats like sugars) that turn to fat in your body. When you eat these items, your body releases too much insulin, which in turn shuts down its ability to produce its primary fat-release hormone, Glucagon, effectively locking in fat storage. Your body is either a fat-storing machine or a fat-burning machine, depending on its hormonal balance. PERIOD. To get this balance right, avoid sugars, white carbohydrates and processed foods as much as possible, opting instead for lean proteins (eggs or egg whites, fish, chicken, lean cuts of red meat), complex carbohydrates (oatmeal, quinoa, brown rice, yams) and fruits and vegetables.
 
If you are shopping and cooking at home, the “good” foods will be found in the periphery of the supermarket, while the “bad”, processed ones will be found in the aisles in the middle. You can also refer to Page 2 of my Supportive Nutrition Guide which lists the “best” and the “good” foods for each macronutrient type. Make a copy to put up on your refrigerator and one to take with you to the supermarket.
 
And watch out especially for “sugar on steroids”, also known as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  This is the most toxic form of sugar.  And it is in almost everything, even so-called “healthy” foods.  Start to read labels and ingredient lists and avoid anything that contains HFCS. 

1. Protein Is Your Friend – If you want to BE lean, EAT lean. Try to get a source of lean protein into every meal. This has a double effect that can be magical when it comes to building the leaner, more toned body you desire. First, because proteins are complex and require energy to break down, you burn up to 25% of the calories you are taking in just in the process of digesting them. Second, proteins ameliorate the negative impact of any of the sugars that you ingest with them so that they are more likely to be burned for energy and less likely to be stored as fat. The best sources of lean protein are from eggs or egg whites, fish, lean meats and poultry, so be sure to get plenty of these into your diet.

 

• 
  

The Egg – A Perfect Food Long Maligned
 
People have been taught to eat only the white of the egg for as long as I can remember.  The white of an does indeed contain very high quality proteins with the perfect amino acid profile.  But it is in the yolk of the egg that most of the nutrition is found – nearly every vitamin required by the human body.  Whole eggs have been shown to LOWER cholesterol, not RAISE it as we have been mislead to believe.
 
Imagine – The “incredible, edible egg” has enough nutrients to turn a single, fertilized cell into an entire baby chicken.  And eating eggs for breakfast can increase your body’s fat-burning capabilities.
 
Eat eggs

• 
  

 
 In a pinch, when you are unable to eat within the 3 to 3.5 hour time frame, a good, low-sugar protein shake (a mix of whey and casein protein is best), can be a good choice. Eating a protein with every meal is one of your best tools to turn your body into a fat-burning machine.
 
 

1. Good Fat, Bad Fat – Our bodies need some fat in order to survive, but some fats are helpful while others are very harmful. Your body needs and cannot produce “essential fats” – the fats that come from things like fish, nuts, seeds, olive oil and avocados. Eating more of these fats and adding a fish oil supplement to your diet will be helpful in your quest for fat loss by making your body less apt to crave the bad fats. I recommend Krill Oil from Prograde, a link to which can be found on the resources page at the end of the book.

 
Speaking of bad fats, the fats to absolutely avoid are the hydrogenated fats, also known as trans-fats; these are enemies of every cell in your body and some of the very worst things you can eat.  These are the fats that stay solid at room temperature for long periods of time such as the fats you will find in most processed, packaged foods and at many fast food restaurants.  But they can also be lurking in healthy-seeming products, so it is important to read the labels on the back of food packages.  AVOID THEM COMPLETELY. 
 
The other type of fat, saturated fats, are the ones that are solid at room temperature such as butter and the fat in steaks. While you don't want to overdo it with these, eating some is actually good for you.  For example, real butter is a MUCH better choice than margarine or “I can't believe it's not butter” type substitutes.  These have added sugars, often HFCS and chemicals that turn into fat in your body and will pack on the pounds.  Remember the recent cover of Time Magazine?  It says, simply, “Eat Butter”.  With some moderation, these fats are actually good for you. 

1. Don't Forget Your Fruits and Vegetables –

You should get between six and nine servings of fruits and vegetables every day.  Try to eat more vegetables than fruits as a rule (some fruits can be very sugary).  Note that you could pretty much eat vegetables all day long and never gain any weight.  They are largely fiber, water and vitamins/minerals.  Celery, for example, has “negative calories” – this means that it takes more calories (energy) to break it down and digest it than it had in the first place.  Pretty neat. 
 
The best way to ensure that you are getting an optimal complement of vitamins and minerals is to get as many colors into your diet as possible.  The different colors in fruits and vegetables generally represent different phytonutrients which your body needs (and most Americans just don’t get enough of them). 
 
For example, eat blueberries with your yogurt in the morning, a morning snack that includes carrots and red peppers (maybe with hummus), a salad of spinach and kale with chicken breast for lunch, an afternoon snack of turkey wrapped around tomato slices or peanut butter with an apple, and a dinner that includes sides of yellow squash and mushrooms.   See how many different colors are in that example.  That represents a wide spectrum of the nutrients that your body craves. 
 
I also get a lot of questions about whether it is important to eat organic and/or local.  It is a great idea to do that whenever possible.  You see, the soil at most conventional farming operations has been overworked for decades and the produce that grows from it can be lacking in the vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients that your body needs.  Add to this the fact that many are using hybrids that are grown to survive the long trips from farm to supermarket, which means that they are not the same fruits and vegetables that your grandparents ate.  They are bred for size and color so that they look good, but are generally not only flavorless, but devoid of most of the nutrients you want to be eating. 
 
Whenever possible, and I know it’s a little more expensive, try to get organic fruits and vegetables.  And if they were grown within 100 miles of where you live, even better.  This way the nutrients do not get “watered down” in the long shipping process.  This also cuts down on your carbon footprint. 
 
Most cities have fantastic greenmarkets and/or
Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) and FarmShare programs where you can support your local farmers AND get the best quality, most nutritious fruits and vegetables that are available today.  Oh, and they taste WAY better than that orange tomato that’s not supposed to be orange. 
 
 
 
6) Water, Water Everywhere – Maybe you have heard that, on average, sixty percent of the body is made of water. In order to function properly and, yes, that includes the ability to store fuel as muscle and process and burn fat, one must drink enough water every day. While there is some disagreement as to how much is needed, an absolute minimum is one ounce of water for every two pounds of body weight. So drink up!
____________________________________________
A note on Calories:
 
Calorie Count – I believe that most people do not need to count calories. Rather, if you eat breakfast early, eat until you are satisfied but not “full” and then do it again every three to three-and-a-half hours, you should be getting the correct amount of calories for your body. That said, if you’re a numbers person and want to be very specific, you can calculate how many calories you use in a day. This is known as your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) and you can calculate it at: mytdee.com.  It will also give you your basal metabolic rate (BMR) which is the number of calories your body would burn if you were to lie in bed all day an not move, just to operate your organs. 
 
During the program, if you are a numbers person and want to consider calories, I recommend eating around your TDEE during the first four weeks of the program, and five hundred calories less than your TDEE for the remaining six weeks of the program.  However, if you are a person with a smaller frame, a “hard gainer” or your primary goal is adding muscle, then I recommend eating five hundred calories above your TDEE while you are in Phase 1 of the Program and right around your TDEE for the rest of the Program. 
_____________________________________________
A Note On Your Grocery Store or Supermarket:
 
When you go shopping for food, there are things you can do to ensure that you will be buying the items that will help you to eat supportively and help your body start working FOR you instead of AGAINST you. 
 
The first is to make sure you have a copy of page two of the Empower Fitness Supportive Eating Guide to take with you to the store.
 
 
 
There is a great adage for nutrition today that we would do well to follow:
 
"If your grandmother wouldn't recognize a product as food, then it's NOT food".
 
Your grandmother would recognize all of the foods on page 2 of the guide.
 
Another simple rule to follow is this: Shop in the perimeter of the store; that's where the real food is!  Fruits and Vegetables.  Meat, Poultry, Fish and Seafood. Dairy Products.
 
On the other hand, the interior of the store is where you will find all of the processed "foods".  Many of these items contain VERY little in the way of nutritional value and TONS of additives, preservatives, sugars (especially HFCS) and the most unhealthy oils of all (the ones that won’t spoil at room temperature, thus increasing shelf-life almost indefinitely).  If it never spoils on the shelf, imagine what it does in your intestines.  These processed foods are the ones MOST responsible for the obesity epidemic in America that began in the 1950s. 
 
Lets look at a great example: Bread.  Many stores have 50-yard shelves full of different kinds of bread.  They sound healthy on the front of the package, with words like "Whole Wheat" and "Enriched Grains".   What is essential to understand here is that the front of the package is the advertising section for the product.  The food companies can say pretty much whatever they want here.  If you want to know what is really in it, turn it around and read the ingredients and the FDA-mandated Nutrition Label. 
 
 
"Enriched Bread" - Sounds healthy, right?  These products start out as healthy grains, and then the food companies mill, bleach, refine and process them until there is nothing left that can actually be called food so that it tastes good to the American diet - fluffy, white, sugary-tasting. In fact, HFCS, is a MAIN ingredient in most of the breads).  And because all of the nutrition is processed out, the FDA mandated that these products could not legally be sold as food because there was ZERO nutritional value.  So, the food companies put a couple of the B-Vitamins back in to appease the FDA (not hard to do) and these breads are the "enriched breads" that you see in every supermarket and grocery store in America. 
 
"Whole Wheat Bread" - This moniker does NOT mean that you are getting healthy grains.  Of all of the dozens and dozens of breads that say they are "whole wheat" in the last supermarket I visited, NONE of them actually contained any significant amount of the essential ingredient: Whole Grains.  If the first ingredient on the label (the one that most of the product is made from) is not "Whole Grain" then the bread is probably processed to the point where your body will treat it as sugar.  So, why are these breads brown?  Shouldn't that mean that they are made from whole grains?  The answer is probably not - Many of these products are colored with molasses or caramel to appear more brown and healthy. 
 
With breads, as with all foods, look at the labels on the back of the product.  Pay attention to the list of ingredients. If there are tons of ingredients, many of which you can’t pronounce or don’t recognize, then the product is healthy, not good for your fitness goals and, frankly, it’s not really food.
 

 
Lets talk about dairy products.  Are your drinking your skim or low-fat milk?  You probably are, because you were led to believe that these are healthier and better at keeping the weight off.  False.  Utterly and unequivocally false.  This goes back to our discussion of how America became obese.  When very bad science convinced the public that fat was bad, the food companies saw great profit in using cheap, unhealthy chemicals (chemicals which sabotage your metabolism to boot) which they could sell to an unsuspecting public. 
 
Skim milk for example: Before processing, skim milk has a very unappetizing blueish color, a chalky taste, and watery texture that doesn’t resemble natural milk at all. So, to whiten, thicken, and make it taste a little  3into the milk.
What’s so bad about powdered milk? Well, in the manufacturing process, liquid milk is forced through tiny holes at very high pressure, which causes the cholesterol in the milk to oxidize, and toxic nitrates to form. Oxidized cholesterol contributes to the buildup of plaque in the arteries, while unoxidized cholesterol from unprocessed foods is actually an antioxidant to help fight inflammation in the body. The proteins found in powdered milk are so denatured that they are unrecognizable by the body and contribute to inflammation.
 
The same can be said for pretty much all low-fat options at your supermarket or grocery.  These products have a deleterious effect on your health, you ability to burn fat, your cholesterol levels and your heart, the problems that we were led to believe came from what are actually healthy, natural fats
 
These are just a couple of examples of how the public is tricked into making poor nutrition choices in every supermarket and grocery store in America.  Don't be fooled.  Learn how to read labels so that you are getting more nutritious foods, foods that your body will use as fuel for your workouts and activities of daily living. The alternative is eating foods that throw off your blood sugar levels and get stored immediately as fat.  Not good. 
 
 
 

​Summer Bodies are Built in the Winter!
 
With a more than a month of 2017 behind us, fitness is on everyone’s mind. Those who didn’t give up their New Year’s resolutions have redoubled their efforts, spending more time in the gym.
 
If you’re one of them, you have seen the number of people in your gym dwindle by a staggering 70%. That is the number given by many psychologists for the percentage of people who have given up or failed on their resolutions by the end of February. So, if you are one of them, I guess you could say that you are in good company. If you are one of the 30% who have stuck with your plans and are moving forward toward your goals, be proud of yourselves and carry on.
 
Achieving your fitness goals is not easy, but it is SIMPLE. Following the right nutrition program is an essential starting point. I’ll send an article about that soon.
 
For most people, a leaner, more toned body is what is desired, the coveted swimmer’s build or gymnast’s body. So, many people want to know the best toning exercises. I want to be very clear and dispel a major myth in the fitness industry here: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A TONING EXERCISE. None.  Not low weights, high reps; not "the three best exercises to tone the arms" article that was on the cover of whatever monthly magazine you read.  None.  Muscles can only grow or not grow when they are exposed to forces, like lifting weights.  They do not have a "tone" setting.  Done correctly, strength exercises will make muscles grow. In order for the body to appear leaner, more cut, we need to burn the fat that lies all around the muscle tissue. Bodies with muscle, in the absence of fat, are what we think of as “toned”.
 
Whether your goal is muscle building, fat loss or both, the first step should always be adding muscle by doing a strength and growth phase. Muscle is metabolically active and adding just a few pounds of muscle to your body will increase your metabolism so that more fat is burned from your body around the clock, even while you sleep. Once we add some strength and muscle to the body, the next step toward that sculpted swimmer’s or gymnast’s build is fat burning, about which I will send an article soon.
 
In order to add muscle to the body in the most efficient way, there are only a few things that we have to do, but we have to do them very well. Muscle will grow only when subjected to a force (weight) at which the muscle reaches fatigue, also called Momentary Muscle Failure (MMF). So, if we are doing 12 repetitions of an exercise we should choose a weight at which we can complete 12 repetitions with good form but not 13 (or as close to that as possible).  You may not choose the right weight the first time, but pay attention and make adjustments so that will quickly be the case.
 
When a muscle reaches MMF, a process called Adaptation begins which causes the muscle to grow stronger and larger. This is similar to what happens when we go out into the sun at a certain strength for a certain length of time. The Melanin will cause our skin to grow darker in order to protect it from burning. It is much like this with muscle - there are signals which strengthen the muscle so that it is capable of lifting the weight to which it has been subjected.
 
What happens next? During the time we spend outside the gym between workouts, say 48 hours, the muscles adapt to the last workout by growing stronger and larger. If we were to come back to the gym for our next workout and lift the same weights for the same number of repetitions, no further growth would take place; the muscles are already capable of lifting at that intensity so no further adaptation would occur.  To go back to sun tan analogy, if we go outside the next day for the same amount of time, and the sun is at the same strength, our skin needs not darken further.  This is where the next concept comes into play. In order to continue to grow stronger and add muscle to the body, the muscles must be subjected to a greater force (weight) each time we work out - This is called Progressive Resistance (PR).
 
From a conceptual standpoint, this is all we really need to know about how to gain strength and size. We just need the nuts and bolts of an exercise program to start the process. It is important to choose some of the best exercises for each part of the body, for each muscle or muscle group. This is the most efficient way to add muscle without spending hours and hours in the gym.  Choose big exercises that target multiple muscle groups like Squats, Lunges, Dead Lifts, Chest Presses, Lat Pulldowns, Rows, Overhead Presses, etc.  
 
The body can add muscle aggressively for 4-6 weeks for most people. We want to optimize muscle growth in this first phase of the exercise program so adding muscle is our only goal, though you will burn more calories (and fat) just by increasing metabolically “expensive” muscle.  The focus on fat loss comes later for the reasons discussed above. If you try to add muscle and lose fat at the same time, you will not get very good results for either. The Chinese Proverb applies: ‘He who chases two rabbits catches none”.
 
There is one other important tool that a lot of people forget. We want to track our exercise program; This is so important. And if you’re looking for a trainer and watch one who doesn’t write down his/her client’s program/workout information, run. If we do not do this, we will never know exactly the right weights, sets and repetitions we should be doing to get the best results. So, create a simple workout sheet, bring it to the gym with you and track your numbers so that you will be able to progress from workout to workout and from week to week.  I cannot stress how important this is - not doing this is a big part of why MOST people fail to get results in the gym.  This is so simple, but could not be more true.  I can’t accentuate this too much.
 
If you are an experienced exerciser who gets great results in the gym, following the above tips will only improve your progress.  If you are newer to strength training or feel like you are fumbling and guessing in the gym, get in touch to learn about training with me or joining one of my 10-Week, Small-Group Programs. Just $65/week.

​ While getting dramatic results and moving quickly toward your fitness goals is NOT easy, I do make is very simple and doable for absolutely anybody.

Starting February groups in the next week or two. 
 
I know summer seems far away with the cold air at this moment, but Staten Island Chuck saw his shadow this morning, boding for a short winter (screw Punxattawney Phil who says long winter; I always go with the local).

But as someone who works with many people who have goals of a much better body by summer, I can tell you that this is the time to start.

​Summer bodies are built in the winter!

​Summer Bodies are Built in the Winter!
 
With a more than a month of 2016 behind us, fitness is on everyone’s mind. Those who didn’t give up their New Year’s resolutions have redoubled their efforts, spending more time in the gym.
 
If you’re one of them, you have seen the number of people in your gym dwindle by a staggering 70%. That is the number given by many psychologists for the percentage of people who have given up or failed on their resolutions by the end of February. So, if you are one of them, I guess you could say that you are in good company. If you are one of the 30% who have stuck with your plans and are moving forward toward your goals, be proud of yourselves and carry on.
 
Achieving your fitness goals is not easy, but it is SIMPLE. Following the right nutrition program is an essential starting point. I’ll send an article about that soon.
 
For most people, a leaner, more toned body is what is desired, the coveted swimmer’s build or gymnast’s body. So, many people want to know the best toning exercises. I want to be very clear and dispel a major myth in the fitness industry here: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A TONING EXERCISE. None.  Not low weights, high reps; not "the three best exercises to tone the arms" article that was on the cover of whatever monthly magazine you read.  None.  Muscles can only grow or not grow when they are exposed to forces, like lifting weights.  They do not have a "tone" setting.  Done correctly, strength exercises will make muscles grow. In order for the body to appear leaner, more cut, we need to burn the fat that lies all around the muscle tissue. Bodies with muscle, in the absence of fat, are what we think of as “toned”.
 
Whether your goal is muscle building, fat loss or both, the first step should always be adding muscle by doing a strength and growth phase. Muscle is metabolically active and adding just a few pounds of muscle to your body will increase your metabolism so that more fat is burned from your body around the clock, even while you sleep. Once we add some strength and muscle to the body, the next step toward that sculpted swimmer’s or gymnast’s build is fat burning, about which I will send an article soon.
 
In order to add muscle to the body in the most efficient way, there are only a few things that we have to do, but we have to do them very well. Muscle will grow only when subjected to a force (weight) at which the muscle reaches fatigue, also called Momentary Muscle Failure (MMF). So, if we are doing 12 repetitions of an exercise we should choose a weight at which we can complete 12 repetitions with good form but not 13 (or as close to that as possible).  You may not choose the right weight the first time, but pay attention and make adjustments so that will quickly be the case.
 
When a muscle reaches MMF, a process called Adaptation begins which causes the muscle to grow stronger and larger. This is similar to what happens when we go out into the sun at a certain strength for a certain length of time. The Melanin will cause our skin to grow darker in order to protect it from burning. It is much like this with muscle - there are signals which strengthen the muscle so that it is capable of lifting the weight to which it has been subjected.
 
What happens next? During the time we spend outside the gym between workouts, say 48 hours, the muscles adapt to the last workout by growing stronger and larger. If we were to come back to the gym for our next workout and lift the same weights for the same number of repetitions, no further growth would take place; the muscles are already capable of lifting at that intensity so no further adaptation would occur.  To go back to sun tan analogy, if we go outside the next day for the same amount of time, and the sun is at the same strength, our skin needs not darken further.  This is where the next concept comes into play. In order to continue to grow stronger and add muscle to the body, the muscles must be subjected to a greater force (weight) each time we work out - This is called Progressive Resistance (PR).
 
From a conceptual standpoint, this is all we really need to know about how to gain strength and size. We just need the nuts and bolts of an exercise program to start the process. It is important to choose some of the best exercises for each part of the body, for each muscle or muscle group. This is the most efficient way to add muscle without spending hours and hours in the gym.  Choose big exercises that target multiple muscle groups like Squats, Lunges, Dead Lifts, Chest Presses, Lat Pulldowns, Rows, Overhead Presses, etc.  
 
The body can add muscle aggressively for 4-6 weeks for most people. We want to optimize muscle growth in this first phase of the exercise program so adding muscle is our only goal, though you will burn more calories (and fat) just by increasing metabolically “expensive” muscle.  The focus on fat loss comes later for the reasons discussed above. If you try to add muscle and lose fat at the same time, you will not get very good results for either. The Chinese Proverb applies: ‘He who chases two rabbits catches none”.
 
There is one other important tool that a lot of people forget. We want to track our exercise program; This is so important. And if you’re looking for a trainer and watch one who doesn’t write down his/her client’s program/workout information, run. If we do not do this, we will never know exactly the right weights, sets and repetitions we should be doing to get the best results. So, create a simple workout sheet, bring it to the gym with you and track your numbers so that you will be able to progress from workout to workout and from week to week.  I cannot stress how important this is - not doing this is a big part of why MOST people fail to get results in the gym.  This is so simple, but could not be more true.  I can’t accentuate this too much.
 
If you are an experienced exerciser who gets great results in the gym, following the above tips will only improve your progress.  If you are newer to strength training or feel like you are fumbling and guessing in the gym, get in touch to learn about training with me or joining one of my 10-Week, Small-Group Programs. While getting dramatic results and moving quickly toward your fitness goals is NOT easy, I do make is very simple and doable for absolutely anybody.  
 
I know summer seems far away with the snow coming down at this moment, but as someone who works with many people who have goals of a much better body by summer, I can tell you that this is the time to start. Summer bodies are built in the winter!

 
I want you to think of your metabolism as a furnace over which you have complete control.  The goal is to make that fire burn hot and bright, burning off calories at a faster rate than you can imagine.  If you wait too long to throw wood into the fire, it will go out.  If you throw too much wood on the fire all at once, you will smother the fire.  That wood I'm talking about is the fuel you put into your body – food. 
 
If we were to write the 10 Commandments of Nutrition, the FIRST would be to keep your furnace burning bright – this equates to stabilizing your blood sugar – and doing this ALONE will immediately improve your energy levels and raise the speed and efficiency with which you burn through calories.  
 
Let’s look at one of the biggest myths when it comes to the best nutrition for your body – the myth that diets work.
 
Myth: To Lose Weight, Go On a Low-Calorie Diet
Reality: True in the VERY short-term, COMPLETELY false in the long-term. 
 
While eating fewer calories than you burn each day will cause you to lose weight initially, the weight loss will plateau quickly. Losing weight by restricting calories is problematic in a number of ways. 
 
Most low-calorie diets will cause more muscle loss than fat loss. And this will cause your body to burn fewer calories. But that’s not even the worst of it. Soon, your body will recognize that it is not getting the calories that it needs to function properly and it will set into a motion a whole array of protection mechanisms. Your internal “calorie thermostat” will reset so that the body burns even fewer calories and it will try to store whatever calories it can as fat (survival mode). Fat is metabolically cheap, it takes nothing to sustain. Muscle, on the other hand, is metabolically expensive, so it is the first to go.
 
The fact is, your body does not know that you are trying to look great in a swimsuit this summer; it just knows that it is not getting enough calories, that you are starving and not getting the nutrition you need to thrive.
 
The result of all of this is that your metabolism slows further and further. And at the same time, hormones in your body start telling your brain that you are starving until eventually you go “off” the diet. This is not a matter of poor willpower.  Not in the least.  It is a biological imperative - chemicals in your body telling you to EAT, to get the calories you need to function and thrive. And as soon as you do, as soon as you start eating more again (and likely bingeing from being “starved” for so long), the weight comes back, and then some.  You’ve done this before.  Does the weight come back slowly?  No.  It seems like with that first slice of pizza and bowl of ice cream, the weight it took you weeks or months to lose just shows right back up. And then some.  And worse, the weight is stored in the form of fat, you have less muscle (so you are “softer”) and your metabolism is slower so you are fighting an uphill battle. DIETS MAKE YOU FAT.
 
 
STOP:  Time to take a nutrition inventory.  For three days, write down everything you eat and drink AND at what time.  It will look something like this:
 
Monday
7 AM – 3 eggs, scrambled.  1 piece whole-grain toast.  Coffee with Stevia and 2% milk. 16 ounces of water.
10 AM – Yogurt with a handful of granola and 20 blueberries, 16 ounces of water.
1 PM – Salad with spinach, red peppers, walnuts, feta cheese and a grilled chicken breast. 8 ounces water.
4 PM – 1 handful of roasted, unsalted almonds, 16 ounces of water.
730 PM – 8 oz pork chop cooked in 2 tablespoons of olive oil with fresh herbs.  1 cup brown rice.  2 cups broccoli. 
830 PM – 2 oz of 70% dark chocolate, 8 ounces of water.
 
[Once you have completed your food journal, continue reading.  The next section is on “Supportive” nutrition.  You will want to start fixing your nutrition by comparing the concepts below to your food journal.  Do not try to make many changes at once.  Take them one at a time. If you are not eating breakfast soon after getting up, start doing so.  If you are then not eating every three to three and a half hours, start doing that.  Next start to look at WHAT you are eating.  Start subtracting some of the poor choices and making some better ones. 
 
 
Eating To Stoke The Furnace (Cont’d)
 
If a strong, lean body is the goal, instead of dieting you will want to eat “supportively”; that is, to eat in a way that supports lean muscle development and releases and burns fat.  It is essential to recognize that calories are not “bad”.  Calories are the fuel that your body uses to function and thrive.  Almost everyone who does my program eats more calories than they have in the past, all while burning fat at a rate they never imagined possible.
 
Supportive eating is very simple.  Make sure you are eating frequently, every 3 to 3.5 hours.  This keeps your furnace burning.  And it keeps your blood sugar level stable so that your body is in fat-burning mode. 
 
A little Science:
 
It is essential to understand that when you don’t eat often enough, when you are hungry, your blood sugar levels are too low.  In this condition, as soon as you eat (especially carbs and sugars), your blood sugar levels spike.  When this happens, your pancreas must over-release insulin to take the sugar out of your blood so you don’t die.  In this state, the pancreas cannot release its other hormone, glucagon, which is the PRIMARY FAT RELEASE HORMONE in your body.  So, the fat around your problem areas is effectively locked in, no matter what you do.  Even if you run on the treadmill for an hour.  Even if you do a hard spinning class.  It is IMPOSSIBE to release (and therefore burn) body fat when your body is in this state.  Go back and read that again!
 
On the next two pages are the “Guides to Supportive Nutrition” which I have been giving my clients for many years.  The first one is about HOW you will want to be eating and the second is about WHAT you should be eating.  Most of what you eat most of the time should be the things listed there as ‘best” and “good” foods.  These are real foods, the kind that are most healthy and best for improving your metabolism.  Michael Pollan, a prolific writer, journalist and food activist, has said: If your grandmother would not recognize something as food, it's not food"  Words to the wise.  
 
 

As people rev up for the fall and the pre-holiday season, one of the things they are focused on most strongly is their fitness. 

For a lot of people the upcoming holidays mean adding another 5 or 10 pounds of fat like last year.  At first, it's just a few unhealthy meals.  And then it's a week or two skipped at the gym.  And then it's "oh well, I'll lose the weight starting after New Year".  This is a recipe for disaster.  Sound familiar?

But many people do try, do make an effort to eat better and stay fit and STILL fail to attain the bodies they desire. There are a  few main reasons for this.  

In the course of my life as a fitness professional who teaches people how to eat and exercise in a way that is consistent with their goals, I hear a lot of the same things over and over from incoming clients that are simply not true. The extent to which so many people believe these things can be overwhelming. And it makes what I do as much about helping people to “unlearn” the things that don’t work as it does teaching them the things that do.

We have to understand that it is not the fault of the fitness novice (or even the experienced exerciser) that they are convinced that these concepts are correct. They are perpetuated by a number of very powerful influences: A $60 Billion supplement and diet industry that has only profits in mind and markets and sells products which are ineffective and in many cases fraudulent; Infomercials which make false claims and sell products that could never work; Countless magazines and other media which promote impossible standards of beauty and fitness alongside diet and exercise programs that are guaranteed to fail.

In working with thousands of people over the last twenty years, I have learned that what the vast majority want is simple - to be stronger and move better, but MOST importantly to have a leaner, more toned body. Some call this weight loss, some call it being more “fit”, but in essence it is the same goal.

In this article, I will talk about some of the most egregious, and consistently repeated mistakes people make with their fitness plans, why they are absolutely wrong, and what you can do instead to avoid getting stuck when it comes to your fitness goals.  

# 1: Lifting Heavy Weights Will Make You Bulk Up.

False.

When you lift heavy weights correctly, you will add muscle to your body. Muscle IS the lean part of your musculoskeletal system. Muscle tissue is what gives your body the lean, cut, attractive shape that almost all of us seek. People invariably ask about the bulky shape of body builders at this point and the answer to why this doesn’t concern them is very simple - without the rare genetic make-up that natural body-builders possess, it is nearly impossible to look this way without ingesting an absolutely massive amount of calories, dedicating your life to the gym and injecting anabolic steroids.

It is not muscle, but fat, that makes you look bulky. A lean body is just that, literally - more lean muscle tissue with less of the fat that lies around and over the muscle. And it is muscle tissue that helps you burn that fat by increasing your metabolism (the amount of calories you burn each day) with every pound of muscle you add. In fact, adding one pound of muscle to your body burns 6.5 calories per hour which is almost 17,000 calories per year, the equivalent of burning 16 pounds of additional fat each year while continuing to eat the same number of calories.

# 3: To Lose Weight, Go On a Low-Calorie Diet

True in the short-term, false in the long-term. 

While eating fewer calories than you burn each day will cause you to lose weight initially, the weight loss will plateau quickly. Losing weight by restricting calories is problematic in a number of ways. 

Most low-calorie diets will cause more muscle loss than fat loss. And from # 1” above, we know that this will cause your body to burn fewer calories. But that’s not even the worst of it. Soon, your body will recognize that it is not getting the calories that it needs to function properly and it will set into a motion a whole array of protection mechanisms. Your internal “calorie thermostat” will reset so that the body burns even fewer calories and it will try to store whatever calories it can as fat (survival mode). Fat is metabolically cheap, it takes nothing to sustain. Muscle, on the other hand, is metabolically expensive, so it is the first to go.

The fact is: Your body does not know that you are trying to look great in a speedo this summer; it just knows that it is not getting enough calories.

The result of all of this is that your metabolism slows further and further. And at the same time, hormones in your body start telling you that you are starving until eventually you go “off” the diet. This is not a matter of poor willpower. It is a biological imperative - chemicals in your body telling you to EAT, to get the calories you need to function and thrive. And as soon as you do, as soon as you start eating more again (and likely bingeing from being “starved” for so long), the weight comes back, and then some. And the weight is stored in the form of fat, you have less muscle (so you are “softer”) and your metabolism is slower so you are fighting an uphill battle. DIETS MAKE YOU FAT. 

If a strong, lean body is the goal, instead of dieting you will want to eat “supportively”; that is, eating in a way that supports lean muscle development and the release and burning of fat. I’ve written about this here before, in Part 2 of my 4-Part series on “Finding The Balance For Dramatic Physical Change”. You can read that article on this site to learn the best nutrition strategies and you can download my 2-Page “Empower Fitness’ Guide to Supportive Nutrition” by going to my web site at www.GetEmpoweredFitness.com/downloads. the password is: metabolism.

# 4: Long, Moderate-Pace Cardio Is Best For Weight Loss.

Mostly False.

While it is true that long, steady-state cardio will burn calories, it is NOT a very effective choice if the goal is a lean body and a faster metabolism. There are multiple reasons for this.

First, this type of cardio tends to burn more muscle and water than it does stored body fat. The number of new clients who tell me that they do an hour or more of cardio most of the days of the week and are still very unhappy with their bodies is astonishing. These are the people who tend not to be terribly overweight, but so much of their weight is fat, and not muscle, that the “flab” is hanging off of their bodies. I call this condition “skinny-fat” and I see it in cardio addicts from Spinning enthusiasts to Marathon Runners.

Long, steady-state cardio is also limited in that the calorie-burning stops as soon as you step off of the treadmill or elliptical. That makes this type of exercise not very efficient when it comes to stimulating a faster overall metabolism.

A much better choice is Interval Training. This simply means working very hard and at a very high heart rate for a short burst and then bringing the intensity way down for a short time. Interval Training is better than steady-state cardio from just about every metric that should interest you: It burns more calories per time spent; it burns more calories from fat; it burns calories for hours after you finish doing it; it’s even better for the health, endurance and strength of your heart in just about every measurable way.

I recommend just 30 minutes of interval training per session. Another effective way to burn excess fat is to do just 15 minutes of cardio following your strength training workout. If you’ve lifted effectively, you’ve burned all of the sugars in the blood and in the muscles, so post-workout is the best opportunity to burn a larger percentage of calories from fat, instead of burning sugars.

So, if being more efficient, getting more improvement in less time sounds good to you, Interval Training is the way to go. I wrote more about Interval Training in Part 4 of “Finding The Balance For Dramatic Physical Change” and you can also find more information by downloading my “cardio” page from my web site (same link as above).


My clients, after learning the most effective techniques (and “unlearning” the ones that don’t work), eat more, spend less time at the gym, and still get results in terms of added muscle and burned body fat that are significantly greater than anything they have experienced in the past.

By learning why these common fitness myths are false and learning what to do instead, I hope that you will get dramatically better results from your nutrition and workouts as well.  

Greg Rothman, MS PT , is a fitness professional, author and the owner of Empower Fitness . He received his Masters Degree in Physical Therapy from Columbia University and has 20 years of experience in the rehabilitation and fitness fields. Greg’s mission is to empower his clients to take control of their bodies and their metabolisms. He believes that absolutely anyone can find dramatic physical change and that doing so can be accomplished efficiently. www.getempoweredfitness.com