I. Understanding Body Fat
II. Invest In Your Body
III. Bathroom Scales - Friend or Foe?

I. Understanding Body Fat

In general, controlling weight is not a particularly complex process. Regardless of what you may read in various magazines, no magic formula exists for weight loss. In simple terms, to lose weight you must expend more energy (calories) than you consume. This is known as thermodynamics. Thermodynamics is not a theory or a fad. Thermodynamics is the branch of physiochemical science concerned with heat and energy.

Considerable data indicates that the safest and most effective way to accomplish body fat loss is to combine sensible eating habits with a program of sound exercise including both aerobic and weight training. Let's take a closer look at body fat by bringing into play an analogy between the size of fat cells and the size of four different sized fruits - a blueberry, a grape, a plum and an apple.

Suppose we isolate a single fat cell from the abdominal region and measure its diameter accurately with a powerful microscope. In the analogy, consider the fat cell with a diameter of a blueberry. Next, we fill the fat cell with more fat so its diameter increases to the limit of the cell membrane and attains a new diameter, that of a grape. At this point, the cell now contains its full capacity for fat and reaches its 100% filling capacity.

Suppose however that we attempt to fill the now totally full fat cell even further, causing its outer membrane to stretch to accommodate the additional fat. In this case, think of the swollen cell expanding to yet another new diameter, that of a plum, and then further to the diameter of an apple, much like a small rubber balloon stretched to its capacity before it bursts. If we think of the cell volume in terms of the fruit analogy, increasing cell diameter from the size of a blueberry to an apple, this increases the total volume of the cell eight times! Thus the once "small" fat cell swells tremendously in volume as more fat enters the cell and encroaches on the cells membrane capacity to hold its normal fat volume.

Because the typical person can have anywhere from 30 billion to 300 billion or more fat cells, a relatively small increase in fat cell volume translates to an overall increase in body size, primarily in the lower trunk region (specifically the abdominal region). Simply put, fat cells that fill up with more fat become "fatter" fat cells. Because the total number of fat cells remains relatively fixed by adolescence, further increases in body size must occur by filling existing adipose cells with more fat.

However, fat cells in different areas of your body do respond differently to the same program of diet and exercise. Many women want to lose fat from their hips and thighs. But that is often the last place it goes from. One of the main reasons concerns the ratio of beta and alpha-receptors on fat cells in different parts of your body.

Just like a car, your fat cells have a series of brakes and accelerators. The parts of a fat cell that release fat are called beta-receptors and the parts of a fat cell that put the brakes on fat loss are known as alpha-receptors. The distribution of brakes and accelerators on each fat cell explains why certain parts of your body lose fat faster than others. Women have more brakes (alpha-receptors) on the fat cells in their thighs than their stomach, which is why some women have such a hard time losing fat from their thighs.

What this all means is that the speed and location of fat loss will differ from person to person. You can do leg exercises all day long, but there is no guarantee that that is where you will lose the fat. The bottom line is you cannot spot reduce and your body is predisposed to shed body fat in the order outlined in your genetic makeup. But here is the good news, almost any diet and exercise program, as long as you burn more calories than you consume, will promote the loss of subcutaneous fat (the fat stored under the skin). This will also help to get rid of cellulite, which is simply fat underneath the skin that has a dimpled look.

A recent study tracked a group of thirty obese women over a six-month period. The women were assigned to one of three groups. Group A did nothing, group B followed a program of aerobic exercise six days a week for 60 minutes. Group C also exercised six days a week, but did three aerobic workouts and weight training workouts. Groups B & C lost fat, with the aerobics group losing 16 pounds and the combined group (C) losing 20 pounds. However the combined group (C) also gained 10 pounds of lean muscle.

In truth, you need to diet along with doing aerobics and weight training to maximize fat loss and gain lean muscle tissue. The more lean muscle you have the faster your metabolic rate will be. Big muscles burn more calories than little muscles.

So, if you are getting to the gym four times a week and participating in a resistance and cardio-training program, you will be adding lean muscle tissue to your body which in turn will enhance your metabolism. This will allow you to burn more calories, even when you are sitting on your couch watching television.

II. Invest in Your Body

As a personal trainer I have clients of all shapes and sizes walk through the gym doors every day wanting to improve the way they look and to generally feel fitter and healthier. These people have reached a point in their lives where they feel compelled to take action and do something positive about the state of their health and the person they see staring back at them in the bedroom mirror every morning.

We all know there is no quick fix. We see the infomercials on television every day that promise so much, but if it were that easy for everyone we would all look like those fitness models, right?! Let me tell you right here and now, it takes hard work and total commitment to see changes in your body composition. As soon as you have accepted this fact you can start to mentally prepare your mind for the upcoming relative discomfort of those gut-busting workouts. The "no pain no gain" saying that has been around for years is all too true. I am sorry to have to tell you this, but anything that is worth having is not going to be a walk in the park. It is a question of how bad do you want it?

Put it this way, you have one body to last the duration of your lifetime. You need to take good care of this body otherwise it will fail you and as we know, all the money in the world cannot buy good health.

When you buy a house, it is an investment. You spend time and money doing improvements, and you want it to look good and make it something to be proud of. If only people would look after their bodies as much as their homes and cars. Exercising for 60 minutes four times per week is not a huge time burden for anyone. Yes, that is 4 hours out of a total of 168 hours in the week. Not having the time is no excuse. So invest 4 hours a week and your body will reward you with increases in lean tissue and a reduction in body fat.

Poor nutrition and eating habits are issues that I have to address daily when a new client starts a program with me. The first question I ask is "what is a typical day of eating for you?" Nine times out of ten they will inform me that they skipped breakfast, grabbed a bagel and a coffee at 10:00am, lunch consisted of a tuna sandwich and a diet coke and then nothing until 7:00 pm when they would sit down to a large plate of pasta and meatballs with some ice cream as a dessert.

The funny thing about all this is that they know that these are not good eating habits, but somehow seem stuck in a rut because of time restraints. Well allow me to let you in on a little secret, you have to plan ahead. That means going to the supermarket once a week with a list of items that you are going to need for the week. On Sunday prepare and cook the food you need for the next three days. So all you need do every day is take the food out of the fridge and put it in a cooler. Invest the time to put a proper nutrition strategy in place, be proactive, form long lasting habits, make it a part of your daily routine.

Now, let's talk about the breakfast situation. The word breakfast means "break-the-fast" when you awake your body is in a fasted state, primarily because during sleep the body utilizes available nutrients for repair, so you awake with no gas in the tank… empty!! What is even worse is that your body will feed on your lean muscle tissue to provide the energy it needs to function, a nasty situation called catabolism. That is why you should listen to grandma when she tells you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. The unfortunate part is that the majority of people knows this and still chooses to skip it. Your body is crying out for nutrients, so do yourself a huge favor - eat something.

What is that I hear you say? You do not have time in the mornings? Get out of bed 30 minutes earlier! Eating breakfast is going to do you better than 30 minutes of extra sleep. Invest in a good nutritious breakfast every day and your body will thank you for it.

The next issue I have to deal with when a client discusses their eating habits is the 3 meals a day theory that I myself was subjected to as a child.

Remember when your Mom used to tell you off for eating snacks between meals because it would spoil the main meal. Admittedly it was usually sweets or chocolate in those days, but even now, the three meals a day way of eating is still very prominent amongst that generation. I could talk until I am blue in the face to my parents about the benefits of eating every 2-3 hours, but it would make no difference. It is easy to digest smaller meals, your blood sugar levels remain constant throughout the day, and digesting food has a Thermic effect which raises your metabolic rate. These are all very good reasons why we should follow this eating plan. But no,"I've eaten this way all my life and I'm not going to change now", my father would remark.

Spacing your meals two to three hours apart, eating little but often, and incorporating meals consisting of lean protein, vegetables and/or fruit with some essential fats is the smart way of eating.

The very worst thing you can do is to eat next to nothing all day and then go home and have a huge dinner and sit in front of the television. Let me explain why this is a big no no. When your body goes long periods without food, your body recognizes a famine situation and will hold on to any stored body fat. The clever body thinks that there is a famine situation and therefore needs the stored fat for its survival. You need to be one step ahead of the game and not allow this to happen.

By eating a huge evening meal and just sitting in front of the TV, this food, especially starchy carbs (potato, pasta, rice, and bread), will not be utilized for energy purposes and will definitely be stored as body fat.

Here is the way I want you to start thinking: ask yourself, "What am I doing for the next 3 hours of my life?" and eat according to that answer. For example, if it is 4:00 pm and it is time for a meal and you are due to go to the gym at 5:30 pm for a killer leg work out, what would you eat? Well you are certainly going to need some carbs to fuel your work out along with some protein. A good choice would be some oatmeal with blueberries and egg whites on the side. Likewise, let us take another scenario; it is 7:00 pm and you are staying in with your spouse and watching a movie. Since you are not going to expend any energy just sitting down on the sofa, you should not eat any starchy carbs. Instead eat some fibrous carbs such as broccoli, spinach, carrots or lettuce with chicken or fish as your protein source.

Eating right takes time and effort and needs to be planned on a daily basis. I tell my clients that I can push them hard in the gym to get the most out of their workouts, but that's only half the picture. I am not with them the other 23 hours of their day, so it is up to them to put the effort into making sure that they eat right.

Sometimes I feel that I am constantly nagging my clients about eating right. This is because I can not emphasize enough how important this factor is in achieving the best possible results in adding lean muscle tissue and reducing body fat. Results speak for themselves. Hard work pays off.

If you are training hard but not putting in as much effort into your eating habits, turn it around and say to yourself, "I am going to eat perfectly for one week". And just do it. You will see the results. It is not easy, it takes an enormous amount of willpower and determination and there can be a lot of distractions out there to throw you off course, but you can stay strong and motivated! Watch the Rocky movies if you need some inspiration! This worked well for me.

Let me leave you with some handy hints on eating right:
1. Always eat breakfast
2. Eat every 2-3 hours
3. Eat lean protein at each meal
4. Eliminate junk food
5. Never starve yourself in an attempt to lose weight
6. Eat veggies and/or fruit with each meal
7. When you sit down to eat, ask yourself "What am I doing for the next 3 hours of my life?" and eat accordingly.
8. Drink a gallon of water a day
9. Always have a post work out shake 50/50 whey/carbs within 15 minutes of finishing a workout
10. One day a week reward yourself with a cheat meal (a slice of pizza or ice cream)

III. Bathroom Scales - Friend or Foe?

It has happened to us all. You are on a new diet and exercise regimen, you have stuck to it rigidly all week, you jump on the bathroom scales and yippee, you have dropped three pounds. Fantastic - everything is going to plan. Three days later you weigh yourself again only to find that you have put two pounds back on. This sends you into an emotional tailspin and all those negative thoughts start creeping back. It is as if the scales are playing with your mind and the joke is on you. This sort of frustration from the lack of progress, along with the erratic fluctuations in the readings just make you want to throw in the towel and reach for the cheesecake.

Hold on for just one moment! Do not do anything rash. Let us take a quick look at the science behind how your body loses and gains weight.

There are three types of body weight that we have to contend with; the first is water weight, and this includes the water that is held in the muscle tissue, the blood stream and your digestive tract. Then there is the bad guy - fat weight. Fat is found in the usual areas like the abdomen, thighs and buttocks, but also around the internal organs such as the heart and within the linings of your arteries and veins. Then there is the good guy - lean weight. Lean weight is everything that's left that is not fat or water, things like your muscles, bone, cartilage, etc. When you lose weight, you can either lose water, fat or lean tissue.

The very worst thing you could possibly do is to lose lean weight (muscle tissue). This will work against everything that you are trying to achieve. The loss of lean tissue will result in a slower metabolic rate - remember, big muscles burn more calories at rest than little muscles. And that is why strength training is an integral part of any diet/exercise program. Strength training will help you maintain muscle and increase bone density.

When we say that we want to lose weight what we are really saying is that we want to lose fat (the bad guy). The real kicker here is that your body wants to hold on to fat, it would rather give up lean tissue. So by skipping meals and starving yourself, you are creating a situation where your body thinks there's a famine lurking ahead and so it holds on to your body fat for all its worth. Skipping meals is not the answer; we need a steady stream of nutrients going into the body every two to three hours (six to seven meals a day). I know of many people who have gone on a diet and lost ten pounds in a week. Most of that weight would have been water, maybe even some lean tissue and probably no more than two pounds of fat.

From all of this information you can see that the good ole bathroom scales do not give you the complete picture. Fluctuations and plateaus in your weight can come down to numerous reasons. For one, if you exercise intensely, you tend to drink more water which will hydrate your muscles. This effect then causes an increase in water weight. This, believe it or not, is a good thing. The fitter you are, the more water you hold in your bloodstream. Along with that, glycogen (stored carbohydrate) holds more water in the muscle. Each gram of glycogen stores approximately 2.4 grams of water in the muscle. This explains why people on the Atkins diet lose that initial weight. It is because they have eliminated carbohydrates, which in turn depletes the glycogen stores in the muscle and hence what they lose is only the water. It is just like ringing out a sponge! But hey, the scales are showing progress - right? Wrong!! Re-adjust your mind to a different way of thinking,

Water fluctuations happen to everyone, try not to be obsessive about it. Remember the fitter you become, the more water your body retains. Increasing your water weight is a good indicator that you are about to lose fat. Let me explain this theory; when you lose fat, which takes up space in the body, the body in its infinite wisdom begins to temporarily fill that space with water until it can accommodate the change.

Most women experience a slight water weight gain just before their menstrual period. This can result in abdominal bloating. High sodium food can also result in water retention, especially monosodium glutamate.

If you see an increase in weight when you get on the scale but your clothes still feel loose, you can bet water is the reason. When you lose weight in the correct manner, the body's set of rules change and there is always a good chance that you have added lean muscle tissue and lost body fat.

Do not be held hostage to those damn scales… there are too many variables! Instead, focus on how good you feel physically, how well your clothes fit, and all of the other positives that are taking place.