FITNESS TIP By Frank Adornato
Most people consider weight loss to be a primary indicator that they are getting into better shape. To a large degree this is true. With a healthy mix of proper eating and exercise, the pounds will come off and you’ll start to look and feel better. Unfortunately what often happens is that after several weeks of steady weight loss, you may hit a plateau and the scale doesn’t change. It appears you have stopped losing weight. If this happens to you, don’t get discouraged.
One of the reasons that weight loss slows down is that some body fat has been replaced with lean muscle due to your healthy eating and especially due to exercise. And since muscle is more dense than fat, it weighs more than fat. As a result, weight loss slows down or momentarily stops. However, because of the muscular density, you will notice a loss in inches, particularly in the waist and hips.
And here’s some more good news. As you replace body fat with muscle, your basal metabolism rate increases, or put another way, your body will burn more calories at rest. What this means to you is that maintaining your weight will be a little easier. So stay on track. You’ll lose more weight in the weeks to come.
If you’re looking to trim some weight and get fit, here are a few points to consider.
• Avoid crash diets and fad diets. These are usually nothing more than a temporary fix. Rarely do people stay on these types of diets for an extended period of time and eventually when the diet ends, you go back to your old eating habits and you re-gain your weight.
• Instead of a fad diet, start a routine of healthy eating and exercise. Make that routine part of your new lifestyle. It shouldn’t be a six-month plan.” It should be your new way of life.
• Watch the quality as well as the amount of food you eat. Eat a balanced mix of healthy natural foods. Avoid processed foods and sugars. Totally eliminate hydrogenated fats.
• Exercise 30 to 60 minutes a day with a combination of cardio exercise (e.g., running, walking swimming, cycling, etc.) and resistance work (weights or stretch bands). Exercise will add lean muscle, reduce body fat and help strengthen your bones.
• Use care and judgment when you decide on a goal weight. Choosing an arbitrary weight or to be the same weight as a friend or role model, may not be your healthy target weight.
• Monitor your weight on a scale about once a week, but not more often.
• Target to lose about 1% to 2% of your body weight (two to three pounds) a week.
• Pay attention to how your clothes fit. When they get loose fitting and if you have to go down a size or two, that’s a very good indicator that you’re getting fitter.
• Focus on short term milestones. Small steps will lead to big results.