John Gibson
Weight loss is a very simple concept once you understand the process. Unfortunately there’s a lot of information out there that can make it very confusing. Hopefully I can clear up some misconceptions with this article.
True weight loss (the type of weight loss that lasts, the type that actually melts fat, the type that doesn’t involve the latest fad) is a very simple process, but does take some effort.
Let me lay out the steps of fat loss for you. First your nutrition must be taken care of. I won’t go too deep into this topic, but if you’re eating a lot of junk food and expecting to lose weight, you got another thing comin’.
Second, your program must involve strength training, or lifting weights.
Third, you need to have some Energy System Development or cardio. I don’t like the word cardio, but that will be for another day.
Strength Training
I want to talk mostly to the women, men usually don’t have a problem with strength training, they just do it wrong.
Here’s an observation that I’ve made in the gym over the years. When a woman walks into the gym, she walks in head down, music in her ears, and beelines it to the cardio equipment, where she spends the next 2 hours running in place.
As for men they walk in with their heads up staring at the cardio equipment, trying to get that third girl from the end to notice him, but walking over to the weight room. His problem is that he looks in the mirror and notices that his chest, abs and arms aren’t looking quite like he wants them to, so he thinks to himself, “I haven’t done a chest and arms workout since yesterday, I guess I’d better do that today.”
So here’s the problem with the women’s side of things. First off what is it that most women want to accomplish when they go to work out? Usually, from my experience, they want to “lose weight” or “tone up”, but they are avoiding the very same type of exercises that will help them do that.
There was a study conducted many years ago that wanted to see which form of exercise would help people lose weight better, cardio or strength training.
So they grabbed two groups of people, the first group did about 2 hours of cardio every day for about 6 weeks. The second group lifted weights for the same 6 weeks.
What was the end result? The cardio group lost a grand total of…wait for it… 4 pounds. Not too exciting, especially when you take into consideration that they did around 60 hours of cardio in that time period!
As for the strength training group, in the end they lost… 21 pounds!!
Wait a second… I thought you had to do cardio to lose weight? How can something that “bulks” you up help you lose weight?
Let me enlighten you. First off, strength training builds and strengthens the muscles, hence the name strength training.
Muscles are a very metabolically active tissue. Meaning that the more you have of it, the higher your metabolism. I have heard it said that 1 pound of muscle burns 50 calories a day, (that isn’t exactly correct, but it is close enough to make a point.) So, for every pound of muscle you have you will burn an extra 50 calories.
Guess how many more calories you burn with every extra pound of fat… I have no idea, but it isn’t much.
“ok, so you’re telling me that I have to get big and bulky to become lean?” says the woman in the back.
NO, you don’t have to become big and bulky to get lean. But you do need to put on some muscle, aka TONE UP.
Let me explain this a little more. In the last two months I have been working with a woman that was getting ready for her wedding. When we started she had six weeks till her wedding! Not much time in my opinion, but we went at it hard.
Her program consisted of an eating plan, a very intense strength training plan, and interval training. When she first started she was afraid of the weights, but I was able to convince her to lift, and I mean lift as heavy as she could.
Here’s an example, on day one she picked up the 10 pound dumbbells and started to do a bent over row exercise. I laughed and handed her more weight, the last day we lifted before her wedding she picked up a 30 pound dumbbell.
Here were her re
sults:
You see even though she lifted very heavy, and you can ask her it was a huge struggle, she actually got smaller everywhere and toned up big time, as you can see from the pictures. There was no “bulk” put on her, she toned up very well, in fact she lost two inches off her biceps alone! Her body fat dropped like the atomic bomb, and trust me when I say her fiancé was excited. He actually was a little embarrassed that his wife was going to look better than him on the honeymoon. He ended up starting his training with me 3 weeks before the wedding.
So there you have it. When it comes to strength training, don’t hold back, lift heavy and work hard. This will give you the body the treadmill never could!
John Gibson is the owner of Do Performance and Fitness. Do Performance and Fitness provides the most effective weight loss and sports performance training in Utah. Through physical means they literally change their client’s lives. John has had the opportunity to work some of the best athletes in the world including the men’s and women’s national soccer teams, the LA Galaxy and Chivas USA, and many individual NFL, NBA, MLS, and NHL athletes. He has taken his understanding of exercise, nutrition, and motivation to apply to local Utah athletes as well as the average person looking for fitness and weight loss goals. He is quickly becoming the most sought after coach for weight loss due to the dramatic results his clients get.You can read more about John Gibson and what he does at http://www.blogger.com/www.doperformanceandfitness.com
True weight loss (the type of weight loss that lasts, the type that actually melts fat, the type that doesn’t involve the latest fad) is a very simple process, but does take some effort.
Let me lay out the steps of fat loss for you. First your nutrition must be taken care of. I won’t go too deep into this topic, but if you’re eating a lot of junk food and expecting to lose weight, you got another thing comin’.
Second, your program must involve strength training, or lifting weights.
Third, you need to have some Energy System Development or cardio. I don’t like the word cardio, but that will be for another day.
Strength Training
I want to talk mostly to the women, men usually don’t have a problem with strength training, they just do it wrong.
Here’s an observation that I’ve made in the gym over the years. When a woman walks into the gym, she walks in head down, music in her ears, and beelines it to the cardio equipment, where she spends the next 2 hours running in place.
As for men they walk in with their heads up staring at the cardio equipment, trying to get that third girl from the end to notice him, but walking over to the weight room. His problem is that he looks in the mirror and notices that his chest, abs and arms aren’t looking quite like he wants them to, so he thinks to himself, “I haven’t done a chest and arms workout since yesterday, I guess I’d better do that today.”
So here’s the problem with the women’s side of things. First off what is it that most women want to accomplish when they go to work out? Usually, from my experience, they want to “lose weight” or “tone up”, but they are avoiding the very same type of exercises that will help them do that.
There was a study conducted many years ago that wanted to see which form of exercise would help people lose weight better, cardio or strength training.
So they grabbed two groups of people, the first group did about 2 hours of cardio every day for about 6 weeks. The second group lifted weights for the same 6 weeks.
What was the end result? The cardio group lost a grand total of…wait for it… 4 pounds. Not too exciting, especially when you take into consideration that they did around 60 hours of cardio in that time period!
As for the strength training group, in the end they lost… 21 pounds!!
Wait a second… I thought you had to do cardio to lose weight? How can something that “bulks” you up help you lose weight?
Let me enlighten you. First off, strength training builds and strengthens the muscles, hence the name strength training.
Muscles are a very metabolically active tissue. Meaning that the more you have of it, the higher your metabolism. I have heard it said that 1 pound of muscle burns 50 calories a day, (that isn’t exactly correct, but it is close enough to make a point.) So, for every pound of muscle you have you will burn an extra 50 calories.
Guess how many more calories you burn with every extra pound of fat… I have no idea, but it isn’t much.
“ok, so you’re telling me that I have to get big and bulky to become lean?” says the woman in the back.
NO, you don’t have to become big and bulky to get lean. But you do need to put on some muscle, aka TONE UP.
Let me explain this a little more. In the last two months I have been working with a woman that was getting ready for her wedding. When we started she had six weeks till her wedding! Not much time in my opinion, but we went at it hard.
Her program consisted of an eating plan, a very intense strength training plan, and interval training. When she first started she was afraid of the weights, but I was able to convince her to lift, and I mean lift as heavy as she could.
Here’s an example, on day one she picked up the 10 pound dumbbells and started to do a bent over row exercise. I laughed and handed her more weight, the last day we lifted before her wedding she picked up a 30 pound dumbbell.
Here were her re
sults:You see even though she lifted very heavy, and you can ask her it was a huge struggle, she actually got smaller everywhere and toned up big time, as you can see from the pictures. There was no “bulk” put on her, she toned up very well, in fact she lost two inches off her biceps alone! Her body fat dropped like the atomic bomb, and trust me when I say her fiancé was excited. He actually was a little embarrassed that his wife was going to look better than him on the honeymoon. He ended up starting his training with me 3 weeks before the wedding.
So there you have it. When it comes to strength training, don’t hold back, lift heavy and work hard. This will give you the body the treadmill never could!
John Gibson is the owner of Do Performance and Fitness. Do Performance and Fitness provides the most effective weight loss and sports performance training in Utah. Through physical means they literally change their client’s lives. John has had the opportunity to work some of the best athletes in the world including the men’s and women’s national soccer teams, the LA Galaxy and Chivas USA, and many individual NFL, NBA, MLS, and NHL athletes. He has taken his understanding of exercise, nutrition, and motivation to apply to local Utah athletes as well as the average person looking for fitness and weight loss goals. He is quickly becoming the most sought after coach for weight loss due to the dramatic results his clients get.You can read more about John Gibson and what he does at http://www.blogger.com/www.doperformanceandfitness.com
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