Cardio Training

You need willpower and smarts to reach your fat loss and weight loss goals. If you have the desire and proper guidance, you can reach your fat loss and weight loss goals in time.


Exercise Smart

1. Tough, smart workouts are mandatory to change your body. Total body fat loss is the key to burning more fat and transforming your body. To lose weight and keep it off, you must make a major commitment to strength training. In other words, "muscle up" (not bulk up) and the fat will melt away!

Not only will your body's composition improve (less fat, more muscle), it will improve your overall health (including bone density).

Strength training should be tailored to your body type. We all have a body type due to heredity and lifestyle choices. A fitness assessment is important because a personal trainer identifies postural weaknesses and muscle imbalances. The fitness program is then tailored to fit your needs. Without this assessment, you are "shooting in the dark."

Eat Smart and Healthy

2. Help control your hunger during the day so you don't overeat when you do eat. Do this by eating small meals every 3-4 hours (never skip breakfast) to keep your metabolism ramped up.

Another way to control your hunger pangs is to eat protein with every meal. You don't need to do protein shakes...just eat the right foods. Research has proven that protein keeps blood sugar levels more steady and helps you feel fuller for a longer period (slower digestion). Protein also keeps the hunger hormone (ghrelin) in check so your hunger doesn't spike so high.

If you feel fuller for longer periods, you will eat less and you won't binge eat if your hunger pangs are "not out the roof" when you do eat. Use your eating smarts!

If high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is one of the first items listed on the food packaging label then don't eat that food! This ingredient is found in many foods and drinks.

High-fructose corn syrup is cheaper for food manufacturers than regular sugar (sucrose) so that's why you see it so much on food labels. Sugary drinks, baked goods, frozen foods and even foods like ketchup are laced with this stuff. Nutritionists point to HFCS consumption as a major player in the nation's obesity crisis (the fact that we eat it is the real problem).

Why is HFCS so deadly? Here it is: the body processes the fructose in HFCS differently than it does regular sugar. It also lowers the hormone leptin in your body. Leptin signals to your brain that you're full. It also forces the liver to kick more fat out into the bloodstream (especially true with sugary drinks because they are processed so fast)! So, your body wants more and stores more fat at the same time.

Take Care of Your Body

3. Life brings on stress. A certain amount of stress and tension helps you take on challenges and perform better. Too much stress (left unchecked) over a prolonged period is not good and it causes health problems and affects metabolism. Also, some people respond to stress better than others. One person might crumble under the same workload that causes another person to thrive.

Your body's normal state (homeostasis) is changed by stress. The hormones, adrenaline and cortisol, are secreted in response to a stressful situation. The "fight or flight" response to stress is intended to give you the energy to take on or run away from a particular situation. Stressful situations that go on for months or years signals to your body that the normal state includes excessive amounts of adrenaline and cortisol.

As it relates to metabolism, adrenaline makes the fat cells more efficient at turning fat into energy and speeds up metabolism. On the other hand, cortisol increases the amount of glucose in the blood and creates more energy. If you have an office job (and don't exercise), this excess adrenaline and cortisol builds up. Unused excess energy will be stored as fat.

Chronic stress or stress with no end in sight has major health implications. Adrenaline will continue to be secreted but the body and the fat cells will build up a tolerance to it. This means that the fat cells won't be converted to energy and cortisol will continue to increase glucose in the blood. This means the fat gain and weight gain begins to happen if left unchecked.

Life continally has stressful situations and life sometimes brings unavoidable prolonged stress. Regular exercise helps me to deal with stress and brings my body back to the true normal state (or as close as possible).

Many of you don't have the willpower to reach your fat loss and weight loss goals. There are many reasons for this. I won't play doctor here but your motivation needs to be right and realistic. Unrealistic goals (like lose 30 pounds in 10 days) can leave you mentally and physically exhausted with disappointing results.

One thing I do know: MAKE THE COMMITMENT TO HEALTH AND FITNESS BECAUSE YOU ARE WORTH IT! Focus on fat loss (transforming your body) and not weight loss.

Be sure and download your Free Bodyweight 500 Metabolic Fat Burner Workouts and start shaping your body faster!

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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