Never too Old to Lose Weight, a Client’s Progress.
The American College of Sports Medicine put out fitness guide lines for people over the age of 50. The advice: perform weight bearing exercise 2-3 times a week to condition all of the major muscle groups — arms, legs, shoulders, and trunk.
Madonna still looking strong @50
Hmm, so basically the same advice that should be given to someone half that age.
Research shows that inactivity is responsible for the majority of age associated muscle loss. This will lead to poor posture, and such things as osteoporosis. Now if you’ve been inactive for most of your life and feel it’s too late for you, fear not.
To slow, stop or even reverse some of these markers of aging, you must lift weights.
Here is an example of a 60 year old female client of mine.
|
DATE |
FAT WEIGHT |
CHANGE IN WEIGHT |
|
Aug. 30, 2009 |
80.9 |
- |
|
Sept. 25, 2009 |
73.3 |
-7.6 |
|
Oct. 26, 2009 |
67.1 |
-6.2 |
That’s a total of 13.8 pounds of fat in only 8 weeks, all without cardio and only training twice per week! (That’s what happens with proper guidance, training & effort.)
So the whole, “I’m too old” argument is officially over!
“Do not wait, the time will never be ‘just right.’- Napoleon Hill
The Payoff…
Have you ever done something strictly for the love of it? Knowing that someone may never notice or realize the effort you put in? And never expecting anything in return?
I think we all have.
And then, in that odd chance that someone does notice, and takes you aside and gives you a pat on the back, or something happens that validates what you are doing, isn’t that the greatest feeling in the world!
Well Saturday night I had that feeling.
A close friend of mine had asked me to train her for her second ever bodybuilding/fitness show.
When we started we had a mere 6 weeks to make some magic happen! It was at times an emotional 6 weeks, where we were like an old married couple wanting to scream at each other! But some how we pushed through, to the end without killing each other!
Saturday was show time. The afternoon show is where the judges really make most of their decision about who they like. So it was imperative to make a good impression.
They came out in groups of 7. My friend was last to hit the stage in her group. And she looked nervous (was it just because I know her, or was it apparent to everyone?)! Her presentation was a little off, but physically she had the all to elusive, WOW factor! She was by far the best amongst her group. Now it was a waiting game until the evening show, which was a long 3 hours away.
That's WOW factor...she looked even better in the evening!
For the evening show I was in charge of glazing her, a very important step to having ‘the look’ while on stage. This is something I had never done before.
Detailed glazing...tough job, but I'm a trooper!
Once the evening show started we heard that her category wouldn’t be on stage until 8. So another 3 hours of waiting! My first Saturday off in over a month, but I wouldn’t trade that time hanging out for the world!
Then more drama, because the show was moving slowly they changed how they wanted the girls to walk on stage, which meant we had to change our posing.
This is where I became a choreographer, a new talent I never knew I had (I’ll add that to the resume), changing her routine and her moves.
Then it was time to watch. They brought all the girls out, and lined them up like cattle, 28 in total, it was a tough field.
Then they started calling out the top 10. As I scanned her competition I knew she MUST be in the top ten. The girl who I thought had a good chance of winning it was called out in 6th. That made me nervous. If they only give her 6th did my girl not even make the top ten? Doubt was setting in. Had I failed her?
Finally they had worked their way down to the top 3. She was either in the top 3 or not in the top 10. They finally called ‘competitor number 713’ in second, she was second!
The top 3
I literally jumped out of my seat! I was so happy for her! The weight of the world felt lifted off of my shoulders, and it was replaced with a gentle pat on the back.
So proud of you girl, I appreciate your trust in me.
I Can See!
I was always behind in the fashion anyways!
As you can see from the picture my glasses are no more, because I fulfilled my dream. The dream was to one day have laser eye surgery.
And I couldn’t be happier! It’s one of things that I wish I had done years ago! 15 seconds an eye, (and the smell of burning eye), and I was seeing better!
Once you get past burning retina it isn't so bad!
The following week I was better than 20/20 in one eye, and they’re still healing! I’m hoping to see through walls once they fully heal!
Or even better….
Why you SHOULDN’T run to lose weight!
Many people start running as a means to losing weight…at least that’s what I think, because there’s no way pounding the pavement for an hour, in the rain, at 6 in the morning, can be fun!
Lets go buddy just 5 more K!
The question I’m asking, is weight loss something you want? There needs to be a distinction between weight loss and fat loss, as they are two very different things.
Weight loss can be loss of fat, muscle, bone, water. It just means your overall body weight has gone down regardless of what that weight consisted of. This is why we can’t completely rely on the scale.
From this point on I want you to think of your scale weight as two things; 1- Fat mass (FM); obviously the weight of fat on your body. And 2- lean body mass (LBM), anything that is not fat (muscle, bone, water, organs, tendons, etc.)
LBM you always want to at the very least maintain and even increase! The only time I could think of wanting to lose any LBM would be if you were retaining water, (from medications or not drinking enough water.) So now when you think of ’losing weight’ think of losing FAT weight.
Losing FM and preserving LBM is the key to looking better on the beach.
So how does this relate to running?
If you’re going to make your body go jogging on a regular basis it will do what it can to make the task easier. It does so by losing weight, notice I didn’t say fat! The majority of the weight lose comes from muscle and water.
And the problem can get worse the better runner you are and more running you do!
Think about it this way. Lets pretend you are a total beginner. You decide to start running on the treadmill for 30 minutes three times a week. At first it’s very hard you struggle, you sweat, and you burn a lot of calories. Then within a matter of weeks you’ll find that same 30 minutes isn’t very challenging, you’re body is now much more efficient at running. And even though the calories burnt display reads the same, you are now burning less calories!
Stand at the finish line of a recreational triathlon and you see plenty of competitors with love handles.
This was just a teaser stay tuned for my up coming series- “the truth about cardio! (the good the bad and the ugly)”
Is Your Morning Coffee Making You FAT!?
Are you the type of person that start the day off with a coffee to go along side your breakfast? If so you may be working against yourself when it comes to fat loss!
Coffee and cereal for breakfast is pretty much the same as eating a
chocolate bar for breakfast at least when it comes to your blood sugar
levels.
According to the study by University of Guelph researchers, blood sugar
levels in people who ate low-sugar cereal were 250 per cent higher if they
drank caffeinated coffee before or with breakfast, compared to decaf.
Research has shown that, “whether you’re a healthy individual, obese or a
Type 2 diabetic, when you ingest caffeine and then follow that with some
food that’s carbohydrate-based, for a prolonged period of time — certainly
six hours at least — your body becomes insulin resistant,” says Terry
Graham, professor of human health and nutritional sciences at the
University of Guelph.
“It’s the caffeine in the coffee that is altering your body’s sugar response,” Graham says. “It makes us resistant to insulin which in turn
makes our blood-sugar levels go higher.”
There are a few take home messages from this study.
1. Unless you are diabetic, this poses no real health problem. However if
you are trying to lose fat it IS a problem, because when insulin and blood
sugar levels are high, it means fat burning is at zero!
2. Eat protein with your breakfast. Having protein with a meal lowers
insulin spike caused by carbohydrates.
3. A bad breakfast can stay with you for up to 6+ hours! Which shows that
breakfast really is the most important meal of the day.
Here’s the link if you’d like to read the full article.
http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=dc861332-2795-47a1-baeb-bf036a3a4dc8