Biggest Reason you are NOT Losing Body Fat
It’s a Saturday.
7 a.m. the 1st week of January.
It is so crowded. I feel like I’m at Austin City Limits on day 1.
The gym is crazy busy!
Seriously, it is hopping.
AND IT’s JUST 7a.m. on a Saturday!
I’m getting ready to meet a new member (Billy – he wants to work off the holiday weight) and help him establish a new fitness routine.
He had been a new member before but, quite shockingly, had gotten busy during the holidays with family, travel, and the like.
I could understand, as I am from Louisiana and live in Austin, which means hours upon hours of travel.
All that travel is a real bear.
And when I am home I like to spend as much time with my family as possible – so I definitely “get it”.
And that is not to mention they keep a lot of calories down on Bourbon Street! Hey, us trainers like Bourgon Street once a year too 🙂
It CAN be tough.
We begin to go through our consultation. I ask him what his current fitness routine looks like.
“1 hour of cardio every day….maybe some weights, if I have time.”
Here we go again….
Calorie counting and countless hours on the ‘ol elliptical machine.
Sounds like a fool proof plan.
Too bad it isn’t quite as simple as moving more and eating less. This approach ignores the effect of hormones and weight loss leading to inevitable failure year after year.
No wonder nearly 67% of members that join in January aren’t using their memberships by April!
They aren’t getting results.
These folks are working hard, but not smart.
We burn at least 70% of our calories through our metabolism.
Approximately 20% through exercise in and of itself.
The remaining 10% is from the “thermodynamic effect of food” or in other words “what we eat”.
And that is just a calorie breakdown!
We haven’t even mentioned that muscle produces a ton a glucagon (the hormone that goes all Pac-Man on those fat cells).
In short; prioritizing steady state cardio over a progressive resistance training program is easily the biggest mistake that I see in most FAT loss routines.
Cardio has a catabolic effect on muscle. It slows down your metabolism.
Resistance training has an anabolic effect on muscle. It speeds up metabolism and the production of fat burning hormones.
To put into perspective how important your resting metabolism is to achieving effective and sustainable weight loss think about the following fact.
Even if we were to exercise 1 hour per day for 7 days a week that still leaves 161 hours that we are not exercising.
At the end of the day metabolism and hormone regulation trumps all when it comes to body fat loss.
Muscle = Metabolism + Awesome Fat Burning Hormones
If we want to work smarter and burn more fat, we must replace the vast majority of our steady state cardio time with resistance training time.
How to avoid this mistake?
Do your resistance training program before your cardio program.
This way, if you run short on time you have performed the most beneficial part of your workout.
At the end of the day you can always throw on a pair of your sweet kicks and take a run.
So no need to prioritize that.
However, you probably need a gym to perform most of the more effective weight training movements that result in body fat annihilation.
Thus, we need to plan our schedules for and around this fact.
Resistance training will have the biggest impact on your metabolism and how much body fat you lose.
Prioritize it!
I will be back soon with the second biggest mistake that I see newbies make.
“If you always do what you did, then you’ll always get what you got.” – Ronnie Coleman
Till next time,
Move Better. Look Better. Feel Better
Nathan “Nate” Stowe BS, NASM-CPT, NCSF-CPT, CES, PES, FNS
Owner/Lead Trainer/Wears all the hats
Stowe Training Systems
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