To lose weight is simple. Yes, you heard it right, it is simple. All it requires is your commitment and dedicated discipline.
NUTRITION – Physiologically, you have to burn 7000 calories to lose 1 kg or 2.2 pounds. You can lose those weight through a combination of decreasing caloric intake to a healthy level and expending calories through physical activities such as taking up an exercise program.
For example, let’s say you are consuming 2,000 calories a day, when you decrease caloric consumption by 300 calories (a small cheese burger) and burn another 200 calories through exercise a day (25 minute jog), you would be at a 500 caloric deficit.
So, just by eating 300 less calories a day and expending 200 calories a day through physical activities will result in a net of half kg lost per week. You are then losing a slightly more than a pound of fat per week. This can be done too by eating food that you enjoy! Simple as promised isn’t it?
Do eat six small meals a day. This will keep your metabolism engine humming throughout the entire day and at the same time, your body will not starve thus will not conserve too much fat. At the same time, as your body is being fed continuously the nutrients that you eat are being utilized more effectively.
WEIGHT TRAINING – Never embark weight loss without weight training because when you are on a diet or cardio (aerobics) only program, you will lose some muscle mass as well. When that happens, your metabolic rate will slow down and fat will be conserved.
You want to lose weight from body fat and not lose weight from muscles. Furthermore, your goal of being sexily attractive and desirable is also defeated because without muscle tone when weight is lost, you will only end up a smaller version of what you were before without any nice sexy curves and muscle tone.
With nice defined toned muscles and less body fat, you will gain self confidence and self esteem real fast.
As a beginner, workout three days per week on alternate days for about 45-60 minutes with weights.
Perform exercises for the entire body — doing about 2-3 sets per body part for 8-12 repetitions.
Why do you want to build muscle besides just looking gorgeous? Well, another reason is that for every pound of muscle gained, your body burn an additional of 20-40 calories per day! You burn fat even when you are sleeping! Interesting isn’t it?
Your body will feel firmer, stronger and you will see muscles building up within weeks. Weights are needed to sculpt the type of body that you desire. Just 45 minutes to an hour in the gym will do. Your body needs to recover and if you lift weight intensively, you will produce a hormone called cortisol which can destroy muscle cells after an hour or so of intensive lifting. So more is not better.
Below is a list of recommended exercises you can choose from for each body part:
Leg muscle workout — squats, lunges, leg extensions, leg curl, calf raise, stiff legged dead lifts
Chest/Pecs/Pectoral muscle workout — bench press, incline press, dumbbell fly, push-ups
Back muscle workout — dead-lifts, chin ups, pull-ups, seated row, barbell rows, pullovers
Shoulders/Deltoids/Delts muscle workout — military press, lateral raise, front raise, shrugs
Biceps muscle workout — hammer curl, dumbbell curl, barbell curl, concentration curl
Triceps muscle workout — triceps kickbacks, diamond pushups, press-downs, dips, tricep extensions
Abs/Abdominal muscle workout — bicycle crunch, basic crunch, reverse crunch, knee-ups, the plank, hanging leg raise
AEROBIC EXERCISE – Commonly called cardio workout. Perform cardio 3-4 days per week for 20 minutes. Try to stay in a range of 65- 80percent of your Maximum Heart Rate. Your maximum heart rate is 220 minus your age. In addition, change your mode of cardio every few weeks. The body is designed to adapt, so you need to change your workouts frequently.
Aerobic exercise will help rev up your metabolism (power walking, jogging, swimming and mountain biking). It works like magic when combined with weight training. Try different forms of cardio like participating in active sports. Find an activity that you enjoy!
LIFESTYLE CHANGES – When your lifestyle changes slightly, your weight loss goals will fall into place. You have to start thinking in terms of improving your health, fitness, nutrition and exercise habits.
Forget about fad diets or popping diet pills or slimming pills which usually cause drastic reduction of caloric intake. These diets are difficult to stick to and because of the massive caloric deficit, your body will go into the famine mode and conserve fats for emergency use. Your body will also cannibalize your muscles for energy and that means a slowing down of your fat burning metabolism.
You will sooner or later hit a plateau and when you are off the diet or stop taking diet and slimming pills , all your extra pounds and kilos will come right back.
Your general fitness and health will also improve day by day. It doesn’t matter whether your goal is to lose 10kg or 30kg. Once you have this “lifestyle change” habits, it will get a lot easier.
GOALS – To make your goals work, write them down! Make them measurable and realistic. For example, a short-term goal might be, “My goal is to lose 1 pound per week for the next 4 weeks.” A long-term goal might be “I will lose 20kg by ……” And then set out the steps on what you are supposed to do and do then it.
Review your goals each week to internalized them within yourself. If you experienced a setback or standstill with your goals, don’t panic and give up! Plod on! Soon you will be richly rewarded by owning an attractive and desirable body that others can only talk about!
And that’s it. Simple? Yes. But for it to work, your commitment is crucial. Gain back your confidence and self esteem now.
Chris Chew is a personal trainer for actors, male pageant winners, fashion models and other celebrities. See his websites Transform your body in 12 weeks and Personal Trainer Certification
