Fitness Myth #1 – As you age you gain fat.
There’s a common myth that as you age gaining fat becomes unavoidable. This simply isn’t true – the reason you gain fat is because your metabolism has slowed down due to a lack of exercise and bad diet choices. Most people think that gaining weight and getting older go hand in hand, but the reason we gain weight isn’t just about getting older, it’s about how our habits change. Many of us gain weight because we:

• Become more sedentary
• Don’t lift weights to maintain muscle mass
• Eat more calories even as metabolism slows down

While there are some elements we can’t control, most of the weight gain that comes with aging can be avoided with a little exercise. The main reason for muscle loss (which lowers metabolism) is that we often spend way too much sitting – we sit at work, we sit when we watch TV and we sit when we play around on the computer. If we spend too much time doing that when we’re younger, it’s that much harder to stop doing that when we get older. It follows that being active (and lifting weights) will help preserve your muscle and increase your bone density while maintaining a higher metabolism. Here is a basic approach to staying or getting fit.

Staying Active Is The Best Way To Keep The Weight Off!

• Cardio Exercise: Choose any activity you enjoy (or think you might enjoy with some practice) like swimming, walking or cycling and try to do that activity at least 3 days a week. Start with what you can handle and gradually add time each week until you can do 30 minutes of continuous activity. Even a casual game or tennis our round of golf is a great way to get some extra cardio in!
• Lift weights: Strength training may be one of the most important parts of your exercise program. You’ll build muscle and strength while also working on important areas like balance, stability and flexibility – all things that tend to decline with age.  Ladies, DO NOT worry about bulking up. I promise it won’t happen and that’s something we will be going over in the coming weeks.
• Watch Your Eating Habits:  One of the most important things to watch for is your portion sizes when eating. As you age, you don’t need as much food as you did when you were young and developing. In most cases, people eat just as much as they did when they were younger (if not more!) and this leads to weight gain.
• Be realistic. As you get older, the body starts to because less responsive due to a slower metabolism and lower hormonal levels. As a result it will take longer to lose weight and improve muscle tone, so consistency is the key – getting your workouts in and eating as healthfully as possible. Do that and your body will respond in its own time.

If you find it hard to start or stick with an exercise program, motivate yourself by remembering what you do for your health when you exercise: you feel better, you look better, you reduce your chances of heart disease and diabetes and, best of all, you’re doing what your body was meant for: moving around.  If you need help to get started, feel from to fill out the consult form  on our webpage to see how we can help you!

So how on earth does this happen? How can I eat more and lose weight?

Too often we associate dieting with drastically dropping our calories but any smart person knows starvation diets never work. In fact, anyone that has tried one just ends up weighing more than they did before starting the diet. Let me explain.

Our body’s big food processing furnace is called the metabolism and if we starve ourselves, our metabolism shuts down and goes into what I call survival mode. You probably hear the word metabolism all the time but do you really know what it is/means/does?

Our metabolism is the amount of energy (calories) your body burns to maintain itself. Whether you are eating, drinking, sleeping, cleaning etc… your body is constantly burning calories to keep you going. Basically, the higher your metabolism, the more calories you burn per day. Those stick thin people who eat junk food all day have a VERY fast metabolism whereas those who put on weight just by looking at that donut have a very slow metabolism. Along with factors such as body composition (the more muscle you have, the higher it is), the way you fuel your body effects the rate of your metabolism.

As stated before, if you starve yourself your metabolism shuts down goes into starvation mode. Instead efficiently using and burning the calories we put into it, the body begins to hold onto every skerrick of food that we eat as it doesn’t know when it might be lucky enough to be fed again! This creates a world of problems as the next time you binge (and you know you will), the body will be unable to efficiently process the food and will be stored as fat.

Make Sure Your Metabolism Is Firing On All Cylinders By Eating More Frequently!

Instead, we should be eating 5-7 small meals a day which continually stokes our fat burning furnace (aka metabolism).These meals will probably end up being more food than you are eating right now. By eating these small meals throughout the day, it’s basically sending a message to our metabolism that says “hey buddy, I’m feeding you regularly so there’s no need worry about starving, just keep burning it away for energy!”. As a result we get to eat more, have more energy and believe it or not, lose weight!

Now obviously you should still be exercising and putting all those calories to good use. If you are not sure exactly how much you should be eating and when you should be eating it, we strongly suggest you looking into one of our nutrition coaching packages. So many of our clients say that they are eating wayyyy more than they were but feel amazing. We love showing people that they are allowed to eat the foods they love and shouldn’t feel guilty as long as they exercise appropriately.

CLICK HERE TO ASK US HOW WE CAN HELP YOU

Do you think its beneficial to run on an empty stomach? Does it burn more fat and fire up the metabolism to skip breakfast?

NO! This is a long held fitness and weight loss myth. While it seems like it should be true, that if you have no food to fuel your body, your body will burn fat straight away, but this is not true.

Make sure to fuel up in the morning for maximum fat burning effect!

Here’s Just a quick explanation of how it all works. The main fuel of your body during exercise is glycogen, which is carbs that have been broken down and stored in the liver and the muscles – but you cannot store much. After sleeping, your glycogen stores in your liver are depleted by as much as 80 percent. When you wake up and begin exercising, once you have burned through all the stored glycogen your body begins to use muscle tissue to fuel your movements. This is by some evolutionary trick, since muscle takes more energy to preserve and fuel compared to fat, the body uses it for fuel to create less of an energy need. So by exercising on an empty stomach you could be actually losing muscle.

If you are planning on working out, doing cardio or strength training, you MUST eat something before you do! Carbs preferably. A banana is a great option! I do understand that some of you don’t like eating breakfast, but I can’t stress to you enough how important it is that you do. You can’t run a car on an empty tank, it’s exactly the same as a person. We need our fuel so we can work to the best of our ability. Something as small as a banana or even a piece of toast in the morning before a workout can make a world of difference, and you will be able to push yourself that much more without flaking out.  Too many clients are training on empty stomachs which are leading to dizziness, not being able to finish a whole training sessions and in turn their fitness is not improving.

I never used to eat breakfast, but now I seriously cannot start the day without a huge breakfast! It is my favourite meal for the day. I know your always hearing people say “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”, but it actually is the most important meal! I really believe this!

So please guys start your day off healthy with a bite to eat and plenty of water before you start your training, it won’t take long to get in the habit of having breakfast every morning before your session, in no time you won’t even think about having to eat breakfast, it will just be part of your morning routine and you will be thinking “How did I ever skip this amazing meal each day?”

• Your friend has an obsession with weight and food (more than general comments about how many calories he or she eats in a day). It might seem like your friend talks about food, weight and being thin and nothing else.

• Your friend knows exactly how many calories and fat grams are in everything that he or she eats — and is constantly pointing this out.

• Your friend feels the need to exercise all the time, even when sick or exhausted.

• Your friend avoids hanging out with you and other friends during meals. For example, he or she avoids the school cafeteria at lunch or the coffee shop or diner where you usually meet on weekends.

• Your friend starts to wear big or baggy clothes. Lots of people wear baggy clothes as a fashion statement, but someone who wears baggy clothes to hide their shape might have other issues.

• Your friend goes on dramatic or very restrictive diets, cuts food into tiny pieces, moves food around on the plate instead of eating it, and is very precise about how food is arranged on the plate.

• Your friend seems to compete with others about how little they eat. If a friend proudly tells you she only had a diet soda for breakfast and half an apple for lunch, it’s a red flag that she could be developing an eating disorder.

• Your friend goes to the bathroom a lot, especially right after meals, or you’ve heard your friend vomiting after eating.

• Despite losing a lot of weight, your friend always talks about how fat he or she is.

• Your friend appears to be gaining a lot of weight even though you never see him or her eat (people with bulimia often only eat diet food in front of their friends).

• Your friend is very defensive or sensitive about his or her weight loss or eating habits.

• Your friend buys or takes laxatives, steroids, or diet pills.

• Your friend has a tendency to faint, bruises easily, is very pale, or starts complaining of being cold more than usual (cold intolerance can be a symptom of being underweight).

What to Do

If a friend has these symptoms and you’re concerned, the first thing to do might be to talk to your friend, privately, about what you’ve noticed. Tell your friend that you’re worried. Be as gentle as possible, and try to really listen to and be supportive of your friend and what he or she is going through.

It’s normal for people with eating disorder to feel guarded and private about their eating problems. Try not to get angry or frustrated. Remind your friend that you care.

People with eating disorders often have trouble admitting — even to themselves — that they have a problem. Trying to help someone who doesn’t think he or she needs help can be hard. Many people feel successful and in control when they become thin, but those with eating disorders can become seriously ill and even die. If your friend is willing to seek help, offer to go with him or her to see a counselor or a medical expert.

If your concerns increase and your friend still seems to be in denial, talk to your parents, the school guidance counselor or nurse, or even your friend’s parents. This isn’t easy to do because it can feel like betraying a friend. But it’s often necessary to get a friend the help he or she needs.

Eating disorders can be caused by — and lead to — complicated physical and psychological illnesses. You can support your friend by learning as much as you can about eating disorders. Your friend’s body image and behavior may be a symptom of something else that’s going on. Many organizations, books, websites, hotlines, or other resources are devoted to helping people who are battling eating disorders.

Being a supportive friend also means learning how to behave around someone with an eating disorder. Here are some ways to support a friend who is battling an eating problem:

• Try your best not to talk about food, weight, diets, or body shape (yours, your friend’s, or even a popular celebrity’s).
• Try not to be too watchful of your friend’s eating habits, food amounts, and choices.
• Try not to make statements like, “If you’d just eat (or stop working out so much), you’ll get better.”
• Focus on your friend’s strengths — that he or she has a great smile, is helpful and friendly, or good at math or art.
• Try to avoid focusing on how your friend looks physically.

Most important, remind your friend that you’re there no matter what. You want to help him or her get healthy again. Sometimes you’d be surprised how asking simple questions such as “what can I do to help?” or “what would make you feel better?” can lead to a great conversation about how you can help your friend heal.

Source: http://kidshealth.org