Where do you get your workouts? Better yet, where does your trainer get your workouts? There are plenty of sources for them out there…walk down any magazine aisle in a supermarket and you will be confronted with cover after cover of men’s and lady’s fitness, and even general interest, magazines that tout the benefits of their latest workouts for your glutes, abs, and arms. Online there are plenty of sites that you can read about and download workouts from. Continue reading
Many gyms advertise a free fitness assessment, or a free consultation. Most people see this as a thinly veiled sales pitch. And for many places, it is. Many gyms use this as a chance to get a new sales associate in-front of a vulnerable public, so they can use tried and true sales techniques to get a signature on a 24 month contract. Continue reading
How many calories should you eat in a day?
If you said 2000, you are not alone. Due to nutrition labels commonly basing their percentages on a 2000 calorie per day diet, most Americans think that this is their baseline. But we should take some time to examine the history and application of that number. Continue reading
There are plenty of foods out there that are perceived as healthy…but really don’t have too many redeeming qualities. We are going to review 3 of the biggest unhealthy “health foods” out there:
Processed food – a phrase we encounter often in the media, usually accompanied by warnings or dangers. Do you know what processed food really is? Or why you should be worried about it, or if you should be worried at all? Let’s take a closer look… Continue reading
Long after Dr. Atkins and the Low-Carb Diet have faded into the media static, the conversations about the relative benefits of carbohydrates linger. Do we eat carbs, or don’t we? Are there good carbs? Are all carbs sugars? Are all sugars carbs? Let’s try to put this one to rest. Continue reading
Belly fat typically comes in two different varieties – subcutaneous and visceral. Subcutaneous fat is the fat under your skin. This fat is distributed all over your body, and isn’t normally dangerous unless excessive quantities are present. Visceral fat surrounds the organs within the abdominal cavity. This fat in normal amounts cushions the organs and serves a protective role. High amounts of this fat have been linked to high cholesterol, high insulin, high triglycerides, high blood pressure and other problems. High amounts of belly fat are not only aesthetically bad, but especially unhealthy as well. Continue reading
One of the most common supplements in the United States is a simple multivitamin. Marketed to everyone from schoolchildren as Flintstones Chewables, to senior citizens as Centrum Silver, the multivitamin has successfully entered the American household as the most common and accepted form of nutritional supplementation. Most all of us know that we are supposed to take one a day, but do we know why? Continue reading
If you have been reading these newsletters for long enough, you have probably heard me mention the energy balance equation. More specifically: Energy in + energy out = net change. To simplify and explain: Think of the body as a big savings account. You make deposits (meals, snacks, etc) and you make withdrawals (daily activity, exercise, recreation, etc). If your goal is weight loss, you need to make more withdrawals than deposits. The idea that you must eat less to lose weight is a sound one. Portion control is emphasized by nearly all dieticians and nutritional counselors, even franchised weight loss centers like Weight Watchers. The one thing that is often left out of the lesson is the concept of quality vs. quantity. Continue reading
Spend even a little time in a gym, or fitness setting, and chances are good you have heard about “taking protein,” or consuming a protein supplement. Many lifters will swear by it, and some will look at taking a supplement as “cheating.” Most everyone could use a little more information…