That is where the GoWear Fit came in to play.

What is a GoWear Fit

For those of you who do not know, the GoWear Fit is a devise that you wear on your arm that records the energy your body expends and calculates that as a “calorie out” value.

In other words, you wear this device around your upper arm and it measures things like heart rate, body temperature, movement, sleep, etc. to calculate the number of calories you have burned during the day.

GoWear Fit Online

To get the calorie data out of the device, you need to subscribe to the BodyMedia site – the people who sell the device. Once registered and paying the monthly fee (I bought the package with 12-months included) you can plug your GoWear into your computer and it then downloads the data to the web and reports it back to you.

As you can see from the image above, it tracks a number of things such as how long you slept, how many steps you took in the day, and of course how many calories you spent.

You will also notice that there was a place to enter the number of calories you ate in a day. As a dedicated DailyBurn user, I did not want to start using this as it has taken me months to get DailyBurn programmed the way I like it (with my foods, recipes, etc.). Luckily, the BodyMedia site allows you to simply enter a calorie number for the daily. My deficit on this particilar day was 692.

Is It Accurate

I must admit that although the GoWear Fit gives a precise number of calories burned, one never really knows how accurate it is. Unless we are using $1000+ calorie measurement tools then we may never know (I am not even sure if scientists can actually get precise measurements). However, even if we build in a 10 – 20% error factor into the numbers then we are that much closer to understanding our own personal expenditures. It is the trends that are important as opposed to the exact numbers.

Summary

Overall, I have found the GoWear to be very benefical. It has given me a solid understanding of the calories I burn in a typical day. I also can see the impact of excercise on the calorie count – every little bit helps. The best part is that I can now more precisly manage the calories in / out ratio to experiment with what leads me to the quickest and best fat loss. Combined with my body fat measurement tools, scales, etc. I feel better in control of the variables that go into fat loss.

Would I recommend the GoWear Fit? I would, at least for a period of 2 – 3 months so you can see how you measure over a period of time. Once you know your expenditure as an average, it probably will not change that much so wearing the device of years on end probably will not get you anywhere. However, I have found it invaluable in my own persoanl understanding of my own fat loss.

What it is?

The Rapid Fat Loss Diet is essentially a protein only diet that seriously limits the calories coming in. As I wrote about awhile ago, calorie restriction has been working for me and using Eat Stop Eat was a great step. This diet is essentially the next step and is really hard-core.

Called PSMF (Protein Sparing Modified Fast), it is a scientifically based approach to quick weight and fat loss. The diet has you eating a specific number of calories for your height, weight, and body mass index (all of which is calculated in the calculator that comes with the course. In the diet, you add in some fibrous vegetables and some very key supplements (magnesium, potassium, calcium, omega-3’s) to keep things moving.

Based on my category of body (the tools help you figure this out), I also have one free meal per week as well as a 5 hour structured refeed. I have not done these yet but am looking forward to doing them. There are still rules around these meals, but essentially you are looking to incorporate some more carbs in to the meals and satisfy any cravings you may have. Lyle really goes into all the details about the process so there are no questions left unanswered.

The program also incorporates a full diet break for 2-weeks, which I will discuss later.

My First Couple of Days

Today is day two and the hardest part is really the planning. It takes work to hit the protein number and add in those vegetables. If you have a protein goal of 154 grams, then you need to hit 154 grams, not 165, not 140. The most helpful tool for this has been Daily Burn.

Essentially, the night before I plan exactly what I am going to eat for the day using Daily Burn, cook up the breakfast and lunch to pack to work. For example, last night I grilled some chicken with dill and mushrooms for lunch and some scallops and spinach for breakfast (I love seafood so I could eat that for breakfast any day). Tonight for dinner I am going to have some cod and chicken with asparagus.

As you can see, the components of the diet are simple natural foods. A very very very small amount of carbs and fat are allowed. I will be eating protein almost exclusively.

I also had to head out and buy up some supplements – calcium, magnesium, and omega 3’s. Lyle recommends 10 grams of omega-3’s per day and that can add up in cost. However, once set up with all the “tools” lined up it should be pretty easy to move forward.

No Cardio but Weights are Ok

Since this is a very low calorie diet, my daily bike commutes are no longer allowed. This is really because on such low calories one has to be very careful about what extra energy expenditure one does. According to Lyle, doing too much cardio while on the diet can actually hinder results.

However, he does recommend continuing weight training and I am not going to change my plans for that at all.

How Long

I have set up a structured program that has me doing the RFL program for 3- 4 weeks at a time with 2 week full diet break. These breaks coincide with vacations I have coming up including trips to London, April break, and ultimately my cruise in May. It also coincides with this contest! Once that is done, I will go back to eating at maintenance using the Eat Stop Eat methodology.

As usual, I will be posting my results over the coming weeks and it will be very interesting to see how this program helps (or not). I have high hopes for it.

(Photo Credit)

Usually Friday nights can be a problem from a diet perspective. My wife and I like to totally kick back, order some take out and watch some TV and / or movies. We still did that, except that I ordered the small hamburger and fries and fries instead of the large one and then had one of those 100 calorie chocolate bars. Friday nights are cheat nights but I have set a goal to still enjoy the cheat meals but instead of going whole hog all night, I have a special meal and sweet snack and that is it. Based on my calorie calculations I ended up at 1376 – keep in mind this was an Eat Stop Eat day so my calorie count was supposed to be this low for the day.

Just going through my previous posts and I noticed that I have not written about my goals for the contest. Here they are:

Short Term – all by April 9, 2010

1. Weight: 137 – 143 pounds
2. BF %: 9 – 11%
3. To work through 3 full TT workouts for the 12 week program
4. To track my progress weekly with body measurements
5. To take a progress picture once every two weeks
6. To ESE twice per week (Tuesday & Friday)
7. To track my calories and eat no more than 2100 calories per day 95% of the time
8. To control my Friday night cheat by keeping the meal within my chosen calorie limits for the day

Bought another gadget today – the Tanita InnerScan Body Composition Monitor. If you want to ensure you see that post, please be sure to sign up to my RSS feed.

(Photo Credit)

I have written about the TT program before here on this blog, and how effective the workouts have been for seeing results. I decided to step things up a bit more here and entered the challenge to really push myself to seeing more results. Here are the details I posted on the forum not 10 minutes ago:

My Stats:

Age: 35
Height: 5′6″
Weight 160.5
Neck 14.5 inches
Arm 12 inches
Waist 36 inches
Hips 39 inches
Thigh 21.5 inches

The Picture

Click to Enlage

I am looking forward to the challenge and will try to post about it here as often as I can. If you are enrolled in the contest, please let me know in the comments section below.

As another side note, I ordered the BodyMedia GoWear armband to help track the calories. I have not got it yet, but as soon as I do I will run it through it’s paces. Of course, I will write about it on the blog here. If you want to ensure you see that post, please be sure to sign up to my RSS feed.

However, each and every time I tried any of these, I didn’t find I was any further ahead on my weight loss journey. Whether it was Hydroxycut or other fat burners, they never seemed to do anything. Sure I might have felt hotter or quicker on my feet, but I knew deep down that all that was was the caffeine coursing through my veins.

That being said, I still do take supplements, although I think they each fall into a specific category. One of them would be closer to a supplement than the other, and one is more of a vitamin.

Supplement #1: Creatine

I started taking creatine in October. I never did any loading phase or take it with anything special like grape juice or other high sugar drink, as is often recommended on various forums. Instead, I take it with water and at a dose of 5 grams every day.

Of course it is hard to assess if the creatine has actually had an effect or not, however just looking at my muscles in the mirror I know that I have gained slightly larger mass and definitely more definition. What I am going to do is stop taking creatine for a 2-week period starting in the 2nd or 3rd week of January and will take a picture before and after to see if there are any noticable difference.

Supplement #2: CLA

The second supplement I am taking is Conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA for short. Although like all supplements, the research is up and down on the effect of CLA on weight loss, some studies have shown that it can help. I am giving it a try at 3,200 mg of the active ingredient per day. I have to admit that I did notice some fat loss, although there is no way I could prove that it is directly from the CLA as I have been really watching calories lately. That being said, I am going to finish my bottle and then measure if there is any change in the opposite direction once I stop.

Supplement #3: Omega-3 & Multi-Vitamin

The third supplement I take very day is a combo pill – omega-3 fatty acids and a multi-vitamin. I have taken omega-3 for a long time as I believe it improves my “thinkin” ability and support my overall health. The multi-vitamin is also taken as an overall health tool, and not as a weight loss tool.

Overall, the benefits of any supplements, including daily multi-vitamins has been questioned a lot lately. The trouble I have is that it is very hard to prove whether the product is helping or if it is just the hard work you are putting into it. I am trying to keep it simple and at a minimum to save some money as well as not load up my body with a lot of chemicals.

(Photo Credit)

For example, I do not think I was ever going heavy enough to really test my muscles and force them to grow. Sure, it always felt difficult but probably was never enough. In addition, the programs I was putting together were never very scientific nor based on research. In other words, they were not targeted at getting me the results I was looking for. Instead that had me doing the traditional bicep curls, tricep extensions, and other muscle isolation exercises. These types of exercises have never provided me with much of a benefit.

Bodyweight Training and Success

This week I hit a milestone in my training. I successfully completed the first 3 phases of the Turbulence Training Bodyweight Turbulence Training 6-month program. This progressive program has taken me through a series of well-thought out and effective routines using only my own bodyweight, a stability ball, and a medicine ball (although you don’t totally need this). Next week I will be moving on to phase 4 and I can honestly say that I am starting to see some definition in my stomach. In other words, there are abs starting to peek through! I had to read that again as I wrote it because to me it is still unbelievable. I never thought I would ever be able to see abs.

Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of work to do. I still have a layer of fat that I need to get rid of. I also have some lower belly fat that seems to be very stubborn. My strategy for that is to simply continue on with calorie restriction, use Daily Burn to meticulously track my calories, and stick with the bodyweight exercise program and I suspect it will start to disappear. If the past results are any indication then this WILL happen over time. It just takes patience and hard work.

Without trying to be too pushy, if you are willing to work hard and see results then bodyweight training might be the thing that changes it all for you like it did for me.

(Photo Credit)

As I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, I have been working on a calorie restriction and find that it has been working well for me. I am not going crazy, just really watching what I am eating. Now I am going to see what impact less cardio is going to have.

The important thing to note is that I am not going to cut out my regular bike commutes to and from work. I am fortunate enough to live in an area (Stavanger, Norway) that allows me to bike 12 kms to work and 12 kms back at the end of the day. What I am going to cut out is the extra sessions I have been doing for HIIT, particularly the session I do on Saturdays.

Another change I am going to make is to make at least two of my commuting sessions HIIT sessions. Instead of just pedalling away at a constant rate as I usually do, I am going to mix it up and really mash the pedals for anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds followed by 90 seconds of my normal cadence. I think this should allow me to get the heart rate a lot higher for short periods of time and hopefully ramp up my fat loss.

The two primary benefits of doing this as I see it is that I have more free time (that extra Saturday session can be tough with a young family) and I will have more rest time for recovery. I will still do my Turbulence Training (which has been unbelievable – I am actually getting bigger biceps) three times per week for resistance training.

I will report back on this in a bout a month and let you know how it works.

(Photo Credit)

I track everything I eat 99% of the time in DailyBurn. Not everyday because I travel a lot and it can be hard on the road, but most days. I am very diligent to measure, keep track, and most importantly write down everything I eat so that I know as close as humanly possible about the number of calories that are going into my body. It was a lot of work at first, but over time it has become much easier and I now have routines and even specific meals that I eat to (more on that in another post) keep the calorie tracking as easy as possible. I have found that it is all about routines 99% of the time and the results will come.

Can I show you some of the evidence of the results? Sure. Here are two pictures – one from February 2008 and one from this past weekend (November 7, 2009). As you can see I am proud to show that I am down significantly in weight and my primary focus has been on eating a much lower number of calories.

Don’t get me wrong, the exercise has been important – especially the body weight exercises I have been doing. I have definitely noticed that I am much more muscular than I have ever been. I am in phase 3 of the 6-month Turbulence Training by Craig Ballantyne. This bodyweight-only exercise program has been kicking my ass.

That being said, I spend most of my energy keeping my calories low. I am not a tall guy (5′ 6) and with my current weight of 148 pounds I have found that keeping my caloric intake to about 1200 – 1500 calories has been working to continue to lose weight. The important thing I have learned is that I do not need as much food as I thought I did. I am still putting on muscle with much less food. I also have been eating less carbs, although that has not been the focus of the diet. I do attribute that habit to helping me not feel hungry very often as I strongly believe from personal experience that the more carbs (breads, etc) I eat the hungrier I get.

As I reflect on it, like many others I believe that losing weight was a complex thing of managing proteins, carbs, and fats and then killing myself in the gym. I thought that was the only way to get results. It is much more simple than that – just keep the calories lower and the results will come.

There is a good podcast available now over at the Adonis Lifestyle Blog about how many calories you need if you want to learn more about watching what you eat.

(Photo Credit)

About 1.5 years ago I moved from Canada to Norway on an expatriate assignment with my employer, and have been able to enjoy the benefits of riding my mountain bike to and from work every day. It is a 24 kilometer round trip and takes a combined total of about 60 – 65 minutes. Even with a pretty diligent running program as well, I was only able to take my weight down from around 200 pounds (I didn’t actually measure because I was in denial) to 170 pounds. This weight dropped really quickly, but I was not able to break that 170 pound barrier. I realised that I had to do something different to break that “plateau”.

Using blogs like the ones mentioned above, it was clear that what is more important than all the cardio and exercise in the world was the food I put in my stomach. More importantly, it was all about calories and keeping them LOW. In fact, I have been able to cut about 10 pounds since realizing how important calories are to the weight loss and fitness equation.

Being the digitally focused guy that I am, I knew I needed to find a tool that would help me keep track of those calories electronically. At first I was using an iPhone app called Tap & Track. It was doing the job, especially because it was the only iPhone app I found that didn’t require a Wi-Fi connection to get food details. However, over time it was clear that the app was not enough as I wanted more functionality in the tracking of my food intake.

In early March, even before I seriously started tracking calories I signed up for a site called Gyminee. I used it only to try it and keep track of my biking and running progress. I gave up using it because it was really not doing anything for me at that time. As I realised that Tap and Track was not working as well as I wanted, I remembered Gyminee and reading somewhere that they had changed their name to Daily Burn and had also started to include nutritional tracking. This has been a godsend and has allowed me to diligently and accurately track exactly how many calories, carbs, and proteins I consume each and every day. The overall results have been very positive. Here is a chart from Daily Burn that shows my progress:

Here is some details on how the nutrition details I track look. In my opinion, the best part is that I can set limits (high and low) and the system alerts me to when I am in our outside of this limits. The only way to really know how much you eat is to really track it. How I track it will be a topic of another post.

I also have the companion app on my iTouch so I am able to be mobile with the tracking. So far so good on this weight loss digital tool. I will continue to let you know how it goes.

While this particular article had good intentions, I don’t think cardio (especially walking) is an effective tool for weight loss. Consider this, if you are of average weight, you would have to walk 5 miles to burn an extra 500 calories a day. Even at a fairly fast pace, it would take you about an hour to walk 5 miles. That’s a lot of work just to burn 500 calories.

If you kept your calorie intake exactly the same over the course of the week, and managed to walk for an extra hour a day at a fairly fast pace, you may be able to burn of an extra pound of fat per week.

This is assuming that the amount of calories you eat over the course of a week is EXACTLY equal to the amount you need to stay at your current weight. If you were overeating even slightly during this week, then the extra walking would have even less of an effect.

7 hours of exercise for a maximum of 1 pound of fat loss is not a very efficient use of anyone’s time! And, while walking 7 days a week may be possible now, think about what it might feel like during the winter months!

This is why I believe that eating for weight loss and even using short-term fasting for weight loss is much more effective than trying to ’sweat off’ the pounds.

With the proper nutrition plan reducing the amount of calories you eat by 500 calories can be almost effortless.

I have found that the very best, most efficient way to lose weight is to combine a solid weight loss nutrition program with a resistance training program. The nutrition program helps you lose weight by creating a caloric deficit and the resistance training preserves your muscle mass and metabolic rate.

Once you have these two “pillars” in place then you can sprinkle in a little bit of extra walking, but think of this as more of a recovery exercise that helps you clear your mind and de-stress (with a bonus of being able to help burn some calories), rather than counting on it to really make ‘you shed the pounds.’

Brad Pilon strength training and nutrition professional and is the author of Eat Stop Eat.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brad_Pilon