I am back!

I am starting my diet again. This time for good. I was actually considering waiting for the new year, but that would probably give me an excuse to eat like crazy during Christmas. I am therefore starting today. I might actually lose some weight by the end of the year.

What was I doing for the last year?

Well… I was getting fat I weigh 225 pounds now, which is what I was when I was starting the 30 day challenge.

In fairness I think I’ve simply overdone it. 10 pounds in 30 days is quite a lot. After that effort, it was really difficult to stick to a diet and I went back to my old eating habits. A year has gone and I have regained all 10 pounds.

Luckily I  did not gain more.

The plan

No splendid plans this time. I will simply lose weight. Slowly and for good. I will give you my weight updates only monthly, so that I am not to stressed about daily changes. If each month there is a little less on the scale, I will be happy.

I am starting today

I already went running today and threw away all the sweets. I will prepare a notepad tomorrow and will start counting calories once again.

Keep your fingers crossed!

I’ll keep you posted.

Post from: Permanent Fitness

Well I’m back

This week the change on the scale was not that significant – 1.7 pounds. This small drop, however, fills the jar and this week I passed the 10 pounds mark on my path to fitness and thinness. Overall I lost 10.1 pounds in 30 days – for me this is a fantastic result.

I also think that I lost much more fat than just 10 pounds, but gained a bit of muscle as well, because my looks changed significantly.

Details

This week was not as easy as the previous one. I had some really difficult moments and on Thursday I actually exceeded my calorie intake, and instead of usual 1900 – I ate almost 3000. I decided to treat that day as my re-feed day, so will not be doing one for the next week or so.

Because of huge workload and studies I slept definitely less than I should have. This threw me out of balance with the diet and I started to feel the cravings again. Luckily, I got some good sleep on Friday and yesterday so everything is back to normal J

Exercises

I have a good routine now. I run 3 days a week and do strength training 3 days a week, leaving one day completely free.

Running

I am doing the running programme about which I wrote the other day. I am currently on week 8 (the beginning was a bit below my capability). I also modified the programme a bit, because according to my plan I want to run for 41 minutes rather than 30. So now I run 13 minutes, walk for 2 minutes, run for 13 minutes, walk for 2, then I run 11 minutes and walk home.

Push ups

On the hundred push ups programme I am currently on week 2, day 2, right hand column. Yesterday I did not make it to squeeze out the last 17 and therefore will be repeating the ‘day’ tomorrow. That’s how I do it – if I cannot complete the particular stage, I repeat it every second day until I finally succeed. Then I move to the next day.

Crunches

I do belly crunches on the same days as push ups. As of now, I am able to do one set of 30 and then, after one minute, one set of 20. After that, any further attempts end with cramps of my abdominal muscles – painful and unpleasant. I will have to come up with a better routine for these – sort of like the one with push ups, which works really well. I didn’t find anything on the web though.

Back

I have a sitting job and because of that I used to experience back pains. Two weeks ago I added back exercises to my routine. For that I use a gym ball bought some time ago by my better half. She wanted to exercise

Anyway, now I found a good use for it – I lay on it on my belly, stick my legs under our bed and exercise back muscles by lifting my torso up, so that it gets in line with my legs. I can do around 20 now.

My back pains have vanished after 3 days of these exercises. I am kicking myself now for not trying that earlier.

Enough about exercises….

Pics

As said earlier, the amount of pounds I lost is nowhere near to the progress I’ve really made. You can see that my belly almost stopped sticking out. My old trousers are really lose now (I will have to do some shopping).

What is more, my arms start showing some muscle. I really pushed myself hard on the photo, but before the challenge, I would be nowhere near that.

Despite the improved looks I still have a good layer of fat on myself. It seems to be vanishing particularly quickly form my belly, but there is still quite a lot there, a lot on my lower back where the kidneys are and on the sides. My abs are not showing yet

To be honest though, if my muscles keep growing like that, I am not sure if I will be able to go to 176lbs as I planned, but I’m not changing my goal as yet.

Summary of the challenge

To summarise, I must say that the challenge went perfect. It gave me the initial motivation I needed and I think I should be able to continue by myself from now on. I will be posting updates and pics every two weeks now, so as not to bore you with them.

But keep visiting, I will be detailing my workout routine and will be posting some tips and tricks of weight loss I’ve learned till today.

Congratulations to all contestants

I also want to congratulate other participants of the challenge. You really did a great job and your progress kept me motivated throughout the month. Special congratulations to Jim, who lost 22 pounds during these 30 days. I hope he won’t mind if I link to his photos here.

Beyond the challenge

I hope we are all now loaded with positive energy, which will help us go even further, which will help us reach our ideal weights and stay like that for good.

For those of you who have blogs, I will be visiting to check. Those of you who do not, drop me comments or if you want, I can create a separate page for us on this blog, where I can post updates on your journey to thinness. Let me know.

Good luck to everyone!!!

Matt

Post from: Permanent Fitness

Weight loss challenge – FINISH – 10.1 pounds in 30 days

Related posts:

1. Well I’m back

Apart from this group, however, there are even more of those who tried running but kept it up for only a couple of days before they quit. They never got to enjoy the benefits of regular running. There are many reasons for quitting: because of injuries, because they lost breath after just a couple of minutes and did not see absolutely any progress or simply because they ‘didn’t like running that much after all’.

Sadly, many of these people probably would have loved running, could lose weight and get really fit if they only knew how to properly start it.

Today I’m giving you the ultimate formula for a successful start of running. From now on, you’ll be able to feel what success tastes like. Today I give you…

A surefire programme to start running and love it

There is a simple and easy plan which will lead you to a level of fitness, which will allow you to run for a consecutive time of 30minutes. This is enough to fell the difference and enough to start losing weight. From there, you’ll be able to take your running to any level you want.

The programme takes 30 minutes to complete. It is easy to follow and execute. It is designed so that your body will be able to keep up with its increasing difficulty and you will see your fitness grow without the usually expected pains of running.

You should begin the programme with very short periods of running alternated with periods of walking. As time goes by, you will shorten the periods of walking and extend the running time. The exact programme looks as follows:

1. week one – run for 2 minutes, then walk for 4 minutes (repeat 5 times)
2. week two – run for 3 minutes, then walk for 3 minutes (repeat 5 times)
3. week three – run for 5 minutes, then walk for 2.5 minutes (repeat 4 times)
4. week four – run for 7 minutes, then walk for 3 minutes (repeat 3 times)
5. week five – run for 8 minutes, then walk for 2 minutes (repeat 3 times)
6. week six – run for 9 minutes, then walk for 2 minutes (repeat 3 times)
7. week seven – run for 9 minutes, then walk for 1 minutes (repeat 3 times)
8. week eight – run for 13 minutes, then walk for 2 minutes (repeat 2 times)
9. week nine – run for 14 minutes, then walk for 1 minutes (repeat 2 times)
10. week ten – run for 30 minutes !!!!

Each week you run more and walk less until on the 10th week you actually run for consecutive 30 minutes.

The programme is simple and an average person can follow it easily and work his or her way to health, fitness and well being.

Additional rules to make it even easier

Don’t run every day

This is the most common mistake among new runners – excited about their new healthy way, they try to jog every morning. The body of a new runner, however, is not ready to take such amounts of exercise. Your muscles and joints need time to regenerate after each run. Your whole body needs time to rest. If you don’t give it time to do that, you’ll feel more and more burned out and eventually your fitness level will nose dive instead of improving, or worse – you’ll end up with an injury.

For starters, the best approach is to run every second day, or even 3 times a week what allows one break of 2 consecutive days each week. I do the latter – it works for me and I don’t think I’ll be ever running more often.

If you get through the programme and want more… start increasing the time of the run. Run for 40 minutes, 50 minutes or even an hour. Once you get to an hour, you’ll be a really fit person and will probably have burned all the fat you had.

Only when you become accustomed to running long distances, if you still want to go further you may decide to run every day. I would suggest again to take it easy and on the days that used to be resting days run only for 30 minutes in the beginning and then increase the length of run over time.

Don’t exert yourself

Weight loss is most effective if you do not exert yourself to the limits. Especially in the beginning, you should run slowly. The only thing that matters is the time of run. Distance are absolutely irrelevant. Going fast is not neccessary.

Optimal intensity of cardio exercises is obtained in the moment when your heart rate is increased, breath is deep and quickened, but you are still able to talk. To describe it in a different way – as long as you’re able to inhale through your nose, exhale through your mouth and do not feel deprived of oxygen, you’re doing a good weight loss exercise. It is then that your body burns fat most effectively, because blood is able to provide sufficient amount of oxygen to the muscles.

Also if you run slower, you will not experience muscle pains and you will not get that tired. You will actually enjoy these 30 minutes.

If the programme is too hard..

If it turns out, that you cannot run even for 2 minutes, start with 1. If one is too much, start with 30 seconds or simply a fast march. As long as this is still an aerobic exercise for you – it serves its purpose. The programme is a guideline only. You can start from walking and slowly increase the pace. Sooner or later you’ll get to the point, where you’ll be able to follow the programme.

If the programme turns out too fast, take it slower. You can do each of the above sessions for two, three or four weeks before you decrease the walking time. There’s no rush – running is a life-long adventure.

Shoes

That is the only expense I encourage you to do. Running puts additional strain to your knees and ankles. Especially in the beginning, when you’re not yet used to it and when you’re fat and heavy, your joints and muscles are subject to increased pressures.

Get good sports shoes designed for running – they will save you a lot of pain.

Have fun

Running is fun. It really can be fun. If you follow the steps above, you will start to enjoy it within a couple of weeks. You will notice the improvements in your body very quickly as well. You will be more agile and will have more energy. You will not feel tired or burned out as many beginners do when they start.

If you stick to the programme above – you will really have fun watching how your fitness level increases. There is nothing that stops you now from reaching for health, fitness and a nice thin body. Go out there and enjoy it!

A surefire method to start running and love it is all yours!

This was another one from Matt for your fitness and success,

Matt

Post from: Permanent Fitness

A surefire method to start running and love it

Related posts:

1. Well I’m back

Details

At this point I am now quite accustomed to my diet. I don’t feel cravings too often, and even when I do, they’re not that strong. Despite drinking a lot of water, I don’t need to run to the bathroom every couple of minutes.

Exercising routine of running 3 times a week works perfectly – not too much, not too little. I see substantial improvement in the level of my fitness. I don’t come back home tired and do not fall asleep straight after shower. I do strength exercises regularly now. I also started the one hundred push ups programme. The pace suggested there is too quick for me though, so I don’t think I’ll be able to hit a 100 in 6 weeks – I’m aiming for 12 or so.

Re-feed

My re-feed was ok, not to healthy though. I drank some wine on the Friday night party (I managed to avoid beer), ate a proper big dinner and had some sweets. Next time, I’ll organise something better.

Calories

I am keeping my calories below 1900. I won’t be posting the graph anymore, cause they all look the same. If I change anything, I’ll let you know.

What else… oh yes – I feel great!

I feel great

I am not sure if it’s the diet or the exercises, or maybe the combination, but this week I feel so great I can hardly believe it. There are so many positive effects, I’ll actually have to list them:

I have loads of energy and enthusiasm. Getting out of bed is much easier, and I started to like my walk in the morning through the streets of Dublin. Previously, I really just wanted to get to the office.

• My attitude at work is much more positive. I go through the day like a rocket. No problem is too difficult and no workload scares me now. It’s as if I had a volcano of energy within me. Sometimes when I walk, I feel urge to run. I can work and study (I am doing some exams soon) from dusk till dawn and then when I go to bed I don’t really feel that much tired.
• I handle stress much better. Previously stress at work would disarm me, it would impair my ability to think and come up with solutions. Now I don’t even get stressed that much. If difficulties arise, I face them and deal with them.
• I have almost laser-like focus. I can concentrate and stay that way for good couple of hours, what was unthinkable before – everything would distract me. Now I get more done in less time, which also probably reduces stress of which I talked above.
• I don’t need coffee. Until now, I had to have a big mug of strong coffee after lunch. Otherwise I’d risk falling asleep and banging my head against the desk. This week, however, I drank coffee only on Monday and then on Thursday, because I didn’t sleep too much the night before. On other days, I just had a glass or two of water. I don’t feel any decline in energy after lunch.

If any of you saw ‘Wolf’ with Jack Nicholson and the transformation which he goes through – becomes strong, confident, quick – that’s how I feel – as if a giant had awaken within me, or maybe as if a heavy load was taken off my shoulders and dense fog that clouded my mind was blown away. Whatever it is, it feels fantastic and I hope it’s not going to stop. I’ll be updating you on this.

And a thank you

I want to thank all of you who support me in my journey to thinness – it really means a lot to me and helps me through harder moments. So leave comments, ask questions, give me advice – knowing you’re there gives me motivation.

Post from: Permanent Fitness

Week 3 – I kick ass!!

Related posts:

1. Well I’m back

Aerobic exercises

Aerobic exercises take their name from the fact that when we do them, our muscles produce energy in chemical processes which involve oxygen. Aerobic means ‘with oxygen’. Aerobic exercises can be characterised as exercises performed at moderate level of effort, which can be continued for extended periods of time (20-60 minutes) and involving large groups of muscles.

During these exercises, our heart is able to pump to muscles enough blood carrying sufficient amount of oxygen to produce enough energy to keep the muscles going. While aerobic exercising, after the initial period in which muscles use glycogen as their energy source, they start to burn fat.

So the thing to remember: Aerobic exercises burn fat!

I wrote more about how long these exercises should last in a post: running for weight loss. Basically, they should not be shorter that 30 minutes. Only then your organism will have a chance to burn some fat.

How do I know if my exercises are aerobic?

The easiest method to make sure that you’re performing aerobic exercise is through control of breath and heart rate. If these are both increased, but far from maximum, we’re performing aerobic workout. As soon as the heart rate starts to increase further and we begin to lose breath, we’re moving into anaerobic exercises (described below).

The best type of an aerobic exercise is the one which you can do continuously for around 30-40 minutes with increased heart rate and quickened breath, so that if you wanted to say a few sentences, you could, but at a longer speech you’d lose your breath. This level of effort ensures that we train in the peak of our aerobic abilities – oxygen flows smoothly and its amount is sufficient. But if we start talking, what interferes with breathing, our organism has to quickly switch to anaerobic exercises due to insufficient oxygen.

The above description shows why activities like sweeping, dish washing and many other around the house, do not really help to burn fat. They are better than nothing, but definitely not enough. Also choosing the stairs instead of an elevator, even though it’s good for the heart, will not make you slimmer – unless it’s the 100th floor that you want to get to

Real fat loss requires us to get up and really do cardio. I am doing it for two weeks and so far so good – I’ve lost 5 pounds

Anaerobic exercises

Anaerobic means ‘without oxygen’. Anaerobic exercises are all those during which our muscles replenish energy in processes which do not involve oxygen. These are all sorts of strength exercises aimed at development and growth of muscles. Primarily they include those exercises which involve extensive training of small groups of muscles. These will be belly crunches, push ups, lifting weights etc. During these exercises, energetic requirements of the muscles trained are huge. Blood is not able to provide sufficient amount of oxygen to enable burning fat. The body reverts to the second option, which is burning without the use of oxygen.

Fat can only be burned with involvement of oxygen, therefore during anaerobic exercises the main source of energy for the body are carbohydrates. The fat remains intact.

So does that mean that we should stop anaerobic exercises? – NO!

Anaerobic exercises help you burn fat too!

Anaerobic exercise also help you bur excess fat. Here are the reasons:

1. When you’re on a diet, your organism burns your muscles. As soon as you decrease your calorie intake below your daily need, your organism will start to look for sources to fill in the gap. It will revert to fat, but it will start burning your muscles as well. Even around 45% of weight lost can be attributed to reduction in muscles. Anaerobic exercises stimulate growth of muscles what prevents them from being burned for energy.
2. Muscles burn calories even when you sleep. Muscle tissues are one of those which need a lot of energy just to maintain existence. One pound of muscles needs around 30-50 calories every day, whereas 1 pound of fat uses only 1-3 calories. So, the bigger the muscles, the more energy your body uses just to maintain itself. Muscles help you get thinner. They will also help you remain thin when you finish the diet and will allow you to eat a little bit more.
   I know gents will like the idea – nice bicepses and abs are what each of us wants. Women are often more reluctant to build up muscles. I wouldn’t worry though – to grow big muscles women must really exercise extensively. Anaerobic exercises will probably give positive effects in form of hard bellies, straight posture, firm thighs… mhhmmmm I’m starting to dream here…..
3. Anaerobic exercises induce production of hormones. This happens also during aerobic exercises, but especially if we do strength training. After such training our bodies produce increased amounts of the growth hormone. This is very helpful for weight loss, because it suppresses productio nof insulin and induces production of glycogen, which stimulates burning of fat.

It is good to plan anaerobic exercises so that each of the major groups of muscles is exercised at least once or twice a week.

To sum up

If you want to lose weight, you should primarily focus on aerobic (cardio) exercises, but do not forget about the anaerobic ones. Both types help you lose fat and in combination they can make dreams come true.

Post from: Permanent Fitness

Why do you need 2 types of exercises to lose weight

Related posts:

1. Well I’m back

I must admit though, that after last week I expected much better results today. Anyway, I go down so at least that’s the right direction.

Detailed update

Calories

Nothing new here – I still eat around 1900 calories a day. On Sunday I was exceptionally hungry and had some fruits in the evening which took my calorie intake to 2020.

Cravings

Every once in a while I have substantial cravings for sugar. Even looking at cookies in shops makes my saliva flow. This does not happen every time. Today, for example, I was completely oblivious to the sales of cakes after the Halloween.

Anyway, so far I am hanging in there.

Re-feed

One of my friends is changing a job and on this occasion she is throwing a party to which I am invited. I live in Ireland, where these events usually take place in pubs and in pubs there is always beer. There is no chance I will be able to talk myself out of a pint or two. I decided that I will put my re-feed on hold until then. Otherwise, I’d end up with two re-feeds in one week. Beer has high Gi and will suit well enough as part of my re-feed meal. I will add some healthier food on top of that to give my body a more healthy break.

Exercising

I was running 3 times this week: Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Each time I run 3.1 miles within 41 minutes. I am getting much fitter now and do not come back home as tired as in the beginning. I think that in a week or two, I might actually be able to run for 40 minutes without breaks.

I started to focus more on resistance training. I do push ups and belly crunches every second day now. I usually do 3 series of push ups and after a while 3 series of crunches. I do not have any reasonable targets yet, so I simply try to do as much as I can.

Pics

Here are the pics. You will notice that the major reduction is in my belly. It looks as if I’d lost much more that 5 pounds. I think that the reason for this is shrinking of my stomach. At this point dinner and lunch, which are my two biggest dishes, totally fill me up.

I really feel great with my new look. My trousers are not that tight and I don’t feel that I’m carrying that heavy thing in front of me and already some of my friends noticed the improvement.

Post from: Permanent Fitness

30 day challenge – week 2 update

Related posts:

1. Well I’m back

Drinking water is essential no matter if you’re on a diet or not

1. Our organisms need water to function properly. Each one of us should drink at least half a gallon of water a day and even more than that is better. It is quite interesting that most of us don’t do it. We drink coffee, tea or other fuzzy or sweet drinks, none of which can substitute water. In fact a lot of these dehydrate us even more. Majority of people are constantly dehydrated.
2. Drinking water boost metabolism. This is quite a long one, but I’ll try to explain it in detail. If you are like one of those people I described above and do not drink too much water, your kidneys, which are responsible for collecting and removing many produces of your body from the blood, cannot work properly. In that situation their function is taken over by your liver. Your liver is reducing slack to prevent it from being toxic to you. Being busy with that, however, liver cannot perform it’s other function, which is converting fat into energy. When during your diet you start to drink water, your kidneys begin to work again and free your liver, which can focus its efforts on burning that excess fat of yours.
3. Drinking water reduces craving for food. Feeling of thirst starts to bother you only if your body fluids drop 4-5% below their optimum. Until then, you do not really feel thirsty. Quite often, however, you might get this feeling of craving for something, but its difficult to figure out what. On many of those occasions, instead of a glass of water, you’ll reach for a snack. To prevent that from happening, you should drink a little too much and a bit earlier. If you actually feel thirsty, that means it is too late – try to improve next time.
4. Drinking before eating makes you eat less. This goes especially to people who are obese, but everyone should do it. If you drink a glass or two 10 minutes before eating, your stomach fills up and already starts to send signals to the brain, saying ‘I’m full – not hungry!!’. This helps you eat slower and less. Also, there is a greater chance of actually feeling full before you eat too much.
5. Water has no calories. All other drinks have more or less calories, but water has an absolute zero. If you really want to lose weight, forget about fuzzy drinks. Coke and other stuff like that should be gone from your menu for good. But what’s more – remember about juices. If you drink them, count them in your daily calorie intake. You’d be surprised how many calories can there be in your drinks.

There you go – 5 reasons. There are more probably, but for me these are enough.

So how about you – do you drink water? How is it working for you?

Post from: Permanent Fitness

5 serious reasons to drink water for weight loss

Related posts:

1. Well I’m back

• Running is simple – you don’t need too many skills to run.
• You can run anywhere – this is particularly important. I can run whether I am home, on vacation or when I travel for work purposes.
• Running is cheap – There is almost no cheapest sport on earth. All you really need are good shoes. Any other equipment is just a luxury. Apart from the shoes, you don’t need to pay for anything to anybody.
• Running is natural – there are no awkward moves as on some of the training equipment available in gyms.
• Running is a cardio exercise - cardio exercises are best when it comes to fat loss.

How long should I run?

In order to answer that question, we have to look deeper into how energy is used during running.

Our organisms store energy in two ways:

• As fat – that is the energy we want to use. We want to burn that fat. Fat, however, is a long-term storage of energy. Our bodies keep energy in form of fat as a resource for long and significant energy deficits.
• As glycogen – this is the short-term energy storage of our bodies. Glycogen is a polysaccharide (type of sugar), which is stored mainly in muscles and liver and is the first to be burned by our bodies.

So when we run, glycogen is the first to be burned. Usually it lasts for around 20 minutes. Only after that time our bodies start to really burn fat. It is estimated that during the first 20 minutes only 20% of energy comes from fat and 80% from glycogen. After about 15-20 minutes, the proportions start to change in favour of fat. It is only then that the real fat loss takes place.

In order to lose fat, one should therefore run, or do other cardio exercises, for a consecutive time which is longer than 20 minutes – that is where the golden rule of exercising for at least 30 minutes per day comes from.

You can cheat this mechanism

Yes, yes – you can cheat this mechanism and it’s really simple. The only thing you have to do is go running in the morning, before breakfast. Your body uses glycogen as its energy resource throughout the night and in the morning its stores are significantly depleted. If you run in the morning, you start burning fat almost from the very first minute

There you are – I just gave you a quick hack to get rid of fat loss

My running update

I won’t be running in the morning as that would require getting up much too early, therefore to burn fat I decided to run for 40 minutes 2-3 times a week. This gives me 20 minutes of fat loss. So far I’m not able to run for consecutive period of 40 minutes so my ‘running’ looks as follows:

• 5min of march – quick worm up march,
• 10min of a trot,
• 5min of a march,
• 5min of a trot,
• 5 min of a march,
• 3 min of a trot,
• 7 min of march – quick in the beginning but slowly decreasing – this takes the pressure off the heart which has to pump excess blood out of my legs (this blood delivers extra oxygen to muscles during the run).

That’s my drill so far – 20 minutes of slow running and 20 minutes of walking. Not too impressive so far, however, I can average around 3 miles in that time, which I think is not bad for a start. My goal, however, is to be able to run for 40 consecutive minutes without pause. To achieve that, I’ll be reducing periods of walking and increasing periods of running within the 40 minutes.

That’s it from me for today.

So tell me now – what exercises do you do to lose weight? Do you do any at all?

Post from: Permanent Fitness

Running for weight loss

Related posts:

1. Well I’m back

The feeling I had today when I stepped on my scale was fantastic. I was really proud of myself. Actually, I still am   I can’t stop smiling when I’m writing this post. I am back on track to getting thin and fit, or better than that – I am on a highway!

Detailed update

Calories

As described in the post about energy deficit, I am staying on 65%-70% of my DCN. Throughout the week I kept my daily calories below 1900. Each day I tried to get as close to 1900 limit as possible without exceeding it. On the right you can see a detailed graph.

You may notice the dip on Thursday. This happened accidentally. I skipped a meal during the day and I completely forgot about it till late afternoon, when I found it in my bag. It was already close to midnight and I was getting ready to go to sleep, so I decided not to eat it – it would just stuff me up. I will try to avoid such situations in future. Going too low with calories has a negative impact on metabolism and impairs the weight loss process.

I had some cravings for food, especially in the beginning of the week. I was getting easily irritated and felt really hungry every once in a while. These sensations, however, were weaker each day and since Thursday or so I feel alright.

Exercising

I was running 3 times this week: Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Each time I run 3 miles within 40 minutes. The distance is good for me. In total it requires around 15 – 20 minutes of actual running, the rest is just quick walking. I am not too fit (yet) so this amount of cardio is sufficient to make me sweat.

Apart from running, I did some belly crunches and push ups – nothing spectacular. I will have to come up with a more coherent approach to anaerobic exercises, otherwise I will not build up muscles and my body will burn them instead of burning fat (I wrote about that, in the post about exercising on a diet, but didn’t really put it into action yet).

That’s the update. I feel really great and I am already getting ready to go through week two.

Any questions? If you want me to give you any other info about these updates, let me know.

Post from: Permanent Fitness

30 day challenge – update after week one

Related posts:

1. Well I’m back

When we go on a diet and reduce calorie intakes below our daily calorie needs, our organisms adjust the metabolism to match usage of energy to the amount of energy received. This way they hope to get us through to the times when there will be access to more food.

A bit of history

This pattern has been working effectively for ages. In prehistoric times, during summer, tribesman were hunting and gathering food. They had plenty to eat and their caloric intakes were optimal. But when the winter came food was scarce and hunting more difficult. Maintaining the same caloric intake was impossible. People ate less and their bodies went into a metabolic slow mode. At these times whole tribes reduced their activity – stayed more in the village by the fire, told stories,  slept much more… They didn’t even feel the need to go anywhere – they didn’t have the energy. This lasted until spring, with which came the first edible plants and more game came out to feast on the first green grass. Calories were within reach and metabolisms jump started again. Life begun again: hunting, rebuilding camps, dancing, competitions and all other energy consuming activities took part during summer.

Present times

We unfortunately are not that far in development when it comes to our bodies. When we go on a diet, our organisms don’t know, that we aim to lose fat. They think it’s something like the winter time of the ancient tribesmen, that these are tough times which they have to get us through. They react by reducing the rate of metabolism.

Will we be losing weight? Probably yes. Caloric intake at 70% of DCN is so low that we should be losing weight even despite slowing metabolisms. This, however, will be a painful and slow process. Sometimes we might just be able to lose a couple of pounds after which the arrow on our scale will stop.

Also, what is even more important, loss of weight will come in great part as a loss of muscle. Our bodies are very quick to use our muscles as a source of energy. They can burn them almost equally as fast as the fat.

I can feel the slow down myself

I am now in my 5th day of a diet and I already feel effects of reduction in the rate of my metabolism. First of all, I feel cold much more easily. Usually I would be one of those people who are never cold – now I do notice every chilly breeze, and today for the first time I put my socks on at home (Before that, I always walked bare feet).

Other symptoms may include tiredness, easy irritation, more difficulty in focusing on complex tasks. They may not be  severe, but they are noticeable.

Solution – Exercise to boost metabolism

To overcome the problem of slowing metabolism, diets should be accompanied with exercise. Exercising prevents our organisms from burning muscles and boosts metabolism, which then uses our excess fat as the energy source.

That is why in my weight loss plan I included exercising from day one. My organism will try to slow down, but I will not let this happen. I exercise regularly now. I can feel the surge of positive feeling and energy almost after each session. I am tired, but somehow, I feel more energetic – more alive

Exercising has also other positive effects. It relieves the stress that may build up when one is on a diet. If you have a day of particularly strong cravings, exercising can reduce them significantly. It can help you fight off the feeling that you want to throw it all away and simply have a doughnut or a cake.

To sum up: If you want to lose weight – do not wait – put your trainers on and go out for a trot!

So tell me – do you exercise on your diet? If not – how successful are you?

Post from: Permanent Fitness

Exercising is essential in weight loss

Related posts:

1. Well I’m back