Weight Loss Rantings...
Greetings,
Lately I just got asked a question on a Q&A site that I volunteer for, and for some reason, I feel I get more stupid questions than good ones. Or should I say instead, more ill-informed questions.
Most of these are in relation to weight loss and more specifically, getting 'cut', in terms of looking like a model or a bodybuilder's physique. This goes the same for men or women, and more disturbingly for me, with young teenagers who are athletes and seek fat loss & muscle gain over performance improvement.
I've ranted on this issue before, mostly in my free guide, The ASAP Way, found at http://asapworkouts.com/asapway.pdf. As a current high school coach and a trainer returning to conducting training sessions soon, I have never really been a fan of shooting for weight loss goal numbers.
I know, that may sound silly, but hear me out. If I have a 220 pound young male who's in high school, and we set a weight loss goal of 40 pounds to get him down to 180, we may be setting the guy up for failure.
Why? Because now instead of focusing on overall health & performance improvements (strength increases, endurance increases, VO2 max increases, anaerobic energy system increases), we are putting the main priority on a weight scale number alone. Who's to say that with some proper training, the kid only loses 25 pounds, gets down to 195, and moves quicker than he used to, runs better, develops more endurance, and gets stronger? Is that a failure if he doesn't reach 180 as the goal? If he were to get down further & further to 180, yet lost some strength and muscle mass in the process due to extreme dieting, now we got some more issues that we wouldn't want to deal with.
I always feel that once you start training the body, you should be shooting for performance-based goals. Its what our bodies are meant to do at any level: perform in greater capacity and endurance for its imposed demands, whether they be mowing the yard, shoveling snow, playing 1-2 sports a year, or running a 5K.
I have yet to see any height/weight charts that show people that you have to fall into a certain category to perform at a certain level. (That's why I hate it when I hear from coaches that if a kid puts on 10 more pounds, they will be a better athlete. Who are we to judge? What about "if that kid works out consistently and puts in quality time into developing himself, they will be a better athlete!")
Throughout the course of training athletes & clients, I tend to track more body fat percentages in each, over the weight scale alone. Body fat percentages tell more of an answer of what's happening to the body with exercise strategies applied to it. Is the program helping the person lose body fat, and build up lean body mass (muscle mass, bone mass)? I've noticed that once people notice their body fat percent dropping, and even though the scale may be staying the same weight, they like how their body is re-shaping itself and how their body is performing better. The scale is a non-issue.
One case in point was an 18 year old female who was about to enter college for playing volleyball & basketball. She told me her friends and other people were asking her if she lost any weight. She said "no, I'm pretty much the same weight as I've always been lately." Other people could notice some definition in her arms and legs (she worked as a lifeguard during the summer, so people noticed these things pretty easily). We tested her body fat percentage, and yes, it sure dropped, but there was also an equal gain in lean body mass. If you lose 5 pounds of fat and gain 5 pounds of lean body mass, you have a zero-sum in total body weight, but a nice increase in what I call 'positive weight gain'. Positive weight gain is focused on muscle mass increases and bone density increases.
Bone density is something that's often not thought about unless you're getting into your 60's and 70's and start losing it. In today's active age, our youth today has a much greater ability to keep their bone density high throughout the years, if they stay active and keep their bodies strong & healthy. Your bones weigh something too! In today's muscle-gaining and fat-loss world, we don't often think about the framework of the body and how that is important to health in the end. Strength training and other weight-bearing activities help strengthen our inside framework, our skeletal structure. They help our bodies handle greater stresses of life as well.
So, to get back to this one question of a guy asking me how to lose 60 pounds, I will re-ask the question and say "How do you know for sure that a 60 pound weight loss will attain what you desire? Do you have a magic fortune crystal ball to give you such a vision?"
I'd say this at first:
1. Let's look at your past & current exercise history habits & structures.
2. Let's see how much available time you have to exercise.
3. Let's see if you have any restrictive health conditions that factor into your exercise programming.
4. Let's see what state your body is in right now, and test out some strength levels, some endurance levels, and body composition levels.
5. Let's setup a strategy that will train your entire body in a time efficient manner, allowing you to get in quality workouts over just pure quantity of workouts.
6. Let's set a bi-weekly testing time for body composition, to see how the program is working for you.
7. Let's go over your eating habits to see if any healthier habits can be formed.
8. Let's re-test those beginning tests in about 5-6 weeks and see how you're coming along.
Notice how none of it is fixated on a scale number. Its a progressive training strategy that takes in all those factors first before a program is designed for specific needs & intentions.
I guess that's why I get so upset with all those fitness infomercials that proclaim you can lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks and lose 2 sizes in your pants and whatever else they want to guarantee you. They don't factor in all those above situations.
All in all, I blame it on the scam artists in the fitness industry who create these false hopes & images of people magically losing weight by doing some goofy little program on a bunch of DVD's. Most of them fail to educate people on these basics. All it becomes is one big sales tactic to promise this and that, just to sell the image of fitness.
I think its why you see so many fitness package DVD's at rummage sales. My sister picked up the Power 90 program a while back at a garage sale for like $10. DVD's were still in the wrapped-up plastic. Never been opened.
She borrowed the DVD's to me and I've watched them. Not really that impressed. If you want workouts, its good for that. If you want a strategy, good look finding one.
Sorry, but I feel a majority of people who by these products will end up doing the same thing: the packages never get opened, and sold for pennies or donated to a thrift store. They got sold on the image of losing weight and getting cut, but because they didn't have the help in outlining a proper strategy to begin with, their DVD packages fail to even get cut open.
It's all about the strategy, folks. You have to line up a strategy if you want to get somewhere with your training.
Rant Over...
Coach Rick Karboviak
http://1MileNation.com
http://ASAPWorkouts.com
Lately I just got asked a question on a Q&A site that I volunteer for, and for some reason, I feel I get more stupid questions than good ones. Or should I say instead, more ill-informed questions.
Most of these are in relation to weight loss and more specifically, getting 'cut', in terms of looking like a model or a bodybuilder's physique. This goes the same for men or women, and more disturbingly for me, with young teenagers who are athletes and seek fat loss & muscle gain over performance improvement.
I've ranted on this issue before, mostly in my free guide, The ASAP Way, found at http://asapworkouts.com/asapway.pdf. As a current high school coach and a trainer returning to conducting training sessions soon, I have never really been a fan of shooting for weight loss goal numbers.
I know, that may sound silly, but hear me out. If I have a 220 pound young male who's in high school, and we set a weight loss goal of 40 pounds to get him down to 180, we may be setting the guy up for failure.
Why? Because now instead of focusing on overall health & performance improvements (strength increases, endurance increases, VO2 max increases, anaerobic energy system increases), we are putting the main priority on a weight scale number alone. Who's to say that with some proper training, the kid only loses 25 pounds, gets down to 195, and moves quicker than he used to, runs better, develops more endurance, and gets stronger? Is that a failure if he doesn't reach 180 as the goal? If he were to get down further & further to 180, yet lost some strength and muscle mass in the process due to extreme dieting, now we got some more issues that we wouldn't want to deal with.
I always feel that once you start training the body, you should be shooting for performance-based goals. Its what our bodies are meant to do at any level: perform in greater capacity and endurance for its imposed demands, whether they be mowing the yard, shoveling snow, playing 1-2 sports a year, or running a 5K.
I have yet to see any height/weight charts that show people that you have to fall into a certain category to perform at a certain level. (That's why I hate it when I hear from coaches that if a kid puts on 10 more pounds, they will be a better athlete. Who are we to judge? What about "if that kid works out consistently and puts in quality time into developing himself, they will be a better athlete!")
Throughout the course of training athletes & clients, I tend to track more body fat percentages in each, over the weight scale alone. Body fat percentages tell more of an answer of what's happening to the body with exercise strategies applied to it. Is the program helping the person lose body fat, and build up lean body mass (muscle mass, bone mass)? I've noticed that once people notice their body fat percent dropping, and even though the scale may be staying the same weight, they like how their body is re-shaping itself and how their body is performing better. The scale is a non-issue.
One case in point was an 18 year old female who was about to enter college for playing volleyball & basketball. She told me her friends and other people were asking her if she lost any weight. She said "no, I'm pretty much the same weight as I've always been lately." Other people could notice some definition in her arms and legs (she worked as a lifeguard during the summer, so people noticed these things pretty easily). We tested her body fat percentage, and yes, it sure dropped, but there was also an equal gain in lean body mass. If you lose 5 pounds of fat and gain 5 pounds of lean body mass, you have a zero-sum in total body weight, but a nice increase in what I call 'positive weight gain'. Positive weight gain is focused on muscle mass increases and bone density increases.
Bone density is something that's often not thought about unless you're getting into your 60's and 70's and start losing it. In today's active age, our youth today has a much greater ability to keep their bone density high throughout the years, if they stay active and keep their bodies strong & healthy. Your bones weigh something too! In today's muscle-gaining and fat-loss world, we don't often think about the framework of the body and how that is important to health in the end. Strength training and other weight-bearing activities help strengthen our inside framework, our skeletal structure. They help our bodies handle greater stresses of life as well.
So, to get back to this one question of a guy asking me how to lose 60 pounds, I will re-ask the question and say "How do you know for sure that a 60 pound weight loss will attain what you desire? Do you have a magic fortune crystal ball to give you such a vision?"
I'd say this at first:
1. Let's look at your past & current exercise history habits & structures.
2. Let's see how much available time you have to exercise.
3. Let's see if you have any restrictive health conditions that factor into your exercise programming.
4. Let's see what state your body is in right now, and test out some strength levels, some endurance levels, and body composition levels.
5. Let's setup a strategy that will train your entire body in a time efficient manner, allowing you to get in quality workouts over just pure quantity of workouts.
6. Let's set a bi-weekly testing time for body composition, to see how the program is working for you.
7. Let's go over your eating habits to see if any healthier habits can be formed.
8. Let's re-test those beginning tests in about 5-6 weeks and see how you're coming along.
Notice how none of it is fixated on a scale number. Its a progressive training strategy that takes in all those factors first before a program is designed for specific needs & intentions.
I guess that's why I get so upset with all those fitness infomercials that proclaim you can lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks and lose 2 sizes in your pants and whatever else they want to guarantee you. They don't factor in all those above situations.
All in all, I blame it on the scam artists in the fitness industry who create these false hopes & images of people magically losing weight by doing some goofy little program on a bunch of DVD's. Most of them fail to educate people on these basics. All it becomes is one big sales tactic to promise this and that, just to sell the image of fitness.
I think its why you see so many fitness package DVD's at rummage sales. My sister picked up the Power 90 program a while back at a garage sale for like $10. DVD's were still in the wrapped-up plastic. Never been opened.
She borrowed the DVD's to me and I've watched them. Not really that impressed. If you want workouts, its good for that. If you want a strategy, good look finding one.
Sorry, but I feel a majority of people who by these products will end up doing the same thing: the packages never get opened, and sold for pennies or donated to a thrift store. They got sold on the image of losing weight and getting cut, but because they didn't have the help in outlining a proper strategy to begin with, their DVD packages fail to even get cut open.
It's all about the strategy, folks. You have to line up a strategy if you want to get somewhere with your training.
Rant Over...
Coach Rick Karboviak
http://1MileNation.com
http://ASAPWorkouts.com
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