In part five of our series we will now touch on how the wrong cardio can stop you from losing fat.
 
I know this might get some people fired up, but that’s alright.  After all, this is the Hype-free,
Fad free zone, so you need to know the truth.  Sometimes the truth that challenges traditional
thinking gets push back, but my jobs to get you results.

If you want to lose fat, cardiovascular exercise is part of what we call the FT Essentials:
resistance training, moderate aerobic exercise, supportive nutrition and accountability/support
system.  Think of it like a four legged chair.  If one legs missing the chair falls over.  Hopefully
without you in it!

Cardiovascular exercise doesn’t mean you have to run or be on a treadmill.  It means we have to
elevate your respiration and heart rate.  There are endless ways to do this.  Your body doesn’t
know the difference between chopping firewood and going for a run.

The key is many people have a misconception that more is better and that aerobic exercise is the
key to losing fat.  I’m here to tell you it’s not.

Oh boy, I can imagine the remarks going on in some people’s heads now!   But stick with me, today
may be the day you end your fat loss frustration and the painful, long and boring cardio forever.
Part of the reason for this myth and misconception is what people see on the cardio equipment
dashboard.  You will often see a chart explaining the “Fat Burning Zone”.  It gives you the
impression that if you stay within a certain heart rate zone you will burn fat, but if you’re out
of this zone you won’t.  

Often it’s explained that you have to stay within an aerobic state to use more fat for energy.  
You will have some inexperienced trainers explain that you should maintain a conversational pace to
stay within this zone.  This means you should be able to hold a conversation while doing aerobic
exercise.

I debunk this entire misrepresentation in another blog I wrote on May 12th called the Fat Burning Zone,
so I won’t go into length about it here.

The reality is that you do use more fat for energy in this aerobic state described on the cardio
machines, but I’m not concerned with how much fat you use for energy during a given amount of time. 
It doesn’t mean it’s the most effective to lose overall fat and get you to your long range goals. 
I’m also not concerned just about the amount of calories you burn during this time.  Although the
method I will suggest in a moment can equal the same amount of calories burned in a shorter period
of time.

Most importantly, I’m interested in the hormonal responses I can create from exercise to send the
right signals to the body to release fat for fuel.  Here’s the kicker.  I’m more interested in what
happens to your body after you’re DONE with a cardio workout, then while you’re working out. 

If you would do high-intensity cardio or what we often call interval training.  It’s the most
effective way to release and burn fat for fuel because it’s the post exercise responses created by
this method.  Interval training stimulates the central nervous system to release growth hormone.  
If you read my previous blog posts in the series I wrote about hormonal responses and the effects on
fat release for energy you now know how important creating the right hormonal environment is to losing
fat. Specifically, interval training will stimulate adrenalin and noradrenalin.  It drives the good
guys to go to the cells to open them up and use fat as fuel.   If you want to not only burn fat during
exercise,but throughout the day, you will want to do interval training.   In addition, you will have
raised your metabolic rate for a longer period after you’re done exercising.  The good news is interval
training is often done in half the time, so it’s a double win for the busy person.

If you're still skeptical, see the results our Fitness Together Transformation contestants are getting
and specifically listen to Michael Long explain how he was surprise how 25 minutes of cardio has helped
him lose over 60 pounds: www.FitnessTogether.net 

I do want to say, I’m not bashing regular lower intensity cardiovascular exercise because you can’t do
interval training every day.  It has its place in your overall exercise plan.  In fact, I don’t
recommend doing interval training more than 3 times per week.  Therefore, two other times per week you
can do low intensity cardiovascular exercise, but you don’t need to do more than 30 minutes if you apply
a balanced approach to your overall fitness and nutrition plan like we do with the FT Essentials.  This
balanced approach is not only physiologically more beneficial to achieving your goals, but psychologically
more stimulating.

From an exercise prescription standpoint, know that high intensity cardio is always going to be better
than lower intensity steady state cardio.  Also know that you have to progressively build up to interval
training.  You don’t want to just jump into a program that is too intense for your ability level or you
won’t enjoy yourself.   When working with our clients we always use progress exercise prescription
principles.  It allows the client to work at their ability level and often exceed what they thought they
ever could do because we progressively increase the challenge as their fitness level increases.  Our
comprehensive health and fitness assessments allow us to specifically target heart rates to the client
ensuring a perfect cardiovascular prescription and intensity. 

Please do not think because it’s often call high intensity interval training that you cannot do it unless
you’re in great shape.  High intensity is relative to the individual and why appropriate exercise
prescriptions are important. 

You can read a previous blog I wrote to get more details on what interval training is and additional
recommendations. It was written on March 20th and call Chuch Saves The Day.

Thank you for allowing me to guide you through the health and fitness maze.

In good health,

Pete Piranio BS, CSCS
Owner/Fitness Consultant
Fitness Together
Brookfield: 262.780.6350
Delafield: 262.646.5444
Wauwatosa: 414.453.9800
Woodbury,MN: 651.436.8137
www.FitnessTogether.net

P.S. If you would like to learn more about our services you can schedule a complimentary introductory session
and consultation or request our DVD and information guide at our website:  www.FitnessTogether.net

Today we will be continuing our discussion on why you may be eating healthy
and exercising, but still not losing weight. 

There is nothing worse than seeing the frustration on someones face that
feels like they are doing everything right, but just can't shed the weight. 
I've consulted with hundreds of clients and this always hits you right in the
heart.

The hardest part for us is knowing that we have a psychological battle on our
hands with a client in this situation.  We also know that the clock starts
ticking to win this battle before they consider us another failed attempt.

The fact is everyone (except for rare instances) can achieve a healthy
weight if they are committed to it. You have to truly commit to making
changes in your life.  Sometimes the changes you have to make don't always
fit into the exercise and nutrition category alone, as you have been learning
in this series. Today, we will discuss hormonal imbalances as one more example.

Before we dive into hormonal balances I want to discuss a very important
point that is a critical piece to the fitness and fat loss puzzle. It's
critical because without understanding this point, you may never get a chance
to put all the pieces to the puzzle together.

You have to accept that making health, fitness and weight loss changes may not
come easy.  You have to accept that it's a process and the process may have
many ups and downs. The right methods and approach will make it easier, but
there is no silver bullet.

If you read one of our Fitness Together Transformation contestant's blog
entries on May 16th, you will see a perfect example of how easy it is to get
frustrated, lose focus and potentially derail yourself for good. I'm happy to
say Jason Fritz stayed mentally tough long enough to start seeing terrific
results. These results have fueled his fire ever since and now he's on a roll.
Unfortunately, some people give up before they experience success. Read Jason's
May 16th post here: http://jasonfritz-ftc.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html

If you can understand it is a process and for many, this process is not
"quick and easy", you are much more likely to stick with it.  You are much more
likely to put all the pieces together.  You are much more likely to get the 8
Reasons in this series right.

If you have gained the knowledge to put together the right fitness and weight
loss plan, you must trust your plan and avoid the gimmick temptations.  This
is what we asked our Fitness Together Transformation contestants to do and
they are getting terrific results (http://www.fitnesstogether.net). I'm sure
contestant Michael Long was skeptical when he discovered he was only going to
do 20-25 minutes of cardio, but after losing 60 plus pounds lost later I'm
sure he's not. 

We live in America and culturally we want everything fast, so let me reassure
you can still have ups and downs in the process and achieve quick results. 
Jason Fritz had a few mental ups and downs, but he also lost 20 pounds in less
than three months. Heck, there are a lot of people that would be very happy!

Here is another example, a month and a half ago I had a phone conversation with
a client that was frustrated because she was not losing weight, but felt like
she was doing everything right.  Understandably, she wanted to vent some
frustrations and I was going to be on the receiving end.  She had stated that
our web site said we never fail and she obviously felt like we did.  I responded
by stating we never do. We will never give up until we are successful with the
client. We weren't giving up on her either. The question was she going to give
up?  Was she going to commit to making the necessary changes?  Was she going
to accept responsibility or blame someone or something else?

We know our methods are scientifically based and proven to be successful and
we have hundreds case studies to prove it.  In each and every one of our success
stories we were able to help the client not only learn what has to be done, but
commit and take responsibility for making the changes necessary.  Sometimes
these changes were easy and results came quickly and other times it's tough
like the aforementioned example.

I am happy to report that this client did accept responsibility, made the
recommended changes and has since lost 30 pounds!

The moral of this story is there are reasons for your struggles.  It's very
rare that someone is genetically "stuck" with being obese.  Very rare!  I don't
care what you read in a magazine or see on TV.  You just have to be willing to
stick with it long enough to get all the pieces working together and to find
what's missing in your fat loss formula.

Let's look at hormonal imbalances as one possible problem in the fat loss equation:

I've been writing a lot about this in the other posts for good reason.  Many
of the exercise and nutrition strategies and techniques I've previously
discussed are to create the right hormonal response to release fat for fuel. 
You can have one hormonal imbalance and do a lot of work for nothing.  Even one 
imbalance can be the missing piece to the puzzle.

Over the years I discovered hormonal imbalances to be one of the biggest reasons
people were not losing fat, even if they truly were doing just about everything
else right.  I've found that if people are hitting a plateau we just need to dig
a little deeper to find out why, rather than, make drastic changes.

I've seen people drastically cut calories or start excessively exercising when
they are stuck on this plateau, when really they needed to find the real culprit.

The best way to make sure your hormones are not the culprit is to see a medical
specialist.  We typically recommend our clients see a physician for testing of
hormonal imbalances and metabolic diseases if every other possibility has been
exhausted.  They can either discuss this with their physician or see a few of our
recommended physicians who specialize in this area.

The four key areas to ensure are normal are:
1. Thyroid levels
2. Insulin
3. Cortisol
4. Testosterone and Estrogen

In the previous post in this series we have discussed how Thyroid levels
significantly affect your metabolic rate and caloric expenditure.  We also discussed
the importance of stabilizing insulin to optimize the release of fat as fuel. 
Insulin resistance can have a dramatic impact on your ability to lose fat because
the body continues to secrete higher and higher levels if the cells are not
accepting insulin. This ultimately creates an environment that will increase
calories store as fat.

In earlier posts we discussed how cortisol levels can be increased with stress
and poor sleep because the body perceives the lack of sleep as stress. You can also
have high cortisol levels even if you get adequate sleep and handle stress properly.

Lastly, low levels of testosterone in men and low levels of estrogen in women will
increase a person's fat storing.  Women can often experience weight gain when
entering menopause because of drops in estrogen.

Understanding that any imbalance in these hormones can make fat loss very difficult
even with the best exercise and nutrition plan can save you a lot of frustration. 
We work with our clients to create an optimal hormonal environment with an exercise
and nutrition plan first, but if progress is at a standstill we often work with
medical professionals to find if this is the missing pieces.  If you have the right
exercise and nutrition plan that will naturally create the right hormonal balance for
fat loss and have hit a plateau you may want to do the same.

Thank you for allowing me to guide you through the health and fitness maze.

In good health,

Pete Piranio BS, CSCS
Owner/Fitness Consultant
Fitness Together
www.FitnessTogether.net
Brookfield: 262.780.6350
Delafield: 262.646.5444
Wauwatosa: 414-453-9800
Woodbury,MN: 651-436-8137

P.S. If you would like to learn more about our services you can schedule a complimentary
introductory session and consultation or request our DVD and information guide at our
website:  www.FitnessTogether.net