The Scales Can Lie – How You Can Be Normal Weight, Yet Obese

After 40 years, medical research has finally caught up with the fitness industry (well, the few competent folks in the fitness industry) when it comes to scale weight.  The “shocking” new news made it a big splash in The Wall Street Journal is that “you can be normal weight and fat at the same time.”  The “amazing” discovery is that, low and behold, scale weight is not the be all and end all after all.

However the people that did this study caution that “the findings [that body fat % is as important or more important than scale weight] need to be validated with additional research.”

Well, while they take 10 years and $100 million to do additional research here’s how you can apply this NOW for FREE.

#1.  Ignore traditional advice

It takes a lot of time to do and it sucks when it comes to results.  Case in point – the Women’s Health Initiative 2006:  The experimental group reduced their saturated fat and cholesterol intake and cut their overall caloric intake by an average of 360 calories per day for 8 whole years.

Let’s do the math on that to see how many pounds that they should have lost if the whole “calories in vs. calories out” thing worked in the human body:

360calories/day x 7days/week x 52 weeks/yr = 131,040 calories (food calories, so, technically, that’s kilocalories).

A pound of fat has 3,500 calories.  So, they should have lost 37.4 pounds per year.

However, on average they lost about 2 pounds.  BUT, and this is particularly apropos to the article, they GAINED in waist circumference!  In other words they got fatter at a slightly lower weight.

#2.  Measure what matters

What matters most is what your body is composed of – body composition.  How much of you is fat and how much of you is lean?  This determines how you look naked.

It is entirely possible for a woman to drop 2 sizes (i.e. 8 to a 4) but to only drop 5lbs on the scale.  If she were to just go by the scale, then the 3 months that it took to achieve this would seem like a waste – only 5 pounds in 3 months!  But, if she looked at herself in the mirror she would say, “wow!  No more cellulite!”  And if she looked at how her clothes fit, she’d notice that her pants don’t stay up.  (By that I mean that her pants are too big for her now.  What were you thinking?)

It’s possible for a man to gain weight while loses body-fat.  If you just went by the scale, you would say that he failed – he gained weight.  But if you looked at him in the mirror, you’d see exactly what most men want – more muscle and less fat at the same time.

Traditional weight loss programs emphasize the number on the scale, and have people on low-fat, low calorie diet doing lots of aerobic exercise.  On this type of program 25-50% of what you’ll lose will be lean body mass.  So, if you drop 10 pounds, up to 5 could be lean body mass.

In body composition, losing fat and gaining muscle are both positives.  On the scale the above person would be a success.  But, in terms of body composition, they made no progress at all – 5lbs of lean lost, and 5lbs of fat lost = 0lbs net progress.

The most practical way for most people to measure their body composition is with a tape measure.  It is simple, fast, reliable (if you get spring-loaded tape measure so you always use the same amount of tension) and does not require you to be dunked underwater with no air in your lungs or to be exposed to radiation.

Most health clubs offer skin fold caliper readings, BUT, these are neither accurate nor precise (reliable) unless you happen to get somebody who has done several thousand skin fold measurements in a research setting.  That is unlikely with the low pay and high turnover at health clubs.

The electric scales and hand held devices for measuring body fat (bioelectrical impedance) are horrible in my opinion.  I’ve measured myself twice in a day and been 9% mid day and 13% in the evening.  I don’t even think that they’re useful to measure change with.

If you really, really want a very accurate, direct reading of your body composition there are 3 options:

•    DEXA – a machine that uses x-rays to measure both bone density and body composition.  (The draw back is that you have to be exposed to radiation, so you can’t do this very often.)

•    Hydrostatic weighing – underwater weighing.  This is a way to get your density – body composition.  Just unpleasant, but no radiation.

•    Bod Pod – uses a chamber of pressurized air instead of water and a scale to get your density.  This seems to be less accurate the leaner you are.

If you’d like a fool-proof, time efficient program to optimize your body composition for life, check this out.

Josef Brandenburg is 2010, Washington, DC  Personal Trainer of the Year Nominee for both Personal Fitness Professional Magazine and The Washington, DC Fitness Association, The DC Fitness Advisor and the Fitness Expert for the PCOS Challenge TV Show. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a FREE copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.

The New Book Is Now On Amazon.com

I wanted to let you know that the new book “The Body You Want from A to Z” is now available on Amazon.com

It’s got chapters by me, Jimmy Moore, Gary Taubes and Dr. Bryan Walsh.

Josef Brandenburg is 2010, Washington, DC  Personal Trainer of the Year Nominee for both Personal Fitness Professional Magazine and The Washington, DC Fitness Association, The DC Fitness Advisor and the Fitness Expert for the PCOS Challenge TV Show. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a FREE copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.

Super Exciting News! (Washington, DC Personal Trainer Picked as THE PCOS Challenge Fitness Expert TV Show)

I just got a phone call from Sasha Ottey the founder of the PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) Challenge.  She’s doing a 13 week TV show for women with PCOS, and they’ve selected me as THE fitness expert for the show!

Just so everyone knows as soon as the first show airs I’ll stop being nice to people:-).

watch this 22sec hilarious video on getting smug:

Josef Brandenburg is 2010, Washington, DC  Personal Trainer of the Year Nominee for both Personal Fitness Professional Magazine and The Washington, DC Fitness Association, The DC Fitness Advisor and the Fitness Expert for the PCOS Challenge TV Show. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a FREE copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here..

New Research: Aerobic Exercise May Make You A Fat STORING Machine

New research suggests that doing exercise in your “fat burning zone” will actually reduce the amount of fat that your body burns for the rest of that day.  A new study in the Journal of Applied Physiology had participants do 1 hour of cycling at 55% of their aerobic capacity only to find that “24 h fat balance was significantly more positive on [the exercise day] compared to [the non-exercise day].”

Local fitness expert Josef Brandenburg says, “this is what I’ve been telling my clients for years – aerobic exercise makes you fatter.”  Brandenburg hypothesizes that the body responds to exercise based on the type of fuel it uses.

In high intensity exercise like sprinting and weight lifting the primary fuel is carbohydrate.  Your body responds to carb-dependent exercise by making it easier for your body to replace those carbs (increasing your insulin sensitivity), and increasing your capacity to store carbohydrates (called glycogen).

With low-intensity, aerobic exercise – like that done in the study and during most people’s workouts – the primary fuel is fat.  Brandenburg thinks that burning fat as the primary fuel during exercise is the signal to your body to become better at storing fat, hence the results of the study.

He says your body responds by doing the opposite.  At the end of a resistance workout you are smaller and weaker than when you started it, but your body responds by doing the opposite – building you up in preparation for the next time it is stressed.

“Research in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition shows that resistance training shifts your body to burn more fat for the 24 hours after your workout unlike with aerobics.  I think that since body-fat is fundamentally regulated by the hormone insulin, the intense, carb-dependent exercise like resistance training makes you burn fat all day long because it reduces your insulin levels and improves your carbohydrate metabolism,” says Brandenburg.

For free info about what to do with this click here

Josef Brandenburg is 2010, Washington, DC  Personal Trainer of the Year Nominee for both Personal Fitness Professional Magazine and The Washington, DC Fitness Association, and author of “The Body You Want”. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a FREE copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here..

Please Help Out In Haiti

Hopefully you are aware of what’s going on in Haiti – a country that was already in bad shape just went through 4 hurricanes and then a major earthquake. A client of mine who’s family is from Haiti wants to do something to help and needs YOU to get it done.

If you have any sheets or bedclothes of any size, or any condition please donate them.

Terrell (my client) has made this VERY simple. Just call her on her cell phone and she’ll come pick up your stuff.

Her # is (202) 531-1796.

Any sheets or bed clothes, in any condition. Call Terrell and she’ll pick up your sheets.

Thank YOU in advance for your generosity!

Josef Brandenburg is 2010, Washington, DC  Personal Trainer of the Year Nominee for both Personal Fitness Professional Magazine and The Washington, DC Fitness Association, and author of “The Body You Want”. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a FREE copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.

Can Laughing Help You Lose Weight?

I recently ran across a very neat research article in Diabetes Care on the power of laughter.

Japanese researchers took a group of type-2 diabetics and healthy subjects for two days:

Day 1 – they ate a 500 calorie lunch and attended a “monotonous lecture (40 min) without humorous content.”

Day 2 – they ate an identical 500 calorie lunch and attended a 40min comedy show where “the subjects laughed.”

(Funny excerpt: “The subjects estimated their laughter level on a scale of 0–5, and most of them considered that they laughed well (level 4 or 5).”  Leave it to a scientist to take the fun out of a comedy show!)

Researchers monitored the subjects bloo d glucose levels for two hours after the and in the people who attended the comedy show glucose levels where significantly lower .

“Negative emotions such as anxiety, fear, and sorrow are known to be factors that elevate the blood glucose level.”

Why Does This Matter To You?

Elevated blood sugar (glucose) levels require that your body secretes insulin to bring them back down.  The more insulin you secrete the more your fat cells grow.  Anything you can do to reduce your insulin levels (high intensity exercise, low-carb eating) will help to make you leaner.

Apparently, its not just what you eat, but how you eat.  If you eat in a stressed out state, that can make your healthy lunch less healthy.

So, lighten up!  Pass gas and blame it on somebody else at lunch.  Make sure that you are having fun every day – even at work.

You can read the whole article in Diabetes Care right here for free:
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/26/5/1651.full

Josef Brandenburg is 2010, Washington, DC  Personal Trainer of the Year Nominee for both Personal Fitness Professional Magazine and The Washington, DC Fitness Association, and author of “The Body You Want”. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a FREE copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.

Are Your New Year’s Resolutions Smart or Stupid?

It’s the first week of 2010, so one of the things really like to talk about are their New year’s resolutions. According to Richard Wiseman, a British psychologist who has tracked 3,000 people’s resolutions, 88% will fail to keep their New Year’s resolutions.

After 7 days of talking to people about what their New Year’s resolutions are I’m surprised that the success rate is even 12%.  They way most people approach making resolutions makes them seem destined to fail.  But, that does NOT have to be your fate.

5 Ways To Go From Stupid to Smart

#1.  What Are You Even Talking About?

I’ve talked to 20 or so people this week about what their resolutions are, and they ALL have failed this first test.

Most people’s resolutions are incredibly vague statements like:  “Write more letters,” “get in shape,” or “go to church more.”  When I ask, “well, what does ‘get in shape’ mean?”

I get answers like, “work out more,” “eat better,” or the classic, “I don’t know.”

If you cannot define what it means to be successful, then you can never actually be successful.  Your resolutions need to contain meaningful and specific information that defines what success is and what success is not.

For “get into shape” that could be ANYTHING – it could be bench pressing 250 pounds, it could be getting back into your size 6 dress, or anything else.  What is it to you?

For something like “work out more”, if you worked out once in 2009, will you be happy if you workout twice in 2010?  Or, like for most people, will you simply tell yourself that you should be working out more no matter how often you workout so that you always feel bad about what you are doing and then give up.

The S in SMART is for SPECIFIC:  If you can’t define it, then you won’t achieve it.

#2.  How Much Do You Want?

Again you need further information about what something like “workout more” means.  Are you going to workout three days per week?  Four days per week?

What constitutes a workout?  Do you have a specific program for success?  Is it one hour of random stuff in the gym?

You must have an objective (read “numerical”) way of determining if you have or have not succeeded.

The M in SMART is for MEASUREABLE:  If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it, and you’ll never know if you are improving it for sure or not.

#3.  Is This In Your Control?

This is for resolutions like “I’m going to get my fat husband in shape.”  You can’t do that.

You can ask.  You can share your concern.  You can be supportive by throwing out all the junk and cooking better for yourself.  (My dad dropped 20lbs by accident this year just because my mom became a much better low-carb cook.)  BUT, you cannot make anyone (other than your children or employees) do anything that they don’t to do.

The A in SMART is ATTAINABLE

#4. Will You Pay That Much For It?

“I won’t eat any junk food in 2010” is something that somebody could actually do IF they defined what “junk food” was (you need a thorough working definition), and IF they had a good enough reason to follow through.

In reality, for most people, the above is destined to fail because it’s probably not worth it.  That goal is focused on behavior – the “price” to be paid, and not on the benefit.

If you weigh 300 pounds right now and you want to get down to 200, in the pursuit of that goal you might go one year without eating junk because you are so excited about being able to sit on a plane without the seat belt extender, getting rid of your ridiculously loud snoring, or no longer having people’s kids point at you  in shopping malls.

The goals and resolutions with the most juice behind them are OUTCOME oriented – they focus on the payoff, not the price.  If you know that you are working towards something amazing you can wake up early, and discipline yourself.

The R in SMART is for REALISTIC

#5.  When Will You Have It By?

“The deadline is the most important invention ever, because without nobody would have finished any other invention.”

-Dan Kennedy

For the most part New Year’s Resolutions actually have this built in – it’s a goal for one year.  “I’ll workout three times a week for one year.”

If, however, you want it sooner that one year from now, write that down.

The T is fore TIME BOUND

#6.  The BONUS Tip

Write it all down and review it at least once a week if not every single day.  It only takes 2min to review a single resolution.

Life is busy and messy and there is always more things going on than you can possibly keep up with.  If you let a week go by without reviewing what, by your own definition, is most important to you, then you will get caught up in the urgency of life and not make one ounce of progress towards anything that really matters to you.

And worst of all, if you try to do #1-5 in your head, you are doomed to fail.  You can only pay attention to 5-9 pieces of information at any given time.  Holding 5 in your head is occupying over half of your valuable metal real estate for no good reason.

Write it down or else you’ll forget your resolution and before you know it, it will be 12am, January 1st, 2011 and you’ll finally remember, “oh crap!  Last year I was supposed to workout more.  I didn’t do anything!”

Josef Brandenburg is 2010, Washington, DC  Personal Trainer of the Year Nominee for both Personal Fitness Professional Magazine and The Washington, DC Fitness Association, and author of “The Body You Want”. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a FREE copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.