Can I Save You 225 Minutes?

What do you think would happen if you added 225min of “target heart rate zone” cardio to your week? If you did 45min of jogging on 5 days per week, do you think that you’d lose some fat? Do you think your results would come in faster?

Nope.

It turns out that what will actually happen is NOTHING. You’d get the same results if you had watched American Idol, Desperate Housewives, and a couple of DVD’s.

I’ve reported on research like this before, but here is some more.

Researchers took obese women and divided them into 4 groups:

1. Exercise group (EX) – they did 45min of aerobics on 5 days per week.
2. Diet group (D) – they ate a reduced calorie diet (which only works because you end up eating fewer carbs FYI)
3. Diet + Exercise Group (EX + D) – the did the 5 days @ 45min per session of aerobics + ate the same diet as the D group
4. Control (C) – they didn’t do nothin’

At the end of 12 weeks there was “no significant change for EX relative to C.” In other words doing aerobic exercise is as effective as sitting on your ass… that is to say that it does nothing.

At the end of 12 weeks there was no significant difference between D and D + EX.  To quote the researchers: “Aerobic exercise training during a 12-week period has no discernible effects on body composition.”

Here’s the link to the free abstract, the full text costs however (I don’t get the money).

Well, That Study Wasn’t Long Enough!

Some people are thinking that the people in the above study just didn’t workout long enough.  The thought is, “what if we took the exercise that did not work before and make them do more of it and for more weeks, then it will work.”

Researchers in Seattle thought of this.  They took overweight people and had them do 60 minutes (fifteen more minutes baby!) of aerobic exercise for a whole dang year!

After 12 months of exercising for 6 hours per week here are the results:

• Men lost 3.96lbs on average
• Women lost 3.08lbs on average

With a big salad I can lose that much going to the bathroom.  (Some times I weight myself before and after just for fun.)

What’s funny is that the researchers said, “these data support the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Institute of Medicine guidelines of 60 min/d of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.”

REALLY!?!?!?!?  By the researchers numbers I’d need to 30 hours of aerobics per week if I wanted to drop 20 pounds this year.

Resistance training & interval training, however, DO work.  You can read more about that here and 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, 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 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.

Smart Exercise Does Rev Up Your Metabolism After All

A new study by Edward Melanson and team came out claiming to “bust myth that working out gives you a fat-burning boost.”  However there are at least 9 other studies that show that smart exercise like high intensity interval training does in fact create a post workout metabolic boost and cause your body to burn more fat after the workout.

“If you read the Melanson study you will see that he primarily tested endurance exercise like jogging, and its totally true that this kind of exercise seems to do nothing to boost your metabolism after a workout.  But, if you look at the research on high intensity interval training and very intense circuit training you will see a metabolic boost for up to 38 hours and a shift to burning more fat for fuel after your workout,” says Josef Brandenburg, a Washington, DC fat-loss expert.

“This is why I generally remove all ‘regular’ endurance exercise like jogging from my client’s programs if they want to lose fat – it’s essentially a waste of time.  I replace it with high intensity interval training and metabolic resistance training.  This combination of exercise can get a woman down a dress size in her first 28 days, whereas the jogging seems to do absolutely nothing,” says Brandenburg.

References:
1.  Geliebter, A., et al. Effects of strength or aerobic training on body composition, resting metabolic rate, and peak oxygen consumption in obese dieting subjects. Am J Clin Nutr. 1997 Sep; 66(3):557-63

2. Tremblay A, et al. Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism.
Metabolism. (1994); 43(7):814-8

3.  Bryner, RW. The effects of exercise intensity on body composition, weight loss, and dietary composition in women. J Am Coll nutr. 1997 Feb; 16(1):68-73

4.  Phelain, J F., et al. Postexercise energy expenditure and substrate oxidation in young women resulting from exercise bouts of different intensity. J Am Coll Nutr. 1997 Apr;16(2):140-6

5.  Sedlock, D A. et al. Effect of exercise intensity and duration on postexercise energy expenditure. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1989 Dec;2196):662-6

6.  Poehlman Et, et al. Resistance training and energy balance. Int J Sport Nutr. 1998 Jun; 8(2):143-59

7.  Hunter, G R. et al. Resistance training increases total energy expenditure and free-living physical activity in older adults. J Appl Physiol. 2000 Sep; 89(3):977-84

8.  Hunter, G R., et al. Resistance training and intra-abdominal adipose tissue in older men and women. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2002 Jun; 34(6):1023-8

9. Trapp E G, et al. Fat loss following 15 weeks of high intensity, intermittent cycle training. Fat Loss Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine,
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
This is a reprint of a press release from 6-2-09.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s top personal trainer for busy people. 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 copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.

Is The Celebrity Fit Club BS?

I’m probably going to get my Blog shut down over this, but I was up doing my market research for my new book (tentatively titled “The Booty You Want”).  I’m scoping out the top selling competition on the bookshelves – what’s the hook? What did people like?  What would people change?

I ran across the 4 Day Diet by Dr. Ian K. Smith.  Then I went to his site and found a page with the results from Season 3 of the Celebrity Fit Club.

#1.  Was Young MC (remember “Bust A Move”?) he dropped 38 pounds, but his body-fat % only went down by 8%.

Let’s do the math on that:

He started at 278lbs, so he lost 14% of his bodyweight.

So, 43% of what he lost was actually lean body mass (LBM), NOT FAT.

That is damn near half.

He dropped OVER 16lbs of LBM.  Your metabolism is largely a function of how much LBM you have.  If his metabolism slows down that much what are the odds that Young MC is going to keep that weight off?

Hmmm…  Maybe that whole eat less and exercise more thing doesn’t really work all that well for most people?

If I get a 41 year old male client (Young MC was born in May 1967) he’s going to gain muscle while he drops body-fat.

NO, I did not cherry pick my data.  Let’s look at all of the 100-Day Results:

#2.  Bizarre: no data on body-fat % change

#3.  Kelly LeBrock:  did improve overall body composition (the ONLY one)

#4.  Chastity Bono:  77% of the weight lost was LBM!

#5.  Bruce Vilanch:  64% of the weight lost was LBM!

#6.  Tempest Bledsoe:  55% of the weight lost was LBM!

#7.  Countess Vaughn:  just got fatter

Countess’ results beg the question:  If you have someone motivated enough to embarrass themselves on National TV, and they GAIN weight on your 100 day program is what you teach of any value whatsoever?  Are you just on TV because you are camera friendly and yelling at people makes for TV drama?

ONLY ONE PERSON in SEVEN made any meaningful progress. You can’t get any more motivated than someone being on TV.  If motivation isn’t the problem, maybe your program sucks?

If you fall back on the “they didn’t follow through” excuse, then I say again:  Maybe its your program that sucks?  If people who are being embarrassed on TV can’t follow through on your program, who else will?  If a program can’t be followed, then its sucks right?

Don’t even get me started on The Biggest Loser…

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s #1 fat-loss expert for busy people.  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 click here.

A New Year, A New Body

Happy New Year!

You asked for it, you got it.  Many of you all have asked for:

• Help with motivation
• Help with energy
• Help with finding the time
• More samples of my programs
• More exercise guidance
• Help with dropping belly fat, arm fat, back fat, thigh fat, butt fat…

Here it is. With the good folks at Primer Magazine, I have laid out a complete 12-week, 3-phase program that addresses ALL of the above points and spells out the nutrition AND exercise program to get you MAXIMUM results in MINIMUM time.

For the ladies, yes, Primer is a men’s magazine, don’t worry about this.  This is a fat loss program NOT a muscle growth program.  While almost everyone will gain some muscle on this program, the women just won’t gain that much and what you do gain will be sexy and feminine.  It takes a lot of a different kind of work to turn into a she-man, and this isn’t that program.  (Not to mention that there really isn’t that much demand for the she-man look.)

There are only 2 differences between men and women when it comes to body-composition training (improving ratio of fat to muscle):

#1.  Women usually need fewer carbs.  So just eat more fruits and veggies and use a Whey recovery drink intead of a carb + protein one (i.e. Surge)

#2.  Sometimes women need extra cardio.  Occaisionally women need to add 10, 15 or 20min of hard steady-state work AFTER their intervals.

However, I don’t see this very often.  I have plenty of ladies in their late 50’s who look great without any steady-state work.

So, 1st follow the plan as written and track results.

2nd If results are not as desired, check that you are eating on-point and lifting heavy enough weight.

3rd, if #2 doesn’t fix (it almost always does), then tack on 15min.

Here is part one of the road map to a brand new you.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.