Alright, you have made the commitment to losing weight at a healthy pace instead of opting in to a fad diet or questionable workout routine. Your reasonable, but challenging goal is to lose 2 lbs a week. Remember the formula. Calories in minus calories out equals weight gain or loss. Eat 3500 calories more than you burn and you gain 1 pound. Burn 3500 calories more than you consume you lose one pound. Pretty simple right?
Let's start with diet. You don't have to starve yourself. As a matter of fact starving yourself will do far more harm than good. In my previous article "Number 1 Strategy for Controlling your Calories" I cover the basics. After you determine the number of calories you need to maintain your current weight you are going to want to cut about 500 calories. 500 calories times seven days equals 3500 calories. Congratulations, you just lost one pound.
Now, the hard part. How do you burn 500 calories a day with exercise? Here are five tricks that will help you reach your weight loss goals. But don't be discouraged if burning 500 calories is too difficult. Work your way up to it. As you replace fat with muscle your body will become more efficient and your metabolism will speed up. Fat is dead weight, muscle burns calories all day long. As your body becomes more efficient you will be burning calories at an accelerated pace. Below is for demonstration purposes only and outlines the amount of effort you would have to apply to burn 500 calories. Pick and choose the routines that work for you and don't over do it. Talk to a physician before starting a workout plan.
If you weigh 180 lbs and you walk at 5 miles per hour in just under four hours you will have burned 500 calories. Wow, that doesn't sound very reasonable does it. If you have a gym membership, which is a good idea for any weight loss plan, try a spinning class. That same 180 pound person can burn over three hundred calories during that same hour.
Spinning class twice a week 640 calories. We are on our way to that magic number.
Another standard piece of equipment at the gym is the elliptical trainer. There is a secret to getting the most out of this device that I rarely see people taking advantage of. H.I.I.T this easy to remember moniker stands for High Intensity Interval Training. The way this works is simple and it will only take 20 minutes of your day. This is my training speeds with the machine's difficulty level set on 10 (50%). Change the speeds to match your fitness level and keep an eye on your heart rate. You don't want to exert yourself beyond the point of being able to hold a normal conversation. First three minutes warm up at 4-5 miles per hour. Each minute after that I increase my speed by 1 mile an hour. Once I reach 9 miles per hour I slow back down to 5 mph and then repeat. Remember, adjust the speeds to your fitness level and always consult a physician before starting a workout/weight loss program.
Elliptical training twice a week. 600 calories.
The next training tip is only for those with knees and other joints strong enough to handle it. Start with the spinning and elliptical trainer, they are much easier on the joints. After a couple of weeks add this to your routine. Run 1 mile as a warm-up. You can do this! Using the 180 pound example that will be around 250 calories. Run the second mile implementing H.I.I.T. To do this. Walk for 200 strides. Sprint for 200 strides. Repeat this until you have finished your second mile. Sprint will mean something different for every person depending on their abilities and fitness level. Remember don't push yourself beyond the point of being able to hold a normal conversation. Not only will this second mile burn a lot of calories, it will improve the time you run your first mile in.
H.I.I.T. Running 1 time per week 550 calories
The next tip gets a little technical but it is worth the effort to understand. Tabata training. Or as I refer to him in my bootcamp classes. The Evil Dr. Tabata. This is a very simple technique you can use to finish your daily workouts. You are not limited to doing squats, you can substitute push-ups or jump squats. You can do this on the elliptical trainer or spinning. Essentially anything that gets your heart rate up. You will do 8 squats in 20 seconds. Follow this with 10 seconds of rest. 20 seconds of intense exercise followed by ten seconds of rest. Repeat for 4 minutes. Be very strict on the timing for maximum results. This is a grueling workout that was aimed at increasing the fitness of Olympic caliber athletes. So work your way up to this. The reason it is so effective is E.P.O.C.H. An acronym that refers to calories burned after you stop working out. Tabata drills can continue to burn calories for up to 2 days. This can add up to 75 calories burned per day to your total. 7 times 75 equals 525.
Tabata drills - every other day. 525 calories
Are we there yet? Almost. The next element is crucial to your success. Kettlebells. If you haven't added them to your fitness routine, now is the time. A twenty minute kettlebell routine can burn up to 400 calories. To learn more about kettlebells, check out my blog. But a good routine will consist of swings, press/pulls, Turkish get-ups and squats. Kettlebells 3 times a week equals 1200 calories.
To sum it up.
Spinning class 2xwk - 640 cal
Elliptical H.I.I.T 2xwk - 600 cal
H.I.I.T. Running 1xwk - 550 cal
Tabata drills 3xwk - 525 cal
kettlebells 3 times per week - 1200 cal
Grand total - 3515 calories
Nobody said it was going to be easy! Focus on your diet and cutting calories there. Gradually increase your workouts. As your conditioning improves your metabolism will speed up. The weight will begin to fall off. Don't obsess over the scale. Your body will be replacing muscle with fat - so the numbers won't always reflect your progress.
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