The constant debate if one should eat less and move more or eat better and exercise harder? Which is most effective for optimal fat loss?

Eat less, move more seems to be basic logic like energy in verse energy out, however that may only work in theory. “While energy balance is a significant factor, fat gain and loss is also strongly affected by your hormonal state which is the result of the type of foods you eat.” There are some hormones that influence metabolism including; cortisol (stress hormone) ghrelin (is basically when your stomach is growling) and thyroid. The key is to have your hormones in balance in order to effectively burn fat.  As you know, sugar and carbohydrates elevate your insulin levels which inhibit fat loss and promote fat storage, but it’s not just the type of food you eat it’s also when you eat it.  For example, you probably shouldn’t be eating pasta at 9 pm unless you plan to run a marathon the next day. The key is to eat the right types of food that are nutrient dense and will provide you with energy throughout the day.

Even if you restrict your calorie intake you will inevitably produce the hormone cortisol which promotes fat storage, therefore your workouts are going wasted. Not to mention as soon as you increase your calorie intake even a little bit – you’ll gain back everything you “lost” and more (which was muscle, not fat btw). In simple terms – you lost muscle and gained more fat. Cool! “The proper role of exercise in a fat loss program is not to burn calories, but to maintain muscle while fat is lost.” In order to do that, you need to eat the right types of foods (lean protein, some dairy, healthy fats, whole grains in true form not processed, legumes, fruits & veggies), nix the processed foods and exercise the right way (combination of cardio and strength training with HIIT).

“Precautions when training with HIIT:

• The number one precaution is to make sure that you are eating healthy and that you have had 2-3 cups of water an hour before this kind of training. Also, you want to make sure you are getting adequate protein and carbs at least an hour before and after your workout as well.
• A great ratio to consider is 2:1 carbs to protein. The best carbs to consider include: bananas, mangos, carrots, yams, sweet potatoes, whole grains, and brown rice. Some smart protein sources include: lean meats (such as chicken breast, fish, prawns/shrimp, extra lean beef), beans/legumes, dairy products (low fat milk, yogurt, cottage cheese), and of course whey protein powder and hemp protein.
• The second precaution is that you should never do two days of High Intensity Interval Training in a row. This kind of training puts a great amount of stress on your muscles, joints, and bones and a minimum of 24 hours is required to allow your body to recover. Be smart and make sure you get adequate sleep or you may be compromising the integrity of your immune system. Read more…

This may sound too complicated for your liking, but we know that 70% of fat loss comes from your diet and 30% from your exercise. If you can find the right balance of the two you will burn the most fat!

Pretty much:

Last week workout recap:

• Wednesday: morning 30 min HIIT on the shred and 1 hour cardio after work
• Thursday: morning 3o min HIIT on the shred and 30 min HIIT plus 1 hr pilates after work
• Friday: morning 30 min HIIT
• Saturday: morning 30 min HIIT
• Sunday: Off

My motivation this week has returned full force. It’s officially the end of all possible holidays in the Greek culture – three weekends in a row – so there are no more excuses!

I’m going to leave you all – myself included – with a nice little reality check…

Ask and you shall receive.. or, I guess that doesn’t really apply here because no one asked, but I really wanted to start out by saying that lol.  Anyway! As I promised, I would get back on track – and that I did – as well as a few other non-exciting tasks; laundry and pick up room (part of the keep my room neat and tidy resolution.)

When I got home from work I had about an hour before I needed to go to the gym so I gathered my laundry, started a load, and then headed to the kitchen to prepare my post-workout dinner.

Piles of laundry: (notice my new adorable sorel snow boots faded in the background)

Prepared my dinner: 

I didn’t have time this weekend to do full-blown grocery shopping, but I knew I had some stuff to work with at home. Trader Joe’s Lime Chicken Burger with green beans, mushrooms and grilled red onion. The green beans were the kind where you can steam in the bag, so I steamed them first then sauteed them on the pan with salt, pepper, garlic powder and a little EVOO.  I prepared this before I went to the gym so that when I got back I wouldn’t have to waste time cooking! I just heated it up for a minute and voila- food is served! It’s all about efficiency, people

Workout at the gym looked like this:

30 minute HIIT on the shredmill:

• 30 second sprint at 8.0
• 1.5 minute brisk walk at 3.7

30 minutes stair climber on interval setting

I figured I should start with a good hour of cardio to burn off the extra sugar that’s been stored. Not so bad for a bounce back workout. Unfortunately, after dinner my sweet tooth struck again (I’m blaming my “p” for this one) and had a good handful of raisins – I guess it could be worse!

This morning I got my ass up at 6:50 and walked downstairs to jump on my treadmill for another 30 min HIIT run. This time I did it a little differently:

• 4 minute warm up
• 30 second sprint at 8.0
• 2 minute recovery jog at 5.0
• 2 minute cool down

I completed a little over 2.5 miles and was a sweaty mess! I will say this though, working out in the morning really helps boost your energy levels throughout the day.  Also, there’s been research that shows people who workout in the morning on an empty stomach burn slightly more fat than those who workout in the evenings. Now, if you can’t workout in the morning and only workout in the afternoon, this doesn’t mean your workouts are worthless – they most definitely are not. The bottom line is you need to get your bum moving no matter what time of day it is!

As far as HIIT (high intensity interval training) this is a good method to use when you’re stuck in a plateau or you simply don’t have a lot of time. These workouts typically range anywhere from 10-30 minutes and are very intense. The goal is to alternate between maximum heart rate and then back down into recovery and there are many different ways you can do this. For example, when I sprint at 8.0 my heart rate shoots up close to 180 which is my anaerobic zone or maximum heart rate and my recovery time jogging at 5.0 brings me back down to around 130 which is my aerobic zone or cardio zone in less than 2 minutes.  You need to figure out your aerobic and anaerobic zones before you do this type of workout. Everyone’s zones are different and our recovery rates are different too. Some people may need 4 minutes of recovery where others may need only 1. If you want to start HIIT, find out your zones or you can guesstimate based on how you feel – you’ll know when you’re out of breath and when you have recovered. “HIIT increases the amount of calories you burn during your exercise session and afterward because it increases the length of time it takes your body to recover from each exercise session.” You can do HIIT on any cardio machine as well as some at-home workouts that incorporate high intensity and recovery periods.

More info on HIIT:

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=621

Calculate your heart rate levels here:

http://www.calculatenow.biz/sport/heart.php?rhr=58&mhr=180&submit=Calculate+Zones#zones

Another one of my other favorite Shredmill HIIT workouts:

3-2-1 Intervals x 5 sets

• 3 minute jog
• 2 minute run
• 1 minute sprint

Beginners Interval Running workout:

Post workout meal: nom nom

120 calories and 13 grams of protein. I added super-food walnuts for some healthy fat to create a perfectly balanced breakfast!

I also want to note something I came across on another healthy living blog Carrots’n'cake. In her post “Oatmeal” minus the oats, she talked about “SMART” weight loss goals. Smart stands for Specific, Measurable, Accountable, Realistic, and Timeframe. I thought this was a good thing to bring up for any of you who want to “lose weight” as one of your resolutions. Most people don’t stick to that because “lose weight” is very broad and makes it easy to fail.  Follow the “SMART” guide, write it down, tell people your specific goals and hold yourself accountable!

SMART Weight-loss:

Specific: State a specific goal not just “lose weight” Example: I want to workout 5x a week

Measurable: This is a way to track your progress and help motivate. Example: Lose 10 lbs

Accountable: Track your food or your workouts online (livestrong, myfitnesspal) or on paper and tell your friends!

Realistic: make sure your goal is realistic. If you don’t have much to lose don’t say I need to lose 20 lbs or if you dont have much time during the week don’t say I’ll workout every day for 3 hours because you will set yourself up to fail.

Time-frame: Give yourself a timeframe – big or small. Example: I want to lose 10 lbs in 6 months or I want to lose 1 lb a week for this month.

My final words of wisdom for today:

JUST DO IT!

I’m not going to lie, I completely fell let myself fall off the healthy wagon.  After five days of binge eating on foods that really have no nutritional value (chocolate, popcorn, pita chips and the like), I stepped on my new brutally honest and unforgiving scale this morning and told myself NO MORE. Enough is enough –  I am stopping myself in my own tracks before I go down that downward never-ending spiral. I went down that road last year and come May I was miraculously 8 pounds heavier.  I wonder why? Don’t they say Americans gain an average of 7 lbs over the holidays? Yeah, well I beat that average by a pound! How did I do that? Simple – one bad food choice after the next or my personal favorite – “I will start tomorrow,” but the “tomorrow” never came or “It’s the holidays I’m supposed to eat everything in sight – literally.”  The worst part of it all is knowing you are going to regret your decision while you’re making that decision, but don’t stop yourself anyway.  I think that is what annoys me the most – knowing I have all the control, but I choose to ignore it for one reason or another. All of this adds up in the end.  All-of-it. 

So, rather than waiting for January 2nd or waiting for Monday, I’m taking back my control starting today. I don’t know about you all, but I don’t like the way I feel when I overeat. I truly feel like a lethargic beluga whale.  Who likes to feel like that? I’m sure the beluga whale doesn’t even like feeling that way!! I may have kept up with my exercise (minus Monday and Tuesday) but it really made no difference! Perfect example of how diet is more important than exercise and I don’t mean that you should never exercise, but your focus should be on what you’re eating!

Also, after indulging in Greek cookies and chocolate my skin is already showing signs of dermatitis – something I had exactly this time last year (with eating habits exactly how I displayed these past few days.) I went on antibiotics for it and it cleared up, but somehow it has returned again and I was seriously thinking, how can this be? I refuse to take drugs again! And then the light-bulb went off. I have been eating processed junk and sugar! Duh! How did I not even think of that before? You are what you eat and what you eat directly affects your body! It makes perfect sense and I’m embarrassed that I didn’t figure this out before. More of a reason to NOT EAT CRAP. PERIOD.

Now that my crazy rant is over, I encourage you all to check yourselves before you wreck yourselves! If you feel that you are going down that same path again- just stop. Cut it cold turkey. It’s going to be hard because the temptation is there, but work around it.

This morning I woke my ass up at 7 am and jumped on the treadmill for a 30 minute HIIT workout. For breakfast I had a protein pancake (protein powder, flax meal, egg whites, 1/2 banana and 1/4 cup blueberries) and it’s now 2pm and I haven’t eaten lunch yet (my lunch break is usually 12:30,) but I’m not even hungry.  It’s so incredibly easy to fall into a routine or eating pattern where you eat when it’s “lunch time,” so you eat out of habit not out of hunger.  That is going to be one of my new year’s resolutions.  Eat when hungry- not when bored, angry, sad or happy. Getting in-tune with our bodies is extremely important.  When we don’t know our bodies, only listen to our brains, and just eat for reasons besides hunger, we find ourselves ‘living to eat rather than eating to live.’  And that, ladies and gents, causes the downward spiral!