So if I was actually trying to gain weight I would be real happy right now but alas, that is not the case. I have gotten used to eating more food and have not counted calories since August. I also have not worked out as much and have been plagued with injuries; the latest injury caused by my chihuahua chasing me (I stubbed my toe on a door jamb).

I will talk about what happened, what I am doing and how importaint counting calories are to any diet. I will also touch on why you cannot just exercise more to make up for the increased amount of food. Here is a glimpse of a youtube video entitled, “Attack of the killer chihuahuas” for your perusal.

Well I guess I cannot really blame my chihuahua for not exercising but running is out right now. I have increased my bag work routine while my toe heals up. What I would like to focus on is what happened and what I am going to do to fix my dilemma.

What happened was we moved to a nearby city, I changed internal jobs at my company, we had a health challenge, we have money issues (partially caused by moving), we had a major car repair expense, my wife’s daughter went away to college, and my wife and I had the cumulative stress and mild depression to deal with all at the same time. Boy - talk about an excuse to eat!!! Well if you have looked at my progress for the last couple of months (of lack thereof) you can see how I handled everything.

To make matters worse is the more I ate - the worse off I felt! Ok, so much for my whining. Here is what I have done. We have successfully moved and have mostly unpacked. We went to a new doctor and found new answers that are partially negating the health challenge I alluded to above. We incurred new debt to fix my step-daughter’s car. We instituted a new budget to meet our financial challenges. I have focused on my new job role to get up to speed quickly so my boss values my contribution (layoff insurance). I am not accepting any new stressful items. I tell people that resources are limited and we will have to make due as we can.

You can see that the derailment is temporary and we are putting the trains back on the track! My stress and mild depression is about over and was actually helpful. The stress slowed me down and the mild depression kept me focused on tasks so I could not think too much while I was “fixing” things.

The brings me to my pre-new years resolution. You see I have gained 15 extra pounds in the last three months (I gained about 5 pounds a month) and while you know the pressures that led to this state, you may also know how motivating it is to get to the reckoning point again! I have had to take a serious look at what I have done in the last year and try to figure out what changes I need to make to get back on track.

Here is what I did this year:

• initially went on a low-fat, moderate (not counting) diet
• initially did lots of low-intensity aerobic exercise
• lost some weight early-on and changed my diet to a moderate-fat diet (more calories)
• increased my workout intensity and time
• weight loss slowed
• went back to my low-fat diet and moderated my workout to mixed low and high intensity workouts
• increased weight loss again
• moved (September)
• threw the diet out and intermittently exercised
• gained  half of my weight back

Wow… writing this down has further highlighted an area I need to work on. I was commenting on FatManUnleashed’s blog that I was up 10 pounds and Israel pointed out that was not too much of a gain and to get back on track. I just read Mr Low Body Fat’s Blog and Muata makes the point (paraphrasing) that whatever diet one is on - calories still count! 

So what am I doing? Here are some of the things in my pre-new years resolution/plan:

• counting calories (in my head) and staying within reason for me (1500 - 1800 a day)
• going back to my low-fat diet (I am used to it and we eat good tasting foods)
• giving my wife whatever I would have spent on her birthday dinner (less calories!)
• shooting for 2 to 3 high-intensity workouts a week
  • kickboxing on the bag
  • mountain biking
  • jogging
• shooting for 2 to 3 low-intensity or strength training workouts a week
  • walking the dogs
  • hiking
  • dumbbells
• And I am eating a good Christmas dinner but this time I will stop the day after (unlike Thanksgiving)

 Counting calories are important because one cannot “pay” for extra food by doing extra workouts… it is far easier to bite the bullet (anything but biting the food) and not eat the extra calories and then not have to try and “work it off.”

With any luck if my pre-new years resolution goes well, I will not need an on official new years resolution next year!

Another thing I noticed is that Karen went to a trainer to help her manage her workouts. This is a good strategy that has paid off well for Karen. Sure you can do the exercise at home providing you educate yourself but by employing the trainer - Karen has the flexibility to focus on just getting through the workouts and on her diet. I will go over how strength training can complement aerobic and diet in this post.

I found a youtube video of a trainer giving a fitness model a workout so you can see some of the kind of exercises one might do.

Admittedly Kim Strother does not need to lose weight (if anything - gaining a bit would be good) but her workouts are a good example of how a trainer might work with you to increase your strength (thereby increasing your ability to lose weight).

One way to look at this is Karen was able to help her diet work better by increasing her strength! Her muscles burned more fat because of her body tone improvement. If you would like more details of the process you can get my free eBook, Slimmer Zimmer.

So here is the deal - increasing your strength  will increase your body’s ability to burn fat, doing aerobics will burn more fat, and doing any kind of reasonable low-fat or low-carb diet should allow your body to lose a reasonable amount of weight a week. I like to shoot for one to two pounds a week for lasting results.

I applaud Karen Daniel’s weight loss and really enjoy hearing about stories like this!

Astronauts have to workout in order to keep as much of their body mass as possible. Off the planet, weightlessness just does not work the muscles like gravity does for us. To combat the loss, astronauts try and workout a couple of hours a day. I found this video of the current (I think) gym on the space station.

According to the CNN story, much work is still needed to combat bone loss on longer space missions like for instance a mission to Mars and beyond. As a Star Trek fan, I hope that scientists figure out how to surpass the physical limitations of long space flights so man and woman can explore the stars!

The obvious solution would be to have artifical gravity such as a spinning space ring might create but it is good to know no matter how smart people get, we all still have to eat a balanced diet and participate in moderate exercise to stay healthy!

I feel lucky that we have it easy compared to astronauts because we have gravity! Why even while I am sleeping, my body is doing some work (hence burning some calories).

I would like to close with some good sound advice (the benefits of diet and exercise) that Dr. “Bones” McCoy gives Capt. Kirk when discussing some amazing immunizing agents found on some far off planet. Here is the clip.

I will talk about ways to turn your workouts in to fun. I found this video about San Diego hikes but I’d bet that most places will have equally good hikes close to your home.

Wow - lots of fun hikes close to San Diego to explore. I found Sheri McGregor’s websiteand found it had some usful information. I like to venture out and go exploring on day hikes. All you really need are directions, water, some food and a little experience. One of my pet peeves is to have a walking stick. Here is SoCal we have snakes. What would you do if you walked into a pile of rocks and surprised a western diamondback rattler? It would go badly for you but if you had a stick to tap the rocks ahead of you prior to stepping on them… you would warn the snake to object or slither away!

I would also say a map and compass would be good to have on even a day hike. One time I was day hiking on top of Queen mountain with my stepson and he wanted to go a certain direction. I let him lead but did not have a compass on me (I turned out to be right but we missed the turnoff).

Trails can look really similar and if you do not have a map and compass - you are asking for trouble. I ended up circling Queen Mountain to find our camp before dark (barley - but you should not rely on a plan c). 

Now that you know there are fun things to do close by that burn calories - start researching your trips and then go have some fun (and workout!)!

Did you notice he stated that weight loss was not typical? A real slick operation back then but in my 21 century mind… it was laughable. We have been scammed by so many diet plans that diet advertisers are going to niche markets now… the cleansing crowd, the quick - I want it now crowd… and the “I’ll pay any amount of money do go on the latest hip diet” crowd.

The grapefruit pills had no effect as I recall other then lighting up my already light wallet. Yes I truly fell of the old send me a dollar and I’ll send you instructions how to get rich scam (thankfully I did not really fall for that one too).

One the one hand it would be nice to have the diet pill market be regulated but then it might trigger foods to become regulated (extrapolating here) and end up driving up costs for us all. I guess the thing to do then as well as now is to follow the credo of “buyer beware!”

Getting the aerobic workout with kickboxing is really easy because all I have to do is increase the ratio of kicks to punches to raise my pulse. Here is a video of Catherine Costigan (found her you youtube) doing one of her workouts. Notice she is able to work in punches, kicks, knees and elbows as well as shadow kickboxing and some strength building exercises.

For those of you that have watched Billy Blanks Tae Bo workouts you (I hope) will notice that Catherine’s workout would be applicable in fighting. Karate aerobics while will give you a good workout, will not teach you to fight unless you go to a gym and learn boxing or kickboxing (even if you never have a real fight) in my opinion.

Most people will find they are able to stick with an exercise program if it is something they already like. I am a lifetime student of karate and I beieve I am going to start jui jitsu classes next year. I have tried other type of exercises including walking the dogs and mountian biking but working out with the bag is going to be easy (since I have finally cleared out the garage). Hang in there and try to find activities that you can do to get a good workout.

I bought a mountain bike but it broke after 7 hours (3 weekends worth) on the trails. The back spring detached and the sprockets busted. I returned the bike to Walmart for a full refund but I now need to figure out where I can buy a good quality mountain bike for a couple hundred bucks on black Friday. If anyone has any ideas - let me know… I live in San Diego’s East County (Santee, CA).

Gaining weight after losing a some can be emotionally difficult and I will talk about this today. But first I found a video of a gal that is (or has) gone through this now… admitedly she does not look really overweight but it is each person’s self-image that is important.

She sounds unhappy that she as gained almost all of her weight but I wonder if she realizes that the body’s weight changes as much as five pounds a day? The reason I chose this video is it plainly shows her dissatisfaction at the weight gain. I would not say I am too worried at this point but it is disheartening to see the hard work of several months evaporate at the latest scale reading.

My garage is still full of boxes but I have filled my heavy bag with water so I can start doing my kick-boxing workouts (high aerobic activity). I walk the dogs now about twice a week and since the moutain bike broke, I have not done a high-aerobic exercise. I’m in a funk and have to break out somehow.

I have been here before and am slowly working on the diet but Holloween was tough! We had plenty of candy on hand and I was at a low point of control… so I stuffed my face

Today’s weight is really about 10 pounds up from my low of 224 pounds (now about 234 pounds) but I should be able to at least get back to under 230 by months end if I start working on clearing out the garage soon. That is my short term goal - to get ready for my boxing workouts and get under 230 for my next progress report. Let me know if you have any ideas but I think I am on the right track. I hope my experience will let you see one battle does not have to affect the war (my weight-loss war).

This article (citing the study) states that even a little exercise helped the body’s ability to oxidize fat. I had a step-son that was a type one diabetic and used to see how hard it was to stay on track some days. One thing I like about him is he did end up keeping an active lifestyle into adulthood. The results of this study seem to point out (biased on this article) that grandma’s sage advice of the ages - that every little bit helps, is still true in this day and age!

Don’t get discouraged if you have some bad days and go walk around the block and get some exercise. It will do you some measurable good!

Ok you might be thinking that I am making fun, but in this day and age of cities trying to outlaw fat in food… Hostess is stepping up to the plate and making twinkies “healthy!” I found this video entitled, “I’m having an affair with a twinkie” for your perusal.

Whatever your take on the new and improved twinkies, you have to agree that this indeed was a much needed step to forstall anymore people pleading the twinkie defense! Thanks Hostess for making our nation a much safer place and allowing dieters the world over to once again partake in twinkies (much implied sarcasm).

I was struck by her attempts with the current popular diets and finally going to portioning and eating sensibly.  If you get a chance please read this story as it just goes to show that counting calories are important and not everyone has to keep up with the Jones’ fad diets to be successful!

For example why would you have to go out an buy a MP3 player if you were walking, hiking or biking on some nature trails? Is exercise for the sake of weight-loss your goal or would you like to transition to fun out-door activities you may have participated in when you were a teenager? In this post I will explore the question of exercise for exercises sake vs. having an actual fitness goal. I will compare and contrast the goals and well as give some examples of each. If you end up agreeing with me you can throw away that pesky MP3 player (it will divert your attention anyway - not really safe from a self-defense perspective) and focus on truly entertaining activities. I found this example of Michael Reardon climbing a rock face.

I was amazed at this example of how strong the human body can become! Muscle men will not agree with me that I think rock climbers are among the strongest athletes, pound for pound along with gymnasts. I was reading comments from body builders (I assume) that were saying climbers only could lift their body weight and were weak. I think the body builder types were jealous because they could not climb like that - they are not strong or flexible enough! Here is a video of our (California’s) governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger in a bodybuilding contest.

 These bodybuilders are strong but not nearly as strong as they could be if they stopped dieting to get the muscle defination. Here is an example of truly strong men in the Worlds Strongest Man 2008 Finals. You notice they are thick but would not turn any heads at the beach.

 Now I need more motivation than getting into shape because it is good for me. I do not mind being board out of my mind while working out but it is easier if I have a goal. In previous posts I mentioned that I was going to walk the dogs and start riding my mountain bike. I just got back from a two-hour bike ride up Spring Canyon in Mission Trails Regional Park. My body is slowly acclimatizing to bike riding again and I did better this time. I liked the views and feel like I’ve accomplished something today. I used to rock climb some in my youth. I found this video of Catherine Destivelle climbing a mountain in Africa.

This gal is another freestyle climber. Did you notice how strong she is? The thing I like is she applies her strength and agility to a sport/pastime she enjoys. Doing something you like should be part of your workout or at the very least a goal. To that end I am going to start hiking and rock climbing locally as I get into better shape so I can plan some weekend getaways to Joushua Tree National Park for some rock climbing as I get into better shape. Do you see? I will not have to motivate myself to workout as much as having a goal will make it easier to achieve.

Now look at your fitness goals and see if your exercise compliments your fun activities that well help your overall fitness. I will continue to work out with karate, walking, jogging but I will be doing more of mountain biking, hiking, and climbing. I am hoping to take my first rock climbing/day hike to Joshua Tree next spring. Hang in there and try and tailor your exercise to fun activities!

Wow, isn’t this a good looking bike? I’m not a pro mountain biker so I did not need to go for the top of the line bike. I am still obese as of this writing and am looking for fun ways to incorporate exercise into my normal routines. I have rode street bikes most of my life but this is the first time I have tried to go off-road! I live near Mission Regional Park in Santee, CA, and found this map. Here is a beginning video I found on youtube.

The reason I bought a bike was to start getting a portion of my aerobic exercise while having fun! I tested out the bike yesterday and today by going for an hour and a half each day. Many people drive to the gym each day and climb on an exercise bike. I am trying to take the middle man out of the equation by making a real bike ride fun! What you might be thinking? Fun? YES - I said fun.

I don’t see the point of exercise for exercises sake. Why? Because if you are doing something you don’t really want to do; you will probably not keep up with it. I have also started walking the dogs for exercise. Now I only have to do my dumbbell workout and some bag work to complete my exercise routine! Lifestyle changes happen easier if they are dual purpose in my opinion.

Riding trails for me is fun. I get to see stuff way faster than If I was hiking. I can experience the great outdoors because Mission Trails Regional Park is 10 minutes from my house. Now is bicycling good exercise? Why not jog? I am 51 years old and have some injuries that I have to work around during exercise. My right knee cannot take allot of jogging. But riding a bike slowly seems to work my leg muscles just fine and so far has been less impacting than jogging. 

So there it is - bike riding for me is fun, good aerobic exercise and less impacting on my joints than jogging. This sounds like part of the sometimes elusive ‘lifestyle change’ everyone is looking for in life. I will let you know how this goes over time and hope you are finding results with your exercise routine.

 What is my point? Just when I thought the main players were starting to let people know that it takes actual work to lose weight, I found this article in an obvious attempt to perpetuate the spot reducing myth by innuendo! I will examine what 24 Hour Fitness is apparently doing and if spot reducing is really possible in this post. I found the picture below of the Bikini Boot Camp from Town and Country Travel Magazine story here.

This article (the 24 Hour Fitness article) starts out with an emotional argument of how you can get ready to wear a bikini. Ok so far so good but the second paragraph starts out speaking of the trouble areas. The last sentence of the second paragraph does mention diet and exercise. Ok so far so good… what am I upset about?

Here is the short third paragraph stating, “Here are some cardio exercises to enhance [emphasis mine] those spots ‘not fit for the beach:’” The next six paragraphs speak of exercises to “shape up” and “strengthen and lengthen.” One could easily mistakenly get the idea that you can do exercises to spot-reduce, meaning if you do lots of sit ups - you can lose inches on that problem area. Here is a link to a funny 24 Hour Fitness video (sorry embedding is disabled so you have to click the link to see it).

The 10th through 13th paragraph finally start to speak about nutrition but no where does this article point out the futility of spot reducing. What is does state is a quick note that one cannot overeat and get into shape. 

I think this article is slanted to mislead people into buying gym memberships to spot reduce! What they should have said is if your problem is not too much fat but rather flabby muscles - the gym membership (if you use it regularly) can help you tone up your muscles and have a tighter body.

The impression I got reading this article is that I can work on my just a couple of problem areas so I (if I was a girl) would look better in a bikini! That is bull… oh yes I can hear the gym types yelling at their screen - regular toning workouts with cardio and proper nutrition would help the problem areas (as well as the rest of the body)! Well gosh darnit… if that is what you (insert 24 Hour Fitness here) mean than you should say it and not try to peddle snake oil and false claims! Do you remember when gyms had these belt reducers?

Well gyms have come a long way from those days but I found modern day versions of these machines called the Slender Shaper… and yes snake oil in the diet and exercise industry is alive and well.

The thing about my old house was the wonderful full-acre back yard. My dogs and I wore a dirt track in the back yard by our constant use. I had no problem walking/running after it cooled off to get my exercise! I used my home track because in the old place, the roads did not have sidewalks. The new place has a small back yard and the dogs don’t get the same amount of exercise. In this post I’ll examine the effects of a diet and exercise change as well as my mitigation strategies (during and after the move). I will also point out why the temporary slide does not bother me. I found this video on the exercise and weight-loss benefits of walking dog.

I noticed that the dog lost weight steadly but the guy did not. Interesting but I thought of a way to fix that - have the guy feed the dog and the dog feed the guy!

Anyway I agree with this video that getting out regularly with the dogs will have benefits for both you and your dog/s. I am now in this boat because my shepard-cross dogs need exercise and I definitely need exercise. I’ve mapped out a evening walk that takes us about a half hour and now that we have DVR service again - I have no excuses not to work-out!

While we were moving my wife and I were too worn out to cook our regular boca burgers and opted for the fast-food about once or twice a day. Our exercise was increased but it did not match the food intake. We were hungrier due to the increased exercise and I think that we easily (at least I did) eat more calories that my body could burn.

Now that we have completed the move and are back to our normal diets, I am not going to beat myself up over gaining a few pounds. Rather I am going to focus on the activities/behaviors that will lead to increased fitness, health and weight-loss. Walking the dogs will help this goal but I think I’ll clean out the garage soon and start my wights and kick-boxing on the bag to supplement my weight-loss!

What is a heavy bag workout in karate/kick boxing? I found a video of a gal doing a heavy bag workout for your perusal. The thing I like about this woman doing the workout, is she seems to be doing the moves correctly. In other words if she really hit you - it would hurt. I will admit that she is not hard to look at either but I do insist on authenticity when it comes to my fist love - karate!

Bag workouts do not necessarily translate into fighting ability, no more than breaking boards do but working out with karate is one of the highest calorie buring types of exercises one can do. If you want to increase your heart rate, you can simply throw more kicks (that take about four times the effort as a punch).

So my stratigy of buring more calories than I ate did not work but on the other hand, I am now going to start my toning exercises via the bag and weights. My weight loss should start accelerating again as I am changing up my routine. I am happy with my progress but as you will note if you check, I’ve only logged one pound lost in September. I am hoping that sometime in October I will be below that. The only challenges will be the thank you dinner for the folks that helped us move and the Oktobrefest (I try to never miss!).

Get my drift? What I am saying is the work went out of the equation. I remember when I was a teenager on my parents ranch, hungery for breakfast - having to go out to the chicken coop to grab eggs if I wanted to eat. Or on thanksgiving having to prepare Gobbler to have the 30 pound feast! I only spent a few years on my fathers ranch as he bought it as I was older but I was aqqainted with the concept of choirs. If I wanted to take the horse for a ride - I had to clean the pen and comb the horse after the ride.

In this post I will speak of the changes in the obesity level over recent history and point out some of the differences that may have contributed to this sorry state of affairs. I generally like people but today we do not take responsibility for our own actions (of total lack of action and the results) as we should. I will also point out the obvious remedies. In earlier - simpler times, people used to get enough exercise in their daily activities. Today many people have desk jobs like me and have to work at getting enough exercise. I found this video of a Cowboy Breakfast that while is was a staple for working ranchers - would not pass any current dietary muster today! Too much fat, carbs, calories, meat and no processed newfangled tofu or such!

Ok so you have probably already partially guessed where I am going with this but first I would like to highlight an article I found by Dr. Jeffery Weiss (that I have not really validated but since it generally is what I expected - I do not think I need to), entitled, “Why We Eat… and why we keep eating” that points out that in the 50’s only about 1/3 of the American population was overweight but in the year 2000 about 65% of the population is overweight! Wow but keep in mind that overweight includes folks that are over a BMI of 25. This include overweight, obese and morbidly obese people.

Wow - Obese went from about 10% to 31% in 40 years! What do you think caused this? Was it fast food? Can we just outlaw fast food and we will all be healthy? Is it the evil carbs? No one ate carbs in the old days so if we just get rid of the carbs - we will all lose our weight! Ok I am just trying to make a point here. There are probably lots of factors that one can point to that are different today than in the 1950’s.  Lets list a few items as they were in 1950:

• Color TV’s (ok there were a few in the 50’s)
• Few remote controls (I had an old Packard that had a wired remote but I don’t remember many wireless)
• No VCR’s (one had to go to the movies to view a movie)
• No microwaves (yes we had TV dinners but that took awhile)
• Automatic transmissions (I’ve not really researched when Autos took over from sticks)
• Manual chokes (My 61 Ford Falcon had a manual choke - ask a kid today about a choke and you will get a dumb look)
• Fresh veggies from the world (tariffs and such limited our choices back then)
• Processed foods were limited (with one bread winner in the family - who would pay for convenience?)
• Fast food was limited to A&W and Wiener Schinchel… ok there were a FEW more
• People had to exercise every day as most family’s had one car (if that)
• No electric can openers
• No frost free freezers
• Nuclear winter was the worry, not global cooling in the 70’s or global warming in the 90’s or climate change in the 2000’s (tongue in cheek reference totally)

Now you can see some of the changes - not all of these are directly related to Americans gaining weight but you can see that automation was at a minimum in the 50’s. Why it had only been 16 years since the Rural Electrification Act was passed and farms truly started coming into the 20th century! Now how fat are Americans today? While that figure varies from state to state but I found a chart here that can give use an idea.

This chart is the eye opener because it shows the percent of obese people in any state. Colorado - the best, has almost 20% or one in every five people are obese (=> to 30BMI). The state I live in has 23% of the people obese. This is very sad to see and should highlight the need for people to wake up and get healthy!

So I have pointed out the that people 50 years ago were less obese (10% then vs 31% now) and less overweight (31% then and 65% now), so WHY ARE WE FAT? I would say unless the gene pool has gone downhill fast - genetics has little to do with our present state of affairs. Dr. Weiss hypothsises that our increased caloric intake, less time, more technology, increase fat and such are collectively part of the issue. He (Dr. Weiss) further states that society has changed and (paraphrasing here), we want food like the rats that can eat whatever that want - whenever they want it, and eat themselves to death.

I will say that there is no one reason we are fat and we cannot go back to simpler times (when hard work was abundant and food was scarce) but we can change our own lives to increase our exercise, eat better food choices (whatever your research shows is the ideal diet) and decrease our total calories, fat, carbs, cholesterol or whatever will help you achieve nirvana! Now for my gratuitous plug for my free weight loss book. This is a low-fat type of diet that has worked for me in the past and is working for me now. The main modification since I wrote this book, is I now eat low - to moderate fat in my diet. I still exercise and watch my total calories in a day. I do not think the pressures of our modern society is your fault but it is your responsibility to research health and fitness and make some positive changes in your life. I know you will be successful when you decide to be! 

Do you want to lose 20 ugly pounds? Cut off your head (at least in my case - this would be true)

I digress but seriously lets examine why I am happy with a pound a week and why the diet industry is focusing on quick weight loss over lifetime results. Now I can hear some of you saying your diet is the best and works well. Well I am glad for you! But that is not what I am addressing today. What I am addressing is how you can find something that works for you and how some commercial diets may fall short, especially the ones that claim quick weight loss. 

Everyday we are bombarded by weight-loss pills, plans, the latest celebrity diet and such and many of us that have recently failed on another get-rich-quick-scheme - woops, I mean lose-weight-fast-diet are still looking for something-for-nothing-diet that will painlessly take the weight (read fat) off! Are we wrong in wanting something for nothing? I say YES.

Have you ever heard the saying, “No pain - No gain?” Well other then in the case of an overly zealous sports enthusiast harming their kids, I generally agree with this statement. There is no free lunch! You cannot have your cake and eat it too (if you are on a diet).. ok I’m finally tiring of the catch phrases

The point I am trying to make is losing weight does not have to take a supreme effort but it will take effort. It is doable to lose weight for anyone. You will have to take your own journey and seek your own answers. The good news is you can read some exercise and diet advice resources and start to understand what you are up against. One good resource is from the Office of the Surgeon General here.

You will have to do your homework and then either try one of the common commercial diets like wight watchers or design your own plan. I think most people will eventually design a plan they can live with but like me will have started with various diets. If you would like to see how I have lost weight in the past and kept it off for several years (before I started back to school - I am a stress eater), look at my free diet book entitled, “Slimmer Zimmer - Safe Effective Weight Loss” here.

Now that you have seen some of the prep work you will have to do to get to the point where you are willing to go though some pain, you are at the point where you have tried and failed a couple of times. Good! What? Why is that good you may be thinking. Well  I think you have learned valuable information about yourself that will allow you to design a diet and/or exercise program (yes I said you) that you can be successful with for life!

Here is the John diet. I have lost 35 plus pounds (I am reporting monthly now to take the pressure off of myself) since the beginning of the year. I have lost several pounds in a week and also did not lose anything for several weeks during this time. That is the way I like it as I am just concentrating on the steady applicaion of behaviours that will keep my weigh-loss steady.

Here is what I do (this works for my age, gender, and activity level):

• I eat 1500 to 1800 calories a day (most days)
• I walk a hour a day, most days (about 4 to 5 days a week)
• I don’t beat myself up if I eat more or exercise less in a day or week
• Tomorrow is always a new day and I know if I stay on track more often than not - I will be successful

 This is basically it, coupled with my knowledge of diets and excercise I have gleened from trying, failing, getting back up and trying again and again when I was younger. I don’t eat totally low-fat but do more often than not. I don’t do high aerobic workouts all of the time but do race walk one or two times a week. I don’t over-eat late at night as much as my wife is helping me by cooking some wonderful boca or turkey burgers on low-calorie/fat torpedo rolls that totally fill us up in the evenings. I don’t eat out at restaurants often (but more often lately as we are getting ready to move - everything in disarray) but try and limit my exposure to overly caloric or high-fat meals.

So you can see the age-old-mantra, “Everything in Moderation” is true for me so long as it makes sense. Here is what you cannot do and still be successful. You cannot have a bad eating day and think you have ruined your diet! It simply is not possible to ruin a diet in one day for most people. It takes 3500 extra calories beyond your daily needs to gain an extra pound! If you weigh an extra five pounds after a large meal - that is not true weight! Water weighs almost eight pounds per gallon so don’t worry.

What I am trying to say is after you have done the ground work to understand how diets and exercise work and make a plan - work your plan and do not easily be discouraged. The proof should be over the long haul and not over several weeks. You did not gain your weight overnight so PLEASE do not try and take if off overnight! 

After you do your due diligence you will discover that you want to lose fat and not muscle. Starvation diets do not burn fat mostly but burn muscle. That means that losing weight fast should not be an option! Losing wight slowly has another advantage - Your body will get used to you at a lighter weight for a while. This will set the stage for a wonderful plateau before your next gains(weigh-loss)! Some people speak of a “set point” or magical number that the body strives to keep your weight at and I think this ’set point’ can be adjusted by your activity level as well as caloric intake over time. The good thing about getting your body comfortable at a weight is you can then lose the next five pounds easier! At least this logic is working for me.

So now you too know the secrets of the John diet! I don’t particularly try to lose weight, I just continully do the behaviours that acheive it! Every once an a while I will buckle down and stay on track more often than not and get to the next level! No sweat. My advice to you is find a method that makes sense to you and then go about achieving your goal, whether it be increasing your excercise, decreasing your calories or some combination (or other type of diet). I know you can succeed because there is no magic, just a little pain of changing your habits to acheive your success!

While researching this topic I did find the link to the Surgeon Generals Health Weight Advice for Consumers here. The advice in a nutshell is to have a goal, keep active and eat well. The page has a lot of information that can assist a person to make wise decisions about diet and exercise. I will go over this study and point out some areas I think have merit as well as a couple of logical problems. I think anyone interested in this study should read the actual study for yourself but I will be glad to venture my opinion.

 The study mentions other previous studies that have noted that belief can play a role in results. A couple of studies are mentioned where a persons negative belief of their health, affects their mortality as well as another study that showed perception was actually a good indicator of mortality, regardless of health. Both studies led these researchers to the following question, “We wondered whether the well-known benefits of exercise are in whole or in part the result of the placebo effect.” That led to the hypothesis (paraphrasing) that increase belief has the effect of increasing the benefits of exercise.

The study selected groups of maids and tried to account for all varibles. I looked the design of the study and was satisfied that the researchers tried to keep everything between the informed and control group as even as possible. They even went to the length of keeping the groups separated by motels (so no accidental contamination of informed group to the control group.

Here is basically what they did on the first visit; the researchers went into the different motels with questionnaires and conducted test to get the raw data (blood pressure, weight, measurements and such). They (the researchers noted that the to be informed group as a whole, did not regard their job as exercise. The researchers then educated the informed group that the Surgeon Generals guidelines showed they were getting enough exercise to be active.  They were set to come back in back in one month to take the data again.

One month later they had the maids fill out the exit questionare as well as take measurments again. The informed group lost two pounds, had a lower percentage of body fat as well as dropped their blood pressure 10 points. The control group remained the same.

The researchers admit it is possible the informed group changed their behavior but noted they (the maids) said they did not change anything. The motel management did not change the maids work flow. Based on the articles I read and this studies conclusions (stating the placebo effect possibley affects exercise benifits), more study is indicated. I did not note any other critiques other than the researchers could not vouch that the informed group did not change anything.

Well on the face of this study - it looks significant. I did note a couple of problems. The first issue is the mean age of the two groups of women were different. The informed group had a mean age of 34.12 and the control group had a mean age of 42.40. This was noted in a foot note and I did not see this mentioned in any of the articles.

The second problem as I see it is the researchers depended on questionnaires to validated the informed (and contol) group did not change anything. The informed group participents may have unconsciously started eating better food choices or smaller portions because they were feeling better about their health.

I also noted that in the review of other studies, it was noted that there may have been problems because the subjects were self reporting. In this study the researchers did take their own measurments before and after but did depend on the participents to report generically if they changed anything. I would have thought at minimum total calories consumed and minutes of exercise per day would have made the results less suspect.

Now I do generally like the question, methods, and think the results followed the proper process of a study, I think the main area that negates much of this study is the mean age of the two groups. let me explain, younger people have faster metabolisms and older people have slower metabolisms. Couple this fact with the knowledge that calories and extra exercise were not tracked, means to me that the younger people may have lowered their portions and increased their exercise consciously (to please the researchers) or unconsciously (because they felt better about themselves) and skewed the results.

What do I think? I think this and the other studies show that our perceptions can lead to a placebo effect (meaning what we think can affect our results). I do not think this study proves that but it hopefully will lead to other researchers doing further research of this question and contol the variables so the results will be more meaningful.

So I don’t know about you but I think I am getting plenty of exercise! I am down thirty-five pounds since the beginning of the year and quite willing to believe things are going well. I do have a positive attitude about goals and don’t worry too much if I have set backs. Who knows… maybe this belief (placebo?) is increasing the benefit of my exercise? I’ll take any help I can get! Hang in there all. 

I had only eaten 500 calories before I got home from work and did a long workout. My wife and step-daughter came home from the Olive Garden with leftovers just in the nick of time. Needless to say I am easily around 1500 calories for the day. As always… if you create a goal and work steadily towards it.. you will achieve it! Hang in there… it is working for me!

Some of the perceived benefits for woman are (1) feeling desirable, (2) exercise, and (3) just a new fun way to lose extra pounds! I will examine these three points and as well as discuss the benefits of exercise for any weight-loss plan. I should say that when I say ‘weight-loss’ that I really mean ‘fat-loss’! Yes I think that women look better with lean body mass versus the gaunt look that women who starved themselves, look like.

I know women think guys look better when we have some muscle definition after we lose weight. Why do I bring this up? Losing weight is the politically correct way to say fat loss. It is easier not to offend someone by using the term of ‘weight-loss’ but everyone should know you/I are not talking about starving yourself!  I found a youtube video with a news story about “Goddess Dance Studio” pole dancing classes for health and fitness.

Wow… did you notice that the women in the CNN story and the Goddess Dance Studio were seeing results? Ok lets look at the first point about the psychological benefits of pole dancing. Women feel more confident when they are feeling good about their looks. If a woman feels good and knows she looks good, I would suggest that she will be more confident in her life. I don’t think there is anything wrong with wanting to feel confident. Many men need to feel confident too but I for instance gauge this by sparring (karate). Well I fully support any physical activity that help a person towards their fitness goals. But lets look at the exercises.

Did you notice that the women had to climb the pole and spin, hang upside down and push off and back? While it may look easy by a good practitioner, I remember from my rope climbs in junior high-school - that is significant exercise. The thing I really like about actual exercises vs dumbbells is the body gets pleanty of peripheral workout. I mean that the biceps are not isolated like in a dumbbell curl but rather other muscles are having to work if you pull yourself towards the pole. This leads to a full body workout. The fact that the women are trying to make it look easy means their are in better shape! But Pole Dancing?

Do you remember Suzanne Summers doing the Thigh Master? How about the whatever glider or any other such exercise fad? I had a statistics instructor that was in his 70’s that let us do the devil wheel for extra credit. There are many exercises that will burn calories and are also fun. One craze that is still ongoing is karate aerobics as I reported in this post entitled, “Karate Aerobics to Get Into Shape.” I think all of these ways to increase movement and burn calories are valid ways to lose weight. Why should one walk on a treadmill if there is an alternative, fun way to burn calories?

I used to make fun of people that spent a lot of time in the gym and did not do anything else because other than getting into shape - what fun was that? I think that ultimately exercise can transition into activities that have other benefits. If you like walking on a treadmill, why not walk for the march of dimes every year or go hiking to keep your workouts interesting? At least this way - you will have a goal of increasing your stamina for something! Ok - I am digressing but I think doing fun workouts will keep people interested and hence working out longer than if they just had weight-loss as a goal.

By the way I have lost another pound so I am feeling good! I hope you all are doing well out there. Keep the faith and take one day at a time. As far as women pole dancing for health? Viva La Difference!

Methods In this 2-year trial, we randomly assigned 322 moderately obese subjects (mean age, 52 years; mean body-mass index [the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters], 31; male sex, 86%) to one of three diets: low-fat, restricted-calorie; Mediterranean, restricted-calorie; or low-carbohydrate, non–restricted-calorie.

 Ok - so far so good but it seemed a little off-kilter already with 86% of the participants being men. The confusing part to me after reading the two-year results (converted into pounds) were:

• The low-fat group lost 6.39 pounds
• The Mediterranean group lost 9.70 pounds
• The low-carbohydrate group lost 10.36

I am going to point out the study’s results, benifits and then the logical problems that many readers of this study might notice (at least I did). I will also speak about existing alternatives that work (I have lost 30 pounds so far since the beginning of the year). I found this Hardee’s low-carb Goldilocks spoof in honor this study’s low-carb diet winner for your perusal.

The study’s conclusions (from the abstract) was that Mediterranean and low-carb diets are good choices when considering low-fat diets. The study also notices some glycemic and metabolic benifits of these two diets when compared to the low-fat diet. 

In the discussion section the writers suggested that one benefits of the low-carbohydrate diet might be for people that do not like to follow a diet (because of no caloric restrictions).

One good thing about this study is the participants were followed and cataloged often, allowing researchers to find some seemingly answers as well as other questions for other areas of study.

As I see it there are four main problems with this study that make the results suspect:

1. 1500 calories for women and 1800 calories for men selected for the low-fat and Mediteraen diets
2. The low-fat diet and the Mediterraen diet were about the same percentage of fat
3. Low-fat diets are more normally from 10% to 20% of fat calories
4. The amount of exercise was not part of the overall plan but rather calculated on an individual basis

 Since the study had 86% men, I used a internet calculator to get a range of calories the average 52 year-old, 5′9″ (I think the average) man that does little to no exercise. The base caloric needs are 1548 calories. The total combined caloric needs are 1857 calories (with his little to no exercise) and his suggested calories to affect weight-loss are 1357 calories a day. You will notice that this is well under the 1800 calories a day the study allowed for both the low-fat and Mediterranean diet.

I already pointed out that a low-fat and the Mediterraen diet had about the same percentage of fat. The low-fat diet in this study was based on the American Heart Association guidelines. The problem with using 30% for a low-fat diet is do you then extrapolate that 50% fat is a medium-fat diet and 70% fat is a high-fat diet? I’m being facetious here but think about this… if low fat is as high as the Mediterraen diet… how is that low-fat? The more normal low-fat diets are as outlined in my book entitled, “Slimmer Zimmer” or this CNN story about a study cutting ovarian cancer risks with a low-fat diet (both around 20% fat). 

I would have liked to have seen exercise be a big part of the variables when setting up this study as exercise can negate some of the caloric intake reduction needed to lose weight! In the example of the 5′9″, 52 year-old man that decides to do moderate exercise (as opposed to little to none), you will see the base rate increase to 1588 (calories) and the total calories used increased to 2399. This increase in activity level would allow this man to diet by eating about 1900 calories a day! 

Here is what I think. This was a well intentioned study that did not take into real-life variables and therefore does not have much applicability to real-people. Think about it… normal diets that nutritionists design today can have people safely losing one to two pounds a week based on total diet and exercise. So please forgive me if I am not all that impressed with a comparison of a flawed (my opinion) study where the best two-year results are less than eleven pounds!

Now that you know my opinion of this study’s applicability to dieting, I do think this study has excellent, salient points for academic researchers. Unfortunately this study fell short of evaluating real low-fat, Mediterranean and low-carb diets that are in use today (based on the low-fat diet being off). I will admit that I do not have a lot of knowledge of the Mediterranean diet but I believe my guess to be accurate because none of the diets in this study had any real results (.015 pound lost a day or 11 pounds for two years).

Sorry this was more of an evaluation than my normal motivational posts… I was just intrigued by this study and how people might perceive it in the real world. What do you think?