Weight loss is not rocket science

The basis of losing weight is simple. You have to burn more calories than what you shove into your mouth. In order to be successfully, you want to burn 500 more than what you take in.

Sounds easy right? Well, yes it is. Remove soda's, fruit juices, and that bagel and cream cheese and you are looking at an easy 500 calories. A bagel is anywhere from 250 to 300 calories just by itself. OJ is 110 calories for every 8 ounces. Add the cream cheese and the soda and there is your 500.

Now, you've removed 500 calories from your diet. Ok, now walk for an hour, but make sure you cover a good 3.5 to 4 miles. You've just burned another 300 calories. Your daily deficit is now 800 calories.

Now the funny thing about your body is that it wants to survive. Cutting out just the calories will work in the short term. Eventually your body will learn to live on 500 less calories a day. It slows your metabolism down to the point that you can survive on less and less food.

You fight that by increasing your lean muscle mass. Which means you must do some sort of resistance training. Muscles help burn calories, even while you rest. You increase muscle, you increase your metabolism.

You also fight that by eating more often. Have your 1500 calories in 5 separate meals. The more often you eat, the more your body realizes that it does not have to store food for the intensive workout it knows it will be getting later. If your body things it will not be getting any food, it hordes what it has and will refuse to let go. You also have to learn what to eat when. We are limiting the amount of calories you ingest. So, you want to try to allot more of those calories to proteins and less to carbohydrates. And as a general rule, avoid the carbs during the times that you are not going to use them. If you work out early in the morning, then maybe have the carbs in the evening. If you work out at night, have your carbs early in the day. Keeping in mind that whichever carbs are not used up get converted to fat real easily.

Now, another funny thing about your body. It is lazy. Say you ate a 6 inch sub. You go work out an hour later. Should you do your cardio first or your resistance training first? The resistance training should be first. Doing this first will burn whatever is left of that sandwich. The body will want to use the easiest available energy source. Cardio is the best method of reducing fat. But if you have a readily available sandwich in your tummy, that will go first before your body is forced to use its energy stores. And guess where it stores energy? Well that all depends...

If the cardio is anaerobic which means without oxygen, it's not burning fat. It needs quick energy to feed the muscles and the heart. Your body will end up breaking down the muscle for its energy source. Not good if you are trying to increase your muscle to, in turn, increase your metabolism. You want to do aerobic exercise. Which means with oxygen. How can you tell the difference? Try reciting the Pledge of Allegiance while you exercise. If you can only sputter one word at a time, its anaerobic. If you can say a verse at a time then you are good and burning away your fat.

So what does this all mean? If you do those classes in the gym, do them after you do some resistance training. Additionally, if you can't recite the Pledge, then slow it down! Finally, this is key. You have to take one day where you just rest and you eat. Let your body know that not every day will be the same. Give it time to recover, and rebuild the muscles. Feed it some fatty foods, pizza, and ice cream, and everything yummy. Every persons body is different and will respond differently. But I have done this twice now and it works very well for me. If I leave any part of what I just said out, then I won't lose weight.

Damn, you know what? After reading this - maybe it is rocket science.