How to Shed Those Holiday Pounds!
We just finished with the marathon of Holidays, starting with Thanksgiving, rolling onto Christmas and finishing with New Year’s Eve. While there is much to look forward to during the holiday season, food is always a focal point for many family holiday celebrations, and with great food, unfortunately, comes extra calories. If you are an avid gym goer or a beginner starting out, you may find it is not always so simple to lose weight. Some people can simply cut their daily latte out, add in some cardio, and poof! The weight is gone. But I, like many others, find they need to devote a little more thought and attention to shedding those pesky pounds. Any form of exercise is good to stay healthy, but some forms of exercise are better than others for losing weight, reducing body fat percentage and minimizing your waistline. The question is, what is the ideal form of exercise for maximum weight loss? The answer to your question is Aerobic Exercise.
AEROBIC EXERCISE? WHAT’S THAT?
Aerobic exercise is a type of exercise that uses oxygen for fuel while anaerobic exercise relies primarily on stored energy in your muscles. Examples of aerobic exercise can include running, swimming, cycling and power walking, while anaerobic exercise includes movement such as sprinting, plyometrics and weightlifting.
I bet some of you read that last paragraph and said to yourself, “I already do aerobic exercise, but I am not losing weight!” While aerobic exercise is the best way to lose weight, there are a couple of key factors that can mean the difference between losing weight and not. The first element is time! How much time spent per week engaging in aerobic activities matters immensely. A recent study has shown that a minimum of 150 minutes per week of aerobic activity is helpful to stimulate weight loss. To break that down into sessions per day, 5 sessions of 30 minutes a day or 3 sessions of 50 minutes a day would fit the bill. If you are really looking to lose some weight, there have been even greater benefits noticed at 300 minutes per week, or 5 sessions of 60 minutes per week!
INTENSITY MATTERS!
Another element that factors greatly into weight loss is intensity, and in this scenario, intensity matters! When trying to lose weight, all types of aerobic exercise help but vigorous-intensity interval training has been shown to help the most. I’ve listed an example of what would be considered a vigorous-intensity interval training protocol.
After completing a 10 minute warmup, hop on a treadmill and perform 4 sets of 4-minute interval runs at 85-95% of your max heart rate. In between each 4-minute set, walk for 3 minutes at 50-60% of your max heart rate. Complete this sequence 4 times per week for a total of 6 weeks.
Weeks 1-2: Interval intensity is 85% of max heart rate
Weeks 3-4: Increase intensity to 90% of max heart rate
Weeks 5-6: Increase intensity to 95% of max heart rate.
If you are not the biggest fan of running on a treadmill, there are many other ways you can incorporate aerobic exercise into your workout! At both Hillsborough and Princeton, we have the equipment and the space necessary to put together a total body workout that will kick your butt. For example, today I did a Zone 2 workout on the turf using less than 4 pieces of equipment. When I say Zone 2, I mean more steady state aerobic exercise than high intensity. I’ve listed the workout below!
20 Min AMRAP
10 Pushups
100 M Low Bear Crawl
100 M Sled Drag
20 Calories Ski Erg
10 Calories Assault Bike
The goal is to maintain a “conversational pace”, or in other words, don’t push so hard you find yourself gasping for air. If you do, take a rest and allow your heart rate to come back down, and continue. I find if I take measured breaths through my nose, it allows me to self-regulate my heartrate! If I were looking to lose weight, I would simply increase the time to 30 minutes or more and complete one a day, at least 5 days a week.
CONSISTENCY IS KEY!
Some things to keep in mind when starting a new exercise program! Seeing results takes time. Change doesn’t happen overnight, even though we all wish it would. Consistency is super important when starting a new habit, not only to maintain the habit but also to see results in the long run. Don’t get frustrated when you are struggling to see any noticeable differences, either in appearance or in the number on the scale. I promise the changes are happening, but sometimes it can take a little longer for us to notice them. I always like to say, in a week, you’ll feel the difference. In two weeks, others will notice the difference. And in three weeks to a month, you’ll start to see the difference as well!
STAY ACTIVE!
It is important to not reduce or cut back on your existing activity level when trying to lose weight. I work out 4 days a week and consider myself relatively active. In order to lose weight, I would maintain my normal workout routine but add the 30 minute AMRAP at the end of my already scheduled workouts. People often make the mistake of cutting back on their normal activity level when they start adding in exercise, but it is important to maintain your normal activity level and add additional exercise on top of it!
DIAL IN YOUR NUTRITION!
Another component to be aware of when trying to lose weight is your nutrition! I find dialing in on your nutrition can have almost more of an impact than exercise when trying to lose those last stubborn pounds, especially around the waistline. Some tips that help me the most are:
- Stay away from alcohol!
- Cut out processed foods and stick to whole foods as much as possible.
- Eat more protein!
- Hydrate often and use electrolytes when necessary.
- Track your food.
- Limit “cheat meals” as much as possible!
- And probably the most important tip, don’t starve yourself!
Don’t forget! You are adding additional activity on top of what you already do! While you do want to be in a caloric deficit, your body still needs sufficient calories to power you through your day. Undereating can have just as much of a negative impact on weight loss as overeating!
ASK FOR HELP!
If you’re reading this and thinking to yourself, “I don’t even know where to start!”, you may benefit from sitting down with one of our personal trainers to put together a workout plan personalized to you. They can help you create a workout plan, dial in your nutrition and provide the accountability necessary to succeed in meeting your goals
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