Topic - Light on your skis -
weight loss
Date first posted on eCommunity - 19
January 2009
It's mid-January and the gym where I work as a
personal trainer is
buzzing with New Year's Resolutions, most of them involving weight loss.
Here is
a selection of the weight-management advice we offer to our members,
which I
give now on the assumption (I may be totally wrong . . .) that many
skiers will
have made similar resolutions.
We recommend tackling the problem through a combination of aerobic
exercise, strength training, diet, and various other ways of raising
the body's metabolic rate.
AEROBIC EXERCISE
Aerobic exercise is the main choice of most overweight gym users,
and it's a good choice. Machines like treadmills, cross-trainers,
rowers, steppers and bikes are all effective ways to expend energy
and burn fat. It is however important to train at the right
intensity, and we encourage members to work within training zones
based on their heart rates. In a previous posting we talked about
this. (See posting of 15 June 2008, The Training Year: Base
Training - Endurance, for the arithmetic.) Many of the out-of-
condition members are surprised at how low an intensity is required
to get them into their zone. But equally, some of the fitter people
are surprised to learn that the intensity at which they normally
train is too low to give them the benefit they want.
If a member is seriously out of condition we advise them to take
things slowly and to work at a steady pace, for example to walk on a
treadmill at a steady 3mph for about 30 minutes (after warming up).
This will give them a calorie burn of around 150kcals for the 30
minutes. And it will also raise their metabolic rate for a few hours
after the workout, in an afterburn effect in which the body burns
more than the usual amount of energy, because it needs to repair
itself after the stresses imposed by the workout.
However with a fitter member we often recommend some form of
interval or pyramid training. This might still involve walking on a
treadmill, but now the member might alternate 5-minute periods at
3.5mph with 2-minute periods at 4mph. (The actual speeds and
durations are determined by looking at the fitness of the
individual, but we generally aim at a spread of about 60-80 per cent
of their maximum heart rate.) With interval training, the "fast"
speed is set higher than the individual's usual steady pace, and
this makes it more intense than steady-pace training - so the
calorie burn is usually higher. An additional and important benefit
is that the afterburn is more intense than with steady-pace
training - and it also lasts much longer, up to 18 hours. So the
post-training calorie burn is also high.
We also recommend that members do a daily short workout at home
before breakfast, with a view mainly to increasing their metabolic
rate.
RESISTANCE TRAINING
Muscle tissue is - metabolically - very active, much more so than
fat. So the more muscle you build, the more calories you will use
even when you are resting. The rule of thumb is that for every pound
of muscle that you gain, your body will use about 50 extra calories
per day.
Many gym users know this already. And they have also read that
regular resistance training can raise basal metabolic rates by up to
15 per cent. So they are not opposed to the idea of using resistance
machines or even free weights.
But they are often surprised to learn that for resistance training
to be effective it needs to feel like pretty hard work. Left to
their own devices many will happily knock out 50 repetitions on a
machine set at a very low resistance - with almost negligible
benefit. As a general rule we try get them to perform three
sets of 10 reps, with the weight set high enough to cause fatigue by
the last two reps. (So, if they were to continue beyond 10 reps they
could maybe manage 12, but not 20.) We recommend they progress by
increasing the rep count gradually, over a few weeks, to 15. When
they get to 15 they should increase the weight and reduce the rep
count back to 10.
DIET
Most people seem to have a fair idea, in principle, of what
constitutes a good diet - the woman who had four croissants every
day for breakfast was a notable exception - and we don't get
involved in the detail of their diet unless asked. But we do
recommend that they use a food diary and record all intake of food
and drink for at least a week. We give them the choice to approach
it on a "usual-behaviour" or "best-behaviour" basis. If they opt
for "usual-behaviour" they will often be galvanized into action when
they see the sheer number of naughty treats ingested, or when they
see the unbalanced scheduling of their food intake - very commonly
miserly breakfasts and lunches and then heavy dinners late in the
evening. If they opt instead for "best-behaviour" they may lose a
couple of pounds during the week they are recording, which is very
motivating.
BOOSTING BASAL METABOLIC RATE
Your body uses a lot of energy simply in staying alive. Your basal
metabolic rate - the amount of energy you require even if you just
lie in bed all day - can be about 60 percent of your total daily
requirement. So anything you can do to boost your basal metabolic
rate is worth considering. Here are some effective examples:
- Drinking plenty of water
- Pre-breakfast workouts - already discussed
- Drinking green tea
- Eating little and often
- Eating spicy food. According to www.weightlossresources.co.uk,
"There is evidence to show that spices, especially chilli, can raise
the metabolic rate by up to 50% for up to 3 hours after you've eaten
a spicy meal." This is known as the thermogenic effect of spice.
Another website, www.alive.com, gives a longer list of the most
potent spices: cayenne, mustard and cinnamon. It also mentions
parsley and bay leaves.
- Turning down your central heating. The body has to work harder to
stay warm.
- Having a sauna. Again the body has to work hard to regulate its
temperature.
Not all of the above recommendations are suitable for everyone. Some
people should not eat spice, some should not take saunas, and some
should not lift weights. But I hope most people will find it a good
starting point.
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