My fat loss commandments

This is what I've been doing during the last week and it has worked so far for me. I hope this help, specially for those of you that think you have to starve to lose weight. The first thing and most important thing that I focus on is WHOLE, NATURAL food, the way they came out of the earth. No processed foods or minimal processed foods, so right there you're eliminating a wholo bunch of food from your list (sodas, candies, baked goods, trans fats, cakes, chips, fried food, etc). I used to be a heavy soda drinker, but since I stopped, I have felt a loe better. If there's only one thing that you would do to lose fat than do this and you will get results.

Once that you start eating natural food, than it's time to eat 5-6 small meals per day. Why is this important? Because our bodies process calories better when they are given little by little. If you eat too many calories in one sitting, your body will use the calories it needs at that certain meal and then store the rest of the calories as fat. So, don't neglect this important rule as I do beleive that is has a lot to do with the results that I've gotten so far.

After that you wanna make sure you're doing your resistance/weight training. Why? because it burns way more calories than regular, slow paced cardio. The more muscle you use during a certain exercise, the more you will burn, and that's exactly what you do when you train with weights, wether is dumbells, barbells, or your own body weight. Don't be fooled, if your heart rate goes up, you're huffin' and puffin' and sweating like a mad man, that it is cardio, doesn't matter if your holding a dumbell in your hand. So, remember, if you had to chose between doing only one form of exercise for the rest of your life, you wanna chose resistance training all the time.

The fourth tip is to drink ridicoulusly big amounts of water. Often times is the simple things that matter, and while this rule might sound to simple for you, it will get you a long way if you're already doing what I explained in tips 1, 2 and 3.

Finally, and this is optional but it has help me a lot with my cravings for sweets is green iced tea. I make a big batch of green tea and then add sweetener and ice to it and that is my beverage for the whole day, along with plain water of course. Whatever helps you control cravings is welcome and this has worked wonders for me so I don't crave the deadly coca cola.

So there you have it. That is what I've doing during this last week to lose 3lbs. I will keep you posted with more tips that I might find helpful and with what I eat on a regular day. Until then, Stay healthy and lean.

Firtst week results.

SOOOOOOO, I'm soooo excited because first week is over and I have lost 3lbs. Yes, I did, and I didn't even think that I was gonna lose any weight at all being that I binged on junk food the whole weekend. But today the scale and the tape showed me a lot of love. I lost 4 cm total (1cm of my arms, 1 off my waist, 1 off my hips and 1 off my thighs). 

So, according to this results, what I've been doing so far has been working and I will keep doing it. The best part is that I'm not starving myself like before, I'm actually enjoying eating healthy. I'm not eating low carb, low fat, low anything, everything is balanced and I don't feel restricted at all. In my next post I will be sharing what I've been doing to get me these results.

One more try

So, after all this time I decided to go back on track with my fat loss journey. A lot has happened since the last time I posted an entry. Unfortunately, I've lost a lot of time during this year, I haven't been eating well, and my exercise has been on and off. So, basically I ''fell of the wagon'' one more time. But then again, I don't want to stay a fat person, I'm not one of those to think that one is destinided to be fat.

So, after going to a resort for a weekend and realizing how much work I still need to do, and getting inspiration from people that are going through the same thing as I am, I finally got my motivation back on track, and decided to start once again.

One of the problems that I had before is that I was trying to hard. For example, I would get on a very restricted diet to try and lose weight fast, and I would lose some weight, but I would give up after a week and go back to my old way of eating. Or, embarking on exercise routines that were too hard for me so I would just stop doing it all together after just a few workouts. This time I decided to just take it slowly and do a steady and constant effort.

It's been going really well so far, I took my measurments last tuesday and so far I've lost 1lb. It sounds like nothing but it's only been 4 days, so it's good. I'm very happy because it feels effortless which is the way to go if you want to be on this for a long time.

So far, I've not lost one single workout and my nutrition is improving a lot. The most dramatic change has been quiting soda since I used to be a very heavy soda drinker. I've replaced it for green tea and lemon with ice. It's really good and I have not missed soda at all.

So far so good. I started on sep 27th and I'll be taking my measurements again on monday. Hopefully everything will go well.

WOMEN, SHOULD YOU HIT THE WEIGHTS?

The first thing that the trainer told me and the other ladies that started that day that were very overweighted was no weights for the first weeks. You should only do cardio until you lose some of the fat so it doesn’t bulk you up because it can turn into muscle. What!?

So, for the following weeks I only did cardio for and nothing else, while the rather skinny chicks were allowed to be on the machines and even have sweet drinks while at the gym. Whao, huh? Well, it seemed like common sense at the time, after all, what did I know. And still today that’s a misconception that’s still preventing a lot of women to do resistance training. They still think they’ll bulk up like a guy if they too much and that’s only for men, right? If someone told me something like that know I would turn around and walk the other way.

What if I tell you that the most effective way to lose fat, yes, you read it well, not build muscle, TO LOSE FAT, is resistance training? It trumps cardio everytime. Yes ladies, you should be hitting the weights from day one at the gym or at home if you want to lose fat faster.

The reason for this is that when you go on a resistence training program you put your muscles through a lot of stress so your body has to work very hard to recover from all that hard work. In the process a lot of calories are burned because your muscles have their own metabolism.

By working out like this you will keep burning calories even after the workout is over. Yes, because your body is still working to get things back to normal. So your body becomes a fat burning machine. When you do a 30 min. cardio session you will only lose 200 to 300 calories, 400 if your exercise was intense. But the fat burning effect will only last while the workout lasts. After you go home you won’t burn any more calories.

I mean, go online and look for the leanest, more toned and sexy women out there. Do you think they got that body doing just cardio? No way. They hit the weights, and they do it hard.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a place for cardio in your workouts, but 1) it shouldn’t be your number one resource to burn fat and 2) you have to do the right type of cardio, which is high intensity sprint like cardio, in which you work with all your efforts for a short period of time and then you rest for short period of time. That type of cardio protocol burns a lot more calories than low to moderate intensity cardio.

So ladies, next time your so called training expert tells you that the weights are not for you, you know what to do.

Virginia Jimenez

CAN YOU EXERCISE ONLY WITHOUT DIETING AND STILL LOSE FAT?

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Ok, let’s face it. We, humans beings, don’t like to go in diets. We don’t want to give up our pizza, or ice-cream, or that delicious hamburger that makes us feel so good after a very stressed day. Sometimes, even though we do want to lose weight, it seems like it’s too much to give away.

So a lot of people say : ok, I wanna lose weight, but I won’t change anything in my nutrition, I’ll just keep eating the same way I do and throw in some exercise. That’ll do the trick for me, right? Does that ring a bell? You know what I’m talking about, you’ve probably done it yourself. I know I have. Well, let me tell you the hard, cold truth:

This approach is flat out WRONG! Unfortunately, that’s not how your body works. The MOST IMPORTANT thing when it comes to fat loss is, yes, you guessed, GOOD, SOUND NUTRITION! That means that you will have to eat clean (veggies, lean proteins, fruits, whole grains, legumes, etc) and cut some calories from your daily consumption.

Let me tell you a little story. It goes back to the first time I got into a fat loss journey. I was 15 years old and didn’t really know much of nutrition or fitness or anything of that matter (that itself was a problem). So, I joined the local gym at my community, by the way, it was the first gym open in our area, so everybody was attending; I started doing some regular cardio in the stationary bike and aerobics and some weights every now and then. I didn’t really have a structured program (second point of alarm).

I wasn’t really dieting either. I didn’t change anything in the way I was eating. I though that since ``I was going to the gym`` that itself was enough for me. I even remember one night that I ate a cheese sandwich at 11:00PM! Yes, I did that and still hoped to lose weight. On top of that, I wasn’t really being consistent with my efforts. I would missed a lot of workouts, just not taking it seriously.

Well, now for the results. Do you know how many pounds I lost in the 4 or so months that I did that? The answer is ZERO. Yeap, that’s right. I didn’t cut one single pound off my frame. Do you wanna know why I didn’t lose any pounds during that time? Here’s the explanation.

People who try to approach fat loss this way start going to the gym and rely on cardio only as their main fat loss resource. This is flat out wrong because with a good 1 hour cardio session you will only lose about 400 to 500 calories, and that is considering the workout was pretty intense. But we all know that a lot of people go to the gym to chit chat with their bodies while walking on the treadmill at a ridiculous slow pace or to watch the TV and are not really concentrated on the exercise.

Then , they go home, thinking that they worked soooo hard (ah, not) and then eat a dinner that has the same amount of calories that they just burned on the treadmill. If you add to that an energy drink, like Gatorade that has 50 calories, they pretty much wasted their time at the gym. So guess what, at the end of the week you lost 0 pounds. That’s the reason why a lot of people actually gain weight during the first weeks when they try to loose weight.

There are 3,500 calories in one pound of fat. So, if you cut your calories by 500 a day for 7 days you will lose 1 pound of fat a week. 500x7 = 3,500. Makes sense, right? If you add to that a good weight training program with some cardio you will lose even more than that.

That is why you can not ``out train a bad diet``. You have to focus on improving your diet first and combine that with a sound exercise program that relies more on weight training than regular cardio. That right there is a winning combination for those trying to stripped the fat off their systems.

So, next time someone tells you their going to start exercising without making any changes to their diets, you can have a laugh (in your head if you don’t wanna offend them) because now you know better.

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TOP TIPS LOSE TO FAT.

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A lot of people are in a stage of their lives where they want to start eating and living healthier and lose fat. But often times they don’t know where to start. That’s why I wanted to put together a few of the tips that have helped a lot of people start that journey.

If you’re a complete beginner who have never diet before, start by making small changes to your diet. Don’t try to eat like a bodybuilder from the start because most likely you’ll find it too hard to keep. So, start one step at a time and until you don’t master that one habit, don’t move onto another strategy.

So, here are a few tips to get you started on your fat loss journey.

1. avoid all fried foods (fried chicken, fried fish, French fries, etc.). They have way too many calories and trans fats that are very bad for your health.
2. avoid candies, cookies, cakes, syrups, sodas, and all baked goods. They’re packed with empty calories and no fiber and an excess of sugar that will produce a  spike in your system, that will leave you craving for more sugar afterwards and the excess insuline that  will be produced in the process will lead to fat storage.
3. substitute butter, soy bean oil, corn oil and all fats that have been processed for extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil. This fats are healthy and actually will help you lose fat because they’re necessary to produce fat burning hormones and keep them in balance.
4. avoid fast food restaurants. Eat at home and prepare your own meals as much as possible.
5. eat lean protein with every meal. This will keep you satisfied for longer and your body has to use more calories to digest protein as opposed to carbs and fats.
6. try to eat as natural as you can, the way they came from earth. Avoid things from a bag or a box.
7. limit your alcohol consumption. Especially those who like to go out on weekends a lot. Too much buzz doesn’t math with a six pack.
8. an advanced strategy when if you have reached a plateau or if you’re trying to lose the last 15 or 10 pounds of stubborn fat is to limit your starchy carbs and sugars. Or if you have a tendency to gain weight this will specially helpful. This means fibrous carbs, lean proteins and healthy fats and fruits only.
9. drink at least 2 lt. of water throughout the entire day. This will help your body function properly and sometimes quench your hunger.
10. have a good exercise program to go along with your diet. People who go on diets without exercise tend to lose a lot of muscle mass in the process leading to a slower metabolism and fat gain after they leave the diet.

Like I said at the beginning, don’t be too hard on yourself at the start and try to go from two hamburgers and a large soda to chicken breast and broccoli from day one. Introduce one change and try it for a week or two then assess your progress. If it worked for you and you lost weight then keep doing it, if you didn’t lose any weight or you look the same, make the proper adjustments and go from there until your diet is as clean as possible.

There you have it. This tips are good for anyone who is starting their fat loss journey and a reminder for those of you who have already started. Something else you might wanna do is keep a food journal so you know exactly how many calories you need to eat, because too much of a good food can also make you fat if your exceeding you caloric expenditure. I hope you find this information useful. Until the next newsletter,

Virginia Jiménez

My measurments

Here are my numbers as of november 15 2010:

Neck: 38cm
Chest: 114cm
Arms: 41cm
Waist at narrowest point: 95cm
Waist at navel: 10cm
Hips: 117cm
Thighs: 69cm
BF%: 32.9% (using Accu Measure caliper)
Weight: 219lbs