What if Someone Wants to Lose Weight? Do Your Recommendations Change?
No. I don't count calories. I count food quality and ensure the diet is biologically compatible for each individual. "Weight" is an outdated term. Body composition is what really matters. Weight is the influence of gravity on body mass. What body mass? Do you need to lose body fat, gain lean mass or improve muscle tone? Are your upper and lower body and especially your core in good shape? Are you well developed from the inside out?
As we age, we tend to lose functional lean mass (this includes everything but fat) and gain non-functional body fat. This phenomenon is called sarcopenia. Slowly but surely this undesirable change in body composition increases risk of morbidity and mortality. The good news is that we can prevent what many think is inevitable by manipulating our genes with progressive exercise and optimum nutrition.
The objective of exercise is to get fit, not lose "weight." Body composition is modified best through nutrition, meaning careful manipulation of macronutrients (fats, carbs and protein). You learn to supply your biological demand in relation to energy requirements, physical activity and individual body type. This is the prime directive of nutrition.
Over-consumption of refined carbohydrates, denatured protein and damaged non-essential fats disrupts our neurological and endocrine control centers. Damaged food damages the brain. Aging is accelerated. To live lean we need to think lean, live clean and get in touch with reality. Everyone should have a complete fitness assessment once a year that includes a test for muscle strength, muscle endurance, flexibility, aerobic capacity and body composition (not BMI). Performance is where the rubber hits the road!
Lots of People Wonder What the Optimum Ratio of and Is for General Fitness. What Do You Think?
Strength training (resistance) comes first. Ratio depends on what kind of a body you have and what you're goals are. There is no assembly line, "one shoe fits all" approach in natural medicine. Both cardio, especially high-intensity intermittent cardio (also known as interval training), and strength training are essential for health and wellness, as well as stretching, core and balance work. Total fitness requires a holistic well-rounded approach.
A common mistake is to perform cardio first, thinking you need to "burn off" the fat. No! You warm-up, then hit the weights to strengthen and build your skeletal muscle. Muscle is the health engine where the fat is burned. Lose your muscle and you lose your strength, power and fat-burning capacity. Functional muscle and the immune system are tied together. Muscle produces the glutamine antibodies (white blood cells) require for [cell] reproduction. Lose one and you lose the other.
Weight training stimulates growth hormone release and raises testosterone (this is essential for woman too). It improves insulin sensitivity. Except for sprinting, cardio isn't anabolic, it's actually catabolic (muscle wasting). You use muscle but you don't build muscle when you run long distance. After hitting the weights (anaerobic) your glycogen levels are depleted. Now you'll oxidize fatty acids more efficiently with cardio (aerobic), especially interval training. Comparatively speaking, low to moderate intensity cardio is not an effective way to lose body fat or improve cardiovascular health.
Aerobic exercise performed after weight training converts the lactic acid produced during resistance training into reusable energy and prepares the body for a good stretch routine. Cardio improves oxygen uptake and strengthens the heart. Do cardio after the weights and watch the fat peel off. This is probably the opposite of what you've been told.
