Body fat - What is the easiest way to measure it?

People usually measure their weight loss progress through body weight - which in my personal view is not the best method of tracking your weight loss. If you gain muscle and lose fat at the very same time, you will either gain weight (overall) or you will not see a major change in your weight...whereas you will have made improvements to your body composition.

You should always track your weight loss through body fat measurements, as they are a lot more accurate and give you a clearer picture. There are a number of methods to calculate your body fat percentage including the skinfold method, Bioelectric body fat analyzers and height and circumference method.

There is a lot on the internet talking about what the best method is, what you should buy to get most accurate results and why all other methods are point less. I'm not going to do that. Firstly, I'll just tell you that all methods work. You don't need a 10 decimal place accuracy to track your progress, you need estimates. All the methods will give you an estimate, one way or the other, so if you have a bioelectric calculator, then stick to it. Don't throw it away just because someone said that the skinfold or pinch method is more accurate.

I recommend all my clients to use any method, as long as you are actually tracking their body fat and not weight. If someone does not want to invest any money they, they just use my inch tape. The guys measure their waist once a week to see of there have been any change and the women track their hips and/or thighs. I agree that this is not going to be as accurate as the very well researched methods but it works pretty well. Guys always lose the maximum fat from the belly and girls always lose the maximum amount from the hips and thighs. You need to make it easy for yourself. You do not have to invest in any thing to get fit and even track your progress.

Hope this helps guys. I'll start posting more frequently, so stay tuned :)

How to create your own fat loss exercise plan

A number of you guys really appreciated the last ‘How to’ post…here comes another one :-). The best way to lose fat and keep it off is to have a good diet and exercise regularly. The last post mentioned ‘how to create your own fat loss diet plan’ and today I will discuss ‘how to create your own fat loss exercise plan’.

The first step is to establish when you can workout. Some say that the best time to workout is in the morning before breakfast when glycogen stores are very low. Others say that you should try to workout in the evening as you don’t have enough energy in the morning and you will burn what you have eaten throughout the day. Which one is better? Answer to this is – It doesn’t matter. Do what suits you best. Both have their benefits and working out is more important thing than the time.

Match time with diet plan: We have discussed what your diet should be like, so you need to match the timings with your diet. At the same time, you need to see what is possible for YOU to do. What I mean to say is that if you workout in the morning, your breakfast need to be different to when you workout in the evening.

Identify equipment: You may have some exercise equipment at home, you may be a gym goer (or thinking of joining a gym) or you may simple want to use your own body to do the workouts. Regardless of what you choose, you need to identify which one suits you best. You can work each and every body part with absolutely no equipment, so you don't have any equipment excuse.

Identify strength trainings: As a beginner, all you need to concentrate on is 4 major muscle groups. These are the chest, shoulders, back and thighs (or the entire lower body). Don’t break up your workout, do full body every time you do strength training. Look for compound exercises for these muscle groups. If you have some kind of exercise equipment, try and see how you can use that to work these muscles. Make sure that all are compound movements and not isolation. Compound movements use more than 1 muscle group. It can be 1 major muscle and 2 or 3 minor muscles or can be 2 major muscle groups. The key point here is that – the more muscle movement, the more the calorie burn. Try and make a plan where you completely exhaust these muscle groups. Start off with one exercise per muscle group then introduce supper sets, then alternate between upper body lower body. Whatever you think will exhaust these muscles. Exhausting is very important for EPOC (I will discuss EPOC in a later post). Don't do strength training everyday. I suggest doing it on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If you want to lose fat from your stomach, thighs or butt, don’t just do crunches or donkey kicks. Spot reduction is one of the biggest myths of the fitness industry. You need to do full body workouts.

Identify cardio: Do any cardio you like. It can be jumping jacks, cycling, walking etc. - whatever you like. However, you need to do it in an HIIT and varying format. During the beginning stages, do the HIIT training on days when you are not doing strength training. Once you think you are fit enough, do HIIT right after your strength workouts. This will burn calories like you cannot even imagine. On the other days i.e. the non-strength/HIIT days, do any kind of cardio for about 20 – 30 minutes, but keep changing your speed every minute or so. Go very fast, then very slow, then medium. Basically, mix it up a bit.

Resting days: I usually take Sundays off. It is very important to take ATLEAST one day off from working out. Too much of anything is bad for you. Take a day's rest and be sureto cheat as well :-). Good, isn’t it.

Write down your plan and see how best you can follow it. Shoot me with any questions you have and I will try my level best to help you out.

How to create your own fat loss diet plan

Here is the first of many ‘HOW TO’ posts that will help you create you own diet and exercise plans to achieve your fitness goals. It is very important for each and every one of us to know – how to go about creating our own diet plans. Following is a guide that shows you what steps to take.

Calculate your BMR: BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is the amount of calories used to keep you alive. There are a number of operations taking place within our bodies and we need energy/calories to keep them going. You can calculate you BMR using any online BMR/RMR calculator or use the following formulas.

English BMR Formula
Women: BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)
Men: BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in year)

Metric BMR Formula
Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 x weight in kilos) + (1.8 x height in cm) - (4.7 x age in years)
Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 x weight in kilos) + (5 x height in cm) - (6.8 x age in years)

Add activity level: Apart from the involuntary operations happening in your body, you need energy for the voluntary actions as well. You need energy to walk, talk, run – basically do anything. You can take this into account by adding an activity level. Research has shown that the following factors can be used for accurate results. The final result is called TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)

Activity Multiplier
Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
Extr. active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e. marathon, contest etc.)

Calculate your average daily intake: Take a couple of days and note down what you are eating. Use the internet to get the calorie count.

Make first diet plan: The first diet plan should help you get back to your BMR level. E.g. If your BMR is 1800, take 1800 calories (first diet plan) for 1 – 2 weeks. This means that your body will be at equilibrium. Not gaining, nor losing.

Make second plan: This should create a calorie deficit. E.g. if your TDEE is 2000 cals, you should go down to 1500 or 1700 calories, but make sure you take above 2000 cals once a week; Preferably the weekend.

Follow these steps and you should be good to go.

Rules: There are some other rules that need to be considered. These are related to the timing of calories and the type of calories you are taking in. (take most of your carbs from fruits as they are rich in minerals and vitamins as well).

Breakfast - Low GI carbohydrates Fiber Slow Protein Unsaturated fats
Snack - Protein Unsaturated fats Low or no carbohydrates
Lunch - Protein Unsaturated fats Low GI carbohydrates Fiber
Snack - Protein Unsaturated fats Low or no carbohydrates
Snack 2 (or post workout) - Protein
Supper - Slow Protein Unsaturated fats Low carbohydrates

Things you need to avoid:
Saturated fats
Trans-fats
Processed grain
Process sugar

The above method will help you increase your metabolism, regulate your hormones and get healthy.

Cycle your carbohydrates – Burn fat fast

Did I just say CYCLING? Yes, I did. Cycling your carbs sounds funny doesn’t it? But let me tell you…it is one of the most power techniques of dropping a few pounds of fat very quickly. It has been used by professional body builders for a long long time near the competition season. Just look at those natural body builders a couple of months before competition and then on the actual day of competition. You won’t be able to see even a bit of body fat on them. How do they do it? Obviously, there is the workout and muscle mass factor but, they have that all year round as well so how come they do not stay LEAN throughout the year? It’s because of CARB CYCLING.

The idea of carb cycling is alternating between either high and low/no carbs or starchy and fibrous carbs. There are a number of different theories about what the best way to do this. Some say that you should have 5 days of low carbs and 2 days of high carbs, some say the best approach is replace starchy carbs with fiberous carbs for 3 days and then go back to starchy carbs for 3 days (with a cheating day), then we have experts taking the zig zag approach and taking high carbs during the major muscle group days and low/no carbs on other days. There is a lot of stuff out there, so we will discuss what should we be doing.

This is a technique where you can burn fat and build muscle. Let’s say if you are following the 3 day high and 4 day low carb. For the first three days, you do compound exercises and take in high carbs. During this time, you will be promoting muscle gain. For the next few days, you take in low carbs (but the same amount of fats and protein) and do some fat loss exercises i.e. full body workouts and HIIT. This will promote fat loss. You can also workout one day, rest the other. In the same way, you take in high carbs on the workout day and low/no carbs on the resting day. There are a lot of techniques out there. The idea is to get maximum gains in muscle with minimizing fat gain (or even losing it).

My personal recommendation is ‘any of the above’. You can try any of these techniques as all of them have proven to work. My routine is as follows:

Mon – Chest and Thighs with high carbs mainly around the workout

Tue – Triceps and calves with no carbs

Wed – Back and shoulders with high carbs

Thur – Biceps and forearms with no carbs

Fri – HIIT with high carbs

Sat – Abs and lower back with low carbs

Sun – Cheat day

On days when I need the energy and am trying to build muscle, I take in high carbs and on other days I take lower carbs with moderate exercise. Hope this has been useful for you. Please comments if you want to know more and I will write another post in greater detail. Till next time – stay tuned for lots more.

To gym or not to gym...that is the question...or is it!!

On the one hand there are people who look forward to going to the gym and on the other hand there are those who want to workout at home and avoid the gym completely. Which one is better for you? Can you do every workout at home? Is there any reason for you to go to a gym? Does it matter whether you go to the gym or workout at home?

In my case, I feel right at home when I’m at the gym, but there are people who do not feel comfortable there. It is usually the over-weight bunch who don’t want people to look at them whilst working out. Lack of confidence? Probably. Then there are others who don’t like the music or being around the sweaty and smelly people. They would much rather workout at home or not workout at all.

Then there are others who can’t live without going to the gym. They get into their car and drive to the gym; just to run on a treadmill or get on the stationary bike for 30 to 45 minutes or use machines/free weights. Why don’t they just run on the road side or ride their bike out doors or simply just buy a pair of dumbbells or a home gym (one off payment)? It would be A LOT cheaper and you will get the results as well. What is it that gets the people to spend their hard earned money every month and go to the gym? Is it the environment? The environment can provide you with the motivation to workout. When you see people working out, you want to do the same. You see this girl who has been running on a treadmill for 30 minutes, you would want to test yourself and see if you can do it too - Am I right? I know I am :-). You may get motivated if you see a guy with the physique that you want to achieve or you may just get a rush by just listening to the music. All these may help you get motivated and get you to workout. However, you can get the music, physique etc. at home as well. Put on the ROCKY exercise videos and you’re good to go. The question shouldn’t be; whether you need to go to a gym or not. The question should be – what will get you off the couch and start working out either at the gym or at home. The answer is HOPE and RESULTS. You start workouts with HOPES to achieve results and you continue with workouts if you get the desired RESULTS.

If you want to become a professional body builder then you should go to the gym (reasons might take too long). But if your ultimate goal is fitness, then you don’t need to go to a gym. You need the right guidance to give yourself HOPE and effective workouts for RESULTS. You can get the guidance from authentic websites, online personal trainers or BLOG (*wink wink*) and stick to the workout and diet routines. You can do every kind of workout at home in a matter of minutes.

Moral of the story – gym or no gym, all you need is to start working outs. You can send me an e-mail at ups1984@hotmail.com if you are interested in online personal training or need some guidance. You can get complete home workout diet and workout routines customized for you. See you next time :-).

Motivate to Burn Fat 'n' Build Muscle

It’s really hard to find time to exercise with our busy schedules but at the same time, we want to stay fit, burn fat, lose weight and build muscle. If you don’t have any motivation, chances are you will never even try to make time for a workout session. If your workouts are short, interesting, dynamic and you are getting results then there is no reason for you not to be motivated…RIGHT? The two main aspects are that you should enjoy the workouts and secondly, you should be getting results. There is no point in running on treadmill for 45 minutes if you absolutely hate it, because sooner or later, you will quit. Here are some hints and tips that you can try to keep your motivation high.

Make a plan and try to stick to it: You need to invest some time in this one but it is well worth it. The first thing you need to do is take a pad and on the very first page/cover, write “My Workout Plan” in big block letters. Every Sunday (or your off day) sit down, take a cup of no-dairy, no-sugar, no-fat and no-taste hot chocolate (just kidding :)), take the pad and plan out what you should be doing the next week. I don’t mean to say that you should be changing your workouts every week, but make sure you are doing things that you are enjoying.

Track Progress: You don’t only track progress using the weighing machine or measuring tape. You can do it with workouts. Say e.g. you started off with 3 sets of 8 push-ups. But the following week, you were able to do 10 and then 12 and so on. This is also showing progress. It means that you are either getting lighter (burning fat) or getting stronger (building muscle). If you plan carefully, you can actually do both in the period of one week. Take away lesson; keep a track of what you are doing and how you are improving at it.

Workout in the morning: This is a suggestion because just like you wash your face, brush your teeth and have breakfast, you can workout for 10 – 30 minutes in the morning. Basically, you are already following a routine of getting from a sleepy head to Mr. I have a job. All you need is to add the workout in it. Simple!

Look forward to the workout: This actually goes hand in hand with tracking your progress. If you are working out in the evening, think about the workout before hand and set a small goal. ‘8 pushups were slightly easy for me yesterday, I’ll try and do 10 today’ – Something along these lines would do great. If you are workingout in the morning, think about the workout before you go to bed. GET YOURSELF EXCITED!

Look at pictures of people you admire: If you like the Jessica Alba’s body, look at her picture and tell yourself that this is where you want to be. This actually does a lot of good for me. It just gets to you stand and start working out there and then.

Eat right so you have enough energy: Make sure you are following a diet plan so that you have enough fuel in your body to actually do the workout. You may have read my posts on nutrition and you should know that nutrition is more important that the exercises regardless of your goal.

Visualize yourself as you want to be: Last but not the least. You need to visualize what you want to be. I would say, everyday before you come out of bed or fall asleep, visualize yourself with that body you want and how happy it will make you feel.

There are a number of other methods that one can follow but these are the ones I use and have found success in them. Taking time out for yourself should be very important for you and these are just some hints and tips that will help you manage the time more effectively and get the motivation levels high. See you guys soon.