When Will I Start Losing Weight?

Losing weight is very important to a lot of people. We've been open 4 weeks now and the people that are working out with us are talking about feeling stronger, having more energy, moving so much better, having clothes fit differently (in a good way) and being able to painlessly perform activities that used to cause them trouble.. All this in 4 weeks! But I've also been getting the question, "When will I start losing weight?". There's no clear-cut answer to this question. I can't tell you it will be 4 days, 4 weeks or 4 months. And that's because, ultimately, it's up to you.. I called my friend Rob Hudson, owner of Fitness By Design in Indianapolis, IN., who has been training people for over 25 years. He also gets this question a lot, and we had a good discussion about the issue. 

There's only one scientific piece of info I'm going to throw at you and it's really a very simple concept. If your goal is to lose weight, then you need to burn more calories than you're taking in. There's lots of ways to burn calories. Your body will burn calories watching TV, of course if your hand is reaching for a beer to wash down the handful of potato chips you just put in your mouth while watching TV, then you won't be burning quite as many calories as you're taking in. You can burn calories going for long walks, jogs or bike rides. This type of moderate-intensity aerobic activity gets your heart rate up and will burn calories at a higher rate the harder you work. But with non-interval, moderate-intensity type of aerobic training your body will stop burning calories at a high rate the second you stop your aerobic activity. My favorite way to burn lots of calories is to train like we do at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning, with High Intensity Intervals. I said I wouldn't throw any more science at you, but I have to here... There were extensive studies done by a Japanese researcher, Izumi Tabata, that compared the effect of 4 minutes of high intensity intervals (20 seconds of work at max effort, followed by 10 seconds of rest, for 4 minutes), against 60 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise with heart rate between 60% and 80% max.. The result was 9x more fat loss doing the high intensity intervals. You're probably thinking that there's no way you can burn more calories in 4 minutes of intervals than you could in 60 minutes on a treadmill and you'd be right.. But, like I said before, when you're doing moderate intensity aerobic work you stop burning calories at a high rate the second you stop the exercise.. With high intensity interval training, you raise your metabolism so that your body continues to burn calories at a much higher rate even after the exercise has stopped. The result is 9x more fat loss! Of course, this means you have to work super hard during your intervals. If you're able to carry on a conversation during your 30 or 40 second interval of burpees then you're not working hard enough and you won't get the maximum benefit from the training. For max benefits, you need to work the intervals at max effort.

OK, so there's the part you need to burn calories and get strong.. And the great thing about that part is that you can come to a gym like Dynamic Strength and Conditioning or Fitness By Design or the Monkey Bar Gym and we can guide you to get the best workouts of your life. But there's a lot more to it than just getting in your workouts. If you want to get lean then you have to take the nutrition side of it into consideration. Both Rob and I agree that a lot of people don't do as well as they could on the nutrition side of things. I'm generalizing here, but many people tend to think that they can continue with the eating habits that got them in the poor shape they're in to begin with and continue with those eating habits as long as they start exercising.. Or, they think that since they're exercising, they can eat more junk, or just eat more in general. While it's true that exercising will help a lot towards getting you feeling better, looking better and raising your energy level, it's incredibly important to also fine tune your nutrition plan to complement your exercise plan and be more in line with your overall wellness goals. The best way to do this is to keep a nutrition log, just like you keep a workout log. Write down everything you eat and drink every day for a week or two. Figure out how many calories you're taking in and what the balance of protein, carbs, and fats are.. If you can't do that, then you bring it to me or Michele and we'll do it for you. We take a look at what you're taking in and see if it matches up with what you're burning. Like I said at the start of this, if you want to get lean, you need to burn more calories than you're taking in. 

But you still need to give your body the energy that it needs. Too many people will really restrict their intake to the point that their body's metabolism will actually back off because it senses that you're not giving it the fuel it needs. This is counter productive and unhealthy. You want to be at a point where you're taking in a few hundred calories less than what you're burning per day for a healthy rate of weight loss. The body is getting the fuel it needs and you're burning fat and building lean muscle with your high-intensity intervals. Don't get too caught up in numbers on scales. While burning fat you'll also be building muscle so the numbers on the scale don't really indicate how your body composition is changing. It's possible that you could have periods where the number on the scale may actually increase because you're building lean muscle at a rate faster than the fat you're burning. There are many ways to measure your actual body composition, whether it's with tape measurements, calipers, or some other form of measure. We can take measurements at the gym and that will give you a base point to compare against as you go forward. The most important thing is setting your wellness goals and putting together an exercise and nutrition plan that is going to get you to your goal in a healthy way. If you do that, and stick to it, then the rest takes care of itself. 

Michele and I are here to help you with your entire wellness plan. We're definitely helping everybody through our doors on the exercise part of it. Everybody coming in has been saying these are the best workouts they've ever gotten. Now let's get the other piece of the puzzle in order. Start working on your nutrition plan. Keep a nutrition log and let's take a look at it and get it fine tuned. You can also take your nutrition to another level and get yourself a health and wellness coach that specializes in nutrition like Laura Moran who is healthy, lean, and fit. Working with a health and wellness coach is a fantastic way to complement what you're doing with us at Dynamic SC. I'll admit, keeping track of everything you eat and drink for a couple weeks is a pain in the butt. But it's necessary, and it's only a couple weeks. Once you get your nutrition plan fine tuned, you understand what you need to be doing and you'll do it naturally without having to write everything down. 

If you want it, and are willing to commit to it, then there's absolutely no question that you will realize all your goals.

All the best,

kevin