Where Are You?

It's a simple question, but let me be more specific.

Where are you...

• in your fitness,
• in your diet,
• in your personal commitment,
• in your self discipline
• in your LIFE?

Where ever you are, are you where you want to be?

Here's an interesting view of human nature.

There is one's "intention" and then there is one's "action". Everyone has good intentions. For example, nearly everyone I know has started a diet or a fitness
program at one time or another. That part is easy.

You might say to yourself, "I'm going to go to boot camp and finally get fit". That's the having good intentions part. But having good intentions won't get you in great shape. That part takes action.

ACTIONS are very different. Let's say you intend to take a Free Trial Boot Camp class, or come to a Saturday morning boot camp, or join us on a Sunday morning hike, but week after week, you never make it to an event.

So what happened?

On Saturday morning you couldn't get up, or just decided to sleep in. Perhaps you wanted to do something else altogether. Perhaps you live farther away than you realized. What ever your reasons, there is a "disconnect" between what you intended to do and what you actually ended up doing.

There are many of you who have attended boot camp and some of you have traveled from a great distance to do so. I am so very appreciative of your energy and drive and I wish you much success in all of your fitness endeavors. In short, you rock!

Many of our Saturday boot campers have been dedicated and solid athletes too. Always a pleasure to have you join us when ever you can. And many of our daily boot campers are long term dedicated members that are also my friends and "family" at this point.

For those of you who have been intending to come to boot camp, but have not yet taken action I have a small favor to ask of you. Write to me. Yes, please write to me and tell me any or all of the following.

1. Why you have never attended a boot camp.

2. What you expect or need from a fitness program.

3. What can I do to help you?

I have two main objectives. First is to get people into awesome physical shape. Second is to have them become raving fans about our program and tell the world!

But I can't do that unless you show up. So let me hear from you! To our newest members Jessica, Ricardo, Denise, Amy Arup, and Domenick, I want to hear from
you too!

I want to share with you something from my own life's experience. You see at one time I was a mess.

I was 35 pounds "over fat" with bad knees, a bad back, and a bad disposition. In short, I was miserable. You see, life had not turned out as I expected and I blamed

people and circumstances for everything. I was also a complainer. BTW, have you ever complained or blamed someone else for something? Right, silly question.

One day it dawned on me that no one was going to show up, take me by the hand and lead me to a solution. I eventually developed enough pain in my mind and body
that I absolutely had to change. I could no longer go on living this way. I was terrified when I realized that it was up to me and only me if I was going to change my life.

Common sense told me to get some exercise, so the first thing I did was join a gym and begin to work out. It was a slow and painful start, but within a few months
I began to feel better. Boy was it hard. My shoulders felt like they were 90 and my knees were on fire. I injured myself multiple times too. But the one thing that kept
me going was that in spite of the pain, I felt good inside. I had a renewed vitality. There was something chemical going on in my body and my brain and I wanted more of it.

Here it is 12 years later. I am a full time fitness professional with my own business and connecting with people. I'm far away from where I started and life gets better all the time.

You have a story too. Maybe you are where I was, or worse. Maybe you think no one cares. Some one does care and that someone is the most important person in your life. IT"S YOU SILLY! And BTW, the person who looks me in the eye and says, "NO Larry, I really don't care" is either lying to me, themselves, or both.

The next thing you need to do is make a decision, a decision to change once and for all. No more BS. It's time to stop making excuses and start getting BUSY getting

results. Making a decision is HUGE! Don't underestimate the power of it. It's also an "action" :-)

Once you make that decision, send me and email and tell me that you have once and for all decided to stop and get off the merry-go-round. I'll read your email and I'll personally write back to you. I really do care that much.

Then, plan on coming to a Free Trial Boot Camp or a Saturday morning boot camp. Plan on it being challenging. Plan on being sore and feeling uncomfortable at first.
But also, plan on transforming your health and your life.

Think you've got it tough?

Our new trainer Andrea was once 310 pounds. I kid you not. Now she is a force to be reckoned with. She is also training to be a body building competitor! How awesome is that? Talk about doing a 180!

Andrea's journey is one of triumph. She is a strong willed and determined woman who has faced her fears and found the courage and tenacity within herself to
change her life. Her story is nothing short of amazing.

I'm not trying to impress you, I'm trying to impress upon you that Andrea is just like you. I am just like you. If we can overcome our adversities, so can you. And now you will have the benefit of our experience to help you along the way.

A good place to begin.

- Believe in yourself.

- Believe you can do this. (because you can.)

- Believe that we have a system that works, (because we've proven it over
and over again)

- Begin and follow through.

If you want our help, we're here for you. As we move into 2010 our members will be comprised of individuals who want health, a dynamic life, and an awesome body.

So now where are you?

Press on!

Happy Rainy Sunday! A Perfect Day For a Hike!!

( I got up this morning and wrote this email to my list of hikers on MeetUp.com. For those of you not familiar, we have a Sunday morning hiking group that is organized through MeetUp.com.
Here's the link: http://www.meetup.com/Body-Basics-Burn-the-Fat-Hiking-Group/)

Okay, so about 99% of you won't read this until it's too late. Too late for what? Too late for today's hike! The weather is not exactly perfect, but it's clearing and the chance of more rain is very low.

I know what you're thinking.

"It's still crappy out, and staying in with a hot cup of coffee or sleeping in seems like a better plan."

I agree! But. . .

Think about what else may be going on in your life in regard to your physical health. Are you over fat? Sorry to be so blunt, but I don't have much time here. The point I want to make is this. Changing your health also means changing yourself and the way you do things. Becoming "less comfortable" or "leaving your "comfort zone" is where you need to start. So getting up and going out for a hike today is a metaphor for change.

"Be the change you want to see in your life" ~Ghandi

So if you are like me and forgot to set your clock back this morning, (DOH!) or you couldn't sleep and got up early and logged in to check your email. Let me appeal to your inner voice. Let me plant a seed in your mind that today could actually be a pivotal moment.

If you are receiving this message it's because you are on this list, and you actually asked for that. So for starters, you are looking for something. Maybe you are just a casual hiker, or maybe you are looking to meet people. All good! But some of you also want to lose fat weight. What's curious to me is that many of you still haven't taken the next step. There hasn't been any follow through. To be more specific, there are over 175 members in the hiking group, and over 100 have never even been to a hike. That is just plain sad. WTF?

Weekends come and go and you never seem to have the time to come to a hike. Something else always comes up that takes priority. It's not for me to judge, but I will tell you this. If you are fat, and I mean 15 pounds or more to lose, stop and think about what your priorities are. Where do you spend your time?

The truth is that your desire to be leaner is not a major priority. You are in a comfort zone! You may not like it, but you are not doing enough to make any significant changes. If you plan on doing something "soon, eventually, or some day", let me tell you that as long as your plan is somewhere in the future, it will ALWAYS be in the future, and the future never arrives!

The secret to making changes in your health and your life for that matter is to take action, daily action, and to be persistent even through setbacks. Today would be a perfect day to go for a hike because it's not a perfect day at all. If you can get yourself motivated to get up and out on a "less than perfect" weather day, then you have the inner strength and tenacity to get up and out of your old habits and "be the change you want in your life".

I'll see you on the trails!

Larry Wasserman

Why Am I Not Losing Weight?

I'm often asked, "If I'm under eating and exercising, why am I not
losing weight (body fat)?" Here's a simplified explanation based on
the science.

First of all, under eating is just like being on a diet. It's
important to have a baseline of nutrition to meet metabolic needs.
So it's vital to know how many calories you need to consume
each day to maintain, build, or lose, depending on your goals. As
we are talking about improving body composition, (muscle-to-fat
ratio) this is especially significant.

If your body does not have adequate calories coming in from
glucose (carbs), then it converts amino acids (protein) found in
the lean muscle to a usable form of energy. By adding in exercise,
your body requires more calories and therefore will burn muscle
faster since there is an inadequate supply of glucose/glycogen.

When muscle is broken down and burned, the body loses its primary
calorie burning machinery, therefore slowing the metabolism. So
initially you may see weight loss, as you lose muscle. Then the
metabolism slows (due to lost muscle) and you stop losing weight.
The entire time, your body composition has actually increased the
percent of fat because you're losing more muscle than fat.

By increasing your calories from glucose to the appropriate level,
your body will use glucose and stored glycogen for energy, sparing
your muscle/lean mass. By then adding in appropriate exercise
(muscle-strengthening resistance training and cardio), your body
continues to burn glucose (carbs) and fat at an optimal rate, while
also building lean mass. The body's additional lean muscle mass
leads to more calorie burning machinery and therefore more fat
being burned. This may not show on the scale (especially
initially) but will be evident in inches lost and a decrease in
body fat percentage.

This is where Isagenix can make a big impact in the process of
helping the body to release fat weight. Isagenix as a system helps
reduce calories, which is also what typical diets do. But where
many diets fall short, Isagenix has a positive impact on LMM. In
fact, Isagenix is not only LMM sparing, it's muscle building!

I also recommend that you use the following calculation in
conjunction with body composition measures. This calculation helps
bridge the difference between scale weight and body fat:


1. Take your weight and multiply it by your percent body fat as a
decimal. For example: 160 pounds x .25 (if body fat is 25%) = 40
pounds of fat.

2. The rest of the weight is LMM (Lean Muscle Mass-muscle, bones,
etc).

So 160 pounds - 40 pounds = 120 pounds of LMM.

As you fuel your body properly, watch your lean muscle mass weight
increase and the body fat weight decrease.

What The New "Low-Carb" Study REALLY Says

When it comes to fat loss, Tom Venuto is truly an internationally known expert and foremost authority. Enjoy the article.
-LW


By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS

www.BurnTheFat.com

A news media feeding frenzy erupted recently when a new diet study broke in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Almost all the reporters got it wrong, wrong WRONG! So did most of the gloating low carb forumites and bloggers. Come to think of it, almost everyone interpreted this study wrong. Some valuable insights came out of this study, but almost everyone missed them because they were too busy believing what the news said or defending their own cherished belief systems …

The new study, titled, “Weight Loss With a Low-Carbohydrate, Mediterranean, or Low-Fat Diet” was published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in issue 359, number 3.

I quickly read the full text of the research paper the day it was published. Then, I shook my head in dismay as I scanned the news headlines. I found it amusing that the media turned this into a three ring circus, putting a misleading “low carb versus high carb,” “Atkins vindicated” or “Diet wars” spin on the story. But that’s mainstream journalism for you, right? Gotta sell those papers!

Just look at some of these headlines:

“Study Tips Scales in Atkins Diets Favor: Low Carb Regimen Better Than Low Fat Diet For Weight And Cholesterol, Major Study Shows. “

“Low-Carb and Low-Fat Diets Face Off “ “The Never-Ending Diet Wars” “Low Carb Beats Low Fat in Diet Duel.” “Atkins Diet is Safe and Far More Effective Than a Low-Fat One, Study Says” “Unrestricted Low-Carb Diet Wins Hands Down” Some of these headlines are hilarious! I wonder if any of these reporters actually read the whole study. Geez. Is it too much trouble to read 13 pages before you write a story that will be read by millions of already confused people suffering the pain and frustration of obesity?

Here’s a quick look at the study design.

The low fat restricted calorie diet was based on American Heart Association guidelines. Calorie intake was set at 1500 for women, 1800 a day for men with 30% of calories from fat, and only 10% from saturated fat. Participants were instructed to eat low fat grains, vegetables, fruits and legumes and to limit their consumption of additional fats, sweets and high fat snacks.

The Mediterranean diet group was placed on a moderate fat, restricted calorie program rich in vegetables and low in red meat, with poultry and fish replacing beef and lamb. Energy intake was restricted to 1500 calories per day for women and 1800 calories per day for men with a goal of no more than 35% of calorie from fat. Added fat came mostly from nuts and olive oil.

The low carb diet was a non-restricted calorie plan aimed at providing 20 grams of carbs per day for the 2 month induction phase with a gradual increase to 120 grams per day to maintain the weight loss. Intakes of total calories, protein and fat were not limited. However, the participants were counseled to choose vegetarian sources of protein (more on that bizarre-twist shortly).

The study subjects were mostly male (86%), overweight (BMI 31) and middle age (mean age 52)

Here were the study results:

There were some health improvements in cholesterol, blood pressure and other parameters in the Mediterranean and low carb group that bested the high carb group. That was the focus of many articles and discussions that appeared on the net this week. However, I’d like to focus on the weight loss aspect as I’m not a medical doctor and fat loss is the primary subject matter of this website. All three groups lost weight. The low carb group lost 5.5 kilos, the Mediterranean group lost 4.6 kilos and the low fat group lost 3.3 kilograms…. IN TWO YEARS! Whoopee!

My conclusion would be that the results were similar and that none of the diets worked very well over the long term!

Amanda Gardner of the US News and World Report Health Day was one of the few reporters who got it right:

“Diet plans produce similar results: Study finds Mediterranean and low-carb diets work just as well as low fat ones.”

Tara Parker-Pope of the New York Times also came close with her headline:

“Long term diet study suggests success is hard to come by: In a tightly controlled experiment, obese people lost an average of just 6 to 10 pounds over two years.”

Even this headline wasn’t 100% accurate. The study was HARDLY tightly controlled. Tightly controlled means metabolic ward studies where the researchers actually count and control the calorie intake.

The problem is, you can’t lock people in a hospital or research center ward for two years. So in this study, they used a food frequency questionnaire. Sure, like we believe what people report about their eating habits at restaurants and at home behind closed doors! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

“No! I swear Dr. Schwarzfuchs! I swear I didn’t eat those donuts over the weekend! I stayed on my Mediterranean diet. Honest!”

One of the most firmly established facts in dietetics research is that almost everyone underreports their food intake BADLY, sometimes by as much as 50%. I’m not saying everyone “lies,” they just forget or don’t know. In fact, this underreporting of calorie intake is such a huge problem that it makes obesity research very difficult to do and conclusions difficult to draw from free-living studies. Another blunder in the news reports is that this study didn’t really follow Atkins diet parameters OR even the traditional low fat diet for that matter, so it’s not an “Atkin’s versus Ornish” showdown at all. If you actually take the time to read the full text of the research paper it doesn’t say ANYTHING like, “Atkins is the best after all.” That’s the spin that some of the news media cooked up (and what the Atkins foundation was hoping for). It says, “The diet was based on the Atkins diet.” However, the sentence right before that says, “The participants were counseled to choose vegetarian sources of fat and protein.” Vegetarian Atkins? The chart on page 236 says the low carb diet provided 40% of calories from carbs at 6, 12 and 24 months. If I’m reading that data properly, then the only low carb period was a brief induction phase in the very beginning. Does that sound like Atkins? 40% carb sounds more like the Zone diet or my own Burn The Fat program to me.

The Atkins Foundation, which partially supported this study, told reporters, “We feel vindicated.” HA! They should have paid the reporters and told the researchers they felt ripped off and they wanted a refund for misuse of their research grant!

After carefully reading the full text of this study, there are many interesting findings we could talk about, from the differences in results between men and women to the improvements in health markers. Here’s what the study really says that stood out to me. It’s what I would have talked about if the newspapers or TV stations had called me:

1. “Mediterranean and low carb diets may be effective alternatives to low-fat diets.”

I can agree completely with that statement. All three diets created a calorie deficit. All three groups lost weight. Low carb lost a little more, which is the usual finding because low carb diets often control appetite and calorie intake automatically (you eat less even if you don’t count calories). Also, if body composition is not indicated, there’s an initial water weight loss that makes low carb diets look more effective in the very early stages.

2. “Personal preferences and metabolic considerations might inform individualized tailoring of dietary interventions.”

Absolutely! Nutrition should be individualized based on goals, health status, body type, activity level and numerous other factors. Different people have different phenotypes. Some people are more predisposed to thrive on a low carb approach. Others feel like crap on low carbs and do better with more carbs or a middle of the road approach. Those who dogmatically follow and defend one type of diet or the other are only handcuffing themselves by limiting their options. Iris Shai, a researcher in the study said, “We can’t rely on one diet fits all.” Hmm, far cry from “Atkins wins hands down,” wouldn’t you say?

3. “The rate of adherence to a study diet was 95.4% at 1 year and 84.6% at 2 years.”

THIS was the part of most interest to me. When I read this, immediately I could have cared less about the silly low carb versus high carb wars that the news reporters were jumping on. I wanted to know WHY the subjects were able to stick with it so well. Of course, that’s boring stuff to journalists… adherence? What does that word mean anyway? Yawn - not interesting enough for prime time, I guess. But it was interesting to me, and I hope YOU pay attention to what I found. The authors of the study wrote:

“This trial suggests a model that might be applied more broadly in the workplace. Using the employer as a health coach could be an effective way to improve health. The model of group intervention with the use of dietary group sessions, spousal support, food labels, and monthly weighing in the workplace within the framework of a health promotion campaign might yield weight reduction and long term health benefits.”

Hmmmmm, lets see: * Dietician coaching
* Group meetings
* Motivational phone calls
* Spousal support
* Workplace monitoring (corporate health program)
* Food labels - calorie monitoring
* Weigh-ins (required and monitored)

Wow, everything helpful to long term fat loss that sticks. Can you say, ACCOUNTABILITY? These factors help explain the better adherence.

By the way, the adherence rate for the low carb group was the lowest.

90.4% in low fat group
85.3% in the Mediterranean group
78% in the low carb group

Here’s the bottom line, the way I see it:

First, please, please, please learn how to find and read primary research and take the news media stories with a grain of salt. If you want to know who died, what burned down or what hurricane is coming, tune in to the news – they do a GREAT job at that. If you want to know how to lose weight or improve your health, look up the original research papers instead of taking second hand information at face value.

Second, those who prefer a low carb approach; more power to them. Most studies, this one included, show at the very least that low carb is an option and it’s not necessarily an unhealthy one if done intelligently. I also have no qualms with someone claiming that low carb diets are slightly more effective for weight loss, especially in the short term, free living situations. Is low carb superior for fat loss in the long haul? That’s STILL highly debatable. It’s probably superior for some people, but not for others.

Third, low carb people, listen up! Even if low carb is superior, that doesn’t mean calories don’t count. Deny this at your own peril. In fact, this study shows the reverse. The low carb group was in a larger negative energy balance than the high carb and Mediterranean group (according to the data published in this paper), which easily explains the greater weight loss. Posting the calories contained in foods in the cafeteria may have improved the results and helped with compliance in all groups.

When energy intake is matched calorie for calorie, the advantage of a low carb diet shrinks or disappears. For most people, low carb is a hunger management or calorie control weight loss advantage, not metabolic magic (sorry, no magic folks!)

Fourth, choose the nutrition program that’s most appropriate for your personal preferences, your current health condition, your genetics (or phenotype) and most important of all… the one you can stick with. Then tend your own garden instead of wasting time criticizing how the other guy is eating. Your results will speak for themselves in the end. Take your shirt off and show us.

If I were forced to choose only one approach (and thank god I’m not), I would recommend avoiding the extremes of very low carb or very low fat or very high fat or very high carbs. Balance makes the most sense to me, and the research suggests that this helps produce the highest compliance rate. That’s not rocket science either, it’s common sense. If you have a serious fat loss goal, as when I compete in bodybuilding, then a further reduction in carbs and increase in protein makes perfect sense to me as a peaking diet. If an extremely low or extremely high carb diet worked for you, great. But generalizing your experience to the entire rest of the world makes no sense. Arguing from extremes is the weakest form of argument. The reason I have THREE nutrition plans (three phases) in my own fat loss program is because programs with flexibility and room for individualization beat the others hands down in the long term. In fact, I wrote an entire chapter in my e-book about unique body types, how to determine yours and how to individualize your nutrition – it’s THAT important. If you have more choices, you have more power. The people who are shackled by dogma and narrow thinking are stuck. They also risk missing what’s really important. Things like:

Personalization
Adherence
Long-term Maintenance
Accountability
Social Support

and…

CALORIES!

Train hard and expect success,

Tom Venuto CSCS, NSCA-CPT
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com

First Boot Camp of the New Year

Today was a pretty great first day of boot camp. The facilites at Temple Har Shalom are proving to be just what we needed, a much bigger space. More room means better relays, speed drills, and room for more people too!

I began the first day talking about good nutrition and the key role it plays whether you want to improve your overall health, lose weight, gain weight, build muscle, improve athletic performance, or improve body composition. Yes, the answer lies heavily in one's nutrition habits.

It's hard to impress upon people the importance of this, as everyone has an approach that they use either out of habit or lack of a better plan. Well, if I were Dr. Phil I would ask you point blank, "How's your program workin' for ya?"

Being results oriented, Dr. Phil and I have a lot in common. If whatever you are practicing isn't getting you the results you are looking for, perhaps you had better consider trying a different approach.

When it comes to nuitrition, Precision Nutrition is the right tool for the job. Being an "outcome based" program PN allows individuals to find the exact methods that work for them. It pretty much works for everyone, everytime.

I'm sending you a link to download a free ebook called:
Precision Nutrition Strategies.

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/cmd.php?pageid=696774&u=s


Here's an excert from the PN site:

"This E-Book is an extension of our Precision Nutrition program and it's called Precision Nutrition Strategies. With 43 pages and 7 chapters (plus appendices), it's obviously no where near as comprehensive as the full Precision Nutrition Program. However, it provides a nice and simple overview of some critical PN strategies including: "

- The rules of good nutrition
- Protein intake
- Balancing dietary acids
- Altering your eating schedule to make it more PN friendly
- Preparing foods
- Eating on the road
- Reving your metabolism and more.

Good nutrition is what will move you forward. Good nutrition is what will feed muscle and shed fat. It’s what will improve nearly every health marker you can measure. It’s what will drastically improve recovery and mood, so you can work harder, longer. Good nutrition is what will get you the body you never thought you could have.

Change your nutrition, and you’ll change your body entirely. Change your nutrition, and you’ll quite literally change your life.

“Well, great,” you say, “I understand the importance of nutrition to my body – and I do want to change – the question is how!”

The answer is (drum roll please)... Precision Nutrition

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/cmd.php?pageid=696774&u=s