Defined Fitness Tip For Results #7: Is a Lack of Sleep Making You Fat?

Is it possible that a lack of sleep could be negatively affecting your weight loss goals? Or even making you fat? According recent research this seems to be exactly the case.

At the University of Chicago’s General Clinical Resource Center researchers followed 10 overweight, but healthy participants aged 35 to 49 who according to body mass index were considered overweight. The participants where given an individualized, balanced diet that reduced their calories by 10% of what was needed to maintain their weight without exercise (roughly 1,450 calories per day).

Each participant was studied twice: the first time studied participants sleep on average 7.5 hours over a fourteen day period, the second time for only 5.5 hours over a fourteen day period.

The researchers found that when sleeping less it reduced the participants fat loss by 55%. When participants got adequate sleep they also found that their ghrelin levels were lower. High ghrelin levels reduce energy expenditure, increase hunger and promote fat retention.

In conjunction with Stanford University the University of Chicago took this a step farther by then looking at the leptin (leptin sends a signal to your brain telling it you are full) and ghrelin levels in 12 healthy men after being subjected to two days of adequate sleep and two days of sleep deprivation. They found that when sleep was restricted leptin levels went down and ghrelin levels went up. Thus, resulting in increased appetites and an inability to get full. They also found that the participants had an increased craving for high carbohydrate, calorie dense food.

Standard and the University of Wisconsin then took this even a step farther. They had 1,000 volunteers report the number of hours they slept each night. Then measured their leptin and ghrelin levels and charted their weight. Not surprisingly they found that those who slept less had lower leptin levels, higher ghrelin levels, weighted more, and had a higher level of body fat.

If you’ve been dieting and exercising, but having trouble losing weight or not happy with your progress check you sleep. We each need between 7-8 hours a night. Even if you sleep less and don’t think you need it you probably do, so many of us are used to functioning with a lack of sleep that we no longer remember what it feels like to be fully rested and recharged. Sometimes we just don’t know how bad we felt until we feel good again.

Josh

visit us online at www.defined-fitness.com

Defined Fitness Tip For Results #6: Holiday Gain Survival

The holiday season is upon us once again, or as some have come to call it “The Official Eating Season”, this time of year is full of enjoyment, family get togethers, Christmas parties, and holiday shopping. All of which revolve around eating causing the average American to gain 10-15 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years.

However, you don’t have to be average!

The following tips will help keep your waistline slim and trim.

1. Schedule Time To Workout. Time is an issue more than ever during the holidays so you need to make sure it put into to your schedule. Even if you have to cut your workout time back to 20-30 minutes 2-3 times a week is still enough to prevent adding extra pounds.

2. Go Easy On The Booze. With 2 or 3 Christmas parties a week it is very easy to pack on a few additional pounds in a month. In order to prevent this, drink one glass of water for each alcoholic drink you have. Also, order your drinks on the rocks or with diet soda, by not having the extra sugar you will cut your calories in half. And drink one glass of water for each drink this will keep your body well hydrated and prevent you from drinking as much.

3. Load up on veggies. By picking from the veggie tray rather than the tray of chicken wings and other fried foods you will save yourself hundreds in calories of fat and grease. Also, make sure you’re not hanging out around the food table this will only cause you to eat more.

4. Eat Smart. There’s nothing like Thanksgiving dinner, except maybe Christmas dinner. While we all love turkey, gravy, pumpkin pie, and mom’s sweet potato pie, we don’t need to eat it like we are never going to see food again. Having a little of everything is ok, but don’t stuff yourself so full that you end up feeling like one of the balloons in a Macy’s parade.

5. Get Your Sleep. It very easy this time of year to fall behind on your shut eye. Recent research has shown that people who sleep less weigh more due to a hormonal imbalance that causes your appetite to increase and crave starchy foods that will increase your waistline

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Josh

www.defined-fitness.com

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Defined Fitness Tip For Results #5

Does Supervised Exercise Yield Better Results?

Two interesting studies.

Supervised exercise versus non-supervised exercise for reducing weight in obese adults. Nicolai SP et al Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2009 Mar;49(1):85-90.

This study looked at the effects of training with supervision/instruction (i.e. a qualified trainer) versus “advice”.

Group One met with a trainer 2x per week for 4 months in a group setting. Group Two received basic advice to increase physical activity and access to a fully equipped gym – all exercise they did was unsupervised.

Group One (supervised group) lost on average 362% more fat over the 4-month period than Group Two (nonsupervised) or 13.4 pounds of fat compared to only 3.7 pounds.

What’s even more interesting is that they made these improvements without ANY dietary advice.

The second study looked at how hard participants would workout with someone just watching them, not giving them any instruction or encouragement. They found they in the presence of someone watching participants would work roughly 30% harder. You can see how that extra effort would lead to greater results. Now imagine adding that to a well designed program, great coaching and social support, great instruction, and a good nutrition program. Pretty great results huh?

Neither of these studies are new, but still very interesting.

Josh

www.defined-fitness.com

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30 Day Trial For Only $89. Did you know that the average American gains 15 pounds between Halloween and New Year's? Instead of being average, be the exception. No wait until January 1st to start you weight loss porgram get started today with a 30-Day Trial Membership for only $89 and you could actually lose 5-10 pounds between now and New Year's! Call 724-698-7897 for more information.

Is Your Jean Size Lying To You?

Interesting article that we came across.

Click the link:http://www.esquire.com/blogs/mens-fashion/pants-size-chart-090710

Josh

Defined Fitness Tip For Results #4

This is the final part of our three part series, The Truth About Fat Loss.

Fitness Myth #3:

High Reps, Light Weight

This is the final part of our three part series, The Truth About Fat Loss.

For years it has been believed that to develop toned, long, lean muscles you must lift light weights for many reps, in order not to bulk up. Interestingly, this is the exact same approach that bodybuilders use to gain size in their muscles.

It can’t be the right approach for both; after all they are exact opposite goals. And we’ve all seen the excessively large bodies of bodybuilders.

So if high reps and light weight work to increase the size of your muscles, then logically the opposite must work to develop long, lean muscles. Right?

Exactly.

Using a rep range of below 15 reps with a heavier weight will get you the body that you are looking for.

According to a study published in the Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, women burned nearly twice as many calories in the two hours after their workout when lifting 85% of their maximum load than when they did 15 reps at a lower weight around 45% of their max.

This happens as a result of more muscle activation required to lift a heavier weight than a lighter weight. As more calorie burning muscle is activated you will add muscle tissue to your body. For instance, if you replace 10 pounds of fat with 10 pounds of muscle you’ll burn an additional 25 to 50 calories per day. Even better you will look like you have lost 20 pounds, even though the number on the scale is the same!

www.defined-fitness.com

30 Day Trial For Only $89. Did you know that the average American gains 15 pounds between Halloween and New Year's? Instead of being average, be the exception. No wait until January 1st to start you weight loss porgram get started today with a 30-Day Trial Membership for only $89 and you could actually lose 5-10 pounds between now and New Year's! Call 724-698-7897 for more information.

Defined Fitness Tip For Results #3

Fitness Myth #2: Aerobics for Fat Loss

This is the second in a three part series...

You know that you need to exercise to lose weight. So just start walking and then eventually jogging and pretty soon those pounds will just be melting off your body. Right?

Sorry, you can walk and jog all you want, but you will never get the lean toned body that you desire. And sorry aerobics queens, but the time has come to put away your spandex unitards and leg warmers. Aerobics and aerobic type activity (aka: steady-state cardio) didn’t work then and doesn’t work now!

According to a 2006 study published in the International Journal of Obesity, researchers found that men and women who ran the same weekly mileage, regardless of distance, actually gained weight.

In that same journal another study found that the addition of 4 hours of aerobic exercise had no effect on weight loss.

In a 1994 study, done by Tremblay et al, they looked at two groups. Group #1 performed 20 weeks of steady-state cardio, Group #2 performed interval based training for 15 weeks. In 20 weeks Group #1 burned 28,661 calories over twice the number of calories as Group #2, which only burned 13,614 calories. However, Group #2 lost 9 times more body fat in 5 less weeks than Group #1 when corrected for energy cost.

One last study.

In 1999 researchers found that resistance training increased fat loss by 35% over diet and aerobic training. They also found that 3 aerobic sessions of 50 minutes per week for 12 weeks only resulted in one pound more of fat lost than dieting alone.

How can that be that be?

The reason we see this is because the metabolic effect, amount of time your body continues to burn calories after exercise, of aerobic training lasts only 30 minutes to an hour. But, the metabolic effect of resistance training will last up to 48 hours. That’s two days after you last worked out and your body is still burning calories from your workout.

With aerobics you may have burned a lot of calories during your workout, but you do not burn many afterwards. With resistance training you not only burn calories during your workout, but you also continue burning them for the next 48 hours!

Josh

www.defined-fitness.com

30-Day Trial for only $89!! Includes: complete fitness evaluation, fitness program design, 8 fitness coaching sessions, unlimited group fitness classes, unlimited facility access, nutrition guidance. Call 724-698-7897 today!!

Defined Fitness Tip For Results #2

Fitness Myth #1: Eat Less!

This is the first of a three part series:

If you want to lose weight you need to eat less right?

Not exactly,

According to a 1996 research study if you eat more frequently throughout the day you will lose more body fat. The researchers compared 2 groups, Group #1 ate two meals per day and Group #2 ate 6 meals per day. At the end of the study they found that Group #2 who ate the same number of calories lost more body fat than Group #1 who only ate two meals per day.

The reason this happened is because the more frequently you eat (e.g. every 3 hours) the higher your metabolism runs and you keep your body out of its primitive starvation mode where it tends to store everything you eat.

If you are really serious about losing fat you need to eat 5-6 meals per day, roughly one meal every 3 hours. You may also need to actually eat more. You see when you eat less calories than your body needs each day, known as your resting metabolic rate, all of your bodies systems slow down due to lack of sufficient energy. Many people assume that if they eat less there body will use its fat stores for energy, but this is not necessarily true. In fact, what actually happens is your body ends up using its lean muscle tissue for energy, thus further decreasing your metabolism.

This is why extreme caloric deficit diets always fail. You set your daily needs low, your metabolism slows even more and as a result your total daily caloric needs will become even lower creating a caloric surplus. If you decrease your calories more this cycle will just continue repeating itself until you are eventually eating zero calories a day and still getting fatter!

A better approach is to stimulate your metabolism through a weight-training program, which will build muscle to further promote fat loss, and eat sufficient calories to keep your metabolism running high.

Josh

www.Defined-Fitness.com

Get started today with our 30-Day Trial for only $89! Call 724-698-7897 for more info.