How to lose weight by eating and a little exercise?

As the fitness industry evolves, our workouts should as well. I'm here to show you how to train your core in the most effective and fun manner! Don’t worry, I won’t plank you to death. But, I will try to work your core in fun, effective, and interesting ways that move beyond the crunch and into true functional fitness.

Our core is made up of musculature running 85% oblique angles. The traditional crunch and sit up would be training the other 15% and has been shown to create a greater risk of low back pain since most people sit more than they stand.

Free workout examples

In my workouts, you’ll notice more planks and variations of them -- ab exercises such as Russian Twists and Crunches or twisting crunches aren’t as beneficial to the general public (and my painful lower back) so I will be doing them less and less.

But before we get into the exercises, let me tell you a secret. A strong core and visible six-pack are 2 different things. You can have a strong core without the “washboard abs”. If that’s what you truly desire - let me tell you another secret. Six pack is made in the kitchen!

Yep, I said it! You can train your butt off every single day, but if you don’t adjust your eating habits, there will be no visible abs!

We all have abs. But the majority of us have the abs covered in squishy body fat. Hence, if you want your abs to be visible, you need to lose body fat. And how do you that? By eating right! No, not “dieting”. Diet is a bad word.

It implies that you will be “on” a diet and once you are done, you will be “off” the diet. And then what? I’ll tell you - you’ll go back to your old eating habits and gain all the weight back (and then some). So what's the key? Change your eating lifestyle! Eat right no matter what the occasion is.

Eating right is important- whether you exercise or not.

Why is blood sugar stabilization important?

To get chiseled and look and feel your best, it’s critical to stabilize your blood sugar with the right nutrition. When blood sugar is stable (science time: levels kept between 80 and 120 mg/dl throughout the day), your body is in balance and naturally releases what it doesn’t need like stored body fat, toxins, and excess sodium.

Stable blood sugar will also protect and increase your lean muscle mass to ignite your metabolism, eliminate carbs and sugar cravings, boost your energy, and help you to break through stubborn plateaus.

What happens when blood sugar is NOT stable? Notice in the picture nr.1, that whenever you eat too many calories or too many carbs in a meal, your blood sugar spikes (science time: above 120 mg/dl) and your body stores fat.

Just the opposite happens whenever you skip a meal, restrict calories or healthy carbs or exercise on an empty stomach; blood sugar levels drop too low (science time: below 80 mg/dl) and your body is forced to burn lean muscle mass in place of body fat. This loss of lean muscle mass slows your metabolism and makes it nearly impossible to reach your goals permanently.

The truth is, though many people eat “healthy” (you know who you are!!!!), they fail to eat “correctly” and inadvertently spike and crash their blood sugar levels all day long. Stabilizing your blood sugar levels with the right nutrition is the only way to achieve your goals permanently. (Ask me about the Portion Control Eating Plan)

Blood sugar stabilization vs. calorie & carb restriction

WHY RESTRICTION ALWAYS FAILS.

While restricting calories (calories in vs. calories out) or carbs will initially cause weight loss, both methods will, unfortunately, lead to an immovable plateau once your body reaches its set point (the weight your body wants to weigh and gets stuck at).

Even worse, calories or carbs restriction causes low blood sugar, leading to low energy, cravings, and a loss of lean muscle mass. Because fat is burned primarily within muscle and muscle increases the rate at which your body burns calories, losing muscle will only slow your metabolism.

Once you re-introduce the calories and/or carbs you restricted (you can’t starve forever!), you regain the weight back plus excess body fat due to the loss of lean muscle mass and a slower metabolism.

This makes it even more challenging to lose weight the next time around and leads to the yo-yo dieting syndrome (see the picture no. 2). The truth is, calorie and carbs restriction trains your metabolism to slow down, not speed up!

WHY BLOOD SUGAR STABILIZATION IS THE SOLUTION.

Stabilizing blood sugar has the opposite effect on your body. When blood sugar is stable, you will continually release stored body fat, which is then burned up primarily within your muscle tissue during your workout (Hybrid rebounding, Insanity, Boxing, Battleground, etc) and even during daily activity.

Stable blood sugar also creates an anabolic environment (a positive growth state) to optimize cell reproduction, muscle growth, energy, focus, sleep and stress management.

How stable blood sugar optimizes your workouts

You know how intense our workouts are! Your heart is pumping, you’re drenched in sweat and feeling the burn! Any hard-core exercise uses glucose (sugar) for fuel (see picture nr. 3). And remember what happens if blood sugar levels drop too low…your body will begin to break down its own lean muscle mass in place of body fat for energy.

It’s critical to fuel your body with a nutrition plan based on blood sugar stabilization. This will ensure that you are burning body fat, protecting your lean muscle mass, and have the energy you need to power through your workout!

FACTS about losing weight:

• Every pound (0.45kg) of body fat stores about 3500 calories it's estimated that you need to burn about 3,500 calories to lose 0.45kg. So, in general, if you cut about 500 to 1,000 calories a day from your typical diet, you'd lose about 0.5kg to 1kg a week which is very healthy and doable
• Fat is burned primarily within your muscle
• More muscle = FASTER metabolism!

You don’t have to do extreme workouts - just be consistent!

Read more at my blog about a healthy mind and body here or read my article about priming to change habits.