April 2001 Newsletter

The summer is on its way... I am so ready. The tan is perfect and the body is getting there too. I've started to focus a bit more on my proper eating, no crazy feeding-weekends in Vegas. I still have weekends in Vegas, but the food is under control. Now, instead, I go for a run in the mountains, that is just behind the house. It's so cool to run up and down and around, with a near perfect view of the city and the mountains with the snow tops on the opposite side of the town. I enjoy the view for the first 10-15 minutes, then I am dying and focusing on breathing... just get enough air in my lunges, please... Unbelievable how tough it is to run up the mountain... these small rocks and stones are not helping either... and then it's fun to run down. You meet some snakes, wild dogs, youngsters laying around trying to get some romance, or booty... used covers, condoms, beer bottles and other interesting stuff is there, in the Sunrise Mountains.

Maybe some of you noticed that I had some few server problems... it broke. So my site was down for a while, I didn't even know about it. The new server will be coming in about two weeks, much faster and much more secure. So, so far, I put my files back on the geocities slow thing, so I hope you have a patience with me.

This month was an interesting one. I was doing one of my regular push-press sessions, and the weight was still light, sort of my warm up weight, 175 lbs, when I felt something twitching in my back. I did not care much, I thought it was just some little muscle pulled... but... two days later, I couldn't move my arm, and when I was serving my clients and loading his machine I grabbed the plate and I just dropped it on the floor. That was scary, I completely lost the grip strength in my right hand, and the sensation in my fingers... hmmm, this was probably more serious that I thought... So after the weekend agony when  I couldn't move my arm or back or my head, I was heading to my chiropractor... he was pulling me and twisting me... and it showed that I hurt one of the disc C7/T1 a little bit. And the nerve was pinched, so because of that the grip strength loss, and all upper back in the spasm... So I was coming to get pulled and ultra-sounded and twisted every other day.... I was not supposed to workout, but as soon as I could move, I was back in the gym... I am such a bad patient. But thank you Dr. Goldman for making me healthy again... So now, I am training like nothing happened, but I still don't have my grip back, so I need to be careful with these overhead things.

Enough news from Venice... The beach is getting ready for the summer attack of tourists, and I should get ready too. I haven't been shaking my booty much lately, at least not on the beach on rollerskates... I still do my weekend run-aways to Vegas, where it's really pretty now. Not to hot, just around 85 degrees... I wonder how I will take the summer heat. I don't like THAT heat, THAT much. Only maybe if I could lay around the swimming pool all day, huh?  :-)
 

Get Lean For the Summer... or For Life...

Now it's THE time again, time when we are getting ready to strip down to our shorts and t-shirts or tops... Or no tops... And of course we don't want to show what we have been doing all winter long. Or what we have not been doing. Not sticking to our diet, not exercising enough and not choosing the right foods. Now there's some kind of sick "tire" around our waists and fluffy bags around our things and booties. It's not too late to start to lean out. Actually, it's never too late,  whatever the season is. But the truth is that with the sunshine, prolonged day light and warm, we get more energy and inspiration and motivation... So lets do it, lets get lean for the summer!!! Here are the 10 main principles to make the lean out process nice and smooth and fast.

1) Eat intentionally, not accidentally. Eat a small meal every 2.5 to 3 hours, don't skip meals when you think you are not hungry, and don't eat when you are upset or angry or bored.

2) Don't starve yourself. You have to eat on regular basis, or your body thinks it is deprived of all incoming energy and will go to "starvation" mode, the metabolism decreases and you will burn less energy.

3) Feed your body with quality food. Skip the junk food, fatty foods, sugary foods, highly processed foods. See the list of quality foods at the end of this article.

4) Consume six meals per day. Or 5-7, it depends on your day, and how active you are.

5) Choose appropriate portion size. Did you know that one innocent hamburger and fries and coke is about 1500 calories? You can have 3 nice small meals instead. So choose your meals wisely!

6) Eat protein every meal. If you combine it with carbohydrates, choose low glycemic carbohydrates.

7) If you feel like you cannot eat 5-7 meals, you can supplement with a protein shake, or a meal replacement powder. It's easy, fast and nutritious. Use high quality products.

8) Feed your body with protein and carbohydrates as soon as possible after your workout, not later than one hour. It is one of the most important meals, because the depleted muscles "suck in" all nutrients and start recovering. So don't skip this meal!!!

9) Drink a lot of water! At least 1 oz per pound of your body weight! Yeah, I know, that's a lot... but, if you let your weight go up during the Christmas time, now suck it up and choke yourself on the water. You will feel better, you'll see  :-)

10) Have fun and cheat one day a week. Eat anything you want. It's good for your head, and even the body will benefit, the metabolism increases, and if you really eat like a pig, you might get sick of all that heavy food and appreciate more the light and healthy feeling of  eating good foods.  :-)

Now here comes the list of quality, nutrient-rich foods, that will help to recover from your workouts and support your effort for the perfect, lean body.

Proteins:

Chicken breast
Turkey breast
Lean ground turkey
Swordfish
Orange roughy
Haddock
Salmon
Tuna
Crab
Lobster
Shrimp
Top round steak
Top sirloin steak
Lean ground beef
Buffalo
Lean ham
Egg whites or substitutes
Low-fat cottage cheese

Carbohydrates

Baked potato
Sweet potato
Yam
Squash
Pumpkin
Steamed brown rice
Steamed wild rice
Pasta
Oatmeal
Barley
Beans
Corn
Strawberries
Melon
Apple
Orange
Fat-free yogurt
Whole-wheat bread

Vegetables

Broccoli
Asparagus
Lettuce
Carrots
Cauliflower
Green beans
Green peppers
Mushrooms
Spinach
Tomatoes
Peas
Brussels sprouts
Artichokes
Cabbage
Celery
Zucchini
Cucumbers
Onions
 

The Laws Of Manifestation... or Get What you Want in Life

If you have been reading my previous newsletters, you know by now that I truly believe that we can get everything we want in our lives. I believe that what you think about, you bring about and we manifest all our thoughts into our reality... The problem with some of us is, that we have, consciously or subconsciously, negative thinking and negative attitude. Do you recognize these sentences? "Oh, I get always sick", or "I cannot afford this car", or "Whatever I do, it always turns out to go wrong", and so on... Of course it will. You manifest your thinking in your reality and you always get sick, you never get that beautiful car and something always goes wrong with you. Because you attract what you choose to attract. Now stop reading and think a little bit about your thoughts. Do you also belong to that "negative" category? It's time to change it.

What you think and imagine in your conscious and subconscious minds will manifest its mirror likeness in your external circumstances. Your outer world is a mirror of your inner world, for better or worse, because your subconscious mind does whatever it is programmed to do. It operates on your body and creates health or disease. It will attract to you everything you need. This is why the use of affirmations, visualization, and autosuggestion is such an important science. To manifest effectively, you must learn to be in control of the subconscious mind. Here are some few interesting laws about manifesting things in your life:

* We must learn to manifest with all three of our minds, conscious, subconscious and superconscious.

* Don't be attached to what you are trying to manifest, or you will repel if from yourself. Make your choice a preference, not an attachement.

* All that exist is a perfection. Cancel or deny any thoughts in your mind that are not the perfection, and visualize the perfection.

* The thoughts and images that you hold in your mind create your reality.

* Have faith, be aligned and committed.

* The laws of manifestation operate whether you are consciously aware of them or not. In addition, the are also perfectly happy to work with the negative as well as the positive - they do not discriminate. Whatever you give your subconscious, it will use.

* Every moment of your life you are working the laws of manifestation.

* Perseverance pays off.

* Manifestation knows no limits.

* We can receive, as well as give. Some people are givers, but don't know how to receive. Receiving is an essential part of having prosperity consciousness.

* Gratitude is good. Failure is not a possibility.

* Words have power. The power of your spoken word is even greater than the thoughts you allow to urn through your mind. Every word you speak is a decree of manifestation.

* Positive affirmations produce positive results.

* Enthusiasm produces results.

* Only you, nothing or nobody else, can block your own manifestation.

* Grudges block the process.

* Love yourself.

* Put it in writing. Written affirmation produce a strong message to the subconscious mind.

* Meditate to manifest. A good time to do your manifestation work is just as you are falling asleep at night and when you are just waking up in the morning.

* Avoid talking about your manifestation work, it very often dissipate the energy.

* Positivity produces positive results.

* Ask only for what you need. If the ego becomes involved and starts asking for things you don't really need, this will sabotage your manifestation.

* Use all five senses when visualizing what you want to manifest. See it, hear it, touch it, taste it and smell it. Make your visualization so vivid that this meditation reality is just as real or more real than your physical life reality.

* Ask and you shall receive.

* Tell your subconscious mind what to do. If you don't give it suggestions, affirmations, visualizations and programming, then it will manifest whatever happens to be in it already, along with whatever you allow other people to put into it.

* Keep your mind steady in the light. By saying focused, you won't lose the idealized potential that you are in the process of manifestation.

* It's ok to desire material things. But don't be greedy, ask for exactly what you need, no more and no less.

* Be specific in your visualization. If you are too general, then by the laws of the universe you can manifest only general solution.

* Take good care of what you manifest. If you manifest a car and don't take care of it, then you re not deserving of the manifestation on the physical level.

* Manifestation requires self-discipline. You must learn to discipline your mind, emotions, body. Having discipline gives us consistency.

* You are the authority and the master. There is no force more powerful than your will, and to manifest effectively, you must own your full power and identity of self.

* Follow your inner intuition.

Now, remember that you can have it all. The universe is abundant for all of us. How you reality will be, depends just on your thinking. And the last note to finish this article. It's from Conversation with God.

The Zig-Zag Diet

by Frederick C. Hatfield, Ph.D., MSS (visit his site)
International Sports Sciences Association

Convention has it that there are three ways to lose weight: 1) dehydration, 2) fat loss, and 3) lean muscle weight loss. Fat loss is the ONLY acceptable route for you. Dehydration is never healthy or acceptable, and losing lean muscle is totally counter to everything that a healthy, fitness-oriented lifestyle stands for.

According to the same conventional wisdom, fat loss can only be accomplished three ways: 1) with aerobic exercise, 2) through reduced caloric intake or 3) through a combination of the two. There are many ways that fat can be shed. All, to date, suffer from the same persistent problem. How do you lose fat without also losing muscle? See, conventional wisdom is just that -- conventional. Losing fat and gaining muscle requires an UN-conventional approach. Since I am sort of an unconventional guy, I took a look at the problem, and conducted some research which proved rather ground-breaking in the results I achieved. So how do you lose fat and GAIN muscle? Don‚t tell me, „Why with heavy weight training!‰ I know better, and so do the dozens of legitimate researchers who have tried and tried to find an answer short of drugs. And, PLEASE! Disregard all of the magazine ads that claim to have done it. They haven‚t, and I know it! Certainly not I the (say) under six weeks that some claim, and certainly not to the extent that some claim. Check the research. You‚ll see that weight training (bodybuilding) while on a calorie-restricted diet is capable of reducing muscle loss, and perhaps (among severely detrained couch potatoes) reverse the effect of disuse by adding a couple of pounds of muscle initially, but losing it during the ensuing weeks of sub-1000 calories per day dieting.

To illustrate, just picture any bodybuilder in the final stages of contest preparation. They look in the mirror two weeks out (all of them do), they don‚t see all the striations they think they should have, and they freak. They amplify their aerobic work to levels beyond reason and reduce their fat and carbo intake to sub-survival levels. They lose 15 pounds of muscle in the last two weeks in order to lose one lousy pound of fat. All of them do it, always have. What‚s startling is that many of them lose muscle despite being on anabolic steroids!

Is there a way to lose fat and, at the same time, increase the amount of muscle tissue you have? Not just for contest bodybuilders, but anyone? Fitness enthusiasts? Athletes trying to make weight? Even grossly fat people who have never trained before? Yes, so read on.

First, let‚s explore some of the reasons why diets have almost always failed in the past.

Why Do Diets Fail?

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has come down hard on the weight loss moguls because of their FALSE CLAIMS of providing you with PERMANENT weight loss. The FDA has done so because 95 percent of the people who buy into the popular weight loss programs on the market today end up gaining all of the weight back (and usually more) within a year or two. Why is this so? No fat-loss plan fits everyone. During the past 50 years there have been literally hundreds of weight loss strategies recorded or marketed in this country. This remarkable statistic gives vivid testament to the "thin is in" mentality most Americans have grown to espouse. And it's good that we feel this way. Most of us are painfully aware of the health risks associated with obesity, and woefully ignorant of how to avoid it. Of course, in bodybuilding an other sports, fat loss is elemental to improved performance. Almost all of the weight loss strategies used thus far fall into the following categories:

- medical (drugs) therapies- surgical techniques
- psychological strategies- exercise techniques
- nutritional supplements- calorie restriction
- food (diet) manipulation- various therapeutic modalities

The truth be known: NONE has worked on a permanent basis.None of the weight loss moguls has ever tried to PERSONALIZE everyone's fat loss strategy because it would be cost-prohibitive. Despite what the weight loss marketers may have thought in the past, personalizing your approach is crucial to the success of your fat-loss efforts. The answer lies in taking an INTEGRATED approach, with each element uniquely matched to your specific situation:

- genetic (hereditary) factors- your medical history
- your unique biochemistry- your unique metabolism
- your current state of health- your financial status
- the environment you live in- your tastes in foods
- your current level of fitness- your unique psychology
- personal lifestyle considerations.

These are the ever-changing elements which in large part determine the permanency and effectiveness of your fat loss efforts. It's clear that most of these factors are inextricably interrelated. But how do you manipulate genetics? How do you augment your metabolism? How do you account for something as complex as your biochemical makeup? Part of the answer lies in understanding the nature of obesity.

What Causes Obesity?

What made you fat in the first place? In most people‚s cases it‚s pure slovenliness. There are many other causes too (see table below). In particular, the Traditional Chinese Medical [TCM] view is interesting. The ancient Chinese -- always inscrutable -- have been observing and recording the symptoms of obesity for hundreds of years. They watch skin color, the color of your stool, your tongue, how you feel, your breathing, and dozens of other symptoms, recording for hundreds of years. These symptoms cluster into three distinct varieties of obesity. These observations and recommended treatments were recently put to a test at Xi Yuan Hospital in China. Xi Yuan Hospital is the headquarters of the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Based on the clinical manifestations recorded by the Ancients, the researchers at Xi Yuan Hospital were able to treat obesity --on a permanent basis -- in 80 percent of the cases. Compare that astounding success rate with this country's industry standard of a 95 percent FAILURE rate!

Now, let's get back to shedding blubber and donning meat.

The Zigzag Diet Plan

Okay. Let me hit you right between the eyes up front. The answer is so simple, yet I‚ve NEVER in all my years of being in this business, heard ANYONE utter it. I claim it. Here it is:

· You can‚t lose fat unless you‚re on a negative calorie balance diet
· You can‚t gain muscle tissue unless you‚re on a positive calorie balance diet
· You can‚t lose fat and gain muscle unless you alternate periods of negative calorie balance with periods of positive calorie balance.
· It doesn‚t matter if you‚re trying to lose total body weight, stay at the same total body weight or gain total body weight. The zigzag rule applies to everyone. All the time.

The process if zigzagging is actually integrated into a more comprehensive plan which accounts for the factors noted earlier regarding personalizing and integrating your training efforts. There are five rules to the process, and they apply to everyone on Mother Earth, from cradle to grave:

Rule One: Always eat at least 5 meals a day (preferably 6 or 7). Two or three meals simply isn't often enough. Your blood sugar levels will be controlled (and thus your cravings), you'll get protein in small amounts throughout the day to support growth and recovery, and (most important) the enzymes that store fat will be produced in far smaller amounts, making your body far less capable of storing fat! Simply, by providing your body with a consistent and frequent supply of calories -- life-giving energy -- its need to store fat is significantly reduced. Conversely, when you eat infrequently, your body recognizes a "famine" situation, and the enzymes are produced in large quantities to "swoop down" on every calorie you consume in order to store it as fat in preparation for the "famine" to come.

Rule Two: Remember the 1-2-3 rule. In each of your 5 meals, approximately 1 part of the calories should come from fats, 2 parts from protein and 3 parts from carbohydrates. This is a guideline, not a hard-and-fast law. Just keep the fat intake down to a low level (do not eliminate fat, as some fat is essential for maintaining good health), consume enough protein to support growth and recovery, and carbohydrates commensurable to your energy output (carbos are your body‚s preferred energy fuel source). Remember that protein and carbohydrates both have 4 calories per gram, while fat has 9 calories per gram.

Rule Three: When you sit down to eat, ask yourself, "What am I going to be doing for the next three hours of my life?" Then, if you're taking a nap, eat less than the average amount of carbos; if you're planning on being active, eat more than the average amount of carbos. For average between-meal activities, eat an average sized meal. Always keep your protein intake up to an appropriate level. This simple system ensures that you'll never put fat on from eating excess calories, or cannibalize your muscles from eating too little.

Rule Four: Another thing to remember whether you're trying to lose fat or adding lean muscle is to "zigzag" your caloric intake. For example, if you want to lose fat, reduce your calories during the week, but "pig out" on Friday night and Saturday. This will 1) readjust your BMR upwards, 2) support lean tissue building, and 3) give you a psychological "lift." Remember, in Rule One you learned that your fat storing enzymes were no longer a threat, so you CAN pig out once in awhile! In fact, if you want to put on lean muscle, you MUST! There is no way you can maximize lean muscle mass while on a calorie-restricted diet.

Rule Five: Your reduced intake of calories makes it almost impossible to get all of the nutrients your body needs to remain healthy and active. So, it's important to supplement your diet with vitamins, minerals and other carefully selected substances to ensure maximum progress toward your fitness, health and fat loss goals. Also, no matter how hard you try, no matter how good a cook you are, or where you buy your food:

· You can't always eat 5 or 6 times daily;
· There are many instances where your body either requires or can make good use of certain nutrients in greater amounts than what can be derived from Mother Nature alone;
· A perfectly balanced diet cannot be maintained during periods of contest preparation or periods where there is a purposeful caloric restriction imposed;
· Periods of high-stress training require supernormal intake of many nutrients without a commensurable increase in caloric need;
· Periods of high-stress training creates a situation in which various benefits can be derived from nutritional substances not normally found in food or biosynthesized in the body in sufficient or significant quantities but which are either man made or derived from botanical sources
· Soil depletion, toxins in the food chain, overprocessing, overcooking, free radical formation in the body, and a host of other (sometimes medically related) factors all interact to make food less than totally nutritious.
· Because man has been able to improve on Mother Nature's original work in many of life's arenas, there are some "superfoods" available which are plain and simply BETTER than the normal diet for serious fitness training.

So, you MUST use nutritional supplements!

Where Your Calories Come From:
- 1 gram of fat equals 9 calories.
- 1 gram of protein equals 4 calories.
- 1 gram of carbohydrates equals 4 calories.
- It's clear that you should reduce your consumption of fat in order to decrease your body fat level, because fat is a highly concentrated source of calories.
- It's also clear that in order to gain muscle weight, you must reduce your consumption of fat in favor of more protein, because 1) fat can't become muscle, and 2) only protein can.

Will Cutting Calories Result In Fat Loss?

There are 3500 calories in one pound of fat. That means that by reducing your food by 500 calories per day, you should lose one pound of fat per week, right? WRONG!Actually, much of the weight you'll lose will come from muscle tissue, NOT fat! Why? Because your body tends to use ("excess") muscle tissue for needed energy before it reclaims fat deposits.The answer is to TAKE YOUR TIME with fat loss, and either preserve or build muscle tissue by integrating scientific weight training, mild aerobics, dietary manipulation, supplementation and other technologies into your lifestyle. Follow the rules above!Here‚s an example of an all-too-common weight reduction strategy.

200  200 pounds & 30% body fat
190
180
170                                                                                                             170 pounds & 30% body fat
160
150
140  140 pounds Lean body weight
130
120                                                                                                             119 pounds lean body weight
110
100
__________________________________________________________________
            week one        week two    week three       week four    week five    week six

This poor soul actually lost 21 pounds of muscle and only 9 pounds of fat! He‚ll yo-yo back up to 200 in no time (within 1-2 years according to information compiled during the Congressional investigation into the fat loss industry). However, in doing so, he or she will be 35 percent body fat instead of their original 30 percent. Why? They never regained all of the lean tissue they lost as a result of their crash dieting earlier.

NEVER attempt to gain or lose "weight!" Instead, you should always strive to gain muscle and lose fat!

To Gain Muscular Weight:

- Add 2 calories per pound of body weight to your daily caloric intake.
- The added calories should be mostly protein and some complex carbohydrates (no added fat calories).
- Spread these added calories equally among 5 meals per day.
- For example, a 150 pound person should add 300 calories per day to their diet; over 5 meals, that equals about a 60 calorie increase per meal.
- The additional 300 calories will, with intense weight training, result in a gain of approximately 1 - 2 pounds of added muscle per month.
- Reduce your caloric intake two days per week by 2 calories per pound of body weight, to ensure that excess fat is being removed (called "zigzag dieting").

To Lose Fat Weight:

- Subtract 2 calories per pound of body weight from your daily caloric intake.
- The reduced calories should come mostly from fat calories, and NOT protein.
- This caloric reduction should be applied to all of your 5 meals; NEVER skip meals!
- For example, assuming that you weight 150 pounds, and you're eating 5 meals per day (highly recommended), you should reduce each meal by 60 calories (total of 300 calories reduction over a full day).
- By reducing your daily caloric intake by 300 calories, you can expect to lose about 2 1/2 pounds of fat per month, assuming you're weight training for muscle mass preservation or increase.
- Increase your caloric intake two days per week by 2 calories per pound of body weight, to ensure that you're getting enough calories to put on lean muscle, and that upward BMR adjustments are being made (called "zigzag dieting").

To Stay The Same Weight But Become More Muscular:

- Follow the rules listed above, with the exception that your intake of calories remain equal to your daily energy expenditure (see calorie table in preceding pages).
- Alter your ratio of nutrients so that protein is maximized and fat is minimized.
- Carefully control your calories on a meal-per-meal basis, ensuring that you consume only enough calories to get you to your next meal (no more and no less). You NEVER eat for what you just did, ONLY for what you're about to do.
- Over the course of 6 months or so, this sort of fastidiousness will pay off with big dividends in more muscle tissue and less fat -- you'll begin to look and feel great!

The caloric expenditures listed in the table below are for people with about a 20 percent body fat level. The smaller your muscles are, the fewer calories you'll burn; the bigger your muscles are, the more calories you'll burn. But remember that strenuous exercises with weights (including, but not limited to, dumbbells and barbells, Nautilus-type machines, your own body weight, and other forms of resistance exercises) is the best way to increase your muscle size, thereby increasing your metabolic rate. This will result in far more calories being burned all day long -- even at night while you're sleeping.
 

ACTIVITIES AND THEIR APPROXIMATE HOURLY CALORIC COST FOR DIFFERENT BODY WEIGHTS
__________________________________________________________________

 If you weigh...                 125          150          175        200         225         250         275        300
__________________________________________________________________

 Light Aerobics                 154         204         254         304         354         404         454         504
 Walking 2.5 mph           154         204         204         304         354         404         454         504
 Gardening                        168         218         268         318         368         418         468         518
 Golf                                     195         245          295         345         395         445          505         545
 Lawn Mowing                  195         245         295          345         395         445          505         545
 Light Calisthenics          222         272         322         372         422         472         522         572
 Light Weight Train.      222         272         322         372         422         472         522         572
 House Cleaning               222         272         322         372         422         472         522         572
 Walking 3.75 mph        249         299         349         399         449         499         549         599
 Swimming .25 mph      249         299         349         399         449         499         549         599
 Medium Aerobics           290         340         390         440         490         540         590         640
 Badminton                       297         347         397         447         497         547         597         647
 Wood Chopping               344         394         444         494         544         594         644         694
 Medium Weight Train. 392         442         492         542         592         642         692         742
 Slow Jogging                    426         476         526         576         626         676         726         776
 Heavy Calisthenics        494         544         594         644         694         744         794         844
 Heavy Aerobics               494         544         594         644         694         744         794         844
 Heavy Weight Train.    562         612         662         712         762         812         862         912
 Medium Jogging             562         612         662         712         762         812         862         912
 Cycling 13 mph              610         660         710         760         810         860         910         960
 Fast Jogging                    630         680         730         780         830         880         910         960

The caloric expenditures listed are for people with about a 20 percent body fat level. The smaller your muscles are, the fewer calories you'll burn; the bigger your muscles are, the more calories you'll burn. But remember that strenuous exercises with weights (including, but not limited to, dumbbells and barbells, Nautilus-type machines, your own body weight, and other forms of resistance exercises) is the best way to increase your muscle size, thereby increasing your metabolic rate. This will result in far more calories being burned all day long -- even at night while you're sleeping. Remember that all forms of exercise result in sweating. So, drink at least eight full glasses of water daily.

Aerobic Training For Fat Loss:

"Aerobic" means "with oxygen." So, aerobic dance, step aerobics, Stairmaster training, bicycle ergometer training and the host of other low impact, high heart rate methods of training are all geared to make your body use more oxygen. Why would you want to use more oxygen? Simply, it's 1) good for the heart muscle, 2) it's the ONLY way your body can burn fat for energy, and 3) it's good for longevity. Beware, however! Aerobic training doesn't build muscle to any significant degree. And, since only muscle burns calories, you want more muscle far more than you want an aerobic capacity which rivals that of an elite marathon runner. Remember, the fat control strategy of choice is ALWAYS going to be to maintain a reasonable level of muscle mass so you can burn calories (and fat) all day long -- not just during aerobic training. Research clearly shows that in order to maintain a reasonable aerobic capacity, you should train at about 60-80 percent of your maximum heart rate for about 30 minutes three times weekly. More than that, and you're probably training aerobically more than you need to.

Weight Training For Fat Loss:

Weight training -- often referred to as "resistance training" -- has one key advantage which is present only minimally in other forms of exercise. It builds muscle. Weight training involves reversing the effects of the years of disuse your body has just undergone from inactivity. Even mild weight training will result in muscular growth. Bigger muscles burn more calories than smaller ones. They also look better. Note that "reversing the effects of disuse" means just that. It does NOT necessarily mean becoming huge or looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger! There are many excellent systems of weight training. Perhaps the best one for beginners interested in getting rid of unwanted fat and improving general tone and fitness is the "circuit training" system. The great thing about this system is that you needn't belong to a gym or club to do it! You can easily perform this system of resistance training in your home.
The main objective of circuit training is completing all of the "stations" in the circuit in decreased time. Each station consists of one weight training exercise per bodypart. One complete circuit for a total-body workout may look like this:

Cross-Training:

Common misuse of the term "cross-training" has limited its definition to aerobic-type activities (e.g., triathlon competition, wherein swimming, cycling and running long distances comprise the "cross-training" event). This is NOT cross-training in the scientific sense of the term. So, let's set the record straight once and for all. The definition of cross-training will, from now on, be expanded to incorporate any form(s) of training designed to take you through the ATP/CP pathway of muscular energetics, through the glycolytic pathway of muscular energetics, on into the aerobic (oxidative) pathway of muscular energetics. ATP/CP training is explosive, short-duration types of movement such as powerlifting, throwing, sprinting or shot-putting. Glycolytic training involves pushing your anaerobic threshold with such activities as running 400-800 meters for time, forcing those last four or five reps out of each set in weight training, or playing an extremely fast-paced game of racquetball. And, aerobic training involves pushing your oxidative capacity to the limit through high intensity long-distance running, swimming or cycling. Then you put 'em all together. THAT is cross-training! For general fitness, it's great. It'll provide a good level of fitness across the anaerobic-aerobic continuum.
For elite athletes, well, stick to your sport's requirements and you'll do much better. Athletes must convert their bodies into highly specialized "machines" that are capable of performing their sport to the utmost limits of human tolerances. All serious athletes MUST specialize!

DESIRABLE BODY FAT LEVELS FOR DIFFERENT SPORTS

SPORT               MEN        WOMEN                            SPORT             MEN                    WOMEN
_______________________________________________________________________

Basketball        7-12%         14-20%                            Tennis           8-13%                    15-21%

Football                                                                             Distance
     Linemen       10-15%          ----                                  Runners             5-10%                 10-12%
     Backs               7-12%          ----
                                                                                            Track & Field
Gymnastics          4-8%        10-12%                                  Jumpers   7-10%                 10-13%
                                                                                                   Throwers    8-12%               10-15%
Soccer                   7-10%          ----                                         Sprinters    4-8%                 10-13%

Swimming             5-8%        10-15%                          *Wrestling         4-8%                     ----

*Weight-                                                                           *Powerlifting     5-10%               10-15%
  lifting                    5-10%      10-15%
                                                                                             **Physique         4-8%                  9-12%
 

* Athletes in the heavier weight divisions typically exceed these guidelines by 3 - 4 percentage points; to exceed them by more than this margin is pure and simple "slovenliness."

** Elite male bodybuilders are usually closer to the 8 percent level as opposed to the 4 percent level because (it's believed) they've put on extra "mass" via fat deposits in the muscles themselves. Their subcutaneous fat levels, however, remain extremely low in order to show "cuts" (muscular definition).