Back in the day, when I can be a full time personal trainer and I met with clients in person at my New Jersey Health Club, the first thing I would always ask my clients during the initial consultation was:
"Tell me exactly what you want ... I'll show you how to get ."
A typical response from the client:
"I want to lose 20 pounds fast ."
My response:
"Are you sure that's what you want? If I can show you how to lose 20 pounds very, very quickly, that will make you happy ?"
They nodded affirmatively as their eyes lit in anticipation of rapid weight loss secrets I was about to reveal ...
Their face is white when - with a completely straight face - I pulled a hacksaw and started toward them .... threatening.
I do not know whether to laugh or run away in sheer terror, they said,
"What the heck are you doing ?"
", you said you wanted to lose 20 pounds fast. This is the easiest, safest, most effective way I know that 20 pounds off you FAST! In fact, I figure that right leg of yours might even weighs 25 pounds !"
and I kept walking closer and started to get into sawing position, wielding my fast, effective and guaranteed weight loss tool ...
"Bear with me because it is quick, but sometimes it takes a few minutes for me to cut through the bone ."
At this time, my client and I were completely, or shoot up, or I have seriously scared the living you know what one of them, or they just think I'm a complete fool ... (it depends on whether I was able to keep a straight face or not ).
Finally, the light bulb goes on, and my client would see where I was going with this:
"Well, a smart Alec," I get it ... I do not want to lose weight, I want to lose fat ."
Sometimes I have so much fun, I would just keep on playin'...
"But why not, this is easy, fast and guaranteed - just what everyone wants these days ... it's even better than taking pills come on ... let me hack it off you will be! my next statement: 'I lost 20 pounds in 5 minutes! "Imagine what it will do for your business !"
"Very funny. I told you, I get it, I get it! want to lose fat, not muscles and bones. I need my legs!
, of course, of course, I always have to pull out my trusty knife. Every once in a while ... about as often as a total eclipse of the sun ... Client response to my question like this:
"What do I want? Tom, I want to lose 20 pounds of body fat over the next 12 weeks. I want to do it slowly, safely and healthfully and then keep it permanently. I want all the fat around my hips and thighs completely gone and I I wish the company a flat stomach. I want muscle all over my body while still looking feminine.'d like to see yourself in about 16% body fat and maintain all my muscle or gain a few pounds of lean mass, if you can, especially in my hands. It It is important for me because I want to set a good example for my children, I want to be healthy and live at least 90, and I want my husband to look at me and say "I love your body, honey," and I want to be able to * honestly * say back to him, "I !"
is on those rare occasions that I know that he is still intelligent life on this planet.:
If you could answer the question: "What do you want" with a degree of clarity that this woman is, I do not think I would ever have any difficulty reaching your health and fitness goals ... or any other goal in your life, for that matter.
This response is what you call a very "well-formed" goal, backed up with lots of emotional motivation-inducing "reasons why ."
"I want to lose weight" is a poorly formed goal.
"Weight" is not the same as "fat". Weight includes muscle, bone, internal organs, as well as lots and lots of water.
If you only one thing from this article, get this:
I really want is to burn the fat while keeping MUSCLE !!!!
fat loss is what you want, not weight loss.
If your body is 100% rock-solid muscle, with absolutely nothing that jiggled (unless it is needed), that you care how much you weighed?
I bet you would not!
<] P] SO STOP and START worshiping scale measuring body composition!By measuring your body fat, you take the guesswork out of your health and fitness plan and you get an accurate picture of what really happens in your body as a result of your diet and exercise program.
instead of worrying about whether you are losing muscle, or wondering if you lose fat, you can not measure it and know for sure. (I always get a good chuckle when someone says you're worried about losing muscle when they do not even measure how much muscle they !)
Instead of being confused all the "opinions" from weight loss and exercise "experts" who are all telling you something else, you can measure your body composition and based on the results, you can know for sure whether your program works.
a very wise man once said,
"a measurement is worth a thousand opinions ."
So, how do you measure body fat?
There are many methods. Thanks to technology, there are some methods that are now so accurate, they can tell you whether your left pinky has more fat than your right Pinky! Unfortunately, many of them are either too expensive or unavailable, can be found only in hospitals or research facilities.
Instead of boring you with a lecture about all the different body fat testing methods, let me give you three quick and easy, practical suggestions:
Proposal 1: Have a trainer or fitness professional measure your body fat if this is available at your local health club. Sometimes, there is a charge - usually $ 15 - $ 25, although some clubs offer the service for free to all its members
.Proposal 2: Purchase Accu-measure skinfold caliper. Accumeasure is designed to allow you to measure your body fat in the privacy of your own home (you do not need someone to measure you). Does Google or Yahoo search to find vendors.
Some people wonder if this is really accurate. The truth is, it's not quite as accurate as a multi-site fold test from an experienced tester, but it's better than nothing. Moreover, what is most important is "accuracy" per se, but the reliability and consistency of their measurements, so you can track your progress. Fold calipers are not accurate or inaccurate, it is the person doing the test that is accurate or inaccurate.
Proposal 3: If you have a spouse, roommate or friend who can measure your body fat, you can purchase a "Slim Guide" body fat caliper. Slimguide is the best inexpensive (around $ 20), pliers available for multi-site testing, but it was not designed for you to measure your own body fat like the Accu Measure. Other models of body fat calipers (if you want to splurge), range from $ 150 to $ 450. (At our health clubs, I use an electronic "SKYNDEX" calipers with 4-site "Durnin formula .")
calipers come with instructions, or you can use these formulas, I have used and found to be highly accurate:
4 Site formula for men (abdomen, suprailiac, thigh, triceps)
% fat = .29288 (sum of 4 skinfolds) - 0.0005 (sum of four skinfolds squared) + 0.15845 (age) - 5.76377
4-Site Formula for women (abdomen, suprailiac, thigh, triceps)
% Fat = (.29669) (sum of 4 skinfolds) - (.00043) (sum of four skinfolds squared) + 0.02963 (age) + 1.4072
Source: Jackson AS, Pollock, M (1985) Practical assessment of body composition. Doctor Sport Med. 13. 76-90
body fat percentages vary depending on age and gender, but 20-25% body fat is average for women (15-19% is ideal), and 15-20% is average for men (10-14% is ideal ).
Once you know your body fat percentage, then weigh yourself and record your weight and body fat on a progress chart. You can also calculate your lean body mass (muscle and other fat free tissue) very easily just crunching some numbers:
For example, if you weigh 200 pounds and have 10% body fat then you have 20 pounds of fat (10% of 200 = 20). This means that you have a lean body mass (LBM) of 180 pounds. Now we're talking! With this information, you can really get a clear picture of how your exercise and nutrition program affects your physique.
Losing weight is easy. Losing fat - and keeping it off without losing muscle - is a much bigger challenge. If you simply want to lose weight, we could just cut off a foot. Or, (slightly less painful), I could show you how to drop 10-15 pounds over the weekend just by dehydrating yourself and using natural herbal diuretics. Bodybuilders and wrestlers do it all the time to make the weight class. But what good would that be, if it is almost all water and you are only going to get everything back in a few days?
You do not have to "throw away your scale" like many "experts"tell you. In any case, continue to use the scale, tape measure and even photographs and the mirror - more feedback the better, but body fat is where it's at
.By the way, I recently bought a chainsaw and a brand new ax from Home Depot, and I've been practicing my "American Psycho" and Jack Nicholson, "The Shining" impersonations ... So if you want to come into my office recently for a personal consultation, it is better to have a real answer to my question: "What do you want ?"
Copyright 2005 Tom Venuto
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