Tag: weight loss
April 14, 2022

Tips to Lower Your Body Fat Percentage

If you remember from my last newsletter, I said I would expand in the future on body composition parameters like lean muscle mass, fat mass and how much water your body contains. Well, I recently did a DEXA scan and felt compelled to go down the road of body fat percentage today.

I’m not going into great detail about my personal body fat percentage. But I will divulge that I was in the normal range for my age. In fact, I was in the top percentile. However, I would still feel better if I dropped about 3 percent. So I decided to make this fun and give you three smoking gun tips to do the same if it happens to tickle your fancy.

1. Stop eating late at night.

Do you know what one of THE biggest contributors to weight gain and ill health is? You guessed it, eating late at night. I know, calories in vs calories out, right? As long as you burn more calories every day then you consume, you will lose weight… Sorry, but it’s not that simple.

When you eat late at night, you disturb your Circadian Rhythm. This simply means that your body and all of its organs function differently at different times of the day. Your pancreas does not like to work late at night. When you ask it to release insulin after say, 7 pm, it throws a fit. It doesn’t want to be disturbed and it has a harder time stabilizing blood sugar levels.

Couple that with the fact that your metabolism naturally slows down at night and you have a recipe for weight gain. In turn, your body goes into fat-storage mode, regardless of how clean the food is.

Plus, you prevent your body’s natural mechanisms from taking place, like recovering from hard workouts. The result of that is from human growth hormone (HGH) going down.

Simply put, eating late causes your hormones to be out of whack, which creates a favorable environment for weight gain. The best-case scenario is to finish no later than 7 pm, but the earlier, the better.

2. Fit additional activity into your day.

Any additional movement you get into your daily life will pay big dividends when it comes to cutting your body fat percentage down by a few points. Take a power walk at lunchtime, get up 10 minutes early and do some bodyweight drills or join a recreational sport league in your town.

Just find something you like to do and add it to your calendar. Even 5-to-10-minute bouts of activity sprinkled in through the day will help you lean out faster.

3. Don’t follow a fad diet.

There is no shortage of fad diet plans to follow out there. If you decide to give up all forms of carbs and follow the caveman diet, for example, you run the risk of falling off the wagon because it’s so restrictive and not sustainable over the long-haul.

Even if you did shave 3% body fat off your body, you run the risk of gaining it all back with interest the day you decide you’re craving a slice of pizza and give in. Your diet should be sustainable and balanced with quality sources of protein, carbs and fat.

If you want to do anything at all, simply eliminate liquid calories. That, in conjunction with more daily activity alone will send your body fat spiraling downward.

Take-home Message

In reality, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel or get super extreme to lose a few pounds and get back on track. As long as you stick with basic principles and display even the slightest bit of discipline, you can easily trim a few percentage points of fat off your body.

Preston Ray No Comments , , ,
March 10, 2022

Who Benefits from Your Obesity?

In my previous article, we discussed protein: how much, deleterious effects and its relationship to muscle mass. If you recall, I mentioned that overconsumption of this macronutrient results in stored fat. That actually goes for fats and carbohydrates.

Therefore, if eating too much of any macronutrient causes excess weight gain, then just about anything you eat too much of can cause you to become overweight—maybe even obese. But have you ever stopped to think about the concept of an ideal weight? And, who put forth the information that categorizes us all.

The whole idea of an optimal weight was started by insurance companies. The selling of life insurance comes with payouts that these companies want to avoid for as long as possible. To determine how long this payout would take, they came up with the body mass index scale, or BMI for short, as a way to measure a person’s health status.

There’s nothing inherently “wrong” with this practice. Except, at its onset, most policy holders were white males. In addition, not everyone in the population wants life insurance. Furthermore, studies have shown that overweight and obese folks can reduce hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease with a mere 5 to 10% reduction in weight.

But a word of caution. Be careful when comparing yourself to BMI numbers. They are skewed and should align more with 25 to 30 BMI and not 20 to 25. This number could be even higher for athletic people because the mathematical equation for BMI does not consider how much of your body mass is fat and how much is muscle.

Shorter bodybuilders are especially victimized by an “obese” reading, yet their body fat percentage is in the single digits!

Overall, be careful labeling yourself as overweight or obese. You are likely making a false judgment. And suffice it to say, you may be setting yourself up to be someone’s cash cow.

Magazines, websites,  surgeons, the pharmaceutical industry, gyms, and yes, even personal trainers, ALL benefit from you trying to lose too much weight and they’ll gladly fit you into a category that you were never supposed to be in. It is a far better metric to find out your body composition with a body fat percentage reading. That’s even better than scale weight.

Then you’ll know exactly how much lean muscle mass, fat mass and water your body contains. More of that to come in future newsletters!

rowdy ferret design No Comments ,
February 9, 2022

Rapid Diets, Weight Loss and Exercise

According to the CDC, 42.8% of adults aged 40 to 59 are obese. Most Americans agree that diet and exercise are the best ways to lose weight. But statistics show that people who choose a rapid diet plan put half the weight back on after 1 year of having lost the pounds they desired.

And after 3 years, the most rapid dieters are back to their original weight. So why is weight loss so difficult in the first place? The answer is, it’s anti-biological. Simply put, if you lose too much weight you will die. To keep this from happening, the body does six things.

  1. EATING HABITS.
    The body recognizes your eating habits and tries to get you to maintain them.
  2. SENSORY ENHANCEMENT.
    As soon as you begin to eat less, the smell and taste of food is enhanced to convince you to eat more.
  3. DECREASED METABOLIC RATE.
    Your hypothalamus will signal the body to decrease your basal metabolic rate, which reduces your caloric expenditure.
  4. FOOD OBSESSION
    Your mind/body becomes obsessed w/ food. You think about it more and may even dream about it.
  5. EATING-INDUCED EATING
    The more you eat, the more you want to eat.
  6. YOU BECOME DEPRESSED
    After 3 months of dieting, 30% of dieters become depressed.

And don’t forget to exercise! Humans and animals with the lowest body fat percentages move more often than their counterparts. Whether it’s strength training with a professional trainer or dancing at home in your basement, daily movement is a must.

Lastly, weigh yourself daily. Self-weighing has been proven to help those who do diet and exercise daily self-correct before unwanted weight piles on. And, don’t be alarmed if the scale fluctuates a little each day. Look for significant changes monthly, not daily.

Preston Ray No Comments , ,
August 12, 2019

Five Truths For Losing Weight

Want to know my honest opinion? Going through the process of losing weight SUCKS! I believe it is one of the hardest things you can do in your lifetime, and most people are not prepared for the challenge. It’s not because you lack information — it’s because you are waiting for someone to tell you how to do it. But you already know.

Just think about all the diet and exercise books that come out each year; each promises you a new solution to weight loss. I’m not saying these books have nothing to offer, but most of us already know the answer to the problem: eat healthier and move your body!

I don’t mean to be dismissive of how hard it is to lose weight. I speak from experience — weight loss is the number one reason I entered the health and wellness industry nine years ago. I have lost 50 pounds twice in my life, first in 1995, then in 2005. Currently, as a model for Scout SF, it is still challenging for me to maintain.

Losing weight is more instinctual than scientific, and you already know what to do. But here are my top five truths to follow to lose weight and keep it off. I truly believe that if you follow these recommendations you too will be successful. Take one day at a time, and they will turn into weeks, then months. Weight loss is a marathon, not a sprint.

 

#1: Documentation

We’re not counting calories so much as we are creating awareness. It is laborious and takes brutal honesty, but it is highly effective. And, you must do it for at least a week. Not just the things that are healthy, but everything you put in your mouth.

 

#2: Abstinence

Avoid alcoholic beverages like the plague. Secondly, eliminate foods high in sugar. Lastly, no fast food. Notice I didn’t tell you what to eat. I believe most of us already know and just won’t comply. Trust your instincts. You already know what’s healthy and what’s not.

 

#3: Exercise 

See a personal trainer. Don’t trust your instincts in this area. Professionals know best!

 

#4: Mindset

 Please be aware that weight loss is EXTREMELY demanding with plenty of ebbs and flows along the way. What is your WHY? And how much does losing weight REALLY mean to you? If you aren’t mentally tough, and aren’t willing to become mentally tough, you will fail.

 

#5: Rest

7-8 hours per night. Period. No shortcuts here.

 

My core belief around weight loss is that anyone can do it.

Yes, I truly believe anyone can lose weight and get the body they desire. Will it be challenging? Of course. Will you want to quit? More than likely. Can it be done? Absolutely! If you believe in yourself — and COMPLY!

 

 

 

 

Preston Ray No Comments , , , , , ,
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